by Ashley West
Aedian and Roxy were on their feet in a matter of seconds, Roxy having to steady Aedian as they made their way from the infirmary outside.
Quite obviously, Llya was right. The Platoks were fleeing in droves, most of them wounded. There were bodies on the ground, broken and bloody, and Roxanne averted her eyes from them.
“What happened?” she asked.
“They gave up,” said a voice, and they all turned to see one of the larger Calphesians limping over. “They underestimated us.”
“They always did,” Aedian put in. “It is good to see you well, Prias.”
“And you, Aedian,” he said, inclining his head.
Roxanne didn’t know who this was, but he seemed important. Despite that, she had a question of her own. “What about the city?”
Prias looked at her as if surprised she’d spoken up. “I believe they are fine,” he said. “I have sent a group of the least injured to make sure and to chase away any of the remaining foes. The ones they sent after the humans were their captives and no doubt once they find out the Platoks have fled, they will cease their fighting.”
It sounded neater and easier than Roxy could have imagined possible, but she wasn’t going to contest it.
And so the Earth survived its second invasion, and this time without having to give anything up. The Platoks turned tail and ran for their ships, most of them making it, but many of them were caught and killed by the Calphesians. They had underestimated their enemy to devastating effect. Assuming that the Calphesians were weaker because of their time on Earth was their first mistake. Going after the humans that they had sworn to protect was the second.
When it was all said and done, the casualties were much fewer than anyone had anticipated. Six Calphesians had been killed in the fighting as well as two humans. Many more were injured, but they were all expected to make a full recovery.
As for the other races that had been brought over by the Platoks, they were spared for the most part. A new treaty was made between the Calphesians and the group of refugees, some of them going back to their planets on the ships the Platoks had left behind and some of them choosing to remain on Earth.
They were put under the jurisdiction of the Calphesians, and for the first time since the treaty had been struck, the compound found itself home to different races.
There were those who believed that the whole thing had been staged by the Calphesians in an effort to take more control of the planet, but most of the population thought that they were heroes for keeping them safe. Some of the tensions that had been there for ten years began to ease, and attitudes on both sides started to change.
In the middle of it all, Aedian and Roxanne grew closer. They’d saved each other, in a way. Aedian was impressed and touched more than he knew how to say that she’d run out there to save him, and Roxanne couldn’t deny that Aedian had kept them safe when he’d thrown that sword and when he’d stepped into battle with the intent of keeping her and her kind safe.
For weeks after the battle, anyone who had anything snide to say about Aedian being pulled off the battlefield by a human was met with the sharp edge of Roxy’s tongue and never said anything else about it.
She gave Aedian a lecture as well, about locking her in rooms and treating her like a child, and Aedian didn’t promise not to do it again. Instead, he promised to teach her to defend herself better and that he would always be there to make sure that she was alright.
Roxy accepted it as probably being as good as it would get.
Humans and Calphesians alike pitched in to facilitate the cleanup, and bodies were burned and people were mourned, and they came together in a way they hadn’t before. It was expected that there would be some kind of tournament to commemorate the battle and subsequent victory, but instead there was a feast with no fighting.
It felt like progress.
Roxanne and Aedian found themselves slipping away from the feast, finding a quiet corner of the compound and finally giving in to that urge that had started back in the infirmary.
With her dress hiked up around her hips, her front was pressed against the wall of a quiet alcove, and Aedian held her hips, pushing into her from behind. Roxy kept one hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t make too much noise and the other pressed against the wall as she worked herself back on his cock.
It felt good and the thrill of possibly being caught only added to it. They moved together in a rhythm they had created themselves, blind and deaf to whatever else was going on around them.
In the end they came one after the other and then left the feast altogether, going back to their rooms to clean up and continue their own private celebration together, bickering good naturedly the whole way up the stairs.
Chapter 14: A Matter of Forever
Roxanne and Aedian’s wedding was the first one in history to be a complete mix of alien and human traditions. Aedian, in true fashion, had been mostly apathetic about the proceedings, but Roxanne had been determined that she was going to have a wedding that she was proud of.
Her father gave her away, and her mother cried. Sam was her maid of honor, and she wore a dress that made her feel beautiful. The look on Aedian’s face when he saw her made it all the better.
For once, it didn’t feel like something she had been forced into, but something she was choosing, and when she walked down the aisle with a shy smile on her face, Aedian’s eyes were on her the whole time. His mouth was stretched into a smirk, but she had known him long enough by then to see the genuine pleasure in those eyes.
The ceremony was mostly Calphesian, words about strength and honor and unity, and a story about how together they were stronger than they could be apart. It was easy to see why they were proud of their culture, and Roxanne felt like she could be proud of it, too.
Prias married them, presiding over the ceremony with gravitas and humor, and declaring for everyone assembled to hear that they were now life mates, only to be parted by death.
“You’re stuck with me now,” Roxy had murmured under her breath as she leaned up for Aedian to kiss her.
He smiled, then, a true smile, and captured her mouth with his own.
There was a grand feast in honor of all the marriages that had taken place over the course of that week, and people ate and drank late into the night. Roxy kept an eye on her parents who seemed out of place and nervous, and another eye on Samantha who was determinedly flirting with one of the refugees with wings, who looked shocked, but interested.
Aedian was at her side, gulping at his spirit and eating the roasted meat. Apparently weddings didn’t warrant shirts for Calphesians, just garlands of leaves woven into their hair, and seeing him all broad shouldered and muscular had Roxy thinking about the honeymoon.
They hadn’t decided if they would travel somewhere yet, but there was still the wedding night and consummating the marriage, even though that bridge had technically been crossed before they’d even gotten married.
It would have been rude of them to dip out of the wedding reception early, so they waited until it started to die down, and then Aeidan was taking her hand and leading her back into the compound, scooping her up into his arms and carrying her in the appropriate way for being about to cross the threshold of their home.
“Do you have any idea how you look?” he asked, voice low and pleased.
“Maybe,” Roxy teased. “Why don’t you tell me?”
He grinned, and there was something predatory in his gaze that made her shiver. “You look radiant,” he said, and it was more genuine a compliment than she had been expecting. “But also you look like you’re mine.”
“I guess I technically am now,” Roxy pointed out, and he grinned wider.
He set her on her feet and then leaned in, pressing kiss after kiss to her mouth, backing her up until her back hit the door. It didn’t slide open, and Roxanne had a split second to wonder if that was some kind of sex mechanism to keep it closed when they were banging against it.
It seemed like they were going to test t
hat out, and she was more than fine with it.
Her dress was long, sweeping the floor in a silky swirl of skirts that were sparkly with tiny beads along the hem. Apparently Aedian could tell that it meant something to her because when he scooped the hem of the skirt up, exposing her legs and the lacy underthings she’d put on, he was careful with his claws, making sure he didn’t rip anything.
Roxy was touched, and she grinned at him. Her grin soon turned into a moan of pleasure when Aedian’s thigh pushed itself between her legs, spreading them until his thigh was pressed against her mound, lace and hard muscle rubbing against her clit.
She moaned and pushed against him, grinding down. “Really?” she panted. “Our first time as life mates and it’s going to be against the door?”
“Yes,” Aedian replied simply, leaning down to kiss her again. It was a forceful, claiming kiss, but one with plenty of room to reciprocate. She bit down on his lower lip, enjoying the groan of pleasure he released into her mouth as she did. His hands came up to her hips, holding her close as he kissed from her mouth to her neck, lips and teeth and tongue marking his territory, marking her as his.
Even now she waited for the flare of irritation, but it was nowhere to be found. All she could feel was warm pleasure and the way she was getting wet for him. The way she wanted him.
Her hands came up to brace against his chest, and they moved together in slow, undulating waves, grinding against each other while their lips found their way back to each other.
“Mine,” Aedian growled again. “Mine, mine, mine.”
Roxy laughed breathlessly against his lips, pushing onto her toes to kiss him long and deep. “You’re mine, too,” she murmured when she pulled back to breathe, and he nodded.
“Yes. I am.”
Warmth spread under her skin, and she beamed at him, happier to hear that than she’d assumed she’d be.
When he pulled back suddenly, she mourned the sudden loss of his body heat and the thigh between her legs, and her dress fell back down around her feet. But then he was turning her around to face the wall, and she understood what he wanted and wanted it herself. There was something about doing it in this position after they had gotten married that appealed to her, and she stuck her butt out more, arching her back to make a prettier picture.
Judging by the groan the action got from Aedian, she was pretty sure that he appreciated the sight.
He hiked her dress up around her hips, putting her butt and the white lace panties it was clad in on display. She’d liked the contrast between the white lace and her dark skin, and judging from the way Aedian traced his claws gently over her skin where it met lace, she was going to say that he liked it, too. His approval made her stomach flip over, and when he palmed her backside, she pushed back into his hand, moaning softly.
Apparently his patience was at an end, because in a matter of seconds, Aedian was ripping the lace of her panties, shredding it until they were in tatters around her knees and she was fully on display for him.
“Brute,” she accused, though she didn’t sound too upset about it.
“You like it,” he fired back, and she couldn’t argue with that.
She could hear him undoing his pants behind her, and when the heat and hardness of his length pressed against the wet slit of her sex, she couldn’t help but work herself back against him.
Aedian swore in his language and then rubbed the tip of his cock against her, spreading her wetness. “Are you ready for me?” he asked.
It was going to be a tight fit, as it always was, but today more than any other day, she wanted to feel him. “Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “Give it to me.”
He didn’t waste any more time after that. Slowly, so slowly, he pushed into her, filling her up with each delicious inch of his cock. And she took it well, like she always did, spreading her legs wider and dipping her back in more, giving him a better angle to slide in from. She could feel the claws of the hand on her hip digging slightly into her skin, and the little bit of pain was just as delicious as the feeling of him pushing into her bit by bit.
She had to take a moment to catch her breath when he was fully seated inside of her, toes curling at the amazing sensation of being stuffed full.
Aedian was breathing hard, and one hand came up to brace against the wall above her head, while he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer and pushing that last inch deep into her.
She moaned, throwing her head back, pushing onto her toes to give herself more leverage to work back onto him.
Even though they’d just now gotten married, they already knew each other’s bodies well. Aedian already knew that Roxanne liked it when he pushed into her hard and slow, letting her feel every inch of him stretching her and working her open. In turn, Roxy knew that Aedian liked it when she moaned his name and went tight around him, when she alternated between meeting him thrust for thrust and letting him take what he wanted.
And so they went, him giving her those long, slow strokes, and her letting him know how much she liked it. He made her come right there, working into her until she was shaking and sensitive. But that was only the beginning. From there, they moved to the bedroom, and he laid her out on the bed, dress still pushed up while he buried his face between her legs and made her scream for him as her legs shook and her fingers twisted in the covers.
They took a short break, and then Roxanne was getting him hard again with her mouth, taking him down as far as she could, eyes on him. She’d stripped out of her dress by then, and when she moved to sit astride his cock, she was gloriously naked and ready for him.
He played with her breasts while she rode him hard and fast, and they both came in a rush, ending up with Roxy flopped over onto his chest, his cock still mostly buried in her.
“I love this,” she mumbled against his chest, half asleep.
He stroked her hair, almost petting her, really, and she was warm and comfortable and delightfully sticky from their exertions.
Aedian just hummed in reply, dragging the points of his claws down her back slowly and then back up, offering a sensation that kept her awash in pleasure as long as it went on.
It wasn’t an ‘I love you’, and Roxanne didn’t know if they’d ever get to the point where they said words like that to each other. It didn’t seem like the Calphesian way, really. They were a much more demonstrative race, and she didn’t think that was all bad. Putting yourself in danger to protect someone you cared for, standing up for them, those were ways to show how you felt. Words could be, and often were, empty, and in the time since she’d come to live with them, Roxy had learned a lot about Calphesians and the way they showed that they really meant something.
So it wasn’t the way she’d been anticipating her life turning out, but that was okay. There was nothing that said she had to give up on her dreams. Aedian accepted that she was headstrong and wanted to do things her way, and he didn’t try to fight her on it anymore. In fact, every time she stood up to him, it seemed like his respect for her only grew.
And maybe one day they’d be a couple like her parents: together for years, with a family, able to read each other well, but if not, then they would do the best they could with what they had. They’d make something new that fit them.
It sounded doable. It sounded like something she could be proud to have.
About the Author
Ashley West was raised in a small Midwest town. She has always been a big fan of science fiction and paranormal books and movies. Her all-time favorite movies are the first three Star Wars movies. She started writing at a young age and has not looked back since. Ashley brings her worlds to life with vivid details and likeable characters.
On her spare time, she enjoys painting, jogging, and curling up next to her favorite books. If you enjoy Ashley’s titles and wish to receive a free paranormal romance, stay updated on all her new releases and book giveaways, please visit her website and submit your email.
ashleywest.net
Publisher’
s Notes
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Monster Media LLC
