First Contact

by S. J. Sanders

  The pale green quilt and darker pillows and curtains cast her room in a comforting, restful glow. With a sigh, Gerry threw their bag down at the foot of the bed and sat down heavily. She wanted to go into the adjoining bathroom and take a shower, but she needed a moment to rest. She contented herself with watching Ehmhy as he pulled out the beacon and walked to the dresser with it.

  He snapped out three legs from the side to hold it upright and set it on the smooth cherrywood surface. A slide of his claws along one side caused a door to pop open, and he carefully pressed the edge of a single claw on a series of small buttons inside. He closed the small door and activated another switch on the outside and the tip unfolded, the edges ruffled like a gardenia with layers of petal-like discs edged with blinking lights. He stood back when the beacon lit up, pulsating blue and green lights.

  “Wow,” Gerry breathed. “Is that it? Is the beacon sending a signal?”

  Ehmhy nodded with unrestrained pleasure. He pointed to a light that pulsed quicker than the others. “This shows that Nuralo’s home-based comm system is picking up the signal. No doubt he will have been looking for it since we disappeared. It will not take him long to find a route here,” he explained confidently.

  Gerry chewed her lip. “Will anyone else notice the beacon?”

  He scratched thoughtfully at his scruff. “It is possible but improbable unless someone looks by chance and takes the time to plot the coordinates. I imagine most wouldn’t bother.”

  Gerry tried to take some comfort in that. From what Ehmhy was saying, the chances of another species becoming interested and tracking the signal to Earth were slim. Besides, it wasn’t like she could ask them to give up their only opportunity to get home. There would be someone looking to cage or experiment on a known alien species among them.

  Finally managing to convince her body to move again, Gerry trudged into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Warm water ran over her hand and she let out a happy sigh as she climbed in. Water cascaded down over her, and her muscles relaxed under the spray. She felt like she was washing away the last few days of hardship, and the renewal felt good. Not that everything about it had been difficult. It didn’t hurt that any hardness coming from Ehmhy was more the yummy variety that had her screaming for more. She smirked at her own stupid joke.

  She nearly jumped when a rough hand caressed her back as Ehmhy joined her in the shower. Although she knew he wasn’t one who enjoyed being soaked, even he obviously felt the need to wash all the grime off his fur. He’d made a valiant effort with a hose to rinse himself off before climbing into the truck, but a rusty tinge still stained the water flowing off his fur.

  Leaning back against him, Gerry sighed and took comfort in his solid presence behind her. Ehmhy’s hands trailed over her skin, tracing the curves of her body in soothing circles. She groaned and arched into his touch, wiggling impatiently when his fingers paused to pluck and tease her nipples. With one hand, she reached back and caressed his protruding phallus already extending out of its protective sack. He growled low in her ear and rocked his hips against her hand.

  Gerry turned from where she stood within his arms and dropped to her knees, her body chilling outside of the direct spray of the water. The ruby flesh of his cock with its knots running up its length rested in her palm, and she could see the tiny bulb at the tip that would eventually harden into his mating barb. She made a mental note to stop before that point.

  Leaning forward, she licked his cock from base to tip and felt his hip shudder under her left hand braced against him. His solid muscle seemed to become firmer as his thighs and ass clenched with control. She knew he had a hard time being the passive receiver in sex and was doing all he could to allow her control. She appreciated a guy who gave it everything.

  She took him into her mouth and sucked him, and he huffed a deep resonating growl that she could feel vibrate through him to the tip of his dick. She smiled around his cock as she bobbed her mouth around his it. Two could play the vibrations game. She hummed, taking him in deep, and Ehmhy thrust forward with a forceful snarl. She played with his length until he squirmed as much as she had been before she let up and surrendered control to him.

  In an instant, he pulled her up and pushed her up against the wall, wrapping her legs around his waist as he did so. His cock slid against her wet folds that were dripping with her own essence now that she was no longer directly under the spray. The act of teasing him had teased her just as much.

  Gerry tilted her hips against him and panted into his ear. “Remember, we have to be quiet. Bea won’t be happy if she can hear us,” she said with an airy laugh.

  Ehmhy rumbled an unintelligible reply before thrusting deep within her. Her back slid along the wall with every retreat only to crawl up the tiles again each time he buried himself to the hilt. It was a wild slip-and-slide ride that had her digging her heels into his ass and bracing for more. He rocked against her with abandon, as if everything pent up over the last few days went roaring through him in desperate need for release. She moaned with the pounding of his pelvis against hers and begged for more.

  The moment his barb hooked, pleasure pulsed through her and she cried out against his fur, holding on for dear life as his pumps grew short and deep now that he could no longer fully retreat. She whimpered, squirmed, and ground her hips against him as pleasure coiled tighter inside her like a spring. It wasn’t until he stiffened and muffled his roar against her shoulder that she covered her mouth with her hand and found her own release.

  They leaned together against the shower wall until Ehmhy was able to pull out and set her back on her feet. His lips pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and he turned to pull a white bottle off the shower caddy. To her surprise, he began to lather shampoo into her hair. She couldn’t remember the last time someone washed her hair outside of a salon where she paid for the service. She was pretty sure none of her previous boyfriends ever did it. She sighed with pleasure and rested her forehead against his chest, enjoying the feeling of his fingers kneading her scalp first with the shampoo, and then with a liberal amount of conditioner.

  After he finished, she returned the favor, and then laughed for what felt like an eternity as she used four towels to dry his fur out well enough to satisfy him. They spread a clean towel over one side of the bed to catch the lingering moisture as they crawled between the sheets and curled up together. She knew she should go down and help Bea, despite her aunts claims to the contrary, but she would close her eyes just for a minute.

  A quick catnap. Her lips curled at her play on words.

  Chapter 14

  When they woke, they joined Bea in the kitchen. Suzee and Ferikal were already present and were busy eating from a large bowl of fruit while the elder female watched on with amusement. One hand was covered with a small towel and rested on a dark pan filled with oil on the stove while the other was turning fish over in a spice mixture in a bowl. She grinned at Ehmhy before laying the piece in the pan and repeated the process until the entire pan was full of fish. The hot oil immediately began to snap all around the meat, and a wonderful aroma filled the air within a couple of minutes, making his stomach growl.

  Before he forgot under the influence of his stomach, he unclipped the bag that hung from his belt and set it next to her on the counter. She looked over at it curiously and she pointed at it with a flat metal tool she’d used to turn the fish.

  “What’s that?”

  He opened it to reveal the contents. “Geree said that you value red brick dust. We found some and thought you might appreciate having it. I happened to only have a small pouch on me, but I brought as much as I could.”

  Bea’s eyes lit up and her face wrinkled with pleasure as she scooped up the pouch.

  “Thank you. That’ll be useful. Now sit yourself down. Geraldine, help me bring these bowls and plates to the table. Suzanne already set it for me so don’t worry about that. And don’t forget the grits. I made them with plenty of cheese, just how you like them.”<
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  Geree winked at him as she helped Bea gather up the platters and vessels of food and set them on the table. He salivated as the food was set out and plates filled. He took an immediate liking to everything. The grits, which looked like a strange orange paste to him were delicious, even if the texture took some getting used to. Okra suited his tastes just fine as well, and he figured he ate almost as much of the spiced okra and corn as he did the catfish he consumed. His stomach was so pleasantly full that he was sad when he was unable to eat the last serving of fish that Bea offered him.

  The elderly female looked between him and Ferikal, her eyes twinkling. “I do enjoy feeding men. Geraldine, no one appreciates a good meal quite like a man and a growing boy,” she declared with a happy laugh as she cleared the dishes. Geree moved to help her but she swatted at her with the towel she picked up from the sink.

  “I can handle the clean-up tonight. You still look half shy of dead from exhaustion. I have a chicken looking to be in a pot tomorrow so you can look forward to chores in the morning. I expect you remember how to pluck a chicken?” she asked Geree with an eyebrow raised.

  “Yes, ma’am. I remember,” Geree said with a broad smile as she took his hand and tugged him out of the kitchen.

  IN THE EARLY HOURS of the morning, Ehmhy found himself face-to-face with an ugly, stubborn beast with a pair of twisted horns that bleated at him in a belligerent manner. He glared daggers at it. He didn’t care if it was irritated; he did not enjoy having his fur chewed on. When the goat craned its neck forward to attempt to snap at the fur on his tricep again, Ehmhy jumped away and spat at it. Annoying loathsome creature. Geree snorted from where she sat on a stool just a short distance away. As he watched the goat out of the corner of his eye to make sure it didn’t try to chew on his fur, he admired the sleek movement of his mate’s muscles as she worked.

  She was busy plucking feathers from a fat-bodied bird he’d slaughtered for her. It rather resembled the wild targins on Forashual and he wondered if it would be possible to cross breed the birds to start a hardy strain suitable for his homeworld. He wouldn’t mind continuing to enjoy some of the meals he’d eaten on Earth.

  Just to his left, he saw the tip of Ferikal’s ears in the garden and knew that Bea was putting the young ones to work as well. He approved. He had no doubt that Suzee was used to such things, but a bit of hard work would be good for his wayward nephew. He needed to learn discipline and patience. While young males were often taught these things in hunts, they also learned it working the household gardens on their planet as well.

  Again, he felt a sharp tug on his fur, this time on his shoulder, and he growled fiercely at the damned nuisance. He shoved its head away and moved to a safer place at the other side of Geree. He scanned the skies as if bored, but then a thought occurred to him.

  “Geree, won’t the dark-clad men of your people come here to question Bea since she is your relative? Surely they will expect you to come here.”

  He hated to worry his mate but now that he was thinking about it, he found he couldn’t dismiss the scenarios that came to mind as easily as he would like. It would be difficult to move the beacon now that it was connected and sending a clear signal, not without causing significant disruptions and delaying their transport off the planet.

  “Don’t worry any about the government,” Bea chuckled as she slapped a pair of thick gloves together. Her usual straw hat sat slightly askew on her wiry white-streaked hair. “They won’t even think of coming by here after I spent the last several days harassing the police to find you when you didn’t answer your phone. I got a call from the police this morning asking if I’ve heard from you at all and I read them the Riot Act. Did a fair job of scaring them, I think. I doubt anyone will imagine you’re here with me after that.”

  She squinted back to the garden and shouted. “Suzanne, make sure you pick plenty of basil... oh, and some agrimony and yarrow!” She tutted and shook her head. “You never know when you might need a bit of extra first aid around here.”

  Bea suddenly narrowed her eyes on him. “Ehmhy... that’s short for a longer name too, isn’t it?”

  “Ehminal is my proper name,” he said.

  “Well, you’re in for it now. Aunt Bea doesn’t believe in shortened names. You’ll never be Ehmhy again,” Geree muttered.

  The elderly female nodded as if she suspected so and crossed her arms. “Well then, Ehminal, while I’m at the market, you can feed Sarly over there,” she waved a hand toward the goat, “and my chickens while Geraldine finishes plucking and cleaning the bird. I’ll be back,” she called as she walked around to the front of the house.

  Ehmhy glared at the goat. The goat flicked her ears at him in boredom. What in the name of the sundry of gods and spirits was he to feed the animal? He was still eyeing the goat when a vessel filled with some sort of grain was shoved into his arms and his mate smiled sweetly up at him.

  “You’re gonna make Sarly think you don’t like her if you keep glaring at her like that. You don’t want to hurt her feelings. Feed her and she’ll forgive you. The other bucket sitting by the back door with the lid is feed for the chickens. Just scatter some of it near their coop. I’ll tuck in and gather the eggs while they eat.”

  He flattened his ears as he regarded the goat with acute dislike. Taking the grain, he set the vessel in front of the beast and yanked his hand back before it tried to take another swipe at the fur on his arm. He curled his lip back from his fangs and felt a ridiculous sense of victory. He knew it was senseless, but he indulged in the fleeting feeling before he turned to feed the chickens.

  The birds rushed around his feet, pecking at the dirt with eager squawks. He backpedaled as they darted around his feet. He hissed as one of the birds pecked at his tail, pulling out a few hairs. He snatched his tail away and glared at it as he entertained the idea of turning it into their next meal.

  “You are fortunate that your taste is superior to your behavior, else no one would bother with you,” he told it with a snarl before leaving the area with a snap of his tail.

  To his pleasure, Geree spent a great many minutes stroking the length of his tail later in the afternoon when he recounted his injury. The touch turned in a tug, which ended up with the pair of them stretched across their bed. Their sedate post-coital half-slumber was interrupted by a slam of a vehicle door. Ehmhy peered around the curtain and his eyes widened as he watched Bea run up the walk as fast as her gait allowed her, bags wobbling in her arms. Reaching down, he roused Geree.

  “Come. Something is wrong,” he whispered. Geree frowned but did not protest as she crawled out of bed and pulled her clothing back on while he tied on his hip-wrap and belt. He didn’t bother with his sandals. He padded barefoot down the stairs into the large common room that Geree called the parlor. Bea burst through the door and looked up at them in a panic.

  “We need to get you out of here,” she said as she hustled through the house, her voiced raised to call the younglings. “Ferikal, Suzanne, come down please right this instant!”

  “Bea, what’s going on?” Geree asked, a slight tremor in her voice.

  Ferikal and Suzee appeared just as Bea whipped off her hat and clenched it between her hands, her knuckles turning white with the pressure.

  “It’s not safe here anymore. I thought for sure no one would bother you, but when I was in town, I overheard the police chief telling the mayor that a special unit is coming in to deal with a ‘sensitive priority issue.’ He was pissing and moaning about it, saying they would stomp all over local authority. Geraldine, I don’t like it. That they’re coming so soon after you arrived means they suspect something’s up. We need to get y’all out of here.”

  Ehmhy sat down, defeated. He shook his head. “There is no place we can go. The beacon is set and transmitting. If we try to move it, there will be a significant disruption in the signal that will take time to get back. We were fortunate it connected so quickly the first time.”

  “Bea, isn’t there anywh
ere you can hide us?”

  Bea licked her lips. “It’s possible I can hide you in the old root cellar. It hasn’t been used in ages, but it’s still intact near the old foundation of the house that was originally built on this land. You remember it, Geraldine. It has a huge oak tree nearby where you used to play as a girl.”

  Geree nodded slowly. “You don’t think they’ll look there?”

  The other female shrugged. “There’s no way of knowing for sure. All I’m certain of is that it’ll be a very bad idea if you’re found in this house.”

  He smoothed his hand down her arm. “It is something, Geree. We will go hide in this place Bea suggests. We don’t have to remove the beacon since we will be nearby. Ashdru will alert me the minute that the satellites around your planet detect my cousin’s ship.”

  “Okay,” she mumbled and pressed herself against him. He could feel her shudder and the rapid flutter of her heart against his side. Even Suzee was tucked against Ferikal, and Ehmhy felt a surge of pride for his nephew who, despite his obvious fear, straightened his spine and remained alert. He’d grown up a lot during his time on this planet. Ehmhy doubted his brother would even recognize the male his son had become in such a short time. He was still young and had much of his youth ahead of him with the pranks and pleasures indulged in by the fashi-afar, but he was maturing.

  Muttering under her breath, Bea dug out a strange looking primitive lantern that smelled of grease. She handed it to Geree with a small box, the latter of which his mate immediately tucked into her pocket.

  “That’ll last you better than some batteries in a flashlight,” she said.

  Bea then led them through the kitchen. There she put together a simple evening meal. Thanks to Geree’s efforts, the chicken had been stewing all day with the seasonings and cut vegetables in a large pot. They ate their fill in silence. When all the dishes were gathered, she grabbed a bag of the jerked meat that Ehmhy had developed a taste for, several bottles of water, and a small assortment of bars to hold off hunger and shoved them into a sack.