I can only think the answer was yes, because when her eyes opened, she did not blush and act surprised. She held my gaze and continued to pleasure herself. I knew the situation was not an invitation. Anything short of “I need you now” is not an invitation, but I grew hard watching her. So I joined her the only way I could, I stroked myself. Vera watched me. She licked her lips.
My cock is on my hand again as I think about Vera licking her lips, her arousal thick in the air, her desire palatable. Her desire for me. I slumped against the tile wall, letting the warm water cascade over me. I cannot go on. I must touch her and taste every part of her.
I cannot live with myself if I were to hurt her. I could lose control and Terrans are so fragile. The angry green and yellow bruise on her side marred otherwise flawless skin. That should be reminder enough that I cannot risk injury to my mate.
And Vera is my mate. I know this is true.
Soon we will be retrieved. Soon I will not be forced to be at her side constantly and I can find relief. I can distance myself and not see the look of hurt in her eyes when I deny our bond.
To injure a woman is the greatest offense on Fremm. To force a woman is unthinkable, something only beasts and monsters do, but to injure… A man should not raise his hand in anger to a woman. A man’s control should not slip and he should not wrap his hands around her throat and squeeze…
Vera moaned my name. A shudder runs through me at the memory.
I shake my head, water running into my eyes and mouth. My actions were a long time ago but I will not risk injuring my kompli. After all, I have no control. I just came onto my hand moments ago in front of Vera and here I am stroking and rubbing myself again. No control and no discipline. She deserves better than me.
A knock sounded on the door. “We need to talk,” Vera said.
I turn my back to her, so she cannot see the effect she has on me. It is better this way.
“Glin? Don’t ignore me.” Vera steps right up to the shower. After a moment’s hesitation, she joins me. She is naked, her perfect caramel skin glistening and soft. I groan. I couldn’t ignore her if I tried.
“Why do you torture me?” I asked, unable to look at her. My hand is still on my cock but I do not move it.
“How do I torture you,” Vera demands. She jabs my shoulder with a finger. She is too close. The temptation to reach for her, to kiss her deeply and press my face into her fragrant core is too much. I try to turn my back to her but she jabs me again. “Don’t ignore me!”
“I can...I cannot, Vera,” I say. My voice is weak, bloodless. This is the way it must be. “You are Terran.”
“Bullshit. Don’t stand there like you didn’t just jack off over me.”
“Leave me,” I plead. My restraint is holding by a thread. My cock aches and pulses just having her near. I want to sink it deep into her, to have her tight cunt squeeze and milk every last drop of my seed. My body shudders. This is too much.
“Are you…” Vera finally notices my hands trying to hide my cock. “Are you jacking off again?”
“Please,” desperation in my voice. It is not right for a warrior to be desperate. “You have no idea how you affect me.”
She licked her lips. My cock twitched. Stars what that woman did to me.
“Let me help you out,” she says, hands reaching for my own. I tried to back away but there is nowhere to go. “Glin, be reasonable. Let’s take care of the situation and then we can talk like rational adults.”
She knelt before I could protest, not that I wanted to protest. I wanted her in the worst way. Needed her.
The head of my cock glistens with precum. Vera takes my cock in one hand I immediately sigh with relief. Just to have her touch me is enough. She looked up at me, water flowing over her, and she swiped her tongue across the head.
It was divine.
Her tongue licked up and down the length of me. It takes everything I have not to slam my cock down her throat as far as possible. Her hand pumped me while her lips work the sensitive ridge at the head. Then she takes me in deeper. The heat of her mouth is enough to drive me wild. I rest my hands on the back of her head, holding her to me but careful not to smoother. My hips convulsed forward but Vera only makes pleasurable noises as my cock slides in and out of her mouth.
I watch her work, studying her, memorizing the way her dark lashes rest on her cheeks, the flush in her cheeks, the sweet pout of those lips wrapped around me and the purr of satisfaction in her throat. This can never happen again. This memory will be all I have.
Her free hand cupped my balls and squeezed. She moved forward, letting my cock slide deeper down her throat. I exploded into her with a shout. Her sweet mouth milked me, not letting go as I emptied into her. She swallowed every drop and then licked my cock clean. With a satisfied grin, she looked up at me and it was the most beautiful sight in the galaxy. She said, “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She wants this bond so much. She needs to know why it cannot be. “Vera,” I said. “I need to tell you…”
The power went off. An alarm sounded.
Chapter Fifteen
Vera
I surged to my feet. “What’s happening?”
Glin frowned and said, “A craft is landing.”
Rescue? No, not with alarms sounding. “It’s not a Fremm ship, is it?”
Glin shook his head. “I set the security to immediately shut the power down if a non-Fremm ship enters the atmosphere.” He grabbed two towels, tossed me one, and reached for his wrist comm. With a few jabs on the controls, the alarm ceased.
Silence pervaded the house, complete and utter silence without the soft background noise of power and heat.
“Is it the people who sabotaged our ship?” I wrapped myself in the towel, suddenly exposed and cold.
Glin shook his head. “No, they would have been here days ago.” His eyes roved over me, dispassionate and clinical. “You should dress. The temperature will drop soon.”
“Why does the heat have to be off?”
“Because a smart smuggler would scan the planet surface for power signatures. They won’t find our shuttle but they will find this house.”
Already I began to shiver. “Fine. But won’t they see our life forms in a scan?”
Glin nodded. “Yes, but if they did that, they would already be here. Since we don’t have any smugglers knocking down the door, I think we’ve escaped their attention.”
We just have to keep our heads down and hope they don’t scan for humanoid life.
I made my way upstairs in the dark. My outfit was muddy and shredded, beyond saving. Time to raid the wardrobe. I found a long tunic good for sleeping.
Glin sat by the hearth in the main room.
“Won’t the smoke from the chimney give us away?” I asked.
“Not during a blizzard. When the storm clears, we will have to do without.” His back stiffened as he spoke, not looking at me. Great, we’re back to this. I sucked his cock and he continued to ignore me. Smart, Vera. Good decision making skills.
I know he feels for me. I know it. I can see it in the way he watches me when he thinks I’m not looking. Why then, do I throw myself at him and keep getting rejected? What is it about me that pushes him away?
I sank into the cushions arranged by the heart. Hard to believe that only a day ago we sat side by side, enjoying a film and easy in each other's company. “I’m sorry I ran off,” I said.
“Do not apologize. It is your nature to be curious. I was unthinking to confine you to the house.”
We sat in silence. I wrapped myself in a blanket. My feet and face were warmed by the fire. “Do you think they’d be here by now?” I asked.
“Yes, there is no way for us to obfuscate our life signs from a scan.”
“What do they want here?”
“Blackborn must be used a waypoint or storage facility.”
I remembered the warehouse without any dust or debris, despite not having automated maintenance. Other buildings i
n the town were in disrepair but not the warehouse. “No people, no oversight and no tourists. Blackborn is the perfect spot for a smuggler.”
Glin nodded. “Do not trouble yourself,” he said. There was nothing to do but wait, even if I wanted to be troubled because trouble kept worry at bay.
I hate waiting. “We could sneak on board the ship and send a distress signal,” I said.
Glin shook his head. “No.”
“Or steal a repair kit. Maybe even a battery.”
“No, it is too dangerous for so small a reward.”
Right, repairing the shuttle equaled small reward. Well, what were the chances the smuggler’s ship would have the same make and model of battery or engines. Small. Nothing to do but wait. I hate waiting, because waiting equaled worry. Worry about what’s out there in the blizzard: smugglers and wolf squids and other unknown monsters. Worry about what’s in the room with us, unspoken and deafening: our mutual attraction and Glin’s continued rejection of me because I’m Terran. For crying out loud, I had the man’s dick in my mouth, I sucked him off, he seemed to like it well enough then. I fucking swallowed.
And now he can’t even look at me.
I disgust him.
“Can we,” I started to ask, voice caught in my throat. “Can we pretend that today didn’t happen? Just act like we spent the day watching cheesy films and getting along?”
“If it pleases you.”
“Could you hold me like you did the first night in the shuttle?” I need contact with another living person, even if that person despises me.
He nodded and shifted on the floor, making room for me. I settled in his arms with the warm bulk of him pressed to my back. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend that he cared for me. It would have to do for the night. I’ll worry about tomorrow when the sun comes up. Get off this planet, get to Evie, smile and play nice at her wedding and then find a man who wants me for me. Someone who treats me like I’m good for more than sucking his dick. Having a plan, even a small piece of a plan, soothed me enough to sleep.
The storm died down. The real trouble started in the morning.
Loud banging on the security door thundered through the house before the gate gave way. I bolted upright; wrapping myself in a blanket like it could help. Glin had one arm around me and his axe in his other hand.
All the security covers retracted. Sunlight spilled into the house.
A slate blue man with wild dark hair and a cocky grin strode into the main room. He paused, hands on hips, and sized up Glin before his eyes flickered to me. I swear I didn’t mean to blush, but I’m just wearing a tunic and underpants with a sheet clutched to my chest. Glin growled, tightening his grip on me. Great, now he gets all protective.
The smuggler smiled. “This day just keeps getting better and better.”
Chapter Sixteen
Glin
A smile broke out over the traitor’s, white fang against slate blue, but the gun at his side pointed at Vera. Unacceptable. Never have I desired so much to punch him in his smug face. “Glin et Garen,” the traitor said, “we have to stop meeting like this. People will talk.”
A half dozen men filled the room, a mix of humans and Tal. The humans I could incapacitate with my bare hands but the Tal have claws and fangs. It would take more effort but it could be done. They all have guns, though, and might hit Vera. Unacceptable.
The traitor Ruush said, “You should drop the axe, Glin.”
I did not.
I pushed Vera behind me, shielding her with my bulk. “Who is he, Glin?” Vera asks in a small voice. I do not like it when she sounds afraid. My kompli should never be afraid.
“Now is not the time, woman,” I said.
“Not going to introduce us?” Ruush asked. “And to think all the credits your parents wasted on charm school.” He took a step to the side to get a look at Vera. I growled and turned, continuing to block her view.
“Ruush et Reuben. You must be Vera Hyatt. Charmed,” he said. He holstered the gun but his face remained unreadable. The man was an abomination. “This little reunion is real sweet, and I know you’re doing your battle math to calculate the risk of going all insane monster on my men. It’s fascinating watching the wheels turn in that noggin. You might get a few but we all have weapons and we won’t be aiming for you.”
I growled. How dare they threaten my mate?
Ruush nodded, as if agreeing with my frustration. “Listen to me, Glin et Garen, you’re going to set down your weapon or my men will shoot through you to get the girl.”
His eyes spark like he is amused but his face is without expression, just a meaningless smile. I cannot risk my mate to save my own ego.
My weapon clatters to the floor.
“And the others.”
I retrieve the spear strapped to my back and lower it. And the knife in my boot.
“Such a good soldier. Now march.”
We are escorted to his ship. It is an older model, lots of empty crawl spaces under the floor and in the walls. Good for deceit and smugglers. I hate it. It is a design without honor.
Two men peel away from the escort and take Vera away from me. I roared. The man behind me, a Tal, jabbed a stick into my back and an electric current surged through my body, bringing me to my knees. I hear Vera’s terrified voice shouting to bring her back, she won’t be separated and my heart swells with undeserved pride. She is fierce when confronted with foes, frightened but not helpless. She continues to prove my assumptions to be narrow minded and wrong. I struggle to my feet but another jab to my side sends to back to my knees.
“Easy there, big fella,” a Terran says, all smiles and amiability, like we were old friends. This must be Ruush’s influence. It is nauseating.
They shoved me into the brig, or a storage unit converted into a holding cell. There is no place to sit, no bench or chair. There is no toilet, not even a bucket or a hole in the floor. The light is minimal. The hum of a force field surrounds the room. I do not bother to throw myself against the field, to test its containment. I know Ruush. He would set it to a lethal charge and would only laugh if I injured myself thrashing about my cage like an animal.
I am not an animal.
I’m worse.
I sat on the floor and forced myself through the calming breathing exercises I learned at the Academy. Focus. Control. Patience.
Finally, the traitor comes to me. To gloat and taunt, no doubt.
Ruush stood outside the holding cell, arms folded behind his back like he was still a soldier. I wanted to roar at him, to rip his throat out with my teeth. Soon, I promised myself.
“You wouldn't believe me if I said it’s nice to see you again, Glin, but it is,” Ruush said. His blank skin remained unreadable but I know he is lying. Our time at the Academy was a decade ago but memories pressed upon me. We were friends then, the boy with the deformity and the boy with all the rage.
I growled in response. We are not friends now because Ruush found it easy to trade honor and duty for credit. More shame for me that he fooled me into believing him a worthy friend. At least he never tarnished the Fremm military. The Academy expelled him long before he donned the uniform.
Ruush nodded, as if he expected nothing less. “From the uniform, I see you’re still playing soldier. Still following that hot headed Prince around?”
Another growl.
“You are.” He tapped a finger against his lips, mimicking serious thinking. “But Aster isn’t here, or his ship, just that old broken shuttle up in the mountains and that Terran. Interesting. I reckon our Prince would be real anxious to get back the sister of his precious kompli.”
“Aster is not your Prince, traitor,” I growled.
Ruush continued, “Of course, she’s fairly popular. Flavor of the moment, if you will. I could trade her to practically anyone with the right amount of credits. And how lucky for me to stumble across her on this backwater colony, when I was only looking to unload some cargo. I guess I’ve always been fortunate that way.”
I rushed towards him, slamming my hands against the containment barrier. A jolt of electricity surged through me and knocked me to the ground. A coppery taste lingered on my lips and with the back of my hand, I wipe away the blood at my mouth. Not lethal then. Ruush was getting soft. “You are not fortunate. You’re an abomination.”
Ruush’s eyes narrowed, flashing with fury but that empty smile lingered. “Better an abomination than a monster. Does your little Terran know that about you, Glin? Does she know that you’re barely more than an animal?”
My upper lip curled in a snarl. Ruush nodded, satisfied at my display.
“Have you ever been with a human?” he asked. “While you were stuck on this frozen ice ball, did you have a little taste?”
My hands curled into fists. I would fling myself at the barrier again. I must hold my tongue.
Ruush knew my agitation but he persisted, torturing me with words. “You’ve never partaken of the rare and fine sweetness that is a human woman? I thought for sure you and...Well, she looked like she wanted to climb all over you. That’s a damn shame, Glin. Damn shame.”
“Do you not worry about harming a human partner?” Why did I speak to him?
Rush rubbed his chin, considering me in the brig. “You’re the one who went all berserker, aren’t you? Back at the Academy. Got carried away and nearly killed a woman. Now I remember.”
He knew. He never forgot. I never forgot. Images of that day haunt me. Prevented me from claiming my kompli. I injured a woman. Accidentally. Because I had no control, because the bloodlust blinds me.
And that is why I can never claim Vera, despite that my body screams for me to hold her, to kiss her and sink into her warmth.
I growled.
A grin tugged up the corner of Ruush’s mouth in mirth. “You just sit tight, big guy. I have some business to attend to.”
Chapter Seventeen
Vera
Two members of the crew, both Tal, separated me from Glin. I dug my heels into the smooth floor of the ship. “No, bring me back to Glin! I won’t go with you. No! Nooooo!” My voice was loud and shrill. I didn’t care. I would wail and cry until they brought me back. Or my voice gave out.
Alien Warrior's Mate: Alpha Alien Romance (Alpha Aliens of Fremm Book 3) Page 7
