An Intergalactic Mate Swap

He took her arm again gently. "Ah cmon, Liz. Do you really think we're the first ones to fantasize sex with another species? Do you know how many humans HAVE had sex with other species? More than you'd expect," he stated matter-of-factly, laughing.

"Besides," he continued, "I think Rajah and Akaya have spent plenty of time fantasizing about us," he chuckled ecstatically.

She looked at him strangely. "What makes you say that?"

"Rajah rather brazenly told me that Akaya finds me attractive. In fact, from what he said, it sounds to me that she has a thing for human men. And, he also told me that he...err, likes your pleasing face, and slender figure, and soft skin.'"

Liz blushed hard and burst out laughing at this. "Those horny fuckers," she chuckled, wiping a tear from her eye.

Mike laughed too, shaking his head. He then turned back toward her with a slightly more serious expression.

"Liz...let's just do it, you know? Maybe we were overreacting before," he said to her.

She shrugged and nodded, brushing her brown hair out of her face.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just go for it. It's only sex, after all. It's not like we're marrying them or anything. What's the worst that can happen?" she replied.

He nodded and reached his hands out, taking hers in his gently.

"Are you sure this is really what you want? After we give them an answer, we're pretty much committed," he sternly said.

She slowly nodded to him. "Yeah, I think this can be good for all of us and it may actually be kind of fun. It can't get any weirder than it already is anyway, right?" she laughed.

He grinned. "No arguments there," he said. His expression than became stoic and he became more serious again, the tone of his voice filled with heartfelt conviction.

"I just want you to know that I can NEVER feel the way about Akaya that I do about you, Liz. She's a good friend, but she could never be a substitute for you. I love you, Liz. You are my life, my everything. Nothing will ever change that," he said without hesitation or shame.

She gave a loving smile at him and immediately pressed her face to his, their lips pressing against each other as they exchanged a passionate kiss.

"Likewise, trooper," she whispered to him.

He gave her a kiss on the cheek and smiled at her, cupping her hands and stroking them for a few moments. Finally, they disengaged and Mike rose to his feet to pick up the telephone: an electronic earpiece situated on the nightstand beside the couches. He inserted it into his ear and dialed the number for Rajah and Akaya's apartment merely one door over. After a few moments, Rajah's smooth voice responded on the other line.

"Rajah...our apartment, nine o'clock tonight, dinner's on us...in more ways than one," Mike said simply before hanging up the phone with a smirk.

Mike turned toward Liz; both he and his wife not knowing what to say now that they were essentially locked into an erotic wifeswap with their best friends later tonight. After a few moments, Mike clapped his hands and walked for the bedroom.

"I guess I should unpack our suitcases since we still have a few hours," he said.

"Right," Liz replied, collecting herself, "I'll, uh...see about getting dinner ready."

She made for the kitchen and gathered assorted silverware for them and their two Kataaran guests. Although they knew what much of their night was going to entail, they both resolved to at least treat it like a special occasion. It was New Year's Eve, after all.

"Hey, uh, excuse me, AI?" Liz asked to the ceiling.

"How may I help you, Liz?" it responded from the ceiling.

"What's the status on those steaks?"

In response, a platter of uncooked steaks was dropped down from the ceiling in a large cylinder-shaped capsule. The capsule hovered above the ground in the kitchen, waiting for Liz to retrieve its contents. She opened it up and pulled out the platter, closing up the capsule afterward, causing it to abruptly retract back into the ceiling.

Liz spun around to observe the state-of-the-art oven and grill situated in their kitchen. Although she did have somewhat of a knack for cooking, Liz admittedly did not recognize many of the buttons and options for these advanced models. She immediately turned to the room's handy AI for needed assistance.

"How much time would these take to cook up, roughly?" Liz asked the AI.

"Cooking and preparation would take approximately eight minutes, Liz," the AI responded.

Liz, amazed at the sheer efficiency of the space-age cooking equipment, took the platter of steaks and put them away into the fridge so that she could cook them later.

"Okay then," she said to herself. "Mike, let me help you with those suitcases!" she yelled into the other room.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A series of knocks resonated from the front door to their apartment just as the timer to the steaks went off on the oven. Liz, donned in an elegant yet liberal black and violent dress and oven mitts, drew out the well-seasoned steaks from the oven after they had just been super-cooked to perfection by the advanced model oven. Mike, dressed in a button-up shirt and slacks, had been setting the dining room table and lighting several candles for the occasion. As soon as he heard the knocking, he dropped what he was doing and rushed to the front door.

Mike smoothed himself out and took a steady breath, before opening the door. He gave a welcome smile to the two familiar Kataarans smiling back at him through their maws as he opened the doors to them.

Both Rajah and Akaya were wearing rather elegant clothing as well, although their origin was more akin to that of their own species. Rajah had a navy blue long-sleeved button-up shirt similar to Mike's, although his had more of a V-neck opening at the top rather than the collar that Mike had on his button-up dress shirt.

Akaya meanwhile was donned in a (also navy blue) dress that was slightly shorter than Liz's, giving more room for her downy brown striped fur to flow across her legs. Her head of brown-auburn hair was left flowing down to her shoulders in silky, wavy locks. Finally, she had only a slight dash of mascara and makeup to highlight her already-striking golden eyes and exotically beautiful face.

Both Kataarans also had a convenient opening on the back of their elegant clothing that allowed their striped tails to sway behind them unhindered. They also both had their silky coating of stripy fur combed down to a near-perfect, silky state. Mike smiled as he took notice of this detail.

"You guys both look great!" he complimented before smirking. "How long did you guys have to spend licking each other to get these results?"

Rajah looked at him for a few moments, blinking with what looked like an irritated expression. Mike dropped his smile as he realized that he may have actually offended his best friend. Rajah then suddenly snarled, baring his array of sharp teeth and claws, causing Mike to flinch and jump.

Rajah retracted his fangs and claws and erupted into laughter, both Akaya and eventually Mike following him suit. Mike rolled his eyes, giving his best friend kudos for the clever retaliation to his joke, shaking his paw in a friendly greeting afterward.

When he turned to Akaya, he gulped as he was briefly infatuated by her beauty. Her golden eyes, coupled with the touching of makeup and her silky exotic fur coating made her extremely pleasing to behold. Her tail swished excitedly behind her as their eyes briefly met. Mike gulped as her grasped her soft hand, planting a light, friendly kiss onto her hand. Mike could smell the exotic yet pleasing scent of a rich Kataaran perfume resonating off of her as he kissed her hand, briefly becoming intoxicated by the sweet aroma. Akaya's cheek fur stood up on end and her whiskers twitched from the friendly gesture of kissing her silky paw.

"Akaya," he said with a nod, blushing afterward, seeing Rajah smirking out of the corner of his eye. He would have been profusely embarrassed in that moment if not for the revelation that the tigress before him was scanning her eyes up and down his body, rubbing her arms as she chewed on her lip with one of her fangs. Clearly, she was enjoying the view as much as he had indulged in his.

Mike was suddenly shaken back to reality when he felt a smack on the back of his head. Liz appeared next to him with her arms crossed and her eyebrows raised.

"What?" Mike asked her, shrugging.

She rolled her eyes. "Put your eyes back into your head, Mike," she laughed, having seen him ogling Akaya.

However, once she turned to her own tiger partner for the evening, she herself was instinctively resorting to blushing as she was absorbed his handsome appearance; his groomed silky orange striped fur, the elegant dress shirt that did little to hinder his broad, muscle physique, and the exotic tinges of his own cologne that managed to waft in her direction.

Liz swallowed and smoothed out her dress, realizing in that moment that Rajah's golden eyes were just as closely observing her. She reached out her hand and shook hands and paws with Rajah, to which he happily returned, smiling into her lovely, flawless face.

"You look lovely, Liz," Rajah complimented as they shook hands. Liz smiled from the praise looking away like a shy schoolgirl with a crush.

"I need to put my eyes back in MY head?!" Mike laughed. "Come on, dinner's just about ready in the dining room. We'd better get to it before we accidentally kick off Sahaia early," he mumbled the last part, although the three of them heard it perfectly, each of them blushing and grinning at that.

He led the way into the dining room, where the lights were dimmed and the fireplace and candles gave a relaxed and subtly romantic ambiance. The plate of steaming, sizzling steak freshly cooked was situated in the middle of the dining room table, as well as a bowl of salad, bread, and two bottles of champagne.

Upon entering the dining room, both Akaya and Rajah's whiskers flared and their noses perked up from the pleasing scent of a juicy steak. Both being almost entirely carnivorous creatures as nature intended, the two Kataarans couldn't help but lick their lips in response to the mere scent of fresh meat.

Noticing this, Mike pointed out the plate of steaks, saying, "Compliments of the locals; New York strip steak. Dig in," he offered.

As eager as they were, both of the hungry tigers politely waited for their hosts to sit down and gather their food first. Knowing the appetite for meat that Kataarans naturally had, Mike and Liz scooped up the rather smaller slabs of steak to put on their plates, leaving the two larger ones for Rajah and Akaya. They both gratefully nodded before taking the last two steaks, looking over at Mike and Liz for permission as they anticipated digging in. The two humans both smiled and nodded, allowing them to go ahead, both of them finding it rather funny that their two friends were so intent on waiting for permission first.

It made a little more sense to them in that next moment. As soon as they were given permission to go ahead, the tiger and tigress literally began to devour down their steak. They still used their silverware as a courtesy, although their claws were well capable of likely tearing those slabs of steak to shreds in a matter of seconds. But, they cut the steak to pieces with their forks and knives and ravenously ate them down with speed that surprised both Mike and Liz.

The humans had of course eaten with the two Kataarans before, however, that had usually been the mere sustenance of military rations while they were in active duty together. Now, with strips of real meat being presented before two anthropomorphic tigers, the two humans had the surprise (and entertainment) of watching them go at the steak like a special on National Geographic. Needless to say, Akaya and Rajah were quite finished with their steak long before Liz and Mike were anywhere close to done. As the two humans were finishing their steak, the two Kataarans finally slowed their pace, taking gradual bites of their biscuits and the salad, while also taking drinks of their glasses of champagne as well.

As the four enjoyed their first real feast in quite some time, they continuously reminisced about the "old days" amongst the Federation Marine Corps. Gradually too, as they all began to take drinks of their champagne, it allowed them to relax and loosen up even further, making the bonding experience more enjoyable for them, and, prepping them for the more intimate New Year's Eve celebrations to come...

At one point, with Rajah situated directly across the table from Liz and Akaya sitting across from Mike, Akaya's bare padded feet brushed against Mike's legs in what was obviously not an accidental gesture.

Mike froze up with nervousness at first, thinking that it was too early to be going about this. However, it suddenly occurred to him that Rajah was likely doing that same thing with his wife under the table as well. Sure enough, as he looked over at Liz, he could tell that she was biting her lip while looking at the smiling orange striped face across from her, likely as their feet brushed against each other's.

He realized at this point that Akaya and Rajah were pulling the strings as a team here. They were both likely well aware that they were making flirtatious gestures and practically playing footsie with their best friend's spouses, but they didn't seem to mind; in fact, it was what they wanted for the sake of this ritual, after all.

With the champagne easing off his judgmental side and with him remembering that he and Liz had decided to just let loose and enjoy themselves tonight, Mike smiled wickedly and brazenly brushed his leg up against Akaya's. Her grin widened as she felt his knee brush along her furry thigh beneath her dress.

Liz's initial discomfort was also forgotten as the remembrance of the arrangement that she and her husband had agreed to came back to her. She smiled and winked at Rajah, taking a sip of her champagne as her foot tapped back against his, causing his fur to stand up on end. Before she could back out of what she was going to do next, she raised up foot up higher so that it traveled up his leg. His mouth opened in surprise as he felt her foot rub along his inner thigh.

Akaya received an equal surprise on her side of the table now that the humans were taking initiative. Mike played the smooth (and rather unoriginal) tactic of pretending to drop his knife beneath the table so as to go retrieve it, although Rajah and Liz were too wrapped in their own situation to notice. Mike quickly ducked under the table to retrieve his knife and, while he did, his eager hand took a hold of Akaya's swaying brown tail, giving it a delicate stroke along its length before he arose and sat back down in his seat.

The gesture and the surprising stimulation of own of her alien features had caused a ripple to run through her in pleasure. Instinctively, as her biological clock was already ticking as it was, combined with a little bit of champagne and the erotic feel of Mike stroking along her tail, her intimate regions began to slightly moisten beneath her dress. The Kataaran squirmed her legs biting her lip as she felt the heat flare in her loins. Vaguely, she picked up a change in Mike's scent, indicating that he was gradually becoming aroused by their tender erotic game beneath the table. This only heightened the flaring desire resonating deep within her.

Then, an unexpected reaction took place. As the female Kataaran began to emit pheromones from her sexual arousal, the smell was picked up by her mate Rajah next to her. Her musk was not strong enough at this point for the humans to take any notice of it; however, Rajah, in all his amazing sense of smell, could pick up the unmistakable scent of his mate in heat perfectly. Faintly, he could smell traces of another feminine scent as well: Liz's; thus indicating that she too was aroused, although he couldn't pick up her scent as well as he could Akaya's. His brain clouded with lust as he too began to squirm his legs as a certain part of himself began to draw itself out and extend from his furry sheath within his pants as a result of the fog of feminine musk surrounding him.

Mike and Liz by now had put their flirtatious games with the Kataarans on hold as they saw that Rajah and Akaya seemed to be acting strangely. They noticed that they both seemed to be squirming their legs uncomfortably and had slightly pained expressions on their faces. Liz and Mike looked at each other briefly with concern before they looked back at the tiger and tigress.

"Rajah, Akaya; are you guys alright?" they both asked with concern dotting their voices.

Rajah and Akaya looked at each other, continuing to fidget uncomfortably as the overpowering scents clouded their senses and their arousal grew. They nodded to each other and Akaya whispered to him, "We should have told them anyway."

Rajah nodded back to her and turned toward the confused humans on the other side of the table.

"Umm...we uh, p- probably should have mentioned that me and Akaya are...err, in...season," he uttered embarrassingly, squirming his legs as his erection continued to grow out of its sheath in his pants.

Liz's eyebrows rose. "In...season?" she asked.

Akaya bit her lip as the fur of her brown cheeks stood up on edge.

"You know; in...heat," she said, making it clearer to the humans.

Both Mike and Liz's eyes widened with understanding, realizing that this was conveniently that time of the month when Akaya was most receptive for mating and Rajah was most able to mate with her. In this aspect of their reproductive biology, the Kataarans were not that dissimilar from their feral tiger counterparts.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Mike let out a laugh, rubbing his eyes. He looked back at the squirming tiger and tigress and his eyebrows rose.

"So...was everything that you told us about this Sahaia ritual just bullshit?" he asked.

Rajah quickly shook his head. "No, I swear that everything I told you about the ritual was true. This is just rather inconvenient timing and something that both Akaya and I hadn't anticipated when we discussed performing this ritual with you two," he explained.

Both Mike and Liz looked at each other, stifling a grin to each other as they looked back at the anxious Kataarans again. Liz was the one to voice her concerns this time.

"So because you guys are...in heat, Rajah, does that mean that you will go all dominant-alpha-male-tiger on me and like latch onto the back of my neck with your teeth while we're...doing it?" Liz asked the male tiger, looking back at her husband with embarrassment after she said it.

Despite the current situation, the other three couldn't help but burst out laughing from this curious question. Still smiling, Rajah shook his head to Liz in response even as he continued to slightly fidget in his seat.

"No...it won't work like that. We still have that much self-control during our cycle at least. Just, both of you, don't be surprised if we...get into it a little bit while we're...doing it," he said sheepishly.

Mike shook his head and laughed. "Liz, in other words, we have two extremely horny bastards on our hands."

Liz nodded in agreement and looked back at the two twitching, fidgeting Kataarans, who were both gradually losing themselves to their more primal, sexual selves by the second.

Gritting his teeth and trying to resist that haze of euphoria around him, Rajah said to them, "For the last time, you two really don't have to do this with us if you don't want to or it makes you uncomfortable."

"Yes, me and Rajah can go back to our apartment and...relieve ourselves there. Then, we can try to figure out some other way to deal with Sahaia. Both of you should be comfortable while you're doing this. That is the most important thing here," Akaya said kindly, despite her current struggle.