Page 30 of Seized by the Alien Space Warrior (Alien Romance #8)

Chapter Thirty

“W ill you let me look at your shoulder now?” The Dhasu doctor, Salou, held the healing wand in his hand as he looked down at Ava.

Ava hadn’t let anyone near her while Aekon was recovering, too sick at heart to even think about it.

“Ava. Let the doctor heal you.”

Aekon watched her from the bed. She wondered how he woke so quietly and quickly, asleep one moment and fully awake the next. Like a cat.

She rubbed her shoulder. It was better than it had been, but it still wasn’t back to normal. Her muscles were tender and ached when she’d been in the same position for too long.

She eyed the wand.

“It won’t hurt. Most human females don’t feel a thing,” Salou said.

“Most? Not all?” she asked, looking at the thin piece of metal. It didn’t look like a healing instrument, but who was she to tell. Salou had healed Aekon’s horrifying injuries with no more than a glass coffin and mist.

“Let him do it, Ava,” Aekon said. His voice was stern and yet gentle.

She nodded and Salou approached. He set a function on the device and waved it in front of her shoulder.

“I don’t see how…oh.”

Warmth flooded her muscles and the ache that had dogged her for days simply disappeared.

Salou held a screen no bigger than his palm.

“Hmm. Labrum and joint capsule tear repaired. Deep tear in the rotor cuff muscle repaired.” He snapped off the wand and the heat slowly dissipated, however her shoulder felt like new. “You’re lucky I don’t make you wear a sling for a day.”

He sent her his best gruff expression, but she smiled at him, happy to be pain free for the first time in weeks.

“Thank you, Salou.”

“Human females. Always think they know best,” he muttered to himself before he went to Aekon and ran some diagnostics on him.

“Another day of bed rest and then you can get up, warrior. You need to eat. I’ll have some food brought in.” He aimed a serious look at Ava. “For both of you.”

He bustled from the room.

Aekon held out his hand to her, open and vulnerable. “Come, my Ava. Lie next to me.”

She settled next to him on the bed, which was wide enough for three people. It seemed humans were smaller than most other species. No wonder they were being abducted. They had no claws, venom, or fangs. They really were the bottom of the food chain.

Ava rested her head on his chest as he wrapped his arm about her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. A sigh went through her body as she relaxed against him.

“Why are you upset?” Aekon asked.

She had to get used to the mate-bond. Aekon felt everything she did. He also never let it go when she was even a little upset. Now that he was much better than he was three days ago, or cycles as they liked to call it on board the Mercenary Star, his strength had returned as did his decisive manner.

She glanced up at him, resting her chin on his chest. “You know, you can’t comment on every little thing I feel. You’re going to drive yourself crazy.”

His gaze glimmered. “You are important, my Ava.”

The truth of his words echoed through their connection, along with faint undertones of something more primal. Something that made her pulse notch higher in reply.

She didn’t totally understand how the mate-bond worked. It was incredibly intimate. She knew and understood everything Aekon felt. Every little detail was echoed inside her. She was still her own person, there was no doubting that, but she was more. He knew who and what he was. There were no lies. Nothing was fake. It was raw and real and genuine.

“As are you, Aekon,” she whispered.

His grip firmed on her shoulder and his gaze dropped to her mouth. Her lips began to tingle, her response so immediate. She didn’t need the mate-bond to understand what was on his mind.

It seemed he was getting better.

The heat in his eyes dimmed a little as something more serious shadowed their depths. “Ava, I would beg your forgiveness.”

Ava came up on her elbow. “Forgiveness?”

That wasn’t what she expected him to say. Then again, he never did what she thought he might.

A long breath dragged from his lungs as he weighed his words, “I recognised our mate-bond from the moment I saw you, and yet I refused to honour you by accepting it. Please. Can you ever forgive me?”

His voice cracked and the humility of his words washed over her. His eyes roamed her face, searching. Waiting.

She licked her lips, and met his gaze. “You hurt me.”

“I know.” He sounded so lost, so remorseful it made her heart ache, but she didn’t want anything holding them back. Not now they’d come so far.

“I understand where you came from. You suffered a terrible tragedy. You already had a bonded-mate and she was ripped away from you.”

His fingers tightened on her to the point of being almost painful. “I’m…”

Ava placed her fingertips over his mouth. “Don’t say you’re sorry. I wouldn’t have been if I were in your place. Aekon, I understand why you did what you did. It wasn’t a mistake to doubt again. That’s just being human, however misguided you were.”

“Your said that to me before. I think you’re rubbing off on me,” Aekon said.

She smirked at his shocked expression, at the human reaction on such an alien face. She didn’t point that out, however.

Her smile faded. “I think you put everyone else before yourself and that became your normal and you forgot about yourself. I think you don’t think you’re worthy of another mate. I can honestly say I hadn’t heard about a mate-bond before. I’d never experienced anything like it, but now I know how special it is. No wonder the mate-bonded mates around here have this love-struck look on their faces all the time. I wish every human could experience it. Now I know how lucky I am for this to happen to me. Especially with you. It would destroy me if anything happened to you. It nearly did.”

“I let everything come between us. I can’t believe the fool that I was,” Aekon said.

“But you rescued me in more ways than one, Aekon. I don’t think I would have accepted our mate-bond either if I didn’t have to fight for it. Suffer for it. I had no idea how lonely I really was. Not until I felt you. In here.” She clutched her fist to her heart. “You filled the gap I never knew I had. You fill me so much I’m brimming.”

A tear slid down her cheek and Aekon brushed it away with the pad of his thumb.

“And you complete me in a way I never knew could exist, my Ava. I do not have any doubt in my heart for you. You are my blessing,” Aekon said.

“Then, you don’t feel as though you’re stuck with me?”

He growled low in his chest, making goosebumps break out over her skin. “I want to be with you. I need to be with you. Everything in my body chooses you , Ava. There is no place I’d rather be than by your side—if you’ll have me.”

The tears fell harder down her cheeks.

“Why do you cry?”

“Because nobody has said anything remotely like that to me before.” Or meant it so fully. “And because I’m happy. And because I want nothing more than to be by your side.”

Aekon frowned, his nodes flushing pink. “You cry when you’re happy?”

Her heart felt lighter and fuller than it ever had. “Actions speak louder than words. It’s a compliment.”

Aekon’s gaze turned intent. Her stomach lurched with heated desire. His desire. She sucked in a breath, shivering as her own arousal began to ignite.

“Then let this action speak louder than any words I could utter.”

His hand threaded through the back of her hair as he guided her towards him. His mouth found hers. He pressed them together gently, almost reverently before he shuddered. His fingers tensed on her nape as he dragged his tongue along the seam of her lips, demanding entry.

She parted her lips and welcomed him into her mouth. His tongue swept in, tangling with hers as her arousal soared. She kissed him as fervently as he kissed her, his arousal spiking hers.

He groaned, the vibrations filling her mouth, skimming down her body. Her bones filled with need. Her nipples beaded until they ached. Her pussy throbbed. She needed him now.

He tilted his hips, his cock as hard as steel as he rubbed against her. The blankets were too thick between them. The barrier too great. She needed his skin on hers. She needed him inside her.

She slid her hand down his waist and across the hard planes of his abs when he caught her wrist, halting her progress. She broke their kiss, confused when she read the same fire in his eyes that was burning inside her. He rose from the bed, taking her with him. The sheet fell away from his legs to reveal his aching erection tenting his loose, black pants.

“What are you doing, Akeon?”

He picked her up, cradling her in his arms, and strode to the door.

“I will not make love to my bond-mate in a sick bed. I’m taking you to my quarters,” he said.

“But you’re recovering.”

“I’ve recovered enough for ten lifetimes. I want my bond-mate,” he said.

He slammed his palm on the door panel and it slid open.

Ava tightened her hold around his neck. “Everyone will see us like this!”

Aekon stepped from the room, ignoring the curious glances and some knowing smiles of the people passing them in the corridor. “Let them see. I am proud of my bond-mate. It is none of their business if I want to carry my bond-mate to my quarters and worship her body.”

Ava’s cheeks heated. Finally her frazzled brain went past his ‘worship your body’ words.

“Wait, you have quarters here?”

His brow nodes furrowed. “Of course. This is my vessel. I will take you to my own bed and make love to you as I’ve been itching to do since the moment I laid eyes on you.”

His gaze burned with naked need and a fresh assault of pure desire poured through her. Somehow, she didn’t think she was going to see much of the ship for days to come and for the life of her, she didn’t seem to care.

She reached up and kissed Aekon deeply, slipping her tongue into his mouth and drinking in his masculine spice. If people watched, she didn’t know. Didn’t care. The most important thing was Aekon and the overpowering need that made her body ache from the inside out.

“Then the faster you can take me there, the faster you can worship my body.”