Page 17
Teasing Aura was fun, sneaking through the treetops like I used to at home as a kid.
But mostly, I wanted a chance to study him at a distance.
He’s far taller than a human and many of the other males, with mounds of muscle that bulge and twitch with every movement, speaking to just how powerful his species is.
But the arcs that lick off of his body like he’s a walking Tesla coil have me intimidated.
I’ve seen an engine lash out when its circuitry or charging system isn’t wired correctly. It can punch holes in flesh and vaporize humans.
When I finally get up the courage to confront him, his touch is far gentler than I expected. His purple skin is firm and rough, but his eyes caress me with such tenderness that I already feel his dedication.
He’s chosen me. And the big purple brute has already protected me from the creepy Listhaetis that Talros warned me about. But it’s the light he forms between our hands that has me the most stunned. His electric green gaze brightens, and a smile stretches his handsome, scar-peppered face.
This must mean something special to him.
I mean, it’s wicked cool. But an orb formed with the help of my human hand is about as likely as me forgiving my sister and my ex.
As the heat of our orb soaks into my palm, I notice a shudder beneath my boots. Something moves in my periphery, steals my attention from gorgeous, intoxicating Aura .
There’s little time to react.
One moment, I’m with him. The next, he’s gone, and I’m gasping for the air another alien male has knocked out of me. The blue-scaled species carts me deeper into the trees.
His skin rattles like light hail on a clay tile roof. Each scale glows just a hint, even in the daylight.
“Hey!” I shout at him.
He doesn’t stop.
The meadow vanishes, trees blur, and soon, sand flies up from his tracks.
He’s heading for the river.
I am not a swimmer, but as I strain to be free of his grasp, I can’t find enough breath to call for help.
He dives in. My head goes underwater. Alarm washes through me as I strain to hold my already limited breath.
He side winds downstream toward a small lake. My lungs start to burn. I claw toward the surface, toward the light, praying he’ll understand I need air.
And finally, I’m airborne, inhaling, flailing , and alone.
I tumble across soft, warm sand. The male that’s stolen me launches out of the water after me as a flash of purple swings him by his tail.
The creature catches himself on the beach and lurches for Aura, who stalks toward him like he’s on a mission to break him in two.
“She is mine !” Aura bellows.
“I’m claiming her!” The other male takes better shape as I rub the water from my eyes. Plates in dark grays line his spine and join like natural armor. His scales shimmer like blue fire hides inside them. And the angled shape of his horned face makes one word come to mind.
Dragon?
They throw punches, wrestle each other to the ground, and scrap in the sand. Aura arcs. The dragon male lights up and spits blue fire. Then, they roll back into the water.
The surface stills. I crawl toward the river, my body shaking from the disorientation and the idea so many males would fight over me.
I worry which one will be the victor. I’m not sure I could endure life with a dragon that lives in water as someone who’s a pathetic swimmer at best.
A blue pulse shudders underwater. Then a green one erupts, breaking the surface.
Not far away, a cameradrone hums. It sees me and comes closer. “Are you injured?”
“No. A bit shaken. I didn’t expect this. But I’m fine.”
Finally, the dragon male crawls out of the water.
My stomach sinks.
He stops at the edge of the beach and shakes off like a dog. Behind him, Aura hikes out, water draining from his armor like some glorious water god.
“Do not make me teach you another lesson about respect,” Aura bellows. “She is mine . You interrupted. Don’t touch my female again.”
Aura’s claim to me stirs an unfamiliar heat in my core, and I can’t tell if the slickness I feel between my legs is entirely from the water or a growing desire for him.
The dragon male hisses at Aura and scurries off.
“Damn Gragoraphors,” Aura mutters like he’s dealt with them a thousand times.
He turns to me with a triumphant smirk on his face. Aura quirks a brow. “Close your eyes.”
After a second and a decision to trust him, I do.
A bright flash of green light over my eyelids makes me wince and shield my face.
“Okay,” he says.
When I peek at him, he’s dry. Aura walks up to me and extends a hand. I take it and let him help me to my feet.
“Are you alright?” he asks.
My feet slosh a little in my boots. “Better now, but I am soaked. Wish I could flash dry like you.”
The way Aura eyes me makes me think he’s considering asking me something dirty.
“Soaked in a bad way or a good way?” he asks.
I chew a lip, trying to hold back a laugh. So he does have a dirty mind. “Both?”
“Is that so? Well, I’m not taking any chances this time. You’re mine, hot stuff.” Aura grabs me around the waist, hauls me up, and folds me over his shoulder.
A sharp zap tags me in the ass, scattering over my bodyweb. “Ow!”
“Whoops.”
“Oh, very funny.” Just a couple of hours ago, I had no idea who would want me. Now I know.
He’s big, purple, and electric.
I stare down Aura’s armored back to his muscled ass as he walks across the beach. My pussy tightens in anticipation. I bet his cock is just like him.
He chuckles to himself. “It’s funny to me.”
I wriggle in his arms, hating that he takes joy in my pain. “That hurt, dickwad! If you’re going to be like that forever, then I’m out!”
A lighter zap, like blanket static, taps my thigh, making the muscle twitch. I grunt and endure it.
Aura hums a low, thoughtful note. “No retort that time?”
“Are you just zapping me for fun?”
“Definitely…not. Nope. Also an accident.”
I roll my eyes. But I can’t let myself be mad after he just rescued me from two scaly jerks that clearly didn’t care about my safety, only claiming me.
He carries me across the meadow toward the Abr complex. A purple flower appears in his hand as he holds it behind his back. “Here, forgive me?”
I take the flower between my fingers and savor the sweet gesture. It smells delightfully fresh and clean compared to most things I’ve been around in recent years. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed nature.
My body swings and bobs gently over his robust shoulder. Aura’s hooked an arm behind my knees and steadies me with a hand on my hip. I chew a lip in thought and chuckle to myself. “No.”
“No?” he sings out. Aura slows when we enter the forest and twists as if looking for something. “Okay, what do I have to do to get you to forgive me?”
I think for a moment as I watch the mossy soil and little white moonflowers pass beneath us. “Tell me what that orb was. The one between our hands.”
He draws in a deep breath that lifts me a little. “It’s the Oramma orb. It’s created by bonds of family. Ours is small because you are not yet family, but my Storm wants you to be. That’s why it was an orb and not a mass of chaos.”
“And your Storm is that electric green energy?”
“Yes. We live in ships now that operate on it. But we once lived on a planet called Amphir, where electric storms were constant. So we had to be able to endure frequent lightning strikes. Eventually, mutation prevailed, and we now make our own Storms.”
I study the long, delicate petals of the flower with slender yellow stripes near its pollen and ponder how much my life is changing. I dreamed of an alien for so long that it almost felt like that’s all it would ever be. “I’m sorry humans are so boring.”
“You are not boring.”
“Okay, not mutated in any cool way.”
“Are you kidding?” Aura’s pace slows again as the ground beneath his boots shifts to large rocks.
“Your ability to adapt far outpaces most species in the universe. You convey emotions without words but through actions and changes in skin pigmentation. That is very interesting. Thorians also like humans very much because your body language makes you predictable.”
“That’s not always fun for us,” I admit. Nearly all of the water has drained from my boots, and I’m quickly drying in the light breeze. “It makes it difficult to have private thoughts.”
He chuckles. “I know a thing or two about that, trust me. And what you may not have in regard to physical adaptations, you always find a workaround. A new tactic, tool, or practice. The rest of us sort of fall back on our inherent skills and too often try to wrestle our way out of situations. For example, I know this is not natural.”
Aura runs a finger over a thread in my thigh. “I can feel it, even though I can’t see it under your race suit. Why are you always in this cage? Has someone put you in this?”
“It’s a Faraday suit. It keeps electricity away from my muscles, which have high water content. Slow death without this bodyweb.”
“Why do you have it?”
“Because I build and test engines on starships, specifically warships.”
Aura stops. “They banded you purple, not black for security risk or green for intellect. I don’t understand.”
“Me either,” I admit, staring down at the rocky ground. “Thought I’d be a green. My coworker thought yellow. We were both wrong. Someone said it’s my sense of humor.”
“In our catalog, purple is listed as able to take on a completely new life while optimistic yet experienced in challenging lifestyles.”
I chew a lip and nod to myself. “Sounds accurate.”
“So this net is to keep you safe from discharges?” he asks.
“Yeah, high-output engines require more amperage. Many people think it’s the voltage that kills, but it is the flow—the current.
It’s why a hovercar battery can kill a person, but a lightning strike might not.
The average person can’t take much more than ten milliamps.
This gives me the ability to endure a lot more. ”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17 (Reading here)
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
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- Page 27
- Page 28
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- Page 39
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- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53