by Ella Maven
I didn’t make eye contact with him. I wondered again what Uldani females were like. I assumed subservient based on the disdain I’d received when I’d stood up to these two males. I still couldn’t believe I’d done it. I hadn’t even cared if they beat me, but it was too much to bear to realize that, even despite his earlier vehemence, Sax was giving in just to save me. I had to do something.
I wasn’t completely wrong about what I’d told the Uldani. Women’s cycles could be affected by stress, and it was very likely I’d ovulate late. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I’d ovulate at all. Maybe my body would just not do its job on this planet. I didn’t know. But I had to do something to get us out of immediate danger. I refused to see Sax suffer again, and I was pretty sure the shock-rod thing would kill me on first impact.
We turned down a brightly lit hallway and I recognized the windowed wall of the lab. As we passed, I saw the head Uldani and that Borhan creep in a serious discussion. I sucked in a breath and looked away quickly. Shit. What if they tried to tell me I was wrong? I didn’t have proof. I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. I just hoped they had decent food waiting for me. A blanket would be nice. Was shampoo too much to ask for?
They opened a door and directed Sax inside. The Kulk guards still held him at a distance with the poles attached to his collar. I hated that fucking collar. I wished more than anything I could see Sax in his natural environment. Free. With his brother. Did he have more family?
The shorter Uldani still hadn’t let go of my arm, and I winced as I tried to shrug him off. He shook me so hard my teeth clacked together. Sax growled, and the Uldani glared back. “This is your room,” he announced unnecessarily. In the corner was a mound of bedding that looked like a queen-sized lumpy pillow. “We’ll be back with food, medis, and some clothing.” The Uldani finally let me go with a shove, and I stumbled into Sax. He grabbed me and kept me upright while snarling at the Uldani. After a gesture of his three fingers that I took to mean some variation of fuck you, the Uldani turned and walked out.
The Kulks made quick work of removing the poles from Sax’s collar and scuttling out the door before he could react. He didn’t look like he planned to, though, probably for my benefit. The door closed behind them, and we were alone. Or as alone as we were going to get. Nothing about this space was private. The upper half of the wall facing the hallway was see-through like glass. Anyone could see in.
Hands gently cradled my face and I looked up into Sax’s purple irises. “Are you okay?” He probed my cheek gently and his jaw clenched. “Flecking Hawn.”
“Hawn. Is that his name?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m okay.” I tried to smile, but the skin stretched over my swollen face painfully, and my lips twisted into a grimace. I laid a hand on his arm. “You’re hurt worse. Go sit down.”
His nubbed brow lowered in an almost defensive glare. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine.”
Males were the same in all species, weren’t they? Never show weakness.
“You smell like burning flesh and your arms are still shaking.”
He dropped his arms from me quickly and looked at them. Sure enough, his fingers were trembling. He quickly shoved them under his armpits and crossed his arms. “It’s just temporary.”
“Okay, but please sit down.”
“Your face—”
“Is fine.” I was actually concerned that Hawn asshole had cracked a bone, but I wasn’t about to tell Sax that. He didn’t move, only watched me carefully like I’d disappear if he looked away. Our gazes locked, and I felt tugged toward Sax like a magnet.
“What you told Polu, is it true?” He asked softly.
I swallowed. “It’s not … untrue.”
He studied me for a long moment before reaching out a hand and lightly brushing my hair over my shoulder. “I’m glad you thought of something before they could hurt you further.”
I shook my head. “That wasn’t why I did what I did. You explained how much it meant to you for them to never get their hands on a child of yours. To hear you give up just to save me pain? I couldn’t let that happen.”
He inhaled deeply and cocked his head to the side. “I couldn’t watch them hurt you.”
“And I couldn’t let them take something from you that you don’t want to give.”
His hand drifted from my hair to wrap around my neck. There, his thumb pressed into the base of my throat and rubbed ever so softly. Despite everything—our situation, the pain in my face—a ball of heat throbbed in my core. I bit my tongue as he caressed me.
“Smart,” he whispered, almost to himself. “Fearless. Cora of a salibri.”
I managed to croak out, “What’s a salibri?”
“A predator that lives in the densest part of Torin. Thick coat. Fangs. Prowls. The females are the hunters and they defend what they consider theirs to the death.”
“Like a lioness,” I murmured.
“Hm?”
“An expression on Earth. We say someone has the heart of a lion. Female lions are lionesses.”
He smiled. An actual, full-on smile. His full lips turned up and parted to reveal his white teeth. His cheeks creased with dimples and his eyes crinkled at the corners in familiar grooves, showing that once upon a time, Sax had smiled often. The act changed his entire face dramatically. The hook in my chest snapped taut as Sax’s reel pulled me closer. He was handsome, beautiful in fact, from his black horns to his purple eyes, to his wide smile.
“My fierce lioness,” he murmured.
My blood heated. Our gazes held. The reel tugged.
A creak split the silence, and I turned at the sharp sound. Through a small hatch in the bottom of the door, an armored hand slid a tray. After that came a bundle of fabric, and lastly was a small metal box.
The tray held a selection of food. Well, not food I recognized, but it smelled edible, and best of all—not a bland bar in sight. My mouth watered. The hatch slid shut, a lock clicked, and the Kulk on the other side walked away after a quick look at us.
The appearance of the guard broke the spell between me and Sax, and I was happy for it. Sax’s low whispered words, my fierce lioness, repeated over and over in my head like a chant. We’d just fought not to mate, but now I was about two seconds away from spreading my legs. What the hell was wrong with me?
A hand touched my arm, and I turned to find Sax still watching me. “Let me grab the medis so every step doesn’t feel like torture,” he said.
I prodded at my swollen face. “That sounds like a good idea. Hopefully whatever they give us works fast.”
He shot me a curious look before he grabbed the metal box and perched it on his lap as he sat on the end of the bed. He waved me over and I went to my knees in front of him to peer at the contents of the box.
He selected a syringe and squirted a clear liquid onto his finger. After sniffing it and poking at it with his tongue, he nodded. “Just checking to make sure it’s medis.”
“You sure?”
“As sure as I can be,” he muttered. “I’ll take it first.”
“But how long—” I squeaked as he jammed the syringe into his side, right below his ribs, and squeezed the plunger. He exhaled, and I was just about to ask him what the hell this medicine was when his wounds began to heal. Immediately. As in, his scales knitted together and regrew before my eyes. The raw marks around his neck under his collar all but vanished. Within a minute, he looked like he hadn’t experienced a series of nearly lethal shocks.
I stared, unable to process what I was seeing. “What?” was all I managed to stutter out.
He plucked the remaining syringe from the box and held it out to me. “Your turn.”
I took it from him and held it like it was the Hope diamond. “I don’t… you have to understand…” I licked my lips and tried again. “Earth medicine doesn’t work like this. It’s almost never immediate. To heal injuries like the ones you sustained would take weeks. Months.”
H
e cocked his head. “My implant is translating your weeks and months as fourteen to sixty rotations.”
“Uh, yeah, sure. Something like that. This took seconds.” My mind raced with all the ways this medicine would help Earth. “Wait a minute, does this work on humans?”
“My brother said it did. Our biology is surprisingly similar.” I pointedly look at his tail. He slapped it on the ground with a grin. “I said similar, not exact.”
“So, I just...” I uncapped the syringe. “…stick it in anywhere?”
“Yes, all it needs is to enter your body. Your tissues do the work of getting it to your bloodstream and carrying it throughout your body.”
“Amazing,” I whispered. “But how do I know this is the right dosage? I’m like a third of your size.”
“Valerie.”
I jerked at my full name. “Yes?”
“Inject yourself with the medis.” His tone bordered on impatience.
The nurse in me rebelled, but I had to admit I was out of my depth here. The knowledge I worked with on a daily basis didn’t translate to this planet, clearly. I’d trusted him this far, and I’d have to keep doing it. With a deep breath and a quick prayer, I stuck the needle into my stomach and injected the contents into my bloodstream. For a moment, I felt nothing, then heat raced through my body. My face itched, and I could feel the skin loosen as the swelling decreased. I reached up and prodded my lip, which was no longer split. The pain of my injuries fled, and the only reminder I’d been struck was the slight coppery tang of blood lingering on my taste buds.
I touched my face. “Better?”
He tilted my chin upward. “Perfect,” he whispered. More heat raced down my spine, but I knew this wasn’t from the fancy medicine. He dropped his hand and jerked his head toward a curious narrow alcove in the back of the room. “Ready to get clean?”
A shower would be amazing. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
He walked me over to what looked like a shower stall. He called it a “cleanser.” When I asked him where the water was, he’d only looked puzzled. He explained filtered air would enter the stall via nozzles, and I’d be stripped of sweat and grime.
There was no door. No curtain. Anyone who walked by the room would be able to see me. I didn’t have much modesty left but getting clean was just so personal. And damn it, I was tired of feeling like my body wasn’t my own. As a nurse, I’d seen so many naked bodies, but I also understood how vulnerable it made patients feel to be stripped of their clothes. Dignity mattered.
The familiar burn of tears singed the back of my eyes. I blinked rapidly and blew out a shaky breath before turning around to face Sax. Maybe after I ate something I’d have more courage. “Actually, I’m okay,” I said with a wave of my hand and a forced smile. “I don’t need to get clean.” I made to walk around him, and he stepped in front of me.
He lowered his head, peering at my face in an examining way that had me squirming. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and crossed his arms over his chest. “Your eyes are wet, and your skin is pale. So, tell me the truth, because I can stand here all day until you fess up.”
Argh, he was frustrating. “There’s no door,” I snapped, flinging my hand at the stupid “cleanser.” I plucked at the neckline of the blood-stained dress I wore. “Whoever brought me to this planet stripped me when I was unconscious and put this on me. It was violating as hell. The last thing I want to do is get naked where anyone walking by can see me.” Heat rushed to my face and I turned away, trying once again to walk around the massive blue hulk in front of me. Sax gripped my wrist firmly, and I had to stop moving or risk pulling my arm out of its socket. “What?” I snapped.
“Calm down, lioness.” His voice rasped like sandpaper across my sharp edges. “I planned to stand at the entrance and block anyone’s view with my body. If you had given me a moment, I would have told you that.”
I glanced up at him, prepared to smack him if he was smirking, but instead his purple eyes shone with nothing but comfort. Damn, he was good.
“You have to turn your back,” I laid out my last demand before capitulation.
“I thought you’d say that. I’ll just close my eyes and imagine.” And then he winked at me.
I hated winking. It was cheesy and creepy, and yet Sax, with his dirt-smudged face and gleaming white fangs, managed to make a wink sexy. Ridiculous. “Sure. Have at it.”
He smirked and let me go. After showing me how to work the controls, he planted himself at the cleanser’s entrance, facing the windows to our room. In one fist, he clutched clothes I could change into after I got clean. My own big blue-muscled door.
As I stripped, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his back. He was like a marble sculpture, all perfect lines and bulging veins. His head moved, and I froze, but he didn’t look over his shoulder. “Everything okay? Do you need help getting it to work?”
“No,” I quickly realized I’d been staring at him too long. “Sorry, I was just, uh, yeah. Sorry.” I removed the dress I never wanted to see again. With a vicious overhand pitch, I whipped it over his shoulder. “I want to burn that thing,” I muttered.
I pressed the button, as Sax had instructed, and air rushed over my body, the warm flow powerful enough to have me gulping for oxygen.
I was too distracted to analyze how the process was working, but when the air automatically shut off, I glanced down at my body. My knees were free of dirt, and even my cuticles looked clean. When I ran my fingers through my hair, the strands were soft and the ends shiny.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
Sax’s body jerked. “Val?”
“Yes, yes, sorry. Everything’s fine.” I swiped the clothes from his hand and stepped into a pair of black pants. They were loose and seemed like they’d fall down, but as the heat of my body warmed the fabric, the material conformed to my skin, becoming a bit like leggings. The shirt was next, and that fit nicely, with short sleeves and a wide neck. I honestly didn’t care about fit or fashion. I just wanted to be fully clothed.
I tapped Sax on the shoulder. “I’m done.”
He spun on his heel, and his gaze quickly traveled from my head to my toes. He met my eyes and grinned, and his eyes sparkling. “Beautiful,” he said softly.
“I don’t know about that,” I ducked my head so he couldn’t see the evidence of my blush. He grasped my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye.
“I do know.”
My stomach flipped. He dropped his hand and stepped out of the way.
Ignoring the stoked flames racing over my skin, I walked past him and was halfway across the room before I remembered he might want me to return the favor.
I turned. “Oh, do you want me to—” The words dried up in my throat. Sax was naked. Completely. Just there in all his big blue glory without a single shred of modesty. My mouth dropped open as he pivoted to face me.
His nipples and ears weren’t the only thing pierced. So was his dick. His massive, girthy, third-leg cock hung between his thighs like a club, a gleaming ring pierced through the tip that looked big enough to wrap around my wrist. Every muscle in me clenched, especially the ones between my legs. My nipples hardened. For God’s sake, this alien was a damn dream.
Sure, I’d noticed he was handsome, but I hadn’t been in the emotional space to actually feel real physical attraction. But now? I was feeling more and more like that lioness we’d discussed earlier. With clean skin and clothes, and the smell of real food in the air, my inner libido decided to rear its head and roar.
Before my eyes, his cock jerked, and I snapped myself out of my daydream to find Sax watching me. Shit. I spun around, but the sight of his naked body was burned into my retinas. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I shouldn’t have… without asking…”
“You can look at me anytime you want, Val,” his voice drifted over my shoulder.
I swallowed and ignored the sexy growl to his voice
. “Good to know.” I went for nonchalance but didn’t think I achieved it as a low chuckle followed my words.
The cleanser turned on, the roaring rush of air doing nothing to drown out my internal monologue. “Get it together, Val,” I whispered to myself. “Seriously? Perving on the alien who you definitely cannot, under any circumstances, have sex with.”
I knelt in front of the food tray and stared at the contents but wasn’t sure where to start. I hoped Sax knew what all this food was, because while some of it looked edible, a small hunk of dull yellow slime smeared on top of a leaf scared me.
Footsteps padded across the floor and despite my vow not to perv on Sax, I let myself look. For just a moment. I might have salivated. The clean scales on his chest gleamed in the light. His hair no longer hung in greasy hanks down his back, but now lay in a shiny black braid over one shoulder, the end brushing one of his nipple rings. And that cock swayed between his legs casually—like it wasn’t a damn weapon—while his heavy balls hung like a bull.
There was an interesting node at the base of his cock, and I wondered what its function was. He grinned at me, and for a second, I forgot where we were. He looked like a man walking out of my shower in the morning after a night in my bed, eager to down some pancakes and make suggestive comments over coffee.
“I hate everything about captivity, but I think the worst might be dirty hair.”
His statement caught me off guard. “Dirty hair?”
He wrinkled his nose with human-like disgust. “The other males tease me, but there’s nothing wrong with taking care of yourself. And your hair.”
“Well, you do have gorgeous hair,” I smiled to myself that this big warrior was slightly vain.
He pulled on a pair of pants, stretching it over his generously muscled ass. Because of course he had a perfect butt. “Did you eat anything?” He dropped his big body onto the ground next to me. He reached for a small object that resembled a grape. He leaned his head back and dropped it into his mouth. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his corded throat as he swallowed.