Jex

by Maia Starr

He looked at me and smiled. This was funny to him. I was growing frustrated. He walked to the side of the room and then walked back again; he was just pacing in front of me. He was thinking. I wished he would just make up his mind.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “I can offer you a trade,” he said.

  “A trade? What do you mean?”

  “I will trade what you want for something that I want,” he said.

  I grew hesitant. What could this alien possibly want from me?

  “I will do anything to get my sister back. I know that she would do the same for me,” I said.

  “I will personally help you track and rescue your sister and the other missing people if you mate with me,” he said.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I blurted out.

  He laughed. “That is my trade option to you, human female. Take it or leave it,” he said.

  I stared at him with anger. How dare he try to take advantage of me like this. “I will leave it. I do not agree to your terms. I will find her myself,” I said as I rolled at the map and walked to the door. I pressed on it. I tried to push it open. Nothing was happening. “Open the damn door!”

  I heard him laugh. He came up behind me; I could feel his heat on me as he stood so close to me. It was unnerving. I wanted to get out of there right then and there.

  “I will open the door. But I seriously think you should think about my offer. Do not worry, human; I would be gentle with you. It would be an experience like you have never had in your life; I promise you nothing but pleasure,” he said as his breath touched my neck. His words were filthy, and I should have been outraged, but instead, I had goosebumps all over.

  “Open the door,” I said restraining myself.

  He put his hand on a scanner on the wall, the door opened. I stomped out into the hallway and down the ramp onto the lawn. I was going straight to my room to gather a backpack full of supplies so that I could leave as soon as possible.

  I spent the next half hour putting a sweater and jacket into my backpack with canned food items to eat on the journey. I grabbed a water filter and bottle, and this would be all that I would need except for protection. I remembered holding the blaster gun of the alien Veruka and wondered if Jex would at least give me one of those. Something told me and did not mean it be kind of ammunition that our guns needed and eventually ran out of.

  I could not believe the audacity that he had to ask me for such a trade. I was completely outraged by his request. Why would he want to trade helping me find my sister for sex? If he stayed around long enough in this colony, I was sure that any human female would be open to having sex with him eventually. He did look the way that he looked after all. So why would he make such an offer to me? Why wouldn't he just give me a couple of soldiers; even one soldier would be better than going out on my own.

  Jex was an over-sexualized beast. I was so frustrated thinking about his offer, but the more I thought about it, the more I could picture myself giving into him. That frustrated me even more. I was in a mood as I violently stuffed things into my bag.

  “What happened? Will the alien help you?” I heard Scott say behind me.

  I couldn't tell him what had happened because the news with spread throughout the colony.

  “He did not give me an answer yet,” I lied.

  “Well, you cannot go out there alone. I told you what we were up against; if the eight of us couldn't get out of that siege, you won't be able to either. Your sister would not want it that way,” he said.

  “If it were the other way around, you would be speaking to her as she packed her bag to go look for me. She would do anything to help find me. Anything,” I said. As soon as I said it, I knew that it was true. Hannah would do whatever it took to find and rescue me, even if it meant giving herself to an alien shifter.

  “Dammit,” I said. “Don't worry, Scott; I am not going alone,” I said. I zipped up my bag and headed out the door.

  “Where are you going?” I heard Erick say as I walked down the steps onto the grass.

  “To go rescue my sister,” I said.

  “No. You are not,” he said.

  I gave him an angry look. “Don't think that you can tell me what to do, Erick.”

  “You cannot go out there alone. There is no use in putting your life on the line like that. You will die out there,” he said.

  “I am not going alone. The alien has agreed to help me find my sister. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go as soon as possible. Every minute counts,” I said.

  He grabbed my arm as I began to walk away.

  "The alien? I forbid it. You can't go off with him. You don't know anything about him or what he really wants.”

  I yanked my arm away from his. “I know exactly what he wants. He has not kept it a secret. I am going to go find Hannah, and there is nothing you can do about it,” I walked toward the ship. A minute later, I was facing Jex.

  “I have come to negotiate on your terms,” I said.

  “That is intriguing. I am listening,” he said leaning back in his chair.

  “The agreement would be this: I will mate with you, but only after my sister is returned here safely. You will help me find and rescue her in one of your ships, and we leave now. When we return, you shall have what you want,” I said.

  He was quiet as he looked me up and down. I was scared that he was going to say no. I was scared that he was going to say that I would need to be with him first, because if he said so, I would still do it. It was my only chance to get Hannah back.

  “You have yourself a deal, human female. We will leave in ten minutes. I must give my lieutenant orders on what to do in my absence,” he said as he stood up and put his hand out to shake mine. I put my hand in his and shook it as I looked up at his massive form in front of me. Then out of nowhere, he pulled my hand, and my chest crashed against his. His lips came down in pressed against mine. He kissed me with passion, and I was so caught off guard that I did nothing. I was confused. I was heated. My knees felt like they were going to collapse. Then I came to my senses. I put my hands on his hard chest and pushed away.

  “What are you doing?” I shouted as I moved away from him.

  “I just had to get a little preview. Tasted good. I am satisfied. We will go find your sister. Wait here,” he said and walked out the door.

  I was trembling. His kiss was overpowering. I was not expecting to feel so turned on by it. He was a brute to push himself on me like that, but his kiss was gentle and hot. Just as he had promised it would be. I sat down in the chair before I collapsed from feeling faint from that kiss. I could not think about it. In ten minutes I would be off with him to find my sister. I was going to have to have sex with him. But it would not be for some time. At least I could push it out of my mind for now, and focus on my sister.

  “Hold on, Hannah. Just hold on; I am coming for you,” I said over and over, trying to get some sort of message to my sister.

  Chapter 5

  Captain Jex Kailen

  I felt different. Something had happened deep inside of me. After I pressed my mouth against Helen's, everything changed. I felt good; I felt damn good. When I kissed her, I felt a light wake up inside of me. It was intense. This was the euphoria that I had heard of, but I wasn't expecting it to be so damn intense. It was not what I was expecting at all. This was better.

  She didn't like that I took what I wanted from her: that kiss. But I did not lie; I wanted to sample what I was agreeing to. Since the agreement on her side would not be fulfilled until we returned to Willow Springs with her sister, I thought it was my right to sample the goods. So I took what would soon be mine.

  Now, she sat next to me in my smaller scouting ship. This was a ship that we brought inside the cargo bay of our bigger ships. It was for short-range flights. However, it was just as fast and armed as the bigger ships, just with less passenger room, only fitting three bodies.

  “I don't understand why we are in this small ship. Why are we not in one of your bi
gger ships? We should have more soldiers with us. The Clenok cyborgs could number in the hundreds for all we know. They have a lot of firepower, and…” She rambled on. Was he never satisfied?

  “If this ship is not to your liking, then we can go on foot,” I said looking at her.

  She closed her mouth and pressed her lips together in a hard line. She didn't like hearing that.

  “I just thought that when I agreed that we would have more of an army with us,” she said.

  “You have the leader of that army with you; I am worth the ten of my soldiers,” I said.

  “I'll believe that when I see it,” she said.

  “And when you see it, I am sure that it is going to make it wet,” I said having enough of her defiance.

  Her eyes grew wide, and she gasped. “How dare you speak to me that way. You are nothing but a brute. A brute that only thinks about sex all the time! My sister is missing; have some compassion,” she said.

  I could not help but laugh at her words. She was right. I did think about sex quite often, and I was thinking about it with her.

  “Stop looking at me like that,” she said.

  “I cannot help myself. You mentioned sex to me, and therefore it is on my mind, with you. Do I not get more of a preview? Will you not push your shirt to the side and let me see your nipple?” I said.

  “There you go again! You are a pig!” she said, crossing her arms over her chest hiding her ample breasts from me. But she grew quiet. I think she understood that everything she complained about, I would turn into a sexual statement, at least it kept her from being so argumentative, for now.

  Half an hour later, we were coming upon the coordinates that were on her map where the humans had been seized. But I did not continue to the coordinates. Instead, I started to set the ship down a couple of miles away from the point.

  “What are you doing? This is not the spot. There are still two miles to go,” she said arguing with me again.

  I sighed. “I am the soldier here. Do you think I do not know what I am doing? Now stop arguing with me, human female,” I said.

  “But why are we so far off? This is not right, and…”

  “If you must know, human female, you cannot suddenly appear over an attack site. There is no hiding if you do that. There are only two of us. And it is best to sneak in when you are small in number and to first get a hold on the situation by not alerting you were enemy to your presence. Is that understood? I am the soldier here; let me be the damn soldier,” I said to her.

  “Oh, I guess that is a good idea,” she said.

  “You are agreeing with me. I thought I would never see the day,” I said as I landed the small ship in the middle of a forested area and opened the door. “Stay here. I need to check our immediate surroundings to make sure you are not in danger,” I said as I stood up and walked to the door. I stepped out onto the grass. I couldn't hear anything unusual. There was no activity near us or I would hear it because the trees were so dense and there were plenty of twigs on the floor that would be snapping under the weight of any person or cyborg.

  “It is clear,” I said to her. She walked out of the ship and looked around.

  “I need a gun,” she said. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you know how to use a gun?”

  “I know how to use the human guns. But you will have to show me how to use yours,” she said.

  “All right,” I said walking into the ship and grabbing a blaster gun and strap.

  “This is a blaster gun. This switch is the safety. I recommend you keep it on so that you don't shoot yourself, or me. When you need to use it, you can you flip it up like this, then you aim and shoot. It is fairly simple. Do you see this green light? It means the gun is fully charged. It will go yellow when it is low on charge, and then completely red when it is out of energy. Understood?”

  “Yes, understood. I wish I could fire a few blasts in order to test it out,” she said.

  “Too late for that. We are too close to the site. If cyborgs are here, they will hear it. You will just have to trust that you know how to use it when the time comes,” I said putting the safety back on and handing it to her. She grabbed the strap and draped it across her body.

  “Now, if you will step back, I need to shift into a dragon form. That is when I am at my strongest, and I will be able to fly us out of any danger,” I said.

  “Shift? You're going to shift in front of me?” she said.

  “Yes, that is what I said. Step back,” I said as I stepped back away from her since she was not moving at all. In a flash, my body grew warm, and I shifted into weredragon form. I spread my wings wide behind me stretching them out. It felt good to be the dragon again.

  I looked at Helen. Her mouth was open, and she looked at me. I think the shifting caught her by surprise. She was even looking at me as though she were impressed. I like seeing that look on her face; perhaps she even found it sexy.

  “Are you ready or are you just going to stand there looking at me with lust in your eyes?” I said as I turned around and began to walk into the forest.

  “I was not looking at you that way!” she shouted at me. I had gotten under her skin. I liked it.

  We walked through the woods with Helen behind me. But of course, she wasn't letting up on her constant criticism of my plans.

  “How will we know when we are there? This is taking too long,” she whispered to me.

  “Enough,” I said as I turned toward her. I scooped her up into my arms and took flight.

  “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  “Just be quiet; that is all I command of you,” I said.

  “Command? You cannot command me to do anything,” she protested.

  “Shhh… we are coming up on the spot,” I whispered to her. Holding her against my body was a distraction. She smelled good, and her skin was incredibly soft. I wanted to stop right then and take her in the soft pine needles of the forest. But we had work to do. I landed in a very tall tree. My feet and landed on a thick branch and Helen held on tighter with her arms around my neck.

  “This is it,” I whispered to her.

  “I don't see anyone, but I do see evidence of a fight. I can see a few bags and things, from our people,” she said.

  “I can hear branches breaking; be quiet,” I said as twigs snapping underneath feet hit my ears. Our hearing was much more advanced than the humans’. Helen froze against my chest, and she looked down at the ground. Suddenly, a human male appeared bewildered.

  “Jared, that is Jared, one of our people. We must go to him; he will know where Hannah is,” she said moving in my arms. I looked down at him, and he did not look like he was running from cyborgs. I scanned the area.

  “Jared!” Helen shouted.

  “Hello?” Jared said as he looked around for the source of the voice.

  “It is Helen,” she said. I knew there was no point in waiting to see what the circumstance was, and I grabbed Helen and flew down to the ground. I sat her on her feet. Jared was looking at me with his mouth wide-open.

  "Jared, don't be alarmed. He is my friend. I know he looks strange; it is a long story, but he has brought me here to help. Where is my sister and everyone else?” Helen asked.

  “Wings? It has wings?” he said, still in shock as he looked at me.

  “Yes, they all do. Jared, look at me. I need to know: where is everyone?” Helen said as she stood directly in front of him, trying to get him to concentrate on an answer.

  Chapter 6

  Helen Maven

  After I calmed Jared down, I finally was able to ask him some questions.

  “Jared, we have to know. Where are the others?” I asked.

  “Is this a safe place? Are the cyborgs close by?” Jex asked.

  “I have not seen a cyborg since we were attacked. I don't think they are in the immediate area. We should be safe, for now. I was on my way to the shore,” Jared said.

  “And where are the others? Where is my sister, Hannah?” I asked for the
tenth time.

  “I don't know where Hannah is. But the others were captured,” Jared answered.

  “Captured by the cyborgs?” I asked.

  “No, by other people. I was captured too, but I managed to escape. I couldn't get the others out. I was going to go find a boat and go back to Willow Springs for help,” he said.

  “What? Humans captured them? Why? I don't understand. And my sister was not among them?” I asked.

  “No. I lost sight of Hannah in the battle; I don't know where she is. But me and two others were taken by some humans that we came across when we ran. When the cyborgs came, we ran in that direction trying to get away. We managed to escape the and ran into another band of humans, but they were hostile. They did not believe our story that we were running away from cyborgs after looking for resources for our own colony. They are very paranoid. They took us prisoner,” he said.