CHAPTER 8
RACHEL
Rachel habitually listened to the radio whenever she drove, and the last time she’d taken the snowmobile, she’d been listening to the local news, probably because they reported weather conditions and it obviously must have snowed if she had been in this vehicle. So, she didn’t have to turn any dials to find the station.
They also got lucky, because an especially useful report was already on.
“This is an emergency broadcast. In the past hour, sixteen women around Alaska have been reported missing. These disappearances are without doubt related to the Varron pirate attack that occurred in the Earth’s atmosphere late last night. Despite the Union’s best efforts, a group of Varron pirates managed to break through the planet’s defensive barrier and have been sighted around the state. All citizens are adviced remain cautious and avoid venturing outside if at all possible. Missing persons also include Union Captain Erro of Traag, whose ship went down somewhere in the Alaskan North Slope region late last night in the aftermath of the fight. The official Union statement assures that together with the Earth authortities, the Union is doing everything in its power to capture the illegals and retrieve the missing women. If you have any information that could prove helpful for the search, please call–”
The broadcast then went on to give a phone number to the nearest Union base before starting all over again instead of switching over to music. A cold dread ran along Rachel’s spine. It seemed like there was a real situation at hand. Her whole body froze and she slowly turned to Erro in concern.
“Fucking pirates,” he grumbled, shaking his head as he, too, seemed to digest the information. “I said those words sometime recently.”
“Probably while you were busy blasting them,” Rachel pointed out, her tone flat as she contemplated the news. “Erro, don’t you think we should let somebody know that you’re still alive? Maybe we should call the number they gave. My cell couldn’t make any calls during the storm, but I should probably try again now.”
“Yes, that’s true,” he agreed, nodding slowly. But then he reached over and turned the radio off, ending the recurrent emergency message before they even got to hear the phone number again. “But I didn’t try so hard to get to these translators just so we could figure out what happened to me, ele’a.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “There’s that word again. I was hoping the translator would interpret it for me, but it doesn’t change it at all. Why do you keep calling me that? And how does it keep making me – well, um, feel like that?”
Erro smirked. “Feel like what?” he asked innocently – like he knew very well but just wasn’t going to be the one to say it out loud.
A familiar heat rose onto Rachel’s cheeks, and as if to accentuate his point, Erro leaned over and ran his thumb lightly over the inside of her knee. Rachel sucked in a breath and caught his hand, holding onto it.
“As if you don’t know,” she said, sounding oddly breathless even to her own ears. “It’s got to be some kind of magic word or something, right?”
“No, sweetheart,” Erro said, amusement glittering in his golden eyes. “I could say it to any other person, and they’d never notice, because it’s a word meant only for one person. It only works when I say it to my fated mate. To you. Usually, a Traag’s mate is another Traag, but sometimes, although rarely, they will find their mate on another world, just like I have.”
Rachel shot him a skeptical look. “Humans are compatible with everyone,” she said. That’s where all the problems stemmed from, too. Earth had been so peaceful before, and now…
“Perhaps,” Erro said against her skin. Somehow, he had moved even closer to her now than before. “But that doesn’t make you any less my mate. It only supports the fact.”
Rachel shook her head, hardly even listening to half of what he said because it sounded so absurd. “What are you talking about?” she asked. Sure, they might have shared one kiss, but that didn’t make her anyone’s ‘mate’, did it?
“What I’m talking about is that you are my one and only other half, my ele’a. That we are meant for each other, bound to one another by destiny. Traag only have one mate in their lifetimes, and you are mine.”
“That sounds pretty crazy.”
“It is crazy,” Erro agreed. “It’s completely crazy. But that doesn’t make it any less true. I can prove it to you. The concept of a ele’a isn’t really something that can be expressed using words. It has to be explored using – other means.” His last words seemed awfully suggestive, and Rachel cast him a suspicious glance.
“Like what?” she asked. She wasn’t sure she was buying any of this. Sure, she’d heard of some alien races having what they called ‘mate-bonds’, and yeah, Erro was definitely easy on the eyes and had made her blush a time or two. They’d even shared that kiss, but… That didn’t mean it happened to her.
“Give me your hands,” Erro said, drawing them into his own as he twisted sideways on the snowmobile to face her better.
Rachel shifted as well, a deep heat rising onto her cheeks as she looked up into his eyes. She felt so utterly exposed under his scrutiny that for a moment, she wanted to pull her hands away and call this all a sham. But the intensity in Erro’s eyes, the deep desire she could see in their depths, made her breath catch and she froze in her place.
“You won’t get mad if I kiss you this time, right?” Erro asked quietly, his eyes sparkling with amusement, and Rachel couldn’t help but chuckle as well.
“I wasn’t mad,” she said with a smirk. “It was actually kind of nice. Somehow, it just felt… right.”
“That feeling of ‘right’ is what I’m talking about,” Erro said, gently rubbing her hands in his. “A mated pair can share energy with each other, and take it to amazing heights. Let me show you.”
Since she had first seen Erro, she’d noticed a slightly luminous glow about him, but as he held her hands now, that glowing brightened. At the same time, those hints of arousal she’d been getting around him kicked into high gear, cresting throughout her body in pleasurable waves. It was like an electric shock traveled throughout her being and her whole body was hot, burning up from the inside.
The sensation was so intense, she almost had an orgasm just from that alone. Heat pooled between her legs as Erro gathered her into his arms. His lips came crashing down onto hers and she eagerly welcomed them. Her own lips parted invitingly, urging him to deepen the exchange – which he seemed all too happy to do. His tongue swept into her mouth, and Rachel saw rainbows.
She found herself cursing all the puffy outerwear that she wore because it made touching him so much more difficult. Her body yearned for skin-on-skin contact, and she wanted to rip off every stitch of clothing and ravish the man, cold or no cold.
“Erro!” she gasped desperately, clinging onto him.
“I know,” he whispered soothingly as his hands traced little circles on her thighs. “I know. It can be… overwhelming. And I do not wish to let you go. Not now, not ever. Do you understand now what I mean?”
“God, this is so crazy,” she whispered, kissing him some more. “I don’t get how it even works.”
Erro laughed. “Does it matter how it works, Rachel?”
She sucked in another breath as he said her name in that deep, masculine voice of his. She tried to regain control of her senses, but the electric spasms were still there, pulsing through her body, and the effect was growing stronger rather than calming down. “How–how long does this last?”
“It can be minutes, or it can be hours,” he explained, gliding his lips down to the rapidly pounding pulse in her throat and clearly enjoying the sensation. “It all depends on what the two of us want to do with the energy. Because, you see, that was just a little taste of it. I could show you how to make a whole lot more.”
“This–this isn’t all?” she gasped incredulously.
“Not even close,” he told her, a wicked grin lighting up his face.
“I–I think maybe we should go home,” she whispered. “I think we really, really need to go back home now.”
Erro chuckled, a throaty, sensual sound that set her off again. “No more talk about letting people know I’m alive, or getting me back to where I belong?” he teased. “Are you thinking they don’t need to know where I am for a day or two? Is that it, my ele’a?”
Rachel couldn’t help but smile at his teasing tone. Slowly running her fingers against his hard, muscled chest, she found herself in the mood for some teasing too. “Well, how long could you disappear for?” she asked innocently.
Erro laughed and moved up to kiss her again. As his lips fell down onto hers, Rachel was just about to melt in his arms when the distinctive sound of a laser blast made her start with surprise. A spark flew off the windshield of the snowmobile, and suddenly, she stared at a crack that hadn’t been there a moment before.
“Holy hell!” she gasped, staring through the window.
Her eyes widened in shock as she saw three very large, very alien-looking figures dressed in red and purple armor approaching them. She could just see the shuttle they must have arrived on several yards behind them, and she wondered how on Earth she hadn’t heard them land. It looked like the energy-sharing thing or whatever she’d done with Erro had quite literally knocked her out of her senses. And him too, it seemed.
Each of the aliens carried a huge blaster in their arms, and the weapons were all currently aimed in the direction of her and Erro.
“Okay, lovebirds, time to get out of there,” one of the aliens shouted. “Do it now, and make sure I can see your hands when you do.”
“Who are these guys?” Rachel whispered nervously as Erro let her go. “Are they with you?”
“No, sweetheart,” Erro gritted out, his voice suddenly turning icy cold. “These are the Varrons.” He spat the word out like it was poison. “But don’t worry, I won’t let them harm you.”
“Varrons?” A cold dread settled in the bottom of her stomach as she added everything together, but she quickly shook the feeling off, trying to remain calm. “They’re not going to try to harm me,” she breathed after a while. “They’re kidnapping females from Earth to sell, remember? You’re the one they’re going to kill. And me…”
She could hardly even finish her sentence. A shiver ran along her spine at the thought of what would happen to her if the pirates got their hands on her.
“Don’t remind me,” Erro growled viciously. His eyes were trained on the Varrons as he slowly stood up from his seat, his arms over his head just as the Varrons had requested. “Don’t worry, though. I’ve got this covered. Just do whatever he says, okay?”
“Great… Okay,” Rachel puffed as one of the pirates walked up to her and grabbed her by the shoulder. He pulled her off the snowmobile, and for the moment, she didn’t put up a fight. Her heart, which had been hammering with excitement only a few moments ago, now hammered with fear instead. A cold sweat crawled down her spine as the alien’s thick hands wrapped around hers and he pulled her toward his comrades.
Rachel could hardly think in her fear. If these pirates got their way, they’d take her out to some interstellar auction block and sell her to the highest bidder. This time next year, she wouldn’t have to worry about her miserable life in Alaska, because she wouldn’t have a life of her own at all. Instead, she’d be off producing some creature’s offspring on the other side of the universe! And right when her life had seemed to be looking up, too!
But she really shouldn’t discount Erro. She glanced back in his direction and saw that he was still standing beside the snowmobile, with his arms raised. But although it seemed as if he was surrendering, his eyes were fiery pits of darkness and his whole posture oozed menace and danger.
An involuntary shiver ran along Rachel’s spine at the look, and she was glad it wasn’t directed at her. He was a trained soldier, after all, and these three were just a bunch of thugs. They may call themselves pirates, but they still didn’t have the training Erro did. Plus, if he had been feeling half the sensations that she had just then, Erro really wasn’t going to want to lose his ele’a, that was for sure. The thought relaxed her slightly.
“Well, well, you Union scum. Erro of Traag, is it?” the leader of the pirates sneered. “It was disappointing when we came across your ship last night and there was nobody inside, but it looks like your evening must have turned out all right. You know, Captain, we’ve been collecting girls in the area almost a whole day, but it looks like you’ve been keeping the prettiest one all to yourself.”
“Let go of me!” Rachel snapped then, kicking her captor in the side of his leg.
The pirate brought his gun up to the side of her head. “You really shouldn’t try my patience, precious,” he told her. “I know how to hurt a little spitfire like you without leaving any bruises that would lower the price we’re going to get for your sale. So, how far did the big guy get with you, anyway? We wouldn’t want to find out he’d fertilized anything, now would we?”
“He never–” she began vehemently, but Erro interrupted her.
“We’ve been going at it non-stop the whole night,” he lied, and Rachel’s jaw dropped until he added, “she’s no good to you boys now. Isn’t it me you want? I blew up all your buddies, didn’t I?”
“Erro, what’s the matter with you?” Rachel gasped, staring at him like he’d lost his mind.
She watched, fascinated, as he finally stepped out from behind the snowmobile and into the open, growing in size as he did so. Her eyes flew wide open as his whole body seemed to vibrate before her, transforming into something else. Suddenly, he grew massive wings and a tail, too, and Rachel could feel her breath escape her lips in shock.
Before she even knew it, she wasn’t looking at a man at all. Instead, she was staring at an enormous, scaly creature that seemed to have sprouted right out of some book on ancient mythology.
“What the hell?” she breathed, her eyes wide as she took in the sight before her. She’d known she was dealing with an alien, but she hadn’t realized Erro was a shapeshifter! The shock rattled through her head, settling somewhere at the back of her brain, and her entire body went numb. She was frozen solid in her place, unable to move even if the pirate’s hands hadn’t been around her arms.
Fortunately, it seemed the pirates were equally frozen, and Rachel couldn’t blame them. She couldn’t blame them for their shock because the creature that now towered over them couldn’t be called anything else but a freaking dragon!