Page 64 of Owned By the Hvrok

But he didn’t.

And then, for the first time, she saw it—reallysaw it. He wasn’t trying to dominate her in this moment. Not trying tomake her submit or punish her or even win. He just… wanted her to eat.

That was it.

For sustenance.

Because they were trapped on a hostile, freezing world. Because her human body wouldn’t survive otherwise. And because, for all his terrifying size and the fact that he could probably tear apart an enemy with his bare hands, he wastrying.

She sighed.

"Fine," she muttered to herself. “You’re trying. I’ll try too."

She pulled the coat tighter around herself and looked at the canister again, suppressing another grimace.

It still smelled like death and despair, but her stomach had started to gnaw at itself in protest.

She needed food.

She’d be an idiot not to take what she could get.

So she raised her hand.

Gestured.

Come on then.

He moved instantly: smooth, quiet, obedient to her signal. That surprised her, too.

She expected him to pass her the canister, or maybe just place it in her lap and step back. But instead, he did something she didn’t anticipate.

Hekneltbeside her.

Right there in front of her, massive and dark and strange, the golden cockpit light catching the faint shimmer of his blue skin and the glint of old scars across his chest, his wings looming like shadows made metal-and-flesh.

Then he reached into the container with a spoon-like utensil: three-pronged, long-handled, functional.

And lifted a portion of the slop toward her.

She blinked.

Stared.

“Are you—” her voice died in her throat.

He was going tofeedher?

Like she was… helpless?

Or…

No.

Not helpless.

Not mocked.

It wasn’t derision she saw in his posture.

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