Rhal Part 2 (Scifi Alien Serial Romance) (The Ujal) (3 page)

“Cara,” he whispered, eyes widening as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “
Cara!
” He rushed to her and sank into the chair at her bedside. He reached for her, and she immediately cringed, which had a whisper of pain filling his expression. She wanted to question him about it, but he had his own questions. “How are you feeling? What do you remember?”

The moment he drew near, her body began humming, vibrating with a low tremble, and she stroked her arms in an effort to banish the bizarre sensations. Except she wasn’t stroking skin, she was caressing scales. She lifted her hand and extended her arm, giving her a clearer look at herself. Coral scales glistened on her arms, the tiny flecks appearing and then disappearing as quickly. They slithered down her body like a snake, twining around her wrist, going to her fingertips, and then retracing the path up her arm.

“I… Niax was on my porch and then he touched my hand and…” She shook her head. Her memory shattered into floating shards then. She snatched one, only to lose another. “I don’t know after that.”

Rhal rested his forearms on the edge of her bed, fingers twitching as if he wanted to hold her hand. Did he? No, he didn’t want anything to do with her. Right?

She shook her head, trying to jar free other memories. For some reason, she felt as if he’d held her at some point and that through the panic she’d been comforted by him.

“Niax brought you here because it looked like you were transitioning, but he indicated you told him you did not mate with an Ujal male. Is this true?”

Cara shook her head. “How can I when I am still stuck on yo—” She snapped her mouth shut and swallowed the words. “No. I haven’t mated anyone. Ujal or otherwise.”

“You went to IGM and the Population Ministry…”

“Yeah,” she released a dry chuckle. “I have degenerative genetic material—whatever that means. They rejected my application.” Cara let her eyes drift closed, her lids heavy as exhaustion settled over her. “I’m unmatchable. So even if you
wanted
to mate, I couldn’t. Nice, huh?”

A new emotion ghosted over his face and then he cradled her hand between his, palms gently cupping her as he traced her fingers. She tensed, waiting for the burn that accompanied Niax’s touch. Instead of pain, she got relief. The itchiness, the tightness, of her skin eased and every ounce of tension that’d attacked her for the last ten days suddenly drained away. She was relaxed, and she let loose a soft sigh with the release. He continued stroking her, remaining silent as he petted her scaled skin.

“Rhal?” His gaze shot to her face when she spoke. “What’s going on?”

He pressed his lips together, and his eyes sparkled gold then red. Emotions rode him hard, proven by more of his scales—his true color—coming out. “The doctors here have a guess, but we’re waiting for Faim to arrive.”

Faim—the royal doctor. “The doctors here are very skilled. What do they say?”

“I want Faim to tend you. I sent for him an hour ago, yet…” He growled and released her. In one fluid move, he was off the chair and stomping to the doorway. “Niax!” he bellowed and the male bolted toward them. He slid to a stop before Rhal. “Where is Faim? I ordered—”

Niax winced. “I checked with Tave. The guard you dispensed never reached him. He said Faim is on his way and will be here within fifteen minutes.”

“He didn’t—”

“It wasn’t a problem with Tave. He issued the summons the moment he knew you required assistance.”

Oh, this was not good. Rhal tensed, his shoulders broadening as he breathed deeply, but the tension did not lessen when he exhaled. He was a ticking bomb, an explosion waiting to happen. “Rhal?” He’d been at her bedside, concerned for her welfare, and she’d capitalize on that to keep him from fighting with Niax. He swung his attention to her, and she held out her hand. He was here, he cared, he would come to her. “I need you.”

He was at her side in a moment, his touch gentle as he caressed her once more. “I am here. I shall not leave.”

Niax’s thanks were obvious on his features, and she nodded her welcome. “I know Faim is on the way, but what do they think is wrong? Why am I…” Becoming Ujal?

He inhaled slowly and released it just as carefully. “When we… The last time we… When I…” His scales fluttered across his cheeks, and she realized he was uneasy. Rhal—her Rhal—was nervous? “In your office, when I found my release, you must have gotten some of my genetic material inside you. It does not take much between true mates to initiate the change, and it was enough.”

Between true mates? Enough?

Cara’s mind went back to that time, to the moments spent in her office, when he came on her hand and the tiny taste she’d taken… It’d been something he was adamant about when they were together, that his cum not enter her, and now she understood why. They were true mates. And it would have turned her into an Ujal. He would have been stuck with her even if he didn’t want her.

She slipped her hand from his, removing his touch. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize this would happen.” She swallowed hard. “What do we do now? I get that you don’t want me, so I guess I should talk to the doctors then Rina and Tave. You don’t have to stay,” she whispered. She wanted him gone before she crumbled into a million pieces.

“Cara, I—”

Faim’s voice rang loud and clear down the hallway. “Quit prodding and pestering me. You are worse than my mate-in-law.” He slowly came into view, his head turned as he glared at Niax. “She shall have your head for rushing me while—” He stuttered to a stop. “Oh.” His attention bounced between Cara and Rhal. “
Oh
. He finally removed his head from between his tail fins, eh?”

Cara squeezed her eyes shut. She fought the tears that gathered. “No, he didn’t.” The air grew heavy, tension stretching through the space, and she forced herself to meet the doctor’s gaze. “But that doesn’t mean he’s not involved and I need your help.” She pulled her hands from Rhal’s. “It seems I’m becoming one of you no matter what.” She did her best to smile, really, but she was pretty sure it came out as a grimace.

Faim slowly made his way to her side, his aged eyes missing nothing as he looked her over. His attention flicked from her fingertips to her face, his stare heavy. When he finally stopped near her shoulders, he reached for her hand, and she swallowed back the hiss of pain that leaped to her lips. He caught it though. “This is painful?”

Cara nodded, and he did the same before reaching for another part of her. Wrinkled hands stroked her, touch wandering over her scale-covered skin. All the while Rhal’s attention remained fixed on her. He didn’t attempt to hold her, but his gaze rested heavily on her shoulders. He was silent as Faim examined her, his lips pressed together in a grim line. Yes, he was quiet until…

Until a single tear trailed down her cheek.

“Enough, Faim.” The doctor ignored him and stroked her bared leg, causing another tear to fall. “I said
enough
. You are injuring my— You are hurting Cara.”

Faim’s hands withdrew, and she sighed with relief, allowing herself to relax into the mattress as the pain ebbed and mellowed to a low pulsing ache. “No, you have done enough of that yourself.”

The scales Rhal had managed to suppress surged forward once more. “Excuse me?”

Faim focused on her. “I do not understand why you wish to mate this one. He cannot listen. Or perhaps it is comprehension.” He clucked his tongue. “Males who do battle do not always require much intelligence.” He sighed. “At least you will have beautiful hatchlings.”

Even if he was talking out of his ass and giving Rhal a hard time, she had to smile at the older male. Rina had nothing but wonderful things to say about him, and Cara knew he adored caring for bearing females.

Cara shook her head. “No, we’re not mating. We… He…” She swallowed hard. It’d been days since he rejected her, so why was she having so much trouble with this?

Faim chuckled. “Ah, little
arond
. You speak as if you have a choice.”

Arond
. Child. There were worse things than being called a small child by Faim. Much worse when he was angry.

“The choice was made, Faim. Rhal…”

Lied to me. Pushed me out of his life.

He raised his eyebrows. “You and Rhal did something and now you must do it completely or your genetic code will remain in flux.” Faim patted her hand and she snatched it away with a hiss. “
That
will continue and eventually kill you.”

“Unless?” Rhal spoke up.

“Unless you mate. She obviously ingested—in some manner—your genetic material. It is the lack of a full dose that leaves her in this condition.”

“It’s been ten days though,” shock had her whispering. “Shouldn’t it have happened before now?”

Faim nodded. “Have you come in contact with the sea before today?”

“I—” She tried to calm her racing heart. “Today is the first day I sat on the beach—”

“But your body called to the ocean,” Faim interrupted.

“Yes, but I was so stressed and I didn’t want to be near anything that reminded me of Rhal.”

“Understandable.” The doctor nodded, and they both ignored Rhal’s growl. “And today?”

“I was drinking coffee on the beach. Niax was running the morning hopefuls through the surf, and he came to say ‘hi’ and held my hand…” She thought over it again. “It was damp.”

“With seawater. Your scales have been driving you to the waters because you did not have enough genetic material to sustain the transition. The moment you came into contact with what it desired most…” He snapped his fingers. “It struck.”

“So, what now?”

“Now,” Faim’s attention flicked between her and Rhal. “You mate in truth. Nothing less will alleviate your symptoms and finalize your change from human to Ujal.”

“There’s nothing else to be done?”

The hope in Rhal’s voice sliced through her heart, cleaving it in two.

“There’s no other way?” she rasped and ignored the way Rhal stiffened.

“It must—”

“You will not mate another,” Rhal hissed and captured her face, cradling it between his palms. He forced her to meet his gaze. “If you must mate, you will mate
me
. I do not care if you dislike me. We are already mated. You are already mine. No other shall have what is mine. If anyone dared touch you…” His eyes sparkled red and gold. “I would kill them for the offense. I did not want to take you, but now you are mine. There is no going back,
czira
. There is only forward with you at my side.”

“But, Rhal…” Her vision blurred, annoying as hell tears clouding her vision. Dammit. “You…”

He leaned forward and brushed his lips across hers. “I would not wish myself on the prince’s worst enemy, but now that I have you, I will keep you. Even when you wish you had never whispered my name, I will not let you go. You are mine,
czira
. Mine forever.”

* * *

Rhal sought her features for a reaction to his words and found… nothing. Not happiness, not sadness, merely a blank mask.

That knowledge reverberated in his soul and stomped on his fragile heart. He nearly snorted aloud. Him? Fragile? Never.

Except when it came to the beautiful woman at his side. One look from her, one tear, and he was crushed.

He slowly withdrew his attention from her, releasing his pent-up breath when he was no longer captured by her wary gaze. “How do we complete the mating?”

Faim gave him a bland look. “You do what your bodies demand,” he gestured at them, hand waving in the space between them, “and
mate
.”

He ignored Cara’s shudder and the way her lower lip trembled. He definitely ignored the evidence of her emotional fragility that trailed down her coral-hued cheek. Another slid free, following the first, and he cursed. Of course, that harsh word had his female—his mate—flinching.

Damn him to the depths of the sea.

“I am sorry,
czira
,” he murmured and stroked her hand with a single finger. The gentle touch soothed him, and she released a soft sigh as her body relaxed as well. She may not like him, he may have crushed whatever love they shared, but she
needed
him. Staring at her, at the gentle slope of her nose and her plump lips, he knew he could not force what the situation required. His focus shifted back to Faim. “Is there another way?”

The old doctor raised his eyebrows in question. “Is there another way to give her what she needs without sharing yourselves?”

“You mean, do you have to fuck me?” Her voice was a soft whisper, but the emotional pain in every syllable was as clear as the Gulf’s blue waters. She withdrew her touch and wrapped her arms around her middle. It was a sign of her uneasiness, and it told him more than her tears. His czira wasn’t hurt, she was afraid, her emotions battered and bruised. By him. “Does he?”

A matching sadness laced with pity crossed Faim’s features. “No,
arond
. There are other ways. They are not preferred and much more painful.”

“
Czira?
” He did not wish agony upon her, but it would be her choice. Always a female’s choice. He would love to sink into her, revel in her sweetness, but not by force. His beliefs may have been battered by the past, his ethics questionable, but force was always out of the question. “We shall do whatever you desire.”

Cara snorted, and he found he disliked the expression on her face. “Now, you wanna fuck me. Months of
nothing
—”

“Not nothing. Never nothing. What we shared—”

“—and now you’re ready to take me to bed because you have
no choice
.” She shook her head. Another tear. “What’s my other option?”

Faim’s voice was soft and soothing, the tone he often used on younglings. “Humans call it a transfusion. It will require many small doses over a couple of weeks though it is not an exact science.”

“Weeks?” He frowned. “With a traditional human-Ujal mating it is done in one…”
Encounter.

“Yes, and had someone acted as he should have and as his mate desired, that would be the case,” the doctor snapped at him and Rhal had no response, for each word was the truth. “This is not a traditional situation. She has been in flux for…” Faim raise his eyebrows in question.