Guarded by the Kenari: A SciFi Alien Abduction Romance (Pleasure Planet Book 2)

by Emma Vance

  “I’ve never seen that species before.” I frowned, trying to think. “Are werewolves big?”

  She shook her head. “Never mind, it’s an earth thing. Either way, we should get out of here before he comes back. The other humans are still on that ship in the sandstorm.”

  She didn’t know about the patrol ship. I didn’t know how long it had been, but we must have been too late by now.

  “Nisha, we can’t get the other humans. They’ve been recaptured by the patrol ships. Bardoa has them.” The words stuck in my throat. I knew they would upset Nisha, but I was surprised they affected me as they did. No one deserved to die unarmed in the gladiator pits. All the humans wanted was their freedom, and now they would never have it.

  Nisha went stiff beside me. “No.” She tipped her head forward into her hands, raking her fingers through her hair. “No, no, no.”

  She sobbed, and I wrapped my arms around her again.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, my voice low. “I didn’t get a chance to help them.”

  I wasn’t sure if she heard me, but I understood far too well how she was feeling. The other humans were all she had, and I knew what it was like to lose everyone you loved.

  Before I could comfort her further, the sound of footfalls echoed behind us. I thrust Nisha behind me and squatted down. Whoever it was grew closer.

  “Get to the back of the cave,” I muttered to Nisha.

  A large figure came to the entrance of the cave and all but blocked out the meagre light. I ducked behind the cluster of rocks near the opening.

  Given the size of the male, I knew surprise was my only advantage. I wouldn’t be able to beat this male in an outright fight. I hadn’t ever seen this werewolf species, but the male was at least a head taller than I was and covered in thick tufts of dark fur. He snarled, and long fangs glinted in the faint light.

  But he still hadn’t seen me yet. I attacked, throwing all my body weight into him. It was either him or me, and if I wanted to get Nisha out of here, I needed to make sure it was me.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Nisha

  Otun lunged at the beast, and my heart jumped to my throat. The alien was caught off guard, and when Otun hit him, he fell to the ground. I wasn’t wrong when I said the alien resembled a werewolf—black fur covered his body, and his twisted white fangs flashed in the moonlight. He had a humanoid face though, with a strong jaw and a Roman nose. He was bigger than Otun and built like a brick house. Which was why I could barely watch when Otun chucked himself at him.

  They fell to the floor, grappling with each other. Otun was a good fighter, but this male had claws and fangs that could shred Otun apart. Something clattered to the ground and my eyes focused on it.

  A blaster.

  I couldn’t see much in the cave, but I recognized the glinting metal immediately.

  Without thinking, I ran towards the two sprawling males to pick up the blaster. My movement must have distracted Otun, because he raised his head. That distraction proved almost deadly, as the beast alien knocked Otun to the ground, and unleashed his savage claws.

  “Stop!” I yelled, picking up the blaster. “I will shoot!”

  I had no idea if the beast even understood what I was saying. I knew if I shot, I’d risk hitting Otun, so I hoped my threat worked.

  The beast stopped. He raised his head and looked at me, his face twisted into a snarl, his sharpened claws hovering above Otun.

  “Get off him!” I waved the blaster. “Now!”

  “Do not shoot, human.” The creature lifted himself off Otun and backed away, his hands in the air. If he understood me, he must have had a translator chip or something. “Ask yourself, why did I not kill you earlier, when I could have?” he asked, his head cocking to the side.

  “I don’t know,” I said, my voice shaking.

  “Give me the blaster,” Otun was beside me, coaxing it out of my hands. I handed it over.

  “Because, human, I don’t want you dead,” the beast continued.

  “Then why did you tie us up? Why did you knock Otun unconscious?”

  “He was about to do something very foolish and lead the patrols back here. I’ve worked too hard to escape. I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

  “Instead, you let my people get recaptured. You ruined their escape!” I cried, wishing I had the gun again. I couldn’t imagine what my friends were going through right now. I hoped they were still alive. But if they were, I knew they wouldn’t be for long.

  “That isn’t my problem. I’ll leave you two alone, I just didn’t want patrol ships to know about this place.” He tilted his head. “And this one was dressed like a Stryxx guard. I thought he had kidnapped you.”

  “I didn’t,” growled Otun.

  The beast nodded at him. “If you let me leave, you can have this cave. And the supplies in it. But I’m afraid you won’t find this planet very forgiving. I’ve been here a long time, and I’ve had to do things I’ve never imagined in order to survive.”

  “I won’t risk you putting us in further danger,” said Otun, as he raised the blaster at him.

  “No, Otun. No more death. He’s right. He could have killed us earlier and didn’t. Let him leave.”

  The beast’s eyes darted between Otun and I. Otun lowered the blaster.

  “Leave,” Otun uttered, his voice brokering no disagreement. The beast walked backwards towards the cave exit.

  Before he disappeared from view, he paused. “The other humans were retaken by the Stryxx guards. If you want my advice, you should give up on them. They’ll be in the pits before you can do anything. Bardoa likes to teach his lessons. He doesn’t let a slave live if they try to escape.” He hesitated for an instance before continuing. “The desert is impossible to navigate at night, with many dangers. I wouldn’t leave this cave until morning.” The beast disappeared from view.

  We waited in silence before I ran to Otun. It felt so good to wrap my arms around him. I took a deep breath. His skin smelled like sweat and sand, but I didn’t care. He still smelled amazing to me.

  After a moment, I stepped back from him. He looked down at me, concern alighting his eyes. He didn’t have to say it out loud for me to know what he was thinking.

  “What do we do now?” I asked, voicing both our thoughts.

  “I’ve failed you, Nisha.” He stroked my hair, and then his leathery fingertips traced down my back, causing a shiver to run down my spine.

  “No, you didn’t. You are the reason we got this far. We wouldn’t have even made it out if it wasn’t for you. I could kill that stupid piggy gladiator who caused the crash.” I fisted my hands at my side.

  “He’s dead already,” commented Otun, still stroking his hands down my back. I closed my eyes at the sensation. It felt so good, I felt guilty. My fellow humans were captured, likely facing execution and I was taking pleasure in Otun’s touches.

  “I can’t leave them,” I said, opening my eyes. “I can’t give up on them. I . . . I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”

  “I know.” He swallowed, his throat bobbing. “You are one of the most courageous females I have ever known.”

  I reached up and cupped his face in my hands. “That means we have to go back. Which I know is the last thing you want to do. You’ve wanted to escape for so long, and now we have that chance. We could be free.” I paused. “You could be free.”

  He watched me a moment, the twin moons in the sky causing his eyes to glow with eerie quality.

  “I want to be wherever you are, Nisha. I’m not free without you.”

  I exhaled heavily, and we stayed embraced in a frozen tableau.

  I wasn’t sure Otun knew how to describe what he’d just said, but I was pretty sure it was love. What else was giving up the only goal you’d ever had for someone else?

  But why couldn’t I do the same? Why couldn’t I leave them all behind?

  I knew how much this meant to Otun. I knew that he hated Stryxx and was desperate to leave. Why
couldn’t I give that to him?

  Because I would never be able to get their faces out of my head if I did that. The other humans who I came here with were my family now. If I didn’t try to save my family, then who was I?

  I knew what I was asking him for. Returning was a death sentence.

  But he was willing to go back for me.

  The enormity of it shook me. I turned away from him and wrapped my arms around myself, walking to the entrance of the cave and looking out.

  A few soft footfalls and he was behind me, his hands at my elbows.

  “We’ve never discussed . . .” He dropped his hands from me. “I don’t often talk about how I feel. I find it difficult.”

  I turned towards him. “Oh, really?” I said, my voice dripping with so much sarcasm he chuckled.

  His face got serious again. “You must know I care for you, Nisha. That I’d do anything for you. I’d be a slave a thousand times over if it meant getting to spend one more day with you.”

  My breath hitched, and my eyes grew wet.

  “If this is our last free night together, then I want nothing between us. I love you, Otun. I to be with you for as long as we have.”

  He pressed my hands to his chest. “You have my heart, Nisha. My Salana.”

  Suddenly, I was desperate for him.

  If we had this last night together, I wanted to make it count. It wasn’t the sex poison coursing through my veins, nor the fact that we might die tomorrow.

  I loved Otun, and I wanted to show him.

  “I need you.” I clung to him, pressing my body into his.

  He seemed to sense my desperation, because he hauled me against him and slanted his mouth across mine with an urgency that matched my own. He lifted me up, so I straddled his waist, and walked towards the cave wall.

  It was smooth and cool against my back. Otun bunched my dress up to my waist and I spread my legs wide, hooking them around his hips. He reached down to free himself and positioned his cock at my core. He pressed his forehead against mine, the soft fur of his face brushing against my skin. He was breathing harshly, as if he’d just come from a run.

  “Is this what you want?” he asked. His voice was guttural.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  He plunged upwards, spearing me with his cock.

  Yes.

  He kept his hands at my lower back, sheltering it from the hard stone. Then, he began to move.

  I wanted him to fuck me hard and fast, to match the urgency I felt pumping in my blood. Instead, he moved slow, dragging his cock out of me with excruciating thoroughness. I felt every inch of his length, every delicious bump of him. Then he filled me back up again.

  I bucked against him, torn between frustration that I couldn’t control the pace and the pleasure I was getting from every slow torturous thrust of his cock.

  “Please.” My desperate plea echoed off the cave walls.

  “Tell me what you want, Nisha.” His face was controlled, like his movements, as if he were forcing himself to remain as immovable as the stone at my back.

  But I knew that look.

  Behind those eyes was a raging fire, a storm of emotion he hid until he couldn’t any longer. How often had I searched for those eyes in the guards standing watch in the pleasure tents? How many times had I found them watching me right back?

  “Faster.” I gasped as he plunged into me.

  “Harder.” My voice was almost indistinguishable. But I knew he heard me because he gripped my ass tightly and drove into me with dizzying force.

  Every thrust felt better than the one before.

  He quickened his pace, fucking me like he was a starving man and I his only meal.

  We were desperate for each other, and I gripped his long hair like an animal, bringing his mouth to mine. His tongue stroked mine, delving into my mouth like he couldn’t get enough of me. My hard nipples teased against his fur chest, and hot spikes of pleasure flowed through me with each new sensation. He moved his hand between our bodies and worked my clit with his rough fingers.

  I came with explosive force, my limbs completely wrapped around his body. I moaned his name as the pleasure ricocheted through me, turning my legs to butter. My pussy clenched hard around his cock.

  Otun roared his pleasure, the sound bouncing off the walls of the cave. He slammed into me and stiffened, and the hot jets of his come filled me. He held me against him, his body still, and I wondered how he had the strength to stand upright with my body wrapped around his. He didn’t even look like he needed to put me down, and I wasn’t a small woman.

  After a minute our breathing calmed, and he lifted me off him gently. I stumbled as soon as he put my down, my legs like jelly, and the injury in my ankle still throbbing. Seeing my instability, Otun hoisted me up and carried me to the pile of blankets in the corner of the tent.

  “You don’t have to carry me!” I said, laughing and punching him in the arm. “I am capable of walking.”

  “Not from what I just witnessed.”

  He laid me down on top of the thick blankets and peeled my dress off my body. I was very glad he hadn’t ripped it off me in our lovemaking, as I wouldn’t know what I would wear tomorrow. He lowered himself beside me, removing his leather lappets and boots.

  “I almost wish we could stay here forever,” I whispered. He stroked my hair as we watched each other. I felt like crying.

  He smiled, his teeth flashing white in the moonlight. “I wish that too.”

  “We don’t have to go back,” I heard myself say.

  He shook his head. “Yes, we do. You would not be happy, Nisha. You would regret it immensely.”

  “How do you know me so well?” The corners of my mouth lifted, but my heart was heavy.

  “I’ve had time to learn you.”

  “I don’t think I’ve learned enough about you.” I bit my lip and traced the lines of his face with my fingers. “If we die tomorrow, I don’t want anything unsaid between us.”

  A frown creased his brow. “What do you want to know?” His voice was wary.

  “What happened to your father?” I’d wanted to know since he’d first mentioned him, but there never seemed to be enough time. All we’d had were stolen moments, and snatches of time together. I wish we had more.

  He reared back, surprised.

  “I mean, you told me that he taught you to fly, but I don’t actually know what happened to him.”

  “Slavers happened.” His voice was heavy, and the skin beneath my fingers like stone. “He was a smuggler, but only of certain goods—illegal substances, alcohol, black market items. Not slaves. Never sentient beings. He drew the line at that. But one day, he was asked to smuggle slaves.”

  Otun swallowed and looked at a point past my head, as if remembering.

  “He refused. He didn’t believe in slavery. Kenari aren’t slavers. But he was one of the best-known smugglers in the Galaxy and could get anything he wanted past the Alliance ships. The ones he’d said no to weren’t used to hearing that.”

  I stroked the dark hair that tumbled around his shoulders like a cascade of thick midnight. I needed to be near him, to try and comfort the hurt somehow.

  “And so, the slavers made my father pay. They made him watch as they put his only son in chains—made me become the thing my father refused to help perpetuate. Then they killed him, ensuring he knew his only kin would spend the rest of his life owned by someone else.”

  He clenched his fists in the blankets. “I was sold to Stryxx the very next day.”

  “Otun that’s awful. I’m so sorry.” I was devastated for him. I pulled him to me, and he sank into my chest, his breathing ragged. We stayed like that, locked together.

  “We will get out of here,” I said, hoping with all my might it was true.

  “I don’t mind anymore, Nisha,” Otun said, inexplicably. “If coming to Stryxx meant I met you, then it was worth it.”

  I didn’t deserve this male. He was worth ten times the amount of anyone I’
d ever known.

  We fell asleep in a tangle of limbs, the fur blankets wrapped around us, and the cool night air permeating the cave.

  In the morning, I prayed we would not be greeted with death.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nisha

  Light filtered through the cave, cascading warmth through the tunnel of rocks. I woke up with Otun’s arms wrapped around me, his front pressing into my back and an enormous erection insistent against my butt.

  Good morning.

  He nudged against me, murmuring unintelligible sleep noises into my hair. His hands roamed my body, sloping over the curve of my hips and then coming to my breasts, massaging and squeezing them gently. His attentions shot pleasure straight to my pussy, and I was growing wetter with each tug on my nipple, each buck of his hips against my ass.

  I moaned low when Otun pulled my nipple long and hard. When his hands traveled down to my pussy, I knew he was fully awake.

  “Nisha,” he murmured into my ear, his hot breath fanning my earlobe and sending shivers down my body.

  His padded fingertips slid into my pussy. He brushed against my clit and I arched back, my head bumping into his shoulder.

  “You are so wet, my female.” His fingers slipped in deeper and he brought his other hand around me to toy with my nipples. I gasped as he worked my clit and my nipples, rubbing and tugging in tandem.

  “I love the feel of your wet cunt,” he said, his voice low and rasping. His cock was so hard I could feel the thick head bumping against my ass every time he rubbed my clit.

  “I want you inside me, Otun,” I said, backing up into him, rubbing my ass along his length.

  He hissed out a breath and his hand stilled my hip. “I can’t concentrate when you do that.”

  “Why are you trying to concentrate?” I asked, twisting to face him. “You should be as mindless as I am right now. It’s only fair.”

  I reached down and grabbed the length of him. His silken shaft was hot and hard for me. He groaned when I tugged on him, and the noises he made became growls when I bent my head to taste him.

  I swirled my tongue around the head of him, tasting his salty musk. I bent my head further and swallowed the top half of his cock before bobbing up again and releasing it from my mouth with a pop. I peeked up at him. His eyes were shut tight and his mouth was clenched in a grimace. Mindless indeed.