Page 80 of Owned By the Hvrok

And now she was… here.

On an alien ship. Somewhere on a godforsaken planet. Wrapped in the remnants of wild things, tingling from the aftershocks of being pleasured by something that wasn’t evenhuman.

She swallowed hard.

What the hell was her lifenow?

She sat up slowly, still wrapped in the golden-white furs, the heavy warmth grounding her as her mind caught up with the waking world.

Outside, the view had changed.

The snow no longer drifted lazily across the cockpit window—ithowled. Flurries whipped past in vicious, swirling currents, blotting out the distant peaks she remembered seeing before she'd drifted off. The mountains were cloaked in fog now, their jagged edges softened by snowfall and distance, the air thick with blowing ice.

A full-on storm.

Shit.

She leaned forward, brow furrowing as she tried to peer through the thickening blur beyond the glass.

The wind was screaming now. A constant howl that rattled faintly through the metal bones of the ship. Somewhere beneath the fur, goosebumps prickled over her skin.

She was still alone.

Where is he?

The thought came quietly, instinctively. And… uninvited.

Surely, she wasn’tconcernedfor him?

That goddamn metalhead?

She glanced around the cockpit, expecting, maybe, to find him standing silently in some shadowed corner, watching her with that unreadable stance of his.

But he wasn’t here.

No armor. No footfalls. No presence.

Justabsence.

Treacherous tendrils of worry began to curl through her thoughts.

He was massive. Lethal. Covered in weapons and scars. A walking fortress.

That big, stupid, infuriating metalhead.

Nothing could hurt him, surely.

But even so…

Evenhewasn’t immune to the elements… or whatever else lurked out there on this cursed planet.

She hugged the furs tighter.

Had he gone hunting? To scout? She remembered the holo-display—so many systems flashing frantically, indicating failure.

He had a plan of some sort: she remembered him doing something… sending a communication of some sort.

But what if something had happened?

---