by Leslie Chase
I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to. Or, to be honest with myself, that I wanted to. Though I wanted to assert myself, to insist that I wasn’t his anything, being so close to Ronan made me tremble with need.
Turning, I looked at him. Ronan was a shadow in front of me, barely visible in the faint glow that surrounded us. Though my eyes adjusted to the darkness slowly, his looming bulk made me feel safe.
He saved me. Memories flickered back into my mind, the fight with the tenger and its aftermath. How he’d leaped into the fray without hesitation, wrestling with a monster the size of a tiger for my sake.
And then I’d fainted away rather than thanking him. Great.
Sitting up wasn’t easy. My legs hurt, a weird burning sensation where the tenger had stung, and that was when I realized I hadn’t just fainted. And, looking down, that I was naked.
Ronan’s expression might be hidden in the shadows but I was certain he grinned as I squeaked and scooted away from him, trying to cover myself. It was ridiculous, pointless — he’d seen whatever he wanted to already. More than that: he’d undressed me, held my naked body.
Naked, treacherous body — it ached at the memory of his arms around me, wanting more. I tried not to think about that, but it was hard.
That’s not the only thing that’s hard. I almost giggled at the unbidden thought.
“Where are my clothes?” My voice came out in a squeak and my cheeks heated. “Why am I naked?”
“The rain soaked them and you needed to dry,” Ronan said as though it was the most obvious, natural thing in the world. He gestured to one side and I saw my clothing hanging on a crudely improvised frame.
“And you wanted to see me naked,” I said. I’d intended for it to come out an accusation, but it didn’t sound that way when the words left my lips.
It’s not like I didn’t want to see his body. If our positions had been reversed, would I have resisted? Hell no.
“It is true, I did.” Ronan’s deep voice vibrated through me and I shivered. “I want to see you, to touch you, to enjoy you. You are my khara, and fate binds us together. You are mine, Becca. And you want it as much as I do.”
I swallowed nervously, heart pounding. The way he looked at me was unlike anything I’d experienced, and I had to admit I liked it. It wasn’t lust, or not just lust. There was something more to it, almost reverent. Something that gave me a sense of safety. Biting my lip, I lowered my hands and let him look. It was strange to be so vulnerable. Strange but good.
I still wanted to object, to resist. Part of me did, anyway. The other part wanted to jump into his arms and let him claim me any way he wanted. Which side was stronger I didn’t know, but the tug of war in my mind left me speechless for a moment.
“I’m no one’s property,” I muttered at last, though I didn’t cover up. “I don’t belong to you.”
“Yes, you do,” Ronan replied, not a shred of doubt in his voice. “As I belong to you. We belong to each other, khara. Your body knows, all you need to do is admit it to yourself.”
I’d taken a step towards him. When did I do that? Ronan towered over me, and the intensity of his gaze in the low light made me shiver. His dark blue skin, so tantalizingly close, called out for me to touch it.
And a glance lower showed the massive bulge where his cock strained against his pants. Thank god he hadn’t taken those off, I thought, but there was an edge of disappointment to it. What did he look like under there? I’d felt him against me through the cloth, and I wanted more.
He reached out for me, faster than I could react, and pulled me close. Lifting me against him, he pulled me to him hard enough to drive the air out of my lungs in a gasp.
Our lips met as I squirmed in his grip. I could pretend that I was trying to pull away, but I wanted this as much as he did. Needed it, needed his touch and his warmth and the joy of his skin touching mine.
The kiss was electric, powerful, mind-blowing. Ronan pressed me against the wall of the shack, pinning me against the rough wood with his powerful alien body, and I wrapped my arms around him, writhing against him, lost in the moment.
God, he felt good. And god I wanted more. A warm, hungry emptiness echoed inside me as his tongue pressed to mine, and all I could think about was getting him to fill me. Would he even fit? That huge bulge was scary.
But I wanted, needed, to meet the challenge. Without a conscious decision, my hands tugged at his belt, trying to open the alien fastening.
He snarled something wordless and reached down between us. Whatever he did, the belt came open and so did his pants, and I pulled them down eagerly.
Freed, his cock sprang up into my grasp and I gasped. Ronan growled again as I wrapped my hand around it, shocked at how massive it was. His lips brushed my neck, and his cock swelled against my fingers as his teeth grazed my skin.
“It’s too big,” I moaned, but he shook his head.
“I will make it fit, khara,” he told me. My breath caught at his tone, and a strange mix of excitement and fear and need filled me as he lifted me.
His rough kisses trailed down to my breasts, lips and tongue and teeth teasing me, and I was already wild for him, wanted him more than I could say. Every time he touched me it drove me crazy with lust, made my sex ache for him.
Exploring his body I stroked his cock, the strange ridges brushing against my palm. A vibration buzzed through it, powerful enough to make my arm tingle, and I groaned at the thought of that inside me. Oh god yes.
His hand moved between my legs, slipping between the slick folds of my pussy, making me pant for breath as his mouth closed on my nipple. An expert flick of his tongue made me shake.
And then his fingers found my clit, pressing and circling and driving me wild. My body arched against his, my hand tightened around his hard cock, and I cried out.
Nothing else mattered, nothing else existed. Just me and Ronan, here together, and the pleasure that he woke in me. I shook and yelled in ecstasy until he turned, carrying me back to the makeshift bed and lowering me to it.
My eyes wide, I gazed down my body at Ronan as he trailed kisses lower and lower. His fingers hadn’t left me, just stopped moving, and I swallowed as his lips moved ever closer.
Reluctantly I let go of his cock, letting it slip from my fingers. He chuckled, looking up at me and spreading my legs wide.
“Do not worry khara,” he said. “You will hold that again soon enough, I promise.”
The words alone were almost enough to send me over the edge again. And then his kisses found my sex and I arched, pressing myself up to his hungry, eager mouth.
A rough tongue danced across me, and his fingers pushed into me as I bucked, driven almost beyond endurance by Ronan’s skilled mouth. I’d never experienced anything like it, waves of pleasure flooding through my body, washing away everything else.
His fingers… they spread me, stretched me, and it ought to have hurt. But not now, not in the throes of pleasure like this. Now they filled the ache inside me, and I threw my head back and howled as another mind-blowing orgasm rocked me. My fingers clutched at Ronan’s hair, pulling him to me as I writhed under him.
But still my body ached for more. For the thing he hadn’t yet given me, the thing I wanted more than anything else. As my thoughts returned to me, he rose up, his golden eyes gleaming in the strange light, his cock pressed to me.
“Ask for it,” he said, his voice firm. Powerful. Undeniable. A spark of rebellion in me made me bite my lip and shake my head once.
His sharp teeth bared, he growled again, a low sound that vibrated through me. Moving forward, he pressed himself to my opening, his cock vibrating powerfully. I shuddered, locking gazes with him, and my defiance melted. God, I wanted him inside me so badly.
“Ask.”
“God,” I whimpered. Resistance wasn’t just futile, it was impossible. “God, yes, please. I need you Ronan, please fuck me — OH.”
As soon as I spoke, he thrust hard, burying himself deep in me. My pussy
opened for him, stretched wide and almost painful, but it felt so right. So perfect. Like nothing else I’d ever known or imagined.
Each thrust drove me down into the thin blanket, pinning me to the bench beneath. The humming vibration of Ronan’s cock flooded my body and my mind, driving out everything else as explosions of light and pleasure wrecked my ability to think.
My hands clutched him, fingers digging into his blue skin, pulling him tight against me as I screamed wordless pleasure at the ceiling. And every time I moved, he swelled inside me, his balls driving against me with each thrust.
At last his control slipped and Ronan roared with an animal passion. Lowering his mouth to my neck, he bit down hard, his teeth digging deep.
That was the last straw. The hurricane of sensation tore away what little rational thought I had left, and I screamed my joy to the roof. Ronan followed me, cumming hard inside me, his seed flooding me as we both lost ourselves in an orgasm so powerful it joined us together.
I didn’t know where my pleasure stopped and his began. All I knew was that I wanted this moment to last forever.
When I came back to myself, I lay snuggled against Ronan, his arms holding me again. My throat sore from screaming, my muscles burning from exertion, and my body wonderfully satisfied. I turned to face Ronan, wincing and smiling as aching muscles protested. He watched me, a happy grin on his rugged face.
Like the cat who got the cream, I thought. Well, okay, he had a lot to be proud of. I managed a smile of my own as he traced a finger down my side. The sharp tip of his claw made me squirm, reigniting my desire. His hand slid down to cup my ass and pull me close into a powerful kiss that took my breath away all over again.
When our lips parted, his sharp teeth grazed my lip and I groaned. My breathing came quickly, my body shook, but somehow I found the strength to push him away. As much as I wanted him — and I did want him — I ached all over and wasn’t sure I’d survive another round. We rolled apart and I pulled myself to my feet, legs weak and trembling.
My eyes had adjusted enough that I saw the shape of the room around us. Definitely a room, not just a cave: one stone wall, three wooden ones, and a curtain for a door.
I frowned, the implications dawning on me. No way had Ronan built this place, not unless I’d been out for a week. My stomach grumbled, but I wasn’t that hungry.
“Where are we? Who built this place?” I asked, walking around the small space, almost forgetting my nakedness. The hungry noise Ronan made as he watched reminded me and I swallowed. Knowing I made a man like him so aroused he barely managed to contain himself… it was a powerful feeling.
Almost powerful enough to drag me back to his bed, but I needed to find out where I was. My clothes were still too damp to wear, so I wrapped the blanket around myself instead. But when I stepped towards the exit, Ronan’s hand landed on my shoulder, holding me back.
“I do not know who made this place, khara,” he said. Turning me gently, he directed my gaze to a dark patch on the wall. “Whoever built it, their story did not end well, and the sights outside are not pleasant. Prepare yourself before you leave.”
For a moment I didn’t recognize the mark. It was out of context here, but then the memory surfaced. A laser burn. I’d seen that effect often enough where colonists practiced with their rifles — a narrow burn that bit deep into the wood. I swallowed.
“Could it be whoever built the signal?”
“I doubt it,” Ronan said. “We are under the temple, and while the building is magnificent, there is no sign of advanced technology. Someone able to build a hyperspace relay could do better.”
He didn’t sound certain, and neither was I. Too many unanswered questions remained for us to be sure of anything. Maybe we stood in a hunting lodge, and whoever built it enjoyed roughing it? Or were they the survivors of a shipwreck, stranded on Crashland like the rest of us, but with a working beacon? Dozens of possibilities raced through my mind.
Though why they’d build this giant structure was hard to explain in any of them. I needed to learn more before I could make a guess at the builders’ motives.
Whoever they were, the laser damage and Ronan’s warning made me worry about what happened to them. I pushed the curtain aside and stepped out.
The light was brighter here. Not daylight-bright, but enough to see by, soft and blue-tinged unlike the harsh light of Crashland’s sun. Natural phosphorescence, some kind of fungus? I didn’t know, but the effect would have been beautiful if it hadn’t illuminated a scene of horror.
The hut I’d emerged from was one of the few still standing. Dozens of others lay in ruins, broken or burned or both. I stared at the destruction, took a step back, and ran into Ronan. His arms circled me, held me, protected me.
I saw no bodies. That was something, I told myself. Whoever lived here survived the disaster, or at least enough of them survived to bury the rest. Drawing strength from Ronan’s embrace, I moved down to examine the scene.
Our hut stood away from the rest, far enough that the flames hadn’t reached it. Three others, spaced around the outer wall of the massive chamber, had made it through the fire too. A beautiful curtain hung across the entrances, embroidered with a colorful pattern that made my head swim to look at. There was something weird about the aesthetic, the color choices, weird enough to make me uncomfortable.
“Not human,” I said aloud, though it didn’t need saying. It wasn’t just the color choices: the huts were too big, oddly shaped, meant for someone built very differently than me. Ronan nodded agreement.
“Nor prytheen,” he added. “Someone else built this place.”
I walked through the wreckage of the underground village. The structures had never been sturdy — why would they need to be, built underground like this? They didn’t need to keep out the weather down here.
They’d certainly not done anything to keep out attackers. Laser blasts had left scorch marks on the stone walls and on the wooden buildings. I saw the burns everywhere, dark stains around many of them. Stains that had to be blood.
Others had been here since the fire burned out. Someone had pulled the wrecked homes open, searched through them. Did that mean there’d been survivors, returning to salvage what they could, bury their dead, and move away? Or had the attackers come back to loot once the fire they’d started died?
I shivered despite the warmth of the blanket.
“How many people lived here?” I asked, looking at the devastation. “Who did this?”
“I can’t answer that,” Ronan replied, crouching to sift through the ashes of a building. “I count fourteen buildings, or their remains, but that doesn’t tell us much. Did they live alone or in family groups? How many of them to a family? And that’s without wondering about some of the other possibilities — for all I can tell, some of these buildings were just for ceremonial purposes. And perhaps some of them didn’t live in the huts at all. We aren’t even sure how big they are, or whether they mind crowds.”
He stood, frowning and brushed the ashes from his hands. “As to who attacked them, that’s easier. The laser burns match your human rifles. Either humans or prytheen raided this place, but it’s been tens of days at least since they left. If any of them died in the fighting, they took their dead with them and I can’t find a trail.”
Fourteen buildings. And people might have camped outside those structures, protected from wind and rain. Hundreds might have lived in here, if they didn’t mind close quarters. Only one thing was certain: the people living here were new to us, ones we’d no idea lived on Crashland.
I kneeled to brush the charred remains of a wooden frame with my hand, feeling the results of the wanton destruction. Was this your first contact with us, too? The first thing people from the stars brought, death and destruction?
It would be easy to blame the prytheen for this attack. They were raiders, pirates, killers. Their attack on the Wandering Star had brought us all here, trapped us on this damned planet. But looking up at Ronan I
saw my disgust mirrored in his expression. Not every prytheen accepted this behavior, and some fought to stop it. Without their help, we humans would all be slaves right now.
He caught my look and snarled something I didn’t catch, then spoke more clearly. “Whoever did this is an honorless animal. These people were defenseless, even against your primitive laser weapons, and the fight was a slaughter. No honorable combat here, no glory to gain.”
“As helpless as the Wandering Star?” I shouldn’t have said that, I knew, but the words escaped before I had a chance to stop them. Perhaps the way he spoke of our technology as primitive set me off? It didn’t help that he was right: human technology lagged far behind most other species.
Ronan’s face darkened and his eyes narrowed. “That was different. Your ship held terraforming equipment we needed, the supplies to maintain our fleet. The attack was wrong, yes, but it had a purpose. Not like this… rampage.”
How kind of him to accept that he’d been wrong after his attack left us all stranded here. I straightened up, glowering, but kept myself from snapping at him again with an effort. My frustration and anger boiled inside me but attacking him for the actions of other prytheen wasn’t fair.
I couldn’t even be sure the attackers were prytheen. Human history had no shortage of people who attacked those weaker than themselves, and for all I knew this had been a raid by human colonists. As tempting as it was to throw all the blame at the aliens… humans were perfectly capable of committing this atrocity.
Tense silence filled the cavern, the only sound the gurgling of the artificial stream that ran through it and the howling of the storm outside. I huddled in my blanket and tried to compose myself.
“We need to get moving,” I said eventually. “Find the source of the signal — it has to be close — and then get back to the colony.”
“Not until the storm lifts,” Ronan said. “We won’t get anywhere in that rain, and I will not risk your safety.”