“I agreed to come with you without a fuss, Mor’an, you could at the very least tell me why you took me.” Again, there was silence. Adrien scowled, irritated. She was resigned to sit there, as stubborn in her silence as Mor’an was as he continued to ignore her.
When he had broken out of his captivity and taken her with him, she had gone without fighting. Her curiosities over what he was doing outweighed any potential fear that she might have had otherwise about what he was going to do to or with her – but now, she wished she had at least had the sense to ask him what his plans were exactly before he decided to give her the silent treatment. She had almost always been left with more questions than answers when she dealt with Mor’an. In the comfort of the labs, it had sparked curiosity, a desire to get closer, learn more. Now it only infuriated her that this is what her situation was.
“You’re mine.”
His voice so sudden made her jump. Her brows furrowed a bit, and stared at him as he continued to not look or speak further to her.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“You’re mine,” he repeated. This time, he turned around to her. The low hum of the ship filled the silence, just long enough for him to fold his arms over his broad chest. “I’ve chosen you. You’re mine. I no longer wanted to remain on your planet, with your scientists and your questions, but I would not leave you there – so I took you with me. Is that sufficient?”
He said it so plainly, as he always did, she would have been stunned had she not been used to it. She had, after all, been studying him for months. She chewed on the inside of her mouth, though. He had chosen her? Was that some sort of… mating thing?
“I don’t understand,” she said honestly. “You never expressed an interest in reproduction, let alone with me or any other human. You also came to the labs of your own violation, so what does all of this – breaking out, taking me – what was the point of it? I don’t understand.”
He continued to regard her, as he usually did when they began their talks like this. She would ask him questions, he’d answer, and typically that would lead to more question asking until their time together was up. That’s how it always went; it was oddly comforting to Adrien that that hadn’t changed, simply because he had, for lack of a better word, abducted her and taken her captive from the research facility.
“We never got around to talking about it,” he said simply. “My people sent me so that I might see if there was any stock to your people. I thought perhaps there was something to find in your kind… something interesting. I was disappointed as a whole. Your superiors wanted to know about things like our armies… our government… Things that don’t matter; the Jundar have no interest in your pitiful human civilization, no matter how much your kind try to insert yourselves into the greater parts of the universe. You though… I stayed because you were interesting, and our talks held merit. We almost got there, when we started talking about the culture of my planet and my people, though. Our, what did you call it, our biology? But I had found myself bored playing the game of your people.”
He walked over to Adrien. His steps thudded heavily against the floor. She had had one on one moments with Mor’an before – but never quite like this. She had never been restrained. She had never had him in the position of power over her.
Despite all of this, she wasn’t afraid of him.
Mor’an crouched down in front of her, putting him level to her. She stared back at him, her eyes on his, unwavering in the stare of pitch black back at her. The feeling of her heart beating could be felt in her ears, pounding in her head as she waited, anticipated, his next move.
He had never, once, been so close to her, either. How had she never noticed the soft, alluring scent of him before? It threw her off a bit, and she had to shake her head before addressing the real issue at hand.
“So, what does your biology have to do with you kidnapping me?” She kept her eyes on him, and he did the same with her. It would have been unnerving had he been a stranger.
“I thought there was something different about you,” he said. “You appealed to me when I first saw you.” Again, he shrugged. “My people… there is a pull towards the person our body wants us to mate with. My body wants you. It’s not common to want it with something that isn’t the same as we are, but it happens sometimes. There’s something about you that that’s alluring… appealing. Eventually you’ll come to understand it; it’s how it works.”
He said it, as if it were just that simple. Adrien, however, found herself questioning that. She wasn’t Jundar; she was human, her biology was human.
That being said, if Mor’an thought that she was that to him… some sort of biologically intended mate, that meant he wasn’t going to hurt her – she was important to him, then. Her mind began to work, thinking perhaps she could use that to her advantage. And, honestly?
If she needed to use that appeal to keep herself safe and alive, then she would.
“I see,” she said, not fully understanding, but deciding she would leave it for the time being. She sat back, and Mor’an seemed pleased that was accepting this. He left her on the floor, returning to the control panel. Adrien said nothing, did nothing – but she began to think. One way, or another, she would get herself out of the situation she found herself in. Luckily for her, she had an angle to work.
She could only hope that Mor’an wouldn’t see through it.
II: Biologically Speaking
They were in deep space by the time Mor’an released her from her binds. She wasn’t sure if they would be tracked or not (her guess was no, considering she was but one researcher and those were easy to replace) though she did wonder if he had had any plans to take them to his planet. She filed that away as something that she would have to weasel out of him at some point, but at present, that wasn’t an important detail.
She needed to make him think that she was buying into what he had told her the day before.
She still didn’t think there was any special connection between the two of them that would necessitate him kidnapping her. She could admit a scientific curiosity on profession alone. Privately, she knew that at the least she found his body appealing. He may not have been human, but his physique was exquisite and she had always been fond of, well. Large men. Being destined to be mated, as he called it, however? She didn’t think so.
Either way, she knew she would need to get him off his guard. Initiating that was her goal as she sat across from him at the ship’s dining table. It wasn’t a particularly large ship, one that was used for long-term expeditions for crews of about five to ten people, but that meant it had space enough for the solitary two people that were on board. He made faces as he ate the ready-made meal the shit was provided with, but ate he did. She found it amusing; his alien palate didn’t appreciate the ingenuity of re-hydrated space food. She used that as the jumping point for her little experiment.
“You don’t like it?” she asked, casual.
His grimace deepened as he spooned another bite into his mouth.
“It isn’t the best thing that I’ve eaten in my life. I don’t understand how you humans consume this. It’s worse than the rations given at the facility.”
Adrien laughed. She thought that was a bit of an exaggeration; the rations from the research facility had been purely nutrition based and hadn’t been engineered to offer much other than the base of those – but whatever fit for Mor’an.
“I don’t mind them, to be honest. They taste fine to me.”
“Humans aren’t known well for their tastes,” he said blandly. Her brow raised.
“What are we known for?”
“Brutality. Perhaps stupidity. You’re far less advanced than the rest of the universe, even with your… innovations.”
“Is that so? May I ask something, then? We’re so unadvanced, what makes you think we – you and I that is – are… intended? I don’t quite understand, and you never really explained fully.”
Mor’an tilted his head at her, his own
brow raising.
“Of course, you wouldn’t understand,” he said, as if he were realizing it for himself. He sat his spoon down, disregarding the food in front of him almost happily. “Our kind… we are like humans, in a way. We’re sexual, the word is. But for each of us, there’s one person that we’re completely compatible with. We could have relations with a hundred others before we found the proper one; we could have them with one person, and that person is the one with whom we’re supposed to commit ourselves to entirely. Our bodies know this… it is an intense feeling when it happens. I thought perhaps I simply enjoyed the way you looked when we first met, because you’re human and it is rare that any of our kind find our mates in another species… but the feeling was persistent. I knew.”
“How though?” she asked. Though she was playing a part, her curiosity was real as she fished for information. “What was the feeling like?”
“Wanting to be around you, mostly,” he said casually. “Enjoying being around you. It’s… a calming thing. Pleasant. A necessity. It’s why I would only speak with you, not your other researchers. I figured out they would do what I wanted if it meant getting information out of me, and I decided I would be able to get what I wanted playing into their desires and plans.” He shrugged. “But then the more I was around you the pull got stronger. Your look, your scent even. It all drew me to you but obviously, I couldn’t act upon anything while your people were around.”
“So, that’s why you took me?”
“I took you because I had learned all I needed to on my end, and I wanted to leave with you, as I had no intention of going back to earth,” he said simply. “It made sense.”
Not really, but okay.
Adrien took another bite, before setting her own spoon down. She leaned forward a little.
“You said that your body knows who’s… compatible with it. I’m a human, though. If your biology reacts to mine, what is mine supposed to do? When I’m not made like you?”
“It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, even weak instincts like human ones can pick up on the pull to mate. It’s not as strong among humans; but your kind still have pheromones. It’s not as different as you think it is.”
Playing up the bait, Adrien quirked her brow, challenging.
“Show me.”
Mor’an looked at her, and she wondered for a moment if he thought that she was baiting him. He didn’t seem to think so – or if he did, he didn’t show it. Instead, he stood, scooting his chair in to walk over towards her. she had had so many sessions with him – granted, with something separating them every time – so she didn’t balk when he approached her, stood before her. Much like when he’d crouched before her after she’d been captured, she got a whiff of his scent. Pleasant. Masculine. She brushed it off as something unique to the males of his kind, though, and watched as he lowered himself down to her level.
His gaze was intense. It surprised her, a bit. He looked at her, into her eyes. In all honesty, it was a bit entrancing, and she felt herself pulled into that deep, dark look. She didn’t even jump when his fingers brushed over the skin of her arm. Goosebumps raised up on the flesh there, and she didn’t realize she’d stopped breathing until she had to suck in another breath of that scent-laced air.
Her body quivered in reaction.
Mor’an smirked, just faintly at that. She reminded herself that it was just a normal reaction – she was only human, after all. There was only so much control she could have over the natural reactions that her body gave, and the more real her reactions where, the more he would believe her and buy into her ploy, right?
That’s what she told herself as he leaned forward. That’s what she reminded herself as she felt the press of his lips against hers. She made sure to hammer that thought into her mind as her lips parted so easily for him in response, her throat let out a moan at the taste of him on her tongue.
He was… divine. No human male had ever tasted like him in a kiss before. Was that his alien nature? Was that a part of his biology? Was her reaction just because of the novelty of it?
Her mind raced and raced – until it blanked. He flooded her senses so suddenly, she didn’t have time to continue analyzing the situation. The attraction that had sparked at just the scent of him in his nose was tenfold; her human sensibilities weren’t much a match to resist them. The only thing she could register was how… good it all felt to her. Her whole body flooded with a warmth that she hadn’t anticipated; she felt it in every nerve ending as they flared and sparked and reacted to this alien creature as he kissed her, let his tongue delve into her mouth, his fingers press into her sides, and – oh. She hadn’t even realized her thighs parted and he was between them until her core started to throb at the feeling of the solid body between them.
It was all over far too soon. He pulled away from her just as she started to rock her hips against him. Almost instantly, that mind-high of a connection snapped – but only enough so that most of her rational thought came back to her. Her body was still hot, her center throbbing. If she gauged herself well… She was also embarrassingly wet. From kissing.
Adrien felt the heat rush up on her face. Honest reactions to stimulation were one thing. That? That was…
“Do you understand now?” he asked her. She blinked, pulling herself from the cacophony of thoughts screaming at her that she needed to go back to that, that she had to.
“That was… what was that?” she asked him, honestly floored that he had managed to pull a reaction out of her like that over something as mundane as a kiss.
“It was the connection you asked about,” he said. “It usually has to be… ignited, so to speak, when the compatibility is with someone of another species. We Jundar, our bodies were made for it. Others are a little more… tricky.”
“Tricky…” That was an interesting word for it. So, the connection was… was it lust then? General lust… Sounded a bit tame for what she had just experienced, especially when what she had felt could have easily been mistaken for the feeling of having sex. Her body had certainly behaved like she was; it had hardly been her usual reaction to heavy petting. She bit her lip. Had she gotten into more than she could handle? Would she be able to work with this if… if it was that intense? What if it wasn’t some compatibility connection, like he’d claimed? Maybe his kind lured in prey by being sexually appealing… like a predator.
Even that, of course, sounded silly in her mind. She knew from experience that the Jundar weren’t predatory in nature. For all intents and purposes… well they were a fairly docile race, all things considered.
“You look like you’ve never felt that before.”
She looked at him, blinking again as she was pulled from her thoughts. For the first time since meeting him, months ago following his arrival on Earth, she felt flustered in his presence.
“Well it’s not every day I kiss a man and he makes me want to –” But she stopped herself, unable to finish the thought for fear of sounding completely moronic.
“Makes you want to mate?”
“That is not what I was getting at.”
His brow rose, disbelieving, and before she could say another word, he reached out, sliding his hand along her thigh. She had changed between her capture and their current conversation. Gone was the plain white lab attire, and instead she was in comfortable lounging shorts and a tank that she had found in a supply crate located in the ship’s female quarters. The feeling of his palm on her bare skin was warm, and made her insides flutter as he trekked his fingers up, up.
She didn’t know what the hell was wrong with her, only that she didn’t stop him when those fingers came to the hem of those shorts – shorts, she realized a little too late, that were hardly of a modest length. Her breath hitched as his slid his fingers beneath the fabric, and brushed against the soaked outline of her panties without hesitation. She knew that she should tell him to stop. He wasn’t allowed to do this to her, he was her subject, she was the scientist – she wasn’t some easily swa
yed moron, quick to fall for the wiles of a pretty face.
Something, though, told her it was more than that. She was a rational woman. She was a scientist. She didn’t ignore fact when it was right in front of her, and fact told her that the reactions her body had to Mor’an held meaning. She may not understand that meaning. She may not want to accept it.
But it was there, and she wanted to explore it.
Her legs didn’t close as he stroked against the cloth-covered lips. If anything, they opened wider, inviting. He leaned in to kiss her again, and without thinking she pulled him closer, arms around his shoulders and fingers at the back of his neck. Her thighs quaked and toes curled as his fingers nudged the fabric of her panties to the side, slipping a finger between her slicked folds. She moaned into his mouth, unable to stop herself from biting his lip hard enough to draw blood from him. The growl that rumbled in his chest nearly made her melt, sent a thrilled, pleased shock through her. He must have liked it, as his kisses became hungry, and he added a second finger inside of her, working it hard, deep, pressing deep into her intimate parts.
Adrien could have lost herself in it. Again, that all-encompassed feeling of arousal flooded through her body at the contact of him against her. She wanted… she wanted… No, she needed. She needed him inside of her. Base, primal instincts screamed that she needed him in her, claiming her, bodies melding until he –
“Ohh…”
He added another finger, circling and rubbing against her clit, spreading the slickness of her over it and adding to the sensations. It made her drop her head back against her chair, and her legs came to settle at Mor’an’s waist. His free hand settled at the small of her back to balance her as he worked between her thighs, giving her her pleasure in waves that shocked her body, made it shake and tremble almost violently – just from his hand on her.
Collared By The Warrior Page 65
