Ash Planet Warriors (Series Prequel)

by V. K. Ludwig

  “Let’s just… slow down a little.” Until her heat ended, and I could mate her without instinctively tossing my tail at her like an idiot. “It’s not safe out here so we should head back as soon as we can. Not much longer, and we can travel to Noja.”

  Nine

  Lia

  Head nestled in the crook of Zerim’s arm, I stared up at those leaves that seemed to change their shade slightly depending on which way the nabu swayed. “It’s always so hot around this time.”

  “That’s why we call it high heat.” The muscles on his tail shifted at each push it gave against a nearby branch, putting our bodies into a gentle sway. “Not much gets done around this time of the sun when we’re out in the plains. Many take a nap, play games, or craft.”

  I stroked my fingertips over the dips of muscles on his stomach, enjoying how his skin pebbled at the faint touch. His loincloth covered the sizable bulge of his cock. Underneath, he was undoubtedly erect, with a thick knot above the base and prominent ridges along the shaft. Something I couldn’t unsee, just like I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about it.

  Tip of his nose nuzzling the hair above my temple, he breathed in deeply, smelling me. He pressed a kiss onto my hair, sweet and gentle. At the first smack of his tongue, he turned his head away from me and toward the plains.

  Ever since Zerim had thrust his tail against me, he avoided the rut at all costs. As soon as he tasted whatever was left of my heat, he distanced himself, his tail pressed tightly against his leg as if he was embarrassed by his lack of a tailclaw. As if I cared.

  Zerim was incredibly attentive, considerate, and gentle. Even now that he’d turned away, he stroked his fingers through my hair, his pacing so even it almost lulled me to sleep.

  Until he asked, “Do you want children?”

  “What I want is to graduate from my stratum and actually land a job.”

  “After that.”

  “Yeah, I’ve always wanted children. Unless teaching them sucks that desire right out of me.” I glanced up at him with a smile.

  He didn’t smile back, his face solemn, his eyes unfocused. “And what would you like to teach?”

  “Art. I love drawing with coals.”

  That actually roused a faint chuckle from him. “Lots of coals on Solgad after a solar flare.”

  I turned onto my side and draped my leg over his, staring up at those smooth, gray cheeks that apparently never grew a beard. “Can I—”

  “Just ask, Lia.”

  Four suns, and this Jal’zar already knew me better than many others who spent more time with me. “It’s personal.”

  “More personal than the physiological details of my reproductive organ? You weren’t shy when you inquired about that.”

  I dug my face into his chest, hiding that blush I was certain had crept onto my cheeks, and would only get worse. “Did you ever have sex with a female? Because you said you never fell into a rut before, so I was wondering, you know.”

  He cleared his throat. Twice. “Jal’zar mature slower, sexually, than Vetusians or humans. Our females don’t come into heat the first time until they’re nineteen or so. It’s not uncommon for males to remain untried until they actually claim a female.”

  Guess that was as close to a “no, I am a virgin” as I would get. “Why don’t you have a mate?”

  “Well, let’s see. From afar, everyone confuses me with a female because of my white hair. By the time they realize I’m not, most assume I’m gay, for some reason. Those females who don’t, well, they take one look at my tail…” His voice trailed off, and his sigh turned into such a deep exhale his chest deflated to a point my head wanted to roll into a different position. “Among my kind, females look for strength above all. I’m a decent fighter, but I’ll always have my limitations without a tailclaw.”

  “I like your—” My eyes caught on a Jal’zar riding toward our tree, and a second yuleshi trotted beside him. “Who is that?”

  Zerim turned. “Fuck’s he doing here?”

  When it came to climbing up and down the tree, we’d fallen into a routine. I was on his back less than a minute later. Another minute after that, and he bent his knees slightly as I slipped off, letting my toes search for the ground.

  The young Jal’zar rode up in front of us, his grass-green eyes on me as his lips curled into a friendly smile. “I’m Jerem.”

  “Lia.”

  Zerim placed his hands onto his hips, his entire posture suddenly rigid. “What are you doing here?”

  “Razgar’s shimid said it was safe to bring Lia to Noja.” He flared his nostrils, sniffing the air just as he winked at me. “Still lingers. Nothing we can’t handle—”

  “Don’t do that again,” Zerim snarled.

  “Do what?”

  “Sniff in her direction.”

  Jerem’s eyes flicked between us a few times, the sudden tension palpable, before he shrugged. “Whatever, Zerim. Razgar sent me to get her.”

  “Could’ve saved yourself the ride,” Zerim said and took my arm, urging me closer to him. “I was planning to return her tomorrow anyway.”

  That was news to me. “What about my parents?”

  “They’re well,” Jerem said. “Razgar put them up in quarters and had us ready another room for you. From what I’ve heard, you’ll fly out next sun.”

  Zerim shifted from one leg to the other before he finally nodded. “Let me get Uruz ready, and we can be on our way.”

  “Fine.” Jerem’s naked soles hit the dirt, and black braids bounced on his shoulders. “Lia, I think your heat took a toll on my friend. He looks about ready to fight me if I as much as smile at you. We call that breeding aggression.”

  A peek over my shoulder confirmed as much. Zerim packed our stuff, but his watchful eyes flicked to us about every three seconds. What was I supposed to do with this… protectiveness? He wanted me. I wanted him. Somehow, he hesitated, and I didn’t understand why.

  “It’s just instincts,” I said. “After all, he had to spend several days with me.”

  “There’s a reason why Mekara gifted him his first vision and brought him to you.” That confused me even more, and Jerem must have seen it because he added, “Zerim’s complicated.”

  No kidding. “He didn’t have an easy life this far, did he?”

  A slow shake rolled from his head.

  “Ready when you are,” Zerim said and brought a saddled Uruz up to us.

  Jerem led the spare yuleshi around, holding the reins out toward me. “She’s my sister’s. As docile as they come.”

  Just as I reached for them, Zerim shoved Jerem’s hand away. “Lia can’t ride on her own.”

  “She can ride with me if—” Jerem’s voice broke off when Zerim gripped my waist and lifted me onto Uruz’ back. “Or not.”

  Zerim swung himself up behind me, and mumbled, “Like you said, her heat still lingers.”

  “Particularly around your nostrils, it seems.” Jerem chuckled, mounted, and haphazardly tied the reins of the other yuleshi to his saddle. “Guess I don’t have to ask if I can at least bring her to Razgar, considering he tasked me with returning her to Noja?”

  Zerim rode off, wordlessly.

  I tilted my head back and glanced up at him. “That guy’s not really your friend, is he?”

  “He’s my best friend.”

  “Doesn’t look it.”

  “Let me rephrase that,” he said. “As long as he keeps his distance from you, he’s my best friend.”

  I reached up and stroked over his cheek. “Breeding aggression.”

  That brought a smirk to his face. “I’m not aggressive.”

  “Sure you are,” Jerem said as he rode up beside us. “Hey Lia, did he take you to watch tendetu hatchlings?”

  I shook my head. “Nope.”

  “He should have. They’re gray when they hatch so they can blend in with the rock, but their colorful plumes come in within a sun or two.” Another smile played around Jerem’s mouth, but this one had a
cunning curve to it. “Want me to take you before you leave? I know a great spot.”

  Zerim’s arm tightened around my belly, and his tail flicked against Jerem’s horn. “Fuck off!”

  “That’s textbook breeding aggression in the first stages right there. Think he’ll kill me if I take you anyway, Lia?”

  Before I managed a yes across my lips, Zerim’s fingers curled into the fabric of my shirt. A gesture so possessive it tingled in all the right places.

  “You talk too much.” Zerim kicked his yuleshi into such an unexpected sprint, I nearly bounced out of the saddle, if not for how he anchored me against him. “I got you. Just relax and follow the motion.”

  The wind howled around us as we thundered across the plains for a good hour, only sometimes falling into a walk so Uruz could recover. But the yuleshi’s laziness faded when he spotted a massive, silver gate set into the side of a mountain, and fell into a trot all on his own. By the time he approached it and finally slowed down, my ass burned something awful.

  “This is Noja?”

  “Uh-huh.” Zerim rode up to a gate within the gate, a much smaller one, where he stopped. “What’s visible of it anyway.”

  Considering these guys hunted with arrows and rode cats, that metal sphere zooming toward us surprised me. It hovered above us, sending a blue beam of light across Zerim as if scanning him.

  After a beep, the small gate disappeared sideways into the larger one with a hydraulic hiss, and Uruz fell back into a walk. The yuleshi followed along a tunnel lined with silver palathium, wide and high enough it could fit stargazers. Air handlers hummed above us, the fresh breeze of air they provided a relief after the high heat.

  We stopped at some sort of intake area, where Zerim dismounted and helped me down, then handed the reins to an older Jal’zar female. “He’s been out for a few suns and got caught in a torrent.”

  The female’s golden eyes disappeared beneath a bow, and she said something in Jalut.

  When Zerim stepped away, I gripped his arm as if on reflex, but he shook his head. “Not here where the wrong people might see us.”

  I immediately let go and just walked beside him. “I didn’t know.”

  “Razgar’s tribe isn’t known for its love toward the Empire,” he said. “I can’t wait to get the fuck away from them.”

  As a hybrid, living with this tribe couldn’t have been easy. “How big is Noja?”

  “Big.”

  “Completely underground?”

  “Mostly.” When he gave a command in Jalut, a yellow light appeared that hovered over him. “Which quarters were assigned to the young Earth female?”

  “Deck thirteen,” a female voice answered. “Wing delta. Door seven. The female is not permitted to leave her quarters until an escort will accompany her to the scheduled flight to Odheim next sun.”

  My chest tightened. “So I’ll definitely leave tomorrow.”

  Zerim sucked in his cheeks, jawline shifting as if he also chomped down on them. “Warlord Razgar will probably put you on the very first flight leaving the skyport.”

  We walked for a good fifteen minutes, used two elevators, and three transportation tubes. Every now and then, I caught a glimpse of massive chambers sunken into the black rock that weren’t framed by metal. Jal’zar scurried between what had to be stores, the sight such a contrast to the plains of Solgad my mind spun.

  “Not what you expected, hmm?” Zerim asked, leading me into a narrow hallway lined with doors. “When I came to Noja the first time, I was… I’d say intimidated. I’d lived in the plains only for fourteen sun cycles. Transportation tubes. Labs. Fusion panels. Shipyards. I had no idea that stuff existed up to that point.” He stopped at a door, swiped a finger through the air, and let it disappear into the wall. “Your room.”

  Ten

  Zerim

  Lia stepped into a room much nicer than what I’d expected Razgar to assign. Small, yes, but it had a generous pod with hyper sleep function, a lounging area, and a cleaning chamber right next to it.

  She pointed at the holographic entertainment cube at the center of the white ceiling. “Definitely not what I expected.”

  “There’s a shower in there if you want to wash up,” I said with a tap to the frosted glass door. “I’m sure they’ll bring you food soon, and give you a time for your flight.”

  She glanced around the room and fumbled with her hands. “Mmh, yeah. I doubt I’ll come back to Solgad anytime soon. If ever.”

  Neither would I travel to Earth in the near future. Whatever this was between us, it would come to an end next sun. The beat of my heart pounded inside my ears, one ba-boom for every second I wasted just standing here instead of making her mine — if only for a little while.

  In three steps, I crossed the room, placed my hand onto the back of her head, and pulled her mouth to mine. I kissed her with all the passion I could allow without falling straight into a rut, and poured everything I had into it. The possessiveness that coursed through me, the brutal need to claim her, the raw longing I had for this female. I made sure she tasted it all when I nibbled on her lips, letting my small fangs rake over them until she moaned and writhed in my arm.

  “I don’t want to leave yet,” she whispered against the corner of my mouth. “I want to stay with you a while longer.”

  I wanted her to stay forever, but that was impossible. All we had were a few more argos, so I lifted her up and swung her legs around my waist. I carried her into the cleaning chamber, activating the shower with a voice command.

  Hem of her shirt clasped between my fingers, I pulled it up over her head and tossed it against the wall, exposing her breasts to my eyes for the first time. “Once the Warlords release me and I’m not a ward anymore, I can travel whenever I want.”

  Solar cycles from now.

  A time so long I couldn’t possibly expect her to wait for me or the little I had to offer. No, her fated mate would show up at some point, just like she said, and give her all the happiness in the universe.

  But he wasn’t here now.

  One click, and my chest holster clanked onto the tiles. My loincloth went next, already heavy and soaked with how fine drops of water rained down on us as we continued to feast on each other’s lips.

  I placed my hands onto her breasts, weighting them, kneading them, moaning at their fullness and how her nipples hardened against my thumbs. “You’re so beautiful, Lia. So sweet and curious.”

  “Zerim.” Her moan made my cock twitch, but it had nothing on how her little hands roamed my chest when I lowered her to the ground.

  I trailed kisses down her neck and along her collarbone as I sunk to my knees. Greedy lips suckled her nipple between them until she gasped. I did it over and over, squeezing the little hard bud, rounding it with my tongue, all while I pulled her shorts down.

  Lia wasn’t smooth like me down there, but a fine fluff of hair crowned her pubic bone. I brushed the tip of my nose over it, slowly working myself toward her slit. At the first lap of my tongue, she gripped my horns. At the second, I found where she was different from a Jal’zar female.

  Her clit wasn’t on the inside but at the top of her slit, hiding behind a hood of skin, the way it peeked out nothing short of a shy invitation. I lapped at it, each broad stroke of my tongue exposing it more. Lia seemed to like it and resonated the shower with her moans while she clasped my horns tighter.

  “That feels good,” she said and smiled down at me, her suntanned skin glistening with those pearls of water running down her gorgeous form.

  Encouraged by her praise, I continued licking. Each suckle, each lap of my tongue slickened her cunt, and the taste of her arousal spread across my gums. Slightly salty, yes, but something else hid underneath. A sweetness that sent a rush of heated blood through my veins, dizzying my mind to the sound of my tongue smacking wildly against her cunt.

  I stopped myself right there, kissing my way up over her hip, along her waist, and to her shoulder. “Your heat is almost over but I
can’t seem to stop myself from wanting to rut.”

  She clasped my chin and tugged, pulling my mouth down for a kiss, sampling the taste of her cunt from my lips. “Don’t stop yourself.”

  And I wouldn’t, if it wasn’t for how my tail lifted behind me, already angling at her ribs again. “I don’t wanna be too rough.”

  “I can handle it.” Her gorgeous blue eyes held mine captive as she sunk to her knees.

  I gripped her hair as if on instinct. “What are you doing?”

  “What do you think?”

  Nothing. My mind went blank.

  All I could do was fix my eyes on how the flat of her tongue pressed against the base of my cock. It trailed upward, tingling over my knot, bumping over my ridges, until she reached the tip and—

  “Mmmh… dammit, Lia.” Tremors shook my legs when her lips clasped around the tip of my cock.

  My fingers shook in her hair, and I gathered more of her wet, blonde strands while her head bobbed back and forth. She sucked me greedily, and little choking noises resonated from her throat each time she reached a knot too swollen for her mouth to fit. Did seed trickle onto the back of her tongue?

  It must have, given how she slurped and swallowed, taking as much of me as she could. Her fingers wrapped around my shaft while her other hand cupped my sack, massaging it until my testicles rose and tightened.

  My head reared back and my horns hit the wall, eyes clenching shut the moment drops of water hit my face. Momentarily blind, I focused on the twirl of her tongue around my crown each time her lips came up.

  “By Mekara,” I moaned, and my toes curled against the tiles. “You’ll make me spill like this. Do you want me to?”

  She said nothing, but I sensed how a grin hardened her lips, throwing her out of rhythm. When she found it again, she sucked harder, hungrier. Whatever moans made it past her stuffed lips mingled with how I once more smacked my tongue.

  Fuck, she was so delicious.

  Sweeter than any other female.

  The edges of my vision darkened, and the brutal surge of the rut infested my veins. It coursed through me, and my fingers tightened in her hair, strained her scalp.