Entered in the Alien Bride Lottery by Margo Collins (easy readers txt) 📕

giant version of those tubes at bank drive-throughs, and it swept me downward as soon as I stepped into it. My stomach dropped and I swallowed against another bout of nausea.

I can do this.

When the opaque cylinder circled open again, I stepped out into a giant, high-ceilinged room with dozens of women and giant seats rising on one side of it, like a deranged stadium in Wonderland.

I glanced around the room, looking for Vos. But before I saw the host of the show, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a face just withdrawing behind a turquoise blue curtain.

Without even thinking about it, I rushed over and yanked the curtain back, revealing the same alien I’d run into in the hallway earlier.

“I knew it was you!” The bright blue alien blinked those purple eyes once as he stared at me, apparently startled to be caught watching us.

Then, before I could say anything else, he reached out, wrapped an arm around my waist, and dragged me up so my chest was pressed against his and my heavy boots dangled in the air.

Without a word, he pressed his lips to mine in a kiss.

Chapter Six

Cav

I pulled the human woman behind the curtain with me, letting it fall completely closed behind her. Her lips against mine felt as soft as they looked.

Slowly, I began moving my mouth against hers, running my tongue lightly over the seam of her lips until they parted, allowing me entry. At the taste of her, sugary-sweet and slightly minty, I growled deep in my throat, a sound of possession. If her mouth was this delectable, how might the rest of her taste?

Her body molded to mine perfectly, and I slipped one arm down to clasp her ass, its fullness filling my hand. I wanted her closer, needed her skin against mine.

She placed her palms against my chest, the touch of them cool against my overheated skin.

If I’d been able to, I would have taken her there, made her mine, completed my ownership of her so no other warrior would ever touch her.

For a heartbeat, everything was perfect.

Then she kicked me.

The thump against my knee sent a sharp pain shooting up and down my leg. Her boots were thicker than I would have anticipated, and my knees buckled with the pain—luckily, since she followed up that kick with others. I drew back in surprise, blinking and tightening my hold on her.

“What the Zagrodnian hells, woman?” I hissed.

“Put me down, you...you blue beast!” she practically shouted. “What do you mean, what the hell? That’s my line.” By now, she was kicking with both feet, and about half her shots were landing, so I dropped her to the floor—but I didn’t let go of her. Now that I had her, I was never letting her go.

Well, not until she used those inordinately heavy boots to stomp on my feet.

Not that she was likely to hurt me while I wore my dress uniform. My boots were bigger, stronger, and better fortified even than the ones she wore.

She figured that out quickly enough, and changed her aim once again, this time in an attempt to connect with my shins. She wasn’t battle-trained, though, and telegraphed her next move clearly enough that I was able to dance out of the way without letting go of her waist.

A snort behind me reminded me of Zont’s presence, and I glared back at him. “Why don’t you do something useful?”

Zont covered his mouth with one hand, his eyes dancing above it. “Looks like you have everything under control, brother” he managed to gasp out, his eyes streaming with suppressed laughter.

“I said, let. Me. GO.” The woman pushed her palms against my chest, straining as far back over my imprisoning arm as she could.

That kiss had been perfect. Why was she so upset?

A horrible thought hit me. “Promise not to run away if I let you go?”

“I’m not going to promise that.”

Wait. Was she somehow...not interested in me?

“Tell me your name. If you tell me your name, I’ll let you go,” I said.

She glared at me suspiciously but finally answered. “Natalie Ferguson.” As I released her from my iron grip, she muttered, almost as if to herself, “It’s not like you couldn’t find out, anyway.”

I rolled her name around in my mouth, tasting the texture of the unfamiliar combination of sounds. “Nat-alief-ergu-son.”

The look she flashed me was as full of venom as a Tarble’s attack-pouch. “Just Natalie will do.”

Natalie. Her name was almost as lush as she was. “It’s beautiful.”

She puffed out her cheeks and blew out a breath as she shook her head. I hadn’t taken any courses in Earther non-verbal communication, so I wasn’t sure if this was a way of expressing thanks for the sentiment. If so, her expression didn’t convey the same message, and I’d been given to understand that human and Khanavai facial expressions were remarkably similar.

Without another word, she spun around and marched through the break in the curtains, out to the main arena. I moved to follow her, but Zont put a restraining hand on my arm.

“We’re less likely to get kicked out if we watch from the stands,” he suggested.

I peered out through the curtains. “Looks like she’s headed over for her interview.”

Zont snickered. “Then by all means, let’s go watch.”

His amusement at my decision to take the human Natalie as a mate left me scowling as I followed him to the stands, staying behind the curtain as long as possible. After that, we simply strode across the arena floor as if we belonged there. No one asked any questions as we made our way to the section in the stands nearest the interview area.

“Will we be able to hear her?” I asked as I dropped into a seat next to Zont.

“Standard audio-visual mode,” he said aloud, and a holo-viewscreen activated in front of his seat. I followed his example, delighted to discover that the Bride Games had installed the latest technology. Not surprising, since the Bride Games were