Alien Conquest: (The Warrior's Prize) An Alien SciFi Romance (27 page)

She started to pant and Vega felt himself go rock hard in response, aching with desire for her, but he could be patient. She grasped at her own breasts, lips parting in a silent moan that got stuck in her throat, and Vega pumped his fingers into her and swirled his tongue against her sex, then sucked some more until finally she jerked, sweat glistening all along the length of her body. She trembled and smiled and Vega lifted his head, crawling back up the length of her as she stilled, gulping down breaths as the orgasm turned her limbs to jelly.

“Nobody’s ever been able to do this to me before,” she sighed, eyes low-lashed as she watched him settle above her. “Maybe it’s because you’re an alien.”

Vega chuckled. “Maybe it’s because I love you.”

“Also that.” Alaina’s smile was slow and gorgeous. She lifted her knees to cradle Vega’s hips, and he slid a hand up and down her thigh, memorizing the feel of her skin against his palm.

She reached between them, fingers tugging at the laces of his linen trousers until they came loose, and then she reached down the front of his trousers and grasped the length of his cock. Vega inhaled deeply, eyes closing as pleasure rocketed through him, and she stroked him a few times before lifted her hips towards his, inching closer to him until she could bring the head of his cock to her entrance.

“I love you,” she said again. “Husband.”

Vega bowed his head, lowering until he could tuck his face against her throat. “I love you too, wife.”

Then he thrust himself deep inside her and they both gasped, clinging to each other, and Vega felt a tremble go through him at being so buried inside her. They fit one another perfectly, and it was baffling but amazing.

Slowly, Vega pushed even deeper into her, and she dug her fingers into his back. He withdrew, then slid back into her, and they rocked against each other in time. He pulled back and thrust deeper in again, feeling the warm, wet sheathe of her envelope him. Her legs wrapped tight around his hips, hands clawing lightly down his back to grip at his buttocks and force him back inside her when he withdrew.

She threw her head back with a moan and Vega felt himself losing control. He pumped faster into her. The little, desperate, quiet noises she made drove him crazy, and every thrust coaxed more and more from her throat. He pressed a kiss to her neck for every noise she made, until she pushed him back by the shoulders.

He was surprised and confused for a moment, resisting, but then he eased back, removing himself from within her and looked down at her, trying to understand.

She just smiled up at him and rolled over, lifting her ass and pressed it back against his hips. Vega grasped at her sides, swallowing a groan, and soon enough was back inside her, pounding himself into her with abandon. She gripped the edge of the cot and buryied her face in the single, small pillow to keep from screaming. Vega held on, slamming into Alaina again and again, holding onto the fragile thread of his climax until Alaina came first, mewling into the pillow as her orgasm tore through her. Then Vega let go, arching against her, fingers leaving red marks on her hips. And it was as he came that the long, pale expanse of her back came into focus.

All that smooth, soft skin beneath him.

The sloping curves of her shoulder blades and the trench of her spine.

And there, curling out of the divot where her back met her buttocks, a line of three shining black scales had formed.

Vega gasped, bending over her, arms wrapping around her, and together they collapsed to the cot. Alaina trembled with ecstasy and Vega shook with...some combination of ecstasy and a brand new, completely foreign terror.

He’d heard of it happening when Errai mated with other species. He’d heard of Jiayi suddenly sprouting scales the same color as the Errai they bedded. Even Ankaa, on the rare occasions they mated with anyone outside their species. If it was Errai, and if the Errai was male and the other species female, and if the woman got pregnant, she would develop scales the same color as her mate.

Alaina was pregnant.

Vega clung to her with hope and wonder, and had no idea how he was going to let her go when Dyhar came to take her back.

She curled up against him, rolling onto her side to face him, and Vega decided not to tell her. Not yet. He needed her to survive the games, and he was afraid she’d be too careful if she knew about the baby. Errai children were strong, even in the womb. The child might give her strength. And she would desperately need it.

Alaina knew it was coming, but all the same, when she heard the bell tone of the little room’s door being opened, her heart sank. She’d pulled her dress back on, and Vega had tugged up and retied his trousers, but they were still curled up on the cot together when Dyhar appeared. She swallowed a sigh, looking up into Vega’s face another moment. Into his violet eyes. She reached up and brushed a spill of his black hair back from his brow.

“When and where you are wife,” Vega murmured, smiling as he looked down at her. “I am husband.”

She leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth.

“It’s time,” Dyhar said.

“I am wife,” she whispered to Vega, and then reluctantly sat up.

His arms fell away from her and she got to her feet, brushing out her gown as she went to the Master of Cursii. Dyhar gestured her out of the room and she went without looking back. She knew it would be too hard to walk away from Vega if she looked back. So she went into the dark hallway and just focused on breathing. She couldn’t cry. She felt like she wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. She held it in and tried to turn it into determination instead of fear. She felt Dyhar at her back, his hand on her shoulder, and she started down the corridor for the lift. He took her back to her room in silence.

She went to bed and couldn’t sleep. So she lay there, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about how crazy her life had become. If someone had asked her back on Earth before all of this, if her life was exciting, she would have said yes. She spent her nights saving lives. She was always running into the disaster, into the fray, to save lives. And then Rua, and then Lennai, and then Vega, and then the Arena. She’d gone from being a lonely woman in a too-big world to fighting for freedom and love in a too-big universe.

Eventually her exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she fell asleep.

She dreamed of Vega. Of his home planet, as he had described it to her. Fields of green, trees bursting with crimson leaves. The never ending duel of sunrise and sunset from the two bright stars in the sky. She wanted so desperately to see it all with him. So she dreamed of walking through emerald fields, holding his hand.

It was before the solar bell when the slaves came to wake her.

The orange-scaled slave roused her from sleep, and they took her into the bath chamber to wash her down. This time they plaited her hair back into the two tight braids above her ears like those Vega wore into the arena. And there was no gauzy dress today. Instead, they helped her into sturdy, skin-tight armor, not unlike what she had worn on her first day in the pit. But this was thicker, meant to withstand blows from curson blades, at least some of them. They secured a belt around her hips with several knives attached, the ones that Dyhar had been training her to use.

She pulled one of the knives free of its sheathe to look at it. These were the exact knives Dyhar had been training her with. She could tell from the weight of it, the grip, and she was thankful.

Then she told the slaves to leave her alone a moment so she could pee.

But instead of using the lavatory, she pulled Nyssa’s poison from one of the bath chamber drawers. She looked at it a moment, hesitating. It was cheating. And if she didn’t kill her opponents, she wondered if the Master of Games would call it forfeit. If the crowd would turn on her. But Alaina’s conscious couldn’t take killing. Her first foray into the arena had been bad enough.

She uncapped the poison and poured it over each of her blades, . When she emerged from the bath chamber, the slaves were all looking at her with understanding, sympathetic expressions. They must have thought she’d been throwing up from fear. Admittedly, she’d considered it.

The slaves took their leave and Alaina expected Gurun to come escort her, but instead it was Dyhar. He walked her to the lift. Once they were inside it, shunting down towards the barracks and the tunnels, he looked at her.

“I don’t know what kind of chance you stand,” he said quietly. “But know that I will be rooting for you.”

“Do you know when I’m to fight?” Alaina asked.

Dyhar nodded. “The last game, of course.”

Alaina’s heart thudded towards her heels. “A team fight?”

Dyhar shook his head. “Single combat.”

“Against who?”

“House Chara is in conflict with the Ankaa House Hetchsaakt. You will be fighting their champion, a warrior named Khamun.”

Alaina stared up at him. “An Ankaa? But — they’re enormous!”

“Yes.” Dyhar looked down at her, worry in his eyes. “But I have not taught you to be big. I have taught you to be fast. I have not taught you to be strong, either. I have taught you to be precise.”

“There’s no way,” Alaina said, panic gripping her heart. “There’s no way I can fight one of them. They’re too strong, Dyhar.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Dyhar replied. “This is what must be. Listen to me, Alaina. Be quick. He will be slow. Choose your blows. Aim for major arteries. You are a healer, you know where they are. And if you can, break his helmet. Then he’ll die quickly. That is their weakness.”

The lift came to a stop and the doors opened. Dyhar walked her past the long line of cursii towards the front of the procession.

She didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to have to fight for her life. She wanted Vega, but as they walked past the fighters lined up at the tunnel’s entrance, she didn’t see him anywhere. Dyhar must have seen her looking.

“Vega isn’t fighting,” he said quietly. “So he and Bathari do not march with the other cursii. But he’ll be there, Alaina. I promise.”

Alaina nodded and then just tried to focus her eyes straight ahead as she and Dyhar led the procession through the tunnels in the lower part of the station. It was dark and gray, punctuated by yellow overhead lights just like in the barracks, and they walked until Alaina saw a metal gate ahead. Dyhar keyed it open. Before long they came to the familiar, sand-strewn expanse of the Arena. But she was not here to save lives like before, and she knew it. Alaina went to the gate and looked out at the Arena, seeing the sands as a fighter for the first time.

As the other cursii prepared for their games, Alaina stood staring across the sands until a guard came to fetch her back from the gate. She went to sit down on one of the benches lining the wall, but kept her eyes on the arena. Watched the stands begin to fill with spectators. Knew that Lennai and Atticon would be settling on their terrace to watch with their Ankaa opponents. Alaina put her head in her hands, between her knees, and willed Vega to appear to calm her down. But he didn’t.

She heard the call for the games to begin, the muffled bellowing of the Master of Games over the yelling of the crowd. The gate lifted, and the first of the cursii jogged onto the sands as the games began.

Vega had expected to be in the pit with Alaina, but before the cursii had formed for the procession, Gurun had arrived in his small room and fetched him to the upper palace. To his surprise, in the slaves quarters he was washed and dressed in finery and then finally presented in the palace foyer to Domina Lennai. He bowed immediately, as low as his wounds would allow without strain.

“Come on.” Lennai waved a hand at him and led him out of the palace, down the steps to her phaeton. She beckoned him to join her inside instead of ordering him to carry it, and he wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or worried. But he climbed into the phaeton and settled onto a seat across from her, not knowing what to expect and struggling to focus on anything but thoughts of Alaina.

“I could have loved you,” Lennai finally said, looking at him.

He kept his eyes low. “You honor me, domina. Truly.”

“No, I’m telling you the truth. Because you were my favorite.”

“I’m sorry to have disappointed you, domina.”

“Vega, look at me,” she demanded.

Slowly, he raised his eyes to her face. “As you wish, domina.”

“I gave you every opportunity,” she said, brows furrowed angrily. “I gave you every chance to win your freedom. I protected you. I made love to you. I wanted you to succeed.”

“I know, domina,” he said softly. “I am very grateful.”

“I know you fell in love with the donara,” Lennai snapped. “I am not a fool. I know you love her. And so I’ve given her this one chance as well. But you mark me, Vega. If she loses, I have already given Atticon leave to sell you to whomever he likes. And he knows I favored you, so he will sell you to the worst people he can find.”

Vega looked down again. He had nothing to say to that. He wasn’t about to be grateful to her for any of it. Not really. And he couldn’t look her in the face and lie about it. He loved Alaina and there was no point hiding it. No point pretending that he could have ever loved a slaver and a mistress, no matter how beautiful she might have been.

“You’ll watch the games from the terrace with me,” Lennai went on, when Vega was silent. “Together we’ll see if this human can save you.”

“Yes, domina.”

Vega’s heart sank. He had wanted to be with Alaina, to help her however he could. Even if it simply meant standing beside her until she had to walk out onto the sand. Now he would be made to watch, unable to help, just as she had been made to do when he fought. Only she hadn’t stayed on the terrace and watched him die. Vega was certain that if he tried to leave the terrace as she had, they would both be killed today. It was Lennai’s last, parting blow. Perfect torture. Punishment for not loving her, Vega supposed.

He grit his teeth against a surge of anger in his heart.

“You cannot command people to love you, domina,” he said quietly.