Captured for the Alien Bride Lottery by Margo Collins (electric book reader TXT) 📕

I ran, I keyed in communications to my team on their ship. “Alveron Hordeships over Chicago. Send notification to Command Central. Request immediate assistance. Repeat: I request immediate assistance.” I practically shouted the instructions into the com unit I wore on my wrist.

I realized I was about to outpace Amelia and paused long enough to grab my mate around the waist and toss her over my shoulder. We could make better time, even when I was burdened with her, then we would if I had to wait for her to catch up to me.

Half an Earther city block ahead, I saw what I was looking for—an entrance to a building that was wide open, a sign with an arrow pointing to it that read Parking.

I dashed into the covered space, a darkened area full of cars—those wheel-based conveyances that humans still insisted on using to crawl across their planet.

Not until that moment did I realize that Amelia was pounding on my butt with her tiny fists and yelling, “Put me down! Put me down, you…you beast!”

“Not quite yet,” I told her, even though I knew she couldn’t understand Khanavai, and I couldn’t think of the Earther words to say what I wanted her to know. So speaking to her didn’t do any good, but I couldn’t help myself—I needed to tell her that what I was doing was for the best, even if she couldn’t understand me when I said it.

“Dammit, you giant pink…man! Put. Me. Down!”

I ran up a paved ramp, deeper into the heart of the Parking building. I checked my wrist com for any response from my team, but something about this giant, cavernous space blocked out part of the signal. I tapped the sound off, leaving it set to vibrate against my skin if anything came through.

The word garage sprang into my mind, a space where Earthers hid their vehicles to keep them from being damaged by weather or taken by other humans.

From outside the garage, I heard the sound of drones separating from the Alveron Hordeship.

I had heard that sound before, and it still sent chills racing down my spine. I listened for the sharp whine of the drones moving closer and began searching for a place to hide.

The semi-indoor space was shadowy, with vehicles taking up most of it.

As the drones got closer, I spotted a tall, gray, boxy vehicle, and slid into the space between it and another equally large conveyance, this one red, ducking down just in time to conceal us as one of the drones darted into the parking garage.

With Amelia still slung over my shoulder, I dropped to one knee, then slid her down until I held her cradled in my arms, resting on the knee of my other leg.

She inhaled sharply, and if the fierce indignation of her expression was anything to go by, prepared to deliver a blistering rebuke for my inappropriate behavior in picking her up to carry her.

At that moment, she was the most beautiful female I had ever seen. Her eyes glittered with self-righteous anger, the skin of her previously pale cheeks flushed a pink that rivaled my own skin, and her lips—I didn’t have the right words to describe them. Nothing seemed descriptive enough. Lush, full, enticing. All of that and more

Despite the danger I knew we were in, for a moment my entire attention focused in on her mouth.

Her tiny, pale pink tongue darted out to lick those amazing lips, and it was all I could do to keep from groaning aloud with desire for her.

“You—” she began.

I had to make her be quiet. But I couldn’t think of the word to say to her. I had known it once upon a time, but it was as if my grasp of Earther language had completely disappeared in the flight from the Alveron Hordeship. We could not alert the drones to where we were hiding. We would be lucky to avoid their attention as it was.

So I did the first thing that popped into my mind.

I kissed her.

This time, I did groan deep in my throat. She tasted as sweet as she smelled, as amazing as she looked. She tasted like Lorishi shellfruit, its dark, sweet inner juice worth the work it took to get it out of its hard outer husk.

And although I’m certain my kiss startled her initially, she softened into it almost immediately, her arms snaking up to wrap around my neck, her mouth going pliable. I teased her lips gently, flicking my tongue against them until they parted for me, allowing me to enter her mouth as I so desperately wanted to enter her body.

She leaned against me, and I wrapped my hands around her waist, pulling her up closer to me. Her soft breasts, constrained by far too much fabric, pressed against my bare chest.

My cock hardened, aching and throbbing with my need for her, pushing up against the fabric of my chavan.

For a moment, Amelia gave as good as she got, her tongue tangling with mine, her fingers sliding up the nape of my neck and threading into my hair.

I could have lost myself in that kiss forever. But the sound of the Alveron Horde drones reminded me where we were. When I ended the kiss and pulled away, she stared at me briefly with a gaze that looked almost drugged, her eyes unfocused, her lips slightly swollen from the kiss.

Quiet.

That’s the word I was searching for.

“Quiet,” I whispered. “Alveron.” I accompanied my words with a gesture in the direction the drones were approaching from.

Amelia’s eyes widened and she clamped one hand over her mouth. She bobbed her head up and down, and I finally remembered that that was the actual physical gesture for yes among Earthers in this region. Side to side was no.

A nod. That’s what they called it. I nodded my head in return, acknowledging hers.

We needed to get out of here. This was no place to be.

Anyplace under an Alveron Horde drone attack was