Chapter 18

Bear with me guys, this is a long one! And I think it will make up for my absence…he he…well anyway, this is 17 pages on my MSword, so I hope you get a good read!

Enjoy!

"THAT BITCH!" Ivan screamed as he paced General Snide's office. "Do you know how much money I paid to get that over sized cockroach over here?"

"And so many men died to acquire it…30 men over one bug…"

"Forget the men Jeremy. What about my money! Lost, that's what that blonde haired whore made me do. She made me lose my money. No one makes me lose money and lives to tell the tale!" The large man stormed out the office in his bright yellow suit, blue tie with money signs from every country on it and a large cigar waving furiously in one of his chubby fists. Snide got up from his chair and followed him, straight to the cage room.

"my Qfveenff." (my Queen) Damon tried to stir Terre, to no avail. She was fast asleep and didn't want to wake up. As much as it pained him to see it, his Queen was getting weaker. For around a human week she had been in this cage with him, without food or water. He would survive as he didn't need to eat as often as she did. But she was still human, she needed to eat daily to be healthy, and she hadn't eaten in a week. Her skin was pale, her eyes were tired with bags under them and she had lost all her reserve strength from fighting the day before. He had to get her out of here soo so she could eat.

Damon nudged her again and she groaned, turned over and dismissed him. He growled loudly and turned her back over with his face. Finally, she opened her eyes slightly and her dry lips curled into a smile.

"Hello (wheeze) we have company I see" Damon looked to where his queen looked and saw that dark, putrid meat bag and his lighter, chubby master. They were running towards them and Damon didn't like the way the chubby one was looking at his Queen. He stood tall, freshly rejuvenated and ready for battle if need be. He stood over her and the larger meat bag looked through the bars at them.

"I bet you think you're so tough. Killing that beetle and refusing to shack off with it. Well, you will pay for that missy! First, we will take away your little guardian, then; we will remove your fingers. one by one and then your black eyes. I can get another Queen, you are expendable! Everyone is expendable! But money is another matter! Money is a precious thing that people have gone to war to posses. And you just threw away my money like it was nothing! You will regret that I promise!" Ivan looked around and saw a young soldier on guard duty. "You! Come here and remove the bug from the cage now!"

"Yes sir!" the marine slung his gun from his holster and pointed it straight at Damon, who crouched lower to his laying Queen. She didn't have the strength to sit up.

"Damon…don't leave me please!" he would have comforted his Queen with kind words, but now that his inner mouth had been sliced clean off, all he had was a long piece of flesh that he couldn't move to form proper words. So he remained silent and close to his Queen.

Terre tried to will her legs to move, her toes to move, anything! She just wanted to get up and stop the meat bags from taking her Damon away. She wouldn't be alone, she wouldn't lose him.

"And just so you know, that Kimberly person you hold so dear, is dead. We killed her this morning for your treachery." Ivan smirked as her face went even paler and tears jerked through whimpers.

Damon didn't like the way that this meat bag was hurting his Queen verbally. Physically, Damon could prevent his Queen any suffering that these vermin could dish out. But now that he had no voice, he couldn't protect her from any verbal onslaught or harsh threats. It made him feel helpless and fuelled his need to protect his Queen. "I would just like to say one thing. I hope you haven't grown attached to this bug. 'Coz since you won't make me any eggs, there is no use keeping your nest protector around now is there? Don't worry; he will be well polished every time I get my boots cleaned."

"No!" the pen opened and the young marine walked in with a long pole with a loop on the end of it to snare Damon with.

I have lost Kim. I will not lose Damon too!

"Damon…get away. Go, run. The door is open. Get out of here and join a real hive and serve a true Queen."

I already serve a true Queen. You. I will not leave you. I will never leave you…I just wish I could tell you that.

"Damon go! Escape, be free!" Damon shuck his head violently and snarled ass the marine got closer, into the very centre of the cage. Then, an idea hit him and gave him hope. His Queen needs to eat, she needs to get her energy back and here is a MEAT bag. How simple could this be?

He hunched low to the ground and waited until there was no escape for his pray. Then, he ran at the marine, avoided his bullets and ducked under the pole. The marine only saw a set of huge, main jaws before they sliced through his skull and severed his head from his body. The marine's body fell to the floor and Damon spat the bloody skull at Ivan. The blood spattered all over his yellow suit and his face.

"DAMN IT ALL!" Ivan ran out the room, with a dangerous scowl and furious glare at everyone he met before he left the compound by chopper.

"You win this round bug breath. But we will win the war!" Snide followed the same example of his employer and stormed off to his office. To get as pissed as he could before his ass was busted by Ivan once he had changed.

Damon however was far from finished. He dragged the fresh corpse over to Terre and laid it next to her. Terre smiled at him but cringed as she saw what he was doing. She guessed he must have been hungry as he started ripping the marine's shirt off and clawing it his torso.

"Urr."

She closed her eyes shut when she heard a crake that could only be from crushed ribs being pried apart and pulled from the corpses chest cavity. Then she heard sloshing and tearing. He must be pulling the flesh and muscle straight from the bone. But she then realised that with the bandage around his tongue, as she called it now, he wouldn't be able to swallow properly.

"Damon, I need to take your bandage off." He stopped and started to look himself over. He had pulled off all the bandages earlier and couldn't see anymore. "The one in your mouth silly." She chuckled, but regretted it as she broke out in wheezes. She needed some water! "Help me up D." He knelt over her and pulled her up with his claws in a very human fashion. "Thanks. Now open wide." He opened his mouth and Terre reached past his sharp teeth, that were dripping with blood…err… She unravelled the material and pulled it out gently, as not to agitate the wound. What she found when she finished was a fully healed tongue that looked like it had never been the deadly weapon it used to be. "Hay, you have a real tongue now. Can you talk now?"

"My Queen." He said very slowly. "I can speak! I thought I wouldn't never speak to you again my Queen!" he wrapped his muscular, armoured arms around her and held her closely. "Thank you my Queen."

"It's ok. Does it feel the same to talk with or not?"

"It feels like half of my mouth is missing. I have a lot of spear room in my mouth now my Queen."

"HA!" after a few giggles, her eyes met the mangled body of the X marine. "Why is he still here? You hungry?"

"Yes, but not as hungry as you are. That is why he is here."

"…tell me you are joking…"

"Joking? My Queen I was being very serious." He cocked his head to one side and looked back to the dead body.

"Damon. I appreciate the thought. But."

"You must rejuvenate your strength before we can escape. This meat bag will contain lots of proteins and."

"AND there is no way I am going to eat a PERSON!" Terre broke out in wheezes again and Damon returned to taking the body of the dead marine apart. When Terre finally got her breath back, she saw lots of strips of mangled flesh on the floor, and Damon looking right at her. "Damon, no. don't even think about it." Damon's tongue slithered out his mouth in a snake like fashion and coiled it around a large strip of muscle. He lifted it off the floor and it dangled from his mouth. "Damon I said no! I am not a cannibal!" ignoring her, he began to advance on her and crawled over her laying form. "NO!" Terre still didn't have the strength to move so she was a sitting Queen duck on the floor. He pinned both her arms away from her face so that she wouldn't be able to batter the 'meat' away. "D! I will not eat that! oh I want to be sick…" some fresh blood dripped off the meat and onto her face. It was cold and made her cringe. Then he began to lower closer to her, the meat angled to go straight into her mouth. Seeing this, she snapped her lips shut and turned her face away. She wasn't going to let Damon force feed her if she could help it! She heard a slurping sound and opened one eye. The meat was slowly vanishing into his mouth. Maybe he's given up?

Once it all in his mouth, he lowered even more until his mouth was barely inches from hers. "Damon? What are you doing?" she regretted asking when his lips curled into a wicked smirk. She could see from his bulging mouth that he hadn't swallowed or even chewed the flesh and it was still intact, in his mouth. He pushed his lips against hers quickly and his plan was revealed. His tongue forced its way into her mouth…and brought something else with it. It was slimy, cold and being fed into her mouth by his tongue. Terre began to splutter and gag on it, then she got an idea. She stopped using her mouth and used her nose to breath. Her black eyes sparkled and he could feel her smirk against his lips, like she had won. He hissed slightly and his shoulders shuck slightly. What is he chuckling about?

Crafty. Very crafty. But you will not beat me so easily my Queen.

His tongue continued to feed the slimy cold flesh into her mouth and when he finished. He pulled back, covered her mouth with his clawed hand and used the other to hold her nose shut. Terre used her now free hands to try to pry his large hands from her face, with no success. She began to gag again and knew what she would have to do. She opened her mouth and began to swallow the wet, blood soaked muscle until it had made its way to her stomach. Then Damon finally pulled away and let her breath. "That was disgusting!" she spat the residue blood from her mouth and whipped her mouth with the back of her hand. Wait. I can move my hands again? Since when? Oh well. Oh God, here we go again. Damon began to consume another strip of flesh and turned back to his Queen.

Now Terre didn't just give in and let him feed her, or eat it. She thrashed her head, kicked her legs, flailed her arms and had a tantrum as she gagged on the bloody lumps as they were forced down her throat. At one point, she refused to swallow so he shoved his tongue literally down her throat and pushed it down. Her throat's reflex did the rest and betrayed her initial refusal. After a while, Damon decided that she had enough and let her go to eat his self. He attacked the chest and began to devour the body until there was nothing left but bones and tattered uniform. He used his tail to sweep it to the other side of the cage, near the door, and turned to his Queen.

Terre was shaking and holding her stomach, hunched over and looked to be in pain. Damon hurried towards her but she shuffled round until her back was all that faced him. "I don't even want to talk to you!"

"My Queen. I did what was right for you. Even now your body is regaining your fathomless strength. Even by moving to this corner to retreat, shows that your body is refuelling and recovering."

"I don't care. That was the most, well, second most disgusting experience I have ever had to go through. Never! Ever! Do that again!"

"I will not my Queen as we will not be here much longer. Remember when I said I had a plan to escape? It is time; soon, it will be time."

"Good. I can't wait until we get out of here…damn these meat bags have never heard of heat!"

"You are still cold my Queen?" Terre scowled and looked over her shoulder. Damon was sat in his usual 'obedient dog' position with his head to one side.

"If you haven't noticed D. I was cold when I had a full jump suit on. Now all I have are tattered, short shorts and a bra. I think I am going to be a little cold, don't you!"

"Would you like me to keep you warm my Queen?"

"I am still mad at you! Just because I am cold, doesn't mean you can creep back into my good books. Not to mention, I have the worst stomach ache now thanks to you. That happens when you put crap in your stomach that doesn't belong there…err I am gonna puke…"

"It will not be the meat that has upset your stomach. Where exactly does it hurt?"

"None of your business! Stop trying to make up for being a jerk!" she winced at the searing stabbing pains in her lower abdomen and clenched her teeth together. The fact that she was embarrassed beyond hell from having Damon force his tongue, literally down her throat did sooth her growing conclusion that this day was not going to be a good one. But not as bad as the last, at least.

Her eyes began to tear and the pain only got worse. "AA! What is wrong with me." she started whimpering and two large claws circled around her waist and rested on her gut.

"Does it hurt here my Queen?" he started to rub slow circles against her and received a choked no. "Here?" his hands went higher and go no response. He lowered his hands and asked again. She grabbed his hands and put them somewhere lower that made him gasp. He pulled away and backed away quickly. "Well, My Queen, I think we can safely say that it is your womb that is hurting you. Ahem. I will just be over here." If he could have he would have screamed when Terre moved his hands over her womb. But why would her womb be hurting her?...

On a certain cloaked ship above Earth's orbit

"Kim? Where are you?" Katel had been fully dressed in his armour and Kim was supposed to have met him at the training room over an hour ago. And she still hadn't arrived yet. "Pauk! Where is that woman!"

"Calm down. I'm here already."

"You meant to be 'here already' over an hour ago! What were you doing?"

"Well firstly before you have a cow at me let me tell you something! You left me this morning, still tied up! I have to use my bloody toes to get my dagger and cut the darn things off! That took me half an hour and there was no way that I wasn't going to have a shower. I stank of musk and….I needed a shower. That took another half an hour and then I had to kit up and."

"Kit up?"

"Oh, I mean put all my armour on, and well now here I am. I would have been sooner if you didn't leave me all tied up. My arms kill, not to mention the burn marks you left on my wrists!"

"Well I apologise for your wounds." His smirk didn't look all too convincing and Kim just scowled.

"You look so concerned. Let's just train ok?"

"Yes, let's." he opened the door open for her and she had to smile. He may be an arse at times, but he was always a gentleman. If that is possible.

It wasn't long before Katel was almost slicing her in half with his wrist blades. Of course she dodged them perfectly for the first hour or so…but then her concentration began to slowly drift away from her training…and to a certain throbbing that had started to pound away in the more lower parts of her abdomen. Katel started to notice the pained expression on her face and became concerned. Sure, he had beaten her about a bit as the time passed on, but she shouldn't be sweating half as much as this.

"Kim, are you harmed?"

"I'll be fine damn it!" she wasn't going to let a little thing like her 'monthly friend' get in the way of her training. It was natural, every woman has to go through it and they can get on with their everyday lives. So why cant she?

She ducked, avoiding an incoming swipe from a Naginata and tried to cartwheel out the way of another assault. But her cramps got worse and she doubled over in pain and fell to her knees. "Grrr damn it!" she slowly looked up to see the long bladed end of the Naginata hovering inches above her head. Unmistakable tears watered in her eyes and confirmed Katel's suspicions.

"You lied to me. You are harmed."

"I will be fine, just, let me get my bearings again." Kim tried to stand, but was unable to pry her arms from holding her searing stomach.

"I did not hit you in your stomach…come, we will leave for the sick bay."

"No! I told you I will be fine Katel."

"Grrr" he growled and simply dropped the Naginata, swept her off her feet and carried her bridal style to the med wing. He lay her on the large table and noted that she hadn't stopped holding her stomach since they left the training hall. He tried to pull her armour off, but she growled at him and swatted his hands away. "Grrr! I will rip it off if you do not allow me to take it off!" he warned. His hissing made his point, assuring her that his threat was anything but empty. Kim began to take her armour off, her pained expression not leaving her face.

"I am perfectly alright Katel. You won't find anything other than…" oh great. He was bound to notice the blood and then she would die from embarrassment.

"Other than what…wait…" he started to pick up a sent and it was coming from her. "…I smell…blood! You're bleeding!"

"I need to go to the bathroom." She quickly added and tried to make a run for it. but Katel swooped her up in his arms and slummed her back on the table.

"You are injured and you are not leaving until you let me heal you. Understand?"

"Katel! God man can't you take a blood hint! I need to go to the bathroom!" she tried to run again, but Katel blocked her escape route.

"You are injured! Why will you not let me heal you? You are obviously in pain."

"It's natural, I will live through it. Now let me pass!" she launched herself at him, catching him off guard and rant to her room. She locked the door and further locked herself in the bathroom. "…I have never been so embarrassed in my life!" damn it I bet females of his kind don't have periods do they? Bloody hell!

Kim stayed in her room for the rest of the day. And intended on staying there for the rest of the week too…if Katel didn't barge in that evening…

"Kim? Where are you?"

"I am in the bathroom, now, if you don't mine, GET OUT OF MY ROOM!"

"You're in the bathroom? Still?"

"Yes…argh!" the pain in her stomach was only just more infuriating than Katel and his need to be near her, at the least opportune time. Just.

"Have you a fever? Are you ill? Are you still bleeding?" Katel was distraught and had been the entire day. He could-be-mate was bleeding from somewhere he couldn't see, she was acting very strangely, (more than normal), and she wouldn't tell him why. It was starting to really get at him.

"Look Katel. I said that it was natural, I will live through it, it doesn't last and please leave me alone!"

"Tell me what is happening, or I am going to KICK THE BATHROOM DOOR DOWN!" He roared, there was no way he wasn't gong to ensure the wellbeing of his mate, no matter if she didn't want him to. It was his duty to ensure his mates welfare, and his right…even though she hasn't actually said that she would be his mate yet…it was still the same for him!

"Look, it is really embarrassing for me so just don't ask ok?"

"Your bleeding, your in pain, your mood is less than pleasant and you want me to NOT ASK? Do you think I am mad!"

"FINE!" the bathroom door opened and Kim came storming out. The scowl she had on her face screamed 'you are going to die for this' and she sat on the bed. Katel sat next to her and started to see where her wound was. but he couldn't find it. "Ready for your biology lesson mister I can't take a hint?"

"Biology lesson?..."

Kim began giving him a detailed explanation of how the female reproduction system worked…in a lot of detail. Enough detail, to make Katel wish he was fighting three Queens and their entire armies, instead of having to sit through this. He got the gist of what was wrong with her as soon as she was half way through, but no. she was determined to make him suffer for not backing off and made him sit through a full degree's worth of the female anatomy and menstruation cycle.

"Happy now Katel? That is why I am bleeding, but you cant see where or help me."

"……"

"Not got anything to say? Then, if you don't mind, I need to go back to the bathroom for some more tissue." Katel was so embarrassed, that his entire face was glowing from his profuse blush. He decided that he would leave her alone for a while. True, the females of his kind when through something similar, but never bled or lost their womb lining in that way. It was absorbed back into the body to be recycled. And they were most fertile during mating season, not a week before bleeding, or, a period as she called it. he wouldn't train her for a few days, as she thought it would make him feel better to know that she was a very heavy bleeder for the first few days, and then it died down. He didn't find that as useful as she must have thought he would and would have rather not heard it. It just added to his loss of speech. He didn't say a thing all day. He didn't even share the same room with her, too embarrassed to go near her. and she was obviously not herself from her mood swing and didn't fancy getting a battle scar from it. He could imagine it.

"I got this scar from a human marine."

"Well I got this scar from a hard meat Queen."

"Where did you get that scar from Katel?"

"My mate." yeah, that would go down well…

"Dam Katel. Well, he got what he deserved. Grrr." Kim curled up in her bed, the pains I her stomach keeping her awake, like it usually did. She didn't get to sleep until the early hours of the morning. But Katel didn't insist on her waking so at least she got a lay in…until lunch time.