Eat Your Heart Out: A Romance Charity Anthology

by Skye MacKinnon

  But after four solar rotations of wandering around the dirty streets, I was beginning to think I might not be able to find an actual mate. Not that I would ever tell any of my battle-brothers, but I dreamed of a mate-bond like the ones in the ancient stories. The kind of bond that would last forever.

  I had certainly found a couple who would be genetically compatible. But both of them were far too skinny, and one had bared her teeth at me aggressively when I first caught sight of her. I didn’t figure out until much later that the teeth-baring was called a “smile” and was considered a friendly gesture.

  Neither of those females would do. For one thing, our very first mating would probably split either of them in two. And I couldn’t see either of them carrying a Brieritin child to term. Their tiny bodies simply wouldn’t be able to provide enough nutrients.

  With a heavy sigh, I began retracing my steps toward my cloaked ship. I had touched down nearby in a giant nature preserve, dedicated, I supposed, to local wildlife—though all I had seen so far were what looked like malformed birds with stunted wingspans. Supposedly this planet had apex predators other than humans, but I hadn’t seen any of them yet.

  It would be interesting to observe a human warrior in a battle against their natural predators. It might give me some idea of how my offspring would behave in battle situations.

  But having my own offspring didn’t seem likely to happen, either.

  I am never going to find an Earth woman suitable to be my mate.

  As I passed one of the buildings housing an indoor market space with a transparent entrance, however, I heard shouting from within.

  At the same moment, my genometer went off.

  There was a mateable female inside that market space. And from the sound of it, she needed my help.

  Without a second thought, I pulled open the door, almost wrenching it from its hinges, and strode inside.

  Ceri

  “I told you, if you touch me again, I’m going to cut your balls off with a rusty knife.” I glared at my boss, who stood calmly behind the register.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Rocco gave a little shrug. “I just wanted to get to the register.”

  “And cop a feel on your way?”

  “Never happened.”

  God, I wanted to slap that smug look off his face. But I really did need this job.

  A frustrated scream bubbled up inside me, trying to claw its way loose from my throat. Of all the crap bodegas to end up working in, I had to end up here with a nasty old married man who had a thing for twenty-something chicks with a few too many curves.

  It wasn’t like I could report him to anyone, either. He owned the place, so there wasn’t any boss above him, and in this part of the Bronx, the cops would just laugh it off—they had real crime to deal with.

  I didn’t have any proof, either—even the security cameras were fakes, designed to dissuade the casual shoplifter.

  Rocco knew I needed the rent money, too. At the end of the week, he’d slip extra cash into my pay envelope to make up for it. Just like he had done before.

  “Dammit,” I muttered as the bells over the door jingled and the most enormous man I had ever seen in real life strolled through.

  Enormous and gorgeous, I amended silently.

  “Is there trouble here?” he asked, his glance flickering between Rocco and me. His voice was deep and gravelly with some kind of accent, and his implacable gaze reminded me a little of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the old Terminator movies.

  But he is much better looking. Blond hair, bright blue eyes. Scandinavian, maybe?

  Part of me knew that he should frighten me, but somehow, I didn’t feel afraid in his company.

  I feel safe.

  “No problem,” Rocco said brusquely. “Can I help you find anything?”

  But the giant foreigner ignored my boss, fixing that piercing blue gaze on me—like an arrow running right through me.

  “Are you in need of assistance?” he asked.

  Yes, please. All the assistance you want to give me. Repeatedly, if you’d like.

  Out loud, I muttered, “No, thanks.”

  The door opened again, and three young guys in leather jackets tumbled through the door, pushing each other and laughing.

  The foreigner took another step toward me.

  If nothing else, his size should have intimidated me. Instead, I found myself wanting to launch myself at him, ask him to hold me.

  Maybe go mountain climbing. He’s certainly big enough for it.

  I shook the thought off. Don’t be ridiculous, Ceri.

  He opened his mouth as if to speak, but before he could say anything, the three young men who just entered fanned out around us, and one of them pulled out a gun.

  “Everyone stand still, and no one will get hurt,” he announced.

  Ris

  The instant I saw the female in the tiny market space, I knew she was mine. She was round and curvy, perfect for a Brieritin mate. To test my theory, I exhaled a small stream of pheromones.

  She reacted to them instantly, her pupils dilating and her entire body leaning toward me.

  Yes. This one is mine.

  Unfortunately, the human male standing behind the counter also seemed to be trying to lay some claim to her. I could taste his pheromones in the air, as well, acrid and annoying.

  My mate didn’t seem to be responding to his scents, though, so it should be easy enough to get him to relinquish any claim he might have wanted to make.

  When the three adolescent human males pushed their way into the market space, I should have realized instantly they would be trouble. But I was too busy focusing on my new mate, considering all the ways I would bring her to climax as soon as I got her alone.

  The warm scent of her made my cock twitch in anticipation, and it was all I could do to keep from lifting her into my arms right then and there.

  But when the lead adolescent pulled out a weapon and shouted, it finally got my attention.

  Like the male standing behind the counter, these three were a minor annoyance—though the projectile weapon they pulled out could be a problem, primitive and unwieldy as it was.

  Still, there was one more thing I needed to know before I did anything rash.

  “Are you mated?” I asked the female.

  She didn’t carry any other male’s scent, so I would have been surprised if she said yes, but it didn’t do to make a mistake. One of my warrior brothers had once chosen an Earth female who turned out to be already mate-bonded to a human male, and that had caused no end of trouble. Wiping that female’s mind and reinserting her into her life had been difficult enough. But my battle-brother had almost never recovered. It had been almost an entire planetary rotation before he had been willing to try again.

  I didn’t want to deal with that kind of grief.

  “Am I what?” my beautiful mate asked.

  I checked my genometer, scrolling through the translation matrix to make sure it was working.

  Ah. There it was. I had used the wrong word in this language. “Married. Are you married?”

  She glanced between me and the weapon-wielding adolescent male, her gaze a bit frantic. “No. Not even a boyfriend.”

  Boy-friend? Boy—that was a term for sexually immature human males. Why would she bring one of them up?

  No. I decided to take the word at its face value—no mate and no sexually immature male friends, even.

  I nodded in satisfaction. “Very well. Come with me.”

  “Everybody needs to stay in the fuck still if you don’t want a bullet in the head,” the adolescent weapon-wielding male shouted.

  Right. I had forgotten about him for a moment.

  I knew if I deployed my natural defenses, there was a chance it would break the genometer’s cloaking field momentarily. But if I moved quickly enough, no one would even notice.

  Self-defense is an acceptable reason to engage in violence on Earth, as is protecting one’s mate. My sup
erior officers will understand.

  Without another word, I turned to face the adolescent male, allowed the front part of my shielding to drop so he and his accomplices could see my true visage, and popped one of my internal blades from its wrist sheath.

  I gauged the distance to his throat perfectly, so that the end of the bone-blade barely nicked the skin.

  He began leaking internal bodily fluids in a small trickle of dark red.

  “Leave or die,” I growled.

  I held out my other hand, palm up, to take his weapon.

  He was shaking as he dropped it into my hands, and a wet stain appeared on the front of his clothing.

  More internal bodily fluids?

  I could smell it, a scent that suggested these males had chemically altered their perceptions.

  As he and his friends turned and dashed out the door, I let my shielding fall back in place and turned to my mate. “Will you come with me now?”

  Ceri

  I swear to God, it was like there was a glitch in the matrix. The gorgeous giant’s entire form shivered, and for an instant, I could have sworn I saw a halo of blue spikes sticking up from his head and shoulders.

  Then he growled, “Leave or die,” in that sexy voice of his, and the illusion was gone.

  When he turned back and asked me to go with them, I hesitated for a split second.

  This is a stupid move, Ceri.

  Then Rocco said, “You can’t go anywhere. I’m calling the police.”

  Shit. I couldn’t afford to have the police check me out. I had come in from Canada on a student visa three years ago—and it was long expired.

  That was the whole reason Rocco felt like he could get away with doing anything he wanted to me. That’s why he paid me in cash under the table, and it was why he knew I would never report him to anyone, no matter how often he tried to grope me.

  “Yeah,” I said to the gorgeous guy. “I’ll come with you.”

  So it wasn’t the smartest decision I had ever made. This guy could probably snap me in two with one hand tied behind his back.

  But the expression in those bright blue eyes of his made my knees go weak. He wanted me. And oh, God, I wanted him, too.

  So I dropped my hand into his and said, “Lead the way.”

  As he pulled open the door and led me through it, Rocco was yelling at us to stay where we were.

  I was so sick of him always grabbing my ass, brushing up against my boobs every chance he got. Without looking back, I flipped him off and called back over my shoulder, “I quit.”

  And I just walked away—with some giant foreigner who, as far as I was concerned, had just saved my life.

  “Where are we headed?” I asked once we were out on the street.

  “That way.” He pointed. “The space with all the plants.”

  “The Bronx Zoo? Or the Botanical Gardens?”

  “I’m not sure what it is called.” He gave me a quizzical glance. “Does it matter?”

  I pulled to a stop. He was strong—he could have kept walking and dragged me along with him, I knew, but instead he stopped as well, keeping only a light grip on my hand.

  “Both of those places are closed. Are you staying nearby somewhere? Do you want to go to a bar or something?”

  “I have…” He paused and glanced down at his phone, scrolling through it. “Ah,” he said, apparently finding what he was looking for. “We are going back to my place.”

  Okay. So he lived on the other side of the gardens. Maybe he was an international student at Fordham University or something?

  I opened my mouth to say something along the lines of thinking it would be better if we stayed in public—I wasn’t a total idiot, after all—when he bent down and pressed his lips against mine.

  His kiss was intoxicating, and I mean that in a literal sense. As his tongue probed my mouth, tangling with mine, I felt as if all the air had rushed out of my lungs. My head spun, and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him.

  Without a thought, I lifted my legs off the ground and wrapped them around his waist.

  Our kiss deepened, his hand under my ass to support it, my arms wrapped around his neck as I clung to him, pressing my breasts against his chest, almost as if I were trying to completely merge with him.

  We stayed that way, our kisses growing more and more frantic, until someone walking past muttered, “Get a room.”

  I pulled away, laughing. Dropping my forehead to rest against his, I whispered, “Maybe we should go back to your place.”

  “Yes. Absolutely, my clavitan.”

  Ris

  When we reached the entrance to the nature preserve, my mate balked. “That’s the Botanical Gardens. We can’t go through there. It’s closed.”

  I tapped a few keys on my genometer, and the metal grate separating our side of the walkway to the other popped open. “Not to me,” I assured her.

  Soon enough, she would come to learn that I would always make sure she had everything she needed. Including entrance to the place where I had hidden my scoutship.

  “What is your name?” I asked her, realizing that I couldn’t keep calling her my mate, even in my head.

  “Ceri Miguel.”

  “I am Ris.”

  Following me through the now-unlocked entrance, she said, “No last name?”

  Last name. I glanced down at my geometer, finding the entry that gave me that information. Surnames on this planet had initially been associated with patrilineal lineage, often connected to occupation. I glanced at the examples, then took a moment to determine what my surname would be, given those rules.

  “I am Ris, second son of Lord Commander Bratvanich. In your language, I would be Ris Bratvanichson.”

  “Lord? Are you some kind of royalty or something?”

  I checked the genometer. Royalty—hereditary leaders. Well, I did lead my unit, like my father before me. “I suppose in your terms, I am.”

  As we moved deeper into the gardens, Ceri glanced around, her scent growing increasingly indicative of anxiety.

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea for me to go in here with you,” she said.

  My pheromones must be wearing off. I had tried to infuse her with as many as possible during the meeting of our mouths to ensure that she would be more compliant.

  I would have preferred that she come with me willingly.

  But her anxiety was growing at such a rate that I feared I could not wait any longer.

  This time, when I breathed my pheromones into her face, I made certain to knock her out completely.

  I wasn’t looking forward to the potential hysterics when she awoke in my ship, but I preferred those hysterics happen once we were on board rather than out in the open, just to ensure no one else heard them.

  As she crumpled toward the ground, I caught her and scooped her up in my arms, careful to ensure none of my external spines harmed her delicate skin.

  “All will be well, my mate,” I murmured to her as I strode to the ship. “I will ensure that you are always safe.”

  Ceri

  When I woke up, I was convinced it was in a hospital. The lights were too bright and the walls around me were a sterile white.

  But I didn’t hear any hospital noises around me, and the air smelled different—cleaner, somehow.

  I was all alone in a tiny room. As my memory came rushing back, I set up with a gasp, swinging my legs over the edge of the metal table I was stretched out on.

  Oh, holy fuck.

  The gorgeous giant guy had kidnapped me. He’d knocked me out with something—though all I could remember was him kissing me again.

  Did I faint?

  I dropped down to the floor, where a strange thrumming vibrated against my feet. The door slid open, revealing an equally sterile hallway outside. A blue light flashed over and over, pointing down the hallway. I followed it to the end, coming up against another door. When this one opened, I gasped again.

  The gorgeous guy was sitting at some
sort of console, in front of a giant display of stars.

  Then the stars moved and the deck beneath my feet wobbled a little bit. At that moment, I realized Ris wasn’t sitting in front of some sort of television show or video game. It was an actual view—like, out a window. Into space.

  As the screen swung around to show the Earth beneath us, I let out a tiny squeak, but I couldn’t have said whether it was out of excitement or alarm.

  “You’re awake,” Ris said, spinning around in his seat and tilting his head as he watched me with those intense eyes of his.

  “You kidnapped me. I’m in a spaceship and you fucking kidnapped me.”

  “I could take you back to your home,” he offered.

  “Do you mean that?” I took two more steps into the room—or the bridge, I guessed, if this was really a spaceship. I didn’t look at Ris, too fascinated by the sight of the Earth from above, looking so beautiful and calm from this distance.

  No sign at all of how much pain and suffering, death and destruction humans could inflict on each other.

  “I do mean it,” Ris said. “If you decide you want to go back, I’ll take you.”

  There was North America, below us. Which meant Toronto would be… there. And New York right there.

  I turned around and leaned against the console, checking to make sure my butt didn’t hit any buttons, then crossing my legs at the ankles and my arms over my chest. “What’s option B?”

  Ris blinked, then glanced down at his phone.

  Oh, wait. That isn’t a phone. That’s some sort of translator or something.

  “Option B—that means another possibility, yes? I do have one. You could come with me.”

  Go with him?

  “And do what? Travel through all of time and space? Oh! Can we go fight crime together?”

  He shook his head, clearly confused by my sci-fi references. “You could be my mate.”

  “Seriously? A gorgeous guy with a spaceship kidnaps me—and the best he has to offer is barefoot and pregnant in his intergalactic kitchen?”

  “I’m not certain I understand what you mean,” Ris said, frowning.