Kayzon's Wish Read online

  “What? You mean you’re really not my mate?”

  “No, I am your mate.” It was hard to tell this to her, hard to admit the shame of his past. “I am not allowed to test mating compatibility with a female. As I said before, I have been removed from the Xylan mating database and I am not allowed to have a Bride. I am also Banished from Chronos. Due to these factors our compatibility is under review. During this review period you have a choice as to whether you will confirm our mating or reject it. It is entirely up to you.”

  “Me?” Kia squeaked and glanced with alarm at the giant freaking countdown clock on the wall. This whole thing was hurting her head. First he said she was his Bride, then he was saying, “no, wait a sec, maybe not, because I’m not supposed to have a Bride.” What the hell?

  “The female makes the final decision of disavowal in all cases of mating compatibility review.”

  “Well, that’s nice…” It really was. On New Earth they wouldn’t have let her decide shit about her own future. “But explain to me again why we’re under review.”

  He turned his head, looked away and muttered, “I have been removed from the mating database and deemed unworthy of a Bride,” he repeated. “I should not have tested compatibility. As I said before, it was an accident and I was swept up by the mating hormones.”

  “You didn’t mean to mate with me? You knew that you aren’t allowed to have a Bride, so it was all a mistake?”

  “Yes.”

  The luscious male who’d taken her virginity the night before was telling her it was all a mistake? She took a deep breath, her nose stinging. “So…you don’t want me? This is all a mistake?”

  “Yesterday I lost control. I let the primal hormones, the mating lust…” He paused and looked away again. “I should not have claimed you. I am deemed not worthy of having a mate by Xylan High Command. In good faith I have to warn you that this mating might not be appropriate for you. You are therefore given the choice of disavowal, which means rejection. This mating is under review. You are given one planetary cycle to decide whether to remain with me in this mating or to leave.”

  “Leave and go where?”

  “Back to New Earth. Back to your old life. We will both resume our lives as if this never occurred. There is another decision you must make that is equally important. You are also—”

  She stood up and put a hand out. “Hold on, speaking of my old life. Where is my family? What is happening to them?”

  He looked startled. “Your family? Your line? I do not know.”

  “I know that all this talk of review is important to you, but what about my family? You plucked me off of my planet, and we had a great time last night, but I’m really worried about my family.” She paused and shook her head, trying to get him to understand, to see the urgency. “I can’t even talk to you about any of this until I know everything is okay with my family. I can’t leave them there on New Earth alone. How long have I been gone? My father is living in hiding, afraid for his life. My mother isn’t allowed to work. I have two sisters. They must all be fed. I’m the eldest. They were depending on the extra currency I was going to bring home today. They will starve without me.” Her eyes watered. “What do they think happened to me? Do they think the Hurlians took me? Do they think I’m dead?”

  Kayzon snarled, turned around and began to tap his claws on a screen on the wall.

  “Did you hear what I said? I can’t—”

  He kept tapping on that damn screen.

  “Kayzon.”

  He whipped back around. “It’s fixed.”

  “What’s fixed?”

  “Your line is no longer in danger.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We are in orbit around New Earth. I have not left the planet yet. So I have sent them currency. Their account is now full enough to pay for all of their needs.”

  She blinked. “I can’t believe you did that.”

  “You are temporarily my mate. At this moment your line is my line. You need the time to make your decision without the added burden of worry over your human family. And I sent a message that you are safe and well.”

  Her jaw dropped.

  He was huge—seven feet of mountainous muscle and scarred with that creepy glowing eye that never followed what the other one did.

  This warrior looked so scary, so heartless, but he really wasn’t, was he?

  She shifted on her feet and couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “That was nice of you, thank you.”

  “Nice? I do not understand this word. There appears to be no translation for it in Xylan.”

  She smiled. “You don’t understand ‘nice’? Um, how about, that was an honorable thing to do?”

  He tucked his chin into his chest. She could swear she spotted a small smile curving his lips.

  She took a deep breath. “Okay, now I feel like I can focus on what you were saying before. Hey, how is it that you’re speaking Xylan now and I can understand it? And I can read the time on that countdown clock?”

  “I had a translator put into your brain when I took you to medical bay to have you checked for wounds after the Hurlian attack.”

  “Oh, that’s why I felt so good. Thank you for that.”

  He nodded.

  She waved a hand around. “You know, you don’t seem like you’re happy about this.”

  “I’m not.”

  That lump in her throat was returning. “So…you don’t want me?”

  “I don’t want you to be beholden to me.”

  “Why?”

  He let out a sigh of frustration. “Why are you so accepting of this?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “You’re mated to a Banished Xylan warrior. I am not of your species. On Chronos I am considered lazhul. I should not have a Bride. I never thought I would have a Bride.”

  He looked angry. His eyes flashed and his hands were fisted. He obviously resented the fact that his body was making him want her. She wrapped her arms across her chest and tried to do her best to stop the tears that were pricking her eyes.

  Humiliating. This had to be the most humiliating and embarrassing moment of her life. And there’d been plenty of embarrassing moments back in the middle of her father being suddenly outlawed as multigod and her family thrown in poverty. Friends turned on her. Family turned their backs. Her grandparents changed over to unigod and couldn’t understand her parents’ inflexibility on the issue, so turned on them, too. They’d had no one.

  But even that wasn’t as much of a painful stab in the heart as this was now.

  And she’d thought they’d had something special back there. She’d never been kissed, never touched by a man. She’d never dated. Once, she’d shared a few heated glances with a man in the New Earth peacekeepers, the men who patrolled the streets to try to bring peace and order. But shortly after the religious persecution started he’d quickly folded and turned unigod and dismissed her as if she’d never existed. She’d convinced herself that this had been for the best. She’d never have been able to be herself around him. How could she marry a man from New Earth and still manage to hide her strength from him? If anyone had found out they would’ve thought her a freak. Her parents had always told her to keep it a secret for her own safety. If she stayed on New Earth the rest of her life, she’d have to live a life of secrets and lies, all the while being alone and without children.

  She was overjoyed that she’d finally found someone who she could reveal her strength to and he wasn’t revolted by it. She’d bit him and mainly all he was doing afterwards was admiring it, like a badge of honor. So, to her, they seemed to be a good match. There was something here. His body had picked her for a reason. Her body had picked him for a reason. Why deny this? They might as well both go forward with this and give it a chance.

  But instead, he didn’t want it. He was upset that he even had a Bride, and he was rejecting her and not even trying to fight for their relationship. What the hell?

  “
So basically you think that I’ll be gone in—” She glanced at the clock. “—less than twenty-four hours?”

  He nodded. “I think at the time of review you will decide to leave.”

  “I don’t understand how you can say that…after what happened last night…”

  “Mating compatibility was forced upon you,” he gritted.

  “But you warned me, you know. You really did tell me to leave you alone, that nothing good would come from me associating with you. And I’m the one who still followed you. That was my choice. Then the Hurlians came. And you saved me.”

  “The circumstances were extreme, but the result is the same. The review is required by Xylan law.” He took a deep breath. “I will leave now. You need time to yourself to come to your final decision. I will sleep elsewhere in the ship.”

  “Can’t I at least stay and talk with you, get to know you better before making my decision?”

  He looked uncomfortable.

  Goddammit. She couldn’t believe him.

  “You were going to ignore me, weren’t you? I can’t believe it.” She threw her hands up. And shoot, that sheet was starting to slide, but what the hell! She was so mad, she couldn’t think of anything else. “You were going to leave me in here in this room alone and then return me when the time was up, weren’t you?”

  His hands fisted, and a vein throbbed at his throat. His eyes turned hard and dark. “It makes little sense to increase a bond that is meant to be broken. It is the right decision for the both of us.”

  “You’re not even going to fight for me, to try to talk me into staying, are you? You don’t want me,” she croaked.

  Chapter Six

  His control seemed to snap. Her new husband strode straight for her, his lips pulled back and his fangs bared. She couldn’t help the little girl squeal that slipped from her lips. She backed up and hit the wall. The whole length of him pressed against her, including the pressure of that huge cock. She should’ve been afraid, but all she could do was sigh with delight.

  Dominance and harsh power radiated from every masculine pore. “I am not a worthy mate,” he snarled.

  She swallowed and kept her tone as even as possible, which was hard to do when a scary as hell, seven-foot tall Xylan warrior had her pinned in a tight spot, his lips so close to her own.

  This reminded her of their power play in the forest. He was rough, he was harsh, he was all the things she would expect a warrior of his species to be, but…fuck, he’d saved her life. He’d said she was his Bride, and somewhere deep inside her heart resided an essential truth: I can get through to him. He’ll listen to me.

  “You are my mate, you said so yourself,” she reminded him softly.

  He inhaled, his great chest rising and falling against her breasts. His gaze locked with hers. “There is choice for you,” he answered. “You can leave and go back.”

  She let out a bitter laugh. “Leave and go where?” she blurted out. “Back to New Earth? Why would I do that? That’s stupid.”

  He pulled back slightly and stared down at her with a hard look on his face. “Don’t do that,” he said. “Don’t use me just to get away.”

  She let out a heavy sigh and scrubbed a hand over her face. “I’m sorry. That sounded bad, didn’t it? Like I’m using you or something. I didn’t mean it that way. Look, you don’t know what it’s like to live there. Everyone wants off that planet. You could ask almost anyone if they wanted off and they’d say yes. Even if it meant giving up status and possessions, if a person was allowed to take his family with him, he’d step on a ship today and leave New Earth. Every one of us would. Because remember that Hurlian snatching you rescued me from? Well, that happens like once a month somewhere on the planet. Everyone has a story of a family member or a friend who was snatched by the Hurlians. We are never able to successfully fight them off because it’s always surprise attacks, usually in the dead of night, but sometimes just like you saw, in broad daylight. Kayzon, they even take children.”

  She wasn’t able to stop the tears that had formed in her eyes. The heartache was too raw. Remembering the screaming terror of her neighbors as she’d watched their youngest daughter, a small child of five years old, being torn from her mother’s grip and carried off by monsters in red armor… This was a story she’d seen played out too many times in Singapore over the years, always wondering when someone in her own family would be next. In fact, yesterday, it would have been her. She would have been taken by the Hurlians if it hadn’t been for Kayzon. He was literally the only being she’d ever seen who was able to successfully fight off an attack from a Hurlian.

  He was a hero. How did he not know this about himself?

  He touched her hair, ran his fingers through it. “The Hurlians will not hurt you or your family ever again,” he said with a gentle tone.

  “Thank you for saying that.”

  “I am not just saying it. It is a vow of honor. They will not touch you ever again.”

  She could sense the finality of his statement.

  He reached out and ran a claw-tipped finger down the side of her cheek and cupped her face. Warmth bloomed inside her chest.

  “You are mine to protect. You are my Bride.”

  “But you don’t want a Bride.” She frowned. “If you aren’t with me, how can you know I’m safe?”

  His jaw clenched. He spoke through his fangs with forced restraint. “I am doing the best a warrior of honor is able to do. My actions are honorable. I care that you are temporarily mated to a warrior of no worth.”

  She gave a slight head shake, totally fucking confused. “You saved me. You just saved my entire family by giving them currency, and you even had the decency to send them a note, letting them know I was okay so not to worry. How can you be considered a warrior of no worth?”

  “I am not what you need,” he repeated for, like, the thousandth time. “But I give you my protection while I am able because you are my Bride. I will do that.”

  She grabbed his enormous biceps and held on. “I just want to stay with you and get to know you better. What’s wrong with that?”

  He bent down, and his nose went into her neck and he inhaled deeply. “I cannot control myself,” he said hoarsely.

  His giant paw was suddenly at her throat, claws tightening slightly, digging into her skin. She gasped. Her eyes flew to meet his.

  “Xylans claim their females,” he growled. “My urge to conquer is harsher than most. I prayed for the strength to stay away from you, to not touch your skin, to not want to stroke your pussy, and yet I still want it all. This is why I wanted you in isolation during your review. I cannot resist. You are human, you are too frail to physically resist customary Xylan mating.”

  Her pussy flooded with immediate heat. She swallowed through the hold he had on her throat, knowing she was wetter than wet and a little embarrassed at her speedy reaction. He prayed for the strength to resist her, and yet he still could not? Wow, never had any male ever wanted her this badly. She didn’t consider herself a beauty. No one did.

  But apparently Kayzon did.

  “I bit you, I’m not exactly weak or fragile,” she croaked.

  His nostrils flared. “You’re human,” he answered, loosening his hold on her neck.

  “You saw me fight. You know how I was at the claiming, in the forest. I’m stronger than most humans, I don’t know why, I was just born that way.”

  “If I stay with you during the review period I will not be able to keep my claws off of you. I will mate with you immediately.”

  She let go of the sheet she’d still been clutching. “Please,” she breathed.

  He answered with a small nod.

  His claws went to his trousers.

  She tingled all over, breathless with anticipation.

  He opened the top of his pants, pushed the fabric down, pulled out his very large shaft and started stroking his stiff erection. It was beautiful and intimidating at the same time. She couldn’t believe that thing had fit inside of h
er last night. No wonder it had hurt like hell at first. She was unbelievably turned on at the sight of Kayzon holding his hard cock, presenting it to her, seeing it in his own hand.

  She licked her lips. “Can I touch it?”

  “You can do whatever you like.”

  His cock was amazing. She could swear it was the size of her forearm. She gingerly ran her fingers up and down the length. It was so very soft to the touch, but hard as hell underneath. There was a bead of precum leaking out of the slit at the top. She’d never before seen a man’s cock. Never seen a human one or one that was hard. She had nothing to compare this to, but she was certain Kayzon had to be intimidating compared to other men. There were ridges running down the length of this cock starting just below the head. She remembered feeling those last night, not sure what it was that was increasing her enjoyment, but now she knew. The ridges reminded her of the ones on his forehead.

  His hand reached out and cupped her breast. She leaned into his claw. Both his hands were there, touching her. “You are so soft,” he breathed. His finger swept over a nipple and she gasped at the direct current of pleasure straight to her pussy. He played with her breasts, rubbing and pinching her nipples.

  She whimpered, not being able to handle the pleasure for one more second.

  “I want you here, against the wall.”

  She nodded in complete agreement. The floor, the bed, the wall…whatever, as long as his cock was inside of her, ASAP. That’s all that mattered.

  He lifted her up by the ass, and she automatically wrapped her legs around his hips. His hard cock was already stiff as hell and right there. The tip nudged at the entrance to her wet core. She was always wet for him.

  “I can’t wait, I need you now.”

  “Please,” she begged.

  His hips flexed as he thrust inside. She cried out as she took him. He pushed as deep as he could, hitting bottom.

  “You’re so tight,” he breathed.

  He wrapped one big, clawed hand around her hip, securing her before he slammed her back down on his cock. Her neck arched, and a moan escaped from her lips. She was so turned on, so mesmerized by his body and his touch and that cock that stretched her almost to the point of pain…she was literally going a bit insane. Every time he pulled out and forced himself back in, there was a ripple of edgy pain and a wave of sharp pleasure. And she loved it so very much. So much.