Mate of the Beast

by Starr Huntress

  Yes, he had breached protocol. Yes, he had touched a female.

  He knew the only reason she was letting him touch Alyssa was because of what they had been through. And that too was for the female’s benefit too, not his. Had the situation been any different, she would have no doubt had the guards by the door restrain him already.

  And while he appreciated that the Alliance was taking care of Alyssa, it annoyed him to no end that they were trying to protect her from him. He wasn’t going to do anything to her, even the thought of it made him feel sick.

  Whether Lady Eneria knew it or not, she gave him a hard look, as if daring him to step out of line more than he already had. Then, she slowly nodded at Alyssa.

  “You have your moment,” she said, taking a few steps back to grant them their ‘privacy’.

  Xarq almost scoffed. If she had been an Ezak-X, she wouldn’t have even been out of earshot. Xarq only hoped the Va’ii hearing was much worse than his, because he wasn’t sure he wanted to have this conversation with Alyssa while she was listening in.

  He didn’t really have a choice though. It was clear the woman had chosen her spot and wouldn’t move farther. So he turned back to Alyssa, looking deep into her eyes.

  “You’re okay?” he asked, wanting to hear the confirmation from her.

  Alyssa nodded, and the tears were now back in her eyes, threatening to break free. The sight of them pierced his heart and Xarq felt a pang of hurt in his chest, hating the fact that he had caused them. He shouldn’t have reminded her… But he had to.

  “You had a check-up?” He asked, trying to keep his voice gentle despite the fact that he felt more anxious than ever in his life. He moved his hand lower on her arm, starting to brush little circles on her wrist to comfort her.

  “I– Yes.” She shifted her gaze down to look at their joined hands. “They checked me. Besides malnourishment, there was nothing wrong.”

  Her cheeks flushed and she seemed almost embarrassed for some reason, as if she was silently apologizing to him for something – like taking his food. Xarq grunted. He didn’t give a xergon’s ass about the food. She had needed it – and he had provided.

  Just like he wanted to provide for her for the rest of his life.

  Although as it was, his wants were much more simple than that. When she turned her eyes back to him, Xarq wanted nothing more than to throw her over his shoulder like he had done so many times already. But this time, not to run from the enemy but just walk out the door and leave all this behind.

  She was beautiful. And she was his. Whether she knew it yet or not. Looking into her deep green eyes, all he wanted was to–

  Xarq closed his eyes, almost groaning at the direction his thoughts were taking him. Around her, he wasn’t in control. Hadn’t been since the beginning and likely never would be.

  “Did they check you for pregnancy?” he asked quietly, trying to keep his mind focused and not give in to his more primal urges.

  He opened his eyes again and saw the way her eyebrows came together at his question.

  “No,” she said with a frown. “Why would they?”

  “Because you’re pregnant.”

  He didn’t know how it was possible. His kind were sterile – at least supposed to be. He had been tested and he had been sterile too – at least before meeting her. Made for battle, not for procreation – least of all, interspecies procreation. But still, somehow it had happened. Somehow, during those terrible days that they had spent in the filthy Krezlian cell, they had created life.

  At first, he hadn’t known what to think of it. How could he – a monster like him – conceive a child with someone like her? It wasn’t right. Even the whole idea seemed wrong. He wasn’t worthy. Not suitable. And most of all, he wasn’t fit to be… a father or whatever having a child would make him.

  That’s what he had thought at first. But as the days had gone by, as he had talked more with her, made love to her more – overall, just loved her more – he had realized that wasn’t how it was at all.

  She’d made him whole in a way that nothing ever had before. And the child was a part of what was making him whole. They were the only family he’d ever had. And he couldn’t lose them. Alyssa. The child. Neither.

  They were his.

  “I– What?” Alyssa breathed, staring at Xarq with her eyes wide.

  Lady Eneria stepped in at that point, seeming to have decided that their moment was out. She walked between the two of them, giving Xarq a hard look. Alyssa’s hand slipped away from his and Xarq almost growled at the woman. How dare she come between them while they were talking?

  “Xarkhwithniaq.” The Va’ii woman said in a flat tone. “You have unquestionably been through a lot in the past days, and while we do not diminish your hardship, perhaps it would be better if you stay away from the human female from now on. You have already done your duty and even gone beyond it to protect Miss Evans, but it is over now. I extend my gratitude on behalf of the Alliance for her protection. Please know that your efforts are appreciated. However, at this moment, you are a patient at this medical center and perhaps you should behave more like one.”

  She looked him up and down, clearly taking note of his robed appearance.

  “And by that,” she continued in a sharp tone. “I mean by remaining in bed until you are fully recovered. You have undoubtedly incurred a concussion, and I will be sending a neurosurgeon to you. Perhaps you would also wish to speak with a psychiatrist about your… trauma?”

  Her eyes darted to Alyssa for a split second, and Xarq’s world came crashing down. Trauma? The woman actually thought what he had just said was because he had hit his head and been traumatized during his ‘hardship’ as she called it?

  Anger surged inside him. This wasn’t new to him, being told he was wrong, being looked down on. It happened all the time in the Alliance, by several people. It was, in fact, rarer to find someone who didn’t look down on him. The Krezlians had seen them as disposable animals, but the Alliance wasn’t much better.

  While they had gained their citizenship, without a proper name and home planet of their own, they were only second-class citizens at best. The Va’ii were usually better though. They were peaceful people and followed their strict codes of how they thought the universe should work. Perhaps this one had kind thoughts in her pretty head too, but the words that had come out had labeled him essentially as a liar.

  And he wasn’t a fucking liar.

  He knew he was right. Had been many times in the past but especially was about this. About her.

  “Test her,” he gritted through his teeth, with perhaps a bit more hostility than was appropriate for someone in his position, but he didn’t give a fuck about appropriate anymore. The woman had completely dismissed his words and wanted to take Alyssa from him while he was sent to lay in a medical unit to ‘recover’.

  Fuck that. That was so not going to happen.

  Lady Eneria’s eyes narrowed now as she regarded him. “Guards,” she said quietly, hardly even raising her voice but still somehow managing to make the two Ekrin guards at the door immediately look in their direction.

  The guards started a slow march in their direction, likely to ‘put him back in his place’. Fuck.

  Xarq fisted his hands at his sides. This was a medical center, and he was still recovering. His whole body ached and his head throbbed, but if the Ekrin wanted a fight, Xarq would give it to them. And it would be their own blood they’d wear at the end of the day.

  “No!” Alyssa yelled suddenly, rushing between the guards and him. “I… Really?” She looked up at him with flushed cheeks and wide eyes, and at that moment, Xarq realized something.

  She believed him.

  She didn’t think he had hit his head and been traumatized. She believed him, listened to his words, had faith in him. She didn’t think him a liar, not beneath her. She never had, ever since the beginning.

  The thought made some of the anger disappear from inside him, replaced by warmth. Ou
t of all the people he had encountered in his life, she was the only one who had ever seen him as a person. Not as an animal, but a person.

  What Xarq had initially thought to be an annoying rookie human had turned out to be the most caring person he knew. He hadn’t talked to her much in the beginning, had stuck to protocol. But fuck protocol. It was nothing more than a different kind of oppression that people agreed to. He’d been freed only to be put into another cage that was only marginally better.

  He was done with that – listening to orders by people who didn’t even matter. All that mattered was Alyssa’s opinion and her opinion alone. And she believed in him. She was his, no matter what anyone else said, and he wasn’t letting her go.

  “Really,” he said, looking at her in the eye to prove that he meant it.

  Tears started to well in Alyssa’s eyes again, but this time, he hoped they were tears of happiness. “Is–is it a boy or a girl?” she asked.

  Xarq laughed – actually, really laughed, probably for the first time in his life.

  “I can’t smell that,” he grinned.

  CHAPTER 13

  ALYSSA

  Alyssa’s whole body shook in shock. She was pregnant?!

  She couldn’t believe it. But she knew that Xarq was speaking the truth. He would never say something like that unless he was sure. She glanced at Lady Eneria, who clearly had her suspicions, but the woman didn’t know Xarq like Alyssa did.

  It annoyed Alyssa that she thought of him so poorly. The way Lady Eneria was treating Xarq, like he wasn’t a person at all – not one whose opinions should be heard, or whose voice mattered…

  “Miss Evans, he is obviously distraught–”

  Before the Va’ii woman could finish whatever nonsense she had been about to say, Alyssa interrupted her. “Did I not ask to speak with Xarq… Alone?”

  Lady Eneria snapped her mouth shut and Alyssa worried that maybe she had crossed a line. The woman was her superior in more ways than one, and talking back to your superiors wasn’t exactly acceptable protocol – definitely not when said superior was an alien and your job was to represent the humankind and act in the best manners you had.

  Shit…

  But then again, Lady Eneria hadn’t exactly been kind either – not to Xarq at least. And if Alyssa was being completely honest, right now she didn’t care how she might come off, and even less did she care about what the Va’ii woman might have to say.

  Lady Eneria had come here to talk to Alyssa about returning to Earth and ‘what is best for her’ – all in that smooth face of hers that reflected no true emotion or care – when Alyssa had really just wanted to see Xarq again.

  Alyssa gritted her teeth. Had she previously thought the Va'ii peaceful and enlightened? She could now definitely see why some people thought of them as autocratic and full of themselves – Lady Eneria was near dictatorial!

  Maybe this was a sign that she didn’t fit with the Agency after all…

  No. Out with that. She shook her head. Lady Eneria was just one person, and she worked for the Alliance, not the Earth Agency. Besides, this had always been her dream. Adventures in space and…

  Right. Considering what had happened on her first ‘real’ mission, she’d had plenty of adventures to last a lifetime. Besides, she was pregnant now.

  A sudden panic threatened to take over her body. Could she be a mother? She’d never even imagined having kids at this point in her life. Was she ready for it?

  “Alyssa…” As if realizing her feelings, Xarq pulled her toward him, wrapping his strong arms around her. He looked down at her with a stern but caring expression that made Alyssa’s cheeks flush.

  Reaching out, he placed his hand ever so gently on her belly.

  “I can feel the vibrations of its heart,” he said quietly, his dark eyes filled with so much hope and emotion that the tears Alyssa had been trying to hold back finally burst out of her eyes. She leaned into his chest, sobbing as he held her tight.

  God, to think that she had initially thought this man scary… Sure, he was different from human men, but he had always been kind to her. Always supported her. He’d saved her life, and Alyssa wasn’t sure how she could ever thank him enough for that.

  She had traveled all the way to space, to faraway galaxies looking for an adventure but it had turned out that she’d gotten much more instead… Love.

  Wrapping her arms around him, she hugged him tight.

  “I love you,” she breathed against his chest, hoping he heard her, but knowing that with his hearing, he probably did.

  She didn’t care what anyone else said, didn’t care that everyone thought he was some kind of a second-class citizen because of his origins. He was Xarq. And she loved him. And screw anyone else who didn’t accept that.

  His hands slowly traveled along her back and he squeezed her tighter against his hard body.

  “I love you too, Alyssa Evans,” he whispered in her ear, and Alyssa almost choked on her tears at hearing him say that.

  She’d never thought much of having a family, being so concentrated on advancing her career in the Agency. Never thought much of having a child… Least of all with an alien. But here she was, in the embrace of an alien man she loved and who loved her back, and she couldn’t have been happier.

  Although the past days had been the worst in her life, in a way they had also been the best. Because they had brought her together with Xarq.

  And now, they had a child on the way too…

  She didn’t need space adventures or faraway galaxies, because with this, her life would be complete.

  EPILOGUE

  ALYSSA

  Eight months later...

  “This one.”

  “You’re sure?” Xarq frowned at the wooden structure, as if failing to understand its purpose.

  “Yes, this one,” she said, a smile tugging at her lips, confident they had finally found the perfect piece of furniture in the form of the ornate white crib before them.

  Poor baby Max had scared them all senseless, being born two months early, and all the time Alyssa had thought she’d have to prepare for his birth had suddenly disappeared into thin air.

  Fortunately, he had turned out to be as healthy as a horse – or an Ezak-X – and now, a few weeks later, they had both finally been discharged from the hospital.

  But the fact that their little bundle of joy had arrived so soon meant that they weren’t yet completely ready for him. The past days had been spent shopping for baby clothes and everything else necessary for their newest addition to the family, and while they had most everything now, missing were still essentials like a crib.

  “Now, if I could just find a sales assistant…” She frowned, looking around herself and seeing no one anywhere near them.

  Typical, she thought, her mood deflating immediately.

  The people on Earth were still a suspicious bunch when it came to aliens. It had been years since aliens had first arrived on Earth, and although most people had embraced them, there were still those few who tried to avoid dealing with them at all cost.

  Already in her job at the Immigration Office, Alyssa had faced many problems that the new residents of Earth had to deal with – such as restaurant staff suddenly disappearing when they walked in or parents pulling their children to the other side of the street when they saw them.

  While Ghelians and Va’ii were starting to become a kind of norm around them – at least in the sense that people saw them on TV all the time – everyone who was not Ghelian or Va’ii often got suspicious looks at first. Like Xarq.

  “I don’t understand your stores anyway.” Xarq scowled, still staring at the baby bed. “Everything is just presented in a large storage unit and then you come here and pick things up.”

  Alyssa sighed, knowing many planets in the Alliance found their ways archaic. “We do have online stores, but…”

  But she’d wanted to see the bed in person – as well as every other item they’d purchased so far. Just to make s
ure they really would be a fit. She knew her reasoning was a bit weak – everyone else shopped online just fine.

  “But I just prefer shopping this way, okay? It’s traditional.” Although she was starting to think that with how terrible service they were getting, she might have to turn to online shopping after all.

  Xarq turned his dark eyes to her, cocking an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

  “Wait here,” he grunted after a moment. “I’ll go get someone.”

  He turned toward the checkout, but didn’t get far before baby Max seemed to decide he’d had enough – choosing that exact moment to start a loud wail, as if realizing his father was going away.

  And maybe he had. He was half Ezak-X and Alyssa had come to understand that smell was extremely important to their kind. Maybe he’d smelled his daddy’s scent moving farther away and now got upset because of it.

  Alyssa nodded at Xarq who had turned back toward them to let him know she’d handle this one. She bent over Max’s stroller, and picked him up to comfort him.

  Max wasn’t exactly a typical baby boy – not a typical human one at least. His complexion was pale grey – something that had first worried her to death, but seemed to be natural for him – and he had tiny nubs on his head that the doctors had said would likely form horns at a later age.

  Besides that, his skin was covered in soft fur like a peach – or like Xarq – but he did have her green eyes, making him a perfect mixture of them both. And more adorable than anything she’d ever seen.

  Unfortunately, those green eyes of his were currently red with tears.

  “It’s okay, Max,” she whispered to him, trying to get him to calm down. “Daddy will be back soon.”

  ‘Soon’ turned out to be an exaggeration. Moments passed without anyone in sight, and she already started to wonder where Xarq had disappeared to. The store was big, but it wasn’t that big. Growing impatient, she figured the clerks here must not be too fond of serving alien inhabitants.