by Mel Teshco
Galactic Flame
Mel Teshco
Book 3 in the Alien Hunger series.
Eden isn’t meant to be the alien prince’s life mate; it’s her sister who’s been promised to him. But when Genesis comes to Earth and mistakenly believes Eden is his mate, she knows it’s the perfect opportunity to play the role her sister never wanted. And when she steps into the magnificent alien’s arms, and is taught unimaginable carnal pleasure, Eden knows she’s filched a priceless prize indeed.
A Romantica® futuristic erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave.
Galactic Flame
Mel Teshco
Chapter One
Eden Mearwon sat back on her knees, swiping an unruly strand of flame-red hair from her eyes that’d escaped its haphazard topknot. And all the while she tried not to think about how this day might end.
Today was her sister’s twenty-fifth birthday. But Eden was in no mood to celebrate. She couldn’t pretend everything was going to be all right, not while giving into the helpless contemplation that soon—today, tomorrow, a week, a year?—her sister, Aline, would be taken from her.
Beautiful, blonde, increasingly bad tempered Aline, all but locked in the house as though a tiger in a cage. Their parents were doing everything in their power not to lose their precious first-born, even just for a little while.
It didn’t make it any more bearable.
Unable to stand it any longer, Eden had escaped the strained atmosphere with the pretext of picking some of the lekkle fruit that were ripening in the far gardens.
She’d barely been noticed leaving. She, the second daughter, was safe from abduction.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was only a matter of time before her sister’s intended arrived from his planet and took Aline away from everything and everyone who loved her, no matter the precautions taken.
Eden shivered. With no surviving males on Earth and most of the few remaining females taken by aliens back to their planet, Carèche, Eden still secretly dreamed of being with a man, having him love her in just the same way her parents openly loved one another. But she’d put a stake through the heart of anyone who expected her to give up everything she’d known for the “cause”.
Repopulation without adoration. It was barbaric. Inhuman.
Alien.
She could only pray that Aline would come to love her alien male, in just the same way their human mother had come to love their alien father. Except, her sister made no bones about the fact she’d despise her intended. Eden might love her plants, but Aline had a way with animals that went beyond extraordinary, she’d never leave them behind.
Eden clasped her gold chain, her fingers stroking the familiar lotus pendant that sat in the hollow of her throat. Her only hope was that Lillian, the human who’d once lived on Earth and who was now queen to Carèche’s three kings, had never borne a son. A son who had been promised as Aline’s future intended.
Bloody unlikely.
It was unreasonable that Aline as firstborn should have to honor a pact made by their parents to alien royalty long before she was even born. A pact that gave their parents freedom to stay on Earth as long as their first daughter married the first royal son of Carèche.
With a sigh, she brushed her dirty hands over her already stained jeans. Lifting her face, she closed her eyes, absorbing what was left of the day’s weak winter sunlight filtering through the eucalyptus foliage. She couldn’t lose herself in the solace of her garden forever.
Her eyelids fluttered open. It was beyond time to head back home.
She turned to her shaggy dog and whistled her over. She could only be thankful the alien plants they’d cultivated had vastly prolonged her loved one’s lives—including their family dog. Bonnie had been her mum’s constant companion when the Earth’s population had been all but decimated. Now the loyal dog shadowed her and Aline instead.
“We’d better get home, girl,” she said, stroking Bonnie’s silky ears, “before someone realizes I’m actually gone.”
She climbed to her feet, digging her bare toes into the dirt with a luxurious sigh. Then using her shirt like a pouch, she plucked some egg-shaped lekkle fruit from between its spray of long, spiky leaves the color of lavender. After having grown up eating and tending to these plants and many others, she had to remind herself they were once foreign to this planet.
Almost all the alien plants contained many more nutrients than anything edible on Earth. As well as increasing longevity, they greatly enhanced healing. Even her mother’s once inability to conceive had been restored. Shame her mum hadn’t known that fact before she’d made the promise to give away one of her children.
Whatever. It would be small consolation for Aline.
Eden stroked the lightly furred skin of one of the fruits. In all her life she’d had no memory of falling ill, not even with the once apparently common cold humans had suffered from.
Yeah, but then I’m not wholly human.
Eden stilled, pressing a hand to her brow. She felt…weird, disorientated by the blanket of sensation moving over her. Perhaps she was finally coming down with something?
Her senses hummed, her skin breaking into goose bumps though a hot flush swept through her body. Some sixth sense warned her to leave, to get back to the house. But as if moving through a thick fog, she instead slowly turned.
Bonnie’s hackles rose, the dog growling even before Eden truly comprehended she wasn’t alone.
Oh Aline, no.
The lekkle thudded unnoticed to the ground. A wave of despair at losing her sister rendered her weak, giddy, even as the bare-chested alien leaned nonchalantly against a giant red gum.
She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him—the stranger whose alien genetics she partly shared. If sunsets were a measure of beauty, then he was a crimson and gold sky framing the midnight blue of a deep sea. And though fathomless, his stare was a many shades lighter blue, measuring her, drinking her in. Inhaling her.
Breath shuddered from her lungs, while oddly, pleasant sensations fluttered within, fighting off horror.
Aline’s intended—not hers!
She shook her head, forcing her muscles to cooperate as she took a step backward. “Leave me alone.”
You want Aline, not me.
He straightened, so very tall, much taller than her five foot ten. Strands of his longish, dark-gold hair fluttered in the late afternoon breeze. “The time has come. We belong together, Princess. You know this.”
Princess? Her eyes narrowed. He thought she was Aline? She bit back sudden, hysterical laughter. The prince of Carèche thought she was his soon-to-be intended!
As sisters, she and Aline were as different from each other as a white rose was to a red-flowering weed. If the alien only knew his mistake he’d be running fast from her in search of his intended.
Her hands fisted. “Go. Fuck. Yourself.”
She expected anger, displeasure. Even disappointment. Instead she got husky, spine-tingling laughter as his head tipped back, the sound reverberating all the way to her toes and back before stalling her heart. Her dignity.
“You think this is funny?” she hissed. His laughter fading and his attention reclaimed, she tilted her chin and marched forward a half dozen steps. “Can you not think of anyone beyond yourself?”
An implacable expression settled across his face. Her vision blurred into shades of red. She gritted her teeth, unable to quell the all too familiar rage and anxiety within. These were the emotions that had grown from the moment she’d been old enough to learn her sister—her only friend—would be taken from her.
“You come to my planet, force my sis—” She swallowed back the words that would give away her real identity, even as an undoubtedly stupid plan formed and couldn’t be
denied. “Myself from everyone I love, all the while safe in the knowledge that you’ll be returning to your people.”
His silence added fuel to her fire. Her eyes narrowed. “And what about love and affection? Friendship, even?”
“I believe we will be good together.”
As encouragement went his words left a hell of a lot to be desired.
She stabbed a finger at him, putting herself in Aline’s shoes. “Well who asked me? No one! I was never given the choice to make.”
“Finished, Princess?” he asked gently.
“Not by a long shot!” She took another step forward, all the while forcing her stare away from his tight-fitting pants that clung lovingly to his well-endowed parts. Her eyes narrowed. She mentally reinforced the fact the alien was the first man other than her father that she’d seen, so of course she’d be looking hard!
Shame his kind had unwittingly brought the virus that’d wiped all human males off the Earth. Her chin tilted. “I. Am. Not. Going. Anywhere. With. You.”
And neither is my sister.
So caught up in her tirade, in the emotions left too long unexpressed, she never anticipated the alien would take the final step that’d bridge the gap between them. Never expected him to sweep her off her feet and take effortless strides in the opposite direction to where she lived.
This can’t be happening.
Her parents had predicted the mothercraft would soar across the heavens, giving them at least a little warning of Aline’s impending doom. But to be taken like this, without any indication aside from her sister’s coming of age. It was mercenary.
“Put me down!” she gasped, kicking and wriggling. But in his powerful grip her struggles were pathetic at best. “You don’t need to do this.” She looked up at his face, but any of the softness she’d earlier glimpsed had become hard, unforgiving lines. She bit back a sob. “Surely you have someone else back on your planet?”
He pulled her harder to his unyielding chest, expression unreadable. When he looked down, arrogance and perhaps a touch of satisfaction was the only emotion she could read from his brilliant eyes. His dark-honey lashes swept low. “You’ve had twenty-five years to prepare for this day.”
Tell him now! Tell him who you really are!
Only the memory of Aline’s faraway stare that very morning, along with her taut, pale face as she’d tried desperately to hide her terror, stopped the words from pouring forth. Eden glared. “More like twenty-five years to resist this day.”
Bonnie trotted at the alien’s heels, seemingly immune to the fact her mistress was in trouble as the alien replied drily, “And you’ll easily have ten counts over that time to remind me.”
“So that’s it then?” she said dully. “You kidnap me—you and your alien comrades—and I just allow it?”
Nightfall loomed as he strode into a clearing. She stiffened. A round aircraft, little bigger than her bedroom, lay in wait.
The alien’s white teeth glinted in the growing darkness. “Rest assured, I may have kidnapped you, but my alien comrades don’t play any part in your capture.”
She swallowed back a surge of hope. “So…you’re alone?”
He nodded. “That’s right.”
Relief thundered through her. There was hope of escape. She just needed to use her wits, her feminine wiles, if need be. “Your friends aren’t waiting in the mothership?”
He frowned. “No. It isn’t needed for this mission.”
It wasn’t?
“Put me down?” she requested again, trying not to notice his musky, too male scent. “Please.”
She withheld a relieved sigh as he placed her onto her feet. Bonnie immediately sat beside her and looked up with an uncertain whine. Eden absently scratched the top of Bonnie’s shaggy head, reassuring her.
She cleared her throat and asked, “So none of your alien friends know if I’m even alive?” Her lips twitched into a confident smile. “You can go back to your people—alone. Tell them the mission couldn’t be completed—”
She yelped as the alien jerked her close, a large hand clamping over her mouth and cutting off further talk. “No more words,” he growled. “You’re coming with me. We leave now.”
Bonnie circled them, intermittently barking. The alien ignored the dog. All his attention was consumed by his “intended”.
Eden looked up. His beautiful, hard face all but swam above hers in the semidarkness. But it was the feral, intense light in his eyes that scared her most. Surely that was why her breath shuddered and heart thudded against her ribs?
Bonnie’s bark subsided into the silence that seemed thick around them, but somehow it only made the fear dig all the harder into the pit of her belly.
“You can come willingly,” he added, “or I can use force. Your choice.”
When she sagged in his hold, he removed his hand and she said bitterly, “Bet you wish you could brainwash me. Shame it doesn’t work on half-species.”
Aliens could influence the mind of full-blooded humans. She could only conjecture how many Earth women had imagined themselves in lust with the alien men when in reality they were being shamelessly manipulated.
“It is a shame, yes. It would make things a whole lot easier.” He jerked his head toward the craft. “After you…Princess.”
She glared. If only he knew Aline was the intended princess, not her. Perhaps she would tell him the truth—right before she exchanged vows with him. Her smile was all on the inside as she took a moment to enjoy the spot of malice before she relented with a stiff nod.
But as they headed to the craft, Bonnie growled, computing her mistress was indeed in trouble. Eden stilled. “Wait.” Removing her pendant chain, she crouched and clasped it around Bonnie’s neck. “My family will know I’ve gone now.” She bit into her bottom lip. “Goodbye, old girl. Look after everyone for me.”
Pain cut through her insides. She wasn’t ever going to see her family again. But at least her mum and dad would still have Aline. At least her sister wouldn’t be forced into a match she’d never wanted. And at least they’d all still have Bonnie.
She straightened, refusing to cry. “Let’s go.” Somehow she forced back fear and anxiety and trudged forward.
There was no point prolonging their departure. Even if it was possible to escape, he’d find her again. Only the next time, it would undoubtedly be her sister he’d take once he realized her deception.
Bonnie stayed in step with her, the dog not letting her out of her sight. Eden paused near the craft, then turned. “Bonnie, home.” When the dog sat, head cocked to one side, Eden pointed and said firmly, “Bonnie, go! Home!”
Let my family know I’ve gone.
She didn’t realize tears really were sliding down her face until after Bonnie had loped away. The dog had turned around one last time, her tail drooping, before disappearing into the shadows.
The alien’s touch was gentle when he turned her toward him, his big, hard hands brushing dry much of her tears. “I’m sorry we can’t take your dog creature,” he said. “I feel how much she means to you.”
I’m sorry too.
He swept his free hand to where an opening appeared in the aircraft, a doorway that rolled apart before the substance drifted onto the ground and reformed into a stair. “As you’ll be able to see, there’s only enough room and supplies for two.”
She jerked away from his touch and moved up onto the step. Turning, she took in her darkening surroundings one last time. Sadness touched her soul. It’d be unlikely she’d ever set foot on this planet again. Ever tend her beloved garden.
Ever see her family again.
I didn’t even get to say goodbye.
Her stare moved to rest on the alien. He looked human in every way, just like her father. “What is your name?” she asked. Her eyes narrowed at the amused arch of his dark brow. “I want to know at least that much before I leave behind everything I know.”
“My name is Genesis Jai Lek’hane.”
She ble
w out a breath. “I guess I don’t need to tell you mine.”
“Actually, you do.” He gave an idle shrug. “The mothercraft’s airwave transmitter was destroyed and I discovered on the way here that my own transmitter was faulty too.”
If she could have laughed, she would. Only it was her life now that was about to drastically change, not her sister’s. If Genesis’ technology hadn’t broken, he would have taken her much prettier sister back to his planet, not her.
At least now she could use her real name. “I’m Eden.”
He bowed low. “Eden, I am honored to meet you and deeply privileged to be your intended.”
Her heart sank. But she didn’t have time to dwell on her deception. Not when Genesis stepped beside her and took her hand to escort her inside. That’s when it hit her that she really was about to embark into the unknown.
A hell she’d exchanged for her sister’s happiness?
She stilled just inside the doorway, her mouth dropping open. “This is…incredible,” she whispered.
The craft itself was solid, yet the walls appeared so flimsy to be see-through, with everything outside a little distorted.
Beneath the faint glow of strange blue down-lights, two long seats, which reminded her of the dentist chairs she’d seen in books from her parents’ collection, faced an instrument panel that flashed with multicolored lights. The seats of the chairs were covered in luxurious red pelt. And positioned beside each headrest was a long silver vial, with a stem much the same as a drinking straw protruding from the top.
The alien turned to her. “Even with our depleted numbers, our technology has advanced somewhat since your father captained our mothership. We’ve been able to impregnate our shields with some of Carèche’s compounds to form a delicate but almost indestructible shell for our craft.”
He raised a sardonic looking brow. “Unfortunately the shields are rare—so rare, they’re exclusive to us royalty.”
“Lucky you, then.”
“Yes. Lucky me.” He stepped away from her for a moment and reached into the wall behind her, extracting a one-piece suit. He handed the stretchy, light fabric to her. “You will need to change into this.”