Noxx: Alien Adoption Agency #1 Read online

  Noxx’s mentor, Vice-Admiral Longbaak, told him that such prejudices weren’t helpful, so Noxx had done his best to go into this meeting with an open mind.

  But one look at these three clowns dressed like pleasure ship workers was enough to tell him all he needed to know.

  These women were supposed to be ready to tame a frontier moon and raise a whelp, not dance for credits at an intergalactic cabaret.

  He let out a low growl.

  The whelp in his arms made a sound like a ration-bag being unsealed.

  It was trying to growl too.

  It wanted to do everything Noxx did.

  And lately it screamed every time he tried to put it down. He had taken to carrying it around like he was a gadabout and the whelp his unruly passenger.

  The whole situation was a nightmare for a career soldier like Noxx. The warriors of Invicta were a ruthless force, battling evil in all its forms.

  But long ago they had made a grievous mistake.

  In the heat of battle the Invicta had wiped out the gentle people of planet Imber. All that remained of that race had been a DNA vault, and a mineral-rich, but empty planet.

  And the rumor of a woman who claimed to be the Crown Princess of Imber, rescued by a soldier and living in refuge on Omega-7T.

  Until now.

  After decades of officers and ambassadors arguing about the ethics of the proposal, the Invicta had at last been granted the right to use the Imberian DNA to cultivate a crop of pod-babies to honor their fallen ancestors and resurrect their kind.

  When the babies came of age, they would inherit the rich mineral deposits of Imber.

  Until then, each would be watched over by a warrior of the Invicta.

  Being assigned to guard one of the whelps was considered the greatest honor an Invicta could achieve.

  Protecting these Imberian young from harm would regain the prestige of the ancient warrior clan. Making reparations to Imber was considered a sacred honor to his own people.

  The trouble was, it was an honor Noxx wanted nothing to do with.

  Once the whelp had a family to care for it, he would be nothing but a glorified bodyguard.

  Twenty standard years wasn’t forever, but Noxx had goals. He certainly didn’t want to spend two decades getting soft and lazy while watching this little one roll around trying to fit its whole fist into its small mouth.

  And a secret part of him was on edge about his feelings for the squishy little whelp. Lately, he had begun to take great satisfaction in feeling its warm weight against his chest.

  How he was supposed to hand it over to one of those ridiculous women?

  “Noxx?” a deep voice said gently.

  He looked away from the scene below to find his fellow warrior, Kade standing beside him.

  Kade’s golden scales gleamed in the soft light, in contrast to Noxx’s own blue tones. Their differing colors meant they descended from different linages, and wielded a different set of natural abilities. But it didn’t mean they weren’t brothers. Their bonds had been tempered in the heat of battle, which was stronger than any blood link.

  Kade was speaking quietly, because his own whelp, a female, was sleeping on his chest.

  Tyro, their third in this adventure, stood at Kade’s elbow, grinning down at his own whelp, a whopping big male he had actually named Atlas.

  Noxx shook his head at the big green idiot.

  It was bad enough they had to guard these small creatures. Must they name them and dote on them too?

  Tyro would be disappointed when the babe’s new mother gave it a different name.

  And the whelp would be confused.

  The small creatures were not sharp. The Invicta were told that would come in time, but it seemed like nonsense to Noxx. He figured something in the pod-breeding had caused delays to their development. The silly things couldn’t even walk yet.

  By contrast, at nine months of age, a dragonet like Noxx could follow simple instructions and relieve itself outside of the lair. These Imberian whelps were forever filling their diapers. Noxx had never known something so small could create so much foul waste product.

  He wrinkled his nose at the thought.

  “You don’t like them?” Kade guessed, mistaking Noxx’s musing about diapers for distaste about the women.

  But it amounted to the same thing.

  “No,” Noxx said. “I don’t.”

  “I think they’re lovely,” Tyro said, smiling down at the women.

  “This isn’t a pleasure cruise, it’s an adoption meeting,” Kade said, endearing himself to Noxx.

  “No reason it can’t be both,” Tyro mused.

  Kade gave Tyro as big a shove as he could without waking the whelp on his own chest.

  Little Atlas barked out a laugh from the safety of Tyro’s giant green arms.

  “Hey,” Tyro said. “Haven’t we been on duty without female attention long enough?”

  Gods, they had.

  Noxx preferred not to think about it.

  “We’re on a frontier moon,” Noxx said firmly. “These Terrans should be wearing boots and elevation suits.”

  The light above the ramp turned blue, telling the men it was time to descend.

  They moved instinctively in a v-formation with Noxx in the lead, Kade and Tyro side by side behind him.

  As he strode down the ramp, Noxx took in the oxygen-rich air. This moon was fortunate to have such an atmosphere.

  His whelp was roused by the fresh air too, and banged on Noxx’s armor with a chubby fist.

  Everything seemed to be going according to plan, until the breeze picked up, and Noxx felt the world melt away from around him. There was a sizzle in the air and each cell in his body suddenly stood at attention.

  Before him, every color had faded but purple and brown, and his awareness focused like a laser to a point right in front of him.

  To one of the women.

  She was in the middle, with her arm around one of her friends, while the other friend clung to her hand.

  But this one stood tall, observing him with solemn brown eyes.

  She was no great beauty, even by Terran standards.

  Up close, the purple gown allowed him to see as much of her body as was necessary to ascertain her good health. She would not star in the holograms, but she seemed sturdy enough for a scale-less Terran.

  Her face showed signs of fear and exhaustion. And the long strands of mud-colored hair were tangled.

  But it was the eyes.

  Something in those dark eyes pinned him as if he were held in a gravity array.

  Mine the dragon inside him roared. Mate.

  No.

  No, no, no, no, no, no, no…

  This was nothing more than a reaction to a low-cut gown and a long season without feeding his hungers. This Terran was not his mate.

  But the dragon’s desire was unshaken. It had never attempted to stake their claim before. This was their mate, it was blissful in its certainty.

  Noxx blinked, trying to shake the dragon’s hold on him.

  The woman moved toward him as if in a trance. She felt it too, the draw of his beast.

  He fought for control, glancing over at the other women, intending to choose a different one to deliver his whelp to. He just had to avoid this one. If he could do that, he would be safe.

  But he had stood around, gawking stupidly for too long.

  The other two women were already speaking with Kade and Tyro.

  “Hi,” the dark-haired woman said to him, coming close enough that her scent nearly overwhelmed his keen senses.

  He wished he could hold his nose.

  “Hello, Terran,” he said.

  “I’m Luna,” she said.

  Typical.

  Terrans were new to intergalactic travel. They still loved their outer space names.

  “And you are?” she asked shyly.

  “Noxx,” he said, realizing too late that he should have given her his title, not his familiar name. r />
  Hold it together, soldier, he warned himself inwardly.

  “And this is him,” she said, observing the whelp with the kind of wonder Noxx thought should be reserved for a newly christened warship.

  “This is the whelp,” he agreed.

  Her eyebrows went up, as if in surprise that she had accurately spotted the youngling on her first try.

  She and the whelp would make a good pair, both of them so slow on the uptake.

  “D-does he have a name?” she asked reverently.

  “It is your job to come up with a name,” he informed her.

  She smiled as if she had just won a sparring match.

  “May I?” she asked, holding out her arms.

  He had a sudden and overpowering instinct to pull the whelp tight to his chest and run away. This woman was trouble - the kind he couldn’t blast his way out of.

  “Of course,” he said, extending it out to her as he tried to get ahold of himself.

  A radiant smile spread across her face as she took the youngling in her arms.

  “Hello, little one,” she crooned in a voice so high it almost hurt his ears.

  The whelp must have felt the same way.

  Instantly, it began to wail as if she had set it on fire.

  Noxx resisted the impulse to tell her not to talk to it like that. Surely even a Terran would pick up on a clue as obvious as screaming.

  “You’re okay,” she told it softly as she cuddled it closer and rocked her body back and forth slightly.

  That was better.

  But the whelp was still furious. Its face turned red and it kicked its legs as if it were swimming, trying to clamber its way back to Noxx.

  “Oh,” the woman said sadly, as if realizing the whelp preferred his company to hers.

  He felt a pinching sensation in his chest that he sincerely hoped wasn’t sympathy.

  “I’ll get the burden moose,” he said gruffly, heading to the service ramp at the rear of the ship and leaving her with the wailing whelp.

  3

  Noxx

  The dragon roared inside Noxx’s chest, demanding that he return to the woman and whelp at once.

  But he managed to shake it off and keep walking.

  The first hand-droid was leading a burden moose down the ramp.

  “Mine,” he said.

  “Yours indeed, sir,” the hand-droid replied brightly. “Shall I help you mount?”

  “Nah,” he said, waving it off. “It’s for the woman.”

  “I see,” the droid said.

  Mercifully, it made no further attempt at conversation.

  Since the robot wars, AI had evolved by leaps and bounds. It was almost as bad as having more biological beings around.

  Noxx led the way back to the woman and whelp.

  The youngling had calmed somewhat, but was still red-faced and hiccuping.

  The woman looked relieved.

  But when the little one laid eyes on Noxx, it began wailing and reaching for him all over again.

  He felt a grim sense of satisfaction that the whelp preferred him, even as he cursed the gods for giving it such lungs.

  “Come,” he said, pointing to the burden moose.

  “Hello,” Luna said politely to the hand-droid.

  “Greetings, fair lady and small child,” the hand-droid said in a tone of obvious delight.

  Luna giggled, actually giggled.

  Noxx sighed in disgust.

  We should be the one who makes her giggle, the dragon grumbled in his chest.

  No, they definitely shouldn’t, Noxx was very sure that was the opposite of what he wanted.

  “Mount,” he told her.

  She eyed the burden moose suspiciously.

  It was too busy basking its branching antlers to pay her any mind.

  “Why does it have trees for antlers?” she asked.

  “To help it hide from predators,” Noxx said patiently.

  Her eyes widened. “This thing has to worry about predators?”

  “All things have to worry about predators,” Noxx said darkly.

  To her credit, she took the hint and went right up to the massive moose.

  The hand-droid gestured to the big animal and it slowly lowered its massive head, making it possible for the woman to mount.

  She slid one foot into the stirrup, wrapped her free hand around the pommel, and impressed him by pulling herself all the way up in one smooth motion, baby and all.

  The moose declined to nip at her heels, as they often did when riders scrambled and struggled.

  “Is this for him?” she called down to Noxx, indicating the basket on the creature’s broad back that was designed to protect the baby when riding on rough terrain.

  He nodded.

  She turned back to the thing and placed the baby in it.

  He promptly began crying again, but half-heartedly. The whelp liked going for rides.

  Noxx stepped closer, curious to see if the woman would figure out the hover device on the cradle.

  The burden moose must have scented his dragon, so much closer to the surface than usual.

  It spooked, and jolted sideways.

  The woman’s hand slipped, pressing the sensor that enclosed a protective bubble over the whelp, who began to scream in earnest.

  The woman screamed also, banging on the laser-proof glass in her efforts to get to the whelp.

  Fantastic.

  “Oh dear,” the hand-droid said unhelpfully.

  “Easy, beast,” Noxx warned the moose, approaching again.

  This time it remained steady.

  He swung up onto its broad back beside the woman and released the bubble.

  Her screams stopped instantly, but without the glass to muffle them, the baby’s screams were even more piercing.

  He checked the cradle.

  “Do not worry, whelp,” Noxx told it solemnly. “Your basket is secured firmly.”

  The young one stopped screaming and beamed at him, chirping out its familiar laugh, eyes twinkling through its forgotten tears.

  It was always laughing at him.

  And now the woman had seen.

  “You might want to hold onto the pommel,” he advised her. “The terrain is rough.”

  “Thank you, Captain Obvious,” she said, her eyes twinkling.

  “My rank is Lieutenant,” he corrected her. “And my name is Noxx.”

  He slid off the moose to the sound of her laughter.

  He did not know what was so funny to those two. But he was sure they would be very happy together.

  “Come,” he told the moose as he dismissed the hand-droid back to the ship.

  They set off on the narrow trail toward the forest they would call home.

  4

  Luna

  Luna clung to the pommel and vowed for the hundredth time not to complain or ask to stop.

  The air was cool and delicious here. And once she had gotten used to hanging on for dear life and trusting the pod to hold the baby safely, it had seemed kind of fun and romantic to be riding a giant moose with her baby by her side.

  But in the hours since the burden moose had begun wending its way up the trail with Luna and the baby onboard, they had paused just once for her to hurriedly relieve herself in the undergrowth.

  And when she scurried back Noxx scowled at her as if she had been gone for hours.

  She was tired from a long day of unusual travel, worried that the baby must be hungry, and all Noxx wanted to do was go, go, go.

  She had no idea what the rush was.

  And the burden moose was certainly the wrong animal for a hurried journey anyway. The thing lumbered along, oblivious to Noxx’s coaxing.

  Truth be told, she was pretty sure Noxx just wanted to drop her off with the baby and get away.

  She had no idea what she had done to offend the big blue warrior.

  Well…

  She stole a glance at him from under her eyelashes and felt another frisson of desire excite her se
nses.

  Different races had different abilities and she sincerely hoped he couldn’t read minds or smell attraction. If he could, that might be her answer as to why he was so desperate to get out of her company.

  Luna’s body didn’t seem to care what her brain thought of the big, gruff alien. From the moment she spotted him, she wanted him so badly it made her mouth water. Those piercing eyes, and those strong, muscular arms with their iridescent blue scales - it all came together to strike a chord in her that had never been played before.

  You’re here to start a new life with the baby, she reminded herself. Don’t get distracted by the blue eye candy.

  But it was easier said than done.

  She turned her full attention to the baby, determined not to take her eyes off him again. He was sleeping in his little pod as if he had only been waiting for the moose to start moving so he could relax.

  That pouty little face was adorable in repose.

  She gazed down at him, unable to believe the incredible gift and responsibility she had been given.

  The baby didn’t trust her yet, and that was perfectly natural. In time, she knew he would get used to having her take care of him.

  For her, the bond had been instant. She already knew she would die to protect him.

  “You’re my family now,” she murmured.

  She patted his blanket, not quite daring to touch his soft blue skin while he slept.

  Which was interesting, in itself.

  This baby was supposed to be an orphan. But he was blue, just like Noxx.

  She had been too busy gazing at her new son to pay much attention to her friends, but she thought she had noticed Aurora’s baby was yellow with a yellow guard and Phoebe’s was green with a green guard.

  Had the warriors been assigned based on their color to make the babies feel at home? Or was something else going on?

  “Quiet,” Noxx said, though she hadn’t said anything.

  Maybe he could read her mind.

  She glanced up to see that he had turned his to the valley and was frozen in place, looking through the trees at the sky beyond.

  They were up among the clouds in the forest, but the breeze had just picked up and blown enough mist away to reveal something huge and gray floating in the air just below them. It looked almost like a solid cloud.