Held by Luna Voss
26
Barion
I can barely contain my excitement over the next few weeks. It’s frustrating, living on Gerbbbexai IX, pretending everything is normal while Korva and Jenyta make our dreams happen light-years away. Out of an abundance of caution, we aren’t even allowing communication from Planet 88224, so Melyta and I have no idea how things are going over there.
Not that I’m worried, per se. I’ve learned a lot from my failed, disastrous attempt to assassinate Sarizor that almost got me and everyone I care about killed. This time, we’re being careful to a fault, and not leaving anything to chance.
That doesn’t mean everything is guaranteed to go correctly. There are still points where this plan could fail. Many of them. But that’s life. The things that are in my power to take care of, I have.
And this time, I’m not alone.
I feel like such a fucking idiot when I think about that night on Tarsheb 8. Even to this day. I was so cocky, so stupid, so convinced I had it all in the bag. I thought I was one step ahead of everyone else with everything I did. But I wasn’t, and looking back, I don’t even know how I could have been. I was a man with a plan, and not much else.
Melyta and Korva are with me this time. Not just along for the ride, helping. Contributing. Making plans with me and being there to check me when I’m wrong. Without Melyta, I’d still be scrambling to figure out how to parlay this scheme into a sense of safety. Without her idea to make an arrangement with Arthur Gallo, all this plan does is make us rich.
Money alone won’t stop Sarizor from having us murdered. We need to take him out of power. And that’s nigh impossible with the human mob fortifying his strength.
I haven’t worked much with humans before. I met Arthur Gallo once, a long time ago, at a funeral when I was 17. If he remembered me from that, I’d be surprised. Mostly what I know of him is from the moments his gang has clashed with the Dultaz Family. From those experiences, I know him to be smart, ruthless, and willing to do whatever it takes to get his way.
Those qualities make him dangerous. But in this case, they also make him a perfect ally. He has no love for Sarizor, and won’t think twice about betraying him if he thinks his Family will benefit. And that’s exactly what this situation is. There’s no trick here, no hidden knife. If Arthur Gallo helps us in exchange for a cut of the ditrykium mine, we really will make him rich.
The risk, of course, is that he betrays us. But we have ways of accounting for that. Namely, to make an offer so appealing he would be a fool to turn it down. And to avoid leaving any openings where he sees weakness he can exploit.
I think we can do this. I know we can do this. But it all depends on the success of our ditrykium mine. If Jenyta has a problem with the transport ship, or if Korva can’t manage the workers, or if the mining technicians themselves aren’t able to set up the equipment, the whole thing goes up in smoke.
It’s frustrating, having something so pivotal be out of my control. All I can do is wait, stay on Dagor’s good side, and hope.
Well, that’s not all I can do. My newly rediscovered bond with Melyta provides an outlet. For her, as well as for me. I feel like we understand each other now in a way we never have before, and our union as man and wife is all the stronger for it. We both know now that we both need each other. Need this thing we have that ties us together, her willing surrender to me, my mark on her neck, the pleasure we find in each other’s bodies and in our separate roles, me dominating, her submitting. It’s an outlet for both of us, something that allows us to relieve the tension of this awful wait. When I need to discipline Melyta now, I don’t see it as a flaw in our relationship, something that needs to be fixed. I see it as something that makes us stronger, that brings us closer together. It reinforces what I am to her, and what she is to me. And afterwards, when I roughly push myself inside her and stretch her open with my knot, I feel like we’re one, like these moments between us are all that matter.
“Don’t be long,” I say as Melyta convinces me to stop so she can go into a bookstore in downtown Zog. “We’ve still got other errands to do before it gets dark.”
“And we couldn’t possibly be out after dark,” she teases me. “I know you find it scary.”
“Brat,” I growl, pulling her close to me and giving her a hard tap on the ass. “Ten minutes, and then I’d better see you checking out at the counter with a stack of books. You’re on thin ice after this morning.”
“Yes, Vostra,” she said sweetly, running inside the store.
I follow behind her in amusement, wondering if this is going to end with her getting a punishment. Her ass does look particularly enticing in the short little skirt she’s wearing right now. I’ll admit I wouldn’t hate having an excuse to flip her over my knee and see it and touch it up close. I really don’t get tired of her ass.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, Melyta is nowhere to be seen. I track her down, scanning up and down the aisles, and find her tucked into a corner with her nose in a book.
“You really don’t have much self-control when it comes to bookstores, do you?” I ask, putting a hand on her shoulder.
She glances up and her cheeks flush slightly. “No, Vostra, I guess not.”
I smile. “You always call me Vostra when you need me to show you who’s boss.”
She doesn’t respond to that, but her lips twitch. “I’ll just be another moment,” she says, returning her attention to the book.
I stand right in front of her. “No, you’ll be ready now. We agreed on ten minutes.”
She ignores me, her eyes still scanning the page. A couple months ago, I might have found this frustrating, or at minimum disrespectful. And it is disrespectful, but now I know where it’s coming from, and exactly how to handle it. I reach out and close the book, eliciting an affronted look from my mate.
“Hey! I was reading that!” she protests.
I glance around. No one can see us in our spot at the back of the store. Leaning forward, I extend my fangs, waiting for that telltale twitch, that rush of sweet scent that tells me Melyta's body is responding to my pheromones.
“Put the book down now. We’re leaving, and you just earned yourself a punishment.”
The scent of her arousal grows stronger, spurring my own excitement. This is who we are to each other. This is the dynamic that works for us.
Melyta pouts, but she puts down the book and takes my outstretched hand. I lead her gruffly out of the store, my cock stiffening inside my pants. I needed this, and I can tell she did too. Korva and Jenyta are supposed to return any day now, and the tension is brutal. This is a good distraction. A very good distraction.
“Vostra, you’re walking too fast!” Melyta whines as I march her down the street back to our car.
“So keep up,” I growl, not breaking my pace. I know she can match my speed if she tries. She’s just being difficult.
As soon as we reach the car, I go into the backseat and she goes over my lap. She whimpers, squirming, trying to get away from me once we’re behind the tinted windows and out of the public eye.
“Bad girl,” I growl, pushing her skirt up to her waist. “Stop fighting me.”
“No! You’re being a—”
Her insult turns into a yelp as I give her a hard smack across both butt cheeks.
“You want to say that again?” I snarl. “What am I being?”
“Nothing, Vostra,” she whimpers, and her struggling fades.
“That’s what I thought,” I smirk, hooking my fingers under her panties and tugging them down to her knees before just deciding to remove them entirely. “I’ve reminded you before about obeying me in public. Apparently conversations only get through to you when we have them like this.”
“That’s not true,” she argues, kicking her feet.
“It’s true today,” I say, starting to spank her on her bare ass.
Melyta’s communicator rings.
“Ignore it,” I order, only interrupting the punishment for a moment. “You’re busy.”
Then my communicator rings. I pause. Is this something I actually need to deal with?
“You can’t check your communicator after you just told me not—”
I put a hand over Melyta’s mouth and pull the device out of my pocket. “Different rules, vulta. You’re being disciplined. I get to check my communicator if I want.”
As soon as I put it to my ear, Korva’s excited voice rings out. “Barion! We’re back in town, and we have good news to share.”
My heart jumps with excitement. It’s happening. It’s really fucking happening.
Melyta’s communicator rings again. She twitches, but to her credit, stays mostly in position over my lap.
“You can answer it,” I say, an enormous grin spreading across my face. “It’s probably Jenyta.”
Her beacon glows green. “What? Are they back?”
“They are. We’ll finish your punishment later. We’ve got business to discuss.”
I help her off of my lap and she straddles me for a moment, naked from the waist down, kissing me. I cup her face, making out with her intensely, filled with giddy, triumphant anticipation.
I’m going to have everything. Power. Safety. Security. More money than I could ask for. And a mate who I love, who completes me, who makes all of this, every struggle, every hardship, every bruise and every scrape, completely, 100 percent worthwhile.
* * *
Melyta
My heart is pounding. From the excitement of Barion disciplining me in the car, to this. Jenyta is back. The next step of our plan is underway, the next step of our lives.
If it goes wrong, we’ll be dead. But if it goes right, we’ll be safe. And rich beyond our wildest dreams.
I can tell Barion feels it, too, that excitement, that satisfaction of having our vision for the future unfold. He kisses me, and I kiss him back, and soon I’m wrapping my legs around him in the backseat, fiddling with his belt buckle to release his cock.
He gasps in pleasure as I sink down onto him, his thick shaft penetrating me so deeply I can almost feel it in my stomach. We writhe together, releasing frenzied grunts and groans instead of words as we grind our throbbing organs to a glorious, shared climax. When Barion’s breathing slows and I can feel the sticky warmth of his cum trickling out of me, he growls deeply in satisfaction and smothers me with a dominating kiss.
“I needed that,” he pants, finding my underwear and slipping them back up my legs. He gives my crotch a little pat, and I sigh happily at the squelchy feeling of his cum coating my pussy lips.
“Me too,” I admit.
He kisses me again, then just looks me up and down, as though in wonder.
“When all of this is over, I’m going to get you pregnant,” he whispers. “I want to have a baby with you, Melyta. To start a family together.”
“I can't wait,” I whisper back, and we spend the next five minutes trying to break ourselves away from kissing as we envision the future life that is suddenly, impossibly within our reach.
