by Nora Blaze
This time it’s my turn to frown. “I have no idea where we’re located,” I admit. “And we don’t trade with anyone. We’ve never encountered life off of our own planet.”
UrTak winces. “Had I known that, I would not have taken you to the Beast Market.”
“The terrifying swamp planet? Yeah, that wasn’t exactly my dream vacation.”
I think I notice a smile on his face but he hides it by taking a drink. I do the same and when the warm liquid pools on my tongue, the delicious floral taste pulls a moan from my lips.
“You like!” UrTak says, pleased.
I nod. “I do, thank you.”
“I will do what I can to find your planet. Trust me that this is of great importance to me and to my species. But I am sorry to tell you that there is no easy way home.”
My heart sinks. It’s the answer I feared I would hear. Had I learned this any other way I might have broken down into tears on the spot, but I hold tight to the promise he made as well.
He will do what he can to find my planet. I have no idea what that might entail, but if anyone in this crazy world is capable of doing it, I think the alien who wrestled a giant wolf to the ground and fought off those seaweed creatures could be the one.
“My people will have many questions,” he continues, “about your planet and about the Wehizx who abducted you. But those can wait. For now, what do you need, Loretta? You have been through a horrible experience.”
I take another sip of the drink with shaky hands. “What I need is for you to help me rescue my sister and the other women on that ship, just like you rescued me.”
A deep growl rolls from behind his ribs. “You are fierce. You do not seek rest, you seek victory.”
I narrow my eyes. “I seek my sister.”
“As you should.” He turns his gaze out over the city, concern clouding his features. “I feared they would have taken more women. This is almost always their way.”
Memories of the ship come flooding back. The flashes of the seaweed aliens are vivid in my memory, almost like they are burned into my brain. I’ve been burying the fear I harbor for Marie but the second I scratch the surface it’s there again, spun through with grief.
“You know those aliens,” I say, then try out the strange word he used. “The Wehizx.” Tears bite at my eyes but I push forward. “What are they doing to the women they abducted? What are they doing to my sister?”
UrTak’s jaw tics. “The Wehizx have been a scourge on our galaxy for many, many generations. Their cruelty knows no bounds, but I can assure you, your sister and the other women are safe for now.” He grunts. “Physically safe,” he clarifies.
“What does that mean?” I ask, my voice cracking.
“It is their way to hold the beings they abduct for quite some time. You see, the Wehizx have grukak head.”
“Grukak head?” I ask, repeating the strange word slowly.
“Let me try again—mind abilities. Did you translator get it that time?”
A chill shivers across my skin. “They’re psychic?” I ask, disbelieving.
“We believe so. They have gone to great lengths to hide themselves from us, but as far as we can tell, they seem to feed off the pain and suffering of other species.”
“Like leeches,” I say, curling my lips in disgust.
UrTak snorts a laugh. “Exactly. They are bloodsucking worms.”
“Are they going to psychically torture my sister or something?”
“They will frighten and terrify some of the women, and I am afraid the Wehizx go to quite great lengths to tease horror out of those they abduct. Others, they will simply keep locked in cells, alone. They are truly vile creatures in this way. But for the most part, your friends will simply be kept locked up. It takes the Wehizx some time to establish a psychic bond. The Earth women on that ship will perhaps even become bored as time stretches on, but if they are half as strong as you, they will not break.”
A blush warms my cheeks. I don’t know why I’ve given him the impression that I’m strong, considering I’ve done little more than scream and run, but I’m still flattered.
I touch the top of my head gingerly. “I think one of the Wehizx tried to establish a psychic connection with me,” I say.
Fury flashes through UrTak’s eyes. “Bloodsucking worm. And you stay sane? It would take many sleep cycles to truly penetrate a mind, but to resist the Wehizx requires fortitude that few possess.”
“I’m sane,” I confirm. Nothing about what’s happening to me feels sane, but I know I’m holding myself together.
Then my thoughts rip back to the ship and the women who were trapped in those strange tubes. The hollow eyes of the last abducted woman fill my vision like a nightmare that’s intruded into the daylight. Finally, my buried anguish bursts through and I gasp with a strangled sob.
“Loretta,” UrTak says. He reaches across the table and presses his large hand to my shoulder, squeezing. The firm pressure steadies me and helps me pull myself back together.
“What is wrong?” he asks. I look up and see his heavy brow, furrowed tight. “What did they do to you?”
I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand. “I’m okay, I really am. When they had me tied to the table, right before you rescued me, they showed me human women trapped in glass tubes. One was pregnant.”
A moment passes in silence, then another. “I am sorry that you had to see that.”
I stand and my long dress tumbles to my feet. “Will you save her, then? Will you rescue my sister and the other women? You rescued me, that must mean you can rescue them, right?”
UrTak stands as well. The light bounces off the silver etched into his arms, glimmering for just a moment.
“Please,” I say, my hands fluttering over my chest with nerves. “Please say you will, UrTak.”
“There is much you do not understand.”
“Then tell me. Please, just tell me.”
He tightens his hands into fists. “I will tell you the best way I know. Tomorrow is our tri-lunar holiday. I will take you to the cliffs and tell you the story that you need to hear. The day after that, the High Council of this moon will meet. I will make the case to them. While I cannot control what they decide, know, Loretta, that I yearn to battle the Wehizx, and that I will do everything in my power to find your sister.”
I rest my hand on the back of the chair to steady myself. There is power in his voice and my heart tells me to trust him. “Thank you,” I whisper. “Thank you, UrTak.”
He steps closer. “You are a rare and special monkey, Loretta. I am lucky to fight for a beautiful monkey like you.”
I raise an eyebrow. “A beautiful monkey?”
He shakes his head quickly. “What is the word? A pink alien. A flesh being with hair.”
“A human. You can call me a human. And only some of us are pink.”
“A human,” he repeats, stretching out the last syllable to make it twice as long.
I push aside the fact that he just called me beautiful. There’s already enough confusing information crowding my head. “Thank you,” I manage. “I’m glad you want to fight for me.”
“You appear tired,” he says. “If you would like, I can bring you to the sleeping quarters. There is plenty to eat if you hunger and entertainment and news on the stellar feed, if you are curious.”
I nod. Watching an alien movie does pique my curiosity, but I’m too tired for any of that now. “I think I just need sleep.”
“Your body must be quite exhausted from adjusting to our atmosphere and gravity, especially if you never left your planet before.” He gestures for me to follow and leads me up the stairs. To one side is an expansive room with a circular bed across from what looks like a fire pit. UrTak looks there, a hint of longing on his face, then gestures at a smaller room with a simple blue bed under a circular window. “You will be comfortable here?”
I hesitate at the idea of sleeping alone. “I will,” I say with false confidence. “I’ve been havin
g terrible nightmares, but I should be fine.”
He flinches. “Nightmares are common after the Wehizx stroke your mind.”
I shiver at the word stroke, totally creeped out. UrTak has been praising my resilience, and I don’t want the illusion to end, but I can already feel the tendrils of the nightmares reaching for me.
He catches my gaze and the blue of his eyes shines strongly. “You will sleep in my room and then we will both know that you are safe.”
He says it like a command and that instinctively makes me want to decline his offer, but I hesitate. I’m almost embarrassed that I want this, but I nod. UrTak bends down and takes me in his arms. Unlike when we fled into the swamp, he doesn’t throw me over his shoulder but instead embraces me and keeps me close to his chest. I gasp but the firm embrace feels too good. Instantly, it’s like the nightmare tendrils retreat.
Maybe this kind of affection is common in his world, like the way he lingered while I showered and wanted to bathe me. Either way, now that we’re safely in his home, I’m not about to object.
UrTak deposits me on the bed. The thin fabric beneath my hand is impossibly smooth and the mattress as soft as a cloud. I let out a breath that almost turns into a moan as I sink into the comfort.
“I will hold you,” UrTak says. “And I will not leave until you are deep in your sleep cycle.”
I start to defer but he slides in and takes me from behind. His body is so large, it’s like I’m in a cocoon. His heart beats, steady and strong against my back, and his forearms are firm across my chest as he holds me.
With a soft breath I wriggle into his embrace. A deep, pleasing sense of security washes over me. The burnt and musky sage scent that I now recognize as UrTak’s fills my nostrils, releasing a flood of hormones.
I remember his thick, vibrating cock. Blood flushes my cheeks and my chest. I realize I’m turned on, like I actually want to feel his hard length poking my butt.
Damn. Just being held by him is more of a turn on than any date I had back on Earth.
The unfamiliar alien night hums outside. My eyes dance over the glowing planets and stars as UrTak cradles me in his strength and before I know it, all the other thoughts drift away and I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Chapter Nine
UrTak
I pilot my racer over the Dewy Forest, soaring above the towering red trees that stretch across much of the near side of KrysOlak. Occasionally, we pass a long abandoned town, its central tower and huts crumbling with neglect. Beside me, Loretta sits with her legs curled underneath her body in the large seat, watching the moon with awe.
What a joy it is to show her my home. My chest swells with pride at the natural beauty, known across the stars.
It had been difficult to leave my dwelling that morning. I woke with Loretta in my arms, her chest rising and falling as her gentle voice whimpered through sleep. My cock throbbed and ached with desire, hard as the rocky cliffs, and I had to tear myself away from her warmth to regain control.
But then she had joined me for breakfast and energizing drinks. She had allowed me to attend to her while she bathed and I felt the satisfaction of caring for a woman deep in my bones.
The beauty of our planet, though, was one of the few things worth breaking away from that idyllic dream.
The tri-lunar eclipse meant that the moon was packed with visitors from all across the RSA. KrysOlakns are known to revel like no other. With no way to satisfy our mating urges, we vent much of our energy into such celebrations instead and are happy to share such joyous times with our stellar neighbors.
The streets in the cities will be full but I have never been one to indulge in such ways. At most, I would sit to the rear of the party, sipping my twomka as the others dance. But I know that this particular holiday means that few would venture to the ancient forests and ruins where I now park my racer.
“And you tell me that most of your planet is covered in water?” I ask Loretta. “Yet you are not a being of the water?”
We have been answering each other’s questions on the long ride over the Dewy Forest. Her Earth sounds like a beautiful planet and the humans there quite remarkable and strange. They seem equally kind and cruel, violent and peaceful. There is something familiar in their culture, a reminder of the ways the KrysOlakns lived before we united and found our greater purpose.
“No, humans live on land. We do like to swim, though.”
“Fascinating.”
I’ve parked us on the edge of the forest and the cliffs, which rise up taller and taller in the distance. I gesture toward a stone path and Loretta follows me through the tall, spindly trees that grow out of the rocky incline. Moisture glistens on their red and orange leaves, long as my arm and thin as my finger, and in the sky I hear the call of a migrating flock, high and musical.
“Is that big planet always right there?” she asks, turning her eyes up to the sky. The light plays on her cheeks, as full of life as the forest itself, and I battle the urge to pull her in my arms and take her right there.
“Irisiak,” I say. “It is the planet our moon circles, as does our sister moon, Triov.” I pause, then point at the black and red moon, now floating in front of the orange planet. “Grov and Mokrov are Triovians. The moon Triov and our moon KrysOlak are both locked in our spins, and because of this we always show the same face to our planet. In this way, Irisiak looms largely in the sky on one side of our moon, but it is forever absent on the other.”
Loretta studies the sky, taking in what I have said. “Our planet has a moon. It always shows us the same side, too. And our sun looks a lot like yours.”
I nod to start walking again. The path rises gently as it cuts through the cliffs. I know that Loretta is easily strong enough for the short hike but I still rest my hand on the small of her back to guide her as she steps over a large rock.
Even this small gesture brings me such pleasure I can feel it in my horns.
“I am not surprised there are similarities. Your gravity and atmosphere must be similar as well for you to adjust so well to KrysOlak.”
Loretta looks pleased. She’s wearing a different version of the celebratory dress she wore the day before and I smile as her hips sway from side to side, tossing the fabric and tantalizing me.
How is this woman so strong that she continues despite all the horrors she has seen? She has lost so much, been torn from the only star she has ever known, yet she is still able to walk with me through the cliffs of my ancestors.
Although, from what she has told me of the wars and cruelties on her planet, perhaps I should not be surprised. Her species must carry incredible pain even as they summon the strength to move forward.
We walk in silence, a cool breeze fresh on the air. Soon enough I spot the ledge where the ruins begin. I press my hand to Loretta’s back again, earning a soft breath from her pink lips, and guide us down the rocky turn.
“I still don’t understand why you need to fly me to the forest in order to explain the Wehizx,” she says.
I smile. I am surely motivated simply to have her to myself, but the holiday provides a good opportunity to show more of my home. Even if we were the only human and KrysOlakn to ever meet, still, our meeting would join the stories of our home worlds.
And if Loretta truly has been destined to me, this history belongs to her, too.
“Perhaps this will answer your question,” I say as I push aside a large, low-hanging branch.
In front of us, the cliffs open up to a yawning gorge. Unlike the gray rock we’ve been trekking through, the sides of the gorge shimmer with the pale pink and white crystals that are embedded in the rock. Carved into the cliffs where we stand is an ancient observatory. Harvested crystals are arranged into a spiraling structure in the center of the platform, towering many times my height. Across the walls, mosaics of our history spread in vivid colors.
Loretta gasps. “So beautiful,” she whispers.
Pleasure thrums in my chest and I growl my appreciation. �
��I am glad you think so.”
“What is this?” she asks, gesturing to the crystals.
“It reflects the stars.” I guide her forward and show her how to look inside. “My ancestors built them all across the moon using the unique crystals that come from these cliffs. As the stars pass through the sky, the crystals serve as lenses. It is how the universe was revealed to us.”
Loretta looks into the crystals, now displaying a belt of icy comets from beyond Irisiak’s gravity. “KrysOlakns have always cared about outer space,” Loretta notes.
I chuckle at the odd phrasing, outer space, but I can guess what she means. “Our planet has over a hundred moons. Wouldn’t you be curious?”
“A hundred moons!” she exclaims.
“Most quite small, and only three that have developed their own life.”
She turns to me. “Three?”
“KrysOlak,” I say, gesturing to the cliffs, then raise my hand to our brothers. “And Triov.” I continue extending my hand until I point to the last moon, a small gray ball in the distance behind our shared orange planet. “And Wehizx.”
Loretta’s face falls. She stumbles back from the crystals as though they might bite her and I catch her trembling body in my arms. “They’re right there?” she asks, her voice strung with alarm. “You brought me this close to the Wehizx!”
“No longer there,” I assure. I wrap my arms around her shoulders and hold her from behind. It is a familiar gesture, but I offer my embrace without even pausing to consider it. By the time I realize what I am doing her breathing has begun to steady and neither of us moves.
Finally, I continue talking. “They abandoned their moon a long time ago. We do not know where their home world is now, or if they even have one.” I sigh, my heart aching as I think of all that these moons have seen. “Here, let me tell you.”
