Page 15 of Her Alien Savior
Now, they were being used against me. Against Riley. A surge of adrenaline rushed through my veins, at least one of my glands was still functioning properly. I did more than grunt in reply. My body shot up to sitting, and I growled.
“That will do,” Sylve replied in my comm. “I’ve had a room prepared for you, where one of your generals used to be stationed. You’ll know the room, a few doors down, on the right of the command’s negotiation room you found the human at. If you behave, I’ll have the human taken out of stasis early.”
The communication ended, and I noticed Shen-La watching me with wide startled eyes. She cleared her throat, “It’s incredible that you have such strength to move under the influence of the elder root, Commander. You should know that many of the ship’s warriors still believe in you. We find it dishonorable the way you were taken from leadership. Many would like to see a fair duel to confirm command.” She eased me back down on the reclined med gurney.
I laid there seething for what seemed like eons, but was probably only a few cycles of Earth hours... Earth hours, why had I immediately thought of the passing of human time? I couldn’t get her out of my mind, and I found I was able to move my limbs once more. The first thing I did was dig my fingers into my pocket, and growl with the irritation that the glove placed there was not sealed from the circulating air. The time in my pocket had dried up the moisture, leaving only her lingering scent behind.
With a groan I eased myself to sitting, the medic was right... there was definitely something wrong with my glands. I shouldn’t be able to feel the ache after all these hours of time for my body to heal. I needed to rut in order to clear out the adrenaline possibly interfering with the remaining glands being able to heal the others. The priority to survive was over, and my body needed to switch gears into healing, but my body was out of balance. I’d survive, but would I live the rest of my days in this state of constant muscle fatigue? If my glands didn’t heal properly, it would be possible.
Flipping the glove inside out, I rubbed the fingers she had used to please herself against my gums, hoping the residue of her juice, though dry now, would be enough to overpower the urge to track down the medic Shen-La. I inhaled the scent deeply, gladdened that it wasn’t the smell of the glove itself that filled me. My eyes lowered, and my body took over. Fucking Horve, yes, it was working, I thought feeling my instincts surge with her smell alone. I didn’t know what it was about the tiny human that stirred me, but I needed her.
My nostrils flared, and all thoughts other than Riley faded from my mind. I landed on the ground like an animal, on all fours stumbling from the bed with a grunt. My muscles spasmed, but self-preservation took over. I had to find my mate to heal. Mate, the word was thick on my tongue, heavy with a weight of meaning I didn’t think too much about in my current state. It felt right. I growled out loud, “Mate.”
All of my epul spiked from my second skin in my feral rut to find her. Anything that stood in my way would be disposed of, no matter the pain involved. Every muscle strained, and my teeth ground together with every movement. My glands were damaged, and if I didn’t balance out my adrenaline, they wouldn’t be able to heal properly. My fangs pierced through my gums, and even the epul along my neck, wrapping around the crown of my head throbbed in their exposure.
“Ah, you’re awake. Good.” Medic Shen-La wasn’t concerned with my current lack of cognitive thinking, as I hoisted myself to a stand, bracing myself on a knee. She removed her cloak, commonly worn by medics for the extra pockets to hold their supplies, and my pinpoint eyes caught on her hand movements like a predator scoping out threats. The cloak was placed delicately on the counter. With deliberate, and slow attention to the clasps of her shirt, she eased the uniform away from her neck, exposing her flesh to me.
Shen-La propped her ass behind her to sit on one of the spare med cots, spread her legs, lifting them, and then angled her knee out in invitation to bathe her.
I chuffed at her display, and she took it as a sign to continue, but she was wrong in her assumptions. The darkening of my eyes was not my interest in using her for my rut. She was in my way, and she was not the one I wanted. I clenched the glove Riley gave me in my fist, my nostrils flaring trying to ignore the scent of Shen-La’s interest.
Wiggling free of her pants, Shen-La spread herself once more. A waft of her scent reached my nose, my gums ached, recognizing the scent, and for a moment I hesitated in my intentions to rush past her, and seek out my mate. My body knew this offering. I sniffed the air, struggling with each step moving towards Shen-La.
“That’s right, Commander. You can use my juice to ease your pain, and heal your body,” she cooed, her voice grated my ears like that of a faulty communicator’s shrill static. I turned from her with a roar, and bound out of the med bay with wild haste. If I couldn’t find Riley soon, I didn’t know how long I could resist my rut without her.
There was a warrior in the hall whose epul lengthened at the sight of me. He knew what kind of threat I was. He did not approach, but stared me down to stall my advance. I knew in my bones that he was delaying me to wait for another warrior to help him subdue a rut-influenced warrior, but that didn’t change that I could not turn down a challenge.
Did he seek my mate before I could be claimed by her? I couldn’t take the chance that he would stop me from finding her. I had to duel, to show all my tribe who was worthy of imprinting my Riley. First, this warrior, then my mate, then destroying the one responsible for daring to control her with nanobugs.
I bared my teeth to the warrior, he lifted his hands in a defensive posture to show me he did not seek to duel. I was no fool. Rut or no rut, I knew a bluff when I saw one. Shen-La stood in the open doorway of the med bay with her cloak around her, her hands hidden in folds of cloth. The warrior was inching dangerously close, he was within striking range, and that meant he believed he was capable of subduing me long enough for the medic to drug me once more.
Giving them both a wry smile indicative of their stupidity to think I would fall for the same tricks once more. There was surely a canister of elder root stashed in Shen-La’s cloak, and they thought they had me. I sucked in a breath as I saw her shoulder move beneath her cloak preparing to launch their coordinated attack. The warrior lunged, and the cloak fluttered open with her hand extended to take advantage.
I slipped to the side, and grabbed the warrior’s arm, uncaring that his epul sliced my skin on either side of my grip. My blood dripped off my palm, and would eventually make my hold on his slick, but it would be too late for him by then. The spray from the canister misted over both of us, but I had not taken a breath, and had made sure the warrior took the brunt of it. With an extended knuckle epul, I stabbed the warrior in the side, making him gasp in more of the elder root vapor, then shoved his weakening body at the medic. Shen-La fell backwards with the warrior collapsing a top her.
With swift determination, I darted down the hall with a roar of triumph. Victory was mine, and it would be one of many this day. Alarms sounded through the hallway, indicating warriors within this ship’s sector will have been warned about the situation. It should have been curious to me that the alarm only lasted a few chimes before stopping, but I didn’t care who was sent to contain me, or whether they were properly warned when I came across them.
“Direl,” I heard the traitorous voice of my second, Chuel, call out ahead. I rounded the corner to snarl at him. “I thought I heard right about you being in rut, but to see you like this is more than I expected. Have you been neglecting your supplement rations? It’s been ages since we’ve had a warrior go into true rut like this.” There was a gleam in his eyes that signaled excitement, and an eagerness for battle. “You always denied me the chance to duel you, but in your current state I hardly think you’d deny me now, isn’t that right, Commander?” The way he said my title was more sneer than respect towards my right to lead. Had I been so blinded by Chuel’s steady resolve to be the warrior I turned to for every need that I had missed the underlying desire he held to destroy me?
He had already betrayed me to King Sylve, my command had already been taken when he gave up his own command codes. What else had I done to Chuel that he would seek to further conquer me entirely? Did it matter?
I stood at my full height, my epul throbbed with the need to show Chuel he made a grave mistake challenging me. Distant thoughts warned me not to succumb to my instincts to fight, because in my current rut I may go too far. I may not let him live to try to challenge me again.
“That’s right, can’t help yourself. You have the same death in your eyes as the day you betrayed our tribe, betrayed my sister.”
My mind wasn’t clear enough to process his words fully, but there was an ache in my gut that wasn’t related to the pain of my epul, or even the injuries my body sought to heal by finding my mate.
The accusation switched something inside of me, making me even more wild. I roared in what was both agony and need, to duel, warning him to prepare himself for my attack. He swiped. I ducked to the side, but I wasn’t fast enough. Chuel’s fist pounded into my gut, targeted between all of my spiked epul to avoid harm, but what surprised me more was that he hadn’t used his own epul to stab me. I bent over with a grunt before twisting away, and charging once more.
“You’re slower than I remember,” Chuel mocked. “You’re lucky, Commander, that we need you alive to fix what you fucked up, because you’re in no condition to win any duels in your state.”
“I considered you a brother,” I forced out.
“Ah, you can still speak. Not fully lost to the rut yet, then. No matter, it’s better this way. You’ll know why you lost. You see, you made a mistake when you allowed me to become your second. We were never brothers, and you lost any right to be such when you decided to reject the necia, and embrace the trill.”
Reject necia? That sobered whatever semblance of control I maintained, igniting a feral anger within me. Not once in my cycles had I ever done such a thing as betray my tribe. Everything I’ve ever done was for our warriors, for our future.
“I’ve always followed tribal law!” I roared while lunging at him with a dangerous swipe of my hardened epul spikes on my arm. Keeping my body in movement made finding an exposed section of my flesh measurably more difficult for Chuel to find an opening like before. It wouldn’t happen again, I swore.
