Hunted: BBW Alien Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 4)

by Harmony Raines

  “You know what,” she said. “I think food can wait.”

  He took her in his arms and kissed her lips, the romance of the moment, of their location, taking them away from the reason they were here. This was their time, and they were going to make the most of it.

  Picking her up, he took her back towards the cruiser, where he had laid out a blanket for them to sit on, just as he had on Karal, not so long ago. Slowly, they undressed each other, taking their time, his lips pressing against hers, his tongue sliding along her lower lip, sensuously and slow, awaking her desire.

  Lying side by side, naked in their own private world, he slipped a finger inside her heated sex, probing deeply, while his thumb brushed her clit. Then he moved his head, leaning down to capture her nipple in his mouth, his tongue rolling over it, until her world exploded. She came, her sex contracting around his fingers, and she cried out, her voice mingling with those of the brightly coloured birds that seems oblivious to the two alien creatures lying here on their small island oasis.

  Garth, his cock hard against her thigh, moved, covering her body and guiding himself into her. He seemed unsure, reserved, and she understood why. “You won’t hurt the baby.”

  “Are you sure? If I am too rough, will I damage him?”

  “No.” She kissed his cheek, and smoothed her fingers over his creased forehead, chasing his frown away. “Nothing you do will hurt him. I promise.”

  Garth thrust into her, his worries gone, chased away by his need to claim her. The long days of celibacy were ended, and his cock grew harder as he took her. In and out, his cock filled her, and then he pulled back, only to thrust into her harder again. She took what pleasure he offered, wanting this moment to be magical for both of them.

  Over and over, his body covered hers, their lips meeting, soft and gentle, and then fierce on hers, as his orgasm covered him and he lifted his head and cried out. Deep inside her, his cock fused with her inner walls, and she felt the vibration of his colours as they skimmed his skin, stimulating her body in a new way.

  That was how much she knew he wanted her and had missed her, and as her orgasm swept over her, she was grateful for this time together. Even if she knew that at first light, they were going to leave the planet forever.

  And the search for a home for humans would go on.

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Garth

  “Everything is ready?” he asked as she sat next to him on the control deck. He was relieved she looked so much better, she had not been sick today, and he hoped that was in the past now. He had enjoyed making love to her several times through the night. Forcing himself to abstain from mating with her was a thing of the past.

  He wanted her, and she wanted him. Their child was safe; he had been foolish. But for the right reasons.

  “Yes.” She sighed. “I am going to miss feeling the ground under my feet. It’s surprising how quickly I got used to walking on solid ground.”

  “A week, and we will be home, we can plot the same course. Then we can enjoy Karal, and you never have to leave again.” He smiled at her, and thought how beautiful she looked, a flush in her cheeks from the fresh air, which also made her eyes sparkle with happiness.

  “I can’t wait.” She buckled up her seat belt and sat back, no longer craning forward to take in every last view of the planet they were about to leave. “I hope this planet remains unspoilt, Garth. I suppose the females here would be the kind you would use to breed with if any girls born aren’t fertile and the human race dies out.”

  It saddened him to hear her talk like that. “I suppose; my mother was of a similar evolutionary place. She came from a primitive species. Who did not understand space travel and thought we were demons.”

  “Let’s hope that never happens again. This is a perfect world, and no one deserves to be ripped from a world they love.”

  “Is that how you feel? As if you were ripped from the world you grew up in?”

  “I came to you by choice, remember?” she asked. “But still it is tough, knowing you will never see your home world again.”

  “What if we simply log the planet as being uninhabitable? The sulphur from volcanoes too poisonous in the air.” The idea was strange to him; he was supposed to report back to Karal truthfully. And yet now he knew Tamzin, and understood how his mother must have felt. A new part of him, a part that contained empathy, had woken up, and he could see how painful it must be to be ripped away from everything you knew.

  “You mean no one would ever come here again?” she asked.

  “I can’t promise that. But not for a long time.”

  “I like that idea.” She smiled, looking even more radiant if that was possible.

  “Then we will destroy the samples. I will fix the computer log, and we will leave the people here behind to live their lives in peace.”

  “You can change the log?” she asked.

  “I can recode it. I’m not just a stupid warrior,” he said. “But never a word of this will be spoken, not many of us know the interface well enough. But I have seen it done.”

  “Really? So you are not the squeaky-clean warrior I thought you were.”

  “There was a time, on another mission when my co-pilot and I took some fruit from the planet and it made us intoxicated, we nearly crashed the cruiser. He found a way to doctor the reports. We were young with our careers in front of us, and we did not want our records tarnished.”

  She laughed. “I should cover your son’s ears.” Tamzin slid her hand over her stomach. “I don’t want him getting ideas from his father.”

  Garth laughed, and then leaned over and kissed her. “He will get into his own trouble; all children do.”

  “That is good to hear. I didn’t know if Karalian children were expected to be perfect.”

  “Not at all.” He tapped on the computer screen, and then worked in silence for a couple of minutes, before saying, “There, done. But it means we have to leave immediately; I have reset the clock as if we never landed here. The reset takes five minutes, enough time for us to get into orbit.”

  He started the engines, powering them up, and then they launched into the air, leaving the beautiful blue planet behind them.

  “I only hope the people here don’t make the same mistakes as we did on Earth,” she said, and quietly prayed that they wouldn’t.

  Garth checked the course was plotted correctly and then banked slightly to readjust their return to the wormhole they had entered through. As they reached it, he remembered the update he had received and began to load it onto the screen. He had been so wrapped up in Tamzin and the planet, he had not given it any more thought; he would read it after they reached the other side, and maybe it contained news of the other missions and a planet already found.

  “Hold tight,” he said as they entered the wormhole, this time they were both thrown back in their seats. He couldn’t help glancing nervously across at Tamzin, he was worried about her and the baby again. Yes, he was definitely growing soft: the more time he spent with her, the more his emotions were begging to rule him.

  “Damn, how much longer?” she asked as they burst out into a sea of stars, and then dipped down, only to rise once more almost vertically.

  “Nearly there.” And then they burst back out into normal space, the cruiser righting itself and he slowed down to let them both recover. He would put the cruiser onto auto pilot and then make sure Tamzin was all right.

  But as he switched to auto pilot, a message flashed over the computer screen. His heart went cold, and blues and greens flashed across his hands and up his neck.

  “What is it?” Tamzin asked.

  “There is a distress signal from one of the other missions. It seems we won’t be going home just yet.”

  Fear was a new experience for Garth. He wanted nothing more than to take Tamzin back to safety, back to Karal. But he couldn’t ignore his fellow Karalian, and so he took the ship off auto pilot and set a new course.

  A course into the unknown.

&n
bsp; Chapter Twenty-Three – Tamzin

  They had travelled for two days at almost full speed, and now they were close to their destination, they just had one more wormhole to go through, but this one was different. Garth had to deploy beacons to open the wormhole, she had never experienced this before. All the wormholes on the journey here were already open. Now she worried the exit would be closed and they would be stuck in unknown space. But as they entered, it seemed like any other wormhole, with stars and gas clouds littering the darkness in every direction.

  She relaxed, letting go of the tension in her body, tension that had been there since they responded to the signal. On the way, Garth had gone through the rest of the data they had collected, and was troubled. It seemed one of the other ships had run into a slaver race, not far from this sector.

  Was there a chance one of the other missions had run into the same aliens and been captured? Or this might be a trap. They had both agreed they had to find out for sure. Exiting the wormhole, Garth recalled the beacons, and she heard the clang as they docked in the belly of the ship.

  Looking across at him, she took in the colours exposed on his face, his nerves obvious, understandable, since somewhere on this side of the wormhole, there was a Karalian vessel in distress. Or worse.

  “Is the signal still there?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he answered patiently. She had asked him the same thing a hundred times or more since they had picked up the signal two days ago. He had hardly slept, and neither had she, instead she had lain awake going through all the different scenarios of why the ship was in trouble.

  Hadn’t he said they never break down? In which case something else had happened. Something bad.

  You don’t know that, she reminded herself, also for the hundredth time.

  “How much further?”

  “On the other side of that cluster of stars.” He indicated a dense mass of stars in the distance.

  “Not good visibility,” she remarked.

  “No.”

  “So, do you think they got hit by an asteroid or something?”

  “That I don’t know. It’s the automatic distress signal, not a voice message.”

  “And that is what bothers you?” she asked, picking up on the way his colours lit up his face as he spoke.

  “Yes. If they were able to, they would send out a message over the comms. An automatic message means they are not able to access comms for some reason.”

  He throttled forward, but they were travelling a lot slower than normal. He was on edge, and that unnerved her. Garth seemed different, he was in a different mind-set, and she saw him as he truly was: a Karalian warrior, who despite changing the log of the cruiser, was committed to his people and his fellow deep space pilots.

  There was nothing for her to do but sit and wait. He had advised her to leave her seat belt buckled up, and be ready for anything. What that anything might be, scared her.

  By some will of strength, she stopped herself asking any further questions. Instead she simply stared at the screen and out of the window in a steady rhythm, as if she had a metronome in her head.

  “We are nearly in range.” He was staring at the computer screen, frowning. “I cannot see the ship on the screen. But the signal is still there.”

  If it was possible, her heart beat even harder in her chest, her eyes straining to see the stricken Karalian vessel. Everything about this made her skin crawl: Would they find them dead? A Karalian like Garth, and an Earth female like her? And that was what worried her most. It could be them, just as easily.

  Yes, it could be her and Garth out here drifting in amongst a star field, but it wasn’t, and he would keep her and their child safe. She knew he would. Wasn’t he the most cautious person she had ever met, especially since the conception of their child?

  They cleared the stars, only to be faced with a planet, not unlike Saturn, but its rings were made up of giant boulders, and this was where the signal was coming from.

  “Why would they enter such a place,” he said, magnifying the signal on the screen.

  “Maybe they got shunted into there.” She had to agree, it wasn’t the kind of place you would enter of your own free will. Yet that was exactly what they would have to do to get to the stricken ship.

  “Computer. Can you identify coordinates of Karalian ship?”

  “Negative.”

  “Then we will have to get closer.” He slowed, the cruiser hardly moving as they headed into the rocks.

  She closed her eyes, hoping they would escape unharmed. All the while Garth asked the computer if it could locate the cruiser, each time it came back negative.

  “This is so strange, we should be able to see the ship, we are almost on top of it.”

  “What if it’s broken up, and the transponder is all that is left?”

  When he looked at her, she saw the concern in his eyes. “We have never lost a cruiser, not for centuries.”

  “I can’t think of any other way you would hear the signal, but not see the ship. Do you?”

  He sat in silence, and then admitted, “No.”

  “But we can’t leave without knowing for sure.” She reaffirmed her commitment to this task.

  They inched further, until the transponder seemed to be inside the cruiser itself.

  “Ship located.” The computer’s voice made them both jump.

  “Where?” he asked looking at the screen, and then colours leapt over his face.

  “What is it?” She knew she didn’t want to know.

  “The ship isn’t Karalian.” His voice shook as he said, “I believe we have been lured here.”

  She felt sick, right to the very bottom of her stomach. “It’s a trap? But how did they get the signal?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they have captured another cruiser.” He flicked a switch, and the schematics of a vast vessel appeared on the screen. “Computer, identify.”

  “Unknown.”

  “Check all known ships, compare for similarities to known vessels.”

  The computer was silent, as was Garth, and she felt the long moments stretch in tension so strong, she wanted to scream, to tell him to get them out of there, but she let him do his job.

  “Vessel Hrokili.”

  “Hrokili, who are they?” Tamzin asked.

  “Karal Mission Earth 3 encountered the Hrokili and were captured,” Garth admitted.

  Her heart nearly exploded as her blood pressure shot up in fear. “Captured!”

  “Yes. I did not want to worry you. Karal Mission Earth 3 escaped, and took the Hrokili ship as bounty.”

  “And this Hrokili ship is another ship? Or the captured ship?” she asked, his eyes focused on Garth, hoping this was the captured ship and the only thing they were dealing with were a Karalian in a strange ship.

  “No, the captured Hrokili ship was taken to Karal.”

  “So this is a different ship.” She closed her eyes, wanting to shut it all out, wanting to be safe.

  “Computer, show capture of Karalian cruiser by Hrokili.”

  “Accessing further data. Timeline of capture on screen.”

  He leaned forward, and studied the screen. To Tamzin it was an eternity before he looked up, his face creased into a frown. “Pause, replay from point 30 seconds from beacon deployment.”

  “Replay.” The computer repeated.

  He watched it again. And again, until finally he said, “Computer, analyse wormhole entry.”

  “Karalian cruiser proceeds Hrokili vessel to deploy beacons.”

  “So the Karalian vessel left the Hrokili ship.” He watched it again. “I don’t think they have wormhole technology.”

  “So if we can get to the wormhole, we can escape?” she asked; he gave her hope at last.

  “Yes. But the Hrokili ship moves so fast.”

  “Can’t we hide? In amongst the debris here, and then dodge in and out of the star field. We are smaller; it would be like a game of cat and mouse.”

  “But once we a
re in open space, they would simply catch us.”

  “What is the alternative?”

  They had sat amongst the boulder field, resting against one of the bigger rocks, but sooner or later they would have to move.

  “None.”

  “Then let’s try.”

  He shook his head, his eyes glancing her stomach, and she knew what he was thinking, because she was thinking the same thing too. What if they were caught, what if their child was born into slavery?

  “We can do it, Garth. You can do it.” She sounded more confident than she felt, that was for sure. But she also knew there was no other choice.

  He throttled forward, and they weaved in and out of the boulders with the bigger ship shadowing them on the outside. The frustration began to show on his face, and then he made a sudden movement, doubling back on themselves so fast the alien vessel had no time to react. Garth took the opportunity and plunged out into open space, heading for a dense cluster of stars.

  “Let’s try to lose them, and then we make a run for it.”

  The ship wove in and out of the hot clouds of dust they had avoided on the journey here. She was worried it would act like sand on their engine and make it stall. But she had to trust in him and his actions.

  “Are they close?” she asked.

  “No, I think this is our chance, unless that’s what they want us to think, but you are right, we cannot stay here. So we make a run.”

  He throttled forward, and the cruiser, its engines straining, sped out across the open space towards the point where the wormhole was located. Garth kept checking the screen. The alien vessel had not cleared the star field; they were going to make it.

  “Can you prepare to deploy the beacons?” he asked.

  “Yes. If you talk me through it.”

  But before he had a chance, the ship’s computer signalled a proximity warning. The Hrokili were about to make their move. Garth responded quickly, he kept the throttle fully forward, and he hurriedly told Tamzin what to do.

  “Wait. What if this is what they want?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”