Reestrian Mates - Complete (19 page)

“I must confess to you, my beautiful Mia, I have never been with a female before.”

Chapter Four

Mia must have misheard Sekor. No way was he a virgin. He oozed confidence and looked like a walking sex machine. How was this possible?

“Um, Sekor, are you serious?”
Oh God
. What if he was lying? Was he trying to trick her into liking him? She fumed at the thought.

His face turned red and he took a deep, shuddering breath. He looked pained, and she didn’t know if he was embarrassed or in physical agony because of his mating urge. She tried to ignore the massive bulge at the front of his pants, but her gaze kept dropping to his center, and her blood heated anew each time. The image of Sekor dropping his towel and showing off his impressive manhood kept flashing in her mind.

This is an adventure
, she reminded herself. She liked adventures. Until she’d been kidnapped by them, she’d liked Reestrians too.

“Does it displease you that I have no experience?” He drew back from her and dropped her hands, and in that instant she believed he was being truthful.

“No, Sekor, it just surprises me. Please don’t be embarrassed. Um, does it bother you that I’m not a virgin?”

A grin replaced his frown, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t known him for long, but it pained her to see him so crestfallen. Why was that? She’d thought all his talk about the Almighty One guiding her heart to his to be baloney.

“No, Mia, it does not bother me that you aren’t a virgin.”

“Good. Think of it this way: at least one of us will know what we’re doing.” Her eyes widened and she backed away from Sekor, moving up against the headboard of the bed. Holy Mother of all stupid ass things to say, what had gotten into her? “Um, wow. I didn’t mean to say that. I mean, sure, I said it, but I was joking.”

“I like your jokes, Mia. You are a funny, sweet little human. What do you say, Mia? Will you have me as your mate?”

“Sekor, I appreciate that you haven’t claimed me against my will, and I appreciate that you have taken the time to speak with me.” She smiled. “I think you’re kind of sweet, and I have enjoyed our conversation. But I need some time to think about it, okay?” When Captain Heega had dragged her into his chambers, she had wanted nothing more than to leave the
Trinia
. But now the thought of being apart from Sekor made her chest feel heavy. In his own strange way, he had begun to win her over. She wished the mating urge didn’t come on so suddenly, and she wished she had known him before his fever had started.

“I ache to hold you against my chest, Mia. I ache to claim you and feel the magic of our mating bond. But I will not force you. You are a good, sweet girl. I will leave you alone and let you make your decision. If you don’t wish to mate with me, I will relinquish my ownership of you.”

She cringed when he said
ownership
, but didn’t correct him. Captain Heega had captured her and given her as a gift, and in his culture that meant he did in fact own her. However, she was thankful that despite how much he longed for her, he wouldn’t claim her unless she wished it.

Oh, how she wished it. But her mind screamed that it was too soon. Behind the screaming, a little voice whispered, “it’s not like you’re getting anywhere with traditional dating.”

Her head jerked upright. She gave Sekor a pleading look. “Please give me a few hours alone. This is sudden, and gosh, you haven’t even met my mother or any of my friends yet. My thoughts are a jumbled mess right now. I would appreciate the time to think.”

He rose from the bed, and though he hadn’t left the room yet, she already mourned the loss of his presence. A glimmer of amber flashed in his eyes, and she gasped. For a moment, his real eye color had shone through the black, and though she doubted he’d done it on purpose, she felt as if he had bared his soul to her.

“I will return in several hours, Mia.” He strode to the door. “The Giamot Clan is beautiful. We have cities like you do on Earth, with plenty of places for you to explore. You would love it, of that I am sure. And if you didn’t like it there, I would leave. I would follow you anywhere, Mia.”

A tear escaped down her cheek after he walked out the door. She clutched her chest. Why did it hurt so much that he’d left? Hadn’t she asked for time to think?

You were kidnapped. Maybe the stress has driven you mad.

She stared out the window at Rahatha. The spirals of smoke had disappeared. Hovercrafts zipped in and out of a large dome. The streets were lined with massive, exotic trees. Aside from the fallen debris, the city appeared as pristine as the pictures she’d seen in magazines.

Stop stalling. What will you tell Sekor?

She clutched her head and sighed. She heard the door zipping open and she looked up, annoyed that Sekor didn’t know how long an hour lasted. But it wasn’t Sekor, or any male Reestrian, for that matter. Blina rushed to her, wearing a dire expression.

“How long will he be gone?” the blonde alien asked.

“A few hours. What are you doing here?”

“Sekor is a violent Reestrian you should fear. If you come with me now, I can beam you off this ship and outside the city.”

“But you spoke so highly of him earlier,” Mia argued. “I don’t understand.”

“I couldn’t say anything bad about him in Vessa’s presence. Please, if you want to escape the
Trinia
and a fate that will bring you nothing but misery, we must hurry now.”

* ~ * ~ *

“Her full name is Mia Amelia Alessandrini. She lives in Salem, Oregon, but that is all I know. Have you located her residence yet?” Sekor hovered over the technician who had hacked into the humans’ databases.

“Calm yourself, Sekor.” Heega put a hand on his shoulder. “We will find her.”

“I want to know how she escaped this ship!” Sekor gripped the back of the technician’s chair to steady himself. He was a mess and his fellow warriors knew it, but he didn’t care. All that mattered was finding Mia. Hours had passed since he had found her missing from his quarters. After searching the roads near Rahatha, they hadn’t found any sign of her car either. She had likely reached it and driven off, back to her home in Salem.

Her rejection stung. Perhaps he should let her go. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t erase the tender feelings for her that swelled in his heart. How could she leave the ship without saying goodbye? Mia was no coward, and he wondered if something sinister had befallen her.

“Check the transportation logs!” he roared, blinking fast as his vision blurred. “Check to see if anyone has beamed off the ship!” They had assumed she had overridden the exit door and walked away from the landing platform, but perhaps that assessment had been wrong.

The technician’s fingers flew across the buttons on his work station. “A human female was beamed outside the walls of Rahatha twelve intervals ago. The passcode used to activate the transporter is encrypted. Hold on, I’ll have it soon.”

Had Mia asked one of his shipmates for help? He refused to believe it.

“This is interesting.” The technician straightened in his chair and squinted at the display screen.

“What?” Sekor had never felt more on edge. He would strangle the young Reestrian if he didn’t provide answers soon.

“The passcode that was used is assigned to Ehgaa.”

Sekor met Heega’s gaze. “Ehgaa. Why would he do such a thing?”

“He didn’t. It was his female.” The technician pulled up a video feed from a transporter room that had been closed for repairs, and it showed Blina, Ehgaa’s mate, typing in the passcode to send Mia off the ship.

Heega summoned ship security. “Find Ehgaa and his mate, Blina, and take them directly to the brig!”

Sekor stared at the video feed that was playing on a loop. One moment he saw a fuzzy image of Mia, and in the next instant she vanished. His heart ached, the pain taking his breath away.

“Come, brother. Join me in the brig. I suspect Ehgaa had his eye on the captainship you were to be granted after you mated with Mia.”

“I hadn’t considered that. I confess my thoughts are not so clear anymore. I must find her. Help me find Mia.”

* ~ * ~ *

With Kelly at work, the apartment felt empty. Of course, it wasn’t just the apartment that felt empty. A hollow space existed where Mia’s heart had been. She had left the
Trinia
without giving Sekor an answer or bidding him goodbye. Hadn’t he promised not to mate her against her will? She should’ve stayed and let him down gently, despite Blina’s claim that she should fear him.

She sat her carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on the coffee table and commenced flipping channels. Two days had passed since her trip to Rahatha and her kidnapping. Two days since she last saw Sekor.

The news hadn’t reported anything about the attack on the Human-Reestrian settlement, not that she was surprised. After sneaking into her apartment wearing the red robe in the middle of the night, Mia had decided not to tell Kelly or anyone else about her experiences that day. Perhaps she should forget about it. Perhaps she should forget about Sekor and the feelings he’d stirred within her.

Blina hadn’t given her any time to think, and she had hurried through the corridors following the blonde alien, only to be beamed outside the city moments later, without getting the chance to question the Reestrian female about Sekor.

Why would Blina make it up though?

Tears burned in her eyes. Dammit. Even if she wished to speak with Sekor, she had no way of getting in contact with him. He had probably mated with another human by now, and this realization hurt. She couldn’t imagine he would’ve lasted much longer without The Madness claiming him. Captain Heega had probably kidnapped another unsuspecting human girl.

There wasn’t enough chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in the world to help her get over this upset. Mia sniffled and groaned when the ringing of her cell phone interrupted her miserable musings. A glance at the caller ID showed it was her mother.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Honey, you won’t believe who stopped by the house today! Look at the screen on your phone. I’m texting you a picture.”

Curious what had her mother so excited, Mia looked at the screen and waited, figuring one of her cousins from South Carolina had stopped in for a surprise visit. But when the picture came through, she almost dropped her phone.

An image of her mother standing next to Sekor stared at her. They were smiling, and both of them were giving the ‘thumbs up’ signal. She couldn’t have been more surprised, but then concern for her mother had her thrusting the phone back to her ear.

“Mom! What are you doing with him? He’s dangerous.”

“Oh honey, he’s a charmer. We spent the day together and he took me on a ride in his spacecraft. He says the two of you got off on the wrong foot, and that one of your complaints was that he hadn’t yet met your mother or any of your friends. Honey, I don’t understand why you ran off without telling him goodbye. He told me the whole story, by the way, even the part about Captain Heega kidnapping you, but out of all the guys you have dated, Sekor is my favorite.”

“Mom, Sekor is violent and dangerous. I had to get away from him.”
I miss him. I feel like a fool
. She sniffled. “Oh, Mom, I don’t know what to think. A Reestrian female on the ship told me I should be afraid of Sekor and she helped me escape.”

“About that, honey. Blina was lying. Sekor told me all about it. Apparently her mate, Ehgaa, had his eye on a captainship Sekor would be granted once he finally experienced his mating urge and claimed a female.”

“Really?” She looked at the photo again and hope rose within her. Sekor’s eyes were still black, and he was taking it upon himself to meet one of her requirements for mate—introducing himself to her mother.

Another text message came through, and Mia grinned at the image on the screen. This picture was from her roommate. Sekor smiled for the camera and had an arm wrapped around a laughing Kelly. Moments later another imaged flashed on her screen, this one showing Sekor posing with Heather, one of Mia’s friends from the restaurant.

“Mia! Miaaaa! Are you still there?”

“Yeah, Mom. I’m here.”

“Honey, I want you to be happy. If being with Sekor will make you happy, I say go for it. If you really don’t wish to take him as a mate, then he’ll respect your wishes. He gave me his word that he wouldn’t steal you away from Earth against your will, even if he was moments away from The Madness claiming him.”

Mia smiled into the phone. Tears of joy streamed down her face. Sekor had actually talked to her mother and some of her friends, and judging by their smiles in the pictures, he had succeeded in winning their approval.

A knock sounded and Mia jumped. She peered in the direction of the door, her heart racing.

“I gotta go, Mom.”

“Honey! I’m not finished talking yet. If you two have babies, I expect you’ll arrange for my frequent travel to Reestria, won’t you? Wait!”

“Yeah, sure, Mom.”

Mia ended the phone call and rushed to the door. She hurriedly smoothed her hands through her hair and straightened her pajamas. At least she was freshly showered, and by some miracle she hadn’t dropped any ice cream on her pajama top.