Page 21 of Protected By the Alien Warmachine

“I do not understandwhat is so funny,” Kal’va said, stroking my back as we snuggled in the wreckage. His warform’s tougher skin hadn’t proved great for cuddling, so he’d changed back into the more human form. Much more comfortable, and less intimidating, though he was still quite strong enough to hold me and make me feel safe. Everything was going to be alright.

Nevertheless, I laughed. This was the third time I’d started laughing uncontrollably since the table fell, and I wondered if he was worrying about my sanity.

I squirmed up onto him, gesturing around with a grin. Dubious, he looked at the shattered stones, then back at me. A raised eyebrow told me he had no idea what I found so amusing.

“The table,” I said, shaking my head. It took an effort to keep my giggles at bay, but I managed. “It’s a priceless antique, older than my civilization. I’m here as an archaeologist, to learn about your ways from the artifacts I find here. So what do I do? Fuck it into a million pieces. The Xenoarchaeological Society will either give me a medal or shoot me.”

“They may give you a medal if they desire,” he rumbled in his amazing, deep voice. A note of steel entered his tone as he continued. “If they try to shoot you, however, I shall burn their universities to the ground with them inside.”

“That’s probably going a little far,” I said. He raised an eyebrow.

“Really? And how far were you prepared to go when I died?”

I was about to try tearing a corporate heiress’s face off. Fuck the fact that I’d die for it.“Okay, fair point.”

“In any case, this is just a table. Old, yes, but worth nothing. Anything you could have learned from it, you can simply ask me.”

“I suppose so,” I said, not entirely convinced. But turning the thought over in my mind, I brightened. “That does give me an idea about what to do with you, though.”

His eyes sparked, and a grin spread over his face. “Oh, it does, does it?”

“No wait,” I protested, laughing again as I tried to scramble to my feet. “Not like tha—oops!”

Kal’va caught my wrists with lightning speed, pulling me down and rolling me onto my back. One hand held my wrists, the other traced a strange pattern over the skin of my breasts. “Human, I too have an idea of what to do with you.”

His voice was thick with lust and love and need, and my breath caught as he slipped between my legs. Was his cock even bigger now? Or did it just feel that way against my over-stimulated, aching body?

Only one way to find out,I thought, grinning back at him. Any discussion of the future would have to wait until we’d sated our need for each other.A decade or two, at the current rate.

Arching my back, I tried and failed to pull free of his grip and grinned up at my alien lover.A price I’ll gladly pay.

16

EPILOGUE

Every time I had to leave the Blacksands Institute of Alien Studies was agonizing, and my return such a relief that I breathed easier as I got out of the flier. The university was still small, of course, just a few prefab buildings, but they were permanent buildings, not just the fancy tents we’d started with.

This out of the way desert location would never support a huge campus, but for studying xenoarchaeology, nowhere beat Blacksands. Not just because we were right on top of an Ancient tomb complex, but because of our ‘guest lecturer.’

Kal’va was with a group of students when I found him, doing his best to explain the functions of a stone pillar laced with nanocircuits. It was slow, laborious work—being part of the Ancient civilization didn’t mean he could explain it to outsiders, and my mate was working across cultural lines. He was still the best source of information on the Ancients anyone had, and it turned out he enjoyed teaching.

One day it would distract him enough to let me sneak up on him. This wasn’t that day. As I walked quietly up behind him, he gave no sign he’d noticed, until at the last moment he spun around and swept me into a powerful kiss.

The students hooted encouragement. When Kal’va set me down, my face red as the sunset, I put my hands on my hips and tried my best to glare.

“That’s completely inappropriate,” I said, breathless and flustered.

“Only saying that because you didn’t get to pounce on me, Tal’ia,” he replied, infuriatingly accurate. I tried to hide my smile, but there was nothing I could do about my blush. To make matters worse, the students shouted encouragement.

“It’sDoctorTal’ia now, anyway,” I said to another cheer. Kal’va laughed with delight, grabbing me again and spinning me around in his arms, gathering me close.

“This is wonderful. Did not doubt you would ‘defend your thesis’—” not quite true, he’d tried to come with me or at the very least convince me to take a hidden weapon “—but you are now acknowledged scholar-ruler? Wonderful.”

“Kal’va, love of my life and fire of my heart, we havegotto teach you how human civilization works.” I laughed and kissed his nose, then leaned in to whisper into his ear. “That’s not the best news I have, anyway.”

He growled and squeezed me, making me laugh again. “For someone who’s lived tens of thousands of years, you have remarkably little patience, my love.”

“Tell me,” he said, and I relented.

“I checked with the doctors—themedicaldoctors—while I was up there,” I whispered. “And they confirmed it. I’m pregnant.”

“Truly?” Kal’va sounded stunned and loosened his grip as though afraid he’d hurt the baby. A slow, delighted smile blossomed like a sunrise, warming me in its glow. He didn’t wait for me to answer before throwing his head back to howl in triumph.

Instead of putting me down, he put me over his shoulder with gentle care, and turned toward the tomb. “Human technology is too primitive. Our crypt has better.”

I raised my head to wave at his students as he carried me off. “Class dismissed?”

With that, my alien warmachine carried me off into our shared future.

The End