Otherworldly

by C F Rabbiosi

Efaelty approaches and hands a silver bottle to Tanak. “This should help. It is a skin softener. You might use it to add moisture to her.”

  He slathers it along my pelvic region and all the way down between my cheeks, and a feeling of lacking sears my face. I can’t look at Kassien, even as the ruckus Brekter causes bids me to out of sheer curiosity.

  I buckle down and focus. No matter the humiliation or pain, I need to remember what I am. I am now a high-ranking Koridon’s mate. The possible savior of their people, if there’s any chance of breeding me. The awe of this reminds me that my feelings do not matter, If our worlds can be bridged, nothing else matters.

  And in this moment, I completely understand why Kassien has forsaken me. Our hearts are so small compared to the size of real love. All of our people, their survival, their happiness. So much bigger. “Tanak,” I say gently, and lovingly trail a finger across his facial hair. “I apologize for my weakness. I am honored to be yours.”

  He places his hand against mine. “I am honored as well, precious human. I do not wish to hurt you, and hope you will accept my apology for what I must do.”

  The kindness that flows from his mouth reach his eyes, and I feel safe in his arms. A handsome appearance though older than the others, he is quite fine to look upon.

  His sweet smile draws me near and I touch my lips to the side of it. He lingers curiously though the curl of his smile ceases. Kissing his face makes me feel closer to him, connects us in some intimate way that reminds me of my humanity. I have to try. Something about him softens as he responds to my tender gesture, and as I slowly pull away, I think both our hearts have opened if only a little.

  The presence of the others still exists heavily, but instead of grieving, I accept this gift. I could have been killed in the forest by Alexander. Instead, I have the chance to change the world. With this amazing sense of peace, I nod at my betrothed. He circles a strong arm around my back, bringing me forward, and his maleness presses in gently. The pressure isn’t unbearable at all and being against his chest as he works inside is almost intimate.

  “Wait.” Kassien speaks, and I’m yanked from the dream.

  24

  ~Calypso~

  Murmuring commences and Tanak holds me protectively as though for the last time. “Are you telling me to step away?” he asks, and the pressure at my pelvic floor ceases. I don’t know what to feel, but Kassien’s disturbed shaking and feral edge makes that uneasiness seep back into my bones.

  “It should be me.” Efaelty moves to speak but he cuts her off. “Please listen.” Tenak backs off and almost appears relieved. “This is her world, nd now we mean to take her out of it, and then take everything from her. How can we have her bear a child in our name and then not give the one most important thing to their race back?”

  “Love,” I whisper.

  “I am the prince of this world and am not acting like it. I cannot do this to her. I wish to—” He stops addressing his people and turns to me. “Hold you and protect you forever.”

  I love you, too.

  “Please join your mate in the circle, Tenak.”

  Silence engulfs everything; even Brekter finally quiets. Once dressed, Tenak bows. “Whatever my prince wills.” Ariquoi embraces him with utter joy.

  “This is unfamiliar to us,” says Efaelty. “Are you sure you do this for the right reasons?”

  He pauses. “Efaelty, I promise you.” He pulls the robe away and his chiseled male form ascends upon me. He crawls across my body and clutches my face, then lands his mouth a soft, perfect fit upon mine. This is what I wanted, but once again I am jarred into a different reality. I can’t form the appropriate response: one minute accepting of Tanak and the next, Kassien is back. I should be happy, but confusion swirls my feelings into something unrecognizable.

  He senses my ambivalence. “I was wrong, Calypso. Please let me prove to you what can be.”

  “Of course. I apologize for my human delicateness.”

  His large hand finds my breast and his fingers caress the stiff nub. “No need to apologize.” He sighs as he takes me in. “You are unimaginably lovely.” I feel the beast begin to rise within him, and it excites me. I love that he makes me feel so beautiful, but I have to tell him the truth about my mutation. I told Efaelty; now it is time to be truthful with Kassien.

  “You must wonder why I look so different,” I say as his mouth drifts towards mine. He stops. “I’m defective, Kass. I won’t live but a few more years and may not be able to bear you a child.”

  With a closed smile touching one side of his lips he says, “You truly don’t know, do you?” He jerks my hair loose and it streams over my shoulder. “This is beautiful. It isn’t a defect.”

  “Thank you,” I blush. “But—”

  “This perfect, soft body calls to me. It is mine now, and I will not wait another second.”

  I have no insides. Unable to feel, I am numb as he mounts me. His scent like pure aggression teases my senses, but when he burrows through me I suddenly come back to life.

  “Wait!” I need him to listen to me! “Ohhhh—” Quick, sharp breaths enter my lungs and my lower body aches with his pressure, an ache that bends pain into pleasure. I kick out mindlessly, and though my resolve was to do whatever it takes, panic begins to cloud my mind.

  In his ear, I whisper, “I didn’t think it would be this hard, but after you gave me to Tanak, I’m finding it difficult to spread myself open to you. I’m almost afraid.”

  “Fear me, yes, but you will still take every inch deep into you until the seed is syphoned from the abyss of my being.” He holds the crook of my knee up and thrusts through my slit. I gasp, a sharp note piercing the air. My eyes roll back and I gush around his girth. “Your human side makes you afraid but your tissues so desirous.” He drives in, hips crashing, and I stretch, cry and burst with ecstasy around him. He forces inside my liquid heat, jolting my body violently, and every place within the passage into me lights up with excited bliss. Every thrust sends pulses of chills racing down my legs.

  “But the Koridon in you screams with utter defiance and fearlessness.”

  The heat whirl-winding inside me transforms into an ice storm and I lock eyes with the predator upon me. “What?” The word cracks and hardly takes form. Suddenly, the sight of the large flowers hanging from vines all around us thrills through my blood, that hint of earth in the thready green of the stems and leaves, but the presence of something else supernatural designing and coloring the petals. Larger, striking.

  Otherworldly.

  My image in the reflection of the ship’s glass before entering this protected area of hybrid plants flicks across my vision. Long cerulean locks, like the sheen off the female’s hair in the sun. Bright irises an unnatural light blue, glittering with Koridon quicksilver.

  Kassien ceases movement, though it seems to pain him. “You do not know your father, do you?” he asks, and all I can muster is a quick head shake, more of a twitch. “Your mother was impregnated by a different species. Ours.”

  The urge to disagree surfaces as Momma’s story plays through my mind. The tale of her friend being dragged away in the night…the excitement she exuded…It was her that had been taken by a Koridon that night. She was the one who survived, and it was she who bore me at the new village. Who there knew about it? The leaders? The council? Was the bear attack on the hunting party that supposedly resulted in my ‘father’s’ death a fabrication? Are there really mutated humans like they always said, or are they simply hiding the truth of our alien heredity?

  She survived having me. Absolute excitement rises. I can have a child—but will I still die early as the ones like me are said to? “Will I still die…something about the hybrid mix…we—”

  He holds himself up, arms on either side of my shoulders, and continues to hold off the pistoning of his hips. “We have supplied you with nutrients you need from our home world. You will not die, my princess.”

  The earthy drink Ariquoi gave me that drenched m
y insides with a pleasant warmth! Efaelty said it was made from a violet and orange flower that grows in the forest. They must look just like these beautiful plants surrounding us. They must have planted them all over because it’s as though I’ve seen it before, at some point in my recent ventures.

  I see now why he and Brekter were determined to breed me despite all the humans they could obtain. Part Koridon females are very rare, and the child we could produce would be made of three-quarters their blood.

  “May we continue?” he asks sweetly.

  “I belong here with you,” I say. “I am strong and I belong to you.” With newfound joy in what I am, and a new sense of peace and happiness, I choose to accept his practice and let him mate me in front of the rest of his clan. The fear is gone. I will not break, and the beauty of my human side will drown us both in ecstasy. They aren’t monsters who watch any longer; they are my people.

  Breathing in the masculine headiness of his neck, I arch into his grinding hips and meet him thrust for thrust. Slapping, the strong pull of his thickness out and shoved back in, I have never felt so beautiful. His groans meld into mine, our lips touching, slick bodies made to worship each other. His fullness slides in, blissful stretching, punished but screaming for more. My fingers curl into claws, and I am transformed into animalistic pulsing flesh…

  With a low rasp, he plunges one last time and holds me flush against him. Filling me to his hilt and throbbing so large within me, I suck the air and become boneless, my weak, shaking legs useless. He has reached his release, and though I wish it never had to end, I feel a sense of fulfillment. Several seconds pass and he continues to pulse, steely flesh vibrating against my every sensuous nerve, and I bite into his neck to keep from sliding out of my skin. Once I accept that it isn’t over, I relax into his ever enlarging erection and let it stroke and tease me into dire need.

  Desperate utterances emerge from my throat as he expands and continues to spill into me with nudging, contracting force. The pressure threatens to make me burst, his knot so large I fear it will split me in two. He growls and, stuck tight, maneuvers me into his lap. He sinks into entirety releases a groan. Our tongues dance against each other’s and it intensifies my internal hum. With waves of adrenalin comes an intense sensation that tears through my sex and flutters up through my belly. I writhe as my constriction around him creates the deepest and most intimate pressure I have ever experienced.

  Amidst my shuddering howl, Kassien holds me hard, and he’s the only thing keeping me in this realm. Spiritual transformation. A fairy tale.

  Minutes pass and his sensuous throbbing finally subsides. Around us, the Koridons bow deeply, hands touching the earth above them, faces to the ground. They mutter something in unison and Kassien joins their chant, softly, under his breath. I delight in the dewiness between our burning skin and lay my head on his shoulder, but something pulls at my subconscious.

  My gaze flits to Brekter, his murderous glint the reason for what feels wrong. His ferocity bores into me and his lips curl into a wicked smile.

  25

  ~Calypso~

  Fear prickles through my stomach, Brekter’s frightening grin a knife at my insides. A horrible crack sounds from out in the forest, and my gut cringes with knowing. Kassien jumps up with me in his arms, then flings me behind him as several large Koridons in black uniform breach the moving transparency of the walls.

  A male with gold threadwork adorning his black garment approaches Kassien, and I grab my gown. “Endaven sero va bereksan,” he says, and the ones behind him pull formidable weapons out on Tenak, Efaelty and the others who pull out simple blades. Kassien speaks back to him and I peek out from behind his guarding form. One releases Brekter from his floating metal binds and he steps up beside the huge intruder, rubbing his wrist. A heated discussion follows, everyone involved, as my new family is held at bay. Many of them eye me as I struggle into my gown. I rip slits up each side of the silky material to ensure ease of bolting.

  Kassien pulls me to his side and says, “Kalara dasaan. Human end treya Koridon.”

  Brekter reaches toward me. “Give me the girl, Kassien.” To me, he says, “Take my hand now, or the new commander of this region will murder Kassien and all of his followers.”

  “Sektar!” Efaelty pleads toward the intruding leader who holds his weapon at the level of Kassien’s head. He doesn’t acknowledge her heartfelt expression, but she means something to him.

  With a deafening roar, Kassien slams through the new commander and Brekter both. Landing their backs into the ground, he strikes with sickening blows again and again, smacking through flesh and hitting bone. Our Koridon enemies pull him off and he fights wildly, a fist through the ribcage of one, skull split open on another, but there are too many, and they brace him into the floating restraints Brekter had been locked into. With aggression so feral I shake at the sight of him, he fights the liquid metal cuffs and bellows something I cannot understand.

  And yet I still do.

  Brekter and the male with gold woven into his black clothing move into Kassien’s face. Brekter says, “It appears that Drakon is against your new plans, Kass.”

  Efaelty snarls with rage then charges and thunderous gunfire cracks through the air. She crumples to the floor and Drakon’s frantic yell rises above the commotion. Crimson streams from her wounds as he falls to his knees beside her, deathly pale.

  Another ear-shattering shot goes off and warm drops splatter against my skin. Copper flavors my lips and breaking out of my shell shock, I reach for Kassien but am scooped up, whisked away in Brekter’s arms. I cry out, my eyes on Kassien until we ascend through the force field and, just like that, he disappears.

  I thrash, but Brekter holds me without fail as he storms through the forest. I swallow the screams that cry for my new family, who lie bleeding. Every step he takes away from Kassien squeezes my heart tighter. “Brekter, what have you done!” I demand as I jostle around in his arms.

  He glances behind him. “Efaelty’s family residing by the Pacific waters are not in agreeance with your union to their daughter’s mate.”

  “And you made sure they knew.”

  “I sent a message to them the moment Kassien killed for you.”

  “They shot Efaelty. How could they hurt their daughter?”

  “She wasn’t supposed to be hurt.”

  “What will they do to him, Brekter?” I don’t allow the sharp pain at the back of my throat to waver my voice, swallowing it down.

  He stops abruptly, and I’m nearly lost from his arms. “You ask after him when you should be afraid for yourself!” He continues on and covers another couple of miles as the trees blur by. Talking about Kassien will anger him, but I don’t care.

  “They wouldn’t kill the blood prince, would they?” Their world in shambles, desperation and fear the only things left, the thought sours as it comes to fruition.

  “They have turned against him and back me. You are mine now. The children you produce are mine.”

  I recognize the area as he slows. He throws me toward the large stump he laid me upon before and I scramble backward. “I still drip with Kassien’s seed and you plan to what?”

  “You are still fully able to be impregnated, girl.” He chases after me and whips me around by my waist. I cry out, knowing it doesn’t matter. He slams my back against hard bark. “The chance for my own child to grow within you still remains.” He wrests the sapphire material up my thighs and I’m absolutely sick. “You have enough Koridon blood in you that the child will be mostly pure.” The will to survive as a species is probably the most powerful trait in all of us, but in the wrong hands…

  He readies himself and his lips move against my neck.

  “It would be better for you to find another female like me.” I grab the back of his neck, but trying to rip him away has no effect. “There are others, I’ve always heard.”

  His shaft rubs against the inside of my thigh, and I buck to hold him off. He slams my shoulders down. P
ain shoots up through the back of my skull. “I do not—” He turns a shade of ashen purple as though his thoughts drive him mad. “Another may or may not exist; how would I ever find one? You will have to do.” He forces my legs apart.

  The throbbing in my head makes it hard to think, but I am determined to get out of this and return to Kassien somehow. “You knew about me being of your species, and still you called me an animal!”

  “If I have to settle for a dog to have a wolf born to me, I shall.” His hand slips up the inside of my thigh and he touches the sensitive region, his fingers sliding against wet flesh.

  “Whatever you do, it won’t be your child. It will be Kassien’s. I can feel it. We melded together in perfect harmony. We created the best possible place for our child’s conception.”

  He crawls backward and yanks me off the stump. Dragging across the ground, every rock and twig grabs at my bared skin and I claw into the dirt to escape him. I have been passed around between the different males of this clan, but this one I will not be with. Even Tenak would have been bearable, but not this evil being. Nothing will change for my village next to this fiend; in fact, things could get so much worse. I know who I am now and will not be taken easily. I am more than human and, with the nutrient Ariquoi put back into my blood, strength enlivens my every cell.

  I thrash a foot toward his sack and he hits it away, the blow devastating to my shin. My confidence sinks. He angles a forearm over my chest and wrenches my legs apart. I smack my balled fist into his temple and jut my fingers out to find an eye socket.

  “Stop fighting me!” His scream blasts my face. “You would let them have you. Kassien, Tenak even! Why are you denying me?”

  “Because you are not worthy of ruling or being given the first child!”

  He yanks me up by my shoulders. “Why do you think Kassien deserves you and not I?”

  “Deserves me? Am I not just an animal, a half-breed dog?”