He ignored her, expression set.
The external field protocols triggered the fail-safe, slamming the door shut and sealing them both inside the cramped pod.
He wrapped his massive arms around her and hauled her tight against his broad chest.“I’ve got you,kelarris.I’ve got you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, completely rigid against him as she braced for it.The sudden jerk of his muscles.The choked gasp.The heavy weight of him collapsing on top of her.She shook so hard her teeth rattled, just waiting to feel the only man she wanted die in her arms.
For a second, nothing happened.
His chest rose and fell against her.Steady.Slow.The thud of his heart pulsed against her cheek, heavy and rhythmic and completely, impossibly normal.She counted.Waiting for the stutter.Waiting for the hitch that meant the pathogen had found him, that she was about to feel the exact moment his heart quit.
It didn't come.
He was warm.Furnace hot, the way he always was, burning right through the thin fabric of her tunic.His arms were solid around her, and his breathing didn't falter.She pressed her ear harder against him just to make sure the heartbeat was real.
"Wait...What?I don't understand," she whispered as she looked up at him."Why aren't you dead?You should be dead?”
The containment door hissed open again, and they both looked up.
A scarred stranger stood in the doorway, his expression totally calm and unconcerned, as if he hadn’t just walked into a pod with a bio-weapon.She gasped, drawing back.He didn’t have a hazmat suit on, just normal warrior’s leathers.Bright silver hair spilled over his shoulders, one side with more braids than she’d ever seen on a warrior before.
Raaevik shoved her behind him, a ferocious snarl ripping from his throat, flashing his claws in warning.But the stranger just looked at him.Held his gaze until, slowly, the snarl in Raaevik's throat died down to a low rattle.
She blinked, looking around Raaevik’s arm.“Who are you?”
The new arrival smiled.
“My name is Isan, and I’m the only chance either of you has to survive.”
