Alien Romance: RAYER: Space Warrior's Mail Order Bride (Space Beasts Book 2) (12 page)

              Rayer could smell the shining finish being stripped off the body of the flight-craft.  If he was being dismissed from the ceremonial hunts then the situation was dire.  He knew as he heard the mechanical whine that he was getting close to turning the vehicle into a suicide pod.  His mate was worth the risk.

              Already planning to bale and allow the small craft to rip itself apart in the air, Rayer started the initial emergency sequence – he was still twenty minutes from the royal compound, but the exit had to be precisely timed in order to be able to land within the grounds, hopefully within the compound itself.

*

Cole stared as Graith began to strip off his extensive layers of clothing.  She refrained from thrashing even as he reached out to grope at her body in between layers of over preened silk.  The man felt the need to pose, to puff himself up as he removed each layer of clothing. 

              As the silks were peeled away, Cole realized that the man had been padding in certain areas – a mediocre attempt to get his body shape to resemble Rayer’s.  Graith was actually built lithe and lean where Rayer was a rippling powerhouse of strength and presence.  Once he stood wearing nothing but a pair of clinging leggings, Graith climbed onto the bed and moved to straddle Cole’s thighs.

             
Even if he wasn’t such an arrogant bastard, if I hadn’t made a commitment, if I didn’t like Rayer so much more – I would never have been comfortable with Graith.  The proportion between us feels so…wrong.

             
Graith lifted a gleaming blade from the bedside table.  He twirled it in between his fingers as little too close to Cole’s neck.  Instinctually, she lifted her chin to avoid getting nicked by the blade.  Graith grinned cruelly – enjoying the power he held over for the moment.  She could see him debating the possible consequences of causing her obvious, malicious injury and apparently decide the risks weren’t worth the momentary thrill. 

              Turning the blade in his hand, Graith slipped the blade into the collar of the kaftan she wore and dragged it down, slicing the material.  While he was distracted with his task, Cole worked her left wrist free of the cord binding it to the bedframe.  She felt it slip free, but didn’t move just yet – not until the knife was out of his hand.

*

Rayer pierced the barrier dome over the compound – the signature of his almost finished flight-craft allowing him to pass through without the debilitating zap that it would project otherwise.  The vehicle prepared to whiz over the compound when Rayer hit the release and was sent plummeting toward the upper courtyard.

              He drew his body into a ball and activated he protective sphere shield.  He hoped that there was no one in the dangerous zone surrounding where he was targeted to impact.  Blad would be livid over the work he was going to have to do to repair the damage Rayer was about to afflict on the courtyard.

              Involuntarily, Rayer shut his eyes as the sphere shield crashed into stone.  For a moment, he wasn’t sure that the shield would hold up, but it thankfully did.  When he was finally able to focus on something other than the sound of the numbing pound of his heart in his chest, he heard someone yelling.

              “Who do you think you are?  How dare you…Rayer?”

              Rayer deactivated the shield and dropped the two inched to the ground – a shard of demolished stonework dug into the side of his hip.

              “Father.”  Rayer greeted his father, the High King – he glanced over to a flipped over table and saw that Balkar, had been engaged in a game of Thishral with Rao, Hanneth, and Lahla.

              “You are supposed to be at the hunt with the Kaltar!”

              “I was sent back – Mother’s father saw that Coletta was in danger.  Where is she?”

              Hanneth and Rao instantly erupted, calling to various workers that had come rushing at the sound of exploding stone – they demanded answers that no one appeared able to provide.

              “Why would she be in danger?”  High King Balkar’s voice remained level, yet it was tinged with confusion.

              “I do not know.”

              “She has been having difficulty with Prince Graith, my High Lords,” Lahla interjected softly.

              Rayer, Balkar, Hanneth, and Rao all turned toward the large man.  “What are you talking about?”  Hanneth, Lahla’s mate, demanded.

              “She has been doing her best to sequester herself in the tower to avoid him.”

              “There is nowhere in the compound that Graith could hope to get away with causing Princess Coletta,” Balkar insisted.

              “No,” Rayer interrupted.  “There is one.”  Rayer and Lahla both spun toward the entrance form the high courtyard, already knowing where they were heading.  Rao, Hanneth, and even the High King raced close behind.

*

Graith set the knife aside now that he had sliced her kaftan completely open and had shoved the two halves aside to reveal her body.  Cole could see the disdain in his eyes as his gaze skimmed over her thick curves.

              “What does it matter,” she heard him mutter to himself.  “I only need you for your ability to produce a viable heir.  Maybe Earth females are like chattel – the bigger, the more likely to reproduce successfully.” 

              Thoroughly insulted, Cole waited until Graith leaned closer before she swung up and landed a hard hit to his face.  She was rewarded with the satisfying sound of collapsing firm tissue as his nose fountained blood.  While he was dazed, Cole reached to free her other hand.  Unfortunately, Graith’s broken nose failed to afford her the precious more seconds she needed.  He retaliated with a hard cuff to the side of her face.

              Snarling and spitting like a junky in need of a fix on the 45
th
floor, Graith wrapped his hands around Cole’s throat.  He would have been better off pinning her free arm.  Cole new better than to waste energy fighting off his hands on her throat, instead she repeatedly struck out with her left – she beat her fist into his face over and over, finally she turned her hand and grabbed onto his face.  Cole dug her nails into his cheek and angled her thumb to gouge into his eye.

              One of Graith’s hands lifted from her windpipe to attempt to pry her fingers away from his damaged face.  Cole thrashed underneath him causing Graith’s hand to slip too high on her neck.  She turned her face and sank her teeth into his skin.  He howled in rage and pain above her.  Suddenly, Graith was gone from the grip of her hand and teeth.  Cole gasped, panting to force much needed air into her lungs.  Someone was freeing her other wrist form its bondage, and she could hear yelling.

              Then everything went silent in the room.

*

Rayer and Lahla had been forced to break the large doors leading into Montala’s wing.  His stepmother had come careening out of her chambers in a frothy rage, not even Balkar’s presence could dissuade her from screeching obscenities at Rayer.  A little maid – one of the few replicated females that hadn’t manifested the violent illness that had killed so many others, but had remained barren had tried to scamper past them.  Rao had grabbed her roughly, realizing that she had been involved in Montala’s and Graith’s plot.

              Shoving past Montala, Rayer had skidded into the chamber from which he heard Graith’s violent threats coming.  He didn’t know if he froze in the doorway, or if his mind froze, but his body had propelled itself forward on instinct.

              Coletta bound to the bed.  Graith attacking her.  Coletta fighting back.  Those three things had Rayer grabbing his stepbrother by the man’s gilt-hued hair and pulling him from atop Coletta.  Once he had Graith on the floor, Rayer laid into him with his fists.

              Now someone was trying to pry him away from the bloody mess he kept driving his fist into.  It took Lahla, Hanneth, and his father to manage the task while Rao held back Montala at the door.  Breathing harshly Rayer looked down at Graith, prepared to spit all manner of curses and threats down on the beaten man.  It only took the barest glance to see that Graith would hear neither threats nor curses.  He wouldn’t hear anything.  He was dead.

              Realizing that his mind had caught up with his brute strength, Lahla and Hanneth released him.  His father’s hands remained on him – on his arm and chest, patting the way they had when Rayer had been a child.  Soft, soothing pats from a parent to a distraught child. 

              Montala screeched from the doorway, demanding his father seek justice for Graith.  The only ‘justice’ that Graith would receive would be a quiet cremation.  Balkar instructed Rao to remove Montala back to her chamber, and to take the little maid with them. 

              Rayer could feel blood and other matter dripping and sliding from his hands as he turned to look at Coletta.  She had blood spattered over her, dripping down from her mouth and under her fingernails – and as far as Rayer could see, none of it was hers.  She had dark, brutal bruises blossoming around her neck, but he knew they would fade. 

              They were still, staring at each other, for a moment.  Rayer desperately wanted to hold her in his arms but was afraid to put his hands, literally covered in death on her.  After another moment, it appeared his mate was through waiting for him to come to her and instead threw herself into his arms.

              “You’re here!”  Her emphatic whisper was a caress over his ear.

              “Yes.  Yes I am here.”  Rayer wrapped his arms around Coletta and offered a thank you to the universe that he was able to get to her in time.

Rayer’s father had sent them both off to the tower.  He declared that he would see to the clean-up, Montala, and the young woman that had helped Graith drag Cole.  Rayer had carried her.  He had refused to put her down and had bundled her up the stairs, through the lounging room, and into the bathing chamber.

Cole had found herself bathed and pampered, all without a sexual advance.  Rayer had then taken her up the next flight of stairs and settled her on the bed.  He had excused himself and had retreated back down the stairs to bathe the dust, blood, and grey matter from his body.

Cole was tired, her throat hurt, and she had a killer hangover-like headache pounding behind her eyes.  Still, she was determined to be awake when Rayer finally came back.  Just as she was fighting dozing off, the bedchamber door opened and her mate walked in. 

Cole knew that she had fallen for the alien – or was she the alien?  Regardless of who was the alien, Cole was in love and the man’s willingness to kill his own kind – his own family even, gave her a glimmer of hope that perhaps he had feelings for her as well. 

“Why are you still awake Coletta?”

“Because I felt that you needed me to be awake when you finally came up.”  Cole’s voice came out in a ragged rasp, so she didn’t bother to argue her name with Rayer – she needed her limited voice for the important conversation.

An almost smile curved his lips.  He bent and brushed his lips over hers.  “Thank you,” he whispered.  “I didn’t get into all of this – into you…us thinking that there was any hope for anything more than some entertaining carnal pleasure, and securing my succession.  I was completely prepared to let you go back to Earth.”  Rayer paused and Cole could almost feel her heart pounding out of her chest.

Rayer looked away, looked out to the dark sky that hung over Siiger’s High Royal Compound and the Forest City.  He licked his dry lips, searching for the right words.  Cole stayed silent – hoping, praying for more than she had ever thought possible.

“I do not think that I can let you go Coletta.  I want you more than I have ever wanted anything.  If I had to choose between you and the High Throne, there isn’t even a question.  I would choose you.  I want you to stay.  I want you to bear my heir and more children.  I want you to be my queen.”  Rayer’s voice tapered off when Cole put her hands to his cheeks and tugged his face down to hers.

“Coletta?”

“Shh, just hush and kiss me.  I am so happy Rayer – I have been feeling the some way.  I think that I have falling in love with you.  I want to stay with you.  I do not want to return to Earth.  It has nothing for me.  Everything I could want is here.  With you.”  Satisfied that he got the message, Cole tugged her mate’s lips to her own and proceeded to tell him with the need, lust, and desire they shared exactly how much she wanted him.

              She was tired – happy, but tired.  Cole lounged on a wide chaise in the upper courtyard – she was trying to get a small recharge in before the celebration got going.  The celebration was proving to be of an even grander scale than the massive feast than the Mating Rites celebration a year before and though it was soon to commence, workers were still bustling to complete preparations in time.  None of the workers ventured to the area that Cole was occupying, none dared – not with her little defense system quiet for the moment.

              Cole felt the cushions of the chaise dip as someone settled on the wide lounge behind her.  Judging by the way the interloper settled against her and draped an arm possessively over her hip, Cole knew who it was.

              “What are you going to do if my mate catches you up on me this way?”  She asked conspiratorially.  Her humor was rewarded by a poking finger prodding her stomach.  Cole jolted back against the man and looked over her shoulder at his exquisitely handsome face.  “Oh! Rayer, it’s you,” she giggled.

              “Some days I think you intentionally try my temper and force my jealousy to the surface.”  His chiding tone was undermined by the humor sparkling in his eyes.  Her mate’s understated humor might not be understood by everyone – but Cole had come to more than understand it over the past year, she had gotten pretty good at tickling it.

              “Well, it has been rather quiet recently; I thought we might need some excitement for the celebration.”

              Rayer chuckled and rubbed his face in her curls before leaning over her to peer into the low, scooped vessel, woven of thick reeds that sat beside the chaise.  An involuntary warm smile curved his full lips as he stared down at the little sleeping face at one end of the portable crib, then his smile grew as his gaze switched to the little face at the other end of the crib.  Their father’s lavender eyes glowed in the face at that end of the crib. 

              Twins.  Cole liked to tease Rayer by telling him that he exceeded the terms of the contract by getting her pregnant with twins.  A boy, Balkin, with his father’s lavender eyes and her golden skin and mixed shade hair; a girl, Kylee – for Cole’s grandmother, with Cole’s eyes and her father’s coloring otherwise – they were beautiful.  There wasn’t anyone that saw the twins that didn’t exclaim of their angelic appearance.  Pity they weren’t angels all the time, even at two months they were proving to be quite the troublesome pair.

              Before Balkin could wake up his sibling, Rayer reached over Cole and plucked the soon-to-be squirming infant from the reed crib and settled him against his chest.   They laid in contented silence for a few minutes until a stack of benches at the other end of the courtyard toppled with a large crash, waking Kylee.  She announced her displeasure with a shrill screech, which her brother felt obligated to echo in stereo. 

              Sighing, Cole sat up and lifted a wailing Kylee into her arms.  Shaking her head she turned toward Rayer, “I guess the peace could only last for so long.”

              “I am hopeful that they will sleep tonight.”

              “Yeah – I could use a night of uninterrupted sleep,” Cole sighed.  Rayer let out a bark of a laugh.  “What?”

              “If they sleep the night through, you will not be.”

              “Oh…Oh!”

*