strong khui and yet they have dark brown centers, more colors that are unfamiliar to me but no less fascinating. Her lips part.
My heart throbs at the sight of her. It leaps so hard it feels as if it is jumping out of my chest, and I clutch at the space over my heart painfully. A moment later, my khui settles and then begins to drum a strong, urgent beat.
Resonance.
For me, and not for R'jaal.
I groan, half-wanting to collapse and half-wanting to pull my female out of R'jaal's arms. I stare at her in shock.
She trembles, her eyes wide as she stares at me, and glances around at us. "Whrmi?" she whispers, and her words are nonsense.
But words do not matter. Her khui is beating in time with mine, making beautiful sounds…and I cannot stop staring at her in sheer wonder.
A mate for me. Not for R'jaal or anyone else.
"She is for you." The dull voice at my side is R'jaal, and when I look up at him, his expression is full of barely-hidden pain.
"I did not—" I shake my head. "I did not ask for this. I would not steal her from you—"
My oldest friend puts a hand on my shoulder, full of understanding. "It is resonance that has chosen. I am happy for you. I would rather it be someone in Tall Horn than in Strong Arm if it cannot be me." And he manages a smile.
He is a better male than I am, and I think of my petty jealousy of how he touched the female. MY female. Suddenly my insane jealousy makes sense. My spirit knew before my khui did.
This female is mine.
2
MARI
When I wake up, it's to four strange men looming over me.
If that's not enough to scare a girl out of her mind, they're all naked. And alien, but that part's not so surprising anymore.
I gasp, coughing more saltwater up, and try to scoot back on the sand. I have no idea where I am, or where Lauren is, but I'm alive. After escaping a flaming spaceship and the relentless turbulent waves of the ocean, I'm just grateful that I'm in one piece, though I'll feel better once I see Lauren. I glance around, trying to ignore the men looming in front of me, but I don't see my friend anywhere. "Lauren?" I croak, gazing up and down the unfamiliar beach. "Lo?"
No answer, of course.
I look at the aliens around me. One looks familiar, and I have vague memories of him carrying me and me promptly passing out again. That must be how I ended up here.
Wherever “here” is.
One of the men offers me a waterskin and I take it, wetting my mouth. My lips are cracked and dry and yet I somehow feel as if I drank half the ocean. I glance around me and I'm on a sandy shore, but this one is less pebbly than the one I remember. It's also warm as hell. Really, really warm, and I feel my skin dotting with sweat. The soggy, heavy layers of leather I'm wearing aren't helping things, either.
One of the men says something, and when I glance over, they're not talking to me. I gaze at their faces, trying to recall if they're people I've seen before, but I don't recognize them. They're a paler blue than I remember, and their horns look funny. Instead of curling like a ram's horns, these stick straight up, almost like an antelope that's been electrocuted. They're ridiculously prominent, and I try not to stare as I sip more water.
These are strangers, then. That makes me uneasy. I don't think they speak English—or Spanish—because they're looking at me as if I've grown a second head. Have they…never seen a human before? Oh god, what am I going to do if I'm stranded somewhere alone with aliens that I can't talk to? The thought makes me want to break out in hives.
I look at the one that handed me water. "Where am I?"
He watches me with fascination, tilting his head as if I'm some weird zoo creature. He seems nice enough, I guess, but I'm still unnerved that I'm stuck here alone with him. I glance over at the next one—and my cootie starts up.
Oh no.
Oh, no no no. This is bad. This is really bad.
The khui—the parasite they gave all of us—is some sort of creature that lives in our chests and helps us stay healthy. According to what the aliens that rescued us shared, it