Chapter 4

FOUR

Whitten

The air vibrated. I tasted something sweet in the air. But my body protested waking as it hurt from the tip of my fur to the marrow of my bones. My left arm felt disconnected from my body.

But yet the sweetness lulled me to consciousness, and with that sweetness was a soft lilting sound that eased the ache in my body. My ears pricked. My nose twitched, and I felt my eyelids slowly pull back. Well, one eyelid. The other wasn't opened for some reason. Through the blurry vision of one eye, I first saw a dirt floor. Vertical bars like a cage, and through those bars was a form which slowly took the shape of a living being.

A human.

A human woman.

Immediately, my heartbeat strengthened as I focused on her. Her full lips moved, and the sweet sound floated from them. She was singing, which was something Queen had done for us often when we were chits. Queen had a beautiful voice, and while this human's was much different, I found myself soothed and attracted. I wanted to shift closer, curl up in her warmth, and let those sweet sounds drip into my ear like syrup.

Her head turned, and her brown eyes went wide. She surged against the cage bars, small fingers gripping the thick metal. "Hello?"

I winced at the increase in loudness, and she grimaced before lowering her voice. "Um… hi."

I tried to talk, but my tongue was swollen. I couldn't make a sound other than a low grain as I fought to roll onto my hands and feet. I got both paws under my chest, but when I tried to lift my body, one arm completely gave out, and I collapsed back onto the dirt.

The human gasped and reached one arm through the bars toward me, even though she couldn't reach me. "No," she cried. "Don't try to get up. Just…just lay there. Rest." She fumbled with something at her side and held out a water pouch through the bars. "Here, I can throw this to you. Drink, okay?"

I shook my head. She needed it more than me. "For you," I managed to whisper.

Her head jerked as if she'd been shocked. I remembered then that she seemed to be in pain when I talked, likely from her damaged implant. I shut my mouth. How were we going to communicate?

"I can catch some of your words," she said. "It just hurts a bit. But I can withstand it. We'll just talk sparingly, okay? Can you understand me?" I nodded, and she exhaled roughly. "Good. Good." She tossed the water pouch, and it landed near my paw. "Please drink."

I stared at the pouch and then at her. She remained smashed up against the side of her cell, each hand gripping a bar. She could fit her face through the gap. I tried to assess her injury level. She was bruised, and blood still matted the side of her head, but her eyes were bright. Alert. And she didn't seem to be in visible pain. Unlike me.

I dug my extended claws into the dirt to move my paw closer to the water pouch. What should have been a mindless activity took way too long. Finally, my paw closed around the pouch. I tilted my head to the side and sucked the liquid down my parched throat.

When the pouch was empty, I crumpled it into my paw and tossed it away from me. The human remained watching me, and it was then I saw the markings on her wrists. The same markings as mine. The memory slammed back into me. The loks appearing on our wrists moments before I'd battled the Dayloes. I'd never been the most skilled fighter out of my brothers, but for my mate, I'd been the beast everyone thought we were. Fueled by the need to protect my mate, my cora-eternal, I'd fought nearly to death.

Why was I still alive? Why wouldn't they just kill me? I couldn't understand. And thinking too much only made my head hurt more.

I wanted to get closer to my mate. I wanted to see her. I wanted her to know that her mate was strong. I couldn't just lay there. I had to get up for her. I had to heal for her .

While my left arm remained useless, I managed to lift myself up onto my knees using my right arm. Dizziness swamped me for a moment as I sat upright, but I closed my eye and waited it out while the female made concerned noises and pleas for me to rest.

I didn't have time to rest. I had to figure out how to get us the fleck out of here.

I turned my head to find her face smashed through the bars, watching me with wide eyes. I shuffled on my knees toward her with as much dignity as I could muster. As I drew closer, she flinched slightly, as if she was unsure about me. So I stopped within arm's reach but didn't move to touch her.

"Whitten," I said, pointing to my chest. "My name."

Her head twitched with the tell-tale sign of pain, but I could tell she tried to hide it. "I'm Lorna," she said. Her gaze dropped to the loks on her wrists, then to the loks on mine. "These… what are they? What do they mean?" I hesitated, not wanting to cause her pain with my voice through her damaged implant, but she urged me to continue. "I can handle it. Please… I need to understand."

Good thing I had a lot of practice using as little words as possible. I pointed to the loks on my damaged arm. "Loks. They mean…" I waved my paw between us. "We are mates."

The painful zrips made her blink through watery eyes, but she remained focused. "We're mates?"

I nodded.

"But I'm human and you're… a blue wolf."

I frowned. "Drixonian."

With a gasp, she jerked back, and a tear slid out of one eye. Her shoulders hunched with pain. She tried to hide it, waving her hand and claiming she was fine, but I bared my teeth and refused to talk again.

She panted through gritted teeth until the pain subsided, and then looked at me with despair. "I can handle it."

I shook my head, and she exhaled roughly. Her head hung between her shoulders. "I just don't understand. I don't know what I'm doing here. I miss home. I'm scared. I'm tired." Her head lifted. "But I stayed alive because I didn't want you to wake up alone. I feel you," she pointed to her temple. "In here." She swallowed thickly. "Do you feel me too?"

I did. She was a shifting stream of smoke that curled around every part of my mind. Right now, it swelled with a thick warmth. I nodded in response.

She smiled, slightly, and small indents dotted her cheeks. "How did this happen? Did you choose me?"

I wanted to explain, but I didn't want to cause her pain. I shook my head. Her indents vanished and her smile faded. "So it just happened? Like… fate?" I nodded, and she looked thoughtful. "Oh. Is it… okay? Did you want a mate?"

How did I answer that? She didn't know what I was, what was in my blood, how I would do anything for her even before I knew she was my mate. And now… well now, I'd lay waste to this entire planet for her. And although I knew my words would cause her pain, there could be no misunderstanding about this. "You are the destiny I dreamed of."

She blinked and sucked in a ragged breath. "But you don't know me?"

I spoke again. "I know enough."

A slight wince creased her forehead, and she opened her mouth before closing it again without a word. Her hands slid down the bars until they rested on her knees. And then she reached an arm through the bars.

I stared at her hand. Her thumbnail was broken. Cuts marred her palms. My mate wasn't safe. Or healthy. I wanted to rage, but I forced myself to remain calm. Queen talked to us about how humans enjoyed physical affection and touch just like Drixonians. Lorna wanted that connection, and so did I.

I shuffled closer, and then reached out with my good arm. The tips of her fingers brushed the back of my paw. I shuddered, and Lorna's lips parted in a soft exhale. "Soft," she murmured as her hand settled on top of my paw. Her fingers curled into my fur. "I didn't think you'd be this soft."

My tail thumped, and I closed the distance to plaster myself up against the bars. I slipped my tail through to brush along the side of her thigh. She smiled, and her indents creased her cheeks. I liked them. They meant she was happy.

Her other hand touched my tail. Petted it. "It's so long," she whispered with a smile. "And fluffy."

She had said she remained awake while I'd been unconscious. She'd sang to me so I wouldn't feel alone. So I curled my tail into a pillow on her side of the bars and gestured to it. "Sleep."

Her head went up, and she blinked. I could see the fatigue in the set of her shoulders, her sluggish movements, her half-shut eyes. "It's okay, I don't?—"

"Sleep," I said again, and this time her head jerked with pain. But I needed her to know this mattered to me. Humans needed sleep more than Drixonians. I would be fine. I would heal. Stand guard. I would protect her. Not even these bars would stop me.

Eventually, she stopped fighting me. She tipped over onto her side and nestled her head on my tail. Her eyes drooped, and she held them open with effort. "Are you sure?"

I nodded, and that was the last gesture she saw before her eyes fell shut, and her breathing evened out. When soft snores fluttered from her lips, I smiled down at my pretty mate. I might be caged now, but not for long. I'd get her to safety even if I had to kill every last Dayloes in this underground fortress.

Lorna

I woke up with a sneeze as fur tickled my nose. Opening my eyes, I peered through the bars of my cell to see Whitten lounging on his palms behind him, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle.

He turned his head at my movement, and I was stunned to find his eye was no longer swollen shut. The wound in his arm was closed and had already begun to scab. How long had I been asleep? I rubbed at my eyes, which felt grainy and dry, but I was surprised to find my muscles weren't as sore as I would have expected from sleeping on the floor. My head no longer throbbed, and when I prodded at the cut on my head, I was shocked that the wound had closed.

Seriously, had I been asleep for days?

A pouch of water sat on the floor near me, as well as another one of those gross food bars. After chugging the water, I ate as much of the bar as I could stomach. I was pleased to see that Whitten had an empty water pouch in his cell, so he'd been given rations as well.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

He smiled. Or at least, it was as much of a smile as I gathered he could make with his fanged teeth and wolf-like snout. He drew his tail back into his own cell and let it thump on the ground a few times.

Then he beckoned me close with a curl of his fanged claws. I shuffled near the bars and let my nose poke between them. "Like this?"

The tips of his paw pads brushed my chin as he angled my head to the right. In this direction, he had access to my translator implant. He tapped a claw on the implant. "Fix?"

Fix ? Hell yes, I'd like him to fix it so that I could communicate without blinding pain. I nodded eagerly. "Yes, please."

"Might—" zrip "—hurt."

I'd deal with it if I knew an end was in sight. "It's okay," I assured him. "If you can fix it, please do it."

With my head turned, I had to glance at him out of the corner of my eye. He bit down on this bottom lip with his fangs as his nose twitched, seemingly with nerves. And then he leaned closer. I felt another touch on the implant as pain streaked through my skull. I ground my molars together and closed my eyes.

The pain came in waves as he worked. I tried to think of pleasant things, like the feel of my bed, the beauty of the park I liked to take walks in, and the smell of my favorite bakery. When none of that worked to take my mind off the pain, I began to sing again. Nonsense lyrics with weird tunes as my head throbbed and my stomach rolled with nausea. Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, the tinkering stopped. I opened my eyes to find Whitten had leaned back. His paw gently turned my chin to face him. "I'm sorry," he said. "Did that work?"

A dull ache remained, but no more zinging pain that made me feel like my skull was cracked. Excitement bubbled in my gut. "Keep talking."

He made a huffing noise in his throat. "Okay." His tongue curled around his nose before disappearing back into his mouth. "I used my claws to open the device and fix the wiring?—"

"It worked!" I reached through the bars of the cage and grabbed the sides of his furry head. He immediately went very still. My excitement, however, seemed enough for both of us as I felt a surge of energy. "It worked! I can hear without pain!" The ache was already fading, and with it came some hope. "We can talk!" I surged up onto my knees. "Tell me everything ."

But he didn't seem able to talk. His pupils had blown wide and only a thin ring of his lavender iris was visible. His body trembled, and I slowly withdrew my hands in confusion. "Wait, are you okay?"

His muscles were tight, veins popping out on his neck. He shook his head once, then once more, and then again frantically as his paws opened and close rhythmically against his thighs. His claws dug into the fabric of his pants.

"Whitten?" My voice cracked. My excitement gave way to fear. "What's going on?"

His nostrils flared as a musky scent perfumed the air, mixed by something else that seemed to be coming from…me.

My stomach caved in. Cramped. I placed my palm on the skin over my belly and frowned. "What… what's going on?" Had they poisoned our water? Our food? What would be the point of that when they could just kill us with guns or blades?

Whitten scrambled away backward, wide-eyed gaze on me just as a door opened with a bang somewhere in the corridor outside of our cells.

"I told you!" An armored alien came into view with a triumphant yell. The gleeful gleam in his eyes made me sick. "He won't be able to fight his rut when the human is this ripe."

"What?" I screeched without thought as my stomach cramped again. I felt a gush of fluid between my legs, and the smell in the air grew stronger. I was ripe ? Ripe with what ?

Whitten was panting now as he plastered himself against the far side of the cage. With his tongue lolling out of his mouth, he held the bars with straining arms.

"Now," said the armored alien, and suddenly more poured into the corridor. One entered my cell while two more rushed into the one on the other side of Whitten. As an alien grabbed my arm, I hollered, because the aliens in the cell beside Whitten were now holding him by his neck from behind. They seemed to be strangling him, and I clawed at the alien holding me even as I felt the fabric of my shirt tear. " What are you doing to him ?" I screamed as tears blurred my vision. I swore I could feel the echo of hands around my neck.

As quickly as they'd held him, they let him go and raced out of the cell. It was then I noticed that they'd cut his pants off while they'd held him, leaving him naked. As for me, the alien holding me slashed through the last of my clothing, leaving me naked as well. I whirled around, but they were already leaving my cell. All they'd left behind were the tattered remains of my clothes.

A scraping sound echoed down the hallway outside, and then a taloned foot came into view, followed by the familiar neck, skull head, and horns of the aliens I'd seen in the arena. I scrambled away to the back of my cell as he stopped outside. Two of the armored aliens stood on either side of him. His red gaze took me in before sweeping to Whitten, who bared his teeth at him.

The Xaberians voice was a series of low-toned grunts that my translator took some time to pick up. "—give us what we want."

"No," Whitten barked, eyes wild. "I know how precious a Drixonian chit would be. You think I don't know what happened on Corin?"

The Xaberian's skull was shaped like a deer head with a long snout full of teeth like a crocodile. He had no skin on his face, so I couldn't determine if he smiled, but the way his eyes flashed made me think I'm amused. "So you do know? Interesting."

"Fleck off," Whitten spat.

"We'll see how strong you're talking as time goes on." The Xaberian turned and walked off, his tentacles waving behind him. One Dayloes remained outside our cell. He sneered at us as he grabbed a lever on the wall outside our cells. "Have fun. We'll be watching."

He jerked the lever down, and the bars between my cell and Whitten's lifted with a rusty clang. Whitten remained on the far side of his cage, arms locked through the bars as if holding himself back. With his pants gone, his naked form was visible to me, and I stared in fascination at his anatomy. Between his thick furry thighs was a massive light blue cock with a thick ring at the base. The tip leaked a copious amount of fluid, so much that the cell floor beneath him was now sticky and pungent. Heavy blue balls dragged along the floor. The jaws in my mind whirled and snapped with audible clicks as if in a rage.

I took in his muscled chest and finally met his gaze, which was now fully black and dazed. His arms remained locked in the bars. Then he threw his head back and howled at the ceiling with a pained sound that seized the air in my lungs.