The Alien King’s Mate: A Sci-Fi Alien Abduction Romance (Orean Warlords, book 3) Read online

  Her rant circles back to the intel she’d brought me, which is undeniably much more important than whatever is going on between the two of us. Even her recognition of that fact makes my attraction toward her grow—she is not only beautiful but intelligent as well.

  “We have no time for your stupid gold eyes right now—we’re all in danger, and you must do something about it right now! Timing and secrecy are key,” she continues. “If you hesitate on this, I don’t think any of us will survive long enough for you to realize your mistake.”

  Oddly enough, she’s absolutely right. And even more oddly, the arousal I feel only builds as she talks strategy to me. Perhaps this remarkable indication of a S’ulin Kara bond might prove to be beneficial, yet I am still mystified by the signs appearing so long after our first meeting. Yet, as strange at it might seem, there is definitely something there.

  “Hey! Hello? Are you even listening to me?”

  I snap out of my reverie and fix my eyes on hers. “Listen. Palian—what is your name again?”

  The look of disgust on her face nearly startles a laugh out of me, but I restrain it, realizing that would only infuriate her further.

  “B’ecky, Your Majesty.”

  The way she makes my title sound like an insult would have me imprisoning any Orean on the spot. Why in the name of Oraj does it send a shiver up my spine when she does it?

  “B’ecky,” I continue, trying to placate her as best as I can. “You and I have much to discuss. You’ve brought me two vital pieces of information, neither of which can be dismissed or delayed. First and foremost, your line of thinking regarding the conversation you overheard is absolutely right. Rest assured, I will take immediate action to entrap and reveal these traitors.”

  “Well, good.”

  “As for the revelation of the S’ulin Kara bond we obviously share—”

  “Nope.” She stops me with just one word, and it’s my turn to startle backward.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Absolutely not,” she insists. “Don’t think for one second that I’m going to go all gushy like Lisa and Jenny did. I have responsibilities back home on Earth, and I’m not going to abandon them. Try whatever you want, I’m not staying. You swore you’d get us back home or did you forget that already?”

  “B’ecky,” I begin cajolingly. She cuts me off instantly.

  “And screw that pandering tone of yours. Say what you’re going to say and say it plainly. I’m not one of your sycophant courtiers.”

  This shanin seems to be made of pure fire.

  “So be it, then,” I concede. “I understand and respect your desire to avoid the topic, but the discovery of that there may be a S’ulin Kara bond between us is not to be taken lightly. You have seen for yourself what the mating fever can do; it nearly got V’orin killed and threatened to drive X’oran mad. Rest assured, I still have every intention of returning the majority of you Palians to your home world as soon as it is safe to do so – which unfortunately looks more and more like it will take the conclusion of this war to achieve. Yet while you are here, and such signs are present, we have a responsibility to heed their call.”

  “Like hell we do!”

  “We do,” I insist now. “As the leader of this planet, I cannot risk falling victim to the mating fever. Also, it is more than a little curious to me that, after all these wans, these signs have only just now manifested. I cannot force you to do anything you don’t wish to do, of course – you are not prisoners here, though I can see that you feel you are—”

  “What else would you call it?” she snaps, though with a bit less forcefulness than she has employed so far.

  “You are guests, under our protection. Call it, ‘political refugees,’ if you will. You cannot leave on your own, and we have no way of transporting you safely; you’ve seen what happens when we try. Did you enjoy nearly being killed, getting captured by Raxians, and then finding yourself stranded on Mon Alto for all that time?”

  “No...” she grumbles.

  “Precisely. So. While you are not my prisoner, you are a refugee here. As such, and in light of this new development, I would request and strongly urge you to join me in a visit to the healers and priests. These signs ought to be investigated further. If nothing else, it will aid in our ongoing research into the resurgence of the S’ulin Kara phenomena after generations without a single incident.”

  She thinks for some moments before replying. “What would they do to me?”

  “Nothing invasive, I assure you. Only ask you some questions. Some of them may be... personal in nature, but all them will help us further our study of this bond.”

  She thinks again, then asks, “And your interest is purely academic?”

  “To speak plainly, no,” I reply, shrugging. “You’ve asked me for blunt honesty, so that is how I will answer you. Knowing that a bond exists between us... complicates things. However, at a fundamental level, the academic and historical investigation of this is paramount. And if you truly do not wish to explore the more... exciting elements of this bond—”

  “I don’t.”

  “So be it.” This conversation feels more like a sparring match. “The visit will be purely academic in nature. Now, as I’m sure you can understand, time is of the essence, both with regard to the change in my eye color and the information you brought me. Shall we pay the priests a visit first so we can carry on with everything else?”

  Her lips purse into a tight knot, as though she’d just eaten something sour, and her eyes narrow. She takes a step closer to me and points a finger in my face. This aggression she has no qualms about showing me would, again, cause any Orean to spend at least a turin in jail, yet for some reason, from her, it makes my skin tingle.

  “Let me be very clear about this,” she says. “The moment it is possible to get us back to Earth, I’m on that transport ship and I’m gone. My mother and my sister are all that matter to me, and I’ve already been gone for far too long.”

  “Your mother and sister?” I ask curiously.

  “I gave up my courses at college and the career I’d always dreamed of when my mom got sick, and I am not about to abandon her for anything, least of all some stripy alien with a tail. So, save all your charm and your tricks for somebody else. I’ll help you figure out why this is happening and what we can do about it, but I’m holding you to your word, S’oraj. The second you can get us home without getting us killed, do it.”

  “Your concerns and demands are fair and understood,” I say cordially. “Now, shall we proceed?”

  “Fine.”

  I lead the way to my private doors and tell one of the guards that I require a transport. As we walk together with the Palian toward the exit onto the tarmac I observe her curiously. I recall taking notice of her when the shanins were first brought into the throne room—how she was the most beautiful and outspoken among them. I even remember thinking of her first whenever anything about them came up over the months, but I had attributed it to the fact that she had spoken for all of them, and the agreement I’d made was with her.

  There is no logical explanation for the bond taking so long to appear. She has been around for almost a full cycle now. Though I may have been attracted to her, we had very little interaction since that first day, yet both V’orin and X’oran insisted they had recognized their bonds right away. What had either of them done that I hadn’t? It was quite puzzling.

  The transport arrives and we get inside. We are at the medical building in no time, and I send for a couple of the most knowledgeable priests of Oraj to meet with us, as well as a couple of the best healers. I would love to consult with X’oran as well, but he has already left for the low-orbit station, and despite his temple training I must allow him to focus on military strategies, especially if the Raxians are planning to deploy their new weapon against our capital.

  I hope the palace priests will have some answers for us. Because if the mating fever takes hold and I can’t persuade B’ecky to make some
space for it, the fate of Orean may have just been sealed by a simple change in my eyes.

  Chapter 3

  Becky

  The temple priest is relentless in his questioning. So much so that, after frightening him away when my temper finally snaps, they send in a female healer to take over. She’s a lot more patient. I could almost see myself being friends with her if the situation was, you know, entirely different. Even still, her line of questioning is no less invasive.

  “Have you noticed any throbbing or natural wetness in your vush when he’s nearby?”

  “Jesus, you all just cut right to the point, don’t you?”

  “Please, shan, I understand your hesitancy to answer honestly to such personal questions, but it is vital that we gauge the situation accurately.”

  “Fine,” I grumble. “Maybe some? I wouldn’t have thought about it if you hadn’t asked. How’s that?”

  “I’m not here to judge your responses, shan, only to evaluate if the S’ulin Kara bond exists and, if so, how advanced it is at this point.”

  “You’re just doing your job. I get it.”

  She continues interrogating me until she hits me with a question that makes me stumble over my words in a surprisingly uncharacteristic way.

  “At what point did you first notice that you felt a physical or sexual attraction to S’oraj?”

  “I– what?”

  “At what point—”

  “No, I heard the question, I just...” I hesitate as I try to get an accurate idea of when it first really started, but if I’m honest, and at this point I really need to be, I have to just tell it like it is. “I mean... Right from the first minute I saw him, when we first arrived here. The second he walked into the room I thought he was... well... really hot. Does that make sense?”

  “He seemed warm to you?” she asks with a confused expression.

  “No, not physically ‘hot.’ It’s an expression from Earth— from Pal. It means... gorgeous. Enticing. Attractive. Like... very, very attractive.”

  “I see,” she says dryly. “And this feeling was present the first moment you saw him?”

  “I guess,” I hesitate.

  Was it really that early that I noticed how hot he is? I mean, he’s for sure hotter than any of these other guys, no matter how built some of them are, but was my brain really firing well enough in that moment to take note of it? And what does it matter if that’s the case anyway? It’s not like I’m going to let anything happen between us. I need to get home to my mom and sister, and that’s all I have time to worry about.

  “Look,” I say, holding up my hand to stop her next question. “I don’t want to answer any more. Do you have enough?”

  “There are only a few more—”

  “I really don’t want to keep doing this,” I snap. I don’t mean to be rude to this poor woman, but this is too much. “I need to stop. Just... do you have enough to go on?”

  “We can work with what we have, shan. Here, have some water.” She hands me a glass and I drink it in small sips. “I’ll inform King S’oraj that we’re done here and confer with the other priests and healers about our findings.”

  “Okay, great. Thanks.”

  The healer leaves me and just a minute later returns, this time with S’oraj sauntering in beside her, as well as the priest from earlier. I feel somehow compelled to stand.

  “We’ll need to look into it further,” the priest starts, “but it seems fairly conclusive to us, even preliminarily, that this is a genuine S’ulin Kara bond.”

  “So why—?” He waves his hand, interrupting my question before I can get it out.

  “We’re not sure why it’s taken this long for the evidence to present itself. That’s part of what we need to research further. But what we can definitely tell you at this point is that the bond is real.”

  “So, what do we need to do?” S’oraj asks bluntly.

  “For starters,” the priest presses on, “you’ll need to remain nearby each other. Any separation, no matter how small, could incite the mating fever. And I’m afraid, shan, that your plan to return to Pal may very well prove disastrous or even fatal for one or both of you.”

  “What are you talking about?” I demand. He has to be wrong about this.

  “Because of the bond, you two are linked, body and spirit. Any distance between the two of you might cause small irritations like intense itching and muscle pain, or much fiercer reactions such as complete insanity, suicidal impulses, or even your heart beating itself to death.”

  “What?” I shriek. “That can’t be real! You’re saying a S’ulin Kara bond can be lethal?”

  “I’m afraid it can,” S’oraj sighs. “The texts confirm it, and the four who have experienced this bond in the last few wans have all been affected by some of these very symptoms. V’orin got lucky, but the mating fever nearly drove him to his own death, which would have proven fatal for L’isa as well. This is very real and very serious.”

  “I can’t believe this!”

  “Thank you, both of you,” he says, giving a small bow to the priest and healer. They immediately take this as their cue to leave us alone. As soon as they’re out the door, he turns back to me. “I understand that this is a lot to take in, and that this is not at all what you’d planned, but we must play with the cards we’re dealt.”

  “Bullshit,” I snarl. “Absolutely not.”

  “B’ecky, I understand—”

  “You don’t understand shit, S’oraj!” I can feel that my face must be beet red. Sweat is forming on my forehead and my whole body feels like it’s shaking itself apart. “I’m not giving in to this. I don’t care what you, or anyone else says; the only thing that matters to me is getting back home and getting back to my mom and sister. That’s it. I don’t care if you all believe that this mystical crap is real, it’s a load of shit and I’m not buying it.”

  “Fair enough,” he says, surprisingly.

  I have to shake my head to be sure I just heard what I thought I heard.

  “So be it,” he confirms. “We won’t expect to remain joined when the time comes to return you to Pal. We’ll simply deal with those consequences when they arise. But in the meantime, the symptoms of this condition cannot be ignored. You’ve seen it for yourself, yes?”

  “Yeah,” I have to admit.

  “In my position, I have to think of the welfare and wellbeing of my planet and everyone on it. The risk of being afflicted with the mating fever is not something I can gamble on. I think it would be in everyone’s, best interests if you and I were to arrange a Witnessing Ceremony immediately to solidify our bond for the time being. Then we can search for some way to dissolve it when the time comes to send you home.”

  “Are you out of your mind?” I demand. “You want us to get married before we’ve even slept together? You want us to hook up, in front of a bunch of people, and get joined just because your eyes turned gold? Don’t you realize how insane that sounds?”

  “B’ecky, you’ve seen the results of S’ulin Karas who refuse—”

  “What I’ve seen,” I cut him off. “Is a bunch of you Oreans taking advantage of us Earth girls, and let me tell you, S’oraj, I ain’t the one. Figure out something else, because that is not happening.”

  He sighs and thinks for some time while I stew in my own frustration. I can’t believe this is happening. I try to do something good – I try to bring vital, maybe war-ending information to this guy – and this is the payment I get for it? All I’m trying to do is get home!

  “Let’s compromise,” he says finally. “Again, I cannot risk my judgment being clouded by the mating fever. That could delay or even eliminate our chance for victory in this war. If we lost it would prove impossible to return you to Pal. Ever. To win, I must remain focused and undistracted, so here is what I propose. You move into the palace so that you are nearby. I’ll arrange a suite of rooms for you, and even a s’andukar—”

  “A what?” I ask when the word buzzes strangely in my little
ear translator implant. It’s obviously one that it can’t decipher.

  “A... serving shanin. A housekeeper. Someone to wait on you and run your needs to the palace staff,” he explains. “Keeping you here at the palace ought to mean that the distance between us will be small enough so as not to trigger any symptoms, and it will also make it easier to keep you safe. If word gets out that I’ve discovered my S’ulin Kara, these spies might make an attempt to hold you hostage or kill you in order to get to me. It’s too dangerous, for too many reasons, to send you back to L’arten’s estate.”

  “Fine,” I agree, “but none of this Witnessing Ceremony talk again. I’m not interested in a relationship with anyone, least of all some soul-bonded marriage to some an alien.”

  “Unnecessarily hurtful, but so be it,” he concedes. “That said, you need to acknowledge that, since this bond exists between us, it will become more and more difficult to resist its pull. Whether it feels like it now or not, you will eventually feel a very strong urge to join our bodies. I will resist it on my end, but do know that over time, it will become, in all likelihood, physically painful to endure.”

  “I’ve resisted worse,” I quip.

  “I believe you.” We stare at each other for a moment, his eyes conveying a look of wary incredulity, mine shooting daggers at him for causing all this ruckus. “How about this? I must return to my duties at once, but this evening, I’d like to send for you so that we can dine together and perhaps get to know each other personally a bit more. It may help to keep the mating fever at bay and, who knows, you might even find I’m not so terrible to be around.”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sure that’s all you have in mind,” I scoff sarcastically. But even as I say it, I can tell that he’s being honest. I remember Lisa and Jenny mentioning that as soon as the S’ulin Kara thing started for them, they found that it was impossible for either person to be dishonest with the other. It feels like that’s already happening to us too.