Miracle of the Beast (A Winter Starr Book 2)

by Sonia Nova

  “That didn’t mean I wanted you to stop,” Hazel said admonishingly when he ceased his movements, and pulled his face back down toward her.

  Zeriq grinned at her, more than happy to oblige. The light on his skin was warm as he resumed his steady thrusts, pounding into her core. She kissed him as they moved together, her mouth soft and gentle. Her lips tasted sweet as he ran his tongue along the sensitive skin.

  It was a moment like none other in Zeriq’s life. Not only was Hazel like no other female he had ever known, something about her was affecting him so… emotionally. Even as he fucked her, he couldn’t get enough of looking into her eyes, or touching her hair, or kissing the hollows of her neck – carefully, so as not to scrape her with his teeth.

  The way she clung to him, smiled at him when they made eye contact… He felt cherished. Important. Loved.

  Just thinking the word almost distracted him from his rhythm. They had only known each other for less than a week. Love was an emotion humans reserved for family and close friends. Why had the word come to him?

  He was thinking too much.

  The pleasure was building up to a peak and his whole groin area began to tense. He gripped Hazel tighter in his arms and stood for more leverage, taking care not to slip out of her warmth.

  He moved his right hand to press his thumb on her clit, reveling in the way she moaned as he started to swirl his thumb against her nub. The obvious ecstasy on her face brought him even closer to climax – just looking at her feeling her own pleasure turned him on beyond understanding. She was biting her lip, her eyes scrunched shut, moans and gasps getting caught in her throat.

  He thrust into her faster than before, all the while rubbing her clit with his finger. By the way she pulsed around him, he could feel that she was close. He flicked his thumb one more time, and Hazel gasped, quivering in his arms as she came in waves, first crying out and clamping his waist so hard that his bones ached, then moaning soft as the convulsions of her hips slowed.

  Zeriq felt his own climax nearing as her walls massaged his cock. His muscles tensed and he could feel his balls crawl up. His cock expanded to its full size within her, starting to pulse on its own as the pleasure took him and he came into her with a harsh growl.

  She opened her eyes and their gazes met. For a moment, looking down at her in this vulnerable state was the most intense feeling. He could barely breathe, thinking how strangely lucky he was to have met her, even in the horrible situation that had brought them together.

  Hazel’s serious expression changed in a moment and she smiled.

  “That was amazing,” she muttered. She entwined her fingers in his mane and pulled his head down toward her for another kiss. The scent of their sex was in the air, along with the faint smell of the recently fallen rain.

  Zeriq just grunted in response, breathing in her scent and enjoying the moment.

  His thoughts were going a mile a minute, and he wasn’t quite sure how to express them. All he knew was that Hazel deserved better than this. Better than this planet, better than worrying about some alien monster, better than seeing him go wild with his most base instincts… all to protect her.

  They had to get off of this damn planet.

  And soon.

  CHAPTER 15

  HAZEL

  Had it really been weeks since they had their encounter with the beast?

  A shiver wracked through Hazel’s body as the thought of the creature entered her mind. She had been worried about venturing outside for days after their encounter. But of course, they had needed food.

  Zeriq had assured her he would be fine on his own, but Hazel had hesitated. What if something happened again? He had turned it around and convinced her it would be for the best. He could hunt for food and she could work on fixing the comm so they could get off this planet as soon as possible.

  So, as concerned as Hazel had been for Zeriq’s safety, she had stayed in the shuttle, working on the communication system, while Zeriq had explored in other directions around their ship.

  At Hazel’s request, he’d agreed not to go back toward the river, but she could tell he had been thinking the same thing. If something like that horrible creature frequented the area, there could be more of them or even something worse. It made sense to look for some other kind of a food source, if at all possible.

  On the first day, when Zeriq had finally returned with a bag full of large, red, apple-like fruits, Hazel had been both excited and nervous. He had agreed to eat one first, and after nothing happened to him except that he was less hungry, she had scarfed down about five.

  Zeriq had found another blue forest in the exact opposite direction from the first one they had happened across, and this one apparently had something of an orchard growing along its edge. Every day, Zeriq brought back different sweet, crisp fruit, and eventually, Hazel had tagged along as well.

  They were now heading back to the shuttle after a trip to the “orchard,” as they called it, though it was really more like a line of trees at the edge of the forest about a mile long. Once, they had ventured further into this blue forest, but had found no more fruit except a couple bushes of those intoxicating berries that they knew so well. Apparently, the trees that grew truly edible fruit liked to be on the outskirts of the forest.

  That meant less walking, so Hazel had no issue with that. At least she had closer to proper nutrition now, but that didn’t mean following along in Zeriq’s snowy footprints wasn’t any less tiring.

  They’d noticed the temperature really fluctuated on this planet. Every other day, it seemed to be warm enough for the snow to melt, sometimes nearly completely, and every other day, the piles of white crystals were back.

  Today was one of those snowy days and Zeriq was marching about ten feet ahead of her, paving the way. Hazel took the opportunity to appreciate how good his ass looked in his cargo pants.

  She blushed at the thought, even though no one could hear what went on inside her head. After everything they had been through – and done together – her attraction to Zeriq still came as sort of a surprise, sometimes. Though, that attractiveness was an undeniable fact.

  His spectacularly muscled body was more than revealed by the clothes that, by this point, had been shredded to pieces after the fight with the creature and the fall from the cliff.

  Once, he had come back from exploring while Hazel was working on the comm, and he had a whole new rip in his dark gray shirt, accompanied by a nasty looking scratch. He said a branch had got him while he explored a thicker part of the forest, but Hazel guessed he was just trying to keep her from trying to stop him from returning to his exploration the next day.

  Even if he had run into some kind of alien creature that could leave a scratch like that on him, they hadn’t seen anything like that on their “hunt” today. It was more of a harvest. Zeriq carried his fifty-pound sack of fruits like it was nothing, and Hazel was doing her best with her share.

  Usually, she would ask Zeriq to slow down and let her take a break, but the sky was rapidly darkening – which meant temperatures were dropping – and they were still about ten or fifteen minutes from the shuttle.

  Taking a deep breath, Hazel urged herself forward. She was about to turn her gaze downward to make sure she didn’t miss the impressions of Zeriq’s guiding footsteps, when something caught her eye.

  Twinkling in the gray sky above them was a bright, shimmering star. Generally, that wouldn’t have been enough to catch her attention because the planet had plenty of unfamiliar stars that were visible at night, but this one was… different. Way, way brighter than she had ever seen before.

  Was it a comet? A meteor? Or…

  “Zeriq!” she called, her heart suddenly beating faster, and not just at how beautiful the star was.

  He stopped walking and waited for her to watch up. She ran up to him and pointed toward the star.

  “A star,” he said, unimpressed.

  “Look how bright it is,” she said, trying to get him to real
ize what she had. He just shrugged. “And… I knew it! Look! It’s moving!”

  Unable to contain herself, she grabbed his hand in excitement and squeezed it.

  “It’s moving…” he muttered in agreement, the reality of what they were seeing sinking in. “You think it could be a spaceship. But, even if it is, the comm…”

  “The range it’s currently functioning at includes surrounding airspace. That didn’t mean anything before because no one was out there, but now… Come on! We need to get back to the shuttle!”

  Zeriq’s expression went from skeptical to a wide grin. He grabbed the bag of fruit from Hazel and swung it across his shoulder along with the other one.

  “We’ll move twice as fast if I help you carry this,” he teased her. “Let’s go.”

  He was right, but Hazel rolled her eyes. She knew that he let her help him with gathering food every day because it made her feel useful – she had long since stopped making progress on the comm. But she knew he could gather plenty to feed them for days in a single journey.

  Right now, though, none of that mattered. What mattered was getting back to the shuttle as soon as possible – before that pinprick of hope passed straight across the sky and it was too late.

  It felt like both an eternity and just a second that they were back in the shuttle cockpit. Zeriq picked up the comm and repeated the emergency message they had been trying every day for weeks.

  “I repeat, we are requesting immediate emergency assistance.” He started their speech again, his expression starting to fall when no answer came.

  Hazel held her breath, her whole body tense. She wasn’t going to give up hope just because it took them a minute to respond. Maybe they just hadn’t noticed yet that there was something transmitting at this frequency, maybe the communications tech was in the bathroom, maybe…

  “This is the Fremmer trading freighter responding to your emergency signal,” a voice crackled through the comm. “We are currently accessing your coordinates.”

  For one moment, Zeriq and Hazel just stared at each other, frozen in place. Hazel was the first one to break. She cried out in happiness and leaned across the cockpit to give Zeriq the tightest hug she could. Tears started to wet her cheeks and she laughed into Zeriq’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.

  “You did it,” he said, his deep voice reverberating through his chest. “You got the comm to work. You’ve saved us!”

  Hazel pulled away from their hug. She knew she must look like a mess but she could care less.

  “They’re coming,” she said, the words somehow bringing what was happening closer to reality. “That ship. They’re coming to get us.”

  The look on Zeriq’s face was about as close to pure joy as she could imagine him showing. He was grinning, showing all those sharp teeth, and his dark eyes were lit up. He took her by the shoulders and kissed her, all their joy transforming into a desperate, consuming kiss.

  “I want to watch it land,” Hazel said, finding a break in their kissing. “Come out there with me.”

  Within a minute, they were standing in the snow outside the shuttle, looking up toward the sky. Zeriq wrapped an arm around Hazel’s waist and she snuggled closer to his warm side.

  The shining dot in the sky had already changed its trajectory and was getting bigger. She still couldn’t make out any details of the ship, but she could care less about what it looked like.

  It was headed straight for them.

  They were going to be rescued!

  “Did you see the date on the panel when we were in the cockpit?” Zeriq asked, taking Hazel by surprise.

  “No,” she said. She hadn’t been looking at anything in the cockpit except Zeriq and the comm as he had spoken. “What day is it?”

  “December 24th,” Zeriq said casually. “It is a Western Earth holiday, yes? Do you celebrate it?”

  Hazel’s jaw dropped and she looked up at him in disbelief. She knew that weeks had gone by, of course, but she had just assumed either Christmas had passed already or that it hadn’t happened yet.

  But right now? This was Christmas Eve?

  “Yeah, I celebrate it,” Hazel said, finally answering his question. “This is… This is perfect. I just can’t believe this is really happening. It’s like a Christmas miracle.”

  Zeriq nodded slowly, and his expression told her that he didn’t quite understand what she meant by that. That was fine. They would have plenty of time together in the future where she could explain all the customs to him that he only knew by name, or not at all.

  She just smiled and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.

  “See?” she said, thinking back to one of the first conversations they had on the planet, what seemed like so long ago. “They are coming to save us. I wasn’t just a useless Alliance trainee after all.”

  Zeriq grinned back at her. “No, you weren’t. And I’ve never been happier to be proven wrong.”

  Hazel laughed. Looking back into the sky, she was now able to make out the shape of the Ghelian-style freighter that had made its way through the atmosphere and was now rapidly nearing them.

  She thought about what awaited her on that ship. Her first real meal in weeks. A shower. A bed. Her heart leaped at the thought.

  And all of it with Zeriq.

  She knew that she wouldn’t have survived any of this without him, and her thankfulness for his caring, protective nature nearly made her heart burst. All the stereotypes of the Ezak-X might be true, in a way – that they were unfamiliar with social customs of pretty much every species, that they lived for battle – but there was so much more to them. Just like any living being.

  She couldn’t wait to be with him while they weren’t stranded together on an unforgiving alien planet. She could even introduce him to her family.

  A smile broke out on her face at the thought. Her grandma would just love him. And Shea. Her sister would have a lot to say; there was no doubt.

  “What are you laughing about?” Zeriq asked, looking down at her with a crease between his eyebrows.

  “Nothing,” she said. She could explain later. “I’m just happy.”

  EPILOGUE

  ZERIQ

  “Taste some of the dough,” Hazel insisted, brandishing her mixing spoon full of brown dough at Zeriq.

  “It’s raw,” he protested. “I thought you said you cook these into little men?”

  Hazel laughed. “Yeah, that step comes next. But it’s basically a tradition to try a little of the dough, at least in my family.”

  Zeriq turned to the dough, unable to resist his curiosity. The dough smelled spicy and sweet at the same time, and he thought it could taste good. He took a finger full of the dough and ate it, the spicy flavors exploding in his mouth.

  “What do you think?”

  “Good,” he said, licking his lips. It tasted just like it smelled. “So now we make the shapes?”

  “I’ll tell you. Right after you wash your hands again,” Hazel said, using the same spoon now to gesture pointedly toward the sink.

  Zeriq grunted. Hadn’t he already washed his hands about three times since they had started cooking? He shrugged and walked off toward the sink. Earth was funny like that.

  It was New Year’s Day on Earth, and he had been letting his curiosity get the best of him basically every day as he accompanied Hazel. After hearing their story, Hazel’s parents had instantly invited the both of them to come stay with them. The humans had lavished them with food and always asked if there was anything else they could do.

  Hazel’s mother had cooked them a Christmas dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, roasted squash, and Hazel’s father had made the dessert. Pecan pie, Zeriq remembered, the memory of the delicious scent and taste of the dessert coming back to him.

  But for New Year’s, they weren’t at Hazel’s parent’s home.

  After their return, a couple of Earth news outlets had reported on their story, never forgetting to mention that the two of them were a human and an Ezak-X
. Because of the reporting, they sometimes were recognized on the street or got calls from people who had all sorts of opinions about their relationship. But within days of getting settled back on Earth, they had received surprising news.

  They weren’t the only Ezak-X and human couple around. A human woman named Alyssa and an Ezak-X male named Xarq lived in the suburbs of an area known as “Space City” together with their child. For the holiday season, they were hosting another couple – named Naomi and Arez – who were visiting with their baby, on break from their Alliance positions on the planet of Agaria.

  Both couples had also gone through their share of adversity to end up here on Earth, together and safe for the holidays. Alyssa had called Hazel up and they had become fast friends, and soon they were planning a Christmas-New Year’s party, as they called it.

  It was the first holiday season on Earth for both Zeriq and Arez – and the babies. Xarq had already been living on Earth for the past year and had more familiarity with Earth customs. But the women had wanted to hold a celebration that combined all the best traditions of the end of the year festivities.

  Apparently, as Zeriq was learning, many of these traditions involved food, including “gingerbread men” – small, anthropomorphic sweet snacks with icing that decorated them with faces and clothes to look more like people.

  He found it a mixture of funny and disturbing, but mostly funny. Although he had worked for a while now defending Earth with the Alliance military, he actually hadn’t spent much time at all on the surface, getting to know Earth customs beyond what little information the basic Alliance military cultural sensitivity covered. Even then, he hadn’t paid much attention during those training days.

  There was a lot he didn’t know.

  Zeriq finished washing his hands and returned to the counter beside Hazel.

  “What do I do next?” he asked, watching her cut out man-shaped pieces of the dough with a metal contraption of the same shape.