Chapter 86 Gravity
ZARA’S POV
The silence in my dorm room was louder than the screaming in the chamber had been.
I paced the small rug between my bed and Mira’s empty desk. Five steps forward. Turn. Five steps back. Turn.
My skin still felt too tight, buzzing with the residue of the Devourer’s power. Voss had released me.
"Rest," she’d said, like she hadn’t just tried to psychologically dissect me, but there was no resting.
Not when the bond was pulling at my navel like a fishing line hooked into a shark.
He’s close, my wolf paced. He’s hurting. He’s burning.
A pebble hit the window.
I froze.
We were on the third floor.
I rushed to the glass, unlatching it and sliding it upward. A gust of rain-soaked wind hit my face, carrying the scent of pine, ozone, and… him.
Kai was perched on the narrow ledge outside, crouching like a peacock. He was soaked to the bone, his black combat gear clinging to him like a second skin, hair plastered to his forehead.
He looked wild. Dangerous.
And then he grinned, a lopsided, boyish thing that had no business being on the face of an intergalactic weapon.
“Room service,” he whispered.
I didn’t laugh. I reached out, grabbed the front of his tactical vest, and hauled him inside.
He stumbled in, dripping water onto the floorboards, and before he could even straighten up, I crashed into him. My arms went around his neck, burying my face in the wet curve of his shoulder.
He stiffened for a millisecond, then melted. His arms wrapped around my waist, lifting me off my feet, crushing me against him so hard my ribs protested.
“You’re okay,” I breathed into his neck.
“You’re okay.”
“I’m wet,” he pointed out, his voice vibrating against my chest.
“And you’re getting your pyjamas soaked.”
“Shut up.”
“Also, I think I tracked mud on your rug. Mira is going to kill me.”
I pulled back, framing his face with my hands. His skin was cold, and that was unnatural, alien cold, but his eyes were warm molten silver. There was a cut above his eyebrow, bleeding sluggishly, and a bruise blooming along his jawline.
“Voss said you crossed a line,” I said, searching his eyes.
“She said you started something you can’t outrun.”
Kai’s expression sobered. He set me down but didn’t let go of my waist.
“I didn’t just cross the line, Zara. I blew up the bridge, pissed on the ashes, and danced on the ruins.”
I let out a startled, wet laugh.
“Kai.”
“My father wanted me to execute a rogue pack leader in the North Woods. Someone who refused the draft.” He looked down at his boots.
“I told him no.”
“That’s it?”
“Then I broke the pack leader’s chains and told him to run.” He paused, a flicker of fear crossing his face.
"And he told me to end things with you."
My face paled. I wasn't expecting that from him.
"I said no again."
“Then I punched my father.”
My jaw dropped.
“You punched the oldest commander?”
“In my defence,” Kai said, looking genuinely offended.
"I was tired of listening to him say things that I wasn't interested in.”
I stared at him. The absurdity of it, the sheer, reckless idiocy of it hit me, and I started laughing. I couldn’t help it. It was hysterical laughter, bordering on tears.
Kai watched me, a small smile playing on his lips, but his eyes were dark with intensity.
“Come here,” he murmured.
He walked me backwards until my legs hit the edge of my mattress. He sat, pulling me to stand between his spread knees. The height difference put us eye-to-eye.
The laughter died in my throat.
The air in the room shifted. It grew heavy, charged with static. The bond between us flared, sensing the proximity. I could feel his heartbeat thrumming, powerful, slightly erratic.
“You need to clean that cut,” I whispered, tracing the skin near his eye.
“It’ll heal."
“Kai.”
“I don’t care about the cut, Zara.” His hands slid up my thighs, resting on my hips. His thumbs rubbed circles into the fabric of my shorts, sending heat shooting straight to my core.
“I spent the last three hours in the dark, running from my own unit, and the only thing… the only thing I could see was your face.”
My breath hitched.
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against my stomach.
“I’m terrified,” he confessed, his voice muffled against my shirt.
The vulnerability shattered me. Kai Storm didn’t get scared. He got tactical.
I wove my fingers into his damp hair, scratching lightly at his scalp. He let out a low, rumbling groan that vibrated through my hips.
“What are you scared of?” I asked softly.
He looked up, and the raw need in his eyes made my knees weak.
“That I’m going to lose control. That the alien part of me is going to take over, and I won’t remember how to be this.” He gestured between us.
“How to be the man who wants you.”
“You won’t,” I said firmly.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. Because I've battled with a lot of things since I met you, and it has still always been you.” I said, half-joking, half-serious.
“If your alien side gets rowdy, I’ll just eat it.”
Kai blinked. Then he snorted.
“Kinky.”
I swatted his shoulder.
“I’m being serious! I’m your failsafe.”
“My failsafe,” he repeated, tasting the word.
He tightened his grip on my hips and pulled me forward. I stumbled, falling onto his lap. His arms locked around me instantly, securing me against his chest.
We were tangles of limbs and wet clothes. The friction was unbearable. I could feel the hard ridge of his desire against my thigh, proof that for all his alien DNA, his reactions were very, very male.
“You smell like rain and trouble,” I murmured, leaning in until our lips were brushing.
“And you smell like…” He inhaled deeply at the curve of my neck, his nose grazing the sensitive skin behind my ear.
I shivered.
“Like home. And vanilla. mostly vanilla. Did you steal Mira’s body wash again?”
“It’s expensive. I have no regrets.”
He chuckled, the sound dark and low against my throat. He kissed the pulse point under my jaw, open-mouthed and wet.
I gasped, my head falling back.
“Kai…”
“I know,” he whispered against my skin.
“I know. We shouldn’t. Voss is watching. The guards are patrolling.”
His hand slid under the hem of my shirt, his palm cool against my heated skin. His fingers traced the line of my spine, counting the vertebrae.
“We really shouldn’t,” I agreed breathlessly, my hands finding the buckles of his tactical vest.
Click. One undone. Click. Two.
“Terrible idea,” he agreed, biting my lower lip. Not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to stake a claim.
He kissed me then.
It wasn’t gentle. It was a collision. It was all the fear of the last few hours, all the anger at his father, all the desperation of two people standing on the edge of a cliff.
He tasted of rain and copper. I tasted of sugar and defiance.
His tongue swept into my mouth, demanding, taking. I met him stroke for stroke, my hands tangling in his hair, pulling him closer if that was even possible.
The bond exploded with light. I could feel what he felt the overwhelming relief of holding me, the sharp spike of arousal, the deep, terrifying love that anchored his chaotic soul.
He groaned, shifting his hips, pressing me down into the mattress. The bedsprings creaked in protest.
“If we keep going,” he panted against my mouth, his silver eyes blown wide,
“I am going to burn this building down. Literally. I can feel my temperature spiking."
I looked down. His skin was actually glowing faintly. Steam was starting to rise from his wet shirt.
“You’re smoking,” I noted.
“You have that effect on me.”
I laughed, breathlessly, and rested my forehead against his.
“We have to stop,” I said, though it physically hurt to say the words.
“If Voss catches you here…”
“She’ll kill me.”
“She’ll kill me,” I corrected.
“She needs you.”
Kai scowled. He pulled back, reluctantly removing his hand from my shirt. He looked at me, really looked at me, with an intensity that made the rest of the world fade away.
“Let them try,” he whispered.
“Let them try to take you.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out something small. He took my hand, turning it palm up, and placed the object in the center.
It was a ring. Not gold or silver, but made of a dark, twisted metal that looked like woven starlight. It pulsed with a faint heartbeat.
“What is this?” I asked, stunned.
“It’s a fragment of the ship that brought my ancestors here,” he said quietly.
“My mother gave it to me before she died. She said to give it to the one who makes me want to be a better me.”
My eyes stung.
“Kai…”
“I’m not proposing,” he added quickly, a nervous flush creeping up his neck.
“I mean....the world is ending. That would be irresponsible.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“So this is…?”
“A promise,” he said.
He closed my fingers over the ring.
“No matter where I go, no matter how much my mind glitches or what directive they try to program into me… this pulls me back. You pull me back.”
He kissed my knuckles.
“You are my gravity, Zara.”
My heart swelled so big I thought it might burst.
“Okay,” I whispered, clutching the ring.
“That was actually really good. You rehearsed that, didn’t you?”
He smirked, the arrogance returning.
“I practiced in the mirror while bleeding out in a tree. I think I nailed the delivery.”
I laughed again, leaning forward to kiss him softly this time. Sweetly.
“You nailed it,” I agreed.
Outside, thunder rumbled, shaking the glass of the window. The storm Voss had promised was finally breaking.
Kai sighed, resting his chin on top of my head.
“So,” he muttered.
“Do you have any snacks? Being a fugitive is hungry work.”
“I have stale crackers and a jar of peanut butter.”
“Perfect,” he said, tightening his arms around me.
“A feast for kings.”