The Alien's Undoing: A SciFi Alien Warrior Romance (Drixonian Warriors Book 3)

by Ella Maven

  Most of the crocs were sleeping, although a few patrolled the area with spears in hand. One stood nearby guarding me while nibbling on a hunk of meat like it was a cookie.

  I huddled with my legs tight to my chest and my arms wrapped around my shins. I wished I had a hat or something to hold in as much body heat as possible. I tugged on the vine tying me to the tree, but it was strong. The guard watched me carefully, and I wished for a lazy sentry. Didn’t they give the shit jobs of watching prisoners to the newbies? That was what always happened in movies.

  Suddenly, crashing sounds came from the distance. I squinted into the darkened night, on high alert. If I got kidnapped a third time by an even worse alien species, I was going to go ballistic.

  The leader, who had been eating his gross meat with his lackeys, leapt to his feet. He peered into the distance just as a group of crocs ran into the makeshift camp, pulling something bulky behind them. The leader gasped and began chattering excitedly. His stubby arms flapped as he hopped from foot to foot. Excitement filled the air, and it wasn’t until the crocs parted to reveal their bounty I realized why.

  They had a blue alien. And not just any blue alien. My blue alien. Glower.

  I jerked up to my knees to get a better look in the dying light. He was conscious, but restrained. Heavily. While they used vines on me, they’d found manacles for him, massive chains which wrapped around his wrists, waist, and neck. I wondered why he wasn’t unleashing those blades beneath his skin.

  Did he need to be Hulk angry for them to work? Or maybe they weren’t effective against the manacles. His tail, which had previously been decorated with wicked looking spikes, was naked. He wore no weapons on his belt, and his chest was streaked with scratches and dirt. Black blood leaked from a cut on his cheek, and a few stab wounds littered his side.

  He glanced around the camp, ignoring the leader and all the others jabbing at him making an eerie laughter. His eyes locked with mine and held. The mottled blue camouflage on his scales rippled like ocean waves.

  “Oh no,” I murmured to myself. He was captured because of me. He’d probably been tracking me and had been caught by them. My stomach dropped, and guilt snagged at my heart. Wait a minute, why did I feel guilty? Maybe he was just pissed that they had gotten to his meal before him.

  But as he looked at me, his gaze running down the length of my body, I didn’t feel like he was sizing up the amount of meat he could strip from my bones. His eyes were black as the night, but they still had a depth to them, an intelligence I didn’t see when the crocs looked at me.

  Could he be here to … rescue me?

  No, that couldn’t be. Why would he risk his life for me when the blue aliens had five other females? I would have thought they chalked me up to a lost cause. Yet here he was, watching me intently, his big body oddly relaxed for a prisoner.

  Croc leader made a creepy cackling sound and gestured toward me. The crocs leading Glower on a chain pulled him toward me like a log. His jaw clenched, but he held his chin high as he walked. After seeing the way he and his friends fought, I felt an odd pang in my chest. This wasn’t right, this muscled warrior in chains. Yet he didn’t hang his head or shuffle along; he was still proud despite his capture. I had to admire that.

  More crocs surrounded him now, hissing and grunting. As a group, they led him over to me. Several of them swung clubs at his legs until he fell to his knees, then they shoved him back on his ass. Between his knees, they hammered a stake into the ground and locked his chain onto it. Satisfied he wasn’t able to go anywhere, they tittered away, leaving us prisoners alone.

  He sat beside me, his legs bent at the knee in front of him, his bound wrists strapped to the ground. His gaze swung to me immediately, and he did that body assessment thing again, checking me over in a studious way.

  I thought I saw something other than concern appear in his expression before it vanished. Then his eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared, and I swore he was letting me know he was fucking pissed at me. Yeah, well, I was kind of pissed at me too.

  “Okay, so I can see you’re not happy with me, and I get it. I’m sorry. But I didn’t know if you were going to eat me. I know for sure these guys are going to eat me. Do you want to eat me?”

  He didn’t answer and continued to glare at me, like look at what you did, stupid human.

  “Well I didn’t say you had to follow me, you know.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You could have left me here and you’d be free to do whatever it is you do all day. Bench press elephants, maybe?” I snorted at my own joke, but that only seemed to make him angrier.

  Weary, I slumped back to the ground, the chill of the dirt making me shiver. Goosebumps rose on my arms and legs. I wrapped my arms around myself and dropped my chin to my knees.

  Glower yanked on his chains, and then glared angrily at them.

  I was surprised they didn’t incinerate under the power of that anger.

  He frowned as he looked at me. I rubbed my arms, trying to bring some warmth into them as I felt my teeth begin to chatter. The cool of the night came quickly, and the only light now was a dull glow coming from an orb near the leader and the gray cast of the moon.

  Up close, I realized Glower’s eyes were a very dark, shimmery purple. He watched me rub my arms. His tail lifted, and I held back a cringe as the tip brushed along my leg. He sucked in a breath and his nubbed brow lowered, throwing his eyes into shadow.

  With a swift movement, he curled his tail around me and tugged me against his side. I fell into him with a yelp, and before I could regain my balance, he’d scooped me into the space between his legs. His arms came down on either side of me so the stake in the ground was in front of my feet.

  For a moment, I didn’t move. Would he bite into my neck like a vampire? I’d seen his fangs. Then his head rested on mine, and the tension coiled in his muscles eased. His arms and legs closed around me tighter. It was then I realized he didn’t mean to hurt me. He was keeping me warm. He was … a gentleman? Sort of. A gentleman who glared a lot, had horns, and no shirt. His body radiated heat like a furnace, and I practically melted against his chest.

  I’d made a mistake. A terrible fucking mistake. I still wasn’t quite sure what part Glower and his friends had played in my abduction, but every instinct in my body screamed he was my best chance at survival. Too bad my instincts were often confused, and I didn’t trust them.

  Fuck, I was tired. I was physically fatigued and mentally exhausted. I wanted to stay awake, to keep my wits about me, but my eyes kept closing. A steady vibration at my back only aided in lulling me to sleep. Wait, a vibration?

  Glower, my big blue alien, was making a sound, almost like a purr. “Ch-ch-ch,” he murmured above me, a gentle chant which for some reason delved deep into my psyche and soothed me. He didn’t know me. I’d ran from him. I’d caused him to get captured by man-eating reptile monsters, and yet he was keeping me warm and trying his best to soothe me.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I’ll do anything to help us get out of here. I hope you have some sort of plan, big guy. Because all I got is sheer determination to survive.” Tears pricked at my eyes and heat flooded my face. “I can’t be a victim. I just can’t be.”

  He didn’t answer, just continued his purring until I finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

  Ward

  I couldn’t resist breathing her in. She smelled a bit like Rizars from being in their presence for a full rotation, but under that was her smell, the one I craved after being in her presence for only a yora or two.

  I was angry she ran, but relieved to see her still alive. I might have been misreading her expression, but she looked contrite. I was sure I looked like a much better option compared to the Rizars. Little did she know I was the best option she’d ever get. I was probably better than her male humans. I’d heard they were small and weak. No weapons other than the ones they manufactured. Ridiculous. How another species hadn’t conquered Earth yet was a mystery to me.

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nbsp; She’d fallen asleep with her head resting on my biceps, revealing her pale, slender neck to my gaze. I’d have given anything to put my mouth there, to suck on that delicate patch of skin until she wore my marks.

  My cock wouldn’t quit now I was in her presence again. It’d made itself known, hardening at her back with such a vengeance I worried she’d wake up and try to smack it. Maybe that would help actually, because this was ridiculous. She wasn’t for me. I was to protect her, and that was it. She wasn’t for me; wasn’t for any of us. She was a human female who must be kept safe, and that didn’t involve being on the receiving end of my cock.

  But I couldn’t stop thinking about how she’d came willingly into the circle of my arms and how well her tiny body fit against mine. She hadn’t fought me, and it’d been amazing to look into her pretty green eyes and see what seemed like an apology. Hopefully now she realized there were worse things on the planet than my ugly face.

  I barely suppressed a growl and forced myself to look away from her neck. My attraction to her could not cloud my judgement. I was here to rescue her and get her back to our compound to reunite with the other women. That was it.

  About half of the Rizars slept. The rest stayed awake, guarding the camp. Their leader, or king as they called him, watched me with sleepy eyes as he drank what was surely a fermented drink. His belly was probably full as I’d spotted a well-cleaned antella carcass on the way in. The smell of Rizars surrounded me, turning my stomach.

  Letting a Rizar pack catch me had to have been one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Watching as they tied me while hissing their mocking laughter nearly had me blowing the whole thing and taking their heads off. But this was the best way to get close to my female. I could protect her better now than I could from a distance, and it would be easier to get us both out than to sneak in and steal her back. That didn’t mean I was happy about any of this.

  I rolled my shoulders and tried to get comfortable. I could pull this damn stake out of the ground right now if I really wanted to, and maybe break the rusty manacles too, but I had to bide my time. If I tried to leave now, I’d be overpowered by the sheer number of Rizars. Tonight, wasn’t the night. Tomorrow would be a full rotation of travel before we reached the coast, and that was when I had to make my move. I didn’t relish traveling that far from the Night Kings compound, but I had to be smart. My machets itched under my skin, nearly begging to lift, slash, and kill.

  The sight of a vine wrapped around my female’s slim ankle tying her to a tree did nothing to calm the anger that simmered in my blood. She should be safe, well-fed, and not caged or leashed. A female treated like this! An abomination.

  I should sleep. I wanted to stay alert, but there was no point. They’d leave us alone tonight. And tomorrow would be when I needed to be the best warrior I could be. I willed my cock to ignore the soft pretty female and shut my eyes. Sleep came easily with her tucked safe against me.

  Four

  Ward

  I awoke at the first light of dawn. Lifting my head, I surveyed the camp. The Rizars slept in shifts so half of them were up already, stumbling around on their stubby legs, hitting each other with their short tails and generally being the annoying little flecks they were.

  They ignored us, and I suspected we wouldn’t leave for another yora or two, at the least. The king was passed out, his snout half open and his drink cup tipped over on the ground near his splayed hand.

  Some munched on rancid meat left over from the carcass which had sat out all night. I rolled my neck, working out the cracks and stiffness, doing my best to keep as still as possible so as not to wake my female.

  Snuggling against me, her eyes still closed, she whispered a few words and laid her hand in the crook of my elbow. Her hands were so small, her fingers slender and she wore a gold band on her first finger. A small gold bracelet slid down her wrist, and small stones sparkled in her ears. I wondered where else my female was pierced. Drixonian women weren’t pierced like the males, but it wasn’t unheard of for them to put studs in their noses or ear lobes, especially if their mates were high-ranking warriors.

  She moved again, and her lashes fluttered as her eyes opened. For a moment, she stared at the Rizars camp, her body still lax from sleep. Then her muscles stiffened, and she inhaled sharply before turning her head in my arms and peering up at me. Her green eyes locked with mine, and I couldn’t have looked away if the entire Rizars pack decided to end my life right then and there. She held so much in those green orbs of hers—fear, intelligence, humor, and respect.

  Then she smiled, and my lungs seized in any chest. My breathing hitched, my cora pounded like a herd of antella, and I must have done something with my mouth, because her smile got wider. It wasn’t until I ran my fingers over my lips I realized I smiled too. A genuine smile that wasn’t forced or ordered. An involuntary one. What was this female doing to me?

  She turned in my arms and knelt facing me. Her breasts brushed my chest, and my cock took that opportunity to wake up again. Wait, it’d been awake. Before me, in fact. What the fleck?

  The female laid her hand flat on her upper chest and said a word, “Reba.”

  “Reba?” I tested the syllables on my tongue.

  She nodded eagerly. “Reba!”

  Then she patted my chest, right over where my cora beat like a hunner swarm. She looked at me expectantly.

  “Reba?” I said.

  She shook her head but kept the smile in place. She patted her chest. “Reba.” Then she repeated the action on me.

  Ah, now I understood. Or at least, I thought I did. We were exchanging names. I patted my chest. “Ward.”

  Her smile widened until it took up her whole face. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, and her eyes glittered. “Reba,” she pointed to herself. “Ward.” She pointed to me.

  I nodded, feeling like we accomplished something big. I had something to call her now. I hoped one rotation I’d be able to speak to her if Daz could get his hands on more translator implants…

  Stop, Ward. Stop acting like you have a claim to her, like you’ll be anything to her after all this.

  My smile must have evaporated, because Reba’s grin faded, and she nibbled on her lip with worry before dropping her gaze from mine. Our moment was over. My duty had to begin.

  We didn’t have more time to converse, because we were pulled from the ground only a few moments later. Reba was shoved back in her cage while I was forced to march nearby. I didn’t mind. I liked stretching my legs and I could keep an eye on Reba.

  The thing about Rizars was I could cut off a limb and they wouldn’t fall. While I could easily outrun them, I couldn’t outrun the reach of their launched spears. A few slices in my scales was survivable, but an entire pack nailing me with sharp weapons would be too much. As for Reba? No way would she survive a spear hit. Her skin was so thin, I could see her veins underneath. I couldn’t risk her safety.

  The Rizars traveled with scouts on either side of us, so even if we escaped the main pack, several dozen would be waiting.

  My only option was to wait until we reached the cliff caves. One thing I knew for sure the Rizars couldn’t do was climb. If I escaped at the right moment and scaled the cliff at the right angle, I knew we’d be able to evade the Rizars. Well, I knew with less than perfect certainty, but at this rate I had no other choice.

  Reba

  Ward didn’t seem concerned about our situation, and I couldn’t decide if that made me more or less nervous. Shouldn’t he be struggling and slashing with his many weapons? I would have welcomed gore at this point and fantasized more than once about watching him slam his horns into a few aortas. Maybe slash the leader’s face off with his forearm spikes. I was tired of that smug bastard leering into my cage like he was sizing up which thigh to bite into first.

  By the time the sun began to set on the second day of my captivity, I was exhausted, smelly, hungry from my food strike, and delirious from fear of the unknown. When a squawk reached my ears, I pre
ssed myself against the front of the cage and peered up into the sky. A shadow fell over us—a massive shadow—from some creature in the sky. I gasped and slid back to the center of the cage. Ward casually looked up, his eyes tracking something before he focused again on the path ahead. He glanced at me, gave me a firm nod, and just that small gesture settled me. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t question it and took the comfort where I could.

  The air grew humid, and the smell of the vinegar-y water they’d given me to drink filled the air. Were we near a water source? Maybe they planned to drown me and make me swim with the fishes. See? Delirious.

  The terrain changed. The forest around us grew sparser until the tall vegetation opened up, revealing a slope descent that led to… I gasped. An ocean. Or at least, this planet’s version of an ocean. The water was deep green and lapped at the store in gentle waves. The croc’s feet sank into softer land as they walked, and I stuck my hand through the cage bars. I picked up a handful of the sediment, which was a brown, sand-like consistency.

  A crustacean creature with claws and an armored back scuttled near my hand and I drew it back with a short yelp. A sharp crack came from the other side of my cage, and I whipped my head around to see Ward staring at me, alarmed.

  Did he think I was hurt? I held up my hands. “Just a crab thing. I didn’t get pinched. It’s all good.”

  He huffed and ignored a croc who battered his broad back with the flat of his spear. When Ward looked certain that I was okay, he once again walked straight ahead.

  We descended the slope toward the ocean, and I looked up at the two cliffs which surrounded us on either side, maybe about fifty feet tall. Just when I thought we’d march right into the ocean, the caravan took a sharp left, where a series of rock steps led up to a large cavern deep-set into the side of the cliff.