Nebula Book 1: His Breeder
3

As he stared at the female, Ak wished a second Vanishing would appear and suck him off Ezron. His fists clenched and unclenched, and the rest of him tingled with the urge to squirm.

The sight of this woman’s despair would shake down any warrior.

She scrambled, trying to protect her dirt drawings as if they were a map to treasure. The rain was cold as it splattered on his skin, so he knew its attack was fierce on the female. Unfortunately, pulling her to shelter wasn’t an option since she refused his touch. He couldn’t blame her, though, not after his attack.

He kept staring at her even after the night became heavy. The splattering of rain mixed with her whimpers, creating an endless symphony of torture. When she began to tremble from the cold, he made a move to pull her to safety, but her yell had him stopping dead.

Frustrated, he remained seated, helpless as she cried herself to sleep. It was only after she fell asleep that he took it upon himself to carry her to the shelter of onla leaves he made. Based on her trembling, he was too late to save her from illness.

Building a fire was impossible in these conditions, and using his body heat was unspeakable. The female would scream her throat out of she woke up with him wrapped around her.

He grunted, sitting outside the small shelter with his legs crossed. A young growl perked his hearing. Grabbing his sword, he stood and walked into the night. An adolescent shri jumped for him, only to fall dead seconds later.

Akdronis sighed, flicking the blood off his blade on his way back to the female. She was the same way he left her– trembling and curled into a ball. Although she was now out of the rain, the pieces of cloth that covered her skin were dripping.

He glared at the sky, trying to intimidate it.

That night, he knew no sleep. His attention flipped from the female’s breathing to their deadly surroundings. The second the rain stopped, he hacked down the nearest tree, digging into its trunk in search of dry wood.

He made the fire roar, desperate to warm the soaked female before pneumonia kidnapped her.

After hours of restlessness, she finally settled down for a few hours.

A mistake, he recognized as he stared at her weathered body. He had made a terrible mistake in attempting to force himself on her. He had acted before thinking as he usually did.

Would he have gained her trust if he approached her more gently? He didn’t know. He didn’t get to meet many adult females before the Vanishing took them. All he knew was that his race was dying off, and they needed babies to turn the tide.

Mothers, he cursed.

What had he been thinking? That he actually had enough poison in him to go through the evil plot of rape? Why was he so impulsive? Why hadn’t he been blessed with patience like his brothers?

The female stirred, muttering something in her foreign language. She remained unconscious, but nonetheless alive.

Ak stalked forward, sitting at the entrance of her leafy shelter and reaching for her forehead.

Fates.

She was getting cooked alive.

He didn’t know much about medicine, as that was Vrox’s area of expertise, but he knew that fevers were no good. Rising to his full height, he scanned the plants that surrounded them and hoped that he could identify which he was supposed to use.

He had a paste within minutes and prayed to the fates that the woman wouldn’t awaken as he coated her scaling forehead.

He pushed a braid aside and examined her face. Like a child’s, it was round and gently curved. He couldn’t blame Vrox for confusing these strangely developed females as children, because he saw the similarities.

Bringing his hand to her face, he skimmed his palm across her forehead, painting the milky dark skin with yellow. The contrast between his huge hand and her dot of a face was stark. Overpowering her had been so easy.

The shame of a hundred mistakes made his shoulders hunch when he remembered having her under him.

Pulling his hands away, he stared at the dirt and welcomed shame.

– • –

Nebula felt like she fell through a second portal. This one led her straight to death.

She coughed in rapid, painful successions. “Brandon, get me some meds. I feel like shit,” she deliriously mumbled.

“Brandon?”

A bird chirped, pulling her across the threshold of reality. She snapped out of her confusion and looked around. She was in a small shelter, wet from head to toe, and shaking like a leaf.

Her spine straightened when she spotted her kidnapper kneeling beside a fire. She abandoned his gaze for just a second to make sure that her clothes were intact. She wouldn’t put it past the asshole to sexually assault her in her sleep.

She coughed again.

Damn this planet.

The alien lifted a hand and pointed to her right. With a lingering gaze in his direction, she followed his pointing. A pile of fruits waited for her.

She wanted to be strong and turn away from it, but her fever had sucked what little energy she had left. She snatched a ripe red, banana-shaped fruit and dug into it like an animal.

Akdronis eyed her, pleased that she was awake and eating. There was no way that they were going to travel. She was too lethargic and weak to bear any more walking. They would have to spend another day camping here.

“One day, when I was very young, my mother shared a ridiculous story.”

He knew that she couldn’t understand him, but this didn’t stop him from continuing.

“She said that she saw a female with a child shift into an animal. Her skin turned to fur, and her face elongated with a snout. No one believed my mother, but I did.”

He squinted at the distance, struggling to remember his childhood.

“This story came to my mind when I first saw you. You were unbelievable, a myth. But you are real, just like the female in my mother’s tale.”

Nebula continued to eat, ignoring his alien words.

“I have dishonored my family line by threatening you– a creature that was surely sent by the fates. I will spend my last breaths seeking your forgiveness.”

But of course, she was unable to reply.