Alien Heart (Conquered Mates: Dragons)

by T. J. Quinn

  He chuckled. “The term is incorrect since I don’t plan on paying for the use of your luscious body,” he said, and his audacity stopped my heart for a moment in an excruciating way.

  “But you do intend to use it?” I asked, my tone too shaky for my taste.

  It never occurred to me that he might want my body. He was a general, as were all his men. None of the generals showed any interest in the women imprisoned at the aliens’ headquarters.

  Hell, they had never shown any emotions at all.

  Well, that wasn’t actually true. This general, in particular, had always shown a special interest in me. But I had never seen the lust in his eyes. Not until tonight.

  “Yes.”

  One single word disrupted my whole world.

  “Why me? Why now?” I asked, shuddering.

  “You ask too many questions,” he grumbled.

  “Don’t you think I have the right to know?” I retorted, paying little attention to the frown on his face.

  “You lost all your rights the moment the Asseptians invaded this planet,” he replied in a harsh, cold tone. “From that moment on, you became livestock, nothing else and certainly nothing more.”

  I pursed my lips tight, hating his words, especially because I knew they were true. “I should have known you were no better than those disgusting parasites,” I murmured through gritted teeth. “Your needs are just different.”

  His hand flew to my face and gripped my chin, his claws digging into my fair skin. “Do not compare me with those creatures.”

  “Or what?” I asked, challenging. “You’ll kill me?” I tilted my head back as much as I could, exposing the curve of my neck to him. “Go ahead,” I challenged him, all the pain and anger that had been building inside me finally exploding. “There’s no one left to mourn me.”

  His hand slid down, and he wrapped his fingers around my throat. Despite my words, I trembled. I didn’t want to die. ‘While there’s life, there’s hope’ had been my creed for the past eight years, and I sure as hell wasn’t ready to give up. But I would die first before letting him think I was somehow afraid of him or of what he might do to me.

  Tightening my jaw, I locked my eyes on his and waited. He tightened his grip, not enough to hurt me or to cut off my air, just enough for me to feel it and know he was in charge.

  “I would mourn you, Maya,” he whispered, a dark, intense look in his eyes. “It would be such a waste…” he added, as one of his sharp claws slid down my cheek, tucking my hair behind my ear.

  I involuntarily shuddered, confused with the feelings raging inside me.

  “But I know you don’t mean it… you don’t want to die. I know you enough to know you’re a fighter that you face every single new day with all your energy, no matter what life throws at you,” he continued, showing what I could only identify as pride.

  Which was insane and didn’t make any sense, right?

  “You know nothing about me,” I dismissed his words, even when I knew they reflected the truth.

  He leaned down and brushed my lips with his. “I know more than you think, salavíf. I’ve been watching you all these years, and I got to know a lot about you.”

  With my heart pounding in my chest, I turned my head to a side, avoiding his lips and the temptation they were quickly becoming.

  But he wasn’t about to let me have my way. With a firm grip, he forced me to look at him. “This is your new life, salavíf. Get used to it and make the best of it. There’s no other option,” he said, slightly tightening his grip to make his point.

  “There’s always another option,” I snarled through gritted teeth, refusing to accept his words.

  “Not this time,” he assured me before he claimed my lips in another mind-blowing kiss, making me forget about the world and everything around us ... at least, for a few moments.

  With a loud growl, he pushed me away, his chest heaving as much as mine. “I’ll show you to your room,” he grumbled, turning around and walking into the house.

  I took one step to follow him—just one.

  Then, I stopped, furious at myself for giving up so easily. I stomped my foot on the ground and cursed my luck, trying to think clearly, but the pleasure still coursing through my veins made it a challenging task.

  Shaking my head, I looked into the house and waited for him to come back for me. But he didn’t. He wanted me to obey him, to do his bidding, no matter what.

  Well… he still had a lot to know about me.

  Determined, I turned around and started running towards the woods that surrounded the small town. I knew he would eventually capture me, but this would tell him I wasn’t his doll and that I would escape him every time I had the chance.

  Right now, facing the dragons and the scavengers felt like child’s play, compared to the future he had just described. ‘No option?’ Those words weren’t in my vocabulary.

  Chapter Three

  Ryoko

  I stepped into the house and waited. I knew she wouldn’t follow me. She wouldn’t be the woman she was if she did. I knew she was going to run away. I just wanted to find out where to. Was she going back to the headquarters, although she hated it and dreaded what happened between those walls, or would she seek freedom, running towards the woods?

  Her decision would determine how things would go between us. In my heart, I knew she would choose the woods, with all its perils, and I refused to consider the possibility she would go back to the city.

  I waited, my heart pounding hard on my chest as she considered her possibilities and decided. The sound of her feet hitting the ground soon came to me, loud and clear, and I smiled.

  Slowly, I walked to a small window I had left on the house’s front wall and watched her go. She was running towards the woods.

  Sighing with relief, I went to the small kitchen I managed to rebuild and grabbed some food and water, putting it all in a backpack where I already had a warm blanket. Giving her a bit more time, I leaned against the kitchen counter and sighed.

  Things hadn’t gone quite as I expected them. The first time our eyes met across the room, my entire body tensed up, and I froze in place. Feeling a bit dizzy, I stared at her as if I hadn’t seen a human before in my life.

  At first, I had no idea why I was so drawn to her and why I followed her every move each time I could. I just felt the need to keep an eye on her and to make sure nothing bad happened to her.

  The closer I got to her, the clearer my head becomes. By the time she was eighteen, six years after I had met her, I finally understood why she was so special to me. My head was finally clear, and I was able to recognize all the signs. Her maturity and raging hormones had an essential part in my full awakening.

  Against all odds, I had found my soul mate amongst the frail females of this small blue planet. One I had been forced to enslave by the disgusting parasites–the Asseptians.

  As consciousness hit me, my first impulse was to storm right to where the slimy creatures hid from those that might become a threat to their fragile forms. It only took a look at the black dragon landing in front of me to realize my quest would be a total failure, and I would end up in the jaws of the fearful beast, turned into a snack.

  Swallowing down my rage and impotence, I pretended things were just the same, acting as if nothing had changed, while I started planning the way to get my mate out of that hellish place.

  Knowing how she felt about my people and me, I knew I would need more than words to convince her; my feelings for her were real and that I was as much a victim of the Asseptians as she was.

  I knew she wouldn’t believe me, not when she saw me every day doing the bastard's bidding. Knowing she wasn’t ready even to consider me as a possible mate, I let her be, making sure she was left alone and that no one hurt her.

  On her eighteenth birthday, she was chosen to become a breeder, a reproductive machine to give the hideous parasites all the hosts they needed to survive. Knowing she wouldn’t endure the emotional pain of havi
ng her babies ripped out of her arms, I hacked into the system handed by the infected humans and removed her person from their files. Each time someone asked, I carefully led them to think she was either too young for the program or that she had died giving birth to her first child.

  I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the lie forever. I just needed time to find a safe place to take her. A place where I would have time to win her heart and make her my mate. My soul mate.

  To avoid raising suspicions, I conducted my searches during the night, and after a couple of months looking, I finally found a small house, still standing, that would be easy to turn into the shelter I needed it to be.

  Making it the perfect home took long enough, but it was worth every moment I invested in it. I hoped it would give Maya a sense of home, a place she could call hers.

  A few months ago, I moved into the house to work on it for as long as possible, and I still had a few details to work on, but I wasn’t in a hurry. I wanted things to be perfect for her.

  Unfortunately, not everything went according to my plans. Sylan, the male Septian –an infected human–in charge of the breeding program, had seen Maya in the children’s quarters and started asking too many questions. I could distract him once, but it meant I had to take her out of there that same night.

  When it came to her, I wasn’t willing to take any chances. I needed to take her home and keep her safe.

  Picking the backpack, I went after her. Following her across the woods wasn’t that hard since she wasn’t covering her tracks, and I could see perfectly in the dark.

  I had been following her for an hour when I finally spotted her, sitting on the ground, her back against a tree trunk, breathing hard. Being imprisoned for so many years had made her weak and with almost no resilience.

  Slowly, trying not to startle her too much, I walked towards her.

  “Did you have fun?” I asked her in a calm tone.

  Startled, she looked around looking for me but didn’t get up. She was exhausted. “Show yourself,” she demanded, not happy to see me.

  I stepped closer and allowed her to see me.

  “Was this a little game for you?” she asked, oozing disdain. “Let’s let her think she can actually escape…” she added, clearly furious, though it was unclear who she was angry with – herself or me.

  “You knew I would never let you go. Not after waiting for so long,” I pointed out, kneeling before her and taking the blanket out of the backpack.

  Though the planet temperatures were slowly going back to their natural levels, it was still too cold for her, and the cloak she had on was warm, but not enough.

  “Wrap yourself with this,” I asked her, handing her the blanket.

  She scoffed but did as suggested. “Why didn’t you tell me it was useless trying to escape?” she complained.

  “Some things have to be learned the hard way. Even if it takes me a long time, I will always go after you, and I will find you,” I assured her with a firm tone.

  “Don’t you think you’re giving too much importance to a simple fucktoy?” she asked, being willfully foul.

  I chuckled. “You underestimate your role in my life,” I stated, amused by her choice of words.

  “Do I? You haven’t given me any reasons to believe I’m anything other than a toy for you,” she pointed out, wriggling her hands nervously.

  “You’ll soon learn the truth,” I said, smiling.

  She laughed a humorless sound that echoed in the silent woods. “Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “What the hell do you want from me?”

  “A mate… someone to share my life with,” I replied, sticking to the truth as much as I could, without explaining what involved becoming a Slyth’s mate.

  “So, you do want to fuck me,” she said, oozing sarcasm.

  “Eventually,” I admitted, “when the time is right.”

  She tilted her head up to look me in the eye. “What if the time is never right for me?” she asked in a harsh tone.

  “I’m sure it will be… sooner than you would like to admit,” I replied, in a confident tone that annoyed her.

  “You think too much of yourself. Why would I want anything to do with one of the people responsible for my planet’s destruction?” she asked, oozing her contempt.

  “Things are never just black or white. You’re not considering the multiple shades of gray,” I said in a stern tone.

  “You would say that…”

  “Are you ready to go back home?” I asked, changing the subject, knowing she wasn’t ready to hear my explanations.

  “Do I have a choice?” she asked, jumping to her feet. “Of course, I don’t.”

  She started walking back to the house, not looking to see if I was following her.

  We walked in silence for a while, and the more we walked, the more labored became her breathing. She was too tired.

  Without asking for permission, I cut her off and threw her onto my back. She was so weak she wasn’t able to stop me, despite her squirms and grumbles.

  Back in the house, I took her to our bedroom. Though I had no intention of forcing her to do anything, I needed her beside me, in my bed, and ultimately, in my arms.

  She was almost sleeping when I put her to bed, removed her shoes, and tucked her in.

  Chapter Four

  Maya

  The weak winter sun lit the room when I opened my eyes. The surrounding silence was overwhelming and unfamiliar. The bedroom where I had spent the last eight years of my life had never been this silent.

  Something was wrong.

  Startled, I sat up in bed and looked around, trying to recognize the room. All of a sudden, memories of the night before rushed through my mind, and I tensed up.

  The general had taken me away. Judging by the marks on the pillow next to mine, he had taken me to his bed. With a deep frown, I lifted the bed covers, trying to find evidence of last night’s events. With relief, I confirmed I still had my clothes on, though not my shoes.

  “Nothing happened. I like my females to participate fully,” his voice reached me as the bedroom door opened up. I lowered the bedcovers with a frown. “Breakfast is ready,” he announced, from the door, already fully dressed, with his cloak on, but the hood down.

  For the first time, I was able to see his head and confirm he was bald. Instead of hair, his head was covered by the same bluish scales he had on his hands and forehead.

  Strangely, he didn’t look unattractive or disgusting. My fingers tickled, eager to caress him and feel his skin underneath my touch. My feelings confused me, and I frowned.

  “Thank you, but I’m not hungry,” I replied, just before my stomach growled, exposing my lie.

  He smiled at the noise. “Eat anyway,” he ordered, ignoring the noise. “I have to go back to the headquarters, so I would like you to join me at the table.”

  “What if I don’t want to?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “I’ll carry you to the kitchen,” he replied in a blatant tone.

  I scoffed, furious, knowing I was no match for him. The stroll through the woods last night had drained all my energy, showing just how weak and unprepared the years living at the children’s headquarters had left me.

  “Just the kind of things I would expect from you…” I said, disdainful.

  “I’m glad you know me so well,” he said, with a hideous grin on his face.

  The man was impervious to my insults, and it annoyed me more than I cared to admit. He stepped aside, inviting me to leave the, and I jumped out of bed, stomping my feet with every step I took.

  The kitchen table had enough food to feed a small army, from bread to cold meats and fruits. I hadn’t seen some of that food in quite some time. The aliens only gave us a disgusting porridge supposed to have all the nutrients we needed to stay alive.

  “Where did you get all this food?” I asked, surprised.

  “I have my ways. Sit down and eat. I would like to establish some ground rules for your stay in t
his house,” he said, taking a seat at the table once I did the same. “If you fail to comply, I will have to keep you locked up while I’m out,” he warned me.

  “You’ve proven there’s no use trying to escape,” I reminded him, sarcastic.

  He nodded. “I also know it might be a temptation too great to resist. Just let me remind you,” he emphasized the verb, “the dragons patrol the skies during the day. If they capture you again, I might not be able to save you,” he explained in a grave tone.

  “I thought you controlled the dragons,” I pointed out, frowning.

  “Control is an exaggeration. I simply give them orders and tell them what to do. But I don’t think there’s true control on that. They still act a lot on their instincts, and for years, all they have done is capturing humans.”

  “Where would they take me?” I asked with morbid curiosity.

  “To the breeding program,” he told her. “I don’t have to tell you what that would mean.”

  I scoffed. “So, basically, I have to choose if I want to be fucked by you or by the assholes chosen as breeders,” I said, crudely and harsh.

  “I’m sure you’ll find me a more… suitable lover,” he replied in a cold tone.

  I snorted and picked a piece of bread filled with ham and cheese. “Seriously, where did you get this food? I thought this didn’t exist anymore,” I asked, changing the subject, taking a small bite

  The idea of being sent to the breeding program churned my stomach.

  “The Septians have human bodies and need to be fed as humans. They have small farms outside each headquarter where they raise cattle and grow all the vegetables they need,” he explained, filling his plate with food.

  “Meanwhile, they feed us with disgusting porridges,” I grumbled.

  “Eat more and ask less,” he demanded, and I almost showed him my tongue.

  “Let’s hear those rules,” I asked, starting to eat.

  “You’re not allowed beyond the walls of the house. Try to stay inside as much as you can. If someone comes within fifty yards of the house, an alarm will go off, warning you to get out of sight,” he explained.