“My ship was sabotaged by someone at the Juno Spaceport. Clearly no guard member went missing so they must have hired a local.” Chem nodded; he believed the same.
The physicians give the women clearance to leave. Scrapes and bruises, nothing serious. They are beyond lucky the bomb was not directly outside the cafe when it detonated. Aster carried his mate, despite her protests that she could walk. As he passed me in the hall, he said, “Do what you need to do tonight. Your mission starts in the morning.”
I nodded. I gave Vera my hand escorted her out of the medical bay. Vera would not indulge my ego and let me carry her, even though I long to clutch to my chest and race back to the stone cottage. I have made many mistakes. I must do better for my mate.
Chapter Twenty Three
Vera
Glin checked and secured the door and checked all the windows. Satisfied, he took his post at the door, arms stiffly folded behind his back. Soot and blood covered his normally crisp and the sharply pressed uniform. Some of it mine. Even disheveled and filthy, the fabric hung on his body well. Dammit, I’m not going to start lusting after him. This is just a reaction from a stressful situation. Someone tried to blow up my sister. Someone set us up the damn bomb. I’m tired and sore. It has to be stress that’s making me look at Glin like he’s most delicious thing this side of the galaxy. But he did throw himself over us during the blast. He pulled me to him and pressed me against his enormous chest. I held us until the smoke cleared and then he carried us from the building.
Don’t do this, Vera. Don’t have sexy thoughts about the sexy alien warrior.
I caught my reflection in the mirror. I was filthy. Soot marred my cheeks. My clothes were beyond repair. So I totally looked the part of a seductress.
“I need to apologize,” he said, looking straight ahead and not at me.
“For what?”
“I was foolish not to take the opportunity I had with you,” he said.
My stomach lurched with excitement and lust. “You made your feelings perfectly clear,” I said. “You’re not interested in me because I’m human.”
Glin crossed the space between us and his hands gripped my arms. “Is that what you thought? That I’m some narrow minded xenophobe who doesn’t like Terran women?”
“That’s basically what you said. I’m human and fragile.”
His eyes clouded over. “I can’t hurt you. I’d never forgive myself if I did.”
Big news, buddy, you’ve hurt me plenty already, I thought, but kept my mouth shut.
“You are my mate,” Glin said, voice a low rumble. “I have known this from the moment I saw you. All I can think about is kissing you, touching you, and claiming you. You are mine, Vera Hyatt. You were made for me.”
My heart fluttered in my throat but I found my voice. “Then why do you do this? Why the two steps forward and one step back? If we’re mates, because I feel it too, why haven't you done anything about it?”
“I know what Ruush told you.”
“Tell me it was a lie. A lie to drive a wedge between us.”
Glin crouched, eyes level with mine. “I will not lie to you, mate. Ruush spoke the truth. I...lose control of myself. It’s good for battle but bad anywhere else my adrenaline gets pumping. There was a woman before. She was my first time and I didn’t mean to but I lost my head. I...hurt her.” His large hand cradled the side of my face. “I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you.”
The warmth of joy flushed over me. So much of his past behavior now made sense. “You won’t,” I said, knowing it to be true.
“I can’t guarantee your safety.”
“Life isn’t perfectly safe. How long ago was this?”
“I was still in the Academy,” he said. A decade ago, possibly more.
“You were young. Inexperienced. You’ve changed since then, learned how to control yourself.”
“I want that to be true but I can’t risk you. You’re too precious.”
My heart fluttered at his words. I was precious to him. I wasn’t letting him get away this easily. “So you’re a coward.”
His back stiffened immediately.
“You had a bad experience the first time and you’re too scared to try again, even if denying us makes you miserable. Makes us miserable.”
“You don’t understand, Vera.”
“I won’t accept this bloodless talk, Glin son of Garen, I won’t let you walk away from our love because you’re frightened.”
“If I hurt you, it’d be treason.”
“You won’t.” I smiled, remembering back to our heated moments on Blackborn, the light in his eyes as he stroked himself over me, fierce and determined. Or the way all tension left his body when I took his cock in my mouth. “You had plenty of opportunities on Blackborn when our adrenaline was up, but you never hurt me or lost control.”
“It was hard to hold myself back.”
“But you did.” My hands rested on the plane of his chest. Lots of things were hard. “We’ll take it as slow as you need.”
I took him by the hand and walked him to the plush sofa by the hearth. Pushing him down, I straddled his lap and kissed him deeply. The kiss was like breathing for the first time. My body lit up with new senses, tingling and craving more contact. He smelled like smoke and sweat but underneath that was the unmistakable scent of my mate, spicy and evergreen. I moaned in appreciation and licked the cords of his neck. His cock was already hard, straining at the fabric of his trousers. I rubbed myself against the hardened bulge, knowing I was already wet.
His hands ran up under the dress, along the back of my thighs, finally cupping my ass. I shifted, rubbing myself on the bulge in his trousers. I undid the front of his jacket, exposing the glowing stripes on his skin. I now have a better idea what these markings mean. These are for me. He glows for me.
My lips brushed against his nipples, sparking illumination on contact. My hands ran down the firm muscles of his chest to his rippling abs. Everywhere I touched was firm and hard and glowed softly. Finally, my hands made it to the buckles on his trousers.
“Vera,” he moaned, face buried in the curve of my neck.
“Too fast?” I asked.
“I’m not going to last. I’m sorry.” Sorrow was in his voice.
My lips tugged up into a smirk. “You’re going to come before I even touch you?”
He nodded, eyes closed, face screwed up in concentration.
“Show me.” I climbed off his lap and he undid his buckles.
His cock sprang free, thick and hard and pulsing with need. The head glistened with precum. I licked my lips, desperate to lick his member clean. I leaned in, his masculine scent strong and heady. “I want to taste you,” I said.
He nodded, barely breathing.
My lips barely touched his heated flesh before he spurted. His hot cum splashed on my lips and chin. Unreasonably pleased with myself, I swiped with one finger and cleaned the digit clean. Mmm.
Slowly, Glin’s fists uncurled and his posture relaxed. I got a washcloth and cleaned my face before resuming my spot on his lap.
“I’m sorry,” he said, stroking my hair with a look of wide eyed wonder and amazement.
“Better to take the edge off, I think,” I said. “You can make it up to me after a shower.”
“You’re not disappointed?”
Was I? Considering his inexperience and worry, demanding a screaming orgasm from him first thing was selfish. Not that I was super experienced but the man only had one sexual encounter, not counting the blow job I gave him on Blackborn. He was practically a virgin. “This isn’t a onetime deal, Glin et Garen,” I said, kissing him lightly on the lips. “You belong to me. We have all the time we need. Now let’s get cleaned up.”
We left our clothes in a pile on the floor. I’ve seen Glin naked before. He’s seen me nude but this time felt different.
He reached for me, hand on my waist and pulled me into the shower. Warm water enveloped us. “You’re gorgeous, kompli.” H
is hands did a slow descent from my waist, along my hips and settled on the round of my bottom. “I have wanted to cup your ass from the moment I saw you.”
Mmm. “What else did you want to do?”
“Kiss you here.” On my lips. “Here.” Where my neck joined my shoulder. “Here.” The swell of my breasts. “Lick you here.” The underside of those globes. “Here and here and here.” His tongued blazed a trail down my abdomen and to the round swell of my stomach. “Taste you here.” He knelt on the floor, his face pressed to the apex of my thighs. One hand gently pushed my thighs open and the other brushed against my lower lips. “Would you like that, kompli?” he asked, fingers stroking my pussy in an easy rhythm.
“So much.” I wanted so much. Everything.
His tongue, hot and wet, lapped against me, tasting me. I immediately moaned and my knees wobbled. His hands, firmly on my ass, kept me from falling to the ground in a puddle of joy. Damn, he had a talented tongue. His tongue speared my entrance, sending a jolt through me, and then did a long, slow journey to my sensitive nub, circling, flicking and back down again. And again. And again.
“You are so sweet, my kompli,” he said. “I will never get enough of your taste.”
“I’m close.”
“What do you need, kompli.”
Him. All of him. His cock. I ached to be filled. “Your finger. Please, Glin.”
A finger slid into me, my channel gripping it tightly. Soon a second joined. His tongue focused on my clit and the fingers pumped into me. How could this man think he would harm me? When he is literally on his knees, worshipping me with his tongue. My release welled up within me. I fell forward, grasping at his head. His fingers dug into my ass cheeks. My body trembled with the powerful climax but my world was focused on a tiny point, his face pressed against my core, his breath hot against my already overheated skin.
Slowly my senses expanded to the water on my back. The cool tiles in the shower. Glin’s grip relaxed and he stood. His hands in the small of my back held me to him. His kiss was sweet with the lingering taste of myself on his lips.
“Vera.” My name rumbled in his throat and I shivered with delight. “You came on my tongue.”
Now I blushed. “I guess I did.”
“You have given me the sweetest gift tonight. I am not worthy.”
“Stop it with that kind of talk.”
“Let me wash you,” he said.
He scrubbed my back, legs and front. Perhaps spent too much time on my front but I wasn’t going to complain. His strong fingers gently massaged in shampoo and conditioner. Satisfied that I no longer smelled of smoke, I did the same for him. Everywhere I touched him, his skin glowed faintly. His torso still glowed with the strange stripes. “What are these?” I asked, finger tracing the stripes across his chest.
“You know what they are.”
I smirked. “Maybe, but I want you to tell me.”
“Mate marks.” His normally brusk voice was especially brusk.
“I see. And what is a mate mark?” My finger circled a nipple. I watched his skin pebble and glow in reaction to my touch. I leaned in and gave it a little nip with my teeth.
Glen growled. “Are you trying to torture me?”
“What is a mate mark, Glin et Garen? Tell me.”
“The pattern developed when I first saw you. Desired you. It is for you alone. It will grow more complex when we fully bond.”
“Fully bonding, is that some type of ceremony?”
“No, it is sex.” His tone was very businesslike as he grabbed a towel and began to dry me.
“And what we’ve been doing isn’t sex?”
“It doesn’t count.”
Right, all the way or nothing. Fremmians were very dichotomous in that regard.
“And do you want to,” I swallowed my nerves, “bond? Fully?”
Glin pulled me towards him and captured my mouth with his. The deep kiss left no room for doubt in my mind. Oh, yes. Full bonding would happen. “More than anything, kompli, but I have a new mission.”
I pulled away. “What are you talking about?”
“I have been tasked to root out the traitors who threaten the Princess and you.”
Suddenly I appreciated what it was to be mated to a warrior. He’s off on a mission and I’ll be home by myself. “Sounds dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“Sounds like you’ll be gone for awhile.”
“Yes.”
We probably should have had the “relationship talk” about direction this is headed before I let him lick my pussy senseless. Live and learn. “So this is completely backwards, but…”
“On Blackborn you asked me if I ever thought about retirement. If I wanted a house full of children.”
“I remember.” I also remember him saying it wasn’t for him.
“Ask me again.”
I swear to God, my heart stopped with joy. Is that even a thing? “Glin,” I said, “have you ever thought about settling down with the right girl? With your mate? Living in a house in the country, full of kids and noise and all that?”
“I never thought those joys were possible for me. Now they are all I desire.”
“All you desire?”
“And you,” he said, voice a growl and he pulled me towards him again. His kiss was possessive and demanding and I loved it. Finally, he released me and pressed his forehead to mine. “Kompli, if I bond with you, the separation during a newly formed bond would be unbearable. I could not function without you by my side but my mission too dangerous to bring you along.”
“So I have to stay behind.”
“Yes. And when I am finished with the people responsible for threatening your sister and you, I will find you. Claim you. Make you mine.”
His. I liked the sound of that.
“But I’ll be on Juno.” In my house in the middle of nowhere, growing plants and raising porterhouse steaks for my sister.
“I’m due for retirement. I don’t have a lot of skills other than punching and lifting heavy things.”
“We’ll think of something. Now take me to bed.”
He carried me to the bedroom at the back of the house. His touch was tender and thoughtful. In a fluid motion, he picked me up and placed me softly on the covers. The mattress dipped as he climbed in next to me. Last night I believed the bed to be comically large, now I wish it was a bit larger. My big blue man took up a lot of space.
Tomorrow he’d be gone, but after that, when he returned to me, we’d have every night for the rest of our lives. I’m going to need a bigger bed.
Content, I curled up next to him and sleep more soundly than I had in days.
Chapter Twenty Four
The banquet was like something out of a storybook with the kind King, the happy Prince and Princess, and a castle teeming with color and sound. Evie said the Fremm liked to celebrate with food and drink. They certainly knew how to throw a party. Aster originally wanted to call the banquet off but the King decided it was important to maintain their normal social engagements. My gown was beautiful. My sister was beautiful. Aster was handsome. Honestly, everyone was beautiful or handsome. No ordinary people allowed. The experience overwhelmed me. At one point I met King Emre. He smiled and kissed the back of my hand before noticing the calluses and the permanent dirt embedded under my blunt nails. “You have a gardener’s hand,” he said.
“I’m a botanist. I garden for a living.” Being sassy with a king? Go home, Vera. You’re drunk.
Excitedly, Emre gave me a short tour of the gardens in the moonlight, pointing out the medicinal plants he had a keen interest in. It was hard not to share his enthusiasm and no one dared give the King crap about getting mud on his trousers. And, by extension, give me crap about having dirt under my fingernails at a banquet.
All in all, a good night. I missed Glin. Not that he would do anything other than frown and grunt at the banquet, but having him near would be comforting.
The next day we were on Aster’s starship.
Using the VR unit, I perused land parcels on Juno. I found the perfect one, gently rolling prairie with purple mountains in the distance, near water and a transportation hub. Perfect. Home.
Five days later, I stood in the middle of my land parcel with Evie. A parcel was approximately one hundred and sixty acres. It’s hard to appreciate how vast that is until you’re standing in field of deep red tall grass, under a vivid blue sky. I ordered a basic hab unit, not much bigger than the cabin I’ve lived in for the last five years, but expandable. Aster was not satisfied until the solar power was installed and the house hooked into the planetary network. Too far out to commute to my job at the botanical gardens, I was allowed to do remote research, so yay for income.
My finger pointed to a location in the distance. “The greenhouse will go there. It should get plenty of sun in the winter. And the cattle will go over there,” I said, pointing to the western pasture. “I’ll build a pen and a barn. There’s so much to do.” Too much to do on my own. The cattle will have to wait until the spring. Right now I need to focus on the getting the house set up with water and all the things about civilization that keep me from smelling bad. Charlie would arrive in a few days with seedlings samples to be planted.
“I can’t wait to come back and visit,” Evie said.
“You just want to eat.”
“Damn straight.” A pause, then, “So you and Glin, huh?”
“Yeah, me and Glin.”
“Cool. He’s a solid guy.”
Aster approached us. “We must leave, kompli.”
“Thank you,” I said. “This is generous.”
His nostrils flared.
“But not nearly enough to replace my sister. I’ll have to learn to live with my grief.” And the view. And the quiet.
He nodded, satisfied. Aliens were strange.
Damn I wished my alien was here.
Chapter Twenty Five
Glin
I make them pay with blood for every day I am away from my mate.
Commander Chem gave me a list of three names and let my leash slip. It was the starting point. Now I hunted. It was what I was made to do.
Alien Warrior's Mate: Alpha Alien Romance (Alpha Aliens of Fremm Book 3) Page 11
