Chapter 1

Rachele cries out in terror as she springs up from the cold, firm mattress. Her entire body is quivering. Her breath is ragged. Her eyes dart all around the bedroom. She has just had the worst nightmare. A Kagvuk was chasing her through the forests of Vulta, the smallest moon orbiting the planet Mihr. Before she was able to get to safety it had pounced. The last thing she saw was that mouth full of razor sharp teeth lunging at her, before she woke in the serenity of the ship.

It takes her a moment to get her bearings—to sort the dream from reality. Then she remembers that he had saved her from the alien beast, tearing its jaw off from the rest of its head. Yet the foreboding feeling that it had gotten her is still there. Frantically, she flips onto her back and throws the white sheet off. She almost weeps when she discovers that there isn’t a limb missing or even bite. She checks every bit of her body that she can without the use of a mirror, but she is fine. He saved her. The creature never hit its mark. All the same, she is far from being safe. The escape from the moon was real. The Nehrezl were not going to let them get away. They had sent out the Kagvuks to hunt them down. But they managed to escape on the shuttle, and eventually the star ship.

Rachele must have dozed off just after having sex with Ghok—not surprising. She had been so restless after their escape that she barely got even a couple hours of broken sleep. Her fling with the alien had been one exhausting fuck. She held nothing back, taking him with a series of rapid, powerful thrusts until well after her thighs were screaming for rest. She pushed herself to make it a damn good fuck, because she figured it wouldn’t be long before the Nehrezl had them again.

Her lover is nowhere to be seen now. He must have slipped away while she slept. She wonders how far he has wondered on the ship. He is the only Nehrezl they trust. He betrayed his people to save them. He is marked like they are. She looks out the viewport at the vast array of stars filling the dark void of space. They could be after us and just haven’t caught up, or they could be tracking us to find out where home is. She shivers as she remembers what they had done to most of her expedition team.

She turns away from the window, afraid of having her fear confirmed. With a sorrowful sigh, she climbs out of the bed. She doesn’t bother to put any clothes on. The air is just perfect, the ship maintaining the adequate temperature for the crew. She leaves the small quarters for the refresher. Part of her mind is still muddled between the nightmare and reality. She remembers seeing Ghok killing the beast, ripping its jaw off, but she cannot remember little else after that. Maybe she has feinted. She was caught in the grasp of sheer terror after seeing what one of those things did to her friend.

Anxiously, she turns around to view herself in the mirror. There are no teeth marks, no place where the Kagvuk got ahold of her, and certainly no flesh missing. It is a relief, but even the danger gone her situation is no less dire. Despondent, she leaves her quarters with no destination in mind. She slips into the corridor and begins walking, eventually coming to the mess hall where Ghok is standing wearing nothing but a pair of black travel pants. He is standing in front of a table staring out the viewport and seemingly lost in thought. If it wasn’t for him, they would all be dead right now. Whatever he is thinking cannot be good. If she was having doubts about their escape, she can only imagine he knows just how their end will come.

Rachele knows that he will give his life to protect hers. But would he protect all of those that are left? She wonders if he helped them, stayed with them because she seduced him. Seduce is the best way to describe what she did. The Nehrezl seemed like such a peaceful species. But they had broken their law. Any species outside theirs was forbidden to mate. To do so invited death. But it was worth the risk—at least it was for her and Ghok. They didn’t expect to get caught, and she at least, didn’t expect the entire crew to be punished— just her. But they all were. Her actions doomed them all. Ghok must have felt bad for giving in and dooming them all. He is marked just as they all are. There is no other reason for him to stick around.

So no, it wasn’t seduction.

She had hoped it was. She had seduced many men to claw her way to the top. She had done so to get this expedition going, and again to lead it. She has the body to do so, so why not use it? Her long, athletic legs only add to her prettiness. Her breasts, while not large, are natural and astonishingly pert. Her ass is firm and shapely from the many hours she puts in the gym. She is a wet dream for any man, and she had hoped she was for the alien too. Now she wonders if it was her body that got the alien hard in the first place or the chance for him to fuck an alien.

Rachele steps into the mess hall. With a subtle clearing of her throat, she catches Ghok’s attention. He turns to face her, clearly making a conscious effort to not gawk at her naked body. “I was coming back with some food,” he says, trying to make eye contact instead of looking her over.

Maybe it is me that made him hard after all. The thought gives her some comfort, but at the same time it doesn’t. Before she had hoped he risked his life because of his lust for her. Now though, it seems almost stupid. If he did it because of his guilt, it would make more sense. But does she have to courage to confront him about it? Hell no. “You seem to be too busy looking out the viewport,” she replies, trying to keep the sudden anger out of her voice.

“I couldn’t help but take in the view,” he says, either not hearing the change in tone or just ignoring it. “Few of us ever get to leave the home world. I was lucky to leave for Vulta. It was the only time I ever got to see the stars like this.”

For Rachele, she sighs with relief. She feared that he feared seeing the Nehrezl out there. She strolls over toward the table and sits down beside him. “It is a beautiful sight,” she says, trying to sound casual.

“I guess since you are here, we may as well eat,” Ghok says, taking his seat next to her.

The woman matches his gaze, staring out the window rather than at him. She knows that he wants her. He expressed as much last night. But she doesn’t want to seem too eager as if she was only giving herself to him to keep him around just to protect her. “That was ... last night was good,” she finally says with an air of pleasant surprise. “It was better than the first time. I climaxed pretty hard and then I must have passed out.” She lets out a light chuckle. “Do you regret it?”

Ghok instantly turns to her. “Not at all,” he says quickly and confidently. “I maybe wish that we could have kept it secret and made off before the rest of my people knew what had happened. But it is what it is.”

“It would have ruined ever going back,” she says solemnly. “That would be rather difficult to explain when I got home.”

“And this won’t be?” he asks.

“No one here really knows why the Nehrezl attacked us,” she begins to explain. “I could lie and say we were lured into a sense of calm and acceptance before falling for a trap. If not for you, we’d all be lost.”

“If you had been lost, your people would fall into a trap for sure.”

Rachele shakes her head. “This was it,” she says. “It was either successful or not. If we had failed or were never heard from again, they would just figure we met with uncertain doom. They wouldn’t risk anymore lives just to find out what happened.”

“Then the outcome of whatever our action were would not have mattered,” Ghok reasons.

“Maybe not,” she concurs. “But would I do it all over again... ?”

As she falls silent, Ghok looks her over again. His eyes roam her body and do nothing to hide his lust for her. “Would you do it all over again?” he asks.

“Would you?” she fires back.

“I would,” he says.

“Even at the cost of our lives?” she counters, feeling a bit of the flame inside her dying a little more.

“If the outcome is this,” she answers.

“No offense, but I get the impression that I was your first,” she says, trying to push those bad memories aside. Ghok didn’t seem worried about being followed, which would seem to make sense that she shouldn’t either. “Shit, I guess I was your first human.”

The alien breaks eye contact and his gaze sinks in shame. “You were my first in general,” he says. “The Nehrezl don’t mate but one time, and only after we reach a certain growth age.”

“Are you serious?” she asks, the researcher in her coming back to life.

“Yes, it is true,” he confirms. “From what you explained to us, mating is not for pleasure as it is for your species. We do it once for reproduction and that is all.”

“Even if it feels good?” she asks, looking reflexively down to his crotch.

“Even if it feels good,” he agrees. “Though I didn’t know how good it felt until I was with you.”

“Well, you may have been inexperienced, but I had a good time,” she says casually. “You’re certainly big enough to make up for the lack of experience.” Truthfully, she had been pleasantly surprised by his size. Seeing him naked was purely for scientific purposes. But seeing it made her do what she had. And he filled her well—so well—that once wasn’t enough for her. And that was the mistake. Maybe the one time would have gone unnoticed and none of this would have happened, but twice?

Her compliments seem to disturb him. He turns to look out the viewport again, making a clear effort to let it be known that something is bothering him.