Sovereign Ysldred X’izith paced around the small, irregularly shaped room which seemed to be made of some kind of reddish rock. He was the leader of the Hive, an insectile race of beings from beyond the Void, and Brynn found herself watching him now, with the same horror as the first time she’d seen him without his disguise.
But how am I seeing him? she thought, shuddering. And why?
She had no answers—just the image of the Sovereign pacing around the red rock room in slow, measured strides.
In Earth terms, he most resembled a cross between a cockroach and a wasp, with the long hard shell-like wings of the former and the narrow waist and stinger of the latter. His head, bulbous and triangular, resembled that of an ant with its curving, serrated mandibles, mobile, twitching antennae, and huge black, soulless eyes. His entire body was shiny black slashed with crimson and his long, chitinous legs were lined with coarse, wiry hairs and tipped with gripping claws.
Now he was missing one of his long, thin arms and when he turned his head, Brynn could see that one eye was only an empty socket. The long, insectile abdomen at the bottom of his body was twisted with scar tissue and the black breeding barb he had longed to sink deep inside her appeared withered. But for all his injuries, he was alive…still alive, Brynn saw with horror.
On a raised stone platform beside him sat several gem-like stones. Two were small and purple—about the size and shape of the Earth candy called M&Ms which Brynn’s new friends had given her to try. The third stone was bigger—the size of a human palm. It glowed green with some strange, alien energy that made Brynn shiver for some reason.
“My Sovereign,” came the buzzing voice of one of the Hive’s sentient workers. “My Sovereign, good news! Good news!”
“What is it?” Sovereign X'izith snapped in an angry tone as the worker came into view. It looked like a slightly smaller version of the Sovereign himself although its wings were longer and lighter—more like a dragonfly’s wings, Brynn thought numbly.
“It has to do with the latest scouting expedition we sent out.” The worker groomed its long antennae excitedly. “One of the scouts brought back the most extraordinary sample—”
“What good are samples to me?” X'izith demanded. “When the females they are getting samples from are forever out of my reach behind the energy shield those blasted Kindred have erected around Earth?”
“But my Sovereign we have found such a female—”
“I need more than one female and you know it!” X'izith’s tone was surly. “Not that I will enjoy breeding them with my barb in this state.” He gestured to the withered husk of his once long and sleek breeding barb. “It will be agony but I must do it—the royal grubs must be implanted in order for my successor to be born. In order that the Hive may live forever.”
“Yes, my Sovereign but what if I told you we had found a female who can be bred more than once?”
“What are you talking about?” X'izith demanded. “No female can be bred more than once. They cannot stand more because the grubs kill their hosts as they eat their way out after gestation. That is why we need many of the Earth females—hundreds or thousands. But we cannot even get one!”
“But what if I told you we had found a female whose genetic results suggest she could withstand the gestation of the grubs and birth them naturally?” the worker asked excitedly. “This same female could be bred over and over—she could be used for years or at least until we find a way around the energy shield the Kindred Mothership is generating around the Earth.”
Sovereign X'izith’s antenna perked up.
“The ten’sora?” he asked. “You have found a ten’sora? I thought such females were only legend.”
“This legend is true, my Sovereign!” the worker nodded rapidly. “We have tested her DNA—the ten’sora exists!’
“Say you so?” X'izith buzzed. “And can this female be used for the royal grubs?”
“Both royal and common, my Sovereign,” the worker promised. “The ten’sora is able to bear multiple litters of both. So she is the only one we need to transport—at least for now.”
“But how are we to transport her? Getting even one female past the shield—”
“Will be possible as soon as the scholar-workers have finished their study of the E’lo transport stones and are able to make them work.” The worker came forward and groomed the stump where Sovereign X'izith’s fourth arm had been, nibbling it tenderly with his mandibles to stimulate blood flow.
“They have told me they are close to such a revelation,” X'izith said, musing. “I thought it would do us no good as the stones are able to transport only one. But now, if what you say is true—if there truly is a female who can bear brood after brood of grubs without being destroyed from the inside out…”
“It is true, my Sovereign,” the worker promised, ceasing his grooming for a moment. “As soon as the stones are working, we shall have the ten’sora —the only female we need for now. I swear it.”
“The Nameless Ones, Gods of Nothing, grant it shall be,” X'izith buzzed. “That the Hive shall live forever…”
That the Hive shall live forever…that the Hive shall live forever…
The words seemed burned into Brynn’s mind. They rang in her head, tolling like a giant bell, tolling out destruction and doom and death…
“Brynn? Princess? Wake up, little one—wake up.”
A big, warm hand was shaking her and Brynn opened her eyes to Varin, her lover and mate, leaning over her. He was looking at her anxiously, his pale bronze eyes filled with worry as he stroked her cheek.
“You were shaking the whole bed,” he told her. “It must have been an awful dream.”
The bed—we’re in bed together. Safe in our suite in the Mothership, she suddenly remembered.
“Yes, safe—you’re safe here with me,” he murmured through their link, his mental voice comforting. “Everything’s all right, little one. Everything is going to be fine.”
“Oh, Varin!” She threw her arms around his neck, a sob caught in her throat.
He pulled her close and stroked her trembling back and shoulders with his big, warm hands, caressing her as gently as though she was made of crystal and might break if he was too rough.
But Brynn needed reassurance that he was really there—that he was really real. She clung to him desperately and pressed her face against the side of his neck, breathing in his spicy, masculine scent. She could feel the warmth of his big body through the thin, silky nightdress she wore but still she needed more.
“Tight, Varin,” she whispered pleadingly. “Hold me tight.”
In response, his massive, muscular arms tightened around her in a gentle squeeze. Then he sat up in bed and lifted her into his lap, cradling her close against his broad, bare chest, surrounding her with himself.
“Want to tell me about it, little one?” he rumbled softly. “Was it a really bad dream?”
“It was but…” Brynn shook her head, her long black hair brushing against his chest. “But I can’t remember it now. All I know is that it was…” She shivered against him uncontrollably. “It was about Sovereign X'izith.”
“Just a nightmare,” Varin murmured, stroking her hair soothingly. “That’s all it was—a nightmare.”
“No,” Brynn shook her head anxiously. “No, it was real—it was true. I don’t know how I know that but I do—I know. Varin…” She looked up at him, tracing his familiar, sharp features in the dim glow of light coming from under the fresher door. “He’s still alive. We thought we killed him but we didn’t—he’s alive!”
Her mate didn’t try to contradict her. Instead, he held her close, cuddling her and soothing her, rocking her as though she was a lost child he wanted to comfort.
Brynn, for her part, closed her eyes and tried to absorb some of the comfort he was offering.
“Varin,” she sent through their link. “It was awful—so awful I don’t even want to think of it. But at the same time I wish I could remember what it was so I could tell someone—maybe Commander Sylvan or someone else on the High Council. It seemed so important but I can’t remember any details now—just the Sovereign standing in a cave with some weird, glowing stones.”
“That may be enough to give Commander Sylvan some information.” Varin’s mental voice was thoughtful. “At least now we know our suspicions are correct and the Sovereign is still alive. It’s a good thing Commander Thornx went on his mission to get the information on the Hive from Yonnie Six.”
“Didn’t you tell me he had to get himself sold as a slave in order to get it?” Brynn asked timidly. Slavery was something her mate knew much about.
Brynn had grown up a princess on Galen, a planet far from the Mothership and Varin, who was a Vision Kindred, had been her slave since birth. For years he had been unable to touch her because of a band he wore around his wrist which gave him jolts of agony if he made even the least amount of skin-to-skin contact with her.
But though he had been forced into his life of slavery, he had been devoted to her from the first. Their love had grown against all odds and now they were the only two people left of her home world. But though being a slave was in Varin’s past, Brynn knew he still had bitter memories of it.
“He did allow himself to be sold as a slave,” he said now, aloud. “I thought it was a poor idea myself, but as I am not part of the Kindred High Council and was only testifying about the Hive, my thoughts were not much taken into consideration.” He sighed heavily. “Even worse, I’m afraid the Yonnite Mistresses who own only male slaves are supposed to be a cruel and brutal bunch. I saw a holo image of the female Commander Thornx was going to be sold to and she looked…” He shook his head. “Well, let’s just say he’s not going to have an easy time of it.”
“What do you mean?” Brynn asked. Then she caught a mental image from her mate’s mind—a petite female with long, wavy black hair and a stern look in her dark eyes. She was wearing a tight leather outfit and between her legs was strapped… Goddess, what is that?” Brynn wondered.
“It’s a phallus.” Varin’s mental voice was grim. “It’s used for male penetration.”
“Male pene—” Brynn broke off and stared at him, wide-eyed in the dark. “But why…why would a female want to…to do that to a male?” she asked, feeling her cheeks get hot with a blush.
Her own entry into the world of sex had been filled with confusion and pain, due to her people’s cruel and archaic customs and a dose of the blood honey she’d been given when she had been a prisoner of the Hive. Only now, with Varin’s loving patience, was she beginning to feel less conflicted about her normal sexual urges. But surely the urge for a female to penetrate a male couldn’t be normal—could it?
“It’s normal on Yonnie Six, apparently,” Varin murmured. “Normal enough that Commander Thornx will quite probably have to endure it. He will be a slave, after all—he will have no say in the matter.”
“That’s awful,” Brynn whispered. “What if I had wished to do such a thing to you when you were my slave? You would have hated me!”
“I could never hate you, Princess.” Varin stroked a lock of hair away from her eyes and kissed her lightly on the lips. “And if you wished to penetrate me…well, my body is yours to do with as you please.”
“Really?” Brynn looked at him, wide-eyed. “You’d really let me do…do that to you?”
“I do it to you all the time,” he pointed out with a soft chuckle. “And you don’t hate me for it.”
“That’s true,” Brynn admitted, blushing. “But we…we do that because we love each other.”
“Well, a slave may grow to love his Mistress,” Varin remarked thoughtfully. “I suppose Commander Thornx may feel for his Mistress as I felt for you all those years, though I could never touch you because of that damn inhibitor band I wore.”
“I just don’t know if you could have loved me if I was…was penetrating you like that.” Just the thought made her blush again, her cheeks growing warm with the mental image of herself dominating and taking Varin as he so often took her.
In fact, she and her mate made love often. Due, perhaps, to traces of the blood honey left in her system, she needed to feel his shaft inside her, breeding her long and hard, on a very regular basis. Just thinking of it made her pussy feel hot and tingly and needy but she didn’t like to say anything about it since Varin had filled her multiple times just before they’d gone to sleep that night.
“I’d love you no matter what,” Varin whispered, kissing her again. “Even if you wished to penetrate me, Mistress. My body is yours to command—yours to do with as you wish—you know that.” He stroked her cheek. “Which means you shouldn’t feel shy to ask for what you need right now.”
Brynn shifted in his arms, biting her lip. It seemed wrong to her that she should always be asking Varin to service her sexually though he never seemed to mind. Possibly because she’d been raised in a convent with no knowledge of sex other than the vague idea that it was wrong and immoral, she still had problems asking for what she needed. But, Goddess—she did need it so badly. Needed to feel her mate inside her, filling her up, thrusting his thick shaft deep in her pussy to stretch her inner walls and open her completely before he spurted his seed deep inside her hungry womb…
“Then ask me for it.” Varin’s mental voice was rough with lust and Brynn realized, with embarrassment, that he’d heard everything she was just thinking.
“You know I want to,” she murmured, drawing aimless patterns on his broad, bare chest with her fingers. “It’s just hard for me. Hard to ask for what I… for what I need.”
“I love to give you what you need, Princess,” he protested.
“Even though I need it over and over again?” Brynn asked timidly.
“Even though,” he agreed, kissing her gently on the mouth.
“Olivia thinks I need you to make love to me so often because my body craves your seed – because it wants to have your baby,” Brynn said. Liv, who was a nurse, was one of the few people she dared to confide in about her insatiable appetites.
“That could be,” Varin murmured. His big hand drifted down to cup one of her breasts through her thin nightdress. Idly, he teased her nipple, sending a hot rush of need through Brynn’s entire body. “What do you think?” he asked her. “Do you want me to give you big belly… To fill your wet little pussy with my seed and make you pregnant, little one?”
Brynn felt a shiver of desire run through her and his soft, dirty words.
“I… I don’t know,” she murmured. “I just know I always feel like I’m asking you for more and more. But I thought it was the male who was supposed to do the asking, the wanting.”
“Oh, I wanted you plenty, Princess,” Varin growled softly. He pulled down the top of her nightdress, the better to stroke and tease her bare breasts. “I just couldn’t touch you for so long because of that damn inhibitor band I wore.”
“Then touch me now,” Brynn begged. “Show me what you wanted to do to me… How you wanted to take me all those times before we could actually touch.”
“You want me to take the lead?” Varin asked her, his pale bronze eyes glowing in the dimness. “Want me to show you how much I want you, little one?”
“I want you to use me,” Brynn whispered breathlessly. “Use my body for your own pleasure, the way you’re always telling me to use yours. Take me, Varin—please.”
“As my princess commands,” he growled, and took her mouth in a hungry kiss.
Brynn felt herself melting against him, her body opening for his. Goddess, she loved him so much! She could never get enough of his body against hers, his big hands on her skin, his mouth and tongue tasting her all over.
As if reading her mind, Varin pulled her nightdress the rest of the way off, leaving her completely bare. Then he laid her in the middle of the bed and spread her thighs wide.
But when he started to kiss his way down her trembling stomach, Brynn tried to stop him by tugging at his hair.
He looked up at her. “You’re stopping me already? I thought you wanted me to use you, Princess – to do whatever I wanted to with you?”
“I do.” Brynn could feel her cheeks burning. “But… well… I mean, we made love so many times right before we went to bed. I’m still kind of… messy down there.”
“I know you are.” He gave her a slow, hot smile. “I’m the one who made you messy, Princess. So shouldn’t I be the one to clean you up?”
“But… you don’t mind?” Brynn asked.
“Hell no, I don’t mind,” he growled. “I’m going to lick my come out of your pussy, baby. Lick you nice and clean so I can fill you up again. And you’re going to lie still and let me do it.”
Brynn felt her stomach quiver with desire at the soft growl of dominance in his deep voice. She let her body relax and her thighs drifted apart, waiting for his tongue.
“Yes Varin,” she whispered breathlessly. “I’m yours – do whatever you want with me.”
“I will,” he promised in that same dark, dangerous voice. And then he was between her legs, spreading her inner folds open with his hot, wet tongue, tasting her, licking her clean as he had promised.
Brynn gasped and buried her fingers in his thick hair. This was the act she was still too shy to ask for, although she loved it when Varin went down on her. He did it with such enthusiasm, such hunger, lapping her pussy with long, slow strokes of his tongue one minute and then lashing her clit with rapid little flicks that drove her crazy with lust the next. Brynn thought she knew why he enjoyed this so much—her new friends Olivia and Sophia had confided to her that Kindred males needed to taste their mates.
“It’s not just a preference or an inclination like it is with Earth guys,” Olivia had told her. “It’s an actual biological imperative. Kindred males actually need to go down.”
“And they love it too,” Sophia had added with a giggle. “If you could see all the bite marks I have on my inner thighs… Of course Sylvan is a Blood Kindred. Not all of them need to bite – but all of them do need to taste their mates.”
It certainly seemed like a need to Brynn. The way Varin wrapped his long muscular arms around her thighs to split her wide, the way he pressed his tongue as deeply into her as he could, lapping from her well, before sucking her clit into his mouth to torture it sweetly with the tip of his tongue. It seemed to be fulfilling his own desire as well as hers.
“Ahhh, Varin!” she gasped, bucking her hips up to meet his mouth. She was already up and over the edge of pleasure as she moaned his name, her first orgasm rushing over her in a warm wave. He could always make her come this way, come so long and hard. But though she felt her pleasure overwhelming her, Brynn still longed to have him inside her. To feel his long, thick shaft pumping deep to fill her with his seed.
Her mate must have felt her need, because he finished lapping her pussy and moved up to cover her smaller body with his much larger one.
Brynn moaned softly, loving the feel of his big hard body pressing her into the mattress. They didn’t often use this position because Varin worried that his muscular bulk might crush her. He most often had her ride astride him, looking down into his face as she straddled him and took him deep inside her from above.
But tonight he seemed to be taking her at her word, using her the way she wanted him to, taking what he needed. Brynn was more than happy to give it to him.
“Are you ready, little one?” he growled hoarsely. “Ready for me to fill your little pussy with my cock and pump my come deep in your belly?”
“Yes Varin,” she whispered breathlessly. “Are… Are you going to try to make me pregnant? Are you going to breed me deep?”
“As deep as I can little one,” he growled. “Just want to make sure you’re ready for it.”
“I am,” she promised eagerly. “I am Varin – take me. Breed me. Breed me deep.”
“Gods,” he groaned. “I love to hear you beg for it like that little one. Love to hear you beg for my cock inside you.”
Then he spread Brynn’s thighs and pushed them back almost to her chest, putting her calves over his broad shoulders and nearly bending her double.
Brynn gave a low gasp—this was a new position for her and she’d never felt so open, so vulnerable to her huge, muscular mate before.
But though Varin was so much bigger and stronger than her, she didn’t fear him. She only wanted more.
“This is going to let me get really deep inside you,” he murmured hoarsely and she felt him lining up the broad head of his cock with the soft, vulnerable entrance of her pussy. “I’ll be able to plant my seed right against the mouth of your womb. Better chance of giving you a big belly that way.”
“Yes Varin—yes please,” Brynn heard herself moaning as his thick shaft slid all the way into her. She loved the feeling of being completely helpless under her mate, of being completely at his mercy as he did what he wished. And, oh Goddess, he was getting into her so deep. Already she could feel the broad head of his shaft kissing the mouth of her womb but she wanted more – wanted to feel him moving inside her, taking her, fucking her, breeding her.
“You like this, little one?” Varin growled as he began to move inside her. “You like to feel me taking you… filling you up… breeding your sweet little pussy?”
“You know I… know I do,” Brynn moaned. “Take me Varin— take me as hard as you want to… as hard as you need to. Make me yours and fill me up the way you wanted to for so long before we could touch.”
“Gods, your sweet little pussy is so tight around me,” he groaned. “I used to think about it when I stroked myself, used to wonder what you would feel like wrapped around my shaft, even though I knew it was forbidden.”
“Because you were my slave,” Brynn whispered breathlessly.
“Because I was your slave,” he agreed. “Because a slave can’t pound his Mistresses’ pussy… can’t fuck her and fill her with his seed… can’t get her pregnant with his baby.”
He leaned forward, pressing her knees hard to her chest and kissed her ruthlessly making Brynn want him even more.
“I’m still your slave, Brynn,” he murmured hoarsely, his pale bronze eyes blazing into hers. “But I’m fucking you anyway and soon I’m going to come deep in your pussy. Going to fill you with my seed and give you a big belly, my Princess.”
“Goddess, Varin!”
She reached for him, wanting to tangle her fingers in his hair. But Varin captured both of her small wrists in one of his large hands and pressed them over her head.
The message was clear – she was to hold still and submit to his fucking. She was his now, his completely to do with as he wished and she loved it – loved the feeling of being so completely owned by her mate.
Suddenly the delicious feeling of being penetrated so deeply was too much. Brynn felt herself coming again, coming even harder this time, her inner wall shuddering and quaking around his thick shaft, milking him, trying to get his seed.
“God’s Brynn, I can feel you coming… Coming all around me,” Varin groaned. “It makes me want to come too, to fill you up.”
“Do it,” Brynn begged him. “Do it, Varin—fill me with your seed! I want you so much, need you so much!”
With a low roar, he did as she begged. Pressing forward, he thrust until the broad head of his shaft was directly against the mouth of her womb and then Brynn felt pulse after pulse of hot wetness as he filled her as he had promised.
Her pleasure crested again, the orgasm overtaking her once more and going on and on in a seemingly never-ending flow that left her breathless and aching beneath him. She had never felt so used before, so taken—it was a delicious feeling, addicting. One she felt she could never get enough of.
At last Varin finished and released her. He withdrew slowly and took her in his arms, cuddling her close to his broad chest. Brushing a strand of hair away from her forehead, he kissed her tenderly.
“Was that all right? Was it too much?” he asked softly.
“No.” Brynn shook her head and gave a soft, satisfied sigh. “It was just right. Just what I needed. I think I can go back to sleep now and hopefully I won’t have any more of those awful dreams.”
“We’ll tell Commander Sylvan about your dream tomorrow,” he promised. “But for now let’s rest and sleep.”
“Yes,” Brynn agreed, snuggling closer to him. Her body felt deliciously worn out, and her pussy was filled with his hot cream. It was a comforting sensation—a feeling of permanence and belonging that she couldn’t find anywhere but in his arms. “I love you, Varin,” she whispered, kissing his rough cheek. “Love you so much.”
“Love you too, little one,” he growled sleepily. “Rest now.”
With a sigh of contentment, Brynn closed her eyes and did as he said.
But the last thought that followed her down into her dreamless slumber was of Commander Thornx and his mission to Yonnie Six. How was he doing, she wondered. And could he ever learn to love his Mistress as Varin had come to love her?
Brynn didn’t know and before she could begin to formulate an answer, sleep took her and she knew no more.