“Nev no!” Deus splutters. “She couldn’t stand it.” He blinks at his drink, raises his head, and blinks at me.
I look away from him. It’s as if I want to crush my heart, but at the same time, why even kid myself that Deus can possibly have feelings for me?
And I can’t have feelings for him either. He kidnapped me. He’s held me prisoner here.
He saved me from the tree-osaurus.
I take my fee and sit down, staring straight ahead at the lights outside the cabin. Deus remains next to the food dispenser. He shuffles his feet awkwardly as he drinks and casts the occasional glance at me.
“Perhaps one of my fellow warlords might know about the rut,” he says eventually.
“If you go back, they’ll imprison you again,” I say. “After all, they were coming here for you.”
“They were coming for you,” Deus says. “I told Darax you were my captive and his mate was not pleased.”
“Kerra wouldn’t be.” I sigh, thinking about the text. “Wait!” I put down my cup and grab my bag, pulling it onto my lap.
Deus tenses.
“Don’t worry, I don’t have any weapons in here.” I glower at him.
“I wasn’t worried.” He squares his shoulders. “I can shift now.”
As if to prove the point, his tail appears, curling around his feet like a cat.
I pull out my comm.
“You’ve had that all this time.” Deus reaches for it and I hold it back from him.
“Of course I have. That’s how I told my friends I was okay.” I look down at it and back up at him. “I guess it didn’t work.”
Deus lets out a long stream of smoke, along with a couple of sparks.
“They’d have come anyway. I told them you were mine.” He wrinkles his nose up and does one of his big blinks. “I guess they didn’t believe me either.” He snorts.
I look down at my comm. There area lotof messages.
“I’m not sure what to say. You can’t give yourself up voluntarily.”
“If I don’t, they will come again,” Deus rumbles. “And again. There will be no peace.”
I sigh, thinking of the quiet solitude outside of the cabin. Of what I felt in that moment before I ran. I don’t want Deus locked up, and I don’t want him to never be sure if he’ll be left alone again.
“I’ll vouch for you,” I say with a confidence I don’t feel. “I’ll tell them not to harm you or imprison you.”
“Forgive me, little ember,” Deus rumbles. “But what makes you think Sarkarnii warlords are going to listen to you?”
“Not me.” I grin at him. “But they’ll listen to their mates. And their mates are my best friends.”
DEUS
The human females speak very quickly. The Sarkarnii females glower at me and don’t lower their pulsar pistols.
Dante puts his hand on my shoulder. I flinch.
“It would appear you have a reprieve,” he says, nodding over at Dalox and Darax.
They are deep in conversation with each other, looking over at the group of females.
