Page 27 of Her Alien Savior
He huffed and spoke in Cial instead of Trillix, thinking I would not understand with my implant unable to translate, “Nen-Le, remove this nonsense of marking her from your mind. The human is sterile, and no amount of sharing your essence will make her body produce a mark that the tribe would accept. She is a pet, not a mate. Rut with her before she’s in stasis if you must, but if you mark her and you jeopardize our whole mission…” He growled, “Risk this, and Horv save you, on the honor of my sister, I’ll kill you myself. Direl will finish his rut, he’s imprinted with this human, and he must be capable of dueling before the council at his best! Necias Prime will be reborn! After, you may do as you wish with the human, she is no concern of mine.”
I gritted my teeth, wondering if I heard him correctly, or if he was speaking too fast and my mind couldn’t keep up with a language I hadn’t actually spoken outside of an A.I. until recently. I realized they had everything to fight for, but a helplessness swept through me at hearing myself being nothing more than a catalyst for their plans. They needed Direl, and Princess Klemon, not me.
I was bait.
I was nothing more than a toy.
Nen-Le replied, “He is the most controlled of any warrior we have met. He has never once broken our laws. He will show when the time comes, but why don’t you simply talk with him? You are brothers.”
“We are not brothers,” he spat. “He lost that right when the light left my sister’s eyes and he chose to sacrifice her as a witness to what the trill were capable of. He is no brother of mine, but he will do his duty to our tribe.”
“If he wins the duel then—“
“Then he will answer for his choices, and you will kill him and become our queen,” he cut her off. “You can take your human mate as you please, any warrior would welcome being claimed as a second to give you spawnings.”
“Even you?” she teased.
With a mocking huff, as if he were gentling towards her after threatening her life not moments before he quirked a smile to say, “Even me, rightful heir to the House of Vomxel.”
I stared at them both before I couldn’t help reveal that I understood everything they were saying when I shouted, “You can’t kill him!”
“Shhh,” Nen-Le cooed, petting my hair and offering me a finger with a pearl of blood pinched to the surface for me to drink. She didn’t even wait for me to transfix on it before it was shoved in my mouth, being rubbed against the gums of my teeth. My eyes rolled back into my head as it warmed my pallet. I groaned as my body became heavier. It didn’t taste the same as the last time I drank her blood. It numbed my tongue. “I have no intention of killing Direl. He’ll do that all on his own when he duels at the council chambers. King Sylve will win without my help. You won’t remember much of this conversation, little mate, stasis chambers tend to addle the mind. Many do not remember the rising they enter stasis, and I regret that you may lose the time we’ve shared together.”
“No…” I whimpered before my tongue felt fat and noncooperative as she held me up in her arms.
Commander Chuel leaned over to whisper with a lifted brow, “You are quite strong for a human, Nen-Le is one of the strongest females of our tribe. Her venom could subdue even the largest male, and yet here you are still standing with your eyes open.” He leaned back and laughed, making my blood boil. “Only female warriors have venom to help them claim their mates when one initiates a mating duel, or rejecting a male in rut that tries to fight for the honor of mating. I don’t know why I’m telling you when you won’t remember, but you have been honored to be selected to be Nen-Le’s human.”
“Mate,” she corrected him.
He grunted with disapproval. “You can claim your human after we save our tribe, but I will accept nothing less than a traditional Roknir mating ritual.”
With whatever muscles still worked in my mouth I tried to spit at him, but only had drool drip down my chin. Chuel watched me with fascination and lifted my head to meet his amber eyes by the root of my hair. I felt nothing until his tongue licked my saliva and he stared at me curiously.
“She tastes…” he stopped himself, a bewildered expression on his face as he shook his head. “No,” he denied whatever was going through his sick mind.
“Just like your sister,” Nen-Le said softly.
“It’s not possible,” he roared and stormed from the command deck.
When he was gone, Nen-Le lifted my numb body into her arms, her epul retracted back into her shoulders. Her nose nuzzled into my temple as she whispered, “Direl will be a king one day, my mate.”
My throat gurgled wanting to ask her what she meant, but she simply licked whatever sweat was on face as her tongue traced up my chin. She moaned. “I think I knew from the moment I smelled you, that the goddess had given Seira-El another life within you, her essence is in your very pores. I won’t let anything happen to you. She may have been promised to Direl by the King’s right, but Seira-El was always mine, and now so are you.”
Wait, what? It was like she was saying I was another person, this Seira-El. Chuel’s sister? I’m human, how could I have the essence of a necia warrior that was dead?
Chapter fourteen
Direl
MyskinprickledasI saw Riley leave at Nen-Le’s side. Everything in me told me I shouldn’t let her out of my sight. As the chasm of distance between us grew, the doors sliding closed behind her, I knew this wasn’t a normal rut.
I’d imprinted on her, and the only way I’d be released was for her to reject me as her mate. A grimace scrunched up my face as I clutched at my chest even thinking of being stripped of this bond forming within my every vein. There was a pleasant warmth to knowing we were connected once she allowed me to taste her. Her essence was inside of me and allowed me to heal my wounds. Never had I felt this kind of draw before, not even with Chuel’s sister. King Sylve had arranged for us to have a claiming ceremony because of the bond I shared with Chuel, nothing more.
“If I had a sister myself, I would insist you show her your honor and mate with her,” King Sylve had said, once when he was someone I looked up to, confided in, and fought beside. “It is as the elders say, my brother, that strong bonds form strong spawn and lasting honor and happiness. For you I wish nothing but happiness, and if anything were to happen to me, who would you turn to? No need to remind me that I am your first, but we both know your bond with Chuel is strong. He has a sister, and she will make a strong mate for you when you become king one day.”
“I don’t wish to be king,” I had told him.
“Ah, the best never do. And I don’t plan on forcing you to duel for it anytime soon, but the elders have spoken to me of the darkness in the skies to come and a great journey between the stars that I will be forced to leave our planet to save our tribe. This is why I bear no spawn and have no mate to lure me from my path. Promise me. On your honor, that you will have the strength to do what I cannot if the time should come?” I had forgotten of this conversation until this moment.
