I did know.The heat pulsing through me washim.Connection.Awareness.
The Storm, he called it.The Skybond.
I had no idea what was happening to me, biologically.I just knew I was different.My body had changed.Adapted.I felt things I shouldn’t be able to feel.Was aware of things I shouldn’t be.I wasalive.
Realizing how dead I’d been inside before this, before him, was the most depressing reality I could imagine.
Were all humans just… zombies?Were we always like this?Or had there ever been a time, in our ancient past, when we connected with the Earth the way Sorik connected with Soltharra?With the storm?
I pressed my hands harder into the obsidian ledge and kept moving because I didn’t know what else to do.Stopping meant being in his arms again.Stopping meant thinking.Analysis.Facing whatever this thing was between us.This thing that felt like obsession already.Desire.Some strange force flowing between his body and mine.Making my heart want to beat with his.My mind reach for the flow of awareness between us.I wanted that connection.Was starved for the emotional bond I’d felt in the cave when his cock was buried deep and my entire body just… melted into his.I gave him everything without a split-second of hesitation.Worse, I had no regrets.In fact, I couldn’t fucking wait to do it again.
I was so screwed.
The lightning burst came without warning.
One moment — cliff face, metallic sky, Sorik below, crystals safe in my pack.
The next — blinding white light.
Not a strike.A massive pre-surge cascade from the upper formations, stored charge releasing in a wave that hit me like a missile strike.The marks on my collarbones flared as I felt something different.Somethingdirected.
Something that felt like it wasspeaking to me.Intentional.Direct.Aware.
I went still on the cliff face.
The charge moved through my marks.Into my chest.Outward through my nervous system in slow, deliberate waves.There was no pain.This was — recognition.The enormous, patient recognition of something vast that had decided I was worth talking to.
You are part of this.Part of me.
It wasn’t words, exactly.More like a frequency.Below thought, below language, landing in my bones with the certainty of something that had always been true.
You have always been part of this.You simply were not awake.
My throat closed with a surge of emotion I could not name.
I was part of this planet.This alien world had looked at me and saidyesand written that yes into my flesh in light and circuitry.Marked me as Sorik’s mate.As part of this world.Part of him.
If I wanted to protect this place, protect Sorik, I had to repair the ship, round up the crew, and leave as soon as possible.It was as if the planet somehowknewthe decision I had made.Completely insane, but it seemed as if Soltharra itself was speaking to me anyway, persistent and vast, entirely unbothered by my schedule.My worries.My fears.
I didn't know whether to be terrified or grateful.
I was both.
"Cave."Sorik's voice.Below me.Not loud — it didn't need to be.It carried the absolute authority of a man who had spotted danger."Three meters left.Now."
I moved.
The planet's voice still ran through my marks.I moved through the energy flowing around us like swimming in deep water — aware of it flowing in every direction, changed by the pressure.My body followed orders while my nervous system rewrote itself around a frequency that had no name in any language I spoke.
The cave mouth was a shadow in the obsidian.Narrow.Dark.I went through it sideways, crystal pack at my chest, shoulder dragging across the entrance rock.
The second discharge wave hit the cliff face just as I cleared it.
Close.The charge raised every hair on my body.Flooded my mouth with the taste of copper.My legs shook.I locked them and held the crystal pouch tighter because it was safe, and I was the one who kept things safe.I was still that person, even with the planet speaking in my bones, the marks blazing on my collarbones, the man one half-second behind me whose touch made me forget my own name.
Sorik.He moved into the cave behind me.Filled the space completely.
His heat made me want to melt into him.He towered over me.Huge.Strong.I had spent the entire morning trying to forget what it felt like to be this close to him.Thanks to the small space, and the storm outside, I was now completely incapable of thinking about anything else.Apparently, the cave had opinions about personal space, and none of those opinions involved me having any.