Taming Ryock

by Sara Page

  “Do women force men to do things for special favors or job placement?”

  “No, but there is no need to,” I say as we wind our way around a massive fallen tree.

  The tree’s old, decaying body has several small caverns furrowed into its sides from animals and insects. Some of the caverns are almost large enough for Isla and I to enter. The sheer size of this tree, and those around it, speak of the jungle’s age. This must be what my planet looked like long ago before we started destroying it out of greed.

  “The men of my world are to be seen but not heard. We’re mostly used for breeding purposes. We fight the wars and die in them so that our society can maintain its… normalcy, I guess is the best word for it. The Crima have ensured our society will stay the way it is as long as we do as they say. Give them soldiers and our resources, they’re happy and the women who rule our planet don’t worry too much.”

  “Wait, you mean you’re bred out like a stud horse?”

  “Horse is an animal, yes?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Unless we are shown to be gifted, like me with my healing and superior rage, men are not truly cared about. The gifted are used more heavily for breeding purposes. They breed us more than the regular males. It doesn’t always work though because the gifted are still rare.”

  “So you were more of a prized horse?”

  We’ve been slowly making our way towards the escape skiff in a long, sweeping path. We will probably have to backtrack some to get back, but I want to make sure I don’t see anything to worry about.

  “Yes, somewhat. But it is difficult to explain,” I say, and I can feel my body tense with frustration. My people were so close to advancing ourselves past the old ways, past what had held us back for so very long.

  Her soft hand grips mine as she asks, “You okay?”

  Nodding my head, I look up at the sun’s location. It is falling steadily in the sky, and I don’t give us more than a couple hours before dark. “Yes. Let’s start our way toward the ship. Tomorrow we need to explore further on the other side of the skiff.”

  “Okay, I’m sorry if I—” she starts to say.

  “Don’t be, my dear star, it is a part of us now. You should know that your mate is considered a heretic at the very best of times.” I smile down at her. I’m not sure if it’s to take the bite out of my words or if I have become proud of the title since I found Isla.

  “Heretic? Like… really? And is this ‘us’ thing a part of the ‘forever’ thing?” She asks as she makes little motions with her free hand.

  It’s all connected in some way. I wish I knew how to explain it to her. Even I am confused by much of it. If only I hadn’t been removed so quickly from father’s home. If I had been able to learn more from the hidden books he kept. If I had been able to connect with the more radical fringe groups…

  If, if, if.

  Too many if’s in my past. And I would like to bury them there, to leave them behind. But as my father says, just because you bury something, it doesn’t make it dead.

  “I was labeled a heretic because I would not allow myself to be bred out like a prized animal for my regeneration gifts. I was labeled a trouble-maker when I demanded fair treatment and the end of male subjugation. I was a heretical outcast doomed and excommunicated. When I said we should break the chains the Crima had around our throats, I became a criminal.”

  “Isn’t excommunicated and being labeled a heretic the same thing?”

  “Yes and no.” I say as the memories of the religious court proceedings slowly pass through my mind. “Being labeled a heretic meant I could be reformed. When I pushed further, they labeled me ‘dangerous’ and ordered me to be removed from all religion on my planet. It is like… removing one’s hand. I was cut off from everyone. That I dared to speak ill of the bastard bugs… That was too much. They hunted me down and threw me to the Crima, with them given full acknowledgement of my crimes. The Crima bugs do not like it when one tries to take away their yoke.”

  “I’m sorry, Ryock, that sounds horrendous. Did your family not try to stand by you?”

  “No, my father was too worried about his own hide to try to save a useless son. My mother only cared about how it made the family look to others. The women of our planet are very distant to male offspring. They leave the raising of males to the fathers.”

  “Wow. That sucks.”

  I shrug. “It is what it is. My race will eventually fade away when the Crima no longer find them useful.”

  “Tell me about us,” she says as we come in sight of the escape skiff.

  The ship left a huge hole in the canopy of trees and there’s a small crater in the ground caused by our rough landing.

  “We are bonded now,” I say and shrug out of the pack as we near the skiff.

  “You’ve said that before, but what does it mean? Does it have anything to do with what happened back there at the swimming pool?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We were one back there when we made lo—I mean had… you know…”

  I notice that slip of that word again.

  “While we made love? Our souls joined. It is not something I thought possible.”

  Tugging my hand towards her, she stops to get my attention. “You need to start from the beginning.”

  Pointing to a tree we knocked down in the rough landing, I pull us to sit down on it. “My father has a set of books that were written long before my race left the planet. They are part of why I was considered a heretic.”

  “Long ago, it was thought that our souls were split into halves. One going to say… me, and the other to you. The books spoke of the desperate search for our other half. Tossed across the lands, we were forced to search for the one who would bring us true happiness. However, not all found their other half, and over time, many stopped searching.”

  “So, you think we found our soulmates?”

  I contemplate that word, soulmate, and find it aptly fitting.

  “Yes. I believe it.”

  “Why did your people quit searching?”

  “In the beginning, it was easily explainable when we didn’t find our true mate. We believed that we would endlessly reincarnate in our search. Perhaps one half had died and it was a simple matter of alignment. We just needed to wait until the next cycle and we would find the one we were looking for. But as more and more searches became fruitless, we began to fade away. After a time, many didn’t even bother to search. They were content for the now, not for the eternity. It didn’t happen overnight, but slowly, through the centuries and millennia, those ways became lost and removed from memory.”

  “But, what I felt back there… Was it real? Because I swear it was amazing. Scary and amazing. And so right that it was scary again,” Isla says as she shakes her head, “I know that doesn’t make sense, but it was so unexplainable when it happened that I can hardly believe it happened. If I wasn’t there, if I didn’t experience it, I doubt…”

  “You would have doubts if someone had told you it happened to them,” I say as I pull her over onto my lap.

  She protests at first, but when I wrap my arms around her and purr softly, she leans her head back.

  “Yeah, not going to fight this right now. It’s like you’re one of those vibrating chairs that is supposed to massage the back.”

  “That was part of why my people quit hoping. It became rarer and rarer for us to find someone, and it became rude to speak of it when we did because others were left without knowing the true bliss it brings.”

  “Bliss. I like that word. It was so intense and so unreal, but the bliss… It’s hard to describe.”

  “And the jealousy of that bliss,” I say as I inhale her scent in my nose.

  She still has that slightly chemical smell to her from the soap, but I can still smell her underlying scent.

  It’s intoxicating if I let myself fall into it.

  “So what happened?”

  “Night turned into day. Life moved on. Even now,
when a pair find their soulmate on my planet, it is kept between themselves. The women will no longer take new lovers. The male will move into the house but in a servant position.”

  “Can I ask something maybe stupid?” she asks quietly as we watch the world darkening around us.

  “Nothing is stupid, my love.”

  Her head snaps around to stare at me and I grin. “I hear your little slip ups, my dear. You may be avoiding the use of the word, but I will not. I do not fear words, nor should you.”

  “Yeah… well. Shit. You see… Um.” She’s stammering and blushing, but she isn’t moving away from me, which I will count as a win in my favor.

  “I see, what?”

  “My question… What happens when we die if we didn’t find each other?”

  “Like I said, we would be reborn to continue our search. That is why my people gave up, it seemed pointless to them. Some never found their mate, so why bother?”

  “What happens now that we found each other?”

  I grin. “Each time we die now, we will feel the direction in which to go. We will know intimately what the other is feeling and thinking. As I said, we are bonded forever.”

  Her eyes widen. “Fuck. Wow…”

  I chuckle. “It was written though, that eventually we will both pass on to new plane of existence when we both rea—

  There’s a sudden squealing noise to our right and a small, furry rodent dashes out of a bush, surprising us both.

  Isla jolts in my lap and gives her own squeal before we both burst into laughter.

  “Okay, perhaps that’s a sign we should head in now,” she grins when our laughter dies away.

  I nod my head and help her to her feet.

  Once we’re both standing, I palm my blaster and eye the direction the rodent ran.

  “Yes, we should head inside, but not before we catch our dinner.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Isla

  Outside our ship, night has fallen, and I swear every bug that lives on this planet has awakened. The sounds they make are nearly deafening. Back home, on Earth, I thought crickets were annoying, but I’d take them over this racket any day.

  I run my fingers along Ryock’s warm chest. Tracing the lines of his defined pecs as I lay beside him, unable to sleep.

  Back home. That feels strange to say. To think of a planet, not a house, as a home is almost too overwhelming. Almost as if the thought is too big for me.

  I think I’ve held up pretty well so far with this whole being abducted by aliens thing, but something in the back of my mind is starting to bother me.

  It almost feels like something is missing… like my memory.

  With everything that has happened, I haven’t really had a lot of time to think about how I got here. To think about how I was taken in the first place. I tried back in the lab, but then, you know, Gararl tried to eat me.

  Now, though, unable to sleep, I have nothing to do but think… and the memories of what happened eludes me.

  Was I drugged? Or were the memories taken from me? I remember walking home from work and then bam, I’m being shoved into a glass cage with an ugly blue lizard-man.

  What happened in between that?

  I almost want to think I was grabbed from Earth and taken straight to the lab, but something feels off about that.

  There’s like this itch in the back of my brain, an itch I can’t reach, and it’s starting to drive me a little mad.

  Things don’t make sense. The timing is all off.

  Like how was Lexi able to infiltrate an alien slave market and send someone to rescue me so quickly? Don’t get me wrong, my sister is pretty fucking awesome. She’s a total badass, and I’ve always looked up to her, but even she has her limits.

  There is the possibility that she was able to discover my location right away, but again, my instincts are telling me that’s not the case. That’s too damn easy.

  I was in that lab, what? A week? Two weeks max? And space is a pretty big place…

  It could be luck, but when has luck ever been on my side?

  Ryock snores softly and then purrs a little when the tip of my finger traces around his nipple. If I focus really hard, I can actually sense what he’s feeling right now. His happiness, his contentment.

  We’re locked up pretty safe in this ship. Though we have yet to stumble across any intelligent life forms, the ship is equipped with a security system to alert us if someone approaches.

  I know because Ryock was very adamant about showing me how everything on the ship works so I can use the features if I need them.

  My finger circles around and around, but then I sense him start to awaken. Not wanting to disturb his sleep, I stop tracing his nipple and press up against his side, draping my arm over him.

  He’s so wide, my hand doesn’t reach across him.

  Ryock’s purr deepens and his arm wraps around me, locking me against him. I sense him drifting back into deep sleep again and relax.

  I don’t know all the details of his past, but now that we have this connection between us, I can sense it in a way. It’s like he’s been carrying this dark cloud around inside him, a dark cloud that’s been slowly consuming him, and ever since he met me this cloud has been fading away.

  In a way, I kind of feel the same way.

  My life wasn’t exactly awesome before I met him. After my parents died, I tried to drown my pain away in drugs, booze, and boys. I was just too young to know how to deal with it. My sister, she tried to be there for me, but I was too hurt, too angry at the world to let her help me. I ended up pushing her away and created this huge rift between us.

  By the time I started to figure out I didn’t want to kill myself with drugs and boys, it was too late.

  I didn’t know how to reach out to her.

  Lexi… Knowing that she’s out there, somewhere, looking for me, makes me feel both happy and sad at the same time. Happy that even after all the stupid shit I did, she didn’t give up on me.

  And sad that she doesn’t know what happened to me. If I had to search an entire universe for her, I think it would drive me crazy with worry.

  If only I could just pick up the phone and talk to her…

  I glance towards the backpack, willing that communication device to ring, or beep, or make whatever noise it makes.

  But then again, once I connect with Lexi… will I have to give up Ryock?

  We already went through this on Yarrel’s ship, and I still can’t figure out a solution.

  We can’t go back to Earth, and we can’t go back to his planet.

  At this point, I’m not even sure I want to go back to Earth. Despite the lack of amenities, I think I could be happy staying right here as long as I have him.

  I’m not sure when it happened, before this connection between us or after. I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

  But home has become wherever Ryock is.

  Bliss. That’s how Ryock described our two souls connecting, and the next few days are absolute bliss.

  We have an entire paradise at our disposal, and we make good use of it. We explore, play, bathe in the pool, and spend our nights wrapped up in each other on the ship.

  With each second that passes, with each breath I take, I can feel the connection between us growing. Evolving. I’m becoming so attuned to his emotions, so attuned to him, that I can almost anticipate what he needs or wants before he even realizes it.

  Like right now, as we laze about in the afternoon sun with full bellies from our big lunch, I can sense his need to lick me.

  And it’s not just a want on his part. Oh no. Now that I’m tapped into his emotions, I can definitely tell how much he’s been holding himself back. His tongue practically aches with the desire to taste me, to mark me.

  To learn every inch of my flesh.

  I try to ignore it at first, because you know, the whole licking thing still grosses me out.

  The last thing I want is a tongue bath.

  But as his purring be
comes deeper, and he keeps shifting beneath me, I decide it’s finally time to give in.

  I mean, he’s already done so much for me, the least I can do for him is this.

  Twisting around in his arms, I take a deep, fortifying breath and then say, “Okay, you can do it.”

  “Do what, my love?” Ryock blinks down at me in confusion.

  Sighing, I reach up and pull his head down to mine. He purrs and nuzzles his nose against mine in the sweetest way.

  I swear I’ll never get enough of this. Get enough of how affectionate and sweet he is.

  I close my eyes, enjoying it for a moment, before I answer him. “You can lick me, big guy.”

  Ryock stiffens and I can feel his surprise almost like it’s my surprise. Then I feel a spike of eager excitement before he squashes it.

  “No,” he says, despite me knowing that he wants it. “I know how much the idea… disgusts you.”

  He’s got me there. I suppose this whole sensing each other’s feelings thing is definitely a two-way street.

  “I do not wish to disgust you,” he admits.

  “You don’t disgust me,” I explain quickly and lean back so I can look into his eyes. “It’s the idea that disgusts me. When I think of licking in the way you want to lick me, well, I think of the way animals lick things.”

  He frowns and I don’t even have to tap into the bond to realize that what I just said hurt him a little bit.

  Shit.

  “You’re so not an animal!” I insist. “Please don’t think I’m trying to imply that. It’s just that back on Earth, humans don’t really lick each other like that. Animals do, but not us humans. When we lick each other, it tends to be more sexual in nature.”

  Ryock just stares at me and for a moment I’m afraid he’s still hurt, but then he asks, “Sexual in nature? How?”

  Of course he would lock in on that.

  I don’t know if I want to hide my face or laugh.

  Despite all that we’ve done with each other, and what we’ve done every night, I still blush as I try to explain. “Uh, you know… when we lick each other, we’re not doing it to clean each other, and we can’t mark each other in that way. When we lick each other, we’re doing it for pleasure. So, uh, the places we tend to lick, are you know… all the good places.”