Chapter 18
I never expected Jorusk to be so…hot. Taking him was like swallowing a ghost pepper whole, except the heat invaded my lungs, my stomach, and curled fiery fingers down my spine.
I can still feel my veins thumping in my neck.
But the meds Osiris gave me were like cold, colorless milk, soothing the burn and making it easier to bear.
Jorusk reluctantly climbs into the sleeves of a new race suit and zips the fabric around his wings, which are bound with new Abr bands that flash with indicators.
Apparently, the first set is free. The second set is tracked like he’s on house arrest. I’m not sure how much more of the shackling of my man I can take.
We’re separated by gender as we approach the hedge maze.
Inside the females’ prep room, I’m handed a set of armor by a staff member.
Once I’m changed, I’m directed into a line where we get cookies and await our turn for a face marking based on some historical records of alien worlds.
When my turn comes, I sit back in the chair beside a woman with a large tablet.
“You are with the Drathious, right?” she asks.
“Yes.”
She scans but shakes her head. “We don’t have an entry. I’m sorry.”
“Hang on.” I tap my wristband. “DIA, can you help us? I need a symbol for mating or fertility or something for this maze challenge. Can you find my location and share something useful?”
“Yes, Brynna. I detect a tablet close to your position.”
A message pops up on the staff member’s tablet. She confirms their connection, and an image loads.
“What does that mean?” I ask DIA. I don’t want something that says fuck off.
“That is the one that females wear on their forehead during machrya, the week of mating rituals before the final bonding.”
“Thank you.”
“On our world, Brynna. That symbol is from Drathis, the origin world. If anyone at home sees it, they will know I have made it. They will know Jorusk is the messenger they sent.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
The woman is already painting it on my forehead with a finger and gray, ashy powder.
“Unless the Talhuskins see it. It is not known solely by our kind.”
“Should I rub it off?”
She is quiet for a moment, and the staff member pauses.
“No. It may invite unwanted attention, but we will deal with it. We were sent with a message. Show them that we are still out there.”
The woman hesitantly finishes, then sprays sweet-scented finishing spray over it. I thank her and get up.
Another staff member hands me a rifle and a grenade belt. “Not explosives, just powdered hormone enhancers. Do you know how to operate these?”
“Yes.” I sling the rifle over my shoulder, attach my belt ,and walk outside.
I find Jorusk talking with a huge blue Thorian who wears a grin as white as the snowcaps on the mountains that surrounded our farm. Jorusk adjusts the rifle slung over his shoulder and notices me.
“Oh, hey. Brynna, this is Hatchet. He and I met three years ago.” Jorusk motions to a woman who’s talking with another near the starting line. “Quinn is his mate.”
I offer him my hand. “Nice to meet you, Hatchet.”
He hesitates and glances at Jorusk. When Jorusk shrugs, Hatchet takes my hand and smiles. “Such a weird tradition.”
“Just a show of intent that I am unarmed and wish to have trust.” I release his hand. “But it also gives away a lot about the other person. It is in the strength, confidence, and texture of the handshake. Callused hands tell me you work hard. That’s just one example.”
“Interesting.” Hatchet eyes me like I’m some freak of nature. “I like your mate, Jorusk. She is covert in the way she hunts. But she gives away her secrets too easily. Soft hands but strong. So are you not a worker?”
“I…”
“She is,” Jorusk coughs behind a fist, trying to hide his smile. “Did a number on me this morning.”
Hatchet chuckles and tags Jorusk in the chest with a fist, making him chuckle and stagger a step.
Ohni zooms across the fields on her hoverpad and slows before us. “Is everyone ready for some sweet, sexy fun?”
Women and alien males cheer closer to the line.
“Guess it’s time,” Hatchet gives Jorusk a shoulder nudge. “See you around, my friend. Likely sooner than we want.”
“Yeah.” Jorusk looks concerned.
I rest a hand on his back beneath his wings. “What is it?”
“He knows about the approaching Neb forces and doesn’t want to be here any more than I do.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure what I want, even if it takes a little bit of medicine to get me there.”
Jorusk wraps me under one of his arms, and presses me against his side. “You really do want me?”
“Hell yes.”
He laughs bashfully.
“And since we’ve already got your extra prize.
I think we’re mostly doing this for show and to have some fun.
So what do you say we wreak some havoc on this bitch?
” I lift my rifle as the starting cannon goes off, puffing pink and purple plumes into the air that taste like candy and make everything around us glow.
I free a candy grenade from my belt, flick the pin off, and throw it into the maze.
It explodes above the hedges, raining hormone-enhancing powder over the racers that pour into the labyrinth of vegetation, hoping to reach the golden egg at the center or find their way to the mountain maze for the secondary gold egg. “Come on.”
Jorusk hangs onto my hand as I lug him into the maze.
He finally perks up and lifts his rifle, tagging an Alustrian male with a paint bullet laced with the same hormone enhancers but in bright green.
Every bullet he launches at other couples switches to a different color, but they all have the same effect.
We skirt a corner in the hedge and find a couple getting hot and heavy in the corner.
“Whoops.” I apologize to them and sneak away.
Jorusk rumbles a hungry note and pulls me down a different passage.
Another hormone-enhancing grenade smokes as it flies over our location. The pink cloud burns in my recently healed lungs and makes the veins in my throat heat.
Jorusk suddenly grabs me and pushes me back into a narrow opening in the hedge.
It snakes through the maze, around turns, zigzagging for what feels like forever.
Finally, we end up in an unoccupied corner with an adjoining passageway, where he picks me up by the hips and crushes me against the dense hedge.
“I want you,” he breathes. “I felt pushed into this, but I’m glad I’m here. And all this damn shit flying through the air has me on the edge of losing my head. But I don’t want to do that again.”
“It’s okay,” I gasp, bracing myself on his muscled shoulders.
“It’s not okay,” he snarls. “I hurt you, and I can’t forgive myself for that.”
Taking his face in my hands, I lift his eyes to meet mine. “Well, you had better, because I don’t want you to hold back. Got it?”
Jorusk’s red eyes dart over my face like he can’t make sense of it.
“I can handle a lot of pain if I have a good reason. You’re a pretty damn good reason.” I take his bottom lip between my teeth and gently tug it away until it slips from my grasp.
“I wish we could get this damned game over with so I could map your naked body, every curve, with my tongue like last night.” Jorusk’s eyelids droop low as he cranes around to nibble my neck.
He takes my wrists and binds them above my head, holding them in place with one hand, while the other unzips my suit and snakes inside.
His hot, rough skin against mine lights me on fire.
Jorusk slips his hand down the back of my suit, grabs me by the ass, and crushes me against his rigid length. “I have never lost control quite like that before. You feel too good.”
I’m heating up, or maybe it’s just him, and it’s all in my head. I can’t tell who’s steaming, but I want him more with every kiss he trails down my neck.
Somewhere in the distance, a bell rings out that an egg has been found. But I don’t care. Every touch has me wanting nothing more than to linger in this moment forever with him.
He nuzzles inside my bra, and his teeth find my bud. The embers that swirl out with my strained breath don’t hurt anymore. In fact, I think I’m starting to like them.
Jorusk jerks his head up and sees the embers just before they wink out. “Oh, shit. Okay. We have to slow down.”
No, please! “I don’t want to.”
He releases my hands and lifts my chin until I meet his gaze. “I don’t either. But I’ll take the pain of waiting if it’s for a purpose.”
Another grenade goes off over our heads, showering us in delicious powder that makes Jorusk’s body radiate fiery light. His Inferno strains to get out through the cracks in his body.
“Fuck!” Jorusk tenses. Veins rise in his neck as he leans his head back and roars.
I try not to laugh.
He tensely offers me a hand. “We had better get out of here before I take you. You’re not ready for the kind of monster I’m holding back.”
Maybe not, but I’m really starting to like the sound of it.