Song’s eyes closed again and her frown deepened.
He found himself watching her every movement as if he was a child discovering something new.
“My head,” she murmured.
Yes, her head must be aching.
Unfortunately, the first aid kit had nothing to help with that. There were no pain relievers.
Watching her frown deepen, Kyris shifted uncomfortably.
It would have been much better if he had been the one in her situation. He could bear the pain.
She though...she was small…so defenseless he wondered how it was that her species survived on her planet.
“My head,” she murmured again, raising one of her small hands to touch her forehead.
He didn’t know what to say so he said the only thing that came to his mind.
“I’m sorry.”
Song groaned again, brushing her fingers over the wound.
When another groan left her lips, it was clear she was not well.
He needed to get her somewhere comfortable so they could rest and regroup.
Judging from the twin suns, they still had a few hours of daylight left and then the cold would come. That meant she’d need warmth as well.
When he’d been pacing, he’d spotted the telltale rock formations in the distance that were a sure sign they’d landed on the eastern side of Muk.
If he was right, the closest outpost was roughly a day’s flight. He could carry her, but that wasn’t happening.
Not that something within him wasn’t yearning more than anything to do so.
The problem was his wing.
The pain was still there. He’d need to test it before he took flight with a passenger in his arms. The last thing he wanted to do was take up the challenge and end up stranded somewhere on Muk with him injured and unable to protect her. The planet was too unpredictable.
The other option was to walk.
That would take about ten days and she was ill.
As she groaned again, he could feel the hairs on his skin stand on end.
Something was happening to him. Even now, every instinct within him was telling him he needed to…
Protect.
And as her scent lingered in the small space between them, there was another thought.
Right underneath that, there was the thought to…
Claim.
It was so clear now, coming to him with such force he had to ball his hands into fists lest he roar and frighten her.
…but it was impossible.
There was no way his instincts could be telling him to do that. Not when he hadn’t been chosen.
Not when there had been no mating cry…no mating ritual.
A concerned frown knitted across his brow as he watched the human’s eyes flutter closed again.
Whatever this was, he needed time to think.
“I must find you shelter.” He said it more to himself than to her, his thoughts still a murky puddle.
She opened her eyes then, her lids low as she focused on his face, and for the first time, he wondered what she saw when she looked at him.
Judging from her size, human men were small…shorter than he was. Hopefully, that was to his advantage. Maybe she would see him as a potentially good mate…someone to give her young that were tall and strong.
Such thoughts…
It was impossible for him to be thinking about such things…wasn’t it?
There’d been no mating ritual.
Forcing the thoughts away for later deliberation, he flexed his shoulder, rolling out the pain that was still echoing there.
“I will carry you.” He was speaking as he adjusted the escape pack to a more comfortable position across his shoulders. He needed to get outside of the cramped space of the pod. He needed to do something…anything to clear his thoughts so he could focus on reality.
Something about being so close to her was clouding his brain, making him feel things it was impossible to feel. Making him think of things it was unheard of to think about outside having been summoned by the mating call.
“No...” Her soft voice floated upward as she winced and tried to rise. “I can walk, I think.”
For some reason, the rejection cut him more deeply than it should have.
Right, he definitely needed to get outside the pod. Her scent.
It was making him mad.
He watched as she tried to rise and realized she had thought him carrying her had been a suggestion.
He was carrying her. It wasn’t up for debate.
In an effortless movement, he bent and lifted her into his arms. Her soft, pliant body was against his in the next instant and Kyris resisted the urge to revel in the feeling.
If she was going to protest, she obviously thought against it because her mouth opened and closed the next second.
Instead, she closed her eyes and turned her face towards his chest.
Such an innocent movement but it turned his insides into water.
Her little movement against his chest and the soft whimper she released as she snuggled into him was making his hearts thump like he had taken adrenaline enhancements.
Qrak.
It wasn’t good the way she was affecting him. It shouldn’t be possible.
The way she snuggled into him brought back images of when she’d first snuggled into him on the Isclit slave carrier.
The Restitution’s mission had been simple enough.
They would let the Isclit slave ship capture them. Xul would get hired as a guard. He’d kill one of the main Tasqals while in transit to another spacecraft and return later to lay the bombs to take down the slave carrier. While on the ship, he, Crex, and Yce would gather information on how the Tasqals operated while Kyro would remain out of bounds on the Elysium as a link between them and the Restitution. Xul would then return and they would complete the mission by detonating the charges Xul had set.
It had been a clear-cut mission.
But when the Hedgerud guards had thrown Song into his cell, everything had changed.
When she’d immediately collapsed and cowered, crawling into a corner with wide, innocent eyes on him, that’s when he’d first felt it…this…need.
He didn’t know what else to call it.
She’d spent most of the time in the cell whimpering underneath the music that flowed from her lips. As
