Page 41 of Her Alien Savior
Unable to speak, I shook my head, the gesture was universal with the necia and trill alike.
“Like new room?” He asked, and I lifted my brow in confusion. What new room? Was I misinterpreting what he was saying? He smiled, his sharp fangs showing as he licked them. “Care for me. Rushed to lav before seeing.”
I tried to look over my shoulder, but he stopped my chin with a knuckle and kept my eyes on him. “Pf-ssk-ul-neh,” he spoke softly, “Command me and follow you, always.”
“What is Pft-sull-na? You’ve said this a few times since we came here.
“Pf-ss-ull-neh,” he enunciated probably because I Earthlingized it, but it sounded like a purr in my ear, “Mate of hearts, take me. Pain apart. Necia fight proving honor until mate offers give blood and ellopul. Humans show mate honor, how?”
I knew his words weren’t as choppy as I was thinking them, because his deep voice was distracting, and it was difficult to keep up with more than basic meanings while he was inches from me naked and sniffing my hair. He kept a bubble of distance from actually touching me like he had when I’d been lured into a bathing ritual, but this was different somehow. Not simply because we were alone, but because I think I had crossed a line seeing him naked and he was respecting that I was not necia but holding back.
“Are you asking how humans choose a mate?” I smiled to myself, wondering how this was still an act when the zoo couldn’t hear us. Did he truly want to mate with me, or was being a mate different than the commitment I thought of as a human? Was it just sex, and necia warriors were just super cognizant of consent, and mutual pleasure?
“Mate must do what, for offering of blood in bonding?”
I gulped. “You want my blood?” My mind froze on the thought, and his next words came to my mind more coherently than what I was hearing before.
“More than I have wanted for title and honor, Pf-ssulne.” Was I hearing him correctly? Was this my mind wishing to hear what I wanted from him? Was this a dream and I was knocked out in the lab somewhere?
Then common sense returned to me. My blood wasn’t my own anymore, it was some stranger necia that Princess Klemon used to help cure the infertility. I would never have my own blood again. When I took Nen-Le’s blood it was like a drug that made my whole body heat like an aphrodisiac. That’s why necia warriors bonded through blood. A way to tell if our genetics were compatible, and the blood in my body wasn’t mine... My eyes widened realizing that he was attracted to whoever was the owner of the blood I had... a dead necia warrior.
This had nothing to do with me… That thought alone broke something in me.
Quickly, I came up with human mating rituals that he would not be able to do, because it was the best way I could protect myself from trapping him in a relationship that wasn’t real, only because I wanted it to be, “Many humans wait to mate until they are secure enough in their life to support offspring without a mate’s help. We pick mates when we want them, not when we need them, if that makes sense?”
“Necias Prime elders teach this. Be whole or your hearts are no better than the vacuum of the darkness in space.” How did I understand that at all with my translator turned off? Whatever he said, I felt the meaning of it, regardless of not recognizing every sound.
He continued, “I’m not whole, Riley.” My breath hitched as he bent over to rub his nose against mine while his hand cupped my chin to keep me in place. “You stole my hearts the moment you told me don’t move. You stole my purpose to protect you the moment you drew first blood. You stole my taste for anything but you the moment you gave me your nectar between your elloslip, and the sweet sound of your pleasure stole the desire to hear anything else but the need to be the reason you scream such beautiful music. You’ve broken me, and I will never be whole again without you.”
I panted, was I hearing this correctly? I could guess what an elloslip was… Stammering, I tried to say something, but his lips brushed against my cheek, stopping me. I shivered as his forearm rested on the wall just before the entrance back to the main living quarters, my only escape would be inches to my right through the door. But that was the farthest thing from my mind as his hot breath touched my skin, and his hard chest was rising and falling with beads of water dripping from his skin.
“I accept your human terms, Pulsunne. I will wait.” His nose lifted from my neck, leaving a cold tingle in its wake, longing for him to return. My chin was already lifting, and I was angling to have our lips meet only for him to withdraw and say, “You never needed me, but I will prove to you that I am what you want until you beg me mark you, Pulsunne.”
That wouldn’t be hard, I thought, if only it were about what I want, and not about him only wanting me because of what was in my blood. I should tell him. I had to tell him…
Direl reached for the towel that was on the wall above my head. Right, that’s why he was leaning forward, I tried to convince myself that’s all he wanted as he scrubbed at his hair before wrapping it around his waist. I got one more glimpse of his ass before I bit my lip thinking about the torture I set myself up for.
I already wanted him, but we both knew nothing about each other. This was for the best. With a deep intake of air, I forced myself to leave him as he dressed. The door slid open as I moved sideways along the wall, and I twisted my way out, holding my breath.
When I reentered the main living quarters, I gaped at what he must have meant by new room. It was so oddly strange and yet comfortable. The furniture was overlayed with an image of being made of weaved leaves a deep purple, and one wall was decorated with bones that were displayed in an intricate pattern that created wings. The walls appeared like green clay and bamboo. I sat on the chair and stared at the changes that were both tribal like living off the land, but equal parts technology with a food dispenser, a rotating screen window with different landscapes, and solar panels of some kind.
Direl sat next to me on the weaved chair made for two without a word and I asked him, “What is that between the walls?”
“A fungus on Necias Prime that keeps our homes safe from weather and gives clean air.”
“I didn’t realize—“ I stopped myself from finishing my thought, but he knew what I had intended to say.
“That we continue to make our homes the way of our elders instead of rising cities of technology?” He nodded his understanding, and he explained as best he could with my limited Cial vocabulary, I filled in what I believed he meant, “We have one such city that warriors have agreed must remain contained. No single warrior lives in this city, it is used as a tourist attraction, and only offworlders and the service workers stay there. Some warriors visit during rutting season, and during the season of tribal choice when leaders gather to discuss the needs of our warriors.”
The way he discussed the leaders was in what I recognized as possessive or ownership of what he was saying of the tribe. He still felt responsible for his tribe even if he wasn’t a leader in it since losing command of his ship. Or perhaps he was a leader of a tribe on Necias Prime that wasn’t lost simply because someone stole his ship’s command? I didn’t know how to ask without turning on his implant for translation, so I stayed quiet about my interpretation.
He tucked my hair behind my ear, and I found myself leaning into the touch trying to breach the distance he put between us after his confession of being not whole and caring more deeply about me than I thought possible given our circumstances. The distinct tingle at the back of my ear told me he flicked my implant back on and said, “Make no mistake, Pulsunne, we are prisoners here in this controlled cage with the illusion of choice to stay. As long as you are here, I will not leave. If you leave on their terms they will try to separate us, and they can keep their promises while also making sure that my return to Necias Prime and your return to Earth are separated by stasis times that prevent seeing each other in the same lifetime. I do not care that they know I’m aware, nor do I care that they know I will find a way for us to leave, together. I would prefer they tell me what they want from us and make a new deal that allows us to leave when we’ve finished the obligation.”
Considering him for a moment, I then leaned over his lap, hand between his relaxed and spread thighs as my other lifted to tuck his own black and silver hair behind his ear like he had mine. I tapped his own implant on and could tell his breathing was stopped, waiting for me. I replied with a cheeky smile, “I already know what they want.”
I couldn’t be certain he wasn’t playing at some game simply to free us and not being honest about all those words that made my blood heat and my heart squeeze on itself, but I’d at least know if he actually found me attractive. Would he follow through with his claims of me being his mate? I licked my lips while my nose was millimeters from touching his nose before telling him, “They want us fuck like bunnies until there is no doubt that whatever the virus did to us has been nullified by the nanotech they injected me with.”
“Whatever this bunny is from Earth, I assure you, Pulsunne, if you are offering me to rut, I do not care about proving my virility to them, but I will prove to you the only name on your lips will be mine.”
