by Stella Cassy
“I've seen that already, remember?” I said sourly.
“But you haven't seen it free of Pax rule,” he answered with a smile. “I suspect that now, the experience will be far more pleasant for you.”
20
Dashel
“I know you thought you were already familiar with this planet,” I said to Natalie, gesturing grandly at our surroundings, “but I don't suppose you ever had a chance to see this place while you were a slave in the mines, did you?”
“No,” she replied, looking around wide-eyed. “I certainly didn't.”
I grinned, delighted that I'd managed to please her. With the help of the Wyvern's sensor array (after it had been repaired from the heavy damage it sustained during the battle), I found a beautiful subterranean hot spring. It was just outside the boundaries of the N-3 camp, still wholly unspoiled by the Pax's mining equipment.
The rock formations were luminescent turquoise threaded with glowing wisps of purple and magenta, and the steaming waters were so clear and pure that the threads of gold and silver ore at the bottom were visible. The stalactites hanging above rapidly collected moisture from the air, sending it down in a warm and steady perpetual rain that kept the surfaces of the pond rippling endlessly. Due to the iridescent algae that grew and clung to the walls in lush curtains, the entire cavern smelled of wildflowers.
It was the most magical place I've ever encountered in a lifetime of space travel, and when I discovered it, I couldn't wait to show it to Natalie. It was difficult for me to fully understand why she was in such a hurry to return to a polluted and evolutionarily stunted world like Earth, but I hoped this might distract her from that, at least temporarily.
From the look on her face, it was apparent that I had succeeded.
I unlatched my space suit, stepping out of it and feeling the warm damp of the cave on my naked scales. A thousand tiny beads of moisture formed on them immediately, making their colors dance and shimmer even more than usual. I turned and caught Natalie staring at them.
“I love the way the light catches your skin,” she said.
“Good. Now why don't you show me how it catches yours as well?”
She batted her eyelashes at me suggestively – a peculiar mating ritual among humans, though it certainly managed to turn me on as well. One by one, she undid the latches on her suit, deliberately pausing for effect between each one as she maintained eye contact with me. When it fell to the ground at her feet, she hooked a toe into it, kicking it aside like a dancer in a Ba'Lexx burlesque house. She was certainly as lithe and graceful as one, her hips undulating smoothly as she teased me from a distance.
I sank into the pool with a deep and contented sigh, the healing waters saturating my entire body up to the neck, and gestured with a claw for her to join me.
Natalie stepped in delicately. I admired the sheen on her nude thighs and breasts – the warmth was already making her perspire, and the effect was immensely sensual. A blush bloomed on her cheeks, and her nipples were erect as they slipped beneath the water. She paddled toward me, her hair floating on the surface around her head like delicate strands of seaweed.
I had never wanted anyone – not even Qumarah – as much as I'd wanted her. I couldn't believe she was mine for the taking.
When she reached me, she straddled me, putting a hand beneath the surface to find my cock. Her fingers worked their way up and down, up and down, relishing the buoyancy and slipperiness the water provided. I was already harder than solid steel, and my claws caressed her breasts gently, skimming them lightly enough to scratch without drawing blood.
Her lips were parted, inches away from my own. I leaned forward to kiss her, but she reared back playfully, keeping her mouth just out of reach as her rhythm on my shaft quickened sharply.
I lowered a hand beneath the surface as well, finding the soft and willing folds of her pussy. They parted in an unconscious but perfect imitation of her rosy mouth.
Her eyes danced with mischief and desire. She wanted me, and she knew how much I wanted her. But she wanted to tease me. To make me wait. To show me I wasn't in control – that she may have been my lover, but she was no one's possession.
Well, I thought, we'll just see about that, won't we?
I slid one finger inside her first, then swiftly followed it with another. Her entire body stiffened and trembled, as though a bolt of electricity was running through her.
Not for the first time, I marveled at how steamy, slick, and welcoming human women felt inside. The sensation was so pleasurable and perfect, so unlike anything else, that it was almost impossible to describe – it felt like belonging, as though it was someplace I had always been destined to be and had finally found. Slipping into her was like slipping into the hot springs. All at once, all worries, all thoughts of anything else, evaporated, replaced with pure relaxation and happiness.
I moved my fingers up and down, and she rode them eagerly as they found their way deeper and deeper inside her. Her muscles contracted around them, and her small patch of hair tickled my palm. I used my thumb on her clit and she gasped loudly. She rocked forward, kissing me, unable to resist her own primal urges anymore.
I removed my fingers and she responded with a moan, clearly wanting more. But I was done playing and teasing. I needed to be within her. I needed for my body to merge with hers, deeply and passionately, pushing together until we became almost one.
I could wait no longer.
I put my hands up her back, resting my palms on her shoulders and dragging her down onto my cock. As before, there was a brief moment when it seemed her sweet opening wouldn't be able to accommodate my size...but it spread so wide she screamed my name, letting me plunge into her, penetrating her, filling her as completely as her human physiology would allow.
My hands remained on her shoulders, holding her tightly, not even allowing her to move up and down on top of me – I just hugged her close, only going forward and then holding my position inside her, refusing to retreat even an inch. To be enveloped by her completely was absolute sweetness, and I wouldn't pull back, not even to thrust again.
We stayed like that for a long time, swaying back and forth and whispering each other's names as though they were prayers, until we couldn't stand it anymore – a final push, a single grind of her hips against mine, and we exploded together like a pair of stars colliding. Our heat became indistinguishable from that of the pool around us, until it seemed like the entire grotto was filled with our lust, our moans echoing endlessly around us.
After over an hour of soaking and splashing around, we reluctantly decided to return to the ship.
As we made our way over the smooth stones, one of them shifted under Natalie suddenly and she cried out sharply, her leg going out from under her.
I caught her and held her upright, supporting her weight easily. “Natalie?”
“My ankle,” she hissed. It sounded like she was in agony. “It's broken.”
I kept forgetting how brittle human bones were compared to those of the Hielsrane. “Come,” I said, “let's get you to the sickbay. Stal will take good care of you.”
“All those years on this fucking planet,” Natalie gasped, limping along with me awkwardly. “I survive the mines, a dragon invasion, goddamn space battles, all without breaking a bone. But take one dip in a hot spring, and...ugh.”
21
Natalie
“Just give the calcium knitter a chance to repair your ankle,” Stal rasped impatiently, placing the portable matrix over my foot carefully, “and you should be up and about again within the hour. Perhaps this time, you might even manage to exercise a bit of caution with regard to where you're walking, instead of traipsing around blithely on slippery and unstable piles of rock to get your kicks. But if not, that's fine. After all, with around two dozen Hielsrane officers still on the critically injured list, and a bunch of medical assistants from the Gyygnar who apparently skipped half their biology classes to get high on Aldaisian bath salts, clearly I h
ave nothing but free time to deal with this sort of careless nonsense.”
During my time on the Wyvern, I'd gotten used to Stal's sarcasm, and I knew the best way to counter it was by appealing to his ego. “Thank you, doctor. I'm sorry to take you away from your other duties. I know how busy and important you are, and it's greatly appreciated.”
He grunted his grudging approval at my show of respect, then put his finger on the matrix's activator, preparing to switch it on. “Before we begin, my dear, I should warn you: When the splintered bones start shifting to knit themselves together, the sensation will be...well, unpleasant, to put it mildly. If you feel you have to scream, please let me know so I can provide you with a mouth guard. We don't want you upsetting the other patients. We don't want Dashel to think I'm torturing you in here, either, for that matter.”
“Then if it's not too much trouble,” I asked timidly, “might I please have something to numb the pain? On the command deck, I heard Dashel mention that you had tranquilizers. Would those help?”
He shook his head. “They would, but unfortunately, I'm unable to administer them to you, given your condition.”
“What condition? Is there something else wrong with me?”
“In a manner of speaking,” he said with a dry chuckle. “In fact, I imagine Tarion will think it's quite wrong indeed. You currently have a pair of Drakon offspring gestating inside you.”
A ringing filled my ears, and everything around me went slow and blurry, as though I had been plunged into icy water. I felt like I might faint. Instead, I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself enough to form words: “Stal, I know you've got a dark sense of humor, but that joke seems a little extreme even for you.”
“It's no joke, I'm afraid. I've scanned you multiple times just to be sure, since I knew Tarion would order me to do so anyway once he found out. Dashel's impregnated you. With twins.” He tilted his head, peering at me. “Frankly, I'm surprised that you didn't already know. Drakon females tend to become aware of their own pregnancies within a matter of days, so I assumed you would too. But perhaps that trait is unique to our species. I wouldn't know...I'm a combat medic, not a damn obstetrician.”
This is some kind of crazy dream, I thought. It has to be.
“This is impossible,” I said softly. “He's a dragon, for God's sake. He's cold-blooded. I'm warm-blooded. There's no way we could procreate together. Biologically, it makes no sense.”
“Oh! I see. Well, in that case, I suppose you're not pregnant after all, so there's nothing to worry about,” he retorted briskly. “I mean, I must bow to your superior expertise in these matters, since you obviously earned an advanced medical degree while working in the mines and I only have a paltry, oh, forty years of experience as a healer to rely on.”
“I'm...pregnant. With dragons.” The words seemed like they were coming from someone else's mouth, even as I said them.
“Yes. You're pregnant. With dragons. Two of them. Unless one devours the other in utero, that is.”
I fought a wave of nausea. “They do that?!”
Stal chuckled. “Now that was a joke. If one were going to eat the other, it would have happened already.”
“So...but...wait, your species is reptilian,” I protested. “Don't reptiles lay eggs? I mean...am I going to lay eggs?”
“Human physiology may not be my specialty,” he said, “but even I know that human females have 'eggs' as well, after a fashion. You're born with about a million of them, and you ovulate roughly three or four hundred during your lifetime. So no, you won't be squatting over a nest of twigs and pine needles to lay your eggs. They'll allow the offspring to develop within your body in the usual way, and then you'll give birth. For God's sake, didn't they teach you these sorts of things in school? Just what do humans teach their young, anyway? No, wait...don't answer, I'm sure it will only depress me.”
I wasn't waking up from this. This was no dream. This was my life. I was pregnant. With twins. Dragons. If I'd known this was a possibility, I would have—well, no, looking back, there was nothing much I could have done to avoid it. What was I supposed to do while I was trying to seduce my way out of my cell? Insist that Dashel stop midway and procure whatever dragons use for condoms?
“Won't giving birth to a pair of dragons kill me?” I asked, terrified. The thought of them tearing their way out of me made my blood freeze.
“These births are, shall we say, frowned upon in Hielsrane society, but they're not unheard of,” he reassured me. “As long as you have access to a proper medical facility, everything should be fine. Now, I'm going to switch on the calcium matrix. Perhaps you might distract yourself from the pain by deciding whether you'd like me to inform Dashel of this state of affairs, or if you'd prefer to break the news to him yourself.”
The feeling of my fractured bones rotating and knitting themselves together was agonizing. I welcomed it. At least it provided a brief distraction from what I'd just been told.
Pregnant with alien twins.
Jesus, what had my life turned into?
22
Dashel
Outside the window of my cabin, the Gyygnar had separated into two independently-controlled sections – each one with a command deck and three nacelles – and their crews were engaged in training maneuvers. It was an impressive ship, capable of waging war on two different fronts at once. But I wasn't paying any attention to that.
Instead, I stared at the empty green bottle for a few moments, then turned it upside down over my glass and shook it, pounding on the base just to be sure there weren't a few more drops hiding in there. I bitterly wished I'd brought a second bottle on this mission. Maybe even a whole case of them. The news Natalie had given me was still clanging and echoing in my head, and I'd have given anything in that moment to drown it out.
I'd impregnated her. With twins, even.
Okay, maybe I could forgive myself for not wearing a neut-ring around the base of my cock the first time we'd had sex. After all, I'd gone into that cell to interrogate her, not to make love to her.
But the second time, in my cabin? The third time, down on the planet's surface?
And by the time we'd visited the underground grotto, well...the damage had surely been done by then, hadn't it?
So now what?
I tried to look on the bright side. We were lovers, weren't we? We'd made plans for the future together, hadn't we? Why shouldn't we have offspring as well? Yes, these things generally went much better when they'd been planned out in advance – even between two Drakon– but that didn't mean the outcome couldn't still be a positive one. We could love these hatchlings, teach them, support them, watch them grow into proud warriors of the Hielsrane empire...
If they inherit even one-tenth of their mother's strength, determination, beauty, and resourcefulness, I thought wryly, they'll probably end up running the empire, and looking damn good while they do it.
Still, I was well aware of the problems that would be inherent in a situation like this one – especially as my door chimed, letting me know that two of those problems were standing right outside my cabin.
“Come in,” I said wearily, “and let's get this over with.”
The door slid open. Lehar entered, and Tarion came in behind him, arms crossed over his wide chest. “So that's how you intend to play this right from the start, old friend?” Lehar growled dangerously. “As though we're being unreasonable by taking you to task for this...folly?”
I shrugged expansively. “You've come here to chastise me for taking a human slave as a lover, despite the fact that both of you have more or less done the same thing. How else would you expect me to react to such hypocrisy?”
“This is different,” Tarion snarled. “First of all, according to Stal, you've impregnated this girl. With twins, no less.”
“I'm sorry,” I replied, “should I have made it just one baby instead of twins? If so, you'll have to forgive me. I didn't know that was something I had any control over.”
&
nbsp; “This is not an appropriate time for you to showcase your famously irreverent sense of humor, Dashel,” Lehar said coldly.
“And to answer the question of what you should have done,” Tarion added nastily, “you should have practiced some restraint, or, failing that, some discretion and common sense. There are methods to prevent these sorts of 'accidents' from happening, as you well know.”
“Yes, and I agree, it was short-sighted of me to forget to apply those methods in the heat of the moment. But since we're all men here, and no doubt we've all made similar mistakes a time or two when our blood has been up, I'd expect a bit more sympathy and understanding in this case.”
“You expect sympathy and understanding from us in this matter?” Tarion repeated in disbelief. “You're starting to sound like a human already! What's next, Dashel? Would you like to petition the fleet to establish a 'support group' for you and the other military fathers, so you can trade diapering tips and formula recipes? Are you planning to set up a daycare center on your ship for your offspring, so they can amuse themselves with dolls and toys while you trade laser blasts with Alliance ships?”
“Or perhaps you intend to give your new mate a field promotion to lieutenant commander so you can serve side by side,” Lehar chimed in, “in the fashion of these willful and liberated Earther females?”
“Now you're just being hyperbolic,” I shot back, wishing once again that I had another bottle of nectar at my disposal. Countering their verbal barbs was thirsty work indeed. “And, again, I must point out that your double-standard is appalling.”
“You may point that out all you wish,” said Lehar, “but no matter how many snide comments you lob at us, the fact remains that we're only trying to help you.”
“Oh?” I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms in the universal gesture for This should be good, let's hear it.
