Claimed by an Alien Warrior

by Tiffany Roberts

The human’s words ended in a pained, startled grunt when Ren thrust the blade into his gut, beneath his ribs, and into his heart. Shock and confusion mingled on Stantz’s features.

  “This is a better death than you deserve,” Ren spat. He dismissed the vrahsk and let the lifeless body collapse in the snow.

  Without wasting another breath, Ren raced back to Zoey. The sound of helicopters was rapidly growing louder.

  He leaned into the battered vehicle from the open passenger side. She was pale, lips tinged blue, but turned her head toward him.

  “Ren?” she asked weakly. One of her hands fell on his arm, her icy fingers closing in a weak grasp.

  “I’m here,” he replied. His internal temperature, already high from pushing his nyros, only increased as he examined Zoey. Her left forearm had an odd bend in its center, and the flesh around it was dark with bruising. Her skin was cold, her breathing labored, and though the flow from her leg wound had slowed, she’d lost a great deal of blood. Too much.

  The steam rising from his body made the air inside the vehicle waver.

  More. Need to force out a little more…

  “We need to go, kun’ia,” he said as he carefully gathered her in his arms, somehow managing to suppress the tremors threatening to course through his limbs.

  “I’m s-s-so cold.”

  “I know, Zoey.” He drew Zoey out of the vehicle, wrapped his arms around her, and held her to his chest. She cried out as he moved her. The sound pierced him, more painful than any wound he’d ever suffered.

  “I l-love y-you, Ren,” she said quietly against his shoulder, her body limp but shivering.

  “And I love you.”

  Spotlights swept across the open field as the helicopters came over the trees. Gritting his teeth, Ren projected his cloaking field to encompass himself and Zoey together. “I’m sorry it hurts. We just have a little farther to go.” He kissed the top of her head and held her tighter. “Stay with me, kun’ia. I can’t lose you.”

  He ran through the snow and plunged into the woods, leaving the blood and searchlights behind. The speed was jarring to her, but he couldn’t move any slower. He didn’t have to know much about human biology to guess that she was near the limits of what her body could endure.

  She was dying, and Rendash didn’t know how to save her.

  The ship was his only hope. There were medical pods aboard; it didn’t matter if there was a chance they weren’t functioning, or if they were only attuned to his species. He’d find a way.

  He had to find a way.

  Soon, the only sounds were the icy top layer of snow breaking beneath his feet, his ragged breath, and the snapping of branches against his body. He shielded Zoey from the scratching limbs with his arms and shoulders. The heat within him steadily increased as he pushed his body beyond the limits of his nyros.

  Finally, he reached a clearing deep within the woods. The unbroken snow bulged at the center in a shape familiar to him, mimicking the curves and planes of the command module. He reached out with his nyros to make a connection but couldn’t initiate one beyond the basic tracking tether.

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  Instinct. There was no time to overthink anything.

  He carefully set Zoey down and hurriedly stripped off his clothing, laying it on the snow and moving her atop it to serve as a buffer between her and the cold. Then he rushed to the ship, using all four arms to claw through the snow, digging frantically toward the entry.

  The snow was so cold compared to his skin that it burned, melting as he touched it. He didn’t relent until he felt the hull — which had maintained its cloaking field — beneath his palms. He held his hands to it and the connection crackled to life; nearly all the internal systems had been shut down to conserve power.

  He forced his nyros to override the shutdown. Loose snow fell onto him from above, heavier than it had been during the blizzard in Vail, as the ship powered on. Ren stumbled back when the cloaking field switched off, and the craft rose slightly out of the snow, causing a small avalanche all around it. All the snow touching its hull quickly melted.

  The entry slid open, extending a ramp to the ground and bathing it with gentle light.

  Ren lifted Zoey, scooping up the clothing beneath her in the process. Her head lolled, and her limbs swayed limply; she was unconscious again.

  He carried her onto the ship and rushed through the corridor into the main cabin, where all the command module’s functional equipment was housed. As he moved, he prompted the ship to go through all the necessary functions to enter orbit. It shook slightly before the stabilization systems kicked in.

  Crouching, he tore off Zoey’s blood-soaked clothing and cast it aside. Her pale skin showed more signs of bruising. He carefully laid her in one of the medical pods and interfaced with the ship through his nyros. She looked so small inside, so fragile. The pod sealed with a hiss, pressurizing around her.

  The medical systems scanned her but did not recognize her anatomy. Ren tried to force commands through, tried to force some sort of action, but the system rejected his attempts. All the while, her chest rose and fell with stilted, shallow breaths, each appearing weaker than the last. The scans had determined that she’d lost excessive blood, but the system did not have the resources to synthesize anything as a replacement.

  He unleashed a torrent of human swears at the pod, his frustration overwhelming his clear thought. Drawing back an arm, he swung, and stopped himself only an instant before he would’ve plunged a vrahsk into the machine. Everything inside him stilled as he stared at the pulsating blade. He shifted his gaze to see Zoey’s face bathed in the violet glow through the glass of the pod.

  In that moment, he realized there was only one chance. Only one thing to try before it was too late.

  He dismissed the blade, climbed into the secondary pod, and lay back, sealing himself inside.

  It was against the traditions of his people, perhaps even against the laws, but he didn’t care. He had to try for Zoey. Had to do all he could to avoid losing her.

  The medical systems resisted his commands.

  Control.

  Fire blazed in his gut as he forced his nyros to override all the warnings and initiate the transfer. A blinding light filled the pod and forced him to squeeze his eyes shut. The pain was immense as the tiny machines — which had been part of him since he was young, bonded to the very molecules that comprised him — were torn from his body and transferred to Zoey’s pod. All his muscles locked up at once, and his back arched off the padding.

  As his nyros diminished, he felt the abuses his body had endured making themselves known, all the aches and old wounds reintroducing themselves. It was nothing compared to the agony of having part of himself ripped out, but he didn’t voice his pain. It was for her.

  A piece of his heart lay in that other pod already, and he’d give as much of himself as it took to keep it safe.

  Something slipped in beneath the pain. It began subtly, but gradually strengthened as his nyros lessened.

  Awareness.

  He recognized the sensation — it was the bond shared by members of an Umen’rak, an invisible web binding their nyros together because of their common source. He felt Zoey; her body, her pain, her fear, her love. Her life, weak but not yet defeated. Shoving aside his own agony, he poured as much of his willpower through that bond as he could.

  Live, kun’ia!

  Finally, the light vanished, and he dropped onto the padding. He drew in several deep, burning breaths and turned his head to look at the other pod; Zoey was enveloped in the same light that had enveloped him a moment before.

  His nyros stirred, as weak and unresponsive as it had been during his captivity. It would recover, in time, but he didn’t care about that.

  He could still feel her.

  Zoey’s scream was muffled as the light in her pod intensified.

  Overriding the computer again, he forced his pod open and pulled himself out. His legs buckled under his weig
ht. He caught himself against the wall before he fell and staggered to her side. His head spun, his stomach threatened upheaval, and every part of him was in agony, but it was nothing compared to what she was enduring.

  Zoey’s form, reduced to little more than a shadow in the intense glow, writhed as the nyros entered her body and bound themselves to her. He remembered that pain well from his own binding.

  Ren braced his hands on the surface of the pod, curling his fingers against it helplessly. He dropped his face onto it and forced air through his constricted throat.

  This is the only way, he told himself. The only chance.

  But his nyros were not made for her kind. His nyros were for the aekhora, and many aligarii perished during the pairing process. How would her fragile human body handle it? How could he have possibly thought it would work?

  “Stay with me, kun’ia,” he rasped.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Zoey woke to blinding light. She turned her face away, squinting against the glare. As her eyes adjusted, the light dimmed to something more tolerable. Confusion furrowed her brow.

  She recalled the accident, the roar of twisting metal and shattering glass, and then explosions, gunfire, and screams. She remembered consuming pain and brutal cold.

  Am I in a hospital?

  She lifted an arm to touch her face, but it bumped into something above her. Frowning, she looked up to find herself beneath smooth, curved glass. Her breath quickened as she pressed her palms to the smooth surface.

  Where the hell was she? Had…had the government caught them?

  Ren! Oh, God, please don’t let them have taken Ren!

  Zoey smacked her hands against the glass. “Let me out!”

  A strange, warm tingling blossomed inside her.

  The glass slid up into a hidden recess with a hiss of air.

  She hurriedly climbed out of the machine. Her knees buckled as her feet touched the floor, and she crumpled. Absently, she covered her bare chest with an arm as she sat there panting; her nudity was the least of her problems. With wide eyes, she looked around her. There were two more of the bed-like things next to the one she’d been in, and those were the easiest part of her surroundings to wrap her mind around.

  Zoey crawled backward until she bumped the wall.

  The large room was sleek and polished, something right out of a sci-fi show, with strange controls, honest-to-God holograms, and pieces of equipment she couldn’t identify along the walls. A circular platform stood at the front of the room, raised slightly off the floor, with several large chairs atop it. The chairs were surrounded by more controls. The lights overhead were soft and pure, neither too bright nor too dim.

  This wasn’t like any hospital room she’d ever seen.

  “Zoey?”

  One of the chairs on the platform turned, and Rendash rose out of it, all four of his eyes wide and staring at her in disbelief.

  “Ren,” she rasped.

  He was here! He was safe!

  By the time she pulled herself to her feet, he’d already crossed the distance between them. He gathered her into his arms for the most desperate, relieved hug she’d ever received, lifting her off the floor.

  “You’re awake,” he said breathlessly. “You’re alive. I was afraid you wouldn’t…”

  Zoey wrapped her arms around him, clutching at his back. “How? I thought I was…I was dying.”

  He gently lowered her, settling one pair of hands on her hips and the other on her shoulders. It was only then that she realized what he was wearing — a wide belt with intricate, alien patterns etched across it and a loose, layered cloth wrap around his waist, hanging to just above his knee. It was almost like a kilt, but the fabric and its bright colors didn’t quite match that gruff Scottish look.

  “You were,” he said, calling her attention back to his face. He frowned deeply, a crease appearing between his center eyes. “A little longer, and you would’ve been gone. I transferred most of my nyros into you, hoping it would save your life. I had no other choice.”

  Zoey’s eyes widened. “Your...nyros?” She focused on her body, searching for anything out of place, anything different, but she only felt wonderful. Whole. She felt…

  Ren.

  “I-I feel you.” She placed a hand on her chest. “I feel you…in me.”

  She sensed him in her mind, her body, and in her heart. He was all around her, inside her; a steady, comforting presence. She smiled.

  “And I feel you,” he replied, settling a hand over hers. “I didn’t know what else to do. Didn’t know what it would do to you.”

  “You saved me,” she said, leaning her head forward to press her lips against his bare chest. “Thank you.”

  “You saved me first.” He kissed the top of her head. “I would not have made it far, were it not for you.”

  Zoey rested her cheek on his chest, relishing his closeness. They were alive.

  After a while, she lifted her head and looked around again. “We’re on your ship, aren’t we? In space?”

  Ren twisted, leaving his left hands in contact with her, and followed her gaze around the command module with his own. “Yes. We’re currently on the fringes of your star system.”

  “And we’re going to your home?”

  Icy fear pricked in her gut. What would they think of her? She was an alien to his people, as foreign and strange as Ren had once been to her.

  “We are. It is called Algar. But I have plotted a slow course. It will allow you time to learn of my language and culture before you are thrust into it…” He brushed the back of a finger along her jaw. “And it will be some time before I am ready to share your attention with anyone else.”

  Relief, warm and soothing, flowed into her to thaw her fear. Though she undoubtedly had a lot to learn, his consideration was touching.

  “Thank you.” She ran her hand down his chest and over his abdomen, smiling. “I’m not ready to share your attention either.”

  He grinned at her, granting her a wicked flash of his fangs. As always, his roguish smile flooded her with heat, but now it felt stronger, like her reactions to him had been enhanced.

  “Do you feel as though you can handle my attentions, little human?” His gaze slid over her naked body, trailing fire across her skin.

  “This little human has handled your attentions just fine.” She dropped her gaze to his groin, where his erection was lifting the fabric of his wrap. “And I find myself craving more.”

  Zoey laughed when he closed the distance between them and lifted her body against his. She wrapped her arms behind his neck and her legs around his waist. A moment later, her back met the wall, leaving her no room for escape.

  Why the hell would I want to escape?

  Their lips met in a ravishing kiss, and he growled against her mouth. His lower hands slid between their bodies and unfastened his belt. It fell to the sides, the cloth falling with it.

  “I need you in me, Ren,” Zoey breathed, moaning as his scales grazed her nipples. “Now.”

  “As you command, kun’ia.” Hands on her hips, he drew her down onto his cock, and her slick sex accepted it greedily.

  She dropped her head back as he sank into her, stretching her, filling her. His hips pumped, setting a maddeningly steady rhythm that teased her with the slow glide of his shaft. He pushed deeper with every thrust, until finally the pleasure must have overpowered his control and his motions quickened.

  She sensed him everywhere. Their coming together was the same as it had been before, but it was also more. It was galaxies crashing together, the cosmos swirling in a blinding display of a million impossible colors, and stars bursting to cast their brilliant dying light through space and time.

  Lifting her head, she locked her gaze with his. The overhead light made his eyes sparkle like emeralds. He looked upon her with all the love in the universe, and Zoey knew that she had finally found her home.

  “I love you,” she whispered, pleasure spreading through her entire being a
s he thrust inside her one final time, fusing them together as close as any two bodies could be.

  Rendash cupped her cheek and pressed his forehead to hers. “And I love you, kun’ia.”

  Epilogue

  Standing on the second-floor balcony, Zoey gazed out over the alien jungle she’d grown so fond of over the last several months. Towering trees with leaves in varying shades of green, purple, and pink stretched on as far as she could see, broken only by jutting, rocky peaks, the nearest of which hosted a waterfall that cooled the air with its mist. It was refreshing even if the heat didn’t bother her like it used to. Back on Earth, temperatures like these would’ve been hell for her. But Ren’s nyros had changed much of that for her.

  It had forced her body to adapt, to compensate for heat and cold, for fluctuations in air pressure and oxygen levels, to heal rapidly from wounds — and that was only the start. Though it wasn’t easy for her to harness yet, she could also tap into the nyros to perform feats of strength and speed like Ren could.

  But it was the most unexpected change that had proven the most welcome.

  Zoey smiled as she looked down, cradling her rounded stomach as her baby stirred inside.

  It shouldn’t have been possible. Ren had told her that they were two different species, that there could be no offspring between them, and he’d been right. But neither of them had ever imagined she’d be filled with nyros that would allow her body to adapt to almost anything — including, apparently, his seed.

  Ren’s reaction had been comically enthusiastic. In his shock and excitement, he’d managed to break the chair he’d been sitting in, but he had shrugged it off like it had never happened when he dropped to his knees and held her hips reverently between his hands, staring up her in wonder.

  He came up behind her now, leaning down to rest his chin on her shoulder as he encircled her middle with all four arms.

  “How are my kun’ia and child this morning?” he asked.

  Zoey covered his lower hands with her own and turned her head to kiss him. “Good. He’s very active this morning.”