Enticed by the Alien Warrior Hope Hart (the giving tree read aloud .TXT) 📖

I nuzzle her cheek, attempting not to notice how cool her skin is. I pull more blankets over her, making a mental note to add more logs to the fire.

“I’m lonely without you,” I murmur against her skin. “I need you.”

This is my fault. I was so focused on avenging my parents that I failed to protect the female who means everything to me. I tried my best to push her away, to treat her as if she was just another female warming my bed. But the moment I watched Zion slide his sword into her stomach was the moment I ceased lying to myself.

Vivian is mine. And when she wakes up, I’ll make her realize I’m hers too.

I sigh, my throat raw with barely suppressed rage. My enemies succeeded after all. They may not have killed me, but they’ve broken me into pieces.

Vivian

My stomach is burning me alive.

I wince, shifting in an attempt to alleviate the pain, but it only gets worse.

Something tightens around my chest, and my breath comes in sharp pants.

“Vivian? Open your eyes.”

Eyes. That’s right. I have eyes. But they’re so heavy. Maybe if I keep them closed for a little longer, the pain that’s clawing its way through my body will disappear.

“Please, lovely. It’s been eight days.”

My brow furrows, and even that slight movement seems to excite the low voice in my ear.

“Eight days without those beautiful blue eyes staring into mine. Have mercy, Vivian. Show me you’re still with me.”

The voice is hoarse and…tormented. It’s full of pain and sorrow, and for some reason, it makes my chest hurt worse.

I’ll do anything to take the pain from that voice.

Opening my eyes feels like tunneling through concrete, but I take a deep breath, ignoring the way it pulls at my stomach.

“There you are.”

I blink as I stare up at the most gorgeous face I’ve ever seen.

“She may be groggy,” a feminine voice says. “We also don’t know if the blood loss has damaged her brain.”

That face tenses as the man bares his teeth in the direction of that voice, and footsteps sound, followed by the opening and closing of a door.

“You know who I am, don’t you, lovely?”

Arix. It all comes back to me now. My stomach hurts because I was fucking impaled on Zion’s sword.

Arix looks like he’s aged twenty years. He has new lines between his brows, and from the dark circles under his eyes, he hasn’t slept properly for days.

I shift, immediately wincing at the pain, and Arix turns, roaring for the healer to return.

“That depends,” I manage to get out, and every word feels like an achievement. “How pissed are you at me?”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen relief take over someone’s face the way it does Arix’s. His expression goes blank, and then he closes his eyes, burying his head against my neck as he shudders.

Someone clears their throat, and he pulls away, leaving me mourning the loss of him. He doesn’t go far though, taking a cup from one of his healers.

“This will help with the pain,” she says.

“Will it make me sleepy?”

I’m tired of sleeping. Eight days is a lot to miss out on.

She nods, and I frown, opening my mouth, but Arix brings it to my lips, his eyes hard.

“Please,” he says. “It…hurts me to see you in pain.”

The guy knows just what to say to make me fall in line, and I sigh, sipping at the liquid. It tastes fruity, with an underlying bitterness, but it hits quickly. I don’t appreciate the feeling of floating above my body, but the pain from my abdomen is no longer roaring through me like a wildfire.

“We need to talk,” I mumble.

“When you’re feeling better.”

I open my mouth to protest, but Arix lies next to me, gently pulling me close, and I sigh instead, soaking in the feel of him against me.

Even if it is just temporary.

Chapter Seventeen

Vivian

“Arix, come on. If I don’t get out of this bed soon, I’m going to go crazy.”

“You’re still injured.”

“The healers said I’m okay to start moving around.”

“They said you could go to the bathing room by yourself. They said nothing about roaming the castle.”

Stubborn male. I scowl at him, and he frowns right back before returning his attention to the papers he’s reading.

He hasn’t had me moved back to my rooms. Instead, he’s working from the long sofa in front of the fire, where he can make sure I’m not doing anything crazy like, you know, walking to his sitting room without help.

“Give it a rest, cuz. You know he’s not going to let you out of bed until the healers give you the all-clear.”

I frown at Sarissa, who grins at me, raising one eyebrow.

“To be fair, after what happened, you can’t really blame him. I heard it was all very dramatic. Lots of killing and fainting. Very Romeo and Juliet of you.”

Sarissa has lost weight, her cheekbones sharper than ever. Guilt swims through me at the reminder of what my near death did to my cousin. She’s already lost more than most people. Watching me come so close to checking out must have been hell for her.

Apparently, Varge quickly knew we weren’t going to cooperate. So the traitors’ plans had to change. Step one was to take out Sarissa so she couldn’t talk about what she had seen. Then Bevix would keep me hidden away in his rooms until he was bored with me and have me killed too. They’d tell Rakiz we’d both been killed during the assassination, and he’d never know differently.

Except they obviously don’t know Rakiz or Nevada, because they would have showed up with the largest army they could find. Then they would’ve opened up a can of whoop-ass.

I lift my arm, reaching for a cup of water, and wince. Truthfully, I still feel like shit. The healers hover around me constantly, and they seem as surprised as I am that I’m not dead.

I got lucky when Zion stabbed me.