Found: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 2) (6 page)

“Can you show me your planet?” she asked. “Can we go and take a closer look at the arunda?”

“If you want.” He stood in silence, watching as the others departed, and let the quiet settle around him before he walked to his ship, expecting her to follow. She did. Suddenly she looked alone and vulnerable, but he did not allow his softer side to appear. No, these humans needed to be treated with a firm hand.

Beside him, she shivered, despite the heat from the two suns shining down on the sheltered courtyard. She was scared. He allowed his senses to roam beyond his body, to pick up her scent, sweet, like a flower, but he could not tell what kind of flower. He was a warrior, not a gardener.

Then he let the heat of her body reach him, the hairs on his arms reaching out towards her as if they were willing him to touch her, to feel her skin against his. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, he leaned closer to her, drawn by these new sensations, which wanted to wash over him. These human females were more dangerous than he thought. She was captivating him with no words, no touch.

He turned his head, taking in her profile, and then his eyes dropped from her face, down over the rest of her body, the curve of her breasts, the roundness of her stomach, the way her pants clung to her thighs. Rikka had a sudden urge to see her naked, to see how she compared to the sim, and if, just as Okil had said, he would become smitten with a creature whom at this moment he found somewhat distasteful.

“We should go.” He strode off, with Gaia, her pack hitched on her shoulder, having to jog to keep up. His long legs took him up the ramp in three strides, and he had to wait for her at the top as she clambered aboard, looking shaken. He longed to know what was going through her head. What she thought of him.

It didn’t matter. She was his to do with as he pleased. Her sole purpose was to breed with him. If she wasn’t happy then she could amuse herself in between submitting to him in bed. He had to be strong, and make sure she knew the boundaries of their relationship. Her behaviour would reflect on him, and if he ever found her taking stims or showing the distasteful behaviour of the other two females, then she would be whipped.

Yet as she moved past him, his nostrils catching the scent of her sweetness on the air, he knew his hard façade would crack at the moment she cried. Part of him, a part he had never known existed, wanted to cherish and protect her. Maybe an innate part of the Karal had become dormant over the last few generations and now these human females were waking it up from deep within them.

“Where shall I sit?” she asked.

This space cruiser was smaller than the one they had journeyed in from Earth. It made little sense for her to sit in the cramped seats in the hold area, so he pointed to the control deck. “Through there. The seat on the left.”

“OK. I’ll try not to touch anything,” she said with a slight lift of her mouth; she was trying to lighten the mood between them. Or was she trying to seduce him with her feminine wiles, wiles no Karalian had experienced for centuries, until these humans had come to their planet. Perhaps they were hoping no other planet would be needed and that if they seduced enough Karalians, his species would allow them to live here amongst them and bring their families. Until eventually, Karal would die in the same way as Earth. Overused and overworked.

“Do not worry. The controls of the Karalian space cruisers only work for the Karal.”

“Really? It knows that I am not from Karal?” she asked, running her fingertips lightly over the smooth metal of the control deck.

He felt a tremble of desire pass though his body, he longed for her to touch him in such a way, to stimulate his skin until his colours exploded like a supernova. “Yes. It knows.”

“Clever. Not that I would have any idea how everything worked.” She sat in her seat, and did her seatbelt up. “I have never been very good with machines and things. I was brought up with plants.”

“I thought Earth was devoid of most life,” he said, sitting down and starting the engines.

“Not completely. When I was young, our garden was full of plants …” She stopped talking and looked away from him. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, what painful memory she had touched on. But he needed to remind himself he didn’t really care. But he did care.

He couldn’t help himself.

Her words brought back memories of her mom; she would have loved Karal so much. Gaia couldn’t help thinking of her childhood, and how despite her mom’s mental state, she taught Gaia how to tend plants, how to water then feed them and make them flourish.

Until the acid rain.

Gaia could still remember her mom kneeling in the poisonous dirt, grabbing her beloved plants to her chest and wailing like a lost child. Gaia had spent two days meticulously going through the plants and potting up any that she thought might live, while her mom went into some kind of stupor, rending her useless to everyone.

To ease her worry, Gaia had constructed a makeshift greenhouse, with Johnny’s help. Dear Johnny, he was always there for her. Always willing to help her and make her happy. Why had she left him? Traded him for this alien creature whose only sign of emotions were the colours that rushed across his skin.

“Are you ready?” he asked, and she realised he had been staring at her for some time.

“Yes. Please, let’s go.” At least seeing the planet would take her mind off her old life. She had to learn to embrace her future, but that would have been much easier if this was her home now. Instead, all she had to look forward to was the inside of a space cruiser and an alien who didn’t speak very much.

After living in the same town with the same people for her whole life, it was going to be difficult to adjust to being in Rikka’s company. Let alone in his bed.

At this thought, her body reacted in an unexpected way. Her stomach clenched, filled with a kind of longing, a need to mean
something
to him. To break through his reserve and be the person he looked forward to seeing everyday. She wanted what her mom had never had.

Weren’t children supposed to repeat their parents’ mistakes?

Yes. That was the old saying. Only Gaia was going to do things slightly differently. She was going to know who the father of her child was, know where he was; it wasn’t as if this Karalian was about to run off and leave her holding the baby. However, she would still be alone. Because he did not appear to want to make any kind of relationship with her.

She shook her head, angry with herself. Maybe he didn’t know what to say, how to behave. She was probably the first female he had ever been this close to. There were so few lottery winners on Karal that there was a good chance he had never seen, or at least spoken, to a woman before.

Feeling a little better, she decided that it was up to her to make their relationship work. If he couldn’t learn to love, could they at least learn to be friends?

“Your planet is very beautiful.” She looked out of the window, leaving her thoughts of their future behind to concentrate on the present.

“Thank you,” he said, looking around him at the vibrant greens dotted with trees. “I don’t really think of it in that way.”

“How do you think of it?” she asked, wanting to know how this big brutish male’s mind worked.

“I don’t know.” He frowned, looking confused. “I protect it, but not because it is beautiful, but because it is my home. The place where the Karal have always lived.”

“My home is grey. It’s depressing to look at. But your planet is full of colour and life. I have never seen so many greens.” She pointed out of the window to where a flock of birds danced in circles around each other. “I have never seen so many birds. In my whole life I have seen ten, that is all.”

“Ten. At once?” he asked.

“No. Ten in total.” Shaking her head, she continued. “I can’t think I will ever take it for granted, as long as I live here.”

“It is different for you. And maybe now I have seen the ruin of your Earth, I will not take my planet for granted anymore,” he said.

“Then maybe I have changed you already,” she said, seeing his face darken and blue skim across his cheeks. He didn’t want to be changed, and she could understand that; he was a proud man, the Karal were a proud species.

Trying to smooth things out, she said, “But I know what you mean, how easy it is to take things for granted. When you see something every day, you get used to it. Like this space cruiser. To you it is normal, to get inside a tin machine and fly to distant moons. But to us on Earth, it is an amazing machine that we could only dream of being able to invent.”

He studied her carefully, a brief flash of blue, intense as it flicked like a tic on his neck, told her he was at least listening to what she said and thinking about it. Glad she hadn’t completely alienated him, she carried on.

“In the same way, we take our planet for granted. We know that the air will be polluted, that the food will be made of chemicals rather than the real thing. So when we come here to Karal, it is so amazing. The food we ate earlier was the first real vegetables I have eaten for over a year.”

“So you think that because we see our planet every day, we do not appreciate how alive it is?” he asked. “For some of us, that might be true. But for the warriors, and all of those who have travelled to your Earth, that is not how we think.”

“I see. Because you leave here and see other planets.” She thought about that for a while as he flew lower. “Have you ever found a planet more beautiful?”

“No.” He shook his head, and she believed him, especially when he added, “You are right. Karal is beautiful. There is never anything better than coming home. Especially when you have sights like this to see.”

She looked to where he pointed. There was a large herd of the animals she had seen earlier walking across the grasslands below. Their bodies resembled elephants, while the necks were long. They walked together, big and small, stopping to eat the grass. It was an amazing sight, and she found herself unbuckling her seatbelt and pressing her face to the window to see them more clearly.

“Wow. They are amazing,” she said. “Do you have lots of animals on Karal? I mean big, wild animals like this.”

“Many. The grasslands are filled with them and the forests too. So many, we are sure there are some we have never seen. The forests are so thick it would take weeks, months even, to walk to the centre.”

“I would love to see trees. Do we have time?” she asked.

The ship lifted and they flew higher once more. “Yes. We have until tomorrow morning. Okil has brought the launch forward, but for now, the time is our own. I have food on board, and blankets. We can sleep on the cruiser, if need be.”

“Or under the stars,” Gaia said wistfully. “You can’t see them from Earth. The pollution cloud blocks them out. My mom used to show them to me when I was younger. I still picture them sometimes. When I go to bed and close my eyes.”

“The stars will not be the same as those you see from Earth. But that is not to say they are not equal in their beauty. We can head to the forest and camp outside if you prefer. Something I haven’t done since my father died.”

“I’m sorry. I mean, I never thought of you having parents. Stupid, isn’t it.”

“The Karal need two parents, just like humans,” he said, and she caught a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Obviously. That is, after all, the sole reason I am here, isn’t it?” Gaia asked. “If Karalians could perfect a way of not needing human females, then we would be left to die on Earth.”

He didn’t answer, mulling something over in his head, and she found herself more and more fascinated by him. He might not talk much, but that didn’t mean he didn’t think deeply about what she said.

“You are wrong. The Hier Council must think there are other reasons humans are worth saving. That is why we are going on our mission.”

“Wait. You mean your species doesn’t need us?” she asked, not sure she understood his cryptic reply.

“I have been told that there is a way we might be able to reintroduce our own females. We would no longer have to rely on humans. But still, our mission stands. You are lucky that Okil and the Hier Council are in your favour. If not, then the mission would be delayed and your people would not be given a new chance.”

“How?” she asked. “After all this time you won’t need us? Why have you never perfected this before, if you knew there was a way?” Had the Karal been lying to humans all along? Was it possible they were more sinister than she thought? “Are you experimenting on us?”

“No. And yes. From what I can tell it was an accident, with the first lottery winner. It will pave the way for our species to be self-sufficient once more.” He banked the space cruiser and headed down towards the ground, only it wasn’t the ground. Instead, a high canopy of trees appeared, the leaves like green fluffy clouds all moving as one with the breeze, which blew gently over them.

“I didn’t know. I thought you needed us and that was what this mission was about,” she said. “I heard the President announcing it was your intention, but no one told us the missions had started.”

“The Council have their reasons. They do not have to share everything with us, in the same way I doubt your President shares everything with you.”

She laughed bitterly. “In that we are together. Presidents, governments, councils. They all have their own agenda, don’t they? We are just the little ants who work to keep the world running while they make these life-changing decisions.” She sat back up, looking sadly out of the window. “I can’t believe this is what Earth would have been like once.”

“Now there is nothing left,” he stated.

“No, All used, all gone.” She looked at the trees. At the flock of colourful birds streaming up from the branches, scared by the space cruiser as they flew over. “I think it’s time I forgot about Earth. It’s too beautiful here to dwell on what was. My mom always told me to live in the present, and that is what I need to do.”

He pushed the throttle forward and they went lower, the trees thinning to reveal a clearing, into which he carefully guided the cruiser. Then he switched off the engine, turning to look at her in such a way that she knew he had not brought her here to simply look at the trees.