Chapter 3 Out Of My Control
THREE
OUT OF MY CONTROL
Julia
His hand loosens the moment both of mine grab his wrist. Sliding from the wall, I release him and hurriedly back away, deeper into the house toward the dining area at the center along the rear wall. He follows me for a couple of steps before pausing midway.
I quickly lift the neck of my shirt and hang it off my nose. I don’t want to chance smelling his pheromones and based on how unhappy he appears and the distance he’s allowing between us, he doesn’t want that either.
“What was that?” I gasp, still feeling his hand on my neck.
“I didn’t know you could come and go as you please.
” I cross my arms tightly. Poised by the long, gray-slated dining table at the back of the room, I brace for his anger.
He shakes out his hand like touching me had bothered him.
Afterwards, he shifts slightly closer until he’s between me and the front windows of the house, clearly trying to shield me from the prying eyes of others.
“Zaku trustssss me,” Krellix hisses, checking me out. “He knows who is worthy of it. He knows if something were to happen to him, I would do everything to keep his family safe.”
My lips twitch, knowing full well I’m not a part of Zaku and Daisy’s family, and therefore not included in his protection. I hate how his words make my chest tighten. I love Daisy and her little boys. “I would do everything to protect them as well.”
Yet, I don’t have the door’s code.
Not like it matters as until today, I hadn’t planned on wandering outside for any real reason.
But still…
I glance around his large, serpentine form to see if we were indeed being watched but only find the deepening shadows cast by the trees as the sun sets behind them. There are no glinting eyes in the darkness. No one is around to offer me protection against him. We’re alone.
We haven’t been alone since that day he found me with my hurt ankle.
My gaze slides back to Krellix. “I understand he’s trying to keep everyone safe and I can’t fault him for that. I’m just surprised he trusts anyone at all with that information. Why are you here?”
He obviously didn’t show up for me like the others had.
Remaining stiffly by the dining table, I watch him carefully, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble. Thankfully, he stays in the middle of the room.
Oddly, unlike the other nagas, I feel… safer in his presence, far safer than I’d feel with any other naga outside Zaku. Even so, I’m not taking any chances.
It’s been six months since we were last alone.
After I missed getting to the ship in time, and with my ankle being hurt, I had limited mobility.
Trying to decide what to do then, he appeared, having gone out in search of me.
My breath left me upon his arrival, hanging on a sound that never escaped my lips.
His golden gaze and handsome face took me in, his enchantingly warm eyes landing on the hands gripping my foot.
I can’t remember if it was fear or relief I felt at his appearance. At least I knew him. He wasn’t someone new to me. He’d helped Azsote earlier upon getting us all to Zaku’s.
Krellix carried me halfway up the mountain and back to his friend’s home.
At the time, I’d been so nervous that he was going to kidnap me, that I’d get a whiff of his scent, or that his kindness was an act, yet he insisted I keep the collar of my shirt over my nose, and scoffed at my fearful paranoia.
He didn’t have to say it but it became clear that he didn’t want me.
At least he didn’t want to be accidentally mated to me.
Unlike every other unmated naga on this planet, the one who’d be perfect to take me away from here didn’t seem to want anything to do with me—which was what makes him a perfect choice to begin with.
I eye his coiling tail slowly moving under him.
My gaze shifts upward and his narrow eyes consider me.
“I am here to speak to Zaku,” he says, his expression marred with suspicion.
He takes in my oversized nightshirt and baggy sweatpants.
“What were you doing with those other malessss at the window? Are you not aware it can break with enough force?”
I hesitate, unsure if telling him my plan would result in him stopping me from executing it.
It’s why I haven’t told anyone anything.
I lick my lips, trying not to let my gaze drop to his chest or lower.
But it’s hard when his body is so appealing.
Krellix is ripped, and even despite my paranoia, I can’t help noticing.
The nagas can be so distracting in their almost nudity.
“I’m doing exactly what Zaku wanted from the very beginning,” I argue.
“I’m leaving and…” I glance into the growing darkness outside.
“I was trying to decide who I was going to leave with. Who I could trust. Who would respect my boundaries?” Krellix, if anything, has proven that not all naga males are woman-nappers and completely irrational.
He frowns.
I grimace in response, my heart dropping lower, not sure if he’ll stop me now that he knows what I was trying to do.
Still, as I continue adjusting to his abrupt appearance—and being inside the house with me—I can’t help thinking how unfair how attractive he is.
Especially now after seeing so many other male nagas up close.
Krellix is and has been one of the most beautiful beings I’ve ever laid my eyes upon.
While with his long, golden hair with hints of bronze and brown, it’s silky and wavy.
His hair sprouts thickly, lusciously, from his head to drape over his broad shoulders, tumbling down his back in loose waves.
The hair around his ears and brow has been slicked back, accentuating his defined jaw line and perfectly symmetrical features.
Some of it’s uneven on the right side, which is new from the last time I saw him. It looks like he tried to cut it but it appears choppy, slightly uneven.
Even in the growing darkness, I can see the color of his eyes glint in the airy blue light left over from the sun’s descent.
His irises are a light brown to match the rest of him, his brows a shade darker, arching above.
They soften his expression rather than add to the sleek structure of his symmetrical features.
Brown, beige, and gold patterning starts from the back of his neck and travels down the long length of his tail.
Bands of darker brown patterning are interspersed throughout, leading all the way to his tailtip, eventually merging with his gilded skin tone and scales.
Which… as my gaze roams over his tail shifting out from under him, I realize he’s making a barrier between me and the rest of the house.
With the table at my back, the kitchen to my right, and the hallway ahead and to the left where my room is, he’s got me trapped.
I should be more alarmed but my gaze lingers on his features and the unique patterning along his tail.
Large, dark brown spots line the frontside of it, slowly tapering to smaller spots up the triangle of his hip bones.
The arrow-like sharpness of his pelvis leads my eyes down his frontside where I don’t want them to go.
His stomach tenses under my gaze and my eyes snap back to his face. They’re still narrowed on me, frustration now bleeding out from them.
Handsome and kind, that’s how the other women describe Krellix, but despite the soft illusion his brows give his face, there isn’t a fleck of kindness in them for me at the moment.
“And if none of them do?” His surly gaze bears down on me.
“Then… I will head out on my own. You know my options are limited. I don’t want to be some male’s broodmare and I can’t stay here anymore…” The large Boa comes to mind.
Krellix’s chin lifts with an incredulous expression. “Leave? You will be caught within minutes. Males, apparently, from all over have journeyed here, either to try and get a look at the children or for you—
I throw up my hands. “Which is clearly why I can’t stay—”
“—numerous, musky, heated scents plague the forest for miles in every direction. Males ready to mate, ready to claim. Many of these scents I have not smelled in seasons, some of which I have never smelled at all. It is disorientating.”
Great. “Exactly,” I huff, crossing my arms once again, harder this time. “There are more here than when you were here last time. It seems word has gotten out…” I trail off, sighing, suddenly tired.
His tail coils under him, untrapping me thankfully, and his face softens. “Zaku will not force you out, no matter what he threatens. Daisy likes you. He would not risk upsetting her.”
“So now I should stay put?” I uncross my arms. “And Zaku absolutely will force me to leave. He may have held off this long, but, like you said, there are nagas all over the mountain, most of which are after me. I’m a threat to everything he holds dear and that threat grows more everyday.”
“You still have not fully answered my question, female,” he growls.
I frown. “What question?”
“Why were you at the window with those other males? What has set this off?” He slides forward and I stand my ground. “I thought you did not want a mate.” Now only a mere feet away from each other, he towers over me. “Hassss that changed?” His head tilts.
“Zaku. The nagas,” I answer. “I thought that was obvious and I already told you I can’t stay.”
“Obvious? You have refused a protector up until now. Unless you have suddenly changed your mind, which it does not seem so, you have no reason to rile a group of desperate males. Unless you had hoped they would kill each other off for you, in which, I will not stop you next time. If that is not the case, choosing a male now, and like this, would only throw Zaku’s protection back in his face. ”
I guffaw. The audacity. “Every choice has been made for me the moment I stepped foot on this planet. I don’t want a mate, Krellix, but refusing to weigh every option would be idiotic. I’m not going to do something stupid just so Zaku’s feelings don’t get hurt.”
He hisses after a long moment and leans upward, slightly into me. “As much as I would like you gone and safe elsewhere, somewhere you are not plagued with other malessss, you would be better off remaining here.”
“I’m not just thinking of my wellbeing.” The Boa jumps back into my mind, and I push him out. “I’m thinking of Daisy and the kids.”
Because if I stayed… and they got hurt because of it… If any of them got hurt…
He scowls like he doesn’t believe me. “Are you? Where would you go? That issss if you are not captured and taken to nest immediately upon stepping outside.”
That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer since the remaining crew of the Winged Ransom, my old captors, flew off without me. “Back to my people. What other choice is there?”
His jaw tightens. “Of course. To a soldier’s encampment. To the enemy.”
I recross my arms and hug myself harder, shifting my gaze to the side.
It’s not the best plan but it’s the only one I’ve got if I ever want to leave Earth.
It’s risky, returning to the military, especially after being assumed dead.
They’ll ask questions… interrogate me… wonder how I’ve survived for so long…
“What other choice do I have?” I repeat again with more frustration in my voice.
“It’s better for everyone if I disappear. So let me disappear!”
His tailtip snaps against the floor. “You can stay here where you are safe!”
“But for how much longer? I can’t win here, no matter what I decide.
” I bristle, wondering why he seems annoyed by me viewing the other males when he’s not willing to do anything in regards to my predicament.
“Also, you’re not being fair. There are good people in the military as much as there are bad.
Since being here, I’ve been told countless times how dangerous you and your kind are.
Rapists, murderers, woman-nappers. So why do you care?
If you hadn’t interrupted when you did, I might have found a protector among the males gathered.
Then I’d be out of all of your lives for good,” I snap.
“That was what I was doing.” I hate that I can feel my cheeks heating at his nearness and, in a rush, I lift more of my nightshirt over my nose.
His frustrated eyes trail up and down my body once more, temporarily pausing at the small amount of stomach now visible from lifting my shirt. Tension ripples from his stiff stance, his tail taut, the tip raised, ready to strike.
“If what you say is true. How are you going to convince your protector to just let you go?”
I’m planning to escape them before that time comes but I don’t tell him that.
He’d just have more ammunition to add as to why I should stay.
But the way his gaze holds mine like he’s imagining what I’d do to get home, makes my throat tighten with embarrassment, and makes me temporarily reassess my limits.
What would I do to be free of this place, away from those I don’t want coming to harm, and to be back somewhere where I’m not a burden?
His question is not something I want to address, not with him, Zaku, Daisy, anyone. It’s something I only wanted to approach if I found the right male, and only after trying to barter for safe passage. What would I do if it meant getting home and ensuring Daisy and her children’s continued safety?
My lips flatten and my arms uncross to drop to my sides. “Krellix, if I could barter my way out of this situation, I would give him whatever he wanted. Anything except my freedom.”