Last Flight of the Ark

by D. L. Jackson

  He was on Jessica and in her before she could move. His cock had become so hard he could only push halfway in. Tight. God, she was tight. He pulled back and pushed again, sliding deeper, stretching her as far as she would go. Every muscle of her pussy clenched around him, begging him, daring him to go deeper. He drew back and drove in to his balls, eliciting an ecstatic cry from Jessica.

  Damn, his teeth hurt. He wanted to sink them into her flesh, taste her while he came. He trembled, fighting release, begging for a few more seconds. Kaleb froze, holding on to fragile control, not moving. Jessica’s legs wrapped around his waist as she clung to the table’s edge, pulling him to her and driving him deeper.

  “Move. Damn it,” Jessica said.

  Melissa stood behind him. Her scent was soaked with need. He could feel her gaze on him and it turned him on like nothing he’d experienced before.

  He drove in and out, fucking Jessica until she screamed and came in a furious heat. He began to swell, growing inside her, tying them together. Fear began to bubble up. This was when it had happened before, when the change burned through him and he’d bitten Melissa.

  “Kaleb,” she cried out, and pulsed around him.

  That was all it took: the sound of his name from her lips, the way she contracted around him. He exploded inside her, filling her with hot liquid as her body milked him in spasm after spasm. He shoved his cock deeper and held her hips, yanking her small frame tighter to him, needing to get deeper, closer, merge flesh to flesh. To bite. The urge to mark her screamed through his body.

  No.

  Instead, he tipped his head back and did what felt natural. He howled. Behind him, Melissa joined in, singing along in rapture.

  His pack. His females. His. And he knew he didn’t have to bite Jessica in order to claim her. He’d leave his scent all over her and hell would come to any man that touched her. He swore he wouldn’t condemn her to his fate, as he had Melissa.

  His muscles locked and the burn began. Melissa came up behind him, holding him to Jessica. Her hands stroked his sides, over his flanks. Her touch calmed him.

  “Breathe, I’m here. You can control it. I’ll help you.” She wrapped her arms around him, sandwiching him between them.

  He gave himself up to the fire. Wave after wave of energy rolled through him. His muscles contracted and spasmed, but the pain didn’t cripple him this time. It burned his body in pleasure. His muscles remained human; his bones didn’t crack. Another orgasm tore through him, taking his breath, bringing the world down around him. It throbbed and pounded bliss through every square inch of his body, melting him in their arms.

  Chapter Eight

  “Good morning, sir.” Jessica’s voice chirped from the com and the lights came on. Special bulbs that mimicked sunlight made it feel as though someone had ripped the drapes aside.

  Kaleb cracked an eye and stared at the time. “It’s twenty-three hundred hours, Jessica—that’s night. I’ve got six more hours. Could you kill the lights?”

  “Not on Terra II, sir. Time to reset your clock. You’re officially on the twenty-six hour day. Get up or I’m breaking out the bugle.”

  Didn’t I disconnect that damned recording? “Please tell me you didn’t hook it back up….”

  Jessica laughed. “Someone is a little grumpy and needs their coffee.”

  “Someone needs six more hours of sleep.”

  And he’d thought the twenty-four-hour day a long one. Now it was to be thirteen hours on, thirteen off. Thirteen months with thirty days and one with thirty-one. Wasn’t thirteen bad luck? Maybe he should go back to sleep.

  “You didn’t forget your meeting this morning, did you?”

  “Right. Morning. Meeting.” Well, technically, he couldn’t call it morning. In space there was neither morning or night. They ran on a twenty-four-hour clock and stuck with it to keep sleep cycles from getting out of whack. Lights on at oh-five-hundred and off at twenty-one-hundred. He’d forgotten the clocks would change and he’d be in a whole different zone. That meant lights on at eleven at night and they weren’t going to go off. Damn.

  He untangled his body from Melissa’s. She mumbled, rolled to her side, and took the blanket with her. He’d have to pick a damned bed-hog as a mate. Time to get a bigger bed. Two barely fit and he planned to move both into his quarters with him. He liked the closeness of waking up with his females. What man wouldn’t?

  He slipped his headset on and switched to a private channel. “How long till the meeting?”

  “In an hour and forty-five minutes. I thought we might like a shower first.”

  He ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t wait to get off this ship and away from the recycled water. His wolf senses hated it. But it was also necessary if he didn’t want to offend. Wait a second–she said “we.” He smiled. At least she’d make getting up worthwhile. “That doesn’t sound like a bugle threat.”

  “Captain James is relieving me of my watch in fifteen. Permission to scrub your back, sir?”

  “Fuck, yes.”

  “Manners, sir.”

  “Fuck, please?”

  “You’re impossible. What are we going to do about that mouth?”

  “I can think of a lot of things to do with it.” He grinned. “I can think of a few things you could do with yours, too.”

  Silence. Had he said something wrong? “Jessica?”

  “I’ve been alone, on the flight deck, all night with nothing to do but touch my hot…wet…pussy.”

  She’d been doing what? He sucked in a breath.

  “I’m touching myself now. I brought myself to orgasm five times last night thinking about your cock filling me. Do you have any idea how wet I am?”

  His mouth dropped open and his cock sprang to attention. If she didn’t ease up, he’d stroke out from the rise in blood pressure. Kaleb grabbed his dick and choked around the head. “Jessica? What are you doing?”

  She laughed. “I’m in your seat,” she continued. “You should feel how slick.”

  “My seat?” He swallowed to clear the catch in his throat.

  “My leg is over the armrest and I’ve spread myself open. So slick, so wet. I have my fingers inside me. Stroking, touching. Um, you should taste this.”

  “Taste?” He squeezed harder. “You’re killing me, Jess.”

  “What are you wearing?” Jessica’s voice had dropped to a sultry purr.

  “Wearing? I….” If she kept this up, he’d come all over himself. “What the fuck do you mean, what am I wearing? This isn’t funny.”

  “Funny? I’ve never been as serious as I am now. In thirteen minutes Captain James is walking on deck. I’m not moving until I come. Now tell me, what you’re wearing.”

  “Nothing.”

  “Are you alone?”

  “No.” He glanced at Melissa’s back. “Melissa’s here.”

  “Keep the headset on. Fuck her. Tell me everything you do, as you do it.”

  “She’s sleeping.”

  “Wake her up.”

  “Christ. Wake her up?”

  “You better move. You wouldn’t want Captain James to catch me doing what I’m doing.”

  “Hell no.” He grabbed Melissa, pushed her to her back, and rolled on top of her.

  Her eyes snapped open. “Good morning?”

  “I’m kissing her.”

  “Huh?” Melissa screwed up her face. “I’m here. You don’t have to….”

  He lowered his mouth and captured her lips. He slipped his hands into her hair, releasing her mouth and kissing along her jaw, down her neck, until she moaned and ground against him. “She’s warm and soft. Her heart rate has picked up.”

  “Kaleb?” Melissa panted. “What are you doing?”

  “How does she taste?” Jessica said.

  “Like the wicked side of the night.” He stroked Melissa’s breast and brushed the nipple with the pad of his thumb. Leaning in, he drew it between his lips. Melissa gasped and dug her nails into his shoulders. “Her nipple�
��s like a hard stone.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Melissa lifted her head.

  “Shhhh.” He ran his hands over her sides. “I’m going down.”

  “Oh, God,” both women cried out. Melissa whimpered as his lips grazed her stomach. He nipped her hip and she bucked. Grabbing her around the waist as she went to sit up, he yanked her back. “Lie down and enjoy it.”

  “Who are you—”

  Melissa reached for the headset and Kaleb snagged her wrists and pressed them to the bed beside her thighs. “Don’t touch.”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  “Jessica. Com-sex. I’ve got thirteen minutes to get her off.”

  “Nine.”

  “Then I better get moving.” He worked his fingers into Melissa’s pussy and rubbed her swollen clit. She groaned. “Stroking her clit. Now I’m going to lick it and suck the juicy bit into my mouth.” He lowered his face and licked. Melissa whimpered and arched off the bed.

  “Damn!”

  “That’s good. I’m almost there.” Jessica’s hard breath filled the com. He could practically feel the heat of her body, smell the lust rolling off her. “Make her scream.”

  “My pleasure.” He slid a finger inside and laved Melissa with his tongue.

  “Oh, Kaleb, oh….” Melissa howled and thrashed. “I’m coming. Damn, damn. Oh!” She pulsed around his finger and whimpered. He sucked her clit into his mouth again and she arched up, screaming.

  “I’m coming,” Jessica whispered. “Oh, God, baby. It’s so good.”

  “You have no idea,” He crawled up Melissa’s body and lifted her legs over her shoulders, driving inside. “I’m fucking her.” He pounded in and out, harder and faster. “She feels so good. Get your ass to my quarters. Now.”

  “I’ll see you in seven. Out.”

  “Seven. Was that enough time?” His cock began to swell. He slammed deep and gripped Melissa’s hips as he exploded inside her.

  ***

  Kaleb stood and stretched, padding across the floor to the shower to start it. He strode out of the latrine and pressed the pad next to the door. It slid open. Jessica stood there, in her dress uniform and boots. Rumpled. Hot.

  He could smell how wet she was. Even though he’d just come, his dick began to harden again. I could get used to this.

  She reached up and pulled the pins from her hair. Her golden tresses tumbled around her shoulders. One step forward and she was inside. The door clanged shut behind her. “We can talk about the plan while I soap you up.”

  “You want to talk?” He laced his fingers into her hair and pulled her into a kiss, coaxing her mouth open with his tongue.

  She laughed and gave him a push. “It’s only been twelve hours. We can’t fuck all the time.”

  “Wanna bet?” Twelve hours had felt like forever. How would he, how could he ever go on without her? What if the mutation couldn’t be reversed? He swore he wouldn’t do to her what he’d done to Melissa. He’d condemned them to exile. How could he do it to any of them? They’d all be quarantined, never able to go home or return to their lives and families. Who was he to make that decision?

  Jessica drew her brows together. “What’s wrong?”

  He shook his head. He’d never wanted to be in charge of the ship and now he had a decision to make that would affect so many on a massive scale. Not just two thousand lives, but those of their families and friends on Earth. It would change all their lives and it might not be for the better.

  “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you? You’ll do what you have to do when the time comes and it will be the right decision.” She pushed on his shoulders, backing him toward the shower. “We need to go over the plan. I’m great at multitasking, so move.”

  She nudged him again, unzipped her boots, and dropped them to the floor. Next came the top and then the skirt. He raised a brow when she dropped it. She’d gone from braless to braless and commando, nothing but skin underneath. His cock sprang to life.

  “I know we were going to talk about the whole bra thing so I thought I’d save us a conversation and just go without everything. You have issues with me being out of uniform?”

  “Carry on.”

  “Didn’t think you’d mind.”

  Chapter Nine

  Lieutenant Jeffers rolled down his sleeve. “How long before the mutation starts?”

  “It’s immediate, but it will take you about three to four hours to notice any significant changes.” Kaleb dropped the inoculator in the drawer. If Jessica knew, she’d be furious. What he’d denied her, he’d given to Jeffers and Captain James. Actually, they’d demanded he infect them with the same virus their crew would be exposed to. They’d volunteered to test it out first and he didn’t hesitate to say no.

  He’d been a busy boy that day, working on the “virus pearls” since the last meeting eight hours ago. Everything was ready. He’d placed the engineered virus that would carry the mutation to the Genesis II’s crew in individual glass containers that were each the size of a pool ball. He’d scavenged the empty pearls from the unused cryo-units. Originally, the glass containers had carried liquids that circulated warming agents through the blood of whatever was frozen in the unit to slowly bring them out of stasis. They were both air- and water-tight and proved to be the perfect container for his superbug. He’d rigged a pin trigger on the inside, which would fracture the glass by remote, releasing the strain as a mist into the ship’s fresh air return, where the microscopic droplets could be circulated in a matter of minutes. The infection would remain dormant until it entered a host. If everything worked as it had under the microscope, the virus would carry the mutation, and once the host was infected, the mutation would go to work destroying the flu and repairing any damage caused by illness. The flu would be gone in a matter of hours and the mutation would take over, converting the host to a wolf-human hybrid. Once that happened, there was a good chance the change would be permanent.

  He held the clear ball up to the light and studied the mechanism. It didn’t look like much, but it could change the fate of two worlds. In his hand he literally held the lives of millions, and it didn’t make him feel cozy.

  “Give me six hours and I’ll run some tests and see how you’re doing. Once our friends are on board this ship for the next meeting, I want you to go with my crew and put these virus ampoules into the air ducts on the Genesis II. If we have to trigger them, we can spread the mutation throughout the ship. After that, I want you to go with Captain Deluzio and search. We need to find where they’ve placed that weapon.”

  “Not a problem. I’d know my way around that ship in a deep-space blackout. If something is out of place, I’ll spot it,” Lieutenant Jeffers said.

  Kaleb had come to like Frank Jeffers. Easygoing, intelligent, he put others before himself and he respected territory. Not once did he make a move on Jessica or Melissa. Plus, he smelled like Captain James. Gay was good. No threat to his females. Jeffers gave a quick salute and spun on his heel. The door slid shut behind him.

  It would be at least twenty-four hours before the virus manifested, though it could take longer, up to three days. He prayed he didn’t have to trigger it, but if he did, he hoped he had time to see the full impact of the infection and develop an antivirus if need be. Three days seemed more like a year when dealing with something that could be lethal. Antiviruses couldn’t be created overnight. Sometimes they couldn’t be created at all.

  ***

  “I’ve placed ten pearls in the fresh-air return. The detonators are in place and all it will take is a push of a button to break the glass. I haven’t been able to locate the command crew. You got a bioscan reading?”

  “Negative. Even though we hacked in and I’ve got the signatures, I can’t seem to locate them. Maybe they took them down to the planet.”

  “That’s a good possibility, I don’t think they’re on the ship or someone would have seen them,” Melissa said.

  Kaleb glanced at his wrist monitor. He’d excus
ed himself to use the latrine while Jessica briefed the imposters on the protocol for the first drop. When they’d mentioned they were going over it, the enemy commander had perked up. He had kept his distance and sat across the room, trying to keep suspicions down until he could contact the command crew and keep them from leaving. The longer he kept the imposters onboard his ship, the better chance the mission would be accomplished.

  However, the longer Melissa, Frank, and the two security officers stayed on that ship, the deeper in danger they’d be. Keeping to the lower levels should help them avoid the encroachers, but there was still a chance they could get caught. Something told him they’d be dead if they were spotted.

  He wished there was another way. He hated sending anyone over and it should be him taking the risk, but his presence was required in the briefing room to keep the act up. He glanced at his wrist monitor again. Time to get back. He exited the latrine. “Status on the rest of the crew?”

  “Cooped up, but alive. It doesn’t appear they’ve been hurt. I told them to stay put and that we couldn’t free them yet, but we’re working on it.”

  “Did you tell them?”

  “No. We need to keep them calm. I only spoke to a couple of the crew through the ducts.”

  “Get back to the Ark. I’m sending Jessica to the bay to put a tracer in their shuttle. If they’re going down to the planet we can track their route and maybe locate where they’ve locked up the command crew.”

  “Roger. We’re headed for the dock now. Give us fifteen minutes.”

  Kaleb cut the connection and pressed his hand into the pad next to the door.

  ***

  Jessica cupped her hand over her mouth. The shuttle the imposter crew had taken over to the Ark reeked. She had a mission and should be focusing on installing the tracer, not heading to the back to locate the source of the smell. She popped the hatch and gagged when the stench slapped her in the face. Death. It didn’t take a genius to know that.