Alien Romance: Hunted By The Alien: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Romance, Alien Invasion Romance, BBW) (Celestial Protectors Book 4)

by Aana Celestya

  She’d expected the Warlord, or maybe one of those soldiers. But this male was neither of those. He could pass for human, a shock of dark hair, rakish in its disarray, eyes that were just as dark, and a hard, stubbled jaw.

  “Unbelievable,” he growled. “You are wasting our time.”

  Kara took just a moment to appreciate that he sounded like a native English speaker, like maybe there were others here like herself, and in that moment, she realized she was being pulled along behind him.

  “We only have a few minutes before they realize you aren’t waiting for things to settle down.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” he said, not slowing down as they passed through two more doors and into a new hallway, “the little diversion I set up for us is only going to get us so far. We need to get out while the getting is good, and hope the crew makes it, too.”

  He tossed a grim smile in her direction. “You know, you’ve been causing quite the stir since your capture.”

  “I see,” Kara finally settled on because she didn’t know what else to say. It didn’t seem possible that people could know she was there and had felt the need to intercept her impending rape.

  “If we can get to the hangar, we’ll be in good shape.”

  And that was all he offered her. Then, they were moving quickly, quietly, Kara clutching the stupid fabric to her body, both of them listening for any sounds that might signal their apprehension.

  He was pushing open a set of double doors when Kara heard another set of footfalls. Then several sets. Moving very quickly.

  The male swore under his breath again and clutched her more tightly. “Almost there, now.”

  They tumbled into the hangar and he was weaving in and out of the variety of parked vehicles, some of which Kara could hazard a guess of what they might do and others she couldn’t even imagine functioning.

  In the far back corner, tucked behind on oversized tank and something that looked suspiciously like a bicycle equipped to fly, was a sleek, bullet shaped pod.

  The door was opening as they approached, and he shoved her in first, leaping up behind her, the pod moving forward before the door had closed, before he’d even gained his footing, and the two of them became a jumble of arms and legs, tangled in the small space of the pod.

  Kara did her best to disengage herself from the male while keeping her fabric in place, hitching it up well above her bust.

  She realized belatedly that they were not alone in the pod. A small slight thing, clearly another subset of alien life form, was at the wheel, an array of computers and monitors before him, zipping in and out and behind whatever cover was available to their pod.

  “Well,” Kara said, as sweetly as she could, considering the circumstances, “I do appreciate all the effort you’ve made to help me escape from this situation.” She paused as she searched for her next words.

  “If you wouldn’t mind helping me back to my own shuttle, I’ll be able to make my way back home.”

  No way was she going to be spending any extra time here. She’d been sent to determine if the planet could support life, and it was pretty safe to say that it did. And that perhaps they shouldn’t be sending women back here again until well after it was colonized.

  He snorted in her direction, pulling away from her. “Sorry, princess, but that’s not on the agenda today. I’ve got some unfinished business with that asshole, and you’re my ticket to getting it done.”

  Kara blinked. Twice. “Excuse me?”

  “The Warlord. He needs you to reproduce. The women here aren’t fertile. Usually, they have to make special trips to collect their breeders, and here you just showed up. What good fortune for him. Anyway, he’ll do whatever it takes to get you back, and I’m going to be damn sure I get what I need out of the deal.”

  His words fell hollowly on Kara’s ears. It seemed a cruel trick that she would be rescued from one bad situation just to be in a new one, dangled like bait out in front of her enemy, and in the end, undoubtedly, tossed back to him.

  It was almost like she’d been wrong, before, about her worst-case scenario. This actually seemed marginally worse.

  She frowned in his direction, but he had moved away from where she still sat on the floor, taking in the numbers and images on the displays at the front of the pod.

  The words sounded like someone else’s when she heard them. “I can make it worth your while.” She didn’t sound scared or desperate, but brave, and confident, maybe even seductive. But, whatever she sounded like, it was desperation that motivated her.

  He actually chuckled at her, letting his eyes make an exaggerated trip over her body, and she tried to clutch the fabric to herself a little less tightly during the perusal. “I don’t think you have anything worth bartering.”

  His words were like a slap in the face, but in their wake, Kara felt safe for the first time since she’d first been picked up by those alien soldiers. Less good for her ego to know the man with the dark hair and eyes found her decidedly unappealing, but pretty amazing to know she wasn’t going to be ravaged against her will at any moment.

  “I have more than my body,” She continued, her mouth moving of its own accord. “I can give you information. Technology. I can bring you back to Earth and show you what it’s like there.”

  His eyes met hers, then, lit with warmth and humor and something else she couldn’t place. “Oh, honey,” he said slowly, laughter lacing his words, “that’s awfully sweet of you, but I’ve been to Earth and know the ropes. And in terms of technology, you all are light years behind what we have here.”

  Kara sank back against the wall of the pod, defeated. Of course the things he said made sense, but if he wasn’t willing to take her body as an exchange and he couldn’t take the information she possessed as something marketable, what did she have to get herself out of this mess.

  Nothing. That was what it boiled down to. She had no way out of this mess at all.

  Chapter Two

  She wasn’t clear on how long it had been since she’d been rescued, or how far they’d come when they swept into his compound. She wasn’t sure how fast they had been going, the scope of the planet they were on.

  But she did know they’d sat in uncomfortable silence for a long time, and that, just possibly, she’d let her head drop back and dozed off as they made their journey.

  The male ushered her out of the craft, just as if he had scheduled to take her to dinner and a movie, and less like they’d just arrived at his compound where he intended to hold her against her will until the time where it benefited him to hand her back over to the Warlord.

  “Follow me. We’ll get you set up.”

  He stepped ahead of her, his long legs and swinging stride covering a larger amount of ground than Kara’s legs could, and she had to nearly jog to keep up with him.

  He never hesitated or looked back to make sure she was following him. She supposed he had a pretty firm grip on how little choice she actually had in the matter.

  In comparison to the last place she’d been held, this one seemed open, even pastoral. There were no massive hangars and endless rows of halls. A modest fence, complete with an automatic gate, opened into something that could only be described as a courtyard. There didn’t seem to me many others around, and the building they stepped into felt intimate and airy at the same time.

  “These are my personal quarters,” he said breezily, as they entered, moving toward a set of stairs that seemed to seep out of the stonewall. “And you can call me Arthos. You’ll be staying here.”

  He moved easily up the stairs, unperturbed by the lack of a handrail, while Kara let her shoulder press into the wall as she made her way up, as far away from the edge as possible. The top of the stairs opened into a singlewide hall sporting different doors.

  He paused in front of one. “You will be able to find me here,” he said, not bothering to swing the door open or let her know what was on the other side. “And this will be where I will be abl
e to find you.”

  Something about the way he said it left little room for comment or argument. He pushed open the last door in the hall and stepped into an oversized room.

  Kara moved in behind him. Everything about this place was caught somewhere between the future and the past, a rustic mix of stone and dirt and medieval touches, and things Kara had only ever heard others dream about.

  A large bed occupied one corner of the bed. Oversized and round, it hovered in the air, and Kara could see nothing that supported it. Laid carefully on top was a quilt that had obviously been stitched by hand, and Kara wanted to run her hands over the fabric, a material she didn’t recognize.

  A set of open shelves and a small table and chair finished the room off, and it was obvious the space was not frequently used and for little else besides sleeping.

  Arthos stepped back from her and toward the door, as though completing the necessary tour. “You’ll find the restroom next to the closet,” he said in closing, gesturing in the general direction of the far side of the room.

  “Thank you,” Kara responded immediately, forgetting for just a moment that she wasn’t a guest and was truly just as much of a captive here and she had been in the room she’d been held in before.

  “And what are you called?” He asked as he took the final step out of the room, his hand reaching for the doorknob.

  “Kara. My name is Kara.”

  He nodded, filing away the information. “Kara. I hope you’ll enjoy your time here. Please know that outside the walls of this compound, no one will help you.

  He pulled the door shut, the sound loud in the nearly empty room.

  And just like that, Kara started to feel like the captive she was.

  Kara paced her room, chewing on her lip.

  She’d abandoned the fabric she’d been swathed in when she found some more palatable pants and tunics. The bathroom he’d pointed out to her was large with stone flooring and an open shower, and she eagerly stepped beneath the stream for her first real shower since leaving Earth.

  She turned the water on full blast, as hot as she could stand it. The room filled with steam and the sweet smell of fresh water. She’d have to put that in the notes for when she returned; sweet like a bed of gardenias in the early morning. The water beaded on her skin, slipping down in streaming rivulets.

  Kara took a deep breath. If she could wash everything away, she would. But she would at least settle for getting as much of that scented oil off of her, and took extreme pleasure in freeing her hair from the confines of its updo.

  When she emerged, she was feeling a little refreshed, or at least like she was ready to tackle the problem at hand.

  There was no way she was going to sit there and wait to be swapped like so much chattel. If Arthos wasn’t going to have the decency to bring her back to her spacecraft, she was going to have to do it on her own. She felt a new resolve settle over her, comforted by the fact that she had a plan of action, as simple as it still was.

  She took a closer look at her room, at what her windows overlooked. Surely, she had a little bit of time before the Warlord would come for her, and she was going to use that time to the best of her advantage.

  ******

  Arthos settled down at his desk. It was certainly easy to see why the Warlord had taken such a strong liking to the human. Like he’d said, the breeders were usually brought from Earth to the planet until they had served their purpose. He couldn’t recall a time a breeder had just dropped down for a visit like this.

  And what a fine specimen she was. Even rumpled and clutching the fallen cloth, she’d been enticing. Naked and on display for the whole of the audience, she’d been resplendent. She didn’t need to know he’d seen the whole display before watching her make her hasty exit, and picking the perfect spot to wait for her.

  He took great joy in taking her from the Warlord. Of course, it pleased him as well that Kara had been spared that experience. He’d seen many women after encounters with the Warlord, when he would throw them out onto the planet to fend for themselves, and only keep the offspring that was least diluted.

  They were empty shells of themselves, forced to set up their own colonies and make do in a place they had never wanted to come to.

  But more than that, it pleased him that this time he had had the opportunity to take what the Warlord wanted most.

  Yes, he would take immense joy in holding Kara until the time was right.

  ******

  Kara had used a brush in the bathroom to comb out her hair. Long and loose, it hung in soft waves down her back. She felt truly clean for the first time in a long time.

  Nothing had felt better than scrubbing off all those scented oils and all of the reminders of what she’d been through. It seemed impossible how much had happened in the two days since she’d first landed on the planet.

  The leggings and tunic were soft and comfortable, and if she sat still on the bed, Kara could easily be lulled into a sense of safety and well being — and distracted from the fact that she was being held prisoner and used for someone else’s gains.

  She’d opened the door to the room twice, considering whether or not she should embark over the threshold and out into the hall. Both times she’d gone back to settle on the bed, the second time leaving the door open so she could look out into the hall and see who might be coming and going.

  And the answer was no one. There were no sounds to even indicate that anyone was around.

  She was determined the third time would be the charm. She pushed the door open a little wider and slipped through it, moving as quietly as she could down the hall, past the room Arthos had said he would be in. She paused in front of the other doors, listening for some sign of what might be behind them.

  She had her ear pressed up against one of the last doors in the hallway, her hands spread wide on the smooth, hard surface when she heard someone behind her.

  “How is that working out for you?”

  She spun around, moving so quickly she cracked her elbow on the heavy door. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and she was flustered at being caught, and frustrated that it was so obvious. “Excuse me?” she asked, hoping to gain a few precious moments of composure.

  Arthos was leaning back against the wall behind her, and for the first time, she really got to have a good look at him, one that wasn’t glazed with fear and panic.

  He was tall, much taller than she was, and with the casual elegance and lines of someone who had been doing something a very long time. He waved one hand at her and she noticed his skin was inked from the wrist up toward the bicep, the tattoo wrapping around in intricate spirals. “Your information gathering experience. How is that working out for you?”

  She wanted to tell him it wasn’t working out well for her at all. That the doors were impossible to hear through and that, obviously, she had been interrupted before she’d gotten very far at all. Basically, her information gathering experience was a total failure.

  Arthos managed to look bored and irritated all at the same time, quite the feat. “I’ve requested that you stay in your room. For a reason,” he added, stretching out the words for additional meaning.

  “And, I’ll expect you to respect that.” His brow furrowed, and she tried not to focus on how his face could look so hard and so appealing at the same time. “I don’t want to have to lock you in there.”

  The implication that he would do it anyway, if she didn’t give him a choice, was hard to ignore and didn’t need to be voiced. He reached forward and clasped her by the elbow. “If you have any questions about what’s here, you should ask me, and I might give you a tour.”

  This close, he smelled fresh and masculine, and the feel of his skin on hers sent a little thrill shivering through her. His eyes were endlessly dark, his brow strong and jaw hard.

  She was reminded, suddenly, that along with not having had a real shower in a long time, she hadn’t had a man in even longer.

  He pulled her away from the door and
toward him, and she offered no resistance, her body brushing up against his. There was something about being close to him like this that could make her forget she’d been captured for a sinister purpose, and then that she’d been rescued with an ulterior motive.

  Arthos seemed to pause as well, like he was considering the way her skin felt beneath his, or how the dark of her hair brought out the green in her eyes, how the heavy fringes of lashes gave the effect that she was peering up at him.

  Her mouth had parted, the skin pale and pink and so very exotic and human. He hadn’t been with a human before. Hybrids — the product of the Warlord’s breeding schemes — like himself — and full-blooded aliens.

  He’d never discriminated against a good-looking woman. But never a human like this, with her shiny mane of hair, soft skin, and all those curves and angles.

  He made a sound in the back of his throat, like he was clearing it, or letting her know he was unhappy with her behavior.

  “I’m sorry,” she said out of habit, and not because she truly felt badly about trying to escape her situation. She would have followed it up with something more, but she noticed his eyes were trained on her mouth, and suddenly she was thinking about how his mouth might feel on hers.

  A beat went by. Then two. Kara realized neither one of them had moved, and that he was still watching her mouth. Nervous, her tongue darted out to lick her lower lip and he made that same sound again.

  “You shouldn’t do that,” he said, and his voice was darker and huskier than it had been before.

  “I’m sorry —” she started to say again, before his mouth came crashing down on hers.

  And just like that, she was pressed back up against the door, his body firmly up against hers, his mouth moving against hers, his teeth and tongue exploring her, a hand sliding up into the mass of her just-washed hair.

  He groaned against her again. “You taste sweet,” he said, and she felt the desire that was suddenly careening through her move a little bit faster.

  She could think of a million reasons not to do it, but she let one of her hands tangle up into his hair, let his leg slide between hers, so his muscular thigh settled against her core.