Hidden in Predator Planet, page 35
“Disservice?” I repeated, dazed.
“I intended to move slowly, but your teeth and claws demand otherwise,” he growled and climbed over me, nestling between my spread legs, and I shuddered and moaned at his immensity, his heat, his power.
I guessed I had been biting and clawing him unthinkingly, and his nearness instigated more. Digging my fingers into his back, I bit his neck and inhaled the spicy male scent of him. I wanted to devour him, and startlingly, I felt like a bona fide predator. Which on a place called Predator Planet made perfect sense.
“Your heat calls to me,” he whispered and slid his hand between us, rocking to the side so he could slip fingers between my crease and glide them back and forth before fisting himself and sliding his own hand up and down his length.
“Hey, my turn,” I growled back at him, and he chuckled. When I grasped him, I noticed the hard bumps and felt myself slicken just at the thought of what we would do next. “Oh God, I can’t wait another second,” I said and positioned him at my entrance.
He didn’t torture me; he drove in at my insistence and I accepted him with a pleased gasp and clenched arms around his torso, holding him to me with my legs wrapped around him and squeezing tight.
Burying his mouth between my shoulder and jaw, his hot breath sunk into my skin when he spoke.
“I have died and now I glide among the flowers in the Fields of Shegoshel,” he said.
My low chuckle rippled between us. “Oh stop. You’re the alivest living hunter who ever lived.”
Rumbling in pleasure he began to move. “I am still learning your language, but I think that is not a word …”
“Mm,” I said, words impossible. He was taking me at an irresistible rocking pace, and the bumps were catching on a special place inside me, driving me to the brink before I was ready.
“God,” I panted and joined his fervor, searching his face and grabbing his waist and ass, my hands frantically touching him everywhere. I wanted all of him, his outside, his inside; I wanted him in me, around me, through me, and when he dove for my mouth again, our kiss clashed with fiery wonder.
Our skin glided together, and our breaths mingled, and our muscles spasmed, and I never wanted this to end.
“Your fevered passion ….” He stopped talking, and I think both of our brains went offline.
He grunted; I groaned. Nothing existed outside our creation, the love that pulsed and flourished between us, and when he bent to suckle at my breasts, I exploded all over and around him until I was limp and lax, blissed out and giddy.
He slowed his pace and kissed up my neck, searching out my mouth for more deep kisses, and he lingered for several—rotiks—until speeding up once more and seizing his own ecstasy at my encouragement. When he stilled and arched up, trembling at his peak, I admired the tendons in his neck, the strained muscles of his arms and chest, the tantalizing vee pointing to where we joined, and I knew I wasn’t finished with him tonight.
90
Raxthezana
“VELMA tells me the second sun has breached the horizon,” I announced at the fire rod in the center of the cave. “The white bark tea is brewed. Make you ready for today!”
A chorus of groans and surprised laughs met my ears, and CeCe came up behind me to wrap her arms around my neck. “It’s a good thing you made Predator Planet coffee, or you’d be public enemy number one right now,” she whispered in my ear.
“It is a good day to battle,” I said, pleasure and happiness bubbling inside my heart like a pot of good soup.
She squeezed me once then let go and came around to sit beside me, holding her cup for the tea. “You have a strange way of celebrating the morning after,” she murmured and sipped, her eyes smiling at me.
“It is a celebration, indeed,” I said, and I wasn’t the least embarrassed to say so within earshot of every member of our traveling party.
“I rolled up our pallets and sharpened my blades,” she said.
The humans appeared one by one, accepting my brew and settling into their breakfast of foraged and dried mushrooms and sister-bread.
My brothers cast me suspicious looks and grumbled as they packed their things.
“Take heart,” Natheka told me and slapped me on the back. “You never noticed their foul morning tempers because you used to lead the pack!”
Startled at his words, I realized he was accurate, and I laughed. Holding my cup up, I saluted my brethren. “May your every morning follow a night of unrepentant sexual sport!”
CeCe groaned and covered her eyes, falling backward and yelling “No, no, no you didn’t!”
The other humans squealed and laughed but held up their cups and smashed them together with a metallic clank.
“Hear, hear!” Pattee agreed.
“Truer words,” Amity nodded and emptied her cup.
Joan and Esra cracked grins and yanked CeCe to sitting. “Come on, Sis, it’s not like we didn’t know. Be proud! Own it! It’s a beautiful thing!” Joan encouraged her friend and CeCe laughed and put her arm around me.
“I am proud, and I own him, all right,” she said.
“Swear to God,” Esra finished her drink and shook her head. “It’s the only bright spot on this godforsaken planet sometimes.”
“You are not wrong,” Naraxthel joined in and sat beside his mate, stealing a kiss before he spoke. “Speaking of goddess-forsaken. Let us outlay our preparations one last time. We reach Raxthezana’s ship today. I will deliver our mates to Pattee’s glade, and then we will travel to Ikshe to make peace with our people—and war with our Queen.”
I nodded and glanced around the circle to see the grim expressions of my brothers and the composed features of the humans. Naraxthel continued.
“We will gather intelligence regarding the IGMC ship, and when BoKama is safe, we will return to Ikthe to bolster the humans’ preparations for their guerrilla warfare upon the indolent sots who dare to attack them.”
“Indolent sots,” Esra said. “I love that.”
“Have I missed anything?” Naraxthel said, smiling down at her.
“A word,” I said, and everyone looked at me. “I treasure the bonds we have formed together. Let courage sustain you in the coming days, and we will reunite to forge unbreakable bands of friendship, brotherhood, sisterhood, and love.”
Unexpected moisture brimmed in my eyes, but I didn’t dash it away. When I saw my brothers similarly afflicted, I gave them a soft smile, and they nodded at me in turn.
Our trek to my ship was uneventful, the open mountain air free of storms or ikadaxl, though I did not doubt our thoughts rolled with the thunder of anxiety at our coming battles. But CeCe was mine; the humans were cunning and powerful, and my brothers and I determined.
Today was a good day to battle, and we would.
91
CeCe
Raxthezana’s ship disappeared into the pale orange sky, and we stood outside Pattee’s pod, a little stunned, a little concerned, and a little disjointed.
“Ladies,” Pattee’s calm voice grounded me, and I turned to look at her. “Would you feel weird if we held hands and had a moment of silence?” she asked, and I held out both hands.
Everyone stepped close enough to join hands, and we bowed our heads or looked up at the sky; some closed their eyes, others not, and we breathed in and out and felt our combined emotions and strength join for a couple minutes.
As for me, I prayed.
“This feels very weird,” Joan said after a minute, and the others nodded. “Not the handholding,” she clarified. “The guys being gone.”
“I’ve been with them for what feels like my entire life,” Esra said with a short laugh. “Guess I should be happy that I graduated Predator Planet 101.”
“God, if this 101, I’d hate to do the graduate program,” I muttered, and they laughed.
When our clasps broke, I put hands on my hips and looked around at the glade that had been mentioned a few times by the others.
The pod stood next to a low outcropping of rocks. A huge tumble of them formed a semi-circle around it, suggesting they’d collapsed around it at one time. To the south was a steep drop off, and I could hear the churn of water below, presumably a river. To the north was a field flanked by a thick stand of trees, and to the east was a natural barrier formed by some brushy overgrowth and a creek. A lone tree and an odd vine-covered structure sat in the center of the field around which were strewn more rocks and unkempt tussocks.
With more vines growing up the pod, it had an abandoned quality, but as far as a home base went, it was defensible.
“This is a great spot,” I said.
Pattee beamed, and my smile widened. “What, did you land here on purpose?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I wanted a defendable position; the river at the south was a natural boundary, as well as what used to be a rock outcropping to the west–before the earthquakes.” She grimaced.
Nodding, I gave her a fist bump and bent over to pick up a rock. “Where do you want these?”
We worked for two solid hours, clearing the rocks and using machetes to shorten the grass. I discovered the odd structure was, in fact, the rib cage of an enormous animal: the rokhura. Greenery had overgrown it, and spongy moss had grown inside it forming an irresistible fort.
With the glade cleaned up and new traps set at the tree line, we gathered dried wood from the forest and stacked it near Pattee’s fire pit.
We squeezed inside the pod and took off our helmets, drinking our fill of filtered water and taking a break.
“VELMA, can we hear a report of every breach in the nanosatellite array in the last twenty-four hours?” Pattee asked.
“See monitor three for the breach report,” VELMA said, and we looked.
“Oh cool, here it shows the coordinates,” Esra said. “Is that the other hemisphere? Are those hunters?”
“Affirmative. If you look at the Y axis, I have included icons to represent meteorites, Theraxl ships, and unidentified objects.”
Stunned, I shot a look at the others who were as perplexed as I was.
“Unidentified objects?” I said.
“There’s one here,” Esra pointed. “VELMA?”
“It breached the array at 0900 hours at the shown coordinates,” she said. “Scanners label it as space debris, yet augmented digitization specs indicate otherwise.”
“Do you have a digital model of it?” Joan asked.
“Affirmative. Monitor two.”
A black-on-white diagram resembling an EEP X215 showed up on the second monitor.
“Is that a pod?” Amity asked.
“No,” Pattee and I said at the same time. “It’s an executive class skimmer,” Pattee further explained. “If you look here and here—"she pointed to two inconspicuous protrusions— “you can just see the engine inserts. It has both interplanetary and extraplanetary capabilities.”
“Ah Fuck,” Esra said. “IGMC found us.”
“I thought we’d have more time,” Joan said. “But I guess if they were tracking the radiation trails from the very beginning ….”
“VELMA, where’s the skimmer?” Pattee said.
“With any luck, they tried to land in the Agothe-Fatheza,” Joan said with a scowl.
“Unfortunately, the vehicle must be employing scrambling technology,” VELMA said. “I am unable to detect it. It may also be in the Magnetic Burst Field.”
“VELMA, lockdown and scramble outgoing transmissions,” Esra said. “We need to be as invisible as possible.”
“Would detonating the remaining FQBs help?” Joan asked.
“It’s too late,” Pattee said. “The half-life is long enough it would still be detectable.”
“What about stopping the excursion, though?” Amity said. “If we could just get them off the planet or destroy them, couldn’t that stall the excursion out?”
“I think it’s the magnetic isotope quality that triggers the geomagnetic activity, and like Pattee was saying, even with the physical FQB gone, the radiation decay remains,” I said.
“Damn,” Joan said. “The best we can do is hold off whoever is coming after us until our mates come back.”
“A skimmer can only hold a couple people,” Pattee said. “I don’t think it’s the Hostile Recovery Corps. Yet.”
“You’re right,” I said. “The HRC has its own ships and weapons. When they deploy, it will be with their full force. They’ll come in hot with guns blazing, intense firepower, no respect for ecosystems or environments, and with high-tech explosions. We can use the skimmer and its occupants as the test run. Because when the HRC lands, we can’t afford any mistakes.”
“Miners,” Pattee said with hands on her hips. “It’s time to set those traps.”
92
Raxthezana
“We left our hearts on Ikthe,” I said, maneuvering my ship for atmospheric reentry for Ikshe. It had been a silent flight with all five of us brooding in our thoughts.
“Good,” Hivelt said with a grunt. “I won’t need it in dealing with the Ikma Scabmal Kama.”
“I hope the BoKama has found her,” Natheka said. “Why would the Queen slink around the fortress like a spy? Even at the worst of her madness, she strode the halls with pride.”
“BoKama sent me a sight-capture which may explain,” Naraxthel said. It played on the wide monitor on my console.
Focusing on my flight, I listened to the heated words exchanged between my Sister-Queens. When the BoKama revealed their conversation was on sight-capture, I suddenly understood how the Tribunal had been effected in so short a time. The Ikma’s unmistakable corruption was laid bare for all to see.
“One wonders if concessions will be made for her insanity,” Raxkarax said.
“Is it insanity or is it cruelty?” Naraxthel said. “Nevertheless, I believe her reign is short-lived. Our people will be invigorated to welcome a new Younger Sister as BoKama steps into the role of Ikma Scabmal Kama.”
“Does anyone know what manner of enemy IGMC is?” Natheka asked. “Do we know if there is a single ship or perhaps many small ships? Is it a military force?”
“Esra described some of the capabilities of its mining operation,” Naraxthel said. “She described a fleet of ships, one of them being a massive construct capable of drilling into the heart of a planet in a matter of days.”
“They are not a military force,” Hivelt said. “But Pattee described a cadre of hunters beholden to the governors of IGMC who are former military warriors. She suggested they may be utilized to extract our women forcibly from Ikthe.”
“Imagine these hunters attempting to make any of our women do something forcibly,” Raxkarax replied in a dry tone.
We laughed and shook our heads.
“This “hostile” group had better prepare for many hostilities,” Hivelt said. “The rokhural will be as the harmless nonsense fly compared to the ferocity of our mates.”
Recalling the ease with which CeCe fought the agothe-faxl, I grunted in agreement.
“As we speak of harmless things such as the rokhural, why keep you a dirt-crust snake in your medicinal pouch, Hivelt?” Natheka said. “I saw you place it there before we left but forgot to ask.”
“Ah, because my rucksack is filled with woaiquovelt,” he said without further explanation.
My ship shuddered as we breached Ikthe’s mesosphere, and within jotiks we hovered above the hangar, the steward opening the bay where I would land my ship. Two ships had landed and were unloading their meat bounty when we landed in my designated spot.
As promised, the market courtyard was decked with celebratory pennants, lights and flowers, and countless people milling about the stalls from what we could see through one of the bay doors.
It would be a day of memories for the fortress city of Iksherax.
I hailed BoKama who insisted we wait for an appointed escort, so I powered down my ship and we waited within.
“We did not receive the lilies, but we receive a hunter’s welcome,” Raxkarax said with folded arms. “What I desire above all things is the freedom to bring Joan here, that she might sit upon one of the benches and stare into the decorative waterfalls. I would surround her with peace.”
“The walkways are serene,” Natheka agreed. “Amity wants to meet my little hunters and their dams.”
“The dirt-crust snake is for my Afarax,” Hivelt said, a solemn expression belying the trace of emotion I heard in his voice. “If she would have it. She may not forgive a sire who once was dead but now returns. I do not know.”
While my brothers talked of their loved ones, I could not identify the reason for my own unease. While I missed CeCe, that was not it. Disgruntled, I folded my arms and listened with half an ear, attuned to what, I did not know.
“I would bring Esra to my home and lands, though I venture to say Esra is my home, now,” Naraxthel said. “I desire her ever by my side. This separation, though necessary, pains me. To think I yearn to return to the place that flows in rivers of blood, but it is as Raxthezana has said,” he said and looked at me. “I left my heart on Ikthe. I see now why the heart leaves the heart home. It knows its home no longer resides inside my body, but elsewhere.”
A chorus of rumbling “iks” lifted inside my ship, and then the BoKama’s escort arrived.
WarGuards stood with spears crossed over their right shoulders and stared straight ahead while we disembarked with our heavy packs and clinking glass vials. They marched beside us as we entered the market courtyard via a bay door instead of entering the great hall of the fortress.
Shouts rang out and the din of a thousand voices rose to follow us as we walked toward the dais that the BoKama had had erected in our honor. There were no thrones on it, but the BoKama stood alone, regal in her victory braids and a shimmering dark gray gown. She wore the hunter armbands, those metal circlets sealed about her biceps with the heating tool until they branded into her skin, just as the hunters did when returning from a successful hunt.
