Alien Conquest

by Tracy St. John

  Chap­ter 16

  The clan’s new quar­ters had one round win­dow in the sit­ting area that looked out on the port side of the ship. Cas­sidy stared out at the large num­ber of ves­sels gath­er­ing on their side of the de­fense grid. She rec­og­nized the sleek ob­long ma­chines from schemat­ics she’d seen in her grand­fa­ther’s home: Kalquo­rian de­stroy­ers. No doubt ev­ery one of them had a full com­ple­ment of hun­dreds of sin­gle-man fight­ers. There were also other sup­port ships stay­ing far back. They were the med­i­cal care and sup­ply ves­sels. Also hang­ing in the back­ground were ships that be­longed to the Ga­lac­tic Coun­cil of Plan­ets, which would not par­tic­i­pate in the bat­tle. They were there to keep tabs on both sides to make sure no war crimes were car­ried out by Earth or Kalquor, such as tor­tur­ing pris­on­ers or ig­nor­ing of­fers of sur­ren­der.

  Civ­i­lized war. The thought might have been hi­lar­i­ous if so many weren’t set to die in the com­ing hours.

  The door be­hind Cas­sidy whis­pered opened, and she saw her clan’s re­flec­tion as the three men en­tered. They paused, see­ing that she looked out­side.

  “How bad will it be?” Cas­sidy couldn’t keep the pain from her voice.

  Li­don took a breath be­fore an­swer­ing. “That all de­pends on the amount of re­sis­tance we en­counter.”

  Tra­nis stepped close, but he wisely didn’t touch Cas­sidy. She would have pounded on his al­ready bat­tered body if he had. He said, “The plan is that once the de­stroy­ers go through the por­tal, they’ll take out mil­i­tary in­stal­la­tions right away. Then they’ll en­ter the airspace of ma­jor cities. At that time, they’ll is­sue a threat to Earth’s pop­u­la­tion un­less the gov­ern­ment im­me­di­ately sur­ren­ders to Kalquo­rian au­thor­ity.”

  Li­don was quick to add, “It’s only a threat to force co­op­er­a­tion, Cas­sidy. Our sur­vival de­pends on Earth. We have no in­ten­tion of at­tack­ing civil­ians and wip­ing out our only sal­va­tion.”

  Cas­sidy spit the bit­ter words out. “Peo­ple will die.”

  Tra­nis’ voice was low. “Many on both sides al­ready have.”

  “It was Earth that de­clared war on Kalquor,” Li­don pointed out.

  Cas­sidy swung around to face him. “But it was Kalquor that kid­napped Earther women first. Don’t pre­tend your race is the in­no­cent vic­tim in this con­flict.”

  “We’re not.” Tra­nis’ voice was heavy. De­gorsk and Li­don stepped up to flank him. They looked un­happy too.

  The Dramok went on. “I know you’re an­gry to see your planet about to be at­tacked. You have ev­ery rea­son to be. If there was some way to do this dif­fer­ently, we would. Un­for­tu­nately, Kalquor is out of op­tions.”

  De­gorsk rubbed his brow. “We don’t want to see you hurt, sweet­ling. This is tor­ture for us.”

  Cas­sidy didn’t doubt his words. Li­don’s hands were fisted at his sides, and she knew for the war­rior to show such ob­vi­ous emo­tion, he was in­deed up­set. Tra­nis was as pale as his dark skin al­lowed, and De­gorsk blinked over­bright eyes.

  They love me, and it’s rip­ping them up in­side to be a part of this. Still, the pain won’t keep them from hand­ing over my peo­ple to Kalquor.

  Some­how it made their sit­u­a­tion worse. Cas­sidy bat­tled hot tears and lost. They flowed down her cheeks, and it was sev­eral mo­ments be­fore she could ask her next ques­tion.

  “What hap­pens if you win?”

  Tra­nis looked over her shoul­der at the de­stroy­ers. “Oc­cu­pa­tion. Dis­man­tling Earth’s mil­i­tary un­til a gov­ern­ment more in line with our wishes is es­tab­lished.”

  “And cart­ing off Earther women to Kalquor?”

  De­gorsk was able to meet her eyes on that one. “Only vol­un­teers, at least at the out­set. Our Em­press is adamant the women who come to Kalquor do so will­ingly.”

  Cas­sidy stared at him. “I wasn’t will­ing, not at first.”

  Tra­nis looked ill. “The women we’ve cap­tured are con­sid­ered spoils of war, to be kept as Kalquor sees fit. Once the fight­ing ends, the rest of the Earther fe­males must join us of their own ac­cord. The sit­u­a­tion will be re-eval­u­ated by the Im­pe­rial Clan and the Royal Coun­cil in five years, but at this time we can­not force women to leave Earth and clan with our men.”

  Li­don nod­ded. “Em­press Jes­sica fought hard with the coun­cil for that con­ces­sion.”

  Sur­prise shut down Cas­sidy’s tears. “But she’s just a slave for breed­ing heirs to the throne, isn’t she?”

  It was the men’s turn to look star­tled. De­gorsk an­swered, “Our Em­press is ev­ery bit as es­teemed as the em­per­ors. She is no slave. We serve her just as gladly as the male mem­bers of the Im­pe­rial Clan.”

  “Even though she’s an Earther? Even though she’s a fe­male?” Cas­sidy gaped at them.

  Tra­nis chuck­led, fi­nally man­ag­ing to find hu­mor in the sit­u­a­tion. “Em­press Jes­sica is prob­a­bly the most re­spected mem­ber of the Im­pe­rial Clan, and the most in­tim­i­dat­ing. I’d hate to be the man who tries to rule her.”

  De­gorsk fi­nally touched Cas­sidy, his fin­gers whis­per­ing trails through her hair. “Women are revered for their strength and in­tel­li­gence on Kalquor. You will learn that we don’t want to en­slave your peo­ple, not when there are Earth­ers like our em­press. Like you.”

  If they spoke the truth, Kalquor’s suc­cess­ful in­va­sion of Earth would give women op­por­tu­ni­ties they hadn’t re­al­ized in decades. Cas­sidy’s in­ner tur­moil ratch­eted up an­other notch when she re­al­ized the clan had no rea­son to lie to her about the out­come of the Kalquo­rian takeover. She was theirs, af­ter all, a spoil of war.

  She met Tra­nis’ gaze. “You swear Kalquor will do all it can to treat my peo­ple hu­manely?”

  “You have my word Cas­sidy, as a mil­i­tary leader and as your Dramok.”

  “It would be so much eas­ier if I could hate you,” she whis­pered. It was the clos­est she’d come to ad­mit­ting the love she felt for her cap­tors.

  “I’m glad you don’t.” Tra­nis pulled her close so he could kiss her. She fell against him, want­ing noth­ing more but to for­get the op­pos­ing forces pulling at her loy­alty.

  The hands strip­ping Cas­sidy of her un­der­dress and the mouths tast­ing her bared skin helped her do that. She didn’t know they’d taken her to the bed­room un­til she was low­ered to the small bed.

  The men’s form­suits were gone in a twin­kling, and their skin was hot to the touch. Cas­sidy glowed in their warmth, in the rough laps of their tongues. They sa­vored her as if she were the most de­lec­ta­ble of morsels to de­light their palates. She arched and sighed as they found the most sen­si­tive places to taste. She clutched the backs of their heads, press­ing them close, en­cour­ag­ing them to take all she had to of­fer.

  Each sam­pled the sweet cream that flowed from be­tween her thighs, their moans of plea­sure as pro­found as hers. She writhed against the soft­ness of the sheets, ev­ery lan­guorous lick set­ting off lit­tle ex­plo­sions of de­light. At last she could take no more of the mag­nif­i­cent tor­ture.

  “Tra­nis,” she whis­pered.

  He looked up, his eyes so very, very drown­ing dark. “Yes, my love?”

  “I want you in­side me. I want you now.”

  Li­don and De­gorsk fell back. In an in­stant, Tra­nis’ great bulk cov­ered her, and Cas­sidy opened her­self wide to take him in. He slid in­side eas­ily, and she cried out with wel­come.

  Tra­nis rose to kneel on the bed, bring­ing her up with him. One hand cra­dled the back of her head, tilt­ing her face so he could smash his lips to hers. The other cupped her but­tocks, sup­port­ing her while he thrust deep in­side. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, ris­ing and fall­ing upon his staffs. She fel
t she claimed what was hers even as she gave her­self up to him.

  They moved to­gether, in­stinc­tively know­ing the chore­og­ra­phy of life’s most an­cient dance and per­form­ing each step with pre­ci­sion. Over and over Tra­nis filled her, and Cas­sidy clutched at him with in­ner mus­cles, draw­ing him deep into her well. The darts of bliss grew to spears of ec­stasy, and she bit his lips as light suf­fused her be­ing.

  Tra­nis bore her back down to the bed, spasms wrack­ing his hips as he ground against her. She clawed at him, fur­row­ing his shoul­ders with fe­ro­cious glee, mark­ing him as her own. With a stran­gled cry, he sur­ren­dered his seed to her. She glo­ried in ev­ery throb of his flesh within her own, in her mas­tery of the brute who’d dared to try en­slav­ing her.

  Cas­sidy al­lowed him a mo­ment to col­lect him­self be­fore shov­ing against his chest. When he moved away, she held her hand out to the wide-eyed Imdiko. “De­gorsk.”

  He bowed his head and came to her. The Imdiko’s grace­ful move­ments as he crawled onto the bed made his mus­cles rip­ple be­neath his skin. The way they did so made Cas­sidy catch her breath. She rose to greet his ad­vance, her hands and mouth greedy to sam­ple the plea­sure of his body. Her teeth scraped his skin as she feasted on his neck, his shoul­ders, and his chest.

  “Matara,” De­gorsk groaned, his voice lost in won­der. His hands tan­gled in her hair, rais­ing the tresses to his face and in­hal­ing. She re­warded his wor­ship by lick­ing a stiff nip­ple, to which he arched and groaned again. Cas­sidy licked and nib­bled her way up to his lips. Cap­tur­ing his face be­tween her hands, she plunged her tongue deep into his mouth, tak­ing the ori­fice as de­mand­ingly as he had taken her sex so many times. He sub­mit­ted, let­ting her have all she wished.

  “Mine,” she de­clared.

  “Yours,” he hoarsely agreed. His lips parted in ac­qui­es­cence when she de­manded an­other taste.

  De­gorsk obeyed her silent com­mand when she pushed against his chest, al­low­ing her to roll him onto his back. She crawled over the mag­nif­i­cent be­he­moth, her body chart­ing the mus­cled ter­rain as she com­mit­ted ev­ery swell and dip to mem­ory. No part of the stun­ning physique went un­re­marked: his thighs, the dou­ble row of mus­cles of his ab­domen, and the width of his chest were cat­a­logued.

  “Mine,” Cas­sidy whis­pered. She low­ered her­self over him, fill­ing her sex with her prize. De­gorsk’s neck corded with ten­sion as she slowly took him over, his fists grip­ping the bed­ding.

  When she’d en­veloped all of his of­fer­ing, Cas­sidy sat still for a mo­ment, rel­ish­ing the pos­ses­sion. Her fin­ger­tips traced the con­tours of his torso as she soaked in the sen­sa­tion of ab­sorb­ing the dou­ble thick­nesses of the Kalquo­rian male. Seated deep in­side, De­gorsk awaited her com­mand, to be re­lieved of his need or de­nied.

  She leaned for­ward to cap­ture his mouth with hers, slowly re­leas­ing his shafts from their sweet im­pris­on­ment. Just as they came close to free­dom, she en­snared them once more, trap­ping them in tight cages of clutch­ing flesh.

  Cas­sidy propped her­self over De­gorsk, her hands splayed on ei­ther side of his head. She closed her eyes to feel him bet­ter as she slipped back and forth over him. She took him slowly at first, the bet­ter to feel ev­ery frac­tion of his lengths as they dove deep into her core.

  His hands cov­ered her breasts, and she moaned to feel the heat of his touch. Her nether re­gions clenched, and he groaned in an­swer. Still, he dared not move ex­cept to knead her soft mounds with trem­bling hands. He was hers to do with as she wished, yoked to her de­sire. His own wants were sub­servient to hers, and he would de­mand noth­ing.

  Cas­sidy, how­ever, was free to ex­act any plea­sure she wanted from her de­voted ser­vant. As the slow fric­tion built a moun­tain of need, she drove faster against De­gorsk. She rammed him deep in­side. She in­sisted he re­lieve the rav­en­ous hunger that could only be sated for a short time be­fore ris­ing to be fed again. She panted through parted lips, the ex­er­tion and grow­ing ex­al­ta­tion quick­en­ing her breath and heart­beat to match the pound­ing rhythm of her hips.

  “Oh,” Cas­sidy gasped as the or­gasm sent its first flick­er­ing warmth through her. “Oh. Oh, oh, oooooh…”

  De­gorsk arched be­neath her, his hips ris­ing to press him even deeper in­side. She felt his larger or­gan flex hard, and his groans joined hers.

  She fell to lie on against his chest, rid­ing the swells of his gasps as the spasms slowly left her. She pressed a soft kiss to his lips be­fore pulling free of him. “Mine,” she whis­pered one last time.

  De­gorsk’s smile made her pulse quicken again. “Al­ways.”

  Cas­sidy stood to con­front Li­don. The Nobek’s fangs had de­scended in his lust. The feral look in his eyes fed her ap­petite as if she hadn’t al­ready been well sat­is­fied twice be­fore. She ap­proached him as a cau­tious huntress might ap­proach dan­ger­ous prey.

  “My beau­ti­ful war­rior-philoso­pher,” she breathed. “What de­lights do you of­fer me?”

  Li­don’s smile only en­hanced the men­ace in his ex­pres­sion. “I’m afraid af­ter watch­ing you give your­self so ar­dently to our clan­mates, my con­trol is want­ing.”

  “I have no wish for your con­trol, Nobek. Re­straint is the last thing I de­sire.”

  Sud­denly she was pinned against the wall, Li­don growl­ing as he crushed against her. His sexes were like bat­ter­ing rams as they breached her nether re­gions. Cas­sidy screamed in re­sponse to the sud­den tak­ing but, far from fear, her cry was one of tri­umphant con­quest.

  They went at each other like two an­i­mals in­tent not just on rut­ting but de­vour­ing as well. Li­don’s jaws snapped in the air only inches from her cheek, and Cas­sidy slowly re­al­ized both Tra­nis and De­gorsk were hold­ing him back with fist­fuls of hair. The Nobek’s hands gripped her but­tocks with force. She knew she’d be badly bruised, both in­side and out as he took her with in­cred­i­ble strength.

  For her part, Cas­sidy sank her teeth in Li­don’s shoul­ders and neck, her fin­ger­nails scor­ing ev­ery inch she came in con­tact with. She tore at him, rav­aging the brute ham­mer­ing against her with­out mercy. She tasted his blood and wanted more. Cas­sidy was as wild as a drunken mae­nad, and she rev­eled in the brutish need to con­quer the un­con­quer­able.

  Cli­max burst over her in de­li­cious agony, and she shrieked her vic­tory to the very heav­ens. Li­don man­aged two more vi­cious stab­bing thrusts be­fore his roar joined the bed­lam. Mo­ments later, he col­lapsed be­neath her, the at­tend­ing Tra­nis and De­gorsk barely able to catch them be­fore they hit the floor.

  “You’d bet­ter grab your kit,” Tra­nis in­formed the medic as they care­fully sep­a­rated the gasp­ing pair. “There’s no way he didn’t do dam­age.”

  “She dealt out a fair share as well,” De­gorsk laughed, but he lost no time in snag­ging the por­ta­ble med­i­cal case he kept nearby.

  Tra­nis placed Cas­sidy on the bed then stood back as De­gorsk rubbed cool cream into her aching parts. The grow­ing agony abated al­most im­me­di­ately, and she sighed. “All bet­ter,” she said.

  “Not quite,” the Imdiko snorted. “That just dulled the pain. Hold still while I do the re­pair work.”

  De­gorsk in­serted a cylin­dri­cal tube into Cas­sidy’s sex. Warmth suf­fused her pas­sage, and she closed her eyes at the sooth­ing sen­sa­tion. She rested qui­etly, all the strength sapped from her body. Had that re­ally been her rut­ting wild with de­sire; in­no­cent, chaste Cas­sidy? What had come over her?

  Why am I so sur­prised? Af­ter years of ter­ror and sub­ju­ga­tion to men like my grand­fa­ther, why wouldn’t I seize the op­por­tu­nity to take some mea­sure of con­trol, even if it was only pre­tend?

  De­gorsk’s in­stru­ment slid out o
f her sheath, only to be re-in­serted in her anal chan­nel. Fin­gers brushed her cheek, and she opened her eyes to see Tra­nis smil­ing down on her.

  “It felt good to claim your right to plea­sure, didn’t it? And to un­load some of that pent-up ag­gres­sion?”

  He un­der­stood. Tears over­flowed Cas­sidy’s eyes. “Thank you.”

  Tra­nis kissed her. She gen­tly traced the shal­low scratches she’d left on his shoul­ders.

  De­gorsk pulled the tube free and pat­ted her thigh. “Now you’re all bet­ter. Try not to lose con­trol with Li­don with­out me nearby, okay? Even with his level of re­straint, a Nobek has lim­ited com­mand over his in­stincts when vi­o­lently aroused.”

  Cas­sidy looked at Li­don where he sat on the floor, propped up against the wall. She gasped to see the bloody ovals her teeth had left, the jagged cuts from her nails. “Oh no,” she said.

  The Nobek grinned at her. “Take out your ag­gres­sion on me any­time, my pet. That was the best sex I’ve ever had.” Li­don growled at De­gorsk when he ap­proached. “Not one mark of honor gets healed. These are mine.”

  De­gorsk rolled his eyes. “Nobeks.” He put his kit away with a smile.

  “Like you don’t carry enough scars.” Cas­sidy was amused at the pride in Li­don’s face as he ex­am­ined the dam­age she’d done.

  “These won’t scar, un­for­tu­nately. You’ll have to give me fresh wounds from time to time.” He leered.

  “Are we all right, Cas­sidy?” Tra­nis asked. Now that the hor­mones had been quelled, he looked wor­ried again.

  She stud­ied him, know­ing what he asked had noth­ing to do with her health. “Ev­ery­thing is in mo­tion now. Noth­ing I can do will stop it. I’m try­ing to come to terms with that. You’ll have to un­der­stand if I don’t al­ways feel ac­cept­ing of the sit­u­a­tion.”

  “Of course. Know we’ll do our best to make it right for you.” Sor­row re­turned to Tra­nis’ ex­pres­sion, the tor­ment in his eyes some­how adding to his beauty.

  “With you, I have life. On Earth, there is only death for me.” Cas­sidy smoothed her palm over his face, wish­ing she could erase their com­bined pain. Her chuckle was rue­ful. “The hard­est thing to rec­on­cile is that I trust my sup­posed en­emy more than my own peo­ple.”