by Calista Skye
Five minutes later, only Ava and Xark'ion were left on the ground along with their shuttle and a white fabric canopy that now had a large blanket on the ground underneath it. On it were cushions, an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne, two crystal flutes and a crystal bowl with strawberries in it.
“Charlotte's squadron will keep the sky clear and keep lookout for ground-based predators. They'll be high up, though. And we'll be under the canopy. It will be as private as you could ever want it.”
Xark'ion just stared. “You prepared this! Along with your friends!”
Ava laughed happily. “You bet. Because like you said, our victory would be complete. As long as you don't take too long. Charlotte says that we'll be totally safe for forty minutes after they leave. There are no predators within miles of here.”
Xark'ion took her into his arms and swung her around while she laughed happily. “You are the perfect wife. You have all my ideas before I have them myself.”
“We're of one mind, my love. What else did you expect from your Mahan?”
He carried her over to the canopy and put her down on the soft blanket. “I expect everything,” he said simply.
“That's appropriate,” Ava said and laid back on the cushions. “You are my everything, after all”.
“That is as it should be,” the warrior said and laid down beside her.
He grabbed the champagne and examined the bottle. “How does one open this?”
“One untwists that metal thing until it loosens, then one holds the cork steady and turns the bottle until- yeah, that works too.”
Xark'ion had taken his sword and slid the edge hard along the side of the bottle, cutting the last inch off the bottle so the fluid exploded out.
Then they lay there with a glass each, for the first time alone as a married couple.
Ava took a sip of the tart drink. She was pregnant, but one mouthful couldn't hurt. “Are you happy, warrior?”
Xark'ion scanned the greenish plains around them. “Yes.”
Ava smiled at his short reply. He wasn't the kind of person who'd gush about emotions. If he was happy, he was happy. “Me too. This kind of reminds me the Garden of Eden we found.”
“The garden of what?”
“I'll tell you later. But my love, have you given any thoughts to where we'll spend our honeymoon?”
“I have,” Xark'ion said. “The space station with the forest inside. Nobody knows about it but the Solp. And they can't get in. We'll bring pleasant food. Perhaps some of this very sparkling fluid. Then we'll be there, all alone, for as long as we want.”
Ava laughed. “Yeah, that's the place I had in mind, too. It's our secret place. The builders are gone and the Solp king probably just wants to leave. We'll bring some shuttles for them. And then we'll mysteriously disappear for a week or so.”
Xark'ion placed his hand under her chin and kissed her lips. “That's a good plan. And now I want to complete this plan.”
The bulge in his pants was unmistakable.
“Yeah, me too.” Ava set her glass down. “Stars, if I'd known you were so full of lust, I'd have pounced on you the first time I saw you.”
“Don't worry,” Xark'ion said and discarded his pants. “We have a lifetime to explore each other's lust.”
“Two lifetimes,” Ava said, hitching her wedding dress over her hips. “One for each of us. Together. Forever.”
Xark'ion laid her down on her back and pulled her panties off. Then he leaned over to kiss her with soft lips that still had a demanding quality.
Ava felt heat pool at her core in anticipation
He looked into her eyes with his green lasers. “Forever.”
- - -
© Calista Skye 2018
Make sure to catch the Epilogue at the end of the book!
- - -
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading my book!
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Happy reading,
Calista
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* * *
Caveman Alien's Ransom: A SciFi BBW/Alien Fated Mates Romance
Being abducted by aliens was never on my bucket list.
But I guess the aliens didn't get that memo, because one night I was beamed aboard a UFO. It dumped me and a bunch of other girls on an alien planet.
A jurassic planet where giant, murderous dinosaurs walk around and everything wants to kill me.
My only hope of surviving is the first man I met here. His name is Jax'zan, and he's an alien.
And a caveman.
As in, the hottest super-alpha caveman who ever lived. He's big and strong and doesn't talk much, but he's saved my life so many times now that I've lost count.
My insides turn to hot mush whenever he fixes his smouldering eyes on me, and the scandalously sexy and unusual features his sensationally muscular body is rocking totally make me forget time and place.
There's only one problem: He's holding me for ransom. And he wants to repopulate his woman-less planet. With me ...
Expect steamy scenes, mysterious aliens with features like adult toys, deadly planets and the love story between a BBW from Earth and a sensationally hot alien warrior.
Full-length romance novel with no cliffhangers and a happy-ever-after ending!
* * *
Fire Planet Warrior's Captive (SciFi BBW/Alien Fated Mates Romance)
Harper Evans always wanted to go to space.
Abducted by creepy aliens, and then crash landing on the planet that everyone just calls the Fire Planet?
Not what she had in mind.
Her only company is an insanely hot alien barbarian warrior who doesn't speak English, but who seems to have a thing for Harper. Because he keeps the worst of the lethal predators on the planet away from her while they're running.
Running from a huge, ferocious wildfire that's catching up with them fast.
The super confident barbarian has some extremely interesting features to his body, and he turns Harper on like no one else ever has.
It's just that he clearly thinks she's his captive. And Harper doesn't mind that as much as she probably should...
Fire Planet Warrior's Captive is a standalone science-fiction romance novel starring a feisty space colonist and a sensationally hot alien warrior with hidden talents.
Expect steamy scenes, funny lines, alien royals, lethal enemies and the barrier-breaking love between a BBW from Earth and an alien barbarian who's convinced that he has finally found his Fated Mate.
Full-length romance novel with no cliffhangers and a happy-ever-after ending!
* * *
Epilogue
Six months later
- Ava -
“There you are!” The queen of Acerex came running with a big smile on her face. “Oh, they're so cuuute!”
“Hi, Harper.” Ava hugged her friend with one arm. In the other she carried Charles Grot'ion, while Xark'ion carried the other twin, Arpe'ria Liliana. “Yeah, I don't know. I'm kind of hoping they'll get cuter than this. Newborns never looked that good to me.”
“Oh, but these are totally adorable! Hiiiiii baby! Can I hold him?”
“Sure.” Ava gave her two week old son over to Harper. “Never knew kids that young could be so heavy.”
Harper gently kissed the infant's cheek. “He's got some heft to him. He's the oldest one, right?”
“By about a minute, yeah.”
“I'm sure he'll try to lord it over his sister, using that as justification. Oh, and what a beautiful sister!”
Harper held one baby and stroked the head of
the other one in Xark'ion's arms. “You two are historical,” she cooed. “The first twins born to an Earth slash Acerex couple.”
Ava straightened her clothing. Even two weeks after the births, she was still feeling bloated and fragile. “And here comes the most historical of all.”
Little Princess Anabel'ia came running on short legs, wearing a very pink dress, curious and moderately happy about her mother giving attention to babies that weren't her siblings.
“Hey, Princess,” Ava said and picked up the toddler, who suddenly became shy and turned her head away. “Happy birthday! You having fun with your baby brother?”
“Oh, she's very interested in the new baby,” Harper said. “But she's a little too young to understand much. Not showing any jealousy yet, which I think is a good thing. But it's only been six months, so who knows.”
Anabel'ia started twisting and wriggling, so Ava let her down to the floor and looked around. “Where is Prince Axar'ton?”
“Oh, sleeping soundly in his room right now, watched by his father. You'd need a crowbar to pry Vrax'ton away from his son. And probably a couple of major armies.”
Ava laughed. “They're pretty adamant about watching their kids, these warrior types.”
“It's a new world for us,” Xark'ion said. “Most warriors never expect to have offspring. Then when it happens, we sometimes get a little overwhelmed.”
“But thankfully it seems you can't overwhelm a baby with fatherly attention,” Ava said. “Because these little things get a lot of that. I can take her, my love.”
Xark'ion handed over little Arper'ia Liliana, then sauntered off in the direction of the other warriors at Princess Anabel'ia's birthday party. It was one of the smaller function rooms on the Friendship, prettily decorated in pink and purple and white. All the kids on the Friendship were there, as well as a few from various Acerex tribes. The noise level was high.
“So how you doing?” Harper said. “You were pretty big the last time I saw you.”
“Yes. I was basically a sphere. These mixed kids are large to start with, and then two of them? Don't get me started. But the doc says it was an easy pregnancy, like they tend to be. Well, they both came out fine and healthy, and that's all I ask.”
Charlotte came walking, took Ava's wrist and squeezed it in greeting, then stroked Lili'ana's head. “And you spent the first two weeks in your quarters.”
“Yeah. I thought, let's give them a soft transition to being out. So for the first two weeks there was only the two of them, Xark'ion and me. Nobody else, except for you guys on short visits. It was the nicest two weeks of my life. This is their first outing.”
“That sounds pretty wonderful,” Charlotte said and cupped her round stomach. “I'll do that with this one. Fuck, these warriors are turning us into breeding machines.”
“They do have that quality,” Harper agreed. “And the thing is, I don't mind it at all. Being knocked up really agrees with me.”
Ava nodded. “It was much less bad than I feared. Even with twins. It's like these guys can do no wrong. First the ... um ... initial process is sensational, and then the pregnancy is easy and mercifully short, and then the birth itself isn't too bad, and then the kids turn out big and healthy and robust. And then they develop so fast the doctors are left speechless.”
“It's a good mix,” Charlotte said. “Earth and Acerex. So far, anyway.”
Lily came up to them and kissed the newborns. “Hey, you. Everything okay still, Ava?”
“Yep. No complications. The doctor is getting bored with me. And yourself?”
Lily was clearly pregnant again. “Oh, same old. Everything developing fine. I'm not complaining. So. Here we are. All four of us. Married and with babies or in a family way. Alive, even. We must have done something right. Never thought my stint in Space Expansion would end up like this.”
“And our endless wars seem to be over,” Harper said. “Thanks to Ava.”
“And Xark'ion and Lily and Charlotte,” Ava added. “And you, Harper. And Space Expansion. I didn't do that alone.”
“How are the Kunuru these days?”
Ava gently hitched her daughter higher up on her chest to get a better grip. “They're very old and tired. They knew they were close to the end. That's why they agreed so willingly to the peace and friendship. They'd been trying to eradicate everyone else for centuries. First by themselves, then by forcing others to fight for them.”
Charlotte snorted. “Such a useless bunch of losers. Will they change their ways? I mean, the younger ones?”
Ava shrugged. “There are no younger ones. They can't procreate. One of the first things they did after their religion took hold was to kill all their own females. Their god felt that women were inferior, and in order to cleanse the universe they had to get their own house in order first, so to speak. So they've been only males since before they began killing other species. Now they realize they'll never get there. And they want to rest before they all die. Get some joy out of however many years remain for them. They're long lived. But nobody lives forever. These who remain were only small children when their kind started to kill.”
Lily frowned. “They killed all their own women?”
“Every single one. That's why they tried to eradicate the Acerex women, too. They thought that a species with only males would become more aggressive, the way they did themselves. So that the Acerex would kill other species for them.”
“Feels like they should be punished in some way,” Charlotte growled.
“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “They forced fifty damn species to fight for them, threatening them with extinction. And they did straight up eradicate at least two civilizations.”
“They're undoubtedly guilty of genocide on a massive scale,” Ava agreed. “But there's only seventeen of them left in the whole universe. We've disarmed them completely. And now they're willingly spending all their time in their ammonia pools on a distant moon. If they start stirring again, we'll come down on them like a ton of steel. And then I think we'll just finish them off. They'll be extinct before long anyway.”
“Still,” Charlotte said, “shouldn't we show the world that we rid them of the Kunuru danger? Have some trials or something really public before they get to relax in their plunge pools?”
“I don't think we want that,” Ava said calmly. She had thought a lot about her policies as the new president of Space Expansion. “We don't want other species to think of Earth as the space police. If something like this happens again, we'll talk. We'll be discreet. We'll solve the problems without a shot being fired. In secret, if that's at all possible. We're not in space to build a hegemony or an empire. We want peaceful lives in a peaceful galaxy. We don't want to rule it.”
“We'll be the oil that smoothens the relationships between alien species,” Lily said. “I like it.”
“But will we have something else to fall back on if talking fails?” Charlotte said. “Because sooner or later, it will fail.”
Ava smiled. “It will. I know that. You once said we should reach out a hand first, but keep a huge gun in the other one. Well, we'll do something like that. A third of the Space Expansion budget will go towards advanced weapons. Turns out that diplomacy is easier if you can credibly back your words up with at least the possibility of force. But the threat of force will never be first. It will never be second. Or third. It will always be the last thing we do. Always. And only in the most crucial cases.”
“That works for me,” Harper said. “Some peace will do us all good. The Acerex are still wrapping their heads around the fact that they're no longer at war. But they're doing well. They will explode with development and prosperity now that they can channel their energies into something other than a desperate fight for survival. Meanwhile, I see the exalted royal birthday girl is yawning. She'd better blow out the candles on her cake before she's out cold.”
“I'll take him,” Ava said and accepted Charles Grot'ion back into her free arm. She'd become expert at carrying two
babies at one time, but at the rate they were growing, it wouldn't be many more months before that would no longer work.
But of course Xark'ion was there in a flash, and Ava handed their son over to him as the whole room started singing Happy Birthday to You.
“So this is an Earth birthday party,” her husband said tightly. “Remind me never to tell anyone when my birthday is.”
“You don't want to be celebrated like this?” Ava said with mock surprise. “With pink and purple balloons and little kids running around? And the singing? These are all vital Earth traditions. Later there will be a magician! Of course you'll want that when you turn 29.”
Xark'ion grit his teeth together. “Good Spirits. And what is that thing in the middle? With the little lights on?”
“That's the most important part! It's the cake. Note how Anabel'ia blows out the candles. It's a vital skill that takes years of training. Just look. Well, sometimes you need another try ... yeah, you'd think with only two candles it should be possible to get them both with a couple of passes. Okay, another attempt. Nope. See how hard it is? Don't worry, for your birthday I'll help you blow them out like Harper is doing right now. Finally. Yaaayyy, go Anabel'ia! Now clap your hands for that wonderful feat of lip coordination and lung control.”
“This Earth ritual is ... not warrior-like.”
“Oh, but it is. You guys totally need to learn how to fight fires instead of just running ahead of them and getting married behind them. And these are just very tiny fires. Nothing like the Fire Planet at all. But I guess you have to start somewhere.”
“So many rituals in Earth society,” Xark'ion groaned. “The wedding ritual. The cake ritual. The kiss-and-make-up ritual. The coffee ritual.”
“I thought you liked that last one.”
“It's nice,” Xark'ion admitted. “Especially the final segment.”
“The sexing,” Ava agreed. “Yeah, that's my favorite part, too.”
Just the thought of it got her girly parts tingling. After they put the twins to bed, then maybe ...
Then she smiled. Everybody was in this room. Harper and Vrax'ton and their two kids. Lily and Ravex'ton with the unruly Zekax'ton, Charlotte and Cori'ax with their Elerea Blaze. And Xark'ion and herself, with their twins. Charles Groti'on named after Charlotte and Groti'ax, then Arper'ia Liliana named after Harper and Lily. It was only appropriate. They all had a part in this.
