His gaze is like fire as he stares at me and his ears are perked off the side of his head.

But what’s more alarming is his ba’clan.

They are stretched off the front of his body toward me, like dark fluid contorting.

My eyes widen as I scramble to my feet and I watch as they snap back in place.

This is the second time I’ve seen them do that.

It happened at the door too.

“Fer’ro?”

He is staring at me and his pupils have become so narrow that the slits look like lines.

“I should take you to He’rox,” he says. “You need to be…checked.”

I swallow at this and wrap my arms across my chest.

“Is there something wrong? Do you think something is wrong?” I glance at the ba’clan still on my arm.

I’m getting so used to them there now. I keep forgetting they’re on my skin unless they pulse or I look directly at them.

“You have wounds.”

His gaze is moving over my skin and I shuffle on my feet. I have several scratches, bruises, and cuts, but I feel fine.

The thing is, I should go to He’rox, just to be sure everything is all right.

But I don’t want to…

“I don’t want to be around the others. I don’t…”

I don’t trust them.

But somehow…I trust him.

“Can I just stay with you for now? Until I get used to all this?”

His ears twitch and I wonder what the action means in this instance.

He studies me for a moment and he’s standing so still, it feels like the air in the room doesn’t move.

“Rest on the feathers. I will heal you myself.”

My eyebrows shoot up a little but a sense of relief flows through me.

I didn’t know he could do that and I release a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

It’s a much better option. I’d rather only deal with him and him only.

Apart from San’ten, the others don’t seem hostile but…the more time I spend around Fer’ro, the safer I feel.

As I walk back to bed, I allow myself to relax a little.

It’s a huge thing and it has a soft wool-like layer on top of it.

I feel small as I climb up, the thought that I’m completely naked lingering in my mind.

I should be more concerned about that.

But Fer’ro doesn’t make me concerned.

That’s until I turn around and notice he’s climbing up on the bed behind me.

Chapter Twenty-Three

FER’RO

Adee’ra’s fear scent appears as soon as she turns around and sees me behind her.

Maybe she’s changed her mind about me healing her.

I was surprised she agreed to it in the first place. Vullan females don’t usually allow males who are not their mates to give such healing.

It can be an…intimate act.

Adee’ra is on all fours and I have a clear view of her center.

Her sweet scent wafts into my nose and I inhale deeply, unable to pull my gaze away from her.

She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

I know her skin is pale. So much paler and thinner than mine.

But until she discarded her strange outer suit, I did not realize that all of her was pale and soft.

It is a strange hue I’ve only seen on young hubri.

She is thin, frail, I can see her skeleton underneath her skin, but she is mesmerizing still.

I cannot stop staring and only when a gasp pulls from her throat does my gaze rise from that strange triangle at her center.

She sits back on her legs and grabs those mounds on her chest that stand out with twin peaks.

My gaze fastens on them and I see the skin against them prickle.

“Fer’ro?”

Her fear scent tingles a little and despite that I want to scent her some more, I snap my nostrils shut.

If I smell her fear right now, in this state, I will want to chase her. Hunt her.

Her eyes are wide as she stares at me and when I glance at myself, I realize why.

My ba’clan snap back as soon as I notice what they are doing.

They’d been trying to touch her again.

I am losing control.

The thought registers and echoes through my mind.

Losing control?

Vullan never lose control of their ba’clan.

I need to figure out why that is happening now.

Maybe it has something to do with this planet.

The atmosphere. Something microscopic that I cannot see.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with that at all.

My gaze meets Adee’ra’s and her wide round pupils are still on me.

Maybe it has something to do with her.

I make the decision immediately. I recall my ba’clan within me and they disappear beneath my skin like water seeping away.

I am bare for the fourth time in her presence.

If Ga’Var knew…

A sliver of pleasure fills me.

Adee’ra is with me, not him.

He does not get the pleasure of her presence.

Adee’ra shuffles on the feathers and glances around me.

Her legs are still crossed and even though I am not her mate, I wish to ask her to open them once more.

Behind my fold, my sazi throbs.

It is erect.

It always is.

But right now it throbs so hard I want to release it.

For a moment, I consider moving away from Adee’ra.

My senses are overloading.

I really am losing control.

But the sound of her musical words have me frozen.

“Where is the first aid kit?”

What aid kit?

“You know, with the bandages and alcohol…if you have that?” She glances around again. “For my wounds?”

Ah.

“A med kit?” I click to her in my language and confusion floods her gaze.

“We don’t have a med kit,” I say so she can understand. “I will heal you.”

Her brow furrows in those lines that look like they’re etched permanently into her skin before they smooth out as if they were never there.

“I don’t understand, you will have to explain to me.”

“I will show you.”

Her eyes widen a little more but she doesn’t protest as I come all the way onto the sleeping feathers.

She’s still sitting in a guarded position though, so I focus on the wound that is closest to me.

One by her ankles.

“It will not hurt,” I say as I take her foot into my hand, stretching out one of her legs.

Five toes, not four. And small too.

Her foot is soft and delicate like the rest of her and her skin feels so smooth against my own.

I wonder what I feel like to her.

My body is filled with ridges. Plated bone that rises and falls underneath my skin.

I am hard where she is soft.

I turn her foot in my hand as I examine it.

It’s cracked in several places underneath and the one I hold looks slightly bigger than the other.

Swollen.

It must hurt, and I do not believe that what I’m about to do will help her in that regard.

My “treatment” will mostly soothe her until she is comfortable enough to let He’rox see her. A sort of temporary fix to what ails her.

Bending, I give her one final glance before I dip low, my tongue slipping from my mouth as I run it over the skin at her ankle.

Adee’ra yelps, and if not for my hold on her leg, it would have slid from my grasp.

“Um…what are you doing?” Her eyes are wide before they fall on her ankle.

My tongue is still there and I lick her again.

Her leg jerks again.

I take her lack of resistance as consent to continue and I run my tongue over another wound close to her ankle.

Her breath hisses into her nose as she inhales deeply.

“Relax,” I say, “I will not harm you.”

“Y-yes, I know that, but what the hell are you doing?”

I pause then and blink at her.

This is obviously not something hyu’mans do.

“My saliva has enough healing properties to soothe these wounds,” I say. “It will help you until you are ready for He’rox to see you.”

“Oh,” she says and her throat moves but she doesn’t pull away.

There are several tiny wounds on her legs and I tend to them one at a time.