Taming Ryock

by Sara Page

  “Isla. Isla,” Ryock’s worried voice pierces through the fog of my unconsciousness.

  Slowly, painfully, I start to come to.

  “What? What the fuck happened?” I ask, blinking my eyes open.

  White. I’m surrounded by white. What the hell? For a moment I have to wonder if I’m actually dead.

  There’s a loud ripping sound before the white in front of me splits open.

  Ryock’s big beautiful face appears in front of me.

  “Ryock!” I cry out and try to reach for him, but I’m still strapped to my chair. All I end up doing is jerking and struggling against my restraints like I’m a helpless child trying to escape her car seat.

  A look of relief washes over his face and he reaches out, quickly and easily undoing the fastening of my harness.

  “We crash-landed,” he says as the harness slides away and I fall into his arms.

  “Oh, ow!” I yelp as his arms wrap around me.

  Ryock frowns and his grip immediately gentles. He sets me on my feet and I have to reach out, bracing myself on his chest to keep from falling forward.

  The ship, apparently, is tipped forward at a slant.

  “Are you injured?” he asks, his face creasing with worry.

  We both look down at my body. Everything appears to be as it should be. I’m not missing any limbs, nothing seems to be broken, and the clothes I ‘borrowed’ are still intact.

  “Just a little bruised,” I say and reach up to rub at my chest. “Especially here.”

  Ryock nods, looking relieved once again. He reaches down and places his big hand on top of mine, purring as he helps me rub my chest. “It’s normal, it’s caused by the harness.”

  His hand cups around mine, guiding it in a tender, almost sensual motion.

  Breath quickening, I nod my head and have to stop moving my hand. The ache between my breasts is fading quickly and I’m afraid if he keeps rubbing me the way he’s rubbing me, I’m going to start aching in newer, lower places.

  His hand remains on top of mine and he stares into my eyes.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, growing warm beneath his stare.

  “I’m fine,” he purrs deeply, and the vibrations beneath my palm send the most delicious tingles up my arm and down my own chest.

  “Oh, that’s right, you heal…” I smile and manage to pull my gaze away.

  I take a deep breath.

  Jeeze, what is wrong with me? We just crashed and nearly died, yet I’ve got the strongest urge to jump him and try to climb him like a tree…

  He purrs again and I can’t stop my fingers from twitching. “Look at me, Isla.”

  Now that I can understand him, his voice affects me in a different way. I’m no longer caught up in the strange growls and grunts of his language. No, now I feel every inflection. Every emotion he’s conveying.

  I don’t why but I just can’t bring myself to obey his command and lift my eyes.

  Perhaps it’s because there’s so much tension in the air between us… or perhaps it’s because I’m feeling extremely self-conscious about what I blurted out while we were crashing.

  I told him I loved him… but I only did it in the heat of the moment. I didn’t really mean it…

  Did I?

  “Isla,” he says, his voice growing huskier and deeper. “You said you—“

  Cutting him off before he goes where I really don’t want to go right now, I wave my hand at the fabric surrounding us. “What’s all this white stuff?”

  Yeah, I’m a total coward.

  Ryock makes a deep sound of displeasure and I sneak a little peek up at him to see him frowning thoughtfully.

  I chew on my lip, afraid he’s going to ignore my question and keep pushing me to face what I said.

  “The emergency inflatable devices. They deploy to protect us during a crash,” he finally explains.

  “Oh, so they’re airbags,” I sigh with relief.

  “Yes, they’re… airbags,” he says, drawing the last word out slowly like it’s foreign to him.

  That makes sense. Of course, aliens would equip their vehicles with airbags and stuff...

  “Escape pods and skiffs are designed with many protective features to protect their passengers. Nearly all escape vehicles crash when they land,” he goes on.

  “Wait? What?” I ask, my eyes flying up to his.

  His brows pull down. “What about that confuses you?”

  “The whole nearly all escape vehicles crash when they land bit.”

  Ryock nods his head slowly. “It is to be expected, especially when traveling at high-velocities.”

  And I’m starting to feel stupider and stupider by the second.

  “So… how much danger were we really in?”

  Ryock smiles and his hand squeezes around mine. “Very little, my star.”

  Wow. That would have been really nice to know before we started crashing.

  I stiffen with the realization that I just totally made an ass out of myself over nothing. No wonder he didn’t seem to be freaking out at all and told me to remain calm.

  “Ugh, I feel like a complete idiot,” I groan.

  Using my hand, Ryock pulls me closer, and with the slant of the floor I can’t stop myself from leaning into him.

  “Many things could have gone wrong,” he says gravely. “Our hull could have been breached by the local foliage. The inflatable devices could have failed to deploy. Our engines could have spontaneously combusted.”

  So maybe I wasn’t so stupid after all.

  “Okay,” I can’t help but grin up at him. “I feel so much better now.”

  Ryock blinks then tips his head back and laughs. It’s the first time I’ve heard him laugh during this entire ordeal, and the rich, booming sound causes my heart to swell with joy even if the sound is a little loud for my ears.

  “It is good to know that our potential deaths make you feel better, little one,” he rumbles.

  “Yeah, well…” I squirm, uncomfortable with the warmth swelling inside me and the soft affection in his eyes. “Is it just me or is it getting hot in here? How do we get out?”

  When in a tough spot, just change the subject. That’s my new motto.

  Ryock grins, and I’m not sure how it’s possible but I swear I’m getting the feeling that he knows exactly what I’m doing. “We cut our way out.”

  By cutting our way out, what Ryock really means is that he’s just going to rip every airbag open with his bare hands.

  It takes a couple of minutes, but eventually we reach the door. And I get a nice little show in the process.

  Ryock not being able to find a shirt that fit him on Yarrel’s ship really plays to my favor. With each grab and pull on the airbags, his muscles ripple gloriously. I find myself entranced by their liquid, rippling movements.

  The way he rips the airbags open kind of reminds me of those bulky wrestlers I used to watch when I was a kid. You know, the ones that would roar and tear their shirts off their oily chests.

  There’s no roaring on Ryock’s part, and no oil, but damn, I still feel like he should be charging me admission.

  “Hot?” Ryock asks with a lift of his brow.

  I’m panting. Yes, seriously, I’m panting and flushed. Thankfully, I can blame the heat for it.

  “Just a little,” I smile, trying to play it cool.

  Ryock nods and shoves the door open. He peeks his head out, glances down, then pulls his head back in. “I’ll go first.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ryock

  The world outside of our wreck is too bright for my eyes for a moment. It has been far too long since I have seen real sunlight. Closing my eyes, I shake my head to try and lessen the blinding pain.

  “Holy fucking stars!” I growl as I put my hand up to cover my closed eyes.

  “Shit, it’s really fucking bright out there!” Isla says from behind me. “And good job using your favorite word!”

  Bright, and the smells rocketing through my nos
e are so alien, yet familiar at the same time, I feel myself almost dazed as I slowly lower my hand. My eyelids achingly peel themselves up as I look at the bright green world surrounding us. Trees are everywhere. Green, brown, and purple leaves surround us like someone has dropped lake-sized buckets of paint.

  Stepping outside fully onto the hard ground, I look up above us, and except for the very large hole we tore through the canopy of treetops, we are surrounded by vegetation. My world was once like this, in the old tales. We came from trees and grasslands. We roamed the planet in massive nomadic caravans.

  Now we live on a slowly dying planet.

  I’ve seen trees, but nothing like this. If the small view we had of the planet was anything to go on, we’ve landed on a garden paradise.

  Stepping out of the way, I hold my hand out for Isla to help her down.

  “Wow!” she exclaims as she looks around us at all the vibrant colors surrounding us.

  Nodding my head, I take another deep breath of the clean air. Fresh air, not the recycled air that is ran through filters and algae. No, this is the type of air that you can only get from being on a planet.

  Purring in happiness, I pull Isla to my chest. “We are on a planet, Isla! No metal decking beneath our feet!”

  Wrapping her arms tightly around my chest, she giggles. “How long has it been for you?”

  “Years. Three long years. Even longer since I’ve been under a tree… Never. Never this many trees.”

  Looking up at me, she asks, “Your world doesn’t have forests?”

  “No, it is a dying world, Isla. Dying from lack of care from its people, and from the Crima’s expectations. It is not only the body they want, but also its waning resources.”

  “Oh…”

  “Do you have forests like this on your planet?”

  “Yes, though maybe we won’t for long. Humans are stupid as a whole.”

  It makes me sad to think that there are more races like my own than I realized. I had hoped few would waste their world away, but from my experiences, I have begun to believe it isn’t just mine that waste such a precious gift.

  Again, I must force the sadness away. Just the thought of our homeworlds is enough to send spikes of fear into my stomach. I cannot lose my little soul. My bright shining star. I must keep her at all costs.

  Keep her and protect her.

  Especially since she has declared her love for me. She may try to hide it, but I can feel it through the bond we share. I can feel it emanating from her soul.

  Looking to where our ship has landed, the crater we’ve created isn’t as bad as it could have been, but it’s not ideal. We will need a water source and food.

  Stepping away from Isla, I give her a once over to ensure she is truly okay. A bloody wound now could cause us serious problems.

  “Are you sore or too tired to do some exploring, my star?”

  “No. I’m surprisingly okay. All that padding and protection in there really did keep us safe, I think.”

  “It did.”

  “So, what do you want to explore?”

  “We will need to find a water source, and see what’s around us. This may very well be a primitive planet, but that does not mean there will not be predators.”

  Nodding her head, she grimaces. “You mean we could have landed on a dinosaur planet? Lots of giant T-Rex’s… They could even have long enough arms…”

  “What is a dinosaur?”

  “It’s something we had on our planet long before humans came around. Big, giant beasts that had lots of teeth and bad attitudes.”

  Lifting my eyebrows, I can’t help but laugh. “They might have cause me to break a sweat in a fight then?”

  Snickering, she shakes her head. “They were the size of buildings and those small frigate ships.”

  “Oh. Well, perhaps it would be a closer match than I thought. Still… I will protect you if any are around here.”

  Rolling her eyes, she points to a very tall tree behind me. “Like as tall as that tree.”

  “Everything has a soft spot, Isla, and I hit very hard.”

  Heading back into the ship, I push as much of the impact stuffing as I can away from the main console that piloted the ship. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to find information about the planet we’ve been dumped on. Anything will be better than nothing. Nothing means picking a general direction and walking in the hope that we find water. That’s a dangerous game. But as thick as this jungle of trees is, it’s pretty assured that there will be a water source somewhere close.

  Thankfully, the computer hasn’t been fried from our rather rough landing, and with the information it already has loaded about this sector, I’m able to get general idea of where we landed. Not precise enough to pinpoint the distance between us and a river that flows through the jungle, but enough that I know it can’t be more than half a click away.

  Isla watches from the doorway as I close down the screen. I don’t want to waste whatever remains of the skiff’s power source if I don’t have to.

  “What did you find?”

  “That the stars may be shining for us. It seems we aren’t too far off from a river.”

  “Fucking awesome!” she cheers at me as I stand up.

  Pulling her to me, I lean down and kiss her lips hungrily. “There goes that word again.”

  Looking up through her long eyelashes, her oh-so-alien blue eyes smile at me in happiness. “Maybe we can talk about that reward system you were thinking about back on the ship later.”

  “Not now?”

  “No, now I’m thirsty and looking forward to washing myself off. How long has it been since we bathed?”

  “I keep telling you, my dear,” I grin at her as I push my hardening cock into her stomach. “My tongue is adequate enough to keep you clean.”

  “You just like the taste of me.”

  “I do,” I say as I hold her tight.

  “Maybe if we get clean, I’ll let you do all that licking you’ve been trying to do.”

  I pull her quickly out of the ship and start heading for the trees. “Wait, you horny brute!”

  Turning back to her, I watch as she slips away from me before heading into the ship. She comes back out quickly with her backpack. She’s also carrying two blaster belts. Each belt holds a blaster meant to ride on the hip.

  Handing me one, she says, “We need to be careful.”

  How very smart she is. I can only blame my desire to ravish her as a reason for rushing out so quickly that I forgot our safety.

  Strapping a belt around my waist, I discover that it barely fits.

  Looking up, I say, “My hands might be better weapons if this belt snaps off my waist.”

  “Yeah, but if whatever primitives are here have weapons they can throw, I don’t want to see how hard your skin is.”

  Turning towards the deep jungle of trees, I take her hand. “Let’s find water.”

  Handing over the pack I have been carrying for Isla, I squat down quietly as I take in the secluded little cove we’ve stumbled across.

  By pure chance, our path to the river has lead us to this beautiful place. A waterfall falls gently from the rocks above us and breaks the surface of the crystal clear, blue-green pool of water directly in front of us. Despite the gentle fall of the waterfall, the pool of water is tranquil. The surface only disturbed, becoming white and foamy, where the two meet.

  Looking to the south, I follow the pool of water until it thins into a river that flows for as far as my eyes can see.

  Pulling the two large inflatable containers out of the pack, I pop their sealed tops and allow air to rush into them. Grabbing one, I wade into the water and submerge it.

  Looking to the shore, I grin at my sexy looking mate as she keeps her pistol in her hand while studying our surroundings.

  On our way here, we didn’t spot anything to cause us much concern. Mostly flying animals in the trees and a couple of quick-moving varmint type of creatures.

  Again, we have t
he stars to thank for small fortunes. Not only is this cove secluded and beautiful, but the water is never still. It is ever-moving.

  I can see fish swimming around my feet, an even better sign. We will need food on this planet soon enough, and the information I could get from the ship said that the fish and wildlife should pose no significant risk of poison.

  Wading back to the shore, I set down the one large water container and ruffle through the bag to get the small pill for decontamination. We will eventually need to resort to boiling the water if we stay here longer than a couple of months, but for now I won’t stress or worry.

  Not when I have my beautiful warrior goddess with me.

  Filling the second container gives me time to study Isla again as she continues to scan our surroundings. She is so much smaller than I am, but I can see a will inside of her soul that will never allow herself to ever be broken.

  She will provide us strong children if we are indeed able to breed.

  It’s an interesting thought. Us as parents to a young one. To my knowledge, my race has never been able to successfully breed with another.

  May the stars align and give us what I hope.

  Wading to the shore, I drop the second water container off on the ground next to the first one and head back into the water.

  “What are you doing? I thought we said we could bathe after we took the water back and ate?” Isla asks in confusion.

  “I’m getting us dinner, my dear little one.”

  Squatting down carefully into the water, I rest my hands in front of me as I watch the fish swim about.

  A quick grab and toss and then the fish is landing next to Isla.

  “See if you can knock them out.”

  Four more fish land on the shore before I turn back to her. She’s standing over the latest fish with a wooden club and staring down at it.

  “I think they’re dead-ish,” she giggles as I walk up to wrap my arms around her.

  Kissing her head, I then give her a long lick on the scalp.

  Yes, we are indeed going to need a bath.

  I string the fish up on a line of rope from our pack and then head over to the water containers. Tying the two containers on each end of the rope, I shove my head under it and stand. They’re not too heavy to carry this way, and it will give me access to my blaster if we encounter trouble.