by Ruby Ryan
"We should not be avoiding the humans. We should be nurturing them, learning from them. Speeding our alliance with them. To move cautiously toward them would be to waste an incredible opportunity!"
We will take your opinion into consideration, one of the Councilors said. Perhaps an accelerated contact plan with these humans is worth considering.
But Jerix was shaking his head. "I'm not telling you this only to guide your actions. I'm informing you of what I wish to do myself."
He turned and approached me, and glared at the guard so intensely that the shackle on my arm immediately faded into mist. I rubbed my wrist and smiled at him, and then he took my hand and led me back to the center of the room.
"I have restored my honor in the Sunken Pit," he said gravely, "but that matters nothing to me if I cannot be with this human. Whatever happens now, I will not allow you to take her from me."
He squeezed my hand, and I squeezed it back, and I knew the truth in his words.
The Dominion Lord laughed, or at least the Karak equivalent of mirth pouring through our consciousness. His thoughts were angry and bitter. You dishonor yourself even further, Jerix! I will have you cast down again, returned to the Sunken Pit for three more trials. And three more, and three more, as many as it takes for your stain of dishonor to die!
The Council turned toward him. You cannot dishonor him again, one said, while another insisted, He has already emerged victorious.
The Dominion Lord's wrath was a physical presence, like heat shimmering through the air. For a long moment I expected him to shift into a dragon himself and burn everyone to ashes.
Very well, he finally said, biting off every word in my mind. But I still have authority over the security of the Dominion, and I have determined that Jerix and his human are a threat.
A threat? I opened my mouth to argue, but Jerix held me back.
"Do what you must!" he said, his grip on my hand not wavering.
As a threat to the stability of our world, the sanctity of all it means to be Karak, you are banished from the Karak Dominion of Planets, he intoned ceremoniously. Begone from our sight, and never return so long as your atoms possess light.
I blinked, and waited for the Council to overrule him. To tell him they couldn't do that to Jerix now that he'd restored his honor. But all they did was twinkle in agreement.
So say we all, they intoned, one after the other.
I felt my heart sink into my gut. Jerix had done everything asked of him, and still was about to be banished. And all because of me.
Because I'd dared to love him.
But Jerix only smiled, and I felt the confidence in his voice.
"I do not care what you do to me," he said slowly. "So long as I am with my human mate, Leslie, I am happy."
The Dominion Lord surged with fury. YOU ARE A KARAK!
Jerix's smile deepened as he turned to me. "I am Leslie's lover, and she is mine, and nothing else matters."
The guards behind us moved out of our way, and Jerix led me from the chamber, the Dominion Lord's wrath pulsing behind us.
22
LESLIE
I was in a daze as we walked down the halls, my alien lover leading me by the hand.
"Jerix..." I began.
"Not now," he said, not looking back. "Wait until we are alone."
We moved through the building until arriving at a room containing a huge lift. The one that we descended on when we first arrived on this planet days before. When I'd been full of wonder and excitement, not knowing what this place had in store for me.
I felt a different kind of excitement, now.
"Jerix!" I finally said, spinning him around. "How could you do that?"
"Do what?"
I fumbled around for the words. "You'll let yourself be banished from the Dominion? Just to be with me?"
He blinked in confusion. "Of course."
The platform door opened, and we stepped inside. Instantly, it shot upwards into the sky, though I couldn't feel the momentum one bit.
What the hell was even happening? I felt like I was taking crazy pills. Which was saying something, since this entire trip had been a weird acid trip.
"You can't do this," I insisted. "You can't leave your home just for me. I won't let you."
"You left yours for me," he said.
Instantly, all argument dropped out of my mind. It all made sense, now. The impossibility of his decision no longer felt crazy. Because I'd done the exact same thing: leaving earth in a hurry, throwing away everything I'd known to go on an incredible journey.
And the one thing I'd learned in the past few days was that I hadn't done it just for the excitement of it. I'd done it to follow Jerix.
I would follow him anywhere, just like he would for me.
"Okay," I said, tears welling in my eyes. "Shit. Look what you've done. I'm falling apart like Jo."
"I suppose we Karak have that affect on your weak, human bodies." He smiled.
"You weren't..." I rubbed snot away from my nose. "You weren't weak in the Sunken Pit, killing a dragon with a sword. Something that was really frigging stupid."
"Stupid?"
"Yes! You can shift into any form you want, any creature in the entire galaxy, and you shift into a human with a sword and shield? Why not a human with a machine gun?"
A confused look passed across his face. "I don't understand. It felt ideal that my human form defeat Dyonarix in a human manner. Do your heroes of lore not slay dragons with swords?"
"Yeah, sure, but only because they didn't have anything better!" I laughed at the ridiculousness of it, then said, "Won't you regret it, Jerix? Leaving your planet forever?"
He gripped me by the arms. "Leslie. As a Karak scout, I have traveled across the universe. My tour was wide and vast, spanning hundreds of planets teeming with life. And in all my travels, across all the atmospheres and surfaces and creatures, I only have one regret."
I held my breath as he leaned in, eyes very close to mine.
"My only regret is that Arix did not crash earlier," he finally said. "Because if he had, then I would have found you sooner."
He wrapped me in a hug, and I returned the embrace with as much strength as I could manage.
"I love you, Leslie," he said, still not letting go. "I have always loved you; I just did not know so until I met you."
The door opened, and I gave a start. The curve of the planet fell away below us, and above were an infinity of stars. We had arrived at the orbital ring.
"So... now what?" I ask, staring into my lovers eyes. "Where will we go?"
"Well. My scout craft has been unloaded of its specimens, and I still retain control of it. I can think of one planet outside the Dominion where we could be happy."
I grinned along with him. "And I know just the spot. A place I've always wanted to go. And even though it has an arena like the Sunken Pit, it hasn't been used in a very long time."
I blinked away the nausea of our vantage as he led me through the orbital ring to his craft. It was exactly as I remembered it, though when Jerix opened the cargo bay door it was empty inside, except for a lingering scent like manure.
"We're gunna need to make some renovations," I said. "Give it a more homey feel."
"It's only a three day journey," Jerix said.
"Maybe the journey here was." I ran a finger along the lines of his bicep. "Isn't there a scenic route we could find? I want to take our time on the way back."
He grinned like a little boy and went to the controls. Within minutes we were leaving the ring, and then the planet, before the Dominion Lord could change his mind.
*
The pulsing of the ion drive shifted, and then we were lurched backwards in our chairs as the cross-galaxy drive initiated.
Chairs, because that's what we now had inside our cockpit. Comfortable leather chairs for our comfortable human bodies. Jerix sighed back into it, closing his eyes. I reached across and squeezed his hand.
"You okay?" I asked, wo
ndering if he was regretting leaving.
"Of course." He opened his eyes and I could see the joy there. "It feels good to get away. I did not think we would."
Wordlessly, I unclasped my harness and led him into the cargo bay. The former cargo bay, because after some shifter-magic renovations it was the equivalent of a studio apartment: a shower and bathroom on the right, a kitchenette on the left with stove and oven so I could teach Jerix to cook something other than stroganoff.
And of course, in the middle of the far wall, a king-sized bed with the softest mattress in the galaxy.
"It feels good to get away with you too," I said.
Jerix took over then, lust igniting in his eyes. With strong arms he lifted me by the thighs, which I wrapped around his tight butt and squeezed him to me urgently. His mouth fell into mine, and his tongue tasted like cloves and cinnamon.
I leaned back to pull him down onto the bed, but he broke the kiss and grinned.
"What?"
"I have an idea," he said.
Suddenly, my stomach crawled up into my chest like we were on a roller coaster, and my loose hair floated in front of my face. If not for my lover holding me tightly I probably would have started flailing around.
"The gravity!"
His grin spread. "The artificial gravity is so... restricting. I bet we can have some fun like this."
He tried to kiss me again, but I put a hand on his chest. "Just... give me one second to get used to it. Don't want to barf all over you."
"That would certainly ruin the mood."
My stomach eventually settled, and the moment it did I pounced onto his lips with deeper frenzy. The motion sent us spiraling backwards in the air a few inches at a time, but so long as I felt his body beneath mine I didn't care one bit.
Jerix tore at my clothes with eager fingers, and then I was removing his pants and shirt, kissing along his chest while cupping his ass to keep him close. And then he was gripping me by the waist, and gently floating me toward the ceiling. I reached above me to slow my ascent.
"What..." I began.
Remaining below me, Jerix spread my legs and buried his face into my sex. The sudden, unexpected sensation sent bolts of electricity up my body, and I sighed into the tender touch of his tongue.
"Ohh..."
He moved his tongue up and down my lips, probing inside one cautious inch at a time. Tasting rather than pleasuring. And as wonderful as it felt it wasn't enough; I wanted to touch my lover too, to feel his body at the same time.
"Stay there," I commanded, grabbing hold of the ceiling and cartwheeling around. My hair splayed out around me like a liquid as I rotated, until his throbbing cock came into view. "Low gravity makes this position fun."
"You're just full of ideas," he teased.
I grabbed his thighs and pulled myself in, allowing the tip of his cock to brush against my cheek. And then I could feel his hot breath on my thighs and on the wetness of my sex, his face lingering without doing.
Slowly, I wrapped my fingers around the base of his hard member, testing its rigidity. Heat radiated off it, warming my hands and face. Gently, teasingly, I opened my mouth and licked out with my tongue, caressing the ridge of his tip.
"Ohh Leslie," Jerix intoned, voice deep and husky.
I needed him badly, and couldn't wait, so I gyrated my hips to push my crotch into his face. He wrapped his lips around my clit, sucking on it tenderly like it were a nipple, and I shivered as I floated in mid-air.
Urged on by his lips, I wrapped mine around the tip of his cock, widening as I moved around the ridge and down the base. I loved him so much, and it gave me incredible joy to feel his pleasure, the way he tensed his arms and trembled his lips on my clit as I sucked him off. It was better than any feeling in the world.
Or galaxy. Or universe. This terminology was tough to get used to.
We allowed our bodies to float gently in the air in the sixty-nine position, not caring where we bounced so long as we remained coupled. I kept my movements on his prick slow and steady, not wanting him to cum too soon, imagining his thick meat inside of me. But his tongue moved rapidly along with my pleasure, intuitive licks and stabs that made me think he was in my head.
Maybe he was, right then. I didn't care, so long as his tongue didn't stop.
My breathing increased as he held my groin tightly against his face, the scruff of his cheeks scratching along my inner thigh wonderfully. Two fingers felt along my slit at the perfect moment, and I was so wet that they slid inside with ease, wedging me apart, a wonderful friction that made me gasp and moan.
"You like that?"
"Yes!" I breathed.
Then his fingers were pistoning faster, and faster, and it was the perfect intensity as I moaned into his cock. And with shocking speed I neared my climax, wrapping my fingers around his dick as tight as I clenched my sex around his fingers, the throbbing and pulsing and ecstasy overwhelming me.
I arched my back in the zero gravity and screamed a scream of pleasure.
While I closed my eyes and floated in ecstasy, I felt Jerix maneuvering my body. Shifting me, guiding me, like a piece of cargo being led into its proper place. I felt the soft sheets of the bed press against my back, and then my hair fell heavily across my face as Jerix restored the gravity.
I opened my eyes to find his eyes four inches from my face, gorgeous orbs of green and blue.
"That was fun," he said. "But I want you this way now."
"You can have me whichever way you want," I crooned, wrapping an arm around his neck.
He pulled back the down comforter and slid underneath, then threw it back over us, a blanket of warmth. His body pressed against mine, and I spread my legs in invitation, the orgasm leaving my skin raw and tingling but still desperate for the deeper ache of real penetration.
I love you, he said into my mind, and I returned the feeling with a kiss, his lips soft and warm.
His cock slid into me with ease, and he pushed forward with human instinct rather than conscious thought, an animal driven by primal urge. We groaned together as he entered as deep as he could, all the way to the hilt, our public hair intermingling with a sensual tickle. He kissed me harder, not just with his mouth but with his entire body, pressing himself against my chest and belly and arms and legs, as if it were a game to make every inch of our skins join. His nipples rubbed against mine and I sighed deeper, and ran my hand down his back, from his shoulders to his ass, savoring his muscular human form.
He pulled back slowly, the wonderful friction of our most sensitive parts, and pushed back again, and I wanted him to cum so desperately, to see and feel and know the ecstasy he felt, that I rocked my own hips up into him.
"Faster," I whispered.
He obeyed dutifully, thrusting with his powerful hips, more desperate with each stroke. What began as a careful dance of flesh became a crashing need, my alien lover succumbing to his human instincts as pleasure rose inside of him. Soon I was unable to match his strokes with my own gyrations, and did not need to, and he slammed my body into the wonderfully soft mattress and sheets.
He broke the kiss and pulled back to stare at me, and I put a hand on the side of his face to keep him there, to watch the fire explode in his eyes.
"Oh fuck," he gasped. "Oh fuck, oh Leslie..."
"Yes!"
His mouth opened as wide as his eyes and he thrust one final thrust, his cock spasming inside of me, rope after warm rope, and I clenched my sex tightly around him so that I could feel every shuddering spurt.
When he was done he fell back into me, nuzzling against my neck, and I wrapped my legs around him and savored the smell of his hair.
Later, seconds or minutes or hours, he rolled onto his side and stared at me with a goofy grin on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing," he said coyly. "I was just thinking."
"We humans also think on occasion," I said. "It's the subject of such thought that interests me."
"I was thinking about how
exhausted you're going to be."
I pushed up onto an elbow. "Exhausted from what?"
"From what I'm going to do to you during our trip."
He was so beautiful in the soft light of the cargo bay, eyes heavy with pleasure, that I couldn't help but kiss him. I ran my fingers down his chest, under the sheets, and slid them teasingly across his shaft.
Then removed them.
"Then you'd better cook a girl dinner," I said, falling back into the pillows. "I'm gunna need my energy."
"Well okay then," he said, sliding out of bed. His tight ass and tree-trunk thighs pawed across the floor toward our little kitchenette. "What do you feel like?"
"I've got a hankering for egg noodles. And beef tips. Know any recipes in that realm?"
He turned and flashed me a smile. "I suppose I can whip up something like that."
As he began to shift-create the ingredients, I admired his nude body and giggled.
23
JERIX
I was happy.
I never thought I could be. A Karak's life was one of subservience to the Dominion, fulfilling one's role until one was no longer needed. There was a satisfaction in such a life, but it was not the same as happiness.
And it paled in comparison to love.
As I fed my human woman beef stroganoff, I could not take my eyes off her body. She lay on her belly while eating, legs spread our behind her to showcase a round ass and thick thighs. Thick with muscle, and purpose. Even then, so soon after sexual relations, I wanted to bury my face in her ass and lick along her legs, tasting every inch of her.
Instead, I leaned in to kiss her lips, tasting the sauce on her tongue.
"I love you," I said, running my fingers through her hair. She was so beautiful when her hair was down, instead of imprisoned in a ponytail. "I could stare at you for hours."
"Okay, creep," she said, poking me in the belly.
I laid down in the bed and propped my head up with one arm and did exactly that, until she'd finished her food and pounced on me, ready for more lovemaking.
