by Alyx X
I couldn’t, though.
“You…?” She sounded curious as she trailed off right where I had.
I still didn’t look at her. “I might have a little something to do with your extra strength. It was probably my fault.”
“Your fault? A little something?” Incredulity rang through her tone.
I coughed and turned to face her. “It’s a big something. Definitely big.”
She choked out a laugh. “I’ll say. If you hadn’t abducted me from Frisco in the first place and then flown me off into space—completely against my will, I might add—then I wouldn’t be doing this weird speed and strength thing now. Yeah, that’s a pretty big something. Considering space made me strong.”
“I meant—”, I gestured to my cock.
She narrowed her eyes and I sucked in a deep breath, trying to force out my discomfort.
“It’s not space,” I confessed. “Space didn’t make you strong.”
“Evidence says otherwise.” She cocked an eyebrow. “I’m totally flexing right now. You just can’t see it under your weird medical sleeve thing.”
“Okay.” I nodded and swallowed. “But here’s the thing. Last night, I…uh…” At her glare, I swiftly continued. I couldn’t keep finishing my thought there. “I mated with you,” I blurted out. Then I sank onto the end of the bed. “Your new superpower is courtesy of that intense emotional and physical connection…with me. It’s not space,” I added, just in case she hadn’t understood.
“You did what now?” Her voice didn’t rise, but she was great at understated anger. “Unhook me from this machine. I can’t have this conversation with you while I’m lying down.”
Fucking great. A conversation I didn’t want, and a mate willing to ensure she wasn’t healed so she could have it. I checked the monitor read-outs again before I nodded my head.
“Okay. Your vitals are normal, so we can take the sleeve off.”
“No, Lyx.”
My entire body stiffened at her use of my name. I liked it.
“We take the sleeve off because I say, not because the machine says, and I say it comes off because you have just taken leave of your senses and seem to think you’re my new inter-species husband.”
I might have laughed if it wasn’t so close to the truth. Instead, I blew out a sigh. “Okay. This is a conversation we need to have, then.” I stood and removed the sleeve, avoiding eye contact. Once free, she rose to a sitting position and stared at me until I finally met her gaze.
She nodded.
I took a deep breath, then began, “For Tryonians, sex makes the female stronger. Essentially, she takes part of the male’s strength so they can become a strong bonded pair.” There it was. Out in the open. No going back now.
She threw her arms up. “And now you’re telling me you’re weaker because I’m stronger?”
I grinned. “It probably won’t be very noticeable to you, but technically, yes.”
“That’s all I need to know?” Her words were demanding, but I shook my head as I continued monitoring her vitals and watching her body return to its normal state.
“Not quite. Tryonians mate for life.”
Her eyebrows shot up, almost merging with her hair as it fell across her forehead.
I decided to ignore the fact her mouth had also pressed into a thin line. I couldn’t only tell her half of the way the bond worked, I owed her that much. “A male Tryonian has an endless life.” I sounded like one of our council members educating a group of adolescents. “But only until he finds his eternal mate, and then their life spans become matched.” I waved my hand. “We’re a pretty long-lived species anyway. That is, our life spans are naturally long, and our tech and strength helps us stack those odds in our favor.”
A crease formed between her eyebrows and suspicion wormed into her tone. “Okay, and just how old are you?”
I’d looked it up when I was researching humans, but she probably wouldn’t expect the answer. “Oh, about one hundred human years? That’s pretty close, anyway.”
“So, you’re really old, you mate for life, and you have a tail. Is there anything else I need to know about you?”
She was taking this pretty well so far, but I didn’t want to spring a whole lot more on her than she was ready for. “Uh, do you have any questions?”
“Tell me about the tail.” She leaned forward and I nearly groaned.
That was the part I wasn’t ready for. “My tail. Well, up until yesterday, it was just another appendage.”
“And now?”
Was it my imagination, or had her voice dropped to a more sultry tone? Had she shifted closer? My nostrils flared as I breathed in her scent. “Now, its sexual function outweighs any other. I can still use it as an additional limb, but that would be a last resort in an emergency situation.”
“And the first resort?”
“Your pleasure.” The words were stark, and her eyes flared with desire. “The way it makes you feel is unique to our bond.”
“But it made me feel good before we were bonded.”
I shrugged, wishing I’d paid more attention to those parts of my education. “Maybe it knew.”
“So.” Her smile became wicked. “Does it go in? Not just teases?”
My cock twitched, my tail pulsed, and heat rushed through me. She noticed my reaction and continued, “You think we’re bonded because your tail likes me?”
I shook my head at her skepticism, knowing I was about to blow her remaining hold on her sanity right out of existence. “Sex is what initiates the bonding process,” I said. “But a female taking the male’s cum is what cements it.”
“What?” This time her voice rose.
“Your body has clearly accepted it. You’ve taken on my strength and begun the intertwining of our souls and lives.” Neither of us could change it now, and I didn’t want to.
Hopefully she felt the same way.
“What?” she repeated. She stood up from the sick bay bed and wrapped the sheet around her before going to stand in the corner of the room, as far away from me as possible. “How could you do that to me? How could you not tell me?”
It hadn’t all been me, but I couldn’t tell her that.
“I didn’t want this. You were going to take me home.”
“I can still do that,” I said, but even saying those words made me lightheaded.
“Good.” She nodded and looked at the ground. “Because… Because…I… I don’t want you,” she finally said, but she didn’t look at me.
Her words sent a visceral pain through my chest, but I tightened my jaw and tensed any other muscle that might betray my feelings. I didn’t want her to know how I felt. No Tryonian ever had a mate stay with them out of pity.
But I felt the bond so strongly. I almost couldn’t believe she didn’t share that sense of connection. Still, maybe Tryonian mating didn’t work with humans. In the absence of her feelings, that was the only theory I had to go with.
“I’ve never heard of Tryonians taking human mates,” I said, and I tried to throw in a casual shrug like I didn’t care what happened. “So maybe it doesn’t work between us. Any lingering effects of the sex will probably wear off in a few days.”
She nodded and remained quiet, her gaze firmly trained on the floor. I didn’t say anything either because I was still trying to pack away my feelings of rejection. Tryonians didn’t reject the bond, or at least I’d never heard of it.
Eventually, she looked at me. “Thank you for fixing my arm.”
I nodded. “Of course.” Then I stood. “Now, can I take you to your room?”
“If by room, you actually mean stinky hole, then… uh…” She grinned, and I couldn’t help a small grin back.
I shook my head. “I’d prepared a room for you. The cargo hold was more of an…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “It was an accident. After I left you in the sick bay and then you snuck on the bridge, I panicked.” I stopped talking. She didn’t need to know all that. “I have a proper
room ready.”
“Ooo!” She took a step closer.
“I gestured toward the doorway. “Yeah. It has a bed and blankets, and a shower, and I have food. Everything.” It was probably better than anything she had at home, but I didn’t say that. I just wanted to take care of her. “After helping me fend off those raiders, it’s also the least you deserve.”
I walked with her down the metal corridor until we arrived at her room. The door slid easily open, and she walked inside. I stepped just over the threshold so I could point everything out. After showing her the bed and the dresser, and the door to the bathroom, I stopped. She had eyes and could see all of those things for herself.
Her room had more comfort than mine, but Mom had always kept a room for guests, and it was a habit I couldn’t shake. Plus, I’d planned for my human transportee to be in a good mood for transfer to Satyan.
I’d gotten so much wrong.
“Anyway. Thank you again for helping with the Urdruck raiders. I’m not sure I could have done it without you.”
She laughed. “I’m not sure you would have had to do it at all without me. If I hadn’t been here, neither would they.”
Yeah. I really had gotten everything wrong.
“I have to get back to the bridge.”
She stepped closer and pressed her hand against my forearm, tightening her fingers in a loose hold around it. The softness of her hand sent a shower of sparks through me. And the burning only grew worse when she lifted herself onto her tiptoes and her beautiful, full lips landed against my cheek.
I felt our bond and heated desire deep inside of me, and I glanced at her, worried now that she couldn’t feel it too.
Everything inside me screamed to grab her and kiss her properly, deeply, and show her exactly how I felt. I wanted to take her right then, but I also wanted her to want me to take her. That was important.
“There are clothes in the dresser for you.” I needed her to cover herself properly—no more of these easily discarded sheets that she kept having to rearrange over herself. She eyed me but said nothing.
I tensed my muscles again and stepped away, barely even speaking another word before I stomped down the corridor to the relative safety of my bridge.
15
Piper
I startled awake at a crackle and soft hiss from the corner of the room before Lyx’s voice filled the space.
“Good morning. If you’d like to make your way to the kitchen, your breakfast is about to be ready.” A click followed his words and my room was silent again.
That was a different way to be woken. My stomach grumbled in memory of actual food. That slug I had eaten wouldn’t sustain me for much longer.
The crackle and hiss sounded again and Lyx’s voice was back. “Oh, and it won’t just be water with slugs in it.”
He seemed to add it as an afterthought, but it was almost like he’d read my mind.
I shifted in my blanket on the hard floor and looked up at the bed. It was overly soft, and like nothing I’d ever slept on before. It had felt like my bedding was trying to swallow me. I’d arranged my blankets the way I preferred at home—almost a nest in the corner of the room, but now I cast them aside and stretched.
Morning.
Of course, it never felt like morning. The windows here always showed the same black view of space. But Lyx said it was so, and I’d certainly slept.
I’d also showered, which was a revelation as warm water rained over my body. Nothing we’d been able to build or create back home had matched this seemingly endless stream of warmth that eased the last of my aching muscles. I preferred it to the filthy pools of water back home that I’d managed to convince myself would cleanse my skin, despite the layer of dust and scum that formed a loose seal across the surface in the fort where we camped.
My skin was smooth and soft and clean, but I wasn’t about to spend more time aboard this ship naked than I had to, despite the fact Lyx didn’t seem to know what shirts were.
I stood up and kicked the blankets into the corner. I’d fold them and make them look all pretty later. Lyx had said there were clothes in the drawers, so I opened the top one.
I could see how everything was supposed to fit, so I shrugged on a shirt and pulled on some pants, but it was all too soft and too loose. They weren’t fighting clothes, and I missed my leather, the clothes I wore on Earth. I ripped the sleeves off the shirt and tied it at my waist, leaving a couple of buttons undone at the top so it was more my style.
I sat back on my bed for a moment. Fuck it. I didn’t just miss my Earth clothes. I missed Earth. Irritation that Lyx had bonded to me flared through me. The bastard hadn’t warned me that something like that could happen. I hadn’t given him permission to do it.
Except, maybe on some level, I had.
The connection he’d talked about, the one I denied, it twisted and squirmed inside of me. It made me want to stay with him.
Hell, the need to stay burned inside me, and it grew in intensity with every moment I spent with Lyx. Soon, I wasn’t sure I’d be strong enough to leave. But no, I couldn’t believe that. I had to fight against whatever he was doing.
That damn alien had some kind of mind-manipulation going on, convincing me I needed him. Apparently, he was desperate to get me to his buyer in any way he could.
That meant my original plan would still work. I could use his new deceit to convince him I felt the same, and then I could take control of his ship and get myself home.
I was strong, and I could do this.
But first I had to convince him, and I knew exactly how. I stood and ripped the shirt a little lower, exposing more of the body he seemed to enjoy so much, and I tightened the knot at my waist. Distraction was always a good tactic.
I’d either get home or rip off his cock and balls. That, I promised myself.
I slid open the door to my bedroom and stepped into the corridor. Lyx had been busy while I slept. No evidence of the previous night existed, and all of the raiders and green blood smears were gone. The corridor smelled pretty fresh, too.
Even clean, it looked old and worn out, like Lyx didn’t have the time or energy to spend on upkeep. The first time I had seen it, I’d thought that, but it had been hard to make a proper judgement when I’d just been abducted. Now the rust patches and peeling paint were obvious. Scuff marks adorned the walls the same way some of my people displayed their crafts and homemade images, and some of the things here reminded me of the ruined buildings I used to hunt in, with their doors marked in old letters I didn’t understand.
I didn’t stand and examine the corridor. The smell of food cooking drifted my way and lured me closer to wherever I might be able to eat. I sniffed in appreciation, identifying meat and maybe even eggs. Hopefully slugs didn’t smell like meat and eggs while they were being cooked.
I soon found Lyx, shirt off as usual, standing at some sort of box that made fire so he could cook. A bowl of green fluffy somethings stood on a small table. They smelled like eggs, but they didn’t look like them. Still, whatever they were, I was so hungry it was hard to prevent myself from diving right in, just plunging my head in and leaving my mouth open as I inhaled them.
Lyx glanced at me over his shoulder. “Looks good, right? I sourced some human food before I went to Earth and…found you.”
I withheld my chuckle. He’d made the effort. It didn’t seem right to piss on that by asking who had done his ‘research’. Leaning closer to him, I glanced into his pan. Something purple was in there, but it was spitting and crackling and smelling remarkably like some sort of steak. I wanted that in my mouth no matter what, too.
“Huh. No slugs on the menu this morning?” I couldn’t resist prodding him just a little, even though the green eggs were still singing my name in just about the sweetest voices I’d ever heard.
His shoulders tensed and he turned to face the cooking meat again. “Oh.” For a moment he didn’t speak again. “That was…” He seemed to think about his next words. “I
t was an error in judgement that I’m trying to atone for.” He chuckled, but the sound was a little empty. “Making up for past sins and trying to say thank you for yesterday again.”
My laugh was real as I sat on a seat at the table. “I was totally badass, right?”
He laughed properly as well. “Oh, totally.” He grinned at me and my stomach flopped over, but I clamped down on the sudden rush of affection.
“Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good today. Could do it all over again, actually.” I flexed my arm to show him the muscle definition.
He grinned again but it looked a little forced, like he still thought my strength was a result of his magical alien cum, but thought it wisest not to say. If that was the case, then he truly was wise, because I definitely didn’t want to hear his manipulative theories again.
“Anyway.” He moved the chat along, clearly awkward as he tried to make up for my poor treatment thus far. “Breakfast is served.” He set a plate of the purple steak stuff onto the table and poured me a glass of dark blue juice. Then he slid into the seat opposite me. “I’m serious, Piper. I’m very grateful for all you did yesterday.”
I nodded. “I know.” My pride in myself was doing all the talking.
He touched my hand briefly and sent a sizzle of need up my arm. “I’m serious. I’m more grateful than I can ever put into words. Thanks to you, we took down every single raider. Without your help, they would have killed me and taken you. I couldn’t have protected you on my own. They would have taken my ship, too.” He paused and his eyes gleamed for a moment as he glanced around at the worn interior and blew out a breath. I opened my mouth to ask what had made him so sad because the emotion gripped my heart too, but he plowed on before I could. “But now I’ve actually got their ship.”
I quirked an eyebrow as I shoveled a forkful of ‘eggs’ into my mouth. They tasted incredible. Not quite like eggs, but similar. I didn’t understand the significance of the ship he’d mentioned.
