Page 7 of Vylit: Glowing for Her (Consumed by the Alien Heat #1)

MAYA

T he rockfall exploded inward with a thunderous crack, sending deadly shards slicing through the air and water around us.

I flinched against Vylit's chest, heart hammering as his arms tightened protectively around me.

The cave mouth vomited alien bodies… pirates swarming through the breach like predators scenting blood.

Their forms twisted through the water with unnatural grace, some humanoid, others decidedly not.

Six, no, eight figures armed with weapons that glowed and pulsed with the same sickening rhythm as the beacon nodes.

My torn dive suit fluttered around my thighs, a stark reminder of my vulnerability in this moment.

These creatures had come for me. Not as a scientist. Not as a person. As property.

"Get behind me," Vylit growled, his luminescence flaring blood-red as he pushed me backward.

Adrenaline flooded my system, sharpening my senses to painful clarity.

The lead pirate emerged fully into the cavern…

bipedal but with a head that reminded me of a hammerhead shark, eyes set wide on a horizontal plane.

His mouth split into four separate parts, each lined with needlelike teeth.

The sight should have paralyzed me with terror, but instead, a strange, wild fury rose in my chest.

"The female is ours," the shark-head announced, his voice translating through my patch with an oily smoothness that made my skin crawl. "Half-bond. Easily broken. Step aside, Mavtrosian, and we'll make your death quick."

I groped blindly behind me, fingers closing around a jagged piece of coral broken loose during our mating.

The weight of it felt reassuring in my palm, its edges sharp enough to slice alien flesh.

I hoped. The scientist in me cataloged potential vulnerable points…

gills, eyes, the exposed tubing at their necks that pulsed with fluid.

I might be out of my depth, but I wasn't going down without inflicting serious damage.

"She's mine," Vylit snarled, his massive form expanding as specialized membranes unfurled along his arms. His skin transformed before my eyes, hardening into an armor-like state while still maintaining its luminous glow. "My complement. My mate."

The shark-head laughed, a wet, gurgling sound. "Not fully. Not yet." He gestured to his crew, who spread out in a semicircle formation. "Take her alive. Kill him."

Vylit exploded into motion with a speed that defied his size.

One moment he stood in front of me, the next he tore through the water, his fist connecting with shark-head's face with a sickening crunch.

The pirate flew backward, crashing into the cavern wall.

Three more rushed to take his place, wielding weapons that seemed to liquefy and solidify at will.

I pressed my back against the cave wall, the Breather around my neck suddenly feeling too restrictive.

I slipped it back over my face, not trusting the ambient oxygen to remain stable during battle.

Through the transparent membrane, I watched Vylit transform into something I barely recognized…

a living weapon, his every movement calculated and lethal.

He caught one pirate by the throat, claws puncturing deep before flinging the body aside.

Another swung what looked like a whip made of living metal.

Vylit caught it mid-strike, the material searing into his palm before he yanked it away and turned it against its owner.

The violence shocked me, but not as much as my own lack of revulsion. This was survival. Primal, necessary, and strangely beautiful in its terrible efficiency.

A shadow moved in my peripheral vision. I whirled to find a slender pirate with translucent skin and compound eyes creeping along the wall toward me. His mouth opened in what might have been a smile, revealing no teeth but a pulsing dark hole ringed with stinging tentacles.

"Soft little thing," he hissed through the translator. "You'll fetch a handsome price."

I'd had enough of being someone's prize.

The coral shard in my hand arced forward, slashing across his reaching arms. The creature shrieked, ichor spilling from the wound.

I didn't wait for him to recover, but lunged forward, driving the jagged edge into one of his compound eyes.

The satisfying pop and squelch triggered a surge of vicious triumph.

"I'm not fucking merchandise," I spat as he reeled backward.

Behind me, the battle raged. Vylit roared as he tore through another pirate, his glow illuminating the cavern in strobing pulses.

Water churned with violence, thick with blood and ichorous fluids from several species.

I backed away from my wounded attacker, scanning for another weapon.

My fingers closed around a fist-sized stone, and I hurled it at another approaching pirate, catching him in what passed for a throat.

The tide turned against us as more pirates poured through the breach.

Vylit fought like a demon, but even his massive strength had limits.

A barbed spear caught him in the shoulder, the wound instantly leaking luminous fluid, kinda like a macabre glow stick.

He ripped it out with a snarl that vibrated through my bones.

"Maya," he called, voice ragged. "Stay in the shadows!"

Like hell I would. I scrambled across the cave floor, collecting more projectiles—broken coral, stone fragments, anything that could be weaponized.

Each time a pirate came within range, I hurled my missiles with all the strength I could muster.

One caught a fish-like creature in its gills, another struck an arthropod pirate in the joint of its leg, crippling it momentarily.

The shark-head recovered, blood streaming from his ruined face where Vylit had struck him.

He bellowed commands, and three pirates converged on me from different angles.

I backed deeper into the cave, cursing as my heel caught on uneven stone.

I stumbled, falling hard, the breath knocked from my lungs.

The nearest pirate lunged, clawed hands extended toward my throat.

A blur of motion intercepted him… Vylit, tearing the creature off its trajectory and hurling it across the cavern with such force that its body shattered against the far wall. He stood over me, bleeding from multiple wounds, his chest heaving.

"I won't let them take you," he promised, voice thick with something that transcended rage.

"Behind you!" I screamed as two more pirates rushed him simultaneously.

He spun, catching one with a sweeping kick while grappling with the other. His movements were slowing, fatigue and wounds taking their toll. For every pirate he dispatched, two more seemed to appear. The horrible truth dawned on me. We couldn't win this fight. Not alone.

As if answering my desperate thought, the ceiling of the cavern exploded inward. Rock and debris rained down as two massive forms burst through the new opening, trailing light and heat in their wake. I recognized them instantly… Kazmyr and Silvyr, Vylit's battle brothers.

Kazmyr landed with seismic force, the impact sending shockwaves through the water.

His lava-cracked obsidian skin glowed with internal fire, the Ember Marks across his body flaring white-hot as he assessed the battlefield.

Without hesitation, he waded into the fight, each movement unleashing waves of superheated water that boiled pirate flesh on contact.

"About fucking time!" I shouted, scrambling to my feet.

Silvyr, leaner and quicker than Kazmyr, flashed me a grin as he darted past. "Miss us, little wave?" He moved like liquid mercury, his form seeming to flow around pirate attacks before solidifying at precisely the right moment to deliver devastating counters.

The pirates faltered, clearly unprepared for reinforcements.

Vylit seized the opportunity, driving forward with renewed vigor.

He grabbed the shark-head by his elongated skull and slammed him repeatedly against the cavern wall.

The pirate's body went limp, but Vylit didn't stop until the skull cracked like an egg, spilling its contents into the churning water.

I watched, transfixed by the savage beauty of it, by the knowledge that this violence was for me—to protect me, to keep me from becoming someone's possession. The realization sent a confusing mix of emotions cascading through me—gratitude, horror, and something darker that I wasn't ready to name.

Kazmyr cornered three pirates, his massive hands glowing with heat as he reached for them.

Their screams cut off abruptly as the water around them flashed to steam, cooking them inside their own skin.

Silvyr dispatched two more with a serrated blade that seemed to extend from his forearm, moving so fast his attacks blurred into a single, continuous motion.

The final pirate, a bulbous creature with multiple limbs, tried to retreat through the original breach.

Vylit intercepted him, catching him by what might have been a throat and slamming him against the wall beside me.

The pirate's eyes—all six of them—rolled in terror as Vylit's face pushed close to his.

"Tell your kind," Vylit snarled, "the Mavtrosian's mate is claimed. Fully. Completely." He punctuated each word by tightening his grip. "Spread the word. Any who come for her will meet the same fate."

With a final, vicious twist, he crushed the pirate's throat and let the body slump to the ground. The cavern fell silent except for our ragged breathing and the soft plink of fluid dripping from wounds.

I pushed off from the wall, legs shaking with spent adrenaline, and rounded on the newcomers. "What the fuck took you so long?"

Silvyr wiped his blade clean, his expression shifting from battle-rage to amusement in an instant.

"Pirates scrambled our teleport signal. Took me precisely eight minutes and thirty-four seconds to hack through their encryption.

Once I realized what happened." He shrugged, as if breaking alien code was a minor inconvenience.

"Would have been seven minutes if Kazmyr hadn't been breathing down my neck. "

Kazmyr grunted, the sound rumbling through the water like distant thunder. His molten-gold eyes assessed me with unsettling directness. "You're alive. We're here. Complaining solves nothing."

"Complaining is my God-given right as someone who almost became pirate breeding stock!" My voice cracked, hysteria threatening at the edges of my composure.

Vylit moved between us, his massive body effectively blocking my view of his brothers. His hand found mine, fingers intertwining with a gentleness that belied the violence I'd just witnessed. His luminescence had dimmed to a soft, protective glow that pulsed in time with his hearts.

"You fought well," he said, his voice pitched low for me alone. "Like a true warrior."

The compliment caught me off guard, warming something deep in my chest despite everything.

I became acutely aware of my appearance…

my dive suit torn from collar to thigh, my skin marked with Vylit's luminous patterns, evidence of our bonding displayed for all to see.

Heat flushed my cheeks as I tugged uselessly at the tattered fabric.

Vylit's eyes narrowed, catching my discomfort. He turned, shoulders broadening as he blocked his brothers' view of me entirely. "Eyes elsewhere," he snarled at them, the possessive edge in his voice sending an involuntary shiver down my spine.

Silvyr raised his hands in mock surrender, but I caught the knowing smirk that played at the corners of his mouth. Kazmyr simply turned away, his attention focused on securing the cavern's exits.

As if sensing my embarrassment, the Nest Moss that had cushioned our mating stirred to life.

It crept from its refuge among the rocks, slithering up my legs like a living blanket.

I yelped in surprise as it wound around my hips, then spread upward, sealing over the torn sections of my suit with its warm, pulsing substance.

"What the—" I started, then fell silent as I realized what was happening. The moss molded itself to my body, creating a second skin that preserved my modesty while leaving my arms and legs free to move. It hummed against my flesh, a strangely comforting vibration.

"It's protecting you," Vylit explained, his glow softening with what might have been affection. "The moss recognizes its... role in our bonding."

I snorted, running my fingers over the living material. "So now I'm wearing sentient, voyeuristic moss that just happened to witness alien sex? Great. Just great."

The moss puffled in what felt suspiciously like contentment, sealing itself more firmly against my skin.

Despite everything, I found myself fighting a smile.

The absurdity of my situation had reached new heights…

standing in an alien cavern surrounded by pirate corpses, wearing living moss, and somehow feeling oddly protected by it all.

A low rumble shook the cavern, dust and small fragments of rock showering down from the ceiling. The battle had compromised the cave's structural integrity. Larger chunks began to fall, splashing into the water around us.

"Time to go," Silvyr announced, his hand already at his belt, activating what I assumed was a teleporter. "Skiff's waiting. Unless you'd prefer to be crushed?"

Kazmyr moved to his side, one hand extended toward us. "Now."

Vylit's arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me tight against his side. His heart thundered against my cheek, the rhythm somehow steadying my own frantic pulse. In that moment, surrounded by death and danger, I found myself leaning into him not just for protection, but for comfort.

"Ready?" he asked, his voice vibrating through me.

I nodded, too exhausted for words. Silvyr activated the device, and light enveloped us… not the violent, disorienting light of the Gate that had brought me to this world, but something gentler, more controlled. The cavern dissolved around us, replaced by the familiar interior of Vylit's skiff.

As reality reassembled itself, I remained pressed against Vylit's chest, his heartbeat a steady counterpoint to my own thundering pulse.

We were safe, for now. But as my hands traced the wounds on his body, the luminous fluid still seeping from gashes that should have killed him, I knew this was only the beginning.

I had chosen Vylit over the pirates, chosen a bond that now marked me at a cellular level. The full implications of that choice stretched before me, terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure. What the fuck had I gotten myself into?