Craving Maul (Star Joined Book 1)

by Sara Page

  I drift.

  “What do you suppose we do then?” Yarrel snaps angrily.

  And drift.

  “Let the guards deal with him.”

  The voices are far away. Setting in my horizon.

  So pink. So pretty.

  “You don’t have enough fucking guards to take down a raging Rathturian!”

  Until a blood-curdling roar pulls me back.

  I surface from the comfort of my inner dark and blink my eyes, trying to come to terms with the picture in front of me. Somehow my warm, fluffy escape has morphed into violent chaos.

  One by one, my brain plugs my senses back in.

  Jack is screaming inside my head. His words are sharp and frantic.

  “Oh Jesus. Lexi, wake the fuck up and get your ass out of there!”

  Blood sprays in an arc as a Prig guard is decapitated, hitting me and the two slaves beside me. The delicate blue alien women whimper and try to hide behind me, using me as a shield.

  I look down at the blood splattered on my gray frock, touching it with my fingers. It’s warm, wet, and very real.

  “Yar… rel?” I drawl out, my tongue almost too heavy to form the word.

  There’s a crush of guards in front of me but they’re packed so tightly together I can’t see what they’re fighting.

  Another guard goes down in a geyser of blood.

  I look around me, trying to figure out where I am, but my mind feels too sluggish and slow to completely comprehend it. I don’t remember this room or how I even got here. I don’t recognize any of the guards or the two women trying to hide behind me.

  How much time have I lost? Where the fuck are we?

  Another guard goes down, and another. A bubble of hysterical laughter fills my throat as I think they’re falling like dominoes.

  “We need to get the fuck out of here,” Yarrel says impatiently.

  I feel his fingers wrapping around my upper arm. I look down at his fingers. They’re too soft, too smooth, and it feels strange.

  “Yes,” Ram Gin-Gin agrees nervously. “We can go out the back door.”

  Yarrel begins to pull me away and the two wispy women that were hiding behind me cry out, trying to hang on.

  There’s a bit of a tug of war. The women are locked on me like their lives depend on it.

  “Get the fuck off!” Yarrel snarls and shoves the two women off.

  With a cry, they both go tumbling to the ground.

  “Hey!” I protest, digging in my heels.

  Watching him hurt the women is like a bucket of ice water being dumped on my head. I can’t believe he just shoved the two defenseless women over. Combined, I doubt they weigh a hundred pounds, soaking wet.

  I try to bend down and help one up but Yarrel growls and yanks me harder.

  “What the hell, Yarrel?” I yell at his back but he ignores me, dragging me forward.

  “Just get the hell out of there,” Jack pleads.

  “What the hell is going on?” I demand, the fog thinning.

  What did I miss? Did the deal go wrong or something?

  The hair on the back of my neck suddenly stands on end and then I feel it, a change in the atmosphere. There’s a wave of force, like a sudden burst of wind. Cries sound out and the ground shudders beneath my feet as more bodies hit the floor.

  There’s another blood-curdling roar, and I realize it’s getting closer, too close for comfort.

  I want to turn around, to catch a glimpse of whatever is scaring the shit out of everyone, but at the moment I just don’t have the guts.

  “Just—just… give her to him,” Ram Gin-Gin stammers with fear.

  There’s a loud thump, then another.

  I watch Yarrel glance over my head and go pale.

  “Yarrel?” I plead softly and squeeze his hand.

  He wouldn’t really abandon me, would he?

  Yarrel pulls his eyes away from the thing behind me and looks at my face.

  At first his eyes are panicked and I can almost see the wheels spinning inside of his head.

  Then his eyes fill with remorse. “I’m so sorry, Lexi…”

  “No! No, you traitorous bastard! You tell him I’m going to fucking kill him if he leaves you there!” Jack screams inside my head.

  Suddenly the door in front of us bursts open and another group of armed Prigs rushes into the room.

  “Get him! Kill the Rathturian!” Ram Gin-Gin points and orders. “But no blasters! You’ll damage the merchandise.”

  There’s much grumbling and cursing from the group but they holster their blasters and rush forward, obeying the order.

  “Yarrel,” I gasp as he tries to extract himself from my grip. “What are you doing?”

  Yarrel has to use his free hand to pry my fingers off the hand I have trapped in my death-grip.

  “I’m sorry, Lexi,” he repeats with much less remorse. “He won’t let us leave with you.”

  “You bastard!” I hiss and take a swing at his face.

  With lightning-fast reflexes, Yarrel grabs my wrist before my hand can connect. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. We couldn’t have planned for this…”

  “He’s dead. Fucking dead when I get my hands on him!”

  “I can’t believe you!” I cry out, my eyes threatening to fill with tears.

  I always knew there was a big possibility he could turn on me to save his own neck. I guess I just didn’t really believe he would.

  “You’re going to throw me to the monster to save yourself?”

  “I’ve already alerted the Tribunal of his crimes. There won’t be a sector in this galaxy where he can hide.”

  Yarrel uses my hand to pull me closer and stares deeply into my eyes. “Trust me, I didn’t want it to end like this.”

  All of a sudden his mouth covers my mouth and he kisses me hard and deep. He kisses me like… he cares for me.

  I feel a little prick in the side of my neck before he pulls away. A roar sounds out behind me, so loud it’s nearly deafening.

  “I’ll find your sister, I promise,” Yarrel pledges and then he’s shoving me back.

  I stumble and try to catch my balance but the universe suddenly tilts.

  Time… seems… to… slow… down.

  Everything around me moves in slow motion.

  I drop to the ground, falling for what feels like forever, and watch the door in front of me open. Yarrel casts one last remorseful glance back at me and then runs through it with Ram Gin-Gin squealing after him.

  My ass hits the ground. The door slams. Jack is screaming inside of my head but his words don’t make any sense.

  I throw my walls up just so I don’t have to listen to him.

  I don’t know how long I just sit in the dirt, numb and stupefied, too drugged up to do anything before the first wave of heat hits me.

  All at once, every single little nerve in my body flares to life, electrified, and it’s so damn pleasurable it’s agonizing.

  By the time the wave fades away, I’m left panting and feeling like I just had the world’s best orgasm.

  Taking stock of myself, I notice that my thighs are soaked with my own wetness and my nipples are tight and pointed. My breasts feel impossibly heavy, my brain is fuzzy, and every inch of my skin feels raw and too sensitive.

  Whatever Yarrel shot me up with must have been some kind of aphrodisiac.

  I’m given a couple minutes of reprieve before another wave hits. I contort, trying to fight it.

  Not again.

  My nerves scream, my core clenches inside me, and my own friction is enough to set me off.

  I twist and writhe against the floor, trying to fight off the unwanted orgasm, but the grit of the dirt digging into my skin just feels too good.

  Colors flash in front of my eyes and with a keening cry I explode in a burst of sensation.

  This time when I float back down from the heavens, I notice a menacing shadow looming above me.

  Panting.

  Shuddering.<
br />
  I stare up at the shadow, my mind slowly making sense of it. That blackness isn’t darkness, it’s a cloak.

  And the front of the cloak is jutting out…

  With arousal, I quickly realize. And just as quickly I realize I want it.

  I need it.

  Another wave begins to build inside my core. I start to sit up but the movement causes my breasts to jiggle just a little bit.

  My nipples rub against the fabric of my tunic and I just can’t stand it. I claw at the fabric, trying to tear it away from my skin, when two gray hands grab me by the arms and yank me up.

  Toes dangling two inches above the floor, I shudder and spasm in the hands holding me, soaking myself with another orgasm.

  “Fuck,” the cloaked figure groans, pulling me closer to it. A nose sniffs my hair and the hands tighten.

  “Help me,” I beg as the new sensations cause my body to go haywire.

  I’m about to come again just from getting my hair sniffed.

  “Six more hostiles incoming and they’re armed with plasma swords,” someone says. “If you want to get you and your bondmate out of here in one piece, you better get your asses to the hyper-ship.”

  A warm puff of breath hits my cheek and it feels amazing, but then the hands pull me into a hard chest. One steely arm wraps around me, trapping me, and then, as if all the new textures and sensations aren’t torture enough, we start moving.

  My body bounces. The fabric rubs me in all the right places. A never-ending train of mini orgasms roll through me.

  My inner walls squeeze so hard I fear they may be permanently stuck like this.

  With a scream, I ask the cruel, cruel universe, “Will this never end?”

  And then I feel it, a hard rod stabbing my thigh.

  My salvation.

  Somewhere deep inside myself, on another, visceral level, I know if I can just get that hard rod inside me this will all be over with.

  I squirm and twist my body, trying to get my hips closer to it.

  “Stop that,” the cloaked figure rasps, sounding more tortured than angry.

  But I can’t stop. I’ll die if I don’t put an end to this.

  The bouncing suddenly ceases and then I vaguely register the sound of an air lock hissing.

  “What about the other two? Do you want me to stop them from following us?”

  As the cloaked figure takes a moment to think, I squirm my way closer to his erection.

  “Stars,” he growls, and then I feel something strange wrapping around my waist, stopping my progress.

  A rope? It could be, it certainly feels like it, but the last time I checked ropes didn’t just move without someone moving them.

  “Well?” the strange voice asks, sounding impatient.

  “No, don’t stop them. They can come along.”

  We start moving again, walking up a ramp, and the next orgasm is so power, so overwhelming, darkness rolls over my eyes.

  The fog thickens inside me, wrapping around me, and I welcome it.

  Chapter Seven

  Lexi

  My escape into unconsciousness is short-lived. My body bounces against the hard body carrying me, awakening me with a burst of heat.

  We drop into a seat.

  The impact of the landing is enough to set off another explosion of hot, wet sensation inside my core. I arch closer, squirming on top of the lap of whoever is holding me.

  The chest pressed against my breasts rumbles as they growl, “Mar, bring all systems online… Quickly.”

  The little vibrations against my nipples are so lovely they’re driving me frickin’ crazy.

  “Done and done. Thrusters are engaged. On your go...”

  “In three—”

  “Make that one, we’ve got company.”

  Fabric rubs against fabric. A hard thigh presses against my pussy.

  “One.”

  My stomach sinks as we burst forward. The g-forces push my body into the cloaked stranger’s body.

  My breasts flatten against his chest and my face presses against his neck. The skin here feels strange, it’s smooth but also a little bumpy.

  I open my mouth and taste his skin, stroking my tongue against his neck, exploring.

  “Stars have mercy,” he groans. “Are we clear yet, Mar?”

  “We’ll reach warp speed in twenty parsecs.”

  “Fuck.”

  He tastes surprisingly good. Sweet but not too sweet. My tongue glides over a bump and then snags. After a little prodding, I discover it’s not a bump at all, but some kind of scale.

  What kind of alien is he?

  Pulling back, I look up and two glowing green eyes stare down at me, full of heat and menace.

  On a whim, I reach up and yank his cowl back. His hands snap out, grabbing onto my wrists, but it’s too late.

  The face that stares back at me is confusing and makes my stomach feel a little queasy. He almost looks human… almost.

  Just enough to fill me with a sick sense of alarm.

  His skin is gray and shimmery, and his neck is lined with scales. His face is sharp and pointed in ways that shouldn’t be pointed. His overall bone structure seems to be made up of hard ridges, sharp edges, and smooth planes that make me think he’s some kind of reptilian. Two pointed ears sit on either side of his head, and his eyes are a neon green that glows so bright they’re probably radioactive.

  I stare hard at his face, burning it into my brain even as my vision starts to blur. He seriously reminds me of one of the scary monsters in a horror movie.

  “Warp drive engaged.”

  There’s a sudden lurch and even though I’m staring at an alien that both fascinates me and terrifies me, my body responds to the friction of his hard thigh rubbing against my throbbing sex.

  I twitch and spasm on top of him.

  “Are we clear?” the gray alien asks someone, sounding irritated.

  Was that a glimpse of fang or just my drug-fueled imagination?

  “We’re clear.”

  “Thank the fucking stars.”

  He stands without warning and I cling to him, still twitching and shaking with an aftershock. “Mar, you have control of the bridge.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.”

  The alien carrying me starts to walk so fast he’s nearly running. The jostling and bouncing is almost enough to send me into a seizure of sensation. I’ve never felt so heated before, so needy yet still drowning in stimulation.

  Clinging to the alien’s cloak, all I really want to do is tear it off and rub my hands all over his strange, alien skin.

  “Please,” I manage to groan, struggling to find the strength to finish my request.

  With each little release, the need building up inside me seems to grow like some hungry monster that’s not satisfied with the scraps I’m offering it.

  The alien carrying me releases his own tortured groan. “We’re almost there…”

  We take a turn and then stop in front of a door. The thing wrapped around my waist tightens to keep me from falling and his arms rub against my sides as he punches buttons on a keypad.

  All I can think of is how close those arms of his are to my breasts. How good it would feel if I could unwrap the thing from around my waist, pull up his robe and see what kind of cock he has.

  There’s a beep and I arch my spine as a little burst of air hits the back of my head as the door opens.

  Everything feels so good even the mundane and simplest of things have become delightful experiences. Yet they’re not strong enough.

  I need more.

  I crave so much more.

  I feel like I just might die if I don’t stop throbbing.

  We stomp forward. Me groaning and him growling. Then I’m dropped down to a bed and the scary alien is looming above me.

  Panting heavily, I watch his eyes narrow and his nostrils flare as he stares down at me. His hands clench into fists then relax before a set of nasty looking claws extend with a pop. Just as quickly as th
ey appear, the claws disappear again.

  Is he going to hurt me or fuck me? It could go either way…

  His eyes flash and he looks so close to losing control I feel the need to take my own destiny back into my hands. Reaching down, I grab the hem of my frock and pull it up, exposing myself to him.

  Air hits my wetness and I can’t help it, it feels so good, I throw my head back and squirm my ass against the bed.

  “Fuck,” the alien curses, or at least, that’s what my transmitter is translating. “You’re gorgeous.

  “Please,” I whimper and reach down, my hands grabbing my own thighs. Gripping them. “Help me.”

  Don’t kill me.

  I don’t know if he understands me or not, but I think he does. His eyes flash, glowing brighter, and his claws appear again with pop. He begins to lower down, his head dropping forward as his eyes lock on my glistening pussy lips.

  I spread my legs wider for him, inwardly enjoying the sensations of my soaked folds spreading and the cold air kissing them.

  A shiver travels up my spine and his gaze is intense enough to cause the maddening throb in my clit to increase like he just touched it.

  So close… so close to a relief I know deep down inside only he can give.

  Nails digging into my own thighs, the pain is enough to bring me back to some semblance of awareness. Releasing myself, I reach out and grab his cloak.

  He doesn’t stop me. No, he helps me. Coming closer as I tug and pull it over his head.

  I toss the cloak to the side and then grab the shirt he’s wearing, nearly tearing it in my rush to remove it. When the shirt is finally gone, my brain tries to process all the exposed shimmery skin in front of me.

  He’s built a lot like a human man, but then again he’s not. It’s like an artist has taken the human form, blown it up and expanded on it. Bulging muscles. Defined pecs. Thick biceps and an eight pack. His broad shoulders and arms are covered in scales that seem to change colors depending on how the lights hit them. Most of his chest though, and all of his stomach is made up of smooth, lighter skin.

  There’s no bellybutton. Huh, that’s strange, I think but then he reaches down, using his own hands to unfasten and push down his pants. He bends down, pushing the fabric down the tree trunks he calls legs. When he straightens, a huge cock springs upward, fully engorged and leaking a pearly liquid.