by Ella Maven
Sax stirred, his mouth opening on a yawn that displayed his fangs like a cat’s. His eyes blinked open, instantly alert. How did he do that? He grinned at me immediately, and I knew for a fact I was starting to crave his smiles. His grin could get a dozen women pregnant all while repairing the Great Barrier Reef and curing world hunger. It was that potent.
I cupped his cheek. “Morning. Or at least, I guess it’s morning.”
“It’s morning to us,” he said. His voice still held a hint of a sexy rasp from sleep. His eyes were beautiful, a soft purple that nearly glowed. My breath caught in my throat. His tail flicked the backs of my thighs, and goosebumps raced over my skin.
“Hey,” I murmured.
“Sorry. He has a mind of his own,” Sax said with innocent eyes.
“Uh-huh.” I smiled. “Sure.” I rubbed my thumb along his cheekbone. “You feel rested?”
He yawned again and rolled onto his back, stretching his arms over his head. “Fleck, yeah. I haven’t slept like that since before I was taken. Maybe never. I sleep the best with you next to me.” The panther in my mind stirred and began a steady purr.
“I can’t believe you ran for that long. Humans can’t do that. I mean, some run marathons and stuff like that, but they train for it for months. Years. And that’s only running for a few hours. Maybe five. You ran for a solid day it seemed.”
“Drixonians have outstanding endurance. Our bodies shut down most other functions and only focus on the act of running. If you’d tried to talk to me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer questions. My brain and cora concentrate on moving my body and that’s it.”
“So, you have like a running mode? Like a machine?”
“I guess. In a way.”
“On Earth running is for exercise and a hobby. Runners are a crazy cult too. If they knew you had this running mode you could switch into, they’d do everything to try to do it themselves.”
He laughed. “Well, they’d need Drixonian blood, so good luck to them on getting that.”
My eyes fell on his wrists, and I reached over to slip my fingers between his. I held up our linked hands. “Can we talk about these now?”
He ran his fingers over the markings. “I can barely believe it,” he murmured. “The whole time we were escaping, all I could think about was that Fatas meant for us to survive. Every single thing the Uldani put me through, all the pain and starvation and humiliation, it was all worth it.” His pretty purple eyes locked with mine. “Because she gave me you as my mate. My cora-eternal.”
My brain had begun to process things faster since the whole aliens actually exist realization, but I was still struck dumb at his statement. My implant roughly translated cora-eternal as forever heart. “Mates?” I said in a hushed whisper, as if speaking it too loudly meant that he’d tell me it was all a joke.
“Back when we lived on Corin, cora-eternal pairings were rare. Like once-in-a-generation rare. But then my brother showed up with his human, and they had their loks. That’s what we call these matching wrist markings.”
“But what does it mean?”
“It means Fatas has chosen you for me. And me for you. It means we’re meant to be together and we can feel each other’s emotions… I can feel you—your aura—like a fierce salibri in my mind.”
“Your aura is a purple panther.”
He rolled onto his side and propped his head on a fist. “What’s a panther?”
“A big cat…” He still looked confused. I bit my lip and tried again. “A large furred predator. With fangs. They are stealthy and smart.”
“A panther,” he murmured. “I like that word. You know, I was hunting a salibri when the Uldani overpowered me. We use them for their pelts, but I’ve decided I’ll never kill another. They are sacred to me now.” That wicked grin split his face. “Fatas put that salibri in my path so I’d find my lioness.”
I couldn’t stop staring at our wrists. “But why did they appear when they did?”
“My brother told me the bonding process starts the first time we meet.”
I remember how I’d felt gazing at his big unconscious body in the cell. How I somehow felt like I could touch him and that he wouldn’t hurt me. I grazed my fingers over his side. “Maybe that was why I felt so compelled to clean your wounds. To take care of you.”
“Something in me recognized something in you,” he murmured. “Daz said that once a mate kills someone who spills his mate’s blood, the loks appear and complete the bond. That’s when we gain our auras.”
“Hawn,” I said. “He made me bleed.”
Sax nodded. “I didn’t think there’d be another cora-eternal in this generation. I don’t know what this means or what Fatas is trying to tell us, but this bond and you… means everything to me.”
His words sent tingles down my spine. “Me too. This is the last thing I expected to happen. So, what does being mates mean?”
“It means we’re connected.”
“I get that, but in what way?” I bit my lip. “I’m sorry. This isn’t a concept that’s a reality on Earth. I guess some people believe in soul mates, but I never did. And on Earth, we certainly don’t feel each other’s emotions in our heads or develop magical tattoos.”
He grasped my hand and tugged it to his chest, over where his heart beat strong. “Don’t think so hard. Feel.”
He spoke the command so simply, like it was easy. But it wasn’t for me. I didn’t open myself up to friends, patients, or coworkers. Only my mom had gotten the whole of me and even then, there were things I kept from her. Because there were just some things you couldn’t share with your mother. I swallowed and the panther in my mind climbed as high as it could go and surveyed my jumbled thoughts like a king. Warmth spread through me from the center of my chest to every limb and digit.
“Tell me,” he said softly. “What do you feel?”
I spoke without thinking first. “Warm. Safe. Protected.”
A kind smile spread across his face, not the normal cocky Sax grin. “I feel complete.”
I closed my eyes at his last word, because yes, I felt that too but hadn’t been able to put it into words. Sax said it so simply, so easily. Every part of me wanted to trust these feelings, but there was a small voice in my head that kept telling me to be reasonable. He felt this way because he believed he was supposed to. I’d always considered logic my greatest strength, but now it was making me second-guess myself.
“You are my cora-eternal,” he said. “I will protect you and care for you until my last breath.”
“Because Fatas chose me?” I asked.
He studied me closely before answering. “No. I would have chosen you from the first moment you stood up to the Uldani for the both of us.”
“But Sax, that’s not really me,” I said. “Normally I’m closed off and quiet. I don’t stick up for myself like that. It was an extreme situation, what we lived through in those cells.”
He cocked his head. “I don’t think that. I think extreme situations bring out who we really are.”
“Maybe so, but I’m terrified that sticking up for myself is going to backfire one day. Sure, Polu did what I wanted and improved our living situation by a small increment, but what if they hadn’t? There are just too many variables, and when faced with a decision, they cycle through my head until I—”
“Val,” he interrupted me with a firm tone.
I bit my lip.
He smiled, and it was a tad patronizing, but I let it go. “Trust your instincts.”
“My instincts are typically to hide or flee for self-preservation.”
He shook his head. “No, they aren’t. They aren’t because so far your instincts have been to protect us.”
No, I wanted to scream. My instinct is to protect you.
“And if your actions ever backfire,” he said. “I’ll be there to save you from the fallout. We’re a team, you and me. We were a team without these loks.” He held up my wrist and shook it. “And we’ll be a team
afterward. Don’t you see? You were meant for me, and that was why Fatas gave us the loks. Not the other way around.”
When he put it that way, it made a little more sense, but this was still a foreign concept to me.
He frowned. “Do you doubt how you feel about me? Do you think I don’t deserve you?
“What?” I gasped. “No, Sax. That’s not at all what I think.” My eyes pricked with tears, and heat rushed up my neck to flush my face. How could he think he wasn’t worthy? “I could live a thousand lifetimes and not deserve you.” The tears spilled out, slipping down my cheeks as I sniffed.
Sax sat up and gathered me into his arms. I tried valiantly to stop the tears, but they kept coming, so I let them go. In a way, it felt cleansing.
“Val,” he murmured into my hair. “Sweet Val. I’d live a thousand lifetimes of agony just for one with you.”
I held onto him for a while and cried until I felt my tears taper off. I wasn’t even sure why I cried. Maybe it was the drop in adrenaline from the terror of the escape, the fear we weren’t going to live, and the muscle-deep ache in my bones. Then there was our unknown future and the fact I’d just learned I was mated to an alien.
He petted my hair and made a soothing vibrating sound in his chest that nearly lulled me to sleep. He didn’t go in for a kiss or try to push for intimacy. I probably would have given in, because my body responded to him no matter what he did, but my head wouldn’t have been in it. Not now.
With a smile that said he knew exactly what I needed, he rose from the bed and picked up the lighted sphere. He tugged me from the pallet, gripping my hand tightly. I let him lead me down a small tunnel I hadn’t noticed before at the back of the bunker.
I had to crouch to not hit my head on the dirt ceiling, and Sax was nearly bent double. But I didn’t worry. I’d followed him. This tunnel felt like a breeze. As we drew closer, the walls seemed to drip, and my bare toes squelched in mud. Humidity hung thick in the air.
Eventually, the tunnel ended, and we stepped into a wider cavern. He set the sphere down, illuminating the space. When I saw the reason he’d led me there, I gasped.
It was some kind of a spring—a jacuzzi-size basin of steaming water bubbled in the cavern’s center. Surrounding the spring were plants of all shapes and sizes—pretty blue ferns and teal leaves the size of a palm frond. Large purple and green flowers bloomed, their stems too heavy to hold the petals, so they dipped into the water as if they needed a sip.
“This is beautiful,” I said in awe. After the hell we’d lived in, this was paradise. “Can we stay here forever?”
Sax laughed. “Maybe not forever, but there’s no rush. We have enough food for a few rotations.”
I approached the edge of the water with caution. “Can I get in? Is it too hot?”
“Nope, perfect for bathing. We prefer cleansers, but when they aren’t available, hot springs of qua will do.”
Ah, of course, this was qua. It looked so much like water that I’d forgotten. And while the cleanser had cleaned my skin and hair, there was nothing like the feel of hot water on my skin. I’d missed it.
Not wanting to waste another minute, I tossed off my filthy clothes and poked a toe into the water. “It feels just like a jacuzzi,” I moaned.
“A what?” Sax brushed my back, and I turned to see he was naked too. God, he was incredible.
For a moment, I forgot what he asked me. I shook my head to jar the question loose. “A jacuzzi,” I answered. “It’s like a big pool of water we relax in. Maybe while drinking wine or fruity drinks with umbrellas in them. A good romance novel wouldn’t be amiss.”
He did that cute head-tilt thing he often did before lifting his lips into a smirk. He raised his arms over his head and dove into the qua.
I squeaked and stepped to the edge to peer down, worried he’d hit his head. Where were the “no diving in the shallow end” signs? But the qua was deeper than I thought, because his blue body streaked downward maybe a dozen or so feet before he took a graceful turn. With one powerful kick he rocketed upward.
He surfaced with a toss of his hair that was straight out of Baywatch—or should have been, if Baywatch had been about women’s fantasies. It was then I realized that the water beaded off him, like he’d been doused in Rain-X, or was part duck. He treaded water like he’d been doing it his whole life. What can’t he do?
I must have said that thought out loud, because he laughed and said, “There are a lot of things I can’t do.”
I crouched down at the side of the pool. “Like what?”
“Well, Daz always says I don’t know when to keep my mouth shut.”
I snorted. “Okay, I can see that. But I happen to like your mouth.”
“I’m partial to it.” He swam over to me and braced his arms on the side. “Let’s see. I’m actually not that good of a shot. I can drive just about any type of vehicle, but I’m lousy with a solar gun.”
“But you hit the vehicle that was chasing us.”
“Lucky,” he said. “Or Fatas. Or it was a pretty big target. I’m glad I have you as a witness because none of the males are going to believe I did that. My brother Daz? He’s a great shot.” He pushed up to plant a quick kiss on my lips before kicking away toward the pool’s center like a playful seal. “Now get in, I’ve been dying to see my lioness wet.”
I obliged, sliding into the water not so gracefully. Moaning out loud as the heated water soothed my sore muscles, I sunk down until my head was submerged. I surfaced reluctantly and rubbed the water out of my eyes. He stared at my hair, and I realized as odd as I thought it was that his skin repelled water, he must have been amazed at how my hair soaked it up.
He paddled toward me and sifted his hands through my blonde locks. “It’s like a sheet of sunshine,” he murmured.
I drifted toward Sax. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and held on as he treaded water in the deeper part of the spring.
His skin felt a bit like oiled velvet, and I couldn’t seem to get close enough. “Thank you,” I said. “This is exactly what I need.”
“We leave the stink of that place behind, okay?” Wrapping an arm around my waist, he swam toward the pool’s side. He perched on the underwater ledge and leaned back. My hair swirled around us just below the surface. “We won’t go back, Val. I promise.”
“They won’t find this bunker, right?”
“No, and if they do, there’s an alternate escape.” He flicked his fingers behind us, where another tunnel led deeper underground. “We are safe here. Soon I’ll head up to scout out the area to determine when we can leave.”
“And where are we going?”
He grinned, and his entire face lit up. “Home,” he said with reverence. He rubbed at his left biceps and a flicker of sadness passed over his eyes. “My brother is drexel—the leader—of the Night Kings clavas. We are about sixty strong, and we will be safe there. According to my brother, there are more females than just his mate. You can have friends.” He grasped the back of my neck and squeezed.
“Friends,” I echoed. “I didn’t have many friends back on Earth.”
“No?” He frowned. “But your cora is so big. Surely others saw that.”
“I didn’t really let others see me. I worked and took care of my home and kept to myself.”
“Did you want friends?”
I liked my nights where I cooked myself a delicious meal and curled up with a good book. My job was tiring, stressful, and full of people. As an introvert, I valued my alone time. But there were nights where I’d browse on Facebook and see former classmates living fabulous lives full of family and adventures, and I’d wondered if I was selling myself short. Letting life pass me by.
I’d thought about traveling a little, maybe take a cruise to a tropical location with fun excursions for a little adventure. Careful what you wish for…
“I liked my life. I truly did,” I said. “But it was hard, especially because my mother was so sick for years before she died. I eithe
r worked or took care of her. There wasn’t time… for me. I felt selfish wanting things for myself when my mother was fighting for her life.” It wasn’t until after she’d died that I’d realized my whole identity had evolved into caring for her. When she was gone, I hadn’t remembered how to take care of me.
He kissed my lips. “It’s hard to be lonely in a clavas like ours. Always someone around in your business.” He grinned. “Of course, I will keep you to myself as much as possible. Away from the rest of those greedy flecks.”
I laughed and rubbed my nose against his. “That sounds perfect to me.”
The color of his eyes deepened, and he cradled my face in his huge hands before touching his lips to mine. At first, he merely teased my lips, nibbling and sucking and pressing small kisses to the corners. Then with his tongue, he opened my mouth and dove in. He took from me and gave of himself, and I lost myself in the kiss. For the first time in a long time, I was clean and safe. Protected. And I was with the most selfless, amazing being I’d ever met.
If Sax lived on Earth, he’d be everything—Chris Evans and Tom Hardy and Brad Pitt all rolled into one. He probably wouldn’t have even looked twice at me, but I wasn’t going to think about that now, not while his hand drifted down my back to cup my ass. His cock grew between us, the hard shaft pressed between our bodies.
I gripped him tighter, deepening the kiss as I rubbed against him shamelessly. Sliding my hands lower, I thumbed his nipple rings before giving them an experimental tug. He jerked and bit down on my lip with a loud groan. The sound vibrated down my spine to settle like molten lava in my core.
“Val,” he murmured, breaking the kiss to slide his lips down my neck. “Sweet Val, let me taste you.”
As if I weighed a mere pound, he hauled me out of the water and sat me on the edge of the spring. Without a word, he spread my legs wide and ducked his head between my thighs. At the first swipe of his tongue, I cried out. I was so ready, so primed. He could turn me on in seconds with his kisses and rumbling voice.
He curled the tip of his tongue around my clit and sucked while I gripped his hair and shamelessly humped his face. My legs shook as he took his time with that talented tongue, weaving in and out of my folds until there wasn’t an inch he hadn’t touched. My stomach dipped and soared. I couldn’t hold still, not when he drove me crazy from the inside out. My head fell back, and my eyes closed.