by Lynnea Lee
The door to his room opened, and he turned to see Emma walk in, a plate in one hand and a glass of nuri leaf tea in the other. She put the food down on the desk.
“I went back to the medical bay, but you’d already left. Sidas said you’d be hungry.”
He was. He was famished. Cal sat down and pulled Emma into his lap. He kept one arm wrapped around her middle.
“Did you eat?”
“Yes. This is for you.”
“I see Arus is getting creative with his pies again.”
“It’s pizza. It’s an Earth comfort food. I think he nailed it considering the missing ingredients. No tomato sauce, but I love this cheese even better than mozzarella.”
Cal picked up a triangular wedge. It smelled delicious, and his stomach sounded a noisy complaint at being empty. He didn’t get the chance to savor the food. He was too hungry, and after his first bite, he wolfed the rest down. He finished the slightly bitter, light pink tea in a few large gulps. He swished the last mouthful around before swallowing. Emma gawked at him as he put the empty glass onto the desk.
“Wow! Sidas wasn’t kidding about you being hungry when you woke. Did you even chew?”
“The med bed works wonders, but it leaves you ravenous.”
“Do you want more? I can grab you more food.”
It filled Calix with joy that Emma cared so much about him. She was a good mate, and Cal intended to make sure he did his part too. Cal was still hungry, but food could wait. There was another hunger he wanted to sate.
“I’m still hungry, but not for food.” He sent her a knowing grin, and she blushed, tucking her chin. The scent of her arousal drifted up to tease at his nose. Cal stood, lifting Emma with him.
“Stop, Cal! You are injured. Don’t lift me. I’m heavy.”
“Heavy? Don’t be silly. Look how small you are compared to me.” Emma was positively tiny compared to his large frame, and he lifted her easily, even while weak from his injury.
He carried her the few feet to their bed and laid her out on the sheets. Beautiful.
“You belong in my bed, my mate.” He crawled over her body, trapping her in the steel cage of his muscles. Cal buried his face into her neck and inhaled. His eyes rolled to the back of his head. His mate smelled delicious.
Emma parted her sweet lips, and Cal captured her mouth with his. He ran his hand through her hair. Her golden locks fanned out across the sheets, reminding him of warm summer days.
He trailed a hand up her thigh, feeling the silkiness of her skin. Humans were so soft, so tender. He buried his face into the side of her neck again. Cal would never get bored of this position now that Emma smelled like his. Her skin tasted creamy and sweet, and as he left kisses down to her collar bone, she shuddered at his touch.
His hardness pressed against his pants, demanding to be freed. Not yet. Soon.
“I’m going to taste you. I’m going to eat you up until you are screaming my name.” He smirked at her, showing his fangs. “Do you want me to?”
Her eyes widened, and her pupils dilated as she bit down on her bottom lip. She nodded.
“I can’t hear you.”
“Yes.” The word came out a small squeak as if Emma were his prey, and he was about to devour her whole.
“Yes, what, Emma? What do you want me to do?”
She bit her lip.
“Tell me you want me to taste you,” Cal prompted.
Her lust blossomed again, and she replied, her voice still barely above a squeak. “Yes, Cal. Please taste me. I want you to taste me.”
“Good girl. I’m going to taste my delicious mate.”
He pushed her legs apart as he trailed little bites and nibbles along her skin, starting at her knees. He inched higher and higher, each nibble teasing closer to her center. She whimpered with need, and her breathing hitched as she anticipated his next actions.
Emma’s legs closed instinctively when Cal pulled off the thin scrap of fabric covering her, and he wedged his shoulder between her knees to keep her legs apart. His cock, now rock hard, jerked against the front of his pants again. It wanted to drive into her hard.
“So beautiful.”
He leaned in and took the little pink bud between his lips and tugged on it. Emma gasped, and her breathing became shallow. Encouraged by her reaction, Cal brushed the tip of his tongue over her folds. She started to buck her hips, so he held her down and circled her clit with his tongue. Her body squirmed, and she whimpered as she grew wetter and wetter.
Moving his thumb to continue his onslaught on her clit, he thrust his tongue into her channel. Her low moan encouraged him to fuck her with his tongue. Needy fingers threaded through his hair, clutching at him. As her fingers tightened, she let loose a thin scream as she pulsed around his tongue.
Emma’s heart pounded in her ears as she laid limp and panting from her release, but Cal was not done with her yet. He crawled back up to enclose her with the hardness of his body. He braced himself on one forearm and ran the other hand over her curves as if trying to memorize her shape. She closed her eyes as rough palms caressed the swells of her breasts and the dip of her waist. His cock pressed against her belly, hot and hard.
“I’m going to fuck you now, my sweet.” He nudged her legs wider with his knees and lined the swollen head of his cock to her slit. “You are going to take me, every inch, until you are crying my name.”
Emma whimpered, his words making her impatient. She wanted him so badly it felt she would die if he didn’t take her now.
Cal moved slowly, filling her, stretching her. She rocked her hips, urging him to go faster. But he held her hips still and continued to fill her slowly. He reached the end of her channel and pulled out, agonizingly slow.
Frustrated, Emma bucked, trying to force him to move faster. Cal laughed, holding her still.
“Eager, my sweet?”
“Please,” she begged. Why was he making her wait? She needed him now.
“But I enjoy taking it slow and watching you writhe and beg. It makes it better when I finally fuck you hard. Is that what you want, my sweet? Do you want me to fuck you hard?”
Holy crap! Cal had such a dirty mouth, and Emma loved it. “Yes! That’s what I want.”
Then he pushed in, hard and deep. He set a punishing pace, rocking into her. His massive cock cleaving her in half. Emma screamed as stars exploded in her vision.
“Is this what you wanted, my sweet? Tell me.”
“Yes!” She screamed hard as he fucked her. “Oh, yes!”
Tendrils of ecstasy teased at her body, and her muscles tightened. He continued pounding into her, the movement so hard that she felt like a rag doll being tossed around. She threw her head back, and her mouth opened in a silent cry as he pumped into her body. Overwhelming pleasure shot through her, tingling into every finger and toe. Her vision blurred, and all she could feel was him, them.
Locked together, she pulsed around his cock as his hot seed spurted into her channel, both of them shaking from their orgasm.
As the world recollected around them, Cal rolled to lie next to Emma, pulling her back to his chest.
“You are mine, my sweet.”
“Mmm,” she agreed. She didn’t have words yet.
Cal buried his face into her hair. Emma closed her eyes, suddenly both extremely satisfied and extremely tired. And she fell asleep, wrapped up safe and warm in her mate’s arms.
Chapter 20
Flushing the tepin’s water trough one last time, Emma nodded at the clean, spotless enclosure. Nothing felt better than a job well done. The chubby tepin closest to her made a beating sound in her chest and pooped all over the new, pristine bedding.
Oh well. It was bound to happen with six little poop machines in the pen. Luckily the tepins were mild smelling, and Emma only cleaned because it was unsightly, not because of the stink. With the Tallean’s strong sense of smell, it made sense that they would domesticate animals that would
not bother them.
The bedding went into a processing unit. Emma didn’t fully understand how it worked, but the processing unit churned out clean bedding and a nutritional additive for the plants on the other side of the room.
The plants were doing well, and the first of the tomato seedlings were emerging, their seed leaves reaching eagerly up to the light. Getting their hands on tomatoes ended up being much easier than she first thought. Some of the popular garden plants from Earth were already for sale in seed form at food lab depots. Things like tomatoes, peppers, and leafy herbs like basil produced exceptionally in shipboard food production labs and had garnered a large number of alien fans.
Emma picked up the small bowl of eggs she had collected. Every day the tepins laid four or five eggs collectively. Their shells were mottled green and tan. Each tepin produced a recognizable pattern on her eggs, and Emma could match each bird up with the eggs laid. Today, Ms. Kitty Fantastico didn’t lay, so there were only four eggs.
Despite Cal warning her not to name her food, Emma had named each and every bird. Couch Potato was a big, lazy one that never moved unless it was for food. Pickle laid mostly pickle green eggs; they had a barely noticeable tan splotch at the bottom. Puff Daddy was a female that puffed her chest out a lot and tried to intimidate the other ladies. But they often ignored her displays. Jailbreak was found twice running around the food production lab, and once hanging upside down, her foot stuck on the latch of the door. And lastly, Big Mo was the male. He was, ironically, the smallest bird.
Emma didn’t know if she would be able to eat them when the time came. But for now, they were great layers, providing a dozen eggs every few days for the ship. The eggs were substantial, about the size of a duck’s egg. But still, it wasn’t a whole lot of food, especially since there were now thirteen crew members, Emma included. But the enclosure the tepins were in was only one of ten such enclosures lining the wall, with two columns of five enclosures stacked floor to ceiling.
Maybe they could fill a few more pens. It was simple and cheap to care for tepins, and they more than paid for themselves after a few weeks of eggs.
Emma walked over to the hydroponics section with her basket of eggs. She held each egg up to the bright grow light. Three of the four eggs were fertilized. Big Mo had been a busy boy! The fertilized eggs went into the incubator with the two from yesterday. They would have two pens of tepins soon if things go according to plan.
Emma headed back to the tepin enclosure, reached in, and picked up Ms. Kitty Fantastico, cuddling the fat bird to her chest.
“Hello, Ms. Kitty. No egg today? That’s okay.”
The calico colored bird peeped at her and snuggled in closer, enjoying the body heat.
“You aren’t supposed to hug your food, or talk to them, for that matter.”
Strong arms came from behind and enveloped her in a hug. As Ms. Kitty Fantastico had done with her, Emma snuggled back into Cal’s warmth. Ms. Kitty made a shrill complaint, and Emma put her back into her home. While the tepins didn’t mind Emma picking them up, and sometimes they even seemed to enjoy the attention, they always acted flighty when Calix or Arus came by. Their prey instincts were probably correct. The two Talleans thought of them as nothing but food.
“Arus wanted to see us in their lab. Apparently—” He narrowed his eyes at her. “Someone has volunteered herself as a test subject for his experiments. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about?”
Oops. The other night they had had a conversation about the possibility of having children, and Cal had admitted that he had always imagined finding a mate and having offspring. Of course, they weren’t sure it was possible between the two species, but Arus and Kean wouldn’t take the job if they thought it was hopeless.
Emma had sought Mia out this morning, and together they had hounded Arus until he had given in and added their names on the list of volunteers for the first trial.
“If the risks are high, then why are you okay with testing on other women?” Mia had asked with her hands on her hips. “Are you putting them at risk?”
“No! The process is not harmful. The only risk is losing the baby or being unable to conceive. I don’t want you to have to go through that. The failures were difficult for Gallus’s mate. She cried a lot. I don’t want you to experience that.”
“Sometimes, it’s like that on Earth too. But I’m willing to give it a try. I’m not young. I’m almost thirty-five. On Earth, doctors recommend having your first child before thirty-five. Please, Arus. Please let me have a chance before it’s too late.”
Arus’s face had softened then, and he had pulled Mia in and nuzzled her neck.
“We will try, but if we fail more than once and the process is hard on you, I’m pulling you from the study. I want offspring, but not at the expense of my mate.” Then Arus had turned to Emma.
But before he could speak, Emma had replied, “I was in a breeding facility once. I have had many failed attempts, for which I was happy about. I want a success now that I could celebrate. Cal wants offspring, and so do I, I’ve already talked with him.”
“But he does not know you are asking to be part of the trial.”
“No,” she’d had to admit.
“I will talk to him when he’s done his shift.”
“Let’s do it, Cal!”
Cal wasn’t sure about letting Emma volunteer herself as a subject in one of Arus’s experiments, though the idea of her swollen with his seed drove him wild.
“Come on! You said it yourself, you want to start a family, and so do I.”
Emma was his everything, and he wanted it all with her. This included children, a family. Cal just wasn’t sure he wanted her to join the first batch to test the process. Even though Arus was directing the experiment, he hadn’t wanted Mia to join at first either. But Mia wouldn’t drop the subject, and eventually, Arus had conceded, swearing he would do everything he could to make sure the experiment was perfectly safe.
Cal was still skeptical, but one look into Emma’s eyes, and he knew that he would never be able to say no to her for anything. She would have all she wanted if it were up to him.
“Alright, we can join the trial. But if the experiment harms you in any way, physically or emotionally, I’m pulling you out of it immediately. You are my mate, and I can’t risk your safety.”
Emma leaped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck and planting kisses all over his face.
“Thank you, thank you!”
Arus had explained to them what would happen. Emma would be given a round of fertility enhancements. She would also be put on an ideal meal plan to make sure her body would be at its optimum health. Her cycles would be finely monitored, and Cal would have three months to fertilize her egg the old-fashioned way. After three months, they would try invitro fertilization.
There were two groups in the primary trial. The first group consisted of couples like themselves, where the Tallean male had developed a mating bond with their humans. The second, smaller group, were couples who were together in partnerships of convenience. Both groups would be given medication to help the mother’s body accept the embryo during the first few vital weeks.
Gallus, the rich merchant backing the study who had tried to dose his own mate with fertility enhancers, agreed after much convincing to allow Kean and Arus to look at his mate. They found several cysts on her ovaries, preventing her from staying pregnant. With the cysts removed, the couple was excited to try to conceive again. But Gallus and his mate were proof that the road ahead may not be completely smooth.
Cal needed Emma to understand that even if they failed to bring life into the galaxy, Cal still loved her more than the Stars themselves. She was already more than he had ever hoped to find.
He held Emma in front of him, getting lost in her gorgeous grey eyes.
“I know that you want offspring. And I want them as well. But understand that even if we cannot, I will be happy. I want children with you.
But I don’t need them. The only thing I need in the universe is already in my arms.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Cal recognized them as happy tears. He pulled her to his chest and held her there. He had looked all over the galaxy for his mate, and here she was in his arms. He felt like the luckiest male in the universe.
“I’m so glad you stole me!”
“No, my sweet. You were mine to begin with. I just hadn’t found you yet. I didn’t steal you, I claimed you!”
And Cal knew that he was home.
Epilogue
Emma dangled her legs off the Grand Canyon again as she waited for Calix to join her in the training simulator. She kicked her feet nervously. Today was a big day, and she’d worked hard to get it all set up.
Earlier, she had made sandwiches, or at least what passed as Earth-Tallean fusion versions of sandwiches, and packed an Earth-style picnic. Everything was spread out on a red and white checkered picnic blanket that she had gotten programmed into the simulator. Next to the picnic was a mattress piled high with pillows, blankets, and even a fur throw.
Cal walked in from a freestanding door at the edge of the cliff, and Emma got up to greet him.
“I thought it’s about time we had another date night in here.”
He looked around at the scene. “You went through a lot of effort to put this together.” His eye landed on the bottle of Rhean spirits. She had traded for it by growing some of Arus’s favorite herbs. He had assured her that it was Cal’s preferred drink. Apparently, everyone knew Cal had been stealing from Vore’s stash. “A lot of effort.”
“I did. But it’s worth it.” Emma sat on the picnic blanket and patted the ground next to her. “Come eat.”
The ate as the sun set. Cal enjoyed his Rhean spirits, and Emma washed her food down with nuri leaf tea. She’d developed an acquired taste for the bitter beverage, especially when it was served ice cold as it was now.