Jacob & Phaedra's Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 2)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  I smiled and lifted my head to kiss him. I knew that I was never going to live on Earth again. I would keep my house there, just in case Ero and I wanted to go on an interplanetary honeymoon. Maybe I would take my Denynso students, whoever they turned out to be, on field trips now that my mate had proven that their kind could successfully travel through space. I was his now, completely and fully his, and wherever he was, I knew that that’s was where I would be.

  (To be Continued in Part IX… )

  Book 9 – Smitten by Sweetest Alien

  Chapter One

  Dear Diary,

  I still can't believe this is actually happening. One minute I was hiding at Zuri's house trying to decide what I was going to do next and being terrified that at any minute my evil son of a bitch of a stepfather was going to show up and kill me, and the next minute I was following Zuri and some warrior who is apparently in love with her to the university space shuttle to head to Uoria. I still can't believe how easily Ero made him go away.

  I just re-read that sentence. I can't believe I am still not brave enough to even write his name. I am literally on another planet, nowhere near anywhere where he would be able to get near me, and I still can't bring myself to write it. Maybe one day I will get over everything that he has put me through since my idiot of a mother decided to marry him. I will never understand that.

  What am I doing here? It seemed like a fantastic idea at the time when Zuri and Ero suggested that I come along with them when they returned to Uoria. Anything to get out of his line of fire for when he finally got over the shock of Ero scaring the living hell out of him. That and I really didn't have anywhere else to go and wasn't sure where I was going to live or what I was going to do for those little life details like food. Coming here was a way for me to stay with Zuri, who is the only person in the entire world that I trust, know that I will have somewhere to live and stay safe while I figure out what the hell I am going to do with my future, and use some of my chemistry and biology knowledge to actually do something good rather than just filling out tests.

  I have only been on Uoria for a couple of hours and I am still so overwhelmed by everything that is going on. I thought that I would be spending time with Zuri, maybe getting a chance to talk to her about everything that had been going on with me in the last few weeks. As soon as we got here, though, Ero whisked her away somewhere and I got handed over to the human women and to a man named Ty. I was happy to see Leia, even though we don't know each other terribly well. To be honest, though, I was happier to see Ty. I wouldn't say this to anybody but you, but he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen in my entire life. He is huge beyond description and so gorgeous I couldn't even talk to him for the first few minutes. From what I understand, he is my own personal protector for while I'm here. That could make this experience much more pleasant.

  I'm going to try to get some sleep. They gave me my own house to live in while I'm here, which is a major change from what I'm used to. There won't be anyone to bother me or to tell me what to do. Or to do anything else to me. Maybe I'll get lonely at some point, but for now this is all just too incredible for me to get my mind around. I might only have six months here before our exchange period ends and we have to go back to Earth, but I'm not going to think about that. I am going to take advantage of every moment that I have and deal with whatever is ahead of me when it comes.

  Samira

  I finished my diary entry and tucked the notebook under my pillow. I know it is a completely outdated form of recordkeeping, but I had always found comfort in being able to actually write down my thoughts. I never read back through the stacks of notebooks I had accumulated throughout my eighteen years, but I figured that if I ever wanted to relive any of those moments, at least they would be there. On my darker days I figured that if my stepfather ever got his hands on me and I wasn't able to get away, at least the people who found me would have my journals to follow what had happened to me in the last several years of my life.

  The house that the Denynso had put aside for me was small but comfortable and I settled back on the bed. It had taken some convincing for the human women to actually leave me alone in the house rather than staying with me and helping me get settled in. I didn't want to be rude to them, but the last thing I wanted that night was to sit around and regale them with the stories of what led up to coming with Zuri. For now I was more than happy to let them believe that I was just another exchange student who had joined the program for people of Earth to come to Uoria and exchange knowledge, ideas, and cultural traditions. Unless I had the chance to spend time with Zuri, I would rather be alone. Well, Zuri or Ty.

  As soon as I saw Ty, I knew that I wanted to spend more time with him. He didn't have the gruff, aggressive feeling that the other men did and I found myself wondering if he was a warrior like Pyra and Gyyx, the Denynso mates of Eden and Leia, or if he was something else like Ciyrs, the mate of Eliana. The three human women seemed so happy with their Denynso men, and I found myself curious about the quiet, calm man entrusted with guiding me to my house and who said he would be my guide and protector while I was on Uoria. I wanted to know more about him, to find out what lurked behind those eyes and gave him an energy and presence that made me feel almost safe and comfortable near him.

  Chapter Two

  "What the hell is wrong with me?" Ty asked, pouring a few more ingredients into the huge bowl in front of him and going at it with a spoon with such intensity Pyra took a step back.

  "What do you mean?" the enormous warrior asked.

  Ty paused his assault of the cake batter and looked at Pyra.

  "If you haven't noticed, my apron has a bit of a tent situation going on here and I haven't been able to think straight since last night."

  Pyra glanced down at the front of Ty's apron and saw exactly what he was talking about. Though better concealed with the thick white apron hanging over him than it would have been if he was just standing there in the soft tie-front pants that were the usual wardrobe of the Denynso men, it was still pretty obvious that he had a raging hard-on. The baker shifted slightly and Pyra looked up at him with a knowing grin.

  "Yeah, I've noticed. Why are you even asking? You watched me go through it months ago, then Ciyrs, then Gyxx, and now Ero. It seems that the efforts to communicate and cooperate more effectively with Earth have had a much different impact than we originally anticipated. These human women get here and the Denynso men start dropping like flies. It looks like you are the one that came under the line of fire this time."

  He reached out and dipped a finger in the bowl of batter and Ty pulled it away from him roughly. Even though he was baking a cake specifically for Pyra to bring to his mate Eden, who happened to be a couple of months into her first pregnancy and constantly in the throes of either a dramatic emotional situation or a craving, Ty didn't like when Pyra stuck his fingers in the batter. Not only did it just seem pretty unsanitary, his perfectionist ways made Ty feel like it threw off the entire balance and measurement of the batter so the cake wouldn't turn out exactly as he had wanted it to when he first started baking it. In the back of his mind he knew that that was being a little bit ridiculous, but he couldn't help it. Just like the warriors couldn't shake off their compulsion to fight and protect, Ty couldn't fight off his compulsion to create and perfect.

  "That can't possibly be it," Ty said, adding a few drops of dark brown liquid from a bottle he kept on the top shelf of his spice cabinet.

  "Why not? I was there when Zuri got back with that new girl. Anyone with eyes can see that she's beautiful."

  "Samira."

  "What?" Pyra asked, running the tip of one of his fingers through a mound of sweet powder on the counter and licking it off.

  "The new girl. Her name is Samira."

  "Uh-huh. I guess your big old orange eyes definitely noticed that she's beautiful."

  "My eyes aren't orange!" Ty protested, then picked up a cookie sheet so he could see his reflection. Sure enough, there were streaks
of orange through the usual brown of his eyes. "Shit."

  "Yep. They might not have made their complete changeover yet, but those eyes cannot deceive. They know that your mate has shown up, and unless you are preparing yourself to fight Ero for Zuri or you are going to break into the space shuttle and try to pry out that little flight attendant who always runs and hides the minute that the ship lands, that means that your mate is Samira."

  "She can't be."

  "I don't get it. Why are you so pissed about your mate showing up? You have the whole nurturing and taking care of someone thing down pat. You've been taking care of all of us warriors for as long as I can remember. And you are plenty old enough to get mated."

  Ty groaned and started distributing the batter into three hexagonal pans he had placed in a row in the middle of the counter.

  "That's the problem right there. I am plenty old enough, but is she? Did you see her? She looks barely old enough to be out of her mother's house much less in somebody's bed. I just don't feel right looking at her the way that I obviously look at her when she is so young."

  "She's old enough to be Zuri's student, which means that she is old enough to be in college. I don't think that Zuri would have brought her here if she wasn't an adult, but if it makes you feel any better, I can ask Eden how old she is exactly."

  "How would she know that?"

  "They are human women. They tell each other everything. It's a little disturbing actually. I think that she had told the other girls far more than I would ever want any of them to know about me because last time I was in the room with all of them, they all seemed to be far too focused on the front of my pants. And since I am no longer in the fun pre-mating phase that you are currently finding yourself enjoying, there would be nothing to draw their attention there unless they were trying to confirm a story that they heard."

  Ty laughed, feeling better now that he at least had Pyra to commiserate with him a little bit. It wasn't exactly the same thing, but they had both found themselves at the mercy of the confounding and sometimes irresistible human women who had started infiltrating their planet.

  As he slipped the cakes into the oven, Ty found his mind wandering back to Samira. The second she stepped off of the shuttle from the university the night before, he was enraptured. This was something he had never felt before. While some of the warriors were known for having as many female conquests as they did battle victories, Ty had never been that kind of man. He had thought he had feelings for a couple of the females of the tribe a few times before, but even when they had sex no bonding ever occurred. Now that he had seen Samira, he realized that those feelings were nothing and that he was truly screwed. If Pyra was right, and truth be told, Pyra was almost always right, especially when it came to things that he had experienced himself, there was nothing that Ty could do about his newfound attraction to Samira. If the constant erection wasn't enough to tell him, the hint of orange in his eyes was unmistakable.

  Samira was his mate and would be the only one for him for the rest of his life. He would just have to decide if he could deal with it or if he was going to let her age keep him from pursuing her and risk living the rest of his existence alone and longing for her. It was not a decision that he wanted to make.

  Chapter Three

  When I woke up the morning after arriving on Uoria, I had a few disorienting moments when I had no idea where I was. In the first few seconds after I woke up but before I opened my eyes I thought that I might still be at Zuri's house, and then I had a moment of panic thinking that I was back at my mother's house and that the pounding I heard was my stepfather knocking on the door trying to get into my bedroom. My eyes snapped open and I saw the unfamiliar room around me and I was briefly terrified. Finally I regained my senses and remembered that I was in Uoria in my own little house, and that I was, for once, safe.

  After just a few seconds of feeling calm and in control again, however, I heard the loud pounding and again became afraid. I sat up in the bed and pulled the covers up around me, pulling my knees to my chest like I always did when I felt scared. It was a protective position that made me feel like I was retracting into my shell. Too many memories of nights spent just like that in my bed at home, or in the corner of my bedroom, or even, on particularly horrible nights, curled in the closet just like that so that I could try to guard myself as much as I could.

  "Samira?"

  I heard my name added to the pounding and instantly recognized the voice as belonging to Ty. He was standing at the front door to my house, knocking insistently on the door and calling me. When I listened to his voice, however, I realized that it was not anger or frustration, but genuine concern and worry for me that was causing him to call out to me so loudly. I gathered my blankets close around me and hurried across the house to the door.

  "Yes?" I said, pulling the door open and stepping behind it as much as I could to conceal myself while still being able to look at him.

  I could see Ty's eyes scanning what of my body he could see and then snap up to mine, a look that somehow combined intrigue and shame crossing his face. He was even more gorgeous now that I was looking at him in daylight. Rather than the Mohawk style I had seen among most of the other men, Ty wore his stark white hair down and loose except for a braid down the center of his head that reached to the base of his neck. I am not a small woman, yet he towered over me, making me feel small and delicate. This was something I had never felt, and I loved it. I wanted to explore more of it, to see just how powerful he was and how well he knew how to use that power.

  "Ty?" I said, realizing that he hadn't said anything since I opened the door.

  He shook his head hard like he was trying to bring his thoughts back into reality and gestured behind him.

  "The king and queen want you to come to meet them and to have breakfast in the meeting hall. Usually human visitors have to report to them first, but since you were a bit of a surprise, they weren't in the hall last night when you arrived and said that it was fine to have your greeting this morning."

  I was confused by the formality of it, and by being described as a "surprise".

  "I thought that Zuri told everyone that I was coming."

  "She did, but we didn’t get the communication until right before your arrival. Ero sent the message when he arranged transport back here, but the transportation officials didn't let us know until the day before you got here. "

  "I don't understand. If they didn't tell everybody that I was coming, how did they have a house ready for me and how did they choose you as my guard?"

  A bit of panic was starting to build in my chest. It was that feeling of being out of place and unwanted. I didn't want to be an imposition to anyone and my mind was suddenly reeling with plans for how I was going to get myself back to Earth now that the shuttle was already preparing to leave and there was no way I would be able to get back on it before take-off.

  "You aren't an imposition," Ty said and then suddenly looked shocked.

  I looked at him, stunned. He had just responded to what I was thinking, using my exact words to comfort me.

  "How did you know that I was thinking that?"

  He stuttered for a few seconds like he was trying to come up with words to explain what had just happened, and then I noticed his eyes had dropped again. Without realizing it, I had stepped out from behind the door and was standing fully in front of him. My blankets had slipped down slightly and he could plainly see that I sleep naked with the top of the blanket barely covering my nipples and the two sides wrapped around me closed just beneath the apex of my thighs. His eyes lifted to mine and felt my breath deepen slightly. I had known this man for just a few hours, but in that moment all I wanted was for him to touch me. The feeling was overwhelming, deep and intense like it was something that had always been in me but that I was just discovering.

  Instead of fulfilling that wish, however, Ty turned his eyes away from me and cleared his throat softly. I gathered my blankets closer around me reluctantly and steppe
d backwards into the house.

  "Do you want to come in while I get dressed?"

  He shook his head.

  "I'll just wait here."

  Feeling slightly hurt, I closed the door and went back to my bedroom to get dressed. I wasn't sure what to wear. He had mentioned the king and queen, but I knew from Zuri that they weren't like the kings and queens you hear about from history classes at Earth. She described them as kind and approachable, people who associated with the rest of the tribe that they ruled with compassion, affection, and respect. Still, they were the monarchs and I didn't want to offend them with my clothing. I wished Zuri were there to help me.

  Suddenly I felt like I heard Ty's voice in my head telling me that I would look beautiful in anything. It sent a shiver down my spine and brought a flutter to my belly. Smiling to myself for reasons that I didn't fully understand at the time, I draped my blankets back over my bed and dressed.

  Chapter Four

  Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit.

  Ty sighed and sagged back against the door to Samira's house. How could he be so stupid? Tuning into the thoughts of another person was extremely intimate, which is why it was something that only mates, with a few very specific exceptions, shared. It was part of the bond that occurred between the men of his kind and their women, and it allowed them to stay fully connected. This could be very helpful when they needed to find each other, when one needed the help of the other, or they wanted to express something private to each other without anyone else hearing it.

  The fact that he could already connect with Samira was startling to say the least, considering they had never even touched each other much less bonded. Now he had been dumb enough to not only listen to her thoughts, but reply to her both speaking to her and sending his own thoughts to her. He knew he was probably scaring the hell out of her, or at the very least making her think that she was crazy. He hadn't even decided yet what he was going to do about these intense feelings he was experiencing for the stunning but so young woman that was now dressing in the house behind him. This was not a good time to start toying with her by listening to her thoughts and sending her his without her understanding what was going on.