Dekon: Fated Mate Alien Romance (Mated to the Alien Book 10) Read online

  But Detyen cocks had ridges on them and were a bit narrower at the tip, all for easier insertion and increased sensation. At least, that's what it seemed like to her.

  It was a little strange at first, putting her tongue on him like that, but when Deke groaned, she felt like she had all the power in the universe. And the sounds he made gave her the confidence to do more, to wrap her lips around him and wantonly suck.

  She thought Deke was going to rocket off the bed from the way his body reacted to that. No wonder there were so many videos about it.

  She couldn't get him all in her mouth. She wasn't far past the head when she choked a bit and had to pull back. She wanted to go further, but she'd have to work up to that.

  Later, she promised herself.

  She was going to learn every trick in the book and share them all with her mate.

  Tension coiled through Deke, and she was sure he was ready to burst. She didn't know if she was ready for that, but there was a first time for everything.

  He pulled back suddenly and Manda rolled her eyes upward to get a good look at him. She was trapped in his lightning blue gaze and was frozen in place. How could one look have so much power?

  "Turn over," he rasped out.

  She almost protested. She wanted to face him. She wanted to look at him forever. But his tone was strong enough to have her moving without another word.

  And when she felt his fingers against her entrance, and then his cock, she almost gasped from the intensity of it.

  How was she supposed to live when she knew she could be feeling this all the time?

  He entered her and her mind melted. It was too much, too full, too everything.

  Then he started to move, and it wasn't even close to enough. Manda didn't recognize the sounds coming out of her throat. They sounded desperate, inhuman. And she couldn't stop them if she tried.

  They couldn't keep track of time while Deke was doing those deliciously sinful things to her body. Why would she even try? She lived in the moment, surrendering completely to the decadent sensations he was giving her.

  It went on forever, but forever wasn't long enough, not even when her body finally surrendered to the pleasure and her vision went white while she shuddered from the overwhelming sensation.

  She didn't think she'd ever come down from it, but eventually her breathing evened out and Deke had to pull out of her.

  She ended up nestled against him, right where she belonged.

  "So what should we do today?" he asked after a bit of time had passed.

  Manda snorted. "If you think we're getting out of this bed, you're kidding yourself."

  Chapter Seventeen

  The carnival was Manda's idea.

  As far as Deke was concerned, they could stay in their room for the entire journey with only short breaks to get food and to hydrate. Now that he knew what it was like to make love to his mate, he never wanted to stop.

  But he wanted to please her in every way, and after an entire day spent in bed she was ready to explore the ship. It wasn't anything fancy. There was a residential floor, an entertainment floor, and a dining floor. And the entertainment was entirely up to the guests. Small rooms fitted out with holographic entertainment systems lined one wing of the entertainment floor that was where Manda and Deke were now.

  Deke let Manda choose the program, and that was why the air smelled of dirt and sugar and it was too loud as holographic people walked all around them in the open-air carnival.

  Manda's hand was in his, and she was practically tugging him behind her. Deke had never seen a carnival like this before. The program had said that it was specific to the 1980s on Earth, centuries ago and light years away.

  Manda's eyes were bright as she took in all the rusty metal and dilapidated buildings around them.

  This was what people did for fun on Earth in the 20th century? Wasn't that the century where they had learned about spaceflight? It was a strange, strange planet.

  "Come on," Manda urged, pulling him toward a contraption filled with large red half domes that spun around in circles. "I want to ride the tilt-a-whirl."

  He wasn't sure he liked the sound of that, but he followed on. "Whatever you say." With anyone else, he might have complained. And he knew if he'd been taken to this place back before he walked away from his life, he would have been fascinated by it. He tried to cling to what he knew he used to feel. It was hard, but not as hard as it used to be. Manda was awakening something in him that he thought was dead. He would never be the same Dekon who'd left his brother on Honora Station years before, but maybe he could find aspects of that man.

  He wouldn't find him on the tilt-a-whirl.

  He and Manda strapped in with a rusty metal bar that looked prone to breaking, but she didn't look worried. Deke tried to remind himself that this was all a projection. They were completely safe. But as the ride started up, swinging them in tight, fast circles, his stomach thought otherwise.

  He was going to vomit.

  Some tough mercenary he was. Give him blood, give him violence, just don't give him centrifugal force.

  Manda threw her head back and laughed and Deke almost felt better. At least his denya enjoyed this. That almost made it worth it.

  Thankfully the ride on the tilt-a-whirl didn't take too long, and then she was running to the next thing, some sort of large inflated contraption where they strapped in and jumped and flipped, mimicking these old humans' thoughts of antigravity.

  Deke couldn't keep quiet once they finished that ride. "You know we could go play in actual antigravity," he had to say.

  Manda scowled at him and then kissed his cheek. "Sometimes it's fun to pretend. Sometimes it's better that way."

  He could see there was something deeper, something she wasn't saying, but before he could do anything to follow up on that train of thought, she tugged him toward one of the games. "These things were always rigged," she said. "I read a piece of trivia somewhere that said that. I wonder if they're rigged here. Win me something."

  The game involved tossing small metal rings at plastic bottles. Should be easy. That was Deke's thought. But something was off. No matter how carefully he tossed the rings, the bottles wouldn't hold them.

  "This is rigged," he said.

  "You're just not trying hard enough," she responded.

  Deke narrowed his eyes and called over the attendant to get more rings. He finally got one after five tries and then another and then another. "The rigging is no match for me," he said.

  "Yeah, three out of fifteen, you're doing great, babe." Manda was laughing at him.

  He liked that. He wanted her to laugh more. And even more importantly, those three hard earned rings got him a small stuffed animal that he handed to his mate. "I have slayed the beast for you, my lady," he said as he presented it to her.

  She gave an exaggerated curtsy as she accepted it. "Kind sir, thank you." She kissed the head of the stuffed animal and then kissed him.

  They walked down the paths of the carnival for what felt like hours. Time wasn't something that passed normally in these holographic games. It could have been hours, it could have been thirty minutes. But it was time spent with Manda, and that was what mattered.

  Deke tried his hand at another game, this one using an incredibly old-fashioned gun to shoot out a star on a small piece of paper. He was better at that, and the toy that he won for his mate was a stuffed animal that was almost as tall as she was.

  Then she tried her hand at the same game and barely hit the star.

  Deke tried not to feel superior. He did have the weapons training. And it was best not to gloat.

  "These things are rigged," Manda protested.

  He pulled her close and kissed her. How could he do anything else?

  Slowly around them the lights began to fade as their time came to a close. And it wasn't long before they were standing in an empty room, even the toys they had won dissolved with the rest of the illusion.

  "Do you want to go again?" he
asked.

  "I think that's enough for today," Manda admitted. "I'm getting hungry."

  "Then by all means, let's feed you."

  They exited the holo room and Deke saw the large alien with the scar on his face walking toward the end of the hall where some media players were set up to show movies. Deke stared after him for several seconds. Now that he was in a good mood, with his mate by his side and a brighter outlook on his future, the man didn't seem so threatening. Maybe Deke was just being paranoid.

  He tried to put the man out of his mind as he and Manda went to go get food.

  ***

  None of the restaurants on the dining floor had quite appealed to either Manda or Deke, so now they had a feast laid out on a tray on their bed. Manda had her legs crossed and was currently deciding between something that looked like a dumpling and a tiny sandwich. In the end she chose the dumpling. She popped it into her mouth and enjoyed the burst of flavor over her tongue, but then it was time to talk.

  "So, Dekon NaZade, mercenary. That still doesn't sound right." She wasn't going to walk on her tiptoes around the subject. They both knew what Dekon had been, even if she didn't have all the details. She was by no means qualified to offer him therapy or anything approaching it, but she wasn't going to pretend that his life hadn't happened before he got any sort of help. If he was willing to get any sort of help.

  That was a discussion for later.

  Dekon was still chewing two of the many sandwiches and made a noise before he held up a hand so he could swallow. "Mercenary work," he said with a shrug. "Happens to the best of us."

  "Does it?" She was pretty sure she didn't have it in her to be a mercenary. "How?"

  This time Deke stalled his answer by taking a drink, but she had all night, and she wasn't going to back down from this conversation. He seemed to realize that. "I didn't mean to," he said. "I was not in a good state when we left to find your parents."

  That hurt to hear, even if she knew it was true. Dekon had left Earth with Vita and Braxtyn as if she'd poisoned the air and made it unlivable. She'd been heartbroken in the way that only a teenage girl could be heartbroken, and she was pretty sure a very small part of her would always hold a bit of resentment deep, deep in the well of her emotions. Maybe Deke wasn't the only one who needed some therapy. She kept quiet and let him keep talking.

  "I don't even remember what Brax said to me, but I knew I had to get off of our ship. We were stopped at Honora Station for some routine maintenance. Once it was done, we were going to head home. So I snuck off the ship and I found another one that was taking on crew. I didn't listen too closely to what they were going to do. For the first month I was supposed to be the mechanic, but that didn't last for too long. They fired me and left me stranded on another space station. Turns out mechanic jobs are pretty highly coveted. No one was hiring. But mercs? They're always looking for bodies. I thought I would do it for a stint, work my way back to where I could get mechanic work. That was three and a half years ago."

  He kept his tone light, but Manda could hear the rough undercurrents of what he wasn't saying. She didn't want to apologize. She didn't quite know how to respond. It was Deke's own decision to head down this dark path, and start clawing his way towards the light again. "I'm glad you survived." That was the understatement of the century.

  "There were times I thought I wouldn't."

  "You can tell me, you know." She could handle hearing just about anything. She knew how to deal with it, even if it hurt. Even if it would give her nightmares to imagine the things that Deke might have gone through.

  "No," he said. "And it's not because you're not strong enough. You don't need to hear it. Not the details. It would just hurt."

  "I don't want you to hurt alone," she said.

  "I don't hurt when I'm around you."

  She wanted to believe that. She wanted to believe that now that they were together that everything would be okay, that they would arrive home and be celebrated as the bonded pair that they were. She wanted all of Deke's trauma to be in the past, for him to be able to live the life he deserved to live with smiles, and love, and family.

  But stepping out of darkness wasn't quick and it wasn't easy. And she was kidding herself if she thought they would return home and everything would be okay.

  "What about the dreams?" If he wouldn't talk about the details of his job, maybe he could answer that question.

  "Dreams?"

  "I dreamed about you when you were gone. And not like in a romantic schoolgirl way. I mean we talked. We had conversations. Even when I got to the Temple of Peace. You told me you were a mercenary in one of the dreams." She couldn't remember all of them in detail. There were a lot of them. But they had been the closest thing to comfort she'd had when they were separated.

  Deke was nodding. "I've heard about mated pairs sharing dreams before the bond is sealed," he said. "And I know I dreamed of you. Sometimes it was all that kept me sane. I tried not to. I wanted to keep you safe from all of it."

  "Don't do that."

  "Do what?"

  Manda was frustrated. "Don't shut me out like that. Not anymore. I would have given just about anything to have been at your side. So don't tell me how you didn't want me there. Got it?"

  Deke was quiet for several moments but finally he nodded. "I promise."

  "So who do you think is going to freak out the most? I mean, Naomi probably knows we're coming, but do you think she told them? Or did she want to see their reactions too?" That was a thing about having a psychic in the family, surprises were almost impossible. But Naomi had her own rules for when and when not to share her visions. And sometimes she kept them secret for her own amusement.

  But Deke wasn't smiling. "Brax is going to punch me in the face."

  "Yeah," Manda agreed. "Definitely. They even might shoot you with a blaster. Probably not somewhere too important." Manda's eyes dipped down to Deke's crotch, and she could feel herself blush. "Hopefully not."

  That startled a laugh out of her mate. "I can handle a blaster shot," he promised.

  They moved on from the heavier topics. Manda tried to remind herself that they had time. A whole lifetime now.

  But there was an anxiety in her that told her time was running out. She tried to ignore it, but she couldn't help but feel that everything was about to go wrong.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It was surprising to see how many people got off the transport shuttle at Earth. A few years ago Earth had been a backwater, a place with few aliens and almost no influence in interstellar politics. Ever since the Detyen Legion had arrived, it had become a bit of a tourist destination. After all, Detyens were almost a legend, a people nearly gone extinct after their planet was destroyed more than a century before.

  Deke looked around to see if the alien with the scar on his face had got off the shuttle, but it was too crowded, and before he could do more than glance around, Manda had a cab ready for them and they were speeding off toward home.

  Home. That was a strange thing to think about. No place had felt like home in the past four years, and now he was going back to the one that had been waiting for him.

  Manda squeezed his hand tight as the city rolled by beside them. "Are you nervous?"

  "I'm ready." At least he thought he was. He hoped he was. He hoped he could put thoughts of his past, of his violence, of the threats against him behind him. He was ready to start a new life with his mate and his family. He was ready to live again.

  It took about an hour for the cab to get to the house, which was bigger than he remembered. Four years ago it had seemed ready to burst at the seams with him and Brax and Shayn all living there. Now it was palatial, but that probably came from four years of living in small berths on different spaceships. There was no such thing as roomy space.

  He had to brace himself for a moment, to get prepared to get out of the vehicle. This was a big step. What would his brothers think when they saw him?

  He didn't have to wait long to find o
ut.

  The cab hadn't even managed to drive away when the front door opened and Shayn and Braxtyn came barreling out, Naomi and Vita not far behind them.

  Brax overtook Shayn in the sprint to get to him and wrapped him up tight in a hug that only a twin brother could give. A moment later Shayn was there, his arms joining Brax as the three of them embraced for the first time in four years.

  They didn't say anything. They didn't need to. Words would come later. Deke let himself enjoy the hug, let himself pretend that everything was all right, that there was no way his brothers were mad at him.

  But eventually Shayn and then Brax let go, and he knew it was time to talk.

  Or it would have been, if Brax hadn't shoved him hard enough to send him stumbling back a couple steps.

  "Braxtyn," Vita yelled.

  "Hey!" That was from Shayn.

  "Boys," warned Naomi.

  But something about that violence, about the anger and hurt and pure childishness of it, cracked something in Deke and he started laughing. He held up his hands and gestured for Brax to come closer. "Come on," he taunted. "I deserve it."

  Braxtyn's hands curled into fists, and Deke thought he was really going to hit him. Brax had never been a fighter, but with this much rage flowing inside him, he could do some real damage.

  Deke would let them. He deserved it.

  But after a moment the anger seemed to drain out of Brax, and he uncurled his hands and nodded towards the house. "Come on."

  They headed inside. Deke glanced back to see Manda slipping both of their bags over her shoulder. He took a step towards her to help, but she shook her head. "Go with your brothers. I've got this," she assured him.

  Deke didn't need much convincing. He followed after Naomi, Vita, Shayn, and Brax.

  The couch was new. Or at least new since he'd been away. It could easily sit ten people, an L-shape snaking around one side of the room. Shayn and Brax sat on either side of him, as if they were afraid he would disappear or turn into a puff of smoke if they didn't keep him close.