Page 31 of Pursued By the Dragon Alien

Razion grinned, remembering his wild, raucous childhood. “The raiders were good to me. Treated me like family and trained me in their ways. They gave me purpose. And when I learned what had been done to my home, I went my own way and got my own ship and crew. I took that purpose and turned it against the Axis.” His voice was low, steady, but there was no mistaking the edge beneath it. “I made it my mission to unravel them from the inside out. Every raid, every stolen credit, every ship we salvage—it’s all to undercut their power.”

Lilas’ fuchsia eyes searched his face, like she was deciphering some hidden meaning beneath his words. “And your brothers?” she asked. “You never tried to find them?”

Razion exhaled, his fingers flexing slightly on her waist before he pulled back. He shouldn’t touch her like this. Not when his blood still ran hot. Not when the past was creeping up on him with sharp teeth.

Instead, he rested his hand on his belt, looking toward the far end of the cargo hold where the final containers were being moved out. “The raiders warned me not to go looking.” He let out a humorless chuckle. “Told me the brothers I would have had were gone. That they had been raised as loyal warriors ofthe Axis, and that if I ever found them, they wouldn’t see me as family.” His jaw tightened. “They would see me as an enemy.”

Lilas’ expression shifted. Something close to understanding flickered behind her sharp gaze. Maybe because she knew exactly what it was like to have your own life dictated by forces outside your control. To be told who you were. Who you were supposed to be.

“That’s why you’ve been doing this,” she said. “Why you’ve spent your life cutting down the Axis bit by bit.”

Razion nodded once. “I couldn’t save Zarux. I couldn’t save my brothers.” His voice was rough. “But I can make the Axis pay.”

Lilas watched him, her arms folding over her chest like she was holding back words. Then, quietly, she asked, “And if your brothers are no longer under Axis control? What then?”

Razion’s throat went tight. That was the question, wasn’t it? The one that would haunt him, now, every time he closed his eyes. If his brothers were alive—if they had spent their lives under the rule of the very people he had spent his life fighting—and had turned against the Axis? What would he do when and if they met?

Razion flexed his hands, the tension in his shoulders tightening like coiled wire. “I don’t know,” he admitted. The words tasted bitter on his tongue. “But I’ll find out.”

Lilas studied him with something he couldn’t quite name. It wasn’t pity, and he was grateful for that.

For a long moment, they just stood there. The hum of the ship’s systems and the distant voices of the crew filled the silence between them. Then she exhaled slowly, crossing her arms. “So,” she said, tilting her head. “You think Hurik’s right? That your brothers are these dragon-shifting Zaruxians?”

Razion met her gaze. “If they are, then they’ve already started what I’ve spent my life trying to do.”

Something flickered in Lilas’ expression. “Undermining the Axis.”

He nodded. “And if that’s true…” His wings tensed, the old instinct to shield, to defend, pressing against his spine. “Then I need to find them before the Axis does.”

Lilas was silent for a beat, then—so quiet he almost didn’t hear her—she said, “And I need to find my friends.”

Razion inhaled slowly. “Then I guess we have the same goal.”

A slow, determined smile pulled at Lilas’ lips. “Looks like it.”

Razion didn’t know what lay ahead, what truths they’d dig up, or what dangers they’d be walking into. But as he looked at Lilas, standing there with that fire in her eyes, he knew one thing for certain.

No matter what they found, neither of them would face it alone.

Razion exhaled sharply, his pulse hammering from the weight of what they had uncovered. He reached out instinctively. His fingers brushed the back of Lilas’ hand just as she was reaching for his. She tensed for half a breath, then turned her palm to his, their fingers sliding together in a slow, deliberate movement.

“You’re trembling,” he murmured, his thumb tracing small circles against her skin.

Her fuchsia eyes met his, bright with something raw, something unguarded. “So are you,” she whispered.

She wasn’t wrong. His pulse had been hammering since they left Hurik. A restless fire burned through him—not just from the revelation about Zaruxians and Terians, but from her. From the way her fingers curled against his, anchoring him in a way nothing else ever had.

She was looking at him like she knew exactly what he was thinking. Like she carried the same heat he did. Like the sameneed hummed beneath her skin.Fek. He wasn’t sure if he had the strength to ignore it this time.

Lilas exhaled slowly, glancing down at their joined hands before tilting her head. “I’m done talking about this right now,” she said, her voice steady but quiet. “In fact, I’m done talking, period.”

Razion’s chest tightened as he absorbed her meaning, as the heavy implication of what she said settled between them.

Her fingers tightened in his. “Take me to your room.”

A slow, dangerous pulse of heat rolled through him, stealing his breath. He searched her face, looking for hesitation, for uncertainty. There was none. There was only resolve, mirrored desire, and something softer beneath it—something hesitant, like she wasn’t sure how to ask for this but was asking anyway.

His control, already frayed from the time he spent trying to distance himself from her, snapped. He tugged her closer, until there was barely any space between them, until he could feel the warmth radiating from her skin. “If we go there,” he said, voice rough. Never before had he known such a powerful wave of possession and desire. “I will have you. Your body will be mine.Youwill be mine.”

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