Crex: Alien Abduction Romance (Captured By Aliens Book 2)
Page 20
Because of her, he was beginning to feel again.
Resting his head against hers, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead.
He wanted this.
This new feeling.
This new will to live.
He wanted it with Piper…so much so that remembering what he’d thought before almost hurt—the thought that he’d been willing to let her go.
How could he even have considered that?
He didn’t want her to go.
He wanted her to stay, forever.
He wanted to spend more nights buried deep in her warmth.
He wanted to put young in her belly.
That thought startled him as he stared down at her, wide-eyed.
Was that even possible?
Could she bear his young?
It was the possibility of having a family—something he never knew he wanted until just now.
And, hell, he wanted it bad.
And he wanted it with her.
But first, he needed to make sure they were safe.
The fact that she seemed to be resting quelled his caution a little, but the fact that they were in the Tasqal ship was ringing alarm bells in his head.
“Crex?” She was waking, stretching against him lightly as she raised her head.
“Piper,” he spoke in a hushed tone. “Where are we?”
“On the Tasqal ship. Don’t worry. We are safe for now. They guards are all dead.”
Stiffening beside her, he listened for the slightest sound. But there was nothing.
“How?”
“Kraken’s nasty side bitch got ‘em.”
“What?”
“The sea monster. It killed them.”
Finally, his shoulders relaxed.
That was good news.
But as his muscles relaxed at the lack of an immediate threat, he couldn’t keep the thoughts that had been floating in his mind at bay.
Waking up with her beside him after such an ordeal felt like the best thing he had ever experienced.
She was here. The person who had made his heart beat again.
As his eyes met hers, he wondered what she saw.
Did she see the coldness that everyone else did?
Or could she see him?
A soft ache in his heart told him what he wanted to know. He wanted, no, he needed her to see the latter. He needed her to see him.
Behind the coldness, he was there.
He’d always been there. He’d just needed someone to see him.
“Crex!” She whispered, as if just realizing he was conscious. She tried to get up but his arms circled around her and held her close.
“Don’t move,” his voice was hoarse with emotion.
“A-Are you in pain? How do you feel?”
In pain. No. What he was feeling was far from pain.
“My heart is healed,” he said, unwilling to let her go.
She settled back against him, but the concern was still in her voice. “Your heart didn’t need healing. It was your side. That monster…it bit into you. You almost—”
In one movement, he spun so she was underneath him, ignoring the pain in his side and momentarily startling her.
Now, crouched over her, he looked down at her soft features.
“You,” he whispered. “You healed me.”
Piper blinked then shook her head. “No. This ship. There were nurse-bots. They mended your side. We were lucky—”
“No,” he cut her off, grasping her hand to place it flat against his heart. “You healed me. Right here.”
It took a moment, but as her eyes searched his, her own flooded with tears.
“Crex,” she whispered, as the first tear fell.
He could feel his heart fall as her tears did.
She was not happy? This made her sad?
“It makes you cry…” He murmured, his brows furrowing as the implications spun around in his head.
As she grasped his face between her hands, she raised her lips to his in a soft kiss.
“I’m crying,” she let out a soft laugh, “but I’m not sad, Crex.”
It took a few moments for him to understand, and soon his shoulders relaxed.
“So, it makes you happy?”
As Piper nodded, he smiled.
“You’re smiling again,” she whispered, but this time, his smile didn’t disappear.
* * *
They’d left the med bay and she was helping him move toward the cockpit, amazed that he could even walk, when something strange happened.
There was a sudden, harsh pain in her head, like a loud scream. It was so painful; it almost made her knees buckle.
Holding her hands against her ears, she squeezed her eyes shut as her head pounded. But it only lasted for a few seconds. Turning confused eyes to Crex, she realized he must have felt the same pain because his eyes were wide as he stared ahead at nothing.
“Yce,” he whispered.
Piper’s eyes grew large. “Yce? That was Yce?”
Crex nodded. “Yes. He is alive but something is wrong. Very wrong. I’ve never felt anything like that from him before.”
She could feel her heart beat hard against her chest.
Shit.
Yce was with Diana. If he was alive, she hoped to God that Diana was too. But, if something was so wrong for him to project his pain to them both, it was worrisome.
“Do you think they’re close?”
Crex shook his head. “Doubt it. He would have sensed us and connected to us earlier. And not in this way. This,” he paused, “what just happened wasn’t on purpose.”
The anxiety made her pulse increase.
“What do we do?”
“Keep calm,” Crex pulled her toward him. “Let’s scout this ship.”
* * *
It took a few minutes to find it all, but it turned out the ship had all the amenities they could hope for. Food. A shower. Even clothing. Granted, one of the gray tunics she found almost reached her ankles, but a good rip turned it into a nice-enough-looking dress.
They couldn’t just stay planted in one spot in an enemy ship though.
As Crex pointed out, the Tasqals would be sending scouts to check what happened to the team from this ship.
And, in their current state, there was no way they could deal with another batch of guards.
It also turned out that M’Hul was put in a cryogenic chamber. That was probably for the best. She wasn’t sure how she’d deal with such a large beast free on the ship, regardless that M’Hul had saved her life.
He’d saved her life.
That was still hard to believe.
“So what do we do now?” Piper approached Crex, who was sitting in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. Yce’s worrisome signal was still in her mind and she couldn’t keep her thoughts off Diana.
“We head to rendezvous with the Restitution or we try to find the others,” he said.
Glancing at her, their gazes locked. Well, it was clear. There was no way they could leave the others stranded on Muk. Especially not now when they had a perfectly workable ship.
A soft smile smoothed his lips as they came to an unsaid agreement and Piper beamed.
He was even more handsome when he smiled.
And he was doing it so much more now.
“We should start searching for them tonight,” he said. “They would most likely travel in the night and shelter in the day.”
Piper nodded.
“But what happens if we come upon more Tasqal ships?”
Crex shrugged. “Then we fight.”
Piper frowned. “I don’t know if you haven’t noticed,” she placed her hands akimbo, storming in front of him, “but the last time we fought them, we almost died.”
Chuckling, Crex pulled her towards him, causing her to tumble into his lap.
“I’ve found my treasure,” he whispered, looking down at her. “I will always fight to keep her safe.”
“You’ve always wanted to fight
though.” She frowned up at him but the smile threatening on her lips lessened the effect.
“Yes, first I fought for revenge for my mother. But now the Tasqals have hurt the second woman I care about.” He paused. “They can’t go unpunished.”
Piper nodded and settled against him.
There was resolve in his eyes but even without him saying it, she knew it was true.
They’d always be fighting. Fighting till the threat was neutralized.
There was no way she could go on living knowing the Tasqals were still out there wreaking havoc.
They needed to be gotten rid of.
“The soothsayer was wrong,” he suddenly said.
“Soothsayer?” Piper raised her head to look up at him. “What soothsayer?”
“A soothsayer, back on my home planet. He once told me the person I’d bond with would be like me but with raven hair on her head.” He paused to take a lock of her hair between his fingers. “He was wrong.”
“Oh,” Piper breathed. “Maybe not.”
“What do you mean?”
It was her turn to smile. “In a few months, you’ll see.” She said, well aware that he was even more confused.
Glancing out the large window in front of them, she could see the twin suns setting.
“We should get ready to leave,” she said, turning back to face him.
He was looking at her intently, as he usually did, his eyes falling to her lips before rising slowly to her eyes.
“Yes,” he said, his voice low. “But there’s something I want to do first.”
A twitch of something hard against her thigh made her gasp.
Oh.
She wouldn’t mind a bit of that.
Or a lot.
She wanted a lot of that.
Now and for the foreseeable future.
Next in the Series
YCE
Book 3 in the Captured by Aliens series
Find on Amazon
***
Other books in the series
Book 1: Xul —> Find on Amazon
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks go out to my husband. Thank you for all the support while I locked myself away and tried to finish this book. I know it wasn’t easy!
And thank you to my little Snow Owl. You push me to work even harder.
Love,
A. G.
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About the Author
A. G. Wilde is an avid reader, a gamer, a lover of all things space, alien, and sci-fi.
She is addicted to intense romantic adventures, irresistible heroes, and deliciously naughty things.