Claimed by the Conqueror

by Alyx X

  The door slammed shut behind us, and Roe and I continued across the farmyard at a quick march. Once the ship was in sight and we couldn’t be viewed from the house, I gave Roe’s arm a quick squeeze in signal and we shimmered across the remaining distance. It was something we only did for short distances, and usually only within sight of our target so as not to make a mistake. Vibrating individual body parts was much easier to sustain than transporting our entire bodies across distances. I didn’t care that Emma had seemed to delight in this ability. At least, that’s what I told myself.

  When we were standing at the door to our ship, Roe glanced back at the farm, out across the huge glass buildings, then back to me, and she finally burst out laughing.

  “Oh brother,” she said. “What have you done?”

  I huffed in response. “A hell of a lot less than I should have done. I should have obliterated the weak, balding human on the spot.”

  “He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that,” she conceded. “But I’m not sure it was wise to put your dick in his daughter.” I said nothing. Part of me didn’t care that it hadn’t been wise. The urge to take the human female with us—if only to teach that human a lesson—burned through me.

  Roe watched me, her eyes narrowing. “Don’t let his attempt to humiliate you prevail. You can’t afford to get attached to one of them, anyway.”

  Attached? I scoffed at the idea. I didn’t plan to get attached to Emma. Well, not permanently, anyway. Any attaching would only be done by my cock. I walked around our ship, finding somewhere we could talk without being seen from the direction of the farm, but also where we could still see the landscape.

  “Look at it,” I muttered as I scuffed my boot against the dirt and dust-covered rocky surface. Nothing green even attempted to grow at our feet.

  “Yep,” Was all she said.

  I wandered away, the farmer still on my mind. Finally, I threw my arms up and turned back to Roe. “What was that human thinking?” I exploded. “How dare he say those things to me? Space filth? Has he seen the planet he lives on?”

  A small smile crept onto Roe’s lips and she shrugged. “What can you do about it, though?”

  “Well.” I threw my arm out in a jerky movement to encompass everything surrounding us. “If I wasn’t going to blow up the entire planet before, I am now.”

  She chuckled. “I’m glad you’re back on plan. That’s what we came here for after all.” Her words made sense, but her enthusiasm seemed forced. I nodded warily while she continued to look at me, waiting for the next explosion.

  After none came, she said, “You had me worried for a moment there, taking to one of the natives like that.”

  I pushed away the regret trying to make itself known in my head. I didn’t want to consider or overthink this. Earth wasn’t the first planet we’d conquered by any means possible, and it wouldn’t be the last. Still, I hesitated.

  “I…I mean…” I gestured futilely around us again. “If the planet actually had something worth taking, some reason for even existing—”

  “You don’t need to justify yourself to me. I know how this goes down.” Roe examined her nails like the Earth dirt trapped underneath them was suddenly far more interesting than listening to me.

  “It might have changed my mind, though. If those TerraLink people actually had something of worth, something to offer.”

  “Something to buy your desire to let them live?” Roe questioned archly.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “But this planet is dead. Inhabited by a puny species that either flings insults around like nothing could ever hurt them or—”

  “Or that pays a power-sucking corporation to take them away.” Roe interrupted me and spat the words out. I understood her anger. “Either way, Qui, they’re weak. They’re desperate, and they’re craving and enabling their domination. You know, maybe it is better that they be destroyed than keep disrespecting themselves in this way, after all.”

  I nodded. She was right, and she seemed to have gotten over her second-thoughts, so why couldn’t I say it? “Have we got everything ready to take the samples we need?”

  Roe nodded. “Of course.”

  I didn’t doubt her. We’d done this before. My whole team knew exactly what to do at each stage without me standing over them to deliver instructions. Roe and I performed a diplomatic visit first, then we decided together what form our next course of action would take. We’d seen enough of Earth to understand we probably had no need of any diplomacy this time, but Roe had convinced me we should find out for sure.

  “We’re getting ready to send scouts out now,” she said.

  I nodded and looked out over the landscape again. “Doubt they’ll find much, though.”

  “Whatever they do find, they’ll bring back.” That was the last stage. Take what we wanted to save, leave the rest.

  “You want to take that human female?” Roe looked at me calmly, expertly hiding how badly she wanted to continue teasing me about the human. Emma. Her name was Emma.

  I shook my head then lied it off. “Nope.”

  I could still taste her mouth and feel her skin under my fingers. My cock longed for that tight, wet pussy, and it twitched as I thought of her. The scent of her hair lingered in my nose, and fuck, if my arms didn’t want to hold her.

  I shook myself. I didn’t need a puny human female. I was Qui from Euquaniar, overthrower of governments. Rulers cowered in front of me, begged for my favor. They knew what I was. I’d overthrown my own government, for fuck’s sake. I didn’t show mercy. I acted decisively and took what I wanted.

  I most definitely didn’t want a human female. More accurately, I didn’t want a complication, and that was all she was.

  “We don’t need a tourist,” I said.

  “All right.” Roe’s dry disbelief rang in her tone.

  “Good.” I didn’t want to hear any more of her opinion on the matter. “As long as the samples on the core come back okay, we’ll take what we need from this rock and be done.”

  She lifted an eyebrow.

  “I was ridiculed by her father.” I ground the words out, my jaw tight. Worse than the ridicule was that Emma had watched that weak man talk to me like that. It grated on me to have a female witness my shame. Though, maybe she also believed Dad had the right to do so.

  I growled low in my throat. No one had the right to make me look small and powerless. I had plenty of power. I gestured to Roe and we walked back around the ship. It was nearly time to set everything in motion.

  “I’m going to set the coordinates of the laser right to the farmhouse,” I said as it reappeared in our field of view. “I’ll take care of two matters of business at once. We’ll drain the core, and I’ll kill the bastard farmer with no respect for me in order to do it.” I could get everything I wanted and satiate my need for vengeance all at the same time.

  “Sounds like you’ve got a plan,” Roe said, still smiling.

  5

  Emma

  As Qui stalked away, almost magically dressed and looking entirely unrumpled, my fingers fumbled over my buttons. Aftershocks from probably the most intense orgasm I’d ever had still rolled through me, and I struggled not to show it. I shoved my dress down between my thighs to conceal what Qui and I had shared.

  “For fuck’s sake, Emma!” Dad threw his hands up. “I’ll be back in a minute. I have to deal with what the TerraLink representatives have just witnessed, thanks to you. Do you have any idea what you might have blown for us?”

  Me? I hadn’t been the one to call one of the most obviously powerful beings I’d ever seen ‘space filth’. And I definitely wasn’t the one who’d called that same powerful alien a ‘blushing red cock’. I almost shivered at the rage I’d felt roiling off of Qui. That was not something I ever wanted to be on the receiving end of.

  I didn’t wait for Dad to come back, though. I followed him from the closet and watched as Qui and Roe walked down our staircase and out of the front door. Out of my life. Without fulfil
ling his agreement to take me away. A soft, broken voice sounded in my head. No.

  I gripped the rail that ran across the galleried landing, my fingers curling around it, watching my one chance at a real life stalk angrily out the door. He glanced back—briefly, achingly—but his eyes held no hint of welcome or promise. He planned to leave me.

  Leave me deserted while my pussy still throbbed. Was this what all the other men I’d fucked and then ditched felt like? I grimaced, feeling ashamed.

  After the Euquanians left, swiftly followed by the TerraLink representatives, Dad took hold of my upper arm, his grasp only growing firmer as I tried to shake him off.

  “What are you doing?” I struggled against him.

  He sighed. “Really, Emma? Again? If you can’t behave like an adult, perhaps I need to treat you like a child.” He pulled me down the hallway to my room.

  I barked out a sudden, surprised laugh. He’d finally gone off the deep end. “What are you going to do? Ground me? Confine me to my quarters?”

  He stopped. “I’ll do whatever it takes to stop you hawking yourself out to any passing alien.”

  I finally got myself loose from his grip and punched my hands onto my hips. “Really? If you were in my position, with my life and my curiosities and the need to explore a little, you’d do the exact same thing.”

  His face reddened. “Do you really think I’d ignore all my responsibilities on Earth like you plan to? Do you really think I’d neglect the people I care about to go whoring myself out to dirty aliens from who knows where? Well, I can tell you one thing for free. I don’t want any blue grandchildren. I don’t want any green ones, and I especially don’t want any red ones. Space filth.” He shook his head as he repeated the words that had almost gotten him killed. I’d seen the look in the giant alien’s face. He had almost done it.

  My temper flared and I stepped back. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. The world has changed, Dad. There’s nothing on Earth anymore. The planet is dying. Your only use—our only use—is serving TerraLink. We can’t afford to reject space and all it has to offer, and you need to get off your racist ranting and just accept that.” I spun away from him, pushed my door open, and slammed it behind me, breathing heavily as I looked around my room.

  It was nothing more than a gilded cage these days. I wandered about, looking at my comfortable furnishings and the trappings of the life Dad had provided for me. All of this was the result of his hard work on the farm. I got that. Another wave of shame trickled through me that it wasn’t enough to keep me happy.

  I couldn’t pretend it was.

  I walked to the double doors that led out onto my small balcony. The lure of the sky often drew me outside, and dusk was my favorite time. When the heat of day was fading, and stars were beginning to twinkle in a hazy purple infinity.

  It exploded my imagination to even think about what lay out there. Swirling constellations, brightly lit galaxies, and aliens of every color and creed all flitted across my mind. They were the wild imaginings of a human who longed to experience more, and I sighed dejectedly. Then I lowered my gaze to the familiar view across the rocky surface stretching away from our farm, and my breath caught in my chest.

  Qui and Roe hadn’t left yet. Their ship still sat on our landing strip, a huge black shadow of a thing, and two barely discernible figures walked around it. Even without being able to see them clearly, I knew they were both red.

  Maybe I hadn’t missed my chance.

  I ran back into my room and threw myself into my closet to find a change of clothes. I had to try to get on board. I couldn’t give up another opportunity, not when I’d be lucky if Dad ever let me near another alien again. My own desperation fueled me as I whipped through my room like a desert sand storm. Once I’d stuffed a bunch of items I wasn’t even sure I needed into a travel bag, I stood back on the balcony, heart racing. I could do it. I needed to do it.

  Before I pulled the trigger on what could have been the riskiest choice I’d ever make, I dashed back to my room and grabbed my tablet. I opened the message system and set the message to deliver tomorrow. I didn’t need him discovering me halfway out of the house and ruining my chances to leave Earth twice in the same day.

  Dear Dad,

  I hope you can understand my choice. It isn’t that I don’t love you or the life you’ve provided, but I have to go and explore and discover for myself before I can feel fulfilled here. I have to know what else is out there and not feel like I must be missing something I just can’t see. I will return for you. I promise.

  ~ Emma

  That was it. I didn’t make any indications about when I’d return because I just didn’t know. That probably wouldn’t even be up to me if I was reliant on other people to bring me back.

  I ran my fingers over my wrist, tracing the familiar line of my ident band, the one that marked me out as having my very existence sanctioned by TerraLink. I had no need for this piece of TerraLink technology masquerading as jewelry where I was going, so I worked it over my wrist. After years of needing to remove it occasionally, I had the technique down, and I’d long since worked out a technique to disable the monitoring chip underneath my skin. Luckily, neither TerraLink, nor Dad, seemed any the wiser that I wasn’t always an easy-to-find blip on someone’s radar. At least, I thought I disabled it—I’d never tested the theory. I just needed to keep my head down until I got out of range maybe, and that wouldn’t be long on one of those alien ships.

  As I laid the bracelet on top of the note, I realized I was ready, and I took a deep, shuddering breath. Anxiety flickered briefly through me, but I ignored it. I couldn’t falter now. Not after this had been my dream for so long. Dad was never going to agree with me, so I had to take hold of this chance and make the most of it.

  Just before I left, I considered dipping down to the kitchen to grab some food. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to survive on whatever rations Qui and Roe had brought along, but I’d just have to take my chances. I couldn’t risk going to the kitchen. They’d managed to eat Earth food with us, so the chances were good for compatibility.

  I slung my pack across my shoulders and stepped back out onto my balcony for the third time. I leaned over the edge to examine the old tree trunk that still wound its way up here, despite never producing leaves or flowers. Dad insisted it used to be wisteria, and perhaps he was right. I could tell much from wrinkled bark. Whatever it was, it was pretty old, anyway.

  From my cursory look-over though, it seemed pretty sturdy, and it was my only way down that didn’t involve creeping through the house. Better to try to stick to the outside where possible, and the heat wasn’t as unbearable after sunset.

  I eased myself over the grand stone balustrade that surrounded my balcony and tested my weight on one of the branches that ran just underneath. It appeared to cling to the old stonework of the house, so that was good. I wanted something sturdy.

  I side stepped along the branch, still clinging to the stone columns ringing my balcony as I went, until I reached the main trunk of the tree. I stepped down and bit my lip against a curse as the next branch I stepped on snapped. I waited, trying to see if the noise had attracted any attention from inside the house, but nothing happened. No one called out, and no additional lights flickered on inside. Thank fuck. My heart was racing painfully, and I briefly wondered if I was actually cut out for this. Ignoring that road to nowhere, I focused on calming my breathing.

  As I stood still, my legs started to itch, then burn. I glanced down to see lines of ants swarming from the broken tree branch. They ran over my skin, biting me as they went. Hot damn, if there was any insect that might survive the end of the world, it would be one that wanted to bite me to death.

  I reached down to slap them away, but there were too many, so I gave up, dropping to the floor and trying to twist to take the fall. I rolled away from the tree, a sharp stone digging into my knee as I went. Shorts had been a bad idea. I stopped in the half-light filtering from the dining room
window and examined my injury. Just a graze, but it still stung.

  For a moment, I considered returning to my room. I’d literally been outside two minutes, and I’d already been attacked by ants and given myself a bloody knee. I was still mere feet from my room, and I’d always planned to travel a lot farther. It seemed like plenty could go wrong.

  Shaking my head, I looked toward the still-lingering ship. I couldn’t falter now. I’d done the hard part. I’d left my room. I eased myself onto my belly—I didn’t want anyone who happened to be in the dining room glancing out to see me walking by.

  Small stones clung to my palms and dust stuck to my knee. I gritted my teeth, but pushed myself forward, every moment of squashing my tits against the ground a moment closer to freedom. When I decided I was finally out of sight of anyone in the house, I pushed myself into a crouch in the shadows by the wall and took a moment to catch my breath.

  On the plus side, the Euquanians ship still hadn’t left yet, which made me wonder in a spectacularly arrogant moment if Qui was maybe waiting for me. I laughed that off, knowing the man didn’t care about the human he’d just met. On the negative side, it was still a hell of a long way away, and there was no way I could crawl the entire way there.

  The soft whinny of a horse both attracted my attention and provided a solution to my problems. Horses weren’t exactly sneaky, but they were fast, and maybe I could move from rocky outcrop to rocky outcrop like some sort of equestrian ninja. My future home, Euquaniar, seemed fitting.

  A light shone in the stable, but Old Willie—our aging stable hand—was dozing on his stool in the corner, his heavy breaths puffing out from under his moustache. I selected Stella, a horse with a strange knack for almost tiptoeing across the rocky ground, and slung myself onto her back. She harrumphed her disgust, but I was happy to ignore her complaining today.

  “Sorry, girl,” I murmured as I patted her wide neck and clung to her mane. “I didn’t bring you any carrots today. I rolled my eyes at the word. Carrots. Even the horses were surely sick of them by now. I held my breath as we began to walk toward the spaceship. Even though I tried to stick to shadows—and Stella was quiet for a horse—her hoof beats echoed through the rapidly approaching night. My heart never quite slowed, but it was manageable.