“You came to say goodbye,” I said. Weird warmth infused my too-full belly.
Galan clasped his hands behind his back, and I stared at his flat abdomen. Wow, he liked to wear tight shirts and I for one was not gonna complain. Not when I could see the outline of his six pack. My gaze dropped to the front of his pants. It was a real shame he didn’t wear pants as tight as his shirt.
Ellis, stop staring at his dick, you pervert!
I tore my gaze from his crotch, my cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Um, well, bye, Galan. It was nice knowing you. Thanks for convincing them to give me so much juice before I leave.”
Oh my God, could I sound any dumber?
“Actually,” Galan took a step closer, “you will be staying with us until you are healed.”
My mouth dropped open and a loud buzzing filled my ears. I didn’t hear what I just heard. I couldn’t have.
“Wh-what did you say?” I whispered.
Galan grinned at me and even in my state of shock, I couldn’t help but notice how straight and white his teeth were. “You will not leave this place until you are healed from cancer.”
“Oh my God,” I said. “Oh my fucking God. Are you serious?”
“Yes,” he said.
I staggered over to a chair, sinking into it and staring wide-eyed at him. “How? Why? I mean…”
“Our king has agreed to allow you to stay until you’re healed,” Galan said.
“Why?” Suspicion overtook the shock. “What does he want from me?”
“What do you mean?” Galan said.
“He isn’t doing this because he’s a nice guy. He said it himself that it was a waste of resources, so why did he change his mind? He must want something from me. What is it?”
Galan frowned. “He does it because it is the right thing to do not because -”
“I’m breeding incompatible,” I blurted. “I can’t carry a Draax baby.”
That was a stupid thing to say. No Draax would mate with me anyway. Still, the smile on Galan’s face stung like a bitch.
“That is good news,” he said. “You are too -”
“Ugly, I know,” I snapped.
The smile faded from his face. “No, you are too small to carry a Draax baby. Why would you -”
Sigan walked into the infirmary, holding his tablet in one hand. “Galan, are you finished talking to the human? Teo found me in the hall and explained the situation to me. I will remove the human’s IV and you can take her out of the infirmary.”
“I thought I was being healed,” I said.
“You are,” Sigan said. “But since you will be here for who knows how long thanks to the ridiculous war, there is no point in wasting the serum on you. The juice will heal you. It will just take longer.”
“What war?” I said. My heart dropped into my stomach. “Did the Gokmards attack Earth again?”
The war between the Gokmards, a hulking and vicious bear-like alien race, and Earth had happened long before I was born, but I had seen holograms of the Gokmards. The thought of them attacking my home planet again made me sick to my stomach.
It would be foolish of them if they did. The Draax had saved us from them once before and as part of the Planetary Treaty, they would assist us again if the Gokmards tried to take our planet a second time.
Of course, the breeding program between us and the Draax had developed precisely because the Gokmards were attacking our planet. The Draax had saved us from slavery and death, but they hadn’t done it without expecting something in return. Their race was dying thanks to a lack of females. Saving Earth from a race of savage aliens was the perfect negotiating tool for breeding with our females.
“No,” Sigan said. “Two of the planets in our solar system are at war again. For, no doubt, another ridiculous reason.” He punched a few buttons on his tablet. “Their battle ships are blocking the Tyranian jumpgate and until they stop trying to kill each other, none of our ships can go to Earth.”
“So, I’m being healed because you can’t get me to Earth, not because your king is generous,” I said to Galan.
“He had decided before we discovered the Emirans and Cillades were at war to heal you,” Galan said with a frown. “You owe our king your life, little human, and when you see him next, you will thank him for it.”
Galan’s voice was harsh, but I honestly couldn’t blame him for it. I was acting like a total spoiled brat.
“I will,” I said.
“Good. Sigan, remove her IV please so I can take her to her quarters.”
* * *
Ellis
“It is small and plain and there is no window,” Galan said, “but it has a comfortable bed and the cold unit is stocked with gallberry juice and food.”
He cleared his throat. “I asked Teo to give you living quarters with a separate sleeping area, but he said this one would do. I am sorry, human.”
“Are you kidding me?” I said. “This is amazing.”
I wasn’t blowing smoke up his butt either. Where Galan saw a small plain room, I saw freaking paradise. The studio apartment had a tiny living area with a love seat and coffee table, a single sized bed and nightstand tucked along the far wall with a door on either side of the bed, and a kitchenette. There was even a small table with two chairs where I could eat my meals.
After years of living in literal cardboard boxes, this tiny apartment was downright luxurious.
“That door leads to the bathroom,” Galan pointed to the door to the right of the bed, “and that door is a closet. It has extra towels and there is space to put your clothing.”
He glanced down at me. I was still wearing the hospital gown and I tugged self-consciously at it. “Sigan burned my clothes, so…”
He was carrying my backpack and he set it down on the floor. I did have a couple extra changes of clothes, but they were back on Earth. Wrapped in plastic and tucked into a cardboard box and shoved behind a garbage dumpster in my favourite alley. Anything else that was important to me, I carried in my backpack.
“Maybe I could borrow some clothes from some of the women who work here?” I said.
“You are much smaller than them,” Galan said. “But I have left a couple of my shirts in the closet for you. They will sufficiently cover you.”
“Thanks. That’s really thoughtful of you.” I wandered over to the love seat, running my hand along the smooth grey fabric. The apartment looked exactly like an apartment back home, the furnishings practically identical to Earth furnishings. “Did you buy this stuff on Earth?”
“It makes our mates more comfortable if their new homes look like their homes on Earth,” Galan said.
My stomach took the express elevator to my ankles. “Right. Um, what’s your mate’s name?”
I didn’t actually want to know Galan’s mate’s name. She was probably some tall gorgeous woman with nice big boobs, an ass that wasn’t completely flat, and ribs that didn’t protrude.
I rubbed at those protruding ribs as I waited for Galan’s reply. It was stupid to even be attracted to him.
“I do not have a mate,” Galan said.
My stomach returned to its rightful place as a weird sense of relief washed over me. “Oh. Okay. Why not?”
He just shrugged before opening the fridge and taking out a bottle of juice. “Drink this now.”
I took the bottle from him, trying not to shiver when our fingers brushed. Ooh boy. I had it bad for the big green alien. I was such an idiot.
Looking anywhere but at the way Galan’s t-shirt stretched across his abdomen, I said, “So, can you tell me which way to the garden from here?”
“Drink, little human,” Galan said.
I took a few swallows of juice and he relaxed against the counter. “You need to drink lots of the juice every day.”
“That won’t be a problem,” I said. “I’m pretty sure I’m addicted to it already.”
“Your body craves it because you are sick,” Galan said. “Once you are healed, the cravings wil
l diminish.”
“Good to know,” I said. “So, about the garden…”
He crossed his arms over his chest and my mouth went dry when his biceps bulged against the sleeves and the shirt stretched even tighter across his broad chest. Good God, he was gonna bust right out of that shirt if he kept that up, and I, for one, was fully on board with that.
“You are not allowed to leave your quarters without me or another Draax accompanying you,” Galan said. “This is very important, human. If you are caught in the castle without an escort, the consequences will be dire. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said. “No roaming the castle on my own. Got it. I’ll stay in my room.”
He studied me with those gorgeous copper eyes until I made a show of drinking more juice. Jesus, it was like he could tell I was lying to him.
“Your meals will brought to your living quarters and I will take you for a walk through the castle in the morning and in the evening,” Galan said.
“Sure, okay, sounds great. Thanks,” I said.
What it actually sounded like was that I was Galan’s new pet, but considering that the Draax were healing me, and housing and feeding me after I’d stolen from them, I wasn’t gonna bring that up. But I also wasn’t going to just sit around like an obedient dog.
I needed to check out the castle, find every exit, and plot my escape route for when the war ended. The Draax would have my skinny ass on the first ship to Earth, and that was the last thing I wanted. Not if I liked being alive, anyway.
As awful as this sounded, I hoped the war went on for a few months. I needed time to heal, scope out the castle, and steal enough supplies and food to help me survive on the Draax planet once I escaped. Eventually, I’d find my way back to Earth – I snuck on a Draax ship once before, I could do it again – but the longer I stayed on Draax, the more likely Richie Bulchanini would think I was dead.
You’re not going back to Iowa.
Well, I would try not to, but it’s not like I could walk onto a Draax ship and ask them what part of Earth they were going to. I’d have to take my chances. If I was lucky, I’d end up somewhere warm like Hawaii. Of course, with my luck, I’d sneak onto a ship going to, I dunno, Siberia or some other frozen wasteland.
I realized that Galan was staring silently at me and I smiled at him. “This is really fantastic. Thank you, Galan. I love my new place.”
He glanced around the apartment, a frown marring his forehead. “It is small and plain,” he repeated before walking to the door. “I must go. I have sword training with the recruits this morning.”
My gaze dropped to the sword around his waist. “Right. You guys are all slashy-slashy with the swords. Very…medieval.”
His hand grazed the handle of the sword and I could see the confusion in his gaze. Apparently deciding it wasn’t worth his time to ask for clarification, he opened the door and stepped into the hallway. “Remember, Ellis, you are not to leave your room.”
“I won’t. I absolutely won’t,” I lied. “Have fun with your sword training.”
Galan closed the door and I waited two minutes before walking over and trying the handle. It was locked – no surprise there – and I studied the lock for a few minutes before smiling. Jesus, getting out of this room would be like taking candy from a baby.
I reached for my backpack before pausing. It would be better to wait. To lull them into a false sense of security. Hell, they might even start leaving my door unlocked if they thought I was a good little pet and did exactly what they said.
I finished the bottle of gallberry juice, set it on the small table, and then ran across the room and jumped on the bed. It was sinfully comfortable, and I stretched out on it and stared up at the ceiling.
Despite being locked in my quarters, I was deliriously happy. I supposed this was exactly how a death row prisoner felt when the governor called off the execution at the last minute. I rubbed my chest, my grin widening. For the first time in seven years, I was warm and fed and comfortable.
Don’t get used to it.
I wouldn’t. I might not be dying of cancer any longer, but I was still in a mess of trouble. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t enjoy the soft bed and unlimited food while it lasted.
Chapter Seven
Galan
I knocked on the door of the human’s quarters before unlocking it and opening it. “Ellis? I have brought you some lunch. You must eat…”
The thought died in my head and I stared wordlessly at the little human. She was standing in the small kitchen, her small body bent as she stared into the fridge. She was wearing my shirt and while it was just as baggy on her as the hospital gown, something inside of me strung tight at seeing her in my clothing. She was standing on one foot, the other rubbed up and down the back of one pale calf.
“Galan, what’s this yellow stuff?”
I watched her foot slide higher up her leg and disappear beneath my shirt. My cock was starting to harden, and I wanted to join her. Wanted to kneel at her feet and slide my hands under her shirt. Wanted to feel the smoothness of her thighs before I pressed them open and buried my face into her bare pussy. She would taste sweet. Sweeter than warracot. Sweeter than gallberries.
“Galan?”
I tore my gaze away from her legs and walked briskly to the table. I set the tray down and sat with a thump in one of the two chairs. I had to sit. The hardness of my cock could not be concealed by my pants any longer.
“You okay?” Ellis was holding a container of warracot and staring at me.
“Yes. The food you hold is warracot. It is a fruit and tastes sweet.”
“Okay.” She set the container down before sitting in the other chair. My shirt was too large for me to see even the curve of her small breasts, but it didn’t matter. I’d already seen them on the ship. Already knew how perfect they were.
My hands itched to cup them, and my cock was growing harder instead of softening. Krono, I needed to control my thoughts. The human would be returned to Earth as soon as the war ended. It was not wise to fuck her.
Why not? Ask her if she wants to fuck while she is here. There is no harm in asking.
There was plenty of harm. One, she was so small, I’d be lucky not to injure her during sex, and two, I wasn’t looking for some casual fucking and hadn’t been for some time. It was why I had left the Earth bar instead of finding a random female to bed when I was on Earth.
I wanted a mate, and the little thief sitting before me could never be my mate.
“Thank you for bringing me lunch.” Ellis poked at the grundleswat. “Are you not eating?”
“I ate earlier. I am always hungry after a training session.”
“Right. How did that go?” Ellis tried some grundleswat. “This is good. What is it?”
“Grundleswat. It’s our main source of meat.”
“Cool. I saw pictures of grundleswats in a Draax informational hologram at the library. They kind of remind me of deer.”
I reached below the table and pulled the crotch of my pants away from my dick. “What did you do this morning?”
“Napped,” she said with a grin. “Then I drank about four bottles of gallberry juice and then I had a bath.”
Oh Krono, I was not suddenly imagining her naked body in the bath.
She was already pushing her plate away and I frowned at her. “You must eat more.”
“I really can’t,” she said. “My belly is sloshing with all the juice I drank, plus I’m used to not eating much.”
I studied the way the skin stretched tight over her cheekbones. “Are you a lower?”
“I am,” she said. “How could you tell?”
“Your clothing was dirty, you smelled terrible, and you are too thin from not eating enough,” I said.
Her mouth dropped open for a second before she laughed. Her laugh was low and throaty, and it made my tail wave with excitement.
She glanced at my tail before saying, “I’m not sure I would ever get used to how blunt and
honest you guys are. Human men aren’t like that.”
“Where did you live?” I was immensely curious about the little human.
“Uh, actually, I was homeless,” she said. “I lived on the streets.”
“You are so small. How did you survive?” I said. “Krey told me the area you live in falls below freezing in the cold months.”
“I’m tougher than I look.”
I couldn’t see how someone so small could possibly survive.
“How?” I persisted.
“Earth has homeless shelters so I would try and stay in them as often as I could. If they were full, I slept in alley’s under cardboard boxes. I had some warm blankets for a while that I sto – I mean, borrowed from the shelter, but some big dude with a hatchet and a really bad attitude took them from me.”
She ate a piece of warracot, her face lighting up. “Ooh, this is so sweet. It tastes kind of like watermelon.”
“You are lucky you did not freeze to death,” I said.
“I did almost freeze to death once last winter. But I broke into a land vehicle and it had a blanket in the back seat, so I just wrapped myself up like a burrito in the vehicle and hoped I didn’t die.”
She took another sip of juice. “Man, this stuff is so good. I can’t stop drinking it.”
“How did you get the scar on your leg?” I said.
She glanced at the scar running along the front of her shin before grinning. “That was a good one. So, for about two months, I was hanging around a real swanky uppers neighbourhood that was built near a small forest. There was an old treehouse in the forest – one of them must have built it for their kids and then forgot about it when their kids grew up. Anyway, it was perfect because I could shelter in the treehouse, there was a small stream in the woods that I could use for drinking water and for bathing, and at night I could sneak into the neighbourhood and go through their trash for food. Man, uppers waste a lot of food. I mean, a lot. I would find whole roasted chickens sometimes with, like, maybe a thigh missing and that’s it.”
Rebel (The Draax Series Book 3) Page 9
