StarPyre by Jade Waltz (ebook reader 7 inch .txt) 📕

talent for killing creatures other hunters wouldn’t even attempt to pursue. I recruited him as my Weapons Master only after he decided to leave the planetside and get away from his family.

I understood why he was acting irrationally now. He’d grown up the only ordinary sibling in a clan full of Cosmic Souls, which had eaten away at his self-esteem for cycles. Then watching Celyze use the abilities he’d always wanted for an action he considered unethical—it made sense for him to lash out.

Luwyn envied Celyze; anyone could see his jealousy. No matter what he did to prove himself to the universe, he never felt good enough.

Well, until now.

Our female had gravitated to him and trusted him enough to mate with him first. It wasn’t an accomplishment to broadcast to the universe, especially since Luwyn had never had trouble seducing females. Nevertheless, for her to pick him over Celyze was a win.

Cosmic Souls naturally projected an aura of calm, which drew others towards them, seeking guidance or help. That was the only reason why drunk females ever approached Celyze, when he decided to venture to the bars. Every Swynemi knew that sapphire males and amethyst females were celibate.

Why waste energy seducing someone who would never be interested?

Sitting here next to my fuming crew wouldn’t bring me—us—anywhere closer to communicating with this female. I wasn’t willing to interrogate Celyze about what he’d seen of her life, because that private information wasn’t for him to tell. To regain some of her trust, I had to try talking to her myself.

She wasn’t Swynemi. I could infer by her reaction to this prison that she’d never been on a spacecraft before, which added to the growing pile of problems I had to handle. Until I offered him a spot on my crew, Luwyn had only been on planet shuttle crafts and never left Swynem.

I could only imagine how scared she was, especially after Celyze had invaded her mind. The sooner I could mend her fears, the better for all of us. If I had to communicate with her as one did with young offspring, then I would. It wasn’t her fault she’d been brought into unfamiliar territory.

Sighing, I stood and straightened my loincloth as I approached the female who would be my destiny, whether she knew it or not.

Nine

TORI

No matter how much I chanted ‘This is just a dream’ over and over as I rocked my curled-up body, I always opened my eyes to the same dreaded dark room.

Footsteps echoed, sounding nearer each time I repeated my mantra until a pair of emerald legs halted in front of me.

I stilled as I studied his humanoid feet and watched the freakishly long toes wiggle nervously.

Closing my eyes, I willed myself to remain motionless as I kept my breaths long and shallow.

Maybe if I didn’t move, he wouldn’t see me.

Something shuffled before the room fell silent once more.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, only to find the emerald male who had barely interacted with me so far sitting before me with his legs crossed. My gaze traced his body, not missing that the length of his loincloth barely covered his . . . package.

Unlike the not-so-dream, possibly-an-alien male that I had the pleasure of fucking, he didn’t reach out to try to coax me into touching him. Instead, he sat there with a gentle smile on his golden lips as I studied him.

Now that I was thinking straight—with my head instead of my vagina, which was as greedy and demanding as most guys’ second heads—I realized I should’ve noticed sooner that they were clearly aliens. I blame the cosplay world’s incredible technology, because up until I gripped the male’s cock, every part of him looked like something I’d seen in movies. His unique cock should have triggered warning bells, but instead, I’d shrugged it off as a vivid dream.

Fuck, I was an idiot sometimes.

That’s what I got for indulging an overactive imagination after riding a natural high from attending the music festival. I should have known better than to go with the flow because look where that led me.

At least I could say that I’d fucked an alien.

Now I just had to find a way to escape the aliens.

Sighing, I searched the room for the other two males. Both had tucked their wings behind them as they sat on the floor, leaning against the wall and watching me quietly. Flicking my gaze between the two emerald males, I could observe the differences between them.

The alien sitting before me had slight variations in the highlights running down his body, different from the second emerald male. Instead of green streaks in his white hair, this male wore thin golden highlights. His emerald skin was speckled in sapphire and gold, a contrast to the jade marks on the male I’d ravished. Both sported a black trim around their stained-glass-like wings, but the green-eyed male had blue, green, and gold ombré panels while the male with lavender eyes had green, gold, and white wings.

I shot a glance at the sapphire male and shivered. I didn’t want to look at him long enough to compare him to the others.

Something tapped my foot. I glanced down to find the male before me poking me with his toes. Squeezing my blanket tightly around my body, as if to shield myself from the nightmare this dream had become, I dared to look up.

His glowing emerald eyes locked onto mine, holding my gaze as the golden swirl beckoned me closer. Breaking eye contact, he placed a hand on his chest. “Au-ro.”

“Arrow?”

He tilted his head to the side as if he was processing what I’d said before shaking it.

“Arr-ooo,” he said, dragging each syllable out. His deep voice sounded light and soothing like he was talking to a child.

No matter how much I wanted to take offense, I couldn’t. He was extending an olive branch to me, since I was clearly the odd one out in this room. It would be