War Games (Alien Instincts)

by Cynthia Lore

  “I know what came over you, all though it’s fucking ridiculous.” Both brothers turned to Rae in curiosity at her statement. At their undivided attention, she began to shift uncomfortably, dreading what she would have to explain. “You got horny, and without thinking of asking me if I want you to or not, you’ve been trying to initiate sex!”

  “Do you want to?” Markar blinked at her, waiting hopefully for a response.

  Rae blushed, realizing that somewhere within her she did want to. “That’s not the point. The point is you didn’t consider what I might want.” The piercing look Markar gave her made her afraid that he might not have missed her word play. Rae was never afraid of Markar, but she was afraid of her reactions to him. If she was honest with herself, she didn’t stand much of a chance with that crazy chemical he had. She was always the one in control, at work, and at home. She knew that chemical he had would take that away from her, and she wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

  Stepping down from the bed, Rae walked over to Markar and stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. “Look, if we we’re to even think about how sex would work between our species, we would have to have some long conversations about it first. There are a lot of issues to cover there.”

  “We have already discussed sex!” Markar said indignantly.

  Rae waved her hands around in exasperation. “We haven’t even covered the tip of the iceberg with that subject! Or at least, the most important parts.” Rae paused. Why the hell she was even considering this she didn’t know. Perhaps it was because Markar had been so nice to her since she had met him, maybe it was because he had looked so devastated at his actions, but probably it had the most to do with her own feelings for the alien. He looked so human that she often found herself forgetting that he wasn’t, and he was the most handsome man she had ever seen. Rae didn’t spend much recreational time with men, because she couldn’t find any she either liked or respected, but she found both with Markar.

  Crouching down to be on his level, Rae looked directly in his eyes. “First rule: restraint. When a woman says no, at any point, you have to respect that. Second rule: you seemed to have forgotten about the whole reproduction issue. Women can get pregnant. Third issue,” Rae hesitated, not knowing exactly how to bring this part up. “You’re saliva makes my body react… weird.”

  Markar sat there in stunned silence. Finally he spoke. “React how?”

  Rae blushed and narrowed her eyes at him in annoyance. It figured he’d skip over all the important issues and get right to the most embarrassing one. Rae glanced over towards Jakar, who she still didn’t quite trust. “Can we talk about this in private?” she whispered to Markar.

  Instead of denying her request, like she expected, Markar nodded. He turned towards Jakar, who had been watching the entire exchange with interest. “It is time for you to leave, Jakar.”

  At his words, his brother’s eyes widened. “But I want to know what the hell she is talking about!”

  Markar stood up and stomped towards his brother. Shoving him out the doorway, Rae could hear the remnants of their conversation, which mostly consisted of Jakar’s protests. “I do not want to leave yet! I want to know what else she was going to say!”

  “You must go back to your own ship now, Jakar. I have to continue alone, and if you keep refusing to leave I will kill you and throw your corpse into space.” Markar growled while he shoved his brother further down the hallway.

  As soon as Jakar transported back to his own ship, Markar could feel a heavy weight lifted from his shoulders. The odd haze of rage and jealously completely vanished, and he felt more like himself. He realized it was because now there was no one to compete for Rae’s affection with. When Jakar interrupted them the last time, he distinctly recalled a need to mark Rae as his before his brother could get near her. Now that stress was gone, and he felt more at ease with Rae all to himself. Walking briskly back down the hallway, he made his way towards his human.

  When Markar stepped back into his bedroom, he found Rae pacing anxiously back and forth. As soon as she spotted him she stopped dead in her tracks. He began to stalk slowly towards her. Rae took one step backwards or over for every step he took, till it almost seemed as if they were dancing. “I’m sorry for kneeing you.” she finally blurted.

  Markar chuckled at her words. “Do not worry. I have learned my lesson.” he replied in his deep voice, as he kept moving steadily towards her. Rae felt some uneasiness when she realized she wasn’t sure which lesson he was referring to. Before she knew it, he had backed her up towards a wall.

  “Now tell me, how do I make you react?” Markar asked as his eyelids lowered till Rae could only see slivers of his yellow iris glowing like crescent moons beneath them. She reached her hands behind her till they came in contact with the cool surface of the wall. It helped to keep her mind off of what had happened to her the last couple times Markar had licked her. He took one final step towards her, and she bumped the rest of her body against the wall when she retreated from him.

  Looking upwards into his glowing eyes, Rae swallowed nervously. Maybe it was a bad idea to tell Markar about her strange reaction to him. He would have the upper hand, but she believed it was better to try to understand the phenomenon together, instead of ignoring it. She opened her mouth to reply, but it was as if she was frozen and nothing seemed to come out.

  “Would it be easier for you to show me?” Markar murmured almost lazily, as his voice seemed to get impossibly deeper. Leaning down towards her, he moved the collar of her shirt over. Rae couldn’t seem to urge her body to react. It felt like she was waiting to see whether he would decide to devour her or not. She could feel the heat from his breath as he held his head over her neck, possibly waiting for some kind of a response from her, but Rae’s mind had frozen with the rest of her body.

  When his tongue finally touched her skin it was exquisitely gentle. Rae didn’t feel anything strange at the contact, and he began to move upwards over her collarbone towards her racing pulse. As soon as he reached the vein, fire exploded outwards from where he had caressed her. She groaned as her knees gave out at the sudden rush. Markar caught her and supported her weight against the wall.

  Her whispered plea was barely audible, but Markar’s acute hearing apparently caught it. He blinked as if waking from his own spell and leaned away from her. “Did you say ‘stop’?”

  Rae breathed heavily as she tried to remember what the hell had just come out of her mouth. “Yeah, I think I did.” she said on a sigh. To her surprise, Markar stepped away from her. The abrupt loss of his warmth seeped from her bones, and suddenly the cold wall didn’t feel all that welcoming.

  Markar’s eyes cleared of any kind of passion and he gave her a joyless smile. “I told you I learned my lesson.”

  Rae looked at him in confusion for a moment before his words finally sank in. “I suppose you did.” Biting her lip, she realized the drug was still working its way through her body. Without the actual contact of his mouth on her skin, the effect wasn’t nearly as bad, and she could think coherently once again. “Maybe, now… we should see how you react to me.” Did those words really come out of her own mouth? Rae lifted her head to look up at Markar. He was staring at her with a perplexed expression on his face. Pushing herself off of the wall, she began to move towards him.

  He watched as Rae placed one hand on his chest. She looked up at him, as if asking permission to continue. Markar placed his large hand over hers to hold her to him. Rae skimmed her other hand over his muscular arm, and in the wake of her caress was left only pleasure. It was unlike any physical contact he had felt before, and he began to crave more.

  She rose up on her toes and gazed up through her lashes at Markar. He leaned towards her, mesmerized by her actions. When her mouth touched his, he was completely shocked at the contact. Her soft lips formed over his and Markar swallowed hard at the exquisite touch. She moved downward to his jaw and placed nibbling bites on the column of his neck. Lifting her head
back up she looked in his eyes and smiled. “Now let’s go get those chemicals in your saliva analyzed.”

  He embraced her in a crushing grip and groaned in frustration into her hair. “You are killing me, Rae.”

  She flung her head back and laughed at that. “Welcome to the world of women, Markar!” He smiled at her joke. At least he hoped it was a joke. He frowned. Maybe it was not a joke.

  A Scientific Study

  Hours later, Rae was still not satisfied with the readouts on the chemicals. “Only testosterone? That can’t be right.” Throwing the papers down on a table in the med room, Rae slumped into a chair, crossed her arms, and proceeded to sulk.

  “Human males do not produce in you the same reaction?” Markar asked in curiosity.

  Rae glanced at him, still in a bad temper. “No.”

  Markar paused, afraid the answer to his question wouldn’t be the one he wanted. “Is it really so bad, what I make you feel?”

  She glanced at him again, but this time his question deflated her anger somewhat. “No.”

  That was indeed the answer he was hoping to get, but she did not sound happy to give it. “It is pleasurable then?”

  Rae rolled her eyes at him and sighed. “Yes.”

  Markar looked to the side as he thought about the implications of that. “Would you like to experience it again?”

  “Not right now. Maybe later.” Rae said in a sarcastic tone as she dismissed him. “There’s got to be something we’re missing. Some other substance that’s affecting me.” She looked away thoughtfully while tapping her finger on her lips. The movement brought his gaze to her mouth and Markar thought back to when she had placed it on his.

  “Why did you put your lips on mine earlier?”

  Rae looked over to him in surprise. “It’s called a kiss. People do it to show affection or to create intimacy.” At that she dismissed him again and was back to thinking over her own problems. Testosterone was known to create urges in sexual desire, but that still didn’t explain the overwhelming sensations of pleasure that would move through her blood like fire at Markar’s touch. This chemical reaction he caused within her seemed to be the only alien thing about him. The rest of Markar was pretty much perfect in her eyes. Rae began to wonder if certain areas of his body she still hadn’t seen were as human as the rest of him.

  She was awoken from her thoughts when Markar asked her a question, except she had missed it because of her fantasies about his body. Turning a slight shade of red, Rae turned towards him, trying her best to be professional. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

  “I said, maybe we should try studying the chemicals during or immediately after I am aroused.” Rae narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him at that. If he were a human man, she would assume Markar was trying to manipulate the situation for his advantage. But he was not human. He couldn’t be that devious already!

  His suggestion did have some merit. It would make sense for his body to produce the drugs only when he was experiencing sexual desire. She glanced at him again, with less suspicion this time and more interest. Getting up from her chair, she moved towards his. Markar’s eyes widened in surprise, and he leaned farther away from her as he stared at her distrustfully. Rae snorted in disbelief.

  “Are you scared of me now, Markar? You’re the one who suggested this.” She placed her arms around his shoulders and looked into his eyes for his answer. She got it when his pupils began to dilate and his hands moved to grip her hips, holding her in place.

  “Now, some ground rules. We are going to kiss, but nothing more than that. When I say ‘stop’, we stop. Got it?” Rae didn’t just want to seduce Markar in order to get more accurate readouts on the chemicals; she wanted to evaluate her own reaction to him better. She was nervous that everything could get out of control fast, and this was a way to gauge how much she could trust Markar, and how little she could trust herself.

  Rae watched as he nodded his head almost absent-mindedly while his eyes scanned her body as if he could see beneath her clothes. There was only one thing that scared Rae, and that was losing control. Markar, wonderful as he might be, represented those fears for her. She, however, was used to facing her fears head on, so Rae took one final deep breath before leaning slowly towards Markar.

  Since he was so much taller than her, he angled his head downwards so she could reach his mouth easier. Rae placed her lips on his slowly, afraid that at any moment she would feel the debilitating drug rush through her system. When nothing happened to her, she delicately poked her tongue out to brush it against his lips. Rae still felt nothing, and began to feel a little more confident. Pushing her tongue forward into Markar’s mouth, she felt his sudden exhale from surprise at her actions. He relaxed his lips to allow her to enter, and when she came in contact with his saliva Rae could feel a tingling sensation begin on the tip of her tongue. She began to pull away from Markar in shock, but he tightened his arms around her and Rae fell forward onto his mouth.

  This time Markar’s tongue leapt out and speared between her lips, and the tingling sensation in her own mouth turned into an inferno. Rae’s eyes opened wide in astonishment as fire began to course through her veins, an almost painful feeling it was so intense. The flames died down as quickly as they had shot up, but in their place was pure arousal. Markar began to move his tongue around desperately as if trying to claim her mouth, and Rae moaned in rapture at the drugs still pouring through her system.

  Instead of passively letting him kiss her, Rae surged forward to meet his passion as her own rose higher. Her tongue melded with his as she unconsciously accepted more of his essence into her. Rae’s hands moved over his sculpted body as she tried desperately to bring their bodies closer together. Markar’s lips crushed hers as her own positive reaction emboldened his. Rae could feel his form pressed against hers, but still it wasn’t enough. Her hands began to search frantically for the hem of Markar’s shirt. Just when she had finally surpassed his clothing and felt his abs contract under her touch, his mouth left hers.

  Rae tried to surge back onto him, but Markar held her away. She watched as his broad chest expanded rapidly with every frenzied breath he took. He was shaking slightly, but yet so was she. Rae looked at him in confusion for a moment until the chemicals in her system began to wane. Now she remembered, they were supposed to stop. A slight exhaustion began to creep up on her as she came back to her senses, and she slumped against Markar.

  “Wow. What a hell of a drug.” she mumbled into his chest. Rae moved to try to get off of Markar, but her trembling legs were having a hard time supporting her. She would have fallen if he had not steadied her and then planted her bottom firmly in his lap. “We should test you now.” she managed to slur out. He nodded as he began the procedure with her still sitting in his lap and both her legs dangling over one thigh of his. Markar cradled her to him as they waited for the results, and Rae waited for her mind to clear of the fog of passion.

  It was Markar that had stopped them. Rae had had absolutely no control over her actions. She blushed to think that if he had kept going, she not only wouldn’t have resisted, she would have done everything in her power to move things along faster. It was almost gentlemanly, for him to stick to his word. Rae looked up to Markar in wonder that he could have that much self-control when she had found none for herself. When he finally noticed her gaping at him, he smiled down at her, looking like the happiest man in the world.

  Thanks to her recent acquisition of the Morian language, Rae could read the information from the analysis herself. Just because she could read the words didn’t mean she could understand all of it. For some of the chemicals, Rae just simply didn’t have any concept of what her brain should compare them to, and thinking about it gave her a headache.

  “More testosterone. A lot more testosterone. Well that explains a good deal, but still not everything.” Rae looked down the list with Markar. “Oxytocin. That’s interesting.” She frowned at the ‘bonding hormone’ showing up in Markar’s saliva. Th
at was something that could very subtly influence their relationship. There were small amounts of serotonin, tryptophan, but what concerned her most was all of the other elements that she didn’t understand. “What is A-Testosterone-11? Or A-Serotonin-4, 5, 6, and 7?” Rae looked at Markar for an answer, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

  “This is unprecedented in the Morian race. I do not know. I have never felt or reacted this way to another being before.” Markar traced his hand over Rae’s arm as he marveled at his own feelings towards the human. Goosebumps formed on her skin where he touched her, and Rae shivered slightly in reaction.

  Suddenly, a beeping noise could be heard throughout the entire ship. Rae jumped up from Markar’s lap and whipped her head around, looking for the threat, but Markar pulled her back down. “What the hell is that!” Rae yelled over the alarm. Just as she finished her sentence, the annoying sound stopped.

  “That was the announcement that we are nearing the next inhabitable planet in your galaxy!” Markar said cheerfully.

  “Your ship’s way of informing you of that is an oven timer?” Rae deadpanned in disbelief. Markar looked at her in confusion. “I’m just saying, I thought you guys had more technology than that. We could at least use some specifics.”

  “All of the specific data is in the ship’s computer. I could retrieve it if you would like to see it.” Markar said politely.

  Rae’s eyes slightly widened in surprise as she stared back at him. The thought of another planet existing with life on it was still too fantastic to be real to her. “Yes!” she exclaimed with more enthusiasm than she meant to let out.

  The data Markar was able to put up on the large computer screen was not just numbers and probabilities; it was actual footage of the planet as seen from space. Rae could see vast swathes of lush forests, with deep gauges in the surface of the planet where barren earth formed huge canyons that descended into darkness. It was as if something originating from the void of space had clawed giant scars into the landscape.