Crux: Dragon Brides #1 (Intergalactic Dating Agency)

by Kate Rudolph

  "What?" She took half a step back. "What did you lie about?" Not the dragon thing, that was clearly real. The prince thing? The slaver thing? "What?"

  He took a deep, steadying breath. "I found my mate on that planet."

  "Then what's the lie?" At this point he was lucky she had decided to leave her skates with the rest of her stuff, because she had gotten really good at busting heads and she was losing patience.

  "You're my mate, Courtney."

  22

  Crux was never going to lie again. If that was the only way to make sure he never hurt Courtney, it had to be done. Her face had gone pale and her eyes big. Her hands shook, and he worried that she was about to cry. She hadn't looked so scared while facing down monsters, and he hated that he was the one who'd put the look on his face.

  "I'm… I'm your… what? No." She shook her head, and her whole body joined the movement, swaying from side to side.

  He didn't take it as a rejection. Of course she didn't believe him. He'd done this to himself. "You're my mate. I regret that it took me some time to understand it. And that I didn't tell you. That's why you could channel my power. That's why you understood me when I was in my dragon form. That's why my heart beats for you."

  Her breaths were ragged, and she sank down so she was sitting on one of the concrete steps in front of the door her mother cowered behind. "You're lying."

  "I'm not."

  "I'm human. I can't be your mate." She pulled her knees close and hugged them.

  Crux wished he had the right to hold her close. "You are human, and you are my mate. Humans have a funny way of being compatible mates. Your kind is scattered all across the galaxy."

  "What?" Now she didn't sound hurt so much as confused.

  He sat down beside her, careful to leave some space between them. "You're not the first human to be abducted. Not all of them want to go back to Earth."

  She snorted. "I can't blame them."

  He continued. "There are human settlements on hundreds of planets. There are probably more humans living in space now than live on this planet. There have been abductions for thousands, tens of thousands, of years. We even have a fairly large community of humans back in my kingdom."

  "And the mate thing?" She still sounded disbelieving.

  "Humans have been intermingling among the stars for tens of thousands of years. By this point I'm pretty sure most of us have a bit of human in us." It was a fringe theory, but Crux liked the sound of it. Especially when he was sitting beside his human mate.

  "You're a prince."

  "Your prince." He'd made his decision. If Courtney would have him, he was hers before all other claims. His father would have to agree if he wanted Crux to be his heir. And if not? Well, Crux would figure something else out. As long as he could have Courtney.

  "We barely know each other." She kept throwing up roadblocks, and Crux wondered if he had misjudged her emotions.

  She still hadn't sent him away.

  "We can remedy that. I came here to woo you."

  "Woo? Isn't it a bit late for that? We've already…" She gave a nod he interpreted to mean that they'd already made love.

  "I've given you pleasure. But I want to earn your heart. Will you give me the chance?" He'd never been so terrified to make a request in his life. He'd run into battle with more surety of his survival.

  She reached out and clutched his hand, and the vise on Crux's heart released in relief. "I'm really glad to see you."

  "And I you."

  "Can I kiss you?" She tugged him close and Crux went willingly.

  "You don't have to ask."

  Her mouth covered his and he gave himself over to it. It had been far too long—days—since he'd kissed her, and he would never let things get so dire again. This was his mate, and she needed to know just how much she was cherished by him.

  He would spend his life showing her.

  His senses were a whirr of pleasure, and he would have taken things further if it weren't for something hard hitting him in the back of the head a second after he realized the door to the house had been opened.

  "Get your hands off her!" a shrill human voice yelled.

  "Mom!" Courtney sprung up and flung herself in front of him. "Oh my god. That's my boyfriend! Stop it!"

  Crux picked up the small black device covered in buttons and handed it to Courtney as he stood. "What's that?"

  She snatched it away from him and glared at her mother. "A TV remote? Really?"

  Ah. Crux understood. It controlled an Earth entertainment system. "Madam," he said from behind his mate, "if I may introduce myself. I am Crux, prince of—"

  "Persia!" Courtney spoke over him. Then shook her head. "No, obviously not. That's how we met. He was playing that old game. Prince of Persia. Right?"

  Crux's vow not to lie was being tested, but he would follow his mate's lead. And perhaps it was time for him to stop talking.

  "I don't know what's gotten into you, Courtney. I think you need help. And, though I hate to do this, if you don't leave, I'm going to have to call the police." She closed the door in their faces.

  Courtney slumped back, leaning against him.

  "She saw me come through the portal, why should she not know where I'm from?" Crux didn't understand this planet, though he had been given an information packet by Pyro before coming here.

  "Because she'll think she hallucinated or it was a solar flare or something. She doesn't think aliens exist. And…" Courtney shook her head and blew out a breath. "It's just not good. Do you have a place to stay? Or were you going to abduct me back through that portal?"

  "I thought I would stay for a time." He had a rendezvous with Doom's crew schedule in a few weeks, but he wanted to explore Courtney's planet and win her heart before he asked her to come back with him. "I was given this before I stepped through the portal. Scorch said human cards of credit are very easy to forge." He held up the small plastic device.

  Courtney grinned, and it lit up her face. "A black card? Come on. We're going to a nice hotel."

  She tugged him down the street, and Crux gladly followed. He had protected his mate on one planet. It was time for her to take the lead here. And there was nothing he wanted more than to explore just what they could get up to together in a hotel.

  23

  The room was perfect. Beyond perfect. With Crux's black card, Courtney had splurged. They had a beautiful view of the city and the river in the distance. The bed was soft and large enough to fit about sixteen people. There was even a jacuzzi.

  It was everything Courtney could possibly want.

  But she would have been happy back in that cave on Monster Planet if it meant she could have Crux beside her.

  Crux was standing beside the small desk and looking around like he'd never seen a hotel room before. Then again, maybe he hadn't.

  "Do you have hotels back home?" she asked, flopping back down onto the huge bed and bouncing a bit.

  Crux grinned at her. "There are inns and hostels. Though my family has properties scattered throughout the kingdom, so I normally have no need of rented lodgings."

  "Because you're the dragon prince."

  "Because I'm the dragon prince," he agreed. His fascination with the room seemed to come to an end, and he stared at her lying on the bed. "And your mate."

  "And my mate." It was still almost impossible to believe. Courtney was just a normal woman. A human. Nothing special. And yet this dragon prince from the other side of space belonged to her. "Come here."

  Crux came. He loomed over her for a second before sweeping her up into his arms and crushing his mouth against hers.

  It was like coming home.

  Everything had been wrong since they’d separated. Her life had gone to shit. Her future was nowhere to be seen. And her heart had been breaking into pieces. Things were still unsure. She didn't know where she and Crux ended up.

  But he was here now and he was kissing her, and that was all that mattered.

  They were weari
ng too many clothes. Crux was still in his uniform, though he clearly had cleaned it at some point since their separation. Stripping off body armor when she was determined not to stop kissing him was more of a challenge than it should have been.

  And it was a failure.

  They finally had to separate to strip themselves, and it only took seconds. No more struggles, no more barriers between them.

  Fuck, Crux was hot. He was hot in the flickering firelight of a dim cave and in the bright, sunlit hotel room. Covered in dirt, freshly showered, it didn't matter. He made her heart pound. He made her want.

  And she could have him.

  All of him.

  "Keep looking at me like that and I won't be able to control myself," Crux warned, his voice gruff with desire.

  "Is that a promise?"

  This time she kissed him, wrapping a leg around his waist and feeling his hard length trapped between them. They tipped back onto the bed and this time bounced together. Courtney smiled against Crux's mouth, horny and joyful and so damn glad she was in this man's arms.

  She wanted to be full of him, to be joined with him, and to come with him. She never wanted this feeling of pleasure to end.

  And when Crux's fingers teased her entrance, she moaned. He stroked her slick entrance, teasing her with one finger and then another, his thumb rubbing over her nub. Just a bit more pressure and she'd tip over the edge.

  But her evil mate pulled back before she crested and smiled against her lips as she made a sound of protest.

  "Patience, dear mate," he crooned, rubbing his hand up her side.

  "I'll show you patience," she taunted back and wrapped her hand around his cock, stroking him hard and watching as his eyes shut in pleasure.

  He jerked in her hand, hips jutting forward in an uncontrolled thrust as he groaned in desire. Then he covered her hand with his own and stopped her. "Not yet," he urged.

  "I need you now." Her body was on fire with want and Crux was pushing her down into the mattress. He was so close, and yet they were still that vital distance apart. "Please."

  The plea finally got to him, and Crux guided himself to her entrance and gently nudged the tip of his cock inside of her.

  How did he feel so much bigger now? That night in the cave she'd been stuffed full and sure he wouldn't fit. And yet now there seemed to be even more of him. Maybe it was the position. Maybe it was the room.

  Maybe it was alien space magic.

  Courtney didn't care, not as long as she and Crux were together.

  He slid into her agonizingly slow and full. It was the kind of torture Courtney lived for, and her body was on fire with her dragon. She wanted to beg him for more, but her tongue was tied up and she couldn't do anything but moan.

  It didn't matter. Her mate understood.

  He moved in her like he was meant to be there, and she gave herself over to the sensation. She finally knew what it was supposed to feel like to be with someone completely and she was never letting Crux go.

  She was possibly never letting him out of this bed.

  She moved with him, her body wired for the pleasure they were creating. She was practically vibrating with it, electricity moving through her body and lighting her up from the inside.

  It was too much. It was not enough. Courtney wanted more and she wanted it from Crux.

  He gave it to her until her breath was coming out in desperate pants and her body rippled in release, holding him inside of her as she came, and then he joined her.

  They both breathed heavily as they lay down on the bed. She held his hand, unable to put much space between them, not when she finally had him next to her. It was too perfect to bear.

  She was afraid she was going to open her eyes and find out this was all a dream.

  "You're real, right?" With another guy, she might have been afraid of the vulnerability that came from asking. But not Crux, not now.

  "Absolutely." His fingers squeezed around hers, grounding her in the moment.

  "I want to show you my world," she confessed. "But I'm not sure I'm going to be able to let you out of this hotel room."

  Crux laughed and then he kissed her.

  Chapter 24

  One Month Later

  Crux loved Earth and all its idiosyncrasies. In a matter of weeks, Courtney had shown him every secret she could, all funded by the strange piece of black plastic that seemed to have a magical power to open up doors for them.

  She had asked him who was paying the bill. Crux didn't know. Courtney didn't seem to mind.

  But the full moon would soon be cycling back home, and his father would want to see him. And Crux would need to present Courtney.

  If they were going back.

  The last month had been pure happiness except for one thing. Courtney knew Crux was a prince. She knew he had a duty to his people and his family, and she'd clearly come to the silent conclusion that one day he would have to leave.

  He could have told her that he had no intention of leaving without her, but it hadn't yet come up. So Crux hadn't said anything.

  But Doom would be bringing the ship around soon, and it was Crux and Courtney's easiest way off the planet. It would take a good bit of maneuvering to get another ride if she wasn't ready to go.

  He'd do it. He'd do anything for her.

  But the time to talk had come.

  "Why do you look like you're heading for execution?" Courtney leaned back on the bed, one of the plush robes the hotel provided wrapped around her. "Whatever you've been building up to, spit it out."

  How well she had come to know him in the past weeks. He might as well start at the beginning. "I went to that planet because my father gave me an ultimatum to find a mate, and the matchmaker said you would be there."

  "Not quite. If she had given you my name, things might have been a lot easier." There was no malice in Courtney's words. They'd had time to come to terms with their first meeting and how things had ended up.

  "Yes, of course." Crux continued. "He told me I had until the next full moon. And according to my calculations, that day is coming soon. If we want to meet him by his deadline, we'll need to leave Earth now."

  "I always knew you'd have to—you said we." Courtney blinked at him a few times and then shifted to get closer to him. "You want me to go back with you?"

  "Of course. You sound surprised." Crux cupped her cheek and gave her a quick kiss, but pulled back before he could lose himself in her taste. "You're my mate."

  "And human."

  "Yes, we've established it." He kissed her again for good measure. "Will you come home with me to meet my father?"

  Tension had Courtney strung tight, but Crux didn't let go of her. "I don't have anything to wear to meet a king."

  He smiled. "That's easily taken care of."

  "What if he doesn't accept me?" Her breath was coming fast now as the reality of the situation sank in.

  "Then we leave. We're together in all things."

  That shocked her enough to have her blinking hard and staring at him. "You'd—but he's the king. You're a prince. You can't just walk away."

  "You. Are. My. Mate." He punctuated every word with a kiss to her forehead. "We are together. I will not let him tear us apart."

  "Is that a big risk?" She flinched as she asked the question.

  Crux wished he could reassure her, but he couldn't say how his father would react. No prince had ever brought home a human mate before, not that he knew.

  But there was a first time for everything.

  "I will protect you. And we can always leave. I promise."

  "And if we stay…" It wasn't quite a question, but Crux understood where it led.

  "If we stay and my father doesn't do anything stupid, then one day I will be the dragon king and you will be at my side as the queen."

  "A human queen of the dragons." This time it was she who kissed him. "A queen."

  "My queen." He wanted to see her naked and covered in jewels. He had an entire hoard of them back h
ome.

  "Well, you've met my mom. I suppose it's only fair that I meet your dad. It's not like it could go any worse."

  Crux laughed and then kissed her, pushing her back onto the bed as the joy of her acceptance burned through him.

  Their ride would be there soon, but it could wait while he took his time to claim his mate.

  Thank you for reading Crux!

  I’d appreciate it so much if you would consider leaving a review.

  The series continues with Ranger.

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  What’s to read next: Ranger

  He's supposed to be a prince, not a prisoner...

  Things are as bad as they can get for Ranger when he's thrown in a cell and told he's about to be sold for a profit. But his captors don't know he's a dragon, and he's ready to rain fire on them all in payback.

  Until he meets Sidney.

  She's stronger than she looks...

  When Sidney discovers Ranger on the ship, it throws her world into upheaval. She's no slaver. She'll do what it takes to free him, even if it means crossing her captain and crew. When Ranger turns the tables on her, she's almost too angry to be attracted to him.

  Almost.

  Freeing Ranger has repercussions. And soon it's not just Sidney that's in danger, but everyone she loves as well. She'll need to trust the dragon prince if she's going to save them all.

  But how can she do that without losing her heart?

  Check it out!

  Intergalactic Dating Agency

  Looking for love that’s out of this world? These strong, smart, sexy aliens are seeking mates from the Milky Way. Just hop onboard with your local Intergalactic Dating Agency. Join our group of authors as we explore the friendly skies and beyond with trilogies of cosmic craving, astral adventure, and otherworldly lovers. Warning: abductions may or may not be included!