by Ella Maven
Her voice went up at the end, and although I wasn’t well-versed in human emotions, I sensed she was angry.
“First of all, I arrive on this planet and I’m handed off to you and your merry band of blue bikers. After that, I watch you slaughter a dozen armored giants. I see your leader separate one of the women and drag her off somewhere like a caveman. Then you strap me on your bike-thing like luggage and off we go. As far as I knew, you were going to eat me.”
My spine snapped straight. “We do not eat humans.”
She threw her hands in the air. “Well, I didn’t know that!”
“So why haven’t you tried to run again?”
Her mouth snapped shut, her little teeth clicking together. She crossed her arms over her chest, which drew my eye to her full breasts. “Because you saved me,” she said quietly. “Those crocodile things were going to eat me. I figured that much out. You rescued me, you fed me, and you haven’t hurt me.” She cleared her throat. “The opposite actually. And you let me keep Luna.”
“That welf will grow up to be big enough to rip your flecking leg off. I’m warning you now.”
She gathered the furry bundle in her arms with a gasp. “She wouldn’t do that to me. I’m her mom. And you’re her dad. She’ll tear off the legs of our enemies, though.” She grinned and held Luna’s face, pressing a kiss to her black nose. “Isn’t that right, Luna?” Reba spoke in a sing-song voice. “You won’t hurt me, but you’ll tear the throat out of some mean ol’ baddies, won’t you? My bloodthirsty demon.”
Despite myself, my cock thickened in my pants listening to my female talk about the deaths of our enemies. I hadn’t ever claimed to be good.
Reba look at me. “So, I haven’t run again yet. Want to explain to me why I shouldn’t in the future? Maybe start with why you got all of us humans in a handoff from those one-eyed aliens.”
I took a deep breath. “It’s a long story.”
She shrugged and leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out in front of her and crossing them at the ankles. “My schedule is open for story time.”
Reba
I could barely believe we could understand each other. It was like a miracle. It was a little odd, because Ward’s mouth didn’t make English motions, but yet the implant came through loud and clear in his voice. I felt a bit like Neo from The Matrix when Morpheus and crew implanted fighting techniques into his brain.
Ward rose from the floor and dragged a chair over before sinking down into it and resting his elbows on his knees. “First of all, Daz, our leader, will not hurt your female friend. He’s taking her to a friend of ours to get an implant like yours, and to supply implants for the rest of the females.”
“Why did he have to take her?” I asked.
Ward heaved a sigh. “Daz felt something for her. It’s hard to explain, but he felt drawn to her.”
My eyes went wide. “Wait, will he… force himself—”
“No,” Ward barked so sharply that Luna, who’d been dozing near me, startled awake. Ward’s purple eyes deepened to a blue-black. “Drixonians would never hurt females. Our motto is She Is All. It means everything to us.” He rubbed his forehead. “Our enemies, the Uldani, took Daz’s brother, Sax. He’s imprisoned, and we were told they’d release him if we transported cargo to the Uldani. We assumed it was weapons. Medis. Tech. Something like that. We arrived at the landing site of the Rahgul ship—those are the one-eyed aliens—and found you, six females.”
“Why didn’t those armored giant things deliver us?”
He shook his head. “We don’t know. So much of us of this feels like a trick or a trap. But we will never let the Uldani harm you.”
“Would they? Harm us?” I shivered.
Ward’s jaw clenched. “Most likely. Yes. The Uldani have a history of experimenting on other species. It’s why we broke away from them in the Uprising.” With a tight voice, he started from the beginning. He told me about his civilization on Corin, the twin planet I could see hanging out past the horizon. There, the males patrolled the atmosphere and protected the planet while the females remained on the ground, running everything from the government to the distribution of resources. Then a virus swept through the population, killing all the females and most of the elder males.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, heart aching.
“If you noticed the large scarred Drixonian with a broken horn while we were fighting the Kulks at the spaceship landing site, that’s my brother.” He swallowed heavily, and his eyes dropped to his hands, which he rubbed together. “We had a sister too. She was Gar’s twin. Where he was big and strong and dark, Mave was small and happy and light. Gar worshipped her, and I did too. But their bond was incredible.”
My throat grew tight, remembering my own sister. The memory of how good she was. I was the bad one, always sneaking out of the house when we were teenagers, the one with no dreams except fun and trouble. Zara was the good girl, the one who stayed home and got A’s and had visions of making partner at a top law firm in NYC. She was almost there too, attending NYU for her undergrad until it was all taken from her—and she was taken from us—by a violent man who I’d kill with my bare hands if he wasn’t locked behind bars.
“The virus killed differently. Some females passed quickly and painlessly. Others died choking on their blood. But Mave… Mave held on for a long time. I don’t know if she was doing it for Gar, but he had to watch her wither away rotation after rotation as painful spasms wracked her body.” Ward shook his head and his giant shoulders heaved as he inhaled sharply. “She died, and Gar was never the same. I wasn’t either, but Gar shut down. I’m still not sure how he survived the Uprising because he battled like he didn’t care whether he lived or died.” He shrugged with a jerk. “Maybe he didn’t.”
“He probably didn’t,” I’d had that emotion many times. I should have been the Grant sister to die in an alley with a rapist’s hands around her throat. Not Zara. Until I’d shaped up and vowed never to become a victim, to never let my parents go through that pain again.
Ward was watching me shrewdly.
I didn’t want to talk about my sister. “So, what happened next?” I asked.
“We’d traded with the Uldani. We were never close allies, but we weren’t enemies either. After the death of our females, our civilization crumbled. It was chaos. All us males know how to do was fight. The Uldani offered to employ us as their law enforcement and bodyguards. We accepted and moved to this planet. We were given implants and our bikes. That was how we lived for many sun cycles until the Uldani began to treat us terribly. Less medis, less supplies. Less everything. And then we found out they were conducting experiments on some of our males. Our precious males. We couldn’t procreate more. No more females, remember? So, every Drixonian life is precious. We led the Uprising and broke from their rule. Now they live on the eastern half of the continent in a well-defended fortress.”
My jaw clenched as anger at these assholes flared in my chest. “But yet they still find ways to fuck with you.”
He nodded. “They do.”
“What do you think they wanted with us women?”
“We don’t know, but the Uldani are not to be trusted. They see every other species as inferior to them.”
“But you…?”
“I have never met a human. I don’t think any of us have, but we have always been aware of Earth and your species. Regardless, you are female, and that means you will never be harmed at our hands.”
“Do all Drixonians feel the same way you do?”
At that, he paused, and his face darkened. “There are some who do not. After the Uprising, many of us males separated into clavases and appointed a leader, or drexel. Daz is ours. Most drexels are good, but there are some who are not.” He pointed to the red band on his arm, which had a crude shape with jagged edges, like a crown, stamped into the surface. “We are the Night Kings, and we follow Daz’s lead. He believes in She is All and all the legendary Drixonian customs. You can trust a N
ight King.”
“And others?”
“Ask me first.”
“What if you’re not there?’
His nostrils flared and he jerked his head up, purple eyes spearing me like a laser. “I will always be there for you, Reba.”
The intensity of his words struck me like slap. “Ward—”
“Daz told me to keep you safe. He wouldn’t approve that I touched you. I tried my best to keep my distance, but I’ve never known temptation like you, little human.” He slid off the chair and went to his knees before me. “But now I belong to you. Every beat of my cora is for you, and I’ll spend every waking moment ensuring your safety and making you happy.”
My heart tripped over itself and then ignited, sending a rush of heat throughout my limbs. I’d never in all my life imagined anyone saying those words to me, but especially not a deadly blue extraterrestrial.
“Ward,” I whispered before a sudden thought occurred to me. I went to my own knees and scooted toward him until we touched. “How old were you when the females died?”
“About six sun-cycles.”
“So, like… six cycles of your planet around the sun?”
He nodded.
Of course, I had no idea what their development was like, but that must have placed him as a child. “Had you ever been with a female? Before me?”
“Nit,” he said sharply.
Was this right to let him devote his life to me? He didn’t really know me. Despite his size and intelligence, his sexual experience was like a fourteen-year-old boy who just declared love to the first girl who ever made him come.
“There will be other females—” I began.
“Nit!” he barked at me.
“But you don’t really know me—”
“I do,” he growled. “I know that you are brave. Attempting to run from a Drixonian is nothing but brave. You remained strong while the Rizars had you. I know you are kind to other beings, like Luna. You are pretty when you smile, and you taste like the ripest fruit.” I blushed under his words, and felt my eyes prick with tears. “I do know you, Reba. I tried to ignore it, but I felt a pull toward you from the moment I laid eyes on you. There are no others for me. Drixonians take one mate for life.”
His words came at me too fast for my brain to keep up. Of course, I cared about Ward. He was an amazing person. He was strong and capable. He fought for me, cooked for me, and touched me like I was a precious gem. My heart said to trust his words, but my brain, the small part of my conscience that still worked, yelled at me to be careful. Was he saying all this stuff so I’d be agreeable until he took me to his lair?
But fuck, I wanted to trust him, with everything I had. I threw caution to the wind and nodded. “Okay, Ward. Then if you’re mine. I’m yours.”
His eyes detonated like a sparked road flare. His body covered mine, and then he took his time claiming me.
Ten
Ward
“I ran away because I was trying to get back,” she spoke softly, her little fingers rubbing at the scales on my side. We lay on the furs, sated and tired from mating. Again. I couldn’t keep my hands off her no matter how much I told myself we had to focus on getting home.
“Trying to get back where?”
“To the site where the spaceship landed. I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I wanted to believe if I stayed there, eventually another spaceship would come, and I could sneak on board and hitch a ride back to Earth.”
I closed my eyes as my chest tightened. “I’m sorry, but there is no way for us to take you back.”
Her fingers stopped moving and a breath shuddered across my chest before she spoke. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
“The Uldani took all our spacecraft. Even if we had them, none could travel as far as your galaxy. Only the Rahgul have that capability, and they are in league with the Uldani. We don’t know the extent of the human cargo supply, or how often they travel to Earth. I can only hope you are the only females they’ve taken, but we can’t be sure.”
She didn’t speak for a long time. “Another reason I ran was because…” she chewed her lip and wouldn’t meet my eyes, “was that all I could think about was I refused to be a victim.” Finally, she lifted her gaze. “My sister, um, was killed. A few years ago. In a horrible violent crime. She was so good, so pure, with dreams and goals. She was beautiful and smart,” she buried her face in my chest. “All these words just seem so empty, so flat, to describe Zara. She was three-dimensional and vibrant and alive.” She inhaled sharply and exhaled with a shuddering breath. “Until she wasn’t.”
I knew the loss of a sister, and I wrapped my arms around Reba tightly as her eyes leaked onto my chest.
She pushed her hair out of her face and speared me with glistening eyes. “So, I told myself I’d never be a victim. I didn’t want my parents to go through that. And I didn’t want to waste my life now that hers had been cut short. My therapist calls it survivor’s guilt.”
“Survivor’s guilt,” I murmured. I wondered if that was what affected Gar so strongly. Why did he survive and not Mave? “I’m sorry for the loss of your sister. What happened to her?”
She looked at me funny, like that wasn’t a common question she was asked. “She was, um, raped and strangled.”
I went still. “A male in your society forced himself on her?”
She nodded and whispered a harsh, “Yes.”
I felt my blood heat and my cora pound as anger pulsed through me. “Absolutely deplorable.”
“Yes—”
“No honorable Drixonian or any male would do that. If that man was in front of me right now, I’d cut out his cora. No, I’d flay his skin and take off his limbs while he was still breathing.”
Her eyes bulged. “Well, uh, I’m actually not as horrified as I should be seeing as I’d love for him to suffer.”
“I’m sorry this happened.” A bolt of determination straightened my spine. “As long as I’m breathing, I won’t let you be a victim again. Do you understand?”
She sniffed and searched my eyes, my face, for a long stretch of time before a small smile stretched her lips. “I do understand, Ward.”
“When we get back to camp, you’ll see. My clavas will defend and take care of you and the other females. No male will take any of you unless you consent. I promise you on my life.”
Her delicate fingers brushed my face in a feather-light touch. “If I’m going to be stuck on another planet, I’m glad it’s with you.”
Surprising myself, I barked out a laugh. “Well let’s hope Daz doesn’t take my head off for touching you.”
Her head bobbed up. “But I wanted it too!”
I smoothed down her wild hair. “I know.”
She frowned. “I’ll make him see.”
I snorted a laugh, imagining Reba standing up to Daz, the fiercest warrior I’d ever met. He wasn’t easily swayed. I wondered how he was doing with his little human. She’d been a loud, feisty one. I happened to like the feistiness in Reba.
“So, we’re not staying here, then?”
I shook my head. “We need to get moving. We’ve already wasted a lot of time. I wish there’d been a comm stashed here so I could communicate with Daz or my brother to let him know we’re okay.”
She eyed our position on the sleeping pallet. “You don’t look like you’re in a hurry to move.”
I grinned at her and plucked one of her nipples, reveling in her soft gasp. “Can you blame me? Look at what’s laying on top of me.”
She rolled her eyes and batted my hand away. “Okay, okay. Can we visit the river or whatever to get clean before moving on?”
I agreed, eager to wipe off the filth of the cabin myself. We gathered our things and with Luna nipping at our heels, made our way to the stream. I just managed to keep my hands off of Reba as she washed her body. I was fascinated at how her hair darkened when it dripped with qua, and the way her fingers and toes grew wrinkled.
Luna drank from her sunny spot on the b
ank, and then chewed on a stick Reba had been throwing to her along the way.
By mid-rotation, we were clean and on our way to the hut. “We’ll gather our things and begin the journey back our home.”
“How long will it take to reach your home?”
It would have taken me about two rotations, but with Reba, I assumed double the time. Her legs were half as short as mine, and I knew we couldn’t cover the same amount of ground, especially with Luna who squirmed when she was held. “Maybe three rotations,” I said. “I’ll have a better idea by tonight after I see how well we do.”
She nodded and looked down to step over a protruding root. Just then a hunner buzzed past her ear, and she cried out in surprise, swatting at it. “Nit!” I called out and grabbed her hand as she lifted it to hit the bug again.
“What is that thing?” she gasped. A hunner to me was merely a nuisance. Their sting was painful and caused slight paralysis near the sting site, but it was entirely survivable… as long as the hive didn’t catch wind. I’d known of an angry hunner horde killing a Drixonian who stumbled upon their ground nest. But I worried that a hunner sting would do much worse damage to Reba. She was small with thin skin, and the hunner was the size of her palm.
“Hunner,” I said.
“Oh my God, it’s like a giant wasp! Do you know how much I hate wasps? They are assholes.”
The hunner buzzed around her ankle, and I watched in horror as she picked up her booted foot and stomped on it. The buzzing cut off abruptly. Silence greeted us. Reba brushed her hair away from her face and looked up at me triumphantly. “There!”
But I couldn’t share in her victory, I was too busy listening intently, so I knew which direction they’d come from. From the left, I detected a faint buzzing. “We need to run!” I hollered. I swooped Reba into my arms and took off at a dead sprint.
“Luna!” Reba screeched, but I couldn’t deal with the welf pup right now. Hunners didn’t bother welfs, and if I delayed even a moment, we’d be under attack. When a hunner was killed, he released a scent that attracted the entire horde from the nest. Hundreds would descend on us. As it stood, I wasn’t sure we’d make it.
