by Ella Maven
The Alien’s Savior
Drixonian Warriors #5
Ella Maven
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by Ella Maven
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.
Copyedited by Del’s Diabolical Editing
Cover design by Natasha Snow
First edition August 2020
Dedication
To getting what you deserve…
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
The Alien’s Challenge
Acknowledgments
About the Author
One
Gar
She sat with her back to me, her bare skin glowing in the first rays of the morning sun, while she brushed her hair. The ends of her shining locks touched the top of her heart-shaped ass. In a moment she’d stand, and I’d get a full view of her perfection before she slipped her short pants on.
I hated those clothes. I’d spend all day sneering at them, wishing I had the honor of shredding them with my fangs and burying my face in the sweetness of her cunt.
Of course, I’d never get that honor, and I shouldn’t. Especially because of acting like this, standing in the shadows outside her window every morning, watching her like a flecking wretch.
I didn’t want to, but this was where my feet led me daily. I couldn’t function without seeing my Naomi every morning, hearing her quiet voice as she talked to herself. I had worn a groove in the dirt with my boots outside her room from spying on her. My brother always said I was stealthy for my size, and I’d never cared more than now when I could use that skill to get a glimpse of the one thing I wanted most on this world. Well, that and the head of every Uldani on a spike. I was more likely to get the latter.
I could not bind Naomi to me. Not that Fatas would ever gift me a mate, but if she did, no way could I let Naomi see the flecked up shit in my head. Even I didn’t want to see it, and I lived with it every day. No, I wanted my Naomi to stay sweet and unblemished from my darkness. She was better off without me.
Just then, she rose, and I inhaled as I caught a glimpse of her lean legs. She was tiny, the smallest of the human females, with big round eyes, tiny brown dots splashed across her face, and gleaming hair which swirled around her waist. Her breasts were large, and I’d heard her complain to the other females about the lack of a proper bra, which I understood as a sort of support for her breasts. I preferred to watch them swing free beneath her shirts.
She angled her body and I saw one pink peaked nipple. My mouth watered. My cock thickened in my pants, but I didn’t touch it. The pain of no release was not even close to what I deserved for this.
If she just moved her leg … there. Just a glimpse, but it would fuel me for many rotations, probably the rest of my life. Her cunt covered in a patch of dark curls. I ached to get closer, to kneel at her feet and worship her as she deserved. But she should get that from someone else. A better male with a clean mind like Xavy or Nero.
I growled thinking of them touching her, and she jerked. As her head turned toward the window, I ducked out of the way with a muffled curse.
I didn’t wait to see if she’d seen me. It didn’t matter now. This was the last time I’d watch her. The last time I’d torture myself with what I couldn’t have. I crept away from her room with my fists clenched and my mind once again a riotous whirlwind of rage. Only when I was in her presence did I forget the anger and the guilt. As soon as she was out of my sight, it came back stronger than ever.
I stayed in the shadows until I was far enough away from her room to show myself, then strode toward the dining hall. I squinted at the sun and cursed under my breath. I’d spent longer at Naomi’s window than I’d meant to and I was late. I didn’t like being late.
I stalked into the dining hall, past the warriors getting ready to head to their training and burst through the door of our private meeting room. Daz looked up at me sharply from his place at the head of the table.
I didn’t offer an excuse for my lateness, though I knew I should. It was disrespectful to Daz, but I didn’t want to make a scene or delay further. I sat in my chair, hands clasped on the table in front of me, and waited.
“Well, we can get started now,” Daz said in a dry tone as he gave me a displeased look for my tardiness. “As always, we’ll begin with an update on our females. My Fra-kee is very round. I told her that, and she didn’t speak to me for half of a rotation, so I suggest to the rest of you with pregnant mates not to call them round.”
“Noted,” Ward said solemnly. “Reba cries a lot.”
Daz sighed heavily. “The tears. I strongly dislike the tears.”
“I’d rather Val be mad at me,” Sax said. “Because I can usually turn Val’s anger into naked time in our furs.”
“I’m jealous of your talent,” Ward grouched. “Reba’s anger always ends in tears, so I have to deal with both.”
“Unlucky,” Sax clicked his tongue as he shook his head at his friend.
Ward’s spine snapped straight. “I am not unlucky. I have a cora-eternal who will soon bear my chit, I—”
“Enough,” Daz barked. “We are all lucky, every one of us.” He shot me, Xavy, and Nero a look. “Even those of us without mates. Because we have a chance to be a part of the future of our race.”
“Sorry, Ward,” Sax mumbled. “Poor choice of words.”
Ward shook his head. “No, I shouldn’t have taken offense. Reba wasn’t feeling well this morning, which made me irritable, and I took it out on you.”
“No harm, brother,” Sax grinned.
“Val and Reba are all right other than normal pregnancy symptoms?” Daz asked.
“Yes,” Sax and Ward both answered.
Xavy cleared his throat. His duty was to report on the rest of the females. “Miranda and Drak are doing well. He is settling in although still not a fan of the large gatherings.”
Drak was a warrior we’d exiled fifteen cycles ago for a betrayal he never committed. We’d found the real traitor, and cast him out, but Drak’s return wasn’t without obstacles. Fortunately, he was mated to Miranda, who was patient with him and fought for him.
Xavy continued with his updates, reporting that Tark and Anna, as the parents to the only Drix-human child we knew of, were settling in well. They’d lived alone for ten cycles but had since joined the Night Kings because we offered a safer place to live.
“Tabitha, Justine, and Naomi are healthy and happy. They have been busy in the kitchens and are currently designing a new organization for our crops.” Xavy ended his report.
Daz nodded. “Thank you for that.” He gestured to Nero. “Have you uncovered anything new about the Uldani’s plans?”
I leaned forward, eager to hear what Nero had to say. The Uldani were the reason the human females were on this planet. Since they arrived, we had uncovered the Uldani’s plot to breed them with stolen Drixonian males to create a class of servant warriors. We used to serve the Uldani as their soldiers but rose against them in an Uprising when we learned they were taking our males and experimenting on them. Now the Uldani lived in a fortified cit
y, but they weren’t content to let us be. They had tried many times to kidnap the humans and force them to breed.
We’d learned recently the Uldani had also captured and sold Drixonian males before and during the Uprising. The Drixonian who betrayed us, Crius, confessed to us—before he was killed—that Rex, Daz and Sax’s younger brother, was not killed in the Uprising as we’d thought. He’d been sold by the Uldani to an enemy race on another planet.
Nero tapped on his tablet before gently placing it on the table in front of him. “I couldn’t understand how the Uldani were able to travel so close to our borders without our scouts detecting them. Or my eyes.”
His eyes were his censors at our borders that alerted movement and identified intruders. He swiped on the screen and pushed it toward Daz. “I detected an anomaly under the ground right here. I can’t be sure, but I think they have created an underground hideout with tunnels leading closer to Alazar.” Alazar was the Uldani’s fortified city, well protected by their advanced tech, in the eastern hemisphere of our continent. We rarely crossed to their lands, and they rarely crossed into ours, which was home to many clavases of Drixonian warriors like ours. Some were friendly, some were not.
I stood up and leaned over to peer at the screen, making note of the location Nero had highlighted.
“You’re telling me you think the Uldani have made a bunker here, in the western hemisphere?” Daz asked.
Nero’s lips thinned as he nodded. “I do.”
“Fleck,” Daz spat as he shoved the tablet with a violent thrust, sending it spinning across the table. The only reason it didn’t fall to the floor and shatter was because Xavy caught it. He handed it back to Nero, who cradled it to his chest like it was a chit.
“Do you have any idea how large this is or how many Uldani and Kulk guards reside there?” Daz asked.
“I don’t,” Nero frowned. “If I had more time…”
“Take the time you need,” Daz growled. “I’ll reach out to our ally clavases. I refuse to offer up the lives of the Night Kings for a fight that affects us all. This is a Drixonian fight. I’ve been talking about uniting again but didn’t out of fear of the knowledge we have females would turn some clavases ugly.”
Ward growled softly. We’d had experience with that. A clavas had stolen Reba and would have killed Ward if she hadn’t found a way for them to escape. Clever little human.
“But I can’t let this go on,” Daz said. “We can’t do this alone, so I will reach out to drexels who I know honor our creed. The Uldani have gone too far.” His jaw clenched. “Hug your females tight, brothers. War is coming.”
War is coming.
Those three words rattled around in my brain like rocks. I thought about all we’d been through, how many warriors had already fallen, and how much hardship our females had endured.
Daz might have trusted some of the other drexels, but I didn’t. I trusted my Night Kings council, and I trusted myself. I had limited skills and wasn’t good for much of anything, but I was an excellent warrior. I could track, hunt, and kill.
I knew the general placement of the hidden Uldani bunker thanks to Nero’s tablet. Every rotation they remained there was another rotation where our females—like Naomi—were threatened.
Rage filled me as I stalked to my hut, the fury a living thing inside my gut chewing, gnawing, and begging to get out. I wasn’t sure I could live like this much longer. I could do one thing to make the lives of my brothers and the precious females better. I knew what it was, and fleck it all—I was going to do it.
I entered my hut and slammed the door shut behind me. As a member of the Night Kings council, I received my own hut, even though I didn’t need it. I didn’t even require a bed. I’d slept on the bare floor plenty of times. But Ward had insisted I maintain some sort of presence as a leader.
Other than my attached cleanser, my hut held a bed of furs, a few pieces of clothing stacked in the corner, a basket of food, and a chair. I sat down in the chair and grabbed an old scrap of leather I’d traded for the other day. I laid it flat on the ground and filled it with a few pieces of antella jerky, some dried fruit, and hardy roots to chew on. After that, I tied the leather edges into a bundle.
I inhaled deeply and looked around the room. There was nothing here that mattered to me. The furs were castoffs. All the good ones I’d acquired had been given to the human females, which was where I wanted them.
I eyed the corner of my room, where I knew just below a layer of dirt lay a weapon I’d taken long ago during the days of the Uprising. I’d been waiting for a time to use it to the benefit of my race. Now was that time. I started toward it just as my door burst open. I turned to find Ward’s frame filling my door. I shoved the leather bundle in the back of my pants. “Brother.”
He slowly sauntered into my space and glanced around. “Really love what you’ve done with the place.”
I didn’t find him humorous. “Did you need something?”
He placed his hands on his hips and stared at the floor before meeting my gaze. “Are you okay?”
His question wrapped around my throat and squeezed. I didn’t want to answer that, and before meeting his cora-eternal, I wasn’t sure Ward had ever said those words to me. But Reba had made him a little softer, more observant. Which meant he seemed on a mission to fix me. Make me okay. Make me happy.
It was a pointless as fleck mission, but I hadn’t bothered to tell him yet.
“Fine,” I answered.
He narrowed his eyes in a way that reminded me so much of my twin sister. My gut churned like it always did when I thought of Mave, followed by the white-hot flush of anger. I’d lived most of my life without her, but the bond we’d formed in our mother’s womb, and for close to a dozen cycles, would last long past my death.
Laughter drifted in from outside. A knock rapped at my door, followed by a loud, “Ward?”
“Yes, my mate,” he called to Reba. He swung the door open, and her swollen belly made its entrance before she did. Her face was flushed from the heat and the exertion of walking only a short distance. When we’d first met, I blamed her for my brother’s injuries, since her escape was the reason he’d been wounded. But since then I’d come to respect her for her cleverness, devotion to Ward, and most of all for the chit she was currently growing in her belly. The next generation of my family.
She blew a strand of hair out of her face that had escaped its tie. “Sorry, I know you said to wait outside, but the sun was getting to me.”
Immediately he looked stricken. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to—”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “Relax, I’m not going to die. The heat just makes me grumpy.” She shot me a look that I couldn’t decipher before she called over her shoulder. “They’re in here, come in.”
I stiffened because I could sense her before she took one step into view. Naomi.
She crept inside on silent feet, a trait that surprised me because I could hear the rest of the females coming from a far distance. She wore a long pair of pants, boots, and a small shirt which was only a band across her breasts. The muscles in her taut stomach shifted when she moved, and I longed to run my tongue along her ribs. When she reached Reba’s side, she looped her arm through her friends and smiled brightly at my brother. “Hey, Ward.”
He nodded at her. “Naomi.”
Her eyes flicked to me and color rose in her cheeks. Sometimes she looked away quickly, but not today. Today her gaze hooked mine and held. “Hi, Gar.”
I knew I was supposed to answer her. I could feel my brother burning a hole in the side of my face, but I couldn’t speak. She must have seen me this morning. There was a challenge in her eyes. Would she tell my brother? Had she laughed with the other females about how pathetic I was?
I remained silent, and with each passing moment, Naomi’s bold stare weakened until she winced, and her eyes dropped.
“Gar,” my brother barked.
My room was too small. There
were too many people in here. My skin felt tight, and my scalp around my horns itched. I needed to get out of here before I started throwing things. I started for the door. “I have some tasks to get done—”
“You’re coming to morning meal with us,” Ward all but growled.
I hesitated and prepared an argument, but when I whirled to find Ward glaring at me, and Reba rubbing Naomi’s back, I knew I had to make amends. I was imagining things, making up problems where they didn’t exist. Naomi hadn’t seen me watching her this morning. She’d only wanted a greeting, which I couldn’t even bring myself to do. If this was the last I saw my brother, his pregnant cora-eternal, and the only female to ever make me feel desire, then I had to make the most of it. So, I swallowed my refusal and gave my brother a sharp nod. “I will.”
His eyes went wide with surprise for a moment, probably because he’d expected me to argue. Then he blinked. “Great. Let’s go. You’re joining us, Naomi?”
“I am,” she said, in that soft voice of hers.
Ward gestured for the women to walk ahead of him, and they walked out the door arm in arm. I discreetly placed the leather package near the door. I’d have to return to get it.
My brother and I followed the females out of my room and headed in the direction of our barracks, where the kitchens were located and the large dining hall. The girls talked quietly about Reba’s pet welf, Luna, who was now full-grown. Reba had to start letting Luna out of the walls occasionally to hunt for her own food. She always returned, tongue lolling happily, teeth stained with antella blood.