Page 11 of Tempted By the Alien Warrior

“I don’t know if I will,” I reply before taking a deep breath and plunging ahead, “But I have a better chance with you. I’m depending on you. You know this planet and you know how to survive it.”

Vrok drops his silver eyes to his bound wrists. His voice is low, almost reluctant. “You’re safer if you face reality. Your cousin is gone.”

His words hit like a blow to the chest, stealing the air from my lungs. For a moment, I can’t speak, can’t think.Gone.That word echoes in my mind like a death knell.

I shake my head and force the words past my lips. “She’s not. You don’t know that.”

His silver eyes lift back to mine, shadowed with something that looks like pity. I want to scream at him. I want to stomp my feet. I don’t need his pity. I just need his help.

Vrok releases a breath through his nose. “I’ve seen what the anuroi leave behind.” His voice is barely above a whisper, almost like he doesn’t want me to hear. “It’s not survivable.”

I shake my head, the lump in my throat threatening to choke me. “Then she’s the exception. Lily is strong. She’s smart. If anyone can survive this damn planet, it’s her.”

Taking another deep breath to push down on the pressure that suddenly seems to be sitting on my chest, I continue, “I can’t live with myself if I don’t try,” I say, the words tumbling out before I can stop them. “I don’t care what the odds are. She’s out there, Vrok, and she’s waiting for me. I can feel it. If you won’t help me, I’ll go alone. But I’m not going to sit here and do nothing.”

The silence between us is suffocating. My pulse pounds in my ears, ticking down the seconds as I wait for his answer. I can see the battle waging behind his cold silver eyes as he studies me. The weight of it settles on my chest, squeezing tightly and making it hard to take a breath.

He’s going to say no.

Of course, he is. Why would he agree? He’s made it clear how he feels about us humans. His sharp tongue and scathing glares have said as much from the start. So, why would he help me?

Still, I can’t stop myself from hoping.

But as the seconds drag into something unbearable, that flicker of hope starts to die. He hasn’t moved. He hasn’t spoken. He hasn’t even blinked. This is it. This is his way of dismissing me.

I’ll have to go alone. Sneak out of the village, disappear into the jungle, and?—

He exhales, long and slow, shaking his head. “Chief Daggir already sent warriors to search the area where she was taken.”

I blink, his words colliding with my racing thoughts. He’s not outright refusing me, but he’s not agreeing either. My stomach twists with frustration.

My hands clench at my sides. “They won’t find her.”

Vrok snorts, shaking his head. “Of course they won’t. She wouldn’t be there any longer.” His voice is laced with disdain, as if the very idea is laughable. “An anuroi wouldn’t waste a meal that large. If it took her, it carried her back to the nesting grounds.”

A chill races down my spine, but I refuse to let his words shake me. “Then that’s where I need to go.”

“You’re reckless,” he mutters. His voice is tinged with exasperation. “Reckless, and stubborn, and completely out of your depth.”

“Maybe.” I lift my chin and grip the straps of my satchel tighter. “But I’m still going.”

For the first time, his expression softens—just a fraction. Then, with a slow, measured exhale, he lifts his hands and presents his wrists to me.

“Release me, little female,” he murmurs. “And let’s see if you’re as brave as you pretend to be.”

4

Vrok

I don’t knowwhat I was thinking when I agreed to go on this dicro-brained mission with the little female. Surely, this will be my undoing. I certainly won’t be able to return to the village after this, but it’s not like there’s anything for me there. Not anymore.

The human is stubborn in a way that borders on infuriating. But that stubbornness might just be the death of her out there in the jungle, and for some reason I still don’t understand, I find myself reluctant to allow her to take that risk alone.

She kneels before me with a knife that looks like an eating utensil. Her hands tremble slightly and her movements are stiff as she works the blade into the rusted lock securing the chains around my wrists. Her grip is wrong on the hilt, and she keeps twisting the knife at an awkward angle, but her jaw is set with the kind of determination I’m more accustomed to seeing on warriors in the training arena.

The dim moonslight spilling through the window casts shifting shadows over her face, catching on the strands of brighthair escaping from her braid. The color startles me every time I see it. Warm gold, like captured sunlight, so different from the cool silvers and teals of my kind. It doesn’t belong in a place like this, in the dark, in the filth.

And yet, even here, it glows, as if determined to illuminate even the bleakest of corners.

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