Fire Planet Warrior's Captive (Science Fiction BBW/Alien Romance) Read online

  “Oatyu duin?” She pulled at the rope and made some noises in her language, and the sounds were quite pleasant. But it was inefficient. He'd have to do something about the communication problem. Teaching her proper Acerex was out of the question for now. It was a hard language to learn for most.

  “Teik dis fing of mi!” She was agitated, but Vrax'ton shrugged and shook his head to make her understand that he didn't speak the language. Surely she would realize that? Would she understand that shaking the head was a negative?

  Well, he couldn't fix that right now. It would take some hours of calm meditation in a safe environment.

  He pulled her along by the string he had attached to her wrist and snorted to himself. A safe environment? On Bosh, the sacred Fire Planet? Not likely. But he was confident he could keep both her and himself alive for a little while. As long as they didn't get separated. The darkness was deep and the forest large. If she got away from him, the hergs would be all over her in a few minutes. Hopefully they caught his scent too, and hopefully it triggered some unpleasant memories in them. Memories from the first time he had been here on Brosh. The first and only. Before now. No one ever came here a second time.

  He walked as fast as he could under the circumstances, but she struggled against the rope. “Oer yu takin mi?”

  He dragged her on, fully understanding her resistance to this way of traveling. The hurt look she had given him when he placed it around her wrist had sent a sharp barb to his heart. He really didn't want to. But if they couldn't understand each other yet, he had to get the message across that she really had to stay very, very close to him. And that rope would convey it better than most things.

  He picked up a rock and flung it at a nest of xips, and they reluctantly crawled away. The hairs at the back of his neck stood up at the sight. Not so much for himself as for her. Their gaseous venom was the most toxic substance known and would kill her if she so much as caught a whiff of it.

  He sighed as he sidestepped the mouth of a ravenous girpi that suddenly opened in the ground right in front of him, then made sure to lead the girl around it at a safe distance. There were so many dangers on this planet!

  The axe in his belt clanged against the armor sewn into the leg of his pants to protect it. It reassured him as always, but still he struggled to keep his spirits up. Bosh was not a hospitable planet at the best of times. And now, days before the Fire would be here, he wasn't at all sure how he'd keep her alive for more than a couple of days. Right before the blaze was to pass through, all the plants and animals and insects would hit a fever pitch of activity and efforts to kill each other and everything close to them. And to procreate wildly.

  He had to keep her away from all that, impossible though it seemed. Because there was only one reason he had taken her from those Gulg aliens instead of accepting the heaps of gems and gold they were offering him. Despite her ridiculous and horrifically undignified position when he first laid eyes on her, his mind had exploded with the knowledge.

  He knew it as well as he knew his own name and that he was on the Fire Planet. He was sure.

  It was an insane idea in itself. No one had ever heard of an alien in that context. But it was true.

  She was his Mahan. His Fated Mate. His One.

  And everything on this planet could kill her.

  3

  - Harper -

  So was she his captive now? His slave or something? He was dragging her along through the woods with that leash, and while he never yanked at the line, and there was no chafing going on, she couldn't help feeling like she was pretty much his to do with as he pleased. Like she was his pet.

  He didn't understand English and he seemed not to be too interested in anything Harper might think about this whole deal.

  The problem was, she didn't really know that herself. Sure, the leash she could do without. Him? She wasn't so sure. He seemed to know what he was doing, even if she was only going off the confidence he was exuding.

  But there were little signs, like how he would take a sooty, black rock and throw it into a bush and a bunch of huge, white centipedes would crawl out from under it and get out of their way. And once he took his axe and chopped down a tree in front of them with one stroke, clearing the path. It wasn't just that he was strong enough to do it, but that he was so relaxed, as if he had done it a thousand times before right here. And she didn't get the impression that he was showing off. Like, at all.

  There were other signs, too. He would take care when he cleared their way, holding any branches or bushes out of her way so she never had to touch them. And she was pretty sure he was choosing their path so that it would be less tiring for her. He was sensationally strong and could probably have walked a straighter route among the trees. If he thought she was his captive, then he was the most considerate captor Harper had ever heard of.

  She found herself admiring his broad back, how the muscles played when he moved and how the alien tattoos seemed to shimmer in silver and gold and every color of the rainbow, even in the darkness around them. His muscular little butt would flex with each step, and the axe would clank against a pad on his pants.

  He would look behind him to check on her every so often, and then he would give her a reassuring little smile. And it was reassuring, Harper thought. Annoyingly so. She really wanted to be mad at him for putting a leash on her. But he was making it very damn difficult with his niceness.

  And his attractiveness. It spoke to something in her, something deep. What if they were trapped on this planet, but somehow managed to outrun the fire? Would he be interested in something more than just being her captor? It wasn't like she'd had much of a love life on the base.

  “Calm down there, girl,” she muttered. “He's a total dream, but you know zero about him. He's probably married and all his seventeen alien wives are probably going to want to kill you if you do something here.”

  Um, okay. So now she was talking to herself like a nutcase. The chemicals from the plants around them made her head swim and she would probably get some kind of poisoning ...

  Something large came fluttering towards her, and she frowned. Like a huge leaf or something, except it had the most wonderful colors that shone in the darkness and created an unspeakably beautiful kaleidoscope of delicate, shifting color.

  Ah, it was a butterfly. A butterfly the size of an eagle, beating its wings calmly and slowly and a little clumsily.

  Harper ducked to let the large creature fly above her head and continue on its way, but instead it stopped and hung in the air in front of her, calmly beating its sensationally pretty wings. Even close up, the middle section between the wings was dark and hard to get a good look at.

  Harper squinted. Were those fangs?

  The butterfly drew back, and then it shot forwards right for her face, and she saw a huge, circular mouth with thousands of small, razor-sharp teeth. She squealed in terror, but right before she felt the huge insect's teeth trying to rip her face off, there was a thud and the butterfly fell to the ground, its wings now a dirty gray. Vrax'ton's axe was buried in its back.

  Harper crouched and the alien warrior retrieved his axe from the dead predator. “Dee darar eeleh,” he said in a voice that sounded soothing. Then he extended his arm and she took it and let him gently drag her to her feet.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Again.”

  He placed his axe back in his belt and walked on. Harper could hear her own heartbeat in her ears, and she was shaking all over. Fuck, this planet was a total zoo! Except the only thing that was captive was her.

  They walked on among the trees. Harper had trouble taking her eyes off Vrax'ton. Even in the darkness she was pretty sure he was the hottest male she'd ever laid eyes on. It wasn't just the way he looked, but also the certain and entirely confident way that he moved. He gave her the impression of a ranger in his forest, calmly strolling through it and chasing away pests that were eating the fruits on the plants.

  With those alien eyes of his, it was hard to determin
e how old he was. But he couldn't be much over thirty. Late twenties, probably.

  The darkness didn't seem quite as oppressive anymore, and Harper was starting to realize just how dense the forest was. It was more like a jungle, really, and above them the canopy of the treetops created almost a total cover. The bushes and smaller trees seemed to block their way, but the warrior would always find a way through so easily it was as if the woods parted in front of him. Effortlessly.

  Stars, it was beautiful! In the darkness she hadn't been able to see the flowers that sparkled in every color of the rainbow, and they were all around her! Every bush seemed to just be dripping with the most wonderfully vibrant colors, sometimes pulsating, sometimes just shining with a steady light in the dawn, sometimes just existing.

  The flowers came in all sizes and shapes, and Harper couldn't resist reaching out her arm to pick one that looked like a crystal that shone as if with a light of its own.

  It snapped off the bush and she was about to bring it to her nose and sniff it when the warrior whipped around, gave a short exclamation, wrenched the flower out of her hand and tossed it many feet up in the air. It exploded in a shower of multicolored sparks that looked like burning confetti. She got worried that they might burn her when they landed, but the warrior was miles ahead of her.

  “Pastai!” he yelled, then unceremoniously lifted her off her feet, threw her over his back caveman-style and ran crashing through bushes and foliage and vegetation.

  She yelped when she saw what was happening behind them. The sparks landed, and immediately a very unhealthy-looking green fog rose up from the ground right where she had been standing.

  The warrior came to a halt and let her down carefully, then took a beetle off the ground and tossed it into the green fog. Harper yelped as she saw the black insect totally disintegrate in the air, long before it hit the ground.

  Coldness settled in her stomach and she winced. That could have been her. “Shit. Glad I'm not a beetle,” she said weakly.

  The warrior looked down at her, not too amused. “Eekeh yur deh eeyen,” he growled and indicated the flowers. “Ahl ter ar veldee fah ly.”

  He held her gaze for three heartbeats, and now his eyes weren't blue anymore, but orangey. She nodded meekly. That was an intense stare, and there was no doubt what he was saying: Don't do that.

  “Um ... okay.” Yeah, she wouldn't touch anything else. Probably ever.

  The warrior looked around, then took her hand and loosened the band. He held her hand and looked into her eyes again. “Oldai ee narehtn ahmai.”

  He pulled her a little closer and pointed to the lethal vegetation around them while acting like he was shielding her from them.

  Yeah, she pretty much understood that. Stay close to me. She would. She absolutely would. She would escape him later. Maybe. She nodded again for good measure.

  His facial expression softened and his eyes went blue again. He gave her another of those reassuring smiles, then placed a hand at his chest. “Vrax'ton.”

  Harper had seen enough Planet of the Apes movies to know what he meant. That was his name.

  “Raston,” she tried, fully aware that she wasn't getting the consonants right.

  “Vrax'ton,” he repeated, slower.

  “Rack-ston,” she said.

  He smiled and nodded, then pointed at her with an open hand, lifting his eyebrows.

  “Harper.”

  “Apuh.”

  “Har-per.”

  “Aah-puh.”

  Yeah, she'd heard English had a bunch of sounds that could be difficult for non-native speakers to reproduce, and her name probably had a bunch of them in a row. “HHHaRRR-peRRR.”

  His face was very serious. “Chhar-paaarcchh.”

  She nodded and smiled the same way he had done. He did his best. She'd just have to work on that later.

  Properly chastened, but at least freed of the leash, she meekly followed in Vrax'ton's footsteps. Somehow that little episode had done wonders for her mood. He had saved her life, probably. Again. And now they knew each other's names. Maybe he didn't consider her his pet after all.

  Or maybe he felt that he had just tamed her.

  4

  - Vrax'ton -

  His mood was darker than ever. She was charming and unspeakably attractive. But she was also like a child, oblivious to the endless dangers around her. Picking bix flowers straight from the stem as if they were only pretty decorations and not deadly traps .... did she even know what they were running from? That the Fire would certainly catch up with them and consume them in just a few days?

  If the jungle didn't kill them first.

  He sighed deeply as he kicked a kverk out of his way before it could take a bite of his foot. Her bright voice resounded through his mind. Harper. How strange that an alien name could sound so sweet to his ears. It was because it was hers, of course. His Mahan's.

  He would have to settle with a woman at some time in his life, he knew that. But most people never found their Mahan, and married someone else. That was what he had thought would happen to him. But not for years yet. And now everything had changed. He had found his Mahan. She would give him children and heirs. Many.

  Helped by the potent chemicals in the air, his body reacted to her presence so powerfully that he couldn't turn around. His excitement would be too obvious to her, and it would be shameful.

  What would she look like under that jumpsuit? Would she be as round and soft as she looked? His first look at her aboard the Gulg ship had shown him all of her charms, but it had not been erotic and he had been in a hurry, just wanting to get her away from there.

  His mouth went dry at the thought that she was so close to him. He had never seen anyone as feminine as her. He just wanted to breed her immediately, to turn around, strip her naked and dive between her thighs. His manhood reared in his pants.

  He wondered if the aphrodisiac fumes that the plants here exuded had the same effect on her. They should, because every living being in this jungle would feel a strong urge to mate and procreate before the Fire came. Perhaps she longed to spread her thighs and open herself- no, he had to think about something else, or he'd lose control.

  He took a deep breath and cleared his mind of the heat. She was his to do with as he wanted, of course. He had captured her from the abductors, and now she technically was his captive as the Warrior Code stated. But at the same time she was his Mahan, his Fated Mate.

  It was like something out of the ancient legends. Hadn't King Bren'tox found his Mahan, the proud Queen Mara'e, among the prisoners after the raid on Uluim? That had turned out well for everyone.

  Eventually. After the long and bloody War of the Prisoner Queen that had followed.

  How would Harper handle the topic of Fated Mates? She was an alien, but surely she would understand what it meant. Yes, of course all humans had Fated Mates. The only question was if her spirit ancestors would consider Vrax'ton her Mahan, as well.

  His mind was spinning. An alien for a Fated Mate? Who had ever heard of such a thing?

  Lost in thought, he automatically picked a spiked feron off a branch and tossed it among the trees before it could spray its acid in his face.

  Before anything profound could happen, he had to learn her language. Even if they would both be dead just days from now, it was getting very urgent. He had to get her to relative safety where they would not attract predators while he was in the deep meditation. That meant getting her out of this jungle. If that was even possible.

  He held an ytter branch up above her so the toxic spikes couldn't touch her, and he couldn't help sending her a little smile. She shyly returned the smile, and the beauty of her face and the positive attention sent his heart into orbit. Spirits, she was breathtaking. She did things to him that he had never experienced before, things that were uncharted territory except from the love songs and old tales. And that worried him, too.

  A gybbi hit him in the stomach and tried to sting, but he was able to grab it by one wi
ng and step on it before its stinger could extend. He hardly noticed. She filled his mind almost completely.

  Spirits, he had to stop looking at her so much or he might miss something important.

  5

  - Harper -

  She was horny. Like crazy. Vrax'ton just filled up her senses and kept her attention like no one she had ever met.

  He had a great smile that lit his face up like a sunrise, and the sight of it sent more tingles to her pussy. Harper half hoped he would throw caution to the wind and just take her there and then. She couldn't remember ever being this turned on.

  Stars, what a man he was. Big and strong and caring and totally dominant to those aliens that had kidnapped her. He was really protecting her, chasing off dangerous-looking animals and holding spiked branches away from her so she could pass under them unharmed. He knew this planet, that was obvious. It gave her hope. It was possible that he knew how to escape the fire. What would it be like to feel that alien inside her while the fire burned not too far away? That would have to be sensational.

  She tried to pull herself together. Shit, the fog of blissfully amorous images and thoughts obscured what she really should be thinking about – how to get back to base. She'd need a shuttle or a spaceship.

  Had anyone back there seen what had happened to her? There were cameras outside the base, and the girls would check the video from them very carefully when they discovered that she was missing.

  Not that it would help her. They had no way of knowing that the aliens that had taken her didn't have her anymore. And the fact that she was on Bry, of all places, would not cross their minds. That was off limits still.

  The trees thinned and soon they were walking through waist-high bushes and grasses. The chemical smell changed and became sweeter. The light from the white sun felt warm on her skin, and there were flying things in the air. She could see rolling hills far away, all green and red and orange and yellow, all ready to be consumed by the fire. If this had been Earth and not a fire planet, it would have been pretty idyllic. A great place to do all kinds of things. She would have stripped off the jumpsuit and taken his hand and pulled it down between her legs so he could feel how ready she was ...