Kratos: A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Paranormal Romance

by Ashley West

  "Do you like this?" he murmured as he pulled back, nipping at her bottom lip before soothing it with his tongue. "Do you want more?"

  She nodded fervently. "Please, Kratos."

  His name sounded so good when she said it like that. He pushed the finger into her and then added another, working them in slow, even strokes, getting her even wetter for him.

  After a moment, something occurred to him, and he smirked again. With one last kiss to her lips, he slid down to the floor. He was too large to be able to lay on the bed and make this work, so he knelt down on the carpet of her bedroom, his cock hard in his pants as he shifted, but ignored it for the moment.

  For right now, he was on a mission. With firm hands he pulled her legs open wider, showing off her center with its neat thatch of dark hair, wet and shiny with her arousal.

  She smelled delicious, like she wanted him and was pumping out that desire more and more every second. Kratos licked his lips and looked up at her.

  Kirsten had pushed herself up onto her elbows so she could look down her body at him, and her eyes were wide. "What are you doing?" she asked, voice a bit shaky.

  "Savoring you," Kratos replied with a lopsided smile. "Isn't that obvious?"

  "I..." She bit her lip and squirmed a bit, and Kratos furrowed his brow.

  "Don't tell me no one's ever done this to you before."

  She glanced away, shrugging one shoulder awkwardly.

  It was a travesty of the highest order, and one he definitely meant to correct. "Kirstie," he said, voice firm, but gentle. "Look at me."

  Her eyes were large when she followed his instruction and met his eyes, and Kratos favored her with a smile. "You'll enjoy this, I think," he said, not wanting to harp on how stupid and selfish her other partners must have been to have never taken the chance to make her fall apart like this. It was a shame for her, but on the other hand, he was going to show her whole new worlds of pleasure.

  Kratos bent his head so he was right between her legs. He pressed a kiss to her inner thigh and then nipped at it lightly, grinning against the soft skin when she jumped with a surprised noise.

  "Kratos, you don't have to-"

  "Shh," Kratos said. "For one, you deserve it. For another, I want to."

  "O-okay." Her voice was still shaky, with nerves more than likely, and Kratos wanted to change that. He wanted her to be shaking with pleasure, and so he got to work.

  As expected, she tasted wonderful. Clean and warm and delicious. Kratos held her hips as he worked her with his tongue, long flat strokes all the way up to her clit alternated with shorter thrusts right into her center.

  Her fingers were fisted into his hair, and she hadn't stopped moaning since he started, arching and twisting, whining his name.

  She liked it, that much was clear, and Kratos was just a little bit smug. No matter what happened between them, he would always be the first person who did this to her, who made her fall apart like this, and he loved that.

  When she came, it was with a rush of warmth that he lapped up, savoring everything about it.

  "Kratos," she practically sobbed, seemingly unable to be still.

  He grinned and then pulled back, kissing her thighs again. "So?" he asked. "Are you a fan?"

  Apparently his smug expression was clear on his face because she glared at him, but it was halfhearted at best. "Shut up."

  Kratos just laughed. "I just want to make you feel good," he said. "You deserve that."

  "And you want to pat yourself on the back when it happens," she pointed out. Not incorrectly.

  "Both, maybe."

  She rolled her eyes and then smiled at him. "Come here."

  He didn't make her say it twice, and when he got back onto the bed, she kissed him hard, tongue swiping into his mouth. Her tasting herself in his mouth was hotter than he had been expecting, and he moaned into the kiss.

  His cock was harder now than before he'd started this, pressed against his fly and leaking stickily into his underwear. When Kirstie pressed her thigh up between his legs and rubbed against his erection, he groaned.

  "Tease," he murmured.

  "I plan to follow through," she promised.

  "I plan to make sure you do," he said, leveling a flirty look at her that made her giggle.

  This was more intimate than anything he'd done before, really. There had been all kinds of flirting with all kinds of women, but this familiar teasing was new. It was nice, he had to admit. Being with someone who was coming to know him well, someone he was getting to know at the same time. It made it easier, took the game aspect out of it and turned it into something that was more like...a relationship.

  As annoying as Milara's intervention or whatever it was had been, he had to admit that she was right about him. He never got to this point with women, and honestly there was a reason for that. He was always on the move, always darting from one planet to another, from one job to the next, and trying for anything more didn't seem worth it. If anything, it seemed like a waste of time and a good way to hurt someone and then get hurt himself.

  Usually he didn't miss the women he left behind, but now... Now he could see himself missing Kirstie, and it was unsettling to say the least.

  Maybe that was what Milara had been getting at.

  He made a face.

  "Are you okay?" Kirstie asked, and her face was full of concern. For him. Because she cared.

  "Yeah," he said, smiling at her. This time it wasn't the smug smile from before, but the softer one, the one that felt more real. "I'm fine."

  He'd planned to tease her, to make her beg for it before the night was finished, but now he didn't want that. Now Kratos just wanted to be with her for the night.

  When he sank into her moments later, naked, skin on skin, he sighed happily. Her arms wound their way around his neck, fingers biting into his upper back, and he groaned her name.

  When she went tight around him, coming for him, falling apart with his name on her lips, he sighed contentedly. It felt right.

  He followed after her in no time, breathing hard as he found his release in her body, face tucked into the crook of her neck, mouth leaving trailed kisses. Kratos held her close after he'd pulled out, letting her snuggle against him.

  "Sihan," he murmured when he thought she was asleep.

  "What does that mean?" she asked, yawning and pressing herself closer to him. "Sihan? You've said it to me before."

  Kratos wrinkled his nose and kissed the top of her head. "It's a secret," he said. Explaining that it was a term of endearment from his people, one of the only things he remembered his father calling his mother before they'd died seemed like too heavy a topic for this late at night. He didn't want to ruin the warm glow of contentedness that had settled around them.

  "Rude," she murmured. "Tell me."

  "I'll tell you later," Kratos promised. And he would.

  It was odd, feeling like this. He'd always had the drive to keep people safe, to protect when it paid, but this was different. If something happened to her, he didn't know what he would do. Probably try to take out The Grey singlehandedly, which would be a huge mess and probably result in him getting killed.

  He hated it when Milara was right, and she was never going to let him hear the end of it if he told her.

  Maybe he'd talk to Combo first. Combo would be indifferent enough to it not to make it a huge deal. Probably.

  Either way, he'd deal with it in the morning. For now, he had a softly slumbering Kirstie laying against him, and he didn't see any reason to still be awake.

  Chapter Fifteen: Into the Dark

  “I want to talk to you.”

  Kirstie groaned and dropped her book over her face. The last thing she wanted was a lecture from her brother, who had just invited himself into her apartment like he owned the place. She could tell from his tone of voice that it wasn’t going to be anything good he wanted to talk to her about.

  “Can it wait?” she asked. “I’m exhausted.”

  “From
what?” Keith replied, and when she looked at him, he had his eyes narrowed at her.

  She heaved a sigh. "Don't be disgusting, Keith."

  "Well, you're the one that brought it up," he pointed out, and when she looked at him, he had his arms folded. Clearly this was going to be that kind of conversation.

  "I just said I was exhausted," Kirsten replied. "You know, from running around trying to make sure the new people had beds to sleep in and coordinating laundry and dishes and helping make sure everyone got fed. Kratos hasn't even been here today, thank you very much. So you can keep your accusations to yourself." It was sharper than she usually was when she spoke to her brother, but she was tired, and she was concerned.

  Kratos hadn't come around for a couple of days, and when she'd finally given in and asked Milara what was going on, the woman had just laughed at her.

  Since she couldn't take her frustrations out on Milara, she'd spent some time with the punching bag in the rec room, until her hands and arms were sore.

  Maybe she'd done something wrong. Maybe she'd gotten too clingy too fast.

  But every time she thought about it, she was sure that Kratos had been right there with her every step of the way. She hadn't been the only one getting close and then closer, and when he kissed her, she'd kissed him back with the same amount of feeling and intensity.

  Maybe he was just busy.

  It was this kind of thing that drove her crazy, really. Worrying about what some man thought of her. Granted, he was different from the other men who had been in her life, just by virtue of being from another planet, but still. She hated obsessing. She'd spent enough time worrying about why her family didn't care about her as much as they could, and she didn't need to add this to the list of pathetic things she was doing.

  Keith was still standing there, though, peering at her with narrowed eyes, and she knew he wasn't going to go away until they dealt with whatever it was he wanted to say to her.

  "Fine," she huffed, sitting up and pushing her hair out of her face. "Say your piece, so I can get back to doing nothing."

  "Thank you," he said. "Look, I know you think you can take care of yourself and you don't need me to breath down your neck and tell you what to do. But I just want to make sure you've thought this through."

  "Thought what through?" Kirsten asked, even though she had a pretty good idea of what he was going to say.

  "Falling in love with an alien."

  ...Or not. She inhaled sharply and then ended up choking a bit as she coughed and spluttered. "What?" she demanded, looking at her brother like he was insane. "Who said I was falling in love with him?"

  "I've seen the way you look at him," Keith replied. "And you're always together."

  "So? That means we have to be in love? You used to look at the Doctor like that all the time, and I didn't see anyone accusing you of being in love with him."

  Keith snorted. "Actually, Emily did. On more than one occasion. But we're not talking about me. We're talking about you and Kratos and how stupid it is for you to hang your hopes on him. Once this is over, he's going to leave, Kirstie. Either that or he'll be dead."

  That wasn't what she wanted to hear. Whether or not she was in love with him (and she wasn't), she didn't want to think about a time when he wasn't there, and she definitely didn't want to entertain the idea of him being dead, for crying out loud. He was her friend, if nothing else. A very good friend, and she'd miss him when he was gone.

  "Don't call me stupid," she muttered, aware of how petulant she sounded, but at a loss for what to do about it.

  "I'm not calling you stupid," Keith said. "Just...this. This whole thing where you want him and he's not going to be there for you."

  It certainly sounded like he thought she was stupid, and honestly, she was not in the mood for this at all. "Keith, I appreciate you trying to help or whatever it is you think you're doing, but I don't need you to give me a lecture about this. I've got it under control."

  "Do you? Because I think-"

  "Maybe I don't care what you think," she said before she could stop herself. There had always been a pit of anger and bitterness and resentment in her, something that grew and festered the more her family ignored her and made her feel like she wasn't worth paying attention to. Her whole life all she'd wanted was for someone to take her seriously, to not have to fight for attention, for someone to be proud of her. Kirsten was so, so tired of being talked down to like she was a child who didn't understand how to take care of herself, when she'd been doing just that for years.

  Her outburst clearly had shocked Keith because he stood there with his lips parted like he had something to say but didn't quite know how to say it.

  Good. Kirstie wanted to be the one to talk for once. "I am so tired," she said, voice low and heated. "Of you telling me what I should do. I am so tired of you and Emily and Lynn, and even Mom and Dad trying to tell me that I need to do things a certain way, that I need to act a certain way, that I'm not thinking things through. You all say that, all the time, and you don't even know me. None of you know me, and you've never tried to."

  "That's not fair, Kirsten."

  "Stop saying that!" she said sharply. "You know what's not fair, Keith? That I'm always the last one you guys think about. Unless I'm doing something you don't approve of, then you're all real quick to pick up the phone and let me know. Any other time? I get nothing. I get 'sorry, Kirstie, we were busy' or 'sorry, Kirstie, something came up with Emily' or 'sorry, Kirstie, I was going to come to that thing that meant a lot to you, but then Lynn called, and we both missed it'. And I'm sick of it, Keith. Every time I say something about it, I get told that I’m not being fair, and that’s crap."

  "We're always the bad guys, huh, Kirstie?" Keith said, shaking his head. "It's been like that for all our lives, basically. You don't get what you want and then suddenly it's because we're terrible people. How could you think about your family that way?"

  Kirsten wanted to scream. She wanted to rip her hair out or reach out and slap Keith in the face. They made her so angry sometimes. All of them did. They were always trying to make it seem like she was being irrational when she spoke up about how they made her feel, and if she didn't say anything then she was being passive aggressive. Honestly, she was sick of it all, and she wanted nothing more than to just leave and be done with all of them in that moment.

  Maybe Kratos would take her back to space with him. Maybe she'd have to make good on the deal by going with The Kilan, and then she'd be free of this. At the very least it would make her family realize what it was like to have her actually be gone.

  Keith was still looking at her in that way he had. Like he thought she was a child, peering down his nose at her, on the verge of shaking his head and scolding her.

  She couldn't deal with it.

  The world was crumbling around them, aliens were attacking, and he was still acting like she needed him to lecture her and treat her like she couldn't make her own decisions. And not listening. That was the biggest thing. When people didn't listen to her, she just got more and more frustrated, and now she could feel herself flushing with her anger.

  Her heart rate had increased, and she was gritting her teeth. She needed to get out. She needed air.

  "Where are you going?" Keith practically demanded it as she made for the door. She wasn't thinking, wasn't doing anything except moving on instinct and the need to not be in the same room as Keith at the moment. It was her apartment, but she didn't care. She'd be the bigger person and leave.

  Kirstie didn't even answer the question. She just opened the door and then let it slam closed behind her. She took the stairs down to the main level quickly, muttering under her breath as she went.

  When she got to the front doors, she burst outside, dragging in lungfuls of the warm night air. She didn't know how late it was, and she didn't care.

  Honestly, Kirsten was just so frustrated. With her family, with Kratos, with herself. There was too much going on and not enough time to deal
with it all. Not enough energy.

  In the distance, just on the other side of the parking lot, she heard something rustling and then the sound of footsteps. It was too dark to make out who was coming, but the shape looked familiar enough. Kratos, perhaps, come to talk about whatever had made him ignore her for the last two days. Well, that was something.

  The figure got closer, and she frowned, taking a few steps into the darker part of the parking lot. "Hello?"

  It was the last thing she could get out before something sharp and electric was jabbed into her side. All she knew then was pain and darkness.

  Chapter Sixteen: Desperation

  "Where is my sister?"

  Kratos frowned, looking down at Keith who had a gun in his hand and looked like he would use it on him, which was silly. "I thought we were past this, Keith," he said, sounding bored. "I'm on your side, remember?"

  Keith looked angrier, if possible. "No, you're not. You might be trying to help us, but you're not on my side. I'm gonna ask you again. Where is my sister?"

  Now he was just confused. "How should I know? I haven't seen her in a couple of days." Which wasn't something he was proud of, but there it was. After their conversation and his subsequent revelation about how he felt for her, he'd thought it was a good idea to give her some space. And take some space for himself. Space just seemed like the best thing.

  Combo had seen right through him, of course, as he always did, and had been quick to tell him he was a coward in his most disinterested voice.

  It wasn't cowardice, though. It wasn't. He owed Kirsten more than just...this. More than fumbling attention and half-hearted feelings. And anyway, what could he give her? He couldn't stay in one place, and he couldn't ask her to come with him, so. They really did need to talk.

  Combo had something to tell the assembled mass of humans and the rest of them as well, and so Kratos had come with him so that he could pull Kirsten to the side and talk to her afterwards. He just had to get past her appointed bodyguard first.

  The angry look had dropped from Keith's face, and now he just looked concerned. "What do you mean you haven't seen her? She's been with you since last night, hasn't she?"