by Calista Skye
Then I kick at a dragon scale on the ground, metallic and hexagonal and the size of a saucer. “Think this is safe to touch?”
Car’rakz bends down and picks it up without hesitation. “Yes.” He turns it in his hands, then gives it to me. “It’s very light.”
And it is. “Like carbon fiber,” I decide. “Light and strong and hard. How does your sword look after that impact?”
Car’rakz examines the blade. “Notched,” he says drily and shows it to me. The whole edge of the sword is gone from a third of its length.
“That’s putting it mildly,” I state. “You might need to fix it.”
He grins. “I might.”
My heartrate is finally coming down. I still can’t quite fathom that we won. And that I’m engaged to the greatest man I’ve ever met.
I take his hand. “You want to go?”
We collect the last of the gold from the dragon’s lair, then make our way to the cave on the mountain. Car’rakz does some hunting, and we’re soon chewing on roasted turkeypig, admiring the view of the jungle down there.
I toss a bone into the fire and sigh, leaning back on his wide, warm chest. “You want to check on your tribe?”
He sighs deeply. “I don’t think I have a tribe anymore. It is as you said. When the last Lifegiver died, it was no longer a tribe. It has no future. Whoever is left alive there will have to manage as well they can. With their gold. But without me. I will check on them before I leave.”
“If there are good men among them still, I’m sure we can use them later. If they can give up their mining.”
The fire crackles pleasantly, and even if it’s still daytime, I’m getting drowsy. I haven’t had much sleep lately.
Car’rakz buries his nose in my hair. “Will your tribe accept me?”
I take his steely forearm, bring it to my mouth, and kiss it tenderly. “If they don’t, I don’t want to be part of that tribe. Car’rakz, you will be the most important man there! None of the others have slain a fully grown dragon the way you have.”
“Perhaps things have changed a little since last time,” he agrees. “But I have still never killed any irox.”
I stifle a yawn with one hand. All the fear and worry is gone. I’m just happy. “And as far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to. Ever.”
33
- Car’rakz -
“Yes, yes,” I state loudly, impatient for this ceremony to get started for real.
A little later Tamara says “ai doo,” which I hope is alien speech for ‘yes’.
“Then I pronounce you husband and wife,” the alien woman in her white robe says, very seriously. Then she smiles, and Tamara takes my hand and looks up at me.
“That was it. We’re married.”
I frown. “But… the ceremony?”
Her eyes shine more than any gold. “This was it.”
I’m stunned, but manage to walk back from the altar a good number of steps while Tamara’s tribe clap their hands and laugh and call out alien comments that I think might be of a naughty character.
They allow my new wife and I to stand by ourselves for a while in the middle of their village.
“That was it?” I ask, because it was plainly a very, very short ceremony for something as important as this. “It won’t take days? But now come the trials, surely?”
“Yes,” Tamara says. “Now come the trials. Terrible trials!”
“Ah,” I exclaim, feeling ready for anything to show my dedication to my new wife. “What are they?”
She squeezes my hand. “Steel yourself, my love. I’m afraid it’s really bad.”
I take a deep breath. Yes, of course, I must go through really bad trials to deserve Tamara as my wife. I expected nothing less. Probably, I have to fight a pack of rekh. Or attack a known nest of irox using only my bare hands. “Can you tell me?”
“Car’rakz. These are the trials: you have to live with me for the rest of your life.”
I can’t make sense of it. “How is that trials? That seems more like a… a reward for successfully passing trials!”
She grins. “Maybe now it does. But you’ll see. You will never face a worse set of trials. And if everything goes well, you will not survive them.”
I grab her waist, lift her up, and kiss her right on the mouth.
The tribe explodes in mirth and cheers behind us, and I realize that they were waiting for this.
“That was an alien joke, I think.”
Tamara laughs, and the bright, joyous sound melts my heart like it always does.
“I think so, too, warrior. All the married men here feel that the Earthling wedding ceremony is too short and simple. They’re always expecting trials and tests. They don’t realize that the trials are not a part of the wedding. They’re a part of the marriage.”
“I will pass them.”
An inexplicable tear runs down her cheek. “I know you will, my love.”
Her alien friends come over and slap her back and start talking in their speech, so I saunter over to my new tribesmen, each with stripes of a different color.
“The aliens are very alien,” I state, still slightly confused.
“And you have only scratched the surface,” Jax’zan laughs. “Wait until you hear how long they can talk about alien things like coffee and pizza and airplanes and cars.”
I scratch my head. “I’ve heard about coffee. It must be very important.”
“It must,” Ar’ox agrees. “But we have never seen any.”
“Perhaps we should find some,” I think out loud. “If it’s that important to our wives.”
“Apparently, it’s not the kind of thing you just find,” Brax’tan says. “It must be roasted and dried and brewed and mixed and so forth. It’s a highly complicated process, my wife says. Only the most skilled person may do it.”
“The barista,” Trak’zor nods. “Yes. They are the shamans of Earth, as is my understanding. Keepers of many secrets. Most revered and respected.”
“There are so many things to learn about women,” I muse. “But at the same time, it is such a pleasant process.”
“Indeed,” Dar’ax agrees. “While it lasts.” He points to the dragon scale hanging on a leather strap around my neck. “The dragons may soon be here.”
I look down on the metallic piece of dragon scale. Tamara gave me that after she had these tribesmen help her make a hole in it. It was apparently a very difficult thing to accomplish. “Do we then know that there will be more than one?”
“We have reason to believe it,” Brax’tan says. “The alien who told us that had no reason to lie, we think. She was close to death and bid us to give the dragons hell.”
“We shall,” I say with confidence. I’m married to Tamara now, the most momentous thing in the world. Anything else seems insignificant to me. Even a hundred dragons wouldn’t worry me right now.
“You certainly gave Berezar hell,” Xark’on states. “I would say I’m sorry for being so wrong about you the first time you came here. But if I hadn’t been wrong, you might not have gone to slay it.”
“We were all wrong,” Brax’tan says. “I not least. I will not ask you to accept my apology, Car’rakz. But I do offer it.”
“No apology needed,” I state, moved by their gesture. “I was a different man then. I had not yet met Tamara.”
Brax’tan places a hand on my shoulder. “At any rate, we’re all honored to have you now as our tribesman.”
“We will all practice the method you used to slay Berezar,” Jax’zan says. “It is the only thing we know that works against a full-grown dragon.”
“And the scales,” Dar’ax observes, “are so light and strong, they can provide good armor for us as well as for our enemy. You were far-seeing to bring them all.”
“It was Tamara’s idea,” I admit. “The scales are so light and thin, we could carry them all here.”
I throw a glance at my new wife. She’s tossing her little bunch of flowers behind her, and so
me of the alien women scramble to catch it.
She cheers, then meets my gaze with a radiant smile on her face.
I walk towards her, unable to stand being apart from her just now.
“Phoebe caught the flowers,” she says, her cheeks flushed. “But she swears up and down that she’ll never date a caveman, much less marry one. Sorry, I mean warrior. How are you?”
I embrace her. “I’m very happy. A very happy caveman. A married caveman.”
She laughs. “Sorry! It’s just, you did live in a cave.”
“I did. And then you and I lived in one together.” The mere memory of the cave on the mountain and the things we did there creates a strain in my new pants.
Tamara looks up at me with eyes that are suddenly glassy, and I think I’m not the only one here feeling some heat. “We did. And I’m happy to be a cavewoman.”
“My cavewoman.”
“Your cavewoman.”
For a moment we just stand there, and as far as I’m concerned I could just stand there forever.
“Let’s just stand here forever,” Tamara suggests.
I put my nose into her artfully arranged hair and sniff deeply. “Yes.”
“Or until the girls finish cooking the wedding dinner. I think there might be roasted meat!”
“Truly a luxurious dish,” I play along. “Is it dragon meat?”
“Probably not,” Tamara laughs. “But I’m sure you can pretend that it is, if it’s something you’d like.”
“I don’t think I’ll need to pretend it is anything. Reality is fine as it is. Indeed, it has never been finer. But I suppose this is just an ordinary day in this extraordinary tribe.”
Tamara sighs contentedly. “I can’t believe you came here to steal our Lifegivers.”
“I was on a mission. But I was relieved when it turned out your tribe’s Lifegivers weren’t the kind you can steal.”
“And still, you stole me.”
“Only for a while,” I protest. “I untied you eventually. And I like to think of it as claiming you.”
“You have claimed me now, that’s for sure. I meant to ask you: why did you tie me up in the first place?”
“You were unconscious. I was afraid you might do something dangerous. And then I thought, ‘this woman will leave the first chance she gets. I better make sure she can’t.’ Already then, I couldn’t stand the idea of living without you. I knew it was impossible that you’d stay. But I came to my senses eventually.”
“You know, I kind of liked being tied up.”
“Yes?”
“A little bit. Maybe it’s something we can do again sometime?”
I frown. “Tying you up?”
She gives me a mysterious smile. “Maybe. I’ll show you later.”
“So many mysteries around my wife,” I sigh. “I think I must spend some time on andestani esoloji.”
“Oh, I think you understand my ethology just fine, my love. But yeah, you’ll study me very closely from now on.”
I lean down to kiss her again. I just can’t help it. “From now on and forever.”
“Forever,” she agrees. “You’ll know me pretty well by the end.”
I sniff her hair again. “The word ‘forever’ implies no end.”
She grins. “That works for me.”
- - -
© Calista Skye 2019
- - -
Make sure to catch the Epilogue at the end of the book!
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading my book!
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Happy reading,
Calista
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* * *
Caveman Alien's Ransom: A SciFi BBW/Alien Fated Mates Romance
Being abducted by aliens was never on my bucket list. But I guess the aliens didn't get that memo, because one night I was beamed aboard a UFO. It dumped me and a bunch of other girls on an alien planet.
A Jurassic planet where giant, murderous dinosaurs walk around, and everything wants to kill me.
My only hope of surviving is the first man I met here. His name is Jax'zan, and he's an alien.
And a caveman.
As in, the hottest super-alpha caveman who ever lived. He's big and strong and doesn't talk much, but he's saved my life so many times now that I've lost count.
My insides turn to hot mush whenever he fixes his smoldering eyes on me, and the scandalously sexy and unusual features his sensationally muscular body is rocking totally make me forget time and place.
There's only one problem: He's holding me for ransom. And he wants to repopulate his woman-less planet. With me ...
Expect steamy scenes, mysterious aliens with features like adult toys, deadly planets, and the love story between a BBW from Earth and a sensationally hot alien warrior.
Full-length romance novel with no cliffhangers and a happily-ever-after ending!
Epilogue
- Tamara -
Car’rakz stands up and smiles at me. “It tingles.”
He saunters away, one side of his face shiny with a thin layer of the alien nanogel that Trak’zor keeps. His new pants are not as tight as the old ones, but still his rear attracts my gaze as he walks into the darkness of the village.
Sophia frowns. “Really think that’ll work?”
“No,” I admit. “But it’s worth a try. Right, Delyah?”
Delyah closes the small stone container with the gel. “Totally worth a try. Trak’zor went to get more of the gel from Bune, so we now have a good amount of it. For Aurora’s birth, of course. Just in case. But for other things, too. We can get more at Bune. It keeps making it.”
I twist the bangle on my wrist. I’ve been doing that a lot lately. That object means even more to me now than it did before. It reminds me of the victory and of Car’rakz and of my family. “It’s not that important. It’s more for him than for me. I love him whatever he looks like.”
Phoebe sits down beside me on the rock outside the cave and casually touches my shoulder in greeting. “Maybe it’s just as well that he has that little flaw. If not, you’d never take your eyes off him.” “Maybe,” I admit. “The half that’s not burned is pretty attractive.”
She tosses a twig into the flickering fire. “What happened to his tribe?”
I stretch my legs out in front of me. “He went back there briefly before we came here to get married. They’re all about gold again. But he hopes that with the old chief gone, they might come to their senses. Not that it matters. They have no Lifegivers. No future.”
Sophia chews thoughtfully on a strand of red herb. “So weird. The whole tribe struck by lethal gold fever. Almost makes me worried about keeping all the dragon gold in the village. I mean, what if the guys start going ga-ga over it?”
“We have to keep an eye on that,” Delyah says. “I mean, the closest thing I can think of is if there was a big store of freshly brewed coffee in the cave, but nobody was allowed to get any. I think one or two of the girls would consider stealing some. I know I would do more than just consider it.”
“Or a mountain of ice cream,” Phoebe says. “Or chocolate. Dark and creamy, a touch of vanilla, straight from the cocoa mines in Belgium…”
“Stop it!” Sophia demands. “My mouth can only water so much. But yeah, I agree. If these dudes have a species-wide weakness for gold, then let’s do what we can to not give them any. Or rather,” she says, twisting the new ring on her finger, “any more than they already have.”
“Yeah,” I admit, looking at the wedding ring on my own finger. “I’m afraid it was my idea. All the married couples get two rings each,
made from the gold we brought from Berezar’s lair. Car’rakz seemed to like the idea, too. Sorry. I didn’t think it through. It just seemed weird that only he and I got wedding rings.”
“Nah,” Delyah says and squeezes my shoulder. “It’s actually a useful experiment. All the married guys each have a gold ring now. Let’s observe how they deal with it. Do they spend all night sitting up and just admiring it, like that Gollum creature from the Lord of the Rings movies? Or do they handle it like any married man on Earth would, and totally ignore it? I’m not worried at all. Car’rakz never got gold fever. I think it was just their chief. And the other ones were too weak-minded to resist.”
“My preciousss,” Sophia says in a creepy voice, and we all laugh. “Car’rakz was the good apple in that tribe. Like all of our guys were in their own tribes. They’ll be fine.”
“But the dragons won’t,” Phoebe states. “They really need the hoards. To draw their strength from. How will we use the gold to get to them when they get here? If they get here?”
“That is something we have to think very carefully about,” Delyah says. “On one hand, the gold attracts the dragons. On the other hand, we don’t want them to actually get any. It might make them stronger.”
Heidi comes out of the cave with six weeks old Deli’axa in her arms. Her birth a couple of weeks ago was so uneventful and smooth that we hardly noticed it. “Looks like the show is about to start in there. Contractions getting closer fast. Trak’zor is ready with his gel on a hair trigger, and I heard Aurora use some words that I swear made steam rise from the walls.”
“You guys better stay alert,” I tell Delyah and Sophia. “I know those two want to do this without anyone else there, but just in case. You never know.”
Heidi shrugs. “Emilia is still in there.”
Sophia taps her lips. “So, the next one to give birth is Caroline. Then Delyah. Then me again. And then?” She looks at me and raises her eyebrows.