Ruled: A Dark Sci-Fi Romance

by Cari Silverwood

  Most were from poor families, a few were huleon, and they played together as if it didn’t matter who had claws and who did not.

  If this were daytime, her guards might’ve scared off her small friends. Though a sec-force policeman used to regularly visit as if to check the site for problems, he’d never spoken to her and the kids had ignored him. She wondered if he’d been watching her on her father’s orders too. Even the electric streetlight she sat beside had been installed soon after she paid the hill some pre-dawn visits.

  The light showed an animal toy lying in the grass near her ankle. Pieces of fruit peel were scattered to her right. It had been months ago when Dart, one of the youngest boys, had eaten that fruit sitting beside her. She’d been playing her guitar, an Old Earth artifact she’d taught herself to play. The kids seemed to like it though her singing was awful.

  That was then, this is now.

  She rose, sliding her hand up the streetlight.

  A small engraving halfway up the pole snagged her fingertips. Two hearts were etched on the metal but painted over. They’d been there on the day the pole was installed.

  Inside the hearts were letters—G and C. The heart with the G had a crown. She leaned against the pole and sighed. Tears filled her eyes. Her father had watched over her far more than she’d ever realized.

  The wind buffeted her, and she squinted out over the darkened buildings, tucking her hands into her cloak. Was this the last day she could go where she wanted?

  Drake was also her father’s doing, but was he her savior or something else?

  She turned away and trudged down the track.

  Apart from some distant fires reflected in clouds, some random cracks of gunfire, and the scent of smoke, she’d seen little out of the ordinary. By morning the streets might be flooded with fighters. The mauleon guards accompanied her partway to her secret entry to the palace. She hoped she’d lost them before she slipped in, but there was no way to be certain.

  Once inside her rooms she stripped off the dress and had another shower, a very long, hot one. Then she checked herself below for damage using a hand mirror. She’d had sex for the first time, but it had most definitely not been her fantasy lover.

  “A mauleon.” She leaned her head into the bathroom wall and with her fist beat the wall, lightly. “What have I done?”

  The armored suit lay on the hallway floor where she’d dropped it. It smelled of him, still, and she had to stop herself from raising it to her nose and sniffing.

  Sassi walked in, his old joints creaking, as she was lifting the suit with her toe. The teensy pink night shift she’d donned at least made her feel innocent. The shift didn’t know what she’d done, who she’d let inside her. The dress and the red cloak he’d given her she left hanging over a chair, undecided on what to do with them.

  “A mauleon.” Again she shook her head.

  “May I help you, miss?” Sassi focused his auxiliary eye stalks on the suit. “It appears you met with some resistance? A fight? I see you are mostly undamaged however.”

  “Mostly?” She looked at her arms and hands.

  “There are a few scratches and I noticed a bruise on your bottom as you walked naked in the bathroom.”

  “Oh.” Calli sucked at the inside of her cheek. That spanking. The memory inserted itself into her mind, front and center. In spite of the pain, it had made her hornier, which was ridiculous.

  On second thoughts, had that been his intention?

  “No lacerations or penetration wounds so I’m sure you’ll be fine!”

  The cheerfulness of that statement, combined with the word penetration, startled her. She picked up the suit and stared at it, certain her face was bright red. Blushing was a weakness she wished would vanish. “Get this cleaned and repaired for me, Sassi.”

  “Would you like a hug, miss? You look lost and sad. Though my facial expression library may have corrupted.”

  “Oh, Sassi.” Her lip trembled. Though none of this was her fault, what she’d done was still bad.

  On an immorality scale of one to fifty it ranked up there, high. Like... at fifty-one.

  Why was she so horrified by what she’d done with Drake? She tried to see this without emotional filters.

  She’d thought herself pro-mauleon. Was it the interspecies thing? Or was it her reasons for giving in to him, for spreading her legs as one might vulgarly say. Was it the way he made her submit? Was it just that she’d had sex and it had been so disgustingly... messy? Maybe it was all of those.

  Damnation. She was too upset to figure it out.

  She wandered forward into Sassi’s metal arms and received a very hard hug.

  “There, there, miss. All will be fine. Is there anyone you need me to damage?”

  Calli snorted and backed out of the bot’s arms. “Thank you, but no. I think any of my current enemies would turn you into a wall ornament, Sassi.”

  “One never knows until one tries.”

  “Mmm.” No penetration. So untrue. “I need to do some research on mauleons, on their biology and, umm, sex. Do you know if the palace library has anything relevant?”

  “I’m sure it does. I will find out and bring you any such volumes. A late supper or a very early breakfast on the balcony also, miss? There is some sort of violence in the city below you might wish to watch. Firefights in district twelve, nineteen, and probably three-one also.”

  What? It had worsened? Mouth open, she looked to the direction of the city, though there were walls in the way. Any fires would be easy to see since dawn was a couple of hours away. “I will have some food outside. Yes. And read too, if you find anything.”

  She sprinted to the doors leading onto her private balcony then slowed, trailing past the white metal table and cushioned chairs to the railing. Only a dim lantern lit her way. A small war was happening below, just as Sassi had said.

  “What have we done,” she said under her breath.

  District three-one was the army barracks but the rest were civilian suburbs.

  Smoke rose in flame-lit wisps and billows, and the crack and boom of weaponry echoed. The sky already showed some paleness. Dawn must be nearer than she thought. How long had she walked? Places that should have been lit up were dark; some areas flickered out as she watched. Whether due to power interruptions or people wishing to make themselves less visible, she didn’t know.

  This was her partly her fault. He’d launched this to stop the general. People were dying and some might be her friends.

  Was it worth it even if he won? Even if the general was not a man she’d like to see lording it over her kingdom, or any kingdom?

  She frowned, wondering how many people had to die or be badly injured to qualify this as a disaster. And wrong.

  These were questions she’d never needed to think about before.

  She liked people. Making anyone die had never been on her agenda.

  Realistically, Drake was on this course anyway, she’d merely hung onto his hand as he stalked into battle.

  She was a pawn.

  It didn’t make her feel better.

  Sassi brought out artificial lights so Calli could read and still watch over her city. Not only were there a few books from the palace library, she also had her father’s memoirs from the safe in his old study. Only her brothers and she had been able to access it, for the safe had an old genetic fingerprint lock. One day it would fail and then, she’d been told, it would take a battle laser to open it.

  Currently, nobody had those. Unless an Overwatch sat was nice enough to lend its weapons.

  The memoirs, all eight volumes, drew her far more than any other book. Before she’d not dared to read these. They were passed on to the next ruler. Her brothers had probably not bothered looking for them. She’d thought they’d begun writing their own, but it seemed not. There was nothing in the safe.

  Within their covers were tidbits of info about mauleons and also her father’s ideas for the future of the kingdom. If her brothers had read it,
they’d ignored his wishes. For one thing, her father... she tapped the page while she thought... had wanted to legitimize mauleon and human marriage.

  Then she discovered another passage, and this made her rub her forehead, where he noted the surveillance of her whenever she entered the city. Had her brothers known of her hobby? If so, they hadn’t cared.

  A few times as she read, she had to stop to let the tears run down her cheeks. These had been written by her father...

  Calli sat back into the chair, sighed, and let herself hear and see what lay far below. The fires in the city were mostly out. No shots had been fired for ages and dawn was blossoming. Her eyes felt as if they’d been scoured with a wire brush. Those near the fighting would’ve had a far worse night.

  She’d not touched the palace texts and she really should. Truthfully, she was scared of what she might find. He’d been so adamant she research his people.

  Courage. Puffing out a breath, she hunched over the first text and began to read. Though facts were fairly sparse about their sexual biology, she found details in a few books.

  When they mated for the first time, mauleons often did not enter the female to the fullest depth. Like her—she gulped—most females were unable to dilate enough until their tissues learned to accept the male. And here was the ickiest bit.

  She rested her finger beneath the words on the page and reread it.

  A chemical in the mauleon’s semen will enter the tissues and the bloodstream of the female and promote relaxation of the vagina during the next sex act. Often the male will feed the female both her and his fluids for this reason.

  “Fuck. Ewww.” Way too gross. He’d done that. She slapped her forehead, grimaced, and read onward.

  Mauleons believe that when two people are a perfect match the pheromones and hormones align to make them irresistible for each other. Supposedly this also helps the female to physically accept the male, to lubricate and dilate more. They call it the torm. Some human studies have equated it to the chemical alterations detected in humans when they fall in love.

  And wow, did that make her blush, even with no one else watching her read this.

  She slammed the last book shut. What rubbish.

  The heat cycle of mauleons was different. Humans did not have the same hormones as mauleons.

  “I mean,” she whispered, purely for herself, “they just don’t.”

  Women produced eggs and all that but there was none of this exaggerated heat and sexual attraction, was there? This was too animalistic.

  Frowning, she gulped down a cup of water that Sassi had left then levered herself to her feet.

  She needed sleep, desperately. Making her way to bed, she figured she now knew what a zombie felt like. When she woke, she must contact Drake and demand he tell her exactly what had happened.

  The palace guard. She froze. Why had they not knocked and informed her of anything?

  Because the general had them under his thumb? Or Drake? She marched to the door and flung one wing open, startling the guards.

  “Princess.” From either side, they bowed to her. “May we be of assistance?”

  “Did no one think to inform me of what happened in the city?”

  “Ummm.” The left-hand guard at least had the grace to look embarrassed. “We were told only to guard you, and not to annoy you with any news.”

  Glaring at them would not change anything. “If a messenger comes from a mauleon called Drake, get them to wait and you must alert me, no matter the time. If you do not obey this, it will portend poorly for your future.”

  At that she cocked an eyebrow, then slowly backed into her rooms while closing the door.

  “Understood, Princess!” The muffled words reached her.

  A messenger, she’d said. She could only hope it would not be Drake himself.

  It was obvious he thought them a perfect match, since he’d made her look up mauleon biology. This could be a true pain in the rear, if she had to speak to him personally, again. If? More like when.

  Which made her remember exactly what he’d done to her rear.

  Muttering curses, she headed to her bedroom. Once there she flipped back the cover and fell into bed. Thoughts and visions swam through her exhausted mind.

  The big, bad Drake sprawled naked in his chair, and those claws of his, sinking into her belly and marking her with red scratches.

  She couldn’t be racist, because she found him hot.

  It was the way he spanked her, yes? A princess should not be spanked.

  How was she ever going to find out if her friends in the city, like Shree and Bron were well, or even alive?

  She mumbled into her pillow. “Next time I see Drake I’ll spank him.”

  Yes.

  She was asleep soon after.

  Chapter Ten

  Waking from a pleasant dream, she found her hand had slipped between her thighs and she was squeezing onto it. The dream had been about sex though the details were lost. Still groggy, she thought to open her eyes, only to realize...

  The sheets were gone. Had she kicked them off?

  From the slight tilt of her mattress and some small movements, someone else was in her bed. Panic arrived. She bit her lip.

  She was lying partly on her stomach, her nightdress was being slowly pulled upward, and her butt was exposed. Then, her nightdress ceased to move.

  It was him, Drake. His scent told her so.

  And how disturbing it was to know she could ID him by his smell.

  “Hey. Stop that.”

  “You think so? I disagree.”

  She removed her hand from between her legs and went to roll onto her back, meaning to slide from the bed, only to have him plant his palm in the middle of her lower back, fastening her down.

  “Not so fast, Princess. I am still admiring this ass and how it peeks from beneath your lacy night gear. Do all human females wear such cute things to bed?”

  Shocked, she tried to gather her thoughts and only spluttered, “What?”

  Not her best reply.

  “What are you doing here?” Again she tried to shift but he easily held her in place. “My guards were not supposed to let you in!”

  “They did, when I explained matters. They understood the shift of power very well. The general is defeated, his forces also. I have control over the city and so your kingdom is yours again.” He swatted her ass, making her bounce in the bed, then he wriggled her panties down to the crease of her thighs.

  Just the feel of him, of him pushing his hand between her legs, his full hand, made her want to spread herself open. A second later she found she’d done so.

  “This is mine,” he said quietly. “You need to understand that. Even if your guards think I am merely in here talking about battles.” He lifted her lower body until her butt poked higher, and smacked her again, firmly, on both cheeks, several times.

  Moaning at that was bad, and yet she could not stop herself. Was this the punishment he’d promised? Squeaking at a few of the harder smacks, Calli buried her head under her pillow, as if that would stop him hearing.

  Drake continued explaining and simultaneously smoothing his palm over her aching bottom. Concentrating on facts was difficult while that occurred. Now and then he delivered another swat.

  “Please, stop doing that. I need to listen and to ask you things, such as casualties and so on. Please?”

  Though muffled by the pillow, she knew he could hear her. With her face turned sideways, she looked out, hoping, waiting.

  “I should stop? Stop doing what exactly?”

  He teased her?

  This was not how one ruled a kingdom. How nice it felt when he glided those thick male fingers up and down her pussy. Unfair. She sighed. When he ceased the slipping and sliding to smack her butt, the blows rocked into her flesh.

  The slippery fingers did worse things to her mind. If he would only put them into her just a little.

  She closed her eyes, wishing for what was surely wrong.

&n
bsp; Which was when he chose to answer. “I will tell you some now, and more later. There were few hurt except for the general’s men. We were careful.”

  “Oh.” She gulped. “That’s good.”

  “Yes. I thought you were liking it.”

  She scowled. He’d deliberately messed with her meaning.

  Drake drew his body up the bed and plucked away the pillow, tossed it behind him. Then he pulled her to him, flipped her over, and kissed her fully on the mouth. Hot, wet kisses. Gentle kisses, and his hands roved over her back and ass, and into her hair, as if he was memorizing her curves. Over her breasts and elsewhere those hands traveled, until one was shoved down the front of her panties.

  The warmth of his palm nestling over her clit, pressing on her, rhythmically...

  She squirmed then ground herself against him. Soon she was writhing and clutching at his shoulders, her fingers kneading his hard muscles and her struggling to keep her eyes open.

  “You’re irresistible. Like a ripe fruit dripping honeyed sweetness, making everyone that goes past sniff at you, lick at you, want to shove themselves inside you. Fuck you, Princess, for being so fuckable. You distract me too much.” Drake played with her mouth, brushing his fingers across her bottom lip before trailing them to her neck.

  Amusement popped into her head and she smirked. “I annoy you because I am too...” No, she could not say that, but she snorted in a most un-princess-like way.

  He shook his head slowly. “Bad girl.”

  Such thoughts vanished from her head, for he brought his mouth to hers and devoured her—her mouth, her jaw, her neck muscles, using his teeth so nastily that she felt a spurt of wetness below. Then he lifted the front of her little nightdress and dragged it upward to gather beneath her chin.

  Fascinated, and already wrecked from his attention, with her forehead on his shoulder, she peered downward between their bodies. She licked at where his shoulder joined his neck. His taste promised sex. A little unfocused and panting, she watched him grasp her breasts, one in each hand to hold it still before he slithered down the bed to give them his full attention with his mouth—one breast, then the other, sucking on her.