Page 9 of The Rebel and the Rogue

No. She’d taken everything I gave her, and I hadn’t gone easy. It wasn’t in my nature. I fucked wild. I fucked hard. I fucked to ensure she’d feel me for days.

And she’d not just cried out with pleasure, she’d demanded more. Needed everything I had to give her.

With my return to the suite, the sated pleasure I’d enjoyed bled away. Reality returned, and I found Astra watching me with raised brows, realizing I’d never answered Barek’s heated question. “Well? Where have you been, Zenos? I sent you to the bar two hours ago.”

“Drinking.” My answer was one word, but I knew it would be enough. No one would assume I had been with a female. Not me. Not a hybrid Hyperion animal who’d gotten the worst of two worlds, a cock that swelled and locked our female in place, a mating instinct so strong it could drive us mad, and poison in our Hyperion fangs deadly enough to kill with one bite.

“Do not lie to me.” Astra spoke, her voice stern even as she ignored me now to stare at the small, square cards in her hand. “You smell like sex.”

“Yes. A distraction to help pass the time.” No sense denying it. Rumor was, Astra had Everian Hunter’s blood in her veins. The gods knew she could smell better than any living being should wish to. I didn’t like having poisonous fangs, but I’d hate to be able to pick up scents as acutely as she did. And smelling sex on another? No, thank you.

“Did you kill her?”

Practical. That was our Astra. Our leader. I did not know her true name, the name she’s been given by her mother. When one assumed head of a Rogue 5 legion, the leader embodied all that we were, including the name. That day, when I was but a small boy, she had become simply Astra. She led us, not like the Coalition where there was a chain of command, but as a large family. A brotherhood of sorts, led by a matriarch. We lived by a code, her code, an ethical standard—which some might consider hypocritical. Whether or not the Coalition of Planets considered something illegal was of no concern to us. What the other legions did was of no concern to us. We did what was best for our legion, for our people, for our common good. We didn’t fight the Hive. We fought the other legions of Rogue 5. For territory, for survival. Astra Legion didn’t peddle slaves. Didn’t sell Quell. Didn’t think second and kill first like Cerberus or Siren Legions. Astra was too smart for that.

/>

But that didn’t mean we weren’t ruthless. As leader, Astra was the most lethal. Cunning. Brutal. She was feared by the other legions, and rightly so.

“She lives,” I replied. “I did not harm her.” She might have bruises upon her soft skin from a tight grip as I fucked her, but nothing that would not fade, nothing she would not look upon and remember how I’d made her scream. There was no doubt she’d feel me for days. My cum was probably dripping from her well-fucked pussy at this moment.

The female fascinated me, and I knew I would think of her often. Wonder how she’d obtained the magnificent scar that ran the length of her back. She’d been bothered by it, not proud. A human instinct perhaps to see the scar as an imperfection, not perfection. The thickness and size of the mark had made me fuck her harder. Faster. Deeper. That mark of strength and courage, of survival, had made my instincts roar to claim her. To bite her. To keep her.

“Tempting the gods is not wise, Zenos.” Barek chastised me, but I did not respond. I knew the battle he fought every day with Astra so close to him. The words were for himself, a reminder, as much as for me.

Astra grunted and laid down her cards, which caused the others to grumble and hand over their credits. Three hybrid Forsians were in this room, and there were less than twenty of us anywhere in the galaxy, all of us sworn to Astra Legion. Except Makarios from Kronos Legion. Outsiders believed there were only three or four hybrid Forsians under Astra’s control, and our leader liked it that way.

Makarios had broken from the fold years ago and served Kronos Legion. But he’d been older than the rest of us. When he’d sworn allegiance to Kronos, he’d been just a boy and the leader of Astra had been a brutal ass. But then Makarios had been captured by the Hive and assumed lost. Wrong again. He’d shown up at The Colony, enhanced with cyborg parts. He’d been strong before. I couldn’t even imagine what the Hive had created. He must have hated every moment of it, surrounded by Coalition fighters, the only one from Rogue 5.

And now? He was truly a legend. Mated to a human female who had killed a Nexus Unit and stolen a ship. Makarios was gone from Rogue 5, gone from every space station from here to Xerima. The Coalition was hunting him. We were hunting him. The other legions were hunting him. I’d heard that even the Hive were hunting him… or his female.

We’d all heard odd stories of his human female being one of them, that she could transform into one of the blue creatures that led the Hive, the Nexus Units. I had no idea if that were true, and Astra didn’t give a shit if she was blue, purple or human, she wanted the antidote Makarios’s mate had supposedly created. She was truly mated to him. Had survived his bite. We all needed mates to help us survive. To keep Astra legion strong. Astra wanted that antidote for her hybrids. We weren’t going to lose our minds, as the Atlans did in their Mating Fever, but without mates, we suffered as they did. We hybrids just lived with the pain in our bodies.

It would almost be a relief to be Atlan, to know there was an end to the hunger and madness. To know that without a mate to keep us sane, we would be put down. But we were not so lucky as the Atlans. And I had no desire to die.

I wanted that antidote. We all did. If I’d had it, I wouldn’t have ridden the edge of insanity as my cock filled and fucked that lush human. Her skin had been sweet on my tongue. So had her pussy. I’d grazed her tender skin with my fangs, the need within me insisting I plunge them as deeply as I had my cock. I’d been desperate to make her writhe and moan for a completely different reason. I had almost lost control.

Almost.

I’d held off, barely. Kept sane. Barely. I liked her alive, panting and moaning, whimpering and screaming because of me. Because of pleasure. Not pain.

Had I been able, I would have filled her with my cum for hours because of the mating fist, marked her over and over with my bite. Made her mine—no matter that I’d told her otherwise—and dealt with her anger about it later. But that wasn’t an option for me. For any of us.

We were strong. Mean. Bigger than any of the other races and fiercely loyal. If Astra—the female, not the legion—lost us, her power position on Rogue 5 would be dangerously threatened. The members of the legion would be threatened. No doubt Cerberus or Siren would attack while the legion was weak. Take Astra Legion’s women and children, sell our people for slaves or mercenaries.

Astra appeared to be satisfied with my response. “Anything out of the ordinary? Anything to report?”

“Nothing. Everything appears to be normal. I do not believe we are walking into a trap.”

She tipped her head toward one of the bedrooms. “Get cleaned up. We leave soon.”

I grunted and moved to do as she ordered. I washed in a shower tube and hated that I rinsed the female’s scent from my body. Her taste from my mouth. Her soft whimpers from my mind.

No, those I’d never forget.

When I emerged a short time later, I was in full legion armor. Stolen from the Coalition—we’d taken their latest technology and adapted it to our needs. Instead of gray and black, we’d altered the color to black and dark green and emblazoned Astra Legion’s emblem on both shoulder and chest. Our dark green armbands, worn at home over more traditional and casual clothing, were part of the uniform rather than an adornment. The suit would deflect small blaster fire and protect us in the event we needed to evacuate or enter the cold dark of deep space.

With every layer of protection I added to my body, I drifted farther away from the female and focused on the mission. We would meet with the Coalition fighter who claimed to have the antidote, Astra would bargain and we would leave. There was no other alternative, not if I and my fellow hybrid Forsians wanted to mate, wanted to have children. Peace. A reason to keep going.

---