Chapter 52

CHAPTER 52

ALINA

S he stirred beneath cool, crisp sheets. The ceiling was darker than she remembered, and her arms and legs were splayed wider than they ever could in her own bed.

She swallowed—her mouth was a little dry, but not very.

Threxin . It worked. It worked. It worked.

"Threxin?" she called, sitting up in what she knew now was his bed.

Threxin? She subvocalized, aiming it for him. She doubted he'd granted any of the others access to their NS comms, so she wasn't worried about broadcasting too widely.

Not that it mattered… She remembered with a sinking stomach that Orion Halen and Kaia had both been witness to what had happened.

Kaia must hate her.

His presence flooded her. He was close. Then closer. She didn't need to hear him enter or see the door to the bedroom slide open. She could have been deaf and blind and still she'd feel him hovering in the doorway for the briefest tick before coming to kneel by the bed.

His hands were working the sheet, peeling it off her, and after a brief moment of awkward clutching in which Alina wasn't quite sure she was ready to feel so exposed, she realized resistance was futile and let him bare her skin.

His hands tapped briefly at her belly, where there were only subtle marks left of his talons. Her chest… She looked down at the healing wound. That was another story. Puckered and pink, four gashes ran diagonally across her breastbone.

"I am sorry, Alina Argoud," Threxin muttered. His deep velvet voice sounded like home. It brought the sting of tears to her eyeline.

"It's okay," she croaked, her own voice cracking with disuse. She licked her lips and searched his face. "I'm fine. What… How long has it been?"

"Almost three ship days. Much has happened. The voluntary Uploads have begun. We jump to our new planet in less than two ship weeks."

Alina tried to keep up, but her head was still groggy, but she thought she heard that right. "Wait, wait, what? We jump?

"We are almost there, Alina Argoud." He smoothed the bangs from her forehead.

Two weeks. Two weeks and we're on New Earth. People spend their whole lifetime searching.

"The search is over for you," Threxin said.

"Do people know? Kaia?"

Threxin frowned. "No humans know except those Orion Halen has told. I imagine his female would be one of them."

If Kaia knew, she must know her hopes of getting someone to "rescue" them were all but dashed. What are the chances someone would show up in two weeks, especially if they hadn't already?

Alina lifted her hand to cup his angled cheek, remembering all he had been through with his limiter and his NS. "How are you?"

"The procedure worked," he said .

That was a relief for sure, but she knew that already. "How are you?"

Threxin finally looked up from the mark he had left to meet her eyes then. "I feel as though my ribs have been cracked open and filled with an unknowable lightness…"

Touch me… his thoughts screamed. He hadn't yet learned to control his broadcasting, or maybe he just didn't care. Alina reached for his hand, all too happy to comply.

"I feel as though every step I take, even away from this room, is taking me toward you," he continued, barely audible over the growling of his mind. "As though I would vent every human and uhyre inside this ship and give no shoqs if you would only keep existing."

…Devour you. Devour the world together. Kill, take, mate.

Alina didn't know why such thoughts, coupled with the words pouring from his lips in parallel, had the effect they did. They drove her crazy, awoke a burning craving in her body and soul. They terrified her, but…

"I can hear you," he rasped, closing his eyes and tightening his apertures with a swallow.

Turns out she'd been broadcasting too, without even realizing what it was racing through her mind. He knew exactly how he made her feel; there was no hiding here.

"Devour me then," she whispered.

Threxin's eyes and apertures flashed, and he glanced once more back at her exposed chest. "Your injury…"

"Is fine," Alina cut in. "You took good care of me, Threxin. Take bad care of me now."