Текст книги "Alien On Fire"
Автор книги: January Bell
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ALIEN ON FIRE
BOUND BY FIRE
BOOK 1
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JANUARY BELL
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Alien On Fire by January Bell
Published by January Bell
www.januarybellromance.com
Copyright © 2022 January Bell
Cover by Natasha Snow Designs www.natashasnow.com
Edited by Happy Ever Author
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact: admin@januarybellromance.com
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CONTENTS
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Epilogue
Also by January Bell
About the Author
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
Hi readers!
I do my best to write the most fluffy, escapist, fun and romantic science fiction romance possible. The last thing I want to do is ruin someone’s day by surprising them with a plot twist that will upset them, so I’ve included a list of potential triggers on this book.
Please note– this is a VILLAIN romance– so it may be slightly darker than my usual!
Please feel free to skip this if you don’t want to be spoiled, or use them if you need to!
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**********SPOILERS AHEAD************
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This book contains references to:
–explicit sex
–light kink
–gun violence
–emetophobia
–mention of pregnancy
–breeding kink
–death of parents
–terrorism
–assault
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CHAPTER ONE
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NYDO
Brightly colored birds wing overhead, the mountain air clear, the sunlight that streams overhead dappling the verdant jungle. My teeth grind together.
I miss my home world. Roth.
Part of me knows I should be more grateful to be out of the Suevan cells, that I should thank them for trusting me… but I won’t. I won’t give them the satisfaction. Kings do not lower themselves to thank their former jailers. My hands flex at my sides. I never should have allowed myself to be captured in the first place.
Leigh, the mate I found in a Roth prison, the mate I’d loose a torrent of fire to save all over again, is the only reason this place is bearable. Even though she despises me.
With the weight of the Suevan asteroid belt in the sky, it almost feels like I’m still imprisoned here on Sueva. Not for long.
The Suevans and my brothers and I may be partners in wanting to oust the Roth Overlord—the male who ordered my parents’ deaths, the male who would hunt me and my brothers if he knew we lived—but it is a tenuous agreement at best, and the Suevans have not made an effort to hide their distaste of us.
Familiar rage seethes inside me, and the tips of my fingers begin to heat.
I can’t say I blame them for not trusting us, not after what Roth Empire has done, the way the Overlord corrupted our ways, our species, until the entire universe would cheer to see us reduced to rubble and bones.
Even my lovely, fragile, human mate. Comforting heat shimmers further up my arms. I will show them. I will show them all.
“Nydo,” my brother says, approaching the table I sit at, alone in one of the meeting places in this alien city. “I came as quickly as I could.”
Every day, my middle brother looks more like our father. The same strong jaw, the same set around the eyes. Even his ash patterns, the darker grey swirls along his velvety skin, resemble our father’s.
“Lyko,” I greet him, dipping my head in acknowledgment. “Where is Ayro?”
“Here,” our youngest brother says. We both grin at him, and I wonder if Lyko sees what I do in him… our mother. It is with her lips he speaks, her eyes he stares at us through.
I wonder if Lyko remembers her at all.
A lump forms in my throat, and I swallow hard, pushing down the blood-soaked memories of her death, of the fire leaving her eyes. And yet her gaze lives on through my littlest brother, staring at me now with his typical good humor.
I gave up everything to ensure these two lived.
I would do it all again.
“Why the urgency, Nydo?” Ayro stretches out tall before sitting beside me, and for a moment, I’m trapped in the past, remembering how small he was when I last saw him, before I had to go to work for the Overlord to hide the two of them. How tiny, how innocent. I am lucky that he has lived long enough to grow as tall as he is now. A child no longer.
I shake my head, clearing my throat. “It’s time.”
“For lunch?” Ayro asks, laughing. He’s always been light-hearted, the least serious of the three of us.
“To take my female and leave,” I tell them gruffly.
“The human Leigh has agreed, then? To be your mate? Congratulations, brother,” Lyko says, smiling widely at me. Normally taciturn, it’s the most I’ve heard Lyko say in days.
“She will come with us,” I tell them, not quite lying. Definitely not telling the truth, though. A vision of her flashes through my mind, her flame-colored hair, defiant eyes, delicate bone structure and soft, soft skin. Leigh. My mate.
My whole body, my entire being, sings with the need to make her mine.
If only she didn’t despise me, and our entire species.
“I have a plan,” I announce to them. “The Suevans wish to use us to draw out the Overlord’s troops, to divert their energies into finding the three of us, the lost royal bloodline. We will do this for the Suevans.”
Ayro and Lyko both glow slightly, their own energy manipulation powers manifesting in their excitement. They share a look.
“We will take the female, Leigh, with us. As proof that the Roth can mate with other species. That the bond is there—”
“Brother, you are the only one of us who has felt the bond with one of the human females,” Ayro objects. “They are fair of face and body, but they are not our mates. You cannot even be sure that she is yours. Unless…” He stares at me, looking for proof that does not exist.
Lyko grunts in agreement, raising one brow.
For Leigh to be my true mate, for it to be proven, I will have to mark her as mine. Only a true Roth mate can wear the ash swirls on their skin, and none but a Roth female has ever borne the proof of a true mating.
And after the virus decimated our females, it has been many, many years indeed since that happened.
“She is my mate,” I insist, fire sparking to life along my skin. “She simply… does not understand that yet.”
Realization dawns on Lyko’s face, then Ayro’s, their eyes widening. Lyko frowns at me. “You mean to steal her away, like the Suevan gladiator did to his wife.”
“I mean to strike a bargain with the female,” I snarl back. “And any others you wish to bring.”
Lyko blinks at me, clearly unafraid of my temper. He knows better than most that I am all noise.
Mostly.
“What kind of bargain?” Ayro asks slowly.
“They will support our claim to rule the Roth. They will be proof that we can mate with other species. They will help us undermine the Roth Overlord and divert his troops, as the Suevans wish. And in return,” I pause, clearing my throat, preparing it for the lie. “We will tell them we plan to take them back to Earth… when we have accomplished our goals.”
“You would part with your mate? Willingly?” Ayro asks, disbelief etched in his brow.
“He would lie to her,” Lyko says. “Nydo has no intention of parting with the female.” His lip curls slightly. “I assume you think you can convince her to stay? To truly mate you, as a Roth female would?”
I nod once, familiar shame flooding me.
“And the other females? We are to have our pick of the unwed humans?” Lyko asks. “I would take the quiet, yellow-haired one. Piper. She has a sweet countenance.”
“The brown-haired, curvy one,” Ayro says instantly. “Billie, they call her.” He blows out a breath, his gaze avid on my face.
“When do we begin this lie?” Lyko narrows his eyes at me.
“Immediately. Prepare your ship for launch. I will convince and collect the human females, and we will make for the closest space station to gather what we need before beginning our campaign across the Roth settlements.” I stand, my fists on the table.
“You truly believe they will agree to this?” Lyko gestures to the jungle around us, the soaring trees that are so typical of Edrobaz. “You think they will willingly agree to come with us?”
“I do.” With a curt nod, I stride away, brimming with desire to get underway. To have Leigh with me.
I would lie to Leigh about everything to make her my true mate, my queen.
I will be king, and I will have my mate, and I would do anything to secure that outcome.
Anything at all.
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CHAPTER TWO
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LEIGH
I squirm, trying to ignore the heat rippling through me. The need that, no matter how often I freaking touch myself, will. Not. Stop. At least it distracts me from the medical instruments all around me. I sweat, reminded far too much of the prison I spent the last several months in, being poked and prodded by the Roth.
I make myself look away from the equipment and out the window.
Dappled sunlight spills through huge windows, the massive zitsu trees climbing towards the asteroid-studded sky overhead.
I suck in a breath, my heart beating like a runaway train.
This isn’t the prison. I’m safe here.
The medical center here on Edrobaz is nothing like the cell the Roth kept me and the remaining members of my crew in. At the mere memory of the Roth, of the time my team and I were kept in that small cell, waiting for the worst, sweat beads on my forehead, slicking down the small of my back.
I splay my palms on the examination table, and they leave steamy impressions on the cool surface.
Carmen, one of the few humans on Sueva and a competent med officer, watches me carefully, the other med officer, Tati, hustling around behind her. Unlike the three of us rescued from the Roth prison, the Earth Federation apparently sold them out as unwitting brides to the Suevans for tech. As such, they’re stuck here, knowing the Federation would ruin their lives if they tried to get back to Earth and tell the truth of what happened to them.
Earth. I want to go back so badly it’s like a physical pain.
“How are the side effects?” Carmen finally asks, looking up from the med scanner in her hand. “Still bothering you?”
“Side effecting,” I try to joke, but it falls flat.
She frowns, and I sigh.
“I am horny all the time, okay? It’s been what, a week and a half since they last dosed us with the fertility drugs, and I am on. Edge. Nothing makes a difference.” I swallow noisily, but honestly, I’m beyond embarrassment. “And by that I mean—"
She holds up a hand, cutting me off. “I get it. And I’m sorry. As far as I can tell, it may take months for that particular side effect to go away. Maybe less, maybe more.” She holds up a clear sheet full of tiny patches. “We do have birth control now, though. The hormones might take the edge off everything the Roth injected you with, and it will definitely keep you from getting pregnant, should you, uh, decide to, um…”
“I’m not having sex with anyone,” I nearly shout at her. Tati looks up from whatever she’s working on, surprise furrowing her brow at my screech. “The last thing I want is to dick around with an alien.” My temper seems to always be at the forefront lately.
All that testosterone they pumped me full of to increase my libido, I guess.
“Understood,” she says calmly, as though she’s often yelled at that alien dick is off the menu.
Hell, maybe she is. Here on Sueva, half the women are shacked up with the aliens they married, and the other half? Well, they live with me and the few of my remaining crew while we try to figure out what the hell we’re going to do next.
I tug on my ponytail, annoyed with myself.
“Any chance you’ve heard back on whether or not the warlords are going to let us get back to Earth?” I’ve been trying so freaking hard to get them to let us take a ship, to go with us, anything to get us back to Earth.
I don’t want to be stuck on this alien jungle hellhole. I don’t want to live out my days here being ogled by muscle-bound lizardmen.
I want to go home.
She shakes her head slowly, her face empathetic. “It’s too dangerous. You haven’t heard? The Roth Overlord is increasing his presence… everywhere. A ship to Earth would get all the wrong kind of attention. The last thing we want is for you to—”
“Get captured again,” I finish for her, my palms in the air in surrender. “Fuck.”
“I mean, there’s plenty of Suevans around here who would probably be willing to—”
“Are you kidding?” Seriously?! No alien dick for this human. Ugh.
I want to go home.
She smiles at me, then huffs a laugh. “Yeah, actually, I was. How are Piper and Billie doing? Are they waiting outside?”
“Yep,” I tell her. “And they haven’t said anything about needing to masturbate ten times a day, but I hope they don’t have it as bad as I do.”
“I’m sorry,” Carmen says, and she sounds like she means it.
I sigh. “It’s okay. I mean, as far as it goes, we got out. I’m not pregnant, no one physically hurt us. I shouldn’t even complain.”
“You’re allowed to feel whatever you feel,” Carmen says softly, going into full therapist mode. I stop just short of rolling my eyes. “You went through something very traumatic. It is going to come out sooner or later, and it would do you some good to talk it out. Feel what you need to feel.”
She hands me a packet of birth control patches and I sigh, taking them. The case clicks open and I count them, trying to collect my thoughts before peeling one off and slapping it on my arm.
Carmen stands there, a patient look on her face, and she seems like the kind of doctor that would actually offer helpful advice if I felt like opening up to her.
But I don’t. I don’t open up to anyone.
“What I feel,” I finally answer, “is that I would like to go on a murder spree against the Roth,” I finish cheerily.
She squints at me. “Was that a joke?”
“Yep,” I lie, jumping off the table. “If that’s all, I have some very important things to do.”
Like plot my escape from Sueva.
Like plan an attack on the Roth.
Like take a nap after masturbating furiously because neither of those things are real options.
Carmen sighs, one eyebrow raised. I mirror her expression, crossing my arms over my chest. As far as I know, the doc has problems too, married off against her will to some Suevan that can’t even be bothered to see her. Ever.
I don’t hear her opening up about it!
“Okay, send in…” She scrolls through her Suevan tablet. “Piper.”
“You got it, doc,” I say.
I never thought I’d miss taking orders.
But it beats the hell out of what I’ve been doing since we were all captured by the Roth, our male crew members murdered. Kept in captivity. Pumped full of fertility drugs. Then rescued. My teeth grind together, and I push the memory of a certain Roth out of my head.
The three of us who chose to come to Sueva have been sitting around ever since, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Wishing we were home. Feeling weird about all the unmarried male Suevans staring at us like we’re their favorite meal.
And in my case, the light stalking Nydo—apparent lost King of Roth—has been doing. He’s only too happy to remind me that he saved me. That he is responsible for my “freedom.”
Fuckface.
My Suevan slippers are silent on the floor as I walk through the hall to the small room Piper and Billie sit in. Piper’s legs are tucked up underneath her, and she’s grinning at Billie, whose shorter legs are swinging off the ground.
“How’d it go?” Billie asks, their conversation cutting off as soon as I walk in.
“Still super horny.” I show her the patch on my arm. “But now I can get laid without getting pregnant. Woohoo,” I deadpan.
Billie snorts, but Piper blinks at me, her sweet, innocent face clearly having trouble processing that idea. “With the Roth alien who follows you around? The one who freed us? Nydo? You’re going to give him a chance?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” I say. “I was joking, Pipes.”
“Oh,” she says softly. “You had me worried. He looks at you like you’re a piece of meat.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I say sarcastically, and Billie huffs a laugh. “No, the only thing I want to do with that motherfucker is put him in a chokehold and watch the light die in his eyes. King of Roth my ass. Or,” I pause, picking up steam, “I could slit his throat while he sleeps, and watch the sheets turn red around him.” A savage intensity fills me, and it takes me a minute to notice that Piper and Billie have both gone completely still. “Or push him under water and wait until there aren’t any more bubbles…” I trail off.
“Er,” Piper says, her clear blue eyes wide. She pushes her cornsilk-blonde hair behind her ears, her gaze fixed behind me.
“What?” I ask. “Too violent? Should I just poison him?” I try to laugh, but I choke on it a little.
Billie clears her throat, her face twisted in a grimace as she jerks her head at something behind me.
Or someone.
My entire body flames as I slowly turn towards where they’re both staring.
“Do not stop on my account. I love hearing how bloodthirsty you are. It is darling to hear the many ways you fantasize about me,” Nydo says. “I am glad to know that you spend as much time daydreaming about what you want to do with my body as I do about yours.”
Fuck. Me.
“We’re just going to go,” Billie says, dragging Piper behind her towards the examination room.
“Traitors,” I say after them.
But a door closes in the distance, and I’m left standing with Nydo.
The object of all my murderous desires.
Of course he had to twist it around to something sexual. Of course he did.
I stare at him for a minute, trying to collect my stupid thoughts, because now I’m thinking about sex again. He doesn’t even seem offended. His annoyingly handsome face is turned up in a grin, highlighting his strong jaw and cut cheekbones. His gaze drops to my lips as I lick them, my mouth suddenly dry.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” I finally say, because goddammit, I have to say something. The tension is quite literally unbearable, and the air crackles with dry heat.
He steps closer to me, and I make myself go loose as he circles me like a predator.
I will not let this jerk intimidate me.
I am done with being afraid of the Roth.
“Do you really care that I heard you enumerate all the ways you want to kill me?”
“No,” I say instantly.
He barks a laugh, as though me wanting him dead is the funniest thing he’s ever heard in his life. “I like your honesty.”
“Well, I don’t like anything about you at all, so go away. I have places to be.”
He finishes his slow walk around me, his eyes filled with an orange glow. “You do?”
“Yep. Bye.”
“You’re a liar,” Nydo says, tilting his head, all predator.
My entire body sizzles with awareness. “What, like you have places to be?” I sneer at him, rage and helplessness making me meaner than a snake. “You’re here hiding out on Sueva because you’re just as scared of the Overlord as the rest of us.”
He smiles slowly, dangerously, and I can’t help but think that I’ve just said something very, very wrong.
“Is that what you think?” he asks, his voice a soft caress against my senses.
I clear my throat and stand up even straighter.
His gaze flicks to my breasts, and I resist the urge to slump and cover them up. For crying out loud. It’s not like I’m even wearing something sexy. I’m in my nasty, ratty Federation uniform. I can’t stand the frilly nonsense the women here wear, and I would rather wear my old fatigues then squeeze myself into the skintight training gear that’s the other option.
“Are you here for a reason, like to get your big head checked out, or are you here just to annoy me?” The question comes out much bolder than I feel.
My skin tingles from his proximity, his strange velvety grey skin shedding heat like a bonfire.
“Have you been thinking about my… big head, then?” His smile is lascivious, and I ignore the way my entire body tightens at the sexual tone.
“Fuck you,” I retort. Brilliant comeback.
“I would like that very, very, very much.” Nydo steps even closer, his eyes nearly glowing full orange now. The tips of his hair spark too, and I swallow hard.
It should freak me the fuck out, the way he turns to flames. The power that apparently just hangs out under his skin, the inferno inside that muscled body, the way the whorled pattern moves when he starts to ignite.
But it’s fascinating, the way a leopard’s spots are stunningly beautiful.
He’s a killer.
“Not gonna happen.” It comes out wispy, and I blink in shame and surprise.
“I may not have the senses of our Suevan friends, but I can smell your arousal,” he purrs, his nostrils flaring. “And I have a proposal for you.”
“Whatever it is, the answer is absolutely not. No. And don’t sniff me,” I nearly shout, my temper really getting the best of me. As usual. “You weirdo. The only reason I smell like that,” I stab him in the chest with my finger, and his smile only gets wider—“is because your asshole species pumped me full of drugs to make me aroused like, all the goddamn time, and it doesn’t even matter how many times I touch myself because nothing takes the edge off!”
Er.
I blink. I so did not just admit to that, did I? Shit.
He blinks, then smiles at me, the cat who caught the canary.
“Is that right?”
“Leave me alone,” I snarl and push past him, head held high despite the fact I just made a complete fool of myself.
Until he utters the only thing that could get me to stop.
“What if I could get you back to Earth? You and your companions, too.”
I turn on my heel, only to find he’s watching me with an ineffable expression on his face.
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