Taken to Nobu: A SciFi Alien Romance (Xiveri Mates Book II)

by Elizabeth Stephens

  “Why bother?” Comes Krisxox’s murmured retort as he returns momentarily to retrieve a different weapon, this one a throwing net. “They’re as good as dead.”

  “Krisxox,” I snap.

  He removes the net from the wall and turns to face us. “It’s true. If they’re in quadrant five it’s likely that someone else will have picked them up by now. Rhorkanterannu of Kor is probably having a field day. And as for the ones on Sasor? They’re as good as dead. Sasor is ruled by snakes who don’t have any access to technology. They’re animals there, barbarians.”

  “Ignore him,” Kiki says before I can deliver a harsher reprimand.

  Svera’s face fires with color and so softly I do not know that she meant to speak the words aloud, she whispers, “I always do.”

  Kiki laughs at that while Svera reddens further. Krisxox frowns.

  “Krisxox,” I say in warning.

  He meets my gaze and holds it before showing me his back and storming off. The insolent creature. I would ordinarily challenge him for less, but on this solar, my Xiveri mate takes precendence.

  She says, “How’d you figure this out anyways?”

  “It only took a thorough review of the archives the Antikythera Council keeps under lock and key. Because of my new…status, I’ve been given access.”

  “Good work.”

  “Excellent work,” I concur.

  “Thank you Xhea. Okkari.” She burns a subtle pink that startles me, as it does each time. This is an anger color, but on humans it appears to be either an anger color, one of pride, shame, embarrassment, rage, bloodlust, guilt… the list goes on. I am grateful only that Kiki does not have such a distressing display that is so difficult to interpret.

  The frustration on Kiki’s face from her earlier fight — evidenced in her tightened lips, wrinkled forehead, and pinched chin — falls as she exhales. “What a time to be alive…” she says, repeating the words she said once before at the conclusion of her battle against Pe’ixal. A memory I will never forget.

  The way she moved, sharp and true, she was so self-possessed. And when she lured Pe’ixal into lowering his guard and advancing on her while she was down…it had taken every inch of willpower not to end the battle then myself.

  I’m glad I did not. When she rose, covered in her own blood, I had never seen anything more glorious. Or more deserving of glory. Not often do we have a chance to slay our own demons.

  “So what are you doing here?” Kiki says to me. Her forward question and her lack of decorum are deserving of punishment.

  Thoughts of her battered and battle-hardened body and Pe’ixal’s corpse forgotten, I feel my teeth clench and my groin tighten. Instead of rushing her back to our home and into our nest, I manage to compose myself just enough to press a single, punishing kiss to her mouth. My colors blaze and I do not care who sees them. To taste her will be enough, for now.

  “You will tell me if I will require permission to come check on my Xiveri mate, or if I may do so at will, because you are mine.” I grip the side of her neck, careful with her right arm. Though she refused merillian and Lemoria is the finest healer Voraxia has to offer, the wound is still less than twenty solars old, and still pains her from time to time.

  And such a pain is all that is left of Pe’ixal, the ruined.

  I smile at the thought, and in response to her pleasure. “You don’t require permission,” she says mischievously, “but checking up on me in the middle of training may have consequences.” She loops both arms around my neck and as I lean in to kiss her again, she kicks my feet into a stance too wide to assume comfortably and slips out from under my arm when I react to stablize myself.

  “You are getting cocky, my queen,” I growl, eager to fight now that she has presented challenge.

  “Getting cocky?” She wags a single finger at me. “I’ve always been cocky.”

  “Your desire for punishment knows no bounds.”

  “Then come and punish me.”

  For a moment, I hallucinate the shape of her body melded to mine in the quiet light of the ioni of our nest. I take a step forward, and then I force myself to announce why I am here before I forget again. “This lunar, you will be punished. But for now, I have something else for you.”

  The fire in her eyes dims, but her smile still holds. She tilts her face to the side, full cheeks catching the light from the rock pits hanging high on the screa walls. “I’m ready for any task my Okkari needs fulfilling.”

  She pleases me to no end. I know that I am undeserving of her and, to use a human expression, I don’t give a shit. “Xhivey.” I cock my head to the mouth of the cave where Reema stands waiting. “Come forward.”

  “Reema,” Kiki says, genuine pleasure in her tone, as the young female makes her way nervously forward. “Good to see you. What’s going on?”

  So human. So informal. Punishment this lunar will be slow. I clear my throat. “As you well know, Reema has come of age to select her position within the tribe.”

  Kiki nods. “I know. And I know you wanted to join your father. I’m sorry that Jacabo took the position of xub’Garon.”

  Reema looks to me quickly, as if seeking permission to speak. I nod, encouraging her. “Thank you for your wishes, my Xhea, but it’s alright. I’m glad Jacabo will stay here with Zeina’Van. It’s exciting to have humans around — I mean more humans.”

  Kiki smiles at that. “I’m glad he’s staying too. Kuana…” She shakes her head, recalling Kuana’s new title once more, “Zeina’Van and Jacabo are good people. They make an awesome pair. And besides, now that Jaxal took Lisbel back to the human colony, I think keeping another human here is only fair.” She winks at Reema, who laughs lightly even though I can see that she attempts to be strong, to prepare herself.

  “It is true,” she says, “And I harbor him no ill will. My sire offered me the position, but I…I said no.”

  “You did? Why? It’s not because you’re afraid. You know that your gender doesn’t stop you from doing or being anything you want to…”

  “Nox. It is not this I…” Her ridges burn electric yellow. She looks down at her feet, but I say her name. She glances at me quickly, inhales, and then returns her gaze to my Xhea. Her Xhea. Xhea of our people. “I want to train as a warrior. I want…I want you to train me, if I may be so humble to ask and if you would consider honoring me in this way. I may not have trained with the other males growing up, but I can learn quickly. I…I spoke already with the Okkari, seeking his council before I approached you. I…am hopeful…” Her voice trails away, ridges brighter than ever.

  Kiki meanwhile stares at her in an expression I know is one of profound shock. She does not speak. Reema glances to me and I hold up a hand, offering her assurance in the Voraxian way, before speaking to Kiki.

  “Since it has become inappropriate for Kuana to tend to our nest as your hasheba now that she is mated, I have asked that Reema take up the position of Kuana with part of her time. The majority of her solar can be spent training with you, if you agree. Once she is proficient in her weapon and has undergone her first hunt, she may then take on her new title. She will become the first xub’Xhea.”

  Kiki’s lips move with a will of their own. “The first xub’Xhea…”

  “Hexa,” I tell her. “And there will be many more, of this I am certain.”

  Still suspended on this rope, Reema begins to prattle. “I promise, I’ll take care of all your needs as Kuana and I’ll train even harder than the males. I want to be able to live up to you. I want to be like you. I want to fight, to hunt, to help my tribe, to feed it and and defend it if I ever need to. I’ll…”

  “Yes! Oh my stars, yes. Hexa, of course I’ll train you. I’m sorry, I’m just…” Kiki waves her arms around, looking nothing like a Xhea at all until she catches my gaze. I shake my head just once, urging her calm, but the petulant female merely grins ravenously.

  Throwing caution, and decorum, to the wind, she throws her arms around Reema’s neck. “You a
re most welcome to train with me. I will teach you all that I know, and when that is not enough, I will learn more to teach you.” She plans her kiss of affection in the center of Reema’s forehead, startling the young female so much that she flares bright white and then blue.

  When Kiki steps back, it is as a different woman. The depth of her joy so profound that I am made to feel as a mountain, so effortlessly moved. “We begin tomorrow, Kuana, though do not expect to hold that title for long. I fully intend to have you prepared to join on the hunt after next rotation’s first thaw.”

  Joy radiates from Reema’s gaze, and then from her ridges too before she is able to marshal them. “Hexa, my Xhea. I will be ready. It would bring me no greater pleasure than to wear an okami and fight just like you and alongside you.”

  Kiki nods and I see water well in her eyes, which she struggles not to clear with her hands. Instead, she blinks many times. She nods again. “Then for now, you are dismissed. Enjoy your last lunar of freedom. The coming lunars you will sleep well and you will sleep hard. It will not be easy and I will not go easy on you simply because I like you.”

  Reema bows. “Hexa, my Xhea. Stree’vay yah,” she says, and then repeats very cautiously in human, “zay-enk yoo.”

  Kiki beams. “Thank you. You are dismissed.”

  Reema dashes off into the bright solar outside while Kiki holds both hands to her mouth and looks at me, Svera gushing at her side. “This is incredible! Can you not see the impact you’re having? How incredible. I’ll need to document this…”

  “Can you see such an impact?” I echo.

  Kiki shakes her head and covers her face fully with her hands. My warrior Xhea, for the first time, sheds happy tears. She laughs as she cries and as she cries, I fold her into my arms and hold her head to my chest.

  “Shh,” I tell her as she rocks, shoulder shaking with laughter as she finally releases that last and final burden of her grief. “You are here.”

  She nods and looks up at me, her chin resting on my chest. “I am here and the future is so bright.”

  I brush the backs of my fingers across her cheeks. Of the six, four form claws while two remain faithfully blunted. “Hexa. But it only shines because of your light. We only shine because of your light. And that is why I shine too.”

  “Then it will never be dark again.”

  “Nox,” I say, allowing my ridges to unleash the full impact of the light that she brings out in me. I shake my head, kiss the tip of her nose. “It will not.”

  Writing from the perspective of someone who has undergone trauma is a tough experience and I’m sure also tough to read! So thanks so much for taking that journey with me, and if you loved Kiki and Kinan’s story, hated it, or anything inbetween, please lend your support by leaving your honest review on Amazon or Goodreads. It goes a long way in supporting indie authors like me.

  - Elizabeth

  What’s next in the series

  They came. They shifted. They conquered. Mian expected to be made a slave by the cocky shifter barbarian and, when a rival horde takes her, discarded. But what happens when he won’t give her up?

  

  Taken to Sasor: A SciFi Shifter Romance

  Xiveri Mates Book III (Mian and Seena)

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Book III…

  Need to catch up?

  When aliens land on Miari’s human colony expecting their right to breed human females, their king sets her in his sights. But he doesn’t just want her body, he wants her as his queen.

  

  Taken to Voraxia: A SciFi Alien Romance

  Xiveri Mates Book I (Miari and Raku)

  Series by Elizabeth

  Xiveri Mates: SciFi Alien and Shifter Romance

  Taken to Voraxia, Book I (Miari and Xoran)

  Taken to Nobu, Book II (Kiki and Kinan)

  Taken to Sasor, Book III (Mian and Seena)

  Taken to Qath, Book IV (Svera and Krisxox) – coming 2021!

  Taken to Kor, Book V (Rhork and Deena) – coming 2021!

  Population: Post-Apocalyptic Interracial SciFi Romance

  Population, Book 1 (Abel and Kane)

  Saltlands, Book 2 (Abel and Kane)

  Generation 1, Book 3 (Diego and Pia)

  Brianna, Book 4 (Lahve and Candy) – coming 2021!

  Brothers: Interracial Dark Mafia Romantic Suspense

  The Hunting Town, Book 1 (Knox and Mer, Dixon and Sara)

  The Hunted Rise, Book 2 (Aiden and Alina, Gavriil and Ify)

  Excerpt from…

  

  Taken to Sasor: A SciFi Shifter Romance

  Mian

  My breath is hot against my fingers as I sit, huddled and clenched. My head is bowed over my knees. I try to block out the sounds of the other slaves panicking around me, but it slaps onto my skin like the sticky stain I spent all morning applying to the alehouse fence. Flimsy, weak little posts fixed together with braided reed stalks. It hadn’t looked like much to begin with and the dark, oily stain hadn’t helped. Now the fence is gone and all that’s left of it is the stain still stuck to my arms and the fumes caught in my hair.

  A huge crash in the front room makes me clench my knees tighter to my chest. I’m dizzy with fear and hunger and thirst. When was the last time I ate? The fact that I can’t remember does nothing but drive a spike of pain through my stomach. Breathe. It won’t matter soon. Maybe it will help. Maybe they won’t want to eat skin and bones without the meat.

  Cold seeps in through the packed dirt under my bottom. I inhale shallow breaths through my mouth, but I can still smell the other two dozen slaves’ unwashed bodies beside me even more powerful and cloying than the smell of the wood stain. My fingers curl into the tunic sheathing me from neck to knees, the rough-spun fabric still scratchy despite having all but desintigrated. It clings to my shoulders with threads more than fabric and makes me wonder what they will take from us when they realize we have nothing to give.

  Deep baritone laughter follows jests flung back and forth in a language I don’t speak. The sounds, though distant for the moment, crash through my focus and behind me, one of the other slaves stifles a sob. I freeze, wondering if they heard. From where I sit near the front of the group, that one little sob rings even louder than the huge war drums they beat when they arrived at our gates. Gates that didn’t even stand a full rotation of the sun. They carved through those gates like papyrus paper.

  A mutinous thud slowly separates itself from the commotion in the front room. I jump, and then I jump again when it gets louder. Footsteps? Or the panicked tattoo of my own heart? I know what they do to the ones they find. Everyone knows the stories. They eat humans. Flay us alive, then boil the flesh off our bones. They make great big soups out of us.

  “They’re going to find us…they’re going to find us!” The panicked voice at my back makes my heart clench in my throat. I glance over my shoulder and spot Sorsha over the tops of many crouched bodies trying to stand. Her brother Mika yanks her back down, but she’s fighting him. Others are trying to shush them both now, and Sorsha’s pale face is ghostly white, even in the dark. I try to swallow but my mouth is too dry and when my lips part, I inhale dust.

  Mika’s hand slips on Sorsha’s and her momentum sends her flying into one of the ceramic cask we stowed away in the hopes that if we did survive, this barrel of vinegar-preserved meat, a ceramic cask of bread flour, two satchels of dried fruits and three casks of water would be enough to keep us alive until we found another human settlement. But now I see no chance of that. As if in slow motion, Sorsha flails, hip bumping into the cask, hand flinging out to knock off the lid. It hits the packed earth with a clunk that sounds like shattering glass.

  My gaze connects with Tinasha’s, who sits beside me. We were both sold in the last trade to this settlement. At our old settlement, we worked the grain mills together. She was really too old for that kind of work so I took on some of her chores. In exchange she told me fantastic stories about satellites and ships and
cities and great big bodies of water from a planet once called Earth. Stories she says she inherited from her mother, and her mother’s mother and her mother’s mother’s mother who actually lived on the satellite that brought us to this planet after our the old one was ruined. I don’t know how much of what she says is real or not, but I always liked her. A kind woman, she doesn’t deserve to die here. Do any of us?

  She reaches out and takes my hand, holding it firm and I can feel the bones through her thin skin. The connection between us lasts, even while behind me, Mika curses, “They heard us…”

  “Can we escape?”

  “Where would we go?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Is there even a way out?”

  “No.”

  Sweet silence settles over us. It tastes like death. My vision gets fuzzy. Fear or hunger? Have I eaten in the last solar? The last two? I can’t remember and remind myself that it doesn’t matter. Skinny humans make for crappy stew.

  Footsteps have entered the distilling room. The weight of my own breath is heavy in my lungs. It’s hard to breathe. They’re going to find us and skin us and boil us. Even the kids. But maybe they won’t eat skin and bones… I squeeze Tinasha’s hand just once, and then let it slip from mine. Cool air brushes against my damp bottom as I rise to a crouch. My head spins. Hunger or fear? Doesn’t matter. Soon it’ll all be over.

  “Mian, what are you doing?” Tinasha rasps in a voice that’s barely audible.

  I don’t have an answer for her as I step around the bodies in my way and reach the curtain, drawing just one little corner back. I don’t look behind me as I peel it open and step into the storage room, letting the only safety I had fall shut at my back.