He tilted his hips, withdrawing a little and edging back in. A delicious friction started inside her, matched on the outside as he rubbed his lower abdomen against her clit. She gasped as a little growl sounded in his chest.
She hadn’t realised she’d closed her eyes, but when she opened to him, it was to see him looking down at her. The possession, the gravity, the absolute love shining out of the depths of his eyes made her heart pound, her breath hitch.
He leaned down and kissed her long and slow and deep. When he pulled back, her muscles were like liquid and she tilted on a precipice she had no control over.
“This is how much I love you, Marie. I pledge this is how we will be each and every day. Inside your body.” He placed a hand over her heart. “And inside your soul.”
She placed her palm over his chest, feeling his heart pounding as hard and fast as hers. “I can feel you inside my body and my soul. And I’m so grateful you are there. Thank you, Alastor. Thank you for everything.”
She caught his mouth in a gentle kiss. One that turned urgent very quickly. She firmed her arms around his neck and clung to him as he slowly withdrew almost to the tip, then thrust back inside her. There was nowhere else he belonged.
He slowly levered himself onto his elbows, his thrusts coming hard. Faster. Perspiration beaded on his forehead as he slammed into her. Delicious sensations rose, higher and higher, until she tilted over the cliff in another blinding orgasm.
She vaguely heard him roar and liquid heat erupted into her belly as his cock jerked his release again and again.
He came down on top of her, rolling to the side, wrapping his arms around her and taking her with him. They lay together, on their sides, still joined, hearts slowing and breathing softening. Her muscles were like liquid. She was sated. Completely.
Alastor sighed and kissed her on the top of her head as she snuggled into the protection of his chest. She would be one happy woman if she could stay like this for the rest of her life.
Very happy, indeed.
Chapter Thirty-Three
A long time—after four more love-making sessions and a deep, healing sleep—later…
Marie turned the shower jets on. Fresh, warm water instantly poured from the spouts located strategically on the cubicle walls. She’d never tire of Hexonian technology, and, in her opinion, this was one of the best.
She stepped beneath the water, letting it sluice down her body, relaxing deliciously sore muscles. It felt good. Not as good as Alastor’s hands, perhaps, but good in a calming type of way. She wasn’t surprised. Water was healing. How many times had she suggested for someone to head off to the beach, weather permitting, and spend time swimming in the ocean? Even standing in it was enough.
She’d managed to untangle herself from Alastor’s limbs enough to sneak from his—now their—bed, and make her way to the bathroom. Each time she’d tried, Alastor had woken and then he’d very effectively made her forget all about her shower.
This time, she’d managed to climb out from beneath an arm tucked about her waist without disturbing him. He needed the sleep to heal, and she needed a shower to organise her thoughts.
She was worried about the women who had been taken—somewhere—right in front of everyone’s eyes. It had happened so quickly, no one had been able to act until it was too late. And these Hexonians were fast, she had to give them that.
She closed her eyes beneath the spray of water and let her focus expand. “Black Feather?”
His familiar presence came almost instantly, although she sensed he held himself back a little. She couldn’t pin the reason. She mourned not being able to see and touch him as she’d been able to do, but understood that this was the only way she could contact him as usual. The veil had been restored.
“I’m here, Marie.”
“Have you been able to locate the missing women?”
“They’ve been taken quite a distance, to another universe in another dimension. The doorway between that universe and this one is extremely hard to open,” Black Feather said.
“Why?”
“The way energy has bound matter is different from the way it does in your dimension,” Black Feather said.
“So you’re saying that even if we manage to open this doorway, we might not…”
“Survival is doubtful.”
Marie put a shaking hand over her mouth. “Those poor women!”
“Their souls still burn bright, but if they are to survive, they will need to match the frequency of that universe.”
“But those… those monsters took them. How have the Reptiles managed to survive in both?” Marie asked.
“That’s what we are trying to work out,” Black Feather said. “Marie, we think it is the work of the same entity.”
“But, I thought we had killed it,” Marie said.
“You stopped it from entering your dimension, but it escaped. We think it tried to breach several dimensions,” Black Feather said.
Marie couldn’t hold in a shiver, remembering those thick clouds that had managed to surround so many souls and keep them locked in their minds. The way the Hexonians explained it—mind-enslaved—described it well. She hated to think the same might be happening to others in an unknown universe.
“There has to be a way to bring them back,” Marie said.
“And we will find it. You are not on your own.”
“Now that the entity has been removed from this universe, we can free all occupied planets. Even if we never get back to our galaxy, we can do it from here. The people on Annexor will help. Annexor is a planet of massive energy, but you knew that, my child.” Her path became clear. From Annexor, they could free all those mind-enslaved.
The enormity was staggering, but somehow, she would find a way. She knew Alastor would not stand by complacently, either. Between the rescued women, the people on Florn, Calisto and Annexor combined, they had quite a force.
“That’s not entirely what I meant,” Black Feather said.
Black Feather’s presence eased aside and Marie sensed another presence waiting to meet her. A smiling, yet shy young man came into her mind. He couldn’t be more than fifteen. Sixteen, at the most. Not a child, but not a man. Not yet. Although he had the potential to become the most handsome man she might ever see, besides Alastor. He looked so familiar. Just like Alastor. Except he had platinum hair that fell in large dreadlocks down his back. He was tall, yet lean and strong. A sprinter rather than a bodybuilder. She couldn’t quite put her finger on the astounding familiarity. “Are you related to Alastor?” Maybe there was a message she needed to pass onto him.
The young man’s smile widened. “You could say that. I’m very happy to be able to meet you and I look forward to making your acquaintance. Very soon.” His eyes twinkled with life and mischief. He’d be a handful, but one surrounded by complete joy.
In a flash of light, the young man became a hovering orb. The light flew into Black Feather’s arms and then transformed into a baby, swaddled in a crisp, white blanket. A tiny head peeped out from the top of the blanket, topped with a mop of silvery-white hair.
Black Feather smiled and held the baby out to her. “He’s yours. A gift for both of you.”
“I… what…? He’s my… son?” Marie’s mind refused to work for a moment. “I never thought… that is, I didn’t plan… that is, can it be true?”
“If you’ll accept him, he will start the process of growth. There is an embryo inside you waiting for your answer.”
Her mind spun. A baby. A son. Alastor’s child. And hers. Their child. Already the love she felt for him was strong and fierce and true. This was the greatest gift of the universe.
She placed her hand over her abdomen, feeling an energy that hadn’t been there before, pulsing with heat and light. Waiting. For her. “I’d… I’d be honoured.”
She was surrounded with heat and love. So much love it almost brought her to her knees. She didn’t think she could be blessed enough, but she’d been wrong
. She felt the first stirring of a comforting energy that was a part of her, yet distinct. The energy of her son. A tear trickled down her cheek. More flowed. She was blessed. So blessed.
The door opened and Alastor stepped inside the shower unit along with a wash of cooler air. Gentle hands on her shoulder turned her around and his concerned face looked down at her. “Marie. What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Tired? Hungry?”
She reached for him, giving a kiss that he readily accepted. Finally, she pulled away, but not too far. She’d never get enough of being crushed against him, skin to skin like this. She smiled up into his concerned face, smoothing out the line between his brows. “Nothing like that, but I do have something to tell you.”
Alastor’s face opened in absolutely joy. He threw his head back and roared before picking her up, crushing her tightly in his arms and twirling around in the tight, little shower cubicle.
“I take it you’re happy?”
“I didn’t think I could get any happier, but this… this is something I had only dreamed about. I am the luckiest male in the universe.”
“This universe and the next,” Marie said.
“The luckiest in any dimension of existence.” Alastor slid her down his body so that her toes reached the floor. She felt his excitement pulsing through her. An answering excitement unfurled in her belly and she shifted languidly against him, liking where this was headed.
“If you’re the luckiest man, then I’m the luckiest woman. Now come here and kiss me.”
She didn’t have to ask him twice.
Epilogue
Even though the young, gaunt face looked real, Marie had to remember that Emile was actually half a universe away and what she looked at was a holograph. Her brother, Jo-Aquin slung an arm around her and hugged his sister, smiling just as broadly as she was. “I don’t know how to thank you, Marie.”
Marie hated to think of the torture Emile had endured. That any of those on Hexion had to endure. She’d returned to the surface of Annexor with Alastor once the Callisteans had opened a gateway to connect their galaxy with the universe, and had used the energy of the planet and her natural abilities to free those mind-enslaved on Hexion. With the help of Black Feather and Lady Lyria, of course.
Once the gateway had been opened and word sent to the Interspecies Council, it hadn’t taken long to assemble a force to take over the relatively small number of Reptiles that were left occupying the planet once the people had been freed.
Those who were freed had been shocked, stunned, elated that the impossible had been achieved, and then saddened when they discovered friends and family members who hadn’t made it. Jo-Aquin had left Florn to be one of the first in the assembled force to end the Reptiles’ reign on Hexion. He’d been one of the lucky ones to find his sister alive.
“It is my pleasure.” Marie smiled as Alastor wrapped his arms around her and cupped her still-flat belly.
“Jo-Aquin says I can come live with him on Florn and meet Lauren. I can’t wait to meet my brother’s life-partner,” Emile said.
“I can’t wait to meet you, too. In person, that is,” Lauren said. She couldn’t leave Florn, as she shared a symbiotic relationship with the planet when she’d been able to set those on Florn free, with the help of a mysterious female known as Mother. Marie had yet to meet her, something she was looking forward to.
Now that the energy-nets had been removed from the occupied planets, communication was being rebuilt and peoples over vast distances were reconnected, united through the mistreatment of the Reptiles and determination to rebuild a better universe for all.
Marie and Alastor were surrounded by holograms from all over the galaxy. Once word had spread that the human females had not only saved occupied planets, but had been the reason the Reptile tyranny was at an end, and had uncovered the ultimate plot of an unknown entity to breach the universe, destroy everything in its path. Now, leaders from planets all over the galaxies had wanted to meet Lauren, Vivien, and Marie for themselves.
“So, you say the entity has been blocked from entering this dimension?” The head of the Interspecies Council, Albion, was a daunting male. Although he was in reality halfway across the universe, his aura stretched over the distance with a weight Marie felt to her bones.
“That is what my guide, Black Feather, told me,” Marie said. She’d given all of the details in a previous meeting with the Council heads from the united species.
“It sounds impossible, and yet billions have suffered because of it. I cannot refute the proof. I can only find solace that we can save occupied planets and free those we thought lost. Something we thought we would never achieve. Commander Striker, have you plotted out the planets yet to be freed?” Albion asked.
Commander Striker stood next to Vivien, who looked as though she knew what she was doing, dressed in the crisp, black uniforms of the Interspecies Fleet. Also holograms, they were actually on the bridge of the Starlight, preparing for their journey through the gateway and across the galaxies to their destination.
“We have. We’re working with Marie and the local peoples of Annexor in a combined effort to free those on Lenulia, then work across the Nalulla Quadrant until we arrive at Seerus,” Commander Striker said.
“I’m looking forward to kicking some Reptile butt. Just the thing I need to work out some revenge,” Vivien rolled her shoulders, a gleam in her eyes. Once an SAS soldier, always an SAS soldier, Marie thought.
“We’re ready to work with the Fleet to free those mind-enslaved planet by planet,” Alastor said. She and the locals would work closely with Striker from Annexor. Freeing minds from the in-between could be done from anywhere in the universe, as the in-between didn’t have one particular location.
“A final task-force will then descend on the Reptile planet once all have been freed. There, they will face justice for their crimes,” Albion said. There were murmurs of agreement from the other council members.
“And what of the rescued human females?” Albion asked.
“The Starfinder is on its way to Earth now,” Striker said.
“I’ll be on hand to make first contact with the humans. I think they’ve earned their right to know they aren’t the only ones in the universe,” Albion said. From what Marie understood, he was the best ambassador and had made first contact with other planets, who were making their first steps into space.
In one way, she wished she could be there for such a monumental thing to happen to the people of Earth, but on the other hand, she was doing something just as monumental.
“I can’t believe we’re actually going to end this war. This is the start of a new Era. For the universe and for Earth,” Marie said.
Alastor drew her into his embrace and kissed her, not caring that they were surrounded by the gazes of amused eyes. At the moment, she didn’t care either. “I always had complete faith in you, little human. There was no doubt in my mind.”
There hadn’t been. He had always believed in her gift. In her. You couldn’t be one half of a soul without knowing the truth. “I only hope we can find the missing women that were taken. That wherever they are, they are safe.”
She sent a fervent wish into the universe. Wherever you are, I hope you are safe and if you can never come back to Earth, I hope you find the love of your life and find the home of your heart.
In the far distance of her mind, she almost thought she heard someone far, far away whisper, they will.
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Alastor: Sci-Fi Alien Romance (A Hexonian Alien Romance Book 3) Page 19
