Chapter 7

She’s flagging by the time I find the room that has been allocated to me. The bed is functional and not very spacious, but it’s built for our kind, so I’ll fit.

You don’t always know how it’s going to play out on these operations. Not every man gets a woman on every raid, but this one has proved bountiful. Hit the quota and then some.

This is my fifth run, but, to be blunt, it doesn’t get any easier.

I sit her down on the side of the bed. “Take your clothes off.”

Her head snaps up at that, although her eyes are a little unfocused—I’m guessing the pain meds are doing their job.

“You can take your clothes off, or I’ll take them off for you,” I say, bending down and undoing the clips on my boots before kicking them off.

“I-I don’t want to.”

Yeah, I figured that part out.

Her eyes shift to where the door stands open.

“We have an open-door policy here.” Which almost makes me chuckle. Not quite the corporate-style, ‘sports management best practice’, open-door policy my coach had back in my old life. Seems like a long time ago now. A different world. But, shit happens, and, well, we’re all different now, aren’t we?

Assimilated: one dome at a time.

It’s a process, one that we all follow. Tried and tested, or so I’ve been told.

I reach for the clips on my body armor and, keeping my eyes on her, begin to release them. It feels a lot like overkill—the weapons and armor—but there have been a couple of incidents where it’s got messy, and it pays to be prepared.

Her face flushes. I didn’t think she had any more in her, but, there we go, there’s another one.

She is sweet and fucking adorable and totally out of her depth. I want to protect her as much as I want to defile every inch of her body.

I scrub a hand down my face. It’s shaking a little. It affects us as much as it affects them. I’ve paid my dues. Five is the magic number. Well, besides the pecking order, as Ash often reminds me.

“No one closes the doors,” I say. “Not here, not yet; later, maybe.”

I can hear the sounds already. Tears, the occasional scream, sobbing, begging. They blend into the background after a while. No matter which side you’re standing on, it’s a fucking test.

She unzips her boots, removes them one at a time, and places them neatly beside the bed.

A scuffle breaks out somewhere beyond the door, the sound of running, and then the screaming ramps up.

“You can’t really expect me to sleep,” she says, staring down at her feet covered in a pair of pink socks with a kitten face on them that were hidden underneath her sensible boots.

“You will,” I say.

She sighs, peels off her socks, and tucks them into her boots. Her hands are shaking. I’m pretty sure she is going to pass out from exhaustion the moment her head hits the pillow. I should have fed her, but a max dose will make her stomach unsettled and she’ll probably just puke up any food… Not really the way I want to spend tonight.

Not that any of this is how I want to spend the night.

One might question why I’m insisting she strip, given Ash has already ordered me not to fuck her. But there is a process, and the process says she needs to be naked; and so she will be.

My body armor drops to the floor with a clang. My microfiber undershirt comes next. I’m not neat about it, like she was with her boots, and I toss it to the floor. My chest heaves like I’m deep into a workout. I feel her eyes on me. I know what I look like. I’m not stupid. There were a lot of changes.

I’ve always been a big man. But, yeah, I’m bigger now. If only that were the limit of the changes, maybe we could all find our civilized side again.

But it’s not. Not by a long shot.

I turn away, putting my back to her, trying to gain some control. I hear her undressing, and my hands tighten into fists at my side.

Is this why five is the magic number? Is this the point where we start to crack?

Sometimes, I feel like an alien has crawled inside me and hijacked the rational part of my brain. Echoes of what I once was linger, but they’re like shadows. Intangible. They can’t fight their way to the surface nor hope to stem the bullshit that comes out of my mouth.

I’ve done this five times.

Coddling them doesn’t help. It only makes it fucking worse. Better to be blunt. Say it how it is. It’s going to happen either way. No amount of gentle words or coaxing is going to change that.

I shove my pants down and strip off the rest of my clothes. When I turn back to her, she’s naked save for her underwear. Her eyes go to my cock, and they widen—yet another change. I’m guessing she didn’t get a detailed look at Ash’s dick as it was shuttling in and out of the blonde’s mouth, but there’s no getting away from it now, when mine is hanging out no more than a pace away from her. Her faint exhale is audible over the debauchery emanating from beyond the door.

It’s a lot, physically, metaphorically, whichever angle you come at this from, for her to see me naked like this.

All of me.

But again, there is a method to this, and it’s better to pull the plaster off fast.

Ash isn’t a patient man. He never has been. It’s his fifth run, too.

My cock jerks. There’s not a damn thing I can do about that.

Her hands tremble as she reaches back to unclip her bra before dropping it to the floor.

Pretty.

Every inch of her is pretty, and I’m confident her pussy won’t be any different.

I swallow hard. This is not just going to be a test; it’s going to be a test of epic fucking proportions.

“All of it,” I say, gentler this time.

She shoves her thumbs into the side of her panties and pushes them down and off without lifting her ass from the bed.

“Go ahead and get in.”

She twists, shoves the covers aside, and slips between them, giving me a nice view of her ass. The covers whisper over her again, blocking my view. It’s all I can do not to rip them off the bed.

Fuck.I throw a look up at the ceiling as if seeking divine guidance. Only there is no god here, is there? There’s just her and me. And for as long as this takes, I might as well be her god, given I have complete autonomy over what happens.

Well, except Ash and his mission to mindfuck me even worse than the virus already did.

She doesn’t look around at me, just makes herself small, getting as close to the wall as possible.

My cock is fully engorged and standing bolt upright, flexing and leaking a trail of pre-cum that trickles all the way to my balls.

I should have knocked one fucking out, although when the hell I might have done that, I don’t know. I guess she’s going to have to get used to it like she’ll have to get used to many things.

I lift the covers and climb in behind her. She stiffens as I brush right up next to her, spooning her, nestling my fat dick against her ass, and sliding my arm around her waist.

I sigh. Her scent tickles my nose. By the time morning comes around, this is all going to be so much harder for both of us.

I almost laugh at my unintended pun.

“Try and sleep if you can.”

The screaming has tapered off, but now a series of low, growly moans are coming from the room opposite ours along with the faint slapping of flesh meeting flesh.

Everyone moves at different speeds. Some, like Isla, won’t be initiated tonight. It depends on the woman and her reaction. Our instincts guide us, or so they tell us. I don’t know if that’s true for everybody, but I’m always a little freaked out by how attuned I am. Even if Ash hadn’t insisted, I know that Isla needs time, but not too much. And, anyway, nature will run its course soon enough.

That stirs a dark internal chuckle.

Nature? What the fuck has nature got to do with this? We’re spreading like a disease, assimilating, drawing the rest into the fold: abominations with power, ever hungry, always seeking the next victim.

I hope she reveals the way we expect.

Reallyfucking hope. I might lose my shit if she doesn’t.

The scanner doesn’t just take a thumbprint, although it certainly does that for the sake of the database. It takes a tiny piece of her DNA and forms an assessment. It’s not a hundred percent accurate, just an indication.

99.99%

I’ve never seen a reading that high before. I saw the way Ash’s eyes widened. The interest. Not only Ash, but Noah, who was standing right next to us and could see what the reading said. He is the quiet one, but still… Over eighty percent is pretty much guaranteed. Sixty to eighty is a reasonable probability, too. Forty to sixty is a bit of a gray, murky area, and anything below is a firm no.

The bottom ten percent won’t reveal at all. Even if they are single, hot, and desperately hoping to be picked, we don’t.

We don’t bother below fifty percent if we already have our quota.

Not at this stage, anyway. We’ll get to them eventually.

The program is ramping up. In ten years, this planet will be fully assimilated one way or another. Most don’t realize it yet, and by the time they do, it will be too late.

Stage one: Isolate the population.

Stage two: Lay the foundations and groundwork.

Stage three: Find your power players and convert.

Stage four: Begin assimilation.

Stage five: Expand assimilation.

Stage six: Complete assimilation.

Rinse and repeat on the next planet.

We’re at stage five now. The process is well-embedded and efficient.

She’s trembling. I can hear the moaning in the room opposite, getting louder again. It wraps me up like a warm, sensual blanket, comforting in a warped way.

I feel the moment when her body gives, her trembling subsides, and her breathing evens out.

Asleep.

Good. She needs her rest. Tomorrow is going be another long day of traveling, followed by another base, another night of fucking and screaming. And, if Ash has his way, it will probably be another test for me.

Only she will have begun the change by then, I hope,and that will make it worse.