The Alien’s Seduction by Zoey Draven

Chapter Eleven

It felt strange, Crystal decided, to be in the wilderness of Luxiria. Not simply because it was an alien planet, an alien experience for that matter, but simply because she was outside. Getting fresh air, moving her body, looking around at nature instead of staring down at her tablet, in their domed house.

She was tired. She was even a little winded and they’d only been walking on a flat surface for a couple hours now. It wasn’t like they were hiking up the mountain range, or heaven forbid, running.

It embarrassed her a little. Crystal had never been the athletic type. She’d never been the thin girl who played sports in school. She’d always been on the chubby side, though she’d lost a lot of weight when she’d been with Leo, a little of which she’d put back on after Leo.

She hadn’t been to the gym in ages and for the last month—maybe even two or three months now, she couldn’t say for certain—she’d been, well, away from Earth.

This was the most exercise she’d had in a long time and it embarrassed her that Cruxan could hear her ragged breaths. Especially considering he was obviously in the prime of his life and possibly the most physically fit being she’d ever seen.

The forest was huge, she quickly realized. After discovering that Cruxan’s hovercraft was gone, they’d backtracked to where they’d made camp the night before and went beyond it, following the curve of the mountains to their right, which towered overhead, blocking out the sunlight, creating a chill that was hard to shake.

She was grateful that he’d given her his shirt. It had been kind of him and truthfully, Crystal didn’t know how to deal with kind males.

They’d been walking in silence ever since they’d left Jaxor’an’s sandcraft, but Crystal’s stomach suddenly decided to break it, growling loudly.

Pressing a hand to her belly, she peeked a glance up at Cruxan, hoping he hadn’t heard it…before remembering that he probably would have heard it had she been a mile away.

Damn.

She hadn’t eaten since Jaxor’an had given them some dried meat the night before. But that had been all she’d eaten yesterday, just two dried strips before she couldn’t stomach his food anymore, nervous and scared about what he’d intended for them.

So, it was no surprise her body was making its needs known now.

Cruxan pulled up short, glancing back at her. She’d been trailing him for the last couple hours, right on his heels. She’d spent most of the time trying not to admire his back…or his ass for that matter. But it had been difficult.

He broke the silence between them when he said, “Give me the dagger, female.”

She blinked before looking down at it, still clenched in her hand. She’d been carrying it for so long that she’d, frankly, forgotten about it.

“Why?” she asked, even as she hesitantly handed it over.

“To find you food,” he said.

“Oh,” she mumbled, biting her lip. “It’s okay. I can wait until we make camp somewhere.”

Cruxan tilted his head back to the canopy of trees, looking up past the edged cliffs of the mountain overhead, to the sky. The color of which hadn’t changed since that morning, which she thought was odd.

“There may be a storm tonight,” he said, looking back at her. “I can scent it forming in the air. It would be smart to make camp early and replenish our bodies for tomorrow.”

Had he noticed how physically drained she was? she wondered.

“A storm?” she asked, looking up at the sky, though she didn’t sense what he did.

“Do not worry, female,” he murmured. “I will keep you safe.”

Crystal’s gaze cut to the ground, her heart speeding up at those words. “I can handle a storm,” was all she thought to say.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his lips quirk.

“But can you handle me, luxiva?” he asked, his voice like a purr.

Her eyes went wide.

Before she could reply, she saw his eyes focus on something behind her. Suddenly, the dagger went flying out of his hand, stirring the air next to her. She gasped, but heard the dagger make contact with something, a few yards away from them.

Gaping in disbelief, she watched him walk over to where he’d thrown the dagger and to her astonished amazement, she saw a small, black creature, with feathery antennas and long spindly legs, impaled cleanly on its sharp end.

Cruxan jerked his blade from the poor creature, murmuring something over its still body, before lumbering back to her.

Crystal blinked up at him, her gaze going from him to the animal and back. She still couldn’t believe how quickly he’d done that, how efficiently. She hadn’t even realized there were creatures like that in the forest. She’d never heard or even seen one.

But Cruxan had. Of course he had.

He told her, “Now, let us find a suitable camp so I can feed my female.”

It was stilllight outside when they found a camp. Well, when Cruxan found a camp. Crystal was not exactly the outdoorsy type, so she wouldn’t know what to look for. But Cruxan did.

He selected a place closer to the mountain range, wedged right up next to it. There a small spot with a rocky overhang that might shield them from rain. Cruxan had inspected the area for long moments before he nodded and said, “Here for the night.”

Then he set to work. Crystal watched him with a strange fascination as he started work on a fire with the materials he’d been gathering along the way. In no time at all, just like the previous night, it roared to life. Next, he took the dagger over to the wall of the mountain and chiseled out a small slab, which he laid close to the flames.

Then he turned to look at her. “I will need to find water gourds. I will return shortly.”

“Let me help,” Crystal said, already rising to her aching feet. She was thankful that the forest floor was so soft with moss, considering she was still barefoot.

“Nix,” he murmured. “Rest. Tend the fire. I will not be gone long.”

He left before she could protest.

Tend the fire. The fire was roaring, in no danger of going out. Even still, a little while later, she threw one of the strips of pillerva bark he’d gathered onto the flames, just to feel like she was doing something. She watched it blacken and curl and crisp.

Crystal shivered, even underneath Cruxan’s shirt. It was getting colder and goosebumps broke out over her exposed legs. She wondered about Erin, about how she was feeling, hoping that the male was treating her well.

While she stared at the flames, she thought back to her earlier suspicions about that male. Jaxor’an. How his attention had been a little too drawn on Erin, how he’d seemed pulled by her. Unwillingly so.

Was it possible he thought Erin was his mate? Erin had shown no signs of recognition, no awareness.

Not like I do, her treacherous mind whispered.

She straightened, pushing that thought away.

A crunch to her right made her whip her head and she found Cruxan reentering their small clearing, his arms laden with so many things.

He’d been studying her, she realized, when she’d been lost in thought.

“What do you think of, female?” he asked softly, crouching by the fire, next to her, depositing all his new supplies next to their pile of bark.

She licked her dry lips, aware of how close he was to her. She didn’t want to tell him she’d been thinking about him, about what she felt around him.

Instead, she asked, “Do you think that male—Jaxor’an—would hurt Erin?”

“Nix,” Cruxan replied immediately, which surprised her.

“How would you know that? Do you know him?”

When Cruxan had first entered the clearing last night, where Jaxor’an had kept them, they’d spoken. Though it had been in Luxirian, there was a strained familiarity there, as if they’d been well-acquainted in the past.

“Tev,” Cruxan said, placing strange-looking rounded bulbs close to the fire, like he had the chiseled piece of stone from the mountain. “We were friends once.”

That made her start. “You were?”

“Jaxor’an is Vaxa’an’s only blood brother.”

“What?” she whispered, shocked at the news. “But—but Vaxa’an is the Prime Leader.”

“And Jaxor’an is theoretically next in line, if something ever happened to Vaxa’an, if he never had offspring.”

“I don’t understand,” she said quietly. “Why would he kidnap us then?”

“Shortly after the Plague hit Luxiria, after Vaxa’an and Jaxor’an lost their mother and sire, Jaxor’an left the Golden City. Perhaps he was driven by grief or anger or both…but he left. It was rumored he went to seek out the Mevirax, though why, we do not know. That was the last time any of us had seen him.”

“Until yesterday,” Crystal finished for him, looking over at him, her lips parting in realization.

He inclined his head, those blue eyes rapt on her. “Tev.”

“People can change,” Crystal whispered softly. From what she’d pieced together through conversations she’d heard about the Plague, it had happened over ten years ago. “Ten years can change someone. How can you say for certain he won’t hurt her? You might not know the person he’s become.”

Something shifted in Cruxan’s gaze, making her wonder what he was thinking. “He will not, female.”

“But he’d been about to hand us off to the Mevirax,” she argued.

“He would not have,” Cruxan said simply.

“How can you know that?”

“Because Jaxor’an’s Instinct awakened for Erin. She is his mate.”

Crystal let out a small breath, her suspicions forming into a truth. Her shoulders sagged, though truthfully, a part of her was relieved. From what she’d heard, Luxirian males doted on their females. Hell, from what she’d seen in her own friends and their males, she knew it was true.

Perhaps Erin was in no danger from him.

Still…she was out there. Alone with him. Who knows what could happen.

“You are not surprised to learn this,” Cruxan commented, studying her.

Crystal pressed her lips together before meeting his gaze. “He was…he seemed struck by her,” Crystal confessed.

Cruxan’s head dipped. It took her a little while to realize that she was staring at him, staring at the warm, knowing expression that came over his features. Startled, she cleared her throat and turned her head back to the fire.

Changing the subject, gesturing to the strange bulbs he’d found, she asked, “What are those?”

His look told her that Cruxan knew what she was doing, but she was relieved when he said, “Water gourds. Though they are a rare variation I have not seen much.”

Cruxan lifted the creature he’d killed earlier, taking up the dagger which laid between them. Crystal knew that this was how it was done. Still, it was hard to watch him skin and clean the meat, though he made quick, expert work of it.

Soon, he laid out thin fillets of the reddish purple meat onto the mountain stone he’d been heating close to the fire. It immediately sizzled, cooking, the smell making her stomach growl once more.

Cruxan took one of the bulbs from the fire and cut a small notch at the top. Then he poured it over his bloodied hands, cleaning up. Once emptied, he tossed it to the side and notched another.

He handed it over to her. “Drink, female.”

Crystal hesitantly took it from his hands. She looked at it warily, remembering that the liquid he’d used to wash his hands looked a little cloudy. “Is it safe?”

“Tev,” he said. “Would you like me to drink from it first?”

She relaxed a little and shook her head. The only way to know was to try it and considering there wouldn’t be bottled water or a drinking fountain out here, she figured she couldn’t be too picky.

Hesitantly, she placed her lips over the notch he’d made and lifted the bulb up. She made a sound of surprise when the water hit her tongue. “It’s sweet,” she exclaimed when she pulled away.

He’d been watching her, something in his gaze that she didn’t want to linger over. But then he frowned and asked, “Is that bad?”

“No,” she said. “It’s just surprising.”

“It is a rare variation,” he repeated. “It tastes different than other water gourds. Luxirians do not prefer the taste. Do you?”

“Yes,” she said. Now that she thought about it, Luxirian food had no sweeteners. It was mostly meat based, with tart fruits instead of sweet ones. Huh. Luxirians didn’t like sugar, she supposed.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Cruxan plucked a gourd from the fire’s edge, notched it, and drank. For a moment, she was transfixed, watching him. The column of his throat was strong and long and it bobbed as he drank.

At the taste, he grimaced once he emptied the gourd and the expression on his face brought an unexpected chuckle out of her, surprising even her.

Cruxan’s face softened when he heard it, which made her heart thump.

“I guess you don’t like sweet things,” she commented, taking another sip from the bulb. It was delicious and she was already eyeing another one.

“I like sweet things,” he corrected, but his tone made her blush. He wasn’t talking about food or drinks.

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

“I should turn the meat,” she mumbled, edging around the fire, slightly away from him. She took one of the pillerva bark pieces, using it as a spatula to flip the meat over as best as she could.

Luckily, Cruxan didn’t try and flirt with her anymore as she cooked the meat, watching it like her life depended on it. After a tense moment, he turned and went to rustle through the other materials he’d brought back with him.

After he sorted through them, he took a long black stem, one from a plant she briefly remembered seeing on their walk that day. He sliced it open with one of his claws, revealing sticky, clear juice inside.

His gaze came up to her. “Come here, luxiva.”

Her breath hitched. When she made no move towards him, his lips quirked and he came to her, crouching in front of her next to the fire.

He dipped his finger into the sticky substance and moved to touch her face, her forehead, where she’d cut herself.

“You shouldn’t call me that.” The words were out of her mouth before she even realized what she said.

His finger paused. His gaze went from her forehead and it snapped down to her eyes. They were close. So close that it made her dizzy with want and nerves. In his eyes, she could see how his irises shifted between blues. Some threads were light, some were so dark they looked black. She found she couldn’t look away, though everything in her screamed that she needed to.

“It is what you are to me,” was what he said in reply, quietly.

The fire crackled loudly next to them and Crystal swallowed, feeling like she couldn’t get enough air.

“I already told you—”

“That you do not seek anything, even sex, with me,” he finished for her, though he frowned as he said it.

Gently, he smoothed his fingertip, cool and sticky with the substance, over the cut on her forehead. For a brief moment, she closed her eyes.

What would it be like? What would it be like with him? She’d had one terrible, toxic relationship in her lifetime. But then she looked around at her friends, at the women she considered sisters, who were loved and cherished by their mates. Crystal could admit to herself that she’d been envious. Deeply envious because she’d never known love like that. Only familial love. Leo might have loved her once, but it was a terrible, dark love that she should never have wanted in the first place.

She didn’t want to be this way. Always guarded around males. Always suspicious. With her female friends, she felt like herself. She liked who she was because there were no walls around her then, no pressures. What would it be like if she could be that way with a male who claimed he was her own mate?

Tears pricked the corners of her eyes at the thought and to her mortification, one escaped and rolled down her cheek.

Cruxan made a gruff sound and his finger paused on her skin.

“Luxiva,” he murmured, his tone anguished. “What is this?”

“Please,” she whispered, looking at him. “Please.”

She didn’t even know what she was begging for.

His brow furrowed.

“I can’t give you what you want, Cruxan,” she finally whispered.

“You do not know what I want, female,” was his soft reply.

Her breath hitched. Something passed between them, though she couldn’t say what, and the moment felt entirely too intimate and she felt entirely too vulnerable.

The scent of burning meat met her nostrils and she turned away, taking her bark spatula and flipping the fillets over again. The world seemed to rush in around her, as if being close to Cruxan, staring into those pretty eyes, had made it all disappear.

And, as if life resumed, that was when the rains began.