Alien Romance: The Alien's Bliss: A Sci-fi Alien Warrior Invasion Abduction Romance by Ruth Anne Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

among ourselves instead of concentrating on convincing Aquilla. That will do more for peace than anything else.”
    “And what about you, Aimee?” Emily asked. “You’re the only one of us without a mate to approach. What will you do?”
    Aimee gazed up the hill. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling it will come to me before too long.”
    That night, Aimee lay awake on her Ursidrean army cot and stared up into the blackness. After hours reviewing her conversation with Piwaka, his words no longer played in her head. Instead, his face, with his burning eyes and penetrating stare, hovered before her eyes. His eyes locked on hers and never let her go. Whatever she thought of, he always drew her back.
    In her mind’s eye, she gazed into his face, and he awoke that forgotten part of herself lying dormant beneath her warrior persona. How could she fail, all these months, even to recognize that it was there? How could such an essential part of herself lie disused and festering without giving her the slightest disturbance? Why did it take a complete stranger to awaken that part of herself and bring it to the surface?
    One question disturbed her more than all the others. Why him? What made him the one to awaken her? What unique gift of sight allowed him to see that part of her lurking below the surface and draw it out into the light of day? Why him, of all people? Why couldn’t it have been one of her cousins, or one of her Lycaon friends?
    He was beyond strange to her. He was another faction, another species. And he was older—much older. She couldn’t stand exposed before him—could she? The thought made her shudder, but there he stayed, right in front of her. When he looked into her eyes, he saw that part of her. He barely noticed her warrior identity. To him, it was so much window dressing. It didn’t exist to him. The real Aimee, the Aimee no one else knew was there—that was the person he saw when he looked into her eyes.
    In her vision, she stood before him uncovered. She wore none of the skins of the Lycaon, but she wasn’t naked. Her hair hung down to her shoulders and beyond instead of cropped short, the way she wore it with the warriors for the better part of the last year. Her skin, her face, even her fingernails glowed with electric energy. She throbbed with life from every pore. What had he done to her?
    She had only to think of herself past, the way she was with the warriors, to find the answer. When she ran through the woods on patrol, she ran from herself. Far from finding herself and her life’s purpose defending the faction she thought was her own, she lost herself in the company of people she could never connect with. They were automatons, empty shells who touched her life in the most superficial way, if at all.
    She’d walked through a nightmare of half-existence, without purpose, without intimacy, without a body. She never let anyone touch her, physically or in any other way. To be touched would have shattered her carefully constructed mask of happiness. Even her cousins, who should have known her best, mistook her fervor for happiness. Frieda and Anna were too engrossed in their own struggles and dramas to notice, and Emily only saw Aimee after months away, and she barely recognized her cousin when they did meet.
    In the dark, Aimee let her hand trail down her body under the blankets, exploring the vibrant sensations of her skin come alive. Every cell ached with life yet to be embraced. She had only to reach...just a little further...She stopped herself and threw her arm over her eyes to hide from all that life. If only she could turn her feelings on and off at will, she could tolerate the unstoppable torrent of emotions and sensations coursing through her, but the fateful vision left her no peace. What would become of her? Who would she become? She would certainly see Piwaka again. She ought to get out of bed right now and run back to Lycaon territory before he devastated her in some other, more