Page 59 of Zayrik

I nodded, letting my thumb brush across her pulse point. “Count on it.”

We moved together down the corridor. No longer strangers, pretending this was just survival.

No longer fighting our connection.

Because this time, we weren’t running alone.

This time, we were bonded mates.

Connected in ways that went beyond physical, beyond logical.

And we were fighting together.

Whatever came next, we’d face it as one.

As mates.

As equals.

As partners.

19

Nyla

MY PULSE HADN’T SLOWEDsince the moment Zayrik’s hands had been on my skin. Not since I’d kissed him like he was the only solid thing in the galaxy. Every nerve ending still hummed with awareness, with something that felt bigger than just physical attraction.

We barely finished what we’d started. Barely had time to process what had happened between us. And now? We had company.

Because timing in this galaxy was never on my side.

“Incoming!” Zayrik shouted as we raced to the bridge. His voice carried an edge I hadn’t heard before... protective, fierce.

I dropped into the pilot’s seat, fingers flying across the console. Tried to ignore how my skin still tingled where he’d touched me, how part of me could still feel him. The navigation screen lit up red with pursuit data. Sleek, unmarked, and definitely not friendly.

Just like old times. Except nothing felt the same anymore.

“Nav, give me options,” I snapped, already forcing the engines to climb. Adrenaline mixed with something else. Something that made me hyperaware of Zayrik’s presence behind me.

“The pursuing vessel is Kestrel-class. Pursuit and capture focused. You are currently outclassed by approximately twenty percent.” Nav’s tone could not have been less helpful.

Zayrik took the co-pilot seat without hesitation. His presence beside me felt different now, charged with everything we’d just shared. Everything we’d started. “We can’t outrun them.”

“Don’t need to,” I replied, fighting to keep my voice steady despite how my body responded to his proximity. “We just have to be smarter.”

He caught my eye, and the look we shared was loaded with understanding. With trust that hadn’t been there before. “The nebula.”

I nodded, adjusting our course. The Callian Nebula. A swirling storm of particulate matter and magnetic interference. A smuggler’s nightmare and a pilot’s challenge. Beautiful and deadly, like everything else worth fighting for.

“They’ll follow.”

“They always do.” The ship lurched as a disruptor blast grazed our flank. I bit back a curse, but through whatever connection had formed between us, I felt Zayrik’s tension spike. Felt his instinct to protect warring with his trust in my abilities.

“Zep, harness up!”

A piercing trill answered as he launched toward the console alcove, his worry for me clear in the sound.

“Deflectors at eighty-two percent,” Nav intoned.

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