Choosing Riley: Sarafin Warriors Book 1 (21 page)

Ha’ven threaded his fingers through his hair
and looked at his friend in sympathy. “Gods Vox, if I had known it
would be this difficult for you I would never have given her that
damn locator. I was just playing around.”

“I know, that is why I didn’t beat your ass
into the ground,” Vox replied. “But, I will if you ever help her to
get away from me again. You know, she is pretty good at that on her
own. She put me on the ground twice already.”

“If you tell us how she did it, we’ll help
you catch her,” Creon laughed. “I would pay good credits to hear
how she was able to put the mighty king of the Sarafin down on the
ground. You know, she is not the most coordinated female I have
ever met.”

*.*.*

Carmen came to see Riley later that evening.
She explained Vox’s warship the
Shifter
had arrived. If
anything, that made Riley want to stay locked in the living
quarters even more. All she wanted to do was sit and cry. In fact,
that is all she had been wanting to do since she moved into the
stupid room. She had thought being away from Vox would have helped
her put things in perspective. She was human and returning to
Earth, he was an alien and would go off and kill other aliens.
Instead, she was suffering from PMS, menopause, and newly
discovered sexual frustration on top of feeling like she was about
ready to pop out of her own skin when anything brushed against her.
Hell, even her clothes were driving her crazy. This morning when
she had gotten dressed she had actually hissed when she put on her
bra! Who the hell hissed about a bra?

“Are you okay?” Carmen asked as she took in
Riley’s flushed face. “You look like you might be running a
fever.”

Riley’s eyes teared up. “Ever since Vox made
love to me I’ve felt funny. I don’t know what is going on. I’m
having hot flashes, my skin is so sensitive I want to scream, and
it ..... it.....” Her voice hiccuped as she tried to talk over the
lump in her throat. “I feel like something is crawling around
inside me,” she wailed.

Carmen’s eyes grew round as she listened to
Riley’s choked explanation. Her mouth tightened as she remembered
Creon forgetting to tell her about a vital piece of information
when he had claimed her. She suspected what Riley was going through
was very similar. Carmen put her arm around Riley and guided her
over to a chair. Pushing her friend down, she sat across from
her.

“I didn’t understand what it would mean when
Creon claimed me,” Carmen began. “I don’t know what it is like for
the Sarafin species. I can only tell you what happened to me. When
a Valdier warrior and his dragon claim a female they release
something known as the dragon’s fire into the female. It changes
her. I didn’t understand at first. It felt like there was something
moving under my skin.” Carmen smiled in understanding when Riley
brushed her damp cheeks and nodded. “Then, I heard another voice
inside me. It turned out to be my dragon. I suddenly remembered
seeing scales rippling across my skin when Creon and I were making
love. When I heard the voice, everything fell into place. Creon had
changed me somehow. I was now able to transform into a dragon as
well. I was his true mate,” Carmen said before she looked over to
stare out into the darkness of space. “It is still unbelievable to
me how much my life has changed.” Carmen looked back at Riley with
sad eyes. “I was waiting to die. My only focus was to return to
Earth to do it.”

“Do you still want to go back?” Riley asked
sensing there was a lot to Carmen that she didn’t know.

“A part of me does,” Carmen admitted softly.
“I need closure for my life before. My husband ....” Carmen paused
and took a deep breath, laying one of her hands across her stomach.
“My husband was murdered in front of me. I was pregnant and had
been shot several times. I lost them both. I wanted - needed - to
kill the man responsible. I knew that I would die as well.” Carmen
looked at Riley with a haunted expression in her eyes. “I wanted to
die before. Now I have Creon and I’m expecting again. I have a
chance at starting over.”

“What about your family? Do you have anyone
else back on Earth that will miss you?” Riley asked pushing her own
fears and problems aside as she felt the depth of pain in Carmen’s
words.

Carmen shook her head. “No. Well, except for
Trisha’s dad. My sister is mated to Creon’s older brother. She is
all the family I have left.”

Riley bit her lip and looked warily at
Carmen. “Do you think that Vox did something to me? I know they can
turn into a big pussy cat but surely that doesn’t mean he did
anything to make me turn into one.”

Carmen chuckled reluctantly as she looked at
Riley’s pensive expression. “Truthfully, I don’t know. Vox, Titus,
and Banu are the first Sarafin warriors I’ve ever met. It is just
the things you are saying you are feeling sound an awful lot like
some of the things I was feeling before I turned into a dragon for
the first time.”

“Great! So what happens when I get home and
turn into a big hairball? I really don’t see the local humane
society as being a great place to visit,” Riley growled out as she
started heating up again. This time not because of the changes but
because of a certain something a soon to be dead hairball forgot to
mention!

Riley let out another stream of curses as she
bounced on Vox’s shoulder. The huge moron and the two traitors had
tricked her. Ha’ven had reprogrammed the device he had given her
and Creon had tricked her into coming down to the dining quarters
on the pretense Carmen wanted to meet with her. Instead, Vox had
been waiting. He had lived up to his promise that if he got his
hands on her again he wasn’t going to let her go. He had snuck up
behind her. The next thing she knew, he had twirled her around so
she could see the determination in his face before he bent over and
tossed her struggling, cursing body over his broad shoulder.

“Let me go!” Riley yelled out as she clawed
at her hair to get it out of her eyes. “Damn it Vox, I am not
talking to you!”

“You could have fooled me!” He chuckled. “You
have threatened me with every possible means of dismemberment. I
did not know a female could even think of some of the ways you
described.”

“I can easily think of a few more,” Riley
snapped in irritation. “Let me down, you moron. This is totally
messing my hair up and I’m wearing a skirt, you creep. I don’t want
everyone seeing my underwear.”

Vox’s chest rumbled with a purr as he ran his
hand up her leg and under her skirt to touch the soft skin of her
ass. He grinned in delight as Riley burst into another round of
curses and dire threats of what she was going to do to him the
moment she got free.

“Stop that!” She squeaked in outrage even as
her body heated up as he slid his hand over the cheek of her
ass.

Vox breathed in deeply, sighing in pleasure
as he picked up her reaction to his touch. She still wanted him
even if she refused to admit it. He was not going to let her remain
under the misconception that she would be returning to Earth. Creon
had told him what Carmen had shared about her conversation with
Riley. He needed to get her onto the
Shifter
and back to
Sarafin as soon as they met up with Creon’s brother, Mandra, and
took care of Raffvin. Once he had her back on his planet, he would
seal her in his quarters and make love to her until she accepted
her fate.

Riley sniffed in frustration, tears burning
at the back of her eyes. She was so damn confused! She thought she
had her emotions, and her body, back under some small amount of
control but the moment he touched her it was like she had grabbed
the wrong end of an electric fence. Her whole body came alive,
inside and out. Hell, right now it felt like whatever had been
moving around under her skin was trying to brush up against
Vox.

She drew in a deep, calming breath. The scent
that exploded through her had her practically writhing with need
which really pissed her off. Since when could she smell everything
so much better? The warm, musky masculine fragrance made her think
of cool forests, soft grass and hot bodies tangled around each
other. Just the thought of it turned the burning need in her up
another couple of notches. She was so going to kill his ass for
making her feel this way!

“Guall’s balls Riley, I need you,” Vox’s
husky, deep voice muttered. “As soon as we are on my warship I am
locking us in my living quarters,” he promised as he moved with
long strides down the corridors, ignoring the warriors who stopped
to stare.

Riley trembled at the dark promise. “I can’t
go with you. Cal and Mel said Creon is taking them back to Earth. I
have to go back!” She wailed, trying to fight her own desires.

“Never! I am never letting you go. My cat and
I have claimed you. You are now my queen,” Vox growled out in fury.
“I will never let you return to your world.”

Riley bit her bottom lip. She couldn’t go
with him! There were too many things she still needed to do. She
had a family, damn it. It may be small and dysfunctional but it was
still her family. Grandma Pearl, Tina and her might fight like
roosters in a cock fight but they were still very loyal to each
other. Then, there was her ex-boss and his insane father. She had a
moral and ethical responsibility to stop them from hurting others,
didn’t she? Finally, there was the fact that she didn’t want to
turn into a hairball and eat people. She liked fur but turning into
a walking coat complete with a tail was not on her bucket list of
things to do before she died. Which was the added bonus to her
reasons, she was bound to end up dead, it happened in every single
movie she watched! No, she needed to stay where she was at and
think with her head, not her heart.

Riley gasped when she was suddenly lifted off
of Vox’s shoulder. He slid her down his long, hard length until her
feet touched the floor. She used her one free hand, he refused to
let her other one go, to push her heavy mane of hair out of her
eyes. She looked around, disoriented, before she noticed they were
in the same docking bay they had arrived in several days earlier.
Now though, there was a strange looking shuttle with a long narrow
nose that gradually widened toward the back. A small group of men
stood talking with Lodar and Tor. One of the men turned to look at
her through narrow, intense eyes. Riley stumbled back a few steps
before Vox’s grip on her wrist stopped her.

“That is my younger brother Viper,” Vox
stated looking down at her with a sharp-toothed smile. “I think he
just found out about you.”

“Great,” Riley hissed. “You carry me in here
like a damn rug over your shoulder, messing up my hair and putting
your hands where they don’t belong, then introduce me to family.
That is so totally wrong on way too many levels.”

Vox turned her around to face him. His face
was cut in stone as he looked down at her defiant one. He could see
the flash of fear in her eyes before she covered it up with that
stubborn look she got. His heart melted a little when he realized
that she was terrified but trying hard not to show it.

“You do not have to be afraid,” he murmured
quietly. “No one will hurt you. You will learn to adjust once you
are on my world.”

Riley’s eyes flashed at the reminder that she
wasn’t being given a choice.
Well,
she thought savagely,
since when have I ever let that stop me?
All she needed to
do was get back to her living quarters and lock herself in her room
until they reached Earth.
And,
she thought savagely,
I
won’t be coming out until I see the big, blue marble for myself. No
more trusting the two Cheshire cats!

“I am not afraid because I am not going
anywhere with you,” she hissed out as she kicked her pointed-toe
boot into his skin.

“Son of the Gods,” Vox yelped as he jumped
back.

Riley used her free hand to yank down on the
weakest spot of his grip breaking free from his hold. That was a
clever move that she learned in a Crisis Prevention Intervention
class that she took with a bunch of teachers. She drew her hand
back as Vox reached for her and popped him as hard as she could on
the tip of his nose just the way her Grandma Pearl showed her. She
cried out when she realized she forgot to keep her thumb on the
outside of her hand but it still had the effect she was hoping for
…. Vox’s head snapped back and she knew he would have tears in his
eyes.

Riley vaguely heard several of the men who
were standing next to the shuttle yell out as she made a dash for
the doorway. She could hear Vox snarling out loud curses. She was
almost to the doorway leading out of the docking bay when Bob and
Fred came through it, blocking her escape.

“Move! Move!” Riley screeched as she looked
over her shoulder to see Vox turning to glare at her with murder in
his eyes. “Oh shit! Move!”

“Riley, what did you do to him this time?”
Fred asked looking back and forth in terror as Vox started stomping
toward them with blood trickling from his nose. “He doesn’t look
like he is happy with you.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Riley growled
out. “Bob, get out of the way.”

“Riley, you are his mate ….,” Bob started to
say before his voice died.

Riley glanced over her shoulder before she
let out a loud groan. Turning, she raised her fists up and glared
at Vox defiantly. He didn’t look pissed, he looked like a volcano
about to blow its frigging top!

“Vox, you just stay away from me,” she bit
out. “I don’t want to have to hurt you but so help me I will if you
don’t leave me alone! I am not your queen, I’m not your mate, I’m
going home!”

“I…. am…. going…. to …. whip…. your…. ass….
for …. this, Riley,” Vox gritted out slowly between his clenched
teeth.

Riley stumbled backwards as she took in his
dark face. Maybe the bop on the nose had been a little too much.
She might have been able to get away with just the kick. Right now,
she was cursing the fact that she didn’t have her mini-Taser or
pepper spray on her.