Page 26 of Rebels Rising (The Intergalactic Union #3)

Bromm

I t was such a relief to be back in my body with people and reality surrounding me over the endless void of the web. It was also interesting to see the evidence of what I’d been told for myself. Sure, we were in the midst of a war, but we were also building friendships and relationships and fighting the good fight.

Some might have called me crazy, but it was invigorating.

Or it could have just been my newfound strength and vitality thanks to the nanites. Either way, I felt amazing .

I allowed those sensations to run through me, invigorating me even further until I could no longer hold it in. I needed a release, and I needed one soon or I was going to burst.

Stepping up behind Arty, I wrapped my arms around her middle to pull her back flush against my front and ground my quickly hardening cock against her ass. What made it even better was that she was still as strong as ever but my strength now matched hers, so while before she could have easily stepped out of my grasp, now I as able to hold her still as I showed her how I felt.

A small moan escaped her throat, teasing more desire from me as she ground her ass back against me.

‘Stop it, Bromm. Now’s not the time,’ she protested, but it was weak and her words warred with her actions.

I scraped my sharp teeth against her earlobe and nuzzled my nose into her hair, breathing deeply her scent and adding the little breathy noises she made to the list of reasons why we should just bang it out on the holo-table, right here right now.

‘Why should I?’ I growled lowly by her ear, my lips and beard brushing against her neck. The tentacles tangled in her hair and yanked her head to the side to give me more access.

A throat cleared from behind us and then the man stationed against the wall forced me to stop with his words. ‘The enemy have boarded the ship, Captain.’

Artemis took my momentary lapse in attention to pull out of my grip, though she didn’t move far. Her fingers tangled with mine while she reset her body’s reaction to the unrepentant heat between us.

‘Right,’ she said, her tone professional despite the way her pupils were still blown wide with desire. They quickly shrank, however, when she narrowed her eyes on the Tornu still present. ‘And what are you still doing here, T?’

‘Tormik,’ he corrected.

‘Sorry?’

‘The use of our initials no longer serves a purpose now that they know who we are and what we’re up to. Call me Tormik.’

‘I think we have more important things to worry about than what I call you,’ she snarked, but he took it in stride.

‘You are correct.’

Arty frowned, displeased with his lack of push-back.

‘Xander and the crew have been arrested and taken on board their ship,’ Eloria interjected, drawing us back to the current situation that needed our attention. I wanted to feel guilty about my horniness, but I couldn’t bring myself to dredge up any remorse. I wanted my love, and I wanted her bad .

‘Focus, Bromm,’ Arty ordered, snapping her fingers in front of my face and drawing my eyes back up to hers from where they’d been staring longingly at her tits. The jumpsuits really didn’t leave much to the imagination, and I smirked when her nipples pebbled into hard points through the fabric at my lustful scrutiny.

It took a great effort but I stepped away, untangling our fingers since physical contact only seemed to make it worse. I knew as a Griknot Prince that I was typically always looking for my next hook-up, but this was more than that. And I wasn’t referring to the fact that emotions were involved. It was like I needed to fuck, and not just anyone. I needed to fuck Artemis , and my body was urging me to do so regardless of our current circumstances.

That probably should have been the moment I snapped out of it after realising how wrong it was to be so narrowed in on my body’s desire to release inside of the woman I loved, but, again, I just couldn’t bring myself to care.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ I heard Tormik ask, though I was far too focused on the way Arty’s well-toned ass strained against the fabric of her jumpsuit and how I wanted to sink my teeth into that flesh and then fuck the hole they hid.

‘I don’t know…’ Arty replied, slapping my hands away as I moved to grab her again. My cock pushed against my own jumpsuit, my lower tentacles working together to rip free from the fabric. I needed to be inside her. Now.

‘Bromm, stop,’ Arty tried again and a vicious growl sounded from beside her, a warning from Dave Junior that I did not head. It was like I was now listening to their voices from the other side of divide, the sound muted and fuzzy.

I inhaled her scent again, breathing it in so it would settle inside my lungs and never leave. She smelled vaguely of salt, but not like the ocean. More like a wet coin. Metallic, I realised. But above that, there was a more prominent scent, like the most alluring ambrosia calling to me for a taste.

Just one nibble. A little one.

Arms wrapped around me and yanked, pulling me off balance for a beat and causing me to fall into a tall, large, muscular frame. I settled in, enjoying the sensation for a moment as I ground my ass against the bulging cock nestled against his leg. It was soft, but I could have changed that.

Only, that wasn’t right. I didn’t want him. I wanted Arty. I needed to insert my seed deep inside her womb and implant a baby. Our baby. Yes, that was what I needed.

I reached for my love again, desperate to put our baby inside her when those thick arms pulled me back again. Annoyed now, I shrugged out of them, pushing the large male away so I had unfettered access to my love.

Just as my fingers brushed her shoulder, yet another person attempted to get in my way. I didn’t see who it was, nor did I care. My irritation at being denied my love, my release, and our future baby was rising into something far more sinister and I lashed out at whomever it was.

Blood spurted as I tore them apart, the ripping sounds of their limbs separating from their body music to my ears as I turned back to Arty to continue what we’d started.

Only, an entire army practically ran inside the room and got between us.

No. No, no, no, no, no!

I snarled, the sound more mechanical than biological but just as fierce. These bastards were in my way and I wasn’t about to let them get away with it. They all had to die.

The haze blurring my vision tinted, first red until it bled to purple. Energy built within me and I pushed my hands towards the bastards who’d dared interrupt and released it with a boom!

The room settled down, but I tilted my head to listen as I waited for further signs of disruption. When none came, I turned back to Artemis, my sight clearing as my world revolved completely around her.

‘What the fuck?’ a male voice asked and I tensed, preparing to attack again if someone else attempted to halt our progress. I could feel my cum leaking from the tip of my cock, my balls heavy with the need to release their load. I needed to be inside Artemis now before I lost too much sperm. It was imperative that I didn’t waste a single one to ensure the pregnancy took.

‘I don’t know, Tormik,’ Artemis addressed the man behind me, and I snarled again at her attention being on anyone but me. ‘Get Henrik.’

No. No man would come between us. Ever.

I lunged.

‘Get him now!’ she yelled, holding me at arm’s length.

‘Stop pushing me away, my love. I need you now. I need to unload inside you. I need to put a baby in you now. Please,’ I begged, desperate for her to let me in. She was wearing clothes, but then again so was I, so I finally pushed my tentacled through and shredded my jumpsuit from the waist down.

‘Stars above…’ someone else breathed, though I didn’t bother to check. I was going to fuck my woman, and I didn’t care who watched as long as they didn’t intervene.

We struggled some more, her reluctance confusing me but not deterring me from my goal.

‘Baby. We need to make a baby. I need to put a baby in you, my love. Why won’t you let me?’

My tentacles reached out for her from both my face and my groin but she somehow kept successfully avoiding them. I was getting frustrated, but I still wasn’t ready to give up. No, that wasn’t right, I couldn’t give up. It simply was not an option.

‘What’s happening?’ another male voice joined the fray and caused my urges to increase to a point where I felt like I was going to burn up if I didn’t get inside Arty soon. Sweat rolled down my back and slicked my hands which made holding onto an already slippering Artemis all the more difficult, but I kept trying.

‘He wants to impregnate me, Henrik, but he’s not himself and he won’t stop. I don’t know what to do!’

I paid no attention as the male mused allowed, using the distraction his presence presented to finally grab a hold of Arty. Unfortunately, I merely got to grind myself onto her fully clothed body briefly before she tore herself from my grip once again, smacking my tentacles away as they attempted to keep her in place by wrapping around her hips, legs, waist… any part of her they could reach.

‘Okay. Tormik, make yourself useful and ensure the path is clear. I don’t want anyone getting on his bad side after…’ Artemis trailed off and I watched as she gestured around us with her head, her hands occupied with keeping me at bay.

‘ Please, my love,’ I panted, my cock aching and my balls already clenching in preparation of my release. I was going to blow, and soon.

‘Now!’ she shouted and bolted from the room.

I whimpered, my erection causing more pain than pleasure now so I wrapped it in my tentacles for protection as I ran after her. Even still, the slightest touch sent both pleasure and pain rushing through me, the sensitivity almost too much to bear. Yet, the thought of coming and wasting all my life-giving essence outside of Artemis’s womb was even more unbearable, so I held on.

I chased her through the hallways before eventually skidding to a halt when I lost sight of her. A moment later, movement from above clued me in to where she’d disappeared to and I found her glowing blue like a beautiful beacon beckoning me closer as she levitated on the ceiling.

‘Come down, baby,’ I called, my voice needy and breathless even to my own ears.

‘Why don’t you come up here?’ she asked instead.

I frowned then decided she was right. If she wouldn’t come down I would just have to meet her up there. I closed my eyes and focused, but the throbbing of my cock and the lubrication seeping from my tentacles that tingles along my shaft and dripped down my thighs made it impossible.

A sound of agonised defeat tore from my throat as I collapsed to my knees.

‘ Please.’

‘Just a little further, Bromm. Just a little bit further and then you can put a baby in me, okay?’ she placated, her offer appeasing me slightly, but not enough. My abdomen clenched, my orgasm approaching and I feared it would happen with or without me inside of her.

‘No. Now. It has to be now .’

‘Okay, baby,’ she said, but she was moving away again. Panicked, I jumped back up to my feet, but I was too slow yet again. She shot down the hallway at a speed that blurred her form and I struggled to track her. I took chase again, my lower tentacles working overtime to keep my overly sensitive cock from bouncing around and slapping against my me.

The world around me was a blur, the only clarity when I was focused on Artemis. I didn’t see where she was taking me until it was too late, and I was suddenly restrained by multiple hands, my arms yanked behind me by someone with a strength that rivalled my own, and cold metal snapped around my wrists.

I snarled and writhed in their grip but the hands only tightened, sharp nails digging into my flesh and splitting open my skin. My lower tentacles joined in the fight, smacking away hands and squeezing arms as I struggled to make my way back to my love.

‘Arty! Please! I need to. It hurts . I have to. Don’t do this!’

I was strapped down onto a solid surface before a sharp prick stabbed my neck, and then my eyes unfocused even more as I fell unconscious, my cock still straining as it reached for the only woman who could relieve it.

???

My entire body ached. I groaned as I woke, my vision blurry, ears ringing and brain foggy as I tried to piece together what was going on. I moved to rub the grit out of my eyes only to find my arms pinned into place.

‘Bromm...?’ Henrik’s voice came from beside me, though he sounded more uncertain that I had ever heard him before.

‘Henrik? What’s going on? What happened?’

‘You don’t remember?’

I shook my head no.

‘You tried to…’ he began, but then trailed off as if he didn’t want to tell me.

‘What happened, Henrik?’ I asked again, hard and demanding.

‘You attempted to assault Artemis,’ another voice I recognised drifted to me from somewhere else in the room. I couldn’t see where since I couldn’t even twist my head around to see.

My stomach dropped as I felt the blood rush from my head with dizzying speed. ‘What?’

‘The nanites,’ Henrik began slowly. ‘We believe we have discovered the reason for the transference. It seems Artemis’s nanites latched onto her desire to have children alongside her desire for you. You were raving about trying to impregnate her.’

‘Took a whole damn army to stop you, too,’ the other voice piped in, and it finally hit me who it belonged to.

‘Did I hurt her?’ I asked the Tornu that had claimed the position of her personal bodyguard whether she liked it or not. In this moment I was glad for it, though I’d never imagined I would become a threat to the woman we both loved.

‘No. She held you off, but you wouldn’t stop,’ he told me.

‘You weren’t yourself, Bromm,’ Henrik attempted to assure me, but there was nothing that could reassure me after I’d attempted to essentially rape the love of my life. How would I ever look her in the eye again? How could I ever trust myself around her after this?

I felt a sudden kinship towards the Tornu that had once held a piece of Artemis’s heart, and I suspected still did. If he felt like this after whatever had happened between them in the past, I suddenly understood him a whole lot better.

I heard more than saw the door open, light footsteps entering the room. My vision still wasn’t much better than before and I was essentially blind, though I was glad that the ringing had finally died down and my head was clearing of fuzz.

‘You’re awake,’ Artemis said, and my cock was rock hard in an instant, straining against whatever had been place over my lap, because it was that moment when I realised I was completely bare from the groin down.

My breathing became laboured as I was hit with the most intense urge to release my seed deep inside of her, and I finally understood what they were talking about.

I was no longer in control of my body, and even now as I tried desperately to hold onto any semblance of my own will, I could feel it slipping away like water in a sieve.

‘ Please,’ I begged.

‘What do I do?’ I heard her ask, her voice like its own caress over my aching cock, but it still wasn’t enough. I needed her hot channel squeezing me, milking me dry.

I needed her belly round with our child.

‘Fuck him, Arty. Giving into his body’s desires – and the nanites – might be the only way to bring him back.’

‘We don’t have time for this,’ she argued, and I whimpered with impatient yearning. Why wasn’t she already impaled on me?

‘I don’t see any other choice.’

A feminine sigh wrapped around me, almost matching my desire but not quite. ‘Fine. Can we have some privacy this time, please?’

‘Of course. We’ll be right outside.’

Two pairs of feet stomped their way through the door before it closed behind them, shutting me in with the woman that needed to be clenching down on my shaft already. Thankfully, she didn’t make me wait long. A rustle of fabric assured me that she was undressing, and then naked flesh met mine as she climbed on top of me. Her core was raised just beyond my reach, though she emanated a heat that both assuaged some of my pain and simultaneously made it a hundred times worse.

I gazed up at her beautiful, heart-shaped face with all the love I could muster, my hips fighting against my restraints so I could shove all the way inside her with one thrust. Instead, deep brown eyes so dark in this light they were almost black gazed down upon me with concern, and then her lips touched mine as she finally, blessedly sank down onto my rigid cock. My tentacles, already weeping with lubricant that tingled as it made contact with my hot, needy flesh, immediately latched onto her hips, holding her in place as she gyrated against me. The friction was just as delicious as her tongue against mine as we rocked together, hips flush against the other’s.

Unable to move due to the restraints, I was helpless beneath her ministrations as she took full advantage of my plight. Deft fingers tweaked and flicked at my nipples, tugging on them gently at first until she was pulling them so hard I felt she might tear them straight off my chest. The action drew a deep, vibrating moan from my chest, the pain only adding to the pleasure of our lovemaking.

‘I love you,’ I breathed into her mouth.

‘I love you too, Bromm. Always.’

Her words were the last little push I needed for my balls to draw up as come gushed from my tip. Her body devoured spurt after spurt, the ongoing stream of semen no match for the way her greedy cunt guzzled it all up.

The effect was immediate. As my come was drained from my balls directly into Arty’s uterus, so was the hazy sheet that had covered my sight. Clarity hit me like a slap in the face, and I stared up at the woman I loved, horror filling every inch of my being.

‘I… I’m so sorry. I didn’t… I don’t… Fuck! ’

My cock still buried as deep as it could go inside her, she grabbed my face in both of her hands and pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead, my cheeks, the tip of my nose, and finally my lips.

‘You have nothing to apologise for, baby. If anything, it’s just another thing to add to the list for why we hate The Program. They created the nanites. You did nothing wrong.’

‘I tried to rape you ,’ I cried, tears streaming from my eyes and blurring my vision yet again. I let them. I deserved to be blind.

‘No, Bromm. You didn’t. The nanites did, but it seemed they’ve been appeased.’

‘For how long?’ I whispered, unable to get more of my voice out through the growing lump in my throat.

‘Baby, if all I need to do is fuck you to fix this, then I’m not hard done by. My concern isn’t about me, it’s about you. How are you feeling now?’

My eyes stung as tears threatened to break free, but I refused to let them. This wasn’t about me, no matter what she said. I could no longer trust myself around her without risking the nanites attempting to hurt her through me. I was no longer a safe space for her, and that killed me.

‘Bromm,’ she snapped, tilting my chin up so our eyes could connect again. Through my own watery sheen I noticed hers were also glazed with emotion. ‘I want you to hear me. I do not blame you. You have done nothing wrong. Nothing. I love you, and that hasn’t changed. Now answer my question. How are you feeling now?’

‘Better,’ I croaked.

‘Good. I’m going to release you now, okay?’

I inhaled sharply, panic settling itself beside the self-loathing and I shook my head rapidly. ‘No, don’t.’

‘You’re not going to hurt me, baby. I promise.’

‘You can’t know that,’ I argued.

‘I can, and I do. There’s nothing you can do to me that hasn’t already been done before, and there isn’t a moment where I won’t consent to you, do you hear me? You have my eternal, unwavering consent.’

‘But-‘

‘No, Bromm. There isn’t anything left to say about it. You didn’t hurt me, you were never going to, and I’m not complaining about needing to fuck you to make you feel better.’

‘Why are you so sure?’ I asked her.

‘I have spent my entire life being tortured both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Things were done to me that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and I’ve also been forced to do things to others I wish I could take back, but I can’t. I’m not a good person, Bromm, even if I wouldn’t call myself a bad person either. I’ve had to do terrible things just to survive, and I would do them again in a heartbeat. Our lives are not so black and white, especially with the nanites coursing through our veins and altering the very core of our beings.

‘You have shown me grace on countless occasions, and now it’s time for me to do the same for you. Please don’t let this weigh you down. We’ve figure out a way to stop it, even if it turns out to be temporary, but looking back isn’t going to fix things. The only thing we can do is look to the future, support each other, and I’m telling you now, you’re stuck with me. I’m not leaving you over something that was out of your control, so no moping, got it?’

I choked on a disbelieving laugh, my love for this woman swelling to heights I could never had imagined existed. ‘Okay. No moping.’

She grinned at me before swinging her leg around and de-straddling me. My lower tentacles stroked down the naked flesh of her thighs before curling back up at the base of my shaft that slid from her wet heat with a slick pop.

‘Good. About time we got that cleared up. Dave Junior’s been scratching at the door since I left him outside,’ she teased.

My eyes widened with alarm. ‘Oh, shit. He’s not gonna try to eat me now, is he?’

She shrugged nonchalantly, though I was feeling anything but. ‘Probably not, but make sure you’re not alone with him just in case.’

I huffed another disbelieving laugh. ‘Right.’

She unlocked my restraints, freeing my limbs from their cage, and then tossed me a fresh jumpsuit as she redonned her own. One glance down at my half naked body and it was clear what had happened.

‘Come on, baby. We’ve still got work to do,’ she said once we were covered again and opened the door. Dave Junior bounding in to place himself protectively in front of her. My chest clenched with guilt, but she told him off and he obeyed her order to move aside.

Dave Junior may have been walking on her other side, but he still managed to crane his neck around her to level me with his best warning glare. I was going to have to do damage control with the beast too, it seemed.

We were met with a crowd of our friends as we exited the room. Tormik was closest since he was guarding the door, but Henrik leaned casually against the wall beside him. Cadmus and Reece were eyeing me with concern while Addy threw herself on me, her arms wrapping tightly around my larger frame with a strength that should not have been possible with someone so small.

Xander chuckled as he pried her from me and patted me on the shoulder. ‘You’ve got to stop scaring us like that, Bromm. You good now?’

I cleared my throat uncomfortably while I shifted my weight from foot to foot. ‘Um, well I’m not feeling like a raging lunatic at the moment, so I guess so.’

‘Glad to have you back,’ he said, then was apparently done with the conversation because he turned his back to me to address Artemis. ‘You need to get back to the other ship, Captain. We need to disconnect the ships before you enter the asteroid field.’

‘Of course,’ she said, grabbing my hand and tugging me along behind her. ‘We’ll see you on the other si-‘

‘Captain!’ a voice shouted as feet booted feet stampeded down the hallway. It was a harried looking, Tarren, of all people, who turned the corner. His wild-eyed gaze and mussed hair, like he’d been anxiously running his fingers through it drew me up short. Something was wrong.

‘What is it?’ she asked him, her voice hard.

‘You need to see this. And you, sir,’ he gestured to Xander.

‘See what?’ Addy asked, stepping protectively in front of her lover. It was a strange sight, what with her head only coming up to his waist, but I knew she was more than capable of disposing of anyone who dared try to attack him. Not that I believe Tarren was going to attack. No, he seemed far more likely to faint from the way the blood had dropped from his sheet-white face.

‘We’ve received a transmission on the bridge. A video.’

‘A video of what?’

He hesitated, his eyes darting nervously to Xander before scanning the rest of us for any indication we would attack him for relaying this message. His eyes lingered a little longer on Reece, though he quickly averted them to level them back on Artemis.

‘Hostages, Captain. The pirates… They have hostages.’