by T. J. Quinn
“That’s exactly right,” Harper told me.
“How can they expect that kind of commitment just like that?” I snapped my fingers just for effect. Then I lowered my voice to a whisper so only she could hear. “I hadn't had sex in two years, since before Jake died. So, when this big, gorgeous alien says we’re soul mates and looks at me like I’m Miss Universe, tells me I’m his soul mate---I’m going to get some of that. But, hell, I don’t know if I want to marry him. How the hell did you know?”
“Honestly, Zared is so damn hot and so earnest when he asked to be my mate, I decided it was the best offer I ever had,” she said. “I don’t know if I am in love yet, but the thing people don’t get is you can love who you want to love. The guy turns me on like no man ever has, so why not love him?”
“Do you think the guy saving us has something to do with it?”
“Oh probably, but that didn’t turn my bones to jelly when he kissed me,” she said. “That was all him.”
“Believe me, I get that,” I told her.
“That irresistible attraction you feel for Pyrr is solmatu. You’re getting some of those pheromones through the skin to skin contact even with protected sex,” Harper explained. “Look, we’re millions of miles from home, and nobody knows how to get us back to Earth. We could have been sex slaves, but these guys saved us. Having a hot alien commander for a husband seemed like a good deal to me, so I took him up on it. He is a kind and caring man.” She paused for effect then said, “and I really like fucking him. Mm, mm, mm.”
We both giggled like school girls. I knew exactly what she meant because I felt the same way. Then I thought about it. If I were really going to reject his “proposal,” I should never have shared sex with him. Now it would be really awkward to reject him as a mate when he had declared we were soulmates from the beginning.
Anyway, how could I just go back to Earth and live my old life like none of this ever happened? Then I thought of Billy, and that brought a lump to my throat. I hoped someone rescued him and found him a home. He was the only being I missed. I would never have abandoned him if I’d had a choice. He was too good a dog, too good a friend. Who else would love you unconditionally like a dog would?
Someone who thinks you are their soulmate.
That’s when I finally got it. My unique scent told Pyrr I am his soulmate. That was all he needed to turn him into my devoted lover. I still wasn’t quite ready to make that commitment though, I felt like I probably would. I couldn’t deny the connection I felt with Pyrr. It was more than just a physical attraction, which was powerful because I really liked him. My talk with Harper made me believe I could love him. He already acted like he loved me. I could work with that.
With that settled in my mind, I could content myself to enjoy the company of my friends. Some of the alien women joined us including Kyanna Guryon and her companion Sowia. They told us enough about life on Halor to convince the four of us from Earth; it was a place we wouldn’t want to live. It sounded like high society to me, and we were small town ‘girls.' What would we do in a place like that?
The houses were automated, and they had robots for servants. They lived on old money, then those that did work did so from home on their computers, only they were called artificial intelligence modules.
Even though the men and women on the Dreadnaught called themselves mercenaries, they weren’t your typical mercenaries, just looking to fight for money. They were trying to save their people. They declared their independence from the Consortium for that purpose. They are the kind of people I understood. They came in all assorted colors with weird colored hair, but they were basically human with DNA that made them compatible with us. We wanted to help them free their people from a life of slavery the way they helped us.
At least I had it straight in my mind after talking with Harper. I realized I had made my decision. I would accept my alien warrior man’s proposal and be his mate. Maybe I didn’t love him yet, but I sure lusted for him. It would do for a start.
With little else to do, I had settled in with the other women in the conference room to watch a story as they called a movie on their holovid. Pyrr came to the conference room a little early for third meal. People came and went the whole time we were
watching it, but I didn’t notice any one person until he came striding in. I looked up immediately, and my body responded to his presence almost as quickly.
I got up as quietly as I could and padded over to him. He smiled at me, a lover’s smile that reached his eyes. A rush of happiness rippled through me as I basked in his obvious regard. He brushed his hand down my arm in a caress as I came to a stop facing him and returned his smile. He was definitely a keeper.
“Do you want to stay here and finish the story, or go to third meal?” he asked. The look in his eyes told me he wanted what I wanted. We went to eat. I wanted to tell him my decision, but I knew we would never eat if I told him first. I needed a little more time to get used to the idea. I was about to make one huge leap of faith based on Pyrr’s conviction that we were soul mates and my incredible physical attraction to him.
Even now as I remember it, it sounds almost as unlikely as getting kidnapped by alien slavers. Two days after meeting him, I was consenting to become his mate for life. But I was looking into his eyes when he called me solmatu and asked me to be his mate. I believed it was real for him, and I wanted him. Because of that, I knew he would be a solid ally. After being ripped from my world with no way to get home, I needed that.
I was pretty antsy sitting across from Pyrr eating in the mess hall. I was so hungry in the conference room waiting for third meal. The mercenaries’ food supply was adequate to get us to Halor, but there weren’t a lot of extras for snacks and such. We got three meals, and that was it. I think Pyrr thought something was up. He gave me a quizzical look, but just kept eating and didn’t say anything.
When we finished eating, I said, “Pyrr, I accept. I will be your mate.”
He simply smiled and reached across the table to take my hand and give it a gentle squeeze. The smoldering looks he gave me created a riot of sensation coursing through my body clamoring for his touch and making me yearn to feel him inside me. I got up suddenly and shoved my empty containers into the recycling chute, walking quickly toward the exit. Pyrr jumped up and followed me.
We barely made it inside his quarters before we were wrapped in each other’s arms kissing passionately. In the back of my mind, had I told Pyrr before we dined of my decision, we would never make it to third meal. We hardly stopped kissing as we made our way to his bed where I help him off with his clothes and we fell into bed naked.
Pyrr didn’t waste any time pressing me against him his engorged cock pressed against my thigh. I had been craving him all day. He slid his hand over my mound and fingered my opening. “You’re wet for me already,” he murmured into my ear.
“And I need you inside me now,” I pleaded. My nipples had peaked, and my slit went slick almost the moment I sensed his presence back in the conference room. That was all the encouragement he needed. I rolled onto my back parted my legs for him to position himself between them. He leaned over me, and I rested my hands on his sides while he lowered himself to slide into me.
I moaned in pure pleasure as he filled me. He gave me a pleased smile pressed his mouth to mine in a deep tongue waltzing kiss. The pressure of his hard, muscular chest against my sensitive nipples shot a surge of exquisite sensations to my clit as he pumped in and out of me. We started slow and sensual, picking up speed as our arousal increased until he was pounding into me. I was right there with him all the way. Sex had never felt so good or right.
My orgasm started first and his followed almost immediately. I just reveled in him on me and in me. An incredible sensation of euphoria spread through me as his hot semen squirted against my cervix. Our lips clung together in a sweet passionate kiss.
Mine! This man is mine!
CHAPTER NINE
PYRR
Sharing
sex with Scarlet was so good, I didn’t think anything could feel better until I claimed her. “Scarlet Andrews, you are my mate now,” I said softly, looking down into her eyes.
“And you are now my mate, Pyrron Avantu,” she murmured back.
“As long as I draw breath,” I repeated the solmatu pledge.
“As long as I draw breath,” she repeated, her gaze fixed on mine.
I smiled at her and kissed her again. I realized that there were many things we had yet to learn about each other, but I was feeling too elated to think about that just then. We were too enthralled by the effects of the mating pheromones that we could think of nothing else but mating again, long and slow.
It took another ten days after our mating day to reach Halor with only about five more days of routine weapons and armor cleaning and maintenance. Even Admiral Degatu had no mundane, utterly boring tasks to fill our time. That was because we were fastidiously efficient in the upkeep of our equipment and the ship.
I mated Scarlet at least a couple times a day, and we savored each other at length. I couldn’t ask for a more responsive and sensual mate. More than lovers, we have also become friends. I enjoy just being with her. I gave her a crash course in Farseek history and our culture. Although we were far ahead of her planet Earth in technology, our lifestyle was not as far removed from hers as that of Halor.
Where Earth was divided into multiple factions called countries, Farseek was a unified world governed by representatives elected by each province. The provinces, in turn, had a certain amount of autonomy on local issues. Our world was part of the Consortium. They provided us with technology, and we provided them with agricultural products and warriors to defend against the Sargus Empire.
The Empire itself was not innately evil. What was evil was their practice of slavery. The Sargans bought and sold slaves provided to them by the Picans who kidnapped them from their homeworlds. Their elitist monarchy and consisted on feudal Lords that ruled the various planets of the Empire. Like the Consortium each of their worlds provided soldiers to fight for the Empire. To those in power, slave ownership was their right. Their trouble with the Consortium started when they began raiding worlds in that sector for slaves and leaving them in ruin.
Attempts at a diplomatic solution failed repeatedly. The Sargans didn’t trust their machines to replace their slaves. Machines couldn’t be tortured, drugged or coerced into compliance. There were those sadistic owners who enjoyed the process of enforcing their wishes on their slaves.
The Consortium knew all of this. It makes me angry at how they left our world defenseless while we fought for them. None of my family members remained among the handful of survivors we found there. All of them were gone, and we didn’t know the any of their fates.
The profound loss of family and friends made finding Scarlet precious in my life. Even though I have yet to say the words out loud, I began to fall in love with her almost as soon as I scented that she was solmatu. I suppose I romanticized our connection a bit, but I attributed it to the recent loss of my family. I felt like I was drowning in my grief and Scarlet threw me a lifeline.
I think Scarlet had some of the same feelings as I did for different reasons. Although her family was already gone, she was traumatized by being abducted from what life she had begun to make for herself. That familiar, the animal she called a dog, was family to her. Even if I could get her back to Earth right now, she might never find what happened to him. It probably feels no different to her than I feel about my family. The Sargus Empire covers a lot of space in this part of the galaxy. We have a few leads on places to look, but no information about who was taken where or who had already died.
I hadn’t completely given up hope that I would find any of my family, but I faced the reality that I might never find any of them. It was the same for most all the Farseek Warrior Brigade. Some of my friends were jealous even that I found my solmatu, amid all their losses. But it gave them hope, too, that they might find solmatu in our travels. Solmatu did not have to be Uatu. Two of us had already found them among women from an unknown world.
Scarlet never said she loved me when she agreed to be my mate, but she desired me and preferred my company. When we mated, I felt loved even though she never spoke the words. I didn’t say them either. She always greeted me heartily when we had been apart, lavishing me with affection, and let me know without words that she wished to mate. So, even though we didn’t say the words, it was clear that we were happy being together.
When we reached Halor, I think it finally hit Scarlet and her friends that they were in a different reality from their homeworld. Halor was altogether different than Farseek both in culture and architecture.
“This is like an alternate universe from a sci-fi movie,” Scarlet said as we caught a shuttle tram just outside Halor starport. “These buildings look more like ultra- modern sculptures than businesses.”
“That building is divided into housing units.” I pointed to an opaque crystal structure. It was a non-traditional building with no delineation of windows visible from outside. “The area we’re in now is integrated with high-end housing and businesses. Outside the city are more traditional houses but very luxurious and expensive.”
“What are people going to think when they see us dressed like this?” Scarlet mused aloud. “All I have on is a frigging t-shirt.”
“Don’t worry, we are going straight to the clothing factory to dress all of you properly before we go to the clinic,” I told her. “There are no other passengers on this tram, and no one else will see you before we get to the factory store.”
It took barely fifteen minutes to get from the starport to the clothing outlet. My friend Tahvoe Brintu and I accompanied the ten females that chose to remain with us, including the Commander’s mate. Commander Maktu was delivering Kyanna Guryon and her friend to her father and collecting our fee. He planned to catch up with us at the biochip clinic.
I went with Scarlet when she dressed in one of her new outfits. She chose a short-sleeved tunic and pants then flipped through the pile looking for something.
“There’s no underwear and no socks,” she said with a frown.
“Well, darlin’ you’ve helped me off with my clothes enough to know I don’t wear any,” I told her with a chuckle.
“I just thought that was by choice. What’s going to hold these up?” She cupped her ample breasts.
“These are made from ‘smart’ fabric, unlike the inner shirts we wear for leisure. The size and weight of your lovely breasts were programmed into the design of your tunics. You won’t require undergarments,” I explained to her. Granted the Uatu females were not as well-endowed as Scarlet, but it wouldn’t matter. “Put them on and see how they feel.”
She gave me a look. “Are you just going to stand there and watch me?”
“You are my mate. I’ve seen every inch of your beautiful, naked body. It gives me pleasure to see it.”
“You are lucky I like you,” she muttered. She crossed her arms and gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it off over her head in one slick move. Then she flashed me a look that told me I should not say a word, so I looked her in the eyes and smiled at her. Just thinking about lower made my cock twitch.
She pulled the new tunic over her head and adjusted her breasts inside it. The tunic was the same length as the borrowed shirt she wore. Each one had an inner liner that adhered to her breasts and provided the support she desired.
“You’re right. What about the pants?”
“They have a self-cleaning inner liner for any secretions you might have,” I said matter-of-factly.
“Nicely put,” she winked at me and pulled them on. She turned in a circle and said, “what do you think?”
“I think you’re beautiful whatever you wear or don’t wear,” I told her. That got me a delightful hug with her body pressed tight against mine and a wickedly promising kiss. I suspected I would be helping her off with those new clothes soon after we got back to our cabin.
Scarlet
I don’t know why I felt self-conscious dressing in front of Pyrr. He was exactly right. He had already seen and touched every part of my naked body. That he thought I was beautiful warmed my soul, and the way he made love to me was nothing short of magnificent.
Watching him in training a couple days before we arrived at Halor, I saw him doing hand to hand combat exercises. He went a few rounds with Commander Maktu. Their fighting was so fierce, I almost thought they were really trying to kill each other. When it was over, they laughed and bumped their fists together like the friends that they were.
There was no comparing him to Jake. I loved Jake deeply, and we had great sex, but it was different. What’s more, it was past, in a different reality.
Pyrr was here and now, and I admitted to myself that I was falling in love with him. I didn’t know whether it was the solmatu phenomenon or just the normal attraction between a man and woman. I no longer wondered about how quickly I had taken him as my lover. Even though I wanted him almost from the minute I met him, I had come to care for him deeply. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I must have known I would when I agreed to become his mate for life.
Once we were all dressed, we took the tram to the medical clinic. I was a little nervous about getting the implants, but the entire process was smooth and painless. Since each implant was designed with our own DNA, we were assured there would be no side effects. Pyrr was with me the during implantation, I think because he had seen how nervous Harper was. After the experiences I’d had with Army medical treatment, this was a piece of cake.
Commander Maktu’s mission was successful. He had collected the reward from Evzen Guryon in cash no less and delivered it to the shuttle. Soon as we were finished, we went back to the shuttle and back to the ship. While we were on Halor, the ship was getting a makeover to remove all the markings that tied it to the Consortium. Farseek Dreadnaught One was now Dreadnaught Seeker, a mercenary ship. That would allow us to travel in the Sargus Empire and not be identified as an enemy even though we were.
