by Zoey Draven
Although she didn’t know what ‘it’ she was referring to…whether that ‘it’ was the pregnancy, or the baby, or herself.
His expression tightened and he looked at her, huffing out a sharp breath. Cara could see the way he intentionally calmed himself…for her.
“Tev, luxiva,” he murmured to her. “I will make sure you and the offspring will be safe.” He looked up at Pol’krev, his expression intense. Slowly, he said, “These rumors you speak of…how certain are you that they hold merit?”
What did that mean?
“I had my doubts,” Pol’krec murmured, gazing at the two of them. “But now that I have seen what I have seen, I believe that they are true.”
“Devix, tell me what you’re thinking,” Cara ordered. “What does that mean?”
Devix touched his forehead to hers, cupping the back of her neck.
“It means, luxiva,” he started, “that my people may have the means and knowledge concerning hybrid offspring, that there may be others like us.”
“Go on,” she said slowly, but she already knew. She already knew.
Devix closed his eyes for a brief moment and then said, his voice firm, “It means that we will be journeying to Luxiria.”
FIVE
“YOU CAN’T BE serious, Devix,” Cara murmured to him once they were back at their dwelling in the northern side of the capitol. They’d been quiet all the way home from Pol’krec’s, had hardly spoken a word as they both processed what they’d just learned.
Devix ran a hand over his horn, a multitude of emotions plaguing him. He went to his female and wrapped his arms around her.
“I never thought…” Devix trailed off, his breath huffing out with the unspoken words. “I thought the possibility of offspring had been taken from me with my exile.”
Cara ran her hand down his lower back, her cheek pressed to his chest. Devix maneuvered them onto the floor of their makeshift fire pit, leaning his back against the cushions they’d purchased at the marketplace. His female was snug in his lap, her legs wrapped around his hips. In any other situation, Devix would have taken advantage of such a position.
Right then, however, was not the time. They had much to discuss.
“Me too,” Cara said. “I thought that once I knew I wouldn’t return to Earth, I thought…” She shook her head, her eyes softening as she stroked a finger over his cheekbone. “Dev, please tell me you weren’t serious, about what you said back at Pol’krec’s.”
His mouth tightened but he jerked his head in a nod. “I was.”
Cara blinked, looked behind him at the wall of their small capitol dwelling, and then returned her gaze to him. “Dev, you can’t go back. You were exiled. I don’t think I need to remind you about that. Even though you were innocent, even though you were betrayed, it doesn’t change the fact that your people still believe that you committed that crime. What would they do if they saw you again?”
Devix truly didn’t know. But nothing mattered more than his female’s health.
“My race will help you, luxiva. You are a female, carrying a Luxirian offspring. They will ensure your gestation is safe, that your health will not suffer because of it.”
Cara’s lips parted. “You’re talking about it like you won’t be around.”
“I cannot lie to you. I do not know what my people will do. Return from exile is execution. But you…you change everything.”
“Execution?” she whispered. “Then no! Are you crazy? I absolutely refuse to go.”
Devix steeled his expression, knowing this wouldn’t be an easy fight. “You must. We must.”
“Why? So that you can be executed? So that I can go through this pregnancy alone, without my mate, without the father of my child? You’re crazy if you think I would agree to that.”
“I am not saying I would be executed, luxiva. They will know that you are my mate, my fated mate. It is a strong possibility that they will not harm me, knowing that it would distress you, especially since you are pregnant. Luxirians cannot afford the loss of an offspring if the child carries Luxirian blood. They will not take the risk.”
A breath whistled from her lips. “And then what happens? Even if we somehow manage to get to Luxiria unharmed, even if they agree not to harm you and to help me, would…would we live there? Until the baby was born? We would live in a place where most of your race believe that you committed an unspeakable crime. I won’t put you through that.”
Devix dropped his forehead to hers, closing his eyes and breathing her in. Her scent was the same as always, but now he could detect the slightest shift, the smallest change. She was carrying his offspring. They would have a child. Together.
“If it means your well-being, if it means the health and safety of our offspring, luxiva, I would bear anything. You know that. Nothing scares me more than losing you,” he confessed, his voice roughening at the thought. Her eyes blinked at him. He was so close that he could see the brown and golden strands of her irises. “Please. Tell me you will agree to this.”
“Dev…” she whispered, her brows furrowed. “I—I can’t lose you. I would rather take the chance here.”
“What if we journey to Luxiria,” Devix started, “and before we ever leave the vessel, I will request to speak to my blood brother and the Prime Leader. I will tell them about you and how we have come seeking help. If they agree that I will be able to remain at your side during the pregnancy and that we can leave the planet once it is safe for you, then we will disembark. If they cannot give us that guarantee, then we will return to Rozun. Tev?”
Cara was silent for a long time, but Devix could clearly see the way her mind was working behind those beautiful eyes. She was thinking about all the outcomes, about what could go wrong.
But Devix could also see her fear. For himself, for herself, for their offspring that grew right then in her belly. A hybrid gestation was dangerous, unpredictable. If what Pol’krec alluded to was true, that there were rumors of Luxirians and humans mating, then Devix had to take the chance. Luxirians would do everything to ensure the mother and offspring were safe. They would have the knowledge and the technology that they simply didn’t have access to on Rozun.
There was no other choice. Not in Devix’s mind.
Cara swallowed and then nodded against him, slowly, as if she was still hesitant to give her full support.
She licked her lips before speaking. “If they agree that you will be unharmed and not detained during our time there, then yes, I will agree to go and get help. But if they deny us or seem hesitant about it in any way, then we leave immediately. Deal?”
“Deal,” he repeated, his arms coming around her tighter. “Luxiva…I cannot express how relieved I am.”
“I still don’t like this idea, Dev,” Cara said slowly, “but I think you’re right. It would be safer for the baby if we had help from your people.”
“It will be well, female,” he murmured, trying to comfort her.
“Dev,” she whispered, her eyes watering again, “we’re having a baby. I still can’t believe it.”
Devix had no words for the emotions he felt so instead, he simply leaned forward and kissed his mate. He poured everything he felt for her into that kiss and tasted her tears as they gently rolled down her cheeks.
Happy tears, he knew.
And he knew that if Luxirians had the ability to cry like humans, she would be tasting his own tears too.
* * *
The very next morning, they departed for Luxiria.
* * *
“This is familiar,” Cara whispered to her male. “Very familiar.”
They were on the bridge of the spaceship. She was sitting in Devix’s lap, her arms entwined around his neck. Behind her, the large window showed the darkness and beauty of space as they traveled towards their destination.
It would only take two days, he’d told her. Two days to reach Luxiria. His home planet was so close to Rozun that Cara couldn’t help but wonder if he’d chosen Rozun on purpos
e for its proximity.
He hadn’t spoken much about his feelings returning to his planet, or how he felt about speaking with his blood brother after all that time. But Cara knew that it weighed on him. Heavily.
And she was more than a little trepidatious about their arrival to Luxiria. Frightened beyond belief that something might happen to Devix once they landed. She just had to hope and pray that everything would turn out okay in the end, once they explained their situation.
But she was nervous. She didn’t know what to expect and the only thing that was keeping her from breaking at the seams was the male whose lap she was currently occupying.
“I fantasized about mating you,” Devix’s voice rumbled suddenly, his gaze rapt on her, “right here on the control Coms.”
She squirmed, not minding the pleasant distraction from her thoughts. “Yeah?”
“That first span on the vessel, I was in the washing tube and my cock was hard thinking about it. I stroked it until I spent my seed.”
More squirming. “Yeah?” she murmured, her voice slightly more breathless as she imagined it.
“I thought of dark things,” he confessed. “I fantasized that your hands were chained behind your back and your backside was red from my palm and I was fucking you from behind, watching your expression in the reflection of the glass.”
Cara’s breath hitched and she pressed her hips closer, feeling him hard between her thighs. She was just wearing a tunic with nothing underneath. It would be so easy just to slip his cock out of his pants and work him inside her.
“I was loving it, wasn’t I?” she whispered.
“Tev,” he grunted, his eyes going half-lidded when her fingers began unlacing the ties that kept him from her.
“You can do that to me now,” she suggested. “You still haven’t punished me for teasing you that first night back at home.”
He purred low in his throat, but then he jerked, blowing out a breath instead. “We should not be so rough anymore, luxiva.”
Cara frowned. “You think tying me up and spanking me will hurt the baby?”
“Nix,” he murmured, running his hand down her back, through her growing hair. She hadn’t cut it since she’d been abducted and she was overdo for a trim. Devix seemed to like the length though, so she hadn’t bothered yet. “I already worry I am too rough with you. You know how I get when we play like that.”
“I like what we do,” Cara whispered. “I love it. And I love it when you’re a little wild.”
He growled when she closed the distance between them and kissed him. And then her hand slipped inside his suede pants to find his hard, pulsing cock and an entirely different growl ripped from his throat.
Cara smiled into their kiss.
“I want to mate you like this,” he rasped, bunching up her tunic around her waist, exposing her pussy. “Now, luxiva.”
“O-okay,” she whispered, guiding his tip to her entrance. She was so wet that he slid easily inside and she gasped, her eyes shooting up to his.
“I want it slow,” he murmured in her ear.
Cara’s lips parted, her back arching a little when she rocked her hips against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck tighter and leaned forward until her forehead was resting against his shoulder.
He filled her up to the brim and every shudder, every breath, every small movement of their bodies made him seem that much larger as he pleasured her.
Cara bit his shoulder when his ridges stimulated her G-spot and Devix purred so much that his cock vibrated inside her.
Soft moans and deep groans filled the bridge. They made love in a different kind of way, but in a way that was no less intense than their wild, rough matings.
Devix felt her on the edge and his dulled claws pricked the flesh around her hips.
“Give me your eyes as you cum, Cara,” he rasped softly, his voice like dark smoke, fogging her mind.
Eyes half-lidded, she pulled away from his shoulder and did as he requested. She could never deny her mate anything.
The orgasm that rocked through her built like a soft wave, but once it crested, it tore through her body and left her panting. It went on and on, over and over again, but it never got so intense that she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“Devix,” she whispered, his name falling from her lips like a plea.
And he answered. She felt his deep groan inside her own body as he released his seed inside her, his hips jerking in an unsteady rhythm.
And when they were both finished, he remained deep inside her and she floated down from the high of that amazing, soft orgasm, snuggling into his chest.
Between them, she felt his seed drip from her body and she remembered that it hadn’t been so long ago when she thought they couldn’t have children together. She remembered the prick of loss at that thought, the mournful realization that she’d never be able to give Devix a child.
Yet, there they were.
She would be giving him a child, one they would raise together, on Rozun. Because she wouldn’t let anything happen to Devix.
And if his people tried to hurt him in any way, for a crime he was wrongfully accused of and punished for, Cara would stop at nothing to fight for him.
Hell hath no fury like a pregnant woman scorned, she thought, sleepy as Devix ran his fingertips from the base of her neck to the top of her backside. He was still hard inside her and she heard the gentle hum of the spaceship as they got nearer and nearer to Luxiria.
SIX
DEVIX STOOD AT the window in their quarters. His luxiva was still sleeping behind him. He listened to her smooth, even breaths, and the hum of the vessel, the silence of space as they drifted through to their destination…and he let all these sounds calm him.
Because in the distance, he saw Luxiria. His home. Or at least, once, it had been.
He couldn’t count how many times he’d stood just as he was, looking out towards Luxiria, as he came home as a warrior. Luxirian warriors often traveled off planet, to help with wars of battling races, or to aid the Uranian Federation in bringing rogues to heel. They were on different planets, or adrift in space, more than they were on their own. But every single time Devix returned to Luxiria, he would watch her approach, would study her like he was starved, an intense joy filling him at the thought that he would see his family unit soon.
Those spans were gone, however. Now, Devix watched Luxiria like he would an unknown stranger…warily because he knew strangers could be dangerous, even if unprovoked.
Truthfully, he didn’t know how his arrival would be perceived. His race would know an uninvited vessel would be entering their atmosphere soon. Devix would have to seek a connection with their Coms long before he attempted it. Luxirians would never fire upon a strange vessel, in fear that females or offspring were on board, so Devix didn’t have to fear an assault.
His best hope was that his blood brother was on planet, that he could request to speak with him before Vaxa’an, the Prime Leader of their people, could order a capture and imprisonment.
Devix ran a hand over one horn, taking in a deep breath. He feared not for himself, but for his pregnant mate. If she was harmed in any way while on Luxiria…Devix would stop at nothing for vengeance. Dungeons and reinforced chains would not stop him from reaching her.
Devix jolted when he felt her touch. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t heard Cara’s approach. Dangerous, he thought. He needed to be his best, undistracted.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered, wrapping her arms around his back as she came to stand in front of him, nude. Even with his grim thoughts, he was aroused for her…but he wouldn’t act on it.
“Luxiria,” he told her, voice rough and husky. Cara’s lips parted and she turned in his arms, her back to his front, and she saw the planet they were approaching.
“That’s Luxiria?” she questioned softly, running her fingertips over his forearms.
Devix huffed out a breath of air and dropped his forehead until it was
pressed into the back of her skull. The silky strands of her hair tickled his cheek and he said, “Tev.”
“Okay,” she whispered. “How should we do this?”
“We will make a Com connection soon, before we ever enter the atmosphere. I will request to speak to my blood brother. If he is not on planet, then I will speak with Vaxa’an, the Prime Leader. You will be with me, so they see there is a female on board. They will grant us permission to land in the docking bay, regardless, when they see you, when we tell them you are carrying our offspring and that we need aid.”
“And you’re sure about this? Once they see me?”
“Tev,” he said. It was the only thing he was certain of.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s do this then.”
Devix hesitated. “I need you to do a task for me first.”
She turned to look at him. “Anything.”
He swallowed before saying, “I need you to shorn my hair.”
He watched her pupils dilate and she frowned. “I take it back. I won’t do anything. And I certainly won’t do that.”
“You must,” he replied, already mourning the loss of it once more.
It was a requirement of all exiled Luxirians to shorn their hair. These past lunar rotations, Devix had let it grow. He’d begun to give up his past life as a Luxirian warrior, in favor of his fated female, who filled him with more pride and happiness than Luxiria ever had. He was innocent of his accused crime, so on Rozun, he’d let his hair grow freely, as it once had. It brushed just past his shoulders then and Cara had often stroked her fingers through it, being mindful of his horns, late at night, after their mating sessions.
Devix mourned that more than anything, that he wouldn’t feel his female’s hands tangling in his hair, whether it was during the passion of mating, or the calm aftermath.
“I am an exiled Luxirian. Nothing changes that, though I am innocent,” he tried to explain to her.
“But—”
“They would consider it an insult, if it was not shorn.”
