by Ella Maven
“Good morning,” she said. “I made you breakfast. Those are taranta eggs. They don’t taste like eggs from home, but they’re good. Meatier, I’d say. And that—” She pointed to a steaming mug sitting to the top right of the plate. “—is pula. It’s not coffee. Nothing here is like coffee, but it’s like a tea and has some natural energy-boosting properties.” She wiped her hands on a cloth. “One thing I had to come to terms with was that I wasn’t going to be able to replicate Earth things. I couldn’t make a coffee or a Danish. I had to learn new routines and flavors.”
“That makes sense. I’m sure that was a hard realization though. Because damn, I could go for a vanilla latte right about now.”
She laughed. “It was hard. But it was also fun using new foods to produce recipes.”
I sat down in front of my plate and smiled at how the place setting was properly set. A napkin was tucked under the fork to the left of my plate, while my knife was on my right. “This is so nice. Thank you.”
“Stop thanking me.” She sat down across from me with a steaming mug.
I shoved a forkful of the eggs in my mouth. They were chewy, and she was right, a bit meaty, almost like chicken, but delicious. “Mmm, this is good!”
She beamed and took a sip from her mug. “I’m so glad you like them.”
“They don’t taste like scrambled eggs exactly, but they have the same consistency.” I pushed them around the plate with my fork. “I need to deal with the fact I’m not getting home.”
Anna reached for my hand. “Hey, it’s not something you can get over in hours or a day or even years. I still miss plenty about Earth. Sometimes I can almost taste my blueberry pie until I remember there’s nothing like that here. And I’ll never taste it again. It’s a process that never ends, I think. Isn’t that what grief is like? Mourning can last a lifetime.”
My chest ached, and I rubbed at it. “You’re right. Sorry if I brought it up.”
Anna smiled. “No, it’s fine. I look at this as another stage in my life, but I don’t pretend Act 1 never existed.”
“So, this is Act 2?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“What’s Act 3?”
Anna hummed as she leaned back in her chair. “To be determined.”
“I guess I’m okay with Act 2. At least it’s not a tragedy so far.” Anna giggled. I noticed she still hadn’t fixed herself a plate. “Are you going to eat?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I already ate with the men. They are out in the work room with Bazel finishing up the translator implant.”
Nerves twisted and rolled in my stomach, and I poked the hunks of fruit on the side of my plate. “I can’t believe I’ll finally be able to talk to him.”
Anna blew on the surface of her steaming brew. “I remember the feeling. Except I didn’t know what was happening when Tark gave me the translator. He just stuck this thing on my head. It hurt at first, and I couldn’t understand why he was hurting me. But the pain only lasted a few seconds. And as soon as I heard him speak, I forgot all about the pain.”
Had she heard us last night? She must have. Last night, I’d thought only of Daz and what we were doing together, but in the light of day, I realized how close the two rooms were. Add to that, I’d ruined a precious piece of her underwear. “So, uh, last night…”
“They’re amazing, right?” she said.
I glanced up sharply. “What?”
“Drixonians. They are apparently known in the galaxy for being excellent lovers. The tongues, the piercings.” She inhaled and fluttered her lashes. “Hard to resist even when we’re scared out of our minds on a strange planet.”
I sagged back onto my chair in relief. “Oh, thank God. I thought you were going to scold me or tell me to ‘think of the children!’”
Anna laughed. “I’d never. Plus, the loks… They increase our sex drives. Both males and females.”
I glanced down at my wrists. “Really? That makes sense because I was wondering what came over me.”
She nodded. “I wasn’t very sexually active on Earth. I’d had one boyfriend and only had sex once. I wasn’t even that into it. With Tark…” Her cheeks pinked. “I can’t get enough.”
“Yeah, well, most men can’t find our clit with a magnifying glass, and these guys have a whole extra appendage that latches on like a heat-seeking missile.”
Anna’s eyes went wide, and she leaned forward, placing her hand over mine. “The first time I saw Tark’s tongue, I thought I was delirious.”
I fanned myself. “Those things are a work of art.”
“Well, no worries. And no judgement.”
“Thanks, but, uh, I do have to confess the underwear you lent me are… indisposed.”
She quirked an eyebrow and pressed her lips together with amusement. “Indisposed?”
“Uh, ripped.”
“Ripped, huh?”
“Shredded, actually.”
“I see.” She hid her smile behind her mug as she slurped loudly.
“I didn’t do it!” I cried.
She gasped in mock outrage. “You’re throwing poor Daz under the bus?”
I shoved a mouthful of eggs into my mouth. “Yes, I am. Don’t tell him.”
Finally laughing, she squeezed my hand. “It’s fine. I don’t wear underwear often anyway because the fabric we use works better without them.”
I plucked at my pants. The fabric stretched and immediately snapped back into place. “How does this fabric work anyhow?”
“They use a special technology that infuses heat-molding properties into the fabric. Crazy, huh? Tark made me the machine out of parts he bartered and traded for. I imagine all the Drix he trades with thinks he’s an amazing seamstress and cook but—” She pointed to herself with two thumbs. “—it’s all me.”
“Wow,” I took a sip from my mug and swallowed the hot brew. It did taste a bit like tea—earthy and fruity. “I can’t get over all you’ve done here.” My insecurity bubbled to the surface. Anna was like a superhuman. And Daz was apparently stuck with… me. “I don’t know if I would be as successful.”
“Look, I was a librarian from a small town in South Carolina. I feared everything. My idea of exercise was walking to the local farmer’s market which was two blocks away from my apartment. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when faced with impossible odds.”
She had a point. Even now I could hear the crunch of bone as I’d stabbed the stick into that alien’s heel. I’d done that. Me. The woman who refused to kill the ladybugs that tried to live rent-free in her home. Still, that had been temporary insanity. That wasn’t me, and it’d only be a matter of time before I let myself down. And Daz.
“I guess so,” I murmured. “I certainly did some things on the way here I would never have thought I was capable of.”
Anna’s brow pinched with sympathy. “I’m sorry. I’ve been sheltered here for many years, but I remember the violence necessary to get to this place.”
“Can you… Can you feel Tark?” I felt crazy, but I had no know if I was imagining things. “In your mind?”
“Yes. We call it our auras.”
“Aura,” I murmured. “That’s a good way to describe it. Because he’s always there.”
“And now that we have Bazel, I can feel her too.”
“Can you tell me about Bazel?” I asked. “I’m so curious.”
Anna’s face lit up, and her pretty green eyes shone. “Oh, my sweet Bazel. She’s my purpose. As much as I love Tark, I was never quite protective of him, at least not the way he was with me, mostly because he is just so capable. But I get it now, why he is the way he is with me. Because that’s how I am with her.”
“She’s beautiful. Did you … did you know you could get pregnant?”
“An elder—Shep, from Tark’s old clavas—told us we could, but neither of us really believed it would happen. Until it did.”
“And the birth?”
She exhaled and looked out the window. “That is
maybe another story for another time. When we have more time. All I can say is that I’m here now, and female bodies are rather amazing.”
I opened my mouth to ask more questions, to tell her I wanted to find a time to hear about it, but the front door flew open. Tark strode inside, Daz on his heels. In his hands, he held a small circular device. It seemed so plain, so innocuous. Not capable of anything great.
“Vara goran,” Tark announced to Anna.
She turned to me and swallowed. I could tell she was trying to hide her nerves. “It’s time, Frankie. The translator implant is ready.”
Eleven
Daz
“He can hear you now,” Enna said to my Fra-kee. I refused to look away from my cora-eternal. Her eyes were huge, and the same emotions she’d been trying to hide behind a locked door all morning were now pouring out. “All Drix have implants already. He just had to have English downloaded onto his.”
Fra-kee glanced nervously at Enna and rubbed her hands on her thighs with trembling fingers. “Oh. Well, hello, then.” She waved, but her uncertainty speared me like a knife.
“Why is she so afraid?” I barked out. “What is wrong? Does she not want to speak to me?”
Enna’s eyes went big, and Fra-kee jumped at my voice. Tark placed his body between me and the women, his glare menacing. “Watch your tone.”
“What is wrong with my mate, then?” I asked again, trying to remain calm.
“She’s probably nervous, you asshole,” he said, spitting the insult at me. “She’s about to have an implant installed in her head. Humans are very particular about their bodily autonomy and scared of tech that is new to them.” He frowned and said in a lower voice, “Something about big brother.”
“Big brother?”
“Oh, just get on with it,” Enna said, standing with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot impatiently. “She’s nervous overall, okay? I told her it hurts a bit.”
“It hurts?” I roared at Tark. “She’ll be in pain?”
He threw up his arms and whirled away. “Holy Fatas, I can’t handle this male.”
Enna stepped into my space and placed a gentle hand on my arm while Tark muttered about me being an impossible bastard. “Daz,” she said softly. “It will hurt just a little, like a sharp prick, and it’s only temporary. I get you’re both nervous, so let’s just get this over with, and then you two can have all the time to discuss whatever you want to discuss, okay? We have a hot spring not far from here. You can take her there with Tark’s bike. For some privacy.”
Beside us, Tark crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe I don’t want him to take my bike.” he huffed. “Maybe I think he can take his attitude and shove it up his—”
“Tark!” Enna cut him off. He grunted but remained silent.
“Can we please do this already?” Fra-kee finally spoke from behind us. “Men!”
Tark glanced at me with one raised brow hub.
With a sharp inhale, I nodded. “Go ahead.”
We’d already turned on and tested the device in his workroom. Tark approached her as Enna began to give Fra-kee instructions. “Okay, so just sit still, and remember the pain goes away, okay?”
Fra-kee nodded, her gaze shifting from Enna to lock onto mine. I stayed where I was, because I didn’t trust myself to come closer while another male loomed over her. Tark touched her. Drew her hair back over her shoulder. Whispered a few calming words. I clenched my fists at my sides.
He pressed the device behind her ear. At first, nothing happened. No one spoke. Then Fra-kee began to scream. I surged forward, scooping her into my arms as she cried out in pain. I sat down on the chair and cradled her in my lap as her eyes filled with liquid.
I turned on Enna. “I thought you said it only hurt a little bit!”
She winced. “I might have lied.”
“What? Why?”
Enna was not scared of me at all as she narrowed her eyes and pointed her finger at me. “Because if I told the truth, she’d never want that thing burrowing into her skull. And you’d be impossible.”
“Is that what it’s doing?” Fra-kee screeched, gripping her hair on either side of her head and tugging. “I swear to God, Anna, this thing better work. A little pain, my ass!”
My stomach bottomed out as I jerked, nearly losing my grip on Fra-kee. “Fra-kee,” I whispered. “Can you understand me?”
Fra-kee went still and her mouth dropped open. She stopped flailing in my lap and slowly dropped her hands, straightening until she sat upright. “Daz?”
“Yes,” I said. “It’s me.”
She didn’t speak. Her mouth closed and opened again. But no pretty words rose from her throat.
I glared at Tark. “It doesn’t work. Why doesn’t it work? She can’t understand—”
“I can understand you,” she said softly. “I can understand you fine. I think, for once in my life, I’m a little speechless.”
I relaxed back in my chair as relief coursed through me. “Okay, that’s all right. I’m being too greedy. I’ve been so eager to speak to you.”
She touched my face like she was seeing me for the first time. “You wanted to speak with me that badly?”
I nodded and spoke huskily around a curious lump in my throat. “More than anything.”
I was grateful to Tark for lending me his bike and giving Fra-kee and me some privacy. We had a lot to discuss, and it was difficult with Bazel hovering and Enna shooting us concerned glances.
We arrived at the hot spring by late morning. As we entered the clearing, I could see why Tark had chosen this area for his home. The hot spring was gorgeous, a paradise tucked into the side of an unforgiving mountain. Steam rose off the small pool of qua, and lush vegetation grew along the banks. I spotted a few fruit trees which would supplement the food Enna had packed us.
I touched down and helped Fra-kee off the bike. She took in our surroundings with wide eyes. “This is beautiful.” I still couldn’t get over her voice. Hearing her in a way I could understand made my blood heat and my cock stir. She turned to me with her hands clasped to her chest. “How long do we have here?”
“As long as you’d like,” I answered.
With a radiant smile that tightened my chest, she turned and skipped to the edge of the water. After slipping off her shoes and rolling up her pants, she made to step into the water. Her foot hovered above it before she drew it back. “Wait, is this safe? Can we get in?”
“Of course, it is. You think I’d bring you to a poisonous hot spring?” I asked with a slight smile.
She rolled her eyes as she shucked her pants down her legs. Her pert, pale ass was distracting, and I really had to focus to listen to what she was saying. “I don’t know. I mean, no. I mean…” She exhaled roughly, and her face fell. “I don’t really know you, Daz.” She drew her shirt over her head and then held the fabric to her chest. It covered her from neck to the very top of her thighs.
“Yes, you do,” I insisted, stepping closer to her. I tapped my breastbone. “You know what’s in here because you feel it. You feel my intentions through the bond, just like I feel yours.”
She tilted her head, studying me. “Sure, I can feel your intentions, but just because you believe what you’re doing is right, or just, doesn’t mean it is.”
I took another step closer and watched a slight spike of fear cross over her face. I went still as my stomach clenched. “Are you scared of me?”
She had nowhere to go. Behind her was the spring, so she couldn’t back up anymore. Stuck between me and the qua, her chest rose and fell. Still, she stood with her back straight and chin up. My brave Fra-kee.
“You’re nearly twice the size of me. Your biceps are as big as my waist. You have freaking blades under your skin, and a tail with spikes. Oh, and fangs. You could do whatever you wanted with me, and I wouldn’t be able to do a thing. Of course, I’m scared. I’d have to have zero self-preservation not to be!”
“After all we’ve been through,” I said th
rough gritted teeth. “All the blood I’ve spilled to keep you safe. Never mind the sacrifices—” I cut myself off. I wasn’t getting into my brother’s situation now. I stepped right up into her space and ripped the shirt from her arms, tossing it to the ground near her shoes.
“Hey!” she called out as I gripped her around the waist and hauled her up against my body.
She growled, a cute little rumble in her throat and scratched at my shoulders while I continued to speak. “You think I’d ever let anything happen to you, the first female who ever let me taste her cream, who ever took my cock into her sweet cunt?” She froze in my arms, and her mouth dropped open. I wasn’t done. “You think I’d dare disrespect our bond and these loks? Fatas hasn’t done a flecking thing for me, but she gave me you, and I don’t intend to let you go, my brave Fra-kee.”
She blinked. And blinked again.
“Speechless again?” I asked. “Twice in one day? Maybe I need to show you, my cora-eternal.” I reached down and cupped her between her legs. Her flesh was hot and growing wet. “Need me to show you? Do you need proof this is my cunt?”
“Oh fuck,” she said in a breathless voice. Her hips surged against my palm, and her pupils blew as lust flooded her glow in my mind.
I nuzzled her neck as my cock thickened more. “You do.” I mouthed at her neck. “My greedy mate needs proof.”
I’d waited so long to talk with her, but a large part of me felt smug I’d rendered her speechless. She’d been so eager to feel the hot spring, she’d feel it with my cock inside of her.
I kissed her, thrusting into her mouth, loving the way her taste exploded on my tongue. With one hand, I reached behind me and unbuckled my pants. I stepped out of them, along with my boots, and entered the qua. She sucked in a breath as the heated spring swirled around us. I slipped a finger between her folds, massaging her from her clit to her entrance. She moaned and wrapped her arms around me, bucking her hips. I retracted my sharp claws so only the soft tips of my fingers remained and plunged one finger inside of her.