Protected: Alien Mate Index Book 2: (Alien Warrior BBW Paranormal Science fiction Romance) (The Alien Mate Index) (6 page)

My rescuer was a huge blue alien with horns… talking worms were “harvesting” Earth’s females… Zoe was married to a guy who was the ruler of an entire planet…and Charlotte and I were safe from being sold because our “contracts” had already been bought. All that was only
part
of my information overload. I was still trying to deal with the vicious beating Gerald had given me before Grav had stopped him. Or rather, trying
not
to deal with it.

I won’t think about it now,
I told myself as I rose on shaky legs, clutching my schoolgirl clothes to my chest.
I won’t think about it now—I’ll think about it later when I can stand it.

But I didn’t know when I’d be ready to face the fact of my husband’s betrayal. Despite all the other strange and awful things that had happened to me that day, Gerald’s cruel beating hurt the worst.

My face ached where my husband had hit me, but my heart hurt even more as I followed Grav to his ship.

Grav

I could tell Leah was upset and overloaded and it made my heart ache for her, even though I told myself I shouldn’t care.

You’re only here to protect her for a little while. Once you see her safely to Eloim, your duty is done. No point getting attached,
I told myself grimly.
She’s not even an actual ward—you haven’t signed a contract or given her your oath.

Which didn’t really matter—I would, of course, protect her with my life, as I would any female in my care. But still, when a Protector swears his oath to a female, it seals the relationship between them.

I remembered how little Teeny had watched me with wide eyes when I gave my oath to her, in the presence of her grandmother and grandfather. They had hired me to protect their granddaughter from their political enemies, of which there were many.

Teeny had been only ten cycles old at the time and I had expected to be with her until she came of age and bonded herself to a male. But then, on a females-only retreat with her grandmother, she had been taken by pirates and sold to Tazaxx, the same male who had bought my friend Sarden’s blood-sister, Sellah. I had rescued Teeny but instead of thanks, her grandfather had shipped her off to an all female planet for finishing school.

Thinking of my former ward bothered me more than I wanted to admit. Yeah, I’m a big softy, I guess but she’d become almost like a daughter to me. She had been so upset when her grandfather announced his plans for her…and told her I wasn’t allowed to go along. She’d wrapped her little arms around my neck and held on tight for as long as she could but in the end, he sent her off to school with tears in her eyes.

I just hoped the people at her fancy new school were treating her well because if I ever found out differently…I gritted my teeth. Once a Protector has given his oath, it’s never really over until either he or his ward are dead. Teeny’s grandfather might have dissolved the contract between us, but she was still in my heart and would remain there forever.

Why are you thinking of Teeny, anyway?
I asked myself as I opened the ship’s hatch and ushered the silent Leah inside.
She’s gone—far beyond your reach.

Right. And Leah was even further beyond my reach. A Pure One and a
La-ti-zal.
She might as well be the Goddess herself, she was so far above me. Best not to let myself get attached.

We were walking down the long central corridor of my ship as I lectured myself. I keep a pretty clean ship—no mess anyplace. It’s a habit I picked up in prison where you kept your bunk neat or paid the price. And believe me, it’s not a price you’d want to pay.

“You can have this room,” I told Leah, motioning her to the sleeping chamber beside mine. “It’s not fancy but it’s neat. I, uh, hope you’ll be comfortable there.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was a whisper and her head was down, her long brown hair hanging like a curtain around her face. Even through her silky hair, I could still see the cuts and bruises her bastard of a mate had put on her lovely face.

I wished she would let me heal them.

Males of the Twelve Peoples are able to heal orally—that is, we have antiseptic and healing agents in our saliva and other bodily fluids. But that kind of healing is usually only performed by a male on his bonded or intended mate and I wasn’t sure how Leah would feel about it if I offered to heal her.

Best to just leave her alone,
I told myself.

“Uh…” I cleared my throat. “I’m going to get some clothes on and set a course for Eloim. Later on I’ll be making something for last meal. If you’d like to join me?” I made the last words a question, not wanting her to feel pressured.

“Sure. That…that would be nice.” She looked up for a moment and I could tell she was trying to smile. “Thank you,” she said in a low voice. “For everything.”

I looked into her battered but lovely face and met her eyes.

“It was my privilege to serve you, my lady,” I told her softly, meaning every word.

“Oh, um…” Her cheeks got suddenly pink. “Thank you,” she whispered again.

I nodded and turned to go. I would give her some time to lick her wounds. Maybe we could talk more over last meal. Even if we were only going to be together a short time, I couldn’t help wanting to know her better…to find out more about the lovely little Earth female who was now in my care.

Leah

After Grav left me alone, I spent some time exploring my new room. It was, as he said, not fancy. In fact, at first glance, I wouldn’t have known it was a room in an alien spacecraft at all. There was a small, neatly made up bunk that folded out of the wall, a metal desk which was bare, and a single metal chair. No windows—no decorations. Actually, it looked more like a prison cell than a guest room but it was, as Grav had said, extremely neat.

I didn’t care about the room’s Spartan appearance. Anyplace away from the house I shared with Gerald would be fine with me. I still couldn’t believe the way he’d gone after me. The way he’d—

No. Don’t think about it. Push it away.

I shook back my hair and took a deep breath but the motion made my face ache sharply. All right—enough avoiding the truth—time to go assess the damage. I wondered if there was a mirror in the tiny bathroom that adjoined the cell-like bedroom.

In fact, there was, but it took me a little while to figure out how to use it. It was a flat, silver panel mounted above the tiny sink (which, by the way, did that same suction-buzzing thing the sinks in airplanes do when you’re flying) and it had several buttons on one side of it.

I pressed one experimentally and the silvery panel came to life with a low hum. But when the fuzzy picture sharpened, I found I was looking at the back of my head. What? How was that even possible?

I tried another button and this time I was staring at myself upside down. Well, that didn’t work either, though even from that angle, I could tell my face was pretty messed up. The third button distorted my features into a weird clown mask, making me think of those wavy, bulging mirrors at the fun house when the carnival comes to town.

Finally, with the last button, I got it right. My face—from the front and right side up—came into view.

I bit back a gasp at what I saw.

My lower lip was cut and tender and a nasty bruise was already forming over my right cheekbone. There was a scrape over one eyebrow that was still trickling blood and my whole face looked swollen and awful.

I wanted to cry at what the alien mirror revealed but I held back the tears grimly. If I let myself break down now I might never stop weeping. I didn’t want that.

I splashed cold water in my face and blotted it gently with a thin hand towel I found beside the sink. My face still felt like raw hamburger but at least it looked better once all the blood was washed away.

Beside the sink was a tall, narrow shower stall with a showerhead shaped a little like a megaphone. Thinking that a hot shower would make me feel better, I stepped inside. But I couldn’t find any way to make the shower work—there were no knobs or buttons or anything. Well, maybe it was like those motion-activated sinks that only worked when you waved your hand under them.

Experimentally, I waved with both hands.

“Hello?” I said, trying to get some reaction out of the damn thing. “Hello there—come on. I just want a shower. Please, I—”

A blast of…something suddenly came out of the strangely shaped showerhead. It was air but not
just
air. There seemed to be some kind of humming vibration along with it that surrounded my entire body. It pulsed around me like a huge, thrumming heartbeat and I found myself being lifted off my feet.

“Oh! Oh, no!” I gasped, scrabbling at the slick shower walls. “Stop! Stop it!”

The wind only got worse. My hair was whipping around my face like it does when you get into the hurricane booth you find at some kid’s museums and the humming buzz filled my head so completely I couldn’t hear my own voice—even though I was screaming by now, at the top of my lungs. “Help!” I shouted.
“Help!”

Suddenly the shower door was ripped open and Grav’s face appeared, looking both worried and protective. He assessed the situation in a glance and then waved one big hand in front of the shower head.

At once the weird humming buzz went silent, leaving a strange ringing in my ears. The wind died abruptly, dropping me like a bored child drops a toy.

I would have fallen straight to the metal floor if Grav hadn’t reached out with inhuman grace and caught me, pulling me close to his broad chest. Once more I felt that strange tingle when we touched and then I was gasping and pressing my face to his shoulder, just trying to catch my breath.

Grav held me without comment as I shivered against him. This close I could smell the warm, spicy scent of his skin and feel the heat radiating off his big body. He was so much bigger than me I almost felt like a child being held by an adult. It made me think of when I was a little girl and my dad would carry me to bed when I fell asleep on the couch. (Sometimes I used to pretend I was asleep, just so he would scoop me up and tuck me in.)

Somehow that feeling of security, along with the heat of the big blue alien’s body and his deliciously masculine scent, was incredibly comforting.

I closed my eyes and let myself melt into it. When was the last time I’d been held in the arms of a man who wanted only to protect me, not to hurt me?
Probably back when I was a kid,
I thought.
Back when Dad used to tuck me in.

“Hey,” Grav rumbled after a long moment, breaking my train of thought. “You okay, darlin’? I heard you shouting and you sounded scared—I wouldn’t have come burstin’ into the fresher otherwise.”

“I…I…” My voice was hoarse from screaming and I had to clear my throat and start again. “I’m surprised you could hear anything over that noise,” I said at last, shakily. “What…what kind of shower is this anyway?”

“A sonic shower,” he said promptly. “Water’s fuckin’ scarce in space. Sound used at certain frequencies cleans pretty well.”

“I feel cleaned all right,” I said, swiping a strand of hair out of my eyes. “Like someone used me to mop the floor.”

“Sorry,” he rumbled. “It’s set for somebody my size. Not an itty-bitty female like you.”

“I’m not
that
itty-bitty,” I protested. “In fact, back on Earth I’m not considered nearly itty-bitty enough.” Which was true. Zoe and Charlotte and I always used to joke that we were the Plus-sized three musketeers.

“You look perfect to me,” Grav remarked and there was nothing but sincerity in his tone.

I tried to laugh but the noise that came out of my mouth sounded broken.

“How can you say that?” I asked. “My hair is a mess and my face…my face…” But I couldn’t go on.

“Your face will heal, Leah,” he rumbled. “And you being wounded, doesn’t change the fact that you’re fuckin’ gorgeous.”

For some reason, his honest admiration made me self-conscious. Maybe because it seemed like he was talking about more than just my face. Of course, part of my unease was because I was naked and pressed right up against him. My hair was covering my breasts and I had my thighs squeezed together, hiding my sex. But still, now that I had gotten over my fright at the sonic shower, it was awkward.

Um…” I shifted against him again. “I, uh, should probably get dressed.”

“Oh—right. You okay to stand?” He looked at me anxiously, one eyebrow raised.

“I
think
so,” I said carefully. “Maybe…maybe you could just stay outside the bathroom door while I get my clothes on?” I grimaced when I thought of the naughty schoolgirl outfit which was all I had to wear. “Just in case.”

“Sure thing.” He set me gently on my feet and stepped out of the small bathroom courteously.

I gripped the sink and took a deep breath. How was it that a seven foot tall horned alien was more of a gentleman than the man I’d allowed myself to marry?

Okay, enough of that. Taking a deep breath, I started pulling on the naughty school-girl outfit. Somebody needed to teach those damn worm aliens about not objectifying women! Still, I had nothing else to wear so I gritted my teeth and put it on.

The black panties were tiny but stretchy so I was able to make them fit over my behind, which was good. The skirt, though, was much shorter than I’d thought—it barely came down to the tops of my thighs. And the shirt was almost see-through—the pink tips of my nipples were clearly visible. I wished fiercely for a bra but of course I didn’t have one. I refused to tie it up above my midriff though—I just tucked it in instead, hoping it might cover my ass if I had to bend over.

The socks and shoes that completed the outfit made me feel even more ridiculous, if that was possible. But the metal floor of the spaceship was really
cold.
I decided it was better to look silly than have ice cubes for feet.

At last I was ready to emerge. Taking a deep breath, I stepped towards the bathroom door which slid open obligingly.

Grav was standing just outside the door, his massive arms crossed over his muscular chest, looking for all the world like an alien bouncer. There was an impassive look on his granite-like features but when he saw me, he gave a long, low whistle.