Page 51 of Her Alien Savior
I swallowed what was in my mouth, and lifted my hand to wipe at my chin, nearly cutting myself on… fangs?
He kissed my head and tried to calm me, whispering into my hair, “We are one, Pulsunne. Now, that you are safe, I can fulfill my honor to my tribe.” Too fast, things were happening too fast, I thought.
What did he mean? I remembered the amazing sex we had, and then nothing.
“What happened?” I clutched at his neck, and he smiled, his nose rubbing the top of my scalp.
“Tell her how long she’s been out first,” a familiar voice said, and whipped my head up to search the room.
“Just over a Dan Star, almost fourteen risings,” Direl said, and my mouth gaped in disbelief. I had been asleep for so long? That wasn’t sleep, that was a coma… Then I scrambled in his arms to right myself, but instead my head buried farther into his arms. It was comfortable there, I realized. Like I was meant to be there. I winced at the lights in the room that were harsh, and my stomach felt like it was rolling. Squinting, my gaze finally met the face of a ghost, and I stared in awe.
This was still a coma, or I was dead.
“Probably not the best way to break the news,” Nate reconsidered. My brother, standing before me, rubbing his chin in thought. “We don’t have much time, though. Your mate,” My mate, I thought with a smile as Direl’s arms wrapped around me, “made it very clear he wasn’t going to leave until the very last moment to make sure you took his mark without issue. But, it’s time, and he can’t wait any longer. Neither can I.”
We were in some kind of shuttle, and I realized we were in motion. “Where are we going?”
“To the palace,” Direl said, while kissing my temple.
I gulped back my emotions warring within my mind. This was a dream. Somehow, I’d died and met my brother again. My lip quivered.
“Yah, Lee. It’s me,” I heard him say, to reassure me he was real. And I pushed myself from Direl with shaking arms to wrap them around Nate’s shoulders, colliding with an omph. “I’m sorry,” he repeated over and over again. I simply shook my head, unbelieving of what I was feeling. He felt real. He felt like he was here, with me now and firm in my arms as I squeezed tightly. “Easy there,” he choked.
I laughed, but it was full of a sob I couldn’t hold back any longer, before I punched him in the arm, just to be sure. He chuckled while rubbing at it, that familiar look in those silver eyes. He was real, I thought. It had to be real, or I was dead. “You’re alive…,” I hiccupped.
He quickly explained how he’d been blindsided by his resistance. I couldn’t process all the information, because the only thing repeating in my mind was, he’s alive.
Direl’s strong form supported me from behind, and I leaned into his warmth, knowing he was there, without turning to see he was.
This was all too surreal, I thought, and stood there stunned.
“We’re almost to the palace to submit your mating mark for diplomatic waiver with the Galactic Authority, and I’ll meet up with you on our ship,” Direl said, and something was wrong with the tightness in his voice. “Commander Chuel has made contact, and as long as we get a shuttle that can get through the lockdown, he will take you wherever you wish. If that is Earth, he will take you. If it’s Necias Prime, you will have a place with my tribe there.”
“What do you mean?” This sounded an awful lot like he was sending me away, and my heart ached more fiercely than I ever thought possible. I clutched at my chest and sucked in a breath. I watched with fascination as he too furrowed his brow with pain and rubbed the palm of his hand into his ribcage.
“Pulsunne,” he begged with his soft amber eyes for me to release him. We were one… I thought again.
We were one, I repeated with both excitement and curiosity. What did this mean? My heart pounded so hard, and I felt like a whole stampede of butterflies were speeding through my veins, fluttering, and thrashing.
“You’re going off planet, where it’s safe,” Nate said resolutely.
I shook off my bewilderment at what I was feeling inside my body, like I could tug at a ribbon that connected our very souls together and shook my head. It sounded like they were both staying, and forcing me to leave. That wasn’t happening.
“No,” I said with determined resolve. “Unless I’m misreading this situation, and you both are in fact coming with me if it’s so dangerous, then the answer is, no. I’m not leaving without you. What aren’t you saying?”
“I must defend our tribe,” my mate said softly, pleading with me to understand. Of course, I understood. But we were one, now, and he wouldn’t do it alone. We weren’t alone anymore, taking on the burdens of the world on our own.
“And you will.” I smiled at him, taking a step forward to cup his cheek in my palm. My fingers slid behind his neck and pulled him to me. Our noses touched, and he closed his eyes as we both felt that pulse between our hearts. Our rhythms synced together, creating a melody only for us. As our foreheads pressed together, I felt his epul extend from his temples like they were reaching out to comfort me. None of his spikes were frightening, because I knew they would never harm me.
I lifted a hand to trace the bones, that were so much like a crown and told him our new truth as my fingers laced through his silver-black hair, “Your fights are mine.” I nuzzled his nose. “Your flesh is mine.” I licked his lips and he shivered with a groan. “When we lose, we bleed together.” I felt my new fangs lengthen, and graze across his lower lip, a small trace of blue-tinted blood swelled, making my stomach growl. “And when we win, only I will drink your blood in victory. We are one, my mate, and we will fight as one.”
Everything else but him faded, and he groaned as his hands gripped my waist, pressing me against his firm muscles. My tongue flicked over my fangs once before I sunk my teeth into his neck, easily piercing through his scales in the crook of his shoulder. Dribbles of blood filled my mouth and I moaned at the sugary, tangy flavor of him that warmed my insides and set me on fire.
“I’m still here,” Nate bemoaned, only to be addressed with a predatory growl from Direl that said stay out of it. “I’ll just see myself out and lock myself in the lavatory.”
Kissing up Direl’s neck, I sought out his mouth and hungrily devoured him as the hiss of the shuttle’s lavatory door shut. I pushed forward, one step in front of the other, until Direl was pressed against the wall.
“Say it,” I demanded of him the same way he made me accept our bond in the forest.
