A hand wound the links of my leash around its fist.
I’m fine.
Part II
Nest
11
Bhyr
Bhyr marched past his warship towards the spaceport and its adjacent stables.
He glared at the female in his arms. She hadn’t spoken since he wrapped her in the scraps of fur that survived his frenzy. He had commanded her to walk, but she just stared at the stretch of Vøtkyr’s horizon, desolate. Vacant. Her eyes drifted without focus.
Rather than indulge her tantrum, he’d picked her up.
She’d resisted. Stiffening into awkward angles, she made choked, crazed sounds that hurt his ears. He thought she would pass out from lack of air, but she’d settled, and begun leaking from her eyes and nose.
Teeth grinding, he fought the urge to soothe her distress.
Mating is painful.
The first thrust had been glorious. His throbbing daulm pushed past tight rings of quivering muscle. Slid through wet heat until he struck her deepest depths, a bliss unlike he’d known. The excitement of the kill had flushed his shaft with blood. It rendered the need to stimulate his sacred organ with no more than a lick of her nape. The rest was an ordeal. Agony. As soon as the burst of pleasure passed, he pushed into her soft channel as hard and fast as he’d dared. Pain spread in waves across his body, increasing once he realised he had another bulb to release.
It knotted his spine and popped behind his eyeballs in gouts of flame.
Flooding her with seed had brought light-headed relief.
He’d feared he’d lose consciousness once the stabbing in his sac ended, becoming a dull ache at its core.
He’d suffered.
It made the wounded aura the human wallowed in insulting beyond belief.
Bhyr’s father had taught him the pain of mating was a means to an end.
During consummation, the female would snap and seethe. Then she would accept her lot because breeding was her purpose, and purpose brought contentment.
Did males not suffer to begin the spark of life?
Just as females suffered during the birth to deliver that spark into full being.
It was the natural order.
It wouldn’t get better, and would always hurt, but would be worth it.
When he held his son and saw his bloodline carry on in the next generation, it would be more than worth it. More than any dream come to life.
‘What the hell is that?’
Bhyr broke from his reverie. ‘This?’ He placed his female on her feet then patted the tough hide bumping his shoulder. The grassy musk wafting from the animal was comforting. ‘This is a common goodbeast and my mount.’
‘I’m not getting on it.’
‘We eschew technological excess on homeworld and embrace nature. There are no ground conveyances. We do not use the interplanetary shuttles unless off world raiding. They need fuels we must pull from the ground. It is this majestic creature or an eight-span hike.’ He dropped a dubious look at her short legs. ‘Perhaps longer.’
‘It’s nighttime. There are no roads or street lights to guide you.’ She hugged her middle. ‘Kind of dangerous.’
‘I see well enough.’ He cocked his head. She wasn’t listening. ‘I navigate by landmarks and stars.’
Shoulders slumping, her mutinous expression blanked to hide despair. ‘The only way off this planet is your ship?’
Adjusting the saddle straps, Bhyr nodded. ‘It realises there is no escape.’
‘There’s always a way out.’
‘Stubborn female.’ He mounted the beast and plucked her off the ground, settling her across his lap.
His nostrils flared.
Her scent was maddening.
‘High up here.’ Her mouth trembled.
Bhyr added heights to the expanding list of things she feared. How humans breathed without expiring, he’d forever wonder. ‘I will not let it fall.’
‘I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for you.’
‘Truth.’ He brought the beast to heel. ‘Acknowledging the fact changes nothing. It is done. There is only the now. I will not let it come to harm. Unless it would prefer I abandoned it here to die?’
She was quiet. Her hands curled into fists. ‘Take me home. That’s what I’d prefer.’
‘I am taking us home.’
‘I meant Earth.’
‘That was not an option.’ He signalled the mount to go.
They passed the first spans of the journey in silence.
Drawing air deep into his lungs, Bhyr soaked in the sight of his land at its best, wreathed in mist and lush with life. A raptorbeast soared over head, its shrill cry piercing the gloom.
Fog rolled from the northern seaboard and covered the ground, giving the landscape a fantastical aura.
His breeder fidgeted as she tried to put distance between their bodies. Her face was unhappy when it wasn’t lit with wonder at her surroundings.
She yelped and clutched at his thighs, her demeanour of aloof disdain ruined. The goodbeast lurched as it navigated the uneven terrain. A nocturnal predator shrilled from some unseen burrow, and she hunched.
Bhyr tightened his hold on her waist. ‘It has done well.’
She leaned forward as far from him as possible. ‘Don’t talk to me.’
Out of respect for her bravery during the consummation ritual, he let her be.
They travelled around the glacier encircling the Last Mountain, covering the distance at a steady trot.
Bhyr spotted fewer blood trails than when Aztekan females undertook the Testing.
More of the humans had survived than expected. It was a welcome surprise.
The thousand heartbeats before he could follow his breeder had been agonising. More than once he’d lifted his foot to rush forward. Now it was done. She was claimed.
The warriors who chose poorly would have another opportunity to raid Earth. After the first hybrids were born and deemed a success on their ascension into adulthood.
If all went well by the next moontide dozens of sons would grow in human wombs.
They travelled the four-span journey to his nest in relative peace. He stopped twice to let her stretch her legs.
By the time they climbed the steep mountain trail leading to his home, she snuggled against his chest, sleeping.
It was for the best.
His breeder feared many things. The vertical climbs the goodbeast accomplished to reach the steppe he called home would have caused her terror.
He woke her once they arrived then tended to his mount, tying it in the paddock at the entrance to his nest.
At first sunrise, he would take the beast to its herd and trade it for a fresh mount.
Hopping from foot to foot, arms around her middle for warmth, his human hovered near the tunnel spearing into the mountain.
Bhyr showed her the semi-soft globes mounded in a recess. ‘These are lanterns. Shake and throw them.’
The light floated upward until it bounced against the ceiling and hung there.
‘Looks like a glitter filled ballon.’ She copied him after squeezing a globe in her hand. ‘If I weren’t exhausted, I’d be interested in how this works.’
She blinked at the lights then yawned.
‘Follow.’ He led her into his home, lighting the way.
Air dense with minerals met his nose. It assured him that the ventilation system was unbroken during his extended absence. His nest was a cavern three times his height. Several off-shoots lead to smaller yet spacious chambers he used for storage. Rough glass windows dotted the ceiling. Sunlight reflected through mirrored channels, a system installed aeons before his birth. Natural light allowed moss–fuzzy and damp underfoot–to grow in the shaded environs. The living carpet brightened the room and made the air fresh, taste clean. There was minimal furniture. A handcrafted stool and a wooden table, its mauve surface polished to a high shine. Sooty hot rocks the size of his head mounded inside a fire pit with
a circumference as wide as he was tall. Two alcoves on the opposite side of the heat held his bedding and the cleansing chamber.
His breeder shivered.
Bhyr headed to the fire pit and brought it to life.
The only other thing of note was a natural column of twisted rock that bore a bookcase. Stone shelves sheltered books written by long-dead ancestors. The stories were of gods and dire warnings from the Azteka’s blood-soaked history. His holosphere brought him information at the swipe of a finger. But holding a book and smelling its papery scent soothed him. He did not show his breeder these precious heirlooms. He would allow her to explore her new home and its treasures on her own recognisance. His female’s progress was slow but steady.
She headed for the bed.
His sleeping mat nestled inside the deepest nook. It concealed the slumberer and made Bhyr feel safe enough to rest. His breeder stopped next to it, her mouth agape. Her size made it an edifice she would need a short ladder to climb.
Eager to put his hands on her again, Bhyr shifted closer, ready to lift her. ‘Let me.’
Shying from his touch, she bounced on her toes. ‘I got it.’
She grabbed fistfuls of fur and heaved herself into a roll that was rather graceful. She checked her Keeping hadn’t tangled then clambered across the pillowy surface into a corner. Face shadowed, her eyes reflected the meagre light in bright pinpricks. Her gaze followed him around the room as he set about checking his filtration system and food stocks. He thought of airing his furs, but with a glance at his tired-looking human, decided to wait. No creatures had found their way inside his stores, as sometimes happened when he was absent long enough for his scent to fade. The technology needed to keep household comforts functioning were operational.
Satisfied nothing urgent needed his attention, he slipped from his single-minded focus.
His breeder’s gaze still burned his flesh.
Accusing.
When he turned to face her, she closed her eyes and pretended sleep.
Aggravated and moody from fatigue, Bhyr approached her. He opened his mouth to discuss the matter of the Testing before snapping his mouth closed.
A male did not discuss thoughts with a female.
What is wrong with me?
One of her eyelids cracked open. ‘I can’t sleep with you glaring at me.’
He dragged a clump of furs from his bed and dumped them on the floor. ‘Down.’
She popped upright. ‘Are you serious? You watched me get up here and let me get comfortable. Now you’re booting me off?’
He stared at her.
‘Fine.’ Scrambling off the bed, she threw herself on the floor. ‘I’d rather sleep on the floor than next to you.’
Her sincerity dug into his chest with hooked talons.
Bhyr removed the leash and let it coil on the floor. He crawled into bed.
He listened to his breeder’s angry breathing soften and slow into the cadence of sleep. Rolling over, he looked over the edge. She had bundled the furs, face relaxed, silken hair shrouding her head and body. Bhyr closed his eyes and forced his mind to rest.
The next morning, the first thing he perceived was the displacement of air above him. His hand snapped out to grab whatever aimed for his chest.
His eyes slitted open.
She tugged her wrist. ‘Ow.’
‘What is it doing?’
‘Waking you. I need to do my business, but I have no idea where the toilet is.’ Her expression folded. ‘It’s not another hole in the floor, is it?’
It was. Why that distressed her so, he didn’t know.
Bhyr let her go. He rolled up using the muscles in his abdomen, watching the way his breeder eyed his body, licking her lip as she did so.
‘I will show it,’ he said.
Her eyes jumped to his, and she turned red around her cheeks. ‘Good. Hurry.’
His mouth flattened. ‘It forgets its lessons.’ He imagined kneeling between her legs and seeing to her discipline.
His heart kicked.
She hissed. ‘You’re crazy if you think I care after what you pulled yesterday.’
The mood soured.
The rotation crawled, air growing thicker with tension. Bhyr escaped the oppressive air to deal with his mount.
He visited the higher steppes where his herds grazed. While seeing to their care, he tried to scrounge enough anger to return to the nest and put his breeder in her place. He considered using severe punishment. She’d never again question his dominion over her person. But the mere notion of bending her to his will–as he had bent all others–revolted him. There was something attractive about his human’s pride. So fierce and certain of her worth. She refused to acknowledge him as a genetic and intellectual superior, even with unquestionable evidence of the fact. Bhyr chuffed to himself on his way back. He wasn’t supposed to admire his breeder’s bad behaviour, but correct it.
He was the example the Horde followed.
I must do better.
Nodding, he vowed to repress the deviant urges and radical thoughts his human inspired. He recommitted to seeing her swell with his get.
That night, after putting her on her belly, he sent her to the floor. As he slid between the furs, he considered ignoring propriety and inviting her to sleep beside him. He winced upon realising she would rather spit on him than share his bed.
The next rotation, her stony silence was unbearable, the atmosphere charred and acrid like smoke. It shouldn’t have bothered him in the least. It wouldn’t have mere rotations ago. Now, it did. His mood had aligned itself to hers, and it drove him insane.
He stole a moment of privacy in a storage cave–I am not hiding–he brought up his holosphere. He hesitated, finger hovering over a glyph.
Shaking himself, Bhyr commed Bihter and told himself it was fine.
Normal.
He had questions.
There was no wrong in discussing his concerns with another in his Horde. Others might see it as unusual. The First kept his own council, did he not? But these were different times. He had made the radical decision to breed a new generation of the Azteka on a lesser species. He was brave. A pioneer. Relaying a concern over his personal choice of human with a fellow warrior was an efficient means to an end. If he refused to acknowledge he chose Bihter because the male was unlikely to view his control issues as perverse and weak, so be it.
A square screen appeared on Bhyr’s holodash.
Bihter accepted the transmission. The male inclined his head. ‘First.’ His expression was wary. ‘Good Greetings.’
Bhyr studied the moss under his feet and thought himself a fool. It didn’t matter Bihter had once been his closest confidant. Making himself vulnerable felt wrong.
‘Your breeder,’ Bhyr asked at last. ‘It survived Testing?’
He took a slow moment to respond. ‘Yes.’
Discomfort weighted Bhyr’s gut. His resolve wavered. ‘And its behaviour?’
‘Biddable.’ Bihter said nothing more, but his posture revealed his tension.
‘Good.’ Bhyr wondered where he went wrong. ‘I am pleased to hear it. I was concerned.’ He cringed at his cowardice.
‘You bring my honour into question. I understand my departure shook your faith in me after our disagreement. But I believed you understood my motivations and forgave me. I brought you everything you wanted.’ He hesitated. ‘I betrayed a friend to do so.’
During his misadventures offworld, Bihter fell afoul of an alliance between L’Odo slavers and Dei San pirates.
During the battle, he had crash landed on a planet. He befriended the Verak Commander Eorik SnowBlade. A strong warrior mated to the Great Alpha, King ThunderClaw, whose party had shared the same fate.
Bhyr had suspected Bihter and the High Commander bonded over protecting a human child. It was the first time the male expressed resentment over choosing to advance the Horde’s ambitions at the cost of those bonds.
Embarrassed at the paling of his skull crests
, Bhyr nodded, stiff. ‘That was not my intent. I am experiencing things with my breeder. Strange sensations and feelings.’ He exhaled. ‘I wondered if it was a phenomenon unique to myself or if other human females were causing issues in others.’
‘Is this a trick?’
‘No.’
‘A test of loyalty, then.’
Bhyr shook his head. ‘Why do you think this?’
‘How could I not?’
‘Brother, you know better.’
‘You threatened me into silence when I returned. The Verak opened my eyes, and my opinions broadened, but you refused to listen.’
Bhyr shot him an angry glare. ‘You defied me. What did you expect? A reward?’
‘I expected punishment. Demotion from Third to Unranked, yes. But for you to shun me? To belittle and ignore me?’ Bihter scrubbed a hand across his throat. ‘You may not have said it outright, but you insinuated if I didn’t fall in line, you would exile me. The only thing protecting me is silence. Now you ask me to confess my deepest sins? Reveal to you–who have proven yourself untrustworthy–how I now break Law?’
The vehemence startled Bhyr, who drew himself up, hard-faced and bristling.
Bihter continued undaunted. ‘In the space of a few rotations, you expect me to believe this is a genuine attempt to understand the effect your female has on you? That you trust me above all others to share your innermost thoughts and feelings? After you made it clear, my conduct disappointed you? That you were unwilling to consider our breeding rites would not work with human females?’
‘I am unused to being wrong.’
With a snarl of frustration, Bihter dragged a hand over his mouth, fixing Bhyr with a hard look. ‘Very well. My breeder’s name is Cristina. She is fine. As fine as a being could be after an abduction and force-mating to her captor. I, too, experience odd sensations and feelings when I am near her. As we speak, she naps in my furs. Not on the floor as a lesser. I try not to treat her as one.’ His eyes closed. ‘When you finish with me, I will rush back to her, because I miss her when I am gone.’ He shrugged in the manner of humans, chin lifting in angry defiance. ‘There. Now you know my depravity.’ His voice turned mocking. ‘There is no need to pretend compassion for my plight.’
Bhyr Page 10
