Kel D'Rek; His To Claim

by Theodora Taylor

  His body blocks all movement, and his large arm lays directly across my sightline, limiting my entire view to dark blue. The only space I have lies within the rise and fall of his hips as he fucks me. Rough and hard. My whole world contracts down to his claim and the strange clicking sounds he makes as he takes me with hard, punishing strokes.

  “You will give me your vow to never leave me,” he hisses into my ear. “I will not be without you ever again.”

  “I don’t want to be without you either, baby,” I gasp out. “You’ve got it. You’ve got my vow. You’ve got me forever and ever.”

  A few weeks. We’ve only known each other a few weeks. But the vow falls out of my mouth easily. And as soon as I make it, I immediately start coming. Crying out, then screaming when he continues to fuck me, producing another orgasm on top of the first one.

  It’s daytime. I think it’s still light outside. But all I see are stars in a sea of dark blue. I want him…I want him here with me.

  “Please come,” I beg him.

  His cock pulses, every ridge pressing hard into my walls, then he floods into me on a stream of hisses and clicks.

  D’Rek rolls off of me…then almost immediately passes out, his long white hair falling in a sheet across his face. His rutting fever is either done or it became too much for his body to handle. Either way, I agree.

  I’m a mess of alien jizz, but I mold my dirty body to his and pass out myself, sated on top of his chest.

  I fall asleep happy, but the next morning my heart plummets when I wake up to a grim-faced D’Rek.

  “We have to talk,” he says. “Now.”

  21

  D’Rek

  She is everything to me.

  I stare down at my k’vani as her small hand rests in mine. She visibly trembles yet holds her head high as we step into the council hall.

  I can feel the eyes upon us, and the chamber starts to fill up with hissing whispers as we pass the merchant families, sitting toward the back of the hall. Yet I tighten my grip as we make our way to the section where interested females are expected to sit while the council conducts its business.

  The new set of servants S’Lei procured for Ki’Ra outfitted her in a shimmering, multi-colored dress with a simple scooped neckline. In combination with her cloud of hair, which they pulled back into a golden circlet, Ki’Ra looks every bit as regal as I this day.

  Yes, my k’vani is a credit to me, and my hearts pang with the thought that I very well could have lost her due to my own arrogance.

  Shocked gasps echo across the room when we arrive at the female seating area. I narrow my eyes ready to attack anyone who shows any outward disrespect for my female.

  But then Ki’Ra raises her hand to cup my face. “We’re in this together. We’ve got this. No matter what,” she whispers. I am still getting accustomed to her colloquialisms, but her words sooth me.

  I settle for shooting a stern glare across the room and the whispers die down, as all the females quickly bow their heads in deference.

  I turn my attention to the aisle seat with the highest back. This is where my mother used to sit, but since her death, N’Ure has bid his daughter to sit there. I did not care before, when I had no better options than A’Ry as my future Qel.

  However today after giving the prime minister’s beautiful daughter a short bow, I tell her, “You will find another seat.”

  A’Ry’s eyes widen, and her ridges ripple. But proving she is exactly the kind of Xalthurian female I have only recently decided I did not want, she stands and deferentially places her hands on her ridges.

  “Of course, my Kel. Whatever you wish,” she says, pretending she is neither surprised nor embarrassed, before hastening away to an empty seat on the other side of the female’s section.

  Ki’Ra watches her go with a stricken look. “You really didn’t have to do that!” she whispers when A’Ry is out of earshot.

  “I mean to show everyone your importance to me, which means this is your rightful seat.”

  She sighs. Shoots a torn look at the prime minister’s daughter, then seems to decide to give in. “Thank you. Just remember that your people may not be as accepting of me as you. Please go easy on them.”

  The sun of my love for her shines even more brightly within my hearts. Despite how poorly treated she had been by the Xalthurians, me included, she still advocates for them. As she takes her rightful seat, I silently thank the fates for gifting me with a woman with such a huge capacity for caring for others.

  “Knock them dead,” she says with a grin and a strange thumbs up gesture, either unbothered by or doing an excellent job of ignoring all the females openly staring at her.

  I do not truly believe that she wishes me to kill my council with a knock, but my own smile falls away as I make my way to the front of the hall.

  Whether they have been given enough time to recover from their initial shock or not, the council members stand with hands on ridges as I take my throne seat on the raised dais. N’Ure, as my head advisor, sits at my right and T’Kan, as my general, stands to my left.

  “Let the meeting commence, you may all sit,” I tell the council members.

  I give them a few short moments before proceeding on with the speech Ki’Ra and I wrote this morning. Together.

  “As many of you already know, P’rm N’Ure and I recently met with the Kaidorians. We were offered what appears to be very generous terms for a peace settlement. And this is why I have decided to renegotiate the New Terrhan accord.”

  I glance over at N’Ure. He is smiling in full approval of my words.

  But not for long, I think before announcing, “From here on out, the previous agreement with the New Terrhans is null and void. Going forward, any male who wishes to breed with a hu’man female must gain her permission first, and she will have the right of refusal. The hu’man females will also have the right to select the Xalthurian male with whom they wish to breed. We will continue to collect the male issue of these breedings every solar. However, from now on the…”

  I pause, taking a moment to recall the term Ki’Ra thought better than my original idea of “vessels.” What was it again? Oh, yes…

  “The birth mothers will be granted access to visit their offspring at designated intervals during each solar. In turn any Xalthurian male who wishes to meet with their female offspring will also be granted the right to visit New Terrhan at designated intervals. And, as an incentive to continue the breeding exchange we will offer the New Terrhan enough supplies so that their planet can thrive instead of suffering through food shortages and nutrition deficits.”

  A long pause greets my announcement, then the hall erupts in gasps and objections.

  And yes, just as I suspected, N’Ure is no longer smiling.

  “What of the Kaidorians, my Kel?” he demands, shouting to be heard over the rest of the council members.

  “We will take control of Darlanz but offer them a percentage of the dystranean crystal mines profits. We will also arrange for them to meet with the New Terrhan representatives upon the Darlanz station. And we will not intervene if the Kaidorians wish to make their own accord with the hu’mans.”

  “But why would you give up our rights to New Terrhan?” one council member with a hybrid son of his own demands. “The Kaidorians consider these hu’man females more valuable than even the known universe’s largest store of dystranean crystal. Why would we simply grant them access to our most precious resource?”

  I answer the council member, but glare at N’Ure who apparently decided not to keep the terms of the Kaidorian peace offering to himself. “The New Terrhans are not a precious resource. Their females are sentient beings, birth mothers, and not ours to give away.”

  “My Kel, I must object,” N’Ure says with his shoulders lowered submissively and his hand upon his ridges to convey his utmost respect even as he contradicts me.

  “The hu’mans are distrustful and as you know, many of their females do not even have the mental ca
pacity to understand the gravity of the breeding agreement. If we give them too much power, they will not only take our generosity for granted, but also demand further reward. They are such an indolent and avaricious species, the females would soon have us working their fields instead of doing it themselves—all for opening their legs once per solar.”

  My nostrils flare at the words spewing from his mouth. “You are basing this all on a report that you swore was thorough. Yet, upon further investigation, I have found several inconsistencies in it. I was also incredibly vexed to discover that you spent but a few mere hours on Terrhan constructing your supposedly comprehensive survey.”

  At most council meetings, the Kel barely talks, leaving the prime minister to facilitate most discussions and arguments. But now I stand and fully turn to face N’Ure, awaiting his answer while the rest of the council members watch our heated exchange with open curiosity.

  “I am just thinking of our people,” he says, also coming to his feet. “If we place the decision making in the hands of the New Terrhan females, not all of them will agree to breed with our men.”

  “You are correct, P’rm N’Ure. However, I am told that if given translators, the hu’man females will be much more open and receptive to the Xalthurian males.”

  “And what part of this new accord benefits us Xalthurians?” N’Ure asks, his shoulders no longer purposefully stooped. “Xalthuria first, as your father and his father before that would say. If either of them were here, they would have taken that deal with the Kaidorians without any further consideration.”

  I shoot him a quelling look. “If either of them were here, you would no longer have a head for speaking to your Kel in such a manner.”

  His ridges quiver with the realization of how much disrespect he has shown me in front of the council. “My Kel, my apologies. Please understand that my hearts lie with the needs of our people—”

  I purposefully turn away and continue on before he can finish that sentiment.

  “Some of our males have expressed interest in taking hu’man females on as consorts and/or mates. This will be permitted, and open to any interested male, not just our warriors and the sons of the richest merchants. We must replenish our population and longer-term relationships between Xalthurians of all classes and the hu’man females who are capable of giving birth more than twice in one lifetime, will help much to achieve that goal.”

  This announcement is met with clicking cheers from the merchants, warriors, and even a few council members.

  But then I raise a hand to add, “However, like breeding, the male must obtain the female’s permission. If a Xalthurian male is already married, he must also acquire his wife’s permission to bring his hu’man consort into their home.

  This did not get so many cheers. And one married council member asks, “With respect, my Kel. If hu’mans really do turn out to be as suspicious and distrustful as stated in N’Ure’s survey, there is a good chance their females will not agree to these new terms. I believe it might be a good idea to take the actions advised in N’Ure’s report and bring the females here, so that they might be reconditioned in the superior Xalthurian way.”

  “I have made my feelings about the shortcomings of the prime minister’s survey clear. You may state your reservations, but you will not cite this insufficient report again in your arguments,” I answer. “And as for getting the New Terrhan females to trust, I plan to lead by example…with the hu’man female who carries my heir. She will not serve only as my consort, but my full mate. Before I renegotiate this accord, I will make the hu’man Ki’Ra of New Terrhan our Qel.”

  The hall goes completely silent. But the only person, whose reaction I care about is sitting too far in the back for me to see, in the chair she did not know was originally meant for our Qel.

  I did not discuss this part of my plan with her this morning, but I can only hope she is crying happy tears.

  The moment of silence ends, and the council erupts with many, many more questions.

  “This meeting is adjourned!” I call out several hours later, after forcing myself to answer the numerous questions and arguments of my council.

  I must admit, the shine has fallen away from my family’s Xalthuria First motto over the course of these discussions. I remember a strange statement about cake that Ki’Ra once made when I lamented about not being able to tastes her fuck her at the same time. It would seem that the council also as she would say, “want to have their cake and eat it, too.”

  Many of them would have been perfectly happy to have the New Terrhan females brought here in a subservient role, even if it meant taking military action on a planet with no means of defense. However, the proposal to give them the choice to integrate them into our one species society has brought about many questions and several assertations about the hu’man’s ability to govern themselves. Even though most of the council members have never interacted with a New Terrhan.

  After these discussions, I fear Ki’Ra might not have been wrong about us Xalthurians not being much better than the rich merchants of earth. When given the opportunity, many of the council members would much rather take advantage of the poor Terrhans than help them thrive with little or no cost to ourselves.

  Apparently, Xalthuria First, means something very different to most the majority of the council. It is a remarkably short-sighted stance that I suspect will take me several moons, if not solars to reconcile with my formerly superior view of my people.

  Luckily, T’Kan declared his, and therefore, the military’s support of my new accord, making all of their points moot. At the end of the day, I was still the Great Commander of our military and the Kel of our system. The only way they can stop this new era of much friendlier relations between us and the New Terrhans would be to raise a military of their own.

  Which is unlikely, since most of our ranks were composed of the poor, non-merchant sons, who would most benefit from being able to breed and take the New Terrhan females as mates.

  We did it! The plan I composed with Ki’Ra this morn actually worked! Ignoring the many people who wish to speak to me, I push toward the back of the hall, too eager to be polite.

  I can wait no longer. I must see her. And it seems like an eternity before I make it to the section where the females hold court.

  However the Qel chair is now empty, with Ki’Ra nowhere to be seen. I push down my immediate panic. Perhaps she became tired and retired to our chambers.

  I inwardly smile at the word, our.

  Then, ignoring any other attempts to claim my attention, I head back to the rooms where we crafted the terms of the new New Terrhan Accord this morn. “Ki’Ra!” I call out upon my arrival.

  However, she is not on the sleeping mats.

  Perhaps she had to use the toilet. She mentioned that hu’man females go more frequently when they are with babe. I wait impatiently for a few moments, but she still doesn’t appear.

  I head to the facilities but again I see that she is not there. I search each room in my quarters when I spy the holographic note hovering over my desk. The words are written in the New Terrhan language and I must use the translator on my desk to make sense of it.

  My Kel,

  Apologies. I can not be a mate to you. I miss my home, but I know I can not go back. I will live on the Amnesty Station instead. Please do not follow me. I will be perfectly happy without you. Good-bye.

  My hearts stop beating as I realize. Ki’Ra is gone. She made me believe that she was in love with me and wanted to have a family, yet she ran off the first chance she got. A piercing loss ripples through me, threatening to unhinge my mind as I read and re-read the note.

  Ki’Ra has…

  Ki’Ra has played me for a fool!

  22

  Kira

  Shortly after waking up on a cold floor in a pitch-black room, I discover the translator D’Rek gave me is universal.

  “She is already pregnant according to our initial scans. This was not part of our deal,” says a voi
ce in a language I’ve never heard before. It’s throat-based, like New Terrhan, but mostly growled and snarled.

  “I was not aware of her pregnant state when I seized my one opportunity to capture her,” a Xalthurian monotone answers. “Besides, it truly does not matter if she is pregnant. There is no limit to how many children these hu’man females can have. They’re nearly the same as newets. My father tells me that one of the females in his lab has given birth to ten hybrids in as many solars.”

  I don’t know whether to feel grateful or resentful for my translator. On one hand, I can understand everything the two voices on the other side of the unseen wall are saying. And on the other hand, I can understand everything they are saying.

  “Ten hybrids. I cannot believe you speak true!”

  “My father was a renowned scientist before he was appointed to prime minister. He would never exaggerate his results.”

  My father…

  I know in an instant who the Xalthurian monotone belongs to…N’Maryah, the activist, I’d thought to be a caring friend. I was wrong about that. So very wrong.

  But I hadn’t found that out until it was too late, about an hour after D’Rek’s announcement that he planned to make me his Qel—which I’m pretty sure means queen, if all the shocked hisses were any indication. I’d been trying to hold it until the meeting was done, but when the argument had gone on three quarters of an hour, I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait. I’d gone into the hallway, figuring that the council hall had to have some kind of public toilet around here somewhere.

  However, I was having a hell of a time figuring out which squiggly stood for Females Pee Here, when N’Maryah touched my shoulder.

  “Oh my moons, N’Maryah! I’m sorry D’Rek kicked you out of your seat. He really shouldn’t have done that. But I didn’t know how to tell him you were my friend without getting you in trouble.”