by Webster, K
It’s incredible.
I have several more samples of the rabbawolf to test with but would love to take live samples from something like…Eileen. A rogcow that’s our pet could give me endless samples to create not only a cure, but an inoculation for the future.
“You’ve done it, mort,” I say to Kevin. “You found the cure.”
His eyes widen in shock. “I did?”
My heart swells to see the pride gleaming over his features. I may be an arrogant genius, but I know this mortling needs the confidence boost.
“You most certainly did. That means you get to name it.”
He laughs. High and happy and excited. I’ve never heard anything so incredibly cute. It makes me laugh too.
“We should call it the rabbacure since the rabbathings with the green blood are what fixed the sick blood.”
“Rabbacure, huh? I like it.” I pat his furry nog. “Want to see what the rabbacure does to your blood next?”
He nods rapidly. Zoe would probably smack me around for this, but now that we found a cure for the sick, we need to make sure we can protect the un-sick.
Where is Zoe anyway?
Hours have passed since she brought me my mortling and we’ve been hard at work ever since. I make a mental note on one of my many lists to check on her soon.
I’m teaching Kevin how to draw a sample of his own blood, impressed with his bravery, when I realize I thought of him as my mortling.
Mine.
“Wow,” he says as his bright red blood fills the tube. “It stings, but it’s super cool to watch it fill up!”
All I can do is stare at the boy named Kevin who’s more mort than man. Could it be that I am to be his father since he doesn’t have one? At first, I think maybe that would be strange when he’d be better suited to stay with someone like Molly or Willow, but then I think about how Breccan took Hadrian in like a son.
They weren’t blood, but Breccan is Hadrian’s father.
It’s decided.
The mortling is mine…and Zoe’s.
“Pull it out now and use this device to heal yourself,” I explain to the mortling. “Inside are tiny little things called microbots. They heal you quickly.”
He holds the device to the tiny pinprick of blood and depresses the button. His gasp of shock makes me chuckle.
“Now take a dropper and let’s put some on one of the new rabbawolf slides,” I instruct. “Let’s see what happens.”
The mortling obeys and I’m proud of how quickly he picks things up. A true doctor in the making.
“Look, Avvy,” he says with an excited shriek. “It’s doing the same thing!”
I don’t correct him on the wrong way he says my name. Truth is, I’m kind of fond of it.
“You’re right,” I murmur, amazed at the way the rabbawolf blood clings to Kevin’s blood, coating it in its essence and creating a barrier around it. “You’ve officially created the immunization too, though I’ll have to test it many more times before I’ll feel comfortable trying it on you. What do you have to say for yourself, Dr. Kevin?”
He laughs again, the sound contagious. It makes me wonder if the boy ever laughed before now. Thoughts of those cruel alien men hurting my mortling have my sub-bones cracking loudly.
“Why do your bones pop when you’re mad?” he asks, no longer smiling.
“It’s a physiological response when a mort feels the need to protect someone, be it his family, friends, mate, or home.”
“Who are you trying to protect?” he whispers.
“All of them,” I say, “but right now, I was thinking about the ones who hurt my little mort.”
His nog bows. “I was scared, Avvy.”
“I would have been too.”
“You would have?” he asks, fat tears welling in his eyes. “But you have fangs and claws.”
“And I have sub-bones that pop when I’m afraid of losing the ones I care about. Fear isn’t a bad thing, mort, you just have to learn to control it. If you let it control you, you’ll give power to the ones who’ve hurt you or could hurt you.”
“I wish I had sub-bones.” His bottom lip pouts out. So rekking cute. “It’s kind of like a warning to mean people not to mess with you.”
“Maybe Oz can make you your own warning device.” I lift a brow. “What do you think about that?”
He nods rapidly. “Avvy?”
“Yes, Dr. Kevin?”
His smile is immediate. Who knew seeing this mortling smile would fill me with such joy? I want to ask Breccan many questions about his early days with Hadrian.
“When we get to the Facility,” he asks, his smile fading as worry shines in his eyes, “will you protect me until I get my claws?”
I pull him to me for a fierce hug, the need to comfort him overwhelming. His tiny, frail arms hug me tight around my middle.
“Until then, after then, and always,” I assure him. “Now let’s go give Zoe the good news.”
* * *
“Stop looking at me like that,” Zoe grumbles as she loads more supplies onto the ship.
“Like what?” I demand. “Like you risked your life on your death mission?”
She rolls her gray eyes and waves me off. “I didn’t risk my life. I was doing what was necessary.”
“Hmmm.”
Though I was angry when I found out she went hunting, I am a little pleased that she was successful. It was dangerous—it still is considering what she managed to wrangle up—but something that will help us in many ways. It’s because of my selfish need for curing the people on this planet that I let her slide.
For now.
“I think that’s it,” Zoe says as she drops the last of her medical supplies in the storage room. “We’ve gathered everything from Exilium we’ll need. All we need to do now is grab our people and go.”
She makes it sound easy.
As though wheeling them out of the Medical Bay and into the ship bay will be easy. I suppose it’s better than dragging them through the tunnels. A far shorter walk.
“Where’s my mortling?”
Her brow arches. “Your mortling? We didn’t make one yet.”
My cock reacts to her words. The idea of impregnating my female makes me ravenous for her.
“Our other mortling,” I say. “Dr. Kevin.”
She laughs. “He’s not yours.”
Stung by her words, I turn and begin rearranging the supplies so that none of it falls during travel. When I feel her palm on my back, I tense up.
“Avrell,” she murmurs. “You can’t just claim him.”
“I claimed you,” I argue.
“But…”
Turning, I face her, my face screwed up in anger. “Who else would care for him if not us? Breccan? Lyric? He trusts us. No one else.” I scrub a palm over my face. “What if he is frightened with them? He laughs when he’s with me.”
Her features soften. “I’m sorry. You’re right. If you want to adopt the little one into our family, I support that decision. As long as he wants to be with us.”
“He does,” I assure her. “Now where is my mortling?”
She smirks, but goes along with my possessive need to protect and care for the mortling. “He’s napping in his room inside. We probably have a few minutes to ourselves. I’m not sure when we’ll get another one alone.”
It takes my cock only seconds to realize her insinuation.
My mate wants me.
Now.
Her giggles undo me when I start yanking at her minnasuit. I manage to drag it off her supple body before I take my next breath. Then, I shed mine as though it’s diseased. When she’s naked and waiting, I grab onto her fleshy rump and lift her. Her legs wrap around me as my lips crash to hers.
“Avrell,” she moans, her fingers tugging at my hair that’s growing out each solar. “Fuck me.”
This woman maddens me.
Gripping my cock with one hand, I line myself up with her slick cunt and push into her with a hard thrust
of my hips. She cries out, her entire body trembling at the intrusion. As I drive into her like a man crazed, I suck on her jaw and neck. I force a finger into her mouth and my cock swells when she sucks on it. It gives me ideas for her mouth and my cock that we’ll absolutely have to try later. When my finger is good and wet, I bring it to her rump. Retracting my claw, I rub at the cute button between her cheeks.
“I want to explore this hole,” I rumble against her throat. “Relax and let me in, stormy one.”
She whimpers but obeys me. Slowly, I ease my finger into her hole. I decide my cock will fit here one solar. I’ll make it fit. As I thrust into her, I finger this other hole, pleased at the way it stretches and clenches.
“You’re such a freak,” she murmurs.
“A freak who wants to put his cock there soon.”
She moans. “Oh, God!”
“It’s mate to you. Say it.”
“You’re my mate!”
I push my finger in deep as I grind into her, gyrating my hips in a way that my pelvis rubs against her clit. She whimpers and shudders, seconds away from her explosive peak. With an alarmed cry, she succumbs to the pleasure, both holes spasming around me.
“Rekk,” I rasp out as my seed gushes forth, filling her waiting womb.
As her body falls limp from the toxica, I drop into a chair in the supplies room, hugging her to me. She doesn’t stay immobilized for long as her body grows used to my paralyzing agent. Her finger strokes my neck softly as I pat her rump and kiss her nog.
“You’re mine, stormy one. You always will be.”
“You’re mine too.” Her whispered words are nearly inaudible, but I hear. I always hear.
All too soon, she regains her movement and we’re able to clean up and redress.
“We should leave soon,” I tell her, hating that we’re going to leave our safe haven and enter the unknown.
Before, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but I have a family to think about now.
“Let’s gather our people then.”
She starts to walk away, but I pull her to me for a deep kiss.
“No matter what happens out there, stormy one, know that becoming your mate was the best thing that ever happened to me.” I lean my forehead against hers. “My greatest achievement.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Avrell. We have our whole lives ahead of us. I’m sure you’ll have many more achievements that will outshine becoming my mate.”
“Hmmm.”
She smacks me, earning a scowl.
“What the rekk did I do to earn that?” I growl.
“I’ve decided every time you hmmm me, you get smacked.” She shrugs. “Now get to work, monster man, we have people to save.”
As she walks away, I smack her rump.
“What was that for?” she snaps, her gray eyes flashing.
“If you get to smack me, I get to smack your rump anytime you sass me with those plump lips of yours.”
“You’re trouble, Doc.”
“The best kind, my mate.”
13
Zoe
“Take it easy,” I instruct the healing members of our group as they load up on the ship. Thank goodness it has enough room to fit all of us. “Everyone find a seat and make sure to keep hydrated. It’s going to be a long trip, but we’re going to take good care of you.”
I stand at the entrance to the ship, helping everyone on, but really, I’m scanning all the familiar faces for one in particular. One I haven’t seen since I stole her away to help me on my top secret task. “C’mon, Julie,” I murmur under my breath. “Please don’t make me leave you.”
“Avrell says to tell you to make sure everyone’s on board. He’s finishing securing the cure. As soon as he’s done, we can leave.” Kevin looks like a completely different person. Some of his injuries have already healed thanks to Avrell’s careful doctoring and the microbots. But it’s the shadows in his eyes that are most striking—they’re completely gone, clear.
This world is healing him as much as the people.
For what had seemed like a desolate, miserable place, Mortuus is precisely the opposite. It’s restorative. Rejuvenating. According to information Quinn found in history texts, the name Mortuus was given to this world after the people who founded Earth II destroyed it. Mortuus is Latin for dead. They believed this world was dead.
Without hope.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
This planet…these people.
We’re survivors.
We will beat them.
We will win.
We will take this planet back for our children, and their children. For their future.
I rub a hand on Kevin’s cheek, but this time he doesn’t flinch at the caress. My heart warms. “Thank you so much, Kevin. I know how hard this must be for you. You’ve been so helpful after everything you’ve been through.”
He lifts a shoulder in a patently teenage gesture. “You don’t have to thank me. I’m gonna go finish helping Avrell.” With that, he scampers back down the ramp and inside the prison.
To Eleanor, I say, “Will you take over here? Make sure everyone loads up safely?”
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” Or at least, I hope it is.
I leave them to finish loading their things under Eleanor’s careful watch. They’re slow-moving, still healing from The Rades, but at least they’re healing. After my conversation with Breccan, Avrell didn’t want to waste any time returning to the Facility. Neither did I.
I only hope there will be a Facility to come back to.
Dammit, Julie. Don’t be stupid.
When she said she wanted to stay, I knew she was serious, but part of me didn’t believe she’d actually do it. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go, but even with the cure this planet is dangerous. Does she really think those other aliens—or whatever they were—will be as nice as the morts? I don’t think so.
I start for the cells where we’ve turned them into makeshift rooms. One by one, I check them for stragglers, hoping to find Julie hiding out. Each time I clear one without seeing her, my heart drops a little more.
Leaving her behind isn’t an option.
After clearing all the housing cells, I check the command room, then the cafeteria. All empty. So are the elevators and the guards’ rooms.
“Julie!” I call endlessly as I search the halls. “Julie, where are you?”
The only answers are echoes.
I swear if she left without saying goodbye, I’m going to hunt her down and kick her ass myself. The least she could do was let me know. The not knowing is almost worse.
The last place I check is the tunnels underneath the prison. We spent a couple hours down there when I asked her to help me with my crazy plan the night before, but she had no reason to go down there—unless it was to make a quick exit without being detected. My heart is in my throat the whole way down there.
There’s a ticking sound in my head, which only makes me more frantic. We can’t wait for her forever. If I don’t find her soon…I shake off the thought. I will find her. I have to.
The catacombs smell like rotting flesh and the acidic green blood from the rabbawolves we had to kill capturing one of them. Their corpses dot my progress. My skin turns clammy and saliva builds in the back of my throat.
I’d call out for her, but I’m afraid if I open my mouth, the scent of rotting rabbawolves will make me yak all over my shoes.
At the end of the main tunnel, I find the door wide-ass-open. We’d closed it when we were finished with our task last night. It’s a heavy door, there’s no way it opened by itself. She must have come this way.
I push the door the rest of the way open and step through into the outdoors. The red-orange sun blares down from above, making the dusty ground nearly sparkle. There in the mounds of sand are tire tracks. The windy climate on Mortuus means these must be fresh. Our footsteps from the night before have already been erased. These a
re fresh.
I squint into the horizon, following the tracks. They go on into the distance as far as I can see. No one else would be crazy enough to venture out alone, not when we’re due to leave any minute.
“Dammit, Julie,” I bite out.
There’s no way in hell Avrell will let me take out another rover to try and track her down. He’d say there’s no time. We have to get these people on the ship. The Facility needs us. Julie knew that. That’s probably why her dumb ass waited until the last minute to check out knowing I’d have no time to go find her and drag her butt back to sensibility.
I growl underneath my breath and spin around. That’s when I see the note attached to the door with a hasty piece of tape. I recognize the handwriting right away.
Dear Zoe,
I’m sorry to leave this way, but we both know you’d try to stop me if I said this in person. I hate to leave you at a time like this. I hate myself. But if the world is ending, I want to explore it first. Don’t try to find me. Please.
Take care of yourself. I hope it all works out and that I can find you again someday.
With all my love,
Julie
Tears come and I don’t try to fight them back. They roll down my cheeks as I turn around and slam the door behind me. Choked sobs erupt from my chest and I give in to them as I navigate the catacombs back up to the main hallway.
I can’t believe she’s gone. We’d become so close since the others left. She was like a sister to me. Was. I cry harder, rubbing at my face with my sleeve. Maybe when everything’s over, I can try to find her.
Stumbling through the hallways, I attempt to regain control of myself. I can’t let the others see me like this. I don’t want them to panic when we’ve finally gotten control of things—at least somewhat gotten control of things.
“Zoe!” The voice stops me in my tracks.
I wipe my face hastily and try to paste on a casual smile. Everything is going to be okay. Turning, I find Avrell jogging to me.
“There you are. I’ve been looking for you—Are you okay, my mate? Have you been crying?”