GalacticFlame (2 page)

Bonnie stayed in step with her, the dog not letting her out
of her sight. Eden paused near the craft, then turned. “Bonnie, home.” When the
dog sat, head cocked to one side, Eden pointed and said firmly, “Bonnie, go!
Home!”

Let my family know I’ve gone.

She didn’t realize tears really were sliding down her face
until after Bonnie had loped away. The dog had turned around one last time, her
tail drooping, before disappearing into the shadows.

The alien’s touch was gentle when he turned her toward him,
his big, hard hands brushing dry much of her tears. “I’m sorry we can’t take
your dog creature,” he said. “I feel how much she means to you.”

I’m sorry too.

He swept his free hand to where an opening appeared in the
aircraft, a doorway that rolled apart before the substance drifted onto the
ground and reformed into a stair. “As you’ll be able to see, there’s only
enough room and supplies for two.”

She jerked away from his touch and moved up onto the step.
Turning, she took in her darkening surroundings one last time. Sadness touched
her soul. It’d be unlikely she’d ever set foot on this planet again. Ever tend
her beloved garden.

Ever see her family again.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye.

Her stare moved to rest on the alien. He looked human in
every way, just like her father. “What is your name?” she asked. Her eyes
narrowed at the amused arch of his dark brow. “I want to know at least that
much before I leave behind everything I know.”

“My name is Genesis Jai Lek’hane.”

She blew out a breath. “I guess I don’t need to tell you
mine.”

“Actually, you do.” He gave an idle shrug. “The mothercraft’s
airwave transmitter was destroyed and I discovered on the way here that my own
transmitter was faulty too.”

If she could have laughed, she would. Only it was her life
now that was about to drastically change, not her sister’s. If Genesis’
technology hadn’t broken, he would have taken her much prettier sister back to
his planet, not her.

At least now she could use her real name. “I’m Eden.”

He bowed low. “Eden, I am honored to meet you and deeply
privileged to be your intended.”

Her heart sank. But she didn’t have time to dwell on her
deception. Not when Genesis stepped beside her and took her hand to escort her
inside. That’s when it hit her that she really was about to embark into the
unknown.

A hell she’d exchanged for her sister’s happiness?

She stilled just inside the doorway, her mouth dropping
open. “This is…incredible,” she whispered.

The craft itself was solid, yet the walls appeared so flimsy
to be see-through, with everything outside a little distorted.

Beneath the faint glow of strange blue down-lights, two long
seats, which reminded her of the dentist chairs she’d seen in books from her
parents’ collection, faced an instrument panel that flashed with multicolored
lights. The seats of the chairs were covered in luxurious red pelt. And
positioned beside each headrest was a long silver vial, with a stem much the
same as a drinking straw protruding from the top.

The alien turned to her. “Even with our depleted numbers,
our technology has advanced somewhat since your father captained our
mothership. We’ve been able to impregnate our shields with some of
Carèche’s
compounds to form a delicate but almost indestructible shell for our craft.”

He raised a sardonic looking brow. “Unfortunately the
shields are rare—so rare, they’re exclusive to us royalty.”

“Lucky you, then.”

“Yes. Lucky me.” He stepped away from her for a moment and
reached into the wall behind her, extracting a one-piece suit. He handed the
stretchy, light fabric to her. “You will need to change into this.”

She peered at the suit. “And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, you die.” At her disbelieving hiss of breath,
he explained, “My people have also managed to infuse some of our textiles with
our shields.” He nodded at the weird attire in her hands. “The suits have been
designed to cater for all our needs on the flight.”

“Oh?”

“This smaller craft isn’t always able to maintain perfect
temperature, your suit will modify as needed.”

She peered around. Not everything was sorted. “I see nowhere
to…relieve myself.”

“Your suit not only cleanses you, it also absorbs and
dissolves any excrement.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re not serious…are you?”

As if in silent reproach, he reached into the wall again and
extracted another suit. When he peeled his pants down, past his cock and hard
thighs, she didn’t turn away. She stood transfixed and gaping, taking him
in—all of him.

Oh…my.

She had no experience with men and their bits, for obvious
reasons. But from the pictures she’d seen in the many books in the house
library, the human men hadn’t been anywhere near that large.

“Princess, you keep staring at my cock like that and it’ll
grow.”

It gets bigger?

She looked up, flushing while butterflies danced in her
belly, her womb. Was this lust? Or were these the sensations of someone caught
blatantly staring? “Grow horns, more like,” she muttered.

The breeze behind her abruptly subsided. She turned, just in
time to see the last of the opening behind her fill in until there was no more
doorway.

She caught her breath. This was her last chance to tell him
the truth. Every cell in her body screamed to reveal her real identity or be
taken away from life as she knew it. She bit back the truth. This was it. There
was no turning back now.

Aline had always been there for her, now she could only hope
her sister and her parents valued her sacrifice.

She swallowed. Was it selfish to want her parents to finally
notice her in her absence? Self-centered to hope they’d all be proud of her?

Genesis stepped into his suit with a dry looking smile. “The
craft is self-piloted. And as its program knows we’ve arrived, I would estimate
you have ten minutes to get dressed and seated before takeoff.”

Shit.

This was no time for being self-conscious. Like it or not,
she would eventually be fucked by this alien anyway. She caught her breath at
the unfamiliar sensation of her hardening breasts, her clenched pussy and
trembling thighs.

She shucked off her shirt with savage force. She wasn’t that
desperate for a man.

Except, when he groaned appreciation at her bared breasts,
she couldn’t deny the bolt of pleasure lighting her up from the inside out.
Couldn’t stop her nipples from tightening into perfect sized buds, ripe for the
pleasure of his mouth.

His smile became all sensual need. “I don’t need to
experience trans-alien hypersensitivity to know you’re mine.”

Her mother had warned Aline more than once about the
trans-alien stuff—an extreme awareness between human and alien intendeds that
heightened the closer their proximity to one another.

Eden was only glad she’d listened too. Which had her
question why she had experienced such an odd sensation just before she’d turned
and seen Genesis?

Because he’s the first man you’ve met other than your
father.

The man in question slipped his arms into his suit and added
huskily, “I knew it from the moment I saw you on your knees in the garden—all
the while trying not to imagine you on your knees in front of me.”

Ignoring the curling of lust within at the image he shared,
she bit out, “The only way you’ll have me on my knees is when I’m begging you
to return me home.”

“So why aren’t you begging me now?”

Because I want to save my sister.

“Because I know it’s pointless. You didn’t travel all the
way here not to take what you want.”

He nodded, his nostrils flaring. “I take what is rightfully
mine. Nothing more, nothing less.”

She unclipped her jeans button. As her zip rasped undone,
she said, “One thing you’ll learn about me.” She stepped out of her jeans and
too-practical panties with more anger than grace. “No one owns me.”

“Oh, I don’t want to own you, Princess.” He stepped toward
her, one hand tilting her chin so that her obviously reproachful, angry stare
lit on his face. “I’d simply be happy knowing you’ll want to stay.”

She wrenched free of his clasp, all too aware her skin still
tingled from his touch. She pulled on the stocking-like suit with a glower that
was aimed more at herself than him. She was such a fool. Did she need to remind
herself he thought she was Aline? It was her sister he wanted to stay of her
own free will, not her. If only he knew it. Sticking her arms through her
sleeves, she said a touch nastily, “I don’t think the question will be that
I’ll want to stay, it’ll be that I’ll have nowhere else to go.” The alien
fabric settled against her skin, shaping itself against her seemingly of its
own accord. She rested her hands on her suit-clad hips. “Being stuck on another
planet with no way out will see to that.”

“True, but I don’t think it’s too much to hope you’ll be
happy to stay anyway.” He grinned. “Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to seduce you
by my…charms.”

Her eyes zoomed down to the bulge in his pants. She tore her
gaze away. He needn’t know that deep down his arousal caused her pulse to leap,
her insides to warm.

It had to be her inexperience, surely?

Were all men like this? Gentle, tough, crude and sexy all
rolled into one.

She could hardly compare this alien to her father, Renate.
Then again, her mother, Ally, had basked in Renate’s love, and if that was all
Eden got from a life mate she’d die a happy and satisfied woman—if guilt didn’t
destroy whatever joy she experienced knowing she and Genesis were never meant
to be together.

The craft’s walls gently vibrated. Genesis tore his stare
from her and frowned. He turned back, proffering a hand. “Come. It is past time
we were seated.”

She grudgingly accepted his hand and allowed him to lead her
to one of the chairs before he instructed, “Sit. Relax.” He did the same in the
chair nearby. “The journey will be a long one, but our seats will automatically
adjust for our individual comfort.”

She gripped the arms of her seat as it unfolded. The red fur
underneath her spine and ass cheeks was amazingly soft and comfy. No doubt it
had come off the vicious, alien-eating
caltronian
beasts she’d heard her
father talk about a time or two.

If she ever met such a beast, perhaps she’d offer
congratulations for its good taste. She shivered, half-ashamed. A morbid sense
of humor wouldn’t cut it if she really did set eyes on one of the red-furred
monsters—they’d probably enjoy her human-alien flesh just as much.

Genesis stretched his long legs out before him, clearly
settling in. He took hold of her nearest hand, as if in reassurance. “The
shields will shortly web across our bodies. They’ll hold us in for takeoff.”

She jerked with alarm as the shields grew from the floor and
up the chairs to quickly blanket her entire body, including her scalp. Only her
face—mouth, nose and eyes—stayed clear. Even their joined hands were webbed
together. It was the weirdest sensation, as though smoke was solidifying over
her body.

“Relax,” he soothed from the chair beside her, though she
couldn’t turn her head and see him.

“I didn’t expect this!” she hissed, perversely glad his hand
was entwined with hers.

The craft reverberated, juddering hard underneath. The walls
of the craft revolved, faster and faster, as though a spinning top, the
momentum creating a whine that amplified on seemingly every rotation.

“The craft is preparing for takeoff,” he said, raising his
voice to be heard. “When it does, the G-force will cause you to pass out. Soon
after the shields will release a non-toxic gas to keep us unconscious.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re serious!”

She wasn’t used to feeling so helpless. Since giving herself
over to him in place of her sister, all her free-will had been taken away from
her.

“It sounds crude, but staying asleep with brief snatches of
wakefulness to relieve our hunger and thirst, means our supplies won’t run
dry.”

The straw in the cylinder beside her took on a whole new
meaning. Clearly whatever liquid it held was both food and water in human
terms. Her voice cracked, “Do I get any say in this?”

“Sorry, Princess, no. At just twenty day’s journey, this
craft is by far the fastest and most efficient way to travel.”

The craft’s whine became an earsplitting hum that continued
to increase in volume and unlike anything she’d ever heard before. And as the
shields pushed a little way into her ear and formed a ball to evidently block
out the worst of the sound, Genesis squeezed her hand and shouted, “See you in
my solar system, Princess!”

A flash of light burst before her eyes. Her belly dropped
from beneath her. Then…nothing.

Chapter Two

Eden woke slowly, getting her bearings as her lashes
fluttered open.

The alien craft.

A sob built in her chest. She choked it back. No regrets.
She’d made her choice. She’d just have to live with it.

She hazily recalled half waking at least a dozen times, her
belly burning with hunger, her throat dust dry. She’d taken great gulping
mouthfuls of liquid from the straw beside her before giving into the ever-beckoning
darkness once again.

She wriggled a little, surprised to find no restraints. Even
her ears were free of the plugs. She fisted her hands. The shields were gone,
right along with Genesis’ reassuring clasp.

“How are you feeling, Princess?”

She jerked her head to the side. Aside from his mussed
looking bed hair, Genesis was bright-eyed and observant. Something delicious
moved through her belly and surrounded her core. He was too masculine and
attractive by far.

She leaned forward and the chair automatically followed,
adjusting her position until she sat straight. She rolled her shoulders, her
neck, feeling surprisingly good. No, more than good. Great. Rejuvenated.

She reformed her face into what she hoped was a suitable
glower. “I’ve been better,” she lied.

The alien juice must have had some amazing nutrients. Then
again, sleeping for almost three weeks nonstop probably had a lot to do with
it.

His brow arched. “I’m fine would have sufficed.”

She slipped her legs to the side of her chair and pressed a
hand to her heart. “I guess I haven’t learned how to be grateful to my
abductor.”

His smile somehow made it to his eyes. “No, I guess you
haven’t…yet.”

She pulled away from his brilliant gaze. Though Genesis was
evidently under the illusion that he was connected to her by the trans-alien
crap he believed in, she didn’t suffer from the same misconception. Yes, they
were super aware of each other—who wouldn’t be under the same
circumstances?—but as his intended remained on Earth, she knew there was no
true bond between them.

“So where are we?” she asked, deftly changing the subject
and expunging any guilt from her mind.

He stood, all masculine grace. “I’ll show you.”

The walls of the craft abruptly shuddered, and became see
through again, only then making her aware they’d solidified somehow while she’d
been deep asleep. But any questions she might have asked were forgotten as her
mouth dropped open, her eyes widening.

A huge, copper-red ball glowed before them with tinges of
green threading the sphere, along with patches of blue she could only assume
were small oceans or maybe huge lakes.

Genesis smiled. “Welcome to
Carèche
.”

Her pulse beat like a drum in her ear. She pressed a
trembling hand to her mouth. “We’re here. We’re really here.”

She’d envisioned a whole load of dread and horror, not this
odd and unexpected excitement banging around inside her. Then again, despite
being raised on Earth, the planet of
Carèche
was her father’s homeland,
therefore a part of her.

She swallowed, imagining the big, muscular males of
Carèche
as only a woman who’d seen few men probably could. Her stare swung to Genesis.
If they were anything like him, they would be any Earth woman’s fantasy of old.

But what were the aliens like as a people? Were their laws
very different to what she’d known? She’d experienced a freedom on Earth that
perhaps the aliens didn’t. Her breath caught. How did they treat their Earth
women? Were their edicts strict? Modern? Barbaric?

Her father had spoken of his people many times, but that had
been mostly in the days before the virus had hit. She could only surmise the
alien’s world would be a vastly different place now. Ruled by a need to survive
and reproduce.

Her pulse stuttered. What if these same people learned of
her deception? She was supposed to be Genesis’ intended. His princess! Bloody
hell. Would they punish her for such a crime? Execute her?

Lord above, she knew so little about this new world.

“I know this must be hard on you.” Genesis’ gentle tone
snapped her out of her morose reverie. He raised a hand, then dropped it back
to his side. “But if you’d prefer to wait, we don’t have to port yet.”

He shrugged at her clearly perplexed look. “We can get to
know each other a little first. I’m sure you must have plenty of questions
you’d like answered before setting foot onto my planet?”

She bit back a yes. She’d face his people now rather than
later. “Let’s get this whole introduction to your people thing, out of the
way.”

He laughed, a deep, rich musical sound that was so
unexpected she couldn’t help but stare. God, he really was beautiful, in a
purely masculine, women’s fantasy type of way.

She swallowed past the dryness of her throat. “What’s so
funny?”

“I’m sorry to be the one to destroy your cute little
fantasy,” he said with a grin, “but there’s no big welcoming party awaiting our
return.”

“No fanfare even for a prince?”

He brushed a hand across her shoulder and she ignored the
frisson of awareness as he explained, “Let me show you something.”

She pushed to her feet, decidedly unsteady after weeks lying
unconscious. She clasped a handhold beside the instrument panel, refusing his
support—refusing to touch him and wonder again over her reaction.

With a barely audible sigh, he pointed to the right of the
planet before them. Her eyes settled on a big chunk of red terrain with very
little green or blue.

“
Pyracade
is my land of rule.”

Her eyes narrowed. She’d not been huge on geography, but her
mother had ensured her daughters had studied the old maps to get an
understanding of at least their world. And from what her dad had told them
about
Carèche
being roughly three-and-a-half times bigger than Earth,
then Genesis’ land was huge in comparison to any country back home.

“A lot of land for very few people,” Genesis conceded at her
silence. He turned to her. “Our lands are beautiful and precious to us, but
from what I’ve been told from our queen—my mother—our planet is all but
inhospitable compared to yours.”

“So why stay here instead of Earth?”

He stepped away, his fingers tapping across the buttons on
the instrument panel. Only as the craft began to gently sink toward its final
destination, did Genesis turn back to her and explain, “Because without us as
its keepers,
Carèche
would die.”

* * * * *

Genesis scrutinized her face. In many ways he could read
Eden’s emotions as clearly as a captain’s flight manual. In other ways she was
a locked door. Forbidden and beyond temptation. And he badly wanted to be the
key that unlocked all her secrets, all the hidden parts of herself.

His cock stirred. The trans-alien hypersensitivity
guaranteed her compliance, and yet instead she’d shown an unprecedented dislike
toward him that was both exhilarating and infuriating.

Once they were grounded he would make her his, make her
realize nothing and nobody was as important as their being together and making
love.

Over and over.

His jaw locked as his cock twitched at the image of her
under him, on top of him.
Damn it.
He knew her well enough already to
know she’d be as cool to him as a desert night if she looked down and witnessed
his arousal.

She reminded him of one of his father’s delicate plants that
needed extra love and attention in order to thrive. But somehow he knew that
once he got past her reservation, her passion would be an explosion just
waiting to happen.

The planet loomed, larger and larger. He didn’t particularly
notice. His eyes feasted on his intended, watching the way her breath hitched
the closer they got, the way she pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes widening
with alarm.

“It seems so perverse,” she whispered, “how you and your
people stay on your planet to keep it alive,” she turned to him, face pale and
eyes wide, “while my mother’s people all but killed their planet Earth.”

Her hair, brighter even than
caltronian
fur, had been
captured into some sort of knot, where pieces of hair leaked through. How long
were her tresses? Gods, he wanted only to whip her hair free and watch it
tumble around her shoulders.

Instead he cleared his throat and stated matter-of-factly,
“Earth will rejuvenate and replenish.”

Her eyes appeared stricken. “What, now that there are no
hordes of humans to destroy it?”

He cursed his tongue. Was he that distracted by Eden? He
hadn’t meant to come across so…harsh. But really, was there any nice way of
putting it? Humans
had
all but destroyed their beautiful planet. He
nodded. “Yes.”

She appeared to wilt a little, as though acknowledging the
truth. Then biting into her bottom lip, she asked, “Do you think I’ll…like it
here?”

“If you allow it, most definitely.”

“Allow it?”

“
Carèche
has a way of sinking into your bones and
wrapping around your soul until it becomes a part of you.”

“If one is open to the idea?”

He nodded. “Yes. That’s it, exactly.”

They remained silent the remaining minutes of the craft
swooping through the air, as though weightless. He knew that time would have
ceased to have meaning to Eden after she’d slept those twenty days on the
craft. For her it’d be as though their meeting had occurred just hours earlier.

She’d need this scant time now to digest her present. And
her future.

When the craft gently dropped the last few hundred meters
before slowing to land, he sensed her shock. A despair so profound she closed
the gap between them and clutched his forearm.

In her mind the red land that stretched out as far as the
eye could see was undoubtedly a barren wasteland.

Selfish bastard that he was, while she held on to him as
though he was her lifeline, he wasn’t about to tell her these same lands came
to life for brief periods when their thrice annual rains came. The entire land
was transformed with plants so gloriously beautiful, it wasn’t unknown for
Earth women to be transfixed by the sight.

* * * * *

Eden swayed, feeling weak kneed and not even caring she was
clinging to Genesis as though a damsel in distress.

She never expected the planet to be so…lifeless.

Her stomach knotted. Plants were her life. Here…here she’d
be lost. A nothing in a land of nothingness.

What have I done?

She’d more than sacrificed herself to an uncertain future,
she’d destroyed whatever happiness she’d hoped to eke out on foreign soil, with
foreign plants. Doing the one thing she loved.

She bit her bottom lip, staring almost helplessly at the
red-tinged sky and the ochre sand that scorched beneath three suns sitting far
apart on the seemingly endless horizon.

Her eyes narrowed. Twin dust trails bit into the air. She
leaned forward, peering hard. Two males rode some sort of machine. Motorcycles?
No, they’d be the
cercannes
her father had often spoken about.

Genesis smiled. “Trasean and Auron, right on time.”

The craft settled onto the ground with a slight jolt, the
distinct hum of its engine abruptly silenced.

All her focus remained on the riders who approached fast.

One of the males had long, dark hair that streamed out
behind him, resembling black smoke, the other had the short-clipped hair that
her father sported in honor of his once province. She turned to Genesis. “These
men aren’t of your land.”

“That’s true.” He reached into the wall once again and
extracted the pants he’d worn before takeoff. Reaching in again, he pulled free
a dress made of the same material as the pants. He held out her garment.
“Unless you want an audience, I’d suggest you change now.”

Snatching it from him, she slithered out of her suit and
into the slippery fabric of the dress in no time, barely acknowledging how his
appreciative gaze slid over her while nude and then clothed in the
too-revealing dress that was as fine and seemingly strong as a spider web.

Genesis peeled out of his suit and tugged on his pants in a
far more leisurely fashion as he explained, “These men are royalty in their own
right, brothers of Renate and Dar. They’ve pledged themselves to me for six
meras
—six
Earth months—helping me to tame the land in exchange for the use of my craft
when we’re able to find more Earth women.”

Her belly hollowed out as she repeated, “When?”

The door parted and rolled outward, forming a step beyond
her field of vision. A hot breeze pulsed inside the craft. She sucked in the
thin, insubstantial air that nevertheless filled her lungs to the point of
burning and left a faint, honeyed taste in her throat.

He nodded. “This province boasts one mountain—
Mount
Heamington
—high enough for an airwave transmitter tower to signal for signs
of other humans on your planet.”

Shit.

“Trasean and Auron were working on the tower while I was
away. I imagine it’s finished now and all ready to be powered-up once I give
the order.”

She gritted her teeth and swung away—just as the men on
their
cercannes
pulled up outside with a muffled whine. She could only
be grateful they provided distraction from Genesis’ too astute gaze.

She stared unseeingly at the red world outside. What would
happen if the airwave transmitters found her sister? All her lies would count
for naught! Worse, Aline would be forcibly taken as well.

Resolve lifted Eden’s chin and straightened her spine. She
wouldn’t let it happen! Somehow she’d find a way to sabotage the tower.

“Come,” Genesis murmured, proffering a hand. “I’d like you
to meet my friends.”

Were there so few aliens now that the only ones who’d come
to meet them were from other provinces?