by Zoey Draven
“Privanax, I need to speak with Beks,” Cruxan said.
Privanax inclined his head, casting her a look, and left the room.
Why was she suddenly so nervous?
Cruxan crossed his arms over his chest, managing to take up almost the entire medical bay with his sheer bulk. Were all Luxirians built like absolute tanks?
“Is this the ‘what are your intentions with my friend’ talk?” she tried to joke when he didn’t say anything.
His gaze narrowed in what she now recognized as Luxirian confusion. “What?”
“Never mind,” Beks mumbled, her gaze straying to Lihvan. “What did you want to talk about?”
He cut right to the chase. “Do you know about Luxirian mates, Beks? Did he explain it to you on Jalun?”
Her fingers twitched, heart aching. She remembered Lihvan finally telling her what luxiva meant…fated one. It had hit her. Hard.
She’d completely spiraled out of control for him in that moment. He’d been dying and she realized that love had very much entered a part of their equation right then.
“Yes,” she said softly. “He did.”
“There are four kinds of partnerships on Luxiria,” Cruxan continued, like she hadn’t answered. “The first, mating partners…or pleasure partners. Not for the purpose of producing children, as Breeding partners are. Then, there are joined mates, individuals who chose to live their lives together until the span they enter the blackworld. Finally, fated mates. The most rare partnership on Luxiria and the most special because it combines all three forms. Pleasure, breeding, but most importantly…choosing.”
“What’s your point?” she asked.
“I heard him,” Cruxan stated slowly. “I heard him call you luxiva. Back on Jalun.”
Beks swallowed, tears springing into her eyes. Jeeze, she was a crying mess lately. She’d never cried so much in her life than in the past week.
“I know what I am to him,” she said softly. “He told me.”
Cruxan’s head tilted back, studying her. She couldn’t get a read on this guy. One moment, he seemed kind, the next…closed off.
“The span after our planned arrival onto Luxiria, a vessel will be departing. All the human females from the Pit that wish to return to Earth will be on that vessel. We offer safe passage to your home planet, a chance to resume your life with your family and friends,” Cruxan said. He walked to the door of the medical bay and Beks looked at him with her heart in her throat. He glanced back at her and said, “I suppose what I wish to know is whether you will be on it or not.”
With those parting words and with one last cursory look at his friend, the Luxirian left. But his question remained inside the room, lingering, filling out the empty, quiet space.
She’d been asking herself that same question for the better part of the past two days, when she wasn’t fussing and worrying over Lihvan.
Beks imagined it. She imagined boarding that space ship once they reached Luxiria. She imagined turning around and seeing Lihvan wave her off, knowing that she would never see him again, knowing that she would return to her life on Earth.
She missed her home. She missed the city she’d grown to love and her apartment that she’d painstakingly decorated over the years. She missed the guys at work who always taped silly little jokes onto her three desktop screens. She missed her morning coffee shop runs and the ridiculous amount of aisles in American grocery stores and she missed driving around, blasting music, singing at the top of her lungs.
She missed her best friend, Kate, who wouldn’t be there anymore, who had either been kidnapped by aliens and auctioned off to God knows what or she was…gone for good. It was something Beks couldn’t think about.
She thought about her mom, in her home town, working at the local deli. She thought of their yearly calls, just to check up on one another and she wondered if her mother had ever regretted the way their relationship had turned out, like Beks always had. Beks wondered if she was lonely or if she was happy.
She looked down at Lihvan and watched the soft rising of his bare chest. She traced the defined muscles, the scars she’d come to memorize. The sure, steady pounding of his heart reassured her, calmed her.
Then she let herself imagine a life with Lihvan…the good, the bad, the difficult.
By the end of it, the truth became clear to her, a truth that had begun to shape and take form on Jalun. It was a gut feeling, something that had driven her her entire life and had never let her down when it mattered.
She’d never taken the easy road…so why start now?
* * *
Lihvan woke that evening, when the space ship was quietly humming along as the stars seemed to part for them.
One moment, she was staring out into space—literally—through the tiny window in the medical bay and the next, she noticed that Lihvan’s eyes were on her.
“Lihvan,” she gasped, scrambling over the side of her cot to his side. “You’re awake!”
“Luxiva,” he rasped, his voice scratchy and guttural. His eyes tracked over her, slowly, no doubt still a little groggy from the drugs Privanax had pumped into him. “You are unharmed?”
Beks gave a soft laugh from sheer relief. It figured that the first thing he would want to know after a deadly infection, after battling a monster three times his size, after bleeding out on Jalun…was about her well-being.
“Lihvan,” she breathed, leaning over him to lean her forehead against his. His skin was warm, but his usual warmth, not the sickly heat from the infection. His fever had broken only hours after Privanax had started working on him and for that, Beks would always be thankful for the doctor. “I’m fine…you’re fine. Cruxan found us. Your markers led him right to us and we’re on a ship heading for Luxiria.”
Lihvan’s eyes slid shut and he let out a shuddering breath. “Good. That is good, Beks.”
“Good?” she asked, smiling. That was her alien. “I’d say it’s better than good. You really scared me!”
His eyes flashed open. “I am sorry that I could not protect you better, female.”
Beks shook her head, disbelief coursing through her. “Lihvan, you—you killed that beast when you were delirious and weakened from the infection. You not only protected me, but you saved me. You saved both of us.”
“I should never have even put you in a situation like that.”
She sighed, running her fingers through his hair. It was tangled, but if he was feeling up to it, she could help him bathe. She’d only been able to wipe him down since Privanax didn’t want to move him until his body healed itself.
“You’re…impossible,” she murmured, but affection burst in her chest.
Her eyes ran over his body. He was mostly nude, except for small brief-like underwear that molded over the area she’d come to know very, very well. The wound on his side, the viscous bite he’d received from the monster was already closed, a scar beginning to form. Considering what it looked like just two days ago, she finally believed Lihvan when he said Luxirians healed quickly.
When she looked at his arm, it was healed as well. Privanax had cut away the rough moss thread that they’d threaded it closed with and instead used a laser to mend the skin.
Lihvan had been right. Infection on Jalun had most likely been inevitable for a injury like that. She was just so thankful that they’d been found in time.
Cruxan took that moment to appear, the door swishing open.
“Brother,” he nodded, walking to the foot of his bed. A term of endearment, Beks had come to realize, even though they weren’t related. “Privanax’s readings indicated your increase in heart rate. I figured you had finally done us all a favor and woken.”
Lihvan’s chest huffed. “I understand I should be worshipping the ground you walk on for finding us.”
Cruxan cracked a smile easily and Beks was surprised to see it. “That would be a fit payment, if only you were the type of male to be brought to his knees.”
“Perhaps I have been,” Li
hvan murmured. Beks looked at him in surprise, a flush coloring her cheeks, and Cruxan’s gaze cut to her before returning to her alien.
“I am glad you are well, brother,” Cruxan said, gruffly. It was obvious to Beks that the two Luxirians had a history and knew each other very well. “Vaxa’an sent me immediately when we received your distress call. I just wish I had reached you with more haste.”
“You did reach us. That is all that matters. You have my eternal gratitude.”
“We are passing through the Nerolla territory,” Cruxan said.
“What does that mean?” Beks questioned.
Lihvan answered her, “It means we will reach Luxiria by the morning.”
“So soon?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Tev,” Cruxan said, jerking his head. “Vaxa’an has had your dwelling prepared in the Golden City. You may rest there and return to Kroratax after…” he trailed off, waving his hand in the air.
Lihvan’s gaze slid to her and Beks’ chest ached at his expression.
“Thank you, brother,” Lihvan said quietly.
Privanax entered just then, breaking the sudden tension that had fallen in the medical bay. With surgeon-like efficiency, Privanax gave him a full exam, scanning his body from head-to-toe with his instruments to ensure that no infection remained and that his wounds had healed properly.
By the end of it, Privanax gave them the all clear, unhooked Lihvan from the machines, and her alien thanked him as well.
“We will give you some peace,” Cruxan said. “Your quarters are prepared if you wish to rest there. We will be home shortly.”
With that, both Luxirians left and it was just the two of them. Silence stretched between them as Lihvan swung his long, muscular legs over the bed. He stood, while Beks hovered anxiously, but he seemed steady on his feet, strong. It took him a few moments to collect his bearings but then he said, “Come.”
She took his hand and they both left the medical bay, barefoot, practically naked. He walked them down the hall and took many twisting turns until they finally landed in front of a door. Even though this wasn’t the same ship that Beks had originally been on, the room inside was almost identical, except this one had a small window as well.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, when the door closed.
“Nix,” he said. “You?”
Beks shook her head and then she went to him, tenderly wrapping her arms around his torso, afraid for a moment that she might hurt him. But he crushed her to him, their bodies sticking together like glue, like he never wanted to let her go.
Tears welled up in her eyes and she buried her face in his chest. She didn’t know how long they stood like that, but finally, Lihvan murmured down to her. “Let us wash. And then rest. We have a busy span tomorrow.”
They entered the shower stall in the washroom that Beks remembered. The layout was the same as the other ship and she watched as Lihvan got the water running with just a few clicks on the silver pad installed on the door.
They stripped off, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Her alien warrior was still moving a little slowly, but unbelievably, she saw that his cock was hard.
“Does that thing ever go down?” she teased softly when they stepped underneath the hot spray.
Lihvan gave a soft grunt. “Nix, not around you.” He tilted his face back and Beks’ eyes tracked every drop that ran down his face, that wetted his dark brown hair into an inky black. It was stuck to his broad shoulders, but slicked back, it seemed to sharpen his masculine, strong features.
Beks went on her tip toes, pressing her breasts against his chest, and kissed him. Lihvan responded and the kiss was so sweet that it brought even more tears to her eyes. She thought that she’d be completely tapped out right about then, but apparently, her body had been hoarding tears for years, only to open the floodgates now.
That feeling came back to her, the one that had been growing and growing until it was an unstoppable force inside her, hard to contain. Instead of voicing those words, that she’d never said to any man before, she whispered against him, “I—I don’t know what I would’ve done if you…if you’d left me.”
They didn’t say anything else. Lihvan showed her how much he cared for her as he gently washed her body, running his warm hands over her flesh. When he massaged her scalp, she moaned and tilted her head back. She wanted to gasp out loud with each new inch he touched.
She did the same for him once she was cleaned, slowly exploring every last part of him. He kneeled as she washed his hair and rinsed out the soap and she felt him brush his surprisingly soft, full lips just below her breasts.
It was…overwhelming. His tenderness for her. Her feelings for him.
When he stood, he whispered down to her in a rumble, “Are you needing, female?”
Beks gave him a soft smile but nuzzled more closely into his arms. “Always, with you. But I just want to stand here. I just want to be here with you.”
Lihvan seemed to understand what she was asking for…and they both did just that. She savored it.
And even though she didn’t know what the next day would bring, with Lihvan at her side, she knew she would be ready for it.
EIGHTEEN
Lihvan took a deep, steadying breath, trying to bring peace to his mind and body as they docked in the vessel bay on Luxiria.
He was home.
He had his luxiva with him.
It was everything that he had ever wanted. A mate, a home, a feeling of belonging and rightness to ease the restlessness in his soul.
And his Beks would be leaving him the next span, back to her own home.
His muscles trembled, his Instinct rebelling at the thought, but he reigned the beast in. Control. He had always had control. If he didn’t, he would act dishonorably. He would be tempted to chain her to his sleeping platform, at his dwelling in Kroratax, and demand that she stay. Forever. She would grow to resent him and he would be no better than the Krevorags that had taken her for the Pit.
Beyond her departure, he hadn’t made plans. The thought of her leaving was too terrible, too gut-wrenching, that he couldn’t think of anything after that. He’d noticed that Cruxan had been watching him more carefully this span, as if wondering what he was going to do. Most Luxirians, if they lost their mate, took their own lives. He hated the look of grief that had begun to enter his friend’s gaze, as if his death was imminent.
Perhaps it was.
When they departed from the docking bay after the vessel was secured and they took their first look at the vast expanse of Luxiria, Beks gasped beside him.
He wondered what his home looked like to her. He’d come home to this view many times throughout his life and while it was always a beautiful sight, it was a familiar one.
The sky was shades of peach and pink as the twin suns began their ascent, heralding a new span. The docking bay was high up on a cliff of one of the facev, the Luxirian mountains, which overlooked a deep valley. The facevs encircled it and the black sand that covered most of their planet glimmered and reflected the suns’ golden light.
Beyond that, Lihvan saw the Golden City. Carved out of the tallest and most prominent facev, it was home to the Prime Leader and his mate, and the central hub of their culture. It was a terraced city that stretched long and wide. He saw Vaxa’an’s dwelling at the very top, his own dwelling was just one terrace below, as was most of the Ambassadors’ temporary homes.
Still, even in all of its beauty, Lihvan ached for his Kroratax.
“Is that…” Beks trailed off, eyes wide as she took in Luxiria. “Is that the Golden City? The one you told me about?”
“Tev,” he murmured down to her, his hand clasped in hers. A purely human gesture, but it seemed to comfort his female, and he would soak up her presence for as long as he could.
She went quiet and then said, “It’s beautiful, Lihvan. I—I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this.”
“My dwelling is on the second terrace from th
e top,” he told her, pointing. Even from this distance, he could make out his door, even though it looked like a speck. “We will rest there this night.”
Before the inevitable tomorrow, he thought. One last night with his luxiva. It would never be enough.
“Which direction is Kroratax?” she asked quietly, the question surprising him.
He turned and pointed across the vast valley, beyond the plains of the Ravrax’tor, and the forests of Jaraxalla. “That way.”
Beks went quiet and Cruxan came up to them.
“Vaxa’an wishes to see you, brother,” he said quietly, in Luxirian rather than in English. Very few were allowed to call the Prime Leader by his given name and especially in the presence of others. “He wishes to meet your female as well.”
Lihvan shot him a look. “You told him about her?”
“Yes,” he said, completely unapologetic.
Now, Vaxa’an would look at him with pity and knowing.
Lihvan clenched his jaw, but nodded. “At his dwelling?”
“Yes. There is a hovercraft waiting for you.”
He jerked his head in a nod and led his female away. His body was restored and he felt his strength in every bone and sinew of muscle, but his mind was heavy and sluggish. He wished to take his female to his dwelling and selfishly keep her there, yet he could not disobey his Prime Leader and close friend.
Perhaps Vaxa’an would be able to help him clear his mind, to help him accept what was coming and help him mentally prepare.
Beks let out a little squeal of surprise when he sent power flowing into the hovercraft, raising it off the ground, sand billowing beneath them.
Once she got over her surprise, she clutched his arm and peered over the side. They weren’t far off the ground, but they would be soon.
Her eyes twinkled and a smile lit up her face, excitement making her cheeks flush. “This is amazing.”
Lihvan’s brow furrowed and he froze for a brief second. Because for a moment, he thought about the possibility of convincing her to stay. Would she come to love Luxiria as much as he did? Could she?