Alien's Beauty (Galactic Fairytales Book 1)

by V. K. Ludwig

  Wrist still locked in his clasp, he moved it in circular motions, nerve ends sizzling at her own touch simply because he guided it.

  With one tug, he let the touch die, slowly bringing her hand to his face, his eyes trained to the glistening finger.

  Pushing himself up onto one arm, he trailed his tongue over it, twisted around it, licking it clean with a guttural groan.

  “So wet for me,” he choked out. “Let me taste more of it.”

  He guided her hand back into her panties, and Ada swiped her finger through her drenched labia. Instead of bringing it back to his lips, Kerien pushed himself off the bench and rose tall, staring down at her.

  His other arm wrapped around her middle and pulled her against him, his lips caressing her forehead.

  Dipping down, he took her finger into his mouth, the way his fangs gently scraped over the digit teasing a moan from her. He swallowed the sound with his mouth pressed to hers, finger trapped between them, sharing the taste of her arousal.

  Lust spiraled between them too hot, too fucking intense to escape. Ada dropped her hand, letting their kiss expand, and trailed up his leather-covered thighs until her palm found his hard shaft.

  “I can’t,” he groaned, and yet his hand settled atop hers, pressing it down onto his cock with such force she felt every ridge, every jerk. “What if I hurt you?”

  As if she cared at this point. She would embrace pain if it came with pleasure. “You said you could never harm me.”

  “Not intentionally,” he moaned, his hips thrusting into her palm with a low, husky moan. “But compared to you, human, I’m a beast.”

  Ada took his hand and placed it onto her breast, urging him to knead the flesh. “So you keep saying. But you have yet to fuck me like one.”

  His growl made her jerk.

  Kerien’s hand disappeared from atop hers, and an all too familiar crk resonated the room. Cold air licked around where he’d shredded her pants. One swipe of his claw, and her panties dropped down to her ankles.

  “You want to be mated by an Aurani?” he asked, his claws quickly undoing the laces of his trousers.

  Her body trembled with lust, not fear, as his hand brushed over the curve of her rear. “Only by their Varac.”

  “Step out of what’s left of your pants.” He pushed down his own trousers, revealing his ridged cock, long and thick. “Hold on to me.”

  His underarms wrapped around her thighs. The moment he lifted her up, Ada swung her legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck.

  “So wet,” he groaned, bending his knees slightly, his hand between them, guiding his cock. “You are drenched in need to find release on my shaft, Ada, your body so eager for my seed to warm your womb.”

  Although she knew she would never conceive with an Aurani, his lewd words coaxed a moan from deep within. “Mmmh, yes.”

  Kerien spread his thighs as wide as the leather gathered around his calves allowed, positioning her the way he wanted. The head of his cock sat against her entrance, and Ada tilted her pelvis to guide him inside.

  He slowly rotated his hips along with her, opening her up until a blunt head dipped inside. Kerien wrapped one arm around her waist. With the other, he cradled the back of her head in his palm.

  “Feel me inside you, beautiful woman.”

  One agonizing ridge after another, he sent hard flesh rubbing along her walls with such intensity, Ada fought for every breath as pleasure engulfed her.

  She whimpered. “That feels so amazing.”

  “Hold on to my horns,” he rasped, his tongue licking along the side of her neck.

  “What?”

  His palms settled on her shoulders and ran down toward where she held her fingers clasped behind his neck. One tug, and he guided them upward toward his horns.

  “They’re not there to be stared at, Ada.” He closed her fingers around them. “Use them. Grip them as tight as you can. You asked me to fuck you like a beast, now hold on to his horns.”

  He hooked his arms underneath her thighs, lifting her up only to let her come down with rippling bliss. Each time he let her drop onto his shaft, he met her with a powerful thrust, making her pussy clench in response.

  She gripped his horns, ridges digging into her palm, panting, moaning, pleading with him not to stop. And he didn’t. Kerien made good use of the angle she hung from, fucking her with such deep strokes she prayed not to scream while the sphere of her necklace bounced on her chest.

  “Your cunt feels perfect wrapped around my shaft,” he groaned, holding her gaze, lips peeling back over sharp fangs each time he thrust into her. “I will release my seed deep inside of you, Ada. So much, you’ll be dripping with it for hours.”

  Ada gasped for breath as her pussy clenched, convulsed, her arms growing tired from bracing against his sheer force. Oh, the feel of his cock… Hard, digging strokes, ridges raking over her clit, building so much tension her hands hurt she clasped his horns that hard.

  “The scent of your arousal is so strong it’s killing me.” His voice was dark. “Take your pleasure from me, Ada. I can’t offer you anything else, so at least take that.”

  The violent sound of flesh smacking. The savage grunts vibrating from his chest. The way he kept staring at her, never releasing her gaze. Ada couldn’t help it but tightened her legs around his waist. She leaned back, yanking on his horns, grinding herself against him each time pussy met unforgiving muscle.

  A knot of tension swelled at her core, and a low cry built at the back of her throat. The moment he raked fangs over her shoulder, pleasure exploded inside her belly and rushed across her body as shivers, her nipples growing to hard pebbles surrounded by goosebumps.

  Kerien groaned, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly against his chest just as his cock pulsed inside her, throbbing with each spurt of cum. His movements eventually slowed, his breathing rough.

  “I don’t want to let you go,” he whispered, and moved one leg underneath her rear in support.

  Shudders still ransacked her body, and she snuggled herself against the male who made her feel strong and safe. “I promise you I’ll stand up to them.”

  “They will quiver in fear,” he said with a taunting smirk on his face.

  “Kerien,” she whispered, not wanting to let him go either. “Once I have solid control over Osacore and get you that core, can I see you again? It might take months. Maybe a year.”

  “I would like that very much.” He kissed a trail from her neck down but stopped when he reached her shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What for?”

  Kerien let out one of his displeased grunts and lapped on her shoulder, sending a burn into the joint. He’d cut her with his fangs, though it was merely more than three perfectly aligned scratches.

  Another lap at the wound. “I will carry you back to your chamber.”

  “Like this?” She glanced down at where he remained hard inside her. “Everyone will see what we did.”

  “Those with a particularly well-developed sense of smell know already,” he said. “Rumors will take care of those who don’t. Now let me carry you to bed so I can care for your wound.”

  “By lapping it? Is that what beasts do?”

  “I wouldn’t know since I’m no beast.” He placed a gentle kiss onto her lips. “Just an Aurani male tending to his mate. That’s what I recognize you as. That’s what I want you to be, now or in a year, it doesn’t matter.”

  Twelve

  Fingers splayed, tips lifted away from thin skin, Kerien’s palm caressed over Ada’s naked form. He’d mapped her body for hours so he would remember the shape of her curves, the softness of her skin, and the way his human mate almost purred underneath his touch.

  Dust floated in the dim light of her chamber. A room he’d once abandoned to save resources, now laced with traces of her sweetness, and faint remnants of her heat, her human estrus.

  “That’s quite the portrait.” She scooted closer to him, pressing her b
ack against his chest. “The planet in the background is Xaleon, right?”

  “You should have seen it when I was a child,” he said. “Herds of hessa roamed freely, the lambs coming fat out of the cold season. Argoy berries grew everywhere, and my mother hated when we stained our clothes while clawing ourselves tunnels through the dense shrubs and trailing vines.”

  Ada glanced over her shoulder back at him, nuzzling his chin with the cold tip of her nose. “Why did you never try to take Xaleon back?”

  “Hmm,” he breathed. “We’ve lost too many warriors already. Wouldn’t stand a chance against the UFG. And I was very young and inexperienced when I became Varac, not prepared for the role as my older brother had been.”

  “That’s why you have a juketar?”

  “Every Varac or Vekosh has his juketar,” he said. “Thuran has been my advisor ever since my father’s assassination. I owe him my life and trust his counsel.”

  She sighed, nuzzling his chin. “What if I want you to return to Xaleon?”

  He trailed the back of his hand over her temple to show how much he appreciated her gesture, then shook his head. “Xaleon can no longer support us. The climate is erratic. Animals are starved.”

  “Hmm.” She took his hand and wrapped herself in his arm, his chest growing painfully tight at the closeness because her departure loomed near. “But it can recover, right? If osanium replenishes, eventually, the planet would regain its balance, or not?”

  “It would. The original mining agreement between your father and mine contained an amount per year which satisfied shareholders, while allowing Xaleon to replenish the resource at a sustainable rate.”

  Her eyes flicked about the room, and Kerien watched her chasing behind what had to be a million scattered thoughts. Then they refocused on him. “Can I see that agreement? I would like to take a look at the maps.”

  “My father brought them to the meeting,” he said, his voice heavy with the weight of loss. “We didn’t have a chance to take them off his corpse. There was some personal correspondence between our fathers on the matter, but I never found them among his belongings, I’m afraid.”

  “That’s odd.”

  He stroked strands from her shoulder and licked the skin he’d torn, tending to her wound as any honorable Aurani male would with his mate.

  His mate. His Vekoshi. His queen.

  His heart clenched. Could that ever be?

  He had no doubt Ada would keep her word and try to get a core for his people. But while his mate was smart, kind, and caring, it had occurred to him that she was lacking all those things he’d first accused her of possessing. Would she stand her ground against Gral? Shareholders? Quarterly statements? That took a deceitful person with an unhealthy lack of care — his mate had none of that.

  If she failed, there would be no core. If there was no core, there would be no return. Calling this relationship between them complicated would have been an understatement.

  Soft lips trailed over the back of his hand while Ada’s fingers tugged on a claw, carefully exploring their sharpness. “I wish we could hide in here forever.”

  As did he.

  But Kerien was Varac. Ada was the heiress. Hiding not an option for either one, least of all together. If she managed to get a power core, how would that change things between them? If she agreed to become his Vekoshi…

  His next breath caught somewhere on a rib at the idea alone. He could see the headlines right in front of him: the Aurani Varac and Osacore heiress, star-crossed lovers cause intergalactic uproar and crash the stock market.

  He almost smiled at that. How long had it been since Aurani made it into the news? With them floating in space, everyone just forgot they existed.

  Ada ground her rear against where his shaft refused to soften. “How much time do we have left?”

  Kerien chuckled. “You’ve grown an appetite for Aurani matings.”

  “I’m practically starving,” she rasped, smiling back at him. “You feel so good, Kerien.”

  Their first mating had been quick, nothing but a rough fuck to satisfy the urges which had built between them. The second one? Much less frenzied. The third one was a coupling between a male and a female who cared deeply about each other. He’d liked that one the best.

  And yet he found himself still hard, making it clear that it hadn’t been enough. Not nearly. Would never be. Ada spoke to him in a way no other female ever had. She had to become his Vekoshi, if she would have him. He didn’t know how. Only that he would do what little was in his power to make it so.

  “You should visit us on Ka’toon on the day of your birthday,” he said. “Then, you can bring us that core you promised.”

  She turned, stroking her fingers over his chin. “Not sure if Aurani celebrate birthdays, but you are supposed to gift me something that day.”

  “Oh, I am aware of this human custom. And I’ve prepared for it. Your gift is inside my trousers right there on the ground. I’ve had it for days.”

  “Really?” she asked, that pitch at the end so high it scratched his ears. “Can I have it now?”

  Kerien nodded and rolled away from her. Leaning over the edge of the bed, he fumbled through his trousers and pulled the small envelope out. Then he hurried back to her, pulling one of the furs across their bodies.

  “I used one of my mother’s old trinkets,” he said and reached into the envelop, dangling a round piece of gold from black claws. “Tarnak melted it and created this additional charm for your necklace but didn’t have enough raw material to make a clasp. Surely someone on Earth can help with that.”

  “Kerien…” She sucked in her upper lip and took the trinket from him, staring over the engraving. “Is this Auran? What does it say?”

  “However much you give to Drana, you will receive as blessings in return.”

  Dull teeth gleamed a pearly smile at him, and she threw her head back with a laugh. “Right. I’ll meditate on it for the rest of my life.”

  “Turn it around.”

  Her smile wavered as she did as told and froze as she stared over the numbers. “What is this?”

  Kerien pressed his forehead against hers. “The formula you’ve been seeking at which osanium replenishes.”

  The moment her eyes glistened, he stroked her hair to calm her. His mate was so generous with her tears, but they never lasted long.

  She closed her palm around the charm. “Thank you. This means a lot to me. I swear I’ll wear it all the time.”

  Ada guided his mouth to hers. Her eyes widened when he closed the distance, kissing her furiously at first before he forced his lips to calm. He was Aurani, the occasional graze bound to happen on his frail human, but he would train himself to be gentle. For her. For when she returned.

  And if she would accept him as her mate, he would fill her belly with as many children as she wanted. Lots and lots of strong Varacs and beautiful Varacis.

  “I figured as much.” Another kiss, and he groaned into her mouth, pulling her tightly against him, and yet it didn’t seem close enough. “Which is why I decided for a charm, since you haven’t taken off your necklace once ever since I took you.”

  “It was my mom’s,” she said. “It’s a gold-encapsulated oh fucking shit…”

  Kerien watched her eyes widen and her jaw sag. “Ada? What’s wrong?”

  “I am so… so… stupid.” She clasped the sphere between her hands and yanked with such force he expected the chain to break. “Kerien, there’s an osanium core inside this thing.”

  “What?”

  Her hand slapped against her forehead. “I had the idea of giving it to you before, but then you said you needed a much larger core and… I forgot all about it.” Another yank on her chain. “Is this big enough to power Aura Station until my birthday?”

  Kerien refused to believe it, but that humming inside his chest? It intensified with each upward tick of her lips, and the chamber fell away from around him.

  “You had that on you this entire t
ime?”

  “I did,” she peeped, her voice small as if she had to apologize for offering him hope. “Is it too small?”

  He took the sphere from her palm and rested the tiny thing in his. There was no denying the soft vibration coming from it.

  “A core this size would last to your birthday, and perhaps a few weeks beyond,” he said, his voice choked he was so overwhelmed with emotions. “But if this was your mother’s, then you would be giving away a family heirloom.”

  Beneath his chest, opposing emotions raged war until his stomach hardened. As someone who had lost his entire family, how could he accept such a gift?

  He placed the sphere back into her palm. “It’s too much.”

  “I’m not ready to leave yet, Kerien.” Heart-clenching disappointment took over her features. “You said you don’t want me to go. Take it.”

  “It was your mother’s.”

  “I don’t even remember my mom’s face,” she said. “But I won’t ever forget Vohri’s, or Mariad’s.” She stroked her cheek over his, unblemished, perfect skin caressing an ugly scar. “Let me make amends.”

  Whatever cracks he’d carried on his heart mended right there, as if the past had never existed, and a shared future lay ahead.

  “I will accept your gift.” As if he had the emotional strength to refuse it. To let her go. “But I will return this core to you before it disintegrates, this I swear.” With a shout toward the door, he ordered a guard to call for his juketar before he turned back to her. “This changes everything, Ada. We have to make plans for when you return on your birthday.”

  “Plans?”

  “Gral won’t anticipate your return.” He climbed off the bed and struggled eager flesh into his trousers. “Your fiancé comes from a powerful family. I need you to be prepared. You and I will discuss those trade agreements and political alliances I’m aware of.”

  “Ex-fiancé,” she said and rose, reaching her hands to caress the base of his horns, which had him close his eyes for a moment. “As it turns out, I’ve got a thing for Aurani savages. That’s what Gral calls you.”