Chapter 51

POV Kaleo

Cirion is as tall as I am, and despite being a scientist, he's neither weak nor small. But he knows that if this male provokes me, he won't leave here alive; he knows the physical capabilities of an Azuri to react. We are a species considered very dangerous, known for our volatility.

"You'll end up trapping yourself inside your house, savage. It's better to stick with what you already have; a basic system is more than enough," he sneers. My growl intensifies, and Cirion extends his arms, ready to stop me if I lunge.

When these sons of bitches try to put the Azuris down, they call us "savages," and it's not that the word itself affects me, because we really do things our own way here. But I know it's an insult, and I'm not stupid, I won't accept it, especially in front of my female.

"We have a signed agreement," I say each word slowly and low, already calculating what I need to do to bring him down.

There's a knife in a hidden pocket of my pants, and I'm ready to drive it into the neck of this much skinnier male than Cirion, who has short white hair and wears a full gray suit from head to toe to stay warm enough to survive on Selvaria.

"No one here is your employee to give you everything you need," he continues with his cutting words, trying to belittle and humiliate me, but at this point, the fire inside me is beginning to burn hot. "Develop your own technology and stop being savage and stupid, maybe..."

"Shut up or I'll burn you alive, Faleu," I interrupt his sentence still speaking very low, hoarse, and let the dense, dark smoke pour out of my nostrils, something he clearly wasn't expecting.

Most Azuris don't breathe fire; it's very rare and highly lethal, and now he seems to finally realize that.

"Calm down, Kaleo," Cirion speaks quietly, and I narrow my eyes to glare at him.

"He's disrespecting me, and you know that!" I growl in response, while the putrid scent of Salton's fear starts to fill the place.

But I also notice that Melissa's fear is spreading too, and that holds me back a bit. My poor female is looking from this other male to me, not knowing what to expect, so I stretch out my arm, touch her shoulder, and pull her closer. Then she wraps her arms around my waist and presses against me, still silent but paying very close attention.

If she weren’t here, maybe I would have already lost control. I hate these outsiders with all my being, and anything is a reason to want to kill them, because they interfered in my people's war and still haven't solved our issue with the females. But now I have a female to protect, and I need to be more prudent.

"Salton is new; he doesn't know how things work here," Cirion continues, keeping his false calm tone because unlike the idiot male, he knows very well who he's talking to. "They have access to all our technology, Salton, they're fulfilling the agreement," he clarifies, and in response, the other male growls but stops talking.

"Come with me to the storage, Kaleo, leave Salton here. I'll give you everything you need, immobilizing cannons, motion detectors, a better system to lock the doors. Everything you want will be given for your protection."

I know he's being this generous just to divert my attention from the male in front of me, but I also don't want to hurt anyone unless necessary, because if an Azuri harms a Faleu without a big reason, it jeopardizes the entire peace treaty.

"Come with me, Melissa," I say, with my arm around her back, ready to take her with me.

"It’s better if she doesn’t go, Kaleo, the weapons room is monitored by the central command, and they’ll know you have a human here." Cirion reminds me that weapons are always stored with great care, and I let out a loud breath from how angry I am.

I know he’s right, but the thought of leaving Melissa behind with this male makes my fire burn even hotter, and I can’t let go of my female. I stay still, showing my fangs and growling at the stupid Faleu, waiting to see if he’ll have the audacity to try something more. And the male stares back, obviously very tense too, but not swallowing his arrogance. He still maintains a dominant stance, not lowering his head.

"Kaleo? Come on, my brother won’t do anything, I promise." Cirion reveals the relationship to the stupid male, and now that I know the other is his brother, I can trust his word a little more.

Also, if Salton does anything to my little wife, he knows he’s sentencing himself to death.

"Hold this until I return." I take my hidden knife and give it to Melissa, who promptly accepts it, then gives a short nod, like a soldier receiving a mission.

***

POV Melissa

Being in here feels like returning a little to my "original planet." This post looks a lot like a spaceship, the walls are made of gray, sturdy metal, there are no windows, and everything here smells of chemicals.

This place is exactly like where I was born and worked my whole life, which, to be honest, doesn’t make me happy. Up until now, I’ve been exploring a more “natural” world, like a human should live. But returning to a more alien place like this doesn’t make me comfortable, especially now, remembering Diana, the girl that Unob bought to take my place.

I met her for only a few minutes, but I left thinking I could return and help her later. The poor thing was abducted from Earth and must still feel out of place. But I've been dealing with so many problems since landing on this planet, so many doubts, that I only remembered her now. I hope the poor girl is better off than me, and maybe I can talk to the good faleu to try and help her.

"How did you end up here?" — the faleu's voice snaps me out of my thoughts, and I refocus on the asshole who thought he could step on Kaleo.

I was watching for the moment when my big blue guy would jump on this idiot and rip him to pieces, and to be honest, I was even rooting for it to happen. I’m usually a pretty stressed person, but I hold it together when I need to. But something about this guy’s audacity awakened a deep hatred in me.

"Marriage contract," — I answer curtly, my fingers tightly gripping the rustic knife with a wooden handle, sitting in a swivel chair in the corner.

When I arrived here, I was determined to ask if they had condoms and was sure I would figure out where Selvaria's ships leave. All this unprotected sex might get me pregnant, especially with my heat.

But now, alone with this guy Salton, I don’t want to ask anything anymore. I’m watching every move the alien makes across the room, and one misplaced comma will be enough to make me start screaming.

"Marriage contract with this guy?" — He points to the door Kaleo passed through. — "What bad luck, human. You should have joined the program for wives of faleus, it pays really well, and you don’t have to deal with… all this." — He gestures around.

Technically, I would have joined that program, but I’d prefer not to admit that out loud. I think the heat must be affecting my body, just like Kaleo said it would in the bathtub, and it’s amplifying not only my arousal but also my hatred.

"All this?" — I raise an eyebrow.

"This planet is hell, getting food here is nearly impossible, and it’s easier to have a civilized conversation with the forest animals than with these savages!" — He says again, using the word "savage" while fiddling with a hologram, but I can tell by the purple blush on his cheeks that he’s terrified of Kaleo showing up here and making him pay for being an idiot.

"Why are you here then?" — I ask, since he won’t shut up.

Meanwhile, I feel my anger growing inside me. The way he thought he could belittle Kaleo hasn’t gone down well.

"Work, just like you." — He shrugs. — "But when my contract ends, I can leave. Yours is forever. Savages marry for life." — He smiles maliciously, bragging about me.

I think if I had fire inside me, smoke would be coming out of my nostrils right now. I hate this guy, and I haven’t even known him for ten minutes.

And I don’t know how, but now I’m even smelling it, and honestly? It’s making me feel nauseous, it’s so bad. But Kaleo said this could happen too, females and males in heat only like the scent of their partners.

"Look, I know how humans are, my brother was in love with one, and I don’t think you fit in here." — He says, and I’m almost sure this is an insult because his idea of what a human is can’t be much better than he thinks the azuris are. — "So, if you want, you can stay with me here until I finish my contract, and then..."

"You want me to marry you?!" — I interrupt his sentence, incredulous at his proposal.

"Fuck no! God forbid!" — He lets out an ironic laugh that only makes me angrier and looks away from the hologram to me, even though I know he’s paying close attention to me, even if he’s not looking directly at me all the time. — "Don’t get me wrong, but I’m not in the mood for marriage anytime soon. I just thought we could… have some fun." — He says, and I wish I could use that knife right now. — "Then I’ll let you go with some brons and a ticket to any planet with a less savage population."

I feel my face and neck heat up instantly, from pure rage. This asshole doesn’t even know me, he doesn’t even know I used to be a camgirl, but just because I’m human, he thinks I’ll want to play prostitute for him.

"Who do you think you are?" — I say through clenched teeth, with rage making my mouth even bitter.

"Don’t play dumb, you know you humans don’t stand a chance surviving on your own. And that azuri male there is more animal than anything, when he gets tired of you, he’ll pass you on to some weird brother of his."

After saying all this as if it’s no big deal, he even smiles. The idiot is smiling and treating this like some damn joke!

Holy shit, I want to kill him!

But I’m not going to let Salton win, I’m not going to let him insult me or insult Kaleo. If all he knows how to do is insult people’s honor, I’m going to teach him some new insults.

"In what parallel reality do you live to think I’d trade someone like Kaleo for an idiot like you? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror today, Salton?" — I ask slowly, pronouncing each word carefully, and I look him up and down, letting all my contempt for his proposal show on my face. — "I’d rather die than be touched by a little shit with a small dick like you."

As soon as I finish my sentence, the purple on his cheeks deepens even more, which means I hit my target.

"What did you say to me, bitch?" — He has trouble speaking, the words come out low and choked, because he probably wasn’t expecting a response like mine at all. He expected me to lower my head just because he’s a faleu.

"You wouldn’t last a day on Selvaria alone because everything you have came from mommy and daddy." — I say sarcastically, and the faleu’s purple hue intensifies. — "Meanwhile, everything Kaleo has, he earned. He’s a war general, not a useless piece of shit like you."

I let all my hatred pour out on him, all the rage I’ve felt for aliens throughout my life, and how now I owe everything to Kaleo, and I know damn well the giant wouldn’t reproach me, so I feel more than free to insult this bastard.

"I’ll kill you, and when your shitty general attacks me, he’ll be locked up for life! It’s in the damn treaty, your savages can’t attack us!" — He snarls with disdain and strides across the room quickly.

"Ilisoil bomb!" — I yell before he gets really close, and he’s less than half a meter from me, his four arms ready to grab me.