by Zoey Draven
Contents
COPYRIGHT
TITLE
BLURB
MAILING LIST
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EPILOGUE
WARRIORS OF LUXIRIA
MAILING LIST
THANK YOU
ABOUT ZOEY
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons are purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Stock Art: Depositphotos
Cover Design: Zoey Draven
Copyright © 2017 Zoey Draven
THE ALIEN’S MATE
(Warriors of Luxiria Book 2)
By Zoey Draven
Welcome to Luxiria, where the twin suns are hot and the alien warriors are hotter…
Kate Harper can't believe that a month ago, she was living on Earth, going through the motions of a normal, human life. Now? A seriously sexy, insatiable, alpha alien knocked her up and she's learning how to rule over an entire species with her new mate. As Kate tries to carve out a place for herself on Luxiria--all while pregnant with an alien warrior's baby that loves to kick--there's unrest brewing on the planet and her strong mate's authority is challenged. And why can't she shake the feeling that he's hiding something from her?
The Alien's Mate is Book Two of the Warriors of Luxiria series and is the sequel to The Alien's Prize. You need to have read Book One first. The Alien's Mate concludes Vaxa'an and Kate's story and the rest of the series will focus on other Luxirian warriors that can be read as standalones.
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ONE
“Vaxa, I need to get to work,” Kate moaned, trying to fend off the advances of her very amorous alien mate. If he didn’t wake her up sometime in the night for a round or two of sex, he was insatiable come morning. And right now? He was insatiable.
“Luxiva,” Vaxa rasped between her thighs, in between soft licks with that glorious ridged tongue. “I regret the span I showed you the archives.”
Kate bit back a smile. He always grumbled about her work in the morning, but she knew better. If she was happy, he was happy. He’d told her so himself. And her work at the archives made her happy and filled her with purpose on this strange, wonderful alien planet that was beginning to feel more and more like home with every passing day.
A month and a half ago she’d been living her perfectly ordinary life back on Earth. She hadn’t known that an alien species, called the Krevorags, were capturing human women from Earth. Hell, she’d only found out when she’d been one of them. Thrown onto a planet called the Pit, the Krevorags hosted an alien fight club and the prize for winning was women.
She’d been lucky. Vaxa had fought for her and killed for her. He was the most honorable man—human or otherwise—she’d ever known and she knew that she would have a very different, very empty life had he not been at the Pit that day.
She was his mate, his luxiva. His fated mate. Kate was the lavrix’an to his people, something she still couldn’t wrap her head around. She’d landed alien royalty apparently, seeing as how Vaxa was the Prime Leader of Luxiria. Some days, she didn’t know what the hell she was doing, but she was learning, adapting.
Vaxa gave her clit a soft suckle and Kate’s back arched off the bed, her hands squeezing tighter around the dark, black horns on her mate’s head, horns that were currently stiffened with his arousal.
That’s not all that’s stiff, she thought, watching her sexy-as-hell mate rotate his hips against their bed, fucking the furs, trying to relieve some of the pressure she knew had to be building.
She took pity on him and tugged on his horns, making him groan and purr all at once. “Enough, Vaxa,” she moaned, as he swiped his tongue deep inside her. Kate gave another greedy tug and then he was crawling up their bed, his erect cock bobbing between them. And then he there. With one swift, claiming thrust, he sheathed himself fully inside her.
Kate would never get enough of this. She clung to his strong, wide shoulders, mewing her pleasure, as he drove between her legs. Luxirians loved sex. Vaxa once told her that they needed it three times a day, at minimum. He’d been right. And somehow, Kate had managed to keep up with him, satisfying all of his adamant desires. She was half-convinced it was the blood bond they shared during their mating ceremony. His blood changed a part of her, not only helping her body adjust to the intense heat of Luxiria, but perhaps also changing more.
It didn’t take her long to orgasm and it was only after her second that Vaxa finally released his seed inside her. Her male had stamina, there was no doubt about it.
Sweating and sated, they both fell back onto the furs and Vaxa purred in contentment, pulling her close. His hands immediately went to her belly and her stomach fluttered in response. Every time he touched her there, she went weak with affection.
It had only been a couple weeks since Privanax, the Luxirian doctor, had confirmed her pregnancy. And already, she could feel how quickly the baby was growing inside her. Privanax had warned her that Luxirian women had only carried for three months—before an airborne virus had rendered them infertile—not nine months like humans. She had a check-up in a few days and they would reassess the baby’s growth. Since a human and alien child was as new to the Luxirians as it was to Kate, no one really knew what to expect or even how long she’d be pregnant.
“As the young grows,” Vaxa started suddenly, “you will need to decrease your work at the archives.”
“What?” Kate said, her soft smile being replaced by a frown. “No.”
“Yes, female,” he grunted, in that gruff authoritative tone of his. They were closely matched in stubbornness and had to compromise on many things. Kate knew that her work would now be one of them or else she’d never hear the end of it.
“Why? It’s not like I’m on my feet all day anyways,” she said, turning her head to look at him.
“I do not want you overexerting yourself,” he said, his hands stroking the bare skin of her stomach. “The pregnancy will already be difficult for your body. You must rest often.”
“Oh? Then if I need to rest so much, that means no more sex,” she challenged.
Vaxa’s lips pressed together. “Tev,” he said. Yes. “I have already discussed this with Privanax. Once the young grows to a certain size, he has advised that we cease our matings.”
Well, shit.
Now she was in a bad mood.
“That’s…impossible,” she said, eyeing him. There was no way either of them would get through a period of time longer than a day without having sex. Since their m
ating ceremony, they hardly went half a day without sex.
“Necessary,” he corrected. “Humans are weaker, physically. Matings may be too strenuous. I will not take any chances when it comes to your health and that of our child.”
Despite everything, her heart fluttered and she leaned forward, pressing a small kiss to his full lips. She’d gone from falling in love with him to head over heels in love with him and she wasn’t even exactly sure when that had happened. She simply knew.
And while he had never voiced his feelings for her, she felt them every single moment she was with him. Literally. The bond bond had created a connection between them that defied all logic. Vaxa was present in her mind, a constant touch. And while they couldn’t read each other’s thoughts, they could feel strong emotions if the other allowed it.
And Vaxa felt very, very strongly about her. But was it love? She didn’t know.
He’d once told her that Luxirians didn’t speak of emotions. His warrior species valued strength and honor. They believed that they said everything they needed to say either during fights or during sex, no words needed. And while he’d tried to be more emotionally open with her, it didn’t come naturally to him and she understood that.
Already, she felt his cock thickening against her belly and she hopped out of bed before he could get any ideas. His gaze was heated as he watched her and Kate let herself admire him—this glorious, glorious male with his dark horns, skin that caught the morning light streaming in through the window, and a warrior’s strong, totally ripped, massive body—before scuttling into the bathroom.
He joined her in the large, swimming pool-sized hot spring that was their bath a moment later, but she managed to fend off his advances as they washed themselves.
“Do you wish to take the first meal here or at the meal hall?” he asked her as they dressed. Kate picked out a flowing, Luxirian-style dress that Keriva had made for her, in a soft orange. The color reminded her of sherbet back on Earth and she gave a sigh, knowing that she would probably never taste iced sweets again. Luxirians weren’t big on dessert unfortunately but what she wouldn’t give for a big bowl of ice cream, especially during the hotter days on this planet.
“Actually, I was going to order breakfast at the archives. Bruxilia found another batch of scrolls that I’d like to start uploading. She said they were written in an old language that even she can’t read very well.”
Vaxa frowned, but nodded. “Remember that I can not pick you up this span. I have a council meeting with the elders and my ambassadors.”
Kate nodded slowly. He’d been worried about something lately. And Kate wasn’t dumb. He’d been calling a lot of council meetings for the past couple weeks but whenever she’d questioned him about it, he told her that everything was fine and that he had everything under control. Which, of course, meant that something was wrong.
“That’s fine, I’m sure Bruxilia won’t mind taking me home,” Kate murmured, reaching out to touch his forearm, running her fingertips over the smooth, hard slightly scaled skin. Little scars were visible over his entire body and Kate had memorized almost every single one. She loved stroking his skin and it calmed Vaxa. After sex, he always purred continually whenever she touched him like that. “Are you sure that there’s nothing wrong, Vaxa?”
His chest rumbled and he stood a little straighter. But he hesitated. Vaxa had promised that he wouldn’t lie to her after she found out about the Luxirian crystal that would be enough fuel to take her back to Earth. So far, she couldn’t tell if he was keeping his promise. She got the strangest sense that he was keeping something big from her.
“Tell me,” Kate murmured, watching the light from the twin Luxirian suns making his skin turn golden. “You know you can tell me.”
Finally, he said, “There is something. But it is not anything that I cannot handle. I do not wish to worry you unnecessarily when I know that it will be dealt with soon.”
Kate let out a short breath through her nostrils. Patience, she reminded herself. She would get it out of him in time. Just the fact that he admitted something was wrong was a start. Her mate was as stubborn as she was.
“Okay,” she said. “I know that something has been bothering you, but I trust that you’ll tell me if it becomes a problem.”
His features softened and she felt affection pulse across their blood bond. “Tev. I promise.”
Kate went onto her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. She let go of their conversation for now, but she would try again later.
* * *
The archives were in the center of the Golden City. The city had been literally carved out of the mountainside hundreds of years ago, according to Vaxa, and was comprised of terraces. There were markets, and shops, and homes, and places where the Luxirians could pray to their Fates, their deities. Kate was continually surprised by how much this foreign alien civilization relied on many things that humans did as well. It made adjusting to life on Luxiria that much easier.
The archive building was different than many of the buildings she’d seen on Luxiria. It was still domed, but unlike the open houses and shops with a plethora of large, open windows, the archive building had two sole windows facing a public square, but they were shielded by a strange material that resembled glass, only a lot thicker. Bruxilia had told her that the air and dust and black sand residue that blew in with the wind ruined some of the old, ancient documents and scrolls. They had to keep the building tight and secure to prevent damage.
The moment that Vaxa had shown her the archives, Kate had fallen in love. It was like a library. Just a strange, alien library. Unlike the jumbled mess that she’d first pictured when Vaxa had told her about her future place of work, the archives were meticulously organized, all of the inhabitants—whether they were old scrolls or books or even stone writings—carefully kept in enclosed shelving units. The building itself looked old from the outside, but the inside was as technologically advanced as the labs that Privanax worked in. That was one of things that Kate liked about Luxiria. They kept their rustic architecture as a reminder of their past, but almost everything else was modern.
Vaxa landed his hovercraft right outside the archives. Some Luxirians lifted a hand to him in greeting, their curious gazes raking over her as they did. It was nothing new. Whenever they went to the meal hall together or when Vaxa had taken her to the public markets for the first time, Luxirians stared and whispered. Kate knew that it would take time for people to not look so flabbergasted at the sight of her, but she would’ve thought that an alien species that had seen their fair share of outsiders coming and going, they wouldn’t stare for so long.
Vaxa had yet to announce her pregnancy, so that couldn’t even be why they stared so much. She’d been pregnant for over a month—ever since their mating ceremony. Kate wouldn’t be surprised if she learned he’d gotten her pregnant the very first time they’d had sex, even though she’d had the Luxirian version of birth control slapped around her wrist. The man was potent.
If Vaxa was bothered by the way his people stared at her, he didn’t show it. He simply kissed her goodbye, telling her to be safe, like he always did, and then she entered her work building.
Bruxilia greeted her as she entered the archives. The smell of paper and parchment, mixed with the natural smell of the mountain stone, which she absolutely loved, wrapped around her and she breathed it in greedily. She swore the smell was like a drug to her.
Bruxilia was an old, hunched, mostly cranky woman. The first time that Bruxilia had seen her, she said to Kate, “You are weird looking,” and then she’d cracked a smile and laughed this rasping sound that echoed around the building. Kate had liked her ever since and surprisingly, they got along great.
Unsurprisingly, she’d learned a lot from Bruxilia. The woman was a gossip, through and through. It was from Bruxilia that she’d learned Privanax, her doctor, was courting one of the few young Luxirian women left, although pretty unsuccessfully it seemed. She learned about gossip from the Luxir
ian outposts, where Vaxa’s ambassadors were stationed, and who was mating who. She also heard brief references to Vaxa’s brother, who Vaxa never liked to talk about. He’d just told her that after his parents’ deaths, he’d left the Golden City to seek out a rogue faction of Luxirians. Kate had tried to get more out of Bruxilia on that subject, but the older woman had gone tight-lipped when she saw how interested Kate had been.
Bruxilia seemed a little more subdued that morning, however. She greeted Kate by asking, “Did you bring me something to eat?”
Kate smiled and shook her head. “No, but I was going to order something from the meal hall.”
The older woman harrumphed, the sound apparently universal. Kate went over the silver screen pad mounted on a column and ordered two breakfasts, pleased that she’d become so adept at using Luxirian technology.
“They have that fruit you like today,” Kate said, knowing that it would brighten Bruxilia’s day.
Another harrumph.
“Should I get started on the scrolls?” Kate asked, eager to see them. Even though she was learning how to speak the Luxirian language, she would never be able to properly form the words. Luxirians did this tongue roll that human tongues simply couldn’t do. But reading Luxirian…well, Kate thought that she’d been making tremendous progress. Bruxilia was a patient teacher whenever they had some free time and Kate ate up the lessons greedily. To be able to read something again…it would be a dream.
“No, not yet. Come sit with me and keep me entertained,” Bruxilia ordered. Kate inwardly sighed, telling herself that she would get her hands on those scrolls eventually, and sat down next to Bruxilia on the cushioned floor. Every building she’d ever been in had these cushions, which usually surrounded a fire pit. Kate and Vaxa’s house had two pits, one in the living room and one in their bedroom. And while the archives didn’t have a fire hearth for obvious reasons, Kate and Bruxilia conducted their reading lessons on the floor, backs and butts to plush, soft pillows.