He scoops me up, one arm under my knees, the other supporting my back. The casual display of strength shouldn't affect me anymore. It does. Everything about him affects me now, down to the cellular level where the tonic has rewritten my DNA to recognize him as mate.
Not mate. Male who's breeding me. There's a difference, even if my transformed body refuses to acknowledge it.
The thermal pool steams in the afternoon heat, minerals turning the water an unnatural turquoise. He lowers me into the shallows where the temperature hovers just below scalding. The mineral burn makes me hiss, then sigh as it begins working on abused muscles.
“Stay.” He wades deeper, submerges completely, then surfaces with something in his clawed hands. A handful of volcanic mud, black and glistening.
“What are you doing?”
“Tending.” He spreads the mud across my inner thighs where his claws left marks. The substance tingles, then numbs. “Cannot have you too damaged for tomorrow's breeding.”
Always tomorrow. Always more. The promise and threat woven together until I can't separate them.
He works systematically. Every scratch, every bruise, every place where skin broke under the violence of our coupling. The mud draws out inflammation, speeds healing that's already accelerated by my transformation. Within minutes, the worst damage fades to pink marks. Within an hour, even those will vanish.
“Why tend me if you're just going to damage me again?”
“Damage without care is just destruction. No skill in that.” His hands move to my hips, spreading mud where the bridge left deep impressions. “Any male can break a female. Takes knowledge to break her perfectly, repeatedly, without permanent harm.”
The casual discussion of breaking me should trigger my fight response. Instead, my body interprets it as promise. More wetness gathers despite being submerged in water. The tonic ensures I'm always ready, always responding to him specifically.
Through the pool's steam, I notice something wrong with the landscape. The smaller pools that dotted this area yesterday are gone. Not empty. Gone. Like they never existed.
“The water...” I start.
“Disappearing. Yes.” He doesn't sound concerned, but his spines twitch. A tell I'm learning to read. “Started three cycles ago. Accelerating.”
“Cycles?”
“Planetary rotations around our sun. Your Earth measurements mean nothing here.”
Before I can ask more, he stands abruptly, water cascading off scales that catch afternoon light like blood-colored mirrors. “Come. Need to check territorial borders.”
My legs work now, mostly. I follow him from the pool, water evaporating almost instantly in the desert heat. The transformation has made me more resilient, but Pyraxis still feels like walking through an oven set to broil.
We climb a ridge I haven't seen before. From the top, the damage becomes clear. What should be a network of springs and streams is now cracked earth with mineral deposits showing where water used to flow. The only remaining sources are this thermal pool and a few others in the distance.
“How long before those dry up too?”
“Unknown. Perhaps days. Perhaps longer.” He scans the horizon, those inhuman eyes tracking something I can't see. “Does not matter. Have bigger concerns.”
“Bigger than running out of water?”
He turns to me, and there's something in his expression I haven't seen before. Not quite worry, but calculation. Assessment.
“You understand the arrangement? Why females come through portal?”
“Earth trades us for resources. We get claimed or go home after thirty days.”
“Simplified version. Truth has more teeth.” He starts down the ridge, expecting me to follow. I do. “Earth sends breeders.Pyraxis sends element only found in our lava flows. Element that powers your machines, heals your diseases, keeps your civilization from collapse.”
I knew we were traded for something valuable. Didn't know we were the only thing standing between Earth and apocalypse.
“But there's more. Hunters must pay for the females they claim.”
“Pay who?”
“Consortium. Your Earth masters who manage the trade.” His tail lashes, definitely anger now. “Before female arrives, hunter must guarantee payment. Rare secretions from dangerous creatures. Minerals from territory depths. Whatever Consortium demands.”
