Jack's Moonlighting Pt. 02

"Don't you dare stop now!" she cried as she threw her head back.

That was all Jack needed to hear to start ramping up his energetic thrusting. His hips set up a steady rhythm of strokes, each ending with a wet slap of his pelvis against hers.

"GODDESS! OH! OH! OH! GODDESS!"

Jack smiled as he enjoyed the expression of absolute bliss on her face. When he sucked one of her nipples into his mouth and gently tugged on the other, her jaw dropped open in silence as she crashed through another orgasm. The squeezing was too much for Jack, and he erupted deep inside her once more. Surge after surge poured into her.

"goddess, so much..." she whispered, then wrapped her arms around him to hold him tight.

Eventually, he felt himself shrink inside her. He pulled his hips back to ease himself out.

Mara was panting as her eyes rolled. She gradually returned to herself, her breathing settled, and she smiled at him.

"That was unexpected and wondrous!" she sighed. "How many times can you do that per day?"

Jack chuckled. "I've never actively tried to find out. Let's just say, many times."

"Remarkable!" she sighed.

They relaxed for a moment, just smiling at each other.

"I was kind of expecting you to want to be on top," he said with a grin.

Mara's eyes widened. "Me on top? How does that even work?"

Jack grinned. "Like it sounds. I lie back, you straddle me, and lower yourself onto my cock."

She burst into giggles. "But when you come, it will all run out of me onto you!"

He grinned. "It's true that a lot would, so it's a little less effective for becoming pregnant, but it's great for just having sex for fun."

"You say the funniest things!" Mara said with a wide smile.

"Did you want to try it for a third time?" he asked.

Her eyes widened then she shook her head. "I think I cannot contain any more of your seed!"

Jack gave her a wicked smile. "There's always room for more."

When her eyes widened with concern, he chuckled, and she saw he was teasing. She smiled up at him.

"I pray to the Goddess to give me a child from you. You are a good person and a mighty lover. I believe we could repopulate Danat from you alone," she teased.

"That would mean too many birthday parties to attend," he said with a smile then his expression became serious. "I can't guarantee you'll become pregnant. I really don't understand how the xeno-fertility works."

She nodded, but her smile remained. "There is the additional complication that once a Dannt female mates with a Dannt male, she becomes infertile for any other Dannt male. My mate, Jordem, died almost a month ago. I understand the odds of my becoming pregnant are slim, but Bayly risked everything for me to remain Queen. I must step down if I'm not carrying a child within my body this week. It's one of our laws."

Jack was looking at her in shock. "I'm grateful you told me this after we made love, as that would have been a major distraction."

Mara looked away in shame. "I'm sorry for drawing you into this intrigue. You are a good person, and it wasn't fair of me—"

Jack touched her lips with a fingertip to quiet her apology. "You have no need to explain yourself to me. I understand better than most the pressures and responsibilities of being a Queen." He smiled lovingly. "I wish you could meet Queen Elissa of Altaria. I'm sure the two of you would be the best of friends."

He tenderly kissed her lips, and she made a small needful sound as her body moved sensually under his.

Perhaps there was room for a third time tonight.

Chapter 18

Kressa scowled as she slowed her pace once more. Her entourage was grumbling from exhaustion, and that wouldn't do. Arriving at the challenge in less-than-optimal condition was not acceptable. With a frustrated snarl, she raised a hand to signal a halt. There was a perceptible sigh of relief from her people, pushing her irritation up a few more notches.

Thirty-two years she'd been waiting for this moment! Her humiliating defeat at the hands of Queen Mara so long ago still made her spit with rage. She should have taken the leader's role that day.

Mara had been exhausted, her left arm disabled with a pinched nerve, while Kressa still had two functional arms. It was her own exhaustion that betrayed her. She underestimated Mara's strength and endurance.

When Kressa launched her final attack, she didn't see how Mara was coiling all her muscles for one decisive strike.

As Kressa surged forward for the kill, Mara unleashed all her body's remaining power through her right fist, slamming it into Kressa's sternum.

When Kressa woke, stretched out on the dirt of the arena's floor, weak as a newborn, she learned it was the High Priestess, Laannaa-Klovalis, who breathed life back into her body. Mara stopped her heart with one blow.

That fact shook her confidence like nothing ever had.

She'd grown up in the northern forests knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was destined to lead the Dannt. She was stronger, more focused, and more ambitious than anyone she knew. Her northern tribe quickly fell into line as she defeated their existing chief, then the eight warriors who challenged her right to lead. She ruled the tribe with an iron fist until Mara issued an order for her to fall into line with her Charter of Chieftain Behavior. To Kressa, this was a clear sign that Mara was weak, and she'd immediately set off to challenge her.

Finding herself lying in the dirt, waking from a death caused by a single blow from the Queen of the Dannt, was the first time in her life she'd tasted defeat.

She didn't like it.

But she couldn't deny she'd lost.

Mara stood over her and told her to return to the northern tribe. She was to follow the charter, or Mara would take back the life the High Priestess had given her. The Queen held her eye until Kressa dropped her gaze and nodded, teeth clenched in frustration.

That humiliation festered in her mind for the past thirty-two years. She followed Mara's charter but never its spirit. It wasn't what the Dannt needed to grow strong.

She didn't want the Dannt to return to the cities. In her mind, the Goddess had punished them for straying from the true path. Only discipline and order under her command would find them favor in the Goddess' eye once more. This truth was so clear to her it pained her that Mara couldn't see it. The Queen's emotional sentimentality for the people sickened Kressa. They needed to be treated like a weapon's edge, beaten to add strength, and honed to add sharpness! Only through suffering could they reach their potential.

She knew nothing of love. She'd never felt its supposedly sweet kiss, nor had she any interest in experiencing it. She took a mate for children and chose the strongest male available. Truthfully, she found most Dannt to be too concerned with feelings.

When her tribe celebrated a birth, a wedding, or any moment where they gathered to shower each other with emotional displays, they made sure to do so out of her sight and hearing. She had no time for such meaningless frivolity, and her tribe knew it.

There was only one event she planned to celebrate: her crowning as Queen of the Dannt. Mara finally took a mate, but he was now dead, leaving Mara with no children. No heir to the throne. While Kressa would have preferred to take the throne from Mara by force, earning it this way would have to do.

They were following the path along the foothills from their northern forest. To their right rose the mountain range, which separated them from the forest lands that the Dannt believed hid the Rakka's nest. No one ventured over the mountain to find it, as the Rakka rarely crossed over the pass in groups larger than two or three.

They were only a day or two away from Mara's village. She'd felt the land move under her feet a day before, saw the horizon glow, and wondered what the Queen was up to on her final days.

While these were ominous signs, it didn't matter. There was no way Mara could prevent being forced out now. Kressa's destiny was returning to her at last.

"KRESSA! RAKKA!"

She immediately leapt to her feet and rushed toward the source of the alarmed cry. She scowled as none of her warriors should have sounded so frightened by the sight of a Rakka. They were all seasoned fighters.

She caught sight of her mate, Harrkon. He was a brute of a male, strong in body if low in intelligence. He looked at her with a shocked expression, so she doubled her pace to reach his side.

As she arrived, she saw six of the beasts loping down a trail toward them. They were still a good distance away, but running from them would be futile as the others in her party could not fight them off.

Then she noted something odd about their gait. Some were stumbling frequently though they kept up with their group. She called out orders to set up a defensive line, and all spears dropped their deadly points toward the approaching threat.

As the beasts got closer, Kressa's eyes widened with shock as she saw terrible burns on their bodies. At least one was blind though others might have been as well, as they seemed to be running unnaturally close to each other like they needed to be guided.

Then Kressa had no more time to assess their enemy as the beasts ran directly at them. Some leapt with bloody claws outstretched to savage their targets. The blind ones just opened their toothy maws and jumped straight ahead, unaware of the actual locations of the Dannt warriors.

Harrkon crushed the skull of the largest Rakka with his club, and it went limp, dropping at his feet. Warriors on either side of the big man drove their spears into the open jaws of the blind Rakka, who'd flanked the big one. One died immediately as the spear severed its spine, but the other thrashed and swiped its bloody claws at its unseen tormentor. The Dannt warrior's throat was ripped away before Harrkon could bludgeon the thrashing beast to death.

Kressa was too busy dealing with the fully-sighted adult Rakka she'd speared through the chest as it dropped on her from above. Her spear was wedged between its ribs and stuck, but it missed anything critical. The creature continued to snap its jaws and swipe at her. She cursed in pain as its claws scored a hit on her shoulder. One of the deadly hooks actually tore from its damaged paw and remained embedded in the meat of her upper arm.

The warrior beside her finished off a blind Rakka and drove his spear through the skull of Kressa's opponent. A deep thump announced the end of the final Rakka as Harrkon's club returned to play.

Kressa staggered back and stared up at the mountain pass once more, but no more Rakka were visible.

Wincing in pain, she pulled the claw from her shoulder and stared at it in surprise. The bloody and dirty hook was intact, but the bone looked like it was rotting!

Turning to stare more closely at the beasts they'd slain, she realized she'd never seen these kinds of injuries before. They were horrendous!

All of them had been running on feet that were badly ripped and bloody. Several were missing toes.

The burn marks were odd as well.

The hair on the back of her neck began to prickle as nothing looked natural about this. She stepped back from the carnage. "Everyone stand back. These creatures were touched by the anger of the Goddess."

"Kressa! You've been injured!" Harrkon expressed his concern. He was staring at the rip on her shoulder.

She glared at him as she didn't need his emotional outburst. "Just rinse it and sew it closed. I'm not going to need to challenge the Queen now, am I."

Harrkon aimed worried eyes at his mate, and she snarled at him. After all these years, you'd think he'd get it through that thick skull of his that she didn't need his weak noises.

He was too soft with their children as well. She'd tried training their first born to be like her, but Leodri died of exposure in the forest. Harrkon wouldn't let her teach the others from that day onward. Instead, he coddled them. She turned away from his sad expression and marched back to find the Goddess Devotee in her entourage to get stitched up.

She couldn't bear to see his weakness.

Chapter 19

Jack smiled as he watched Mara's people join the queue for vaccinations. After breakfast, the Queen addressed the entire village and let them know they now had the means to regain a gift the Goddess had once bestowed upon them but was taken away during the plague.

He was impressed by her ability to connect so strongly with them, and this was before they could truly sense her genuine love for them!

Reflecting on the Queen's love and spotting Bayly assisting with the clinic, Jack's mind returned him to his arrival at breakfast this morning.

After waking up being spooned by Mara, Jack kissed her and slipped out of her tent and into his with only a few quickly hidden smiles from his security team. He'd spotted no Dannt witnesses, so that was comforting.

He freshened up and got dressed in his running clothes. After breakfast, they'd set up the vaccination clinic, then he thought it might be possible to go for a run.

When he walked into the large tent where breakfast was served, he spotted Bayly and her team and walked over to greet them.

"Good morning!"

Immediately their lips turned purple from a surge of emotion. Warrez nodded to him but looked away. Gruun seemed annoyed and turned his face as well. Lena had the opposite reaction from Gruun as she stared at him boldly and licked her lips.

Bayly seemed torn between embarrassment and awe.

After Jack heard the group make unintelligible sounds in reply, Bayly's need to speak to him got the better of her, and she moved up to his side. "We sensed you," she whispered as she locked eyes with him.

"What?" Jack asked in surprise.

She nodded. "We were on the other side of the village, and yet we picked up on the Queen's joy." Her eyes widened. "All four times!"

Jack's face felt very warm. "She must be a strong broadcaster," he muttered quietly, and she nodded.

He frowned. "We need to find out how the Dannt managed to have some privacy for their emotions. If they lived in cities, they must have had incredible control over their broadcasting ability," Jack's mind raced through the possibilities, "or they discovered a means to contain it within their homes?"

He caught the High Priestess watching him with a disapproving frown. "The Tik might be able to extract that information from your historical records." He kept to himself the suggestion that some of the vaccinated might venture into a city to see if the buildings were shielded against the broadcasts.

Mara joined them and immediately interpreted Bayly's rather transparent efforts. "Oh! Were we indiscreet?" she whispered to Bayly. Warrez joined them and glanced once at Jack before taking Mara's hands in hers.

"We were delighted to sense your happiness, Queen Mara. Please do not be concerned. We were the only ones who could have detected you last night, and we hold you in the utmost respect." Mara smiled at her, so Warrez continued. "Uh, afterward, we did some simple broadcast and receiving experiments of our own in a quest to understand our returning capabilities. We determined that each of us has a distinct maximum range for sending emotions to others. We all seem to have the same receiving power. You and Bayly share a similar sending range. Lena has half of Bayly's distance. Gruun is slightly less than Lena, and I have less than Gruun. It was fascinating to discover the differences between us. We must learn how the Dannt lived in cities with these abilities! Maybe the dwellings provided shielding?"

Bayly giggled, hearing Jack's words, and shook her head when Warrez gave her a curious glance.

"I need to speak to everyone after breakfast to let them know we will offer vaccinations to eliminate the plague once and for all. The Dannt will not be allowed to fade into the dust. As we strive to regain our destiny, there will be changes in the coming months and years." There was a new energy in Mara's eyes that Jack loved to see. This was a Queen who wouldn't fail her people. He prayed their activity the night before would help her achieve this.

He saw joy and hope in the eyes of Warrez and her team, especially Bayly. She absolutely worshipped her Queen. Laannaa, who'd arrived to hear Mara's announcement, looked stricken. She turned and walked away before Mara noticed.

But Jack did.

Juju arrived during breakfast and let them know Sarexa and Bronka would return to Danat just before last meal with their report from Danax.

Jack returned from his recollections and realized he was watching Bayly, who was fidgeting under his gaze. He shook his head and smiled at her in embarrassment. Her smile returned, and he realized she was picking up his emotions again.

He turned and waved to Tito to let it know he was ready.

He'd made arrangements with Mara during breakfast to go for a run. She put out the word for their best runners to join him, and they'd be waiting for him at the village's eastern edge. The Ishilon couldn't keep up with Jack's pace when running, but they'd proven they could track him by his collar. With Tito accompanying him, it could act as a second anchor should Jack need immediate assistance from his security team.

Dennesh walked with him to the beginnings of a wide plain of grass. There was a well-worn trail leading off toward the eastern horizon. A second trail led southeast, but a blockade was across the path.

Jack smiled at the group of seven Dannt doing their stretches as they watched him approach. He could see them trying to gauge how good a runner he was based on his physiology. He knew he was a little top-heavy with his wide shoulders and neck, but their eyes always returned to his horns.

"Good morning! I'm Jack Danner," he said with a smile. "Are you here to join me on the run?"

They smiled and nodded.

"Where does this trail go?" Jack pointed to the blocked path.

One of the Dannt, a young and lean male, looked at the others and then spoke up. "That one leads to the Gate Terminal or what's left of it." He smiled. "I'm Gettz. You're really from the other side of the galaxy? Way out there amongst the stars?"

Jack smiled. "Not quite the other side, but close."

"Why did you come all this way to help us?" Gettz asked, and Jack saw the others were paying close attention.

"Are any of you a close neighbor to Gettz?" he asked.

Another male who couldn't have been much older than Gettz nodded.

"Your name?" Jack asked.

"Wallos," he said quietly, and Jack nodded to him, then looked back at Gettz.

"If Wallos was in his tent calling for help because he was in trouble, what would you do?" Jack asked.

Gettz grinned at Wallos, then looked at Jack. "I'd help him."

"What if Wallos moved his tent to the other side of the village, but you still heard him crying out for help?" Jack asked and looked Gettz in the eye.

The young male nodded. "I'd still help him." Then he shook his head. "But I've known Wallos since I was young. You didn't know any of us, and you came from a lot farther away than the other side of the village!"

Jack looked at the gathered runners. "Are you aware of what the Gate Network is?" He saw a few hesitant nods. "Consider it to be a very large village, but the tents are worlds or sometimes groups of worlds. Your neighbors are funny looking, like Wallos," the group chuckled, "but you should expect them to behave like Gettz here." He grinned at the laughter. "When they don't behave like Gettz, the other neighbors are supposed to make sure they do, or the Tik remove their access to the neighborhood until they agree to behave. Everyone is protected, and everyone benefits from having good neighbors."

"You work for the Gate Network? There is someone like Queen Mara who oversees all the neighbors?" Gettz asked.