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Abr has tables set out buffet style in private males’ and females’ areas near changing huts. I manage a handful of something called tacos before I get in line to gear up for the Grenade Maze.

The staff harnesses us up with silly, colorful—useless—armor, a belt of neon canisters, and a rifle that fires stimulating paint bullets. Then we gather with the females again behind another railing and listen to another announcer.

“There is an egg at the center of this maze.

The first couple to the egg will win a prize.

This one is a vacation on Planet Opoueali in the beachfront rooms of the Cistali for a week.

It will also put you in the running for the grand prize wedding on the Pearl de Gaia.

Points are also awarded to the second and third-place teams to be redeemed in the Abr merch shop.

I make my way through the crowd, looking for Jovie. When I find her, she has purple paint on her face. I can’t explain what it is about the design, but I know I’ve seen the pattern before: the swooping diamond shapes on her cheeks with the pair of lines up her forehead. “What did they do to you?”

She works around something hard that rattles in her teeth, then crunches down on it.

“Gave us candy, coffee, and painted those of us who have chosen our mates. They say they’re traditional female patterns from your homeworlds.

They had a big old book from some archaeological site that they pulled these from.

Said mine are for a Lightbringer, whatever that is. ”

My dream comes rushing back to me with Jovie blazing with light so bright that even I had to shy away. Is a Torchbearer supposed to bond with a Lightbringer?

I wish I knew. It has been so long since my people had a homeworld that finding information on our old ways is almost impossible. But there’s some still out there.

Jovie rights her rifle in one arm and taps her belt. “Locked and loaded, big boy. You ready for some hunting?”

I lift her chin so I can admire the design. Either they know I’m a Torchbearer, or they don’t, and it was a lucky guess.

The railing blinks as I lean in and kiss her. Males and females shout and chatter as footsteps thunder out into the field toward the maze. Glittering clouds puff into the air all over the arena. And Jovie tastes so good and feels so right that I don’t care if we win.

I already have.

The hum of a cameradrone circles us, making me break the kiss.

“Come on.” Jovie tugs me toward the maze but takes a different route than most others.

“The egg is that way,” I tell her. “Almost everyone knows the route now.”

“I don’t care about the egg.” She tightens her hand around mine. “I want something else.”

Jovie releases me to run a hand along the tall hedge.

A male turns the corner ahead of us. I shoot him before he has a chance to lift his gun.

The paint from my bullet splatters blue against him.

He grabs a laughing female beyond the corner of the hedge, pulls her into him with a hungry growl, and starts grinding on her.

A blast goes off in an adjacent passageway, and pink smoke filters through the leaves. The scent of it stirs my Storm and makes me crave finding a place to steal Jovie away and take her.

My mate disappears into the hedge. “Jovie?”

“Come on, Aura! You’ve got to find me!”

Leaves rustle. I track the sounds and find a weak spot in the hedge, but I’m almost too big to fit through, even as I turn sideways and inch myself deeper into the branches. “Jovie?”

A hand finds me and guides me the rest of the way through. Jovie hooks her arms around my neck, her legs around my waist, and kisses me. A smoke canister billows overhead as it’s launched over our passageway of the maze. Someone on the other side swears. A female yelps and then laughs.

The pink cloud descends over us. The more of the glittering sweet air I draw in, the stronger the urges to take Jovie grip me.

The lust grows so powerful that I drop to my knees in the soft moss with a raging erection, lay her back, and grind into her, desperate for some form of relief.

I am crazed and driven by insatiable need.

Jovie nibbles my throat, then reaches between us and strokes my rigid shaft. Her touch leaves me shaking.

“Fuck me,” I rasp, trying to find a shred of sanity to get me through the event without losing my head.

“Yes, please.” Jovie motions to a low tunnel through the hedge. “Can’t let all your people get a view of that electric rod of yours. It’s mine.”

I eagerly pick her up and sneak us inside the shadowed area, away from cameradrones, then lay her down again. After a quick scan on my wristband to make sure there aren’t any digital devices in the area, I unzip my suit while Jovie shimmies out of hers.

“Quickly,” she begs.

But seeing her lying in the dirt doesn’t sit right with me. So I pick her up, hold her against my chest, and guide myself into her.

“Fast,” she gasps. “I don’t want to get caught.”

I bury myself into her deeply, withdraw, and thrust again. Each bonding of our bodies brings me more of the relief I need. Jovie is hot and slick and so gloriously tight that after only a few thrusts, I’m already cresting the edge.

She quivers and tenses around my shaft. But it’s her moan of pleasure that knocks my heart sideways and makes my balls tighten.

“Jovie—” I warn.

She bucks over me, digs her fingers into my back muscles, and cries out in pleasure.

I push deep, pumping my seed into her as she clutches me like she can’t get enough. When her body stills, I lay back and let her rest on my chest.

I guide a strand of hair from her painted stripes. “We don’t want them to wonder where we are.”

“Yeah.” She sighs and lifts her head, then kisses me. “Thanks. I feel better.”

After a few calming breaths, we slip back into our race suits. As we sneak to the opening of the tunnel, a cameradrone crosses over our area of the hedge.

“Wonder what’s back here if we keep going.” Jovie turns around and walks away from the maze.

“Where are you going?” I ask, catching up to her and shielding her under an arm.

“I mean, if it was off limits, wouldn’t it be marked?” she asks.

We continue deeper into the tunnel until we encounter a set of stone steps. Jovie leads me up them into a chasm filled with hexagonal chambers like a giant cylindrical honeycomb.

“Must be a puzzle.” Jovie looks at the pedestal surrounded by numbered hexagonal buttons. “What is the most critical resource in the universe?”

I watch as she scrolls through the list of answers onscreen.

“We get one try each.” She turns to me. “I guess my question is, how are they defining resource ?”

“Seems like across the board, it’s be something useful in any given situation.”

“Which implies life forms need it or could use it.”

I circle the room, looking up at the chambers. “But not all of us need the same nutrients, ores, or tools. It could be water.”

Jovie looks over the list and shakes her head.

“Why not?”

She chews a nail and then presses a button. A ladder slides around the room and stops beside an opening chamber at the top.

Jovie looks at me with a shrug. “Wish me luck?”

“I’ll keep an eye on that perfect ass from down here.”

She laughs shyly and climbs the ladder until she’s far out of reach. Jovie leans forward and collects something from the chamber. When she turns around, she’s in tears.

“What’s wrong?” I ask when I see the golden object in her hands. “You found another egg!”

Jovie motions for me to catch it then tosses it down to me. Lights flash, and glitter puffs fill the space. She braces her boots on the sides of the ladder and slides down like she’s done it a million times.

A cameradrone descends from the ceiling. “Congratulations, Jovie of Earth. Now, for our viewers, can you please explain how you knew the answer?”

She leans against me, and a piece of me breaks, seeing her so upset.

Jovie wipes her eyes. “Because when I didn’t have clean water, and I didn’t know when my next meal would be, hope was all I had to get me through the cold nights and out of my car the next day.”

“And what would you say hope is?” the drone asks.

“Potential.”

“Could be bad,” the drone responds.

“Could be good,” Jovie counters. “That perception is up to me and my attitude that day.”

Jovie is emotionally stronger than I am. I’ve let the universe twist me. She hasn’t.

Pulling her close, I try to comfort her. Jovie folds herself against me, and I wipe fresh tears from her face.

“I don’t need the prize,” Jovie says. “Please give whatever it is to whoever had the least when they came here.”

The cameradrone blinks. “You have two prizes: 1,000 credits and a two-night stay on the Pearl de Gaia.”

“I’ll keep the credits. Please give the vacation away.”

Jovie looks up at me. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“They’re your prizes. It’s your choice. Besides, I can get you anything you need and take you anywhere,” I tell her. “I have plenty of saved Federation credits.”

The cameradrone hovers down a new path. “Please follow me for the exit.”

It leads us through a different passageway to a two-seater toboggan nestled in a half-pipe track. “A new addition this heat. Climb in and hang on.”

Jovie gets in front. I sit behind her. The drone flashes a green light.

The toboggan belts us in, and the track carries us to an opening in the mountain, which sends us rolling down a winding path.

Glitter bombs go off all around us until Jovie’s laughing, her tears are forgotten, and my shaft swells again from the sweet, musky clouds.

We roll to a stop on the backside of the mountain near the bamboo forest and climb out. I pick Jovie up by the hips, reeling from the hormone bombs, and carry her into the stand of bamboo eager for a place for us to be alone.

Little trails have been cut in. Shelters are tucked into alcoves. A few leaves rustle in the light breeze.

I find a cushioned sofa under a metal canopy and sit, settling her in my lap. “Are you alright? That got a bit emotional.”

Jovie kisses me tenderly at first, then deeper, gliding her tongue over mine. Her fingers find the zipper of my uniform. She pulls away and nibbles my ear, then trails kisses down my chest.

Dragging the zipper. Kissing every mound of muscle. Running her hand over my rigid shaft.

She frees me and strokes my cock with warm hands. But when I reach for her glitter-dusted suit, she dodges me with ease, leans forward, and takes me into her mouth. The rush of her touch spreads fire through my veins.

Her tongue swirls over my tip, hot and wet and soft. She pushes down, bobs up, and down again, her hands, tongue, and lips all working together to make sure no part of me is missed. Then Jovie sucks my shaft hard, making my heart speed up.

The tip of her tongue finds each electric node and nudges them, sending hot arcs through my shaft. My Storm rages. Green light sparkles over my skin.

Jovie hums a note of surprise, then grips my cock hard with a hand and cups my balls with the other. As she massages me, scintillating pleasure floods my groin.

“Stars, Jovie…” I grunt and lose control. I gently brace her beautiful head. “I’m going to blow…”

My sack tightens, and my hips beg me to thrust. But I won’t hurt her. I won’t give in. Resisting is a fight with as good as she makes me feel. And as I pump into her, Jovie takes it all, sucking and slurping me down as if she can’t get enough.

I can’t catch my breath. Jovie makes me lightheaded, giving me a rush like a good buzz but in my entire body. She has a power over me that no one else does.

Jovie sits back and tilts as if listening to something. “Do you hear that?”

I lug myself upright. “No.”

“Someone is calling for you.”