Page 27

ALICE

I didn't know what to say. The words, it was just a dream , hovered at the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them down. It was clear that to him, it hadn't been just a dream . And by the way goosebumps spread over my flesh whenever he said the name Allisaahn , I kind of agreed with him. My logical brain was still refusing to believe any of it. Soulweb Glyphs and Mates ? But there was no denying the black markings running up and down the left side of my body.

As much as I wanted to call him a psychopath for making this whole thing up, having injected some kind of poison in me to make those marks appear… well, let's just say that sounded as far-fetched as the other story. Also, there was no denying the deep-rooted emotions inside of me at hearing her name. Or how his description of the town and Darlam reverberated inside me, like an echo that had become so faint it was barely audible any longer.

Yet, it was hard to believe in that whole Soulmate stuff. I mean, if that were the case, shouldn't I have been head over heels in love with this guy? Like from the moment I laid eyes on him? Wasn't that what this was supposed to be all about? Love?

I did have feelings for Xyrek. Hell, I was here on a spaceship with him, going to a planet I'd never heard of before, leaving anything human behind. But love?

I listened deep inside me, recalled the great sex we had, the fluttering in my stomach whenever I saw him, the weakening knees. Crush, maybe, I allowed. But did one follow a crush through the universe like this?

I remembered the ache I had felt when he was gone, and I thought I would never see him again. It hadn’t been a mind-numbing, devastating ache, but it had been there, and I wasn’t sure how much worse it might have become. Then again, I didn’t think love was an emotion one could quantify. Some people fell head over heels, some people enjoyed a quieter bond, and neither one was wrong or right. Many people swore they knew they had found their soulmate the moment they laid eyes on them. None of these were things I could dismiss. Neither could I dismiss my growing… fondness for him. Yes, fondness. One didn’t fall in love with someone in a matter of days, dammit. That just didn’t happen. But the truth was that I was following a man through space whom I hardly knew because it was better than being without him, so that had to be a pretty strong emotion I felt for him, right?

This was so confusing, and instead of finding any answers, it got more confusing with every clue Xyrek unearthed… was it still unearthing in space? Alright, I decided not to go there right then. I had far more important things to figure out.

"So, you think this is some kind of memory? That we were reincarnated? Me on Earth, you… wherever, through the Ohrurs?"

He shook his head before he nodded. "Something like that. Memories, for sure. I just don't know how I can have them… and you don't."

Yeah, that was one of the millions of questions running through my head.

"There's more," he said.

"Okay." I steeled myself.

Excruciating pain edged over his features. No, I decided. He wasn't a psychopath. There was no way someone could fake this kind of pain. Whatever he told me, whatever he was about to say to me, he believed in it with his entire being. Which still didn't mean it was true.

"The Ohrurs attacked us. They killed us, all of us," he said.

A cold hand grabbed my heart. My ears hummed, a deep, almost subsonic sound filling my head, pressing down, as if I were diving deep underwater. It kept increasing until I had to let go of Xyrek's hand to press both of mine against my head.

"Alice? What's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. A sound… pressure… it hurts."

"Easy," he grabbed my shoulders. "It's alright, Alice, nothing is going to hurt you."

I didn't respond; I only crawled deeper into myself. He suddenly let go and jumped off the bed. He grabbed the healing wand and moved it over my head. Expectantly, I waited, but nothing happened. Neither the pressure nor the sound subsided.

"Alice," he grabbed me again. "I need you to focus on me," he urged.

And then I passed out.

When my eyes blinked open, I felt a damp towel moving gently up and down my face. "There she is. You scared me. How are you feeling?"

I blinked a few times. The humming and pressure were gone. He helped me sit up, but dizziness made me lean into him. My hand moved up and cupped his cheek. The roughness of his skin was at once arousing and familiar. Achingly so, as if I had done this kind of gesture a million times before. I looked into the deep black pool of his eyes. Eyes that had been so… alien to me when I first met him. But now? Now I felt like I could read his every emotion in them. It was like diving into a dark pool of warm water. Reassuring, pleasant, and so very safe.

It felt like an echo in time, looking into those dark eyes, feeling his skin under my palm. My own flesh tingled at the contact, sending vibrations down to my core, warming my heart, and expanding a myriad of emotions inside my chest. Tears burned in my eyes just from this little contact, and I realized he was more than just a crush to me—a lot more. I cleared my throat to get the lump out of it before I reassured him, "Better, I think. It's gone."

"What was it?"

"I don't know. It was a sound. So deep. It felt like it was inside me—" I tried to explain, having difficulty recalling those moments, no matter how bad they had been. Because this latest epiphany, the way I felt about him? It was all that was on my mind right now.

"Surrounded you? Pressed you down?" he interrupted me, not realizing I had already broken off midsentence.

Still, his words brought me back to the reality we were talking about. "How do you know?"

"Because," he rubbed his palm over his face like he didn’t want to see my expression when he said, "because that's how we died."

I hadn't thought anything else could surprise me, but it did. His words rang deep inside me; they sounded and felt true. Fuck!

Fuck!

This was true. All of this was true.

"What happened?" I wanted to know.

"Drones." Xyrek’s voice was low, rough, edged with something I had never heard from him before—not frustration, not irritation, but something colder. "The Ohrurs used drones to hunt us down, then they killed us with sound and air."

I barely breathed as I watched him. His posture was controlled, arms crossed over his chest, but his fingers twitched—like he was reliving the horror of it. The same horror I had felt before I passed out.

"They didn’t even need to fire a weapon," he continued in a flat voice. "They sent in waves of machines that changed the pressure around us, like twisting a dial between life and death."

I swallowed, the weight of his words pressing into my chest like an invisible force.

"First, the air felt thick—like breathing in liquid metal. Then, the pressure dropped so fast it felt like your lungs were being ripped apart from the inside."

My stomach twisted. For a frightening moment, that was exactly what I had experienced.

"Some must have died instantly—blood vessels burst, brains swelled, lungs collapsed." He exhaled sharply, and his jaw worked so hard that I worried about his molars. A shiver ran down my spine, but I couldn’t look away.

"The drones emitted a low-frequency sound—something deep that crawled under your skin and into your skull. It shook people apart from the inside out." His fingers curled into fists. "Organs ruptured. Nerves misfired."

My entire body shook at the images he called up in his brutal style. He wasn't the type to sugarcoat things, but damn, I wished he had this time. The silence that followed felt thick, suffocating—as if even the ship around us could feel the weight of what had been done to him, to us. I forced down the lump in my throat and whispered, "How did you survive?"

Xyrek’s gaze met mine, and for a moment, there was something unreadable in his black eyes. Something that made my pulse spike for reasons I couldn’t quite explain.

"I didn’t," he said simply. "The Xyrek you’re looking at? He died on Darlam."

The words shouldn’t have affected me the way they did, but a sharp pang twisted deep in my gut because I believed him.

The thought of him dying, or having died, scared me. I couldn't imagine a world without him. "But if you died…" I trailed off, trying to find the right words to express the rampant thoughts running through my head. "Then how… where were you reborn?"

"That's one of the things I need to figure out."

"We," I took his hand and pressed it. "We, Xyrek. This is about both of us. And… Zaarek?" I cocked my head. "That was your brother, right?"

"Yes."

"But he's also one of the other Space Guardians?" I tried to wrap my head around it.

Xyrek pulled up his comm, opened a cube, and showed me an image of the other Space Guardian. "Except for having shorter hair in this image, he looks exactly like the male from my dream. Like how I remember my brother."

There were probably a million psychological explanations for this. Like his mind had made up the whole thing, given his brother the name of the other Space Guardian, and made him think they looked the same. But I didn't believe so. I really didn't. Whatever we were going to hypothesize, we needed to work under the assumption that all of this was true.

I reached out and placed my palm on his face. "Let's not talk about this anymore," I pulled him closer. "Kiss me. Let's forget about this for a while."

"Gladly," he said before his lips sealed mine. Emotions washed through me. Strong emotions. I held on to him like I hadn't seen him in years. My hands moved up and down his muscled arms, arms that felt more familiar than they should have.

A deep tenderness overcame me as Xyrek's strong arms enveloped my body, pulling me flush against his broad chest. His lips moved against mine with a desperate hunger as if he, too, was overwhelmed by the strange sense of longing and familiarity that had seized us both.

Xyrek's hands roamed my curves possessively, igniting my skin wherever they touched. A soft moan escaped my lips as his mouth trailed hot kisses down my neck. I arched into him, craving more of his touch, his taste, not just from physical desire but from something deeper. Something was changing inside me, or remembering. I wasn't sure which any longer. All I knew was that his touch ignited a fire I had never felt before.

"Alice," he growled against my throat; his deep voice vibrated through me and sent shivers racing down my spine. The way he said my name, with such raw need and reverence, made my heart clench almost painfully in my chest.

He was still naked; the need to have his skin touch mine had me pulling my shirt over my head in an impatient rush. I made out Xyrek's sculpted body in the low light, revealing expanses of gleaming silver skin stretched over rock-hard muscle. My hands explored the chiseled planes of his chest and abs with wonder, marveling at his alien perfection.

"You're so beautiful," I whispered, awed. It wasn't just how perfect he was; I felt things while touching him—things I didn't have a name for. I caressed his body, trying to convey my feelings for him.

Our eyes met, and in the depths of his obsidian orbs, I saw the same powerful emotions churning through him—desire, longing, confusion, recognition. As if in a trance, I leaned in and brushed my lips against his in the gentlest caress, feeling our connection's static charge. Xyrek cupped my face as he deepened the kiss. His tongue delved into my mouth to claim me thoroughly. I moaned and pressed myself fully against him, skin to skin, curves to hard planes. It felt so right, so perfect, like coming home after being lost for an eternity.

My hands mapped the sculpted expanse of his back as he settled between my thighs, the hard evidence of his arousal nestled against my aching core.

"I need you," Xyrek rasped, his voice rough with desire. "I've never needed anyone like this."

I wrapped my legs around his waist, drawing him closer, craving the intimate connection.

"Then take me," I breathed against his lips. "I'm yours."

With a deep groan, Xyrek surged forward, sheathing himself fully inside me in one powerful thrust. I cried out at the exquisite sensation of him filling and stretching me. It was more than just physical pleasure—it was a sense of completeness, of two halves becoming whole. It was like finding a warm spot in the middle of a raging snowstorm, like standing in the eye of the storm, like gasping for air after being pulled from deep water, like waking from a fever dream to find the world sharper, clearer, more real than it had ever been.

A shudder tore through me as Xyrek held still for a moment, buried deep, his forehead pressed against mine, his hot breath caressing my skin. His grip on my hips was firm and grounding, like he was afraid I’d slip through his fingers.

Then he moved.

A slow, deliberate pull followed by a deep, claiming thrust that sent pleasure rolling through me like a shock to the system, a jolt of raw sensation I could feel in my bones. I gasped, my fingers clawing at his shoulders, my body desperate for more, for all of him.

"Frygg," he growled against my throat, voice hoarse, almost wrecked. "You feel—" He cut himself off with a rough, unsteady breath; his next thrust came harder, deeper, making me cry out. I moaned, arching against him, my legs tightening around his waist. I needed more. I needed him.

"More," I gasped as my heels dug into his back, pulling him impossibly closer.

His fingers tightened around my thighs, and his rhythm shifted—rougher, more urgent, more demanding. Each thrust sent pleasure rippling outward, unraveling everything I thought I knew about need, about connection, about what it meant to belong to someone.

It wasn’t just sex.

It wasn’t just a claiming.

It was a return, a reawakening, a collision of two halves that had been searching for each other through space and time.

I met his gaze, saw the same wild hunger, the same helpless surrender in the depths of his black, endless eyes.

I was his.

And God help me…

He was mine .

My nails raked down his back as our hips met in a primal rhythm, our breaths mingled with soft moans and whispered words. Xyrek's thrusts grew more urgent, more demanding, as if he were trying to merge our very souls through the joining of our bodies. I matched his desperate passion, rising to meet each powerful stroke. Our mouths fused together in a searing kiss, tongues tangling and exploring, tasting and claiming.

Pleasure coiled tighter and tighter in my core with each deep plunge of his thick length. I could feel myself unraveling, spiraling closer to the edge of ecstasy. Xyrek's hand slipped between our writhing bodies to stroke my swollen clit; his skillful touch sent me careening over the edge.

"Xyrek!" I cried out as rapture crashed over me, my inner walls clenched around him in pulsing waves.

With a guttural groan, he surrendered to his own release as his cock throbbed deep inside me.

It hit me all at once, like a dam breaking, like a tide rushing in too fast to fight. I loved him. More than I should, more than I ever thought possible. It wasn’t just lust, wasn’t just the pull of the mating marks—it was him—his strength, his arrogance, his sharp edges that somehow fit perfectly against mine.

There was no running from it, no rationalizing it away. I had fallen, and there was no ground beneath me—only him, catching me, holding me, anchoring me in a way I never knew I needed.