Stolen Destiny Read online

  By the time he kissed her, her hips were surging against his hand. He thrust two fingers deep inside her while his thumb circled and circled. When his lips covered hers, she moaned. That involuntary response made her blush, but he teased her with his tongue, his lips, and his hand, and soon, she groaned as her body tried to grip him and suck him into her. Her orgasm was a hot, bright wave, and when she slumped back, he was still moving his fingers slowly inside her.

  Kalek raised his head and licked her cheek. Her eyes felt hot, and a tear had made its way out of her eye.

  When she looked at him, his eyes were brighter, and his appearance was that of someone with more focus.

  He slowly withdrew his fingers from inside her, and he stuck them in his mouth, licking them clean of her juice. Sil watched curiously. She knew what she tasted like, but it was always strange to think that it wouldn’t freak other people out. But then, he was a strange race. That begged a thought.

  “How sexually compatible are we? Like on a basic level.”

  Kalek paused. “I was designed to find a companion, as were others of my kind. A few more investigative excursions like this, and I will have adapted to your physiology.”

  She blinked and waved her hand. “Like this?”

  He nodded and paused. “Why is there blood in your hand?” He sat up and took her hands in his. “Both of them.”

  Sil frowned. “I didn’t want to move, and we didn’t discuss if I was allowed to touch you, and it didn’t seem the right time to ask for permission.”

  “You dug through the skin.” He lifted her left hand up and examined it. “You have scars here as well. Do you do this a lot?”

  She made a face. “There are a lot of things in life that require you to be still to get through them. Medical treatments are one of those things.”

  “Why didn’t medical catch this on the first pass?”

  Sil nodded and then inhaled sharply as he stroked his tongue along her skin. Her toes curled, and she sat up, trying to see what he was doing. She whispered. “Medical made a note of it, but the scarring was considered a non-vital repair. There isn’t any nerve damage under it if that is what you are asking about.”

  He sighed and kept licking with short strokes. When he finished working on her left hand, he lifted her right. The blood disappeared, and when he was done, she was pressing her thighs together, and her skin was hot.

  “I can utilize an enzyme in my saliva to accelerate the healing of superficial wounds.”

  She blinked. “Nice trick.”

  He was lying next to her, and the lower part of his uniform was still in place. His wings were tucked behind him. He chuckled, threaded a hand into her hair, and he kissed her slowly. When he raised his head, she asked, “Are you being very careful with me?”

  He nodded. “I am. I have never had a companion before, and I want to keep you in a favourable mood.”

  She smiled. The very idea was hilarious, but a smile was all she could manage. “Thank you for your efforts, but it is not necessary. You have needs just as I do, and the imbalance isn’t fair.”

  He smiled and stroked her hair. “You might regret that comment one day.”

  Sil nodded as she looked into his stellar gaze. “Probably.”

  He nodded and rolled from the bed, putting his shirt back on. “Come on. We are going on a tour of the ship. This will be your home now, and you need to be able to find your way around when I am not with you.”

  Sil nodded and got to her feet, wiggling back into the suit to a very interested audience as he clipped his tunic behind his neck. She finished the final closure and frowned. “Why is there no underwear?”

  He chuckled. “The suit is built to keep all delicate tissues safe and to be changed daily. It contains biological monitoring and a dispersing armour in case of electrical discharge.”

  He ran his hand down her shoulder and over her breast. “It protects and encases, and then, it goes through the cleanser, and you put it on again the next day.”

  She craned around and looked at her backside. “It still feels weird. My parents used to give me lectures about clean underwear. This flies in the face of convention, as they used to also say.”

  He grinned. “Well, if you are dressed and feeling vulnerable, it is time for that tour.”

  She nodded and took the hand he held out to her. He had confirmed what he needed to. She wondered when it would be appropriate to tell him that she responded better to rougher handling. He will probably figure it out.

  Chapter Four

  “Why are you on this ship? What do your people do?” Sil walked next to him and fired questions at him. “Why do the crew look different than you do?”

  “I am on this ship because it is mine. My people travel and try and stop illegal transport of personnel and goods. The crew looks different because they are a different species. I am Hmrain, and they are the Byrcal. Their world was wracked by disease, and their population needed to be transplanted to a new world.”

  “So, they ended up here?”

  “Having volunteers work at helping others in the same situations was part of the agreement to moving them. Like for your world, the education station arrived, and those who wanted to leave can leave. I recruited out of those on the station and hired them on.”

  They walked, and the crew that they passed smiled and nodded toward Kalek.

  “The crew seem friendly enough.” She nodded.

  “They are. We get along well. They do take some liberty beyond the bounds of protocol, but it is generally to my benefit.”

  “So you were locked up.”

  “Yes.”

  “On purpose?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why did you attack the doors at medical?”

  He smiled. “I was upset.”

  “What would you have done if you had gotten to me before the doors closed?”

  Kalek paused. “You know I didn’t think that far ahead. I just needed to be near you.”

  Sil shrugged. “Okay. So, where are we going now?”

  “We are starting with the dining hall and then the oxygen farm. I am going to stretch my wings. We could also head to the gym to see if you want to begin an exercise regimen.”

  She nodded happily. “Where are the other Terrans who were found?”

  “The survivors are in the emergency guest quarters with plenty of medical care. A third of the crew is medical staff for this purpose.” Kalek nodded to another crewmember.

  “Oh. That is thinking ahead.”

  He chuckled. “We have been doing this for a few decades. We have it down by now.”

  The mention of time reminded her. “So, what is the significance of rut versus any other urge for sex?”

  He cleared his throat. “Rut is all-consuming. It takes my logic and focus away. It is also the only time that I am fertile. So, as it fades, I am sterile once again for another few decades.”

  “Ah. Fair enough. I think I am sterile right now as well.”

  He glanced at her. “Really?”

  “Those medications that I mentioned were going to damage my reproductive system, and I have no means of checking up on it.”

  “We can check on that if it worries you.”

  She shrugged. “Not particularly. They gave me a shot to keep my cycle at bay for a few months. I don’t know how long we were in the container, but I should still have a few months left.”

  “You were in the container for three weeks.”

  “Ah. Plenty of time then.” She shrugged.

  He escorted her into the dining area, and she stared at the open space. “You will have two options. You can do a bio scan that will find food to suit you, or you can take a tray and pick what looks good. We get fresh food from every world we orbit, so we are rarely dipping into rations.”

  “How do I know what is okay for me?”

  He ushered her to the buffet and showed her the small lights next to each tray. “
You are this colour purple and this colour green.”

  “That is handy. What colours are you?” She looked at him.

  “Blue and black, but I don’t need to eat often.” He nodded at the folk behind the trays. “I usually put in a request when I need food.”

  “Do the Brycal eat purple and green as well?”

  “They do. They can eat nearly anything.” He chuckled. “It appalls local communities because the combinations they create are rarely palatable to anyone else.”

  “Ah.” Sil nodded.

  “Are you hungry?” He murmured it quietly.

  “No.”

  “When did you last eat?”

  She paused. “Um. In the cell.”

  “Right. You are going to have something. It’s in your contract under physical maintenance.”

  She nodded and looked at the purple and green choices. “May I try that and that and that?”

  She got herself a tray and put the crispy meat, cooked and raw vegetables on the dark surface. “Thank you.”

  The server smiled and nodded. “We usually have something for everyone around the shifts. You can always find something if you need it, and if we aren’t busy, we can do custom food.”

  “Thanks. It looks good.” She turned and headed to the beverage station, where she got a quick outline of what came out of which spigot. She got a cup of tea, found some cutlery, and followed Kalek to a table and sat across from him. She nibbled at the shredded meat. It was a weird combination of pork, chicken, and venison. She shrugged and moved on to the cooked vegetable. It was a starch, soft and sweet with a slight crunch at the edge of the peel. The raw vegetables weren’t truly raw. They were pickled, and she went after them with enthusiasm. When her little plates were empty, she sipped at her tea and looked at Kalek. “You are very quiet.”

  He smiled. “I admire your caution, but your ability to push yourself to consume is amazing. Most balk when they get to the pickles.”

  “I like pickles.” She held her teacup in both hands.

  The shifts must have changed because a group of crewmen and women came in laughing and elbowing each other, heading for the food. They picked up their trays, got their food, and it wasn’t until they had their beverages and were turning toward the tables that they stopped in a blocked locomotive-style blockage.

  Kalek took one of her hands and pressed a kiss to her palm. The crew exhaled in relief and nodded respectfully to their table as they passed.

  “So, what was that?”

  “The crew is worried that I am still aggressive, so I indicated that you are the focus of my attentions.” He gave her a smiling grimace.

  “They worry that much?”

  “Apparently. I would never take one of my crew as a lover. The Byrcal are not suitable. I can get a passive amount of contact energy from them but not what I need to charge my secondary abilities.”

  “Wait. What?”

  He smiled. “Are you done with your tea?”

  She looked at her cup and nodded. “Yup.”

  “Then, allow me, and we will continue the tour.”

  She set her cup on her tray, and he picked it up and bussed it for her. It was a strangely high school moment. Sil walked to catch up with him and walked through the ship with him on her very slow tour.

  “So, what is an oxygen farm?”

  “It’s a forest in the centre of the ship. It is not strictly necessary and a pain in the ass to maintain, but it is wonderful for morale, and it lets me stretch my wings.”

  Sil thought about it. “It had not occurred to me that there would be a psychological effect to a functional item.”

  “You haven’t ever had something sentimental?”

  “No. Why?”

  He smiled. “What about the feather?”

  She reached into her hair and pulled it forward. “What about it?” She brushed it against her lips and inhaled the scent.

  He groaned and then focused. “Do you have an attachment to the feather?”

  “Yes, but it is functional. The scent calms me, and I like the feel of the feather.” She shrugged.

  He sighed. “What would you do if you lost it?”

  “Ask you for another one?” She smiled. “Are all Hmrain the same?”

  He chuckled. “No. We are all individually designed. No two of us match.”

  “Is there a pattern book I can look at?”

  Kalek looked at her in astonishment. “No. We occasionally get together, but such gatherings are rare, and we can’t all arrive at the same time.”

  He put an arm around her shoulder and turned her. “And here is our destination.”

  They walked through a doorway and were standing out on a balcony that was sixty feet above the floor down below. That floor was covered with dirt, plants, trees and looked like a micro arboreal forest. “It’s lovely.”

  He smiled. “It is a design that has taken decades to get right, but now, we have a stable output that is pumped through the vessel after being run through filters.”

  “It’s pretty.” She leaned out over the railing, and he held her back.

  He smiled. “Stay here. I need to stretch my wings.”

  “I will stay here.” She nodded and blinked as he launched himself over the edge of the railing, and his wings flared out to scoop the air.

  She had watched hawks and eagles at her family’s cabin, but this was different, and it was flying at her.

  He stopped short of the balcony, and he hovered, sort of. He dipped and rose with the beats of his wings.

  “Care to come with me on a flight?”

  She shook her head. “No, thank you. I will stay on the balcony.”

  He landed on the railing, crouching like a gargoyle. “Don’t you like the idea of flying?”

  Sil smiled slightly. “It isn’t flying. It is more like me hiding against you with a little bit of air moving past me. You are flying. I am a sack of vegetables.”

  He smiled. “You will get used to it.”

  “Yes, but today is not that day.”

  He laughed and kicked backward before flying up toward the flat clear plates that created the roof. He rose and fell, doing barrel rolls and loop the loops. Sil watched him and had to admit that he was very pretty when he flew.

  When he finished his stretch, he returned to her with a fine sheen of sweat on his skin. Sil bit her lip because her instinct was to lick his neck.

  He stared at her for a moment. “Do you want something?”

  Sil debated her answer and shrugged. “Yes.”

  “What is it?”

  “No.” It wasn’t an answer, but it got the idea to him.

  “What, precisely, do you want to do?”

  “I don’t know how to describe it.”

  “Then, do it.”

  She shrugged and walked up to him, sliding a hand around his neck and pulling him to her so that she could run her tongue up his neck, tasting the salty musk of his sweat.

  He froze in place as she did that. When she tried to step back, he caught her with an arm around her waist, pulling her tight against him. Sil licked her lips, and that seemed to have triggered him because he was kissing her hard and pressing her against the wall near the door. She tasted him as his tongue slid along hers and threaded her arms around his neck. His hair was cool and silky against her fingers, and when he lifted his head, she looked into his eyes. His voice was a husky rumble. “Nice instinct.”

  She smiled and wrinkled her nose. “Thank you. You are a lot of fun to watch.”

  His eyes widened, and he smiled. “Define fun.”

  She struggled for a definition of watching him. “Arousing?”

  “You tell me.”

  She opened the front of her suit and slid his hand to her mound. “You tell me.”

  His eyes widened further as he found her hot, swollen, and slick. He blinked, and his fingers moved against her. He pushed her firmly against the wall, slid on
e thigh between hers, and then, those fingers slid in a slow exploration that got faster as she tensed and shivered until he circled her clit rapidly and gasped as the rush spread through her in a hot wave. She gripped his wrist to stop the motion on her sensitive flesh, and he chuckled and withdrew his hand, lapping softly at his fingers. “Yes, that is definitely arousal.”

  Sil blinked. “Yeah, I thought so.” She closed her suit, and he chuckled.

  “You give off quite a bit of energy when you cum, but it is tight and controlled. I wonder what would cause your control to shatter.” He stroked his fingers down her neck.

  “I don’t know. This is just the way I am. Maybe you should trade me in for a different human if you find another that is suitable.”

  He chuckled. “No, I think I will work with you to see how far we can stretch your control.”

  She frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. If you can find the responses you need more easily elsewhere, why wouldn’t you go for them?”

  “The first issue is that even though they are checking all of your surviving population now, there is still less than one suitable Hmrain companion in every five hundred thousand. Of those, not all will suit the Hmrain who buys their bond.”

  “Why did you offer me a contract? Shouldn’t you have gone on to return me to the station?”

  He nuzzled her neck. “I didn’t want you to leave. I need you.”

  “Need me? Your rut is over.”

  He scraped her neck with his teeth. “Mostly.”

  “What?”

  “It is mostly over. The chemicals don’t simply wear off. They taper off gradually, and you are giving me a strange and conflicting situation. I am feeling the roar in my blood, but my body should have been on its way to calming by now. I stand next to you, and I am on fire.”

  “It sounds uncomfortable.”

  “It is. Intensely. And yet, all I want is to confine you to my quarters and learn every inch of you slowly and carefully before I hammer into you and listen to your moans.”