Page 18 of Protected By the Alien Commander

Doshax

I was weak,spent. She had taken all of me.

I rolled off her, onto the bed so I did not hurt her; I was too heavy and she was so small and dainty. I could not stop smiling, though, at how vocal she had been. And how quickly I had brought her to satisfaction. She could handle me.

It was the best coupling I had ever had.

If I did not have another year of service to the IGS and was not on an abandoned planet, I would contact the tribe elders to claim a mating ceremony during the tribe’s annual pilgrimage. But without a secure future, I could not presume to ask for her to be my mate.

I did not have time to worry or think about things that could not be. My missions would not complete themselves, finding my men and making sure the pirates did not find us. I left the surprisingly comfortable bed and walked into the bathroom.

The shower still carried her unique scent, musky and seductive. My kok hung heavy and enlarged. I was ready and wanted her again, but to have her so quickly would probably hurt her. She was much smaller than me. The males of her species must be puny.

I scrubbed my skin with the soap gel from the cleanser which I was surprised had not been emptied. Why would the crew leave their ship before they had used all the supplies? It did not make sense, and worried me. But I would not spend any more time wondering about the previous ship’s inhabitants. I needed to plan.

We would need to leave this ship to find her friends on their crashed ship. I did not want to leave such a good shelter with water, but the other people with her needed rescue. And one of them was injured. In addition, they might be out of water and food by now. Or at least non-alcoholic liquids. If I could find containers on board to carry water from the ship, we would not have to return to the stream with the giant reptiles.

A medkit was another thing I needed to find onboard, but I did not have high hopes for being successful. Everything of value had been taken already. But Ohliveah’s bites needed more healing gel. We had enough trouble without battling a raging infection too.

I begrudgingly shut off the shower. As I put my dirty flight suit pants on, I made a mental note to find the ship’s sonic cleaners. I did not want to wear increasingly dirty and smelly clothes.

The sight of Ohliveah still asleep on the bed concerned me greatly. Was this normal for her species, hyumin? I checked for a pulse on her chest but did not find one.

My heart stopped. No, I could not lose her!

I ripped the sheet off her and methodically ran my hands over her chest, legs and arms. My military training kept me cool under pressure, though I wanted to scream and beg for her to be alive. I finally found a strong pulse on the side of her neck. Relief flooded me and I leaned down, kissing her strong pulse. Her neck, what a strange place for it.

I willed my heart to calm as realization struck me that I could not let her go. Just those few seconds of thinking that I had lost her was enough to force me to face that truth. When I got off this planet, I would put in a request for leave to be mated.

She was mine.

But I could not afford to be distracted on this uninhabited planet with hostile pirates in the area. However, I would protect and take care of her no matter my missions. I just hoped Ohliveah would accept my mating claim.

I looked down at the woman I would make mine and the thin sheet I had covered her with. It would not keep her warm. The interior of this ship was surprisingly cool, and her body was more fragile than any other evolved species I knew.

Another search of the room revealed recessed drawers hidden under the bed. One drawer contained a maroon blanket. Whoever stripped this room missed them. I had nearly closed the drawer before I noticed something in the back that the blanket had hidden.

It was an old journal. I opened it but could not read the strange writing. It was foreign, all stylized marks made primarily from straight lines. The writing was not one I had seen before. Maybe Ohliveah could decipher it. Even though she was not from this system, perhaps her written language had a common base. It was certainly nothing like any languages I knew. Any information from the captain’s journal would be helpful, especially if it explained what happened to the ship.

I set the captain’s journal on the end of the bed, where Olivia would be sure to notice it. After I brushed my fingers over her cheek, followed the curve of her neck down to the swell of her chest lumps, I kissed her soft lips and left the room. It was difficult to leave her lying in the bed. I closed the door and hurriedly strode down the corridor. We had been so intimate, I never wanted to let her go.

But I had a duty and missions to accomplish. It was time to take a closer look at the cockpit. I had checked it earlier, but only briefly, for anyone or anything that could have been hiding inside. Now I needed to know if anything besides the shower and translator worked on this old ship.

And the ship should have an emergency beacon, but did it still work? The beacon should have gone off when the ship crashed, alerting the closest IGS ship, satellite station or base. If this ship had crashed years ago, which it looked like it had, the beacon was probably dead. Unless it was connected to its own backup power source. Perhaps there was a way to restart it?

I hoped we would be rescued, if only for Ohliveah’s sake. I could stay, hunt pirates and find my men, but she was too fragile to survive here for long.

I turned down the corridor to the cockpit. The first thing I would check would be the lifeform sensor. I needed to know if any other ships had crashed nearby, including hers. And if any pirates were close.