I might as well accept that, I think, as I raise to my knees and take my Kel’s face in my hands. This time I don’t just kiss his ridges, I lick them…then look down.
My pussy clenches, when I see the sheet is now pulsating with a light blue circle of pre-cum saturating the spot right above his cock.
Yes, this love of ours has made our lives very, very complicated.
Smiling wickedly at my alien overlord, I decide to climb on and enjoy the ride.
* * *
Epilogue
Kira
As much time as I’ve spent defending our technological lack to the Xalthurian council over the past few months, I can’t help but feel frustrated about us not having even so much as a comm screen when we land on New Terrhans’s surface about six months later.
I can tell as soon as we step out of the ship that we’ve disrupted my people unnecessarily. Many of the villagers abandon the community fields to gape. At our ship, and at me holding hands with the Kel as we make our descent down the landing platform.
But not everyone is curious about my return. With my enhanced eyesight, I can see quite a few women with large bellies, running to hide. Probably fearing that they, too, will get snatched as I was.
I can only imagine how they felt when N’Ure’s ship set down without warning a few months ago. No wonder “none of them could be observed working” by his team. Not for the first time, I wish that slimy green asshole hadn’t somehow managed to escape all the wreckage he left behind.
A chill goes down my back just thinking of him. The Xalthurian forces still haven’t managed to find N’Ure, and despite the fact that we killed all but a small number of the Kaidorian warriors sent to extract a bunch of women from New Terrhan, the Kaidorians haven’t been in contact.
So while Xalthuria continues to prosper under their new Kel’s rule, the Kaidorian’s lack of communication has D’Rek too deeply unsettled to enjoy it.
But enough of that. Remembering how D’Rek had told me a royal must never look worried, lest they wish to transfer that worry onto their people, I paste a smile onto my face.
And I keep it there, even as I note the mostly empty provision boxes and the barren fields where nothing grows despite it being just before harvesting season. Smile. Smile and wave, even if my fury with N’Ure makes me want to get my own photon gun and hunt that piece of pigeon shit down myself.
“Kira! Kira!”
I let go of D’Rek’s hand to receive my parents when they come bursting through the crowd of gapers. A guilty pang flashes through me, seeing how even skinnier they’ve become since I saw them last. What kind of rations had they been put on to reduce them so in only seven months? They both feel like fragile sacks of bones when they fall into my arms, crying all over me because they never thought they would ever see me again.
“Mama, Papa,” I say, pulling back to regard them with pure love in my eyes.
I look at them differently than I did before I read through our history in order to defend my people to the skeptical Xalthurian council. I can see now that they did the best they could with the very limited resources they had.
“We’ve brought supplies,” I tell them with a happy smile. “Enough stock foods to feed everyone for a year, and seeds for hardier crops that will actually take in the red soil.”
“But how?” my mother asks, looking at me like I’m not her daughter, but an angel sent by the old planet god she stopped praying to after Elle’s death. I miss her so much and I’m already sad at the thought of leaving again. But I take comfort in the fact that my next visit will be in seven month’s time.
I take a hold of the Kel’s hand again to answer that question.
I’d spent a lot of time fretting about how my people would receive the news of my marriage to our alien overlords’ king.
As it turned out I needn’t have worried for even a minute. I pretty much have them at enough food to feed everybody for a year and no more forced Breeding Ceremony. Most of the humans cheer. A lot of them cry. And a few of them even try to bow before I insist they stop.
“I consider my position of Qel to be one of love and advocacy,” I call out to them, my voice fierce. “You will never have to bow or scrape with me.”
But even with my insistence, a lot of them address me as Queen Kira or Your Highness when they come up to ask me questions.
And man, are there questions. So many, that eventually I tell the Kel none of the humans can understand that he might as well move on to the next agenda item without me.
I can feel the eyes of many of the villagers on us as we say goodbye in the New Terrhan way. I’m sure none of them have ever seen a Xalthurian act like one of them. Xals don’t even shake hands.
But my Xalthurian has decided that he loves not just me, but a lot of my cultural sayings and customs. He not only says I love you often but insists on giving me a New Terrhan goodbye whenever we part.
My heart beats with furious love for him, as I watch him depart for the colony ship with a specially selected team of Xalthurian academics, tech workers, and medics. We’re hoping to figure out how to retrofit the colony ship as a communication, health, and administrative hub for the settlement—along with fortifying it enough to serve as a sort of panic room for the human females if New Terrhan is ever invaded.
My fellow New Terrhans also watch the Xalthurian king go. But as soon as he’s out of sight, the questions come flying at me even faster.
The twenty-year-olds, who now have to decide for themselves in seven months’ time, whether they want to breed with the Xalthurians for a host of extra perks want to know every single thing about sex with them.
And the women older than twenty-one ask me overly sympathetic questions about how I’m surviving on Xalthuria, like I’m some kind of martyr.
Having been born and raised here, they have no idea about luxuries like gamma showers, effortless heat and cooling, and indoor toilets. Or how good sex with a Xalthurian can be when you’re not completely terrified and have a choice. But hopefully they’ll soon find out. The breeding program is now open to fertile women of all ages.
One young man cheerily tells me it’s a good thing I took one for the human team, because he and a bunch of the other guys with girlfriends were planning to attack the next Breeding Ceremony ship and either kill everyone inside or die trying.
I suspect it would have been die trying, but I’m glad we won’t have to find out. “Maybe keep that plan of yours to yourself,” I whisper, thinking of all the examples of poorly thought-out violence littered throughout the report N’Ure had leaked to the council before making his getaway. Coward.
So many women from ages twenty-two to forty-one come up to ask me about visitation rights. It breaks my hearts to tell them that it will be a long process.
The hybrids were all DNA tested as babies to determine paternity, but no maternal records were kept. Everyone will have to submit a DNA sample and then it will have to be cross-referenced with the paternal files.
It’s going to take a while to get everyone sorted and matched. And even then, the over-thirteen-year-old hybrid males would have to agree to see the mothers they no longer remembered. That was the condition I couldn’t get the Xalthurian council to budge on…yet another reason I’m determined to get Xalthurian females on the council in the coming election solar.
Many of the pregnant women who ran when our ship set down come up to hug and thank me after their relatives find them and explain the Xalthurian ship’s unannounced visit.
“I already feel so connected to this baby, and I’ve had many dreams about it being a boy. So I ran,” Jin-Hu, a raven-haired woman who lived just a few huts over from us tells me with a sheepish look. “I was just so afraid, I’d never be able to see him again.”
I nod with understanding, my eyes brimming with tears, because my sister’s story would have turned out so much differently if she’d known she’d one day have an opportunity like this. Everyone looks at me, like I’m their savior, but it wi
ll always be far too late for my sister.
However, I blink back the tears. No, I can’t help Elle and my nephew, but I can help Jin-Hu and all the other humans on New Terrhan. Speaking of which…
“Have you seen Zinnia?” I ask Jin-Hu. “I’m dying to see her.”
And take her back with me to Xalthuria, I silently add. I don’t know whether she managed to hide or is pregnant now. Either way, I plan to get her out of her asshole brother’s house today.
But Jin-Hu’s face falls. “No one told you yet?”
“Told me what?” I ask, a cold dread filling me up.
Jin-Hu shakes her head with a sorrowful look. “She didn’t survive the Breeding Ceremony. When her brother went to fetch her, the Xalthurians said she had died during the process, so they disposed of her body. We were really sad. A lot of the villagers wished they had treated her nicer…”
The rest of Jin-Hu’s words fade into the terrible ocean that has filled up my head. I’ve returned but Zinnia…my very best friend is dead.
Once again, I’ve shown up too late for somebody I love. And I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself.
D’Rek
Anger roils through my chest as my team makes a thorough examination of the colony ship. It feels like scouring a museum as much of the ship’s tech is inefficiently built and at least a thousand solars behind our own.
It is a wonder these hu’mans have managed to survive this long if this is all they had to rely on. Kira was correct. I doubt I would have even known what to do if I found myself stranded on a planet under similar conditions. And I raise my databoard to mark yet another unfair accusation as false on N’Ure’s misleading report.
It would be much easier to do this with a holoscreen, but the old planet hu’mans had launched this colony ship without yet figuring out how to transform electrons into the focused light energy needed to power a holoscreen system beyond one’s own planet.
But that will all change soon. In the new era, my people will do much more to help the race that will save ours from extinction.
An alert suddenly appears on my data board: MILITARY INVESTIGATION COMPLETE. General T’Kaniteton N’Vaise cleared of all charges.
I release a heavy hiss of relief when I see the subject line of the latest report, surrounding the investigation into N’Ure’s and N’Maryah’s treasonous actions.
Unfortunately because of the family bond T’Kan shares with those two, he was temporarily suspended as my General while the investigation was underway. But just as I suspected, he was cleared of all wrongdoing, and now he can be reinstated as my still most trusted commander.
However, my relief is instantly tainted when I open the screen to approve reinstalling his security clearance. For this means he will now have access to the top-secret Prisoner of War files.
I cannot imagine what he will do when he learns the real reason his uncle decided to betray his race.
I close the screen, deciding to wait until I am back on Xalthuria to restore his security credentials.
“My Kel.”
I look up to see a member of the tech team standing before me with his head bowed and a hand to his ridges.
I nod, signaling that he may speak.
“We have been able to replicate everything N’Ure downloaded from the ship.”
“You will tell me what you were able to discern from them,” I say, already suspecting that I will not like the technician’s findings.
“Only a small portion of the information he accessed pertained to the original report he gave to you,” the technician answers with a confused ridge furrow. “Most of the downloaded material involved the map system of a galaxy the hu’mans refer to as the Mil’ky Way. Apparently, it lies within the solar system from which the hu’mans originally hail. We are still in the midst of translating the data we have uncovered—a slow process because of the ship’s outdated technology. However, we have learned the hu’man’s home planet currently supports ten billion hu’mans, half of which are females.”
My mind staggers at that unfathomable number. “Ten Billion. You will tell me if you are certain.”
“Yes, my Kel.”
Xalthuria at the very heights of its population number has never held more than one hundred million citizens. That number is beyond anything I could have ever imagined. What planet could possibly sustain such a vast amount of people? It is no wonder the hu’mans set out to find other colonies.
However that wonderous thought is soon supplanted by a much, much more sickening one.
There is a still atomic age planet in possession of over five billion hu’man females.
It suddenly dawns on me why we have not been able to find N’Ure…or have yet to hear from the Kaidorians.
T’Kan
I am no longer a good general.
When I receive the news that I have been cleared of all treason charges, I don’t dash out to my interstellar flyer to join and protect my Kel on his first diplomatic mission to New Terrhan. When I run out of the large house that now belongs exclusively to me and my family line, I pass up the land conveyance that could take me straight to the council, where I could and should issue a formal apology for the actions of my uncle and cousin.
No, instead of opting for either of those vehicles, I strap myself into my inner planet flyer, and race at optimum speeds to my country cabin.
Six months. It has been six long months of not daring to fly to my cabin on the other side of the planet for fear of being followed. Followed and discovered.
But now anxiety gnaws at me as I fly at dangerous speeds to get back to her. I can only hope she is alright, that nothing happened to the food replicator. That she is confused but otherwise comfortable.
That she knows better than to try to escape again.
There’s a reason most Xalthurians don’t choose to live on this section of the planet. It is cold year-round, and though the forest and lakes surrounding my cabin are beautiful, there are several animals both in the lake and on land that could tear my fragile treasure apart.
I am already flying too fast, but I push the accelerator lever all the way up, choosing to fly even faster. So fast that I have to whip around in several circles when I reach my cabin’s coordinates, in order to set down.
I jump out of the flyer before the engine is finished powering down, yelling her name, even though I know she still does not understand my language.
My hearts stop beating when I throw open the door and find the one-room cabin empty. Empty and cold.
Just from the lack of sound, I can tell, there is something wrong with the generator. Which means, my fragile treasure has been without heat or electricity.
It is still very early in the cooler season, so even in this cold part of the world, it is possible to get by without heat. But no electricity means that the food generator would no longer work. And I’ve been gone for six moon cycles. How long? How long had she been in this cabin without food or access to temperature control?
Bitter regret lumps inside my throat as I turn to search the forest for her.
My inability to trust served me well when my uncle floated the idea of spreading dissent among my soldiers, but now it has wounded me.
If not for my refusal to share this secret with anyone, including my Kel, I would have sent one of my soldiers out here to check on her. If not for waiting until I could make this trip myself, she would be safe.
Now, there is no telling if I will ever find her in the vast forest. Alive or dead.
I stop short on the doorstep, however, when I hear the strange melodic word stories my treasure sometimes makes with her throat. This one, according to my translator, is about a silver spring of blue green, a shining autumn, and an ocean crashing.
I stand there, not fully understanding the words, but completely entranced by her beautiful voice. She eventually appears around the corner of the house with several pieces of wood, dragging her ruined leg behind her.
However, she abruptly stops her
melodic word story and drops all her wood when she sees me, revealing her swollen belly.
I wish, not for the first time, that we had met under different circumstances. That her heart could thrill at the sight of me as mine does at the sight of her. That she knew my name as I do hers.
But maybe now that wish can finally come true.
“Zinnia, I have returned,” I say to the little hu’man, even though I know she cannot understand me. “Forgive me for my long absence.”
Note from Taylor Vaughn:
Thank you so very much for reading HIS TO CLAIM. When we (Eve Vaughn and Theodora Taylor) first imagined this set up during a conference, we knew it was going to be super special. That little set up became one hot romance. So if you loved this novel, please do us the intergalatic boon of leaving a review.
Meanwhile, we’ve absolutely loved working together and cannot wait to bring you the next book in the trilogy. Click here to pre-order HIS TO STEAL, Book 2 in the Alien Overlords Series.
And if you’re wondering about those nasty Kaidorians, all we’ve got to say is Earth Girls watch out. These bad boy aliens are coming for you. Please sign up for Eve’s and Theodora’s newsletters to be the first to know when the Kaidorian spin-off series drops.
If you’re looking for more hot paranormal stories, check out Eve’s Blood Brothers series:
GianMarco: Book 1
Niccolo: Book 2
Romeo: Book 3
Jagger: Book 3.5
Dante: Book 4
Giovanni: Book 5
And if you love sci-fi romance, check out Theodora’s Future Alphas series:
Her Dragon Everlasting
NAGO: Her Forever Wolf
KNUD: Her Big Bad Wolf
Kel D'Rek; His To Claim Page 22