Текст книги "Wed To The Alien Prince"

Автор книги: January Bell

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“What is this place?” I ask, craning my neck to look around. Kanuz draws me tight against him, his arm around my shoulders as we go deeper into the ruin. Despite the twisted roots plunging deep into the foundation, the places where the roof’s been fractured, stones tossed to the floor, there’s an austere quality about.

Something awe-inspiring, something different. There are no windows, but huge metal sconces are set into the stone, and carvings adorn nearly every wall, so worn and weathered they’re impossible to make out. A huge dais rests at the far end of the place, and our footsteps echo against the slick stone.

There’s a solemn quietude about the place.

It reminds me of… a church.

“Is this a temple?” I ask, and Kanuz’s hand squeezes my shoulder.

“Yesssss,” he hisses, and I jerk my head towards him, shocked.

“Is my translator working? Did I just understand you?” God, I want someone to talk to, not just talk at. I am sick of our little guessing game. I want to talk to this massive alien warlord.

I want Kanuz to be my friend. I could really fucking use one. A friend.

My cheeks heat, and desire ripples through me as I give a sidelong glance to his packed-on muscles and compelling face. Okay, maybe I want more than friendship.

Fucking doesn’t seem to be a bad way to pass the time until we’re rescued or the roaring dinosaurs give up.

I scrub a hand down my face.

I must be losing what’s left of my mind.

I can’t seriously be thinking about banging the big dude.

My gaze slides to the bulge in the front of his pants, and I suck in a breath. Okay, so maybe I am seriously thinking about it. Sure, he saved me. Sure, he’s been a pretty great companion on this hellacious planet. Sure, he’s got rock-hard abs and from the looks of it, he’s packing heat in his downtown area. Sure, his face is like, really nice to look at, for a green lizard alien.

That doesn’t make it a good idea.

I’m on a diplomatic mission, for crying out loud. I can’t go around fucking the aliens because they’re hot and nice and I’m bored. What would the Federation say? Surely I’d be breaking about fifty military laws.

Not like that’s stopped me in the past.

I kick at a rock in my path. It clatters across the floor until it makes an odd plinking sound, then a splash.

Kanuz turns his head to look at me, talking away in his growly language. The heat from his body warms mine, and now that I’ve had a moment to recover from the adrenaline rush of nearly being a dino-snack, I’m all too aware of it.

The dull light glimmers off the surface of the floor next to the raised platform. Vines snake in and out of the walls, and I peer at them nervously, hoping like hell that they’re just that: vines, and not anymore fucking giant snakes. My stomach squirms at the thought of that massive thing, and my feet falter.

Kanuz peers down at me.

“There aren’t any more snakes in here, right?”

He purses his lips, shrugging one shoulder.

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” I tell him. “I’m not in the mood to deal with any more prehistoric snakes. I mean, I will if I have to, but I’d really rather not.”

He laughs at that, his grin lighting up his whole face, and I can’t help but grin back. For a scaly green dude, he’s got a nice smile. That or I’m losing my mind. Either or.

Maybe both!

I sigh, and he keeps smiling at me, then mutters something my translator interprets as BE NOT AFRAID! Which, while dramatically biblical, seems to be an improvement over what it’s spat out at me so far.

When he flexes his arm though, his muscles bulging, I snort, sure he’s joking, until he narrows his eyes at me, something like hesitation on his alien face.

“No, no, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” I say quickly. Great, I’m being an asshole again. “Your muscles are very big.”

He flexes again, muttering something that my translator interprets as ‘not soft’ I have to bite my cheeks to keep the inane laugh inside. Instead, I reach a hand out, squeezing all that thickly muscled bicep.

My eyebrows shoot up in appreciation. I’m no slacker when it comes to gym time, but this guy puts me and any other gym bro to shame. He’s jacked.

“Wow,” I say, finally awkwardly withdrawing my hand. “That is really something.” I pat his arm, chancing a glance up at him.

He murmurs something to me, his eyes locked on mine.

I hear it then: the unmistakable trickle of water. When I turn toward the sound, I realize the glimmering wasn’t the floor after all, but a long, narrow pool spanning the length of the back of the room. Water streams from an opening, and I step closer to get a better look.

“Fuck,” I say, cringing back. It’s not just an opening, but a huge snake’s mouth, the stone jaw unhinged wide to allow the water to pour out. “That’s really off-putting, to be perfectly honest.” Especially after seeing how big the snakes get on Sueva.

Less than ideal for someone who isn’t a big fan of all things scaled.

Kanuz’s hand closes around mine though, and I realize I’m going to have to make a slight correction to that assumption.

I might be a fan of one scaled thing, after all.

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CHAPTER FOUR

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KANUZ

Gen makes me laugh. It is so good to see some lightness back in her step, her eyes glimmering as she discovers the oddities of the swamp temple.

It makes me feel marginally better for nearly getting us both eaten by the Crigomar.

The giant snake attack bought us barely enough time to get inside the temple, and I send up a quick prayer of thanks to the goddess for the timing of the massive beast’s arrival. I never thought I believed the stories about this place, about a temple guardian, but a gargantuan snake might make a full believer of me yet.

Perhaps we have curried the goddess’ favor.

Or perhaps my superstitions run deeper under my scales than I would like.

Still, I have found the fresh water of the temple, and the fountain and drainage system, no matter how antiquated, appear to be working. The Crigomar have been deterred from pursuit. We have a crumbling roof over our heads, and for that, I am thankful.

And for Gen’s smiles, I am more than thankful—I am fully blessed.

“Is it safe to drink?” she asks, squatting near the rippling surface.

“Yes,” I say in Suevan, then sigh once more. “Here.” I crouch next to her, cupping my hand and bringing some of the crystal-clear water to my mouth and drinking. “These old temples had advanced filtration systems for the worshippers that lived here, monks, priestesses and the like—understand?”

She watches me carefully as I drink, and I keep talking to her in a soothing voice, knowing she doesn’t understand a thing, but trying to calm her all the same.

“If the fountain were not running—” I point to the unhinged jaws of the snake, the defender of this place. “—then it would not be safe, because that would mean the filtration system had failed. But our ancients built this place to withstand time.” I drink deeply from the pool, relishing the fresh water, the cool zip of it across my tongue. A ragged laugh trickles out of me as I run my hand across the smooth bark of one of the huge zitsu trees that’s taken up residence in the main temple.

“I suppose even the ancients didn’t plan for the tenacity of the zitsu.” I motion to the tree, then settle my back against it and watch my pretty female. Tentative, she dips her hand in the water, scooping it out and drinking from it as I did.

“Oh god,” she moans. “This tastes so good.”

My cock grows hard at the noise of her simple pleasure, and I grunt. What I wouldn’t give to be the one causing her to make that small sound.

Her throat moves as she swallows. Her gaze drifts from the pool to the water rushing from the snake statue.

“It’s some kind of filtration system, isn’t it?” Her eyes narrow, and she stands, brushing her palms off on her filthy pants. “I don’t want to muck up our drinking water, but I need to wash this stuff off. I could really use a bath.” The words trickle out of her, murmured so quietly I know she’s mostly talking to herself and not to me.

I don’t mind. I’m relieved she’s talking at all. I’m relieved she isn’t terrified and shaking on the floor after the Crigomar attack.

I’m pleased she has relaxed enough around me that she even considers it.

I stretch my arms behind my head and give her a toothy smile, the kind I saved for females at Suevan settlements, though none of those other species were half as enticing as this human creature before me. Her smooth, unblemished skin, the color of a ripe quarn fruit, the pink tinge across her cheeks and nose that makes me want to nibble on it, to see if she tastes as sweet.

I know she does.

I drink her in, as though she is what will quench my unslaked thirst: the full berry-red lips, her ample muscled curves, the lush fall of her yellow-gold hair. I wrinkle my nose. It’s not quite as lush or yellow now, what with the muck of the swamp sticking to it.

Immediately, shame fills me.

My little human is filthy. I have not taken very good care of her.

“You should bathe in it.” I don’t have anything for her to get clean with. I glance around, as though some sort of cleansing oils will appear, but this isn’t my palace at Perzovir. There are no servants here to wait on us, to treat my little wife as the princess she is.

“What do you think?” she asks me, pretending to rub her arms. The algae from the water around the temple crusts across her skin, flaking off as she grazes her fingertips over it.

Not for the first time, I want to find the tech that assured us the translators would be safe and effective and shake him.

“Yes,” I say, nodding my head.

She repeats the Suevan word, mangling the guttural syllable, nodding her head, her eyes narrowed.

A smile breaks across my face, and I stare at her, astonished and inordinately pleased.

She says it again, and a happy laugh comes out of her. “God, I am beyond excited to get clean. This stuff—” She pulls a sheet of green muck off the back of her hand. “—smells rancid.”

Sighing contentedly, she yanks her shirt off, then her pants, and I go stone still.

Gen’s been shy about her body, more shy than other species I’ve been with before, but now? Now her body is bare save a scrap of fabric around her chest and another between her legs. She splashes into the pool, a blissful smile on her face.

“It’s so deep,” she muses. “Much deeper than I thought it would be.”

I cannot bring myself to look away from her. I want her to say that about me. I want to be deep inside her.

She doesn’t mean that, though. She does not know what she does to me, doesn’t know that I have spent the last week and a half lusting over her, loving the chase, loving her feistiness. It is not often that a female resists my advances. It will only make it that much sweeter when she finally sees how happy I can make her.

I must be patient… but I am a prince. Patience was never a part of my lessons. My hands fist at my sides.

“I wish you could talk to me,” Gen says, scrubbing at the dirt on her arms. “I want to know what this place is. Did you know I went to school for history?” She stares, waiting for a response, a response that she will not understand.

I grunt. “I would like to hear more,” I tell her.

“Right,” she says, and her smile turns sad, and a little lonely.

“I can hear you. I understand you.” I point to my ears, then lower myself into the water. Her gaze focuses on me, and I wade out to where she floats in the middle of the pool. “I know you cannot understand me, my wife, but I want to hear more of this history you studied. History is important to my people, sacred and interwoven with our beliefs.”

I pause. Water clings to her cheeks and eyelashes, and the urge to kiss it away grips me. There’s something about this female, something beyond how I’ve felt about any of the other females I’ve lain with over the years. There is a softness to her under her feistiness, and it calls to me.

“It was before the Roth invasion,” she says quietly. “After that, everything changed. I entered the Federation military. I had to get really hard, really fast. We all did. I think… I pushed myself harder than I had to. Everyone looked at me and thought I was just some delicate, pretty girl, and I hated it. I hated that it made me feel weak.” Gen studies one of the stone snake coils jutting from the temple wall. “Once the Roth came, it was like I didn’t want to be me anymore. I didn’t want to be cute Genevieve. It felt like I couldn’t be her anymore. And now I’m here. And I feel like I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be now.”

She falls silent, her lips pressed thin.

I hate that she can’t understand me. I hate that she’s feeling this way, but I like that she’s talking. I love how she is talking to me. Sharing parts of herself she keeps in shadow under that brittle exterior.

Of course, she likely only feels comfortable talking to me so honestly because she needs someone to listen—and knows she will not understand anything I tell her in response.

I swallow.

“I understand,” I say, gazing deep into her unusual blue eyes. “For so long, I have been raised to rule Sueva. Raised to lead my people, my people who are slowly dying out, thanks to the virus. The pressure—” I pause, scrubbing at where some of the scum sticks to my scales. “The pressure to be the prince my people needed was too much. I have made bad choices. I acted spoiled. I slept my way through the other species on my trips to the settlements. I tried to prove myself against the Roth, and maybe I did, but… but now? Now, the separatists threaten everything.” I take a deep breath, blowing it out slowly as I voice what troubles me most. “And I fear it is because of me. Because I have been a weak leader. Because I cannot fill my father’s shoes.”

I lapse into momentary silence, my father’s words echoing through my head. You do not take Sueva seriously. You do not take yourself seriously. You will not be king until you can prove you have outgrown your childish needs and selfish behaviors. I have not spoken to my father in months, preferring instead to divert myself with the novel thought of taking a human wife, of preparing a home for her in Perzovir, our capital, and the idea of helping our species survive.

And here she is, before me, a vision in the water of the many-faced-goddess’ temple, her head cocked to the side, listening, though she cannot understand the words.

She’s more than I ever bargained for, and suddenly, I know I am not enough.

How could I be, when we’re stuck in the jungle because of my ineptitude? By my lack of knowledge of Suevan geography, by the fact I was spoiled and cosseted and allowed leniency where our Warlords were not?

My chest heaves, and I stare at the patch of sky visible overhead, the Crigomars still roaring occasionally in the distance.

“I do not want you to look at me like that. Like he does. Like I am a weak leader. A failure. For the first time, I want to truly prove to myself who I am.” For you, I think, but the word sticks in my craw despite our translation issues. I cannot allow the separatists to continue their nonsensical missions against us. Not when the price of their success could be Gen.

My tail lashes angrily under the water, sending a wave slapping against the temple stones. As good as it feels to unload my burden, the deepest secret of my heart, to this woman, it’s painful, as though the words have been torn from me.

And she doesn’t even understand them. I am not sure if I am grateful for that fact... or frustrated. I do not want my Gen to know what a failure I am. How Sueva is split because of my inability to unite our dying people.

I would hate to see the derision return to face.

I have only just won her smiles.

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CHAPTER FIVE

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GEN

It feels so fucking good to get clean. The green mucous-like crap that I picked up in the swamp sloughs off in disgusting sheets. It reminds me a little of a cheap face mask I bought once, except it smells anything but spa-like.

It feels equally as good to trauma dump on poor, hot, unsuspecting Kanuz. I know he can understand me, so I should feel vulnerable about throwing some of my deepest feelings at him, but I don’t.

He didn’t run away at my stream of consciousness either, like any of the dudes I dated on Earth might have.

No, instead, he said something back, in that strangely soothing alien language of his. Kanuz’s diamond-shaped pupils expanded like he listened intently while I talked, and then he said something back, his face wrinkling in what looked like frustration. Now he stands in the water next to me, his giant frame easily touching the bottom, while I float and scrub at the nastiness stuck all over me.

This ruin has a weird vibe. It’s not something I would ever say to any of the crew, because God knows they’d laugh at me saying something had a vibe, but it’s true. The green swamp, the giant snake, the running water paired with the overgrown and crumbling interior… It’s bizarre as hell and completely alien.

Unsettling. A shiver trickles down my spine.

That’s the word for it. It is deeply unsettling, this place.

Kanuz seems unaffected by it, though. In fact, while I scrub at my skin and hum under my breath to break up the sound of the frustrated dinosaurs still bugling randomly outside and soak in the bizarre, otherworldly atmosphere, Kanuz just watches me with those strange, compelling eyes.

“Do your people mind the wet at all?” I’ve barely asked about him this whole time, preferring to stew over how sideways everything went and my fear for the rest of the crew.

He shakes his head, muttering something and pointing to the sky.

“Rains a little much here for that, huh?”

He nods, grinning at me with those too-sharp teeth. His smile sends a ripple of renewed interest through me.

That’s unsettling, too.

I sigh, closing my eyes and floating, relaxed for the first time since we landed on this planet. I’m hungry, I’m tired, but I’m safe for the minute and I’m relatively clean.

And I am not going to psychoanalyze my growing attraction to the big, scaly alien. Nope. Not gonna do it.

I’m going to ignore it until the last possible minute.

“So, do you think I’ll ever get back to Earth?” It’s the first time I’ve put words to that particular worry.

Kanuz says nothing. Instead, a snarl rips out of him, and the next minute, water sloshes up the sides of my face as he storms from the pool.

Surprised, I flip right-side up, treading the lukewarm water and staring after Kanuz, whose tail thrashes behind him as he paces beside the pool, muttering to himself and stealing glances at me.

“What crawled up your butt?” I ask, annoyed at his quick change in behavior. “I thought we were finally getting along.”

He raises a fist, pointing up at the… ceiling? The sky?

Unclear.

“I’m fucking sick of charades,” I say, swimming for the edge of the pool. “You’re mad at the rain?”

He grunts, kicking at a rock on the ground.

“That’s a no. Okay, okay, lemme guess, three words, first word pissed, second word off, third word, alien.” I laugh at my stupid joke, though it’s not funny at all. Niki always says that humor is my crutch to avoid real feelings, and she’s not wrong.

Doesn’t mean I’m gonna change. Why mess with a good thing?

Kanuz points at me, the gesture so aggressive I flinch back, which only causes him to growl. He walks the length of the pool, then turns and walks back.

My translator spits out pure nonsense, as usual. “How can she not know? We are to live as one, and she does not know? How can it be that she desires to return to her village home life?”

I shake my head, my stomach sinking. Most of that actually made sense.

Which is very concerning. Extremely concerning.

What the hell is it that I don’t know that’s upsetting him so badly?

I dunk my slime-covered pants in the water. Why tackle an upset alien head-on when I can take care of the more immediate problem of wearing disgusting clothes? Absolutely no reason at all!

Still, it’s troubling. He’s clearly aggravated, and I know it has something to do with what I said about returning home.

It doesn’t bode well.

I wash and wring out the clothes as best I can, the thick mud and slime sucked down into whatever drain must be in the bottom of the pool, leaving the rest pristine.

“Why is this place here? How in the world does this still function?” It’s a marvel, and I stand up, my sodden clothes in hand. Water streams from my clothes as I wring them out, finally tugging them on, not quite brave enough to hang out in this freaky place in my underwear.

Boots are a good idea, and I go sockless, knowing all too well how much wet socks can fuck your world up. Trench foot would be a decidedly hellish development.

Kanuz is still fretting over whatever it is I don’t know, but I studiously ignore him.

There’s plenty I don’t know. A metric fuckton, in fact. Especially about this planet, which has been shrouded in secrecy thanks to their sacred language and their interplanetary defense tech. My crew basically came in blind.

And look how great that turned out!

At this point, I’m not sure I want to know what missing information has him so upset.

Instead, I run a hand over the rough stone wall. It’s smooth in some places, with swooping divots and dips. There’s a thin layer of dust and dirt over everything, and when I clap my hands together, it clouds the air in front of me.

Coughing, my eyebrows raise as I study the wall.

It’s not rough, not at all.

It’s carved.

Every inch of it, thick with inscriptions in what I can only assume is the Suevan language. There are images, too, and a sense of wonder fills me as I drink it in. They’re vaguely reminiscent of hieroglyphics—or maybe cuneiform—I studied what seems like a lifetime ago, but more pictorial than either of those systems.

I run my finger in the beveled edge of one, tracing the curve of a sinuous shape.

“What is this place?” Fear threads through my voice, because the longer I look at the wall, the longer the shapes start to mean something, which is… impossible. It should be impossible.

Two T-Rexes fighting a ridiculously huge snake should also be impossible, but I sure as shit watched that happen. Impossible, it seems, is a frame of mind. I snort, and then cough as I choke on more dust.

The images aren’t friendly ones. No, not at all. There’s the snake, which seems to be a theme of this swamp-ass planet, but it’s not eating the friendly neighborhood dinosaur.

No. It’s eating something with arms and legs and a Suevan shaped body.

Fuuuck.

“Kanuz,” I say, quiet dread flooding me. Water drips from my hair to the floor, loud in his sudden silence. “Where did you take us?”

“Wife, do not touch anything here,” Kanuz says. “There are many signs and statues, look at all the letters!”

I sigh in annoyance and frustration. Stupid translator.

“Why is this snake eating people?” I ask him, knowing I’m not going to get an answer. One I understand, in any case. I continue to rub away the accumulation of dirt and dust, stepping carefully around the random debris.

The carvings continue beneath a thick vine, and I tug at it, curious about what the hell this place is. The vine falls away easily under my hand, releasing an herbal fragrance as it gives way. It’s a big improvement on the smell of the swamp. Massive. Huge. I inhale deeply, trying to resuscitate my sense of smell. Olfactory CPR.

Kanuz crowds behind me, so close the heat from his body warms my bare back. I expected him to be cool to the touch, at first, like a reptile. But he’s not, he’s warmer even than me, a fact I haven’t taken for granted when the nights turn cold. “This is not human place, snake worship eat chicken.”

“Thanks,” I say. “Great.”

I’d much rather think about what the story is behind this temple than chase the same depressing thoughts like a hamster on a wheel.

A snake statue protrudes from the wall, dipping in and out of it. Here, the wall is carved to resemble a pool of water, rippling around where the body of the stone snake disappears into it.

“Oh, wow.” Each scale is so neatly articulated, and as I run my fingers over it, the grime gives way to something polished and shining. It’s not stone at all, but some kind of gem.

“This is gorgeous.” A thrill goes through me at finding something so unexpectedly beautiful. As I scrub the dust and leaf debris away, a deep, shimmering purple is revealed, each scale carved so carefully it almost seems real. “Not real sure I can get down with the giant snake worship or whatever you have going on here, but this is cool all the same.”

The exasperated sound Kanuz makes is so human, I can’t help but snort as I glance over my shoulder at him. His long thick hair’s braided back, and it drips wet across his chest, where it glistens as it runs down the deep furrows of his insanely ripped abs.

I have got to stop ogling his bod. Kanuz is not an alien object of worship, unlike the purple snake under my fingers.

Oh god. Purple snake. No doubt Bex, the resident monster-fucker reader on our crew, would have some thoughts about that. I stifle a laugh, biting my cheeks in a lackluster attempt to keep it in.

“So, uh, Kanuz, the snake here, this big, thick, purple snake… it’s not, like, a symbol for something else, is it? Like, does it mean something?”

What would Bex say? This time the laugh erupts out of me, and it feels so good to imagine what the over-the-top tech specialist would say about finding a big, ridged purple snake in the alien jungle that it nearly eclipses the overwhelming worry that chases the thought.

My laughter dies quickly at the thought, and I sober, gnawing at my lower lip.

I hope they’re all right. I hope that Niki and the other six of our crew aren’t being terrorized by dinosaurs. Fuck. I even hope Bex is living her monster fucker dream and getting it on with the locals.

Better than the alternative, that they’re—

I take a deep breath and refuse to let myself even think it.

The carved snake’s head juts from the wall ahead, and I continue running my fingers along the sinuous body, stepping over a tree root to get a better look at the work of art that’s the head.

“Holy hell,” I breathe, rubbing the polished orb of the eye. “Is this… a diamond?” Under the smooth exterior, the eye’s been cut into a million fractured facets, and as I wipe away the dirt crusting it, it catches the light from the opening in the roof.

A brilliant prism flashes across the temple, a hundred tiny rainbows suddenly cutting through the gloom of the ruin. A shiver runs down my spine. The effect is breath-taking and eerie all at once.

“Wow,” I say. “And here I was, thinking the roof just fell in. It already had a hole in it, didn’t it?”

“Time is not a forgiving entity, even for mother Sueva,” Kanuz says.

I tug at my ear lobe. “You know, that almost made sense.” I peer up at him in surprise, my fingers still rubbing the surface of the eye of the snake.

It depresses under my fingers, and a loud click reverberates off the stone.

“Oh, shit,” I say. Did I break it? Stupid, stupid, stupid—

The ground rumbles under my feet, a horrible grating noise sounding. Leaves fall to the floor from the tree that’s taken up residence in the ruin.

“Is it an earthquake?” I yell, my eyes wide. I brace my feet, trying to remain upright. “Sueva quake?”

That’s just what I need, for a fucking earthquake to take me out.

No sooner has the thought flashed through my mind than the floor gives way under my feet.

I’m so shocked I can’t even scream. A strong, taloned hand grips my bicep, and Kanuz yanks me against him.

Then I’m free-falling, cocooned between his scaled chest and tree-trunk like arms.

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