4. Talia

Chapter 4

Talia

I dreamed I lay on a hard surface. Someone kept bellowing for help. When I cracked my eyes open, I saw a blue-skinned male with silver hair kneeling beside me with grave concern on his face. He seemed so worried, I tried to reach up to stroke his pretty face, to tell him everything would be alright.

But nothing would ever be right in my world. When I moved my arm, pain lanced through me. I cried out, and the male placed a soothing hand on my shoulder.

“Stay still. Help is coming,” he whispered. “Please, stay still.”

He sounded so scared and sad that I couldn’t do anything but do as he asked. Funny how I’d never let a guy tell me what to do, but with this one, I didn’t mind. Or maybe I was too sick to care.

No, I was dying. I could feel life seeping out of me with each exhalation, and I sensed there wasn’t anything I could do about it. If I wasn’t worried about my sister and driven by a need to find her, I might just give up. What did I have to live for other than her? Our parents died when we were seventeen, and we were told we could make our way on our own after that. Thankfully, Mom and Dad had small life insurance policies, and after we buried them, there was enough left to roughly support us while we finished school. We scrimped and saved what was left to give us a start on our business. They were tough years. Survival stomped our grief flat, leaving nothing left to cling to. We didn’t have much, but we had each other, and that was all that mattered.

She was here with me—wherever this place was, and as long as I could believe she lived and was waiting for me somewhere, I’d fight to make it through this.

Bangs echoed, and guttural growls were met with the blue guy’s softly spoken words. He wanted fresh water. Herbs. Broth. And clean fabric.

Was he a doctor? The firm way he made his demands and the way he insisted despite the lizard guys’ grunting told me he must be.

As the lizards left, the alien returned to kneel by my side. He placed his hand on my forehead, and his skin was cool, oh, so blessedly cool. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch, feeling safe and secure for now.

I must’ve passed out, because I woke with pain arcing down my arm again. My eyes snapped open, and I glared at the blue guy who was doing something to me that hurt. It hurt so much.

“No.” I thrashed on the hard surface, trying to get away, banging myself on the stone wall on my other side .

“Hold still. Please,” he said in such a sweet tone that again, I couldn’t do anything but obey.

“Hurts,” I moaned. “Hurts so much.”

“I know, mate. I know.”

There was that word again. Mate. I had a feeling this guy and the lilting voice from the ship weren’t Australian.

“Wolf shifter?” I slurred. My high-pitched chuckle rang out. “Shift for me.”

Frowning, he continued to work on my arm. “You’re safe here for now. I’ll give my very life to protect you.”

No guy had ever told me something like that before. I liked it. Liked him too, though I didn’t know him. He was cute in an alien way, and I stared at his lips, wondering what it would be like to feel them on my own.

As he worked on my arm, I studied his frame. He was much bigger than me, though smaller than the lizards. His silvery hair hung around his shoulders, and it appeared thick. It would feel nice wrapped around my fingers.

He looked up, his teal eyes piercing mine, and I sensed he could see all the way to my soul. Would he find it lacking? I’d tried to be a decent person. I volunteered at the animal shelter, and I treated everyone around me kindly. My sister loved me.

But his eyes . . .

“Don’t judge me,” I whispered.

He shook his head, and when his lips curled up at the corners, his smile revealing even teeth, my heart flipped over. Tusks jutted up from his lower jawline and maybe they should scare me, but they didn’t. They only added to his appeal. “Never, mate. Never. You’re perfect just the way you are.”

I could get used to him saying nice things, used to staring at his broad, muscular shoulders and his narrow hips. He wore a tan tunic and pants; simple stuff made from an unknown fabric that appeared as alien as him.

“You understand me,” I said as he wrapped a strip of cloth around my arm.

The sting had flown, and I was grateful for that. Maybe I wouldn’t die after all. Maybe, just maybe, I’d get better and have the chance to find my sister.

“The gods did that for us.”

He made no sense, but I was still out of my mind with a fever. I’d misheard him. My head throbbed and chills wracked my frame, telling me I wasn’t well yet.

“They wanted all of you to understand us,” he added.

“Us?”

“The women sent from your planet to become our mates.”

Hold on. “I’m not anyone’s mate.”

“I agree.”

Good.

His serious gaze met mine. “I’m Firion.”

“Talia.”

He nodded. “A pretty name, like you.”

“Don’t get any ideas.”

His gaze fell to my mouth. “Ideas about what?”

“Anything. You, me, mating. I’m an independent woman with my own business, and I’m not about to become some blue alien’s baby mama.”

His frown only deepened. “The gods sent you to me to be my mate, but as for you having a baby . . . We can’t have younglings here.” He looked around the room. “Not until we’re free of this place.”

“No babies at all.”

“We can discuss this later.” He finished securing the fabric on my arm and stroked my cheek with his knuckles. “Rest. I’ll watch over you.”

Rising to his feet, he hefted what looked like the leg of a small table and glared toward bars lining the opposite wall.

“Where are we?” I croaked, not liking the hard surface I lay on that felt too much the way I imagined a prison bunk would feel, let alone the bars keeping us pinned inside a small stone room.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said softly. “Because I’m breaking us out as soon as I can.”