The Regent's Rapture: (An Alpha Alien Romance Novel) (Lords of Zanthar Book 1)

by Liza Probz

  "How did you know I had the laughing sickness? What exactly did you give me as a remedy?" The questions tumbled out. Her rational mind had been restored. "How did you know it would help? My physiology could be vastly different from yours. It could have killed me. And how are you even able to understand me? And--"

  The Supreme Being held up a hand. "Silence. I'm the one who's going to ask the questions and you're going to answer them."

  "But... Your Holiness... if you could just tell me how--"

  He covered her mouth with his gigantic hand. Without thinking about it, she bit his palm.

  He yanked his hand back and studied it, the corner of his mouth turning up.

  "Apologies, Exalted One, but--" she started to apologize, but he cut her off.

  "Enough with the names. I am Xivthar Rasveen, Supreme Regent of Zanthar. You are an Earthling female. Your ship somehow disabled the shield that protects our planet. You're going to tell me what you know."

  Sylvie frowned. "Okay, Ximbar Ratsleen, Supreme Leader of Zindar, listen here--"

  He put his hand around her neck, pressing his thumb against her lips to hold them together. "Xivthar Rasveen. And the planet is called Zanthar. We've had faster-than-light travel for centuries, and we've run across primitive civilizations like the one on Earth many times. While I admit you Earthlings may have a few rustic charms," his eyes slid down the front of her and back up again, "you pose no threat to us. Unless you've joined forces with our enemies."

  Sylvie's cheeks grew red. "Primitive civilizations? Rustic charms? I expected better from a supreme leader."

  "Regent," he growled, pressing a little harder into her neck. "I'm beginning to believe my scientists when they say you're not intelligent enough to converse meaningfully with."

  Sylvie scowled. "Are these the same scientists who refused to act diplomatically when making first contact? The scientists who shot at my companion and gave me these burns?"

  Sylvie held up her palms.

  The regent let go of his grip on her neck to grab them and pull them up to his face. "What burns?"

  "These burns," she said, turning her palms back to look at them. "Well, there were burns here. They must have healed already."

  "The way I heard it," the regent said, hands on hips, "was that your companion shot first, then refused to back down. Then you attacked one of my scientists while he was attempting to disable your out-of-control automaton."

  "I tried to reason with them!"

  The regent glared down at her. "You were acting like a threat, so they treated you like one."

  "Me? A threat? I'm almost half your size, and apparently a member of a 'primitive civilization,' remember?"

  "Oh, I remember," he grumbled. "You're not letting me forget."

  "This is ridiculous. My ship is at the bottom of your ocean, your loyal subjects are scrapping my companion as we speak, and I've got no weapons. How could I hurt you?"

  Her stomach picked that second to growl.

  "What was that?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. "No weapons, huh? What have you got hidden on you?"

  Sylvie inhaled in confusion. "What?"

  His hands were on her all of a sudden, pulling at her flight suit before she could blink.

  "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

  The regent had discovered the zipper and was pulling it down, exposing her bra.

  "Stop that!" she said, slapping at his hands. He managed to unzip the front of the suit and had begun thrusting his hands inside of it.

  "What have you got?" His hands slid over her stomach and around her back, then went lower to cup her bottom. The sensation sent chills racing over her.

  "Nothing!"

  His hands raced up her back, sliding over her shoulders, then down to cup her breasts. "I heard it. You've got something in here."

  "It was my stomach!" she shouted. "I'm hungry! Get your damn hands off me!"

  "Your stomach?" His look was disbelief mixed with amusement.

  Sylvie turned away from him, embarrassment suffocating her. "Yes! When we humans get hungry, our stomachs growl. I swear to you that I have no weapons on me. Besides, wouldn't your lackeys have detected them long before they allowed their Supreme Reject to get close to me?"

  His color was building to a vibrant yellow. What did it signify? Sylvie had worked out that their skin changed in response to something, but not yet what stimulus set it off.

  Emotion, perhaps?

  "I've studied Earth. It's a particular hobby of mine. And I have learned to appreciate Earthling females. They have an exotic composition that pleases me." He stared down his nose at her. "I didn't, however, expect them to have such barbaric tongues, or growling stomachs."

  His arrogant manner only made her angrier.

  "Insults aren't going to get you anywhere, Mister." She poked a finger into his solid chest, jamming the joint painfully. "I'm not going to answer any questions unless you start answering some of mine."

  The yellow of his skin was becoming darker, shades of purple beginning to dominate. The regent gave a short nod. "Deal."

  Chapter 7

  Xivthar watched her study her surroundings. She took in everything, her shrewd eyes seemingly cataloguing every detail. The Earthling female kept surprising him. Although he'd made a study of her home planet, especially the females of her species, who had always intrigued him, he'd never had a conversation with an Earthling. It was proving to be more difficult, and more revealing, than he'd expected.

  When he touched her skin, tingles ignited in his fingertips. His species were able to sync their electrical impulses together during mating, and it generally started with a tingling in the fingertips. To experience something similar with a human female was astonishing. Exciting.

  As the most powerful official on the planet, Xivthar could have had the female drugged and her knowledge extracted. He could even have resorted to torture. Instead, he was going to feed her dinner.

  He'd brought her to his quarters and instructed her to seat herself at the table in his sitting room. It was smaller than his ornate receiving room, more intimate.

  Xivthar stepped up to his food console and dialed up a meal comprised of several Zantharian delicacies. Soured urchin, sea cucumber salad, savory whelks in seagrass, and a sweet pearl inside a clamshell. He carried the plate to the table and set it before her.

  "Eat," he instructed, pulling up a chair and sitting beside her.

  Her green eyes narrowed. "How do I know you won't try to drug me? Or poison me?"

  Xivthar sighed. "Why would I bother bringing you here if I wanted to harm you? I could have left you in your cell and instructed my loyal subjects to abuse you."

  "Perhaps you're trying to butter me up."

  "Butter you up?" The translation matrix was efficient, but it didn't always work on colloquial language.

  "Trick me into liking you so you can take advantage of me."

  "Take advantage?" The thought of what was under the flight suit made that a particularly enticing thought.

  Something must have shown in his expression because the female frowned. "Take advantage of my knowledge."

  She shook her head, tossing around the golden curls that had come undone from the contraption at the back of her head. Poking at the food on her plate, he caught her mumbling to herself. "I traveled 10,000 light years away to be molested by an alien pervert."

  Xivthar reached over and picked up an urchin. He popped it into his mouth and chewed, enjoying the fresh, salty flavor.

  "Not drugged," he said. "Not poisoned. Now eat. I have many questions."

  "So do I." She picked up one of the urchins and took a tiny bite. She must not have found it repulsive because she continued eating.

  "Me first, female." Her features tightened. Perhaps human females didn't like that designation. What should he call her then? "What's your name?"

  She swallowed and picked up a cucumber. "Dr. Sylvia Cohen, professor of astrobiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
My turn."

  "That wasn't a question," he argued.

  "It wasn't?" She smirked. "It sounded like one to me, and I answered it. My turn."

  Xivthar shrugged. To say Dr. Cohen was challenging was an understatement.

  "How do you speak my language?"

  "Translation matrix on a planet-wide frequency. It instantly translates any language that has been inputted into it and beams it into your mind. We've input the languages of any off-world species we're keeping tabs on."

  "Including Earth?"

  "Including Earth," he replied. "Now you owe me two answers."

  "I do not--Damn!" He could be as challenging as she could.

  Xivthar watched as she proceeded to clear her plate. She made dainty little movements, as if she sought to understand each bite before she put it in her mouth. It was almost a shame to interrupt her. "How did your ship disable our shielding?"

  She swallowed, using her napkin to pat at either side of her mouth. "I don't know."

  He was expecting that answer. Without knowing her better, he was unable to determine if she was lying. It was time to start asking questions he knew the answers to as well, to gauge her truthfulness.

  "When did your species develop faster-than-light travel?"

  "2099. The first FTL flight circled Jupiter and returned to Earth in three minutes." There was no hesitation. Her answer fit the information from his own sources perfectly.

  "My turn." The professor finished the last bite of pearl, a smile spreading across her face. The expression caused warmth to spread from his chest to his stomach and tugged at his sex, bringing it to life, as if it had some glorious chance of being used.

  "How did you know what was wrong with me earlier? None of your subjects had any clue but you diagnosed it immediately." She tilted her head to the side, a long strand of golden hair dancing just beside her pretty face.

  "You were hysterical, your pupils were dilated, and your pulse was racing. Not all of my scientists are as familiar with your planet as I am. I know that the Earth's atmosphere is similar to ours on Zanthar, but parts of our planet have higher concentrations of nitrous oxide due to our seaweed cultivation. This colony is surrounded by seaweed farms, making the amount of nitrous oxide in the area much greater than you're used to on Earth. I determined the cause of your behavior and treated you."

  "Seaweed farms," she murmured, reaching over to finger one of the braids of his sarong. "The same seaweed you use to make your clothing."

  His pulse picked up as he watched her delicate hand on his sarong. It was so close to touching his skin. He wanted to see if she could make him tingle in other places besides his fingertips, but the chances of mating with the pretty Earthling were slim. "Yes, and that's two questions."

  Her eyes shot up and she dropped the braid. "No, it’s just one. I made a statement about the seaweed and you agreed. It technically wasn't a question."

  Xivthar laughed. The female was clever, and far more beautiful than he imagined them to be.

  His brother had worried that he might be distracted by this creature. How right he was to worry. She could have stepped out of his fantasies. An exotic female, small but shapely, with pale skin and fair hair, and eyes the color of the giant jellies his people revered. Her hips were curved and breasts heavy and beautiful shaped.

  He'd always been attracted to the idea of mating with a human female, but had always considered it a dream that had little chance of coming true. Their planet's policy was never to interfere with less advanced races, and that rule applied to even the Supreme Regent. They could watch from afar, but never touch.

  Oh, but to touch this female again, to feel her smooth skin. To see if those tingles traveled from his fingertips to his cock. Something told him that they very much would.

  "Well?" she asked, her cheeks blushing red, and he realized he'd been staring at her. It seemed her species' skin was also sensitive to mood changes. Interesting.

  "Why did your people send a ship to Zanthar?" It was a leading question, and one he hoped would help him determine her level of honesty.

  "We'd sent out probes to this system years ago, hoping to find signs of life. Inhabited planets. One of the probes entered your atmosphere and took samples. It returned with evidence of certain microorganisms. Evidence of the life we'd been waiting for." She fixed her green gaze on him. "Looks like we got much more than we bargained for."

  Indeed. She appeared genuine, and her answer was plausible. He had received reports of an Earthling probe entering the upper atmosphere a couple years ago, but he'd instructed his forces to keep the probe above their defense shield in the thermosphere where nothing lived. Someone must have made a mistake and never come forth with the information, or the pretty woman was lying.

  "My turn. What have you done with my ship?"

  Xivthar leaned back in his seat. His proximity to the Earthling was unsettling. He could smell her. It was warm and musky, and like nothing he'd ever experienced. She smelled of sky and sun, of the soil. He reined himself in as his skin color darkened to deep purple.

  "Your ship has been pulled up from the depths and is currently locked away in one of our laboratories. The staff at the Ministry of Science are attempting to determine what could have caused the shield malfunction."

  Her small ship should have been deflected by the shield. It should have been spotted long before it ever made it to the shield. Instead, it had crashed through the shield, disabling it, but how?

  "And I suppose that means they're tearing it apart?"

  "Not yet. Right now they're attempting to restore power so they can question the main computer."

  "Poor Magnis. You won't be able to woo him with a warm meal. He doesn't eat."

  Magnis? He opened his mouth to ask what she meant, but snapped it shut before speaking. There were more important questions that needed asking, and he couldn't afford to waste one. Time to shake things up and watch her reaction. "Are you working with the Hareema?"

  The professor looked momentarily disappointed. Was she upset that he hadn't taken the Magnis bait? "I don't know who, or what, the Hareema is."

  Could he believe her? She didn't seem to be lying.

  "So you expect me to believe that you just happened to sneak up without my advanced defense net picking you up, then you blasted through the shields, managing to completely disable them by accident?"

  "You can believe whatever you want, but the events happened exactly as you just described them." Her expression was placid, her eyes bright. Her words seemed genuine. Could he trust her?

  He wanted to, wanted to believe that she was the plucky young scientist out on her first adventure, who had fumbled her way into a situation outside her skillset. Not only would it mean that there was no Hareema invasion force parked behind one of Zanthar's thirteen moons, but it would also leave him free to explore his connection to this female.

  Chimes sounded from the console on his desk. What a time for an interruption.

  He pulled up the display and frowned when he saw his brother's face. "What do you want?"

  "Our security team orbiting Cnidaria has stopped a Luthurican freighter."

  The Luthuricans had rocklike skin that could withstand extreme temperatures and harsh conditions. They hailed from a binary system several light years away from Zanthar, but their trading routes ran through this system.

  "A scan revealed that it was carrying traces of Hareema DNA. Major Ontarii questioned the captain and crew, and according to his report, they found one of their crewmen dead and shoved into a storage crate. The body had been decaying for weeks, but the problem was that the captain had seen the same man that very day."

  "A Hareema infiltrator."

  "Exactly. The captain thought the stowaway had to have come on board during their last shore leave on a gas giant in the same solar system as Earth."

  "Did Ontarii capture the infiltrator?"

  "No. He'd disappeared two days before the security force stopped the freighter."


  "Or he'd started posing as another crew member. Maybe even the captain himself."

  His brother scowled. "Ontarii initiated strict confinement protocols, and ordered his men to remain in pairs at all times, per standard protocol."

  "No DNA tests?"

  Drake's coloring was a mixture of yellow and orange. Anger and fear fought for control of his brother's demeanor. "The Luthuricans' exoskeletons are too tough to penetrate. They're working on a way to take a sample, but until they figure it out, no DNA testing is possible."

  "Dammit," Xivthar growled softly, his complexion turning yellow. "Institute standard protocols planet-wide. No one is to be alone, and hourly electrical exchanges are required."

  "Understood." The Minister of Defense hesitated.

  Xivthar lost his patience with his brother. "What?"

  "Has the Earthling female given you any information?"

  So his brother knew he was with her, and he obviously didn't approve.

  "I was questioning her when you called."

  "Has her DNA been tested?"

  "Yes, the scientists confirmed her species when they first took her into custody."

  "That was nearly six hours ago. If the Hareema have infiltrated us, she could have been replaced by now."

  Xivthar frowned. "You're right. I'll have her tested again."

  "We need to know how she took out our defenses. If she doesn't talk soon, we'll have to resort to other means. And if she's Hareema..."

  "I'll deal with it."

  Xivthar waved the display away and focused his gaze on the female. The display had been set to his ears only, so she wouldn't have heard the exchange. There was no time left for back-and-forth. Perhaps her tactic had been to delay him all along so the Hareema forces could gather.

  They couldn't have sent a more suitable agent, he thought. She was made for me.

  An exotic Earthling female. It appeared his fetish for human females was the worst kept secret on Zanthar. And maybe the whole system. If Sylvia was really Hareema, it would be easy to find out. All he had to do was shock her.

  She'd held up her palms earlier to show him her burns, which had disappeared. Maybe they had healed quickly, or maybe she'd been replaced by one of the Hareema who hadn't replicated the burns.