Chapter 10 #2
The cool cavern air hits the raw, starfield skin of my forearm for the first time. The contrast is shocking. The scattered pinpoints of bright starlight beneath the dark patches shift and glow.
Eh-ree-kah stares down at my star-fractured skin.
Her face does not register a single trace of fear or disgust. Her dark brows pull together in a sharp V. A brief flicker of wonder flashes across her eyes, but she smothers it beneath a hesitant squeeze of my bicep.
“How long have you been hiding the transformation?” she demands, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper.
I lean forward, capturing her stubborn stare, and press my forehead firmly back against hers to rebuild the mental bridge. “Two sols.”
Her eyes widen a fraction as she connects the timeline, before she instantly shutters her expression. But the mindspace is not like a door you can quickly close. I catch her thoughts anyway.
She drops the hide strip onto the furs and points a pale finger directly at the center of my chest, her glare fierce despite how close we are. “You’re an idiot.”
“You’re in excruciating pain,” she continues, leaning into the contact. “You’ve been hiding it because you think your people can’t see their leader struggle. Haven’t you? You think you have to be invincible.”
I close my eyes against her furious dark stare. The urge to wrap my hand around the back of her neck and drag her flush against my chest again is swiftly becoming an unbearable ache.
“I am the dra-dam,” I project across the link. It is a dark vibration of absolute fact.
“That’s not strength, Kol,” she snaps right back, her chin lifting defiantly and brushing my nose. “That’s stubbornness. It’s stupid. Your body is falling apart.”
Her breath abruptly hitches against my skin. Across the mental bridge, the sharp, bright spark of her anger suddenly drains away, replaced by a breathless dismay. She shifts her weight, her fingertips lightly brushing the jagged spread of starfield skin radiating heat into the cool cavern air.
“Is it...” she asks hesitantly, her voice dropping to a trembling whisper. “Are you in pain because of me?”
I open my eyes. Her dark ones are searching. I slide my hand up to cup the side of her neck, my thumb resting over the jumping flutter of her dra-kir beat. The possessive rumble of my purr vibrates directly against her chest.
“Not because of you,” I project into her mind, the dark, absolute weight of the truth sinking seamlessly into her bones. “For you.”
Her dark eyes widen. The rigid line of her jaw goes slack. Her dra-kir spikes against the side of my thumb.
She does not pull away. She leans into my space. Her small hand slides up to my jaw before trailing down my neck to press flat against the center of my chest. Her palm burns directly over the thudding of my dra-kir.
She exhales a short, uneven breath that hits my throat.
The next tremor hits without warning.
A seizing heat rips horizontally through my right side. The muscles along my ribs lock so hard I lose my vision momentarily.
A harsh, grating sound tears out of my throat. I drop forward, burying my face into the curve of her neck. My towering frame forces her backward, pinning her spine flat against the furs.
She does not scramble away. She does not panic.
Her arms wrap tightly around my broad shoulders. Her small hands grip the tense, knotted muscles of my back, anchoring her weight against the rigid shuddering of my frame. Her breath is a hot, steady whisper against my ear.
The pain is blinding, a furious, tearing heat reshaping my nerve endings and muscle fiber to perfectly accommodate the fragile human female currently holding my weight.
But beneath the agony, that deep, building ache between my hips surges back. The same foreign throb I woke to after the dream. It has no name in my language. It has no precedent in my body. But it is there, undeniable, pounding in time with each beat of my dra-kir.
Her soft thighs part slightly, trapping my rigid hip between them as I shudder against her. The friction of our bodies pressing together sends an electric shock straight to my groin.
A deep, chest-rattling purr erupts from my throat, vibrating fiercely against her collarbone.
She gasps, her spine arching up off the stone ledge, pressing her hips tighter against the hard ridge of my upper thigh.
Every instinct in my blood screams at me to slide my hand down her spine, grip the back of her thighs, and force myself flush against the cradle of her hips until this agonizing need is satisfied.
The scent of her is rich, dark, and spiking with something sweeter that was there when I pinned her to the mapping stone.
My claw spans the entire width of her narrow waist. I grip her hips, my fingers sheathing to dig into the soft curve of her body.
I drag my open mouth along her collarbone, my sharp teeth scraping lightly against her delicate skin.
A soft, frantic whimper escapes her lips.
The sound hits my mind like the exact frequency I have been desperate to hear.
The pain in my arm suddenly peaks. A flare of heat that locks every muscle in my body before abruptly shattering.
I am lying fully over her. My face is buried in her neck, my hand gripping her hip, my purr vibrating into her bones. Her chest heaves with rapid, uneven breaths beneath me.
“Mine,” the feral instinct whispers into the silent mindspace.
I cannot take her now. Not when I am not yet fully transformed, and she is still recovering from the brutal planetary adaptation fire. I will not hurt her.
I force myself to loosen my crushing grip on her hips. It is the hardest physical act I have ever performed. I slowly push myself up, lifting my immense weight off her soft body.
She stares up at me, her lips are parted, her dark-brown eyes wide and incredibly deep.
I reach down and gently brush a stray curl away from her cheek with the back of one long, starlight-fractured digit.
The heat of the starfield skin pulses warmly against her face. I am not hiding it anymore.
She was right. Concealment is not strength.
I grab the knotted end of the rough hide strips resting on the ledge and drop the dark leather onto the floor. My arms are a brilliant, terrifying mosaic of bronze, deep black, and pulsing starlight.
The heat surging through them is a warning. The transformation is already spreading toward my chest. I have only sols before it paralyzes my frame. If Lucek is near when I fall, she will be unprotected. I must secure the perimeter now, while I still can.
I slide off the ledge, my feet hitting the stone floor without a sound.
I reach down, my hands framing her face. I press my forehead firmly against hers.
“I must secure the clan. Stay,” I project the commanding thought directly into the quiet mindspace between us.
I turn and walk deliberately out of the alcove alone, leaving her behind on the furs, my arms bare.
I step through the eastern tunnel and emerge into the bright light of the main cavern.
The cavern instantly goes dead still.
Warriors halt mid-stride. The drop of a spear hitting the stone floor echoes loudly. Some of the females gasp, murmuring among themselves.
“Oh my God,” Pah-m whispers loudly from the water basins.
I stand tall in the center of the cavern, the starfield skin pulsing with brilliant pinpoints of light.
“I am the dra-dam. Still,” I project cleanly across the wide, silent mindspace, my dark thought rolling like a rockslide off the stone walls.
The collective clan response crashes against my mental shields. It is an impenetrable wall of fierce loyalty suddenly roaring up from my warriors. The wave of sheer respect is powerful. Even Zan projects a slow, grudging wave of reluctant acceptance.
I do not care about Zan’s acceptance. I only care about the female who demanded the truth.
I turn my head, lifting my gaze toward the high ledge of my alcove.
Eh-ree-kah is there, peering down at me over the lip of the stone. Her dark curls hang forward. Her eyes are wide, her lips parted, her gaze locked on the raw, pulsing starlight fracturing my bare arms.
The entire cavern is watching me.
I only see her.
The foreign ache in my groin pounds once, so hard my lifeblood surges. My dra-kir slams a single, absolute truth into every corner of my skull.
When the transformation is complete, I will make her mine. And nothing in the dust will stop me.