had barely made the hulking Dakkari male flinch, however, and when his glowing red eyes cut to me, they were shards of ice. Crisp and cold.
I couldn’t help what I did next. I didn’t mean to. But my fear made me panic. My gift was not something I could explain and sometimes, it was not something I could control.
Between us, I sensed the tendrils of energy gathering. I pushed forward with my mind, pushing, pushing, breaking that hidden barrier into him. And I almost gasped at what I found.
Turmoil. Hatred. Darkness.
So potent it slithered up my arms, crawling into me, consuming me.
Run, my instincts told me. His grip on my hip had loosened when I’d struck him. Before I could think better of it, I broke the connection from his mind, ducked, and darted away, favoring my left leg. The crumbling slipper on my foot tore and slipped off.
The streets were quiet. I could not seek help, not that I would find any. Not here. I was weak, hungry, aching from my journey. A throbbing headache was beginning to bloom after I delved into his emotions. A mistake. But the fear inside me overrode everything else.
A strangled cry tore from my throat when the male caught me. Easily. He hauled me back within the alley, pressed me against the wall, his thigh slipping between my legs to keep me still. His palms pinned both my wrists down.
Then he snarled in my face, in my language, “Who are you?”
Words stuck in my throat as I stared up at him. I could feel the hot tears leaking down my cheeks. My brothers had always teased me for crying too easily. Though I knew they’d said it in affection and in jest, I’d always been shamed by the unwelcome reaction. I couldn’t help it. I cried more than anyone I knew.
The Dakkari male was terrifying. I hadn’t seen a Dakkari since my father’s death and now one had me in a dangerous position…in his possession. Alone.
There were wide, glinting gold cuffs around his thick wrists. They felt hot against my flesh. Behind him, his long, powerful tail was curiously still. Thick straps of black hide made a criss-cross pattern across his bare chest, partially shielding the golden tattoos and numerous scars that decorated his flesh. A fur cloak was draped around his shoulders. It trailed past his hips, where there was long, sheathed sword attached to his tight hide trews.
His red eyes were unblinking and narrowed. Long, ink-black hair hung loosely over his shoulders, some tendrils in knots or wrapped in gold beads.
My eyes alighted on the deep, curving scar that tracked down his left cheek, starting just below his eye, slashing over his high cheekbone, and ending underneath his angled jaw. His bronzed, dark flesh was puckered around it. I began trembling in his hold all over again.
The Dakkari male saw me staring at it. I sucked in a breath when his clawed hand came underneath my chin, tilting my gaze up and away from the ugly, deep scar. I didn’t know if I was more surprised that his touch was gentle or that his voice was quiet when he asked again, “Who are you?”
There was no mistaking the authority in his tone. He was a male who expected to be answered.
“No one,” I whispered.
The way he was looking at me was a reminder that just moments before, he’d looked at me in a way I’d never experienced or expected. It was the way males in our village had looked at my sister, at my widowed mother, but never at me.
“N-no one,” I repeated, hating that my voice shook. My throat was as dry as the Dead Lands. “Hanniva. Please let me go.”
Footsteps reached my ears and I stifled a gasp. The male’s gaze cut to the left, shifting us further into the darkness of the alley, and then pressed more fully against me, until there was no space between us.
The footsteps paused. Two male voices followed, echoing towards us. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that I knew the Dakkari male could feel it. I heard a chuffing laugh from the end of the alley.
One of the males that had come across us called out in Dakkari but I didn’t recognize the words. Well, no, I recognized vok, which I knew meant fuck.
The male pinning me to the wall stiffened and then snarled out words back, his grip tightening around me. Whatever the males heard in his voice,