Page 4 of Treasured By the Alien Rogue

But a fierce need to protect her overwhelmed me. I didn’t know why, but I sensed this female would mean everything to me. I paused in the water to juggle her around until I could pin her flailing limbs to her sides. With a grunt, I ignored her kicks and swam faster to shore.

When a jeveck burst through the surface in front of me, I pulled my finely-honed vine blade from the sheath on my chest and slashed out, gouging the creature across the throat. It roared and whipped its head around, its dark purple blood spattering the water. The female. My face.

One of my vines slid around me and grappled with the jeveck, dragging it down beneath the surface, but other beasts churned closer. There were too many to fight off.

My feet hit ground, and I rushed up the bank with the female pinned beneath my arm. Determination roared across my bones, giving me the strength to get out of the water despite the female struggling to break free.

She shrieked and gouged at my side with her blunted fingers. Her kicks slammed into the backs of my thighs.

Gritting my tusks, I slogged to the top of the bank, leaving the jevecks thrashing in the water. They wouldn’t follow me onto land. Hungry, they dragged their wounded brother down while others engulfed the long cylinder and sucked it beneath the surface.

I reached the thick grass, my body quivering from shock and my breathing ragged. I slid the female down my body until her tiny feet reached the ground, righting her with a hand gripping her upper arm.

While she glared up at me, I scowled at her, taking in her scraggly hair that even wet reminded me of the setting sun. I slid my gaze over her pinched features and dragged it downward.

“You only have two breasts,” I blurted out. Both Zuldrux and Veerenad females had four. Had someone cut the others off? Why would anyone do such a thing?

While she sputtered and snarled, I slid my hand down to clutch her wrist. She struggled, hitting my chest with her miniscule hand. If I was smaller and hadn’t had considerable training, I suspected her blows would have good effect.

Her heel came down hard enough on my instep to make me bellow.

“Stop,” I snarled, lifting her off the ground and pinning her arms to her sides again.

She continued to shriek and flail against me. I should let her go before she drew attacking beasts from the forest. She could return to the water and let the jevecks eat her for all I cared.

While she shouted a long string of indecipherable words at me, I shifted her around to pin her body beneath my arm and lifted my loincloth off the ground, pulling one of the spare crystals I carried with me from the small pouch sewn on one side.

The vines left the water and retreated into the forest as I flipped the female around to my front again and placed her on her feet. I grabbed one of her infernal hands that kept hitting me. Turning her hand over, I laid the stone on the pale surface and forced her fingers to curl around it.

“Speak and be understood, female. And please stop snarling,” I said. Actually, I snarled the words. “I rescued you. I don’t understand why you’re angry with me for battling the jevecks to save your life. Do you think the jevecks would play with you in the water?” My face hot, I fumed. “No, you’d be eaten by now if I hadn’t saved you.”

“Alien. Naked alien with a big cock!” She spun, wrenching her hand from my grip, and raced across the broad open meadow ahead, nearly falling when she tripped in the deep grass.

I studied the sway of her ripe ass revealed by the thin fabric barely reaching her delectable thighs. The wet material revealed her every curve. Flimsy footwear covered her feet, and they squeaked as she bolted. If her footwear kept making that sound, predators would hear and attack her.

“Run away, then,” I shouted after her. “I’m going to . . .” Grumbling, I wrapped my loincloth around my waist and tied it. I hefted my vine blade I’d tossed onto the ground when I reached the shore and slid it into its sheath on my chest before glaring at her retreating back. “Keep running. Watch out for wild hepadons! They enjoy nibbling on tiny females like you.”

The gods knew I had enough to handle already. Hunting consumed much of my day, and in the evening, I had to deal with the endless demands of our clan traedor. As his second, it was my role to manage whatever he chose to ignore, which was pretty much everything related to keeping our small clan running smoothly.

I didn’t need to deal with a surly female right now.

Something shot from the sky and landed in front of me. I gaped at the bright purple stalk quivering where it had embedded itself in the ground. Before my eyes, it bloomed, its blossom a lighter purple than the stalk.

Not long ago, a number of Zuldruxian traedors traveled to speak with the gods, something none of us had dared do since we abandoned them for killing most of our people. My traedor had scoffed at those who approached the gods and insisted we would not participate in this uncertain event.

Since I occasionally traded with the Indigan Clan and was friendly with their traedor, Aizor, I’d heard about the visit. They’d pleaded for mates and were told they’d soon be gifted with brides. The gods said that when a bride was sent to them, they would receive a sign.

I was the second to the traedor of the Ulistar Clan, the clan with a god of plants watching over us.

A plant had just launched from the sky and impaled itself in front of me and bloomed.

Our god had sent me a plant sign.

With a bellow, I ripped up the plant and bolted after the female.

She was my god-given bride.

It was time to claim her.

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