Solara 16
As we start for the huts, I glance up at him. “Do you Mask yourself around me? Or do I get the real you?”
“Do I shimmer or just glow to you?”
“Just glow. But there’s always a sparkle in that fiery eye.”
He laughs and shoves his hands in his pockets as he hangs his head. “Yeah, that’s not something I control.”
“Oh?”
“Only you can see that.”
I stop at the entrance to the women’s hut. “What does that mean?”
“Every Isonian has someone who can see their soulfire. Sometimes it’s a parent or sibling, sometimes a friend or a coworker.
It just means you can see my Luminescence, the idle manifestation of my Vibrance.
You can tell when I am alive and when I am…
dying. But all Healers get training to see it.
And they can draw it out of us, or we can gather our orb and pull it out. ”
“Sounds like a way to commit Isonian suicide.”
His jaw cocks to one side. I can tell by the way his mask moves. He doesn’t like the thoughts my comment provokes.
“So a few have?” I gently ask.
“More than a few.” He looks away. “But it is dishonorable in our culture to tear it out and shatter it. To gift it to a dying child is considered the ultimate sacrifice. I have seen that as well, and it is one of my most painful memories. We lost a good soldier that day but gained a promising one. And then we lost him, too.”
“I am sorry to hear that. That is the one thing I cannot heal that I wish I could.” Broken hearts are the toughest.
“You and me both.”
Abr staff calls us inside the huts for final preparations before the maze hunt begins.
I lightly punch Onidus in the shoulder. “Can I be on your team?”
His eyes smile at me. “See you on the other side.”
Inside the women’s hut, I’m handed a rifle and a belt with grenades, which are more like powdered hormonal candy poppers than vicious weapons of war.
The rifle ammunition is edible candy-flavored hormonal paint, according to the female staffer who shows us how to insert the magazine and rack in a shot.
The colorful balls alternate colors so we never know what we’re going to get.
We’re given eye protection and rules like no headshots and no crotch shots.
“What about butts?” A purple-banded woman asks, giggling.
The blonde Abr staffer grins. “Butts are fine. Especially out here. Target away, ladies. Now, please grab your snacks, and then proceed to the starting line, thank you.”
I snatch up a chocolate turtle cookie and a cup of milk, trying to get used to the way the rifle hangs across my body and how the explosives strapped to my waist feel.
It’s unnerving to think soldiers carry gear like that into battle like they aren’t afraid.
What I have isn’t even deadly, yet its presence brings into focus the vulnerability that carrying such things creates.
Can I be a soldier? Can I put my body in that position? Risk losing eyes and limbs and maybe my life?
I’ve seen what war can do to people and alien species of all kinds. I’m nothing special, just a human. We die easily compared to the vast majority of the aliens we’ve had contact with.
“You good?” Ashani asks, gently touching my arm.
I look up and force a smile. “Yep. Just gearing up to kick some ass.”
Ashani squints at me as she smiles. “That’s putting on a tough mask.”
My lungs don’t want to move; they’re so tense with the unknown direction of my future. “Just hoped I would find a man that would take me away from here.”
“What about Onidus?”
“He’s all work. His boss made him race.”
“Oh. Sure seems like you two get along really well.”
“We survived the invasion of Delsfein together. Our parents worked at the camp there, trying to find a way for the species to fend off the shadow soldiers. But they got inside anyway. Onidus and a small group of Delsfein were the only other survivors. We got them portaled…offworld. But they wouldn’t take me.
Onidus and I survived on that abandoned planet for two weeks after the Nebs had scrapped it and left. The Isonians found us.”
“Jeeze. Wow. And to think I was complaining about a boss that only let me have one weekend off a month.” Ashani adjusts her rifle and motions out front. “Well, you better snag him before someone else does. He’s clearly a kick-ass soldier.”
“He protected our group all by himself. At fourteen.”
Ashani’s eyebrows lift as we walk outside. “That explains why Maclyn’s tone changed so much after he saw Onidus and Garnak have that confrontation. He’s starting to doubt his Luna pack’s history.”
“Well, if you ever need an escape from their territorial demands, you have my com code. Just call me.”
She nods. “Thanks. It is a bit unnerving, thinking he’s going to take me in front of his pack, and they’re all going to be watching and involved in everything.”
“They don’t have to be,” Maclyn remarks, sauntering up to her in the same gear we’re wearing, the straps digging into his short gray-blue fur. “If you want what we have to be private, I will respect that. I will do anything for you.”
As he leans in to sniff her neck, I turn away. “On that note, good luck. I’m going to find my partner.”
“Don’t let him get away,” Ashani calls after me.
If Onidus can’t get me in as a medic, I wonder if I could still join their fleet as a civilian medic, help out however I can, maybe see him now and then.
Movement beside me makes me turn and look.
Onidus catches a Derorsin male by the arm. The species is covered in small armored plates that make them skilled in battle. And while Tasia has mentioned that sex with them is about as pleasurable as it can get, they have the demeanor of Novarks: snippy, grumpy, and uncompromising.
“Stay away from her.” Onidus is firm as he shoves the male back. “She does not want your offer. And your intent is not pure.”
The male snarls at Onidus. “How would you know?”
“I can read your aura. And I can hear your thoughts. You intend to use her and harm her. And I will not tolerate that.”
The Derorsin backs off.
“Do you ever listen to my thoughts?”
“No.” Onidus turns to me. “I tried only once when we were kids. I swore I never would again.”
“What did you hear?”
He tips my chin up and studies each of my eyes.
“Everything I needed to know that I never should have. I don’t use my telepathy unless it’s situation-critical or I am with the other Smolder brothers.
It’s more than I want to process. It gets too easy to fall into that pit of wanting to know everything.
And then you find out things you wish you didn’t. ”
“Like?”
He readies his rifle as Ohni zooms over the maze’s entrance on her hoverpad. “Oh, you know. Just secret desires.”
“You’re teasing me.”
“Kind of. I know Ryz likes Amphirans, Drathis, and basically any female that would challenge him in a battle. And Ulian thinks he’s unlovable.”
“Like you?”
Onidus makes a disgruntled noise. “He needs a gentle mate with serious dedication. But again, it’s not easy to find someone like that who will understand the critical nature of his job and let him do it without protest or worse, cheating on him. So he has elected to not take a mate.”
“That’s sad. It sounds like he deserves one.”
“He needs one more than most.”
Ohni’s hoverpad lights up as she centers herself above the maze. “Welcome, everyone, to the maze, where we have hidden many prized eggs. To seek them out, you must endure the haze of hormonal battle!”
Onidus’ shoulders visibly rise and fall with his deep breath. He looks stressed.
“Hey.” I gingerly elbow him. “We got this. Gold is your thing, anyway.”
His eyes grin down at me from behind his mask. “It is my thing. You’re right. Going for the gold egg in the center?”
“Hell yes.”
The starting gun goes off, and we charge into the maze. Onidus leads me through the hedges at a quick pace. Scanning along the bushes as he can see through them, he whispers to me, “Stay close. This way.”
I sprint after him, firing at everyone that tries to follow.
He holds his rifle perfectly steady and fires with accuracy that makes me jealous.
He takes out a Retterwan ahead of us, two Mindorans, and a Vinym, along with their female teammates, before leading me through a jog in the hedges and around a corner, past a small alcove.
Colorful clouds of powder fill the passages and waft up into the sky. As we round a bend into a corridor, Onidus runs through a cloud of pink smoke. Silence fills the area we’re in.
I slow as I enter the cloud, unable to see more than an arm’s reach in front of me. I find the deep green leaves of the hedge to my right and use the trimmed edge to guide me through the murky air. “Onidus?”
I hear someone rasping up ahead. I lift my rifle and point it forward, even though I know it won’t hurt someone who wants to hurt me.
But I inch deeper into the clouded chamber.
A hiss by my feet makes me look. The smoke isn’t from a racer’s rifle or a candy grenade but built-in supply systems that flood the passage.
A warm, hungry energy fills me as I continue deeper. The plumes are so thick that they blot out some of the sunlight.
Bright light gleams up ahead. As I shift into a thinner area of smoke, I see Onidus. He turns around and looks at me. His shoulders rise and fall with a heavy breath. And he’s walking back toward me, running, snatching me up by the waist.
His rigid cock digs into my belly, evoking a pleasant, tingling need to feel him fill the emptiness I have carried too long. He nestles his mask against my neck and inhales deeply. His words rasp with heavily restrained urges. “This damned dust.”
Oh, stars… The way he clutches me against his toned, virile body and growls my name has me crumbling to pieces and secretly begging for him to take me.
“Yeah,” I breathe, steadying myself on his broad shoulders. I desperately want a taste of him. Sweeping my lips over his strong neck opens up deeper needs, intense cravings to know all of him.
This is my best chance. I reach up and kiss his mask.
Onidus’ fingers dig into my back as his body brightens. “Fuck.”
I think he wants what I do. So I deftly unclasp his mask.
“Solara,” he rumbles but doesn’t let go. “I don’t want you to see me.”
“I don’t care what you look like. I want to know what you feel like.”
Onidus’ rasping pants quicken. His arms loosen.
“Please don’t let go.” I remove his mask and lower it in one hand. Onidus hides the scarred side from me.
“Stop that.” I kiss his chin, sweep my lips over the side I can, and nuzzle his nose. “Let me see you for who you are.”
Onidus squirms like he’s uncomfortable, but I manage to turn his head by gently tugging on his chin.
An uncomfortably long scar stretches from his jaw up the side of his mouth and cheek, cutting across his eye.
The cut split his upper lip and healed it in a way that slightly exposes his canine tooth.
Maybe to most other women, they’d think it’s an ugly mark.
But I can wager how much pain it caused him.
And looking at him now, in this hormonal haze, with that long pointed tooth winking at me, a sign of how vicious and wild Onidus can be, I’m even more turned on.
I cup that scarred side of his lip in a lingering kiss. Onidus lets out a startled breath. After a moment of shock, he hesitantly bonds his mouth to mine. His hands dig in, pressing my hips to his and my breasts into his proud pecs. He is fire and desire and finally opening to me.
I take the back of his neck and draw him deeper, search his mouth until I can glide my tongue over the hot velvet of his, searching for that sign that every reservation has fallen, that he finally feels wanted. But he is still stiff, unsure, calculated, holding back.
Onidus breaks our passionate moment to look me over in confusion.
I hook a leg up, desperate to feel him tight against me again.
“Solara…” Onidus utters, his eyes dilated with interest. He reminds me of my last client ogling the diamond at the center of my glasses.
Onidus doesn’t know it, but he makes me feel like that pretty little gemstone the way he takes me in now.
He glides a thumb over my bottom lip. “What have you done to me?”
I kiss him again, savoring the firmness of his lips and the way he closes his eyes like he’s never felt this good before.
Onidus jerks a hand up. Something splats in his palm. He finally steals one kiss from me of his own choosing, then opens his eyes with dark vengeance stirring in them. Gently taking his mask from my hand, he puts it back on, and lifts his rifle, firing blindly down the passage.
One shot makes someone yelp. “Come on. We have to get to that egg. I want your sisters to be super jealous.”