Viper listened in disbelief as Vox explained about the tools, Riley getting hurt and having to go to medical, and what happened the next morning. He found it impossible to believe that a female could do the things that Vox was saying. Sure, he knew of the females who had betrayed them. He currently had two of his brother’s females locked up. Still, they used their bodies and wiles to fight. They didn’t go shooting, blowing up, or fighting against males. His suspicions that this species might be a deadly opponent that needed to be eliminated was growing. They could be extremely dangerous if they were allowed to run free or even mate with the most powerful members of their species. His thoughts turned to the fact that all five of the Valdier royals were mated to such creatures. Their takeover had already begun.
"You cannot mate with her," Viper said coldly, looking at his older brother with determination. "She needs to be either contained or eliminated."
Vox surged out of his seat, reaching out and grabbing his brother around the throat in a deadly hold. "She is my mate. No one will touch her. No one will harm her. She is your queen, and you will not forget that," he snarled, his teeth growing longer as his cat rebelled against the other male.
"You are not thinking clearly," Viper growled hoarsely, ignoring the tightening on his throat. "I swore to protect our King and our people. I will not let an unknown species threaten either of them."
Vox stared into Viper’s dark green and yellow eyes and swore. "She is no threat."
The door opened just as Vox let Viper go. "My lord, the female has kidnapped Nahuel. She is demanding he take her to an unknown planet."
Viper rubbed his neck and threw his brother a disgusted look. "No threat?"
"Shut up, Viper," Vox grunted out as he headed out the door. "She is always doing things like this."
* * *
Riley wasn’t sure her bad-ass-girl outfit was working. Instead of scaring the men away, they seemed to be multiplying—exponentially. The two she had encountered originally were still following right behind her, and if she wasn’t mistaken, they were purring.
"Will you two go take a hike off a short bridge?" Riley snapped out as she turned and walked backward. "Go on, shoo, get out of here, go fetch a stick or something."
Tadzio grinned as his eyes dropped to the deep V on Riley’s shirt. His eyes were glued to the abundant cleavage showing. His eyes rose to look at her glistening lips.
"The only thing I want to fetch is you," he growled out. "Do you have milk in those?"
Riley was so stunned that she stopped walking backward in shock. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him in disbelief. What was it with men and boobs? She totally could not understand their fascination. They had them too, but that didn’t mean women went around staring at them.
"I know you did not just ask me something so rude!" she snapped out indignantly.
"Yes, he did," Nahuel replied with a grin.
Riley’s mouth snapped shut at the same time as her eyes narrowed dangerously. She rolled her shoulders as her hand slipped to the waistband of her pants. It looked like the mini Taser was going to be used sooner than she thought. She took a seductive step toward them as a small crowd of men gathered around her.
Biting her lower lip, she pushed it out so it pouted as she looked both men over carefully. "Would either one of you two gorgeous hunks happen to know how to fly one of those shuttle thingies?" she asked in her best Marilyn Monroe voice.
Nahuel’s eyes glazed as he watched the voluptuous female walk slowly toward them with a roll of her hips. "I am one of the best pilots on board," he answered in a hoarse voice.
Riley walked up to him and ran her fingernail down along his cheek over to his nose where she tapped it gently. Leaning into him, she let him feel her warm breath on his lips as she answered him. A smile curved her lips as her other hand moved to the belt loop on her pants where she had hidden the wrist cuffs Vox had used on her.
"Well, I guess today is your lucky day," Riley breathed out huskily. "Yes, they do produce milk but only on special occasions."
Nahuel’s eyes rolled in delight just as Riley slapped the wrist cuff on one of his wrists before she ducked under his arm, twisting his arm behind him at the same time as she kicked the back of his knees, dropping him to the floor and slapping the other one on. When Tadzio took a step forward, she lifted her hand and touched his chest, squeezing the trigger on the newly recharged Taser. She would have to remember to thank Tor for the neat little recharger he had given her. It had come in handy.
Tadzio jerked and dropped as spasms went through his body. Riley jerked Nahuel up and pressed the Taser into his lower back in warning. It took a couple of seconds for the men surrounding her to realize what she had done. When they did, they jerked back defensively.
"Now, if you don’t want to enjoy the same level of discomfort as your friend, you will do as you are told. You are now my prisoner. I want you to take me home," Riley said in her normal voice. She grinned at the huge alien she had captured with excitement as she hadn’t really thought it would be that easy. "Come on, chop-chop. I’m not getting any younger."
Tadzio groaned as his body jerked again. "What did you do to him?" Nahuel asked, looking down at his friend with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, he’ll be all right in a little while. I did the same thing to Vox. I think it took about an hour or so. He recovered from that much faster than he did the pepper spray. Poor Tor was miserable for hours afterward, even though he kept telling me he wasn’t. Oh, can you remind me to thank Tor for the charger. My poor Taser would have been dead if not for him," Riley replied cheerfully. "Now, let’s go. I need to get away before the big hairball finds out I’ve escaped from his living quarters."
"You are too late. The ‘hairball’ already knows," Vox growled out loudly as he came down the corridor toward her.
"Great! Just great! I finally have everything going my way and what happens? Busted! That’s what! I swear I hate being the supporting character," Riley grumbled as she tried to shuffle Nahuel so he was between her and Vox. "If I had been the heroine I would have not only been on a supercharged shuttle heading home, I’d have a ton of gold and been eating caviar on little toasted crackers."
Several of the men standing around choked back a chuckle as they listened to Riley talking to herself. They had her surrounded so they knew there was no way she would escape, but they could tell that she really believed she had the upper hand. Now, they watched as the fiercest warrior on their planet faced off with the unusual female.
"Riley, let him go," Vox growled out.
"No! I caught him fair and square. He’s mine!" Riley snapped back.
"If she really has milk, I am totally willing to remain in her captivity," Nahuel offered with a grin.
Vox snarled at Nahuel. "Her milk is mine!"
"Hello! Do you two have any idea how embarrassing it is to be talked about like I am some kind of a milk cow? No one is going to be drinking any milk from me. Now get your minds out of the gutter and shut up already!" Riley’s voice rose at the same time as her temper and the burning inside her rose as the damn thing hiding under her skin threatened to break free again. She looked furiously at Vox. "I want to go home! I captured me a pilot so I should be able to just go."
"I already told you no," Vox snapped back as he took a step closer to her. "What have you done to your hair?" he demanded studying her face and realizing she looked—sexy as hell!
"Why?" Riley asked forgetting that she was supposed to be holding onto Nahuel for a moment and running her hand over the slicked-down strands. "I call this my bad-girl hair. I wear it like this when I go to the bar sometimes. Don’t you like it?"
The moment she released him, Nahuel jerked forward and turned away from her. He grinned as he snapped the restraint on his wrists. He had learned that trick when he was in basic training.
Vox’s deep snarl ripped through the corridor as his cat reacted to the creature wrapped around his mate’s neck. Vox shifted between one jerky step and
the next as his cat took over. He vaguely heard Riley’s scream followed by his brother Viper’s roar to stop, but none of it mattered. The beady-eyed creature stared in challenge, as if daring him to take Riley from him. Vox’s teeth sank into the neck of the creature just as his massive paws knocked Riley over Tadzio’s inert figure. He pulled, listening with satisfaction as the creature came apart in his mouth. The creature tasted foul, but he didn’t stop until he had torn it to tattered pieces. Only then did he realize that Riley wasn’t yelling anymore. It was her heartbreaking sobs that finally broke through the haze of rage coursing through him.
He shifted back to his two-legged form, straddling her as she looked up at him with a quivering lip and quiet sobs choking her. He looked down at her bright blue eyes in confusion. He had done it again. He had destroyed another one of her jackets, only this time she wasn’t laughing.
"What?" he asked as he reached out to touch her lower lip. "I did it again, didn’t I? I messed up."
Riley just looked at him as tears escaped from the corners of her eyes. "I hate you! It was the last thing she gave me, and you ruined it," she whispered as her lower lip quivered uncontrollably. "I knew she loved me when she gave me this jacket for my birthday, and you ruined it."
"Who?" Vox asked quietly, ignoring the men who were silently helping Tadzio to his feet.
"My little sister, Tina," Riley answered as she turned her face away from him and closed her eyes, shutting him out. "I miss my family," she said quietly.
Viper stared down at the female who had seemed so different and realized that maybe he had been a little harsh in his judgment of her. Right now, he wanted to promise her whatever in the gods she wanted. He wondered if this was what his brother felt whenever he was near her. There was something about her that pulled at something deep inside him. He shook his head. It had to be a trick. Surely this was part of their power. He watched as Vox gently pulled his mate into his arms, muttering words of apology and promises he would make it up to her as soon as he could.
Chapter 17
Two days later, Vox was ready to start another war. He wanted—needed—to kill something or someone. Once Riley had gotten over being so upset, she had become very, very angry. She swore she would drive him to the brink of insanity if he didn’t return her home. She had started singing a song that was about to drive him to that point. Out of desperation, he had contacted Creon and demanded he tell him the location of Earth. A rueful smile curved his lips as he thought of his mate’s tenacity. It was one of the things he loved about her. She had finally worn herself out that first night and fallen asleep. The problem was she started again the moment she woke up and had been working on him for two solid days. That was when he made up his mind he would compromise with her. He would not take her back to her world, but he would bring a bit of her world to her.
"I will be going to Earth after we have taken care of Raffvin," Creon responded quietly. "My mate needs closure on the life she had before. I owe this to her and to us so that we can move forward."
"I want you to take Viper with you," Vox stated. "I want him to bring Riley’s sister and Grandma Pearl back to her. She misses them. I cannot return with her to her world. There are still traitors among my people I need to take care of. He will go in our place to her world for them."
Creon’s eyebrows rose. He remembered the young Sarafin royal as being a bit of a hot head, not unlike himself. He wondered how Viper would handle being around females who were so different from what he was used to. His lips curved as he thought of what his own mate’s reaction would be to the news he planned to return with her to her world to say good-bye.
"I will talk to Kelan. He has returned with his mate Trisha to retrieve her father," Creon shared. "I will let him know that Viper will be joining us. From what Mandra said the last time I talked with him, there might be a few more. Adalard, Bahadur, and Zebulon wanted to go as well. So far the only one resisting is Ha’ven. He states he has enough females to choose from and doesn’t need any more."
"Viper is only going to retrieve the females, not mate with one of them," Vox stated firmly. "I will brief him. He will need to spend time with Riley so he knows where to begin his search."
"So, how is it going with your mate? You look a bit—tired," Creon said with a grin.
"She has most of the crew ready to throw me in one of the detention cells," Vox replied just as the door opened and Viper walked in with a dark scowl on his face. "I have to go. I will contact you again in a few hours."
"Good luck, my friend," Creon said with a laugh as he signed off.
"We should be within range of Raffvin’s hidden base by tomorrow," Viper said, walking over to the wall replicator and ordering a drink.
"Good, I am ready to be done with this," Vox said turning to study his brother. "I have a mission for you."
Viper turned with his drink in his hand and raised his eyebrow at the edge of authority in his brother’s voice. He only used that tone when he was giving him an order that he knew Viper wasn’t going to like. Viper took a slow drink before he responded.
"What is it?" Viper asked, moving over to the conference table and sitting down across from Vox.
"I need you to return to my mate’s planet and retrieve her Grandma Pearl and her younger sister, Tina," Vox said forcefully.
Viper sat back and gazed at his brother with a frigid look. "Why send me? You could send another warrior. I am not an escort. I’m an assassin if you need one or a spy should the need arise," he replied in an emotionless voice.
"I want someone I can trust," Vox replied softly. "I am not asking, Viper. I am ordering you to go. Creon will be returning to his mate’s planet. Kelan is already there. I will have Riley share everything she can with you to help you."
"Do you trust her? What if it is a trap?" Viper asked, slamming his hand down angrily on the table. "Have these females taken all your wits from you and the Valdier?"
Vox growled low, the sound rumbling in warning that Viper was treading on thin ice. "Do not question my sanity unless you are willing to challenge me for my position. You may be my brother, but I will not let you or anyone else question my leadership or my mate’s loyalty to me."
Viper’s lips tightened. "Loyal to you—but what of your people?" he snarled back.
Vox stood up, towering over his brother who was still sitting. "She chose five mates when she should have chosen just one. She did it to protect the males who were left from being used as food. She was prepared to die even as she freed all the prisoners on that mining asteroid. She would have if I hadn’t stopped her. She is my mate, Viper. Accept it. She is your queen, and you will not disrespect her—ever. It is your duty to protect her at all cost, even if it means with your life."
Viper set his barely touched drink down and stood up stiffly. "As you wish, my lord," he said formally, bowing his head in stiff respect. "I will get the necessary information from my queen and prepare to leave as soon as our strike on Raffvin is complete."
Vox watched as his younger brother turned and strode out of the room, leaving him alone. He rolled his shoulders in an effort to ease the tight muscles in them. If he had known having a mate was going to be so much work, he might have thought twice about it. That was until images of Riley’s flashing eyes, the twinkle in them when she got into things she shouldn’t, her wild mass of hair twirling as she laughed or walked, and her gazing up at him with burning eyes flared through his mind. He wondered how he was going to survive until she forgave him. His eyes lit up as he thought of how he had left her sleeping just a short time again. Maybe it was time to wake her up. If he kept her too tired to argue and too satisfied to be mad, maybe he could win her love.
Finally! His cat hissed.
Oh, shut up, he grunted as he felt his body react to his thoughts. He was going to go claim his mate over and over again until she couldn’t think to be upset anymore. Then, he would tell her about Viper going for her family. That should make her forgive him once and for all. With the
hope that this plan worked, he stood up and strode determinedly out the door heading for his living quarters and Riley.
* * *
Riley groaned as waves of heat flared inside her. Her skin tingled where it touched the hot flesh rubbing against it. She was having the most delicious dream. A hiss escaped her as sharp teeth nipped at first one nipple, then the other until both throbbed and ached for more. Her legs fell apart at the first tug on her neatly trimmed silk curls. A loud cry burst from her as thick fingers rubbed her clit, making her slick and swollen with their determined search.
"Vox," she whispered sleepily.
"Yes, my fiery little mate," Vox replied as he ran his lips down over her softly rounded belly. "You were made for loving, Riley" he groaned as he tugged on the silken curls. "I love touching you and how responsive you are to me."
"That feels so good," she moaned as she bit her lip as sharp waves of heat flooded her. "You better not stop if you want to live."
Vox chuckled as he gently opened her to his lips, nipping at her engorged clitoris and purring as her body reacted to his with undeniable passion.
"I wouldn’t even think of it," he responded huskily as her scent overwhelmed him and his cat.
He was going to have to tell her before too much longer about the changes occurring within her body. His cat could not wait much longer. He buried his tongue inside her, lapping at the delicious moisture as it flowed over it. A loud purr escaped him as his cat responded to his mate being close. He moaned when Riley lifted her legs and draped them over his shoulders, pulling him closer. Her body moved in increasing agitation as she came closer to her climax, and he increased the pressure, wanting to taste her release.
He slid his hands under the soft flesh of her ass and lifted her so he could drink deeper from her flowing well. Her loud cries told him she was enjoying what he was doing. He spread his fingers out, squeezing her ass as he nipped her swollen nub with his sharp teeth and was rewarded when her body exploded over his tongue.
"Yes!" she hissed out, bunching the covers of the bed in her fisted hands. "Oh, yes!" she moaned, shuddering and letting her legs fall weakly to the mattress.
Captured Boxed Set: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys Who Will Capture Your Heart Page 100