Freeing Luka (Clecanian, #2)

by Victoria Aveline

“Where are we taking her?” “I’m not sure,” she heard another gravelly voice answer. “The boss is in room six. I’ll ask.” The resounding thump of the new man’s steps accelerated, then slowed. He spoke again in a hushed tone, “Or we could take her to twelve first. He doesn’t know she’s here yet. Who knows what happened to her on that ship, what condition she’ll be in upon delivery? We could have a little fun with her first.”

The pristine floor, ceiling, and walls were white and bare, save for the imposing metal doors on either side of her. The odd air. The clean white surfaces. The metal doors. Was this a prison, or a hospital?

“You’ll not touch her again. She’s just become a very important part of our research.” Gishen and Sal looked at him quizzically. “Research?” Alice interrupted, dread running through her. What kind of ship was it? Ignoring her, Helas spoke to the men. “Luka recognized her.”

However, when you walked by the room I was in earlier, Luka, the male inside, had quite a reaction to you.” Helas leaned forward, his grin widening. “He recognized you. His eyes changed.”

“You brought me here because you think I’m his mate?” she said, glancing to the wall.

“I brought you here to be artificially inseminated and studied just like any other test subject. The fact that Luka recognized you is purely coincidental and highly interesting. I think you two have a better shot at creating life than any other beings in our facilities. And I think if you do turn out to be his mate, we’ll have proven that human females should be considered a subspecies of Clecanians and taken seriously as a viable alternative to the females already living here.”

“Every day, you will be taken to his room, where he will be chained. I’d like for you to sit with him so we can see whether extended proximity makes his mating marks appear.”

What if we could extract only the Clecanian pieces of DNA and combine them to produce a pure Clecanian sample from a mixed-breed individual?”

Alice felt her skin crawl. How could an alien species that’d made such advances in technology still have such antiquated views?

“We do not touch him in that way. Weekly, we dose him with a drug that makes him feel overwhelming lust and clears his mind. He’s chained, and then every few days he’s allowed to relieve himself. We merely collect the sample.”

“I won’t allow him to touch you, and in return for my kindness, you will go in there every day and attempt to make his mating marks appear.” “How?” she asked in a squeaky voice as hundreds of terrifying possibilities flashed through her mind. Helas’ shrug was noncommittal. “If proximity doesn’t work, you will touch him. If that doesn’t work, we will have to think of something else.”

“It’s Sal.”

Yellow eyes = Sal

Even slumped, she could tell he was huge. His bare chest and torso were heavily muscled, and although he was kneeling, his head rose to her rib cage. He had to be well over six feet when standing.

She began to relax. This abused man, Luka, wasn’t her enemy. She needed to remember that. He was a prisoner just like her. Maybe he isn’t as dangerous as Helas made him out to be. They were probably trying to scare me.

The pearlescent markings she’d seen on Mr. Yellow-Eyes, Sal, and Helas also ran over Luka, but in a different pattern. They were vine-like and curved over his body, delicate against his overall powerful physique. Her eyes followed one particularly beautiful marking as it trailed down his six pack and disappeared beneath his pant line.

Alice gasped, and her gaze darted to the ceiling, her cheeks heating, when she noticed the outline of a huge erection could be seen through his thin pants.

Without thinking, she reached up and smoothed the dark brown mass back, making sure she didn’t pull at any tangles. The bone structure she uncovered was gorgeous. Dark, heavy brows framed his black eyes. A small white tattoo wound its way from his forehead to his high cheekbone. When she started to pull her hand away, he leaned his cheek into her palm and closed his eyes.

Eyes flashing open, he turned his mouth toward her hand and gave her lower palm a hot, wet kiss. A jolt of pleasure shot to her core.

Sal ran forward and attempted to zap Luka with a long metallic stick, but Luka rammed his shoulder into the man’s belly. The force of the blow caused his chains to break. Keeping his eyes on Helas and Sal, Luka backed up into the corner in front of Alice. Is he shielding me?

Taking a few deep breaths, she attempted to calm her warring emotions. She looked down at the palm he’d kissed and felt the telltale flutter of butterflies in her stomach. Crap.

You humans haven’t ventured into space or interbred with any other species. Earth is a perfectly preserved, undiluted, living record of ancestral Clecanian DNA. It’s unfortunate that someone with tainted blood happened to be the one to recognize you, but I have to put my distaste aside for the greater good.”

She waited until the electric buzz had faded, then, when she was sure she wouldn’t be shocked, she reached out and tentatively placed her hand on his shoulder. Immediately, he leaned into her touch.

She was just about to move away to examine the metal plate itself when he snagged her hand with his own restrained one. She glanced at him, startled, but saw his eyes were focused on their interlaced fingers. He gently flexed and relaxed his fingers, running them against hers. His eyes slid closed, and his purring intensified.

Moving to kneel in front of him again, she reached up and wound her arms around his neck, embracing him in a hug. Luka’s body tightened, and he pulled at the metal around his wrists, trying to get closer to her. He nuzzled his head against her neck, giving her goosebumps.

Her plan to whisper to him and work out an escape together had failed, but Luka’s soft touches were helping to melt away her stress, so she hesitated a moment too long before pulling away. Heat flooded her core when his head dipped to press a hot kiss to the junction of her neck and shoulder.

Alice thought back to the voice that’d just commanded her to touch him. It hadn’t been Helas’ voice. Had he left? Where did he go if he wasn’t always here?

“Then maybe you should stop giving him drugs.” She could guess what his response to this idea would be. Helas’ main goal may be to gauge whether she and Luka could procreate, but his sick side project of purifying Luka’s genes seemed like something of an obsession. “No, I think we can do better than that.” He leaned toward her. “He will be unclothed tomorrow. You will touch all of him.”

As usual Helas ignored her question. “I’ll allow you to try out your idea for two days.” Helas’ stare hardened. “If they haven’t appeared by then, I’ll strip you bare, double his medication, and throw him in this room with you unchained.”

He stared in bewilderment at his wrists for a moment. His skin was burned and blistered, but he could make out the faint outline of blue bands circling his wrists. Somewhere deep down he recognized the marks for what they were.

Possessiveness and fury roared through his senses, overtaking him until all he wanted to do was kill, fuck, and protect.

The women behind Alice cried out when Luka’s enraged yell sounded from near the top of the stairway. Alice looked over her shoulder to see a marvelous and terrifying sight. Luka was standing at the end of the hallway, eyes pitch-black. His naked chest rose and fell rapidly, and his gaze was fixed on her.

Alice squinted, trying to make out any signs of civilization. A short, young woman with perfectly highlighted hair said, “Well, Toto, I’ve a feeling—” “If you say that line right now, I swear to God…” interrupted a tall, slim woman with a surly expression.

After a few minutes of pounding on his back and demanding to be returned to the group, Luka stopped. Rather than set her down quickly, he angled her so that she slid down his front, rubbing every inch of him as she went until she was on her feet, still firmly tucked against his body. Oh, shit.

She took another step back, and this time, instead of looking confused, a seductive, predatory grin spread over his face, sending shivers down her spine. He hunched slightly, as though preparing to run. Heat flooded her core at the thought of him chasing her down, but she tried to ignore it.

Just as she was beginning to pull back, Luka firmly kneaded her ass, shoving her lower body tightly against his. He nipped at her neck with his vibrating mouth, and Alice’s eyes slid shut. She let out a wanton moan, feeling heat pool between her thighs.

“Izzo, the woman you mentioned,” Alice panted, trying to keep up with his long strides. “Is she pregnant?” Izzo spun toward her, Luka’s dangling arm flying wide and almost hitting her in the face. “How did… No… Uh…what makes you think that?”

Daisy sat next to her, keeping her head down and her gaze averted from Izzo, who continued to stare at her. The man was so enthralled with the quiet girl that he hadn’t even seemed to notice Luka’s mating marks.

“It used to be if a person wanted to court someone, they’d try and prove their love by diving into the water and retrieving a pearl. If they weren’t stung, it was meant to be.” An image of Luka slowly emerging from the lake in a sopping-wet white shirt, with a satchel of pearls in hand, popped into her mind. Well, hello, Mr. Darcy.

Apart from a few tears, Daisy hadn’t complained or raged or anything. She’d taken her sudden hearing loss in stride and had adapted so well that Alice had almost forgotten she couldn’t hear. If she were in Daisy’s shoes, she’d have pulled someone aside and asked them to mouth every single thing being said.

Dazed, she accepted hugs and handshakes from a few of them and nodded politely as they told her their names, which she promptly forgot.

Me, every day

The woman looked old in the same way a pyramid or castle might. She was strong and powerful and the sign of age only enhanced that aura.

“If word got out that humans can be recognized as mates, I feel your world, Earth, would be in danger. Clecanians of all genders would flock to your planet, hoping to find their mate, and unless the laws change very rapidly, they would be doing so illegally.”

He hung his head in shame. It didn’t matter that he’d been drugged. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t been in his right mind, or that the female seemed to be incredibly understanding. He’d be sent to prison, and he knew deep down that he deserved it.

“The Queen has already decided there will be no punishment. The female agreed.” Luka swung his confused gaze to Maxu. “How can there be no punishment? I tried to force myself on a female! Drugged or not, it doesn’t matter.”

“What’s out there?” Alice whispered. Auzed stepped back, his gaze flashing between her and the trees. “It was likely just an animal.”

Luka

He reached out to touch her shoulder in an attempt to guide her forward, but at the last moment his eyes shot to the trees once more. The hand he was hovering over her shoulder dropped. “Let’s go,” he repeated.

Definitely Luka

The pretty redhead, who looked far too pregnant to be walking easily, was waddling into the room. A large, angry man with thick, black tattoos covering all of his exposed skin walked behind her.

Jade reached up and grabbed his neck, tugging him down to whisper in his ear. Alice had no idea what she said to the guy to get him to relax, but she deserved a goddamned medal. Alice watched as the man’s tension and anger slowly faded until he stood with his cheek against her hair, smiling faintly.

glancing back toward Rhaego. She smiled. “He’s the biggest softy ever, and his dream is to find a mate. I think the fact that most of us are pretty terrified of him when we first see him has dashed his hopes a bit.”

If she wasn’t so infatuated with Luka, she was sure she could get on board the sexy demon train. Alice decided she’d try and talk him up to Vanessa.