Enormous arms closed around my waist and jerked me off my feet. Macca’s “adjustment” kicked in.

My system reacted without prompting. I lifted my legs and swung my body back, leveraging my weight.

My head connected with his face.

A thud echoed through the cave.

Pain exploded in my skull.

My vision splintered. I grabbed the sides of my ringing head. What the fuck was he made off, titanium?

He deposited me on the cloak. I rolled onto my back.

He planted his knees on either side of my thighs, and pressed his palms to the fur beside my shoulders, caging me.

His heat radiated over my chilled skin—and the alien ran hot . An impossibly enormous erection brushed my belly.

My breath froze. I linked my fingers together and swung my hands like a club, landing a blow to the side of his face.

My knuckles cracked. Agony shot down my arms. I yelped and shook my hands. My heart gave an out of beat thud.

He settled over me.

This wasn’t right. I touched his face. He wasn’t just tough—he was inhumanly solid. Warm and hard. I ran my fingers over his cheek. The skin on his face flowed smoothly under my touch but without give. I pressed. His skin remained unmoved—didn’t even flex.

Holy crap.

His skin was hard like a silky exoskeleton…

My gaze met his.

He’d stilled, watching my expression. He reached out, and touched my face in return. His big fingers squeezed my cheeks together.

I stared at him. The center of his eyes were made up of flecks of black and russet, almost pupil like. Heavy brown lashes fanned his eyes, the same vibrant shade as his hair.

He touched my mouth, and his lashes flared.

My lips smooshed flat against my teeth.

“Meh sook…” he whispered and pressed my lips again. “Meh sook, sooky.”

I withdrew my hand from his face, and jerked my head to the side.

He grabbed my jaw and turned me back.

I strained against his grip, but he moved me as easily as a puppet.

He pushed on my closed lips with the pad of his finger, obviously not done with his inspection.

I swatted at his hand.

His growl rumbled at a whisper soft frequency.

He leaned back, grabbed my right breast and squeezed.

“Hey.” I yanked at his wrist.

He grabbed my other breast and squeezed that too.

I pulled on his other wrist. “Stop that.”

He smiled and it was the most human he’d appeared yet. His gaze flicked back and forth between my breasts. “Bet sooky, broom broom.”

He squeezed my tits in turn.

“Quit it.” I tugged at his immovable wrists. “Seriously, no broom broom today.”

He released my left breast and brushed the slightly rough pad of his index finger over my nipple.

The nipple puckered, drawing tight under his touch.

His head veered back. “Biss ness.”

I tugged him harder.

He stroked my nipple. Heat flared through my poor confused body.

His growl amplified.

“How do I get him off me?” I dug my nails into his wrists and they scraped like on brick.

“When mating is complete, his curiosity will diminish somewhat.”

Somewhat?

I wiggled in the furs. “There will not be mating. Get him off me.”

He looked up, running his gaze over my face and his brows creased.

I lowered my voice. “He knows when I’m not talking to him.”

“Baratican hearing is incomparable to human. He can hear me himself.”

“From the implant inside my ear?”

“He’s extremely sensitive to vibration.”

On cue, the body above me buzzed. Arousal coursed between my legs as if commanded by the sound.

His attention turned to my thighs. He released my breast, leaned up, and took me by the back of the knee, hauling my legs open.

“Dammit.” I thrashed, then drew up my other leg, and planted my foot in his face.

Pain shot up my heel.

I screamed and grabbed my foot.

He brushed my hands aside and took my foot, poking it with his finger.

Helplessness washed over me. Attacking him would only injure me.

His attention shifted to my exposed vagina.

He dropped my foot.

“Do something, Macca.” I scrambled backwards on my elbows. “Seriously do something now, or all bets are off. I’m the only implanted human you have to do your bidding.”

“There’s nothing to be done—”

He pushed at my chest, tipping me against the fur.

My pulse exploded, rushing through my body and coursing through my ears in a roar. “Do something or I swear on my fucking life—I’ll let your little Crestonian starve.”

A high-pitched squeal burst from my jaw.

The Baratican grabbed his ears and howled. I rolled out from under him and rushed across the cave.

I sprinted into the shadows and down a tunnel. A roar shuddered the walls. Adrenaline burst through my system pushing my sprint faster. Darkness closed around me.

I reached out a hand, and continued running with fingers brushing the wall for direction.

My thighs screamed in strain.

Silence and darkness swamped. My lungs burned. I sucked in air, slowing to a brisk walk.

The thud of my footsteps echoed around me. Only my footsteps.

I’d lost him.

I sagged against the tunnel wall. “Holy fuck. I’m naked, lost, and going to die in a dark alien labyrinth.”

“If you were truly about to die, I’d dispatch the drone to retrieve you.”

I panted. Being the only implanted human was obviously of some value after all. “If it can find me in here.”

“Once programed to your microchip location, the drone will find you regardless of where you are.”

Microchip? I’d agreed to a cochlear implant, but what exactly was the extent of these “adjustments” Macca had made?

“What was the sound that came out of my jaw?”

“The sound was produced from the microphone in your tooth. It’s how I hear you.”

I leaned off the wall and walked. “Any other modifications I have that I don’t know about?”

“Do not be indignant, human, two-way communication required the installation of a microphone.”

“That’s well and good, but I want to know exactly what’s been done to me.” I squinted. A blue glow radiated up ahead. Great, hopefully there was another light hole. “So, what else don’t I know?”

“Obviously, it was necessary to install a retinal camera.”

I blinked and touched my eyelid. Of course. That’s how Macca had been able to see what I saw outside of the spaceship. A shiver ran over me. But there was something in my eye that I hadn’t known about.

So creepy.

“Anything else?” The light grew brighter as I approached. “Macca?”

“It was only logical to insert the microchip to your cerebral cortex.”

I froze. “There’s something in my fucking brain?”

“A standard adjustment. All Crestonian’s receive the integration in adolescence. This is how you could be programed to fight, and that knowledge saved your life.”

My hand dropped from the wall. Programmed . Like a machine. I staggered toward the light. “Please don’t tell me I can be programmed to do things…”

The sound of water reached me.

“The chip allows for the rapid imparting of large volumes of knowledge. There is no effect on free will, thought, or emotion.”

The tunnel opened wider.

“Lucky for you, or when I got back to the ship the first thing I’d do is dismantle your orb.”

Another spring trickled from rock.

“I cannot be dismantled, human.”

I snorted. Macca and sarcasm. I couldn’t figure out which would be more entertaining, trying to explain the concept to her—or not.

Something crunched under my foot.

I looked down. Pieces of clear plastic scattered the ground. The lantern…

My head snapped up. Oh, shit. The tunnel had made a loop. The Baratican stood against the wall, feet braced apart, arms crossed over his chest like a sentinel. He looked at me and his mouth kicked up in the corner—an utterly human expression that blazed smugness.

My pulse rushed. He’d sat back and waited for me to run right back to him.

This cave was a freaking trap.

He pointed to the cloak. “Bet en et brook mein broom broom.”

I inched sideways away from him, closer to the spring. “Make the noise again, Macca.”

“It will have no effect on him now.”

His tracked my movements.

“Why the hell not?” Water sprayed against my calf. I stepped around the hole.

“Now he knows you have the ability to make those sounds he will have shut down vulnerable frequencies.”

“He can do that?”

He pointed at the cloak again, insisting on his broom broom.

“Baratican’s have control of all their senses and functions. Aside from one.”

“ Let me guess.” I backed into the waterfall. “It’s the giant function currently aimed at me like a broadsword?”

“Correct, if you refer to his penis.”

Warm water flowed over my back. “Well this sucks balls.”

“You need not stimulate testicles, but submit and mating will be bearable.”

My chest quivered. Fuck . I’d have laughed my ass off if this situation were any different.

He frowned, then came for me.

I glanced at the tunnel on the floor. Water trickled into it, but light emanated from it.

Alien words reached me over the trickle of water.

I looked up, and held his gaze—then dove forward and plunged toward the light.