Chapter 2 #2
I went still. Was a Kaluma in trouble? But varins weren’t a threat to us.
We could easily blank to camouflage ourselves, and varins weren’t smart enough to detect our bodies.
They hunted by sight and sound alone. But then another crack, followed by an agonized yell, ignited all my instincts.
As a healer, I responded to pain. To hurt.
Blanking myself, I set off on a run toward the noise.
I knew this area well, so I dodged trees and other foliage easily as my feet pounded the ground.
When I entered a clearing, I skidded to a halt. Because what was in front of me was nearly impossible to believe.
Smoke rose from a large silver orb that sat in a blackened crater, as if it had crashed there.
The ground was teeming with varins, all snapping at a pale figure who flailed fists and feet in a defensive posture that wouldn’t last long.
The two-armed, two-legged upright figure wasn’t moving right—clearly injured—and was covered in a rusty red that smelled like blood.
And if I wasn’t mistaken…it smelled a whole lot like human blood. Was this another human female?
I crept closer as the varins closed in. One lashed out a front claw and swiped the figure’s feet out from under her.
She crashed to the ground on her back with a frustrated grunt.
As a varins readied to finish her off with its beak, I entered the fray.
With blade in hand, I leaped on top of the pod, the heated surface nearly burning my feet, and then directly onto the varins back.
I sliced at its neck, and the head fell into the ground.
Blood sprayed into the air, and the other varins, sensing the danger, sent out warning cries.
They took to the skies, big wings blotting out the sun for a moment until the clearing was quiet save for the panting breaths of the figure on the ground.
I climbed off the dead body of the varins and approached the naked figure. Two bloodied feet. Legs marred with blood and gashes. My gaze traveled up the female until—
I nearly swallowed my tongue. The figure groaning on the ground was not a human female.
At least, not like the human females back at the settlement.
This human had a cock, which hung soft against its thigh.
His muscled chest heaved with each breath, and blood spurted generously from a hole in his side which he held with one hand.
His neck strained, and a pair of brown eyes darted wildly. I let my scales click back into place so he could see me. He jerked when I appeared in front of him, and the flush drained from his pale skin.
“What the—what the fuck?” he whispered before his eyes rolled into his head, and he went limp.
Ethan
She entered the room on a breeze that smelled like sweet syrup.
Her skirt swirled around her long legs as the privacy vines of our vinus closed behind her.
Laying on the bed, I folded my arms behind my head and enjoyed the view of my Goldie walking toward me with a smile on her face that immediately made me hard.
Goldie always got me with one look. One touch. I couldn’t get enough of her.
“Sleeping in?” She placed a knee to the bed and bent down to press a kiss to my lips. When I tried to pull her down on top of me, she laughed and wiggled out of my grasp. “Come on, Bosa is asking for you.”
I groaned. “Tell Bosa to fuck off. I have a bruise the size of Texas on my thigh.”
“What’s a Texas?” Her eyes shimmered. She loved when I spouted new words that her implant didn’t translate.
“It’s a state where everything is big,” I grumbled. “Like my bruise.”
“Bosa said you’re strong for a ‘little thing.’”
“Little?” I sat up with an indignant huff. “I’m not a little human, Goldie. I’m over six feet tall—”
“Zuri says human males always add a few inches.” She sassed back.
“Quit hanging out with Zuri,” I grunted. That woman never failed to remind me that her mate could crush me with two fingers.
Goldie grinned and placed her palm flat on my chest, right over my heart. “I like when you get flustered.”
Her touch. Her smile. And just like that, I forgot about the bruise on my thigh and the other one on my ego.
I didn’t give a fuck that every other male here was nearly twice my size.
Because I had Goldie, and she was all I needed.
I drew her against me, loving the way her full breasts felt on my chest, and the slick feel of the golden scales on her back. “I like you all the time, Goldie.”
Her big blue eyes met mine, and suddenly her expression changed. Concern bled into her irises and her gentle grip tightened on me. “Trust me, Ethan.”
I blinked. “I do.”
“No,” she shook her head, white hair catching on my lips. “Trust me.” Her nails bit into my skin, drawing blood. I smelled the iron tang in the air, and I gritted my teeth at the pain. “Goldie, of course, I—”
The walls of our vinus blew inward with a wicked whip of wind. I lost my grip on Goldie as she flew from my arms. I screamed her name. And all I heard on the wind was, “Trust me.”
I woke with a coughing fit, and every spasm sent searing pain across my rib cage.
Between the pain and my coughs, I couldn’t catch my breath.
I opened my eyes, seeking some sort of relief, and found myself staring at the top of a head of silver-white hair.
The figure lifted their head, and I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.
This was Goldie, the face from my dreams, but in my dream I’d known her, somehow.
She’d been as familiar as family. But in reality, she was alien.
Her big blue eyes were nearly double the size of mine, and they glowed almost neon.
While she had two legs and two arms like me, she was covered in bronze scales instead of human skin.
Her proportions were human-like but also not human.
She wore a band of white fabric across her full breasts and a skirt with a slit up to her thigh.
She was barefoot, her feet large with thick soles.
A pendant made of an iridescent white stone in a swirl pattern hung from a necklace on her chest.
Her fingers were long and tipped with long claw-like nails. And her teeth were pointed and sharp. Her jaw worked as she chewed something, and then she withdrew a slick wad from her mouth. I felt a dull throb of pain and glanced down to see her packing a wound in my side with her chewed paste.
I tried to slide away from her, and her head shot up, eyes widening to a nearly impossible size. She placed a hand on my shoulder as if to steady me. And fuck, even her touch reminded me of my dream. What the hell was that about?