Chapter 18

When Rael awoke in the dead of night, he knew that something was wrong.

There was an unnerving stillness beside him.

Shock jolted through him. The sheets were empty. The space beside him was cold, untouched.

No.

Rael sat up, the thin covers falling from his chest. Moonlight poured through the forest canopy, bathing the camp in its glow. Rael”s breath came quick and hard as he stared at the empty space beside him.

Elian had run away.

Fury and hurt warred within Rael. He could feel the emotions burning in his chest, hot and fierce. He”d thought… He”d thought…

Rael”s jaw clenched. He”d thought that he and Elian had something special. Despite the differences between them — despite the fact that one of them was an alien from a far-off world — he”d thought that they”d connected. That they”d found something precious in each other.

But now…

Had Elian been playing him from the start, pretending to love Rael in order to lower his guard? It wouldn”t have been the first time that a human had been deceptive. Every Borraq knew that they were underhanded, devious creatures, didn”t they?

But… No, Rael couldn”t bring himself to believe that. He”d seen the warmth in Elian”s eyes, felt the sincerity in his touch.

It had been real.

So if Elian wanted to run, he was going to have to run far to get away from Rael.

There wasn”t a single corner of Vasz that was beyond Rael”s reach. If he had to, he”d track Elian to the ends of the planet to prove to him that he hadn”t made a mistake in choosing Rael as his mate.

In the quicksilver mix of fury and determination, there was a deep, aching well of fear. Rael grit his teeth, refusing to acknowledge it. He was going to find Elian, and fix whatever was wrong, and then he was going to drag him back to his side, kicking and screaming if he had to.

And then Rael was going to give him a piece of his mind that he”d never forget, before holding him close and never letting him go again.

First things first, though. Rael sprinted out into the night, his senses on high alert.

Elian had left signs in his wake — there was no way he couldn”t. A snapped twig here, a faint depression in the ground there… But Elian had clearly put on the pheromone-blocking salve that Rael had shown him, the one that hid his presence from the senses of any potential pursuers.

As Rael followed the tracker”s signals through the wilderness, the world around him remained stubbornly empty of any scent other than the natural one of trees and earth.

The man was an absolute fool. Rael had taught him about Vasz as they”d walked its paths, but there were still many things that Elian didn”t yet know. He was going to get himself killed out here, with no ability to sense any predators that might be stalking him.

Or worse, he was going to be found by someone less kind than Rael.

Rael ran through the night for gods knew how long, following the signals as they led him on. He burst through a ring of trees —

— and then he skidded to a halt.

There was the unmistakable sign of a struggle.

The earth was torn and trampled, the underbrush crushed beneath the weight of a furious scuffle. There were deep, heavy footprints, as if someone had dug their heels in—

— and then been dragged away.

Elian wasn”t just fleeing.

He”d been taken.

Rael”s blood ran cold. Korvax. Korvax wanted the bounty on Elian — but that bounty was alive or dead. The hot fury in Rael”s chest warred with a deep, icy fear. He had to find Elian. He had to find him before Korvax decided to…

No. No time to think about that.

Rael ran through the woods, following Korvax”s trail. His shields were up, ready for the confrontation to come.

But no shield in the galaxy could protect him from the emotions that now roiled within him, fierce and undeniable.

He was going to find Elian.

And he was going to bring him home.