Page 12

Ruby

My reward for giving Brace his first - ever blowjob was better than I could have dreamed. With his control restored — at least somewhat — he set out to pleasure me with his tongue , r eturning the favor and then some. I loved how big his hands were on my thighs when he positioned me backward on the bed and spread my legs. This time, peering at my wet folds did not make him jump with excited energy ; instead , he seemed to settle in with a type of focus I found intense and sexy.

Dragging his thick tongue through my folds, I writhed with pleasure. He took his time learning my taste and how I responded to gentle, probing touches. His tongue was much thicker than a human’ s , and when he found my opening and began pressing inside, it felt like more than a finger, but nicer at the same time. His tongue was malleable and wet, and it slid right in. I curled off the mattress, my fingers digging into the sheets with a shout. He’d found all the sensitive nerves inside and lit them on fire with a flick of his tongue.

Once he’d wound me tighter than a bowstring with his tongue, he changed tactics. Rising over me on one elbow, his free hand press ed between my thighs to probe my opening with his finger. Now he was truly testing me, seeing if I had spoke n the truth about stretching. Discovering he could press two of his thick fingers inside of me made him purr with satisfaction . T hen he pressed his tongue against my clit , and those vibrations traveled through me. I came, hard and fast, my body clenching on his fingers. Afterward, I heard him murmur in satisfaction, but he was not ready to let me go, not yet. When I relaxed, he was ready with another finger, and when I managed to take that, his growl became feral with excitement.

“You are right. Almost there,” he said approvingly. I had reached down to curl one hand around my ankle to hold myself open for him, and he dropped his hand down to stroke my fingers. A touch that made me all too aware of how small my hand was compared to his. “Just the head,” he demanded, rather than asked. I liked that, and I whimpered and canted my hips to receive him.

His silky pelt brushed my legs as he wedged himself between my thighs, and then that massive cock came down on my folds with a thud. Landing firmly, I jolted as it struck against my clit. Heat, silky wetness from the oily substance he secreted. It made everything tingle, and I felt myself go soft and pliant beneath him. “That’s it,” he agreed, his eyes not on his cock rubbing through my folds but on my face. I was the one who couldn’t look away, awkwardly craning to the side to peer around my pregnant belly. That thick blue length, all those bumpy veins, contrasting with my small pink folds, it was obscene, and it was so freaking hot.

Fucking against my folds, he teased me at first, until I was mad with pleasure again. Only then did he slide his cock down, pressing the massive head against my small opening. I felt pressure and heat, but everything was slick and pliant. I did n’ t think he’d slide in, but he sank an inch, and then another. His mouth was pulled open wide, and for the first time , I could see how monstrous he was when he did that, and I did not fucking care. Not a bit. I just wanted him to sink his cock deeper.

Pumping his hips, I watched that length sink into me a little more each time he pushed, until my body stopped giving. All it took was a swipe of his thumb over my clit, and I shattered for him, shouting his name in pleasure. I knew I clenched up then, squeezing around his invasion. It must have been enough for him, because soon I felt the head twitch and swell—the pressure of something jetting from his tip. We stared at each other as he came, eyes locked, his snarl silent as he held back from pressing in deeper.

I forgot to breathe from it all, and darkness edged in from the sides of my vision. Letting my head collapse against the bed, I gave in to the exhaustion, the aftershocks, and simply went limp. Afterward, he cleaned me. Getting up to f et ch a cloth, wiping through my folds to g ather everything. One hand never left my core, pressing against my opening as if he meant to hold his seed in. When he rolled me and climbed onto the bed behind me, his hand remained cupped over me, wedged between my thighs, warm and possessive.

I was too sleepy to protest, and frankly, I didn’t mind. I had just enough presence of mind to mutter, “You know I’m already pregnant, right?” I think he replied with a single word—“Instinct”—but that might have been a figment of my imagination as I sank into a deep, exhausted sleep.

***

Brace

My mate was sleeping, a tiny , delicate snore rising and falling with the cadence of her breathing. It was not a word I thought of often , but “ adorable ” was the only one that came to mind. My mate was adorable, and I wanted her to rest soundly and deeply. After the long walk through port and the disaster of finding thugs in her home, I needed her to be okay. Having a meltdown about what I might or might not have done in front of her must have been taxing , too, but she’d gotten me out of it without getting harmed. I felt a tiny spark of hope at that discovery.

Red had descended, but it had not clouded my judgment when it came to her. Did that mean I did n’ t have to fear harming her at all? Even if it did, that wasn’t the main reason; I could still end up a true flesheater. I might already be. That was a sin I could never come back from, and a burden I could n ever put on her. It wouldn’t be right.

For now , though, I could pleasure her, pamper her, care for her. That started with getting out of bed and cleaning up the mess I’d made. It was time to confront what I’d done and find out if I had crossed that horrible line, the one I never wanted to cross. Rising from my mate’s soft bed and warm embrace was difficult ; letting go of the pretty cunt I’d seeded was even harder. When I stood by her bed, dark memories swam up from the recesses of my brain. Again. They said I had never wanted to cross that line again. I wanted to deny that thought, but I knew it was true, and I could not face that, so I turned away.

Cleaning, then food prep, and I needed to report in with the Varakartoom . If I spoke to Asmoded, I might be able to make sense of all these feelings roiling through my chest. Was it always like this with a mate? This intense? Only one way to find out, but I did not relish the thought of asking such a sensitive question of the captain. I let him into my quarters after an episode only because I knew he was not big on the chitchat either. That, and my promise that I would.

There were footprints through the blood near both bodies that were too small to be mine. With a sinking heart, I knew that meant that sometime during my rage-induced blackout, Ruby had walked past them. I needed only to check the airlocks to know that she’d gone to make sure the ship was locked down. Indeed, she’d even gone to the bridge and engaged the Finix ’s mediocre shielding capabilities. Usually, those were only there to assist with space debris, meteors, and the like. They’d drain the ship’s power while in port, but it was a good safety measure. It would keep people out more surely than the locked doors would.

I dragged the bodies to the engine room and made sure they were completely incinerated in the stationary - running engines. Then I reached for my com as I began to take stock of the supplies remaining in the galley. They’d pulled everything out of the cupboards in search of the smuggled Kanfray shipping , and that included everything from inside the cooler. They had not even left the cans of my mate’s sweet drink, but those were , thankfully , salvageable. The rest of the fresh food, however, was not.

“Come in, Brace. You’ve reached us just in time,” Mitnick’s voice reached me when my call to the Varakartoom went through. His voice was hushed with tension, and I knew that meant they were about to strike another of Jalima’s shipments. There had been half a dozen left on the list of possibles after the intel that Elyssa had brought us. I still felt guilty that I hadn’t been the one to go to that first meeting like I was supposed to. Tass and my friend had been in terrible danger . I f I’d been there like I said I would, I could have helped.

“Mitnick, this is just a quick status report. We’ve reached Rumcas, sold the shipment, and had a break-in by some of Jalima’s men. It’s been taken care of.” I hesitated . T he plan had been for me to get off at Rumcas, while Ruby either sold the Finix here and booked passage to Ker, or I saw her off — ship and all — with a new crew. All she needed to be safe was to get away from Rumcas. At least, in theory. Once she was off the crimelord’s radar, even the parentage of her child should not be a problem.

“Good to hear your voice,” Mitnick responded, which was funny , because I had never really spoken to the male at all. It was n’ t like we’d ever had a conversation. I considered that now, too. Ruby was easy to talk to, she never seemed to judge me, and she was always so cheerful that it felt like she lifted my spirits , too. I could not leave her alone . N ot now. Not after what we’d shared. I was going to tell her I would see her all the way to Ker. I started by explaining that to Mitnick, and though I heard the laughter in the male’s voice, he did not ask me for an explanation. Maybe he didn’t need one.

***

Ruby

I woke up slowly, rising from such a deep slumber that I struggled to open my eyes and recall where I was and what had happened. All I had to do was roll to my side and feel the twinges between my legs to remember. Brace — and the incredibly tender way in which he’d made love to me, prepared me for him, even if we hadn’t managed to take it all the way. I remembered vividly what it had felt like to fall asleep in his arms, embraced by his solid bulk and warmth. It was probably the best sleep I’d had in weeks, and that was saying something after all the upheaval I’d been through.

I frowned when I realized that Brace was not in bed with me — a tight squeeze as it was — that was obvious almost right away. From the coldness of the sheets, I had to guess that he’d been gone a while. It made me realize that , sweet as this had been, I was about to leave and he was going to stay behind. It felt wrong, and I was struggling to come up with reasons to stay when he knocked on my door and entered. Of course, he had a tray of food in one hand, and delicious smells were wafting from it.

“Good morning,” he said in a gravelly voice, as if he w ere either choked with emotion or had not spoken yet all morning. I was betting on the lat t er ; Brace was not a man of many words. He ducked through the doorway, his shoulders brushing the door frame in a tight squeeze. Then he came to my side, one hand assisting me to sit up so he could place the tray in my lap.

Some kind of Haras wheat pancakes, they were doused liberally in Ekra , if I wasn’t mistaken. A mix between maple syrup and honey, Ekra was a very expensive sweetener in the Zeta Quadrant. I definitely did not own any, and I had only tasted it once before. Trust Brace to have brought it with him when he came to protect me aboard the Finix . This male appeared to live to pamper me with amazing foods, if I wasn’t pregnant, I would be worried about my weight. Right now, I felt like I was excused to eat as much as I wanted, so I was going to.

“I’m staying with you,” Brace said , just as I stuffed my mouth with the first bite. I nearly choked on the food, spluttering in surprise and staring at him with watery eyes from the shock. I was certain I had heard him wrong . W hat did he mean —s tay with me? For how long? My foolish heart was almost entirely convinced he meant forever, but that couldn’t be true. If I was his mate, he’d have said so, wouldn’t he? Unless Hoxiam did n’ t have true mates, like many other species did. I really wished I knew.

“Okay,” I managed. “For how long?” Best I clear that up right away, before I gained false expectations. No point setting myself up for disappointment later down the line. Brace did not seem to have an answer to that question ; he opened his mouth twice before finally shrugg ing his massive shoulders. I tried not to be disappointed and veered straight back into extremely hopeful. Brace didn’t know how to express himself, and neither , it seemed, did I. We’d figure it out eventually.

I ate in silence, and Brace retreated halfway through the meal. Was this post - sex awkwardness an indication that we were making a mistake? Or were we both just being awkward because we had no clue how to say what we really wanted? I was going to firmly believe it was that, and that if I managed to tell him I wanted him to stay, this would all work out. Showered and dressed, I headed for the bridge not much later and discovered it was empty.

I did not know what the plan was now, but I could at least reach out to ground control to inquire about new cargo and a slot for departure . My fingers were sure as I moved through the familiar protocols, but the y went clammy and shaky as soon as the male Rummicaron official spoke. His tone was cool and impersonal, which was no different from usual — and yet... i t felt like there was a nastiness to it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Then he told me the Finix was grounded until further notice, and , with no further explanations, he disconnected me.

Brace’s warm hand on my shoulder startled me, but I leaned into that touch with a grateful sigh. “It must be Jalima’s handiwork,” he said darkly , h is free hand flying in to the air in a rough slashing motion. “Your ship has done nothing wrong, but he has many officials in his pocket here. He wants to know what happened to his cargo . H e wants to know if it was us.” He did not have to explain which “ us ” he meant —h e was talking about the Varakartoom and the captain who ran it.

He’d only just said it when an alarm went off, indicating activity at the starboard airlock. I twisted in my seat, my fingers reaching up to clutch Brace’s hand. I knew my eyes were huge, and my heart began pounding in my chest with fear. That had to be more of Jalima’s men, or at the very least, one of his enforcers sent to intimidate us. Had Brace’s confrontation with those three last night really not been enough? Maybe all three had died—Brace had chased after that last one, after all—and they had no clue what had happened.

“We’ll go see what they want,” Brace said firmly. He reached past my shoulder to flick to the right exterior cameras on the viewscreen. There they were, a group of half a dozen males, all in dark clothing and with bulges under their jackets that indicated weapon s . I saw the flash of purple on a Kertinal ; at least three were locals, and one could never be mistaken for anything other than a Hoxiam. They’d brought the big guns to match Brace, so they did know who was with me. That meant th e last guy had escaped, but I was not surprised. Brace had come back for me so quickly, he’d heard my sounds of pain , and it had drawn him back, even when so enraged that he himself claimed he ’d lost control.

Rising to my feet, Brace kept me behind him as we walked through the narrow hallways of my ship. I eyed it with a different perspective now, no longer seeing it as safety and home, but as the old, banged - up clunker that she was. It had a lready been invaded twice, though the first time had, as it turned out , been by “good ” guys, at least to me. Brace did n’ t seem to trust the surroundings either, and he was extra cautious the closer we got to the airlock.

With good reason, as it turned out. The airlock was hissing open jus t as we turned the corner into that hallway. They should n’ t have been able to do that , because I’d engaged the Finix ’s meteor shields. Nobody should have been able to so much as touch the outer hull. The protective measure had failed, proving that whoever was coming through that door had far more resources than the three from last night. Brace hissed in synchrony with the airlock, backing up a step and pressing me into the wall at the corner. “Get your gun,” he warned, but I did n’ t have the one he’d given me on me — nor my own — which was very stupid in hindsight.

Widening his stance, Brace formed my own personal shield, filling up the entire hallway with his big body. This felt a bit like last time, only I wasn’t alone facing invaders. The first one out of the airlock was not dressed in sleek black armor, but he did move like a soldier. Ducking low, he rolled into the hallway and came up with his gun aimed our way. It was a big laser pistol, one that would harm even Brace if it hit him square in the chest. In tight confines like these, he could never move fast enough to get out of the way . W e were in serious trouble.

The Hoxiam wore a blinking slave collar as he ducked through the airlock behind the first male. Tall and imposing, he had a kind of pudginess to him that I didn’t expect —n ot when I knew how lean and sleek Brace’s body was beneath his soft, blue pelt. He snarled, opening his mouth so wide that it almost seemed as if his head split in two . Then he hunched forward and roared, allowing me to see straight into his gullet : b lackness, dripping saliva, rows of razor-sharp teeth. It seemed insane, but looking into Brace’s maw, which had to be just as big, had not been nearly as disgusting or terrifying. It felt like this male was an entirely different creature, a true monster. Nothing like my extremely hug g able protector.

Brace responded to all that aggression with his own roar, which thundered through the narrow hallway in a deep, sonic bass that made my teeth rattle. It was a far more primordial sound than that of the other male — the challenger — and from the way the invading Hoxiam stepped back, it was obvious it struck a chord.

“There’s no need for that,” a voice responded, not from the two already inside my ship. It was one of those deep, sub-harmonic voices that could only belong to a Kertinal male : t wo layers of low tones blending into a sound that, like Brace’s roar, could shiver through flesh and make you shake in fear. “All we want is our cargo or, if you don’t have it, payment for damages. This is just a simple business transaction.” The voice was direct but cultured, educated, and something tingled at the back of my brain.

The Kertinal stepped out of the airlock as if he had n’ t a care in the world, completely certain that he was safe. His sleeveless body armor was top of the line and left his black, muscular arms exposed. Amethyst eyes peered at us from beneath a shock of purple and black hair, horns curling from his proud forehead. The bioluminescent lines on his body glowed like purple lightning in jagged streaks across that deep - black skin, which I knew was smooth yet tough as nails.

My belly swooped, then my baby kicked and shifted, as if he were respond ing to this new presence. As if he knew , as well as I did, that his father had just stepped aboard the Finix . I gasped — I couldn’t help it — the surprise was too much for me. Brace shifted in front of me, blocking any chance the others could see me, but I was certain that De’tor knew anyway. “Hoxiam, tell me where my cargo is,” he demanded coolly, “ o r pay for it. Least you can do after all the trouble you caused me.” Me, he said, as if it w ere personal. This left no doubt that the male I’d so impulsively slept with months ago was part of Jalima’s empire of crime. I’d really picked a winner . H ow could I have been that stupid?

There were a million justifications for picking him out of that bar on the Yengar Spacestation in a fit of loneliness. He had seemed cultured and smart ; thus , he wasn’t a crook. He still seemed like a straight arrow when he told Brace all would be well as long as he handed over the Kanfray or paid the exorbi t ant amount it was worth. I’d never had that much money, the Finix was worth only a fraction of it . T here was no way we could pay them off for this perceived debt. I cursed Kip and Chawz’s greed , but that didn’t make this any better.

Brace only snarled at De’tor, wordlessly rejecting the male’s very unlikely offer. It did not seem like anything was changing, as if we were in a standoff, tension wrought and dangerous. Yet I felt Brace’s body press back against mine . E ver so slowly, he was backing up. So the plan was to run, but how? That gun aimed at my guy’s chest was sure to go off if Brace so much as twitched wrong. They did not want Brace, though I’d learned only yesterday that he was worth a hell of a lot himself on the slave market. They didn’t want me either, did they?

Peering under Brace’s arm, I saw the way De’tor’s expression grew tighter, and I realized that yes, maybe they did want us. A Hoxiam and a pregnant, breedable human, of course they wanted to capture and sell us to recoup their losses. They knew we didn’t have the money to pay them back for the Kanfray. How could we? If I had five million credits lying around, I wouldn’t be flying this junker of a ship for marginal profits.

What happened next went so fast, I barely had time to breath e . Blinking was enough to have missed the first part, and then everything became a dizzying, crazy blur. There was a roaring noise, my baby kicked and twitched in response, and my body was suddenly up in the air. No, not in the air, I was yanked into Brace’s arms, and then he was running with me down the Finix ’s hallways. He’d hunched his shoulders down around me, his head ducked low so that he fit as best he could through the tight spaces. We were at the portside airlock before I’d realized what had happened. It did not open fast enough, there were footsteps right on our heels , and I heard the whiz of laser fire, which was followed by the smell of burning hair. Brace used one clawed paw to yank the metal door open, clear of its hinges, and then we were through. There was another door, but it was as if the metal was butter to his paws, wrenching apart despite being made of several inches of thick, space - proof alloy.

Cold air slapped me in the face when Brace leaped outside with me in his arms. I could hear shouting, saw dockworkers at the next berthed ship looking up in surprise, and then heard another blast of laserfire. Brace landed on the tarmac with a jolt, then took off running so fast that the ground blurred. I felt all jumbled and seasick, cradled low against his chest in one arm, and then it got worse. He shifted forward and used one hand to help run . H is speed picked up, but my body was now almost perpendicular to the ground, and it did not like that.

I clutched at the fur on his shoulders, one arm thrown tightly around his neck. If I tried my best, I could peer over his shoulder, back the way we’d come, and see the Finix in the distance. Males were coming after us, includ ing that other bulky Hoxiam. He was running on all fours like a bear, galloping after us with a speed that would surely catch up to us if we didn’t shake him. If I squinted, I could see the figures of the others , but they were tiny against the Finix ’s large shape and were growing smaller as the distance widened.

Then I saw a flash of light, followed by a thundering boom. An explosion rocked us, even from this far away. It sent Brace tumbling , and the world spun and twirled as he rolled with me. N ot once did I strike the ground, but even hitting Brace knocked the air from my lungs. I was fighting for breath , and fighting back tears of pain and shock, when Brace righted himself and leaped back to his feet.

He never paused, never looked back, but the angry roar told me he knew exactly what had happened. It was a fitting expression of the pain I felt in my chest.