“Excuse me?” Kur’tok grumbled.

  Assistant 23 stilled when he heard Kur’tok’s voice. It was hard to tell exactly with the tinted face shield, but he seemed to stare right at the big red Maeleon. Suddenly, he burst into tears.

  “Kur’tok, I’m so sorry!” Assistant 23 wailed, slumping miserably on the ground like a slug. “I should’ve stopped Unit 44, but he kept pulling rank on me, saying I was just a dumb intern and I should shut my mouth and let him take care of everything. Then he messed up your brain and made you do that and—oh, god!”

  The three Maeleons and I stood there awkwardly as Assistant 23 crumbled into a sobbing mess. I felt bad for him, but my instincts said he just needed to get it all out. How many years of guilt festered inside him?

  Speaking of festering guilt, I turned to Kur’tok to see his reaction. He must’ve felt a lot of complicated emotions. He looked slightly less annoyed at Assistant 23, but didn’t warm up to him, either.

  “Stand up,” Kur’tok said gruffly.

  Assistant 23 sniffled. He woozily got to his feet. He was taller than me—which wasn’t saying much—and looked skinny beneath the baggy suit. That wasn’t a surprise. Unlike me and my crew, he didn’t live with Maeleons, and therefore had no help to survive. How had he sustained himself all this time?

  “Stop crying,” Kur’tok snapped.

  Assistant 23’s wail cut short. He sniffled again.

  Kur’tok took a moment to gather his words. It was a stark difference to when I first met him and he’d blurted out anything and everything without a filter.

  “What you just said. Is it true?” Kur’tok finally asked. “About wanting to stop Unit 44?”

  Assistant 23 sobered up. “Y-yes. Every word. Please believe me, Kur’tok, I never wanted that to happen to you...”

  Kur’tok flexed and unflexed his fists. I stroked his arm, reminding him I was there. He wasn’t facing this alone.

  “Paz was right, then,” Kur’tok mumbled. “Unit 44 did use me.”

  Hearing him finally realize the truth broke my heart. I hugged him tightly. “I’m so sorry, Kur’tok.”

  Haz’rull and Arr’tow hesitated, then approached him. Their feelers floated over to touch Kur’tok’s shoulders. They wordlessly shared their sympathy and understanding through their feeler-connection.

  Kur’tok shivered, as if feeling things he hadn’t felt for a long time. “Thanks,” he muttered. When we eventually withdrew, he shook off the frazzled emotions. “Tell me, Assistant 23. How are you even alive?”

  Assistant 23 squeaked like a trapped mouse. “Why? Are you going to kill me?”

  “Not unless you keep annoying me,” Kur’tok griped.

  “He’s joking,” I clarified, patting him on the chest. “He looks big and scary, but on the inside, he’s a sweetie pie.”

  He shot me a grumpy look.

  “R-right,” Assistant 23 said. “Well, after it all went down, I got scared and ran away. I expected the villagers to find and kill me next, since I was technically complicit with Unit 44... but they never did. So I hid. And ate whatever weird plants I could find.” He shuffled inside the hazmat suit, as if embarrassed. “Some of them had, er, extremely odd side effects...”

  I cackled. “Oh, no. You ate the aphrodisiac fruit, didn’t you?”

  “How did you know that?” Assistant 23 blurted.

  I grinned. “I’ve eaten it before, too. It’s good stuff.” I wagged my eyebrows at Kur’tok. “Though it’s probably more fun with a partner.”

  Kur’tok frowned. He must’ve been annoyed that he wasn’t there when I ate the horny fruit.

  “And for that matter,” Assistant 23 went on, voice trembling, “how is there another human here?”

  The question stopped me—and Kur’tok.

  “What did you just say?” Kur’tok asked in a low voice.

  “So, I was right,” I said, nodding slowly. “Beneath the suit, you are human.”

  Kur’tok’s tail went rigid. “You knew?”

  “Not for certain, but I was pretty sure.”

  Kur’tok glanced down. His feelers flashed with jarring mismatched colors, pulsing with uneasiness and confusion. “Then... you’re not the first human I’ve met.”

  “No,” I agreed. “Unit 44 and Assistant 23 were.”

  The sound of Unit 44’s name made Kur’tok shudder. He stared at his palms, then clenched his eyes shut.

  I could tell he needed a minute. I took his silence as an opportunity to keep talking with Assistant 23.

  “My ship crash landed here half a year ago,” I explained. “But it was weird. Eukaria didn’t show up on our navigation system. We only saw it with our bare eyes when the systems shut down. For all intents and purposes, Eukaria didn’t exist.” I tapped the translation device in my ear. “But when we spoke to the Maeleons, our ITMs functioned perfectly.”

  Assistant 23 fidgeted with his hands. “Um... that’s because of me.”

  My brows raised. “Huh?”

  “Our mission was top secret. Even back then, nobody knew about Eukaria except a couple high-ranking officers. I was just an intern, but I wasn’t totally useless, no matter what Unit 44 told me...” He cleared his throat. “I’m a linguist. My job was to learn the local language and add it to the ITM database, which I succeeded at.”

  “Whoa! That’s really cool, man,” I said.

  “Um... thanks. But that’s not all I can do.” He looked around nervously, then spoke in a whisper. “I’m also a hacker.”

  “What?”

  He rubbed the back of his head. “It’s been my hobby since I was young, so I brought my tools with me. It wasn’t really, uh, public knowledge. Anyway, it had nothing to do with our mission. But when everything went horribly wrong...” He paused. “I knew I had to stop anybody else from coming here. So, I deleted Eukaria from the space-faring map database.”

  “You can do that?” I blurted.

  For the first time since I’d met Assistant 23, he seemed a little proud of himself. “Not just anyone. But I can. Anyway, I didn’t bother deleting all my hard work on the language module, since I figured nobody would find Eukaria in the first place.”

  “Wow! You’re amazing, dude!”

  “N-not really.”

  “Yeah, you are.”

  “No, I—”

  “Enough of all this nonsense talk,” Kur’tok growled, addressing the meek man. “If you’re also a puny human like Paz, how have you survived all this time?”

  Assistant 23 rubbed his suit-covered arm. “Well, um... Years ago, I noticed that the old community vegetable garden had come back to life.”

  Kur’tok’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “The ashes must’ve protected the baby plants from scavengers. Since then, they’ve grown strong and tall. I’ve been taking one or two veggies a day from the new ones.”

  Kur’tok shook his head. “I didn’t even see them.”

  “You were too far away,” Assistant 23 pointed out sheepishly. “If you went into the village proper, you would’ve noticed, too.”

  Emotions swam across Kur’tok’s face. This was a lot to take in all at once. I could only hope that it swayed his perspective for the better.

  “I wish to see them,” Kur’tok said quietly. “Will you come with me, Paz?”

  I smiled. “You didn’t even have to ask.”

  We returned to his old village. Arr’tow, Haz’rull, and Assistant 23 came with us. The other Maeleons hadn’t been here since the incident, either; I figured this was emotional for everybody involved.

  Kur’tok wandered through the village as if in a dream. He seemed hesitant to touch anything, or even exist in the space. While he got his bearings, I quickly found one of the old vegetable gardens. I gasped.

  “Kur’tok, look!” I cried.

  My voice shook him from his trance. He rushed to my side. “What?” He sucked in a breath. “Oh.”

  He saw the same thing I did—fresh green stalks with ripe vegetables dangling from the stems. The plants rose triumphantly into the air, almost as if to say, “We’re alive!”

  Kur’tok’s eyes flashed. He slowly sank to his knees. His shaky hands reached out to caress the leaves tenderly, like greeting an old friend.

  He didn’t speak for a long while. As I waited, I noticed the breeze tickling my face and the sun warming my skin. It was a beautiful day. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It smelled like spring. Green leaves, unfurled flower petals, ripe vegetables and fruits.

  A pleasant shiver ran across my skin. Had the environment always smelled so nice? It almost felt like something within me had changed...

  “Paz,” Kur’tok said.

  I drifted back to reality. I glanced at my mate.

  “Yeah?” I asked.

  His red eyes wavered, but his voice was reinforced with finality. “I’m ready to return.”

  16 / Kur’tok

  We spent one more night in my territory. No—my current home. If I wanted to integrate back with Maeleon society, I had to stop thinking like that. ‘Territory’ was a word Unit 44 taught me, along with many other things. It was time to let it go.

  After we all returned from the old village, I felt melancholic and uneasy. Change was scary. I hated it. When things stayed the same, I knew exactly what to expect. Day in, day out.

  But change felt less scary with Paz beside me. He gave me the courage to crawl out of my spiked shell. If it weren’t for him, I’d be shouting orders at my ‘underlings’ and stewing in misplaced rage.

  It still felt strange. I’d been me for eight long cycles. Was it really okay to choose to be something else?

  While everybody spoke about the next steps, I slumped into my ‘throne’. The smooth tree roots were comfortable in their familiarity, but I was exhausted. Everything weighed on me like an adult pandar slumped across my chest. I shut my eyes and sighed.

  Something damp nuzzled my hand. I glanced at Kookee, who inspected my closed fist for treats. I still couldn’t believe its transformation. It looked like a completely different beast; its fur was glossy and clean. The coarse knots and thick oily texture were gone. It even looked happier. All because Paz had convinced me to change its diet to the correct one.

  I clenched my eyes shut, sinking deeper into my seat. Unit 44 had drilled the importance of eating meat into me. He’d said the strong ate flesh. Only pathetic weaklings survived without it. And I’d trusted him without a single doubt...

  Was anything he said true?

  Kookee rumbled. Its velvety lips grazed my hand, wanting attention. I stroked its fuzzy chin.

  “Don’t worry,” I murmured. “You’re coming with us, too. I would never leave you behind.”

  “Hey, Kur’tok!”

  Paz’s voice filled me with a ribbon of relief. It didn’t matter how disastrous my mood was—hearing him always made me feel better.

  He ran up, panting. His arms were full of a peculiar yet familiar fruit, its shape oblong and suggestive. Seeing that kind caught me by surprise.

  “You know what those are, right?” I asked.

  Paz huffed. “Of course I know! I ate them before, remember?”

  “Right. The fruit that makes you horny.” I smirked. “As if you need help with that.”

  Paz rolled his eyes as he sidled up closer to me. “Well, I thought it’d be fun if we had a night to ourselves. Y’know, like to celebrate our time here in your territory.”

  I grimaced. “Don’t call it that.”

  He chuckled. “Fine. This beautiful temporary home.” He gestured to the waterfall, the grass, the den—and dropped a couple fruits in the process. “Whoa!”

  I snatched them with my tentacles before they hit the ground. “You know, this is a lot of fruit,” I teased in a low growl. “It’s like you want to get aroused out of your mind.”

  Paz blushed. “Maybe I do.”

  A flicker of pleasure licked my insides. I looped my arm around his lower back and pulled him towards me. “Don’t tease me, flesh-bag.”

  “I’m not teasing you. I’m horny, and I want you to fuck me nasty style,” Paz declared. “Have I made myself—”

  Before he finished, I crushed our mouths together. The words melted on his tongue as he moaned. He went limp in my grip, letting me grasp his hips with both hands. He was soft and pliable as always, but his body felt slightly different in my hands.

  I didn’t think about it too hard. Kissing him felt so good that my mind instantly fogged with lust.

  Paz leaned his weight into me in a silent display of trust. Even in my crazed arousal, I held his tiny body with great care. He was mine to care for, to protect. I’d do anything for him. My clawed fingers dug into his plush skin, possessive yet tender.

  He felt... bigger.

  Paz moaned as he kissed me. He sounded dazed already. “Damn, I haven’t even eaten any of these fruits yet.”

  I was half tempted to smack the fruits away with my tail, but if my filum wanted sex while intoxicated by the fruit, that was fine by me.

  “D’you want one?” Paz offered.

  I eyed the purple fruit in his hand suspiciously—not because of its effects, but because I hadn’t eaten a fruit in a very long time. As if to tease me, Paz took a bite of it without breaking hypnotic eye contact. The juices spilled sensually down his lips.

  Growling, I leaned forward to lap up the juice with my long tongue. Paz shivered.

  The judgment in my brain turned off. My tongue curled around the fruit in Paz’s hand and I took it from him. The fruit tasted vivid and sweet, flooding my mouth with its syrupy fluids. Instantly, I reverted to some primal state of being. My skin felt prickly with heat. Whatever lust had gripped me before intensified a hundredfold. I wanted to grab Paz, throw him to the ground, and mount him like a pandar in rut.

  Another deep growl vibrated in my chest. “Does all fruit taste this good?” I muttered.

  Paz grinned. “Pretty much. But this one makes you feel awesome, doesn’t it?”

  “Hmph.”

  I lifted Paz into my lap while I reclined in my seat. If this was the last night on my throne, I’d use it well.

  The fruit’s effects already flared in my system. My cock felt strained within its inner chamber, rapidly growing too large to fit. I shuddered as my slit parted and it emerged into the cool air.

  Paz stared at it hungrily, his eyes rounded with excitement. Since his biology was different than mine, he was consistently fascinated by my cock. His eyes glittered as he watched it rise to its full length.

  Then a crumb of awareness seemed to float back to his mind.

  “What if everyone sees us?” he asked, halfheartedly glancing over his shoulder. The others were nearby somewhere, but I couldn’t see them from my angle.

  I grunted. “Who cares.”

  Paz thought about it for a moment, then faced me with his full attention. He took a final bite of the fruit and swallowed it. “You’re right.” He pulled out another one. “More?”

  I had less reservations the second time. Or I was too horny to care. My tongue flicked out to snatch the fruit. As my fangs pierced it, I realized the fruit was fleshy and satisfying in its own right. Maybe I could get used to the texture and taste faster than I assumed.

  As I gulped it down, my insides tingled with heat. My cock twitched in the air. Paz had to shift in my lap so it didn’t take up all the room. He was comically small beside it. I still didn’t understand how it fit the first time.

  As my eyes grazed over my filum, I realized he did look different. My senses hadn’t deceived me. There was a soft curve to his hips and belly that wasn’t there before. But how was that possible? I’d filled him to the brim with pollen, yes, but that was only days ago. Surely he couldn’t already be pregnant?

  Paz swallowed another bite of the fruit. His voice was breathy, his eyes half-lidded with arousal. “You noticed it too, huh?” He ran his other hand across his soft belly. “It doesn’t feel real, does it?”

  “No,” I admitted.

  He grinned. “I told you humans can get impregnated by Maeleons.”

  “Hmph. I won’t be convinced until you’re as round as this fruit.”

  Paz blushed. “Fine. You’ll see soon enough.”

  To shut me up, he placed both palms on my shaft. A loud groan escaped me. I tossed my head back against the roots, arching my back into his touch. The smooth softness of his palms felt incredible against my sensitive cock. It twitched and jerked, seeking more attention.

  Paz breathed hard as he drew closer. The sight of his face directly next to my cock sent a jolt of arousal down my spine.

  “Put your mouth on it,” I growled.

  Paz grinned proudly, like he’d been waiting for me to ask. He parted his lips in a slow, sensual motion. When he finally put them on my cock, I snarled with pleasure. The wet heat of Paz’s mouth made my claws curl and scrape against the roots.

  Paz adjusted himself. “Here, lemme just...”

  He threw his legs over my shaft so he straddled it, sandwiched in the space between my cock and my chest. As his naked body heat seeped into me, I felt intensely charged with sexual tension.

  Paz leaned forward to hug my cock. I ground my teeth so I wouldn’t cry out. Fuck, his soft body felt amazing.

  Paz flashed me a grin over his shoulder. Meanwhile, he rubbed himself all over me in tortuously pleasurable motions. His hands and bare thighs caressed my sensitive cock in a literal full-body massage.

  I panted heavily through my fangs. The fruit’s aphrodisiac effects were in full swing. I was so aroused I couldn’t even think. All I wanted to do was blow my load all over Paz. Across his face, his back, his insides... anywhere and everywhere. He was mine.

  I grabbed Paz’s waist from behind and bucked my hips back and forth, rubbing my erection against his chest and belly. I was delirious at how good it felt.

  Paz moaned as he brushed his soft lips against my throbbing shaft. His face was flushed and his eyes were glassy with arousal. As I moved my hips, I felt Paz’s small hard cock poking into mine.