Chapter 18
T’raat
I did not intend to cause distress, but clearly my words affected the humans, the women more than the men. Timber rubbed her abdomen, Director Ann twisted the metal ring on her finger, and Leigh trembled against me.
I rubbed Leigh’s shoulder and tried to reassure her that I was not the deceased Xalanite, that no harm had come to me, but she seemed inconsolable.
The two men handed out hot, steaming beverages that had a sharp floral scent.
“Tea,” John said as Leigh’s tremors subsided. “Chamomile. For relaxing them.”
“I don’t need to be relaxed,” Director Ann huffed between sips, “but thank you all the same.”
“What are we going to do? If they’ve killed him and deactivated his nanites after getting this picture, there’s nothing left. No evidence. You can be sure they incinerated the body or something equally horrible.” Timber shuddered and went back to rubbing her abdomen. “The poor Xalanite man—or woman.”
Director Ann put a hand on Timber’s shoulder. “Hey. He’s safe. We know this, and in another hour, you’ll be back together.”
The younger woman nodded, but she did not appear wholly consoled by this.
Leigh frowned and gestured at her aunt. “They’re both safe? N’kal and X’nit?”
Ann nodded.
“And you know this how?”
“The nanites. We can see their location and vital signs. They’re both fine right now. We got word to them to leave the intake center with some trusted allies, agents that N’kal and Timber helped after a bad car accident nearly cost the four of them their lives. Those two men owe Timber and N’kal a life debt, and I doubt that any amount of money or krin could get them to hand our husbands over.”
My mate was smart. If she doubted the safety of the prince and the Director’s mate, then I doubted it as well. “Leigh, is there something about this that bothers you?” I asked.
“Well, think about it. That crash may have been up in Canada, but even I remember seeing it on the news. Xalanite detainee saves the lives of two Earth agents assigned to bring him in? It was all over! And now that someone knows Aunt Ann married X’nit, he’s gonna be a target. I just wonder if maybe they’re not as safe as you guys think.”
Director Ann scrubbed her suddenly pale face with her hands. “You think it’s a trap.”
Leigh shrugged. “It could be. Maybe they’re only not hurting the guys so you two think it’s safe. Maybe they have hurt them, but they’re fucking with the nanites to make the readings show what they want them to. I mean, nanites are just little computers, and computers can be hacked, right?”
Timber let out a choked sob.
“So, our extraction just became a potential rescue mission. Fuck. That complicates things.”
“Indeed, Ann,” I said. I crossed my arms over my chest as I pondered our next moves. “I can still stop the Xalanite vessel from landing. There is time yet.”
She shook her head. “No. We’ll need a ship if we’re going to pull this off, and nothing we have on Earth is fast enough or agile enough to get us out safely if things get hairy.”
“Does it matter how much hair our enemy has?”
Five pairs of eyes swiveled to look at me, and Leigh rubbed my arm with a sigh. “Just an expression, baby.”
I noted that the former police officers had been largely silent during this exchange. I turned to Marcus with a brow raised in question. “And the two of you? What are your thoughts on this?”
He grinned. “I think that niece of Ann’s would make a good cop. She’s got good instincts.”
“Yeah,” John said with a frown, “but unfortunately, her warning of impending doom could be right on the money. We humans may not be as advanced as Xalanites when it comes to tech, but I wouldn’t put it past us to discover a way to hack the nanites and make them show whatever they want us to see. Hell, they could probably have doctored that photo, watermark and all. It may not be anything the five of us can do, but if whoever’s behind this got hold of a smart enough coder? It’s possible.”
I wanted to refute their claims that Xalanite nanites could be altered so easily, if only to reassure Leigh that they were safe to use, but I could not deny the logic behind their claims. If a human was smart enough to infiltrate our technology, it stood to reason that they could also alter it.
Were the director’s and Timber’s mates in danger? Had they been childslept? No, that wasn’t the term … kidnapped.
“Are N’kal and X’nit where you expect them to be?” I asked the two women.
Their eyes unfocused, a look I was familiar with. Oftentimes it was easier to see what the nanites showed if one ignored their visual surroundings. When they returned to themselves, Timber and Ann shared a glance.
“Well,” Ann said slowly, “it appears so.”
Timber nodded. “Yeah. Right where they should be.”
Good. “Then that is where we will go.” I turned to exit the home, as my nanites had just informed me that our vessel would be arriving momentarily.
“Wait!” Leigh stopped me with a hand on my arm. “What if it’s a trap?”
I grinned, baring my fangs. “Then I pity the trappers.”
***
Thirty minutes after the Xalanite ship landed, the seven of us—myself, Leigh, Ann, Timber, John, Marcus, and the pilot, a young Xalanite woman named H’rran—strapped on our safety devices as the ship launched.
Leigh kept her eyes squeezed shut for the first few seconds, her hand gripping mine tightly. When she opened first one eye, then the other, a look of surprise crossed her features.
“It’s … smooth. Smoother than I expected.”
“What would you expect from a flying vessel?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“Well, like, planes can get turbulence. The takeoffs and landings are choppy. This is … nice. Pleasant, even. Smoother than ground transport.”
I blinked at her, confused. “Of course it is smoother than ground transport. Your ground is rough and has many uneven spots. The air is smooth, and with the proper inertial adjustments, we can move through the air without this turbulence.” I frowned. “Are your planes truly that dangerous?”
Timber waved a dismissive hand. “Air travel is statistically safer than ground travel here on Earth, so most of us don’t worry about it.”
“You consider that safe?” I found it hard to believe.
“Statistically. Fewer airplanes crash than cars.”
I scoffed at their limited human technologies. “Xalanite air vessels are much safer. No turbulence.”
Leigh snorted out a laugh. “You mean like yours that crashed?”
H’rran’s shoulders shook with mirth. “She has you there, b’kin .”
“What’s a b’kin ?”
That was right; we had not yet injected Leigh with nanites, instead opting to wait until we were certain the Timber and Ann’s mates were safe. “It is like … like a brother. But we are not related. A … How do the humans say, Director?”
“Brothers in arms.”
“Yes! We have fought together. Shared combat experiences.”
I noticed that Leigh’s gaze had rarely left H’rran since she had started to relax on the short flight. She seemed intrigued, and once it was safe to disconnect the safety devices, I took her on a private tour of the ship. As soon as we were alone, I asked if anything about H’rran made her uncomfortable.
“It’s nothing important. It’s just … Do all Xalanite women have that many?” she whispered in a hushed tone.
“That many what?”
Leigh clamped a hand over my mouth and gestured for me to be quiet. “You know! Her … her tits.”
The last two words were barely audible. When I finally comprehended them, I belted out with laughter. “A Xalanite woman with only two teats would be considered disabled on my planet,” I said. “Of course she has many.”
“Shh!” She looked around, but we were alone. “It’s just … I only have two. How can that be enough for you?”
Was she expressing insecurity? That was unlike Leigh. “I have never been with a Xalanite woman. Why would I need any more than your two? I have two hands; it seems better this way. Besides, other than needing multiple teats for feeding young litters of infants more efficiently, Xalanite teats are not functional. They are not considered sexual organs. Some of our men enjoy touching them, yes, but why would I bother? The women do not experience pleasure from their stimulation. Not like you. I would rather know that I am pleasing you by touching your tea—your hooters.”
“How does she get anything done with all those in the way? Like, how can she reach all the controls for the ship?”
“She has arms.”
Leigh grunted with frustration. “Look, maybe it’s just that you’re a guy, but these things—” she placed her palms on her hooters and wiggled them “—get in the way. There are some activities that are more difficult for women because these suckers are bouncing all over the damn place. How does she manage with four ?”
I shrug. “She learns. She adapts. She does not know what it is like to have less.”
She hugged her chest with both arms, which lifted her hooters quite nicely. “Are you sure it doesn’t bother you that I only have two? You’re not going to regret choosing me later on when you grow tired of only having two boobs to play with?”
I checked the corridor of the ship to ensure that we were alone. No one had followed us.
Taking her hand, I guided her down the hall until we reached the quarters we had been assigned. Leigh giggled as I drew her into the room behind me and closed the door, pressing a button on the panel to the left of it. The locking mechanism clicked into place, and I heard Leigh gasp. The aroma of her arousal filled the room; she knew what was coming.
“T’raat, are we really gonna do this in the middle of a rescue mission?” Her voice was husky, her face flushed.
“I have been a poor tyr’il ,” I said as I drew her into my arms. “For you to doubt yourself over a measly lack of hooters. If I must tell you a thousand times how much I love your two, then that is what I shall do.”
“You can tell me you love my tits without cornering me in a space bedroom.” Her protest seemed empty, as she did nothing to try to escape my grasp.
“I also wished to show you.” I started inching her back towards the bed. Leigh’s laughter filled the room, though it did not sound like it was born of derision. She sounded happy, contented, and I welcomed any such sounds from her delicate throat. “But I cannot show you how glorious your hooters are when you keep them covered like this.” I removed her outer garments, all three layers, until her chest lay bare before me.
Slowly, gently, I advanced until she had no choice but to sit on the bed with her neck craned to look up at me. From this vantage point, I could see the twin swells of her teats rising and falling with each panted breath. My n’ril hardened at the sight, and I knelt at her feet to gaze up at my prize, at the human woman who had so entranced me from the moment I landed on Earth. “I could not even fathom a world in which you were not mine. Not here, not Xalan, not any of the thousands of planets in between. This would not change if you had only one hooter, or none. So long as you are mine, and you allow me to be yours, my life will be full and my n’ril sated.”
Her eyes grew wet with unspilled tears, and she threw herself at me. Her hooters pressed to my face as she hugged me tightly.
“T’raat, that’s the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever said to me!”
I grinned and kissed each hooter before returning her gaze. “If this is the result of saying beautiful things, I must make an effort to say something beautiful every chance I get.”
A soft beeping interrupted our moment, and I cursed in Xalanite. I pressed the communications button at the bedside, grumbling out a “What?”
H’rran answered. “We will arrive at our destination in one Earth time unit.”
“Excellent. Notify the others that we are not to be disturbed until then.” I jammed my fist into the console, disabling the device. “Leigh, my heart, I believe I have recovered from our earlier sexing. I wish to have more.”
“More?” she shrieked as I tackled her back onto the bed. “T’raat, we only have an hour!”
“Would you rather spend that hour with me, or would you prefer to spend it staring at H’rran’s teats?” I growled, wrestling with the fastenings of her leg coverings.
“You,” she said breathily. Leigh assisted me in removing her remaining garments, after which we hurried to remove mine. My upper n’ril licked her wrist when she gripped my lower appendage to apply the zi’in I handed her, inciting a peal of laughter. “That tickles!”
“Is tickle good or bad?” I asked, easing myself into her.
“It’s— ah! —I guess it … depends on … who’s doing … the tickling.” Her words were stilted as I interrupted with repeated thrusts into her. She gripped my shoulders with her hands and wrapped her long legs around my waist, locking me to her almost as effectively as my knot was about to.
Minutes later, when my knot did indeed swell inside her, Leigh sighed blissfully.
“T’raat … Your knot … It means we’re … bonded, right?”
I nuzzled her neck and licked and nibbled the soft skin there. “Yes. Xalanite knots do not appear unless the male is bonded to the female. Unless they are …” I paused in my words, though my hips maintained their onslaught. “I cannot find a human word that fits other than ‘mated.’ I know you do not like that word or its contextual implications.”
Leigh stroked my hair, holding my head to her. “And you guys mark as part of the, um, mating process?”
“Yes, but I do not wish to mark you as Xalanites mark each other. My fangs would damage your delicate skin, so I do not wish to bite you.”
A moan escaped her lips as I kissed her neck. “There’s another way,” she said.
Another way to mark? I looked searchingly into her eyes. “How?”
She ran her fingers over my gills, and I shuddered with delight. “My skin is delicate enough to mark it by sucking on it.” Leigh demonstrated by licking and sucking gently on the skin around my gills. “If you suck my neck hard enough, it’ll leave a special kind of bruise. We call it a hickey. It’s not permanent, but it will definitely tell any human who sees it that I’m yours.”
Interesting. “I just … suck?”
Leigh giggled. “You don’t just suck. You kiss my neck, like you’ve been doing. Just add a little suction while you do it.”
Human sexual relations were complicated. I had much to learn, it seemed, though if there were more activities as pleasurable as titty fucking and blowjobs, I was willing to attempt them. Anything for Leigh.
I slowed my feverish thrusting to allow myself to focus on Leigh’s neck. I started much like I had been, licking and nipping, taking care not to breach her skin with my fangs. When her increased moans indicated success, I added the suction, as she had mentioned. It surprised me how erotic the act was to me despite not providing any direct stimulation to my own body. I devoured her neck much like I had her delicious pussy, and all the while Leigh touched and licked my gills.
Our dalliance ended abruptly when a siren sounded out in the ship’s corridor. My knot deflated as alarm rose in me, and I slid out of my love.
“What does that sound mean?” Leigh asked, a trembling fear in her voice.
“We have reached our destination,” I said as I hurriedly dressed.
She pulled the covers over her naked form. “But why is there that sound? Is something wrong?”
“Yes.” I did not elaborate because it would do no good to frighten her even more. “Stay here. Do not leave these quarters unless I am the one who comes back for you.”
I left her with those words, locking the door behind me and grabbing weapons from a locker in the hall on my way to the exit ramp of the ship. Ann and Timber joined me as I trotted down the corridor, each armed with both human and Xalanite weapons.
“Is she safe?” Ann asked while the ramp lowered.
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s get N’kal and X’nit and get the hell out of here.”