Page 19

NATALIE

K roktl crawled onto the massive bed still carrying me in his arms, settling us together near the pillows, his bulk hot against my back. Snryx stood beside the bed, his shining eyes locked to me.

I patted the mattress beside me. “Let me take a closer look at your implements.”

He knelt on the bed, close enough for me to touch him. Two of his implements slipped forward over his shoulders to dangle down his chest. The rest of his tools stayed over his shoulders and down his back—as if he didn’t want to overwhelm me.

I couldn’t blame him. Not when I’d cringed away and shrieked at the squad’s alien anatomy.

Matching his posture, I picked up one of the implements and lifted it closer so I could see what the tip looked like.

I ran my fingers over the surface, trying to feel any joints, suckers, or scales but it was completely smooth.

A little cool like metal but it felt alive.

Not quite skin or hide but organic. A thin membrane covered the tip, likely to keep out debris.

“What’s this one do?”

The other implement hardened instantly into a pointed blade. The tip gleamed like an oil slick with razor sharp edges.

“This pair provides defensive weapons. They’re the longest and strongest of all my implements.”

The one in my hand stayed soft, curling around my fingers, limber and flexible. While the other looked like a sword. “Fascinating.”

I ran my fingers up higher, experimentally gripping the implement in my palm, rubbing my skin against him as I traced it up toward his temple. “Do you feel me touching it?”

“Absolutely.” He swallowed hard and gave me a sheepish grin. “It’s arousing even though it’s not my hectocotylus. No one’s ever touched any of my implements before.”

Aw. Guilt twinged through me. I’d been too scared to touch him in the beginning. I squeezed the implement a little harder, experimenting with pressure. Drawing the length through my fingers like a dick.

It thickened in my hand, straining my fingers apart, undulating back around my hand and wrist.

“Which ones were you using earlier to hold my hands above my head?”

“These. They’re the least specialized so I tend to use them first for anything requiring strength or general purposes. Though any implement is capable of lifting and holding anything.”

“Are they strong enough to lift Kroktl off the ground?”

“Absolutely. Sometimes I need to maneuver—or contain—my patient until his injuries are addressed. I could even hold Axxol against his will for a while, though he’d manage to damage me to the point I might lose several implements.”

“Can you regenerate them like Lohr’s limb?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never risked an implement to find out.”

“What are they made from?”

“Liquid tungsten, Sirian cells, and carbon.”

Of course. Everything came back to the incredible cells created—stolen—from mrions. I stared at the smoky purple coil around my wrist and allowed my eyes to unfocus. :Show me where they are,: I whispered to the Sirian cells inside me.

Sparks of light burst beneath the purple surface, an intricate webbing I could feel responding to my question. My command. Even though they weren’t inside of me. My completed mrion cells could talk to his Sirian cells. Stunned, I jerked my gaze up to his, my eyes wide.

He smiled, unbothered by realization. “It’s the same kind of communication that I use with the medbot. The cells integrate with everything and each other to form a connected network.”

“But…” My brain stuttered, completely broken. “That means… I could… No.”

He nodded. “You can absolutely command my Sirian cells, and they will respond immediately. You’ve obliterated DSC’s control over their own technology.”

“Your wish is literally our command, baby.” Kroktl purred out with his raptor’s deep rumble. “Command us both to your pleasure.”

On my knees between them, I shifted on the mattress so I could give him a firm glare. “I don’t like to command anyone, least of all you.”

A lazy smile spread on his lips, his eyes heavy and dark with intent.

He swept his tongue over his tempting bottom lip, drawing my gaze to his mouth.

His wicked tongue. Reminding me in a heartbeat of what we’d almost been ready to start in the dining room.

“It’ll be sexier if you command him, baby.

If I do it, I’d tell him to insert his tentacle-dick and make you come so I can get busy feasting, and we’ll finish way too quickly. ”

Guh. Combined with his tongue… I let out a shaky laugh. “Who needs a regular boring human-like penis anyway?”

Kroktl laughed. “My thoughts exactly.”

Snryx remained silent but his coloring changed subtly. The darker purple-gray of his chest looked brighter, somehow. More lavender than charcoal.

:Look at him through my eyes,: Kroktl whispered to me.

I blinked and his sensitive temperature reading vision flickered before me. Snryx’s chest glowed with heat, burning red to yellow to a white-hot center deep inside him. Near his back at the base of his spine, a mini supernova blazed.

Very likely the location of his specialized hectocotylus tentacle.

Low on his back. Almost like a tail.

“Lay down,” I said, quickly adding, “On your stomach,” when he immediately moved to comply. “I want to explore your implements in more detail, if that’s alright with you.”

He rolled over as I’d asked, his head turned toward me so he could still see me, cradled on his elbow. “As I said before, you may do anything you wish to me.”

His face was more lavender, radiating heat I didn’t need Kroktl’s vision to feel. A blush? His implements swept together in a flat, thick coiled braid down the center of his back over his buttocks.

“I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

His eyes flared. “I’m perfectly comfortable.”

“You’re very tense.” I scooted closer to him and laid my palm over the tangled, tight mass. “Are you sure?”

“I’m simply not used to allowing a full examination on myself.” He shuddered faintly and allowed the tight bundle to relax, though the tentacles stayed mostly flat and together. “I’m eager for you to explore to your heart’s desire.”

I started with simply untangling them one by one, spreading them open more like a fan so I could see how they were attached.

Two came out of his skull at either temple.

Two more sprouted behind each of his small, mostly human-looking ears.

Together, they gave the appearance of thick dreadlocks or hair.

The rest of the implements attached down the back of his skull and spine in a line to the small of his back, where a ring of small, nubby bumps folded together in a sort of nest.

I gently ran my index finger around his temple, tracing the ridge where skin turned into implement. “Is this okay?”

“Absolutely.” Though his breathing came louder and faster. His pupils widened, darkening his amber eyes.

“You came before,” I whispered, lightly walking my fingertips down the back of his skull. “When we were in bed together with Rizan. I carry your DNA.”

“Affirmative.”

“Did your hectocotylus come out then? It must have. But I didn’t notice at the time.”

“I wouldn’t expect anyone to notice.” His jaw flexed, his nostrils flaring with each breath. “It looks very much the same as the others.”

“But you protect it inside of you?”

His shoulders moved restlessly, his very human hands clenched into fists on either side of his head.

“Not for protection, exactly, at least in my case. I’m a specialist. I have very little need for a sexual organ that has only one use.

I honestly never expected to utilize that implement in my service. ”

I watched his face as I slipped my fingers between each implement, rubbing the delicate skin in between.

The implements swelled and twisted, moving of their own accord, squirming very much like a nest of snakes.

Old Natalie would have been completely revolted, I’m sure, but I could feel the sheer bliss my touch gave him.

They squirmed with glee and pleasure, unable to remain still.

“DSC might have wanted a little Snryx someday.”

“Medic specialists are made, not bred.”

Too many questions bounced around in my head.

My infamous curiosity burned. Did all medic designations have cephalopod characteristics?

What else might HQ have combined? Rizan and Lohr were specialists, weren’t they?

Or maybe I completely misunderstood. I wanted to know everything about my squad.

How they were made. What made them different from others.

But Snyrx’s breathing rasped louder, his cheeks pale with only a tiny bit of lavender coloring. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

He laughed raggedly. “The most delightful torture I’ve ever experienced. Though I must warn you I am very close to release. You may certainly make use of any of my implements for your pleasure but if you’re specifically interested in the hectocotylus, you’re running out of time.”

I ran my gaze over his implements again, settling my attention on the small circular grouping near the base of his spine. Nothing protruded from the center, and I didn’t see a slit like Axxol’s. “Am I allowed to touch it? Or would that be too much?”

He shuddered, his eyes squeezing shut, his fingers clutched desperately in the bedding. “Please. Do. In fact, I recommend you sit on it for the fullest effect.”

My brain hiccupped, not quite connecting the dots. Sit on his back? Surely that was backward…?

His eyes cracked open in thin, glowing slits, shining almost as brightly as the white-hot glow I’d seen at the base of spine. “Pressure will bring it out. Regrettably, that means you won’t be able to see much of it, but I guarantee you’ll be able to feel it.”

SNRYX