Page 81 of Zayrik

Protective.

Possessive.

I could still feel the echo of her hands, the heat of her mouth, the frantic need that had driven us together like we were trying to outrun the entire flutzing galaxy.

And beneath all of that, something quieter.

Something more profound.

Trust.

She’d given me the crystal with no fanfare. No speech. Just a look I couldn’t name. Something that had rooted deep in mychest and refused to let go. Something that felt too much like goodbye.

I didn’t ask why.

Didn’t need to.

Because I already knew.

She was preparing for something.

Something she hadn’t told me yet.

Something that made her kiss me like she was trying to etch me into memory.

My fingers brushed her hair back from her face, slow and careful, like I was afraid she’d vanish if I woke her. Like touching her might break this moment of peace before whatever storm she saw coming.

She didn’t stir. Just breathed softly, her lashes resting against her cheeks, her body relaxed in a way I’d rarely seen. The warrior in her finally at rest, if only for these few precious moments.

That alone should’ve told me how exhausted she was.

How much she’d been carrying.

How long she’d been running.

And now it was in my hands.

The crystal.

Her trust.

Her.

Everything she’d fought to protect.

I stared at the ceiling for a long moment, the hum of the station barely audible through the ship’s bulkheads. My activated mating marks pulsed steadily, responding to her proximity, to the way she fit against me like she belonged there.

We were safe. For now.

But safety was an illusion we couldn’t afford to believe in.

Because I knew what came next.

Could feel it building like pressure before a storm.

We were getting close. Too close. Vask wouldn’t let this go.

Wouldn’t let her go.

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