Page 24 of The Alien Warrior's Vow

She gulped.

His fierce tone, his narrowing eyes, his firm touch—it all felt like a threat.

And yet…

His words were caring.

She swallowed hard and tried to pretend it didn’t matter. “How exactly do you plan to punish me if I’m dead?”

Lans’s jaw clenched. He released her roughly. “The suit.”

She stumbled back on unsteady legs. Feeling like the planet had just tilted on its axis, Emma struggled to find her breath.

Lans’s growling and snarling, she could handle. But when he turned on those gruff charms…

She fanned her face. “Y-yeah.”

“And focus,” Lans spoke quietly. “Your face is getting red.”

“It’s because I’m tired.”

He shook his head, but a slight smirk told her that Lans didn’t believe a word of that lie.

Climbing back into the zapten, Emma closed her eyes and imagined the metal pieces forming around her. The zapten responded to her thoughts, clanking together until the metal pieces formed a strong armor.

“Now,” Lans strode around her, his muscles glistening in the moonlight, “fight me.”

“You?”

He nodded.

“Aren’t you afraid I’m going to hurt you?”

He gestured for her to come at him.

“Alright, I guess I’ll just have to—” She threw a punch mid-sentence. “Pow!”

The zapten’s gears made a soft clicking sound as she threw power behind the hit.

Lans jumped out of the way, nimble on his feet. “You seemed too eager to do that, Eema.”

“You dodged.”

“And you’re relying on the zapten too much.” Lans pointed at the exoskeleton’s feet. “You were kidnapped and brought here. Which means you have Plutonian and human blood. You can unlock things in the machine that we can only dream of.”

“Who told you that?”

“Rune.” Lans crooked a finger. “Again.”

She mimicked throwing another punch and the zapten launched its arms. Lans did a backflip and her arm swung over his body. By the time she was pulling back, he had already straightened on his feet.

“Eema,” he scolded, “do you not listen to what I say?”

“I’mtrying, but I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do.”

Lans was barely winded. “You are connected to the zapten through your neural implant. It can see what you see and it will do what you want it to do. You can’t be afraid of it. You can’t be astonished by it. The connection is yours. It belongs to you. Embrace it and let it embrace you.”

“I can’t.”