KRAL: A sci-fi alien romance (Mail-Order Brides of Crakair Book 4)

by Ava Ross

  Five hundred seclars. Five hundred seclars.

  “Running out,” she finished.

  Could he somehow pry the door open? Sheathing his sword on his back, he stepped forward. He wedged his fingers into the slender gap and strained, his muscles bulging and the cords in his neck standing out sharply.

  Turning, Mila hugged the meerdreg closer, fretting. “Can you do it? Please,” she whispered. “We need to find a way through there and get to a ship.”

  “I…do not…know.” He pulled harder, but it would not give.

  The meerdreg called Chee-chee hopped from Mila’s arms, yelping when it landed on its injured leg. It limped over to a small panel below the keypad, and with its claws, pried off the cover. It climbed inside and scrambled through the wires.

  The door to the airlock slid open.

  “Whoa,” Mila said. She stooped down and tucked her hand into the opening in the wall to stroke the meerdreg. “Chee-chee, thanks! You’re the best monkey in the world.”

  The meerdreg chirped as it hopped out of the hole and back into her arms.

  She stood and took Kral’s hand. “Lead the way? We need to get out of here.”

  Four hundred seclars. Four hundred seclars. Abandon the station immediately.

  “Doing it,” she said as he tugged her forward.

  The lizzers and meerdregs followed en masse. They glided around the couple, pouring toward one of the shuttles.

  “Let’s take that one,” Mila said, pointing to a sleek model. “It’s sporty. Always wanted to ride in a Maserati, and this is as close as I’m going to get.”

  The meerdregs and lizzers rushed toward two of the shuttles.

  “Where are they going?” she asked. “They need to come with us.”

  The last thing he wanted was to ride in a small spaceship with two large groups of deadly creatures.

  He’d be prosecuted if he brought them to Crakair.

  “They are indigenous to Yarris,” he said. “Perhaps that is where they should go?”

  “They can’t fly a ship themselves.”

  “I will…” He ran to a control panel on their left, and his hands flew across the dials. The hatch to the shuttles closest to them slid open as did the hatch to the small star cruiser Mila had selected. “I will program the ships to take them to Yarris.”

  Three hundred seclars. Three hundred seclars. Abandon the space station. Abandon the space station.

  Behind them, a cluster of Al’kieern banged on the outer airlock door Kral had closed.

  “Should we help them?” Mila asked, worrying her lower lip with her small, white teeth.

  “Not until we have secured our escape.”

  Two hundred and seventy-five seclars. Two hundred and seventy-five seclars.

  “We need to leave,” she said with panic in her voice. “Can we get off the station before it blows?”

  “All we can do is try.” He snatched up her hand as he rushed toward the star cruiser. “I added a delayed opening to the airlock door. This…should work.”

  The meerdregs cheeped and jumped into a shuttle.

  “What about you, Chee?” she asked the meerdreg she held. “You with us or your friends?”

  He clung tighter to her neck.

  “Okay, then. Hold on!”

  Behind them, the Al’kieern continued to bang, and their cries grew desperate.

  Why did Kral care if they died? They’d been a part of the kidnapping, even if they hadn’t orchestrated it themselves. They wouldn’t show him sympathy if their positions were reversed. And they’d happily kill him and auction Mila off, given another chance. For all Kral knew, they had plans to kidnap other Earthling matches, and freeing them would facilitate that action.

  But the approval in Mila’s eyes meant the world to him. That was why he’d made the effort.

  He and Mila rushed up the ramp and into the cruiser, and the hatch closed behind them. The meerdreg leaped from Mila’s arms. It hobbled ahead of them and turning a corner, it continued out of view.

  “Chee-chee?” Mila called, and the meerdreg chirped but didn’t join them. “Hmm. While I’m happy he’s coming with us to Crakair, I’m surprised. I’d think he’d want to return to his home planet.”

  Kral shrugged. The animal had helped them. If it wanted a home on Crakair with them, he would welcome the creature into their dwelling. He doubted the Crakairian Council would care about one meerdreg.

  “Where should we go?” Mila asked as they moved through the small airlock and into the main part of the ship.

  “Bridge,” he bit out, pulling her to the right when they hit the hall. They tumbled into the small cabin in the front of the ship as the station continued to chant out the countdown.

  Two hundred seclars. Two hundred seclars. Safety can only be achieved by putting a klek’s distance between your shuttle and the station and beyond fifty seclars. Repeat. Safety will only be achieved with one klek distance beyond fifty seclars.

  Fifty? Heille.

  He dropped down into the commander’s chair while Mila strapped into the one beside. A few taps and Kral had accessed the controls.

  The door to the station’s main airlock opened, and the shuttles carrying the meerdregs and lizzers flew past. Through the front windows, he spied meerdregs perched in the chairs and on the control panels. He hoped they didn’t mess up the autopilot he’d programmed into their craft.

  Chee-chee joined him and Mila, hopping up on the dash to wave.

  Everyone assumed the creatures were simple primates, but Kral had to wonder. Chee-chee had shown considerable thought process.

  Kral was grateful they’d been here to help him and Mila get away. They must have been captured on the surface of Yarris since they and the lizzers were rarely found outside this part of the galaxy.

  As he eased the ship away from the boarding dock, he caught the Al’kieern rushing toward a shuttle, telling him the delayed airlock opening sequence he’d arranged had worked. They’d either make it out of the station or not. He couldn’t concern himself with them any longer.

  He carefully guided the star cruiser into line behind the meerdreg shuttle, and the inner door closed behind them. Once the pressure had stabilized, the outer door opened, and both ships shot out, heading toward the stars.

  “Go,” he ground out, leaning forward. His naanans flared around him as he pushed the ship to its fastest cruising speed. Hyper drive would be useless until he had time to map out a route that would keep them from hitting anything the moment they shot through the galaxy.

  Chee-chee hopped off the dash and, with a parting screech, limped down the hall, leaving the bridge.

  Kral’s inner countdown told him they had ten seclars to reach the minimum one klek’s distance needed for safety.

  It wasn’t going to be enough time.

  Thirteen

  Mila

  “Are we going to make it?” Mila asked Kral. From the way he strained forward, as if he would push the ship from behind if he could, she had a feeling it was going to be close.

  “We will try,” he bit out.

  Not the most assuring statement, but she’d take it.

  To their right, the other two shuttles dove toward Yarris.

  “Bye, Firefly,” she whispered, her hand lifted in a wave. Frowning, she placed her palms against her head as his message came through.

  May starsss alwaysss be there to guide, friend, Firefly said in her mind. Always welcome in lizzer tribe. When you meet, tell them I, Treessse, say you receive clear passssage.

  Thank you, she replied in her mind, then aloud. “May the stars always be there to guide you, too.” Her throat choked off, and she blinked fast to keep her damn tears from forming. With a sniff, she turned to Kral. “He said goodbye. He’s a sweet little guy.”

  Kral’s jaw unhinged. “How do you know he said goodbye?”

  “We communicate telepathically.”

  “How is this possible?”

  “It just is.” She watched the
shuttles taking Treese, his friends, and the other monkeys to Yarris. “I would’ve liked to get to know him better. He was interesting. But I haven’t lost everyone.” Damn, she shouldn’t be dwelling on loss—again. “Chee-chee decided to come with us.”

  “You have not lost me,” Kral said gruffly, bringing a shaky smile to her face.

  “For that,” she said. “I am extra grateful.”

  “You amaze me,” he said.

  “By making friends?”

  “By finding friendship with creatures others fear with good reason.”

  “Why?” But she knew. Her smile slipped as she remembered them killing the Al’kieern. “They’re lethal little buggers, aren’t they? Treese, who I call Firefly, was pinned to the ceiling above me when I first woke on the space station. I helped him get free.”

  “The Al’kieern often use other creatures to fulfill a need.”

  “They had lights they could use instead. Why hurt someone when you don’t have to?”

  He shrugged. “Some do not think of others when they should.”

  “They were going to eat Chee-chee. I rescued him from a cage in the kitchen. I still need to splint his leg. I believe he has a hairline fracture, but I can help it heal so he won’t always have a limp.”

  “As I said, you are amazing.”

  “I only do what anyone else would.”

  “Do you?”

  Sure, she did. Right?

  Facing forward, she watched as a third ship jettisoned to Yarris. “You gave the Al’kieern an equal chance to live.” What they chose to do with it from here on, she couldn’t know, but she hoped they’d reconsider their actions and how they impacted others. They should stick with developing Yarris and leave Earth women and other creatures alone.

  Kral lifted his hands off the controls and leaned back in his chair, telling her he’d done all he could to get them out of this tenuous situation. Fate would be the one to decide what came next.

  While panic should be setting in, urging her to run, she only felt sorrow.

  She held out her hand, and Kral took it, bridging the small gap between their chairs, between them. He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers, his fangs grazing across her sensitive skin.

  Her breath caught. One simple touch and he lit her on fire.

  They hadn’t had enough time. Sure, they’d been able to talk. He’d courted her and made her laugh.

  He’d helped her escape the ship.

  Now there was nothing they could do but wait to be blown to bits. It was wrong, but at this moment, there was no chance for right.

  They hadn’t even shared a real kiss, one full of emotion.

  She wanted it. Wanted him, even though she’d only recently met him. They’d connected from the first moment, and she knew the more time they spent together, the more their souls would weave into one.

  Love? She still wasn’t sure about that yet, but she knew deep in her heart she could care a lot for Kral, given the chance.

  Would she have that opportunity?

  “What do we do now?” she asked, the pain of potential loss splintering her voice. The words jerked out of her.

  “We have forty seclars before the station explodes.”

  “Are we one klek away?”

  “I do not know.” Anxiety came through in his voice, and his sekairs lifted in defensive mode. Shit, he was afraid they wouldn’t make it. He was trying to protect her like he had from the moment he met her.

  She didn’t want her last forty—no, make that thirty—seclars alive to be spent sitting in a chair wondering what she was missing. Unbuckling, she got up and strode to his chair. She climbed up onto his lap, straddling his waist.

  “I want to kiss you for real,” she said softly. “There isn’t time for anything else, but we can have this.”

  His hands went around her waist, and he tugged her closer. “Mila.”

  “Twenty seclars,” she said.

  “My mate…”

  His naanans glided along the nape of her neck and tugged her closer still.

  She cupped his shoulders as his mouth met hers, tentatively at first as she’d expect from the stoic Crakairian male who’d tumbled on top of her when she lay in her bath.

  His lips were firm yet tender, but she wanted more. She needed to feel…for one last time.

  Desperation fed their fire, turning it into a roaring blaze.

  His tongue met hers, and she moaned. Groaning, he deepened their kiss, giving her a taste of what might have been. They’d come so close.

  Why did life have to be unfair?

  His naanans stroked her shoulders and teased along the sides of her breasts.

  When the world exploded outside the ship, he grunted and wrapped his arms securely around her. If it was physically possible, he’d protect her from all harm. Would the world rip them apart?

  The ship shook, and they continued to kiss. In her touch, Mila shared all her hopes and uncertainty, plus the dreams she’d started to build around a future together.

  Tears stung in her eyes, and her breathing grew ragged as the ship was tossed into space. The craft tumbled like a toy thrown by an angry child, and she was nearly wrenched from Kral’s arms, but he held true, keeping her safe even as the vessel shuddered and creaked around them.

  The lights dimmed, then resurged. Dimmed again.

  She kept kissing him, determined that if they died this moment, it would be like this, linked as one.

  The lights brightened, and in the echoing silence, only a subtle tick from the dash reached her.

  They broke apart, though they remained locked in each other’s arms.

  “Did we make it?” she asked, her soft words breaking the hush. “Or are we dreaming?”

  “We have made it.” He bared his fangs, and his eyes gleamed with happiness he’d only hinted at so far, as if, while kissing, he’d also seen the future they could share. “No dream, my mate.”

  Her smile was so big, it made her cheeks ache. “Your mate, huh? You’ve called me that before.”

  He cocked one eyebrow, and his naanans continued to stroke her nape. One teased along the side of her breast, making heat burst inside her. “Are you not my mate?”

  “I think I am.” Her face overheating, she leaned in close. “Do I get to call you mate, too, or is there another term Crakairian women use instead?”

  His eyes gleamed. “Mate will do nicely.”

  “We’re free, right? Safe for the first time since I was kidnapped from the ship.” She couldn’t believe it was over, that all she had to think about now was her new life on Crakair with Kral.

  “We are free.”

  “What happens next?”

  “We need to ensure we’re safe here on the ship, and I need to program the controls to take us to Crakair.”

  “How much time will it take to get there?”

  “At hyper drive? Approximately five daelas.”

  “Gee. What will we do to pass the time?” She hadn’t intended the words to come out enticingly, but her face grew hot all over again. She wasn’t practiced with this seduction stuff.

  He pressed his fist against his chest. “I will take this time to finish courting you.”

  Her spine tingled at the thought of her lying spread out in front of him, his hands—no, his mouth—between her legs. Why was she going in that direction now? She should be thinking about the regular courtship stuff, like foot emulsion—whatever that was. And him cooking for her in a garlong.

  He had mentioned the ancient Vikir tradition of courtship orgasms…

  Was a woman supposed to ask a Crakairian—Vikir—male to break with modern ways and take her back in time for the good stuff? She sighed, unsure how she could bring it up. Then she side-eyed him. “About these courtship rituals. How are you going to pull them off on a foreign spaceship?”

  He leaned around her and pressed some buttons on the control panel before sitting back in the chair and grinning. “You may have noticed that I, your Vikir warrior mate, a
m very good at improvising.”

  Damn, he was hot when he smiled. She hadn’t had time to notice, but now it seemed there would be plenty of time for her to see things like that. She wanted to get to know him better, to find out what made Kral tick.

  Okay, she wanted to give him a courtship orgasm. She squirmed on his lap as heat shot through her. Did she dare act boldly? She never had with a guy before.

  She’d heard some of the other Earth women hurried their courtship because they couldn’t keep their hands off their Crakairian male, and she understood the drive. Kissing him had been enough to make her eager to drag him off to bed, assuming there was a bed on this ship.

  “The ship is now on course,” he said, pulling his hands back. He dropped them onto her hips and tugged her close. “Would you like to begin your courtship now?”

  This was it. All her fear and worry that they wouldn’t survive long enough to fall for each other burst through her. She could hold on to the bravery her father had taught her, or she could slink away and hide.

  Mila hated to hide.

  “What would you say about using a few of the old Vikir courtship traditions?”

  His eyes lit on fire. “You…” When he shook his head, his naanans flared out before settling on her shoulders. “I would very much love to explore my ancient traditions.”

  Her lips quirked up on one side. “It seems to me we’re missing out on the first, biggest tradition.”

  He leaned in close and grazed his fangs along her neck. “Mila. I would kill to give you an orgasm.”

  How could a girl turn down an offer like that? Rising, she scooted to the back of the bridge and shut the door. No need to have Chee-chee announce himself at an important moment.

  She returned and stood in front of Kral.

  Keep being bold.

  A few tugs and she’d pulled her shirt over her head. She wore nothing underneath but her skin.

  He gulped, and his hand lifted but didn’t touch.

  She stepped forward until his fingers could trace her breast.

  “This mound. Beast—breast,” he corrected quickly. He flashed her a look of wonder before focusing on her breasts. “This fibrous, glandular tissue. It feels…It arouses me.”