Chapter 15

Abraxas

“There is something on this ship that should not be here,” I tell Captain Kidd, pausing in the doorway to his quarters, my tail swaying lazily behind me. I am tired of repeating myself. I have sensed an additional entity since we left my home planet. I do not recognize the scent of the thing nor can I see it, but make no mistake: there is something here.

The captain sighs and puts his elbow on the desk, turning to look at me with the creak of his strange chair. It has lights on it and seems unnecessarily complicated for an item meant only to sit on. The Aspis do not intentionally complicate their lives with useless gadgets as other races do. I find myself unamused, my thoughts stalking back to my mate as they always do.

There is no purpose in my life but for Eve.

I will see both her and my child returned to me. That is the only possible end to this story.

“So you’ve been saying,” Kidd complains with a growling sigh. He dislikes me. He also fears me. But he has little choice but to satisfy my whims or else I will eat him and he well knows this. “But I can’t find the creature. My crew can’t find the creature. And if there really is something”—my lip curls at his derisive if—“then you haven’t been able to sniff it out either. What do you want me to do? Nothing is showing up on the scans.”

“The Noctuida is too dependent on technology that does not always work,” I snarl, and the computers in the room crackle with static. The entire ship shudders and Kidd scrambles to press many buttons on his large desk.

“Would you stop that?” he snaps at me. “I’d love to not crash my ship today.”

I snap my teeth at him, and he recoils, but while I find the Yaena male to be annoying, he is competent in managing this star-traveling vessel. I leave him alive. For now.

Tear his throat out, my hunger tells me as I pad back in the direction of the stairs and the safety of the shadows below deck. Feast on his bloodied innards. But I cannot. If I do, I will never see Eve again, and that is not an acceptable outcome.

“Hey, big guy,” Jane says, greeting me before I get the chance to escape. We are standing on the wood deck of something Eve’s sister-human refers to as a pirate ship. All around us, the stars glitter and a distant planet shines like one of Jungryuk’s suns. There is a glass dome above our heads that keeps us safe from succumbing to the frigid emptiness of space.

This is not natural, my instincts scream as I resist the urge to look up. Living creatures are not intended to exist in such a strange and hostile environment. I ignore my unease. There is nothing I can do, and dwelling on things one cannot change is a futile exercise and a waste of good resources.

“What is it, sister-human?” I growl out, doing my best to maintain a pleasant facade. My mate is not around, but my body behaves as if she is. I can feel both my pleasure rod and my mating rod fighting to escape their protective pouch. As I have been doing, I will find a quiet spot in the shadows to handle the problem.

“Do you think the creature you’re looking for could be …?” Jane’s voice drops away to nothing and she does not finish her sentence. She does, however, turn to look at the other human, the one I simply refer to as the screechy female. Nobody seems to enjoy the screechy female’s company, not even the small furry Earth animal she drags around with her.

Jane and I study the useless female as she sits with her back to the wood wall at the edge of the ship, smiling at nothing and holding her hand out, a single finger pointed forward. I watch as the tip of that finger is indented by something pressing back.

My nostril slits flare, but I can only pick up the barest hint of a smell.

Screechy Female notices us watching and jerks her hand back, turning so that she’s facing the corner of the ship.

Hmm.

Find the invisible monster. Eat it.I ignore my own advice and let my lips ripple in a low growl. Whatever this alien is, I can see that it has eyes only for Screechy Female. It can keep her, with my condolences.

“She’s been talking to herself for hours,” Jane murmurs as the crew moves around her, tending to various star-vessel tasks. I do not pretend to understand what they are doing. I have no wish to understand. My mind is occupied with better things. Such as my tiny female. “Either she’s lost her mind or there’s an invisible something or other that she’s hanging out with. I find it weird that both things are equally possible.”

“I mentioned this disturbance to the captain again, but he has denied the possibility of an extra passenger. There is nothing more that I will do provided the creature keeps to its own.”

I turn away from Jane, prowling down the steps and into darkness. They cling to me, those shadows, welcoming me, recognizing me as one of their own. I snatch an alien viewing device from a nearby crate with my tail and take it with me into the makeshift den I have created.

The captain was not pleased that I stole the blankets from his quarters.

No matter where we are in this universe, it would be best if both of us were to admit to the rules of men. I am the alpha here. I have claimed this entire ship with my urine. The blankets were mine to begin with and Captain Kidd is, at best, a beta male despite his differing opinions on the matter. A bemused snort escapes me as I slip behind the curtains demarcating my den.

My body—even at its smallest size—barely fits into the corner, but I am as cozy here as I will ever be when my four feet are not in connection with Jungryuk. Perhaps another planet would suit me, but the stars do not. I despise it out here. If my mate were by my side, the situation might be very different; I could acclimate with her sweetness to calm my ire.

Sheathing my claws, I use my finger to manipulate the device as instructed by Jane. It was not hard to understand. The Aspis choose not to use technology; we are not stupid. We are quick to learn and easy to adapt.

With a snarl, I navigate to the short video that Jane saved to this device.

I do not believe she knew I intended to use it in this manner.

My mate’s face fills the glass rectangle, and I fight back a wave of pure violence. I am gazing upon her in mid-coitus with another male, how could I maintain decorum of any kind? No being could manage such a feat.

Rip the prince’s limbs off. Watch him suffer. Watch him bleed. Swallow him while he screams.

But I cannot do that. Eve cares for the Vestalis prince, and her heart would be painfully rended in two if he were to die. I must accept him, even if I do not like him.

I watch her expression as he fills her, as he claims her as his own when already, she is claimed by me. Inside of her, she wears my marks. As this male fucks her, he fucks against the proof of our joining. So, no, I am not pleased. If I were a lesser male, I would have torn this ship to pieces in my rage upon the first viewing of my mate’s new joining.

This evening—for I can sense that it is evening on Jungryuk—I am watching for another reason.

A strange white box appears in front of my mate’s face and I snarl, flicking my tail hard and lobbing purple venom against the wall. What is this nonsense? I think as the alien device implanted on my eyes translates the symbols into something that I can understand.

“Your device has detected a problem. The content you are attempting to access is not allowable to be viewed by any citizens of the Noctuida, as per the law of the Imperial Princess. Individuals caught with this footage in their possession are subject to severe punishment, up to and including execution. You are viewing this content at your own risk.”

A laugh slithers out of me that echoes back from the walls, like the sound of shadows screaming. That is just like my mate, to protect her beautiful mating face. I agree wholeheartedly with this decree, as her sex face is something none should see but for me.

“The princess will forgive me my trespass,” I growl aloud with a snarl, tapping on the device until Eve’s face is in full view of my animalistic gaze.

I must slake this violent thirst. My right hand slides down the scales of my stomach, searching for the protective pouch that houses my cocks, my heavy sack. It is swollen for Eve, waiting to grant her near-obsessive desire for seed. I had not planned on giving her a child so quickly in our relationship, but her channel demanded that I relinquish my cum.

I could not resist.

Sounds escape me unbidden, twisting with the shadows, warming the dark. I find the slit in my scales and push two fingers in, the crown of my mating rod jerking eagerly as I stroke it.

“Ah, Eve,” I grumble, watching the recording over and over. The way her head is thrown back, her lips parted, the ecstasy etched into her visage. I do not like that another male has given that to her, but I must make peace with that reality.

More so, my body has given up the mating marks and so expects me to fuck and fuck and fuck. For the rest of our lives, that is what I will do to Eve: I will fuck her. Mate her. Breed her. Most Aspis have few children, two or three at best, but I will give her as many as she wants. Considering her behavior thus far, it may be a lot.

It will help to have more than one male to rear our numerous offspring.

That is the last I think of the Vestalis male. He is a nuisance because his family is a nuisance, because his position is a nuisance. Otherwise, he is simply a forgettable inconvenience.

My fingers wrap around the shaft of my mating rod, and I yank fiercely on it, jerking it from my pouch and spattering my hard abdominal muscles with slick. Even without my female around, my body readies for her, weeps at the tip and along the sides in preparation for our joining. I thumb the head of my breedable dick, admiring the excess fluid. Yes, this female makes me ready for procreation in a way I did not expect.

My eyes track the desire on her face as I switch out my hand for my tail, yanking and tugging on my mating rod before I dip my fingers back into my body. My hand finds my pleasure rod first, fisting it and dragging it from the heated confines of my groin. It does not last long, twitching and spurting bonding fluid onto my chest. I release it in favor of removing my sack. It is so swollen and plump for Eve that it aches to keep it tucked away like this. It is far too full of seed to stay inside of me for long periods. I will need to regularly empty it, just as I’m doing now.

I roll my testes in my hand, my gaze fixed on the screen, my body screaming that this is not enough. I must find my mate and reestablish our bond. It is that or death. She and I love one another so fiercely that it seems we only have a handful of my planet’s days before the dirt claims us.

It is imperative that we mate.

Though I know it serves no purpose, my body demands to be satisfied now.

“Oh my mate,” I purr in my native language. The sound of it reflects back at me from the wood planks lining the metal walls, a rippling of my vocal cords as I toss the viewing device aside. It shatters on the floor, but I do not care. I see her in my mind’s eye. I see her beneath me, sweaty and writhing. I feel her flesh between my teeth. I feel both of my cocks, buried inside her sweet, hungry body.

More, more, more, I think frantically, curving my spine and unfurling my tongue from my mouth. I wrap that strong, wet muscle around my mating rod, using my tail on my pleasure rod, my hands on my testicles. And all the while, I imagine that it’s Eve, tasting my woodsy spend, milking my slick shafts, drawing a sound of triumph and aggression that spills from my lips in a torrent of violent promise.

I lick my cock to climax, squirting mating fluid all over myself and then rolling so that I can fuck the floor with frantic gyrations of my hips. I find another orgasm in my pleasure rod and then yet another in my mating rod, until I am boneless and lying with my arms folded beneath my head, tail swaying, wings tucked tightly to my back.

As I drift toward sleep, I think of Eve and the birthing den that I have been preparing. I started it a long time ago, in the hopes of one day finding a mate, and then chose not to return for some time when I wasn’t sure that I would ever find a worthy partner. I began work anew on it after choosing Eve, but there is still much to be done.

I will deliver our daughter there with my own hands. I fall into a dream of my mate and the future we will have together, but it does not last.

Something shakes the ship.

Something wakes me up.

May the wild earth protect one who disturbs the sleep of an unsatisfied monster.

I creep up the stairs to find Eve’s sister-human standing with her mouth agape, blunt human teeth on display as she stares in surprise at the new star-traveling vessel that has maneuvered next to our ship.

“Man the e-cannons!” Captain Kidd shouts, pounding across the deck to grab onto the end of a large, silver weapon. Its tip protrudes through the wall of the glass dome surrounding us, aimed directly at the new vessel. His crew scrambles to obey his orders in a way I can appreciate but will not emulate. I take orders from no one. “Who the hell …?” he mutters, crouching beside the weapon, and then jerking his finger against a small trigger. The motion unleashes a wave of fire from the end of the device, red and orange light reflecting off the black of my scales.

“You’re shooting cannons at it when you don’t even know what it is?” Jane asks, her voice wild with bewilderment. The Screechy Female does nothing, standing idly by as if she does not care. Perhaps her new friend will assist; I will not go out of my way to protect her. I must keep my attention on the captain, so that our vessel will reach its destination safely. And Jane, of course. For Eve. Anything for Eve.

“Listen, woman, any ship that cloaks itself and reappears with grappling e-hooks is no friend of ours.” Kidd takes aim with his weapon and sends another flame-coated ball in the direction of the other ship. They have fired at us as well, glowing metal hooks that embed themselves into the glass dome above our heads. The other ship moves closer, until the pair of vessels are side-by-side.

Who dares interrupt my voyage to my female?

I cannot wait to meet the fools stupid enough to try.

There is a sound from down below, a creaking, a clash of metal on metal. The door perhaps?

With a curse in his native language, Captain Kidd takes off for the stairs and Jane attempts to follow.

“No, you hide in the captain’s quarters,” I tell her, pushing her back with a wing-hand. “Eve will not forgive me if I allow you to perish in this fight.”

I do not have the time to ensure her compliance, but I hope she is smart enough to take good advice when given. It is a virtue to accept the advice of one who has nothing to gain when offering it.

When I descend into the shadows, they are no longer shadows. There is light from the second ship, and I see that there is no difference between ours and theirs. They have connected the two vessels, and creatures are pouring out of their hold and into ours. I am not sure what these aliens are, but I do not care.

It makes little difference.

I use my tail to knock Captain Kidd aside, likely saving his life. He has weapons of his own in hand, but there are too many of the invaders and his crew is too small. I will take care of this situation on my own.

The invaders are not of any species I have seen before, small and toothy and wild. The four-limbed aliens scuttle from one star-vessel to the other, and I split my lips in a grin.

Slaughter them. Paint the walls red.

And so I shall.

I give into the hunger and let it ride me until I am consumed with nothing but violence and the need for bloodshed. Oh, and I am starving. I eat the lab-grown meat that I am given, but it is not enough.

I snatch the first of the creatures, lifting it to my mouth and wishing that I were of a larger size. The only purpose I have for staying small is so that I can penetrate my mate. Otherwise, bigger is most often better. My teeth sever the alien’s furred head from its body, and I swallow it whole before tossing what’s left of the corpse aside for later.

“Fucking hell,” Kidd curses, backing away from the pool of blood forming at my feet. With both of my wing-hands, I gather up two more of the creatures, bringing their bodies together with a satisfying crunch before discarding them, too. “You really are a killing machine, aren’t you?” he murmurs, but not like he is actually talking to me, more like he is nervous.

He should be.

With another snarl, I dive into the horde, flinging small bodies this way and that, ignoring them when they bite down hard on my hide. They have the look of sulfur dogs, the furred creatures that hunt near the thermal vents on Jungryuk. Unlike the timid sulfur dogs, these aliens are aggressive and wild, surging into the ship and up the stairs.

I collect Kidd in the tight coil of my tail—he must be kept safe at all costs—and follow after, finding Jane still standing on the deck in the way of all stubborn human females. She has a weapon and is attempting to defend herself when we both know that her fragile skin tears like paper, and she has useless teeth and blunt-tipped fingers.

A roar of fury escapes me as I skitter across the deck, raking curls of wood from the planks beneath my claws. The alien dogs are fixed on the crew and the silver weapons lining the edge of the ship. If we lose too many of these crew members, our voyage will not continue, and Eve will perish without use of my pleasure rod.

My mouth splits wide as I lunge on the back of another alien, severing its spine and using a bit of glistening white bone to crush the skull of another. They are all over me now, these invaders, but I am in a blind rage and I feel nothing. When the battle is over, I can lick my wounds. For now, killing is my only priority.

A scream splits my attention, the sound so like Eve that I cannot resist turning toward it.

Jane’s arm is in the mouth of one of the creatures, and her blood runs hot across the surface of the deck. I barrel through more of the monsters, tossing their small, lithe forms aside, thrilling at the sound of breaking bones and pained yelps. They have many eyes, these creatures, including a large one on the back of their skull. It’s a useful adaptation that allows the beast to see me coming before I’m able to grab it with a wing-hand. It releases Jane, and she stumbles back, slamming into the exterior wall of the captain’s quarters before I reach out for its neck.

It lunges at me first, teeth sinking into the purple vessels on the edge of my wing. Soon enough, my venom will have the creature writhing in the throes of death. I ignore it and refocus on another, seizing it in mid-jump as it leaps toward one of the crew members.

“Put me down!” Captain Kidd howls, and I oblige him, tossing him to the ground beside his mated female. He has refused to accept the fate of his joining, but it will come in time. He and Jane are marked for one another whether they like it or not. Just as my precious female was fated for the Vestalis prince.

Fury rides hot in my veins, causing my purple vessels to glow. They are faint, much fainter than I would like, but I cannot return to Jungryuk to refresh them. Blood will have to suffice in the absence of a thermal vent. I roll around in a hot, red puddle of it, shaking my body out and ruffling my scales, spattering the ship with crimson. It does not allow me to grow larger, but it invigorates.

I impale another alien in the throat with the spikes on my tail, and then snap the neck of one that’s bitten down on my leg. I keep the monsters at bay by marking a half-circle around Captain Kidd and Jane.

The screechy one is not so lucky, shouting and cursing as she’s dragged down the staircase to the hold by her leg. I would save her, if only out of compassion, but I am busy. There are lives I must prioritize in order to reach Eve.

The beast holding onto the female is split in half, but not by me. By the invisible entity that I have been sensing.

“What in the fucking Stars is that?” Kidd breathes, but I do not have time for his ignorance. He was warned about the stowaway passenger many times and chose not to listen. Seems that I was right, that this creature is fond of the screechy one.

“Madonna!” Jane yells as the tiny gray and white Earth creature escapes the pocket of the screechy one’s clothing and scrabbles helplessly across the wood deck. I snag it gently with my tail and pass it over to Jane before she throws herself into the melee in her attempt to grab it.

The other human female has disappeared and, with her, the rest of the alien dogs.

I slither after them, slaughtering as many as I can on my way, and find several male aliens of a different species hauling the screeching female into the other ship. Once they are inside their own vessel, the door closes and with it, so does ours, as if the two were magnetized together.

A hissing sound fills the room, and I am left with stragglers and few answers.

It does not matter. I do not need them.

I finish off the last of the alien dogs, swallow a few down, and then rejoin the captain upstairs.

“The Collector,” he’s snarling as he faces his bloodied deck, examining the damage done to the row of silver weapons, using his foot to turn over the bodies of his dead crew. “Motherfucker, son of a bitch, cocksucking Vestalis scum!”

“The Collector?” Jane repeats, but Kidd doesn’t answer her. He’s barking—literally, that is the sound of the Yaena—orders to his remaining crew, and thumbing over the screen of a viewing device.

“Miraculously, we didn’t take any damage,” one of the crew members tells him. “They just took that human female and left. Since when does the Collector leave anyone alive? They should’ve sunk us, shouldn’t they?”

“Should have, but they couldn’t risk the cannon fire,” Kidd mumbles, giving me a long look. Something has changed in his expression toward me. The fear is still there, but respect has crept in alongside it. “You may have just saved our asses,” he tells me as I sit down and lift a wing, inspecting the damage from the bites. I am bleeding quite heavily, but at least I have plenty of food to fuel the healing process. My tongue slips from my mouth, and I swipe it over the worst of my injuries.

“I do not need your vocal platitudes. Prove to me your thankfulness by returning me to my mate.”

Kidd scoffs and adjusts his black head covering, rolling his amber eyes as he does.

“Right. Set up your second fuck-session with your female. Right away, sir.” The captain takes off to command his ship, pausing beside Jane like he wishes to speak with her in private. She stands before him, trembling, frightened, but stubborn as many human females seem to be. In her arms, she holds the displaced possum. “Are you okay?” he asks, feigning a reluctant nonchalance that makes me sigh.

Both of the lovestruck idiots flinch at the sound.

“I’m fine,” Jane replies hesitantly, her gaze flicking past the captain to watch me as I groom away the wounds on my body. After I am done, I will eat the rest of the corpses, and then I will rearrange my den for another self-mating. The violence on this ship has stirred my blood again, and my sack is heavy and tight. Kidd lifts his hand, as if he may touch Jane, but then drops it by his side in a cowardly maneuver. “Not that you care.”

“I certainly fucking don’t,” Kidd lies, growling under his breath as he clenches his hands into fists and heads belowdecks.

“It is not wise to deny reality,” I warn Jane, bemused by her color-changing cheeks that remind me of my own mate. She opens her mouth many times, but no sound comes out. Only the possum makes a noise, hissing at me in warning. I ignore it and, since Kidd is in my den now, I take his.

When he returns hours later, he finds his bed wet with blood and bonding fluid and seed. And myself, curled up on the top of it. I snap my teeth at him, and he retreats with a curse, allowing the mechanical door to slam shut and seal me into my new sanctuary.

A laugh escapes my throat, a harrowing sound.

As I said: I am the boss of this ship, and the captain is my beta.

When he returns later that night, I snarl at him, but he ignores me, tossing another viewing device onto the table beside the bed.

“Just take it, and don’t bite my damn head off, okay?”

“What is this?” I inquire, grabbing it before he can explain. I touch the screen until the frozen image begins to move.

I see Eve in the Vestalis throne room with the prince at her side.

I see heads decapitated and blood spilled.

I see that my female is in trouble, that she needs me.

And then I let out a scream that rends a blackhole into the center of my own heart.