Page 31 of Rok’s Captive (Barbarians of the Dust #1)

WHAT JUST HAPPENED? (AND CAN WE DO IT AGAIN?)

ROK

T he universe has shifted.

In all my cycles, I have hunted the great beasts of the dust. I have fought rival clans and survived the black winds. I have shed blood and suffered wounds that would have killed lesser beings. But nothing—nothing—has prepared me for this.

For her.

I watch her now as she sleeps, curled on the smooth stones of the dust stalker’s abandoned nest. Her breathing is soft, her face peaceful in a way it rarely is when she’s awake. The fire I’ve built casts golden light across her skin, highlighting the strange paleness that first made me think she was something other than flesh.

My Jus-teen.

My female.

The claiming still pulses through my blood, a satisfaction so deep it feels carved into my bones. The memory of being inside her makes my stem harden yet again, an urgency I never knew before she fell from the sky.

When I first coupled with her against the cave wall, it was like the universe clicked into place. Like every breath before had been shallow, and suddenly I could fill my lungs completely. Her body welcomed mine, tight and wet and perfect, as if the great Ain had crafted her specifically for me.

She’d taken me again after we rested, guiding me to taste the sweet water between her legs. The sounds she made—soft cries that built to desperate screams—are branded in my memory. And when she’d mounted me afterward, her soft body sliding down over my hardness, her watery eyes locked with mine…I’d nearly lost myself completely.

I shift closer to the fire, adding more fuel to keep her warm. She shivers even in sleep, her small form vulnerable to the cold of the cave. My Jus-teen is delicate in ways I never expected. Strong in spirit but fragile in body. She needs protection. Nourishment. Warmth.

She needs me.

The possessiveness that floods through me is like nothing I’ve ever felt. Mine to protect. Mine to feed. Mine to please. The thought of her living with me in the clan cave shoots through my mind, and my chest rumbles with satisfaction.

My clan will welcome her—a blessing from the sky, a gift from Ain herself. They will see her value, just as I have. They will help me protect her and find the others of her kind.

I have already gathered water while she slept, filling the gourd from a small spring deeper in the cave system. And now I will hunt. My female needs meat to strengthen her, especially after our coupling.

I touch her face gently, careful not to wake her with my claws, and ease away toward the cave entrance. I slip out into the twilight, my vision sharpening as I adjust to the dimness. The pesky dust serpent that had been after us is now gone, leaving the sands peacefully still.

The hunt is quick. A rock-jumper has made its burrow nearby, foolishly close to the cave. I catch it easily, snapping its neck with one clean motion. It’s not much—barely a mouthful for a warrior of my size—but it will nourish my Jus-teen.

When I return, she’s still sleeping. I set about preparing the meat, using my claw to skin and clean it before spearing it on a sharpened rock to warm over the fire. Because my female likes her food this way. So I will do it for her. The scent fills the small chamber as I turn the meat, and Jus-teen stirs, her eyelids fluttering. When she opens them fully, her gaze finds mine immediately, and the smile that spreads across her face makes my chest tighten in the strangest way.

“You made food,” she says, her soft voice still heavy with sleep. She sits up, drawing her legs beneath her, and I notice her wince slightly.

I move to her side immediately, concern flooding through me. “ Hurt ?” I push through mindspeak. I reach for her, my hand hovering over her thigh, uncertain where the pain is.

Her cheeks darken in that fascinating way, and she shakes her head. “I’m fine, just a little sore. From, um, you know.” She glances down at my stem, which responds immediately to her attention, hardening once more.

If she will have me, I will sink deep inside her once more. But not before she has eaten.

Her eyes widen, and she laughs—a sound that makes my blood heat. “Already? Seriously?”

I don’t understand her words, but the images flashing through her mind are clear enough. She’s thinking of our coupling, of my size inside her, of the slight discomfort and overwhelming pleasure.

My stem jerks at the intensity of those thoughts.

“ For you ,” I project, gesturing to the roasting creature. “ Eat. Strength .”

She shifts toward the fire, reaching for the gourd of water I’ve placed nearby. “Thank you.” She drinks deeply, then turns her attention to the meat. “This smells amazing. I’m starving.”

I watch with satisfaction as she tears into the meat, making small sounds of pleasure that have my stem twitching beneath my hide coverings. Loincloth, that is what she calls it, though I do not know why she wants me to hide myself. She seems quite happy when it is on display and I would rather she not hide herself, either. I would put all these hide coverings into the fire to burn, but I do not.

This is a gift from my female. I will treasure it forever.

She eats with an appetite that pleases me, licking the juices from her fingers in a way that makes me want to claim her again immediately.

“This is so good,” she says between bites. She pauses, looking up at me with her head tilted in that way I’ve come to recognize means she’s curious about something. “Do you want some?”

I shake my head. “ For you ,” I project. “ I hunt more later. ”

She smiles at me, and then her expression shifts to something more mischievous. “Thank God you don’t understand everything I say or you’d know I’m thinking about jumping your bones again.”

I can’t suppress the grunt of laughter that escapes me. The image in her mind is clear—her body pressed against mine, her mouth on my stem, her legs wrapped around my waist as I thrust into her.

Her eyes widen, the meat forgotten in her hand. “Wait. Did you just…understand what I said?”

“ Yes ,” I reply, both with my voice and my thoughts. And then, in the old tongue: “ I see your thoughts. Clear. Like when we touch heads, but…no touching needed now .”

“ Stop eavesdropping on my thoughts ,” she projects, her mental voice stronger than her spoken one.

“ I am not dropping anything ,” I respond.

She freezes, blinking rapidly. “Say that again. I mean, think it again.”

“ I am not dropping anything ,” I repeat in my mind, focusing on sending the thought clearly to her.

“Holy shit,” she whispers, setting the meat aside. “We can hear each other now? Without touching foreheads?”

She is right. I’d been too caught up in the aftermath of her glow that it did not fully occur to me.

I nod, though I cannot hide the disappointment. “ I enjoyed being close. ” The words echo in the mindspace. “ Looking into your water-eyes when we share thoughts .”

Her expression softens, and she moves toward me, the meat forgotten as she climbs into my lap, her legs straddling mine. The position brings her core directly against my hard stem, and I grip her hips to steady her.

“We can still be close,” she whispers, leaning forward to press her lips to mine. The water sharing is slow, deep, a claiming of her own. Her hands frame my face, her thumbs tracing the angles of my jaw with a tenderness that makes heat pool low in my gut.

“This is madness,” she whispers against my mouth. “What if I’m imagining all this?”

I grunt. “ I am real .”

“But you’re reading my thoughts. And this planet. Everything about it. Everything about you. And your cock . It’s like…”

“ It is real, too .” My hands tighten on her hips, keeping her anchored to me as I slide my hips upward, rubbing her along my length. “ As real as the pain I feel whenever you are not near. As if part of me is missing. ”

She blinks. “Pain?”

My gaze searches hers. “ I cannot be far from you, my light. It is impossible for me. ”

Her throat moves, and I see confusion in her eyes. I sense it in her mind.

“Last night…” she whispers.

I pull back just enough to meet her gaze, my hands sliding up her sides to cup her small, perfect mounds through the thin fabric of her top. “ You showed me the universe ,” I finish for her, “ and now I will show you mine .”

Her eyes darken, her lips parting as her breath quickens. The scent of her arousal fills my nostrils, and it’s driving me to near madness.

“How soon will we reach your clan?” she asks, even as her hips continue their maddening rhythm against me. “Are you sure they’ll help the others? There are many of us.”

“ Many daughters of Ain ,” I agree, my hands moving to the band of her strange coverings. I want to feel her skin, all of it, pressed against mine.

She goes still beneath my touch, a strange tension entering her body. Before I know what I did wrong, she looks away, her thoughts suddenly guarded.

“ My clan will do anything to keep such treasures safe ,” I continue, confused by her reaction. I pull at the thin fabric, revealing more of her pale skin to my hungry gaze. “ You are precious to us. To me .”

She shifts off my lap, turning her back to me as she pulls her coverings back into place. Her shoulders slump, and I sense a heaviness in her that wasn’t there before.

I approach her carefully, uncertain what has changed. Have I offended her somehow? Misunderstood a signal? The intricacies of female behavior are unknown to me.

When she turns to face me, there is water in her eyes. Alarm shoots through me. She’s leaking again, as she did when she told me of her missing kin.

“ Jus-teen ?” I reach for her, my hand hovering uncertainly. “ Why leak water? Pain? ”

“It’s normal,” she vocalizes, wiping at her eyes. “They’re called tears. It happens when we’re sad or scared or…overwhelmed.”

I cup her face gently, my thumb trying to rub the tear back into her skin. I do not like seeing her body waste water so. Even after so many times, it is alarming. “ What makes you sad? Tell me, and I will fix it .”

She laughs, but the sound is hollow, lacking the warmth I’ve come to crave. “You can’t fix this, Rok. Because you think I’m something I’m not.”

I tilt my head, confused. “ What do you mean ?”

“This planet is filled with danger,” she vocalizes, her voice quiet but steady. “If you’re going to risk your life to take me to my sister, you should at least know the truth.” She takes a deep breath, her hands coming up to rest against my chest. “I’m not a daughter of Ain.”

I am still as I wait for her to explain. Not a daughter of Ain? But she fell from Ain and she is unlike any being I have ever encountered.

Soft. To be worshipped. Just like the beings in those stories of old. The daughters we Drakav cherished.

“ I don’t…understand .”

She sighs, moving away to settle near the fire again. “I don’t even know who Ain is, Rok. I’m just…a human woman.” Human? I blink, still struggling to understand. I have never heard of such a tribe or clan before. “I’m from a planet called Earth. I was on a bus—I guess it was a ship—and something went wrong. We crashed here. I’m not special or magical or whatever you think I am. I’m just lost.”

Lost?

No.

She is exactly where she is supposed to be. I know this with every fiber of my being.

I watch her, studying the way the firelight plays across her features. Her strange, rounded ears. Her oddly colored eyes, the soft curve of her mouth. Everything about her is foreign, yes, but also…right. Perfect.

“ Ain ,” I begin, trying to explain what every youngling in my clan learns from their first conscious moments. “ Ain is creator of the dust and sky. Ain is the light that gives us all life. And you…you fell from her. A daughter ?—”

She shakes her head. “I’m not some special mythical being, Rok. I’m as confused and scared as anyone would be, waking up on a strange planet.”

“ But you are ,” I insist, moving closer to her. “ If not, I would have made the mistake of killing you in the dust. You are mine now. And I am yours. Entangled. Forever .”

Her brow furrows. “What?”

“ I cannot exist without you ,” I explain, touching her arm gently. “ Being away brings pain .”

She stares at me, her expression unreadable. “That’s impossible.”

I take her hand, turning it over in my claw. “ This…you…are not like my people. There is something in you, Jus-teen, that is not of the dust. But if you did not come…my existence would have meant nothing .”

“Rok…” she begins, but trails off, uncertainty clear in her voice.

“ It does not matter what you call yourself ,” I shift, pulling her against my chest. “ Daughter of Ain or human female. You are Jus-teen. My Jus-teen. ” I press my forehead to hers, wanting her to feel the truth in my thoughts. “ And I will protect you. Find your kin. Keep you safe .”

Her thoughts finally open to me again. A tangled web of confusion, fear, and something else—something that makes my chest warm. She’s afraid I’ll reject her now that I know she’s not what I thought. She’s afraid I’ll abandon her in this hostile world.

“ Never .” I push the thought hard. “ You are mine now. Nothing changes that .”

I feel the moment the tension leaves her body, the way she melts against me, her arms coming up to wrap around my neck.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” she whispers against my skin. “I don’t understand any of this. But I know I need you. And that scares me more than anything on this planet.”

I cradle her against me, my hand stroking down her back. “ Fear is wise in the dust ,” I tell her. “ Fear keeps you alive. But fear of me? ” I shake my head. “ This you do not need. I would die before I let harm come to you .”

She pulls back just enough to look into my eyes, her hands framing my face. “That’s exactly what scares me,” she whispers. “How much I already care about you. How much I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

The admission sends a rush of warmth through my chest. She cares for me. This strange, beautiful creature cares for me.

“ We will be careful ,” I promise her. “ We will reach my clan safely. Find your others. All will be well .”

She nods, but I can sense she doesn’t fully believe me. There’s something else she’s not telling me, some fear she’s holding back.

“ What else troubles you? ” I ask, brushing her strange, soft fur back from her face.

She hesitates, her lower lip caught between her teeth. “What if…what if your clan doesn’t believe I’m just a human? What if they think I’m this daughter of Ain? What will they expect from me?”

I consider this, knowing the reverence with which my people view the tale. “ They will be curious ,” I admit. “ They will want to see your light, hear your knowledge. But they will not harm you .”

“And when they realize I don’t have any special knowledge or powers? When I can’t do whatever it is they expect from a daughter of Ain?”

I stroke her cheek, marveling at its softness. “ We expect nothing from the daughters. Nothing but their favor. When I bring you to my clan , they will see you as I do. As Jus-teen. Strong. Beautiful. Worthy of protection .”

She leans into my touch, her eyes closing briefly. “I hope you’re right.”

“ I am right ,” I assure her, pulling her close again. “ Rok is never wrong, unless Jus-teen says he is .”

A chuckle goes through her, her body relaxing as I settle us both by the fire. I pull her into my lap, wrapping my arms around her to shield her from the chill of the cave.

As she drifts toward sleep, her thoughts growing fuzzy and disjointed, I allow myself to consider what she’s told me. Not a daughter of Ain, she claims. Just a human female, lost and far from home.

And yet…I’ve felt the change in myself since finding her—the way my body has transformed, my thoughts have clarified, my stem has grown. These are not coincidences.

The stories speak of the wonder of the daughters of Ain. Their power. Their glory. Perhaps these beings, these humans, carry Ain’s blessing without understanding it themselves.

I press my lips to her head fur, breathing in her unique scent. It doesn’t matter what she calls herself. Daughter of Ain. Human. She is mine to protect now. Mine to cherish. And I will bring her safely to my clan, find her people, and ensure she never has reason to fear again.