Marauder Fenrir: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Mating Wars)

by Aya Morningstar

  I nod. “All right. I’ll go get the buggy.”

  “Fiona!” he calls out, grabbing my wrist. “One more thing.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m starving, do you have anything–.”

  I reach into my pocket and pull out a half-eaten stick of jerky.

  “Sorry, this is all–.”

  He snatches it from my hand and devours it. As soon as he’s done chewing, he closes his eyes and starts to snore.

  “I guess that’s how he heals…” I say to myself, before turning back toward the buggy.

  By the time I get back, I’m able to wake Fenrir, and he’s able to pull himself into the buggy.

  We stop by the leaking water pipe and fill up our reservoir. We have plenty of water, but we’re low on food. Cygnus–and my sister–are only a day or so drive away, so I can deal with my hunger until then.

  Fenrir’s stomach rumbles every few minutes though, loud enough that I can hear it from the back seat.

  “Are you going to make it?” I ask.

  “I need to stay alert to protect you...in case…” he mutters.

  “How are you going to protect me if you can’t hear, and if you’re too hungry to even sit up?”

  He narrows his eyes at me.

  “I need you alert for when we arrive,” I say.

  “I can hibernate,” he says. “Conserve what’s left...promote healing.”

  “Do it,” I snap. “You should have done it hours ago.”

  He grabs my hand and runs his thumb across my palm, pain filling his eyes. “I thought Minos would take you from me…”

  “He’s gone,” I say softly. “You killed him.”

  “Kaius is still out there though…” Fenrir mutters.

  “For all we know, his pod never even made it into the solar system. Maybe it sling-shotted off Neptune and flew into interstellar space.”

  “I will keep you safe, Fiona,” he says. “I see you.”

  And then his eyes close, and his stomach finally stops rumbling.

  20 Fenrir

  Fiona shakes me awake. “We’re here.”

  “Where?” I say. My throat is dry and my voice is hoarse.

  I grab my thermos, sit up, and chug some water.

  I’m still starving, but my leg is halfway healed. I can feel a big bruise on the back of my head, but my raging headache has subsided, as well.

  “Ready to smooth talk?” I ask.

  I look out the window and see two armed guards approaching. We’re parked outside a tall gate.

  We open the doors, and they raise their guns at us.

  “Who are you?” one asks. “We don’t recognize you.”

  “I’m Aura’s sister,” Fiona says.

  They give each other looks. “Any proof of that?”

  “Look at her!” I shout from the back seat.

  They finally notice me, and they cock their guns. “Don’t move!”

  The man to the right starts shouting–into some kind of earpiece, I assume, ”We’ve got a fucking Marauder here–not Aegus–and someone claiming to be the Great Mother’s sister!”

  After bringing us through the gate, everyone stops what they are doing to stare and gape at me. Some even bow.

  I turn to Enrico, the guard who is escorting us through town. “What are they doing?” I ask.

  “Word spreads fast,” Enrico says. “A third Marauder…”

  “But why are they bowing?” I ask.

  “Belief is a powerful tool…” Enrico says. “Great Brother Cygnus tried to fight it at first, but you can’t stop people from having faith.”

  “But in Fenrir?” Fiona says, snickering.

  “I think they just recognize me as stronger than Cygnus,” I say. “It’s only natural.”

  “No, no,” Enrico says. “There’d be even more bowing for Cygnus.”

  Fiona smiles and sticks her tongue out at me.

  I grab her hand and squeeze. “Come, let’s go find your sister...and the Great Brother.”

  Enrico points ahead. “He’s on family time, on one of the farms I think.”

  “Family time?” I ask.

  “It means we’re not supposed to bother him...but I think this would count as an exception.”

  “Yes,” I say. “Fiona is family.”

  Enrico narrows his eyes at us. He’s still holding his gun, and I suspect he doesn’t completely believe us. Though I doubt he wants to be the one who held the Great Mother’s sister at gunpoint.

  I notice more guards following closely behind us.

  “Have you eaten yet? Fenrir?” Enrico asks casually.

  At the thought of food, my stomach churns.

  His eyes widen, and he smiles. “I guess not.”

  “What you’re really asking me is if my biosuit is armed,” I say.

  Enrico nods. “Well, since it’s not...we can take you to see him.”

  The whole town is domed, but the dome is much lower and smaller than the one covering Nuevo Quito. As we walk down the street, the buildings start to thin out as we near the end of the dome. Everyone is still gawking at me, and some are still falling and bowing as I pass. I smile at Fiona each time someone bows to me, and she scoffs or rolls her eyes back at me. She must be dizzy from so much eye rolling.

  We reach the end of the dome, but there’s another larger dome through a small tunnel.

  “The farming dome,” Enrico says, pointing. “Having two separate domes acts as a nice safety measure. In a pinch, the whole settlement could move to the farming dome while we repaired the other.”

  We pass through the airlock and into the second dome. I can’t see any of the farms, as there is a steep hill in front of us blocking the view.

  “I’m not sure which of the farms the Great Brother and Mother are on…” Enrico says.

  I sniff, and I smell Marauder in the distance.

  I follow the scent, climbing the hill, and as I reach closer, I smell something else. It must be the child...and from the smell alone, I know that Aegus was right. That the children humans and Marauders bear together need not be Marauders. It means we can settle here, end our old way of life.

  If only people like Minos could really stop and think what that really means. My shame debt had blinded me from the true freedom that the Seraphic Form represents, but Fiona cleared the fog from my eyes. Just as her sister Aura must have done for Cygnus.

  We clear a small hill, and I see them first. Cygnus and Aura are standing side by side, and the child is jumping over tall stalks of corn. She’s laughing and happy, and I realize she’ll never need to leave this place. She’s the first child of a Marauder who can stay where she was born and build a peaceful life.

  I turn back to Fiona and Enrico, and I point around the hill. “Just around the hill; come on.”

  I slide down the hill and guide them around the edge. As soon as Fiona sees her sister, she breaks into a run.

  Cygnus hears first, and he spins toward us.

  As soon as he sees my purple skin, I smell fear radiating from him. He’s not afraid for himself, but he’s afraid for his mate and child.

  I smile and relax, and I hold up my hand, mimicking the human greeting. His fear slowly subsides, and when he realizes that Fiona is his mate’s sister, I see a smile fill his face, as well.

  “Fenrir?” Cygnus says, as I move closer toward him.

  And then I smell guilt pouring out of him.

  “I was sent to kill you,” I say. “But I’ve chosen Fiona over revenge.”

  Fiona and Aura grab hold of each other, hugging tightly. I see tears in Aura’s eyes, but they’re both laughing.

  “Just revenge?” Cygnus asks. “I didn’t want to kill Zarek, but I had to.”

  “I know,” I say. “No, not just revenge. Half of the fleet has welcomed Aegus’s message...but the other half has not.”

  “Daddy!” the child says, jumping into him.

  He catches her and cradles her in his arms.

  She turns to me and says, �
�Is that uncle Aegus?”

  “No,” Cygnus says. “This is Fenrir, but that woman is your Aunt Fiona.”

  Sara looks up at me cautiously, and then at Fiona.

  Fiona smiles. “Hi, Sara…”

  I can tell she doesn’t know what to say. But it’s more than I can manage.

  Sara has pale pink skin, and her ears are on the side of her head like a human’s, but they are pointy like a Marauder’s. She lacks the cool, calculated ruthlessness that Marauder females are known for even from a young age.

  “Say hello!” Aura says, taking Sara from Cygnus’s arms and putting her onto the ground.

  “Hello, Aunt Fiona,” Sara says, blushing.

  “She’s shy with new people at first,” Aura says, “She’ll warm up–.”

  “I’m not shy!” Sara whines. “Don’t make fun of me!”

  I still can’t believe what this little girl represents. No longer must our people endure brutal journeys across the stars...each time I look at her, I’m reminded of it.

  “I am shy, too, little Sara,” I say.

  “I’m not little either!” she shouts.

  “No…” I say. “The Seraphic Form is infinitely large…”

  “You’re weird, Fenrir,” she says.

  And then everyone laughs at me.

  21 Fiona

  “We’ve got a few thousand people here,” Aura says. “But there are more and more every day. We’ll have to build new domes soon to hold everyone.”

  I keep looking at Sara. Every time I look at her, I try to imagine what my own kid might look like...with Fenrir.

  “I see that look,” Aura says. “Have you...done it?”

  “Done what?” I say, feeling my face flushing red.

  “Felt the...teal vibration,” Aura says, smirking.

  My face burns hotter than the sun, and Aura grins. “Yep, you have!”

  “Is Sara the first?” I ask, trying to get the topic off my sex life.

  Fenrir and Cygnus are talking in the other room, or rather Cygnus is talking and Fenrir is devouring enough rations to feed ten men for a month.

  “Yes,” Aura says.

  “I thought Aegus…”

  “Aegus is...difficult,” Aura says. “He tricked Cygnus and many others into believing he’d taken a mate.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Well,” Aura says, “it’s hard to get done what needs doing if you have a wife and child to protect.”

  “But why trick Cygnus? Why lie about having found his mate?”

  Aura bites her lip. “You saw the look on Fenrir’s face when he saw Sara, right? It’s one thing to believe something–and I don’t doubt that Fenrir truly believed it–but many Marauders will need to see it with their own eyes.”

  I nod.

  “So you tamed a badass assassin?” Aura says, laughing. “He must really like you.”

  “I haven’t tamed him,” I say. “He’s still like...90% barbarian.”

  Aura laughs. “I know what you mean, and don’t expect that to change too much. I’m reminded every time we sit down to eat that Cygnus is never going to be a mild-mannered guy, he–.”

  Enrico bursts into the room, cutting Aura off.

  “Great Mother! Great...Aunt...you need to see this! We’re intercepting a broadcast from somewhere in Martian orbit.”

  We both stand up and follow him into the communications room. Fenrir and Cygnus are already there.

  A Marauder I’ve never seen fills the screen.

  “It’s Kaius…” Fenrir says. “The third assassin.”

  “I am Kaius. The Marauder brothers Aegus and Cygnus claim they are here to save humanity, but I will destroy you by the millions if they do not turn themselves over to me. I will first destroy the elevator, and while the cable falls and destroys Nuevo Quito–as well as countless other equatorial cities as it wraps around the equator–I will begin destroying your precious habitats one by one until the brothers have surrendered to me. I care nothing for human life, and I will gleefully kill humans by the millions. If Aegus and Cygnus truly care for human life, they will turn themselves over to me. If I haven’t heard from you within twenty-four hours, and if you both have not surrendered to me within a week’s time, the elevator is gone.”

  The screen fades, and everyone starts muttering and shouting.

  “Quiet!” I demand, forcing the room to silence. “I will stop him.”

  “How?” Fiona asks me. “It will take us days to reach the space elevator again, and we don’t even know where he is!”

  “Actually,” Enrico says, looking at this screen. “He’s near...New Wessex? Can that be right?”

  “And where is Aegus?” I ask.

  Cygnus and Aura look at each other.

  “Where?” Fiona asks.

  “We don’t know,” they say together. “He keeps his movements secret...we can’t even contact him.”

  “Will he make contact with Kaius?” Fiona asks. “Or will he value his secret movement over all those human lives?”

  “He’s my brother!” Cygnus snarls. “He’ll do what’s right!”

  Aura pulls Cygnus back, stroking his forearms.

  “I’ll have to meet him,” Cygnus says. “Turn myself in…or at least pretend to. Maybe I can take him out…”

  “He doesn’t seem to know about me,” I say. “He might have just reached the solar system.”

  “Who was he sent to kill?” Cygnus asks.

  “He was backup. He was meant to help where he was needed most. I turned my transponder off, and Minos is gone. He must think he’s on his own now, and that this is his best shot.”

  “Can he really blow up the elevator and all those habitats?” Fiona asks, grabbing my arm and pressing into me.

  “If he still has anti-matter,” Cygnus says, “then yes, he can.”

  “Do you have ships?” I ask.

  “No,” Cygnus says, shaking his head. “Not really...we recovered one ship a few months ago, but it’s an old junker. It has no A.I. or advanced navigation systems–they are fully manually–no one can fly it.”

  Aura looks up, her mouth hanging open.

  “I can fly it,” Fiona says.

  I’m sitting on the bed, and Fiona presses her body up against me. I move away from her.

  “Fenrir,” she says. “Come on.”

  “Why did you offer to fly that ship?” I ask.

  “Because I’m the only one who can!” she says, grabbing my arm. I don’t push her away this time, but I refuse to look at her.

  “The most likely scenario is that Kaius will destroy the ship as soon as he has a clear shot.”

  “What if he wants Cygnus alive? To force him to broadcast a new message to the fleet? To say Aegus was lying–.”

  “What if?” I shout, finally facing her, my ears pulled back in anger. “You want to throw your life away on a ‘what if?’”

  “And do you want to throw millions of lives away on a what-if?” she fumes. “I’m a soldier, Fenrir, a turret woman. I signed up to risk my life to save others...even if the imperial space fleet didn’t end up doing that. This is my chance to do it for real, to really save people...and you can help us do it.”

  “Cygnus and I can do it alone,” I say. “We can take the elevator to New Copenhagen, and–.”

  “Seriously, Fenrir?” she says. “As soon as he spots you two on the elevator, he’ll just blow the fucking thing up. It was likely his plan all along, to get Cygnus at least on the elevator. Taking the ship straight to orbit will give us a huge edge, and that relies on me being involved.”

  She presses her breasts into me, and through the thin layer of her clothes I can feel her nipples hard against my back. Her warmth and her softness pull the fight out of me. She has not convinced me to let her go through with her foolish plan…she’s only convinced me to stop arguing with her...for now.

  I turn back and kiss her passionately. There are thousands of things that can go wrong in the coming days, but being mad at
Fiona shouldn’t be one of them. She’s one of the only things that is right just how it is, and I need to show her I feel that way.

  She shoves me down onto the bed–well, I let her shove me–and she straddles me. My cock springs up and presses against the silk cloth of her panties. I feel myself vibrating against her ass, but my eyes are closed and my lips are locked to hers.

  “Tomorrow, Fenrir,” she says, pulling her lips from mine. “I will drive.”

  I scowl at her.

  “But tonight, I will ride,” she says, grinning.

  “I don’t understand–.”

  She pulls her panties to the side and lowers her wet tightness down my thick and soaked shaft.

  “Oh,” I say, eyes widening, “Ride...I understand.”

  She presses her hands down hard onto my chest and begins to buck her hips. I can feel her thick ass slamming against me with each thrust, and I work my long girth deeper and deeper into her with each thrust. The wetness floods around my cock and allows it to work itself smoothly into her deepest places. Her glorious tits are bouncing above me, and her hard nipples are poking out. I reach up and grab her breasts as she rides me, and I caress them gently in my hands as she bounces wildly up and down on my cock.

  My cock’s vibrations intensify, and Fiona stops bouncing up and down. She leans forward while I clasp and tweak her nipples, and my dick presses its full depth into her. I can feel the swollen warmth of her clit firmly pressed up against my shaft as it vibrates with lustful intensity. As I stimulate her clit, I feel her walls tighten and throb against me. I close my eyes and focus on the feel of her soft breasts in my rough, calloused hands. I relish the tight embrace of her pussy squeezing me for all its worth. And I open my eyes and take in the radiant beauty of her smiling face. I understand that I could have mistaken such beauty for blasphemous temptation, but nothing this beautiful could ever truly be a bad thing.

  I enjoy the feel of her on top of me, but a primal urge to take charge rises up within me. I grunt, sit up, and shove her over and down onto her back. I pull my cock out from her slick channel just long enough to rip off her panties with a forceful tear. She gasps, and I look down at my cum-soaked teal cock and her dripping wet pussy, and then I pull her legs back and plunge forcefully into her soaking wet hole.