by C. R Corbin
Jino's red visor glows in the sunlight as he yells out to me, "Keep on going! We're almost there!"
I could see that more and more of the beast was getting trapped and I prayed that it would be enough and by the time we were finished with about a quarter of the ceiling it was mostly over, all that was left now was to finish it off.
Before Jino does anything else he runs over and frees me for the rubble by lifting the rocks that were on top of me. I struggled out and ran towards the edge of the room as several explosives are chucked at the prone beast. A cloud of dust consumes my line of sight as I watched the monster disappear. Seconds later the dust settles and I see that the beast was mostly gone, a hunk of flesh that was completely hidden and trapped under the weight of all those stones.
All that was left to do now was to free the remaining prisoners which were a sad paltry number. Only three had ultimately survived the attack and were in the corner of the room.
I wandered over to the cages and began to free them, the weight of all that dirt that had fallen on top of me had injured my leg pretty badly and I was having trouble breathing, but my concerns could wait for a little bit. I fired off the locks and people that looked somewhat like individuals I once knew stumbled out. They looked so drained, so depleted to the point where they were practically unrecognizable. I can only watch helplessly as Jino guides them out before I heard a voice echo into my ear.
"They're flying away! I see someone taking off in the distance!" cried out Evelyn and I glanced at Jino whom I nodded at.
He stumbles over the rubble and begins to climb towards the hole that we had made in the ceiling, "Watch them!" he screams out before he disappears into the sunlight.
Chapter Sixteen
Jino
I never did think that he would have tried to escape the planet altogether, but apparently, he is and there was little I could do to stop him with exception to pursuing him. And that was exactly what I was going to do.
I clamored back into the ship and watched as Evelyn laid back on the bed she gripped the sheets and gave me the okay to take off after I had looked at her with concern regarding her condition. I rocketed into the skies with my guns at the ready as I watched Yurian's craft dart across the skies, he was followed by several more of his compatriots and all that I can do is dodge their lasers and attempt to fire on him.
There were only three ships of his, I could do this.
I deftly circle around the shots that were coming from behind me and turned to fire off my own shot at the ships pursuing me. That took down one ship so there were two left. I dive towards the planet as I watched the lasers come up behind me, homing before I turned at the last moment to allow them to strike the ground instead. From the dust cloud I was practically invisible, but thanks to my visor I could see through the clouds without a targeting system. I could tell where they were from sight alone so I eyeballed my last few shots. My beams rocket through the dust and strike the back of both of the ships and I watched as they crashed before I flew directly toward the primary craft, the largest, it had crashed into a mound of trees and I landed on a nearby sand mound. I told Evelyn to keep a lookout as I hurried out with my rifle.
I approached the wreckage and was tackled to the floor by someone. From what I had seen most were red with exception to Yurian himself who was staring at me with those feral eyes of his. His cloaking was going off the fritz form the crash, but I could tell one thing, his strength was definitely enhanced to a severe degree.
He had these two large bulbous yellow eyes and a cracked exoskeleton that was black, there were streaks of green running out of him at points, likely blood from his wounds. Instead of a mouth, there were two pincers that merely clicked together, on top of his head were these two antennae that protruded out of his temple. His limbs were long and disjointed, jagged even, every end of him was sharp, especially that gnarled collection of four fingers that he had that looked more like blades than actual appendages.
I hold up my rifle, but he merely slapped it away and grabbed me by the neck. I punched him once in his face before he lets me down, I then tackled him onto the ground and got on top to hammer his face into the floor, but he tosses me off after only a couple of strikes.
"Do you know how close I was to achieving true power? True knowledge? And you just took it all away from me. You did, you bastard. Who sent you? Who?" he snarled out before I gave him a well-paced strike to the midsection that rocked him onto his stomach. While he was prostrated, I dragged out my knife and was about to lunge at him, but he intercepts me by jabbing into my shoulder with his own claws.
"You murdered all those humans for your own sick lust for power? They were innocent! Your fight was with me!" I snarled while caressing my shoulder. I stumbled back and hold the knife in my hand tightly before I lunged forward once again, he tries to cut me with his claw, but I stabbed his arm with the knife before I pin him down with my foot and swiped at his face with my own claws which blinded him.
"It's all a matter of perspective. You know that nothing has worth in this world, but power so why are you trying to delude yourself? You understand it as a bounty hunter, you understand that there is no certainty, no innocence." He choked out and I scowled at his proclamation.
"Well, I've found something to hope for." I muttered and pressed my hand into his neck before letting my claws sink in.
He chokes and gargles on his green blood as it seeps over my fingers before I stepped away from him. Men like him were incredibly mundane and common, men who wished to seize power, who were inherently greedy to a degree that was completely alien to everyone else. I knew that he wouldn't be able to harm anyone else now, that was the important thing. I slightly regretted not being able to grant Miriam her final moment with the bastard, but nothing could be done about that now.
There were more important things to attend to after all.
I limped back to the site of our battle and I see her standing in the pit with the three humans all silently weeping near her feet. She glances up to me and I gave her a nod which she reciprocated before she scaled back up the cliff face. What the man had done, all in pursuit of this power, it was corrupt and evil. It was only now did I truly realize why the people I killed needed to die
For it was such a corruption that festered in their hearts due to a lack of connection, due to a lack of empathy that I had been rapidly approaching until I met my mate.
I had been given something to truly fight for, a family, a loved one. It was why the feeling of overwhelming relief overcame me when I saw her standing there on the rubble safely. There was nothing in the world that could split us apart, I had learned to care for someone, for my mate.
And that was what would keep me from the darkness that this brought. I cared, for I knew the worth of life and I would protect it.
"Come on, I'll help you." I said as I scaled down the wall and helped her onto my back. She caresses me and is dragged upwards while I heard the people downstairs walking out towards us. They must have thought we were going to leave him or something like that. I shook my head and heard Miriam telling them that we would return from them after I got her up onto the rocks and they reluctantly believed us.
Slowly, but surely we got the rest of them freed from that little dungeon that they were trapped in at the moment.
We all walked back to the ship and each and every one of the humans yelped in joy as they saw Evelyn who took it upon herself to take care of them medically as well as to give them any food that they might be needing. They were still mostly alright physically with exception to some damage done to their muscles and some organs, but most of the damage done to them was psychological, that was the unsaid truth of the matter.
But there was one last thing that we need to do.
Miriam had told me that she wanted to stop by the human's old base so that they could call home and we did so. She searches for any sign of the communication system that might have been leftover and for a momen
t I thought that it was completely gone, but then we find it, a small black box that was under some of the rubble. It was not a communicator, but it had the information of whom we needed to contact so I popped it into my ships systems and waited, holding my breath before a human on the other line picked up.
"Hello? Hello, this is Miriam of the SS Jehu we need a rescue immediately." Was her first sentence.
And then she described the entire story which got more and more unbelievable to the humans. I knew that they would want to examine me, to scan me so I look to Miriam for any ideas on what to do and she merely whispered: "I'll keep you safe."
It wasn't my safety I was worried about if these fools wanted to touch me, far from it in fact.
I glanced over the rest of the humans that were all bundled around the base with their arms clutching their sides as I dragged over the corpses of the beasts that I had hunted down. My rations were going to run out if we all feasted on them so we needed to sustain ourselves through this. Some of the humans had puked since their stomachs were still somewhat unaccustomed to taking food after the days of imprisonment that they had been under, but after a while, they get used to it and ate happily.
And then I got my moment with Miriam.
She holds my hand as we stand on some rocks not too far away from camp, but far enough so that we couldn't be heard or spied on. I glanced at her with a sense of longing as I caressed her cheek, smiling while her own hands rest on my chest.
"I want to thank you...truly. For everything you've done for us, I want to thank you. You didn't have to care to the degree that you did, you didn't have to put in the effort, but you did and for what I want to thank you for what you've done for us" she says and plants a kiss on my lips. I smiled and hold her in place while we stand there on the rocks, out of the corner of my eye I could see Evelyn staring at us with a wide grin on her face
"The pleasure was all mine." I muttered in response and rested my horns against her head. It was an old way of really showing your care for someone back in Delosian times. To touch someone with your horns in such a way was to show a reverence that was entirely rare.
But she deserved it more than anyone else that I knew.
"You just...You didn't have to do this. And as for what they said about you over the radio I won't let them do anything that might harm you. I promise you that." She reassured me despite the fact that I didn't entirely believe her proclamations. "Because after this I'm going with you."
I blinked in a shocked manner and stumbled away from her while she watched me with those big green eyes of her's. I wasn't entirely sure what I could have said in response to that, but apparently, she had finally given in to the idea and I take her into another embrace while resting my chin atop her head.
"Is this what you want?" I asked.
She slaps my chest in response and looked up at me with as much sincerity as she could muster.
"I am sure of it...I want you, I love you. Don't think that this is me trying to pay you back or tell me that I don't have to do this, but...I finally realize it now. I know you would have taken me either way, but consider this a present, I'm not going to fight anymore." She whispers and wrapped her lips around mine one more time while I held her. My fingers run along her back and her backside before I squeezed which caused her to yelp in shock.
Perhaps that could wait for the human ship's arrival. Then we could have as much fun as we wanted.
Chapter Seventeen
Miriam
"So let me get this straight you two single-handedly hunted down this...Yurian? Is that right?" asked the commander, a man by the name of Clintock.
I nodded, "That's right."
"And your friend there...he can understand me?"
"Every word." I stated while glancing over towards Jino who had been standing there silently with his eyes fixated on Clintock. His eyes were glimmering in the fluorescent light, that blue glow that seemed to remind me of two sapphires was right in front of me.
"Could you perhaps tell him that we want to study...him? For a while at least." Muttered the commander while he appraised the man in front of him, I frowned in response.
"You do understand that you already received enough biological data when you quarantined him, don't you? What more do you need other than what you have derived from his ship?"
"Well, I suppose that we could derive so much more from someone that could tell us all about what else is in that galaxy. The captain shot back with an even look. I looked over at Jino who glanced at me before whispering something into my ear.
My eyes widened, that would be the perfect plan, it really would be.
"Well, he would like to make an offer." I stated after a short pause, the commander seemed to be paying attention now.
I proceed to tell him all the different details of what Jino was offering to him, it included several clauses that I was a big fan of, but I still wasn't sure if we should put our faith in the human government to such a degree. It wasn't until Jino told me that our weapons would have little to no effect on him and that he would easily escape whenever he wants to that I realized that we were in good hands.
The chips are in our hands after all and I could easily make a fuss over it and get the press on this if they so much as violated a single detail of the contract.
At the end of it all, we could go free, the deal had been accepted.
One, he would be able to take me back to his home planet for half a human year every year, the other half would be spent with me on Earth so that they could research him.
Two, they weren't permitted to do any more biological experiments on him, the most that they could do was experiment with what he had, technology-wise.
Three, he would be the mediator of all interactions with the rest of the galaxy.
Four, he was only doing this on his own accord. If he felt like doing a mission or going out to tend to his home then they would have to let him, no strings attached.
So basically he had told them that he was only going to go along with their idea if they gave him the freedom that he wanted. There was nothing else that they could do besides accept if they wanted to gain access to whatever he had.
I glanced at the dirt floor and slide my feet along it as we both stepped back towards his ship that had been thoroughly investigated by whoever had been here. It was all cleaned out, picked apart, the most that I could do was stumble back inside and sit there with him as we rested on the bed. I sure hoped that no one would be interrupting us now otherwise I might have to delay what I wanted for even longer.
"Are you concerned about how the deal went? Anything at all?" he had asked me when we stepped inside and I merely shook my head. There was nothing else that we could complain about since we had already gotten the better part of our deal done. They had told him that we had free reign to go back to Delos and report to his boss about the completion of the mission before we arrived back. They couldn't exactly stop him since he was so much stronger and technologically advanced, but he did give them an assurance that he would return in the form of a deposit of a few thousand credits.
Little did they know that was chump change for him.
He sets our course for Delos so that he could report back and once he was done with that I grabbed his hips and pulled him back towards the bed before planting a kiss on his lips. I moaned for him and whimpered as he ran his hands over my neck. The ridges on the side of his neck were flapping wildly in a show of arousal for me and I was grateful that he thought of me in such a manner.
"I love you." I breathed out as another kiss is applied to my lip from him.
I could barely stand it, my entire body was quivering for him and I could feel my pussy getting slicker already as he grabbed the zipper and began to undo everything. It all falls to the floor and I am left bare, my entire being was visible for him and he groped my breasts before sending another kiss my way.
All I could do was moan and beg him for more.
/> "Oh Jino." I whimpered
"I love you Miriam, my mate, I love you so much." he reassured me while his kisses began to pepper my face once again.
I felt him kissing downwards towards my neck and he plants a couple of them there while his teeth gently slide over the flesh of my shoulder and my neck. His warm breath scratched my cheek and the hairs on my back stood up while my nipples hardened. I was already dripping wet and the trail down my leg was evidence of that.
What I need now was him, it was only him.
"Make love to me, mark me as yours. I want to be yours, your mate, your teren." I whimper and he smiles before he encircled by mounds with his mouth.
I gasped at the moment his tongue flicked across my already hardened nipple.
"Oh god." I whimpered softly, his teeth gently probed the flesh of my breast, his lips puckered and began to pull while I continued to moan for him.
My eyes shut as I feel his tongue whipping in circles around my nipples, his lips continued to pucker before he pressed both of my mounds together and sucked on both of my ample breasts at the same time. I can only quiver in place as I feel the heat trickling down my thigh, he sinks a hand down there as well and begins to paw at my folds which caused me to moan with immense pleasure.
"Oh god I love you, I adore you, I fucking love you." I whispered while holding his back, every inch of muscle, every crevice, it was all for me to see and I adored it, I adore every inch of his body and he knew that I did.
I can feel my hands tightening around his back as I stroked the cracks of muscle before his lips begin to descend towards my womanhood. I was already soaking for him, practically, all that he needed to do was to whip the tip of his tongue over my folds and I would be as good as his. That was the only thing that I needed now, it was what I needed from him.