Page 17 of Bred By Zyros
A small gasp leaves her plush lips as I slip toward her, banding my hands to her waist and lifting her onto my back, my lower arms a seat underneath her round bottom that I tend to stare at against my will often. “We are going far today. You are safer up there.”
“I don’t want torideyou,” she quips.
That concept brings forward all kinds of distracting thoughts as I rush from the cave, knowing the heat outside becomes uncomfortable for her at highest sun. We need to reach the cooler waters by then. My pack is filled with her things and the foul-smelling, burnt meats she nibbles on as I dive into the jungle. All the while, she’s quiet. I wait, knowing that despite her best efforts, it won’t take long for her to speak. I only wish it weren’t themachinesthat forced words to her lips.
“Oh wow.” She breathes as we pass their putrid smell as they suck the life from Nyssara.Serpentium,the alliance had called it. Whatever they wanted that was deep inside the planet.
“Nyth'sss,” I curse. “The Alliance came many orbits ago, just before my time and asked to put in their machines. The goddesses have cursed us since.”
I shift onto a different trail, not wanting my mate near them when she wiggles. “Hang on, I need to stop!”
“No female. It is not safe. We are nearing another’s territory.”
That makes her pause. “That female from before?”
The fear in her voice makes a hideous snarl form on my face. “The females do not live as the males do. We stay in caves out deep within the jungle. They stay in the temple together.”
“Wait, is that how you got the translation tech? The Alliance gave them to you in exchange to drill?”
I hiss again, unable to hide my agitation. It had all gone so wrong after that. It was before my time, just barely, when they first came. The elders before Xyphora had wanted goods and shiny new trinkets from the strange beings in the sky. They wanted them more than they had wanted to keep our planet safe. The birth decline had started after that, until it was nothing.
I was the last child born after the machines came.
There has been no other born alive since.
Yet the machines stay.
“A contract was signed, one we have not been able to get out of. They are smarter than us. Our leader is still greedy, like her mother before her.”
My little mate grows thoughtful after that. I change the subject, no longer wanting to discuss the ugly parts of this planet. “Why do you perform the scans at the plants?”
“Oh, I uh-well, I suppose I’m not meant to technically, especially not here. My father uses the data in his research. Mostly sustainably stuff, but he…I don’t know, it’s just what I do.”
Her voice has fallen, making my brow furrow. “This male needs the information?”
“I mean no, it’s just good to have, and since I’m down here, anyway. I can’t go home, it just—”
“Why can’t you go home?” I ask, gripping her tighter to me as I scent a flock of ssyrrhavians. A leathery, winged predator known to carry off even the biggest land predators on Nyssara. Their screech alone is powerful enough to make your hearing channel bleed.
“It’s intergalactic law. Once a human’s DNA is compromised by breeding with another species, we can’t return to Terra2, the human settlement. They seem to think we’ll just mindlessly screw our way through the gene pool. Which I’m sure is half right. Human breeding is great and all until itbenefitshumans. Our evolution will only compromise things. We will be less useful if we are limited by mixing with other species. Maybe down the line. We are not so adjustable to different climates; perhaps at some point, we will be less easy to breed and therefore not marketable.”
“ButIwill breed you,” I state, not really understanding but feeling like it’s a good point to make. Her little chuckle makes my cock harden painfully behind my slit. It has been hard since we met, never ceasing its throbbing.
“Well, yes, but that’s different.” Her voice is soft, and the sound of it makes a hiss rise on my tongue, but I keep it held back, testing the air instead.
“Do you wish to do the blinking scans?”
She hesitates for a moment, letting her body relax more into mine as she perches her elbow on my shoulder, resting her face in her hand. Her soft chest pressing into my back, warm breath grazing my scales. “It’s the least I can do.”
“That is not an answer, female.”
But it is, I recognize the resignation in her voice, and the anger that bubbles in my chest has my grip tightening on her.
“Since when are you so talkative?”
I immediately tense. “Do you prefer me quiet?”
She half laughs, and despite the anxiety I feel waiting for her answer, it eases the tension in my muscles. “No, you have a pleasant voice. All deep and raspy, complete swoon material. Just…what changed?”
