Aries

by Enid Titan

  “It’s amazing how it doesn’t even hurt,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” he murmured, “But my cock does.”

  “At first. Then it feels warm… and big…”

  “You like that, don’t you?”

  “Of course I like it,” she whispered.

  “Some species don’t like big cocks. But earth females… you’re small… yet you seem to love them.”

  “I guess we’re just built like that.”

  “A perfect design,” Ramses murmured.

  He kissed Rory’s neck and as her fingers ran through his hair, releasing his intense, masculine musk, he sank his teeth into Rory’s neck. She could feel the pinpricks and then the pleasure.

  He only held her up against the wall yet she bucked and moaned as she climaxed. He could make her climax with just those teeth and his hot pulsing body of solid muscled man flesh. She dug her nails into his arms and his tongue licked at the drops of blood that spilled from her neck.

  He pulled his head away and Rory shuddered.

  “Y-you made me cum!” She stammered.

  “I can do that whenever I want to,” he murmured.

  He moved to set her down but Rory wrapped her legs around him tightly in protest.

  “Oh no you don’t,” she whispered.

  “Or what?”

  “I’ll cling to you all day if I have to,” Rory threatened.

  Staring into her clear blue eyes and feeling her tiny coltish legs wrapped around him made it very hard for Ramses to say no to her. What was the point in it?

  He wanted her as badly as she wanted him.

  “Let’s get you out of these clothes then,” he whispered, “I hope you weren’t planning on getting any sleep tonight.”

  8

  The Clan

  Ramses paced back and forth across the bridge. Rory sat in the chair that would have usually carried his first mate. Ramses didn’t have a crew anymore, but he did appreciate the alone time with his mate.

  She was a bit better than a crew. She certainly complained less. And considering she knew nothing about space, she didn’t question him either.

  The planet’s surface responded to his hail.

  “You will be transported to your father’s ready room, Com’ Ramses. The slave girl on your ship should be prepared for the temperature differential. We will be on standby until you’re ready.”

  “Slave girl?” Rory scoffed.

  “I know,” Ramses grumbled, “This part of the galaxy isn’t used to women.”

  “I’ll say. I’ll show them slave girl,” Rory scoffed.

  Ramses grinned. She was more like an Arietan woman than any other alien female he’d met — including the other earthlings.

  They awaited transport together, holding hands.

  “I hope I’m not sick this time,” Rory whispered.

  “Don’t worry,” Ramses replied.

  He squeezed her hand. They closed their eyes. By the time they opened them, they’d been transported. Separately.

  Ramses opened his eyes and felt the emptiness in his left hand where Rory’s delicate palm should have been. He turned sharply to his left and then right, then finally looked ahead of him to see his father Ogneb seated on a glass throne, flanked by X-25.

  “Wheres is she!” Ramses roared.

  “Hello, my son. How are you?”

  “I’m not going to stand here and engage in pleasantries until you tell me where Rory is, and what you’re doing standing with that thing.”

  “It hasn’t been long, Ramses,” the clone master wheezed.

  “Not long enough.”

  “We need to discuss your recent business transactions, Ramssssses,” his father hissed.

  “I have nothing to discuss with you or that beast. Because of him, I lost my ship.”

  “I have already received your replacement ship from the company. Now we have to talk about the laws you broke.”

  “I’ve broken no laws! This lump of metal has destroyed my ship and now you both have kidnapped Rory!”

  “Your slave-girl has a name?” Ogneb replied, his face settling into a deep scowl.

  “She is not a slave girl. She’s my mate.”

  “No… I do not believe this. How could you find a mate?”

  “He is lying. I was promised merchandise. He refused to meet his end of the bargain. I retrieved my merchandise.”

  “X-25 has done nothing wrong. You have. You have gone back on a business contract… after you carry my name.”

  “I do NOT carry your name!” Ramses huffed.

  “Whether you like it or not, you owe this man and I will make sure that no son of mine will have debtsssssss. This is not how we’ve maintained our good name.”

  “I care nothing for that good name.”

  “If you care nothing, why did you come back over here?”

  “I came because I was sent here. I owed someone a favor.”

  Ogneb glared, his black eyes glossing over.

  “I will have you imprisoned until you come to your senses. Guards! Take him away. My son will come to his senses tomorrow.”

  Guards trained their weapons on Ramses and hauled him off to his father’s prison, deep beneath their volcanic planet.

  When Rory’s eyes opened from the transporter, she found herself in a dark, sweltering hot room. Her clothes stuck to her skin within seconds and she noted the strong smell of sulfur and phosphorus, far stronger than any she’d smelled on Ramses ship.

  “Ram! Ram, where am I?”

  Rory called and tried to find some kind of door, or window. There’d been an accident. She’d been teleported somewhere by mistake. She should have been smart enough to know that this teleportation thing was unreliable. I mean how unnatural could you get disintegrating your body and then putting it back together…

  After what felt like hours of yelling at the thin air, Rory accepted her fate. Something had gone wrong. She tried on her own to get out, but she knew that at least Ramses would do everything in his power to find her.

  Rory waited as her hair stuck to her neck and she sat on the black chrome ground. Every once in a while, the planet rumbled. Those must have been the active volcanoes, she thought.

  Eventually, she heard footsteps. There was a door here. Rory rose to her feet, smiling expectantly. The door opened and Ramses stood there with two other Arietans who shoved him into their jail cell. Rory ran to Ramses and hugged him. The doors closed behind them, trapping them together in Ogneb’s private prison.

  “Did they hurt you?” Ramses whispered as he held Rory close.

  “No. I’ve only been scared.”

  “But you…”

  Rory pulled away and examined Ramses’ face. The skin surrounding his eyes was black, just like the veins that tensed around his eyes. He had a cut on his cheek and walked inside with a limp.

  “What happened,” Rory breathed.

  She touched his face, but Ramses winced and she was forced to pull away.

  “It was nothing for you to worry about.”

  “That’s not fair, Ram.”

  “I promised I would protect you,” he murmured, “I failed.”

  “You didn’t fail. We can sort this out. We can find a way out of here.”

  “No. We can’t,” he whispered.

  “What’s wrong? Why can’t we?”

  “We aren’t dealing with reasonable men.”

  Rory folded her arms and cocked her hip.

  “Listen here, you’re going to tell me everything. I understand there aren’t a lot of women on your world but on my world, we make decisions and we’re a lot sharper than you lot give us credit for. I’m telling you that we’ll find a way out of this and we will — as long as you tell me the truth.”

  Ramses clenched his jaw and scraped one of his hooves against the ground. Arguing with Rory would be fruitless and he could sense it. She wasn’t the type to let things go.

  “Okay. I’ll explain. I agreed with Prince Titan to assist their proje
ct, but I never should have come here. I know my father.”

  “Your father’s responsible for this?”

  “He is. And the clone master is here.”

  “X-25?”

  “I didn’t want to scare you,” Ramses replied apologetically.

  “I’m not scared,” Rory lied.

  She was terrified, of course. She thought they’d defeated that terrifying hunk of metal before, but now he was here and presumably he wanted something.

  “It’s okay to be scared because you’re right. We need each other to get out of this. We need to stick together.”

  “And we will.”

  Rory kissed Ramses, hoping a good plan would pop into her head and they could find their way out of this mess.

  9

  Let me go

  “You have to take the deal,” Rory whispered.

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  “He’s not going to kill me. He needs me to make clones.”

  “How can I let you go again? I promised I would keep you safe.”

  “I can’t only think of myself, Ram. I have to think of what this means for the earth. Your father is a powerful man. If the only way he’ll agree to ally with the Devorans and the Taureans, then what choice do we have?”

  “We have a choice,” he murmured, pushing some of her hair out of her face.

  By now, her roots had grown in quite a bit; Ramses noticed how the dirty blonde color suited her just as well. He kissed her forehead.

  “I can choose exile,” he whispered, “I can go to the ends of the galaxy with you.”

  “It wouldn’t be right.”

  Before all of this happened, Rory would have made a different choice. She would have decided to look out for herself. Screw the earth. Screw anyone as long as you got what you wanted at the end of the day. Space, with its infinite vastness, made her realize how important it was for people to stick together — for other species too.

  “I promise, if you send me to his ship, I will make my way off of it.”

  “I could make you stay,” he whispered, “I could throw you over my shoulder and keep you for myself.”

  “You can’t,” Rory whispered, tears welling in her eyes as she pressed her palms to Ramses’ strong chest, feeling his heart pulsing beneath her fingertips.

  “How long do you think I should wait for you? Because I swear, Rory, I will lose everything that I have just to be with you.”

  “Thirty days. We can last thirty days apart, can’t we?”

  Rory struggled to steady her voice as she grasped the fabric of Ramses’ uniform.

  “I don’t know.”

  She kissed him, running her tongue across his fangs on purpose.

  “We can,” she murmured.

  The tiny drops of blood that padded his tongue drove Ramses into a frenzy. He wanted to keep her here for himself, protect her, and care for her the way he’d promised. Yet he couldn’t taste his mate on his tongue and do the opposite of what she wanted.

  “If you want me to take the deal, I will.”

  “Good. Then take it. It will all be worth it.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “Yes. I think so.”

  Ramses held her close for a while. When the time came to see his Ogneb again, he made the deal. X-25 would reclaim his “property”, and his father would enter negotiations with the Devoran Prince as well as the three governments prepared their plans for first contact. Once Ramses agreed, X-25 arrived at the jail cell to see his prize again. 001π.

  How he’d missed her. And her clones. He’d gotten rid of most of them after she’d been taken away. Every time he saw one, he was reminded of the injustice he’d faced. X-25 couldn’t bear those constant reminders. It was then an idea came to him to retrieve his property. And it had worked.

  The slave girl was quiet as he approached her. She went willingly with him without kicking and screaming. Rory said goodbye, and now she was prepared to deal with the consequences of what she’d signed up for. X-25 brought her onto his ship. He grasped her wrist with his alloy hand which had the tightness and coldness of handcuffs. She’d chosen imprisonment, but not for a moment did Rory regret that choice.

  They’d done the right thing and even if Ramses feared for her life. She didn’t.

  I can handle this steel beast, Rory thought to herself.

  On X-25’s ship, he led her to the room where he used her genetic information to replicate more clones. She lay on his metal table as he stalked around the room. He grabbed a large needle.

  “This is going to hurt,” he wheezed through the metal slats in his mouth.

  His robotic voice didn’t scare her anymore. Rory was patient. She had a plan. She watched as the 12-inch needle approached her bare stomach. He slathered some alcohol on her flesh and as she winced from the cold air, he plunged the needle inside her. Unimaginable pain surged through Rory. She gritted her teeth, willing herself not to cry or show him any weakness.

  Once he pulled the needle out, Rory felt woozy. She squeezed the sides of her metal table and willed herself to stay awake. Her mouth went dry and X-25 came over with a large metal instrument.

  “Legs up,” he announced.

  “Oi, what the hell?”

  “I need a sample,” he wheezed.

  “I’m not opening my legs for you!”

  “It will be easier if you are conscious.”

  He lowered stirrups just the right height for Rory’s legs.

  She closed her eyes and he pushed a metal probe between her legs. It was cold. Rigid. Violating. Rory trembled as he moved the probe around inside her. X-25 pulled it out and read the instrument.

  “We have a problem,” he wheezed.

  “Yeah, I got many problems,” Rory grumbled.

  “You’re pregnant.”

  “What?!”

  “You are pregnant.”

  “How? That’s impossible!”

  “No. It isn’t.”

  “W-well what are you going to do about it?”

  “I’ll have to use a different method. But for that, I’m going to have to put you under.”

  “Wait! I don’t want to be unconscious!”

  He walked to the other side of the room as Rory yelled at him to stop. Pregnant. How could she tell what he was doing wouldn’t hurt her? And what about this… baby. This alien baby between her legs wouldn’t be able to withstand whatever twisted probing this alloy decided to do while she was unconscious. He returned with a gas mask and lowered it over Rory’s face. Her thoughts faded from worry. To elephants. To the color blue. To her devil costume. To Ramses’ eyes. To pink. To the spikes emerging from Ramses’ shoulders. To his fangs. To Mercedes-Benzes. To black, black, black.

  Rory woke up with a strange, queasy feeling in her stomach. She sat up in bed and then she screamed a loud, blood-curdling scream. X-25 had returned her to her old quarters which were comfortable and isolated. That wasn’t the problem. Rory raced to her mirror and screamed again.

  Her stomach… She was pregnant. Her stomach jutted out like she was eight months pregnant. No, no, no, no, no! Stretch marks lined the sides of what had once been her flat and petite tummy. She waddled around like a duck with that immense weight attached to her. Rory retched and ran for her bathroom. She made it to the sink, throwing up and then collapsing on the floor.

  She woke up in bed again, still pregnant. This time, she couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed. She cried right where she lay, sobbing as she clutched her stomach. Pregnant. She’d barely had a chance to process all of this before X-25 knocked her unconscious. Now, her stomach protruded out like she was nearly at the end of it.

  Rory cried, but she couldn’t allow herself to cry for long. This just meant her task was more urgent than ever. She’d prepared for this. She had a plan. Not even Ramses knew what she had in store for him. She was just happy she’d taken what Pandora had offered her. Without it, they’d be in trouble.

  Rory pulled a gold pin from her hair and pressed on it. />
  “Pandora, I know you’ll get this message. I’m somewhere in space, back on X-25’s ship. I’m sorry to call in a favor so soon, but I need your help. I can’t get another message out for a while. Come quickly. I’m… I’m pregnant.”

  Five days passed before Rory heard back from Pandora. She didn’t realize the gold pin could send and receive messages. When she was alone after a day of avoiding X-25 as well as the hundred clones he’d created to staff his ship, Rory pressed it and listened to the message.

  “Rory, my goodness. I hope you’re alright. Ariana and I are ready to fight. We only need you to do one thing. Get him to enter Devoran space. It’s unlikely he’s kept up with recent political happenings but the borders have changed. I’ll send you the coordinates tomorrow. Do what you have to. We’re wishing you the best, Rory.”

  Rory replaced the pin in her hair, tucking it beneath a few strands. The longer she went in space, the more desperate she was to dye her hair back to the attention-grabbing platinum blond color she’d grown accustomed to. Rory exited her room and made her way to the bridge.

  The alloy stood at the view screen and didn’t flinch when she entered. 900π through 910π manned the controls on the bridge in silence. Rory waddled over to X-25 and cleared her throat.

  “Ahem.”

  “What is it that you want?”

  “I want us to change course.”

  “Why?”

  Rory had thought about this and while she wasn’t 100% certain that X-25 would buy her explanation, she had to try.

  “I’ve been researching in the ship’s logs and I think you should check out this planet. It’s called Tarfzon. It’s kind of similar to earth but with more water. I think you could find clones on that planet who would be just as good as humans and maybe you could interbreed them. Make super clones.”

  “What is your interest in helping me?”

  “I’m going to be stuck here for a long time. I’m tired of looking at my face. It gets… boring.”

  One of the clones turned to give Rory a sad half-offended look. She shrugged and folded her arms, turning her attention to X-25.