by S. L. Hadley
As a result, she had no time to catch herself before colliding head-on with Nita. The girl yelped, stumbling and carrying them both to the ground.
“Kitty!” she shouted, wincing and massaging her elbow. “What’s wrong?”
Grimacing, Kitty climbed to her feet.
“We’ve landed?” she demanded. “You took us in?”
“Yes?” Nita recoiled, eyes going wide. “Is that bad? Lio said that you wanted—”
“Son of a bitch!” Kitty roared, whirling. Ignoring the stupefied look on Nita’s face, she raced toward the loading bay.
She found the doors already open. A handful of dockworkers roamed outside, loading and unloading cargo from a dozen other nearby craft. Looking about, Kitty stomped toward the largest group of them she could find.
“You!” she called, throat painfully tight. “I’m looking for an Arsalian! Have you seen him?”
The men exchanged glances, apparently bewildered by the question. A few shrugged but most simply returned to their work without a word or a second look in Kitty’s direction. Muttering curses, she turned on her heel and repeated her question to another group.
After ten minutes of such investigations, Kitty was forced to face the hard truth of the matter. Nobody had seen Lio pass this way. Or, if they had, none planned to inform her of the fact.
Her heart ached, more painfully than she could have imagined was possible. Truth be told, it was only her pride—or what left of it—that kept her from breaking down then and there. Rather than humiliate herself by weeping in front of a bunch of strangers, however, she did the only thing she could think to do. Gritting her teeth, she set off at a trot to search Adrastos itself.
It was a fool’s errand and it didn’t take long for Kitty to realize it. The colony was enormous, home to more than two million residents in the city center, to say nothing of the thousands who lived in the many isolated settlements on the frontier. She could spend a year searching and never cross paths with Lio even if he’d wanted to be found.
Two hours later, as she roamed the unfamiliar streets, Kitty reached her limit. She had just enough time to duck into a narrow alley, plop herself down behind a large bin of trash, and take a shaky breath before the tears began. Soon, all she could do was weep.
“You bastard,” she whimpered, face buried in her hands. “You fucking… you—not even a goodbye?”
Hating herself for her weakness, even as her muffled sobs escaped as quiet squeaks, Kitty failed to notice the approaching footsteps.
“Well, what do we have here?” came a rough, accented voice.
Kitty looked up at the man looming over her, not even bothering to wipe the tears from her eyes. Her sobs ceased at once.
The man was pale, balding, and thick around the middle as any man she’d seen. He wore an ill-fitting suit of unfamiliar style with torn sleeves and stains across the breast. One hand held a knife while the other drummed against his leg.
“Go away,” Kitty whispered, averting her gaze. Even from several feet away, she could smell the man. He stank of sweat and other less pleasant bodily functions.
“That’s rude,” the man growled. “Not from around here, are ye? Thought off-worlders were s’posed to be polite.”
“Go away,” Kitty repeated, teary eyes narrowing. “Please.”
“Better. But it’s a little late. I think ye owe me an apology. Why don’t ye take off that—”
Kitty shot him.
The man shuddered, stared down at the hole burned through his chest, and slowly toppled over. Kitty watched him fall, but her attention was focused solely on the laspistol in her hand. She squeezed it gently, caressing the textured stock with her thumb.
All of a sudden, she knew what she had to do. It was simple. So simple she was surprised that it hadn’t occurred to her sooner. Though, of course, if it had, she might not have had the chance to rid the galaxy of the piece of trash before her.
Lio wanted to leave? Let him. She’d be damned if she wallowed around in grief, waiting for him to return.
Life was short and she had living to do.
***
Kitty sat in the bar’s corner booth, fuming as she stared at the back of the oblivious bartender. The man was occupying himself with a handful of customers opposite and had not so much as turned around in nearly ten minutes. As a result, she had been swirling the same half-sip of cheap bourbon around the bottom of her tumbler for quite some time.
The air was full of smoke and cacophonous alien music, but neither was distracting enough for her to miss the fact that something was wrong. From the décor, it was obvious that this particular bar was not popular for its customer service. But that didn’t explain the benign neglect with which she was being treated.
And, from the looks on the faces of her two companions, Kitty wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
She’d found the two darkmaws outside the bar’s entrance. They were young—so young that she’d actually hesitated to approach them—but the intrigued gleam she noticed in their green, overly large eyes cast those doubts aside. Well, that, and the ridiculously revealing clothes they wore. Shirtless, their tight, flesh-toned shorts failed to even cover the base of their tails. And, even more unusual for their kind, they’d left their large, feline ears uncovered. That, more than anything else, was the sort of invitation she was looking for.
Downing the last of her drink, Kitty handed her tumbler to the darkmaw seated on her left.
“Go get me another,” she said.
The young male accepted the glass, glanced at his brother, and slipped from the booth. His tail flicked nervously from side to side as he walked and Kitty studied his ass for a moment before turning her attention to the remaining alien to her right.
“One more drink,” she assured him. “Then I’ll put the two of you to work.”
A wicked smile spread across the darkmaw’s face at her words. He scooted closer, nuzzling her shoulder and purring low in his throat.
Irritability over her lack of a drink fading, Kitty reclined and wrapped an arm around the male’s slender shoulders. As soon as she began to stroke his ears, however, a new thought occurred to her.
The darkmaw’s features were oddly reminiscent of a certain unnamed Arsalian.
Kitty squashed the thought before it had a chance to manifest and ruin her good mood. Grabbing the darkmaw’s wrist, she guided his hand between her thighs.
“Ghiddy?”
“Distract me,” she instructed.
Before she had a chance to enjoy the darkmaw’s undoubtedly skillful fingers, however, several things happened that she was ill-prepared for.
First, the left-hand darkmaw returned—empty-handed. He shuffled anxiously on bare feet, head ducked low but ears perked as he joined his partner to Kitty’s right. She frowned at him, but the young male wouldn’t even look at her.
A man wearing a dark suit and a disinterested expression slid into the now unoccupied spot to her left. He set Kitty’s tumbler, now filled, on the table in front of him.
“Having a pleasant evening?” he asked, without glancing her way.
Beneath the table, Kitty’s hand inched toward her laspistol. She’d spent enough time in the underground to recognize it on sight. Not that she needed to rely on experience; the man wasn’t even trying to be subtle about his affiliations.
“I was,” she said. “Your bartender’s shit though.”
The man made a noise that might have been a laugh and pushed the tumbler toward her. Still, he did not look at her.
Kitty took it, but did not drink.
“I assume you want to talk about something?” she asked.
“Correct.”
Kitty sighed, curling two fingers around the exposed hilt of her laspistol. She leaned forward and fixed the man with a demanding glare. At last, he cocked his head and met her eye.
“Then talk,” she growled. “Or leave me the fuck alone.”
“You’re new to Adrastos, yes?”
; “So what if I am?”
“Not long ago, an associate of mine was found dead. A few locals said they saw him talking with an unfamiliar woman.”
“Adrastos is a big place.”
“It’s not that big.”
Snorting, picked up her tumbler and raised it in a mocking toast.
“That’s not the only thing that counts,” she said.
The man’s expression hardened and he slowly set a gleaming pocket railgun on the table before him. At the sight of it, both darkmaws began to shy away as if to flee the booth.
“Wait,” Kitty snapped, glancing their way. The pair obeyed, sharing a look.
Slowly, Kitty eased her laspistol from its concealed holster and set it on the table as well. The man tensed. Eyes narrowing, she leaned forward and smiled.
“You have no idea who I am,” she murmured. “Because if you did, your boss would not have dared to insult me this way. He’d have come himself to beg my pardon.”
“Is that so?” the man spat. Despite his tone, there was a certain undercurrent of hesitation to his words. “Then why don’t you enlighten me?”
“My father was Devon Black.”
The man withdrew so violently that Kitty nearly snatched up her sidearm on pure instinct. The man’s face went pale, all the tough posturing suddenly absent. Somehow managing to look rushed and hesitant at the same time, he picked up his railgun and tucked it back into his belt.
“I’m sorry, Miss Black,” he said, nodding respectfully in her direction. “You have my sincerest apologies. I’m sure Mr. Everett will be here shortly to greet you himself.”
Kitty gave a dry laugh, picking up her laspistol in one hand and her drink in the other.
“No need,” she said. “He can find me tomorrow. Right now, there are a couple darkmaw that I desperately want to fuck.”
Alien Gladiator
Harem Ship Saga
Volume Five
By S. L. Hadley
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Staring up at the ceiling of her rented room, Captain Kitty Black distracted herself with the deep, even rhythm of her breathing. She’d woken up nearly an hour ago but hadn’t managed to work up the energy—physical or emotional—to do anything about it. Which, despite the ever-present ache in her chest, was a rather pleasant place to be.
The two darkmaw twins still shared the bed with her, one on either side. Though she still didn’t know how to pronounce their real names, she’d taken to calling them Seb and Keb in her thoughts—names she’d heard in some ancient holofilm. The pair didn’t seem to mind; their ears twitched as they dreamed, naked bodies pressed against her contentedly from each direction.
Comfortable though being sandwiched between them was, the experience was nevertheless unnerving. Nobody would ever mistake her for tall, but Kitty felt positively Amazonian next to the males. With their heads level with hers on the pillow, neither their toes nor their elongated tails even reached her knees.
Cautiously, Kitty slipped an arm beneath the covers and down the front of Seb’s body. She licked her lips as she went; despite his slight frame, the male was more than adequately muscled.
Seb’s eyes snapped open as Kitty’s fingers wrapped around his cock. He was soft, but didn’t stay that way for long. Arching his back, the darkmaw purred loudly as Kitty stroked him gently and insistently to full erectness.
“Morning,” Kitty whispered. Grinning wickedly, she swirled a finger around the very tip of Seb’s growing erection.
The darkmaw whimpered, clawing at the sheets and squirming in her grasp.
“M’naan,” he managed, at last.
Peeling back the blankets, Kitty parted her legs ever so slightly. Distracted though he was, Seb’s eyes locked onto her pussy in a heartbeat. The intensity of his staring made Kitty want to blush but, given how wet she was already, her face was undoubtedly tinged with red long before he looked at her.
“Well,” she said, squeezing him. “Why don’t you put that tongue of yours to work?”
She half expected him to show some disappointment at her selfishness. But, instead, Seb’s wide eyes filled with a hungry glare and he practically dove beneath the sheets.
Chewing her lip in anticipation, Kitty reclined and let the blankets fall back into place. She felt the warmth of Seb’s breath wash over her, adding to the wetness of her folds and making the muscles of her abdomen tighten. But, despite her preparation, she wasn’t able to fully stifle her groan of delight as the male’s hot, slick tongue lapped slowly up the full length of her slit.
Eyes closing on their own, Kitty braced herself with her heels as the tongue bath continued. She’d discovered the night before that both darkmaw were marvelously talented with their mouths. If anything, the experience was even more exquisite when fully sober. Scarcely able to keep her hips from rising off the mattress to press against the writhing, alien tongue, Kitty teased her breast with one hand while the other tried to muffle a guttural moan.
She mostly succeeded, but the involuntary gasp she let out instead proved enough to wake Keb. He sat up slowly, rubbing his half-lidded eyes with the back of a paw-like hand. It seemed to take him a moment before Kitty’s contorted features and eager self-massage clued him in to what was going on. Eyes narrowing, he glanced between her flushed brow, to the wriggling distended section of blanket between her legs, and back.
Breaking out in a knowing smirk, Keb began to purr. At the same time, barely visible past the sheets strewn across his legs, Keb’s member began to stiffen.
Kitty rolled her eyes, and not just for one reason.
“All right,” she said, voice quaking as Seb nibbled delicately around her clit. “Fair is fair. Get your ass up here.”
Keb obeyed without the slightest hesitation, springing catlike from beneath the covers and landing as though weightless astride her chest. He squatted above her, eyes bright but uncertain, as his cock twitched and jumped right before her eyes.
Slowly, Kitty reached up and enveloped his shaft with her fingers. Like all darkmaw, Keb’s small proportions included his mating tackle. Only the very tip of his member peeked out from the makeshift tunnel formed by her enclosed hand. His balls were even less substantial against her pinky—she could have encircled his entire sac between her thumb and forefinger without so much as jostling the sensitive orbs inside.
There were perks to his alien anatomy as well, however. Utterly hairless and impeccably clean, Keb’s shaft was so smooth she hardly believed it. Even gently caressing him felt like running her palms against the highest quality synth-silk. And against her tongue…
Kitty leaned forward and guided the male’s shaft between her lips. Even dry, he was so silky that she had to suck softly to allow her to gauge his progress.
Not that she needed to measure. Reaching up, Kitty cupped Keb’s bare, perfect ass with one hand, while the other grabbed hold of the base of his tail. The male cried out with delight at the latter, cock twitching against her tongue. Purring in reply, Kitty pulled him toward her, driving his member further into her mouth at the same time. It was only when her forehead was pressed firmly against Keb’s waist that she had to stop. Even swallowing him to the base, his cock didn’t even reach her throat. Instead, it tickled the back of her tongue, bouncing lightly against it each time she licked the underside.
Lavishing attention with her tongue, Kitty settled back against the pillow and allowed her mind to wander. Beneath the blanket, Seb’s fingers were easing inside her drenched sex. She writhed, taking out her appreciation on Keb’s narrow cock.
Perhaps it was just the tight grip she had on his tail, but Keb didn’t seem to possess the endurance she’d expected of an escort. His shaft swelled and throbbed between her lips and Kitty felt his petite balls rise and contract against her chin. The darkmaw whimpered an urgent warning and tried to dismount her face.
Kitty wouldn’t have it. Using the male’s ass to pin him agai
nst her face, she sucked more forcefully still.
With a desperate yowl, Keb came. His slender limbs trembled violently, face screwed up in obvious ecstasy as he erupted in Kitty’s mouth. His load was sweet on her tongue—thank the stars for darkmaw biology!—and rather impressive, given his limited size. Still, Kitty swallowed it easily and stared up at the young male with a smoky expression as his orgasm faded away.
The guilt in Keb’s eyes was more than she could bear. Chuckling, Kitty gradually allowed him to slide from her lips and planted a final, affection kiss directly to his tip.
“Good boy,” she whispered.
***
Kitty spotted the man waiting for her at the end of the hall. She’d scarcely closed the door behind her, though, when the man abandoned his spot and headed toward her. A single glance and a twitch of her hand toward her now openly worn laspistol stopped him in his tracks.
“Let me guess,” Kitty said. “You’re here to escort me to the boss.”
The man nodded, silently but in a manner that conveyed an appropriate level of respect. Sighing, Kitty ran a hand through her still partially damp hair. Freshly showered or not, she’d still been without a change of clothes for longer than she liked.
“Lead the way, then.”
The boss was seated downstairs, occupying the same booth that Kitty herself had the night before. She wasn’t sure whether to take that as a good sign or a bad one. Regardless, he didn’t seem to mind having been kept waiting. He sipped some sort of pleasant-smelling local café and chatted with a few of his bodyguards, wearing an easygoing smile.
That, more than anything else, put Kitty on guard.
Despite her bold claims the night before, there was no debating the fact that she’d been quite a rude drunk. And, for the man to be flaunting his power so brazenly meant that he wasn’t concerned about attracting attention. If she wasn’t careful, things could easily go very, very badly for her here.
