The Lost Planet Series Boxed Set: Books 1-5 Page 3

  Then it dawns on me.

  I’ve been kidnapped—and it wasn’t an assault or menstrual cycle that caused my bleeding. These…whatever they are, have kidnapped me and tried to get me pregnant. The blood is from a miscarriage.

  3

  Breccan

  I’m so rekking angry, I could destroy the entire lab with only my two fists. I would, too, if I were alone. Each morsel of hope we’re given, gets devoured by some unseen force. Perhaps our destiny isn’t to grow and repopulate Mortuus. Perhaps we are meant to die. My hand shakes with fury and I have the overwhelming urge to go to the command center and calm myself with some ultraviolet therapy. Unknown to Avrell, it helps more than it hurts. He’d put me in a reform cell though if he knew how much therapy I self-administered each day.

  It’s been six solar cycles—a total of forty-two solars—since Avrell collected her eggs and fertilized them with the samples from all the morts. He implanted one of the fertilized eggs and it seemed to have been thriving.

  Until she woke up.

  “Put her back in cryosleep and—”

  “W-What?” she hisses, stumbling backward, her blood dripping all over the sterile floor. Even with Avrell’s constant reassurance that she’s safe and uncontaminated, I still worry over infectious diseases being spread among my crew.

  Ignoring her, I pierce Avrell with a stern glare. “Cryosleep. Now. Specimen Az-1 is incompatible. Start on the next specimen.”

  “I have a name!” she yells, her voice echoing off the stark walls around me.

  She hugs her middle and shivers. Silent tears roll down her speckled cheeks and drip from her jaw, soaking the front of her paper gown. A pang of sympathy tugs at my heart but I can’t allow myself to grow soft over a useless alien woman. We have to keep trying.

  “After I treat her womb with some microbots to heal the area, we could attempt implantation again almost immediately,” Avrell offers, his dark eyebrows pinched together.

  Microbots can heal just about anything. Loss of limbs though, you’re simply out of luck. His pitch-black hair—which matches in color with every male in this facility—is messy this solar. As though he’s been yanking at it. Unlike my long locks that hang loosely down my back, he keeps his hair clipped short—says it interferes with his work. The toll his studies are taking on his physical form is evident. Every mort in this facility is at his breaking point.

  “I don’t think we should lose hope yet,” he says softly. “Specimen Az-1’s body seems to be purging out some toxins that were lying dormant while in cryosleep. Foreign toxins.”

  “I’m Aria,” she whispers. “And it’s called flora. I was high on flora.”

  Aria.

  The name sounds like a song. Thoughts of my mother’s voice humming sweet words claw at me from the inside. I refuse to remember that fateful solar when I stared into her sad eyes as blood ran from the corners, stealing her from me.

  “Please,” she begs.

  The blood pools on the floor between her feet and I cringe. Disgusting. What a mess. “I’m sorry but—”

  Avrell cuts me off. “The embryo was yours, Commander.”

  A confusing mixture of pride and grief settles in my bones. The mortling that was growing inside of Specimen Az-1—Aria—belonged to me.

  Perhaps it is I who am broken.

  “I can test one of the other morts next,” Avrell utters, his thoughts one with my own.

  “Hell no!” Aria screeches, causing my ears to flatten against my nog to block out the sound.

  Irritation bubbles up inside of me. I’m used to my men obeying my commands. This Aria is difficult.

  “It’s for your own good,” I growl.

  Her brown eyes that match her tea-colored hair flare with fury. Her cheeks beneath the speckles burns bright red. I expect more argument from the problematic alien. But one quick glance to the door behind me is my only warning that she’s no longer interested in talking.

  With surprising speed, she darts for the doorway, slipping only slightly in her pool of blood.

  On instinct, I reach out to grab her. My claws swipe the air, raking across her paper gown, and tear gashes along the side of it but don’t make purchase.

  “Halt!” I bellow, jerking out of my stupor as I charge after her.

  Bloody red footprints are left in her wake as she pushes through the door and runs down the corridor.

  “Lock her in,” I yell to Avrell as I chase down my disruptive alien.

  She’s much faster than I could ever have imagined but I train every solar to be faster than sabrevipes. I pick up my speed and race after her. An alarm sounds and then the hiss of doors automatically closing tells me Avrell’s done his job. Soon, she’ll have nowhere to go and I’ll have her in my grip.

  I pass by several doors where curious black eyes peer through the glass. They’ll soon learn all about our little runaway.

  I have to catch her first.

  She slows when she realizes she’s running straight for a dead end. Her nog darts to the left and then to the right before she lets out a terrified shriek. Wide brown eyes meet mine as she turns to face me. I slow to a trot, now that I have her trapped. Her gaze travels behind me. If she thinks she’s going to make it past me, she’s lost her rekking mind.

  “It’s in your best interest to comply,” I say calmly.

  Her nostrils flare and her eyes become watery. “I don’t want to go back to sleep.” She bites down on one of her swollen pink lips. “If you don’t plan on letting me go home, can’t you just let me hang out with you?”

  I blink at her, confused by her words, momentarily stunned by her vulnerability. After a second, I shake my nog to clear it. “No.”

  She holds out both of her tiny palms as if she has the power to stop my massive frame. Small and delicate. Shaky. A bluish tint shades her slender fingers. Her teeth begin to clack together and I cock my nog to the side, curious at the sounds she’s making. When the sounds become louder, I worry she’s about to strike.

  I straighten my spine, letting my sub-bones crack and pop as I rise to my full height. My ears flatten against my nog and I bare my double fangs at her. Whatever battle move she’s about to unleash, I’ll be ready. I’ve taken on sabrevipes with my bare hands. I can take down this miniature alien.

  But instead of attacking me, she cowers, a terrified sob escaping her.

  I frown at her, breaking my battle stance. “I can see you’re afraid,” I start, choosing my words carefully. She reminds me of so many of our people…from before. When they were all screaming and begging for their lives as The Rades wiped them out one by one. I squeeze my eyes shut, overwhelmed by the reminder.

  Slap! Slap! Slap!

  I blink my eyes open just in time to see her attempting to dart past me, her bare feet slapping the tile.

  Lightning quick, I strike out and tangle my fist in her hair before she can get too far. A bone-rattling scream rips from her tiny body. She wiggles and squirms. Her claws, softer and more brittle than mine, rake across my cheek as she tries to free herself. She doesn’t break the surface but the sting remains. I grab her by her tiny arms and push her against the nearest door. Draven’s wild eyes watch the show from beyond the glass. When I glower at him, he disappears from my sight.

  “Halt,” I order, my chest heaving from exertion.

  Her throat bobs as she swallows. “Just kill me,” she says, her voice wobbling. “I’d rather be dead than be trapped in some coffin.”

  I cock my nog to the side and study her lips. Once, Jareth ate a new species of flatshrooms Galen discovered and had a violent reaction. His lips swelled up like this untamed one’s. But his were never so intriguing. We jested at his expense until Avrell administered a treatment to heal him.

  But these lips?

  These are a visual snare, and I am caught.

  She licks them.

  Heat, fast like the flash of a magnastrike in a geostorm, strikes my lower belly. Like ultraviolet poisoning entering my bloodstrea
m when I’ve spent one too many solars stealing extra seconds in the sun, it awakens my nerves as it travels to my cock. So many times I’ve stroked myself to release just to find a tiny inkling of pleasure in my bleak world. So many times.

  And now, dark, forbidden thoughts of pleasuring myself in other ways begin to take root inside my mind.

  As if sensing my physiological reaction to her, Aria licks her lips again. Her lids grow heavy and she gives me a sweet smile. A smile I want to taste.

  A low rumbling builds in my throat.

  Possessive and animalistic.

  Mine.

  The thought is like when Hadrian used to spill his cups as a small mortling. Fast. Out of control. Messy. You can’t stop it once it starts. Images of Aria free of her paper gown and spread before me are on the forefront of my mind. My cock is rigid in my minnasuit, straining against the protective material.

  We could breed the natural way.

  Like my parents and their parents and every mort before them.

  Perhaps being in cryosleep was the problem. Avrell may have been onto something when he’d mentioned the foreign toxins hiding. I could claim this little alien as mine and shoot my seed into her over and over again until it finally rekking sticks.

  An infant.

  Mine.

  Birth to a new hope.

  “Please,” she begs, fresh new tears streaking down her odd-looking face.

  The animal in me craves to flit out my forked tongue and lap up her wetness. So feral and untamed. I’ve had her in my arms for mere seconds and she’s already making me forget who I am.

  Is she infecting me?

  Am I losing my mind like Draven did when he caught The Rades?

  Did Avrell miss an important detail?

  Before I can consider those thoughts, her eyelashes flutter as her eyes roll back, and then her knees buckle. I pull her into my arms. Her body is light and soft. It’s her scent though that makes its way into my nostrils and lays claim to my lungs.

  Sweet.

  Foreign.

  Mine.

  I breathe her in but don’t let her out.

  Running my clawed finger through her silky hair, I become enraptured by her softness. My mind runs with ideas of where else she could be soft. I’m still rock hard in my suit and eager to learn more about her.

  She’s so small and fragile looking as she sleeps. Her plump lips taunt me as she parts them in slumber. I wonder what they taste like. My cock throbs against my thigh and seeps with need. The smart thing to do would be to march back to the lab and toss her back into the pod. I’ve always done what needs to be done for the betterment of our people.

  So how come I’m walking down the corridor past all the curious eyes and bypassing the lab?

  The plans have changed, that’s why.

  Little alien Aria belongs to me.

  And I’m going to put my mortarekking seed inside of her.

  * * *

  “Greetings, Commander,” Uvie greets me as I enter the command center.

  “Sleep mode,” I instruct, not wanting even the computer to be a witness to my overwhelming needs. My body is shaking. Withdrawals.

  Earlier, instead of running off with her like I’d originally planned, I’d reluctantly turned around and took Aria back to the lab to have Avrell clean her up while I handle some necessary business.

  My mind is racing.

  I’m losing control.

  Which is why I need to get ahold of myself.

  Closing the door behind me, I stride into the empty command center over to the thick zuta-metal door that covers the window. It makes a loud racket as I drag it open, inviting the sun’s harmful rays into the room.

  As soon as the heat hits my flesh, my veins feel as though they’re tingling with pleasure. I unzip the front of my minnasuit and tug the material down and off my arms. It hangs at my waist, the arms swinging around at my sides. Dark red clouds brew in the distance and I can tell the winds are high this solar based on all the debris blowing past. A geostorm is headed our way and it appears to be massive.

  The sun’s rays soak into my skin, heating my flesh to unsafe levels. Ever since the solar when we were forced from our once livable planet into the safety of the mountain facility to escape The Rades, our flesh is incredibly vulnerable to UV rays. Avrell thinks we all caught a case of it, albeit minor, and this is what caused the change. Not only will the rays produce painful, infection-causing burns, but we can also grow intoxicated by the rays’ poisoning. Too much is lethal.

  But a little…

  Dizziness washes over me, chasing away my responsibilities and worry. I fall into a chair near the window and tilt my nog back, exposing my neck to the sun. My chest aches as the heated rays penetrate me. But the buzzing running through my veins makes it worth it. Whispers dance inside my nog. Flutters skim across my throat and then along my torso. My cock jolts in my suit, reminding me it needs attention.

  With a groan, I slide my large hand beneath the fabric and seek out my erection. It’s hard and aching. My seed already weeping from the tip. I crave to hunt down alien Aria and pin her down. To mount her, push my cock inside her, and rut against her until I’m spent and sated. Our future taking root inside her. Imagining her nakedness below me as whimpers of pleasure escape in her sweet voice, I find myself stroking my thickness.

  “Let me help you.”

  Her voice is a purr.

  A hallucination.

  Figments of the intoxicating UV poison running rampant in my system.

  “Aria,” I growl, her name a worshipful word on my forked tongue.

  I’m rutting and rutting.

  Driving deep into her warm body.

  Releasing our future into her womb.

  “Rekk!” I hiss, the pleasure exploding through me.

  Heat shoots up and splatters my singed abdomen that is already beginning to bubble up with sores. I need to close the window but I’m still blissed out on the poison.

  No worries.

  No fear.

  No loss of hope.

  Just pure, unfiltered pleasure.

  A rattling outside the door jerks me from my stupor. I stand on shaky legs and barely manage to get my suit pulled back on when the door swings open.

  Avrell has a protective arm around Aria. His brows are furrowed as he assesses the situation. He’s had to drag me out of here in worse states, many times before. This need I have isn’t anything new.

  “Here,” he says as he tugs a cloth from his pocket and tosses it my way.

  I clean off my chest and then tug the zipper up, hiding my scorched flesh that no longer is soaked with my seed. I shove the soiled cloth into my pocket and try not to sway on my feet.

  “How long have you been in here?” Avrell asks. With a small sigh, he stalks by to drag the big zuta-metal door closed.

  Uvie, the piece of rogshite computer, chirps, ratting me out. “Eight minutes and forty-six seconds.”

  “Someone doesn’t understand sleep mode,” I gripe. “How is she?” I tip my nog to Aria, who watches me with a glint of fear in her stare. So unlike the expression she wore in my fantasy. My cock thickens once more. Is this how it will be now? The need to breed with her dictating my every thought and action?

  Little alien Aria is my new poison.

  “I’ve checked her over. Her body is done purging the unsuccessful implantation and the microbots have healed the area. She is physically ready to try again.” He glances over at her, concern written all over his face. Then he regards me with a look of resignation. “Are you sure about this?”

  When I’d brought her unconscious form to the lab earlier, I told him of the new plan. Aria will be the vessel of our future. Avrell can continue to impregnate the aliens in cryosleep, but Aria is mine to test in real time. She will sleep in my quarters. She will answer to me. She will bear my young.

  This. Will. Work.

  “Absolutely,” I say with fierce conviction.

  He bows his nog in submission
.

  It begins now.

  4

  Aria

  This monster alien, or whatever they are, wants me to have his baby.

  I can’t quite wrap my mind around the one I lost, let alone the prospect of having to go through the process to make another, especially not with him. Having a family, children had never been in my plan. It couldn’t be, not with my lifestyle. Not only would it be impossible to take care of a family with my schedule, but my body was my number one commodity. Having a baby would ruin me.

  But breeding with the alien may be my only shot at survival in this strange world and I’m nothing if not a master of survival.

  The commander, who I understand will be the one I’m staying with, takes my arm and practically drags me down the long, winding hallways of the facility. I try to memorize the route we take from the room we found him in, but after one too many turns, I lose the map in my head. Panic threatens to overtake me, but I tamp it down. Desperation leads to mistakes, and I can’t afford to make any mistakes if I’m going to make it home alive.

  As the sea of doors fly past, I attempt to look in them to see how many others I’m dealing with, but most, if not all, are empty. It’s in line with what I’ve gathered from the doctor, Avrell, and their desire to breed with any available women. Occasionally, one of the windows will reveal a blurred face like the commander’s. The strange pale skin, intimidating stature and dark, thick hair.

  But no women.

  It should scare me more than it does. At first, I was terrified. But once I realized they were relying on me, that there was something I could use to bargain with, the fear faded away and was replaced by resolve. I’ve done worse things and survived. I can do this, too.

  I’ll spread my legs for this alien as long as it keeps me alive.

  Finally, the commander stops at one of the doors and lifts his wrist bracelet to the scanner. A beep sounds and the door slides open to reveal what must be his quarters. He grunts and tugs at my arm, pulling me inside behind him.