by Sue Mercury
“What is it?” he asked, forcing a note of kindness in his voice. For as long as the two women had been in his employment, they’d never given him an iota of grief.
“Master Cav,” Niashu finally spoke up, “your new mate has, ermm, left the house.”
“She what?”
“Apologies, Master Cav. She must have climbed down from the window you left open in your bedroom. We have looked all over the house and she’s nowhere to be found. She was a bit distressed when she wasn’t able to open the door this morning,” Brena said. “She had hoped to go for a walk.”
Ficka.
Anger and disbelief clouded Cav’s thoughts. He gave a growl and ran out of the house, his gaze sweeping down the street for signs of his disobedient mate. When he only saw a few blue Marrlxians, he walked around his house and stood below the window she’d apparently climbed out of. The stones protruded in various places, adequate for stepping upon but not entirely safe. By the gods, she could have slipped and fallen to her death. When he got his hands on her…
He shook his head and tried to calm his growing rage, but it was no use. The memory of coming home to find his house empty, Lishana gone, bubbled hot like a lava pit in his soul. By the time he’d managed to track her and her mate down in the mountains, she was already carrying his child. Even if he’d wanted to take Lishana home by force, he could no longer do so by law. Not when she’d been carrying another male’s child.
Curling his hand into a fist, he punched the hard white stone. When he retracted his hand, blood trickled upon the grass below. Calm yourself, Cav. He took deep breaths, knowing Hailey would be frightened if she found him in such an agitated state. Isn’t that what he’d wanted though? For her to fear him, perhaps just a little, so she wouldn’t dare to disobey him, let alone betray him in the same way as Lishana.
He closed his eyes and summoned guidance from the gods. Of course, the gods never answered, but he always felt better when he prayed. More at peace. He didn’t have any definitive answers by the time he opened his eyes, but he did feel a hundred times calmer.
Maybe he should confess his deepest fear to Hailey. Maybe he should tell her of the hurt Lishana inflicted. He wanted to trust his new mate, gods knew he did.
But first he had to find her.
He wiped his bloody knuckles on his pants and set off down the street. Several passersby claimed to have seen her in the nearby market, so he headed in that direction. With her reddish hair, she would be difficult to miss.
When he spotted her in the busy market, she was speaking excitedly to another human woman. As he approached, he overheard them describing to one another where they lived. He recognized the other human as belonging to Bricc, who was also a member of the Marrlxian Council. He’d seen the pair standing close by during the mass nuptial ceremony.
The women hugged and then said goodbye, promising to visit with each other soon.
Hailey turned and started to make her way out of the market. She kept her head lowered, not looking at anyone, save for the few human and Marrlxian women who were shopping in the market. He found it curious that she would take an illicit walk but still obey his command not to gaze upon Marrlxian males.
He strode to her and blocked her path. She gulped and tried to move around him, still not glancing up.
“Hailey, look at me.”
Her head shot up and she stared at him with wide eyes. “Cav,” she said breathlessly.
The urge to grab her shoulders and shake her was strong, but he kept his hands at his sides. He was angrier that she’d risked her life by climbing out the window than he was at her for taking a walk without permission. She’d receive a proper scolding once they returned home, in private, he decided.
“Come,” he said sternly. “It is time for the midday meal.”
“I…I thought you would be working all day. I meant to be back by the time you arrived home.” Her face grew red.
“We will discuss your disobedience, Hailey, after the midday meal.”
She swallowed hard and nodded, looking anxious. Around them, the market crowd thickened as workers from the fields poured in for a quick meal before returning to their jobs.
Cav put a hand on the small of her back and guided her out of the throng. Once they reached a quiet street, she took a deep breath and looked up at him.
“It’s n-not ri-rght. Locking me in the house. This city seems perfectly safe and there are plenty of other females, human and Marrlxian, walking around by themselves. I have no intention of seeking affection with another Marrlxian male, if that’s what you’re worried about. I appreciate that you think so little of me though,” she said bitterly.
His anger crept back in the face of her defiance, and he gripped her arm as his house came into sight. “We will speak on this matter after the midday meal, Hailey. For now, I don’t want to hear another word.”
Chapter Four
Cav leveled a disapproving stare on Hailey from across the dining room table, but she refused to be intimidated, at least outwardly, by his growing irritation. With her chin lifted high, she glared at a random point on the wall behind him as she ate her lunch, which consisted of fresh fruits and vegetables arranged on a platter of warm, buttery rice.
She pretended she didn’t care that he was upset with her, though deep down she was quivering. This was their first disagreement. Would he try to understand her perspective? Or would he keep her locked in the house forever, never allowing her to visit with Angie or even partake in the simple joy of an early morning walk? This planet was supposed to be her freedom and her second chance, not a prison.
Exploring the streets and the market had been a wondrous experience. Hailey didn’t regret climbing out the window, even knowing she was disobeying her mate. On Earth, she’d never once gone on a walk just for the pleasure of it. She’d moved around cautiously, always watching her back while praying no harm visited her as she foraged for food or searched for shelter.
Niashu flitted into the dining room and refilled their glasses of water, then departed just as quickly. Hailey hoped Cav hadn’t taken his displeasure out on the maids before he’d ventured out to find her.
Once she finished her meal, she sipped her water and waited for him to speak. He pushed his plate back and continued staring at her, but didn’t utter a word. The prolonged silence threatened to drive her past the brink of sanity. Her stomach wouldn’t stop performing somersaults, and her heart beat faster with each passing second.
This waiting, this nervousness, reminded her of all the times she’d sat apprehensively on her sleeping spot as a couple interested in adoption walked through the orphanage. She would cringe with her head down, her tangled red hair hiding her face, and cough hard as the couple passed her. Most of the other children would do the same, because no one with loving intentions had ever visited the orphanage. People had been too poor and life had been too fucking hard for kindness and charity. The couples who adopted orphans used them for hard labor and housed them in conditions more horrendous than the orphanage.
As Hailey sat across from Cav, she found herself looking down and wishing her hair wasn’t in a braid, because she very much wished to hide her face. A few times the couples had paused before her sleeping spot and stared at her for so long she feared she would be chosen, despite her coughing and feigning of illness.
Please say something, Cav. Say anything. Just as a scream built in her throat, he finally broke the intolerable silence.
“You are never to climb out a window again, tiny human. Gods, you could have fallen and broken your neck!” He slammed his hand on the table, causing her to gasp.
When she met his eyes, the intense look of concern reflecting in his dark depths startled her. She’d expected to see fury burning in his gaze, but she detected no anger at all. Was he really that worried she might have fallen? Scaling down the wall hadn’t been difficult and her feet hadn’t slipped once, but if she had tumbled to the ground she very well could’ve broken something, or worse.
“Cav, I don’t want to be locked up in this house day after day. Please try to trust me.”
“First, promise you won’t climb out any windows again, should I accidently leave one open.” Worry still strained his visage and his shoulders weren’t moving. He was holding his breath, she realized, in anticipation of her answer.
“Okay, I promise.” Perhaps if she gave a little, he would also give a little in return.
“Good.” He exhaled the breath he’d been holding and leaned back in his chair, much more relaxed than he’d been seconds ago. The tension in the atmosphere started to dissipate, and Hailey also felt more at ease.
“Until you are pregnant with my child, another Marrlxian male could steal you from me. That is why I locked you in the house.” Secrets lurked in his troubled gaze. There was more, but could she get him to open up?
“Surely the males will not take a mated female by force? I saw many females walking around the city today, even human women who obviously couldn’t be pregnant this quickly.”
“Marrlxian males do not take females by force. It is dishonorable to do so and punishable by death. However, a female may fall in love with another male and choose to leave her mate, as long as she hasn’t given him a child or isn’t currently pregnant.”
“So you are worried I will see a Marrlxian male I like better than you and leave you before you get me pregnant?” Hailey took a deep breath and blinked slowly, taking it all in.
“That…is…my greatest fear.” A note of vulnerability resounded in his voice. “You are my mate, Hailey, and we are meant to spend the rest of our lives together, to have children together and grow old with one another. I realize we are still strangers, but when I look at you, tiny human, I know in the depths of my soul that you are my perfect match.”
So he feared she would abandon him for another. Betray him. Hurt him.
She rose up and walked around the table to him. When he turned to look upon her, she cupped the side of his face and pressed a tender kiss to his forehead. Yesterday when she’d been worried, he had kissed her in the same way to try to quell her fears. It had worked, and she hoped it eased his anxieties too.
“I’m not the first mate you’ve had, am I?”
“No,” he replied sadly.
He scooted his chair back and pulled her into his lap. She held eye contact with him and stroked the side of his face, marveling in the contrast of her pale white hand against his magnificent blue skin.
“Tell me about her,” Hailey ventured. “Tell me what happened.”
*
Cav inhaled a deep, steadying breath, then told Hailey everything about his time with Lishana. He had never spoken openly about his first mate’s betrayal before. What happened to him was so shameful, in his culture and especially for a Marrlxian in the highest social class, that he had endured his hurts in solitude. Even his family members and friends never spoke to him about Lishana leaving. They had learned of her betrayal through whispers on the street. Lishana had boldly paraded around the city with her new lover, creating what amounted to a scandal because they came from different classes.
Marrlxians valued their social standing and reputations over love. It was practically unheard of for a male to pair with a female from another class. The gods had separated Marrlxians into classes to keep their society functional and strictly ordered. In the time of Cav’s ancestors, it had been punishable by death to mate outside of one’s class. But during his grandfather’s youth, a movement of modernism had voided this law, as well as many other laws considered archaic, even if they were intended to curb behavior that was yet considered abhorrent.
Hailey listened intently to all he said, her expression full of sympathy.
“I can only imagine what it feels like to be betrayed by someone who’s supposed to care about you,” she said, a bit shyly, “but I am sorry for what happened, Cav. It sounds like an awful experience.”
Guilt stabbed at him as her own truth hung between them. She’d never had anyone to care about her on Earth. At least he’d grown up in a traditional Marrlxian family and had a happy childhood. She hadn’t told him what living in an orphanage had been like, but if no one had favored her there, not even a caretaker, she had undoubtedly spent her early years feeling lonely and unwanted. His heart ached for the tiny human girl who had never been loved.
“Gods, Hailey, come here.” He pressed her head against his chest and brushed a hand over her hair.
She melted into him and tucked her arms around his waist, hugging him back. He strengthened his hold on her. Where did they go from here? Despite his insecurities, he supposed he should trust her. Lishana had been critical and ill-tempered, and obsessed with material things even during the time the Marrlxians were recovering from the flood, when resources were scarce. But Hailey had a gentle, sweet spirit, and she seemed genuinely grateful for all he’d given her. She was also extremely polite to the servants, while his first mate had treated them with disdain. He couldn’t imagine Hailey ever behaving as Lishana had.
“Coming to this planet and becoming your mate, Cav, is my second chance. There was nothing for me on Earth. I’m not sure I know how to love, but it’s all I think about. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted someone to love, and someone to love me. I used to fantasize that my parents came back to take me out of that awful orphanage, and then as I grew older I dreamed about being swept off my feet by a kind man who would take me away from the streets and make me his wife. In my dreams I loved my husband unconditionally, and we were true to one another.” She pulled back and met his eyes. “I want that man to be you, Cav.”
The gods had surely blessed him. He stared at her in awe, his throat constricted and burning with emotion. Cupping her face, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. After he pulled back, she peered at him with a hopeful look.
“I’ve been a jealous fool, Hailey. Will you forgive me?”
She smiled. “Of course I forgive you. Does this mean I won’t be kept under lock and key? You will trust me?”
“I won’t keep you locked up anymore, tiny human. You can roam the city freely and visit with your friends. You can even speak and look at other males, should you have cause to. You should feel at home on my planet, not kept in a cage, my sweet Hailey. It sounds like you’ve been lonely for far too long and I want you to have the experiences that have been missing from your life.”
She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. He met her tongue with firm thrusts as he took command and deepened the kiss. To his surprise and his pleasure, she started grinding her bottom against his manhood. He went instantly rigid and swept her up in his arms with a growl, breaking the kiss so he could carry his sweet little bride upstairs.
He brought her to his bedroom. The window was still open, reminding him of her dangerous adventure down the side of the house. He sat her on her feet next to the window and gave her a mock stern look. He spun her around and swatted her bottom twice, playfully but hard. “That’s for risking your life, tiny human.”
When she turned around, her face had gone bright red. As she stared up at him, blushing adorably, she rubbed her bottom and gave him a wounded look that was quite exaggerated. Though the window was open, no one could see them from the street or from any other houses. The homes in this part of the city were spaced widely apart, ensuring plenty of privacy.
He took advantage of their seclusion and decided to strip off her dress right where they stood. He pushed it off her shoulders and down over her hips, until the silky fabric pooled around her ankles. She wore no undergarments of any kind. Females from other cultures often donned panties and breast coverings, but Marrlxians preferred their women to remain completely bare underneath their dresses, so he hadn’t provided her with any even though he knew human females typically didn’t go without undergarments.
“You’re so beautiful, Hailey.” He groped a breast and stepped closer, then reached around with his free arm to squeeze her bottom. “I’m going to bend you o
ver the bed and take you from behind this time, tiny human. You will spread your thighs wide and bend over like an obedient little mate and take every hard thrust I give you.”
She gave a little squeal, clearly taken aback by his salacious words. Then she did something that shocked him.
She twisted out of his embrace and backed up quickly, putting the bed between them. Mischief twinkled in her light blue eyes. “You’ll have to catch me first.”
Chapter Five
Heat pulsed between Hailey’s thighs. She placed a hand on a nearby dresser and tensed in breathless anticipation, waiting for Cav to come after her. She knew he was playing around, but it still made her stomach flip when his face grew serious and his eyes darkened. He drew his shoulders back slightly, standing tall with his arms spread as he advanced on her like a stealthy predator getting ready to pounce on his prey. The animalistic growl rumbling from his throat only added to the effect.
“I can smell your arousal, tiny human.”
She pushed away from the dresser and ran for the door. But Cav grabbed her from behind and carried her to the bed. She tried to scramble off the covers, only to find herself flipped onto her stomach with her feet touching the ground. Her heart raced. He had her bent over the bed, as promised.
“So wet, Hailey.” He stroked her pussy with one hand and held her down with the other. “Now be a good girl and spread your legs.” He tapped at her inner thighs, prompting her to move her legs apart.
The ache in her core intensified as she exposed herself more fully to his ministrations. He swirled her wetness over her throbbing clit, drawing little moans from her. She arched her back, lifting her bottom high, when he trailed his rigid length up her thigh. Oh God, she needed him inside her now.
“Ah!” she cried out at the exquisite yet torturous sensation of his cock teasing her entrance. He pushed in the head of his manhood, only to withdraw a moment later and slide himself over the slit of her moist pussy lips.