Her Alien Rogue: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Voxeran Fated Mates Book 5)

by Presley Hall

  I blink, surprised that she read my reaction so accurately—although maybe I shouldn’t be, given how well she seems to know me already. But the tension in my shoulders melts away at her reassurance.

  “What about you?” she asks, curiosity filling her features as she gazes at me. “Do people on Vox ever date, or is everyone just waiting for the mate bond to swoop in and tell them who they’re meant to be with? Did you ever have a girlfriend? Someone you were in love with?”

  A flood of memories rushes through me at her words, and I consider for a moment before I nod. It’s not something I talk of often, or even think of often, but I won’t lie to my mate.

  “Yes,” I tell her. “I did. Once.”

  18

  Raina

  My mouth drops open.

  Well, that’s what I get for asking questions I think I already know the answer to.

  For a long moment, I just stare at Kaide, dumbfounded by his answer. I truly thought he would brush off my question just like I brushed off his, reassuring me that he’s never been in love before either.

  Those were the words I expected to hear, and as I process the ones he actually said, an irrational wave of jealousy rushes through me.

  It’s stupid. It’s so fucking stupid. I’ve been telling myself ever since that night by the fire that I don’t know if I want this bond with Kaide, so what right do I have to be jealous of whatever romantic entanglements he had before me?

  And I’m not exactly a blushing virgin. I’ve been with other guys, even if none of them were ones I came close to falling in love with.

  But the idea of Kaide with another woman makes me want to punch something, and I curl my hands into fists as I try to wrestle my emotions under control.

  Everything going on inside my head must be written as clear as day across my face, because Kaide’s full lips stretch into a grin, revealing his slightly elongated canines. He doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that I’m jealous—in fact, he seems quite pleased by it.

  He steps away from the wall and crosses the room, moving around the bed and coming to stand in front of me. Reaching up, he grips my chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting my head upward just a bit so that our gazes meet.

  “Don’t worry, my kira,” he says, and I’m too shocked by everything else I’m feeling to even register surprise at his use of the Voxeran term of endearment. “You have nothing to be jealous of.”

  “I’m…” I swallow and clear my throat, trying to make my voice less raspy. “I’m not jealous.”

  He grins as if he knows that’s a lie, but he doesn’t call me out on it, thank fuck. Instead, he says, “The mate bond is sacred and respected among my people, but there are couplings that form outside of the bonds. Young Voxerans are sometimes too impatient to wait. When I was a youngblood, just beginning my training as a warrior, I met a girl named Cheren. I gave her my heart, and she gave me hers. I hoped the mate bond would choose us for each other.”

  I stare up at him, unable to tear my gaze away from the strong lines of his face and the entrancing gray of his cat-like eyes as he slips into the memory.

  “I was certain it would,” he says quietly. “That it had to. But I was wrong. She bonded to someone else, and the moment the connection between them was forged, it was clear that he was her true mate. Her feelings for Nevyx were stronger and more intense than any she ever had for me. It broke my heart. I threw myself into my training as a warrior, vowing never to let myself be hurt like that again. As you can see, I was also a bit dramatic as a youngblood.”

  He chuckles, shaking his head ruefully, but his trademark grin can’t hide the flicker of pain in his eyes.

  My chest squeezes, although I can’t tell if it’s from pity or jealousy. I hate that Kaide was hurt like that, and I can definitely relate to his attempts to guard his heart. I’ve spent most of my life with steel walls erected around the most vulnerable parts of my soul, making sure no one can get past my defenses long enough to have a chance at breaking my heart.

  I feel like I should say something, but before I can figure out what exactly to say, Kaide’s gaze comes back into focus as if he’s snapping out of the past and back into the present.

  “I didn’t understand then,” he says softly. “Part of me could never understand why the bond didn’t activate between us, why it chose someone else for Cheren. But I see it now, so clearly.”

  He releases his grip on my chin to drag his knuckles over the side of my face, his touch gentle but more deliberate than it’s ever been before—as if he’s claiming a part of me with just that tiny action.

  “I was waiting for you, Raina,” he murmurs. “Even before I knew it.”

  My heart skips a beat.

  If a man had ever said something like that to me back on Earth, I probably would’ve laughed in his face. But that’s because if a man said it to me on Earth, he’d probably be trying cheesy pickup lines on me at a bar while his whiskey-laced breath gusted over my face and his drunk friends cat-called from a table nearby.

  It would be laughable.

  But this?

  This isn’t.

  Because Kaide means every single word he just said. I can see the truth of them burning in his eyes, and he rests his palm on my cheek, cupping my jaw as he stares down at me like he’s trying to memorize me.

  “I’ve been in love before,” he tells me, his voice low and intense. “Or at least, I thought so. But what I feel for you is nothing like what I felt back then. When you hurt, I hurt. When you’re happy, I feel a lightness in my own soul. I want to know everything about you, and everything I learn just makes me crave more.”

  The markings on his skin pulse with light, and the cocky grin he was wearing a moment ago is gone, replaced by a fierce intensity.

  “I will do everything I can to earn your love, my kira. I won’t force you to accept the bond, but whether or not you accept it, it will always be real for me. I will protect you until my last breath no matter what. I will love you no matter what.”

  My mouth falls open a little, my lungs dragging in a shaky breath as I suddenly realize I’ve stopped breathing. For the first time since the mate bond struck, the part of my mind insisting that it doesn’t make any sense and can’t possibly be real isn’t the loudest voice in my head anymore.

  Instead, there’s a newer, more hopeful voice. A part of me that doesn’t just believe this could be real but wants it to be real.

  A part of me that wants Kaide, more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my life.

  His gaze drops to my lips as they part, and I’m so attuned to every small shift in his expression that I can see the hunger that sweeps over his face, making his cat-like pupils dilate.

  He’s so… beautiful.

  Otherworldly, masculine, and wild.

  Without even thinking about it, I reach up to mirror his action, cupping the side of his face with one hand.

  He makes a low noise, turning his head just a little to lean into my touch, like a plant straining toward the sun.

  That thought—the idea that I’m like the sun to him, something he can’t live without—breaks the last thread holding me back. Taking a step toward him, I rise up onto my toes, cradling his face in both of my hands as I press my lips to his.

  He makes another sound, this one much rougher and more animalistic, as he responds immediately. His hand wraps around to cup the back of my head, threading through my hair as he pulls me even closer to deepen the kiss. The scent of him surrounds me, musky and warm, and when he delves his tongue into my mouth, I feel it all the way down to my clit.

  It’s like my skin has become electric, every inch of me sparking under his touch. Our kiss turns hotter and more desperate as I let go of his face and wrap my arms around his neck, plastering our bodies together as I chase the feeling. His hands roam over my body with a sort of restless energy that makes me think he’s trying to touch all of me at once.

  I wonder if he’s trying to absorb as much of me as he can before I pull
away like I always have before.

  But if that’s what he’s waiting for, he doesn’t need to worry. Now that this inferno between us has been unleashed, I don’t think I could break the connection even if I wanted to.

  And fuck, I don’t want to.

  Kissing Kaide feels like plunging into cool water after weeks in the desert. It feels like being able to breathe after pretending for too long that I didn’t need oxygen.

  It feels like falling upward.

  Like flying.

  My hands turn greedy too, roaming over the broad expanse of his back and the thick muscles of his arms, although I carefully avoid the healing wound from where the shrapnel cut him. I can feel the heat and thickness of his cock pressing against my belly through his loincloth, and I move against him, trying to give us both a little of what we need.

  When my fingers brush over the raised bumps that run along his spine, his body jerks, his cock throbbing harder as it grinds against me.

  I have no idea what it feels like for him or what kinds of nerve endings are in those bumps, but I test his reaction by doing it again—circling them with my fingers before stroking back and forth over them.

  Kaide growls, breaking our kiss and drawing back as he catches my wrists in a firm grip.

  We stare at each other, both of us panting hard. His grip is tight but not bruising, and his jaw muscles ripple as his nostrils flare. For a moment, I think maybe he’s angry, that he didn’t like whatever I just did.

  But then a shudder works its way through his body, and I realize I’m wrong.

  He’s not angry.

  He’s turned on.

  So fucking turned on that he probably stopped me from stroking his nodes so he wouldn’t come in his loincloth just from that touch.

  “Raina…”

  His voice is a low rasp, and he’s staring at me like he can’t quite believe I’m real.

  When he licks his lips, I lean up to kiss him again despite his hold on me. There’s only one voice in my head now, and it’s repeating the same word over and over like a mantra.

  More.

  More.

  More.

  I can’t get enough. In this moment, I completely understand everything Kaide just said to me about how he wants to know everything about me. I feel the same way, desperate for as much of this man as I can get.

  He growls against my lips, finally releasing his grip on my wrists to reach down and pull my shirt up. We barely break our kiss as he tugs it over my head, getting a little tangled up in the fabric, and I laugh giddily as he finally manages to pull it all the way off. It drops to the floor as he trails his lips down my throat and over the line of my shoulder, and I only realize we’re walking backward when my legs hit the edge of the small bed.

  I kick my shoes off and sink down onto it, and Kaide follows me as if we’re connected by a magnetic force, stretching his body over mine as I lie back. His mouth glides lower, traveling over the swell of my breast before his tongue darts out to lick my nipple.

  “Fuck!”

  I clutch at his head as my nipple hardens to a peak instantly. The jolt of pleasure that rushes through me is so strong that I can suddenly understand Kaide’s reaction when I played with his nodes. I’m on the verge of coming already, my core wet and my clit throbbing.

  Kaide glances up at me through his thick lashes, and the smug smile that spreads across his lips almost makes me laugh again.

  There’s the cocky, playful man I’ve gotten to know over these past weeks.

  He clearly likes seeing what kinds of reactions he can get out of me, and now that he’s figured out I’m not going to run away, he seems to be enjoying teasing me. I bite my lip and stare down at him as he flicks his tongue over my nipple again, then draws it into his mouth, rolling it between his teeth. My toes curl as arousal coats my thighs, and I tip my head back and close my eyes, trying to breathe through the rush of sensations.

  “Do you like this?” he murmurs against my skin, transferring his attention to my other nipple.

  “What do you think?” I shoot back, trying to inject at least a little sass into my voice as I peel my eyes open to look at him again.

  “I think you taste better than anything in the universe,” he rumbles, dragging his tongue over my nipple again. The marks on his skin are glowing more brightly than I’ve ever seen—brighter than when he fights, even.

  “Fuck, Kaide,” I moan, giving up on keeping the desperation out of my tone. “More. Please.”

  His smile widens, heat and happiness spreading across his features. “I’ll give you anything you want, my kira. Always.”

  “I want… I want…”

  Shit, there are too many things to name them all. No other words come out as my mind overloads trying to process all the feelings and desires cascading through me. Fortunately, Kaide doesn’t seem to need explicit instructions. When he finally draws away from my breasts, he moves downward, fumbling with the button and zipper of my pants for a moment before tugging them down along with my panties.

  He tosses them aside, and before they’ve even hit the floor, his face is buried between my legs.

  I’ve had his mouth on me before, and it was one of the most mind-blowing experiences of my life. But that doesn’t hold a candle to this. I don’t know if he was holding back a little last time, or if the unspoken emotions swirling in the air between us right now are just ramping everything up to eleven, but as he drags his tongue through my folds and laps at my clit, an orgasm crashes over me like a wave.

  My legs tense, my hips rising off the bed as I shamelessly grind against his face. “Kaide! Oh god. Fuck, please don’t stop!”

  He doesn’t.

  Of course he doesn’t.

  His mouth keeps devouring me, and I can tell he remembers everything that got a reaction out of me last night, because he plays all the greatest hits. His tongue swirls around my clit before dropping lower to thrust inside me, and I let out a choked noise as the ripples of my release seem to go on and on.

  Even when the orgasm finally ends, Kaide doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to stop licking me. He teases my clit again, and I yelp as the intense pleasure edges over into something almost like pain.

  He lifts his head immediately, his lips and chin wet with my arousal and a small line forming between his brows. “Too much?”

  I huff a quiet laugh. Kaide’s attentiveness, his care for me, still sometimes catches me off-guard. I’ve gone most of my life without it, so maybe that’s why when he offered me what amounts to unconditional love, I was so skeptical and suspicious of it.

  But when I let myself believe that this could be real, it feels so damn perfect.

  “No.” I grin down at him. “Not enough.”

  His eyes flash, but before he can bury his face in my pussy and make me come again, I reach down and tug on his shoulders, urging him upward. He crawls up to hover over me again, and I wrap my legs around his waist and roll us, switching our positions so I’m on top.

  Rising up onto my knees to straddle his waist, I work quickly to untie his loincloth. As soon as he figures out what I’m doing, Kaide helps me, and when he tugs the scrap of leather free and tosses it to the floor, I go still for a moment, gazing down at him. His swollen cock juts out from his body, nearly resting on his stomach, and his pearlescent blue skin glows with a light sheen of sweat.

  I wrap my hand around him, giving myself a second to indulge in the feel of him—the ridge that runs along his length, and the little node at the base of his cock that will hit my clit so perfectly.

  The muscles of his abdomen clench as I stroke him lightly, and he hisses a breath through his teeth, but he looks like he’s enjoying being teased just as much as he liked teasing me.

  I can’t wait any longer though.

  Keeping my gaze fixed on his face, I rise up a little higher, shifting my position to line his cock up with my soaked entrance.

  “Raina,” he murmurs again, and there are so many things contained in that
single word.

  “I know,” I whisper.

  Then I sink down onto him, letting us both feel every inch of the connection as our bodies join together. As he bottoms out inside me, my breath catches and my eyelids droop. He’s so big, so much, and the ridge on his cock makes him feel even thicker.

  But even this isn’t enough.

  The voice in my head is still chanting more, more, more, so I rise up and then sink back down, finding the delicious friction that I need so badly. I do it again and again, building a rhythm as Kaide’s hands come to my hips. His fingers dig into my flesh as he helps me move, and his gaze flashes down to the place where we’re connected.

  Watching him watch his cock slide in and out of me makes me feel dirty but also weirdly treasured. The rapture on his face is impossible to deny, and my fingers curl against his muscled pecs as my heart throbs inside my chest.

  When the speed of my movements begins to pick up, he lets out a snarl, flipping me onto my back in a fluid motion. With one hand braced by my head, he uses the new position to drive into me even harder and faster, making my head spin. Every deep thrust sends a rush of sensation through me as the bump at the base of his cock meets my clit.

  My pulse is racing, and I can feel another orgasm building inside me. I flip our positions again, and Kaide doesn’t seem to mind one bit, grinning up at me as I ride him. We stay like that for a little while before he rolls us once more, and we almost slide off the edge of the bed this time.

  I laugh breathlessly as he takes advantage of our near disaster, bracing one foot on the floor and his knee on the bed as he lifts my lower body off the mattress. He has total control in this position, holding me up as he slams into me, and I never thought I would like this feeling—but I do.

  Because I trust Kaide.

  With that thought, I let myself go, allowing the pleasure to rush through me in a torrent.

  “Yes! I’m going to… god, Kaide, I’m coming!”

  He growls something that I can’t even understand, his thrusts reaching a fevered pitch as he drives into me. Then he follows me over the edge, tipping his head back and roaring out his release as the corded muscles in his neck stand out.