The Alien Reindeer’s Bounty (A Winter Starr Book 6)

by Nancey Cummings

  “Okay,” he said. He could let the subject rest and move on, but she wanted to know, and he felt the need to tell her everything.

  Everything.

  “In the military, I was in combat,” he said. “I know I injured many people. Some may have died. I do not know. At the time, I didn’t care.” He had been a bundle of fury and rage. The military had been interested in his bond to a lesser species, speculating that the hormones necessary for the bond gave him an edge in battle. His commanding officers sent him into a high-risk situation with little oversight, just an objective.

  If the bond gave him an advantage, it was the desire to return to his mate. Returning to his true home kept him alive when he otherwise would have succumbed to injuries.

  “I needed to survive, to go home,” he said.

  He pushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ears.

  “Any other secrets?” she asked. “A secret family? Secret identity?”

  “Just one.” He tilted his head back and flexed that mental muscle. A sharp pinch of pain and his antlers sprouted.

  Odessa

  Holy fuck.

  Holy.

  Fuck.

  “Mads—” She didn’t know what to say and repeated his name, because the man she loved just grew a set of antlers like it was no big deal. A memory of standing in the forest with the boy wearing antlers came rushing back. “When we were kids… that wasn’t a headband.”

  “No.”

  Without thinking, she reached out to touch them, but drew her hand back. “This whole time… What are you?”

  Hurt flashed in his eyes. “I am reilendeer. I was born on a planet called Reilen.”

  Alien. He was an alien.

  “So not from Norway?” She winced. People who say there are no stupid questions have obviously never asked a really dumb question.

  “Never been, actually,” he said.

  “But you look so human.”

  “Do I?” His golden-brown eyes fixed on her. The iris crowded the whites of his eyes and shifted to a deeper blue.

  Well, not at the moment.

  “What was that?”

  “I’m able to see into more light spectra than you. My eyes reflect blue light waves when this happens.”

  “I thought I imagined that,” she murmured, remembering all the times the light played tricks and turned his eyes from brown to blue. “Who else is a, you know, alien?” She could barely say the words.

  “My father and my uncle.”

  “That’s all?”

  “All that I know of.”

  “Huh. This whole time?”

  He nodded and the antlers bobbed up and down. The movement seemed surreal and, well, alien. This wasn’t a trick of the light or the product of a tired and worried imagination. This was real.

  She lightly hit his arm with the back of her hand. “This whole time! And you didn’t tell me!”

  Mads rubbed his arm and frowned. “I couldn’t.”

  “You couldn’t tell me, but you walked around with antlers when we were kids. More secrets. I shouldn’t be surprised you never told me anything,” she said. How bizarre that she felt more upset that he kept his alien nature from her than the fact that he was from another planet.

  “You never noticed. You were too wrapped up in yourself.”

  “I was a kid!”

  “So was I!”

  They stared at each other. He kept secrets and she never noticed the abuse he suffered. They were both terrible friends to each other.

  “So, are your people planning to invade? Are you here for reconnaissance?” That’s what happened in the movies.

  He ran a hand up the back of his head. “No. The opposite. Reilen classified Earth as primitive and travel to the surface is prohibited.”

  Her back stiffened at his words. Primitive. “We are not primitive.”

  “Odessa, you are focusing on the wrong part of this conversation.” He tapped an antler, drawing her attention.

  “You’re an alien.” Record. Broken. Totally her.

  She couldn’t think. Mads stood so close, his scent of pine and smoke clouding her head. That scent was probably alien mind-control pheromones. “Why were you here? Where did you go? Who else knows about this? Why did you come back?”

  “Ah, that I can answer.” His hand on her lower back drew her in. He lowered his head, his mouth slanting over hers, and their lips pressed together.

  The electric first touch coursed through her, filling her with warmth and honey. Her body responded, leaning into him, and demanding more. Her lips parted and his tongue stroked hers. The slightly-rougher-than-human texture of his tongue registered, not because it was off but because it felt amazing.

  So amazing.

  The conflicting thoughts racing through her mind vanished because she was not kissing an alien. She was kissing Mads.

  Her world narrowed down to the feel of his body pressed hard against hers, his teeth nipping at her jaw, and his hot, rough tongue on her neck. She desperately wished for this when she was a teen. This was the moment that haunted her for the last twelve years, the memory of it more vivid and satisfying than any new experience when she tried to move on.

  There was no moving on from this. She didn’t care where he was from, Norway or another planet, because he was her man.

  Um, her alien.

  He pulled back, their lips a breath apart. “That’s why I returned.”

  Chapter 16

  Mads

  “To kiss me under the mistletoe?” Her pupils were blown and her lips a wondrously crushed berry color.

  His grip tightened on her arms. He wanted more. He wanted everything. “You are my mate,” he said. “Our first kiss—”

  “Just now or the one twelve years ago?”

  “We slipped on ice. I bit you and drew blood.”

  She licked her lower lip. “I recall. I thought I imagined those fangs.”

  He grinned to bare his teeth, fangs on display. She reached out to touch them but pulled back. “That triggered a mate bond. It is a biological reaction in my people,” he said.

  “What does that mean?”

  “My body craves only yours. I am especially attuned to your aura. Some stories claim we have a psychic connection, but that may be a myth.”

  “I dreamed of you. For years,” she said. “They were so real, like you were right here, like you never left. When I woke up, I had to lose you all over again.”

  “I hate that our separation caused you pain. When my father returned to Reilen, I was still a child. I had no choice but to obey. Every day since reaching my majority, I fought to return to you.” Schemed and bargained, too.

  Her aura dimmed and she pushed away. “That bite was an accident, though.”

  He brushed back her hair, catching the scent of her floral shampoo. “Not all accidents are mistakes.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It’s so obvious English isn’t your first language. How did I not notice? Accidents are mistakes, or at least mishaps.”

  “If you’re about to berate yourself to removing my choice and binding me to you, stop. You were always my choice, Odessa. I lacked the confidence to take what was mine, so fate bound us together. Okay?”

  “Okay,” she breathed.

  “There is one secret remaining.” He removed his shirt and kicked off his shoes.

  Her eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, you don’t have some sort of freaky alien equipment, do you? Because I love you, Mads, I really do, but this is too much to lay on a girl.”

  His hands paused just over the button on his jeans. “You love me?”

  Her face flushed a pretty pink, but she did not look away. “Well, yeah. I have since I decided boys weren’t so gross and I don’t think I’ve ever really stopped. It’s always been you.”

  He slammed his mouth to hers, forceful with need. His fangs descended, aching to sink into her. The kiss was not elegant or skilled, but it belonged to her. All his kisses belonged to her. “I love you,” he said, pu
lling away. “From the first moment we met. I did not know the words in my language or yours, but I felt them.”

  Her hands drifted to his zipper. “You had something to show me?”

  Stripping quickly, he left a trail of clothes to the back door.

  “Um, okay,” she said, as he strode onto the patio nude.

  “Watch.” He crouched, one hand on the ground, and shifted. The change came easily, his body fluid, searching for another way of being. Then he reformed, and that always took a toll.

  His senses—sight, scent—were heightened, but the aura of the world fell away. Odessa remained the bright point in the fog, as always.

  “Oh. My. Gosh.” She stretched out a hand and he nuzzled the palm with his snout. “You’re so soft,” she exclaimed.

  He huffed, the warm cloud of the breath hanging in the chilled air, and kneeled. He tossed his head, gesturing to his back.

  “I’m not sure what you want,” she said.

  Gently he took the cuff of her sweater in his teeth and pulled her closer.

  “You want me to climb on your back.”

  Another huff and a nod, mindful of his antlers to avoid jabbing her.

  “You know you’re bigger than a reindeer, right? About as big as a horse.” She threw a leg over his back and hoisted herself over. Once she finished adjusting her seat, he took off at a gallop through the snow.

  Odessa

  They flew over the snow. Odessa leaned forward and hung low, her arms wrapped around the reindeer’s thick neck. Er, Mads’ neck. So weird.

  Skillfully, he dodged trees and leaped nimbly over roots and fallen branches. He navigated the forest faster than she could process the hazards in their path.

  It. Was. Amazing.

  Snow exploded in cloud bursts as he ran through fresh powder. The cold slapped against her face and she tucked in closer to share his warmth. He smelled so good, the same smoke and pine scent but more intense.

  He slowed. In a thicket of trees, blocked from prying eyes, he lowered his front legs. She slid to the ground.

  With an audible crack and pop of bones and sinew, he shifted back.

  He crouched naked before her and slowly stood.

  Ho.

  Lee.

  Smokes.

  She’d seen him in just swim trunks when they were teens and, honestly, he’d been a bit weedy back then. Whatever they fed him on his home planet, it agreed with him. He was all lean muscle, strong shoulders and a trim waist with thick thighs. Not too bulky, his muscle definition was basically at Adonis status.

  Scarring crisscrossed his shoulders and upper arms, the lines pale against his complexion, testifying to their age. She wanted to ask what happened, to map every scar, bump, and mark on his body and then lick it.

  So much licking.

  “Odessa,” he breathed, his voice low, and it went straight to her core.

  She held out a hand. She needed a minute because Mads was naked and she wanted to be naked too, but the idea of alien sexually transmitted diseases sounded horrible.

  Gotta be responsible, even if the topic felt awkward.

  Mentally, she had practiced the sex-talk because she knew one day Ruby would be interested in boys—or girls, or just curious about sex, really. She wanted her daughter to understand she shouldn’t be embarrassed because if she was going to be naked with someone, she should be able to talk about sex with them. The same rule applied to Odessa, especially since one of them was already naked.

  Put on your big girl pants so you can take them off.

  “I’m on the pill and I have condoms in my bag at the house,” she said. Then, “Will that work on you? Is your, you know, compatible?”

  She glanced down at his naked form. Standing thick and proud, his dick certainly looked compatible.

  And huge. Like holy moly, her-cervix-was-gonna-take-a-beating huge.

  His eyes shifted briefly to blue again. Whatever he saw made a seductive grin spread across his face. “We are, but I don’t think a condom will fit.”

  Normally, she rolled her eyes if she heard a guy brag about being too big, but she’d give him a pass.

  “I don’t think the latex can accommodate the swelling,” he added.

  “The what now?”

  He reached down and gripped the root of his penis. His thumb swiped across the weeping head. She whimpered at the sight of him touching himself.

  “The base swells,” he said. “It is a function of reilendeer biology, too keep our seed inside our mate. Do not worry. It only lasts for a few minutes.”

  “Okay,” she said, rolling with that information. “I was tested when I found out I was pregnant with Ruby. Busted condom and all that. I haven’t been with anyone since then.”

  “No one?” His thumb brushed across her lips.

  Greedily, she licked her lips. Salt and the undeniable flavor of his essence exploded on her tongue. A craving woke in her and she suddenly felt hollow. Starving. The only thing that would satisfy her was more. Her body needed it as surely as it needed water.

  “No one,” she breathed.

  “There has only been you for me.”

  “You’ve never…” Her voice trailed off.

  He blinked, eyes shifting from brown to blue and back again. “No. There has only been you for me.”

  Oh. Wow. Mads was a virgin. How was that even possible? That information stunned her but also excited her. Hers were the only lips he ever kissed. They had so many firsts to share and explore together.

  “Let’s take the edge off,” she said, pushing his back to a tree. She sank to her knees and looked up at him with a smile. She leaned in, nuzzling the hair at the base of his cock, enjoying the musky scent. “Just relax.”

  He pulled away. “I should please you, not you service me.”

  “That’s really sweet, honey,” she said, as her hand wrapped around his member. “But we’re just getting started and I want to make this good for you.”

  He sucked in his breath. “Anything you do will be good.”

  He literally wouldn’t know any better and she wanted his first experience to be better than simply good. It needed to be amazing.

  She licked up the length of him, a pleased hum forming in the back of her throat. He gasped. Her tongue swirled around the head, just testing to see if she could swallow him. It’d be tight.

  “Dessa,” he moaned. What she was doing with her tongue was the greatest sensation in the universe. His hand touched the top of her head, eager to pull her hair or hold her head in place and drive into her, but he held back. His hands rested on the tree behind him.

  Well, heck, that just made her more determined to blow his mind, even if she had to unhinge her jaw.

  Odessa took his hands and moved them back to her head. “It’s okay. I’ll slap your leg if I need you to pull back.”

  She swallowed the head of his dick, taking his length as much as she could, but kept her hand wrapped around the base. She relaxed her throat and focused on breathing through her nose. His hips moved as if on instinct. Before long, he pumped into her and his hands tightened on the back of her head, lost to pleasure. She reveled in knowing she did that to him with only her mouth and her tongue.

  He tapped the back of her head, the universal sign that he was about to come. She should probably pull away and finish him with her hand, but she wanted to taste him. She needed it.

  His body arched, snapping forward as he came, pouring his release down her throat. The base of his cock, still wrapped in her hand, swelled. Warmth spread throughout her and she squeezed her thighs together. She needed more. She needed him.

  Mads looked down at her like she was a gift from heaven.

  “How fast can we get back to the house?” she asked, licking her lips.

  Mads

  He never.

  It was too much.

  Sensation assaulted him on all sides: too bright and too loud. Every touch against his skin was overwhelming. Even the weight of his antlers felt too much.r />
  His mate provided the only safe shelter. Touching her brought him peace. Hands traced her form, memorizing the details of her skin. So much of her life, so much of what he missed, was mapped on her skin: stretch marks from pregnancy and an incision on her abdomen.

  “Don’t,” she said, wiggling away.

  “Every part of you is beautiful. Let me admire you.”

  “You really want to admire my stretch marks? I think I got some freckles on my butt, too.”

  He flipped her over. She did indeed have freckles on her ass, and they were perfection. He nipped them, biting light enough for his fangs to scratch but not pierce.

  “Mads, I need you.” She lifted her hips, her meaning clear.

  Her tight heat surrounded him, and it was too good. He took in a breath, counting backward, to control himself. His strokes were uneven and pace erratic, but Odessa responded to his touch with enthusiasm.

  Perfect.

  He waited so long.

  He wanted the moment to last, to always be embraced by her heat.

  Too much.

  His fangs ached, demanding to sink into his mate’s exposed neck and hold her in place. Bliss coiled at the base of his spine, ready to race throughout his entire body. He leaned over, pressing his lips to her ear. “I have always loved you,” he whispered.

  She shuddered and moaned, her cunt somehow squeezing him tighter.

  Now.

  He released deep into her as his fangs sank into the back of her neck. The taste of copper flooded his mouth. The base of his cock swelled, locking them together.

  “Oh, why does that feel so good?” she moaned.

  He licked the bite wound; the primal part of his brain pleased to see his mark on her. “Because my heart belongs to you.”

  She made a pleased noise in the back of her throat. “And the other parts?”

  “All yours.” He rocked his hips forward and she moaned.

  “It’s just—” She gasped, and her hands clenched the bedsheet. “It’s like you’re constantly pressing my orgasm button. Oh, God.” She squirmed and pushed against him. “How long does this last? I don’t think I’m going to survive.”

  “The swelling will reduce in a minute.”