by Zoey Draven
Rixavox couldn’t help but bring her to his own quarters. If Vaxa’an noticed, he didn’t comment on it. As Rixavox lowered the female to his sleeping platform, he felt his Instinct surge within him. He almost shut his eyes at the simple pleasure of it, of seeing his female laid out on his furs.
“How would you like to proceed, Privanax?” Vaxa’an asked, briefly glancing down at the female. He looked back towards the door, probably anxious to return to his own mate, Kat…a human female that he had won during his fight in the Pit and the first human to step foot on their planet. She was heavy with their offspring and Vaxa’an stuck to her side every moment of every span, constantly worrying. Their offspring would be the first Luxirian and human hybrid born. Needless to say, her health was monitored closely and Vaxa’an seemed even more anxious than the mother at times.
Privanax cast a glance at Rixavox and he straightened. He couldn’t help but wonder if the older healer picked up on his sudden intensity. Or perhaps he was just being paranoid.
“I recommend that treatment should be started immediately,” Privanax said, returning his blue eyes to their Prime Leader. “I suggest that she begins the cleansing at the Rillirax for a quarter of a lunar cycle. At least.”
“The Rillirax? Near Rixavox’s outpost?” Vaxa’an repeated, his brow furrowing down. His friend cast him a speculative look, but all Rixavox could feel was his heart thundering in his chest. Would he have the chance to accompany her there? To know her, speak with her away from the watchful eyes of his people? “There are closer sacred pools than that.”
“Tev, but you see what the heat does to her body. It depletes her energy force,” Privanax replied. “I believe a cooler climate will help her heal more efficiently.”
“Tev, very well,” Vaxa’an said, jerking his head. The Prime Leader glanced at Rixavox and he straightened his spine. “You will take her there with you this next span. I do not believe I need to tell you that you must keep her safe. Hidden. I do not want males gathering foolish ideas in their heads.”
The thought of other males coveting his female made his fists clench at his side. “I will allow no harm to come to her.”
“You will update me frequently through the Coms, Ambassador?” Privanax asked. “I will send you with some instruments to use on her. I will need the results every span, to monitor her progress.”
“Tev, I will,” Rixavox said, jerking his head. His gaze was once again drawn down to the female and he had the strongest urge to hold her in his arms, but knew that he shouldn’t.
“Prime Leader,” Privanax said, his voice slightly hesitant, “it is not my place, but I feel like I should tell you that the human females are scared. That is what she told me. They wish to know their fate and the longer we keep them without news, the more they fear.”
Vaxa’an went quiet, mulling it over, and then said, “I fear I have left this matter too long. Perhaps I will have Kat come and speak with them this span. It may help to see one of their own.” He looked down at the female lying on the bed. “I will have her come here as well. To explain.”
Rixavox said, “I will guard her until the lavrix’an comes, Prime Leader.”
“Tev. I will depart then,” Vaxa’an said, before striding out of the quarters and disappearing from view.
Rixavox’s gaze flickered to Privanax, who was, in turn, studying him. Silence stretched between them before the healer said, “You seem on edge, Ambassador. Even…unhinged, I would say.”
Rixavox’s jaw ticked. He knew. But why hadn’t he said anything to Vaxa’an?
“You forget your place, healer,” Rixavox said, ice infusing into his tone.
“My apologies,” Privanax murmured, inclining his head in a show of slight submission. Rixavox relaxed, but barely. Privanax met his eyes once more. “It would seem that there will be no one better to protect her than you.”
Rixavox remained silent, never breaking the healer’s stare, his body moving to shield his female from view, an instinctive move.
Privanax turned to leave the quarters but before he left, he murmured softly, “Though I cannot help but wonder who will protect her from you.”
With that, the older Luxirian left.
Immediately, Rixavox’s gaze returned to his female and he cursed to himself, tugging on one of his horns in frustration. Never had he thought he’d find his fated mate. Ever. He had never envisioned that life for himself. And the Fates had never given him an indication that his mate had been born into their world…except now he knew why. She was a human. She was from Earth, a planet in the Fourth Quadrant, a long, long distance away from Luxiria.
Rixavox sank to his knees beside his sleeping platform, his eyes running over the form of his mate. The first human he’d ever seen had been Vaxa’an’s female, Kat. He thought she’d looked slightly strange, but strangely pleasing to look at. His female? Even more so. He never wanted to take his eyes from her.
Gently, he ran the backs of his fingers down the side of her face. She was soft…vulnerable. He frowned, knowing that she could be so easily harmed. If he wasn’t careful, even he could accidentally scratch her with his sharp claws.
Slight movement caught his eye, a fluttering beneath her lids. In a flash, they shot open and gray eyes met his own.
His female gasped, startled by his nearness. She jerked her body to move away but Rixavox reacted purely on Instinct. He snagged her against his chest, needing to keep her close. He almost groaned, the feeling of her soft skin on his hard, scaled flesh was…indescribable. For some reason, the Fates had blessed him. Perhaps they had finally forgiven his family for their past sins.
His female struggled against him, but he refused to let her go, perhaps an error on his part, considering he was a strange male to his mate. She did not understand the ways of the Luxirians, how possessive they could be.
“Ta rix l’an,” he told her in his language. He remembered she didn’t know Luxirian and translated, “Do not fear me, female.”
He had not had the opportunity to practice his English very much. He’d had a handful of conversations with Kat, mostly about what his outpost was like, since it was the opposite of the Golden City. But it didn’t matter. He would master her language, so that he could better communicate with her. The words felt strange in his mouth, but soon, they would fall as naturally from his tongue as Luxirian.
“W-who are you?” his female said and Rixavox’s heart actually stuttered in his chest.
Fates, her voice…
It was like a pleasure drug. Her voice was soft, sensual, and unbelievably erotic. It swept over him like the red smoke of tevvax, fogging his mind and thickening his cock in his leg coverings.
He’d been in her presence mere moments and already he was the most aroused he’d ever been in his life span.
“I will not harm you, female,” he said, his voice coming out roughened from lust. He swallowed past the knot in his throat, telling himself not to frighten her, and continued, “You fell. We brought you here to rest.”
Even though his Instinct fought him, Rixavox slowly unwrapped his arms from around her, hoping that she wouldn’t dart away at the first opportunity. Courting a Luxirian female was simple enough, at least before the Plague. They were a carnal, warrior race. They worshipped two things above all else: fighting and fucking. It hadn’t been uncommon for couplings to happen within the first few moments of meeting, if the two Luxirians were attracted to one another.
With human females, however…Rixavox didn’t know. They were an alien race, a newly discovered species from a Quadrant that very few even had the resources to reach. What were their mating customs? How could Rixavox court her?
His female remained where she was on the sleeping platform, but slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position, her legs tucked underneath the lush swells of her behind. Even though Rixavox had removed his arms, he had no intention of moving away. Perhaps she felt he was crowding her, but at the very least, his Instinct demanded his nearness. He could feel the w
armth of her this close and this soothed him.
“Where…” she started, in that voice that made his gut clench, “where are the others?”
“The other females?” Rixavox questioned. “They remain in their quarters. You will recover your strength here.”
She was looking at him warily, with gray eyes that he felt deep in the center of his chest. He felt his spine straighten as she studied him. Rixavox had never had trouble courting females…he was a strong warrior, a war general, and an Ambassador to his outpost, Velraxa.
Her gaze dropped down to his bare chest, her eyes flickering over the scars he wore proudly, before stopping on the metal bar that pierced through both his nipples, a rite of passage for any male that completed warrior training.
His female’s lips parted and a strange color bloomed over her cheeks. When Rixavox drew in a breath to question what that meant, he froze, every single muscle in his body tensing. A heady, yet delicate scent began to permeate the air, rendering him incapable of thought. His Instinct recognized it for what it was.
His female was aroused. She was aroused from looking at his body.
A purring growl thrummed through him and he leaned even closer. He heard a slight hitch in her breath and her voice came out as a soft rasp, “What are you doing?”
“Your cunt aches for your male,” he murmured in a daze, clasping his hand around her waist. His female gasped, stilling under his touch, her widened eyes flickering back and forth between his. The room filled with more of her scent, confirming his thoughts. Perhaps humans were like Luxirians in their mating customs. “You wish to mate here?”
Sweet Fates, he would take her right there, right then if she wished it of him. Even though in the back of his mind he knew that Vaxa’an would bring Kat back any moment…even though he knew what he was doing was foolish and going against the explicit orders of his Prime Leader, Rixavox didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore except for her.
How odd it was…to have his life span completely altered in the space of moments.
Already, he was reaching down to loosen his leg coverings, his cock so swollen and hard that he feared it might rip through the material.
His female made an odd squeaking noise and shuffled back on the sleeping platform, even more color flooding her skin. “What are you doing?” she demanded, her voice high-pitched. What did that mean? Was she frightened? Surprised?
Had he misread her interest?
Vrax, Rixavox thought, his hand stilling immediately.
Vrax, vrax, vrax!
FOUR
Cecelia stared at the broad-shouldered alien that was kneeling next to the bed in shock, his hand frozen just above his leather pants, where she could see a very distinct outline of a very massive alien cock. Or at least what she assumed was a cock. It was also entirely possible it was a third arm.
Oh my God, she thought, pressing a warm hand to her even warmer face. She felt feverish. She supposed it could be due to the cancer…but it was also a possibility that it was due to the alien in front of her.
Those words he’d spoken to her…
He’d said, “Your cunt aches for your male.”
And, heaven help her, those naughty words had done things to her.
What the hell is happening to me? she panicked to herself silently. She felt flushed and lightheaded and strangely and intensely aroused, even though sex was the absolute last thing she should be thinking about right then.
She froze. Had that damn doctor given her something to make her react like this? God, was she part of some alien breeding experiment after all? Hadn’t he said something about a human woman procreating with one of the Luxirians?
She was screwed. Royally screwed. She knew she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. And now, she might be in a worse situation, one she probably wouldn’t be able to get out of.
“Okay, look buddy,” she began slowly, eyeing the bulky, blue-eyed alien. It was the same one from the hallway…the one that had literally made her faint with one look. And he was just as potent, just as male, as she remembered. It was even worse up close because she couldn’t escape from or hide this odd attraction to him. But she could damn well try. “I, uh, don’t want to have sex with you. No, uh, mating, okay?”
Smooth, her tired brain chastised. Real smooth.
His mouth pulled down into an almost thoughtful scowl, if that expression was possible. Slowly, he rasped, “I can smell your arousal, female. Does this scent mean something different to your males?”
Mortification burned her up even more when she fully processed the words his thick accent was butchering. Shit, he could smell how turned on she was?
“I, um…I don’t…” she trailed off, speechless. Instead, curling her legs more tightly underneath her, her back pressed against the steel wall of the bedroom she was in, she changed the subject, hoping it would take his mind off of his inquiry, “Who are you?”
The Luxirian didn’t seem too thrown by her question, but he did study her silently for a brief moment before his hand slowly drifted away from his pants. Cecelia felt her shoulders relax, her eyes straying to his other hand, which was lying on the furs. He’d clutched her waist before she’d scrambled away and she remembered the strength, the warmth of him. His fingers—he had five, just like her, and she found a strange comfort in that similarity—were long and they tapered off into sharp black-tipped claws.
Suppressing a shiver, she asked, simply because his silence was making her jittery, “What’s your name?”
It seemed as if it took him great effort to say, “I am Rixavox, Ambassador of the Velraxa outpost and an appointed war general to the Prime Leader of Luxiria.”
Cecelia stared at him. “Right,” she said slowly. It was all gibberish to her, but she tried to remember the key words, like Ambassador, war general, and Prime Leader. Privanax, that damn sneaky doctor, had mentioned an Ambassador and a Prime Leader, hadn’t he?
Wait.
Rixavox? Hadn’t Privanax said that was who would be escorting her to these northern lands to be…cleansed?
“You’re…you’re the one taking me to these pools tomorrow?” she asked slowly, fighting a blush.
He jerked his head in a nod. “Tev.”
Damn…what an awkward journey that would be. Terrific.
“What is your name, female?” he asked her, his voice making an unexpected shiver run down her spine. God, his voice sounded good, even with that thickened accent. It was warm and deep and raspy.
She cleared her throat, half-wishing that she wasn’t a sweaty mess right now as she held out her right hand. “My name is Cecelia. It’s, uh, very nice to meet you, Rixavox.” She pronounced his name like ‘rick-sa-vox,’ even though he’d added a little purring trill in there, which she didn’t think she could replicate.
When he stared at her hand between them, Cecelia flushed a little again and slowly lowered it. Of course, he probably didn’t know about shaking hands. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
His blue eyes locked on her again and he murmured, “Sessela.”
“Cecelia,” she repeated slowly.
“Sessela.”
Cecelia blinked and found herself unexpectedly charmed and flustered by the alien in front of her. How had that happened?
“Yes,” she said softly, her voice almost dropping to a whisper, her eyes unable to break away from his piercing, hypnotic gaze. “Sessela,” she said, giving in.
The air in the room felt heavy as they studied one another. When he nudged forward slightly, she caught whiff of something that resembled that glorious scent of rain on concrete. Something almost indescribable. But it made her inhale sharply as more wetness flooded between her thighs.
Rixavox did that purring growl again, but before Cecelia could even think about what to do about this odd situation—torn between leaning closer or scooting farther away—a voice interrupted them.
“You’re awake!” the woman said, standing just inside the doorway. Cecelia didn’t know what shocked her more…tha
t there was a human woman that she didn’t recognize coming into the room or that this human woman was heavily pregnant.
“Where is Vaxa’an?” Rixavox asked sharply, standing from his kneeling position and moving away from the bed.
“Down the hall. One of the elders caught him,” the woman replied, approaching the bed before plopping herself down, groaning softly. She saw Cecelia eyeing her in shock and she gave her a soft smile. “Some days, I don’t even want to get out of bed to carry around this giant,” she murmured, patting her stomach.
“What is going on?” Cecelia whispered, shaking her head. “I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. Seriously.”
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” the woman said, reaching out to pat her hand. “But I’ll stay here for as long as you like and answer any questions you have. I know these guys,” she pointed a finger at Rixavox, scowling near the doorway, “aren’t exactly the picture perfect example of communication.”
Cecelia couldn’t help but immediately like the woman, even though she truly had no idea what was going on. There was something genuine and comforting about her. Her eyes were soft and bright and she seemed happy. Completely and utterly happy.
“My name is Kate,” the woman said. “And this is Rixavox, in case he didn’t introduce himself.”
“Sessela knows my name already,” Rixavox said from the doorway. Cecelia’s gaze flickered over to him and found he was watching her with his arms crossed over his chest, bunching his biceps.
“Oh, Sessela does, does she?” Kate repeated in a teasing tone, raising an eyebrow at Rixavox over her shoulder. She turned back to Cecelia and in a conspiratorial loud whisper, so that the Luxirian could hear, said, “Watch out for this one. He’s a total ladies’ man. I’ve seen him in action way too many times.”
“Oh,” she murmured, dropping her gaze. For some reason, that disappointed her. Hell, judging by the serious chemistry they had going on before Kate walked in, Cecelia couldn’t be too sure that she wouldn’t have been added to his seemingly long list of conquests. It made her feel…less special.
