by Erin Raegan
“I smell your need,” I snarled into her mouth. She was in no state to take my attentions. She needed rest, to heal. Not a mating.
“Yes, I need you,” she trembled biting viciously into the hollow of my throat. “I need you t-to not b-be mad at F-Fihk,” she gasped, grinding against my member. I spread my palms along her fleshy backside and aided her in her desperate moves.
“I cannot give you this,” I began, hushing her frustrated whines. She ceased movement. “But I will not harm him,” I swore, coaxing her back to physical release. She watched me with doubtful eyes, but I did not lie. I would not harm him, but I would still make clear my displeasure. I was not the only one who needed it, Fihk as well would need my ire, he would struggle with guilt too long without it. He needed a chance to ask amends and prove his honor again. I would not deny him this.
“Promise?” She asked, quivering from the need to move against me once more.
“I give you my word,” I swore again. My Dahk would be honored to know she fought so valiantly for the safety of one of mine. I would tell Fihk of this, so he may know he had not lost Pehytohn’s grace.
She murmured breathy thanks and continued her frantic shifting. Her release was swift, and wild. Her beauty unmatched by any I had ever witnessed. After she slumped heavily against me. Bestowing me soft kysses along my chest. I gritted my teeth, desire still coursing through me. Her movements were sluggish but determined. She sought to bring about my own release. I stilled her, “you humble me, my mate, but you must rest now.” She made noises of protest, but I ignored them, and cradled her once more. I grinned down at her wickedly. “When you are healed, I will take my thanks. I will take a great many things from your body for your manipulation.” Her breath caught, and she squirmed once more.
I chuckled roguishly and carried her from the dwelling.
Chapter 26
Peyton
We were all loaded up in the ship and leaving my home before I could even fully take in the carnage on the front lawn. Tahk laid me down on a makeshift pallet of cloths. Vivian and Bryan sat beside me, fussing as Gryo cleaned my wounds again. The healing was remarkable, whatever he put on them sped it up immensely. They barely bled at all before he wrapped them again. The pain was still intense, but it was becoming more manageable.
The fear I had felt when the Vitat pounced on me was immobilizing. But I had barely had time to scream before Tahk was there to save me. I knew he was beating himself up about it, but it really could have been so much worse. I saw the Vitat just days ago tear through people like they were made of butter. Sitting here now, I could scarcely believe I hadn’t lost a limb, or my head. I would have my work cut out for me in reassuring my big alien Commander.
Fihk could barely look in my eyes, he huddled around Tahk, no doubt waiting for his beat down. I believed Tahk when he said he wouldn’t hurt Fihk, but the anger on his face was felt by everyone cramped on the small ship. It was clear that most was directed at Fihk, but I knew that he was taking a lot of the blame on himself. That wouldn’t do. I flushed, remembering how I tried to manipulate him in the house. I hadn’t intentionally started out doing it, but Tahk was there all warrior hero, and holding me. After being so scared, only to have him swoop in and save me. I went a little grateful damsel on him. I just wanted to thank him, but it turned into total hussy swooning. Then he was mad at Fihk, and I just wanted to change his mind.
Jeez, I had no idea what the alien was doing to me. But I knew what I was feeling was growing more intense every minute spent with him. The things he could do to my body―
Nope. Not going there.
Tahk’s nostrils flared, he glared over at me heatedly. I squirmed. Bryan and Vivian gave me concerned looks and fluttered their hands over my body. Tahk chuckled. I looked away. The guy was trouble. I couldn’t go a minute anymore without thinking of him in the dirtiest of ways.
I asked Tahk to fly by Mr. Lane’s place. There was quite a way between our lands, but I was worried the Vitat had gotten to him before they came for us. I had no idea if he had left already, but if Tahk was right, and there were more Vitat in the woods coming for us, Mr. Lane had no shot by himself. But his truck was gone when we got there, and even though I wanted to look for him, I knew we couldn’t. We couldn’t waste anymore time, people were dying every second all over the world. We needed to get to Hector’s uncle and put a stop to all of this.
So, after Tahk asked again and again if I was sure―he really was achingly sweet sometimes―we left.
We flew for hours. At first, I stayed lying down, but as everyone gravitated to the windows, gasping and cursing, I couldn’t wait another second. I carefully pulled myself up and to the windows. What I saw devastated me. I don’t know how we hadn’t seen it the night before on the way to my house, but now that we were flying so close to land, I could see the destruction of my world acutely.
Smoke and flame filled the sky. Buildings were either burning or crumbling. Vitat ships were everywhere. We passed hundreds of them, but they never once detected us. The streets were devoid of people. I hated the chances there were of survivors. Either most were dead or hiding.
I prayed for them. I prayed for the weak and strong alike. For the children and babies, for the young and old, for the hero’s that had dedicated their lives to serve and protect when no one could have predicted this threat, and the ordinary man that would throw themselves to the enemy for their loved ones. I prayed we would be successful and save those that had found a safe place to hide. But I couldn’t look away from the destruction. How many were left? How many could have possibly survived?
Night fell, and still, I didn’t look away. Neither did anyone else.
When we arrived, my eyes were bloodshot. My face stretched from the tears I shed. My body trembled from rage and grief.
Where was the army? The military? Where was our hope? I did not see a single plane. Not one soldier. Where were they? Dead? Was anyone left at all?
Yilt guided the ship onto a small roof of a building barely intact. Smoke rose from the windows. The streets were empty and cluttered in debris. Tahk and the Dahk exited the ship and searched the building. When they came back they looked grim.
“It is clear,” he told Hector. Not once meeting my eyes. “The females will remain here,” he said firmly.
“No, we’re coming with you,” I told him. I would not hide from anything. I needed to see.
“No.” He turned and left.
Alien says no, but I didn’t have to listen. Hector’s men filed out, weapons raised. They had lost one man already. Knox had run from the Vitat back at the ranch and lost his life for it. Their grim bearing said they would not lose another. But they didn’t stop me as I left the ship behind them. Vivian followed reluctantly.
Tahk growled at me when I climbed down. He stomped over and gently took my arm, guiding me to the back end of the ship. “I do not wish you to see this.” He brushed a claw along my chin.
“I need to.” I couldn’t explain it. I knew why he didn’t want me to come. There would be death, and it would be brutal, but I couldn’t not see it. This was my world. My home. I needed to witness it. Someone needed to see it and remember. That person would be me. I prayed there would be many, many others left in the end to remember with me.
He glared at me a moment before cursing. I blew out a breath as I followed him back to the others. “You stay by me,” he growled. “Right by my side the whole time.”
I agreed and let him take my hand in his own.
We filed into the roof’s door, slowly making our way through the building over crumbling walls, and broken debris.
The first body knocked the breath from me.
A young woman, or what was left of her, laid down in the center of the stairwell. Bryan cursed and looked away. Vivian sobbed and clutched Hector. Colt was uncharacteristically silent as he passed by the woman. Fihk knelt and closed her one remaining eye. He glanced at me before moving on.
I gripped Tahk’s hand as we wal
ked by her. This was why Tahk didn’t want me to come. He knew this would hurt, and he didn’t want that for me. But that woman was someone’s daughter. Maybe a sister, a wife, maybe a mother. I would remember her.
There were many more bodies as we traveled down through the four-story building. I would remember every one of them.
By the time we made it to the lobby, my eyes were straining to release tears that I didn’t have left. One small corner of the world, and there were so many dead.
Hector pulled a device from his pocket and tapped on it. “Ten minutes out.”
I let Tahk hug me to him as we waited. The Dahk scouted the outside through the windows, Hector’s men beside them. The room was silent. No one made a sound.
When Tahk tensed and patted my thigh, I stepped away from him, so he could walk to the door. Steps echoed through the broken windows. The shifting of gravel all I could hear of the outside world.
A series of knocks hit the door. Hector nodded at Tahk before opening it.
The soldiers had barely stepped through the door before Tahk and the other Dahk had blades to their throats.
“Drop your weapons,” Hector ordered quietly. There was a tense ripple of anger before all six soldiers complied.
“What the fuck is that?” One of the soldiers shook as his gun clattered to the floor.
“I will explain, but first where’s Rodriguez?”
“Here son.” Another man stepped through the door, his arms raised.
Hector motioned for Ford to unarm him. The older man allowed it, his eyes narrowed on his nephew. He was as tall as Hector, with little lines around his eyes, his hair peppered with grey. He wore a green uniform, the same as the soldiers with him. Their bodies holding massive amounts of ammo.
“Satisfied?” Rodriguez glared at the Dahk. His men trembled with a mixture of fear and rage. But the older man stood, not showing an ounce of fear in front of the aliens.
Hector nodded, and Ford released him.
“I’m glad to see you got your girl,” his uncle commented, noting Vivian huddled behind her fiancé.
Hector grinned and went to embrace the older man. They hugged tightly a moment before wariness entered both their expressions.
“Now you want to explain the winged beasts?”
“You might want to sit down.” Hector scrubbed his face and motioned to a clear chair. His uncle refused by crossing his arms and spreading his legs wide.
The following explanation was met with wide eyes, and disbelief. More than one of the soldiers scoffed and glared at the Dahk.
Tahk tensed when each of the men’s eyes caught on me. Hector briefly touched on my relationship with Tahk, but thankfully didn’t go into any details. Though it was enough for more than one snort of disgust. Vivian hugged my arm and glared back. Tahk bared deadly teeth until the men looked away.
When it was over, silence reigned again. Hector’s uncle regarded Tahk with a cold stare.
Finally, he looked away and spoke to his nephew, “No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Hector tensed as his men shifted uneasily.
“You can’t mean to invite another threat into our world. We’re barely surviving this invasion.”
“They’re not a threat,” I growled and took a step forward. Tahk pushed me behind him and shook his head.
“You don’t know anything, girl.” Rodriguez snorted and looked away. Tahk snarled, startling both Hector’s uncle and his soldiers. They reached for weapons they no longer had.
“We need help, uncle. We’re drowning in dead bodies. You have a better idea?”
“I won’t discuss our plans in front of them.”
“What plans?”
Hector’s uncle glared and refused to answer. I had a very bad feeling about these plans.
“No,” Hector choked and backed a step away. “That’s insane. It won’t work.”
“What won’t work?” Colt barked from the back of the room.
Both men ignored him, “You’re going to send us into a nuclear winter!” Hector shouted, his revelation echoing through the abandoned building. “You’ll kill us all!” Oh, god. They were talking about nuclear bombs. But how would they attack the Vitat without firing on every major city all over the world? How could they do that without killing every human left on the planet?
Hector’s uncle lifted his chin, meeting his nephew’s rage head on.
“You’re just going to hide under ground and hope you make it?” One of Hector’s men, Yeti, chuckled devoid of any humor. “You won’t get them all, there’s a goddamn mother ship circling our planet. They’ll just send in more.”
“No,” Hector choked, “They’re going to fire at it. They’ll bring that damn thing crashing down around us.”
“Is that even possible?” Bryan whispered horrified.
Hector’s uncle sighed. “There will be loss―” He started, glaring Hector as he punched a wall. “But we are evacuating all we can. We will save as many as possible.”
“Millions will die,” I choked, the very idea of it horrifying.
“We will rebuild and start again.”
Several roars of outrage reddened the cold man’s face. How could they do this? Who decided? I knew the Vitat had killed millions in just days. Witnessing their carnage first hand, I knew only so many could have survived, but the world was enormous. The sheer numbers that would die from a nuclear blast was sickening. Would the world even be intact to rebuild?
“Your world will be inhabitable.” Tahk glowered at the man.
“What did it say?”
“He said you’re off your rocker,” Colt snorted from behind.
“You understand it? How?”
“Haven’t you been listening? Their technology is far more advanced then ours. They could help us.” Vivian wiped fresh tears from her eyes.
“They gave us translators.” Hector touched behind his ear. His face white from shock, but a determined edge was taking over his face. “You’re going to blow a hole through the side of us. There won’t be anything left. Who gave the order?”
“That is outside your classification.”
“Bullshit! You can’t make that kind of decision for the whole world!” Ford shouted.
Rodriguez sighed and scrubbed his face. “I am sorry. It’s not my decision, but I will follow orders.”
“Don’t you have family? You can’t possibly get to everyone and evacuate them. People you know, and love, will die.” Bryan shook his head and grasped my hand tightly.
“Most already have. We have to save what we can.”
“You have a solution, right here.” I brushed off Tahk’s protective hold. “They can help, and you won’t even consider it.”
“I will take your suggestion back to command, but I don’t believe it will do anything.”
“So, that’s it? You just walk out of here and blow us sky high?” Hector was shaking in rage.
“Tell the human we do not come for this planet,” Fihk urged him.
The soldiers shifted away from his deadly growls.
I couldn’t believe we were even discussing this as a possibility. How could they think this was the solution?
“We can’t know that. What reassurances could you possibly give us? We grant you entry and then you could turn on us and take this planet right from us.”
Tahk snarled at the human. Every one of them jumped. The smell of piss filled the air. The soldiers were too nervous, this could go downhill fast. But Tahk ignored their fear, and roared his rage at them, “I could have this planet if I wished it. You think you could keep me from slaughtering every last being here? The Vitat will not be deterred by a measly human weapon. All you will accomplish is destroying your world and innocent life. Then when the dust settles in the barren waste land, the Vitat will come for the rest. They will exterminate you, they will take what is left and you will be nothing but a speck of fleeting destruction in the universe.”
Hector haltingly translated Tahk’s furious growls.
“Humans are primitive, you damage your world with your petty wars, and childish infighting. The world is vast, you think this is the last threat? There are beings out there far more destructive than the Vitat. They will come for you, if you somehow survive yourselves, and they will annihilate you in one foul swoop. You cannot see past your own fears to take the aid that is offered. My kind did not come so far in our evolution by hiding. We grew in power and knowledge from those around us. The Dahk would give you this knowledge to defend yourselves, to grow and prosper, but you cannot see past cowardice for the ally we would become.” Rodriguez grew pale with his every word. “You are not alone in the universe human, you are one of millions of species and planets teeming with life. If you do not heed my warning now, you will be one less species among them.”
I was shaking in fear, not from Tahk’s words, but from the truth in them. The Vitat may have found us, but they wouldn’t be the only ones. If anything, this invasion just put a glowing spotlight on us. A giant, come here, sign―humans are easy pickings.
For all Tahk’s powerful words, I could tell they did nothing to deter this man. He was set in following his orders.
“I will ask,” he said, his pale face grave, but unable to hide his determined prejudice. The Dahk were aliens, the enemy, to him. He didn’t trust a word Tahk said. My eyes strained to lose tears. Nothing we said would change his mind.
“How long until they answer?” Hector asked in defeat. He knew too it would do nothing.
“I can’t answer that. I can send it now, but they will no doubt deliberate. I have no idea how long it will take.”
