Chapter 3

Yanna

Warmth. I hadn't felt real warmth in a long time. And not just warmth but… freshness. I tried to open my eyes, but even my eyelids hurt. Those damn pink aliens had given me a fun little beating before they'd whipped out the real danger—mace-like weapons that terrified the bejeezus out of me.

I sank into the warm softness with a sigh. I felt like I was floating on a cloud, but realization set in seconds later. My eyes popped open. Water surrounded me as I sat naked in a bathtub-like basin. Fragrant oil slicked the surface of the water as gentle bubbles popped on the surface.

I was naked. Zero clothes. My hair lay on my chest in wet, clean sheets.

And then I felt a stirring behind me. The source of the softness shifted. A limb came into view—a blue and black furry paw the size of my head.

With horror, I turned my neck, and came face to face with large lavender eyes set in a blue and black furry face surrounded by a massive lion's mane.

"Fuck!" I screeched as I surged away from the lion-like alien. But my feet slipped on the smooth bottom of the basin, and I didn't have enough strength to even haul myself out of the bathtub. I was like a turtle in a pool, ineffectually scraping the eyes with useless flippers.

The lion opened his mouth, and fangs descended. My heart nearly stopped. I'd stabbed this alien twice. I'd hit him, tried to shoot him, and now I was alone, naked, and vulnerable. Was he cleaning me before he picked my meat from my bones? Would he flay me next?

He barked out a sound with two syllables. Clearly a word in a language I didn't know. While he looked very much like a lion, his color was all different—his fur a mottled blue and black while his mane was a vivid shiny black like a raven. His paws yanked me back against his chest, and I flopped there like a sheep on its back. One of his paws held me across my upper chest, and the other dipped between my legs. Immediately, I froze. Like a feinting goat. Just went completely still as he spoke a few more words in a soft rumble in my ear. I swore he tutted me like I was a bad child. And then his paw slowly pushed the water toward my pussy before retreating. Back and forth. Back and forth. As if he was… cleaning me.

His tone lifted at the end of a word, as if to say, See?

But I didn't understand. My gaze shifted to the edge of the basin, where several strips of cloth hung. They were dirty—stained with dirt and blood. My blood. My filth.

The stress my body had been under since I'd arrived in this village had done nothing to stop my period. She came, she saw, she conquered. In fact, she was still conquering my body. It was like she thought I was going to die soon, so she was just making sure my uterus was nice and squeaky clean for the afterlife.

The lion alien reached for another cloth, this one clean and folded, on the side of the tub. He dropped it into the water before slipping it down between my legs where he pressed it against me with a firm paw.

I inhaled sharply, wary of his claws. Why was any of this happening? Why was he cleaning me? Why was he… taking care of me?

Back on Earth, when I'd finally had enough money for my own apartment, I'd scoured the ad listings for one with a bathtub, because taking a bath when I had my period was a must. The heat alleviated the cramps, and not that menstruation was dirty, but I liked the feeling of being clean and well-bathed.

The last few days had been hell in more ways than one. A bath hadn't even been on my mind, because I'd been too starving to worry about how badly I smelled and how utterly disgusting I was.

My stomach growled as if on cue, and the lion's paw drifted to my belly where he pressed gently. Again, I sucked in a breath, because I'd seen his claws. I'd seen the blades under his fur that had lifted like some sort of science fiction alien weapon. But the lion's claws and blades remained retracted.

I forced myself to breath normally. When he'd plucked me off the ground like I was a hamster, I had been in so much pain that anger had overridden all sense. I'd fought him despite knowing he could crush me with one curl of his paw. At the time, it had been the only thing I could think to do, but now that I was submerged in warm water and my aches dulled, I thought maybe being docile was the way to go. Unless he tried to eat me. The minute he began gnawing on a finger, I was going to gut him with my bare hands.

And being docile lasted for all of five minutes until I felt something prod my back. Something hard. Something insistent. And with a dawning horror, I realized what it was. The lion man was… holy fuck, he had a boner.

I slid to the other side of the basin in horror and held my hands up to defend myself. Water splashed over the side. A quick glance down told me he still wore his pants, but his feet were bare—er, more like paws. Big fucking lion paws sticking out of the bottom of a pair of coarse pants.

This time, he didn't tug me back. He only watched me for a moment before stepping out of the basin. Water dripped off his mottled fur, and the bulge in his pants was unmistakable. So was that it? He didn't plan to eat me, but he planned to fuck me? Over my dead body would he touch me with that thing. Did the horrors of this planet ever cease?

My eyes darted around looking for something to cover myself, and I felt crazed with fear as my heart pounded in my chest.

Suddenly a paw closed around the back of my neck, and I was hauled out of the basin like a doll. I yelped and flailed, but I was no match for the muscular alien. He deposited me on a chair and tossed a bundle of fabric over my head. For a moment I sat there under the fabric like a child under a sheet before I realized that the bundle was a clean shirt. I fidgeted until I found the neck hole. Then the arm holes. Once I could see again, I found another bundle in my lap. A pair of pants that fit tight like leggings.

A knock came at the front door of the hut, and I startled. But the lion man paid no mind as he crossed the room to the door and opened it. He held it open only a crack, and from my vantage point, I couldn't see who was on the other side.

I took a glance around the room. When we'd arrived, I'd really only caught a glimpse of a round hut with a thatched roof. The living space was only one room that consisted of a plush piece of furniture, a rug, and a table with two chairs. This basin was placed in a small alcove that opened to the rest of the hut. A ladder led up to a loft that only took up half of the hut, and I could just make out a square bed. The sun shone through a window in the loft.

This planet was fucking weird. The sun hadn't set since I'd woken up in the back of that container. Just endless sun. It had to have been days since I escaped from the armored guards, because I needed to sleep several times in that damn warehouse. It had been fine for a while—I'd crept outside when hunger gnawed at my stomach to steal food and water. And then suddenly the entire building had been filled with those pink aliens. They'd found me in no time—likely smelled me, and then had kept me cornered until those aliens with the weapons had shown up.

I sniffed at my armpit, but I only smelled like the bath oils—a floral musk that was surprisingly nice.

The door shut, and I immediately braced for danger. Until a scent touched my nose, and suddenly I couldn't think of anything but the fragrant package in the lion's hands. Food. Warm food. Something meaty. Spicy. My jaw dropped. Saliva pooled in my mouth as I also spotted a massive jug of clear liquid in his other hand. Water and food.

My eyes darted to his as he watched me carefully. My heart raced. My hands clutched the sides of the chair. What would I have to do to earn that food? My stomach rolled. Hunger cramped it. And suddenly my morals weren't so mighty. I would do just about anything to get that food. "What—" I swallowed. "What do you want from me?" I spoke in Spanish, because my mother's language comforted me in this time of stress. It was my first language anyway, and it seemed only fitting to revert to what I was most comfortable with. She had immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was a teenager, and she insisted I be bilingual like her.

His head tilted. His furry brow creased. He strode toward me and dropped the food on the table with a thunk. With a grunt, he poked a claw at it. He spoke a word that seemed like an order, and then he sank down on the chair opposite me. He crossed his arms over his bulky chest and just… sat there.

Was this a trap?

I stared at the food. Then him. Then back at the food. Fuck, I wasn't going to be able to hold out. The last thing I'd eaten had been a discarded fruit rind and that had been likely a day ago.

He remained passive, watching me with those eerie lavender eyes which never failed to remind me that he was absolutely alien to me. The food scent wafted under my nostrils again, and I decided I could no longer wait. I had to eat even if it meant paying for it later.

I tore into the package and a bundle of noodles fell out covered in a brown sauce. Chucks of meat and other things were mixed in, like an alien planet Chinese lo mein, and I dug in with a weird little utensil that reminded me of a tuning fork. Shoveling food in my mouth, I didn't even look up. Not once. Not until the noodles were gone and I was picking leftover chunks out of the container with my fingers. I guzzled the water and fell upon a hunk of crusty bread that tasted sweet and buttery like a croissant.

I only glanced up when crumbs remained on the table. I swiped at my mouth, wondering if I had food all over my face. I wasn't sure I had breathed while I ate. I'd only been focused on filling my empty stomach. I covered my mouth as a small burp bubbled up from my stomach. I let it escape my lips with a small gasp.

The alien glanced at a small tablet on the table that I just now noticed. The screen flashed with characters I didn't recognize in a language I couldn't read. Whatever was on it irritated him, because he sighed heavily. I felt my body go tight at this mood shift. He flicked his gaze up at me, and he studied me. I remained quiet and motionless, afraid to anger him.

Finally, he rose to his feet and came over to my seat. He hauled me up with one paw wrapped around my arm and led me over to the ladder. With a gentle shove, he pushed me toward the ladder. I placed one hand on a rung, and noticed my fingers were trembling. He grunted to get my attention, and then pointed up to the bed.

I considered making a run for the door, but he must have seen my eyes shift toward the only escape route, because he growled and pointed up again, more insistent this time. So I climbed the ladder, hand over hand, foot over foot. I waited for him to follow, to feel the weight of his body shake the ladder as I climbed. But when I reached the top and crawled onto the loft floor, he remained below. In fact, while I'd climbed, he'd dragged a chair to the bottom of the ladder and sat there now like a guard while he fiddled with his tablet.

The bed looked inviting. Warm. The covers were rumpled, and I saw a few stray blue and black hairs on it. He'd slept here, then. Was he… giving me the option to sleep? The thought of REM was tantalizing. I hadn't slept more than a few hours at a time since I'd woke up in that container. And even then, it'd been more of a twilight sleep, my mind halfway in reality in case I was caught.

I touched the bedding. It was soft and warm from the sun's rays beaming in from the window. I placed my arms on the bed, then my upper body, and before I knew it, I was laying in the bed, covers pulled up to my chin. A few alien hairs tickled my nose, and I turned my face into the soft bedding, inhaling deeply the scent of sun and lion musk. Before I knew it, my eyes were closing.

Lynix

Something was either wrong with my tablet or the planet's satellites. That happened sometimes. Signals didn't work. Messages wouldn't go through. I had fired off a correspondence to Whitten to let him know what I'd found in Nomoria—namely, a human—but the message hadn't gone through. So I had no response. I was out of my depth with this female, and I needed help. Queen would know what to do, but if I couldn't reach her, I was on my own.

I'd never been fully responsible for someone else. All my life, it had been Queen and me and my brothers. We were experimental offspring of our Drixonian father while he'd been held prisoner and used for his seed. Queen had been a captive too, abducted as a caretaker for my brothers and me. When my father fell in love with Queen, he'd risked it all to escape, and they'd taken the five of us with them. Somewhere out there was one more of us, a sixth brother, and we'd spent much of our lives trying to find him. That was usually why we traveled from home, and why the Graysa were used to seeing me.

Now, though, we had a new mission. After finding out that more humans were being abducted from Earth and brought to Planet Kew, we were intent on finding out why and also rescuing them from the horrors they'd surely face. My human was a perfect example. Her eyes shone with pain, fear, anger, and trauma. She was distrustful. Aggressive. I didn't know how long she'd been on this planet and what she'd gone through, but it couldn't have been good.

I slumped in my chair as her gentle snores carried down from the loft above. At least she was sleeping. I had a moment of peace without worrying if she was going to stab me in the back, literally. The empty food container sat on the table. She'd all but licked it clean. She was starving, too thin, and clearly exhausted.

I was sure once she woke up, she'd see me in a new light. She had to. I'd cleaned her, dressed her wounds, fed her, and now I'd given her a soft place to sleep while I guarded. Queen always woke up from her daily sleep with a clear head. This female would see that I was her hero. She'd smile at me, surely, maybe even apologize for stabbing me.

When I'd cleaned her, I'd at first been very focused on her injuries, but soon the plumpness of her skin had drawn my attention. Her breasts had bobbed in the water, topped with tight pink nipples, and her cunt had been a ripe juicy fruit that enticed me. Interested me. What would the flesh feel like on my paw pads? I hadn't been able to resist from getting hard, and I wasn't ashamed. The female had to know I was attracted to her, that we were a possibility. I could have sworn her breathing had hitched as I'd cleaned her. Soon, her desire for me would outweigh her fear. I was sure of it. I was the most handsome out of all my brothers, or so I thought. I smoothed the fur of my mane as I considered what to do next. I'd let her sleep as long as I dared before waking her up and getting out of Nomoria before Fyak's deadline. The last thing I needed was him storming this place with his guards and scaring her all over again. I was convinced I was making progress with the female. I didn't want to regress.

I paced the floor of the hut until I nearly wore a groove in the boards. I ate. I bathed myself to make sure my mane was as fluffy as possible. I took pride in my appearance in a way none of my brothers did. Tain was a whole mess—he always had food stuck in his teeth.

And then I knew it was time to wake up the human. We had to leave before Fyak followed through on his threats. I'd die before I saw the human take lashes, and I didn't want to ruin my relationship with the Greysa. Whitten would be furious if we lost access to their gossip.

With careful steps, I climbed the ladder and stepped onto the loft. The human lay bathed in a pool of pink light. The blanket lay wrapped around her waist, and her shirt had shifted to reveal a swath of collarbone. Her hair, no longer dirty, matted, and greasy, fanned out in a soft dark sheet on the pillow. Now that she was bed and bathed, her skin had plumped. While she still had a way to go to return to health, I was pleased to see a radiant flush to her cheeks.

As I stood staring at her, my chest grew tight, and I rubbed at it. Unsure why I felt that way, I took a step forward with silent footsteps. Her eyelids fluttered, but she remained asleep. She sighed and shifted her legs beneath the blanket so that it moved to pool around her knees. I sucked in a breath as I realized her pants had slipped down to her knees in her sleep, as they were a little too large for her.

Her shirt fell to the top of the thighs, and just the barest hint of the dark curls covering her pussy peeked out from the hem.

My mouth watered. My teeth ached. I felt a rumbling, vibrating purr in my chest that I couldn't contain. I was certain the sound would wake her up, but her eyes remained closed. Her lips parted, and a soft sound escaped, like a moan. Her hand drifted over her rounded breasts, down her stomach, to the bottom of her shirt. Her fingers curled there and pulled up.

I went to my knees at her bedside as her shirt lifted to reveal her entire cunt. Her smell perfumed the air, and my eyes crossed. My tail swept the floor behind me as I prowled toward her on my paws and knees, unable to stop myself from getting closer. My tongue curled up, and I tasted the air. Her flavor bloomed over my tastebuds, and my cock punched the front of my pants to the point of pain.

This was an invitation. I was sure of it. Even in her sleep, she knew she wanted me. She knew I was her mate. She'd be agreeable now. Grateful. She'd let me lick her until she came, and then she'd take my cock inside that hot, tight cunt until I filled her with my seed.

This was what Bastian must have felt when he met his Kini. I draped my upper body over the bottom of the bed, where her legs had parted, and there, so very close, was her cunt—dark curls wet with her fluids, the flesh calling to me like a siren.

I curled my paws around her thighs, gently pushed them farther apart, and dove into her cunt tongue-first.