Page 15 of Taken By the Alien Siren King

“A bond deeper than simple lovers. Rarer.” I reached for her hand, half-expecting her to pull away. When she didn’t, I pressed her palm against my chest, where my heart beat in perfect rhythm with hers. “I hear it in the frequency of your voice, in your heartbeat. It’s the one person in all the seas—or apparently, all the stars—whose very being calls to our own.”

“That’s...” She swallowed hard. “That’s impossible.”

“And yet here we are.” I dipped my head closer to hers, drawn by the pulse at her throat, the scent of her skin. “You are the furthest thing from nothing to me, Emme Mathis.”

CHAPTER SIX

EMME

“Soul song?” I repeated, the words strange in my mouth. My heart hammered against my ribs. “Like... soulmates?”

You are the furthest thing from nothing to me.

The rational, practical part of my brain screamed that Lairos’s declaration was complete nonsense. Some desperate fantasy to justify a convenient attraction. The universe didn’t work like that—there was no cosmic force connecting two souls across galaxies.

I pulled my hand away from his chest, needing space to think. My palm tingled where it had pressed against him, as if my body remembered the contact even as my brain tried to dismiss it.

“That’s not possible,” I said, my mind automatically rejecting what couldn’t be quantified or measured. “We’re not even the same species.”

His eyes tracked me as I paced, making me acutely aware of every movement. “The song doesn’t lie.”

“The song,” I muttered, wrapping my arms around myself to ward off the chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. “Right. The magical, mystical song only you can hear.”

Soulmates. The word itself felt childish in my mind, something from fairy tales and romance novels. Some story whispered about at teenage sleepovers or debated over in three AM dorm room diatribes. Not real life. Notmylife. I dealt in facts, in measurable quantities, in provable theories.

Not… fate.

“Look,” I said, turning to face him. “Even if this soul song thing is real?—”

Lairos prowled closer, cutting off my objections as he stopped inches from me. His hand caught my chin, tilting my face up to his. The pad of his thumb traced my lower lip, and my words died in my throat.

“You can’t hear it,” he murmured, his voice dropping to a register that vibrated through me like a plucked string. “But you can feel it, can’t you? The pull. The need.”

His thumb slipped between my lips, pressing gently against my tongue. The taste of him—salt and citrus and delicious spice—flooded my senses. I should have bitten down. Should have pushed him away. Instead, I found myself sucking lightly, watching his pupils dilate until the forest green of his eyes was nearly swallowed by black.

“Fuck,” he growled, withdrawing his thumb to trace the moisture down my neck. “I’ve wanted to touch you since the moment you walked into my tent.”

“You don’t even know me,” I whispered, but my body betrayed me, arching into his touch as his fingers skimmed along my collarbone.

“I know your song.” His lips replaced his fingers, hot against my throat. “I know how your heart races when I’m near.”

His teeth grazed the sensitive spot where my neck met my shoulder, and a shameful moan escaped me.

The sound seemed to snap something in him. His mouth crashed against mine, stealing my breath, my thoughts, myobjections. Each sweep of his tongue sent sparks of pleasure straight to my core. Those slightly-too-sharp canines caught my bottom lip, and my hands fisted in his hair before I could stop myself.

Heat surged through my body, settling into a molten ache between my thighs. His hands found my waist, fingers digging into the thin linen wrapped around me. I arched into him, needing more contact, more pressure, more of everything he offered.

“Feel that?” he murmured against my lips when we finally broke apart. “That’s just the beginning.”

I forced myself to take a step back. To suck in several breaths, cool my blood, gather my scattered thoughts. Every cell in my body screamed to close the gap again, to press my body against his. But this wasn’t me. I didn’t act impulsively, on instinct, without logical reasoning. Especially not in situations like these.

Lairos watched me silently, clearly giving me space to decide what would happen next. So damn confident that I couldn’t resist him. Asshole.

But heaven help me, I wanted him. Wanted this. Even knowing the repercussions. Even if it meant crossing a line I could never uncross.

“What does this mean for my people?” I asked, clinging to the one anchor I had in this storm of unexpected feelings.

Lairos’s laugh was low and appreciative. “Already using every tool for political advantage. Good. You’ll need that skill when I crown you my queen.”

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