 
Kidnapped by the Barbarian Alien

Book One in Warriors of Warden

by Ella Mansfield

Copyright 2015

License Notes

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Lela lives in a female compound on Earth, knowing exactly where her life is going. She will be forced to have a career she doesn't want, marry a man a computer chooses for her, give birth to children who will be taken from her, and basically spend her entire life doing as she's told.

Drrrl is the prince whose family has been exiled from his home planet due to a centuries old feud with another family. His family has been cursed to have no female offspring. Instead of choosing one of the exiled women convicts brought to his planet, he decides to go to Earth and choose a woman he would prefer. As soon as he sets eyes on Lela he realizes she is his fated mate. Dare he take her with him against her will and make her his bride? Will they ever be able to get past the fact that he kidnapped her to live together in harmony?

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Chapter One

Drrrl Mcy dressed in his nicest clothes before heading to the trading outpost on the planet Mcy. He'd lived on the beautiful planet since he was a small boy, and his family had finally been outcast from their home planet for feuding with another family. Few remembered how the feud originated, but late at night, his father liked to tell his version of the story to his sons. All four of them.

The Htflds were disgusting pigs of men, and they lived on the planet on the opposite side of the solar system from the Mcys. The two planets were opposite in every way. The Mcy planet was land poor, but the oceans made it livable. From what Drrrl had heard, the Htfld planet was beautiful and green. Of course, he'd never seen it, so that could be a rumor.

Drrrl was an inventor, and his primary goal in life was to build a weapon that could shoot over the sun and wipe the other planet out of the universe. That hadn't happened yet, but someday it would.

Today, though, his goal was much simpler. Today, he would go to the outpost and find a wife. Every few weeks, a trader came to the planet, bringing all of the women who were no longer welcome to live on the home planet. The Mcy family was large and prolific, but they'd been cursed hundreds of years before because of their fight with the Htflds. There were never daughters born to them: only sons. He had kin distant enough living there on the planet that he could easily marry one, if only they were female.

When he arrived at the outpost, he looked over the women carefully. All had their crime tattooed on the inside of their left wrist, so he walked down the row of women, taking their hands and carefully reading the crimes.

The prettiest one was a murderer. No, she won't do. The next had been exiled for burning her opponent in a beauty competition with acid. The list went on. Only the worst criminals were exiled from the planet, so these women were scraping the bottom of the barrel, genetically speaking. No, he wouldn't find a wife among them.

He nodded to Lvn, the slave trader, before he walked off despondently. There had to be a woman out there somewhere who wanted to bear his sons, and let's face it, he wasn't only about fathering sons. He wanted a girl who'd ride him like a cowgirl, screaming her pleasure the whole time. He'd seen cowboys and cowgirls in some of the alien media broadcasts, which were sometimes the only forms of entertainment available to them on this sparsely inhabited world.

Wait—the cowboy and cowgirl shows had come from a small planet called Earth. If he could find that planet, he would have his choice of women. There were many there, and they seemed to prefer large men—at least from what he'd seen on the media they did. He would go find Earth, and he would bring home a bride, even if he had to steal her.

*****

Drrrl left his younger brother, Bnjmn, in the control room of the ship. "I need to go to the planet's surface to find my bride. Will you teleport me down?"

Bnjmn shook his head, before agreeing. "I think you're making a huge mistake. You can't just go to a planet and take a girl. She'll be missed!"

Drrrl shrugged. "I don't care at this point. I'm tired of my hand being the only thing that ever comes into contact with my rod. I need a woman, and I'm going to get one." He stepped into the teleportation system. "Are you sure you don't want me to teleport you down once I've finished?"

"Absolutely. I'll wait and watch you with your girl for a while, decide if I want one from this place."

"Fine. Just be ready to transport me back as soon as I ask."

Bnjmn nodded. "I can do that. I'll have the communication system open throughout the ship."

"I'm ready." Drrrl hated teleporting, but he'd do it for a good reason. Finding a woman was the best reason he could possibly think of. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth as he felt the unfamiliar sensation of his body fading from one place and reappearing in another.

When he landed, he looked around him. He was in a beautiful green field, but there wasn't a woman visible to him. That was odd. When he'd scanned the planet's surface, he'd seen a high concentration of females in this area, with one set slightly apart from the others. He'd find her if it was the last thing he did.

Well, not the last thing. He had to screw her first. There was no way he was going to forgo that pleasure. There was a woman out there just waiting to be claimed, and he was just the man to do it.

He pulled his weapon out, a highly effective shocker that would put anyone who got too close out in seconds. It wouldn't kill them, but they would certainly be rendered helpless.

He kept his eyes peeled, trying to spot the woman. Surely she was the woman for him, or she wouldn't have been the first woman he'd found. He could marry any woman, and would enjoy her body, but he could only have one son if he didn't find his true mate. With his mate, he could have many sons. And he would never have daughters, of course. He had no real hopes of finding his true mate. Not on a planet that was of alien origin.

Finally, he spotted something on the grass. At first it just looked like a pile of clothing, but he quickly realized it was the woman he was looking for. She was tiny, but hopefully she was sturdier than she looked.

He strode toward her, going to one knee beside her, his hand going to her hip to turn her fully onto her back. Her hair was blond, which bothered him slightly. On Mcy all of the men were dark, but on Htfld all of the men were fair and blond, like this little beauty. Was it possible she was a Htfld?

He laughed to himself. Of course, she couldn't be a Htfld. She belonged here, on Earth.

He stared at her for a moment, before leaning down and pressing his lips to hers. His hand went to her skirt, and he started easing it up. He didn't want their first time together to be on the ground in this beautiful place, but at that moment, the lust was consuming him. He'd take her anywhere.

*****

Lela woke, feeling lips against her own. A hand was easing her skirt up over her hip. She let out a gasp and started fighting. Fornication was a sin, one that would surely mean she'd end up in hell. Who was this man, and how had he gotten into the compound? This place was an all-female place. He didn't belong there!

She pushed against his shoulders, surprised at how large he was compared to her. She'd seen few men in her life since coming to live at the compound, but she knew they shouldn't be as large as this one.

Finally he sat up, his eyes looking into hers and a smile on his lips. "You are the most beautiful woman in the universe. I will mate with you."

Lela blinked a few times, trying to figure out who he was, and why he spoke so strangely. "Let go of me! The computer hasn't yet chosen my future mate. Besides, I have another year of schooling to go until I've reached my full potential as a mental health therapist." Truly she had no desire to be a counselor, but it was where her occupational testing had placed her. She had no choice.

"You have a computer who will choose your mate for you? You have no say in the matter?" The look on his face betrayed his confusion over the matter.

"What planet do you live on? Of course, the computer chooses for me, just as it does everyone. No one on this planet has had a say in who they marry for over fifty years." She sat up, feeling vulnerable lying on the ground while he knelt beside her in the grass. "You're not supposed to be here. This is the female compound. If you're not married yet, you should be in the men's compound." Why didn't he know the rules for life on the planet? Was he insane?

Fifty years before her birth, the religious leaders of the world had taken over the planet. Everyone was now forced to live by their strict moral codes, whether they were believers or not. Of course, if someone wasn't a believer, they had the sense not to show that in public.

He shook his head, obviously not understanding her at all. "I am from the planet Mcy. Is it obvious I don't belong here?" He looked down at his leather clothing and sighed. "I should have chosen something that would let me blend in better, shouldn't I?"

"Um, probably. You're from the planet Mcy?" While Earth had achieved space travel many years prior, the program had been shut down once the planet was taken over by the religious leaders. They had said if God wanted them to travel through space, they'd have had fuel injectors on their bottoms.

"Yes, and my family has been cursed, so there are no females on the planet at all. I need a wife. You will accompany me home." He gave her a sexy smile, and she wanted to hit him for it. Why did he think he could get around her that way?

She shook her head. "It's forbidden. I can't leave here until my training is finished, and I certainly can't fornicate with a stranger from another planet!"

"Fornicate?"

"Have sexual relations before marriage. On this planet, we save ourselves for the man we're meant to marry. And men save themselves for the women they're intended to spend their lives with. One woman. One man." She thought it should be the same everywhere, but she had no idea what people in other places did.

He laughed. "My brother is the captain of my ship. He will marry us, if you demand it. Otherwise, we will wait to marry until we reach Mcy."

"I'm not going with you! And I'm certainly not having sex before marriage."

A look of anger crossed his face. "My brother will marry us then. Let's go." He grabbed her hand and stood, pulling her to her feet.

She tilted her head back to look up at him. She was one of the tallest women in the compound at over six feet tall, but he had to be at least seven feet. All of it leanly muscled and sexy. She felt herself warming in places she shouldn't. She said a quick prayer for her hormones to calm down. At twenty-three, she should be able to keep her sex drive under control.

As she stood beside him, trying to wrench her hand from his grip, an unbidden image flashed into her brain of her bent over a table, naked. He was behind her, towering over her, and doing what came naturally for a man and a woman. Her face flushed and she shifted uncomfortably. She'd never felt such warmth between her legs.

Shaking her head, she wrenched her hand from his, running toward the center of the compound where all of the buildings were. He ran after her, catching her hand as he spoke in a strange language into a square box.

She had no idea what he said as the world faded into nothingness around her.
Chapter Two

Lela took a deep breath of surprise as she looked around the room she suddenly found herself in. "How did I get here?" she asked, trying to keep the panic from her voice. The tiny room was all metal, and there was nowhere at all to sit or lie down.

"I teleported you," a voice from across the room told her.

She looked, and it was another dark-haired man, very similar looking to the first. This must be the brother he mentioned.

He pulled her toward his brother. "She is most insistent upon marriage before I take her to my cabin and make the whole ship shake. You're captain. Marry us."

Lela stomped on his foot, her heel driving into it as hard as possible. "I won't marry you! I don't even know your name!" How hard was it to get the simple fact she wasn't going to marry him, or mate with him, through his thick head?

"My name is Drrrl. You may call me 'mate.'" He looked down at her with his arms folded over his chest as if he was daring her to argue with him.

"Take me home!" She punctuated her words with a kick. Why wouldn't he listen to anything she said?

"Why? Do you really like it there? You didn't seem happy about having to do what you were told and accept your fate!"

She sighed. "It may not have been the life I would have chosen, but it's the life I'm meant to live. If I go with you, how will I spend my days?" An image flashed into her mind of her naked on a bed, gripping the white sheets under her, moaning with pleasure. "How are you doing that?"

"Doing what?" he asked, a smile lighting his face. He tried to look innocent, but she was having none of it.

"Sending those sexual images into my head!"

The other man, Drrrl's brother and the captain of the ship, smiled at Drrrl. "She is your fated mate. You've found her."

Drrrl nodded. "I have. Now you will marry us."

"Of course." The brother turned to them both and started humming deep in the back of his throat.

"Stop this instant! I haven't agreed to marry him, and I won't!" Lela couldn't believe both men were so hard-headed. Would no one ever listen to her again?

Drrrl bent and put his shoulder into her middle, standing up straight with her head hanging down his back and her legs down his front. "Fine. I don't want to wait to bed you anyway."

He took four steps toward the exit of the room before she gasped, pounding on his back with her fists. "No. I'll marry you!" Lela's mind raced as she tried to think of a way out of her situation, but she wasn't certain it was possible. The man was determined to wed her and bed her. And a small part of her liked the idea, whether she was willing to admit it or not.

He stopped. "That's a pity. I would have loved to have you squirming beneath me immediately. No worries. It will still happen soon."

She sucked in a breath. She couldn't believe he would be so bold as to announce what he was planning to do as soon as they were alone in front of his brother. Another image flashed into her mind. This time, she was standing against a wall, and her legs were wrapped around his hips. Her hands were pinned to the wall beside her head as he thrust into her repeatedly.

"Stop it! I said I'd marry you! Let my mind stay pure until after the wedding at least!" She wanted to rage at him for defiling her thoughts, but how could she? She liked it too much.

He chuckled. "Your mind is not pure any longer. I know what you've seen, and I will do all those things to you. Tonight."

She refused to look at him.

"My brother, Bnjmn, will marry us now."

She still wouldn't look at him, choosing to stare at the wall over his brother's head instead.

Bnjmn smiled at her. "May I have your name? So I can use it in the ceremony?"

Lela shook her head, refusing to make it easy for them.

"Tell him, or I'll take you right here," Drrrl insisted.

Lela closed her eyes for a moment, wishing she were anywhere in the universe other than where she was. "It's Lela." She hoped they wouldn't have much to do with his family after the way he was treating her in front of his brother. It would be humiliating.

"Lela is a beautiful name. I can't wait until we're married, Lela."

Lela refused to answer, instead staring at the wall again.

Bnjmn began the humming deep within his throat again. The words that flew from his mouth were alien, meaning nothing to her. The man beside her grunted occasionally, obviously in response to whatever his brother had asked or said to him.

Finally, the language was English again. "Lela, you are the destined mate of Drrrl Mcy. You will spread your legs for him when he wishes, bear his children, and honor him in all you do."

She started to protest, but she realized it was futile. He cared nothing for her opinions or desires. He wanted a woman to receive his seed and nothing more. It was what she would have gotten from her computer-chosen husband as well, but somehow this seemed so much more—basic. They said it like it was without prettying anything up, and that made her feel vulnerable.

Finally Bnjmn raised his hands over them, the humming growing louder and more obnoxious. He clasped the back of each of their necks and forced their faces together.

Drrrl wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

Lela started to fight, but really? She wanted his kisses as much as he wanted to kiss her. She knew it was just his telepathic magic, but her body didn't seem to care. It wanted him.

He grabbed her thighs, wrapping her legs around his hips as he carried her through the ship toward his cabin, not breaking the kiss once. He kicked the door shut behind him, carefully placing her on the bed before unfastening his leather shirt and pants, throwing them to the floor.

Lela watched him undress in quick, practiced moves. The man wasn't trying to be sexy about stripping. Instead, he divested himself of his clothes as if they were on fire.

"I burn for you!" he told her.

Could he read her mind? If he could put images into her head, it wasn't beyond the realm of capability. She stared at him, wondering if he'd tell the truth if she asked. "Can you see into my mind? The way you send images into it?"

He shook his head. "I wish I could. It would make this so much easier, because I'd know exactly what you want at all times." He climbed onto the bed beside her, kneeling over her.

She wouldn't let her gaze move to his penis. No, she couldn't. It would be a sin to see him unclothed! "Why do you care what I want?" she asked. She was feeling more than a little belligerent. Just an hour before she'd been sleeping peacefully after finishing her classes for the day. She'd be missed by now. Dinner was served promptly at five every evening so the girls could go to evening chapel services. Her spot would be empty.

"Why do I care?" he asked, his voice betraying his shock. "You are my destined mate. You cannot hiccup without me being concerned. Our lives are interwoven now, and we belong together. I will never hurt you."

Lela eyed him as a thought occurred to her. "You're hurting me by keeping me here and not letting me return to my home. You're hurting me by taking my choice from me. I want to always have a choice. I deserve a choice." Would she be able to convince him to send her back to Earth this way? Would she still be marriageable since they hadn't consummated their relationship yet?

He shook his head. "That's not true. You had no choice about anything on Earth either. You would have had no choice about the man you married. Did you even have a choice about your profession? Or was that forced on you as well?"

"I had no choice about anything." She spit the words out angrily, shocked at how much she despised the system she'd been raised under. She should be happy to be gone, but what would her new life be like? No, if he could have spent time with her, allowing her to love him before bringing her here, then she'd have felt in control of her life. For once.

"You will have many choices with me," he told her softly. "You will be able to choose the house we live in, how it's decorated, what kind of pet you wish to have. Your life will now be full of choices in a way it never has been before."

She shook her head. "But the most elemental choice of all, the choice of whom to marry, has been taken from me. That's not right!"

He sighed. "You are destined to be my bride. The sooner you learn to accept that fact the better our lives will be. Even now, I'll give you a choice."

"What's that?" she asked skeptically, not trusting him at all.

"Would you like to remove your own clothing, or would you like for me to remove it for you?"

"I need to use the restroom," she said, needing to stall for at least a bit longer.

"That's not a word I know. What is this 'restroom?'"

"I need to relieve myself." She hated having to spell it out so basically for him, but she saw no other option.

He nodded, waving in the direction of the bathroom. "Go. I will wait, but you must hurry. I'm pained that this is taking so long."

She stared at him, sputtering for a moment. "Long? I met you an hour ago, and already you're naked and waiting me to get naked. That is not taking long!" The man must have lost his mind. She jumped out of bed and ran for the bathroom, searching for a way to lock the door behind her, but she found nothing.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, sighing softly. She really didn't know if she could go through with consummating their marriage, but what choice did she have? She was just as much a prisoner of him as she had been of the government since she was taken from her parents at the age of five.

As she stood looking at herself she saw in her mind that he came up behind her, his hands going to her breasts. She let out a low groan. He had to stop throwing images into her head. But how could she make him stop?

*****

Drrrl watched the door to the bathroom, waiting for her to hurry and rejoin him. He was ecstatic that he'd not only found a woman to marry, but that she was his destined mate. Every royal male from the planet Warden, the planet he'd originated from, had a mate somewhere out there waiting for him. He had never expected to find his, thinking she must be from Warden, and he had no access to the women of Warden unless they were criminals and exiled.

Fate had thrown him for a loop with his beautiful Lela, and he couldn't wait to explore every aspect of her, and he didn't just mean her body. Her mind and soul were just as important to him as her body. Well, almost. He felt much too needy to not want her body most of all.

He threw an image into her mind, having to concentrate a bit harder because she was in another room. Lying back on the bed, he threw an arm over his eyes and waited for her to return. Why was she taking so long? "Hurry!" he called.

Finally, he heard the door open and watched as Lela stepped into the room, his heart singing with relief. She was his mate. She was meant to be with him.

He watched as she crossed the room to the bed, her arms wrapped around her middle as if she was afraid of him. "Why do you hesitate? We are married now." Hadn't he given her what she wanted?

She shrugged. "I guess I don't feel married. I couldn't understand the words at all. It wasn't what I would call a wedding."

He sighed. "But we are married. Where I come from, a man is meant to have one mate. No other woman can bond to him like the one who's intended for him and only him. For me, you are that woman."

"How can you be certain?" Her face made it clear she didn't trust him at all.

"Only my destined mate would be able to feel my thoughts in her head." He sent out an image of standing behind her, his hands cupping her breasts, his cock pressing into her bottom.

Lela jumped. "Stop doing that!"

"But that's my proof that you are meant for me. Until you believe me, I can't stop."

She shook her head at him. "That may prove it to you, or to someone from your world, but I'm not from there. I'm from Earth!" Why couldn't he understand that his alien tricks proved nothing?

"We'll never be able to work through our differences if you don't trust me."

She sighed. "Look. I married you because you forced me to, not because it was something I wanted! I don't know how to act around you. This is not how I expected my life to go! How could anyone expect their life to take such a strange turn?"

Drrrl sighed, climbing from the bed and walking to her, his arm going about her shoulders. She was tiny by Warden standards, and she felt frail against him. "I know this seems odd to you, but the last thing I would ever do is hurt you!" How could he begin to explain the connection between a warrior and his mate?

"How do you know you haven't hurt me by taking me from my life? How do you know I wasn't happy there?"

"Were you happy?" he asked, his throat tightening in panic. He didn't want her to be upset with him for taking her, but if she was, he wasn't certain he could take her back. Surely she could see they belonged together.

"I...I don't know! I wasn't unhappy. I wasn't going to do what I wanted with my life, but I hadn't yet found my computer match. I only had a year left of school, and then I would have married. I'm certain I would have been content then."

"Contentment is not happiness!" Not for the first time since meeting her, he thanked the silly shows from Earth he'd watched on his family's universal scanner. They'd taught him her language in a way he'd never realized. "I will do everything in my power to make you truly happy. What do you want more than anything else in life?"

Lela considered his question. It was an odd conversation to be having while he stood naked beside her waiting to consummate their union, but she didn't care. "I want to have children and be able to raise them myself. I don't want to have to give them to a compound. I want to be able to design clothing I like, not to be required to spend my life wearing uniforms and counseling others."

"Done. I can make both of those things happen."

"And in return?"

"In return, I want you to accept me as your mate. I don't expect love immediately, but I wish it would come along soon. I want you to be happy spending time with me, and to welcome my seed. That's all. I wish to have a faithful wife."

She looked at him, obviously considering his proposition. "And that would mean letting you—letting you mate with me." She blushed as she said the words.

He leaned down, pressing his lips to her ear. "It would require you lie down, spread your legs, and welcome me into your body. I want to love you."

"I—I don't know if I can. I'm scared." She looked up into his brown eyes, truly studying him for the first time. He was a handsome man, but he frightened her. She didn't know if it was his size, or the fact that she'd rarely been around men, or his overpowering presence. Whatever it was, he made her feel uncomfortable. And knowing he was thinking that much about doing that to her made it even worse!

He cupped her face in his hands. "You're my mate. Hurting you would be like hurting myself. It won't happen."

She nodded slowly. Maybe he wouldn't hurt her. Well, he'd hurt her, of course, because she'd never had relations before, but after that? Maybe he'd never hurt her again. "All right. I'll try."

He closed his eyes with relief. He hadn't been sure how much longer he could wait for her to give her consent. Yes, he could have taken her without her consent, but he didn't want their marriage to start that way, and despite her misgivings, they were married. "Take off your clothes and wrap your legs around my waist, dog breath. We're going on a wild ride."
Chapter Three

Lela sucked in a breath at his whispered words. No one had ever been so bold with her. Of course, Drrrl was the first man she'd been around since she'd moved to the compound at the age of five. "But I don't know you!" she protested, wondering how he could possibly believe she would have intercourse with him after such a short time.

He shrugged, his hands going to her waist and pulling her more firmly against him. "You will." His fingers went to the front of her white blouse, carefully unfastening the buttons.

She grabbed his wrists, trying to stop him from undressing her. It couldn't be right to have relations with a man she'd only met a few hours before. "But we just met!" she protested.

He sighed. Hadn't she just agreed? They'd been over this. "Would it have been different if you had married the man the computer chose for you? Would he have given you time to get to know him before he buried his cock inside you?"

She swallowed hard. "No, but he would have been a man from Earth."

"That matters none. We met, and we've married. Don't you owe me the same respect as you would have given your Earth husband?"

"I..." Lela was confused.

He continued unbuttoning her shirt, and she made no move to stop him. Finally, he pushed it off her shoulders and to the floor, leaving her in only her skirt and her foundation garment. "How do I remove this?" he asked.

She blushed, not feeling like she should help him, even though it was obvious to her this train was going fast, and there was no way off. "There's a zipper," she mumbled.

"A zipper? What is a zipper?" He studied her carefully, before his face lit up. "This?" He took the small metallic object between his thumb and first finger and pulled it down.

Lela took a full deep breath for the first time since she'd dressed that morning. The foundation garment was to make every woman look as if she had the same boyish figure. For well-endowed women, like Lela, they were vastly uncomfortable.

Drrrl stared down at the bountiful bosom popping out of her—strange contraption she wore. She was beautiful. He'd had no idea there was so—well, so much of her to pop out!

He finished unzipping her and pushed the stiff garment off her shoulders, his fingers trailing from her neck down to her nipples. "Why did you hide your beauty under that thing?"

Lela bit her lip, trying to consider what answer would appease him. "They are required on Earth. Every woman must wear one except when she is sleeping. It keeps women from being objects of men's lust." She had always hated her foundation garment, feeling like she was forced into a wrapper like a sausage. She understood the reasoning behind them, but she'd never agreed with it.

Drrrl threw back his head and laughed. "Your beautiful face made me lust after you. Your shapely legs made my cock get hard. How did they think that would keep a man from lusting after you?" He caught the waistband of her skirt with his thumbs and pushed it to her feet. From her knees to her thighs was another garment, similar in material to the other. "These cannot be comfortable!" He turned her by her shoulders and spun her around, finding the zipper at her waist this time and tugging it down quickly.

"They're not. They're meant to conceal a woman's body from men and keep them from lusting. Making women seem as if they have no curves at all." But he was about to see that she had curves to spare. She hated how large she was and would have given anything for him not to have to see her naked.

"I find you much more beautiful without that thing covering you." He reached out to cup her breasts in his hands, squeezing them softly. "You looked too thin with that thing on. You looked unhealthy. I look at you now and I feel so much more for you. You, my dear, are beautiful."

Lela shook her head. "I'm not. I'm too heavy. They were going to force me to lose weight before I was allowed to marry. My counselor talked about my weight constantly, saying I wasn't appealing to a man. That I would have to be fixed." She closed her eyes as she thought about what the fixing would have entailed. A painful surgery would have been performed to remove all excess fat, and she would have had her stomach made smaller, so she couldn't eat as much.

"She lied to you. I've never been more attracted to a woman in my life."

"You don't have to say that. I know how I look." She had no illusions left. She wished she could believe it, but she knew that she was not the kind of women men went crazy for.

Drrrl caught her hand and brought it down to his cock. "Do you really think I could be that hard if you weren't attractive? You're beautiful!"

Lela squeezed his penis, surprised at the feel. It was soft, almost like it was made of velvet on the outside. She had only ever seen one in a textbook, and had been able to avoid looking at his since they'd come into the room. Once she touched it, her eyes were immediately drawn to it.

She gasped when she saw it. It was different than textbooks certainly. The thing was huge, and it curved up at the end. Almost at a forty-five degree angle. "Is it supposed to curve that way?" she asked, embarrassed.

He nodded, frowning slightly. "All males of my planet curve like that. It makes it touch places that women like."

Her eyes grew wider. "So you're telling me you're better equipped to pleasure a woman than a man from Earth?" Could he really be saying that?

"I don't know what humans' penises look like, but yes, if they're not curved, I'm better equipped to please you." He took a step back, looking at her from head to toe. "I like you so much better without that horrible thing on. Please don't wear it again!"

She sighed. "My clothes won't fit without it."

"So go naked. My brother won't mind."

Her eyes widened. "It wouldn't bother you if your brother saw me naked?" What kind of husband was he?

He shrugged. "In our world, nudity is considered a natural thing. We weren't born clothed, were we?"

"Well, of course not, but..."

"No buts." He pushed against her shoulders and she fell back onto the bed, her eyes wide. He laughed as he followed her down, lying beside her. His lips pressed against hers as his hand went to her breast, cupping it in his fingers. He was fascinated by her body. He'd thought his mate was a slender woman, but he was so pleased to see the truth. She was made for him.

"I don't know what to do!" she protested as his hands roamed over her body.

He lifted his head, staring at her. "To be honest, I've never done this before either. There just weren't any women around, and men don't appeal to me. We'll figure it out together." He had never thought he'd admit to such a thing, but he knew that she needed the truth just then.

Lela propped herself up on one elbow and looked at him curiously. "Really? This is your first time?" Oddly it made her feel more relaxed about the whole experience, knowing it was his first time as well.

He pulled her closer to him, until they were touching from shoulder to thighs. "Really." His hands caressed her bottom, pulling her to him even tighter. His cock was pressing into her stomach, but she didn't protest.

His lips met hers, and he stroked the inside of her top lip with his tongue. His hands moved over her back and bottom, cupping her derrière and pulling her into him even more. "I want you," he whispered against her lips.

She moaned softly. She wanted him touching her. Everywhere. She couldn't seem to convince herself it was all right for him to be touching her that way.

His hand slipped between her legs, one finger going to her clit. He rubbed his finger back and forth across it, trying to bring her to the same fever pitch he was at.

Lela buried her face in his neck, breathing in his scent. It was spicy, and very appealing to her. She wondered if it was a natural smell or something he was masking his natural body odor with. Then he slid a finger inside her, and she quit thinking at all.

At her gasp of pleasure, Drrrl smiled. "Do you like that?" His lips were pressed to her ear.

She nodded, her eyes wide with wonder. "More," she whispered.

He laughed softly, slowly sliding another finger into her to join the first, moving them in and out in a steady rhythm. "More?" He was doing his best not to rush her, but his cock was throbbing, begging for the opportunity to bury itself inside of her.

"Oh yes!" she cried out, her body feeling as if it were on fire.

He added a third finger, and she gasped as it seemed to stretch her too much for a moment, and then the pleasure overtook her. She rolled to her back, panting as he followed her, his fingers still pressed deep inside her.

He leaned down and caught one nipple between his lips, sucking at it instantly.

She looked down at his head at her breast, surprised that she felt sexual arousal when he touched her there. She'd been taught that breasts were only for feeding babies. Apparently, her teacher either hadn't known, or hadn't been willing to admit the truth about sexual feelings.

She wove her fingers through his hair, spreading her legs a bit wider to give him better access to her body. She felt something start to build, deep in her stomach, but she had no idea what it could be. "Something's happening to me. I'm frightened!"

Drrrl released her nipple with a pop, moving up to kiss her softly. "Don't you know? You're going to climax."

"What does that mean?" She thrashed her head on the pillow, clutching his shoulder. "You should stop!"

"It means you're going to be sexually fulfilled. It will feel good!"

"Stop! It's not right?"

He kissed her again, more to stifle her complaints than anything else. He moved his fingers in and out of her faster than ever. "Just let it happen, dog breath!"

Lela didn't have the strength to argue with the name. Waves of pleasure washed over her, starting at her core. When she'd finally regained her breath, she asked, "Dog breath? Did you really just call me 'dog breath'?"

"That's what Sergeant Belker called all the people he knew."

She blinked. "Sergeant Belker?"

"From your Earth show, Hill Street Blues."

The man had lost his mind. Good thing he was talented with his fingers. "Never heard of it."

Drrrl sighed. "You are missing one of the most important shows from your planet's culture."

"We don't exactly get a lot of screen time in the compounds," she told him. She wondered if she'd ever be able to explain to him just how meager her existence had been before he'd arrived.

"Never mind then. If you do not like 'dog breath' I will find a new endearment."

She shook her head, shocked that he'd think 'dog breath' was an endearment she would like. "That's probably a good idea."

He sighed. "That was my favorite, but I will endeavor to come up with another." He rolled atop her abruptly, settling between her thighs. "Are you ready for me?"

"What if I say no?"
Chapter Four

Drrrl held his breath at her response. "You would kill me. I would die from frustration. I need you, Lela."

Lela smiled, her arms looping around his neck. "You've brought me more pleasure than I'd imagined was possible. I can return the favor."

He sighed with relief, reaching down to guide his cock to her opening. "This may hurt a bit, but it will feel wonderful in the end."

She closed her eyes, preparing herself for the pain she'd been told accompanied sexual intercourse. Everything they'd done so far had been pleasant, but she knew deep down that it was just for the moment. She'd been warned her whole life that being with a man would be painful. She could survive it, though!

"Don't be afraid," he whispered against her temple, even as he began to work his huge cock inside of her.

She gasped at the feeling of fullness, pain filling her as he breached her membrane. "Ouch!"

He didn't stop moving until he was planted firmly inside her, and then he dropped his forehead to hers. "Let me know when you're ready for me to move!"

She groaned. "Never! Is that thing supposed to be that big?"

He chuckled softly, pressing his lips to hers. "Where I come from they are."

"I have a feeling that would not be normal size on Earth!"

"I wouldn't know!"

"Are you a normal height for your planet?" she asked, curiously.

"I'm about average."

She frowned. "On my planet, I'm one of the tallest women around. I'm six-foot-one. Average height is five-foot-five."

"You will be considered small on my planet." He shrugged. "Will that bother you?"

She smiled. "Not at all. I've always felt like a freak of nature for being so tall."

He kissed her softly, pulling out slightly and pushing back in. "Is it better now?" He closed his eyes as he waited for her answer, not certain if he could wait until she was ready if she said, 'no.'

"That didn't hurt as much as I thought it would." She wasn't sure she liked it, but it wasn't horrific any longer.

Drrrl kissed her softly as he began thrusting at a slow, steady pace. He wanted her to enjoy it as much as he did, but that may have to wait for the next time. At least she'd already gained her pleasure. He cupped her breast in one hand, smiling at its weight. "You have beautiful boobs."

She shook her head. "We're going to have to have a talk about your command of the English language."

"You don't like the way I speak, dirt bag?" He cared little about her approval of his language choices at that moment. He was too enamored of her body. He picked up the pace, moving a little faster, and watcher her eyes grow wide with wonder.

"I don't hate this as much as I thought I would," she said, the surprise filling her voice.

He laughed. "I'm so happy to hear you don't hate it, since I plan to do this with you. Constantly."

She pulled his head down for another kiss, not sure she really wanted to be having a long conversation with him just then. The faster he moved the stronger the tension in her body. All at once, she split apart again, gasping his name and tugging at his shoulders.

Drrrl let out a growl, her orgasm triggering his own. He rested his forehead on hers as he collapsed atop her. He didn't move until she pressed against his shoulders.

Rolling to her side he scooped her against him, holding her close. She rested her head on his shoulder, still disbelieving how much pleasure he'd brought her. "I'm hungry," she announced, hating to break the mood, but she had missed the evening meal, and her stomach was protesting.

He smiled, stroking her cheek. "I must have done something right if my lovemaking made you hungry."

She rolled her eyes. "It's been an emotional day." She moved away from him to sit on the edge of the bed. "What do you have to eat on this ship?" She put her hand over her growling stomach. She was used to eating on a rigid schedule, and her body demanded regular meals.

He got up, pulling the blanket from the bed and tossing it to her. "You said you have a problem with nudity," he said at her questioning look. "Follow me."

Lela wrapped the blanket around her, tucking it under her arms and tying it tightly there. She had to lift the bottom of the blanket to walk, but she was hungry enough that it didn't matter a lot. As she followed him, she wondered if he had a pair of scissors and a needle and thread. She could convert the blanket into a decent dress with just those three things.

The blanket was made of a soft material she'd never felt before. She wondered for a moment what it was, but decided not to ask. She was having a hard time assimilating all the information he was throwing at her as it was.

He led her into a room that had a couple of tables and some strange devices that she assumed were for cooking food. "What are we going to eat?" she asked. Her mind dreamed of a substance that tasted like chocolate but had no calories at all. Surely that's what they ate on Mcy! Her eyes glazed over as she thought of it.

He took something from a cabinet, added a bit of water, and put it into a machine. Pushing buttons on the front he leaned back against the counter. "Do you like massacrater?"

Lela blinked at him a couple of times. Massacrater must be the thing that tasted like chocolate. She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer. "Please let this thing be something I can eat."

"What is massacrater?" she asked, biting her lip nervously. She wasn't a particularly adventurous eater and never had been. She was afraid any foreign food he tried to introduce would come right back up for her.

"Oh, it's good food. Very nourishing." He turned and pulled the bowl he'd mixed everything in from the machine and split the contents into two bowls, handing her something that looked like a spoon with a very large bowl and a short handle.

She looked into the bowl and did her best not to wrinkle her nose. It was a green substance, very gelatinous, and it looked slimy. Almost like someone had made spinach pudding. She took a deep breath and filled her spoon, moving it to her mouth. She tried to keep an open mind, but it looked disgusting, and she couldn't do it.

She quickly stuck the spoon in her mouth, swallowing quickly. It felt even worse than it looked, having the texture of seaweed. Jumping up she ran back to his room, and into his bathroom, only to vomit. "Oh dear. I hope there's more to eat on this ship than that," she mumbled.

Drrrl chased her through the ship, pounding on his bathroom door, wondering what the problem was. Massacrater was a delicacy, and he didn't know a single Mcy who didn't love it. He hoped she wasn't going to prove difficult to feed. He could pictured endless trips to Earth to steal food that his mate found palatable. Life was about to get very interesting.

"Lela? Are you all right?"

She rinsed her mouth out before opening the door. "Do you have anything other than massacrater to eat on this ship?"

He shook his head. "I guess we'll need to stop at the space station." Truthfully ninety percent of his diet was massacrater with only a bit of rodent eyeballs mixed in. Surely she could eat the eyeballs. If not, they were in for a hard time finding food for her.

"I think we will. I can't eat that."

He sighed. "You're going to be a tough woman to please, aren't you?"

She shook her head. "I'm not. I promise!"

He pulled her to him, hugging her close. "I guess you're going to have to put those tight-fitting garments back on. I can't take you to the space station in a blanket. I trust my brother. The men on the station? Not at all."

Lela made a face, but she'd worn the garments every day since she turned nine, as all women of Earth did. She'd just been convinced for a short while she'd never have to wear them again. "How long before we reach the space station?" she asked.

"It's between Earth and Mars, set up when Earth was doing a lot of space exploration. Even though your planet doesn't do much now, the station was never abandoned. The Milky Way is sparsely populated, so this is the only space station here at all."

"I guess we're going to the space station then. I'm really sorry, but there's no way I can eat that." She felt badly, but she knew she'd starve to death before she tried to force that food past her lips again.

He shrugged. "There are a lot of Earth foods at the space station. We'll just make certain we stock up."

She frowned. "There's nothing else to eat on Mcy?"

"Massacrater is the bulk of my diet. If you can't eat it, you can't eat." He shrugged. She was his mate, and he would do what he needed to do to make her happy. He hated spending that much money at the space station, but he was part of a royal family. They had the money.

She sighed. "Maybe you should have left me on Earth."

He chuckled. "You're my other half. Once I saw you, I knew I couldn't leave you there." He nodded at her clothes, still on the floor beside his bed. "Get dressed, and I'll talk to Bnjmn."

Lela rushed to obey. She'd been taught that a good wife is an obedient wife, but she wasn't certain she believed that hogwash. No, it was more a matter of survival. She was hungry, and if he was going to take her to get food, then she was going to help him any way she could.

By the time he'd come back to dress himself, she was wearing both of her foundation garments. He frowned at the sight of her. "We need to get you better clothes soon. I hate the way you hide your beauty in those."

She laughed. "Beauty? You mean I'm hiding my bulk in them."

He crossed the room to her, cupping her face in his hands. "You're the sexiest woman I've ever met. You hide your beauty."

Lela blinked a couple of times, before smiling. "I don't know what drugs you're taking, but keep it up."

He growled low in his throat, pulling her against him and crushing her mouth with his. "Do I need to prove to you again how much you arouse me?"

She patted his cheek. "No, I think I'm good." Maybe eventually she'd believe him. She wanted to.
Chapter Five

A short time later, they were on the space station, which was located in a dome on Phobos, one of Mars's moons. There was a bar in one of the buildings serving "traditional fare" and "Earth delicacies." Everything was written in a foreign language, so she had no idea how to say what she needed. Drrrl stepped in to translate for her.

"Let's see. Do you want me to just read it all to you?" he asked, his eyes constantly scanning the crowd for his enemies. The Htflds always showed up where he least expected them, causing any sort of mischief they could.

She nodded. "If you don't mind. How did you learn English so well anyway?" Why would any kind of alien choose English as the language to learn? It baffled her.

"Watching your Earth television on my screen at home. Lots of us on Mcy love your shows, but I made a study of them. I guess I knew that someday I'd marry a beautiful Earth woman."

She refused to respond to that. It felt so odd to be told she was beautiful after years of being told she wasn't good enough. "What's on the menu?"

He slowly read through the list of options for her, mispronouncing many of the words, but as they were written in an alien tongue, she did her best to figure out what they were and didn't worry about it.

When he reached the end of the menu, she frowned. "I'll take cheese enchiladas with refried beans and Mexican rice." She'd always been a Mexican food fan, although it seemed strange to hear it all called 'Earth food.'

Drrrl punched her order onto a screen, adding the same thing for himself. Maybe he could tolerate Earth food. Things would certainly be simpler if they could eat the same things. Of course, they'd be living with his family, so she'd be the odd one out regardless.

He took both of her hands in his, smiling happily. "I hope I've managed to convey how happy I am to have you as my bride."

She nodded slowly. "I think so. It's just all so strange. I fell asleep on the grass this afternoon, fully expecting to go to supper and then chapel as I have every other day of my life. Instead, I woke up with an alien crouched over me, and he made me his wife. How does one cope with such a strange day?"

He chuckled softly. "You seem to be doing remarkably well. I won't complain if you show me your love when we're alone later, though."

She laughed. "I'm sure you won't. You only want me for sex."

"That's not true at all! I want you for many things, and sex is at the top of the list, but it's not the only thing."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Did you just admit that the main reason you want me is for sex?"

A man stopped by the table. He was an older gentleman, at least in his seventies, with a bald head and a round belly. "I heard a rumor there was an Earth woman here, but I didn't believe it." His voice was distinctly American.

"You're from Earth?" Lela asked excitedly. "I grew up in a compound near Chicago." She felt as if she were meeting an old friend, when just that morning she would have walked past the man without speaking to him.

"I grew up near Houston. I started working at this space station right before Earth closed up to space travel, and I never went back."

"So you're all alone among aliens?" she asked sadly.

He shook his head. "Not at all. I have my wife and four sons here as well. We've done well, but I miss Earth sometimes. It's nice to hear a familiar accent."

"For me as well," she told him, frowning.

"So how did you get off that rock? I heard the religious freaks had everyone under lock and key, and that they wouldn't even let men and women be around each other before marriage. Say it isn't so!"

She shrugged. "It is so. I was put into a female compound the day I turned five, and I hadn't left before today."

The man scooted into the booth beside her. "Go ahead and eat while we talk." He nodded to her food. "So how did you escape? I'm sure there are a lot of people looking to get off Earth now that it's so strict."

Lela looked at Drrrl, wondering how much she should admit to. "I fell asleep this afternoon, and when I woke Drrrl was kneeling over me. He told me I'm his chosen mate and invited me to leave with him."

The man, Scott by the name on his tag, looked at Drrrl. "Mcy?" he asked.

Drrrl nodded. "Yup."

"I can see why you'd be hunting for women on Earth. You tell her about the big feud yet?"

"She knows some. She'll learn more as time goes on." He wasn't deliberately hiding it from her, but he knew his father would want to be the one to tell the whole story. The feud's history was a passion of his.

Scott sighed. "I guess it's up to you to tell her what you will. You marry her?"

"She insisted we marry before mating."

"With the way Earth has changed, I can see why." Scott looked at Lela. "You all right? He hasn't hurt you?"

Lela blushed at the question. Drrrl had hurt her, but only because she'd been innocent. He'd brought her a great deal more pleasure than pain. "No, he's treated me very well."

"Well, that's something. You eat up. Let me know if you need anything else. The store for human food is across the station. I know you won't be able to eat that sludge the Mcys and Htflds call food."

"Thank you," she whispered softly, wondering if she'd said too much to the strange man.

She bit into the enchiladas and smiled. "He's a good cook. These definitely taste like the enchiladas I've had." One thing she could say about the compound was that the food was always good. She had no complaints there.

Drrrl took a bite and shuddered. How could anyone stand the strange textures in their mouth? He pushed the food away. "I don't think we're ever going to be able to agree on food."

She shrugged. "That's fine with me. I'm just glad I have something other than that nasty stuff to eat. Are we going to go to the Earth store for food I can eat once we get to your planet?"

He nodded. "We'll stock up on everything you like to eat, so I'll know you won't starve. I don't want you to lose a single pound. You're beautiful just like you are."

"That's a matter of opinion," she said vaguely.

After she had eaten everything on her plate, and a few bites of his enchiladas, they set out to find the store. Once there, she quickly chose as many tinned meals as she could find. She knew canned foods weren't as good for her as fresh, but she had no idea what kind of refrigeration or freezer systems would be available to her. She had a feeling others from his planet would follow in his footsteps to get her more food anyway.

She did make a mental note of the other food options so when they got to Mcy, she would know what she could send the men back for. She couldn't eat the same foods day in and day out forever. Who could? Other than Drrrl, of course.

They left the store with a three-month supply of food for her, including a few of her favorite drinks. They'd been given a cart to use to pull them along. She wished they could just take some seeds and a few animals and she could start growing decent food for the whole planet, but judging by Drrrl's reaction to dinner, they had different ideas of what was decent and what wasn't.

The space station was a huge dome, and it seemed to have Earth's night sky painted on the dome. It was relaxing for her. She wished they could stay there for longer, because it seemed so much more like home than the space ship did.

They were about halfway back to the conveyor belt that would take them back to the ship. Drrrl had explained that he only teleported when absolutely necessary. At all the space stations there was a movable conveyor belt that could be hooked to the ship and removed when they were safely back.

For the first time since she'd met him, Lela felt truly carefree. She had food she liked, she enjoyed her man in bed, and another person from Earth had acknowledged he thought she'd done the right thing by escaping, though it had been more of a kidnapping than escaping. She felt much better about everything now.

From the corner of her eye she saw a man with light blond hair, almost white, jump out at her. She screamed as he grabbed her arm and pulled her away from Drrrl, his arm going around her neck in a headlock, and pulling her off the main path onto a grassy spot.

The space station was made up of buildings that looked like Earth buildings, and in between the buildings there were walking paths and grassy areas.

"Well, Mcy. Seems like I have something you want."

Drrrl closed his eyes. "Let go of my mate, Htfld!"

Lela's eyes widened as she recognized the name of the planet he had said was the enemy of his planet.

"Why would I do that? I'm looking for a mate myself. She seems like she'd be a good one." He stroked his hand down the front of her, and Lela was thankful for the first time that she wore her foundation garments. At least he couldn't feel her through them, and she didn't feel his hand on her body. The garment was too thick for that.

Drrrl pulled his weapon from the pocket of his uniform. It was against space station policy to fire at another while there, but he would do anything he had to do to save his mate from Tylr Htfld. He remembered fighting with the other man when they were both babes back on Warden, and he knew the man would never let go of Lela without a fight.

Tylr laughed at him. "Surely you don't think I'm going to believe you'd risk execution by shooting a weapon on a space station?"

Lela tried to elbow the man in his side, but couldn't get a good angle. Suddenly she saw in her mind that she should stay still until Drrrl lifted one finger, and then stomp on Tylr's foot. If she could do that, he would rush Tylr and free her.

Her eyes met Drrrl's and she gave a slight nod to let him know she understood what he wanted.

"You're a worthless excuse for a life form, Htfld. I don't know why they even let fools like you in here."

Tylr growled. "I have your woman. I'm going to take her back to my ship and fill her with my seed!"

Lela saw one finger lift on the hand Drrrl had kept on his thigh. She stomped with everything she had on the foot of the alien behind her, dropping to her knees as he let her go, and rolling out of the way.

Drrrl launched himself at Tylr, his hands going to the other man's throat as he fell to the ground atop him. He used his fists and pummeled the other man's head, infuriated that someone so evil had dared to touch his sweet mate. He grabbed Tylr's head and slammed it to the ground, and the man went limp.

He jumped up, pulling Tylr to his feet and throwing him over his shoulder, just as he'd done with Lela hours earlier. "Are you all right?" he asked her quickly, seeing Tylr's purple blood on a rock on the ground.

Lela nodded, her hands visibly shaking. "I think so."

"Okay, dirt bag. You can fall apart later. For now, grab the food and run after me. We can't be spotted with Tylr."

Lela jumped to her feet, grabbed the handle of the trolley and started running toward the conveyor belt beside him. She went back over what she'd seen in her mind, and she shuddered without slowing down. Her new husband was truly a barbarian. Yes, he was gentle with her, but with his enemy, she'd seen his capacity for cruelty. He'd frightened her more than she cared to admit.

He was a barbarian and a warrior. Surely that shouldn't change the way she felt for him. She couldn't let it.
Chapter Six

They weren't spotted on their way to the ship, thanks to their fast movements. Lela let go of the handle of the wagon and sagged into a chair. She panted, feeling as if she was going to pass out from lack of air.

Drrrl dropped the Htfld on his head, kneeling beside his bride. "Are you all right?"

She just kept taking huge gulps of air, unable to speak.

"Your face is red. Talk to me!"

She held up a hand to let him know she was okay, at least she hoped that's what she'd told him. She just couldn't get any words out yet.

Bnjmn hurried into the transportation room. "Drrrl! What were you thinking bringing a Htfld on our ship? It's going to have to be scrubbed down and disinfected now!" he said in rapid Wardenese.

Drrrl responded in kind, realizing that Lela was incapable of listening just then anyway. "He grabbed Lela and tried to kidnap her. We fought and his head is a mess. I bashed it against a rock without meaning to. Teleport him down to Earth."

"Teleport him? Are you joking? Even a Htfld doesn't deserve to be teleported to a planet that doesn't accept aliens!"

"Just do it! He tried to steal my mate!"

Bnjmn frowned but hurried to the teleporter controls, glad they were still within range of Earth. He moved his fingers and suddenly the man was gone.

Lela frowned, but still couldn't speak. What had they done with him? No matter what he'd done, she didn't think the man deserved to die for it. Hopefully they'd simply put him back on the surface of the space station.

Bnjmn left the room in a huff, taking the food with him. Presumably he would put it away after he'd set their course for Mcy.

Drrrl turned his attention back to Lela, squatting beside her. "How can I help you, dirt bag?"

She finally regained her breath. "Fluffy girls should not be running—especially in foundation garments."

Drrrl grinned, knowing she was making fun of herself for some reason. "Fluffy?" he asked.

She huffed a bit. "Rounder than desirable."

"Oh, trust me, your roundness is very desirable," he said, leaning down and catching her earlobe between his teeth.

She grinned, cupping his cheek with her hand. "I'm glad you think so, because no one else really does." She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

He got to his feet, holding his hand down to help her up. "You are all right?"

She nodded. "Yes, just out of shape, and wearing clothes that are not meant to be run in."

He kept her hand in his, pulling her toward his cabin. Now that he knew how her clothes worked, he was able to remove them quickly and efficiently. Once she was standing before him in nothing but her foundation garments, he removed them as well. "You look beautiful." His eyes went from her head to her feet, obviously excited by what he saw.

Lela took a step forward, being the aggressor for once. She put her hands on his shirt front and quickly unfastened it. She eyed the fastening on his pants, but she had no idea how to deal with it. "Can I get some help here?"

Drrrl grinned, unfastening his pants for her, and she grabbed his waistband, pushing them down. "What has sparked this change in attitude?" he asked.

Lela blushed, shrugging a bit. "I think I realize, after watching you save me at the space station, that you really do have feelings for me. You would have let him take me otherwise."

He pulled her against him, his cock stabbing her insistently in the belly. "You're my mate. There is no other woman in the universe I want to be with. Only you." He leaned down to kiss her insistently.

Lela wound her arms around his neck, kissing him back. She loved the feeling of her naked breasts against his fur-covered chest. He was a lot furrier than she'd ever expected a man to be, but she didn't care. He had real feelings for her. She could quite possibly be truly happy with this man.

Drrrl picked her up and laid her down on the bed, kneeling over her. His hand went to her core. "I'm always more needy after a fight. It's going to be quick."

She grinned, her hand going to his cock and stroking it insistently. "Would it be better if I stroked it with my hand?"

He shook his head, his fingers moving in and out of her quickly, ensuring that she was ready for him. "I don't need a hand, yours or anyone else's. I need to bury myself inside of you."

She spread her legs wider. "Come inside of me then." She wanted to be the vessel that made him feel better in his anguish.

Drrrl looked into her eyes. "Are you sure?" He'd planned to play with her body for at least a little longer, despite the fact that he needed her so badly. She was his mate, and he had to be certain he always saw to her needs first.

She nodded. "Make love with me, Drrrl."

He needed no further urging, covering her body with his. His cock probed at her delicate entrance. He covered her mouth with his before burying his thickness inside her.

She let out a low groan. She'd forgotten just how full she felt with him inside her. And how good it felt!

Drrrl stayed seated completely in her warmth for a moment, not wanting to frighten her with frantic thrusting immediately, but he couldn't hold out long. He needed this, and she was willing. When he began his movements, and set a fast-paced rhythm, she wrapped her legs around his waist, moaning ecstatically beneath him.

She didn't know if a straight cock would be different, but he hit all the right spots within her body. She ran her hands over his back, fascinated by the muscles there. "That feels so good!"

Drrrl was thrilled with her words. He sped up, driving them both toward their orgasms. Reaching down between them, he caught her clit between his first finger and his thumb, rubbing it insistently. "Hurry!" he said frantically, needing to climax, but not wanting to leave her disappointed.

Lela felt her body tightening, arching beneath him and calling out his name as she climaxed.

As soon as he realized she had finished, he crossed the line himself, pouring his seed into her waiting depths. He collapsed atop her, groaning softly, before rolling to her side. "You leave me weak."

She smiled, turning to him and kissing his chin. She yawned, her jaw gaping widely. She'd have been in bed hours before if she was still on Earth. She rested her head on his bicep, closing her eyes contentedly. Who would have thought a barbarian would be such a good lover?

Drrrl watched her sleep, happy she looked so content. He needed to go talk to his brother, though. He needed to explain exactly what had transpired on the space station. As the ship's captain, he had a right to know.

He eased himself from the bed, careful not to wake Lela. She looked so young and sweet in sleep, he felt almost guilty for making her his bride. Almost, but not quite. He was too satisfied to feel guilty. She was meant for him.

He found Bnjmn in the control room, sitting in the captain's chair watching the navigation screen. He walked to stand beside the chair, using their native tongue to explain what had happened. "Tylr sneaked up on us. He grabbed Lela. I gave him every chance to let her go. I told him she was my mate. I even threatened to shoot him."

"Shoot him? On a space station?" Bnjmn's eyes were wide. "You'd have been executed!"

"I know. Instead, I told her through our mind link what she should do to get away from him. We worked together to get her away from him. I didn't deliberately render him unconscious. There was a rock under his head, and I slammed his head on what I thought was the ground, but it was really a rock." He shook his head. "Once I'd shed his blood, and knocked him out, I knew I couldn't leave him there. I'd have been in trouble with The Council and brought unwelcome censure on our entire family. So we brought him back here."

"But sending him to Earth?"

"Wasn't that better than keeping him prisoner on our ship? We could have taken him back with us, and teleported him down to Htfld, but as soon as they saw our ship, they'd have opened fire. Hopefully this will keep the kidnapping from being an intergalactic war. I thought it was the best answer."

Bnjmn sighed. "It probably was. I don't even want to think about Father's reaction though. He'll either yell at you for putting a woman over your own safety, or he'll be angry that we didn't kill one of the Htflds when we had the chance." He closed his eyes. "I hate this feud."

Drrrl patted his brother's back sympathetically. "I know you do. We all do, but you more than most. How could a peace lover be a Mcy prince?"

"No idea. Makes me wonder if the Divine Being the Earth dwellers go on and on about is real. If He is, He has a sick sense of humor!"

Drrrl laughed. "Don't let Lela hear you say that! She's a believer in that Divine Being."

"Well, we'll find a way to not upset her." Bnjmn frowned. "Are you glad we came here and took her? Do you think it was worth the trouble we went through?"

Drrrl nodded emphatically. "Oh most assuredly, brother. I have only dreamed of the day when I could have a woman such as her in my life—and my bed, of course. She is amazing to me." How could he possibly begin to express how much his mate meant to him to his brother who had yet to find a mate?

"She seems like any other woman to me."

"That's because she's not your fated mate. When you meet your fated mate, you'll understand. It's like a whole new world has opened up for me."

"I truly hope you'll always be as happy with her as you are on this day. It's hard to believe you were joined in marriage just a few hours ago with everything's that happened since."

"It is hard to believe." Drrrl looked toward his cabin. "I'm going to go back to my bride. Keep us safe."

Bnjmn nodded. "We'll be home within a couple of days."

"Don't worry if you don't see us. I plan to keep my mate very, very busy."

"You do that. I won't steer us into an asteroid. I promise!"
Chapter Seven

Drrrl and Lela did spend the bulk of the two-day journey to Mcy in bed. They ate when they absolutely had to, but for the most part, they stayed in his chamber. On the last day, she began worrying about acceptable clothing, and he brought her a needle, thread, and a pair of scissors. She spent hours sewing the blanket from his bed into a beautiful dress to wear to meet his parents.

She was working on hemming the armholes when he came into the room to check on her. "Are you finished? It might be nice to have a little time before we land."

Lela laughed at him. "You just want more sex. You can wait a few hours."

He groaned. "I can, but I'd rather not." He sat down on the bed beside her, looking at the dress. "It looks done. What are you doing to it now?" If she was just making pretty flowers on it or something, then that could wait.

"I'm hemming it so the threads don't come out." She kept making her small stitches, her body heating just from his presence beside her. In just a short period of time, her body had become very accustomed to his, and she felt the dampness growing between her legs whenever he was near.

"Will the threads come out and render you naked if you don't finish it today?" he asked, his mind on one thing and one thing only.

She glared at him. "Probably not, but I'm going to look as decent as I can when I meet your parents. Go bother Bnjmn." It had been hard to learn to say their names, but after two days, she'd finally managed it. She could say them almost as well as a native.

His hand went to her bare thigh beneath the dress she held on her lap. "Are you sure you can't spare just five minutes for me?"

"As if you ever finish in just five minutes. You like to 'savor me.' At least that's what you always say."

"You can time me," he whispered as he took the dress from her and tossed it to the floor. He grabbed her and pulled her astride him, slipping right inside her. He leaned back on his elbows, groaning as he felt her clenching him tight. "Ride me."

Lela let out a gasp at the abrupt movement, but he'd known she was ready for him. She was always ready for him. She rocked forward and back, moaning at the friction her motions caused. He was in so much deeper from this angle, and her clit was being rubbed just the way she needed.

He began to move wildly under her, and that on top of her movements, drove them both to a lightning fast orgasm. She collapsed atop him when she heard him shout her name as he finished.

"Now I just want to sleep. How long before we land?" she asked.

He looked at the monitor on the wall. She couldn't read it, but he understood it perfectly. "You need to learn to read and speak my language."

She sighed. "Soon."

"We have about forty-five minutes."

"Forty-five minutes! Why did you distract me? I need to finish hemming this thing and get a bath before I meet your parents. I smell like sex!"

He grinned. "My parents will approve of that. They've been wanting me to find a mate."

"I don't care how badly they wanted you to find a mate. They don't want to meet their daughter-in-law for the first time with her smelling like she's just stepped out of a whorehouse."

He laughed aloud. "You don't smell like a whorehouse. You smell like a woman who just got married." He buried his face in her neck and inhaled deeply. "I like how you smell."

She felt his cock growing stiff inside her again, and she moved off him abruptly. "Oh no you don't. Keep that thing away from me until after I've met your parents." She hurried into the bathroom and touched the button on the wall to fill the tub full of bubbling, soapy water.

The last time she'd been in the tub, he'd joined her, and they'd made a huge mess with bubbles everywhere. She shut and locked the door as she thought of it. She didn't need him distracting her. She had too much to do before they landed for her to spend her time fucking her new mate.

She laughed at herself for the thought. Until three days before, she'd never uttered a word that was even close to a curse word. He now had her using words like cock, fuck, and pussy as if she'd used them every day of her life. If only her teachers and counselor could see her now. She'd be punished for using language unbecoming of a Christian lady.

After her quick bath, and it was not easy to keep a bath quick with a set up like he had in his bathroom, she returned to the bed, where she sewed just as fast as she could.

Drrrl walked into the room and eyed her sewing so quickly. "We're here. How much do you still have to do?" he asked.

She noticed he'd put clothes on for the first time since they left the space station. "You look good in clothes."

He sighed. "You don't want to see my cock? I thought you'd like knowing how often I was hard for you."

She blushed. "Keep it in your pants for just a little bit longer. I want to meet your parents and make it back to your house before you're inside me again."

"My house?" he asked in confusion. "I don't think you understand. My parents are the king and queen of Mcy. I live in the palace." Surely he'd mentioned his family was the ruling family of the small planet.

Her jaw dropped. "The palace? What? I had no idea! I'm going to be wearing a blanket when I meet my mother-in-law who's a queen? Are you kidding me?"

"I fail to see the problem. She will be your mother-in-law still. What difference does it really make?"

Lela shook her head. "All the difference in the world! I—I haven't seen my own mother since I was five. I haven't even thought about what it would be like to have a mother-in-law until a few days ago, and just thinking she was a normal mother-in-law had me all freaked out. Now I find out she's a queen? I don't want to meet her. Can't we just live here on the ship? Please?" How could he not have told her from the beginning?

He laughed out loud. "Live on the ship instead of in the palace? Just to avoid meeting my mother? She's going to love you, because you're my destined mate!"

"What if she thinks I just married you because you're a prince? You're not the oldest are you? You won't be king?"

He looked away from her at her questions, refusing to meet her eyes. "You'll like the palace. It's really nice." He couldn't believe she was making such a big deal out of his parents being the king and queen. He was used to them, of course, but he'd never really thought twice about it scaring a woman off.

Lela dropped the dress to the floor. "Oh my goodness! You are going to be the king of the planet, and expect me to be your queen? You've got to be joking! I've been trained to be a mental health counselor. I've met five men since I was five years old: You, your brother, Scott, the man who sold us three months' worth of food, and Tylr. How am I supposed to know how to act around a queen? She's going to hate me! She's going to tell you to put me right back on Earth!"

Drrrl started to laugh, and then he realized her anguish was real. He sat beside her on the bed, and pulled her closer to him. "It will all work out. You'll see. She even speaks a little English so you'll be able to communicate with her!"

"It might be better if we couldn't speak at all! What do I have to say to a queen?"

"That you care for her son and hope to provide her with many grandsons in the future? That you are happy to be on her planet?"

She gave him a look that was pure anguish. "Maybe if I'd had a few days to think about it and not three minutes."

"Would you have wanted more time to worry about it? I don't think that would have been a good idea." He shook his head. "No, I think it's best that you found out today."

"You can think that all you want." She got up and held up the blanket dress. "Where are my Earth clothes? They're far more appropriate for meeting a queen!"

He took the dress from her and tossed it onto the bed. "No, they're not. My mother will want to see that you're strong enough to bear children, and that thing hides your body. She'll want to know that you're beautiful enough to keep me interested in your body. She can't see that with that ridiculous Earth outfit." He hugged her close, his hands going to her bottom again, cupping it and pulling her against him. "I just wish we had another ten minutes. I could make you feel so much better about everything."

"Sex isn't going to make me feel better about this! Have you lost your mind? Get your mind out of your dick for a minute and put yourself in my shoes. I have a mother-in-law, who is also a queen, who doesn't know that I'm coming, and will be expected to live with me. Is that about right?"

"Yes, that sums it up perfectly." He kissed the top of her head gently. "You're going to love my mother. She was kidnapped by a Htfld once as well. You have something in common to talk about!"

"Let me just avoid bringing that up to her. Most women probably don't want to be reminded of being kidnapped."

"It was her kidnapping that led to both families being exiled from the planet Warden. After Father got her back, he fired missiles at the Htfld palace, and some innocent bystanders got hurt."

"Your family history is downright scary, you know."

He shrugged. "It's the only history I have." He didn't add that his mother was pregnant with him when she was taken, or that his father was in a panic. He really didn't want her to understand just how evil the Htflds really were.

Chapter Eight

Minutes later, Lela was dressed and standing in the entryway to a huge palace. This single building was bigger than the compound she shared with two hundred other girls growing up. She turned to Drrrl, her hands visibly shaking. "Are you sure we can't live on the spaceship? I liked it there. Nothing to do but sleep, eat, bathe, and..."

"Ride me like a cowgirl?" he asked, his lips close to her ear so the servant approaching them wouldn't hear. Most likely the servant wouldn't speak English, but the shows he'd watched had been available everywhere on the planet. Most simply hadn't bothered with them. Watching them had been a way of bonding with his mother. The two of them often spoke together in English so they wouldn't be understood by others. In fact, the entire royal family tended to speak it when others were around so people wouldn't understand everything they'd said.

He had never truly been certain they were speaking it correctly until he met Lela, though. Obviously they had.

The servant approached, speaking in the language of clicks and grunts she'd come to recognize as Warden. "He wants us to follow him," Drrrl translated, his lips at her ear. He kept his arm casually draped over her shoulders as they walked, knowing it would help her confidence.

It was at times like these that he realized just how small she was compared to the women he was used to. She'd claimed to be much larger than the average women on Earth, but really, he didn't see how that was possible.

They were halfway to the throne room when Lela stopped walking entirely. "I can't do this! I'm scared!"

"Don't make me throw you over my shoulder again. You know I will! And without your foundation garments, a lot more will be visible to people watching than last time!"

Lela glared at him. "You would!"

He inclined his head regally. "Of course, I would."

She sighed, walking again. Suddenly she wanted to call him a brute and tell him she didn't have to do what he said. Of course, she'd been raised to be an obedient wife. Really, he'd been good to her, and she didn't have reason to gripe, other than him kidnapping her and rarely giving her a choice about important things. She glared at him.

"What did I do?" he asked.

"You're a brute. You kidnapped me and forced me to marry you. Forced me to do a lot of things. Why couldn't you just woo me like in the books of old?"

"Woo you? Really? How was I supposed to do that when you lived in a compound with only other women?"

She dismissed his argument easily. "I'll explain later," she hissed out of the side of her mouth as doors were thrown open, and they were led into the throne room.

She watched as Drrrl went ahead of her, going to quickly kiss the ring of each of his parents. When he straightened, he waved his hand at her, where she'd remained slightly behind him. He sent a mental image of her kissing each of his parents' rings as he had, so she hurried forward to do so.

When she straightened, Drrrl looked back and forth between his parents. "Mother, Father, I want to introduce my fated mate, Lela. She's from the planet Earth."

As Lela watched, his mother covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes filling with tears. "Are you certain?" she asked softly.

Drrrl nodded, switching to his native tongue as his hand came to rest on Lela's shoulder. "She can see the mental images I send to her mind."

His father frowned, answering in kind. "You went to a closed planet to convince a woman to leave with you to be your bride? That was extremely dangerous, son."

Drrrl felt his face grow warm, knowing he had to tell his father the full truth if no one else. "Well, the truth is, I found her sleeping on the ground and didn't really give her much choice about leaving with me."

The king frowned. "Are you telling me you kidnapped a wife? From a closed planet?"

Lela watched him, knowing he must be talking about how they'd met and her kidnapping. He hadn't behaved well, and she fully expected him to get an earful for his actions, but hopefully his father would be forgiving to him.

Drrrl straightened to his full height. "It was more than that, Father. I had Bnjmn teleport her off the planet, and then once we were on the ship, I coerced her to marry me. I pretty much forced her to accept me in bed, and then when one of the Htfld's tried to kidnap her, I beat him until he was unconscious at the space station, at which time, I had Bnjmn teleport him to Earth."

The king closed his eyes, obviously frustrated by the answer. "Which Htfld?"

"Tylr," Drrrl responded immediately. Tylr was well-respected by the Htflds, and Drrrl knew he shouldn't have left him for dead on Earth. He hadn't known what else to do though.

"What are we going to do when there are repercussions?"

"I don't know, and I'm sorry, Father. Once I realized she was destined to be my mate, I couldn't let her go."

The king sighed. "I can understand that." He turned to Lela, switching the conversation back to English.

"My son admits that he kidnapped you from Earth, committing many other atrocities along the way. How do you feel about this? Are you willing to remain his bride? Or would you like us to give you the opportunity to marry another young man on our planet?"

Lela stared at the king in fear, taking a step closer to Drrrl and burying her face in his shoulder. She didn't know how to respond to such a thing. Of course she wanted to stay with her husband. On Earth, when a man died, his wife remained true to him for the rest of her life, never remarrying.

The queen shook her head. "You can see they have bonded, Stnl. We can't separate them." She rose from her throne and took Lela by the hand. "Let me show you to your suite. Drrrl and Stnl must talk and work through what the potential risks are for the planet."

Once they were away from the others, Lela realized the queen was holding her hand and it felt odd, but she wasn't about to pull away. "You have a beautiful home," she mumbled softly.

The queen looked around her and laughed. "I forgot how impressive this place is. It's not nearly as nice as the home we were forced to vacate on Warden, so I feel like I'm living in a hovel at times."

Lela laughed softly. "A hovel is not how I would describe this."

"Oh, of course not." The queen wore clothes that Lela wouldn't have described as chic, but they were certainly nicer than what she was wearing. Of course, what wasn't nicer than a blanket?

"Are there materials I could use to make myself some clothing? Drrrl hated my Earth clothes, and they've disappeared. I had to turn a blanket into a dress to meet you." Lela was embarrassed to admit she wasn't wearing real clothes, but by blaming Drrrl, she felt better about it.

"Oh, that son of mine. Yes, there is much fabric that I will allow you to use. In fact, consider the entire storeroom a gift. If you are talented with a needle and thread, you can make some beautiful things from there. We have cotton and silk from Earth, before they shut down trade. We have many different types of materials from our home planet and other planets as well. I mention the silk and the cotton, because those are two you'd probably understand better to begin with."

The queen stepped into a huge suite of rooms and ordered the light to turn on. Lela stepped in behind her, looking about the room in awe. "This is amazing!"

Her new mother-in-law smiled at her. "I hope you'll enjoy it." She went to the bathroom and opened the door, showing Lela a bathtub a million times more decadent than the one on the ship. The bed was the biggest she'd ever seen.

Lela looked at the queen, comparing their heights. The other woman was a good two inches taller than she was. It was amazing to her to meet another woman who was taller, because she never had. "What should I call you?" Lela asked, hoping the answer wouldn't be something like, 'Her Royal Majesty."

"Just call me Dll. I'll respond to it." The queen was tall, regal, and just plain beautiful. Her hair was red, unlike that of her family. It poofed out around her head, and there was a small crown sitting atop it.

"Thank you so much for showing me my new room." Lela looked toward the door, hoping Drrrl would magically appear.

The queen linked her arm through Lela's and led her through the house. "This is the store room," she said as she opened a door across the palace. "You'll find everything you need for dresses right here. Use some or use it all."

Lela looked around the room, crossing to one of the shelves and reaching for some cotton. She had yet to be outside on the planet, but she couldn't wait. This was her home, and she'd been given permission to sew for many hours. She was in heaven!

She chose three different fabrics, some thread and several needles, along with a pair of scissors. "Thank you for sharing the fabric with me."

Dll smiled at her. "You're my new daughter. Anything I have is yours to share." She led the way from the store room, through the winding halls of the palace. "You'll learn your way around quickly. We'll assign a servant to you who will always be willing to lead you where you need to go."

"A servant?"

Dll nodded. "When we came to this planet about twenty-six years ago, all of the adult males were already married. Many of them came in a serving capacity, so their wives agreed to be servants in the palace. The Mcys are mighty and they take care of their own."

Lela smiled at the response. Maybe a servant of her own would be a friend. She was already missing her best friend, Maria, from the compound. She wanted to send Bnjmn back to take her, but she didn't think telling someone to kidnap her best friend was the right thing to do.

Dll left her alone when they reached her suite again, and she explored it carefully. The dressers and wardrobes were all filled with clothing that smelled like Drrrl. She wondered how long he would be gone and hoped his father wasn't being too hard on him. It was obvious the king had been very angry.

Lela went into the bathroom and ran herself a huge tub of water, stepped into it and leaned against the back of the tub. If there was one thing she had to say that was positive about the Mcys, they certainly knew how to make a luxurious bathroom. She'd never seen anything like it.

As she lazed in the tub, her eyes closed, and she felt herself drifting off, thrilled to be in the position she was now in. His mother was wonderful, and his father had even been kind. This was definitely a good place to be, whether she was ready to admit that to him or not.
Chapter Nine

When Drrrl stepped into the bathroom a few minutes later, he found his mate buried to her neck in bubbles, one foot resting on the side of the tub, sound asleep. He knew immediately he needed to be in the water with Lela so he quickly threw off his clothing, so glad that the huge tubs his family insisted upon were good for communal bathing.

When he was naked, he stepped into the tub, carefully avoiding her legs, and sank into it facing her. He'd gotten the tongue lashing he expected from his father, and they'd made a plan to beef up defenses of the planet. The Htflds would surely seek revenge, even though what he'd done had been in direct retribution to their stealing his mate. They never saw things that way, though.

He took her foot from the side of the tub, softly biting the arch of her foot before taking her toe into his mouth and sucking it softly. He watched her face the whole time, seeing when she woke. She moaned softly, her eyes fluttering. "What are you doing?" she asked, sucking in a breath from pleasure.

Instead of removing her toe from his mouth, he sent her a vision of her sitting astride him in the tub, gently rocking them both to their climaxes.

Her eyes opened and met his. "How do you make me go from sound asleep to desperately needing you in such a short time?"

He chuckled. "Just a skill of mine." He patted his knees as he pushed her foot down into the water. "Come sit on my lap, dirt bag."

"Why do you insist on calling me dirt bag?" she asked as she crawled toward him, moving her knees to either side of his thighs.

"You didn't like dog breath," he told her, as if that answer made all the sense in the world.

"Well, of course, I didn't like it. I don't like dirt bag either!"

He positioned her over his cock, pulling her down until she was seated atop him, and his cock was buried deeply inside her. "Those are the only endearments I know in your language. You'll have to teach me some others!"

"Endearments? Those aren't endearments! They're insults!" The man had obviously lost his mind, but he sure could make her feel good.

"So teach me some endearments." He held still inside of her, looking into her green eyes. "I could call you grass eyes."

"Grass eyes? Because my eyes are green?"

He nodded. "I kind of like that."

"I don't." She shook her head. "No, we need to come up with something else." She thought about all the names she'd read and heard for endearments, and really? There weren't that many. The compounds on Earth may seem like a good idea to some, but she could see how much they had limited her. "Darling, dear one, dear, honey, sweetheart? Do you like any of those?"

He shrugged. "I like grass eyes better."

"I don't."

He frowned. "You're becoming more difficult the better I get to know you."

"I don't mean to be difficult, but I don't like the sound of that. It makes me feel ugly."

"Well, we can't have you feeling ugly. How about sweetheart?"

She nodded happily, burying her face in his neck. It felt so good to have him inside her that for once she didn't feel the need for him to start thrusting. She was just happy to have him in her. "Let's stay like this for a while. Can we?"

He nodded, pulling her face away from his and kissing her softly. "I would like that. Just stay still inside you, right?"

"Yes, please." Why it felt so good to just stay that way, she didn't know. They were always in a hurry as soon as they touched each other, so it was nice not to be in a frenzied race to release. She sat up straighter, feeling him go deeper inside her. "What did your father say?"

He tried to concentrate on her words and not the feel of her squeezing him deeply inside her. "He's angry. We've made a plan to beef up security for the planet. He's going to send a missive to Htfld about Tylr being left down there. We know we'll still be blamed, but at least we're holding out the blahserni branch."

"What's a blahserni branch?" she asked, her hands exploring his chest.

"It's what you hold out when you want peace. You don't say that on Earth?"

"No, we hold out an olive branch. I'm going to need to learn your language. I mean, everyone in the palace that I've met speaks English, but I need to know your language as well."

"I have lessons that can be played while we sleep. You'll know the language within a week. Reading it is harder, but I don't think that's as important for now."

"No, I don't either. Would you start playing the lessons tonight?"

"Of course. Father insists that you need to learn the language quickly."

"Was he angry you married me?" she asked, worried that even though her mother-in-law had seemed to like her a great deal, her father-in-law would hate her.

"Not at all. He's pleased. He said he'd worried none of his boys would ever find their fated mates, and he wants many grandsons."

"How many boys are in your family?"

Drrrl caught her hips and lifted her up once and brought her back down quickly, closing his eyes at the pleasure the action brought him. "Just four."

"Just four? Why does it seem like so many more when you talk of them?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea."

Lela began moving so that he was sliding out of her and then she pulled him back in deeply. She moaned softly. "I sure hope your parents' room is far from ours."

He laughed. "They are on the other hall. Now, my brothers, on the other hand, will hear us tonight and beg Father to let them kidnap their own brides from Earth tomorrow. I bet they'll spend all night in their beds masturbating to the sounds of our lovemaking."

She leaned back a bit, looking into his eyes. "Are you planning on making love all night?"

He laughed. "That's always the plan, sweetheart."

*****

At dinner that evening she met all the brothers, and the young bride who would be her new servant. "Where are the young brides coming from?" she asked Drrrl as they walked back to their room together.

"From the female slave trader. He comes around often with different women who have been banished from Warden and other planets for various reasons: murder, industrial espionage, and just about anything else you can imagine. I couldn't force myself to choose from one of them, but as the crown prince, I really didn't have to. Some of the others do."

"So the one who's my servant? Do I need to fear her?"

He shook his head. "She chose to leave the planet. Her mother was a Mcy, and she wanted to join us, so she asked Lvn for a ride. Occasionally that happens, but it's very rare."

"Her mother was a Mcy, and she had a girl? So it is possible?"

"Her mother was adopted into the Mcy family. So she was never truly a Mcy."

"Oh." Lela had always liked the idea of having a daughter, and now that it was out of her reach, it made her sad. Once she'd known she'd have a daughter with a faceless, nameless man somewhere. Now she desperately wanted a daughter with the barbarian who walked beside her. No one else.

"Do you want a daughter?" he asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Yes, I do. More than anything. Maybe we could kidnap one from Earth."

He shook his head. "No, I promised Father I would kidnap no more females from Earth. My brothers didn't make the same promise. I know they're planning to leave for Earth soon."

Lela laughed. "I don't know if that's the answer, but I wish them well."

"They are all a little in love with their new sister-in-law. They think they can find princesses of their own on Earth."

Lela smiled at that. "Truly, if they are going back to Earth, they should choose another compound than the one you found me at. My compound will have strengthened their security."

He nodded. "That makes sense. Were there ever any disappearances from your compound?"

"A little girl was lost a few years back. She'd fallen into the stream behind the dormitory, and the stream was immediately drained. Now there are fences around it. It was one of my favorite places to sit. I loved just watching the water." She turned to him. "What's your planet like? The palace doesn't have any windows?"

He smiled at her. "We'll go for a walk in the morning, and I'll show you. I think you'll like it here. If not, you can stay indoors."

Lela shuddered at the idea. She knew she'd never be content staying indoors all the time. It wasn't what she was meant to do. "A walk would be lovely."

Chapter Ten

Lela woke early the following morning, reaching for Drrrl, but he was already gone. Her servant was sitting beside her watching her sleep, her face odd.

"I didn't realize I wasn't alone," Lela said, pulling the covers to her chest.

"Drrrl asked me to sit with you until you woke. He didn't think you should wake alone in a new place." The servant continued to watch her. "I'm Kty."

Lela nodded. "I remember. Where is my husband now? He said we could go for a walk this morning."

"I was supposed to marry him, you know."

Lela blinked, trying to follow the conversation. "Who were you supposed to marry?"

"Prince Drrrl, of course. That's why I came to this awful place. Instead, my Jck saw me and claimed me for his own. I told him I was meant to marry the crown prince, but he didn't listen or care."

"I didn't know that, Kty. I'm sorry things didn't work out as you planned."

Kty shook her head, her dark hair moving wildly about her shoulders. "Oh, it wasn't just a plan. It was my destiny. From the time I was old enough to listen to stories at my mother's knee, she told me about my destiny to marry the crown prince of the Mcys. And now I'm married to a Mcy, but he's the man who cleans the toilets, not the crown prince." The girl stood up from her chair and started pacing the room. "It's your fault, you know."

Lela had sensed more than a little insanity in the other woman's eyes. "How is it my fault?"

Kty frowned at Lela, as if she was surprised the other woman didn't see her reasoning. "If you hadn't come, I could have killed Jck with no problem. No one would miss him, and then I would catch the prince's eye. But now, I have to kill you both. It will be harder, and the fated mate of the crown prince will surely be missed." She pulled a long knife from her pocket. "No matter. I'll say I came to see you and a man with blond hair was sneaking out the window. It's always so easy to blame everything on the Htflds. The Mcys will fall for anything if the Htflds can be blamed."

"Drrrl cares for me. If you kill me, he'll spend a long time mourning me."

"He'll mourn your body, and he'll need another. Once the Mcy men discover the pleasures of sex, they never want to be without. No, he'll turn to me, newly widowed Kty."

"Or he'll go back to Earth and steal another woman. He does have a thing for Earth women." Lela had no idea what to do other than keep the crazy woman talking. She wondered if the connection she had with Drrrl would work both ways. Could she send an image of Kty and the knife to Drrrl? Would he understand what she was trying to tell him?

She closed her eyes and did her best to send to Drrrl the sight of Kty standing across the room brandishing a knife. She had no idea if it worked, but she tried. That was what mattered, right?

Lela sat up in bed staring at the servant, keeping the sheet covering her breasts.

Kty laughed. "You're so modest, even as you're about to die. There's no way he'd want another prude like you. Earth women couldn't be appealing. No, he'll want me."

Kty took a few steps toward Lela, and Lela realized this woman towered over her as well. Why did she have to be so small in proportion to the women of this world? She was used to being the one so much taller than others that she'd felt like a freak of nature.

"I don't think so. He liked that he was my first and I was pure for him. You can't say the same. You've been married."

"I've only been with my husband. Jck isn't even a good lover. No, Drrrl will recognize that he needs me, and I need him. It's obvious."

"Maybe in your eyes, but I don't think it will be obvious to Drrrl."

Kty raised her voice for the first time, screaming like a shrew. "He will understand! He will take me as his wife, and I will rule over the Mcys at his side! It was destined!"

Lela frowned. "I can see that now. It makes sense that you want to kill me. Would you mind if I took a bath first, though? I feel dirty, and I don't want someone to find my body dirty."

"That's crazy. No one cares if they're dirty when they die."

"It must be an Earth thing, but we all want to be found clean. Please, this is the only thing I'm asking for. On Earth prisoners who are about to die get to choose their last meal as well, but I won't ask for that."

Kty shook her head. "You wouldn't get it either. Fine. Take your bath. I don't care."

Lela walked into the bathroom, quickly shutting the door and locking it. She knew it wouldn't hold the other woman off for long, but hopefully Drrrl would be able to save her before Kty realized she was just trying to delay the inevitable. She almost laughed at that last thought. Who'd have thought she would expect to be saved like a damsel in distress? That was definitely not her personality. Not usually anyway.

She ran the bathwater, wishing there was a window in the room she could climb out. She would even forgo her modesty if she could find a way out of her predicament. Obviously Drrrl had no idea Kty was a raving lunatic, or she wouldn't have been the one to be assigned as her servant.

*****

Drrrl was talking to his father when he saw an image of Kty, the servant assigned to Lela, with a knife standing in his bedroom. "Father, have you ever heard of the fated mate of a Mcy being able to transmit images into the mind of the Mcy?"

Stnl looked at Drrrl, confusion on his face. "No, I haven't, but we're dealing with an Earth woman, and I have no idea what could happen when one of ours mated with one. Why?"

"I think Lela's in danger. I just received an image of Kty standing over her with a knife in her hand."

Stnl's eyes widened. "Take a guard with you. Don't go rushing in there like a crazed man. I can't let you get hurt!"

Drrrl ignored his father, running in the direction of his bedroom. He was across the palace from her, and he only hoped he wasn't too late. He could hear footsteps running after him, and he could only assume his father had sent someone else to help out. He didn't care. He had to save Lela. She was his fated mate!

When he reached his bedroom, he opened the door to find Kty lounging in his bed, the knife in her hand. She smiled at Drrrl. "Oh, Drrrl. Thank you for coming to rescue me. Lela tried to kill me with this knife, but I took it from her."

Drrrl shook his head. He could see the insanity in the woman's eyes, and wondered how he had never seen it before. It was so clear now.

"Is she hiding in the bathroom?" he asked softly. "Afraid that I'll punish her for trying to hurt you?" He just needed to know she was all right. There was no sign of blood, so perhaps Lela had gotten away before Kty could hurt her.

"Yes, she's hiding. She knows you'll be angry with her for trying to hurt a Mcy. She thinks you'll send her back to Earth." Kty's eyes met his. "You will send her back to Earth, won't you?"

Drrrl nodded. "Oh, yes, of course I will. That's the only way to deal with a woman like this. Send her back where she belongs."

Kty walked to him, her hips swaying seductively. She handed him the knife, and he took it. The two guards took a step forward at his nod, each taking one of Kty's arms. "Take her away. She'll be tried for her crime against my wife."

Kty turned and stared at him in shock. "My crime? What about her crime against me?"

Drrrl ignored her and walked to the bathroom, hoping his sweet wife would be all right. When the door wouldn't open, he pounded on it. "Lela, it's Drrrl. Kty's been taken away. I have the knife now."

Lela opened the door and flew into her husband's arms. "Oh, thank you for saving me! I knew you'd come!"

He smiled, stroking her hair. "Of course I'm here. I wouldn't let you get hurt for anything." Drrrl took her hand and pulled her from the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, and pulling her down beside him. "I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner. I didn't know it was possible for you to send images to me."

"I didn't either, but I had to try something. I was so frightened!"

"I know, sweetheart. Did she say what the problem was?"

"She was told from the time she was small that she was destined to marry you. She had planned to kill her husband, Jck, and she knew you would marry her immediately. But then I came along and ruined all her plans so she would have to kill me and Jck. She told me it was my fault, because I was standing in the way of her destiny."

He shook his head. "She's crazy."

Lela smiled. "I do realize that. She helped me realize something that I didn't know before, though."

He looked at her. "What's that? That you don't like knives?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all. I realized that I love you. You see, when we met I went along with everything, because I really had no choice. But today, when she talked about killing me, I realized that I hated the idea of you marrying anyone else. Of you having relations with anyone else. I want you for myself, and that's all there is to it."

He chuckled softly. "Of course you feel that way. It's part of us being fated mates. I hope you realize I love you as well."

"How could I know that when you've never told me?"

He smiled. "I've told you through my actions a million times. I love you, Lela. You are the only woman in the entire universe created just for me, and I will cherish you all the days of my life."

"Truly?"

"Of course."

Lela felt a bubble of happiness inside her, but it took her a minute to recognize it for what it was. In her entire life, the most she'd ever hoped for was contentment. She was being forced into a career she didn't want, to marry a man she didn't want, and to live a life she didn't want. Now, though, she had everything she wanted. Well, except for children of course, but Drrrl was doing his best, so she couldn't fault him for that.

"I'm happy here with you, Drrrl. I can't wait to have your children. I will live here forever."

He smiled, leaning down and touching his lips to hers. "I'm glad."

*****

Much later that night, they walked along the ocean outside, and talked of their planet and the future. "The makeup of the world is ninety percent ocean and only ten percent land. That's why no one wanted this planet, but we love it. We have a few floating homes on the ocean, and the people who live in them come into the palace when there's a storm. For the most part, though, we have a few islands with rocky shorelines and we have oceans."

Lela shrugged. "I love water. As long as I have permission to walk along the rocky shorelines, I'll be happy."

"Of course, you do. We want you to be happy here. Content."

"I'll be happy anywhere, as long as I'm with you, Drrrl."

He smiled, leaning down to kiss her sweetly. "I'm so glad you finally figured it out."

"It didn't take me that long. I've still only known you for a week."

"It felt like forever."

Epilogue

Bnjmn used the view screen on the ship to watch the human colony. He wasn't going to be like Drrrl and descend on the planet's surface with no idea who he'd take. No, he wouldn't bother with the surface of Earth at all. Instead, he'd choose the one he wanted and simply teleport his future wife onto the ship. He'd brought the third brother in line for the throne, Kvn, along with him as the captain. If his lovely bride insisted on marrying before he bedded her, he would be ready.

Watching the way the women interacted with each other had been fun for him. He'd been doing it for four days now. He had his bride narrowed down to two women. There was a fiery haired red-head, who seemed like a warrior goddess to him. She ran around helping others with everything she did.

And there was a quiet soft-spoken blonde, who sat off to the side with her books, reading all the time. He couldn't get a good view of what she was reading, but he had a feeling they were books that weren't approved of by the women running the compound. No, she was a quiet rebel. He thought he liked her best, but he'd take a day or two before deciding. He had to find her alone before he could teleport her anyway. They couldn't risk alerting Earth's authorities.

Bnjmn smiled to himself. In just a few days he was going to have his own mate aboard the ship. He too would be a happy man.

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Warriors of Warden Book 2, Saving the Alien Barbarian

By Sierra York

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# Chapter One

Tylr waited impatiently for the bucket that would bring him to the surface of the only home he could remember, the planet Htfld. Tylr's family had been outcasts, sent to the barren planet for feuding with another family when he was very young. The feud was legendary, but apparently the inhabitants of their origin planet, Warden, got tired of the legend. The other family had been banished as well, but to the opposite side of the solar system. Everyone on Htfld hated the Mcys and vice-versa. No one knew exactly how the feud had started but they'd all been more than willing to keep it alive. The Htflds weren't exactly fond of the planet they'd been given, and they had a new thing to blame the Mcys for: their mostly underground existence.

The Htflds were light-skinned with pale hair and either green or blue eyes. When they'd been banished, they had buried themselves within the depths of the planet to preserve their fair skin. They built their cities with interwoven tunnels and various-sized living pods. Tylr's father was the leader of the Htflds so they had an area of the tunnels that kept their family close. They were royal after all. Singles like Tylr had small pods to call home. His was a bit too close to his parents for his liking though. The more distant Htflds who had families were given larger pods and would upgrade as they added sons.

The Htflds and the Mcys were about as different as two families could be, and they made sure everyone knew it. They had only one thing in common: neither could produce female children. Many years before their exile from their home planet, they'd been cursed by a sage from Warden to have only male offspring in an attempt to wipe them from existence. These were resourceful families though. They'd found a few ways to import females in order to reproduce in the years since, most of which were still not ideal.

The bucket's indicator light blinked repetitively above his head as Tylr thought about home and what it meant. He was a marshal, which kept him roaming the universe more often than not. It was a rewarding job, and one that allowed him to stay close to those of his brothers that were marshals as well. But home was beginning to become a place associated with loneliness. Lately he'd found himself longing for the comfort of a strong, beautiful woman when he returned to his small pod after assignments.

He hadn't long to think about it though. Just as the thought crossed his mind, a hand touched his shoulder. He immediately went into defense mode; his stance widened, his muscles tightened, and his hand went to the weapon on his hip.

A deep laugh sounded from behind him, "Relax, brother. It's me."

Tylr released a breath and relaxed his stance before turning to his elder brother. "I nearly shot you. Idiot."

"Ha! You don't have the balls, little brother."

Grys was a well-built male. Over seven feet tall with shoulders wide enough to balance his height, his pale face and almost white hair bleached his features so that his blue eyes seemingly shone from his face. Tylr stared at his brother as the bucket indicator light changed his skin, the flashing red making him seem ghostly and terrifying. "Can I help you with something?"

"Nah. Just thought I'd catch up. We're headed out together today."

Tylr closed his eyes, trying to calm himself before he responded. Grys was his brother and he loved him, but he hated working with him. He was all brawn and no brains. He liked to use his size to intimidate people...and if that didn't work, he'd shoot off at the mouth and leave a giant mess for Tylr to clean up. He opened his eyes at the ringing that accompanied the arrival of the bucket and looked to his brother and laughed. "Fantastic."

The two males entered the bucket, and after a brief hesitation, Tylr punched the button that would transport them to Marshall Headquarters. The ride was silent. Tylr shifted uncomfortably on his heels. He felt a little bad. Maybe Grys was realizing he wasn't thrilled to be on assignment with him. Maybe the laugh that he'd added was too much. He never could tell much of what was going on in Grys' head. Tylr needed some peace and time to think. He was tired of living his life the way he had been, and he needed a plan. To have a plan he would need to do some investigating and researching...both things he knew he wouldn't get accomplished with his brother around.

Another ringing announced their arrival on the surface. As the door opened, Tylr reached his arm out with a silly grin on his face, halting Grys from his hasty exit. "It's not you, it's me."

And then just like he'd been able to read Tylr's mind, Grys glared at him. "We wouldn't need women on this planet if all the men acted like you, ya know."

Tylr was completely thrown but decided not to show it. He dropped his hand with a half laugh. "Of course we would. I'm tired of my hands being the only ones that touch my body."

Grys turned serious, which was very unusual. "Look, bud. You're not the only one."

As they exited the bucket, an overwhelming sense of loneliness came over Tylr. He wasn't old per se, but he wasn't exactly young either. His boots hit the dirt and the sun prickled at his skin. "Why haven't you married, Grys?"

Grys turned to his brother. "You know why. There are no options I consider worthy."

Tylr understood to a point but never thought of Grys as a sentimental guy. He probed further. "I get it. But does there ever come a point where you convince yourself that going to the outpost to meet with the slave trader would be worth it? A point where your brain turns off the ideas of her criminal past and goes carnal, wanting a warm place to plant your seed?" Thoughts of all those females started to swirl in his head. The idea that the only reason they were brought to Htfld was because they'd committed crimes so heinous the home planet wouldn't house them anymore was far from his thoughts. His body was warming as his mind conjured pictures of the women, wrists bound and waiting for him to enter them with his thickness. He shook the vision from his mind.

Grys shrugged. "Of course there is, which is why I don't go to the outpost. Out of sight, out of mind."

Tylr shook his head and brought his hand to where his hardening member was. "I didn't realize you wanted more. I guess I was thinking that the physical would be enough for you. I know I want more, but I'm beginning to think I won't find it. I'm even starting to think that the outpost is going to work for me."

Grys rolled his eyes at his little brother. "Try not to think about the warmth and the planet-cracking orgasms. Think of your future. You don't want a criminal bearing your sons. Our familial line is too pure to corrupt. You'll never forgive yourself for not waiting for your fated mate." Grys pushed Tylr in the direction of the fence. "Let's go protect the universe, shall we? Maybe we'll happen across marriageable females."

The brothers shared a laugh as they walked to the fence surrounding the marshal headquarters holding area. Tylr bent slightly at the gate to allow his retinas to be scanned. "Who said anything about fated mates? All I want is a female to warm my body, my bed and my life. Looking for a fated mate is fruitless. It can never happen." After several beeps and a long buzzing, Tylr looked back at the shocked look on his brother's face before the gate swung open giving them access.

Grys followed Tylr with a confused expression on his face. "Can you buy one of the women from Lvn for only fornication? I thought marriage was part of the deal with the slave trader."

Tylr shook his head with a half-smile. "Nope. And I'm guessing you're starting to rethink that physical thing, huh. But seriously, what would Lvn care if one of the girls was never wedded, just bedded?"

"What would happen to her though? If you were to get a female from Lvn, where would she go? She'd need to be married. There's nothing for a single female on Htfld."

"You think she'd be single long?" Tylr shot him a glare.

Grys screwed up his face in concentration. "I guess some of the lower levels would be more than happy to marry a murderer or thief that had been used for sex and then put into the open market. Yeah. Sure. Sounds reasonable." He shook his head. "Be real, Tylr. If you get a woman from Lvn, you're going to have to marry her."

Tylr thought about that for a second, "Hmm...maybe there's a way to be sure we don't procreate. I'd marry one of them if she wouldn't carry my sons. I sometimes wonder what the point is in the procreating. Why not let the curse settle in, kill us off slowly?"

Grys couldn't believe what he was hearing. Once he was able to put his eyes back in his head and close his slack jaw, he turned on his brother. "You better not let His Highness hear you talk about letting a single drop of royal blood not be spread. He'd have your head."

Tylr laughed deep from his chest. "Yeah, and then what kind of offspring would he get from me?" He tapped on his temple. "I know it doesn't always seem so but my favorite head doesn't work without this one. His Highness will get over it."

"Yeah, because history has proven that Htflds have super short memories and are more than forgiving."

The two of them fell into a fit of laughter as they made their way to their favorite ship. Tylr's gait became sturdier as his mind continued to race. Despite everything, he didn't want to be alone anymore. He wanted a female, someone who he could share his bed with. He would do the only thing he could. As soon as he returned, he'd go to the outpost.

*****

The trip to the space station seemed to take forever. Normally Tylr liked to look at the computer that gave him the universal information. He liked to be aware of what was going on while he was out and about. When he was stuck on Htfld he didn't worry about it because no one worried about them. But out here, he needed to know. It didn't hold his interest though, not today. Now that he'd made the decision that he was going to have a woman, he couldn't get the thought out of his head. He kept seeing soft curves and crystal eyes in his imagination. But he was sure he didn't like the idea of a criminal mothering his sons. He also knew there was nothing to be done about that. He'd have to find one who didn't commit a crime he considered heinous. Not a murder or anything like that; maybe a thief. Something non-violent. He tried to picture her. But at first, all he could picture were hands that had been bound so she couldn't escape. He tried hard and was able to slowly put a face and a body with his vision.

"Hey, come in here for a sec."

The sound of his brother's voice pulled him from his thoughts of a pale haired, freckle-faced beauty with curves he could hold onto late into the night. Her hands were still tied though. His mouth was dry, all the liquid in his body having been used up by the flames that had started to burn in his gut. His voice cracked. "Yes, brother."

Tylr pressed his thumb to the pad outside the cockpit door, commanding it to open. Once it had, he stepped inside.

"We're almost there, but I wanted to warn you. I saw a ship that looked like it could belong to a Mcy. You and I both know what that could mean. I wanted you on point, just in case."

Tylr nodded at his elder brother. "I'll behave if they do."

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Keep Reading for a Sneak Peek at

Warriors of Warden Book 2, Saving the Alien Barbarian

By Sierra York

Sign up for Sierra York's mailing list to receive announcements about future books. She also interacts with fans on her  Facebook page.

