needed to plan. He needed…
He growled, turning from her.
“Nix, it stays.”
Jaxor had only taken two steps from her when her voice stopped him cold.
“I know what I am to you.”
His fists tightened at his sides, his claws pinching his skin. He’d wondered how much she knew of Luxirians, about the beasts inside them, about their mating customs. She was a species from a planet called Earth—in the Fourth Quadrant, an almost unfathomable distance to him. But with the help of Luxirian crystals, not an impossible distance. The Mevirax had seen to that.
He wouldn’t have believed it was possible to be bound to a different species had he not seen his own blood brother bound to his human mate. Then the other Ambassadors found their human mates. Jaxor hadn’t seen those humans for himself, but he’d heard the gossip when he’d last traveled to an outpost.
The Fates always had a plan. The Fates had chosen human females to help carry on the Luxirian line. In choosing the Prime Leader and the Ambassadors beneath him, the Fates had crafted a certain future. They had made it not only certain, but powerful. Luxirian history would forever be changed.
Circumstance had changed. That much was clear. But why had the Fates given Jaxor a human mate?
Jaxor turned to the female. The golden-haired female—Crystal, he guessed—had called her Erin. He’d heard it numerous times after he’d taken them both from the Golden City yesterday morning, but until now, he hadn’t acknowledged her name.
Erin.
He thought rixella better suited her, especially since she was staring at him with a relaxed expression, though searing fire burned in her gaze. When she saw him watching, her chin rose, ever so slightly. Her lips parted. The small hollow at the base of her throat bobbed when she swallowed.
Realization hit him. She was affected by this too. By him.
He ignored the way his pulse sped. He ignored the way his cock further thickened with that knowledge. He ignored the dark, wicked need that flowed beneath his skin, hot like his roaring blood.
Jaxor stepped towards her until he could touch her. He hoped she understood it for what it was: a warning.
“What is it that you think you are to me?” he questioned. “Other than my captive?”
She didn’t even blink. She simply said, “I’m your mate.”
“You seem certain,” he murmured, reaching out to thread his hand around the back of her neck. Her breath hitched at the contact. He pulled her closer, scenting her. If he listened closely enough, he swore he could hear her heartbeat, thundering in her chest, in time with the pulse that flickered in her neck.
“Aren’t you?” she asked, her voice quiet.
Jaxor stilled. He caught her eyes and though her voice was steady and strong, it was there that he saw the uncertainty. The fatigue. The fear. She put up a strong front, but inside, she was vulnerable. Soft. How easily he could fix this. How easily he could get inside that mind and make her think something different.
His hand flexed around the back of her neck.
“You are,” he confirmed, seeing no reason to deny the truth. It was obvious.
She didn’t blink. “Even still, you were planning to give us to those males, weren’t you? Why?”
Jaxor almost laughed. And he hadn’t laughed since…he couldn’t remember.
Why?
It was strange to hear another voice in his home base. He’d lived there for so long, alone. It was a foreign sensation—the nearness of another—one he craved and one he hated.
“I need sleep,” he repeated, leading her to his main shelter. His base was large and sprawling, but he slept in one of the caves that tunneled into the crater. It wasn’t large, but he’d lined it with furs to help with the cold and he’d blocked off the opening with a door that bolted shut.
He opened that door now, snagging one of the lanterns he kept just outside and lighting it. He ventured in, holding the lantern with one hand and holding the back of Erin’s neck with the other. The cave was tall enough that Jaxor could stand without crouching and wide enough that it doubled as his sleeping space and his emergency storage—water gourds, dried meats, cold season clothing—complete with a handful of weapons.
He set the lantern down within, illuminating the room, and bolted the door behind them, ensuring it was secure. Paranoia from his time living with the Mevirax still hadn’t left him in the last five rotations. It was probably for the best.
Erin stiffened under his touch when she