by Kimber Vale
She sniffed but did not speak.
“I will find a way to get you home safely. Please believe me.” Even if you never want to see me again. “The commander on board this ship is cruel. She cares nothing for your race. Trust that I want you all as far from her grasp as possible.”
Her face looked wounded, but she stared him down as if she could see into his soul. She looked long and hard.
“You hurt me, Noth. And still, for some stupid reason, I want to believe you.” Her voice was thick with emotion.
“Please say that you will. I swear I will not stop until I have rectified this mistake. You will all be taken home and compensated for these insults in any way I can manage. Please,” Noth repeated. “Let me try to make this right.”
She shook her head slowly, and Noth felt tears welling in his own eyes. Finally, she spoke. “At the end of the day, what options do I have? I can’t get myself and a bunch of women out of here all alone.”
He had no answer for her. The sickness he felt for having hurt her irreparably and the cold rock of determination lodged in his gut seemed to leave little room for words.
Finally, Noth shook himself back to the present. He had a lot of work to do.
“I have stayed too long. The commander cannot suspect our relationship. One of my assistants will be in to take a blood sample soon. It is all for show. Our system does not use needles, and it is completely painless. I will prolong the preliminary work as long as possible so I may formulate a plan. It is to be hoped you will all be released before the implantation is expected to begin.”
“I guess I’ll play along for now.” She bit her lower lip in thought. “But no more drugs. And no more lies!”
Noth nodded.
“If you want me to even begin to trust you, then I want to know everything that’s happening from now on. Got it?”
He smiled at her authoritative tone. Held against her will in a solar system many light years from her home planet, Stella still retained the fire that so attracted him. Noth saw the corner of her mouth twitch ever so slightly.
Thank Scrion. There was hope yet.
Chapter 13
The light in Noth’s lab shone brightly over his workstation. Two nights before, he had inadvertently knocked into the heavy, adjustable lamp. At least, he had made it look accidental. The blow had necessitated a bulb replacement. The new multi-spectrum, light-emitting diode was not meant for this lantern. It would serve another purpose tonight. The intensity of the fluorescence had hurt his eyes and head as he labored over slides for the past two planetary rotations. Squinting against the glare, he had fed lab counts into his mobile data storage and assimilation device. The results could be immediately accessed by the scientists at Embassy headquarters.
There were eyes on him from every direction, but Krael was about to suffer from temporary blindness.
Noth finished his work and stood to straighten his desk top. He bumped the obtrusive lighting with his shoulder as he reached for a stack of slides.
“Blast this cumbrous light to burn on Algrol!” He twisted the crane angrily, his motions appearing random and born of his agitation. It was all an act.
He turned, as if to continue with his organization after a difficult period of work. He played the role, noisily straightening stacks of papers until his eyes rested on the camera in the upper corner of the room. A reflective beam radiated from its smooth surface, the result of the powerful ray of light that had been calculatedly angled at the device.
Krael would see nothing but a white screen in her control room, but Noth had precious little time.
Moving swiftly and silently, he unwrapped the shrouded vials of saline he had placed in a bottom cabinet. They were clearly labeled on the outside, but the inner vials had been painstakingly identified to match the test tubes within the deep-freeze unit in the lab. He removed the frozen embryos, wrapped them in the saline package, and then set them beneath the cabinet. At room temperature they would be unviable by the next mealtime. The imitation vials took their place in the freezer, and the switch was complete.
Noth packed his work bag with lab results to bring back to his room. He intended to analyze the data before he slept, in hopes of discovering a medical reason to delay implantation. It was unlikely, but he had to try. The whisper of his door opening caught his attention, and he turned to see Krael walk in.
“Finishing up?” She spoke stiffly and entered the room with a stride to match.
“I am. Can I help you with something, Commander? As I recall, the laboratory and patient quarters are my jurisdiction. Is there a security problem I am unaware of?”
Her dark eyes squinted as she looked him over. Noth continued to casually close his bag. She was scanning the room for signs of … what? His insubordination? If she raided the cabinets and examined the supplies he could be in trouble. A hand placed on the box of saline, and she would notice it was frozen to the touch.
“Perhaps,” she answered vaguely.
“I intended to come speak with you as soon as I finished up here. I plan to permanently release the bonds on the surrogates in the morning. There have been no signs of rebellion. They are compliant during the day without restraints and will sleep better unbound at night. Their serum levels of the tvolt are all within the therapeutic range. I do not foresee any problems.”
He walked toward her and cocked an eyebrow she could be jealous of, as if daring her to object.
His diversionary tactic worked.
“My soldiers will need to increase their presence if you plan to discontinue the restraints. I will not risk the humans harming us or one another.” She spoke in a voice laced with ice, obviously furious that Noth planned to give the captives more freedom. He suspected his telling her, rather than asking her permission, chafed her far worse than the act itself. The humans clearly were not dangerous.
“I have been informed that the preliminary tests are completed, Doctor. The embryonic transfers will begin at the beginning of this saros phase, correct?”
It was earlier than he liked. Noth needed time to find a wider crack in Krael’s control. He was desperate to free the captives before they were subjected to implantation.
But the preparatory time he had insisted on was already too long for Krael. The ovulatory drugs Uryu administered upon their arrival would make the humans ready to carry an embryo shortly. The time for implantation was near. Any more prevaricating and both the Embassy and Krael would be suspicious.
They walked out of the lab with Noth leading the way. Krael’s foot touched the threshold of the portal, but she turned and walked back to Noth’s desk. She snapped the light off by hand and angled the extinguished beam back toward the workspace.
“I am certain you do not want to leave your light on.”
He followed her to the corridor without comment, and the door zipped closed behind them along with any hope Noth had of removing the soon-to-be spoiled vials. Not tonight. In the morning, he’d begin to destroy a few at a time just as he had created their replacements.
Just as he would destroy all of Krael’s plans.
*
Stella lay on the bed, arms strapped above her head, legs spread wide. Her body trembled, not from cold, although she was completely nude, but because he had entered the room.
His hard body, solid and sinewy and completely bare, moved toward her. Iron muscles rippled beneath his silky soft skin. His luscious form stopped near the head of her bed with his saluting cock mere inches from her mouth. She was dying to taste him.
“Help me.” She spoke in English. She knew she shouldn’t, that they were only to communicate in Spanish for their safety, but somehow she couldn’t help it.
“It is time for the breeding process.” He spoke softly, his voice a caress like a tantalizing breeze on her naked skin.
“Yes.” She nodded, devouring his manhood with her eyes, pleading for release, for access to his body, without using words.
His eyes followed her tongue as it skimmed acr
oss her lips. She could see the flicker of interest, the spark of raw hunger in his gaze. She slowed the languorous motion and slid the wet tip across her upper lip and teeth the way she wanted to slide it over the tip of his prick. The tiny jewel of moisture there told her he wanted her just as badly as she wanted him.
“You must be restrained. You are my captive to do with as I please. Now I want you to ready me with your mouth, slave.”
He moved toward her, and she could feel her pussy getting wet at the thought of him taking her, fucking her while she was strapped down and helpless. He held his massive cock in one hand as he neared her. With his other hand, he ran strong fingers through her hair before he wrapped her locks in a tight grip, immobilizing her head just as her hands and feet were bound. He slid the slippery head, lubricated with his own desire, over her lips, teasing them open.
“Suck until I am ready to spill my seed inside of you.”
She opened her mouth and took in half his length. He loosened his grip on her hair, seemed to recognize her compliance. She was a good little slave, one who knew her place, her job. And she wanted to please him. Stella worked her mouth up and down his thick rod, watching his face all the while. His lips were parted while his eyes drank in her movements with a scorching intensity. Noth groaned as she pushed him closer to climax with her slick mouth, taking in every inch of him before moving back to suck on his sensitive helmet.
She wiggled forward to take his smooth sack into her mouth, enjoying the difference between his silky-soft folds and the rock-hard dick she had been working on. His balls tensed up beneath her lips, quickening to expel their hot release.
“Enough,” he said, his voice a pained gasp as he pulled away from her. “I will make you ready now.”
She was more than ready, could feel her lower lips nearly dripping with readiness, but she wasn’t about to complain.
He pushed a button to raise the height of her bed before he knelt between her bound ankles and tense legs like a dark master willing to serve her pleasure. She was the one tied up, the one called slave and captive, but he spread her folds with a reverent touch. His body worshipped her as if she were his queen. He sucked her clit into his sinfully hot mouth, teasing with a demanding tongue until she screamed out.
They were both thralls to each other, each meant to gratify the other while the rest of creation could disappear around them. The chains between them could never be severed. Hers were shackles she wore voluntarily. To hell with their differences. To hell with the consequences.
He stood between her legs and lowered the bed once again. How she wanted to wrap her fingers in his hair and pull him down on her, to kiss him deeply as he entered her. It was so frustrating, and yet her excitement at being restrained and worked over was at a fever pitch. He leaned over and readied his throbbing cock against her. She could feel its weight and heat and struggled against her bonds to force her hips closer, reaching for him with her pussy. His mouth found a puckered nipple, and he nipped it greedily as he nudged her spread lips with his head. And then slowly he slid inside her. She gasped and writhed against his thrusts, squirming in delight toward his hot tongue while his mouth pulled hard on her tit.
His cock felt huge, like he was ready to burst, but he would wait for her. This game of servant and master had unspoken rules. He slipped in and out of her, grinding against her erect clit each time he entered her fully. An inferno raged hotter and higher within her. He raised himself up to look at her face, and his expression of unveiled sexual hunger fueled her rapture.
Stella’s climax washed over her with brutal force and shuddered through her core. Her cries mingled with his as he pulsed his seed into her womb. His ejaculation seemed to last an eternity, and it sparked a succession of her own drawn-out release. It was the longest and most delicious dream orgasm ever.
Noth was suddenly standing at her bedside, his hands working her wrists free of their bonds.
*
Stella opened her eyes to see her dream lover’s brawny medical assistant setting her aching limbs free.
“I am Uryu. I work with Doctor Zobor.” His English was stilted, and she noted a communication bud in his right ear. It was the same guy she had spit at when she first arrived. Stella wondered if he was nervous to approach her. His smooth head and deep brown eyes reminded her of that actor in the movie Hitman. Timothy Olyphant—that was his name.
She remembered that as far as the witch who brought them here knew, Stella spoke only Spanish. Biting her tongue, she stared silently back at him.
“We will leave you unbound, but you must not fight us.” He waited for a reply, but Stella maintained her stony expression.
“You do not understand?” He glanced down at the notation device he had placed on her bedside table. “You are the one who speaks the unknown language.”
Nothing from Stella.
“I will have Doctor Zobor speak with you.” He smiled reassuringly.
Uryu turned to leave, pressing a thumb against the pad that triggered the door. It had been difficult not to speak, and she breathed a forceful sigh as the door closed. One slip-up and their secret would be out, and both she and Noth would fall under suspicion.
That was the last thing she wanted. Her dream had been so vivid. It had left her heart and her girly parts aching for him. She had definitely come in her sleep. Had Uryu noticed some bizarre behavior right before he woke her?
At least she didn’t have a history of talking in her sleep. That could make things ugly.
She stretched out her stiff arms. They had been bound at her sides only periodically during the day and always at night. She assumed her military guards were less numerous and less attentive after dark, but if that Uryu guy had told her the truth, she wouldn’t have to submit to more restraints following her next exercise period. She gazed at the ring on her thumb. The first time her restraints had been opened, she’d considered removing it after all. But her anger had diffused by then, and the memory of Noth’s pleading face kept the band firmly on her finger.
Maybe she was a fool, but she was also in love. The two often walked hand in hand. Did it even matter that Noth was not human? It seemed like a trivial obstacle when she examined her feelings. The heart wanted what it wanted, and Stella had decided to let hers lead the way.
She hopped out of her bed, relishing the promise of freedom, of a sort. In truth, they had been given frequent intervals of liberty. There was a lovely park somewhere in the middle of the space station. Noth had told her during his exam visit yesterday that he’d provided numerous studies to his superiors about the benefits of exercise and fresh air to increase conception rates and decrease stress. He had managed to get the arboretum—or the oasis as she referred to it—landscaped and planted before the abduction.
Stella had told him that tying people up probably negated the benefits of simulated outdoor spaces and exercise.
But the walks in the park were the highlight of her days. The gorgeous setting was complete with a path wide enough to accommodate a strolling couple. The walkway wove in lazy twists and turns through the tropical-looking environment. It was planted with flora indigenous to Noth’s planet, and the vegetation was strikingly different from that of Earth. The leaves of Artanian plants were immense compared to the largest foliage on Earth.
The enormous skylight above the rolling plot was the most disturbing to Stella. Did the other girls feel the same when they were released in the oasis? Thus far, she had only seen strangers in the jungle. The women she came across seemed more like sheep than people. Stella assumed they were too frightened to resist their captors. No one tried to speak to her, which was probably for the best since she was not supposed to know English anyway. None of the women she met had been Rayna. Stella would have risked talking to her.
The blue sky during Stella’s walk that morning had blazed brilliantly with a glowing orb. It wasn’t far off from the daytime sky on Earth, except for the odd planet which was occasionally visible. Noth had called it Artanos. Fro
m their vantage point hovering above his home planet, the land looked to be covered in green with smaller patches of ocean than Earth possessed.
The coloring was the same, but the outline of continents was jarringly unfamiliar. Stella was disconcerted when her first evening walk showed two moons circling the planet. Two days later, a tiny third moon had become visible in the corner of the expansive window. Because of its size, she supposed it orbited one of the larger satellites. A moon’s moon, if that were possible.
On each of her walks, Stella wondered just how far from home they were.
But now, even closed off in her Spartan room, she relished her freedom from the stiff bed. Her arms stretched above her head, while her erect nipples were brushed by the thin fabric of the hospital-type gown she wore. What had become of her clothes, her underwear in particular? There was no sign of them in the barren space.
With only a hum of warning, the door slid open to reveal the alien she had dreamed about moments ago. He wheeled before him a cart laden with all types of gadgets including a machine about the size of a loaf of bread.
She watched his face as he entered the room. His expression wasn’t too different from the one he had worn when he entered her moments before in la-la land. Noth’s eyes smoldered, darkening like a storm front blowing in at record speed. His jaw clenched. Was it frustration? Was it the misery of seeing her stretching in the tissue-thin garment when he was completely helpless to touch her? God, she hoped so.
“You know about the restraints?” He spoke in Spanish, his voice hard like the faint outline in his pants.
“Sí. ¿Y qué va a pasar ahora?” Yes. And what happens now?
“Now we will begin the implantation process.” He walked toward her and removed a blood-pressure cuff from the wall. She probably had a serious case of hypertension, especially since his last statement sounded like her dream come to life. If not for the damn video camera that kept her company at all times, it could become a reality.
