It had been a long time since I’d had the opportunity to be with a woman, without paying for it that is. Not since the time of our exile.
Once, we were the Fourth Battalion, but that had been a long time ago. The four of us—Valdus, Caleb, Zane, and I—had seen many battles together, had conquered entire planets in search of compatible mates in order to carry on the Vakarran species.
Until Nix got involved. I fucking hated that man. Our exile had been entirely his fault.
Many years ago, we’d conquered a planet and taken the women captive. They had rebelled, and he’d ordered us to execute them. We had refused.
And we suffered for that decision.
As a result, Nix stripped us of our rank, had us arrested and dishonorably discharged from the army. Then, he exiled us to the darkest reaches of the universe, never to be part of Vakarran society again. After we’d left, we heard rumors that Nix had killed the women himself.
We learned that Strohass had been killed about a year ago or so. Now, probably the result of some heavy bribery, Nix was the reigning commander of the entire Vakarran military. A position bought solely with money, corruption, and thievery that left me feeling sick to my stomach.
He didn’t deserve any of it.
After the exile, the four of us stuck together. We made a living by honest trade most of the time, providing a shipping service to countless planets. Occasionally those trips included illegal merchandise, but we tried to keep those to a minimum. The payouts far outweighed the risk, most of the time. We had friends in high places, and many of them were extremely wealthy. Despite the odds stacked against us, we had done well and lived a comfortable life. We were free to choose what we wanted, when we wanted and best of all, we didn’t have to deal with the corruption of the Vakarran upper levels. We didn’t have to deal with Nix.
When I’d heard of the rebellion taking part on a small planet called Earth against Nix, my battalion and I had decided we couldn’t miss out on our chance at revenge. We’d rushed to take part and had brought a fair number of resources with us on our own vessel in order to support the Resistance, many provided by wealthy allies that were not especially friendly toward Nix and the Vakarrans. Ryder, the leader of the Second Battalion and leader of the Resistance, had been especially pleased.
To be honest, I wasn’t really here to help our allies or the human species, or my Vakarran counterpart. My comrades and I were here to kill Commander Nix.
We wanted revenge. That was our one true goal.
A human female was just an added incentive.
I’d heard the name Stryke before. From what I understood, they were a group of human sisters who had escaped Vakarran detection for a long time. The sisters had grown in infamy over the past year or two. It had started with Kira and now, whispers on dark cyber had talked about Alaina and Danika. There were rumors that Danika had attacked and scarred Nix pretty badly, but I had yet to see evidence of that myself. Nix hadn’t attended any major publicized functions recently, so I hadn’t seen any images, but I hoped it was true. He deserved to be mutilated and miserable. He deserved nothing less than death, but I would see to that myself.
“Tavik, there’s a camera over there,” Valdus murmured quietly and I looked over to where he indicated. The device was small, circular, and almost invisible, hidden in a knot in a great oak tree. I stared it down and grinned.
Good. Kaela would know we were coming for her.
“What do you think she’s like?” Caleb asked.
“If she’s anything like her sisters, she’s going to be a handful,” I responded.
“I know how to take care of disobedient females,” Zane answered darkly, his smirk growing by the second. I chuckled. He certainly did. We’d visited a number of alien brothels over the years and he requested only the most flexible of women who weren’t afraid of things that might hurt, or things that might leave a mark. He liked to make women cry and then fuck them so hard that they begged for mercy, but they always ended up pleading for him to return. Some of them, he visited many times upon their request.
He was a sadist and he was damn proud of it.
“The marker isn’t that much farther. Only about another day’s walk,” Valdus said.
“Good. Let’s keep moving. I want to see the woman that’s destined to be our mate,” I replied.
I really couldn’t wait. Kaela must be a formidable woman to have escaped Vakarran rule for so long. I learned that she was also the leader of a secret hideout of humans, deep in the forests. She wasn’t a human like any of the others I’d read about. She was different.
Most human women were easily subdued. At least that’s what the reports said. But not Kira and her sisters. I’d met Danika and Alaina after we’d been chosen for the mission to rescue Kaela. I knew they were strong and fiercely loyal to each other. I had no doubt Kaela would be just as tough. I would rise to the challenge though. I had no doubt.
I stepped quietly through the woods, using my superior sense of hearing to monitor the land around me. All was quiet, except for the scampering of a few Earthen species of rodents and bugs. It was strangely serene. I enjoyed it actually.
&n
bsp; The further we trekked, the more impatient I became. I started to hear the trickle of water nearby, potentially a river or a waterfall and then, the scuff of a shoe against a rock. I froze, and my comrades did too.
For a few long minutes, everything was silent. I looked warily to my right, away from the source of the sound, and adjusted our trek a little bit more westward. For ten to fifteen minutes, all was quiet, until I heard the sound of a branch cracking in the distance.
I sighed with contained excitement. We were being followed. I wondered if it was Kaela. I hoped it was. I wondered if she would fight us. I grinned at the prospect.
An hour passed and then another. It became increasingly clear as more time passed that only one individual was trailing us. The steps were light, careful, and calculated, indicative of a human woman’s stride. The thought of her so close had me constantly hard and I knew my comrades were suffering in a similar fashion. After a while, I began to realize she was herding us in a particular direction. West.