by Misty Kayn
I opened my mouth to tell her to mind her own sorrows when a news reporter filled the screen. “Turn it up, would you?” I said.
“We have an official announcement from the Dark Fae,” the suited brunette on the TV said. “This comes directly from their governing body.” When her eyes sparkled with excitement, I leaned in to hear. The woman leaned in too as if whispering a secret to the entire female population of our great country. And she knew it. “The fae mating season will start tomorrow at six PST and is expected to last for three days.”
I threw my towel and leapt up.
My sister startled and placed her hand over her heart.
“Oh my God, did you hear that?” I said. “It’s tomorrow!”
Apple bent and picked up a piece of silicone. She extended her hand. “Your tit fell out.”
“Thanks.” I stuffed the bra insert back into its pocket and pushed up my breasts to get them all nice and settled.
Apple turned up the volume, and the reporter’s voice boomed, “All adult women are advised to stay indoors during the season. However, as is tradition between our people and the alien race in our orbit, our Fae Relations Department has opened several establishments for male fae enjoyment. Women who wish to be mated are asked to make their way there. The fae people will provide all the food and refreshments. The lists of your local establishments are being forwarded to all registered phone numbers as we speak.”
“If she doesn’t get off the screen, she’ll squeal like a pig for everyone to hear,” Apple said, and changed the station.
Ping! My phone sounded from the kitchen. I had registered my phone number.
“It’s probably the new whorehouse downtown,” Apple said.
“It’s not a whorehouse. A mating house.”
In defense, she turned up her palms. “Just callin’ it as I see it.”
“You think the platinum blonde will work for this season?” I asked.
“Don’t know, what did he say today?”
“The usual.”
“Well, I liked the redheaded slut better.”
“He didn’t care for it. You can borrow the whole thing, you know, walk around a little, maybe go to the mall—”
“I lost my job, remember?”
I sighed. “I’d give you money for shopping, Apple, if only all this would stop.” There, I’d said my piece and immediately felt bad about saying it. It sounded insensitive. “I mean, I wish you’d stop drinking. I don’t know how to get you to stop. Maybe you’ll hate the wine?”
Apple averted her eyes. A pause and then she changed the subject. “I don’t think he’s worth all that you’re doing, but if mating him is what you’re after…” She narrowed her eyes, thinking. “Let’s brainstorm. Last mating season, what worked?”
“Last year, I did the straight black hair with techno-funk office clothes and high-heeled, knee-high boots.”
“And?”
“I’m still here,” I said.
“Right. The platinum. You’re going opposite this year.”
“Maybe a nice sundress or a pencil-skirt suit with the high boots?”
“That works,” she said. “And there’s always next year if the platinum girl doesn’t get in his pants.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“It’s this season, or I’m done. A girl’s gotta get a clue and move on, you know.” My eyes widened. “I didn’t mean to say that. I’m sorry.” Apple couldn’t move on from her heartbreak.
“I’ll get through it, but you said you were done last year too.”
“Three time’s a charm.”
She sighed, fingertip circling the bottle’s rim. “I should’ve done that. Dressed up, I mean. It’s a good idea to be different people every now and then so men don’t get bored.”
“Jonah’s a cheater. It’s not your fault.”
“He said I wasn’t his type. I could’ve been. There’s a wig and a look for every type. You’ve always been the smart one.”
I sat beside her and threw an arm over her shoulder. “I’m smart, but so are you. Don’t let him make you feel small.”
We sat in silence. My looks never got me anywhere with Titan, so I tried to figure out the type of woman Titan liked. Was it the busty blonde in latex or the dark-haired brunette with pigtails in a school dress, or maybe he liked redheads in jeans and T-shirts? I didn’t know, but I was determined to find out. We got along pretty great, but attraction initiated the mating, not friendship or work talk. It was the same with humans, only not as potent.
Apple lifted her head and swiped the back of her hand over her eyes. “Your phone’s buzzing on the counter.”
I left for the kitchen and picked it up. “Hello.”
“Rain, this is Titan.”
“Oh, hi.” I pointed to the phone. My sister rushed over and pressed her cheek to mine to listen in on the call. I could’ve put him on the speaker, but he wouldn’t like that. Most people could hear the background noise and tell when they were on speaker.
“Tomorrow is the first day of the mating season,” Titan said with the enthusiasm of a deflated balloon. Of course, I crushed on the only fae in the universe who didn’t want to be mated. Such was my taste in men. “Do you still have the iron cuffs I gave you last year?” he continued.
“Yes, I have them.”
“And the sword?”
“Got the weapon too.” Not that I knew what to do with it.
“I want you to put the cuffs on and stay indoors. If you leave the house, which you shouldn’t, I hereby give you permission to stab any of my males. They’ve been advised of this decision. Take the three days off.”
Apple flipped the phone the bird.
“That’s really sweet,” I said and batted her middle finger away. “But not necessary. I’m fine with traveling to work. Dohan—”
“You can’t come to work. You’ll be the only female onboard the ship.”
“Mated women live on the ship.”
“Yes, they do. Keyword is mated, Rain. Stay at home. You pose a risk, and I can’t slaughter my entire fleet for you. We’re not human, and the mating is not humanistic. It’s not for you.”
“I understand.”
“Thank you. See you after the mating season. Take care.”
When I hung up the phone, my sister chugged half the bottle down her throat, then said, “You’re going in, aren’t you?”
“You bet.”
I could never tell him no.
Three
After the fae had destroyed their planet, they’d scouted the galaxy for a suitable home and discovered Earth some fifty years ago. When they’d tried to land, our defenses went up, and the armies of the world united against the threat orbiting our planet. It took about seven years for us to come to terms that there were, indeed, other people in the universe. They looked like us too; large humanoid males with black eyes and pointy ears. At last, when a truce was struck, we allowed the fae to orbit Earth in exchange for some of their vast knowledge of the universe and their willingness to help us build better spaceships. In addition, the governing bodies of most countries agreed to provide mating houses where willing women could interact with the fae. The fae didn’t have females. I didn’t know why there were no females. The fae kept their secrets from us.
“Hot damn,” Dohan said from behind his security booth. “What you got under that coat? Let me see.”
I unbuttoned my long black coat and showed him my red dress. “Do I look like a hooker?” I asked.
“No such thing as a hooker, only a girl on a mission. Which reminds me. He guessed you’d be coming in, and now that you’re in, I’m off duty.” He stepped out from behind the booth, and I blinked at his baggy pants, military boots, and shirtless outfit. “See something you wanna eat?” he asked, digging into his deep pockets. He pulled out a plastic bottle and lifted it above his head, then closed his eyes and sprayed his hair. Seconds later, bright blue tips appeared on his spiky black hair. “And now I’m eye candy.
”
With a bounce in his step, he walked past me to the warp-train station’s tunnel entrance right across his station. He placed his palm over the flat screen on the side of the door. Light blue glow flashed and the door slid open with a hiss, presenting a long black tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel was a warp-train station. A human man in a small round transport ship—a space taxi service that carted people from the mother ship to the warp-train station and back—started up his “car”.
“How did Titan know I was coming in?” I asked.
“He knows cuz he can read your mind,” Dohan said.
I gasped. “Oh my God, are you serious?”
“Nope. Got ya.” He threw his head back and laughed, then boarded the taxi. “Good luck.” The mother ship’s door slid shut. I walked to work, my heart nearly bouncing off the walls of my chest cavity. I’d die of shame if Titan could read my mind.
Three years ago at the science fair, I presented my ideas for improving the life of the fae people in hopes one of the big-shot companies would hire me. Their representatives poked around my booth, but by the end of the day, nobody had hired me. As I was packing to leave, Titan showed up. He believed in my projects—all twenty-three of them—and offered me a job.
I could never tell Titan no, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do my thing anyway. So at nine o’clock the morning after he’d told me to stay at home, I shrugged off my coat and straightened my short red dress. It wasn’t too tight, but it was tight enough and rose well past the knee. I didn’t wear stockings or panties in case I got lucky and he bent me over the table on sight. Fat chance of that happening, but hey, a girl had to hope. I’d stuffed so much silicone into my bra, my breasts were at least a full C now. This would have to work. Three days of the mating season. Even the mighty Titan couldn’t resist, could he? He’d resisted in the past, but this year was different. I was better prepared. I knew him better.
Black heels on, I fidgeted with my wig when Titan walked out of the bathroom. I hadn’t knocked, didn’t want him to catch me at the door.
“Good morning, Rain.” Naked out of the shower, he poured us coffee.
I couldn’t tell if he was mad that I came to work. When he crossed the room to my desk, my eyes—briefly!—landed on his groin area. His cock was longer and harder than usual. I pressed my legs together and gulped coffee while Titan loomed over me, his nostrils flaring. Oh, he was mad, all right, so I pretended cool and said, “We need to talk about the graft pieces before everyone leaves for Earth. The new grafts are better, and they’ll allow at least three more hours of protection after you touch ground. I think everyone on this ship wants a full day of…activities down there. Don’t you?”
“Mm-hm,” he said.
I ignored him. It wasn’t the first time he’d brooded. “I think your people would want that, seeing as it’s mating time.”
“Ah, there it is. The time. I hate the mating season, did you know that?”
“I suspected. Why?”
He evaded. “I told you to stay at home.”
“The grafts need replacing, and I got them started under the replicators last night. There should be hundreds of grafts by now, and I couldn’t leave them under there all day. The replicator would work and work and break if I didn’t shut it off today. Burn the house down.” The first time I tried to test my theories, I’d burned down his quarters. In my defense, nobody had told me fae power and human technology didn’t get along. At all. I still didn’t know if they used magic or some sort of technological power of their own. Nevertheless, since the incident, Titan had remodeled and kept me inside his quarters. It sounded a bit like containment, but he’d figured if there was trouble, he’d know where to look. Once I’d started to work on grafting, he placed Dohan at the end of the hall, as if someone would try to steal the project. Titan was a bit paranoid.
“If you’d told me, I’d have shut off the replicator. It can’t be that hard. It’s a button that says ‘off.’”
Again, I ignored him. Current graft-time on Earth allowed them about six hours before they needed to return to their ship for another anti-iron booster. This was because the grafts were old and the skin didn’t absorb all that well anymore, so some of the anti-iron serum went to waste. Titan didn’t allow the fae to self-inject the boosters, and he didn’t allow the serum to leave the ship. “Half the men won’t last the whole six hours down there before they get sick. I need to work on them. I think if we follow the three catheter insertion sites I showed you yesterday, the response would be faster and longer. I can apply a higher dose of boosters that way. Do you want to call a meeting for the announcement or should I?”
“Not the groin. No fae in his right mind will give you access to his groin in mating season.”
I chuckled. “I’m thinking you’re wrong. I’m thinking they will give me access to their groins.”
Briefly, his jaw flexed. “How do you know that?”
“Dohan will let me work on him. Besides, it’s not on the…the male organ. It’s near the groin area. Here.” I stood, lifted my dress, and pointed to my upper right thigh. “It’s a simple procedure, and your medic has anesthetics for the pain. I estimate a recovery time of all of half an hour. They can go at it almost immediately. All I need is one of your medics, a graft, a test fae, and my pen. I’ll start with Dohan when he gets back.”
“You will not.”
I scrunched up my nose.
“You’ll start with me.”
Four
Titan
My little scientist was a determined genius who worked hard and didn’t complain about anything. She was always on time, and I could count on her to complete her projects. I loved that about her, even if she’d disobeyed me today. I knew she’d come to work like I knew she’d blush when I stepped closer, invading her bubble of space. With only a paper-thin distance between our bodies, I breathed long and deep to try to catch her scent. Raspberry and rose—a unique perfume she wore—and the smell of fake hair entered my lungs. I expected not to catch her scent. It was a mercy, since I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to control my hunger if I got a whiff of her. This red dress she was wearing today, with her little tits almost spilling out of it, was enough to torture me for the entire year.
I couldn’t mate my girl.
A mental slap.
I stepped back and cleared my throat. I didn’t need to lead her on any more than I already had been. I paraded naked for her every damn morning because I was a selfish prick and didn’t want her thinking about Dohan down the hall, and also because I knew she liked it. What was worse, I made her think it was normal fae male behavior.
“Do you want to lie down on the bed?” she asked, a little breathless.
The bed? I didn’t think so. “I’ll stand.” Another thing that made me a prick was the fact I had cameras trained on her while she worked. Some days she’d climb on my bed and play with her little shaved pussy. I shuddered just thinking about that pussy I wanted to stick anything my body could stick inside of it. Fingers, tongue, cock, my whole fucking fist. Of course, I didn’t even admit to myself why I’d made her work out of my private quarters in the first place. In the beginning, I’d messed around and flirted. I liked her enough, but really had more interest in her work than her. I’d fed her some bullshit. Until the first mating season, when I realized our souls had aligned for mating. But I couldn’t mate her. So now, I couldn’t do anything about it, because she believed everything I’d said then and she believed it now. I had to watch my mouth. I walked a thin line. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I liked this human.
She pressed the button to call the medic.
The medic responded. “Ihonis on duty, Titan.”
I placed my hand on top of hers and said to the medic, “Ignore the call.” Then I released the button. “Just get on with it. I don’t need a medic,” I told her. It wasn’t until she didn’t respond and kept staring at our hands that I realized I’d touched her for the first time since I’d recognized I
wanted this girl for myself. That had been nearly two and a half years ago. Now I didn’t only touch her, my thumb brushed against hers as if I had no control over my body. I jerked my hand away, folded them both on top of my chest, and spread my legs wider so she could work. She shouldn’t be here.
Rain shook her head. “I’ll start from the bottom, then. Get that one out of the way.” She bent over the table and stretched her hand, reaching for her work tray. Because I was a horny asshole in mating heat who couldn’t have this sweet pussy, I leaned to the side to check out her ass. Immediately, I regretted it. Pale pretty ass cheeks. My brows furrowed, then lifted. Wait a minute; I didn’t think she wore knickers. Did she? I couldn’t see without making an ass of myself. Mother of the fucking Fae. I leaned back and took a deep breath.
Knickers. I liked the humans’ word knickers better than panties. It didn’t matter what I called it anyway. Either knickers or panties meant the same thing to my growing erection. Nothing to be done about it. My little Rain—whom I should stay away from—knelt on the floor. Her new hair brushed over her shoulders as she smiled up at me.
I blinked. That position would get her a mouthful of cock. Why in fuck’s name did I make her work on me here and not on the bed? I could’ve lain down and covered myself with the biggest fucking sheet on this ship. Only my leg would stick out in the open. Like this, she knelt with her pretty brown eyes staring right at me. I’d never known I was a masochist until I’d met her. I couldn’t have her because of my mating ritual, and a causal fling between us would be disastrous. I’d told her to stay at home. Damn it.
Rain smiled sweetly. In response, I growled, frustrated I couldn’t get a grip on myself. This mating season couldn’t come to an end soon enough. I pictured taking my cock and nestling it between those perky little tits. Down there, the bastard twitched, recognizing the woman and her pretty little tits he wanted to push between.
Rain palmed her laser pen.