“Not a bad act, was it, Razar? Contrite and everything. Shit, even I was impressed.” Varon taunted.
Razar’s expression turned to granite, his gaze hard and cold, but he didn’t move an inch. “Varon, just let her go. Put the gun down.”
“Not likely. Drop yours and maybe I’ll consider it.”
“Don’t do it, Razar,” I said. “He’ll just kill us both.”
“Maybe,” Varon laughed. “I suppose that’s a chance you may just want to take. Because if you don’t drop it—” the gun shoved even harder against my head, making his point.
“Alright!” Razar put his hands out, and let the gun drop to the carpet. I went cold. Just when we might finally have been together, we were losing.
“Get rid of that knife of yours, too. I’ve seen what you can do with it.”
With predatory slowness, Razar pulled the knife out of his belt and let it fall. All I wanted to do was tell him not to, but if the places were reversed, I would have done anything Varon had asked to keep my love alive. But he watched Varon unblinkingly, like a snake waiting for its split-second chance to strike, and I deliberately relaxed, emptying my mind of anxiety while I waited for an opportunity. Varon was a fool.
“There,” Razar said, voice pleasant. “I’ve done what you asked. Will you please let her go?”
That awful, cackling laugh broke out again, Varon’s hot breath was on my ear.
“No. No, Razar, I don’t think so.” The pistol against my head cocked. “If I’m going to lose everything I have, then why shouldn’t you?”
Razar
“You wouldn’t do that, Varon,” I told him, very gently. “It wouldn’t be in your best interest.”
“Watch me,” Varon hissed. “You ready, my pet?”
He actually thought I was going to stand there and watch her die. We had both fought too hard for it to end like this, and there was no way this little pissant would ever get the drop on me. If I tackled them both, she might come away with a few bruises, but we would survive. That was what would count in the end.
Alicia met my gaze, her eyes serene, and my legs tensed, my spine coiling up for the attack, when Varon suddenly let out a scream. I froze in place. His battered head leaned back, and the pistol wavered away from her temple. What was happening?
Then I saw it. Alicia was digging her fingers into the pulp of his broken hand with everything she had. With her other hand, she scooped upward and grabbed the pistol hard, twisting it up into the air.
Varon managed to pull the trigger just after the gun cleared the top of her head, firing a shot through the wall and into the next cabin. It was a near miss, but she had managed it. Just as I was gearing up to step in and pull her free, Alicia surged into action again, two steps ahead of me. Spinning out of his grip, she ripped the pistol away from him and slammed the butt hard into his temple.
With an awful yelp, Varon withered to the floor. I was ready to catch Alicia, to scoop her into my arms and hold her as tight as I could. But she wasn’t done. Not by a long shot.
Rearing back with a dancer’s grace, she landed a savage kick right at the base of Varon’s spine. He let out a throaty wail, and she followed up with another. Then, bending low, she snatched the front of his shirt and set to pistol-whipping him like something you might see in a movie.
I was stunned. She had every right to indulge the outrage blistering inside her, but I would never have believed that her compact frame could contain so much hunger for revenge. Whatever teeth Varon had left after my thrashing were now scattered across the carpet by the foot of the bed.
She was breathing hard when she stood up, looking down at the mangled, bloody heap at her feet. Just as I was about to step forward, she launched another set of brutal kicks, spitting words at him—each one painfully punctuated.
“Don’t kick You kick EVER kick Call kick Me kick Your kick Pet KICK!”
I winced. Yeah . . . like I’d known, getting Varon alone in a room with Alicia hadn’t ended well for him. That done, she gathered herself into a cool, collected posture and leveled the pistol directly at the bloody mess of Varon’s face.
“Hang on,” I said, gently guiding the pistol away from its target. “We need him alive.”
“Razar,” her eyes were ablaze, “I need to see him dead.”
“Trust me, love. With everything he’s about to go through, death would be a relief.” She didn’t look happy about it, but she let her arm fall and the gun released into my hand. Even as she melted into my arms, I made a careful note never to cross this little spitfire. “Uh . . . I’m on your good side, right?” She gave me a look, then smirked. I mean, that thing about breaking his hand? That was strong stuff.
“Can we get an all-clear down there?” Yilap’s voice rang down the passageway from the top of the gangway. I looked down into Alicia’s face and stole a kiss before looking at the quivering mass of treachery on the floor.
“Ready to pay up, Varon?” A thin groan answered. “Good enough for me. All clear!”
“Holy shit, is anyone alive down there?” Krasinski called down the passageway. Alicia rolled her eyes. Great. The Agents were here.
“I can vouch for two,” she said. “Three, if Varon makes it.”
Yilap appeared in the doorway, looking completely stunned. He surveyed the damage to the room—all the broken furniture, the bullet holes peppering the walls. Then he studied us.
“You two did all this by yourselves?”
“With a little help from all our dead friends out there,” I said.
“And neither of you came away with a scratch?”
“Oh, we definitely got a couple of scratches,” Alicia said, “on our knuckles.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and Yilap joined in warily. Agent Starmer appeared in the doorway behind him, pistol at the ready.
“You’re not going to need that, Agent Starmer. It’s all been done.”
“I can see that. Jesus Christ.” He looked dumbfounded, but snapped out of it when Krasinski shouted from the passageway.
“How many of these dead guys are there, anyway?”
“Ten,” I said.
“Eleven,” Alicia corrected me.
“Ten.”
“We’ll count them once we have Varon in custody,” Starmer cut in. “Where is he?” Alicia pointed to the man on the floor, and both of the new arrivals winced.
“Is he alive?” Yilap asked.
“I’m pretty sure.” Alicia gave Varon’s foot a kick and he wriggled with a groan. “Razar wouldn’t let me kill him.”
“Probably wise,” Starmer said. Two city authorities stepped through the door, and Starmer waved them over to start cuffing what was left of Varon. “If he’s alive, we can get testimony as to how far the corruption goes. Tampering with the Earth/Jorkan Protocols is an intergalactic offense. There are going to be steep penalties, and we want to make sure we get everyone.”
Varon let out a bona fide scream as the handcuff clicked in around his broken hand. Everyone looked up for a second, and one of the city cops cursed under his breath.
“We’re gonna need a medical pallet to strap him to.”
“There should be one up by the lifeboats,” Starmer said, and one of the cops ran up to get it.
“Why don’t the two of you get up top,” Yilap suggested. “Get a little bit of sunshine.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. We stepped through the rubble, and Alicia took one last look at Varon before we picked our way over the bodies in the hall. Krasinski was still on deck, and he called down to his partner below.
“Hey, Starmer! Did you see all these naked ladies up here, or what? Should I start cuffing them, or are they just for looking?”
“Clear a path, you idiot.” Alicia was already making her way up the gangway and was more than ready to shove Krasinski out of the way if he wasn’t ready to back up. Up in the sunlight, she stretched her arms as if she had been asleep in a cave for a year. I marveled to think how much she had managed to adjust to
in a scant few weeks.
Less than a month ago, she had been pulling shifts in a bar, forging a life in one of the most famous cities on Earth. She had been entirely unaware that alien races existed, let alone that there was a sacred compact between us. There was a version of her life where our paths never crossed—where she never even knew I was out here waiting for her. I wondered if that was a life she would have preferred.
Coming around to face her, I found my answer in her face. Even with everything that had happened, the look in her eyes told me she probably thought I was worth it. I was more than certain that she was.
If she had never come, if I hadn’t had the chance to fall for her, I would very likely have worked with Varon for the rest of my life. What a disaster that would have been.
“Alright.” Yilap appeared right beside us. “There’s still one major question the two of you are going to have to deal with.” My heart sank. Clearly, we were only at the beginning of all the red tape this mess was going to roll out in front of us.
“What is it?” Alicia asked, her voice weary.
“Do you want to start the thirty days over?”
I blinked. “What?”
“You have the option of starting the introduction process over again. Thirty days at the retreat to engage in activities so you can get to know each other. Then you can make a decision about the signing ceremony.”
“No.” Alicia looked at me, startled.
“No?” she questioned.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” I said. “Do you?” Before she could say anything, I got down on my knee. “Alicia Harper, will you marry me?”
“Are you kidding me?” She took my face in her hands and pressed her lips to mine in a deep, forceful kiss. “Yes,” she whispered when it was finished. “A thousand times yes.”
A chorus of ‘Awwws’ went up from the pink, bikini-clad Aurvelians leaning against the railing.
“Alright, ladies,” Krasinski clapped his hands at them, “show’s over.”
Alicia rolled her eyes, and we laughed before she fell to kissing me again.
Epilogue: Alicia
“This is perfect.”
I jumped out from the racing shuttle, smiling as my feet hit the sand. The waves rolled gently onto the beach as they turned into foam, and the maritime breeze caressed my hair in the softest of ways. Stretching my back, I closed my eyes and let the warm sun fall upon my face. Finally, I was at peace.
“I told you,” Razar said, “there’s more to Tarkun IV than just the city.”
Slowly, he draped one arm over my shoulders, and the two of us stood there and enjoyed the moment, the waves lapping at our bare feet. In the distance, the sun had already started to dip past the horizon line, casting a mellow orange glow over the ocean. The rows of idyllic cabins along the shoreline just added to the scenery, and it all reminded me of a perfect postcard landscape.
“Which one is ours?” Turning around, I swept an arm toward the cabins behind us. They were made of native wood, and there was a certain tropical minimalism to their build, but they all looked as luxurious as anything I had seen back at the tower. Despite Varon’s constant trash-talking about Yilap’s resort, the place seemed to be as amazing as our blue-skinned Jorkan official had promised.
“This one right here,” Razar replied, pointing at the cabin that was closest to us. Taking my hand in his, he led me across the strip of empty beach we were on, and up onto the cabin’s porch. The wood creaked gently under our weight, the sound of it somehow reminding me of Earth. “Home sweet home, huh? At least for the next couple of weeks.”
“I still can’t believe this is real.” I didn’t bother with exploring the cabin after we stepped into it. There would be time for that later. I just spun around and closed the distance between us, then threw my arms over Razar’s shoulders. “We are mates. How crazy is that?”
“Not crazy at all,” he replied, one hand cupping my face. Gently, he leaned in and brushed his lips against mine. “I knew there was something here the first time I laid eyes on you...I just didn’t know what it was.”
“I wasted so much time with that idiot.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” he continued. “We’re here, and we’re together.”
“Yes,” I breathed out. “Yes, we are.”
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I went up on tiptoes and pulled him toward me. Our mouths meshed together, and right then and there I melted into his embrace. The taste of his mouth reminded me of all the nights we had shared together, and of the excitement of sneaking around with him. Now, though, we no longer had to remain hidden.
“I love you,” I whispered against his lips. “God, it feels so good to say it.”
“It feels even better to hear it.”
With that, he picked me up from the floor and into his arms. Looking down into my eyes, he smiled as he carried me into the bedroom, nudging the door open with the tip of his tail. He followed after me as he lowered me onto the mattress, then we were back at it, our tongues lost in a frenzied embrace.
Eager for more, I pulled his shirt over his head, and my breath caught in my throat as I saw his chiseled torso. It didn’t matter how many times I saw his naked body, it always felt like the first time.
Matching my eagerness, Razar pulled the straps of my dress down my shoulders, and unclasped my bra with a quick twist of his fingers. Instead of ripping it off my body right away, this time he was patient—he watched as the cups dropped from my breasts, then freed one nipple at a time.
Tenderly, he made his way down my neck with his lips. The moment I felt the tip of his tongue on my naked skin, his touch going over the rising curve of my breast, I closed my eyes and sighed heavily. After all we had been through, I now felt like I was in Heaven, and that this was a well-earned reward for my efforts.
“Why do I always feel like this when I’m with you?” I whispered, my hands instinctively resting on his horns. I wrapped my fingers around the smooth bone, and my sighs turned into a quivering moan as he sucked my right nipple into his mouth. “It feels so damn good...every time.”
He didn’t respond.
At least not with words.
Instead, his tail uncoiled from his waist, and the tip wandered down to my right knee. Slowly, it started climbing up my leg, sliding underneath the hemline of my dress. It kept on wandering upward until it reached my inner thighs, and I immediately arched my back as I felt it caress the wet fabric of my thong. Razar didn’t really need his tail to pleasure me, but it sure as hell made for a nice addition.
Allowing instinct to dictate my actions, I flattened the palm of my hand between Razar’s legs, his hard member immediately throbbing against my fingers. As if on cue, his tail responded by pushing my thong down my legs, and Razar did the rest; with one swift movement, he yanked the dress off me, then took a moment to gaze at my nakedness.
“I don’t know how you do it, but every time I look at you…” he pursed his lips and shook his head. “Fuck, Alicia, how can you be this perfect?”
“All this perfection is yours now,” I teased, tightening my fingers around his hard cock. Never looking away from him, I unbuttoned his pants and tugged them down. Soon enough, he was down to his boxer briefs, and my heart leapt inside my chest as I saw the contour of his hard member. God, I had missed it. “Just as long as your perfect bits are all mine, as well.”
“Oh, they are,” he said. “You can trust me on that.”
Lowering himself over me, he planted his mouth right in the valley between my breasts, but didn’t linger. Using nothing but the tip of his tongue, he traced a downward line toward my waist, and I instinctively arched my back as I felt him approach my wetness.
This time, he didn’t go straight for the kill. No, he took his time, his tongue navigating its way around my inner thighs, but always keeping a maddening distance from where I truly needed it. Soon enough, I was back to holding his horns, eager to direct his head.
“That impatient, huh?” he
asked with a smooth chuckle. Then, moving with the ferocity of a predator, he opened his mouth wide and crushed against my aching pussy, his tongue immediately darting past my inner lips.
“Fuck,” I groaned, my eyes rolling back as pleasure shot up my spine.
As he ravaged me with his tongue, the tip of his tail settled on my clit, massaging it in a maddening way. Letting go of his horns, I laid my arms beside my body and bunched up the sheets in my hands. I dug my heels into the mattress and, guided by madness, thrust against his mouth, eager to feel the relentless pressure of his lips on me.
That did it: I exploded then and there, sweet oblivion swallowing me whole.
And yet...we were just getting started.
Alicia
“C’mere.” Hooking his fingers on the back of my knees, Razar dragged me across the mattress toward him. The moment I was within reach, I yanked his boxers down his legs, and his cock sprang free to greet me. I didn’t even need to think about it—I just did it.
Sitting up in front of him, I gripped his hardness by the root and dove in, opening my mouth wide so that he would fit. My lips rolled down his entire length, all of it weighing down my tongue, and I didn’t hesitate before I started bobbing my head. I devoured him with as much enthusiasm as I could, and my rewards were his throaty groans of ecstasy.
After a minute or two, he threaded his fingers into my hair and took charge. No longer a passive participant in what was happening, he started guiding the to and fro motion of my head. Then, changing gears all of a sudden, he held my head and began rocking his hips.
Closing my eyes, I surrendered to it all, savoring the way his cock slid in and out from between my lips. His manly taste flooded me—it reminded me of salt, gunpowder, and raw power—and I quickly found myself aching for more. Freeing myself from his hold, I pulled his cock from my mouth and jumped him.
Putting both hands on his chest, I pushed him down and straddled him, but he had other plans. He rolled to the side, pinned me down against the mattress, then held my wrists. Before I knew it, his naked body was on top of mine, his hard cock throbbing anxiously against my wet folds.
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