Moonlight Mist: A Limited Edition Collection of Fantasy & Paranormal)

by Nicole Morgan

  Appropriately attired.

  Sighing, Zayda thought about that statement on the royal decree. Translation: She was going to have to wear a dress. Not having to wear dresses was one of the biggest benefits of being a freighter captain. A moue crossed her face. Didn’t forcing someone to wear a dress fall under the category of ‘Cruel and Unusual punishment’? If not, then someone needed to reconsider the definition.

  How the hell was she supposed to defend herself in a dress? Who knew what kind of drama jumped off at these balls? They could be attacked by extra sharp cutlery.

  Maybe Free Traders would decide to attack the Gateway to Redemption and she would be required to protect the Grand Matriarch.

  How could she do that wearing a dress?

  Pearls and Diamonds.

  Maybe jail wasn't such a bad idea.

  But she wouldn't be thrown into the local jail where she sometimes ended up after a rousing bar fight, but prison. With real criminals. She didn't do real criminals. They were nasty.

  Why did she have to suffer because she had a mating obsessed matra? She thought back to the letter she received when she docked at GTR.

  The Dockmaster had been waiting for her with some official looking lackey when she exited her shuttle’s airlock. The official lackey bowed with such formality Zayda knew immediately her matra had been up to something that would not bode well for Zayda.

  Captain Zayda Sparks,

  You are cordially invited to attend the Celestial Ball in celebration of the Grand Matriarch’s day of birthing. At such time you will be presented with a group of eligible males vetted by the Grand Matriarch with the intention of participating in a royally decreed mating.

  By the blessing of The Purple One.

  Congratulations on your mating,

  Grand Matriarch

  She recognized this for the ultimatum that it was meant to be. Zayda admitted to herself that she had been outmaneuvered. Zoya Sparks was determined that one of her five daughtas was going to be mated soon and giving her grand-younglings. She already marked Zayda’s older sistahs as a lost cause and was focusing her efforts on Zayda.

  What was the use of having a gaggle of older sistahs if they didn’t take the heat off her? Maybe she should consider moving her base of operations? Move away from GTR. Out of her matra’s influence.

  “Captain Sparks?”

  Pearls and Diamonds. The auditory hallucinations were back. She ignored them. The expensive healer she visited last time she had them, said that was the best remedy. Ignore them and stay away from green carbonated beverages on Station Nine.

  She turned back to her book. It was strange. If Terran males were from the planet Mars and the Terran females were from the planet Venus, how the hell did they manage to procreate as a species and populate their galaxy if they didn’t invent space travel until centuries later?

  This was something she was going to have to consult about with her friend Hayna the next time she encountered her. Hayna was from Earth. She knew all about their strange customs. Awareness of other species customs especially their mating customs had been a big part of her education. Nobody wanted to start an intragalactic incident.

  Not all planets in the Redemption galaxy were matriarchal like GTR. Those hunky males from Pyloto were known to be controlling of their females. Females stayed home taking care of their homes and younglings while the males provided protection. It was part of their patriarchal construct. She would never be able to be mated with someone who thought they could tell her what to do because he had dangling parts. But she could find time to have some horizontal fun with a Pyloto. Or should she say Pylotos.

  The males always came in a set of two. She always wanted to experience a threesome. From what she had heard from some of her fellow female indie captains, Pyloto males could light a female’s sheets on fire. She was all for the experience of having two males worship her body. Pearls and Diamonds, she had even thought about going to Faatania, the planet of free love, and participating in the orgies that were rumored to be held daily.

  Zayda grew up in a Redemption family headed by her matra, the Matriarch. Both males and females were equal. Both sexes were expected to bring honor to the family, but only the female could give life so they were the head of the families. Redemptites were encouraged to explore their sexuality prior to mating.

  The Matriarchs believed that a healthy sexual relationship was a big part of a mating. Males and females alike were expected to explore it to learn their likes and dislikes. Zayda had several sexual partners in her lifetime. Not as many as a female her age normally would have, but her share of many of the species that called GTR home.

  Her mind wandered back to her book, the terrans, and what they were doing. She frowned. Another strange custom she didn’t understand was chewing gum. What craziness was that? You just chewed and chewed, but never swallowed? That qualified as playing with your food in her matra’s eyes. Bad etiquette.

  Thinking of food, she needed to eat.

  “Captain Zayda Sparks?”

  For a non-existent voice, it rolled over her, as if tasting her. She trembled at the thought. It sounded like warmth and honey and despite its lack of corporality she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and lose herself in it. But closing her eyes stirred up visions of a naked male, beckoning her. Large, strong hands moving over her pulling her against his firm chest. A body matching hers.

  Chest to chest.

  Hips to hips.

  She took a deep breath. She needed to calm her mind or else this auditory hallucination would get out of control. She’d heard that could happen from spending too much time in space. It was so sad. She was too young to be losing her mind like that. Xirins were known to live several millenniums, and she was half Xirin on her patra’s side; she should have at least made it to half a millennium before she started to hear male voices in her head. Female voices she was used to, it was the male one that signaled the degeneration of her mind.

  By the Purple One, her Xirin grandmatra was on her way to celebrating her one-hundredth millennium and she was still going strong with her wits intact. It was sad that Zayda was losing it at such a young age.

  A delicious scent invaded her olfactory senses. Not only did the auditory hallucination have a sexy voice it smelt divine. Like a mix between the dark chocolate and strawberries that her friend Hayna had brought her from her Terran homeworld.

  Panty dropping, nipple hardening, let me ride like a shooting star sexy.

  She started to panic at her body’s reaction to the addicting scent. No this can’t be happening. She is only having this reaction because she was thinking about matings. It was that damn royal decree. It had her all confused.

  The slow burn that was starting in her center couldn’t be her mating fire. Can you fuck something that wasn’t there? If you couldn’t fuck it then you couldn’t mate with it. See. Logical. She just had a really good imagination, pushed by the stress of the Celestial Ball, that was it.

  Maybe her imagination would last until she got back to her ship and the privacy of her quarters. Then she would let her personal pleasure toy rip and scream herself into ecstasy.

  Plan in place, Zayda shut her book and got up to leave. She stopped in surprise when she bumped into a large mass.

  “What the hell?!” she looked up. And up some more.

  “By the grace of the Purple One you are huge.” she licked her lips in delight.

  Yeah mind.

  You definitely know how to conjure up a big one. And hot. Did I say thank you for making him hot? She sat back in her seat abruptly as she looked over the tall gray skinned male in front of her. Her gaze devoured his long, lean form. Taking in the broadness of his muscular shoulders. His thick black hair swept the collar of his standard issue space jumper. She wanted to tangle her fingers in its softness. Her gaze followed the pathway down the hills and valleys of muscles making up his chest leading to a row of abs delineated through the ordinary jumper he wore to a pair of narrow hip
s. All of this was held up by a trim waist on a pair of corded thighs. Tall and muscular. Her two favorite things.

  “I am Captain Sparks; how may I be of assistance?”

  Please say spread eagle and naked.

  Please.

  Please.

  Please.

  “Captain Sparks I am Piele Pyloto. I need to book passage on your freighter.”

  Pearls and Diamonds. Why were the cute ones always dumb? Her mouth drooped, shoulders sagging. She ignored the burning that was building in her middle.

  “I transport cargo not people.” She looked him up and down. Yeah, he definitely qualified as people. With his humanoid hot body. Pylotorians were sexually compatible with a Redemptite/Xirin hybrid. The insidious thought crept into her libido, especially after her earlier musings of Pylotorian pairs.

  She whimpered with desire. Would he get horizontal with her even after she refused him passage?

  He is a strong male. Bet he could last for days. Her pussy jumped on the board with her libido.

  Deny.

  Deny

  Deny.

  Didn’t Pyloto mate in pairs? Twice the fun. Her body chimed in.

  Bad body.

  Down.

  “Name your price," Piele’s voice was flat, even as he offered.

  Zayda choked on her drink. Her mind started flashing numbers that her greed could live with. It only took her a moment to pause at that. Her eyes flashed up to his face skimming his clenched square jaw. Firm, kissable lips. Dark eyes filled with intelligence belying the stupidity of his offer.

  Wait? Nobody made such an offer without negotiating first.

  She was missing something.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Nobody gives an open-ended offer for transport unless they are a criminal or fleeing one.”

  “Well,” he hesitated, “I am not the only one that requires transport.”

  “How many people are we talking?” her eyes narrowed watching his movements.

  He looked around the bar, eyes darting. Anywhere but at her. His pale gray skin slowly tinged blue as he blushed. Adorable. The boyish charm softened his hard countenance. Too bad he was hiding something.

  “Six total.”

  That’s it? There was something more. Transporting six beings didn’t warrant an immediate open offer on fees. Name her own price. Who did he think he was fooling?

  “What else?” she persisted, eyes hard as steel.

  He gave an exasperated sigh, “It’s me, my bratha and four younglings.”

  She gave him a curious look. That didn't sound so bad. If that was all why didn’t they take the normal transports? Was it an emergency? Evacuation? What? Something about it was niggling at the back of her mind.

  She looked at Piele for a few minutes. It was hard, but she looked beyond his sexy dark eyes. His wavy black hair. The grey skin screaming for her to touch. The sexy flash of fang that teased every time he spoke.

  She ignored the way her body heated up while she stared at him.

  There was something familiar about him, but she was sure they had never met before.

  She sucked in a breath of recognition hit. She knew exactly where she had seen him before.

  “Oh hell no.” she couldn’t control her volume, her eyes widened as she stepped back.

  Chapter Two

  We are so screwed.

  Piele saw the look of recognition dance through Zayda’s eyes.

  It had taken him a minute just to recover from his initial reaction to her, with the current situation he hadn’t expected to feel such instant attraction when she had looked him up and down, his mind had taken him to far dirtier places. So not only was he bracing for her response to the recognition dancing in her eyes, he was fighting his body’s desire to take her right there, in a bar of all places.

  He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm himself, almost choking when instead he was met with an intoxicating scent that was practically wafting off Captain Zayda Sparks.

  He groaned internally, that was not helping his calm. He wanted to taste her to see if she tasted as good as she smelled, not the way to enter negotiations. Now was not the time to indulge, no matter what his body craved.

  He tried to convince himself to relax, negotiating with his body. If he had his way, there would be plenty of time once they were on the intergalactic superhighway heading for Pyloto.

  “Oh hell no.”

  Yep, that was exactly what he expected. How had his life gone to hell in such a short time?

  Right, the favor.

  He was never doing another favor for his matra, no matter how many tears she cried. Even if she landed him with the same pitiful look she had given him on the comm.

  No.

  Never.

  By the grace of the Purple One, never again.

  This was the fault of those devil spawns that someone had the audacity to call younglings.

  Before, he had never questioned why younglings were so cute. Now, he knew. It was to keep their parentals from smothering them in their sleep, so the species didn’t die out.

  He had already made the decision to contact his personal healer upon his return home and have his balls cut off. There was no way in hell that he was going to reproduce. His matra was never going to be grandmatra as far as he was concerned. He thought back to some of the trouble the younglings had already caused. The destruction on the Burning Duo. Getting them kicked off of two luxury liners.

  Piele’s lips twitched at the thought of Octavia. He had no idea that she was aware of anything going on around her that didn’t consist of plants, but she proved that he needed to keep a close eye on her just like the other three younglings.

  In a sweet gesture, she gifted an Educolarian rose, to one of the Mybret matrons on the ship. Personally, Piele wouldn’t have given the green-skinned snotty female the time of day. She and her companions had gone out of their way to make the trip as uncomfortable as possible for the orphans including making snide comments about them from the moment they stepped on the luxury liner. He figured that someone in Octavia’s past taught her better manners than his own matra had been able to instill in him. He guessed wrong. What they had taught her was to be subtle in her revenge.

  Octavia gave the female-specific instructions to feed the plant a nitrogen-based plant food daily. It would help the flower to bloom in a variety of beautiful colors. The female had shown the flower to her equally condescending companions on the ship, not once giving credit to Octavia for the beautiful plant.

  When Piele checked with Octavia to see how she was handling this obvious snubbing by the female she just shrugged and told Piele “The Purple One has a way of making sure that everyone receives the gift of karma.” It wasn’t until the female and her companions broke out in uncontrollable hives that he discovered Octavia’s meaning.

  Octavia confessed to having overheard the female refer to Destiny as a “whore in training”. She also admitted that she knew feeding the rose nitrogen plant food would cause the rose to release a scent when inhaled caused hives in humanoids from the mining planet of Mybret.

  Brilliant.

  Seeing the matron and her companions covered in the white medication to reduce the hives was an example of faith in the Purple One. It also convinced Piele that females, even teenage younglings, were a scary bunch and he had no intention of introducing any more of them into the galaxy. He was sure that he was on the Purple One’s karma shit list and wasn’t willing to do anything to have the galaxy even the score.

  If his matra wanted grand-younglings, especially female ones, then she needed to beg his bratha Riodan because his loins were not procreating.

  Though his thoughts and his loins were at odds for the moment. His loins indicated that they were on board with the idea of attempted procreation with Zayda Sparks. He shifted his position to create more room in his suddenly snug jumper.

  “It’s not what you think.” he sputtered.

  “A
re you telling me that I didn’t see you on Intergalactic Mating Destination kicking the shit out of the luxury liner heir on the eve of his mating ceremony?”

  A red hue crept over his cheeks causing his grey skin to darken in color.

  As embarrassed as he was he was glad he could answer her question honestly. “That is exactly what I’m telling you.”

  “I call bullshit.” She announced loudly. People in Bleu Hell were starting to turn their way.

  Great. Just what he needed. More attention to him. Despite his size, he tried to crouch lower begging their gazes to look away. It was bad enough that people kept thinking he was the violent guy in that damn Mating show vid. Now his body was trying to take control, at the worst possible time. Blood that was very much needed for logical decision making was instead rushing towards his little head.

  Heat flared through him, looking down at her. He couldn’t deny it, her very form attracted to touch, the sensual way her hands settled on her hips. The anger dancing in her eyes only made them glow, inciting such curiosity, how they would look when caught in ecstasy as he took her? The unbidden mental image had his balls and cock wanting to get up close and personal with Zayda.

  Her pussy.

  Her mouth.

  Her ass.

  Explore the silky looking purple skin. Run his fingers through the wild black curls that topped her head.

  Bend her over until she screamed his name as she came on his cock. He shook his head. He needed to get control of his cock...thoughts. Now was not the time or place for this.

  “That wasn’t me. It was my bratha Riodan.”

  He almost smacked his head when the look of disbelief crossed her face. Now she thought he was a liar.

  “That was my bratha, Riodan. I am Piele Pyloto."

  Pylototarian males were born in pairs. Pyloto was a methane-filled planet on the edge of the Redemption Galaxy. It was a hot tourist destination for those who had the credits to visit.

  Piele and Riodan had traveled to Faatania, to get away and enjoy themselves. After all, it was the planet of free love. They had gone there to experience, well... free love. They were on the last night of their vacation when their matra contacted them about helping her long-time friend Jusdisa Pyloto out. He remembered the conversation clearly, it was still echoing in his mind.