one in Jaxor’s base and black metal bars enclosed the entrance.
It was a dungeon.
Erin was thirsty, her throat parched, and she felt slightly nauseous from the intense headache. She tried to think back. Back to Jaxor’s base. The male had caught her—she’d screamed out Jaxor’s name, hadn’t she?—and then she didn’t remember anything else. He’d hit her to knock her out, she realized. Hard enough for the pain to linger.
Panic was beginning to make her heartbeat pound in her chest, but she took a long, deep inhale through her nostrils. Panic would get her nowhere. She needed to remember the calm she’d felt stitching up her mother, or putting the twins to sleep, though they’d been hungry and wailing.
It wasn’t long before she heard noise, footsteps on stairs. Stone stairs. She couldn’t tell which direction they were coming from because everything seemed to echo around her. Two sets of them?
Light came with the footsteps, a blue glow. She saw two figures emerging, shadows at first, but then they came into view. The blue light blinded her for a moment and she shielded her gaze, her eyes watering.
After her eyes adjusted, she heard a latch rising, a door opening. Slowly, she rose to her feet, reaching out a hand to help steady her on her wobbly legs.
A male was entering her prison cell. Not one she recognized, and there was something about him that put her on edge. His black hair was long, plaited in three sections, some of the strands laced with blue glass beads. He looked to be around Jaxor’s age, in his prime but old in the eyes. There was a small scar across his forehead, one that looked like a crescent moon.
“What do you want with me?” she asked, speaking first, hoping that he spoke English. Was this the Mevirax leader? What had Jaxor said his name was?
Tavar, she remembered.
He simply cocked his head to the side, studying her. She didn’t want to take her eyes off him, but she cut a quick look to the second figure. A female this time.
But what shocked her the most was that she was pregnant.
Erin’s breath hitched, staring down at the rounding of her belly before meeting her eyes. Erin had never seen a Luxirian female before. Only males. She was smaller than the male she assumed was Tavar, but her build was strong. Her hair was loose and long. Her large breasts were bound in brown, cracked leather, leaving her shoulders and growing stomach bare. A long skirt, also of leather, brushed the tops of her bare feet.
She was carrying a tray with a small handful of dried meat, something that looked like bread, only it was grey, and a skin of what she hoped was water.
At the male’s nod, the female entered the cell and deposited the tray within the doorway before backing out to safety. Was she afraid of Erin? That couldn’t possibly be right. Perhaps she feared for the child, thought that Erin would attack her.
Swallowing, Erin’s eyes returned to the male.
“Are you Tavar?” she asked, trying to keep her voice strong and even.
His eyes narrowed. He seemed more annoyed than surprised that she knew his name, as if a human like her shouldn’t dare to speak it.
“What do you want with me?” she asked again, briefly looking back at the female in the darkness.
Tavar was holding the lantern of blue light and it cast shadows over his skin, making him seem even more intimidating. It made her nervous, seeing the mild disgust on his face.
He still didn’t answer.
“Jaxor will come for me,” she told him, her façade beginning to crack with her fear.
His smile was sinister, mocking even.
“How do you think you are here, female?” he asked instead, his accented English soft, though it also seemed to cut like a blade. “Jaxor gave you over to us. As he promised he would.”
Her mind swam a little. She remembered the male who’d come to kidnap her from the base had said something similar.
She dismissed Tavar’s words immediately.
Her jaw clenched, her back straightening. “You’re wrong.”
Tavar simply cocked his head to the side, that smile growing. “I am wrong? Yet, you are here. In my keep.”
Erin was still shaking her head in denial, though the motion coupled with her headache made her want to vomit. Bile was rising in her throat. “No. He wouldn’t. I’m his mate. And he will come for me.”
Tavar blinked, like the knowledge that she was his mate didn’t surprise him. “What exactly did