Page 21 of The Commander

But lawbreakers and prisoners had no rights to consent. This wasn’t Sarria, and she wasn’t Sarrian. She was human. Even expecting how she might react to what he wanted next, he wouldn’t stop. Self-denial was not one of Bastian’s strong suits.Giving in to the temptation to taste her pushed him over the edge.

A mad hunger opened in his core for the woman. Unable to resist her flavor, he opened the secondary mouth in his chin and let his proboscis uncurl to chase down every bit of her blood, slip into the cut, sip her up. Nothing of her would be wasted.

He leaned in deep, fiery want shooting down his back, down his legs to his heels, surging painfully into his dick and fully engorging it. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. His seam started to open.

As if he were a youth, he had pushed his cock back into its pocket and applied pressure to keep the seam from opening. He should have felt like an idiot, his mouth nursing blood from a woman’s ear while he palmed his cock. Instead, he didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but her. This.

That tampering, the Sarrian seeding, that had been done to her ancestors was supposed to bond them, but he did not know it would be like this.

Unable to see what his face was doing, but feeling it on her skin, little chill bumps raised up on her neck. He smoothed the sweetness of her sweat down with his thumb, one hand on her throat to keep her still.

She wasn’t ready to see his chin split open, observe the dark, rude flush of his inner skin. She couldn’t understand anything about what was happening. She felt his touch, his mouth, his breathing.

She responded, involuntarily or not. His awakened her body, areolas darkening and nipples standing up to hard points. A perfumed whiff of pure arousal leaked into the air, escaping the squeeze of her legs.

Her rising hysteria at her predicament was a palpable thing, hot and sweet, quite tasty.

He wished he had his shirt off for this, the better to feel every inch of her. The earlier sweat produced by her fearfrom her apocrine glands, full of unique lipids and proteins, dampened his shirt. He wanted that precious spicy secretion on his own skin, where his finely tuned alter sensors would read every change, every flavor, every delicate note. A need to fully taste the minute traces of the salty musk of her arousal, buried under that hot fear, was making his undressing an imperative.

Damn fucking clothing. It was unnatural. No special make of fabric for primes worked the way Control said it would.

“Calm now, Kitten. Shh. You have had a hard day, but you can’t escape me. The best you can do is work with me.”

She was adorable, cute in every way. In his world, all the cute things were gone, eaten up before his birth. Her hair made no sense to him, cut without reason. He’d have her grow it out. But it had to be off her face, like this, so that he could see the tiny dots across her nose highlighted every time her skin changed color with her emotions. The girl broadcast every feeling like an interface light board. Even in silence, she’d never be able to hide anything from him.

“I didn’t do anything, please,” she mewed.

“Breathe with me, in and out. Come now. In and out. Slowly.” He breathed like he wanted her to.

Obediently, she matched him.

She may not like his looks, but he knew she liked his smell and his voice well enough, both in a specific range of favor for breeder females like her. She would find him appealing even if she didn’t want to. The closeness would work on her in the same manner it worked on him, proximity acting like a virus, activating dormant instincts, awakening a mating drive she didn’t know she had.

He instructed, “Close your eyes. It’s okay. Keep breathing for me, Kitten. I’m not going to kill you. You are such a small thing. What is the point? Do you hear the truth in my voice? I’m not going to harm you. Let’s breathe together. In and out.”

The need for air was something their bodies shared, a convenient similarity of physiology he’d use to his advantage. His lungs had a greater range and adaptability for the intake of oxygen mixes than hers did, but he could use this technique to normalize himself for her.

He enjoyed holding her like a child swaddled up in bindings as she listened to his heartbeat and voice. They breathed together until her scent changed, and her mind gave up its struggle to stay in a panic, exhausted and confused. Perfect. “One more deep breath now. In and out. I know I’m a scary motherfucker. I hear your people say it all the time. But can’t you hear my heartbeat, Kitten? I’m really just like you.”

All the things she knew about her world’s invaders, and all the things she didn’t know, plus her own prey instinct, contrasted with the stark physicality of their two bodies.

She was small and fragile, and he was her opposite in every way.

The human mind was such a fun toy to play with.

“Please,” she begged, soft and sweet against his skin, under his chin.

“I know this is scary for you. I’m dangerous to you, and every system in your brain tells you so. My kind are predators, a level above yours, I’m afraid. It’s best if you do what I say, answer all my questions.”

“I answered. I’m telling the truth.”

“There is something I don’t understand, Kitten. Do you think you can escape the law? We are all slaves to the law, I’m afraid, and I can’t escape the Control Board any more than you can.”

“I was looking for food, checking the traps. And wankers—”

Setting her back on the table on her side, he curled over her upper body, keeping her warm with his higher body heat.Staying where she could hear and see him, he said, “Listen now. Are you listening? I am going to give you a chance to get away from me. You have been such a good girl. I think you deserve it. That is a part of our law. Maybe you don’t know this?”

“You are going to let me go?” Her voice cracked.

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