Page 69 of Fathom

I needed to eat it. I needed to escape it. I was too small to keep her safe. Too small to protect myself.

"The MECH doesn't know where home is," Leija said, the disappointment heavy in her voice.

I didn't like that. I didn't like any of this. I was too small, too exposed.

"Not safe," I growled. Nothing was safe.

I couldn't protect her, not like this.

I needed to grow.

There was enough food here to do it.

"Eun?" Leija asked, but her voice was small, far away.

I had to hold onto her; I couldn't let her get away.

I reached out, and she was already in my arms, her body warm against mine, her soft hands touching my face as pain seared me. I reached out with my hair, feeling around me. Nutrients, wrapped in plastic. I shredded them, my hair wrapping around the pieces as I absorbed them, feeding my hunger, answering my desperate need to be able to protect her, to protect myself.

"Eun!" Leija called again, but I couldn't see her.

I could taste her lips against mine, and I kissed her, my hands on her thighs, pushing her dress up. I needed her. Her touch was the answer to my agony, the anchor that kept me feeling as I kept reaching out, cracking open more crates around me as I tore into them and found more building blocks to satiate the sudden agony.

There was the steady thud of something metal and heavyrunning past me, a query that made my mate call out in response, but I didn't want that; she couldn't call out unless it was in pleasure, and she couldn't reach out to anyone to me. I reached for her center, finding her wet and tender, her legs spread around me, around a part of me that was vulnerable, that would never be weak again.

I would give her all of my vulnerability, all of my seed.

My mate needed me.

I had to be strong enough.

And there was meat to be eaten.

TWENTY-THREE

LEIJA

Eun had lost it.

Blood dripped down the sides of his mouth as the sound of bone crunching between teeth echoed through the air, punctuated by soft, rhythmic growls. He'd killed the hyenas in a wild rage and sat there, hunched over their bodies, snarling into the air as he ate them. The MECH had said it was going to get the ship in the air, and it vanished to look for a control room. The ramp had closed behind us, and I felt the lurch of gravity as the shuttle took off.

All the while, Eun sat there, hunched over the bodies, tearing them apart with his strands as he bolted down chunks of meat, ligament and bone. It was the same as in that warehouse, but worse, because this time I could see him eating, see the speed at which he swallowed down the chunks of flesh. My stomach lurched as I watched him but I couldn’t turn away

Idid this to him.

He didn’t want to fight them. He didn’t want to risk getting into this state.

"Eun?" I called out to him, and his eyes searched for me, wild and unfocused.

He didn't want this, and I forced him into it.

But this wasn't the same as before. Something was different.

His hair was growing, wild tentacles that spread out from his body, growing long and longer. They brushed past me, ignoring me as they reached out, searching for something. I put my hand on his shoulder, and his eyes finally locked onto mine.

I wasn’t afraid of him.

"Eun!" I tried again.