by Juno Wells
The dragon opened its mouth wide, the power and electricity and fire balling in the depths of its throat. I aimed both blasters directly at it. All motion slowed. I fired.
My laser balls of light soared over the distance between us and right into the beast’s mouth.
The lasers hit the fireball with such force that it blasted through the backside of the beast’s throat and flew right at the woman, her face still screwed up in anger, her mouth open in a shriek.
It hit her squarely in the chest, and she hit the wall behind her, hard.
The dragon fell over dead.
I walked over to the woman, and her eyes found me as she sputtered, and then her yellow eyes faded to grey and her head fell to the side. She was dead.
I walked back into the room they had been in and checked the screens for a telling sign of where Aurora might be. Back in the hall, there were only two other doors. I checked the first, which was nothing but a supply closet, and then the second, which was a camera security room, with screens showing every inch of the ship.
I scanned them desperately, searching. I didn’t find her. I didn’t see where she was.
Had I been wrong? Was she moved onto another ship?
I found which one was the control room. The pilots inside were not thugs and were hiding under the desk, probably thinking the ship was being raided.
“It’s all right, I’m not here to hurt you,” I said.
They didn’t move, but glanced at each other fearfully. I didn’t see the point; I could see all of them.
“Come on, get out. If I wanted to shoot you, I could’ve done that already. Besides, you aren’t betraying your master. She’s dead.”
They crawled out from under the desks and stood uncertainly in front of the control panel, facing me.
“We know,” said the one on the far left. “We saw you through the camera feed.”
“What do you want?” asked the middle. They all were of the same skinny build. Each had identical glasses on and identical white coats, with green skin. They could be brothers.
“Where’s Aurora?” I asked.
They glanced at each other.
“She’s on the other ship. The Crow,” said the far right.
“Show me,” I said, though I could guess which it was.
They pulled up the screen, showing it. “Can you comm them?”
“Yes,” said the far left.
“Do it,” I ordered.
He did. It beeped, waiting. Then the man I had fought back on that little moon showed up on the vid screen. His eyes went wide when he saw me.
“The dragon is dead. So is its master,” I said. “Play the tape,” I ordered to the green men. One of them pulled up the security footage and played it on the vid screen for the black-eyed man.
He had an expression of shock upon his face.
“Give me Aurora. No one else need get hurt,” I ordered.
The man stared at me, considering. I could almost hear his thoughts racing.
“She is my beloved. My betrothed. Tell me where she is,” I said, keeping my voice calm.
“I know she is,” the black-eyed man said. He had black feathery wings on his back, and his messy hair curved in every direction.
This was an unexpected statement.
“You know?” I asked. “What do you mean, you know?”
“I found her first. I scouted her out for Ms. Zellman, the woman you killed. I was the Crow on her little moon,” he said in a cool, even tone.
I stared. The memory of the little bird I’d seen right before I’d been attacked floated to the forefront of my mind.
“So, she was kidnapped,” I said. “You kidnapped her.”
“Yes,” the black-eyed man—the Crow—admitted. He didn’t look pleased about it, though. His eyes were flat and black, his mouth in a slightly downturned line. He was solemn. Maybe even…remorseful?
“So…where is she?” I asked. “Your boss is dead. You have no reason to keep her now.”
“I have every reason,” the Crow-man snapped, suddenly fierce. His black eyes burned through the vid comm to me, and I could feel the green-men recoil.
His expression softened then. “However…I know it wouldn’t last. She is yours. She loves you. And for that, I could not trap her.”
Silence passed between us.
I stared at him. The way he fought for her on the moon…then it clicked.
“You love her,” I said. Not as an accusation, but as a simple statement of fact.
He bowed his head. “If you come to my ship, I will give her to you.”
I nodded, then turned to leave the room. The little green men waited a moment and then turned off the screen. “What do we do now?” they asked as I left the room.
“Wait,” I said, and the door shut again behind me.
I made it back to my pod and to the Crow-ship unbothered.
When the door to my ship opened, the Crow-man stood in the loading bay, waiting for me, with a hovering gurney beside him.
On it lay Aurora, her hair trailing off the sides, still in her skin tight body suit from before.
The man gave the gurney a little shove, and it hovered over to me. I took hold of it and stared at her.
“What’ve you done to her?” I asked.
“Nothing you can’t undo,” the Crow-man said. He tossed a little vial at me, and I caught it with one hand and looked at it. The liquid inside was gold.
“Make her drink that. She’ll wake right up,” he said.
I looked at him.
“Please do it when you’ve left my ship. I don’t want her to see me. I’ve already…” He broke off, but I got the point.
I nodded.
“What about all this?” I gestured to the procession of ships.
“I will take over for the last master. Can’t have a whole bunch of criminals running around by themselves,” he said, his black eyes solemn again.
“And lead another great criminal organization? Corrupting the galaxy from behind the scenes?” I asked, fire raising in my voice. I didn’t know why I wasn’t killing him.
“Not exactly. It won’t be an overnight change, but there are some things that I will be fixing around here. I can’t bear any more hostage kidnappings,” he said.
“Hostage kidnappings?” I asked.
The Crow shifted his feet uncomfortably. “You see, we’d been looking for Aurora for years—almost her whole life, in fact. My boss, well, former boss, made a very threatening deal with Aurora’s father. He declined.” He shrugged. “Well, Ms. Zellman never did like that, said it was bad manners. She threatened to take Aurora until her father did what she wanted him to do. So he hid her. Pretty well, actually. I found her not long before you did. And had to wait for my mistress—ex-mistress—to show up to take her.”
Now it all made sense. Why her father had sent her away, and why she’d never left that moon. But he never told her this.
“Where is her father?” I asked.
“Alive,” the Crow said, deflecting my question. “Alive and distressed. He’s back on Obsidian. Owns a whole side of the planet, like his own personal estate.”
I stared at him, and he back at me.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied.
Chapter 11
Aurora
I fell into blackness.
After a while, I felt a cold surface underneath me. I got up and looked around, but I could see nothing at all of the room. I knew it was huge, with a high ceiling I couldn’t make out. There were colors all around me, and nothing was clear.
I turned, sensing eyes upon me and barely made out thrones, golden, though the people in them I couldn’t see. I was sure they were there, but I couldn’t make them out.
“Fàilte dhachaigh, my dear,” one of the figures said, and everything rushed away in a blur of color then darkness.
The cold surface below me changed. Became soft and warm. I felt a hand on my face, warm and familia
r.
I opened my eyes.
August was leaning over me. His warm brown eyes, with the one electric green iris, smiled. I felt myself smiling back at him.
“I remember,” I whispered.
“Knew you would,” he said.
And he leaned down and kissed me, his soft lips delicious and amorous. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him tight.
“Thanks for coming to get me,” I said, breaking our kiss.
“Anytime.”
And he was kissing me again, and I was kissing him, whole again. His musk was intoxicating, his hair dripping down over our faces.
I couldn’t get enough. A year apart, a year in a computer as an emotionless AI, tricked and trapped. I needed him like I needed air. And with each kiss, our passion grew.
I kissed down his neck and onto his earlobe. His hands explored my body, cupping my breasts and squeezing. I longed to be out of this body suit.
He took a small knife from a compartment in his arm, pulled a part of the fabric away from my skin and carefully cut it, creating a little tear, then put the knife away. He put two fingers into the tear, which was right between my breasts, and tore it open, exposing them.
I gasped. His mouth devoured them and then moved slowly, tantalizingly, back up my throat and behind my ear. His mouth closed on my lobe and he sucked, biting it a little.
I was wet, my body screaming with need. My fingers trailed down his muscular stomach, pausing only to run my fingers over his abs, feeling the chest hair that moved down, down below his belt. My fingers followed that trail, undoing his belt, and he moved his hips upward to give me more room to work.
I was distracted though, as his lips had found my neck and he’d begun to suck and bite lightly, making me moan.
It was like coming through a horrible storm to find a paradise on the other side, awaiting you with lush heaven. He was that heaven, my hero, my savior. He, August, who never sought to trap me, keep me in a box or put me down.
I hurriedly finished undoing his pants and pulled them down with his help. Then I gripped him. Wow…I could not fit my fingers around it. I used both hands, but this angle was a little tough. I pushed him over, onto his back, my tits hanging out, his hands pushing them together and making little circles, which made my breath go short.
I moved down him, though, lifting his shirt to kiss down those beautiful muscles, then made it to my goal. I fit my mouth around it, which was a relief. I wasn’t sure if it would fit. But I had to try. He meant so much to me.
I began to suck, stroking the shaft with both hands. He moaned, and I could feel his body grow tense.
“Yes…” he whispered, and I sucked harder, elated that I was doing a good job. His hips moved in a grind. It made me want him more.
I moved my hands up and down with my mouth, again and again, and he grew more and more agitated, squirming. He couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to finish.
The liquid gushed into my mouth, but I didn’t let go, swallowing but not moving.
His limbs relaxed and he lay back, panting.
I sat up and wiped my mouth, pride glowing in my chest, a smug little smile on my lips. My breasts were free of my body suit and I felt exposed in front of him, but I was too far along to get shy. I steadied the butterflies in my stomach as we locked eyes.
I smiled even wider. He sat up, his mouth quickly enwrapping my nipple, his hand engulfing the other one, squeezing and pulling lightly. I gasped. “Oh, August.” I wrapped my hands in his beautiful hair, holding his head to my chest. He was all I needed. All I wanted.
And he was mine. All mine. Finally.
He moved his fingers into the fabric again and ripped and ripped, until from tits to belly button was exposed. Oh my god, what a relief. I’d had that thing on for so long, and the feeling of my naked skin on cool air was refreshing.
He kissed down to my navel, then with one swoop, lay me down.
He carefully helped me out of the body suit, one arm at a time, then my legs, kissing me tenderly all the while.
Then he took the back of my neck in his hand, and the other went to my waist. He looked into my eyes, lovingly, his beautiful brown eyes with the one emerald ring, seeing the real me.
“Aurora…I love…I love you. I’ve loved you every day that I’ve been looking for you, and before.”
I kissed him with all the passion I possessed. “And I love you. I am yours, forever, and you are mine.”
He smiled, a radiant, whole and happy smile that filled my world with light. He kissed me again and moved the hand on my hip down between my legs. I gave a sharp intake of breath, and he smiled in our kiss, moving down my neck, nibbling it, moving down to my nipples and sucking hard, making me even more wet, and I thrust my hips upward into his fingers.
He moved his fingers around, spreading my wetness to every part, then he plunged them without hesitation into me, and I cried out.
One, then two fingers. I couldn’t handle it; I needed him, now. My hips were moving hungrily for more, and he barely managed another finger inside.
He kissed down to my navel, and then was there. His tongue flicked onto my clit, and I clenched my fists in the blankets, my back arching upwards slightly.
He licked furiously, his fingers still inside me, moving at a beautiful rhythm. He sensed I was close, my hips moving up and down faster and faster, and he moved his fingers in time. He closed his lips around my part and sucked, then licked. I screamed.
My back arched, and the orgasm hit me hard. I felt the juices flow, his fingers still inside me, getting drenched. “Yes!”
I finally fell back, panting. He got to his knees and removed his shirt, the only piece of clothing he still had on.
God. He was gorgeous. I mean, his muscles were unbelievably perfect, rippling out like rolling hills. He was glistening with sweat a little. He wiped his mouth and pulled my hips up towards him, the emerald green of his eye glinting.
He was ready to go.
He thrust himself inside me without preamble.
“Yes!” he moaned. I took hold of the wall for stabilization as he pounded into me, each thrust a new explosion on top of the orgasm I just had, his hands gripping and squeezing my thighs.
“Yes, yes, yes!” I moaned, my tits bouncing up and down. His eyes watched hungrily, the emerald ring changing focus rapidly.
“Aurora!” he moaned.
He slowed, going deeper with every forward thrust, making me cry out.
He bent forward so he was on top of me and put his mouth on my tit, sucking on my nipple.
“August, yes, take me! Take me!” I cried.
There was a table next to his bed, and he lifted me easily with one arm, still inside me, still thrusting upwards. I put my hands around his neck, holding on for dear life.
He set me on the table, a perfect height for him to stand up and penetrate me.
I held onto his neck with one hand and put my other on the wall behind me.
This man was all I could ever hope for. I wanted him so close to me, I wanted him to fill me.
I had what I always dreamed of.
For the first time, I was no longer trapped. Now I had love.
Free at last.
Chapter 12
August Wood
“Aurora!” I cried out. I filled her, I needed her, and yet I couldn’t get enough of her. The most beautiful, kind, intelligent woman I’d ever met. And she was mine.
Her legs were wrapped around me, her tits bouncing up. I held her with one hand, and the other hand moved to her clit.
I pounded into her, filled her. My fingers moved in circles on her clit, and she screamed. “YES!”
I loved making her scream, making her head roll back, her mouth open wide and her eyes clenched tight in pleasure.
My Aurora. I needed her closer.
I picked her up again and stood there, still inside her, with her legs around me, kissing her like I’d never kissed her before, passionate and hot. Holding her up by he
r ass, gripping it tightly.
I moaned into our kiss. She felt so good. Her skin, soft as silk, and she smelled sweet, like honey.
I sat down on the edge of the bed. “Ride me,” I ordered her.
She bit my lip, pulling at it a little with her teeth. “Make me,” she teased.
I smiled and thrust my hips upward, deeper into her. She screamed.
“Do it,” I ordered.
“No,” she said, smiling and she attacked my neck, sucking and kissing ravenously.
I thrust up again, hard. She screamed again.
I moved my hands to her hips and turned her around so she faced away, her beautiful ass right before me.
“As you wish,” she said, turning her head to the side. I kissed her, and she began grinding on me, moving her legs so she was almost doing the splits.
“Yes!” I cried. Holding her ass on top of me, I watched it as it rolled forward and back, and I leaned forward to kiss the back of her neck.
She moved faster and faster, her cries getting higher and higher. I could feel it too, I was going to release inside her, and I shoved her hips down into me as hard as I could, and she screamed.
The orgasm blasted both of us in a passion of riding and movement. Finally we stopped, panting. She didn’t move, and I didn’t want her to.
“You’re amazing,” I said hoarsely.
“Right back at you, pony boy,” she said.
ϔ ϔ ϔ ϔ ϔ
In the days that followed, we barely left the bedroom.
I programed the ship to Obsidian, 210 light years away, a massive planet with sixteen moons, soaring mountain ranges and deep valleys. The planet where she was born and where her parents were. We were in the control room when I told her we were going there and her expression fell, her big blue eyes looking at me like a sad puppy.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, taking her face in my hands.
“It’s just…they sent me away,” she said.
“Sure, but, you said it yourself, it was for your protection,” I said gently.
“So? Don’t you think I would’ve been a little more protected at home, surrounded by Father and his men and my family, rather than hidden on a secluded moon, with three fussy guardians and a bunch of random animal life, with no guns or big men or shields, tucked away hoping to be forgotten, for what, all my life?” she fumed, breaking away from me and throwing her hands in the air. “I mean, if I hadn’t run away, would they ever have come to get me? Would they ever have rescued me? Or would they have left me there for the rest of my life, in fear of being discovered by some, some…monster?”