Page 76 of The Huntmaster

I gasped, gripping my head as the alien presence suddenly vanished, snapped shut behind an invisible wall of mental iron. A beat later, the heavy hide door of the hut rustled open.

Kaelen stepped into the dim interior. The fierce, terrifying predator from the waterfall was gone, replaced by a quiet, watchful intensity. His golden markings were dim, glowing with a soft, resting light, but his eyes locked onto me with the precision of a targeting radar. The sheer depth of the devotion in his gaze was enough to make my chest tighten, a silent confirmation of the phantom voice I had just felt inside my head.

"You are awake," he murmured, his voice a low, gravelly vibration that sent a phantom shiver straight to my pulsing centre.

"Kaelen," I croaked, my throat dry. I cleared it, forcing my scientist’s mind to the forefront even as my heart hammered against my ribs. "You... you cleaned my arms. And my chest. Why did you leave..." I gestured vaguely beneath the furs, a sudden flush of heat rising up my neck. "Why am I still leaking... and why is it glowing?"

A dark, intensely possessive shadow passed over his features. He didn't look ashamed in the slightest. "A hunter does not wash away the mark of a completed chase, Ly-ra. I wanted your body to remember what we are. I wanted my scent, and my light, to keep protecting you while I was gone."

"That is biologically deeply unhygienic," I muttered, though there was no real bite to it. It was a defence mechanism, a desperate attempt to use human logic against an entirely alien reality.

I gripped the edge of the furs, determined to sit up and face him properly. I needed to analyse this. I needed to understand what had happened to my brain at the waterfall. But the moment I tried to put weight on my arms and hoist my torso up, my nervous system simply quit. My muscles turned to water, and a sharp spike of exhaustion made my vision swim.

Before I could collapse back onto the wood, a blur of motion crossed the hut.

Kaelen’s massive hands caught my shoulders, his touch remarkably gentle compared to the violence of the night. He eased me back down onto the soft furs with care, his body hovering over mine like a protective canopy. He didn't pull away; instead, he settled on the edge of the bed, one large, calloused palm resting against the side of my face, his thumb smoothing over my cheekbone to soothe the panic spiking in my chest.

"Rest," he commanded softly, his chest expanding with a deep breath as he inhaled my scent. "Your body has endured a rewriting, little human. You cannot force it to perform today."

I stared up at him, my mind racing with a hundred different questions, the theories and anxieties colliding in my head so loudly it felt like white noise. Why me? How can our DNA do this? What happens when my people find me? What am I becoming?

"Speak your mind, Ly-ra," Kaelen rumbled softly, his dual-colored eyes narrowing slightly as his thumb stroked my cheek. "Your thoughts are a storm. I can hear them bouncing against the walls of our connection just as clearly as if you were shouting them."

My breath hitched. "You can hear me? In your head?"

"I feel the rhythm of your anxiety," he clarified, leaning closer. "I feel the hows and the whys that you use to shield yourself from what is real. Stop hiding behind your logic. Ask me."

I swallowed hard, the sheer proximity of him causing that invisible, golden tether in my chest to hum. "What did you do to me out there?" I whispered, my voice trembling. "At the waterfall. When you... when you changed inside me. It wasn't just an orgasm, Kaelen. I felt... I felt your thoughts. I felt everything you are. It’s like there’s a second heartbeat in my chest and it belongs to you. How can two completely different species have a biological lock like this? It defies every law of science I know."

Kaelen’s thumb paused on my cheek. The gravity in his face was immense, dark and unyielding. "It is the Alu'un-ka," he said, the words heavy and reverent. "The soul-bind. The mating."

"A soul-bind," I repeated, a breathless, half-terrified laugh escaping me. "That's—okay. Okay. A genetic thing. Or a—psychic thing? I don't— " I dragged a hand through my hair, my thoughts scattering before I could pin a single one down. "I knew something was wrong with me from the second I stepped out of that capsule. The way I couldn't stop looking at you. My heart doing something insane every time you got close, like my body just... decided you were safe, decided that before I did. I told myself it was stress. Survival hormones. Some cortisol thing. That's a real thing, right? That has to be a real thing."

I opened my eyes, staring at him in a mix of shock and dawning, nauseating comprehension. "But it's not just chemistry, is it." It wasn't really a question anymore. "It's in me. Permanently. That's why the air didn't kill me. That's why I can breathe here, why none of this should be possible and it just—is." My gaze dropped to the glow still pulsing faintly beneath his markings. "That's not just pretty lighting, is it? It's doing something to me right now. Isn't it?"

"I do not know your words for it," Kaelen murmured, his hand moving down to cup my throat, his thumb resting over my frantic pulse. "But I know that I tried to deny it. I told myself you were a stranger from a broken star. But when the knot formed... the universe corrected itself. You are my mate, Ly-ra. Not because I chose it. Because you were always the missing piece of my blood."

I looked at him, the weight of his words settling over me. But with that realisation came a colder, harsher wave of reality. "And what does this mean for me here, Kaelen? In the clan?" I asked, my voice dropping to a vulnerable whisper. "I’ve... I’ve actually come to think of this place as a home. Some of the people have finally warmed to me. But this? A bond like this with an alien? Surely others won’t accept it. They'll think it's a mistake. They'll look at me like an infection."

Kaelen’s posture stiffened instantly, his chest flattening against mine as a low, ominous vibration rattled deep within his sternum. His eyes flashed a blinding, possessive gold, and his jaw set into an iron line.

"Let them try," he growled, the sheer, protective malice in his voice sending a thrilling jolt straight down my spine. "You belong to the Huntmaster. You are bound to the Nest's crown. Anyone who dares look at you with dissent, anyone who raises a hand or whispers a threat against my mate, will be dealt with personally by my own blade. I will spill the blood of my own warriors before I allow a single scratch to find your skin."

He leaned down, pressing his forehead against mine, his hot breath fanning across my lips. "I am making the formal announcement at sundown on the Speaker's Stone. The whole tribe will see my markings. They will smell my claim on you. They will know you are law, Ly-ra. They will learn to bow to their history."

I lay there, completely claimed by an apex predator of a world light-years from what I used to call home, unable to deny the glowing data written in my own skin. I didn't just belong to the mission anymore. I belonged to him.

And as I closed my eyes, feeling his heavy warmth anchoring me to the bed, a quiet, terrifying truth bloomed in my mind.

I actually liked the thought of that.

High above me, Kaelen let out a low, rumbling chuckle, the sound vibrating directly through our shared connection. His eyes glinted with dark amusement, knowing exactly what my thought was before I could even try to hide it.

Chapter 50

Kaelen-thul

The echo of her thought—that quiet, terrifying admission that she liked the idea of being mine—was still vibrating through the silver thread of our bond. I kept my forehead pressed against hers, letting the low rumble of my chuckle soothe the sudden spike of heat in her cheeks.