by T. J. Quinn
“I want to be in the company,” Scarlet told them. I was not keen on that plan, but I wouldn’t oppose her on it. All the females would be tested once their language implants integrated. “What about you Zoe?”
“I don’t know where my skills as a fitness instructor are going to fit in here. I like working with people,” she said. “I guess I will find out after we take the aptitude tests.”
“Well, we’re going to get some food. We just wanted to be nosey and meet the guy who took you away from us,” Nora teased. “We’ll see you later.”
The two women went and joined the self-serve line while Scarlet and I continued eating in silence mostly because we were pretty hungry after sharing all that sex and missing first meal. I was hoping we could go back to my cabin after eating and share some more.
From what the commander told me, their mating practices were a little different than ours. Uatu women simply accepted solmatu and consented to mate almost immediately. Very few women resisted solmatu. The commander had been worried that Harper would resist because she is an alien, but she didn’t.
Scarlet wasn’t exactly resisting, she said that her people had an unwritten rule that they should not share sex until after the third date. Of course, I never heard of the term used to describe courting, but she explained it as occasions to recreate together---courting. But she couldn’t hold out and wait for the three dates to share sex. The bonding pheromones make that very difficult once we touched skin to skin. I assured her she was not acting “slutty” because she didn’t resist. Solmatu are not expected to resist mating. It is an honorable union like Earth marriage.
Using the barrier to contain my seed is not particularly a hardship while sharing sex. The film is so thin that I hardly feel it when my cock is inside her. I just want to consummate the mating to seal our commitment. I am growing to love her almost as much as I want her. She has at least committed to staying and consented to our courting, so I feel it’s only a matter of time before we complete the solmatu vow.
I could wait. There would be weeks to court her and share sex to convince her. But as far as I was concerned, Scarlet was already mine.
I did spend the rest of the day in my cabin sharing sex and dozing with Scarlet in between. We went to the mess hall late because we wanted to be mostly by ourselves. On our way back to my cabin, we saw Zoe walking toward the rec room with Tahvoe Brintu, a good friend. I suspected she was his solmatu by his expression. Perhaps Scarlet’s other friend would be claimed as well.
It was a good thing that duty the next day entailed armor and weapons maintenance because I had to force myself to concentrate on my tasks. I caught myself daydreaming like a kid who had shared sex for the first time. But, I also worried that Scarlet would yet deny my claim on her. I needn’t have worried because when I met her for the evening meal, she was genuinely happy to see me.
Afterward, back in my cabin, she was as eager to share sex as I was. I did understand her reluctance to make a commitment after what had happened to her previous lover, but one takes the risk of loss anytime they enter into a relationship. Solmatu mates never estranged themselves. That only happened in consented matings.
Of course, I could not promise I would not be taken from her in battle, but now I had so much more to live for than I has after the destruction of our homeworld and our people.
CHAPTER EIGHT
SCARLET
The next morning, Pyrr was on duty, so I went back to the conference room to visit the others. I specifically wanted to see Harper. I needed to apologize, and I needed to get information. She was already there when I arrived, talking with Nora and Zoe.
“Hey, Scarlet,” Harper called to me, “and where have you been?” She quirked an eyebrow and smirked at me.
“All right, Harper, you know damn well I was with Pyrr Avantu---and I’m sorry for picking on you the other day. I get it,” I said and sighed. “Whatever there is about solmatu, it makes these guys irresistible. Man, all I can think about is jumping his boner when he gets off duty.”
“You mean---- jump his bones?” Harper laughed.
“That, too.” I shook my head and felt my face heating up. “We shared sex most of the day and evening, and he wants me to commit to mating him for life. That’s like marriage, right?”
“That’s exactly right,” Harper told me.
“How can they expect that kind of commitment just like that?” I snapped my fingers just for effect. Then I lowered my voice to a whisper so only she could hear. “I hadn't had sex in two years, since before Jake died. So, when this big, gorgeous alien says we’re soul mates and looks at me like I’m Miss Universe, tells me I’m his soul mate---I’m going to get some of that. But, hell, I don’t know if I want to marry him. How the hell did you know?”
“Honestly, Zared is so damn hot and so earnest when he asked to be my mate, I decided it was the best offer I ever had,” she said. “I don’t know if I am in love yet, but the thing people don’t get is you can love who you want to love. The guy turns me on like no man ever has, so why not love him?”
“Do you think the guy saving us has something to do with it?”
“Oh probably, but that didn’t turn my bones to jelly when he kissed me,” she said. “That was all him.”
“Believe me, I get that,” I told her.
“That irresistible attraction you feel for Pyrr is solmatu. You’re getting some of those pheromones through the skin to skin contact even with protected sex,” Harper explained. “Look, we’re millions of miles from home, and nobody knows how to get us back to Earth. We could have been sex slaves, but these guys saved us. Having a hot alien commander for a husband seemed like a good deal to me, so I took him up on it. He is a kind and caring man.” She paused for effect then said, “and I really like fucking him. Mm, mm, mm.”
We both giggled like school girls. I knew exactly what she meant because I felt the same way. Then I thought about it. If I were really going to reject his “proposal,” I should never have shared sex with him. Now it would be really awkward to reject him as a mate when he had declared we were soulmates from the beginning.
Anyway, how could I just go back to Earth and live my old life like none of this ever happened? Then I thought of Billy, and that brought a lump to my throat. I hoped someone rescued him and found him a home. He was the only being I missed. I would never have abandoned him if I’d had a choice. He was too good a dog, too good a friend. Who else would love you unconditionally like a dog would?
Someone who thinks you are their soulmate.
That’s when I finally got it. My unique scent told Pyrr I am his soulmate. That was all he needed to turn him into my devoted lover. I still wasn’t quite ready to make that commitment though, I felt like I probably would. I couldn’t deny the connection I felt with Pyrr. It was more than just a physical attraction, which was powerful because I really liked him. My talk with Harper made me believe I could love him. He already acted like he loved me. I could work with that.
With that settled in my mind, I could content myself to enjoy the company of my friends. Some of the alien women joined us including Kyanna Guryon and her companion Sowia. They told us enough about life on Halor to convince the four of us from Earth; it was a place we wouldn’t want to live. It sounded like high society to me, and we were small town ‘girls.' What would we do in a place like that?
The houses were automated, and they had robots for servants. They lived on old money, then those that did work did so from home on their computers, only they were called artificial intelligence modules.
Even though the men and women on the Dreadnaught called themselves mercenaries, they weren’t your typical mercenaries, just looking to fight for money. They were trying to save their people. They declared their independence from the Consortium for that purpose. They are the kind of people I understood. They came in all assorted colors with weird colored hair, but they were basically human with DNA that made them compatible with us. We wanted to help them free their p
eople from a life of slavery the way they helped us.
At least I had it straight in my mind after talking with Harper. I realized I had made my decision. I would accept my alien warrior man’s proposal and be his mate. Maybe I didn’t love him yet, but I sure lusted for him. It would do for a start.
With little else to do, I had settled in with the other women in the conference room to watch a story as they called a movie on their holovid. Pyrr came to the conference room a little early for third meal. People came and went the whole time we were
watching it, but I didn’t notice any one person until he came striding in. I looked up immediately, and my body responded to his presence almost as quickly.
I got up as quietly as I could and padded over to him. He smiled at me, a lover’s smile that reached his eyes. A rush of happiness rippled through me as I basked in his obvious regard. He brushed his hand down my arm in a caress as I came to a stop facing him and returned his smile. He was definitely a keeper.
“Do you want to stay here and finish the story, or go to third meal?” he asked. The look in his eyes told me he wanted what I wanted. We went to eat. I wanted to tell him my decision, but I knew we would never eat if I told him first. I needed a little more time to get used to the idea. I was about to make one huge leap of faith based on Pyrr’s conviction that we were soul mates and my incredible physical attraction to him.
Even now as I remember it, it sounds almost as unlikely as getting kidnapped by alien slavers. Two days after meeting him, I was consenting to become his mate for life. But I was looking into his eyes when he called me solmatu and asked me to be his mate. I believed it was real for him, and I wanted him. Because of that, I knew he would be a solid ally. After being ripped from my world with no way to get home, I needed that.
I was pretty antsy sitting across from Pyrr eating in the mess hall. I was so hungry in the conference room waiting for third meal. The mercenaries’ food supply was adequate to get us to Halor, but there weren’t a lot of extras for snacks and such. We got three meals, and that was it. I think Pyrr thought something was up. He gave me a quizzical look, but just kept eating and didn’t say anything.
When we finished eating, I said, “Pyrr, I accept. I will be your mate.”
He simply smiled and reached across the table to take my hand and give it a gentle squeeze. The smoldering looks he gave me created a riot of sensation coursing through my body clamoring for his touch and making me yearn to feel him inside me. I got up suddenly and shoved my empty containers into the recycling chute, walking quickly toward the exit. Pyrr jumped up and followed me.
We barely made it inside his quarters before we were wrapped in each other’s arms kissing passionately. In the back of my mind, had I told Pyrr before we dined of my decision, we would never make it to third meal. We hardly stopped kissing as we made our way to his bed where I help him off with his clothes and we fell into bed naked.
Pyrr didn’t waste any time pressing me against him his engorged cock pressed against my thigh. I had been craving him all day. He slid his hand over my mound and fingered my opening. “You’re wet for me already,” he murmured into my ear.
“And I need you inside me now,” I pleaded. My nipples had peaked, and my slit went slick almost the moment I sensed his presence back in the conference room. That was all the encouragement he needed. I rolled onto my back parted my legs for him to position himself between them. He leaned over me, and I rested my hands on his sides while he lowered himself to slide into me.
I moaned in pure pleasure as he filled me. He gave me a pleased smile pressed his mouth to mine in a deep tongue waltzing kiss. The pressure of his hard, muscular chest against my sensitive nipples shot a surge of exquisite sensations to my clit as he pumped in and out of me. We started slow and sensual, picking up speed as our arousal increased until he was pounding into me. I was right there with him all the way. Sex had never felt so good or right.
My orgasm started first and his followed almost immediately. I just reveled in him on me and in me. An incredible sensation of euphoria spread through me as his hot semen squirted against my cervix. Our lips clung together in a sweet passionate kiss.
Mine! This man is mine!
CHAPTER NINE
PYRR
Sharing sex with Scarlet was so good, I didn’t think anything could feel better until I claimed her. “Scarlet Andrews, you are my mate now,” I said softly, looking down into her eyes.
“And you are now my mate, Pyrron Avantu,” she murmured back.
“As long as I draw breath,” I repeated the solmatu pledge.
“As long as I draw breath,” she repeated, her gaze fixed on mine.
I smiled at her and kissed her again. I realized that there were many things we had yet to learn about each other, but I was feeling too elated to think about that just then. We were too enthralled by the effects of the mating pheromones that we could think of nothing else but mating again, long and slow.
It took another ten days after our mating day to reach Halor with only about five more days of routine weapons and armor cleaning and maintenance. Even Admiral Degatu had no mundane, utterly boring tasks to fill our time. That was because we were fastidiously efficient in the upkeep of our equipment and the ship.
I mated Scarlet at least a couple times a day, and we savored each other at length. I couldn’t ask for a more responsive and sensual mate. More than lovers, we have also become friends. I enjoy just being with her. I gave her a crash course in Farseek history and our culture. Although we were far ahead of her planet Earth in technology, our lifestyle was not as far removed from hers as that of Halor.
Where Earth was divided into multiple factions called countries, Farseek was a unified world governed by representatives elected by each province. The provinces, in turn, had a certain amount of autonomy on local issues. Our world was part of the Consortium. They provided us with technology, and we provided them with agricultural products and warriors to defend against the Sargus Empire.
The Empire itself was not innately evil. What was evil was their practice of slavery. The Sargans bought and sold slaves provided to them by the Picans who kidnapped them from their homeworlds. Their elitist monarchy and consisted on feudal Lords that ruled the various planets of the Empire. Like the Consortium each of their worlds provided soldiers to fight for the Empire. To those in power, slave ownership was their right. Their trouble with the Consortium started when they began raiding worlds in that sector for slaves and leaving them in ruin.
Attempts at a diplomatic solution failed repeatedly. The Sargans didn’t trust their machines to replace their slaves. Machines couldn’t be tortured, drugged or coerced into compliance. There were those sadistic owners who enjoyed the process of enforcing their wishes on their slaves.
The Consortium knew all of this. It makes me angry at how they left our world defenseless while we fought for them. None of my family members remained among the handful of survivors we found there. All of them were gone, and we didn’t know the any of their fates.
The profound loss of family and friends made finding Scarlet precious in my life. Even though I have yet to say the words out loud, I began to fall in love with her almost as soon as I scented that she was solmatu. I suppose I romanticized our connection a bit, but I attributed it to the recent loss of my family. I felt like I was drowning in my grief and Scarlet threw me a lifeline.
I think Scarlet had some of the same feelings as I did for different reasons. Although her family was already gone, she was traumatized by being abducted from what life she had begun to make for herself. That familiar, the animal she called a dog, was family to her. Even if I could get her back to Earth right now, she might never find what happened to him. It probably feels no different to her than I feel about my family. The Sargus Empire covers a lot of space in this part of the galaxy. We have a few leads on places to look, but no information about who was taken where or who had already died.
I hadn’t completely given up hope th
at I would find any of my family, but I faced the reality that I might never find any of them. It was the same for most all the Farseek Warrior Brigade. Some of my friends were jealous even that I found my solmatu, amid all their losses. But it gave them hope, too, that they might find solmatu in our travels. Solmatu did not have to be Uatu. Two of us had already found them among women from an unknown world.
Scarlet never said she loved me when she agreed to be my mate, but she desired me and preferred my company. When we mated, I felt loved even though she never spoke the words. I didn’t say them either. She always greeted me heartily when we had been apart, lavishing me with affection, and let me know without words that she wished to mate. So, even though we didn’t say the words, it was clear that we were happy being together.
When we reached Halor, I think it finally hit Scarlet and her friends that they were in a different reality from their homeworld. Halor was altogether different than Farseek both in culture and architecture.
“This is like an alternate universe from a sci-fi movie,” Scarlet said as we caught a shuttle tram just outside Halor starport. “These buildings look more like ultra- modern sculptures than businesses.”
“That building is divided into housing units.” I pointed to an opaque crystal structure. It was a non-traditional building with no delineation of windows visible from outside. “The area we’re in now is integrated with high-end housing and businesses. Outside the city are more traditional houses but very luxurious and expensive.”
“What are people going to think when they see us dressed like this?” Scarlet mused aloud. “All I have on is a frigging t-shirt.”
“Don’t worry, we are going straight to the clothing factory to dress all of you properly before we go to the clinic,” I told her. “There are no other passengers on this tram, and no one else will see you before we get to the factory store.”