by Sky Winters
But instead, it landed a hundred and twenty yards to the left of them. Before long, with a loud squeak that suggested they needed some oil, the hatch of the space ship opened and a long, shiny gangplank came down. This was soon filled with tall, uniform-wearing Daskani men as they marched down onto the ground and towards the nervously tittering women.
As each one passed her, picking out his mate that thankfully was not her, Celeste could not help appraising these men. They could hardly be called men. They were all at least seven feet tall; with skin that was a bright blue complexion that glowed. However strange, Celeste could not deny there was a certain beauty they carried.
And as her eyes darted from one Daskani to the next, Celeste wondered if any of these one hundred virile aliens would appeal to her.
That’s when her eyes met with the moss green eyes their leader. He marched towards her with an expression that said less that he wanted to mate with her, and more that he wanted to devour her alive.
Her heart told her to run, but her brain told her to stay right where she was.
She had been selected.
CHAPTER TWO
General Zephyr
“To the ship!” this moss-eyed Daskani shouted to his men. Suddenly, the Daskani grabbed the women that they had selected and carried then, thrown onto their shoulders, back up the ramp of their space ship. Celeste let out a half-scream before her apparent mate grabbed her and tossed her onto his hard, rocklike shoulder.
His blue skin was even scaly like a serpent, but she was oh so thankful that he was not slimy. At once, she took offense to the way these aliens just took hold of their new brides as if they were prized cows instead of women deserving of love and compassion. Celeste was not under the illusion that the Daskani were looking for love on all the wrong planets, but she did not think that she and all the other women had volunteered to be mere sex slaves to a horny alien race.
She knew that the Daskani were helping the people of Earth, and she should not complain because of that, but there was helping and then there was taking advantage.
As soon as the lady volunteers of Earth were brought aboard the space ship, it became abundantly clear that these males liked to keep rather hot conditions while travelling through space. The whole place felt like a sauna. It was difficult to even breathe; that’s how hot it was. Several of the ladies, including Celeste, began coughing.
The Daskani paid that no mind and instead started shoving the women into cages. Each of them apparently had a cage that was designated for their new female mates from Earth. Celeste’s moss-eyed leader tossed her into a cage like all the others, as though she was a mere rag doll, and almost slammed the metal door but Celeste reached out and stopped it.
“Hey!” she shouted at him, practically spitting in his face because she was salivating and sweating so profusely. “You are treating us like cattle! You can’t do this! If you keep it this hot, we will all die before you get us to your planet.”
Her mate stared at her a moment, and at first, she wondered if he could understand what she was saying. She had always assumed that the Daskani could speak English, at least well enough to converse with the President and the other Earthen leaders. “We will die,” she said again, for emphasis, in case that made things clearer.
Suddenly, he clapped his two great claw like hands together and another of the aliens rushed towards him. “Lower the temperature,” he told the alien of lower rank. “Let’s make things a bit more… hospitable for our mates.”
Celeste did not like the way he emphasized that word. Nothing about this was hospitable. And she also did not like the way he glared at her, almost as if he felt burdened with her like she was burdened with him.
He did nothing to address the fact that the women were all in cages however. As soon as the temperature noticeably went down to a comfortable eighty degrees, her Daskani turned and walked away down the long hallway, leaving the Earthling women crying and shouting in their room of cages.
They were in kennels like dogs.
Celeste was pissed. “Hey!” she tried shouting after him, but he made no motion as if he heard her. He reached the end of the hall and went into an office, shutting the door behind himself. “UGH, you ASSHOLE!” she shouted then, hitting the front of her cage forcefully with the palm of her hand. All that really achieved was making her palm throb, but it was better than just sitting in her cage and crying like all the other imbiciles.
“What did you all expect?” she asked then, under her breath, as she sat in her cage and waited for a Daskani to come her way again. “Were you expecting a pleasure cruise through space? Because I certainly wasn’t…”
She had not been expecting this either, though. She sat there and waited, always making sure to keep one eye open in case a Daskani came to her cage to throw in some food or grab her or something. As soon as the door opened, she planned to attack using teeth, nails, whatever she could to get back at them.
They wanted to treat them like animals? Fine. Then she would respond in kind.
Several hours later – Celeste tried to keep track, but she lost count once she got drowsy – a Daskani came to her cage to give her a metallic dish of foul-smelling meat. As soon as he opened the door, he realized his mistake. She jumped out at him, utilizing all of her energy, and bit and scratched at him with her short but sharp nails. “Get me out of here!” she bellowed. “I want to get out of here! Let me speak with the leader!”
The Daskani – seemingly frightened of he, nodded his head as he backed away. She stood there, a bit of blood under some of her nails, and stared at him like a creature possessed. She was dirty and she felt disgusting, and she wanted answers.
The Daskani guard was too afraid to touch her, but he nodded for her to follow him. Immediately upon realizing what Celeste had achieved, the other women started calling out for them to be freed and taken to the leader as well. But the Daskani guard had no time for anyone else. He was not going to make this mistake again.
Celeste walked along the long, shiny hallway towards the back office where her mate had gone. The walls appeared to be made from metal, but she could not say which. They looked silver at first, but then they looked green like old copper, then actual copper-color, then gold. She thought she would have to ask about that, but then she realized that it did not really matter to her in the grand scheme of things. Besides, everyone knew that dragons liked gold and shiny things. And the Daskani were a race of dragon-shifting aliens.
So far, to her mind, they were just a race of assholes. She had no patience for their cutesy quirks. One of their cutesy quirks almost killed everyone.
When they got to the closed door of her loving, caring Daskani mate, Celeste read the name that was engraved upon it. General Zephyr. That explained why the others listened to him. He was not just some hot-shot; he was the one in charge. Officially and everything. She felt like she should be more impressed than she was, but she was too annoyed at him and the way things had played out thus far. She did not care if he was the king. She wanted to officially tell him to go fuck himself.
The nervous Daskani guard knocked on the door and then turned to her. “Wait here,” he told her.
“No, I’m going in to ta—”
He shook his head and said, more firmly this time, “Wait. Here.”
Celeste threw her hands up and sighed, but she did not want to disobey in case she would end up dead otherwise. She was not one to mess around if things were that serious. She watched as he lumbered into the room and slammed the heavy metal door behind him. The office or whatever that General Zephyr was in was apparently soundproof. That figured.
Finally, just as Celeste was about think she could not stand it any longer, the door opened and the Daskani guard came out. He gestured for her to go inside and then made his way back down the hall to the cages. She hoped he would be a little kinder to the other ladies now, but she could not be sure of that.
She entered the office and noticed right away that it was at least a hundr
ed degrees in there. Heh. She might have considered that. The general was sitting at a large, bulky black desk. His attire did nothing to hint at the fact that he was a higher rank than the others. He was wearing the same maroon uniform pants and vest. He would have looked more like a bellhop than a general, were it not for the gold tassels that anointed his uniform here and there.
His outfit did not make him look menacing. What made him menacing was his sheer size. The Daskani were all large, but the dragon man who had picked her out was a behemoth. Celeste had not had time to contemplate that when she stood gaping at him out in the compound. But now that they had arrived in that tiny office, she was beginning to think about a lot of things…
“Is your planet a volcano by any chance?” she asked before she could stop herself.
General Zephyr glowered at her. “Have a seat,” he said.
She sat.
“I am told that you complained about our system aboard my ship,” he said. Everything he said was like a snarl with an extra hiss thrown in. “I am sorry that you find our methods uncomfortable, but you see we must quarantine you females before we can become… what’s the word you use? Ah, intimate.”
Celeste furrowed her brows at that. “Quarantine?” she asked him. “So, you’re treating us like animals because you think we might be infected?”
General Zephyr blinked at her. He was not used to his orders or rules being questioned. “Well,” he said, faltering a bit. “Yyyes.”
She felt content when she realized that she was cracking him a little. She had somehow penetrated his molten exterior. She just hoped she would not find magma or something underneath.
“That might be normal where you’re from, but where we’re from, it’s considered inhumane and abusive to lock people up in cages like they are animals.” Celeste looked him in the eye when she spoke, another thing that jarred Zephyr. She realized this and so she kept it up. Intimidation by disrespect. That was something she could surely do. “You won’t get into our pants that way.”
He clearly did not understand that terminology, but the dumb look on her face made Celeste laugh. It had been worth saying just for that.
“We do not want to get into your pants,” he said. “We desire to mate with you, to help your people survive and help bring new blood to our people.”
She did not see the appeal of having Earthen blood mixed in with their clearly more powerful Daskani blood… “But Earth people aren’t special,” she tried arguing. “We aren’t made of fire. We can’t fly. And we’re nowhere near as massive as you.”
Zephyr suddenly smiled. He had a surprisingly handsome smile for a dragon man. Sure, his fangs were frightening and he looked like he was trying to threaten her instead of show a little joy, but Celeste knew that he was making the effort to appear more friendly, and that put her at ease that she did not know she wasn’t feeling until then.
“But you are special,” he told her with all sincerity. “Your weakness and lack of any trained powers makes you attractive and different to us. You are called the weaker race, after all.”
“Oh, thanks,” Celeste said.
Then she laughed.
It felt nice to talk to a Daskani in an actual conversation. It made her feel better that she was now being treated like a guest, not a bounty. But she still wished that there was a fan in his office.
“So, I guess it’s back to my quarantine cage with me then,” she said, standing up from her cool metallic seat. She did not have any idea how the metal was cool in the steamy office and figured that the Daskani had to have fancy metal that was resistant to melting. Otherwise their space ship would not have done so well.
“No,” Zephyr said to her. “You don’t have to… I will give the order for your comrades to be released. I don’t want to be uncourteous to our guests.”
Celeste raised her eyebrows at him and looked at him curiously. She knew that she basically did not know anything about the Daskani other than the fact that they had answered humanities call and they were some weird dragon-shifters who liked things to be kept uncomfortably hot. But still, Zephyr surprised her. She had not expected him to change his mind about things so easily, and she wondered if it might have something to do with the fact that she was his mate.
“I don’t know how the rest of my people will respond to so many beautiful women,” Zephyr explained. “I thought that the cages might keep them safe… But I am sure that we can find accommodations that are more comfortable.”
“Thank you,” Celeste replied, assuming that there must be catch to this. “So, should I go back and await accommodations.”
Zephyr looked nervous again. “No, no… You…” He looked around his sparse office. “You can stay in here.”
Celeste sat back down in her cool seat, glad that she had that at the very least. It would have been nice if she could have a bed made of that metal, along with a nice tall glass of water perhaps, but she was not about to start getting greedy.
He stood up then and went to the office door. “I think that the females – women – should be led out of their cages slowly,” he explained then, pausing in the doorway to look at her. “I want this new situation to be handled as delicately as possible. My species… We can sometimes do things without thinking. I do not want any mating to happen without careful planning. That is how we plan to help your people, after all.”
She smiled faintly at him at that and gave a nod. She could not believe that her Daskani leader, was so kind and understanding. They did not want to go crazy with lust and start just ravishing the women everywhere. They wanted to handle things in a way that would ensure pregnancy, not just pleasure. Celeste found that she could respect this Zephyr guy.
And despite her initial disgust, she could feel an attraction towards him coursing through her body.
General Zephyr came back into his office a few moments later. He had a chagrined sort of look on his face, but he nodded at Celeste. “I have given the order. It will be done. The women will be released from their cages.”
“Thank you,” she said, fanning herself with a hand. “Now could something be done about the heat in here? I appreciate that you are letting me stay in your quarters with you where I can be safe, but if the temperature stays this high, like I said before I will die…”
His already big eyes grew bigger and he went to adjust the temperature. There was a thermostat-like thing on the wall. Huh, she thought. We’re not so different.
“I picked you out on Earth,” he said then, sitting down at his desk and looking at her as if he was about to start giving her a job interview. “But I suppose that it would be best to get to know you better before… we commence with anything.”
Mating. He meant mating.
Celeste blushed a bit. Now that she was there with him and partnered up and everything, she felt a bit bashful about what was to come. She had never really thought of mating with a Daskani male as ‘sex,’ but that was what it was. She supposed that she had never wanted to think about it in those actual terms because sex alone was such a daunting concept to the twenty-seven-year-old virgin. Sex with a scaly space dragon just added to the whole ‘holy crap’-ness of the situation.
The room got mercifully cooler, which Celeste was so glad of. She felt like she could relax more now, though she had no idea what Zephyr expected to happen next. There was nervous anticipation as long as he did not say anything…
“What is your name?” he asked her. She could see that small talk was a foreign concept to him, but she appreciated that he was trying.
“Celeste,” she said, chuckling slightly. “Kind of a fitting name now, all things considered.”
Zephyr raised an eyebrow, and she realized he had eyebrows.
“Because of space. Celestial…? Never mind.” She blushed a bit; embarrassed that he did not understand the coincidence of her name. Maybe it was for the best that he was not a poetic romantic or something. All of this was new to her and the last thing she needed was to be mated with Romeo.
/> “No,” he said suddenly. “I know what you mean now. That is interesting. My name is like…” He blew a gust out of his mouth. Thankfully it contained no fire and very low amounts of heat.
Celeste laughed. “That’s true. Were our parents hippies or what?”
Of course, he was not going to know what that meant. But his confusion made his face look much less severe; softer somehow. She could get used to his gentle, moss-green eyes and his high cheekbones. She even found his blue skin less froglike now. Blue had always been one of her favorite colors…
“What did you do?” he asked her then. “On your planet, I mean.”
She wished that their getting to know each other did not feel so much like a formal interview. “I spent most of my adult life preparing for this day,” she told him honestly. “I knew that our species was in crisis so I volunteered for the breeding program. Then I’ve pretty much just tried my best to prepare myself for it.”
A lot of vitamins and supplements had been involved, as well as some hormone treatments and close monitoring of her cycle. Celeste had almost stopped living for herself and had begun living with a child in mind. Was that sad? Yeah. But it was her destiny, too. She wanted to be a mother, especially for a species that was going to die out if she did not become one.
Zephyr gave a look that seemed to say that he felt sorry for her. “It has been that dire for your people?”
Celeste nodded. “Somewhere along the line, my people got wasteful and cocky… Not that I’m thinking you should take my story as a parable or anything, but I suppose such a thing could happen on any planet.”
“We are not wasteful,” he said. Each time he spoke, the words came out almost as if it hurt for him to say them, like his lungs were on fire. Oh. Oh, she assumed that was probably exactly what it was. “We are stingy, I suppose. But we do not let things go to waste.”
