Her Alien Protector
Voxeran Fated Mates #6
Presley Hall
Copyright © 2021 by Presley Hall
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Keep in Touch
1. Willow
2. Bohrir
3. Willow
4. Bohrir
5. Willow
6. Bohrir
7. Willow
8. Bohrir
9. Willow
10. Bohrir
11. Willow
12. Bohrir
13. Willow
14. Bohrir
15. Willow
16. Bohrir
17. Willow
18. Willow
19. Bohrir
20. Willow
21. Bohrir
22. Willow
23. Bohrir
24. Willow
Epilogue
Also by Presley Hall
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Fated Mates of the Kalixian Warriors Series
Claimed - Book 1
Stolen - Book 2
Rescued - Book 3
Bound - Book 4
Broken - Book 5
Consumed - Book 6
Damaged - Book 7
Tempted - Book 8
Tamed - Book 9
Pursued - Book 10
TBA - Book 11
NOTE: Each book in this series can be read as a standalone, but for maximum enjoyment, it’s recommended that you read the series in order.
Voxeran Fated Mates Series
Her Alien Prince - Book 1
Her Alien Savior - Book 2
Her Alien Beast - Book 3
Her Alien Warrior - Book 4
Her Alien Rogue - Book 5
Her Alien Protector - Book 6
Her Alien Rebel - Book 7
TBA - Book 8
NOTE: Each book in this series can be read as a standalone, but for maximum enjoyment, it’s recommended that you read the series in order.
1
Willow
Pink and purple hues color the wispy early morning clouds as the sun peeks over the horizon. High above, the ring that surrounds this planet arcs across the sky, standing out starkly in the dawn light.
Is there a ring like that around Earth?
I chew my lip as I stare up at it, turning the question over in my mind as I struggle to remember. I don’t think Earth has a ring around it, but to be honest, that’s based more on things I’ve heard the other women in the village say than on any actual memories of my home planet.
Because I don’t have any memories of my home planet.
Everything that happened to me before I was stolen by alien pirates a few years ago is a blur, a dark sea that sometimes spits out random sounds or images in my dreams but otherwise keeps all of its secrets buried deep below the surface.
I know my name: Willow Morgan. I know I’m Terran—human—because Gornok, the leader of the pirates who abducted me, boasted often about having a human concubine. But I know very little else about my old life.
Who was I before aliens carried me away from Earth? What did I do? What did I like? Did I leave anyone behind?
Those are questions I don’t have answers to, and after years of poking at my memory banks, I’ve all but given up hope that I ever will. The only memories I have are of the time since my abduction, and unfortunately, those are all vivid and clear in my mind.
I remember the terror and fear, the disbelief and shock. I remember fighting back against Gornok and his men at first, determined to find a way to escape. And I remember the day I realized that I would never be free of them.
When the gang of pirates stole from the wrong ship and were finally caught, I had a brief flash of hope that my fate would change, that I was about to be rescued. Instead, I was sentenced to the same punishment Gornok and his men were—banished to Nuthora, this dangerous planet with the ring around it.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”
The voice behind me makes me jump, and I press a hand to my heart to calm my racing heart.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Elizabeth, one of the other human women who lives in the village, flashes me a smile as she comes to stand beside me near the large gate that surrounds the settlement. She rests a hand on her rounded belly. “I’ve been waking up earlier than usual these days, and I figured I’d stretch my legs a little.”
I nod, not answering with words.
The concept of being able to take a walk to stretch one’s legs is still a little foreign to me. Even the fact that I was able to slip out of the women’s barracks and walk across the small village unhindered feels strange. Gornok and his men kept me tied up most of the time, and they never let me go anywhere unguarded.
But you’re not there anymore, Willow, I remind myself. It’s different here.
When the massive warrior with the pearlescent blue skin and bold white markings came into the pirates’ den to ask them questions about some missing alien, I watched from the corner like I’d always done—observing, but trying to draw as little attention to myself as possible.
The big alien noticed me anyway, though. His eyes, a blue so deep they almost looked violet, turned in my direction. A jolt shot through me, making my heart race, and everything moved so fast in that moment that it’s all a blur in my memory.
He stepped toward me, a strange look on his face. Then he shoved aside the pirate standing between us and snatched me up, throwing me over his shoulder and bolting from the ramshackle building. I was too stunned to fight, too stunned to do anything. In that moment, I was certain I was about to die—either killed by the big blue alien himself or taken out accidentally in a fight between him and Gornok.
But the fight never happened. The huge alien outran Gornok and his men. And instead of killing me, he and a few others just like him brought me back to their village.
“How are you settling in here?” Elizabeth asks, glancing over at me with her perceptive gray eyes.
I nod again, which I know doesn’t really answer her question. But I’m not sure what to say.
She turns to face me a bit more fully, her expression turning serious. “You know, it’s okay to ask for help if you need it. If you need someone to talk to, or if you want to vent or cry or… or anything, really. We’ve all been through this. Except when our ship crashed on Nuthora, the rest of the women and I had each other. We were able to band together to fight off the raiders who tried to attack our ship, and we helped each other through the disbelief and trauma of what had just happened to us.” She cocks her head, frowning a little. “But from what I’ve been able to gather, it doesn’t sound like you had that. It sounds like you were on your own with that band of pirates, and that must’ve been really hard.”
I swallow, my throat tight. “It was all right. I survived.”
She smiles. “You did. And that’s amazing. But it’s still okay to need help. It’s okay to miss your old life, and to want to go back.”
My shoulders stiffen, and I look away from her, turning my face up to stare at the sky again.
This village, which is several days’ travel from the city of Pascia where I was kept with Gornok and his men, is populated by about two dozen Terran women and over fifty of the blue-skinned alien warriors—Voxerans, they’re called. They all seem to live together peacefully, and some of the women even call the men their mates. But despite the seeming tranquility of the settlement, I can’t quite bring myself to relax or to trust any of it.
The Voxerans are huge and terrifying. None of them are quite as big as the one who stole me away from Gornok, but they’re all massive. And even though I’m the same species as the women, I have a hard time relating to them.
I feel like an outsider. Like I don’t belong here.
Ever since the Terran woman named Raina cut away the bindings on my ankles and wrists after I was taken from the pirates’ den, I’ve considered running. On the journey here from Pascia, I thought about it every day. And if I’m honest with myself, that’s why I come and stand by the gate every morning when the sun is barely up and the village is quiet and still.
Because even now, I’m thinking about fleeing.
Elizabeth shifts her weight, her brows drawing together, and I wonder if she can read any of my thoughts in my expression. I do my best to keep my face neutral, something I perfected while living with Gornok and the other pirates.
“When are you due?” I ask, glancing down at the swell of her belly. I want to move the conversation away from me.
She follows my gaze, smiling as she traces the curve of her stomach. She’s wearing a piece of leather tied around her waist in a skirt, along with another leather garment that’s been fashioned into a rough tank top, similar to the outfit I’m wearing. I was wearing a dress when I was stolen from Gornok’s lair, but the Voxerans offered me new clothes when I arrived at the village.
“Probably about two months,” Elizabeth tells me. “I’m getting excited to meet the little one, although I’m nervous as hell about having a baby on an alien prison planet.”
I nod. I can understand that. Gornok gave me something that disrupted my cycle, so there was never a chance of me getting pregnant, and I’m glad. It’s been a struggle to survive on my own. I don’t know how I could’ve protected a baby too.
“Did… did one of the Voxerans do that to you?” I ask, the words sticking in my throat a little.
Elizabeth gives me a look of sympathy, as if she understands exactly why I’m asking, then she shakes her head. “No. This little bean is courtesy of a badly timed one-night stand back on Earth.” Her smile softens. “But Axen will help me raise him or her. He’ll be the father in every way that counts, and given how much he seems to love the baby already, I don’t doubt that he’ll be an amazing dad.”
Right. Because the Voxerans aren’t like Gornok and his men.
I have to remind myself of that often, but no matter how many times I repeat the words in my head, I have a hard time fully believing them. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop—for the veil to be pulled back, allowing me to see the dark underside of this place. That the men aren’t as honorable as they pretend to be, and that the women are more captives than guests.
Elizabeth must pick up on the tension in my expression again, because her brows draw together. “Did you have someone special back on Earth? Someone you’re missing?”
A familiar rush of coldness fills my chest, making my heart beat sluggishly. I wrap my arms around myself as if I could somehow fend off the chill that comes from inside me.
None of the women here know that I don’t remember my life on Earth. I haven’t told any of them about my memory loss—or much else about myself, really. The time I spent in captivity taught me that the only things that are truly my own anymore are my thoughts and feelings, and I guard them as carefully as Gornok guarded his damn treasure. Every piece of myself that I give away is a piece I can’t take back, a snippet of information that could be used to hurt me later.
Until I’m absolutely sure that no one here will try to harm me, I don’t want to give them any more of myself than I have to.
Besides, I don’t know the answer to her question anyway. I can’t reminisce about Earth or talk about things or people I miss back there like I’ve heard the other Terran women doing. I might as well not even be one of them, for all that I can relate to them.
“I should get back to the barracks,” I say, taking a step away from her. “I’ll see you later.”
“Sure.” She nods, watching me with slightly narrowed eyes as I turn and walk away.
I don’t really want to return to the barracks. All of the unmated women in the village sleep in a large, communal building near the center of the settlement, and it won’t be long before more of them start to wake up. But it’ll be easier to fade into the background there than it was when it was just me and Elizabeth standing side by side.
She’s too observant, and I know she and Charlotte have been watching me. It’s possible she came looking for me this morning instead of just wandering the village to stretch her legs as she claimed. I don’t know exactly why they’re keeping such a close eye on me, but it makes me nervous.
My pace picks up as I near the large building where the women sleep, my feet thudding against the packed dirt of the path. Then several Voxerans round a corner up ahead of me, and I stop dead in my tracks.
There are four of them, and all it takes is a glance to know that he’s among them.
Bohrir.
The man who stole me away from Gornok.
He’s easy to spot because he stands several inches above even the tallest of the other warriors. His shaggy dark brown hair frames his face almost like a lion’s mane, thick and unkempt. The defined, bulging muscles of his arms and shoulders shift beneath his pearlescent blue skin as he adjusts his grip on the thick spear he carries.
Bohrir is at the back of the group. The other Voxerans ahead of him are talking quietly amongst themselves as they stride in the direction I just came from, presumably heading out for a hunt.
The moment he catches sight of me, he comes to a stop too, and my pulse kicks up another notch, racing even faster than it was just a second ago.
His violet-blue eyes gleam in the first rays of sunlight that wash over the village, and the markings on his skin seem to glow a little. His irises are oval, not round like mine, and they flare wider as he stares at me.
My hands curl into fists and then unclench, but they’re the only part of me that moves. I can’t seem to get my feet to work at all. The other Voxerans continue on, not even noticing that the fourth member of their party has stopped, and as they walk away, the air seems to thicken around me until it’s hard to breathe.
It’s just Bohrir and me on this narrow pathway now, and even though there’s a few yards of space between us, it feels like nothing. I’ve seen him run. I know how fast he could close that distance if he wanted to.
Why does this always happen when I see him?
I don’t understand what it is, but every time I catch sight of the hulking, brawny Voxeran, it’s like I forget how to breathe. I’ve lost so many memories of my life, but I can vividly recall the feeling of being slung over his shoulder, his massive arms holding me in place. He carried me as if I weighed nothing. He stole me away from Gornok as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
Of all the Voxerans in the village, Bohrir is the one who confuses me most.
Part of me is terrified of him, freaked out by the way he manhandled me so easily. But another part of me is drawn to him in a way I can’t quite explain.
I’m not sure how many seconds pass as we stare at each other in silence. My hands clench and then unclench again. My heart beats out an uneven rhythm against my ribs.
Then Bohrir breaks the spell. He takes a half step forward, opening his mouth as if he’s going to speak, and that small movement jerks me out of my stasis. I pivot on the balls of my feet and head quickly down an intersecting path a little way away, hurrying past small huts as I leave the Voxeran warrior behind.
I keep walking—practically running—until I reach the far wall of the village, even though I know he didn’t follow me.
Still, my heartbeat refuses to calm.
2
Bohrir
I gaze after the small Terran woman with dark red hair, watching her disappear from sight as her shapely legs carry her away. As soon as she’s gone, I curse under my breath.
Akhi, Bohrir. What did you think you were doing?
I shouldn’t have stopped. I shouldn’t have tried to speak to her.
Ever since we returned to the village, I’ve been trying to give Willow space, hoping that she’ll begin to let her guard down and learn to trust us. But it’s been difficult. Every time I’m near her, my gaze is drawn to her, and I’m intensely curious to find out what her story is. There’s so little we know about her. She’s a mystery wrapped in a delicate, beautiful package, and there’s something so haunted in her deep green eyes.
It draws out the protector in me, the warrior and guardian. I want to know who has caused her pain in her past so that I can find each and every one of them and make them pay.
I should’ve killed Gornok when I had the chance, I think grimly.
Attacking him outright would’ve been too risky, though. I was vastly outnumbered by him and his men, and I’m lucky I was able to get Willow out alive. If I’d chosen to fight them all instead of pick her up and run, there’s a good chance we both would’ve died.
Her Alien Protector: Voxeran Fated Mates #6 Page 1
