Princess for the Alien Commander by Tammy Walsh

Sofia

The strong scentof an alien flower I couldn’t put a name to—never mind pronounce—took up residence on the cool wind and whipped my hair about my face.

“Come on, Camila!” I said, calling over my shoulder in her direction. “Nature isn’t going to wait around all day!”

Camila was a poor okmath rider and struggled to stay in the saddle.

She had no concept of the creature’s movements, that you had to adapt yourself to it.

“I’ve been alive sixty-seven years and nature, as my aching back will tell you, is always there.”

I threw back my head and barked a laugh.

“Nature isn’t always painful!”

“It is in my experience.”

Taking a ride into the neighboring forest had been my idea.

I was on top of the world, the most intimate and seedy moments from last night seemingly stuck on replay in the theater of my mind.

There was no highlight reel because the entire event was the highlight!

Last night was without a doubt one of the best of my entire life.

All my fears had melted away, allowing me to enjoy being with Ikmale exclusively, realizing that none of the rumors about the kauah were true.

They weren’t the dangerous creatures I’d been warned about my entire life.

Quite the opposite in fact!

They were more caring and considerate than many humans!

How had we gotten their species so wrong? I wondered.

It was, of course, no mystery.

Having a monster living on your doorstep could be very beneficial for getting your subjects to do what you wanted.

So long as they knew something worse was out there, something darker and more deadly, they would obey your every command.

Of course, my father hadn’t been the one to come up with the idea of a handy neighborhood monster, but he’d encouraged it, making lepers of the kauah when there were none to be found.

Ikmale was a vicious monster…

But only in one place.

My cheeks blossomed red and I hastily hurried over the hilltop and down the other side to prevent Camila from seeing it.

It would take just one glance for her to know exactly what was passing through my mind.

That was if she didn’t know already!

I sometimes thought the woman was a witch.

Much like Ikmale holding me in his arms.

Only he could satisfy me.

I’d never known a lover with such stamina, had never known any human male with the ability to keep up with me.

Ikmale not only kept up but surpassed me on multiple occasions.

My pussy ached pleasantly like after a rigorous workout at the gym.

Only, he was my gym.

I had climbed all over him, using him any way I saw fit.

And he had used me the same way.

I had loved it, reveled in every intense moment of it.

Best of all, he hadn’t had to leave early and slink back to his bed across the hall.

We were meant to be a married couple, after all.

I’m sure some of the servants must have been wagging their tongues already at the crumpled bedsheets of his bedroom down the hall, wondering why he hadn’t simply spent the night with me.

If we were lucky, they would have thought it was some kind of strange human tradition.

Now, at least, it would end their gossiping.

Not that that had been at the forefront of my mind last night!

Even now, thinking about it sent chills up my spine.

Ikmale was insatiable, desiring me every moment of the night, never letting go.

Incredible. Amazing.

Majestic.

I pulled my okmath to a halt.

He reached back and rolled his tongue at me.

Nuis was not Deet but had his own quirky personality.

For some reason, he liked to veer left even when I instructed him to head straight.

It wasn’t even because there was any juicy vegetation on that side of the forest.

He seemed to just like veering that way.

A simple tug of the reins and he straightened up once again.

That was when I noticed where I was.

It was a natural open clearing with pockmarks across the surface where, until recently, pegs had been driven into the ground.

The tents that’d been set up here were no longer present and nature had yet to fully reclaim the area.

It was the spot where Ikmale had set up his command tent in the forest, where we had met for the first time.

Where we had kissed for the first time.

I had felt his toned body press against mine, seen that flash of cold heat in his eyes, and felt the magic of being in his presence.

I could see us standing there now, with me turning to head out of the tent, and him snagging my arm and yanking me back toward him.

Caught in the embrace of his massive arms, there had been no hope of escape.

Not that I had wanted one.

After he pressed his lips to mine, I didn’t want to leave.

It was merely a taster of the pleasures yet to come.

The feel of him entering me and the intense pleasure as he slammed hard inside me took me to places I had never visited before.

I had insisted on tasting him not only in my pussy but in my mouth.

I enjoyed the sweet flavor of him—sweeter even than ripe fruit!—and wondered if there was anything about him that would repel me.

Tonight, I would push him hard to see where his limits lay.

I giggled to myself at my self-imposed challenge.

“What are you chuckling to yourself about?” Camila said, breathing hard at the exertion to keep up with me.

She tugged on the reins like she were a puppet master pulling at the doll’s strings.

She never learned to be subtle with the creatures, to trust them to know what they were doing, just as they trusted her to know what she was doing.

But of course, she didn’t know what she was doing!

Ikmale, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing when he rode me…

The blood rushed to my face again and I wafted a hand as if I were hot too.

“Are you exhausted as well?” Camila said. “I’m glad to hear it! For a moment there, I thought you were a machine—”

Her eyes clapped on mine and the gradual progression of her realization might have been drawn on the pages of a child’s comic book.

From confusion to curiosity, then the bending of her grey flecked brows into mild surprise, to genuine shock.

“What?” I said. “What is it?”

Camila shook her head.

“For a moment there, I thought you were the machine. Perhaps I misplaced my suspicions. Maybe he’s the true machine about these parts.”

I tugged my hat down to cover my face.

I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t stay there another moment.

I jabbed my heels gently into Nuis’s flanks and he bolted forward into the undergrowth.

“You can run but you can’t hide!” Camila bellowed after me. “You’ll have to tell me the details sooner or later!”

I choose later!

Her cackle nipped at my heels as I rushed through the undergrowth as fast as my okmath would take me.

I knew she would find out!

I knew she would work her magic and unpick the truth of what’d happened last night!

Still, a smile rose to my cheeks.

Even if I was a little embarrassed, at least it wouldn’t last forever.

I turned and lead Nuis down the hillside and across a narrow stream before heading up the opposite bank.

I intended on returning to the clearing to sweep up behind Camila and give her the fright of her life when I heard the undergrowth snap beneath a creature’s clumsy footfalls.

Probably just a kauah scouting party, I thought.

Still, I was nervous and didn’t like to be out there alone.

After all, not all of the kauah knew who I was yet.

They might think I was a spy again.

But rather than running away from them, I decided to confront them.

If I explained who I was calmly, they might act more rationally.

The foliage shook and the leaves parted.

Immediately, my fears rushed back to greet me and flooded me with concern.

The face that peered through the broad leaves wasn’t the face of a kauah.

It wasn’t even the face of a human.

It was the face of a dras.

They were ugly creatures with hard brown shell-like skin that covered their body like armor plating.

The eyes were black slits and in place of the kauah’s horns, they had thin antennae which flicked side to side, betraying the emotions that an expression on a human or kauah’s face might have done.

I knew more about the dras than I would ever willingly choose to know.

They were a species of pirates who attacked defenseless colonies without remorse, the same way they’d attacked Greyang during their five year-long siege.

I knew better than to tangle with them.

“Here! She’s over here!” the creature yelled.

I turned Nuis around on the spot and immediately descended back down the hill.

I sprinted along the stream, knowing it must link up to the clearing I’d come across only moments earlier.

I hunched my shoulders and leaned down low in the saddle, working my arms and legs to help Nuis speed through the undergrowth quickly.

The foliage ahead crashed as a sharp blade sliced through a hanging branch, sending it crashing to the ground in my path.

I yanked on Nuis’s reins to slow down and head around the obstruction but he was going too fast.

I changed tack and jammed my heels in his flanks to force him forward and jump over it instead.

The mixed messages served only to confuse poor Nuis.

He performed half a turn and half a jump, barely managing to clear the fallen branch.

As he landed, he twisted, and I was thrown from his saddle.

I struck the ground hard but thankfully had plenty of training for such scenarios and used the momentum to roll up onto my feet.

I could have continued to sprint on foot and leave him behind but as the dras were already mounted, there would be no possibility of outpacing them.

I grabbed Nuis’s reins and tugged hard.

“Get up! Get up now!”

The brave okmath rose onto its feet but I noticed his foot was injured.

He limped lamely and I recoiled in horror.

I couldn’t ride him and he had no chance of outrunning the dras.

Running was my only chance now, and it was a poor one at best.

But I had to take it.

I turned and ran.

I made it a dozen strides before the ground shook and the dras scooped me up into his saddle.

I kicked and screamed and flailed to force myself from the alien’s grip but the dras was too strong.

The foliage slapped my face as we headed deeper into the forest and further and further from Ikmale.