Love: BBW Alien Lottery Romance (Chosen by the Karal Book 2) (9 page)

“Yes. We have one vehicle for everything. It cuts down on raw material use. This can be used like one of your cars, or an aeroplane, or a spaceship.” He smiled at using her human terms.

“So, how far away is your house?”

“Not too far. I have to come here most days, so I live close by. Karalians tend to commute as little as possible. Although we run most things on solar power, or solaris, so there are no emissions. But there is still constant wear and tear on the vehicles. And wasted time, which is better spent on other things than sitting in a car.”

“Sound environmental policies.” She smiled at the way he sounded, so serious, but then he was a commander of some kind. Who would have thought that a human such as Celia would end up as the woman chosen to live with an alien of such importance?

However, if she had expected him to live in a big mansion, or house like the pents on Earth, she was mistaken. All the houses they passed were the same. Sturdy, stone built, and low to the ground. They conserved everything. There was nothing frivolous about the Karalian species.

“My house is the next one,” he said. They had travelled for about twenty minutes, but she was sure the distance had not been great; he was going slowly so that she could take in the scenery before her.

“I expected something grander,” she said as he turned towards a small, nondescript house.

“You thought I would be one of your pents?”

“No. I don’t know. But on Earth, the higher up the social or political scale you are, the bigger your house.”

“Ah, but we are not on Earth, Celia.”

“No kidding,” she said, taking one more look around as she got out of the car and then followed him into the house.

“I will show you around. Please think of it as your own during your stay here.”

She stopped in her tracks. “My
stay
here? I thought I would live with you. With our child.”

“Women usually go to the breeding house once they are pregnant.”

“Breeding house. What is that? It sounds like an institution?”

“It is a big compound. There is plenty of open space. It is our tradition. All the females in the past have preferred it. You will live with your own kind.”

The breath left her body, and she felt faint. She thought that she would live with Torac, create a family with him. Instead, she was going to be used as a vessel to create the next generation and then cast aside. These Karalian males did not intend to allow Earthlings to become part of their world. In any way.

“I see.” She walked into the hallway, and Torac took this as his signal to move on. First, he went to the sitting room, but she interrupted him mid-sentence. “Why not show me the bedroom. I think that is the only place you need me.”

“Celia. As I said, this is to be your home while you are here.”

“I have just said goodbye to one home, I have no intention of becoming attached to another place only to be moved on.”

“That is childish.”

“No, it’s being a realist. How long do you expect it to take for me to become pregnant?”

He studied her, allowing himself to assess her mood. She tried to slam up a wall between them, but she guessed he had taken a good measure of her mood, because he answered, “A day or two. You are due to ovulate in the next few hours.”

“A day or two.” She nodded her head. “Then it’s better to get this over with now. I presume that is why I will be seeing Elissa tomorrow. Is she already in residence in this breeding house?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Marin chose to live with her.”

“I see. So I will live there alone?”

“Yes.”

She felt her heart beat faster, he had put up his own defences; he didn’t want her to live here with him. That was why he kept calling it his house. He had never been trying to hide anything about Elissa, other than the fact that Marin had fallen in love with her, while Torac had no concept of what love was.

Celia began to unbutton her shirt. “Shall we get this over with, Torac? It would be a pity if my egg went to waste.”

Pulling off her shirt, her breasts barely contained in her bra, she saw the way he looked at her, the way his body responded. This was it; she was about to be taken by an alien. He would plant a child in her womb and send her off, out of sight to be forgotten while his child grew inside her. She had been wrong, this was worse than Earth. At least there, she had freedom; here she would be a prisoner.

Torac walked towards her, his hand outstretched. She closed her eyes, ready for the first touch of his hands on her breasts. Yet instead, he pulled her shirt back around her and said, “I think I will go and see the Hierarchy today after all.”

With that, he left. Celia waited for the cruiser to power up and the engine to disappear into the distance before she broke down and wept. She had left her family behind, finding comfort in the thought that she would create a new family here. Instead, she was going to have a child, and then be cast off. Or given to another. Was that the reason they didn’t need to many women here? She would simply be used as a baby machine.

All the joy she had felt at arriving here, seeing the beautiful planet, had gone. This place was darker and more soul-destroying than Earth. And she had no way of going back.

He should have stayed, but she made him feel so weak. How could he face her, how could he keep his resolve when he knew just how upset she was? He longed to take her in his arms and make love to her, to feel her come around him. The simulator had taught him how to please a woman in bed. Surely, that would make her feel better.

Sex. It was what humans thrived on. But she needed more than that; he could see it in her eyes. However, what she wanted, he could not give her. After all, he was the Hier Commander and he had been given a mission, and he was going to make a good example for the rest of the Karalians to follow.

The tower loomed up quickly in front of him; he had sped here, wanting to get away from her, to save himself from pain. Her pain. It ripped into his heart. He would never tell her, but he seemed to be unable to stop himself feeling her hurt, no matter how hard he tried.

Parking his cruiser, he ran up the steps to the tower, the guards would already know he was here and would have announced him to the Hierarchy. As expected. The doors were flung open in front of him so that he never had to miss a step, his pace quick, eating up the distance to the great hall where the council spent most of their time.

“Commander,” one of his guards said. He nodded, another door opening as he walked towards it.

“Torac. I was told we would not see you today. I thought you would be with your little human. I know Marin has trouble keeping his hands off his female’s soft body.”

“She is tired. I have left her to rest.”

The Hier Ruler studied him for a moment. Torac lowered his barriers, letting the ruler know what he was experiencing. Although he kept a small part of his feelings for Celia to himself. He could not share what he didn’t fully understand. It would cause questions he could not answer yet.

“How was Earth?” The Hier Ruler asked.

“Dirty, crowded, dying.”

“And the human female?”

“She comes from a big family. They are a strong family unit. She entered the lottery to help them. She felt as though she was a burden on them.” Torac remembered the way the family interacted with one another. The bond that held them together, so strong, a force beyond almost any he had felt before.

“Is she compliant? I hope you have not changed your mind about the need for her to be taken to the breeding house when she is with child.”

“No. I have not. Although sometimes, when you see the interaction of their family units, I question whether a mother would be a bad thing for our children.”

“I knew you would be tested, Torac. I understand. I think that once she is with child and you are apart from her, those feelings will subside.”

“That may be true, Hier Ruler.” Torac tried to quash the voice inside him that told him that would not happen. He had to at least try to maintain his distance and try to fulfil his mission.

“Then the way forward is clear. Mate with her, send her away, and allow her to fall from your thoughts. Once the child is born, he will give you joy.”

Torac wanted to speak out, to say once more that they would be better with the females among them. Just because the tradition until now had been to keep them separate, did not make it right. It did not make it the only way. It was the first time they had found females who were worthy to live among them. And he was sure that if Earth had not been ruined to the point of destruction, his people would see it this way. However, if the Earth had not been ruined, the females would never have wanted to leave. In that case they would still end up shut away, but that would be to stop them escaping, in the same way all the mothers of his generation had been shut away to stop them slitting the Karalian’s throats.

He remembered visiting there, not too long ago. It was a soulless place. But the human females would make it liveable. Yet their spirits would be forever trapped, because if Celia was anything to go by, they had adventurous hearts. Food, clean air, and clean clothes would never be enough for the woman he was to breed with.

He had left her in a strange house, a house that was not hers. And from what he said, never would be. All her dreams, all her hopes were dashed; he wanted her body simply to procreate, not her mind, or her soul. All this time, she thought they were forging a relationship within the boundaries of which they would raise a child. How could she be so wrong?

Feeling miserable, she had nothing else to do—there was no way she was going to unpack her clothes. She decided that the best thing for her sanity was to escape. Pulling out the book Mrs. Wells had given her, she opened it up and began to read about Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. Two people who didn’t seem such opposites now she had an alien male to contend with.

Celia became engrossed in the book; they were at the point where everything was coming together, when news of Lydia arrived. She almost wept for poor Elizabeth. Abandoned by the man she loved, although at least her Mr. Darcy went with good intentions, he left to try to make everything right for Elizabeth, the woman he loved.

“I am sorry.” His voice jerked her back to reality.

“Torac. I never heard you arrive.”

“I didn’t mean to startle you. Have you eaten?”

“No. No. Wait, sorry about what?” Her voice held her fears. What had he done, given her away to another Karalian?

“I am sorry I left. I am sorry about the breeding house.” He looked at her, and she tried to read his expression.

“I understand it’s your tradition.” She tried to let her bad mood go. If this was how life was going to be, she guessed she would have to accept it and make the best of it. “It was a shock, that was all. You have this beautiful planet, full of life. I dreamed of exploring it. When we landed today and I saw the mountains and the oceans, I longed to explore them, and the forests. I have never seen a tree that is older than twenty years.”

“Trees in the Dressel Forest are over a thousand years old. My ancestors used to worship them. Stupid, I know. But the trees are givers of life. They take in our carbon dioxide and breathe out the air we need to breathe. The gave my ancestors shelter, warmth, and fuel for their fires.”

“No, I understand. I always felt, when the last forests were cut down, that man had truly lost sight of the way to save themselves. It was long before I was born, though.”

“I will show them to you.”

“No, Torac.” Her words came out harsher than she had meant. “I accept that we will make a child together and that I will go to this breeding house. Please, I don’t want to think of this as my home, and I don’t want to allow myself to think of you as anything more than the prize in a lottery. I have just lost my family. I do not want to lose anyone, or anything, else. Giving up our child will be hard enough; I cannot give you up too.”

“Celia. I need you to understand, this is not how I want things to be between us.” The colour of his skin was changing; a very subtle red glow had appeared to slide across his face, down his neck, only to appear in his hands a couple of seconds later.

“But you do not want to change it?”

“I can’t. I am to set an example to my people.”

“Would it be so terrible to allow human women loose on your planet?”

“We don’t know.”

She looked at him and saw the struggle there. The way he was fighting an internal war between his duty and what he really wanted. Her. She put her bookmark inside her book and rose from her seat. “Torac, you said I was due to ovulate. Why don’t we make the baby you so badly need. I think I can learn to live with the thought that a child, a part of me, is free in this world, even if I am not.”

The colours became uncontrollable as she went to him, her fingers stroking his cheek, leaning forward she pressed her lips against his, waiting for his response. It was immediate.

“I have wanted you since I first saw you, Celia.” His arm went around her waist and pulled her to him, the sensations flooding her body as they touched. He fisted her hair, pulling her head down, holding her firmly while his lips moved against hers. She trembled at the sudden change in him, as if he had suddenly released his inhibitions.

Tasting her, he moved slowly, his mouth soft, gentle, against hers, his tongue probing for access. She allowed him in, dropping her defences, letting him feel how much she wanted him too, and how scared she was. This moment had been in her mind too long. She knew she hadn’t come all this way to not experience making love to him—lottery or no lottery, he intrigued her. She wanted to open up his heart to love, so that if he raised their child alone, he would give that love to their child.

Her hand slipped up his thigh. She had watched enough movies to know how to turn a man on, but it was what came after that frightened her. Torac stiffened, his mouth moving away from hers while she reached for her prize, the hard length between his thighs. He groaned when her fingers closed around him, running up and down his hard length. She was certain each time her hand passed over the head of his cock it grew bigger, swelling under her caress.