Battle Queen: Red Ruler Series (Book 1) Page 11

  “Looks like you’re all set here girls,” Mel clapped her hands. “We’ll head back and you all can get started.” I nodded in agreement and the floor whisked us away from the soft tinkling sounds of laughter and delight.

  L’Ryx

  R’Tok had done a planetary wide search but the Pxylar female I had seen talking with the Battle Queen had disappeared. Disappeared off the face of the planet, disappeared. That more than anything else bothered me. R’Tok’s words kept ringing in my ears, “Nothing, and I mean nothing, that I know of has the power to cut off the life signal of a High Command General.”

  Ding!

  I was back in my suite at the Pleasure Palace after another day spent killing time at the poker tables. There was really no point in trying to snoop when my every move was monitored. I frowned deeply as I leaned down to pick up my holoscreen. What more bad news could R’Tok give me?

  “General L’Ryx.”

  “What news?”

  “Nothing good,” he cringed. I could see he was sitting in my private captain’s office just off the main bridge of my ship. He blew out an exhausted breath, “We’ve been watching the transport lanes. Tagging any ships of interest.”

  “And?”

  “More central government representatives are either already on planet with you or are in the cue waiting for permission to land.”

  “What?” My brow furrowed in confusion and apprehension. Did they know what I knew? Were they after the same thing?

  “It’s like a damn symposium of leaders,” I narrowed my eyes at R’Tok, “Sir,” he tacked on quickly.

  “How many?”

  “20? Maybe 30?” He scratched his head nervously, “To be honest, General, they’re coming in too fast to keep up. They’re not upper echelon but they’re still official representatives or proxies.”

  “What about their communications? Any word they might be on the same mission as us?”

  “So far, not that I can see,” he shook his head, “But most of these ships either have basic jammers or official encryption. If I try to touch it, our own central government coding will leave a trail,” R’Tok growled in frustration. I bared my teeth in a grimace. He wasn’t the only one reeking of frustration and failure.

  Central Government reps and proxies... could they have just followed in our footsteps or did they know more than we did? The uncertainty was tearing me apart. Faced with the waves of competition, my mission seemed less like insanity and more like a race to some unforeseen yet impossibly possible goal. “R’Tok, stay hidden and keep monitoring everything coming in and out of the system,” I tapped a few things on the holoscreen and set him a data packet.

  “General,” he asked in confusion.

  “Have that sent in on the next available shuttle down here to me.”

  “You’re serious,” R’Tok’s face was carefully blank.

  “Like you said, it was my fault,” I said begrudgingly, “I intend to have it rectified before the Battle Queen calls for me. It has to be done as quickly as possible, I don’t know when that will be.”

  “You’ll have it within the hour, General.”

  “Have it escorted with an accompaniment of men,” I ran my thumb along my jaw in thought. I had to play this right.

  “Um... Do you think that’s wise, General?”

  “The rzzok is out of its den, we either hunt and succeed or another gets our prize,” R’Tok’s brow pinched in thought and he nodded in understanding. My men trust me. I better know what I’m doing. Doubts were roiling acid in my stomach. “Send them with it, full honour guard uniforms. Have them also bring my proper uniforms for the central world meetings with High Command.”

  “It will be done,” R’Tok nodded and my screen went black. It was time to make a real play, for what I couldn’t even really tell. I rubbed the back of my neck and tilted my head back up to the ceiling. Closing my eyes I felt my hand drag across my torso along the claw marks the Battle Queen had left across my chest. My breathing picked up and thoughts of her flooded my mind. I swallowed back the intense desire and longing that had been plaguing my thoughts since I had last seen her in Haumea’s Temple.

  I snarled and sat up straight, breaths harsh, sawing in and out of my chest. Heat licked up my chest and down my limbs to the tips of my claws. Shutting my eyes tight, I bowed over in my chair, placing my arms on my thighs.

  Shivers racked my body. What is happening to me! I was... scared. But so damn excited, my skin felt on fire. I felt a tug inside me that ripped my insides and I cried out. My eyes snapped open. Panting I stood up unsteadily and felt my cocks spill out and drip down my naked thigh. I staggered to the bathroom and looked at myself in the reflective walls.

  “Darkness! What is happening to me!” Obsidian, Night Born, Space Touched, these were all words used to describe Rentok. But that’s not what I was, right now. My void black skin, it shimmered. It was like my body was painted by millions of stars, as if my nebula like irises had exploded over my skin in a great galactic explosion.

  I pressed my hands to the reflective walls and just stared as the shimmering blinked in and out. It was as if it couldn’t quite maintain its consistency. I swallowed back the saliva pooling in my slack mouth and tried to regain some semblance of control.

  “Focus, L’Ryx. Focus,” I repeated through clenched teeth. That tug pulled again and my back bowed forward. Crying out, I smashed my forehead into the wall. Watching my breath create a cloud of condensation, I blinked back the uncontrollable desire to be somewhere else. I roared in frustration and anger.

  Desire and lust pounded through my veins. I fell to the floor. The mirror like wall with it’s splashes of gold witness to my breaking. On my knees, head pressed to the wall, I shook and came all over myself. My seed pooled sticky over my thighs, the wall, and the floor. Deep breaths made spots appear in my vision. Inch by inch I dragged my claws in deep gashes down the wall, letting my hands fall limp at my sides.

  I expected to feel shame at my total lack of bodily control but I just felt spent and exhausted. Pain and despair clawed into my muscles. All these emotions made no sense. Vaguely I heard my holoscreen ding again.

  I crawled. A General crawling on his knees from a pool of his own seed, my pain filled thoughts turned to disgust and self recrimination. I may be crawling but I’m still moving, I pushed back the weak thoughts and pushed myself forward.

  Slapping the holoscreen down to the floor next to me, I slumped against the legs of the chair and read R’Tok’s message.

  General, five ambassadors, confirmed en route. Will be here within the week.

  Rage overwhelmed me and I roared. Representatives and proxies were one thing, but ambassadors? They were true competition. They had power. They had influence. They brought danger. I pushed myself off the floor and stood on strong feet. The paralyzing pain and despair was washed clean from my body and replaced by rage. A focus I hadn’t felt since I stood at the helm of my ship commanding a full planetary assault, cleared my mind. But isn’t that what this is? I grinned sharply with my fangs and breathed in through my nose.

  No one was going to undermine my mission.

  I was going to succeed.

  I was going to get what I came here for.

  And more.

  Ding!

  I glanced down as a second message came through, this time from the Battle Queen.

  Meet me in The Pit, after true night falls. Find me in there and you can have your negotiation.

  Merooth

  I didn’t like all these new smells.

  “Too many people,” I grumbled to no one. Worse I hated lazing about all over the place. I stretched out and yawned deeply from my perch above the space port depot. My mate had once joked that these beams were cat walks perfect for my sexy ass to strut along and preen. A smile touched my lips and part of my fangs peaked out. She was always so funny and loved making feline jokes.

  Once she had even said it made sense we were mated because she always knew she was bound to be
come a ‘crazy cat lady’ one day. I didn’t quite understand her meaning. When I asked Mel, she couldn’t stop laughing, and had never given me an explanation either. I chuffed, looking down at all the new arrivals.

  Some looked up and sneered. So foolish thinking that they knew what I did here.

  I yawned loudly, feeding into their own misconceptions. I may not have been a fighter like my mate, but I was the best hunter amongst The People. I could go days, even months, without rest as I tracked and ran down my prey.

  I placed my chin on my folded arms and inhaled again. Thirty four mid-tier scents arriving just today. Scratching behind my ear I heard my new ear piercings jingle. These were a new gift from my beautiful mate. Welo said they were tags sent up from the girls.

  I shuddered. My mate may be comfortable down in the facilities, but I was not. The thought of being so deep below the ground made me nervous. I knew I was safe down there, and the girls always made me feel welcome, even brightening the walls to mirror everything topside, but I spent as little time down there as possible.

  I caressed the ear tags, smiling again. Welo had been so sweet and gentle, making sure I knew they were gifts of protection and that she wasn’t trying to control me. She was so adorably adamant that I could take them off whenever I wanted and that I was a free person. I let her get everything out before wrapping her in my arms.

  Laughing I had said, she was most welcome to track and control me as she saw fit—she was my mate after all. She had slapped my chest and giggled. High above all the unsuspecting people below I preened at the memory. Merooth, and not any of them, had the power to make the feared and deadly Battle Queen laugh and smile.

  She trusted me.

  Trusted me to be soft... and happy. I sighed in contentment. These beautiful ear tags were made from the organic metal of the facilities. They looked like plain rectangular strips of metal that wrapped my lower lobe and pierced through to stay put.

  They were so much more than decoration. They created a direct line between my brain and the girls. Every new scent and face that I picked up was fed directly back down into the facilities. Each piece of information my mind innately sorted as a hunter of The People gave the girls a huge leg up on who was coming and going without anyone the wiser. Technology could mask data identities with false entries, even DNA could be manipulated temporarily, but not their chemical signatures.

  We had learned, completely by accident, that my abilities were truly unique in the known galaxy. What I thought was just my strong sense of smell turned out to be an entire autonomic cataloguing of prey as a whole.

  The girls and Mel had tried to explain it to me but most of it went over my head. My mate said if I didn’t understand it that was okay. She didn’t understand it fully either. She then mentioned something about not looking inside the maw of a riding beast called a horse. Again, I wasn’t too sure what that had to do with understanding or accepting my abilities but it seemed to satisfy her.

  “How are you, my love?”

  I gasped as a thin film covered my eyes and I could see Welo’s smiling face. “How?”

  “Breath, Merooth,” she smiled warmly, “the film over your eyes are so you can see me but no one else can. It’s our internal communications via the Facility.”

  “You said, ‘my love’,” I chuffed and smiled slyly. A soft blush touched her golden cheeks.

  “Of all the things I said, that’s what you focus on?” She huffed and rolled her eyes but I could see the edge of her lips twitch in a hidden smile. Her face blanked quickly, her lips didn’t move, but I could still hear her in my head, “We also don’t have to speak out loud. If you focus your mind whoever you’re speaking with will ‘hear’ you just fine.”

  “My sexy/deadly/beautiful/loving mate, can you want/taste/lick/pleasure hear me?”

  “It takes some practice,” she giggled. “You’re up on the catwalks and I don’t want anyone to know you’re speaking with me so just listen for now and we can practice this later.” She sighed heavily then mumbled, “We’ll all have to learn how to do this.”

  I nodded my head and yawned, looking down once more. I didn’t think anyone had heard me but it was best to continue playing my role. Welo and Mel, when they had first approached me for this duty, had explained that the more people thought I was just a ‘sex kitten’ of a mate, the more they would be tempted to be lax around me.

  For the most part they had been right. The things people did or said around me, or thought they could sneer at behind my back assuming I was out of hearing, made me the perfect eyes and ears. Everyone believed I was nothing more than a sex object to Welo. All the loud boasting I did every chance I got only reinforced that belief. Little did anyone know I did it not just for my own pride, but with my role in mind. While drinking down in the casinos, mingling with patrons and sycophants in the dance clubs, or just prowling through the sex chambers and bazaars I was always listening. Now, with these new ear piercings, so were the girls. All that I saw and heard was processed and picked apart.

  On the ground data, some complete, others no more than disparate strings of half said words or feelings, now fed into our network. I smiled wickedly watching more and more of these puffed up proxies and their mewling attendants arrive. Pushy and arrogant that their central world splendor should pave the way for them.

  “More are coming, Merooth,” Welo seemed to always pick up my thoughts without a word spoken, “Ones actually important and not just these ones arriving now who think they’re important.” Her jaw tightened as she looked away and to the side. I could see her sharp mind whirling. I called her my deadly mate but not because of her prowess is combat. Her mind, always going, always thinking, was what made her deadly.

  I leaned up a bit and shifted my position to lay on my side, one arm holding up my head in another lazy pose. If I still had the feline tail of my ancestors it would be swaying haughtily from left to right below me. My other hand played with the jewelled necklaces Welo had given me, before I set out for the space port.

  I played and toyed with the various expensive gems arranged on thin metal cording. I wore a rainbow collection of jewels that shimmered and showed off my soft pelt. It was beautiful, but also a sign. I belonged to the Battle Queen. You could look and be envious, but never touch. I twirled a finger in the thin chains. They were more of the organic metal from the facilities, hidden in plain sight.

  “I said, get me the best suite not just any room, you imbecile!” My pupils narrowed in on the arrogant voice that preceded the sound of a hard kick.

  “Apologies, Master,” cowered the kicked servant. “The Pleasure Palace said that all ambassadorial rooms were already booked.” I looked closer at the thin male curled upon himself at the feet of the other well dressed male. Ah, not a servant, an illegal slave. I could see the favoured shock gauntlets on his wrists now that he raised his three fingered hand in supplication. I watched as the master raised his jeweled boot again and kicked the slave in the stomach.

  “Useless,” he sneered as the slave held his insides and crawled slowly out of his master’s eye line. Hmm, I sense an opportunity. I dropped silently down an inch from this piece of space trash’s face. He scrambled back and into his group of attendants. Before he could open his ugly slash of a mouth I smiled and bowed. I knew what my size looked like to others, so seeing me so friendly and accommodating would throw him off as well as make him feel more in control.

  “Welcome to Ula Nui!” I raised my eyes and slowly rose from my sweeping bow. I played with the gem necklaces draped artfully across my massive chest. His eyes tracked the movement and his tongue peaked out to wet his thin lips. Lust, I could work with. Hiding my disgust had been a life saving skill when I had been a slave. I gave him a coy smile and stepped closer. “You must be a central ambassador with all this,” I ran my hand along the soft fabrics covering his chest, “splendour.”

  “Proxy,” he swallowed thickly looking down at my hand still on his chest. Of course I knew he wasn’t a p
roper ambassador. They had real power, they didn’t need to beat illegally gotten slaves in public to show it. It also helped that impersonating an ambassador held serious consequences. Usually a painful and slow death.

  “My mistake,” I purred intimately. I took a quick step back and motioned for him to follow me, “I would be happy to show you where you’ll be staying, if you’d like?”

  “I’m sure I could find...,” he trailed off as I slowly batted my eyelashes and tilted my head in a look of painfully innocent confusion. Follow me, prey, trust me.

  “My mate, the Battle Queen Welo, is always impressing upon me the importance of hospitality,” I winked as if we were old friends, “Please, give me the honour of showing you to your accommodation. We’re so fully booked,” I pouted, “but I just know, she made sure such an important male like you would have a proper room for himself.”

  “Yes. Yes, I’m sure you’re right,” he cleared his throat and seemed to gather his wits again. His eyes gleamed with greed at meeting me, no doubt having heard of the Battle Queen’s pretty toy of a mate.

  “And where are my manners,” I laughed. I splayed my large hand across my chest, letting it trail down a bit, “I am Merooth.” His eyes, as I expected, followed my hands down to my thin pants that revealed just enough of my cock’s shape to entice but not enough to be fully made out.

  “Proxy Cerreg,” he gave me a fang filled smile. I’m sure he meant to be charming but the stench of his yellowed teeth could have put down a small pack animal. I dipped my body forward slightly and held my hand out again to lead him.

  “Let me show you to your rooms and maybe you’ll join me in the casino after for a drink, yes?”

  “I’d be honoured,” he swaggered ahead of me before I caught up to him and pointed out that we were to follow the purple veined blocks, which led to our destination. Another prey dancing into my trap, I smiled internally again. My favourite past time was getting assholes like this drunk or broke at our gaming tables while I slipped away to corral more prey for my mate.