The Alien's Claim (A SciFi Alien Warrior Romance) (Warriors of Luxiria Book 8)

by Zoey Draven

“I never knew it could be like this,” she whispered softly.

  “Rebax?”

  “Sex,” she amended, knowing there was a lot about this situation that she hadn’t known could be like this.

  His forehead met her own and he confessed, “I did not know either.”

  His words made her happy. She heard the quiet truth in them.

  “I have heard stories all my lifespan,” he continued quietly as his hand came up and threaded through her hair. It had finally dried from the rain. “But to know now, what it is, is still…stunning.”

  Erin flushed, feeling his touch in her hair. This was so new between them, but for once, Erin didn’t feel all that afraid. There was still a lot that they needed to talk about, a lot that they needed to decide—both independently and together—but…this, their bond, the connection that she’d sensed since the beginning, would guide them, wouldn’t it?

  She thought back to that morning and said, “I’ve never seen you that angry before.”

  It needed to be discussed. Now seemed as good a time as any.

  Jaxor didn’t even tense when she said the words. Erin wondered if she’d fucked the anger out of him, or perhaps, it had been the other way around.

  “You wish to speak about this now?” he asked, the tone of his voice changing slightly. “Or later?”

  Because they would have to talk about it.

  “Now,” she whispered, sliding her hand down his chest to rest on his lower abdomen. He groaned when her fingers brushed his still hard cock. “And if you get angry, I will have a fun way of calming you down.”

  His eyes flashed.

  Erin sobered, licking her lips, tasting him there. She felt physically tired, but mentally invigorated. Like she wouldn’t be able to stand because she was so tired, but she felt like she could tackle the world right then.

  “Very well,” he rasped.

  “I wasn’t leaving,” she said quietly.

  “Then what were you doing in the hovercraft?”

  His body was tensed already and she stroked his abdomen almost unconsciously. “I wasn’t leaving yet,” she amended.

  He growled.

  “I don’t want to lie to you,” she said quickly. “I want to be honest.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “I’ve been practicing piloting the hovercraft,” she admitted. “As a back-up plan.”

  His nostrils flared, his jaw tensing. But he took a deep breath in and held it, waiting for her to continue.

  “You wouldn’t tell me what you had planned for me,” she said. “When I suspected you would still deliver me to the Mevirax, I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to know how to fly it just in case I needed to use it.”

  “Then why did you fly it this span?” he rasped.

  “Because you still haven’t told me anything,” she whispered. He went silent. “Even now, everything still seems so uncertain.”

  “Last night,” he started, “do you remember what you asked me?”

  Erin frowned but nodded. “If you would ask me to stay. Here on Luxiria.”

  “Can you envision yourself living here?” he asked. “With me?”

  “Here?” she asked. “In this place?”

  He nodded.

  “I still don’t have an answer,” she whispered, realizing it was the truth.

  His jaw tightened.

  “Do you?” she asked quietly. “Have your answer, I mean.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. When he spoke, he said, “When I saw you in the hovercraft, I have never felt such fear. Though it was two separate kinds of fear. One for you and one for myself.”

  Her brow furrowed.

  “For you because it is dangerous. I learned how to pilot the xrellexax during warrior training. For ten rotations, I mastered it. It is deceptively difficult to pilot them. If anything had happened to you—”

  He stopped before he finished, his eyes closing. Erin held her breath, feeling a little ashamed now.

  “But you are unharmed,” he said, looking back at her. “By your own skill and perhaps the Fates’ protection also. For that, I am endlessly thankful.”

  She wanted to tell him that she’d barely traveled anywhere on the hovercraft. Only up and then down the tunnel shaft, and she’d taken a small circle around the opening. But now she understood his fear—it had been ignorant of her to believe she could have navigated the hovercraft back to the Golden City with little training or knowledge of how to operate it. It had been foolish and Jaxor had been frightened just thinking of everything that could have gone wrong.

  Obviously, he would know what could have gone wrong. She didn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, running her other hand into his short hair, curling her fingers around the strands. “You’re right, it was foolish of me. It was reckless. I could have gotten hurt.”

  He shivered, but she had a feeling it had nothing to do with her touch and everything to do with the lingering fear he felt.

  “And the second fear, the one that was perhaps more selfish, was that I would never see you again. That you would leave me and not look back,” he admitted gruffly. “That I had wasted my time with you, a gift from the Fates themselves. That you took my life with you, my purpose.”

  “Your purpose?” she whispered, hearing the soft anguish in his voice.

  “To protect you, to cherish you, to love you,” he said and her breath hitched, longing bursting through her at his words. Because she wanted those things, didn’t she? Hadn’t she always desired to be loved and to love in return?

  “Wouldn’t that be my purpose too?” she whispered quietly, her heart thudding.

  “Rebax?”

  “To protect you and cherish you and love you too? To be equal partners in that?”

  He closed his eyes at her words and a lump lodged in her throat. When he finally spoke, it was to say, “I never imagined, in a thousand rotations, that the Fates would tie me to another.”

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “Because of all my mistakes. Because I had turned my back on my family, on my people, on the Fates,” he told her, his voice ragged. “This life was supposed to be my punishment.”

  He didn’t believe that he deserved a life partner. That was what he was telling her. That he had isolated himself here, in this place, as a kind of penance.

  “Jaxor,” she whispered, touching his jaw.

  “I want you,” he rasped. “I want this with you. But I fear that I do not know how to be what you need. Not anymore.”

  “Don’t think like that then,” she told him. “Maybe you’re exactly what I want and what I need, as you are now.”

  “You want me angry?” he asked quietly. “Because you have seen my temper perhaps more than anyone in the past ten rotations.”

  “I like your temper sometimes,” she said softly, truthfully. “Sometimes I like when we fight. I like when we don’t fight too. I like when you smile and I like when you’re a little broody.”

  He frowned, his brows furrowing.

  “My point is that you’re not perfect and I don’t expect you to be, or want you to be. Not for me. Because I’m far from perfect too.” He opened his mouth, like he was going to argue with her, which made her lips quirk and made her kiss him before he could. It silenced him long enough for her to whisper against his lips, “I like you right now, as you are right now. Okay?”

  When he pulled back to look at her, he exhaled a long breath and kissed her again. It was his acceptance.

  “This is all new. For both of us,” she said softly. “For now, let’s just take it one day at a time and see what happens.”

  Jaxor’s arms tightened around her briefly. “No more going to the hovercraft?” he asked, as if he needed to be completely sure. He obviously still worried about the dangers.

  Erin nodded. “I promise I won’t. As long as you’re here in the mornings when I wake up,” she added, tossing him a small smile, wanting to lighten the expression on his face.

  H
is lips quirked in response and a part of her melted at the sight.

  “Then tev, rixella,” he finally said, capturing her lips again. “One span at a time. We can do that.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “This is beautiful,” his female exclaimed, twirling around in the grove in that forgotten place.

  Jaxor had stumbled upon the ancient ruins a few rotations ago. It had been a temple, he guessed, a large one centuries ago, but now, only columns of old facev stone and the pedestal for offerings—or perhaps even sacrifices— remained. Cracked and crumbling. Everything else was overgrown in that place, as if the planet was trying to erase the fact that it had ever been.

  The ruins were not far from his base, a half-span journey, perhaps. They’d been scavenging that morning and afternoon, almost about to turn back when he remembered the ruins were nearby and thought that his female might like to see them.

  “What is this place?” she asked, turning to him, taking his hand in hers, something that seemed to bring her comfort since she’d been doing it often the past few spans.

  Jaxor could hardly take his eyes from her, rubbing at that spot on his chest that always warmed whenever he looked at her.

  “A temple, I believe. A place of worship. Or sacrifice,” he said.

  That pulled her up short. “Sacrifice?”

  His lips quirked. “An ancient place. Remember, our ancestors were a more violent people who revered blood and war.”

  Erin shuddered a little at that. “Right,” she said, looking around the grove with fresh eyes. “Maybe not so beautiful then. But still fascinating.”

  He caught her around the waist, pulling her into him. He tucked his nose into her long, dark hair, inhaling its scent, before he trailed his lips down her neck. She’d been driving him mad all morning. Most of the time in the hovercraft, he’d been tempted to put it on automatic navigation and mate her on the floor of it.

  “We can’t have sex here, you know,” she informed him, her tone teasing.

  He grunted. “Why not?”

  His hand was trailing to the laces of the pants she’d altered for herself. They clung to her like a second skin. He mourned that it wasn’t just a tunic. He couldn’t simply lift up the material and sheath himself inside her, where he always wanted to be, but the thick pants shielded her delicate skin from the cold and Jaxor was happy for it.

  She caught his hand, turning in his arms, pulling away. But she was smiling when she told him, “Because you said it’s a temple. We are not having sex in a temple.”

  His brow rose. Was this another thing about humans he did not understand?

  “I am certain orgies took place here at one time,” he told her. “Sex would be most welcome.”

  Her eyes bulged at that, but she dodged his hands when he made to reach for her again, laughing. He feinted left, but snagged her around the hips when she went right.

  “I can bend you over the pedestal,” he suggested softly in her ear, his heartbeat thundering. She stilled. “It’s a perfect height so I could lick you while you screamed.”

  Even under her thick tunic, Jaxor felt the way her nipples pebbled at his words. They’d hardly spent a moment away from each other for the past five spans. Most of that time, they’d been having sex, or lying in each other’s arms, talking. Jaxor felt he was well-versed in his female’s needs, in the things that turned her on.

  And she had darker desires, fantasies that he loved to indulge in. And Jaxor had them too.

  “I could make you my sacrifice to this place,” he rasped, his hands finally undoing the laces of her pants, his fingers dipping inside the material, finding her sex. “I could punish you too, if you’d like. Bent over the pedestal, you would be at my mercy.”

  Erin gasped when his fingers found her swollen clit. It was a breathy gasp, one that made his cock throb against her backside. And just when he was sliding his fingers between her thighs, she grabbed his wrist and twisted away.

  Jaxor let her go, watching as she retied the laces, though it was with trembling fingers and flushed cheeks. He grinned even though hot lust still coiled deep in his belly.

  When she looked back up at him, she saw his smile and said again, though her voice was shaking and almost unsure, “We are not having sex here.”

  “Very well, rixella,” he murmured, deciding it was apparently a human aversion to have sex in places touched by religion.

  She bit her lip. “But when we get back home, there is that rock by the cave that looks like the pedestal. And we can always pretend.”

  Jaxor wanted to laugh and groan and purr in agreement all at the same time. But what struck him the most was that she’d called his base ‘home.’

  And that word alone filled him with hope, with longing, and possibility. Was it possible that she was beginning to envision a life with him? A future? On Luxiria?

  He’d learned a lot about his luxiva during his time with her. He’d learned that she liked quiet mornings, but that she also liked spending her nights by the fire, watching the flames flicker, wrapped in heavy furs. He’d learned she liked something called ‘ice cream’ back on Earth and that she’d kill for ‘coffee.’ He’d learned that she cried whenever she spoke of her memories of her siblings, of Jake and Ellora, and that she missed them. He’d learned that when she looked at him, deep and soft, he felt whole and right, possibly for the first time in his lifespan.

  Five spans together felt like rotations and Jaxor couldn’t remember a time he’d been happier or more content. As promised, they were taking it one span at a time.

  His voice was guttural as he said, “Tev, we can.”

  But as the spans drew on without incident, so did Jaxor’s worries. There was an unease in Jaxor that he couldn’t shake. It wasn’t only that Tavar’s deadline had passed. By now, the Mevirax leader would know of Jaxor’s betrayal. Without the human females in their possession, they had nothing to bargain with the Jetutians, with Po’grak. Would Tavar retaliate?

  Jaxor also couldn’t stop thinking about Vaxa’an. Before, he’d thought of his blood brother almost every span, but lately, the thought of him was a constant presence in his mind.

  Erin had asked Jaxor if he could mend the broken bond between himself and his brother, would he? Jaxor had replied on instinct. Tev. Of course he would.

  And she’d asked why he hadn’t already.

  In that moment, a thousand reasons why had flooded his mind. A thousand reasons why Vaxa’an would not wish to see him. A thousand reasons why Jaxor could not return to the Golden City—stealing away Erin and Crystal and the attack on their guards adding to that long list.

  In his own mind, bringing the human females to the Mevirax, to the Jetutians, would help his people. He would kill the Jetutian leader responsible for the attack on his race and secure the cure for the virus before Tavar could. That had always been the plan.

  Now, Jaxor was ashamed to admit that he’d barely given the human females a second thought. Not until one of them turned out to be his fated mate.

  Ever since they’d consummated their bond, the guilt was eating him up. How many times had it been on the tip of his tongue to tell her of his deceit? How many times had he wanted to confess that even when he’d first brought her to the base, a part of him was still thinking of giving her up? Of sacrificing her well-being, her future, her life to the Jetutians in exchange for his revenge?

  Sometimes, he was so ashamed he couldn’t look her in the eye.

  And at night, as she slept in his arms, he was plagued by nightmares of darkness, of the dungeons deep below the Caves of the Pevrallix. He was plagued by memories of his blood brother.

  Jaxor watched as Erin turned back to the crumbling temple. He rubbed at that aching spot in his chest again and followed behind her, navigating through stone and dense foliage and the black trees that surrounded it. Again, he was tempted to confess everything in that quiet, eerie place.

  But the words stuck in his mouth and he stayed silent instead.

&nbs
p; “How old is this place?” she asked, trailing her fingers over ancient stone.

  Jaxor tried to see it with her eyes. This strange place. He tried to see what she saw, but couldn’t.

  “I do not know,” he said.

  “How’d you find it?”

  “The circumstances were much like this span,” he said. “I was out looking for supplies and stumbled upon it.”

  “You didn’t have a hovercraft then, though, did you?” she questioned.

  “Nix,” he said. “I had the skimmer then.” The one he’d left behind for Cruxan after he’d stolen his hovercraft. “Even then, most of my travel happened on foot anyways.”

  The past few spans, Jaxor had been lazy. He’d not gone on his patrols, he’d not checked his traps. Instead, he’d barely been able to pull himself from his female, away from their furs in the cave. But that morning, he’d known that in order to keep them safe and secure, he couldn’t spend the day between her thighs again, no matter how much he wanted to.

  The failing shield links were his primary concern, one that had been on his mind since first bringing Erin to his base. They shielded his base overhead, protected it. Which was why Jaxor needed to scavenge for parts to repair them, though he’d mostly picked his way through the wreckage sites he’d found over the rotations. Erin had wanted to accompany him and they’d set off in the early light of morning.

  But the suns were setting low now. Soon, it would be dark and Jaxor hadn’t found the parts he needed. Still, he wouldn’t consider this span wasted. He’d spent it with his rixella, after all, with Luxirian wind in their hair and views that stretched for miles.

  Jaxor had never been happier. He knew that with certainty. It was why he couldn’t shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach that their time was limited. That soon, everything would change.

  Erin looked around the ruins one last time and then looked at him. Her expression softened when she met his eyes—did she even realize that?

  Jaxor didn’t deserve a female like her. She was too good for him. But being with her, being near her, seeing her smile, hearing her melodic laugh, feeling her soft, exploring touch…it made him want to be better. It made him want to be the male that deserved her.