His to Claim

by Taylor Vaughn

  “Ki’Ra? Are you still there?” N’Maryah’s voice asks above me.

  “Yes, I’m still here,” I answer. “And, I’ll try to meet you tomorrow. Thank you for checking in on me, even after I failed to show up.”

  About an hour after N’Maryah and I exchange goodbyes, D’Rek returns to our rooms. I want to immediately ask him about being allowed to go to the gardens while he’s away on his trip, but when I see how deeply furrowed his ridges are, I rise to my feet, worried something is wrong.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, rushing over to him.

  “May I have permission to breed you?” he answers, his face tight.

  “Yes, but are you—”

  He drops to his knees, his mouth crashing down on my pussy. And what exactly was my question…?

  Instead of asking him if he’s okay again, I end up sagging into the nearest wall as he makes me come in what couldn’t even be two old planet minutes. Often, he stays down there, lapping hungrily even after “my arrival.”

  But today he quickly stands again, rips his beautiful robe down the middle, and picks me up like I weigh nothing. I gasp when he drops my sopping wet pussy down on his cock, impaling me easily on his fully-erect staff.

  “Feel for yourself what you have done to me, k’vani…how I could think of little more than your sweet hot for the long hours we were apart,” he hisses into my ear as he fucks me freestanding. His hands force my hips up and down on his ridged erection. “You will make amends to your Kel for his suffering….”

  I think he’s asking for…demanding an apology from me.

  But I can’t answer him, can only hold on, with my arms wrapped around his neck, as he lifts me up and down on his dick. The scrape of his plated skin against my breasts…and the angle of his dick…it’s like he’s pressing into some previously unknown spot inside of me…tightening my stomach until…

  “Oh moons, D’Rek! Oh moons…” I come with a helpless scream, which will probably get even more stories of my torture relayed back to N’Maryah.

  “K’vani…the way you milk my cock!” My back suddenly meets Xalthurian gold as D’Rek beasts out, his heavy body rippling over mine as he fucks me into the wall.

  I continue to hang on, fully impaled on his dick and too far gone on pleasure to do much more than moan as he pounds furiously into my afterlight. Eventually he releases into me with a fierce combination of clicks and hisses that I think might be the Xalthurian way of cursing.

  I don’t know. Can’t care as he streams so much cum into me, I know I’ll be leaking his blue alien jizz all over his floor when he pulls out.

  But he doesn’t pull out. He stays right where he is, his ridged cock still hard and pulsing inside of me, even though he’s released.

  “D’Rek…?” I ask, confused.

  “My Kel is the proper address,” he clicks into my ear.

  “Are you planning to pull out?” I whisper into his ear, ignoring his correction. “As good as this feels I don’t think we can stay like this forever.”

  “No, we cannot stay like this forever.” He presses his ridged forehead into my shoulder. “You will tell me what I am to do, Ki’Ra. I barely made it through six hours of briefing for the Kaidorian negotiations. By the end, I was in such dire need, it was all I could do not to run out of my throne room without so much as a good-bye. I am warrior born and trained, yet I do not know how I can bear such pain for the amount of days I will be away on my trip.”

  I laugh…then realize he’s serious when he draws back to look at me with a miserable expression.

  “You know I’m not the only source of relief available to you.”

  “You are suggesting I bring a comfort female along with me on my trip. That would actually be quite dangerous. According to the latest reports, the Kaidorians are experiencing fertility problems of their own. Catching even a whiff of female hormone would distract them greatly during the negotiations—it might even be enough to send them into a mating frenzy. They are known throughout the pleasure stations in many solar systems as a savage and insatiable race. Bringing a comfort female along would not be safe for the treaty negotiations or the female herself.”

  “No, I’m not suggesting you bring another female with you.” A surprising irritation prickles up my spine at the thought of him fucking someone else, even though I technically shouldn’t care. “I’m just saying, you can take care of yourself. With your own hand. Remember how I touched myself the first time we were together?”

  “Yes, of course, I remember,” he answers his cock pulsing hard inside of me. “You touching yourself will not alleviate my need, however. If anything, it would make it worse—Ki’Ra you will tell me why you are laughing.”

  “Um…let’s move this conversation to the sleeping mat.”

  What follows is a fumbling demonstration. I’m not great at hand jobs. It’s not nearly as instinctual as kissing or rolling my hips in tandem with his as we rush toward our sexual peaks.

  But D’Rek is a quick study, both literally and figuratively. He takes over from me, his large hand, moving up and down his shaft. And a few minutes later, we both watch in fascination as long spurts of blue semen erupt from his dick.

  “Thank you,” he tells me when his cock finally calms. “I believe this protocol will come in handy many times during the days we are apart.”

  “You’re still hard,” I say. And though it’s been less than an hour since I climaxed three times, back-to-back, my own body swells with need.

  “And you are once again aroused…” D’Rek’s nostrils flare as he audibly sniffs the air. “I wonder if you’ve leaked more of my sweet juices.”

  I have…

  Did I say we’d gotten much better about not skipping meals over the past week? Scratch that. Our good eaters streak is totally broken, as we spend the rest of the day and night consuming nothing but each other in bouts of wild, unbridled sex framed by sleep.

  There’s something desperate in the air, I note as we keep reaching for each other over and over. We’ll only be apart for seven days, but we fuck as if we’ll never see each other again.

  The next morning finds us still tangled up underneath the covers of his sleeping mat, D’Rek buried deep inside of me, his tongue swirled around mine as he fucks me hard into the bed.

  An urgent beeping suddenly sounds from above.

  “I think they’re ready for you to come on already,” I say, looking up at the now glowing ceiling with a laugh.

  “My Kel, this is T’Kan,” a voice says, as if confirming my guess. “My apologies for contacting you in this manner, but you did not answer any of my holo hails, and I wanted to ensure you were aware of the time.”

  “I am aware,” D’Rek answers as he continues to piston his hips into mine.

  “With respect, my Kel, it is not advisable to be late to our negotiations with the Kaidorians.”

  “I am aware and will be there shortly. Comm end.”

  The ceiling stops glowing, before the voice he called T’Kan can answer. And soon after we come together, me with a moan, him with a long hiss. But he doesn’t linger this time.

  “I must go now,” he tells me, lifting up.

  “I know,” I answer as he pulls out of me. I miss him already and that makes me feel like a big baby.

  He disappears into the bathroom and comes out a few minutes later, no longer smelling like a night of debauchery and with his white hair tied in a proper top knot. I sit up in bed, when he opens a wall filled with golden armors, like the ones he wore down to the planet the first time.

  “Are there any clothes for me?” I ask as I watch him put on a pair of pants. They hung loose on the hanger but instantly mold to his thickly muscled legs after he pulls them all the way up.

  “Why would you need clothes?” he answers. “We are still in the very warm season. But if the room’s heating system is not to your liking, you can simply order your two attendants to turn it up.”

  “D’Rek, I’m not an animal,” I say, rising
to a stand. “I can’t just sit around for a whole week with nothing to do. I’d like to go out.”

  His back stiffens. “You have a wish to leave the palace while I am gone.”

  “Yes, us humans need the sun, or else we can get depressed.”

  “You will tell me what this word depressed means.”

  “Sad. We get sad if we don’t get enough sun, and I haven’t been out of this room in four weeks.”

  He finishes putting on the golden armor shirt, which also instantly molds to his body. “My keeping you here is not something you complained about before.”

  No, it wasn’t. I weigh how much to tell him.

  On one hand, he’s been kind and attentive for the last few weeks. So maybe I could trust him, if I told him about N’Maryah. On the other hand, I remember what N’Maryah told me about how much trouble she’d get into if he found out she’d contacted me through his personal comm system.

  Better safe than sorry, I decide. But guilt twists my gut as I say, “Without you here to distract me, I’m afraid I’ll get bored. And I don’t have access to one of those swipe holo screens. Do you even have entertainments, like we do down on the colony ship?”

  “No, we do not. We only report the news of the day. We have no reason to make up stories as your race does.”

  His brow furrows, and I hold my breath, waiting to see what he’ll say. “You are telling me that when I am here, you do not care if you go outside or even eat. But now you are afraid that you will become bored and very, very sad without my constant attentions. In fact, the sun is the only thing that can replace me while I am away from you—Ki’Ra you will tell me why you are laughing.”

  “Because you’re either right or super arrogant.”

  “I do believe your Kel is right.”

  “Or both.”

  “But right above all.”

  But then the arrogant look fades. “You asked me once about my father’s death. I am experiencing a feeling now, similar to the one I had after the burning of his body. There is a sadness inside of me and a longing to see you again, even though I will only be gone for seven days.”

  I smile up at him, my heart warms by his confused expression. “I think what you’re trying to say, what we’re both trying to say is, I’m going to miss you.”

  His ridges smooth. “Most often your language is terrible. But in this case, it serves the situation well.” He gives me a stern look. “No, faun riding. It is not safe. But when the sun is in the sky, you will be allowed to walk wherever you wish upon the palace grounds. Then at night, you will await my calls on a special holo screen. We will speak of our days to each other, and then you will watch as I stroke myself in the way you have shown me, and I will allow for you to touch yourself to arrival as well. In this way we will pass our evenings, so that the missing is not so terrible. And now you will show me the proper kiss.”

  “The proper kiss?” I ask, struggling to keep up.

  “You said before that different kisses mean different things to your race. I assume there is a kiss for good-bye.”

  “Oh, yes…there is. Basically, since you’re taller, you give me a kiss on each cheek. Then lean down so that I can give you a kiss on the forehead. That’s the New Terrhan way.”

  “This is not what I expected,” he tells me. “But I will attempt to follow your strange custom.”

  With that declaration, he turns me around, and… “No, no, D’Rek! Not those cheeks. The ones on my face.”

  We’re both laughing by the time he turns me back around. But somewhere between the first press of his lips to my right cheek and the second to my left, the laughter dies, and is replaced by sadness. Not a fake one designed to get me the freedom I want while he’s away, but a genuine yearning to keep him here with me.

  A weird panic flutters inside my chest as I press my lips to his forehead, and I cling to his shoulders until he gently sets me away.

  “I will comm you this night and every other while I am away, k’vani.”

  “And I’ll be here,” I assure him.

  We look at each other then, no longer touching, but feeling each other all the same.

  “Goodbye, Ki’Ra,” he says. The words feel and sound like a decision. And he turns around without waiting for my answer.

  I don’t return his goodbye. Not just because we New Terrhans prefer terms like, “See you later,” but because my throat is too jammed with confused emotions.

  As I silently watch him go, I wonder if he, like me, noticed that nearly every single thing we just said, just agreed to, lay outside of the Ki’Ra-Kel D’rek Treaty. And I worry. Because if saying goodbye for a week was this hard, what will we do when it comes time to say goodbye for good?

  13

  D’Rek

  If I agree to this, Ki’Ra will never forgive me.

  This thought echoes through my head even as I pretend to listen to the latest round of negotiations between N’Ure and the Kaidorian diplomats.

  The Kaidorian emperor brought four diplomats to my one, and a guard of twenty-four to my six. This quadruple outnumbering struck me as quite an interesting coincidence, when the Kaidorian Emperor and I met across the Darlanz Space Station’s council table on the first day of our peace talks.

  According to our intel, the Kaidorians had produced even less females than Xalthuria during the Three Generation War. Even before the Extinction Virus spread across several systems, we had heard rumors of them living in family groups of four males to every female.

  If the emperor’s chosen ratio of diplomats and warriors to mine was any indication, perhaps the Kaidorians truly did prefer four to one, I’d thought as Emperor Zalias and I had taken our seats of honor directly across from each other.

  However, my flippant mood quickly dissolved when they presented their initial list of demands.

  One of these demands continued to resonate particularly loud inside my head, even after five long days of negotiations between our diplomats on the Darlanz mining station. Technically, the mining station belonged to us.

  The Xalthurians had almost finished building it, when the Kaidorians attacked, claiming they had discovered the asteroid belt first, and had merely gone off to gather supplies to build their own station. Thus, had begun the Three Generation War.

  Now we are right back where our two races started. At a negotiation table in a room originally meant to house the main office of our mining operations. Those negotiations had concluded with my grandfather’s death, and it is not lost on me that these could end the same way if we do not tread carefully. However, that was before the Extinction Virus.

  Sitting across from the Kaidorian emperor, I feel ancient, even though I am quite a few solars younger than my father was when he ascended to the throne. And I wonder if the emperor feels similarly. According to my intel, he is also the grandson of the male who gouged my grandfather to death before being shot down by our soldiers.

  However, despite our carefully placed seats we have had little interaction. Save for a single greeting at the start of each new day of peace mediation, the Kaidorian Emperor and I have not talked at all during these negotiations. In truth, much of our work is done back on our respective ships. A good ruler engages diplomats who know his intentions so well, there is no need for him to do any talking. This meeting is more ceremonial than anything and that it has so far been non-volatile is an indication we are both good rulers.

  In any case, we are expected to do little more than occasionally nod our heads to indicate we were listening. This has given me plenty of time to think upon the addictive hu’man I left behind on my home planet. Think upon and worry about.

  Was she thinking of me too? Did she feel lonely? How would I explain the Kaidorians’ unexpected request to her?

  I eye the main Kaidorian diplomat, sitting across from N’Ure and droning through a list of concessions and demands. He is a bit slighter than his counterparts.

  And I do mean a bit. As a race, the Kaidorians are known throughout the galaxies
for their enormous builds. So though he is grey of hair and stooped, the Kaidorian’s main diplomat still looks as if he could easily overtake slender N’Ure if these negotiations broke down into a physical fight.

  As if engineered by their Great Designer to pirate and raid, the Kaidorians to a male, possess extremely broad chests, columned by thick muscular torsos. Their skin is not jewel-toned like ours but bronzed and smooth. I had thought their epidermis to be soft when I first sighted them upon a battlefield, but after engaging my first Kaidorian, I discovered that their skin felt the same as our platelets. Tough and ungiving.

  However, our skin texture is one of the only physical similarities between the Xalthurians and Kaidorians. The Kaidorians have no diamond irises or even pupils, only sclera, which change colors, depending on their moods. While our males would not dream of leaving our abode without combing, tying back, or braiding our long locks, even the Kaidorian emperor sports a large shaggy mane of wild unkempt hair.

  From the midst of all that wild hair protrudes a set of gleaming white horns, strong enough to both gouge, lift, and savagely shake a Xalthurian’s life force from his body. While serving beside my father on several different battlefields I had seen them send many of our warriors on to the next realm with those horns, their sclera-only eyes black with battle rage as they did so.

  It is said that when my grandfather still sat upon the throne, most Xalthurian males looked like N’Ure. Slender with little need for muscle. A few of us were even as short as the hu’mans. Our current size, according to legend, was achieved out of necessity. Our enemy with their strange eyes and horned heads had been so formidable, we’d been forced to transform ourselves from merchants to warriors in order to defend our financial interests from this race of pillagers.

  “I agree. Do you feel the same, my Kel?”

  The sound of my title jolts me from my thoughts. I refocus to find both N’Ure and all five of the Kaidorians on the other side of the table eyeing me expectantly.