Dredge

by Lula Monk

  She fumbled with the dress she wore, lifting it over her head in a series of jerking and desperate movements. Dredge watched as she freed herself from the garment. His sex throbbed, already stiff. He knew it would not take much to prepare his own body for mating. The sight of Samantha naked on the bed before him had already done most of the work.

  He licked his palm and began to stroke himself, but Samantha leaned forward. She stopped him.

  “Let me,” she said, looking up at him from beneath her lashes.

  She adjusted herself on the bed and then wrapped both hands around the root of his penis. She teased his tip with her lips and then her tongue, the wet appendage flashing out in rapid bursts to lick the fleshy ridge.

  Then, her eyes still staring up into his, Samantha took him into her mouth.

  Dredge groaned as the Earth woman sucked and pulled at him, her tongue a masterful tool of pleasure. He tangled his hands in her hair, pulling her closer to him. But not guiding her. Not controlling her. Samantha was a force with which to be reckoned, and she was doing fine work on her own.

  When he was on the edge, release on the fringes of his awareness, he extracted himself from her mouth. He loved the way she gazed up at him hungrily, primally, like a creature set on devouring its next meal.

  Dredge pushed her back onto the bed and laid atop her, his stiffness finding her wet entrance immediately. With minimal guidance, he pressed his tip against her slick folds, first up to tease her clitoris slowly, softly, tantalizingly.

  Samantha’s head leaned back, her back arching, lifting her perfect breasts against Dredge’s chest. He kissed her, engulfing her mouth with his own.

  And then, when he knew she was distracted by the eagerness of his tongue, he guided his tip down to her entrance, coating himself in her arousal. He broke their kiss, desiring her complete awareness of this next step, this next moment in time. Her eyes bore into his, and Dredge knew she was ready.

  With one firm plunge, he seated himself deep inside of her.

  Samantha moaned against his mouth.

  Dredge began to thrust against her, his mind free from the pages of the guidebook he had obsessed over when he had first obtained Samantha. Now, his body knew the rhythm that was required. Mating had become instinctual to Dredge, not academic.

  He breathed in Samantha’s ear, reveling in the way she sighed his name with each thrust. Her pelvis was tilted, allowing him more access to explore her depths. He thrust harder, faster, wanting to fill his Earth woman to the brim.

  He crashed his pelvis into hers with every thrust, enjoying the way her body shivered with pleasure when he rubbed against that most sensitive exterior part of her sex.

  Their bodies were moving in perfect rhythm, the synchronistic thrusting and retreating like an intricate dance to which they arrived knowing every step.

  Dredge felt Samantha’s channel tense around him, her entire body quivering. Her back arched off the bed, her head craned back to expose the elegant curve of her throat. He looped an arm behind her back, holding her body against him. He would not let her retreat. Not yet.

  He pumped harder against her, pushing her to her limits, to the peak of bliss. When she cried out his name, screaming it as her body shivered in wave after wave of pleasure, he felt himself release inside her as well.

  Samantha surged forward, as if using every last scrap of energy to bring herself as close to Dredge as possible. She coiled her arms around his neck, holding her sweat-slick body against his. Her breaths came heavy and hot against his neck, and he held her, breathing in the womanly scent of her and their love making.

  His hands in her hair, he gently pulled her head back and planted a tender kiss on her lips.

  “I’m glad you are back,” she breathed against his mouth.

  He kissed her mouth chastely, followed by her brow and both eyes. “As am I.”

  Chapter 29

  Samantha

  A knock rang out dense and hollow from the portal wall.

  Samantha glanced at her watch. It had been exactly eighty-one hours and fifty-six minutes since Dredge had regenerated. She had kept track of every hour since then, fearing that his current form would fragment again, sending his light flowing into the world and leading to his expiration once. For almost eighty-two hours, her Glim’s new body persisted.

  She watched as he eased from the bed to see who was on the other side of the portal.

  Had someone asked her when she first arrived on the Hub if she thought she would ever be happy again, she would have said no in an instant. Two and a half weeks ago, she had been planning to kill herself, to gnaw through her own wrists in the hopes that she would die before Dredge had the chance to force himself on her.

  But that had been before she knew Dredge. Really knew him.

  Since his regeneration or rebirth or whatever it had been, Samantha had let go of all her reservations and inhibitions. She loved Dredge. She felt free to acknowledge that within her own heart and to even say it aloud to the alien. Frequently.

  The knock on the portal wall sounded again, this time more urgent and demanding.

  Samantha sat up in bed, worried. She glanced at her watch again. It was not quite time for the Ceph guard to come and get her for the second trip around the Rim for this rotation. Her legs still ached from this morning’s exercise session; five miles was quite the distance to travel when all her body wanted to do was sleep. Past the weakness and fatigue, she knew her body was getting stronger, was preparing itself for labor.

  But more than that: she knew her body was getting in shape for the coming revolution. The battle that would save all the humans on the Hub and send Galactic Continuity to the justice of the Intergalactic Council.

  Samantha had been on a total of eight trips around the Rim. She had spoken to eight different women, informing each about her plan. Each time, the women’s eyes had brightened with the shining light of hope, and each time, their exercise had ended with the promise that the woman in question would spread the message on subsequent excursions.

  By Samantha’s math, two-hundred and fifty-six of the human women on this space station knew there was a plan in place to secure their freedom. That was almost half. Half of her species were now aware of what was going to happen in a short month. Thirty days.

  If all went well, they would be more than ready by the time she needed them to be.

  The knocking on the portal wall came in great, loud bangs.

  Dredge pressed his palm to the wall, and Samantha watched as the familiar green glow erupted around his hand.

  The next thirty days were integral to her plan running smoothly. The next thirty days meant spreading the word about the finer points of her plan, like where to obtain munitions and how to send out a signal to the Intergalactic Council. She could thank the spider woman Arachne for that little bonus. Her insistence that no two Earth women ever walk together twice had put Samantha in the paths of a lot of interesting women from all over the Hub, including one particularly well-informed woman from the Entertainment Sector. That woman’s dead eyes had become alive at hearing Samantha’s plan for escape, and she had been more than pleased to share details she had overheard from the many, many aliens who sought her out for private entertainment parties.

  The portal opened, and Samantha gulped.

  Chief Officer Slep pushed his way past Dredge and skittered to the foot of the bed in which Samantha still lay. She pulled the covers up to her chin, her body still dewy from another round of lovemaking with Dredge.

  Having one of the heads of Galactic Continuity standing in her room with only a thin blanket covering her naked flesh was quite possibly the most awkward situation Samantha had been in since arriving at the Hub. Which was saying a lot.

  “Uhm . . . how may I help you, Chief Officer?” Samantha’s eyes darted to Dredge. He did not look any more pleased at Slep’s presence than she was. He stood sentinel at the door, as though ready to cast the insectoid out into the corridor at any moment.

&n
bsp; “Do you recall the part of your proposal in which you stated your desire to have an orientation session for new product who arrive at the Hub?” asked Slep, clicking his mandibles together loudly.

  Samantha wrinkled her brow. Of course she remembered. That was an integral part of her plan –

  making new humans aware of the situation aboard the space station as well as her plan to end it all. They needed to be warned about what they would be expected to do, namely breeding. And she wanted them to go to the auction block with the knowledge that freedom was just around the corner.

  “Yes,” she said hesitantly. She snuck a glance at her watch under the blanket. Another shipment of women was not supposed to arrive at the Hub for another week.

  “Are you still interested in such a thing?”

  Samantha sat up in bed. This did not sound good. “I am still very interested. Knowing what is expected of them – knowing their new purpose, rather – will help my species adjust to life here.”

  “I am interested only in how such an orientation will increase the value and thus marketability of product,” said Slep sharply.

  “Understood.”

  “Good. Rise and prepare yourself then, Earth woman.” The insectoid turned its segmented body, its tail and menacing-looking pincher flying over the bed as it spun.

  “Wait!” Samantha said, her voice rising higher than she had meant for it to. “I was under the impression that a new shipment wouldn’t be in for a while yet.”

  Chief Officer Slep turned back to her, his meaty claws slipping against one another as though he was clapping.

  “The war planets in the Adrasta galaxy have engaged in a blood feud with one another,” he said gleefully. “They are devouring each other left and right, reducing their opponents’ species to nothing but dust and a bundle of soon-forgotten memories. We have already issued our invitations to the appropriate leaders.”

  Okay. Big bunch of bad-ass warrior aliens had been kicking each other’s asses. That much Samantha understood. But . . .

  “So, the leaders of these war planets will be coming here to the Hub to purchase?”

  Slep nodded, his body vibrating with joy at what Samantha could only assume was the prospect of credits he and Arachne and the snot alien Valx would soon be earning.

  “When will the new shipment of, uh, product be arriving?”

  “Before the next rotation.”

  Samantha sucked in a sharp breath. That was Hub-speak for before tomorrow. Tomorrow was too soon. Tomorrow threw her plans off kilter severely. She felt like she was going to be sick. Her face flushed, and a terrible throbbing began in her head.

  She blinked, her eyes suddenly feeling dry and tired.

  Slep turned to Dredge. “You have my congratulations on this newest turn of your product’s biological achievements. “

  With that, the insectoid skittered through the portal and was gone.

  Dredge threw his palm against the wall and sealed the portal. He then raced to Samantha’s side. Tears pricked at his eyes. She almost did not notice, for her own eyes burned with tears.

  The Glim kissed her brow.

  “Your love has made me the happiest of creatures, Samantha. And now this . . .” He waved a hand across her face. “I did not know it was possible to experience such joy.”

  Samantha stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “Go look,” Dredge said, motioning to the transparent wall. The starfield shone brightly on the other side, the multitude of unique and singular lights twinkling in the blackness of space.

  When she did not move, Dredge grabbed her hand and pulled her from the bed.

  “I don’t know what you are going on about, Dredge,” she said as the Glim covered her eyes with his hands.

  “You will see,” he said excitedly as he guided her across the room.

  Samantha’s mind was racing. She was not prepared to do an orientation, not yet. There were still parts of the plan that needed to be tweaked, people who needed to be spoken to. There was the munitions’ hold to find, and the food to be gathered. Not to mention the search for a woman on board who might have some knowledge of aviation. Her heart fluttered. Not that that would be much use, with space travel being so vastly different from Earth planes and all.

  Maybe her idea was shit. Maybe she was just setting the stage for disappointment, for failure. Maybe she had forced all these women into this plan, and then it would fail, and they would all die. Maybe . . .

  All the thoughts fled her mind when Dredge moved his hands from her eyes.

  The woman in the reflection of the strange transparent wall was her, Samantha. Same mouth and nose, same proud chin. But instead of Samantha’s lively eyes, the woman in the reflection had eyes that shone with a bright red light.

  “Our Glimling will be a girl, Samantha. Isn’t that wonderful?” asked Dredge as he embraced her from behind.

  Samantha stared into her new red eyes, their glow eerie and demanding. Her gaze traveled down the reflection of her naked body until she saw the light shining from her belly. It too had turned red.

  A girl.

  She was having a daughter.

  That changed everything. And yet it changed nothing at all.

  Samantha stood taller.

  She would go through with her plan. She would fight to save the human women on the Hub and the new ones who would be arriving scarcely twelve hours from now.

  She would fight to save her daughter.

  Samantha turned in Dredge’s arms to return his embrace.

  “I love you,” he whispered against her hair.

  Her heart squeezed painfully. Betraying Dredge was still part of her plan. There was no way around it.

  “I love you too,” she said.

  When the Ceph guard knocked on the portal wall to take Samantha on her second excursion around the Rim for this rotation, she gave Dredge a long, soulful kiss. Then, she turned and walked out of the portal.

  There was no looking back now, no second-guessing herself.

  She strode confidently down the Breeding Sector corridor, determined to glean as much information as she could from her newest walking partner. In exchange, she would give the woman hope and a part to play in the revolution to come.

  Tomorrow was orientation day, and Samantha would be ready.

  Note to the Reader

  If you are surprised to have reached the end of this book, don’t fret! Our hero and heroine get their Happily Ever After. Sam just has to lead the revolution first. *wink*

  Read on for a sneak peak of Ignis, the next book in the Galactic Seduction series, set to release August 25, 2019.

  With love,

  Lula Monk

  Ignis, Book Two in the Galactic Seduction Series

  Click here to pre-order!

  Advance to the next page to read the COMPLETE first chapter of Ignis, featuring our newest heroine, the dreadlocked martial artist, Clea.

  Chapter 1

  Clea

  “Liar,” Clea hissed. Those tentacled bastards with the huge guns were bad enough, but this red-eyed whore claiming to be human? Despicable. “No way you’re human.”

  The woman in front of her sighed. “This will all go a lot more smoothly if you will just listen to what I have t—”

  “Don’t have time for liars,” interrupted Clea. Her eyes darted around the metal room, searching for a door. They’d come in through one, so it had to be somewhere. She just couldn’t see it.

  “Don’t think of trying to escape,” the red-eyed alien said, her hand resting on her abdomen. A sickly crimson glow shone through the fabric of her sundress. “The Cephs’ guns aren’t just for show. You don’t want to see what they can do.”

  “Is that a threat?” asked Clea, her body tensing like over-tightened guitar strings. If this alien bitch so much as laid a finger on her, she was going to snap.

  “It is a warning, yes, but not a threat. I’m trying to help you… I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name?”

/>   “I didn’t give it.”

  “I’m Samantha.” The woman’s red eyes widened expectantly, prompting Clea for her name.

  A long moment passed. Might as well. “I’m Clea.”

  Clea stared down at her hands, the nails trimmed to the quick. She balled her hands into fists; they would have to serve as weapons if needed. At least this red-eyed creature before her didn’t seem to have a proper weapon either. But Clea knew Hapkido, and she was ready to deflect any physical advance the alien might throw at her.

  “Where are you from, Clea? I’m from Dallas.”

  Clea snorted. “Just because you have a Southern twang, it doesn’t make you human. Probably can change your voice into whatever you want.”

  Samantha huffed. “Look, we don’t have much time. I must meet with all thirty of the newest shipment before you go up for auction, and you’re only my third one to talk to. Would you please cooperate?”

  Shipment? Auction?

  “What do you mean ‘auction’?” Clea’s heart hammered in her chest. “Like slaves?”

  The red-eyed alien blushed. She peeled her gaze away from Clea’s dark brown skin and dreads. “In a way.”

  Kidnapped from Earth to become a fucking slave in space. Ain’t that about right?

  Clea jumped to her feet, sending the chair she’d been sitting in scraping across the stone floor. “Uh huh. Not me. My family moved to Seattle to get away from this kind of trash. Whatever you expect me to do, I won’t do it. I’d rather die first.”

  “That option is still on the table,” Samantha said sharply. She rubbed her eyes wearily. “I’m sorry, Clea. Orientation is new for me, too. Let me just get right to the point.”

  “By all means.”

  “You are currently at the Hub, a space station owned by the company Galactic Continuity. Though you may not like it, you are now their property, and--”

  “I’m going to stop you right there, lady. I’m no one’s property.” Clea’s heart slammed against her ribs. She flexed her hands at her sides.