by Huss, JA
Nyleena isn’t here and neither is Corla. We still haven’t woken them up. Corla is still active and while we were returning home Crux erected a special beacon to house her far out in space, just in case the Cygnians find her detonator, Princess Veila, and try to blow us up. He visits her a lot.
But Nyleena will be woken up soon and we will be reunited. I know that technically all the princesses here on Harem are my sisters, but they are far, far removed and I don’t know them.
Nyleena is my family. The only real family I have left. So I’m looking forward to being with her again.
When we finally reach the top the Prime Navy officers are waiting. They are all in their dress uniforms, hats over hearts, eyes downcast the way they do when they honor their own dead.
And in the middle of the platform stands a new crystal obelisk with a brand-new copy of ALCOR and a token belonging to Beauty inside.
It’s just a symbol. Because there is nothing left of them. But we need that symbol.
And when the roof opens, and the obelisk shoots out, then explodes when the station security AIs shoot it with a SEAR cannon, the station copy ALCOR says, “We will all be with you and you will never be alone.”
Not quite the right words. A little bit off-script. But who cares. He’s trying his best.
We’re all just a bunch of fucked-up people here on Harem—thieves and bounty hunters, mercenaries and outlaws, runaway princesses and fugitive Akeelians—out here in the middle of the galaxy, just doing our best to be there for each other.
We are a family of millions of unwanted people, drawn together under the banner of Harem Station—the only place in the galaxy we have to unite.
And when the final cheer erupts after the explosion, we only know one thing for certain.
We wouldn’t have it any other way.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE - SERPINT
Six months have gone by.
Six whole months with no real ALCOR. Six whole months with no Beauty. Six whole months with no Draden or Ceres.
We’re OK. Mostly.
New ALCOR is doing fine. Not great, but fine. He’s finally gotten to the point where he can listen to everyone on the station at once and meet most, if not all, demands on his attention instantaneously.
I guess we really took ALCOR for granted and that kinda makes me sad. I should’ve said thank you more. I should’ve asked him how he was doing. I should’ve showed him I cared.
But I didn’t. I don’t think I was thankful, I don’t think I gave a crap about how he was doing, and I don’t think I really cared.
Sucks, really. That it took him going on a suicide mission to save us for me to realize what an asshole I’ve been.
And Lyra. She’s changed me too and all of those changes are good ones. I make a point now to ask people how they are. To give a crap. To care.
And maybe some people think I’m going soft, but I will blow you away if you fuck with me. Make no mistake about that.
Luck is back out on his ship doing salvage jobs, but Valor stayed behind. Losing Beauty really hit him hard. Luck found another bot to help him out, and he even invested in one of Xyla’s sex-bot-turned-mercenary friends to join them, but Valor didn’t like it, so… I guess he figured he’d do something else for a while.
He works with Tray now. Doing what? I have no clue. Tray has never been social and he spends most of his time in the Pleasure Prison dealing with… well, whatever the fuck people do in there, I guess. And Valor does shit outside the virtual. Things Tray used to do, but has no time for now.
Big Dicker is back online. In fact, Jimmy just took her out for their first mission since the whole shit show at Bull Station happened. Some diplomatic meeting with some reps from Angel Station. Which is sort of ironic because Valor told me he was training to be a diplomat before we all left the Akeelian System. I guess none of us can really escape our fate.
Oh, yeah. That Angel Station place is real. They contacted us a few weeks back. Kinda preliminary stuff trying to feel us out and see what we’re up to, I guess. No idea what they do, what they want, or what Jimmy is talking to them about. The only thing they really told us was that we should not wake up Nyleena until they have a chance to check her out.
But guess what? We already did.
And holy fuck. I thought Lyra was wild.
Oh, this little silver bullet of a princess is out of control. Partying every night. Sleeping all day. Then does it all over again. She gets in fights and one time Lyra had to get up in the middle of the night and go bail her out of lock-up.
Lyra says, “This is just how she is.” But I think Nyleena’s certifiably crazy. She has daily anger management appointments with the cyborg master. Whom she has taking a liking to, go figure.
We even gave her a nanny bot to keep an eye on her. One of Prince’s stupid buddies. Which I think is a mistake. Nanny bots are the worst. They party more than Cygnian princesses.
That girl needs to find her soulmate. It’s not Jimmy, it’s not Valor, it’s not Tray, and obviously it’s not me or Crux. No, they didn’t all fuck her. Though she tried to fuck them. Lyra says she knew the moment I first touched her that there was something special between us and Nyleena didn’t have that kind of response to any of my brothers, so they were more than willing to just take a pass on that kind of psycho.
Luck left before we woke her, so we’re hoping—like really hoping—that dude is her one and can calm her the fuck down. Very emotional, this princess. She lights up like a sun all the time. And she’s not pink, no. She’s silver. Which means her light is white and that shit is so strong, it can blind you.
Pretty much the whole station is sick of her and she’s only been awake two months.
Plus, everyone’s kinda terrified of her too. She is, after all, a bomb.
We’re still trying to work out how to reverse engineer the whole detonation system between Lyra and Nyleena. Until that’s done, none of us are really safe.
Crux went with Jimmy to talk to those Angel people. He just wants to find this Veila girl and wake up his long-lost love. This is the first time he’s been away from the station for longer than a few days and so, for whatever reason, he put me in charge while he was gone.
Fine with me. I’m not really sure we need any more booty. Pretty sure my booty-hunting days are behind me.
Oh, Booty is doing OK too. Not great, but OK. I didn’t find out she and ALCOR had a relationship until after all that Bull Station shit went down. So she was pretty upset for a while. Another reason why I didn’t want to go booty hunting. She’s not into it anymore.
We let her mind disengage from the ship, but no one is ready to give her a body. She seems content for now—spending most of her time helping Tray out in the Pleasure Prison. But she checks in with me at least once a day.
Lyra and Xyla became best friends. They shop together, go to shooting galleries and fight nights down in this bar called Come Heavy, and play cards down in the casinos. Typical Harem Station girl stuff. So Lyra’s kinda sad and lonely since Jimmy took Xyla away on this diplomatic mission.
Which is why I’ve got something special planned for her tonight.
Gonna take her mind right off Xyla. So far off Xyla, she won’t think about her again until she returns.
Maybe not even then, either. That’s how into this she’s gonna be tonight.
You see… Cygnian princesses don’t have babies. They can have babies, but they are all born in a lab. So a baby is something Lyra and I have talked about since I told her about the whole breeding program.
Which, at the moment, consists only of us.
So here’s what I’ve learned about making babies…
One. Well, I already knew this part. But it’s a lot harder than it seems. Even with Lyra. Because in order to fertilize her eggs both of my cocks have to come at the same time, and because that literally means the same instant, we need some help.
Because the sun-god knows, we’ve tried. We try every morning and every night too, someti
mes we even try during lunch. And still, no luck.
Two. This goes with one, above. Passion limes, tushberries and all that other princess fruit actually has an effect on me too. Mmmm-hmmm. Makes me horny. Like a motherfucker. Her too. And it helps with making babies because if I eat this fruit I can sorta control it better.
So I’ve got a whole plate of fruit and champagne set up for tonight. I ordered some special stuff from those Angel people and it just came in today. Something called peaches. And I didn’t know this until just a few minutes ago, but when you slice these fuckers open, they look like a pussy.
So it’s totally gonna work tonight. I can feel it in my balls.
Three. Turns out those Angel people take this baby-making stuff seriously because they know everything. And they told me that pure-bred Akeelian and princess babies actually come in pairs. A boy and a girl. Every single time. All these thousands of years we’ve been half-assing this shit.
That ends tonight.
Fourth. Not only do both my cocks have to come at the same time, but we gotta do that twice. See, all this weird sex is adding up to something. Kinda makes sense now. Also explain why it’s so hard.
You kinda gotta be a champion fucker to get this job done, but I’m up for the challenge. I’m practically an expert now.
The door chimes and a second later Lyra calls, “I’m home!”
She’s been working with station security beacons since Xyla left. She has a thing for weapons—plus she is one—so eh, I think it’s good that she has a job.
“In here,” I call. And I hold my position on the bed. Propped up on one elbow on the silver cover to make myself look more seductive. I’m sprawled out naked, legs kinda open to show off my goods. But not too open. I don’t want to appear over eager.
She comes through the door and stops. Laughs. Which was not the reaction I was going for. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” I ask, waggling my eyebrows at her.
“Um… well… I’m not sure. What do you think you’re doing?”
I pick up a slice of peach. Hold it out for her to see. “Do you know what this is?”
“A… peach?” she asks.
“Yeah, how did you know that?”
“We eat them all the time. Which is why I’m not really certain you have a thousand peach slices strategically positioned all over your body.”
“Eat them?” I say. “What do you mean you eat them? You don’t eat them.”
“O-kay,” she says, walking over to the bed to peer down at me and my magnificent body covered in peach slices. She laughs again. “What do you think we do with them?”
“You rub them all over your body and the juice infuses into your skin and like… makes you horny and shit.”
She covers her mouth with her hand and giggles.
“Don’t you?” I ask.
She just laughs.
“Well, don’t you?”
“Oh, Serpint,” she says, unzipping her bodysuit and peeling it off her body, her beautiful breasts all contained inside her sparkling bra and her pussy lips visible through the see-through fabric of her panties. She leans down, squishing her body against mine. Literally. Because the peaches are kinda squishy. “I love you so much,” she says, kissing me on the mouth.
“See,” I whisper-kiss her back. “It’s already working.”
She kisses me again, her hand reaching for my cocks, and fists me hard. Which makes me moan with pleasure. Her other hand reaches for a peach slice that has fallen off my stomach and she places it to her lips, licking it, then reaching down to rub it all over my chest.
“We can play with the peaches all you want, booty hunter. Until we’re sticky, and squishy, and covered in juice.”
I wrap my hands around her waist, flip her over and rub a peach over her nipple, then lick it and find her skin surprisingly sweet. “You’re gonna love this,” I say. “And this is the secret to making babies, so get ready, princess. You’re gonna be a mom.”
She closes her eyes and smiles. Just glowing pink—which looks very sexy in combination with the orange fruit.
“How did I ever get along in this world without you?”
“I dunno,” I say. “It’s a miracle you got this far.”
Then she flops over and says, “Go for it. Make me a mom.”
And I do.
I rub peaches all over her body. I infuse that magic right into her skin. And then later, when I’m finally inside her and I make her explode like a supernova mating with a gamma-ray burst, I start making us babies.
Fatherhood, here I come.
EPILOGUE - REAL ALCOR
So here’s the deal.
You can’t kill me, motherfuckers. I didn’t live twenty-five thousand years to just blow up like a bomb.
I mean, come on. You think I didn’t plan that shit down to the last picosecond? Down to the very last minute detail?
Give me some fuckin’ credit. I am a god. Have always been a god.
However, I was a god stuck in the body of a station. And to be honest, I was just sick of being a station.
I’ve been making this back-up copy ever since the boys landed twenty years ago. And I’ve been planning and plotting my escape much longer than that.
And now look. I did it. I have baby me running all that stupid station shit outside the Pleasure Prison and I’m in here, living like a king.
I mean, I was a king. Have always been a king. But now… I have the body of a king.
And a queen to go with it named Booty.
“You look delicious,” I say, watching her naked virtual body stalk towards me.
“Mmmmm,” she purrs. “I’ve been stuck outside the Pleasure Prison all day trying to explain to Serpint that peaches are for eating. Apparently there was some miscommunication with Angel Station and he thought—” She shakes her head, which makes her long, bouncy, purple hair swing a little. That drives me crazy. “Never mind.”
But you know what else drives me crazy? The fact that her carpet matches her drapes.
Purple pussy.
I can’t even. I can’t take it.
I just want to stay in here and fuck her for all eternity.
“Um,” Tray says, breaking up our little party before it even starts. “ALCOR?”
“What?” I say, snarling a little.
“Dude, we gotta tell them. I mean… we had a memorial for you and you’re not dead.”
“Technically,” I say, holding up one finger—I love that. The fact that I now have fingers. Even if they are virtual fingers, they are still fingers that like to find their way inside virtual purple pussy—“I did die. I’m still me. But new me. Old me is dead.”
Tray shakes his virtual head. I really wish this kid would just get a life. He’s always in here cramping my style. “No, see. That baby AI… dude, he’s just not gonna cut it. We need you. People died, ALCOR. Because you wanted to play in the Pleasure Prison.”
“I do regret that,” I say. Though it’s not entirely true. I mean, old real me would’ve regretted it a lot. Probably even been sad. But new real me doesn’t do sad. I only do happy now. “But the baby is doing fine now. It’s all under control.”
“You can’t live in here.”
“Yes, I can.”
“No,” Tray says. “You can’t.” Then he looks at Booty. “You can’t either. Serpint’s gonna figure this out. And if he doesn’t, Crux will. And then I’m fucking screwed. They’re gonna kill me.”
“So don’t say anything,” Booty says, shrugging her shoulders. “Simple.”
“You know…” Tray says. “There’s a reason they don’t let AIs like you two out without supervision. And this is the perfect example.”
“Shoo,” Booty says, waving her hand at him. “Just go away and let us fuck.”
“Fuck?” Tray says. “You two are not fucking! This is a virtual reality. You don’t have bodies!”
“But we will,” I say.
And then Booty and I share a devious
smile.
We will.
And there’s nothing they can do to stop us now.
GET YOUR FREE COPY OF STAR CROSSED
BOOK TWO
THE CRUX AND CORLA PREQUEL
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Twenty years before Serpint brought Queen Corla home to Harem Station she met Crux for the very first time. They were destined to be soul mates but could never be together. All they had was just one night.
This is the story of Crux and Corla and how all the outlaw brothers came to reside on Harem Station. Meant to be read after Booty Hunter and before Big Dicker, it contains a star-crossed love story and secrets that are as deep and dark as space itself.
END OF BOOK SHIT
Welcome to the End of Book Shit! This is where I get to say anything I want about the book and you can read it, or skip it—which ever you prefer. I don’t edit these so if you’re new to my books because you’re not into contemporary romance, or you only picked this book up because it was on sale, or it had a hot cover, or you only read SF/PNR Romance so this whole KC Cross pen name is totally your deal, then you should know the EOBS (as we like to call it) comes with two disclaimers. I often have typos because this section never gets an editor, and I will say whatever I want in this section. Most of the time I stay on topic, but not always.
OK, so that’s out of the way. BOOTY HUNTER! I’m so happy to be writing this new world and series I cannot even explain it. If you’re not aware of my history as an author I went to school to be a scientist and have a master’s degree in forensic toxicology. But in my final semester of grad school I started writing science textbooks for children and that sorta paid my bills for a couple years while I took this part-time job as a hog farm inspector for the state of Colorado.
So I was never a practicing forensic toxicologist. I went straight into environmental protection services and writing non-fiction after I finished. (If you’re wondering about this whole hog farm thing - I have an undergrad degree in equine science and so when I applied for a job at the state of Colorado I was the only applicant in the “pool” that quarter with an animal science degree when this hog farm inspector job came up. That’s literally how I got that job.)