Mate of the Beast Read online

  Xarq hunched his shoulder, baring his pointed teeth in obvious pain at the movement.

  “I heard them talking on Ka’elea,” he said. “Just a few words but… They said ‘don’t let any of them escape’.”

  Alyssa’s eyes widened. “They wanted to kidnap… everyone?”

  Xarq shook his head. “Not everyone. Us. My kind.”

  Alyssa’s eyes widened even more. “But what could they possibly want with you? Weren’t you… Um…” She didn’t know how to say it nicely. Heck, she didn’t know how to say it at all. He had been created in a lab, as a part of an abhorrent experiment. Could she… Could she even talk about such to him? Or was the whole subject a taboo?

  Xarq shook his head again, his eyes closed. “I don’t know what they want. Krezlians were secluded since the beginning, they liked to keep to themselves. But they depended on trade with other species, and now many alien councils have stopped trading with them altogether because of their actions. They are now suffering the repercussions of their actions. For… creating my kind.”

  He stayed silent for a moment, his eyes closed. Alyssa didn’t know what to say either, so she stayed quiet. After a few minutes, Xarq spoke again.

  “Revenge…,” he said, opening his eyes and looking at Alyssa again. “That’s my guess. They created us. But in the end, we were also what doomed them. My guess is that they wanted us back so they could either break us or use us – maybe even both.”

  “But… What about me?” Alyssa asked. It didn’t make sense. If the Krezlians wanted revenge on the Ezak-X, why would they have taken her?

  Xarq lifted his shoulder again. “An unfortunate byproduct when abducting me?”

  Alyssa’s heart fell to her stomach. The irony of the whole situation did not escape her. She had been kidnapped and it wasn’t even for anything she had done – or for who she was. It was because she had been given a bodyguard to keep her safe, but in the end that bodyguard had ended up being the exact reason she had been kidnapped.

  This was just her luck…

  But for some reason, when she looked at Xarq and the desolate expression he wore, she couldn’t blame him. Alyssa had no idea what he must’ve gone through in the hands of these people, but the reports on the actions of the Krezlians had been horrendous. If Xarq had experienced even a fraction of that…

  Honestly, she wondered how the man seemed so composed. He had seemed to know exactly what to do when the attack had occurred on Ka’elea and now, he simply sat still, seeming to concentrate on his breathing, and that’s it. Maybe that had been a trait programmed into him by the Krezlians? Or maybe he was just in so much pain that was all he could do… Crap.

  “So… What do you think will happen now?” she asked, not wanting to think of what he might’ve been through at the hands of the Krezlians – not back then, or before being thrown into this cell with her now. Although she had to admit, knowledge of what would happen to them probably wasn’t any better…

  Her eyes darted back to the fresh wounds on Xarq’s arms, and her whole body felt numb with fear. But it wasn’t his wounds, but his answer that made her even more afraid.

  “I don’t know,” he answered slowly, and the simple admittance of that made Alyssa’s blood run cold.

  CHAPTER 6

  XARQ

  Kidnapped by fucking Krezlians. Could anything possibly go worse? As if the bastards hadn’t managed to screw him over enough when they’d made him and held him captive for the first twenty-eight Cycles of his life, now they’d taken him back...?

  Xarq pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead, trying to push away the headache he had so that he could think clearly. The Krezlians must have somehow found out that many of his kind were being sent to the new Agari space area for military duty… It was the only explanation he could think of for why they would’ve attacked Ka’elea.

  He cursed to himself and pressed his forehead harder. So much for his future military career.

  Xarq had always known it wasn’t over. He had always known that the Krezlians would never let the Alliance take their little weaponized pets away without a complaint. They had put too much time and effort into creating them – years and years of research and decades of training. He had always known that wouldn’t be the end.

  He just hadn’t seen the next phase of their plans coming until it hit him in the face and got him locked up in yet another Krezlian cell.

  Fuck…

  What the hell did they want with his kind this time anyway? He was sure ‘them’ had referred to his kind. The scaly green lizards never spoke of anything else with so much disdain than they did of his people – their little creations to whom they were ‘gods’ – at least in their own eyes. Not so much in his or anyone else’s.

  But why would they want them back now? Their hopes of world domination had already gone down the drain when their illegal experiments had been exposed and his people had been freed. While Xarq had known that the Krezlians wouldn’t give up on them without a fight, they must also know that neither would the Alliance. So what else could they possibly gain?

  Xarq pinched the bridge of his nose. His head was killing him and his whole body ached and burned after a round of whatever experiments the Krezlians had done to him this time. It seemed like an eternity since he’d last been experimented on, but now he was reminded all too keenly of his former existence.

  Old memories that he had tried to force to the back of his mind started to resurface. Being held in a cell not far different from this… Or in a cage, like an animal… And all those tests…

  His whole body turned cold as the muddied memories took over his brain, and he almost missed the female’s hushed question. But when a salty scent filled his nostrils, his mind returned to this moment and his eyes snapped back to the Earth female.

  She was crying. She sat quietly on the filthy floor, hardly moving while tears streamed down her face like a waterfall.

  Shit.

  He had been surprised to see her here in the first place. Why had they taken her? If they had only planned to capture his kind and take them back – whether it be for revenge or something else – why had they taken the Earth female with him? It didn’t make sense. Unless she really had been just an unlucky bystander they’d grabbed with him.

  Xarq hated the thought. Hated that he might’ve been the reason she got hurt when he had been supposed to do the opposite and protect her. He didn’t know why the thought got to him so bad. She was a body. Bodies got kidnapped at times… But Alyssa wasn’t just any body… There was something about her. Something different. And the idea of her getting hurt – especially because of him – pierced his heart.

  She continued to cry, sobbing quietly into her palms, and Xarq couldn’t take it anymore. Her haywire emotions made him feel nearly nauseous – or maybe it was the drugs he had been given. Either way, he couldn’t bear to hear her cry.

  “Shhh,” he hushed the female, although he had no idea what to do in a situation like this. How did you comfort a crying female? He’d never had to, and with how he had been raised, he wasn’t even sure he could. Especially not when they were being held prisoners by his makers, stuck in a dingy little cell. Fuck.

  His hushing certainly didn’t seem to have any effect on her as the tears kept pouring, and the sight of it made his heart ache. He rubbed at his chest. The feeling was strange, and unpleasant. He didn’t like it. Just like before, when her body had been going into shock and her anxious scent had wafted into his nose… It made him feel uneasy.

  “Shhh,” he said again, grabbing the female’s arm in his hand. “It’s going to be okay.” The hell it was. They were fucked – him for sure, he wasn’t certain about her. But if telling her that was going to make her stop crying, that’s what he’d say.

  “I’m just… I’m just so glad I’m not alone…,” the female managed between her tears.

  Xarq’s eyebrows rose in surprise at her words. Funny… That’s exactly what he had been thinking. As fucked up as
it sounded, he was glad he wasn’t alone in the hands of his makers again. Not that it made the situation any better. They were probably both going to get killed one way or another…

  His body protested the thought and he felt the strange pang in his chest again as he thought of the female dead. He shook his head. The female wouldn’t die. If it was the last thing he did, he would keep her alive until someone could rescue her. The thought of her dead sent an ache through his body that he couldn’t understand, but he knew he would rather die himself than let it happen to her.

  As if knowing she was safe with him, the female crawled closer to him, leaning into his body like an infant would clasp to its mother. Not that Xarq knew much about infants or mothers since he’d never exactly been one and had never had a mother. Just like he didn’t know what the fuck to do to comfort a female.

  Xarq cursed his existence. All he knew was to fight and kill, but when it came to mundane things like this, he had no idea what to do.

  Lifting his hand up carefully, he patted the female’s shoulder. She was now gripping onto him, crying against his chest, and the feel of her soft body against his made him feel… that same strange sensation he’d felt when they’d shaken hands. Like electricity coursing through his veins.

  She didn’t seem to notice it. Or maybe she didn’t mind.

  “It’s going to be okay.” He didn’t know what else to tell her as she sobbed into his chest.

  God, she smelled so sweet.

  Inhaling her scent deeper into his nostrils, he realized after a moment that the female had stopped crying. She now sat completely still, gripping onto him, but not doing anything else, as if she was listening to something. Xarq could hear her heart beat and noticed it was slightly accelerated – just as his own.

  Maybe she did feel it too…

  His cock grew in his suit as more of her sweet fragrance floated into his nose. It grew harder than ever in his life, straining against his suit. As he breathed in the female’s scent, the fragrance seemed to cloud his head like the sweetest xelea wine.

  The smell… was she in heat? Or ovulating, whatever the humans called it?

  Inhaling again, he realized she was. Fuck. Did she not use infertilizers? Not that a female ovulating had ever made him feel like this. But still… It was the norm for any employees of the different alien agencies to keep their reproductive cycles under control – whether they were male, female, or unisex.

  Of course, he didn’t have first-hand experience of it and didn’t know whether it was mandatory or simply recommended. Being what he was, he wasn’t capable of procreation anyway. But this female clearly was, and for some reason, the sweet fragrance of her heat drove him wild.

  The female breathed evenly against his chest, but Xarq had noticed her whole body had tensed up – just as his own. In anticipation of… something.

  He shook his head again, trying to clear his thoughts. He felt weird. Drugged on her scent. Not in control. When the female looked up at him with those wide green eyes of hers, all he wanted was to–

  “You should get away from me,” he said suddenly, taking a deep breath to try to clear his head – but the only thing he managed to do was inhale more of her scent into his nose, and his cock hardened to the point of pain. “I… I don’t know if they did something to me. I –”

  He quickly shoved the female off his lap and scrambled backwards on the floor. His breathing had turned heavy and his whole body shook and sweated. His cock tried to push free from the confines of his suit, and his insides burned in a flare of lust more intense than he’d ever felt in his life.

  What was wrong with him? Had the Krezlians given him something?

  He’d never reacted like this to a female. Not even one in heat. This was different. There was something different about her. Had been ever since he’d met her and smelled her. It wasn’t the Krezlians’ doing, he already knew that. Just… Her presence… Her smell… Delicious…

  Xarq groaned, grabbing his aching dick through his suit. He was not in control. He needed to get away from the female, and fast. Only there was nowhere to go.

  “Xarq? What’s… what’s wrong?” the female asked quietly, her tears long gone and her eyes round in concern – concern for him.

  Fuck.

  Suddenly, he didn’t feel much like a man and more like the beast he had been made to be. The way she looked at him… Her eyes wide and her plump lips glistening with saliva… Her tongue moving in her mouth as she spoke… When the slight scent of her arousal floated into his nose, something snapped inside him and he lunged forward, grabbing the female by her waist.

  He pulled her toward him, pushing his body tight against hers and pinning her on the ground. A possessive growl echoed in the small cell and it took him a moment to realize that it had come out of him.

  “Mine.”

  CHAPTER 7

  ALYSSA

  Alyssa gasped when Xarq suddenly took hold of her and pulled her toward him, pinning her onto the floor beneath his large body. A thought in the back of her mind said that she should be afraid, but fear was the last thing on her mind.

  She was aroused. Had been for some time, the feeling only intensifying as she had held onto Xarq, leaning into his strong, muscular chest and inhaling his masculine scent. It wasn’t a logical feeling – especially considering the situation they were in – but she couldn’t help it.

  Her whole body was heated up and tingling with need, and when Xarq suddenly grabbed her, it felt like she had been waiting for it to happen for an eternity.

  She wanted it.

  He wasn’t even human – he had horns for god’s sake! But when Xarq ground his hips against hers, pushing his hard cock against her core, none of that seemed to matter. She couldn’t deny the sensations he awakened in her.

  She was wet and her whole body burned with need. She had never wanted a man as badly as she wanted him at this moment – human or not. She wanted him, craved him. And when he grabbed hold of her in his powerful arms, she wanted nothing more than to surrender to his strong embrace.

  Alyssa looked up at him, staring into his midnight black eyes. His face had turned savage, but the intense look only sent shivers down her spine. His eyes were hungry and possessive as they bore into hers, the dark orbs twirling with untamed desire, and the heat in them made liquid pool inside her.

  “Xarq…,” she breathed out his name in a daze, licking her lips.

  His nostrils flared, and before she managed to say anything else, he dipped his head down over hers and took her mouth in a ravenous kiss. His muscles bulged above her, and he seemed to give up on any control he’d previously held.

  But Alyssa didn’t mind. She wanted him just as much. No matter their current situation, no matter his species. Her attraction to him had been slowly building ever since she’d met him, and suddenly, it all crashed on her.

  When he parted her lips with his tongue and thrust it inside her wetness, she couldn’t help but moan. His tongue was hot and powerful as it tangled with hers, and the feel of it sent shivers all along her body. The texture was harsher than a human man’s, almost like it had some small nubs on it – nubs that rubbed against the inside of her mouth, driving her wild with need.

  This was so wrong… She might not know the protocol with bodyguards that well, but she knew having sex with one was probably not it. A small voice nagged in the back of her mind, telling her this might just leave a mark on her file that can never be removed, but she didn’t care.

  She had never been so horny, never wanted a man like this. And despite knowing it was wrong – that something wasn’t right about this whole thing – she wanted it, she wanted him.

  Grabbing Xarq’s black mane of hair in her fingers, she pulled him deeper into the kiss, their tongues dancing in their mouths. She was so wet now that she could feel the moisture leaking out of her, and her body shivered in anticipation.

  Xarq tore at her clothing, nearly ripping it from her body in his haste to remove it. She sucked in a
breath as he ripped her bra off and exposed her breasts to the cool air in the room. Helping him along, she opened the button of her pants and let him work out the rest. He tugged the pants off her legs with two swift pulls, discarding them somewhere next to them.

  No sooner than her pants were gone, Xarq had his head between her legs. He shoved his face into her folds before Alyssa could even say ‘yes, please,’ and she gasped in shock as his rough tongue made contact with her sensitive skin.

  He ate at her like a starved animal, pushing his face between her legs and lapping at her juices, sending pleasurable little shocks throughout her body and driving her crazy with need.

  The feeling was incredible, and Alyssa wanted more.

  Arching her back for better access, her whole body started to shake as he laved at her. After a few moments, she felt herself tense up, her orgasm nearing. He sucked on her lips, and Alyssa grabbed one of his horns in her hand, pushing him more into her, closer to her clit – closer to where she really wanted him.

  She was hovering on the edge, the pleasure building up inside her as her climax drew closer and closer. A moan escaped her lips when his tongue grazed her clit.

  Yes… Just a little bit more…

  Xarq sucked on her clit then, drawing in a powerful pull, and she exploded. Her whole body tingled in incredible pleasure, an orgasm unlike anything she had ever felt wrecking through her very soul. The climax shook her body like an earthquake, and Alyssa screamed out in pleasure, holding onto Xarq’s horns for her dear life.

  Xarq grunted, the sound strangely satisfied, and after a final lick, his mouth left her sensitive folds. He looked down at her, a heated look in his eyes, and Alyssa couldn’t help but blush. Oh, god… Had she just done that?

  Kneeling by her legs, Xarq started to tug at his own suit – all the while staring down at her with that intense, animalistic look in his eyes that made her melt. He first removed the top half of his suit, revealing bulging biceps and abs that looked harder than stone. And was that an eight-pack?