by Webster, K
She pushes some sort of device into my stomach.
“What is it?”
“A truth-teller.”
Some truths are better kept hidden.
“Why do you need it?” I demand, paranoia creeping in.
“To make sure you’re who you say you are. So we can come to a compromise.” She lets out a sharp breath. “Just put down the knife and I’ll administer the test. We’ll go from there.”
“No, feral one,” I grit out. “If you want to administer the test, you can do it from my lap where I can make sure you don’t have ulterior motives.”
Her eyes flash with irritation. My cock jolts again. This is madness. With a growl, I grab her rump through her suit and sit down on the bed, hauling her with me. One of her hands flies to my shoulder to brace herself as she is forced to spread her thighs to sit on me. The position is intimate, but it’s the only one that doesn’t leave the other at an advantage. She’s stiff at first but then relaxes as she looks down at the device. While she fiddles with it, I drag the tip of the magknife along the column of her throat, marveling at the way it leaves a pink, irritated trail on her skin.
“It’s hard to focus with a blade at my carotid,” she grumbles, pinning me with a fierce glare.
“Where would you rather I stick you, feral one?”
Her cheeks flame red and she slaps me. I gape at her in shock.
“You hit me!”
“You were being a dick,” she defends.
“Are you always so mean?”
At this, she laughs, and it sounds beautiful. “Always.”
Aria has a spine of steel and I’ve seen her lash out at others, but she’s always been kind to me. So different than Lyric. Lyric practically breathes fire.
I relent and slide the magknife down, angling it up toward her ribs. My hand stays firmly splayed on her rump in case she tries to make a run for it. It’s nice and round in my hand. Makes me wonder if it’s squishy. I give it a little squeeze, earning myself another slap.
“What the rekk was that for?”
She curls her lip up. “I’m not even answering that question, dumbass.”
“I just wanted to know what it felt like when I squeezed it,” I try to explain. “The book never described how an alien’s rump felt.”
“Book? What, do they have alien porn here? Fucking weirdos. Anyway, on Planet Normal, you take a woman to dinner first before you feel her up. Write that in your damn book,” she says in a dry tone. “Now hold still. This won’t hurt. It just tells me whether or not what you speak is the truth. I’ll try and ask simple questions that require one word answers. If you’re telling the truth, it turns green. Red means a lie. Yellow means unclear. Do you understand, monster man?”
“Clearly.”
“Good,” she murmurs as she sticks an electrode to my temple. Then, she repeats the action on the other side before turning on the machine. “There. Ready?”
“Ready.” Green. I give her rump a quick slap to indicate my readiness.
“Do you like touching my ass?” she snaps.
“Yes.” Green.
“Typical male,” she grumbles. “Okay, first question. Is Aria safe?”
“Yes.” Green.
“Are you going to hurt her?”
“No.” Green.
She presses her lips in a firm line as though she doesn’t believe the truth-teller. “How many monsters are at your compound?”
“Ten, not including the mortlings.” Green.
Satisfaction gleams in her eyes. “We can take ten.”
I cock my nog to the side. “You want us?”
“No, I’m saying…forget it. Just shut up and answer my questions.”
Irritating female.
“Go on, feral one. I haven’t got forever.”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay…here’s one. How old are you?”
“Eighteen revolutions.” Green.
“What about you?”
“We’re not talking about me.” Pause. “In my head, I’m still twenty-one, having finally committed a crime severe enough to be exiled so I could seek out my sister. But who knows how old I really am or how much time has passed.” Another pause. “Whatever, I’m twenty-one. Next question. Do you eat humans?”
I scoff at her. “That’s rekking disgusting, Lyric. Do you eat monsters?”
“Answer the question, creep,” she hisses.
“No,” I growl. Green.
“Do you bite?”
“No.” Red.
“Asshole!”
“It’s a moronic question,” I defend. “I bite meat to eat…I don’t bite aliens!”
She narrows her eyes at me. “We’ll see, liar.” After letting out a heavy sigh, she taps on her chin, thinking. “Does Aria like you?”
“Yes.” I flash her a smug grin. Green. “I’m her favorite.” Red. My heart sinks.
“Who’s her favorite?” she challenges.
“Sokko.” Yellow.
“And…” she implores.
“Breccan.” Green.
“But you’re third favorite?” she taunts.
“Yes,” I admit with reluctance. Green.
“Who is Sokko?”
“Her son.” Green.
Her eyes fill with tears, but she quickly blinks them away. “Did she want to have him?”
“Yes.” Green.
I think about how sweet she is with Sokko. Loving and caring. My chest aches with longing.
“Do you love her?”
“Yes.” Green.
“You wish she were your, er, mate?”
If this gets back to Breccan…
“No.” Red.
“Are you a home-wrecking monster?”
I frown. “No.” Green. Even though I don’t understand the term, I get her insinuation.
She lets out a sigh of relief. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“If I have to.” Red.
Her face lights up wickedly. “I knew it.”
With newfound bravado, she starts to pull away. But I’m not done holding her yet. My claws bite a warning into her fleshy rump as I keep her in my lap.
“B-But you said,” she whispers, squirming at the way my large hand holds claim to her rump.
“I’m not hurting you,” I tell her. Green.
“Stupid machine,” she grumbles.
“I just want to keep you right here.” Green.
“Are you going to rape me?” Her blue eyes are hot with accusation.
“No,” I snap. Green. “I’m not a rekking Kevin!” Green.
“You know Kevin?” she asks in astonishment.
“If I ever meet Kevin, I will bite all right. I will rip every piece of skin from his body with my teeth. I’ll cut off his cock and rekking feed it to him. Then, I’ll walk him right into a den of sabrevipes so they can feast on his disgusting carcass.” Green.
“He hurt my sister,” she says sadly, a tear leaking down her cheek. It’s a statement that she wants confirmation to, but we both know the answer. Yes.
Because I’m curious and have heard lovely things about tears, I lean forward and drag my forked tongue along her cheek. She sucks in a sharp breath. I’m stunned by her taste, though. They were right. It’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted. A craving to taste more tears—more of her—settles in my bones.
“Aria is safe with Breccan. She’s happy. All she wants is for you to come home to her.” Green.
Lyric is no longer glowering at me but seems to have lost some of her edge. “I want to talk to her.”
“Theron and I can help make that happen. We have communication with them.” Green. “But…” I trail off, already thirsting to taste her again.
“But what, monster man? Out with it.”
“But you have to free us.” Green.
She scoffs. “Ugh. Wasn’t a question, stupid machine. And the answer is no.”
My claws bite into her rump. “I’ll just keep you here forever then.” Green.
“Are
you fucking serious right now?”
“Yes.” Green.
She rips the electrodes off my nog and tosses them on the bed beside us. “Fine. Since I know you don’t intend to hurt us, I’ll let you roam. But only on this block. I haven’t spoken to the others yet and I don’t want to create mass hysteria. So you and your freaky friend can hang out here, but I don’t want you going much further. At least not until I’ve spoken with Aria. Can we agree to that?”
“Yes. Don’t you want your truth-teller to confirm?”
She brings her palm to my face, fluttering her fingers along my cheek. “When you’re telling the truth, a line forms here,” she says, rubbing her thumb between my brows. “And when you’re lying, your mouth twitches on one corner.” Her thumb brushes along the corner of my mouth. “You’ll be civil and behave.”
“Oh, I can’t promise I’ll behave,” I say with a wide, wicked grin.
While I marvel over how her blue eyes flare, she snatches the magknife out of my hand and scrambles away from me.
“You’re such a child. That’s why they sent you, huh? To get a break?”
“They sent me because I would do anything for Aria and they know it. This is the most important mission. You are the most important mission.”
Her features soften. “You so much as glare at anyone the wrong way and I’ll send in Zoe with her zap stick.”
I cock my nog. “What’s a zap stick?”
“What the wardens used on the prisoners. Trust me, you do not want to meet the zap stick.”
Rising to my feet, I skim my gaze down her full breasts and flared hips. My own body feels cold without her small one warming me up. Who knew aliens could be so warm? And soft? And sweet? I lick my lips.
“Are you sure you don’t eat humans?” she sneers, eyeing me up like I’m some ferocious beast from The Graveyard.
I don’t tell her I read that whole section about “eating” the females so many times the pages started to wear out and Sayer had to rewrite them.
“Sure,” I say. The corner of my mouth twitches.
Rather than being afraid, she shakes her nog. “Men are the same no matter what species. Always thinking with their dicks.”
She turns, revealing her nice round rump to me. My cock strains against my suit. Turns out, she’s not wrong.
5
Lyric
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Hadrian swaggers—really there’s no other word for it—up to the cell with his friend in it. “Keep your pants on, Ther. The alien is taking me to meet with her friends. I’ve got everything under control.”
“If you have everything under control, then I’m a twirret.”
“What’s a twirret?” I ask. Hadrian tries to herd me away from his companion, but I smack his hands away.
Theron smirks and I’m glad we’ve got the metal bars between us. Hadrian may sound cocky, but from what I’ve gleaned so far with the truth-teller, I don’t think he poses any harm to me or the others. But this guy, there’s something dangerous in his eyes and the rakish slant of his mouth. This one’s trouble.
“A twirret is a small rodent-like creature. They have long tails, big teeth, and thick fur. They reside in what few trees grow around the facility and come out at dark to feed. Good eating—if you can catch them.”
“I do have everything under control,” Hadrian says and pushes between the two of us. “I’m the one they’ve released from the reform cells, you pile of rogshite.”
“You’ve a lot to learn, mortling.” Theron pushes off the bars and turns his back on us. “I’ll be waiting when you return.”
“I’m not a mortling,” Hadrian growls. “Let’s go.”
He storms off before I can so much as answer, and I speed after him—hard considering how remarkably long his legs are. How big do these monsters get? If Hadrian is only eighteen and he’s nearly six and a half feet tall, then how big are the others? Theron is massive. Are the others the same? I’d ask him, but he doesn’t seem so receptive at the moment.
“Hold on there, buddy. You don’t even know where you’re going.”
“We’ve a lot to do if Theron and I are going to return to the Facility soon. I don’t want to be gone too long.”
I tug on his shirt sleeve, pulling him down a hall. “Then you’d better let me lead for a change, sparky. You’re going the wrong way.”
“I know where I’m going,” he retorts, but he doesn’t protest when I lead him down the correct hall to the stairs that will take us to the top level. His attitude shouldn’t make me smile, but it does.
The smile melts from my face as I push into the command room. Zoe and Willow greet me with mirror expressions of tension and fear. Well, on Willow it’s tension and fear, but on Zoe it’s anger and frustration. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Zoe afraid.
“What the hell is he doing here?” she grits out at the sight of him.
“I’m here to speak with you aliens. And to facilitate communications between Willow and Lyric and their families.”
Zoe turns to me. “You can’t be serious. You’re just going to let him walk around free?” She throws her thick black waves over her shoulders, her gray eyes flashing. “Do you not remember them threatening to kidnap us or am I the only sane one here?”
My back straightens. “He’s not walking around free. I’ve been with him the whole time. There will be no kidnapping today, Zoe. Besides, if he tries anything, I give you permission now to use the zap stick on him.”
This seems to mollify her, but only a little. “I think this is a bad idea. He could be lying to you.”
“The truth-teller seems to think otherwise,” I say coolly.
She relents, but I know it’s only momentary. “Whatever you say.”
“You can really help us talk to them? My mother?” Willow asks. Her red-orange hair tumbles around her shoulders from a bun held in place with a pencil.
“You don’t actually believe them?” Zoe’s voice is incredulous.
“I believe even the chance at hearing from my mother is worth the risk.” Willow has never been the defiant sort, but she sets her jaw and meets Zoe’s eyes head-on. “Lyric and I have been waiting for this opportunity for years. She wants to talk to her sister, but she wouldn’t risk the lives of those she helped saved for it. You know that.”
Zoe crosses her arms and slumps into a chair. “I still think it’s a bad idea.”
“Noted.” I turn to Hadrian, who has been watching our conversation with an amused expression. “You’re up.”
“It’s a frequency-based system,” Willow says quickly, the excitement evident in her breathy voice. “Do you think it’ll be compatible with the one where you’re from?”
“Where are you from, exactly?” Zoe interjects before Hadrian can respond.
He nods to Willow and begins to study the controls, tinkering with the buttons and dials. To Zoe, he says, “The morts have lived on this planet since radiation destroyed it.”
I nod to Willow when she looks at me for confirmation. “It’s true. He told me during interrogation.” I still can’t imagine it. My whole life I was told Earth was uninhabitable after dangerous amounts of radiation destroyed it. That’s why, generations before me, we took to the skies and have lived on a man-made planet ever since. But, the planet was small and crime was out of control. They exiled people for life sentences to Exilium for the smallest of offenses. In fact, Exilium was built specifically to see if Earth was safe enough to live on again and to house prisoners to use as test subjects. Little did we know the prison hadn’t been completed until recently.
“Our ancestors built the facility where we now live. It keeps us safe from the beasts that roam this planet and the radiation. Our kind survived for many years this way until most of our numbers were wiped out by The Rades, a deadly virus. We were nearly extinct, until Theron found the ship with Aria, Molly, and the others. Without them, we certainly would have been the end of all morts.”
“
What’s the Facility like?” Willow asks.
Hadrian pauses his examination of the controls. “It’s located a few solars travel east of here, over the mountain range. After The Rades, we were forced to remain indoors where it was safe. Our commander, Breccan, is the only reason we survived.”
Breccan. According to Hadrian, he’s my sister’s mate. I still didn’t know what to think about that. Aria…married and a mother. So much has already been taken from me, the thought of getting even a piece of it back is like having electricity under my skin.
“And he sent you here to take us back, is that it?” Zoe interrupts.
“He sent us here to bring back family,” Hadrian answers quietly, a preternatural stillness settling over his muscled frame. “Aria’s and Molly’s. They’re our family.” He catches Willow’s eyes. “Which means you are, too. We won’t be leaving without you, that is true. I won’t let Aria down that way. No matter how long it takes to convince you.”
“By convince, you mean kidnapping us.”
“Let him talk, Zoe,” Willow says.
“I am letting him talk. All I’m hearing are excuses.”
Willow rolls her eyes, but they’re too bright with excitement to be dismissive. “Are you having any luck?”
“The system seems to be similar to the one we use at the facility. I should be able to patch into the comms system at the facility—or at least Sayer said as much.”
“So you don’t even know if you can talk to them? Great,” Zoe says.
“Are you always so negative, little one?” Hadrian says. “I want this to work as much as you do. I don’t want to stay here. My life is back at the Facility. The sooner I can get in communication with them, the faster I can go home.”
Home. Back to Aria.
The excitement at the prospect of talking to her again dulls a little when I remember Hadrian loves her. I try not to think about how it had felt having Aria always in the spotlight. Having everyone constantly telling me I’d never be as good as her, make as much money as her, live up to her.
The thrill I’d felt with Hadrian pales knowing he loves her. Of course he does. Aria has always been beautiful, talented, and kind.
How could I ever compare?