12 Kikila

Loose weapons fire rips through the air, shattering the window on my cell door.

"Do not touch her again!"

I slink to the window and warily peek out. My alien has Gorsh crushed against a wall. They grapple for control until Gorsh is pinned to the floor and my male has a gun pointed at his head.

"Kikila? We need to go."

I don't know how he knows my name, but I climb through the opening.

He scoops me up with an arm, hides me behind his body, and fires at the guards who come at us from Shofpa's office. Return fire slams into him, charring his leather jacket.

Down another narrow hallway, he kicks open a door, picks me up, and jumps. The fall sends my stomach rising into my throat, stifling my urge to cry out in surprise. He lands hard but keeps moving.

"I am sorry about that." He sets me down behind the shelter of a food cart and takes my hand, leading me on through the crowd of people that opens up into the main spaceport. It's unlikely Gorsh and his kind will openly fire on us here. But they were desperate enough for shieldtech to steal me from the race.

"Federation patrols are on their way and will keep any more Novarks from even making it to your Terran jurisdiction." He motions me up a nearby ramp and into a small Terran transport.

He immediately seals us inside and helps me into the copilot's seat. He takes the controls and launches us promptly away from the spaceport. I'm in shock, relieved, and turned on by his daring rescue.

"Are you okay?" he asks with a glance at me as he guides us away from the busy hive in space. "Did they harm you?"

"Mostly threats."

He puts us on autopilot, headed for Earth then turns to me. "Kikila, are you being honest with me or trying to be tough? I know who your father is. I know everything."

"Might have a bruise on my arm." I feel like I'm at a serious disadvantage. "I guess you must've got the briefing then from Abr?"

"I called Terran security when I found out where you were. It's how I gained access to this ship."

"You spoke with my father?"

"No. Someone named Alan." He quiets and reaches up to my chin, then trails his fingers down my throat and circles them over the place where Gorsh grabbed me. "My name is Rowkin."

The sultry way he says his name tells me he's struggling to reign in his emotions and a growing desire to touch me.

"I need to check you for quills."

I like the idea of his inspection. "Okay."

Rowkin, my red-violet alien rescuer, helps me up and leads me to the back and into a medical bay. He picks me up by the hips and sets me on a med bed. It takes him a second and a deep breath before he releases me to grab a special light bar from a cabinet. I find it unusual that he seems to know where everything is on the ship without any hesitation.

He passes it over my face, then down each side of my neck.

"You're more than just a soldier, aren't you?" I ask.

"What makes you say that?"

"Must be part of an elite team of some kind."

He frowns. "I am not part of a designated force. My soldier type is RR, Resilient Rejects is what most of us call it. Sometimes Rowdy Rebels if it's my human friend. We're the ones that can go anywhere and no one cares that we're gone."

"That's terrible."

"We're members of an organization that includes several solar systems in our area of the galaxy," he calmly explains while he gives my neck a manual look over. "They send us on the most dangerous missions or use us as backup field teams when a planet's forces are diminished. But recently, we've had to stay and fight on Alustri."

He fingers travel down my throat to the zipper of my race suit. "I am sorry I let them take you, and you were injured. I feel as though I cannot ask you to be mine because I have already failed you."

"You didn't."

His brows quirk. "You were literally taken from my arms."

"You were shot." I study the singed holes in his jacket and wonder why there's no blood.

I frantically push the leather over his shoulders, fearing the worst only to find patches of black dust where there should be wounds. I run my hands over his skin in awe. "You're not hurt?"

He clutches my hands and holds them against him as he closes his eyes and shakes his head. Beneath my palms, I sense the heavy beat of his two hearts. They aren't quite in sync. It's as if one echoes the other.

"You are unwell—"

Rowkin inhales deeply and nods. "This is not how bonding is supposed to go for my kind. I have missed many sessions of the Rev, but it has become worse in recent months."

I don't like seeing the one who saved me in pain. "What can I do?"

"I'm not sure it will get better. It may only get worse." Rowkin draws my hand to his mouth where he inhales a breath of me and presses his lips to the inside of my wrist. "Can you ever forgive me?"

I'd like to leave everything behind and just enjoy whatever time we have. No one has ever fought so hard for me before. "Yes, of course. You gave me my freedom back. You really have no idea how much that means to me."

"Can we start over? I was told we have to return to the race so relations are not jeopardized."

"I'd like that."

He draws my collar aside and down over my shoulder then comes closer as if he sees something.

I try to look, worried what it might be.

"Quills. Hang on. I can get them." He rests his mouth gently over the top of my shoulder, wets the area with his tongue, then gently rakes his teeth over my flesh. The sensation sends goosebumps crawling out over my chest and down my arm.

He turns to the side and spits, then continues. "How did you not feel this?"

I shudder in delight as his nibbles move down my chest. "Adrenaline? How is it not hurting you?"

He grumbles a deep rumbling noise as if he's disgruntled by what he sees. "Armorderm."

Rowkin frees my arm from my suit and cleans my skin all the way to my fingertips. When his tongue glides between my fingers, and I get a glimpse of his long, thick, red tongue, my pussy tightens.

His nostrils flare with a deep growling breath and he frees my other arm, cleans my shoulder, neck, and rakes his teeth down my chest.

His fingers dip lower, slip into my bra and unsnap it with ease. His tongue finds a rosy bud and swirls over it in long, hot strokes.

A moan escapes me

"You are so beautiful," Rowkin laces his arms around my waist. He nips at my belly, sneaking lower and lower.

"A few here," he rasps as he works the uniform off of my hips and takes my panties with them. His lips don't leave my skin for long.

I want to tell him he doesn't have to do this. I'm more than ready after our escape from the Novarek, but he has me far too breathless.

His fingers play in my warm folds. "So smooth." Heated breath falls over my nub, and he nearly roars with a growl of lust.

Rowkin buries his mouth deep, suckling me with hunger. His skin ripples with the pulses of his hearts.

The scintillating heat of his touch, and the way his arms encircle my hips and draw me against him thrusts my heart into a race with the beats of his.

His tongue plunges into the depths of my core, swells, and licks all the way out and up my mound, igniting a fiery eurphoria the tips me over the edge. I clench and gasp as my high bursts.

Rowkin gently nibbles my clit once, then helps me back into my uniform before wrapping me in a blanket and nibbling my ear. "Rest. I will get us back to the race."

My hunky alien slips out of the room and stalks back up to the cockpit, and I drift off wondering if his cock is anything like his glorious tongue.

Stars, I hope so.