Protected: Alien Mate Index Book 2: (Alien Warrior BBW Paranormal Science fiction Romance) (The Alien Mate Index) (16 page)

“You don’t
look
fine,” I said, wondering what was going on with her. “You’re as jumpy as a
hyl’dy
in a
gilla
pit.”

She gave a jagged little laugh and rubbed at her chest again.

“Don’t you mean as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs?”

“I don’t know what that means but I
do
know you’re not acting like yourself.” I finished the course and stood up to face her. “C’mon, darlin’—give. What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, frowning. “I just feel…strange. Do you have a first-aid kit on your ship?”

“First-aid?” I frowned at her. “What in the Frozen Hells is that?”

“You know—bandages, ointment, disinfectant. Sometimes gauze. Stuff like that.” She rubbed the back of her hand again.

“Why would you need those things? And what’s wrong with your hand?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.” She tried to hide it behind her back but I reached for her and held her by the wrist. For a moment Leah kept it hidden, but I looked at her, frowning.

“Darlin’,” I said softly. “Show me.”

“All right. But it’s not really a big deal.”

She let me examine her hand and what I saw made me suck in my breath. Long, red scratches ran the length of her delicate hand and fingers. But it wasn’t the scratches that worried me—it was the slender pink lines radiating out from them—almost like some kind of poison.

“What are these?” I pointed to the scratches. “What happened to you?”

“In the Goddess-eye.” She shifted uncomfortably. “Magda had one in the corner. There was a cottage and a forest and everything in there. And a pet—it looked a little like a cat except it had orange and green stripes. Oh, and six legs.”

My heart started pounding a little harder.

“A
hyl’dy?
She had a pet
hyl’dy?”

Leah shrugged and nodded. “I think that’s what she called it. Anyway, it had kittens—kits she called them.”

My heart, which had been pounding like a fucking hammer, suddenly seemed to stop dead in my chest.

“Kits?” I said my voice coming out rough and hoarse. “Leah, darlin’, please tell me you didn’t touch them.”

“Just one.” She shrugged defensively. “He was so little and friendly and cute. He came right up to me begging to the petted. So what?”

“So what? So
hyl’dy
kits are damn dangerous, Leah!” I couldn’t help letting the anger and fear for her I felt show in my voice. “Their claws release a neurotoxin that can kill a grown male inside of two solar hours.”

“Really?” Leah whispered. She looked down at her hand and the pink threads growing from the long, red scratches. “Only…only two hours?”

“It scratched you, didn’t it?” I demanded. “That’s what happened to your hand.”

“I…I didn’t know,” she whispered and then she put her unscratched hand to her head. “Oh…Grav, I feel so strange.”

“That’ll be the fuckin’ neurotoxin leaching its way into your bloodstream,” I said grimly.

“Oh. That explains why…why I’m so dizzy.” She stumbled and would have fallen if I hadn’t caught her in my arms.

“Leah?” I said, looking down at her limp form. “Leah!”

I got no response.

I tried to calculate the time it had been since we’d left Sincon. At least a solar hour—maybe more. I thought about going back but the ship had already made the first hop—it would take precious time to get the course reset to go back. Time Leah didn’t have.

I would have to try to help her myself.

I looked down doubtfully at her small hand, marked with the dark red scratches and pink lines. I could
try
healing her myself but she wasn’t really my mate, so my healing ability would be limited. Small wounds and superficial cuts and bruises were easy—poison wasn’t. Especially a fucking neurotoxin.

Still, I had to try.

Carrying her to my room, I laid her gently on my sleeping platform. It’s not as luxurious as the hoverbeds in Sarden’s ship, but it’s damn big—it has to be to support a male of my bulk. Leah looked lost in the middle of it, small and fragile and so fuckin’ vulnerable it made my heart fist up in my chest.

I had to help her—somehow I
had
to. Saying a silent prayer to the Goddess of Mercy, I knelt on the platform beside her, and took her small hand in mine.

Then I began to lick, trying to leach the neurotoxin from her bloodstream and praying I wasn’t too late.

Leah

I came out of the strange, half-conscious state I’d somehow fallen into because of a warm, wet, ticklish sensation along the back of my hand. I opened my eyes to see Grav leaning over me. He held my scratched hand in one of his much larger ones and was licking me gently from the tips of my fingers all the way up to the palm and back of my hand.

“Oh!” I gave a little gasp because, despite the pain and faintness I was still feeling, the rough warmth of his tongue seemed to start a fire inside me. A fire that had never completely died down since the last time he had healed me.

Grav looked up at my sound, his white-on-black eyes worried.

“How are you feeling, darlin’?”

“I don’t know. Better, I think—my hand, anyway,” I whispered. It was true—my hand no longer burned and itched. When I looked at it, I saw that the long red scratches the kit had made with its claws were almost faded.

“Good. Then you’re almost back to normal.” Grav looked considerably relieved—then almost angry. “Don’t scare me like that, Leah. And next time, don’t touch a fuckin’ thing unless I tell you its safe,” he added in a low growl.

“You
did
tell me it was safe to go with Magda,” I pointed out, struggling to sit up. “In fact—”

But my words were cut off as a fresh wave of dizziness took me. I gasped and fell back on the bed, my un-hurt hand going reflexively to rub my chest.

“What? What is it?” Grav demanded, looking worried all over again.

I didn’t want to tell him. Especially when just having his warm tongue caressing my hand and fingers was enough to bring all those strange, hot feelings rushing back. I could just imagine what it would be like to feel his mouth on my breasts.

If you don’t tell him, you’ll die,
whispered an implacable little voice in the back of my head.
Tell him, Leah—tell him now—before it’s too late.

It was true and I knew it. I opened my mouth to say something, only my lips and tongue didn’t want to work.

“Leah? Leah, what is it?” Grav looked half angry, half worried as he leaned over me, his alien eyes scanning over my body to see what was wrong.

I couldn’t talk anymore—I don’t know why, maybe it had to do with the neurotoxin paralyzing my vocal chords. But I
did
still have some use of my limbs. Clumsily, I reached to my chest and fumbled with the green cloak, trying to get it unfastened from around my throat.

Grav seemed to understand because he ripped the cloak open and his eyes widened.

“Goddess of Mercy,” he said hoarsely. “Leah,
no.”

I tried to answer or reach for him, but nothing seemed to want to work now. I merely looked at him, pleading with my eyes.

Help me—please, Grav,
help me!

But I didn’t know if he could or not. Didn’t know if I wasn’t already too far gone to be saved.

Grav

When I opened her cloak, I saw a sight that made my heart clench with fear. I’d thought the red scratch marks on her hand looked bad—but they were nothing to what the kit’s claws had done to her chest.

It was easy to see through the gauzy white, mostly-see through blouse she wore—the creamy slopes of her breasts were covered in the little red scratches. And every scratch had deadly pink lines radiating out from it.

This was bad—
so
fuckin’ bad. Not only were the poisonous scratches extensive, they were also way too close to her heart. In fact, I was afraid at any minute her heart might stop.

But no, I couldn’t lose her like that—I
wouldn’t.
I might not have given her my oath, but she was still mine to protect, mine to care for and watch over and heal. I had to save her, damn it! I
had
to.

I must have looked like a male in a pleasure vid, but I didn’t care. I ripped her silky shirt open, leaned down, and began licking the full globes of her breasts as hard and long as I could.

Leah

The warm, wet, ticklish sensation brought me back again. But this time it wasn’t in my hand—this time it was all over my bare breasts.

I felt my nipples harden in reaction as a hot tongue glided over my slopes, circled one tender areola, and then found its way to the other.

The fire inside me raged—the pent-up sexual frustration that must have been building for years. I moaned and bucked upward, arching my back to offer him more.

Grav seemed to take my motion as an act of pain or outrage. He paused his licking for a moment to look up at me.

“Hey now, it’s all right, darlin’,” he growled hoarsely. “Not tryin’ to take advantage—just want to heal you.”

He’s just healing you—that’s all he’s doing,
I lectured myself.
So settle down, Leah and let him.
But though my mind wanted to behave, my body wouldn’t listen. The heat between my thighs was building and building but I needed something else—something more. How could I get it?

“Grav,” I heard myself saying—hooray my voice worked again—“Grav, please. I need…I hurt…”

“Tell me where you hurt, darlin’. Tell me and I’ll fix it,” he promised softly.

“Here,” I whispered and pointed to my right nipple.

Deep down, I knew it wasn’t right. But I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted that feeling so badly—the hot, breathless feeling of pleasure that spiraled ever upward, threatening to break me completely if I ever reached the peak.

And yet, I wanted to reach it so badly I didn’t care.

“You sure, darlin’? I don’t see any scratches there.” Grav looked at me skeptically.

“They’re there,” I lied recklessly. “And they hurt—hurt so
bad
, Grav. Please…please heal me.”

Taking a chance, I reached up to caress his horns—those black, curling rams’ horns that seemed to pulse and grow in my grasp when I touched them.

Grav let out a low, hoarse growl and leaned down to drag the flat of his tongue over my tender peak.

I moaned and surged up to meet him. His mouth felt so good on me—so hot and wet and perfect. And yet still I wanted more.

“Grav,” I gasped as he licked and swirled his tongue around my sensitive peak. “Grav, please, I…I think the poison is really…really deep.”

He stopped for a moment and looked up at me, panting.

“What are you saying, darlin’?” he demanded hoarsely. “What do you want me to do?”

“It’s not what I want,” I lied recklessly. “It’s what I
need.”

Well, maybe it
wasn’t
a lie at that.

“What?” he growled again.

“You know what.” I stroked his horns again, tracing their spirals in a lazy caress I could tell was affecting him. “I need you to suck them—suck my nipples. To…to suck the poison out.”

He frowned and shifted. He was half on top of me at that point and I could feel the hard length of his shaft pressing against my thigh. For a moment I wondered what it would be like to have that long, hot length inside me. To spread my legs for him and let him fill me…

Stop it—just stop it now! That’s not right and you know it,
whispered the panicky little voice inside my brain.

I completely ignored it.

“Please, Grav,” I begged him shamelessly. “Please…suck my nipples. I want you to—I
need
you to.”

“Gods, darlin’, I shouldn’t,” he groaned and then leaned down to do it anyway.

I cried out as a pleasure so fierce it was almost pain flooded me. It burned through me like wildfire when he finally sucked one ripe bud between his lips and then drew it deep, as though he was trying to get as much of my breast in his mouth as he could.

My hands tightened on his horns and I found I was guiding him, tugging him in the direction I needed him most. From one breast to the other, he switched at my urging, sucking both nipples hard and deep until they were cherry-red and swollen with his passion and mine.

I moaned and cried, writhing on the bed beneath him, wanting him so badly I couldn’t breathe. The feelings of passion were overwhelming—the sexual pleasure I had thought would always be denied me was flooding me, making it hard to think, hard to breathe. All I wanted was for the pleasure to go on forever—all I wanted was for it to never end.

I began to feel like I was on the edge of something—something unexplainable and huge. A mountain I was trying to climb and when I finally reached the summit I would jump from the highest peak and break my body to pieces in the pleasure I found there.

I wanted so damn badly to jump.

And I was close…so
close
as Grav wrapped his big hands around my waist and pulled me to him, sucking my nipples hard and deep into his hot mouth, lashing my sensitive peaks with his tongue until I moaned and cried and pressed my thighs together over my throbbing sex thinking,

Soon! It’s going to happen soon…I can feel it! So close…so
close…

And that was when he stopped.

“Wh—what?” I looked up at him, uncomprehending as he released my nipple from his mouth and moved back. He was breathing hard, almost panting and this close I could definitely see the wild, red spark far back in the depths of his white-on-black eyes. “Grav?” I asked, but he was already pulling away, taking the sweet, addictive sensations with him. “Grav,” I tried again, made shameless by my need. “Why did you stop?”

“Stopped while I still could.” His voice was low and rough and he got off me with jerky motions. “You should cover yourself, darlin’—you’re healed.”

Healed…healing…suddenly I remembered what the wise woman, Magda, had said to me. Something about the more healing I had, the more it would increase my need. But still, I didn’t want the pleasure to end—the wild, deliciously sweet, unfamiliar sensation running through my veins was as strong as any drug. I wanted more—had to have
more
.

“Please!” Half sitting up, I reached for him, twining my arms around his neck, pulling him back down to me. “
Please
.” I arched up against him, rubbing my bare breasts wantonly against the broad, hard planes of his chest. “Grav, I was close to something—so
close.”