by Elin Wyn
“Is this some love at first sight bullshit?” she cut him off, her hand moving faster now.
Kanthi cocked his head, confused. “What is ‘love?’”
Taryn growled, rolling her eyes as she suddenly climbed over her seat to fall into his lap. “Close enough,” she whispered huskily, and dragged him down for a kiss. It was the same as before, a clash of lips, tongue, and teeth as she moved his mouth however she liked. Kanthi took the opportunity to seize her hips, digging his fingers into them as he thrust up against her while she moved back and forth against him.
Pulling away from his mouth with a wet pop, Taryn huffed to herself and started undoing her pants. “Can’t take it anymore,” she muttered, kicking off her clothes to sit back in his chair and straddle his lap. She kissed him again, demanding and wanting as she moved her naked opening over his bulge, and he found that he couldn’t deny her. Didn’t want to deny either of them relief from the burning need.
He wrapped an arm around her, lifting her effortlessly as he stood. He hitched her higher against his chest, and clenched his jaw as she squirmed against him. One handed, he released his pants to pool at his feet.
Cupping her rounded ass with his hands, he lowered her, teasing, tantalizing them both with the feel of his cock poised against her outer lips.
Her nails raked his shoulders as she strained against him.
Kanthi couldn’t think, all reason lost to the need to be in her, to consume her.
Falling back into the chair, he pulled her onto him, impaling her with his length. The sight of her head thrown back, neck bared to him, breasts held high dragged him further into madness.
Taryn rode him with equal intensity, her small white teeth biting at her lower lip. He pulled her closer to him, and she moved against his torso as if they’d spent hours, lives, in this moment.
As she slid against his sweat slicked body, she gasped. “I don’t know anything about you,” her lips moved against his skin. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I’m a scout, cousin to the king, a soldier,” Kanthi offered back. “You’re brave, and strong, and beautiful.” He punctuated each phrase with another thrust. She moaned, but otherwise didn’t seem to care.
They moved at an extreme pace, neither one of them able to get enough. Taryn was practically bouncing on his lap while his hands wandered to her breasts, cupping and palming as she sucked his tongue. He was content to stay like that, for forever and eternity, when she suddenly moaned and started clamping down on him. Kanthi couldn’t hold back anymore – he kissed her hard and came, thrusting home as she moved to kiss his neck.
In the back of his mind, he knew: he, the Eiztar who had always expected to die young, had just bonded.
But he just couldn’t care enough to stop.
Taryn
“Taryn. Hey, Taryn.”
Taryn blinked her eyes open, a hand on her shoulder shaking her gently as a voice urged her awake. She yawned, rubbing her face as she stretched, and looked up. Kanthi was standing over her, an easy smile on his face.
“My men will be here shortly.” He caressed the curve of her face. She turned to nuzzle into his hand, but stopped herself. “What we did, how I acted…” She pulled herself in.
He knelt beside her, gently taking her hand to raise it to his lips. “We’ll figure it out. Promise.”
A ping from the comm station caught their attention.
“My men are here,” he said. “We’ve got a plan to secure the toxin, but we’ll have to search for your ship.”
The mention of her ship had her bright-eyed and bushy tailed, and she sat up in her chair. “When can we leave?”
Kanthi swept his arm to the door. “Immediately.”
Kanthi’s men were surprisingly normal, for another group of aliens. They were all freakishly tall, like him, but, otherwise, human enough. Kanthi introduced them, but in her eagerness to retrieve her crew, Taryn barely thought about their names.
Kanthi took the lead as they started their trek back to the hidden fortress, his hair a mix of dark brown hair and red highlights that shone in the sun. She’d always assumed it was black because of how it looked under shadow, but in the light of morning she found that she preferred the red.
Before long, they were just outside the rusted box, the keypad in plain sight. Taryn knew the six-digit code, but she also knew that guards were standing on just the other side of it, hidden by a camo shield. The moment she touched the key pad would be the moment they opened fire.
She was about to ask Kanthi for his plan when he signaled to one of his men and they threw something just over the keypad. A moment later, Kanthi pulled her down behind the boulder, and the place exploded.
The shield immediately came down, revealing reptilian forms scrambling for cover. They took their chance and rushed inside, Kanthi leading the way straight to the rusted building.
“Here!” he said, leading them down hallway after hallway. With a final left turn they stopped, and one of his men moved to fasten a device to a door.
“Wait!” Taryn stopped them. “They use the same code for everything.” She typed in the six-digit code, eight-nine-seven-seven-three-one, and the door popped open. “See?” But Kanthi and his men were already rushing inside. From what Taryn could see, it was a chemical lab, and a few Thagzars were still inside. Within moments Kanthi’s men had them all dead on the ground, their narrowed eyes staring up at nothing.
Kanthi ripped open a cabinet and rifled through some test tubes, finally pulling out a small vial with a yellowed label. He showed it to his men, and they flashed fierce grins.
“Uh, Kanthi?” Taryn asked. “My ship?”
“Not forgotten,” he assured her, pocketing the vial. “Men! Phase two!”
The snakemen were still in chaos when they made it back outside. The explosion had caused a massive fire, and the guards were doing their best to put it out. Kanthi led them around the back, pointing to a fenced off area with barbed wire.
“If they’ve got your ship,” he said, stopping at one of the keypads and stepping back to allow Taryn to put in the pin. “Then it’ll be in here.”
Sure enough, among the piles of contraband and trash, they found her ship. A dozen guards surrounded it, trying to blend in and form a surprise attack. “An ambush,” Kanthi cursed. “They were hoping we’d come here.”
“Well, no shit,” Taryn rolled her eyes. “So? Any ideas?”
Kanthi gave the signal, and one of his men threw a small ball through the air. “Uh, is that another bomb?” she asked.
Kanthi shrugged. “A smoke bomb.”
It went off within seconds. The snakes scattered, but a few opened fire on the ship.
Taryn gasped. “They’re destroying—”
“Taryn, look,” Kanthi pointed. Across the way, behind the cover of the guards with guns, two of the snakes were hauling away a weird silver sled with four pod ships strapped on top.
“My crew!” she yelled, charging ahead. Kanthi called for her, but she was already on the move, the Thagzars just feet ahead of her. They dropped the sled, reaching for their guns, but two lasers shot out past Taryn and hit them square in the chest. She didn’t have to look back to know that it had been Kanthi.
Taryn scrambled on top of the sled and immediately started typing in the codes, relief swelling in her chest as they opened easily and used gas from the torpor sleep started seeping out.
“Lyra!” Taryn yelled, hugging her medic as the woman awkwardly climbed out of the small shuttle. She was holding her head groggily.
“Hey, captain,” she greeted her, clapping her on the back. When they pulled apart and she saw Kanthi and his men, Lyra frowned. “Uh, who’re they?” she whispered.
“Captain!” Willovitch called, angrily climbing out of her pod. “Where are we?” Jeline and Sherre emerged next, both squinting tiredly in the bright sunlight.
“Thank you,” Taryn left Lyra and hugged Kanthi. “Thank you.” Kanthi smiled, and embraced her back.
One of his men coughed. “Sir, I suggest we evacuate now. The Thagzars will have us easily trapped if we waste this moment.”
“Of course…” Kanthi said, his smile falling as he looked at Taryn’s crew.
“What?” she asked, one of her arms still wrapped around his waist.
“We don’t have the room,” he said slowly. “My ship can only fit six.”
“Where’s our ship, captain?” Willovitch demanded. Taryn wordlessly pointed to the heap of metal a few yards away. The snakes had gone, but not before destroying it.
“We don’t have jump capabilities in the pods,” Willovitch said dumbly. Sherre and Jeline whispered to each other.
“Kanthi,” Taryn looked up at him. “It’s important that you get this toxin to your lab, right?”
“Of utmost importance, yes,” he said, glancing at his men. They were shifting from foot to foot, growing restless.
“Then wouldn’t it make sense and divide the toxin? Give the Thagzars more than one target to shoot at?” She glanced meaningfully at the four pods behind her.
Kanthi grinned. “Men,” he barked. “Pick a partner.”
“Sir?”
“We’re going to give the snakes five ships to hunt,” he said.
“Ladies,” Taryn addressed her crew. “We’ve got a planet in need, and an enemy that thinks we’re going to drive in a straight line.” Willovitch grinned. “Pair up, and I’ll see you at the finish line.”
Kanthi pulled her closer, and whispered, “I’ve already chosen mine.”
Allied with the Alien
Stephine
Stephine Willovitch had to wonder if she was the only member of her crew blessed with an ounce of survival instincts. She stood there, her arms slack at her sides, as she watched her crewmates interact carelessly with their captain’s new friends.
There were five of them, all male, and each more muscular than the next. Not to mention that they were all aliens, each bearing a different set of foreign marks that twisted on their skin as they yelled strangled gibberish and greeted her crewmates. They were a physical bunch, all tight hugs and sharp pats on the back. Not that her comrades couldn’t match them.
“Willovitch!” Taryn, her captain, called, ushering her over. “C’mere – we’ve got communication tabs for everyone.”
Stephine held her tongue as she marched forward, every knife she had hidden in her uniform heavy on her body as she passed the aliens by. They did not reach for her as they had so warmly grabbed her crewmates, and she stood a little straighter in the knowledge that at least she was considered a threat. Stopping in front of Taryn, Stephine glancing at the fifth and final alien who was standing by her captain’s side. She didn’t miss the way that his hand was resting on her hip.
“Here,” Taryn said, handing her a comm. It was a small silver device, sleeker than any comm she’d ever seen, with a gel insert to protect the eardrum. She accepted it grudgingly. “We’ve already tuned them to the Eiztar language,” Taryn said as Stephine slid it over her ear. “So you’ll be able to understand each other.”
It was a snug fit, comfortable and lightweight, and Stephine was itching to take it back off and dissect it. She wanted to see how it managed to achieve such advanced coding while remaining so compact, but she knew what Taryn would say – what she always said about her tinkering – so she simply dropped her hand back to her side after clicking it on.
“I hope it fits well,” the alien behind Taryn spoke up. Her captain had introduced him as Kanthi, the leader of the four aliens at her back and a cousin to his planet’s king. Still, he was no royal of hers.
“I understand that you are the reason we are all alive,” she said coolly. “I thank you, for keeping my crewmates and my captain safe.”
The alien seemed to frown at her words, and he glanced at Taryn. “She speaks like a captain,” he said.
“She is very loyal,” Taryn smiled, nodding.
“I would kill for my crew,” Stephine agreed, her eyes narrowed on the man’s face. He tilted his head and looked back at her oddly.
According to her captain, Stephine could trust these aliens, these ‘Eiztar.’ Actually, according to her captain, Stephine had lost over thirty-six hours to torpor sleep, a drug induced hibernation that every ship from Earth to Pluto was outfitted with.
Stephine had never entered it before, and it was why she’d been so confused when her captain had thrown open her pod door just as quickly as she’d closed it, yanking her out with shouts of relief.
As she’d stood up and allowed her captain to hug her, she’d glanced around, feeling oddly small in the tall alien junk yard that she’d woken up in. The last thing she’d remembered before the sleep was the meteor shower, and her captain’s orders to get into a pod.
As it turned out, in those thirty-six hours that Stephine and the rest of the crew had been asleep, Taryn had somehow managed to land the ship onto this wasteland of a planet called Peshdushdar. It was after what Stephine suspected must’ve been a crash landing that the captain had been found by the natives, a nasty species called the ‘Thagzar’ that Taryn had only described as “big, green ugly snake men.”
And, according to her captain, the Eiztar had saved her from them, consequently saving them all.
Yet, to Stephine, there had been no danger. Thirty-six hours had not passed.
To her, the Eiztars were aliens who had just happened to be standing there when her captain punched in the code and helped her out of the pod. To her, they had yet to prove that they could be trusted.
Not that she had the time to argue with her captain over it. They were still on Peshdushdar, and, according to Taryn’s alien, it was only a matter of time before the Thagzar that they’d fought off came back with reinforcements.
“Pair up,” Taryn called. “If we want to avoid capture, we’re going to have to split up. The Eiztar came here to steal a virus that’s been infecting their women, and—”
“And it is up to us,” the Eiztar at her hip cut her off, “To transport it so that a cure may be created from the strain. We all know the coordinates to the lab,” he said, and his men nodded. “It is where we must go.”
Taryn seemed to give him a look, but then she pressed on. “Ladies, we’ve got a planet in need, and an enemy that thinks we’re going to drive in a straight line.” Stephine grinned at her words – evasion, she could do. “Pair up, and I’ll see you at the finish line.”
Stephine didn’t move to pick an alien. She stood with her arms at her sides, looking as angry and threatening as ever, waiting. It wouldn’t be long before everyone else would have a partner, and one alien would be left as the odd man out. Sure enough, Sherre was already standing close to a brunette, and Lyra was shaking another’s hand. If Stephine was lucky, the alien she’d be left with would be easily intimidated and keep to himself, a man who wouldn’t disagree if she gave an order.
But then, Stephine had never been a lucky person.
“Hello!”
She watched, appalled, as one of the tallest aliens there brushed past his crew towards her and lifted up a hand to wave. He was paler than the rest, and unlike the bulky metal that his crewmates were wearing, he was outfitted in a light cut of armor with no sleeves or gauntlets, making the white swirling of tattoos on his shoulders all the more visible.
He was beaming at her, his mess of blonde hair tied up in a knot that bounced as he walked, and she could only swallow quietly as he stepped close enough for her to make out the emerald color of his large eyes.
“I’m Dojan Cholsad,” he said happily, coming to a stop just in front of her. He stuck out a hand, his muscles bulging as he flexed them.
Charming.
Well, two could play at that game. Stephine slapped her hand into his, gripping his fingers as she made her own arm pop to expose her strength. She waited for the alien to say something; to try to best her. But then, rather than silently assess her like she was doing to him, Dojan gave a low whistle and laughed, pulling
his arm back to place his hands on his hips.
“Stephine Willovitch,” she introduced herself dryly, crossing her arms. She didn’t like the way that he was looking down at her. “Of Earth.”
“Earth? As in, the soil?” he joked, winking. When Stephine didn’t laugh, he just shrugged. “No idea where it is,” Dojan admitted happily. “But you probably haven’t heard of my planet, either.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t Eiztar?”
“Oh no,” he shook his head quickly. “Neighboring planet only! Although,” he said, shrugging, “Technically, we’re all sister citizens—”
“Cholsad!”
Stephine and Dojan both looked up as Taryn’s Eiztar called for him. “Sir?” Dojan asked, straightening up just slightly to address his captain.
“Your share of the toxin,” he said grimly, handing over a small vial of yellow liquid. Dojan accepted it slowly, and when he took it in his hand he stared at it as if lost in thought. “Suit up,” his captain told him, and Dojan seemed to snap out of his stupor at the sound of his voice. He pocketed the vial and turned on the smiles again, but Kanthi was looking over his shoulder at Taryn. She was talking quietly with Sherre, her youngest recruit. No doubt giving the young woman some words of wisdom. “We’ll be leaving soon,” he added.
“Shouldn’t we be leaving now?” Stephine asked coldly. For being in a hurry, they certainly weren’t in a rush to go anywhere. “The Thagzar reinforcements?”
“We sort of blew up their base,” Dojan admitted almost sheepishly as he and his captain shared a look.
“Not to mention, we swarmed the place immediately after,” Kanthi said gruffly.
Ah. So they’d raided the place and killed any survivors that they’d been able to find.
“But the sooner we go, the better,” Kanthi agreed. “Pick a pod and get moving,” he said to Dojan.
“Yes’sir,” Dojan smiled lazily, putting one arm behind his back as he bent at the waist and bowed.