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

by Zara Zenia

  Though the imprint would make it very difficult for her to ever leave him, it wasn’t impossible. It might kill her, but Devron didn’t see a detail like that stopping a girl like Melody.

  He had to be careful, and he knew it.

  “What makes you so certain I won’t?” he asked, rising to his feet as well, ducking under the low ceiling that gave her no trouble.

  Melody’s hands went to her hips. “I really have to answer that? You want to paint yourself as this nice guy, a guy whose hands are tied, who’s in a bad spot and doesn’t want to enslave the girl. I don’t buy it for a single second, pal. You knew exactly what you were doing when you interrupted that imprint. You didn’t want to just stop Nor from having me. You wanted me for yourself. Lie to yourself all you want, but you can’t fool me. You’re no better than him.”

  “You’re wrong.”

  “No,” Melody cried, raising her voice until it echoed around the cave. “You’re wrong if you think I’m going to ever believe a word that comes out of your slimy alien mouth,” she said, turning away from him to flee. The bond caught her before Devron did, and Melody slipped back down into the cave, her feet refusing to gain purchase in the marshy ground below.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” Devron said, approaching to help her to her feet as she flailed and struggled. “Just stop for a mo—” Her foot connected with his stomach, and he doubled over as she scrambled to her feet and tried to get out of the cave again.

  This time, Devron dove for her, lunging and grabbing her around the middle. Melody shrieked and cried, clawing at the ground, kicking at him, desperate to break away.

  “Let me GO!” she howled. It wasn’t just her echoing cries that Devron heard, though.

  “Shh,” he commanded, shoving her face down into the mud—the only way he knew to silence her, if only for a second—and straining his ears.

  “Shit,” he cursed under his breath, leaping to his feet, dragging Melody up with him.

  “What do you think you’re—”

  “They’re coming for us,” he said, turning to her with a serious look. This wasn’t the time for teasing or games. Not the time to push his buttons or test the limits of her freedom. This was the time for Melody to make a decision.

  “What—”

  “Nor’s not giving up on finding you,” Devron said, and the guilt that flashed through Melody’s face made his blood run cold.

  “What?” he asked, panic scratching at his throat as he pulled her behind the shelter of another massive tree root.

  The fog wasn’t as dense as before, and the shadowy shape of every tree in the mists caught Devron’s eye and made him jump.

  “He . . . he was planning on keeping me for himself,” Melody said, drawing her bottom lip between her teeth.

  Devron cursed again. He knew he’d interrupted an imprint, but Egeon Nor did imprints for all the wealthiest—and most ruthless—Canians. How was Devron to know that the greedy bastard was taking a fourth Omega for himself?

  There wasn’t any way to know, but the fact that he’d taken Nor’s personal pet before he could imprint . . . well, it certainly explained the show of force.

  They could both hear the footsteps marching closer, the voices shouting to one another, the buzz of drones zipping through the trees. Melody gulped audibly, and Devron could feel her trembling next to him, clutching his arm close as they huddled together beneath the roots of the vantu tree.

  “It’s time you made a decision, Omega,” he said, turning to her with a serious look. “You want to go back to him, or are you taking your chances with me?”

  8

  The question, when posed to Melody that way, had an obvious answer.

  There was no way in hell she was going back to Nor.

  “Lead the way,” she said reluctantly, not releasing her grip on his arm. As much as she didn’t like it, they were in this together at the moment. She could at least use him until she had a better plan. He knew the way of this world and could provide her with food and shelter, hopefully.

  “Stay close and don’t make a sound,” Devron said, peering back at her with a stern set to his brow. She needed a firm hand, and now wasn’t the time for her to test him.

  “Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” Melody hissed, the voices of Nor’s guards getting closer. She’d already escaped cops, alien guards, and spaceship fire. She really wanted to stop running now, but not until they knew they were safe.

  She had to admit that she felt much better after the brief night’s sleep in the cave, but her body was stiffer than ever, sore, like there was rust in her joints. The warmth of the heater had helped a little bit, but the moment she moved away from it, the pain was back in full force. She couldn’t let Devron see it though. She’d told him she was fine. She didn’t want him to put his hands on her. She didn’t trust herself not to have a reaction to it. She couldn’t guarantee that she wouldn’t melt into his touch and beg him to take her.

  So as much as she was sure a massage would help soothe her aches and pains, there was no way Melody was going to give in to that. She’d rather suffer than risk that kind of vulnerability.

  Devron looked all around before slipping through the impossibly huge tree roots. On Earth, they’d be whole trees at that size, but here, it was all part of one bigger tree, and the forests were full of these giants. Melody was struck by the hugeness of the trees, how they blocked out any trace of the sky, disappearing into the fog high above.

  The only warning she had was a whine, like air being let from a balloon, and then she was assaulted by something wet, heavy, and sticky on her head.

  “Ahh!” she shrieked, jumping in panic at the terrible weight pushing down on her head. It made that crazy noise again, and Devron lunged, making a different, deeper, weird noise at it.

  The fingers suctioned to her face released, and the hog-sized frog leaped up onto the trunk of a nearby tree. Its lime-green eyes stared at her unblinkingly as its long, sticky tongue darted out and swiped over one eyeball.

  Melody shuddered, reluctant to lift her fingers to the trail of slime she could feel trickling down the back of her neck.

  “Please tell me that thing’s not poisonous,” she whimpered, not even able to look at the frog as it jumped—thirty feet, at least—to another tree. Everything about this planet had been terrible so far, and if it was covered with giant trees and giant frogs, Melody didn’t even want to think about what other awful giant things existed here.

  Like the huge bugs those big frogs probably ate.

  “You’ll be fine after a wash,” Devron said, clearly biting back laughter. It was the sparkle in his icy eyes that gave him away, the amusement twinkling behind the mask he kept in place.

  “Come on,” he urged. “I’m sure they heard all that commotion.”

  “What was I supposed to do? Not scream when a giant frog tried to eat my head?”

  Devron snickered, covering it with a cough too late to fool Melody. “It wasn’t trying to eat your head. It mistook you for a perch. Your hair is the same hue as the bark,” he said.

  Melody scoffed. “You sure do know how to flatter a gal. Every girl wants to be told her hair is the color of bark.” She was giving him a hard time about it, but she couldn’t say why. What reason did he have to compliment her or keep her placated? What obligation to her ego did he have?

  None.

  She already belonged to him. He didn’t need to woo her or court her.

  It wasn’t going to help him anyway, because Melody was not going to give in to this stupid imprint thing. The aliens could shoot her up with as many hormone cocktails as they wanted, but they couldn’t change her mind.

  She hoped.

  She was pretty sure if they could, Nor would’ve done that before the imprint since he’d already ‘given up’ on breaking her the hard way.

  Devron seemed to be better at staying hidden than he’d been at coming up with a plan. She’d kind of written him off as incompetent after their disastrous escape from N
or’s ship, but following him around through the forest, Melody quickly saw his skills. He was able to navigate the marshy, wet ground, finding sure footing that wouldn’t leave a trail to be followed. He kept a sharp ear out for drones, pulling her into the safety of a nearby hollow or cave as they approached.

  Each time he grabbed her, Melody’s heart sped up and her skin tingled with his touch.

  She hated it. Hated how she wanted to press herself against him and grind her hips into his. She hated how the scent of him enveloped her and made her eyes roll back in her head while warmth trickled down between her legs.

  Most of all, she hated that she couldn’t stop thinking about how she was covered in sticky frog slime, dirt, dried blood—who knew what else—and that if she was on her A-game, there was no way he’d be so focused on escaping right now instead of ravaging her.

  Yeah, somehow, with all this other bullshit going on, Melody was able to find the energy in her brain to worry about how attractive she was.

  Fucking hormones.

  “Do you hear that?” Devron asked, holding her close to him as another drone passed by. There was no way to even be sure they were Nor’s anymore, but she wasn’t going to ask him to take any chances. And as much as she cursed her traitorous body for it, she liked this. She liked his arms tight around her, his chest pressed against her back, his heartbeat thumping steadily against her shoulder.

  That was what she could hear. His heartbeat, almost as fast as hers, his breath, as ragged and unsteady as she felt. She grew dizzier the longer they stayed pressed together in the tight hiding place among the roots, and she shook her head.

  “What?”

  “The water,” he whispered, his breath warm and sensual against her neck, making Melody’s eyes flutter shut, her lips parting on a silent moan. She wanted to tilt her head to the side, to offer herself to him, to beg him to claim her in every way he wanted.

  But she stopped herself.

  She had some dignity left, after all.

  Enough dignity that she was able to pull herself away from the overwhelming lust thrumming through her to focus her hearing, to strain for the distant sound of waves lapping against the shoreline.

  “What about it?” she asked, licking her lips, trying to focus on something other that his lips hovering so close to hers and the memory of their first kiss still thrumming through her veins.

  Why had she gone and kissed him like that?

  It was the heat of the moment, she told herself. She had no idea what was happening to her with the imprint, with being saved. It was all overwhelming. How was she supposed to have resisted?

  That didn’t quell her anger, though. Because now she knew. Now she knew what she was missing out on every time she pulled herself away from kissing him, every time she denied the tug between them.

  She knew.

  “That’s our ticket out of here,” he said, lips curling into a mischievous grin that made Melody more nervous than she’d been since she realized they were going to crash-land on this planet.

  “I don’t like that look,” she said, following along after him despite her hesitation.

  “That’s because you think I’m a bad thief,” he said, the sound of waves growing louder and louder as he pushed through the thick forest brush, marshy mud mixing with dark sand that got lighter and lighter as the trees grew sparser, allowing more sunlight to filter through.

  “What?” Melody asked, brow wrinkled at this crazy alien who didn’t make any sense.

  “I don’t exactly have a boat waiting for us, Melody,” he said, staying behind the tree line as he led her down the coast, eyes searching, scanning.

  “Then what—oh, for fuck’s sake,” she groaned, putting it all together. “You are a terrible thief.”

  “Still taking that as a compliment,” Devron said, the glint of a bright white sail catching his eye further down the coast. “Think you can do any better?” he asked.

  “With a boat?” Melody scoffed. “No way. I don’t know how to operate a boat. Do you?”

  Now Devron gave her a full-on grin, one that stopped Melody dead in her tracks. Her breath caught. “Only one way to find out,” he said, waving after him as he sprinted across the sand toward the boat moored on a secluded beach.

  A boat that surely belonged to someone. Someone who would miss it.

  Since when has that bothered you?

  Though Melody tried to reason with herself that she’d only ever stolen luxury goods from people who wouldn’t miss them much, she knew it was a blurry line to draw in the sand. She was not the person to be throwing stones when she’d built quite the house of glass around her.

  Devron was already pulling up the anchor as Melody clambered aboard and took a look around.

  It wasn’t a large boat, and it looked like it was mainly used for fishing. There was a small cabin below deck, but most of the space on the boat was reserved for fishing gear and supplies to keep the thing afloat.

  A bunch of stuff that meant nothing to Melody, who stared around blankly.

  “Just watch the shore for me, will you?” Devron asked when he spotted her gaping.

  Being the lookout was something Melody was used to, so she went to the back of the boat and kept her eyes glued to the shore, keeping a close watch on the fog for any sign of the boat’s owner or Nor’s men. As she watched, the shore started to retreat until the fog swallowed up the trees altogether.

  “Good job, Omega,” he said, pleasure mingling with irritation over the whole thing.

  She whirled on him, stomping across the slick deck, eyes fixed on his.

  “Don’t think for one second that just because I picked you over Nor means I’m going to be any more agreeable to this Omega bullshit,” she growled, wagging a finger in his face.

  Devron cocked a brow, smirking at her, saying nothing.

  For some reason, his silence pissed her off more than his arguing would have.

  “I’m not,” she insisted. “It’s total bullshit.”

  “Come here,” he said, crooking his finger.

  “Shouldn’t you be steering the boat?” she asked, trying to peer through the fog but seeing nothing.

  “Come here,” he repeated, more insistent this time, ignoring her question altogether.

  Melody took in a shaky breath and stepped toward him.

  “Turn around,” he commanded, sending a shiver down her spine.

  What was that about?

  She hated being bossed around, but the way he did it was new and exciting. His voice sent a thrill through her unlike anything she’d ever felt before.

  “Melody.” He growled her name, and she shivered, turning around on instinct before she could even fight the urge. Her skin felt like it was on fire despite the chill lingering from the dense fog. She hugged herself, feeling more exposed with her back to him like this than she ever had before.

  When he touched her, Melody gasped like she’d been struck by lightning, but it didn’t come with the intensity she’d anticipated. Devron’s fingers were soft and gentle, his hands pressing deep into her sore muscles and erasing the tension buried within.

  Melody’s head dropped forward with a moan that sounded intensely sexual the moment it left her lips. It was enough to snap her out of it, to make her jump away from Devron and his magical fingers.

  She couldn’t deny that she felt better, though. He’d done more than a normal massage. He’d hit some magic pressure points or something. There was hardly any pain at all left where he’d touched her, and she was sure that if she let him, he’d erase every ache in her body. But letting him touch her as much as he’d already done had nearly made her a puddle. She couldn’t risk making herself more vulnerable to him. She needed to stay strong to learn what she could about this Alpha-Omega bond they apparently had so that she could learn how to defy it.

  How was she going to keep her resolve strong with his watching her every movement like a hungry predator, though?

  Light sweeping through the fog int
errupted her inner turmoil and caught Melody’s attention, making her head perk up in curiosity.

  Devron followed the beam of light, a mixture of relief and regret playing through his expression.

  “Land ho,” he said, taking control of the boat again.

  “Wait . . . what? Won’t they just turn us in?” Melody asked, wondering if Devron had lost his mind in the last minute.

  He chuckled at her and shook his head.

  “Why don’t you leave the thinking to me, little Omega? I’m better at it.”

  9

  As the boat neared the small dock, large reptilian creatures swarmed and Melody yelped, hiding behind Devron.

  “What are those?” she asked, voice quivering. They looked like giant lizards, like some kind of cross between alligators and dragons, and their slitted pupils watched their approach with unsettling intelligence.

  “Selithi,” Devron said, pulling himself up to the railing to wave at the gathered crowd. Melody hugged herself. They were naked, walking on four legs . . . they were animals, weren’t they?

  She looked closer, though, through the mists clinging to the shoreline, and realized she’d been wrong. Some of the lizards stood on two legs like people while others remained on the ground, but they all had six limbs, not four. They weren’t naked, either. Almost every one of them wore some kind of belt around their waist, a tool belt, from the pouches and loops, she thought.

  “What brings you to our shores, Canian?” one of the lizard-people asked, stepping forward on two huge, thick scaled legs, tail swinging behind him for balance. His head was broad and shaped like a diamond, with dark green scales that shimmered gold in the sunlight.

  Devron immediately snapped to attention at the greeting and brought his hand to his forehead, dipping into a bow.

  “We seek sanctuary. I’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to me,” he said, gesturing back at Melody.

  She hissed at him, but he ignored her. Was it really a good idea to just tell these people that he was a thief? Seemed kind of dumb, if you asked her.