The Voris' Mate Read online

  Then again, perhaps it was a good thing that there wasn’t a surplus of human females on the space station. One female caused enough trouble, with males fighting and attempting displays of dominance since the day she arrived. If they had more females, the space station would be in a constant state of chaos.

  Shaagra hissed irritably between his teeth.

  “My time is up, Vadal. I will await you at our nest.”

  “Understood. I will see you soon, brother,” he said, keeping his smile peaceful. Shaagra was far too tense and anxious readying himself for their mate. Vadal hoped that their mate would be receptive to them. He did not think that Shaagra would have the discipline and self-control to not coil around their mate in a mating hold.

  Chapter 2

  Reggie woke with a start. Her mouth felt drier than the Sahara, a nasty taste on her tongue felt thick and fuzzy, and a headache beat behind her eyes. She hadn’t woken feeling so awful since that time she tried weed with her older brother and got so stoned that she’d passed out.

  What the hell?

  Her memory of the night before was foggy at best. She sat up and stretched out the kinks in her muscles, and then blinked. This was not her bedroom. She looked down at the stasis pod she was sitting in and began to feel her breathing kick up in panic. A deep voice rumbled words she didn’t understand behind her.

  Reggie shrieked and flew out of the pod as quickly as her body could manage. Rounding the far side of it, she faced off with the owner of the voice, memories flooding back as she came face to face with Satyr Guy. Her eyes darted around the starship but never strayed long from the alien.

  Ohmygod, ohmygod. Was I… kidnapped?!

  To her horror, she felt a giggle rise in her throat. Someone was crazy enough to kidnap her. A soon-to-be divorcee in her mid-thirties. Was he really that hard up? The male held his hands facing her, palms out as if trying to calm her.

  Like hell!

  Her eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape route, even though a little voice in the back of her mind reminded her that if she was in space, her options were along the sum of zero.

  She focused on her abductor, who’d switched it up and was now making soothing clicking noises with his tongue. Like she was scared animal. She frowned at him. At least he wasn’t threatening her…yet.

  He slowly reached his hands out toward her, and she sidestepped out of his reach. Fear coiled through her stomach.

  “Don’t touch me,” she snapped. Damn alien kidnapper.

  The male formerly known as Satyr Guy, now dubbed the more suitable Kidnapper, rubbed the base of one of his dark horns and muttered under his breath. The frustrated look in his narrowed eyes made her inclined to interpret his words as unflattering to her person. He rocked back on his hooves thoughtfully, and a quick smile upturned the corner of his lips before he left the room.

  “What are you up to?” she murmured, staring after him.

  Her eyes widened when he walked in with what looked like some kind of harness and leash set.

  Oh, hell no!

  She watched him like hawk as he slowly paced toward her. He was smiling, and she found that disconcerting coupled with the determined look in his eye.

  He lunged. Reggie let out a piercing shriek as she attempted to evade, but she wasn’t quick enough. Damn, he was spry on those hooves! His hand wrapped around her upper arm, dragging her up against his chest while the other hand quickly fastened the metal harness around her shoulders and middle. With a grin, he stepped back to look over his handiwork.

  Reggie snarled and struggled to pull it off. He gave her an unconcerned look and pushed a button on the handle of the leash. Instantly, a small electric bolt snapped through the harness, zinging her just enough to feel it. She stared at her abductor, her jaw dropping.

  Now I know he did not just put me in an alien version of a shock collar!

  Reggie snarled. She wasn’t about to be restrained and brought to heel like godsdamn mutt. With her common sense whispering that she was about to do something monumentally stupid, Reggie put both hands around the leash and tugged with all her weight.

  Unprepared for that reaction, Kidnapper’s grip slipped on the leash just enough that she was able to pull free. The male slid back, falling at such an angle that his haunches banged sharply into metal piping on the wall. Reggie staggered back, barely keeping her balance, but wore a triumphant grin as he lay for several minutes groaning painfully.

  She wasn’t about to make this easy for him.

  There was a kernel of hope that maybe he’d consider her not worth the effort. Panting from exertion, she curled her lip at him.

  Kidnapper let out a menacing growl as he rose to his feet again. Reggie could almost see the hairs along his neck bristle with anger. Her eyes widened when he stepped forward and grabbed a long coil attached to a belt he wore low on his hips. Her heart stuttered painfully when he shook out a wicked-looking whip. She set her jaw as he swung the whip in front of him. She refused to cower and beg.

  The first strike of the whip felt like an electric bolt slamming into her skin; it blistered with so much pain. She grabbed the nearest thing, some round metal whatchamacallit, and heaved it at Kidnapper. He snarled when it just barely clipped him and renewed his efforts.

  Reggie let loose every profanity and curse that she could think of. She cursed his entire family line, him and his cock. The more pain he inflicted, the less control she had over her mouth.

  She hadn’t been aware how close he’d gotten to her until the whip ceased descending upon her, and the room filled with a static of anticipation. Reggie blinked through the blood dripping down her face and shuddered at the sight of the leash firmly in his hand once more.

  When the bolt came through the harness, Reggie thought her heart was going to explode. When the second came at a stronger current, she screamed, certain that her hair was starting to fry as it pulsed through her. Again and again, he lit her up until she was a quivering mass of human woman on the floor.

  When the electric currents ceased, she lay there on the blessedly cool metal floor until he gave a sharp tug on the leash. Lacking the strength to continue fighting, she slowly, and painfully, rose to her feet. There she stood warily in place for many minutes, panting as fear, pain, and fury coursed through her. Her body felt battered and weak. It was useless to fight against the harness, not if he had the ability to shock the hell out of her with it. And even if that didn’t stop her, his whip was effective.

  Kidnapper’s horned brow wrinkled up and a satisfied look lit up his face. He rattled off words at her, his hands gesturing around like he had some hope that if he kept talking it would accomplish something. She just stared at him blankly. He tugged the leash at the end of one of his words and pointed at the space by his feet. Reggie grit her teeth at what she expected was a command to heel.

  When she didn’t immediately comply, he raised a smug eyebrow and lifted the handle of the leash.

  “Oh, I understand that loud and clear,” she said to herself in a furious whisper.

  With a certain amount of self-loathing that she could tolerate without offering much of a fight, Reggie planted herself where he indicated. The male grinned and patted her on the head, laughing as she glared at him.

  With a sharp tug, he turned and walked out of the room, leading Reggie out of the ship into a what looked like a huge port filled with all manner of alien species. Her lips parted in wonder at what she was seeing. She glanced up, her attention caught by the movement of winged aliens flying overhead.

  She heard a raspy click and she looked over just in time to see one of the large winged ones with charcoal gray skin and some sort of weird leathery feathers land beside them. He was glaring at Kidnapper and making all kinds of noises at him. Reggie sincerely hoped he was giving him hell. He looked over at her and growl-chirped in what she thought may have sounded like a question. She shrugged helplessly at him with a wan smile.

  “Sorry guy, I don’t understand you. I don
’t have a translator.”

  He obviously had a nifty translator implant, because he frowned deeply and nodded. He growled at Kidnapper, showing massive teeth that would make an apex predator run in fear screaming for its momma.

  Kidnapper had balls though; she gave him that. He puffed out his muscled chest and snarled out a string of words. The winged male paused, fuming, then grit out a few words in return. To Reggie’s horror, he pivoted as he unfurled his wings and once again took to the air.

  “No,” she shouted, “please don’t leave me with him!” The male turned his head slightly as he flew back the direction from which he came, but he didn’t come back. Instead, he picked up his pace, his thick leathery wings beating through the hair with loud snaps.

  “Well, fuck,” she said weakly as she watched her would-be rescuer disappear from sight.

  Reggie was still frowning, watching the winged alien disappear into the distance when she was jerked forward, almost losing her balance and falling on her face, when Kidnapper started walking again at a much faster clip.

  What the hell was his damn hurry now? He was trotting so fast that she was practically being dragged through the starship.

  With an impatient snarl, he stopped abruptly and plucked her up off her feet. Hoisting Reggie over his shoulder, Kidnapper moved at a jolting pace through the space station. Occasionally a voice would rise up from aliens they passed. Shouting inquiries, she guessed. She bounced on his shoulder until her abdomen felt tender and bruised. There was some kind of boney ridge that made her ride hellish.

  She didn’t have to wonder where they were heading for long when he ducked through a door that slid open before him. A sterile medical smell immediately assaulted her. Reggie lifted her head and glanced around what looked like a waiting room of a doctor’s office, complete with cool medical green and cream hues and sedate images sliding over a large screen on one wall.

  A yellow feathered female squawked at him angrily, her hand gesturing at her repeatedly and she attempted to reach her harness. Reggie felt a surge of relief.

  Yes, please take this damn thing off!

  That hope fizzled and died a painful death as Kidnapper batted the delicately feathered hand away and growled a threatening volley of words that had the female backing up rapidly. She ducked through a sliding door and disappeared from sight. Kidnapper smirked and leaned back against a wall, his hand tightening on Reggie’s leash possessively.

  The door slid open, revealing the fiercely scowling face of an impossibly tall male. A guy with burning red serpentine eyes. Her heart began to palpitate faster as the thin snake coils of his hair moved around him with a life of their own. Her eyes dragged down a heavy torso, concealed behind a thick tunic and lab coat, just below which was the long length of a bright blue snake tail the same hue as the coils falling around his head. A smattering of scales ran down his chest and abdomen. Her eyes jerked up to his face when he hissed vehemently at Kidnapper. The narrow end of his tail lifted, but Reggie could clearly see further up the length, where small rounded protrusions on the sides of his lower tail that rattled threateningly at Kidnapper.

  Her stomach turned in on itself in fear. It wasn’t that she was afraid of snakes. Far from it. Reggie thought of snakes as beautiful creatures. No, it was the pissed expression on his face, paired with what she remembered of the myths of Medusa. Not that she thought his glance would turn her to stone. If that were even possible, Kidnapper would have been a goner by now.

  This wasn’t mythic creature; this was an alien.

  She darted a quick look under her lashes at the male holding her leash and was comforted by the fact that Kidnapper looked scared as hell. Apparently, when he’d dragged her there, he didn’t know that doc was going to be a massive scary snake alien. And he was the focus of the male’s ire. That made her feel a lot better. She almost wanted to kiss the doctor… almost.

  When the Gorgon male turned his gaze on her, his face lit with an unholy fury. Reggie wanted to laugh helplessly. Oh, Kidnapper was in for a whole world of hurt if that face was anything to go by. She sank to the ground just as her rescuer darted forward with a sharp thrust of his coils and lifted her abductor straight off the ground, slamming him into the wall.

  ***

  Vadal looked over his office to make certain he wasn’t forgetting any of his belongings. Although he’d been looking forward to this, it was still bittersweet. He would miss being on the space station, despite how eager he was to return to the warm jungles of Vora.

  The space station had offered him endless intellectual stimulation and an opportunity to interact with numerous species. He would miss the friends that he made, but he couldn’t help being happy that he was returning to Vora armed with new knowledge that would help him immensely when he returned to his practice at Evath.

  Evath was one of two trade hubs for Vora, and they often had many species of aliens pass through. Currently, no one on Vora possessed enough medical knowledge about other species and their anatomy and physiology to be much help in an emergency, but that would change when Vadal returned.

  He pulled the strap on his bag sharply to secure it close when Tiri, the receptionist, nearly flew into the room, her delicate wings beating nervously around her. She was so worked up several feathers molted, scattering around the office. Vadal frowned out of concern.

  “Doctor Vadal, you need to come quick!” she shrieked.

  He set his bag aside.

  “What’s the problem, Tiri?” he asked, slithering forward toward the door leading the waiting room.

  Her wings fluttered helplessly around her. “We have a Kampi out there with a human female. He is demanding that she receive vaccinations and a translator.” She clutched her taloned fingers nervously. “I think he stole her from Earth.”

  Vadal hissed between his teeth. This was not good at all. Kampis were an aggressive race and had a bad reputation for stealing females to add to their family harems.

  He touched his comm unit, alerting security.

  “Security,” a voice growled out at him.

  “This is Doctor Vadal in the medical wing. We have a situation with a Kampi and a human possibly being held against her will.”

  “I am aware of the situation. I encountered them moments before and have retrieved backup. I am en route now to medical.”

  “I’m going to attempt to secure the female.”

  “Understood.”

  Vadal snapped his tail and glided aggressively through the door, baring his extended fangs. He could feel the locks of his coils raise up, unwinding around him in a threatening display.

  The Kampi was a younger male, barely into his adulthood. Vadal almost felt a twinge of sympathy for him. His male relations likely sent him out to hunt for their harem. It was a well-known rite of passage for youths of their species. Any female he returned with he would have yielded first to the head of the family, and then he would have had the pleasure of breeding for the first time. The one good thing about that was that it meant the female had not be violated yet. A Kampi would not breed with a female before the family head approved her admission into the harem.

  The ruddy purple hue of the male’s skin bleached out with fear. He made a half-hearted attempt to growl and posture, but as soon as Vadal hissed in threat and rattled his lower tail, the male dropped the leash and scrambled away to what he considered a safe distance.

  Vadal turned his attention to the human female. He inhaled through his mouth, his forked tongue darting out slightly to capture her musk on the air. Under the sourness of her fear, her richness of her genuine scent overwhelmed him. It was so poignant, so sweet, that he couldn’t resist drawing it in again and again as his gaze dropped on her.

  Everything within him stilled as looked down at the small gold-haired female. Her filaments curled like she had her own crown coils. Despite her small stature, she was like the Mother of Nests come to life with the thickness of her hips and her heavy breasts. Desire shot through him, pulling sharply at his gro
in where his cock was secured behind his salet’s folds of skin.

  Immediately his lust was cooled when he took in the terrible gashes and bruises covering her. His lips parted on an angry hiss at the sight of her marred flesh as she sat limp on the floor.

  With a snarl, he leaped at the male, throwing the full force of his body from his coils against him and into the wall. His hand was a vice around the male’s throat as he struck him with his fist repeatedly. In his fury, he managed to slice ribbons of skin off the male’s chest with his claws and the rigid, bony protrusions on his knuckles.

  The male tried to claw his hand free of his throat, but Vadal was immovable. He was determined to end the male’s worthless life.

  “Vadal, no!” A familiar deep voice shouted from behind him. Strong arms gripped around his torso and attempted to pull him away. The Itashvanda was strong, but he didn’t have the raw power of the Vori. Vadal sneered at the Kampi. If he couldn’t take his life, he would take one thing that he would miss.

  Vadal thrust his friend off his back with the end of his tail and lurched forward, his breath fanning the male’s face.

  “You kidnap and abuse females to slake your lust, to breed them? You will never do so again. My venom will guarantee it,” he hissed.

  The male shouted out, the stench of urine filling the air as Vadal pierced his fangs into the neck of the male. The Kampi screamed with pain and terror. Vadal was aware of his friend shouting and the small cries of the human female. It was for her he did this. Venom pumped from his fangs into the male, enough to chemically eradicate any seed his body produced for years to come. Kampi took pride in their potency; males rose in accolades the more offspring they sired.

  This would be an unforgettable blow.

  He threw the male away from him and pulled back. Slowly, he slid next to the small female and opened his arms, extending his clawed hands toward her. She looked at the blood on his hands and flinched. He frowned at what he could only perceive as rejection, but he tried not to take it personally. Doubtless she was terrified, and it was made worse by her inability to understand anything said around her.