Marauder Cygnus: A Scifi Alien Shifter Romance (Mating Wars Book 1) (5 page)

J
ust as I
’m about to ask him about his brother again, Seth interrupts.

“Aura, ummm, a Mr. Scorpio has sent you a message.”

“Who is Scorpio?” I ask. “Do we know a Scorpio…?”

“It’s the pirate captain,” Seth says.

Cygnus smashes his fists into the table, then jolts to his feet. “We destroyed his life support! If he lives, we must go back and kill him!”

I put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze, but then I realize how good his muscular arm feels in my hand, so I blush and pull away.

“Relax, Cygnus,” I say. “Let’s play the message first.”

I’m anything but relaxed, and I honestly am afraid to play the message. Watching Cygnus shovel food into his face like a barbarian and seeing how much he enjoyed it had hugely lightened my mood. I’d been just ready to believe that we’d escaped death by a hairsbreadth, but now death had a name, and it was Scorpio.

“Play it,” I say, my stomach churning.

Scorpio’s face flashes onto the screen. Four horrid gashes are torn across his face. They are still bloody and swollen, and one of his eyes is gone. He’s not bothered to put in a prosthetic or even cover it up with something. It’s just a big gaping hole edged by a sagging eyelid.

“Hello, lovelies,” he says. “I just wanted to give the scrap queen a chance to get herself out of this mess. This will be my final fucking offer, so I’d recommend you think it over real hard. Put the alien into an escape pod and shoot him straight back. We’ll scoop him up and let you go. I was gonna’ pay you the first time I offered, but this time your payment is me not fucking killing you real nice and slow. I know you’re going to Mars, and judging by your record, you ain’t got the money to take sanctuary on the habitats. So, if you don’t do the smart thing, me and my boys will see you on the surface, and we’ll get the alien either way. Only difference is you’ll die on that rusty shithole of a planet. Scorpio, out!”

The screen shuts off and Cygnus roars, slamming the bacon pan onto the table with a loud bang. “We should have found his body! I’ve failed to protect you!”

Protect...me? That’s what this is about?

“Cygnus, we—”

“Put me in the escape pod!” he commands angrily. “All I need is a blade. I’ll cut through all of his new crew. You will be free, and after I kill them all and clear my debt of greatest shame, I will find my way to Mars and rescue my brother. Are Martian women suitable mates?”

“You’re
not
going on an escape pod,” I say flatly. “Scorpio’s not going to make the same mistake again. He knows how strong and powerful you are.” I hope flattery convinces him not to go. “There’s simply no way you’ll be able to tear through his whole crew again.”

Cygnus raises the pan and looks ready to slam it down again, so I grab his wrist and disarm him of the pan.

Still holding his wrist, I look into his eyes, trying to convey the foolishness of his plan . “
Please
, can you trust me?”

He tilts his head and his ears pull back, flattening against his head. “For a female,” he says, “you’re formidable. It’s a pity you are not willing to breed with me, as our offspring would make excellent Marauders.”

I shake my head and suppress a smile. “Cygnus,” I say. “This is kind of like a plate and silverware situation. Do you know what ‘subtlety’ means?”

“It means being weak,” he says.

“No,” I say. “Not exactly.”

He squints at me and his ears twitch.

“It means,” I say, “not grabbing all the bacon off of a hot pan and shoveling it into your face. It means not asking a woman point-blank if she is attracted to your penis and wants to ‘breed’ with you. You’re not a bad guy, but if you want to attract a human mate, you’ll need to learn to be a little bit more subtle.”

“So,” he says, “it’s an issue of protocol?”

“Yes,” I say. “Something like that.”

“I see,” he says. “So even though I am drawn to your breasts, and even though I find your freckles intoxicating, I should not say it without subtlety?”

“Yes,” I say, with a grin. “Exactly.”

His ears perk up and he starts to grin. “And,” he says, “drawing this to further conclusions, if you, for instance, were attracted to my penis and wanted to breed with me. Protocol would require you not to say it so frankly.”

My face burns red. I turn around to hide my embarrassment, but say nothing.

Even when this cocky alien is trying to be subtle, he’s blunt as a battering ram.

“I need to know,” I say, changing the topic. “What side are you on?”

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“Your race is invading us,” I say, “and it’s already started a war between Earth and the Mars-Venus Coalition.”

“I see,” he says. “You’ve seen me fight, and do you really think this war will matter when my entire race is here?”

“Did you brother want to warn us?” I ask. “I owe you a lot for saving me, I really do, but I owe it to humanity to warn them of your race’s intentions.”

“I don’t think warning them will do much,” Cygnus says. “Humanity can prepare all they like, we’ll still dominate them.”

“So what did your brother think?” I ask.

Cygnus looks down and gets quiet.

“You said he was religious,” I add, prompting him to continue.

“He believes that humans are different. That interbreeding with you will create the true Seraphic Form.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

“It means Aegus believes that we would no longer need to be Marauders. That our offspring would be fertile without needing to invade a new system.”

“Oh,” I say. “So he wanted to come here early and...prove it?”

“Yes,” Cygnus answers. “But his pod crash-landed on Mars. I was able to scan just before falling into the belt. He didn’t have enough power or life support left to wake from hibernation.”

“If we could prove to the incoming fleet that humans could create the—uh—Seraphic Form, would it stop the invasion?” I ask.

“No,” Cygnus says. “It would change it, however. It would likely split the invasion into two camps. One side would want to peacefully co-exist with you, the other would want to eradicate you.”

I feel my stomach knot up, but I risk asking the question heavy on my mind. “Which side would you take?”

“That depends,” Cygnus says. “Do all human females have such nice freckles?” He grins wide and then says, “That was a subtle answer, yes?”

“Yes,” I say, eyes wide. “Very subtle.”

I lick my lips, and I’m not surprised to realize I’m blushing.

* * *

T
he trip
to Mars from the belt takes about five days. I quickly realize that there’s not enough food for the seven-foot tall alien and the weird parasite suit thing he has attached to his arm. He offers to hibernate to conserve supplies, and I reluctantly agree.

He still has a bad knife and bullet wound, and he says that hibernation will help it heal more quickly.

I’ve been alone on the
Zephyr
for years now, and after having Cygnus’ company, it’s hard to give it up. He goes into the greenhouse to hibernate, where the carbon dioxide he gives off during hibernation will help feed the plants.

During the trip, I occasionally go up to the greenhouse to “look at the plants.” They are all hydroponic and their care is automated, so there’s no real need for me to check on them. I know I’m fooling myself, because every time I say I’m going up there to look at the plants, it’s really so I can look at Cygnus instead.

He wants to breed with me. Jesus. I’ve had guys sleep with me before, but none have ever wanted to
breed
with me. It sounds so much more primal, but I find that something about it turns me on.

Cygnus took his robe off to hibernate, and I can see his big teal cock looming over me every time I visit the greenhouse. I try not to look at it, because if the situations were reversed, I’d be intensely creeped out at the thought of him staring between my legs while I sleep. So, I just glance at it occasionally out of the corner of my eye, as if it were the sun.

Scorpio doesn’t send me any more messages, and Seth and I focus most of our scans behind us, looking for any ships in pursuit. We find nothing.

All of my Martian contacts are on the surface. None of the snooty orbitals would dare lower themselves to the level of buying scrap and junk from the asteroid belt.

If I had a way to contact my sister, I would. She could tell her superiors on Earth, and they
might
believe her. But she’s lost to me because of the war, and the difficulty of getting a message through to her unmonitored.

Ending the war would mean I could talk to my sister again, make sure she’s safe. I’m in a serious bind, though, because the one way I could get everyone to believe me and potentially end the war, is giving up Cygnus.

That’s not something I’m willing to do, even though it seems like the logical choice. But I can’t. And I won’t.

Seth helps me run all the computer models and decision trees, and we agree our best bet is to keep Cygnus under wraps while looking for support from my surface contacts. The main issue is that I’ve come back from my belt run empty-handed—aside from Cygnus—and I’ll have to rely on favors and sympathy instead of bartering. The Martian surface is a harsh place, and there’s little sympathy to ever be found there.

I
awake
from hibernation to a cold ship. It’s cold for me, which means it must be even colder to the weak female.

I unstrap myself from the harnesses and realize that we’re in zero-g. Could it mean we’re already in orbit around the red planet?

I grab the ladder and pull myself forward toward the cockpit.

When I reach it, I find the female clasping a shiny metal blanket all around her body.

“Update me on our status,” I say. “PLEASE!” I add loudly, after a brief pause.

“Shh!” she says, holding a finger to her full lips. “We have to be quiet!” she whispers.

I look around and realize all the lights are off. The only illumination is coming from Sol itself through the windows. I look out and see the red surface of Mars, Sol over its horizon.

“We’re here!” I say, forgetting to whisper.

“Shh!” the female makes that same sound again, this time in an angry tone. “We’ve gone dark. I’ve shut almost everything down to minimize our chance of being detected.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Someone is looking for me,” she says. “For us.”

“Who?”

“It could be someone Scorpio contacted to intercept us. I don’t know, but I barely managed to shake them.”

I move closer to the woman and notice her jaw is trembling. The blanket too is shaking, as her whole body must be freezing.

“You’ll die,” I say.

“We’ll die, too, if I turn the heat back on,” she says. “They’ll detect us and capture or kill us before we can slip away to the surface.”

“Then we abandon ship and go to the surface,” I suggest. “Before you freeze.”

“As soon as the dropship starts its re-entry burn, we’ll get snagged. It’s like a signal flare. We just have to wait them out.”

“I see,” I say, crossing my arms. “I have additional heat, however.”

She narrows her eyes at me. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t feel very cold, but you do. Hibernation has helped me retain a great deal of energy,” I say, moving closer to her. I float right next to her in her pilot’s seat. I lick my lips as I admire the freckles on her cheek and nose…like constellations of stars.

“I’m fine, Cygnus,” she says. “It’s not the first time I’ve gone dark and froze my ass off.”

I smile and pull at the blanket covering her. It opens up and I float inside, wrapping it closed around us both.

I see her eyes widen in surprise. I wrap my arms around her body and press myself snuggly against her.

“Extra warmth,” I say. “You see?”

She looks angry for a brief moment, but then her face softens, and I feel her small hands clasp around my back.

“Jesus,” she says. “You really are warm.”

Finally, I can feel her soft breasts, though the feeling is dampened through the thick fabric of her jumpsuit.

“And you are soft, human,” I say.

“Cygnus,” she says. “Can you call me Aura, just this once? PLEASE!” I include the loud, gruff command as added encouragement.

She evoked the full force of the command word, and though I feel it wrong to use her childless name, her eyes look fierce and serious, and I find myself unable to object.

“Aura,” I say. “I see you.”

H
e
sees me
. What does that mean? At least he finally called me by name. It seems that using his awkward shouting of “please” did the trick.

His body is pressing against me and I no longer feel numb. As the feeling comes back to my limbs, I crave more of his warmth. I want to get closer to him.

His cock is semi-hard and pressing into my stomach, but I can’t see it through the blanket. It’s the closest we’ve been to each other, and I realize I don’t want him to let go of me.

“That was subtle,” I say.

“What was?” he asks.

“The way you got your naked ass under this blanket with me. It was a subtle trick. You’re a quick learner.”

“No trick, female—Aura—I needed to protect you from freezing.”

“So you don’t want to be naked and pressed up against me like this?” I ask coyly.

I feel a vibration on my stomach.

“My penis is vibrating,” Cygnus says. “It seems to think you are my mate.”

I slide my hand across his back, around his waist, and then I reach down to grab hold of his giant teal dick.

His eyes widen in surprise as I grip his cock firmly in my right hand and drag my fingers up and down its length, smiling to myself as it starts vibrating and hardening in my hand.

“I’ve reconsidered,” Cygnus says in a thick voice, his green eyes boring darkly into mine.

“Yes?” I say, returning his gaze while I continue rubbing my thumb rhythmically up and down his thick and gloriously warm shaft.

“I think your eyes are just the correct distance apart. It suits your personality.”

“And I think your cheekbones are at just the right height,” I say, laughing. “And I think your big cock is just perfect.”

“So why did you want me to cover it?” he asks.

“Subtlety,” I say slyly and wink.

“Remove your clothes, woman,” he says.

He’s already forgotten to call me Aura, but in this context, I don’t mind.

We work together to remove my clothes, and the blanket floats away, as well. I’m not cold at all anymore.

I reach down to take hold of his cock again, which I see is fully erect now and vibrating slightly in my hand.

“Can you control that?” I ask, referring to the vibration.

“No,” he says. “It will increase with my pleasure.”

“Oh,” I say. “That’s good.”

He grins. “For your pleasure.”

“Yes,” I say. “I picked up on that.”

He grabs my breasts and squeezes lightly. And though his calloused hand is big and powerful, he fondles me with a light touch.

“We are not a subtle race,” he says. “But in the battle of sex, we understand the value of a light touch.”

He gently caresses my nipple, and I start to moan. His other hand runs along my waist, then dips down and squeezes my ass.

I tighten the grip of his cock in my hand, and I notice its vibrations increasing.

He grins, and his ears go back. He pulls me into him.

Our lips meet, and immediately his tongue seizes control. His mouth is warm, and though all of him is so rock hard, his tongue and lips are soft. I apply gentle pressure to massage his tongue with my own. I’m still in disbelief that I’m making out with an alien, but it feels too good and too right to consider stopping.

We’re floating through the cockpit, our bodies and tongues entangled.

I continue stroking his hard cock in a methodical rhythm, and he squeezes my nipple and ass in response.

I stifle another moan and pull away from his mouth. Without missing a beat, he moves his mouth’s attention down my throat and begins kissing and licking my neck, and then my collarbone. Slowly and steadily his path reaches my breasts.

I bend back and stick my chest out. Cygnus takes this as the invitation it was meant to be and pulls my breast up to his mouth. He circles his tongue in rings around my pointed nipple, and then his teeth nibble on me.

A shock jolts through me, and I feel my pussy getting wetter and wetter with each nibble.

I jerk his dick faster, hoping he’ll grow impatient and spread my legs, but he seems fixated on my breasts. He squeezes one and rubs it, while he devotes his full mouth to the other. It feels incredible, but as my wetness pools, I get more and more impatient. I start grinding my hips into him.

“Cygnus,” I plead. “
Please
.”

“Please what?” he says, “Does that word mean anything without an accompanying order?”

“
Please
,” I say again, and his ears wiggle in a way that I can’t help but interpret as smug and self-satisfied.

“I thought you’d want subtlety,” he says, and then his hand reaches down between my legs.

His fingers run against my outer mound, and I spread my legs wider in response.

His cock is vibrating intensely now, and I squeeze hold of it rather than stroking. I need to focus on what Cygnus’s fingers are doing to me.

They’re running up and down along my lips, trailing through my soaking moisture. His fingers trace near my clit, but they circle around it rather than touching it directly.

As I squeeze his dick tighter, I feel my hand slipping off as its vibrating becomes stronger.

“Is that precum?” I ask.

“What is that?” he asks.

“Like...some cum comes out before—”

“You dare accuse me of such a failure?” he says, obviously embarrassed, and he twists my nipple as punishment.

“It’s lubricant,” he says, as I squirm and moan from his touch. “What else would it be?”

“Your cock is self-lubricating?” I ask, in surprise. “Seriously?”

He seems to be done talking, and he plunges one of his fingers a centimeter or two inside my channel to explore my inner walls and wetness.

“Please,” I plead again.

“You’ve ordered me around enough,” he says. “I’m in charge now.”

He floats around behind me and pushes us off my pilot’s chair, propelling us both toward the wall.

“Hold on to the handrail,” he says.

I obey.

I hold tight to it, and Cygnus presses up against me. His cock slides between my thighs, pressing up against my outer lips, but it doesn’t enter inside me. The vibrations haven’t stopped, and even though his dick isn’t touching my clit and hasn’t entered me yet, the overwhelming sensations and anticipation causes me to moan loudly.

“Shh,” his voice whispers softly behind me. “The pirates will hear you.”

His dick is coming in at me from behind, and his fingers reach back down, this time making contact with my clit. At first, it’s the gentlest pressure, but that’s all I need.

I bite my lower lip and try not to make too much noise, and my palm is sweaty on the handrail. To think I’d been shivering from the cold before Cygnus joined me in the cockpit.

He bucks his hips against me. His big, thick, vibrating teal cock is vibrating up and down all along my soaked outer lips, but the angle is bringing him just shy of my clit. His fingers make up for it, rubbing my sensitive nub with increasing pressure.

I hold fast to the handrail with one hand, but with my free hand I reach down to cup his balls. There are only two of them, just like with a human male, but they’re incredibly warm to the touch.

“Why are they so—” I moan, suddenly unable to finish my question.

“Big? Fertile?” he asks.

“No,” I say. “Warm.”

“The vibration generates a lot of heat,” he says.

Right. Of course it does. I’m not a Marauder, but if I were, I worry that my impatience toward Cygnus would have put me in shame debt. I badly want to feel that self-lubricating, vibrating miracle cock inside of me...but I don’t dare ask him to rush things along a third time.

I close my eyes and enjoy every last bit of what is happening to me. It’s all too much, and I can only focus on one or two things at once: his glistening abs pressing into my back, his soaked and vibrating cock grinding up against my pussy, my tit being squeezed and pinched in his other hand, or his finger caressing my clit.

As he rubs my clit just right, the dilemma begins to solve itself. From his finger on my nub, I feel intense waves of pleasure surging up through me. It heightens all my senses. I can feel with increasing intensity how my pussy oozes all over his cock, and how his hard and sweaty muscles slide against my skin while he bucks his hips. And when he puts my ear in his mouth to lick and suck the lobe, I feel that, too. It’s as if my rising orgasm has given me the focus to feel everything all at once, to feel it all, and to not have to sacrifice any aspect of the beautiful things that Cygnus is doing to me.

I feel his body slide down, and before I can realize what’s happening, the wetness and warmth of his tongue is licking up my pussy.

“Your scent is impressive, woman,” he says.

I try to stifle the moan, but it comes out anyway.

He flips around and floats under me. I see his green eyes look up and his ears become fully erect. He grabs hold of my waist and ass, and pulls himself tight against me. His tongue presses into my clit, causing me to begin bucking involuntarily against him. It’s not subtle, but I can’t be both patient
and
subtle.

As I squirm against him, he closes his lips and sucks gently at my throbbing clit. Each time I buck my hips, we move together in zero-g, but I grip tight to the handrail and we remain anchored to the wall.

His tongue slides farther down and then into me. I gasp in surprise, and then squeal, as his tongue starts sliding further into me than I’d thought possible.

“Cygnus,” I gasp. “What the hell?”

He can’t answer me, of course, with his tongue sliding several inches into me. It writhes within me, and I hear him moaning and sucking. His lips are still pressed wet against my clit, and when I move against him, the friction causes me to writhe beneath him.

His tongue finds my g-spot and swells against it. I’m moaning, but then the moan is cut off as my throat catches. My body tenses and I lose my grip on the handrail as my orgasm consumes me.

We start to float through the room as I come, but Cygnus doesn’t let go of me. He’s fully in control, just how I like it.

As we near the other wall, he kicks it and we start to spin. I keep my eyes closed as my orgasm continues rocking through me. I open my eyes briefly, but the room is literally spinning, and I use every last bit of self-control to stop myself from screaming wildly and giving away our location to the pirates.

I cup my breasts and press my nipples together between my fingers as his tongue slides in and out of me. His finger reaches to my clit and he starts to rub it. The orgasm from my g-spot is heightened from the pressure of his warm and slick finger against my clit.

We hit another wall, and he grabs the handrail. I buck and writhe wildly as warm blasts of ecstasy flood through me, nearly numbing my senses. My toes spread apart, and I force myself to reach down and grab hold of his shoulders. I dig my nails into his purple skin as my orgasm shakes me to my core, taking full control of my senses.

I feel my wetness surging like a river, his tongue lapping it all up, and my thighs close tight around his head. I see his ears twitching erect beneath me, and his eyes are closed. A cold shock explodes in my chest, and I gasp. It burns warm like a summer day on Earth. That warmth fills my chest and heart, and my heart beats in sync with my clit. The warmth rushes up to my head and down my spine. It fills me up entirely. Unable to find the strength to moan, I grunt and bite my lip.

Drool trails from the corner of my mouth and floats through the air.

Cygnus’ tongue pulls out of me and attacks my clit. I feel the swollen nub beating like a second heart beneath his beautiful tongue. I buck against him as my orgasm fades.

I start trembling. The orgasm is fading to a beautiful afterglow, but the cold creeps back upon me already. There’s very little heat left in the ship. Any warmth I feel is coming from Cygnus.

Before I can say anything, he slides back up against me and wraps his arms around me. I feel his cock pressed against my back, vibrating steadily. The warmth comes back into me thanks to his embrace, and I let out a low, satisfied hum.

I turn around to face him. My body is still pressed tightly against him, but now I can see his face. I smile at him and run my fingers along the hard planes of his face.

“I would breed with you, Aura,” he says.

“Aww,” I say. “You called me Aura again.”

He furrows his brow and his ears pull back. “You asked me which side of my fleet I’d side with: those who would side with my brother and seek the Seraphim Form, or those who would eradicate your species.”

I lick my lips as I watch him speak. I think I know what he’s going to say, and it’s tempting to interrupt him, but I hold my tongue. I want to hear it from his mouth.

“You see,” he says. “I told you that I saw you. And now I’ve tasted you….”

Okay, this isn’t what I thought he would say.

“And though I’ve not yet filled you with my seed,” he says, “I know you. I will protect you and your race.”

I reach down and squeeze his cock; it’s still vibrating.

“Aura,” he says. “You mustn’t!”

“Why not?” I ask.

“I’m trying to clear my mind. You’ve come already. You must recover. I’ll not spill my seed outside of you.”

“So…,” I say. “I know I’m contradicting the hell out of myself by being so blunt, but why don’t you cum inside me then?”

He tilts his head at me and his ears pull back. “You’ve already orgasmed. We’ll need to wait until your next cycle. It will be difficult to wait, but I have honed my patience to a sharp blade.”

“Cygnus,” I say. “How did you learn about human women?”

“By the time your radio waves reached us,” he says, “they were greatly degraded. We were able to piece together much of the audio, but precious little full video. I’ve learned more in my short time with you here than my whole race knows from decades of radio waves.”

“Okay,” I say. “So you know that a woman can come multiple times? Like, there’s no real limit.”

His eyes bulge wider than I’ve ever seen and his ears perk all the way up. “It can’t...it can’t be.”

“Yes, it is,” I say. “Why not?”

“My brother was right…,” he says to himself. “Of all the species we’ve bred with, never have we encountered a female species that could come more than once per cycle...it’s a true miracle. It’s the Seraphim!”