“I am not as eloquent as your StreamStars. So I will put it simply. I am attracted to you.”
She burst out laughing. “Then you have more problems than I thought. Why would you want me, Lytril? There are other more attractive women; hell, most of the women on Earth are more attractive, skinny, pretty, nicer. More amiable.”
“I have seen. The night we met, I saw the woman who was to be the lottery winner.”
“So it is rigged!” She whistled. “I knew it. I mean, apart from the obvious fact I won, and I didn’t enter.”
“We need to breed the next generation. And so we pick women who will prove fertile and have no faulty genes.”
“Go on.”
“It is our way.” He looked at her and she couldn’t read his expression, but he left something unsaid between them. Something had touched him, something that had surprised him. Now she began to understand Okil’s words. She had touched him.
“But it is no longer your way?”
He got up abruptly. “I do not know, Vanessa. It should be.”
“So this is where we strike a bargain.” Why didn’t she just go with him? He wanted her, she could give him a child and he could give her food, and colour. What a ridiculous thing to want.
“A bargain?” He turned back to her, his eyes narrowing. “I am offering you a life on Karal, food, water and clean air. I would keep you with me, if we both agree.”
“You are offering me a life I never wanted. I told you, I want to live here on Earth for the rest of my life. I never entered the lottery. And I do not appreciate you taking control of my life like this.” Her voice rose, and he looked a little stunned. She figured no one had stood up to him for a very long time. Well, she had never pissed off a human female before, had he?
He took a deep breath, steadying his nerves, but the colours were skimming across his face and she could see them on his hands too. If he stripped, his clothes from his body, just as he did in her apartment, would those same colours cover his whole body? She longed to know, to put her hands on his skin and feel what he was feeling. There was her resolve, once more, dissolving before her eyes.
“I offer you the chance to experience my world, to be part of the decision I have to make towards the women on Earth. I have a strong resolve; they should be in the breeding houses once they are with child.”
“I will not live that life.”
“Yes, I understand that. So here is my conundrum. I take you, who I find attractive in some primal way, and try to understand what it is that attracts me to you. In this way we might understand how best to move forward with the regeneration of my species.”
“How did your species manage before? I mean, this is not the first time you have been through this whole process.”
“Before... It was disturbing, to say the least, for our fathers; the females were not our equals. They lacked the brainpower we have, so we took what we needed.” He left her in no doubt of what he meant. “Humans are the closest we have come to our kind in a long time. We hoped to make things sustainable, but the Earth is too fragile and there is no way to regenerate it.”
She took a piece of fruit, eating it absently while she thought. Was this what Okil meant, that she perhaps held the key to making Lytril and Karal help Earth, or at least stop humans becoming extinct. What should she do? How was she supposed to bargain?
“At the moment, you are talking as though you are experiencing lust. You want a woman, you want me.” She raised her eyebrows and thought, goodness knows why. “What happens when this lust wanes?”
“That is what I want you to teach me.”
She laughed, a bitter sound. “Lytril, I am not the right person for this job. I turned my back on love when my father died. I want no part of this. I swore I would never have children and that is one more thing you seem hell-bent on forcing me into.”
“You are filled with passion. I felt it. You are lying to yourself if you think the right thing to do is to shut yourself off from the world around you. You paint life but you are no longer part of life.” His observation stunned her and then he added, “You know my reasons. So I am asking you to open yourself up to me and I will agree to do the same. Let us see if there is a way for our species to coexist. Teach me what I need to know.”
“On one condition … no, two.” She licked her fingers, tasting the last of the fruit’s juice in case it was the last time she ever had the chance. If he didn’t agree to her terms, she was out of there.
“State them and I will decide.” He looked severely put out at having to bargain with her. And she wondered who exactly she was dealing with. He must be someone high up in the government to be able to pull off the whole lottery switch. Good, because he should at least be able to keep his word if he agreed to what she wanted.
“I will come with you to Karal, and try to make this … relationship work. But if it doesn’t, you will allow me the freedom of your planet.”
He didn’t wait to hear any more. “Impossible.”
“Then this is over. I don’t care how you do it, but you disqualify me from the lottery and choose again. Go back to the poor woman who should be jumping for joy right now to be escaping Earth.” She moved towards the ramp. He was quick and grabbed her arm, but almost instantly pulled back as if her touch had shocked him.
Chapter Thirteen – Lytril
“Vanessa, please.” Was she going to reduce him to a dog, begging for scraps? Why wouldn’t she just do as he asked? “I cannot agree to those terms.”
“Then we are done.” She carried on down the ramp, out of his space cruiser and out of his life.
“There is an island. You may have the freedom of that.” He didn’t know where that idea had sprung from, didn’t even know if it was workable, but he had to have her. He had to make her want him. Why? He didn’t know, but the more time he spent with her, the more he knew he couldn’t let her just walk out of his life.
“How big?” She turned back to him; he knew he had control once more.
“A thousand of your square miles.”
“And the rest of the women. They will live there too, if they don’t wish to stay with their … prizes.” She made it sound so sordid, what they were doing to breed their next generation, but he swept it aside.
“Very well.” He braced himself for the next thing she asked.
“You stop the lottery.”
“Impossible. We need females to breed from.”
“These females are entering thinking they have a chance of winning. But they don’t, you are choosing them for the wrong reasons. Matching DNA or their ability to breed quickly is wrong. You make it fairer, more open and you take more women. It will alleviate the situation on Earth.”
He glared at her, at the way she demanded things of him. But did it really matter, as long as he set his own criteria? “Very well. But I have a condition of my own. The only females eligible will be those with compatible DNA and who are fertile.”
She took in what he said, and he thought she might argue with him, but she didn’t. “Agreed. On one further condition. You provide food as a gift for the families of those chosen. Clothes, something to make people’s lives easier.”
He roared with frustration. “Why should we help those left behind? Your species has got itself into this mess. I will not have Karal used in this way.”
“Karal must be able to support many more lives. I saw the documentary about how you live while your children grow and then you die. So at some point Karal must be capable of feeding twice the number it does now.”
“Yes,” he conceded. “But you have to remember that our population is small. Compared to that of Earth.”
She went back towards him and touched his chin with her fingertip, standing on tiptoes to kiss his lips. A shudder passed through him and he wanted to pull her into his arms and take her right here, right now. His cock grew hard in his pants; she killed him with her scent, with her emotions. Why did he not run from her, cast her off his ship? Instead, he agree
d to her terms.
The power was once more hers, but once on Karal he would wrestle it back from her and teach her who was in control.
Chapter Fourteen – Vanessa
Maybe she wished he had said no. Because at least if he had, she would not be sitting next to him on his space cruiser waiting to leave for Karal. Thankfully, he had refused any interviews, although when Okil had driven her past the StreamScreens, it had not gone down too well with the population. They wanted their alien news fix.
Shutting up her warehouse had been tough. Although Lytril had said he would provide transport for the paintings she wanted to take to Karal. She wanted them all, as reminders of what she had left behind, of what she was doing this for.
Only her art could answer the reason why. Why go with him?
Because of what Okil had said. She could change the way humans were treated by Karal. When Okil had said those words to her, it made her understand what her father had tried to do. He had lived and died as a conservationist. Now it was Vanessa’s turn. Only the species she was trying to save wasn’t an animal or a tree. It was the whole of the human race.
From the moment Lytril had entered her life on that rainy evening, she had been given a chance to pick up where her father left off. It wasn’t her job to hide away from love and life. She had to once more embrace it and show Lytril a way to make things right, to make things better. Vanessa only wished she knew how.
“The journey shouldn’t take long. I have some business to catch up once we get to Karal. But Okil has agreed to show you to your rooms.”
“Rooms? We aren’t going to live in a house?” she asked, her voice wavering as the engines started. But Lytril remained calm, and she let this sweep over her. Everything was all right. They would be fine. There was no way the space cruiser was going to blow up on take-off, no way at all.
“Try to remain calm. Your breathing is too elevated and your heart rate is increasing by the second,” Lytril said, cutting into her panic. “You will pass out if you do not calm yourself down.”
“Maybe that is for the best. I don’t think I’m going to like this one bit.”
He placed his hand on hers and let a soothing calm sweep from him into her. Immediately she began to breathe deeper, her heart rate dropping, but she hated being used like this. She snatched her hand away. “Don’t do that.”
“I only wanted to help.” He moved his hand away from hers.
“You can’t just manipulate me like that with your gift. It feels wrong.”
“As I said, I only wanted to help. This journey is one you will want to experience. The colours as we enter the wormhole will be like nothing you have ever experienced.”
She looked out of the window, at the lights below; above them, all seemed black, dark and foreboding, and it was hard to think there was anything other than darkness in space. “It scares me that you can change how I feel. Do you all have the same power?”
He leaned back and closed his eyes. “I am the strongest. It’s why I am the Hier Ruler.”
“The Hier Ruler, what’s that?”
“I lead the Hier Council. We rule over Karal.” He opened his eyes now to gauge her reaction, but she was already hyperventilating as the cruiser took off, heading away from Earth and everything she had ever known.
“You’re in charge. I guessed you were high up, or else you would not have been able to change the lottery winner. Am I right?” She took deep breaths, but it wasn’t working. She hated the way the cruiser vibrated as if they were going to be torn apart any minute now.
“Yes. Although I may still have to go in front of the council and explain myself. I am not above the laws on Karal.”
“Damn, this is bad.” She felt sure she was about to be sick, and she wished now she had allowed him to place his hands on hers. She thought about just reaching out and grabbing his hand, but that would make her seem like a hypocrite. In the end, he saved her.
“Please allow me to help you.” She wanted to say yes, but she couldn’t accept his help. Not until he added, “If I promise that I will never use my power on you without your knowledge, will you allow me to calm you down?”
“If you promise. Then yes, please.” She reached out her hand and he placed it in his, folding his fingers around hers. Immediate relief covered her. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure,” he said and when she turned and looked at his face, she knew he was enjoying the touch of her skin against his. His eyes dilated as he absorbed her fear and replaced it with a sense of serenity.
When they exited the Earth’s atmosphere, he had to increase the waves of calm he sent her way. Vanessa opened herself up to him, wanting him to allow her to enjoy this part of the journey; she wanted to be fully aware of the wormhole, to see the colours just as he had told her.
Yet when they passed behind the moon, and she saw the beacons, she was not prepared for what was to follow. They went from dark emptiness to bright blues, so blindingly beautiful she thought she might cry. She imagined that the earth’s sky might once have been this colour, and then it changed, golds and silvers streaming past them, the richest of clouds. Before they hurtled fast into a blood-red tunnel that swallowed them whole and spat them out into a field of vivid green, swirling around them as if they had entered the belly of a tornado. But this tornado didn’t kill and wreck, it cradled them while they travelled deeper and deeper.
A sudden jolt and they stopped. She looked to Lytril, “Is it over? Are we on the other side?”
He sat up, reached over with his free hand and wiped a tear from her cheek. “No, not yet.”
She smiled, her eyes misted with her tears. “I have never seen anything so beautiful.”
“Nor have I,” he said, and before she could ask him what he was referring to, they were moving again, vast oceans of stars suspended around them. Slowly they faded away, millions of lights pricking the dark of space, and then a swirling kaleidoscope of clouds spun around them. Every colour she could ever imagine and more.
Here. She could stay right here, with her eyes open, and never tire of looking at the clouds. She could lie on them, and become one with them as her body decayed into star stuff.
Then they were out of the wormhole and the blackness of space surrounded them. Vanessa wanted to scream at Okil to turn around, take her back into the wormhole and leave her there. Reminding herself that wasn’t possible, that she had other things she had to do, she tried to focus on the now, to ground herself here in the cruiser with Lytril.
Lytril, who watched her expressions closely. “Do I amuse you?” she asked.
“Not in the way you think.” He kept his hand on hers, even though her fear had now gone, to be replaced by wonder. Vanessa wondered if their roles were reversed, if he was allowing himself to be affected by her emotions.
“Then tell me. Before we leave this spaceship and you go back to being the Hier Ruler, explain it to me.”
“When we are children our thoughts and emotions are visibly on display. The colours across our skin, you have seen them?”
“Yes.”
“One of the things we learn is to control them. To hide them. Keep parts of ourselves from each other. I think it started when the females of Karal died out. The sadness was too great. So we shielded ourselves from it. I, as the Hier Ruler, had to become more accomplished than anyone else on the planet.”
“Do you read the emotions of other Karalians?” she asked, fascinated by what he said. They had taught themselves to be emotionless in a bid to save themselves.
“As the Hier Ruler, anyone who comes before me has to be open to a kind of … what you would call interrogation. They have to allow me to place my hands on their skin and read them. It can tell me whether they are telling the truth or not.”
“I see. Like when I put my hand on you.” She placed her hand over his, allowing herself to absorb more of him. “It’s not so strong now, but when you were asleep the colours rushed across your skin. I could feel what you were feeling.”
>
“That’s why you scare me, Vanessa. Yet at the same time fill me with wonder. I want to learn from you. I want to experience every emotion you feel. There is so much that we have forgotten. Maybe it was the same for our fathers, but I fear what will happen when our sons are born. What if we do not know how to show love and compassion?”
“But their mothers, their human mothers, will teach them and show them.”
“No, Vanessa, the children will be taken away. They will be raised by Karalians.”
Shock hit her, “You can’t do that; it’s not healthy. Children need mothers.”
“Our generation were raised without them, for reasons I have already explained.”
“And that is where your problem began, no doubt, Lytril.” She took her hands from him and turned to look out of the window, blocking him out. If she had known, then this would have been part of her bargain. For now, she just went back to hoping she would never have a child, because she could not bear to think of being parted from it.
Chapter Fifteen – Lytril
The docking at the space station went smoothly. It was only when they left the space cruiser that Lytril acknowledged how much his short time on Earth had changed him. When the other Karalians on the station bowed their heads in respect to him, he felt Vanessa stiffen by his side.
“We have the decon’ rooms prepared, Hier Ruler.” He was escorted to a room, already a barrier growing between him and Vanessa. He was losing her. And losing the person he had become in her company. Was it possible for the new Lytril she had brought forth to live in his old world? All this he wondered, as Okil took over the job of making sure she was taken to a decon’ room.
He swallowed his jealousy down. Okil was loyal and would not do anything to betray his leader. That wasn’t the issue, Lytril realised. It was more that Okil might see his female naked, before Lytril had a chance. Because to go through decon’, meant stripping down to your bare skin.
How he longed to see her naked, to touch her voluptuous breasts and kiss her soft skin. Tonight. He told himself. As soon as he had caught up on his duties, he would take her to his bed.
Power: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 3) Page 5
