Page 46 of Coveted

“I can’t—”

Whatever the kid was trying to say broke up in a cough as he doubled over. The bald, pale-yellow scalp explained the lack ofa heat signature, the Ithxan child’s body temperature not much higher than the heat being radiated from the stone around him.

“Water! I need water now!”

The thudding of his own heartbeat downed out the calls of the men behind Vax, but a bottle was quickly pressed into the hand he waved behind him. It was only half full, but even that could make a difference.

The child’s coughing subsided and he straightened, shuffling closer to the slope of rock on his side of the blockage. One hand clutched his throat, but he was pointing back into the tunnel behind him.

“Here,” Vax called, tossing the bottle through the opening.

He didn’t want the boy climbing on the rocks, so he aimed deeper into the tunnel to the side of the small form. The kid scurried after it when it bounced and rolled, snatching it up and putting it to his lips for a large swallow before stopping. His head turned toward the prone form in the darkness beyond the light Vax shone, but he needed it more.

“Drink it all. We’ll get more for him.”

Vax layered alpha command into his tone to be sure the child obeyed. Even if the kid was an alpha himself, he’d still feel the pull to do as the more dominant one ordered.

The bottle tipped up again, the rest of the water disappearing in two swallows. Wiping his mouth on the sleeve of the jumpsuit he wore, the kid dropped the empty container to the side and squinted up at Vax. He opened his mouth to speak, but if he said anything Vax couldn’t hear him.

“We’re going to get you out, but it’s going to take a little time. Are you injured?”

Hesitantly, the boy shook his head and relief rushed through Vax. It wasn’t much reassurance, but even one less worry was a load off his chest.

“How many are with you?”

The scanner only showed the one body, which thankfully didn’t appear to be cooling, but after the child not showing up on it, Vax wasn’t willing to trust the machine. His stomach churned at the thought of what would have happened if they hadn’t heard a response or seen the other heat signature. The child could have been trapped for hours before someone realized he was missing and thought to check the tunnel again.

Vax added finding a way to be sure no one missed the aliens with cool body temperatures to his list of things to do as the kid looked behind him before holding up two fingers. There must have been another body further in the tunnel.

“Are they conscious?”

A sparkle danced on the child’s cheek as he shook his head, and Vax’s heart squeezed as he asked the next question.

“Are they both breathing?”

He watched the boy’s shoulders shudder as he sucked in an unsteady breath, but the dip of his chin in the affirmative allowed Vax to suck in a breath of his own. The back of his throat burned, a tickle threatening to make him cough, but he fought it back.

“Okay, good.”

Vax wracked his brain for how to get the information he needed without the boy being able to speak.

“The one closest to you, is he bleeding?”

A quick glance over his shoulder and the child was shaking his head again. It wasn’t good that the person was unconscious, but no visible blood was reassuring.

“Does he have broken bones?”

Again, the child shook his head. He tried to talk but ended up in another coughing fit.

Vax turned his attention behind him as he waited for it to pass, calling back what he’d learned.

“Three trapped, two unconscious, one kid. I need more water.”

When he focused on the boy again, he was wiping his face, mouth open as he panted, but he waved at Vax. It took a bit of pantomiming, waving his hands toward his face before putting them on his ribs and pulling them away as if he was expanding, before Vax realized what the child was telling him. The man had lost consciousness from breathing in too much smoke.

Worry coiled inside but Vax tried not to let it show.

“Did the same happen to the other?”

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