by Ella Maven
But they’d escaped, thank Fatas. I’d had a chance to go with them, but I stayed. I wondered for days afterward, as the Uldani punished me for Daz’s escape and for his slaughter of their top guard, if I’d made the right decision. At the time, I’d felt Fatas pulling me to stay here. Once I’d learned Fra-kee was pregnant, I knew this would never end. The Uldani would never let us rest. I had to stay and do something to end their reign of flecking with us.
Still, I despaired until I’d woken up from another beating to see sweet Val. I rested my hand on her curvy hip. She murmured something in her sleep and shifted, but she didn’t wake.
Fatas had revealed her purpose to me. Not only did I have to continue the fight to prevent the Uldani from breeding us, but I also had to protect Val from the Uldani. This was why I was still alive, and why I had to stay alive. As long as Val breathed, then so would I, despite what the Uldani put me through.
My lust for Val grew with every moment in her presence. I wanted nothing more than to slip between her thighs, to fill her full of my seed until she was round and full with my chit. I imagined Val round with my offspring in the safety of our clavas. Her smile and golden hair and laughter as we created a new generation of Drixonians.
If we were in another situation, could Val grow to care for me? Daz and his mate had been devoted, but then they were Fatas-blessed. Fra-kee was Daz’s cora-eternal, and they had the wrist markings to prove it.
I didn’t dare to think Fatas would provide another cora-eternal mating, but that didn’t matter. Val was still my purpose. I knew it with every beat of my cora. I’d never forget the sight of her tiny fists hitting the Kulk guard as she tried to get them to stop shocking me, like a fierce salibri protecting her young.
With my tail, I dragged the tray closer and gulped down a little qua. I ate a tein bar. I swore to Fatas I’d never eat another one once I got of here. They’d given me fruit once, but it was so old and rotten I’d thrown it up, along with everything else I’d eaten that day. It hadn’t been much.
Val stirred again, and this time her pretty blue eyes blinked open. She didn’t come awake quickly, like I did. For a while she stared straight ahead—a view that happened to be my stomach. Slowly, her eyes rose and rose and rose until she focused on my face. I went for a small smile. “Hello.”
“Oh, hello.” Her voice was small and groggy with sleep. It was adorable. I helped her sit up, and then offered her some qua and a tein bar. She munched on it with a disgusted look on her face and rubbed her eyes. “I’d kill for a latte right now.”
“What’s a latte?”
She squinted at me. “Um, like a coffee?”
“Coffee?”
She blew a lock of hair out of her eye. “Do you have any food or drink here that has caff—uh, that gives you energy?”
“Ah,” I said. “Yeah, we have a monstra drink that we make.”
“Okay, well coffee is like that. It’s hot and we drink it in the morning. I’m addicted.”
“If I could get you coffee, I would.”
She smiled at me. Fleck, she was beautiful. “Well, that’s more than most of my boyfriends have done.”
“Boyfriends?”
“Men?”
“Males?”
“Yes, males, who I was… intimate with.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “If they did nice things like bring me coffee.”
An odd surge of heated anger flared to life in my chest. I frowned in irritation. “Who are these males? You let them touch you?”
She lifted her arched eyebrows. “Sometimes humans are intimate because we are looking for a life-long partner and sometimes it’s because it just feels good.”
Yeah, I was pissed. “Intimacy with your mate is the highest form of pleasure.”
Now she looked pissed. “Who have you mated?”
“No one,” I growled at her. “No females, remember?”
She opened her mouth and then snapped it closed. Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Wait, you mean … you’ve never…”
“I’ve never pleasured a female,” I snapped.
She blinked. “That… that makes sense if… yeah. Okay.”
Her squirming and the pretty flush to her cheeks quickly washed away my anger. I crossed my arms over my chest and shot her a smirk. “In case you’re worried, I know how. Drixonians were legendary lovers before the virus. And the males who survived have passed on various techniques.” I stuck out my tongue, so it unfurled down to my chin, revealing the row of ball-piercings in its center. “I know a thousand ways to make a female come.”
“Legend—Oh wow.” She placed her hand at the base of her throat and swallowed. “I wasn’t worried, but that is … that’s all good to know.”
A door clanged open down the hall, and we both stumbled to our feet, the previous conversation all but forgotten.
Footsteps echoed on the stone walls, and I quickly took stock of my injuries. Every muscle was sore. The wounds on my side and neck had scabbed over, but they were still tender to the touch. It’d been so easy to disassociate during all the previous beatings, but now I had Val to worry about. I had to be aware. Present. And that meant I’d feel the pain all the more acutely. I stretched my back and cracked my neck. So be it.
Two Kulks strode in front of Polu Gravit, the new commander of the Uldani army. They hadn’t hid Daz had killed Trupa, the old commander, before Daz and Fra-kee escaped, and the satisfaction over that bastard’s death had been what got me through the resulting punishments. I’d pay for my brother’s sin any day if it meant the death of Trupa.
Polu wasn’t much better. He’d learned from Trupa, after all, but even Trupa seemed to have a mild respect for Drixonians. Polu hated me, and I got the impression he resented not being able to kill me.
Beside Polu was one of his men, a smaller general named Hawn who rarely spoke but was keenly observant. Him, I needed to watch out for.
Polu turned on his heel to face me. His gaze drifted over my shoulder to Val before focusing back on me. “You rested and fed?”
Val’s heat warmed my back, and I knew she’d taken a step closer. Her shaky voice drifted over my shoulder. “I don’t understand. The man in the room with the glass wall said I don’t ovulate for seven days, so why must we mate now?”
Polu narrowed his eyes at her. “Because it’s a window of time. We don’t want to miss it. So, you’ll mate every day until his seed takes or you bleed.”
I felt her shudder. “Please, I don’t—”
“Get to it, Drix bastard.” Polu sneered. “We don’t have all day for you to shoot your seed.”
“You’ll be waiting longer than that. I’m not touching her,” I growled.
Polu’s lips tightened into pale gray strips. “Is this what you want? Day in and day out of pain?” He pulled the shock rod out of his belt and turned it on. The hum made sharp pricks race over my scalp. Fleck, this was going to hurt. “We have many ways to cause you pain. We can rip your machets out one by one, pull your teeth, flay your skin. All I need is for you to get hard, Sax. Don’t underestimate what I’ll do to get you to do it.”
Val sucked in a trembling breath, and her fingers touched my arm. “No,” she whispered.
“Remember what I said,” I murmured to her.
Her hair touched my skin with a soft tickle, and I saved the sensation to focus on when the pain became too much.
“Open the door,” Polu directed the Kulks with a snarl. “And watch your backs this time or you’ll end up like the last two guards.”
Of course, I tried to evade the guards, but in the end, it didn’t matter. They attached their rods to my collar, holding me at a distance, while Polu strolled inside with his shock rod. I stood firm with my feet braced apart and my hands fisted at my sides.
Hawn walked next to him, and I didn’t like the way he kept his eyes on Val.
“You love this, don’t you, you sick flecks,” I spat at Polu and his sidekick, needing to draw their attention away from my human. “It tea
rs at you that you need another species to defend you because you’re all soft and weak. You’d kill to be me, wouldn’t you? Tall. Strong. Machets. And an even bigger cock—”
The first shock stole my breath, as I knew it would. I didn’t bother trying to speak through the scorching agony that coursed through my body. Sound ceased except for the pounding of my cora. Fleck, every time they prodded me, I swore my bones would disintegrate into ash. I closed my eyes and remembered the way Val’s hair felt on my skin, the bright blue of her eyes, and the way her lush body curled into mine.
This was for her. I’d do it for her. She is all.
The rod jerked from my body, and I sagged in the guards’ hold. Sound came back to me.
Chains rattling.
Val crying and pleading.
I tried to lift my gaze to look at her, but my head wouldn’t move.
“V-Val,” I stuttered. Something splattered on the ground beneath me. Drool? “I-it’s o-okay.”
“Nooo,” she wept.
I craned my head enough to see her reaching for me, but Hawn blocked her way. I growled at him, but the sound was pathetic by the time it left my cracked lips.
“You ready to fulfill your duty?” Polu asked. “Or do I have to start pulling out your claws? I’ve never seen a declawed Drix.”
“B-bring it,” I gasped.
“No!” Val cried, and lunged for me. Hawn grabbed her around the waist and tugged her back.
At the sight of his filthy hands on her, I pushed the pain aside and fought against the guards. “Don’t touch her!” I barked, my voice hoarse. The guards held each pole with both hands as I flailed. “Don’t flecking touch her, you sick flecks!”
A sharp clang echoed through the cell, and I stopped fighting to see Polu approach from the side of the cell where he’d hit the rod against a bar. “Hawn,” Polu’s gaze was on me. “Put her down.”
Hawn set her feet on the ground, but he didn’t let go of her wrist. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his three fingers wrapped around her delicate joint.
“So, I think Sax has made it clear he’s willing to be mutilated just to avoid mating this female. But…” His lips curled into a smug grin. “What will you be willing to watch your pretty human go through?”
My stomach sank to the floor. Hawn pulled back his arm and backhanded Val across the right side of her face. The crack echoed off the walls as Val’s head whipped to the side, the blow so strong she fell to the ground.
Pain streaked across my right cheek, and my body jolted like I’d been tossed to the ground. But no one had hit me. That pain I felt… was where Val had been struck.
She lifted her head, and bright red blood dripped from her nose and the corner of her mouth. Gasping, her eyes met mine, and my sweet little Val set her jaw and stared up defiantly at Hawn. Standing over her, he turned on his shock rod.
At the sound of the hum, I pushed through the haze of pain. “No! No flecking way!” I roared. “You’ll kill her. You’ll kill her!”
“Easier to get another human than a Drix warrior,” Polu said. “How much are you willing to watch her take?”
Panic gripped my chest as Hawn swung the rod over her head. Her body shook and tears leaked out of her eyes, but she didn’t make a peep. I lashed my tail and pulled against the rods holding me. I couldn’t do it. I could take all the pain every time, but to watch her body go rigid with shock—
“I’ll do it!” I shouted.
Hawn froze and turned to me. Polu raised an eyebrow. “What did you say?”
I hated this. I hated every flecking thing about this, but I couldn’t be responsible for Val’s death. I’d never live with myself. “I’ll do it. Just… don’t hurt her.”
“No!” Val struggled her feet. Blood stained the front of her dress. The sight of it nearly sent me into a rage spiral. My female bled. She wobbled on her feet. “No, I can take it, Sax. It’s fine.”
“You won’t!” I shouted at her. “I refuse to watch you suffer at their hands. They’ll kill you.” The words were hard to say, but I wrenched them off my swollen tongue anyway. “I’ll do it. I’ll breed you.” I’d never been so defeated in my life. “And give them a child.”
“No,” Val said more firmly. She faced Polu, and despite her battered face and dirty flesh, she tossed her hair over her shoulder with a proud shake of her head. Her intelligent eyes shone bright. “I won’t do it like this. No matter what he says, I won’t do it. So, you’ll have to hurt me every day. You don’t know as much as you think you do about female human biology. Our menstruation cycles are affected by stress. Under extreme duress, we won’t ovulate.”
She seemed to gain confidence as she talked, and even though I wasn’t sure of what she spoke about, I was in awe of the way she stood up to Polu. She stood tall and proud, her back straight. “You want a baby? Then this—” She gestured around us. “—won’t work. You can’t keep us in a cold dark cell with barely any food and expect my body to behave like it’s healthy.” She jabbed a thumb at herself. “My ovaries won’t work like that. So, put us somewhere comfortable. Feed us. And then I’ll ovulate on time, drop a precious egg, and let his sperm have at it.”
For a long moment, no one moved. I had no idea if Val was telling the truth. It didn’t really matter. She found a way to keep herself safe and unhurt and bought us some time. That was all that mattered to me. Maybe they’d accidentally kill me while she was safe and well cared for.
Polu sniffed. “Then we’ll move you—”
“He has to come too,” she said. “I’ll be stressed knowing he’s here possibly getting beaten and not eating. If you want this to work, I need to know my mating partner is also healthy.”
Genius. My pretty Val was a genius.
“You expect me,” Polu spoke through clenched teeth, “to treat him well after all he’s done? The guards he killed yesterday were not the only ones he dispatched. Did he tell you that he helped his brother and his mate escape? His brother went on to kill our commander.” He whipped his finger at me. “He needs to pay for that!”
Val shook, but held firm. “I think he’s paid,” she said, her voice cracking. “I think he’s paid more than you can imagine. And now if you want something from him, you have to compromise.”
“Compromise.” He spat on the ground inches from her bare toes. Rubbing his forehead, he paced the length of the cell. “Compromise with a Drixonian,” he muttered. “Ridiculous.”
“You’re compromising with me. A human.”
“I thought your kind was stupid,” he mocked.
“We might be ignorant of the ways of this planet, but we are not stupid,” she shot back.
“What do you want, then?”
“Clothes. A bed. Better food than those tasteless bars and more to drink than a small jug we have to share between us. A warm room.” She glared at Hawn. “None of those shock-rod things. You hit Sax again with those, and I won’t ovulate for a fucking year.”
Polu reared back. “You can’t do that.”
“Try me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Your creepy doctor doesn’t know everything about my body. And, news flash, humans are all different. I don’t know what your females are like, but human women are complicated.”
Polu muttered something under his breath. Uldani women of fertile age were large, bulbous creatures. Many males bred them during half a sun-cycle, and then they gave birth to litters of up to ten Uldani. They didn’t mate for life, although some females had males they preferred. The Uldani couldn’t fathom the kind of bonds we had with our females, as they lacked it in their own society.
Polu continued to pace, while Hawn kept his shrewd gaze on Val. I wished more than anything I could rip his eyes out of his head. I didn’t like how he looked at her. Uldani couldn’t mate with humans, but they still had a cock they could use as a weapon.
Finally, Polu stopped pacing and glared at me. “I guess you’re in luck, Sax. Got a little human sticking up for you. Shame because I was looking fo
rward to hearing you scream.”
After spitting a wad of blood on the ground—I was still bleeding from when I’d bitten my tongue—I curled my lip. “I’ll never scream for you, you freak of—”
“Take them upstairs,” Polu cut me off. “We’ll put them in the room next to Borhan’s lab. It’s heated and has bedding. Get them food.” He finally looked at Val with disgust. “Keep the bitch happy.”
If the insult hurt Val, she didn’t show it. “I want medicine for him too,” she said. “Er, healing stuff. Something for the cuts on his chest and the shock-site wounds.”
Polu’s eyes went as round as the moon. “Female, I—”
“Ovulation,” she sang in a lilting voice.
Polu growled and gestured to one of the Kulks. “Get him some medis vials. See that he’s comfortable.” He walked out of the cell and tilted his head at Hawn. “You take her. I’m going to talk to Borhan. If she’s lying, I’ll cut off her lips.”
Val’s face went stark white, and my cora beat like a trapped hunner in my chest. Her eyes met mine, and she somehow managed to offer me a smile despite the fear raging in her blue eyes. The Kulks shoved me out of the cell and I stumbled between them. I turned to see Hawn grip Val’s biceps tightly. He met my gaze and it was clear. If I did anything dumb right now, he’d hurt her, ovulation or not.
Placing one foot in front of the other, I marched forward.
Four
Val
I hated this short Uldani who gripped my arm so tightly my fingers were numb from blood loss. He wanted nothing more than to beat me bloody. I was no stranger to evil. I’d seen women walk into the emergency room with black eyes and cut lips. I fell, they’d tell me as their boyfriend or husband looked on with a warning glint in his eye.
This Uldani had that look. The other one seemed to hate Sax more than anything, but this one dragging me up a flight of stairs loathed me and wanted nothing more than to rub my face in the dirt with the heel of his boot.
