“So after all this, he gets her? No matter what happens?”
“Yes.”
“I understand how this is my punishment but I’d like it on the record that, if possible, I’d be happy to see her given to another so she can live.”
“Noted. You have about the chance of an iceball surviving on the surface of the sun of that coming true. It’s the only way the Ascend would permit any Hunts. Lethal futures. This man who watches her has already killed many females. And no one is going to want a partially bonded one.”
Not fair, to her. The sentiment sounded weak. I must be strong.
“Why not another master? You can see how desirable she is.”
“I’ve never heard of that being allowed.”
Such a waste. Death had followed him to this planet. He was beginning to see how diabolical this punishment was.
With Brask’s aid, he removed Brittany from the car, gently cradling her sweet body. The thick swathe of her hair tangled across his arm and swung as he moved her. Even that part of her smelled like blossoming flowers. “She’s so small. Don’t you think?”
Brask shook his head then pushed the car door until it clicked shut. “It’s a racial characteristic. Nothing more.”
Even so, her fragility was playing havoc with his protective instincts.
To disguise their activity, they’d acquired a building situated on a canal. They were pretending to be rich people, on holidays, when instead they were Preyfinders investigating the native anatomy and chemistry to see if it was suitable for the Hunt.
The manual had things to say about this. Deception and being adept at it is a key component of being a good Preyfinder.
He frowned, looked down at her softly breathing, and wondered why peacefulness cloaked him when he watched her thus. This was ridiculous. He shifted her around until her head settled in a better spot below his shoulder and walked into the house from the garage.
Stay on mission.
Susceptibility to the look seemed excellent. Documents had to be filled in, chemical answers had to be found, but things were promising. For the fifth time at least, he studied her face, her well-made lips, her curves and contours – the areas that advertised her sex to any male and virtually demanded, come and get me.
Should he feel so much like devouring her before they had mated even once? There was something wrong here. He had to restrain himself or look a fool. He’d already committed a grave sin, injuring one of his soldier brothers to favor a lesser mammal.
When Ladet’s armor had been examined and he’d been shown the defective comm, his stomach had twisted. The man hadn’t heard his order. The woman had knifed someone before running. He’d formally apologized to Ladet once he’d seen that. Not enough though, not at all.
He must harden himself against her allure, do what was expected of him, and leave her, no matter her fate.
“Put her on the table.” Brask indicated the timber one they’d set up to allow restraint so the technician could extract blood and tissue samples.
These humans had such tiny blood-carrying tubes…and Brittany was delicate to begin with. Jadd looked up and found the technician carrying in an unclipped case with a shining array of instruments. “Is she well enough to give samples?”
The man wasn’t a soldier brother but he was a certified technician. His cheek grooves were a mild ochre, darkening as he approached. “Of course. The human female is healthy. From a visual inspection anyway.” He spent some time watching as Jadd lowered her to the table. His expression was a fraction away from becoming a lustful smirk.
“Keep your eyes off her unless it’s needed for testing to be done.” The growling demand underlying his words surprised even Jadd.
The technician stumbled back a step and bowed his head. “My apologies, sir.”
Where had that come from? He rubbed between his eye ridges. “No. My apologies, Technician Kiel. That was not warranted. Carry on with your duties.” Then he reached for the first padded ankle manacle.
Brask leaned over his shoulder, adding quietly, in that deadly serious tone that marked him. “I should make you wear armor until you’re allowed to fuck her.” The man could make a celebration sound ominous.
The human swear word made it seem so much dirtier than intercourse. He smiled wryly. “Maybe. Is that to stop her kicking me?”
“No. It’s to stop your cock getting out before it should.”
“Your jokes are crass. May your ass burn in sunfire next warp jump.”
“I’m crass?” He nodded at Brittany while he tightened the ankle manacle on the other side. “These clothes she has on would be illegal if one of our women wore them.”
“Women yes. Pets, no. This is more than I’d allow any pet of mine to wear.”
Lines deepened around Brask’s eyes. “Perform your mission correctly and one day you may get a pet.”
One day. Not this one. Not Brittany.
Jadd touched the rolled up, lower edge of her bottom garment, reciting the word like it was a lesson. “Shorts.” His finger traced along the skin just below, feeling the firmness and warmth of her thigh. His nostrils widened as he scented her. Magical. “And shirt.”
That too had been pushed aside by their manhandling of her body. Her belly showed and the dimple where the birth cord had once attached. Sweet for such an odd part of her anatomy.
“The term for that is belly button.” Brask set his palm on the table on his side and leaned in. “She smells good. I wonder what her pussy area looks like.”
“Pussy?”
“The human mating region. Pussy is their common word.”
He bit back on another growl. Be calm. She’s not mine. “I forgot that one. Too busy learning how to act like a local.” Her legs stirred as he toyed with her upper thigh again and slid his finger beneath the shorts.
His skin seemed supersensitive, absorbing some strange energy from this connection to her. The aura from it swelled through him, making him feel taller, bigger, more alive. He wanted nothing more than to touch her again and again, to know every part of her, to explore every place she might keep secret.
Like a show that is slowly building to the big main act, more of her stirred. Her stomach muscles tensed and relaxed. Her eyelids fluttered. In the light of the room, her mane of hair showed its true color – not dark at all, but a deep vibrant red-brown that spilled about her head. Each wave shone like polished metal.
“Jadd. A lesson. If you want to blend in, learn the local words for taboo sexual parts first.”
“What? Oh. Pussy?”
The tech piped up. “They also have a small vicious creature in their homes that is called a pussy. It looks a little like their mating area but not much.” He tapped his chin with an injector. “Odd that they call it the same.”
“Maybe we should check to see if there are truly similarities on a fresh specimen of the race?” Brask reached for her shorts.
Mine erupted again, in his head. Determined to control his impulses, Jadd cleared his throat.
And Brittany tried to sit up on her elbows. Her pretty eyes opened. The blueness struck him, hard. He stalled, muscles going rigid as the pure sexuality embodied in all she did, in every move she made, locked his brain in a loop of –
“Jadd. Need your attention. Snap to it!”
Brask’s command woke him.
A curse rolled off his tongue. “Frak!”
He grabbed her throat while Brask and the technician held her hands down. Another look paralyzed her again. Her face relaxed; her eyes closed. His heart rate tumbled back to normal.
“Why did you hesitate?” Brask frowned at him, his cheek grooves flushed.
“I don’t know.” He worked his jaw. “I don’t know.”
But he did. It was her. Just her.
Once they had tissue samples from her and blood, the tech allowed her to be properly sedated. Then the first nano drug had to be injected into the upper curve of her rear end…into her ass. When Jadd insisted on being the
one to tug down her shorts so the tech had a clear target for his injector, Brask merely shook his head.
The second dose would be administered in a more natural way. That, he was looking forward to.
They returned her to her apartment, a few streets away.
Brask joined him outside the apartment building, his long coat swaying in the light breeze. The few native weapons they were allowed on the planet surface – shotgun, pistols, throwing knives – made little bumps under the coat. Moonlight bathed one side of him, making all the heavy features of his face, brow ridges and face grooves, stand out as if carved from the earth’s moon itself.
They were opposites in some respects. He was dark haired, Brask was blonde, but brothers always.
“Now we wait. Tomorrow, she’s going to be so on heat for you that her pussy will glow. And you get to fuck her.” Brask smacked his shoulder.
“If you fracture my shoulder I won’t. And stop using that dirty human word.” But his reply was absentminded. He didn’t take his eyes off the window on the top and fourth story that he knew was hers.
“Enough jokes.”
The change in Brask’s tone warned him. He snapped his attention back to his partner. Only Brask was his superior really, not only his partner. The new bleakness in his eyes reminded him of this.
“Sir?”
“I can see this woman has some great attraction for you. Take care you don’t overstep your boundaries. The only reason you have this opportunity and are not before a disciplinary court is because I interceded and asked your previous commander to allow you to join me. We are birth as well as soldier brothers. Do not shame me.”
His breath caught in his throat a moment. “I didn’t know this. That you’d interceded. And I will not shame you, Brask.”
“Good. Now, be sharp. An Ascend deigns to join us.”
“An Ascend?” he blurted. “Here?”
“Yes. Earth has one Ascend watching over it. Beware.”
The subsonic whistle of an incoming body registered. He’d only ever seen a god twice in his lifetime. Once had been in deep space. Another had flown past his launch ship while he was still fully SpaceHardened.
The Ascend would be travelling at high speed in the drop through Earth’s atmosphere. Anything else would be glowing and superheated. Yet nothing except a ripple against the pinprick brightness of the stars betrayed the path of the god.
Mouth open, he watched the last half mile of vertical flight. His knees jellified. A god was coming.
“Do not kneel. While among the locals, a simple head bow to an Ascend is sufficient.”
“Sure.”
With a shake of the nearby foliage, a microsecond roar, and a ground-jarring thump, the Ascend landed before them upon the pavement. A foot taller than he, and covered in rugged bronze scales bar his eyes, nostrils and ears, the Ascend was human in shape yet thoroughly awe inspiring. Steam fumed from his scales.
In unison with Brask, Jadd bowed his head and waited.
“Be at ease,” the Ascend commanded, voice rumbling. “I have come to survey the area and the woman. The uploaded parameters of her fluids have unusualities. Talk with me. I am Dassenze. Speak if you have noted any reason for her difference.”
The pinpoint gold orbs of Dassenze’s eyes paralyzed Jadd. Then a child darted across the street toward them, riding a two wheeled device. He wakened. A scooter.
“Excuse me, Dassenze, we are observed.”
“No. I am masked from humans. Have you seen differences? I conferred with Noss, my brother, and he feels something odd about this entire district of earth. Neither of us is sure of the cause.”
The child scooted away, oblivious.
“Uhh.” He found his tongue tip resting on his lip, and pulled it back. “Differences? Only ones that make her more desirable. I apologize for this. It’s…”
Dassenze chuckled dryly. “Don’t. Sexual attraction is acceptable. I’ve already tried several humans and taken two as slaves. However, I doubt her desirability difference is what I’m seeking.”
The Ascend were known to take on sexual partners at times. But two already?
Brask turned, sending his coat swirling. He craned his neck back as he looked up at Brittany’s window. “We will be sure to note any other differences, Dassenze.”
“Good. Be vigilant. Though the enemy is far from this part of space, we need to assess this planet and move on. Within five years we plan to decide their status. Are they starfarer or not? Our work is endless. Earth will join us in the war against the Bak-lal or be destroyed.
“Of course.” Jadd’s chest tightened.
The Bak-lal carried the centuries old war with them – bio engineering all in their path and creating new Bak-lal legions from the peoples who failed to fight them off. He’d never seen a Bak-lal soldier.
Pets were given a part of the virus that bestowed starfarer status. In the presence of their master, a pet could take warp space. If Earth’s people failed at this first test, if the virus failed to take, their destruction would occur all the sooner.
“You worry over this decision, Preyfinder Jadd?” Dassenze’s golden eyes seemed to catch him on the edge of a sharp abyss. “Tell me the truth.”
“I do, lord.” He bowed his head. “I wish them well.”
“Good. Your concern pleases me.”
That was a revelation. Jadd smiled weakly. If only this Brittany’s future wasn’t so grim, he might be a very happy Igrakk.
Chapter 4
At barely six am, Brittany awoke from a hot dream to find herself with her quilt bunched between her legs.
“Damn.” She snatched away the quilt, sure from the feeling down there that she’d find… “Damn!”
The bed cover was soaked with her wetness. What the hell? She never humped things in her sleep. Even when she dreamed she had some weird-ass Adonis with piercing eyes fucking her.
Brittany groaned and rolled over to sit on the edge of the mattress and hold her pounding head. It took a few minutes before she was thinking on all four cylinders, before she looked down and saw she was totally naked.
“Am I going insane?” she muttered. “I went to bed in clothes, didn’t I?”
Actually, she couldn’t recall going to bed at all. Or drinking. Yet she had a hangover that possessed her entire body, a bruise on her thigh and a sore butt. She attempted to recall the night before.
Art classes, walk, walk, walk to car. Blank.
Something odd had happened, but she didn’t feel like she’d been raped or anything. Just odd. Should she call the police? Maybe. If she wanted to look insane. Officer, I awoke with an intense desire to make love to my pillow. Can you help me?
Hot uniformed officer…handcuffing her, undressing her.
What the hell?
She stood and rummaged both hands through her hair until it was a mad mess.
“Day. Work. Be sane!” She trudged toward the kitchen. “Oh. Whoops. Clothes.” She turned, still half asleep, and made for her dresser.
All through the morning at work she alternated between unease at her memory loss and an increasing awareness that her pussy was aching, was throbbing, was somehow imagining something inside it all by itself. Even when she was busy cutting Mrs. McGuire’s hair, fer Chrissakes. Had someone popped her an aphrodisiac?
She made a dash to the toilets and splashed water on her face.
“What is wrong with me?” she exclaimed to herself in the mirror.
With her hairbrush, she flipped her curls from her flushed cheeks. Then she probed her mouth with one finger. “My lips are swollen! Crap. I’m sick.”
A series of intense aches pulsed between her legs.
She groaned, laid her head on the edge of the sink, shut her eyes, then blindly groped for and found the hairbrush. No one could get into the staff toilet while she had the door locked. The hair coloring was in Tiff’s good hands. The brush was…clean, smooth, just the right length and width. Damn, she was almost drooling over a hairbrush handl
e.
“Emergency. Has to be. I can’t take this.” Her hands trembled.
She wiggled the curved handle of the hair brush under the thoroughly moist crotch seam of her panties and almost collapsed at the burst of sensation when the hard tip slid to her entrance then nudged apart her lips. Ever so slowly, she pushed it up inside, as far as it would go. Her walls scrunched in so tight it hurt.
She fucked herself with the handle for a full minute before she could think straight enough to let go of it with one hand and pleasure herself while still moving the hairbrush.
“Will. Only. Take a minute.” She gasped with every stroke.
Five minutes later, at the least, she hadn’t gotten off. People would be pounding on the door soon, worried she’d drowned in the toilet.
Brittany bit her lip, poised with the handle deep inside, filling her. “Noo. No. Please. I need to, so so much.”
Close, but she couldn’t get herself to go over the edge and orgasm.
She gave up, her forehead sweaty from her exertions, and began to withdraw the handle. Her pussy clamped onto it and she panicked, tugging to dislodge it, scared she couldn’t get it out again. Oh God. She’d have to duck walk out of here, with it still stuck up there, and call an ambulance.
Then it slowly began to move.
Once she’d extracted the brush, she giggled and snorted for a minute, so relieved she didn’t know what to think, while staring at the brush. This was crazy.
Then she spent the rest of the afternoon dying to hump the couch they kept out the front for customers, and eyeing every hairbrush like it was Romeo and Tom Hiddleston rolled into one.
At home her trusty vibe failed to do its duty. The batteries gave out before she got off. Her fingers felt wonderful for all of the first minute before they lost their charm. It was Sunday tomorrow. She could go crazy, couldn’t she?
Which was how she found herself outside the local nightclub slash dive at one am, unfulfilled and horny enough to screw every man in the place if…if only they didn’t smell wrong. Marnie had come with her, and left with an old boyfriend at midnight.
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