by Sonia Nova
“And? What else?” Arez growled when she stayed silent. “What is the Alliance not telling the rest of us?”
Naomi opened her eyes slowly. Beautiful brown orbs with golden flecks looked straight at him. Her pink lips were parted and an equally pink tongue darted out of her mouth to lick them. His body felt hot and he moved back another inch from her, trying to hold himself together.
Her eyes sparkled and her mouth opened wider, but no words came out.
“I’ve been captured by Krezlians and so have you. Don’t you think I deserve to know why? What happened to the Ezak-X male and the human female?”
Naomi took a deep breath. Arez could see the guilt in her eyes as she started to tell him. Maybe because it was classified Alliance information; maybe because she knew that he’d deserved to know this earlier.
“The Alliance suspects that the Krezlians want your people back so that they can re-condition you and use you against the Alliance, as they had initially hoped.”
“Yes…” That much he already knew. That was the official Alliance story that had been told to them. The one that had been said to be the reason for the war. Now, he wasn’t sure it was the whole truth.
“But what about the human females? You all obviously play a role in this too, and that’s what the Alliance is hiding.”
Naomi looked down. “They… The Ezak-X male and the human female… There were some hormonal changes in them. They were tested by the Alliance afterward and…”
“Hormonal changes?” Arez frowned at her all of a sudden, pulling back from her another inch. The words rung far too close to what the Krezlians had been saying about him since he got on this damned spaceship. “What do you mean? In the male or the female?”
“Both of them,” she said after a moment. “She… She got pregnant. With his child.”
Arez’s eyes widened at the revelation. Pregnant? With his child? That couldn’t be. His kind were sterile. That wasn’t… Hormonal changes… Hormonal changes… in him. And how they needed the female. Naomi.
His mind whirled for a moment, thinking of the implications. What the Krezlians wanted… Suddenly, the realization hit him and he let out a dark laugh.
He knew why the Krezlians had put them back into a cell. They couldn’t separate them before… Fuck.
He stopped laughing and looked at Naomi – who looked right back at him, a confused expression on her face, obviously not having reached the same conclusion he had. Too bad for the Krezlians. There was no chance of what they wanted happening. Not with how Naomi truly thought of him.
“I know what the Krezlians want,” Arez said, grinning savagely. “They want us to fuck.”
“They… what?” Naomi’s eyes widened in horror. Arez almost felt guilty for telling her in such a crude way. “Explain,” she demanded a moment later.
“Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it?” Arez asked, cocking an eyebrow at her. “The Krezlians want to take over the universe, sure. And they want to get back at the Alliance for kicking them out. But we were their pet project for decades. Now they discover that, although they thought us sterile, we can breed after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if they want to repeat the experiment.”
“But why?” Naomi frowned. “Most likely it wouldn’t even work. It hasn’t happened before. Alyssa and her mate seemed to be an exception.”
Arez thought about it for a moment, his brows drawing together in concentration. “You said there were hormonal changes in them both. Why?”
Naomi shook her head. Her tone and expression were all business now and she seemed to have gotten over her initial surprise at his words. Instead, she looked just as interested in trying to figure this out as he was. “The Alliance is still investigating. Perhaps the Krezlians gave them something…”
Arez frowned. “Maybe… But I don’t think so. Because apparently, according to them, my body has already undergone hormonal changes. While you were being interrogated, a scientist…”
Naomi’s eyes widened in shock. “You–”
“And I heard them talking while they thought I was unconscious,” he explained. “Strapped on an examination table. And, as far as I’m aware, the only shot I was given after arriving on this damned ship was a hallucinogen. To induce some ‘simulation’ as they called it. Not a fertility drug.”
Naomi shook her head, clearly in thought.
“There is another theory,” she said quietly after a while, turning to look at him in the eye. “Pheromones.”
Arez cocked his head.
Naomi swallowed as if she definitely wasn’t supposed to be telling him this. “It was in my files… After the attack on the Ka’elea, I talked to Alyssa – the human woman who was taken – and was given a report on what happened. The Alliance also supplied possible reasons why. But because the war started, I didn’t have the time to read it in full.”
“What did you have time to read?”
“The Alliance has been looking into the DNA of the Ezak-X in recent years,” she said. “And, if I remember correctly, the report stated that you have some human DNA. But also the DNA of some wild animal that lives on the Ekrin homeworld – one that mates with the use of pheromones.”
Arez’s frown deepened. “The Drozan beast?”
“Yes,” Naomi said in surprise, her eyes wide. “How did you know?”
Arez snorted. “You’re not the only one reading reports on my kind. Although I’m pretty sure the reports you read are more detailed and not for the public eye. But if I remember correctly, the human percentage was hardly noteworthy.”
Naomi lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “Maybe… I don’t really remember. But the other theory – besides fertility drugs – is that your reproductive system is part Drozan beast, part human. That you mate with pheromones, but due to a part of you being human, you can… procreate… with humans.”
Naomi’s cheeks flushed slightly, as if she was considering how exactly the “procreating” happened. Arez contemplated her words, but before he could say anything, Naomi continued, clearly flustered by the topic.
“I think the Alliance already conducted some tests on the matter though,” she said, her cheeks now distinctly red. “And they all came back negative, so I’m not sure if there’s any truth to it. But it could be that something in her increased his pheromones, which made him able to reproduce. And that his pheromones in turn affected her and caused the hormonal changes in her.”
Arez thought about how deliciously enticing her scent had been to him from the very moment she had bumped into him. “Pheromones,” he repeated.
“Even so,” Naomi said, now avoiding his gaze once again, “I don’t see why the Krezlians would want us to… uhm…”
“Right,” he said. “You said the Krezlians want us back. To use us. And that’s what I’d thought before too. But now, with this information…” He shook his head. “We’ve already have a taste of the Alliance life. Re-conditioning us would be difficult. Maybe impossible. But a newborn child… Raised from the start, just like they originally did with us. Easy.”
They both sat there in silence for a moment, the realization settling in.
“But why go through all the trouble?” Naomi asked quietly. “If they want to start from scratch, why go through the trouble of getting you back, and kidnapping females on top of it?”
Arez shook his head. “When the Alliance saved us, they destroyed the whole Krezlian operation. The Krezlians lost all their equipment, their labs… The DNA strands that created us… And although they probably still had some knowledge saved outside their computer systems that were destroyed, I’m not sure they could recreate us completely.”
He paused, looking straight into Naomi’s eyes.
“Before us… There were others. Others whose DNA was similar to ours, but who didn’t work out for their purposes in the end. We did. With the experiments, training, and tests… They chose us. But because of the Alliance, I don’t think they have the complete map to create the right DNA mashup anymore. Nor
do I think they have the equipment to do it. With the trade barriers in place after they were kicked out of the Alliance, they probably can’t even recreate their labs. So they either need us back…”
“Or they need the babies,” Naomi finished for him, her voice hollow. They sat in silence for a moment, neither of them saying a word. “But why would they want us to do it?” she asked after a while. “First of all, I’m on the pill, I’m not even fertile, and second of all, don’t you have to do it with… you know, the female who caused your hormones to shift? That is, if this theory is even correct.”
“As for your first concern…” Arez sniffed the air, considering her scent. “No, you’re not currently fertile, but I bet the Krezlians are hoping for that to change any moment. You said it yourself. Pheromones. And for your second concern…” He avoided her gaze, remembering what she had said during the interrogation. She wasn’t going to like what he was about to say, but she deserved to know. “Well, you are that female.”
Naomi’s eyes snapped wide as she looked at him.
“I… What?” Then, realization dawned on her. “That’s why you picked me out from the group,” she breathed, horrified. “I wasn’t sure if you did, but it seemed like you singled me out! I hoped I was wrong but you… you set me up!”
Arez glared at her now. “I set you up?” he ground out. “I didn’t even know what all this was until now. All I knew was that they wanted you, so I took advantage of that and tried to save you!”
Naomi bit her lip and looked away from him. “Okay, so they want us to do it. You and me,” she finally admitted. “What should we do? We can’t… I mean…”
“You’re right,” he said, although now that his brain had actually moved onto thinking of doing it, his body very much wanted to disagree. He leaned away from her even more now, trying to keep his cool. “We can’t do it. So, we’ll just have to wait it out and see what they decide to do with us.”
“You… You don’t think they’ll just leave us here, do you?” Naomi asked quietly, her voice laced with worry. “I mean… If we don’t do it?”
Arez sighed. “I have no idea. I’m not sure they’ll just wait patiently for us to do it either, if we take too long. The Krezlians are hardly known for their patience.”
He gave her a significant look, and if possible, Naomi’s face paled even more from its usual shade of moonlight.
“You wouldn’t–”
“I’m not going to do that,” he growled, maddened she would even suggest he’d take advantage of her or force himself on her. Apparently, even she had bought into the stereotypes about his kind. What kind of a monster did she think him to be?
A monster… As he was.
His heart sank at the thought. Clearly, she thought the worst of him and it pierced his heart. But despite all he was, he wasn’t the kind of a monster that took females against their will. Even the thought made him sick, and the fact that she had thought that…
“I know what you think of me and the Ezak-X,” he spat out.
Naomi shook her head, looking confused. “That’s not what I meant,” she said. “I was going to ask if you thought they would get tired of waiting and bring us somewhere so they could… uh… perform the duty… manually?”
A deep red shade rose onto her cheeks as she spoke.
“Plus,” she continued. “You know how I really feel.”
Arez frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“You saw the whole interrogation,” she continued. “I… Well, you heard me…”
Arez’s eyes widened by a fraction as he recalled what exactly she had said. And then he pulled in a shocked breath as he realized just how wrong he had been. He had mixed up what he had thought were her lies and the truth. She hadn’t been lying to give the interrogator what he wanted. Not at all.
He was a goddamn idiot.
Seeing the sparkle in her eyes as she looked at him filled him with desire – a need stronger than he’d ever felt. His cock leaped in his robe and he shifted on the bed, trying to make sure the tiny scrap of clothing covered him properly.
Fuck… If they were truly going to just sit here and wait for the Krezlians, that was going to be pretty damn difficult now.
Could it be possible? This human female, Alliance Ambassador and all… was actually attracted to him?
CHAPTER 20
NAOMI
Arez looked straight at her, as if he could see right to her soul, and something moved inside her. The earlier flush returned to her cheeks as his intense gaze brought heat to her insides, promising her unimaginable pleasure.
Naomi snapped her gaze quickly away from him.
Naomi, you are being absolutely crazy. Do not look at the alien, or…
Or she might just jump his bones.
And now he knew exactly how she felt about him. Judging from the surprise on his face, maybe he had thought she was just lying to get out of the interrogation. Not that she had even wanted to admit it one hundred percent to herself until a Krezlian was brandishing some mystery drug at her, but…
Arez was sexy. Maybe not sexy in a traditional handsome guy kind of way, but sexy in a rugged caveman-esque way, with his long, pitch black hair, bulging muscles, and tattoos all over his body.
She had always thought intelligent, educated assholes in suits who enjoyed breaking her heart were her type… but now just looking into this man’s eyes was turning her on to no end. She wanted to feel all that hard muscle on top of her – and another hard something inside her…
Naomi’s cheeks flamed at the thought. She clamped her thighs tighter together, hoping he wouldn’t sense her arousal. She needed to control her emotions better. Because the man in the cell with her wasn’t just any man, but an Ezak-X with heightened senses and he could probably smell her feelings – or at least her lust.
She glanced back up at him, hoping that he was looking somewhere else, but his eyes were still trained on her. Oh, god… Her whole body flushed as their eyes met. He couldn’t hear her thoughts too, could he?
Naomi tried to find somewhere to rest her gaze, but her eyes kept coming back to Arez’s exposed chest and massive arms. Almost instinctually, she moved closer to him, studying the circles and lines of the pale green tattoos against the gray of his skin. She wondered what they meant, all those little symbols and what looked like tally marks.
“Did you get the tattoos in the military?” she asked, suddenly curious and realizing that conversation could be a way to distract herself.
Arez tensed at the question. She wondered if she had made a mistake in asking. “No,” he said after a while, shutting his eyes as if deep in thought. “I got them from the Krezlians.”
Naomi’s heart nearly jumped into her throat. That wasn’t the answer she had expected.
“I’m sor–”
“Don’t be,” Arez interrupted her. “Most of my kind had the markings removed when the Alliance took us in – to forget. But I didn’t want to remove mine.”
“Why?” Naomi frowned. Why would he want to keep them? After everything the Krezlians had done?
Arez opened his eyes. They flashed with some emotion she couldn’t quite decipher, and his face contorted to a grimace, exposing his sharp white teeth. He looked up at her, his eyes an odd mixture of pain and determination.
“So I would never forget,” he said, his voice a menacing snarl that made Naomi’s hair stand on end. “Never forget what I was, what I no longer want to be. Never forget what I am now fighting for.”
Naomi felt a shiver run up her spine at the declaration. She made a mental note to never get on Arez’s bad side.
“What were they for?” she whispered quietly after a while, almost afraid to even ask the question, but the patterns were intriguing, despite their gruesome origins. They could still tell her something about Arez… About his past. And she wanted to know.
“Identification,” Arez said. “They tested different drugs on us, seeing how they affected us. This is basically my med
ical history. One mark for each vial I’ve been given. For every drug they’ve ever given me. Some people have purple tattoos, some have blue. Mine are green. Just as my poison was always green.”
Naomi’s breath stopped as she listened to Arez talk about his past life… in the hands of the very people who now held them captive. Of course, all this must be really getting to him, and she regretted ever asking him a thing. Although he had said he didn’t want to forget, he’d also said it was a life he didn’t want. And all her questions about his past were just horrible reminders.
Naomi shifted on the bed. She continued to study the markings on his skin, the circles and lines that covered his whole upper body. She never would’ve thought they were a code for something, but now that she looked at them more closely, she could kind of see it.
Before she even realized what she was doing, she drew closer to Arez, as if magnetized. Her fingers made contact with his shoulder, moving across his dark gray skin, following the green twirls etched on its surface. His skin felt hot to the touch, and the short peachy hairs that covered his body were softer than she’d ever imagined.
She followed the patterns up his arm and–
“Don’t.” Arez grabbed her wrist all of a sudden, his voice a low growl.
Naomi gasped in surprise at the sudden interruption. Her body felt hot, achy, and his masculine voice vibrating in the tiny cell sent pleasurable shivers along her spine. He looked down at her, his dark eyes swirling with hardly restrained need, and Naomi’s breath caught in her throat.
“I’ve been trying to control myself this whole time,” he said. “Trying to hold back despite that sweet scent of yours floating into my nose every moment and making my cock hard…”
Naomi gasped at his crude words, her eyes widening. But a part her was also turned on by the mention of his cock. She couldn’t help but glance at his lap – to see if he really was hard.
And boy, was he. The tiny scrap of a robe he was wearing only barely covered his erection, and it was stretching the fabric to its limits.
