Hero's Bride (Alien SciFi Romance) (Celestial Mates Book 7) Read online

  Looking up into his intense dark eyes, she replied, “He’s a child. Of course I’m going to feel protective.”

  “Not all queens see value in another’s young.”

  A sad expression drifted over his face so fast Tara thought that perhaps she had imagined it. Yet, the haunted look in his beautiful dark eyes remained behind. “You have really soulful eyes. Do you know that?”

  Tilting his head sideways a bit, he asked curiously, “What does that mean?”

  “When I look into your eyes, I can see a lot of intelligence and hidden emotion.”

  “You speak words you think I need to hear, to draw me closer to you.”

  Shaking her head, she replied gently, “I’d never hurt you.”

  “Do you lie to yourself or to me?”

  “What?”

  “It is forever the way with queens, generation after generation. They lure us with tender words. Once we are snared by their claw, the sweetness turns sour so quickly, it leaves a male’s head spinning.”

  “Are you being serious?”

  “I have no wish to be taken in by your flattery, for I alone know deep a queen’s deceit can run.”

  Jerking back out of his reach, she stared at him. “Jesus, what is wrong with you? That’s some really awful shit to say to a woman.” Tara knew she was raising her voice, but she couldn’t help it.

  Folding his arms over his stomach in a defensive pose that was totally at odds with their situation, he looked over her shoulder. His wooden voice sounded cold and distant. “You are not the first queen to look into my eyes and think she knew me.”

  “Look, I’m gonna go. I don’t know who you think I am, but I’m nothing like what you just described. I know we haven’t spent much time together but you have no call to be making a bunch of assumptions about me that way.”

  A jerk of his head sideways told her he was just about to lose it. Spinning on her heel, she walked around the side of the house and whistled for Jax. He turned in mid romp and ran at breakneck speed straight for her.

  “My queen, what is wrong. You are leaking.”

  Rubbing her tears away with the back of her hand, she muttered, “Come, we’re leaving this place.”

  Bending, he growled, “Get on my back and I will take you to the queen’s tower.”

  Normally, she wouldn’t consider riding her friend like a service beast, but she was too upset and exhausted to think clearly. Within moments the strong young animal spread his wings and they were in the air. Lying on her stomach, she wrapped her arms around his strong neck. As the cool night breeze caressed her cheek, Tara replayed Arac’s harsh words in her mind.

  Maybe she had been out of line by thinking she could read anything about his personality in his eyes, but the rest of what he’d said was pure garbage. Feeling like she lost a close friend was a wake-up call. She’d known the man less than a day; therefore, any attachment to him was absurd.

  She watched the lighted tower of the building housing the single women come into view. Whether or not she liked it, this was going to have to be her home until she could dig herself out of the hole she’d found herself in.

  Landing gently on his feet, Jax lowered himself. Sliding off, she gave him a hug. “Sorry for losing it back there. I don’t know how things turned so terribly wrong all of a sudden. Thanks for getting me out, Jax. You’re a good friend.”

  “Come, let us get you a room, my queen.”

  Hearing his growly voice call her his queen made her burst out in big girly tears all over again.

  Panicking a little, Jax stated, “You will stop leaking this minute. A high percentage of a queen’s body is water. You cannot survive if you allow it all to leak out.”

  Something about his logic made her laugh through her tears. “I don’t think that’s how it works, my friend. Come, let’s get this over with.”

  The drone behind the counter began to panic when he saw the wetness on her face. Looking back and forth between them, he shot them several questions at once. “Are you well, little queen? Shall I call a healer? Did the beast harm you?” Holding up two hands, he spoke slowly. “There is no need to continue to leak, you are safe here.”

  Sighing, she rolled her eyes. “Would it be possible to get a room without all the histrionics? I’ve got tons of my own going on. Trust me, we don’t have space in our lives for any more drama.”

  Looking her over suspiciously, he nodded. “Come, I will give you a suite on the ground floor, so I might better monitor your safety.”

  “Normally, I have all kinds of objections to that, but right now I just want to sleep for about a million years.”

  “Shall I request a hibernation pod?”

  The drone was so earnest and helpful that Tara had to palm-smack her forehead to keep from totally losing it. “That won’t be necessary tonight, maybe later.”

  As soon as the drone left, she shed her uniform and crawled into bed. Jax landed at her feet on top the blankets and she was simply too tired to argue the point. It had been one roller-coaster of a day.

  Chapter 11

  ~ Arac ~

  Music Mix

  Vraden’s voice cut through the cool night air. “Well, that didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped.”

  Arac had been sitting outside pealing the inner hull off his queen’s gemstone for the better part of thirty microns. “I do not wish to discuss it, father.”

  Vraden sat across from his son and began working on another gemstone. “Refusing to talk about it will not make you feel any better.”

  “What do you wish me to say? I panicked and said belligerent and insulting things to a queen… to the female I wished to make my queen. I’m broken and unfit to be claimed by a queen.”

  “What did you say?” His father’s voice held a note of warning and dread.

  “Not much, only that she was filled with deceit and trying to lure me in with sweet lies so she could hurt me later.”

  “Gods of Chaos, son, what possessed you to say that to such a lovely human queen? You must know they are nothing like our queens.”

  “She told me I had soulful eyes and that she could see how intelligent and loving I was.”

  “And that was cause for a belligerent response?”

  “It is almost word for word what Kabelda said to lure me in, when I first caught her eye. Hearing the same compliments fall so effortlessly from her lips, brought back all the pain and misery of being under Kabelda’s claw. I was speaking before I even thought about the words coming out of my mouth.”

  “I’m sorry, my son. I didn’t know.”

  Laying down the gemstone, Arac wrapped his arms around his stomach. “The little queen opened herself to me and in return for her trust and caring I made liquid leak from her eyes. My treatment at Kabelda’s claw has rendered me unfit for further breeding. I should never have spent time with her.”

  “I have words to say. Though you may not wish to hear them, I’m compelled to speak. You do have beautiful and soulful eyes. It comes as no surprise to me that two such radically different females noticed your most unique feature. I noticed it myself, as did your mother when you were newly hatched. Noticing such things means nothing, for the human is almost the opposite in temperament and personality from your former queen. Think on that, my son.”

  “I’m certain I will be thinking on nothing else for a very long time, my sire.”

  Arac worked on the gemstone through the night, too upset to sleep. The activity was meant to take his mind off his beautiful queen. However, it only served to remind him of the time they’d shared together.

  Peeling back the inner hull of the last stone in the first crate, he found a surprise. The gemstone was a rare flawless multiverse gem. It reflected all the colors of the spectrum. Polishing it with a cloth; he made sure it was perfect before taking it inside. Sitting on his sleeping platform, he wrapped it in a nice cloth and eased it into a box. Though his queen had no cause to keep a damaged drone, she could certainly wish to keep the gemsto
ne that was rare and beautiful as she was. His antenna constricted painfully as he sat clutching the box to his chest.

  Remembering the day they’d spent together was among the best memories of his long life. She’d smiled at him, touched him easily, and demonstrated such tenderness. Deep in his soul, he knew she was kind and decent. The way she immediately accepted his young son had filled him with pride. She certainly deserved better than a damaged drone. She deserved a full family unit of drones focused solely upon fulfilling her every desire.

  As the dawn approached, he put out a call for assistance preparing her gemstones for trade. By the time the sun crested high in the midday sky, the job was done. He loaded them all onto a shuttle and made for the tarmac. He spoke with each and every trader, squabbling between then until he was certain that he received the best price for her stones, and only then did he let them go. Loading the credits onto a small delicate handheld device, he made sure to load his family’s information into her contact list.

  Though it had killed him to let go of the only evidence of their time together, he knew she would want the credits to purchase her shuttle. Seeing this job through for her was the least he could do to make up for his poor behavior.

  Walking into his house, he handed the items to his father.

  “You should deliver them yourself.”

  “No queen would want to see the drone responsible for making them leak. Give her my sincerest apologies, father. I must rest now; my bones are weary.”

  Chapter 12

  ~ Tara ~

  Music Mix

  Waking to the repeated sound of her door alarm beeping was irritating. The twilight outside her window told her that it was barely dawn. “Go away and come back when it’s daylight.” Sure shouting at a nameless faceless person in the predawn was probably considered rude on any planet, but she was still tired.

  “Queen Tara, it is Vraden. The sun has come and gone, little queen. It is now the dinner hour.”

  Jumping out of bed, she scampered to the door in her underthings. Pulling the door open, she motioned him in. “Sorry. I can’t believe I slept all day. That’s really crazy.”

  “You were working in the hot sun yesterday. It does not surprise me to find you require extra sleep.”

  As he sat on a chair at a nearby table, Tara grabbed her only uniform and pulled it on. “Sorry, I’m working on getting more clothing.”

  “There is a supply bank downstairs in this very building, but I know you will not use it. Can you not see that no one is harmed by your stubbornness but you?”

  Sinking into a chair opposite the older man, she sighed. “This is exactly why I won’t accept charity. The minute I trust you, you turn on me.”

  “No one has turned on you. My son is very damaged. He is appalled by the words he spoke to you.”

  Holding up one hand, Tara shook her head. “If you came to talk about Arac, you can turn right around and walk out the door right now.”

  “I came only to deliver this package to you.”

  “What is it?”

  “My sons pulled together to process your gemstone and made sure you got the best possible price for it. The credits have been loaded onto a handheld communications device for you.”

  “No, thank you.”

  “What do you mean? This is your property.”

  “Keep it. I’ll gather and process my own. I don’t want to owe Arac anything.”

  “You’re being impossible.”

  “Agreed. I’m a single woman making her own way in the ‘verse. I have the right to make good and bad decisions. It’s called being free.”

  “Arac found a particularly beautiful gemstone among the specimens. He wished me to give it to you as a remembrance of the time the two of you spent together.”

  “Wait, what are you saying? He doesn’t want to see me ever again? You know, never mind. If that’s how he wants to be, fine by me.”

  “Are you saying your anger is transitory?” The older man looked seriously confused.

  Rubbing her temple, Tara murmured, “I don’t want to talk about this right now. I haven’t had anything to eat or drink all day, nor have I had time to sort out my thoughts on the matter.”

  “You are well? No headaches?”

  “None. You did a bang-up job of fixing me.”

  “My son worked through the night and the better part of the day to see that your gemstone was properly processed and sold. Please take the handheld. You can decide later if you wish to use the credits.”

  “Fine. I just don’t want him to think that I own him anything.”

  “I am certain he would never think that.”

  Looking up at the older man, she sighed. “I’m really sorry that I got involved with your son. Though I’ve never been very good with men, I never expected things to deteriorate so rapidly between us. I feel that I no sooner got to know him than he cast me aside.”

  “It is not my place to speak of the situation between the two of you, perhaps if a romantic entanglement is out of the question, you can at least find it in your heart to offer him a friendship. He has suffered much and has but few of us he allows close.”

  “I will think about that. Would you like to have something to eat with me downstairs?”

  “Perhaps we can dine together another time, little queen? One of the more mature queens has commanded me to dine with her. I have no wish to disappoint her.”

  “You would be a good catch. Let me know if she doesn’t treat you right and I’ll sick Jax on her.”

  Making a sound of amusement, the older drone replied cheerfully, “I do not think that will become necessary. However, I will keep your offer in mind.”

  Watching Vraden leave, she noticed Jax sitting on the floor with his tongue hanging out. He was so much like a dog sometimes that it was difficult to remember he was a person until he spoke.

  Tara put all her clothing in the refresher and climbed into the shower. It was considerate of the Maruvians to duplicate a human shower, rather than their traditional mister for the women’s tower. There was nothing quite like a nice warm shower.

  Since Jax had begun to smell a little ripe, she pulled him into the unit with her and gave him a good scrub down. It was clear from his bristling demeanor throughout the entire process that he considered cleansing a ridiculous waste of time. He was quite vocal on the matter.

  In his growly voice he said, “Cleansing is for humans, not the golugua.”

  “It’s for everyone. You want to have nice pelt, don’t you?”

  “I will never call a mate if you wash away my male scent.”

  “Ladies like nice and clean, trust me on that.”

  Shaking the water from his skin, much like a dog, he leapt from the shower and repeated the process in the open bathroom, flicking water everywhere in the process. Tara watched him stalk away, clearly miffed at her attempts to groom him. She lathered up her girly bits and considered herself thankful that Jax literally did not notice or acknowledge the fact that she had girl parts. If she had to guess, the female parts for his kind were so vastly different that she must not register as female in his world. Rolling that around in her head, she was grateful, because it made being around him so much easier.

  Pulling on her pristine uniform, she began to wonder if she really could get along with only one set of clothing. Dropping down into a seat at the tiny table, she pulled over the box Arac had sent. Inside was the most beautiful gemstone she’d ever seen. It was as large as her hand and all the colors of the rainbow. Turning it over, she regretted not being there to see the unveiling. Stowing it on a shelf, she picked up the handheld. Turning it on, she realized the readouts had been set for English. Running through a quick tutorial, she tried to remember the basics, before clipping it to her uniform.

  Since it was getting late, she headed for the door. “Let’s see what they’re serving in the dining hall.”

  “As you wish, my queen.”

  Wandering downstairs, Tara saw women milling around an
indoor pool. All the women in the dining room were wearing gowns. Several were sitting with drones or small groups of drones. She approached a huge banquet table in the back and began filing two plates.

  Much to her surprise, two women approached. “No animals in the dining area. Sorry, it’s a new rule.”

  Glancing over her shoulder, Tara frowned. “I’ll be sure to remember that if I see any.”

  One of the women spoke again. “Look, you’re going to have to feed that creature outside. There’s a patio.”

  “We’re not eating outside, now go away.” The pair were becoming annoying. Even Jax was growling his disapproval.

  “Jesus, you can’t have a dangerous animal in our dining facility. Take it outside.”

  Putting down her plates, she realized that everyone in the dining hall was staring at them. Trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, she took a deep breath and replied as politely as possible. “I suppose a lot of the new arrivals aren’t familiar with all the different types of people on this planet. Allow me to introduce my friend, Jax. Jax say hello to the nice ladies.”

  “I do not like the new females, my queen. They distract you from taking nutrition. You must eat to survive. Shall I rend them limb from limb?”

  Stifling a laugh, she chastised her arrogant companion. “You aren’t going to do that. Stop talking like that. The new women probably don’t know that you still working on developing a sense of humor.”

  “I plan to be more human than humans are… human.”

  “Yeah, I’m hearing what you’re laying down there Jax. The thing is, you’re kind of talking in circles.”

  One of the women stammered awkwardly, “He… umm, he talks.”

  The other woman folded her arms over her chest. “I think he smells funny. You need to take him out to eat.”

  Whirling around, Tara pushed one finger into the woman’s chest. “Jax does not smell. We both just got out of the shower. That makes you a big fat liar.” Jerking back, Tara wondered what in the world had gotten into her. She normally didn’t get into pissing contests with stupid people. “Fine, we’re leaving. It’s your loss, ‘cause Jax is a fabulous person.”