by Elin Wyn
“Right,” Jeline said slowly as she finally took a look around the room they were in. They weren’t in the pod anymore, or any ship she’d ever seen. “Where…?”
“Relax,” he said, ushering her to the door as he pulled it open. “We’re at that space station I told you about.”
“But how did I get here?”
He frowned. “I don’t think that torpor sleep you talked about was good for you. You crashed pretty hard.”
Jeline bit her lip. Or the mead she’d recklessly drank. Or the sheer terror and exhaustion of the fight with the snakes and everything from the last few days catching up with her.
“But that still doesn’t explain how I got here from the pod.”
“Oh, that was easy. I carried you.”
Oh.
Something in her chest fluttered. That was kind of him. And gentle. And he’d been worried about her…
“Now, do me a favor and smile at all the people we’re about to walk by, cause they know me here, and I’m polite,” he winked, and all the sweetness was swept away by his swagger.
Still, she had to admit the space port was massive.
From the moment they stepped outside of what Kogav called a tavern, Jeline found herself in the middle of a thriving market full of noise and color. Hundreds of aliens populated the main street running through the place – some buying, some selling, but all talking.
“This way,” Kogav smiled. He seemed in his element here, surrounded by a crowd of people in the bustle of everyday life. Watching him stroll ahead so easily almost made her forget that he was a soldier.
“Jeline?”
She blinked, blushing suddenly as she realized that he’d stopped and turned around for her. “S-sorry,” she muttered, catching up. Kogav only laughed.
“No problem,” he shrugged, and in a moment that had her heartbeat tripling, he grabbed her hand and laced his fingers through hers. “Don’t want you getting lost,” he smirked.
Jeline smiled back but glanced down at his hand warily. She just wasn’t sure how to read Kogav. He was friendly, of that there was no question, but he was also dependable under pressure, and sweet when he didn’t have to be.
It was confusing.
“Don’t you want to know what I picked up?” he asked lazily as he swung their arms back and forth.
“Um, water?” Jeline guessed.
“Eh, that and some mead,” he admitted. “I also grabbed some food for the road – you know, lots of dehydrated necessities, but also…” He stopped, and led them away from the crowd to pull a package from his pocket. “Here.”
Jeline had no idea what he could’ve found for her in the foreign space station, and she told him as much when she accepted the package. “But thank you,” she blushed.
“Open it,” he urged, and he let go of her hand to make it easier. Flashing him a nervous – but grateful – smile, Jeline unfolded the blue paper.
A long plant, thin with fat leaves and a sprinkling of bulbs, was pressed prettily between the thick paper. “Oh,” she said, honestly surprised by how fresh it was. It even still had a smell to it, like the soil of a rich garden. All in all, it was a sight for sore eyes after the months she’d spent in space. “Kogav,” Jeline said as she stared down at it. “Thank you.”
“I knew you’d like it,” he smiled. “It’s your favorite, right?”
Jeline frowned before she could stop it. “Kogav, it’s lovely,” she said slowly. “But I’ve never seen this plant before.”
“What? Of course, you have,” he said, titling his head as he gave her an odd look. “I mean, it probably looks different from the one that you grow on the moon, but you wear that plant’s scent all the time.”
“No, I don’t,” she said, laughing nervously as Kogav’s smile practically dissolved off his face. “I don’t wear anything, actually. But, um, if this is your way of saying that I smell as pretty as a flower—”
“It’s not a flower,” he said dryly, scrubbing a hand over his face. “It’s a weed.”
“Oh,” Jeline said, not really sure how to respond to that one.
“It’s an herb called Draegon Teeth,” he added, shaking his head. “For poison.”
Well, that explained why some poor vendor cared enough to keep it in stock. “How useful,” Jeline said cheerfully, determined to change the topic. “Do you use it often on your planet?”
“Zurole doesn’t have many native toxins,” Kogav dismissed her question easily.
“Because there isn’t much vegetation,” Jeline said, snapping her fingers like she’d forgotten. “Well, then I guess this little weed is kind of a miracle, right?” she looked at him hopefully.
Kogav scowled. “Wait,” he said. “You heard that? I thought you were asleep.”
He seemed troubled by the realization, and Jeline had to wonder if what he’d said last night had been meant more for himself than for her. “I’m glad you told me,” she said quickly. “And after I said those things about using technology to change a planet for our benefit,” she sighed.
“It’s just as well,” Kogav shrugged, apparently unbothered by her earlier insensitive logic. Then, almost as an afterthought, he said, “Too bad you didn’t run into Dojan. He’s from Saros, the water planet with a dozen moons. Bet you two would’ve had plenty to talk about.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Jeline rolled her eyes. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, she took Kogav’s hand again and cradled the Draegon Teeth in her other arm. “And tell me more about Zurole already.”
Kogav
Kogav led Jeline to the parked pod quickly enough, though he did stop to satisfy her curiosity at the occasional alien stalls along the way. It was obvious that she’d never been to a space station before, and he couldn’t convince himself to pass up the pure wonder that seemed to shine in her eyes every time she paused to stare at something.
“There are so many ships,” Jeline observed as they finally left the main market and turned into the station lot. It was quieter here, and Kogav wrinkled his nose as the stench of gasoline replaced the sprinkle of spices and aroma of baked goods.
“Well, it is a parking deck,” he pointed out.
“I mean,” Jeline shook her head, blushing. “There are so many different kinds of ships. On Earth, everything is the same shape, more or less.”
Kogav wondered about that. He supposed that it could be the one drawback to having a universal military: ugly ships that all looked the same. “Your, uh, moon friends don’t have their own design?” he asked.
“You mean the Lunarians?” she asked, hiding a laugh behind her hand. “No, the academy extends to every colony under Earth, so we all get the same uniforms and ships. It’s smart, really,” she added with a shrug. “Since we almost split up and rebelled as separate forces a while ago.”
Kogav frowned. “What made them change their mind?”
“Oh, the jump gates,” she supplied. “Once we realized what they could do, we all kind of banded together against the scary unknown. It’s why we’re working so hard to explore – so we can find the enemy before it finds us.”
“Well,” Kogav grunted. “If you want to set your Earth’s military might against the Thagzars, be my guest.” It wouldn’t hurt to add another planet under the alliance.
“Maybe,” Jeline nodded.
The pod was just where Kogav had left it, settled between a Pameric map maker’s caravan and a Saedhymp’s prowler.
“Here we are,” he said, slapping a hand to the ship’s side to activate the bridge. Sweeping an arm to send Jeline up ahead of him, he smirked as she giggled.
But the overwhelming smell of Draegon Teeth made him frown as she passed by.
“You don’t wear anything?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as he started up after her. “No perfume, no oils?”
Suddenly, the smell was gone – replaced by a foul aftertaste of Necteen again and a worried look from Jeline.
And just like that, Kogav knew.
“Oh shit,”
he said.
They had bonded.
Jeline
Jeline cocked her head as she watched Kogav widen his eyes and place a hand over his heart. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Without blinking, he moved his hand in a quick, fluid motion across his chest and down his side, like he was reacting to something more than communicating.
Still, Jeline couldn’t ignore the way that his signing seemed to make sense.
“You believe in soul mates?” she repeated, saying it like a question.
Kogav dropped his arm, and nodded – hesitantly, almost regretfully – once.
A blush crept up her neck before she could stop it, but Jeline slapped the thought that she’d been avoiding back down before it could form.
After all, there was no way he, the muscle-bound engineer from a long line of fighters, was interested in her. Men never were, and they hadn’t even been a different species, unlike Kogav.
No, it was a stupid idea, and she crossed her arms as she looked at her feet, avoiding his eyes.
“That’s cool,” she said simply, careful to keep her tone void of emotion. She didn’t even know why it was bothering her so much – it wasn’t like they’d been flirting. In fact, now that she thought about it, they’d spent most of the trip arguing over the pod controls. “Do you have someone back home?” she asked, determined to squash the hope blossoming in her chest. Best to do it now, before it had a chance to grow and embarrass her further.
Clearing his throat, Kogav took a step forward onto the bridge. “I have someone right here,” he said.
Jeline could feel her face burning.
“Engineer Alken,” Jeline said stiffly, doing her best to remain indifferent. “We’ve got orders to—”
“Yes,” he said hopefully, taking another small step forward. “And this doesn’t change that, but—”
“I’m from another star system,” Jeline said quickly. She wanted to say more, but the anxious knot inside her chest made her click her jaw shut and swallow a gulp instead.
“Ah,” Kogav said, and he took half a step back. “Yes, you’re a long way from your moon.” Dropping his head so she couldn’t see his face, he shrugged miserably and said, “I bet you’d like Saros, then. It’s got—”
“A dozen moons, I know,” Jeline sighed. “Kogav, I don’t…”
I don’t want to be wrong again.
“Please,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Even if,” Kogav put his hands on his knees, and bent forward slightly. To Jeline, it almost looked like he needed the extra support to stay standing. “If you’re my soul mate?”
Jeline felt her heart skip a beat. “T-that’s impossible,” she blurted. “I’m not from here, so technically, we never should have even met—”
“But you are here,” he said, shaking his head. “And I’m telling you, we’ve already bonded.”
“B-bonded?” Jeline repeated. “How could we have ‘bonded?’ We haven’t done anything that would have ‘bonded’ us,” she argued.
Lifting his head, Kogav’s purple stare flashed a thin violet, turning his eyes an almost milky white. It was unsettling, but before Jeline could ask what was wrong, he lifted a hand and signed something, his eyes never wavering from hers.
Then how can you understand what I’m saying?
Jeline gasped, and moved a hand to cover her mouth. “How…?”
“On my planet,” Kogav said aloud as he took a step forward. “Bonds can form between any two people: Eiztars and Sarosians; Eldirdrakes and Caldorrans.” Stopping just a step in front of her, he finished, “And even, perhaps, between a Lunarian and a Zurolean.”
Up close, Jeline watched as Kogav’s nostrils flared and his irises gleamed back into a royal purple sheen, narrowed and waiting for her response.
She wasn’t sure what to say. The academy had certainly never covered alien biology to this extent, not in her pilot classes; and even if they had, she doubted that they would’ve touched on interspecies mating. It just didn’t happen.
“We fight a lot,” she blurted, saying the first thing that came to mind. “We aren’t compatible.”
“On the contrary,” Kogav smirked, his sharp row of fangs popping out over his bottom lip. “On my planet, couples do an awful lot of fighting.”
“Couples?” she repeated, trying to trap him in the little information that he was giving her. “Not bonded soul mates?”
“Yes,” he inched closer. “Couples. Bonded pairs are a rarity on any planet, though the few that I have known fight just as often.”
“So, what’s the difference?” Jeline asked suspiciously, shuffling backward until she was standing in the pod’s doorway. “Between a couple and a bonded.”
That seemed to give Kogav pause, and he flicked his eyes away for a moment before settling back on her face. “Undying loyalty and good communication, I suppose,” he answered flippantly.
It took a moment for the answer to sink in, but the disappointment swelled in Jeline’s chest quickly enough. She didn’t know what she had been waiting for – romance? Shakespeare? She nodded and went to turn away into the pod.
Kogav’s hand stopped her, and before she could speak, he was pressing a kiss to her lips, only to draw back just as quickly, fear flashing in his eyes.
It was probably the most innocent peck she’d ever received, but in the feather-light touch of his lips on hers, she’d felt a jolt race through her. Bringing a hand up to her mouth, she brushed her fingers against her lips, half expecting them to be burned.
“That is the difference,” Kogav said passionately, though his eyes still betrayed his nerves. “That right—”
“Shut up,” Jeline breathed, grabbing a fistful of the shirt around his neck. “And kiss me.”
Fireworks; hundreds of them – sparklers and strobes and comets – were all going off just under her skin, igniting her bones and filling her up until she felt like her very head would burst.
Breaking away from Kogav with a gasp, she licked her lips and blinked at his purple eyes. They were like two pools of amethysts, blazing as they looked her over.
“Inside,” Jeline panted, moving backwards as she tugged him in with her. Kogav didn’t argue, but walked them all the way to the other side of the pod to push her up against the wall and close the door as they passed the control panel.
“Jeline,” he groaned, not wasting any time as he grabbed her hand and led it down to his crotch. The bulge she felt there seemed normal enough, and as she reached a hand inside of his pants to get a good grip on just what she was dealing with, her last remaining fears about incompatible biology were dashed.
Well, if he was set to show her his, then she wasn’t about to hold back either. Spreading her legs, she maneuvered one of his knees between her thighs and ground down against it, giving him a little moan for encouragement as she did so.
That seemed to catch his attention, and he started moving his knee underneath her, sliding his leg up and down as she mimicked his movements with the hand that she still had down his pants.
“Fuck,” Kogav grunted, and he finally withdrew his leg to shove down his trousers and kick them off.
Jeline could take a hint, and with her heartbeat in her ears and a delicious tingling in her lower stomach, she yanked off her blue suit and tossed it past Kogav’s slack jawed expression.
“What?” she said, trying to be cute despite all of the blood rushing to her face. “Never seen a Lunarian naked before?”
Kogav only coughed out a laugh and grabbed her around the hips, picking her up to guide her legs around his waist as he pinned her between his chest and the wall. “Can’t say I have,” he huffed, grinning as he caught both her breasts in the palms of his hands. Jeline had never been able to say that they were more than a handful, but they seemed to satisfy Kogav just fine. With his erection hot against her thigh, Jeline gasped as he took one in his mouth and lightly teased it with his tongue.
“You, uh,” she bre
athed, grabbing a fistful of his hair. “You really know how to use those teeth,” she said, shivering as he let another fang brush against her in a barely-there scrape.
Panting there with an alien touching her in all the right places, Jeline felt happy; happier than she’d been in a long time. She arched her back and reveled in the feeling, but as Kogav released her with a pop, she noticed something she hadn’t before.
“You sure you don’t know any Lunarians?” she asked, only half-joking. Kogav seemed to notice the difference in her tone and paused, looking up at her from where he was still fondling her breasts. “I mean,” Jeline shrugged. “You smell like winterberries. It’s a fruit only we grow, thanks to the unique soil on the moon.”
Kogav only grinned. “That proves it,” he said.
“Proves what?” she frowned, gasping as he pinched her nipples simultaneously.
“That we’ve bonded,” he said, bending forward to lick the underside of her chin. “To me, you smell like Draegon Teeth. It’s a smell I associate with my childhood after the Thagzars were chased out.”
Oh, right. She’d forgotten about the plant after having passed it off as Kogav’s imagination. “That’s crazy,” she panted as he slipped a hand between her legs. “You really smell like it.”
“I know,” he chuckled. “You like me more now because of it?”
“Well,” Jeline lightly bit his shoulder. “I don’t like you less,” she grinned.
“Darn,” he panted sarcastically. “Maybe this will help, then.”
Grabbing her under the knees, he lifted her legs to bend them over his forearms and pumped himself where he stood between her thighs for a moment.
“Oooh,” Jeline rolled her eyes with a laugh. “I bet it—”
She cut herself off with a moan from the back of her throat. Kogav had spread her open and gone in all the way to the hilt, filling her up and lighting a round of fireworks off all over again.
“Oh fuck,” she sighed. Her legs had all but turned to jelly, and she grabbed onto his shoulders to grind down on him with every thrust.
