The Alien’s Claim by Zoey Draven

Chapter Sixteen

Wickedrixella, Jaxor thought, his jaw gritting so hard he was surprised his teeth didn’t get pulverized in the process.

The rixella in question was undressing next to the pool of the waterfall. Unlike yesterday, it seemed she had every intention of going in, not simply crouching at the edge, rubbing her flesh with water in an attempt to clean herself fully clothed.

Jaxor wiped his forearm over his brow, stepping back from the furnace to cool off, his eyes glued to the bared curves of the female’s body.

My female, his Instinct corrected, purring.

Vrax, she was pleasing to look at. His fists clenched at his sides and Jaxor had to physically stop himself from taking an unconscious step towards her, towards the falls. His hand came to his workbench and he squeezed the Luxirian metal until his claws gouged into it.

Her flesh was tan like the delicious nectar from puxia fruits. Her hair was dark, but shimmering gold from the suns when their light managed to break through the clouds. A tapered waist, full hips, thighs he could grip as he—

Not yours, he reminded himself, squeezing his eyes shut. She is not yours.

And yet, she’d certainly felt like his last night. Just remembering her moans, her blunt little claws buried deep enough in his shoulders to leave marks, the frenzied, needful way she’d ground down on his cock’s length…

Her soft, warm lips on his own, the way his head spun when she suckled on his tongue.

Many lunar cycles ago, he’d traveled to the pools of the Lallarix. It was a scared place, touched by the Fates, and a secret place that only his family knew of. Often, his mother and sire would travel there. Sometimes, Jaxor and Vaxa’an would accompany them.

Not long ago, Jaxor had gone there to remember. The pools had been untouched, as if a span hadn’t passed since his mother had been there. But instead of finding her spirit there, he’d discovered a human female. The first he’d ever seen. And she’d been accompanied by none other than his brother.

Jaxor had watched them from shadows, his heart thrumming in his chest when he realized he was gazing on his brother for the first time in almost ten rotations. And he had found his luxiva, his fated mate, in a human female he called Kat.

He’d seen them press their lips together as they soaked in the Lallarix, though it had baffled him at the time. It was not a way that Luxirians showed affection to one another. It had seemed strange and foreign to him. Alien.

Until last night.

When Erin had leaned forward and kissed him, brushing her bottom lip over his top, drawing him in so deep he felt his heartbeat throb in his tongue, he’d finally understood the appeal. The heat. The closeness. The intimacy. The wicked way it had felt like mating. Soft at first, before demand and need overpowered it.

Jaxor swore he could still feel her there. He could still taste her on his tongue, scent her arousal in his nostrils, feel her fingers pulling at his newly shorn hair.

When he opened his eyes, Erin was, mercifully, in the pool. Covered. Only the tops of her shoulders and the delicate bones at the base of her neck were on display. When she turned, he saw the mark he’d given her last night, the blooming bruise where he’d bitten her neck in the heat of the moment.

She was watching him, but her expression made him pause.

She is teasing me on purpose, he realized, his brows lowering, his lips pulling down into a frown.

But there was no mistaking the challenge in her eyes. His female was intentionally tormenting him. Why? To make a liar out of him? Because he might have hurt her pride that morning when he attempted to brush off what had happened between them last night?

Jaxor growled and he turned from her, his cock pulsing, his blood hot and thick. What was he doing? What the fuck was he doing?

He didn’t know. He was wasting time. Procrastinating. He was not like this. When he made a decision, he committed to it. One way or another. He didn’t hesitate. He just…fucking did it.

So why couldn’t he do the same where Erin was involved?

Why couldn’t he decide to uphold his agreement with the Mevirax or keep her for himself? Or, the most honorable option of all, return her to the Golden City, far away from him and the Mevirax and the dangers that were connected to them?

He knew why. Because Jaxor was a selfish bastard. But, grimly, he realized that there was more at stake here. This was beyond her. Beyond him. Beyond any connection the Fates had given them.

This was about the future of the Luxirian race. It was about justice for all those lives lost, all those families destroyed. Giving Erin up to the Mevirax, who had a standing deal with the Jetutians, might be the only way Jaxor could get close to them. It might be the only chance the Luxirians had to seize the treatment, the cure.

Even knowing that, Jaxor tilted his head. The rixella had swum over to the falls, had perched herself on one of the rocks there, her full, perfect breasts on display, water lapping around her waist. She was massaging her long, wet hair with the soap granules he’d given her, scrubbing at her scalp before using the waterfall to rinse it from the strands.

Then she lathered up her hands and scrubbed at her flesh. When her hands trailed over her breasts, he felt a drop of his seed push from the tip of his cock, a small, rough sound escaping his throat. He didn’t think she heard it, but her eyes darted over to him regardless.

She’d been so different last night. So changed. But he wondered which version of her was the truest to her character. Was it the female who had stared him down in the Golden City when he’d first come to take her away, steady and calm? Was it the female who had worried over him after the kekevir injury, working diligently and without hesitation to stitch him up? Was it the female who had straddled his hips and had moaned when he marked her neck with his teeth? Or was it this temptress, who was massaging her slick breasts beneath a waterfall, knowing he was watching, knowing he desired her beyond reason, beyond logic?

The Fates had given him a beguiling, frustrating, and fascinating creature.

With a curse, Jaxor turned back to his work.

I will not look at her again while she is in that pool, he made himself promise. He repeated it in his mind, as if to make it stick, as if to steel his resolve. As if it would work.

But Jaxor felt like he was fighting a losing battle of wills. He wondered how much longer it would be until he broke.

Because it would happen. She would break him. And when she did, Jaxor prayed that she was prepared for the beast she would unleash.

* * *

The sky wasblack when Jaxor finished with the kekevir gate.

He was sweating, his chest heaving, his limbs aching with the amount of effort it took to embed it in the stone wall of the tunnel. But it was the only way it would be strong enough against the kekevir. They had watched him from the darkness of their nest. Jaxor had always wondered why they chose to stay so close to his home base when they had large caverns and endless tunnels all throughout the Pass of the Kokillix to explore.

But they’d proven useful over the rotations. Their meat might not be the most delicious, but it kept him fed most cold seasons. Their skin made good armor that he traded at the outposts and their sinewy muscle tissue made excellent fire fuel when his stores ran low. Having them close was beneficial.

For the most part, he thought, feeling his wounds pull slightly. He’d cut the stitches already and pulled them out, but the flesh was still tender as it mended. He would have to remember to put healing salve on it later that night.

The gate was sturdy, though it had used up the majority of his metal stores. It bolted and braced into the tunnel wall. Immovable. It would keep Erin safe. Now Jaxor wouldn’t have to worry about being gone from the base.

Still, Jaxor refueled the burning sconces on either side of the gate, casting light into the tunnel. By force of habit. He still didn’t want the kekevir anywhere near the gate, no matter how strong it was. Kekevir could be cunning and intelligent when it suited them.

When he returned to the base, he saw his female huddled by the fire he’d made in the early evening, staring into the flames. His chest clenched, watching the light play over her features. She didn’t look at him and Jaxor kept his distance from her, going to bathe in the waterfall pool, rinsing off the sweat and grime of the day, remembering the erotic vision Erin had made in that same place earlier.

Underneath the water, he squeezed his stiff cock once, as if in warning. Even that small contact made him groan. Even after the mind-numbing orgasm last night, his body was still charged and ready for another.

He hauled himself out before he was tempted to bring himself to release right there and dressed in loose pants, forgoing a tunic since he felt overheated from working in the tunnel most of the day. Cool, chilled air felt like a relief.

Inhaling a deep, steadying breath, feeling as though he was going into battle, he approached his female at the fire. He’d laid out dried meats and the best of his fruit stores for her earlier and he saw that most of it was gone. Good. She’d eaten well that night. She hadn’t seemed to care for the fresh, roasted kekevir meat, so until he could fish, his dried rations would have to be enough.

“Hello,” she greeted softly when he sat on the opposite side of the fire. “You’ve been working hard today,” she commented.

Jaxor’s eyes went to her lips. “So have you, rixella.”

They hadn’t spoken once since that morning, but he’d caught glimpses of her as he came and went from the tunnel. She’d been cleaning and scrubbing the furs voraciously and he saw that she’d set them out along the pulley system to dry.

“What does that mean?” she asked, her eyes like dark, glittering little jewels in the night. “Rixella?”

They had seemingly called another of their truces, Jaxor realized. It had happened before…when both of them just simply gave in to the other. Like last night. When they were too tired to argue.

“It means…” he trailed off, trying to think how to translate it into her language. “Enchantress. Wicked one. Or like a witch.”

She laughed, the sound momentarily stunning Jaxor.

“You’ve been calling me a wicked witch this entire time?” she asked, shaking her head.

Jaxor hesitated. Her tone implied something he didn’t think he understood. He couldn’t discern if she was genuinely amused…or insulted. So, he explained, “To Luxirians, rixellas are only in stories. Old stories and legends. They beguile males, using their wiles and their magic to control them.”

Her lips quirked. Those eyes shined. “And that’s what you think I can do to you? You think I can control you? Beguile you?”

Haven’t you already? he asked silently, his brows furrowing. At the way her lips twitched, he knew that she’d heard the unspoken question.

“I see,” she murmured.

“I do not think you do,” he returned, just as quietly. She had no idea of the power she held over him.

Erin looked into the fire again. She was dressed in one of his tunics, her skin flushed from the heat.

“Can I ask you something?” she murmured.

Jaxor grunted, but he flicked his gaze to her, half in wariness, half in intrigue.

“Have you ever been in love?” she asked softly, her head tilting in curiosity.

“Love?” he repeated, the word whistling from his lips in a deep exhale.

“Yes.”

Jaxor tossed more fuel into the fire, though it was burning hot and bright already.

“I thought so. Once,” he replied.

Her brows rose. “Really?”

“You seem surprised,” he commented wryly and he raked a hand through his hair.

“No, it’s not that,” she said. “I guess I just…I can’t really imagine you away from this place.”

With people, she meant. Among people.

“I told you I was born and raised in the Golden City,” he said. “Most who knew me would actually have called me…mischievous. I was always getting into trouble. I was never still.”

“That I can imagine,” she teased softly. His lips quirked again. “So, what was her name?”

He sobered slightly. “Sarcalla.”

“How’d you meet her?”

“She was the daughter of my mother’s friend. I was in warrior training then, but would come home to the Golden City when we were on break. I had just come of age. Though technically, warriors in training are not allowed to have relations with females, I broke those rules for her.”

“Was she your first?” Erin asked.

Jaxor swallowed. “Tev.”

Sarcalla had been his first everything. Everything had seemed so new, so exciting. Because Jaxor had been due back to Otala for warrior training the following lunar cycle, they hadn’t had much time together. Every moment with her had seemed perfect, yet bitter because he knew their time would end.

“What happened?” Erin asked next.

Jaxor blew out a sharp breath and met her eyes. “Before I returned to warrior training, I caught her trying to slip underneath my brother’s furs.”

Her lips pressed together, understanding dawning in her gaze.

“Once I confronted her, she tried to say she’d gotten confused, that she thought his sleeping platform had been mine. But I knew better. She’d wanted him all along. I had been the means to get her closer to him,” Jaxor finished, remembering that night. Remembering Vaxa’an, angry at Sarcalla on Jaxor’s behalf. Sarcalla had believed that Vaxa’an wouldn’t have turned her away, but Jaxor knew his brother would never betray him in that way, especially knowing his feelings for her.

But Sarcalla had wanted to bed the future Prime Leader…not the future Prime Leader’s brother.

“I’m sorry,” Erin said, her melodic voice floating over the fire. “That must’ve been awful, to be betrayed like that by someone you loved.”

Jaxor shook his head. “Looking back, I do not know what I felt for her, if it was just lust or the excitement of being young and foolish. Maybe it was not even love.”

Erin regarded him, her expression serious yet calm. She looked at him almost…gently.

“I teach young children on Earth,” she started, sliding her arms over her knees. “That’s my job. And over the years, I’ve seen all sorts of things, all sorts of interactions, but one thing I will always remember is this little boy named Nate and a girl named Julie. Nate was convinced he loved her and she was convinced that she loved him…and that’s what they told everyone who would listen. And all the teachers would smile about it, thinking it was a silly, young kind of love. Because when you’re that young, how do you even know what love is?

“One day, Nate got hurt during recess and Julie immediately went to comfort him. She hugged him and bandaged his knee and fussed over him and even started crying herself, seeing him so upset. And looking at them both, I thought, why did everyone doubt they loved each other? It doesn’t even have to be romantic love. If they said they felt love in that moment, then they did. Everyone has this grand idea of love, that it can’t be something unless it’s a specific, intense feeling. But you can love someone for a short period of time and it doesn’t make it any less real. If you love someone in a single moment, then that feeling is valid, isn’t it?”

Erin gave Jaxor a small, sad smile, regarding him over the fire. Jaxor’s heart was beating like a war drum in his chest as he watched her.

“So maybe you don’t think you loved her after all. But maybe you loved her in little bits and pieces along the way.”

Jaxor wondered if she’d loved any male in ‘little bits and pieces’ as her words sank in. As her meaning sank in. He looked at her steadily, feeling that finally, he understood a small part of her.

“And you, rixella?” he murmured, his voice raspy and soft. “Have you ever loved someone in singular moments?”

A soft laugh tumbled from her throat, the sound husky. She paused, like she’d done last night when he asked her what bad thing she wanted to do. She bit her lip, looking at him.

“Maybe I loved you a little bit last night, when you looked so ridiculous with a little tuft of your hair cut, when the rest of it was long,” she teased, making his heart pump even more ferociously in his chest.

Jaxor growled, amusement welling in his chest. He thought, with stunningly bright clarity, that he wanted to kiss her again, right then. That he would last less than a span after declaring that morning that nothing would happen between them again.

Fool.Did he honestly think he—

He saw something out of the corner of his eye, behind her.

Jaxor stood suddenly, his eyes narrowing on the thin stream of curling grey smoke in the distance. It was lifting higher and higher in the sky on that clear night.

“Jaxor?” she questioned, frowning, craning her neck around quickly to see what he saw. “What is it?”

It was a message, only for Jaxor. Beyond the walls of the crater and between two of the mountains of the Pass of the Kokillix, he saw the beckoning, the calling. He’d seen the smoke every so often, sometimes during the day, sometimes during the night. But it always meant one thing.

The Mevirax had come…

And they wanted to speak to him.