Page 11 of Possessed By the Leonid King

Chapter Six

Layla was pacing in front of his quarters when he returned from the cockpit. Her pale face lit up when she saw him, relief in her eyes. But then the relief was overtaken by worry. “Hey. The voice in the walls was talking to me.”

“The what?”

“The automated lady who speaks from the walls?”

Rupex squinted. “Have you never been on a starcraft before?”

“Yes!” Layla said defensively. Then she blushed, shrugging. “No. Not exactly. I’ve been on little in-planet transports and atmosphere planes, but never a real starcraft.”

“You’re hearing the ship’s communication system. That’s all. What alarmed you?”

“It said we were changing course. Why? What’s going on?”

Rupex wondered if the worry in her eyes was because she feared him or feared the end of their deal. He had always believed humans were rather timid, defenseless creatures who lacked natural courage and ingenuity. “Queen Fever has mutated and caused deaths aboard a Sirius Federation ship.”

“Sirius. Those are the puppy planets, right?”

“First kitty planets, now puppy planets. At least you are consistent in your disrespect. Yes, the Sirius Federation is closest to the Serval planets within the Felix Orbus Galaxy. We believed the Queen Fever virus was localized to Felid species. Planets were locked down and people didn’t travel in and out to non-Felix planets. Vaccines and countermeasures were developed. It now looks like we were wrong in believing the virus to be species limited, so other planets will need to co-opt our vaccine technology. It shouldn’t take them long to test and create, now that we’ve laid the groundwork.” Rupex nodded, muttering to himself as he opened his quarters. “It makes sense. Canids from the Sirius Federation have similar heat cycles, I believe.” Although if his sister’s overheard gossip was to be believed, the Canids lacked penile spines and resorted to something called “knotting.”

“And humans?”

“Don’t. You are immune. You are not a recent mammalian evolution. You are at the peak of natural adaptations for your species, at least if the last 10,000 years are any indicator. Any changes in humans these days are a matter of circuitry or science.”

Layla followed him into his room and stood awkwardly by the door. When it shut thirty seconds after it sensed no further activity at the threshold, she jumped, knocked into the little red table where he drank his solitary morning cup of protein and caffeine, and caught it just before it hit the floor.

So much for Leonid grace. Even those bumblefooted Lynxians were more agile than she was.

“What does it mean for us? Now? Are we unable to dock? Do we have supplies to survive for a few weeks?” Layla rubbed her side from where it had knocked into the table. Seeing her in his quarters made Rupex realize just how small she was next to a Leonid. The table his knees fit under comfortably came to her bust. His bed was luxuriously large, allowing him to sprawl out like a seastar if he wished. She would probably fit on a single pillow if she curled up on her side, knees to her chest, as he had seen in pictures.

“Hello? Rupex?”

Her voice interrupted his thoughts. “We are closer to Leonid-One at this point. That’s my home planet and where the Comet Stalker’s registry is held. We can go to Leonid-One... but I’m not sure what will happen to a non-Leonid, non-Felix Orbus citizen. Would you be quarantined? I do not know. Hopefully, they would allow us to remain on the ship. We have enough supplies to last twenty-four cycles.”

“Cycles?” Layla’s brows knitted together. “Oh. Like lunar cycles. So I’m not in any danger of being on the menu?”

“I would not eat a human. It’s uncivilized.”

But suddenly he could imagine tasting her. Licking her where that sticky, tangy scent was coming from, making his whiskers twitch. And while he would not eat her, the way she moved sometimes, like now, fast and nervous, made his predatory urges come out. He wanted to chase her. Catch her. Wrap his paws around her and pin her down, and then sink into her to the hilt, stretching her sheath open and embedding in her, forcing her to take load after load of his hot cum.

“Sorry, Mr. King and Captain. I’m a scruffy little commoner.” Layla tried to laugh.

He tried to smile. He couldn’t. His body was reacting so strangely around her. It was almost as if—

“Layla. Did Marcus, the ‘old-lion dude’ give you anything when he spoke to you earlier today?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Should he have? Oh God! Am I going to have to take a vaccine in order for us to dock? What if it gives me fur? No offense, fur looks awesome on you, but it wouldn’t on me.”

Those little fluttery movements again, hand to her cheek, hand to her hair, smoothing it back behind her ear, and those white slippers on her feet reminded him of something small making tracks in the snow.

It brought out his natural dominance, but that shouldn’t make him think of rutting her. Even the thought of coupling should have been clinical. Procedural.

“We’re not docking on Leonid-One. There are a bunch of small uncharted planetoids in the liquid belts around Leonid-One.”

“Liquid belts with planetoids? Like... oceans and islands?”

“Exactly.” He gave her a pleased look. “They used to be smugglers’ outposts, but now they’re mainly used for pleasure excursions. Ru’s Rest is one of the smaller planets on the outer rim. We’re going there.”

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