Page 86 of The Alien Warrior's Mate

“Now you sound crazy.”

Sara sighed. “Look, I get that we’re all a little nervous. This is our first time hacking it on our own out here, but we’ll be fine.” Sara glanced at Enthara again. Stormy grey eyes. All was well. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

Lilliana sputtered. “Do you think I’m actuallyworriedabout them? I… this is about me.”

“I don’t believe you.” She folded her arms over her chest.

“No.No. I don’t care about these aliens,” Lilliana insisted.

“Not ‘these’ aliens.” Her lips quirked. “Just Tiegan.”

Lilliana’s mouth dropped open.

Emma shrugged. “It’s pretty obvious that you’re into him. Every time he comes around, you start talking so fast no one can understand you.”

“Don’t look at me. Sara’s the one actually getting it on with an alien at three in the morning.”

Her cheeks heated. Wishing not to think about his dangerous mission, Korben had been… enthusiastic when he claimed her last night. After, he’d held her in his arms.“You are so incredibly brave, Sah-ah. My world. My heras. I will protect you with my life.”

And she would return the favor.

Please come back in one piece, Korben.

Sara stared at Enthara’s eyes and then at the little device Korben had given her before he left. It was a locator. If something went wrong, the light would start to blink, and his coordinates would appear on the screen. She hoped the mission went smoothly and he never had to activate it.

“Let’s get back to the point, shall we?” Sara’s heart pounded. “The guys will come back and if they don’t, I’m going out there. That’s not a suggestion. That’s a fact.”

“And there we have another problem.” Lilliana slapped a hand into her palm. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Enthara will protect me.”

At the sound of her name, Enthara glanced up with a mechanical whirr.

Eyes were still grey.

Good.

“How?” Emma tilted her head. “Lans told me it was forbidden for anyone but a Plutonian to control those robots.”

“Lans doesn’t know.” Sara shrugged. “No one does. That’s why Korben told me to keep it a secret only use Enthara in the case of an emergen—”

The neural connector sent a shock through her brain. It felt like a pair of brutish hands wrapping around her skull and squeezing her like some kind of hungry snake. She hit the floor, hard and fast, crashing face-first.

Lilliana’s knees went down to eye level and her fingers rested on her shoulder like a butterfly about to take flight. “Sara?”

Sara barely heard her. The pain traveled down from her body and into her spine. She whimpered. Or maybe that was Enthara whining from outside. Her senses got caught up in the chaos of Korben’s agony. The neural connector was allowing her to feel what he did. And he felt…devastated.

“Emma! Help her!”

“I don’t know what to do!”

Sara heard Emma’s footsteps pounding closer and then a long, lock of brown hair dangled by her nose. “Sara, you need to breathe okay.”

She was trying.

She was.

But something had gone wrong. Korben…