The Alien’s Seduction by Zoey Draven
Chapter Sixteen
For perhaps the first time in his life span, Cruxan was in agony over a female.
He was brooding. He knew it. But he felt dozens of emotions at once as he watched his female sleep, curled on the cold stone of the facev cave, curled in on herself, close to the fire he kept roaring.
He felt shame because he could not provide the things he wanted for her: warm clothes, plush furs, a feast of Luxirian braised meats, a hot soak in the washing pool with luxurious oils and soaps.
He felt need. The need to be close to her, to touch her soft, delicate skin when he wished, to hold her in the safety of his arms, to breathe in the scent of her hair, to be seated deep inside her, nothing between them.
He felt disappointment because it was clear that she wanted none of those things from him. She did not have the need for those things, not like he did. They were not matched in that aspect, concerning sex and touch.
He felt unease because she was so certain that there was no future for them. She wouldn’t even spare it a thought, wouldn’t even consider the possibility. And if she didn’t, how would he ever convince her to stay? What could he offer her when she’d made it clear she wanted nothing from him?
So, he brooded. Seated on the floor of the facev, he continued to craft small coverings for his female’s feet. He whittled down the sheets of bark from the pillerva trees until they were pliable, soft, and yet strong. He twined threads of white moss together, making cordage to secure the flat soles of the bark to her feet.
They would be leaving the pillerva forest behind soon. The mountain range was giving way to the western lands of Kroratax and while the western lands were still lush with forests, their floors would not be covered with moss. His female would need protection, just in case.
He crafted them late into the night as his luxiva slept soundly. Outside, he heard the rain pouring down, but there was no thunder that night. And while there was a chill in the cave, the fire held it at bay.
His eyes couldn’t stay away from her for long, though, truthfully, it pained him to look at her. Control wasn’t something he knew well, not like Lihvan’s control or Vaxa’an’s control. Cruxan, on the other hand, liked to express his desires, his wants. He relished a good fight in the training pits, when he was unleashed and free. He savored a good mating with a female, where he was unleashed and free in a different way.
But Cruxan found himself exercising control, not only over his body, but over his words as well. Especially after his mistake from earlier that evening, when Crystal had shut down on him after a careless comment.
He didn’t know what he was doing. He’d only ever had pleasure partners, never truly wanting something deeper. He’d never had trouble winning over females, but Cruxan feared that the female that mattered most…he would never be able to win, no matter what he did.
It was rare when a fated mate partnership broke. Usually only in death did that bond break. Cruxan could think of only two instances where fated mates chose to leave the other.
Of those two instances…it hadn’t ended well. They’d become shells of their former selves, forever tethered to another being, always wanting, always needing them, forever mourning.
For fated mate partnerships that were broken in death…well, the remaining one usually chose to willingly follow their mate to the blackworld.
So, he wondered, as he stared into the flames, his gaze flickering to his female every so often, what would become of him if Crystal chose to leave, if she never accepted their partnership?
The thought was a grim one.
Now more than ever, he wished he could speak with his warrior brothers. All of them had won over their human females, all of them had convinced them to stay, to create a life with them on Luxiria. Fates, Kat, Vaxa’an’s luxiva, was due to give birth to their first offspring any moment now, if she hadn’t already.
I can win her, he thought suddenly, his gaze hardening with determination. I must.
It might be the hardest battle of his life span—of which, there had been many—but it was the most important one, one he couldn’t lose.
Or else it might just cost him everything.
Cruxan’s resolve hardened. His shoulders straightened. He didn’t know how, but he would. What he lacked in control, he made up for it in sheer determination and persistence.
A small sound came from his female and his chest actually ached at how that sound threaded through him. His chest ached at how lovely she was, her face soft and golden from the light of the fire, her hair illuminated by it.
His claws curled, pricking his palms.
Then he froze, his nostrils flaring.
A sweet, heady, familiar scent was beginning to permeate the small space of the cave. A scent that made his belly tighten, that made his cock thicken and harden even more in the confines of his leg coverings, if possible.
She wants to mate, his Instinct purred in his mind.
His eyes dilated as that scent thickened and he groaned out loud, helpless to its pull.
In his mind’s eye, he went to her. He imagined pushing up the now-dry tunic she wore until it was bunched around her waist. He imagined widening her shapely thighs and waking her up with his tongue deep inside her cunt. She would arch into him, her eyes would flash open, and she’d smile with wicked realization before she’d moan.
And she would cum on his tongue, but he wouldn’t stop there. He would do so much more to her, until she pleaded with him to stop or her exhaustion won out.
Vrax!
His breath was coming in rough pants, but he kept his muscles tightly bunched, controlled.
He hated that word now. Absolutely despised it.
But without that control, he knew that he would frighten her away. She’d been more open with him since that morning. He didn’t want to ruin the progress they’d made, so he forced himself to sit still.
It was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, especially when that soft little sound she’d made slowly turned into a moan.
Thick and hard. He was so thick and so hard.
Blue eyes and golden skin, all around her. And inside her, she felt that glorious pressure, felt the glorious slide of him as he pistoned his hips between her splayed thighs.
“More,” she urged, clawing at his back, trying to press him closer. “Please!”
His grin was slow and languid. Maddening male. He took his sweet time and she felt every long, deliberate thrust like a brand, like he wanted her to remember it forever.
She would. She would remember everything about him forever.
He dipped his head and she knew what he wanted. He wanted his kiss. She craned her neck but before their lips touched, she turned her head and whispered in his ear, “More. And then you can have whatever you want.”
His dark growl made victory sing in her chest. Those blue eyes darkened into black and she felt the power she desperately craved in his next thrust.
Yes!
He gave her more. He gave her what she wanted and she felt her pleasure rise to unfathomable heights.
“Now, give me what is mine, luxiva,” he growled above her, emphasizing his dark words with a teeth-clattering thrust.
With a cry, she kissed him, paying him his due. Her mind spun at how good it was. His lips were surprisingly soft, pliant and when his tongue met hers, she moaned. When his tongue dragged across the roof of her mouth, goosebumps broke out over her flesh.
“I love that,” she breathed into him.
“I know.”
His voice morphed and something made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. His thrusts became harder, more savage, and she sucked in a breath, pushing at his shoulder. A sharp pain made her frown, made her teeth clench.
“Cruxan, stop,” she said. “You’re hurting me.”
Except it wasn’t Cruxan. She saw golden, short hair, large brown eyes, and a smile she’d once thought beautiful.
“You like it like this,” Leo rasped. “You always have. Don’t pretend.”
Crystal toreherself out of her dream with sudden nausea churning in her belly.
With a trembling hand, she pushed up from the stone floor of the mountain cave, her eyes immediately darting around, looking for Cruxan.
Only he wasn’t there.
Before panic could set in, she heard him, near the mouth of the cave, sitting out on the ledge. In the pouring rain. “I am here, female.”
“What...” She swallowed, trying to calm her racing heart. “What are you doing out there? You’re getting all wet.”
She could barely make him out in the darkness. Though she was warm from the fire, though her clothes, skin, and hair were now completely dry, she shivered, chilled, from the memory of the dream.
Her belly still churned but now that she knew it’d only been a bad dream, her nausea abated slightly.
“Go back to sleep, luxiva,” he said. He was turned so that his bare back was against the wall on the ledge, but even still, rain poured down onto him.
“Come inside, Cruxan,” she urged, brows furrowing.
He hesitated and then said, in a dark growl, one so reminiscent of her dream that her breath hitched, “I cannot.”
She frowned but then realization made her freeze. Despite how the ending of her dream had changed, she felt arousal coat the insides of her thighs. Because she’d been aroused by the first part of her dream. By him. She’d been aroused by warm, heavy flesh, the flash of blue eyes, that languid, wicked grin.
Her cheeks flamed, brighter than the fire, and she squeezed her thighs together.
He’d scented it. It had become too overwhelming so he’d moved outside for fresh air, though the rain was icy and unrelenting.
“Who did you dream of, luxiva?” he rasped, his voice sounding almost as tormented as the picture he made.
Something in her chest tugged. Something that was restless inside her, wanting and needing to…soothe him. But why?
“No one,” she whispered, needing, instead, to keep that boundary, that wall between them. Even still, she pushed up from her warm spot on the floor of the cave and approached the entrance.
She shivered underneath his thick and heavy shirt. Her own tunic was still laid out by the fire. She’d switched them out before going to sleep and by the looks of it, it too was dry.
Even from inside the cave, she could feel the bitterness of outside. The biting chill.
“Cruxan,” she murmured, her eyes taking him in. He was soaked through unnecessarily. “Will you please come back inside?”
Even though she didn’t want to, even though she tried to fight it, she felt something for him. A knowing, perhaps. She wanted to know that he was warm and safe. It made her uneasy to see him this way.
“Only if you tell me,” he rasped.
She sucked in a breath. He sought a bargain?
Crystal frowned, but then said, “Then I have no choice but to join you out here.”
It was too dark to make out his expression, but she didn’t wait for it. She took a step out of the shelter of their warm cave, felt the icy sting of rain on her bare leg.
Then she heard a growl and, suddenly, Cruxan was up and steering her back inside, his hands on her shoulders. He moved so quickly, so fast for someone so large.
Surprised by their sudden proximity, Crystal could do nothing but look up at him. He was drenched, his dark hair inky, plastered to the sides of his neck, his shoulders. His broad chest was slick with the rain. The fire’s light glinted in his blue eyes, giving him an otherworldly appearance, like a warrior god from fantasy.
“You just answered me,” he murmured down to her, the torment gone from his voice, replaced with something that sounded an awful lot like relief.
“What do you mean?”
“If it had been anyone else, you would have told me gladly,” he said. “Your stubbornness proved it.”
Highhanded male!
Her eyes narrowed and she couldn’t help but challenge, “Proved what?”
Cruxan grinned, though he was soaked to the bone. His hands drifted down her shoulders, down her arms, to her wrists, where he encircled them easily in his giant palms.
“That you were dreaming of me.”
She snatched her wrists back, ignoring the tingling, pleasant sensation he’d left in his wake. Turning her back to him, she returned to the fire, needing space desperately.
“You’re full of it,” she returned, though the words were tinged in hesitation and not nearly as biting as she would’ve hoped.
By the flaring of his nostrils, she knew that her arousal still lingered in the air. His horns were straightened, she noticed. The sight made her nervous, but not in that panicked way she’d felt before.
“Why is it that you will not admit it?” he asked quietly, tilting his head, crouching next to the fire as steam began to rise off his magnificent form.
“There’s nothing to admit.”
“Because you are afraid of what I will do if I know the truth?” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken.
He’d hit the nail on the head and she dropped her gaze to the steady flames, watched as Cruxan added more dried bark onto them.
Her silence was answer enough and she found she simply didn’t have the energy to deny it.
“You have nothing to fear from me, luxiva. In time, you will come to know this as complete truth.”
The way he said the words, with absolute conviction, made her meet his gaze.
“Men say that,” she whispered, “all the time, don’t they? Until they decide they are done waiting and then they aren’t so honest after all.”
His expression went serious. Quiet. His jaw clenched and unclenched.
“I wish,” he said after a moment, “that every male that has ever harmed you could be lined up in front of me. Right here.”
Her lips parted and she blinked.
“Because I want nothing more than to end them all.”
The intensity of his gaze, the brutality of his words should have appalled her. It should’ve disturbed her.
But it didn’t.
Neither did his possessiveness, which was directed straight at her. It should’ve. It didn’t.
“I am an honest male, luxiva,” he said quietly. “You have no reason to believe me, but I have not told you a lie yet.”
“Everyone lies.”
“I do,” he murmured, “but not to you. Never to you. Mostly, I lie to myself. Not even to others.”
“Then tell me a truth you wouldn’t ordinarily want me to know,” she said, wanting to prove her point, to test him.
His brow cocked, but instead of the trepidation she’d expected, she got determination instead.
“Ask me whatever you wish,” he said, rocking back into a seated position against the wall of the cave, his knee coming up, his arm draping across it. The picture of ease. “Leave nothing unturned, luxiva.”
