Page 9 of Interstellar Love Song (Villains in Space #3)

ZIGGY

Micah was oddly quiet as I piloted the Lodger the short distance to the neighboring planet of Xuniaa YS.

While it was safe to assume his impressive brain was working through everything we’d learned in Leeloo’s office, I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d revealed.

“You… truly wanted to be rid of your powers when you were younger?” I carefully asked, needing to understand while hoping I wouldn’t be triggering unpleasant memories.

Because, fuck his parents.

He blinked, emerging from his scientific daze to turn in his captain’s chair and face me.

“Yeah… but it was mostly because my siblings’ powers were so much cooler.

Zion always made sure to gas me up—Izzy too, when he was coherent enough—but that didn’t change the fact I couldn’t turn into a giant lizard or shake the Earth’s core. ”

I scoffed, unimpressed. “First of all, I am glad you don’t turn into a Lacertus…” When he lovingly rolled his eyes, I smirked and added, “And why bother shaking a planet’s core when you can create one instead?”

Micah flinched so violently, my tendrils unleashed, searching for the source of the threat.

Oh.

It’s me.

“Chill, Zig. I’m just having a little existential crisis.” He laughed self-deprecatingly before sobering. “It’s… it’s just a lot to realize I could potentially create an entire freakin’ planet. That’s like, a god-tier level of responsibility, you know?”

Of course, I didn’t know, since Stellarians weren’t able to manipulate matter outside of the vessels we inhabited. The powers I possessed were fairly standard among my kind, and even though most of my abilities were present at birth, I’d still needed to hone them as I matured.

Or… prepare for their arrival.

A stray thought occurred to me, and I realized it might help put things in perspective.

“I’ve heard that some older Stellarians—older than Honnor and Bron—possess telepathic abilities similar to the twins…

Mind reading and mind control without physically entering another’s body.

I’m not certain if this is something all Stellarians develop, but it is slightly daunting to consider. ”

Once again, I was freely admitting my vulnerabilities to a creature more powerful than me. I trusted Micah implicitly, however, and felt compelled to show him I understood his struggle, at least on some level .

His lips twisted in a barely contained smile. “You’re so fucking sexy when you’re being empathetic, Space Daddy.”

Ugh!

Micah’s praise simultaneously made me cringe and puff up with pride. Unfortunately, thanks to our bond and shared consciousness, I suspected there was no longer any hope in hiding my reactions beneath the surface.

And no escaping the gold stars for growth.

To be fair, empathy wasn’t a completely foreign concept among my kind.

Stellarians needed to understand the core motivations of other creatures, at least enough to blend in with infiltrated societies beneath our borrowed skinsuits.

We were still expected to bury these emotions when they no longer served a purpose, because emotions could become liabilities in battle.

Astrum Force was under new management nowadays, but the mindset I was raised with was hard to break, even with such an empathetic teacher. Deeply ingrained habits aside, I was willing to work through my issues—to endure the discomfort of discussing my fears and weaknesses—for Micah’s sake.

Only for him.

A routine landing alert on the Lodger dashboard caught my attention, so I quickly finished my thought as I gripped the throttle.

“My point is, if and when the time comes for me to access these enhanced telepathic powers, I hope I can trust the skills I’ve honed along the way.

I also hope I remember that psychic abilities are simply an extension of what I can already do—what I was born to do—on a larger scale. ”

Just like you…

After I’d maneuvered us through the thick layer of swirling yellow gas surrounding Xuniaa YS, I glanced at Micah and found him deep in thought once again.

“Remember sunshine, the original shield you created was only large enough to protect yourself,” I continued, determined to help him through this. “Then you shielded an entire library full of helpless aliens—and an entire island—against forces previously believed unbeatable.”

Never mind the shield you created to protect an entire doomed planet in my dream…

With an unbeatable force on the other side.

My mate nodded slowly. “Baby steps. Trust the process. Trust myself. Hey, you’re pretty good at this, Zig!”

I brightened, pleased I’d helped guide Dr. Micah out of stress-induced overwhelm—just as he’d done for me countless times before.

Unsurprisingly, this conversation only sent my scientifically-minded mate deeper down the rabbit hole. “I wonder if the way you and I have connected our consciousness is the first step in your telepathic evolution…”

“Our evolution,” I reminded him as we came into land at the edge of a crowded docking area.

“As much as I dislike crediting a Hydrassian, Uulvin said it was thanks to our stellar collision bond that we were able to take down Astrum Force. That our union was what gave us the strength to fulfill the prophecy. ”

Micah’s cheeks darkened—almost as allergic to praise as I was. He was quickly distracted from his discomfort by the seemingly endless line of misguided spiritual pilgrims, stretching from the surrounding spaceships to the mountaintop temple beyond.

All happily waiting their turn to be brainwashed.

Micah unbuckled his safety harness and rose from his captain’s chair to stretch. “Yeah, it’s too bad the Hydrassians turned out to be so corrupt… Their psychic powers were legit. Are the Xunis the same?”

I canted my head, weighing the options. “Yes and no. Whereas the Hydrassians can read minds and partially peer into the future, the Xunis rely on their rooted connection to all living things to supposedly ‘tap into’ the collective unconscious.”

“Rooted…?” Micah muttered, fixating on that part of the sentence for some odd reason.

Oh.

It’s because he doesn’t know what Xunis look like.

All at once, I realized dusting off one of my most underutilized skinsuits would present the perfect opportunity to skip the cursed line—and leave this silly planet sooner than later.

“Wait here.” I smirked. “I have a surprise for you.”

Micah’s annoyed “Ziiiig” was cut short as I star hopped to my skinsuit closet. My mate could have accessed our shared powers and followed me if he’d wanted to, but I knew he’d obey.

Who’s a good boy now ?

I shivered as I recalled his praise while envisioning me pregnant, which had me thinking of a different skinsuit, eager to test out a hypothesis of my own.

Instead, I slipped into my Xuni form, burying my disappointment at the limited reproductive options it provided and focusing on the mission at hand.

We probably won’t be on the planet long enough to play anyway.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Micah squawked, nearly leaping back onto his captain’s chair when I reappeared in the cockpit. “You didn’t tell me you had a Groot suit!”

Groot…?

I paused to mentally shuffle through the, frankly, impressive number of Hollywood alien movies my mate had forced me to watch since installing a mini theater setup in the bedroom.

“The cute little tree guy from Guardians of the Galaxy, remember?” he laughed, stepping closer to run his fingers over the furrows and ridges on my surprisingly spongy skin.

Cute?!

I huffed, even though I secretly agreed, and had enjoyed the Guardians movies more than most. It hadn’t hurt that Micah convinced me to watch them by describing the “vibes” as “just like our space adventures but with less fucking.”

They could have used more fucking.

Using my Stellarian ability to accelerate cell growth and mimic a Xuni’s powers, I elongated my vine-like arms, capturing my stellar collision and pinning him against me .

“Do you find this cute, babygirl?” I teased in the naturally raspy tones of my borrowed form, knowing his implanted translation device allowed him to understand me. “Knowing I could make you a permanent part of the scenery here on Xuniaa YS?”

Micah’s eyes sparkled behind his high-tech glasses. “Ohhh… so you’re the native, dominant species on this planet?”

“Yes.” I rubbed him against the surface of my skin—partly to scent him as mine but also because I knew it wouldn’t take much for my slut to get sloppy.

“Zig!” he gasped, hardening just as I knew he would. “Have mercy! I don’t wanna show up with a boner when we meet the Groot Gurus…”

I wanted to continue my torment, but then a strange sensation skittered up my borrowed body before settling in my throat—a tickle that had me swallowing down some sort of… mass.

What in Stellaria’s name?

“Are you okay, Zig?” Micah was peering at me with blatant concern and I hurriedly released him before stepping back.

“Of course,” I quickly replied— too quickly, judging by his narrowed eyes—but the foreign object I’d detected was suddenly nowhere to be found. “We should star hop to the temple to get an audience sooner than later?—”

“We’re cutting the line?!” he scoffed, easily redirected. “That’s your plan? ”

Such a hero.

I’d only visited Xuniaa YS once before—under much duress—but I knew, for all its posturing as a spiritual Mecca, the locals still ran the temple like a business.

Yes, anyone in the galaxies was welcome to wait in line for hours or days for an audience with the “Groot Gurus,” but enough coin would get you a Xuni guide and a fast pass.

Enough coin or a Xuni skinsuit.

“You’d rather congregate with smelly space hippies?” I laughed, gesturing down at the unwashed masses loitering outside the viewport.

“Yeah… no,” he wisely agreed before tucking his erection in the waistband of his signature Han Solo pants. “Okay, I’m as ready as I’m gonna beeeeeee!”

I was also more than ready to get this over with, so I star hopped us to the inner gardens of the temple, knowing there was a plethora of expertly manicured topiaries to mask our arrival.

An odd choice considering the Xunis are little more than foliage themselves.

“You know, Zig—you don’t have to drag me with you when you star hop,” Micah huffed under his breath. “At this point I could just follow the invisible thread myself.”

“Sorry, sunshine.” I bowed my head, tickling him with my leafy hair to make him laugh. “Old habits die hard.”

“Guides!” A commanding voice rang out, making us both straighten. “Line up with your pilgrims.”

“Showtime,” Micah murmured, following me to a grassy open area where a half dozen Xunis were waiting with a variety of other species.

“How exactly will these Groot Gurus be able to help us?”

It was wise for him to switch to the telepathic connection we’d established during our last mission—since any show of familiarity between us would be seen as odd—and I answered him in kind.

“The gurus—referred to as Hy Phae—are permanently rooted in the earth here on Xuniaa YS. This allows them to tap into an underground network of shared information.”

He nodded imperceptibly.

“Like the local mycelial networks of fungi… But how does that apply to what’s going on in the greater universe?”

The pilgrim lined up in front of us stepped backwards, bumping into Micah and sending him stumbling against me.

A wave of dizziness washed over me at the feel of his skin on mine, and that odd lump formed in my throat again, but I shook my head free from the fog and refocused.

“That’s the mystery of the Hy Phae’s powers. Somehow this network transcends the planet itself—allowing them to access the consciousness of any species also ‘tapped in.’”

I frowned as my vines involuntarily tightened around his shoulders.

Micah attempted to subtly disentangle himself from my grasp, but I suddenly had no control over my borrowed form.

With a vibrating noise that drew the attention of our fellow guides and pilgrims, I roughly turned my mate until his face was centimeters away from mine.

“What are you—” he hissed, but before he could finish his question, the mass in my throat clawed its way to the surface.

Mine.

Forming a tube with my gnarled mouth, I forcefully puffed out a breath, covering Micah’s face with a fine layer of yellow pollen.

Fuck.

“Ffffffuuuuuuu…” he moaned, convulsing in my arms before going eerily limp.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck.

My last mission on this planet had been a quick artifact retrieval in the dead of night, so I hadn’t interacted with anyone enough to trigger a response like this. Thankfully, I could tell I hadn’t killed the love of my life, but I had no idea what I’d just done to him, or why.

“You are attempting to mate with this strange looking creature?” A Xuni guide stepped forward as I gently lowered Micah to the ground.

“What?!” I snapped, positioning my body to shield my stellar collision from their uneducated sight.

The Xuni cocked their head, their craggy expression somehow relaying surprise. “You have never pollinated before?”

Pollinated ?

My expression must have been answer enough as the other Xunis chuckled knowingly.

“I would suggest the hedge maze.” Another pointed a vine at a nearby wall of green. “It is usually best to expel energy first, to avoid injury.”

INJURY?!

A chilling growl had me glancing down and freezing in place. Micah was staring at me with palpable hunger, his pretty brown eyes completely swallowed by black as a sinister grin stretched across his handsome face.

The first Xuni chuckled and stepped back, abandoning me to my fate. “You should start running.”