by Lia Nox
Walking around the outer perimeter of the station, my heavy boots making a trail on the surrounding underbrush, I kept my eyes wide and focused on any signs of hostile forces. There was nothing.
The woman, though, she had me worried.
What was Erin doing in a place like this?
There was a remote possibility that she was a spy. The Masters could have sent her to infiltrate our group, and who better for such a mission than an unassuming alien like her?
There was no reason for us to fear her, and we would gladly welcome and enjoy her presence. Yes, she would be the perfect bait for us to take.
But that didn’t make much sense either.
The Masters had never done such a thing before, and I doubted that they would disappear from the face of this planet just so they could let us loose and spy on us. Besides, Erin didn’t strike me as a spy. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on how I knew it, but I was certain that she knew even less about our situation than we did.
Still, I would be cautious. Even though her presence made it hard to think, I would remain guarded until I was certain that she wasn’t a threat. After all, I hadn’t survived a thousand bloody battles just so I could have a tiny woman cut my throat while I slept.
Satisfied with my quick sweep of the perimeter, I headed back into the station.
I found Erin sitting by herself in one of the corners, sweat still glistening on her forehead, and my cock twitched inside my pants once more. Just one look at her was enough to make my body boil from the inside out. Gritting my teeth, I bludgeoned my raw instincts into submission.
“Roth,” I called, motioning at him to join me outside. Only when he stepped out into the courtyard did I continue. “Have you ever seen something like her before? What did she say, a human?”
“Never,” he admitted, his voice never betraying his position as a leader. He might not know how to deal with Erin’s presence, but he didn’t let that shake his confidence. “I know you have questions, Kern. I do too.”
“Then maybe it’s time we get some answers from her.” I sighed. It’d be hard to talk to her. There was the slight language barrier caused by her translator still synching with our implants, but that wasn’t what had me concerned.
I just didn’t know how I’d stand close to her without touching her and pulling her body against mine. Maybe that was why these females were dangerous. . .they were simply too irresistible.
“You want to take point on it?” Roth asked me. “Or do you want me to do it?”
“I’ll do it,” I quickly answered, already taking one step toward the station’s main door. Even though I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get any answers out of Erin, I wanted to be the one to try it all the same. I ached to know more about her.
That was a selfish need, if I was to be honest. Even though I was concerned with the team’s safety, I also felt curious about the tiny woman that had unleashed such a frenzy of unspoken lust upon the three of us. There was something unique about her, and I was dying to learn what it was.
I took a deep breath before stepping inside the station, my pupils dilating as I tried to make sense of the shadows inside. Talos stood to one side, leaning against the wall, but he kept his eyes focused on Erin. There was no distrust in his eyes, mere curiosity. Even though Talos was a cautious one—life here made it a necessity—he might be more ready to trust her.
Erin only glanced at me as she saw me standing on the doorway and, even though her body language didn’t suggest that she was completely at ease, I could tell that she wasn’t afraid of us.
I didn’t know what to make of it.
I didn’t want her to be afraid, of course, but she had to be a brave one not to feel some anxiety. Even just one of us would be enough to end her life, and there was little she could do about it. She was at our complete mercy, and she would never be able to stop us from taking what we wanted.
In a sense, she was lucky. Had she come across any other team, she could have been in serious trouble. We were relentless when it came to our missions, but we didn’t let the brutality of our job slip into our character.
The same couldn’t be said of some of the others. While there were some I could trust to act in a conscientious manner, others weren’t that different from the wild beasts that roamed the wilderness.
“Erin,” I started, enjoying the way her name rolled off my tongue. “I have questions for you, and I’m going to need answers.”
Erin
I wasn’t exactly in the mood for an interrogation, but what else could I do? Could shutting my mouth and refusing to talk make my situation any better?
I doubted it. Besides, I had no reason to distrust these three men.
Men. Aliens. Whatever.
Sure, they looked like they had just ran out of the gates of hell, the large horns on their heads a scary detail on their muscular figures, but I tried not to let it scare me.
I was on alien soil, after all, and I couldn’t expect for things to be as normal as they were back home. In here, the weird and the strange were the norm, and I had to accustom myself to it if I wanted to survive here.
They’d saved me. Protected me.
I looked straight into Kern’s eyes and held his gaze, my heart tightening into a tiny little fist inside my chest.
Carried me.
His gaze overwhelmed caution, my body growing hot. I wasn’t sure why they incited such lust. This was not an appropriate reaction. But had anyone really written an etiquette book on this sort of situation?
When surrounded by alien sex gods, make sure that you don’t objectifying them. Remember, they are people too. And never forget to dab with the napkin, not wipe.
Good grief. I’d lost my mind. They’d done this to me.
They were a mind-bending aphrodisiac made flesh.
“Humans. . .are you fighters?” he started.
I blinked as I tried to make sense of his words.
He spoke slowly, seeming to choose his words carefully so that I could understand him despite my translator necklace, but his question caught me off-guard all the same. Was everyone he met a fighter?
A stab of worry ran through me. If that was what he expected, he’d be sorely disappointed in me.
“Sometimes,” I responded, and he pursed his lips. “Some humans fight.” I eyed him, thought about how perfectly he was adapted for this world.
Born? Or engineered that way?
Either way, it was time to manage some expectations.
“We’re not as strong, or fast as you. We prefer to use our brains,” I continued, tapping my right temple with my index finger.
“Are there human teams? Like us?”
Teams? Sure, but not like them. I bit my lip, trying to imagine these hunks playing arena ball. They’d bring a new meaning to crushing their opponent.
“I. . .I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I don’t think so.” His eyes narrowed. “I really don’t think there’s anything like a human team here, not like you guys.”
I wasn’t sure if that was the answer he wanted, but I could almost swear a hint of a smile danced on his lips. I relaxed a little, but still didn’t dare to look away from him.
“How have you survived here?”
“That’s what I do,” I blurted out. “I survive. I scavenged what I could, I ran when these creatures found me. I did what I could with what I had.”
His smile widened at that. He seemed to like what I had just told him. “How did you get here? Are there more of you?”
“I. . .” my mind blanked. “I don’t really know? My people put me in something like an escape pod, but it wasn’t escaping anything, it was just a small ship, I guess, and they launched it into a wormhole that they were trying to keep stable.” I blinked. “I think. That’s what it sounded like they were saying, but honestly, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me at the time.”
From the look on his face, it didn’t make a lot of sense to him, either.
Which wasn’t anything I co
uld help with. Physics, or astronomy, or whatever the hell field that was involved with ripping open the space-time continuum and tossing human guinea pigs through for kicks and giggles hadn’t been on my class schedule.
More like how to quickly strip wires, quickly estimate the weight of metals, and don’t get caught.
Two out of three of those, I’d been really good at.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else like me here.” My heart pinged, just a bit. I’d never see another human again. While there had certainly been moments in my life I’d thought it might be nice to go live on a desert island, and never, ever have to deal with people. . .
It was horribly final, realizing I was alone.
And there weren’t any options. No take backs.
I swallowed, throat tight. “I was the only one in the pod. I didn’t see anyone else when I was taken. There was only me.”
He continued peppering me with more questions, almost all of them concerning my species, and I tried to answer them as best as I could. I knew he was trying to gauge if humans would be a threat to his group, but after some time I could tell he was no longer preoccupied with humans as an existential threat.
He remained curious about my presence here, but for those questions I had no answers. I knew nothing about the ones he called the Masters, and I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about when he asked me if I had been sent here on a mission.
Still, I did my best to satisfy his curiosity. I was happy to tell him all about the assholes who’d stuffed me in that pod. I only shut down when his questions started growing more personal.
“What about you?” he asked, his deep voice smooth. “Do you have any family back home?”
“I. . .I don’t want to talk about it,” I muttered, looking away from him for the first time.
I didn’t want to talk about home, family, or whatever reminded me of my previous life. If I wanted to survive here, I couldn’t keep looking back over my shoulder with each step I took. I had to keep on marching ahead, doing my best to focus on the situation at hand.
The past would only slow me down and ensure I’d end up in a shallow grave or a wild beast’s stomach. And even though that would be an exotic way to go, I sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to having something like that happen.
No, I preferred dying of old age in a comfortable bed.
Just as soon as I found one here.
“Why not?” Kern insisted.
I gritted my teeth. Not knowing how he’d react, I pushed to my feet and walked past him. I braced for him to grab me, slam me against one of the walls and force me to answer all of his damn questions, but he just watched me go, following me with his gaze but never making a threatening gesture. They were scary looking, no doubt about it, but they didn’t seem to be as vicious and brutal as I first thought.
At least not with me.
Stalking out of the station’s main room, I walked out into the courtyard and drew a deep breath as the evening’s breeze cooled my skin. In the distance, I heard the faint crash of the ocean. I closed my eyes for a moment, enjoying the soothing effect of the sound, then let out a frustrated sigh tumble from between my lips.
What would those three do about me?
What if the answers I’d given them weren’t enough?
Would they abandon me and leave me to fend for myself?
Even though I was used to surviving on my own, maybe it would be better to stay with them. They could protect me from all those creatures that seemed hell-bent on killing everything in their wake, and it seemed like they knew a lot more about this planet than I did.
If I wanted to survive, staying with them would be the best course of action. Of course, I had no say in the matter.
In the end, it was up to them.
I looked back at them over my shoulder. The three of them stood inside the station, talking in hushed tones to each other. Kern was probably telling the other two about my answers, and I could only hope he had good things to say about me. I had tried my best, after all.
I just couldn’t understand why he was so interested in me. It made sense for him to try and see if I was a threat, but when he started asking me all those personal questions I hadn’t known what to think.
Had it been enough?
Would I be enough?
“Keep it together, Mouse,” I muttered under my breath. All those questions I was posing myself wouldn’t help matters in the slightest. I had to keep my head over my shoulders, or else my thoughts would start spiraling into uncontrollable panic. If that happened, all bets were off.
I had to remain cool and collected, no matter what.
Taking a deep breath, I decided to head back inside the station once more. I didn’t want them to start thinking I was considering my escape. Even though I was pretty sure I wasn’t their prisoner, I wanted them to know I wasn’t thinking about leaving.
At least not yet. I still didn’t know much about them and, at the first sign of danger from them, I would be more than ready to leave.
Wouldn’t be easy, of course.
There was something about them, all of them, that made me curious. Interested in the dark promise in Roth’s touch, Kern’s firm grip, Talos’ breath on my neck.
I smiled at my own thoughts. It was madness. Kern’s curiosity baffled me, but here I was now as intrigued by them as they were by me.
The trio stopped talking as I stepped back into the shadows. Holding my breath, I walked right past them into my little corner of the room, trying to show I didn’t fear them, and gave myself a little encouraging nod after I did it. Even though my back was turned to them, I could still feel their eyes on me, and a pleasant warm feeling start spreading all over my body.
Once I sat back down on the corner, I gave the three of them a little smile, while I tried to reconcile with my feelings.
I want more than to just survive, I thought to myself, my eyes wandering over their muscular figures. I want so much more.
Roth
“I want to check on something,” I told Kern and Talos, already grabbing my blaster from the place where we had left our bags. They exchanged a curious glance, but they didn’t ask me any questions. They knew better than to question me, and I was happy that was the case. After all, there was absolutely nothing I needed to check on. I just needed some time alone to think. “Look after her,” I told them as I headed out the gated entrance. “I won’t take long.”
“Understood,” Kern nodded, and I turned toward the woods as the two of them started to chat quietly about Erin. I paid no attention, my thoughts already focused on the delicate little creature that she was, and I didn’t need their words to add to it.
I headed straight into the woods, and only allowed myself to relax once the vegetation grew thick around me. I spotted a large tree with thick branches jutting out from its trunk at regular intervals, and decided to climb it. With my rifle slung over one shoulder, I climbed to the top, the canopy concealing me.
I looked around, taking in the wilderness of our home, and then set my eyes on the station building. Surrounded by all the green, it seemed like a grey pebble laying flat on a bed of grass. To the side I could see the ocean, vast and brutal as it always, and a sudden queasy feeling took over me.
How many times had I seen these sights before? The woods remained the same, as did the ocean, and yet. . .this time there was an alien feeling to it all, almost as if the entire planet was changing right in front of my eyes. The really unsettling thing, though, was that I didn’t know what to do about it.
My life as a leader had never been easy, but at least I had always known how to make a decision. The Masters gave me a mission, and it was only a matter of taking the right steps to ensure my objectives were accomplished. Now, though, with no clear purpose to aim for, I was at a loss.
Sure, protocol demanded for my me and my team to keep on hunting rogues, but did I really want to continue if the Masters were gone? My hands were drenched in blood, and I was sick of murderi
ng men I had once called brothers. But orders were orders, and I was the best at ensuring the Masters’ wishes turned into reality.
Did I like it? No, I hated it. But what choice did I have?
While some of the teams had it easier, roaming all of the planet’s regions without much supervision, my team remained under the Masters’ strict gaze constantly. Even the slightest deviation in behavior resulted in harsh punishment, and thoughts of rebellion would result in nothing but our swift deaths. I understood why some rebelled and took up arms against the Masters—or simply turned their backs on them—but it was my duty to hunt them down and bring their heads back to the Masters.
That was my sole purpose, no matter how grim it could be.
I had never failed to make it happen.
Now, though, with the Masters gone, I was at a loss.
Could I just keep on hunting the other teams down, doing it mindlessly like some drone? Or was this the chance I had to become someone other than a ruthless killer? I almost laughed at that thought. Even without the Masters’ constantly looking over my shoulder, I couldn’t deny my true nature.
I was a killer. No matter who was pulling my strings.
The only thing that could change was the reason behind all the killing. . .and the targets.
For a split second, I fantasized about unleashing my full rage upon the Masters. I could’ve tried it before, had considered it many times, but I had never risked it. To do it would mean jeopardizing Kern and Talos’ lives alongside mine, and I wasn’t ready for that. They looked up to me, and I refused to lead them on what was nothing but a suicide mission.
“You’re just an old fool, Roth,” I said out loud, my hand resting on my blaster. Could there be any hope for me? A future that hinged on more than just mindless carnage? I doubted it. And yet, there was already an inkling of doubt inside me. Maybe the tides were finally turning. . .maybe there could be some hope.