Page 32 of Clan and Command

The delicious brute took a step back, just far enough to offer the customary bow. “Fighter Squad Leader Lidon, sir.”

Piras struggled to catch his breath. Had he ever seen a more riveting man? No, because nothing so incredible could exist more than once.

Somehow he managed to return the bow and find a voice to introduce himself. “Captain Piras. A drink would be appreciated, Squad Leader.”

Lidon grinned. Somehow it made him look twice as predatory and a hundred times more exciting. He turned and headed to the bar, his stride long and self-assured. Now that he wasn’t blinded by the man’s looks and wide shoulders, Piras got a view of his tapered waist and powerful tree-trunk thighs. Watching the man’s ass flex as he walked was mesmerizing.

Piras worked on thinking with his brain and not his cocks. He followed Lidon, reminding himself not to look too bowled over. Not too soft or tender. He nodded his thanks as Lidon handed over a glass of kloq.

“I’ve not seen you before. Whose ship are you assigned to?” he asked politely.

Lidon led him to a tall table they could stand at in the corner. “Captain Niroth’s destroyer.”

Piras had noted the vessel in dock. It had been far more banged up then his. “Oh, yes. You’re at the end of your rotation on the Bi’is border then. Home for a little rest and then on to patrolling Joshada space?” He felt disappointment that this might be the one time he’d run across the compelling Nobek on his current tour.

Lidon made a face as he sipped his kloq. “Unfortunately, yes. We’ve had an exciting run this rotation, and I’m disappointed to see it finished. There’s not much in the way of thrills when it comes to keeping an eye on the other side of Empire territory.”

Piras agreed with him, but the man seemed to be genuinely glum at the prospect. Piras didn’t want to bring him down, not until he determined whether or not Nobek Lidon was worth a bit of a chase. Encouragingly, he said, “Oh, I don’t know. They get enough Tragoom incursions to wake the men up every now and again.”

Lidon shrugged dismissively. “How much longer is your tour on the Bi’is side?”

“We got here less than a month ago. We’re in for the long haul.”

“Lucky man.” The Nobek looked him over with a gleam in his eyes. “How do you like your fighter squad leaders? Are any of them as foolish as the pair you dealt with in such an unequivocal manner?”

“Why? Thinking of a transfer?”

“For the right ship. The right captain. Why not?” Lidon’s mercenary grin made Piras’s cocks pulse.

Beyond the opportunity to learn more about his alluring companion, Piras could hardly believe his luck. He’d laid hard into one of his squad leaders two weeks prior for not showing up for a duty cycle. It had turned out the man had gotten used to taking personal ‘holidays’ because the previous captain had been slipshod on discipline and a coward with the Nobeks he commanded. The squad leader was still recovering in the ship’s Medical department after challenging Piras’s disciplinary action. His next stop was the brig until he could be offloaded to face charges of insubordination by Fleet Command.

Piras sighed. He was thrilled with his first destroyer command, but there were plenty of bad habits he had to deal with as far as the crew was concerned. Fortunately, there were more good men on the ship than bad, but the bad ones were doing their damnedest to fuck him over.

For the next hour, he and Lidon talked. In reality, Piras did most of the talking as Lidon was the typical Nobek in that he didn’t have much to say. He was an embodiment of the strong, silent type, though he shared enough to keep Piras fascinated. When Lidon stayed until they drank their daily alcohol ration, Piras felt sufficiently confident to ask him back to his quarters. To his delight, Lidon’s acceptance came without hesitation.

Piras had already realized the hard truth of his sexual needs. He wanted nothing more than to offer himself to the hard, gorgeous Nobek he led to his sleeping room. To kneel before the primal man and suck his dicks. To go to all fours and offer his ass for punishment and use. To be ordered and obey those orders. To give and give and give, surrendering himself utterly.

Like all the Nobeks he’d been with before, he also knew Lidon would expect a fight for dominance. After all, Piras was a Dramok. He was supposed to prefer control. The few times he’d simply submitted, whoever he was with had been confused and then put off. Nobeks wanted that fight, to win the right to dominate, and it invariably disappointed them not to get it.

Excited enough by Lidon to make an effort contrary to what his being begged for, Piras fought hard to make it worth the Nobek’s while to fuck him. And the sex was glorious even if it was a lie at the beginning. The best part came in the end when he was held face down on his sleeping mat with Lidon’s brutal hand slapping his ass over and over until it felt raw and his primary cock hurt with the need to come. Later he climaxed so hard that Piras felt he might be turned inside out, Lidon jerking mercilessly on his shaft while his hips slammed against the Dramok’s sore ass, driving a thick cock inside like a battering ram. Piras knew at that moment he was in love.

The next two days of leave continued like that. Piras pretended to resist being on the bottom until he felt safe succumbing to Lidon’s power. Then he basked in the Nobek’s fierce use. When Lidon’s transfer to Piras’s ship was approved just before it was to depart Laro, they celebrated with another fight, which the captain once again lost. The tears that streamed from Piras’s eyes that night, hanging from hovercuffs, were as much from happiness as they were from the pain of Lidon’s expertly wielded flogger. And just as he lied to Lidon by pretending to fight, Piras lied to himself that he could keep the ruse up. He convinced himself that he could be someone he was not to keep the Nobek, to make him his clanmate.

* * * *

“Fucked that up quick enough, didn’t I?” Piras muttered to himself, still staring at the star chart that displayed the location of Laro Station.

No, it hadn’t been quick at all. He’d played the part of Dramok in the sleeping room for two long years. They were years that made him love Lidon more and more, but also left him feeling emptier each time they had sex. Maybe his will would have broken sooner, but during that time Lidon had suffered a horrific injury in a fighter fight with Tragooms. For weeks after that, it had been a matter of whether or not Lidon would die. Then came the long months of recovery, and Piras had put his growing unease aside to keep Lidon fighting for a life he didn’t want – the life of a near cripple, with a brutally scarred leg, constant pain, and awkward limp. Even though Lidon was a devotee of the Book of Life, the Nobek’s strong beliefs shattered for that dark time.

Live Lidon did, however, thanks partly to Piras pushing Fleet Command to make his lover the destroyer’s weapons commander. He knew the Nobek needed a purpose, a way to make his continued existence worthwhile. His efforts had not been in vain either. Lidon had not only gotten through the horrible months of self-doubt, but he thrived in his new assignment. His pride and strength returned, as did his faith. He emerged from the near death stronger in spirit and mind, if not in body.

In the years that followed, Piras and Lidon never spoke of that horrible time during which the Nobek looked towards death and Piras fought to pull him away from its siren call. Piras didn’t want to hurt Lidon’s pride over a period of understandable weakness, so he let the matter lie quiet.

Only once did it come up, following a harrowing battle against five hunter-killers in which Lidon’s skill as weapons commander saved their destroyer from utter destruction. After they escaped what had seemed to be certain doom, the Nobek looked at Piras and remarked, “Death is preferable to a life with no reason. Thank you for giving me a reason to live, because I wouldn’t have missed this fight for all the fit legs in the Empire.”

With the man Piras considered clanmate in all but name strong again, the Dramok began to think long and hard about their relationship in the sleeping room. Lidon had worried about being seen as less a man because of his limp. He’d been more determined than ever to be on top for a while because of that, and Piras was more than happy to give in to him. Lidon hadn’t minded being handed the reins at first. He’d used the opportunity to be his most demanding, and Piras reveled in the delight of being himself.

After that, Piras couldn’t find the will to go back to playing Dramok in bed. It was a lie he couldn’t go on living, though he never found the guts to talk to Lidon about it. When the Nobek had pulled himself together mentally and was ready to resume things as they’d been before the injury, Piras managed only the most cursory attempts to top him.

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