Alien Conquest (Fated Mates of Xaensskar #2) - Jude Gray Page 0,14

It was Krey. He was in better condition than his friend, and as Bo grabbed a bundle from the supplies and we started toward them, the Drimuti leaped up and raced away.

“We’ve got a runner,” Graez yelled, chortling.

The men began betting immediately—not on whether or not the kid would be caught, but how long it’d take me to nab him and whether or not I’d be sporting a black eye when I returned.

I grinned as I cracked my neck, gave him a little head start, then loped after him. I was happy to stretch my legs and get my heart pumping.

Krey was fast, I’d give him that. I was, too, but I didn’t hurry as I followed his trail—something he wasn’t even thinking of trying to hide—through the woods. Some of the trees were barren and some held vividly red, brown, and orange leaves, but there were still plenty of them who hadn’t yet—or wouldn’t—shed their yellow and green leaves.

The peace and powerful beauty of nature surrounded me as I loped after the runaway, and the stress of the city and my job slid off me like the cold water I was about to dip the boy into.

I needed to take more time off, and I made the decision right then to do so. There was more to life than work and money, and I’d forgotten that—but I was quickly reminded at how citified I was getting when I lost the kid’s trail. And I was already breathing a little harder than I should have been.

I shook my head at myself, disgusted, and slowed to a walk as I studied the ground, backtracking a little to pick up Krey’s tracks. I heard nothing. He was no longer running—he’d found himself a place to hide.

A good thing, or I’d have likely found him up to his scrawny neck in a bog, lying with a broken ankle in a pit, or gored by one of the feral pogs that roamed the woods. I stood where I’d lost his trail, absorbing the sounds and scents as well as the sights of my surroundings. After a few moments, a subtle scent drifted to me. Not just a scent, but a feeling, and it was a strangely familiar one. I frowned, confused.

Huh. That was different.

I lifted my face to the sky and closed my eyes, inhaling gently, trying to capture the memory of something, the knowledge of something, but it continued to elude me. I opened my eyes, annoyed, and immediately spotted Krey crouching high on a tree limb, watching me.

I started to laugh, then understood whose scent was calling to me, and my heart nearly stopped beating. “What the fuck?” I muttered. I stood frozen, unable to accept what my primal instincts were telling me.

He was a boy. A kid. Why the fuck would his scent be calling to me? No wonder I’d ignored it. But it did explain why I’d decided to linger with him and take him, as much as it pained me to admit it, to Corsov instead of sending him to the authorities with Bo as I’d planned. I was a sick fuck.

I wiped the sweat from my face, unable to accept what I was feeling. All Craeshen understood that when they found their true mate, they would know. It would be shown to them, they would feel it, smell it, see it—just as I was doing. It was called jeqwa, this thing, this part of us.

“This can’t be right,” I muttered, ignoring the kid. I couldn’t see his sweet blue eyes, but I knew they’d be wide and filled with fear and dread as I stared silently up at where he’d “hidden” himself.

“Fuck,” I groaned. Why was I even thinking of his eyes as wide and blue and fucking sweet? That was how I’d think of a female, not a fucking boy.

Something had gone haywire in my jeqwa system, that was all. I was in no way attracted to other males—and I for damn sure was not a pedophile. My stomach clenched and I pressed my fist against it. “How old are you, boy?” I bellowed, horrified.

The leaves shook violently as he nearly fell from his perch. He remained silent in his fear.

“Answer me, damn you,” I commanded, and even I could hear the threat in my voice.

“Nine…nineteen,” he stuttered, his voice as soft and high as a girl’s.

My chest eased somewhat, though there was still the matter of my instinct going suddenly haywire—and with a male. The chase