by Roxie Ray
For now, my only thought was to get her off of this cursed ship—and fast.
I pulled her from the room and saw only smoke out in the hall. Another bad sign. A dangerous one, too.
“Cover mouth. Nose,” I instructed her. “Must go.”
With a terrified nod, she buried her face against my chest. I hoped that breathing through the fabric of my shirt would keep the worst of the smoke from her lungs. It would pain me greatly if I took her back to our shuttle, only to discover that she had perished on the way.
Almost as much as it pained me, I realized, to know that when we brought her back to Lunaria, she would undoubtedly become some other male’s bride if she chose to stay. As beautiful as she was, with her white-blonde curls and her stormy green eyes, she would be desired by any man who looked upon her. And as I had reminded my mother before I left, no human female would choose a fortuneless soldier like myself over a lord or a prince or a king.
Kloran had already claimed his bride. Haelian as well. And this female, I already knew, I wished to claim as mine.
But so too, I knew that it would not be. Could not be.
I pushed those thoughts from my mind as I took us through the smoke at a sprint.
Those were concerns that I would wrestle with later.
For now, my only mission, my only true desire, was to see her to safety.
It was what I had promised her.
It was what she would get.
The smoke seared my lungs with every breath I drew in. The taste was bitter and vile, melted synthetics and scorched electronics. In the midst of the cloud, it was turning blacker with every stride of ground we gained. Behind me, a wave of heat had begun to radiate. No doubt the source of whatever fire our assault on the ship had caused.
It only made me run faster. Even if I passed out from smoke inhalation, if I could get Ahl-iss to one of our other men first, she could be taken aboard the shuttle safely and taken away from this awful place.
As the smoke cleared, I spotted the orange skin and white battle dress of a fellow Lunarian up ahead.
“Gallix,” I coughed as I recognized him. My voice was a dry, strained rasp. “I have—”
Gallix turned to me with a wild grin on his lips despite the blood red of his eyes. “Nion! Did you find—” Then, his eyes fell on Ahl-iss. I did not miss the way his mouth gaped at the sight of her—or the flash of blue in his irises as he gawked at how her thin, sheer robe hung around her lovely form. When his gaze turned back to me, his grin was full of accusations. “Well, then. Are you not the fortunate one?”
“The shuttle, Gallix.” We had no time for jealousy—or for gawking at the female I had just rescued, for that matter. “Is it near?”
“Almost there. This way—and hurry. Ronan and I took our blasters to the ship’s core processors…” Ah. Sabotage. That would explain Gallix’s grin—and all of the smoke, as well. “We were waiting for you, but in a few minutes—perhaps less—”
I understood his meaning. The ship was due to blow, and we did not want to be on it when it finally did so.
I followed Gallix to the shuttle, both of us at a sprint now. When I glanced down at Ahl-iss, she gave a tiny cough that let me know she was still breathing. Still unharmed.
Inside the shuttle, the seats were already crowded with warriors and a half-dozen other human females, though none were dressed in fine robes like Ahl-iss wore. Instead, their bodies were covered by thin shifts. Ronan sat at the navigation controls and Gallix slipped into his pilot’s seat to ready the ship for take-off.
I glanced around wildly, searching for a free set of seats where Ahl-iss and I could strap in before we disembarked. I found only one.
An annoyance—but not one that we could not rectify.
“Only one seat,” I explained to her by way of apology. I slid into it and settled Ahl-iss on my lap before buckling the seat’s safety harness over us both. “Sor-ee.”
“No, it’s…” A little blush rose to her cheeks as the harness pulled her body tight against mine. It only took me a moment to realize why.
My cock was pressing up through my breeches. It settled between the round, firm cheeks of her ass, insistently hard. Though I shifted, flexing my thighs and willing it to go down, it obviously had no intention of doing so.
“Sor-ee,” I said again. Now, my cheeks were aflame too. “Sor-ee.”
“It’s fine,” she said tiredly. “I promise. It’s fine.”
But it was not fine. She had already been brutalized. I had only just saved her from further humiliation. And now, of all times, my cock had chosen this moment to press upon her as well?
She would hate me for it, I was sure. Or at least, so I thought.
But then she took my arms and wrapped them up around her, like a blanket on a cold night. It was only then that I realized she was shivering. Her whole body shook beneath my arms. Her skin, where I could feel it against my own burning touch, was like ice.
The Rutharians loved the cold, I knew. How long had she been kept in that chilly room, with nothing more than her sheer robe to bring her comfort or warmth?
“Sor-ee,” I whispered once more as Gallix launched the shuttle back into the black of space.
I wrapped her up tight in my arms anyway and rubbed my hands up and down her arms to try to create heat. She fit perfectly against my body. She was small enough, hugging around her like this was no different than hugging myself.
Though I should not have, I cherished the moment. A single glance around the shuttle’s cabin told me that she was by far the most beautiful of the females we had rescued. And as she tucked her head beneath my chin, a second glance told me my current position had left me the envy of every warrior who could see her there on my lap.
It was fleeting, this brief amount of contact I had with her. When the shuttle returned to the Avant Lupinia, I knew, she would be taken to the medical bay, then placed in a room where she could recover. When we returned to Lunaria, I had no doubt, she would have more suitors than either of us could count.
But in this moment, I could give her comfort. I could give her the warmth her tiny, shivering body so obviously needed.
I could hold her against me. Breathe in the scent of the curls at her crown as they tickled at my nose. And, if I allowed myself, I could imagine for a short time that perhaps, instead of becoming some high lady or wealthy merchant’s wife…
Perhaps she would choose to be with me.
It was a baz-terd’s fantasy, but it was mine for as long as I held her there.
And I was a warrior. A Lunarian man sworn to a life of war and bloodshed, battle and blade.
I knew how to enjoy little pleasures for as long as I could have them.
And for the moment…
For the moment, she was mine.
5
Alyse
His name was Nion. He had saved me from a fate almost worse than death.
Unfortunately, he was also a total, complete dick.
Bastard, I thought as I felt his cock press up against my ass. He was hard…and not exactly small, either. If anything, he was inhumanly long and thick, which…I guessed made sense.
If I had learned anything about aliens since I’d been abducted from Earth, it was that they were bigger than any man I’d ever met. Given the, um…size of their packages, it was a wonder why they needed human women to bother at all.
The other women of their species should have been more than happy with their men, size-wise. But that didn’t explain why Var-arak had captured me, of all people.
And it didn’t explain why a hardened warrior like Nion was, um, hard against my ass, either. Someone as good-looking and fierce as he was should have been more accustomed to being close to women by now.
Maybe it’s just you, a devious little voice in the back of my head suggested. Maybe you’re his type.
As I glanced around the ship at the other women who’d been rescued along with me, I did have to admit that none of them looked quite like me. T
hey were all pretty, but most of them were sobbing. None of them were as clean as I was. Most of them looked dirty and more than a little bruised. And while I was still wrapped in my sheer—but undeniably gorgeous—black robe, they all wore thin, rough-looking shifts.
That wasn’t what really struck me about the other women who had been rescued and brought into the shuttle though.
No—what surprised me was that there were even other women at all.
Var-arak had threatened to kill me plenty of times while I was trapped in the room he’d kept me in. But sitting there on Nion’s lap, for the first time since I’d been captured, I was beginning to realize how disposable I had been.
Every one of the other women was blonde, though not as blonde as I was. Every one of them was about my height and had similarly green eyes.
They looked like duplicates of me. They all had slightly different features…but the similarities were almost too much to believe.
Var-arak had treated me like I was treasured. Like I was special. I must have started to believe it, too. As I looked at the other woman, it hit me like a runaway train how easily he could had made good on all of his threats and killed me and replaced me with another of his captive women.
I had been his first choice, sure—but I hadn’t been his only option.
If I hadn’t worked out, he’d had six other women to choose from until he finally got what he wanted.
A child. A mate.
A queen.
Var-arak had made me believe I was special, but now that I was facing reality, I knew that wasn’t exactly the case.
I was simply one out of many. The first choice, but not the last option.
The more I focused on that, the less I liked myself, though.
It was easier to focus on Nion and how angry I was at him for choosing this moment of all moments to be fully freaking erect right now.
I tugged my thin robe a little tighter around myself, but it wasn’t nearly as warm as his arms were. And whether I liked it or not, I was craving his warmth. I had been so cold for so long, just feeling the slightest amount of body heat was such a comfort that I didn’t want to stop being wrapped up in his arms.
I told myself that as soon as I could get off the tiny ship we were in, I would tell Nion to go blow himself and stay the fuck away from me from then on out.
But by the time we landed, I found myself hesitating for some reason. Even when Nion had unclasped my seatbelt and pointed me toward the line of the other women who were exciting the ship, I stayed on his lap. I held his arms around me and didn’t let him let go.
“Go,” he told me. “Other females. Go to ship hospital. Make sure all right.”
But I couldn’t quite bring myself to get up. The other alien men on the ship were filing out now, too. Every single one of them let their eyes linger on my body as they passed.
“I’m not dressed,” I found myself telling him. “I’m cold, and everyone is staring at me. Please…don’t make me go. Not yet. Not alone.”
Nion’s chest rumbled. Whether it was in annoyance or something else, I didn’t know. But when he stood, he lifted me up and set me back down on my feet with a grim, thin smile.
“Here. Take.” He pulled his own shirt off of his body, revealing his firm, muscular chest.
I almost gasped in awe. It was one thing to know how muscular Nion was by feel. I’d felt men’s muscles before. I knew that they were hard and warm and nice to press up against. But the men that I had known on Earth were all about looks—not about practicality.
Nion, on the other hand—he couldn’t have been more different if he’d tried. His muscles looked like they had been built only to use. They weren’t perfect. They were bigger in the places that he used more, his arms and shoulders and pecs. His abs weren’t all that pronounced, but I knew if I’d gotten it into my head to throw a fist into his stomach, I probably would have shattered my knuckles trying.
Scars ran all across his skin, some thin and faded, some knotted and twisted, some still pink and fresh.
One wound in particular caught my eye where stitches pulled tight against ragged, torn flesh. He’d been wounded recently, it was clear, and had pushed himself too far.
“You’re bleeding,” I said softly as I reached out to try and push the skin back together.
“Take.” Nion swatted my hand away and offered me his shirt instead. “Cover up better. Not on display.”
I was worried about his torn stitches, but I could recognize that he didn’t want me prodding at him just then. And he was right—his shirt would give me protection from the gazes of the other aliens aboard the ship.
Almost shamelessly, I stripped my robe away from my body and pulled his shirt on instead. For a moment, we were the only ones on the ship, and I was standing there completely naked in front of him—but really, wearing my robe hadn’t been all that much different from being nude to begin with.
With his shirt on my body instead, at least I was covered up. The smell of his sweat and musk bloomed up off my shoulders, salty and sweet and surprisingly clean beneath the scent of the smoke and exhaustion that had been embedded in the linen.
“What should I do with this?” I held the robe up for him. “I assume you don’t want to wear it.”
Nion shrugged. “Keep. Throw away. Does not matter. That part of your life—over now. Over for good.”
Drawing in a deep breath, I tossed the robe aside. Once it was on the floor, Nion offered me his hand. His eyes sparkled with genuineness.
For a second, I wondered whether or not his cock was still hard.
“Come,” he said. “Go hospital. Need check-up.”
I placed my hand in his with more trust maybe than he deserved. But compared to the way the other aliens’ eyes had raked over me, Nion had been the very picture of a perfect gentleman.
Even if his cock had been hard under my ass—as a doctor, I knew some of that was completely involuntary. It could have been entirely impersonal. Men couldn’t always help things like that.
Aliens probably couldn’t either. It wasn’t Nion’s fault.
Nion led me through the ship with purpose. Though I still felt the gazes of every alien we passed on my body, at least I knew that they couldn’t gawk at me through the fabric of Nion’s shirt.
In the tiny room he brought me to, we sat in silence for a long time. But finally, two other orange-skinned aliens walked in. They exchanged inhuman snarls at each other for a short time, none of which I understood—then the younger of the two new aliens, a blue-haired guy with what looked like a hot glue gun in his hand, lunged for me and stuck me with the gun just behind the ear.
My reaction was immediate and painful. The gun stung when it pierced my skin and it made my entire brain shriek with distortion. Involuntarily, I clung to Nion as the sound wracked my brain.
But when the buzzing and screaming subsided, no one was snarling anymore.
Actually, they were speaking…English, of all things. I didn’t know what the blue-haired doctor had done to me, but now I could understand the language that the aliens were speaking in.
“You’re bleeding, Nion, you fool!” The older alien poked Nion hard in the chest and turned to grab a needle and some scissors. “You will need fresh stitches all over again now, stupid boy.”
“Um.” I cleared my throat and all three of the male aliens turned to me. I felt like I was being put on the spot—but Nion’s previous stitches had already ruined his skin so much. And even if he was a horny, big-dicked prick, I didn’t want him to be injured by even more stitches. My duty was to heal and protect, whether that was on Earth or in outer space. “Do you have surgical tape, actually? More stitches will only hurt him more.”
The older healer frowned, but the younger one was quick to grab a roll of tape for me.
“Here,” the younger said. “I am Healer Coplan. This is Head Healer Adskow. Are you…a nurse, perhaps?”
“I’m a doctor,” I said firmly—but already I’d grabbed the sciss
ors from Adskow and was cutting strips into the tape. By the time I was done, I had fashioned sutures for Nion’s wound that did not require stitches. When I tugged the cut-out center part of the tape, the rest pulled his ragged wound together until it was fastened in place. “There. That should hold better—without tearing more skin, too.”
“Thank you,” Nion said slowly. He was looking down at me like I was the most insane woman he’d ever met.
“Don’t strain yourself for the next few days,” I ordered him. “You’ll only make the wound take even longer to heal.”
“I pulled my last stitches saving you,” Nion pointed out. “But…yes. I will be more careful. If you insist.”
“I do.” I turned to the other two aliens—Coplan and Adskow. “So. Now that I’ve done your jobs for you—am I free to go?”
They shared a wary glance.
“We need to scan you to ensure that you are not damaged,” Coplan said as diplomatically as he seemed able. “And, er…to ensure that you are not pregnant.”
“No,” I told them before I even knew what I was saying. Up until that moment, I had felt okay—but the implication that I might need a pregnancy test upset me so greatly that by the time I’d processed what they were suggesting, I could only protest again—harder this time. “Absolutely not. I do not need to be poked and prodded by additional alien men.”
Nion looked to Coplan and Adskow, then cocked his head toward the door.
“Allow me to speak with her,” he requested. “Just for a short time.”
Coplan and Adskow filed out at Nion’s request. He must have been a high-ranking warrior, I realized, to be able to order doctors around the way he was.
“I don’t care what you say. I’m not getting a pregnancy test.” I couldn’t explain to him why. It sounded too stupid. I doubted that he would understand.