by Emma Vance
She sounded disappointed.
“Is the sex poison still affecting you?” I asked, unsure about her reaction.
“Of course it is! Didn’t you hear them say there’s no cure?”
“I thought you felt better lately?”
“Well, not anymore,” she grumbled, and glanced over her shoulder towards Mal and Mekvar. “Probably not for awhile.” She turned towards me, her eyes wide. “Bea, we have to escape. I am not sure what will happen to me if we stay . . . I’m getting fucked up thoughts. I was honestly getting turned on by all this,” she said, gesturing at the giant orgy of aliens.
“I don’t know what the sex-poison is like, but this Rushing thing with Mekvar is fucked up. I got turned on too—like majorly horny. You are not alone. And, as far as the escape thing is going,” I lowered my voice, and glanced around to make sure no one was listening, “we are working on it.”
“I know, I know. We have to find the scientist before we can leave.” Her shoulders slumped. “I get that whatever you are dealing with is hard for you too, but I don’t think it is the same. When I get horny, if I don’t relieve it, it physically hurts. I feel like I’m going crazy. You don’t seem as crazy as me.” she laughed, but it came out as a sob.
I placed my hand over hers, laying flat on the stained wood.
“I don’t know exactly what you are going through, but I’ve heard enough about that tea to understand it can’t be easy. We will get out of here,” I said, casting my gaze around the room meaningfully. I met Mekvar’s eyes and he stopped speaking to Mal. The intense, liquid heat in his gaze made me squirm in my seat, and I focused back on Pippa.
I was about to speak more, when a large hand clapped me on the shoulder, and gripped me so hard it was painful. I was pulled backwards and pressed against the edge of the bar by the same fanged, beast-like alien from earlier who had offered to buy me from Mekvar.
Pippa shouted and I saw one of his alien friends restraining her.
“Get off me!” I cried, pushing him away.
He pressed his whole body against mine, serrated teeth inches from my face. I stopped struggling and stilled. One snap of those teeth and he could kill me instantly.
“Look,” I said, trying to reason with the creature, “I’m taken for the night. Exclusive use, and all that.”
He drew closer to me, his long snout buried in my neck. He inhaled long, and noisily.
“Human, if you are here without your owner, then he has released his claim on you. And that means you are mine.”
I struggled against him, but he held me tight. One of his claws sliced down the front of my dress, tearing it in two and exposing my breasts. A roar sounded behind us, and the entire bar went quiet. The beast alien was flung from me, his body landing in a heap about ten feet away.
Everyone was still.
I raised my gaze to see Mekvar standing in front of me, his golden eyes completely black, elongated fangs protruding from his mouth, and talons so long they nearly swept the floor. He was magnificent.
Mal stood beside him, holding Pippa in his arms. Thank God she was safe. The same couldn’t be said for the beast alien.
Mekvar’s gaze raked over me, black eyes lingering on my exposed breasts. Then, he moved towards the alien on the floor so fast I’d barely had time to register it.
“Mekvar, no!” I shouted. If anything happened to him because of me, I’d never forgive myself. He didn’t need to start a bar brawl because some alien douche couldn’t keep his wolf dick in his pants.
But if I thought Mekvar was about to get hurt, I couldn’t be more wrong. Though the beast alien raised on his haunches, looking like he was about to kill, it was Mekvar who got there first. He leapt on him, talons piercing the alien’s sides, puncturing his stomach. The alien beast howled but Mekvar didn’t stop. He pounded him with his fists, beating the life out of him.
“Mekvar!” I tried again, this time not out of fear of him getting hurt, but to stop him from killing the guy. The beast alien was an asshole, but I didn’t know what Bardoa would do to Mekvar if he killed one of his patrons. I took a step forward, but a six-fingered hand clasped my shoulder.
“Don’t, Beatrice,” Mal said, his face shadowed. “He’s in the mating rage. While the Rushing is upon him, he will do whatever he needs in order to protect his mate.”
“Mekvar can’t kill him! He’ll get in trouble!” I tried to go to Mekvar again but Mal held me back. Fine. If I couldn’t go to him, I would use the only arsenal I had—my voice.
“Mekvar!” I shouted, desperation lacing my words. I hope he heard me over the rage taking over his mind.
He didn’t.
Instead, he bent down, black fangs inches from the beast’s neck. He was seconds away from tearing his throat out. The beast alien whimpered, as if he’d already resigned himself to his fate.
I looked around wildly to see if anyone else was going to stop them. The beast’s friends had melted into the crowd, not wanting to take on a very pissed off Dragorian. Mal did nothing but hold me back with one strong arm and watched Mekvar with a look that didn’t exactly scream disapproval.
Fuck. This alien was going to die, and Mekvar was going to pay the price.
I didn’t have time to examine whether or not I was concerned because it would ruin our chance of escape, or because it might have repercussions on Mekvar. Either way, this couldn’t happen.
I let out another cry, shouting Mekvar’s name with all the anguish and fear I felt from the past few days taint my voice. It was my last chance to get him to listen.
He paused. Then, he looked up.
Our eyes met, and I swear the blackness leached from them, the gold returning, like the sun rising and illuminating the night. His claws and teeth retracted slowly, sinking back into him like a tape measure. He ripped his gaze from mine and stared down at the broken body of the beast at his feet.
“Do not ever go near my mate again,” he uttered, his soft words echoing off the near silent walls of the discount pleasure house.
“I doubt he’ll ever go near a fucking female again,” muttered Pippa beside me. “Jaysus. Your man’s a psycho, Bea.”
“He’s not a psycho!” I said, my hackles raising. “He was protecting us.”
She held her arms up in mock defense. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, he’s a psycho I’m glad is on my side.”
Mekvar approached me slowly, his face lined with worry.
“Are you okay?” I asked, rushing to him. “Are you hurt?”
“How could he possibly be hurt? Teen Wolf didn’t get a single hit on him.” Pippa said from behind me. I ignored her and examined Mekvar’s body. But none of the blood that covered him seemed to be his.
He grabbed my hands as I searched his body. “Are you well, my mate?” His voice was soft. “Did he hurt you?”
I shook my head. “No. Not at all. You got here just in time.” I smiled at him, but he didn’t return it. His grey face was like stone.
“My apologies, Beatrice.” He said the words so low, I barely heard him.
“For what?”
“For frightening you. I . . . cannot control myself when the Rushing rage takes over like that. It was a surprise that you were able to infiltrate it as you did.”
I cupped his face in my hands. “Mekvar, you have nothing to apologize for. You were only protecting us. And besides, you stopped before you did any real damage.”
“Only because of you, Beatrice.” He laid his hands over mine.
The heat of his hand seared my skin, and I felt the Rushing bloom to life, yearning to be fulfilled again. Mekvar’s golden eyes flared, and I knew he was feeling the exact same thing. It Mwas as if his rage brought the aching need between us closer to the edge. My nipples pebbled against the scraps of my dress.
“I’d hate to interrupt you two lovebirds, but can we get out of this disgusting place now?” Pippa’s voice pierced through my thoughts.
Reluctantly, I tore my gaze away from his.
“It definitely doesn’t look like the scientist is here. What was that other house—the gladiator one? That sounds where we need to go next.”
I sighed. If that house was anything like this one, it was going to be a long search.
Chapter Nineteen
Beatrice
“Mekvar, what happened on your last mission?”
We’d ended up back in his tent in the luxury gardens, and we planned to search the other pleasure house tomorrow. But before we did that, I wanted to get the low-down on all these ominous comments Mekvar made about his past. It sounded like he had shit to deal with.
At my question, his eyes grew dark, and a muscle ticked in his jaw. For a moment, I didn’t know if he would answer.
“Failure. That’s what happened.”
He sat up in the bed and wiped a hand across his mouth. Those black talons peeked out, a little longer than usual.
The silence stretched out between us. I wasn’t sure if I should be prodding him further, or if he just didn’t want to talk about it.
“You are my mate,” he finally said, his voice rough with emotion. “That is no small thing. It is only right I share everything with you. Even if,” he cleared his throat and looked at me, “even if you decide that you do not want to be mates. You may very well decide that after you hear what happened. But I do not want to keep things from you, no matter the consequences. Even so, this very difficult for me to speak of. The lives lost that day were lost because of me.”
I inhaled sharply, and he turned to look at me.
His golden eyes were awash with unshed tears, and his mouth twisted downwards. My heart felt like it had been stabbed straight through with a knife. He hadn’t even told me what had happened yet and already I could feel his pain with such acute awareness it was difficult to breathe.
“Oh, Mekvar,” I said, placing my hand on his softly scaled back. “From what I know of you, I am sure that isn’t the truth.”
“It is. We were on a mission to retrieve a shipwrecked Dragorian crew after they had been attacked by a Wolgon patrol. We got them out, and we were headed back to my home planet, Votarnis. Then we received a distress call from a small Alliance medi-ship close by. We didn’t have enough room, and we had to get the rescued crew back.”
His talons grew slightly longer, and he looked away from me and into the dying flame of the candle beside the bed.
“But I didn’t want to leave medi-ship abandoned. I could have communicated with the Alliance and let them know, or even the Dragorian Council. But I didn’t.” He flexed his hands, his glossy, obsidian claws glowed in the flames.
“Instead, I instructed my crew to plot a course to them. I thought we could pick them up drop them at the nearest Alliance space station.” He swallowed. “I wanted to be the hero. I wanted to rescue them.” He looked back at me, his gaze shuttered. “But when we got there, there was no crew. They were all massacred.”
I held my breath. “What do you mean?”
“Wolgons.” He said the words calmly, but with so much hatred it took me aback. “They want to kill Dragorians for our resources. They are the scourge of our galaxy. They are the reason we are on Stryxx right now—to defend against their biological weapon. They had taken that medi-ship and laid in wait, issuing distress signals in order to trap whoever picked up on it. Specifically, Dragorian ships.”
He clenched his fists in the black satiny sheets, and they shredded under his sharp talons.
“But I was the only idiot fool enough to respond to it. And they laid their trap well. We docked onto the shipcand let them walk right in. We didn’t have a chance. They murdered over half of us in a matter of minutes.”
The tent was filled with the sound of his breathing, heavy and full of sorrow. I wanted to comfort him somehow, but I didn’t know what he needed or what I could do. In the end, I shuffled next to him on the bed and wrapping my arms around his broad, textured shoulders. Somehow, that seemed to melt some of the tension away in his back, and he reached up to touch my arms. We sat like that for a few minutes, locked together, just breathing.
“How did you escape?” I asked, into the quiet.
He sighed and leaned into me. “When the fire fight died down, there was only a few of us left. We managed to defend ourselves, but the Wolgons were constant and vicious. I thought we all would go to our deaths that day. But we managed to lure them towards us by pretending we were injured. Then we overtook them. By the time the fighting was over, we had taken our ship back, but at a staggering cost. There were only a few survivors left.”
“Oh, Mekvar.” I cupped his face in my hands and gently turned it towards mine.
“I failed everyone that day,” he whispered, the sound desolate. My people, my crew, and those dependent on me to rescue them. I will not fail again.” His eyes glowed golden, brighter than any fire.
“Mekvar, listen to me, you didn’t fail. You tried to help someone and you couldn’t have known they weren’t who they said they were.”
“But it was my job to lead my crew and not put others in danger. I shouldn’t have been allowed to captain a vessel again. But I was given a chance to redeem myself, and I will not waste it.”
“No, you won’t. But you need to understand you didn’t fail them before. You cannot put this all on yourself.”
His mouth lifted, and though it was only a small movement, it was progress.
“We won’t leave here without that scientist, I promise. But you have to stop beating yourself up about this.”
He stroked my face, and I noticed his talons had completely retracted.
“I appreciate the faith you have in me, my mate. Already I feel lighter just speaking with you.”
I leaned into him, my lips meeting his. I kissed him tentatively, my tongue stroking the seam of his lips. He opened them, his arms crushing me to him as his tongue swept my mouth. We kissed, and for the first time it wasn’t about lust between us. It was about learning each other, being each other’s support and strength when we didn’t have anyone else. I had never had that in my life.
And it felt pretty damn good.
Chapter Twenty
Beatrice
The clothing rack in the women’s tent was filled with the exact same outfit—the filmy, see-through wisp of material that all the females wore. At least they had different color options. I had to comb through the racks to find a big enough one to accommodate my very curvy human figure, as the smaller ones didn’t even cover my nipples. I wished desperately for a pair of leggings to put on—the thigh chafing was real.
I finally found a purple dress that seemed to fit around my breasts, and threw the slip of fabric on.
Pippa elected not to come with us to the Gladiator Pleasure House, citing a headache. She certainly had something way worse than a headache. She looked frigging awful. Her skin had a sickly sheen and her eyes were glassy. And, she avoided my question when I asked how she was. The sex poison must be really taking a toll on her.
Mal elected to stay behind with her. I shared a glance with Mekvar. I certainly hoped he was helping her with her symptoms. I shuddered to think of Pippa going to a place like the discount house to get calm her urges. My thoughts lingered on Mei. She didn’t seem to care about all the filth around her, or the thought of sex with a bunch of gross, random aliens. I prayed I got off this planet before that kind of thing became routine for me.
Kat, Hazel and Tsanel agreed to come with us to the Gladiator House. Their search had turned up nothing as well, and we figured we needed as many eyes as possible looking out for anything that could be the scientist. Tsanel had paired up with Hazel at the choosing, but as far as I knew Kat hadn’t paired up with anyone.
Kat had said she knew the Gladiator House quite well, which was why she chose to come with us. I don’t know if that meant she went there for sex. She had to be relieving her urges from the sex poison, because she seemed to be handling it remarkably well. Much better than Pippa, at least.
We entered a large, gold
en, stone building that was the gladiator pleasure house and I’d never been more glad to have Mekvar and Tsanel at our side. Hazel stood close to me, and we held each other’s hands. If it was anything like the discount house, we needed the males around us. Kat seemed unfazed, sort of like Mei was in the discount house, and she walked in unaccompanied, glancing around as if she was expecting someone.
The building was colossal. I was expecting a dirty den with fighters and blood. The discount house had been grimy and overwhelming, a ramshackle, broken-down saloon that looked like if you removed one piece the whole thing would come tumbling down.
But the gladiator house was different. You could tell these aliens were the money makers on Stryxx. The marble palace was the color of a bronzed sunset, with large columns reminiscent of pictures of Roman ruins. Except, instead of the smooth stone ancient Rome, the columns were covered in twisting sculptures. Snake-like carvings wound up the gigantic pillars, their mouths agape, looking like they were screaming at us, in pleasure or pain, I couldn’t decide which.
All around us were alien males, some humanoid, but others something completely different. When we walked through the entrance-way my gaze immediately went to a male alien that resembled a blue demon-like creature thrusting enthusiastically into a female who was on her back on the edge of a stone table. Her legs were in the air and she was moaning encouragingly.
“Is it a prerequisite in every alien pleasure house that there needs to be a couple fucking in the entrance?” I asked, to no one in particular.
Hazel stopped beside me, her mouth hanging open. Her brown eyes were so wide they almost bugged out of her head. I followed her gaze to the rest of the gladiator pleasure house.
All around us aliens were having sex, but it wasn’t like the discount house where females were bent over every surface.
Here it was like a fancy sex club.
The centre of the room had a sort of dance floor where aliens of all types were swaying gently to a jazz-influenced song. Many of the aliens were having sex on the dance floor.