of my life in this horrible place! I’m going to escape and get back to the Hell’s Gate Station as soon as I can. And then I’m going to make a call and the Mother Ship will send someone to take me home.”
He gave her a look that was half admiring, half-skeptical.
“Oh yeah? And how are you gonna do that? Gotta plan, sweetheart?”
“I’ll slip away down to the main gate and wait until they bring in a new batch of, uh, breeders. Then I’ll slip out while the gate is open, run down the path until I get to their docking site,” Penny said rapidly. She had thought about the steps of her plan so often she could actually see herself running down the path, past the tall fronds of the Deadly Jungle, to a waiting ship. “I’ll stow away on one of the outgoing ships and they’ll take me right back up to Hell’s Gate Station without even knowing it!” she finished triumphantly.
“That’s a great plan if you can make yourself invisible,” V’rex said dryly. “You think you can get through the gate, down the road to their launch site, and into one of their ships with nobody seeing you?”
“I can do it—I’m small. Well, I’m short, anyway,” Penny amended, glaring at him. “I can do it!” she repeated.
“Not without help,” V’rex said firmly. “You need someone who can keep you safe in the Deadly Jungle if you have to dive off the road and you get poisoned. And someone who can pilot a shuttle if you do manage to get to the docking site. ”
“Are you saying you can do all that?” Penny put a hand on her hip.
“Oh yes, sweetheart, I can keep you safe. And heal you, if I have to.” He looked so confident that Penny couldn’t help asking,
“How?”
“Thanks to my Kru’ell One side, I’m immune to most poisons,” V’rex told her. “And I can transfer that immunity to you by stinging you.”
“You mean with your tongue?” Penny looked at him askance. His tongue had gone back to normal after the little display he’d put on, but she was still scared of the weird, needle-like appendage it could become.
“Yeah. With my stinger.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, as though this was no big deal.
“But if you, er, stung me again would you have to make me, you know…come?” Penny asked uneasily.
V’rex frowned.
“Afraid so, sweetheart. I can’t sting a female without giving her orgasms. What do you have against sexual pleasure, anyway?”
“I don’t have anything against it as long as I’m expecting it and I’ve given my consent for it,” Penny snapped. “You can’t just go around making people come without asking first! It’s as bad as rape. Well, maybe not quite,” she backpedaled quickly. “But it’s close.”
“Fine,” V’rex growled, looking irritated. “I give you my word as a Kindred and a warrior, I won’t sting you again—or make you come again—without your permission. But if we’re running for our lives and it’s a choice between dying an agonizing death by poison or enduring an unwanted orgasm from me, I hope you’d pick the orgasm over the poison.”
“Of course I would,” Penny said, frowning. “I think that goes without saying. I just don’t want you sneaking up on me and poking me with your tongue when I’m not expecting it and I didn’t ask for it.”
V’rex shook his head.
“Prickly little thing, aren’t you? Don’t worry, sweetheart—I gave you my word not to sting you again without your permission and I don’t break my word.” He stabbed a finger at her. “But you are going to have to get a whole hell of a lot better at pretending we’re really fucking during the Mandatory Breeding Hour every day.”
Penny frowned.
“You really think it’s that important for me to pretend to be, uh, into it?” she asked, feeling her cheeks heat as she remembered the extremely realistic simulation of sex the big Hybrid have given earlier.
“Hell yes, I do!” V’rex growled. “They already know that I’m not susceptible to their Goddess-damned hypno-whispers and after your little performance at the Unification Ceremony, I’m sure they have their doubts about you, too. So we need to act the part of a happy couple fucking each other’s brains out every night—can’t give them any reason to suspect we’re not being good little breeders and trying our best to get you pregnant.”
“I’ll try…” Penny bit her lip. “I’m mostly worried about what they’ll do to me when I don’t turn up pregnant. I