27. CHAPTER 27

My soldiers stood down as they should, and taking a cue from my men, the humans now kept quiet. The stench of the bodies nearby stung at my sensitive nose, no doubt it was offensive to us all. I noted the pyre the soldiers set up for such a large burn and how the humans used their frail bodies to form a barrier around the bodies of their fallen comrades.

"We"re here to help, not conquer these people. Stand down," I said with little gusto.

"Sir, we meant no harm. We need to burn the bodies before they spread disease. They want to put them in the ground."

I turned my nose at such a thought. "Why do you want your dead in the ground?" I addressed the humans, forgetting they couldn"t understand a word I said.

Cormac pushed through the crowd and came to stand near me. He had a bag of food in his hands and chewed and swallowed before he spoke. "That"s just how most humans do it. Some are burned, but we bury most underground in a casket... or box... if that makes sense." He explained, and I could feel my meal coming up.

"That is ridiculous," I argued. "What if you need the land to expand?"

"Then they"ll build around them or dig them up and move them."

I rolled my eyes. I swear most aliens were just plain disgusting. However, it was their custom, and if they would throw this much of a tantrum over it, then it was better to comply. For now.

"I get it." I addressed my men. "Their customs are strange. Let them have it their way, but let them do it themselves. We will stay far away from their dead and the area they will use to dispose of them." They backed off and left the area, and I was now questioning the location I"d chosen for my office. Hopefully, these humans had enough common sense to bury them far away from where they planned to live, gather water, and grow their food.

"What"s going on?" My Caspian approached just as the tension died. I took his arm in mine and escorted him away. I didn"t want him lingering around a bunch of bloated corpses.

"You need to find a way to help your people relax, or the tension will escalate beyond either of our control."

He chuckled almost with contempt, but just as he was about to reply, several Travol soldiers stomped over, blocking our path.

"You!"

"This is just what I need," I groaned.

"How dare you walk free while our leader remains imprisoned!"

"That"s the beauty of having a warship." I laughed and gestured to my soldiers. "Don"t worry. Your precious leader will still attend the talks."

Much of the day remained uneventful, much to my liking. I don"t know how much I would endure another pissing contest between our men, the humans, or Travols. They cleaned the courtyard of the bodies, and aside from a few blackened walls, the colony didn"t look half bad, though far from the beauty of ours. I sauntered along the lighted path, the planet"s large green moon shining, giving the dark sky its greenish hue. I wondered if it was becoming a garden moon. If so, then what life forms would spring forth in a few million years?

A few trailers rocked from human couples fucking, and I even spotted one of my soldiers being pulled into a distant camper by a large human male.

I stopped when I spotted Caspian through one of the windows. The harsh yellow light reflected off his formed markings.

"There you are."

"Here I am," he said as I closed the door behind me. He stared at himself in the glass on the wall, and I wrapped my arms around him, feeling the small pouch forming on his belly.

"I wonder what I would have done for housing if we weren"t attacked?" He lamented.

"You"re a resourceful man. You would have found a way. There"s no point in dwelling on what-if scenarios."

"I had asked Connor for a pregnancy test," he sighed. "Turns out I really am pregnant. He had to use your alien tech as ours couldn"t detect it." A tear fell across his cheek.

"What"s wrong?" I wiped his face. "I"m happy. This is good news."

"I feel so guilty," he turned to me, eyes as wide as saucers. "I don"t know, I was just thinking about everything. What if Kevin was pregnant and now he"s probably being tortured half to death."

"There is nothing for you to feel guilty about," I argued on his behalf. "He tried to get you killed, most likely to cover his own ass or save it. Regis gifted him to Xil for a reason."

"And how could you tell I was pregnant?" He asked. The tone of his voice suggested he was suspicious.

"I wasn"t sure, but your scent had changed, and I guessed that a pregnancy was the cause." That wasn"t the entire truth. "Honestly, I was lying and wanted to throw off Daruuk. I didn"t know until I held you in my arms and felt the rumble jīva inside."

"Jīva?"

"It"s a special sort of power that few of our kind have. I have it, and now my child has it."

"This is so weird," he chuckled nervously. I could tell that having my child worried him. "What kind of power do you have? Like magic tricks or setting people on fire?"

I laughed. "I wish."

I held out my hand, feeling the tingling sensation run through the bone until it reached the tips of my fingers. Once I released it, the small white vase nearby lifted off the ground and crashed.

"Holy shit!" He exclaimed. "That"s how you passed me that knife!"

"You"ll get used to it. Though don"t be afraid when strange phenomena occur around you."

"Like?"

"Things moving around you and so on. The power is uncontrollable when the child is in the womb."

I lifted his chin and kissed him on the lips. He pulled away gently, and I thought I would get another half-baked runaround. But he stared into my eyes, unwilling to release me.

"I will do whatever it takes to protect you, myself, and our child. I want you to know that I"m fully committed no matter where this little adventure takes us."

A smile formed on my lips. This was just what I wanted... needed to hear.

"I wouldn"t have it any other way. Now we are both committed."

"But I don"t want my child raised by some hegemony."

Ah, yes, I remembered telling him about that. I was so sure of myself that my child would be raised by a system that didn"t even raise me.

"My Damma also refused," I said, stroking his soft skin. "And look at me. I turned out okay. We"ll do it together."

I kissed him again, this time deepening the kiss as I felt his soft ass in my hands. I ran my tongue along his collarbone. Thinking of the child inside him prevented me from lifting him in my arms and tossing him to that narrow bed. Instead, I guided him to sit while I removed my armor and undersuit.

He ran small kisses along my stomach and kneaded my ass as he ran his mouth along the shaft, his warm breath springing it to life and purpose.

He took me between his wet, plump lips and suckled, sweeping his tongue along the head before engulfing me again. I held his head, stroking his soft hair as I pumped my hips into his mouth, fucking it until the pleasure increased from a dull wave to small ripples. Not wanting to come this way, I stopped him, laid him down, and parted his legs. I removed the underwear under his tunic before burying my face inside to take his small cock in my mouth, which drove him wild with pleasure.

His cries of pleasure sent me into a frenzy as his body stiffened and shuddered.

I entered him, taking care not to press my weight on him. He was a sight to behold, his hair loose and wild, his cheeks as red as a Koi flower, his breathing labored, his eyes glassy. I knew what I wanted to do.

Sinking my fangs into his flesh and siphoning the sweet blood which flowed inside of him while I buried my cock deep inside was the greatest feeling in the universe. Displaying my neck to him, I ordered him to follow. He didn"t hesitate.

However, I regretted it when I realized that his incisors grew larger. He tore at my skin, breaking it with crude abandon. The mark he left wouldn"t be perfect, but it would be there, nonetheless.

The sun shined in my eyes from this damn window. Who the hell puts a bed by the window? The ringing in my head became sharper and more focused, real. I shot up from the bed once I smelled smoke, and after making sure I didn"t run outside with my cock swinging all over the place, I ran out with Caspian following behind, and my soldiers worked tirelessly to put the fire out.

"Oh my God! The Hospital!" Caspian gasped and pointed at the fire catching hold of the roof nearby.

The whirring engine caught my attention, directing me to the landing pad, and I ran over to find Cormac knocked out on the ground near some cargo containers.

It didn"t take long to figure out the culprit.

"That bitch!"

Our ship lifted off the ground with the cargo doors half closed. Without time to think, I ran for the doors and jumped onboard, rolling inside the bay just before the doors were sealed shut.