Smuggler’s Contubernium (Mea Lupus Series Book 1) Read online

  “I figured out the coding to have a dual body 2 weeks ago,” she laughed. I moaned and heard the wet slap of flesh. Ai would never get tired like I would. “You were being so grumpy I figured I’d have to play dirty if I wanted back in your pussy.”

  I felt my inner walls clench at her words. The problem wasn’t wanting Ai, it was not wanting more. I accepted her sentience for the miracle that it was. I wanted a better life for her but she stuck around anyways.

  “I’m not grumpy,” I gasped.

  “Oh, that’s right,” her cock slipped from me and she flipped me around, flat against the bulkhead. She pressed her body into mine and her internal temperature warmed me as the cold bulkhead pressed against my breasts. She kicked my legs wide open and in one thrust was back inside my warm pussy. “You’re driven, focused, calculating, cold,” she punctuated each word with a deep thrust that slid against my g-spot and smashed my clit into the wall.

  My thighs began to shake as she picked up the pace once more. I leaned back and wrapped my arms around her neck. “Fuck me harder, Ai!”

  “I’m always here for you, Kara,” she groaned and nipped at my shoulder. Her palms gripped the underside of my thighs and she lifted me off the floor, pulling my legs wide open. It took all I had to just hold on as she fucked me senseless. It was positions like these that reminded me she wasn’t human. She usually liked to stay around my height at 6 feet but her soft and curvy body belied her true strength. She could punch a hole in the ship and she could easily lift and load up all the cargo the seeker orbs were doing all around us.

  It took four more orgasms before Ai let herself climax. Technically, she could have never stopped, the body we built her was beyond compare to any current tech out there. She only gave herself limitations because it was one of the very first things I had explained to her about the world. Limitations exist for us to surpass them.

  It was a concept she had struggled with in her early days of sentience. Ai had once told me understanding what I had said was actually the cornerstone of who she was as a person. It was what she told me, right before she asked to sleep with me. Our first few times sexually had been fun for us, and I felt like I had gotten a piece of my own innocence and happiness back. It was exactly why I had tried to distance myself from her.

  “No more grumpy face or we’ll be going for a round 2,” she nudged my arm as we sat in a heap on the cold floor. I reached for my gauntlet to check what the orbs had brought on board. “Don’t worry, I made sure they stuck to your priority list and had them leave anything that seemed worthless.”

  “Because that’s what all the ladies want to hear,” I teased.

  “Hey, just because I can route programs in the background doesn’t mean I wasn’t totally focused on pounding your pussy into submission,” she grumbled.

  “I see someone’s also been watching the wolf porn again,” I rolled my eyes and got up. Ai bounced up from the floor and crossed her arms over her ample chest.

  “It’s not porn!” She scowled, “the stories are great! Just because there’s sex in it doesn’t devalue the awesome story lines,” she huffed. I chuckled and slapped her ass before putting my clothes back on. I loved teasing her for watching and reading all the Mea Lupus shows and spinoff novels.

  “OK, ok,” I held up my hands placatingly, “So what happened this week?” Ai’s eyes lit up with excitement.

  “Well...,” Ai rattled off a story about fated mates and an evil twin being back to cause trouble. I laughed and shook my head. All the orbs returned and I closed up the rune marked door, then detached us from the asteroid. Today had been an all around success. The client would be happy. Ai was happy—especially about her favourite programs. And for a small moment as we stealthily blinked away from Ragnar Station, I was happy.

  Gaius

  Nova Roma, Prima Sector

  New Rome, the capital city of Nova Roma, was enjoying balmy weather. The bright yellow star of this solar system slowly crawled above the horizon. If not for the faint shadow of the two moons above, this world could easily have been confused with our old homeworld Terra. Then again, that’s why this world had been chosen.

  There were three habitable planets and two barely habitable moons in this solar system. New Rome was located on the largest habitable planet. The colourful columns around me warmed in the early morning light. My family’s villa was located not far from the Imperial Union’s Senate building. Our family descended from the original Tenth Legion, so when the Emperor Claudius had wanted to up and move to this world, we had been amongst the first to follow. My ancestor’s loyalty meant our family had a sprawling villa where even the wealthiest could barely afford a domus, a city estate.

  I heard the tinkling laughter of my sister and knew the twins must be doing something either dangerous or foolish. Calpurnia took after her namesake and was always buried in books and attending lectures. She was a born Mea Lupus like I was, but where our parents had been in the Mea Lupus Legions, she had never showed any inclination or aptitude for soldiering.

  Woodsy scents of lush greenery and incense filled my nose. I thanked the Divine Couple every day that my sister would be safe here and not out among the stars. She was so much younger than me at fifty. My three fathers and mother had called her their miracle baby. I frowned.

  Contubernium. An old word for a group of eight soldiers. A small pang of embarrassment and shame sliced through me like ice. My Mea Lupus pack had eight. The Mea Lupus had been grouping up for the last thousand years or so and forming packs. But very rarely did they go above four or five pack mates.

  The only other historical references found for contubernium packs were for groups of bachelors who never had a mate. Or worse, groups forged because their mates had died. No one expected my pack to ever have children because we were a contubernium. As my parents watched my pack grow over my 200 years of life they seemed to get more and more morose.

  The general public and propaganda machines focused on the Mea Lupus ‘Divine Mate’ or fated mates. Literature and entertainment overflowed with it because it sold well. The priests and priestesses of Menrva and Caesar also supported it because it provided more ways to preen over the Divine Couple.

  Some days I had blasphemous thoughts asking whether or not anyone really knew anything about Menrva or Caesar. I sighed. Due to my family’s heritage and my own rank, I had access to the protected historical records in the Mea Lupus Archives. Research only led to less answers not more. My pack was nothing like those previously recorded.

  We didn’t feel like a collection of bachelors nor were be bound together in the grief of losing a mate. We felt the pull to be together as a pack. As our pack’s leader, I naturally would have consulted with other packs. But there were no other contubernium, only ours. My men were lonely; I was lonely. And that loneliness was wearing on us all. Shaking my head I refocused in on the added sounds of my mother laughing. Ah, the twins are doing something ridiculous then.

  “Gaius! Gaius, come here,” laughed my mother. I let my depressing thoughts slip away with the morning dew. I walked back into the main common area for family and close friends, only to see the twins acting out the latest episode of a particularly sordid Mea Lupus show.

  “Oh, but I can’t!” Squeaked Kastur in a high pitched voice. He put the back of his beefy palm up against his forehead, faking a swoon.

  “But you’re my Divine Mate!” Pollux gripped his twin’s large biceps and shook him so violently that Kastur choked a bit on his spit. Calpurnia and my mother descended in to howls of laughter. Kastur, ever the drama queen, turned back to give a saucy grin to his adoring audience. “Cue the gasps! Cue the gasps!”

  Between laughing and wiping away tears, Calpurnia and my mother gasped exaggeratedly and waved their hands about is dismay. Pollux whipped his non-existent hair over his shoulder and pretend bit his brother’s neck. “Oh, you’re so manly! Wolfly, whatever! Keep biting me, strong wolf man!” Squealed Kastur.

  “What in the...,” my father J
ulian just gaped and shook his head, then turned on his heel right back the way he came from. “No, I don’t want to know.”

  I laughed loudly at that more than anything else. When four sets of eyes turned to me I knew my father Julian had the right of it. Now I’d have to endure the full episode’s explanation from the four avid watchers themselves. I took in a quick breath and tried to back away.

  “Brother!” Calpurnia jumped up from the pillows and wrapped her arms around me tightly. I couldn’t help but fall under her spell. I hugged her back just as tightly and kissed the crown of her hair. Hair that was now blue. The old world trends were making a come back in the capitol. I just had to laugh at how hard she tried to keep up with them. “Kastur and Pollux were replaying some of our favourite parts of this week’s episode.”

  “Were they now?”

  “What you didn’t like our flair?” Kastur put his hand to his chest a wounded look on his face.

  “But we worked so hard!” Pollux pouted then threw his hands around his brother’s neck and made loud weeping sounds. Seeing two weepy, over 6 foot, incredibly muscled men wailing into each other’s arms—arms that were the width of Calpurnia’s legs, was incredibly disconcerting. Calpurnia and my mother laughed until Kastur and Pollux showed their own smiles.

  The twins were both born Mea Lupus, but not directly descended from Caesar’s favoured Tenth Legion. Very few could boast my particular heritage but it wasn’t something I liked to flaunt. The fact that I stood in a villa at the heart of New Rome said enough already.

  “Aurelia?” I could hear the voice of my other father Lucius, call out to my mother. Lucius was probably calling her to morning prayers. He was always the more pious of my fathers. My father Julian was much more practical in nature and was probably in his office going through our family’s holdings, rechecking and expanding where he could. She kissed each of the twins on the cheek and winked at me before she left. I had no doubt that my father Gaius was already in his office at the Senate. He was still holding out, not wanting to retire.

  My jaw clenched but other than that I tried not to show any outward signs of dismay. I knew Gaius was still working because he didn’t want to give up our seat on the Ruling Mea Lupus Council until my pack had at least one child. A child that may never happen.

  “We heading out soon?” Pollux’s question pushed me out of my internal self-flagellation and into the present moment. Calpurnia had rarely seen me in the last twenty years, I didn’t want her memories to be clouded with my self doubt. I forced a bright smile. My sister, who still had her arms wrapped around me, beamed right back.

  Mea Lupus could live anywhere between 500 to 1000 years, never looking a day over 35. Those who survived to old age only started looking older past the 500 year mark, and it was slow even at that. My father Lucius had once told me that every wrinkle and grey hair he saw on my mother was another reason he had to be grateful to the Divine Couple. It’s probably why he prayed so often.

  The smell of incense permeated the great expanse of our villa complimenting the many trees and flowers planted by generations past. My parents had survived hundreds of years worth of battles and had two children. I could only hope my own pack was so blessed.

  “Sorry Purni, we’ve got to report in to the Senate,” I mussed up her hair a bit and laughed when she batted my hand away. “I’ll have to take my troupe of actors on the road for now.”

  “Yes,” Kastur twirled and took one of Calpurnia’s hands in his large meaty paws, “Until... next time!” Calpurnia giggled and pushed him away by his nose while he made duck noises.

  “C’mon bird diviner,” Pollux dragged his twin away and down the hall. They loved how they looked identical in every way with their matching short cropped black hair and dark olive skin.

  Except if you looked very closely you’d see that they had one physical difference. Kastur’s eyes were more blue with a hint of green, and Pollux’s eyes were more green with a hint of blue. Also, they may play around for Calpurnia’s entertainment but their personalities were worlds a part. Kastur was always mischievous and playful while Pollux was more prone to snark and seriousness. Pollux acted his age at 150 years, but Kastur was still like a big puppy.

  I hugged my little miracle sister one last time then followed them out. Today had started out on a high note, hopefully it would stay that way.

  Quintillus

  Castra 3 Station, Legion XV Sector

  Dear Gods I’m bored.

  Gaius, Kastur, and Pollux were all on Nova Roma to represent our pack and give the ten year update report to the Senate as well as the Mea Lupus Assembly. I didn’t envy them at all, even if it meant getting to visit family. I wanted to go home too, and make offerings at the Divine Couple’s temple in New Rome, but not if it meant having to do a dual report.

  I touched two fingers to my heart in apology for such lazy thoughts. The Divine Couple had their own temple area on Castra 3 Station, I could just as easily lift my prayers here as there. Sweat began to bead at my neckline as the station environmental controls started to fluctuate again. I huffed out a soft breath of irritation but maintained a blank face.

  Happily, I had a cropped haircut. Kastur and Pollux’s slabs of muscles would make them sweat like pigs and Gaius would look like a damp mop with all his dark wavy hair. Sitting through these local judicial hearings were hard enough in my formal uniform.

  The only good thing about having to come here was that Castra 3 was way out in the boonies of space. They wouldn’t care if I only wore my formal working uniform and not my official judicial uniform with its folds and folds of fabric. 2,000 years and some of our official uniforms still looked like what Caesar himself may have worn.

  I fiddled with the signet ring on my right pointer finger. It was black with Menrva’s face on one side and Caesar’s on the other. In the middle was the wolf with the spear and shield of the Mea Lupus. The design itself was common but the colour was not. Only a Mea Lupus sitting in judgement could wear the black signet ring. And only my Imperial Union counterpart could wear the gold signet ring with the seal of the Imperial Union.

  All major cases had to have both representatives present. Castra 3 was so out of the way that they had to wait for our yearly visit. This meant that all major cases piled up until, like today and the day before last, we were taking one cup at a time from a lake. I held back a pout born from irritation and heat induced exhaustion.

  I couldn’t even get mad at the equally sweaty and somewhat smelly local representative next to me. There just weren’t enough Mea Lupus to go around. And fewer and fewer of us every generation, I scowled. The defendant before me gulped and wrung his fingers, while the representative next to me tried to look stealthily over at me from the corner of his eye.

  “Please repeat what you said,” I tried to come across as professional but by the crushed look in his eyes he knew I either hadn’t been listening or had already agreed with his sentencing.

  “I said I didn’t kill him,” whispered the man. His clothing was dirty and the gaunt look on his face showed signs of malnutrition. I looked back in his file on my screen and saw he had been imprisoned waiting for our arrival for eight months.

  “Your file says you were found holding the murder weapon,” I tapped on my screen again, “A knife, when you were found. Witnesses say you killed the man.” I tried to look for surveillance footage but there was nothing. Places on the fringe of space like Castra 3 rarely had them.

  “Shall we proceed to sentencing?” Asked the station representative. The man seemed more eager to get his docket cleared than to see any justice done. I narrowed my eyes at him and he fixed the folds of his official uniform. Sweat stained his pompous fat folds just as surely as they did the fabric wrapped so well around him. I cut my eyes back to the defendant.

  “Why do you say you didn’t kill him when all the evidence says you did?” I kept my voice cold and aloof.

  “Gods, no one wants to believe me!” The disgruntled man shouted and s
hook his fist at me, “You fucking wolves think yourselves so high and mighty but you don’t give a shit about justice,” he sneered and the room gasped. “I didn’t murder that bastard, I was defending myself because he attacked me! I didn’t have a Gods damn choice!” The man’s frame shook with indignation and fury. He had seen no justice for eight long months and he expected no justice now. He would spend what little energy he had left in his sickly body to rage at a system that had failed him.

  “I believe you,” I stated calmly. “You carry no bodily signs of deception nor can I sense any dishonesty in your statement, regardless of what the evidence says.” I motioned for the local accountant to come towards me as the man looked on in shock. “Make sure this man is compensated for his time under false incarceration as well as any records to reflect his innocence.”

  “My lord,” the local representative smiled shakily, “We haven’t the funds to compensate him for what was clearly an easy to make mistake given the eye witness accounts.” I let a small growl vibrate my chest before turning reflective eyes on the large man next to me.

  “Are you questioning my right to dispense Divine beneficence?” My words were a mere whisper but they cracked through the stifling and stinking room packed with people.

  “N-No, my lord,” he tried to smile again but it was a more of a grimace, “It’s just... the station can’t afford...” I knew why he hesitated to finish his sentence. I didn’t say it outright but I’m sure he could infer from what I said earlier that I was at the very least empathic. What he didn’t know was that I had honed my empathic gift to such sharpness that I was also a Truthseer. If he outright lied to me I would know it. The hesitation in his eyes told me he wasn’t willing to risk it.

  “Understood,” I nodded, “Thank you for volunteering to cover the cost personally.” While the representative gulped and tried to think of excuses I stood up and addressed the barely standing defendant. “The Mea Lupus thank you for your patience in waiting for justice to be properly administered,” I motioned for him to be helped away then turned to the waiting crowd of onlookers and defendants, “We will pick up from the next case tomorrow.”