Page 5 of Kazzon's Human Bride
There. Footsteps and a quick inhale of breath. His gaze swept into the alley directly to his right, a narrow pathway between the library and a house. Nostrils flaring, he breathed long and deep, immediately detecting the scent of a lone human female. The sweetness of her was invigorating.
He stared into the shadows and his eyes focused on a small figure pressed against the house. He sensed the coldness of her fear and wondered if she was injured.
What was she doing out past curfew?
He approached the alley but paused when she took two steps back.
“If you run, I will catch you,” he said sternly. “Remain where you are.”
She pressed herself to the wall and lowered her head. In three long strides, he reached the trembling female. Gently grasping her shoulders, he guided her from the shadows and into the light of a nearby street lantern.
His heart nearly stopped. It was the small blonde female from the bakery.
Pushing his surprise aside, he quickly looked her up and down as he searched for any possible injuries. She appeared unharmed and he wondered what she was doing lurking in the darkness.
His pulse quickened as he stared down at her. There was something about her that he couldn’t quite pinpoint that drew him to her like no other. Usually, when he met someone, he was eager to escape their presence and be alone again as soon as possible. But with this particular female, he found he wanted to toss her over his shoulder and carry her away to his quarters.
Large, bottomless blue eyes peered up at him. She was even more stunning up close, with wavy golden hair, thick dark eyelashes, and a light smattering of freckles covering her cheeks and nose. And her scent... Gods, he couldn’t resist leaning closer and taking another deep inhale.
Beneath the faint but pleasant floral aroma that clung to her, he detected the headiness of womanly arousal. Very slight at first, but this feminine essence increased the longer he held her and allowed his gaze to wander over her appealing little body.
His cock promptly hardened, his blood heating with the intensity of his sudden desire. Again, he imagined tossing her over his shoulder and taking her to his quarters.
“Please, let me go,” she whispered. “I was just going home.”
“What is your name, human female?” he asked, unable to resist touching her hair. He tucked a strand behind her delicate ear and let his fingertips trail down the soft slope of her neck. Eventually, he shifted to rest his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place, lest she attempt to run away.
Not that the prospect of chasing her didn’t appeal to his baser instincts.
“I...” She flushed and a shiver coursed through her, just as the scent of her arousal heightened in the air. Her pupils dilated and her breath hitched in her throat, further evidence of her sexual excitement. How very interesting.
He found her visceral response to his nearness quite curious and wondered if perhaps she was a Tarrkuan bride, one of the rare human females whose DNA had been modified to allow for sexual compatibility with his kind. Such females were usually not attracted to human males, yet they were said to be very responsive to Tarrkuan males.
Each year, the humans provided his people with three hundred and fifty-two fertile human females, one from each dome-city on Earth. In return, Kazzon’s people supplied the Earth dome-cities with TEC600 reactors and the fuel needed to power them. The mutually beneficial arrangement was known as the Earth-Tarrkua trade agreement, which was of course the very reason Kazzon had come to Earth—to renegotiate the treaty.
His people needed more human females. Three hundred and fifty-two a year weren’t enough to meet the increasing demand of Tarrkuan males returning from the asteroid mines, where the material needed to power the TEC600 reactors was extracted. Tarrkuan males who met their quota mining TEC600 reactor material in the Feshinga Asteroid Belt were guaranteed a human female upon their return—fair payment for risking their lives in the dangerous space mines.
But current projections from the Allocators warned that in a few years, the shipments of human females would not come close to meeting the demand. Kazzon was determined to successfully renegotiate the trade agreement, even if he must intimidate the humans into compliance. In two days, if the Leaders of New Leesburg would still not agree to the new terms put forth, he would order their TEC600 reactor to be turned off.
As he stared down at this small human, he found himself hoping she was indeed one of the Tarrkuan brides. Perhaps if he put in a word with the Allocators, they could assign her to becomehisbride. A fierce sense of possessiveness for the small blonde female filled him, an unexpected emotion that left him a bit shaken, though it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
It was raw and it was real.
It was truth.Histruth.
“Your name,” he demanded, lifting one eyebrow at the wayward female.
“Caaaay,errr,Julie,” she said, her eyes widening. “My-my na-name is Julie.” A dark mist appeared around her head, evidence of her lying.
His fingers tightened on her shoulders. It bothered him more than he would like to admit that she’d just told him a lie.
“Julie?” he asked skeptically, watching as the black aura around her golden locks faded to gray before disappearing. “Are you providing a false name?”
She paled but lifted her chin a moment later, looking defiant and brave, though he still felt her trembling beneath his hands. “My name doesn’t matter. You don’t have any authority in this dome-city. You can’t detain me. Now, let me go.”
He grasped her upper arms, holding her tighter than necessary. “I think you underestimate the power my people have on your planet, little human,” he said. “Earth is at the complete mercy of Tarrkua.” It was true. Treaty or no treaty, Earth was a barren wasteland outside the safety of the dome-cities. The very survival of the human race depended upon the Tarrkuan’s regular shipments of reactor material.
Her blue eyes narrowed. “The trade agreement doesn’t give you the right to detain me.”
