She is quiet for a very long time. And I remain quiet as well, waiting more patiently for her to deliver her verdict than I did the investigation into my possible treason.
Yet, her next words still take me by surprise. “My planet…I must return to it. There are people who need me there. Not just Kira, but also my sister-in-law and my niece. Now that I’m bred, can you take me back there? Like, on one of those small spaceships I saw in that crystal city before you force-flew me back? I promise I won’t tell anyone. If it’s girl, I’ll just raise her quietly and if it’s a boy, I’ll give her to the Reapers and either way, you don’t have to worry. I promise. I won’t rat you out.”
“Rat you out…” I repeat carefully, not comprehending her vow.
“I won’t tell,” she explains quickly. “I promise I won’t tell anyone what happened here. Ever.”
I consider her words, confusing in so many ways beyond the meaning of “rat you out.” Her people call the Collection Force warriors, Reapers, as if we come to the planet to deliver death upon them not liberate our male Xallings.
Even more disturbing, she wants to go back there, even with the cabin’s access to easy food and amenities restored. It would seem she is more concerned for others than herself.
Which is not necessarily a good thing, I note, remembering how her own brother had responded with so little care upon hearing the news of her death. He thought of her as some sort of servant, but my Zin’nia would give up her own comfort to serve his family.
More time. I need more time to convince her. That her place is not on her planet, but on mine. Living by my side. Treasured by me always.
With that in mind, I tell her a carefully constructed truth: “If the babe is a boy, there may be a way to stow you on the next Breeding Ceremony ship. But until then…”
“The next Breeding Ceremony ship…that’s seven more months.” Even after many solars on the Xalling Collection Force, I cannot translate the tones that accompany the hu’man’s strange throat box language. However I sense her disappointment in the way she chews her lip, as if sucking on it for solace.
“I am aware I have caused you much inconvenience. But you have my pledge that I will treasure you for however long you must stay. I will never visit harm upon you, even if you pierce me with a thousand of your iron tipped wooden slivers.”
She once again goes quiet. And when she opens her mouth, she asks another surprising question. “You were found innocent. When?”
“This morning,” I answer, even though I am confused by the question and her asking of it.
Then I wait to see how she will respond.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Zinnia
This morning.
Wow. That makes these feelings roiling inside of me even worse. I had been hoping to catch him in a lie.
But instead of whipping me, he’d brought me here.
Instead of punishing me, he’d commuted nearly four hours a day to be with me every night.
He was under what sounds like a very serious investigation. And what did he do as soon as he got free? He came back. To me.
And then when both my razor cat and I attacked him, he responded by risking further investigation to get me a translation chip.
I shake my head, not quite knowing what to do with all of this information. Or the apology, delivered in monotone, but with words so sincere they make my heart tremble.
… you have my pledge that I will treasure you for however long you must stay. I will never visit harm upon you, even if you pierce me with a thousand of your iron tipped wooden slivers
Those words burn in my heart as I once again ask, “Why?”
One word. But he once again seems to understand what I’m really asking.
He looks at me in that intent way of his. His violet eyes burning into mine. “While under investigation I have spent much time reading many reports on your human race. And I have come to the conclusion that I have become infected by your most common heart disease. That is the only way to explain my actions.”
“Our heart disease?” I ask, not understanding. The old planet had managed to eradicate most diseases, including cancer by the time our colony ship left.
His nose ridges ripple. “Yes the heart disease that can occur between two beings and sometimes among families. It is called love—and is oft mentioned in your melodic word stories. I believe that I became infected with this love disease during our first contact in your planet’s red woods.”
I blink. “Wait, are you trying to say you fell in love with me…at first sight? And that’s why you stole me?”
He answers with a grave nod.
My heart constricts so tight, I have to look away. I don’t believe him, I tell myself. Can’t believe him. I mean…“Have you seen the other women on my planet?”
“Before my own Breeding Ceremony, I did several tours with the Collection Force. So yes, I have seen many of the hu’man females on your former planet, but…”
He lets out a long untranslatable hiss. “…there are none who compare to you. On your planet or mine.”
I whip my gaze back up. Sharp and suspicious as I search for any sign of duplicity. But I find none.
There’s just the golden Xal I remember, the formerly dutiful warrior who could not whip me, looking back at me with calm eyes.
And despite everything I was told by Dan and so many of the settlement boys growing up…about my skin, about my disability…about my mind, too smart from reading all those books in the colony ship’s library…a new belief slowly begins to sink in.
He’s telling the truth. He loves me. In fact, he loved me at first sight.
And oh moons, my heart…
How to explain it?
Just a few old planet minutes ago it was filled with rage and a resolve to stab him to death. But now…
“What’s your name?” I ask him. Suddenly not just wanting but needing to know it.
“My full name with title is Xar T’Kaniteton N’Vaise of the Lines Trexos and Neixal,” he answers, touching his nose ridges. “But I would prefer it very much if you called me T’Kan.”
“Um, okay,” I answer. “Kira calls me Zin.”
“I will call you Zin’nia,” he answers, putting a strange click between the first syllable and the rest. “I prefer the flower we do not have on our planet. I believe that to be the perfect name for you.”
Wow, it’s like this alien watched all the romance entertainments I devoured as a young girl and said, “Bet I can do better than that.”
This morning when he showed up, all I wanted to do was hurt him. Hurt him worse than he’d hurt me.
But now…
Now, I find myself coming to my own knees. Now I crawl forward, a voice shouting, He loves me! He loves me! in my ears while “Landslides” slowly unfurls inside of my chest.
Curiosity and wonder having replaced the rage and confusion of just a few minutes ago, I curl a hand around his neck and pull him forward to touch my lips to his.
At the press of my mouth, his ridges ripple in a way, I think means surprised.
“I have done you such disservice, why would you thank me now?”
“Thank you,” I repeat, totally confused.
“Yes, is this press of your lips not your hu’man way of showing gratitude?” Then… “Why are you laughing?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
T’Kan
My treasure laughs much over the next few days, including at the way I respond when she delivers upon me, something she called a “blowjob.”
“You looked like you were about to pass out when you came. Your eyes rolled all the way back in your head. I was honestly worried I’d killed you—whoa, T, how are you hard again?”
I smile. Something that I had not done once in the six months we had been apart. She makes me happy. She makes my hearts content. She also makes me horny—another strange New Terrhan word. But it seems to be a good fit.
At the mere memory of how her mouth clung to my di
ijo as her head bobbed up and down, the ridged flesh between my legs once again becomes harder than a Kaidorian’s horn. “I liked that blow’job very much. Is that something all New Terrhans do?”
She laughs yet again. “I wouldn’t know. But it’s something a hu’man woman does to give her man pleasure.”
Her categorization of me as “her man” sends a thrill though both of my hearts. “You have brought your male much pleasure this morn, my treasure. Come,” I pulled her against me, careful of her protruding belly.
Zin’nia giggles. “You’re seriously ready for me again?”
“You did this to me, treasure, with your blowing job and your many gratitudes. I have need of you again. Will you deny me?”
She bites her bottom lip and I nearly ejaculate right then and there. Even the simplest gesture from her arouses me to levels I never thought possible.
I gently position her on her side. Now that her belly is heavy with my child, it is one of the few positions we can comfortably fuck in with her scarred leg. But she sits back up before I can lie down behind her. “Uh…I was thinking…maybe we could try a different position.”
She pushes me down on the mat, “Lay on your back.”
I am a general and she a mere hu’man. But I comply, liking this aggressive side of her.
Something else to add to the many reports about the hu’man female the one called Ki’Ra has released since formally becoming our Qel. Apparently hu’man females are even more easily aroused in their pregnant state. My Zin’nia has not denied me once or complained of soreness since my return.
It briefly crosses my mind that this is a good reason to impregnate her again as soon as she passes the babe currently in her womb.
But those thoughts fall away, when Zin’nia climbs on top, straddling my thighs with her back turned to me. “Are you ready, my golden warrior?” she asks over her shoulder, smiling wickedly at me.
“Yes, I am,” I answer, taking in the very nice view of her plump backside.
Since the pregnancy her belly isn’t the only thing that has changed, her hips are wider, her bottom is rounder, her breasts….Esssh!
My treasure takes me in her hand, fingers squeezing as she lines her sweet hot up with my diijo. She lowers herself oh so slowly onto my shaft until she is sitting fully upon it.
The feeling is indescribable, and I grab her hips, immediately wanting to thrust up. But my treasure does not give me a chance to take over. Leaning forward and planting her hands on my thighs, she slowly begins to rock back and forth, her walls clinging to my shaft so hot and wet.
“Feels so good,” she moans, wiggling her body against mine. If she continues like this I won’t be able to control myself. However, I do not want to drive too deeply into her for fear of hurting the babe, so I move cautiously.
But her movements become more erratic, frantic even. “More!”
“You tempt me so, treasure.”
“Then do something about it.”
“The babe—”
“Will be just fine. Fuck me, honey.”
I tightened my grip on her him and lift her up and down on my diijo. Her juices leak, filling my nostrils with the most amazing scent.
“Yes! Just like that!”
My treasure’s wish is my command but even though I’m deeply embedded within her, I am not completely satisfied because I don’t have a good view of her beautiful face. I want to see her expression, see her eyes flutter and the way she nibbles her bottom lip.
“Turn around,” I order.
“But—”
“Now!”
She pushes herself off and swings her body around until she faces me. Soon she is seated back on my diijo but now she faces me. She’s so beautiful. Her dark skin glistens and her full breasts undulate as she slowly lifts her hips up and down.
“T’Kan!” she moans as her moves become more chaotic.
I can no longer take it. My arousal unbearable. I want to hold back for the sake of the babe despite her assurances but I can’t. It’s no longer possible. The sight of her riding me, her fat breasts jiggling coupled with the smell of her diijo as it clings to be so tightly like it’s choking me, I lose control.
I place my hand on the sides of her belly and start to pound into her as if my very life force depends on it. And it does. My need for her is so great that I feel that if I can’t reach my climax I would surely expire.
My treasure plants her hand on my stomach and throws her head back. “Oh my moons! What are you doing to me?”
“Zin’nia,” I hiss her name, trying desperately to hold on to this moment but her sweet hot is too tight, feels too good, smells too intoxicating. I shoot my seed so deep inside of her, if it were possible she would be impregnated again.
I know my treasure is close to her own peak when her body begins to tremble. “T’Kan!”
My name on her lips is music to my ears, even more so than the melodious words she sings—another hu’man word—to me at night.
I keep my hands on her sides, holding her to me just so I can savor this moment a little longer.
Finally, I roll to my side with Zinnia facing me. I press my lips against hers, thanking her for what has just passed. And she cups the side of my face, pushing her tongue forward to probe my lips. I open my mouth just enough to accept her tongue and suck it into my mouth.
Next to fucking this is my favorite thing. We kiss, as she calls it, until we both pull away for air. And Zin’nia raises her eyebrow once again when she feels me rise against her stomach. “Seriously?”
Yes, seriously. My diijo has once again become painfully hard. No matter how many times I have her, I cannot seem to get enough. “Forgive me, treasure. I cannot help it,” I click-his softly. “You are my addiction.”
Before either of us realize what is happening, her back is toward me, and I am lifting her thigh so that I can slide into her sweet hot. My sweet hot.
I wrap my hand around her throat as I pump into her from behind, turning my treasure’s head so that we might thank each other once again this morn.
This…this is how I wish to wake up every single morning, inside of her. It is my duty to secure my line with a male heir, especially now that I am the last N’Vaise. But never have I wished so hard for a female child. If my treasure does not present me with a male this time around, then of course we will have to try again. Perhaps we will have three or four girl children before I get my son but I do not mind. In fact this thought pleases me very much.
I release my hold on her neck and fondle her large mammary glands, paying close attention to her nipples, because I discovered how much she enjoys the play of finger pads and claws upon her sensitive breast before her release.
“Oh, fuck, honey. That feels too good…” She pushes her bottom against me. It would seem I am not the only one close to release. “I love this so much.”
“I love this and I love you,” I whisper back. “Tell, me!”
“What?” she asks breathlessly.
“Tell me you are infected with this love disease as well. Tell me you love me!” I frantically pump into her sweet hot.
“I…I…Oh my moons!” She screams her arrival, and I, too release, unable to control my seed with her breeding slit spasming around my diijo.
A silence falls between us as I continue to hold her close, enjoying how the feel of her and the babe she carries in my arms.
Our babe…the first of many. Zin’nia giggles when she feels my response to that thought against her back.
“You are amused, treasure?”
“It’s just that…it really doesn’t take long for you to get hard for me after cumming.”
I press a gratitude into her shoulder. “I will always be ready for you, my treasure.” But then my mind sobers, remembering the intense moments before we found our release. “Zin’nia?”
“Mmm?”
“My mind…my body felt crazed by our fucking. But that does not make my words less true. I would like for you to tell me…tell
me you share in this love disease. That you wish to stay on Xalthuria with me and have babes beyond the one you carry.”
She stills, and I tense as I wait for her answer.
Then with much struggle, she turns over to face me in bed.
I know she cannot count on her scarred leg for assistance in such matters and is now further hindered because her stomach is so big with my babe. Usually, I would reach out to help her as soon as I realized what she was trying to do.
But not this morn. This morn, I am too frozen with anxiety to do anything but remain where I am, waiting for her answer.
“T’Kan…you saved me, more than once, and these last few days with you have been better than anything I could have dreamed. I think I’m in—”
“Urgent hail from our Kel! Urgent hail from our Kel!”
She cuts off at the sudden blare of the cabin’s photon-powered holosystem. “Our Kel,” she repeats. “Is that your king…the guy you were accused of betraying?”
Yes, it is….
I desperately wish I could ignore the holo, especially since I requested a half moon-cycle of leave before returning to my post, precisely so that I could convince my Zin’nia to return to the royal city with me. But, leave or no, I cannot ignore an urgent hail from my Kel.
“My apologies my but I must answer that.” I reluctantly rise from the sleeping mat and pull some pants over my once again painful erection. “I will return shortly.”
She nods, sitting up upon the mat.
I head outside to take the holo.
“My Kel.” I place my hand on my ridges and bow my head respectfully as soon as his image appears on the floating screen.
“T’Kan, I have a few questions that need answering,” he replies without any return greeting.
“Of course, my Kel,” I answer, working hard to keep my ridges neutral and not look over my shoulder.
“We have just returned from New Terrhan, and she is most distressed.”
“I am sorry to hear this. Was your news of the new accord not received well?”
His To Steal Page 12