Page 7

CHAPTER 7

A eron worked the control sticks, guiding the Talionis upward into the night sky.

A storm was rolling in from the west, and as the ship pierced the dark thunderhead, a thin splatter of rain fell across the armaglass windshield like spilled blood.

On the control panel, a red light came on.

The sensor had picked up a small but significant level of acidity.

Not enough to do any real damage, but enough to make Aeron wonder why anyone would wish to live on a hellhole backwater planet like this.

He had to remind himself that out here on the Rim, most folks didn’t choose their planet.

They lived where they were born, and they died where they lived.

Few had the means to travel around the galaxy as he did.

Killing certainly had its perks.

Take the woman back there in the holding cell, for example.

Rona. Aeron wondered how she and Murdok were getting along.

He glanced over at his other comrade.

Zeth was lounging in the copilot’s seat, one leg draped casually over the side while he inspected his arm.

The wounds where the woman had stabbed him were already closed, but the skin was crusted with a bit of dried blood.

“First ones?” Aeron asked.

Zeth grinned and nodded.

They weren’t actually his first wounds, of course.

Just the first since he’d gotten his new paint job.

A few months back he’d received a dermal upgrade, which he’d paid for out of his own pocket.

Extremely expensive.

Horribly painful. And that tough little woman had been the first to scratch it.

Zeth didn’t seem very upset about it, though.

If anything, he seemed amused.

“She certainly is a fiery one,” he said.

“That’s why I picked her.”

“Maybe I should go back and check on Murdok. Make sure she’s not cutting him to ribbons.”

“Old Murdok can take care of himself.”

Zeth slouched back in his seat and pouted.

“It’s not fair that he gets to have all the fun.”

“There will be plenty of time for fun later. Right now, Murdok’s only searching her, and he’s got more experience at that sort of thing than you do.”

Zeth rolled his eyes.

“Well, how am I ever supposed to learn if I don’t get a chance to practice?” He smiled innocently.

“I wouldn’t have hurt her, if that’s what you’re worried about. Not too badly, anyway.”

Just then, the door at the back of the cockpit whooshed open and Murdok stepped inside.

The smell of the woman was all over him, especially on his fingers, which were clad in black rubberized gloves and glistening with wetness.

“I take it you’re done searching her?” Aeron said.

“Aye, boss. Got her secured and dressed up real pretty for you too.”

“Is there anything else to report?”

“There is…”

What Murdok said next made Aeron sit up a little straighter.

His dick did too.

“Are you serious?” Aeron asked.

“You think I would joke about something like that?”

“Take the controls,” Aeron said, standing.

“I’m gonna go have a look for myself.”

“Figured you’d want to,” Murdok chuckled as he slid into the pilot’s seat.

“Why does Murdok get to have all the fun?” Zeth groaned.

“Don’t worry,” Aeron said.

“You’ve got a role to play too. Once the ship’s in position, I want you to run the long-range cameras so we can see exactly what’s going on down there at that mine. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go check on our passenger. I’ll be back shortly.”

“Right,” Zeth said.

“Shortly.”

Murdok snorted.

Aeron ignored them and exited the cockpit.

After a short walk down the ship’s central corridor, he came to the holding cell at the aft section of the Talionis .

Typically, that room was for transporting targets whom clients wanted taken alive.

Today, it was housing a very different sort of prisoner.

Murdok had left the door shut and locked.

Aeron tugged off his right glove and placed his palm against the wall scanner.

After a few seconds, the lock let go with a soft snick , the door gasped open…

And there she was.

Like any good Merc, Aeron was not prone to sudden surges of emotion.

Decades of fighting and killing had hammered such things out of him.

Even during that shitstorm on Greef a few months back, his heart rate hadn’t gotten above sixty.

But it was higher than that now.

A lot higher. Aeron could feel it punching the inside of his chest like a pulse rifle set to autofire.

In his pants, his dick went as rigid as a steel rod.

He stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.

Then he locked it.

He didn’t want any interruptions.

The woman was bound to the back wall of the room.

Her arms and legs were arranged in an X configuration, and her wrists and ankles were attached to the wall with steel shackles and short chains that only allowed her a minimal amount of mobility.

She was dressed in an outfit made of black vinyl straps that did nothing whatsoever to conceal her body.

Instead, the straps merely framed her bare breasts, leaving her nipples fully exposed.

Down below, the straps curled around her upper thighs like a harness, but left her pussy on full display.

Murdok. That bastard.

The outfit had been obtained several missions back, when they had removed a sex cult on Borgialis.

Aeron had honestly forgotten they’d kept the damn thing, but obviously Murdok hadn’t.

Aeron didn’t know whether to be annoyed with his second in command, or pleasantly surprised.

He moved forward slowly, walking with a slight limp thanks to the steel rod he was now smuggling in the front of his pants.

As he advanced, he let his eyes wander over the woman’s nearly naked body.

She was perfect for what he had in mind.

Curvy in all the right places, tough as nails in others.

A tattooed serpent slithered up her right arm, its poison fangs bared in obvious warning to any man who might try to lay his hands upon her.

Aeron decided to risk it.

He didn’t care if he got bit.

In fact, he kind of hoped he did.

But first…

He turned his attention to the woman’s face.

She looked even prettier now than she had when he’d first seen her.

Her face was still a bit dirty, but there were clean streaks where her tears had washed away the grime.

Aeron didn’t feel too bad about that.

He’d made plenty of women cry in his day.

He’d created plenty of widows.

And he’d made women’s eyes water in other ways too.

But this woman’s eyes were different.

A deep ochre brown that burned with a look of hot defiance.

Suddenly, and without warning, that defiance turned into action.

Bound as she was, the woman could not strike him with her hands or feet, so she attacked him with the only means at her disposal.

Spit.

Her aim was commendable.

Her wad of saliva landed directly in Aeron’s right eye.

He didn’t flinch, however.

He didn’t even change his expression.

Instead, he just stood there for a moment, letting the warm fluid drip down his face.

Then he wiped the spit with his fingers…

And sucked them clean.

The woman gaped in disbelief.

She hadn’t expected him to do that.

And she expected it even less when he suddenly jammed two of his fingers deep inside her open mouth.

If she hadn’t been so shocked, perhaps she would have bitten him, but Aeron managed to get his fingers in and out unscathed.

Then he stuck his wet fingers in his own mouth again, and sucked away her saliva.

“Mm,” he said. “Delicious.”

Aeron took a step back and started to remove his combat vest. The woman tried to hide her body’s response to seeing his muscles, but there were some reflexes that were beyond her control.

The sudden dilation of her pupils, for example, or the stiffening of her nipples.

Aeron let her look for a moment, then he folded his vest and set it on top of the trunk by the wall.

“As you know,” he said, “it is our intention to breed you. All three of us. And we want a mate with the proper traits to complement our own warrior genes. Toughness. Defiance. A fighting spirit. Our offspring must have all those qualities if he will become a killer like his fathers.”

The woman’s eyes went wide.

“You mean…?”

“That’s right. The child will become a Merc, just like me and my two comrades. After we impregnate you, we will return you to your village, and you will be permitted to raise the child until he is of training age. After that, the Guild will come to collect him.”

The woman’s face colored with rage.

“You’re a bastard!” she growled.

“I’ve been called much worse than that,” Aeron said.

“Believe me.” He started to unfasten his belt.

“So you’re going to impregnate me, then steal my child? What if it’s a girl?”

“Merc seed tends to produce male offspring, but we also accept females among our ranks. Women make excellent killers.”

“What if I decide to terminate?”

“You won’t.”

Aeron coiled his belt and set it next to his vest. He sat down on the trunk and began to take off his boots.

“You don’t know that,” the woman said.

“I do know it. It’s not your style. And if I’m wrong, well… I guess that’s my fault for selecting the wrong mate.”

He stood up and removed his pants.

The compression shorts he was wearing underneath could barely contain his swelling erection.

The woman’s eyes got a little wider when they saw the shape of it printed against the flexible fabric.

Then they got even wider still when Aeron pushed the shorts down his thighs and his hard shaft sprang free, throbbing and leaking precum.

The woman made a sound like a whimper.

She turned her head to one side and stared at the wall.

“Let’s get it over with,” she said.

Aeron strode forward, his hard cock jutting out in front of him.

The woman gasped when she felt it pressing against the warm, smooth skin of her belly.

Aeron grabbed her lightly but firmly by the jaw and turned her face toward his.

“Let’s get three things crystal clear,” he said.

“First of all, you’re not in charge here. I am. Second, there is no need to rush things. We have plenty of time for breeding, and I intend to do so at a pace that I deem appropriate. And third… there is still one last thing I need to examine before we begin.”

He leaned in close and claimed her mouth in a dominating kiss.

The woman had not been expecting it.

Her body stiffened against his for a moment, then melted.

Aeron waited until he could feel her beginning to stiffen again, then he released her mouth and dropped to his knees in front of her.

It was time to see if Murdok was telling the truth.

With his thumbs, Aeron separated the woman’s labia and spread her pussy open until he could see inside her.

The augmetic implants in his eyes allowed him to look into the darkness of her open cavity.

Sure enough, it was just as Murdok had told him.

Her hymen was still intact.

Rona was a virgin.

Between his own legs, Aeron’s hard cock leapt with increased arousal.

Precum flowed out of him in quantities exceeding an average man’s complete orgasm.

A growl rose from deep within his chest. A hungry, animal sound.

It had been far too long since he had last tasted of a woman.

With a snarl, he pressed his face between her legs and started to feast.

Above him, the woman screamed.