He slashes at me, but I shift to bear form in mid-flight. The extra mass slows me down just enough that Zarek misses, and I claw his arm off before he can recover from his missed attack.
I shift back to marauder form and grab Zarek’s dismembered arm by the bicep.
Tager is floating slowly toward me, his blade pointed straight at me. He expected a big fat bear for his target, but since I shifted back to marauder form, he’s caught off guard.
He readies his blade as we float toward each other, but Zarek’s arm gives me extra range. Zarek’s hand is clutching tight to the blade, and I swing the whole arm right at Tager.
“Shit!” he yells, realizing there’s no way for him to stop in mid-flight.
The blade jams through his skull, killing him instantly, and his death means I’m alone. And that my brother is safe.
“Thirty seconds until engine start,” the intercom says. “Final warning!”
I kick off Tager’s body, which propels me back toward the pod. I miss it by a Marauder’s length or so, and I have to use my arms to pull myself along the rail toward the pod. I quickly get in and seated, slam the door shut, and hit the release button.
The arm pulls my pod down toward the bay, blasts me out into the cold void of space, and just moments later, the artificial sun of the anti-matter drives flares in the distance.
The pod’s display flashes red with warnings, and I start to feed all of the biofuel that Aegus has packed for me into the shield generator.
“Shields active!” the computer says in a voice that is much too calm for the situation.
“Shit!” I shout. The shield is burning up way more biofuel than I thought. If I use up too much too soon, I won’t have enough reaction mass left to slow down—I could slingshot right through the Sol system.
I watch as the engines from the fleet get smaller and smaller, and finally I shout, “Kill the shields!”
“50% chance of survival, are you sure, Cygnus?”
“Yes, I’m fucking sure,” I say. “Now follow my brother.”
The pod is a small sphere, and I already feel cramped. I watch the engines shrink as my pod continues on at 80% of lightspeed, while the fleet looms behind me like a hundred suns.
“Cygnus, I recommend you hibernate now.”
“Wait,” I say. “I want to see it.”
I watch the hundreds of mini suns fade into the distance. It’s only after several hours, when they are just small dots, that I allow my inner bear to take over. I drift to sleep, into a years-long hibernation.
3 Aura
As soon as the alien starts breathing, the pod immediately takes on a solid form again, hiding the purple creature’s muscled body from me.
“Shit.”
All at once a hatch pops open on the side of the pod, and thick purple liquid starts spilling out. We’re in zero-g again, so the liquid just floats around in a translucent, oblong blob.
I pull myself along the pod and cautiously look into the hatch through the open door.
The alien is curled into a fetal position, and the pod’s computer is talking in a language I can’t understand.
His purple eyelids open, and he straightens his body so he’s sitting up to face me. His green eyes bore into me.
I try to force myself to look in his eyes, but I blush and look downward. It’s then I realize I’m just staring at his big teal cock, so I quickly redirect my line of vision back up again.
“Sorry!” I say, my cheeks blushing bright red.
“Human female,” the alien says, in a strange accent.
“How can you speak English?” I ask.
“I order you to take me to the red planet. The fourth from your star,” he says.
“Wow,” I say. “You just woke up and you’re already bossing me around?”
“I am Cygnus, warrior of the Marauder fleet,” he says, “Now that introductions are over, I order you to take me to the red planet.”
There’s a loud slam, and the ship shakes.
Cygnus kicks off the wall of the pod and flies out of the pod. His muscles are even more impressive in action. He’s still gloriously naked, and he doesn’t seem the least bit shy about it.
He floats through the Zephyr’s cargo bay, then catches the airlock’s handle to stop himself. He looks through the window of the airlock. We’re already inside the pirate’s containment bay, though they haven’t sealed us in yet.
“What’s this?” he asks, pointing out the window and into the inside of the pirate ship which has now swallowed us.
“I can’t take you to Mars,” I say. “We’re being captured by pirates who are very likely going to kill me. You’ll have to negotiate with them. And how exactly are introductions over? Did I tell you my name?”
He looks up at me and his ears twitch. “You are a childless human female. My race is coming here to interbreed with you and assimilate your offspring into our fleet. You’ll be assigned a true name once you bear one of our children. I don’t need—”
“Excuse me?” I say, kick myself off the side of the pod and fly toward him at the speed of a bullet.
I crash into the wall beside him, and then orient myself so it feels like we’re standing face to face.
“I’m Aura,” I say. “I don’t need to bear a child to have a name.”
His eyes look me up and down, and his ears pull back. He tilts his head a little, and then cracks a tiny hint of a smile. It looks almost like…a smirk?
I blush, and he tilts his head even more. “What’s wrong with your skin?”
“Nothing,” I mutter. “If you’re not going to call me by my name, at least shake my hand. If we’re going to die together, I don’t want to die with a stranger.”
I hold my hand out for him to shake. He takes hold of it, brings it to his face, and sniffs. I feel a tingle of excitement as his warm hand grasps me, but I pull back in fear.
His eyes widen, and I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I look down to see his big teal cock twitching and expanding.
“Jesus!” I shout, and swear my face must be on fire by this point.
“I’m excited by your scent,” he says. “You’re not even in heat...yet you’re wet?”
How the hell does he know I’m...shit! I am wet. He’s naked and towering in front of me, and his muscles are glistening from the liquid he was floating in. His own scent is masculine and overpowering, and now his big teal cock is growing longer and wider!
“Interesting,” he says,. “Perhaps I’ll keep you.”
“Keep me?” I shout.
“They’re hacking into the airlock,” Seth says. “Their computer is stronger than me. I can’t hold them off for long.”
“Are these good fighters?” Cygnus asks me.
“They’re pirates,” I respond. “They usually know how to fight. I have a gun down in my sleeping quarters. Do you know how to use a gun? Or should I keep it?”
He laughs. “A female with a gun? I’m one of the greatest warriors in our fleet, and I am master of any weapon.”
“Okay,” I say. “Follow me, and I’ll give you the gun.”
He jumps off the wall and disappears back into his pod.
“What are you doing?” I shout after him.
A few moments pass before he floats back out of the pod, holding a blood-soaked blade and a small black box.
“My equipment,” he says.
I look down at the equipment he’s holding in his hands, and then I look further down, at his….equipment. He’s still semi-hard, and I catch myself licking my lips.
“Would you like to hold it?” Cygnus asks.
My face burns hotter than the sun, and my eyes bulge.
“I...I….”
He holds out the box, and I let out a nervous giggle.
“Oh,” I say. “Sure.”
I take the box from him, and then he leaps off the wall and catches the ladder. “I will find the gun.”
He disappears up the ladder.
Just before I j
ump off the wall to follow Cygnus, gravity comes back, but in the wrong direction. Now that the Zephyr has been secured within the cargo bay of the pirates’ ship, they’re accelerating with us trapped inside. They seem to have mounted my ship within their cargo bay so that it’s positioned sideways, so that the side walls of our ship have become the ceiling and floor.
I stand back up and walk through the greenhouse of our ship. All the hydroponic equipment is hanging on the sides of the walls now, and I have to walk across what is usually the ceiling to get through. The ladder is still cutting through the ship as usual, except now it resembles jungle gym bars. I have to jump up to grab hold of it, and then move my arms swinging from bar to bar just to get from the greenhouse to my quarters.
When I reach my sleeping quarters, I see all my drawers are pulled open and Cygnus is holding up a pair of my lace panties.
He holds the panties up to his face and then sniffs.
“We’ve watched your broadcasts for decades,” he says. “It’s how I learned your language. But I never would have thought you’d have such an intoxicating scent. Do all human females smell like this?”
“Put that away!” I snap. “You can’t just go through a woman’s underwear drawer!”
“I see,” he says. “I will put it away then.”
He snatches the box out of my hand, touches my panties to the box, and they are somehow sucked inside it.
“I didn’t mean….” I start to say, but then realize we’ll both probably be dead before he can sniff them again anyway.
I shove past him toward the drawer containing the gun. It’s shifted so that it’s on the side of the wall now, and I have to reach up on my tippy toes and stick my ass out to reach it.
As I’m halfway toward reaching the gun, I realize I’m pressed up against Cygnus’ body. My ass is pushing into his muscular thigh, and his body heat is radiating over me like a warm blanket.
I hurriedly grab the gun and then snap myself back up in an effort to move away from him. Now I’m standing just inches away from him, and he’s smiling at me, sniffing away. His eyes narrow as he sniffs, and that frustrating grin comes back.
I back up, somewhat reluctantly, and wave my hands in front of his face in frustration. “You can’t just...just...sniff people like that!”
“But I enjoy your scent,” he says in a tone that seems to question why I think his actions should be taken as anything but a compliment. His eyes turn serious. “Wait, I hear the hatch opening. Intruders. Should I go kill them?”
“Yes,” Seth says. “Please kill all of the intruders, Mr. Cygnus.”
“If I kill them all,” Cygnus says, “can you take me to the red planet?”
“Yes,” Seth and I both reply in unison.
“Good,” he says. “Then you will see what a Marauder warrior can truly do. Perhaps after you see, you’ll allow me to smell you more closely.”
I grit my teeth, but if smelling me will help him to fight better…
“Yes,” I say. “If you truly impress me with your fighting skills, you can smell me all you want.”
The smile on his face is the widest I’ve seen since first meeting him. I notice his teeth are perfectly white and quite human-looking, and his ears stand up perfectly straight when he smiles.
As he cocks the gun, I realize I haven’t told him how to operate the weapon. Even though there are a number of safety switches, he disengages all of them without hesitation. It causes me to wonder where he learned how to use a gun.
“You stay here, human female,” he says. “I will fight for you.”
He jumps through the hole in the wall into the greenhouse, and moments later I see him leap again into the cargo bay.
I stand alone in my sleeping quarters for a minute, fuming. I told him my name, why can’t he just use it?
I hear gunfire, and then a man screams. Seconds later, I see a gun hit the ladder in front of me. It bounces off and clatters to the ground. It’s not my gun. Cygnus must have killed a pirate breaking into the airlock, and it’s his gun that had fallen down the ladder.
It’s then I notice the bloodied blade laying on the ground. There could be dozens of pirates, but my gun only has twenty bullets.
“Cygnus!” I shout through the ship. “You forgot your knife! I’m bringing it to you. You might need backup!”
“Do not shame me, human female!”
“All right,” I mutter to myself. “That’s the last straw. I’ll shame him, all right.”
I put the knife into my belt and race toward the cargo bay.
4 Cygnus
I laugh at the thought of the female fighting alongside me. I’ve killed two males already just as they entered the airlock, and they’ve left it open. I do not want to give them time to plan, so I lunge through the air and out of the female’s ship with my gun held up and ready to fire.
As I fly through the air, I see four pirates surrounding the airlock door. They’re close to me, but are unprepared for my advance.
I take reflexive shots, and before I even land, I’ve shot two of them dead.
The remaining two aim their weapons at me sluggishly, so I hit the ground and roll.
Firing again as I’m rolling, one of my bullets blows a hole in the third pirate’s face.
The fourth pirate gets one shot off, and I hear the bullet ping on the metal floor a full Marauder’s span from me. I break hard from my roll, raise the gun, and fire, hitting him right in the heart.
I begin to survey my surroundings even as the fourth pirate falls. The cargo hold we’ve been pulled into is enormous, and there are smaller bay doors all around me. The female’s ship seems to be secured in a corner of the bay. On the wall behind me is a ladder, which leads quite high up. I wasn’t able to see this ship from the outside, but judging by the direction of acceleration, I assume the cargo bay is on the bottom of the ship. The ladders will likely lead up toward the main parts of the ship, which will hold all the men that I must kill to convince the female to help me get to the red planet.
The female runs past me, grabs one of the fallen pirate’s guns, and holds it up as if she’s preparing to fight.
“Cygnus, it looks clear, but more are probably coming.” she says, moving back toward me, her gun still held up high.
Where did she learn to mock a male soldier’s movements so accurately?
Rage bubbles up from deep in my gut that she would shame me like this, but I suppress it—for now.
“Get back in the ship, female!” I shout to her.
I let my inner bear rise up, and my hearing becomes more acute.
I hear a hiss from one of the bay doors to my right. I spin toward it and raise the gun, and the moment it opens, I fire a bullet through the small gap. I hold the gun there, waiting. I hear my own heart beating, and the female’s, as well.
Suddenly, I hear another clatter to the left. It’s hundreds of meters away, but the bear’s hearing is impressive. I spin toward the source of the sound, and pop off a shot before I can even see the target.
My sight catches up to my hearing, and I see a man falling with his hands holding his gut.
“Wow,” the female says from behind me. “You certainly weren’t lying when you said you’re good with weapons. You hit them before I even knew they were coming.”
I hold the gun ready to shoot again. I listen, but it’s silent aside from the female’s heavy breathing behind me.
I feel a gentle warmth on my back. It’s the female’s hand, and her skin...it’s impossibly soft. Marauders have calloused hands, but the touch from this human female’s palm is softer than the finest fabrics of Sanftar.
“Cygnus,” she says. “Now that we’re in the hangar, I got Seth to scan the ship’s layout. I can take us to an access point.”
I turn back to face her and shout, “Give me the map, woman, and I will access the point!”
I furrow my brows at her, shake my ears, and frown deeply. Perhaps I can scare her back to safety.
Her face sc
runches up in a perplexing formation. I can’t quite figure out what it means.
She stifles a laugh.
“First you shame debt me,” I say. “And now you insult me?”
“The map is on my HUD,” she says. “I have lenses grafted to my eyes that link to the ship’s computer. Do you know how I can get that map onto your eyeballs?” She glares at me, with a daring question in her eyes.
I shake my ears profusely, and then narrow my eyes at the infuriating female. “Tell me the way, and I will go there.”
“Okay,” she says. “I’ll do that, but on one condition.”
“Speak,” I say. I’m tired of arguing with her. She seems hell-bent on endangering herself and shaming me, as well.
“When you reach...the point...how will you access it? What’s the plan?”
I’ve learned their language from Sol broadcasts, but perhaps I’ve overestimated my own abilities.
“I will point my gun at it,” I say, shaking the gun. “And gain access...through brute force!”
“The access point is a computer, Cygnus. I have to get Seth in there, and he can open the hangar door. Only I can get Seth in there, you can’t interface with him. Do you understand?”
“You insult my intelligence,” I growl. “I understand perfectly.” I don’t understand what she means, but no human female can talk down to me.
I grab her by the wrist and begin to march her back to the airlock. She resists, but my strength is far greater than hers, which further proves my point: I’m in charge.
I get her back into the airlock, and she begins hitting my chest. My penis starts to twitch and, to my amazement, it begins to vibrate.
Impossible! A penis can only vibrate when in the presence of a true lifemate. This woman is just…just what? She’s just a human female, isn’t she?
I look at her more closely. Her facial features are—at best—a 2.5-point deviation from the ideal Seraphic Form, which all Marauders must venerate in their breeding partners.
“Freckles,” I say, studying her face. They are imperfect...but they draw me in, and I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s my inner bear corrupting the purity of my Marauder DNA.”
Marauder Cygnus: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Mating Wars Book 1) Page 2