Chapter Five: Part of the Pack
A week in Salem Grove could feel like a year during the summer. The heat made everything unbearable, and the way the sun streamed down, baking everything until it was dry as a bone, made the hours seem to crawl by.
And then it wasn’t like there was anything that resembled a night life in the town, so the night time hours were slow as well.
But that was totally different on the ship.
Everything here was fast paced and eventful. Even just flying could turn into an adventure as stars and falling bits of debris streaked past them.
Sometimes Nat would find that she had lost hours, just sitting on the observation deck, staring out at the wonder of it all.
It was one of those things where she had to pinch herself to believe it was really happening.
She was out here in space with three aliens, seeing the sights and learning about different species and races of creatures that she never would have even known existed if it weren’t for them.
After the incident on Catsella, they had sat her down and explained that they were warriors who defended those who needed defending, even when that included themselves.
“Sometimes people die,” Temos said in his Temos way. “We do not kill innocents or those who cannot defend themselves.”
There was an earnestness under the usual bluntness of the way he said it, though, and Natasha got the feeling that he wanted her to understand and not to think less of them for what she had seen on Catsella.
It was true that at first she'd been horrified by what she'd seen. Someone had been standing in front of them, and then a second later, there was a smoking hole in his head.
Seeing something like that wasn't something she could just easily get over. On Earth stuff like that happened often enough, but never right in front of her. It hadn't helped that she hadn't been able to understand what they were saying.
Of course, hearing that they'd been talking about taking her as a slave definitely made things different.
Nat found that she trusted the dragon three in their explanation and that she felt relieved they were there to keep her safe. So it wasn't a problem anymore.
But it had made her think. It was very likely that there would be all kinds of things like that, little cultural differences that would crop up and make things difficult. It was already going to be not the easiest thing any of them had ever done before.
"We have to be able to talk, I think," she'd said. "Just to make sure that we're on the same page, you know? Because there's going to be all kinds of things that I don't understand and things that I'm going to interpret one way because of how I think of things, and I don't want that to make things messy between us."
They looked impressed. Even Alaran, who gave her a wide berth most of the time. And they had agreed, which was the most important thing.
After that, it had been smooth sailing, so to speak.
By her estimation, it had been about two weeks since she'd left Earth.
Natasha couldn't help wondering how things were going there. Her mom was alone, her siblings had very little idea what had happened to her, and Kathy probably thought that she'd been kidnapped or worse by now.
But she was happy, and there was no real way to tell them that. Which was maybe for the best, all things considered. It wasn't like any of them would believe her. And anyway, Nat wasn't ready to share this with anyone else just yet.
The next time they landed, it was because Alaran had gotten a message on his comm device. Natasha happened to be sitting in command when he got it, and she'd been shocked to see the smile spread over his face. It was an expression she hadn't seen in the time she'd been on board.
He'd called to Temos and Az and had told them something in their language, which of course meant that he didn't want her to understand.
Natasha made a face and kept looking out the window. It was fine if Alaran didn't like her. Temos and Az did, and two out of three wasn't bad.
All three of them looked excited about whatever it was Alaran had said, and before she knew it, Az was steering them in to get ready to land somewhere nearby.
"Where are we going?" she tried asking him, chafing a bit at being out of the loop.
"To a little planet called Halpenas," Az replied, keeping his focus on flying.
"What's there?" she wanted to know.
He grinned. "Something we've been waiting for."
"Something like what?"
"Swords," Temos said, coming up behind her. "Axes. Glaives, even."
Natasha tipped her head back so she could see him better. "Weapons?"
"Yes. Of a fine quality. Some of the finest you can get this side of the Serenas Trench."
Figuring out what the Serenas Trench was would come later, for now Natasha turned so she could see Temos without breaking her neck. "And that's the only reason we're going? To get weapons? Aren't there a million other places to get weapons out there?"
"Oh, certainly," Alaran said as he joined them too. "But these are special."
"Why?"
"You are full of questions."
Something about that irritated her, and she put her hands on her hips. "It would be great if you were more full of answers."
"They're special because they aren't exactly legal," Az explained, jumping in. "The materials that they're made of were outlawed on several different planets for being too unstable to forge with unless you were a smith of extraordinary skill."
"And these materials need to be worked by hand, which most people do not want to do anymore."
"Tech is the easier way?" Nat asked.
Temos nodded. "Usually. The result is that tech forged weapons are less durable and easier to find. Which means that everyone has them. So if you are lucky enough to find a weapon that is hand forged, and out of good materials at that, you will have a much better edge than your opponent.”
“Makes sense to me,” Nat said. “So what do we do when we get there? Is there a signal? Is this like a drug deal, only with sharp objects?”
“For one thing,” Alaran cut in. “We are going. You are staying on the ship.”
“What? Why?”
“Because it is not safe.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but Az cut her off. “Actually, he has a point.”
“Az!”
“Halpenas is a backwater, Nat. It is dangerous under normal conditions, and we’re meeting someone who’s selling things that may as well be illegal. This is not the time for surprises, and you, my dear, are always a surprise.”
Temos just nodded, and with three of them against her, there was no way she was going to win this argument. She folded her arms and listened to them plan and told herself that she definitely wasn’t pouting.
It was rare for Nat to be alone on the ship, but all three of them had insisted that she would be safer on the ship than going with them. “You won’t be missing anything exciting,” Az promised her, but some sort of possibly illegal weapons deal sounded pretty exciting to Natasha. But she sighed and told them she’d stay put. It was better than wandering off on her own and ending up lost on a planet whose name she didn’t even know. And maybe she’d have just as much fun on the ship.
“Yeah, right,” she muttered under her breath as she pulled her vibrating wand out of the little nightstand beside her bed. “You just keep telling yourself that, girl.” Natasha had debated with herself for a long time over bringing sex toys with her on this trip. It hadn’t really seemed like a good idea, bringing them with three aliens who might not have seen them before and would be curious about them if they happened to find them somehow.
But then, she was going to be with three very hot aliens who probably weren’t interested in humans at all, and who knew when the next time she would get laid would be. It had already been a long time, and that was without going to space.
Natasha sighed and laid back, letting her eyes fall closed. She inhaled deeply, held it for a moment, and then exhaled, shaking off the slight resentment at being left behind and putting herself into a better mood. She ran her fingers through her hair once, and then again, slower this time, lingering and twisting her fingers into the tresses to give a strong pull that made her core throb. She’d always liked having her hair pulled, but there hadn’t been very many men willing to do it.
Her next breath shook a bit as she exhaled, and she slid her hand down from her hair to her chest. Her tank top was made of a thin material and was probably inappropriate to have worn around the dragon three in the first place. Not that they would have been looking.
But...what if they had? What if they’d noticed?
Her nipples were getting hard now, so she rubbed them through the fabric, pinching and tugging in turn, enjoying the sharpness of the bite of pain. She did it again, harder, and it had her arching her back and making a soft noise of pleasure.
In her mind, she wasn’t alone, doing this to herself. There was someone there with her, someone tall and broad, with nice hands and strong fingers, pinching and twisting at her nipples until she was a wet mess. Whoever it was, he was enjoying himself. He liked to tease her. He liked the way she moaned and arched and was already getting worked up from just this.
When she pinched harder and cried out, she could imagine this mystery man smirking at her, eyes dark with how much he wanted this. Wanted her. “You like that, don’t you?” he asked in her mind, and his voice was deep and dark. “I bet you’re already wet for me.”
“Not yet,” she managed to get out, whispering it into the quiet of her room even though there was no one on the ship to hear her. “I’m not that easy.” And that was...sure. Mostly true.
The mystery man just laughed, and it was clear that he didn’t believe her. Something about that turned her on something fierce. She could deny it all she wanted, but he knew. He knew that she was so into this right now.
She was panting by then, and her hand slid lower, grazing over her stomach to the waistband of her pants. She hadn’t bothered to put on underwear when she’d come out of the shower earlier, and she already knew she was wet.
Thinking about how she’d stood in front of the three of them in no underwear, in her thin little tank top made her bite her lip hard. There was no way they could have known, but…
Her thoughts turned to them as she let her fingers slide under the elastic, just dipping low enough that they brushed through the neatly trimmed pubic hair that framed her sex.
In her head, she imagined that they would want to see her bare. She imagined...Temos, taunting her and saying that he knew she wasn’t wearing anything under her strange bottoms, so she should just take them off. And so she did, arching her hips up so she could slide the pants down and then kick them to the floor.
Natasha imagined Temos looking at her, those dark eyes intent on every part of her body. They skimmed over her legs and then back up, to the thatch of hair that was barely hiding how wet she was for him already. There would be appreciation in those eyes, she decided, and he’d tell her that she was beautiful and then reach out and push her shirt up so he could see her breasts.
She moaned loudly, hips thrusting up. All she had to grind against was her hand, but the image of it being Temos’ cock was too good to pass up. It would be thick and hard in his pants already, and she knew it would feel good pressed against her, even with a layer of clothes between them.
And, of course, there was something about the thought of him being clothed while she was pretty much naked with her breasts hanging out that had her grinding harder against her own hand.
Soon enough, grinding against her hand wasn’t enough. The wand was next to her on the bed, but now that she’d started thinking about Temos, she knew she was going to need something else if she was going to be fully satisfied.
There was a dildo in her drawer of illicit things that was the thickest one she owned. Usually, Natasha only used it when she wanted to feel full and overwhelmed. But that was how it would be with Temos or either of the other two, wasn’t it?
There was no way that any of them wasn’t more well-endowed that any human male with how big they were.
Their cocks were probably huge, and just the thought of one of them filling her up had her practically drooling on herself.
She definitely needed the dildo.
Usually she had to use a lot of lube with this toy, but right then she was so wet that there was no need for it. When she pressed the mushroom head of the dildo against her hole, it slipped right in, making her inhale sharply.
The toy was flesh colored, made to resemble the real thing as much as possible. Of course one of the dragon three would no doubt have a dick the same color as the rest of their skin, and she wondered how that would look slipping—no, slamming—in and out of her.
It wouldn’t be gentle if it was Temos, that was for sure. He was brash and hot headed and he would want to grab her and take what he wanted from her. He’d take her hard and fast, slam into her and make her beg for more.
And god, wasn’t that a hot image.
Without pausing, she slammed the dildo into herself, gasping and nearly coming undone right then and there at the feeling of it.
It would be like this with Temos for sure, maybe with the other two, as well, if Alaran would ever deign to touch her. Maybe...maybe the three of them would take turns. One would hold her down while one shoved in and out of her wet sex, and the other would watch.
Maybe he'd touch himself while he watched the other two with her. Stroking his thick cock, those dark eyes so heated as he looked down at her while she twisted and writhed in pleasure.
Temos would be the one taking her, of course, Az would hold her down, and Alaran would stand there and touch himself, judging the whole ordeal in that way he had.
It should not have been as hot as it was, but god.
Natasha's thighs were already sticky with her wetness, and she could hear the dildo squishing in and out of her as she worked it. Her hips arched up, and she buried the toy in as deep as it would go, lifting one hand to cover her mouth as she cried out in pleasure.
There was no one on the ship, but still, just to be on the safe side, she didn't want to make too much noise.
In her head, Temos was teasing her about being so loud. He told her that he hadn't known Earth girls were so messy and noisy, and if he had, he might have gone there sooner.
Az chimed in that it was probably just Natasha, since she was proving to be exceptional, and he reached down and pinched one of her nipples while he teased her.
It was so much. The fantasy she was playing out in her head and the way she was touching her body, thrusting the dildo and working herself up into a froth.
Already she was so close, that burning pleasure starting at the surface level and then sinking deeper and deeper into her core. Every time she worked the dildo in and out of her, the girth of it brushed the sensitivity of her walls, and she was left writhing on the bed in pleasure.
Right when she was on the edge, she stopped, imagining that they would tease her. Temos would make her beg. He'd tell her that if she really wanted to come, she would show him.
Out loud, in a whisper, she begged for him. "Please. Please, let me come. I wanna come so bad for you. Oh my god, I'm so close, Temos, please."
And Temos told her that it wasn't just his decision. She needed all of them to agree.
"Az, please. Alaran, oh god. Please."
It was funny how easy it was to say their names like that, when she was basically naked and spread out in her bed, open and soaking wet.
She imagined them conferring, asking each other if she should be allowed to come for them.
In the end, Temos would shove in hard, and she echoed that with the dildo, working it slow and deep. She reached over with her free hand and grabbed for the vibrator, maneuvering it so it was pressed against her clit.
When she turned it on, she nearly screamed. It felt so good combined with how full she was, and in a matter of seconds, she was coming undone in a wave of pleasure so intense her vision went dark around the edges.
It took several minutes for her to come down from her orgasm, and when she did, she immediately felt ashamed.
Of course she wasn’t the first person to get off to the mental fantasy of hot people sharing a living space, but she had no idea how she was going to look any of them in the eye after coming so hard.
Deciding she’d deal with it later, she pulled her covers over her head and went to sleep.
When she woke up, it was to the sound of voices passing her door. Nat blinked for a second, and then it all came rushing back to her. She had just gotten herself off in a big way to the thought of her three companions essentially using her like a toy.
God, what was wrong with her?
The dildo was still sitting there on the bed, and she blushed and moved to stuff it and the vibrator back into the drawer on her nightstand, hoping against hope that the dragon three had been gone long enough that there was no way possible that they could have heard her.
She got dressed, making sure to put on underwear this time, and then stepped out of her room, surprised to see Az standing in front of her door.
He grinned when he saw her, and Nat was sure she was blushing again. "What?" she asked, trying not to sound defensive. Let him think she was still upset about being left behind.
"We wanted to say that we are sorry we left you behind," he said.
Nat arched an eyebrow. "I thought it would have been too dangerous for me to come."
"It would have been. That was true, but you did not come with us because you wanted to get left behind. So we wanted to say we are sorry, and we got you something."
She perked up at that. "Really?"
Az smiled. "Really. Come with me."
He led her into the mess hall, or what she called their really long kitchen. It was mostly comprised of the cooking machines that she had yet to figure out and the long table in the center with three times as many seats around it as there were people on the ship.
Alaran and Temos were there, and spread out on the table were the results of their trip.
Swords and axes, and a long polearm looking thing with a wicked blade at the end that was probably the glaive Temos had been talking about.
She didn't know anything about weapons, but they were beautiful. The metal of each weapon was a strange, almost shimmery blue color that went well with the teal and aqua colored skin of her dragon three.
“Natasha!” Temos exclaimed when he saw her walk into the room. “I missed you.”
Nat smiled, amused. “Did you?”
While Temos was nodding solemnly, Alaran was shaking his head. “He’s drunk. The weapon seller offered us spirits to ease the trade. And since there are three of us, only two of us needed to be sober enough to conduct it.”
That made her laugh. “Why am I not surprised?” She jumped, truly surprised when Temos leaned down enough to sling an arm over her shoulder.
“Because you are coming to know us well,” he said and smiled. “Did you tell her, Az?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a present for me, supposedly?” Nat asked, glancing around.
To her surprise, Alaran stepped forward. “If you are going to come with us, then you need to know how to keep yourself safe. We will not allow any harm to come to you, but you cannot be helpless. It is not safe.” He pulled something from his belt, and it took Nat a second to realize what it was.
It was a sheathed blade, about the length of her hand. The sheath was made out of what looked like leather in a golden color with symbols embossed in it. The hilt of the blade was beautiful. It was the same highly polished silver as the swords on the table, and there was a small, greenish brown stone at the pommel.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
“It matches your eyes,” Temos pointed out from where he was still draped over her, and she was startled to realize that they were right. The stone was the same hazel-ish color of her eyes.
“Go on,” Alaran said, holding it out to her. “It’s for you.”
She ducked out of Temos’ grasp and stepped closer, reaching out to take the blade with almost reverent hands.
It was heavier than its size seemed to indicate it would be, but lighter than she’d expected. Her hand fit around the hilt of it almost perfectly, like it had been made for her.
“We have not seen the blade yet,” Az said as he stepped in to see better.
“Why not?”
“Because it is considered sacred amongst our kind for a warrior to be the first person to draw their blade.”
“I’m hardly a warrior,” Nat said. “I’m more likely to end up hurting myself with this than anyone else.”
“We will teach you,” Temos promised. “Draw it.”
She licked her lips and then found the strap that curved over the hilt and undid it. With bated breath, she drew the dagger from the sheath and stared at it for a moment. It was made of the same silvery blue metal that the other weapons were, and it seemed catch and hold the light as she held it up.
“Beautiful,” Az said, nodding his approval. “A fine blade.”
“Indeed,” Alaran agreed. “Mosey does good work.”
Nat couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was indeed beautiful, and she didn’t know anything about blade quality, but it felt good in her hand. More than that, it had been a gift, and probably not a cheap one, considering it was contraband or whatever. It was the same as the weapons that the dragon three had, and it made her feel like she was a part of their team.
Clearly she was never going to be one of the Dammen Ka, but they had taken her with them, and they wanted to keep her, and they’d given her this.
Her earlier resentment was gone, and this had more than made up for being left behind.
Suddenly overcome, she threw her arms around Temos who was closest. “Thank you,” she said. She hugged the other two as well, and they seemed taken aback, but pleased. Even Alaran was smiling, and that was definitely progress.