Page 18 of Alien Warrior’s Claim (Nyxari Bondmates #1)

LAZRIN

T he twin moons of Arenix hung in opposition—one silver, one blood-red—casting mismatched shadows through my dwelling's translucent walls. I stalked from one end to another, my tail lashing behind me in agitation. Sleep remained impossible. My lifelines flared with each wave of emotion radiating from Mirelle across the settlement—fear, anger, determination. She wrestled with demons of her own making, and though every instinct urged me to go to her, I remained where I was, my claws digging half-moons into my palms.

The energy burn on my chest had faded to a dull blue mark—Nyxari flesh knitting together with the efficiency bred into our species over millennia on this unforgiving planet. The other wound—the one caused by our incomplete bond—only deepened with time. It manifested as a persistent hollowness beneath my ribcage, a physical emptiness that sharpened whenever she averted her gaze from mine.

Three days had passed since Hammond's men attempted to take her, since my feral transformation had revealed the darkest aspect of my nature. Three days of careful distance, of conversations that ended whenever they approached anything meaningful. She hadn't fled, hadn't rejected me outright, but neither had she moved closer.

My lifelines flared suddenly, a wave of intense emotion washing through our connection. She was in turmoil—fear, anger, determination swirling together in patterns I could sense but not decipher. I gripped the wall to steady myself, resisting the pull toward her dwelling. This was her battle to choose, not mine to decide.

A soft sound at my entrance caught my attention. I turned, already knowing who stood there.

Mirelle's silhouette filled the doorway, her markings pulsing with silvery light beneath her skin. She'd changed from her day clothing into simpler garments—a loose tunic that left her arms bare, revealing the intricate patterns that now spiralled from wrist to shoulder. Her hair fell loose around her face, unbound from its usual practical style.

"I disturbed you," she said, the statement hanging between question and apology.

"No." I halted my pacing but remained still, offering neither retreat nor advance.

She crossed the threshold, the living membrane of the doorway sealing with a soft whisper. "Sleep eluded me."

"I felt it." I nodded toward my lifelines, which pulsed in counterpoint to the silver patterns visible on her skin. "Your consciousness reached across the settlement."

Her gaze swept the space—taking in the weapons arranged on the far wall, the cooking area with its unfamiliar implements, the sleeping platform with its blue-silver furs. "It must be intrusive—sensing my emotions when they're a labyrinth even to me."

"Not intrusive. Disquieting." I observed how she kept the central hearth between us, maintaining the careful distance she'd established since the forest incident. "Your mind churns with unusual force tonight."

"My mind always churns." Her mouth quirked, the expression falling short of humor. "That's hardly noteworthy."

"This differs." My head tilted as I studied the intensity of her markings. "The patterns beneath your skin have changed their rhythm."

Her hand rose unconsciously to touch the silver patterns at her collarbone. "Yes. They've been... insistent."

"About what?"

She met my gaze directly for the first time since entering. "You."

The word hung between us, charged with meaning neither of us had fully acknowledged. My lifelines brightened involuntarily, responding to the intensity in her voice.

"I'm done fighting this," she said, her voice dropping lower. "Whatever exists between us."

I remained still, scarcely breathing despite the surge of hope her words ignited. "What changed?"

"Nothing. Everything." She moved closer, her markings brightening with each step. "I've spent days thinking about what happened in the forest. About control and fear and choice."

"And what conclusion did you reach?"

"That I'm more afraid of what I'm doing to both of us by resisting than I am of what might happen if I stop." She stood within arm's reach now, close enough that I could see the faint illumination her markings cast across her skin. "The bond isn't disappearing. If anything, fighting it makes it stronger. Makes the pain worse."

"For both of us," I confirmed quietly.

"I felt it too," she admitted. "The ache. Like something essential was missing. I told myself it was stress, exhaustion, worry about Hammond's plans." Her mouth curved in a self-deprecating smile. "But I'm done lying to myself."

My restraint wavered as she stepped closer still, her scent enveloping me—that uniquely human fragrance now familiar, essential.

"I still have questions," she continued. "Concerns about what all this means. But I'm done letting fear make my decisions."

Her hand rose slowly, hovering near my face without touching. The markings on her wrist pulsated in perfect synchronization with my lifelines, silver and gold light melding where our skin nearly met.

"I need this," she whispered. "Need you."

Her fingers connected with my cheek, and sensation exploded through my system. The emptiness behind my sternum flooded with warmth that radiated outward, pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. My lifelines blazed with golden fire, patterns flaring to life across my skin.

"Mirelle," her name emerged as a growl, restraint shattering beneath the weight of her touch.

She brought her other hand to my face, framing it between her palms. "I've spent days watching your control, your respect for my boundaries despite what it cost you." Her voice trembled slightly. "I don't want your control anymore."

The last thread of my resistance broke. I pulled her against me, one hand at her waist, the other tangling in her hair as I claimed her mouth with mine. She gasped, then softened, her body melting into mine with a surrender that felt more like victory than defeat.

The kiss deepened, hungry after days of denial. Her hands moved to my shoulders, then my chest, tracing the lifelines that blazed golden beneath her touch. My tail wrapped around her ankle possessively, anchoring her against me as if she might disappear at any moment.

When we broke apart, her breathing came quick and shallow, her pupils dilated until only a thin ring of amber remained. "Your dwelling or mine?" she asked, practicality surfacing even in passion.

"Here," I growled, unwilling to release her even long enough to cross the settlement. "Now."

She nodded, and I lifted her in a single fluid movement, carrying her toward the sleeping platform. Her markings brightened as I laid her down, spreading across the blue and silver furs like liquid starlight. I followed, covering her smaller form with mine, careful to support my weight on my forearms.

"I've missed this," she whispered, her fingers tracing the lifelines that spiralled down my arms. "Missed you."

"You were never far," I reminded her, nipping gently at her throat.

"I was worlds away," she countered, arching beneath me as my teeth found the sensitive juncture of neck and shoulder. "Lost in my own fear."

I pulled back to meet her gaze. "And now?"

"Now I'm here." Her hand slid to the back of my neck, pulling me down to her. "Completely."

Her tunic yielded easily to my claws, falling away to reveal the intricate patterns that now covered most of her torso. The markings had continued spreading in the days since the cave, forming elaborate designs across her breasts and ribs that pulsed with her accelerating heartbeat.

"Beautiful," I murmured, tracing a silvery spiral with my fingertip.

She shivered at the touch. "They've changed. Grown."

"They respond to the bond." I followed the pattern downward, across her stomach, to where it disappeared beneath her remaining clothing. "When we deny the connection, they seek to strengthen it."

Her hands weren't idle, exploring the ridged plates along my spine, following the lifelines that curved around my ribs. When her fingers brushed the sensitive area at the base of my tail, a growl rumbled from my chest.

"Careful," I warned, my voice rough with desire. "That spot is... reactive."

A smile curved her lips, the first genuine one I'd seen in days. "Show me."

No more words were needed. I claimed her mouth again as my hands made quick work of her remaining garments. She responded in kind, removing the light clothing I wore for sleep, her smaller hands mapping the territory of my body with increasing boldness.

When the last garment fell away, I stilled, absorbing the vision before me. The silver network beneath her skin transformed the sleeping platform into a field of captured starlight, each pattern shifting with her breath and pulse. She lay against the midnight furs, human yet marked in ways no human had been before, creating something unprecedented in the long history of Arenix.

"Why did you stop?" she asked, recognizing the reverence in my gaze.

"In all the chronicles of my ancestors, this sight has never existed," I said, letting truth speak where poetry failed. "A human bearing our sacred patterns, illuminated by a bond that bridges worlds."

Her hand extended, beckoning rather than pleading. "Perhaps it's time we wrote our own chronicles."

As our bodies joined, the differences between us heightened rather than hindered pleasure—her cooler temperature against my heat, her yielding softness against the ridged plates of my spine. My tail coiled possessively around her calf, its sensitive tip tracing small circles behind her knee while my hands mapped the geography of her form. When she shivered in response, my tail tightened reflexively, drawing her impossibly closer.

When I claimed her, our markings ignited like twin supernovas. Silver radiance from her skin melded with golden fire from my lifelines, transforming the dwelling into a kaleidoscope of light and shadow. The dual ridges unique to Nyxari anatomy pulsed against her inner walls, each beat synchronized with our shared heartbeat.

"." My name fractured into syllables between her gasps, the sound itself becoming a physical touch. Her nails scored paths along my back, finding anchors in the armored plates that protected my spine.

My tail unwound from her leg to sweep beneath her, lifting her hips at a precise angle that drove a ragged cry from her throat.

Beyond physical joining, our consciousness fused at some fundamental level that defied explanation. Her memories flowed through me—the forest ambush seen through her eyes, her fear not of my feral state but for what Hammond's men might tell others, her gradual recognition that fighting our bond damaged us both. I offered my own—the hollow ache of our separation, the iron discipline required not to seek her out, the moment I first sensed her unique resonance with my lifelines.

I gripped her hips and slammed into her, over and over, until the sound of her moans echoed off the cave walls like prayer. Her body clenched around me, desperate and pulsing, every muscle trembling with need. I growled low, dragging my mouth down her throat as I thrust deep enough to claim the breath from her lungs.

“You’re mine, Mirelle. Say it.”

She cried out, nails digging into my back, her markings blazing like starlight beneath me.

“Say it,” I demanded again, burying myself so deep she had no room for anything but truth.

“Yours,” she gasped, breaking apart in my arms. “I’m yours.”

Only then did I let myself go, spilling into her with a groan that sounded like a vow.

The release crashed through her like a seismic wave, her body arching beneath mine as silver light blazed from every marking on her skin. The sensations echoed through our bond, triggering my own climax—hot pulses that seemed to go on endlessly as our minds merged completely.

For timeless moments, there was no division between us—no separate thoughts, no individual consciousness, only the perfect union of energies the ancestors had recognized as compatible. I felt her presence in every cell of my body, just as she must have felt mine.

As the intensity gradually subsided, we remained joined, neither willing to break the physical connection that mirrored our mental one. My forehead rested against hers, our breaths mingling as our heartbeats slowly synchronized.

"I understand now," she whispered, her voice hoarse.

"What?" I lifted my head enough to see her face, illuminated by our combined afterglow.

Her finger traced the lifeline that curved from my cheek to jaw. "Kithraax."

The word—my name in the ancient Nyxari tongue—sent a shiver down my spine. She had never attempted the language before, considering it too difficult for human vocal cords. Yet she had pronounced it perfectly, with the exact inflection only a lifebonded mate would know instinctively.

"Where did you learn that?" I asked, stunned by the intimacy of hearing my true name on her lips.

"From you." She smiled, her hand still cradling my face. "Just now, when our minds connected. I saw it... felt it. Your true name, the one given in the naming ritual when you were a child."

I swallowed hard, emotion threatening to overwhelm me. "No one has called me that since my mother died."

"Is it forbidden?" Concern flashed across her features.

"No. Sacred." I pressed my forehead to hers again. "True names are shared only with those closest to us. Family. Mates."

"Then I'm honored," she said softly. "Kithraax."

We shifted position, my arm cradling her against my side as her head rested on my chest. Our markings continued to pulse with gentle light, no longer blinding but steady, synchronized.

"I've been afraid of losing myself," she admitted into the quiet darkness. "Of becoming something other than human."

"And now?" I stroked her hair, savoring the silky texture between my fingers.

"Now I understand it's not about losing anything. It's about gaining something more." Her hand splayed across my chest, directly over the steady beat of my heart. "The bond doesn't erase who I am. It builds on it."

"As the Elder told you," I reminded her gently.

"Yes, but I needed to experience it myself. To feel it." She propped herself up on one elbow, looking down at me. "When our minds connected just now, I was still me. All my memories, thoughts, feelings—they were still mine. But I could see yours too, understand you on a level I never imagined possible."

"That is the bond's true gift," I said. "Not possession or control, but understanding beyond words."

She settled back against me, her body fitting perfectly against mine despite our physical differences. "Hammond will never understand this."

The mention of the human leader sent a ripple of tension through me. "No. His fear runs too deep."

"He'll come for us eventually," she said, her practical nature asserting itself even in this intimate moment. "For all the marked women."

"Let him try." My arm tightened around her protectively. "Nothing will take you from me."