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“Nadzia. Nadzia!” he growled her name in praise.

“I love you!” she screamed as she orgasmed, spasming hard around his pounding arousals.

Aculus jerked as he climaxed, the heat of his release setting off another bout of convulsions. A thousand colorful lights danced before her eyes. It was probably the mating dance of the Cnidaria in the sky overhead. Or maybe it was Aculus, the colorful warrior that let down his bony armor, revealing his softer side and showering her with his incandescent love.

Epilogue

Payim

Payim groaned and shifted.

“Son of a metcor,” he barked when pain radiated through his shoulder.

His eyes flew open and he swiftly panned the wreckage all around him.

“No,” he groaned, as his mind cleared.

This was supposed to be a swift reconnaissance mission. Fly in cloaked, look around and fly back out. The atmosphere around Gienah was obscured, making it difficult to discern the Miran Sona wreckage or any Jurou Biljana activity from orbit.

I let my pride get in the way.

He’d assumed this would be easy. He’d piloted a cruiser through the churning atmosphere of a dying planet. This should’ve been simple by comparison. He’d been wrong—very wrong.

But what went wrong?

Scuffling captured his attention. His gaze swung and met a pair of terrified big brown eyes. The little human female, dressed in rags, was frozen halfway between a mangled storage compartment and the hole in the hull. Her eyes grew even larger, she dropped her armful of supplies and darted out.

“Wait,” he called after the frightened female and scrambled to get out of the seat, ignoring his pain.

Apparently, someone survived the crash.