Teeth & Claws_A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “You’ve lost,” I growled as I stepped away from her, but the redheaded valkyrie just let out another scream and charged at me with her axe clutched in her left hand.

  I danced back away from three aggressive horizontal slashes and then flipped my axe up to try to hit her on the chin. I wasn’t very skilled with the weapon, but I was fast, strong, and had the reach advantage. Even then, she surprised me by twisting away at the last second so that my blade caught empty air.

  Gunnr feinted back, and I stepped after her with a downward swing of my axe. She had planned for me to do that though, and she suddenly jumped toward me with a low cut aimed for my thighs.

  I kicked up my left knee and leaned in toward her. It was almost the same strategy that she just used, but my opponent hadn’t expected it, and my shin caught the haft of her axe near the grip. The beard of the weapon did slash across the left side of my calf, but I would gladly trade a small cut on my leg for the opportunity to bury my axe into Gunnr’s skull.

  And that was exactly what I did.

  The weapon split her head open like a melon, and then her chest was cleft in two down the middle. She didn’t let out a scream, or a growl. The woman just died instantly, and then her body sank to the ground as her blood flowed out of her corpse like a flood of red paint.

  The crowd of women in the audience began to shout, but it wasn’t moans of agony. They were cries of amazement, and I gasped when the gathered valkyries stood up and began to clap.

  I raised my hand, turned in a circle so that I could look in every direction, and then I walked toward the last of the women I needed to challenge.

  “And then there was one,” I said to Skogul.

  “So there is.” The tall blonde woman turned to look at Madalena, and then she pulled her sword from her sheath once more. For half a moment, I thought she would try to attack me with it, but then she knelt before me and lifted up the hilt of her blade.

  “I will not fight you,” she said. “I will submit, King of the Vaish. What is your will?”

  The crowd above us gasped, and then there was a roar of conversation from thousands of women that had just seen me dismantle their leadership.

  “You do not need to submit to me, Skogul,” I said as I rested my massive fur covered hand over her sword hilt. “You just need to give me Aasne.

  “It will be done, my lord,” the blonde woman said as she looked up at me. “Since your will is Odin’s.”

  Aasne was actually sitting in the arena above us, and she came down the steps toward us as soon as Skogul beckoned to her.

  “Aasne Idonan,” Skogul said, “you are released from Oskmay and expected to submit to King Vaish. May you serve him as you would have served our order.”

  The young woman with the blazing green eyes crossed her arms, nodded at the older woman, and then turned to me.

  “There is no question in my mind that you would have defeated me if I had become a valkyrie.”

  “No shit,” Sivaha sighed. “That is why we were so persistent when we first spoke to you. You just cost four women their lives and wasted our time.”

  “It was not a waste of time,” Skogul said as she glared at Sivaha. “It is how our honor operates. We bow to no man, but Odin himself, unless that man can best us in combat.”

  “And you could not have just taken your Prime Valkyrie’s word?” Sivaha shook her head.

  “The Prime Valkyrie submitted to her husband without fighting him,” Skogul.

  “Ohhhhh,” Sivaha scoffed as she looked to Madalena. “That is what this is about.”

  “It does not matter anymore,” Madalena said with her usual shrug. “I take no joy in being correct. My sisters are dead of their own foolishness.”

  “We are done here,” I said to Skogul. “I hope the ones I injured will recover.”

  “Thank you, my lord,” the blonde woman replied as she bowed again.

  “When I face our great enemies, I might require you to be there for the battle,” I said.

  “Me?” Skogul asked.

  “All of you,” I said as I gestured to the colosseum. A silence had come over the crowd of young women, but I guessed that most of them couldn’t hear our conversation.

  “Oskmay trains the valkyries and we do not participate in battle under our own banner,” she explained. “After graduation, the women can choose--”

  “My husband will unite the clans,” Madalena said. “He will be the king of kings, and when he tells you to be somewhere, you will be there and be ready.”

  “Yes, Prime Valkyrie,” Skogul said quickly before she turned her eyes back to me. “We will await your orders and serve you as we serve Odin.”

  “Let’s go,” I said to Aasne, and then Lux, Calisto, Sivaha, Madalena, and I walked out of the colosseum, through the city hallways, and toward Persephone.

  “I am sorry for the trouble,” Aasne said after we had walked through the empty streets for a few minutes. “It was my life’s work to become a valkyrie, and I--”

  “We understand,” Madalena said.

  “Well, I think you were foolish,” Sivaha sighed, “but I got to see my husband kill some annoying and self-righteous women, so I will forgive you.”

  “Thank you,” Aasne said cautiously, and then she turned back toward me. “Will you… uhhh. Become human again?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I can only maintain this shape for about half an hour.”

  “Ahh,” she said. “How do you have this power? Did Odin give it to you?”

  “No,” I said. “We’ll talk about it another time.

  “When will I submit to you?” she asked.

  “When we get back on my ship,” I said. “We’ll have almost forty hours of hyperspace travel before we can use our warpdrives. Then we’ll be back in Nordar-Ido space.”

  “My father is dead?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I answered. “I told you that.”

  “Yes, but I was--- ahhh it does not matter. The irony of the situation is astounding,” she sighed.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I trained to become a valkyrie and my plan was to begin my testing in a few months. It was all I wanted with my life, but my father wished to form an alliance with the Waymund. He intended for me to be married to one of the princes next week before I could become my own woman. I found out of his plans, took my private corvette, and fled to Oskmay for asylum. Now my father is dead, I am not a valkyrie, and I will be returning home a few days later as a wife of the most powerful Nordar King.”

  “One’s plans tend to become thwarted when around Adam,” Sivaha said.

  “Why do you say so?” Aasne asked with confusion.

  “Long story,” the silver-haired woman laughed. “In short, I intended to either seduce or assassinate this man, but now I am his wife and hopelessly in love with him.”

  “Strange…” Aasne said as she raised her eyebrows at Sivaha.

  “You were to be married next week?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “That is why our armada was in the home sector. We would be leaving for one of the Waymund paradise planets for the ceremony.”

  “Hmmm,” I said as I reached up to stroke my cat whiskers. Then I realized what I was doing and lowered my hand. “Which one of the Waymund princes?”

  “The second son I believe,” she said with a shrug. “I do not know of them.”

  “The wedding was to take place on a paradise planet?” I asked.

  “My father has been at war with the Waymunds for all of my life. We are bitter enemies, but they decided to form an alliance sealed with marriage. Then they would negotiate a treaty. I don’t know why he agreed to go to them.”

  “Strange,” Madalena said. “Do you know how long they have been planning your marriage?”

  “The first I heard of it was a few days ago,” the young woman said as she shrugged.

  “They were preparing for us,” Sivaha said. “They must have gotten worried that Vaish and Skyad are one, and they so
ught to protect themselves.”

  “It seems the most probable answer,” Madalena agreed.

  “Where is this planet?” I asked.

  “It is called Dia-Prism 5,” she answered.

  “I’ll check my ships navigation and see if we can find it,” I said.

  “My father’s advisors know of its location.”

  “The Waymund king and queen will be there?” I asked.

  “I would guess so,” she answered quickly. “Since my father planned on meeting them.”

  “And your father intended to take his full armada?” Madalena asked.

  “No,” she replied. “Most of our ships are back at Nordar-Ido, but I cannot imagine he would have taken them all with him to a wedding. It would be a sign of war to bring all of a clan’s ships to another clan’s space.”

  “Yeah, it would,” I purred. “Was Admiral Kiuys privy to your father’s plans?”

  “I think so,” she answered, and I turned to Sivaha and Madalena.

  “This may be much easier than we had planned,” the silver-haired woman said as her lips curved up into a seductive grin. As she smiled, we reached the landing pad where Persephone was, and the six of us walked up the ramp and into her hold.

  “We’ll need to coordinate it with our armada,” I said as I hit the button to close the door. “Showing up with the combined Vaish and Idonan forces will tip our hand too soon.”

  “But if we look like a fleet of Idonan delivering a princess for marriage, they won’t know it is us until we are docked on the planet,” Sivaha purred.

  “Then our armada can enter the system,” Madalena said.

  “Yep,” I replied. “We’ll be on the planet with the Waymund king and queen, and we won’t have to bother with any sort of massive space battle or posturing. They will probably have a group of guards, but that will be easy to bypass.”

  We moved through the hold and toward the elevator hallway as everyone chewed on the potential plan. I knew that it would need more refinement, but I like the idea. Not only did the subterfuge avoid a space conflict between our armadas which might end up thrashing both sides, but it was also poetic justice since Waymund had just tried to assassinate me with guards that I thought were loyal.

  “You will need to pretend to be my father,” Aasne said when we walked into the elevator. “I do not see how it can work. They will know that it is you since we will arrive on a Shadow Eagle, and only the Vaish have those.”

  “We can leave my ship behind,” I said, but the four other women gave me a surprised look that made me laugh. “I can be away from Persephone for a few hours,” I said.

  “Are you sure about that?” Sivaha chuckled. “I see the way you look at your ship. If she were a woman, she would be your primary wife.”

  “That is how most men are with their ships,” Calisto laughed.

  “When we reach Nordar- Ido, we’ll discuss the plan with Admiral Kiuys,” I said. “We’ll bring the expected amount of the Idonan ships, tell them that the king is feeling a bit ill, but will join later, and then Aasne can go down to the planet with her entourage.”

  “Then we can rip them up from the inside,” Sivaha said.

  “It might not work,” Aasne said as she looked to Madalena “Every single Nordar knows what Madalena looks like.”

  “Ehhh,” Sivaha said with a shrug. “There will be cognitive dissonance. Sure, Madalena’s face is recognizable, but why would the Prime Valkyrie be escorting you to your wedding? Someone might mention it, but I have other skills that I could use to draw attention away from her, if it even comes up.”

  “Once we are planetside and in their fortress or estate, we’ll find an opportunity to get to the Waymund king. Then I’ll ask him to submit to me.” The door to the elevator opened, and we made our way onto the bridge.

  “Or, we can just skip that part and you can take his wife.” Sivaha shrugged.

  “You are eager for Adam to acquire more women,” Madalena noted.

  “Not really,” the silver-haired woman answered. “I just do not wish to waste time. Toriton was the most likely to bend knee, and we could not convince him.”

  “His queen might not be willing to submit either,” Aasne said.

  “Women are pragmatic,” Sivaha said. “Men are enraged by their egos and full of themselves. Besides, what woman wouldn’t want Adam as their husband?”

  “You were quite resistant at first,” Madalena pointed out as we walked through the bridge and nodded at the saluting crew.

  “No,” Sivaha scoffed. “I just wanted to establish my position quickly. I offered to submit to him as soon as my previous husband was dead.”

  “His queen might be submitted to him,” Madalena said.

  “Or it could be the other way around,” Sivaha replied as she winked at the Prime Valkyrie.

  “Do you know that for certain?” Madalena asked.

  “It would not surprise me.” Sivaha shrugged. “My spies say she has power in the clan. I did a good job of ensuring that everyone believed that Nar was ruler of the Skyad, so it might be a feint, but I doubt it.”

  “Interesting,” Madalena muttered. “That would make it easier.”

  “May I ask when I can submit to you?” Aasne’s voice was polite, but it cut off the flow of conversation between my two wives, and they both turned to the green-eyed woman.

  “I need to change back,” I said as I sat down in my captain’s chair.

  Sivaha and Madalena sat in their chairs to my left, but Aasne stopped in the middle of the space behind Nikki and glanced between the four empty chairs.

  “Sit here,” I said as I gestured to the spot where Eve normally sat. The auburn-haired Nordar woman’s face cracked with relief, and she quickly moved to the seat next to me.

  “Nikki, we are going back to Nordar-Ido,” I said.

  “Yes, Adam,” she replied as she hit the announcement button for our departure. “Warpdrive is still on cooldown. We have thirty-four hours left.”

  “Use the hyperdrive until theeeennnnn,” I growled, and I realized that I had gone a long time in my tigerman form without starting to grind my vowel sounds out of my words.

  “Yes, Adam,” Nikki said as Persephone began to lift into the air.

  I closed my eyes and pushed myself back into the thick leather chair. I thought about the ocean, the waves, the wind, and the sand beneath my toes. I felt the warm sun blanket my human skin, and I inhaled the salty air through my nostrils. I thought about Eve touching my face, Zea whispering in my ear, Madalena rubbing my shoulder, and Sivaha laughing.

  Then I opened my eyes and I was back in my true form.

  Or maybe the tiger really was my true form, and this was the imposter human skin that I wore. I still hadn’t figured that out yet, and I didn’t want to think about it right now.

  I had too much other shit to do.

  “Amazing,” Aasne gasped, and I turned to see her green eyes opened wide to fill her freckled face. “I asked you before, but is this the magic Odin gave you?”

  “He is a cat, so perhaps it was Freyja,” Sivaha laughed. “She is the patron of those creatures.”

  “Sivaha,” I said as I stood. My legs felt a bit wobbly, but I wasn’t quite exhausted. Just tired. “You have the bridge. Show Aasne around once we are in hyperdrive.”

  “Yes, husband.” She winked at me.

  “Come with me,” I said to Madalena, and the Prime Valkyrie nodded before standing.

  We didn’t speak as we walked back through the bridge, down the hallway, and into my room, but as soon as we were in my suite. I turned to her.

  “I can feel your emotions so I knew you weren’t upset by what I just did to your sisters, but--”

  “Do not concern yourself with that,” Madalena said as her eyes roamed over the blood covering my flight suit. “We gave them plenty of chances. It was upsetting enough that they did not listen to you, but they would not consider my words either, and I am the Prime Valkyrie. I am the pinnacle of their ord
er, but they were more interested in adhering to their traditions and rules.”

  “I’m glad I know your feelings,” I said. “Well, I knew them before, but I am glad to hear them.”

  “You make me happy when you express interest in my feelings and thoughts,” the warrior woman said as her steel-colored eyes met mine.

  “That is what husbands do,” I chuckled.

  “You do not need to,” Madalena replied. “I forced my submission on you. I would want to serve you even if you hated me, or were unkind to me, or beat me. Yet you have given me love, respect, and gratitude.”

  “You deserve those things,” I replied as I raised my fingers to cup her cheek.

  “Odin truly has blessed me,” she said, and I could feel her adoration wrap me in a warm bath. “Adam, I love you more than I will ever have words for.”

  “Then it is good we can feel each other’s emotions,” I said, and then I pulled her to my mouth and kissed her.

  Our tongues danced together for a few minutes, and my suite filled with the sound of our grateful sighs. Eventually, we parted, and her normally cold eyes filled with a burning passion.

  “You are covered in blood,” she whispered. “Let us go to the shower and I will bathe you.”

  “Sounds great,” I said, “as long as you’ll let me return the favor, and then make love to you until we exit hyperspace.”

  “That is over thirty hours,” Madalena laughed. It was a beautiful sound that I almost never heard, so I enjoyed it for a few moments before speaking.

  “Then we better get started with that shower, since that doesn’t sound like enough time.” Whatever level of exhaustion I had felt after I changed back into a human was now gone, and I pulled Madalena into my arms for another deep kiss before I picked her up and carried her to the shower.

  Chapter 11

  We didn’t make it through thirty hours of lovemaking, but Madalena and I enjoyed ourselves for two until my post-shift exhaustion finally caught up with me. I awoke from a dreamless sleep to find myself alone in my bed, so I rolled out of my sheets and stumbled into my shower. By the time the water got hot, I was fully awake, and I quickly washed before hitting the blowers and brushing my teeth.