Power: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 3) (7 page)

She looked out of the window, at the lights below; above them, all seemed black, dark and foreboding, and it was hard to think there was anything other than darkness in space. “It scares me that you can change how I feel. Do you all have the same power?”

He leaned back and closed his eyes. “I am the strongest. It’s why I am the Hier Ruler.”

“The Hier Ruler, what’s that?”

“I lead the Hier Council. We rule over Karal.” He opened his eyes now to gauge her reaction, but she was already hyperventilating as the cruiser took off, heading away from Earth and everything she had ever known.

“You’re in charge. I guessed you were high up, or else you would not have been able to change the lottery winner. Am I right?” She took deep breaths, but it wasn’t working. She hated the way the cruiser vibrated as if they were going to be torn apart any minute now.

“Yes. Although I may still have to go in front of the council and explain myself. I am not above the laws on Karal.”

“Damn, this is bad.” She felt sure she was about to be sick, and she wished now she had allowed him to place his hands on hers. She thought about just reaching out and grabbing his hand, but that would make her seem like a hypocrite. In the end, he saved her.

“Please allow me to help you.” She wanted to say yes, but she couldn’t accept his help. Not until he added, “If I promise that I will never use my power on you without your knowledge, will you allow me to calm you down?”

“If you promise. Then yes, please.” She reached out her hand and he placed it in his, folding his fingers around hers. Immediate relief covered her. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” he said and when she turned and looked at his face, she knew he was enjoying the touch of her skin against his. His eyes dilated as he absorbed her fear and replaced it with a sense of serenity.

When they exited the Earth’s atmosphere, he had to increase the waves of calm he sent her way. Vanessa opened herself up to him, wanting him to allow her to enjoy this part of the journey; she wanted to be fully aware of the wormhole, to see the colours just as he had told her.

Yet when they passed behind the moon, and she saw the beacons, she was not prepared for what was to follow. They went from dark emptiness to bright blues, so blindingly beautiful she thought she might cry. She imagined that the earth’s sky might once have been this colour, and then it changed, golds and silvers streaming past them, the richest of clouds. Before they hurtled fast into a blood-red tunnel that swallowed them whole and spat them out into a field of vivid green, swirling around them as if they had entered the belly of a tornado. But this tornado didn’t kill and wreck, it cradled them while they travelled deeper and deeper.

A sudden jolt and they stopped. She looked to Lytril, “Is it over? Are we on the other side?”

He sat up, reached over with his free hand and wiped a tear from her cheek. “No, not yet.”

She smiled, her eyes misted with her tears. “I have never seen anything so beautiful.”

“Nor have I,” he said, and before she could ask him what he was referring to, they were moving again, vast oceans of stars suspended around them. Slowly they faded away, millions of lights pricking the dark of space, and then a swirling kaleidoscope of clouds spun around them. Every colour she could ever imagine and more.

Here
. She could stay right here, with her eyes open, and never tire of looking at the clouds. She could lie on them, and become one with them as her body decayed into star stuff.

Then they were out of the wormhole and the blackness of space surrounded them. Vanessa wanted to scream at Okil to turn around, take her back into the wormhole and leave her there. Reminding herself that wasn’t possible, that she had other things she had to do, she tried to focus on the now, to ground herself here in the cruiser with Lytril.

Lytril, who watched her expressions closely. “Do I amuse you?” she asked.

“Not in the way you think.” He kept his hand on hers, even though her fear had now gone, to be replaced by wonder. Vanessa wondered if their roles were reversed, if he was allowing himself to be affected by her emotions.

“Then tell me. Before we leave this spaceship and you go back to being the Hier Ruler, explain it to me.”

“When we are children our thoughts and emotions are visibly on display. The colours across our skin, you have seen them?”

“Yes.”

“One of the things we learn is to control them. To hide them. Keep parts of ourselves from each other. I think it started when the females of Karal died out. The sadness was too great. So we shielded ourselves from it. I, as the Hier Ruler, had to become more accomplished than anyone else on the planet.”

“Do you read the emotions of other Karalians?” she asked, fascinated by what he said. They had taught themselves to be emotionless in a bid to save themselves.

“As the Hier Ruler, anyone who comes before me has to be open to a kind of … what you would call interrogation. They have to allow me to place my hands on their skin and read them. It can tell me whether they are telling the truth or not.”

“I see. Like when I put my hand on you.” She placed her hand over his, allowing herself to absorb more of him. “It’s not so strong now, but when you were asleep the colours rushed across your skin. I could feel what you were feeling.”

“That’s why you scare me, Vanessa. Yet at the same time fill me with wonder. I want to learn from you. I want to experience every emotion you feel. There is so much that we have forgotten. Maybe it was the same for our fathers, but I fear what will happen when our sons are born. What if we do not know how to show love and compassion?”

“But their mothers, their human mothers, will teach them and show them.”

“No, Vanessa, the children will be taken away. They will be raised by Karalians.”

Shock hit her, “You can’t do that; it’s not healthy. Children need mothers.”

“Our generation were raised without them, for reasons I have already explained.”

“And that is where your problem began, no doubt, Lytril.” She took her hands from him and turned to look out of the window, blocking him out. If she had known, then this would have been part of her bargain. For now, she just went back to hoping she would never have a child, because she could not bear to think of being parted from it.

The docking at the space station went smoothly. It was only when they left the space cruiser that Lytril acknowledged how much his short time on Earth had changed him. When the other Karalians on the station bowed their heads in respect to him, he felt Vanessa stiffen by his side.

“We have the decon’ rooms prepared, Hier Ruler.” He was escorted to a room, already a barrier growing between him and Vanessa. He was losing her. And losing the person he had become in her company. Was it possible for the new Lytril she had brought forth to live in his old world? All this he wondered, as Okil took over the job of making sure she was taken to a decon’ room.

He swallowed his jealousy down. Okil was loyal and would not do anything to betray his leader. That wasn’t the issue, Lytril realised. It was more that Okil might see his female naked, before Lytril had a chance. Because to go through decon’, meant stripping down to your bare skin.

How he longed to see her naked, to touch her voluptuous breasts and kiss her soft skin.
Tonight
. He told himself. As soon as he had caught up on his duties, he would take her to his bed.

“Thank you,” he said. “You may go.” And the Karalians left him alone to undress. His thoughts filled with Vanessa as he sat in the chair and waited for the decon’ to be completed. It seemed to take an age, his impatience growing. He hated being apart from her; more and more he was beginning to realise how Marin and Torac felt about their females.

While he lay back with his eyes closed, he wondered if the human race had some kind of subtle power over the Karalians. In the same way that he could subtly change her mood, could something about Vanessa influence him?

The Hier Ruler, leader of Karal, began to take over, to come back to Lytril, and he thought about asking the scientists to consider this. But it would mean turning a specimen over to them and he couldn’t bear for it to be Vanessa. No. Even if it were to the detriment of his species, he would not turn her over to them.

Instead, he would form his own opinions and work out how they could combat the effect. Because there must be something else going on here; perhaps the Presidency on Earth had become engaged in biological warfare. The females were treated with a chemical which could be used to gain control over Karalians.

If not, he could not understand how he, so schooled in controlling his emotions, could feel so strongly for Vanessa. Only days ago, he had made the cold-hearted decision to make sure that all females would eventually end up in the breeding house. Now, thanks to Vanessa, that would not happen. He had already promised her an island. To Lytril, it felt as though the invasion of Karal by the people of Earth had already begun.

As the decon’ ended, he made himself dress slowly. Enough was enough. He would stick to his promises, he would do his best to make Vanessa love him and stay with him. But only because if he made her feelings for him stronger, he would regain the control that seemed to flip flop out of his control.

When the door opened and he walked back towards the cruiser, ready to depart for Karal, he walked slowly and evenly, his colours now completely under control. Perhaps the decon’ had taken away whatever hold she had on him. Maybe it was a virus or a disease.

Yet when he saw her, it was obvious to him his feelings for her were still there. But he kept them to himself. The Hier Ruler was about to return to his planet. Lytril the romantic fool had to stay behind.

When she smiled at him, excitement in her face, he smiled, but with no feeling, no emotion. She noticed it, her eyebrows furrowed, but she didn’t say a thing, didn’t ask what was wrong. But he felt her mood dampen and realised that if he played this right he would have his control.

However, the price he would pay would be to watch her passion die. The very thing he loved her for would disappear. Inside Lytril, a new battle ensued, between the Hier Ruler, who needed control, and Lytril, who wanted to be free to love Vanessa.

And to make her love him in return.

They boarded the cruiser once more; this time their destination was Karal. Okil had told her what would happen and prepared her for the landing. However, in the brief time they had been alone, he had not raised the subject of how she was supposed to help Karal and Earth work closer together. She let it go. Perhaps there were listening devices on the space station; she needed to be careful and not put either of them in danger. This was not her world now, she was the alien, a thing she must never forget.

Lytril took his position next to her, yet something about him was different. As though his feelings towards her had changed. No, that wasn’t it; his feelings were just not there anymore. He had shut her out.

She wouldn’t let him dampen her excitement, although she fought not to feel disappointed. Vanessa Roderick was about to land on a new planet filled with life. She planned to enjoy every minute of it. Launching from the space station, her stomach was left behind as they fell towards Karal. They dropped rapidly, in through its atmosphere, lower, and lower, the planet looming up, larger and larger in the small viewing window beside her.

“Oh, wow, it’s beautiful,” she breathed, as colours flooded her senses. She turned to him, her face happy and smiling. Yet he still looked blank; the man who had been on Earth had gone. The ruler of Karal was here next to her in his place.

Her heart squeezed with dread. Had she made a terrible mistake? Was everything he said to her lies? Lytril had made her promises, but only to her, no one else had heard, not even Okil. If he went back on them, she would have no recourse. The ruler of Karal had what he wanted,
her
, and she was now at his mercy.

She placed her hand on his, wanting to try to steal back the real Lytril, and somewhere deep inside him she felt the stirrings of that man. But then he was gone, leaving Vanessa a mixture of confused, and yet hopeful.

If he had been there once, he was hidden, not gone. Once they were settled and they … well, consummated their relationship, surely she would be able to open him up to those feelings again. Yet she had no experience with men. There was a chance she would disappoint him so badly that he would send her away, to the dreaded breeding house, instead of the island he had promised.

Turning back to the view below, she felt her enthusiasm and joy seeping away. Then they flew over a forest, the trees so tall they must be as high as mountains. Forgetting the now sullen man beside her she asked, “Is that the forest? The one you father took you to?”

He didn’t even look as he answered, “Yes, that is the Dressel Forest.”

“Will you take me there? One day, no matter what happens. Will you take me there with our child?” She wanted to get back the connection they had shared on the night he had stayed at her apartment. To remind him of the painting of him and the child. She had touched him then, could she do so again?

For split second, Lytril came back to her and his face softened and he said, “Yes. I promise that we will go there. I want it to be a lasting memory of the son you will give birth to.”

“It looks so big. I have never seen so many trees. Oh, there are birds, so many birds.” Her face pressed against the small window as she tried to take in every bit of the view in front of her.

The cruiser slowed, and headed for a landing strip. They bumped along, before the wheels took over completely, but they didn’t stop; instead, they left the airport, if that’s what it was. There were no other cruisers parked there, just the long landing strip and a few hangars. As they drew up to what looked like security gates, a man, who looked in awe of Lytril, ushered them through.

“You don’t come through here often do you, Lytril?” Vanessa asked.