His Fallen Star

by Lily Thomas

  Vlek smiled at him. Zro’eq was never a pleasant man to be around. He always had something to grump about, but he was one of the best warriors around, so Vlek put up with his foul attitude, for now.

  If Zro’eq wasn’t careful, Vlek might just have to kick him out of the village. The man was growing more irritated by the moment, and Vlek worried he might someday have dreams of being the leader of their village. He was a good warrior and would make a great leader, but Vlek wasn’t willing to give up his leadership quite yet.

  “It’s not your decision to make. We will keep the females around until I say so.” He glared at his friend and clanmate. “We should learn more about them. Otherwise, we will be living blind to a possible danger in our forest.”

  Zro’eq grumbled about it, but at least stopped verbally complaining about it. Vlek wasn’t sure how much more he wanted to listen to his clanmate complain.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Vlek studied the lead female whose name was Olivia. It wasn’t a name he’d heard before, but he liked the sound of it on his lips. It was exotic, just like her.

  He found himself wanting to walk near her. He liked her, and her scent wouldn’t stop tickling his nose. Every time he got a whiff of her sweet scent, his cock would harden instantly. If he’d been wearing a loincloth, it would have been more noticeable than in his animal skin pants. But if anyone looked at his crotch, they would still know what he was thinking about with the bulge he had going on.

  His reaction both surprised and pleased him. The Feosua tried not to have too many partners before their mates came along. Their village might not be small, but sleeping with too many females could get awkward when they eventually did find their mate.

  He was definitely thinking about sharing his furs with her though. This Olivia had a sway to her wide hips that mesmerized his mind. Maybe these females were all some sort of magical spirit come to distract him, and it might just work.

  Vlek would have to take it slow though. There was no way to predict how the village might react to their presence. It could take some time since no one had ever seen anyone like these females before. They were so short, and some were a little plump around their thighs and waists nothing like a Feosua female.

  But none of his men seemed to mind. He caught a few of them casting appreciative glances at some of the females. Zro’eq, on the other hand, kept casting a glare at one female in particular. Was Zro’eq finding her irresistible? Vlek would find it beyond amusing if Zro’eq bonded with one of these strange females.

  He looked over at Olivia. Her head only came up to his chest. He probably should rein in his desires, before he took such a delicate female to his furs. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t underestimate them. They might surprise him someday. Olivia may not have been able to fight the mira, but she did seem to lead the other women with enough confidence that the women followed easily.

  She might just make an excellent female for a leader, like himself. A slow smile crept across his face as he watched her.

  As the day wore on, Vlek eventually called for a stop. These females, whatever they were, weren’t able to walk for extended periods. Their pace had dropped considerably, and they had one female who wasn’t even able to walk on her own.

  He strode over to Olivia, the only woman who didn’t smell like fear when he approached her. “Olivia.”

  She glanced up her brown eyes piercing him. His cock twitched as he glanced down at her full lips. Damn her. All he could think about when he was around her was sex. He wanted nothing more than to pull her luscious body under his and show her they were meant for each other.

  He motioned to the woman they were basically carrying. “Come here, Kriiv.”

  Kriiv walked up beside him.

  “Give her to us to carry.” He motioned what he said to Olivia, hoping she’d understand what he was trying to communicate through hand signals.

  Another woman walked over, and she and Olivia began to speak. And then every woman started to raise their voice in alarm. They were getting excited about something, but it wasn’t positive.

  The females surrounded their sick friend as a single unit challenging the Feosua men to approach them.

  Olivia turned back to him and shook her head.

  He frowned at them. He respected their loyalty to each other, but he wanted nothing more than to assist them. It also meant none of his men could get a good look at what was going on with the ill female.

  “Watch the area.” He told Kriiv instead. He wasn’t going to press the women into accepting help from them. “We don’t know if there are any more of them out there.” He motioned to the women. “There could be more of their males prowling the area, and they might want the females back.” And he still feared the power of their impressive weapons.

  Zro’eq took charge of setting up lookout positions, while Vlek and the rest of the men got a camp set up. They’d stay here for the night so that the females could make some good progress tomorrow after some well-deserved rest.

  Chapter 7

  The moment the aliens set up camp, there was a communal sigh of relief from the women. None of them wanted to keep moving, but none of them wanted to irritate the fearsome warriors around them by not trekking on.

  Olivia flopped onto the ground, and Scarlett joined her.

  “Please tell me we are there.” Scarlett moaned in relief at sitting down.

  “Nope. This doesn’t look like any sort of destination.” Olivia glanced around the rainforest around them. “My feet fell off a few hours ago though, so I can’t feel the pain anymore.” Olivia stripped off her tennis shoes and rubbed her sore feet. There were a couple of blisters on her feet, but that was all.

  “Good idea.” Scarlett pulled off her own shoes. “Wheh!” She waved a hand in front of her face, and her nose scrunched up. “I’m going to need to wash my feet, at some point.”

  Olivia leaned away from her. “Keep your stinky feet over there then.” Olivia looked over to where some of the girls were huddled around Chloe. “How’s Chloe doing?”

  Aubrey spoke up. “I think she might die. Her fever is high, but I can’t be sure since our medicine bag is so basic. Clearly, the maker of this bag hadn’t expected us to crash land on an alien planet, which was a bit foolish on their part.”

  “The cream isn’t doing anything?” Olivia felt useless. She paused. Maybe Liam had been right. They were just useless ladies. She stopped the doubt from crawling any further through her mind. They were scientists, not useless ladies.

  Olivia slipped her shoes back on, stood up and walked over to get a better glance at Chloe. Her feet screamed at her to sit back down, but she ignored them. She’d been exaggerating when she’d told Scarlett she couldn’t feel her feet anymore.

  As she glanced down at Chloe, she had to stifle a gasp. She still looked like a ripe tomato. A tomato that needed to be eaten or it was going to rot.

  “Hand me the cream. I’ll put more than a pinch of it on her skin. Maybe with a good smothering of cream, she’ll feel better.” Olivia held out her hand, but the cream never came.

  Instead, a deep voice spoke above her. “Olivia.”

  Looking around she noticed the women had given her some distance. Craning her neck up she gazed into Vlek’s golden eyes. Damn, he was tall, she thought to herself. The black lines dancing over his skin took her attention away from Chloe.

  “Olivia.” He said again.

  “Vlek.” She finally responded.

  He squatted next to her, and she felt her heart jump into her throat. Even at his squatting height he was still terrifying, and now she was getting an up close and personal view of all those fantastic muscles.

  Didn’t he have a shirt he could wear? It was a little distracting to have such a fine specimen in front of her and know she shouldn’t touch him. But her mind and body were not in agreement.

  His breath tickled the fine hairs on her cheek, and she resisted the urge to lean in.

  Vlek motioned to the woman on the ground, a
nd she snapped out of her lewd thoughts. Now was not the time to be obsessing over his naked chest and wondering what a night with him would be like.

  “Do you have something to help her? Do you know what’s wrong with her?” She motioned to her cream and shook her head. She hoped he’d get the meaning that their medicine wasn’t doing anything for Chloe. She would’ve asked him for help earlier on, but the women had voted against it, and they’d decided to be diplomatic while stranded on the planet.

  He talked to another man, who then handed him a small leather pouch. Vlek handed it over to her, so she opened it and automatically made a face. The odor coming from the pouch was not pleasant, but Vlek had to know what was happening to Chloe. He lived here on this planet, and he’d probably seen something similar to this before.

  Vlek mimed the motion of rubbing the cream in the pouch over Chloe’s skin.

  “Are we sure we should do that?” Avery rushed to ask.

  Olivia glanced over at Avery and then at Aubrey, who was the doctor of the group.

  “What the heck?” Aubrey shrugged her shoulders. “We have nothing to lose by trying the local remedy. It can’t do anything worse, because I’m fairly certain she’s going to die without treatment.”

  With that overwhelming bode of confidence, she dipped her fingers into the lime green goo and spread it over Chloe’s skin. Almost immediately Olivia noticed a change in Chloe’s skin irritation. It was working! She felt excitement wash through her.

  She sent Vlek a smile, and he exposed his long canines in a smile. Olivia nearly took out the woman standing beside her, as she jumped out of her skin. Then she sent him an apologetic smile, as she put a hand on his arm. She felt bad since he had just been returning her smile. It was definitely an intimidating look when it was up close and personal.

  Vlek shook off her arm, snatched the pouch back, and left to talk with his men.

  Was he offended by her reaction? Great. She was ruining their chances for survival because she was unable to think before reacting.

  “Is it working?”

  Some of the women came to look down at Chloe now that Vlek had left the immediate vicinity.

  “Look at her skin! It’s changing back to normal. Although she might not thank us, because that green slime smells to high heaven.” Aubrey’s nose wrinkled. “Although I would love to learn what it is and how to make it because we might need more of it in the future.”

  “It doesn’t smell as bad as Scarlett’s feet.” Someone joked.

  Olivia glanced back over to where Vlek had gone as the women peeled into laughter. She hoped she hadn’t actually wrecked anything they’d built in their short time together. The fangs had just surprised her was all. He was a predator, made to live in this rainforest without the need for any other weapons than the ones nature had gifted him with, and she was more like prey. He’d have to let her get used to this new environment.

  A shiver ran through her. He was made to survive here with claws and fangs, which meant this rainforest might yet claim their lives. No human was prepared to live here without technology.

  Chloe had almost died of a simple bug bite, and Olivia had nearly become a panther’s snack.

  “Not to take the attention away from Chloe, but you know we’re going the wrong way if we want to find the other women,” Hailey spoke up from the crowd of women.

  Olivia nodded. “I know, but there’s no way to communicate that to any of these aliens since I don’t know how to mime that we need to find the missing women. I doubt they’ll just let us walk away without knowing what we’re doing.”

  Scarlett smiled at all the women. “Let’s have faith in the other women. They have enough water and food to last them for quite some time, and if they don’t run into any predators, I don’t see why they can’t survive. Once we figure out a way to communicate with our alien friends, we’ll find them.”

  “Besides there’s a distress signal being emitted from the ship. We might get rescued before we have any need to really worry. The same applies to them.” But that was false hope. Once their message was received, it would take quite some time, before a rescue party was sent out this far in space.

  They all knew the risks when they came out here though. No guarantees had been made for their safety. It was space after all and anything could and would happen. They’d simply been unlucky, but the natives seemed to be helping them.

  Resting her back against a tree she watched Vlek tend to his warriors who’d been hit by plasma bolts.

  She might not have creams for bug bites, but she did have cream to work on plasma burns, and it was probably time to give the aliens another application. It was the least she could do. Standing up she grabbed a medical bag, dug through it, grabbed a container, and walked over to where he was crouching over his warrior.

  Vlek took a deep intake of breath and glanced up at her. Did he just smell her presence? Was it because she smelled bad?

  Olivia decided that later she’d have to give her armpits the whiff test to make sure.

  He raised an eyebrow, as she stood there staring down at him. Right. Needed to get to business and stop staring at the amazing form presented to her. It’d been a long while since she’d seen such an appealing half-naked man. She’d been too invested in her career to spare a second for men, but now she had all the time in the world.

  “Here.” She held out the container and motioned that he should wipe the cream over the warrior’s wound.

  Vlek looked at the jar, and then at her.

  “Sorry.” Olivia rushed to take back the jar. Her hand brushed against his, and a shock shot through her. She jerked her hand back surprised by the intensity of such a small contact. “This is how you open a metal jar.” He probably hadn’t seen her open it earlier in the day. She twisted the lid in open view so he could see.

  His eyes widened a bit to see the metal lid twist off.

  Olivia bent over Vlek, as she handed back the container of cream.

  She felt him lean in and take a deep intake of breath right next to her neck. He was definitely sniffing her. Her spine straightened as she tensed up. Then she shot to her feet. She wasn’t sure what to expect from him. He either thought she smelled good or tasty.

  Vlek eyed her for a second more before turning his attention back to his man and spreading the cream over the warrior’s plasma burn. Vlek stood and handed her back the container of burn cream.

  She took it back, being careful not to make any more physical contact with him. The shock that had spread through her from their last brief touch still had her a bit shocked to the core.

  She was in the process of closing the container when his hand wrapped around her wrist, and he pulled her up against him. Again, his head descended towards the corner of her neck, and he inhaled sharply.

  Olivia’s heart pounded in her chest, as she froze in her surprise. She’d never been sniffed by a man, and she’d never been turned on by something so weird either. She could feel a pulsing ache throb between her thighs. Then she placed her hands on his bare chest and shoved him away from her.

  Once his warmth was gone, her sanity returned to her. She never thought she’d be the type of woman to lose her good sense when a half-naked man was around, but here she was losing her mind every time they touched.

  Glancing around, she was thankful to see that no one had seemed to take notice of the fact that she and Vlek had almost kissed. It’d been so close! Quickly, she fled back to the other women without sparing Vlek another glance. They needed to have some distance put between them.

  What was with him sniffing he anyway? Maybe it was his way of showing his interest in her? Otherwise, he might think she would make a great snack. She really didn’t want to be anyone’s snack.

  Vlek watched her retreat from him her pace hurried and alarmed. Her smell had been tickling his nose for a while now, and this was the first time he’d been able to get a good whiff. But now he knew something startling for sure.

  The strange Olivia was his
mate.

  There was no use in denying it. It would explain everything he was experiencing when he saw or smelled her nearby.

  His cock was hard, and he had the urge to pursue her and crush her against his chest so he could ravish her mouth. Vlek felt the need to take and claim her as his, but he also knew he had just scared her away. But of course, he was an intimidating male, compared to the males they’d killed earlier. It was no surprise she would find him fearsome.

  “Getting a little close to her, aren’t you?” Kriiv came to stand by him, as they watched Olivia interacting with her people.

  Vlek had hoped no one would catch sight of his actions but leave it to Kriiv to always be around and always watching. “I think she is my mate.”

  “You think?” Kriiv eyed Olivia who was now bending over the ill female in their group.

  “She is my mate.” Vlek braced himself for what Kriiv might say.

  “If she’s your mate, then she’s your mate.” He patted Vlek on the back. “Good luck with winning her over though. They look different, and they behave differently. She might not feel the bond you feel.”

  Vlek grinned at his longtime friend. “It might be easier than you think.”

  “She is interested?” Kriiv folded his arms in front of his chest. “Because I think I saw her push you away before running for her life. Perhaps I’ve been too long without a female, but I’m certain that means she is uninterested.”

  “I don’t know for certain, but I felt her heart speed up when I touched her. I do not believe it’s in fright. Instead, I believe she feels a powerful draw to me as well. She’s just resisting her urges for some reason.”

  And he was going to find that reason and put it to rest. He wasn’t going to let this strange female deny what he could feel pulsing inside him. This was his chance at a mate, and he couldn’t just turn his back on that, no matter how strange she might be.