Stolen by the Alien Barbarian Xyru

by Eden Ember

  “I will never let you go now, Mare. You are mine,” he said as he kissed the top of my head.

  I squeezed him. “I don’t want you to let me go, Xyru. I want to be yours forever.”

  We drifted to sleep, resting completely in each other’s embrace, until the alarms sounded.

  Xyru rushed to get up. “Dranar, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep. We’re about to miss our burst chance,” he exclaimed.

  He bounded onto the bridge, barely dressed, and took the helm. Pulling out of hyper-speed, he directed Torq One into the first of several wormholes to lead us back to Zeta. I dressed quickly and came into the bridge in time to belt in for the burst. The small ship shuddered as it crossed the barrier and we came out in another part of the galaxy, closer to the Zeta Empire. He smiled at me, his eyes gazing over my body.

  Reaching out, he grabbed my hand. “Are you okay, my love?” he asked.

  I smiled. We’d gone over terms of endearments, knowing how much I needed to hear that. “I am more than okay.”

  Chapter 14

  XYRU

  I white knuckled the controls as we reached Zeta. The giant planet perched on the verge of peace. If only the few rogue cells would give in and surrender. Mare sat beside me, her face alight with Zeta’s giant red sun.

  “Gandrox, am I clear to land?” I asked on the comm.

  “Aye, you are. Welcome back, Xyru,” Gandrox replied.

  I hadn’t heard his voice this clearly in weeks since taking off. Neither Mare nor I had told anyone yet of how I’d claimed her as my mate. Gandrox would be ready to fight me and deal punishment to me for my misgivings when we left Zeta with Mare locked inside the cargo hold. She smiled at me as we approached the burn. Would she stay with me once we landed? Would she leave and go back to her life in working the relief effort? I took a terrible chance by doing what I did. I couldn’t admit to being nervous that Mare wouldn’t stay with me once we landed. Torq One flew toward the surface, Gandrox and Allegra stood near the hangar waiting for us.

  “Brother, at long last.” Gandrox grabbed my arm in an Aaran display of affection as we patted each other’s shoulders.

  “Yes, made it back with quite the tale,” I said sheepishly as I glanced at Mare.

  “Mare! How are you?” Allegra rushed to my mate with deep concern etched across her face.

  “I’m fine, really,” Mare said. Her light-hearted giggle put Allegra at ease. Mare laced her arm through mine in a display of our status.

  Allegra’s mouth flew open as her eyes darted from Mare to me. “Really? Xyru?”

  I chuckled. “I assure you, Allegra, it was mutual.”

  “Oh, Allegra. I thought that you were crazy when I first found out that you’d hooked up with an alien like Gandrox. No offense, dude,” she said as she looked from Allegra to Gandrox.

  “None taken,” Gandrox said as he straightened beside his mate.

  “Okay, so it seems that you have news to share. Are you?” Allegra’s eyes widened.

  “Yes, we are together now.” Mare’s voice gushed as it flowed with the news of what took place over the past month. Her lovely eyes peered at me, making me shake on my feet. I couldn’t get enough of her, but I had to restrain myself. We had work to do, and I still needed to hear from her that she'd stay by my side.

  “Yeah, she, it was her idea,” I said proudly.

  “Come on, Mare, you need to tell me all about it,” Allegra said as she grabbed Mare’s arm and led her away from me. Before turning, she cut her glance my way, a sharp stare meaning that I’d better had told the truth.

  “Am I to make a private room for my navigator and his new mate on the Torq Runner?” Gandrox asked.

  My hesitation to answer caught his keen awareness. “I hope,” I replied.

  He paused, his blue eyes staring at me. “Are you sure that you claimed her with her permission?” His thick brow lifted.

  “Oh, yes. We both wanted it. I had planned to bring her back here and set her free if she so desires,” I answer flatly.

  “Then you must trust in her love for you, Xyru. You can’t force this with the Terrans, but once they declare loyalty, you won’t have to wonder. You need to talk with her and find out for certain.”

  Wisdom always won for Gandrox. He held onto his barbarian ways, but in actuality, intellect drove him. He’d changed since Allegra had come into his life. I wanted that for myself, and now that Mare and I had connected, I would fight for her. But first, I needed to make sure that she was willing to be my mate forever.

  “I will. Soon.”

  “Brother, Zeta is still in unrest. We have promised weapons to the Biand Quadrant. While you were away, we lost three of our crew members,” Gandrox said.

  My eyes misted over while he explained what had happened. “If only I had been here, perhaps I could have navigated away in time,” I answered.

  “No one knows for certain. They ambushed us. I promised Razko back in Arenthia I’d train him to be my second,” Gandrox told me.

  My brow shot up. “Ran, what about me?” I asked and chuckled.

  “You know of my promise to Raz while he recuperated. You are my number one navigator, but I had to let you rescue your mate, so perhaps if you had been with us.” His voice trailed. The fact of my absence had hurt the crew.

  “I’m sorry. I failed you and the crew, especially the fallen.”

  “No, Xyru, you didn’t. You are my number one navigator and I need you back. Please talk with your mate and make haste. We leave tonight for Farnox for the weapons. I suspect Zeta will soon be at peace, but we must finish this for them,” Gandrox replied.

  “I need to talk with Mare.”

  We had just landed, and the look on Mare’s face as she reconnected with her old workers gave me pause. She lit up brightly as she jumped right in, helping to haul crates to the refugee camps.

  “Where’s Allegra?” I asked, hoping she and Allegra had finished talking.

  “Oh, she had a task to do for Gandrox. We haven’t spoken much just yet.” Her lovely face smiled my way as I hoisted a giant crate into my arms.

  “Listen, we need to talk,” I said as I followed her down the path.

  “Oh? Okay, we can later, if that’s okay?” She paused and waited for my answer.

  “It can’t wait.” The heaviness in my voice caused her to set down the crate, and she grabbed my hand, pulling me into a relief tent.

  My body ached to pull her into my arms, but I restrained myself. Instead, I sat on a stool so that I could see her at eye level. “Mare, Torq One and Gandrox and the crew are leaving tonight for Farnox. The Biand Quadrant desperately needs supplies. I’m foremost a navigator. I’ve trained all my life to be a navigator. Living on a planet isn’t the life for me, at least not until we uphold our promise to help Zeta,” I said.

  “Oh. I thought we’d have a few days at least. Well, I wasn’t sure what--”

  I pulled her into my arms. She perched on my knee, worry lines etched across her face. “I don’t want to be without you. I’m not forcing you to come with us, but if you would, I’d be the happiest Aaran alive,” I pledged to her.

  Her body was visibly relaxed, as if she were holding her breath. “Do you mean that? I wasn’t sure what to expect once we returned here,” Mare said, her eyes misting.

  “I have claimed you as my mate. I want you by my side wherever we go. But I’m not forcing you to do so. If you come with me, it’s because you want to, not because I forced it,” I declared.

  Her arms wrapped around my neck. “Oh Xyru, I’m so used to having my life and plans uprooted. I am yours. I want to come with you and be a part of the Torq One’s crew,” she said.

  A smile stretched across my face. “I am so glad, so relieved. We leave tonight. Gandrox is giving us a private room.”

  Mare giggled. “I hope so.” Her otherwise pale complexion blushed. “Because I don’t want to stop. I want you to claim me over and over again.”

  Her lips landed on mine. I groaned as I r
estrained myself. I couldn’t take her right there in the relief tent, could I? Before I knew what was happening, she had hold of the loops, undoing my uniform. Right there, on the floor of the relief tent, I claimed her again, her cries of pleasure loud enough for anyone walking by to hear, but neither of us cared. My primal urge to take her again had to wait. We needed to prepare for liftoff. Later we’d lay in each other’s arms, and I could claim her until she pushed me away, which she never did.

  Epilogue

  MARE

  Returning to Zeta with weapons for the Biand Quadrant caused the Zeta Empire to throw the Aaran Barbarians a celebration once we quelled the rebels, and they left the planet. The other human relief workers looked at Allegra, Diamond, and I as if we were the nuttiest humans in the galaxy. Perhaps we were, but I no longer questioned my place in the universe. With Xyru by my side, I’ve learned the duties of a starship crew, working alongside Allegra in maintaining balance between the Terrans and the Aarans. Only Jules quietly retreated to the engine room, taking on the role of an engineer over that of a nurse.

  “Every person who travels like we do needs to learn multiple duties,” Allegra said. She worked in her own capacity as a nurse with the ship’s doctor, Zeker. Jules, also a nurse, chose her former crew job as an engineer, because the ship didn’t need more than two nurses in the med bay.

  My job on Zeta entailed rolling up my sleeves and helping to care for the refugees. I had great organizational skills too. I learned, with Xyru’s help, the navigation system. When we landed on Farnox, the Terrans didn’t follow the Aarans into the hostile environment to retrieve the weapons. Instead, we stayed on the Torq Runner in orbit around the small planet as they took Torq One and Torq Two to the surface and towed the weapons back to the ship.

  “Razko’s fairing very well as my second,” Gandrox said proudly over dinner. The Aaran stood tall, his blue face turning a slight purple from the attention he received with his new commission.

  Razko turned to Jules, who eyed him warily. “Looks like you’ll be running the engine room now that you’re trained on Torq Runner,” he said to her. He also had engineering skills as well as piloting the ship. Gandrox charged him with helping to train Jules, and her being exceptionally quiet was his biggest complaint.

  “Looks like it,” she said. The sheepish smile stretched across her face, and I swear I detected a slight blush on her. The way she eyed Razko. The way he carried on with her.

  All good things came to a crashing halt when we took off from Zeta for a once around the Cantor System. A skirmish broke out and once again the Torq Runner became a warship with the urgency to help Zeta find their peace again.

  Check out Bought by the Alien Warrior Razko.

  AARAN BARBARIANS

  About the Authors

  Eden Ember

  Eden Ember found her passion in writing sci-fi romance. She spends her days either pounding on the keyboard or dreaming up the next stories. Her active imagination never lets up and the perfect outlet comes through in her books.

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  Eve Laird

  Eve’s days are spent creating steamy romance adventures filled with fantasy, alien and paranormal beings. She loves writing about hot alpha males and the strong, empowered women they can’t help but love. Her evenings are spent telling her ever-patient husband about the crazy antics of the imaginary friends she writes about. She thinks it’s just about the perfect life.

  Heavily influenced by growing up in the Northern Irish countryside and spending her childhood roaming free through forests and farmland, Eve’s imagination ran wild as she listened to stories about banshees, faeries and hidden pots of gold. When she got older, the stories in her head became bolder, and definitely more grownup too.

  A complete romantic at heart, Eve is always on the side of the underdog and believes that true love exists for us all. She’s also convinced that love is more than just an emotion, it’s a way of life.

  Be first to find out about her upcoming books, sneaky peek previews, recommendations, secret giveaways and gossip on her writing at EveLaird.com/aaran