Wild Beast: A Rough Sci-Fi Romance

“There,” Volt says. “That will ensure these horrible little creatures keep themselves to themselves for a good long while.”

“What is happening?”

“I am grounding your planet. No ship will ever be able to pass beyond your moon ever again. The net will ensure that humans are forced to live on their own world rather than ruining everybody else’s worlds.”

“But most of the worlds we colonize are empty.”

“Wrong,” he says. “They are not empty. They are simply pre-sentient life. Humans disrupt the natural evolutionary patterns of the worlds they invade. Every so-called empty virgin world is one where future life is stamped out by the rubber-soled boots of a dim human with a flag. Alternate forms of sentience are suppressed by human occupation.”

“I never thought about it that way before.”

“Of course you didn’t. Feeling entitled to take whatever you see is a fundamental part of the human psyche. It would shock you all to your core to be told the universe is not, in fact, yours.”

“We were just trying to make some money.”

“Money doesn’t exist. It’s a construct, a placeholder for value. It means nothing. It is nothing. You were willing to destroy the past and future of an entire world for a fake thing.”

“Well, now you’re making me feel guilty and stupid.”

“There’s a reason for that.”

I want to throw this back in his face somehow, tell him that he’s a big hypocrite because of reasons. But I don’t have any reasons. Volt is a bad-tempered domineering maniac, but he acts in accordance with his own ideals. There’s something attractive about that.

“Well, now that you’ve put the planet in a big net I assume nothing will ever go wrong again and everything will be fine. You’ve solved the problem of humanity.”

“Not quite,” he says, looking down at me with particular intensity. “There are still plenty of humans on other worlds. They will inevitably breed and repeat the cycle of human expansion. It is what your species does.”

“Maybe you should spend less time trying to control the outcome of the entire universe? Maybe humans are meant to spread. Maybe nature wants people everywhere. You don’t know. I don’t know.”

* * *

Volt

She has a way of arguing with me that makes my actions feel futile even when they are more effective than those taken by anybody else. The net over Earth will hold for several hundred of their years, but it will not stop them forever. They are adaptive, resilient beasts and greater monsters than I have tried to eradicate them before me.

My vendetta has to come to an end. There are other matters to attend to, other battles to be fought, wars to be won. The wild ones have been avenged and protected. All is well that ends well.

Penelope is looking at me with what I can only describe as her invariably rebellious expression. She does not appreciate my opinions on humanity. She takes them as personal insults. It is not easy to convey my adoration given how much time I have spent punishing and humiliating her. She has been the whipping girl for her species all this time, taking the brunt of my displeasure inside her soft and tender being.

“Jerk,” she mutters under her breath, as if I might somehow fail to hear the very audible insult.

I have shown her people and her planet mercy. I have done nothing besides make it clear that her motivations were mercenary and shortsighted. How ironic that I could fuck her roughly and spank her until she cried and she would have no objection, but the tarnishing of her false gods brings her temper on.

“If you want to be punished, pet, all you need do is ask.”

She makes a grumbling sound and shakes her head. I know her better than her responses may indicate. I know she needs to be punished. I know that when her ass is hot, her soul will be calmed.

So I take her in hand, and I turn her over my knee. I show her that her place has not changed—that I have not changed. From the moment we met, she was mine. No invasions, betrayals, tests of faith or character will change that. If she agrees or disagrees, acts in my interests or her own, feels loyalty to humans, or aids the Vulpari, it matters not.

“Volt…” she whimpers and whines. All this time together and I have not taught her that she is fundamentally safe with me. She craves my approval and thrills to my anger. I play a role with her, and she plays one with me. It is time the roles were removed and we showed one another what we really are.

“Penelope,” I reply, spreading my palm and fingers over her pretty ass. These two rounds have taken much punishment from me. I have lashed them and I have licked them. I have whipped them and I have kissed them.