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  Except, she was Glian, so that was impossible. Wasn’t it?

  Only one way to find out.

  I waited as Maya loaded the vials into a wall unit, closed the glass cover and pressed a button on the silver panel. The tubes disappeared instantly and Maya tilted her head toward the door.

  “You can leave now,” she said. “I’ll grab the other samples and dispose of them in the incinerator, then report to Smithton once the lab work’s completed.”

  I stepped closer, looming over her. Her pupils dilated, but I was damn sure it wasn’t with fear.

  “Maya, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but thank you.” Slowly and deliberately, I placed both of my palms on her forearms.

  The shocks were intense, spearing through to my core. I’d intended to run my hands up her arms, but they tightened on her flesh like we were welded. Like I’d never be able to let her go.

  Like I’d never want to let her go.

  Maya moaned, her knees sagging, but she leaned into me, her heartbeat against my chest rapid, her breath suddenly ragged.

  There was no denying it. We’d made the first bond.

  Now I could never kiss her.

  Chapter Four

  Maya

  I couldn’t shake the feeling someone watched me as I crossed the compound, heading toward the officers’ quarters. A clang a short distance away only reinforced the impression.

  Was it the medic? He hadn’t brought in anymore wounded while I was at the medical center, so he must’ve come back to the base. He could be lurking anywhere. I peered over my shoulder, seeing nothing out of place, but my flesh still crawled with unease.

  I wouldn’t mind running into Herc again, even if only for added protection. But he’d be inside his quarters by now.

  The sun slanted across the sky. It speared orange beams through gaps in the metal surround encasing this small settlement that hovered on the edge of the desert. A light breeze carried the spicy-sharp scent of cava blossoms.

  Though I was inside the wall, I still needed to get to my quarters before the sun set.

  Outside these walls, predators hunted in the dark. Animals and men.

  The uniform that protected me from the suspicion of the Regime could also be my downfall if another member of the Resistance found their way inside. In the dark, they would not see my eyes. My hair. My face.

  We’d been trained to act first and question later, which could easily result in a laser beam slicing through your chest. If you lived long enough to see it happen.

  Report in hand, I swiped my badge to unlock the main entrance door to the building where the C.O. had commandeered a suite on the upper level. In the foyer, I approached the guard on duty standing near the elevator, my shoes creating soft pads on the patterned cryoglass floor.

  “I’m here to see Commander Smithton,” I said, waving the report. As if a clump of papers would make it clear I was here only for official business. Dread clogged my veins like sludge. I’d give Smithton the report and be on my way. It wasn’t like he expected me to stay and socialize.

  “I’ll notify the Commander you’re here,” the guard said. He turned away from me and spoke into his com, too quietly for me to hear. He nodded after. “You’re to go up right away.” His arm swept toward the solitary elevator along one wall.

  I puffed out a breath, still woozy from all the blood I’d taken. “Thanks.”

  He typed a code into the elevator and the door opened. I stepped into the gleaming interior, getting vertigo when I took in the mirrored walls and ceiling. Some might find it elegant. I found it creepy. A low hum vibrated my bones as the elevator took me up to the second floor. Who installed an elevator when it was just one flight of stairs?

  With a soft ding, the car stabilized, and the door ground wide. Girding myself, I strode into the hall and peered around. Two doors only in this short hall. Which was his? Both, for all I knew.

  The one on my left opened, and a young woman with tight lips and red-rimmed eyes stepped out. She waved, her pale pink lips pursed tight. “This way. Don’t just stand there. He’s waiting.”

  What was so important about the shifters’ records that the Commander had to see them immediately? Perhaps he hoped to find something interesting in their general make-up. Last I knew the C.O. wasn’t medical, however. I doubted he understood the difference between a hemoglobin and an ammonia level. And even with a rush order, running DNA sequencing would take longer than twenty minutes.

  The woman gave me a grim look as I passed her, her dark eyes skimming down my soiled scrub top before returning to my face. She huffed, as if I’d somehow come up short in her estimation. Backing into the hall, she closed the door behind me, leaving me alone with the C.O. As I turned to face him, I tried to ignore my stomach’s churning, but I couldn’t keep from gaping as I looked around.

  Okay, so the mirrored elevator was simple compared to this. Gleaming gilt scrolled around the ceiling, and the room was outfitted with matching plush leather furniture. Throw pillows added a spark of color, and elegant paintings adorned the walls.

  It was immediately clear that Commander Smithton was either wealthy in his own right or he’d found a way to siphon money from the management budget sent by the government.

  “There you are,” Smithton scowled as he rose from a high back chair in front of a solar-powered fireplace, where flames flickered. “I expected you at least ten minutes ago.” He knocked his leg against a low table, nearly upsetting his drink, as he paced toward me. His dress shoes made heavy clunks on the tiles.

  He moved up so close, I had to step away. Damn, his breath. He reeked of alcohol and something he must’ve had for dinner. Grilled armatote? The large, rat-like creatures infested the desert like fleas on a dog. Stringy if not prepared correctly, but satisfying enough when there was nothing else to fill your belly with except boiled shoe leather and leaves of the prickly cava. I’d eaten my share of armatotes in past years. Shoe leather, too, unfortunately. Although, not recently, not since we moved to our new, much bigger cave system.

  But I would’ve thought the C.O.—assuming he ate as well as he furnished his lavish accommodations—could afford higher-class fare. Like thick slices of beetric, the large, placid, grazing animal raised in the north solely for its succulent meat.

  The gaunt C.O. could stand to eat an entire beetric.

  He engaged his com with a finger tap. “Ah, Melanie?” The receptionist? “I won’t be needing you any further tonight.”

  Anxiety coiled in my belly.

  “You brought the charts?” he asked me after ending the call.

  I handed over the folder and backed up, hitting my butt against the door. “That’s it for the evening, Sir?”

  “Not so fast.” He tossed the folder on a table. Pivoting, he took my arm in his bony grasp and escorted me across the room. He released me and pointed toward a leather sofa. “Sit.”

  An order, not a request.

  “I really have to leave. I left a mess in the triage bay I need to clean up.” As I edged toward the door again, he pinched my upper arm and ‘encouraged’ me to drop onto the couch.

  “Surely that can wait?” His attention swept across the hair I’d neatly confined in a coil on top of my head, before leaving the med center. Leaving my hair down was for my pleasure, not his.

  His beady gaze met mine, and I hoped he couldn’t read my fear. A tête-à-tête with the C.O. was the last way I’d choose to spend my free time.

  He snatched up his drink glass and refilled it from a decanter on a high table partly spanning one wall. Then he poured a second drink from a different bottle and brought them over, placing one carefully on the ornate table in front of me. His thin bottom settled on the sofa, which barely creaked as it accommodated his weight. He nestled close to my side. Lifting the glass with the dark liquid, he offered it to me. “Drink.”

  Another order. I straightened my spine and met his gaze unflinchingly. “I’m not thirsty.”

  “It’s something
I have imported special from Dunbar.” A city high in the mountains, over one thousand clicks away. His gaze focused on my lips before drifting downward. “The monks make it. I’m sure you’ll like it.”

  Which monks? The celibate ones or the ones who hosted orgies? I didn’t like the color of this drink. It reminded me of moodar—which was purported to be an aphrodisiac. Or a date rape drug. Or both.

  Not that I’d tasted it before, but people talked.

  “No. Thank you.” I pushed his hand away.

  His lips soured, but he placed the glass on the table, this time with a clink that made the dark burgundy liquid slosh. Taking his own glass filled with a pale blue liquid, he drained it, smacking his mouth afterward. “Delicious. So…stimulating.”

  Okay. I was out of here. I started to rise, but he latched onto my arm again, holding me in place.

  “Please. Stay and talk for a while,” he said, as if this was a pleasant social interaction and not what appeared to be a seedy set-up. “I’ve been eager to get to know you better since you arrived at the compound.”

  I had not. “I really do have to get back. Um, Doctor Hartlin’s waiting for me.” A complete lie but Janie would cover for me without being asked. After prying up each of his fingers, I inched forward on the couch and stood.

  He got up, planting himself between me and the door.

  A portrait hung over the solar fireplace, with the door not far to its left. I walked slowly toward it, pretending the portrait was my only destination. In the painting, a woman sat on a chair, smiling softly at whoever had taken the digital image. “Who’s that?” Could I get to the door before he grabbed me?

  Rounding the table, he strode over and propped his elbow on the mantel. He stared up at her face with an expression I could only define as wistful.

  I moved closer, mesmerized by the picture.

  “My daughter, Ara,” he said with a world of emotion in his voice.

  “She’s pretty.” Gorgeous, actually. One of those faces you’d never forget. Dark hair, teal eyes, and creamy, pale skin. She wore a glistening red gown that hugged her slender figure.

  “She was pretty,” he said, anger inching into his words.

  “Oh.” I sucked in my lower lip, feeling a flash of unexpected sympathy for this man. “I’m sorry. Is she…”

  “Dead. Damn Resistance,” he ground out. He clenched a fist at his side. “I’ll make them pay for every drop of her blood.”

  My skin prickled with goosebumps, and I rubbed my arms to break the shiver. What did the Resistance have to do with his daughter’s death? I’d met almost everyone in our large group living in the multiple cave systems networking beneath the desert. If there were rumors about his daughter’s death being associated with us, I would’ve heard them.

  “They…took her. Raped her. Killed her.”

  My breath shuddered to a halt. That couldn’t be true. No one I knew would do something like that. Rape and murder? That was something the Regime’s lackeys savored, not the Resistance. “I’m sorry.”

  His half smile contained no warmth. “It’s hardly your fault.”

  I shrugged, “Still.” My eyes remained on the picture. Something about the woman seemed vaguely familiar, in the manner of a barely remembered dream. Where had I seen her face before?

  “I appreciate your sympathy.” Smithton took a step toward me, and his breath hit me again. Sickly sweet, I held my own to avoid it. “I’ve wanted time alone with you.”

  I gulped and backed away. “You have?” How could I get out of here before this took a scarier turn for the worse?

  He grabbed the burgundy drink from the low table and thrust it toward me. “Drink. I insist.”

  “No.”

  As I stepped backward, he tracked me, like a cat does prey. Until I encountered the wall. The door was nearby, but how could I get to it and escape?

  My pulse slammed in my throat, and the glass hit my lower lip. Hard enough, it pinched the tender flesh between the tumbler and my teeth, making my lip swell almost instantly. Liquid sloshed over the rim, coating my lips. Reflexively, my tongue smoothed it off.

  “Yes,” he hissed, his gaze following the movement. “I believe you’re going to enjoy this drink. Very much.” He jostled the glass against my mouth again, but I’d been burned once and would not be taken in a second time.

  I clamped my lips tight, but some liquid still seeped through. Sugary, with a sharp taint at the end. I shuddered.

  From the tingles spiraling through my limbs, I knew right away this was moodar. I had to get away before it took effect. Because I would not let this man touch me.

  But I could barely move. Dragging strength from deep inside me, I screamed.

  He cupped his hand over my mouth, smothering me. “Now, now. None of that. This level is soundproofed, in any case.” He pried down my chin with bony fingers and drizzled moodar inside my mouth. “A bit more should do it.” Lifting my chin, he made sure I had no choice but to swallow or drown. The liquid hit my belly like acid, entrapping me in a toxic spider’s web.

  “Come.” Taking my unresisting hand, he tugged me over to the sofa. “Sit again. You look as if you need to get off your feet.” He chuckled. “But first, would you like to remove some of your clothing?”

  I couldn’t stop him as he unbuttoned my top and shoved the material off my shoulders. It slid down my arms and fell to the floor. Only a soft whine of protest slipped past my lips. He undid my hair clip, letting the strands fan around my shoulders and down my back, nearly to my waist.

  Tears welled, burning my eyes.

  “There,” he said. His eyes bulged from his gaunt face as he stared down at me. “Take the rest of your clothes off.”

  No. My breath came in short pants. I needed to run. Get away. Before—

  Someone hammered on the door.

  I wrenched my gaze that way. A tight squeak erupted from my throat, but I couldn’t speak. Please. Someone. Help me.

  “Not now,” the C.O. said, anger charging through his words. “Come back later.” His voice lowered. “Much later.” His hands cupped the underside of my breasts and he pinched through the thin fabric of my bra. “I can’t wait to—”

  The door slammed opened, and Herc stormed inside. “Hell no,” he bellowed. Crossing the room in long strides, he paused by the low table and growled. He lifted the drink Commander Smithton had set there and sniffed it. Disgust twisted his features, and he thrust the glass toward the Commander.

  Burgundy liquid splashed the C.O.’s face. He sputtered and hissed. Regaining control of his flailing limbs, he stiffened. “How dare you enter my quarters. I’ll have you court-martialed!”

  Herc towered over the slender man, glowering. “Fucking moodar?” He flung the empty glass at the C.O., who flinched when it hit his chest.

  Herc’s face softened as he turned to me. His hand rose, and he ran his fingertips down my arm to my hand, where he squeezed.

  Electricity arced through me at his touch. Obviously, it had everything to do with him and nothing to do with some odd electrical issue at the clinic—an assumption I’d made earlier.

  With a low growl, he thumbed away the tears trickling down my cheeks. He grabbed my shirt off the floor and gently helped me dress. Then he pulled me into his arms. “We’re getting out of here,” he murmured into my hair. He swept me off my feet and started across the room.

  “You can’t do this,” Commander Smithton shouted. “I’m in control of this compound. Of her.”

  “Eat shit,” Herc growled. “I’m taking Maya.”

  He strode down the hall to the elevator. As we descended, a pulse ticked in his brow, and he looked ready to hit someone. When the door swept open, he carried me across the foyer, ignoring the protests from the guard, who sounded like he believed Herc was abducting me.

  Herc stopped outside on the walkway, looking around. “Where to?”

  Night had fully fallen, but the halolights had automatically turned on. Their bright yellow glow lit up th
e walkway.

  “I…” I swallowed and tried to regain control of my tongue. “I’m in Building…B. I’ve a…room. B-03.”

  He moved in that direction, his shoes crunching on the gravel path.

  “You can…put me down, now. I can walk.”

  He settled me on my feet, putting an arm around my waist to support me when my knees shook. Moving slowly, we arrived at my building.

  “You’ll need to enter the code.” He nudged his chin toward the door.

  I turned to comply, but sagged against the frame. My head still spun, and my legs threatened to cave. Herc caught me and held me up, before I could fall.

  I trembled, though I knew full reaction would set in once I was alone, when I could process what had almost happened. I’d been drugged and nearly raped by the Commander. Which made it even more vital that I complete my mission here and escape the compound.

  But, for the first time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave.

  Skin tingling from Herc’s touch, I looked up at him, and my breath caught. Because everything I was beginning to feel for this man—this shifter—expanded my chest to the point of explosion. Hard not to fall for a hero, but gods, he was hot.

  It would be wrong to love this alien shifter. He hunted my people. Killed them. Given the chance—and knowing who I was—he might kill me.

  He was my sworn enemy.

  Or was he?

  He stared down at me, saying nothing. But his amber eyes—they glowed. And I knew he was filled with the same confusion as me.

  I couldn’t help it. I rose onto my toes and tugged his head down close to mine.

  And I kissed him.

  Chapter Five

  Herc

  M outh closed, I held myself rigid. Gods, I was instantly rigid. All over. Maya’s sweet little body pressed against me, her soft lips trembled alluringly as she brushed them against mine.

  No way in hell could I risk responding. I only had to open my mouth, allow the kiss, enjoy the kiss—which would be easy enough, according to my body—and the second bond would be complete.