Heat floods my face, my chest, my entire body.

“Stop!” I twist beneath him, trying to close my legs. But his other massive hand clamps down on my leg, holding me open like I’m some kind of offering for him.

A sound tears from his throat—half growl, half groan—and it’s so raw, so primal, that it freezes me in place.

I should be terrified. And I am. But what terrifies me even more is the way my body betrays me. The way heat pools low in my stomach, tangling with my fear and confusion in a way that makes me want to scream.

This isn’t happening.

This can’t be happening.

“Get off me!” I gasp, trying again to squirm free, but it’s useless. He’s too strong, his grip unyielding as his face remains buried between my thighs, his breath hot and steady against my skin.

The sound that comes from him next is almost violent, a deep, feral snarl that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. His entire body goes rigid, his glow flaring bright enough to rival this planet’s sun.

And then he freezes. His glow flickers like a flame in the wind.

The growling stops.

Slowly, his head lifts and his gaze meets mine. I freeze beneath him.

There’s something in his eyes now—something wild and conflicted and utterly alien.

For a moment, we just stare at each other, my chest heaving as I try to catch my breath. Then, as if some invisible switch has been flipped, he lets out a low, frustrated sound and pulls back, releasing me as he retreats.

I scramble backward the moment he’s off me, pressing myself against the cool stone wall, my heart hammering in my chest.

He doesn’t look at me. His shoulders rise and fall as he takes a series of deep, shuddering breaths, his hands flexing at his sides. He looks like he’s fighting something—like he’s barely holding himself together. And the light underneath his skin, it flickers. Wildly. Stars. So many stars. All going on and off at once.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I rasp. My voice trembles and I hate it.

When he turns back to me, there’s something feral in his movement—a wild sort of grace that makes my heart slam against my ribs. He stalks toward me, and I press myself harder against the stone, certain he’s about to…but instead, he reaches down beside me, retrieving a broad leaf I hadn’t noticed before, braced carefully against the rock.

A cool drop of water lands on my chest.

I gasp at the shock of it.

Water.

“You brought water?” My voice is little more than a croak, but the words seem to register. His jaw clenches and he simply stares into my soul the same way he was before. That deep, probing gaze that makes me feel like he’s trying to push thoughts directly into my mind. As if he could make me understand whatever he’s thinking through sheer force of will alone.

His chest heaves with every breath as he reaches for me, slipping an arm beneath my shoulders and lifting me slightly. All the while, that storm of light erupts under his skin, worse now that he’s close again—as if being close to me is setting off some kind of virus in him. The movement presses my body against his, and I gasp.

His temperature has changed. While my skin flares with heat, his is cool.

The contrast is shocking—his skin feels like smooth stone left in the shade, soothing against the fever burning beneath my own. The chill of him seeps into me, chasing away the dizziness for one fleeting moment, and I can’t stop the involuntary sigh that escapes my lips.

He brings the leaf to my lips, and I drink greedily, the water cool and impossibly sweet. It’s nothing like the stale, chemical taste of the emergency rations. Nothing like water back home, either. This is pure—perfect. Sent from the fountain of the gods.

“More,” I whisper.

Before I know it, the last few drops disappear down my throat.

“Fuck.”

The alien’s eyes narrow slightly, his gaze flicking to my fevered body before he presses his palm against my forehead. His cool touch is electric, and my body reacts before I can stop it, a small sound of relief escaping my lips.

His expression shifts at the sound—something dark flickering across his face.

Then, just like that, he’s gone again, moving toward the cave entrance with that strange, fluid grace.

“Wait…” I manage. “Don’t leave me. Please.”

But he doesn’t leave. Instead, he gathers something from outside the cave—smooth stones, arranging them in a circle on the ground at my feet.

For a moment, my thoughts drift back to the transport. To Jacqui waiting for me, probably pacing and snapping at anyone who tells her to calm down. To Erika, meticulously rationing supplies, marking off how many hours I’ve been gone. To the others, watching the horizon for my return with dwindling hope. The guilt is almost as hot as the fever. I promised I’d come back with answers, with help. Instead, I’m dying in a cave with a creature I can’t even communicate with.

The fever pulls me under again, my mind fogging as I collapse against the rock at my back. His scent wraps around me. It’s earthy and metallic, like sun-baked stone, and my back arches instinctively. My nipples tighten to painful points, rubbing against my bra with every ragged breath. I should be terrified. I should be fighting. Instead, my hips rock faintly, seeking friction where there is none. Consciousness fades in and out. But one thought lingers, clear and sharp through the haze.

What the fuck is happening to him?

What the fuck is happening to me?

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Chapter 10

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CONFUSED DOESN’T START TO EXPLAIN IT AT ALL

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ROK

The air in the cave is heavy.

It clings to my skin, thick as the heat waves that roll off the dunes in the dry season, but this heat does not belong to the dust. It belongs to her.

The creature lies before me, trembling, fragile form pressed to the stone. Her breathing is erratic—too fast, too shallow—and the fire burning beneath her skin has not abated. Despite the water I brought her, despite the cooling stones, she remains on the edge of collapse.

And I am on the edge of madness.

I crouch a distance from her now, not for my protection. For hers. My claws dig into the stone floor, trying to focus on the rhythmic scrape of their sharp points instead of the chaos flooding my senses. Her scent is everywhere, saturating the air, worming its way into my lungs until I can taste it on the back of my tongue. Sweet and sharp and maddening.

Every breath pulls her deeper into my lungs. My skin prickles, a slow …something…spreading beneath my flesh.

I do not understand what is happening to me.

This creature is not Drakav. I have known this from the moment I found her, wandering the dust like prey waiting to be taken. But now, as I stare at her, I know something else.

She is not from Xiraxis at all.

Her scent, her softness, the strange way her skin weeps water—none of it belongs to this world. She is…other.

And yet.

The curves of her body, the way her scent pulls at something deep inside me, the way my glow flares uncontrollably when I’m near her…

It is impossible.

The thought takes root in my mind, unbidden and unwelcome, but no matter how I try to bury it, it rises again, clawing its way up from the depths of memory.

The daughters of Ain.

A myth. A story passed down from times past. Of before the Drakav were hardened by the dust. Before we became the rulers of the sands.

The daughters were said to be soft, delicate creatures, unlike anything the Drakav had ever known. They were not male, like us. They were…