Feral Flaw Read online

  She had thrown herself at me.

  She had opened herself to me.

  She is mine.

  "Please, Goro." She whined. Her hands begged I hurry where they rubbed, conjuring gooseflesh from my chest.

  But those hands couldn't draw me down to her. Couldn't force me to comply until I was ready. I threw back my head and welcomed the ungodly need to plow her fertile fields like an mindless farmer.

  She snapped her chin to her chest, then her head from side to side.

  Wild with need. Wanton is how I liked her.

  "Goro, I'm going to die," she cried.

  Not until you give birth to the child of Destiny. Whether you have me guarding your back or just packing my seed. She would be the vessel doing Destiny's bidding. Dutifully.

  The way her body tightened around me sent shivers out to the tips of my limbs.

  Gods jest. At last, the head of my manhood was enlarging, ballooning to release sperm. Her cries only reaffirmed the presence of my Xquine nubs and filaments.

  My shaft jerked with the beginnings of ejaculation.

  I couldn't breathe, gulped for breath, and tried to thrust as much as possible, pumping through the series of pulsing releases into her soul, to root my child deep inside her womb.

  Darla's screams shook dirt loose from the earthen cave's ceiling while she clutched at my stiff forearms. Or the roof collapsed because of my roar.

  Sweet universe, a man shouldn't have to live without a woman gasping for breath beneath him. Drowning in a sea of air. But I could do nothing to help her until I could bear my own weight without the support of two locked elbows braced against the cave floor. Until I could find enough blessed air to fill my lungs as well. My pulsing shaft demanded I thrust to squeeze the last of my essence from my body into her constricting womb that milked me of every drop of seed.

  I had to pump. Grind. Saw. Release my seed. And she begged me to.

  Finally, miraculously, I could stop. My manhood finished its glorious duty. And I leaned against stiff arms to gasp for precious breath.

  Her cries died. She tossed her head to one side and moaned. "Oh." She curled her upper body off the ground to where she could look into my eyes.

  Where I held my sweating body propped upon rigid arms.

  "You're amazing," she whispered and slid her intoxicating warm palms up my chest. "Let go of my legs. I want to wrap them around you." Her hands slid around to my back and down to squeeze my ass, pulling me even more against her groin.

  Those hands on my body almost resurrected the beast, pulling my ass, trapping me deeper inside her.

  Oh she craved me. Demanded more.

  "Release my legs, Goro," she insisted.

  And allow her some fraction of control? What could it hurt to play on the same ground? It's not like she was going anywhere with an Xquine penis lodged inside her. I bent one locked elbow, then the other, rolling onto my side in the silky dust of the cave's floor.

  She couldn't have detached from my bulbous phallus if she tried. But she seemed to happily roll along. So much that she shoved me farther until I lay on my back where she straddled my groin.

  "I used to ride horses," she croaked, rising as far as my shaft's engorged head would allow. "I always wondered if riding a man felt as good."

  Forget about resting. Gods, I wanted her to talk like that. A lot.

  All my blood raced back to my groin.

  My manhood flinched, warning of another round of ejaculation.

  Oh to press her back into the ground and explode.

  "I'll never be the same after this." She slid along my hard shaft.

  Who possibly could? Not the way she rode me into another round of rapture. I just wanted to roar. To lean her over. To bite into her collarbone where she couldn't get away. Oh for a big taste of Darla as she trembled on the edge of my sanity.

  And we danced with fervor. Gasping. Moaning. Groaning. Whimpering with unfulfilled passion until she cried out with delight as the first of twenty pulsating ejaculations flooded and embedded more of my sperm in her womb.

  I grabbed her slender waist and held her quaking body steady. But she stopped. Stone still. Gods, I just needed her to move. I almost crawled out of my skin, snatching at pebbles and dust on the cave's hard floor. "Don't stop, Darla. Or your knees stay locked next time."

  "Bossy, aren't you?" She shot me a wicked grin in the crystal's gratuitous light and rose, contracting her vaginal muscles. "But all pleasure lies in the waiting."

  The constriction sent my mind reeling with that damned philosophical point. I gasped with my eyes shut. "I thought you've never done this before."

  "Earth girls with fathers who are preachers read interesting material. Not to mention, I had some friends who weren't allowed to date until they were eighteen either. We'd have sleepovers where we watched porn. We called that dinner with a movie. Someone had to teach us. But I'll never admit that if anyone asks."

  Who else needed to know? Curiosity definitely didn't kill the pussycat. And this pussycat was mewing. Apparently she learned quite a bit from those movies. Just in the way she moved her body was more than instinctual. My body racked with a final purging burst of seed, sending her into a second climax until she collapsed on top of me in a pant.

  We struggled to breathe in the dank earthen space.

  Earth women were apparently easy to please. Or I've got more work cut out for me than I ever expected.

  "This is the way we should be, Goro," she whispered hot words against my breast. "Entwined together. Rather, tied together."

  Destiny had a way of making a person face reality. I'm glad she realized hers.

  Time would have passed quickly if she hadn't noted how our personal relationship should be. But each agonizing second we waited for my penal deflation only added to the concept of infinity-marriage. And my dishonor. I had to tell her about my distrust. And she wouldn't like what she heard.

  Chapter Twelve

  Time to face fear, Goro admitted inwardly. Like anything could be worse than lying in the arms of a woman you love while you plot to expose her? Do mates actually live like this? Better get to the revelation and live in peace. "I said we needed to talk," I began.

  "Oh?" She turned her nose into my neck.

  "Yes, Darla. I must tell you what has bothered me." Why did this seem more difficult than facing Voldon?

  She shoved up on a palm and looked into my eyes. "Something's been bothering you, the toughest bad ass of the free-thinking universe." She smiled at me with the most loving smile a child might see from its mother.

  Knowing I was the toughest bad ass in the universe certainly helped polish my tarnished honor. But was that skull glossing over my recent behavior for her? "Yes, Darla."

  She sighed. "How can anything bother you after what we just felt? And I felt it twice." Her eyebrows danced in delight. "And I want to feel it thousands upon thousands of times again. I'm a fool for duty now. Even if it entails making coffee and washing windows."

  Her thoughts were far too scattered to make that discussion. "Darla, you have to pay attention."

  She giggled and descended to tuck her nose back into my neck. "I'm too tired. Can you be all stiff and boring after we nap?"

  In a subterranean chamber without a drop of water and a highly-energized crystal… Nap?

  She snaked her hand over my chest and cooed.

  At least she seemed happy. Maybe this wasn't the best time to shatter her earthling dreams of marriage? But she'd stated one thing. She is married to me. Or so she stated under the skull's influence. That type of confession must hold as much weight as one made while inebriated. Maybe he could question her ever-so-coyly and end the confusion. It couldn't hurt. "Darla?"

  "Hmmm?" The soft sound meant she was almost asleep.

  "Are you worried about this child Voldon claims is yours?"

  "Hmmm? No." She squirmed a bit, snuggling down, stilling. "It's not mine. You've conquered my heart and taken my virginity."

  Well,
that's something I didn't think to pay attention to. Whether or not she was a virgin. Damn my hungry beast. It would not be long before the true test with shape shifting helps me get beyond the issue of her allegiance. Rather my fear. I should just wait and call a black hole a black hole. Live honestly like a scared man. But love created so many more problems. Throw in sexual espionage and everything balanced on the brink of death. "Darla?"

  She snuggled down against my chest.

  "Darla?"

  She ignored me or refused to speak. Maybe she was asleep. We definitely needed to get out of the cursed cave.

  * * * *

  Goro awoke to a loud clanking inside the cavern. Just what made that ungodly noise, he wondered. And I'd fallen asleep. Where was Darla? He shoved into a sitting position.

  Another mind-numbing clank sounded.

  Darla had a flashing blade in hand, beating the rock encasing the glowing crystal.

  While I slept. She was definitely entranced by the stone. "By all that is sacred, what are you doing?"

  She shot me a stare over her shoulder. "I'm going to take this with us."

  Oh no. The universe was deadly enough without a truth stone decorating a man's lodge, staring him down, beating his conscience. "No we are not."

  Her lips pursed. "Are you telling me what to do?"

  Yes. But she didn't need to hear that admission. "You're not yourself around it."

  "But I feel better. Don't you feel better?" She stabbed at the dark rock again.

  "Stop this, Darla. You sound drunk. You don't understand what the alien crystal is doing to you." Well, at least she hadn't turned demonic.

  She rolled her eyes. "What is it doing to me?"

  What a man must do before yanking his pants on. Thank Devros the world isn't coming to an end at the moment. But that accursed stone will run our lives. The free-thinking universe could potentially fall to Voldon because Darla wants a manipulative crystal. If she didn't already work for the bastard. I strode to her side, knelt, and eyed her over.

  She'd dressed herself.

  What luck given we might have to bolt at any second. I stared into the reflection of the skull in her eyes.

  It was as if she was possessed. "This is a Bramyllion skull. It emits radiation that makes humanoids act differently."

  "I'm pretty happy. Is something wrong with that?"

  Maybe. Yes. No "No. I mean yes." I sighed.

  "Look, who's squatting in smelly cave without any pants on? And it's not like you made me all smiles before I fell into this hole." She shook the blade's tip at my nose. "Don't get caught with your pants down."

  How did the accursed skull end up here? "Look at the broader picture, Darla."

  She turned back to the cave wall. "What picture?"

  "The stone and the crystal. The crystal is embedded in the stone. But it should never have been there."

  She hacked at the rock. "That's not true. Crystals grow in mineral matrices all the time. Every New Ager knows all about crystals."

  Before, she had denied any ideological affiliation outside of science. "Now you're a New Ager?"

  "Crystals have energy, Goro. I have strange powers. Energy. I have been around the block in research more times than I can recall." She struck metal to rock again.

  Would she not listen? Even if I explained the rock was volcanic, a lava flow, not a mineral? She wouldn't care until I got her out of the crystal's reach and she could think clearly again. I grabbed her wrist.

  She locked a mask of disbelief on me.

  "Then cease these futile efforts, Darla. Follow me back to the pod fighters. We'll return with tools." And end this futile extraction.

  She nodded.

  Agreement was something. Even if I lied about why we were departing. Nobody needed even one Bramyllion Crystal Skull in their possession. Too many people had died trying to balance the delicate energy balance between the thirteen crystals and failed. So many of the fools had been killed by the skulls. Not even the Bramyllions still lived to tell how the energy brought on the demise of their civilization. Maybe giving the last ones to Voldon would end the Blood Wars by allowing him to inadvertently kill himself. Risky. Nobody dared tempt nature's wrath or the tables suddenly turning, even more. If Voldon managed to equalize and control the power between the skulls, he might destroy the remaining worlds opposing his rule. I dragged Darla back to the vine dangling in the hole and shoved her up through a bundle of sunbeams. "I'm right behind you." I pushed her sweet little ass.

  "Oh, let me go. I can do this myself."

  By the time we made it deep into the forest beyond the hole, Darla fell silent.

  What was she thinking? The effect of the skull had to be wearing off. "How do you feel?" I led the way and didn't want to look back to see her reaction.

  "Angry."

  "Why?"

  "That crystal made me feel good. Now I remember you rubbed my nose in my puke. And you wonder why I wandered off and fell in damned hole?"

  "I'm sorry, Darla. You can't have that skull. It will kill us."

  "How? Why?" she snarled.

  "Nobody knows. They were discovered or created so long ago that no one remembers their origin beyond an extinct civilization. We only know they focus energy on people. The reason for that also remains a mystery. You have to trust me." How ironic those words rolled across my tongue. I should be hung from my toes.

  Her footsteps halted.

  What was she thinking? I turned to her.

  She stood among the tall thick tree trunks, looking back.

  "Darla, come back to the pod fighter. We'll eat food rations and talk."

  She didn't look at me. Nor did she make a sound. She watched the path as if deflated.

  The silence nibbled at my honor as much as my lies did.

  She headed back to their spacecraft.

  When we tore open food-rat packets, she sat beside me and chewed on the standard tasteless military dry protein and carb cake. She was so quiet. Unnervingly silent. What danced in her thoughts? Certainly nothing in memory of our dance in the cave. Why did I want to know? Why was I even thinking about this? Because I must face my fears. Because I have honor. "I don't want to hide anything anymore." I could only watch her chew.

  Her mouth kept chewing at her food until she managed a swallow. "I'm twenty-nine years old. I've been abducted by aliens, I use my psychic power to fight an extraterrestrial war most people couldn't even begin to dream up, I'm married to an alien with a strange glowing penis, I've been kidnapped by alien bounty hunters, and a bizarre crystal skull tried to make me feel better. What could you possibly be hiding?"

  "I don't believe you're mated to me."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Goro's mate studied her protein-carb cake, bit another large bite out of it, rose, walked seven steps, and sat with her back to him. So much for battle, he concluded. Confession truly killed a man slowly and painfully like disembowelment. Even though the sun burned overhead, there was no reason to question the sweat beading upon my brow was anything other than fear. "I suppose I should thank the stars you haven't impaled me with something."

  She never turned around.

  Never moved. Or acknowledged I realized her psychic strength and my fortune in my life being spared. Would she run away again? If she bolted and I never found her, life in a were-form incapable of shifting back without her blood would be eternal damnation. Then again there was always the suicide option.

  Maybe I deserve suicide? That much seemed like truth. So no more fear. "Darla, I have no idea what's going on. Voldon claims to have your child sired by him. Did he get your blood first? I cannot know until you require your next blood libation. If you're satisfied with my blood, I will never question you again."

  She rose and walked another twelve steps before she sat.

  Destiny had to be torturing me. If Darla had lashed out in anger or whipped up a barrage of projectiles with her psychokinesis, I would feel better. But silence only gnashed away at a man's guts. And no
body had the sight to enjoy a warrior's concealed internal bleeding.

  * * * *

  Darla waited far from Goro, gnawing on the last bit of his declaration. His cold behavior made sense at long last, she noted. I had puked in my pod fighter and treated the sickness the only way the computer could advise. Of course, this threw a kink in Goro's big plan. He then silently admonished me because he didn't get to observe how his blood would affect me.

  So, I'm not his mate? Not quite. Yet. Not until he decides I am? So I'm just supposed to accept these insults and spread 'em on command. Make a hole. Insert a tap in my jugular so he can help himself to the goods when the blood lust comes upon him?

  What happened to the solemn powerful alien I fell in love with three years ago? Why had he changed into a worrisome ass? And, God, he thought I was a traitor. I gave up everything in my life but the cells in my body to live confined in a section of his starship. Alone. For him. And now I've given up my cells. For him. Trapped out in the middle of freaking nowhere.

  A shadow pushed across the smooth dark rock at her knee.

  Goro.

  "We must talk. I must make peace with you."

  He could have thought that way all along before he falsely accused me. "Why?" I shot his dark face hidden in the sun's shadow a scowl.

  He knelt beside me, descending out of the blaring sun. "Because these things between us hurt my honor. I don't want this between us anymore."

  Honor? What about my damned feelings? They're part of my honor. So, I'm insignificant. Just a blood bag. "You're kidding. Right?" I sprang to my feet.

  He'd have to do more than that to apologize. And an apology wouldn't erase the pain. "You betrayed me. Forgive me for not just bending over and sucking your cock." I pivoted back to the pod fighters.

  He grabbed my elbow and yanked me back around to face him. "Darla, I apologize. Everything about me, my very purpose for existence, is for my extinct race. Nobody else can bring them back but I. Nobody else can avenge their deaths but I. Everything I do must be measured against those truths."