Rebel Kato (Shifters of the Primus Book 1) (3 page)

I
feel
the panther within me prowling. The taste of violence has it on edge, hungry for more blood. Perhaps soon, my friend. But I see the human males shifting their weight, unsure of what to do. If I do not put them at ease, my warriors and I will be forced to slaughter them. And perhaps their cowardly weapons will harm the woman.

The human leader doesn’t know what to do. I can see it in the flicking of his eyes. From the corpse, to me, to my. . . crotch?

I look down.

My cock is at its full length, straining against the leather of my pants. I raise my eyebrows and look to the star skinned woman. Her cheeks flush red and she looks away. Hah! The panther within me licks its lips in anticipation of a difficult hunt. I sense that this female wants to be caught but will not make it easy.

But first I must do what I came to do, so I put my hard cock from my mind.

“Why do you trespass within our skies?” I ask.

“We are the last remaining colony ship of our race, ah—” the admiral’s eyes drift down to my crotch, widen, and then jump back up to my face. But he can’t hold my gaze either, so he shifts on his feet and looks to the floor. “Our world was dying and we were forced to set out to the stars hundreds of years ago. We haven’t even found a planet that could sustain our life, until now.”

I take two steps toward him until my chest is nearly against his face “Colonize? You think your males could survive our world?”

“I didn’t mean—ah—” he stammers.

“Let me tell you of our world. We build our cities within the trees because the surface of our planet is a bottomless waste of fallen leaves. Creatures of nightmare swim within them, eager for flesh. When they grow hungry, some climb the trees to find us. We train our whole lives to survive it and still most do not live to adulthood.”

The admiral summons some of the little courage he has and swallows hard. “So why are you here then? Why bother meeting with us?”

“Because our females were all killed by a genetic plague. To mate we must conquer.”The admiral takes a slight step back. “So you want to. . .”

“To examine your females. If we find them suitable, your race will be allowed to live. To determine the quality of your women, I will take a sample to my home for inspection,” I say.

“But that will not be necessary,” says Barkus from behind me. I notice an equalizer shining in his ear . “We have found your species wanting.Your males are soft and your women are softer. Our males will not pollute our species with the offspring of
these
.” He gestures toward the star-skinned woman.

I feel a cold rage growing in my chest. My grip tightens on my spear. Barkus has no right to speak. And as Prince of the Umani clan, I have the right to claim any woman I see fit. My judgment is supreme. Perhaps it is time I remind him.

I spin and grab Barkus by the throat. I use the momentum of my spin to drag him off his feet and lift him high in the air with one arm before slamming him to the ground. I kneel before him and press my face close to his, nearly hissing the words. “You will speak when I order you to speak. Your opinion will matter when I say it does. Until then, you will remember your place.”

Barkus begins to say something but I press against his throat and he only manages to gurgle. I hold the pressure on him just long enough for fear to enter his eyes. He claws at my forearm but isn’t strong enough to push my hand from his throat. He thinks I am going to strangle him. I will not. Death would release him from the shame of his insubordination.

Once he has shamed himself by showing fear, I release him and spit in his face. His shame will spread through the clan and he will become an outcast.

“As I was saying,” I continue, rising and turning my back to Barkus. “We are not interested in your males. The Umani need fertile females to populate our planet. Worthy females. If the sample female is worthy, I will make her princess of my people. We will provide for the rest of your race. You will have food, supplies, fuel, whatever you need.”

I don’t mention that I already feel something for this female that I have never felt before. Dozens of species have been brought before me and I have never shown interest in any. Until this one. . . My cock throbs and I think of filling her with my seed, of making her my mate and my princess, of ruling over Umani with her at my side and in my bed. Even the panther within me stirs and I feel a deep purring resonate through my chest. Still, I must be master of myself. I will not let lust blind me from making the right decision for my clan.

The admiral’s face has turned several shades whiter. He motions for a nearby man to come to his side. “If you will give us a moment?” he says.

I nod.

The admiral whispers something to the man, who hurries off.

W
hile we wait
for the admiral’s first-officer to return, I can’t keep my eyes from Kato’s cock. He knows it too. I can tell by the smug looks he gives me. In fact, he hasn’t stopped looking at me since the admiral sent the officer away. Am I thirsty or am I just imagining it? I wipe sweat from my forehead and try to look away from his cock. It is like trying not to look at my own nose though. Even if I am not looking directly at it, I can see it from the corners of my vision. Except I have never
wanted
to stare at my own nose.

My mind wanders to what I would even do with so much cock. I mean. . . At some point you can only use so much of it. Still. . . Lia! This guy just said he might save your entire race or destroy them for fun and you’re still thinking about
that
? Okay, okay. I manage to calm down a little bit and start thinking through the implications. Before I make it very far, the officer returns with the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.

She’s wearing a transparent red outfit of some fabric that looks so light that it might fly away. Her tits are almost as big as her head, and there’s hardly an ounce of fat on her body.

I feel my stomach sink. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had been letting myself imagine that Kato was going to want to choose me as his
sample
. Yes, it is idiotic in so many ways. After all, he’s basically kidnapping a woman and taking her home to do God knows what. But then again, it sounds like he at least wants to get to know something about the girl’s personality. So he can’t be all bad. . . Right? Who am I kidding. Going home with him would be about as safe as strapping myself to a nuclear missile and pressing the launch button.

Kato seems to understand the purpose of this girl. He glances at her for a fraction of a second and then makes a dismissive gesture. “I am not interested in this female,” says Kato.

He points to me. “I will take this one.”

Every head turns in my direction. Not knowing what else to do, I wave. Really, Lia? A wave? I rub a little of the grease from my fingers on my pants and try to salvage the situation by reaching to shake Kato’s hand.

He looks down at my hand for a moment and then crosses the room to me, his large body gliding across the metal grating without making a sound. Instead of taking my hand like I expect, he grabs my outstretched arm and uses it to haul me over his shoulder.

“You will come with me” he says, loud enough for the whole room to hear.

I nearly correct him. After all, I’m
choosing
to go with him. If I wanted I could. . . Okay, maybe I don’t have a choice. But before he grabbed me I
was
planning to go along without a fight.

“Wait,” I say.

Kato signals for his men to stop, plopping me down in front of him. I brush myself off, trying to salvage what little remains of my dignity.

“My sister. Mira. I can’t leave her here by herself. Can she come too?”

“I only claim you,” says Kato.

“No, no, no. I don’t mean like. . . Come to your room. I mean can she come off the ship and I don’t know, get some kind of protection while I’m with you?”

“Domitus,” Kato says to one of the nearby warriors. The man who steps forward is leaner than Kato and has bright blue skin. “Yes, my prince?”

“You will find Liandra’s sister and bring her to us. See that she comes to no harm.”

The man nods and runs off to find Mira.

Sorry, sis. You’re going to be in for a little bit of a surprise when a huge, blue alien comes and drags you off the ship. But it’s for your own good.

Before we leave the bridge, I glance back toward Reemer. He is gesturing wildly toward the guards and then us, screaming something. It looks like he wants them to stop us. But none of the guards look eager to try stopping the huge aliens from taking me.

Kato seems content to let me walk now, so I do my best to keep up with their long strides. By the time we reach the airlock where Kato’s ship attached itself, I’m panting and wishing he had never put me down. Rather than let me step over the twisted metal where the ship cut itself a hole in the outer airlock, Kato picks me up again and carries me inside the ship. His skin is warm and smooth. The muscles of his chest press against my shoulder and I can feel the crease between his pecs. He sets me down and moves to strap me into the seat’s harness, but I wave him away.

“I know how to tie myself into a chair, thank you very much,” I say.

Except the Primus engineers apparently made seat harnesses more complicated than rocket science. I’m more than a little embarrassed as I fumble with the straps and levers—who the hell ever put levers on a seatbelt before—and can’t manage to do anything but create a tangled mess. Kato watches me with no expression. I feel heat rising to my face but push it down. Stop blushing like a damsel in distress, Lia. Jesus. You have figured out more complicated things than a fucking seat belt latch before.

After a few deep breaths, I start to see how it’s all set up. A quick twist, a pump of a lever, and two turns of a dial later and. . . Click. I scooch back in my seat and give Kato a satisfied smile, not dwelling on the two minutes it took me to figure out the stupid thing.

He grins.

While we wait for my sister to be brought to the ship, he comes over to me and makes sure my straps are all tight enough. While he checks my shoulder strap, his fingers graze my tits. I freeze, wondering for a fraction of a second if it was intentional. Of course it was. When I look up, his green eyes flecked with gold are twinkling. He acts as if he needs to use my thighs to press himself to a standing position, letting his fingers slide down my skin as he rises. His touch leaves trails of tingling nerves in its wake. His skin is
so
warm. I wonder what it would feel like to lie beside him naked, my legs wrapped—deep breaths, Lia. You are
not
a slut. You are
not
a slut. Okay, maybe just a little bit, deep down. But this guy is kidnapping me and I should be pissed as hell. Instead I’m fantasizing about him. I cross my arms, not sure if I’m more pissed at him or myself.

Finally, my sister enters the ship, face flushed and looking confused.

“Long story,” I say. “I’ll explain later.”

Mira sits down and lets the blue Primus buckle her in, her eyes still slightly wide. I notice that he manages to get her buckle fastened in just a few seconds. Good for him.

The engine kicks on and the metal door seals us off from
The Hope
. For a few minutes, there is only the blackness of space outside the windows. Then I can see the fiery streaks forming around our ship as we fly into the atmosphere of the planet. The ship shakes violently and I glance around, checking the Primus’ faces to see if this is normal. Eventually the bumpiness passes and we’re arcing through the clouds within the planet’s atmosphere.

Every time I glance at Kato, he is staring at me. I see him studying my curves, his eyes slowly tracing my form. Intent on not looking even more bashful, I focus on the indignity of the whole experience and let myself wear the anger on my face instead. Seriously though. He
claims
me? What kind of bullshit is that. He’s going to be claiming a swollen pair of balls if he doesn’t figure out how to talk properly to me.

I growl under my breath. Angry thoughts. Think angry thoughts.

I spare a glance at Kato, realizing how much of my thoughts must be showing on my face. His grin is even wider, his slightly pointed canines showing. I realize I am repeatedly smoothing a loose strand of hair and force myself to stop.

I look out the window and see clouds and. . . A tree? I’ve watched a lot of movies from old Earth, and I know there were no trees this big. The top of the tree is a wooden bowl that points up to the sky. Some sort of green liquid pools in the top, catching the sunlight. I crane my neck, looking down. There’s nothing but a few of the scattered trees, fading farther from view until their bases disappear in a blue fog of atmosphere. How big are these things?

When we’ve landed and the hatch opens, I’m greeted by a sight more alien than I could have imagined. A twisting series of wooden bridges and platforms stretches as far as I can see in every direction. Bits of cloud float beneath and above us. The trees are like pillars meant to keep the sky from falling; no matter where I look, I see only the ever-climbing expanse of branches and twisted root-like structures that web between them. I’m met by an immediate sense of vertigo, having never experienced heights on the ship and especially having never seen so much open space.

I feel myself totter backwards but someone cradles me to their body. Kato. He gently straightens me and when he’s sure I have my balance, he releases me. “Welcome to Jektan, capital city of the Umani Clan.”

I see shirtless and even nude Umani males swinging on vines between buildings above and below me. A few platforms away, two males hack another down with curved blades. When they finish, they pick up the pieces and toss them over the edge of the platform as casually as if they are throwing away trash.

Kato puts a hand on my shoulder and leads me forward. We move to the outer edge of the wooden platform we landed on. Kato grabs me tightly by the waist and then smirks.

I hear Mira gasp as a warrior grabs her as well.

Without warning, Kato leaps from the platform and into the clouds.

Unfortunately, I scream like a little girl. My hair whips and the wind rages in my ears. It feels like my stomach is somewhere back on the platform where we jumped off. My legs are kicking wildly. And then I see Kato reach forward and grab what looks like a vine. A normal vine like the ones I’ve seen in vids on Earth would have snapped under our weight, but this vine holds. Somehow, Kato holds too, despite what must be one serious case of rope-burn.

We slow to an only mildly terrifying speed and then he kicks his legs and we are flying forward and falling again. Trees blur upward as we fall, branches whipping past us, sometimes dangerously close. Somewhere in the distance I hear Mira screaming too. Just when I’m about to puke up the ration cubes I had for breakfast, we swing from a vine and come to a soft landing on a wooden platform. It’s carved with ornate symbols and inlaid with a sparkling green metal.

My hair's a mess and I feel my head spinning. “You guys have space ships but haven’t figured out elevators yet?”

Kato grins and gestures to a perfectly normal looking elevator attached to the nearest tree. I swat at him, surprising myself a little with my boldness.

He laughs. “I like a female with fire.”

My anger melts away a little bit when I see the way he looks at me. Just a little, though. I still want to hit him a few more times, but I think it would hurt my hand more than it would hurt him.

While he leads me toward a wooden building bigger than any I saw during our fall, I start to think clearly for the first time in the last hour. My mind is a blur of anger, sadness, frustration, and excitement. Through it all, I can’t deny that I am excited to see where this chapter of my life in the care of a alien prince will lead. Even if he wasn’t built like something out of my dreams, the way he swooped into my life and took me away from my problems is nothing short of a miracle. And that grin of his. . . Like he knows how damn good he looks.