by Ella Maven
“Yeah, I get to learn something important, and I get to hang out with you while doing it.”
His face split into an ear-to-ear-grin. He picked me up and whirled me around. “I want nothing more than to show you what I do.” He brushed our noses together. “A few of the warriors have shown interest but get frustrated after a while. It’s slow, tedious, hard work.”
I pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I can handle slow, tedious, and hard if you’re there.”
“A dagger with small blooms carved in the handle, maybe?”
“I think I can manage that.”
He dropped me back on the ground and took my hand. “Let me show you something.”
He led me down a path into a denser forested area. I walked along beside him, picking over large roots and fallen leaves until we came to a clearing. I looked up, and my breath left my lungs on a gasp. Before me lay a field of wildflowers, some massive blue petals the size of my head mixed with smaller green and white buds. I dropped his hand and stepped forward, reaching out to brush my fingers along a stem. I stopped short and turned to glance at him over my shoulder. “Are these…”
“Nothing poisonous,” he laughed. “You can touch.”
“Can I pick a few?”
“Yes, Bloom. You can.”
With a happy giggle, I carefully made a bouquet that I decided I would give to Karina even if it didn’t quite match her spiked decor. I found a pretty flower with wicked thorns to throw in her bundle. Next, I plopped myself down on the ground and began weaving a green and white flower crown for myself. I left a trail of pretty vines long in the back and placed it on my head before tilting my face back to the sun to catch some warmth.
When I opened my eyes, Cravus was crouched a few feet away, his eyes glowing.
“Thank you,” I said to him softly. “This place is beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful,” he said. “Welcome home, kotche.”
I grinned. “Glad to be here.”
Thank you so much for reading Protected by the Alien Bodyguard! Want a bonus scene where Cravus and Bloom make weapons together? Get it free HERE.
Curious about the Drixonians? Get the complete seven-book series, plus two bonus novellas and loads of bonus scenes in the box set, available in KU.
The Drixonian Warrior series
Don’t miss any book news about my books. Sign up for my newsletter!
What’s next? Sherif and Zuri’s story in
Claimed by the Alien Chieftain.
“She’s my match… in more ways than one.”
Sherif: Although my brother disappeared many cycles ago, I’ve never given up hope that he’s alive. I get word about a human who has seen him, but she’s evading me. When I finally come face to face with her, the situation becomes a whole lot more complicated, because I can’t deny the pull toward the female with the smart mouth. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’ll be by my side as I rule over my people.
Zuri: I heard about the Kaluma looking for me, and I’m not interested. No way. It’s bad enough he knows I’m human, but if he finds out the reason I’m free from my captors, he’ll surely lop my head off with his deadly blades.
But he’s hard to shake, and when we finally meet, I realize there’s a whole other problem—he’s claiming me as his mate, and I’m not sure I can resist.
Claimed by the Alien Bodyguard features a determined alien hero with alpha tendencies and a hacker heroine with deadly aim.
Read on for a sneak peak!
CLAIMED BY THE ALIEN CHIEFTAIN
Excerpt from Chapter One
Sherif
As my leg sank knee-deep in the snow drift, I sneered into the howling wind. “If this is a bad lead, someone is going to die.”
Ever since I got to this planet, it’d been one bad lead after another in attempt to find this yerking human. First it was visiting a small settlement only to find she hadn’t been there in many rotations. Then it was south to the reef, east to the cliffs, west to the mountains, and now I was heading north. Blasted, ball-freezing, yerking north.
I had only seen snow a few times in my life, back when we used to travel on our home planet of Torin, back before… well just before. Before life changed irreversibly. And this journey, this search, was my effort to get back the one thing I lost that I never gave up hope on.
The human had to know something, but first I was going to feed her some of the misery that I’d gone through tracking her to this icy wasteland. I adjusted my fur cloak, checking to be sure my shoulder spiks were poking through the gaps created for them and not poking holes in the garment. I shivered, an action I rarely did as my blood ran hotter than most.
Humans. I didn’t have much of an opinion on them since I had only met a few, and the ones I did meet were female. They were small. A little weak. Bosa and Cravus seemed enraptured by the ones they claimed as mates, but I found them both visually unappealing. Karina had some spirit to her, but she was rather disobedient. Bloom was very kind, but a little bland. Of course, I’d never say that to them, or to my friends, but as I stomped my way through the snow and rubbed my watering eyes, I decided I hated just about everyone I’d ever met. They all led me to this moment, and everything about it was terrible.
When I got my hands on this human, I was going to get all the information out of her that I needed, and then I’d wring her neck.
I’d been traipsing over flat plains with whipping winds for too long, and I sighed with relief when I spotted a treeline ahead. That should provide some shelter from the blowing snow stinging my face. As I drew closer, my gaze went up and up as I took in that massive trees, nearly as tall as the ones back home on Torin where we made our home. The trees along the perimeter didn’t have leaves like I was used to. When I came close, I reached out to finger the thin, hard needles. Densely packed, they hid the trunk from view, and it wasn’t until I stepped farther past the tree line that the appearance changed slightly. These trees were less dense with more leaf-like foliage. It was as if those on the outside took the brunt so the ones inside could prosper.
I hadn’t seen much life on my way here, but now I heard the steady squawk of some winged greers and the rustling of rodents along the undergrowth. The snow was still ankle-deep, as the trees didn’t provide enough cover to prevent the hard-falling stuff.
Supposedly the human had a refuge here. Of course, I hadn’t been able to ask for a human. No one knew she was a human. They only knew her as Hack, an unseen tech collector who could provide just about any goods needed. There were rumors she was a Drixonian, but I knew that wasn’t true, as that species was more than happy to show off. Some thought she was a Rogastix, but the kicker was they all didn’t know her as a she. Not like I did. But she’d shown herself to Cravus and his mate. She was, in fact, a human female.
I couldn’t imagine this was a fun place to hide out. Freezing, isolated. What did she eat? Irritated and thirsty, I spotted a fallen log and sank down on it, stretching my legs out in front of me, which felt more like ice blocks than functioning appendages.
After drinking as much as I dared from my small stash of water, I filled my skin with some clean snow to replenish my supply, then pulled some dried meat from a pouch on my belt and chewed slowly. I gazed up at the sun peeking through the trees. I could either rest and wait for the cover of night, or I could continue the rest of the way under full blank. While I didn’t think the human was dangerous, she had shot Cravus.
While munching, I caught movement in the corner of my eye. I immediately blanked, camouflaging myself against my background, and waited with baited breath.
A form, covered in a hooded fur cloak, strode through the snow. A sound drifted on the wind, deep and melodic. The creature was bipedal, and my heart sped up as I held out hope that this was the human I’d been searching for. I slowly rose and took a few steps closer. The form turned then, as if sensing my presence, and big round eyes stared right at me. As if they could see me.
My hands curled into fists as
I fought the urge to shout in triumph. This was her. The human. Her skin was a shining bronze-brown a few shades darker than mine. From under her hood, I spotted the mass of dark curls, a colorful headband tied to tame it. She had a laser gun strapped to her chest, and a knife in her hand. A dead and bleeding furry body dangled from one hand.
I hesitated a beat, and it was a beat too late. She let out a loud, “Fuck!” and whipped the laser gun from her holster. Pointing it at me, she fired. I ducked and scented the smell of burnt fur as the heat singed by hood.
I let out a roar, unable to believe she’d managed to nearly shoot me when I was blanked. I might have been angry before, but now I was livid.
“Fuck you invisible assholes!” She hollered and took off on a dead sprint.
I ran after her, my longer legs easily eating up the distance. She was fast, but no match for me. I reached out, nearly snagging her hood when suddenly I felt a tug around my ankle, and then I was upside down.
Instincts kicked in and I went still as my body slowly spun. My ankle was clinched in a spiked trap, tied to a thick tree branch above me, and the only reason my foot hadn’t been hacked off was because of my tall, thick boots.
I slowly came to a stop to face the human I’d been chasing. Zuri. And by the looks of it, she was the reason I was in this predicament.
Her hood was down, hair framing her face in a mass of dark curls, and her chin was tilted in the air. The picture of defiance and confidence. Except she wasn’t able to calm her trembling fingers. She was scared of me, and she had every right to be.
“This is your trap?” I asked. I remained blanked, so she couldn’t see me, but she’d hear my voice.
“Yes,” she answered quickly.
“Cut me down.”
“No.” She crossed her arms over her chest to hide the evidence of her nerves.
I smiled, but I knew it wasn’t doing much to soften my look when she swallowed a visible gulp of fear. “Cut me down now and I’ll forgive you for this. Leave me here a moment longer, and there’ll be payback.”
She gritted her teeth. “Why do you think you’re able to make threats? You’re the one hanging by a chain from a tree. Not me.”
“You think I can’t get down from here?”
Her body swayed, like her instincts were telling her to run, but her pride was planting its feet. “I’m sure you can, but I’ll be gone before you do.”
She was wrong. My blades strapped to my back were made by Cravus, and they could slice through this chain like it was string. The only reason I hadn’t done it yet was because I wanted to see what this human would do. I found her. Now wasn’t the time for impulsive decisions.
“Don’t follow me,” she announced, jutting her chin even farther in the air. Her eyes darted around, probably seeking to make out my invisible outline.
“Why’s that?”
“I don’t know what you want, but I can’t help you. I want to be left alone, and this trap is child’s play compared to the rest of my defenses.”
And that was when my heart sped up, my head took a dizzying turn, and the most puzzling of all—I got a little hard. If this human thought a few obstacles would deter me, she had zero idea what she was up against. My prey was in sight. This was just a game now, and I always won.
“Well then you better run, human. Because I’ll be out of this trap before you can say—“
I didn’t even get to finish my sentence. She was already out of sight. I smiled to myself as I pulled one of my blades from my harness, curled up with my core muscles, and slashed through the chain. As I fell, I twisted to land on all fours in the snow, dropping the blank. I didn’t need to remain camouflaged anymore. She knew I was after her, and maybe part of me thought I should play fair. I could catch her with my entire body glowing. She had no idea what kind of tracker I was.
I dusted the snow off my clothes, rolled my ankle, and took off after the human. I’d have her in my hands by nightfall, and I was already imagining all the ways I’d make her pay for this hassle.
Get CLAIMED BY THE ALIEN CHIEFTAIN now!
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Ella Maven is the pen name for a multi-published USA Today Bestselling author who decided to finally unleash the alien world that had been living in her head for years. (Is that weird? Probably). Her books feature dominant, possessive aliens who are absolutely devoted to their humans.
She lives on the East Coast with her completely normal husband and two spawn who sure seem alien some days.
Also by Ella Maven
Drixonian Warrior Series
Anna and Tark: The Alien’s Future (prequel)
Daz and Frankie: The Alien’s Ransom
Sax and Valerie: The Alien’s Escape.
Ward and Reba: The Alien’s Undoing
Miranda and Drak: The Alien’s Revenge
Gar and Naomi: The Alien’s Savior
Xavy and Tabitha: The Alien’s Challenge
Nero and Justine: The Alien’s Equal
Stolen Warrior Series
Rexor
Mikko
Fenix
Zecri
Mates of the Kaluma
Hunted by the Alien Assassin