Smuggler’s Contubernium (Mea Lupus Series Book 1)

by Kahaula

  Oli was the only one that I didn’t know much about. Cassie had told me that he had pushed back against his pack mates when she told them how she met the Ferryman. She had mentioned that he was outraged by what he had learned. He was young. Indignation like that could point to a soft underbelly that might be useful to me.

  Quintillus slipping that they all wanted me would be their undoing. All the groundwork I had laid down was already coming to fruition. My plans were all falling into place. Feeling like a complete bitch was to be expected.

  It was also a luxury.

  I looked around my room. Breathing in the moment and the present truths woven all around me. This was the bed I had made love to Quintillus countless times. A bed I had dreamt and thought of their other pack members back on New Rome. The pillow and sheets would still carry a faint smell of Quintillus and I.

  I stood up slowly and turned my back on the bed. All the memories and feelings associated, I dismissed. It wouldn’t change what I was about to do. Taking these wolves for all they were worth and leaving them behind me was the plan. Changing my mind on this was never going to happen.

  They knew bits and pieces of me, but not the whole. Everything inside of me hardened into the fortress I would need to keep my mind and heart secure. I packed away everything that was truly me and hid it away. This skill helped me to survive the program. I could do it again.

  Reaching down, I grabbed my bag of clothing. The corridor outside my room was quiet but I could hear the murmuring of voices. Sunny must already be here. Ai would have known that I needed this time to get my head right. Only then would I come to her for the final check in before I headed out. I heard a low whistle of appreciation.

  “That’s some fancy fucking tech there, Ai.”

  “I’m just replicating the design,” Ai huffed, “I swear Kara’s brain gives me a complex. I keep getting upgrades to keep up with her.” Sunny laughed at Ai’s playfully grumpy remark.

  “Stop fishing for compliments, Ai,” I teased. Sunny’s grime streaked tech suit probably had enough chemicals soaking it to make it a fire hazard. How someone as innovative as her worked in a place like this baffled me.

  “Why’d you ask me here, Kara,” the statuesque woman raised one eyebrow in question, “You don’t normally drag me into your schemes.” Ai snorted a laugh.

  “What schemes? I don’t scheme,” I put a hand to my heart in mock hurt. Sunny rolled her eyes.

  “You’re a conniving cunt,” she stated blandly, “Don’t think I haven’t been seeing what you’ve been doing with those wolves.” People always underestimated Sunny. A former gladiator turned ship mechanic challenged people’s preconceived notions. Stupid people usually.

  “I’m going to take up their offer of protective custody,” my face was carefully blank but the edges of my lips twitched as I tried not to smile, “seeing as how the Ferryman will no doubt come for me like he did Fillion.”

  Sunny laughed. Bent over, full body, tears leaking, laughed.

  “I fucking knew you had a reason for taking a job with that piece of shit Fillion,” Sunny chuckled and wiped away the last of her tears, “By the way, good job on that. That fucker needed to die.”

  “You’re welcome?” Ai’s eyebrows scrunched up in question. The pure hate in Sunny’s last statement surprised us both but we didn’t push. I had my own reasons for being okay with Fillion’s death, and she had her’s.

  “Once inside the Mea Lupus Quarters I intend to use the new data relay orbs I’ve created to gut them of their keycodes,” all humour fled Sunny’s face as she listened to my plan, “then I’m going to use those keycodes to plant a damnatio memoriae.”

  Sunny stood there in stunned silence. She looked from me to Ai then back to me. Leaning back on one of the counters behind her, she rubbed her mouth with her right hand. The seriousness of what I was telling her was sinking in.

  “Kara...,” she blew out a breath and focused in on me. I didn’t doubt that she was checking my face for any sign that I didn’t know what I was getting us into with this plan. I nodded slightly letting her know I was all in. “What do you need from me?” Warmth filled my chest that she trusted me and was offering to be a part of this.

  “A fast exit and cover on your end to purge anything that might slip up about Ai.”

  “Fast exit I can do. I can even keep an eye on the Charopos, and make sure it still reads as the Lyre,” her forehead pinched, “but I don’t know what you expect me to do about concealing Ai that you can’t do better—especially once the damnatio memoriae is in place.”

  “You’re our contingency plan,” Ai said quietly. I nodded in agreement but didn’t look at Ai. We planned exit strategies and contingency plans for fun, and to keep us sharp. It’s what made us so good at keeping safe from our clients and the authorities. This time, however, the stakes were much higher.

  “We wanted you to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into,” I licked my lips and rubbed the bottom one with my thumb, “We’ve gone all in because we have to. You don’t.”

  “Fuck you, Kara,” Sunny said nonchalantly, “I knew you were the Ferryman before Cassie, and been friends with you and her ever since.” She pushed off the counter she was leaning on and stepped up to look at us both with her hands on her hips. “If this is what it takes for you two to be safe then it’s what you have to do. But there’s something I need to talk to you about before you head on over to those wolves.” Her eyes bore into my own and I knew she meant that privately, away from Ai.

  “Give us a moment, Ai?”

  “Sure,” Ai grabbed my bag and headed into the cargo hold. Whatever Sunny had to say was for me to hear alone. The door shut behind Ai and I waited for Sunny to speak.

  “You know they’re not going to stop looking for you,” she crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at me, “especially when they finally realise you manipulated them.”

  “I’m just a case to them,” I rolled my eyes, “I highly doubt they or the Mea Lupus Legions are going to indulge them on a lifetime long chase for one smuggler.”

  “Hey,” she shouted, “You’re talking to me now, not Ai.” I stood there in stoney silence. “I know about you escaping the program, Kara.”

  “How...?” I was slapped with the sick sensation of dread. I had never told anyone except Ai.

  “I figured it out,” she sighed quietly. “You’re not the first survivor I’ve met. I know a mercenary that got out, back when failing was an option.” I cleared my throat and tried to compose myself.

  “None of that has any bearing on anything I’m doing right now.”

  “You’re right,” she agreed, “because what you’re doing is insane.” Sunny rapped her knuckles on the work table Ai had been sitting at earlier. She held up her hand to stop me from speaking, “If you really thought the damnatio memoriae worked, you would have used it after you escaped.”

  “I had nothing,” I spat, “Nothing but blood and bones when I got out. It took years to create the—“

  “And if it was only about that then yeah, I’d say great go for it,” she pressed her point and took a step forward, “but you’re not robbing a drunk after a good fuck. Are you, Kara?” I crossed my arms and turned my face away from her.

  Sunny was gouging into the heart of my fears from earlier. Ai trusted me but this wasn’t just about trust. I wasn’t just sleeping my way into the Mea Lupus Quarters. If that had ever been possible it would have happened in the first few weeks at most.

  “They’ll forget me,” I insisted. Sunny scoffed in disbelief and her face screwed up in her ‘are you pretending to be stupid or are you being wilfully delusional’.

  “No, Kara,” she pushed back, getting right in my eye line, “They won’t. Those wolves feel something for you.” She gave me a pitying look, “You’ve made them. And I don’t think it’s one sided.” A spark of anger flared up at the strange sound of sympathy on her no nonsense tongue.

  “Fuck you, Sunny!” I pushed into her space a
nd went nose to nose with her. “I know what I’m doing, and I’ll do what I have to to keep me and Ai safe.”

  “And haven’t you stopped to ask yourself, why,” she argued back.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Her pushing and prodding was starting to smash every button I had. Sunny raised her fists like she wanted to choke some sense into me.

  “Why are you so adept at managing this pack, Kara?” Her piercing question set off a whole host of alarm bells. She speared one finger to my chest to make her point, “You think you’re so fucking clever and have all the angles covered but I’m telling you right now, Kara, you’re delusional if you think they’ll let you go once you blink outta here.”

  “I’m committed to my plan,” I said lamely. The fight was draining out of me. Of course I knew this pack wouldn’t stop hunting me. I had felt it in my bones from the moment they had fixated on me at Cassie’s. Having their obsession turned to hate would have been my undoing and Ai’s destruction. I needed them to want me, to crave me. “If I burn them hard enough they won’t want to find me.”

  “Oh, Kara,” Sunny pressed her forehead to mine. I could feel the years of friendship and concern in her words and actions. “Then you need to run hard, and you need to keep running. Because I don’t think there’s a damn thing you could do that would stop those wolves from wanting you.” She pulled away and left me alone to collect my thoughts before I had to say my final goodbye to Ai.

  I prayed that Sunny was wrong. She had a gift for machinery and a mind that could unravel complex puzzles because of it. What she said shook me to my core. I wanted her to be wrong. I needed her to be wrong.

  Being found out as the Ferryman was one thing. Having my full past explode back out into the world by a Mea Lupus pack would destroy what little safety and joy I had been able to create. Squaring my shoulders, I placed a confident and calm mantle over me. Ai needed to believe I had everything under control.

  I made no sound as I walked through the corridors of my ship. Its lack of warmth eased back my tension the same way drifting through space comforted and cooled something deep in my soul. Trailing my fingers along the walls, the Charopos rebuilt my armour. If this didn’t work out Ai would be cared for and loved by our friends. Her life would be her own, free from my shadow.

  “You gonna braid in the last orbs into my hair?” I smiled as I walked up to Ai in the cargo hold.

  “You’ve now got so much balls people are going to start thinking you’re compensating for something,” she snarked. I let out a loud laugh. Her eyes twinkled with mirth.

  “Yeah, well, my balls are badass so people are just jealous,” I teased. Ai guffawed and helped me place my bag over my shoulder. “You double checked the relays and their data feeds?”

  “Yup, I even triple checked that their protocols are all up to date with their specialised instructions,” Ai weaved in the last dangling orbs into my hair. The few that were visible looked like innocuous hair ornaments.

  “Then I’m good to go,” I smiled. Doubt flashed briefly through Ai’s eyes before it was replaced with a steely determination. “No contact. Unless there’s a tactical concern or a tech breakdown, we keep our interactions to zero.”

  “Got it,” Ai winked and touched two fingers to her heart. Her gesture gave me more knots in my stomach. I both wanted and didn’t want divine intervention. Planting a kiss on her cheek, I headed down the ramp of my ship and out to the Mea Lupus Quarters.

  The crowds thinned out and the station became cleaner. I was entering a section of Castra 3 that I had never been in before. I shook off the disdain and disgust at the sheer size of their allotted space. It wasn’t hard to increase my heart rate and let fear fill my veins to pour off of me.

  From here on in I would be the Kara this pack thought they knew. I didn’t doubt that I was pissing off some god somewhere out there with this plan. I shoved back down a hysterical laugh that wanted to make its way to the surface. If I pulled this off it would make me a legend.

  “I’m here,” I placed my hand on the panel. The official seal of the Mea Lupus was beautifully rendered on the wide double doors in front of me. After a brief wait they whooshed open and Quintillus stood on the other side.

  His look of relief and barely restrained hope scratched against my defences. My mouth set in a determined line, I marched the four steps to him, showing him that I was committed. Devotion glowed warmly from his eyes. Sunny was right to question me and my skill to manage these wolves so well.

  “I’m glad you came,” he wrapped his arms around me in a fierce hug and sighed into my hair. You won’t be, when I’m done.

  Oli

  Kara’s laughter filled the temple’s garden space. Her hair flowed free behind her as she dashed away from Bhar in his full wolf form. She ran around a pillar then quickly dodged in the opposite direction. Bhar yipped at her trick and placed his front paws down in mock frustration. She giggled and ran behind me.

  “Am I your human shield now?” I laughed.

  “My wolfie shield,” she squealed and tugged my shoulders when Bhar tried to dip in and nip her. “Protect me, sweet wolf!” Her damsel in distress impression had me slapping my thigh; I pitched forward in laughter. “Eeek! My shield is bent over!” Kara kissed my cheek and giggled as she dodged Bhar again to run past me to the open grassy area.

  Bhar lunged when she made it halfway and pulled her up short. Without ripping her dress he tugged at the hem in his large jaws. She turned and put the back of her hand to her forehead.

  “Alas! I am caught!” Kara fell to her knees and let out a breathy swoon noise. Tears leaked from my eyes as I laughed harder. “Oh, Divine Wolf! I am untouched, please don’t ravish me!” Bhar made a snarling noise and tackled her to the ground in a gentle pounce. “Oof!” I fell on my ass the same time as Kara did, and with the same lack of grace.

  I honestly didn’t know which of us was laughing harder. Bhar wiggled behind her so she was laying on him and not the hard ground. She smiled and breathed heavy as she leaned back into the pillow of his fur. Bhar panted with his mouth open, his tongue lolling out in a happy smile.

  Bliss.

  A month and a half of pure bliss since Kara had come to us for protective custody. Gone was her working tech suit. We each had contributed a garment here and there to increase the tiny wardrobe she had brought with her. The first time she had come to dinner in a dress worthy of New Rome we had all but dropped our jaws on the floor.

  Her hair, as well, had slowly been let loose from its utilitarian braids. Her wavy locks, dark and rich like the lushest soil spilled across Adohi’s fur. She still kept a few braids but they looked more decorative and only enhanced her innate regal beauty.

  I licked my lips and watched her. She turned her face up to the false UV lighting overhead and smiled softly. The tabard dress she wore only covered the front and back of her, down to her ankles. The soft curves of her waist, hips, and muscled thighs peaked out from the open sides.

  Her breasts were slightly out of sight, but the slope of their curve was temptingly visible above her ribs. I wanted to crawl over to her and lick from her ankle all the way up to her breasts. I smiled ruefully and adjusted my stiff dick.

  The fleeting kiss on the cheek earlier had been as far as we had gotten. I didn’t begrudge my pack mates all finding comfort in Kara. If anything it felt like a weight had dropped from us all. Bhar laughed more instead of brooded. Quintillus joked around when he made us all breakfast.

  Adohi still avoided Kara like the Antonine Plague but I could still smell hints of her on him whenever he deigned to leave the command centre. He wasn’t fooling anyone. I tilted my head up to the false light as well and buried my self-deprecating snort. I wasn’t fooling myself either. I wanted Kara. Bad.

  Watching the others go full tilt over Kara made me feel like the sweet shy boy amongst the men. It chafed. I didn’t want to be slow or sweet with Kara. I stared longingly at her exposed and arched neck. What would it feel like to hol
d her down and fuck her ruthlessly from behind? The baser urge to claim her like my wolf wanted made a shiver race up my spine.

  Bhar turned his wolf’s head toward me. He undoubtedly smelt the change in the air from my thoughts. Unbidden a soft rumble emanated from the back of my throat. He huffed a breath at me in canine laughter. Yeah, laugh it up asshole. I’ll make my move when I’m good and ready.

  “Hey, Oli,” Kara called out. She lifted one of her thicker braids and placed it above her lip, “I moustache you a question.” I snorted out a laugh and shook my head.

  “By all means, Kara,” I chuckled. She opened her mouth and Bhar whacked her full in the face with his tail. She descended into a fit of giggles that had my heart squeezing. I wanted to remember this moment for the rest of my long life.

  “Ew! Fuck’s sake Bhar,” She elbowed him the ribs behind her, “No one wants your fur in their mouth!” He keened out a mouthy response punctuated with a lick of her face. She laughed again and pushed his drooling jaws away from her. Kara had absolutely no fear of us or the wolves we became. Even my own parents had flinched when I first showed them my wolf form.

  Kara fell back in surprise as Bhar unceremoniously jumped up from the grass. Aphelele smiled wide and open as he looked down at Kara laughing on her back and Bhar rubbing against his legs. I was sad that I missed an opportunity to have her focused on me, but the sheer adorable nature of the moment eased the sting.

  “Have you fallen and can’t get up?” Aphelele asked kindly. The corners of his eyes crinkled up in amusement. Kara propped herself up on her elbows and smiled cheekily up at him.

  “No, we both know there’s no rest for the wicked,” she winked. Aphelele’s laugh was like the deep tumble of rolling waves on the shore’s sand.

  I held my breath as my eyes traced the cascade of fabric covering her like a waterfall of temptation. When my gaze finally landed on her face I blinked in surprise. She had caught me drooling over her. She tilted her head to the side and gave me a naughty smirk.

  “I see you’re keeping these two out of trouble, Kara?”