Alien Alphas: Twenty-Three Naughty Sci-Fi Romance Novellas

by Grace Goodwin

  Quinn raised his hands in surrender and I took a deep breath, regaining control. “My apologies if I have insulted you, my lady.”

  “Look, Zee is mine. I want him. And I need your help.”

  His gaze darkened and the corners of his eyes crinkled with mischief. He bowed slightly. “Tell me what I might do to assist.”

  “I need to drive him crazy. Force his hand. I might be submissive, but it’s time I took control. Right now, he thinks he’s in charge and that’s not working out so well. It’s time for me to take over. To push him, just as he pushes me.” I met Quinn’s gaze and tried to force every bit of determination I had to shine from my eyes.

  “So, your plan is to enrage him? Make him jealous so he’ll have to intervene?”

  I nodded once. “Exactly.”

  It felt dangerous. Naughty. And I couldn’t wait to get started. I’d see just how far my new master could be pushed.

  Quinn’s chuckle made me smile in response. “You are aware of the consequences to your... um, bare ass.”

  I smiled at the Hunter, and while I could feel my blush, I didn’t care if he knew I was definitely getting spanked for topping from the bottom. “Yes.”

  “Very well. I am at your disposal.”

  * * *

  Zee, twelve hours later

  I was going to kill him.

  Slowly.

  I’d rip his body in half with my bare hands and smash his skull into pulp on the stone pillars of the Touchstone.

  In exactly seven minutes, my shift was over. My duty, to guard the brides this day, done.

  And then I would kill the man who’d dared lie to my mate.

  Even now, Helen laughed, her head thrown back with joy as she talked to the other brides. “Oh, my god! I found him. He told me everything.”

  One of the brides, a very small female named Dani, jumped to her feet and gave my mate a hug. “Details. We need details.”

  “His name is Quinn. I’ll tell you more... all of it,” Helen promised as my blood boiled.

  I stilled. Quinn? My friend, Quinn? Ex-friend. What the fuck was he doing with Helen? And she thinks he’s her marked mate? The one whose palm burned for her? The one who came to her in her dreams? Who ate her sweet pussy until she came all over his face? Who opened up her tight ass with his cock and made her come?

  Quinn was going to die a slow... painful... excruciating death. And I was going to enjoy every minute of it.

  “But I can’t right now. I’m meeting him again. I have to hurry.”

  “You go, girl,” Katie chuckled and Helen twirled in her clinging red gown. She looked so thrilled—ecstatic—to go to him. To go to Quinn, the fucker.

  “I used that rose perfume you gave me,” she whispered, although her soft voice carried to me. “I hope he likes it. I put it everywhere.”

  She blushed as her gaze darted to me, just for a moment, not as if she assumed I was her mate, but as if she were worried about a random male overhearing her statement.

  Rose perfume? Everywhere? I did not know what a rose smelled like, but if it made Helen’s cheeks so flushed with excitement, I would discover soon enough. I stepped closer to her. Bowed.

  “Do you require an escort, my lady?” My voice was gravelly. Deep. Filled with barely suppressed rage. Not at her. Never at her. But at the male who dared to try to seduce her in my stead. Take what was mine. Deceive her, and me. Quinn would not touch a hair on her head let alone one inch of her silky skin.

  My heart nearly stopped beating, cold dread filling my veins, at the dreamy look on Helen’s face when she turned to answer me. “Oh, no, thank you. He’s so... sexy. So charming. So dominant.”

  She gave me a look as if she were having an orgasm right then and there. My cock swelled painfully against the front of my pants. I’d brought her pleasure many times, but I had yet to see her eyes as I did so. The fucking blindfold. Dammit. I clenched my hands into fists.

  She held up her hand, palm out, so I could see her mark. The mark that pulsed in tune to my mark on my own palm. Not Quinn’s.

  “He’s my mate, I just know it. I’ll be fine.”

  My hands clenched into fists and I broke the wooden railing I leaned against, splinters slicing their way into the flesh of my palm. The pain brought me back to myself as I watched my mate walk away, humming. Happy. Hips swaying seductively.

  I checked the time. Five minutes.

  Fuck that.

  I raced after her, through the doorway she’d just passed. But when I entered the corridor, she was nowhere to be seen.

  Two Hunters stood guard at the entrance. I approached. “Did you see a bride in red? Brown hair? She just exited through these doors?”

  They looked at each other. One shrugged as if my mate’s future, her body, the Hunter most likely touching her right now, was of no concern.

  I shoved him against the wall, a snarl in my voice and death in my eyes. “Where. Did. She. Go?”

  “She’s with her mate,” he answered, his eyes wide in surprise.

  “I’m her mate,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

  “Gods, Zee, relax.” The other guard leaned his shoulder against the wall, feet crossed as if he didn’t have a care in the world. As if I wasn’t threatening to murder his companion.

  I shook the man in front of me. “I’ll ask one more time. Where is she?”

  He tilted his head further down the hallway. “She was headed for the private quarters.”

  “With who? Quinn?” I gritted out my friend’s name through clenched teeth.

  “Didn’t see his face.” He was lying. I could see it in his eyes, but I didn’t need him to tell me. If I’d been using my head, I would have realized that the only thing I was doing here was wasting my time.

  Releasing the guard, I turned and strode away, letting the thing inside me, the Hunter, take over.

  Scents danced on the air. Including hers. Sweet. Unique. The flowery scent of her rose perfume like a beacon. I followed it to the private quarters. Confused when the scent ended abruptly in an unclaimed room.

  Any Hunter here, myself included, would have taken her to his private room for a final claiming. Using an empty, unassigned room didn’t make any sense.

  Yet her scent led me here.

  As did the voices on the other side of the door.

  Hers. His.

  My ears flooded with the pounding of my pulse and all I could see was his hands on her. Touching her. Fucking her. Claiming what was mine. Quinn was a dead man. And my mate? She would discover the one who ruled her body. The only one who could bring her pleasure because I knew every inch of her. Every gasp of pleasure, clench of desire, gush of arousal. It was all mine.

  And I was taking it. Now.

  Chapter Six

  Helen

  Quinn leaned against the wall, arms crossed. The bed loomed large between us. Untouched. He was on the other side of the room, nowhere near me, for while we’d intentionally riled Zee, hopefully to the breaking point, he’d said he didn’t want to get hurt. Or die.

  I knew Zee was a possessive mate and when the door flew open, slamming against the wall and bouncing off, I knew Quinn’s measures for personal safety were reasonable.

  Zee was all but resonating with anger. His muscles were taut with it, his square jaw clenched. His breathing was ragged, his fists clenched.

  His head swiveled from Quinn to me. His eyes, so dark, burned with intensity.

  I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. I wanted to drop to my knees before him, to wait for his command, to feel all of this power unleashed on me.

  While he was practically unbridled in his anger, I knew he would never harm me. He’d turn all this wicked energy into the final claiming. My pussy ached and my nipples hardened beneath my gown at the possibility.

  “Are you unharmed?” he asked.

  I nodded, licked my lips. “I’m fine.”

  “Good.” He turned away from me so I could see the hard lines of his back, the taut curves of his butt
. “You, friend, will not be so lucky.”

  Quinn grinned and held his hands up, as if in surrender. “What’s the matter, Zee?”

  Zee took one step closer as if prowling his prey. “You dare to claim my mate?”

  Quinn shrugged. “You haven’t done so.”

  I watched the exchange, my breath held.

  “I have. I’ve claimed her mouth, her ass. She’s mine.” While Zee still faced his friend, he reached his arm back, pointed at me.

  I was embarrassed, the two friends speaking of me so intimately, and yet as if I weren’t in the room.

  “Then why doesn’t she know that?” Quinn asked.

  “Because—” Zee didn’t finish because he realized then what he’d done. How he’d given himself away.

  Quinn stepped up to Zee, slapped him on the shoulder. “My work here is done. My lady.” The Hunter bowed to me before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

  Zee hadn’t moved, didn’t turn to look at me.

  The only thing I could hear was his ragged breathing and the frantic beat of my heart.

  “Master,” I whispered.

  He flinched, the subtle ripple of his muscles bunching his shoulders. He still didn’t move.

  I walked around so I stood before him. My eyes were uncovered. My head was lifted, my gaze on him. On his face. His scars.

  “Master, I see you.”

  His eyes blazed with fury, a vein pulsed at his temple.

  “Don’t look.”

  The grating words were a knife to my heart.

  “I can’t look away,” I replied.

  Slowly, carefully, I lifted my hand toward his face.

  He leaned back slightly, but I didn’t relent. With my fingertips, I touched the red, raised skin. A breath hissed between his closed lips.

  “I see you,” I repeated. “I want you.”

  “Why?” he growled, stepping back as if the touch burned him.

  “You are my mate. The only one in the universe for me. The testing has never been wrong. Neither has a mark.”

  “No.” He shook his head.

  I was determined to get through to this hard-headed warrior. “Are you telling me it wasn’t you who touched me in my dreams? That the mark on your palm isn’t throbbing right now to touch me? That it wasn’t your commands that had me on my knees?”

  “Why?” he repeated. “Why would you want me?”

  I waited until he lifted his gaze, looked me in the eye again.

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  I stepped forward then, closed the distance between us. Pressed my body against him, my hands cupping the sides of his head. I had to go up on tiptoe to do so, he was so big.

  “Look at me.”

  “I am. I don’t see scars. I see badges of survival. Of honor. I see the mate who’s captured my heart. Who’s in my soul. Who’s done things to me only a mate can.”

  His eyes narrowed and his hands came up to cover mine.

  “You are too beautiful, Helen. You should want Quinn. If I were a female, I would find him appealing.”

  His words made me laugh. Zee? A female? He was so virile, so male, the idea was ridiculous.

  “I don’t want Quinn. I want you. I’ve only wanted you. While you are listening, you are not hearing me.”

  “Mate,” I heard the warning tone of his voice and I shuddered. My nipples were almost painfully hard. “Careful what you say to me. Did you lure me here under false pretenses? Recruit my friend and fellow Hunter into your scheme?”

  “I want you, Hunter Zee.” My hand came up to the clasp on my dress and I undid it as I continued. “My mark aches for you. My pussy aches for you.” The gauzy fabric slid down my body and pooled at my feet. I stepped from the circle of fabric and then lowered to my knees. Instead of lowering my eyes, I kept them fixed on his. “Claim me, Master. Make me yours forever.”

  His gaze roamed my body. I’d dressed with care, wearing ruby red garters and stockings this time. My breasts spilled from the top of the red, demi-cut lace bra and the G-string I wore was completely translucent, embroidered with red roses. Even my shoes were made for sin, with four-inch spiked heels. Katie had let me borrow some bright red toenail polish. I looked like a vixen, like a woman I hardly knew. But I wanted to be this... for him. I wanted to drive him crazy. Out of his mind.

  I wanted to be his.

  When he held his hand out to me and led me to the bed, I eagerly followed, sure that I had won. That I was about to get exactly what I wanted.

  Alarm bells didn’t start to ring until he sat and pulled me down to lay, face down, over his lap.

  “You lied to me. You misled me. You caused me to feel rage at a friend and worry for your safety.”

  His palm came to rest on my bare bottom, exposed by the scant covering of the G-string underwear. “I’m sorry. I had to. You wouldn’t tell me who you were.”

  As his palm petted my backside with the softest caress, I realized my mistake. This was his game. His rules. If I really wanted him to be my master, if I really wanted to serve him, I should have waited. I was impatient. Selfish.

  “I warned you, mate, what would happen if you lied to me or deceived me about your needs.” His hand landed on my bare bottom with a sharp sting and I gasped as he spanked me again and again. “Why did you lie to me?”

  Every second his hand swatted my bottom, over and over, leaving a growing heat behind as the truth built up inside me like a volcano about to erupt. The fire spread, and my pussy was wetter than it had ever been, the ache there becoming acutely painful as my arousal grew. “I... I didn’t feel safe. I needed to know you were going to claim me, Master. I didn’t feel safe.”

  The truth burst from me on a sob and his hand stilled immediately.

  “Helen.” There was agony in his voice and I felt even worse for causing him more pain.

  “Please, Master, I was weak. It’s my fault. I should have waited for you to be ready. It wasn’t my place.”

  “No, love. It’s my fault. I was a coward. So many have rejected me, feared me because of the scars. I should have believed in the mark, in the power of our match. In you.”

  I slid from his lap and knelt on the floor before him, looking up into his eyes. The darkness there was edged with regret and pain. I could not allow either. “Master, please, may I kiss you now?”

  His hand reached out and cupped the side of my face. “Of course. I am yours, Helen. Body and soul. I will give you anything you need.”

  Remaining on my knees, I leaned my face into his touch, hungry for more. But I had a plan in mind now, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. “May I remove your clothes, Master?”

  He nodded and I rose. I started with his shirt, pulling it off over his head. I leaned forward and traced every scar, every inch of him with lips and tongue and teeth. This is what I’d been waiting for. What I needed.

  Zee held himself rigid as I explored him, his hands fisted at his sides on the bed as I worked my way down his abdomen to his waist. Making quick work of the clasp, I yanked his pants down and he lifted his hips off the bed to assist me. When he was gloriously naked, I stepped back and admired what was mine.

  “You are beautiful, Master.”

  His gaze was on my breasts. My stomach. The dark red scrap of fabric covering my sex. “Have you taken what you need, mate?”

  “No. Not yet.” There was no way. I wasn’t finished with him. I knew as soon as I admitted I was feeling better, secure, he would take control again and I’d lose my opportunity to touch him. Learn him.

  Slowly, to tease him, I worked the scrap of lace down over my hips and off, kicking them aside. Reaching behind me, I released my bra and slid it down my arms as well so that I stood before him in garters, stockings, and high heels.

  His huge, rigid cock surged toward me as if it had a mind of its own and I laughed, pleased that his pulse raced at the base of his neck, his breathing hitched. His hands clenched into fists, his knuckles white against the blanket covering th
e bed.

  Without warning, I dropped to my knees and took him into my mouth, swallowing him down, sucking, licking, driving him mad until his hand fisted in my hair and he forced me to release him.

  “Enough.”

  “Not enough.” I held his gaze as I climbed onto his lap and placed his cock at entrance of my virgin pussy. “I want you inside me, Zee. I want you to be mine. Forever.”

  “Gods, Helen. Yes. You are mine.”

  I kissed him as I slid down onto his hard length. I ignored the burn, the pain as he stretched me, filling me for the first time. I pressed down, wiggling and moving until he bottomed out inside me. Until he was mine. “I’m claiming you, Hunter Zee. I claim you. You’re mine now.” I whispered the words against his neck, against the very scars that had nearly kept this wonderful warrior from me.

  With a groan, he shifted, lifting me and twisting us both so that he came down on top of me on the bed. We faced one another, and he took my hand, palm to palm, mark to mark as heat burned through me. This was it. The claiming. There was no going back for either of us. I welcomed the heat, the pulsing pleasure that rushed through my body. Only he could do this to me. My marked mate. He gazed into my eyes as he began to move. In. Out. Slowly. So slowly I thought I would die from pleasure.

  I pulled his head to mine, kissing him with all the love I felt bursting through me as he reached between us with his free hand to stroke my clit.

  My pussy went into spasm and I arched against him, crying out as I exploded, milking his cock as he followed me over the edge.

  He didn’t move for a long while and I held him, his forehead pressed to mine as I stroked his back, his sides. His scars. He was fierce and strong and mine.

  “I love you, Master.”

  “And I love you, mate.”

  “Forever?” I asked, even though my pride demanded I hold my tongue.

  “Beyond death, Helen. I’ll never let you go.”

  And that was exactly what I wanted to hear. So I kissed him again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Until his cock grew hard and he moaned my name. “The first time was too quick. Yet you are no longer in control. Do I need to tie you up, mate?”