A New Reason To Fight: An Intergalactic Romance
Page 51
When it was all too much for her, Reyna pushed me away and flipped us over again. Now she made me squirm and moan with pleasure, her mouth finding the most sensitive parts of me along my torso. She quickly unlatched my bra and pulled down my panties, exposing all of me to her touch. I held my breath in that moment between thought and action, Reyna’s gaze taking me in before she reached out to make contact.
Her fingers skimmed my hip, echoing the line of my pelvis bone. I shivered as her fingers teased their way closer to my entrance. When she finally made it there, her skilled touches made me feel like I’d shake apart from the pleasure coursing through me.
I wanted to ask her a thousand questions, but they all felt just out of my grasp. The sheer physical pleasure made it impossible to think about anything else.
I let out a long scream as I climaxed. Reyna didn’t try to contain it. Instead, she looked up from her place between my thighs and smirked at me. It was the most open, most genuine expression I’d ever seen on her face.
I sat up and pulled her to me, kissing her firmly on the mouth. She tasted of me, but she kissed like herself. I pushed back against her intensity, meeting it readily with my own. I buried my fingers in her hair, bringing us impossibly close. I didn’t want a single millimeter of skin wasted.
“Let me touch you,” I said, my words breathless.
“No,” she answered. It was a gentler rejection than I would have expected from her, but it was a rejection all the same.
“Alright,” I said, moving to kiss her again and dropping the subject. I wondered if this was another part of Konkoman convention, as the gesture had been, or if this was just Reyna. Either way, I respected it. I didn’t feel that she owed me anything; on the contrary, I felt as though she deserved to feel as much pleasure as I had.
Reyna must have sensed my racing thoughts, because she pulled me down onto the bed with her and said, “Stop thinking.” She laid her body out beside mine, folding herself into my side. It was all very intimate.
“As you wish,” I said, holding her close.
We stayed in bed, lying naked side by side, for an hour more before Reyna stood and wordlessly returned to work.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINING CHAPTERS…
Overtaken
An Alien Romance Story
T.J. Brandow
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Before we get started, I wanted to give you the opportunity to get Free Sci-Fi Alien Romance Books from me and other incredible authors.
Click here to receive the free SciFi Alien Romance Books.
Chapter 1
Lane squinted against the sudden flash of the holo-projector, inwardly cursing her best friend for not offering a warning before changing to such a high setting.
“Seriously, Maggie, warn a girl before you do that.”
“Sorry,” Maggie offered, waving her hands about dramatically before quickly lowering the image intensity. “I just wanted to make sure you could see the details on my schematic.”
Lane shook her head; her friend always was a bit too enthusiastic about her newest nanotechnology layouts. Lane lifted her coffee mug to her lips, taking a sip before responding. It was a weekend for them, despite the fact that days were all relative on a space station, and Lane hadn’t expected to start her Saturday morning with a tech presentation. But Maggie had shown up at her apartment door and insisted on it.
“It’s fine,” Lane said. “You just forget that I spend most of my time looking at white boards instead of projections. “
“Right, right,” Maggie agreed. “You physics nerd, you. Your precious eyes are so delicate.”
Lane reached across and pushed Maggie’s shoulder in a friendly gesture.
“Ha ha,” Lane offered dryly. “Okay, enough about me. Show me what you’re so excited about.”
“Yes.” Maggie pulled up a schematic and Lane scooted a bit closer to the projected image. Maggie reached for her breakfast pastry with a smug smile.
“Is this a brain-enhancing implant?” Lane asked after a moment. Maggie nodded, the croissant still in her mouth. “But, what does it do, exactly?”
“Try to guess,” Maggie said.
Lane was a physicist, not an engineer or a nanotechnician like Maggie, but she loved a good puzzle.
“Let’s see,” Lane thought out loud. “This sort of looks like a verbal processing unit…”
“You’re close!” Maggie said, throwing up an arm in victory. “Keep guessing.”
But before Lane could make another guess, the entire station dipped sharply to the right as a huge explosive sound assaulted Lane’s eardrums. This was definitely the last thing either of them expected.
“What the hell was that?” Maggie shouted.
“Definitely nothing good,” Lane answered, standing quickly and racing toward her closet for her emergency suit. “Come here, Maggie. I have my spare in here, too.”
Maggie sprinted over without complaint, taking the emergency suit from Lane. They both took a moment to pull on the jumpsuits and helmets, attaching all the clips with practiced efficiency. Lane had to pull her shoulder-length hair up into a ponytail to get it into her helmet, so Maggie was done a moment earlier than her.
“Hell, I didn’t think I’d be using this today,” Maggie muttered over their communication link, her voice pressed and a bit fuzzy as it resonated through Lane’s helmet.
Lane rushed over to her computer, pulling up the news network.
“Nothing yet,” she reported. “But that sounded serious.”
“That felt serious,” Maggie added.
Maggie rushed to Lane’s side at the computer, pressing against her as she read the small projection.
“Okay, we’re on Red Alert,” Lane said, “but still no info on what happened.”
“Let’s start toward the pods,” Maggie suggested. “We can find out later.”
Lane gave a nod of agreement, leading Maggie out the door of her apartment into the hall. Other scientists and station workers were already out there, pushing past one another to get toward the escape pods.
Another explosion rocked the station, sending people tumbling into one another. Maggie caught Lane before she fell into the wall. Lane had a few inches on Maggie, but her frame was smaller, so Maggie had no trouble saving her from a few bruises.
“Thanks,” Lane said.
“That was a big one,” Maggie replied. “I’m ninety-percent sure that’s weapons fire. This is insane! Who would be shooting at a science research station?”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Lane agreed, continuing in the stream of people toward the pods. “We’re clearly protected under the Jupiter Treaty. Any action against us would be a blatant act of war. Why would anyone risk that?”
“I don’t know,” Maggie answered, her voice tight over the intercom.
They passed by one of the station’s large picture windows and Lane took the opportunity to look out. Amidst the stars and blackness of space, an Apkallu spaceship spread its carefully forged wings.
“Oh my God, it is them,” Lane commented to Maggie. “The Apkallu are attacking the station!”
“How many?” Maggie asked as they kept moving. Her breath sounded heavy and fast in Lane’s helmet.
“I only saw one,” Lane replied. “But it was a big one.”
“Lord have mercy,” Maggie commented, her American accent slipping out briefly. “We have to get to the pods.”
Yet another explosion rocked the station, this one more intense than the last. The station’s lights flickered on and off, casting a horrific scene in the hall. Lane felt the panic rise around her.
“This is not good,” Lane commented to her best friend.
“This is definitely not what I signed up for,” Maggie agreed. “I should have known better and stayed back on Earth, like my parents wanted. Get a nice University job, they said. Find a nice boy to marry, they said. Why couldn’t I have just listened? Now I’m going to die on this God-forsaken hunk of scrap metal.”
Lane opened her mouth to comment, but stopped when Maggie clamped onto her arm with a pointed fierceness. Lane stopped in her tracks, watching Maggie as she obviously listened to something in her helmet.
“What is it?” Lane asked.
“It’s Control,” Maggie said. “They want me to report to Operations.”
“But, why you?”
“I have no idea,” Maggie said. “But I have to go.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lane offered without hesitation.
“No,” Maggie insisted. “You have to get out. I don’t know what this is about, but I’m not going to let you be in danger because of me.”
“Try and stop me,” Lane said. She held Maggie’s gaze through their helmets, unwilling to back down. She’d follow her best friend through hell and Maggie knew it.
“Alright,” Maggie said. “Just try to keep up.”
“I’ll do my best,” Lane teased. Maggie was stout and short-winded in comparison to Lane and they both knew it.
They pushed through the crowd, starting off in another direction from the rest. Lane couldn’t shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong about the entire situation, but she wasn’t willing to leave Maggie’s side. So she pushed the feeling down and kept her mind on the problem at hand.
She thought through all the emergency procedure drills they’d done in the past, trying to decide what the best course of action was after they got to Operations. She knew the escape pods were their best bet, but she tried to strategize another option in case they were all gone by the time they needed them. The last thing she needed was to be stranded on the station while it was under attack.
Winded and sore, Lane and Maggie reached Operations a few minutes later. The solid double doors opened to reveal a shoot-out, lasers blazing across the room in streaks of red and blue. Lane caught sight of station officials and Apkallu-uniformed soldiers in Human form trading laserfire across the open room.
“Nope,” Maggie said, turning around immediately. “I don’t care if they court martial me; I’m heading back toward the pods. Let’s go.”
Lane didn’t hesitate to follow Maggie’s lead, racing down the hall away from Operations and back toward the escape pods. Thankfully, there was a set of them nearby meant for the workers in Operations and they were still docked. Lane saw the open airlock at the end of the hall before them and sent up a short, thankful prayer to a nameless god.
“Almost there,” Lane said needlessly.
“We’ll make it,” Maggie answered.
They finally reached the open airlock to the escape pods. Two pods stood on standby, awaiting their passengers. Maggie rushed into one, taking hold of the controls and flipping switches as she started up the engines. Thankfully the pods had a quick start-up procedure.
Just before Lane stepped in, she heard commotion behind her and turned to see who had followed them. Before she could even register the situation, an Apkallu soldier lifted his gun.
Lane felt the burning sensation of a lasershot bloom across her side. The pain clouded her brain in darkness as her limbs weakened beneath her. In her last moment of consciousness, she punched the airlock control, effectively shutting Maggie into her escape pod and jettisoning it into space.
Chapter 2
Lane awoke to a pounding headache.
“Shit,” Lane muttered to herself as she sat up and looked around.
She found herself laid out on a cot in an otherwise empty, grey cell. The shimmer of a forcefield stood between her cell and the outside. She quickly put everything together: she was being held prisoner on the Apkallu ship.
“Great,” she said, rubbing at her temples in an attempt to dissuade the headache.
She stood up, groaning at the myriad of aches that resounded through her muscles. Remembering what had happened right before she’d passed out, she lifted her shirt to look at the place where she’d been shot. Sure enough, a circular burn mark marred her pale skin, covering a few freckles in the process. She touched at it experimentally, hissing in pain at the lightest touch. She instantly regretted her curiosity.
Deciding to turn her attention elsewhere, she stepped up to the forcefield and looked out into the room. A few other cells lined the outside of the room, but they were all empty. An Apkallu in their Born form sat at a desk at the center of the room, their dark, pupil-less eyes fixed intently on a computer screen. Their tan, feathered head was mottled with dark markings, but they lacked the noticeable tuff of alternately-colored feathers that indicated a high rank, so Lane knew this Apkallu was merely a lackey. She still found it strange how Apkallu in their Born form were genderless and it was impossible to know how they presented until they shifted into Human form.
The Apkallu guard turned to look at her, but they didn’t say anything. Lane didn’t expect them to. The Apkallu couldn’t physically make verbal sounds in their Born form and Lane hadn’t undergone the procedure to become telepath-abled, so the guard had no way to communicate with her.
The guard must have alerted someone, because a minute later, the door to the brig opened and two new figures stepped in. One was another Apkallu in their Born form and the other was an Apkallu in Human male form, his Apkallu heritage indicated with a feathered badge on his uniform. Lane stood as close to the forcefield as she dared, pulling herself up to her full five feet and seven inches despite the pain in her side.
The Apkallu in their Born form stood only a few inches taller than Lane, but their broad shoulders and proud dress made them appear larger. Beautiful white and silver feathers covered their torso, accented with jewelry interwoven into their back feathers and a proud, red tuff of feathers on their head like an ancient Roman’s helmet brush. A single strip of fabric diagonal across their torso and shorts over their blue and silver scaled legs served as their only clothing. Lane found this both intimidating and provocative. She knew immediately that this was the Apkallu in charge, at least in this situation, and the one with which to be careful.
The Apkallu in Human form, a slight man with curly dark hair and delicate features, gave Lane a tight smile and said, “Sorry to keep you in pain with that burn. We had to wait for you to wake before we could do anything about it. From what I can tell, it’s mostly superficial anyhow.”
Lane, unsure how to answer, just nodded.
“I’m sure you have lots of questions,” the man continued. “To start out, I’m Rys Jinn and this is Nys Akari.” Lane recognized Rys and Nys as military ranks. She only knew that a Nys was a senior officer, confirming her thoughts that the Born Apkallu with the red head tuff was in command.
“I’m Lane Akins,” she started, keeping her voice even, “and you’re violating the Jupiter Treaty by keeping me here. And not to mention that you also attacked a peaceful Human space station used only for scientific research. Who else are you holding against their will?”
Jinn looked up at Nys Akari, who had obviously said something to him telepathically, and he answered, “We can’t give you that information. Nys Akari would like you to know that the attack wasn’t unprovoked.”
“Wasn’t unprovoked?” Lane spat back, directing the words at the silent Nys Akari. “Abgal Station is a science outpost. What could we have possibly done to provoke an attack?”
“That is classified information,” Jinn replied. He looked almost apologetic. “But in the meantime,” he continued, “please let me tend to your
injuries. I’m a trained medic. I specialize in Human anatomy.”
The guard stood from the desk, approaching the cell with their lasergun raised.
“We don’t want to harm you,” Jinn said. “Just cooperate and you’ll be feeling much better in no time.”
Lane sighed. Her body hurt like hell and she’d have to be treated soon enough.
“Very well,” she said. She put up her hands to show her good intentions and the guard released the forcefield.
Jinn picked up the medkit he’d brought with him and stepped into Lane’s cell, moving slowly toward her. She let him get close, moving her arm aside when he went to pick up her shirt and observe her wound. He smelled distinctly Apkallu, all perfumed musk and sea salt. She hadn’t had much interaction with the Apkallu before, but she’d heard enough and read enough about them to grasp the basics. That, and Maggie was a bit too intrigued by them, spouting random facts about them from time to time over lunch.
Jinn’s fingers were gentle on her side as he examined her wound. She hadn’t expected this.
“You’re lucky it was a stun shot,” he said. “Otherwise, I don’t know that you would have survived.”
“Well, thank the Apkallu soldier for not killing me the next time you see them,” Lane said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Nys Akari looked at Lane at this comment. Their endlessly dark eyes held Lane’s gaze, completely unnerving her. She looked back at the wound on her side to break the uncomfortable eye contact.
“Well, can it be fixed?” she asked.
“Of course,” he replied. “Just give me a moment and it’ll be much better.”
He pulled a small tool out of his medkit, running its cylindrical end over her burn. The contact hurt, but the pain subsided quickly. After he was done, only a scab and a dull throbbing remained.