CHAPTER 20
Bromm
The meeting went as well as we could have hoped.
I had sat in on enough of my father’s political and diplomatic meetings, mingled with enough politicians and other beings of high social status that I was well aware of how these things went.
Fortunately for us, we were all mostly on the same page.
The only point of contention was the prisoners.
None of us could decide on the best course of action with them.
A few murmurs of simply putting them down so we wouldn’t have to deal with them anymore had been uttered here and there, but no one had taken them seriously.
If anything, they were laughed off as a joke, but I didn’t think it was.
I didn’t want to be one of those people who let the bad guys go because I was too afraid to get my hands bloody, but I also didn’t want to just go around killing people because keeping them, even locked away in a secure cell, was inconvenient.
I refused to lower myself to their level simply because it was easier than keeping them alive.
We needed to find some sort of happy medium, though I doubted we would anytime soon.
Despite that single disagreement, a plan of action had been made regarding the children, the freed captives, and our safety.
Essentially, there wasn’t really anything we could do besides what we were already doing, and that was just going to have to suffice for now.
The last item on our agenda was Baldr’s father.
Liberty was needed for that discussion, however, so we left it for the time being until we could include her.
Temporarily, we decided that the best course of action was to maintain our current procedures and keep an eye on him.
So far, he hadn’t shown any signs of espionage or other forms of betrayal, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t happening.
From what I gathered, Liberty seemed to think that he was a turncoat, that he’d had a change of heart once Baldr had been born and didn’t want his own child to be experimented on.
What we didn’t know was if that only extended to Bal.
We had Urman and Henrik on the inside, reporting back on his behaviour.
So far, he seemed more interested in making himself useful with the other kids.
He hadn’t tried to make contact with Bal, though he had been caught occasionally tracking him whenever they were in the same room.
The current theory was curiosity.
He didn’t show any signs of wanting to take on a parent role with Baldr, but he did seem rather interested in keeping track of him.
It was something we were actively monitoring.
The other big issue that had come up was Morgrid and her increasingly erratic behaviour.
We’d sent Dami out at the beginning of the meeting with the task of moving her to the other ship to keep her as far away from the children as possible.
With help, of course.
That kid was far too skinny to take on a fully grown Tornu female.
Concessions had been made for her to honour her grief, but only so much could and would be tolerated before we took more drastic measures to keep her under control.
Her unpredictability was the biggest cause for concern; it was clear she needed professional help, but there wasn’t anyone available for that sort of thing.
Not when we were being hunted by the entire Intergalactic Union as wanted criminals.
I wondered how Mother and Father were faring with the news.
I also couldn’t help but wonder if they were as ingratiated into the corruption as the rest of the IU seemed to be.
I wanted to believe that they would never lower themselves to allow such malignancy to prevail, but I also wasn’t delusional enough to believe they hadn’t been contacted by the enemy yet.
We Griknots may have placed more of a focus on the pleasurable aspects of our culture, but that didn’t mean we weren’t also a capable and formidable enemy. Many underestimated us, dismissing us as nothing more than whores and concubines that only existed for others’ pleasure.
They were wrong.
At the thought of pleasure, my cock rose yet again.
It wasn’t the first time that it had happened since we’d sat down, but being in Artemis’s presence was a particular form of torture I never thought I’d experience.
The overwhelming urge to impregnate her was still present, but it seemed at least momentarily appeased while we awaited confirmation that she wasn’t with child.
The longer we waited, however, the stronger the urge became, and I was seriously worried that I was going to try to force myself on her again.
I had already spoken with Cadmus a few days ago to ensure a plan was in place.
If I didn’t stop when she told me to, he would restrain me so I couldn’t force her.
She may have given me a blanket consent, but if she ever changed her mind and I was too far gone to pull away, I needed to know someone else would be there to keep me from hurting her in any way, shape, or form.
It was also why I refused to be intimate with her anymore unless there was another body present.
I was more and more grateful to Cadmus every day, especially with the growing urges pushing me to breed her.
One day, I would have loved to have children with Arty, but during a war was not the best time.
After my umpteenth attempt to adjust myself as my erection chafed against the inside of my jumpsuit, Cadmus shot me a side-long look, then placed his hand on my knee, squeezing gently to comfort me.
There wasn’t anything else he could have done, and I appreciated him in that moment more than ever that he was more than just the other man my girlfriend was fucking.
He was a friend.
A brother. Family.
My safety net.
If you had asked me at the beginning of this journey if Cadmus and I would have been close, I would have laughed in your face.
As it stood, I couldn’t have been more pleasantly surprised by how things had turned out.
Now, we just needed to somehow make room for Reece.
And possibly Dorian.
Definitely Tormik when they eventually stopped beating around the bush and admitted their love for one another.
It was painful to watch, both of them pining for the other, though different sides of betrayal kept them from acting on it.
I watched from the corner of my eye as Tormik shifted ever so slightly, scratching at his bandaged hand again.
I worried it was infected, but he was behaving as if it was nothing more than a mere scratch otherwise.
Well, besides the signs of constant irritation, but that could have also been attributed to the healing process.
Or perhaps he was simply sensitive to the healing cream.
Either way, he was showing no symptoms of distress beyond minor discomfort.
Plus, it was confined to his hand, so I doubted there was anything to worry about.
Yet, when I thought about how and where he’d received the scratch, I couldn’t help but let a little niggling doubt play out in the back of my mind.
The Program scientists were sneaky, and pirates were well known for their booby traps.
It wouldn’t have been completely out of the realm of possibility for them to have worked together to create some sort of device that slowly poisoned whoever attempted to break into their secret lair.
Well, fuck… if that didn’t just make all the sense in the world.
But if he had been poisoned, how could we know how to fix it? It wasn’t like we had anti-venom lying around, if that’s what it even was.
I needed to talk to Arty.
She would know what to do. I hoped.
When our meeting concluded, all the answers we could gather today neatly packaged with a little bow on top, I waited until we were outside the house and far enough away from anyone else before grabbing Arty’s attention.
Cadmus and Reece were close by, but they were walking just far enough ahead that they wouldn’t pay us any attention over their own conversation, and Tormik was following at a distance he believed kept him hidden from our perception that he, too, couldn’t hear what I was about to bring up.
‘What’s up?’ she asked as she patted Bal’s back.
He was sleeping, his face tucked into the crook of her neck so he was both scenting her and using her to block out the light.
Not that there was much light left anyway.
Nighttime on Gerinium was fast approaching.
‘Something occurred to me about Tormik,’ I began.
She scowled, her walls slamming down as she immediately went on the defensive.
‘What did he do?’
I blinked at her in surprise, not expecting that reaction.
In hindsight, I probably should have.
‘Nothing.
It’s that cut. It’s bothering him more than it should, right?’
She hummed in agreement.
‘And he got it in a secret doorway that led to a Program Lab…’
‘You think it wasn’t an accident,’ she surmised without me needing to spell it out for her.
‘I don’t know, but I don’t think we should discount the possibility.’
‘Do you think he’s been contaminated with one of their experimental substances?’ she asked, her mind whirling as she thought of all the possibilities, then she stiffened as a thought came to her, one that must have been worse than all the others.
‘What if it was the nanites? Or a tracking chip… wait… Oh, shit.
A tracking chip.
The prisoners.’
She ran off, immediately handing Bal to Dorian before pulling Reece aside, whispering low enough in his ear that I couldn’t hear despite my newly enhanced hearing.
Their conversation was tense, the secretive nature of it worrying me more than anything else this day had thrown at us so far.
When they sprinted onto the ship, urgency in every stride, the sounds of their feet clanging against the metal grate of the ramp echoing back to us, Cadmus and I shared a confused look before taking off after them.
Whatever was going on, I didn’t want to be kept in the dark.
I knew that Arty wouldn’t keep anything important from me, so her secrecy now was raising red flags.
What didn’t she want us to know?
When I realised they were rushing to the lowest deck, the deck that held the cells containing the prisoners, that ominous feeling in my gut swirled with even more vigour, officially killing any remnants of the erection that had been plaguing me for days.
‘What the fuck are they running down there for?’ Cadmus asked, his breaths even despite the sprinting.
I’d give the nanites this: they were excellent for improving our stamina.
‘I don’t know, but I have a feeling we won’t like it,’ I responded, my tone grim.
When we reached the bottom deck, Artemis and Reece were already clearing out the other guards.
They entered the elevator en masse just as we stepped out, shooting curious by wary glances behind them as they left.
As I’d feared, Arty and Reece were standing outside one particular scientist’s door.
They made an intimidating image despite Reece’s short height and Arty’s slim build.
Their muscles were coiled, ready to strike.
Glares were painted firmly on their faces. They exuded an air of fatality that even I was hesitant to approach, and I knew they posed no threat to me.
When both of their eyes began to glow, I knew we had missed something.
They had figured out whatever it was our tricky little prisoners had hidden from us, and they were about to expose them.
I just hoped that it caused the bastards a great deal of pain and suffering.
Tit for tat, assholes.
No, wait.
That was an insult to assholes, and I happened to like those.
I needed to come up with a better insult…
When the man who had caused Artemis so much trauma slammed against the door, a snarl twisting his features into something almost unrecognisable from his usually stoic expression, I knew they had found whatever it was he was hiding.
That conclusion was further perpetuated when both nanite-wielding individuals snapped back into reality, rearing back at the discovery they had just made.
‘What the fuck did you do, Demari?’ Artemis snapped, her voice like a whip.
He merely grinned at her, the expression one of a man who had truly lost his sanity.
When he laughed, slow, deep, and entirely menacing, chills ran down my spine.
Reece even took a step back before composing himself once again, though Artemis never once faltered under the evil man’s insanity.
‘Did you honestly think you could win?’ Demari taunted from inside the cell, his face only visible through the small viewing window at the top.
‘I think,’ Artemis said in a low, deadly voice, ‘that you keep underestimating us.’ She turned to Reece.
‘Check the others.’
One by one, he stood in front of the occupied cells, the telltale blue glow of his nanites activating the only sign he gave that anything was happening.
When he reached the last cell, he made his way back to Artemis, casting both me and Cadmus a furious look as he passed.
He wasn’t mad at us, though, merely sharing his emotion.
A warning. Something big was going down.
‘There’s only one more,’ he told her, his entire body vibrating with the need to destroy.
‘The woman at the end.’
‘Of course,’ she drawled, bloodlust curling up her lips as she stared down her tormentor.
‘Your little girlfriend.’
‘Do what you will.
You will never be anything more than a subject.
You belong to The Program, and we reach far wider than you could possibly imagine,’ he grinned wickedly.
I wanted to knock his fucking teeth out, see how happy he’d be then.
Arty turned to us then, finally acknowledging us, but what she said turned the blood in my veins to ice.
‘Evacuate the ship.
I want no one on board.
Things are about to get messy.’
She didn’t need to tell us twice.
The ship was clear in less than a turn.
Cadmus and I had to use our enhanced strength to wrestle Morgrid out of her room, hands still cuffed, but we managed to pass her off to Tormik, who hadn’t caught up to us in time to follow and was wandering the ship searching for us.
He was moving slowly, which was out of character for him.
He was usually quick and alert, his strength obvious for all to see.
Now, though… I wasn’t sure what was happening.
He didn’t look different, but there was something about him that was more sluggish. A concerning development, indeed.
We didn’t have time to dwell, however, because a piercing scream echoed throughout the ship, bouncing off the metal walls and reverberating back to us in a chilling effect.
Whatever was going on down there, it was horrific enough to turn the entire craft into a haunting place.
The violence was almost tangible as Cadmus and I stood there, unsure of what to do with ourselves.
‘Do we go back down?’ he asked.
‘I’m not sure if they need us,’ I admitted.
‘There couldn’t be any harm in providing backup, even if they don’t need it,’ he argued.
‘I’m not sure how useful I’ll be,’ I admitted, motioning to my crotch where my lower tentacles were already writhing.
Something about watching Artemis in all her vengeful glory was such a fucking turn on, and I worried that would be the thing that tipped me over the edge.
Cadmus shot me a commiserating look.
‘You’re not the only one,’ he said, gesturing to his own growing bulge.
They were about the same size, his due to the double penis situation he had going on while mine was an undulating mass, desperately seeking out the one woman they wanted above all others.
Another scream tore through the air, and my cock hardened instead of wilted like it should have if I was a normal person.
Perhaps I was uncovering a new kink.
If that was the case, I wasn’t so sure how I felt about that.
I’d never been turned on by someone else’s pain before. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I’d had some fun with BDSM in the past, but this was on a whole other level.
This was torture, and not the fun, sexy kind.
Stars, I was sick.
‘I’m going down,’ Cadmus decided, already pushing the button for the elevator.
When it opened to allow his entry, he faced me again with an expectant eyebrow raise.
‘You coming?’
I followed him inside the small chamber, my decision already made despite my hesitation.
I was never leaving Artemis to face the coming trials without me by her side.
I doubted Cadmus would be far away, either.
A slightly unhinged grin spread across his cheeks, and he rubbed his hands together with an eagerness I was beginning to match.
‘Fuck, I can’t wait to watch her spill blood again.’
I snorted.
‘I can’t believe I agree with you.’
‘She’s magnificent,’ he said dreamily, and I couldn’t stop my own smile from breaking free.
‘Yes. She is.’