by Roxie Ray
“They’re happy though, aren’t they?” For Bria’s sake—and a little for the sake of my own hopelessly romantic hopes—I wanted them to be.
“Sure they are. If anything, after they fight, they’re even more in love.” Gallix pressed a kiss to the top of my head, then hissed as he straightened again. The beast had done a real number on his ribs. “Things are always ongoing is what I’m saying. Even when you and I are finally off this planet, we’ll have problems to overcome. Arguments, hardships—that’s life.”
“We?” A tentative smile was curling on my lips. “You mean, you and I?”
“Who else have we been talking about this whole damned time?” Gallix grumbled. “Of course you and I, vringna!”
“But once we leave here…I have my contract, and you have your orders…”
“We’ll figure that out when we get out of this place.” Gallix nodded, like he wasn’t even the least bit worried about what the future might hold. For him. For me. For us—together. We. Us. “I’m not leaving you hanging from some blasted cliff, though, I’ll tell you that much.”
My heart fluttered in my chest like it had just turned into a swarm of the moths I used to have to pick out of the kitchen flour and squash to death. Or…something less grim than that.
Like the ripples of water in the pool when Gallix had pulled my body to his.
Like butterflies.
“I guess it wouldn’t be much of a love story otherwise,” I said.
“Is that what this is, then? A love story?”
My eyes went wide. I tried to swallow, but suddenly, my mouth was dry.
“I—I mean, that’s not what I meant,” I stammered.
“No? Then what did you mean?”
“Well, we were talking about the romance novel—I was just trying to say—”
Gallix laughed as he stopped in his tracks. He turned to me, took my face into his hands, and stooped to kiss me—even though he was grunting with pain the whole time.
“I know what you were trying to say, vringna. Moons, you’re the most ridiculous thing in the galaxies. But…” He twisted his lips together as he drew himself back up to his full height. “Once we’ve found Marisa and I can kiss you without breaking my ribs all over again, let’s have this conversation a second time. Without all the metaphors. Never liked metaphors, anyway. It’s ruined every love ballad I’ve ever heard.”
We walked in silence for a little longer. My eyes were starting to ache from lack of sleep. Every inch of my body was starting to ache, actually, and Ronan’s boots were making my feet sore.
But still, I couldn’t help but wonder…
“Do you think this has a happy ending, Gallix?” I whispered.
“I told you, vringna, I don’t believe in happy endings.” But when Gallix looked down at me again, his eyes twinkled, still gorgeously swirled with blue. “When it comes to you, though… You, Eve…you might just make a believer out of me yet.”
14
Gallix
The next ten days should have been some of the worst days of my life.
My poor ship, dear old Bessie, was crashed and destroyed on a strange, dangerous planet full of quicksand, bloodthirsty beasts, and worst of all, Rutharians. There wasn’t a single bar, dance hall or buffet on Edon, and though Pax was making progress on fixing us up a new ship from the other vessels that had crashed here, until he was finished, we didn’t have a hope of getting off this damned rock.
“How many days?” I’d ask Pax, and all Pax had to say for himself was, “It will not go any faster because you keep asking, cousin. The ship will be done when it is done.”
My closest comrade, confidant, and the finest warrior I knew was wounded. Badly. He would have died if it hadn’t been for Eve’s skilled hands and talents as a makeshift healer. He was resting up and able to hobble around with the aid of a crutch for a few steps here or there, which was a good sign, but he was recovering about as quickly as Pax was fixing our new ship, which was to say, not very quickly at all. Worse, every time Ronan saw me so much as look at Eve, he gave me a set of the dirtiest looks I’d ever been on the receiving end of in my life—and being me, that was saying something.
“She is not yours, Gallix,” Ronan growled at me on the third day after his injury. “You may bed her now, you may kiss her and hold her and promise her whatever sweet nothings you like, but when we are gone from this place, her contract still stands.”
“If we’re ever gone from this place,” I reminded him. “If there’s even any need for her on Lunaria anymore when we are.”
Ten days on Edon. Ten more years had passed on Lunaria in that time. We had no way of knowing what was happening back there, or on Earth, for that matter. By the time we were out of here, we could’ve been looking at thirty years. Fifty. A hundred. Three hundred. Generations. But with every day that passed, the chances increased that the Lunaria we returned to wouldn’t be a Lunaria that we even recognized.
If there was even a Lunaria to go back to at all by the time we were able to go home.
“Maybe the population crisis will be over by the time we reach Lunaria,” Ora said on the fourth day as I helped her pack a lunch of steamed gill-beast and roasted root vegetables into a leaf for Pax. “Maybe Earth will have sent enough breeding slaves to save your species. Maybe they won’t even want us for babies anymore.”
“We can hope, blue-eyes.” I ruffled her hair fondly. “We can hope.”
It was obvious to all that Ora and Pax were growing closer every day. I couldn’t exactly pretend like I was angry at my young cub of a cousin for claiming one of our human charges for himself—even though I should have been.
I’d done the same damned thing with Eve, after all.
Beautiful Eve. Graceful Eve. Eve, goddess-like, emerging from the pool of water with plump, heavy breasts and hips that only seemed to broaden with every passing day. She had been so malnourished and underfed when we had first met, I hadn’t truly appreciated how female her curves were. How delicate her waist, even as I watched her cheeks fill out and her body bloom into something I could really sink my teeth into. Talented Eve, cooking the gill-beast I had caught over an open fire. Charming Eve, telling stories she remembered from her childhood bedtimes while she reclined against my chest in the dark of night.
It was clear that she could not return to Lunaria as a breeding slave, no matter how soon we were able to leave Edon. It was clear, so impossibly visceral and mind-bendingly palpable, that she was mine now. All mine. Only mine.
“Gallix,” she purred, moving to me like a vision, like a dream, as I emerged from the jungles after another long day. “You’re back safe.”
“Promised you I would be.” I took her into my arms, kissed her perfect lips and praised higher powers I was beginning to have no choice but to believe in that out of all the females in the galaxies, I had somehow found this one. That out of all the males who would have killed to claim her, she had somehow chosen me. Her lips tasted of sweet, sun-ripened fruit and crisp, clear spring water. Her curves beneath my hands, so soft yet so firm, were impossible not to squeeze.
These should have been the worst days of my life, but thanks to Eve—thanks to her—they hadn’t been.
They’d been the best. The best I could have imagined.
As much as I knew we needed to get back to Lunaria, an Edon-sized part of my heart never wanted them to end.
“Did you find anything? Any sign of her?” Eve asked.
I sighed, then shook my head.
Marisa. She’d been the dark cloud hanging over our time here when she’d been here at camp with us—and now, she was the thing that stole me away from Eve for the better part of every day. I wanted to hate her for it, but I knew the kind of hell she’d likely been living in while I failed, and failed, and failed to find her.
The ship, I couldn’t have helped. Pax and Ora’s relationship couldn’t have been stopped. Eve and I… Moons, that was inevitable. Her body called, and mine answered. And with Ronan’s
wounds, we’d done the best we could. We’d done well, too.
But Marisa was still out there somewhere, behind held captive by three of the most sadistic, cold-hearted beings of pure evil in all the galaxies.
And no matter how hard I tried to find her…I couldn’t.
“Maybe they’ve left Edon already.” Eve took my hands in hers and lowered her eyes. “Maybe she’s already gone.”
“We would’ve seen the ship leave, bright eyes. And these are Rutharians we’re talking about.” I shook my head. “I don’t know why they came here, but they know there’s a fight to be had here now. They’re not going to leave without finishing one.”
“You keep saying that, but it’s been ten days, Gallix.” Eve squeezed my hands and lifted her gaze to meet mine. “Maybe they just don’t want to be found.”
That night, we dined on gill-beast again. Ora ate ravenously, and even set off with Pax to catch another for the fire. But Eve only pushed hers around the leaf she was using as a plate without raising a single bite to her mouth.
“It’s okay,” I told her as I took the leaf from her hands. “I’m damned tired of gill-beast too. Let me go out into the jungle, see if I can’t kill you a chickling or a snake.”
“I’m not eating a snake, Gallix.” Eve frowned and shuddered at the thought. “I’m just…not hungry, I guess.”
“You’re always hungry,” I reminded her. “What’s wrong? I’ve never seen you turn down a meal for as long as I’ve known you.”
“You haven’t known me for that long.”
“Long enough to notice when something’s not right.” I put the food aside and shifted closer to her. “All I do is notice you, vringna. Impossible not to. You’re the brightest damned star in the sky.”
“That’s…sweet,” she said.
Now, it was my turn to frown.
I wasn’t much for poetry, but I’d been pretty sure that had been a good line.
“All right. No. We’re not doing this.”
“Doing what?” Eve asked, but I was already on my feet.
“Get up. We’re going for a walk.” I grabbed her hand and tugged her to her feet. “If you don’t have an appetite, we’re going to work one up. And if there’s some other reason you’re not eating—”
“There’s not,” Eve insisted.
I raised her slender fingers to my lips and kissed them. “Then you’re going to tell me about it, and I’m gonna fix it. Sound good?”
“It sounds like you’re not giving me any choice.”
“I’m not.” I smiled down at her. “Come on.”
The darkness of the jungle was soft as velvet, smooth as silk. The birds in the canopy overhead sang gently to each other, haunting love songs offered up to the night. We walked the edge of the tree line, hand in hand, bathed by a camouflage of shadow and moonlight.
It should have been romantic. Should have been. But something was wrong.
And if Eve wasn’t going to say it, I was going to have to pester her until she let it out.
“Talk to me, Eve.” I strode in front of her, stopping her in her step. “What’s this about? Marisa?”
“I’m worried about her.” Eve hugged herself and refused to meet my gaze. “But no. I know you’re doing everything you can to find her. It’s not that.”
“Then what?” I moved my fingertips to her face and caught one of her auburn ringlets around my first claw. “Because I don’t do this, Eve. Shutting me out—it’s not going to work. I may not be a smart soldier—”
“That’s not true.”
“Or a perfect lover.”
“That’s…not true either.” Eve flushed a dark pink in the moonlight and I nearly smiled.
Well, that was something, at least.
“If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, I can’t fix it. And I am good at fixing things.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Maybe not as good at fixing ships as Pax, or as good as you at fixing up wounded warriors, but—”
“Gallix.”
“What?”
Eve bit her lip and shifted closer to me. “I don’t want to leave.”
I blinked. “What?”
“This place. This… stupid, beautiful planet. Our camp, our pool, our endless meals of fish that I can’t eat—”
“You don’t want to leave, so you’re going on a hunger strike? Dammit, Eve! Pax doesn’t even have a ship ready for us yet, and look at you! You’ve only just started to put on weight—”
“No. That’s…unrelated.” Eve rubbed her arms, looking suddenly deeply uncomfortable. “I’ve just been feeling a little sick for the last few days. It’s probably nothing. Just…nerves.”
“Nerves over what? The Rutharians? Because I swear to you, vringna, I’m going to find Marisa, and I’m going to kill every last one of those baz-terds.” I shrugged. “Three-on-one is pretty good odds for me, really. It won’t even be hard.”
“About leaving, Gallix!” Eve raised her voice enough to send the nearest birds scattering away in search of quieter perches. She almost looked surprised at herself. I was a little, too. Aside from gentle cries of pleasure in the middle of lovemaking, I’d never actually heard her shout before. “It’s been, what? Twelve days here? Thirteen?”
“Something like that.”
“If we leave, we don’t know what we’re going back to. We have no idea. Maybe my contract won’t be valid anymore. Maybe they won’t want me, and we’ll be free to be…whatever it is that we are.”
“That’d be nice,” I agreed. “Let’s hope for that.”
“I can’t just hope, Gallix. Counting on hope hasn’t ever served me well in my life. And if we hope wrong—if those hopes are dashed—”
“I don’t give a damn what you got strong-armed into signing thirteen years ago on Earth. I’m not letting them make a breeding slave out of you. Or anything else, for that matter.” I took her hands in mine and squeezed them. “Not now. Not ever.”
“If my contract is still valid, we might not have a choice about that, though. I’m used to not having choices, Gallix. No one’s ever given me one before. Even signing that contract in the first place…like you said. Strong-armed. I didn’t know what they’d do to me if I refused, so I put my name on the line like they told me to. They might as well have been moving my hand for me through every letter. But now…”
“You feel like this is a choice.” I closed my eyes and prayed to that higher power I wasn’t supposed to believe in for strength. Everything Eve was saying was valid. Everything she was saying scared me too. “But, Eve…is it really? There’s no running water here. Beasts in these jungles that want nothing more than to gobble us all up. Rutharians out there, just waiting to finish Ronan off—me and Pax along with him—and carry you and Ora off like they did Marisa. And the gill-beast! Aren’t you damned tired of only eating what we catch in the pond?”
“I would eat fish every meal for the rest of my life if it meant knowing that we could have a life here,” Eve professed. “I’d take a lifetime of boring, simple meals over anything that’s waiting for me on Lunaria, or anything that I ever had back on Earth, for that matter. Look around, Gallix! We’re in paradise.”
“We’re in a jungle full of things that want to kill us,” I corrected her. “That’s not paradise. And while you might not have anything waiting for you back on Earth… I could make one for us somewhere else, vringna! You don’t want to go to Lunaria, fine. I know six different pleasure planets where I’m hailed as a hero for acts of valor in protection of the locals. Let me take you to Xeron. We’ll drink Xeronian champagne from fountains with nine tits—or nine dicks, if you’d prefer—”
“I don’t want to drink champagne from nine dicks, Gallix.”
“Right, well, me neither.” I raised her hand to my chest and held it there, right over my heart. “Parantha, then. Or Euphoria. Let me take you to Euphoria, Eve. We’d live in luxury there—”
“No, Gallix.” Eve shook her head. “We’d live in fear.”
“Of Luna
ria? Earth? Eve, it’s been more than a decade since anyone from either of those planets has even heard from us.”
“Or…”
Something shifted in Eve’s gaze. Something sinister. Something sinful.
Something that made my cock stiffen and throb as she smoothed her hand down my chest toward my belt.
“Or?” I swallowed and ran my fang across my lower lip as her little fingers eased my belt out of its clasp.
“Or we could stay here. Together. You…” She went for the laces of my trousers. She only had to loosen them a little before my cock did the rest of the work for her. “And me.”
“Ah.” I drew in a sharp breath as Eve nuzzled the tip of her nose up and down the shape of my cock through my trousers. “So it’s like that, is it?”
“It doesn’t have to be like anything, Gallix.” She smiled up at me. “I like you. You like me.”
“More than like, vringna. More than like.”
“Mm. Good. Then what’s the problem? We’re both adults. And…” She winked at me. Winked. At me. Sexiest damn thing I’d ever seen—at least, until a second later when she drew my cock out of my trousers and held it in her pretty little fist. “It’s not like we haven’t done more than this before.”
“You even know what you’re doing with that thing?” I asked as Eve stared down the tip of my cock, eyes momentarily innocent and wide.
“No,” Eve admitted. “But I didn’t know what I was doing when you made me come with your mouth, or when we made love, either. And I figured it out okay.”
“Mm. So you did.” Moons. I wasn’t about to turn down this situation—even if it did feel ever so slightly manipulative of her.
Curse this adorable little creature. If this was how she wanted it, she could manipulate me however she liked—and I’d probably end up thanking her for it after.
After all, would staying here on Edon really be so bad?
“Less teeth, though.” I winced and laughed as she came at me, lips pulled back in a sexy snarl. Her teeth were pretty—straight and white, with a cute little gap between the front two that I’d somehow managed to miss until just now—but that didn’t mean I was keen on having them wrapped around my dick. “If you’re gonna convince me to give you what you want like this, fine—but I’m not about to let you circumcise me trying.”