by Maia Starr
“Perhaps?!”
But before I could feel Malnia’s scornful gaze upon me, I was gone.
***
“What does it matter to you, Jaize? You’ve never shown an interest in such matters before.”
I sighed. Perhaps it had been a mistake to try and confront the guards so late in the evening. Everybody was eager for their late-night meal and anxious to go home. The prisons were highly under-staffed since the last waves of war had ravaged the planet, and every able-bodied soldier possible was recruited, leaving only the most competent guards with the huge responsibility of managing the entire prison system themselves.
In fact, I was called in regularly to cover shifts when I was on Helna and had some spare time, though as the situations on the front lines became direr with more and more men succumbing to the disease, I was increasingly busy attending to matters of war.
“It doesn’t matter, does it, Narei?” I asked. “I’m just asking about a boy being brought through here. It’s my business why I need to know.”
“Well, there is one,” Narei said reluctantly. “He’s kind of a pain, actually. I doubt he’ll end up lasting long in this place.”
A trouble maker? That sounded familiar. Must have been a shared genetic trait.
“Can you take me to his cell? Don’t tell them I’m looking for anybody specific. I would just like to see for myself. There’s a possibility he might do well on the battlefield. If he’s from the Zone I am thinking he’s from, he might also do as a medic. That’s a lot less dangerous than arming a human and hoping they stay on our side during a fight.”
“Absolutely,” Narei agreed. “He’s kind of a runt, so I don’t know how he would do out in the field anyway.”
I chuckled. “Most humans are small anyway, particularly the young ones,” I said, slapping the young man on the back and heading down the passage with him. He shone his light into each cell and allowed it to linger on the seventh cell. In the back, I saw a young boy, shivering against the wall, with the same unmistakable features as my human.
For some reason, the sight made me feel sick to my stomach, and I turned away quickly. I hated to see the boy suffering. Perhaps I had too much invested in the human. Whatever the case, Narei followed my lead, and we walked to the end of the cell block and back out to the receiving area.
“Did you find the kid you’re looking for?” Narei asked eagerly.
“No,” I lied, shaking my head with a sigh. “But the one in there might do sometime. Who knows.”
Narei nodded. “Sorry to disappoint you, Yul Lorna. Maybe next time we pick up a straggler, it will be the right one.”
“It’s no problem,” I said quickly, walking to the doorway. “It will be all right. We are managing without humans on our ranks. It is more important to create the hybrids anyway.”
“Little chance of that happening with such a small male,” Narei said with a snort. “Most Verians won’t let their women near human men, even if their seed was strong enough to stick.”
“Since it isn’t, we just have to keep on trying to create our army with human females to incubate the hybrids. It’s not an issue,” I said.
“It’s really not,” Narei agreed. “I heard you have a human living with you now. Do you think that, in time, that will be a standard arrangement on Helna?”
“If all goes well, Narei, then living on Helna will be the temporary arrangement. We will be colonizing Earth before you know it. Nothing right now is standard. It’s all a state of transition. It’s best to stay open-minded and prepared for change at this point. It’s for the best.”
Narei nodded, and I knelt to him.
“Enjoy your meal,” I said, eager to shirk off any talk about the human that was making herself comfortable in my home. I had enough issues dealing with her on my own without other people prying for information.
As much as I dreaded going back to the place where two women were likely to be very angry at me, I had no choice. I was the Yul of the house, after all. And whether they liked it or not, I would do what was best for all of us.
***
When I arrived home, Malnia was lying in bed, still half naked, and I cleansed myself before joining her. She lay rigidly across from me, her body cold, distant, and pale white, like a distant glacier.
Eventually, she turned to me, as I knew she would, and her eyes settled upon me.
“I don’t know what has happened between us,” she said quietly. “But I am not happy. And I haven’t been for a long time.”
I sighed.
“I know,” I said. “I wish I could be the man to make you happy, but it is not so. My rank in the squad is not enough to make us compatible.”
Malnia nodded and turned away from me again, and I lay in silence until my chest was close to bursting. I got up from the bed quietly and left the room, contemplating what this meant. Neither of us was happy. It seemed a painful declaration to make out loud, but it was an honest one. And honesty was something I valued highly, even though I seemed to be finding myself lying more and more over the course of time.
“Oh! I’m sorry!”
My heart thudded hard in my chest at the sound of Christina’s voice, and I halted my voyage down the hallway to find her standing in front of the little servant’s kitchen. I laughed despite myself.
“I think human appetites are something that will take me a while to get used to. Do you want me to fetch the Pelin for you? He can cook another meal.”
“No, that’s all right,” Christina said, laughing sheepishly. “I don’t want a whole meal. I just want something I can snack on right now.”
I nodded, and we stood awkwardly in the hallway. I could feel Christina studying me and felt suddenly self-conscious. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to having. Frankly, I had always been a man who was confident and athletic, both qualities that had helped get me so far in my career. But ever since the disease had caused such grief in my personal life, I wasn’t particularly feeling my best.
“Are you all right, Jaize?”
It was strange to hear the human say my name. She hadn’t quite mastered the Verian flick of the tongue, and the name sounded almost burdensome in her mouth. But at the same time, the accent with which she spoke was sexy somehow.
“I’m all right,” I said.
“You’re lying.”
I was caught, and shrugged helplessly. “We can talk more in the kitchen. I would rather not wake Malnia.”
Christina nodded, and I followed her inside and sat at the small table, watching with quiet amusement as Christina rummaged through the storage box and heaped little piles of her choice foods onto a plate.
“So, what are you lying about?” Christina finally asked me, sitting down at the table and taking a generous bite of my personal favorite – jeya. It was a dish passed down from the royal family about a century beforehand, and it always tasted fresh and comforting.
“I’m afraid my marriage is over,” I said. It was strange to say such a thing out loud. I had felt it happening for many, many months now, but acknowledging it was another thing entirely. I had rejected my wife’s body because I was more tempted by the allure of this human. But my fixation with Christina went so far beyond her body that it baffled me. I would almost rather have the simple pleasures of my impossible-to-please wife. Everything having to do with the human was complicated and frustrating. At least Malnia was predictable.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Christina said. “And a little bit surprised. She seemed so eager to keep me away from you.”
I laughed quietly. “She is eager to control my every move. It has always been like this, to some degree. But it only got worse after our first few children died in the womb.”
Christina gasped and covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry. How?”
I couldn’t help but glare at her – a human with medical knowledge who could so easily help to cure whatever it was that ailed me and the rest of my people. “Most speculate it to be germ warfare cultivated by the h
umans. The disease I suffer from. The unbearable bouts of weakness. Children that die before they are even born. There is nothing good about this.”
“Project V,” Christina breathed, squeezing her eyes closed and shaking her head. “I had no idea. I wish there was something more I could do—”
“There is,” I said, looking deeply into her amber colored eyes and taking her hand in mine. “I found your brother in the prison. He’s fine, but won’t be for long. If you cure me, I will do everything in my power to release him.”
“What?” Christina said, dropping her food onto her plate and staring urgently into my eyes. “You had better not be lying.”
“I’m not lying. Please, keep looking for a cure. This is torture. It is no way to win a fight.”
Christina pulled her hand away and sighed. “I’m doing everything I can! I just don’t know what to do. Can’t you help Lucas? He’s innocent in all of this.”
“I want to help you both, but there are certain limitations to my power and conduct. I am a Verian. It comes with rules. Just promise me that you won’t give up trying.”
Christina sighed. Her eyes were filled with an emotion that I couldn’t pinpoint, and I suddenly felt foolish. I stood abruptly from the table and looked down at her fragile looking form. What was I doing, pleading with a human for a cure to a disease her people created in the first place? There was no reason I should feel so comfortable baring my soul to a human. But there I was, doing exactly that. Shouldn’t I feel emasculated?
But Christina stood and took my hand into hers. The forbidden heat that her touch sent through my body made me suddenly alert to the deep longing that I had been trying to repress all day long, even before Malnia had attempted to lay with me. The desire I was feeling was for Christina, and Christina only. I wanted her body against me, close to mine, and the whisper of my name on her lips. Just as I had from the moment I’d laid eyes on her, I wanted to claim her, right then and there.
She seemed to understand exactly what it meant for her to take my hand, and as we stared into each other’s eyes, I finally found what had been holding me back for so long; reciprocation.
My lips found Christina’s suddenly and fervently, and we kissed with a deep passion, unlike anything I had experienced before, even with my wife. When we pulled apart, both of us were panting, and the dark heat of my desire was finally bubbling to the surface, too explosive to hold back any longer.
“Come, Yula,” I whispered into Christina’s ear, my lips brushing against the soft skin of her ear. “You are mine now.”
Chapter 6
Dr. Christina Evans (MD)
The rush of longing that was ignited in me was electrifying as Jaize pulled his sensual lips away from my ear. My whole body shuddered beneath his touch, and I swallowed hard. I didn’t have much experience with humans, let alone Verians, and the deep heat within my body was frankly intimidating. I had never reacted so physically to someone before. The fact that it had happened with a Verian man was terrifying.
Jaize lifted me, and I gasped in surprise. Despite the illness he continuously claimed to have, it seemed impossible to me that he was feeling weak. Even on his injured leg, he carried me seamlessly through the hallways, until we reached the guest room where I had been staying.
He laid me down gingerly on the bed and dropped hot kisses down the nape of my neck to my clavicle, sending hot bursts of pleasure exploding through my body. I had been resisting my desire for him for so long that now that as he was finally touching me, I felt like every new touch could bring me to bursting.
But he was patient and gentle with me, his purple eyes shimmering as he explored the dips and crevices of my body, his long fingers sending trails of fire in their wake. I had never felt so desired in all of my life, and panted, helpless to his sensual thrall, as Jaize brought his lips against my flesh once more to sweetly devour me.
I arched my back as his lips found the firm mound of my nipple beneath the satiny gown I had been given to sleep in, and Jaize growled in pleasure from my reaction. Suddenly he was on top of me, and I could feel the thrilling presence of his erection against my middle. Every slight movement from either of our hips introduced maddening bursts of pleasure throughout my body.
When he finally moved his face away from the sensitive nape of my neck to gaze down at me, I studied his strong, chiseled features. While his facial structure seemed graceful and elegant, there was an unmistakable manliness there, just waiting for its chance to present itself. I gasped in pleasure as he lifted the gown above my head and suddenly my bare chest was exposed.
Jaize took his time exploring the mounds of my breasts, trailing his fingers over them gently as he lowered his lips around them, sampling each as if tasting a new flavor of candy. He seemed to enjoy them both, as evidenced by the massive swelling of his impressive member against my thigh, and I sighed blissfully. Everything he did brought me untold pleasure.
He seemed to know it too, and my pleasure was reciprocated. He shrugged off his own flowing night clothes, and my breath caught in my throat as I took him in. Jaize had a body that most men on Earth would do anything to acquire, and I ran my hands down the milky, muscular flesh of his abdomen, shocked by how smooth it was despite his obvious strength.
Jaize grinned down at me as my fingers found the base of his eager member, and a jolt of pleasure shot down my spine. It was intensified as Jaize moved his hips expertly until I could feel the pressure of his sex against my own. With a gentle, thrilling push, I felt him begin to enter me, and cried out in surprise and pleasure.
I had never felt anything so powerful before, and I gripped Jaize’s shoulders as he pried my body blissfully in two. I moaned deeply as he pushed himself further inside, until his whole member was enveloped in the heat of my body. He hissed in pleasure as I writhed beneath him, and slowly, gently, began to thrust inside of me.
Every long stroke of his member brought me closer and closer to the height of my pleasure, but I wanted to hold back and see if there was any more that I could take. My heart was racing as Jaize’s handsome face gazed down at me tenderly, as if I were the most precious thing in the universe to him.
But that couldn’t be possible. I was just his housekeeper, after all. And a human one at that.
Still, it was difficult to deny the tender way he held me, and the deep, gratifying ecstasy that his body was driving me toward, again and again, with each thrust becoming more rapid and urgent.
I cried out in rapture as I felt Jaize shudder against me, and I knew that he was as close to his climax as I was. Soon, he was releasing the full power of his hips against me, and I yelped in shock as I began to drown in an earth-shattering orgasm unlike anything I had ever experienced.
Jaize grunted in pleasure, his face contorted in rapture as his body began to release a hot torrent of his liquid desire inside of me. I received it greedily as my own body was catapulted even deeper into my orgasm, and I cried out softly despite myself as Jaize emptied himself into me and finally, carefully, removed himself from the heat of my body.
He rolled off of me and laid on his back, staring at the ceiling with his chest heaving. It was only then that I realized just how taxing the deed must have been for him. The disease he was suffering from was just as real as he said it was, and I suddenly felt an immense compassion for the man. He, and the other Verian men, deserved relief from this horrible condition. Jaize was right. There were certain kinds of warfare that you just shouldn’t touch.
And if there was anything at all I could do to relieve that suffering, I would do it. If not for Jaize, then for the release of Lucas from the Verian prison. I would do anything to free my brother. Even if that meant being a slave to Jaize for the rest of my natural life.
***
I woke up to find that at some point throughout the night, Jaize had left the bedroom. I felt the rapid onset of a deep shame as my memory began to unravel the events of the night before in my sleepy mind. What had I been thinking? I had been so overwh
elmed with relief at the thought of Lucas being safe and sound, and not only that, but on the same planet as myself, that I had given in to the deep attraction I had been harnessing for Jaize since the moment I’d laid eyes on his graceful, otherworldly body lying on the ground of Earth.
It had been a moment of weakness on my part. I had been so excited to believe that if I just helped this man, he would be able to rescue my brother and bring him back to me. My life was a desolate and lonely place without Lucas. He was all I had left. The rest of my family had been killed in the war, and when Lucas had disappeared, I thought I had lost everything. But knowing he was alive made it possible for me to smile again. To feel joy and excitement. To feel passion…
I shook my head, driving away the shameful thoughts of the night before and setting my mind to think only of Luke from now on. It had surely been a mistake to trust a man like Jaize in the first place, but if I did my part to heal his body from the terrible effects of Project V, then he would do his part to reunite me with the family I’d lost so I could live the rest of my life in peace.
I wandered out of the room and prepared myself for the day, taking care to try my best to wash all the scent of the night before off of my body. It was hard enough to remember it happened without worrying that the Verians might have some kind of heightened senses that would make it impossible to retreat from my horrible secret.
“Your meal is ready.”
I jumped in shock when a small being covered from head to foot in shaggy auburn hair rounded the corner of the hallway and looked up at me. This must be the Pelin man that Jaize had spoken of before.
“Th-thank you,” I stammered, turning away quickly so as not to stare at the strange little creature. He went on his way, and I tried to compose myself for a moment before continuing into the kitchen. No wonder it was so small. It had to accommodate the Pelin, who, I had just found out, were only about as tall as the top of my kneecap.