Rykaur: A SciFi Alien Romance (Enigma Series Book 8) Read online

  Rykaur

  By Ditter Kellen

  www.ditterkellen.com

  Copyright © by Ditter Kellen

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Ditter Kellen. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Image/art disclaimer: Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

  Published in the United States of America

  Ditter Kellen

  P.O. Box 1764

  DeFuniak Springs, FL. 32435

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.

  Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. This e-book is for sale to adults ONLY as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers

  Dedication

  For my two amazing beta readers, admin, and dearest friends, Cathe Green and Amy Bingham. I love you both so much and can’t imagine how I could do all this without your help, support, and friendship.

  Chapter One

  Rykaur emerged from his tent, wearing fatigues and boots, his hair pulled back into a ponytail.

  Keeping the sides of his hair trimmed close to his head helped him to blend in. Somewhat. He was after all, a Bracadyte. Which meant his slightly pointed ears, enormous size, and emerald-green eyes would always set him apart from his human counterparts. No matter how he wore his hair or the number of tattoos he sported.

  Not that Rykaur felt any shame in being different; rather he simply enjoyed spending time with the land walkers and participating in their human customs.

  “You look deep in thought,” Ted pointed out, exiting the tent next to Rykaur’s.

  Rykaur nodded in Ted’s direction. “I was thinking about the many land walker traditions that I have yet to be exposed to.”

  “Such as?”

  “Foods, clothing, music, movies.” Rykaur shrugged a massive shoulder. “I could go on, but I must leave soon.”

  Ted grinned. “I noticed you didn’t mention our women. Where are you off to this morning?”

  “I have no interest in your human females,” Rykaur murmured. “And King Klause wishes to see me. I suspect it is because my third birthday is on the morrow.”

  Ted’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait…hold on a minute. Did you just say you’re not interested in women?”

  Rykaur chuckled at the look of shock on Ted’s face. “I said that I am not interested in human females. I prefer a female with some substance to her. The land walker women are far too thin for my taste.”

  Rykaur’s mind immediately conjured up a vision of Allie, the human prostitute with the red hair. Though she wasn’t stick thin like most of the land walker females he’d seen, she wasn’t to be trusted. Of that, he was certain.

  “What’s the deal with your birthday?” Ted continued to watch Rykaur with open curiosity. “Surely to God, you’re not telling me that you are three years old?”

  Another chuckle emerged from Rykaur. “I am turning thirty summers tomorrow. The Bracadytes celebrate their births every ten years.”

  Ted appeared relieved. “Thank God for that. I would have shit in my boots if you’d admitted to being a toddler.”

  Shaking his head in humor, Rykaur moved to reenter his tent to grab his bag, when movement at the corner of a nearby house caught his eye.

  He stopped in his tracks, his gaze meeting the fiery-haired prostitute’s.

  “I warned you about her,” Ted cautioned in a low tone. “She’s bad news, man. She ripped off Terry not five minutes after going inside his tent with him. Not to mention she’s probably infected with something that would give the Incola virus a run for its money.”

  Rykaur knew Ted spoke the truth, yet he couldn’t bring himself to look away from her penetrating stare. He wondered what color her eyes would be. “I have no interest in her. A Bracadyte female would never use her body for deception.”

  “Maybe I need a Bracadyte female. I damn sure haven’t had any luck with the human ones.” Ted winked and turned to go.

  Averting his attention, Rykaur stepped inside his tent, grabbed his bag, and dropped it onto his cot. He began placing his neatly folded clothes into the bag’s interior when the rustling of his tent flap caught his attention. “Did you forget something, Ted?”

  When no answer came, he glanced over his shoulder to find Allie standing just inside his tent.

  Rykaur’s heart skipped a beat. “What are you doing in my dwelling?”

  Her pale gray eyes stood out in stark contrast against the dark red hair billowing over her shoulders. Her skin appeared flawless, save for a light sprinkling of freckles across her nose.

  His gaze lowered to her full lips, touched on her chest, and then settled on her rounded hips.

  She took a step forward, coming to stop directly in front of him. “I thought you might like some company.”

  “Company?” Rykaur’s gaze shot back to hers. He couldn’t seem to make his feet obey the command to move. He stood there, still as a statue, unable to look away from her incredible eyes.

  Her hand came up to rest against his chest. “Surely, you must know why I’m here. A man of your impressive size and looks couldn’t have skated through life without the occasional company of a woman.”

  Rykaur swallowed hard. “I am not a man, Allie. I am a Bracadyte. And I do not share my bed with human females. They cannot be trusted.”

  Her hand coasted down his stomach. “What does trust have to do with pleasure?”

  What indeed? Rykaur thought, his stomach muscles tightening beneath her warm palm.

  Hardening his mind to her advances, Rykaur turned his back on her and resumed his packing. “I am not interested in—”

  A slight sting to his back cut off the rest of his words.

  He quickly spun to face her once again. “You think to injure me?”

  She only stood there, staring at him with a look of sadness in her pale gray eyes.

  The air around him became thick, making breathing difficult. His vision darkened to the point where he could no longer see her in front of him. “What did you do to me?”

  “What I had to do,” she whispered as his world faded to black.

  Chapter Two

  Mary watched in silence as the giant Bracadyte dropped to his knees and toppled over at her feet. He’d called her Allie, the name she’d given to the couple of Marines she’d visited in the night.

  She stepped around him and quickly searched his tent.

  Snatching up a small leather pouch, she carefully untied it and tilted the bottom upward. Her breath caught. Three pearls, two rubies, and several emerald stones spilled out onto the mattress of his cot.

  Mary had no idea how much the stones were worth, but she’d be willing to bet that just one would be enough to sustain her for quite some time.

  She hurriedly gathered up her newfound treasure and returned all but one stone to the small pouch.

  Tucking an
emerald into the pocket of her short jean skirt, she stuffed the pouch down her shirt before glancing at the Bracadyte’s sleeping form lying at her feet.

  For some reason, Mary hadn’t liked him referring to her as Allie. Not that it should matter. She’d gotten what she came for, and he would simply assume he’d been rolled by a prostitute.

  Mary quickly peeked through the tent flap for signs of movement and then lowered to her knees next to the Bracadyte.

  Removing his boots first, she set them behind her to tackle the job of ridding him of his jeans. And then her gaze landed on a slightly darker patch of skin at his ankle.

  She gingerly pushed the hem of his jeans up and touched the odd-looking skin. What on Earth?

  Mary coasted the pad of her finger along its silky surface until she reached a sharp point at the end.

  Careful not to prick herself, she removed her hand and leaned in close to study the strange anomaly.

  She’d read somewhere that the Bracadyte creatures possessed poisonous barbs on their bodies… That had to be one of them.

  With trembling fingers, Mary moved away from the barb to unbutton his jeans. She slid the zipper down and grabbed hold of the material along with his boxer briefs to tug them off.

  It took enormous effort to work the denim over his hips with him lying on his side. He was, after all, a giant.

  Speaking of giants, Mary thought in shock as she inched his boxer briefs farther down, exposing his sex to her astonished gaze. My God.

  Swallowing around a throat gone dry, Mary averted her gaze, tugged his jeans off, and went to work on his shirt. It took her ten minutes to completely undress him.

  And then she noticed a strange-looking patch of skin beneath his right arm. It has to be his gills, his means of breathing underwater.

  Mary gently slid her hand beneath his arm and lifted. Her mouth opened in awe. The grooves lining the upper part of his ribcage resembled those of a shark.

  He moaned in his sleep, pulling his arm from her grasp.

  Mary jumped to her feet, set his bag on the floor, messed up his cot, and then tossed a blanket over his nude form on her way to the tent opening.

  Another moan echoed from behind her. Surely he couldn’t be waking up so soon? The drug was normally good for at least two hours.

  Of course with his great size and alien DNA, his metabolism would probably burn through the drug’s effect in no time.

  Mary got it in gear. Messing up her hair, she wiped her lipstick off with the back of her hand and marched from the Bracadyte’s tent.

  She could feel the numerous gazes touching on her body, hear the shouts, whistles, and lewd comments coming from the nearby Marines. But she didn’t care. All that mattered was getting the stones back to the house and finally paying for her freedom.

  It took less than ten minutes to walk home from Rykaur’s tent. Though Mary didn’t live far from the entrance to Aukrabah, no one knew of her location. She kept the lights off as much as possible and always circled the block when returning home, to be sure she hadn’t been followed.

  The last thing she needed or wanted was to be found. Especially after the amount of thieving she’d done recently.

  Slipping quietly around back, Mary unlocked the door to her house and slipped inside.

  “You took long enough,” Doug Jefferies snapped from his position at her dining room table. “I was about to notify child protective services about your little gang of misfits.”

  Mary’s heart lurched at the threat of CPS. “I’m sorry,” she rushed out, reaching into her bra and retrieving the bag of stones she’d stolen from Rykaur. Her gaze scanned the four faces of the children seated at the table before returning to Jefferies. “It wasn’t easy to pull off. I had to wait for the creature to return to his tent before I—”

  “Did you say creature?” Jefferies interrupted. “You drugged a Bracadyte?”

  Mary hesitated, recognizing the look of fury in Jefferies’s eyes. She flicked a glance at Hank, the oldest child at the table. “Take the children to your room. Now."

  “Answer me!” Jefferies snarled as three of the kids hurried from the kitchen, leaving Liza behind in her highchair.

  “I— He— I managed to get these.” Mary held up the bag of stones. “They’re worth a hell of a lot more than all the Marines’ cash combined.”

  Jefferies jumped from his chair so fast, it toppled over behind him. Liza, the three-year-old orphan still sitting in her high chair at the table began to cry.

  Mary rushed to console the child only to be backhanded hard enough by Jefferies, she lost her footing and crashed against a box of toys on the kitchen floor.

  Pain sliced through her cheek, and the copper taste of blood filled her mouth.

  Glaring up at Doug, Mary spoke through lips gone numb. “It’s more than enough to buy back our freedom. You promised me that you’d be gone as soon as you had enough money to disappear. Well, now you do.”

  Jefferies stormed over, ripped the small bag from Mary’s fingers, and dumped its contents into his palm. His eyes lit up in interest. “You took this from the Bracadyte?”

  “Yes,” Mary whispered, staggering to her feet. She inched her way toward the table, putting herself between Liza and the bastard Jefferies.

  Doug returned the stones to the bag, stuffed it into his pocket, and met Mary’s gaze. “Regardless of how much the jewels are worth, you stole from a Bracadyte. They won’t let that go, you dumb twit. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t combing the streets right now, looking for you.”

  Mary held her tongue. If not for the young child sobbing behind her, she would have told Jefferies to go screw himself and faced the consequences of her words. But she couldn’t, not with Liza in the room. “I’ll stay indoors for a few days.”

  A strange light entered Jefferies’s eyes. He sauntered forward, gripped her by the chin, and tilted her head to the side. “No, you won’t. There’s a bruise already forming on your cheek. You will return to the Bracadyte and accuse him of hurting you.”

  “What?” Mary breathed, backing up a step and forcing Jefferies to release his hold on her chin. “I can’t do that. He’ll kill me. I took those stones from his tent.”

  “The stones won’t matter to him after he sees your face,” Jefferies bit out, crowding her once again. “He’s a Bracadyte. If he thinks he’s harmed you in any way, you’ll have him eating out of your hands.”

  Mary shook her head. “He’ll never believe me.”

  “Then, convince him.”

  Breathing suddenly became difficult for Mary. “How am I supposed to do that?”

  “You’re a prostitute. You figure it out.”

  He may as well have slapped her again. “You want me to have sex with him.” It wasn’t a question.

  Jefferies leaned down until their noses nearly touched. “Yes. And you’d better put on a hell of a show too. If there is one thing those creatures have become good at, it’s sniffing out deceit.”

  “W-what am I supposed to do with him after…”

  “Gain his trust. Get him to take you into Aukrabah. And then I want you to poison them. All of them.”

  Mary’s heart pounded so hard she was sure it would explode inside her chest. “Poison them? I can’t do that. I won’t!”

  Jefferies pulled a knife from his belt, stepped around her, and stood behind a sniffling Liza. “You can and you will if you want to see this bunch of orphans live to see the sun come up tomorrow.”

  Tears stung Mary’s eyes. “How am I going to pull off poisoning hundreds of people?”

  “They’re not people,” Doug sneered. “They’re aliens. And you let me worry about how. For now, I want you to return the jewels to the Bracadyte and make him think you’ve grown a conscience. Let him believe that he hurt you.”

  Mary stood there, still as a statue, her mind rebelling against Jefferies’s words. “What am I supposed to do after I sleep with him?”

  “Nothing. He’ll take it from there. If
there’s one thing I know for certain about those creatures, they hold themselves one hundred percent responsible for their actions. They may be disgusting freaks of nature and a huge pain in my ass, but they’re not cowards. Now get moving before he returns.”

  She couldn’t seem to make her feet obey. “Isn’t there something else that can be done besides poisoning them?”

  “No, there’s not. Go to the Bracadyte and play on his chivalrous side while I figure out the deadliest possible concoction to wipe out his entire race.”

  Chapter Three

  Rykaur gripped his head and slowly sat up. It took him a moment to realize he was on the floor of his tent. Without his clothes.

  A green blanket covered his legs, and his boots were nearby, resting next to his jeans.

  His skull throbbed in pain, but not as much as his injured pride.

  The last memory he had was of the fiery-haired prostitute touching his chest.

  Rolling to his knees, he grabbed his boots and jeans and pushed to his feet.

  The fact that his clothing had been removed told Rykaur that something untoward had happened. Had he copulated with the prostitute?

  He dressed slowly, mindful of his aching head, all the while searching for details of what had taken place inside his tent.

  His gaze landed on the shelf next to his cot. The small bag he’d placed there was missing.

  So, Allie took the stones, he guessed, angry that he’d allowed himself to be deceived. But why had he been undressed? Had he taken her and simply didn’t remember?

  He dropped his weight onto his cot and rested his face in his hands. His tongue felt thick and his mouth dry.

  “May I come in?”

  Rykaur’s head shot up so fast he had to grit his teeth against the pain the movement caused. He slowly got to his feet. “You dare to come back here?”

  As beautiful as he thought her to be, Rykaur wanted nothing more than to throw Allie from his tent.