He finally released her and took her by her arm once more, while he guided her out of the temple.
Each step they took was a step closer to her doom, and she wished she could escape. She kept praying she would have a moment alone, but her hopes were killed the moment he guided her into one of the tents near the main one.
With so much pain rushing through her, the moment he released her, she lost all her strength and fell on her knees, hiding her face in her hands, not caring if she was showing him just how anguished she was. Her sobs were so loud now, she didn’t hear him close the distance between them and kneel in front of her.
“Aliyah… please, stop… what’s wrong?” he asked, pulling her hands off her face and making her face him for the first time in days.
The sound of Vrak’s voice was so out of place that for a moment she thought she had lost her mind. It took the touch of his hands on hers to convince her she wasn’t dreaming. The man in front of her was really him.
He wiped the tears from her face.
“What… what are you doing here?” she muttered, still astonished.
“Where am I supposed to be? After all, I’m your mate,” he teased her, caressing her face.
She threw herself in his arms, hiding her face in his strong chest, muffling her sobs. “I… didn’t know… they didn’t tell me… I thought they were mating me with someone else…” she explained, letting out all the pain and anguish she had been through in the past hours.
“How could you even think I would let that happen?” he asked, scolding her in a gentle tone. She sobbed louder, and he kissed the top of her head. “You’re mine, and I’ll never let anyone take you away from me,” he assured her as he got up and picked her in his arms.
“We were invited to enjoy our first night together here, in the luxurious tent and though all I wanted was to take you out of here, Kahm diplomatically, said yes, so we better enjoy it,” he explained, as he carried her to the center of the tent.
With the nerves gone, she was able to look around. The place looked like something taken out of the Arabian Nights. The bed was some sort of huge cushion surrounded by drapes from light pink to intense red, going through a myriad of yellows and oranges, hanging from the ceiling. There were also several small cushions all over it.
“This looks amazing,” she said, with a smile.
“I’m glad you like it.” His tone said otherwise, and she chuckled.
“Don’t you?” she teased him.
He smiled and cupped her face. “I would rather be home with you,” he assured her before he claimed a passionate kiss from her lips.
It seemed as if a century had gone by ever since the last time he had kissed her. She had missed him so much, that now she was in his arms again all she wanted was to enjoy every second of it.
He slipped his coarse tongue between her lips and thoroughly explored every inch of her mouth, taking her breath away and making her arousal spike.
“You’re wearing way too many clothes,” he grumbled when he slid his hands down her neck to her chest.
She chuckled. “You have no idea. I felt they were putting on a thousand layers of clothes,” she replied, helping him to undo all the bows and ties keeping the clothes on her body.
After a few laughs and some pushes, he finally took all her clothes off and stood a moment there relishing the sight of her perfect body.
Suddenly nervous and a bit self-conscious of her slightly chubby body. He had never looked at her like that. “What’s the matter?” she asked, flushing a bit.
“Just enjoying you, I almost lost you, do you realize that?” he asked, running a finger down her cheek, with a flirtatious smile.
She flushed a bit more. “Oh… I see…”
“Do you really, Aliyah?” he asked, cupping her breast and playing with her nipple, grazing it with his sharp claw. “Your body was handmade for me, and there’s nothing in it I don’t love. You’re perfect,” he assured her, leaning down and kissing her again, making her slowly fall on the bed and crawling over her.
She smiled, pleased, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close to her. “You’re perfect for me too,” she assured him.
Kisses and caresses rapidly reignited the fire of their passion, and soon they were entangled together. At some point, he raised her legs and rested both his cocks at her entrances, running the tip of his fingers down the back of her thighs, sending chills down her spine.
“Please… make me yours…” she begged, breathing hard.
He gave her a wicked smile. “Do you want me?” he asked, pushing himself inside her, just one inch.
She moaned. “Yes… please…” she replied, rapture written all over her face.
He pushed another inch, stretching her to welcome him. “Perhaps, I should stay here,” he teased her, but she could tell he was struggling to control himself not to take her completely.
“I won’t let you,” she told him, wrapping her legs around him and pulling him closer to her, forcing him to go deep inside her.
He grunted his pleasure and rapidly started thrusting in and out of her, taking them to paradise, that special place conjured by them every time they were together. Wave after wave, pleasure washed over them, leaving them breathless. His hot wetness filled her holes making her come once more, and when he finally rolled out of her, she was drained, but happier than ever.
“Does this mean I get to stay with you for a while?” she asked, in a low tone when the waves finally subsided, not daring to look at him.
His finger pulled her chin up, making her face him. “You get to stay with me for the rest of your life,” he said, smiling, but then, a frown clouded his expression. “If you want, of course. There’s no contract binding us, so actually, you’re free to do whatever you want, and if you don’t want to stay…” she covered his lips with one finger, her heart drumming in her chest, barely able to believe she would stay with him forever.
“There’s nothing I want more, Vrak,” she assured him.
He kissed her. “Good, because I was already making plans to abduct you once more until I convince you your place is with me,” he said, with a wicked grin.
She chuckled. “I wouldn’t mind being abducted. We didn’t get to explore Bulk’s cabin properly.”
He nodded. “You’re right. I’ll take you there as soon as we can arrange it.”
She sighed, pleased. “How did you manage to convince the Sumirions to let us go?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
“They found it a real scandal over the fact you’re unable to have children. Apparently, that’s a big thing for them, and Zag immediately dropped his claim on you,” he explained. “The elder asked me if I would take away my claim as well and I said no. I already knew about that, and I had no problems with it.”
She sighed. “I inadvertently told Glynoy about it, and she rushed to the council to inform them. Barren women become some sort of slaves for the tribe. They are forced to serve whoever requests their services,” she explained to him. “The way they are treated is awful and so unfair, but they seem to accept their destiny, much better than I would have,” she assured him.
“You were raised in a very different culture. These people do well not mingling with other species. They still live in the dark ages,” he said, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t have allowed them to keep you, even if I hadn’t fallen in love for you,” he said, in a firm tone.
She gulped, barely able to believe his words. “You fell in love with me?” she asked, in a low, shy tone.
He smiled. “Yes, the minute I set my eyes on you, though it took me a while to realize that,” he replied, kissing her lips gently. “You have no idea how I felt when I saw Zag hurting you the way he did.”
She remembered what had happened back at the cave. “Right, what happened to you? I had no idea you could shift like that.”
He sighed and moved away from her. “I’m from a planet called Aslora, and my people are known as the Asloran Beasts. We’re not immortal, but we are pretty close to it. It’s very hard to kill one of us and even harder to keep us, prisoners. The only reason I let the Sumirions have their way with me was you,” he explained. “The last thing I wanted was to put you in danger, and I knew if I let out my beast, I might lose control over it, and there would have been bloodshed. I would have never hurt you, but there wouldn’t have been any survivors.”
“Oh, it’s a great power,” she said, understanding the fear in the Sumirions’ voice.
“Yes, but it’s also a big responsibility. I was raised to be a warrior and fight for the causes I felt right. After a while, I got tired of people’s ambitions and the way they killed each other over power. I decided to leave that behind me,” he continued. “So, I came here and started my own ranch. My beast had been forgotten inside me. Until I saw Zag whipping you.”
“But you didn’t lose control.”
“No, I didn’t, for the first time in my life, and that was thanks to you. Your voice kept me conscious.”
“I’m glad…”
“It had never happened before. I already knew you were the only woman for me, but that moment told me you were my anchor,” he added, with a pleased smile.
“Your anchor?”
“All Aslorans are supposed to have an anchor. A special person is able to guide them when their beasts take control of their bodies. After all this time, I had lost hope in ever finding mine so, it was such a great pleasure to find out you were not only my soulmate but also my anchor.”
She cuddled up against him, happier than words could ever describe. She had finally found a home in the arms of an alien, and she thanked all gods in the universe for putting him in her way. She shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if Kahm had picked her up at the docking bay, according to plans. She wouldn’t have met Vrak, and she would have been enslaved for the rest of her life.
“Fate is a powerful thing,” she muttered.
“Yes, it is, and we have a lot to thank it for,” he agreed, pulling her up and kissing her again.
She could feel his cocks pushing against her belly, as her arousal spiked once more. Soon, he had her facing the bed, on her knees, while he took her from behind, going even deeper inside her, and ripping moans of sheer pleasure from her lips.
Feeling every ridge of his cocks rubbing her walls in this position was breath-taking. The sensation sent blasts of pleasure coursing through her body until they came in a powerful explosion that rendered them useless against the fire of the passion they shared.
They finally left Sumirion the following morning. They said goodbye to the elders and thanked them for their hospitality, leaving as soon as they could, eager to put distance between them and Sumitera.
“I never asked you if you managed to find out how the Sumirions found us,” Vrak asked Kahm on their short trip to the man’s property.
Kahm let out a deep sigh. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that,” he admitted. “Asim told them. She wanted them to capture Aliyah,” he explained. “When I left your ranch, Bulk was going to keep her prisoner until your arrival.”
The dark expression on Vrak’s face didn’t promise anything good. “I’ll make sure she pays for all the trouble she put us through,” he snarled.
Aliyah put her hand over his. “Please, don’t. She acted out of jealousy,”
“She saw you as a threat to her position in my house and decided to get rid of you. Her people only care about money and lust, nothing more. They can’t love, not even their own offspring,” Vrak explained, still enraged.
“Even so, I don’t want anything darkening our arrival. Ask Bulk to send her away, please,” she insisted, not willing to be witness to any more problems.
For a moment, she thought he wouldn’t listen to her request. But he finally nodded. “Very well, I’ll call him as soon as we get to Kahm’s ranch.”
She took his hand and kissed its back. “Thank you, I really appreciate it.”
Kahm’s ranch was quite similar to Vrak’s, though he raised some other kind of cattle. Selena, his wife, was a very friendly and very pregnant Latina that received them with open arms.
“I’m so happy you managed to escape those people. I was there for a while, and all I could think of was getting out of there,” she told Aliyah. “The only person kind there was Glynoy.”
“Oh, I met her too. She took care of my wounds.”
“She was the one that found out I was pregnant. That saved me from marrying Zag. That man gave me the creeps,”
“Yes, I feel the same too.”
They spent a while chatting and exchanging experiences and by the time they left, Aliyah felt she had a new friend.
But something was bothering her, and Vrak noticed it.
“You look troubled. What’s the matter?” he asked, while they headed back home. “If you are worried about Asim, don’t. Bulk paid her off and invited her to leave the planet. She won’t be able to come back.” His foreman had informed Vrak that he had taken care of the woman, making sure she learned her lesson, and that calmed his desire to get his hands on her.
“That’s good to know,” she admitted.
“But that’s not what’s bothering you,” he concluded.
She sighed, wriggling her hands over her lap. “Are you sure you have no problem with me being barren?” she finally asked. “Your friends seem so happy with the baby…”
“I would be too, but I would rather have you, Aliyah. You’re more important than any possible offspring. Besides, Aslorans have never bred with another species, so I’ve always known that having babies would never be a part of my life. I’ve never considered mating one of my kind,” he explained.
“Why not?”
“Asloran females are as cold as the weather on our planet. They only care about their glory and nothing else. Some are known to have murdered their own anchors, in their pursuit for power. Not someone you would want to have as your life partner.”
“That’s terrible.”
“It’s the way they chose to live,” he said, shrugging. “Besides, we can always adopt. There are millions of abandoned children out there we could take care of if you want. I just want you to be happy, nothing else,” he assured her.
She leaned against his arm. “Thank you, you have no idea how happy that makes me. I love you,” she said.
He pushed a button on the steering wheel, activating the autopilot and looked at her. “You do? You haven’t said it before,” he asked.
“I hadn’t? I thought it was obvious,” she replied with a wide smile. “I love you, Vrak, all of you and I would rather die than live without you,” she assured him. “During the time they were preparing me for the mating ceremony all I could think of was finding a way to escape, even if it meant dying in those woods,” she confessed.
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight to his chest. “I love you, and as long as I live, I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy,” he vowed, kissing her lips gently.
She kissed him back. “I love you too like I never thought possible loving someone else, and I assure you I’ll dedicate my life to you.”
He kissed her again, this time showing her all his passion and by the time their lips parted, they had arrived at his ranch, to start a new life, one filled with love and happiness.
The end