Page 1 of Kazmyr: Molten for Her
CHAPTER 1
JENNA
Smoke clawed down my throat as I burst through the warehouse door, the night air not much cleaner than the inferno behind me. My lungs seized with the same desperate rhythm they had the night my childhood home became a funeral pyre. Fire had found me again. It always did. The warehouse rafters groaned their death song as I stumbled forward, and then the universe split open. Not one but two glowing rifts tore through reality before me, portals pulsing with unnatural light that made my skin prickle with wrongness and recognition all at once.
"Choose wisely, asset." The voice slithered from the right portal, honey-smooth and just as sticky.
I blinked tears from my smoke-stung eyes.
Left portal: a fucking giant with obsidian skin etched in glowing fissures like he'd been broken and mended with molten gold. His eyes burned the same color, twin suns set in a face harsh as carved stone. Curved horns swept back from his temple, reminiscent of cooled lava. Heat rolled off him in visible waves, distorting the air.
Right portal: sleek perfection. Too perfect. An alien with polished blue skin and a smile that promised everything while revealing nothing. Cold, calculating eyes assessed me like merchandise.
"The building will collapse in thirty-seven seconds." The blue alien extended a manicured hand. "I am your designated mate. Come with me, asset."
Asset. Not my name. My grip tightened on the fire extinguisher I'd torn from the wall in my escape.
The molten giant didn't speak. His chest rose and fell in labored rhythm, those golden eyes locked on mine with an intensity that should have terrified me. Instead, something traitorous sparked in my chest, answering his unspoken call.
"Jenna Maple." His voice rumbled like distant thunder, my name emerging as though torn from the depths of his soul. "The flames cannot have you."
Behind me, a support beam crashed through the floor. The warehouse had maybe twenty seconds left.
"Choose," the blue one hissed, his perfect mask slipping to reveal something predatory beneath. "Your status as an asset marks you as prime genetic material. Your human resilience to extreme temperatures makes you ideal for our breeding program."
Breeding program. The words hit like a bucket of ice water.
A low growl emanated from the left portal. The scarred giant's ember marks pulsed brighter, his massive hands clenching into fists. "The Intergalactic Dating Agency found our match. Your signature… your heat, it calls to mine. You are not an asset. You are flame-born. My?—"
He growled something in his native tongue, a sound like rocks tumbling into lava.
The warehouse groaned again. Louder. Final.
My instincts screamed danger from Mr. Perfect and his slick promises, while everything logical said the living volcano would incinerate me on contact. Yet my body leaned toward the scarred one, drawn by something deeper than reason.
Ten seconds, maybe.
Eight.
My fingers found the trigger of the fire extinguisher.
Five.
I sprinted toward the volcanic giant, heart hammering against my ribs, and aimed the extinguisher directly at his face. The white foam erupted just as I hurled myself through the portal, heat searing my skin as I passed through.
Massive arms caught me, hot as a furnace but somehow not burning. My momentum knocked us both backward, his hulking form cushioning my fall onto what felt like smooth stone.
The portal snapped shut with a thunderous crack, cutting off the warehouse's death throes and the blue alien's furious scream.
"Fuck," I wheezed, every inhalation scraping my smoke-damaged throat.
Something smacked onto my neck with a sticky splut. I yelped and slapped at it, only to find a thin square pulsing faint amber.
The giant beneath me rumbled low in his chest—half growl, half laugh—and the sticker buzzed to life. “Translation engaged,” it chirped in a chipper mechanical tone. Then, as if trying too hard: “Mate acquired. Congratulations on your fireproof love sponge.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
The patch gave a defensive beep. “Error. Love bond. Not sponge. Do not attempt to remove by saliva. Licking voids warranty.”
