The Alien's Ransom: A SciFi Alien Warrior Romance (Drixonian Warriors Book 1)

by Ella Maven

  She gasped, and her eyes popped open. “Oh shit,” she said. “Your fingers. So long.”

  “I have something that’s longer,” I growled against her lips.

  “Yeah, I know from experience,” she murmured.

  Her lips quirked up into a seductive smile. I had intended to draw this out and spend time first with my tongue between her legs, but I was too eager. My libido was awake and raging. There’d be time for that later. I propped her against the spring’s bank, my tail supporting her. Her legs wrapped around my waist.

  “Well, it’s my job to make sure you never forget,” I lined up my cock at her entrance and thrust inside.

  She threw her head back. “Oh gawd!”

  I planted my hands on either side of her. “Daz,” I growled as I pulled out and thrust into her again. “Your Daz.”

  “Yes,” she said, one hand sifting through my hair. “My Daz.”

  I thrust again and again. Her body jolted with each drive of my hips. Her breasts shook, and I bowed my back so I could draw one hard stiff peak into my mouth. As I swirled my piercings over it, her inner walls rippled around my cock. My subcock lengthened and latched onto her clit. She screamed as the suction started. The water around us was bubbling and frothing from our movements, and yet I continued to mate my female. She needed to never forget me, and, or what we were. Ever.

  Her mouth was open, lips red and swollen from my kisses and her nibbles. “I’m going to … oh fuck, I’m going to come, Daz. Never … never felt like this.”

  “It’ll always feel like this,” I gripped her chin and forced her to look into my eyes. “Because I’m the only one who’ll ever be in this cunt again.”

  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she shuddered. Her cunt milked my cock, squeezing it until I could no longer hold back. I came on a roar with a final slam inside her. My cock pulsed over and over, filling my female until the qua around us calmed, and I fell forward, trapping her between the spring’s edge and my body.

  Her chest heaved beneath me, and she still clung to me with her blunt nails. “Daz,” she murmured.

  “My Fra-kee.” I nuzzled her hair and her neck and ran my fingers down her spine, memorizing the feel of her.

  “Our first fight and first make-up sex,” she said softly as her fingers traced the patterns on my scales. “And what a doozy it was.”

  “I’m not sure what some of those words mean,” I pulled back. “Come on, let’s get clean and then we’ll eat and talk.”

  She smiled up at me, her body pliant and loose now. “Okay.”

  I paused and looked at her, but she only tilted her head back and closed her eyes. All it took to make her soft and agreeable was my cock. I smiled to myself. I looked forward to when she was disagreeable again.

  While she enjoyed the sun’s warm rays, I washed her with a soap powder Tark had given me. We used cleansers to clean usually, but hot springs were a nice alternative, and felt much better for sore muscles. I admired her limbs and delicate little wrists and ankles. I turned her around and scrubbed down her back.

  On her left shoulder was a strange black mark. I frowned at it. “What’s that?”

  Fra-kee cocked her head to the side. “Hmmm?”

  “This black shape.” I touched it, but it wasn’t raised, like a scar. Had someone branded her? “Who marked you?”

  She huffed out an annoyed snort. “Some guy named Skull at Marked 4 Life. Who clearly was only a day past his apprenticeship based on his skill—”

  I spun her around so fast, she nearly fell in the qua. I clenched my jaw. “Who is this Skull? Why is his mark on your body?”

  Her brows dipped in anger before her expression cleared and she said, “Oooh.”

  “Oooh what?” I barked.

  She patted my chest in a patronizing way. “You should calm down first.”

  “I’m calm!”

  “I guess we have different definitions of calm,” she muttered. “Look, this is a tattoo. Tons of humans have them.”

  “How is it done? Why did Skull choose you?”

  “I chose him.” She paused. “Okay, let’s stop talking about Skull.”

  “What—”

  “Let me finish!” She slapped my chest with her wet hand. I shut my jaw so forcefully that my teeth clacked. She huffed out a breath through her nostrils. “Thank you. Damn. Okay, so there are tattoo artists. It’s a job. I go to a guy, like Skull, and I say I want this design, and they draw it on my skin. The design is my choice. It’s not his mark. Does that make sense?”

  I still didn’t like it, but it was making more sense. “I think so. What is the mark?”

  “It’s supposed to be a shark fin.”

  “Shirk?”

  “A shark. It’s a fish who lives in the ocean. In a qua-like lake. But huge. Like massive. I love the movie Jaws, but that’s a whole other topic for another time.” She waved a hand. “Let’s get you clean.”

  I decided to let it go. She was mine now, and this Skull was two galaxies away. Of course, if he ever showed up here, I’d kill him.

  Twelve

  Frankie

  Daz cleaning himself was an erotic show I never expected to be into. But my Lord, he was a specimen and a half. His hair didn’t really get wet, and it reminded me a bit of an otter’s fur—a pelt infused with oil to protect it from the water. The qua dripped off his hair and most of his body in beads. He seemed entirely rainproof, which made me jealous because I was about two minutes away from being a prune.

  His cock, even soft, was something to behold, and I could barely believe that thing, and the massive piercing at the end, fit inside me. His thighs were corded with muscle, and his scales rippled over his abdominal muscles as he cleaned them. I didn’t understand one iota about genetics, but I was infinitely curious why—or how—his body was similar to a human’s and yet so different. He’d retracted his claws completely so he could, uh, finger me. His massive black bone blades which slipped through slits in his skin lay dormant. They made me wonder if his bones were black as well.

  When he was finishing cleaning himself, he waded toward me. I had to ignore the hungry look in his eyes because I was a little sore. And hungry. If he were going to keep fucking me like that, he’d need to nourish me often.

  I was finally getting used to his aura in my mind. When he’d been angry about my tattoo, the red had flared and heated. Right now, it was a contented, soft glow with a red tint. He gathered me in his arms, tenderly, and dropped a kiss on my nose. He even smiled somewhat, and I noted Daz was much more pleasant after he’d had an orgasm. That was one thing he had in common with human males. His kisses continued down my face until he stopped to nibble lazily on my neck.

  I was still stuck on what he’d said before he ravaged me. “I have a question.”

  “I should have answers,” he murmured against my skin.

  “You said I’m the only female you’ve ever mated.”

  He stopped and pulled back. His tender look was gone. Profound sadness crept through his aura, dulling it like a grayscale thief. “Yes.”

  “I don’t understand that.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re… you look like you do. And you’re in a position of power, right?”

  His chest puffed out. “I’m the drexel of my clavas.”

  “Right, so I would think… I would think your females would be eager to nail— Er, be with you. I’m sure they will be none too pleased little ol’ me is your mate.”

  A vein in his neck throbbed. “Maybe so, if there were any around.”

  I frowned. “What?”

  He sighed heavily, and that sadness heated until a burning ember of anger glowed in his aura. “All our females are dead. One hundred and fifty sun-cycles ago, we lived on that planet.” He pointed to the twin planet, visible over the tree line. “But then a virus swept through our civilization. It killed all our females and most of our elder males. There are several thousand of us males alive on this planet, and as far as
we know, we are all that is left of the Drixonian species.”

  I could barely process what I was hearing. His whole species was nearly wiped out? I couldn’t imagine that level of devastation. I felt tears prick my eyes. “Daz, that’s… I’m so sorry. I’m so terribly sorry.”

  He swiped a thumb under my eye, gathering a drop of wetness. “What are these?”

  I sniffed. “They’re tears.”

  He cocked his head. “Why do you tear?”

  I hiccupped a laugh. “No, I cry. Uh, the action is crying. And I cry tears. That is what this liquid is. Tears.”

  He brow furrowed. “You cry when you’re sad?”

  “Yes, yes I do.”

  His aura brightened, and I couldn’t decipher the reason for the shift in color. “You are sad for me.” His voice was low, nearly a whisper.

  “Of course, I’m sad for you.” I swiped under my eyes. “For your species. I can’t imagine how devastating that would be. So, your mother…”

  “I watched her die.” His voice was flat, and a black wall descended over his aura, hiding it from me. “She coughed up blood for several rotations until I could feel every bone in her body beneath her skin. I was the oldest of my brothers, so I remember. They do not. And they are better for it.”

  I tried to imagine a little Daz standing by his mom’s deathbed, stroking her pale skin as she drew her last breaths. I brought a shaky hand up to my mouth. “How did you get over here to this planet?”

  He blew out a breath. “Let’s get out of the spring and let me feed you. I will explain then. It’s a long story.”

  We disentangled ourselves from each other, and both dressed quickly. Wiping my hands on my pants, I looked around and then spotted a familiar object between two tree trunks. “A hammock!” I squealed. I picked my way over the wet rocks until I reached the hammock. I assumed this all was Anna’s doing, especially because Daz was approaching the knitted web of vines as if it were a poisonous snake.

  With a frown, he gently touched it. “This netting is a…?”

  “A hammock,” I stretched out the edges to display how it was made. “See, it makes kind of a bed, suspended off the ground.

  He looked even more incredulous now. “I’m supposed to lay in that?”

  I eyed him and then pushed down on the vines. They seemed to be strong. “Well, since I assume Anna and Tark made this—probably at Anna’s direction—then I’m also going to go with the idea they made it strong enough for, uh, one of you big guys.”

  He mimicked my action, pushing down on the vines with the flat of his palm. “Hm.” He sounded skeptical.

  “Watch,” I hoped to hell the vines didn’t twist and dump me on the ground. I had never been called graceful. With my hands bracing the sides, I hopped off the ground and turned to plop my ass down in the hammock. It swung but didn’t flip me around. I ran my hands over the vines. “You can sit in it. Usually it’s something you lie on though.” I settled back and threw my arms out. This hammock was massive. Anna and Tark had so fucked in this thing. “See?”

  “And I’m supposed to get into that with you?” he asked before glancing around. “Or is there another one?”

  I laughed and patted the space beside me. “Come on in. Just don’t dump me. Keep your weight distributed.”

  He eyed me, and then with a quick leap, settled his body beside mine. Of course, he’d managed the moves easily because he was basically an Ironman. He crossed his arms behind his head and blinked up into the sky. I had no choice but to roll into him, which wasn’t a hardship. I hauled my thigh over his waist and laid my head on his biceps. “Cozy, huh?”

  “Cozy,” he murmured.

  He closed his eyes, and for a moment, I thought he planned to sleep, until his lids lifted, and he began to speak.

  “After our women died, our civilization was in chaos. You must understand that our females did everything for our society. They held positions on our council. The only male member who served on the council was a representative for our military. The women farmed and made goods to barter and trade. They were the machine and the oil of our species. Our planet’s resources and our females were coveted, and our military was robust. At an early age, all males began to train and were sorted in categories. Some were pilots. Others formed squads that were sent out on missions. And the majority remained on planet to train for defense.

  “We were good. Exceptionally good. We protected our homes and our females well. But the virus that took our females had no face and could not be killed with our blades and guns. When they died, our society collapsed. I’m not sure any society could have been prepared for something that devastating.”

  I listened to him talk with a growing blackness in my soul. I couldn’t imagine what that must have been like for him.

  “We had never had much interaction with the Uldani. They mostly kept to themselves. After the virus, they noticed we were adrift with many young, and asked the remaining males to work for them as Defens—their army and bodyguards, as well as law enforcement. We accepted, because we knew how to do that, and they offered their females to help with our young. That went fine for about a hundred years until they betrayed us.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “We were very protective of the males we had left. We learned the Uldani had been capturing some of our males and performing experiments on them. We don’t know why or how, but we know that many died.”

  I gasped. “What? Experimenting?”

  “We assume it has something to do with our genetics, but it was unacceptable to us. When we found out, we began meeting in secret. After several tense meetings over many rotations, we voted to rebel against their rule. I’m not sure any of us realized just how much they’d subjugated us. The fight was bloody. The Uldani closed ranks and hid many of their people behind the walls of their main settlement. They destroyed anything they could to prevent us from hiding, but they were no match for a species who’d been bred to fight.

  “We won our independence but lost our ships and our ability to get off this planet. The Uldani still live on the eastern half of the continent, and the remaining Drix formed clavases and appointed our own drexels. That’s how we have lived ever since.”

  While traveling on the bike, I’d remembered seeing crumbling buildings with large holes in them and top floors missing. “So, there are more groups like yours?”

  “Yes, we are called the Night Kings.” He gestured to his armband, which I hadn’t looked at closely until now. Stamped into the red-tinged metal was the outline of a jagged-edged crown. “This is called a tag. We never remove it, and if we do, we’re considered lonas, like Tark. He was a former member of the Black Bloods.”

  “Why did you separate into separate groups?”

  “Many of us had varying ideas of how we should live. Some have lost our values and trade with the Rahgul and even the Uldani. Others, like us, have allied with other clavases for information and supplies.”

  “So, what you’re saying is you’re not friendly with all of your kind?”

  His jaw clenched. “That is correct.”

  “Where do you live now?”

  “In former Uldani settlements. Most were damaged in the Uprising, but we’ve rebuilt them.”

  This was where I had to ask about his plans for me and the other women from the spaceship, to find out if he or his clavas had ever been involved in human trafficking. If his answer were yes, I couldn’t forgive him. I swallowed as goosebumps raced down my arms. “If you’re one of the good guys and no longer trade with the Uldani, why were you there to collect us humans? Anna mentioned that was a job the Uldani asked you to do.”

  His lips pressed tight, and he took a while before answering. “They have something we want and told us we’d get it if we delivered the Rahgul cargo to them. We had no idea the cargo was human females.”

  I propped myself up on my elbow and gazed down at him. His aura was still dim, that black wall only open a crack. My stomach dipped. I remembered how he’
d looked at Bazel, like she’d been an alien to him. “Did you know humans could have your babies?”

  His chest heaved and he turned to face me. “I had no idea.”

  “But now that you know…” I let my gaze drop as I contemplated what I was going to say next. “Now that you know, I guess you won’t be handing us over to the Uldani, huh?” I tried to smile but being used for your womb wasn’t exactly exciting. “Because we can give you babies.”

  He grabbed me and hauled me on top of him. His tail held me in place, and he gripped my face in both hands. “No, Fra-kee. We won’t be handing you over to the Uldani, but it’s not because you can give us young. I cannot lie and say it’s not a big deal, because it is. It’s huge. But from the first moment I saw you, I knew you were meant to be mine. And as soon as you fought that Kulk and ripped open his ankle, I knew I’d claim you. That is the truth, Fra-kee.”

  His eyes searched mine, nearly pleading. He wanted me to believe him. I felt that in his aura, and in my own heart. But damn it was hard. “Okay, Daz.”

  He didn’t like that answer. He flinched like I’d hit him. “Please tell me you believe me.”

  “You think that’s the reason. But I also felt your reaction when you saw Bazel.”

  “I cannot be faulted for finding out that my species—which I thought would go extinct—now has a chance to prosper again.”

  I conceded that point. “You’re right.”

  He must not have liked my tone, because he frowned and the door to his aura flung open. The glow was a billowing stream of red, nearly choking me. “Fra-kee, I want you and need you as my cora-eternal whether my seed takes root in you or not.” A muscle in his jaw ticked. He was irritated, but not at me. “I will prove it to you in action if my words are not enough.”

  “I don’t want to fight, Daz,” I said. “I’m sorry for bringing this up—”

  “Is this fighting?” he quipped. “I thought it was a discussion. And I don’t want you to hide things from me. If something bothers you about me, you need to tell me. How can we fix what is silent?”

  I smiled at him. God, did I dare believe he was real? What if we got back to his settlement with all his buds and he started doing dumb shit to show off, like smacking my ass and telling dick jokes?