Her Alien Captor: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance (Alien Pirates Of Cania Book 1)

by Zara Zenia

  Melody was still in shock, still looking over her shoulder at the scrambling guards, her ears ringing desperately, bile in her throat, wondering how many people they’d just murdered in cold blood.

  “Now,” her captor-cum-savior hissed, pulling her up a ramp onto another ship. She didn’t have her wits about her to pay attention to the surroundings, only to the bloody footprints she left on the stairs going in.

  “That was close,” Devron said, frantically pushing buttons, flipping switches, and pulling systems online to get them out of this mess. “Too close,” he added with a glare over his shoulder at Melody.

  She didn’t care about his irritation, though. He’d just killed a bunch of guys for no reason. And now he had her on his ship, ready to do who knew what to her.

  She backed up toward the door, but there was no use. It was sealed shut and the ship was already moving toward the airlock.

  “You’re gonna wanna strap in,” Devron said pointedly, looking at the co-pilot’s seat. “I’m shooting us out.”

  “You’re—” The first beam of plasma fired from Devron’s cannon, aimed at the sealed airlock. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  He fired again, and the whole ship shuddered with the force of the blast.

  “I’m not, and you really wanna be strapped in when the vacuum breaks through,” he warned, firing again.

  Melody didn’t waste any more time. He was crazy, but he was obviously serious, too.

  He had to be better than Nor, though, didn’t he?

  5

  “Holy shit,” Melody cursed as the vacuum of space ripped through the bay of Nor’s spaceship and sucked Devron’s much tinier ship out with it. She’d only just managed to get her buckles all clicked together. The tangle of unfamiliar straps probably wasn’t arranged correctly, she reasoned, but being strapped down was better than nothing.

  “Picked a good time to finally obey,” Devron said, giving her a sideways look, his mouth hard.

  “I didn’t obey,” she argued petulantly. “I just . . . agreed it was a good idea.”

  “Whatever you say, Omega.”

  “Melody,” she growled, fingers digging into the armrests of the co-pilot seat. “How fucking hard can it be to get that through your thick alien skull?” she snapped, suddenly realizing she had no way of knowing if these aliens actually had skulls—or if their thickness was equated with slowness like it was back on Earth. The insult was probably lost on him, but there was no mistaking her tone, at least.

  “Got a lot on my mind, if you hadn’t noticed,” he spat back. “And we’re not out of the shit yet.” As if to punctuate his statement, the ship jolted to the side, the twisted straps of Melody’s restraints biting deep into her flesh but holding her.

  “What was—” A high-pitched alarm stopped her question, and Melody scowled.

  “Are they shooting at us?” she shrieked.

  “Well . . . I did steal his Omega and release his captured slaves.”

  “You . . . you what?” Melody stammered, blinking into the dark abyss of space as her whirling mind worked to process what he’d just said. Surely, she’d heard him wrong over the alarm’s roaring.

  “I needed a distraction, didn’t I?” Devron said, gritting his teeth as he jerked on the control yoke of the ship. It rolled to the side, tossing Melody again, but there was no rattling, wracking impact this time, and his shoulders relaxed a fraction.

  His six-fingered hands were tight on the controls, knuckles shining pale and bright in the flashing alarm light. His jaw was set firmly, working as he thought, teeth grinding as he scowled at the screens in front of him.

  Who is this guy? Melody wondered. And why had he picked her to rescue? What was in store for her now that he had—presuming he had? They certainly weren’t out of the woods yet, if the flashing readouts and angry groans from the ship were any indication.

  She was useless to help, though. She knew nothing about flying a spaceship. The only thing she could do to help him get them out of this situation was to sit back and shut up, to not cause any trouble.

  Trouble was generally her specialty, but with her life on the line, Melody could make an exception.

  “They’re going to give up soon, aren’t they?” she asked, finally breaking her silence after another impact rocked the ship, seatbelt choking her enough that the question came out raspy.

  Devron’s grim expression wasn’t much comfort.

  “Depends on how much I pissed him off by taking you,” he said, eying Melody without making any attempt to hide how much he appreciated her looks. He licked his lips as his eyes roved down her thighs, and Melody squirmed, momentarily forgetting all about their flight for their lives. She wanted to rip off the restraints and throw herself at him.

  His words seeped in, though. Like honey trickling through a sieve, it was slow to start, but everything poured in at once then. She couldn’t say for sure, but after Nor’s little speeches to her and the way he took such glee in trying to break her, Melody had a very bad feeling about the answer to that question. She couldn’t bring herself to tell Devron about Nor’s sick obsession, and without explaining that, how could she possibly tell him what a colossal mistake he’d made in taking her?

  Better yet, why the fuck would she do that? He saved her. Under no circumstances should she be telling him he’d made a mistake in doing so. If anything, she should be convincing him that there was nothing to worry about.

  “What was your plan?” she asked, changing the subject instead of trying to fabricate some alternate reality to feed him. “After you got me out of there, I mean?”

  “Not die,” Devron growled. “Could the questions wait until we’re not being fired upon?” he hissed, the ship rattling and hissing around them.

  It was the first time Melody really looked around at the ship he’d shoved her into. It was a spaceship, so obviously, it was more high-tech than anything she’d ever been around before, but once she looked past the initial sheen of alien technology, there was no doubt that this thing had seen better days. Dents, scrapes, spots of rust, sketchy welds and patches . . . she’d feel pretty damn confident in calling it a hunk of junk. And that was their getaway.

  It only raised a million more questions about the gruff dreamboat who had abducted her.

  “If I wait that long, I might never get to ask them,” she lobbed back, glaring as best she could with the drugs still dulling her anger.

  “My plan is to get out of range and hope they stop chasing us,” he said, turning the ship. As he did, it wasn’t the blackness of space in front of Melody—it was a planet. They’d been looking at the dark side, no visible light shining through the thick layer of fog cloaking its surface, but now she could see it. Surrounded by asteroids of all sizes, the foggy planet looked green, from what she could see through the clouds, green with lush vegetation.

  “Luckily for us, I know these rocks like the back of my hand,” Devron said, demonstrating by diving between two asteroids the size of school buses.

  Melody’s heart jumped into her throat, fingers so tight on the armrest she couldn’t feel the tips of them anymore.

  “Are you insane?” she squeaked, the sound of her voice so tiny and afraid pissing her off more than anything else had lately.

  “You’re not the first to ask, so I am starting to wonder . . .” he mused, dipping through another perilously tight passage between rocks big enough to be buildings.

  “You’re going to get us killed,” Melody hissed, not trusting her voice for much more.

  “After all this trouble? Unlikely.”

  He was insane. She couldn’t come up with any other explanation. He was completely, hopelessly insane. And she was stuck with him. Imprinted to him. Her heart sped up, a dark tunnel closing in around her vision. This was not how she’d planned to die. It was something she’d given a lot of thought to—a shoot-out with cops, a deal gone bad, anonymously retiring and dying of old age . . . as unlikely as some of those had seemed, this was somehow e
ven crazier. And actually happening.

  It was too much for her. Panic clutched her chest, the ship spun, lights flashed, alarms rang, the smell of smoke filled the air, and then there was the sense of falling. Falling, falling forever.

  “Stay with me, Melody,” Devron roared over the cacophony. She barely heard it, but somehow, it was enough. Enough to latch onto those words from him, to cling to them like they were a life preserver thrown after a shipwreck. That plea from him kept her afloat, kept her conscious—but she almost wished it hadn’t.

  Devron’s grip on the controls was tighter than ever and his arms trembled as he fought to keep them steady. The whole ship shook and rattled around them, and outside the windshield, it was nothing but white. That wasn’t just Melody’s panic. That was real. They’d broken through to the foggy shroud of Devron’s home planet.

  “Brace yourself.” He said the words like a curse, and there was no way Melody was stupid enough to argue or question it this time. The fog seemed to be getting thicker the further they went, and Melody couldn’t see a thing. There was no way Devron could either.

  Which meant they were landing blindly.

  Which meant ‘landing’ was wishful thinking. They were going to crash.

  “Do you know what you’re doing?” Melody asked, her voice shaking. The way he handled this ship made it seem like he had plenty of experience. Maybe crash landings were a specialty of his. Maybe she needn’t worry at all.

  “Yeah,” he said, jerking the yoke. “Hoping for the best.”

  Melody didn’t have a chance to answer. Her jaw dropped, but then there was a terrible, awful screeching sound. Tree branches ripped through the hull, the tops of the tallest ones clawing the belly of the ship open like a hungry beast. They were at the mercy of the forest then, gravity and trees warring with one another about where the ship would end up.

  She couldn’t watch. She screwed her eyes shut and hoped for the best, praying to whoever might be out there listening as she unconsciously reached across the space between them for Devron’s hand.

  It seemed like the ship bounced and shrieked and tumbled for eternity. Melody was sure she was going to die in this sardine can and that her last thought was going to be how right she’d been to question the guy ‘saving’ her. Finally, it stopped.

  The ship stopped moving, but Melody’s head didn’t. Echoes of their violent entry to the planet rocked her body, making her feel like she was being tossed about by waves at sea. The alarms of the ship’s computers still screamed at them.

  Smoke came from behind her, and when Melody tried to turn her head to see if flames were about to come chasing up her ass, she winced, gasping as pain shot down her neck into her shoulders.

  “Oh, good, you’re alive,” Devron said from the seat next to her.

  “Wish I could say the same,” she muttered.

  “Is that any way to talk to your savior, Omega?” he asked sternly while unbuckling his restraints. Melody couldn’t turn to watch him, but she heard the click of the latches, the whisper of the belts falling to the side.

  She snorted. “ ‘Savior’ is pushing it, don’t you think?”

  “You’re saved, aren’t you?”

  “Yet to be seen,” she remarked. “Besides, I think a ‘savior’ would give a shit about my name.”

  He grunted, words her translator wasn’t able to pick up, but she got the gist. She wasn’t as grateful as he’d hoped she’d be, and it was killing his buzz.

  Poor guy. She felt so guilty.

  “The hell did you do here?” he asked as he started to work on unbuckling her restraints. Melody had started to, but it was a tangled mess, and holding her head at the angle necessary to work through it was too painful.

  “I strapped in,” she said defensively.

  Devron tsked, shaking his head, his eyes intense as he bent down to undo the mess she’d made. As he freed her from the straps, he made another sound, a tiny groan, almost like he was in pain. He lifted his hand and dragged the edge of it along the line of her collar bone.

  Melody hissed, jerking back from the pain under his thumb.

  “This wouldn’t have happened if you’d worn them correctly,” he admonished, tracing his fingers over another angry welt left by the improper restraints. Melody bit back a moan, her eyes desperately trying to flutter closed at his touch. His fingers were soft and gentle, full of concern despite the gruff, uncaring way he talked to her. And the tiny bit of pain that came with such a gentle touch because of her injuries? Well, Melody was pretty surprised to figure out she liked that more than she should.

  Her lips parted on a silent gasp of pleasure, and she forced herself to open her eyes, to look at the infuriating alien who’d dragged her off and nearly gotten her killed multiple times already.

  It’s not real, she told herself, remembering the imprint, the treatment. None of what she was feeling was real.

  “I had other things on my mind.” She spat his own words back at him, pulling herself up from the chair despite how much it hurt.

  “You’re injured,” he said, stopping at Melody’s glare.

  “I’m fine,” she amended, moving toward the back of the ship, toward the door. “We need to get out of here before this whole thing explodes.”

  Maybe she’d seen too many movies, but a smoking vehicle might as well have been a ticking time bomb to her.

  Devron didn’t argue as he pushed past her and went to open the door. When it didn’t give on the first try, he kicked it with all his might, taking the chance to work off some of the aggression the mouthy Omega was building up in him.

  With the door of the ship open, there was nothing between them and the dense forests of Cania. Devron wasn’t sure where they’d landed, but he’d managed navigating the planet before. He wasn’t a total space rat. They could get through this.

  “Is now the appropriate time to start asking questions?” Melody asked.

  Devron sighed, rolling his eyes, sure this omega’s attitude was his punishment for stealing her. What other explanation could there be?

  “Does my answer matter?” he asked in return. “You’ve already begun without me.”

  She returned the eye-rolling gesture and added a rude hand sign to go with it.

  Devron didn’t care how impossibly gorgeous she was or how desperate to be rid of the Frenzy he was. He couldn’t see how this could possibly be worth the trouble.

  Too late to turn back now, though, he decided with a heavy sigh.

  6

  “Proceed,” Devron said with a heavy sigh Melody didn’t appreciate.

  She huffed and pushed a matted lock of her dark hair back from her face. It was sticky and stiff, and she realized that her head was bleeding somewhere, but it must have nearly stopped because she couldn’t find the source of the flow.

  “How about you start with why you kidnapped me from Nor? Not that I don’t appreciate getting out of there and everything, but I’d like to know what I’m dealing with here.”

  He turned to face her with surprising agility, stopping Melody short in her steps, her breath catching in her chest at the nearness of him.

  “My name is Devron Tal,” he said. “The bastard son of a nobleman who raped my mother and left her for dead. He left her with no means to care for herself or her infant son, but he did leave me a parting gift—the Frenzy.” Devron’s hands clenched to fists at his side, his teeth gritting together at the very word.

  Melody frowned. She’d heard Nor talk about the Frenzy before, but she didn’t really know what it was. She didn’t understand that part of this alien culture. She shook her head, explaining without words her confusion, and Devron groaned.

  “What did Nor tell you?” he gritted through his clenched jaw.

  “Nothing I bothered to listen to,” Melody said defensively. Maybe that had been a mistake. Maybe she should’ve paid closer attention to the despicable alien who’d abducted her from her home planet.

  Devron dragged his hand over his face, an e
xasperated sigh heaving his defined chest. Melody’s eyes wandered down from his chest, to his slim waist, to the way his black pants bulged slightly at his crotch.

  “All right,” he said, the firm edge in his voice drawing her eyes back to his face, a flush of embarrassment warming her neck. Had he seen her checking him out? “There’s way too much to explain, so let’s walk and talk,” he said, gesturing for Melody to follow as he set off into the dense forests.

  “How about you answer my fucking questions first?” Melody retorted.

  “Because I’m not confident we aren’t still being pursued. Not that I owe an explanation of any kind to an Omega.”

  Melody growled and lifted her hand to strike him but couldn’t do it. She couldn’t make herself hit him anymore than she could make herself stop wanting him.

  “I’m a human,” Melody argued, her voice slipping into a desperate whine, nearly a sob at the helplessness of the situation. “I’m not an Omega,” she said, determined to remember that. She wouldn’t let Nor break her, and she wouldn’t let this guy do it either.

  “On Cania, you are both,” Devron said. “The Nobleman’s Frenzy is a terrible disease—pain and suffering unlike anything you can imagine, and eventually, death. Having an Omega is the only known treatment, but acquiring one is expensive. A fresh imprint is worth more than I’d ever see in my lifetime,” Devron said. “My time’s running out, though. Without a mate . . .” He trailed off, shaking his head sadly, no mistaking what the conclusion of his tale was.

  Melody thought about it, about this ‘curse’, as she’d heard it called. The Frenzy that afflicted the alien men like a period on bath salts that could only be cured by sex—by an Omega, it seemed. Whatever that meant.

  Everything Devron said led Melody to one conclusion, though.

  He hadn’t saved her.

  He’d stolen her.

  “You purposely interrupted the imprint so it would be you,” she said, backing away, her hand covering her mouth as a sick, sour feeling seeped into her stomach, churning up until acid bit at the back of her throat.