Honour (3 page)

“I did not want to frighten you. If everyone else disappeared on the first night, it would have upset you, and I am not yet ready to meet you face to face.”

“Why not?”

He turned her in his embrace, and while she could not see the details of his body, she could feel them. It was a dramatic melding of heat and muscle. She flattened her hands to his chest and pushed, but he wasn’t yielding.

“I am not complete yet. My body is being tailored to match yours and that takes time.”

She blinked. “Are all the other candidates getting the same speech?”

His grip on her tightened. “No. You are the one I have chosen. The others merely have conversations with my shadows while I am speaking with you.”

Honour shifted her hips against him. “Conversation?”

He laughed. “Simply conversations.”

She curled her fingers into fists. “How did you get the roses?”

“I have had that pattern on hold for a few hundred years. It was put on file until we could find one of your kind for the selection process. The moment that your people were released into the depths of space, I cultivated those flowers in the hope that one of yours would be found near enough for this moment.”

One hand caressed her spine and the other stroked her cheek. “Your skin is as soft as the petals on that flower.”

She didn’t know if she was blushing, but she couldn’t look into the dark, shifting shadows where his face should be.

He pressed a kiss to her temple and worked down her face.

The one question surfaced again and again. “What are you, exactly?”

He sighed and turned her to face the alien world once again. “Do you see that endless green canopy?”

“Yes.”

“That is me. For five thousand years, I have guarded the Freyalki. When they need me to help them with the worlds around them, they bring a mineral into the heart of the forest and leave it. It is the catalyst for the largest and oldest tree to begin growing a pod. My new body is within that pod, and it lets me move on the surface and speak with my people.”

Honour tilted her head as he nibbled at her neck. “What do you need me for?”

“I require a bride who can help me leave Yalki and make treatises with the races in the area. Through you, I will have a link to the animal worlds, and our symbiosis will keep me stable when it comes to visiting the neighboring systems.”

“What do I gain in return?” She shivered as his hands cupped her breasts.

“You gain the rule of an entire star system.”

“That sounds like more of a job than a bonus.”

“I am sure that I can find something to make the effort worth your while.” He slid his fingers between her thighs and parted her sex.

“Sex isn’t usually something I stand in line for.”

He laughed and whispered, “You haven’t felt the way I do it. You keep waking yourself up.”

He pressed his fingers against her while his mouth sucked at her shoulder. She gasped when he slid two fingers into her, and she literally felt them lengthen and thicken inside her.

“Ho…how many Terrans have you had?”

“None, but the sentient worlds speak very highly of them. Your kind make excellent avatars. So delightfully responsive.” He began to move his hand inside her, slow and deliberate.

She shuddered and gripped his wrist, closing her eyes as she tried to pry him free.

He slipped a hand around her throat and pulled her upright. “You stayed awake so long, you are now basically unconscious. Not even your own panic impulses are going to wake you.”

Honour twisted in his grip, but he was holding her tight while his fingers slowly thrust and retreated.

She chanted over and over to herself that it was just a dream, only a dream, as her senses heated and overloaded. She felt him laugh against her neck as she screamed when she came. Her thighs were slick, her pussy throbbed and her limbs were limp as he sat down with her and draped her across his lap.

Her lids fluttered as she felt his lips caress hers. Honour reached up and touched his cheek, parting her lips for his kiss. She felt his smile against her lips a moment before he stroked her cheek in return. “My bride.”

Honour jolted on her bed. To her surprise, there was a com system sitting on the far side of the room. She wrapped her blanket around her and took a seat at the small setup.

When she powered the system up, it began a call. The moment that the connection was made, tears pricked her eyes. “Hello, Dr. Haldorf.”

“Honour Coyle. We thought you were dead.”

“How is everyone? Did the Raiders leave?”

“Yes. Everyone is accounted for with the exception of you. Where are you?”

She ran a hand through her hair. “Have you ever heard of Yalki?”

Delight lit his eyes, and he told her everything she needed to know.

Breakfast was even more sparsely populated than she was becoming used to, but the attendants were cheerful and rather giddy when she arrived for her meal.

“Good morning, lady. How did you sleep?”

Honour sighed and took the plate from the smaller female. “I slept fine, thank you.”

“I am glad for it, lady. You needed rest.” There was a twist to the woman’s eyebrows and amusement in her gaze.

“Yes, I know. I have spoken with him. You Freyalki have a future, and he is finding someone to be part of it.” She took her meal and inclined her head.

The attendant immediately turned and whispered frantically to the others who were standing nearby.

Honour ate her meal next to the roses again. She didn’t make an attempt at the herbal stimulants again.

After the meal, she surrendered her plate to the woman, who bowed excessively, and went for a walk. Guards followed her at a respectful distance, but Honour ignored them and looked out at the endless gardens.

She looked up for what she guessed was the first time. A clear dome overhead showed her a world with a blue-white star in the sky. She was in a domed garden with strange plants and a stranger species, but she didn’t feel alien.

Her love of plant species had been her constant throughout her life. It seemed her entire life had been preparing her for this moment.

The Freyalki were the closest thing to living and walking plants crossed with animals that had ever been recorded in the Nyal Imperium. They were highly intelligent, highly organised and very old.

Her host may have told her he had been on duty for five thousand years, but it was more like fifty thousand that the forests had been using avatars to speak to surrounding species.

She couldn’t see any of the surrounding terrain. The facility she was in was on the edge of nowhere, designed to keep the alien women from knowing where they were.

Mixing with the general population was not something that Honour had considered, but now, it seemed like the only thing she wanted to do.

She paced for a while until lunch, but afterward, she headed in to the groomers. They brushed, buffed and plucked her hair. She felt relaxed and highly polished as she left for her final meal of the day.

Honour craved something else, like a book or a video. Feeling hopeful, she examined the com system that had been installed, and she sighed in relief as she scrolled through a few viewing choices.

Porn was not in her normal round of interests, so instead, she looked up the botanical journals of the area. When in doubt, look for the plants. It was always her default.

She spent hours of her evening cruising through the journals. When she was sleepy, she turned the com off and crawled between the sheets.

Her body was too nervous to sleep. She got out of bed and started to do push-ups. She was unsurprised to see a guard at her doorway beckoning her along.

“Come with me, lady.”

She sighed and got dressed. Once she was decent, she returned to medical under guard.

“I swear, I wasn’t trying not to sleep. My rest yesterday must have carried over.”

She hopped up on the medical bed, and the physician stood at her side.

“You are not here for that.”

Honour was surprised. “What then?”

“You have been chosen by your host to be his bride. That requires a few alterations to your physiology. We are going to tank you, and when you rise, you will meet your mate.”

“No one said anything about alteration.” She looked at him with wide eyes.

“You know enough about interspecies matings to know that most are not directly accomplished. All the women here were selected because they could be altered to match the requirements. That included you.”

Honour nodded. “May I ask a question before you start?”

“Of course.”

“Why do all the Freyalki here wear masks?”

“They are humidified breathers. We need more moisture in our air than you do.” He pulled his mask aside, and there were pleasant features that matched the rest of his nut-brown skin.

“Oh. How long will I be under?”

He smiled before he put the mask back. “It will feel like no time at all.”

“Will I dream?”

“I believe so.”

She sighed, “Oh, damn.”

The hypo hissed and her world went black.

She was back in the dream world, looking out over the edge of the cliff to the forest beyond.

“So, you are in the moment of transformation.” He walked toward her, he was less shadow and more dark skin with a wave of midnight hair cascading in a cloak behind him.

“Apparently. It seems you are as well. You seem fairly Freyalki.”

He grinned. “It is the best form to take when you are representing a species. You become one of them.”

“Will I change?”

“No, I enjoy your colouring. The changes will be minor and not take too much energy. You will be able to inhale and process greater amounts of humidity than your lungs currently allow for. There are a few other alterations but that is the greatest one.”

She nodded and turned back to the view. “It is truly breathtaking.”

He wrapped his arms around her from behind. “It is. I am glad you can enjoy the sight of the green and growing world.”

“It has been a fascination with me since I was on earth. Plants were always my favourite companions.” She smiled and leaned back against him.

“That warms my heart.”

Honour felt the rise of his erection against her lower back. “It seems to be warming more than your heart.”

“No, that is just proximity to you. Since the moment you stepped into my garden, you have been stimulating my senses.”

She inhaled deeply and shifted her hips against him. His senses weren’t the only ones on overdrive. He smelled like every plant she had ever loved in her life, like rich soil and heady musk.

His long fingers stroked her skin with reverence, and she turned in his arms. She rubbed her breasts against the smooth wall of his chest, down the ridges of muscle.

He let out a long sigh and cupped her buttocks, pulling her up against him. The heat of his cock slid against the lips of her pussy, parting her as he slid her back and forth.

She shivered wildly, pressing her lips to his in a ravenous kiss. He tasted better than he smelled, at least on the dream plane.

He lifted her with one hand in a feat of strength that sent a nervous thrill through her. If he could lift her this easily, what else could he do?

Her host thrust into her shallowly, slowly inching into her.

She gripped his shoulders and held on as he worked himself inside her.

He leaned forward and took one nipple between his teeth.

Honour squeaked and clenched her hands in his hair.

He chuckled and lapped at the abused flesh with his tongue. He pulled her completely onto him until he could go no further. She winced and wrapped her legs around his hips.

He lifted and lowered her slowly, holding her against him as he shifted inside her. Once again, he seemed to swell to fit her perfectly, or was she swelling to fit him? It was the dream plane, who cared?

Honour opened her eyes and inhaled sharply. She felt the humidity in the air, but it was welcomed as she hacked and coughed the liquid from her lungs.

A blanket was pulled over her as she was tilted to her side.

“Breathe easy, lady. You are through the worst of it.”

Her physician was there, patting her on the back and running scans in rotation.

She focused on breathing and looked around at her new environment. The interior of the room was painted in soft green; it was much more soothing than the brighter colours of the candidate facility.

The readouts must have been what he was looking for, because she was left alone in the decanting room.

Footfalls told her that she wasn’t alone in the room. “Hello?”

She twisted to look around, but she ended up coughing again.

“Rest, Honour. You fought the transformation for longer than anticipated.” He stroked her hair back with his hand.

She looked into eyes that were bright leaf green in an amethyst setting. In all their couplings in the dream plane, he had never shown her his eyes.

Honour fought her blush. “How long was I out?”

“Two months. It had been anticipated as less than a week, so you are overdue.” He smiled.

“Do you have an actual name?” She blinked and held her blanket to her chest as he lifted her and carried her to a chair in the corner of the decanting room.

He sighed, “I don’t have an actual name. I am the consciousness of millions of living organisms that each give a portion of themselves to give me awareness.”

“What do they call you?”

“The Great Forest of Yalki. What do you want to call me?”

Mine.
The word formed in her mind before she could speak, and he smiled slightly.

“Acuar-yalki. Ace for short.” She smiled.

“And Acuar for the great trees that are part of me. I accept it. What is Ace?”

“A nickname. It is an affectionate term that is used between friends.” She fidgeted with her blanket, curious as to what other changes had been made to her body, aside from the alteration to her lungs.

“And what nickname can be generated from Honour?”

She blinked. “Whatever you like.”

“Honey. Yes, I believe that Honey will suit you.”