Alien Hope: A SciFi Alien Romance, page 1
Table of Contents
NOTICES
ALIEN HOPE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONTENT WARNINGS
CHAPTER ONE | Abby
CHAPTER TWO | Kohka
CHAPTER THREE | Abby
CHAPTER FOUR | Kohka
CHAPTER FIVE | Abby
CHAPTER SIX | Kohka
CHAPTER SEVEN | Abby
CHAPTER EIGHT | Abby
CHAPTER NINE | Kohka
CHAPTER TEN | Abby
CHAPTER ELEVEN | Kohka
CHAPTER TWELVE | Abby
CHAPTER THIRTEEN | Kohka
CHAPTER FOURTEEN | Abby
CHAPTER FIFTEEN | Kohka
CHAPTER SIXTEEN | Abby
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN | Abby
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN | Kohka
CHAPTER NINETEEN | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY | Kohka
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE | Kohka
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN | Kohka
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT | Abby
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE | Abby
CHAPTER THIRTY | Abby
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE | Abby
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO | Kohka
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE | The Stone Sky God Wylfrael
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR | Kohka
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE | Kohka
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX | Abby
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN | Kohka
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT | Abby
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE | Abby
CHAPTER FORTY | Kohka
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE | Abby
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO | Abby
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE | Kohka
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR | Abby
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE | Kohka
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX | Abby
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN | Abby
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT | Kohka
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE | Kohka
CHAPTER FIFTY | Abby
NOTICES
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied, used, transmitted, or shared via any means without express authorization from the author, except for small passages and quotations used for review and marketing purposes.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and incidents in this novel are fictitious and not to be construed as reality or fact.
Alien Hope Copyright © 2023 Veronica Doran
ALIEN HOPE
Fated Mates of the Sea Sand Warlords
Book Fourteen
By Ursa Dax
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you, as always, to all my readers and new friends on this journey. Thank you to my partner and parents for their unending support.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Battles, violence, and graphic on-page injuries, blood, and gore. Near-death experience from strangulation in battle. Off-page loss of parents and resulting trauma. Pregnancy and labour, including a graphic birth scene that has some complications (meconium in fluid). Post-partum healing and breastfeeding. Lactation during sex scenes/lactation kink. Graphic love scenes between a lizard monster hero and a human woman.
CHAPTER ONE
Abby
“So, how’s that magic pussy juice coming?” Kat smirked at me from across the lab, then rolled her eyes. “Man, the things we say on this planet. Never thought conversations about lizardman pussy juice would be part of my everyday work conversations.”
“Hmm... Lizardman pussy juice sounds like it came from a lizard alien’s pussy. A more correct term would be something like ‘magic pussy-loosening juice.’ And it’s coming along quite well, thanks.” I grinned back at Kat.
“See, this is what I mean. Arguing semantics over what to call alien pussy-loosening juice. It’s fucking weird!”
We both laughed at the absurdity of the situation, making so much noise that Galok poked his dark-haired head in from the hallway where he’d been stationed just outside the lab.
“Oh, no. You go back out there. You’re too distracting in here!” Kat said, making a shooing motion at her big smiley mate.
“But it sounds more fun in here,” Galok replied, his coppery sight stars pulsing with affection as they stroked lazily over Kat’s face. Her cheeks flushed, and she flapped her hand at him again.
“No. This isn’t fun. We are working, mister. On very important shit. I’m still working on perfecting using the Lavrika’s blood for potential weapons, and Abby is making sure no big alien baby heads tear any poor human ladies a new one, if you catch my drift.”
Galok’s brow crumpled in obvious confusion. He, no doubt, did not catch her drift.
“The Bitter Sea mating fluid,” I clarified, trying not to laugh. “It, er... Helps open things up. It also appears to have anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties. It will help the human women give birth, and maybe the Sea Sand women too, if they want to try.”
We had a lot of medication and medical equipment on this ship, but no trained anesthesiologist to administer something like an epidural. I’d been working my ass off, putting all my experience as a pharmacological chemist to use, so that a drug using the Bitter Sea venom would be the next best thing for all the ladies in labour.
I stiffened, trying not to think about the fact that I would soon be one of those ladies.
“Why not just have one of the Bitter Sea men bite the female? Seems more efficient that way,” Galok said. I quirked a brow at him, noticing he’d subtly sidled into the lab and was creeping over to Kat’s side, his large hand already reaching for her as if he couldn’t stand not to touch her.
“Yeah, not sure how well that would go,” I replied. “Can you imagine one of the Gahns letting a Bitter Sea man come into their tent when their Gahnala is already in pain and vulnerable and letting him give her a mating bite?”
“Hmm, yes, that is true,” Galok replied thoughtfully. “I do not even want to know what would happen if I suggested such a thing to Gahn Buroudei when the Gahnala Zeezee is giving birth. I imagine he would use his fist to take out all of his anxieties about her health on my face.”
“Yeah,” Kat said, “And it’s not like they just bite you, right? They have to get all horny first. It’s their mating fluid. I wouldn’t want some big Bitter Sea dude giving himself a bit of a handy outside the tent then lumbering over to pump me full of his special love juice. Plus, who the fuck wants to get bitten when they’re already in pain trying to push out a giant alien baby? No fucking thanks.”
Galok’s arm went slowly around Kat’s waist as she spoke, as if he hoped that if he moved slowly enough, she wouldn’t notice and send him back to his spot in the hallway. It seemed to have worked, as she leaned contentedly against him.
I nodded. “There are quite a few reasons why just having a Bitter Sea warrior bite a woman in labour isn’t ideal. And this way, I can tweak things in the lab first,” I explained. “I believe I’ve managed to eliminate the aphrodisiac qualities of the venom, and I’ve amplified the pain-relief. With an injection, things are more sterile, too. And we can control the dosage.”
Galok absorbed this information, but didn’t get a chance to respond, because voices in the hallway made us all turn towards the open doorway. Galok’s tail rose in a swift show of obedience and respect as Buroudei and Cece walked into the room. Well, Buroudei walked. Cece waddled. She was nearing the end of her pregnancy, now, and having two half-Sea Sand babies in her belly was clearly throwing her way off balance. But I was glad to see that otherwise, she was doing well. The first half of her pregnancy had been really difficult, but she had more energy now.
And with more energy meant frequent trips out to the ship for pregnancy scans.
“Greetings, Gahn,” Galok said as his tail swished back into place behind him. “Have you come for another cub vision?”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. The aliens had begun referring to pregnancy scans as “cub visions,” similar to the “mate vision” they got in the Lavrika’s pools or the Kell’s caves. And in a way, it did make sense. Both “visions” were glimpses of someone special. But in our case, we were using human technology instead of whatever mystical alien power the Lavrika, Vrika, and Kell used.
“Yes,” Buroudei rumbled, his deep, commanding voice echoing in the large lab.
“He can’t get enough,” Cece said, shaking her head. “But then again, neither can I, so it’s all good. It’s nice to be able to come here and take a look at them any time we want. Make sure everything’s going alright. Back home I’d have to wait until whatever scheduled scans I was supposed to have.”
I had to fight to keep my hand from going to my own abdomen. I knew exactly what Cece meant about having frequent scans.
I’d been doing the same thing myself, after all.
Peanut chose that moment to kick, rather violently, at my bladder. I curled my hands into fists to stop myself from visibly reacting.
I was even further along than Cece, considering I’d gotten pregnant back on Earth. But unlike Cece, I wasn’t showing the way she was. She wasn’t overly tall, and with two large babies growing, her stomach was practically bigger than she was.
But me? I was 6’2, with broad hips and shoulders and a long torso. That, combined with a kid who seemed perfectly content to live inside my spine, meant that even nearly full-term, I didn’t really look all that pregnan
The result?
Nobody knew I was pregnant.
A flash of jealousy went through me as Kat, Galok, and I walked with the happily expecting parents to the room with the ultrasound machine. I wish I didn’t have to hide this.
And I fucking wished I knew what was going to come next.
If I’d gotten pregnant with a girl, I wouldn’t bother hiding it at all. The Sea Sand men had such a skewed population, with so few women, that they’d likely welcome the birth of a girl here even if she had a human father.
But I wasn’t pregnant with a girl.
I was pregnant with a boy.
A 100% human male.
Which meant... Well, I didn’t know for sure, but I doubted it would be good. The Sea Sand men didn’t like outsiders, especially males. They barely even tolerated each other, and they were from the same planet! The only human male they’d had contact with so far was the soldier who’d come here and shot Xyan and who’d immediately earned himself one of Fallo’s blades to the back of the head.
I was scared. Scared of what would happen once the Sea Sand men found out there was a new human male among them. Scared they wouldn’t want him.
I’m not going to let anything happen to you.
I said it silently to Peanut, watching as Buroudei lifted Cece onto the exam table beside the ultrasound machine.
Peanut may have been the unplanned result of a drunken hook-up with a stranger in the bathroom stall of Tony’s Tacos and Tequila in downtown Winnipeg one cold winter night, but I’d loved him from the moment I’d learned of his existence, just before I was abducted and brought here. I hadn’t even had a chance to have a doctor’s appointment for the pregnancy before I’d ended up on this alien planet. But even so, I knew I was going to do whatever it took to keep him safe. Safe from the sun, from the sand, and even from the alien warriors at the settlement if I had to.
Whatever it took.
If I had to fight, I’d fight.
And if I had to run?
I’d run.
CHAPTER TWO
Kohka
“Do you require assistance, Varrow?”
I knew the answer before the question was out of my snout. It was the answer I got every time I asked.
“No.”
Varrow tossed me a dark look over his shoulder, easily adjusting the weight of his slight mate, Camille, upon his back. I was not offering assistance because the desert man was missing an arm. No, the lack of limb seemed not to cause him much trouble at all, as he’d grown up that way and had evidently learned to compensate by using his tail and cultivating deep strength in his other muscles.
I offered him help because not long ago I’d seen him nearly die in an area we now knew to be called the Deep Sky plains. He’d taken a small sort of spear right through the heart.
We had not stayed in the Deep Sky long. After Varrow had nearly died, saved only by the Deep Sky Vrika, I had remained with him and Camille in the lands of his birth, the Death Plains, while he recovered.
And recover, he had. So much so that he let me do nothing for his mate at this point. He hunted for her and carried her all day through the Death Plains, even when she protested that she could walk on her own.
Though I did not doubt that, even if he had not fully recovered, he still would not have let me help him if it meant touching his precious mate. He guarded her like a male possessed. Obsessed.
The mate bond had the power to do that to a warrior.
I had no direct experience with the mate bond. Though I was older than some other males like Kor and Grim, I had not yet been called by the Kell.
My gaze narrowed, and I reached forward with my claws as Varrow slipped on a bit of grey gravel. Camille gasped, but Varrow regained his balance swiftly, muscles straining in his legs and tail.
“Do not worry, little bean,” he murmured in a soft tone reserved only for Camille. “I’d break my remaining arm before I let you fall.”
“I wasn’t worried about me!” she retorted. Despite the fact that the new women apparently did not feel an automatic mate bond the way Bitter Sea or Sea Sand women did, there was no doubt that Camille had a strong mate bond for Varrow now. She’d been at his side night and day as he’d healed, and after he’d mostly recovered, I’d had to get further and further from their tent to get any sort of rest.
Though I did not need much sleep, I also did not need to be plagued with their mating sounds all night.
We were nearing the edge of the Death Plains mountain range, now. Soon, we would be back in the Sea Sands. We would continue on to the settlement at the Cliffs of Uruzai. Once Camille and Varrow were settled, I would be back on this same path once more, journeying back into the Deep Sky to join the newly formed settlement there.
I kept my eyes on the two just ahead of me, ready in case there was another slip. I took in the size difference between the tiny new woman and the warrior she was bonded to. Such a size difference would only be amplified between a new woman and a Bitter Sea male.
Not for the first time, I wondered if I’d be granted a mate from among the new women.
Honestly, I rather hoped not. I already did not consider myself adept at speaking to strangers, especially females. The idea that my mate would not have the mate bond, that I’d somehow have to woo her, win her, made my guts feel like they were filled with spike-scaled fish.
Do not worry about such things, I told myself sternly. You were not called by the Kell before you left the island.
Grim and Tok, who both had human mates, had been granted their mate vision by the Kell before we’d left our homeland. If I was meant to bond to a new woman, would it not have been the same for me? And unlike the Sea Sand men, we had no imbalance between men and women. There were myriad unmated Bitter Sea women back home. Likely, one of them would eventually turn out to be my mate.
So, the fact that I had absolutely no idea what to say to a new woman did not matter.
Probably.
THE REST OF THE JOURNEY through the Sea Sands, which took about ten days, was largely uneventful. Just as the sun dipped down and dusk sent its cooling tide over the sky on the tenth day, the shining shell of the new women’s ship came into view. As we passed it, heading for the red cliffs in the distance, a call made us stop.
We turned, and I pounded my scaly brows as Hakah Gog, king of my kind, came to meet us. He came from the direction of the ship, running on all fours to cross the distance swiftly.
I pounded my brows again in deference when he rose up onto two legs before me.
“I am glad to see you back, Kohka,” he said, his brilliant blue sight discs taking me in before turning to examine Varrow and Camille at my side. His eyes swung back to me. “Grim and Tok are now settled in the Deep Sky mountains.”
“Yes,” I said, my heavy tail scraping through the sand as it swished. “We heard Thaleria’s ship go over us three times.”
I’d tracked the sounds of the shuttle in the sky. Once into the Deep Sky, then once back towards the Sea Sands when they’d briefly stopped and updated us on what had happened with Priya and the Deep Sky men. Then, there had been the final trip over our heads as they took the shuttle to settle in the Deep Sky for good.
“I am ready to join them at your command, Hakah,” I added.
“Good. You can rest tonight and prepare to leave at dawn tomorrow. But since you are here now...”
His spiked tail jutted up from the sand, gesturing towards the shining silver bones of the human ship.
“One of the new women requires a Bitter Sea warrior in there. I was about to fetch someone else from the settlement, but you have good timing. Go assist her, and I will escort these two back to the cliffs.”
I pounded my brows again, acknowledging his orders.
I let my fists fall, asking, “Do you know what she needs me for, Hakah?”
I’d actively avoided conversation with the females on the journey into the Deep Sky, so other than carrying Priya on my back, I’d had very little contact with any of the new women. I wondered what she could possibly want with me.
