Page 4

XYREK

I had no idea why I brought her into my quarters in the first place. No one had ever been in my quarters. If I had any lingering doubts about why I avoided company, the human female was doing an excellent job of reminding me.

She was exasperating. Irritating. And loud .

I waved a dismissive hand to shoo her away, barely lifting it before something caught my eye—black lines snaking across my skin. What the frygg?

"Ugh, what is that?" the female squealed, flailing her arm, where the same markings were appearing.

Annoyed, I stepped forward and grabbed her wrist, ignoring her gasp. The instant my fingers brushed the black lines, a jolt shot through me like an electric charge. My entire body hummed . The strange sensation urged me to pull her closer.

Instead, she ripped her arm away. "Don’t touch me!" she snapped, but her expression betrayed uncertainty—she had felt something too.

The moment she broke contact, the overwhelming pull between us dulled. It didn’t disappear, but at least I could think again.

"What the hell did you do to me?" she raged, her green eyes sparked with a mix of fury and… fear?

Ignoring her, I stalked to the wall cabinet and yanked out a healing wand. Whatever this was, I would fix it. I always fixed things. Except this time… I didn’t.

The markings remained. I scowled and rolled up my sleeves, only to curse under my breath. Frygg.

Moddekdum’s earlier demand echoed in my mind. Show me your arms. At the time, I’d dismissed it as another pointless order, but now it made sense— or at least, less non-sense . This had to be connected to the traitors I was supposed to hunt. Did they have the same markings? It wasn’t much of a stretch. Why else would Moddekdum want proof? And if they did, did it mean the humans had infected us with something?

A sharp snap in front of my face yanked me from my thoughts. The female stood in front of me, face tight with frustration, her hand still hanging in the air from where she had snapped her fingers at me.

"Hey! Quit ignoring me!" she barked.

Before I was able to react, she grabbed my arm, twisting it to inspect the markings. The moment her fingers made contact, everything stilled .

At the same moment as a pulse surged through my body, her pupils widened and my cock turned to stone. Literally. It was as hard as it had ever been. It happened so quickly, it made me dizzy.

I glared at her after wrenching away. I wasn’t opposed to taking a human to bed—their species was soft, tempting , and exotic in a way I could appreciate. But not while I was on duty. And definitely not her . There was something dangerous about her, something that warned me to keep my distance.

Like before, the pull faded as soon as I put space between us, but it didn’t vanish.

"I don’t know," I finally answered her earlier question, keeping my voice carefully indifferent. "But I’ll find out."

"Well, you better make it quick because… oh shit," she gasped.

Before I could ask what she meant, she yanked up her shirt, exposing a distracting hip. It took me a moment before I noticed it because the sight of her flesh made my mouth water. But then I saw them, more black marks sneaking up her side.

"Oh shit, make it stop!" She panicked, hopping on the balls of her feet and swiping at the markings as if she could rub them away.

I sighed. Humans. They always had to overdramatize everything.

"Hey, easy," I said in a futile attempt to calm her.

"Easy?" She whirled on me, eyes blazing. "Easy, he says! There is no easy here, buster! Make. It. Stop!"

I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to summon the patience I didn’t have. She was close to losing it. Frygg. The markings were unsettling, yes, but hardly cause for full-scale hysteria.

"Do you feel unwell?" I asked, listening to my own body. Aside from a mild headache, nothing felt different. The marks didn’t even sting.

"Unwell? Unwell ? " she echoed, throwing her arms up. "Yes, I feel unwell! I have black marks appearing on my skin!"

I exhaled sharply. "Are you in pain ? Headache? Nausea?" I clarified, barely managing not to grind my teeth.

She stilled and tilted her head as she did a quick internal check. "No," she admitted reluctantly.

"Good." I nodded. "Let me do some research. I’ll tell you if I find anything."

She folded her arms. "And in the meantime?"

"Nothing," I said. "Just let me know if you begin to feel unwell."

She didn’t look convinced, but she nodded and headed for the door. Then she paused. "You better figure this out."

I said nothing and breathed a deep breath of relief when she walked through the door after I opened it via my comm. Outside, several humans were lingering, blatantly eavesdropping. My jaw ticked. Josie, one of the more irritating ones, stepped toward me, but I ordered the door shut before she could cross the threshold. Right into her face.

Frygg.

I ran a hand through my hair. None of this was a coincidence. Not the marks. Not the traitors. Not the human female. I considered reaching out to the other Space Guardians assigned to the human detail. But they were being hunted as traitors, so they wouldn’t answer a comm from me unless I tracked them down first.

Which made me think… if the Ohrurs were monitoring my activity, they wouldn’t think twice if I started searching for the traitors . That would buy me time to figure out what the frygg was happening.

I spent the rest of the day combing through data cubes, losing myself in the hunt until hunger finally drove me out of my quarters. The breakroom was dim—the ship’s night cycle was already activated—and thankfully, only a few humans remained.

"Xyrek," a voice called.

I ignored Tom, the self-proclaimed leader of the group I’d rescued, and made my way to the nutrition dispenser. Right after entering the required commands, I realized something was off. The food took longer than usual to come out, and when it did, it came in heaps—small, oddly shaped balls of different colors.

Tom made an annoyed sound. "You really need to stop Alice from tinkering with the ship. It’s dangerous," he said, nodding toward my plate.

I should have been irritated. Instead, something like pride swelled in my chest. Interesting , was my first thought.

Followed by another, her name is Alice .

I repeated it in my mind, liking the way it sounded.

"Hmm," I murmured, scooping up one of the food balls. The consistency was thicker, but it wasn’t unpleasant—just different—more bite than the usual nutrient mush.

Tom huffed. "She could blow the whole ship up."

I grabbed a cup of water and walked off without responding. Humans talked too much.