Page 31

The Watchful Wolf

XANDER

X ander kept her close all day.

Not because of paranoia, but by pure instinct.

His eyes were on her every breath, move, and micro moment.

Reading her. Scenting her.

Shielding her from the building pressure and strain.

She remained composed, not cracking once, but he spotted the tiny signs she was masking her agony.

He caught on to her jaw tensing during holo briefings, how her fingers fluttered toward her comm tab, only to retract before touching it.

What captivated Xander wasn’t just the steel in her backbone.

It was the worry for her loved ones that she tried to hide, how sadness pooled behind her poise when no one else was looking.

Her pain was also evident in the hollowness that flickered in her eyes when her thoughts strayed to her family, and her ship was caught in an unprecedented crisis.

Still, she maintained her dignity.

Her stance was always calm and commanding, no doubt the chief of security of the most influential generational ship in the Wildlight.

She didn’t try to impress. She didn’t posture or throw her largesse around.

Yet still he sensed her vulnerability, and he ached to ease her suffering.

When the group dispersed after twelve hours of planning, Xander stroked a hand down her spine.

He leaned in to her. ‘Come with me, belleza .’

She nodded, wordlessly.

They walked with his arm around her waist through the winding, lamp-lit corridors of the Signet command deck, carved into the curved side of the ship’s inner flank.

She leaned into him, yet she held her chin high.

She was camouflaging, he detected, in her hitched breath and strained lines of her eyes.

At the entrance to his quarters, he tapped a code into the keypad, and the sliding panels opened to let them into his private suite.

He pulled her inside the door and trailed his lips to her temple.

Her eyes gave him a tiny flicker of shyness that almost knocked him to his knees.

It undid him more than any overt flirtation could, wanting to protect and claim her, over and over, until she begged him to stop.

Savvine hesitated on the threshold, her gaze sweeping across the minimalist decor.

Dark stone walls, plex panels that opened to a projection of a starlit lake, recessed lighting, books, and weapons arranged with clean precision.

Nothing was gaudy here, just strength, simplicity, and serenity, as he liked it.

‘Not the cabin tonight?’

She sounded surprised and weary.

‘ Nada , mi cielo , I want to be close to the bridge in case of any emergencies.’

Her eyes clouded as Xander stepped behind her and tilted her chin up, his voice a coaxing rasp against her temple.

‘We can’t do anything about tomorrow’s cares,’ he murmured. ‘So for now, relax, mi cielo .’

Her lips parted, not in protest, but in relief.

He moved, taking her hand and leading her through the vast living area into his primary.

Into a sunken spa chamber, where soft hidden lights turned on with a sweeping gesture.

Shadows danced across the black obsidian tub, its depth carved with etched sigils.

Another command and hot water poured into the basin, as steam rose.

‘Bath?’ he asked, voice quieter now, more intimate.

She gave a slight nod, eyes lighting up for the first time that day.

Xander sat on a chair and pulled her to him.

He undressed her, reverently, unlacing her boots, sliding off her tunic, peeling away the exhaustion with every motion.

Then she helped him undress, fingers trailing over the ridges of his muscles, his tattoos, and the scars of a hundred missions.

By now, their shared gaze was molten.

‘ Fokk , you have the most beautiful bedroom eyes,’ he growled into her ear.

They stepped into the steaming liquid, the obsidian smooth and warm beneath them.

Xander sat behind her, pulling her into the cradle of his thighs, wrapping around her as water lapped at their skin.

He bathed her, his calloused hands slicking soap over her shoulders, all the way to her legs. Her body trembled under his touch, her breath hitching, even as her limbs relaxed into him.

His lips pressed to the slope of her neck. Her fingers laced with his.

They talked in murmurs between kisses.

Their embrace deepened, slow and molten.

The foreplay ratcheted, feet tangled, and need blooming.

Later, they rose from the bath, dried each other with thick towels, and padded barefoot over the warm floor into his bed.

He pulled her beneath the black silk sheets and into his arms.

As the Sombra and the rest of the armada slid in between the hush of galaxies, he made love to her, taking his time.

They gave themselves over to the unwavering burn of connection and the quiet, trembling miracle of finding bliss on a journey fraught with ongoing battles.

He let himself feel all of her, losing his heart and soul in the throes of a bliss unimaginable.

SAVVINE

She woke in the stillness of early morning, cocooned in silk sheets scented like him, smoke, steel, and musk.

His arm rested on her waist, her cheek nestled to his chest, and the steady thrum of his heart grounded her in a way nothing else had in days.

She shifted, her fingers gliding over the warm plane of his torso, feather soft, tracing the old scar beneath his collarbone, over a half-moon of raised cutis.

He didn’t move, but she caught the catch in his inhale. A smile curved her mouth as she stared at the constellation of scars across his chest, mesmerized.

‘Violent much?’ she murmured, tracking one with the tip of her finger.

He chuckled, his chest rumbling, then leaned in, his exhalation hot over her skin. ‘You like them,’ he said, right before his tongue flicked the shell of her ear.

She shivered, and any witty retort on her lips melted into a gasp.

‘Where’s this one from?’

She slid a hand over his upper torso, voice still husky with sleep.

‘A blade, close quarters during a prison riot that was my real test of command.’

Her fingers danced lower, to a silvered slash over his ribs.

‘And this?’

‘A drill accident,’ he muttered, eyes still closed. ‘I was sixteen and thought I could reroute a coolant line blindfolded. I failed, spectacularly.’

She chuckled, the sound warm between them.

He opened one eye, gaze dark and soft. ‘You really want the tour?’

‘Of course,’ she said, propping herself up on an elbow, her hand drifting over the ridges of muscle, the map of his body.

‘Bullet wound,’ he said when she touched the jagged mark on his hip. ‘Sniper. Wildlight border. I turned my back and they rearmed.’

Her palm smoothed down his thigh, to a faint burn near the side of his leg.

‘Laser drill,’ he said, exhaling. ‘While welding ship frames on the Sombra during its refit.’

She leaned down and kissed that scar. Then another. Then another. Her lips soft, reverent, lingering.

He groaned, and his arms tightened around her, pulling her on top of him.

‘Keep doing that,’ he murmured, ‘and I’ll never let you leave this bed.’

‘Promise?’ she whispered, her mouth against his neck.

His answer came not in words but in how he rolled with her.

Pinning her to the sheets, kissing her like the world was burning just beyond the door and he had no intention of letting it in.

This time, it was surrender; slow, deep, aching with tenderness.

She lost herself in the rhythm of him, in the way his hands cradled her face.

In the heat pooling in her spine as he moved with her like he already knew the song of her body.

Every breath, gasp, whisper of her name from his lips anchored her.

When it was over, and he held her against his chest again, their bodies slick and hearts still racing, she thought, This is the first time I’ve felt truly cherished by a man.

XANDER

The following morning, they made it to the cafeteria hall just after first call.

Savvine’s hair was still damp from their quick shower, tied in a loose knot at the nape of her neck.

Xander stole another glance at her as she stepped ahead, in his borrowed jumpsuit, two sizes too large for her.

He smirked when she tugged her sleeves over her knuckles, the sight warming him.

The mess on Deck 6 was one of his favorite spots: expansive floor-to-ceiling windows set over the inner arboretum dome, where early risers were already tending the crops, their silhouettes soft in dawn’s light.

The hum of chatter filtered through the open space.

The air was redolent with brewed kahawa , buttery toast, and the roasted tang of peppers on a skillet.

Two engineers had taken their usual table near the far window, so they slid into the booth closest to the galley.

‘Sit,’ Xander ordered Savvine. ‘I’ve got this.’

He strolled to the buffet and returned with an overflowing tray within minutes.

On it were plates of fresh fritters, scrambled eggs with spiced greens.

Fire-grilled plantains drizzled with honey, a stack of sweet corn arepas , and steaming mugs of kahawa , thick and dark with a cardamom bite.

‘All this?’ Savvine gasped. ‘It’s a feast.’

‘With you, every moment is a celebration.’

‘Who knew a spectral wolf could spew such cheesy lines?’ she teased.

He winked and chuckled as they got into the food.

Xander studied Savvine as they ate, loving how relaxed and laid-back she seemed.

She smiled, in a lighter mood than the night before.

When she leaned in to listen to him, Xander’s gaze fell on the tiny, scattered constellations of freckles across her cheeks.

That, and the odd flecks of gold in her otherwise deep green eyes, and that little gap in her teeth when she smiled.

Then, on her eyebrows, one arched a tad higher than the other.

He wanted to kiss her wrist when she drank with delicate grace from her cup of kahawa . Bite it, maybe.

Fokk. He couldn’t get her out of his mind, addicted to the pleasure he experienced with her.

It wasn’t her body, although it was a wonder, but the way she stirred emotion in him far deeper than lust.

It was this quiet captivation she didn’t even know she wielded.

The way she made loving her so easy.

They brushed shoulders as she reached for the salt.

Her thigh bumped his under the table. She apologized.

He didn’t answer, he just buried his nose in her nape and breathed her scent with one hand still warm on her lower back.

His hand slipped to her shoulder when she laughed.

Kaal interrupted them with an update on all overnight security movements around the Eterna .

She leaned against Xander as they listened to his brusque, sarcastic reportage.

‘One of our Signet surveillance drones I was manning got a warning from fake Eugene when we drifted too close to the perimeter.’

‘What did you do?’

Kaal shrugged. ‘My give a shit just got up and left.’

This got her laughing hard enough to throw her head back, and, enamored, Xander kissed the side of her temple without thinking.

Her eyes locked with him as Kaal sauntered away.

Her breath hitched, his soul jolted.

They weren’t speaking about what was happening.

They weren’t naming it.

Whateverthefokk it was, it simmered, churning. Hard.

In the long looks that lingered.

In every heart-thumping moment when their eyes locked and sliced away again.

How her gaze melted him, each damn fokkin ’ time.

Leaving him ragged, needing, craving more.