4. Chapter 4 #2
“I’m not going to let you down,” I whisper, finally opening my eyes as I release the door lock, revealing a thankfully very empty room.
Another door, another held breath, and another empty, much larger room greet me.
This one is obviously a communal space. The seating is all too tall for me to enjoy easily, not that I have any plans to hang around.
The sight of a kitchen is tempting, though.
The Breeding Agency housing had spoiled me a bit over the limtic I was there.
My stomach was getting used to the sensation of fullness.
Over-fullness really. The other girls, what few required agency housing at least, said nothing as I took more than my share.
The cleaning bots left the food I hid in my pod alone after the first day.
Not much makes me embarrassed, but the looks on their faces while I ate to the point of feeling sick did.
I stayed in my room to eat after that.
If they wanted to go hungry the next time food dried up, that was on them. Everyone was entitled to learn their own lessons the hard way. Mom taught me that, although life had already heavily introduced the concept.
I stumble a bit as I head deeper into the room, but it's fine. I usually come out of these things quickly. It wasn’t uncommon to wake up having been put to sleep with night gas in the education pods, only to wake up woozy, washed and changed, or in the process of such things.
It wasn’t a matter of violation but simply easier for the staff to handle the upkeep of so many of us while we were sleeping.
Nearly all of us had a unique set of grooming requirements.
Some that could take hours with a squirming, irritable cub.
My nudity has long had the rush drained from it. My body is simply that: a
vessel to do shit with.
Unfun shit. Mostly.
Like sneaking and hiding or trimming my nails.
Once I get off this ship, all that will—
My entire body, entire mind, entire everything shuts off at the sight of the back wall of the room. The vast, rolling, vibrant… plants past the weird, shimmering windows.
Windows.
And plants.
Because this isn’t a ship.
This isn’t… this isn’t a fucking ship.
My legs give out from underneath me as I stare at the bright fields of glowing flowers, the breeze making them dance in rolling waves.
The grass is far from the green on Lunareth, where I’m supposed to be, but an odd, vibrant teal.
The sheet poofs out as if it’s been inflated around me.
My left knee, sore from falling from the bed, lets out a brief pang that goes almost entirely unnoticed.
I’m not ready for the sudden, ripe onslaught of emotion that greets me.
I’m planetside.
On the wrong planet.
I’m… planetside.
I’ve never seen a planet before, not in real life.
Who knows how long I sit in the strange white space watching the strange flowers, torn between wanting to close my eyes and go back to the windowless room or run full tilt into them.
Desperate to touch something… natural, something real for the first time in my life.
Desperate to hide from it too. The betrayal this represents.
The press of mom’s fang on my chest sets my tears loose. Fat, heavy, stupid tears that run down my face in ugly cascades. When the sound of footsteps finds me, I don’t turn around to face them. I just stare at the flowers. At the breeze I can’t feel.
My voice is a mere whisper, choked out between gasping breaths. “Where am I?”
“Silloria, my home planet,” Sor’en’s velvet voice answers as he comes to a stop, the sweet masculine flora of him choking my nose. Tricking me into inhaling just a bit deeper.
“What quadrant?”
He hesitates as my shoulders shake. “The first.”
My breath whooshes out of me. First quadrant is deep, deep, deep space. The deeper the quadrant, the more compact they are, closer to each other, ports… the greater galaxies. Easier and cheaper to traverse.
First is as far, as desolate as one can get. In our solar system, at least.
I’m seven quadrants from where I need to be. Traveling just one was over two thousand credits. I spent years of my life making it to quadrant five.
I rip my eyes from the flowers, my legs wobblier than before as I try to stand. Sor’en reaches out his hand, steadying me before I rip myself from him so aggressively it sets me off balance, making me fall back to the floor with a muffled humph.
“Don’t you dare,” I warn him from my pitiful little heap as he reaches out again.
He flinches. The terrifying death-touch giant alien flinches. I glare at him as I get to my feet, anger shoring up my steps. Agony ripe and pungent settles like stones in my gut. “You will get me off this planet now.”
He straightens himself, and for the first time, I notice the stained apron he’s wearing. The same vibrant colors from outside decorating what was once white. “No.”
“You cannot force me to stay with you.”
“Draya’la—”
“Stop calling me that.”
A soft growl slips from his throat, his hands clenching at his sides. I can see it there, the sheen of oil… a toxin. I take a step back. “Then tell me your name,” he counters.
“Take me back to Vortara.”
“I cannot.”
“You can.”
“Please, my mate… just—”
“Call me your mate again and I will impale myself on the nearest sharp object,” I snap as he steps closer, damn near making me slip over the stupid sheet again. I stumble, taking my eyes off him long enough to detangle my legs again. It was a mistake.
Vertigo hits me hard before I ever even realize I’ve been hauled up and over his shoulder. I scream, not out of fear, maybe a little out of fear, but mostly anger. My fists forget the sheet altogether, letting it fall, exposing my bare ass so I can whack him in the back.
“You touch me so freely, my stubborn little gift.”
“Eat shit, asshole!” I sob.
He huffs at that, his large oil-coated palm slapping down onto my bare ass with a pungent sting. I hiss at the sudden shock, my angry sobs silenced for a moment. The pain doesn’t last long because a warm tingle takes over… one oddly close to my sensitive center.
“There are few things I would deny you, Draya’la. Consuming excrement is unfortunately one of them.”
“Aw, what a shame,” I quip, my voice oddly breathy, before throwing all caution out of the window.
Sor’en stills on his path to whatever horrible death he’s leading me to as I wrap my arms around his tapered waist. I can feel it the moment his entire body tenses as I give him what can only be described as an upside-down hug.
He shudders, the odd feeling of his spine pressing my chest as I nestle my face deep into his hard garment.
“Draya’la…” he breathes.
And then I bite.