Pheromone, page 38
part #1 of For the Love of Aliens Series
“Then once a month, I’ll come back to this ship. The rest of the time, I’ll stay with Abraxas.”
Rurik’s wings spread wide, and I realize it’s his version of an angry tic, like tugging at one’s hair or yanking at the collar of one’s shirt.
“This ship travels, my princess. We will not always be so close to that horrible little planet. Either I bring the Aspis male here or you will never see him again.”
“Fine!” I scream the word, and Rurik whirls around on me, his wings fluttering like silky fabric. “Bring him here. Now.”
He grits his teeth, flashing those triple vampire fangs on either side of his mouth. He stalks toward me, so angry that he’s vibrating, I swear.
“I cannot bring him here now. I am not the king yet, princess. If my father discovers that you desire another male, that you have rejected me, your Aspis male will die. You will die. I will die. You do not seem to understand the gravity of the situation.”
I feel like crying again, but I won’t show Rurik that side of me.
“When?” I whisper, wishing my voice sounded stronger, wishing I were more sure of myself. He softens immediately, and I hate that, too. He isn’t allowed to act like that toward me. It’s confusing and weird and it makes no sense.
“After we have mated, after the wedding, after you are with child.”
I stare at him.
“You know that I might already be pregnant …” I trail off because surely these Vestalis douchebags have pregnancy tests. It’s too early to tell, Eve, duh. When I said I wasn’t ready for kids, I was serious. As serious as riding Abraxas’ mating rod over and over again? All I wanted was to claim it. Like, it was mine, but … God, I’m an idiot.
“It doesn’t matter. When I mate with you, my genetics will take over. If you are holding onto a fertilized egg, my DNA will replace that of the Aspis male’s DNA.” Rurik doesn’t sound gleeful or gloating nor does he sound regretful. Just … resigned.
I want to scream.
“No.” I move away from him, around to the other side of the couch, as if that matters. “I won’t agree to that.”
“There is no other choice, my princess. This is not something that I am able to compromise on. Not only do I have no control over the functions of my body, it is a demand of the court. I cannot take the throne until you are with child, and I cannot give you your Aspis male until I am king.”
I almost collapse, but the anger takes over.
“Why did you have to taste my blood? Why couldn’t you have just passed by that stupid tent and that stupid sign? Why did you have to come for me?” The tears fall then, but I’m gritting my teeth as they slide down my face.
“Why?” he asks, and his face breaks into something magnificent but terrifying. His eyes widen, and he yanks his gloves off, tossing them onto the floor. He strides right over to me, skirting the sofa, and then grabs me by the arms. “Do I have your consent?”
Just like yesterday.
I nod.
Rurik leans down with that jewel of a mouth, and crushes his lips to mine. My eyes widen rather than close, and I find that we’re staring into one another’s eyes as he kisses me. Something … like small threads … emerge from his tongue and wrap around mine, taking over my mouth and lips and teeth.
It’s the briefest flicker of pain before agonizing pleasure sweeps my body. I’d fall if he weren’t holding me upright.
My mind fractures as he draws back, glowing red lace stuck between our lips.
“Don’t you understand?” he breathes, almost as if he’s talking to himself and not me. “I never wanted a mate either. You have ruined my entire life.” He sinks his teeth into the side of my throat, and my eyes roll back into my head. I can feel him inside of me again, that glowing red lace of his traveling deep into my body.
The prince is upset. He’s angry. He’s frustrated. He’s so unbelievably lonely, a single soul in a vast universe. He scented me. He was full of joy and despair. He doesn’t want to be king. He does want a partner. He wants a lover. He wants a mate. He wants to touch me. He wants to eat me. He wants to fuck me.
I’m not sure if I pass out or what, but for some time there, I know the Vestalis prince better than I know myself. When I blink through the sensation, he’s laying me gently onto the couch and resting his cheek on my stomach. His entire body trembles as he reaches up and swipes blood from my chin, leaving streaks of vibrant red on his skin and mine both.
I realize in that moment how far beyond my control this situation is. I thought I had it bad back when I woke up in that market? That was freedom compared to this. I am trapped. I am never escaping this place.
“Bring him here so I can see him, so he can make a choice on whether or not he wants to stay.” My voice is a breathy whisper.
“Yes, my princess.” Rurik leaves his head on my stomach. I can’t resist reaching out and trailing my fingers along the white part of his antennae. It feels like bone. He releases a hissing gasp that I can feel against my belly, his breath warm through the lace of my lingerie.
“I want you to kick all those black market smugglers and slavers off of Jungryuk.”
There’s a long pause before he agrees to that one.
“Yes, my princess.”
Keep going, Eve, while you have some small kernel of power over him.
“Free the enslaved girls in the market brothels; free the ones trapped in the woods with the Tusk Men.”
Rurik lifts his face up to stare at me, and I get lost in his eyes all over again.
“Yes, my princess.”
I sit up on my elbows, touching my fingers to my lips where his … whatever that red lace stuff is … dug into my skin. There’s plenty of blood on my lips and cheeks and tongue, his and mine mixed together. The smell is making me dizzy again, but in a good way.
“I want to send a letter to my family on Earth.”
He stands up and shakes his head. I can’t decide if that’s something Vestalis do on their own, or if he’s learned these gestures for me.
“I cannot say yes, my princess, but if all goes well, then I will say yes, my queen.” He heads for the door, swiping his arm over his bloodied lips and groaning like he’s either halfway to the grave or halfway to the bedroom.
“I want to see Jane!” I shout at his retreating back, my own breathing an unsteady, staccato rhythm.
“I am already looking for Jane,” he promises, pausing a few feet back from the door. How the fuck does he know about Jane? Oh. Because I told him about her. Or Avril did. Or both of us. “Anything else, Your Imperial Majesty?”
Now that’s better. That sounds mocking. I can do witty repartee all day long.
“I want Connor, too.”
He doesn’t turn around, but I can see his jaw clench.
“Another mate of yours?” he grinds out, and I laugh, letting my head fall back in surrender.
This … this is my life now.
I don’t even understand how I went from being a caterer to falling in love with a dragon alien to … sitting on a chaise lounge in a black lace teddy with the taste of chocolate and blood on my lips.
“Another human that was kidnapped alongside me. I want him sent back to earth.”
“So long as he isn’t mated,” Rurik agrees readily, and my jaw clenches.
“I want that stupid fucking law changed. Why should the victims suffer because they were violated?”
I swear, I can’t see Rurik but he must smile. I can feel the change in the air. Every cell in my body is attuned to his. Just like with Abraxas.
Unlike Abraxas, this male has done nothing to endear himself to me.
“This is another occasion when I may not say yes, my princess, but I will be able to say yes, my queen.” He takes another step toward the door and it opens, revealing Avril and Zero both. “Get up and get dressed. We will go to meet my parents.”
He takes off, and I let my head fall into the pillows. I close my eyes. I put my hand over my stomach.
Part of me is relieved that I’ll get to see Abraxas again.
The rest of me is terrified that when I do see him, nothing will be the same between us.
Because I’m going to have to cheat on him. Because if I am pregnant with his child, it won’t be his anymore. Because even if I’m not, I have to have a baby for Rurik.
I roll onto my side, facing the back of the couch, put my hands to my face, and cry.
No more, Eve. Be strong. Be fucking strong.
“I had thought I was the most pitiable creature in the Noctuida,” Zero says, standing beside the couch. She reaches out and puts her hand on the top of my head. It’s almost a kind gesture. “But today, I am ever so grateful that I have never fallen in love. You look hideous when you cry.”
As if that ain’t the truth.
I dry my tears on the expensive robe, stand up, and turn to face the two women in my suite.
“Alright, let’s do this. The sooner I get this stupid wedding over with, the better.”
Because all of the things I want and need to do hinge on this goddamn union, the one I both fear and crave in equally terrifying measures.
Abraxas
There are dead Vestalis all over my woods, but I cannot be bothered with their corpses. May their ghosts haunt this neverland for centuries. May they choke on the vitriol of their own vile spirits.
I must find Eve.
The ground is torn and shredded by my clawed feet as I slip through the trees like wet blood running hot and wild down a hill. Fast. Faster. I slide into the clearing where our den is located, but there is no den.
There is nothing but an empty crater in the land where it should be.
The vessels in my skin glow with violet rage, the heat of this world’s blood thrumming through me. I absorbed the energy and warmth of a thermal vent in order to kill the last of the prince’s guards. Now that they are dead, and I am here, where is she?
I turn my head up to the sky, but I see nothing.
I see nothing, but I needn’t see it at all because I know.
A roar rips through me, one that shatters the world. Creatures scurry or flap or slither to get away from me, the scent of their terror tainting the air with something strange and sour. I am panting when I lower my head, moving over to a tree and slamming my horns into the bark, grinding against it, gritting my teeth.
I must remain calm, I tell myself, but it takes all that I am to control the primal half of me that wishes to scream until the air cracks with my own thunder, snaps with the lightning of my fury. I pace. I pace some more. I understood this was a concern when I mated my female, that the prince might come for her. It was a risk I was willing to take because she is my soul’s other half.
I turn and dart into the trees, splash through the stream, and snag one of the legs on a Tall Bird. The Aspis prefer descriptive names over obscure ones. Why make something up when Tall Bird is self-explanatory?
I break its leg and when it falls, I break its neck. It is quick, but I am still sorry for the death. However, all beasts must eat. With my body satisfied, and my mind cooled, I head to the water’s edge and I crouch beside it.
Eve. My female. Brave but powerless.
I wish to lend her my power, give her my strength.
How?
I drop my wing hands into the water and then splash my face, cleaning the blood from my scales. My tail lashes angrily, a panicked rage clawing to get out. With half of my psyche, I fight it down. With the other half, I plan.
In order to rescue my female from a Vestalis prince, I must go into the sky.
Then I will need a ship that works and someone to run it.
I drink deeply, refresh myself, and shake out my wings before returning to the area where we encountered the Sucker Tail some days past. I can still smell him on the ground, can easily trace his scent. I follow it through the trees and back to the road where it mixes with others, and I find myself smelling the pirate, too. Both of them, and two human females.
It has been some time since they were last here; finding them will be a challenge.
But I do not hunt in such a way that escape is even a possibility.
I have wasted the better part of a day searching for that law keeper and his scumsucking friend.
But I have found them now.
And I am angry.
The pirate snarls when I snatch him around the waist with my tail, fighting every instinct in me that screams how he should die. Squeeze him tighter, squeeze him until he rips in half. I might be drooling when I split my mouth wide and get in the face of this scruff-necked alien creature. I have smelled him on Jungryuk before; I know what he’s capable of.
The way I look at him, the growl I offer as a warning, that translates into something he can easily understand.
“You have Jane, do you not?” I ask him, my best attempt to remain civil.
I am not civil.
I have never been civil.
I am not tame.
I am looking for my fucking mate.
The Scruff-Neck tries to kill me, withdrawing a weapon and then swearing in his native yipping sounds before I crush his wrist with one of my secondary hands. I don’t squeeze as hard as I’d like. Kill him, my instincts tell me. Eat him. Make them pay. Slaughter them all.
But I cannot do that.
If I am not rational in my search for my mate, I will lose her.
Sadness swamps me, but it has not been long. I can get her back. I can do it quickly.
I will tear the Vestalis prince to pieces, splatter him across the walls of his star traveling ship. I bite the pirate’s arm, and he spasms under the terrible pain of it. Only Eve enjoys my bite. Only Eve should survive your bite. Feast on him for sustenance. It is the way of things.
“Where is Jane?” I demand, panting, snarling, glowing so brightly that strange shadows skitter over his hidden campsite. The Night Feasters scurry away from me, so frenzied in their escape that they bite and snap at each other. I smile, but the expression only makes the captain fight harder.
It’s useless. I am slowly strangling him to death. I will continue to do so until he gives me an answer.
A pebble bounces off my back, and I turn to see a human female standing at the edge of the clearing. She’s holding a pile of rocks in her hand, breathing hard, staring at me.
“Put him down,” she grinds out, like she’s ready to fight.
Ah, this will be Jane then. This human is similar to my beautiful Eve. Fierce in the heart even if not in the flesh. I toss the pirate aside and he groans, slamming into one of the brightly colored alien dwellings.
But I did not put the pirate down because of Jane.
Because of the Sucker Tail.
“Alright, my friend,” he begins, putting his thumb digits under his belt and standing in such a way that it looks as if he is seeking a female of his own. He was aroused by mine when he saw her in the market. I will have to watch him carefully around her. Because he is here, I know I will be forced to let him near her again. We will need his help to reunite. I dislike him instantly and wish that I were as mindless as my instinctual hunger. Grab him. Finish him. Let his blood spray. “If you’re here, there’s a problem. What’s the problem?”
The Falopex sighs and drops his arms by his sides, walking over to his friend with a sway that draws the human female’s attention. The air is perfumed with arousal, and I wince. I do not like the smell of any female but my own. I have never before smelled a female who aroused me. Not once.
But Eve … I am surprised by our connection. Surprised, but pleased. Thrilled. Satisfied.
I will find her. I will not rest until my body gives out and even then, I will crawl. I cannot allow my Eve to die. If she does not mate with me in relatively short order, we will both perish. I do not understand why. My people are not concerned with the why of most things. If we are happy and fed, we are content.
“The Vestalis prince has taken my mate,” I tell them all, watching absently as the officer knocks a gun from the pirate’s hand, and then hefts him into the air using his sucker tails. He touched my mate with those. I should bite them off. “You or your friend will take me to her.”
“What the fuck is going on?” another human female says as she steps from the woods, and my hackles raise immediately. What was this one’s name? I cannot be bothered to remember. A small Earth-thing peeks its head from the female’s cloth coverings. A possum, Eve called it. I can remember that, but I cannot remember the female’s name. “Aren’t you Eve’s alien fuckbuddy?” the girl continues, her natural voice a horrific shriek that causes me to grit my teeth.
Jane shrinks away from me and the pirate groans, but the Sucker Tail is calm as he looks back at me. We have seen one another around, I suppose. He does not bother me. He kills the slavers and the tusks, and he takes the human women home. That is an act of good will with no reward. This makes him trustworthy to me.
If I had died that night, and she had found him again, he would have taken care of her. I know that to be a fact.
Instead, my mate fucked me back to life. My sweet, tiny, tender female. I release a purr that shakes all four individuals present, including the Sucker Tail. Even then, he only shakes with a laugh and then crosses his arms.
“The future king abducted his future queen, and you want to … confront the entire imperial family by ourselves?” The officer fixes his head covering with a flick of his finger, moving the white object up and away from his eyes. “That sounds like a great way for this all to end badly.” He lets his head hang back and then moves around me, ignoring me as I turn to face him. I leave little Jane and her pebbles at my back, unconcerned.
She doesn’t stay where she is for long, rushing past me to help the officer with his friend.
The two of them work diligently to set his bones and bandage his bleeding wounds. I lie down in place, the power of the thermal vents once again flowing through my veins. While I wished to swell to my full form, I did not for fear that I would not fit on the ship I must board.
