It happened so fast. Just so fast that she didn’t have time to even think about what was going on or how foolish it was. One moment she was standing there, staring into his eyes, cracking some silly joke, and the next his body was against hers, and their mouths were fused. His hand went to her hair, yanking it out of the clip she had put it into so carefully.

Her hair tumbled around her shoulders, and her inner thighs quivered as she felt that masculine hardness of his against her lower body, pressing against her flesh in a manly and insistent way, one that caused an answering ache and beat in her body.

Her tongue met his, and her gasp was low and desperate as his fingers clutched at her shoulders then brought her even closer to him and into fuller contact with his muscular body. Her breasts flattened against his chest, and the pressure was extreme, and hot too.

He walked her to the bed, and she fell across it, her body sprawling out on the covers. His fingers worked against her skin, sending throbs of pleasure beating through her lower belly. He found the clasp for the bralette she wore and then he loosened it, allowing her breasts to tumble free.

His body shone, and the muscles beneath his skin flexed and tensed as he bent over her. The sight of his broad chest and shoulders made her lips part in a little gasp. She began to work at his clothes as his fingers found the clever little snap at the front of her belt and loosed it, tugging the harem-like pants down and exposing her body.

His tunic went over his head and then she yanked at the trousers he wore. He kicked them off, revealing the package of bone and muscle there, as well as the lean angles of his hips. The hair at the junction of his thighs was thick and coarse, and his cock jutted up from his body at a stiff angle, and the sight of it was too tempting. She had to have him, had to touch him and taste him.

He joined her on the bed, and she reached out. Her fingers trailed along his member, stroking along the heavy veins there. He gasped, and his hips shot forward. Her fingers curled around his dick, fisting it.

He was hot, throbbing, and stiff. His prick twitched and pulsed below her fingers, and she stroked it gently, curling her fist tighter and then dipping her head a bit so she could lick the soft skin at the head. It thickened yet again, and that skin that she had just licked stretched tight and became shiny.

Margie’s fingers moved along the heavy shaft of his dick, exploring the satiny texture of the surface before she wriggled and turned so that she was on top of him, her crotch above his eager mouth. His hands caught her bottom, and his fingers pressed deep into her cheeks, parting them.

Margie went back to his throbbing staff. The whole enormous girth was purple and swollen, and she squeezed gently, and then bent her head to it, letting her tongue wander up and around the shaft before licking across the head again to capture the salty drop of fluid slipping from the slit at the top of it.

His hands tugged at her hair and hips bucked into her face, but she kept going. Her fingers moved to his sac, and she cradled his balls in her hand, letting her thumb run across the soft, wrinkled surface of that flesh.

“That feels good,” Jeval panted out, and then his mouth went to the soft and dripping folds of her inner flesh, his breath blew against that wet heat there, and she shivered, her mouth working harder to take him down her throat and please him.

“No,” she said as she pulled her wet mouth away from his glistening prick, “I am not trying to do anything but make you happy.”

Her hips hung in the air above his head, her juices dripping onto his lips and his tongue came out to swipe away the creamy drops of fluid gathered near her clit. Her ass shook and trembled, and her mouth opened wider as she strove to take every inch of him down her throat. She wanted it all; she wanted him deep inside of her body; she wanted to feel him inside her swollen passageway; and she wanted it soon, but first, she wanted this incredible giving and receiving.

The pleasure was so intense, her body rocked and swayed above his. She was pinned on his cock, swallowing it eagerly as his mouth worked against her pussy, coaxing even more fluids to spill from her body.

His fingers moved inside her, thrusting and withdrawing as his tongue found her clit and massaged it in a way that seemed designed to drive her insane. Her mouth tightened, and she let her fingers slide across his testicles, cupping them and stroking them again.

Jeval slid a finger into her anus. That pleasure, coupled with the feel of his tongue on her clit and his other fingers inside her body jolted her toward orgasm. A tremendous shudder went through her. Her hips arched up and down as her mouth went back to work on his cock.

She came. Hard. Her whole body shook, and her hands clutched desperately at his thighs.

She let him slide out of her mouth and walked her body down his until she was poised above his member. His hands gripped her ass, separating her cheeks as she lowered herself onto his engorged and swollen flesh.

She slid down him, her walls opening to take him in. The feel of him inside her, all the way inside of her body, caused her hips to shake and her inner folds to spasm. He filled her completely, taking her in ways she had never known before. Her legs shook as she balanced above him, rocking and writhing, feverish in her attempts to feel his cock at the very end of her tunnel.

Her whimpers became moans, and she heard his answering cries as she lifted her body up and away from his, not letting him withdraw completely, and then slid back down again.

She came, hot gushes of fluid streaming from her body and onto his hot flesh. She felt his cock give a long throb and then several smaller ones and heard his moan of release below her own cries.

Her sigh of contentment became a moan of pleasure as he moved low again. She whispered, “Jeval, I…”

“I am not done.”

The words, slow and a little throaty, sent warm breath across her wet flesh, adding a new layer of sensation to that skin there and making a long and slow thrill run up and down her skin.

That sensation spiraled up again, that time even more intense than the first time he had done that to her. His fingers dipped between her legs and found the wetness there then spread it across her labia. The musky scent of her arousal filled the room, and her ass lifted so he could slide his fingers higher to the throbbing flesh of her clit.

He massaged it in slow circles, and she whimpered, her fingers clutching at the sheets as her hips lifted and lowered.

His fingers thrust into her slippery inner folds, and she cried out as sensation spiked through her body. His hands went back to rubbing her ass cheeks, gently lifting and squeezing the flesh and muscles of them before going back to her clit and massaging it hard and fast.

“Oh my God,” she breathed, “Oh my God, that feels so good.”

He lifted her hips higher. His mouth sought out her clit, and his tongue slid across it, then down, darting into her swollen entry then out again to wander slowly back to her clit. Fine trembles started inside her inner thighs. She used her arms to lever herself up higher, giving him easier access to her dripping folds.

His tongue continued to torment her. Her legs went rigid as she arched and lifted, desperate for the release hovering so close. His fingers slid into her again, spilling her fluids as they withdrew. Her cries got longer and louder with each lick and thrust.

Jeval moved away from her. Now that it was over, she was dizzy from the satisfaction but on the heels of her satisfaction was another feeling. She was confused by the sudden sex and the fact that she had given in to the wild urges she’d had.

He stood. His body, coated with a thin sheen of perspiration, glistened in the low lights. He said, “We should get going.”

She scrambled off the bed and hurried to the bathing chamber. By the time she had returned, he was dressed, and he merely said, “Let’s go. I don’t want to spend another night here if I don’t have to.”

She didn’t either. She wanted nothing more than to be gone from there, to put as much space between herself and that place and him as possible, and as quickly as possible, too. Revant Two was a large place, and soon a party would be going into the wilderness beyond the small city they were building, and she could be in that party if she chose, and she was pretty sure that might be the best thing to do.

Jeval spoke. “You know I have a gift.”

“I’ve heard that, but all of your brothers seem to have some gift or another.” She was numbed and tired, her brain and body at war and they still had to try to find some intel that would make the trip worthwhile.

He stopped walking. His tone was stiff. “It seems to me that your kind automatically mate with whoever they engage in sexual things with.”

“Wow. No, but whatever.”

She went to walk on, but his fingers held her arm and kept her immobile. “I can’t be your mate. I can’t be anyone’s mate. My gift, if I were to pass it on, the child you would bear would not be strong enough to survive that birth. The child would not be able to live with that gift. I was lucky to live at all. Most don’t.”

She was too dazed to try to parse that out. “All right then. Let’s go get some intel. I want to go home.”

She waited for him to get ahead of her and she followed him, but her heart was heavy and her limbs too loose and trembling.

Several hours later, Margie sat at Jeval’s feet, her gaze lowered as he’d instructed her to in training. Her senses were on full alert. This planet was rife with corruption and bad politics. Criminals used it as a transport for all their illegal goods and politicians came to indulge all their bad habits.

Half the creatures in the room were masked and unspeaking. A low trill of music came from above, through the speakers that set beside the glassed-in cage where a band of Songers, probably captives too, played tiredly on a small stage.

The sex they’d had was terrific. Mind blowing, in fact. But it had left a lot of regret and worry in its wake.

The last thing she needed to do was get her heart involved with Jeval, and she damn sure didn’t need to give in to that desire she had for him either; ever again.

It was dangerous.

He was dangerous.

He was not known for kindness, and she knew that. He was harsh and reserved and even while he’d been in the middle of sex with her she had felt him withdrawing from her. Not just that last literal withdrawal when he had sent his seed to the sheets instead of inside her either.

A mental withdrawing. She might as well have just been any warm and willing body!

Tears threatened, but she blinked them back. She had known he was just giving in to attraction, the same as her, but his coldness afterward just kept growing. There was a definite chill coming off him then too.

His legs were stiff despite his seemingly relaxed appearance and she had to fight for air to breathe when some masked and snuffling creature came up and said, in a guttural voice that was clearly being filtered through a masking device, “What a lovely human.”

“Yes. She’s obedient too. That makes her even more attractive.”

If she had not known for a fact what the result of her biting him in the calf muscle would yield, she might have done just that. Resentment flared along her body and tore across her system, sending a warm tide of red blood up into her face and along her neck.

“Oh, it is pleased with your words,” the masked creature wheezed out. “You have done well with it.”

It? Let me catch you alone, and I’ll show you what this woman can do when I grab you by your ‘it’ and yank it right off your body you…

Jeval’s hand buried itself in her hair, fisting it and yanking slightly, not enough to rip the hair from her scalp but enough to grab her attention and let her know to cool down. She blanked her mind. She knew that he could read the tension growing in her body and sense her anger. She had to hope no other in the room could as well.

Jeval said, “I do try.”

The thing sat. Margie’s nose wrinkled. It was a Morger. They were the only creatures who stunk like Sulphur and unwashed feet. She kept her head down, letting her hair hide her face and the revolted expression upon it.

The thing’s presence came with a bonus though. Trying to breathe past its reek kept her mind occupied and off Jeval and that amazing sex they’d had. Sex that had been wholly satisfying in a bodily way but that had left her heart bleeding and her senses feeling like she had somehow missed something that should have been there, but hadn’t been.

The Morger rumbled out, “You selling today, stranger?”

“No, but I might be renting.”

What? She froze, her muscles cording and tautening at his causal words. That had never been part of the plan! Or at least nobody had told her that it was part of the plan! If the Morger took her out of that big Hall, he’d find himself gutted by the short and sharp blade she had hidden in the belt that held her pants up.

The Morger grunted. “I am not in the mood for a rental. I want to own.”

Jeval said, “Then we have nothing to speak about, now do we?”

The Morger grunted again and ambled off. Margie had to repress the urge to wave a hand in front of her face to try to dissipate the odor he left behind.

Jeval whispered, “It smells like that rotten egg Marik found in a nest a few days ago; remember?”

Margie had to repress laughter by lifting a hand to her mouth and pressing down firmly.

That movement was hidden by the fact that just then a massive fight broke out between two slaves who were fighting for the right to be auctioned off to the wealthiest patrons.

Danger was everywhere, and she whispered back, “I think I should get near the other slaves, the ones brought in by that trader from The Federation’s pleasure world.”

He bent down low. His hand cupped her neck, his fingers spanning across the skin that covered her pulse. Her heartbeat picked up at the casually ruthless gesture. She knew it was for show and that he would not harm her, but fear flooded her system anyway.

He spoke in a harsh tone. “Go on. Go be with the other slaves while I enjoy myself. You annoy me.”

She was sure that last bit was true.

She went, skittering forward on her hands and knees, keeping her head and eyes down the whole way.

The slaves huddled near a raised dais. Pungent alcoholic beverages circulated above but the costliest drink was, as always and on every world that had been civilized and taken to the brink by tech and pollution, water. Not just water, but clean and clear water. Pure water, brought in by ships that traveled many cycles to find it and bring it to those who could afford it.

Revant Two had fresh and clean water. That alone made it ripe for taking, even if there was not much of that water. She had, in truth, no idea how much of it there was but she did know that the planet’s position made it hard to reach and that the water would go flat and stale and become not worthy of the high dollar sales that the traders wanted, so that would help keep them at bay.

But for how long?

The slaves she chose to sit next to looked afraid and tired; many had brands, and some had tattoos on their legs or on the napes of their necks. They were allowed to talk amongst themselves, but very quietly, although, none were.

That sort of flustered her. How was she supposed to get intel if nobody was talking? What would be the best way to start the conversation? Should she just ask, hey, have any of you heard any dirt on The Federation lately?

Probably not.

She squirmed a bit, her nerves rising as she considered a hundred different gambits and discarded all of them. Time was passing way too quickly, and she had to figure something out. Everyone was counting on her and Jeval, and she did not want to disappoint them, nor did she want to miss something vital, something that they needed to know, so she didn’t dare scoot back to where Jeval sat either.

She licked her lips and shot a glance at a male next to her. He was of a species unknown to her, but he looked vaguely humanoid. She whispered, “Have you been here before?’

He gave a short nod of his head. Heart beating faster now, Margie whispered, “I’ve never been here before. I was on Orbital before I came here.” It was true enough, anyway.

A few of the slaves perked up. One female whispered, “I hear it’s lovely there.”

“It is.” Margie looked around the Hall. It stood on a desert plain that stretched far and wide. The city was the only one on the planet, and it had a rep for being rough and tumble, for keeping whatever happened there discreet, and there was plenty of reason to be discreet as well. There were about a hundred dance and carding halls as well as other gambling places. There was rare and exotic entertainment, some of it provided by slaves and some provided by hired entertainers shipped in for that purpose. “I’m a little scared.’”

Another female, definitely not human but very lovely with her green skin and hair, gave her an encouraging smile. “It’s not so bad. They’ll start shouting for us to entertain them soon. Do you have any skills beyond the delights?”

The delights? Oh shit. She meant sex! “I was a gurley on Orbital.”

The green female asked, “How’d you get here?”

“I owed a debt I couldn’t pay.”

They all nodded with understanding and sympathy. Margie looked down at her hands, hoping to look as forlorn as possible. She whispered, “I hear that it’s better to be sold to a Federation officer than to…to a trader. Is that true?’

The male next to her asked, in a voice so low it was barely audible. “Are you being sold?”

She swallowed hard. The fear came back. Her hands actually shook, but it was because she was afraid they would know what she was really doing, trying to open a conversation that was forbidden. “I don’t know. I am trying really hard to please him so that doesn’t happen, but I am terribly afraid that he will sell me to recoup the credits, that he may find the credits more attractive than me.”

The green female said, “It happens. And yes, The Federation officers can be better, but it depends on which you gain as your owner.”

“And that applies to every owner,” the male whispered. “Speak no ill of The Federation.”

They all went silent. Dammit. That was not working at all. Jeval had hoped she would get some pillow talk, but it seemed that all of the slaves were too afraid to speak much at all.

She sighed inwardly. The green female leaned in close and whispered, right into her ear, “He speaks the truth. No matter what, never speak of them or what they do or want or ask for. They hold all, as you know, and we are less than motes of dust in their eyes.”

That went for all things, and not just slaves, but Margie doubted that that would make much of a difference to the slaves she huddled with.

The green woman asked, “That’s your owner?”

She let her eyes flicker to Jeval. Her heart fluttered, and her pulse raced. Her inner temperature spiked and spilled juices into her panties. “Yeah. Who’s yours?’

The green female let her eyes move across the room to a vividly green male with a strip of long hair tied up into a high knot at the crown of his skull. “He is, Ruckland…” the green female gulped. She averted her face and Margie knew that the pride that had made her use her master’s name had gotten the best of the female. She was clearly not supposed to say his name; it was probably some kind of rule, Margie guessed, and she glanced around quickly to see that the other slaves weren’t paying attention at all. They were busy gathering themselves up and going toward the stage that had been set up because, as predicted, the beings there nearest it were screaming for slaves to entertain them.

Jeval strode over, tugged at her hair briefly, and walked toward the door that led out of the Hall. She scrambled to her feet and went after him; following at the distance she knew would make it look like she was following a master and not a fellow spy.

They entered the chamber, and he drew her close, his mouth next to her ear like the green woman’s had been moments before. “Learn anything?”

She shook her head. He whispered, “I did. We have to get out of here and now. The Federation is on its way; looking to do a roundup of those they call fugitives and traitors.”

Panic settled in. “Why isn’t everyone running then?”

“Because they don’t know. I walked into the mind of a being not far from where I sat and found out that he is a Federation officer working undercover, looking for a being called Ruckland.”

She stiffened. “I know who he is.”

He grinned at her. “Then you learned something after all. Come with me; we need to get him out of here.”

“Why?”

“Because if Federation wants him, he must know something they don’t want him to talk about.”

That made sense but what made more sense was getting the hell out of there as fast as possible. Talon had earned a pardon from The Federation after that fight with the Gorlites, and only because the universe had been watching and they could have done nothing else, but the rest of the brothers had not been given amnesty.

Jeval was an outlaw, and he had a bounty on his head and a death warrant with his name on it sitting in every Federation Intel bank in the universe. He couldn’t be caught up in a sweep.

“We can’t take the time for that, not if that is going to happen soon.”

“I need him. Come on, let’s go.”

They headed back toward the Hall even though it was the last thing she wanted to do and the last place she wanted to go. She spotted the green-skinned female and whispered, “She’s his slave. That’s him over there; see the one with skin her color and the big gold hoops in his ears?’

Jeval moved. She tripped along beside him, her head down low and her eyes on her feet. Worry kept her emotions weaving between a raging desire to get the hell out of there as fast as possible and an equal desire to get to the creature Jeval said they needed and get whatever he had that the Fed wanted from him if possible.

More than anything else, though, she was scared that Jeval would get caught and captured, sent to some Fed hellhole where he would be tortured or worse and then killed.

Jeval moved close to the creature known as Ruckland and muttered, “See the human there with the brown hair? The one with the gold tunic?’

The creature muttered, in a voice pitched low enough not to be heard over the pounding music. “The Fed spy? Yes, why?”

“He’s looking for you, and he has corps on the way. A massive fleet. They are going to try to capture you under the cover of doing a sweep.”

Ruckland didn’t ask questions. His hand came up. His fingers snapped together. His slave came to him, leaping off the stage with real grace and prowess. He didn’t say a word, but he did sign a gesture into the air. The female cast a startled glance at Jeval and Margie and then she nodded. Knives appeared in her slim hands.

The four of them hastened out of the Hall, and Margie saw, with a sinking heart, that the officer that Jeval had pointed out had noticed that exit too. She gulped out, “I think we might be in some real trouble here.”

The green female said, “Me too. Ruckland, can we get to the ship?”

They were running now, not even bothering to hide that fact either as they exited into the boiling clouds of dust and laser bright rays of the alien sun. Ruckland’s slave said, sharply, “Ruckland, now!”

He transformed. There was no other word for it. He transformed into some creature that raced along the ground faster than anything she had ever seen. Her gasp got louder as the sun hit hard, striking into her body.

The female grabbed her up and then she changed too. Ruckland snatched up Jeval in his teeth and Margie dangled from the female’s as they headed for the docks, moving so fast that the world was a spinning dust bowl and ground flying below.

Margie felt sick. She couldn’t breathe. Her entire body wanted to go rigid, but she was afraid if she moved even an inch, tensed a single muscle, that the long and vicious fangs of the female, who was now at least three hundred pounds and many feet taller and wider than she had been before, would puncture her skin and kill her.

Ruckland peered behind them. His body was tense. He growled out, “They follow.”

Jeval knew what he had to do but he didn’t want to, not at all. It was a small ship coming after them and they were only halfway to the docks now. The ship was clearly a Fed one and he shouted, “I got it; let me go!”

Ruckland dropped him. Jeval spun downward, flying into the dirt. He heard Margie scream a warning and he rolled sideways just in time to avoid the clawed feet of the female and having those feet rip his stomach open.

The dust, reddish orange, was a thick curtain but it did not and could not hide them. All it could do was give them away.

He didn’t know why The Federation wanted them so badly, but they did, and that meant he wanted them too, and if they went with him willingly, so much the better.

He shouted, “Make for my ship!”

Ruckland shouted back, “We have no choice! We bought passage here and have no ship!”

The dust got thicker and more choking as weapon fire came down. The female circled back around and so did Ruckland. They all stared upward. Margie screamed, “Put me down!”

The female dropped her, and she and Ruckland drew weapons again. The female went low, rolling hard as weapon’s fire struck down, sending showers of the fine powdery earth upward. Margie spotted a creature racing toward them on the ground, and she grabbed the laser gun on Jeval’s side without thinking and then it was in her hand and going off, the fire cutting the thing coming at them in half!

Horror struck her right to the core. She had killed something!

Ruckland shouted, “That damn…” then he was moving, his weapons coming up and fire blasting toward the ship. But it was no ordinary ship; it was a warship and outfitted, and the fire was heavy and wide.

Jeval’s arm and hand yanked her backward. She toppled to the ground, and he barked out, “Stay down!”

He took up a stance. Heat radiated off his body. His arms spread wide. A fresh wind, one born from somewhere deep inside him, sprang up and then a powerful sonic burst rippled and rose upward, smashing into the low-flying ship.

He had just single-handedly taken down a Federation ship!

He grabbed her by the arm as debris, flaming and weighing tons, rained down all around them. Ruckland shouted, “You blew up a…never mind. Run for it!”

They did. The docks were not far now, and they made it to them. Margie was sick and in shock, and as soon as their feet crossed the threshold, they were up, leveling above the earth and heading for space above.

Ruckland, who was clearly not in possession of a slave but whose mate was definitely his equal, leaned against one wall. He cried out, “Drop us at the nearest way port. We will seek our way across to our own ship from there.”

Jeval sat Margie down in a chair. “Why is The Federation after you?”

Ruckland looked at the female. She spoke softly. “Someone has stolen a vast amount of papers from them. It was not us, but they are hunting down the most notorious of all thieves to see if they can find out who did it.”

Margie asked, “Why would they hunt down thieves for…I don’t understand.”

She didn’t. Ruckland opened his mouth. It got wider and wider, a large shelf of jaw suddenly appearing. She gagged a little as he disgorged what looked to be an entire and incredibly precious statue! He said, “They want all of us because we move in a small circle.” His fingers swiped his saliva and some other thin fluid off the statue, which was made of a precious metal. “They probably think if we didn’t take it ourselves then we would have heard who had.”

Gross.

There was a lot to talk about, and she knew it, but the one thing she knew the most was that she could not wait to get Ruckland off the ship! He was busy bringing up all sorts of things, and she was pretty sure she was going to get sick long before he displayed his haul from the pleasure planet!

A few evenings later, right after they finally landed on Revant again, Margie stood in the doorway of her hut, trying to breathe. The intel they’d brought back was vital, but they had gotten there just a little too late!

Federation ships cruised overhead, and the citizenry stood below, many of them with hands raised to shield their eyes from the bright sun, which was rapidly being blotted out by the bodies of those ships.

Oh, God. She staggered backward. All the courage she thought she had deserted her then. Her body shook all over, and she staggered back a step. There was no safety in that hut, and she knew it, but she still had the craziest urge to run inside, throw the covers over her head, and huddle below them until the world either ended or started over again.

Jeval came toward her, his large and lustrous eyes alight with both sunlight and courage. Margie sucked in a hard breath and then, as he reached the door of her hut, she said, “The Federation! Why are they here? What is going to happen now?”

His gaze didn’t flinch away from hers. His voice was calm. “War, most likely.”

No! There was no way she could go through a war. Everything she had seen, all the blood and all the battle, was too much. Those things had already taken such a large toll on her. She could tolerate being on the wrecking ship. Watching the nightly fights and often deaths that were caused by the rowdiest of beings and people in the gambling halls on the pleasure planet had been hard, but it was something she could bear. But war?

Everything in her cried out against such a horrible thing. Death and devastation; that was what war brought in its wake. Her eyes traveled from his face to the people gathered there, all of them wearing similar expressions of fear and confusion. She understood exactly how they felt because she felt the same way.

This could not be happening. There was absolutely no way at all that they were prepared for war. They were too few, and they had far too few ships. Their new lives had barely begun, and they were about to be destroyed by the greed of The Federation.

That thought gave her a small measure of courage. She had had everything ripped away from her by those people, by The Federation and its power-mad elite. If this was war, how could she hide from it? How could she not make a stand and fight for the life that she wanted so badly?

She whispered, “What do we do now?”

His hand came out and rested on her upper arm. The strength and warmth of his fingers seeped into her skin but could not halt the chill creeping through her. His voice was no less calm. “We fight.”

“We're all going to die, you have to know that.”

“Of course I know that. But every fight could mean death. We faced death before. You and me. We faced it on the pleasure planet that we had to go to together. We faced it on the wrecking ship. You faced it on your own planet, and not just once.”

He was right but each time she had escaped death unscathed for the most part. This time she would not be so lucky. The thought of losing her life, now, when she carried a life within her that was so precious, made her desire to live too large to deny.

She should tell him. He should know that she was pregnant with his child. She looked over at his face, and her heart nearly stopped. For all the calm tone of his voice, there was a haunted look on his face, a look that said he wanted this no more than she did.

Her hand fell toward her belly and rested there. If she was going to die, and if he was going to die as well, there was no sense in telling him about the baby. It would only serve to make his death seem even worse and harder. If he did not know, it would be easier for him to bear if she died right before him. Her fingers pressed into her flat abdomen and a pulse of sheer primal rage began in her stomach. It wasn’t fair.

She whispered, silently, to her unborn child. “I will fight for you. I will die for you. My death will mean yours, but I will not die lightly or let them kill you without a battle. I swear that to you, little one. You will know; it seems to me that you will have to know that we fought for you.”

Her eyes went back to Jeval’s face. She had seen what he was capable of. That power that rested within him was enough to destroy an entire ship. It was enough to send men screaming to their own deaths, deaths that they created with their own hands. He had refused to use that power again even when they were facing the gravest danger. Would he refuse to use it now even knowing that she had within her his child?

Her eyes went back to the skies. The Federation ships began to lower, the heavily armored bodies sinking toward the only accessible landing place on the planet: the short docks that had been built to jut out over one side of the sea.

There were far too many ships in The Federation’s armada for them all to land. Maybe that would be their chance to halt whatever was happening immediately. Perhaps they would have the chance to destroy the ones that were on the ground, or take over them. They had captains with great skill there on the planet surface.

Talon alone could fly like the devil himself, and he was skilled in combat both in the air and on the ground. He was not the only one either. Surely there must be some way for them to survive this. If they could not survive it, they would take as many of The Federation down with them as possible.

Her breath sucked in and held as she watched the bay doors on The Federation ships begin to open and officers wearing Federation insignia begin to step out. Behind them came soldiers, heavily armed.

Talon and Jessica appeared, both of them bearing arms. Marik and Jenny, as well as Renall and Clare, also came into sight. The people they led took cautious steps back, huddling behind their leaders.

The crew of the ships that Talon and others piloted came running, bearing arms and with expressions that said they were ready to begin whatever war The Federation intended to bring upon them.

One of The Federation officers held up a hand. He wore five gold stars on the chest of his olive-green tailored tunic, marking him as one of the highest ranking there. His voice was smooth and full, rolling across the distance with ease.

Jeval started forward. Margie gathered her courage, wrapping its tattered ends around herself as she followed him, determined to always be right there at his side no matter what. This was the creature that she loved. She did love him. She loved that stubborn and prideful Revant who was also the kindest and gentlest and sweetest thing she had ever known in her life.

The Federation officer was still speaking. He said, “There is no need for war between us. We do not come here on a mission to govern your planet. Nor the sister planet that lays slightly to the east. We have no interest in your planet, to be truthful…”

Jessica retorted, “When has The Federation ever been known for truthfulness?”

A large and angry mutter rose from the crowd. That sound made Margie’s hands wrap around her body and draw herself inward. It reminded her of that day that she had gotten into an argument with that woman and man inside the greenery house and the dreadful consequences of her actions then.

Talon stepped forward. “She speaks the truth. The Federation is not known for keeping its promises or for giving honest words to those it means to rule.”

Marik, Jeval, and Renall stepped forward. Marik said, “Indeed, The Federation is not known for those things. What do you really want?”

The Federation officer said, “I seek to hold a conversation with those who rule this planet.”

Jeval spoke. “Our citizenry rules themselves. We govern, but here every being is free.”

The Federation officer didn’t blink. “Then I would speak with you, those who govern. Those who own this planet. This is a matter that requires discretion, and I will speak with you and solely you.”

Jeval shook his head. “I do not govern alone. My siblings govern with me. We will not be trapped alone with you and your officers. That would be foolishness personified. Do we look foolish to you?”

Shivers worked their way through Margie’s skin as The Federation officer’s eyes, cold as a winter day, rested on the faces of the siblings and then the faces of the women gathered beside them. The Federation officer’s lips lifted in a slight smile. “No, you do not look foolish. I’m not here to harm; I have no desire to have my officers carry weapons into whatever place you wish to speak with me in.”

Jeval said, “I have a better idea. You alone may speak with us. Your guards and your soldiers must all return to the ship. We will hold a conversation with you, but we will not hold that conversation with you when your armed men stand with their boots upon our planet.”

The others nodded their heads. Jessica said, “They return to their ships, or we open fire.”

The officer said, “I see. But perhaps that would be foolish of me, to go alone with you to have a conversation, unarmed and unguarded.”

Clara said, “That is the only concession they shall make. I can promise you they are the most stubborn beings that you will ever have the fortune of meeting. You won’t change their mind and once they have decided on a path, that is the path they shall take no matter where it leads.”

Margie felt an unwilling smile start on her own face. Clara had the right of it. Her eyes went back to Jeval, and her heart skipped a few beats. He spoke in a casual and dismissive tone. “Your entire army resides above us and on the surface of our planet. We are vastly outnumbered. To kill you would be suicide for us. Do we seem suicidal to you?”

The Federation officer mulled that over for a bit. Tension grew thicker and thicker in the air. Margie’s eyes flickered upward yet again, judging how many ships were up there because they were too numerous to count. At least a hundred, perhaps more. They cruised back and forth and some, obviously flight and fighter craft, darted across the sky, leaving white contrails blazing along the cerulean blue heavens.

The officer nodded. “But just you four. I’ll have no one else in there.”

Jessica stepped forward. Her hands balled into fists, and her shoulder met Talon’s. “Where he goes, I go. There are no exceptions to that. Never.”

Clara echoed that, as did Jenny. Margie cleared her throat. “I too go wherever he leads.”

She felt his body stiffen slightly, but she didn’t look his way because she was afraid of what she would see there on his face. Had the words pleased him or upset him? She didn’t know. It was as open a declaration of love as she could make. Her heart beat even faster, making her slightly dizzy. The enormity of war loomed over everything, but even that was overwritten by the knowledge that she had just admitted her love for him and done it in a public way.

She had basically just said he was her mate when he had never asked her to be his mate and she had done it in a way that ensured that she would never be able to deny those words or the feeling behind them.

If they managed to live long enough for her to have to deny it, that was.

Talon said, with a fierce grin, “They are but women. Surely you cannot be afraid of mere women. Human women, at that.”

Jeval muttered, so low and below his breath that she almost didn’t hear it, “I would hate to be in your shoes later tonight.”

The Federation officer said, “Oh, I have heard of your women. In fact, I recognize the one beside you as a former Capo and one of the leaders of the efforts on Old Earth.”

Talon said, “That is a fight we will never have a chance to finish, and you know that. We have pulled back our efforts there because they proved to be futile; they were futile since The Federation would not keep its promises and until the people there are given what they need, then they will simply continue to fight each other for whatever resources remain.”

The Federation officer nodded. “I shall meet with you, but only you four. Leave the women outside.”

The four brothers exchanged glances. Margie said, “We shall guard the door for you then. If anything occurs in there, we shall be right there.”

The smile that came upon Jeval’s face held equal parts of amusement and something else, something she didn’t recognize, but her heart fluttered in response to it.

The Federation officer ordered his officers and guards back upon the ship. They went reluctantly, but they went. The officer then followed the four siblings up the hill to the small building that they used for council meetings. Margie walked beside Jenny, not daring to look at any of the other women. They had all heard her throw her lot in with his, and she was not sure if they felt sympathy for her or not. They had to know that he did not want to mate. That he refused to mate and all the reasons why.

A flutter of disquiet settled into her new system. He had said that most children that he would sire would die. That only the very strongest could survive and that he was not willing to sire a child knowing that.

But there was a child.

There was a child growing within her at that very moment and if she lived through this, if they lived through this and that child was born, would she have to watch that child die?

But the odds were fifty-fifty, right?

None of his siblings had been born with the gift. Even though he had it in great strength, it was entirely possible that her human blood had somehow diluted it down, that her own child would be born without it.

She and the other women extended themselves against the wall, their backs to it and their eyes trained on The Federation ships. The citizenry still stood outside, all of them clearly frightened and unwilling to go back to their homes in case they missed whatever clear signal might come.

It was Jenny that spoke first. “I must admit, I never imagined that this would be my life. When they put us on that bride ship, well, the slaver ship that they claimed was a bride ship, I thought that I would be shuttled off to some horrible and forbidding planet and be forced to live out my life with a creature that I could scarcely stand.”

Jessica said, “I don’t remember going onto the ship because they drugged me, and when I did wake up, they were already throwing me into the cryo-chambers. I really had no idea what was going on at first and when I woke up, all I could think of was escape. But you’re right; I never would’ve imagined this would be my life either.”

Clara said, “Nor I.”

Margie’s back met the sun-warmed stones of the wall behind her. Her voice was quiet and reflective. “It may yet not be our lives.”

Jessica, ever practical, replied with a simple, “We shall see.”

Jenny leaned in closer to Margie. One of her hands came up and touched down lightly along Margie’s ribs. “How far along are you, Margie?”

Margie looked down at her belly, which was still flat, and then over at Clara, who was clearly pregnant and swollen by that pregnancy. “What?”

She had no idea why she was trying to avoid that question. Jenny was a natural healer, and she could sense things about people.

Jenny lifted an eyebrow and said, “Is this something you did not know?”

Margie’s head drooped down toward her chest. “I know. He doesn’t. He doesn’t want a child.”

Jessica said, “I have heard that from Talon. And the reason why. Are you afraid?”

Margie’s hand went to her stomach and stayed there. She decided to be honest. “I am afraid that this child will never be born.”

Clara sigh was gusty and heartfelt. “As am I. If it comes to war, then I will fight. Even if it means our deaths and the deaths of our unborn. What else can we do?”

Jessica said, “If there was ever a time that I was grateful for what The Federation did to me, it’s now.”

Clara asked, “What do you mean?”

Jenny said, “Yes, tell us what you mean, Jessica.”

Jessica said, “They sterilized me. Before they put me on the ship. They sterilized a lot of women they put on the ships, you know. Not all, but some. Those that they felt would be the most problematic anyway. Also, the brothels and the pleasure planets that use sex slaves pay more for human women who cannot bear children. It is too inconvenient to have a woman who can reproduce aboard these planets. Makes it difficult to work I guess.”

The expression on Jessica’s face was so bleak that it broke Margie’s heart. She held out a hand and laid it lightly on Jessica’s shoulder. “At least you don’t have the worry that your child will be murdered while still within your womb.”

Jessica looked down at her feet. “I know. I don’t envy you that.”

But did she envy them the ability to bear children?

Jenny said, “There are many here who are with child. Did you know that some races have those who are about to be with child and it’s the males who do that?”

Jessica burst into laughter. “I did. I’ve seen it here on the planet, and every single time I see it, it’s so odd to me that I can’t help but stare. Then I feel badly, like I’m looking at them inappropriately or something.”

They all burst into laughter, and that helped to lighten the mood just slightly. Jessica stuck her ear to the door, obviously trying to hear through the thick thing. Her face took on a look of frustration, and she shook her head. “I wonder what it is they could be talking about.”

Jenny said, “The Federation officer is probably hoping to broker a peaceful surrender of the planet.”

A small streak of hope lit up within Margie. “Do you think they will ever surrender? They do believe in always doing things for the greater good. Would they drag us into war if it wasn’t necessary?”

Jessica said, “War against The Federation is wholly necessary. There’s no way around it. The Federation has become too corrupt. They cannot be allowed to stand, and you know that.”

That little flare of hope died out as fast as it had lit. Jessica was right. The Federation had to be stopped, but would they be the ones who had to make that stand?