“But Zameer didn’t do anything!” Tiria protested. She tugged at Deva’s hand. “He didn’t hurt me. He was trying to protect me.”
Even now she still wanted him. Zameer shook his head, putting himself between Sara and Deva, who was still glaring angrily at her. His poor mate was trembling.
“I’m not about to leave the woman I love to the wolves because of your lies.” He snarled.
Behind him he felt Sara tense. Then he remembered. He hadn’t actually told her he loved her yet. Not exactly the way he had wanted to do it.
“My mate is not a liar!” Deva snarled.
He had begun advancing on Zameer when he accused Tiria of being a liar. Zameer tensed, ready for a fight. He didn’t want it but if it meant protecting Sara, then he would happily do it.
Suddenly Deva froze. His jaw slackened and his eyes widened. Then he slumped sideways, hitting the floor with a hard thump. Tiria stood behind him, her knife dripping blood onto the white carpet. It stained her clothing as she tapped her thigh.
Sara screamed and Zameer pushed her further behind him. Tiria pointed the knife at Sara’s face.
“You next, little chit.”
She advanced on Sara, stopping when Zameer got in the way. His fingers flexed around his knife, ready for a fight. Tiria frowned.
“Get out of my way, Zameer. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“No.”
Zameer could see it finally dawning on her face. She was beginning to realize that she could never have Zameer and she had killed her mate for nothing.
Tiria gave a cry and launched herself at Zameer. She moved too fast for Zameer’s eye but he brought his knife up as she started to scream.
In a split second, she was in front of him, the knife coming at his face. The tip of the blade stopped within inches on his eyeball, the scream stopping abruptly.
Tiria looked confused. She tried to say something but nothing came out. Then she looked down. She had walked right into Zameer’s blade.
The handle was sticking out of her chest right below the breastbone, a blossoming of red spreading from it. Tiria looked up and met Zameer’s eyes. Her mouth opened and closed, a look of hurt passing across her face.
“But…you were mine.”
Then she slumped. Zameer let her, letting go of his blade. Sara screamed as Tiria hit the floor with a wet thud and didn’t move, her head lolling to the side.
#
Sara didn’t remember much for a while after the showdown in Tiria’s chambers. She remembered the Queen stabbing the King and then going after Zameer. Then Zameer had killed the Queen. After that it was a bit of a blur, other than Zameer was with her all the way through it.
The Abison male refused to leave her side. He took her back to his quarters and sat her down, not allowing her to get up. He sat with her, holding her and rocking her gently.
Sara didn’t know how she would have coped if Zameer hadn’t been there. He really and truly looked after her.
It was some hours before they received any news. By that time, Sara had had a shower and gone to bed, not bothering to get into any pyjamas.
Zameer stayed up, keeping to the living room so she could sleep. But, try as she might, she couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. Every time she started drifting off, she started remembering again. Then she would wake up.
Sara just wanted the nightmares to go away.
The sun was coming up for the few hours of daylight it was up when Zameer entered the bedroom. His expression was solemn.
“Tiria and Deva both died of their injuries.”
Sara sat up, clutching the sheets to her.
“Did anyone believe you?” She asked, fighting back a yawn.
“They did, actually.” Zameer sat down the bed. “Tiria had demanded no cameras in the corridors to her chambers. But she didn’t say anything about no cameras in her room. I made the most of that and my little camera captured the whole thing.”
Sara felt the relief flood her body. She sagged with a sigh.
“Thank God for that. Who will be the new king now?”
“Deva’s brother is next in line. He’s on his way here now.” Zameer smiled. “He’s easy-going like his brother but he certainly isn’t a fool.”
Sara had gotten past being angry at Deva for his actions. Thinking it over, she could see the reasoning from his side. Even then, it still hurt.
“We all believe the ones we love.”
Zameer was silent for a moment. Then he touched her hand. Instinctively, Sara’s fingers curled around his. Zameer squeezed her hand.
“Your father called me just before all this. Do you still want to stay here?”
Neil had called? Sara had no idea about that. But she was glad Neil had managed to break the ice; she still hadn’t thought of a way to do it.
“I do.” She smiled. “If that’s okay with you?”
Zameer’s grinned. He clasped her head and kissed her soundly, pulling back with a satisfied look on his face.
“That’s more than okay. We can have regular visits to Earth so you can see your father. And I’m getting rather attached to the place.”
“Really?”
Zameer chuckled.
“Really.” He kissed her nose and his expression softened. “My men also heard you declare your love for me to Tiria on the footage.”
Sara had nearly forgotten about that. She bit her lip and nodded, squeezing his hand.
“I did.” She looked down. “I also heard you do it in front of me.”
“I did.”
Zameer’s fingers slipped under her chin and tilted her head up, kissing her softly but firmly. Sara leant into him, her arms slipping around his shoulders. She pulled back and kissed her way along his jaw, nipping at his ear with her teeth.
“So you have no objections?”
“To what?”
Sara smiled and nipped his ear again.
“I want to become your mate.” She whispered. “For real.”
She felt Zameer’s arms tighten around her. He pulled back and stared at her.
“You do know what it involves.”
Sara grinned.
“I do.” She nibbled at the soft skin on his neck. “I love you.”
Zameer growled and pulled away, tugging away the sheets and leaving her naked. Sara gasped as the cold tickled her skin but then she saw the heated look in Zameer’s eyes as he stripped, never taking his eyes off her.
She lay back and spread her legs, running her hands over her breasts, tweaking her nipples to points, and then running her fingers down her belly. Zameer’s nostrils flared as he tossed his trousers aside.
“God, I love you, you temptress.” He growled. He made a twirling motion with his finger. “You know my favourite position.”
Sara grinned. She certainly did. She rolled onto her belly and rose onto her hands and knees. Then she crawled to the headboard and placed her hands on the top of it, spreading her knees as far as they would go.
Zameer was behind her before she could look, turning her head to kiss her thoroughly. Sara melted against him, thrusting her backside against his cock, which nestled between her cheek.
Zameer shifted a little, his hands skimming down her sides, and rubbed his head against her clit. Sara moaned. She felt ember of a fire starting to build up and take form.
It was building up quite rapidly. Zameer had the ability to give her fast and powerful orgasms and Sara wasn’t about to complain with that.
But this one was approaching faster than she could anticipate when Zameer started tweaking her nipples. His cock disappeared to be replaced with his hand, his fingers rubbing her clit in a way that had Sara screaming. She was shuddering against him, trying to fight the suddenness of the climax. And she failed.
The moment it hit, Zameer thrust into her as the same time he buried his teeth into her neck. Sara shrieked as a second orgasm slammed into her, washing over her in a heated wave.
Zameer held on tight to her as he pound
ed into her, retracting his teeth from the soft flesh of her neck and licking over the marks. He growled and kissed the reddened spot.
“Mine.” He snarled. “All mine.”
Sara could barely hear him over the pounding sounds in her ears. But she heard the rumble in his chest. She didn’t need to hear him to know. She smiled and pushed back against him as his pounding increased.
“Mine.”
That was the last coherent thought she had before Zameer thrust one last time, cradling her against him as they sagged onto the bed. Both of them were covered in sweat and panting. Sara didn’t think she could move.
But she did. She rolled over and smoothed her hands over his trembling chest. Zameer opened his eyes and looked at her. Sara licked her lips and leant over, flicking her tongue over his nipple. Zameer growled and jumped at her, pinning her to the bed.
“You forgot Abison males can go on for a long time when it comes to making love.”
Sara giggled and wrapped her legs around his waist.
“I was hoping that was the case. Now kiss me again.”
***
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CAGED BY THE ALIEN
CELESTIAL MATES BOOK 4
MARLA THERRON
Copyright 2017 by Marla Therron
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any way whatsoever, without written permission
from the author, except in case of brief
quotations embodied in critical reviews
and articles.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any
character, person, living or dead, events, place or
organizations is purely coincidental. The author does not
have any control over and does not assume any responsibility
for third party websites or their content.
First edition, 2017
Description
Ambassador Penny Allyn is about to embark on the most important mission of her career-Representing humanity during First Contact with an alien species.
A carefully selected team of experts have been chosen to follow a series of mysterious broadcasts across space to an alien planet and introduce humanity to a new intelligent species for the first time.
But just as they reach the alien planet, a disaster no one could have anticipated throws Penny and her entire team into danger, and their mission becomes one of avoiding what seems to be an inevitable interstellar war.
Aiten Tau, the mysterious and powerful commander of the alien’s military forces, is put in charge of Penny and her team, and takes particular interest in Penny.
They struggle to understand each other in time to prevent a cosmic catastrophe, but their growing feelings for each other may only get in the way. Giving in to her passion for the Alien Commander could make Penny the vanguard of an interplanetary war…
Prologue
The floors of the hall of judgement were gleaming white marble, cold under Penny's knees. The honey comb columns of alabaster on either side of her, to which she was bound by chains of golden light, grew in organic fractals towards the impossibly high, arched ceilings.
The patterns of the stained glass panels in that ceiling glittered in fragmented shards of red and blue and gold, far too distant for Penny to determine what image they portrayed, if any. Those windows were the only color in the stark white hall, save for the people inside it.
Strange soldier-drones in their blue-black chitinous armor. Workers with their excess of spiny limbs darting through the edges of things, just flickers of abstract gold. Males with their glittering iridescent wings fluttered through the high spaces above on unknown and arcane business, or else stood before her on the edge of the dais, looking down at her with calculating compound eyes.
Above them all, too massive and strange to be real, the queen shifted shedding layers of diaphanous skin as she was reborn over and over, her skin pearly, translucent and new hardening to nacre with the touch of the air and flaking away in a shimmering dust. She was nothing like a human, and she was undeniably the most beautiful and terrifying thing Penny had ever laid eyes on. Penny quaked with fear of her judgement.
She turned her eyes to one of the soldier-drones that stood near the queen, the shiny black shell of his armor deceptive, hiding the near human form she knew was beneath it, the kind and handsome face that had been all she clung to in these unnumbered days of imprisonment.
She couldn't speak through the webbed and clinging device they'd attached to her face, but she pleaded with him through her eyes, desperate for any reassurance. The soldier turned his head away to avoid her stare, and Penny felt her heart shatter.
The queen was stirring, shedding glittering mother of pearl dust, fanning the glory of her multitudinous wings, trembling as they filled the vast chapel with the serene humming hymn of their motion. She towered over them all, her mouthparts working like strange wet machinery, a sliding puzzle made of onyx and obsidian.
"JUDGE MENT HAS BEEN REACH ED," the queen spoke, her voice impossibly low, reverberating in Penny's bones and almost painful, "THE INVA DER INVI OLATE UT TER UNTOUCH ABLE CAPTUR ED CONFESS ED DIRE DANG ER TO HIVE AND HEARTH VAN GUARD OF VI O LENCE BRINGS BAR BAR IANS TO OUR DOOR."
The chapel vibrated with the buzzing agreement of all those present. The males shook their glittering wings at her in disdain.
"SEN TANCE REN DERED," the queen went on, "A MESS AGE TO DELI VER SAN GUINE SCOUTS RE TURNED SANS SKULLS SHALL AS SURE NO FUR THER FOOL ISH FOR AYS INTO SOV ERIGN SPACE."
Penny shuddered with horror, but had expected nothing else. It was as he'd told her it would be from the first day she'd landed here. She tore her eyes from the queen to once again stare at the solider-drone, no longer with any hope of last minute rescue, but only praying for a few last glimpses of him before the queen's glittering mandibles closed around her head.
He still would not look at her, and though she couldn't blame him, the betrayal in her heart roared loud enough to drown out the horrendous hum of wings as the queen moved, leaning down towards Penny to deliver her terrible justice...
Chapter One
SEVERAL MONTHS EARLIER
Penny stood on the bridge of the starship Oshun, running her hands over the dark console in slow, thoughtful passes, trying to calm herself. The ship had been named for a Yoruba goddess, an orisha of many things but, in this case most importantly diplomacy. After all, mankind was about to undertake the most important diplomatic mission in their history.
"You're letting it get to you."
Penny took her hands from the console and looked back at the woman standing behind her, smiling politely.
"Of course not, Captain," Penny ducked her head respectfully, "I am absolutely ready for this mission."
Captain Rivera was a tall, broad-shouldered Latina woman, with raven dark hair and keen eyes which weren't fooled by Penny's confident facade at all.
"I didn't question your readiness Ambassador," the Captain replied, "I only said you're letting it get to you. Which you are."
Penny took a deep breath, running her hands through her auburn hair in a compulsive nervous gesture, then cursing quietly and trying to fix the damage she'd done to her carefully chosen hairstyle. Captain Rivera chuckled and stepped forward to help. Penny let her hands drop and looked up at the other woman with undisguised admiration in her dark blue eyes as Rivera calmly and deftly swept Penny's hair back into place.
"It's just so huge," Penny tried to explain, her voice small with anxiety, "If this is what we think it is, we could be responsible for first contact. I could be the first person to ever speak with an extraterrestrial being! Everyone's expecting me to be so calm about it, but what if I mess up? What if I can't understand them, or I say the wrong thing, or any of a thousand things go wrong the same way they do in any diplomatic discussion here on earth. If misunderstandings just be
tween different cultures in the same species can lead to genocidal wars, what will happen when we try to talk to an entirely different species? Captain, I could go down in history as the harbinger of the first interstellar war-"
She stopped suddenly as Rivera put a finger to her lips.
"You're letting it get to you," the captain repeated, "Keep your thoughts in the present. Focus on one task at a time. This is just another mission. You're one of the greatest ambassadors alive. I was there when you talked the lunar colonies out of secession when everyone thought we were on the edge of civil war. You can do this. And you'll have Ambassador Nesmith on the Hermes to back you up as well. You will not mess this up. So hold it together. The film crew will be here in a minute."
Penny took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and her hands to stop shaking. She knew the captain was right. She needed to focus on the moment.
"Am I late?"
Lacy Cho, their xenobiology specialist, rushed onto the ship, tugging on her flight suit nervously.
"You're right on time Doctor," Captain Rivera assured her.
"The documentary crew is supposed to be here any minute," Penny told Cho, helping the other woman affix the last of the emblems on her suit as she took her place in front of the console beside Penny.
"What about Salome?" Cho asked, fussing with a pin in her long black hair, "And where is Ian?"
"Dr. Maurea is showing the crew in," Rivera explained, "You know how they've taken a liking to him. Salome is dealing with a few last concerns in the lab. Apparently, they received another transmission last night they wanted her to take a look at before we left."
"And of course they called her instead of me," Cho grumbled, "Typical."
"Communications is her specialty," Penny pointed out.
"Yeah, she can tell them plenty about how the signal was composed and sent," Cho continued to complain, "But she's got no grasp of the language or the culture behind it! At least, not nearly as much as I do. But they always skip over me! Just because xenobiology is a new field doesn't mean they have to treat it like a joke."
The Warrior's Proposal (Celestial Mates Book 7) Page 7
