Page 17 of Beauty and the Alien Beast
After guiding Brax to the small copse of trees, I hopped off his back, storming over to yank my hidden gear bag from under the soil. Panting, Ella gave a wide-eyed glance over her shoulder, taking in the height of the opening we’d just flown through, gulping as her eyes traced down to the ground. She appeared stunned and maybe a bit terrified, but she had nothing to worry about; our safety was Brax’s top priority.
After stowing my gear in the pouches attached to the saddle, I jumped back on and patted Brax’s shoulder. “Good dog. Take us home.”
I held Ella very carefully as we rode, knowing we had to get as much distance between us and the slavers before we stopped again, but I was concerned that she was likely unaccustomed to riding. I had no idea what her life was like on Earth, but I had a growing notion that Ella was not familiar with roughing it. She seemed refined and inexperienced in physical risk, though brave in the face of terrible hardship.
I had a good sense of others, and she seemed kind and smart. Obviously, she was ravishing. My mind raced back to the exorbitant price the slavers had demanded for private time with her, even though they stressed Ella was untrained. Since she was my mate, price was no object to me, and I would do anything to protect her and keep her by my side.
I inhaled deeply until my chest burned.My mate smells so good.It was the kind of fragrance a Gladiator could lose himself in—clean, fresh, tantalizing, arousing, and… female.
My cock swelled and pulsed as I imagined peeling off her clothes and running my tongue along her soft skin before my head disappeared between her strong legs to devour her sweet nectar.
I would part her seam, lick from bottom to top, tease her, and lap her up until she screamed my name over and over again.
She would taste incredible. I was certain of it.
My cock was aching and my heavy balls armed and ready to pump my seed into my mate’s womb to seal the bond between us while marking her with my bite that would show all males that she was mine to protect and cherish. My Wulfaen pressed against my skin, anxious for me to start the mating process, officially claiming her. But marking Ella would involve her implicit trust and consent.
Then there was the fact that I had no idea how to sexually please a human. All of my knowledge attained from the simulator assumed that my mate would be a female of our race. Ella was not strong or resilient like female Gladiators of the past who enjoyed rutting nonstop until her mate’s seed planted a pup. Humans were too weak to take what a Gladiator required—hard and fast fucking.
I shook my head in an attempt to cool the powerful arousal coursing through my body like molten fire.
I had to proceed slowly with Ella. She was an earthling, and my sexual urges and desires would probably be very confusing to her, even with the aid of translators. Plus, after everything she’d most likely been through at the hands of the slavers, it would be unfair of me to expect that she’d readily respond to the mating bond between us.
Patience would be needed to win both her trust and heart, especially now that we were fleeing for our lives.
My mouth tightened. Things had not gone as planned at the slavers’ facility, which would result in lots of tension between the council and me once I’d revealed what I’d done—freed my mate and stolen what the Omers viewed as property.
It bothered me that if the Omers ever found out that it was a Gladiator who stole Ella, they would view the act cause for war with my people. Not that the Omers were a match against the Gladiators—they were not—but it made me uneasy that my actions could possibly put our packs in danger.
On a positive note, I’d gained a lot of information about the facility and its practices, and once Ella had a functioning translator, she would be able to give us more details about her captivity and how many females still awaited rescuing.
My mouth tightened just thinking about the females the slavers continued to hold in captivity.
On my honor, I will return with my pack and rescue them.
Brax chuffed loudly. The sound meant he was happy to be out running again after being penned up in my suite. He bounded over boulders and fallen trees, eager for home. And finally, Ella’s body relaxed enough to enjoy the ride. I clung to her carefully as the fast, jostling trip took us safely through the deep brush.
As we went, I spoke to her, even knowing it was pointless. She was my mate, and silence felt strange. According to what I knew about humans, they were often chatty, filling up space with words even if there wasn’t anything to talk about. I supposed in the absence of a strong pheromone response, they needed to feel connected somehow—just as Brax needed physical contact, affection, companionship, and play to strengthen the connection between us.
“We must continue on, for which I am sorry,” I said as Brax scrambled up a sloped rock outcrop. “I would give you more of a chance to get used to everything that is happening, but I cannot.”
Ella, so far, had made no sounds of complaint after that initial shocked scream when we’d jumped through the window. Now she just hung on to Brax’s scruff, and every so often, she’d talk. But of course, I couldn’t understand what she was saying. Her language sounded a little like the chirping of birds, though musical and with a lot less screeching. I focused on the different words, determined to learn a bit the hard way in case we were delayed in our journey overland.
Anything could happen at this point due to the fact that we were now on the run. I knew the slavers would send their best catchers after us. They usually used hover vehicles instead of dogs, which was tactically foolish since the loud vibrations from their hoverpads drew hordes of local predators. To compensate for the noisy commotion they were known to create, the slave catchers tended to speed through the air, which meant they would probably overshoot and miss us entirely in the dark.
“When they come for us, we will let them circle around until they draw out the beasts of the woods, who will drive them back home,” I mused aloud.
She turned her head slightly and tilted it up to meet my gaze, her curiosity making me smile again.
“Eventually, when they are off our trail, we will return to my pack.”
She spoke, then patted one of my arms, ending her words with my name. I hoped she at least knew I would protect her with my last breath, and I resumed my mental assessment of our tactical evasion strategies.
The catchers can’t scan for life when we’re surrounded by greenery. In woods this thick, their bio scanners will give off-the-scale readings in every direction. Those foolish slavers developed all their tech on that desolate rock of theirs, and they don’t know what to do with a forest.
I tightened my grip on Ella and Brax as he bounded over another enormous fallen tree. Something huge and camouflaged lunged at us from the side, but Brax simply left it in our dust as its unfurling tentacles briefly flickered into view.
We had been running for some time now, and in the deep green shadows of the forest, it was easy to relax and assume we were free from any risk aside from the creatures that lived here. But I knew better. I had killed a few slave catchers in my time, mostly when they had strayed into Gladiator territory, so I knew they were doggedly persistent.
