Текст книги "Alien On Fire"

Автор книги: January Bell

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He growls at me, then takes my hands in his.

“You think I like it? You think I like that the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is how not to die? How to keep myself and my brothers safe? But I’m trying to do the right thing anyway, because I’m tired of feeling like maybe I am the villain everyone seems to think I am. I’m a king, and death might be my only birthright, but I’m going to try to do the right thing.” Fire licks up his arms.

I flinch back, but to my surprise, they don’t burn me. They’re just… warm.

He rubs his thumb across my cheek, catching me off guard.

“I have never had to explain myself to anyone. Never had to think about anything other than my brothers’ and my safety. I am trying. But you have to remember, the Roth are not human. We are not raised like you, we don’t think like you.”

“What do you think like, then?” It’s the only thought my brain can hold on to long enough to ask. “How are we so different?”

“We are a species raised in battle and blood. We are taught to revere war, that power and might make right. That the strongest of all is the one to lead. That softness and… caring are death sentences.” His gaze slips over my face, and I get the distinct feeling he’s trying to tell me something else, something that he can’t quite put words to.

“My mother was a radical. She thought that we needed to abandon our war-mongering ways. That’s why we were in hiding. She stole away with the three of us after our father, the king, was slayed in trial by combat by my uncle.”

“The Overlord,” I say, and my chest aches at the thought of his poor mother, forced into hiding because she wanted to change the Roth to be gentler.

He dips his head in acknowledgment. “My mother… was different. She abhorred bloodshed of any kind, thought we were setting ourselves up for failure. She thought our ways were wrong, that the virus cropping up and decimating our females was a sign of the gods’ wrath towards us. She told us the gods used to give messages and speak with us, but that had not happened in many, many years, as the Roth grew more and more warlike. She taught us to fight because she wanted us to survive. My mother knew we would need those skills, along with the other things she taught us, like how to care for one another. How to look out for each other, to think for ourselves. She wanted the world to be different, wanted us to be the reason it changed. I have… I have failed her.”

He drops my hands, and his own fist at his sides. His flames die, the orange in his eyes replaced by full black.

“No, you haven’t. Look at what you’re doing.” But he doesn’t seem relieved. No, on the contrary, he seems even more upset.

“She sounds like a special person. Roth.” I shrug, feeling like an idiot, struggling with the fact that his mother wasn’t a person, but an alien. The alien species that killed my own family. “Thank you for saying she would like me. That was kind of you.”

“I am not a kind male. Nor a good one.” He gives me a heated look that makes my toes curl.

“No, that’s not what I said. Do I think you’re evil and cruel? The villain?” I tilt my head and purse my lips, pretending to mull it over. To my delight, he laughs, just a little. I take one of his hands again, holding it tight, needing him to understand what I’m trying to say, to feel my sincerity. “Are you perfect? No. No one is. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t kindness in you. Besides, you’re taking me back to Earth. Right? That’s pretty kind. You have given me choices, whereas with the other Roth? I never had a choice. Ever.”

A guilty look plays across face. “I told you that, yes. It does not mean I want to.”

“Doing the right thing even when you don’t want to is the height of decency and honor,” I tell him, and for some reason, a lump forms in my throat.

He grunts and starts to open his mouth when the comms tablet dings, a shrill noise that shocks me back to reality.

“Shit.” I scrub a hand down my face. “I forgot to comm Sueva and let the warlords there know I’m safe.”

“I am not afraid of the Suevans,” he growls, his eyes pricking with fiery light again.

“No one said you were, Smokey the Bear,” I tell him, annoyed. “But I don’t want them risking themselves on some hare-brained mission to save me when I’m here by choice.”

He studies me, then hands me the comms tablet from where it’s tucked in a pocket.

I stretch my neck, then tap the sequence that will accept the comm.

Niki’s face fills the screen.

“Leigh,” she says, and her face turns slack with relief. “You’re alright?”

“Hi, Captain Jacks,” I tell her. “I am. I’m fine.”

“Did Nydo coerce you into going with him?” she asks bluntly.

“Well, he said that once I helped him, he would take me back to Earth. So here we are. I left a note.”

“Back to Earth?” She blinks, as though this hasn’t even occurred to her, like none of us could possibly want to go back to Earth.

“Yeah,” I say tartly. “Some of us actually want to go back, you know? Some of us aren’t happy cozying up to an alien warlord and playing house.” I’m surprised at the venom in my own voice.

Niki’s mouth makes a thin line, and she lifts her chin up. “I understand. But you could have told us —told me—you wanted to return to Earth. We would have eventually figured out a way to negotiate your return. You didn’t have to take off and leave us wondering if you’d been coerced or hurt. We’ve now sent valuable resources after you, to ensure your safety.”

Guilt rises in me, a tidal wave of it, threatening to pull me under.

“I left a note,” I say stubbornly.

“Your resources are unnecessary,” Nydo interrupts. “We are safest alone. We are carrying out the mission you wanted us to, to divert the Overlord’s attention from Earth and Sueva. Leigh and the other women are of utmost importance to our plan. Would you like to hear it, Captain Jacks?”

Her gaze turns wary and calculating, and Nydo slips an arm around my waist as he shares the small comm screen with me. Butterflies flutter in my stomach at the easy, familiar contact.

“Yes,” she says flatly.

“The Overlord thinks to sell the idea of humans to be bred, as breeders only, to the rest of the remaining Roth. He knows as well as I do that our species is dying, and quickly. He knows that the key to remaining a power in this universe is increasing our numbers, and quickly. But the way he wants to do it, by forcing human females to breed, is repugnant, is it not?”

Niki nods, her eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

“So I will show the Roth that there is another way. That human females can be mated, and not just to be bred. They are strong, and capable, and smart, and to look at them only as vessels for our young is to do ourselves a disservice. We must not force them into anything, but treat them like the queens they are. Like our queen.” His fingers squeeze my back, and I clear my throat, nervous, trying not to think too hard about what he’s saying.

Niki’s eyes dart between us, and I just know, I just know, she’s thinking the same thing I am. That he doesn’t sound like he’s going to let me go.

But I have to believe him.

I have to.

“And when Leigh returns to Earth… you think they will just accept this?”

“I think that Roth are smart enough to understand that even if I do not have my mate with me, they are lucky to have theirs. I am not simply speaking about making more young. I am speaking about an alliance that will keep everyone safe. The human females from being sold into the worst imaginable circumstance, and the Roth, to stop our marauding ways that end up in death and death alone.”

“Hmm,” Niki says, and her expression barely changes. “I see.”

“I have no need of a Suevan escort to Roth,” Nydo continues, his eyes flaring hot enough that the orange reflects off the comms tablet surface. “I am powerful enough on my own.”

“You’re taking her to Roth?” Niki’s wary expression turns to pure surprise. “And you don’t want help?”

Nydo leans forward, his teeth audibly grinding. “And you think the Suevans are the sign I need to send my people that this is best? The Suevans and the Roth do not get along. We never have. My species has a long memory, and the settlement wars were not long ago at all.”

“You got along well enough when you were here. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you came to be with us, Nydo,” Niki bares her teeth at him, the expression feral. “Don’t think that just because you spin a good story now, with Leigh at your side, I trust you will do what’s best for her. I know who you are.”

“You think you know. You know nothing,” he sneers, every inch the imperious jerk.

“Okay.” I put my hands up, annoyed. “I know you don’t like how he treated you and Draz, but he was low on options.”

“Do you know what he did to us?” Niki asks me, the veneer of command slipping away as worry—real, unfeigned worry—turns her mouth down. “Do you know who you’re with? He’ll do anything to get his way. I don’t trust him, and I’m worried about you.”

Nydo’s huge shoulders tense, and his hand drops away from my side. I bite my lip.

“I trust him.”

Do I? Do I really though? Well, I’ve made my bed, and I better fucking lie in it.

“He promised me he would take me home, and I believe him. He’s the best hope we have for Earth and Sueva alike. You should try to trust him more, too.”

His hand wraps around mine and he squeezes it, warmth spilling up my arm from where our skin meets.

“See? We have no need of a Suevan escort.”

“And the other two? Piper and Billie? None of you have answered comms.”

“We’ve been slightly busy,” I tell her, annoyance flaring again. “Piper and Billie want to go home, too. They’re with Nydo’s brothers. We split up and we’re trying to gain support among the settlements.”

“We sent escorts after them, too.” Niki studies Nydo’s face. “Do you want me to call them off, as well?”

Nydo’s fingers rub a circle across my palm, and I shiver under his touch. “No. Comm them again, and ask what they want. If they want to work with the Suevans at the settlements, that can be their choice. There are not too many left, anyway. You know Roth and Suevan numbers have waned almost impossibly in the last decade.”

Niki nods. “I will comm them and I will pull off the detail assigned to you.”

I sigh because I wouldn’t mind seeing another human face right now. But I don’t want any of the other women to get hurt in our bid for power on Roth. I don’t envy Niki. I wouldn’t want to have to be in charge of all that. Good thing I’m only playing at being the queen.

I don’t think I could handle it.

“Thank you,” I tell her, and it’s sincere. “Thank you for looking out for us. I promise I would tell you if we weren’t okay.”

A faint smile tugs her lips up. “Good. I wish you both luck on your mission. If it works, we’re looking at an entirely different universe.”

“We don’t need luck,” Nydo tells her, all arrogance. I roll my eyes. “We will succeed, because we are in the right, and the gods of Roth will be on our side. I can feel it.”

“Good,” Niki says, and then nods again before the comm ends.

I let out a massive sigh, pressing my hands into my face. Nydo rubs my back, and when I glance at him from between my fingers, his eyebrows are raised.

“Why are you still anxious? Do you not feel better after speaking with her?”

“I’m glad that we’re on the same page,” I hedge. “I’m hungry.”

He gives me a look, like he’s not going to let this go, but hustles over to the machinery the Roth equip their vessels with to make food.

I rub my temples, trying to process, well, everything that’s happened in such a short span of time.

Trying to process how the hell I feel about Nydo.

It shouldn’t change anything, his explanation of the Roth, of how he was raised… but I can’t help but feel sorry for him. Empathy for him. Like maybe, if the world had been slightly different, he wouldn’t be so fucking impossible.

I bite my lip.

Then he wouldn’t be him, though.

It would be idiotic to care about him. As more than friends. Sure, I’m using him to scratch an itch, but I can’t have feelings for him. That would be… such a supremely bad idea.

“I made the one you like,” Nydo tells me, and sure enough, he has my favorite Roth meal ready to go, steaming in front of me. It’s basically a vegetable and meat pie, though it isn’t like any I’ve ever eaten on Earth. My heart squeezes slightly with affection.

“You remembered which one I liked?”

He grunts. “It’s nothing,” he says, but his lips curl up, just a little, and I can tell he’s pleased I’m pleased. It’s adorable, and I grin at him for a split second.

Fuck.

I don’t need to catch feelings for him.

I need to get back to Earth.

But as I surreptitiously watch him prepare his own food, serving me before himself, I know that I’m already screwed, because… I do like him.

Friends. Just friends.

Friends who have mind-blowing sex, yes, sure, but that’s it.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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NYDO

I can scent her over the smells of the food on the table between us. Her cheeks are bright pink, and her gaze is studious on her food as she eats.

But I feel it flick to me when I look away from her.

She’s trying to hide her arousal.

“Why are you ashamed of your body?” I finally ask, setting my drink down.

“What?” she sputters, her eyes wide. “I’m not.”

“You are acting shy about your needs again.” I fold my arms across my chest. “Why, when I can pleasure you so you sleep well all night? Why, when I already have?”

“Because it’s not normal to be so goddamn horny!”

I tilt my chin. “Horns? Do you grow horns? Is this a human thing I know nothing about?”

She scrubs a hand over her face, then lets out a hoarse laugh. “No. We don’t grow horns. It means I’m turned on.”

“Your cunt is wet with arousal,” I say approvingly. “If you have had enough to eat, I would not mind feasting on it again.”

She groans, and embarrassment is writ across her body, her face.

“Do you think it bothers me? That you are ready for my cock at all hours of the day?”

“No, but it bothers me. Don’t you think I’d like to have, I don’t know, a little more control over my body?”

I pull her hands away from her face, watching her adorably embarrassed expression, her pale cheeks turning redder and redder as I drink her in.

“I think I would like to have more control over your body,” I growl.

And it is true.

But I also want her heart, and her mind. Not to control. Not to own. But to claim for myself, in all my selfishness. I don’t want her to return to Earth. I don’t want her anywhere but in my bed and at my side.

I clench my jaw, the primal need to win her, to claim her as my mate in the way of the Roth gripping me tight, overwhelming me.

An idea occurs to me as she sighs, and a slow smile stretches over my face.

“What if you did give me control over your body?” I ask, my voice low. Enticing. Gently, I flip her hands over, tracing the delicate blue veining under her skin there. Her skin leaves warm imprints against the cool metal of the table. “What if that’s what you need to take the edge off? To stop trying to control everything? Just for a little while?”

I want to be what she needs. Everything she needs. Always.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

There’s no denying the way her scent fills the room, that addictive, tempting smell of desire, and her. Always her.

“I mean,” I say, my smile growing, “that you let me please you. You let me take control of your urges. You let it all go, and you place yourself in my capable hands.”

“But… the ship.” Her eyelashes flutter.

“Is on autopilot. Won’t need me for, oh—” I glance at the clock embedded in the wall “—another five hours at least.”

“Five… hours?” she squeaks, then clears her throat.

I keep stroking her wrists. Maybe she needs a little more convincing. I lean over the table, brushing my lips against the near-translucent skin.

“You liked when I held your hands down in bed and rutted you like a beast, did you not?”

She gulps, her green eyes wide. “I…”

“I know you did.”

Her eyes narrow in defiance, and I grow hard as a rock for her, this little human who thinks she can hide what she likes from me. Who thinks I will not sniff out every way she likes to be fucked.

“So what if I did?” she finally says, tossing her red hair.

It drives me crazy, and my hands flex over her wrists.

“Then you will like this even more.”

“And if I say stop?”

“Sometimes, my little flame, stop means keep going.”

She hisses, and I watch her carefully. “So I need, a, uh, what’s it called, a safe word?”

“If you were Roth,” I purr at her, “you would not need such a thing, because you would know that I would stop the instant I detected a change in your scent.”

“I’m not doing shit with you unless I get a safe word.”

I spread my hands wide, doing my best to appear innocent, like I’m not about to use her body until all she can think of is pleasure and me. “Then choose a word. But know this, little mate, if you agree to this, to let me take control of your body, of your pleasure, you will be so well trained to my touch, to my kiss, that when you look at me, your cunt will be wet immediately. There will be no escaping your need for my mouth on you, my cock deep inside.”

She laughs. Laughs.

I narrow my eyes at her.

“Yeah, sure,” she says, and I glare at her for a minute.

Then I see it, that she’s nervous, that she’s worried.

“I would never hurt you. I swear it to you. If you pick a word, this safe word, I will honor it. I simply want to give you pleasure.”

“Oh, yeah? And you don’t expect anything in return, is that right?”

Incredulity sends my brows shooting up. “You think I don’t feel pleasure when I see you orgasm? To know it is because of me, of what I have done, that you feel that way?” I shake my head, laughing in disbelief. “Trust me, little flame, this is not only for your pleasure.”

“So you won’t have sex with me in…” her eyes flick to the clock in the wall, “in the five hours you plan to… tie me up?”

“I didn’t say that,” I purr, fucking loving the way her eyes dilate. “But you’ll have to ask me so, so nicely if you want my cock.”

“Marshmallow fluff,” she says breathlessly, her gaze glued to me.

I blink. “What?”

“That’s the safe word. Marshmallow fluff. If I say it, you have to stop. Immediately.”

“Understood,” I growl, and let myself go.

I snap.

With one arm, I sweep all the food and utensils off the table and they clatter to the ground.

She stares at me, open-mouthed. I long to fill those pretty lips with my hard cock, until she whimpers and moans around it.

“Do you want to use your word yet?” I ask her.

She shakes her head, still staring.

Reaching my hands around her ribs, I haul her onto the table with a possessive growl.

For a long moment, I simply stare at her, drinking her in. She’s so gods-damned beautiful. Every fucking inch of her, radiant. Glorious.

Her hair is a Roth volcano, or the color of sunset over the Roth ocean. Her skin freshly fallen snow on the icefields of the far north, her lips berry-red and still swollen from earlier. Will I ever have enough of this female?

I do not think so.

“What?” she asks, her voice nervous.

“You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen,” I say honestly.

I pull her hair back, and she gasps as I stare down at her. The smooth column of her throat bobs. I run a finger across her lower lip, playing with the succulent flesh there, loving the way she trembles against me.

When she bites down on my fingertip, defiance in her gaze, I hiss in surprise.

“Is that what you want, then, my flame? To act like you don’t want this?” I laugh, and the noise is harsh. I want her to want it. I don’t mind her games, I like them… but I want her to want me as badly as I crave her.

I am addicted to Leigh. Fully, wholly, helplessly addicted.

“For that, you will get special treatment.”

Turning, I storm over to the panel in the wall that houses emergency maintenance supplies and rip it away. The metal clatters onto the floor, the housing of the supply panel glowing red under the wall of the ship.

I tug out several lengths of wiring, triumph singing through me.

She might not think she’s mine, not yet, not fully—but I have her at my mercy for the next five hours.

I can’t think of a better way to pass the time than by drawing orgasm after orgasm from her willing body.

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