by E. M Reders
Xandr didn’t want to give up. He was a Warrior, it was in his nature to care and protect others, and he felt like he had failed with Mandy. If something was wrong, he should have known; why else would she have vanished on them?
He was also the best tracker there was, which was why he tended to spend most of his time working with the Slayers instead of his own tribe. But he had failed again; he couldn’t find her. She was in the warehouse, and then she wasn’t.
“Netoi, you scout the perimeter.” The young male was super quick on his feet and had sharp eyes. He could guard a building of any size all by himself as good as any team of five could. “Kentope, guard the shuttle.” He was their best pilot and would be needed if they needed to make a quick getaway. The only reason he hadn’t flown them there was that Xandr had needed something to do other than sit in the back with the others and think of nothing but his missing lover. “Twins, you come with me.”
The building looked the same as the last time they were there, but the moment Xandr stepped foot inside he knew something was different, that something was wrong. All his senses were screaming at him that this time they would find something, something terrible. When they reached the third floor, the strong scent of blood assaulted them, and he knew the worst had happened. He didn’t need to walk down the corridor to the source of the scent to know that the worst thing possible had befallen her.
“It’s hers,” Hecto growled out loud, shocking him. The male had not spoken a word in months.
“How do you know?” There was something in the male’s eyes that made him suspicious, even more so when he refused to answer.
Continuing down the corridor towards where the scent was strongest, Xandr tried to prepare himself for what he was about to find, but it was impossible, there was no way to prepare for that.
Letting the twins enter first he took one last deep breath before he followed. Spying the broken body of his lover and dearest friend on the cold concrete floor Xandr felt despair and anger fill him. He had to fight to keep his facial expression neutral. He couldn’t let the others see his pain, see his guilt. He had failed. Failed in the worst possible way a Chaetdorian Warrior could fail.
“Fuck!”
All repeated the statement.
“I want to know who did this and when they brought the body back here,” Teks demanded the second he arrived to see the body. “Have you found anything?”
“Nothing,” Jepa answered. “Both the room and the rest of the building is clear.”
“What of the body?”
Stepping forward, Xandr did his best to act as normal as possible in the current situation. “Initial scans show extreme internal trauma to the body. Other than the obvious external injuries that you can see there are numerous bite marks on the neck. My guess, going on what we can see here; this was a madness induced attack.”
Shaking his head, Teks crouched down, looking closely at the bite marks upon Mandy’s neck. “All males have been accounted for. None, other than you lot, have left the ship since the last sweep of the building. Fuck!”
“There is no sign of sexual assault,” Hecto growled, surprising him once again by speaking.
Rising to his feet, Teks shook his head. “Even so, we cannot rule it out. The body will need to be transported to the medibay for a complete examination. In the meantime, I think we need to proceed with the mental assessment of every male. We cannot leave this planet until we have dealt with anyone suffering from madness. The maddened are a threat to everyone on board, and now that we have one mated pair – two if what I believe about Torq is true - it is not a risk I am willing to take.”
It seemed he wasn’t the only one that suspected there was something going on with the Slayer leader. Xandr knew the male had some serious issues he needed to work on. Once, after drinking a little too much of the Chaetdorian ale Xandr made every now and again, the male had spoken about never wanting to find his mate, about not being worthy of one.
Well, Xandr was beginning to think the same thing about himself right now.
Chapter 5
With every thrust of his hips, Jessie was getting closer and closer to finding her release. Gripping his thick biceps, she attempted to pull him closer, to bring his body down fully upon hers. She wanted to feel his weight on her - this strange male that had hijacked her dreams – but he seemed to be holding himself back.
But not by much seems as he had happily thrown her down upon the floor and filled her with his hard shaft the moment their eyes connected after he had appeared.
Looking deep into eyes that reminded her of the pictures she had seen of the galaxies far, far away, she cried out as he changed the angle of his thrust and hit some magical point deep inside of her. As pleasure blasted through her, she lost her grip on the dream. Her dream lover vanished before her eyes, and she felt herself rising from the dark waters of unconsciousness.
Cracking one eye open briefly, Jessie moaned at the pain the dim light of the room created. Her head was pounding even as the last remnants of pleasure buzzed through her system. That dream had been so real.
“How are you feeling?” came the whispered voice of Hannah from somewhere above her. She wasn’t going to attempt to open her eyes again just yet to look for her. It wasn’t worth the pain.
“Like my head has been smashed in by a tonne of bricks. What the fuck happened?” The last thing she remembered was being stuck in that damn room.
“Well, you kind of got drugged, again.”
“Drugged?” Rolling to her back, she tried her best to remember. They had been in the white room. The door had opened. And then… Eyes flashing open with remembrance, Jessie bolted from the bed. Or at least she tried to. It seemed her head liked being vertical even less than it liked the light.
“Take it easy, the drugs aren’t completely out of your system yet,” Hannah said, helping her to sit back down as she stumbled.
“Are you kidding me?” she screeched. “Those bastards are dead. I’m going to find the fuckers and smash them in the nuts with Katie’s handbag. I’m going to chop their cocks off and shove them up their...”
“OK, I get it.” Hannah cut her off.
Looking around the small bedroom she had woken up in, she asked, “Where are we?” This certainly wasn’t the white room of hell.
“Deck seven. It’s an especially altered deck of the ship designed for humans. It’s like one massive common room with bedrooms running off it. And there are other humans too, quite a few of them.”
“Really? Maybe they can help us escape.”
Ideas started flying around her head. The others here might have a better knowledge of the ship. They might know how to work those damn panels that opened and closed the weird doors they had.
Though, looking at the door to this room, that might not be needed.
It was normal!
Following Hannah out, Jessie stared at the wide-open space before her. Sofas and chairs took up most it. It really was like one massive common room. A large glass window bigger than she had ever seen took up the entire of one wall. It all looked extremely normal, human. Except for the odd machines stood to the side and one of those fucking weird panels she could see by what she expected was the door. The main door with no handle.
Shit! There went any chance of walking straight out of there. Maybe someone knew how to work it?
Scouting all the people milling around she picked out the one she thought most likely to help her. Sat in one of the comfortable looking armchairs by the window was a young woman. She didn’t look exactly happy. There was a worried light to her eyes. Grabbing Hannah by the wrist, she made her way over to her, dragging her friend along for the ride.
“Hey there.”
Startled, the woman looked at her with wide eyes. “Oh. Hi.”
“You mind if we sit and talk to you for a moment?”
“Sit wherever you like, but I’m afraid I’m not fantastic company right now.”
“I’m Jessie. This is Hannah. Thes
e alien asses just kidnapped us, and I can see that you’re less than happy to be here, so I was wondering if you wanted to join us on our escape. You being here longer than us you probably know more about this place than…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” the woman butted in, looking at her as if she had lost her mind.
“But…”
“Rebecca!” someone called from the other side of the room.
Standing quickly, the woman looked down at the pair and shook her head. “I’m sorry you’re not happy here, but I suggest you get used to it. I have to go.”
She was gone before Jessie could even make a move to stop her. Spinning on her friend, Jessie steamed. “Get used to it? Get fucking used to it! As. If.”
An hour later and Jessie felt a serious need to throw something.
“I don't get it, Hannah. Do you think they have been brainwashed like Nora and Alice have?” Everyone she had spoken to had plain refused to help her, saying that they were not leaving. All she could think was that these aliens had some kind of brainwashing machine. Nora had been separated from them so they must have gotten to her then. And Alice had been carted away by that thug that had killed Eric so she must have been brainwashed first before she was placed back in with them.
“I think that for whatever reason, they chose to be here. Now come on, I'm hungry, let’s see if we can get anything edible from one of these damn machines.”
Jessie was hungry too, but after seeing the slop that came out of the so-called food dispensers, she soon lost her appetite. At least she knew they weren’t trying to fatten them up to eat them.
“Hey,” Katie said, skipping up to them with a wide smile. “I feel clean and refreshed. What’s to eat?”
“Shit.”
“Oh dear, someone is a little grouchy.”
Grouchy? She was well passed grouchy.
“She is, but she’s not lying. This stuff tastes foul, but it’s the easiest to stomach.”
More like it was the blandest of the lot; it barely had any taste to it.
After a while, she gave up even trying to eat the food. Hannah and Katie chattered away while she watched the people around them. As she moved from one group to another, she spotted one of the jackasses that had drugged her the second time and brought her to this new hellhole. “What’s he staring at?” she snapped.
“The same thing he and the other one was staring at the whole way here from the holding bay,” Katie giggled. “Hannah.”
Cheeks blooming red, Hannah replied, “They did not.”
“Did too. I think Hannah has an admirer, or two. I swear that one’s eyes were glued to her ass the whole way.”
“Fucking stalkers.”
Chapter 6
Gripping the hips of the beauty before him, Xandr pounded into her from behind, loving the feeling of her tight cunt around him. He didn’t know who she was, all he knew was that this was the second time he had fallen asleep to find her laid out before him and both times he had not been able to resist.
Rubbing her clit lightly, he growled as she flexed around him, gripping him even tighter. She was close. Very close. Petting her with a little more pressure she came around his cock, crying out in pleasure.
With her satisfied he picked up the pace, heading towards his own release. He could feel the tension building at the base of his spine, his sack drawing up in preparation of flooding her womb with his seed.
He was close, only a thrust or two away. That’s when the immense sense of guilt overtook him.
This was wrong. His dead lover was laid out on a slab in Doc’s examination room, and here he was, not out hunting for her killer, but dreaming of another woman. What was wrong with him?
“No,” he yelled, forcing himself out of the dream.
Scrambling out of bed, he dived blindly into the cleansing unit, turning the setting to cold. Still, it did nothing to reduce the evidence of his arousal. He was so hard he was in physical pain. He may not be happy about it, but even now, while filled with guilt and disgust at himself, he could not deny the attraction, the pull he felt to the human female he kept dreaming about. Taking himself in hand, he beat himself to a quick release, hating himself more by the second.
He remained in the unit a little longer until he heard the beeping of his wrist unit back in the main room. He was off duty for the next moon, but Teks had promised to keep him updated on any new developments.
He was surprised to find it was Doc that was trying to contact him, not his commander. “What is it?” he asked.
“Assessments on the Slayers have begun.”
Not sure why he was telling him and of this. “And?”
“Were the twins part of the team that went to pick up the humans?”
“Yes. Why?”
Had one of them failed assessment? Hecto had been scarily quiet over the past few months. There had been a time when the male seemed to spend his every free moment pulling pranks and cracking jokes. Not so much anymore. And he had known it was Mandy’s blood by the scent, which had raised a few questions in Xandr’s mind.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“It has to be something for you to contact me. They did pass the assessment, didn’t they?”
“Yes, of course,” Doc replied, but Xandr had a bad feeling. Maybe it was time to keep a closer eye on the twin males he had called friends since he was a child.
Chapter 7
“You can go now,” Jessie snapped. “It’s not like we needed your assistance in the first place.”
After their attempts at eating breakfast the twin arseholes who had drugged her had escorted them to some sort of cafeteria to meet up with Nora and Alice.
Sitting down at the table her two friends already occupied, she turned her anger on the little traitor, also known as Alice. If it hadn’t been for her, they would all be back home by now. “So, now that the stalker twins have left care to explain yourself?”
Eyes wide, face pale, Alice opened her mouth as if to answer but no sound came out.
“Oh leave her alone, Jess,” Katie said. “It’s not her fault she’s a soft touch for a tall, well-muscled, scary-looking alien.”
Finally finding her voice, Alice started, “I’m not…”
“Oh yes, you are. I saw your face when that hunk came into the room. And I saw your reaction to him back in that alley. Can’t say I blame you either,” Katie giggled, “these aliens are ridiculously hot.”
Well, Jessie couldn’t deny that. But still, it was no excuse.
“Corr thinks that Torq might be Alice’s mate. Says he’s been acting all strange since the mission that ended with us being brought here,” Nora imputed.
Hannah and Katie shrieked in delight, but all Jessie could think was that she had no idea how to combat what the aliens had done to her friends. There was no such thing as soulmates. They did not exist. And the fact that these alien males had somehow managed to trick one of her friends into thinking that one of them was hers and were working on a second was horrifying. How long until they worked their evil magic on the other two? Or her?
No, she wouldn’t go through that again. She had been tricked before, duped. She had to get out of here.
“What mission?”
“Well,” Nora said, “have you noticed that some of the males look a little more human than others? It’s because they have been drinking human blood.”
“What?” all the women shrieked.
Blood? Like a vampire?
“They can make themselves appear human by consuming human blood. But, apparently, because they have been doing it for so long, they can’t just give it up without suffering serious withdrawal, so Torq and the other Slayers were sent out to retrieve a group of human volunteers.”
“So there are others here, other humans?” Alice asked. Obviously, no one had seen fit during their separation to fill her in on their location or the other inhabitants of deck seven.
“Yes. Fourteen apparently, though I believe their numbers just went
up. The girls joined them last night. They have a whole deck of the ship to themselves.”
More like a prison.
Nervously Katie asked the question Jessie was sure they were all thinking. “Will they expect us to… you know… give up our blood?”
“I don’t think so. They may ask, but if you say no, I doubt they will try and force it.”
Well, Jessie wasn’t going to stay around to find out. The first hint of a way out of here and she was gone. No alien male was making her his bitch.
She had to get out of here. She had to get out of here now!
Nora and Alice had come to visit them in the prison known as deck seven. The two alien males they had mated were off doing God knows what and didn’t want to leave them unprotected on the ship so had escorted them to the deck to be locked away with the rest of them. The fact that they even needed to just proved that these males were dangerous and that they needed to get the hell off this ship and away from these aliens as soon as possible.
Another fact that had Jessie’s panic meter rising was that Alice had just informed them that she had been dreaming about Torq – the alien brute she had been brainwashed by – since before she had even met him.
It had started. Somehow, they had gotten into her brain and began to work their brainwashing on her. Every night she dreamed of the alien male, and, every night, after bringing her to a screaming orgasm, he vanished. She woke up feeling abandoned but quickly pulled herself back together and replaced the emotion with anger. Anger at the alien freaks and their attempts to take over her life.
“Hold on. You’re telling us that you had dreams of Torq doing ‘sexy things’ to you before you actually met him.”
“Yes,” Alice admitted with flaming cheeks.
