by Amanda Milo
Arokh doesn’t answer me though. He kisses me – hard – and takes off with me to our room.
“Hey!” I squawked indignantly when he let me go over the bed, making me bounce.
Then he dropped on top of me.
“Arokh! I need to peek in on Beth, see that she’s alright-“
“After,” he might have grunted.
“Excuse me?” I narrowed my eyes at him. It’s all I can do, really, because he has my wrists pinned on either side of my head, and his body is pinning mine.
“Wow, someone’s becoming bossy – and a caveman and-“
And that’s when he starts rubbing me.
No, not in that sexy way. Well, not in the sexy way earthlings would be familiar with. No, he drags his cheek across mine, licks down my neck, snuffles my chest, finds all the ticklish spots on my sides and belly, making the skin over my abdomen flutter and I can’t help the girlish shrieks that start to erupt. “Ah! Not this again! That tickles! Oh! Enough, enough, Uncle!”
That stops him.
“What?” He growls.
“It’s um, a human saying. It’s what you say when you want someone to stop tickling you.”
Another grunt that could be “Why?” His hands still have my wrists pinned. I’ve never been held down quite like this before, where I simultaneously feel so powerless and yet… I can feel him hard against my thigh. I can see the devotion on his face. The way he pins me but isn’t hurting me, not even bruising me?
I’m ready to fan myself.
But I can’t.
Because I’m being held down by a huge, hot, territorial male.
“I don’t know why. Now you have me questioning if there is some disturbing, incestuous connotation to it though. We’ll never know now! Anyway. Feel better now that you’ve smeared me in… secretion?”
I guess he lost even the ability for one-grunt answers because he simply starts kissing me again, and only lets go of my hands long enough to yank up my skirt. I feel the back of his hand brushing against me as he desperately works to free himself from his suit.
Snarling a little, yanking at the fly. The way his muscles bunch in his arm, oooh.
Slowly, carefully, I reach up and grab a horn in each hand and when he stills, and his eyes roll to look into mine, I say firmly, “I'm not going anywhere.”
He looks adorably confused, his brow scales bunching.
I grin.
“It's an expression. What I’m saying is; I'm with you. You are mine. I am yours. Forsaking all others: you are the only alien I want, the only alien I will ever want - heck I've never felt so... so cared for before you, even with my own ‘kind’,” I finger quote on that last word, and his eyes dart from my eyes, to my left hand, to my right hand, examining my motion, puzzling it out like he does - or trying to.
“Mine,” he finally growls, his voice so low I feel the thrum of the word between my legs.
“Yes!” I gasp.
If I thought he was desperate before? Now Arokh is in a frenzy.
And doesn’t that just make a girl’s toes curl? Having a guy go insane because he loves you so much he just has to rock your world. Again. Oh-so-good for the ego.
We lay there, still catching our breath, when he lifts himself up enough to retrieve that blanket, and pull it over us. He then proceeds to tuck me in with it. Like it means the world to him. So carefully, that it makes my eyes sting. I sigh, completely content. “I love this blanket,” I mumble as I pet over the bright, pretty colors.
He goes still, and closes his eyes.
“Arokh?”
He looks at me – and suddenly, he has the biggest, happiest smile. “What is it, babe?”
He covers my hand, and now we are both looking at the blanket’s bright, pretty colors. His finger traces along one of the patterns. “These blankets cannot be bought, can’t be copied, and are priceless.”
“How is it that they can’t be copied? With the technology to travel through space, are you saying they haven’t figured out a way to pump out mass produced fabrics?”
He shook his head. “Of course fabrics are made in mass quantity. But it is impossible to make these.”
He tapped on one of the sort of oblongish shapes, one of the shiny ones that was sewn in pairs into each square pattern.
“What are they?”
“Scales.”
“Scales?” I looked at him blankly. Fabric plus dragon do not compute in my mind. What is he saying?
“My parents each selected scales, ones with the greatest luster, and perfect edges. They then gave their scales to my sister. This one is my Sire’s,” he points to a beautiful purple-black shape. “And this one,” he moves his finger tenderly over the blue shape next to it. “This is my Dam’s.”
“Wow,” I breathe.
He nods.
I look at them all. So many. I reach for a beautiful red scale, and run my thumb over its smoothness. “All these colors… this is a family tree blanket! Amazing.”
“Mmhmm. And this is writing,” he points to squiggly and bold flowing lines I had thought were just more decoration, “that identifies who the scales belonged to, so that a mate will know the parentage of her courter, and be proud to choose him.”
At this, he looks at me quickly. “I do not care if you are unfamiliar with my family.” Then he quickly adds, “But we are-”
I pull him to me by a horn. “Hey. If each one of these was half as amazing as you, then your family must be the biggest,” I punctuate the word with a kiss, “strongest,” another kiss, “bravest warriors ever,” I hold my lips to his this time.
“Our offspring won’t have a scale from you, but I will sew the words on myself, I will sew words of your beauty, and your resilience, and-”
For the record, when your man wants to list all your many, amazing attributes?
You let him.
When he finishes, he looks resolute. “That way, our sons will have your legacy for their intendeds to see.” He draws me closer to him, holding me tight before he whispers, “You don’t have to worry; our sons will find great happiness just as I have.”
Oh. Aww! Wow. “Arokh…” and my voice sounds a little watery.
“Hush, sweetness. Do not fret about this.” And he kisses me. And I love it that he doesn’t fret about this, and he is trying to make sure that I don’t. And I have to set aside the fact that we could be making a litter right now (!) since I am not sure my birth control works against alien warrior, or for how long my birth control will be effective depending on how long it took for me to go from abducted-to-auctioned.
(!!)
I’ll have to ask Beth how far along she was before she woke up alien-side. That will give us the timeframe…
I have to shake allll that away. Because I am happy. I am happy that Arokh is happy. There isn’t a way to go home, and I have gone all my adult life hoping for what I have right here in his arms (the love between us, not the horns and fire, I can tell you I did not know to look for that or I’d have saved myself a whole lot of crap relationships), afraid I’d never find it because there are a shit-ton of jerks and I think I dated every one of them.
So I know.
I know Arokh is something special.
If he were a human guy?
I’d chain him in my basement and never let him go.
Hmm. That was supposed to sound romantic, but even in my head that leans a few rolls of duct tape too close to the creeper side. I squeeze Arokh back, and squirm underneath of him until he gives us both what we need.
28
AROKH
I massage the back of her neck. I felt such a tender ache for her, something that couldn’t be sated by the act of mating. It was more. I kissed her. And kissed her. And then I drew back, still holding her so that she looked into my eyes.
“My brothers will be so…”
I shot up in bed.
“My brothers!”
I looked at her, instinct warring inside me. This was exactly why mated pairs disap
peared for weeks after the mating feast – I didn’t want us to leave this bed. The instinct drove me to keep her nested with me, to breed with her until we were both sated, and just the smell of other males nearby makes me feverish to lay claim to her.
Again.
But I must reassure my family of my safety. Call off their search for me. I finally had the means to do it.
“I have to send a Comm. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it right away - we must to go to the bridge. Quickly.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, things were a little crazy there with a baby being born and all. It’s okay, babe. I’m with you.”
Creator, I loved her.
She rose and dressed – but this time, she pulled on the mating blanket to wear. I felt my hearts expand and I helped her belt it around her neck and waist.
Then she pushed her forelock out of the way and thrust her front out. “About to be near other males, right? So I know how this goes. I’m ready: lick me!”
I loved this female.
29
ANGIE
“Arokh! Thank the Creator! We’ve been waiting for you to signal us,” the male I met at the auction boomed. “We searched everywhere for you two, and then we finally got word that two hobs created a bit of a stir when they marched off with a Gryfala and her big gladiator guard. We hoped that was you.”
“We?”
“When I delivered our dear little sister home safe, I dumped that pod ship-“
Arokh sneered.
“-for Zadeon’s vessel. And it’s a good thing too, because we ended up needing the space and it’s the only thing stronger than he is,” he muttered that last part.
“What did you need the space for?”
The hologram grinned so big I was blinded by white, white fangs. He tugged someone into the holo-viewer with him.
A human someone.
“Hi!” she waved, and now I was being crazy possessive because I was secretly pleased when Arokh only politely nodded but kept his arms around me instead of waving back. Okay, it wasn’t such a secret. I loved it and I wanted him to know it and his arms were around me but my hands were free.
So I reached back to squeeze his ass in silent thanks.
He grunted, surprised, so I did it again and I felt him growing hard at my back.
“Nice to see another human,” I returned, “that makes four of us safe!” And I felt relieved. And hopeful for the others. Man, these Rakhii were awesome human-hunters. That planet had been huge.
“Make that five then – we've got another girl on this ship.” But the smile had taken a dive off of her face.
And all Arokh’s brother’s teeth were no longer showing.
Just his fangs.
“What is the matter?” Arokh asked slowly.
“When Zadeon came upon a female, she was…”
“Getting passed around by mean-ass aliens,” the woman finished grimly.
I shuddered.
Arokh’s embrace had tightened from affectionate to protective - and reassuring. “Go on.”
“He killed them all, and brought her back to the ship but… she isn’t responding well.”
Arokh made one of those noises that vibrated in his big cute nose. “That is tragic.”
“Yeah, and every time she has a nightmare and starts screaming, he completely loses it,” the woman added with a grimace.
His brother shook his head. “I was afraid that if he didn’t stop, he’d do damage to the ship. I tried to lock him down.”
Arokh winced.
His brother twisted slightly, showing damaged scales that were a darker color, and not as shiny. “I’ve never been able to best him, and this time was no different.”
“How did you stop him from tearing the ship apart then?”
“I told him he was terrifying the females. He just… it was like a switch flipped. And then he chained himself in cargo.”
“Is the hurt female alone? Is that safe?”
“She’s as okay as she can be,” his brother’s woman said. “She snuck into the cargo hold and is staying near Zadeon. Sometimes we hear him talking quietly to her, and she hasn’t had a panic attack in awhile. It seems like a good sign.”
A high pitched wail suddenly sounded. Then a roar, followed by a crash.
His brother sighed. “Reset.”
“Um… aren’t you going to go check on them?”
The woman’s face twisted in wry amusement. “Trust us. It’s better if we don’t. He calms down much faster if it's just the two of them.”
“No perceived threats that way,” agreed the brother.
“What happens now?”
“We were hailed by a hob ship a few clicks before you Commed. It seems that they have a human female also, and are looking to band together with Rakhii for greater odds of protection. They took her from some very rich Luvuuds and are watching their backs for retaliation. They had many questions for my woman, and their female was greatly relieved to clarify a few things with one of her people.” He hesitated, then added, “I thought it might be a good idea to go somewhere where we could all discuss safely, where the women could commune and where all of the males caring about them could also. There is much to learn. ...I have already set something in motion.”
Arokh made a reverberating call – again, from his nose. That was so beyond weird. And scary sounding, no matter how many times he assured me it wasn’t always threatening. His brother even seemed to take that as assent, and they began to talk logistics.
Thus, those of us that had been rescued from that auction pen were reunited and that was great.
It just didn’t go exactly as planned.
30
ANGIE
After the boys agreed to visit this shindig, I barely had time to wave to Beth before the males were ushering us into seats and strapping us (and Baby) into harnesses for atmospheric touch down safety. I was only feeling a little nauseous - but I didn’t puke, thanks to Beth’s Resale Technicians: they had all the goods. One of which was a chewable tablet that tasted like socks but kept my cookies down. I gripped Arokh’s hand and didn’t let go even after the ship powered down, after we lined up and left down the ramp, and definitely not when we stepped onto purple dirt and were surrounded by aliens. Lots, and lots, and lots of aliens. And peeking out, I spotted a few humans, all tucked affectionately into the sides of or protectively kept behind a male.
It was quiet for so long that I was almost bouncing with nerves. And eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. “What now?” I hiss-whispered to Arokh.
He eyed me, then looked back at the crowd. “We wait for the G-… humans to tell us.”
“Oh.” I waited too. And I looked around, knowing one of us needed to emerge as a leader, so I waited.
And waited.
Then I had that feeling - that trepidatious feeling you get when you just know that moment before the magician on stage is going to pick you out of everyone sitting in the rows to drag you up in front of the crowd – so I decided to just girl-up and go for it.
“Hi everybody!” I was sure that I shouted it for the gathering to hear, but for all the volume I thought I had, I might as well have been miming. I cleared my throat and stepped forward – and heck no I still did not let go of Arokh.
“We’re gathered here today,” oh geez, I thought, this isn’t a wedding.
The sound of feminine titters - what an odd word - flared up quietly. “Um… “ Don’t say ‘um’! I could feel my face heating and all of the rules for giving speeches junior high through high school came zooming over me. I once had this bitch of a teacher, who used to-
I felt Arokh squeeze my hand.
That made me feel a little braver, and that made me realize that nobody knew me. I could pretend to be brave, and for once, don the take-charge kind of personality, like a cloak. Uber confidence: meet me. I took a week of drama 101, before I’d dropped it for a ceramics class. I could do this. I tried to pick out the humans in the crowd with my gaze. It wasn’
t that it was difficult to tell them apart, more like it was difficult to see them behind their males. “Look. We’re here so we can compare notes and discuss plans. Cover all those questions that you have and see if we can answer them. Uh, let’s see… do all the women have translators?” I looked around at all the different – some of them very different – looking aliens. “And do the translators work for all languages by chance, or will only a few alien tongues be making sense?”
One woman began making her way through the throng, and instead of holding onto her alien’s hand, he had ahold of her. He was a great big male, and he gripped her above her elbow, like he was afraid if he let her go, someone else would swoop in and take her. A glance around and I noticed a lot of hungry, hungry looks from the males that had no female and I thought this guy had the right idea. Provided that he was a good alien to her, of course. He looked agitated, and protective, but he’d taken the time to show up here to get help with his girl. That had to be a good sign, right?
“How do I get one of these translators?” she asked, and I tried to place her accent. African, maybe? “I desperately need to communicate,” she said, and gestured to the guy that loomed over her as he glared down all the slavering others eyeing his girl. “He hasn’t hurt me but… but we are having difficulties.”
I cut the air with my hands. “Oh yeah. I know exactly how that is.”
Arokh frowned down at me.
I patted his arm. “You’re awesome, hon.”
He snorted, but after a moment more of stroking his skin, he appeared to be appeased.
I looked back at my team. “Do we have translators to pass out?”
One of Beth’s men looked over the women that were now coming forward since the seal of awkward had broken. “We can equip a few. For a price.”
Beth rolled her eyes, and I figured she’d heard this expression before. If you get into bed with five black-market-wizards, I guess you had to learn to live with a few quirks.
“Since he knew to show up here, someone must speak his language?”
