Page 60 of Owned By the Hvrok

He didn’t want to lose his precious human. Not now, not ever. With the destruction of Vokar, he’d lost everything that was familiar to him in an instant. His entire world.

Shewas something else. A promise of something beyond. Tenderness and warmth, in a universe where almost everything was cold, hard, and vicious.

He’d known honor. He’d known discipline. He’d even known affection and camaraderie—before he’d become Iskari.

But he’d never known anything likeher.

Maybe the crash had affected his judgment. Normally, he would be cold and logical.

But he was alone now, and if this was somehow wrong, he no longer cared.

He could feel her slowly relaxing against him, the tension flowing out of her limbs. Bit by bit. Slower.Better.

That’s it. Rest, little one. I won’t harm you.

She was his, yes, and that meant he had a responsibility to keep her healthy and safe, even in the harshest of conditions.

So he did the only thing he could.

He held her.

Let her body rest against his, wrapped in golden fur, as her heartbeat gradually aligned with his.

But he kept the helm in place… for now.

CHAPTER 32

The alien held her until the shivering stopped completely.

Until her muscles, clenched for what felt like hours, finally relaxed. Until the cold stopped biting at her skin, until the chill left her fingers, her toes. Until she was warm again—toasty, even—from the top of her head right down to her bones.

He washot.

Not just warm, but radiating heat like a furnace. Like something carved from flesh and fire. She could feel it through the fur coat, through the thin fabric of her dress. The heat pulsed off him in steady waves. He was a living heat source made of muscle and silence and unfathomable strength.

She dared a glance.

Just apeek.

His armor was still retracted, and in the soft orange cockpit light, she saw him—trulysaw him—for the first time.

He was broad.

Impossiblybroad.

His chest was massive, his pectorals sculpted and defined in a way that seemed almost unreal. His shoulders were wide,deltoids thick and powerful. His arms—god, his arms—were corded with muscle, biceps and forearms so large they looked like they’d been carved from solid stone. Smooth deep-blue skin, like dusk incarnate, shimmered faintly under the light. There was a sheen to it, like oil or silk.

Alien.

Perfect.

And his scent?—

She caught it when she inhaled, eyes fluttering closed for a moment.

Spicy. Warm. Earthy. Undeniablymale.

It curled around her like a drug, subtle and strange and deeply, maddeningly comforting.

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