Page 10 of The Alien Minotaur's Bride

He blinked. "Fine?"

"Give me the serum."

The serum was cold.

He administered it himself, a small injection at the base of my neck. His hand cradled my head to hold me steady, and I let him, because what else was I going to do? His palm was warm against my skull, his fingers curving around to brush my temple, and that scent was everywhere, wrapping around me like a blanket.

"You will sleep," he said. "Your body needs rest to accept the changes."

"How long?"

"A day. Perhaps two." He withdrew the injector and set it aside, but his hand stayed where it was, cradling my head. "I will be here when you wake."

"Lucky me."

His tail swept. I was starting to think that was his version of a smile.

"Sleep," he said again, and I felt it, the heaviness creeping into my limbs, the softening at the edges of my vision. The serum working fast, or maybe just exhaustion finally catching up with me. Three days of fear and confusion and too little sleep, and now my body was giving up the fight.

I let my eyes close.

His scent followed me down, that warm earthy musk that had started all of this. But it wasn't unpleasant anymore. Somewhere in the last three days it had become familiar. Interesting.

Almost like comfort.

I decided I'd deal with that later.

CHAPTER 4

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

I woke up warm.

The warmth reached me first, sitting low in my belly and radiating outward, a slow pulse of heat that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. The containment space was the same as before, the same padded walls and low ceiling, but my body felt different inside it.

I lay still for a moment and went through it, piece by piece.

Skin: sensitive. I could feel the weave of the fabric beneath me, every individual thread pressing against my back and arms. The blanket I'd pulled over myself at some point was almost too much, the weight of it a dull pressure it hadn't been before.

Temperature: elevated. Not feverish, exactly, but warm in a way that felt permanent, as if someone had turned up my internal thermostat and thrown away the dial.

Breasts: heavier.

I sat up and looked down at myself.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

They were bigger. Noticeably bigger, straining against the fabric of my station coveralls in a way they definitely hadn't been before I went to sleep. I cupped one, and immediately regretted it, because the sensation that shot through me was sharp and electric and entirely too much.

"Fantastic," I muttered. "Brilliant. Love this for me."

I swung my legs over the side of the pallet and stood. The room spun briefly, then steadied. I was hungrier than I'd ever been in my life, my stomach cramping with it, and underneath the hunger was that warmth, pulsing and persistent.

The hatch slid open.

Keth ducked through, and the smell of him hit me like a wall.

I'd noticed his scent before. That warm earth-and-musk that had started all of this, the one that made my body do strange things without my permission. But this was different. This was layers: the base note I already knew, and beneath it something richer, something that made my mouth water and my skin prickle. I could smell his mood, I realised. Calm, with an edge of anticipation. Warmth.