Page 15 of Silver Slayer

“I can endure,” I rasped, forcing the words past the tightness in my chest. “Continue.”

I remained still as she treated the slash across my chest, her hands working with the same methodical care as she had on my shoulder. When she finished, she crouched between my booted feet to reach the gash above my knee. I swallowed hard, fighting against the primal response of my body to her proximity.

“I need to get to the laceration,” she murmured, her voice soft as she carefully folded the edge of my kiltus farther up my leg.

Her fingertips brushed my thigh, and every coherent thought inside me shattered. Touching my forearm had stirred powerful, awakening instincts and emotions I had never experienced before, but this… this was entirely different. The muscles in my leg locked beneath her hand as heat exploded through my body with violent intensity, my nerves suddenly unbearably aware of every slight movement of her fingers against my scales. The wound throbbed, but it was nothing compared to the ache building from my thickening shaft.

“Does it hurt?” she asked, her eyes meeting mine with genuine concern.

More than I could have ever imagined,I bit back.

Instead, I shook my head, unable to form words as her palm rested against my thigh, fingers splayed across scales that burned beneath her touch. The contact sent heat spiraling through my body, pooling in the base of my spine with an intensity that caught my breath.

“I’m going to apply the antiseptic now,” she warned. “Tell me if it gets too painful for you, and we can take a break.”

You are already killing me.

Never having known a female’s touch, I had not been prepared for this exquisite torment. Every brush of her fingers across my skin sent heat surging through my veins, awakening instincts older than memory itself. The touch of her hand against my arm had stirred me, but this… this was something far more dangerous.

Need coiled tighter inside me with every passing breath, fierce and relentless, driving me toward my spirit mate with a hunger I could no longer contain. My body ached to claim her, to sink myself deep within the female fate had created for me alone. To create the shawra, the sacred portal, we would share where our spirits would pour into one another, binding us together for all eternity.

I had heard males speak of the madness of finding their spirit mate, of the unbearable need to touch, scent, and possess her, but I had never truly understood. Not until Quin. Not until her hands were on me, unraveling every shred of control I possessed.

In desperate need of a distraction, I cleared my throat and forced my thoughts elsewhere. “And these Earth creatures? You studied them alone?” The thought troubled me, cooling the fire pulsing through my veins.

“Yep,” she nodded, applying the mist to my leg wound, “most of the time I went out into the field alone.”

“You are a courageous female,” I said with equal measures of awe and fear. “I don’t know any warriors who would risk their lives to ensure the predators on Valose do not go extinct.”

“There are no females on Valose.”

“None?” Her hand paused with the wand over my wound, her eyes snapping up to meet mine. “There are no female Valosians?”

“Not since I was a youngling.”

“What happened to them?”

“They perished from a virus the Grites unleashed against the Gretolics. Maxxon, our royal medic, told me of it during my physical after I was returned to Valose from my abduction. The germ was meant to wipe out the Grites’ own creations after the Gretolics went rogue. The sickness killed every female on my planet along with the eldest males.”

“Yes, but I do not recall being taken,” I admitted. “I woke on a ship bound for a hellscape called Gorka.” Before she could ask more questions about my abduction, a topic I was not in the frame of mind to revisit, I diverted the subject. “There are human females and one Mayran there now.” I thought of Maxxon’s female. “I do know of one human who has befriended a predator. She is spirit mate to Maxxon. A patooga adolescent she named Chompers.”

“And what species of predator is Chompers?” she grinned, yet I found no amusement in a creature capable of tearing a warrior apart, living under the dome inside the city of Huren.

“A large beast with enormous fangs, claws sharp enough to slice through flesh and bone, and saliva laced with a paralyzing agent,” I told her grimly. “It is covered in striped fur and has slitted pupils similar to a Nomadican’s eyes. Full-grown, next to a wetlock, a patooga is one of the deadliest creatures on Valose.”

Quin blinked at me. “So… basically a tiger with the vertical pupils of a house cat.”

I frowned. “I do not know what a tiger is.”

“Tigers are a giant feline predator from Earth,” she explained. “Minus the paralyzing saliva.” Her brow furrowed. “What’s a wetlock?”

“A winged predator large enough to snatch a male from the ground in its claws,” I answered. “Its body is covered in thick scales, with massive leathery wings and a spiked tail capable of shattering bone. Their jaws are filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and their screeches can curdle the blood in your veins before they descend on their prey.”

Quin stared at me for a beat. “That sounds like a dragon.”

I grunted. “If dragons hunt, kill, and devour anything unfortunate enough to cross their path, then perhaps.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “Your world sounds fascinating. Dragons and giant house cats with paralyzing saliva.”