Kane

Piper’s scent surrounds me. My fingers draw circles on the back of her neck, as I drink in her scent.

I’ve never felt better. Her naked body is draped around mine, her entire body rising up and down with every breath I take.

I did it.

I took her virginity.

And it was the best damn thing I ever did.

She’s the first person to accept me for who I am. Who doesn’t see me as a tool or a weapon, but a person. A flawed one — and she accepts me regardless. I don’t think I deserve one as pure as her, but I will do my very best to prove myself worthy.

The fans of my computers speed up, the whirring sound distracting me from the cloud I’m floating on. Something important must be going on — but I don’t care. The only thing I care about is Piper, and the only thing I want to do is repeat what we just did.

For all eternity.

My stomach grumbles, and Piper laughs.

“Are you hungry?”

“After using all that energy giving you countless orgasms? Sure, I could eat.”

“I’m so bad. I should let you rest — you’re covered in bandages! And what do I do?”

“You let me fuck you into a coma,” I growl, putting on my best animalistic voice.

Piper laughs, and I love the sound of it. “Exactly. I’m a bad, bad girl.”

I slap her round ass and I just love the way it jiggles.

“I corrupted you.”

“As if!” She smirks as she runs her fingers across my manhood. “This bad girl has always been inside of me, I just let her out to play this time, that’s all.”

“Is that so?” I ask. “I think I deserve a little more credit than that.”

“You need to corrupt me a whole lot more before you claim that.”

“Challenge accepted.”

Piper leans up and I kiss her passionately, my eyes closed, losing myself in the moment. Nothing feels better than this. Nothing.

My stomach growls again, interrupting our moment, and Piper giggles.

“I think I need to get us something to eat.”

“There’s nothing here, though,” I say. “I didn’t foresee us having to hide out here for this long.”

“I’ll have to swing by the store then.”

“You can’t,” I say, seriously. “You can’t go outside.”

“Sure I can,” Piper says defiantly. “We need to eat. You, most of all, but I’m growing pretty hungry as well.”

“They’re looking for you!”

“And you as well! And you’re one big ass alien, excuse my language, but you are. No one notices me, as long as I keep my hood down. Trust me. I know what I’m doing. I’ve gotten really good at being invisible in school. No one even noticed I was there all year!”

“I don’t want you to go,” I say, running my thumb down her cheek.

“I don’t want to go either,” Piper says. “I’ll be back in a flash.”

“I don’t like this.”

“Good thing you’re not the boss of me.” She winks.

Damn it. She’s caring — too caring. I don’t want her to leave, but I see she’s made up her mind. If I try to keep her locked up in this room, am I any better than Melkov?

Yes, of course I am. But it’ll be drifting into the same territory, and that’s the last thing I want.

“Be careful. There’s a stall across the road. Buy some food and come back. Immediately. Don’t—“

“Yeah, yeah, don’t look at anyone. I know, I know.”

“There’s a credit stick in the left pocket of my coat.”

“Got it.”

I watch her go, and my heart aches for it.

Don’t do anything stupid, girl. I need you. More than you know. More than I know how to explain.

* * *

Piper

I pull my hood down as far as it will go and head outside. My legs are still wobbly, my sex still throbbing. It aches, but in a good way, if that makes any sense.

It still feels like I’m walking on air. I did it. My first time. And what a time it was!

It was everything I hoped it would be — and so much more. The circumstances might not be perfect (you know, the whole hunted by alien slavers thing), but besides that it, I couldn’t have wished for something better.

The streets are busy, filled with strange aliens going about their business, and so I keep my gaze fixed on the dirty road. No gawking this time. I’m a woman on a mission.

A mission for food. No matter how many lightyears I travel, some things stay the same, I suppose. I make my way over to the cart on the other side of the road, making sure I don’t bump into anyone.

The food on the cart makes me wince. It looks like skewered rats, but beggars can’t be choosers I suppose. There’s a line in front of the cart so I take my place at the back, my hands thrust into my pockets.

“You heard about Silver?”

“Yeah, they upped the price again. Half a mill! Insane.”

“I thought he wasn’t real.”

“Neither did I, but with that amount of credits on the line, he must be.”

I can’t help but overhear the conversation in front of me. I take a risk and glimpse up. Two tall aliens tower over me. Their skin is red and scaly, and their snouts protrude from their thick coats. One catches me looking, and I see his eyes are gold and catlike.

I quickly glance back down.

Luckily, he doesn’t pay me any attention, and turns back to his partner.

“Did you see the message this morning? On the web? The Zoran one?” He says.

“No?” the other alien responds.

“Apparently, there’s a group of Zorans calling themselves ‘The Resistance,’ and they’re also paying anyone for information on Silver.”

“What are the Zorans doing here, of all places?”

“Beats me. I hope they fuck off quickly, though. Last thing we need is more of those tall bastards sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong. I lost a month’s worth of credits when Silver hit Grotto! Scrambled out of there as quickly as I could, and dropped some chips on my way out.”

“That’s a damn shame.”

My ears are burning red hot. More Zorans?! The Resistance?! I have no idea who they are, but if anyone can tell us more about Kane’s past, it’ll have to be other Zorans.

And ‘The Resistance’ sounds good. A lot better than ‘Alien Slaving Syndicate’, that’s for sure.

When it’s my turn I point to two of the skewered ‘rats’, hand the man the credit stick without looking at him, and run back home to Kane’s apartment as fast my legs will take me.

When I burst through the door, my Zoran lover nearly jumps out of the bed.

“It’s just me!” I say. “Don’t worry!”

He sinks back into bed.

“You scared me.”

“Don’t be so on edge.”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not like we’re being hunted, you know?” he says sarcastically.

“Right. You’re definitely hungry. Or hangry, more like.”

“Hangry?”

“I’ll explain later. Here, eat up,” I say, holding up the plastic bag.

“Ah, vula!”

He heats the food on his stove, and offers me a piece.

“No thank you,” I wince.

“You’ve got to eat,” Kane insists.

“Not as much as you do.”

“Perhaps. But I’m not taking another bite until you do.”

“Ugh, fine,” I sigh.

With my eyes closed I take a bite. The meat is surprisingly tender. As long as I keep my eyes closed and don’t think about what I’m eating, it’s not half bad I suppose. Still not my favorite though.

“So, I overheard something interesting…”

Kane freezes up mid-bite. “What?”

“Apparently there’s some group of Zorans who posted a public message, and—”

Before I’ve finished my sentence Kane is up and away. He sits down behind his multitude of screens, and I pull up a chair next to him.

The monitors flip on, and he scrolls through all the messages with a dazzling speed. I can barely keep up.

“You’re right!” he says excitedly. “Look!”

It’s right there on the screen. A group of Zorans are looking for a silver-colored brother of theirs, and will pay well for any usable information.

Kane leans back, looking perplexed.

“I can’t believe it,” he says. “After all his time… I looked for answers everywhere, and now it just arrives?”

“I’m so happy for you!” I say. “This might be exactly what we need!”

“Yeah… but it feels a bit too convenient. What if it’s a trap?”

“What if it’s not?”

“If it’s not, we’re saved. If it is, we’re fucked.”

I grab Kane’s hand and squeeze it tightly. He puts up a good show for me, but I know that he’s hurting. Despite my care, he’s in bad shape. It’ll take a long period for him to get back to full health.

Time we don’t have.

I’m aware that every minute that passes we’re getting closer to being found.

“It’s a risk, yes, but one we have to take,” I say. “We can’t wait forever.”

Kane looks at me, and his purple eyes are filled with emotion.

“I don’t want to lose you,” he says softly.

“And you won’t. No matter what happens,” I promise. “No matter what. I’m yours.”

He leans in and kisses me deeply.

“Okay. Let’s do it.”