Chapter 5
Excitement roared through the crowd of Khonsu behind me, while terror choked me. I panted for air, legs and arms pumping as I ran up the mountain. Sharp twigs and rocks tore at my skin and embedded themselves in my feet. I was sure I was leaving a trail of blood behind me making it easy for them to track me.
A shadow fell over me. I glanced back swiftly, and a whimper spilled from my lips. A Khonsu, in his purple tunic, rushed up after me so fast, my knees wobbled with fear. He might as well have been as big as a bear! Huge arms, a broad chest, and he carried such savageness in his eyes. Determination on his face screamed he was ready to take me, and nothing would stand in his way.
I burst onward with sheer adrenaline.
Another woman screamed somewhere on the mountain, while a man howled like a monster, probably claiming her.
I searched the land for a weapon, for anything to beat them back. A branch or rock? Both would work.
The beast pounded the ground with rapid steps, his breaths on my neck, coming for me… to claim me. To rape me. This wasn’t okay, and I hated everything about these aliens. From the tests to being hunted down, I was put through hell and back only to still be in mortal danger. I wasn’t okay with any of this at all.
My heart ached. I was going to die on this planet, never to see Earth again.
An iron-grip hand grasped my shoulder, the other my hair, drawing me backward.
I let out a terrifying shriek and pivoted on the balls of my feet, swiveling around, hurling my fist, connecting it with the monster’s face.
He emitted a piercing guttural sound that had my skin shivering. Was it a battle cry, a sound these things made before they took a female?
He grabbed both my shoulders and wrenched me sideways, while my feet tangled and barely touched the ground.
“Let me go,” I chided and slammed my balled hands into his gut with everything I had, but he didn’t so much as flinch. “I don’t want you. I’ll hate you for eternity and never stop trying to escape.”
A sudden gust of air battered into us, tossing his messy black hair over his shoulders, bringing with it a delicious musky scent. Except, that was wrong… I’d never admire a single thing of these brutes. He had the kind of look I imagined on a barbarian. All strong and muscular, his face square and brutish, and when he’d speak, he’d made just incomprehensible sounds.
He growled, wrenching me into a cluster of trees. He was picking a location to rape me.
I screamed and hit and kicked. I’d die before I let him do anything to me.
Blue eyes pierced through me, but I fought and bucked against him.
“Silence, kitten.”
His words wove through my mind, but my brain cogs weren’t working today. Kitten. Why would a Khonsu call me that?
The answer smacked me in the face when the savage hauled me against him, our bodies pressed close, his lips mashed to mine. I gritted my teeth and winced, hands splayed against his chest, pushing him away. But I might as well try to move a mountain.
Kitten!
I glanced up into those now deep blue eyes. “Thane?”
His smirk lit up his gaze, and even if he didn’t look like my Thane, I saw him in his eyes.
“Surprised to see me?” he whispered.
“Oh, shit.” I threw myself into his arms, and tears of joy spilled down my cheeks before I pulled back. “You terrified the hell out of me. You could have given me a clue or something it was you. I almost had a heart attack out there.” I cupped the side of his face, his skin feeling so real. “What kind of mask are you wearing? You look like the real deal.”
He took my hand and pressed my fingers to the back of his ear. “It’s a disguise, a glamor to everyone else. An effect Corran designed.”
“Like magic?”
He tilted his head to the side like he didn’t quite comprehend the word, magic.
A sudden loud exhaling sound of someone running up the mountain nearby had us both frozen and turning toward the open mountain to my left. The trees around us provided a small, temporary cover.
“Hush.” His hand was on my mouth as he glanced out to a woman sprinting up the hill, two men charging after her.