by Flora Dare
And he looked like he could eat me up in one gulp.
I repeated myself. "I want you to take me home. Now."
The silence lengthened between us.
He just stared at me. "No."
Really? Just…no? I could have stomped my feet in frustration.
"It's not up for discussion. You will take me home, now."
"No."
He smirked. It was just a little turn of the lip, but he was still smirking at me. How dare he?
"So, I'm your captive, then."
At that, he smiled. "Yes." Then he took a step closer.
Fuck this and fuck him. Yeah, I was totally hot for a scaly alien, but I had no interest in being a complacent prisoner.
One of the low floating tables was next to me, with the remains of the meal Thea had provided. I reached down and snatched the glasses, flinging them and their contents at Tlavi's head. Then I grabbed the heavy carafe by the handle.
It wouldn't be much of a fair fight — he outweighed me and was way, way taller — but if I could surprise him and get a solid hit to the head, then maybe I could get the upper hand and gain control of the situation.
Except from the look on his face as vitae dripped off his chin, the last thing the lizardman expected was any kind of resistance. As I swung the weighty jug at his head, he burst into action. He caught the carafe in his hand easily and used it to pull me firmly into his arms.
Taking advantage of the momentum, I launched at him. I'm not a lightweight or a delicate flower, so we went down in a pile of arms and legs. And with another twist that I couldn't keep up with, he was on top, straddling me. My arms were pinned to my sides and my breaths where coming out in gasps.
Touching him was a mistake. He wasn't kidding about the life mate stuff being explosive. His weight on me, his warmth, his scent filled my nose. My nipples were hard as rocks and I couldn't tell if I was panting from adrenaline and exertion or if I was moaning with need.
His eye slits expanded and his grip on me tightened. He stared down at me, his eyes glued to my heaving bosom and he growled. He literally growled, then hissed at me. "You filthy ape-thing. I don't want you, it's just Pogona pulling us together. Control your weak mind."
It was like cold water being dumped all over me. He was the one who kidnapped me, who wouldn't let me go. I was still physically burning for him, but as he lowered his head to mine - I head-butted him. Hard.
Copper-colored blood gushed out of his nose, but he still didn't release my arms. He was nestled between my legs and I could feel a very distinct hardness pressing into me, only the thin silk of the dress and his pants keeping him from plunging into my slick core.
He released one hand to pull the skirt of my gown up. I balled my hand into a fist and punched him in the nose again, hoping that it was more sensitive now. But his hand was relentless.
For all our roughness, he was so gentle as he touched me that all the fight went out of me. He lightly trailed up my mound, then stroked my clit with his thumb.
It was like lightening exploded out of my aching nub. I went from fighting him to arching my back and clutching him. His thumb circled my clit and I shook in his arms. His fingers probed my now soaking slit and I lost all sense of being.
He growled in my ear as he discovered my wetness and plunged two of his fingers into me. My hips rose to meet the thrust of his hand and the only thought I had was of having him in me. He drove me higher and higher with his hands until a blazing orgasm ripped through me.
His growls now sounded triumphant and I could only whimper as he removed his hand. My eyelids fluttered open to him staring down at me - pure satisfaction on his face as he undid his pants. His mind isn’t as strong as he thought it was, since he can’t keep his hands off me.
I spread my legs wider, more than ready to feel his hard length fill me. I wanted everything he could give me. Whatever this thing was between us, we were going to figure it out right now.
Before he could release his cock and take me, he was flying backward through the air and off of me. I looked up in a daze. It was Thea and, holy shit, she was strong. And mad as hell. She'd grabbed him by the back of the shirt and flung him head over heels away from me. I managed to pull the gown down over myself while she was throwing him around.
Tlavi fell in a heap in the middle of the room. He tried to stand, but Thea kicked his feet out from under him and yelled, "How DARE you! She's my guest. She is under my protection. You put her in my protection. You have violated my trust."
She grabbed the foot he kicked out at her and threw it upward hard enough to send him rolling closer to the door.
"You claim you want to break the lifemate bond,” she continued screaming, “but then you won't keep your hands off her. I was only gone for five minutes!"
Thea performed another powerful flip. "You only care about yourself. You claim you want to be more than our biology, but it's a lie. You can only think about your own selfish pleasures. She is in my charge and you are no longer permitted in my quarters. Computer, Protocol Sekkizin!"
With that, a door slid open and she flipped him out the door. The door closed in his face as he was scrambling to get back into the room. With him covered in blood and the look of rage on his face, I was kinda glad he couldn't get back in.
She turned and faced me. I started to scramble away at her scowl but her face relaxed into a worried expression.
"I am so sorry, Meli. I didn't think he would violate your privacy like that."
He almost violated a lot more than my privacy. Coitus interruptus or not, I wanted to die of embarrassment. She bustled over to me and helped me to my feet.
She paused and looked me dead in the eye, no expression on her face. "I am sorry to have to ask you this, but I have to know, for both our sakes, did he take you."
I burned red. "Define take." His hand had definitely been…taking what it wanted. Giving me exactly what I was begging for.
She stayed calm and quietly said, "I mean what humans would consider the basic sex act of man and woman."
No matter how hard I prayed, the floor did not open up and swallow me. "No, no we did NOT have sex." By about five seconds, maybe less. And I was really torn up about that.
She immediately relaxed. Great, they were all a bunch of xenophobes. She just didn't want her brother attached to a human.
"You can't possibly know, but if you had, it would have made the life bond difficult, if not impossible to break. He wouldn't be able to let you go home and, as much as I enjoy having a guest, I know you want to go home."
"Okay, you have to tell me what the hell is going on. Because on one hand, he's insulting me. On the other, he's trying to fuck me. And I can't think when he's touching me. He makes my brain go all crazy."
It was a little crass, but true. Something was on fire between us and it didn't make sense.
"My people, we have a few…let's call them oddities. In the known worlds, as we come into our maturity, we develop a life bond. It's a physical and spiritual connection with another being."
"But, I'm not your people."
"No, but rarely, it crosses into other species. Mostly, it's someone you already know. The more religious among us believe it's how the gods keep our bloodlines healthy."
"And you both think I'm Tlavi's life mate?"
"Oh, I would say so. He's overly proud of our family and culture. He's…" She paused, clearly trying to phrase something delicate. But I remembered what he called me.
I lifted an eyebrow. Bloodlines, ew. "We'd call him a racist on earth, being all about genetic purity and what not."
Thea shook her head and pleaded with me. "He's not bad, he's just very, very traditional. Our father beat it into him that he must keep the family line going. And he hates the idea of being a slave to our bodies’ whims. He doesn't believe the gods have anything to do with it, it's just a genetic quirk we can overcome."
"So, why not leave me on Earth? Can't you just do your finger wiggle and let me go?" If I could convince her to ta
ke me home, I would bury my embarrassing lust for Tlavi in a deep, dark hole.
"It doesn't work that way. There is a ritual. Although, it's unknown what needs to happen with a human. But, clearly Pogona exists between you both and we need to take you back to our planet to break the bond."
"Pogona?"
"It's the overriding urge that compels the life bond."
"Compels it to…?"
She waved her hand weakly. I sensed it was terribly embarrassing to talk so openly about something that must be common knowledge in her culture. "Well, to copulate, to be together. Mostly we don't disgrace ourselves. Strong feelings and events can trigger more…extreme actions."
She shifted uncomfortably. "I'm reasonably sure he was simply waiting to share a meal with us. I stepped out, and I wasn't thinking what would happen if he saw you. Although I really expected he'd have more control."
"Well, I, uhm, when he told me I was a prisoner, I tried to escape."
"Oh, oh dear. What happened?" There was a slightly horrified look on her face.
"I tried to hit him with the carafe, but he caught it. Then the momentum knocked us down."
"Which is when I found you?"
I shook my head. Now she just stared at me, clearly fascinated. "So you…you tried to fight him?"
"Well, I'm not keen on being a prisoner. But it was when I head-butted him that it got…" I trailed off for a moment. This was his sister. "Intense. It got intense." I could feel my ears burning; they must have been blazing red.
She sounded slightly scandalized. "So, that's where all the blood came from."
"Yeah, basically." I shrugged. They were holding me prisoner, they had to expect I wouldn’t just sit there. When he snatched me, I’d just shot up a man’s truck. Clearly I didn’t mess around.
"It's just…in our culture, women…we don't…I mean…we literally can't resist our life bond. Fighting isn’t something that is even possible."
"Well, when you walked in, I wasn't doing a whole lot of resisting." More like spreading and begging. All this alien technology, and no way for the floor to swallow me up when I’m so embarrassed I could die.
She got very still and quiet. "It's beyond that…it's awful."
"What do you mean?"
"I've studied humans, you know. I know that in a coupling, you aren't compelled to obey. We are. I've vowed to destroy whatever life bond happened to me. My brother and I…we promised each other we would help give each other freedom. We watched our father destroy our mother. He was cruel beyond reason. I'm happy to just let the bloodline die out and never mate. But Tlavi wants to continue our family line. So he must find someone appropriate."
“And I’m really not.”
“He’s wrong, you know. But he can’t see past the other ropes our father bound him in. He has a real fear of being controlled now. I will leave you to your thoughts. I must find him.”
She strode out of the room. I’d been thinking of him as a big, mean jerk, but I hadn’t thought about why our connection would be so painful for him.
~ * ~ * ~
Days passed slowly. Thea left me some books she’d picked up from Earth to study and would check up on me occasionally. I was staring up at the ceiling when she joined me one day, bearing a tray of food. We lounged on the divans, talking about one of the books we’d both read.
“How much longer until we are at your world?” I finally mustered the courage to ask.
“We probably have another two weeks, I think you call them?”
I gasped. “Seriously? Doesn’t this thing go any faster? I thought you were super advanced?”
Thea smiled. “I don’t think you realize just how far away your planet is from mine.”
“I’m getting the idea. Why were you anywhere near Earth?” At least another two weeks? Then the return trip? There was no way my mother wasn’t going to completely flip out.
“Tlavi never said, specifically. I think he could feel the pull towards your planet, to find you. We were hiding behind your moon when he was suddenly able to pinpoint you.”
Before I could ask her more, a jarring alarm rang through the room. I would rather have kept noodling on my upcoming fate when Tlavi came crashing into the room and grabbed his sister's arm.
He was furious - magnificent and incredibly furious. The world tilted and we were all swept off our feet. It was the first time anything like movement had happened while I was on the ship. It scared the piss out of me.
Tlavi swore. That scared me more.
Thea struggled to stand up.
"Security Protocol Alpha, red alert!" he shouted
Thea turned toward me, panic scrawled across her face. She stopped trying to stand up and crawled toward me, stretching her hand out. I reached for her, but before we could touch, spider-like metallic arms burst out of the ceiling and snatched her up. She was pulled away from me, screaming and still reaching out to me.
Tlavi finally made it to his feet. He staggered toward me and pulled me into his arms. Despite how scared I was, it was still a thrill for him to hold me. The ship seemed to have stabilized somewhat because he easily walked me to the edge of the room.
Far more strange than the crazy spider arms that grabbed Thea, padded chairs popped out of the wall. They almost looked like your standard racecar seat. All curves, straps and buckles. He shoved me into one and quickly strapped me down. If everything wasn't so chaotic, it might have even been fun to be so strapped down with him towering over me.
He pressed a kiss on my forehead and stroked my cheek. "I should have updated the security protocols." He strapped himself in next to me. "You would be with Thea in an escape pod right now, if I hadn't forgotten."
I was trying desperately to not panic, but a few tears slid down my cheeks. I tried to keep the tremble out of my voice when I said, "I don't understand what’s happening. Is something wrong with the ship?"
He took hold of my hand and squeezed it gently. "We were attacked. Piracy isn't just something that happens on your world. I had to initiate escape protocols when the ship was damaged."
"Pirates? Are they going to board us?" I wasn't sure I could take a change in captivity. At this point, while I'd be denied my freedom, I'd been well cared for. Who knows what pirates would do to me?
"No, we're a faster, better ship."
"But the shaking and the spider arms."
"My sister was taken to an escape pod that will get her to safety. Well away from those monsters."
"What about us? The ship?"
He said, "We out-maneuvered them, easily. But in the process, we took heavy damage."
"Oh my God, what does that even mean? Just tell me."
He squeezed my hand so tightly I could feel it throb from blood loss. "It means we're going to crash."
"Into what?! Are we going to die? Why can't we get into an escape pod, too?"
"There is only one and it's long gone. The ship's trajectory has us aimed at a habitable planet."
"Habitable? If we survive crashing through the atmosphere and slamming into a freaking planet, you mean." I was more than a little terrified and careening directly into hysteria.
"Yes, that."
"How are you not freaking out? Why are you so calm?"
"I'm not calm! I'm making sure we have a damn good chance of surviving the crash and what comes after."
"How can you know if we have a good chance?" I was going to die on some rock billions of miles from home and, in that moment, I just really missed my mom. The tears were falling in earnest now. My short, poorly planned life was going to end abruptly in a fiery crash, and I didn't want that to happen. I wasn't ready.
"This is the most protected part of the ship. We're in Alpha Protocol now, which means everything is being positioned to protect this compartment and us."
With that statement, a complicated set of controls dropped down in front of him and he let go of my hand. "The ship will be, to use your phrasing, totally trashed. But all the power will go into the inertial dam
peners, which should keep the disruption to us limited.
God, he was really smug, which was a little crazy considering we were about to wreck his pretty little ship. A smidge of concern would make me feel a hell of a lot better. Instead, I was the only one who was upset.
But there was nothing I could do about it, so I closed my eyes and pressed against the padding that surrounded me for a few long moments, regaining my calm. He wasn't interested in dying either, so maybe he was right to be so assured. Of course, just as I'd reached some level of calmness, he swore at the controls and the ship started lurching around like a drunken sailor.