The Alien’s Seduction by Zoey Draven

Chapter Fourteen

“We’re making camp already?” Crystal asked, furrowing her brow, perplexed. She glanced at the sky, though who was she kidding? She couldn’t see anything past the thick, dense fog that still permeated the air. “We’ve only been walking for a few hours.”

The landscape didn’t change during those few hours. Or, if it did, Crystal didn’t notice. They were still surrounded by the white trees and the storm from last night had littered the forest floor with their bark and branches and pods. It had also brought out long, swaying stalks from the ground, stalks that were blue, that she didn’t dare to touch though Cruxan had told her they were harmless.

Cruxan was looking at something in the distance. “I see a cave up ahead. We will be leaving the facev range soon and I fear there will be more rain tonight. I will not risk it. Not again.” He turned to regard her and for once, Crystal didn’t have the impulse to shy away from his gaze. “Besides, your coverings need drying.”

She nodded, in agreement. If there was a cave, it meant they could stay dry for the night. And if they somehow managed to get a fire going, despite the dampness of the materials around them, that would be a small miracle, one she hoped for.

It certainly didn’t help that her cold skin had already begun to chafe, despite the softness of her own tunic. Her skin was still damp, unable to dry, and her inner thighs were rubbed red from where they touched and her inner arms were beginning to throb.

“Okay,” she said, though she was torn. Another full day lost because of the storm. Another full day further from finding Erin.

But then she remembered the aching cold that had clung to her very bones the night before. She remembered how her thighs couldn’t seem to get warm, even pressed against Cruxan’s body. It only served to remind her that this wasn’t some kind of recreational camping trip. Being out in the wild lands, without proper supplies and clothing, was dangerous…especially for a human like her. Cruxan could easily survive, but not her.

If he hadn’t found her, if she’d been left alone in that place….would she have even survived until now?

That thought frightened and humbled her. She looked at Cruxan out of the corner of her eye as they made their way to the cave he spied.

When they reached it, Crystal saw it was a respectable size.

“Wait here,” Cruxan said, plucking his dagger from where she still held it in her palm.

She bit her lip, wondering if something lived in the cave. That thought definitely put her on edge. She watched helplessly as Cruxan disappeared into the darkness of the small opening, her heartbeat thrumming in her throat.

Relief washed over her when he emerged a few moments later, his dagger unused. He held out his hand to help her up onto the slightly raised ledge of the cave lip and together, they ducked inside.

It felt cool and damp within. It was too dark to see how far back the cave extended so Crystal stuck as close as she dared to Cruxan. Judging from the look he tossed over at her, that seemed to please him. She blushed, looking away, stepping away.

Clearing her throat, she asked, “Should we gather supplies?”

“Tev, but I will do it.”

“No,” Crystal said, shaking her head. She already felt like she was taking advantage of him. She wanted to help out, needed to help out. “Show me what to look for and I’ll help you.”

He must’ve heard the stubbornness about the issue in her voice because he let out a low, “Tev.”

She followed him out of the cave, back down onto the forest floor.

“The water gourds are deep in the earth,” he informed her. He pulled a thick strip of bark from the nearest pillerva tree, handing it to her. “You can use this to dig. They will usually be close the roots of the tree.”

She nodded, eager to help. Though the ground was mushy from the storm, she dropped to her bare knees at the base of one of the trees and used the thick bark to scrape away at the earth.

Meanwhile, Cruxan did the same, though she’d only made about a few inches of progress when he pulled his first gourd from the ground. She wiped at her forehead, shooting him a surprised look, but it only made her more determined.

“You’re one of those people who are just naturally good at a lot of things, aren’t you?” she huffed out, scraping at the earth with more vigor, her arm beginning ache.

His expression was all arrogance when he looked over at her. “Tev.”

She made a sound in the back of her throat, one of disbelief. “How modest you are,” she murmured.

He shrugged one of his massive shoulders. From this angle, the way he was bent over, his bared back was on full display. She’d done her best not to ogle it, which was perhaps why she’d taken to walking next to him during their trek. She didn’t want another ‘I can smell your arousal’ mishap.

But right then, she couldn’t help but watch the way his muscles pulled and shifted, how his arm flexed. In the misty fog of the forest, his skin appeared almost silver, reflecting the light around it.

That thought came again, louder than the first time:

I want to draw him.

She swallowed, though it sounded more like a gulp to her ears, drawing his attention. He paused in his work, his eyes flashing, flaring, as he took in her expression that she desperately tried to hide.

“There are many things I excel at, luxiva,” he rasped, his voice almost silky as it deepened. He actually purred as he said, “Some of which, I would be more than pleased to demonstrate for you.”

Crystal’s breath hitched, her eyes widening when she picked up on his true meaning. Her core gave a helpless throb and she muffled a small, surprised sound.

She caught Cruxan’s grin.

A little irritated, a little frightened by his potency, she averted her gaze back to the small hole in the ground she’d made, and said, “I thought we talked about this.”

“Talked about what?” he returned, his tone innocent.

She let out a short exhale through her nostrils. “Never mind.”

They lapsed back into silence, before Cruxan broke it with, “I cannot help myself. I am naturally this way with females. I apologize if it offended you.”

Crystal’s lips pressed together. She didn’t know what stung more…that she’d grown upset simply because an attractive male was flirting with her…or that Cruxan openly admitted that he flirted a lot with other females.

Leo had been a flirt too. He’d been charming and open around all women. When Crystal had met him, she’d been the awkward, chubby girl in her junior class. He’d been a freshman at the local community college, an older, handsome boy who she couldn’t believe approached her, who she couldn’t believe wanted her.

Maybe that was why she was so guarded around Cruxan…because he reminded her of Leo.

He was handsome, strong, arrogant. Leo had been all those things too…until he hadn’t been.

You said you would try to be more open with him, she reminded herself. Not as cold.

Cruxan knew nothing of what she struggled with. It wasn’t his fault that she’d made a terrible decision in her past, one she continued to pay for.

Still, she didn’t know what possessed her when she commented, “You must have a lot of females who are crazy about you then.”

For once, Crystal heard his small intake of breath. It seemed, for the first time, that he actually realized what he’d said, about flirting with numerous females, to her, his supposed ‘fated mate.’

She knew from the others that Luxirian males, once mated, were monogamous. Did Cruxan believe in that same idea? She’d also learned that there were many types of partnerships on Luxiria, even open relationships.

“Crystal…” he trailed off, though out of the corner of her eye, she saw him stop what he was doing completely, turning towards her. So it shocked her when he said, though it seemed to pain him, “There were many females.”

Crystal wasn’t entirely sure why her chest squeezed at his honest admission. But it felt an awful lot like jealousy and she had absolutely no right to feel it. He wasn’t hers. She’d told him she didn’t want a relationship, despite what they may or may not be to one another.

He was free to flirt with whomever he wanted.

At that thought, she dug at the ground a little more forcefully, her piece of bark hitting something with a gentle thud.

Not at all feeling victorious, she pulled her first water gourd from the wet earth, tossing it to the side before she moved over slightly to begin on another hole.

“They are in the past now,” he continued, still talking about his revolving door of females when she just wanted to drop it. “You must know that.”

She paused, taking the time to wipe away some of the accumulating moisture from the foggy mist from her face. When she looked over at him, she tried to keep her tone light and breezy as she said, “It’s none of my business who you choose to flirt with, or sleep with, or have a relationship with. I’m sorry I made that comment. It won’t happen again.”

Cruxan’s face darkened and her gaze flickered away. “It is your business, luxiva.”

“No, it’s—”

“Tev,” he bit out. “Just as it is my business if there are other males in your life.”

An outraged breath left her lips and she turned to stare at him in shock.

Leo had been possessive too, she couldn’t help but think.

But with Leo, she would’ve cowered, apologizing in her meek way, anything to redirect his anger, to make him soften. He’d liked when she’d begged for his forgiveness, for something that had never been her fault to begin with.

With Cruxan, she threw caution to the wind and bit out, “That’s where you’re wrong. You have no say. If I wanted to flirt and sleep with other men, it’s not your business.”

His growl was loud and his shoulders bunched with their strength. His eyes darkened at her mention of other men and it was hot anger that she saw on his face, open and unguarded.

Maybe she was testing him. She didn’t know why she’d tugged on the tiger’s tail, but maybe it was to see how he’d react.

Still, it didn’t stop her body from tensing, her shoulders from hunching, her heart speeding.

Cruxan looked away from her with a soft curse.

“We can argue about this all span and all night, luxiva,” he finally said after a lengthy moment. He seemed to put extra emphasis on luxiva. “But I will not agree with you there. Ever.”

Just that morning, they’d called a truce. And already, they’d fucked it up.

Crystal let out a shuddering breath and went back to work in silence, as Cruxan did the same.

She’d just managed to pluck another water gourd from the ground—Cruxan had a pile of five by that time—when he asked quietly, “Will you tell me something, luxiva?”

That word drifted over her skin, making her shiver. She couldn’t help but glance over at him as she asked, hesitantly, “What?”

“What is it that you want? You say you do not want a relationship with anyone, but you also say you do not want to be alone. So what do you want from your life?”

The question was so unexpected, so surprising, that the piece of bark slipped from her fingers before she fumbled to recover it.

“I...” she trailed off, not knowing, at first, how to respond. But the only thing she could think to say was, “I want to be happy. Doesn’t everyone?”

“Happiness is an emotion,” he said. “Just like anger, lust, sadness, loneliness. It comes and it goes. It is not a constant state.”

Something about the way he said those words tugged at her. Because something told her that he felt all those things…a lot. Perhaps all at the same time.

“What do you want then?” she asked instead. “If not to be happy?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Two spans ago, I would have told you that I only wanted to serve my planet. That I only wanted a good drink of Luxirian Brew at the end of a long, satisfying span.” He shot her a sheepish look. “And perhaps a female in my furs, I cannot lie about that. I am a simple male.”

His admission both amused her and made her chest squeeze with jealousy again. Still, she couldn’t fault him for being honest.

But…a couple days ago, he had met her. That was what he was trying to say.

“And now?” she asked quietly, not sure if she wanted to hear, but needing to at the same time. Her emotions had been so contradictory lately, always fighting against her, ever since she’d met Cruxan.

He went quiet for a little while and Crystal waited with bated breath. He could probably hear her heartbeat gently thudding in her chest, an idea that she found surprisingly intimate.

“I have always known that if I found my fated mate,” he began quietly, “that I would cherish her. Completely.”

Her belly quivered at those words and she swallowed the thick lump in her throat.

“But truthfully, I never believed that the Fates would gift me such a female.”

“Why?” she couldn’t help but ask. She may not understand the Luxirian’s religion well, but she knew that the Fates were their deities.

“Past mistakes,” he murmured. “My line’s mistakes. I do not come from a noble line like Vaxa’an does.”

Her brow furrowed, not sure she understood what his lineage had to do with the Fates. But she found that she lapped up the information, absorbing it like a sponge. She realized she knew next to nothing about him, though they’d been traveling together for two full days now. He hardly spoke of himself, wanting to hear her speak instead.

“It does not matter,” he continued quickly, shaking his head. “They have gifted me you and I feel that my life has shifted because of it. I want things I never imagined before.”

“Cruxan,” she said softly, an uncomfortable sensation lodging itself in her chest. “You know I’ll be leaving. When they find the missing crystal. I can’t…”

She blew out a long breath, wondering why she felt so terrible saying it loud.

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

Cruxan met her gaze and she saw it all in his eyes. All the emotions he had spoken of early, all bundled into one expression that tore at her chest.

“I know, female,” he said simply.

An apology was on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself. She had nothing to apologize for and he’d told her to stop apologizing for things that couldn’t be helped. She hadn’t asked for this. She hadn’t asked for any of this.

But it was him who had to suffer because of it. What she knew of the Luxirian Instinct was that it was a physically force, a need inside them. What would happen if that need was never satisfied?

Instead of apologizing, she said quietly, “I’ve always wanted a nice little house on a patch of land, somewhere in the country, but close enough to my sister. I want a small, bright studio where I can do my illustrations in the early mornings. I want a dog or a cat, or maybe both, because I’ve always loved animals. I don’t need many friends, but I’d like a few good ones. And at night, I want to cook a good meal and have a fire going in the fireplace so I can hear it crackling. When I go to sleep, I want to know that I’m satisfied with my day.” She didn’t know why saying these things out loud made her want to cry. “That’s the life I want.”

The way Cruxan was looking at her only made her want to cry more. He was looking at her like she’d just broken his heart and she didn’t know why.

“You make no mention of family. Of companionship. Of sex and touch,” he said, his tone morose. “Do you not believe these things are necessary for a fulfilling life?”

Tears welled and she looked back down to the third hole she’d made in the ground. She could see the top of another water gourd peeking up at her.

“What about romantic love?” she challenged, meeting his eyes again. “You don’t make mention of that, but many people would think that’s necessary for a fulfilling life.”

“I would not know,” he admitted.

So, he enjoyed the company of females, yet he’d never been in love before. She didn’t know how that realization made her feel.

“And you? Have you been in love, luxiva?” he asked next.

Her gaze slid past him, as she tried to keep the memories at bay.

“Yes,” she told him truthfully.

She plucked the water gourd from the ground with a little more force than necessary.

“And it was terrible,” she said softly. “So perhaps love isn’t necessary at all.”