Nalina
NALINA
M y fingers brushed the modified medical scanner, an odd tingling sensation making me set it down more carefully than necessary on the repurposed crate serving as Dr. Gondon’s exam table.
“Hold still.” Dr. Gondon adjusted another piece of equipment - what looked like an old atmospheric sensor welded to part of a neural interface. Her large eyes narrowed as she scanned the readouts. “This will take a few minutes to calibrate.”
Tyrix paced behind her, his shoulders rigid. Three steps, turn, three steps back. The movement should have irritated me, but somehow his restlessness matched the buzzing under my skin.
“You’re doing it again.” He paused mid-stride.
“Doing what?”
“That thing with your hands.” He moved closer, reaching for my fingers where they drummed against my thigh. I hadn’t even noticed.
“I’m fine.” I pulled away, immediately regretting the sharpness in my voice when hurt flashed across his face.
“Fascinating.” Dr. Gondon’s sand-colored skin rippled with excitement as she studied another screen. “The neural adaptation rates are unprecedented. Even accounting for human plasticity, this level of integration shouldn’t be possible.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means you should be dead.” She adjusted another dial. “The first human trial subjects didn’t last six months. Their bodies couldn’t handle the changes.”
My stomach dropped. “How long ago was I exposed?”
“Based on these readings...” She tapped through several screens. “Approximately two years. Though the deterioration has accelerated recently. The increased strength, faster reflexes - those weren’t just adrenaline.”
Two years. My mind raced back, trying to pinpoint the moment. The maintenance job in Blue Section? That weird metallic taste in the air when the environmental controls malfunctioned? Or maybe...
“The coolant leak.” The words fell from numb lips. “When we were rerouting power to the hydroponics bay. I thought the headache was just from the fumes.”
“Different strain than what they used on Jevik.” Dr. Gondon’s fingers raced across the controls. “Earlier version, before they added the direct neural control elements. More... elegant in some ways. They were still focusing on enhancement rather than domination.”
“But it’s killing her.” Tyrix’s voice was rough.
“Yes.” She didn’t soften the blow. “The cellular breakdown is accelerating. Without intervention...” She hesitated.
“How long?” I forced the words out.
“Days. Maybe less.”
I nodded, oddly calm. “What are my options?”
“There might be...” Tyrix started, then stopped himself.
“What?”
Tyrix brushed one of my braids back from my face. “The claiming bite.”
“And that’s what, exactly?” I asked.
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “It’s... sacred to my people.” His markings darkened with intensity. “When a Vinduthi warrior finds their true mate, the bite creates a permanent bond - not just physical, but spiritual. Our saliva contains compounds that alter our mate’s DNA, strengthening and enhancing them.” His fingers traced my neck where the bite would go. “The changes are permanent - increased strength, faster healing, enhanced senses. It’s how we protect what’s ours.”
“And it would stop what’s happening to me?”
“I suspect the altered DNA would override the Consortium’s modifications. We need to try it. Try everything.” He trailed off, frustrated.
“The claiming bite isn’t just a matter of biology,” Dr. Gondon interrupted, still focused on her screens. “The recovery period requires deep sleep. Complete neural shutdown while the changes stabilize.”
“No.” The word came out harder than I intended. “I won’t do it.”
His face shut down. “I understand.”
“That’s not what I meant.” I reached for his hand, but he pulled back.
“You don’t need to explain.”
“Yes, I do, you stubborn-” I threw my hands in the air, not really caring if it made me look like a petulant five-year-old.
“This isn’t the time for me to be taking a long nap.” I met Tyrix’s eyes, willing him to understand. “Not with everything that’s happening. Not when we’re so close.”
The muscle in his jaw jumped. “Your life matters more than-”
“Than stopping them from doing this to others?” I gestured at the screens showing my deteriorating cellular structure. “Than saving the children they’re experimenting on?”
“Yes.” The raw honesty in his voice stole my breath. “To me, yes.”
“I might have another solution.” Dr. Gondon finally looked up from her work. “But we’ll need to get into the main environmental systems.”
“Why?” Tyrix asked.
“Ever since I realized what the Consortium was doing with my research, I’ve been working on an aerosol-based countermeasure.” She pulled up new diagrams on her screens. “Something to neutralize the changes before they reach this stage. But I need a way to distribute it through the whole station.”
“The environmental controls.” I straightened, mind already racing through access routes. “We’d need to reach the primary circulation hub.”
“Yes. And we’ll need to synthesize the final compound.” She hesitated. “Which means getting into their main lab.”
“You have a way in?” Tyrix asked.
“Better.” She held up the medical core we’d recovered from Jevik. “I have their security codes.”
I started to respond, but another wave of dizziness hit. I steadied myself against the exam table, trying to hide how badly my hands shook.
“We should rest first.” Tyrix’s hand settled warm against my back. “Plan our approach.”
Dr. Gondon nodded. “The crew quarters two levels down are still habitable. I’ll need time to analyze these files anyway.” She fixed me with a stern look. “Try to sleep. It might slow the deterioration.”
The quarters showed signs of hasty evacuation - personal items still scattered across surfaces, half-empty cups of long-evaporated coffee. But the bed was clean, and the environmental seals still held.
I sank onto the edge of the mattress, suddenly exhausted. “Tyrix...”
“Don’t.” He stayed by the door, arms crossed. “You made your choice clear.”
“Would you just listen?” I patted the space beside me. After a long moment, he came to sit, careful not to touch me.
“I’m not rejecting you.” I reached for his hand, and this time he let me take it. “I’m not rejecting the bite. I just... I need to finish this first. I need to know we stopped them.”
He was quiet for a long moment, thumb circling my palm. “And if you don’t survive that long?”
“Then at least I died trying to protect others.” I squeezed his fingers. “Isn’t that what warriors are supposed to do?”
He made a sound between a laugh and a growl. “You’re impossible.”
“Part of my charm.” I tried to smile, but another tremor hit. His arms came around me instantly, pulling me against his chest.
“I can’t lose you.” His lips brushed my temple. “Not when I’ve just found you.”
I turned my face up to his, and his mouth met mine with desperate hunger. His fangs scraped my lower lip, sending heat pooling in my belly despite my exhaustion.
“Let me take care of you,” he murmured against my throat. “Let me claim you. Make you mine.”
His teeth grazed the spot where neck met shoulder, and my whole body shuddered. “Tyrix...”
“I can feel how much you want it.” His tongue traced the same path. “How much you want me to mark you, change you.” His hand slid under my shirt, splaying across my ribs. “Make you stronger. Faster. Mine.”
I arched into his touch, breath coming faster. “Please...”
His lips trailed fire down my neck. “,” he breathed, hands finding the hem of my shirt. He peeled it from my body with agonizing slowness, leaving me shivering in the cool cabin air.
Tyrix’s gaze darkened as he took in my bare skin. He cupped my breasts through my bra, thumbs circling until I gasped, arching into his touch.
“You are exquisite,” he murmured, reaching behind me to unclasp my bra. The garment fell away, and his mouth replaced his hands, tongue teasing each nipple until I was writhing beneath him. “My perfect, beautiful mate.”
“Tyrix, please,” I begged, tangling my fingers in his hair, my nails scratching at the base of his horns.
He shifted, hand skimming down my stomach to undo my pants. I lifted my hips, eager to be free of the last barriers between us. His fingers found my center, already slick with desire.
“That’s right,” he growled. “You’re so wet for me.”
“Yes,” I moaned.
“You drive me mad,” he growled, the sound sending fresh heat pooling between my legs. He slid two fingers inside me, stretching me perfectly while his thumb circled my clit. I clung to his shoulders as he built a rhythm that had me gasping his name.
“Come for me, ,” he commanded, and I shattered, crying out as waves of pleasure crashed through me. He held me through it, catching me as I floated back to earth.
His chest heaved beneath my palms, the raised patterns of his markings catching my fingernails as I dragged them downward. I pressed my lips to the hollow of his throat, tasting salt and the faint metallic tang unique to his species. “Still think I’m impossible?”
“Infuriatingly so.” His hands flexed against my hips, claws pricking through the fabric of my pants. “, we shouldn’t?—”
I silenced him with teeth against his collarbone, relishing the way his breath hitched. My tongue traced the ridge of a scar earned during our last skirmish with Consortium guards. “You were saying?”
His growl vibrated against my mouth as I worked lower. The contrast of smooth skin and rough battle marks beneath my lips made me linger, cataloging every twitch and suppressed groan. When my teeth grazed the sensitive junction of hip and thigh, his claws shredded the mattress padding.
“Look at you,” I murmured against the straining outline in his pants. The heat radiating through the fabric seared my lips. “All this fuss about claiming bites, and here you are?—”
The rest dissolved into a gasp as I freed him, the thick length springing against my cheek. My thumb swiped the bead of moisture at his tip, spreading it in slow circles. “Still want to argue about who’s protecting whom?”
His answering snarl lacked conviction. “This changes nothing. You still need?—”
The first long lick along his shaft stole his words. I took my time, savoring the way his hips jerked when I hollowed my cheeks around the head. The taste of him—spiced and slightly bitter—flooded my senses as I worked lower, fingers tightening around the base.
“Fuck.” His claws found purchase in the wall paneling, metal screeching. “, if you don’t?—”
I pulled back with a wet pop. “Patience, warrior.” My palm replaced my mouth, stroking in time with the frantic pulse at his throat. “You wanted to claim me? Then let me claim you first.”
His protest died when I swung a leg over his hips. The first brush of him against my entrance drew twin gasps. I hovered there, watching his control fray. “Tell me you want this.”
“Stars damn you?—”
“Say it.”
His hands convulsed on my thighs. “Yes. Now move, or I swear?—”
I sank down in one slow thrust, the stretch burning in the best way. My head fell back as he filled me completely, the ridges along his length dragging against sensitive flesh. “Oh fuck. You feel?—”
“Look at me.” His claws dimpled my skin, forcing my gaze to his. The primal hunger in his eyes sent fresh heat coiling low in my belly. “This doesn’t mean I’ve accepted your recklessness.”
I rolled my hips experimentally, biting my lip at the delicious friction. “Could’ve fooled me.” Another slow lift and drop, his groan harmonizing with the creak of stressed bedframe. “Seems like you’re... ah... thoroughly invested.”
His hips snapped upward, driving him deeper. My nails scored his chest as pleasure sparked along my spine. “Tyrix?—”
“Don’t stop.” His hands guided my rhythm, calluses catching on my skin with every rise and fall. “Let me feel you take what you need.”
The angle shifted, his tip brushing that sweet spot with every thrust. My thighs burned, but the building pressure drowned out the ache. “Close,” I managed, riding him harder. “Don’t you dare?—”
The mattress groaned as Tyrix flipped me onto my stomach, his claws pricking warning trails down my spine. “Still think you’re in control?” His breath scorched the back of my neck while calloused hands spread me open.
“Prove me wrong,” I taunted into the pillow, back arching instinctively when his tongue found new territory. The shock of heat between my thighs made me scramble for purchase, fingers tearing through cheap synth-cotton sheets.
He chuckled darkly, the vibration rippling through me. “Human modesty suits you poorly, mate.” A sharp slap landed on my ass, the sting blooming into warmth that pooled low in my belly. “Better.”
I craned to glare over my shoulder. “Since when do you?—”
The words shattered as he thrust home, the new angle wringing a guttural cry from my throat. His hand fisted in my braids, forcing my head back as he set a brutal pace. “Since you decided to play martyr.” Each punctuation of his hips drove the point deeper. “Since you made me watch you die by inches.”
The raw pain in his voice tangled with the pleasure coiling tighter in my core. I reached back blindly, nails raking down his thigh. “Not... dead... yet...”
“Defiant to the last.” His free hand slid around my throat, not squeezing—just holding. Claiming. “Let go, . For once in your cursed life, let go.”
The orgasm ripped through me like a hull breach, vision whiting out as I choked on his name. He followed moments later with a snarl that shook the emergency lights, teeth sinking into my shoulder just shy of breaking skin.
We collapsed sideways in a tangle of limbs, both gasping like we’d run from airlock to core. His thumb traced the crescent marks my nails left on his forearm. “Still against the bite?”
I rolled to face him, tracing the worry lines around his eyes. “Ask me again when we’re not covered in...” My nose wrinkled at the mingled scents of sweat and sex. “Whatever this is.”
“Charming.” He nipped my jaw. “Up.”
“Tyrix, I need at least five?—”
The protest died as he hauled me upright, back pressed against his chest. His claws dimpled my hips as he guided me onto his lap. “You’ll take what I give you.”
The slow slide onto him stole my breath. “Bastard.”
“Yours.” His teeth found the junction of neck and shoulder as we found a rhythm that made the bulkhead rivets shiver. “Always yours.”
A tremor ran through me—not pleasure this time. My hands spasmed against his thighs, the room tilting sideways.
“Enough.” He stilled instantly, arms locking around my waist. “We’re done.”
I clawed at his forearm. “Don’t you dare stop?—”
“The hell we are.” He lifted me like I weighed nothing, depositing me on the ruined sheets. “You’re shaking.”
“So warm me up.” I reached for him, but he caught my wrists.
“Stubborn, impossible...” His lips brushed mine, softer than I deserved. “I won’t break you faster than the Consortium’s poison.”
The vulnerability in his eyes stole my retort. I pressed our foreheads together, breathing him in—spiced metal and ozone. “One more round?”
His growl vibrated through my bones. “On your back. Slowly.”
“Bossy.”
“You started it.”
“Funny.” I sank into the mattress, legs already parting. “I don’t recall stopping.”
His smirk promised retribution. The kind I’d gladly endure.
His palms pressed mine into the mattress, our fingers interlacing as he shifted us both. The emergency lights cast jagged shadows across his face, highlighting the tension in his jaw. “Look at me,” he demanded, hips pausing just inside me. “Really look.”
I swallowed against the ache of him not moving. “I see you.”
“See this.” He rolled his hips once, shallow, deliberate. “What you do to me.” Another torturous shift, his ridges dragging in a way that made my calves spasm. “What I’d burn worlds to keep.”
“Tyrix—”
His mouth crashed over mine, swallowing my gasp as he sheathed himself fully. The stretch bordered on painful, but his hands cradled my face like something fragile. “Mine,” he growled against my lips. “Even if you’re hellbent on dying. Mine.”
I arched, needing friction. “Prove it.”
His laugh held an edge of desperation. He braced his forearms on either side of my head, horns grazing the pillow as he began a relentless rhythm. No teasing. No games. Just deep, claiming thrusts that stole coherent thought.
The heat built faster than I expected—a supernova behind my ribs. My nails found the twin scars on his back, the ones he’d earned shielding me from shrapnel. “Don’t stop. Don’t you dare?—”
“Come.” His command vibrated through my sternum. “Now.”
The orgasm tore through me with a violence that blurred vision. I barely registered his roar, the way his claws shredded the pillowcase as his hips stuttered. Then the heat—thick and liquid and impossibly alive—pulsing inside me.
I gasped at the sensation, the way each surge seemed to sear its way deeper. “So much... Tyrix...”
“Take it.” His forehead dropped to mine, breath ragged. “Take all of me.”
The overflow came as a slow trickle, warmth sliding down my thighs. His thumb followed the trail, smearing it across my skin. “Mine,” he repeated, softer now. “Even when you’re gone.”
I cupped his face, tasting salt on his cheek. His? Mine? “Still here,” I whispered.
His shudder rocked us both. For a heartbeat, he looked shattered. Then his mouth found the unmarked side of my neck, tongue soothing the spot his fangs would eventually claim. “Stubborn.”
“Yours,” I offered.
The sound he made could’ve been a laugh or a sob. He collapsed beside me, arm slung heavy over my waist. We lay there, sticky and silent, until the environmental systems kicked on with a whine.
The taste of his mouth, the heat of his hands, the promise in his touch - it made everything else fade away. His fangs scraped my throat again, and this time I didn’t pull back.
“I love you,” I whispered against his skin. “That’s why I have to finish this first. So we have a future to share.”
He pulled back just enough to meet my eyes, his markings glowing with emotion. “I love you too.” His forehead pressed to mine. “Which is why I’ll wait. And why I’ll make sure you survive to claim that future.”
A knock at the door made us both freeze.
“I’ve found something.” Dr. Gondon’s voice carried through the metal. “The medical core... there’s more here than we thought. But we need to move quickly.”
I pulled back, trying to steady my breathing. Tyrix’s eyes burned as they met mine, promise and frustration and fear all mixed together.
Soon, I tried to tell him silently. Once this was finished. Once we’d stopped them.
If I survived that long.