Wednesday Briefs: Denied Chapter 80

Captain held me tight, his body wedged behind mine. His breath heated my neck, and his hips were rocking the hard bar pressed tight to my ass in subtle surges. I went from lazy grogginess to aching need in seconds. My shaft filled, the skin behind my balls literally aching with the need to be touched.

A heated sigh and shudder left me. “Captain.”

“Hmm?” He nuzzled my neck.

“You awake?” Part of him was.

His arm slid down my stomach. “Hmm, you are. You need me?”

“I want you.” I always needed him, but I wanted him too. The weight behind my ear shifted, and the synthgar’s pinch sent a lance of heat through me. My eyelids grew heavy, but I didn’t want to look away from the strong fingers I was twining with mine. That he let me touch him, squeezed our hands together even, was priceless.

I couldn’t see the tiny creature move to Captain, but the bond between us flared and his hips surged against my ass as he gasped.

“Ahh, Kohen.” Captain’s fingers stroked my cheek, my lips, as he tilted my head sideways to look into my eyes. “You’re amazing.”

What I felt from him… he wiped the dark places inside me clean with the pure joy and heat beaming through our bond. I needed him closer, and I didn’t even have to say it. Captain stretched past me and reached for lubricant.

Snick. Squish. Slick rubbing. Panting. The sounds of sex took the place of words we didn’t need to say as Captain played my body exquisite sureness. His arm under me stroked my chest, grazing my right nipple with the edge of his thumbnail.

I arched my back and then exhaled in a long ahh as his slick fingers found my entrance and danced over the tight flesh. He pressed without entering until I pushed back, then he slid his finger inside in a long, slow glide.

Still new, it ached and forced my walls to part, but I was so intent on the feelings he was delivering to me through our bond and as he strummed my body, I was too busy processing all the exquisite sensations to focus on the pain of the stretching.

No, I knew what was coming and I couldn’t wait.

“Please,” I exhaled on a whisper. He was in so much need, I didn’t know how he was holding back. “Now.”

Captain grabbed more lube, then he rolled me over. “Want you face to face.”

“’Kay.” He hovered between my legs on his knees. Captain leaned forward on one fist shoved in the bedding over my shoulder, the other wrapped around his erection as he breached me, his eyes watching with need, the same need I felt wrapping around us both through our bond.

It wasn’t enough that I was feeling him entering me, each fraction of his rosy head piercing my core and then inch after inch of his shaft… no, I could feel my stretched rim squeezing him like a hand wrapped tight, then soft, warm walls pressing against the sides, top, and bottom of his shaft and easing the path as the lube spread.

He lost it the last few inches and sank in deep, thudding our bodies together. I curled up, crying out, and he froze.

“Again!” I demanded. He always treated me as if I was about to break, but this time, this time I needed more. He needed to fill me, consume me, take me roughly.

Thank the stars for our bond because I clutched at him but didn’t have to say anything more. The lazy rhythm I woke to and that he’d stretched me with was gone, and Captain followed both our desires to completion.



We fell back asleep, still wrapped together, messy, my body and his smelling of each other’s lust. It was doomed from the start, however, as duty reared its ugly head. We were pinged not nearly long enough later to overcome my exhaustion—or Captain was.

“Sir, we’re receiving massive amounts of incoming messages directed to your eyes only. Freska has handled what she could but—”

Captain sighed. “I understand. I’ll be there shortly.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, holding the blanket beneath my chin. Captain stroked my hip. “Sorry. We knew this would probably happen; Freska did release a doozy of a message on the universe.”

He probably should’ve been working since the moment we got back to the ship. Everyone else had been, it sounded like. “Sorry I distracted you.”

“Hey,” Captain said. He leaned down, kissing me, parting my lips, teasing my tongue. He pulled away reluctantly. “I needed to reconnect with you after that just as much as you needed me. This bond between us is important and needs to be nurtured. We can’t just ignore it. I don’t want to, even if we could. Okay?”

I nodded. “Okay.” I rolled onto my back to watch him dress. “What do you think the messages say? Who are they from?”

“Planetary leaders. Central Council members. All wanting to know how Elites are real, how we found out about their plans, why we didn’t contact a committee, is it really true, what are we going to do now, come in for debriefing, demands for information sharing, calls for justice for and against us, conscription.”

At the last one, I jolted up. “Can they do that?”

“No.” Captain shook his head. “Central cannot compel our military service once we’ve been released, and every single person on this ship has been released.”

“Except me. And Danie. Oh my god, what if they demand you hand over me and Danie?”

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J Alan Veerkamp

Carol Pedroso

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Denied Chapter 79

I didn’t know if that was possible. Safety was an illusion. There was always someone or something bigger out there. And the whole universe would be in an uproar after what Freska revealed. “Does it have to be us?” I asked.

“Do you trust anyone else?” he asked me quietly. He rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs.

“No.” I sighed. I didn’t even really trust Anyas, not after his performance. How much had been an act as he tried to stay as true to our original plans as possible of revealing the Elite’s plans to the universe by bouncing the signal off the ship’s A.I. network versus his clear obeisance to Rilecca and her father? He was a consummate actor and politician—able to play both sides and jump wherever and whenever it benefitted him.

Still… he’d helped us. He’d benefit from it; already he was talking to Freska, attempting to consolidate power and information. Deke stood over the pitiful old man. Danie watched everything dispassionately.

Did he care that we’d been used? What we’d done, how we’d had our free will taken away? Maybe he’d known freedom for too short of a time, or maybe he was more machine than human and it didn’t really register.

I wanted to grab onto Captain and never let go, but my hands were stained. Blood had splashed down my front. I couldn’t even let him squeeze me to him, take comfort in more than his hands touching me.

“Do we have to stay here?” The urgent need to wash away the taint of violence consumed me.

“No. Anyas, we are going to retreat to our ship. The documents and agreements have been signed; we will deliver our copies to Central Command. I’m sure someone will have taken charge there by the time we get back and will be prepared to oversee a response. Freska will ping your system for updates as needed to ensure you’ve taken control and are ensuring the retreat of any forces and influences under Elite control as soon as possible.”

Even I could hear the implied threat—do as you promised or Freska would find out. And we might have needed Anyas’s help for this mission, but we’d come back with the might of many behind us if he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain or tried to take the same path Rilecca thought to.

“He goes with us.” Deke hauled up Lord whoever. His shattered leg wouldn’t hold him, so Deke dragged him, ignoring his mewling whines. I almost protested, but then I remembered all the times I suffered, all the men and women I’d hurt or killed, and all the people who were still suffering because of the monster. All my sympathy dried up and I stared at him with hard eyes.

“Shut up or I will let Captain cut our your tongue so we don’t have to listen to you, even if I don’t have to worry about you taking control of my brain,” I hissed. “I lived with more pain than that on a daily basis.”



Back on the ship, Captain escorted me to our room.

“Don’t you need to go command things?” I said with a wave of my hand. I desperately wanted to shower.

“No. Someone else can take care of it.” Captain looked deep in my eyes. “I’m exactly where I need to be.” He reached out and released the catch on my shirt, spreading the fabric.

“I can do that!” I rushed to say. He didn’t need to touch the stained fabric.

“So can I,” he replied. He didn’t speak again, just removed the rest of my clothes methodically, then led me with an arm around my waist into the shower. He didn’t touch my hands, somehow sensing that would be too much for me.

As soon as the water was warm, Captain drew me into the stream. It was so rare to feel a hot water bathing, I relished the heat and wet. We didn’t speak as Captain took hold of both my wrists and held my hands in the water. The drops streamed down, beating on the flesh and washing away the rusty stains and darkness.

Captain grabbed soap and lathered it up, suds coating his hands. The first touch of the slippery bubbles and his firm fingers massaging my hands sent a shudder down my spine. I watched intently as he washed the palms and backs of my hands, then carefully scrubbed each finger, leaving no spot uncleaned.

Unclean.

“Oh, Kohen, you aren’t….” Captain held my hands under the water with his and let the suds rinse away, then pulled me in close. Heat and the unique musk of his skin surrounded me as he read my mind, or maybe the tears I hadn’t realized were streaming down my face.

Sobs clawed at my throat, the screams of rage and betrayal and fear swamping me and the soothing love he tried to send me.

If I could have, I would burrow into him, but all I could do was cling to Captain and the reassurance I could feel him trying to share with me through our bond. I could feel it, feel him. He was sad, sorry that he hadn’t protected me, guilty at his failure…

“You didn’t fail.” I gulped, looking up at him with burning eyes.

“I didn’t listen. You told me a long time ago what you were afraid of, and it happened. That’s on me.” Captain’s arms were like steel bands. “I couldn’t feel you. You were locked away from me. It was like our bond was broken, even though I could see you in the room with me.”

Maybe I wasn’t the only one to suffer when Rilecca took control of my brain. I snuggled in closer to him. “You couldn’t have known. It wasn’t something we predicted. Freska saved me and Danie. We’re safe now.” I held him just as tight as he held me.

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J Alan Veerkamp

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Denied Chapter 78

“If you want to kill your father, do it yourself!” Freska demanded. “But my friends are not your pawns. And before you even think to order those guards to do anything to us, know that I have skills you did not even know I possessed. Did you wonder what I was doing before you pretended to wake up? Do you know I don’t need to touch electronic systems once they’ve let me in? I know that this whole place is wired for vid and sound.” 

Rilecca gaped at her. “What?”

“See, I figured you would need proof of them killing your father, which meant you’d record it. That meant there had to be a recording system even in this chamber where the council met. I asked the building AI to access the system and broadcast it. Live. So your plan might have been to pretend to mourn and take your father’s place, but now your people know the truth.”

“So?” Rilecca hissed. “I still hold the power. My father’s generation is done; I have allies and we will take over.” She straightened, planting a smirk on her face. “This is even better. I have my father to plumb for even more information, but my people will respect my power. They will respect my ability to see a plan through and fall in line behind me so I don’t take them down for getting in my way. And we still control Brox and your Central Council. What if I don’t change our role in the universe like you so naively believed I would? What if we just keep taking over planets and systems?”

“See, the AI gave me all that information too. And I asked it to not just broadcast to your planet, but to connect to my ship’s A.I. which your father failed to neutralize when they towed it here. My ship is equipped with custom systems I designed; this was broadcasting to the entire vid network. That means a live vid of all your information is bouncing out among the stars. Right. Now.” Freska stood tall and triumphant, holding Danie to her. “You lose, you and all you damn Elite bastards who thought they could just take what they wanted and damn the rest of the universe in the process!”

For the first time Rilecca looked truly shocked. She staggered, and one of the guards rushed to her. “My lady, your orders?”

She gasped. “Kill them!”

“I don’t think so!” Anyas stepped in front of the group and pressed something on his belt. A shield went up, the shimmer just visible as it rose from the floor to the ceiling. “Back up,” he hissed. “Corner. Now.”

Captain and Deke fanned out, more of the undetectable weapons in their hands. Had they had them the whole time? Anyas grinned over his shoulder at me. “They really need to learn to search Elites better. I am not nearly as padded as they seem to think life on that frozen wasteland made me.”

Blasts ricocheted off the shield and hit the walls and ceiling. Powder and bits of the building flew through the air, and that did make it through the shield. I started coughing, doubling over.

“Kohen, are you okay?” Captain glanced over his shoulder.

I nodded and waved my hand, unable to talk. I just wanted this to be over.

Deke stepped out from the shield and shot, winging a guard, then he darted back inside. The chaos actually helped as the screams and mess from the three guards’ shots added to the confusion, letting Deke and Captain take them out one by one.

That just left Rilecca hiding behind the chairs and her father who was slumped on the floor by the table. “Kill order, Captain?” Deke asked.

He hesitated. Deke closed ranks, and they started saying something that wasn’t filtering in to the mess that was spinning inside my brain. Then Rilecca’s head popped up and she made a break for the door. A flurry of activity took us all by surprise when Anyas dropped the shield, jumped forward, scooped up the weapon that had fallen from one guard’s hands and shot her, right in the back.

Blood bloomed on her gown at the base of her neck and her arms flew outward. Rilecca’s initial wail cut off with a wet gurgle, and she fell to the ground. The wound on her back was small, but the pool of blood under her head and chest spread rapidly.

Anyas turned, gun held ready, and pointed it at her father, the only surviving Elite in the room besides him.

“No!” Danie said. “He knows things. Information. We need him.”

“I thought we had her.” Anyas gestured toward Freska with his free hand, not taking his sights off the aged Elite. “She can talk to all the computers; nothing is secret or protected from her.”

“Freska has been trying to unlock my memories, and there’s stuff in here I know he is responsible for. The things he did… he’s a monster, but killing him helps no one and could damage our ability to unravel his plans.” Danie was calm, rational.

I wasn’t. “It would help me!” My chest was heaving. “He has to die. He knows how to take control of us. He can’t… no one should be able to do that.” My voice broke. Captain tossed his weapon to Deke and rushed to me. He pulled me into his arms, and I clung to him. I buried my face in his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Shh,” he murmured.

Freska turned. “No, Kohen, you’re safe. I broke the conditioning, once I found the keys from the AI here. No one can do that to you again. I’m sorry, but Danie’s right. There’s much still to unravel.”

Captain pulled back. “We’ll put him in restraints. Gag him. Cut out his tongue. Whatever you need.” He cupped my face. “Never again, Kohen. I’ll make you feel safe.”

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J Alan Veerkamp

Carol Pedroso

Julie Lynn Hayes

Wednesday Briefs: Denied Chapter 77

“We will discuss that more later.” Rilecca’s father sat in a chair pulled up at the center of the long table. It was actually set up higher than the other chairs so he could look down on everyone. He shifted his gaze to Anyas who stood to one side of the group, a weapon in his hand. “Lord Anyas, we worried for a time that you were harmed by these beings.” He raised one brow and pursed narrow, dry lips. “Or, perhaps, working with them.”

“I would not be so careless as to align myself with beings who couldn’t help me achieve my aims.”

“Be that as it may, you are in chambers with the council and none may be armed here but our guard. I’m curious how you came by a weapon that bypassed the security sweeps.” He gestured to one of the two guards waiting to guard the chamber from outside the doors once they were dismissed.

“A simple precaution based on what I knew of these barbarians, your eminence.” Anyas bowed and released the weapon he held to the guard who came to take it from him. “Nothing that could harm an Elite with our superior system.”

“We are not inferior,” Captain seethed.

“Such a statement is so patently false that I cannot be bothered to argue the point.” The old Elite waved a hand, and in that motion, I saw the similarity between the father and daughter. Their coloring was nothing alike, their features weren’t shared. But their mannerisms… the coldness, the arrogance. Locked in my brain, I could only observe and hate.  

Plot my revenge.

If I did anything else, I’d start screaming in fear and not stop.

“I do not know why you are without your guards, Rilecca, but we can address that later. I see you have my assets subdued. Odd how that seems to have happened, since you were not allowed to assist in that project.”

“Subdued?” Her eyes went wide. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Do you think that Captain Querry would let his lover stand so far from him? That his security chief wouldn’t take up a guard position? That the AI wouldn’t be drawn like metal to a magnet to the hybrid?” He joined his fingers together, tapping the forefingers slowly. “And those blank stares are not human expressions, and I have scientists who did a very good job to make them human.”

“Really? From the records I read, the scientists did a lot of work to dehumanize him. Then you threw him into a cell. I had Anyas to protect me. The guards who broke in cowed them. They cannot fight back without losing. This is what defeat looks like, Father.” Her tinkling laugh fell flatly in the room.

Murmurs from the others and frowns were directed at Rilecca. Her father shook his head. “You admit to reading records? Then expect me to believe you are ignorant? You have no head for intrigue and deception.”

Rilecca tilted her head. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Father,” she said airily. “See, you might enjoy these little verbal jousts and games, but I am not afraid of your threats anymore. And I have deceived you far more than you know.” Her smile turned wicked, her wide eyes narrowed in the hate and spite that dripped off her tongue. “And death shall be the reward for your ignorance.”

A spate of that language flew from her, words I once again didn’t understand but didn’t need to for my body to act. Every motion was so swift the room passed by in a blur. I yanked the heavy metal table from its legs and used the slab to crush the council members to the right against their chairs. They flew into the wall behind them, all three bisected nearly in half as the metal hit and wedged through them and into the cream stone that crushed beneath its weight.

Danie moved like an automaton, stiff and unyielding. He grabbed the two members on the left, one in each hand, and lifted them from their chairs. They clawed at his hands, their nails gouging his skin, but beneath the flesh was metal and wires, not nerves, and he betrayed no pain as he crushed their lean throats. He dropped them, leaving them to gurgle and spit frothy blood as they died breathlessly on the edge of the dais.

Without the table in the way, I was able to jump from my place and loom over the Elite who had ordered my torture and pain. In a way, I relished the thought of his death. He deserved it. I reached for him as the screams finally began behind us, time catching up to our speed.

I yanked the Elite from his chair, smacking him to his knees so hard I could hear the bone of one ancient knee shatter. He wailed, writhing in my grip.

“No, no, stop. Please don’t kill my father,” Rilecca screamed.

What? That was… she brought us here to kill him! She’d given me the order! Danie stood beside me, his chest barely moving as he blinked slowly. Somehow, in the seconds we’d rampaged, Freska had moved from her place. She stood behind Danie, one hand on his neck, the wires buried in his ports. Like snakes, her wires slithered to me and slid home.

I arched, screaming in pain, my vocal cords my own once again instead of locked away from me by the command of another. She glared at Rilecca. “I won’t let you use them. Not anymore, not ever again.” Then the whispers began, deep inside my mind.

They wiped away the words, untwisting the jumble, breaking the controls. I gasped and let go of Rilecca’s father as Freska released me. I stumbled back, turning, unable to stop seeing the people I’d killed once again.

“No!” Rilecca screamed. “You’re ruining everything!” She stomped her foot. “Guards. Guards!”

Want more flash?

J Alan Veerkamp

Julie Lynn Hayes