Chapter 10

Paige

V arek leads us through the caverns into a common area that is almost completely open to the skies. The kitchens, he calls the room.

The air is chilly and wraps around me as the cloudy weather fills the chambers with a thick mist. The common room is lively as other Vruts group up and share a meal, some sitting against the wall, others lounging on hammocks with a plate of food across their belly. I look around the room as they all stare at me, curious and untrusting expressions. I don’t know how to process it, but then Varek wraps a possessive arm around my side as if to claim me.

I’m his.

His chest glows and the other Vruts in the room understand our bond. Then they all bow their heads in respect.

“Come on. I’ll make you a plate,” Varek rasps near my ear. The soft tickle of his breath sends chills down my arms.

He gathers some food on a petrified wood plate and my brows knit as I take it all in. We sit by ourselves against the wall and he shows me how to eat.

He scoops a big chunk of something red and sticky in between his fingers and takes a bite.

“Ruvash. It grows best in the marshes and is the main source of all food for us.” Varek slides the plate toward me and points at it. “Try it.”

“It looks—” I trail off. The smell of it isn’t terrible. But the red color is making my stomach turn.

“Paige,” he says. “You must eat. You will get sick if you don’t.”

His eyes sparkle as he looks at me, nodding at the plate again.

A sense of overwhelming warmth flows through me at the concern on his face. His jaw is tense as he waits, watching me intently.

I lick my lips and reach for the ruvash, plucking a little bit between my fingers. Varek nods as I bring the portion to my lips and taste.

“Mm,” I mumble as I chew the warm grain. “It’s like rice,” I say.

Varek cocks his head.

“Something we have on Earth.”

He points to something else. A dark, dried hunk of something that looks like meat. “This is strid. Draxel brought one down a week ago.”

Strid? So Draxel’s a hunter. I nod to myself, picking up the next thing to try. I take a bite and it’s chewy like beef jerky, but the flavor is outstanding.

“You like?” Varek asks, a prideful glint in his eyes.

I nod my head. “I do.”

While I eat, Varek explains that the hunters go out every other day to bring in food. One strid can feed the entire clan for two weeks if they stretch out the meat. But the vast majority of their nutrition comes from what grows in the marshes and what they can scavenge in the trees—those massive ones that we saw before entering the cave—that Varek calls voraliths.

On the rest of the plate are some root vegetables and a little smattering of fruits. I try each one and listen as he teaches me about his life. His people. After a bit, the plate is empty and I’m licking my fingers clean, my belly finally full.

“Wow, that was good.” I feel renewed. My body doesn’t ache as much anymore and my headache is down to a dull roar. I reach up and touch the strange paste that still crusts across the cut on my forehead.

Varek grabs my hand and holds it in his own. “Leave it, troublemaker. It has to stay on for another night.”

I huff. I’m not a damn troublemaker.

He smirks and raises, pulling me up to my feet. “Come on. I will show you the rest of the glowhollows.”

“Glowhollow?”

Varek points all around us. “The caverns. Our home. The glows help keep us safe.”

Ah. I see.

Varek wraps his arm around my waist again, keeping me close as we explore further.

We walk through the vast caverns as he points out special places. The personal hollows of other Vruts and those of families. I make a quick mental note that nearly every other Vrut we come across is male. Maybe all the women are somewhere we haven’t explored yet. I have a strange desire to ask him about that.

I want to know more.

He shows me the Luminary where Vruts gather during twilight when the luminite’s luminescence is at its peak.

“This is where the council meets. The Highseers.”

I look around, words failing me.

The Luminary is unlike any other chamber I’ve seen. It feels both ancient and sacred. Smooth stone walls stretch high, their surfaces adorned with intricate carvings that shimmer in the dim light, as though the very rock itself pulsed with energy.

Like the glow on Varek’s chest as he watches me.

The room is open to the sky above as I’ve come to love, where a perfect circle in the ceiling reveals a breathtaking view of the heavens.

Along the perimeter of the room, crystalline formations jut from the ground. Neon, bright green luminite structures, like raw mined quartz crystal, bathe the room in such a soft, spiritual ambiance that I can almost feel it in my bones.

The history in this room. The importance of it.

“You work in here?” I ask.

Varek looks around the room as if he’s seeing it for the first time, through fresh eyes. “Only when we have a ritual or the council must make a serious decision. Otherwise, we prefer to meet by the kitchens.”

A smile pulls across my lips. “How laid back of you.”

Varek raises his chin in pride. “The Highseers are those who protect their people. We do that best when we are among them. One with them all.”

That’s a nice sentiment. If only the leaders on Earth had those ideals. But in this room, I can feel the community. The shared love and respect. It’s refreshing.

Different and foreign, but beautiful.

Varek points to the ground. “We won’t go there, but beneath our feet are the mines.”

“The mines?”

“Where the luminite is at its most pure. We harvest it, refine it. It’s the center of all life here in the glowhollow.”

He reaches out an open hand and gestures for me.

As if it’s second nature, I take his rough hand and follow him.

We walk further through the glowhollow and suddenly I find myself watching Varek instead of the beauty of his home. His every word oozes with love and pride, his excitement to show me every nook and cranny never waning. His rough, scary edges seem to fade away and when I watch him, it’s not so obvious that we’re different species anymore.

We come to a curve and Varek stops. I startle as he bends down and wraps me up in his arms, anchoring me to his chest. His hands slide up my outer thighs as he wraps my legs around his waist.

“Hold on tight, Mate.”

Before I can ask where we’re going, he slips through a crevice and hikes up the inclining rock. I cling to him shamelessly, my arms wrapped around his thick, muscular neck.

“Varek—” I squeak as he launches off the rock across a massive chasm. We land safely on the other side but my heart is pounding in my chest. The asshole just chuckles.

“I will not let you fall.”

I grumble. “I’m worried about both of us falling. Where are we going?”

“I want to show you something else. My favorite place.”

He jumps and climbs further up, the incline growing higher and higher until finally the rocky walls fade away and we are on top of the mountain. We emerge into the cool air and Varek’s grip on me tightens as he slows to a walk.

“Look up,” he says.

I do. The sky is a dull gray—but that’s the only way I’ve seen it since he snatched me from the ship yesterday. Gray. Rainy. Misty.

I’m not even sure where the sun is, if this place has a sun, or if we’re just below a shelf of clouds so thick that we might never see it.

“Keep watching,” he tells me as he finds a spot on the rocky mountainside. Satisfied, he sits, holding me close to his chest so I’m forced to straddle his lap. My cheeks burn, but I pretend to keep looking up into the sky.

I’m not at all bothered by the hard bulge pressing between my legs, or the way his fingers draw loving little circles on the small of my back.

But the sky starts to darken into something I haven’t seen before. Shadows trickle out from behind the clouds and the gray gives way to something else.

Something that seems to swipe the clouds away like a strong wind.

Behind them lies a white sky, burning bright. I squint, but keep watching as the source of the light fades and fades.

Muted shades of lavender and dusky orange bleed into one another, blurring the line between the heavens and the mist-laden ground. The colors are soft, almost ghostly, but not scary.

It’s strange. Like I’m not watching something real. I feel like I’m in a dream that doesn’t make sense, but I still can’t look away.

The mist catches what little light remained, turning the air itself into a glowing, shimmering haze. Dark silhouettes from the voraliths stood like ancient sentinels, their massive forms shrouded in the fog, as the unseen sun’s pale glow painted the edges of their branches in faint gold. Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the light receded, swallowed by the ever-present gloom, leaving the planet in darkness.

“Wow,” I breathe.

“Beautiful,” Varek says.

I look down and realize he’s staring at me. Not the sky.

My belly dips as his rough hand cups my cheek. With the sun gone, the air grows cooler and a chill rattles through my bones. I sink closer to Varek—to my mate—because he’s warm.

And he feels… good.

I clear my throat. “When you were showing me around, I noticed that most of the Vruts were male. Do the women spend time somewhere you haven’t shown me?”

His eyes lower as he shakes his head. “There are few women.”

“Why?”

He pushes a lock of my hair out of the way, watching the curve of my neck as he explains. “Our kind can only conceive with our glow-blessed mate. Even among the couples who are lucky enough to have found their other half, female birth rates are low. They have declined slowly over the years and as a result, our numbers have dwindled.”

“Oh,” I whisper as I process that.

“Some males defected from the glowhollow to try and seek out their mates from other species but none have returned successfully. Since there are so few females born, I had no hope of finding my own mate.”

His voice lowers. His throat bobs as he stares into my eyes, his finger sliding up and down my pulse point. I suck in a deep breath as the sensation elicits an intense sense of calm over me. My muscles relax and I’m chest to chest with him, my palms flat on the spot where his glows burn bright for me.

“But I have you.”

Varek’s words are thick with emotion as he lovingly caresses me from my ear to my collarbone.

The attention and desire in his gaze is so evident that I can’t think clearly. Finding out more about him, more about his home, just confuses me more.

I feel for him. I want him and his people to be happy. He’s not evil and he’s definitely not the terrifying monster I thought he was when he tore off the door to the ship and kidnapped me.

But he did kidnap me.

And I’m not so sure I’m meant to help him repopulate and ensure the future generation of Vruts.

But then when he leans in and wraps his arms around me, crushing me to his chest and hugging me like he’s found something he’s been searching for for his entire life, I can’t help but feel whole.

I feel wanted. Special. Like I was meant for something bigger than myself.

I melt into him and let him hold me, unsure of what any of this means, but unwilling to peel myself away.