Blooming Desire: An Extraordinary Spring Romance Collection

by S. J. Sanders

  Amon waved a dismissive hand.

  “It is not something that is largely known,” he said. “Calliope and I have been together for many solar cycles – years – even beyond that of children. She and I were intimate for a very long time but I never produced bioluminescence for her or felt the urge to dance for her. Until …”

  He trailed off, turning to gaze toward a window that overlooked Earth.

  “Until?” she pressed him gently.

  His head jerked in her direction. His nostrils flared and his tongue flicked between his lips sending a spike of arousal straight to her core.

  “I only produced my bioluminescence when I saw you, Aella,” he murmured. “I have no desire to dance for Lady Calliope but I wish to dance for you. The problem is that Lady Calliope glowed with bioluminescence in my presence. Logically speaking, she is my mate.”

  She licked her lips nervously. “Why does it sound like you’re trying to convince yourself of this fact?”

  “As I have just told you, I have no desire whatsoever to dance for Lady Calliope. Dancing is a form of courtship amongst some aquatic species. Usually the male will begin the dance and the female will mirror his movements. For us, it is so much more than a simple dance. Dancing together with our bioluminescence proves that we both desire each other and will not stray.”

  “Wedding vows,” she said softly. “This special dance is like a bride and groom speaking their vows to each other.”

  “Yes,” Amon growled lowly. “I suppose it is.”

  “Amon,” she began, “it sounds to me like Calliope really—”

  The door to his chambers opened with an electrical hiss and Amon moved so quickly that he blurred before Aella’s eyes as he swung his enormous body in front of hers protectively. His dorsal fin flared to its full length, he reared upward on his belly scales by several inches and his mouth opened in a feral hiss. The spines on his dorsal fin sparked with blue bioluminescence, venom beginning to glisten on the lethally sharp tips.

  “What is the meaning of this?” he boomed. “How dare you enter my private quarters without knocking first, soldier?”

  The young male Oraed that stood guard outside General Amon’s office now strode through the doors to his private chambers, the red feathers of his chest and crest bristling with his emotions. He hesitated in front of General Amon, the crest on his head lifting upward much like that of a cockatoo.

  “S – sir,” he stammered, the blue-feathered wings on his back ruffling nervously. “I apologize for intruding sir b – but—”

  Amon snarled at the other male.

  “What is it?” he seethed, flashing his lethal fangs.

  The Oraed stared between him and Aella for several heartbeats and blinked owlishly when Amon snapped his jaws at him in clear threat.

  “Get to the point, soldier, or get out.”

  The Oraed’s wings twitched again, the blue feathers on the ends bristling with his nerves.

  “Sir, we have a confirmed report of a human being abducted by several Ir’eils that requires your immediate attention.”

  Amon’s body language transformed from highly aggressive to alert. He relaxed his stance in front of Aella and she watched as his dorsal fin lowered slightly, blue bioluminescence flaring along the spines and the lower half of his tail. He glanced over at her, his mouth closed, no longer baring those lethal fangs that reminded her of the sea serpents of legend.

  “I must see to this, Aella,” he said. “Will you be alright here by yourself?”

  She frowned at him.

  “Can’t I come with you?”

  He shook his head.

  “I am afraid not. This is highly classified information and, while I trust you, there are protocols that I must follow.”

  She offered him a small smile. “I understand.”

  He lifted a hand and caressed her jaw, his fingers lingering upon the curve of her cheek.

  “I will return,” he promised her.

  “Don’t rush,” she said and meant it. “Do what you have to do, Amon. I don’t mind waiting here for you.”

  He inclined his head regally and turned to follow the soldier out of his quarters.

  She explored Amon’s quarters.

  She knew that she shouldn’t, her parents had raised her to be polite, to always ask a person’s permission to enter a room, but curiosity welled up inside of her. She wanted to know more about Amon.

  So far, she had discovered that Amon’s suite was pretty bare except for the furniture; there was nothing that made the place feel lived in: there were no personal items or other belongings that she would expect to find in a person’s home. She found out that the office where the two of them first met each other opened up into a waiting room that opened up into the main hall of the ship.

  He has absolutely no time to himself, she thought, frowning to herself, as she gazed around his office. His workspace was surprisingly clean and well organized with no clutter whatsoever. It was here that she noticed a few odd knick-knacks on the surface of his desk. She picked up a small glass ornament that resembled a snow globe; inside, a flower that she had never seen bloomed before her eyes. The petals were of the palest shade of violet and they were long and delicate; as the petals curved toward the centre bell of the flower, dark blue dots appeared, shimmering with the richness of sapphires. There were three stamens the colour of deep amethyst that curled several inches above the flower, curling downward into lovely swirling spirals.

  “Oh, wow,” she breathed.

  Aella cradled the glass sphere in her hands, surprised at the weight of it. She turned the ornament this way and that, marvelling at how the flower would sparkle in the light. And then something incredible happened: the flower began to glow. The light built in the bell of the plant, slowly expanding outward.

  “What have you done?”

  She spun at the sound of Lady Calliope’s hissing voice, her fingers tightening around the beautiful glass ornament. The flower continued to glow with brilliant light.

  Calliope stood in the doorway that led to Amon’s private quarters, her white scales gleaming in the artificial light, her body drawn tight, her ruby eyes fixed on the glowing flower held in Aella’s hands.

  “What have you done?” she repeated; her beautiful serpentine features twisted with rage.

  Aella stepped back, her eyes widening, her heart beginning to race, clutching the ornament a little closer to her chest.

  “N – nothing,” she stammered nervously. “I was just looking, I promise.”

  Calliope slithered forward and fear raced down the back of Aella’s spine, causing the hair to stand up on her arms. Awareness sizzled along her nerve endings – but this wasn’t sexual in any way; Calliope stared at her with the cold eyes of a predator that had finally lost its patience. While Aella never felt threatened in Amon’s presence, in spite of his massive size and the fact that he resembled some of Earth’s deadliest predators, every instinct she possessed now commanded that she flee from the female before her.

  “Lady Calliope,” Aella began, her heart thundering in her chest, “I know that I shouldn’t have touched Amon’s possession. I truly meant no harm.”

  Calliope closed the distance between the two of them until she towered over the smaller human female. Her ruby eyes blazing, she carefully pulled the glass ornament from Aella’s hands. Immediately, the glow faded. Calliope glared down at the beautiful flower before lifting hate-filled eyes to Aella.

  “Do you realize what this is?” she asked her softly.

  Aella shook her head. “No.”

  “It is an asa, a flower that is from our home planet,” Calliope hissed. Her dorsal fin flared to its full length, the spines glowing with red bioluminescence. “It is only found in a specific trench in our planet’s oceans and blooms once every 5 solar cycles. It is extremely rare and is extremely precious to us because it can help us find our mates by glowing.”

  Aella gazed down at the beautiful flower encased in glass. Calliope�
��s fingers tightened around the sphere, her claws clicking softly on its smooth surface.

  “The asa glowed for you,” Calliope murmured and Aella flinched at the pain that laced the other female’s voice.

  “Calliope, I–” Aella began. She reached out a hand towards her only to flinch away from her when she hurled the glass ornament across the room with an infuriated scream. The beautiful sphere shattered upon impact, shards of glass glittering like tiny diamonds over the floor, and the asa, the delicate flower, withered in the artificial air. Tears sprang to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as the petals curled inwards, rotting, the sapphire blue dots losing their hue, and the stamens deteriorating into tiny particles of dust. All that remained of the flower was a small pile of ashes.

  “You have become a distraction to Amon ever since he rescued you in the frigid waters of Loch Ness,” Calliope informed her coldly, her chest heaving, red bioluminescence pulsing around her eyes and cheeks. “I will not tolerate it any longer.”

  Aella’s brows rose in confusion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Calliope narrowed her beautiful red eyes at her.

  “He is infatuated with you,” she said. “I have never seen Amon so obsessed with anyone besides myself and he wants you for his mate.”

  Aella stared at Calliope warily.

  “He told me that you’re his mate, Lady Calliope,” she murmured to the she-serpent. “He explained to me how your species produce bioluminescence and dance for each other.”

  Calliope lunged forward and Aella scrambled backward, falling to the floor with a cry of terror. She gazed up into Calliope’s burning ruby eyes.

  “That is where you are wrong,” Calliope snarled, flashing her fangs down at Aella. “Amon glowed for you. He desires to dance for you. You, Aella, are Amon’s mate.”

  Aella gaped at her.

  Calliope leaned forward, her dorsal fin flared to its full height and her red bioluminescence pulsing up and down the length of her body.

  “You,” Calliope hissed, her sweet voice dripping with disdain, “have ruined all of my carefully laid plans.”

  And, before Aella could utter a scream, Calliope pricked her with the tip of one of her venom-coated spines.

  6

  Amon

  He knew something was wrong the moment he entered his private quarters.

  His dorsal fin flared upward slightly, the lethal spines beginning to glow blue with the bioluminescence that illuminated his body; they tingled with the venom beginning to fill them. The tip of his tail twitched and he flicked his tongue rapidly between his lips, tasting the familiar scents of Aella and Calliope.

  His brow ridges lowered in a frown. His dorsal fin snapped up to its full impressive height, his blue bioluminescence flaring around his eyes and cheeks.

  Why would Calliope enter my chambers without my permission? He thought.

  Calliope often took liberties with regard to their relationship. He had not forgotten how she had lied to Lord Balon about the two of them being mates nor could he ignore the fact that he produced bioluminescence for Aella; he could not explain why Calliope produced red luminescence in his presence when neither of them reacted to each other in that way over the previous solar cycles they spent together.

  Something was wrong.

  His tongue flicking rapidly between his lips, he slithered towards his office, following the scent of both females.

  When the door opened with a soft electrical hiss, the scents upon his taste buds ignited and he could not stop the feral sound that rumbled deep within his chest.

  Fear.

  Aella’s fear.

  He gazed around his office, trying desperately to figure out what happened because, while he tasted the scent of her blood on his tongue, there were no signs of a struggle. Except for the shattered glass ornament that contained the asa.

  His electric blue eyes narrowed and his tail lashed from side to side angrily.

  He had known about the Ir’eils abducting humans; Malekith had informed him of that several days ago. It was why the Commander was traveling both the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies – to find the missing humans and return them to Earth. Aella mentioned that she feared being taken away from Earth by the Ir’eils. He should have paid more attention.

  He could not figure out how Calliope was involved in this.

  He needed answers.

  Unfortunately, Malekith had killed the Ir’eil that attempted to capture his mate and so Amon could not question him.

  His tongue flicked rapidly between his teeth, every muscle in his body drawn tight, his tail undulating back and forth as his mind whirled over everything.

  His eyes narrowed dangerously, a thought beginning to form in the back of his mind.

  No one except for Malekith and I know about the abducted humans. How could Skarll have known?

  He turned over the events of the past few hours, remembering Skarll, the young male Oraed, entering his private quarters and informing him that a human was being abducted at that very moment.

  His eyes widened with realization.

  The Ir’eils were cunning and a very advanced race in regard to technological marvels; he had read the reports of humans that claimed to be abducted by them, how they remembered very little of the actual process. Even with the Solar Flare patrolling Earth’s orbit, the Ir’eils could easily steal one or two humans without their disappearances being noticed. However, because the humans and the Interstellar Alliance had spent the past four years waging a war with them, missing humans that could not be accounted for were believed to be casualties of such a catastrophic event. This provided the Ir’eils with the perfect opportunity.

  Amon knew from Malekith’s personal accounts that the Ir’eils’ technology allowed them to appear as other beings. This was how the Ir’eil disguised as Chase managed to evade Malekith’s detection.

  I am an arrogant fool, Amon thought.

  The answer had been staring him in the face the whole damned time.

  Aella.

  The cold penetrated her body slowly.

  When she started shivering and instinctively reached for a blanket, only for her wrists to snap back at her sides, Aella snapped into wakefulness.

  Unlike most horror films that she enjoyed watching as a teenager, she found herself strapped to a gurney in a brightly lit room. She knew instinctively that she was no longer on the Solar Flare. Although her room in the medical bay had been crisp and clean, the fear rolling through her stomach alerted her to the fact that the layout here was completely different. She tried to swallow but a lump formed in the back of her throat and her mouth was bone dry. She couldn’t help the little whimper of fear.

  She, like every other human, had heard the horror stories surrounding the Grays. Four and a half years ago, no one believed the people who claimed to have been abducted by the Grays but now … Now, they were seen as the survivors of horrific experiments. The Grays would perform anal probing but it was not a pleasant experience and was seen as a form of violation. Of course, these stories all pertained to what happened before the Invasion. She had no idea what was in store for her.

  “You’re awake.”

  Calliope’s sweet, feminine voice echoed through the empty room and Aella turned her head to watch the she-serpent glide toward her. It amazed her how a being that so resembled an Earth snake could move with such predatory grace. The beautiful albino female stopped at the head of the gurney and she ran her claw-tipped fingers through Aella’s hair. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and she shuddered in revulsion.

  “You have ruined everything,” Calliope said. Her tone was nonchalant but Aella knew better than to be lulled into a false sense of security. Calliope wanted her for something – Or someone, she thought, – otherwise she would never have opened her eyes. The other female was clearly jealous.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Aella rasped.

  “You wouldn’t,” Calliope agreed, “and you never should have bee
n part of this but you destroyed my plans when Amon glowed for you. He wants you for his mate. I can’t allow that.”

  Aella shook her head, her mind reeling with the notion that what she and Amon felt for one another was genuine.

  “I still don’t understand,” she whispered.

  Calliope continued stroking Aella’s hair, her sharp claws dangerously close to the human woman’s throat.

  “My plan was perfect,” the she-serpent began, her voice soft and lilting. “You,” – and here her beautiful features twisted into a sneer that sent a tingle of fear racing down Aella’s spine – “being the pathetic human that you are, could never understand what it means when a Songiell glows for her mate. How could you? You know nothing of what it means to be a proper mate to anyone, let alone Amon.”

  Calliope paused, her fingers trailing down the length of Aella’s throat.

  “Because of my colouring, I would never have been able to produce bioluminescence for Amon. No matter how much I yearned to dance for him, to glow for him, I never could.”

  Her sharp claws pricked along Aella’s skin.

  “Everyone in the universe knows about the Ir’eils and their gift with technology,” Calliope whispered. She leaned forward, her warm breath fanning over Aella’s face. “I struck a bargain with them,” she hissed, her tongue flicking between her lips to caress Aella’s cheek.

  “B – bargain?” Aella stammered.

  “Amon is mine as I am his,” Calliope told her as though this was a matter of fact. “He could not glow for me because I could not glow for him. The Ir’eils helped to remedy that little problem.”

  Aella’s eyes widened, the realization of what Calliope had done – what she’d promised the Grays in exchange for the ability to produce bioluminescence – beginning to dawn on her.

  Calliope leaned back, her lips curving upwards in a smile.

  “I see you understand,” she drawled. “That is good.”

  “Good?” Aella croaked. “Good?”

  Calliope stared down at her, the female Songiell’s crimson eyes glowing with her red bioluminescence.