Page 23 of Her Alien Warrior
And I was afraid. Afraid that I'd like what Sou-el was offering me, accepted it, and have it taken away. I wasn't a spring chicken, as my mom would remind me, and realistically this, with Sou-el, would never be anything more than temporary, no matter what he said about marking me as his mate.
We knew nothing about each other, and this was just lust. I couldn't leap into an alien relationship I knew nothing about. He'd change his mind when he realized more than half of my life was already lived, and aliens lived so muchlonger.
I wiped at a tear that escaped, running down my cheek. Don't worry Sou-el, this was my fault, not yours.
Chapter nine
General Sou-el
The most horrendous smell wrinkled my nose and I choked on it until I bolted up right. Memories of my rage and pain resurfaced, knowing I had to knock myself out while I still had my mate's come in my mouth, before the craving to bury my cock deep within her to finish our mate bond overwhelmed me and I made sure to refill those silver eyes with lust until she begged to have me fill her again. That wasn't the way I wanted to claim someone as treasured as Renee. I would do this the right way, without being blinded by rut over having her blood in my system.
I would earn her blood the honorable way.
I groaned, holding my head in my hands at the massive headache from the elder root. It was a chance I took that I would have enough adrenaline to work through the concentrated spray quickly before whatever affect her blood and ello nectar had on me wore off. For the first time, my glands functioned normally and produced enough adrenaline and numbed the second skin where I felt no ache in my epul, only pleasure. My healing was fast, my pain gone, and it was a cruel awaking to feel that familiar tortured thrum beneath my skin.
Cenkal prodded me with a disrupter stick to check my vitals, and I winced. He wasn't risking getting close enough to me to be fooled again, though it was his own fault that he sprayed his own face with the elder extract. I hadn't done that to him, he was just clumsy when he grabbed the canister.
"The commander believes I manufactured your results in your exam," he began without any preamble. "Wouldn't let me take you to the medbay, saying I had no right to dose you with elder root, but I didn't spray you with anything, did I!" He prodded me again for good measure, even though he didn't need new scans.
He continued when I groaned, "You didn't tell me that the human was assigned to your room before being cleared to rejoin her testing group. With your little stunt, you're lucky you didn't mark her under the influence of rut. It would have been dishonorable, and you would have been sent to stasis until wearrived on Trillume unless you could prove she gave her blood willingly. Which you cannot no matter what either of you says, she is human, and therefore unable to prove consent when you got your first taste from medbay exams.
"Do you hear what I'm saying? Your blood, your sweat, your saliva, they were primed with more than enough enzymes to influence a human's libido through their pores by simply touching you. Your levels are back to normal, so no one believes a single word I say on the matter. They know we are brothers, and believe I am dishonoring my calling by lying. The fact that you didn't finish mating her supports their claims." He harrumphed with annoyance.
"Which is it, Cenkal? Are you upset that I did or didn't claim my mate?"
"Both," he snapped. "It can be both, brother. I'm so fucking happy for you, and frustrated with you beyond words. These levels can only be explained by her being your mate, and yet no one believes me, and if you had claimed her, it would have been a much more difficult road for you to keep her.
"I happily wear my dishonor because we both know I am not lying, and I'd take any dishonor with pride knowing what it means for you."
"I could not claim her in dishonor," I finally said with a groan, "But I would have if she had freely given me her blood, I would have damned us both. She is mated on Earth, Cenkal..."
"So what? I did notsee her mate on the ship's manifest. He has forfeited his Earthly rights."
"I'm aware, but by our laws, she has born him spawnlings..."
"Oh," he sobered with understanding. "You must challenge the claim, then?"
"I have no choice. Even with her blood out of my system, I taste her, and sense her like an itch that I could follow anywhere on this ship to scratch."
Cenkal shifted in his seat that he brought to my side. I knew without even glancing around my office that Renee wasn't there with us. It wasn't normal for him to keep his mouth shut, so I grew wary.
"Speak," I demanded.
"With confirmation that your mate is capable of participating in the testing without worry of harm, she has been reinstated in her group, and General Tensel stepped in as lead on the project."
"Lead of a research team..." I repeated out loud, thinking about the implications.
General Tensel was being promoted to commander of this ship when Rokva transferred to her new post. His purview was not on the research but the running of the ship. At most he should be consulting with the warrior in charge of the project, not running it himself.
Ignoring Cenkal's protests, I rushed to my desk and brought up screens of my own project and confirmed my suspicions that this wasn't just about Renee.
My manifest ofsubjects has been altered. The human William was transferred to a new team in my absence. How long was I out for?
"What rotation is today?"
"You've been out for two risings. Your bathing ritual with your mate was successful in negating your rising levels of adrenaline. That with the combined paralytic nature of the elder root, your glands stopped functioning for a while. The spray is only designed to last a few cycles of the rotation, but I've been by your side since Medic Velmeh found me."
The medic in charge of General Tensel's initiative behind the research program for the necia gene within humans.
