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  “The Goddess healed me,” Terex whispered, reaching up to feel his throat where the skin was smooth and whole again. He looked at Elaina. “That was amazing—I’ve never felt her presence so clearly or spoken to her before.”

  “I’ve never spoken to any deity,” she admitted. “But…” She bit her lip, looking worried. “What about the warning she gave us? Should we go tell Commander Sylvan right away?”

  “I think she was warning us of something in the future,” Terex murmured. “I was planning to leave him a letter about what Two said to me, but I’ll have a meeting with him first thing tomorrow instead. We’ll need to start fortifying the Mother Ship—getting prepared.”

  “What is the dark force that’s aware of the Kindred now, do you think?” Elaina asked, still sounding fearful.

  “I don’t know.” Terex frowned. “Before I killed him, Two’s scion spoke of ‘the Hive.’ I’ve never heard of them before but he seemed to indicate that he’d alerted them to our presence somehow. They’re on the other side of the Blind, a few hundred thousand light years from the Nixian world, I would guess.”

  Elaina shivered. “Well, I hope they stay over there! I don’t want anything to do with them.”

  “No matter what happens, we will be together.” Terex gathered her into his arms and held her tight, loving the feel of her warm, naked body against his own much larger and harder one. Speaking of harder, though they had just finished bonding he could feel his shaft stirring again and through their newly forged link he could feel Elaina’s hunger growing as well.

  “The Goddess healed me,” he said, pulling away to look into her lovely gold-flecked yes. “But not you, sweetheart. Do you…are you truly still feeling the effects of the Need?”

  “Maybe a little.” She blushed and looked down at her hands. “Maybe it’s these weights on my nipples. When I move…” She demonstrated by swaying her breasts, which caused the heavy gold charms to dance. “They, uh, tug on me and make me…make me want…make me need…”

  “I know what you need,” Terex growled softly. Leaning down, he captured one of her tight buds between his teeth and bit down gently, nipping her pink peak until Elaina squirmed and groaned with the combination of pain and pleasure.

  “Ahh! Terex!” she gasped, pressing her breast to his mouth for more.

  He released her nipple and looked at her sternly.

  “No—don’t call me that. Not while we’re making love.”

  “Master?” She looked up at him with wide eyes.

  “That’s right.” He kissed her approvingly. “Call me Master while I take you.”

  “Yes, Master.” Elaina’s big eyes were filled with love and trust and need. “Then will you do it? Will you take me again?”

  “With pleasure.” And he did—bonding her to him again and again all night long.

  The End…for now

  Epilogue

  “My Sovereign, the time has come—the ship from Galen Prime is here. The Princess is aboard—a royal female of good pedigree. She should be suitable for your needs.”

  The low, buzzing voice of the messenger was music to Ysldred X’izith’s cochlea—which were scattered all over his body from the sides of his bulbous head, to the hidden folds of his transparent wings, to the sides of his chitinous, many-jointed legs.

  “Good, very good,” he buzzed. Another race conquered—another Breeding Queen to fill with his grubs. And the hunger of the Hive would be satiated—at least for a time.

  All around him in the densely packed darkness he could hear his people hard at work. Down in the flesh pits, the workers harvested meat from the rotting bodies of the Hive’s enemies. Quickly and efficiently, they butchered the bodies with their mandibles and swallowed the oozing chunks. They would convert the dead flesh to Blood Honey in their twisted gullets for the feeding of the royal grubs and other purposes.

  Elsewhere, guards patrolled the corridors, their long, sleek bodies crawling along walls and ceilings as well as floors in their ceaseless vigilance to protect their many chambered home.

  The buzzing hum of wings came from the common nursery where the newly hatched larvae were fanned by attendants to keep them cool as they molted and mutated into the forms they would take in adulthood. Soon, they too would take on the work of the Hive—the never-ending quest for new victims to eviscerate, new worlds to pillage and rape, new females to breed.

  And somewhere in the breeding chamber, a new bride was being prepared for him.

  X’izith extended his breeding barb from his lower thorax, unfolding the long, sharp appendage and allowing it to engorge with the black ichor he called blood. As thick as a man’s arm in some places, it ended in a jagged tip, as wickedly sharp as a needle, as deadly as a sword. How the females howled when he stabbed it between their legs! Especially the softer, fleshier species. The humanoid ones were the best to breed—he greatly enjoyed their agony.

  X’izith allowed his long black tongue to slither out and lick his mandibles in anticipation of the pain and pleasure to come. The forked tip slithered up to swipe over his compound eyes as well—huge disks of blackness placed on either side of his head like bottomless pits.

  “Come,” he told the messenger. “We must not keep my new bride waiting.”

  “She may not be ripe for implantation yet, my lord,” the messenger warned in his buzzing voice. “And…she has yet to see you without your mask.”

  “True…true.” He frowned, his mandibles clicking audibly in the steamy, stagnant air of the Hive. “These things must be managed with delicacy—we cannot throw off her breeding cycle with fear. Has she been fed the Blood Honey yet to bring on her heat?”

  “The workers are force-feeding her now,” the messenger assured him.

  “Good. The fleshy ones are so fragile—although certainly the most tasty to breed.” X’izith frowned—it was an odd expression on his insectile face. “A pity they are so rare.”

  “There is something else,” the messenger buzzed. “We have received a signal—a signal from beyond the Void—what some call the Blind.”

  “A signal from the other side? But the Void is impenetrable,” X’izith protested.

  “We always thought so,” the messenger admitted. “But there has been much activity of late—comings and goings from beyond the Blind. And the signal we got seems to indicate there are worlds to conquer on the other side.”

  “Inhabited worlds?” X’izith demanded.

  “Not only inhabited—inhabited by fleshy ones.” The messengers many eyes, which were scattered over his oddly shaped head, gleamed in the darkness. “A race called the Kindred—all fleshy—all ripe for the plucking.”

  “Indeed? You have my interest now.” X’izith unhinged one many jointed arm and groomed his gold-tipped antennae thoughtfully. “After we finish with the Galen people, we must see to the crossing of the Blind. The Hive is always hungry…we must have fresh meat to make Blood Honey for the royal grubs and bring the Breeding Queens to heat.”

  “As you say, my Sovereign.” The messenger bowed low. “As you say.”

  “Soon,” X’izith mused. “Soon we shall see about these Kindred. But for now, I must tend to my bride—my new Breeding Queen awaiting implantation.”

  Unfolding his wings, he fanned the fetid air and lifted himself into the darkness, his breeding barb throbbing between his many legs. Soon another generation of royal grubs would be born and after that, he would see to the part of the universe as yet unexplored by the Hive and this new race called the Kindred.

  But for now, the Galen girl awaited his attentions. X’izith didn’t intend to keep her waiting for long.

  Want more Kindred? Of course you do! That's why I'm hard at work on Kindred 19, Unbound. Read on for a blurb to get you excited for Unbound, coming March 2017 (Below is just a temporary cover, btw--the real one is coming soon from my talented cover artist, Reese Dante.)

  And then check out the blurb and chapter from Planet X--the book that started it all--re-releasing in