Page 12 of Chased By the Alien Mercenary
What was I supposed to do? Was I allowed to touch her when she slept? Shewasmy mate, and she had kissed me. She had even heard my name, picked it from the thoughts I’d tried to project inside her mind. The telepathic bond between Asrai twins was legendary, but only rarely did it form between mates. Aramon was lucky enough to have found Evie and to have connected with her; I had not believed I would be equally lucky. And yet… there was no denying the soft, sleepy ball of warmth at the back of my mind that was all her.
I could not peer inside, could not read her thoughts the way I could with my brother, but I felt our connection. It had been growing steadily with each brush of contact. My heart pounded with hope inside my chest as I curled my thoughts around thatlittle ball and settled on the blankets beside her to do the same in the physical realm.
I slid my palm over her silky thigh to inspect my mate’s core, her arousal a mouthwatering smell that perfumed the air. I wanted to taste her; I wanted it so badly that I drew my finger through the drying wetness on her thigh and brought it to my mouth. Sensation exploded through my veins at her taste, it was too exquisite, sweet and innocent, a tease, a lure.
Yanking open my pants, I roughly took my cock out and feverishly began stroking it. An orgasm wasn’t far off—not after my mate had caught me by surprise and surrendered to her own desire. Desire for me, Solear, the broken-minded Asrai. The twin who couldn’t properly speak, and who scared everyone—except, as it turned out, one sweet, bold, beautiful little human. “Lyra,” I growled as I came, seed erupting in hard bursts across my belly.
I did not think there was a mate out in the grand universe who could fit the broken pieces of my soul. Lyra was everything I had never dared to dream of. And even now, a part of me doubted whether I would be able to keep her. That it wouldn’t be fair to her. I also knew I would never let her go. Not now. Not after I’d heard her moan my name as she came apart in my arms.
First, I cleaned her silky thighs with a wet piece of cloth, and then wiped the seed off my own skin. Then I refilled my empty belly with more bites of dried jerky and a few sips of water, before settling down to sleep. Despite the languorous feeling after coming, and the happy glow in my mind from knowing I held my mate, trepidation still rose. I hated sleeping. I hated the dreams. Too bad my body really needed a bit of rest after theblows it had received and the feats of endurance I’d asked of it, racing up and down the mountain.
As always, the dreams were waiting for me as soon as darkness claimed me. And in them, I was always alone; so very, very alone that I thought I’d never see another face again. Except this time, my dreams were different.
Chapter 11
Lyra
When I slept, intellectually, I knew I must also dream. I was, however, one of those people for whom sleep was a black hole. Eyes shut, time passed, and I woke again knowing hours had passed but not recalling a single thing. Not so this time. When I blinked open my eyes that morning, my mind was filled with the images of the dreams I’d had. They were vivid and sharp, not that foggy, confused stuff that made people ramble incoherently and then give up, unable to properly recollect.
These dreams were so real they felt like memories. Theywerememories, I was certain of it. But they were memories mixed with fantasy, where my presence changed how events unfolded. Just like that time inside the cell, when Solear had dreamed and pulled me into his nightmare-scape of death and destruction. I’d seen him there again, in the same devastated landscape. But I’d found him more quickly because I’d known he was there. A young boy, an Asrai, as he’d told me, since the dreaming version of him could talk just fine.
Solear. I murmured the name under my breath, still wondering if that was truly him, or if all of this was some crazy delusion brought on by stress. A mental break after being chased across the Alpha Quadrant by the UAR’s Shadow Unit, and then waking in a house of horrors. Barely dressed, sold out, and sold—literally—by my own government.
My body was warm and relaxed, cradled against another body and surrounded by blankets. Finally, truly toasty warm, thoughhungry and thirsty again. I could push those needs aside to focus on the present and on the comfort I found in lying cuddled against another person. I had never realized how lonely I was until I met one lonely, feral alien. Everywhere I’d gone, all my adult life, I’d been alone. Surrounded by strangers or strange places, but never truly connecting.
My feral guy, however, did not let me do anythingbutconnect—in the most intimate ways. Through our minds and his dreams. Dreams of his traumatic past that showed me the heart of him, the lonely, scared boy inside. My alien, he was even lonelier than I was, and I didn’t want that for him; never again.
Rolling a little closer, I snuggled my chin onto his still armor-clad chest. It was not exactly soft to lie on, but there was a certain amount of give and warmth. He had an arm tossed above his head, his chin tipped back so his throat was arched. That exposed bit of neck was surprisingly vulnerable and soft, and his sleeping position was cute, childlike in its abandon. He was sleeping very deeply, the kind of deep sleep beyond dreams: full rest. A hint of surprise lingered on his face, making his skull-like markings look softer, as if he couldn’t believe he’d fallen asleep.
Letting him get all the rest he needed seemed prudent, and even when I began to feel the need to pee, I still lay there, watching him sleep. He did not look so feral in rest. He looked sweet. And I knew that hewassweet, to me. Though I had only to glance at the corner of the small cave and spot the dismembered hand to know that, to anyone else, he was not. That hand would have to go as soon as he woke, but I had the feeling we’d need to get our butts into gear regardless.
The small dream boy I’d spoken to while I slept had told me that rescue wasn’t coming and that we’d have to save ourselves. It had been very odd to hear a confident plan outlined by such a skinny, sickly-looking child, but he’d been very insistent that we’d have to find our own ride off-planet—to his ship. His ship, with his mercenary friends and—apparently—his twin brother. I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea that there were two of him when he finally roused. If that information was even real. I was starting to believe that it was.
Blinking sleepily, it took him a long minute to come to full alertness. Then he twisted his head and groggily met my eyes, confusion on his face. “Welcome back,” I said. “You slept very soundly.” That only seemed to confuse him further, but he must not be the type to dwell on such things. His brow smoothed out, and then he cupped my chin, leaned in, and kissed me. Not a gentle peck, but a full assault on my senses, just like last night. I twisted against him, arousal stirring in my veins. His hand dropped down to my breast, rubbing me through the shirt with a bold, possessive claim.
“Yes,” he growled against my lips, rolling us until I was pinned beneath his massive body. That abruptly put pressure on my full bladder, and I yelped. He rolled off me so fast I got whiplash trying to track his movement. He crouched across the cave on the balls of his feet and his fists, shaking his head, eyes wide with fear and worry.
“It’s okay,” I told him, raising my hands. “I just really need to pee,” I added, a little more sheepishly. “Really, really—like, right now…” I continued when his expression smoothed, but he made no move, continuing to watch me with utter focus. I spun my finger through the air, urging him to turn around, but he didn’tuntil I finally said it out loud. Maybe he wasn’t a mind reader after all.
I awkwardly did my business in a corner, wiping up with a bit of cloth torn from the corner of the thin, by-now-ratty blanket from the cell. I told him he could turn around as I tried on the clothing he’d stolen for me last night. Socks, pants in various sizes, there was plenty, though all too big. Considering how cold it had been outside, I was more than happy to double up on things, especially the socks, to make the too-large boots work. “Now what?” I asked him as I wriggled my feet into the boots and wondered if they’d belonged to the same guy the hand was from—a Krektar, given the shade of the skin—which was honestly a little disgusting to think about. Unlike the warty aliens, the boots did not stink.
He rolled a shoulder, cocked his head, but remained crouched across the cave, watching me but not speaking. I felt warmth against the back of my skull, crawling over the top until my forehead and brow tingled. I rubbed at it, frowning. “Are you trying to talk to me telepathically? Is that how your species communicates?” He nodded empathically once, then abruptly began shaking his head no. Confused, I tried to clarify. “Yes to the telepathy, no to the species thing?” His satisfied huff told me I’d gotten that right, but it still didn’t feel like super helpful information.
“Did we really talk in our dreams? Was that young you I saw?” I asked him. For a moment, he looked confused, and he rose so he could start pacing back and forth inside the small cave. Acting like a trapped tiger again, as if his frustration simply couldn’t be contained. I wasn’t getting an answer; that much was clear. So I finished tying the laces on the boots and shrugged into the thick,also-too-big coat he’d brought. As a finishing touch, I took the communicator and checked that it still worked. He must have keyed it to me, or just permanently unlocked it, because I could activate it this time without a problem.
Solear had piled what remained of our supplies onto our blankets and tied them into an improvised satchel. He was quick to strap it to his back, then stalked to the narrow cave exit and waited for me, his head expectantly turned to look over his shoulder my way. When I caught up to him, he held out his hand, and I folded mine into his big palm without hesitation. He was warm, he was safe, and I was relieved to be at his side, relieved that he wasn’t going to run off again to solve things on his own.
“Let’s go,” I told him, and we edged through the opening. It was daylight, but well past dawn, and I was almost sad to have missed the no-doubt spectacular sunrise. I raised the com to its camera setting anyway and snapped a few images. Then I faced the rocky, glass- or quartz-shard-strewn terrain, hoping that these boots were good enough protection. My companion looked uneasy as he appraised the situation himself and seemed to come to the conclusion that he wasn’t taking any risks. I was in his arms, cradled against his wide chest before I could blink twice.
His long legs and black boots ate up the distance in a few strides, crossing from barren rock and glittering shards to the thick, lush grass on the mountainside. “Okay, then, thank you,” I told him, and I reached up to pat his cheek. “You can put me down. I can walk now.” His eyes sparked at me, a deep scarlet that glowed from the darkened eye sockets. He was silently laughing at me, I knew it, even though his expression hadn’t changed. Then hebared his razor-sharp teeth at me, snapping them together as if it were a stern warning.
“I guess not?” I muttered, when he started down the slope without putting me down. “Stubborn male,” I told him, and now he did huff a sort of husky noise that came very close to a laugh. Pleased, I smiled up at him and slung my arm around his thick neck to hold on, settle in for the ride, so to speak. “I’ll just watch the lovely view and take pictures,” I agreed. If there was one thing I was certain of, it was that he made up his mind and did not change it. Like with fetching supplies, like with protecting me.
Raising the comm, I snapped a picture of his face, then laughed again when he blinked at me in surprise. “You’re lovely too,” I said, happiness bursting inside my chest like champagne. Hewaslovely, because he was so sweet and so different. I’d never been treated by anyone the way he treated me, and already I knew that I could trust him more than I had trusted anyone before. It was such a novel idea, and, feeling so safe after all the danger and fear, it made me want to tease and laugh and flirt. It made me want to feel alive.
As Solear offered me the sweetest, tentative smile, I knew I was going to make it my mission to bring out those smiles all the time. To make sure he was no longer the threatened, buried, and oh-so-scared and lonely boy inside his dreams. First, though, we needed to find our ride off this damn planet and to safety.
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