Chapter 5

Eve

Where am I? My eyelids feel heavy as I force them open, and my entire body is sluggish and heavy. I assume it has something to do with the World Station and my aversion to space in general. Getting up is a chore, but … my room certainly isn’t.

Small but cozy, my digs are outfitted with a fireplace sporting red flames, thick fabric panels on the walls that cover up the exterior windows, a double-sized bed with a carved headboard. The image depicted is of … a Vestalis male railin’ a female Falopex? Oh come on.

I storm over to one of the doors in the room—there are two—but it doesn’t open. I try the other door, righteous fury rolling over me. This door opens, letting me into … a rainforest? I’m standing in a hot, humid room filled with plants. Large green leaves brush against my face as I stumble into it, realizing that there are white tiles on the floor, square pools filled with water and … Rurik.

He’s entirely nude, collecting dew off the surface of a large leaf and using his hands to reach up and rub at his horns. Antennae. Gah. I know that’s what they are, but they look like horns and horns are so much sexier than antennae that I … He’s got his head thrown back, eyes closed, hands rapidly jerking those horn-antennae and ruffling the black filaments on the undersides.

That looks sexual.

It must be, too, because he’s moaning unashamedly. I hear the sound of a man in ecstasy, but I also hear the alien things, too. I hear sultry, husky whispers spilling over his plush mouth. He bites his lower lip hard enough to make it bleed, and when he lets go, swiping his tongue across it, he leaves a smear of bloody lace.

My body reacts to what I’m seeing, and his body … reacts to mine.

He notices me, muscles tensing, wings shifting.

I can’t see his front—damn it—but his wings are spread enough that I can see his perfect ass. Looks pretty human to me. Good deal seeing as I’m an ‘ass girl’. Just above those sculpted alabaster cheeks, there’s a design. It’s situated at the base of his spine, this pretty red fan of blood lace that pulses and throbs like a heartbeat.

I drop my attention to his feet to see that he has no toes. His feet are shaped like a human’s, but they come to more of a point where a big toe would be. A single claw adorns the tip, red and shiny and sharp.

Also, he’s covered in markings. Beautiful black markings on his pale skin that look a bit like tattoos. They swirl up from his calves to his thighs, skip over that beautiful ass, and then decorate the skin of his back around his wings. At least I can finally see where they attach. There are two sets, one set connected between his shoulder blades, the other in the dead center of his back. I’d love to take a look at his jackets, see how he gets them on with his wings.

“You put me in a room with a Falopex on the headboard,” I say this like it’s an accusation. Really, I deserve that. I deserve more than that. I … Officer Hyt is … I don’t even know what to think.

“It was not intentional, my princess.” Rurik turns away from me, dropping his hands from his feelers. He doesn’t want me to see what he’s doing. He doesn’t want me to know he’s touching himself. “It was an unfortunate coincidence that the source of your infidelity adorned the embassy’s guest suite.”

“Are they caterpillars?” I can’t resist asking any longer. I know that it sounds like the question comes out of left field, but it’s been bothering me since yesterday. “Vestalis young. Are they caterpillars?”

I almost throw up waiting for the answer, standing there in that hot room with sweat dripping down my spine, wearing a lace-trimmed 1940s dress, thigh-highs, and no underwear. Rurik sighs and moves over to a nearby bench, collecting a robe with slits down the back. He tosses the red silk over his shoulders and the slits fall around his wings. He belts the robe in the front, but as he moves to turn around, I catch glimpses of pearly white ass cheeks in the fabric slits.

He walks right up to me and pauses, holding onto the belt at his waist, gaze imperious and distant.

It doesn’t last.

Because we’re so hot for each other that he can’t help himself. He takes another step forward and I take one back. I hit the edge of another bench and end up sitting down hard. Rurik stays where he is, standing above me, staring down.

“What did that miserable Falopex tell you?” he demands, dark eyes sweeping my body and rejecting it in one fell swoop. Ouch.

“That all Vestalis are male, that I’ll never get to have a daughter, that I’ll only ever have sons.” Saying it out loud right now makes it so real. All of my future children will be Vestalis. Vestalis males, to be precise. I don’t want that. I almost touch a hand to my stomach, but I resist. “But he didn’t tell me if they were fucking caterpillars or something.”

I think about moths back on earth, and I shudder.

“Why would they be caterpillars?” he asks, genuinely confused by my question. “They are Vestalis infants.” He narrows his eyes at me, feelers flattening against the sides of his head. After studying me for a moment longer, he sighs. “Come. I will show you.”

He leads me back into the room, snatches a tablet off the desk, and powers it on. Ten seconds or less and he’s got a series of images pulled up. He hands the tablet to me, and I see photos of babies. Not human babies, but babies.

They have big, dark eyes, pink pouty mouths, and small feelers. They also look a tad … fuzzy? More than that. Big fuzzy around the neck and shoulders, and lightly furred the rest of the way. Well. Could be worse, I guess. I don’t see any wings on the babies either.

I look up and hand the tablet back.

He takes it and tosses it onto the desk like he’s angry.

He’s very pretty though, with that red silk robe trailing on the floor, white wings tucked close behind him, dark eyes on the fireplace and not my face. It’s his turn to avoid looking at me, and it annoys me when it’s the other way around.

“Your handmaiden was supposed to tell you all of this.” He puts his hands on his hips, and it’s oh-so-human. Until his antennae lift straight up in frustration before flaring out to either side of his head in their ‘horn shape’. He ruffles his wings, spreading the top set just enough that he’s framed in virginal white. “I should not have to explain it.” He’s gritting his teeth now. “I will send that girl to a distant moon and blow it up.”

I look at him, and even if I know what his parents are capable of, I’m already certain that Rurik isn’t the same. This guy can’t die. He’d be so much better for the Noctuida. Sure, he’s a bit of a pompous dick, but he has a kind heart or … a kind … alien organ. I don’t think about his other alien organ, the one I haven’t seen yet. I’d like to at least look at it before the wedding night.

My stomach churns and I swallow. Avril assured me that his penis would meld to the shape of my body, that it’d be literally perfect. Sounds like another dumb-dumb alien romance plot to me, but … I hope it’s true. No matter what route I take, I can’t get out of having sex with this guy.

Losing all my eggs to him. All of my eggs. Having only Vestalis male babies.

The next question just pops out of me.

“Do they make cocoons?” I clarify, and he lifts his lip in a scowl, sweeping past me and heading for the door that wouldn’t open before. It opens now, and I follow him out. “It’s a legitimate question!”

Rurik stops walking at my shout and glances over his shoulder with his lip curled. I look around to see that I’m in a large sitting room of some sort with leather couches, another fireplace, and plush rugs on the floor. It’s very … human. Which makes me suspicious.

“Vestalis are not insects.” He grits his teeth as he turns around to face me. “We are not parasites.”

There’s that word again. I’ve thrown it around myself. Jane said. Hyt said. Rurik sounds salty about it.

“You and I are destined. Foretold by the Stars.” He states this as fact and while I’d love to roll my eyes, I can’t. Because it feels true.

“You’re just mimicking my … bio signatures.” I think that was the right word.

Rurik simply stares at me.

“Get out.” He lifts a hand and points back in the direction of the bedroom. “Leave.” He grinds this last part out between his vampire teeth, and what choice do I have? His temper dictates that I move now.

Only … I don’t want to.

I cross my arms in defiance and lift my chin.

“We should probably sit down and have a rational—” I squeal like a bitch when he strides forward and snatches me up, tossing me over his shoulder like a sack. My cheek slams into his wing, and holy hell, it’s so soft and fuzzy. I want to pet it. I want to drape it over my body like a weighted blanket. I want to cuddle it and breathe in cardamom and honey and cinnamon and allspice.

My cute little dress rides up as Rurik marches back in the direction of the bedroom … and pauses.

I’m not wearing panties, just thigh-highs and a garter belt. My bare cunt is exposed and framed with lace. Plump and hot and ready to be fucked by a moth prince. Can he smell my arousal the way Abraxas can? I bet he’s able to. I bet—

I gasp as one of Rurik’s feelers swings forward, brushing over my pussy and my butt cheeks. He exhales sharply, and then he reaches up a hand and he spanks me. It’s a nice, hard crack that leaves me shivering and wriggling. And then I get another, right over my wet, swollen pussy.

“Rurik …” I start, my voice a pitiful sound. I hate that he can obliterate my rational brain with his smell, his gaze. All I want is to be present and conscious in the choices I make. I don’t understand the fated mates stuff or the insta-love stuff. I … I want to like him for who he is, not for what he is.

“No. I will not be used in this manner. If you had not run into the arms of another male, I might’ve given you what you wanted. Not now.”

He continues walking, tossing my aching body onto the bed, and then he turns and leaves like the room is on fire.

The door slides shut behind him, and I realize that I’ve just made everything worse.

I’m pacing a rut in the carpet when the bedroom door opens again and Avril and Zero enter the room. The door whooshes shut behind them, even faster than usual. Just before it snaps closed, I catch a glimpse of Rurik with his hand on a wall panel, glaring at me.

Crap.

“He hates me now,” I declare as Avril takes in my clothes with confusion coloring her expression. I look down and remember that I’m wearing the same dress as yesterday. With my thigh-highs still on. At least she can’t tell that I’m not wearing panties.

“What … happened yesterday?” She has that full face of makeup on again, glittering red lipstick, black-and-white face paint, like she’s on her way to a vampire cosplay masquerade ball. The black dress with the red lace she’s wearing doesn’t detract from the aesthetic. “If you’re still wearing that dress, it can’t be anything good. I gave you bright red underwear for a reason. The prince was supposed to see it.”

I turn away and pretend to fiddle with a book on the shelf. There are actual physical books in here. But when I open the cover, there’s glowing red ink on the pages in a foreign language. I snap it shut and put it right back where it came from.

Right. The prince was supposed to see it, but Officer Hyt saw it instead. Then he hung it off his belt like a taunt or a trophy and told me he was going to a brothel of all places? How dare that man call himself a cop. He has humans to rescue, and he’s out philandering? Where the fuck is Connor?

But he’s one of the reasons that Abraxas is coming here.

Tonight.

My pulse quickens, and I fist a hand in the front of my dress.

I have never wanted anything the way I want to see Abraxas. Not even to go home. Not even to see Jane. It’s a new, tender type of longing that I’ve never experienced before. Ugh. I am lovesick and gross right now. I can’t let anyone else know.

“Your facial expression indicates romantic interest, but it does not indicate which man you are interested in.” Zero walks right up to me and smirks. “The Aspis male? The Vestalis prince? Or the handsome Falopex officer? Falopex are renowned for their skills in bed. They are highly sexual and absurdly desired by many.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Avril holds up two hands, palms out. “You fucked the Falopex?” She’s staring at me like I’m insane. I am. I know. Now that the moment’s passed, I can hardly understand how or why I did it. Cheated on Abraxas. Cheated on … is it possible to cheat on someone that’s forcing me into a relationship that I didn’t ask for? I don’t even know. “Are you crazy?! I told Officer Hyt that I didn’t want to go home! My life is on the line here.” She’s practically snarling at me as Zero delicately holds a hand over her rosebud mouth and chuckles. I notice that she’s still not wearing shoes. Her toenails are painted a bright pink, same as her fingernails.

I ignore Avril. There’s no excuse. Truly, I have nothing to say.

“You got a mani-pedi yesterday?” I ask Zero, completely baffled. “You were supposed to pound some alien cock.”

“I did pound alien cock,” she replies, entirely deadpan. Her smirk edges up on one side, and I almost like her for about three seconds there. “But apparently not as much as you did.”

“We didn’t actually have sex.” It sounds like a dumb-dumb excuse even to me. Rubbing my naked, wet pussy along a guy’s shaft is about as sex as sex gets.

“What does that even mean? God, I can’t believe I put my eggs in your basket.” Avril points an accusing finger at me, but she’s just said a new trigger word of mine, and I’m furious, too. “How dare you ride a Falopex’s cock when our majestic Imperial Prince is salivating after you!”

My mouth drops open as Zero chuckles cutely in the corner. But then she stops suddenly, red eyes flashing, and her head turns sharply and inhumanly to one side, like she’s on the lookout for threats.

“I didn’t ride his cock!” I yell back at Avril. “I just rubbed against it a little!”

The door opens again and Rurik appears, mouth curled in fury. Officer Hyt is right behind him, pushing his hat over his eyes while smirking from beneath the brim. I see that my underwear are still attached to his belt. My mouth twitches, and I have to hold back a hysterical laugh.

Avril notices right away and whips a glare at me. It lands; I cringe.

“Your paramour is here.” Rurik manages to school his expression into one of cavalier apathy. He tucks his red silk robe more tightly around himself and exits the bedroom for the bathroom.

Hyt tugs on the back side of his hat, causing the front to lift up so he can look at me with his strangely beautiful eyes. My body rebels against my brain at the sight of him. His black belt hanging low, dripping with weapons and leather pouches. The burn scar on his chest does nothing to detract from the wide, muscular perfection of it.

“Mornin’ ladies. Or afternoon. Evening if you’re from Earth. Night if you’re from my hometown on Yaoh.” He winks at me and then drops his hat back into place. His tentacles tuck in as he passes through the doorway, stepping aside and holding out a hand to gesture someone else into the room.

It’s Connor.

“Oh my fucking fuck!” Avril races across the room and leaps into his arms. The two of them embrace like old friends, not lovers. “I can’t believe you’re still alive.”

“What about you?” he asks as he holds her back at arm’s-length. I notice that he’s wearing … a belt with a loincloth attached and a pair of clear cowboy boots. No water in them this time though. Huh. He doesn’t quite pull the look off the way that Hyt does. Poor Connor is thin, but a bit soft and oh-so very pale. I’m shocked to see that he still has his glasses on. “Are you okay?” He looks up before Avril can answer and spots me standing there. “Oh, wow. I did not expect you to live through an arterial bleed like that. Good work.”

Avril punches him in the arm playfully.

“Told you I was a field medic for years. You didn’t think I could handle something like that?”

“You found him,” I whisper when Hyt saunters over to stand beside me, thumbs tucked under his belt. He glances over at me, but I try not to look back. I would love to know why he’s still wearing my underwear like a trophy, but I refuse to ask. “I thought you were off to the brothel last night.” It’s almost an accusation.

“Oh-ho,” he says, poking me in the shoulder with a tentacle. His sucker sticks and releases with a sharp smacking sound. “Were you jealous, Earthling? I’m not the one who’s engaged. And mated. At the same time, no less.”

I turn to him finally, eyes narrowed as Avril and Connor chatter happily behind me. I hear snippets of conversation—trapped in hot pink goo for days stands out as a highlight to my half-listening ears.

“A Cartian medical transport?” Zero lunges forward and latches onto Connor’s arm. “Tell me more!”

She might be a bitch, but I feel sorry for her. I can’t even imagine how horrible it would be to survive for so long with nobody and nothing only to find out that your entire planet, your entire species, is gone. I refocus on Hyt to see that he’s studying me. Especially my mouth. My dress. The thigh-highs I haven’t taken off. Can he tell just by looking that my ass is still stinging from Rurik’s little spank?

I exhale as one of his tentacles comes up to tease a loose strand of my hair.

“I found your friend here in a brothel. I don’t go to brothels to fuck.” He leans in toward me, lifting up a hand to his mouth to whisper. “Got no need to. Look at me. I’m what we in the Noctuida like to call intergalactic hot. Everybody and everything wants to fuck me.” He crosses two of his tentacle tails over his chest, rather than his arms. He uses one of his hands to pinch my cheek, and I slap him away.

“You have my underwear hanging off your belt,” I hiss and he looks down like he didn’t realize. He did. The belt he’s wearing is different than yesterday’s. What a fucking ham. That’s what he is. A goddamn ham.

“Sorry, darlin’, but finders keepers. These are my underwear now.” He pats them with a tentacle and then looks up at me with another smirk building on his lips. “If you want them back, you’ll have to give me something else in return.”

His hat lifts up of its own accord and his pet comes swirling out, dancing around me with its tiny tentacles fluttering. It chirps happily, gives me a tiny-beak kiss on the cheek, and then sits on my head.

“Does he do this with everybody?” I ask, pointing at the creature as Hyt scowls.

“No, he doesn’t. You’re being rude right now, Shithead.” He points at the creature, and it screams back at him. Doesn’t move either. It has no intention of leaving apparently. “Get over here,” Hyt growls, but the creature just flits up and dances mockingly around me, leaving a trail of bubbles.

I pause to look over at the three confused people staring back at me.

Zero lifts a finger to point at me.

“It’s chosen you,” she whispers, and then her face brightens with cruel delight. “Oh, this is priceless! You’re triple-mated.”

“Triple-what?” I ask, blinking rapidly back at her. “What the fuck are you talking about? I have one mate! One. Just one.” I hold up a finger for emphasis and the tiny octopus floats down to kiss my fingertip.

“Chosen her?” Avril asks in alarm, looking past Connor to the cyborg bitch with the chip on her shoulder. I need to stop feeling sorry for people who don’t have my best interests at heart. “What does that even mean?”

“It means,” Connor begins, adjusting his glasses with a sharp sniff. “That the Falopex male wants to marry the human girl and make her his wife.”

Hyt offers a strangled laugh at that and then points a hand back at Connor. Now Zero and Hyt both are pointing across the room.

“You shut your silly human mouth, you ungrateful shit. I risked my life to save your ass!”

“Am I wrong?” Connor asks with a slight smirk. Ah. So he isn’t as nice as he looks. “I just spent weeks and weeks with various Falopex. From what I’m to understand, you’re gifted a companion from birth. And the companion’s job is to keep you on a straight and narrow path. If the companion likes someone, they’re a strong competitor for a future husband or wife.”

Err.

Crap.

“What is wrong with you stupid aliens?” I grumble, swatting Hyt’s mini-octopus away from me. “Can’t you just fuck and cheat and marry and date randomly? Why is it always some sort of fate-intervention perma-mating deal?”

“Human woman, don’t you flatter yourself,” Hyt snaps, trying to catch his pet in his hat. He has to resort to using one of his tentacles to lift the hat up, snagging the tiny creature and then using two more tentacles to yank the hat back onto his head, trapping it. “You were a dalliance and nothing more. I’m not about to get caught up between an Aspis and a Vestalis. Only a crazy male would ever get himself involved in something so stupid.” He growls at me as he leans in, nose to nose with me. “What happened in my office is never going to happen again. You hear me?”

“And yet, you specifically came to the Vestalis embassy to give an unmated human man to her as a gift.” Rurik strides out of the bathroom dressed in a red military jacket, black pants, black boots. His expression is one of imperturbability.

You can’t hide from me, I think as I catch his attention, and we stare at each other again. I rub my thighs together without meaning to, finding myself slick and unsatisfied from yesterday. I just can’t decide if it was Rurik or Hyt or thoughts of Abraxas that got me this way. I know you’re pissed, Rurik. Oh, you’re boiling mad, aren’t ya?

“I …” Hyt doesn’t even know what to say. He throws up his hands and his tentacles both, letting his head fall back. “Just … meet me at my cruiser tonight. I’m docked at the office.” He holds up a finger and looks me right in the eye. “Do not be late. If my precious cargo decides it wants off my ship to look for you, we’re in big trouble. Aspis and space stations don’t mix. He’ll scramble all the computers and the AI, and everyone will know he’s here.”

Hyt takes off quickly, but he doesn’t remove the underwear from his belt. On his way past Rurik, the prince reaches out and snags them with his fingers. One of Hyt’s tentacles slaps over his wrist and squeezes. The two of them don’t look at each other as they struggle in silence for dominance.

“Look what you’ve done,” Avril groans, dragging her hands down her face and smearing her makeup. “Do you want to start an intergalactic war, huh? Because that’s what’ll happen if you don’t put a stop to this shit.” She turns me, expression deadly serious. “If you were anybody else, I’d probably find this funny. Date a bunch of alien males. Have some fun. But you cannot do that. You are the Imperial Princess. There is no other. There will never be another for Rurik. The chances of his brothers finding their mates in the next day? Nil. Not going to happen. The Imperial King and Queen will follow you wherever you go with the Armada. I don’t know what you’re doing with that Aspis tonight, but keep it discreet and then get your head in the game.”

She waltzes right up to Hyt and gets in front of him.

He looks down at her in surprise.

“Give him the underwear.” She snaps her fingers near his chest. “Come on now. Give them over. This girl is the Imperial Princess. I’m sorry that you like her. I’m sorry that you’re attracted to her. But that’s too bad. She isn’t yours and she will never be yours.”

Hyt smirks, yanks on the lace fabric so that it tears in half, and tucks the scrap back into his belt.

“Excuse me, ma’am, but I best be on my way.”

He leaves Rurik standing there with half a pair of red lace panties in his grip.

“Get the Imperial Princess dressed. I will take her on a date today.” Rurik follows after Hyt and the bedroom door shuts behind him.

“What the hell is going on here?” Connor whispers in confusion, looking at me and then Avril, back to Zero who’s laughing so hard that she’s clutching her belly. I purse my lips.

“The girl whose life we saved wants us all to die.” Avril turns a glare on me that I can’t even refute. She isn’t wrong. “But she’s an intelligent, wonderful woman who knows that as queen of the Noctuida she would have the power to change everything.” Avril’s expression softens, and she tries on a smile for me. “Do the right thing, Eve. I know you’ve got it in you.”

She orders Connor out of the room, so that I can get dressed.

I sit down hard on the edge of the bed as she gathers my things. Someone has had my clothing sent from the ship to this room. Everything I need is here. Because everything I need is Abraxas. That’s it.

Just one day, one date, and you’re there. You’re there. You’ve got this, Eve.

I slap Avril away when she tries to dress me like the bratty girl child in my mother’s favorite movie, The Secret Garden.

“I can dress myself.”

“Can you though?” Avril asks, hefting up a length of wide, stretchy ribbon. “Have you ever worn one of these?” She cocks a smirk, one to match the expression on Zero’s face.

Whatever this dress is, I’m not going to like it, am I?