Page 21 of Bred By Zyros (The Solar Breeding Agency #2)

eighteen

Melody

Sounds and words drift in and out, a pretty resonant humming.

Or hissing. Something, but it carries a tune, and the voices join before breaking apart again in a familiar cadence.

My head throbs in agony as I try to lift my head, warm water lapping at my clammy skin.

I test my arms and legs, but they're heavy as something…

several hands grip my limbs, keeping them still.

The singing continues as a large rough palm tracks between my breasts, over my nipples, and down my stomach.

My eyes slam open, a scream bubbling in my throat as I’m pinned by several Vrirciks, aged ones, their vibrant colors faded and hair graying.

My implant dings signaling the beginning of a recording as I thrash, making another unholy pain erupt from my back.

“Let go! Let go of me!” I scream at them, making them rear back their heads, turning toward something behind me.

I’m naked, my core and…the rest of me only covered by a sheen of paint.

“Stop!” I sob.

Suddenly, the bright red and gold female from the clearing enters my line of sight, and bile swirls in my gut.

Her harsh features furrow in annoyance and confusion before she hisses something to the older females holding me down.

Their hands leave me at once, a sickening, panicked gasp leaving my throat as I scramble up, the pain in my head and back nearly enough to make the puke bobbing in my throat surface.

I’m exposed, bare, and another cry leaves me as I huddle, backtracking away from them.

“I’m-I’m part of the Intergalactic Alliance. If you hurt me—”

The red female seems to take offense to that, hissing in my face. “We would never harm you. It was a simple blessing, creature.”

“You tried to kill me!” I croak.

My eyes dart, panicked around the…rocky building.

The only handmade structure I’ve seen here so far.

It’s carved stone, dark rock embedded with crystals, and at the heart of it, lush hot springs and plant life.

What gets my attention next is the females…

so many of them, lounging, watching me…no, not me, her with apprehensive eyes.

The leader, the red and gold female, shifts her stunning waist-length hair to the side, avoiding their stares.

“It was before I was aware you were with child.”

“What? I’m not—”

“Zaelshar scented it on you as your mate carried you through the woods. He was a good male and told us immediately that you were bearing and being held captive.”

I stare dumbfounded, my eyes following hers to the dark colored male, Zaelshar, looming at the entrance, taking in the room and then me. My lip wobbles as I try to cover myself. I’m pregnant. It’s only been a week...

“I would’ve taken you from that foul beast of a male sooner had I thought he’d actually venom-touch you.”

“I’m his mate,” I breathe out, my head throbbing and thoughts hazy, keeping myself covered as I reach around, gently prodding at my back. Pain erupts there even at the lightest touch, making a sob build in my throat. “Where is he? Is he alright?”

Zaelshar speaks at that, something about dishonoring and trapping a female.

“I would have him killed for you, tiny creature, but we need him for breeding. He is a blessed male, as you can see.” The red female gestures toward my stomach with the two sets of arms that aren’t braced on her hips.

“That he bound you to him is shameful, but unsurprising he has always been a problem.” She offers like it's nothing.

My heart is whooshing in my ears as I try to keep up. “Is Zyros okay?!” I snap.

She doesn’t react, only gazes down at me like one would an angry leaf. “I would suppose well enough for his cock to extrude as it's needed.” There’s no malice in her words; she says it as a matter of fact, as one would when giving directions, but something’s bubbling in my gut. Something sick.

“You said you need him for breeding, he doesn’t want that.”

She laughs. Actually laughs . “He is a male and a blessed male at that. It is his purpose.”

Saliva pools in my mouth, and I think I’m going to be sick. A scream tries to leave my throat as I force myself to my knees, wobbling as I get to my feet. She makes like she’s going to help before I jerk away, ignoring the lacing pain that comes with the movement.

“Do not worry creature—”

“I am not a creature. I am a human and my name is Melody ,” I spit back, surprised by the venom in my voice.

She remains unaffected. “If this offspring lives, it will be a blessing.

You can reside here, where you're safely away from the disgusting males. They are typically not allowed in the temple. You will stay here, and when you are in need of being bred or his bite, we can summon him so that we may repopulate—”

“ No .”

“No?”

“I want to go to him right now .”

She frowns, the other females growing uneasy around us.

She slips closer, like she means to console my fit. I jerk away again. “Do not touch me!” My chest is heaving, my curls wild and in my face. “That’s just it, huh? He has to breed because you ordered it so?”

“Yes, of course. You are very upset, get in the spring it will—”

“What if he said no?”

“He extrudes all the same. It simply makes the process more tedious.”

I can feel myself pale, my stomach churning. “You rape him.”

“I do not know this word.”

She’s so unaffected, so flippant. “You force him to mate you! Would you want to be forced to mate?! That is rape!”

A violent hissing fills the room, but my self-preservation is out the window. I’m exhausted, in pain, scared and worried, but most of all, I’m mad. I’m possibly, for the first ever…enraged. The heat of it is so strong that it feels like it’s searing my chest.

She darts forward, crowding, towering over me. Zaelshar darts forward too, but I barely notice. My eyes are level on her crimson golden ones. If my mate is the blaming moon, she is the horrid, scorching sun. “If he extrudes, you cannot force a male—”

A roar comes from outside the temple just as my fist connects with her face.

A sharp new pain splays across my knuckles and she barely moves, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t react.

The room erupts in a flurry of chaos as she strikes at me.

The females who had been impartial until this moment all move toward her, claws bared, as I’m jerked back by a dark purple tail as it takes the worst of her bite.

All I can see is red. I’m gasping, sobbing, screaming. “He was right! He was right to say you don’t deserve help! You’re a fucking monster! You’re all fucking monsters!”

A dark, clawed hand covers my mouth as he hisses in my ear.

It doesn’t take having a full understanding of the language to know he’s warning me to shut up.

Again, not like me at all. Striking someone isn’t like me either, let alone the leader of a primitive alien species that are literal giant serpent killing machines.

I'm raging, screaming like a feral woman, everything overwhelming and jarring from the past twenty-five fucking orbits of silence, obedience, and smiles, crashing and vomiting from me like waves. I never allow myself to be angry on my behalf, so I’ll be angry on his.

The male holding me tenses, his banding around me hardens, tightens, making a little scream leave my throat before it too is cut off by the squeezing.

A new worry fills me, one for the tiny life in my stomach. Zyros’ baby.

My baby.

My nails dig into his scales, uprooting them as I try to crawl my way out, my mouth open in a horrified gape.

A sickening crack fills the room over the chaos, and the pressure is gone as soon as it started.

When rainstorm musk fills my nose, I sob, gripping my ribs in agony.

My body is wobbly, unsteady, so I let it sag into Zyros as his blood-covered arms band around me, catching me before I hit the floor, passing me off into his tail with a gentle, reverent grace.

The crescendo of the room finally ends abruptly with his arrival.

He’s covered in bites and wounds, bloody and ragged.

My eyes land on the females restraining and cursing their leader, but where I expect her to react with anger, she doesn’t.

Her eyes are wide, reflecting horror as well as mine. “I wasn’t going to harm her! I would never harm a preg—”

“I warned you.” Zyros’ voice is graveled rage, “You took my mate.” He stares back at me then, seeing me for the first time— my nude painted body.

Something akin to anguish flashes across his features, and I feel it in my gut.

Everything she said was true. They’d been assaulting him, forcing him to get them—

Oh god. Oh, my fucking god.

She shakes her head, breathing hard. “I was protecting her!”

He strikes and I scream, shutting off the recording.

Only, instead of his fangs meeting her, his hands do, but she’s not fighting back. I watch in horror as her fangs pierce his palms, digging through to the other side as he grips her jaw, wrenching, forcing it wider, wider, wider. When I hear the tearing of skin, my stomach heaves.

The females scream at him to stop, all of them with translators of their own, and I want him to stop, too. But I don’t dare tell him that. Whatever he does…whatever comes next, no matter how horrible, I cannot bring myself to speak up for them.

None of them.

I clasp my hands over my ears, slamming my eyes closed and letting my knees hit the ground deep inside his coil.

The sounds of my ragged breathing drown out the chaos.

The domtics press on as the adrenaline skewers my chest. When hands find me again, I flinch and scream.

They gently pry my palms from my ears. It’s only then that I realize I’m rasping, full hyperventilation.

“Calm, my mate. You’re safe, I’m here.”

I slam my eyes open. Stumbling as I wrap my arms around his neck, flinging myself into Zyros as he lifts me and heads for what I can only pray is an exit.

My eyes find the group of females. The red and golden one’s mouth is bloody and malformed.

She’s doubled over, panting, her eyes glued to the floor, splattered with blue black blood.

And nobody moves to help her.