Page 53 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord (Fated Mates of the Sarkarnii Warlords #2)

T he way Dexx looks at me, I want to have his ability to read thoughts, even though he can’t read mine. I want to understand what he’s thinking.

I want to know this Sarkarnii. I want him to be part of my life. Now I carry his babies, there’s no going back to Earth. Not that going back to Earth was an option I thought would be on the cards.

But what I don’t want is to lose Dexx to anything or anyone. He belongs to me now. I am not going to let weird cockroaches or mechanical professors take him from me.

“Wait here,” Dexx says quietly as the walls are rocked by multiple explosions.

“Where are you going?” I grab at his wrist, but my hand doesn’t even come close to encircling it.

“I’m going to catch the pit-rat who thinks he can threaten my mate and get away with it,” Dexx says, and his eye is steel.

He means Dalsor.

“Don’t do anything you might regret.” I release his wrist, as if my holding it would have stopped Dexx doing anything at all.

“I have no regrets, my sweet mate,” he rasps. “Other than I wish I’d met you a long time ago.”

For a huge creature, Dexx can move fast, and before I can reply, he has darted out of the alcove and into the sector. I peer out, but smoke is beginning to descend from the ceiling of the sector, and it’s making me cough.

Dexx might have told me to stay put, but I’m risking being choked by the acrid cloud, and eyes streaming, I dart out of the alcove we were in, down the passage, and take an immediate right into some clearer air.

I rather wish I had a weapon when I come face to face with Dalsor. Only he isn’t looking at me. It’s as if he can’t see anything. His body is upright, rigid, unmoving.

I back away until I hit something solid.

“I know. I know you said to stay where I was, Dexx,” I say with a sigh of relief as I turn to find myself face to face with Drex.

His face is twisted into a snarl.

“You!” I take a step back, but he grabs my wrist.

“Me,” he growls.

“You said…everyone said…Dalsor…”

“Appearances can be deceptive,” Drex says, and his face flickers weirdly until it morphs into Dalsor’s and then, horribly, into Dexx’s, before returning to what I can only assume is his own.

I attempt to shake myself free, but while his grip is nothing like Dexx’s, Drex is significantly larger and stronger than me.

“Let go. You don’t want to get hurt,” I say evenly as the smoke swirls around us and I start to cough.

“Nothing can hurt me, not even Lord Dexx,” Drex snarls. “I have everything I will ever need, right here, in my grip.”

He drags me against him and he’s cold to the touch, not hot like Dexx.

“What are you ?” I gasp.

“I am the next generation of Sarkarnii, as imagined by my master,” Drex says. “A new hope for the species, controlled and lethal.”

I roll my eyes. If I keep him talking, it gives me a chance to escape or Dexx a chance to find us. Although the sounds of explosions have moved away from us to the other side of the sector, I’d like to think this is by design and not just Dante’s enjoyment of making things go boom.

“I keep hearing about this master, but if you were anything like a Sarkarnii, you wouldn’t have one,” I say, wriggling in his grip.

“That is where the Sarkarnii have failed. They require leadership, guidance, a way forward to take this galaxy and many more. My master can provide it. He will provide it, once he has enough ready.”

Drex lowers his gaze to me.

“You and the other female humans are the only things which stand in our way.”

I don’t know where I get the strength. I don’t think I could ever do it again, but I shove at him with all the force I have.

It seems it’s enough. I pop out of his grip like a cork out of a bottle. Despite the choking nature of the smoke, I run into it, covering my mouth and nose with my hand.

I have to get to Dexx, and I have to get to my friends. If Drex is not who we thought, who knows how he’s infiltrated the rest of the sectors and the warlords. Especially given the tech he has to change his features.

My friends and the Sarkarnii are at risk, and I’m the only one who knows the truth.