I liked listening to her, I realized. The cadence of her voice, and the way she moved her lips when she spoke.
She had beautiful damn lips.
I licked my own, imagining how silky her mouth would feel against mine. For Jupiter’s sake, every inch of her skin looked like heaven.
Someone asked a question, and Lise responded, but I was too damn wrapped up in my own imagination to pay attention to what she said. Removing her clothes, pulsing power through the pale blue-green aphrodisiac chemical coating my skin and teasing her body with small energy bursts that would make her two human nipples rock-hard in anticipation of more. I’d slide into her, and we’d both be wet and ready. It would take seconds for my excretions to enter her bloodstream and send her into a state of utter, unshakeable euphoria.
I was growing hard, and I had to shift my body to keep the pants from pinching as my dick lengthened, filling the material next to my right leg.
I’d take her right here, and right now, even with all the witnesses.
If the ship hadn’t suddenly rocked from an explosion.
Blue shouted a warning through the system speakers. Alarms blared to life. And Lise jumped down from the container, falling to her knees as yet another explosion sent the cargo bay sideways.
15
Evik
“All hands, prepare for immediate hyperspace transition.”
I dropped to the floor as Blue’s warning came through the ship’s com system, pausing long enough to determine whether I should retrace my steps to the bridge to assist.
Within seconds, the abdomen-dropping, time-stretching sensation of sliding into hyperspace spun through me. The explosion had come from somewhere outside the ship, and Blue’s decision to transition to hyperspace suggested she remained undamaged—though her swift exit might very well have done some damage to the empress’s compound. After a moment, I continued on my path to the medical bay.
I wouldn’t be much additional use in the bridge, I reasoned. With Morpheus, Alder, and Lise, not to mention the ship herself, we had plenty of pilots aboard.
Medics, however, were less plentiful.
Not that I was trained in mammal biology. But I could at least help any females who might be in distress.
Besides, I had seen the red tentacled female head out when Lise instructed those with non- Standard-Galactic breathing requirements to report to medical.
I still could not entirely believe that Alder had managed to rescue a ship full of the Bufo Alvarius Empress’s breeding slaves.
It had all the makings of what Alder himself would have called a “clusterfuck.” He used the term negatively—though given the working, living, and breeding habits of my own people, I thought it sounded rather cozy. One queen, many lovers, all writhing together…
I scuttled away from the thought. It was getting close to breeding season, and my thoughts often grew unruly this time of year, no matter how far I journeyed from the Chilchek sun. Soon, I would have to find a willing partner. Either that or lock myself away to endure the pain of another mateless cycle.
Like most successful sentients, the Chilchek had developed the ability to breed at will. But our biology still pushed us to follow the cycles of the seasons on our home planet.
The last season had been especially harsh, as I had been alone on a ship with Alder and Morpheus, and they had not appreciated my advances. It had almost driven a wedge between us until I had shown them a vid of a Chilchek mating ceremony, the males all driving one another higher and higher as they waited their turn to mate with their queen. That helped them understand, although they did not warm to the idea of our own variation of the ritual. The pain of being without a mate…
I shuddered at the thought, my mandibles clicking in anxiety.
If Alder had been here now, he would have complained about my emissions, the scent of longing and nostalgia, with a hint of sexual frustration.
From behind me, footsteps reminded me that there were others aboard the ship who might need my help, even more immediately than I needed to decide what to do about my mating urge. I slid up the wall and waited on the ceiling as a group of females passed beneath me. I clicked a greeting, and one of the mammals glanced upward, then shuddered as she quickly looked away.
And that was why I had such difficulties finding partners in this quadrant.
I slipped back to the floor when they had passed and followed them into the medical bay.
There, the chatter of feminine voices rose to a din as they attempted to sort out where to go. Standing on my back legs, I raised up and scraped my mandibles together. The screech brought the room to complete silence.
Blue, I said, setting my translator to broadcast so everyone could hear, please help me sort these females into appropriate healing chambers.
“Of course,” the ship’s AI replied aloud. As she began issuing directions based on what they breathed, I plucked a tablet from its docking station and began helping to determine the best mixture of gases for the ones who didn’t breathe a Standard Galactic Mix.
As I worked, I watched for the tentacled female.
Not until most of the other females had been sorted did I find her sitting on a bench next to an empty chamber, her features drained and pale, leaving her a shade of pink that I did not believe to be healthy for her. I quickly moved the other females to their
