Destiny Found (Epsilon Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  The small blonde had jumped up and hugged her, chattering a mile a minute about how excited she was to be going out. The quiet taller woman had stood back, allowing Lity to commandeer Natalie for a few minutes.

  Sellynus, or Selly, as she liked to be called, was beautiful and very exotic looking.

  Her eyes were one of the first things that Natalie had noticed, because they were an exquisite shade of gold unlike anything she had ever seen. She had dark brown skin that shone with hints of gold and deep brown curly hair. To say the contrast between her skin and her eyes made her beautiful would be an understatement.

  She was positively breathtaking.

  She slowly walked up to Natalie and nodded her head, smiling.

  “Hello, Natalie. Tali, Aaren, and Aaden have told me much about you.”

  Her melodious voice entranced Natalie, and she wasn’t even ashamed to say she had an immediate girl crush.

  The woman was magnetic.

  Natalie nodded, thought a friend of Tali is a friend of mine, and grabbed Selly in a hug. She had apparently surprised the other woman since she stood stiffly in her arms for a moment before softening and hugging her back.

  Natalie felt her small rounded belly and remember that she was pregnant. She pulled away, keeping a grip on her elbows.

  “I forgot! Tali told me about your pregnancy. Congratulations. When is the baby due? Do you know if it’s a boy or girl?”

  Selly chuckled, apparently used to such enthusiasm given she was friends with Lity and Tali.

  “Yes, I am with child. It will be our third, thank Tavanni. I am just over three months, and the baby is not due for another six. Aaren is very excited.”

  She rubbed her belly, humming a little under her breath.

  Natalie couldn’t help but be a little jealous. She had never even thought about children before, but after meeting Taavi, babies and sex were never far from her mind.

  She watched as a short, slight man with pink hair and an equally short woman with peach hair made their way toward them.

  “Tali, Selly, Lity! Welcome back my, pretties,” gushed the man, air kissing each woman before stopping in front of Natalie.

  “Oh my. Is this the infamous alien we have been hearing so much about?” He studied Natalie, looking her up and down before stating, “You are beautiful. That hair, those eyes, very pretty. I can work with this. I’m Alarus and this is my sister Iara. Welcome to Fluora.”

  They were then ushered into an empty black and silver salon where they were pushed into four comfy chairs.

  Iara got started on Tali’s hair while Alarus started cleaning and moisturizing Selly’s face.

  At the time she had thought, Well, I guess this is what having girlfriend’s is like.

  She found she very much enjoyed having girl time.

  Alarus was hilarious and outrageous, well tempered by his sister’s kindness and quiet demeanor. Where Alarus was the life of the party, Iara would listen to what the women had to say before responding.

  Natalie had never had so much fun getting her hair and makeup done as she had that day.

  She focused on the present, realizing she had been standing in her bra and panties for some time while Tali had been busy dressing. She took out the dress Tali had chosen for her to wear, a tight knee length deep red dress. Tali said it made her legs look longer, and the deep cleavage showcased her chest nicely. She shrugged it on, luxuriating as the silky material draped over her body. She felt a little self-conscious because it clung to her ass, but her boobs did look really sexy.

  She slipped on the low-heeled black sandals and shook out her hair.

  They both walked into the bathroom, primping and modeling for each other in the mirror.

  Tali’s dress had a plunging neck and back; the front went all the way to her belly button and the back was almost completely bare. It was the colour of emeralds – bringing out the green of her eyes – and flowed down to her black pumps. With those shoes, she was taller than Taavi and the slits in her dress showcased her long legs.

  She packed quite a punch.

  Tali tried to hook her arm through Natalie’s but with the height difference, decided to just wrap her arm around her shoulders instead.

  “Now that we look sexy, let’s go get some male attention and flaunt it.”

  Natalie scoffed. “No, thank you. You flaunt it.”

  “Hey! Just because you have a mate, doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun.” Tali pouted.

  Natalie rolled her eyes, walked back into the bedroom and opened the door.

  “Come on, Cinderella. You only have so long before you turn into a pumpkin again.”

  She snickered when she saw Tali’s confused look.

  Right, they don’t have Earth fairy tales.

  “Ignore that and remind me to tell you about it later. Let’s go.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Walking out of the room, Tali and Natalie stopped short when Taavi stepped out of his room and blocked their path. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. He admired Natalie, letting his eyes slowly wander over her body.

  She felt his eyes on her skin like a caress, could feel the lust coming off him in waves, and his approval was loud and clear in her mind. When his eyes met hers, her breath caught at the primal expression in his; the way his eyes burned into hers.

  He abruptly broke eye contact and strode down the hall to stand facing the window.

  Natalie raised her eyebrows at Tali, who shrugged in confusion.

  “You alright, brother mine?”

  His shoulders had stiffened when Tali spoke.

  “Tali, could you please leave Natalie and I alone? I promise I won’t touch her and ruin the makeup.”

  Tali glanced at Natalie, clearly seeking permission. She shrugged her shoulders and Tali left the room.

  Natalie cautiously approached Taavi and stopped by the dining room table.

  “Are you okay? If you’re honestly mad about me going out, I won’t go. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

  Taavi slowly turned around, staying by the window.

  “I’m not mad. I’m trying to keep my control. You walk in and I’m hard as a board. You walk out, I get control only to have you come back, and I’m hard again. I want to take you back to my room and worship your body.” He advanced a step before catching himself, his eyes hot enough to sear her. “Those breasts. I want to take those little nipples in my mouth and suck them until you beg me to stop. I want to kiss from your ankles to between your beautiful legs and feast. I want to wrap all that hair around my fist and pin you down until you’re begging me to stop or let you finish.”

  He walked toward Natalie; no, swaggered, she thought, watching him advance like a predator to his prey.

  When he stood right in front of her, he bent down and whispered in her ear, “Alaila, you have a good time tonight, because some night, very soon, I will make you beg. You will be mine and I will be yours, in all ways.”

  He kissed her neck quickly before striding down the hallway and into his room.

  Natalie stood there stunned, and more than a little turned on. She could feel that her panties were damp and her nipples were hard, her heart pounding and her cheeks flushed.

  That man could talk dirty. I never realized how much of a turn on that is.

  She smiled as she yelled for Tali to get her ass out there or they would be late.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  They met Hannan and Rome down at the entrance to the castle.

  Both men were dressed all in black. Black cargo pants with lots of pockets, tight black shirts, and black combat books. Clearly they had no sense of style whatsoever.

  Natalie and Tali shared a look, shaking their head in wonder.

  Well, at least they matched.

  There were about ten other men, all armed, all wearing the same thing as Rome and Hannan, and all openly gawking at the women.

  Natalie cringed, feeling a tad self-conscious at being the center of attention, while T
ali preened and strutted up to Rome and Hannan. She gave a twirl, basking in the men’s appreciative gazes.

  Hannan let out a whistle.

  “You ladies look sexy. You’re like my little sister’s and yet you’re definitely going to be making things uncomfortable for us tonight.” He gave a small laugh and a wink, first giving Tali a cheek kiss, and then bending down to kiss Natalie’s. “We’re just waiting on Selly and Lity. They should be down soon, according to Aaren.”

  Just then, the elevator doors opened, depositing the women and Aaren out. Aaren had his arm wrapped around Selly’s waist, both he and Selly laughing at Lity as she twirled, danced, and skipped toward them.

  “Don’t we all look fabulous?” She stopped in front of Natalie, grabbed her hand and twirled herself. “We are going to have so much fun.” She turned to Rome, her gaze turning intent. “Hello, Rome,” she purred, giving a wicked smile.

  Rome stiffened and gave a small nod to Lity, barely even glancing in her direction.

  “Lity.”

  Natalie stifled a laugh.

  While at the salon, the women had talked about everything under the sun, including Lity’s continued, and failed, attempts at getting him to make a move. She said she wasn’t interested in forever – she only wanted to have sex – but Natalie could detect a deep sadness and disappointment that he kept rebuffing her.

  So now, in her words, she just ‘loved teasing that big hunk of man’.

  Aaren nodded at Natalie and Tali.

  “You ladies look great. Not as good as my beautiful wife, but passable.” He turned to Selly, turned serious and said in a quiet, commanding voice, “You have a good time tonight, love. But if you want to come home early, I’ll come get you. If the baby starts bothering you, you tell someone or call me.”

  He took her lips in a gentle kiss, brushing the hair from her face.

  It was such a tender gesture that Natalie couldn’t help but love him a little more than she already did. The women sighed, which in turn made the men chuckle. The two broke apart, smiling as they stroke each other’s faces.

  Hannan cleared his throat and clapped his hands.

  “Right, onward ladies. It’s time to get this lovely show on the road.”

  Getting to the club was pretty uneventful; they had gone in some sort of weird hover car, which freaked Natalie out. Hannan said it was perfectly safe, that pressured air pushed the car off the ground and some sort of antigravity device kept it from crashing.

  It was weird to get into a car with no wheels, but it was kind of fun, zipping and zagging through other hover cars, just like on a highway.

  They parked at the back of a squat, rundown looking building. Natalie felt skeptical about this being a popular nightclub. The group walked to the back door, waiting for someone to answer.

  A big dark skinned man with no hair pushed the door open and waved them in. He smiled at the women as they walked in, kissing Selly on the cheek as she passed.

  Selly caught Natalie’s raised brow and said, “Don’t worry, he’s my cousin, Salius. He’s part owner, part guard for the club.”

  Salius flashed a wide smile, his white teeth a startling contrast against his dark skin. He looked Natalie over, lingering on her cleavage. He fell into step with her, standing a little too close for her comfort. He was gorgeous, but he was no Taavi.

  “Hello there, beautiful. I haven’t seen you with Selly before.” He flashed his smile again, obviously trying to charm her.

  “Hi, I’m Natalie. Taavi’s mate.”

  Yup, that did it.

  He stopped in his tracks as Natalie advanced a few steps before he sidled up to her again.

  “So you’re her. Well nice to meet you, little Earther. I hear you had quite an adventure getting here.”

  Natalie rolled her eyes.

  “Yes. It was an adventure alright.” She stopped and turned to him, tilting her head to look up at him. “Can I ask you something?” she asked, waiting for his hesitant nod. “Does everyone know who I am and what happened to me?”

  “Nope, not that I know of. I only know because Selly said you were coming tonight and that they wanted to use the back entrance. It didn’t make sense until she told me why.”

  They walked around a corner, stopping in front of a closed door.

  She could hear music pulsing, felt the bass deep in her bones.

  She felt his hand on her elbow, stopping her from following the others through the door and into the club. She turned to look at him, not understanding why he stopped her.

  “Sorry.” He quickly removed his hand. “I just thought you might want to know that not a lot of people know what you look like, but your story has been all over the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the planet knew about you now.”

  “Well, thanks, I guess. It’s comforting to know that they don’t know what I look like, at least.”

  She pushed into the club and stared.

  On the other side of the massive room was a bar that took up the length of the wall. There were six bartenders mixing drinks and filling orders of the patrons lined up in front of the bar. The door they had just came out of branched off into two separate hallways. One came from the back and had an office and storage room, and the other housed the bathrooms.

  Between her and the bar was a massive sunken dance floor that glowed and seemingly changed colour every few minutes with the music. There were two small raised platforms on the right that held poles. There was a group of women playing on one pole, giggling at each other and having a good time. On the second was a couple, the woman dancing sensually for her partner.

  Natalie looked away when the man grabbed the woman, touching her in ways that made Natalie blush.

  To the left were ten small tables, each with three or four chairs around them, all of them filled with people. Just above and behind the tables was a deserted seating area with three plush couches on the landing. Selly, Lity, and Rome were already making their way to the furthest couch, sitting down and ordering their drinks from the waiter that had followed them.

  “That’s the reserved seating area. I always let Selly and her friends use it, just so I’m able to keep an eye on her.” Salius grasped her elbow again, pulling her along to catch up to Hannan and Tali who were making their way towards the bar. They walked to the end of the bar, people parting for Salius as he approached. “I’ll get you a drink myself. Tal, what will you have?”

  Tali leaned against the bar, oblivious to the appreciative male gazes scouring her from head to toe. She tapped a finger to her chin, obviously having a hard time choosing.

  “You know what, Sal? Just surprise me. I really loved that new drink you made. What was it called again? Juonara? Jonita? That packed a punch tasted so yummy.” She turned to Natalie to say, “Sal and his partner Rafielle, not only do they own the bar, but they concoct their own drink menu. They are geniuses.”

  “Two Quinquila.” He set two large glasses full of a purple blue drink on the bar, raising a brow at Tali’s butchering of the name. He looked at Natalie and smiled. “I hope you like the drink. It was nice to meet you, and I hope to see you again.” With a wink he was gone, striding toward what Natalie assumed was the front door.

  As they walked up the stairs, Natalie felt the hairs on the back of her neck lift and turned to scan the club.

  It was packed; people everywhere she looked, almost like sardines in a can. There were a few people, men and women, who were staring at either her and Tali or Hannan, but none of their gazes made her feel that sense of disquiet she had felt a moment before. She scanned the room more slowly, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from, but coming up empty.

  She was still shaking her head when she sat on the sofa next to Lity.

  “Is it always like this? There are so many people, and so many people are staring at us.”

  She watched Lity as she took a sip of a green and pink drink, her cheeks flushing as the drink took effect.

  “Honey, this place is probab
ly one of the most popular clubs in the city. If you don’t get here very early to get in line or have connections like our girl Selly, you’ll be stuck in a line that winds around two city blocks, at least.” She took another sip, covering her mouth when she hiccupped. “And it’s sad to say, but when you’re with these two,” she jerked her thumb at a laughing Tali and Selly, “you get used to all the attention. Those two are attention magnets, and by default, now so are we.” She giggled, bumping her shoulder into Natalie’s. Nodding her head toward Natalie’s untouched drink she declared, “Now, honey, take a drink and enjoy. We’ll dance later.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  They had been sitting and chatting for a good hour, laughing and joking around with the men. Neither man had anything to drink just in case they had to “kick some ass”, their words.

  Selly had decided that it was time for them to hit the dance floor.

  She grabbed Natalie, who grabbed Lity, who grabbed Tali, and made their way to the dance floor. It was packed so tight you couldn’t move without touching someone.

  Natalie didn’t mind though, she’d had a little too much to drink.

  Lity had sneakily ordered her two more drinks, each time distracting her so she never realized she had finished the first one until she had a really good buzz going.

  The women cleared a small area of the dance floor and made a small circle with the four of them. They started dancing to the music, letting the beat guide their movements. Natalie was surprised that they were all fairly good, especially a few drinks in; well except Selly, who couldn’t drink because of the baby.

  They were having a great time until Natalie felt an intense stare burning a hole in the back of her head. She turned in a circle, trying to be inconspicuous, but failing miserably. Drinking three of those cocktails had really dulled her senses and made her terribly obvious. She scanned the crowd, noting that many men had closed in around their group and were trying to dance with them, but none of the women had noticed because they were dancing with each other. She noticed that Hannan and Rome were standing about six feet away on the side of the dance floor, scanning the crowd and the room, probably looking for threats.