Protected: Alien Mate Index Book 2: (Alien Warrior BBW Paranormal Science fiction Romance) (The Alien Mate Index) (20 page)

“Please, I understand that Ma
jor
ans are very…
fond
of each other,” she said, sounding both embarrassed and irritated. “But we here on Gemina find the display of physical affection between a male and a female most distasteful. I must ask you to restrain yourselves, at least until you can be alone with no one to witness your passion.”

In other words—get a room.

“Forgive us,” I said, disentangling myself from Grav, though it was the last thing I wanted to do. My whole body was throbbing and my lips felt swollen from our frantic kisses. It was hard to think—my head was fuzzy with passion. “I, uh…we’re sorry,” I added lamely.

“Yes, forgive us,” Grav echoed. “We are…very much in love.”

I couldn’t help shooting him a glance when he said that. To my intense discomfort, I saw that he was looking right at me as he spoke.

My heart was pounding and I found that I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his. I wanted to touch him again—wanted
him
to touch
me
. I wanted to feel his body against mine, hard and hot and undeniably male. I wanted the feelings he gave me again and this time I didn’t want to stop. I wanted him on top of me—inside me, filling me with himself, making me his own. And from the way Grav was looking at me, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to finish what we had started.

The moment seemed to stretch between us like a thread of honey, fragile and impossibly sweet. Neither of us said anything but we were definitely doing what my friend Zoe calls, “eye-fucking.”

“A-hem.”
The guard cleared her throat pointedly. “Excuse me, acolytes. If you’re done gazing into each other’s eyes will you come this way? I will put you on the path that leads to the temple.”

“Thank you.” I dragged my eyes from Grav’s and nodded.

“Good.” With obvious relief, the guard led us to the edge of the forest, which looked more like a jungle, with its profusion of towering trees and dark blue and purple vines and creepers. There was a narrow dirt path leading into the dense vegetation and the guard nodded at it.

“There is your way. Enter with pure hearts or do not enter at all. Do not step off the path for the wood that guards the Temple is a dangerous place. And when you reach the Lake of Torment, do not touch the water. These are the only warnings I am permitted to give you.”

“Uh…thanks.” I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Unlike my friend Zoe, I’m a pretty strong swimmer, but I had no wish to take a dip in any body of water with the word “torment” in its name. Still, I thanked the guard again and Grav and I set off on the path.

“What was that all about?” I asked him as we navigated through the woods, being careful to stay on the path and avoid the colorful flowers and vines that grew all around us. “All that, ‘oh, my goddess stuff. And, uh…the kiss?’”

He shrugged. “I told you the Ma
jor
ans worship their females, didn’t I? I was just playing along—weren’t you?”

“Oh. Of course.” I nodded, trying to look unconcerned. “But don’t you think you were, uh, laying it on a little thick? You know—overdoing it?”

“If I was, you were overdoing it with me, darlin’,” he rumbled, giving me a look that made me blush and drop my eyes. “Besides, if you’d ever seen a real Ma
jor
an male with his fated mate, you’d know they’re really like that—and more so. Can’t keep their fuckin’ hands off each other.”

I know how they feel,
I thought, wishing I could be in his arms again. But that was ridiculous—we were just playing roles.
Play it cool,
I told myself.
This is no big deal—just another situation to deal with in order to get Grav’s ward back home safe.

Play it cool—right. But I still couldn’t help fishing for a little information.

“So Braxians are different with their females? Than Ma
jor
ans, I mean?” I said, as casually as I could.

“Well, we don’t worship them as divinities,” he said, sounding thoughtful. “But we are very respectful and protective of our females—we’ll kill or die to keep them safe.”

“I can see that,” I said quietly, looking up at him. I had seen first hand how protective he was—it was almost scary at times. And yet, I couldn’t help finding it incredibly attractive too.

I had used to think that Gerald was protective of me but I saw now I had been wrong. My ex (as I was already thinking of him in my head) had been
jealous
of me—incredibly jealous—but that wasn’t the same thing as protective. There’s a difference between constantly accusing your girlfriend or wife of lusting after other men and being willing to jump in front of a truck or stand down an angry mob to save her. Grav illustrated that difference in the strongest possible way and I felt drawn to him because of it.

Get over it,
I advised myself for what seemed like the hundredth time.
It’s not going to happen between you. He turned you down, remember? So stop acting so needy and just get the job done.

“The thing with the guard—it won’t happen again. I just thought putting on a little display would be the best way to get her to let us go on through.” Grav laughed, though I thought it sounded a little forced. “You saw her face, right? We were really getting under her skin.”

“Uh, yeah. I guess you’re right,” I said, trying to suppress a sigh. An act—it had all just been an act.

Speaking of getting under the skin, I couldn’t help thinking of the image generator implanted right beside Grav’s hip bone, under
his
skin. Was it still doing its job? Had I seen his image flicker for just a split second? For a moment, I had almost thought I saw horns on his head again.

But surely not. I frowned and shook my head. It must be just the shadows of the tropical plants bobbing over our heads.

Before I could worry some more, we finally came to the end of the jungle. The long path led out to a broad, rocky beach which edged a serene-looking lake, a little darker pink than the priestess-guard’s skin. Far out in the center of the lake was a tall gray structure with graceful marble pillars. That was all I could see, though—it was hard to make out any more details about it from this distance.

All in all, I thought the scene looked nearly idyllic—not dangerous at all.

“Well, it doesn’t
look
like a lake of torment,” I said doubtfully, my sandals crunching on the silvery-blue rocks. Before us was a small, flat-bottomed boat that looked like it was made of glass or very shiny plastic. It was tied to a dark blue dock that stuck out into the pinkish water. The dock was also some slick, shiny material that didn’t look like wood or metal. Strange.

Grav’s nostril’s wrinkled and he lifted his head, taking a deep whiff of the air around us.

“I know it
looks
harmless but I wouldn’t touch it, if I were you, darlin’,” he said, nodding at the lake. “That stuff’s pure acid. No wonder the boat and dock look like they’re made of
etho
-glass. Only thing that won’t react to it.”

“Ugh, are you
serious?”
I had been about to dip my toe in the water but now I pulled back quickly.

“Hell yes—don’t touch a thing,” he warned me. “Here—let me help you into the boat.”

I thought he meant to give me a hand but instead, he picked me up as though I weighed no more than a doll, and carried me over to the dock.

“Grav,” I protested a little breathlessly. “I
can
walk.”

He only grunted and didn’t put me down until we were right along side the bobbing boat. He lowered me carefully into it and I saw that the flat bottom was see-through. Great, a glass-bottomed boat ride on a lake filled with acid. Just what I wanted to liven up my afternoon. Still, we were here for a reason. I held onto the dock to steady the boat as Grav climbed in beside me, surprisingly graceful for such a big guy. Sitting opposite me, he grabbed the oars.

“Okay—let’s go,” he growled.

Just as he was about to being rowing, I saw something in the water, beneath my feet. It looked like a pinkish-white lump swimming around down there—almost the exact color of a blob of raw meat.

I leaned down, getting closer to the glass bottom of the boat. What could live down there in the acid water? The thing came closer and then hit the bottom of the boat with a dull
clunk.

It was a skull, still half covered in long shreds of decaying flesh.

It dipped and bobbed, tapping the bottom of the boat. The teeth grinned at me and the empty eye-sockets stared mockingly, as though daring me to take a dip in the deadly lake.

I screamed and scrambled back, rocking the boat in my haste to get away from the grizzly sight.

“What? What is it?” Grav’s voice was sharp and he was already scanning all around us, looking for the danger.

“There—
there.”
I directed his gaze downward, pointing at the skull, still bobbing just under the flat bottom of the boat.

“Hmm.” Grav just stared at it, a grim frown on his face but he didn’t look surprised at all.

“What is that? I mean, how do you think it got in here? Did someone slip and fall into the lake?” I asked, putting a hand to my heart which was still beating like a drum.

He shook his head.

“More likely a blasphemer. Somebody else who tried to infiltrate the Temple.”

“What? But why would anyone do that?” I demanded.

“Gemina has the greatest collection of Holy Artifacts from the Ancient Ones in the known galaxy.” He started to row, leaving the grizzly skull behind. “It’s not unheard of for people to try and steal them. And the priestesses of the Goddess deal with thieves and blasphemers accordingly.”

“You mean they
toss
them in the
lake?”
I looked around, wondering if I would see other body parts bobbing by. “But that’s
awful.”

Grav shrugged. “Told you they take blasphemy seriously around here. It’s why we need to keep a low profile and get in and out as soon as possible.”

“I see,” I said faintly and for the first time I really did. This wasn’t just an exciting adventure I was on—a fun trip to pass the time before I went back to Earth and dealt with divorcing Gerald. This was serious business and I could be hurt or killed doing it.

Grav must have read my thoughts on my face because he stopped rowing for a moment and looked up at me.

“Havin’ second thoughts darlin’? It’s not too late for me to take you back to the ship.”

“No.” I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. “No, you need me for this. And Teeny needs both of us. I’m going with you.”

A look of admiration crossed his features as he started rowing again.

“Okay, we’ll keep going. But remember, once we get to the temple, there’s no backing out.”

“Fine with me,” I said. We would just have to do as Grav said—get in and out as fast as possible.

I just hoped his disguise would hold and no one would suspect us of being blasphemers.

Grav

“Be ye true penitents come to the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy to worship, or be ye blasphemers?” was the first thing the guard asked us when we grounded the glass bottomed boat and walked up the long, broad flight of steps leading to the temple. She and another priestess stood in front of the tall, curved double doors, each of them twice as tall as I was, that led into the temple.

For a minute, I was worried that Leah might lose it. The blasphemer skull floating in the acid lake had really fuckin’ rattled her. Her creamy skin went as pale as paper and her lips trembled. Then she lifted her chin and looked at the guard, who was dressed and armed like the one who had greeted us in the parking area, straight in the eye.

“Neither,” she said clearly. “We are Acolytes of Naamah, here to seek the truth of the one who guarded Teeny Kiv’orop of Thonolax. We are expected.”

I shot her an admiring look. I had to hand it to her—my little Earth female really rose to the occasion when she had to. Not that she was
my
female—but I couldn’t help feeling possessive of her, especially after the kiss we’d just shared.

Shouldn’t have done that,
I told myself as I remembered the soft press of her full breasts against my chest and the feel of her gorgeous curves pressed against my body.
That was taking the act too far and you know it.

But I hadn’t been able to help myself. I’d finally had a legitimate excuse to kiss her again—which was pretty much all I’d been wanting to do from the moment I let her go the last time. I hadn’t been able to turn down the chance and from the way Leah had reacted to me, she’d been just as eager as I was.

Not that it mattered. She wasn’t for me.

But Gods, how I wished she was!

“Ah yes, acolytes from another world.” The guard said, breaking my train of thought. “Come in—you are most welcome. The Reverend Mother awaits you in her study.”

“Thank you.” Leah nodded back, looking as regal as any Ma
jor
an female who knows herself to be a goddess, and we followed the guard inside.

The Temple of the Goddess of Mercy was a tall building, built from some kind of pinkish-gray stone with round, slender columns on either side of its broad central hall. The soaring ceiling overhead was painted with religious scenes.

In the first panel, I saw the Goddess creating the universe. In the second, she was creating the Ancient Ones, who were her first sentient creatures. They looked more like Leah’s people than mine, with smooth skin that ranged in tone from pale tan to deep brown, no horns, and light-on-white eyes. That was because Leah came from a closed planet—one that had been seeded by the Ancient Ones and then locked to keep it from being despoiled by the other peoples of the galaxy.

In the third panel, the artist showed the Goddess of Mercy handing the seeds of life to the Ancient Ones and bidding them go forth and seed the galaxy with life of all kinds. Plants and animals, as well as sentient creatures that walked and talked and learned and grew.

The fourth panel showed representatives of the Twelve Peoples, the sentient beings who had grown from the Ancient Ones’ seeds. I saw Ma
jor
ans with their dark blue hair and changeable skin, Eloims with their slitted golden eyes, Vorns with their red skin and horns, Denarins, represented by two muscular males with one female between them, Cantors, with their broad, strong, feathery wings, and many more, as well as a Braxian male like me, with dusky blue skin and white-on-black eyes.