“Your wounds are healing quickly,” she observed, looking at the fading bruising on Zarek’s arms and the shrinking gouges on his chest and shoulders. They sat in their usual spot, the shady corner of Zarek’s aquarium, in their usual position, facing each other cross-legged. The enclosure had been repaired. The walls had been reinforced with extra layers of glass.
“Yours, too,” he said softly.
Aubrey looked at him quizzically.
“The ones on your back,” he clarified. “I sense less pain in you every day.”
“They are healing. You can sense my pain?” she asked. She had often sensed his pain, had even felt it occasionally, but she had been too embarrassed to tell him.
“Yes,” he answered her. “But the real question is, how do you sense my pain?”
Aubrey sat up straighter. “How did you know?”
“Parizakians can sense things in others. We can sense physical sensations and emotions. Humans can’t do this, correct?”
“Correct,” Aubrey answered. “Well, mostly correct. I mean, some humans have more empathy than others, but no, humans can’t sense anything with much intensity.”
“You sensed my pain when you put the needle in my vein.”
“Yes…”
“You saw my stories.”
“Yes…,” Aubrey answered. “But that’s not normal for a human.”
“Why does your father treat you so cruelly?” Zarek asked, showing that he sensed more than her physical pain.
“I don’t know,” Aubrey said, looking down at her hands.
“Come here,” Zarek held up his arm indicating for her to move beside him. She tentatively did so. She wasn’t afraid of him, but she was afraid of her feelings for him. She was beginning to feel more than lust, and that “more than lust” was also more than impossible. He was an alien creature, and if things worked out, and she hoped for his sake they did, he would be returning to his own people very soon.
Aubrey sat stiffly, but as Zarek began caressing her arm and nuzzling his head into her hair, she relaxed. She felt her body melting into his.
“I’ll make a deal,” Zarek said. “If you tell me about your father, I’ll tell you more about my planet.”
Aubrey smiled. She had grown to love hearing about his planet.
“Deal,” she said.
“My Mom died when I was little,” she explained mechanically, using the same words she had used to tell the story to every psychologist she had ever visited. “I lived with my grandparents for a while. They were Brazilian, like my mom. Then, my grandfather died. He had a heart attack. My grandmother was aging, too. She couldn’t take care of me anymore. I moved back to the States to live with my dad. I don’t know why he hates me.”
“Aubrey,” Zarek put his fingers under her chin, raising her head so he could look into her eyes. She wanted so badly to close the gap between their lips. “Aubrey, tell me something you haven’t told twenty other people.”
Zarek put his hand over her heart before he continued. “Tell me something that comes from here.”
Aubrey slowly let out the breath she had been holding. She looked down again. “I think my dad hates me because I’m not worthy to be my mother’s daughter. My mother was beautiful. I can still see her in my mind, her dark hair shining, sparkling as the sunlight streams from the open balcony doors behind her.”
Aubrey looked up at Zarek, tears in her eyes. “Zarek, she was so beautiful, so, so, beautiful, and I’m—”
“Just as beautiful,” Zarek cut her off with a whisper. “Aubrey, you are absolutely the most beautiful female I have ever seen.”
Zarek closed the distance between their lips, kissing away the tears that had made it down to her mouth. Then, he pulled away, kissing her tear trails up to her lower eyelids. He drew her in for a hug, rocking her and holding her for a few moments. Then, she pulled away, wiping at her face with her fingers.
“Your turn,” she said, trying to smile, “You promised.”
“Alright,” he said, clearing his throat. “My mother and father found each other early, even for Plarizakians. You see, we are born with mates, in a way. I believe the word is destiny. We each have a mate that is our destiny. There is a connection that we feel when we meet our destined mate. It is undeniable. We can feel our mate’s pain; we can sense their emotions, but it is more than that. When we feel the pain and emotions, we feel it as though the feelings are ours, too. It is like we are that person. Their experiences are our own. It is intense.”
“But—” Aubrey said, remembering how she had felt Zarek’s pain and experienced his memories as if they were all her own.
“Allow me to finish,” he said, laying back, pulling her down beside him. She nuzzled into his side. “Most Plarizakian mates meet in their teens, some as late as their twenties, but my parents met when they were four. They were always inseparable. They especially loved playing Claxianica.”
“What’s—?” Aubrey tried to ask.
“Shhh,” Zarek shushed her. “It’s a game we play while we’re in dragon form. It’s like juggling and baseball and basketball and acrobatics all in one. Anyway, they would always play this game, but as they grew older, my father’s friends would tease him for playing the game with a girl. No Claxianica team had a girl member then, but my mother was quite good at the game. So good that, other teams started picking up girl members. My dad was always so proud of her. He told us stories about their games all the time.”
“You said ‘us’,” Aubrey pointed out. “Were you talking about your brother, too?”
Zarek’s eyes went dark. His voice was deeper. “Yes, my brother. He was nine when the Nefarianics attacked. I tried to save him. I was leading him to the ship. I was trying to help him avoid the Nefarianics, but…I… I couldn’t save him. It was my fault.”
Aubrey rose enough to lean on her elbow. “Zarek, it wasn’t.”
Zarek looked down. “It was.”
“Oh, Zarek,” Aubrey whispered, leaning toward him. She kissed his lips. Then, she kissed along the cut of his jawline, and down his neck. He placed his hand firmly on the back of her neck, pulling her lips back to his and keeping them there.
“Don’t stop,” he whispered between kisses.
Aubrey didn’t stop. She pushed her lips harder into his, parting his lips with her tongue. She ran the tip of her tongue along the side of his, withdrawing it to trace his lips again. He leaned over, guiding her head to rest on his other arm, which was still on the ground. He pulled his lips away from her, tracing a path up her jaw to breathe lightly in her ear. He twisted a loose strand of her curly hair around his finger and traced her jugular firmly with his tongue, biting lightly on the base of her neck, sending shivers of pleasure through her.
“You are so, so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely, looking up at her. She looked back into his heavy, sensually-darkened eyes.
“Zarek,” she whispered through lips that felt swollen. “You said mates sense each other as if they are the same.”
“Yes,” he answered, unbuttoning her dress shirt, pushing the cup of her bra down, and taking her breast in his hand, leaning down to trace the edges of her nipple with his tongue.
“But when I felt your pain and saw your memories, I felt as if they were mine,” she said.
“I know,” he said, taking her nipple between his lips. She gasped. Her back arched. She closed her eyes.
“But, does that mean,” she finally exhaled the words.
“Shhhh,” he said. She obeyed. She couldn’t speak, anyway. He pulled her shoes off as she sat to take off her top layers of clothing. When she was completely naked, he ran his hands down the length of her sides. His gaze followed his hands, a look of awe in his eyes. As he caressed her ribs, her waist, her full hips, her inner thighs, he looked at her as though she really was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. His kisses followed the center of her torso, down to her belly button, down to her abdomen, down to her hips. He pushed her legs apart, gently caressing her
inner thighs with his thumb.
Aubrey breathed in sharply through her teeth, reaching down to lace her fingers with his free hand as her hips moved up, wanting him. He stroked the fingers of his other hand farther up her thighs. His index finger caressed her lower lips, slick with her desire. Then, his tongue did the same. A molten heat shot through her core as his tongue caressed her small bud of nerve endings. She raised her hips against his tongue, entangling her fingers through his hair.
Finally, he slid his finger inside her. She released a low moan at the intense spike of pleasure. His tongue continued to circle her clit as his finger slowly caressed her vaginal walls by sliding in and out. His tongue flicked firmly, and she bucked against him. She couldn’t wait. She had to have him inside her—now. She tugged on his hand, trying to get him to rise. He obeyed, bringing his face near hers, nuzzling into her neck so he could kiss and lick and lightly bite.
Then, he entered her. His alien member was large, larger than a human male, but felt unbelievable—like nothing she’d experienced before. She cried out in ecstasy from the most intense pleasure she had ever felt.
“You are so beautiful,” his voice was thick and gruff, sex roughened. His incredibly hard shaft moved with short strokes, deeper and deeper inside her. She grasped his hips, feeling the muscles of his ass tighten and loosen with each stroke. Her hips rose and fell in perfect rhythm.
“You are so beautiful,” he repeated. Then, he added the word “mate.”
Aubrey gasped. Had he just said “mate”? Perhaps she wasn’t thinking straight. Her body was taking over her mind. The tingling in her core became waves of pleasure until, finally, the tension broke. Orgasmic waves rushed through Aubrey’s body. She exhaled, her eyes clenched shut, her head back. But the pleasure didn’t stop, Zarek kept moving in and out of her, throbbing inside her, her over-sensitized nerve endings picking up on each movement. Aubrey looked up at Zarek. He looked down at her, their gazes held, his dark hair slick with sweat, his eyes dark with pleasure. Suddenly, she felt his pleasure, too, and as he found his release, she came for the second time.
Chapter Eight
Aubrey hurried through her duties the next day. She couldn’t wait to get back down to visit Zarek. Finally, at ten o’clock that night, Aubrey entered the control room that led into Zarek’s enclosure, expecting him to be standing next to the door as he usually was. Zarek, though, was sitting in his shaded corner.
Aubrey scanned her badge and entered the anteroom, suddenly wondering if Zarek was regretting the events of the previous night. For her, being with Zarek had been the most intensely pleasurable experience of her life, but maybe the experience hadn’t been the same for him.
Was I that bad? Aubrey asked herself as the second door slid open.
Zarek remained in his corner, looking up only as she approached him. His arms were wrapped around his knees. There was no trace of joy in his eyes. In fact, he looked agitated.
“Zarek,” she asked him softly. She remained standing. “Are you okay?”
“They are coming,” he said.
“Who’s coming?”
“My people. They are close. I can feel it.” Finally, he stood, his six-foot frame towering over her. She took a step back.
“But—” she stopped herself, not knowing what to say. What could she say? That she wanted him to stay? That she wanted him to live in a cage for the rest of his life just so she could have the pleasure of being with him? No. She didn’t want that for him.
Zarek took a step forward. Aubrey flinched.
“Aubrey,” he whispered, looking at her. His eyes cleared as if he were seeing her for the first time since she had entered the room. She ”ried to relax as he approached her. He put his arms around her, drawing her toward him.
“What about—” she started, paused, then started again. “What about us?”
“I don’t know Aubrey,” he said, his cheek resting on her head. “I don’t know.”
Aubrey clenched her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry.
“Except,” he pulled away from her, still holding onto her shoulders. “There might be a way, but…”
“But what?” Aubrey asked pleadingly. If there was a way she would take it.
“My people won’t take prisoners. They will kill anyone who stands in the way of rescuing me. But, if you don’t stand in their way, if you helped me...
“I could, perhaps, talk to them,” he continued, “Maybe there would be a way for us. I don’t know, but it is worth a try. Anything is worth a try. Aubrey, I want to be with you. Help me escape. Meet me here at midnight tomorrow night. Don’t come before then.”
“Why?” Was he trying to trick her? Did he want to get a chance to escape before midnight, before she knew where he was going? Was he trying to escape from this building, this planet, as well as from… her?
Aubrey thought. She had worked so hard to be here. What if Zarek did escape? What if they couldn’t be together? Worse, what if he was just using her to escape? Not only would her career be ruined, she would be ruined. She didn’t know if her spirit could survive that kind of devastation. But, what choice did she have? She couldn’t allow him to live in a cage.
What if he was the man she thought he was? Hoped he was.
Regardless, he deserved freedom, whether or not she had a chance of being with him outside the confines of this lab, he deserved freedom. Still, she was scared.
“Fine,” she said, looking down.
“What?” he asked as if he hadn’t expected her to agree.
“I’ll do it,” she said, looking up into his eyes again. Once again, she was unsure of the thoughts his eyes held. Did he care about her? She looked down at her own body. She looked at his body. How could he?
But what if he did? Her body tensed. She had to get out of here. She had to think without him right in front of her. She would help him, but she had to prepare herself for—for the worst.
“You don’t believe I want to be with you, do you?” he asked her, lifting her chin up. She couldn’t look at him, though.
“It doesn’t matter,” she answered. “I’ll help you anyway.”
“It matters. It matters to me. I want to be with you,” he said. “I love you, Aubrey Moss.”
As much as she had been looking forward to this moment, she couldn’t say the words back. She couldn’t let herself say the words back. She wasn’t ready to let herself believe him. Instead of speaking, she leaned up, kissed him for what might have been the last time, and turned around, exiting into the anteroom, into the control room, and up the stairs. She didn’t look back.
Chapter Nine
Aubrey waited, her legs shaking, her hands trembling. It was ten minutes before midnight. The fate of her life, of her love, was on the line, and all she could do was wait. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She rose from her chair in the Earth-animal lab. She walked through the extra-terrestrial creature lab, looking down into Zarek’s enclosure but seeing nothing in the spot that the circular viewing area covered. She kept moving, swiping her ID badge near the far door that led to the stairs. She swiped her ID badge again at the control-room door. Two men stood at the control panels. They were pushing buttons and turning levers.
“Maybe it’s this one,” of the men said, reaching for a button on the side of the control panel.
“No!” Aubrey shouted, lunging toward him to try to grab his arm.
The men turned. Jandric grabbed her wrists as Virlek put his arm around her neck, his forearm against her windpipe.
Aubrey choked, trying to speak. Talons began growing out of Jandic’s fingers. He raised his hand back, about to strike Aubrey across her face, about to tear her apart, ending her.
Then, the glass doors and observation windows that led into Zarek’s enclosure shattered, the glass flying into the control room. A piece caught Aubrey’s cheek. Another piece caught Virlek’s wrist. He released his hold on Aubrey. Sirens blared.
“Not her!” Zarek growled over the noise. He stood i
n front of them as he transformed back into his human. “Not her!”
“They’ll be coming now!” Aubrey screamed, running into the enclosure, looking up at the glass so she could see upstairs. “They’re here.”
She watched Jandric, Virlek, and Zarek transform into huge dragons, even as they exited the chamber and climbed the stairs.
“I have the key,” she shouted, running to keep up. They let her squeeze by, but crowded past her as the upstairs lab door opened. The men finished transforming as they walked through the second door and into the large lab. She heard the pellet sounds of gunfire. She heard the woosh of fire as it escaped the dragons’ lungs. Breaking glass and clattering metal. She peeked around the door in time to see Jandric strike a soldier. The man, his face torn to shreds, fell over the metal railing, landing with a thud on top of Zarek’s enclosure. Aubrey screamed as a soldier pointed his gun up toward Zarek’s tender throat. Virlek followed her gaze, saw that his friend was in trouble, and lunged for the soldier. The soldier’s body followed his comrade’s, landing on the glass of the lower enclosure.
The soldier hadn’t fallen before his shot hit Zarek, though. The massive dragon fell to the ground. More soldiers fired at him, though many of the bullets were deflected by Zarek’s scales. As he lost consciousness, Zarek’s body began transforming back into a man’s body. Aubrey whimpered. Jandric and Virlek tried to help their fallen friend, but they were busy struggling with their own attackers. The soldiers’ attention on Zarek seemed to fade after he transformed. Instead, the soldiers concentrated on the larger threats—the dragons.
Aubrey lowered herself to her hands and knees and crawled to Zarek. If she could just get him through the door, he would be safe, at least for a little while. No one else in the building had authorization to pass through that door. She tugged at his foot, then his arm, but she couldn’t drag him on her own.
Bears of Burden: THORN Page 84