Chapter 16
XAN
I studied Mars, the red planet, in my astronomy lessons that covered every planet in the Solar System before I traveled to it. It seems alien and familiar at the same time as I get a quick look at the unterraformed landscape, before a shimmering opening appears high in the sky, and Hex aims for it.
“Is that a portal?” I ask.
Hex nods. “You might want to hold on to something. It swallows you up when you reach the exterior of the cloaked dome, and then it spits you out inside.”
That makes our landing…hectic, to say the least. It’s a good thing some cleaning and organizing was done before we got here or Hex’s things—that I put away—would have flown around and smacked into us during our descent.
“Welcome, Captain Henrix of the planet Eppo.”
“Hello, Numbers.” Hex puts the ship into “fuck with anyone who tries to fly you who isn’t me” mode and moves away from the flight deck. “I see Braxton got here first.”
“And was accompanied by Jaxus, Captain. Jaxus instructed me to keep that to myself.”
“As you should,” he orders. “Where is he now?”
“He watched your landing from the other scoutship and he was not impressed.”
“Good to know,” Hex says wryly.
I roll my eyes and open the airlock. Outside of the ship, rocky ground, trees, and a lake all have a muted color palette that goes on for miles and miles under an opaque dome, which looks like an overcast sky above us.
A set of rusty, grime-covered train tracks are the only colorful thing in sight.
They’re painted bright yellow, perhaps to be easily spotted if someone gets lost out here, so they can follow them to the research facility.
“Is that how we’re going to travel in this dome?” I ask, cocking my head toward the tracks. They’re a short walk from the scoutships.
“Yes,” Hex says. “Numbers can dispatch a train that will take us to Braxton, after we have a word with Jay.”
Why did Braxton leave him in the middle of nowhere and take the train alone? I wonder.
Then the airlock of the other ship opens, and I know exactly why. Jay’s hands ball into fists as he slowly turns away from the wall he was watching us on, his new muscles flexing in broad and powerful shoulders that lead down to biceps and triceps that are nearly as big as mine and Hex’s.
He looks incredible, and is definitely the most fuckable interstellar-alliance killer I’ve ever seen.
It’s hard for me to even care about what the Council will think about this as I look him up and down, but they will probably want mine and Braxton’s heads for this.
The purple veins that trace over his thick forearms hint at who is partially to blame for his new form, and his blue skin will tell everyone who finished what I started.
“Braxton is a dead man!” Hex roars, making his own fists as his aura flows red.
“It’s not his fault!” Jay shouts, his voice slightly deeper, but mostly unchanged. His hybrid vocal chords and greater lung capacity did not alter it much.
Fascinating.
“You’re nearly as blue as he is,” Hex growls. “There’s no denying who is responsible for this change.”
“This is the result of a plan I came up with and executed—with the very helpful information you gave me about joinings, and how many I would need to make this change,” Jay growls back, his lovely maroon aura swirling faster and faster.
“Xan had me first, and Braxton didn’t know that when we fucked.
If you’re going to hold anyone responsible for this, it should be me. ”
“I don’t want to hear another word of that—of you making excuses for your elders!” Hex gives Jay a chilling glare before he whirls on me. “Your weak elders, who are a disgrace to all Givers and their people!”
“I’m not the one who has lied about what’s really going on, on Mars, to my people,” I scoff.
“Yeah,” Jay says. “What’s up with that, Captain? I just saw you come out of a portal! And humans can’t make those, so explain why an NV portal is on Mars.”
Hex lets out a heavy sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. “There is much I haven’t told you, Jaxus.”
“No shit!”
“Give us a minute,” I say, and Hex looks at me like I just asked him to get out of a command seat so I can fly.
“So you can fuck him again?”
“So your jealous ass can take a breath and cool off.” The bronze color of his aura lets me know he isn’t just upset about the rules we broke.
His aura turns that color when he’s very jealous.
So what’s really got him so upset is that our rule-breaking involved Braxton and I getting to know Jay’s human form in a way he never will.
Jay snickers at the captain’s aura, and my reply.
You’re not helping, I try to tell him with a sharp look, which doesn’t stop him from—incredibly maturely—sticking his tongue out at me before he sits on a bed that he and Braxton probably joined on.
God knows how.
It is hard for me to picture his human form fitting both of the commander’s givers inside his tight ass.
“Great to see no longer being human won’t stop you from acting like a human brat,” Hex chides.
“Well, I am still half human,” Jay shoots back. “And you’re half-liar, at least.”
“Enough you two,” I growl. “You’re making a scene on Mars.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Jay sniffs. “I did this because I didn’t want to leave you guys, and I thought we could get through anything—as long as we stuck together—but I never thought this would make any of you decide you didn’t want to stick with me anymore.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hex says, entering the ship just so he can grab Jay by the jaw.
I step forward to intervene, but the captain holds a hand out at me, and I halt with gritted teeth.
He better make this… Well…better, and not worse.
“How could you think I would ever abandon you, little one?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Captain—maybe because you’ve been trying to convince me to not fight being permanently grounded on Earth?”
“For your own good,” Hex argues. “But now things have changed, and you will not face a single second of whatever happens next alone.”
“And you’re just too hot to abandon now,” I tease.
“So, you like my new form?” Jay asks, his voice weak when he looks to me, as Hex’s fingers drop from his jaw to his bulky shoulder.
“I never thought there was anything in this universe that would ever make my heart race like your human form did, Jaxus, but your hybrid form is even more uniquely breathtaking,” I tell him, speaking with raw honesty as my aura flows white, showing how pure my feelings are.
“You still have flawless skin, though the color has changed, your exceptionally striking face is mostly the same—just with more chin—and the rest of you looks so much like a mix of us, like you’ve become this embodiment of our love.
And, although I know some humans would fear what they see, I cannot see how anyone could look at you and not realize our love is something to celebrate. ”
“I didn’t think you’d take it that well,” Jay says, his face flushing purple.
“How did you think I’d take it?” I ask as I move to stand beside the captain.
“I thought you might strangle me for tricking you into helping me do this.”
“I could try that,” I say, with a thoughtful pause, “but, in this new form, you could probably take me.”
Jay grins like a fool as he pulls me and the captain into one big hug with his large blue arms, before we take turns tasting his new lips.
They are warmer now, but taste of him still, just more richly.
I groan and try to put my tongue in his mouth during my next turn with those tasty lips, but he pulls away.
“Hold on,” Jay says, taking a moment to get his breathing under control as his aura fades. “Before we get carried away—someone needs to tell me what’s going on, on Mars, and why I have nanoparticles in me.”