Orrean answered the other alien in Taoree, “No. Your orders have changed. Main unit you will now join. Hurry, you will need to.”
“Sir, yes,” he answered back in their language. “Who is the cleanup crew now?”
“Take care of it, I will,” Orrean told him. I couldn’t freaking believe I could understand them… and I really couldn’t fucking believe I was stupid enough to trust one of them.
“Sir, thank you,” the other Taoree said before he walked away.
Orrean held tightly onto my arm until long after the other alien was out of sight. When he finally released me, I started backing away from him, pushing everyone else back with me.
Orrean turned around to watch me with a confused expression on his face. “It is okay, Jeremy. I got him to leave. He will not bother us again.”
Once everyone else was behind me I glared at Orrean. “I won’t let you hurt them.”
Orrean looked even more confused now. “I would never. What is going on? What is wrong?”
“I can’t believe I trusted you. You tricked me. We are not your slaves, Orrean,” I said through clenched teeth.
He stared at me for a full minute before understanding finally dawned on him. “You could understand me?”
I didn’t answer, I only kept glaring, slowly pushing everyone away from the alien and hoping he didn’t notice how much distance I was putting between us.
When he realized I wasn’t willing to answer him, he said, “Jeremy, I only said that so he would not kill you. That was the only believable story. Nothing else would have made sense.”
I absorbed his explanation, and part of me wanted to believe him, but I was too afraid for the others to let that part win me over, so I said, “I don’t believe you.”
Now Orrean actually looked hurt, as if I had hurt his feelings or even hit him. I watched him swallow hard and look away for a moment before looking back with an even sadder expression and a soft voice, “I would never hurt you or your family. I only want to help.”
Something in the way he said it and how he looked gave me pause. I stopped moving and made eye contact with him. His sad, black eyes stared into my brown ones. There was so much emotion, so much sadness and loneliness, that I somehow felt like I was seeing his soul, and I got lost in it. I was caught in his gaze and I couldn’t seem to get away from it, though I honestly didn’t want to. I could’ve stood there, staring at him for minutes, for hours, for the rest of my life and I wouldn’t have cared. I had no idea how long we stood there like that, staring at one another, but I couldn’t move. I felt his presence, a warmth, through my entire body even though we were now at least twenty feet apart. It was like I could feel his sadness mixing with my own emotions and I felt the truth behind his words. He hadn’t meant what he said. He was only trying to protect us. I knew this. I could see it. I could feel it.
If the others were speaking or moving, I wasn’t aware of it. I could only see and feel Orrean in that moment. I had some weird, freaky connection with this alien, though I’d probably deny it if someone asked.
Finally I gently said to him, “I’m sorry.”
Orrean lost some of his sadness and immediately walked closer to me. He started reaching out, but right before he touched me, Colt jumped between us.
“Do. Not. Touch. Him,” Colt hissed.
The connection between Orrean and I was broken and I gulped in a deep breath. I reached out, grabbing onto Colt’s upper arms and fell forward a little, resting my forehead on the back of his neck and breathing him in. As usual, he helped ground me.
I heard Cal ask, “What in the fuck is going on?”
“I…” Orrean started to answer. “I am not sure.”
I sucked in a deep breath and without moving my head or hands off of Colt, I answered, “For some reason I could understand what Orrean and the other alien were saying and—”
Nolan cut me off, “You understand Taoree?”
I thought about that. “I didn’t understand the other Taoree at first, so I guess not all the time?” I said it like a question because I truly wasn’t sure. “But I thought Orrean was tricking us… but he’s not.”
“What did he say?” Wes asked quietly.
“He said we were his slaves,” I answered honestly and felt Colt tense.
“I only said that so Anhjut would not hurt or kill you. It was the only plausible explanation for having you with me,” Orrean explained.
“And you believe he’s telling the truth now?” That question came from Colt.
I lifted my head off of him and stepped around to stand next to him so he could look me in the eyes. “Yes. I got freaked out by what I heard, but I believe he was protecting us.” Then I looked at Orrean. “He called you ‘Commander.’”
“Yes,” Orrean responded, “I am the Commander of this camp.”
“That means you had to order them out of this camp to kill humans,” Cal said through clenched teeth.
Orrean shook his head. “No. I kept them back as long as I could. The emperor sent that order almost two weeks ago. The emperor rules all. I could not keep them here any longer. I was already raising suspicion and I could not allow that to get back to the emperor.”
“You were waiting for…” I trailed off, not wanting to finish the thought.
Orrean looked right into my eyes. “Yes.” I knew he understood my question, even though I hadn’t finished it. He had been waiting for me.
I swallowed, unsure of how I felt about that revelation. “You are trying to protect us. Help us.”
It wasn’t really a question, but Orrean seemed to understand that I needed some reassurance because he answered anyway, “Of course.”
I looked into his dark eyes for a long moment. “I believe you,” I finally said before peeling my eyes away from the alien and looking at Colt and the others. “He’s trying to protect us.”
Colt stared at me for a long moment before doing the same to Orrean. He looked back at me and whispered, “Okay.” Then he walked over to Orrean and got in his face. Well, as much as you can get in someone’s face when they’re six inches taller than you. “If you hurt him,” he pointed at me, “or any of them,” he pointed in the general direction of the rest, “I. Will. Kill. You.”
Orrean glanced at me before giving Colt his full attention. “I would not stop you.”
Colt kept glaring at him, but must’ve eventually accepted that answer because he nodded once at the Taoree, then came back over to me and tucked me into his side. I noticed he was shaking a little, but whether it was from adrenaline or fear, I didn’t know. Maybe it was both. This whole thing had been extremely fucked-up.
Colt asked Orrean, “You said there was something that might help us?”
“Yes, this way,” Orrean answered and walked toward the giant hut again. He opened the door, peeked inside, then looked back at us. “Come inside. No one else is here.”
Colt led us through the door with me still tucked to his side. Luckily the door was fairly large, so we fit without breaking apart. The inside was almost opposite of the outside. Where the outside of the hut seemed natural and nature-driven, the inside was unnatural and completely filled with electronics.
There were wires and metal and lights everywhere, and none of it was human technology. There were large screens with what looked like maps on them and smaller screens that I would probably compare to computer monitors. But many had dark blank screens, so I couldn’t tell for sure what they were, and they were floating in the air, seemingly not attached to anything. There were little lights, large lights, blinking lights, and glowing knob-like things sticking out of the different equipment.
There was a wooden staircase that must lead to a second floor over against the wall. There were tables and what must have been a kitchen near the stairs, but I only just glanced at them because on the other side of the staircase, there was an entire fifteen-foot rack of weapons. Or at least, I recognized some of them as weapons, since they looked like that stick-like gun thing
that Orrean and the other alien had.
Orrean headed straight for that rack, saying, “These weapons will kill the Ferals without you needing to…” he seemed to think for the word, then settled on, “behead them. It is easier and quicker.” He reached onto the rack and pulled off a bunch of the stick-guns.
“How do they work?” Nolan asked.
“The shoian,” he held up the stick-gun thing, “sends out a high enough electrical pulse that will kill the Qiren.”
“The what now?” I asked.
“The Qiren in the Ferals’ brains which is controlling them,” Orrean answered uneasily.
“You know how the Ferals are being controlled?” I asked, crossing my arms. Why had none of us thought to ask him that yet? God, I don’t think my brain is functioning right after all this shit.
“Of course,” he said simply, but didn’t elaborate.
“Care to share it with us?” I prompted, feeling just as annoyed with him as I did with myself for not thinking of this line of questioning before now.
He took a deep breath, then explained, “The Qiren are small… uh… robots, for lack of a better word, in the brain that the Taoree Legion can… tap into and control.”
“So, the Taoree Legion, as in the Emperor’s army, are controlling humans with small robots in our brains?” Nolan didn’t sound like he believed him.
“Yes.”
“Does that mean we can fix the Ferals?” I asked after a long pause of everyone absorbing the strange info.
Orrean grimaced. “No,” he said quietly, “they cannot be saved.”
“Why not?” Cal asked. “Couldn’t we just remove the robots or whatever?”
Orrean looked uncomfortable and seemed to be biting on his cheek, but he still answered, “No. The only way to guarantee complete control is to take the brain back down to the bare essentials.” He kept rubbing his forehead with his fingers.
“What in the fuck does that mean?” Cal asked, pissed off.
Orrean was clearly uncomfortable as he answered, “The Taoree Legion could not have humans fighting against their control, so they created the Qiren to…” he huffed out a breath. “The Qiren basically… uh… melt down the brain until the only thing that is left is following orders and basic survival skills… the brain stem and a few small areas for speech and such things... The Qiren basically… use the human bodies to do the bidding of the Taoree Legion.”
I suddenly felt sick. I looked over at Nolan and saw that he was white as a sheet. Cal looked pissed-off, and Wes just looked shocked. Mandy was staring off, watching the screens across the room, and I hoped she was either not paying attention or too young to understand exactly what that meant. I looked at Colt, seeing that he was a mixture of pissed-off, shocked, and sick. I was pretty sure that I was either pale or green, maybe both.
Nolan was the first to speak after a long silence. His voice was hoarse and quiet, “So when those people were screaming, it was because their brains were melting? They were in excruciating pain because your people were afraid some of us might actually fight back? That some of us would be stronger than your fucked-up robots?” His voice grew stronger with every word. I realized he must’ve been thinking of Cindy, his college crush and the girl we saw screaming in the parking lot before we left school for the last time, which felt like a lifetime ago, even though it was only two weeks.
Orrean’s voice was barely above a whisper, “Yes. I am sorry.”
“Sorry? You’re sorry?” Nolan let out a humorless laugh. “Do you have any idea how many people have suffered because of you? How many people have died? How many families have been split up and broken? Do you know how many people I’ve had to kill because of you sick bastards?” He laughed again, sounding manic. “I watched so many people screaming in pain those first few days. I dream about the girl I liked screaming and me not being able to save her, every fucking night, and you’re sorry? Well, sorry doesn’t fucking cut it. Not even close.” Nolan walked away toward the door. I was about to call out to him, tell him not to go out there by himself, but he stopped right before he opened the door and just stood there. He was pissed-off and hurting, but at least he was still smart enough not to go outside alone.
I started to walk toward him, but Cal moved past me, shooting me a glare, so I stepped back next to Colt, who grabbed my hand and squeezed. I welcomed the small comfort. We watched Cal put his hand on Nolan’s shoulder, but Nolan shrugged him off, saying, “Don’t touch me.” Cal held his hand up in surrender, then turned to face us, leaning back against the wall next to the door and crossing his arms over his chest. He saw me watching and offered a half-shrug. I nodded at him, but couldn’t really do anything else. We all stood in silence for a long time.
As soon as Nolan seemed to calm down some, Orrean told us dejectedly, “There are four showers with hot water upstairs. I can keep watch if you would like to take advantage before we leave, but we should probably leave in the next half hour.”
I grabbed one of our bags and shouted, “Race ya,” trying to lighten the mood. I heard a few laughs, so I considered that a success.
Once we were all upstairs, we followed along the hallway, opening doors until we found each bathroom. Colt and I decided to conserve water by taking a shower together. It took us a few minutes to figure out how to work all the buttons on the wall, but once we did, we were in heaven. We hadn’t had hot water in weeks.
I was surprised to find normal human soap and shampoo in the shower, so we didn’t even have to waste our dwindling supplies. I also didn’t waste any time in touching my boyfriend’s bare skin, since we finally had some privacy. I didn’t even care if anyone could hear us. I soaped him up, relishing in the feel of every inch of his skin. I even washed his hair before he returned the favor. I pushed all thoughts of Ferals, mind control, and aliens out of my mind so I could concentrate on the very sexy man in front of me.
By the time I was rinsing the soap off under the gloriously hot water, I was so turned on, I felt like I could burst at any second. Colt started kissing me fiercely, running his hands all over my skin and grinding his hips into me, but the friction wasn’t enough.
He must’ve felt the same, because he broke our kiss and breathed into my mouth, “Take me.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I grabbed his hips, spun him to face the wall, spit onto my fingers and started working his hole open. He moaned, sending shivers down my spine and making me test my patience. That sound made me want to bury myself deep inside him, but I waited, not wanting to hurt him.
I suddenly realized we had a little problem. “I don’t have a condom.” Mother fucker. The thought of taking him without one crossed my mind, but I tamped it down because we needed a little bit of normal, and now we had a little hope… we weren’t doomed if we’d make it to that camp.
“In my pants pocket… I grabbed it from my old room,” he panted, pushing his ass farther back onto my fingers.
I groaned at the movement and reluctantly pulled my fingers out to search for the condom. I found it a mere thirty seconds later—still far too long—with a packet of lube in his pants on the floor.
When I jumped back into the shower, I couldn’t help but admire the view of him standing there, facing the wall with his legs spread and his palms open, holding onto the wall. His forehead was resting against the stainless steel wall, and I could tell that he was breathing heavily.
He must have felt my eyes on him, because he lifted off the wall and looked over his shoulder at me. “What are you waiting for?”
“Just enjoying the view. My boyfriend is sexy as fuck,” I told him truthfully before stepping up to him so my bare chest was flat against his naked back. I tilted his chin back toward me and kissed him slowly as I ripped open the lube packet and spread some inside him, then I tore open the condom, sheathed myself and applied the rest of the lube.
I put my cock right up against his hole and gave him a moment to change his mind, even though it was the last thing I wanted. When he push
ed back against me, it was all the signal I needed to keep going. I pressed just the head of my cock in and stopped so he could adjust. He sucked in a breath and pulled his lips away from mine, so instead I kissed his shoulders and neck, and used my free hand to rub over his pecs, nipples, and abs.
When I felt his body finally relax, I started pushing in farther. It was a slow torture as his tightness gripped me, making me want to pound him, hard. But I resisted and slowly slid home, then froze to let him adjust again. I kept kissing, licking, and sucking on his skin, savoring the taste of him. After a torturous minute of keeping as still as possible, he pulled forward himself, then slammed back on me, making us both moan loudly.
Then, that was it, I couldn’t hold back any longer. I pumped my hips over and over again, setting a punishing rhythm that he seemed just as eager for, if the sounds coming out of him were any indication, and the fact that he was pressing his hips back onto me just as hard. His heat felt so fucking good on my sensitive cock that I knew I wasn’t going to last long. It seemed that we both needed this, and soon we were fucking harder than I’d ever fucked before, and it was freaking amazing.
I wrapped my fingers around his hip to get better leverage, and with my other hand, I pumped his cock at the same punishing rhythm as our thrusts. It wasn’t long before he was screaming my name and shooting all over the wall. His body squeezed my dick impossibly tighter as his orgasm shook his body, making my own release follow. I filled the condom up with what felt like a never-ending orgasm. When my body finally finished, he was leaning his forehead against the wall and I fell forward onto him, resting my forehead on the back of his neck. We were both panting, breathless, and sated.
I kissed his neck and breathed out, “God, you’re beautiful.”
He made a sound of contentment, then whispered, “And you’re amazing, Jeremy.”
I smiled and kissed his shoulder before pulling my cock and condom out of him, making him wince, then I wrapped my arms around his chest, holding him against me. I couldn’t help but kiss his neck over and over. He spun in my arms and kissed me slowly, with such passion that I had no doubt how much he cared about me.
Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1 Page 18
