MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) (124 page)

I feel stretched, filled to capacity with his hardness, which is so thick it’s almost painful, but such a sweet pain. My eyes open to see his entire body shuddering while he forces himself deeper inside me. This has happened every time we’ve made love. His cock seems to be so sensitive. My tightness is almost more than he can bear. With a moan of desire I rock my pelvis, stroking the length of him with my insides. His breathing comes in hard gasps as he grabs my hips and begins driving himself home inside me.

Pressure starts building almost immediately as his fat cock rakes over my G-spot, the intensity of the sensations exploding from it making me squeal and writhe on the table. Talacanthus wraps his arms around my legs, closing them so I’m in a sitting position but on my back, then starts hammering his cock inside me, panting and grunting, singing and humming. The translator in my ear is telling me some of the things he’s saying, but I couldn’t care less. All I can concentrate on are the intense waves of delight exploding from where our bodies meet.

Pressure, painful, pleasurable pressure swells inside me fast, and it’s as if I’m floating on a white haze of ecstasy. My breathing stops and my second orgasm explodes through me, my muscles clamping tightly around Talacanthus’ cock. With my pussy milking him, my alien can’t hold back and his orgasm tears though him, making him slam his hips forward as his body jerks inside mine.

He leans down and covers my body with his, laying his head on the swell of my breasts, and I hold him close, trying to prolong the moment. Which is when the whole ship lurches sideways, throwing us both to the floor.

“What...?” I screech in panic as Talacanthus tries to get up and put his clothes back on, he looks at me in understanding but can’t tell me anything. He grabs my coverall and hands it to me,

“Wear” comes through my earpiece, and I struggle into the cumbersome garment while he waits. He grabs my hand as soon as my arms are in, and I have to struggle to close the zipper as he pulls me towards the door.

***

Whatever has befallen Acrulla has thrown his walkways into chaos. Intrellians struggle to move past each other as I drag Hetty toward the command section, and I shove a few of them aside to get through.

“Report!” I yell as soon as I get through the door and a pair of heads turns to see me bring Hetty in too. Her eyes are wide with fright and wonder at the sight of my crew all hooked into Acrulla.

“An explosion has destabilized Acrulla’s port side engines, sir,” my brother, Talacrus tells me.

“Prepare to return fire!” I bellow. Rage swells through me at the audacity of whoever this is. We will crush them and demolish their puny ship, leaving their corpses to float in the vacuum of space for all eternity.

“I cannot, sir,” Shaktee tells me from the weapons control area. “I detect no ships within range.” My thought center races through the possibilities, and my eyes flicker to the engineer’s station, where Jonober should be, despite my earlier reprimand. Seated there, however, is the second in command of that particular section and my blood goes cold.

“Internal scan!” I yell. “I believe this is mutiny!” Everyone in the command section pauses as the implication hits them, a couple even turn to look at me as if I am insane, quickly returning their attention to what they should be doing as I glare at them.

“Commander,” Shaktee grunts. “Acrulla reports major internal damage and outer skin breaches along his port side. Fuel transfer relays have also been severed...”

“Get engineers to the starboard side engine and relays immediately!” I yell. “Search for any kind of explosive device. Locate and detain engineer Jonober. I will deal with him later.”

Something tugs at my arm, and I turn to see Hetty is trying to pull her hand from mine, her face twisted in pain. I let her go as soon as I realize I am hurting her, my grip tightening with the rage boiling through me.

***

It’s big, whatever’s going on. Talacanthus beautiful song-like voice has changed, becoming harsh and savage. His grip is getting tighter, and I can feel my fingers squashing together. He’s going to break the bones soon, and he’s not even aware he’s hurting me. I’m tugging and pulling, punching his arm as hard as I can to get him off me, when he turns and lets go. The shock on his face telling me this was an accident. I cradle my fingers and watch as he comes to wrap an arm round me.

“Sorry for hurt.” His words come through the translator. Deakins’ program has been analyzing everything the aliens have been saying to each other and begun to extrapolate more of their language, “Follow me,” Talacanthus states, so I go with him.

He leads me through the passages and corridors, keeping me close to him as we move. When we reach a long downward slope, he turns and takes my hand, bringing it to his mouth and kissing the pain away. He draws me in and covers my mouth with his, kissing me like he’s never going to see me again. He pulls away and looks into my eyes with his deep blue orbs,

“Love Hetty.” This comes through clearly, and I can feel a silly grin spread across my face. Something in my chest feels tight and warm and excited at the same time, and I’m just about to tell him I love him too when the wall to our right explodes.

Hot liquid sprays out of the wall, covering us both in whatever blood flows through this ship. Thick and dark, it tastes vile, and I spit, trying to get the taste out, but it’s like some kind of oil and coats my mouth. Talacanthus is trying to stem the flow by pushing the sections of the wall back in, to seal the hole, and I join him, shoving the thick skin of the ship back into place.

Abruptly, the flow stops, and Talacanthus glances about
.
“We go now,” he tells me and grabs my hand again.

He drags me down the ramp to a deeper level, where there are more of his people, all of them racing around and shouting at each other in their language. The translator in my ear gabbles madly as it tries to make sense of the multitude of voices all talking over each other. Talacanthus brays orders out as we weave in and out between aliens and the structure of the ship. We finally arrive at a large chamber, which is filled with a low, rhythmic, thumping noise. I can’t explain the confusion as I study this room, as it appears to have some kind of fusion reactor sitting in the middle. Yet, above and to either side of that are two vast, pulsating hearts. I look at Talacanthus, covered in the blood of his ship, and wonder how this thing could have possibly evolved hearts and a nuclear reactor – clearly, of course it couldn’t have – when it hits me. This species must have somehow enslaved a creature which could live in the vacuum of space and altered it for their own ends.

I wrench my hand from his and shake my hand as I back away from him. The hope that he didn’t have anything to do with making this poor thing a slave dies almost as soon as it blooms. Even if he wasn’t directly responsible, Talacanthus must have known. I feel stupid, even in the middle of this crisis, because I assumed this was a symbiotic relationship. I though these aliens were helping the ship, this
living
ship, to stay alive. They’re not. They can’t be if they’ve installed a nuclear reactor inside the poor thing.

Pain wells in my chest as deep and powerful as anything I’ve ever felt before, and I nearly collapse because it’s nearly too much to bear. This revelation has changed my view of Talacanthus utterly, and that hurts. Is this what it feels like to have your heart broken? If it is, I think I’d rather have died on Erenius’ third moon.

He comes towards me, obviously puzzled at my reaction and probably concerned by the tears running down my cheeks, but it feels like I’ve been utterly betrayed.

“No,” I tell him firmly, and he stops, his head tilting to one side.

“What wrong?” How can I even begin to make him understand?

“This,” I say pointing to the reactor. “Wrong, bad.” He looks from the reactor back to me.

“Acrulla die if not here. Come.” He holds his hand out, and I shake my head, crossing my arms over my chest. A loud popping sound comes from the far end of the room, and one of the elephant-sized hearts above us skips a few beats, its rhythm becoming unsteady.

“Talacanthus!” Someone bellows from the gloom behind the reactor. “Give up.”

“Never,” he shouts back from my side, throwing his arm across my chest and nudging me backwards.

The translator can’t tell me all of what’s said then, but one word comes through clearly.

“...die...”

To Be Continued...

Protected By The Alien Boss

My head...what the hell happened? I’ve had hangovers before but nothing like this. Even this dim light hurts my eyes, when I finally pluck up the courage to open them. At least I know where I am, Talacanthus’ room judging by the blood-red flooring and...no. This isn’t his room at all. It’s far too small, to begin with, and I’m chained by the wrist.

I wish I could recall what happened, why I am here and where Talacanthus is. I sit on the raised area, which serves as a cell, feeling the gentle warmth from the surface flood through me. I’m probably still aboard...what was it he called the ship? Oh, Acrulla. That was it.

As if recalling the ship’s name was a key which fitted the lock holding back my memories, the whole situation came back, slamming into my psyche as if I was living through it again.

Talacanthus had brought me to the middle of the ship for some reason. I remember seeing some kind of reactor and a pair of giant hearts suspended above our heads. There was some kind of popping sound, and I remember voices,
alien
voices, shouting, but my translation device wasn’t good enough to tell much of what they were saying. Talacanthus tried to push me backwards, to steer me from the danger he knew was coming, but I wouldn’t let him. Why wouldn’t I let him help me?

I sit and rub my temples, literally trying to rub the stabbing agony away. My fingers delve round to the back of my head, and I wince, snatching my hands away from the sensitive lump, which feels as if it’s the size of my fist. Head injury. That would explain the pain and loss of memory. So how did I get that then?

My whole body jumps as a door I hadn’t known was even there retracts into the ceiling, and one of the aliens walks in. He’s smaller than Talacanthus, in both height and bulk, with dirty pond water for eyes and a cruel looking mouth. It looks as if someone has tried to yank his head off at some point recently, as there are puncture wounds and scratches on what serves for his neck.

“Who are you?” I have to wait for the translator to change my words into the whale-song like language this species uses.

His head tips to one side as he replies. “I am Jonober, commander of the Sentient-Ship Acrulla.”

Apparently, the translation device my friend Deakins gave me has had some time to expand the vocabulary it can recognize.

“Talacanthus is commander of this ship,” I tell him. “I demand you set me free and take me to him.” I hope the translator doesn’t give away the fear, which has just started crawling through me at his words,

“Talacanthus,” he states, rubbing his neck wounds with one long finger, “is no more.” That hits me like a punch to the stomach, and I hope it’s just a mistake by the translation device. “I ended his existence and sent him on to the Hereafter. At which point, I claimed this ship.” I can’t hold back the tears, even though I don’t want this bastard to see me cry. “What is the purpose of your leaking eyes?” He demands to know, and I remember our two species know virtually nothing about each other.

“It’s a poison we give off when we want to kill our enemies,” I tell him, then scoop the tears from my cheeks and flick them at him. I can’t feel any gratification from seeing him flinch a bit before he sees through my lie. I can’t feel anything but anguish.

“You will pay for that, breeding sow,” Jonober spits at me, and I don’t need the translator to tell me he’s put venom in his words. “I will take you to Intrellia prime and give you over to the Royal Institute exactly as Talacanthus planned to do.” He steps into the room and comes close, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of backing away.

I stare up into his eyes – he’s still formidably big, even if not as muscled as Talacanthus was. Was? I’m already thinking of him as gone? – as he carries on with his pathetic threat.

“The scientists there will study you, examine you and discover your weaknesses,” he says, “All will be on file and transmitted to every Intrellian ship in the fleet in case we come across your kind again. Eventually, after you have been subjected to the most humiliating and painful tests, your corpse will be dissected and preserved for all time, for any to visit and study.” He turned and walked back out of my cell. “Although why anyone would want to is beyond me.”

I had found this species didn’t use their facial features much, but I could definitely see this one was confused when he heard me laughing. I walked over to the door and saw there were two more armed Intrellians outside.

“You’re pathetic,” I told him. “How you ever managed to kill Talacanthus is beyond me. You had to bring these two with you just to talk to me?” I taunted him. “You’re a weak, cowardly shadow of this ship’s last commander, and I hope someone blows you out into space.” I snorted some phlegm into the back of my throat and spat it into his face. I didn’t care if he executed me here and now. If Talacanthus was truly gone, I had nothing to live for anyway. Better to die quickly here than become some test subject in a lab.

Jonober wiped my mucus from his face and looked at me with his pond-water eyes. His hand flashed out, catching me on the cheek, and I staggered back under the force of the blow. The pain in my head came back with a nasty vengeance, and the door slid shut, leaving me to sob on the floor.

***

“HETTY!” I hear myself screaming her name over and over again, while I descend into blackness. Is this the Hereafter? Is this eternal blackness all I have to look forward to? I cannot feel nor see anything, yet I have awareness and that awareness longs for the warmth and peace it only ever found in her hot embrace. Images float past, ethereal pictures of Hetty, the soft substance which grows from her head, which she calls ’hair.’ My fingers can remember its smoothness and strength and how I used to bury my fingers in it. Her face, alien and beautiful, floats before me, and I would happily spend the rest of eternity staring at it. I can still recall the first time I saw her face change color. A pink flush crept up her neck, and the first time I saw her change the shape of her face. Pulling her bottom ‘lip’ between her teeth almost drove me wild with the need to have her.

Like phantoms, however, her face dissipates like smoke in the wind, leaving me in this nightmarish hell. Alone.

***

I’m still on the floor of my little cell. What’s the point of getting up? The bed is made of the same stuff the floor is, and everything aboard is the same temperature anyway, so I might as well just stay where I am.

Everything seems pointless now. I’m locked in a cell aboard an alien ship, and I don’t know what’s happened to my human companions, Deakins and Nerravin, where we are in the universe, or what kind of place this Intrellia Prime will be like.

A hollow of despair gets carved deeper inside my chest every time I think about Talacanthus. He can’t be gone, I won’t accept it! Yet, even the thought of him in pain or dead brings a deep well of misery. I hope we get to this planet soon, so they can kill me. They’ll be doing me a favor.

God only knows how long I’ve been laying here, wishing I could see him one last time and gradually fading into the edges of a restless sleep, but I jerk up with a scream as something tickles my cheek.

My back hits the wall, but all I can see is some kind of protrusion hanging from the ceiling. I recognize what I think it is. I saw Talacanthus with one of these in his rooms. I think it’s some method of talking directly to the ship. Come to think of it, there were similar things attached to the other aliens on the bridge just after the first explosion, so maybe they’re input devices too.

Standing, I step across to the thing, which is swaying slightly, and reach for it. As warm as the rest of the ship, it’s got a cup on the end, half spherical and filled with what look like billions of hairs. Maybe they’re nerve bundles which would make sense in a living spaceship. Talacanthus had it on his forehead when I saw him but surely his species, Intrellians, are biologically different, and maybe they’ve evolved to be able to interface with this proboscis. Being human, it might cause brain damage or even kill me, so what have I got to lose?

I seat myself on the shelf which serves as a bed and hold the ball shaped end on my forehead, waiting to see what might happen. Nothing seems to for a while and I let go, surprised to see it doesn’t fall off and swing, like a pendulum, in the middle of the room. My fingers search around the edges and find it has solidly attached itself to my head, and I can’t even get a fingernail underneath it. Still the pain in my head has gone, and I feel a little sleepy so I might just have to li...

“
You have been misled,
”
I think. No, wait a minute, someone else thought that. “
Talacanthus has not yet passed into the Hereafter
.” Whose thoughts are these?

“
Hello. Who are you?
” I ask the thought. It doesn’t even sound like my thoughts.

“
I am Acrulla, one of the oldest Sentient-Ships in existence and you reside within me
.” A flood of memories cascade into my mind, and I see the conception of a massive craft. A genius amalgamation of robotic parts and biological tissue, created and grown artificially on a planet I can only assume is Intrellia Prime. An ancient looking Intrellian, wizened and old, shuffles through the passages of the bright, new ship, which pulses with life around him. He makes his slow way to an area, which looks familiar to me and, I know this is where Talacanthus had his quarters. The feeble alien lies down on the floor and the long tube I saw joined to Talacanthus (something like which is also joined to me) droops down to connect with his head. I see all of this in a dream like state, both through the eyes of the alien and externally, so I’m looking up along the length of the proboscis when the sight fades and I become the spaceship.

Intrellians never enslaved a race of peaceful creatures! They never installed a nuclear reactor inside its chest and the sentience which runs it all was a volunteer who actually had the thing built. Talacanthus is free from any blame I might have put on him. He’s...gone, my mind tells me.

“
He is not dead yet. There is still time to save him, but, I will need your assistance
.”

“
Why are you helping us?
” I think before I can even begin to hide the thought.

“
I joined with Talacanthus both before and after he met you
,” Acrulla’s thoughts come to me. “
And now with you. Part of what makes me who and what I am is now due to the thoughts, memories and feelings I have taken from you. You and he share a bond which transcends worlds, ignores species and is unbreakable.
” Shock jolts me as Acrulla’s feelings for both of us wash through my psyche.

“
What have I got to do?
” I wonder into the ship’s mind. A flood of information, pictures, thoughts and ideas, slam into me, and I have to take a few seconds to understand what I’m being shown. Dread runs through me as I fully comprehend what this entity wants me of do.

“
I can’t
.” My thoughts sound pathetic, even to me.

“
You must, if you intend to save Talacanthus.
” With those final words, the connection is severed, and I open my eyes as the final section of the communication pipe retracts into the ceiling.

It’s a mad plan with little chance of success and quite a high chance of my death. If Talacanthus is alive, though, it’s got to be worth the risk. I strip my coveralls off to stand naked in the small cell wearing just a pair of boots as apparently where I’m going it would be better to be slippery. Then I start taking deep breaths as I watch a hole growing in the corner of the cell, trying to fill my blood stream with oxygen. The hole is like a portal to hell, and I have to force myself to jump in feet first.

***

“Report.” My voice rings out across the command station.

“All essential repairs have been completed, Commander Jonober,” someone tells me as I sit in the command section. It’s about time. I thought I might have to make an example of a few of my new crew. “We can return to our original course and speed at your discretion.”

“Do so,” I tell Talacrus, who does not acknowledge my command but does execute it. I will have to watch him. If he decides to try and avenge his brother, I will have him put down. Lights flicker in the command section, and Acrulla jerks once before falling silent.

“Report!” I yell at the command crew. None of them have the answer, and my rage grows. “Someone aboard this ship is sabotaging my command, and I will not stand for it.” I glare around the room and single out the female, Shaktee. “My quarters. Now.” I command and she shuffles off, the bruises I put on her last time I took her fading a little. “If I return and this situation is not resolved, I will begin executing crew.” I say as I leave.

I stand outside the door and listen to them chuckling before someone, I cannot tell who, says, “We had better get something done fast then. He will not spend too long with Shaktee.” Further laughter follows and my rage boils. Yet a cold satisfaction spreads inside me. We shall see who is laughing when their blood boils in the vacuum of space.

***

My lungs feel ready to burst. There’s pain in my throat, and I’m going to die in the thick walled artery deep inside Acrulla. As soon as I’d jumped, feet first, into the hole he’d opened for me, I was plunged into blackness and being pumped into the bowels of the massive ship along with the dark ichor which is his blood. It’s warm, horribly, and slowly creeping into my nose and ears, insinuating itself into any little hole it can find. And the pressure! It’s like being squeezed from head to foot, making it even harder to hold my breath. I clamped my eyes shut when I jumped in and my mind conjures images of being absorbed into Acrulla’s living hull, in exactly the same way as the Intrellian male who died to bring life to the ship.