Colun's Passion (Alien Mates Book Four 4) (2 page)

A blush made her cheeks hot; he was way too young. She needed someone older.

Maybe it could be…her eyes flew across the room to see who was looking at her with such blatant lust. Him…dear, Lord, I want to dream about him.

Colun groaned again and wondered how he ended up at the mall. He planned to make his escape early this morning. Gabe was good and soul-bonded, Joaquin wasn’t his responsibility although he would be keeping an eye on him. There was no reason for him to stick around. His solitary life was calling him. Too much time with the happy soul-bonded made both his Arbin and Matra side want to kill something.

“Grandpa Colun, do you want to go to the toy store with us? My mom said we could go if you came with us,” Mckayla asked. She batted those gorgeous brown eyes at him and flashed that little girl smile, the one she knew melted his heart.

His hand came down on her head, a momentary pang in his heart for the child he never had and the female who never loved him.

Tucking his loneliness far away, he gave her a teasing smile. “What’s in it for me?”

“They have the coolest dolls and electronics.”

“Dolls!” Vick’s voice was outraged. “They have this truck that has a remote control, but you can almost operate it on pure thought. Uncle Hale made it, and I want to see it sooo bad. Dad said he might buy it for me.” Vick’s smile combined with Kayla’s was enough to melt him.

“If you’re nice, Grandpa Colun might buy it.”

Colun looked at Victor knowing he had been set up. He drew back his lips just enough for Victor to see and snarled at him. What did that young shifter do? Laugh, he laughed, and Colun couldn’t help but laugh with him.

“Ten-hut!” Kayla and Vick stiffened their backs giving Colun a salute and stood like good little laughing soldiers.

“Anyone coming with me will need to stay in front so I can see them. Is that clear?”

“Sir, yes Sir.”

“Excellent, march.” They took off with peals of laughter as Colun used his eyes promising retribution to the whole group.

*~*~*~*

What was that smell? It hit him the minute he walked into the toy store, but it didn’t originate from there. It was like it was lazily drifting through the mall calling to him.

Eyeing the children, he knew he would have to resist following the scent.

“Grandpa Colun, look here’s the truck.”

He refused to flinch when some young mother looked at him. Victor thought it was funny to have Vick call him Grandpa and of course Kayla didn’t want to be left out. The years he lived were sitting on his shoulders, and he was old enough to be their grandfather. After all, he did raise Victor, Cal, Rylan, and Gabe.

Ignoring how old he suddenly felt, he bent down to get a better look at the truck. “You like this?”

Vick’s head swung up and down faster than a bobble head. Walking over to the display model, Colun picked it up. It was Hale Dare’s work. He made it so that anyone in the know could modify the truck so it would run off of mental commands easily.

“Pick your favorite color, Son.” A pang of intense longing cut him deep. There would be no children for him.

They walked over to Kayla who was not looking at the dolls. She was in the electronics aisle looking at a virtual reality game. It only took a glance for him to know Hale built this one also. The game would give Kayla a safe place to explore her budding powers. He took a quick look at the price tag and winced.

All it would take was a phone call and he could have one at her house tonight. Squatting down, he looked at the game with her.
Daughter,
the word echoed around in his head. The only children he would ever have.

“What are you looking at?”

Her eyes turned to look at him. She was so much wiser than her years.

“I was looking at this VR game.”

“Do you want it?”

“No.” She turned on her heels and went to the doll aisle with him trailing behind her. “I want the doll.”

Huh? There was nothing special about that doll. He wondered why it was here. If he were a betting male, he’d say they never sold any of them.

“Tell me why you want the doll.”

Her head lowered and when it rose there were tears trapped in her gaze. His heart was breaking, but he had to ignore it to get to the bottom of what was happening.

“Normal girls ask their mom’s for dolls, not advanced VR games.” She spoke as if someone had read her a passage out of the Bible and told her she had to believe because God said it.

“Who told you about normal little girls?”

“The girls at school. They don’t want to play with me because I don’t have any dolls.” Her hand was plucking at her fingers on the other hand.

“So you want to play with them?”

Her eyes flew to his, her little mouth opening on a no.

“I don’t like them!” she shook her head to reinforce her words.

“Then why do you care what they think?”

“Because if I were normal I would like them. They are the popular girls in my class.”

“I see. Is there anyone in your class you like?”

Her eyes got bright, and a smile lingered on her lips. “I like Miley. She’s squad. Miley likes electronic games like me and she has this cool diary that only she can open because it has a secret passcode that allows her to bring it to school and the others can’t see what she’s writing.” Her voice lowered. “The popular kids think she is writing bad things about them, but she isn’t. She’s writing adventures that she and I will go on one day.”

Tugging his hand, she took him down a different aisle until they were in front of the diary section. He examined it and decided she was right, it was the best diary ever.

“Can I tell you a secret, Kayla?”

Her head moved as she looked at him with big solemn eyes.

“If you live your life doing the things others think you should do, you’ll reach my age, and you won’t be happy. Be friends with who you want and do the things that make you happy.”

Her head tilted as she listened to his words. The same words he was sure her mom and dad told her.

“I want the diary and the VR game.”

He gave her a bright smile and a quick hug. “Well let’s grab them.”

The salesman was smiling like a damn Cheshire cat when he saw them coming to the counter with the purchases. Yeah, he could have called Hale, and he would have sent one over, but sometimes you needed to let children know they were loved. In his world, actions spoke louder than words.

“What do you think we should do next?” he asked as they walked out of the store.

“Arcade,” they both screamed before their bellies made rumbling noises.

“Hmm, I think someone needs to eat.” He flashed them a smile, “But first we need to take our purchases out to the car.”

He quickly found the group and ignored the smiles as they checked out the games in his hands.

“Car keys,” he said brusquely. He wasn’t upset or anything else, but they didn’t need to know that. He couldn’t afford them knowing how his heart was breaking. They would want to keep him at their side, watch him. That wasn’t happening.

“Stay with your parents,” he said to his diligent little soldiers. Picking up the toys, he headed towards the parking lot to stow them in the vehicle.

The walk to the SUV took no time at all. He closed the back and leaned his head against it. Once again he reminded himself that not everyone was supposed to be mated, and it was simply his luck that he had drawn the short straw. His boys were taken care of, and that’s all that mattered. Now he could turn his mind towards others who needed his help. With a slow shake of his head, he pushed himself up and returned to the mall.

That scent, the one he smelled in the toy store was tantalizing his sense of smell again. He should resist but how could he? It was like the Delia flower from his home world mixed with a unique scent of femininity. The smell was enough to drive him to his knees while making him harder than steel. There was no way he was leaving until he found the source of the scent.

He rode the escalator down to the lower level; the scent became stronger, calling to him. Walking down the corridor, he called himself a fool; this must be a new trick by the Sudir. How else could the scent appeal to him? Briefly, he thought about asking for backup, but he didn’t want to share the scent, not yet. He walked until he saw her.

She was standing in front of a store slightly bent over allowing her body to show off the perfect roundness of her rear. He licked his lips and felt one of his fangs. His fingers itched to touch her ass; he knew it would be soft. Swallowing hard, he tried to adjust himself. Forget about being hard as steel, right about now he could bend the stuff with his cock.

His eyes tried to travel up the alluring column of her back while taking in her legs at the same time. Colun had to give a small laugh. He definitely had to pick a direction. His eyes decided to climb up her lovely body first, appreciating the way her pants cinched around her waist, and the soft pink of the shirt tucked into the band giving him a surprising view of the small of her back. The desire to lick her there was overwhelming

With a slow shake of his head reality set in. Who wanted an old alien like him? It was time for the young ones to mate; his time had come and gone. His eyes continued to move up until he saw the strong column of her neck and the dark hair pushed to the side with a light sprinkling of silver in it.

He liked it. He had never mourned his youth, but at this moment he wished he was a young male so he could approach her.

*~*~*~*

Sara straightened up; the shoes she was looking at in the store window were a little too high for her. She wanted to embrace her youth not break her neck. Feeling eyes on her, she turned thinking it was probably some young girls laughing at her looking at the high heels.

It wasn’t!

Her body stopped, no air moved, her blood didn’t flow. She was certain she would have died at that moment if someone hadn’t knocked into her making her take a breath while her body started functioning again. She had never seen anyone like the male looking at her. He was over six feet tall with the prettiest gray eyes.

His hair was a dark brown with just a hint of silver at the temples. He wore a pair of jeans with a V-neck black tee. All of which she had seen before but his muscles were thick and hard. His shoulders were so broad; she saw herself lying on him or him picking her up without breaking into a sweat. That mouth, dear Lord help her, it was so sensual she wanted to walk up to him and beg for a kiss. How old was he? She couldn’t tell. His body made her swear he was thirty but his eyes looked older, and he did have silver at his temples.

Maybe he was like her, an older person in a younger body. Who was she kidding? Even if he was around her age, he could have someone half her age with a single smile of those perfect lips, but it didn’t stop her from wanting him.

Tonight when she read her romance she would fantasize about him. Her heartbeat increased as a single tear slid down her cheek, she longed for the one thing she never found in her life. She wanted the illusion of being loved one more time even if it was only for a night. A small, sad smile crept over her lips. Things didn’t happen like that in her world. For a moment she saw herself living well past one hundred, alone and lonely.

Walk away.
Those words swirled around Colun’s head. He was too old for this. Males his age never met their mates.
How do you know?
That insistent voice was back in his head again. He didn’t know. He had been young when he received the assignment of taking the young males from his planet and stashing them on Earth until they could go home.

That never happened. His planet, their planet had been destroyed. The sole survivors, as far as he knew, were the ones who came to Earth with him. He grew up quickly with his other soldiers as they learned how to take care of males who were barely out of the infancy stage.

It was by accident that they learned there were mates among the female population of this planet. Colun had been relieved that their race wouldn’t die out, but a small part of him also thought he would find a female. That didn’t happen, and he was content with his life. Maybe not content but familiar with the life he lived. He was strong enough not to bring a female into the war they fought with the Sudir.

He should walk away. He would have walked away if not for that single tear that made a track from her eye to her chin. It did him in. Before he could stop himself, he was standing in front of her with his finger collecting her tear.

“One as beautiful as you shouldn’t cry.” The look of astonishment she gave him was enough to make him happy he went to her.

“Thank you; it’s not every day I hear a compliment like that.”

“You do not know the right males. My name is Colun.”

“Hi Colun, I’m Sara.”

The brightness of her smile had him feeling slightly light headed. Maybe he needed to have Victor check him out to make sure there was nothing wrong with him. He should live for several more centuries before even beginning to feel the effects of age. It could be that the atmosphere of the Earth may shorten their lifespan.

“I did not mean to intrude on your solitude, but I couldn’t stand to watch you cry.”

“A moment of weakness, still I thank you for coming to my aid. You are a gentleman.”

“I saw you looking into this store. What caught your attention?”

She looked up at him through her lashes before she gave a sigh. “Don’t laugh, but I have a thing for shoes. I was looking at those high heeled sandals and wishing I was young enough to wear them.”

“I don’t understand. Why can’t you wear those shoes?”

“You need nice looking feet and legs for shoes like that.”

He peeked down at her feet. Her toenails shone with purple polish making them look cute. Her feet were beautiful. He was sure she would look nice in the sandals.

“You should try them on.”

Her eyes flew up to him in shock. “Why would you say that?”

He grabbed his hair with his hand. It was pulled back with a leather tie. The feel of it pulling against his scalp reminded him he didn’t know how to talk to women. Coming over here was a mistake. Her soft hand on his made him release his hair and look down at her.