Hunted: BBW Alien Romance (Warriors of Karal Book 4) (12 page)

He wanted to make Tamzin happy, and if the planet wasn’t the thing to do that, then he would have to find another way. A much more intimate way of chasing her sadness away.

They hovered over the forest, as the sun was beginning its descent in the sky, casting reds and oranges over the tips of the trees. This was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but they had to try. Garth was right: if other people lived here, then humans had no right to take it from them. No matter how desperate their own plight was.

“I’ll switch on the scanner,” Garth said, pressing the computer screen, and she watched as the image turned to heat-seeking camera display. “We can try to pick up a heat source from the fire or animals.

“So we just keep moving over the forest until we find something?” she asked, leaning forward to peer at the screen, and then looking out of the window at the trees below.

“Yes, I’ll work in tight grids. If we can smell the smoke, it must be in a small radius of our position, or we wouldn’t have smelt it.”

She saw odd flashes of red flash up on the screen, but they moved, and she saw they must be small creatures of some kind. Then there was a bigger blob of red, moving slower, and then it turned and began to move upwards.

“Is that something climbing a tree?” she asked, pointing.

“Yes. We should take a closer look.” He hovered over the area, the trees dense, but the camera picked up the creature in the trees. Now they could see it had four short limbs and a big body.

“What is it?”

“Computer. Simulate.”

The screen shifted, and the image on it showed an animal reminiscent of a bear. It was shinning its way up the tree, and now had stopped. With one short forelimb, he was trying to pick a fruit, or nut, off the tree.

“Do we know if it’s sentient?” she asked.

“Not without examining it closely. Let’s carry on with our reconnaissance and then work our way back if we need too. This creature doesn’t explain the wood smoke.”

The cruiser rose higher and moved forward, searching for the elusive fire.

“Wait, the cruiser can pick up and analyse the air quality, right?” she asked.

“Yes.” And then Garth’s expression cleared. “Clever girl, I should have thought of that.”

“Computer, analyse air for wood smoke.”

“Carbon monoxide source identified.”

“Show reading.”

The display showed a cloud, very faint, but growing thicker about half a mile away. That was where they headed now. With Tamzin feeling her stomach churn over and over, and she had to fight to keep from running to the bathroom. This was no time for morning sickness, although she was sure this feeling wasn’t from her pregnancy, it was from nerves, and the seeming end of her dreams about Sybil and Thomsk being able to come and live here on the planet.

When the smoke was at its densest, he flipped back to the heat-seeking scanner.

“Wow, oh my goodness.” She sat transfixed as the scene before her came to life.

There was a fire in the middle of a small clearing, and around it were around twenty or thirty creatures, maybe humanoid, she couldn’t tell. They were interacting, touching each other, and she could almost picture them, talking about their day, eating their meal, and relaxing in the warm glow of the fire. To their right was a cave of some kind, and they could see figures coming in and out of it. Once inside, they were no longer able to be scanned.

“I think we have our answer. And also the answer to why we thought this planet was deserted. It seems we missed them.” Garth looked across to her, and she could feel his sympathy, and see it on his face as his colours flew up along his neck and then exploded like fireworks across his cheek.

“Lucky them.” She didn’t mean to sound quite so harsh. And she was glad they were free. At least the human females from Earth had been given a choice; at least she had volunteered her body, and not been ripped away from her home and family.

“I’m sorry.” And she knew he meant it.

“So am I, Garth. So am I. Still, there are other planets, other missions. Maybe one of the others found something.”

“Maybe they did. We left before any of them returned, and we have been in space for a week, so all being well, the last mission has already left. One of them may have struck lucky. Later, I will go over the transmission. But for now, let’s go and find somewhere for us to spend our evening.”

“And then what? Do we go home? Back to Karal?” That was the only thing stopping her falling apart, a thing she blamed on her pregnancy; she had never been so emotional in her life. The slightest thing threatened to send her into floods of tears. Maybe this mixed-species pregnancy was like an illness after all.

“I think it might be wise.” He smiled, and took her hand. “But tonight we are going to find a place where there are no other creatures and spend some time on the ground.”

“That would be perfect. I just need a break from these tin walls.” Feeling lighter, and resigned to the fact that they had to go home, she tried to push her unhappiness away and think of how wonderful it would be to smell the fresh air and sit on firm land. It would be enough to keep her going on the journey back to Karal.

“Yes, we’ll land, and then prepare a meal; we can sit outside and eat. Maybe have a campfire of our own.”

“Now that I like the sound of.”

He angled the cruiser away from the campfire, and headed off to where the sun was setting. It was as if they were chasing the sun over the horizon, prolonging their day on the planet, not letting the night take it. The journey was wonderful, and by the time he landed the cruiser on a small island in the middle of a vast ocean that had no other creature on it except a few birds, she was in better spirits.

“I’ll prepare the meal, you go outside and paddle in the ocean. The computer said it’s safe, salty, so don’t drink it, but it is safe. I’ve also set the radar to take in the area and warn us if anything big comes our way.”

“Big. What kind of big?”

“You know what used to be in the oceans on Earth in prehistoric times. Big teeth and would eat you alive?”

“I get your point.” That still didn’t stop her practically running down the ramp, and walking across the prickly sea grass to the ocean’s edge. There she let the cold seawater lap over her toes, and then her ankles. The gentle sound of it ebbing and flowing was mesmerising, and uplifting all at the same time.

Gazing out to sea, she felt tears prick her eyes again: it was so beautiful, so unspoilt and the pure joy of this moment was almost too much. Placing her hand on her stomach, she wanted to tell the small spark of life inside her that she loved it, and that she was glad he was going to grow up on Karal, which must be filled with views like this, instead of Earth.

But she also swore to do whatever she could to ensure that her friends on Earth had a similar opportunity. There had to be a suitable planet, there just had to be.

“Food.” His voice was close to her ear, and she hadn’t heard him approach, his footsteps drowned by the soft sand under their feet.

“You know what,” she said. “I think food can wait.”

He took her in his arms and kissed her lips, the romance of the moment, of their location, taking them away from the reason they were here. This was their time, and they were going to make the most of it.

Picking her up, he took her back towards the cruiser, where he had laid out a blanket for them to sit on, just as he had on Karal, not so long ago. Slowly, they undressed each other, taking their time, his lips pressing against hers, his tongue sliding along her lower lip, sensuously and slow, awaking her desire.

Lying side by side, naked in their own private world, he slipped a finger inside her heated sex, probing deeply, while his thumb brushed her clit. Then he moved his head, leaning down to capture her nipple in his mouth, his tongue rolling over it, until her world exploded. She came, her sex contracting around his fingers, and she cried out, her voice mingling with those of the brightly coloured birds that seems oblivious to the two alien creatures lying here on their small island oasis.

Garth, his cock hard against her thigh, moved, covering her body and guiding himself into her. He seemed unsure, reserved, and she understood why. “You won’t hurt the baby.”

“Are you sure? If I am too rough, will I damage him?”

“No.” She kissed his cheek, and smoothed her fingers over his creased forehead, chasing his frown away. “Nothing you do will hurt him. I promise.”

Garth thrust into her, his worries gone, chased away by his need to claim her. The long days of celibacy were ended, and his cock grew harder as he took her. In and out, his cock filled her, and then he pulled back, only to thrust into her harder again. She took what pleasure he offered, wanting this moment to be magical for both of them.

Over and over, his body covered hers, their lips meeting, soft and gentle, and then fierce on hers, as his orgasm covered him and he lifted his head and cried out. Deep inside her, his cock fused with her inner walls, and she felt the vibration of his colours as they skimmed his skin, stimulating her body in a new way.

That was how much she knew he wanted her and had missed her, and as her orgasm swept over her, she was grateful for this time together. Even if she knew that at first light, they were going to leave the planet forever.

And the search for a home for humans would go on.

“Everything is ready?” he asked as she sat next to him on the control deck. He was relieved she looked so much better, she had not been sick today, and he hoped that was in the past now. He had enjoyed making love to her several times through the night. Forcing himself to abstain from mating with her was a thing of the past.

He wanted her, and she wanted him. Their child was safe; he had been foolish. But for the right reasons.

“Yes.” She sighed. “I am going to miss feeling the ground under my feet. It’s surprising how quickly I got used to walking on solid ground.”

“A week, and we will be home, we can plot the same course. Then we can enjoy Karal, and you never have to leave again.” He smiled at her, and thought how beautiful she looked, a flush in her cheeks from the fresh air, which also made her eyes sparkle with happiness.

“I can’t wait.” She buckled up her seat belt and sat back, no longer craning forward to take in every last view of the planet they were about to leave. “I hope this planet remains unspoilt, Garth. I suppose the females here would be the kind you would use to breed with if any girls born aren’t fertile and the human race dies out.”

It saddened him to hear her talk like that. “I suppose; my mother was of a similar evolutionary place. She came from a primitive species. Who did not understand space travel and thought we were demons.”

“Let’s hope that never happens again. This is a perfect world, and no one deserves to be ripped from a world they love.”

“Is that how you feel? As if you were ripped from the world you grew up in?”

“I came to you by choice, remember?” she asked. “But still it is tough, knowing you will never see your home world again.”

“What if we simply log the planet as being uninhabitable? The sulphur from volcanoes too poisonous in the air.” The idea was strange to him; he was supposed to report back to Karal truthfully. And yet now he knew Tamzin, and understood how his mother must have felt. A new part of him, a part that contained empathy, had woken up, and he could see how painful it must be to be ripped away from everything you knew.

“You mean no one would ever come here again?” she asked.

“I can’t promise that. But not for a long time.”

“I like that idea.” She smiled, looking even more radiant if that was possible.

“Then we will destroy the samples. I will fix the computer log, and we will leave the people here behind to live their lives in peace.”

“You can change the log?” she asked.

“I can recode it. I’m not just a stupid warrior,” he said. “But never a word of this will be spoken, not many of us know the interface well enough. But I have seen it done.”

“Really? So you are not the squeaky-clean warrior I thought you were.”

“There was a time, on another mission when my co-pilot and I took some fruit from the planet and it made us intoxicated, we nearly crashed the cruiser. He found a way to doctor the reports. We were young with our careers in front of us, and we did not want our records tarnished.”

She laughed. “I should cover your son’s ears.” Tamzin slid her hand over her stomach. “I don’t want him getting ideas from his father.”

Garth laughed, and then leaned over and kissed her. “He will get into his own trouble; all children do.”

“That is good to hear. I didn’t know if Karalian children were expected to be perfect.”

“Not at all.” He tapped on the computer screen, and then worked in silence for a couple of minutes, before saying, “There, done. But it means we have to leave immediately; I have reset the clock as if we never landed here. The reset takes five minutes, enough time for us to get into orbit.”

He started the engines, powering them up, and then they launched into the air, leaving the beautiful blue planet behind them.

“I only hope the people here don’t make the same mistakes as we did on Earth,” she said, and quietly prayed that they wouldn’t.

Garth checked the course was plotted correctly and then banked slightly to readjust their return to the wormhole they had entered through. As they reached it, he remembered the update he had received and began to load it onto the screen. He had been so wrapped up in Tamzin and the planet, he had not given it any more thought; he would read it after they reached the other side, and maybe it contained news of the other missions and a planet already found.

“Hold tight,” he said as they entered the wormhole, this time they were both thrown back in their seats. He couldn’t help glancing nervously across at Tamzin, he was worried about her and the baby again. Yes, he was definitely growing soft: the more time he spent with her, the more his emotions were begging to rule him.