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

  Removing my black signet ring I stepped away from the dais and put it into the heart side pocket of my working uniform. When I get back to our quarters I’ll put it away and change into my regular tech suit. My plan was cut short when I saw two figures wading against the outgoing tide of people. Both men stood out from the crowd not only because of their high tech Mea Lupus body suits but because they were so shockingly different from one another.

  Bhar was pale skinned and thickly muscled, standing a full head taller than most of those he passed. Oli, slightly shorter, was a deep shade of brown and still had a kind of baby softness to his muscles unlike Bhar. Both men’s hair were long. But where Oli kept his dark brown hair up in four tight buns down the middle of his skull, Bhar’s deep auburn hair was kept plaited in various braids that swung behind him. Bhar also had the sides of his head shaved with glow tattoos along his skull depicting sacred symbols from his people in Britannia.

  “Quin! Quin, c’mon let’s go,” Oli said excitedly. Bhar just scowled at those who turned to stare at the young Chosen Mea Lupus. Oli was the youngest of our pack at 56. The Hawaiian man had only been with us with twenty years but his propensity for laughter and fun definitely matched his name.

  “I’m done baby sitting this pup, it’s your turn,” grumbled Bhar. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

  “Aww, c’mon Bhar! This is something even you’ll like,” Oli landed a light punch on Bhar’s arm. Bhar’s mouth expanded, full of sharp teeth. He growled and snapped at Oli who only laughed and shied away. The remaining crowd moved even faster at the sound and sight of a snarling Mea Lupus. I sighed. Bhar’s mood swings were getting worse, and after having to sit judicial duty all day I didn’t want to deal with it.

  “It’s been a long day, Oli,” I side stepped them both and started heading out the door behind the final stragglers from the room. The metal clanked against my boots as I walked down the hallway. I wanted out of this fabric uniform and into my normal Mea Lupus tech suit.

  “Aww, don’t be like that,” Oli groused. “I wanted to show you this great place I found!” Bhar huffed behind the two of us. “Really, it’s a great place. Nice bar, great music, great entertainment.” He elbowed me conspiratorially and waggled his eyebrows. We passed through the final halls of the Imperial Union’s administrative sector on this small station and into the sprawling mishmash known only as The Bazaar.

  “This place is a backwater shit hole, Oli. I doubt you found any place worth seeing,” rumbled Bhar. Fuck’s sake he really is in a mood today, I worried.

  “Wow, way to be an asshole, Conchobhar,” Oli scolded. Bhar hated it when anyone besides Aphelele called him by his full name. Sweeping my eyes around us I could see the sneering dirty looks people were giving us. Some of it was because of Bhar’s comment but after that last defendant it was probably more than just that.

  “Take us there,” I conceded on a sigh. Oli shouted his excitement and stepped ahead to lead us through the throngs of people.

  “That kid’s going to lead us into nothing but fucking trouble,” Bhar shook his head and stomped ahead of me but followed along just the same.

  Conchobhar

  I wish Aphelele was here.

  He and Adohi were working on a case, some new smuggler or something. I know Aphelele wanted me to care more but I just... didn’t. This is probably why I found myself following Oli to ‘discover’ some ‘great’ place on this tiny hell hole of a station. Until Gaius, Kastur, and Pollux got back from Nova Roma we were stuck here.

  I tried to picture Aphelele’s beautiful midnight skin and his talented hands soothing the growing tension in my neck but it wasn’t quite like the real thing. Quintillus thought he was being circumspect but I could see him sneaking looks at me from the corner of my eye. His constant worrying over me did nothing to lessen my irritation.

  At least my ‘mood swings’ had worked in my favour, I snickered internally. Quintillus had jumped to take my place as arbiter for this station’s yearly hearings. Sharp impotent glares were cast our way as we walked along the multipurpose booths. I hardened my eyes and stared right back, challenging this station’s riff raff to do more than stare.

  Oli, happy and still new to his now long life, was oblivious to all the hateful looks we were getting. I know Quintillus saw them too because he kept his eyes moving in a patterned practice and his spine loose. I flashed a fanged smile at more than a few gawkers and my chest rumbled in approval as they fled or lowered their gaze.

  They could hate us all they wanted, but it was the Mea Lupus that stood between them and every manner of corruption and peril. Most of it bloody and degrading. Besides, these people couldn’t possibly know that I hated myself more than they ever could. I was only 142 years old and already couldn’t fathom staring down another few centuries or worse a full thousand years like my grandfather.

  Aphelele always said that we were given longer lives so we could make real change in our world. I loved him so much that I wanted to believe it. On my worst days it was the love in his icicle blue eyes that helped me have hope that anything I did mattered.

  “Here we are!” Oli lifted his hands to the cantina door set into the wall before us.

  “It’s definitely... new,” added Quintillus weakly. Garish glowing swirls of paint mixed in with neon signage to shine like a massive wall of light. Cassandra’s Menagerie in Imperial common was written above the door in large lit up letters. Just below it was the phrase ‘No One Will Believe You!” With a cheeky holo-image of a winking woman. I laughed so hard that I doubled over and passerby scurried away.

  “A brothel! The pup brought us to a brothel!” I laughed harder, wiping the tears away from my eyes. Quintillus looked over at Oli, his lips in a flat line and his eyebrow raised in question.

  “What? No!” Oli shook his head then turned it to the side as if in thought, “Ok, maybe they might also offer those services but they’re also a bar with food and entertainment.” He pouted and pulled at Quintillus’s arm before he could storm off in annoyance. “Really, Quin. Just trust me, ok? This place came highly recommended and everyone’s said it’s new and popular.”

  “We’re here for work, Oli,” scolded Quintillus.

  “We can’t work all the time!” Oli harrumphed in frustration, “and you’re done for the day.”

  “Yeah, Quin. Live a little,” I whined and pouted dramatically. I was definitely backing up Oli if it meant getting to watch the studious and pious Quintillus forced to let loose. I saw him set his jaw to dig in for a fight but he was cut off by Oli’s excited final bid.

  “The next show is about to start, Quin,” Oli pleaded, “And Aphelele and Adohi are heading this way to meet us here for dinner too so no point going back to empty quarters.”

  “I’m sold,” I patted Oli on the shoulder and walked through the door. Sure enough Quintillus and Oli were right on my heels. Mea Lupus were the favourite customers of brothels galaxy-wide. We couldn’t get anyone not Mea Lupus pregnant and our active immune systems meant we both carried no diseases and cured those we came in sexual contact. We’d probably either get a discount or serviced for free here.

  “They better have good food,” grumbled Quintillus quietly. I rolled my eyes.

  “Maybe if you eat some pussy, you won’t be so bitchy,” I threw over my shoulder. I didn’t have to see the blush on both their cheeks to know it was there.

  All around us patrons laughed and drank. Some sang off key in their little booths over multiple platters of shared food. A hush seemed to descend on the normal cacophony as all eyes turned to us. Fucking lovely, I sighed.

  “And now, back at Cassie’s for your pleasure,” the sultry voice of the announcer echoed through the club and all eyes snapped from us to the now lit up stage. The beat that pounded through the club overwhelmed my senses and seemed to pulse even in my bones. The lights everywhere besides the stage dimmed until all we could focus on was the insanity before our eyes.

  A woman stood behind two giant pink
feathered fans, her wrists snapping and puffing them against her hidden body. As the beat turned she spun with it showing her bare back and legs. All were bare except for the rainbow tail sticking out between her ass cheeks. And like some magical sex unicorn she shifted and lifted her hips to the music as the glowing tinkling charms on her ankles pounded out with the beat.

  All three of us stood watching her with unmasked lust, a sentiment seen all around us. As the song deepened she shifted and spread her legs, moving the fans across her hidden front and along the edges of her hips and thighs. She snapped the fans closed on the next beat then rolled her head sharply to the right and left. This whipped her rainbow locks from her head to cascade down her back.

  Through the curtain of her hair she looked over her shoulder at the audience. If I hadn’t been hard before now, I was after seeing her pouty mouth and desire soaked eyes. She rolled her hips and brought her body forward but covered herself again with those damn pink feather fans before we could glimpse what was under them.

  Stepping forward onto the catwalk that jutted out into the audience, she sank to her knees. I heard a collective groan under the throbbing beat. She leaned back and worked her hips up and down, working the slightly folded fans over her breasts and her pelvis. She widened her thighs and bit her lip. Ever so slowly she leaned back completely, still rolling her hips, and closed the fans until they were nothing but a thick line of feathers covering her nipples and pussy. With more of her skin revealed, we could all see the glow tattoos that swirled up and down her body in splashes of warm colour.

  When the sensual moan of the singer pulsed through the club, the woman flung her arms out to her sides. We could see her matching rainbow nipple pasties and thong as she worked her hips up from the stage. Her tits bounced, perfectly timed to the grinding and rolling of her hips. Her pussy lips were barely covered by the glowing material but stubbornly never slipped as she danced into a sitting position and got on all fours.

  Crawling forward, she smiled mischievously and I finally saw what—no, who, was the object of the her focus. Another woman sat at the end of the walkway leisurely sipping a glass of amber liquid. Everything about this woman set me on edge. I felt heat rise in my blood and my cock throbbed painfully.

  The sexy unicorn dancer was captivating but this raven haired woman quietly taking the dance as her due was like an empress or a warrior queen. Everything about her was regal, the set of her jaw, the strength and sharpness of her eyes. I had never been as faithful as Quintillus, but if I had, I would have sworn she had Menrva’s own silver gaze. I didn’t know and couldn’t really see who she was. Her eyes were hidden from me, but they pierced all the same.

  I hadn’t even realised that the woman on stage had finished her set. Oli and Quintillus stood dumbstruck next to me and I wondered if we all shared the same look for the woman with the dangerous eyes.

  Quintillus

  So much desire, so much longing. As the rainbow unicorn dancer bowed and left the stage to the cheers and clapping of the crowd, I drowned. Drowned in her. The woman with the cutting eyes and painful loneliness in her soul. She didn’t just lust after the dancer, she yearned to connect with the vibrant woman on the stage.

  I was locked into shock, gulping in the wellspring of her emotions. Every measured sip of the whiskey she took was a fortification against her inner turmoil and the world around her. Her face was a blank mask that revealed nothing to no one. No one except me.

  Reaching out with my senses I tried to touch her soul, maybe soothe the loneliness that felt so similar to my own. I looked up and was doubled back by her furious glare from across the room. Did she know I had unwittingly felt her, connected with her? My line of sight was cut off by a buxom woman who began speaking to the woman with the harsh eyes.

  “Quin,” a hand slapped me out of my daze and I turned around to see the smiling face of Aphelele. “Where did you go, my friend?” He asked curiously. His ever patient light blue eyes grounded me in my own mind.

  “It was the woman with the silver gaze,” rumbled Bhar. Against my will I looked back over where the woman had been, but she was no longer there.

  “Her eyes looked brown to me,” Oli said in confusion. So she caught all of us then.

  “Hmm... Well you can all tell us more over dinner,” complained Adohi, “Aphelele and I have been staring at screens all fucking day and we need a damn break.”

  “And I thought I was the moody one,” grumbled Bhar. Aphelele smiled softly and cuffed the back of his neck pulling Bhar in and resting his forehead against his grumpy beloved.

  “Adohi is just tired,” Aphelele pulled back but kept his hand firmly massaging Bhar’s neck, “we’ve been trying to track down this smuggler for a long time, not just today. He’s a slippery one.”

  “My lords,” the same curvy woman who had cut off my line of sight stood before our group now. “It’s an honour to have the Mea Lupus visit my establishment! I am Cassandra, though everyone calls me Cassie,” she smiled warmly. Her hair was pink and she had matching overly long fluttering pink eyelashes. The dusty rose coloured corset cinched her waist so tightly that I didn’t know how her breasts weren’t spilling over. “The next show isn’t for 15 minutes but perhaps I could interest you in other services?” The pale pink semitransparent fabric of her skirt swooshed as she gestured and moved while the high shoes she wore gave her an extra few inches of height.

  “Just dinner,” groused Adohi. I scowled at the man. Sometimes too much time tracking made him forget his manners.

  “Please,” I smiled politely at Cassie.

  “Right this way,” Cassie held up her hand then turned gracefully on her heel, not waiting for us to follow.

  Kara

  “Fuck!” I whisper yelled. Backstage I watched via one of my orbs the conversation between the five Mea Lupus. I knew that it was near that time when the Mea Lupus deigned to send someone out to Castra 3 for their yearly judiciary duties but I hadn’t realised that I had come in with my haul at the same time.

  “What’s wrong?” Ai, still dressed with her rainbow tail anal plug and dancing pasties, nuzzled my neck. I knew she was hiding our conversation with the public display of affection and was grateful she was always in sync with me.

  “Fucking Mea Lupus is what’s wrong,” I ground out. Ai knew I had no love for the wolves and why, but she had probably never seen me this panicked before. Cassie pushed through the frilly curtains of the backstage area and sauntered right up to us. “Thanks for the fucking heads up, Cassie,” I sneered.

  “I broke the empathic one’s line of sight, so yes, you’re welcome,” she sneered right back.

  “I fucking knew it!” I fumed quietly, “I thought I felt someone trying to push their way in,” I seethed. How dare that wolf touch my soul without my permission! I could feel my breaths coming in hard pants. We were so fucked. I couldn’t up and leave my high end and very stolen goods to the fences here. The moment I blinked away they would sell it for themselves and take the profit. Not to mention all the small goods I had to offload to the various vendors so I could pay for fuel and other regular maintenance on the Charopos.

  “Why are they here, Cassie?” Ai’s calm voice helped to ease my spiralling.

  “It’s the year end judicial hearing of major cases,” I cut in.

  “No, there’s got to be more than that,” Cassie’s brow was set in determination, “I heard them mention that 3 others of their pack are back on Nova Roma.”

  “A contubernium?” I choked out. “5 would have been bad enough, but their pack has 8?”

  “Fuck,” whispered Ai.

  “I also heard the one with the nice cheekbones complaining about a certain smuggler they’ve been having a hard time tracking for a few years now,” Cassie looked at me with a knowing glance and I held my breath, “Seems now that they’ve got some down time, while they wait for the rest of their pack to show up, they’re going after the smuggler who’s been evading them.”

  “No,” my face
must have paled because Ai threaded her fingers through mine and held on hard.

  “Yes,” Cassie’s mouth was set in a grim line, “They’re tracking down The Ferryman.”

  “We should leave,” Ai’s eyes flicked to mine and she squeezed my hand again.

  “We can’t,” I answered numbly. Instead of feeling anymore overwhelming panic I just felt calm. Centering myself I allowed all the distracting emotions to melt away. I pulled on every lesson I had learned in that Gods cursed program as a candidate, and shut away my mind and my soul.

  Mea Lupus didn’t just shift into wolves. Since the moment we had become a space faring species, Mea Lupus had started to develop and or be born with ‘abilities’. Public outcry over privacy and transparency had forced the wolves into creating publicly accessible records for each Mea Lupus. As a contubernium it would be easy to find their pack among the hundreds of millions of registered Mea Lupus.

  “Already ahead of you,” Ai looked off into the distance and then gasped. Her eyes refocused and she nibbled at her lip, a habit totally her own. “They’re a bloodhound pack, specialising in law enforcement and judiciary duties.” My gauntlet’s screen lit up with the data she had shunted over to me.

  Their leader Gaius was telepathic with unlimited physical range, but could only mentally touch those within his pack. The empath Quintillus was a Truthseer. The one Cassie had praised for his cheekbones, Adohi, was a Tracker both with physical leads and with data chains. All the rest had increased strength, while their youngest member had yet to identify his ability.

  “The 3 that walked in during Ai’s set were all talking about you,” Cassie took in a breath, “out of everyone in here, Gods, even a half naked Ai on the stage and it was you they were all looking at.”