Page 6 of The Alien Warrior's Heart

The female went still.

He kept going until his back hit the wall. The room was cramped and he was still relatively close to her, but her tears dried. All he could hear was the ragged sounds of her breathing and the scrape of her nails against the cot.

Zar pointed to his chest. “Neh.”

“No?” Her voice held a trembling lilt. Hope flared in her eyes.

“Neh, human. I will not mate you against your will.”

She opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. Her gaze found the comms and he saw the spark of intelligence in her expression.

This female was a sharp one.

“The Heronas intend for me to plunder your heat,” he said, knowing that she could not understand but wanting to speak anyway. “We will not give them what they want.”

She swallowed audibly, her breathing even now.

Two heavy knocks on the door yanked both their heads in that direction.

A guard snapped at them. “Get on with it, Plutonian.”

“Get on with what?” Zar sneered.

“Do we have to walk you through the process?” The mockery in the guard’s tone made his knuckles bunch. “When all your females died, did you forget the ways of this ritual?”

“Shut your disgusting mouth.” Zar charged the door. “When I get my hands on you, I will—” A startling pain cut his threat in half.

The vibration of the collar shot through his body and slammed him into the ground. He bit down on his teeth to keep from crying out. Spasms shook the length of his spine and caused his eyes to roll back in his head.

From the cot, the female bawled out as ifshewere the one getting tortured.

The shock ended abruptly, but the pain lingered.

Zar knew from experience that it would take a while for his immobility to subside.

The guard’s voice hissed through the door. “Mate her or we will get involved. And believe me, Plutonian, neither of you will like the way we go about that.”

Three

Simone

She struggledto collect her racing thoughts. Closing her eyes, Simone went into that familiar space in her mind where she collected all her negative feelings and locked them away.

Fear. Anger. Pain.

She made them disappear with every deep breath.

Gone?

No. They were still there. Still ready to pounce. But right now, she needed solutions, not panic.

On this nightmarish planet, there was one alien who didn’t seem hell-bent on hurting her. She stared at the creature who was crumbled on the floor and clawing at his collar.

He was tall and ridiculously muscular with arms and pecs that rippled. The tattoos all over his blue skin drew her eye and made her wonder what they stood for.

His tail flicked behind him, spasming along with his body. She stared at the limb, hardly believing her eyes.

The alien looked more humanoid than any other creature she’d seen so far. His face was chiseled in a rough-hewn way, like a stone that the sculptor had left intentionally jagged and edgy. His cheekbones were pronounced and his lips thin and firm. He had long brown hair that was dirty and thin in parts.