Tamed By An Alien Savage (Kutarian Warriors Book 2)

by Ivy McAdams

  I have no problems appeasing her wishes, though I have no intention of letting her leave my planet. At least not until I have a chance to show her what all I have to offer her.

  She is my energy match, and after believing for so long that I would never take my place as a proper warrior with a family of my own, it may take death to tear me away from her.

  A softness rests in her eyes as she places her hand in mine. “Thank you. I suppose I could use the help. It’s dangerous out here.”

  I lift an eyebrow with a crooked smile. “You have no idea.”

  Her shoulders tense. I give one a pat to reassure her.

  It seems to help ease her muscles, but mine only quiver. Her energy is even stronger when I touch her.

  Gods, I may not be able to control myself around her much longer.

  “Let’s be off then,” I say.

  I whistle over her head and she ducks a little, looking around. When Desian comes running, she jumps back into me. As if she hadn’t noticed him standing across the plain.

  Humans are not very observant.

  The brown levadon strides over to us and gives a short snort in greeting.

  Trinity shrieks and slides around my body to hide behind my back. Her hands are on my waist, her face pressed into the back of my shoulder. Even through my scales, I can feel her warm breath on my skin.

  Oh gods, it feels so good.

  Good thing she’s plastered to my back rather than my front.

  “This is Desian,” I say.

  “That’s a dinosaur,” she breathes with a shudder.

  “A levadon. He’s friendly.”

  She shrinks farther behind my shoulder. Desian regards her with a curious gaze, though even he has an odd sharpness in his eye. Like he’s not entirely happy to see her either.

  “Travel is much faster by levadon,” I offer.

  “Oh, no. I’m not getting on that thing. His mouth is bigger than my head.”

  That’s an odd observation.

  “It is, but his legs are twice as big as yours too. He can carry both of us.”

  "Nuh-uh. I can walk."

  I frown as I run a hand down Desian’s smooth head. His dark, leathery skin flickers with streams of soft light, fluttering beneath the surface.

  My Trinity is a stubborn one.

  “Then we will walk. Shall I carry your, er, the body?”

  She hesitates, barely moving.

  “I’ve got it.”

  As stubborn as a levadon in mating season.

  I just give her another smile instead. "Then let's move. We need to be on the other side of the prairie before dusk. That's when the Thunder Jaws will come out to hunt."

  Her eyes are wide as she scampers along beside me. Desian follows with a curious tilt of his head.

  I know, my friend. Females make no sense to me either.

  * * *

  Trinity

  The evening air is cooling rapidly after hours of travel. I do my best to avoid the dinosaur thing. The levadon, as Xjhun calls it. It looks like a T-Rex with huge teeth and a big curled claw on each of its rear feet, big enough to disembowel a hippo. I catch it watching me with dark pointy eyes here and there, and it’s enough to send a shudder through me every time.

  I can’t believe the barbarians ride these things.

  I may not know much about animals, but I know better than to put a bloodthirsty lion between my legs. Not to mention a twelve ton one.

  That’s just asking for trouble. And some irreparable booboos.

  Xjhun points out some plants and animals as we pass.

  The purple trees and huge spanning canopies of blue heart-shaped leaves are interesting. The massive spreads of glowing orange flowers are enough to stop and take a peek at. But it’s the stones that really get my attention.

  I want to ignore his world and get back to camp, to get myself sorted out and go home. But the black and gold marbled stones are impossible to pass up.

  “These don’t melt and are good for holding heat,” he explains as I turn a couple of the rocks over in my hand. “We use those and the clear stones for traveling fires.”

  He touches on a few Kutarian traditions, like the mining of the small gemstones they use in their decorations and the types of celebrations they perform.

  His conversation strays over into the honorable Kutarian warriors, and I don’t miss the way he flexes his arm and back when he describes his training. I do my best to avoid staring, but the bulging and flexing muscles are hard to ignore. I’m only human after all. Or, you know, whatever.

  I also pick up that he’s some sort of junior member of the warriors.

  He’s young.

  Am I being followed around by a kid? I mean, he sure as hell doesn't look like a youngster. He was taller than some of the other males. Definitely more built. He's stacked.

  Is there a legal age law on Xion V?

  Actually, it doesn’t matter. He’s just sticking around to help. He can be whatever age is most helpful, including saving me from scary as fuck sea monsters.

  Thank goodness he was around, no matter what age he is.

  “This is a good spot here,” Xjhun says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  I stop and look back at him as he scouts out a small level area in the dirt.

  Thankfully we’ve only seen a handful of stray animals, most of them small like the jumping rat that was able to shift its colors to match the ground like a damn chameleon―I lost it in just a few seconds, while Xjhun’s ears tilted and jerked as he tracked it for a few dozen yards. For no reason other than to impress me it seemed.

  One herd of mid-sized dinosaurs lifted their heads just long enough to watch us go by before going back to eating.

  All in all, I'd say we lucked out. I'm not looking forward to running into anything else scary.

  In the middle of the clearing Xjhun’s found, I stop and stretch my arms high over my head and flex my toes. After getting past the grass fields, we crossed through a long stretch of short hills and rough terrain. The rocks and dry brush have been hard on my feet and I’m thankful for a chance to rest.

  The levadon stands just outside the spot and I keep an eye on him. Xjhun gathers sticks and straw and stacks them in the center of the clearing.

  Thank goodness. It’s getting chillier and I could use the warmth of a fire.

  "Put that body down over here." He motions with a stick to a spot close to the tiny teepee of branches he's created. "Take a break. There's a potatree over there if you're thirsty."

  “A what?”

  "There." He points with the stick again, motioning toward a nearby tree with small orange leaves that hang low with swollen fruit. "Knock the pin out of the bottom of the gourd and drink. It's tasty."

  Gourd water doesn’t sound a bit tasty, but I am thirsty, so I follow his instructions. It’s surprisingly simple to open the bottom of the fruit as he said and I drink my fill from one.

  It’s not that bad. Like sweet water.

  As I step back and lick my lips, I feel something brush across my cheek. I smack the skin with a gasp. The fingers I pull back are clean. No vicious insect like I expected.

  That’s weird.

  The soft ghost of a touch happens again, this time traveling down my neck. It’s too smooth and soft to be a bug. It’s like someone’s touched me.

  Shit, are there ghosts on Xion V?

  A shudder shakes my shoulders violently and I turn to head back to our new makeshift camp.

  What I find there jerks me to a stop so fast I feel as if I might fall over.

  A small fire is burning and Xjhun squats next to it, so low that the flap of his loincloth touches the dirt. My human body is stretched out near the burning branches, and he’s looking at it. Touching it. Running his finger along my small human neck.

  I gasp.

  The whispered touch moves along my neck, into the black hair that falls down my back.

  His ear twitches and his eyes move up to me. They’re dark and intrig
ued.

  A shiver runs up my spine.

  “You can feel that, can’t you?” His voice is low, raspy. It’s enough to make my knees wobble.

  I consider lying―what a strange thing he’s discovered. I’ve been touching the body all day essentially and I haven’t felt anything before now. But he’s seen me react already. Lying would be pointless.

  “Yes,” I murmur.

  Some of the muscles in his shoulders flex and his chest expands. This revelation seems to get his clock ticking.

  His fingers trail over the collarbone on the human body and I can feel the soft brush on my own, sliding along the top of my chest. It tickles and feels really good at the same time.

  What is this witchery?

  Part of me wants to yell at him to stop. The other part is fascinated and wants more. I stand silently across the campsite and watch him as he moves two fingertips over the curve of my shoulder, down to my elbow.

  I feel it all.

  So weird.

  “Wh-what is this?” I breathe, fighting back another shiver as his touch moves back over my shoulder and across my chest to my sternum.

  His eyes latch onto mine and the sensation is nearly as powerful as his caress. “I don’t know. It seems you’re still connected to this body somehow. I can feel its energy as well.”

  A knot forms in my throat. “Its energy?”

  “I feel yours, over there. But I feel it here too. You’re not fully separated. I suppose that’s why you can feel me.”

  There’s a soft growl in his voice. But I don’t need that to know he’s turned on touching my body. I can feel his energy too, and boy, it’s hot.

  His fingers trail down my sternum, stopping just before my navel and going up again. It feels too good to just be a ghost touch. How is this possible?

  “I didn’t feel anything when I was holding the body before. Why now?”

  The hunger in his eyes deepens. “Your body reacts to me. It wants my touch.”

  Hoboy, that’s hot.

  My body squirms under his non-touch touch and it appears it drives his need further.

  Even from feet away, I can hear the rumble in his chest. I see the soft pink of his tongue as he runs it over his fangs.

  His fingers reach the top of my sternum and deviate to the side, trailing down the small body's bare breast. My nipples tighten beneath the strip of fabric tied around my chest and my body clenches.

  Oh my God. I’m being molested via brain waves or some shit.

  And I’m not complaining.

  When I don’t move to stop him, he grows bolder, palming my breast and flicking his thumb over the taut nipple.

  The sensation is amazing. Especially when he moves his thumb in small circles around the nipple. Hot moisture gathers between my legs. My knees are weakening and I want to plop on the ground, but I have to show some strength.

  Though I'd settle for sitting in his lap. Let him touch me for real.

  There are two hands on me now. They work my breasts. Then a new sensation I'm totally not ready for. He leans over and runs the tip of his tongue up my sternum and the ghostly feeling of his hot tongue is nearly too much to handle.

  “Oh,” I breathe, tilting my head back to gaze up at the darkening sky.

  Twinkling stars are already peering down at us. The night is getting cold, but I’m on fire.

  His aroused energy is pulsing so hard it feels like another touch against my body. His thumbs tease my nipples until I gasp.

  The sensation is breathtaking, but I wish his fingers were real.

  With heavy eyelids and a drunken warmth coursing through me, I lower my head from the sky to look at him. His gaze is locked on me, firelight flickering behind him. The look in his eyes is intense, and the sight jerks another wave of excitement through me―he’s so damn hot―but it also wakes me up.

  Shit’s about to get real if I don’t do something.

  As intoxicating as he is right now, I’ve got to wake up. I’m in the middle of nowhere on a different planet with an alien barbarian for God’s sake.

  It takes a violent shake of my head to break myself out of the spell he’s put me under. It’s almost impossible to ignore the feeling of his fingers on me as I stomp toward him.

  “That’s enough. Stop it.”

  He blinks at me as if I’ve slapped him, slowing sliding his hand away from the human body as if he was never touching it at all.

  Such ache and relief all at once. My muscles are all tight and buzzing. It wants more and I want to fulfill it, but I'm not here for shenanigans. It was a mind-blowing and entertaining experiment, but it's over.

  No more distractions.

  My alien guide hasn’t spoken. His energy has plummeted and there’s a negative undertone.

  I’m a little nervous that he’s angry. I’ve never offered a bone to a savage and snatched it away. Will he hurt me?

  Rather than show my nerves, I hold my head a little higher, as if my body isn’t still trembling from his touch.

  “Are we at least close to the base yet?”

  His jaw clenches and he doesn’t speak. The tendons in his neck are taut.

  Oh geez, I think I’ve really stepped in some shit this time.

  Then he moves to stand and I take a step back. He doesn’t come any closer, however. Just stands tall and regards me a moment before he speaks.

  “We’d be there already if we’d ridden the levadon.” The normal friendly tone in his voice is gone. He doesn’t sound angry, but he’s certainly not flirty anymore. “If we keep a steady pace, we’ll be there sometime tomorrow. Get some sleep.”

  I consider apologizing to him―I never should have let him touch me in the first place. Although he didn’t actually touch me. Ack, my brain is scrambled. I don’t think that sort of assault would ever hold up in court.

  I can't even claim it was unwanted. It was certainly enjoyed, even if it was wrong.

  I mean, it was neither, of course. I don’t get off on alien touches.

  My jaw clenches tight enough to pop as I watch him walk away, a tornado of confusion warring inside me. I don’t know what I like or what I want anymore, but I know hurting a man that’s saved my life twice already isn’t high on my list.

  I’ll have to try to be a little nicer in the morning.

  After Xjhun lies down among some rocks a few yards away, I curl up next to my human body by the fire. It lies lifeless, shallow breaths moving the chest. I stare at it as I recall every touch and sensation.

  I even reach out a finger to poke along the body’s arm. There’s no matching tickle on me.

  So strange. It really does only respond to him.

  Chapter 6

  Trinity

  The next morning I wake at dawn. I'm curled up close to the small human body. At first, it's pretty creepy, like I'm sleeping with a dead person, but I suppose it’s more like a teddy bear. Just an inanimate object.

  Behind me, the fire has been reduced to small flames and smoldering coals.

  Xjhun is still in his sleeping spot, long legs pulled up to his chest, an arm stretched out beneath his head, and his tail wrapped across his shins and around one of his ankles. He looks peaceful, although probably quite cold.

  It’s too bad I couldn’t sleep back to back with him last night. It would have been a much more enjoyable night.

  Of course, his chest pressed in tight to my back and his arms wrapped around me would be even better. His hips pressed against mine. That bulging loincloth wedged in there too. It definitely would have been a warm night.

  But that’s pushing the envelope a bit far.

  Even the fact that my mind wanders in that direction tells me I need to do a better job of avoiding Xjhun.

  I remember Gemma’s rattling words the day before. Something about the alien species dying. I have no doubt what’s on the mind of a male whose species is on the verge of extinction. I’m no idiot.

  My best bet would just be to lose him.

  I creep to my fee
t and pull the human body up over my shoulder. Thankfully I don’t have to worry about it making a sound. I hold the small body in place and tiptoe out of the campsite.

  Xjhun doesn’t stir. A few yards beyond the large stones, his dinosaur horse thing is turned completely upside down. It lies on its back with its small arms tucked into its chest and its huge muscled back legs in the air, like a giant man-eating rottweiler just snoozing away.

  Animals are so weird.

  I move extra quietly for another few hundred yards until the white sun crests the mountain tops and birds begin to sing. Their peaceful tunes roll over the field, touching the orange flowers and the family of chameleon rats I've disturbed out of their hidey-hole.

  The sun twinkles off the dew-slick leaves of a pair of overhanging trees. They look like weeping willows but ten times larger than any I’ve ever seen. Their small pink leaves brush my shoulders, painting me with cool drops of water as I walk beneath them.

  Once I’ve stepped back out of their canopy, and I’m far beyond the sleeping dinosaur, I let myself relax. It and Xjhun are better off back there. Away from me.

  Having a bodyguard is nice, but keeping the alien at arm's length seems the most intelligent option for the time being. I need to bring these two bodies to the base in the same condition they were swapped in. The last thing I need is to get wrapped up in this breeder business Gemma mentioned.

  I don’t know a damn thing about brain transfers or whatever black magic that medicine man used on me. Or if getting knocked up and pumped full of hormones could affect things. But I know I’m not taking any chances.

  And it’s not as if I can trust Xjhun to be civil around me. Not only is he a barbaric alien, he’s a male. From what little I know of Xion V so far, I feel I can make the safe assumption: men are the same no matter where you go. He wants one thing and one thing only.

  No better than my last asshole fling, even if it was a two-year-long serious relationship. In the end, he was the same as any other one. Like the gum on the bottom of my shoe. A time-waster.

  An ache radiates from my chest and I narrow my eyes.

  It still hurts two years later that the prick dumped me. I gave him everything, and he dropped me like yesterday’s garbage. And for such stupid reasons.