by Rena Marks
A bullet? What was that?
She fumbled around in the box again, and pulled something else out, tearing at the wrapper with her teeth. A long device with a metal spear on one end came at me.
“Are you kidding, mate? What the hell is that primitive contraption?”
“It’ll be okay. This is to numb you so I can dig that bullet out.”
Dig the bullet out? What the hell? How did people on this planet survive? I emitted a series of croaks as I tried to tell her—with missing the throat implant—that my body would push the foreign object out as soon as I shifted into my scales. I didn’t want to do it yet because I’d scare her.
“Now hold still,” my mate said, and pinched my arm with something. Then, the world went black.
For a moment, I was groggy when I woke. I wondered where I was, what happened, why I was sleeping, when it all came back at once.
My mate did this to me. Incapacitated the royal warrior of the planet Nisibia.
Where was she?
I pushed my fingers along the wound on my side. It was bandaged again, but it felt healed from the sleep I just had. Good Goddess, I wished I could speak to my mate about the differences between us. Gingerly, I sat. Everything felt fine, so I climbed out of the back of the jeep. The sun was gone from the sky, and it was much cooler than the daylight had been.
Where was she?
I used the same sense I turned on earlier to shield her when she carried my strength. Concentrating, I tried to feel out her location. The sense pinpointed her exactly. Straight ahead, in the creek—she frolicked like a child in the water, the waves splashing against the rocks. I wandered that way.
Not a child. Her long, white-blonde hair looked darker while wet, and flowed down her back into a long V, her waist narrowing into the heart-shaped globes of her ass covered by the water.
But her back, her naked back. My heart quickened in my chest.
Her skin looked smooth and supple, and glowed in the moonlight. If she turned just slightly, I would see the curve of one full breast.
There it was. It glimmered, a different color than the rest of her body. A pale globe tipped with pale pink.
A feeling of possessiveness flushed over me. How could I have thought her a cockroach? This beautiful, sensuous creature was mine.
She turned and saw me, and sunk deeper into the water, covering her delicious nakedness.
“You’re awake,” she called. “Sorry about that. The shot was supposed to numb you. Apparently your physiology is different and it put you under instead.”
Ironic. My people were immune to their drugs to knock us unconscious. But a numbing medication did the trick?
I stripped my clothing off.
“You shouldn’t come in here,” she warned. “Not with an open wound. We don’t want to get it infected.”
I ignored her, stepping into the water anyway. I was very aware that my mate tried hard not to notice my rising cock. She was welcome to look as much as she wanted. It was hers.
“I imagine you want to wash up, too,” she murmured. “No telling how long they had you trapped in the dungeon.”
I unraveled the strange dressing she had on my side. The wound was gone. Apparently I’d shifted my skin while I slept.
“Holy shit, that’s healed?” My mate came at me, but suddenly seemed to be bothered by exposing her luscious body and retreated, sinking under the water.
“You do not need to be shy,” I said, knowing she couldn’t understand me. “We will soon be very comfortable with each other.”
“Your skin is beautiful,” she complimented.
“I remember,” I said. “You enjoyed running your tongue along my scales.” As much as I loved tasting her smoothly tanned, light brown skin as well. I just had to find a way to communicate to her our status.
“I caught some fish earlier. We can smoke them. Are you ready to learn how?”
I nodded my head, hoping she would understand the universal affirmative sign.
“Oh, my God. You nodded. Can you understand me?”
I nodded again.
She took a deep breath. “You can understand me, but you just can’t speak the language?”
I shook my head, and pointed to my throat.
She didn’t even notice her exposure this time as she stood up to study the hardened, scarred scale smack dab in the middle of my throat.
Droplets of water highlighted her tight, pink nipples, and glistened on her white globes. I longed to trace one with my tongue. My cock hardened even more, and my sac tightened.
“Not gonna happen, cowboy,” she said, taking a step back. “Look, we did it once. I was drugged. Sorry about that. But right now, I need to figure out why the military wants you. I had assumed you were one of the bunch who landed here, but they had you locked up. Something else is going on.”
I shook my head no. Hell, I didn’t even look like the Praydians. What was she thinking?
“Come on,” she said. “Let’s cook our dinner. We’re going to be walking early before the sun even comes up.”
I washed myself quickly while she waded ashore and dressed. I kept my eye on her the whole time. I was beginning to suspect she had no idea I could see in the dark and thought her comfortably hidden. My suspicions were verified when my mate wandered a bit further and squatted near a bush to relieve herself.
I smiled, enjoying watching such an intimate act. Then I left the water, dressing in my clothes. She approached and showed me to another small clearing where she’d packed a few twigs and leaves earlier, probably while there was still light outside. She used her necklace to strike flame, and then poked two sea creatures onto a long branch to roast.
“Do you like fish?” she asked.
I shrugged. It had been an ugly creature before she’d chopped off the head. It had huge, empty eyes that stared at you no matter where you stood. But, then again, I’d eaten uglier.
“Well, it’s all we have tonight. Normally I’d have foraged for vegetables or a small rabbit, but I didn’t want to leave you alone for long.”
I felt a quiver in my belly and then a sinking sensation. My mate probably didn’t want to lose the insurance she had in me. I was more valuable than gold.
The cooked flesh was beginning to smell good. I did think this was something I would be able to eat. It smelled more appetizing than the canned meat fed to prisoners. Even now, the cold, greasy flesh in a can made my stomach roil.
“I guess I’ll be the one to talk since I can’t understand you. My dad and Ria were after a chemical that’s used for bombs, though we also needed it to make ice. It’s called ammonium nitrate. But it was a trap, and they were captured. Everyone else on our smuggling team got away, but I knew I had to come free them before they were shipped out to alien headquarters. You see, we suspect the aliens eat us.”
She looked up to see my reaction. The flames from the fire flickered, casting her eyes in a light, golden glow. I didn’t waver in my expression, because she was correct. The Praydians did enjoy an intelligent mammal’s taste.
She sighed. “You don’t look shocked.”
I shrugged.
“Do you eat people?”
Only little girls. Instead, I allowed my gaze to grow wolfish as I stared at her breasts.
“Hey!” she snapped, covering her breasts as she flipped the sea creature over. Its skin popped and crackled. “None of that, pervert.”
Pervert? Another reason why I had to figure out a way to communicate with her. Somehow I had to convey that—even with our differences—we belonged to each other. There was no escaping that.
“Fish looks done,” she said, setting the stick-probed creatures aside to cool. She carefully avoided looking at me, and I took no offense. I realized it was simply because these humans could not see very well in the dark.
My poor mate. Their people had no defenses whatsoever and from what I’d seen, they easily sold each other out. It would take a lot of work to get this planet re-aligned, but it was wh
at my people did.
She was blowing on the sea-creature, and picking it apart with her fingers. Steam wafted up, and she frequently jerked her fingers back to keep them from burning.
“Here, mate,” I said.
She looked up, and I deliberately placed my hand on the bare skin of her thigh. Her pink lips parted on a gasp…or a sigh. But I merely pulled her small knife from where she kept it strapped to her leg. She accepted the knife.
“Forgot I had it,” she mumbled. She was probably more embarrassed that she’d held it to my throat.
She continued to pick open the flesh, back to allowing steam to escape. She did the same to the other and then presented one to me.
“It has lots of tiny, sharp bones. They can get caught in your throat. You’ll have to be careful and hold it against the flame of the fire to see, and then slide the meat from the bones, like this. See?”
I could see very well, but I had no way of telling her that. Quietly, we ate, picking our meat like scavengers. The fish was tasty, or I was simply starved. For the first time, I truly studied my mate. She was thin and would look good with extra curves. But I had a feeling food was scarce on this planet. She acted as though it was perfectly normal to live out under the stars, so perhaps this was how her people lived. Like—cavemen.
I finished my meal easier, considering I had vision whereas she struggled. I gently took her fish from her hands.
“Oh,” she said, her voice tinged with surprise. “Are you still hungry? Yes, take mine. I’m sure I eat less than you. I would have caught more, but it wasn’t easy without the proper supplies. I had no net, no pole. Still, these are good sized…”
Her voice stopped when I popped a piece of smoky flesh between her lips.
She chewed, looking confused that I would feed her. I stored that piece of information. I knew humans took care of each other. Her seeking her father and friend proved that. But she seemed surprised that I would feed her. I waited until she finished chewing and then gave her another piece.
Her full, pink lips shined slightly, and I fought back a groan. This small female had no idea what she did to me. She had no idea of how she raised my protective instincts, or how much I desired her.
“I’m getting full,” she said. “Let’s share the rest.”
As I suspected. She was not used to eating much. Still, I would need my strength, especially when I gave her mine and had nothing but the human equivalent, which felt like I could tear paper but nothing else. I had every intention of seducing my mate tonight.
We finished her meal, and I took the heads and bones down to the river to dispose of the bodies naturally. While I was gone, Sian buried the fire.
“We’re not going back to the jeep to sleep,” she said. “In case the military have found it and are trying to trap us. I took the medicine chest, and there’s nothing else we’d need from the jeep anyway. Sorry, there’s a smallish blanket, but we can share it. If nothing else, it should keep the bugs away.”
I couldn’t tell her the bugs would have no reason to even attempt penetrating my scales. No, instead I would share her tiny blanket, because it would be a perfect excuse to cuddle with my human mate.
“Come,” I said, and pulled her to her feet. If the men who hunted us had any sort of heat tracking devices, sleeping next to the fire would not be the smartest of plans.
I lifted her into my arms and trudged through the brush, making our way to a reasonably softer spot under a tree. I would take the bottom, so my mate could rest comfortably on top of me.
I arranged her small blanket over us and she held her breath. I laid back and closed my eyes. Against my chest, she slowly relaxed.
It made me smile. My mate was not unaffected by me. I could feel her awareness before her deeper breathing signaled sleep.
I sighed. She was exhausted, and for that reason alone, I didn’t stick to my plan of seduction.
When I woke, the sun was not up over the horizon, but I could tell the sky was lightening. Her small fist was curled into mine, the other cushioned between her cheek and my chest.
I began to rub her back to wake her.
“We should get moving,” she whispered, after enjoying a few minutes of massage. She stretched and left my warmth. She folded the blanket, and placed it back in the canvas bag she still had from the jeep. She pulled two bottles from it. “This is some liquid nutrition.”
I popped the top and tasted it. It was slightly salty and slightly sweet at the same time. We drank our bottles, and she placed the empties back in the bag. Why, I couldn’t imagine. We began to walk.
It was slow going since my mate didn’t have the best night vision. The sun didn’t take long to rise. It began with a pink glow, growing brighter until gold raced across the horizon. The heat soon followed.
My mate looked excited when we came across small green plants. “Mint,” she exclaimed. “We use this, along with parsley, to freshen the breath. We have some toothbrushes at home, but I didn’t see any in their medic kits. Too bad.”
She grabbed great handfuls, and handed me some. She popped some of the leaves into her mouth, and chewed. I did the same. It was a pleasant taste. We continued our walk.
And we walked. And walked. Finally, I had an idea of why my mate was so thin.
“We could stop for lunch,” she said. “But we’re almost there. We’ll just snack.”
She pulled small round things from trees, and took a bite. The fruit was pleasantly sweet, yet tart and juicy. Crisp. We snacked on them as we continued to march. Finally, she held me back with one arm. We were among the last grove of trees.
“We live there,” she said. “In the underground mine. But we’ll wait. We’ll make sure no one is following us.”
Then she turned to me, and I ignored the warning my gut gave me.
Instead my cock took over my brain when she deliberately licked her lips.
Chapter Eight
I was so eager for her touch, I practically fell into her. We sank to the ground.
“I’ve been waiting so long for this,” I said.
She didn’t understand. I could tell by the confusion in her eyes, yet she needed me as much as I needed her. Her hands were everywhere, touching me, caressing my muscles, dropping my clothing.
My mate. My mate was finally in my arms. She rubbed her small body on mine and I groaned at the exquisite sensation.
“You wish for my touch?” I asked her, nuzzling the spot behind her ear. She gave the sweetest gasp.
She turned her face to me and pulled my head down to hers. I growled before capturing her lips. She was so sexy, so feminine, a perfect foil to my masculinity.
My queen.
I was on my hands and knees next to her. Her hair was down and my hands were all over her, feeling her pert breasts, her jutting nipples. Somehow we managed to pull my clothing off between frantic kisses. I shifted, gripped her thighs and parted them.
My entire hand covered her sex. She gasped as the barest tip of my finger slipped inside to test her readiness. She coated my finger with her slick juice.
Her eyes widened as she watched me lower my face until my breath fanned across her lower stomach. One hand fisted her shirt, shoving it up until she’d bared her breasts.
I kissed her ribs as she pushed the cotton of her thin shirt up over her head.
“What are—Oh!”
I nipped her with my fangs. It didn’t break the skin, but was enough to send a jolt of sensation hurtling through her nerve endings. I reached down to cup her between her legs. My fingers teased the seam of her cunt before one of them pressed down on her clit.
Her hands rose to grip my shoulders as I trailed kisses over her bare breast. When I reached her nipple, I sucked the hardened peak inside my mouth. I wasn’t gentle, but neither was she as I suckled her. Passion hit hard and fast, and we were frantic.
“Yes,” she moaned as she spread her thighs wider to encourage me.
My finger slid from her clit to the opening of her pussy
. I pushed into her with my middle finger slowly and slid it in and out. Her hips moved, unable to stay still. Her fingernails dug into my shoulders, and I tore my mouth away from her breast.
“You’re wet for me already.” My voice was a growl. My finger slowly withdrew from her body.
“Don’t stop.”
“Never,” I growled. I gripped her hips, rolled her over and jerked her ass up in the air until she was on her knees. I moved behind her and watched my cock slowly enter her body.
She moaned and clawed the ground. My hold on her hips kept her in place and I adjusted my legs to the outside of her’s, pinning her there as I drove my cock deep. I eased my hold on her hip, bent forward and covered her body with mine as I curled over her back. I pulled out from her body before my hips slammed hard against her ass as I plunged back in. She dug her face into her arm and cried out in pleasure each time I pumped. I moved fast, fucking her hard enough that it nearly drove her flat to the ground. When I sensed she was about to collapse, I slid my arm to encircle her waist to hold her up.
I wanted to roar in a heightened frenzy. My balls slapped against her clit and my ragged breath matched hers. She was shifting, wanting a new angle, so I adjusted my hips and gave it to her.
Her moans grew louder.
I kept fucking her until she lost it. The climax struck, and she cried out in a pleasurable, yet seemingly painful scream. Her body jerked under mine, her muscles gripping my cock in a rhythm so intense it was painful. Pleasure and agony mixed as I ground my hips into her ass and, jerking violently, erupted hard, my seed shooting deep inside her.
I collapsed onto my side, taking her with me. We were still joined, and I held her tightly around her waist to make sure we stayed.
She was breathing as heavily as I was. Inside her, my cock twitched and she slowly pulled away, forcing me to withdraw.
I missed her as soon as our bodies detached.
Sian began to pull her clothes on, so I followed. I was slower, still on a high from our frantic lovemaking. I was completely sated, my power seeping, and now growing used to the stranger sensation of being a weaker individual when I gave up my strength. I was completely surprised when my much-stronger mate reached into the canvas bag and brought out nylon ties. She reached over for my hand. I caressed hers, but to my surprise, she brought it behind my back, grabbed the other and fastened them together.