StarPyre

someone unless he believed he would receive something in return. The question was: what did he want from me?
“Thank you . . . ” I paused, feeling foolish for never picking up his name. Placing my hand on my chest, I recited my name and then pointed to the other males as I named them too.
When I pointed to him, he nodded with a hesitant smile. “Celyze. Sel-ize.”
I tested his name a few times on my lips until I felt like I could pronounce it correctly. “Celyze?”
“Yes, Tori. Celyze,” he replied with a broad smile as his icy blue eyes came to life.

Twelve
LUWYN
It had been five solars since the Vhalxt gave us their ultimatum, leaving us a sliver of time to concoct a plan of action before they discovered the truth about Tori.
Our crucial problem was how we were supposed to escape when we didn’t know how many Vhalxt were on the ship. Even if we somehow, by the Stars guidance, overtook our inspectors when they came and visited next, it wouldn’t solve the issue with how we would take over the ship. If Celyze said he didn’t know these stars, then we weren’t within our own galaxy, giving us a slim chance to ever return back to our home planet.
Tori was the other problem. We didn’t know her fighting abilities and what she could do, since we knew nothing about her human race. Also, there was the growing instinct of wanting to protect her ever since both Auro and I had bonded her.
None of us wanted to leave her vulnerable, yet we needed to come up with a safe escape plan, and soon because our deadline was rapidly approaching.
None of us had brought up these problems to her. I didn’t know what my crewmates’ reasoning was, but I didn’t want to be the one to explain to Tori, in our broken way of communicating, how dire our future looked. No matter how much time we spent learning essential words and gestures in each other’s language, nothing could ease the impact of a message that horrible.
On the other hand, excluding her from our plans was just as impossible.
How were we going to do this?
Tori’s laughter filled the room, bringing a smile to my face. I watched her try to teach Auro how to play asteroid, blanket, laser. I didn’t know how a blanket could defeat an asteroid—the idea was ridiculous to fathom—but she insisted it did. Perhaps her species had invented a technology that could prevent interstellar debris from crashing into their planet.
She may not be a Swynemi, but she was beautiful, even in these ugly circumstances. I’d been right about her beauty shining through after she cleaned up. Her long, silver hair was slowly growing patches of highlights matching the ombré coloring of both Auro’s and my wings. We had assisted her in scrubbing the artificial coloring off her skin, revealing its true color. Her skin matched the pale stones lining the mountain cliffsides of our home planet, where high-ranking clans liked to build their nests. The pale green irises of her eyes rimmed dark pupils twice the size of my own and lacked the living swirl of Swynemi eyes, which helped us see in the dark. She also didn’t have the vibrant markings we wore on our bodies, although whenever I peered closely at her skin, I could see the tiny spots she called ‘freckles.’
Tori brought light to our imprisonment, even with doom hanging on the horizon. Every night the three of us spent time exploring each other’s bodies as she enjoyed taking both of us, separately or at once. No judgment or jealousy had arisen between Auro and me; neither of us wanted to waste what little time we may have left together arguing. I’d accepted that no matter what came of the bond, we couldn’t change the fact that we had both bonded with her. The highlights appearing in her hair proved that she was ours.
Even in our small moments of happiness, I hadn’t missed how distant Celyze had grown to the rest of the group. The only moments of privacy we could catch within these walls were those under the blankets, but even then, between the movement and the noises, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what we were doing. Tori seemed to become more vocal when she was aroused, so it was difficult to keep her quiet.
Her sexual appetite was seemingly endless. It didn’t take much to prompt her to come onto us, desperate to ease the ache between her thighs. I wasn’t sure if she acted out of boredom, wishing to fill the empty time with some pleasure, or because she too feared her death was near and she wanted to make the best of what time was left.
I’d always thought that no one could match my sex drive, but now that I’d met her, I was starting to believe she had me beat. I wasn’t ashamed to admit I was glad to share her with Auro, because I wouldn’t be able to handle her insatiable desires alone.
I hoped her species didn’t experience a heat cycle like some alien species. If she demanded any more of me, then I’d worry about the condition she would leave me in.
Shaking my head, I cleared my daydreaming thoughts about the future. That train of thought was wishful thinking that would probably never come to fruition. I should think about the here and now and worry about the future once we escaped.
As the three of us slowly built the relationship forming between us, Celyze had slowly retreated to a corner of the cell. He only joined in conversations when we ate as a group and often struggled on specific words with Tori. Auro had noticed him acting strangely, too, for I caught him shooting glances at our crewmate from time to time. However, he hadn’t addressed him on the matter.
I was partly responsible for the growing rift between us. I’d