by Aubrey Cara
Kein must hear my choking. He’s over me, making soothing sounds and brings something to my lips. He helps me sit up and drink a cool liquid. I cringe at the bitter flavor, but Kein presses me to drink more.
“Are you back with me, zepka?” he asks. giving me an assessing look.
I shrug, my head still fuzzy. “Where are we?” It’s obvious we’re in a spacecraft of some kind. I have an IV in my arm. “What happened?”
Kein explains as he detaches the tube from my arm. We have escaped the Zapex and Cal stayed behind to ensure we were not followed. I can tell from Kein’s expression he is not at all happy with Cal’s decision to stay behind.
I lift a comforting hand to his cheek. “He will follow.”
“You know this, do you?”
I nod. “He is Monrok.” Isn’t that’s Cal’s explanation for everything?
Kein’s lips pull up before he turns somber once again. “Unfortunately, he will also have to find us on a different planet from the one we agreed upon, without the aid of tracking devices to follow.”
“What do you mean?”
A sleek panel on his right arm opens, and a hologram of a shining blue jewel appears. I lift my hand, and my fingers trail through the image. I’m not sure what I’m more amazed by, the panel in his otherwise seamless arm or the hologram. The arm thing definitely.
“This is a tash stone,” he explains. “These stones are used to power just about everything in our galaxy. It is what powers this vessel we are on. Ours…” A picture of a smaller stone with a much dimmer light appears. “Ours has been depleted.” The hologram disappears and his robo arm seals up, appearing to be a normal human arm once again. “It is my fault. I did not ensure the ship had a sufficient energy stone before our escape.”
I shrug in a “shit happens” kind of way. “You were kind of busy starting an uprising.” Taking his arm, I run my fingers over where the opening was. “It feels like flesh and bone. How is that possible?”
He lifts a brow at me, and his shrug is very pointedly human. “I am Monrok.”
I smile. I guess I had that one coming. “How long have I been out?” I ask trying to get up.
Kein assists me as I wobble on my weak legs. “A little over two cycles.” At my questioning look, he says, “Around three Earth days. The Jun’pn galaxy has thirty-two planets habitable and one hundred and twenty-eight different sentient species. Each planet has different cycles, or as human know them, days. But all in the Jun’pn Galactic Unity go by the same time measurements. Our cycle is thirty-six hours. Or twelve shifts.”
I try to get my head around all that, but it’s all white noise as I get my first real look at outer space. It’s so much like everything I’ve seen on TV but completely different at the same time. The vastness is mind boggling.
Kein wraps a supportive arm around my waist, and I lean into him as I stand in front of the window gazing out.
He points to the giant planet in front of us with two rings and swirls of color around it. “That is Yhasphr. That is where we will land.” His tone is ominous.
“Is the planet safe?”
“It has stabilized oxygen levels, water, and nutrients you will be able to safely consume.”
“I sense there’s a but in there.”
“A but?” he asked, confused.
“Like something bad you’re not telling me.”
“Yes. There is a but. The Zapex used a section of Yhasphr for experiments that caused lasting gamma radiation. This in turn caused mutations in some of the planet’s wildlife. The planet has not been visited in the past three hundred years. It is unclear how much has changed.”
“Kein,” I say, hesitantly blinking up at him. “If we get another energy stone for the ship…will you take me home…to Earth?” Even as I ask, my stomach rolls nervously.
He shakes his head, an unreadable expression on his face. “Earth is many months away, and that is traveling at hyperdrive speeds for extended periods of time. Your body is not capable of withstanding that. Humans are—you were cryogenically frozen for the journey.
“Even if we had enough supplies to sustain us, the dangers of us being captured would be threefold. We would have to pass Zapex guard points around Earth’s solar system.”
“Oh.” My gaze drops to my feet, tears filling my eyes. Somehow, even in my unfathomable new reality, I believed I’d someday go home again. “So I’ve been gone for months.” This is more a statement than a question, but Kein nods anyways.
I wonder if anyone searched for me, or if I’m just another missing person to be forgotten. My face plastered over local media one day and gone the next. Everyone who knows me probably thinks me dead by now. And here I am in space, living a dream…nightmare.
Kein’s tilts my chin up forcing me to look at him. His face is set in stern lines. “Your life is with us now.”
At the moment “us” consists of him. And should anything happen to him I’m SOL on a level I’ve never had to contemplate. Even at sixteen, facing a life without my parents and having to take care of myself, I wasn’t this scared.
I can’t just fall on the goodwill of some diner owner and waitress. It’s not even like being lost in another country. The ship’s control panel stare up at me mockingly. I couldn’t direct this shuttle if need be. Where we are, I’d have no hope of survival on my own.
I nod my head, suddenly too exhausted to think about what my future may or may not hold. I lean heavily into his side and yawn. I may have just woken up but I may fall asleep standing here.
“Come, my zepka.” Kein easily sweeps me up in his arms. “You must rest.”
Instead of taking me back where I had woken up, he pushes a side panel with his boot and a sleeping mat slides out. He surprises me by stretching out on the mat and arranging me over him.
My body relaxes, but I suck in a breath, tensing when his thick erection comes to life under my belly.
“Shh, relax, Allyson. I know you are too weak yet for mating. My body only reacts to your nearness.”
I am too weak, but the feel of him under me is waking up other parts of me. His hands tense over my back as he gently strokes me, and I know he can sense or scent my reaction. My hips rotate involuntarily, and he holds me in place, closing his eyes.
“I will not harm you,” he says as way of refusal.
“You will not harm me.” I kiss his jaw.
“You are still too weak.”
Life has become very scary and uncertain, but his large body under me feels steady. Strong. Safe. “I need this,” I say, nuzzling his neck.
I need him.
I need to have a choice in something.
“When you have recovered, you are getting a spanking.”
The threat of punishment shouldn’t make my body pulse with heat, but it does.
“I can scent you,” he groans.
I roll my hips against him in a gentle invitation as I lean my face up for a kiss. Our lips meet in a lazy tangle. He reaches back between my legs, his searching fingers finding me wet.
“Is this what you need, zepka?” he asks, his thick digits pushing into me, and my breath hitches.
Holding his gaze, I reach between us as I grind back on his hand, wrapping mine around his cock through his pants. “This is what I need.”
His eyes roll back, and I take that as permission to free his erection, sliding my fist up and down the velvety hard length. The feel of him steals my breath. Just like with Cal, my fingers can barely touch around him. I grow wetter thinking about him filling me.
Kein’s digits work at my opening faster, and I’m close, so close. “I want you inside me,” I gasp, not wanting to come without him.
Holding himself, he helps me glide back onto him. I take him in increments, letting him stretch me a little at a time. When he’s fully seated inside me, I rock on him gently. He takes my hips to slam inside me, and I tighten my legs on him.
“Slowly,” I say, easing down on him. “Gently.”
I lie on
his chest as he grips my hips, swaying in and out of me with care. He trembles underneath me and know how much havoc my request is wreaking. His hands tense on my hips, his fingers digging in as he fights to hold back. I’ll have bruises. His face is contorted as if in agony.
I know a bit of that agony.
I squeeze my internal muscles, taking a little of what’s been taken from me. It feels like leveling the playing field. Owning a moment of power while I am so weak.
Vindication.
Part of me wants to punish him for the situation I am in, even knowing it’s not his fault. As illogical as that may be, I take comfort in knowing a moment of control. Even if it’s only an illusion.
I let him rock me faster, my breath heavy as I grip him. When I come, it’s in slow waves that wash over me, pulsing out from where my flesh is wrapped around his cock.
At my tightening, his knot grows inside me, until we can’t move. Only pant, moving together as his liquid heat fills me again and again.
Tears fill my eyes and spill over. Silently, at first, until they pour from me and I can’t catch my breath as sobs rack my body, mourning the loss of my life on Earth. The loss of everything I know.
He does not ask me any questions. He does not rub my back. He just holds me as if he’ll never let me go.
As if he’ll never die.
Never leave me.
***
When I wake, I’m alone on the mat and feeling much better than the last time I woke. The absence of sticky residue between my legs lets me know Kein cleaned me. My face heats in embarrassment even as I warm at his thoughtfulness. He and Cal are alike, but in many ways so different.
My heart pangs with worry as my mind wanders to thoughts of Cal. I feel strangely connected to him, even after such a short time together. A dull ache fills my chest at thinking about not seeing him again. I glance up to find Kein standing in front of the shuttle window, watching me.
“What causes you such sorrow, my little zepka? Are you missing your Earth? I believe you humans call it homesick.”
I nod and swallow thickly, not wanting to admit I was thinking about Cal. While a part of me will always miss Earth, I realize now there was nothing holding me there.
Kein wanders over and crouches in front of me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. The gesture causes my stomach to flutter with nervous butterflies. It also reminds me of Cal.
“I can scent your emotions. I know when you lie.”
“I am just worried about Cal.” To my horror tears, fill my eyes, and one fat one rolls down my cheek as I try to sniff it back. His face is subdued as he wipes it away, and I wonder if he wishes he hadn’t asked. “What will you do if anything happens to him?”
He mulls it over and after a time shakes his head. “I do not know. I have never existed without him.” He seems a little lost when he says this.
Now I’m the one sorry for asking. “How old are you two?”
“Around fifty in human years. As are all Monrok. It is hard to know exactly because we do not know when we were taken, and Jun’pn years are different. Slightly longer.”
Fifty? “You all look so young.” I thought they were a little older than me. Thirty at most.
Kein’s lips pull up at my incredulity. “The Zapex stopped our aging at around twenty-five. But it is likely we will start aging again once we stop taking the nutrient shots.”
“Will you age all at once?”
“We will not know until it happens.” He smiles, likely finding my concern and horror amusing.
I know it’s shallow of me, but if I’m going to be with these guys for better or worse, I’d like to know what I’m getting myself into.
“Come, my young little zepka. It is almost time to land,” he says pulling me up and I make a face at him.
“What does this zepka thing look like, anyway?” I ask as we stand at the control panel in front of the window. Two hover chairs form from the floor panels and bump the back of our legs. Kein sits gracefully, obviously used to this sort of thing.
I squeal as I fall back, tentatively adjusting into a comfortable position. Part of me is concerned the chair is going to go haywire.
“This is a zepka,” he says, holding up his arms. There is a hologram of an ugly silver animal.
It’s a cross between a bunny, gerbil, bug, and I’m not sure what. It is fuzzy and little with a body much like a bunny. But that’s where the similarities end. It has five giant black eyes. Little horns in front of its stubby ears and… “Are those fangs?”
He gazes at the image fondly. “Yes, they come in when it is still a lanja.”
I have no idea what lanja is. I’m assuming that means when it’s young. “And you think this thing is cute?” It’s hideous.
Kein scowls, and the panels on his arms seals shut. “All Monrok think they are cute. We keep them like pets. They are all over our moon planet of Mehcad.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just it has fangs,” I argue.
“To suck the nectar from the gkrutah tree.”
I sigh. At least it’s a horrifying herbivore. I glance over at Kein. He is checking readouts and pointedly ignoring me. His face is impassive, but I’ve obviously offended him. I’ve probably bruised his big masculine feelings, too.
Getting up, I slide onto his lap and wrap my arms around his neck. He’s a big, solid man, and I take a moment to enjoy how petite and feminine I feel pressed against him.
“I’m sorry,” I say with meaning. “The zepka are kind of cute.” For scary alien creatures, I add to myself.
He gives me a baffled look, as if unsure what to do with me, before nodding and wrapping an arm around my waist to pull me closer to his body. “I, too, am sorry.”
I shrug at him in question. “What are you sorry for?”
“I am sorry you will have to be punished now.”
“What? Why?”
“You do not believe the zepka are cute.” His face is somber, but there is a wicked gleam in his eyes as he stands up with me in his arms.
I huff. “That’s no reason for punishment.” I try to squirm away, but he holds me tight. I can’t tell if he’s teasing me or serious.
“You lie too easily and forget we can tell.”
He says the “we” like Cal is here, but I don’t correct him.
He activates the hover pad and places my top half face down at the end of it. It’s too high for my feet to reach the ground, and my legs kick air. The ankle restraints whip out to wrap around my wrists, pinning my arms down by my sides.
Serious.
He is serious.
My shirt slides up over my ass to rest on the small of my back. With a tug, a loud tearing sound fills the space along with my gasp. He’s torn the shirt from me. The shredded remains lie at my sides as air washes over me.
Kein makes a pleased humming sound deep in his throat, gliding his hand over my ass. “You are lovely, my little zepka.”
He brings his hand down on my ass for a loud smack, more shocking than painful. “I could scent all your emotions as my brother spanked you,” he says conversationally. “So much humiliation, and frustration...pain.”
His hand comes down with cracking force, and I kick out with his strike. “But also so much pleasure.” He rubs my ass gently before spanking even harder. This time, the strike steals my breath and my skin prickles with the familiar heat of the last spanking.
“Ahh, there it is,” he says, like he’s found something he misplaced, and I scowl, knowing exactly what he’s found. A pulsing beat between my legs.
This time, I don’t fight it. I’m experiencing everything he’s just mentioned. Humiliation, frustration, pain, but pleasure also. I don’t understand it but, in some twisted way, I want this. A part of me craves to submit to his every whim. I clench my fists, willing myself to relax and let the sensations wash over me. The potent zing and burn that comes with each powerful swat. The penurious ache filling me.
Over and over again he strikes until my ass is on fir
e and I’m panting. My sex throbs for attention. He stops and rubs my tender globes but does not dip down to where I want his hand the most.
I make a little needy sound in the back of my throat and he chuckles, a low rumble that sends jolt to my core. I’m posed, waiting for another strike. I even squirm, waving my ass like a red flag, all but begging him to keep spanking me, but instead he bends my knee bringing my ankle up to meet my wrist.
Suddenly wrist and ankle are latched together, and he moves to do the other side.
“Kein?” All too familiar panic prickles my skin. In vain, I kick out, trying to twist away, but I know it’s useless.
After restraining me how he desires, he takes me off the pad and sets me at his feet.
On splayed knees, my wrists latched to my ankles, I stare up at him like some unwilling sacrifice being offered to a god.
In this position, I’m even more aware of the slick heat dripping out of me. My face flushes.
His gaze is hungry.
Predatory.
He cups my cheek, running a thumb over my lips. “My beautiful zepka. I thought of many things in the cycles you slept and healed. Do you know what thought would not leave me?”
His erection is thick in his pants. My eyes trail his hand as he strokes his length before pulling it out in front of me. The tip is already wet, and I involuntarily lick my lips.
One hand on his cock, he wends the other through my hair and pulls my head back as he stands over me. “Do you?”
“N-no.” I choke out.
His look is stormy. Intent.
My gaze wanders back to his cock and his hand tightens in my hair, demanding I meet his severe gaze. And to think I thought he was the nice one.
More slickness slides from my body, and I bite my lip.
“Your mouth,” he rumbles, the intensity of his voice making me shiver. “While the Monrok strike up war against the Zapex. While the fate of my brother stands unclear. While my kind are hunted. While we are hunted. While you lay healing, I could not stop thinking of your mouth. And how much I wanted to sink inside you and have you drink my essence.”