A/N: This chapter is rated M for mature, so if it bothers you or if you're feeling immature, don't read. As a sidenote, I don't usually write this type of stuff and am pretty self conscious here, so please be kind or don't bother reviewing this chapter. Happy reading!

By the time the door to Bonewhite's quarters opened, Jennifer had long since fallen asleep. Her dreams were so plagued by thoughts of the Second and his threats that when Guide's figure appeared behind her, she instinctively tried to flee.

A strong hand took hold of her wrist and whirled her back toward him, their eyes snapping together as two magnets would do, and without further thought on the matter, Jennifer threw herself at him, clasping her arms around him and burying her face in the solid platform of his chest. Tears poured from her eyes as they squeezed shut, while Guide, uncertain what to make of this display of emotion, held stock still until the good doctor came back to her senses. She realized then the possibility that Bonewhite had told Guide of her misadventures and her defiance, and suddenly he, too, was frightening. She released him and took two steps backward, her eyes wide like so many the Wraith had seen before in the moments before he claimed their lives, but this time, there would be no deaths. In one swift stride he was before her again, slipping his arm beneath her knees and behind her shoulders, scooping her effortlessly up into his arms. Jennifer, reassured, wrapped her arms around his neck and hid her face against him once more, stress and emotion overcoming her.

"My Jenn-i-ferr," the Wraith purred as he carried her through the passageways, "How I have missed you so."

Taken aback by the clarity of the statement, Jennifer said nothing, holding her position against him and waiting until they had reached their quarters before struggling to get her emotions back under control. Guide deposited her on the small bench cushion by the window, the soft glow of the Hive's exterior lights the only brightness in the vast blackness of space that shown through the glass. He took a seat beside her, brushing messy blonde hair from her eyes and tucking it carefully behind her ear. His clawed fingertip skimmed down the pale white flesh of her neck, along the curve of her form-fitting jacket, and finally settled at the outside of her thigh.

"Bonewhite tells me he had no choice but to contain you within his quarters," the Wraith commander spoke, his voice hinting at both disapproval and fondness in the same instant. "Even so, I hardly think it was necessary to cause you physical harm." His fingers swept back to her neck now, ghosting over the dried blood from the Second's earlier grasp. Jennifer sucked in a breath and looked up at him, brown eyes glistening with unshed tears, and she realized with a wrench in her gut that he appeared quite invigorated such as she had not yet seen.

"You've fed," she murmured, her voice cracking slightly. "Of course that's why you look so much healthier, and why your arm is healed. You weren't lying when you told me you'd gone to feed." Her heart twisted at the thought of the individuals whose lives had been lost, but she reminded herself of her earlier musings and how she understood the positions of both parties. All living things must eat, and all living things so too, must die.

Guide merely inclined his head, his large feeding hand extending to press his palm against the upper base of her spine, and Jennifer shivered at the sensation of the maw's serrated teeth as they twitched against her skin. Several drops of fluid oozed from the orifice, indicative of a recent feeding, and she flinched away from his touch.

"Please, Guide," whispered the female, ducking her eyes. "I am exhausted. I need to rest."

The hand paused briefly and then retracted.

"Very well," Guide said with another nod, and then he reached for her hand. "It is late, after all. However, there is something I would like to show you before you rest."

Curious but apprehensive, Jennifer raised herself to her feet and slipped her delicate palm into the one Guide offered to her. He tugged her to a section of wall along which was placed a small decorative table. His feeding hand befell the wall behind it and a strangely mechanical door swung away from his touch, opening into a darkened room.

As they entered, the dim glow of Wraith lights flickered to life, revealing a marvelous, plant-filled space containing several fountains, hand-built streams, and a large, towering waterfall. Jennifer's heart fluttered in her chest as she gazed upward and witnessed an impossibly clear glass dome through which the ringed planet the Hive currently orbited was visible. She followed the edges of the dome to the floor and realized with a start that the floor, too, was transparent, and she could see only stars below. The bubble, as she mentally labeled it, protruded outward over the large hole every Hive's hull contained. The only sections of floor not transparent were those covered by the soil, plants, structures, and waterways.

Some distance away she could see what looked like a large pedestal atop which was placed an enourmous slab of stone. She dropped Guide's hand and strode cautiously out into the room, slightly disoriented by the lack of a visible floor beneath her feet at times, and eventually she reached the stone, and ran her fingers carefully over the Wraith symbols scratched into the surface. When she turned, Guide was beside her again, his hands clasped behind his back, a faint but stoic grin upon his features.

"This is a religious place, isn't it Guide?" Jennifer inquired, her voice a whisper lest she ruin the beauty of the room.

"It is a place of great importance, my dear," he returned, his chin raising slightly as he spoke. "This is where I travel to give thanks for those who have sacrificed themselves for my crew."

"Like a confession?"

"Of sorts, Jenn-i-ferr, though not to request forgiveness. In place of each life I take, I plant a new seed in this space."

"Do the Wraith believe in a higher power?"

"Your question is bold, milady."

Jennifer narrowed her eyes at him.

"One should expect such questions upon being brought to this place."

A laugh, now, came from Guide's throat, and he clasped her shoulder in good nature.

"Those Wraith who have time to ponder the origin of life are few, Doctor Kell-err, but I will admit that there have been times when events have occurred which I have been unable to attribute to anything but a higher power. For instance..." Guide hesitated now, and then pierced her with those intelligent eyes. "For instance, the day that I met you."

Taken aback, Jennifer shook her head slightly and stared at him. The Wraith, looking uncomfortable, but determined, turned her to face him more directly.

"What else could thrust a human such as yourself and a Wraith such as myself together? I hardly believe the Replicators are at work here, and were you anyone else, you would have been imprisoned and fed upon."

The blonde studied him, her brown eyes darting between his.

"What makes me different, Guide?"

A low growl emerged from deep in his chest and he pulled her to him, burying his left hand in her hair at the back of her head and trailing the maw of his feeding hand up her body until it rested on the side of her neck. His breath came in short bursts which shifted her silky blonde hair, eliciting a shudder from her person that only egged him on.

"You...it is your essence, Doctor Kell-err..." the Wraith purred, and then he descended on her, closing his mouth over hers. When they separated again, Jennifer's cheeks were flushed, and the commander grinned. "Your substance..." He mashed their lips together for the second time, felt Jennifer's legs threaten to give way beneath her, and pulled back once more. "Your humanity." Guide backed her to the altar now, bending her backwards over it and kissing her, his tounge skimming gingerly along her lips until she willingly presented him access. She felt his body stiffen and his grasp on her tighten when she did so, a foreign excitement building within them both until Guide lifted upward again and turned his attention to her neck.

Jennifer's head pressed against the hard stone to force her throat outward, exposing it to his hungry mouth, her eyes squeezing shut and her jaw opening as she allowed the sensations to overwhelm her. She was vaguely aware of his hands as they traveled downward; dimly conscious of his fingers slipping back upward again to gasp the zipper at the top of her jacket and tug it towards her beltline, the doctor's body strained to assist him.

Beneath her jacket lay an undershirt to which Guide was not so kind. One sharp claw poked under the edge and within moments he had sliced it in two, exposing her freshly sensitized chest to his covetous gaze. Deliberatly slowing his pace now, Guide took an instant to connect with Jennifer mentally, his desire to be sated being pushed to the background until he knew for certain she was on board with his end goal.

"Allow me to distinguish you, Jenn-i-ferr, from the others of your kind."

At his silent words, he felt an abrupt resistance, and Guide understood why.

"Your humanity will not be harmed," he assured her, looking into her eyes. After a pause, a barely detectable nod came from the woman and Guide swiftly took action, his mouth dropping to her left breast while his feeding hand clasped over her right. The commander had a somewhat surprising understanding of precisely how to ensure Jennifer was enjoying herself, and it occurred to her suddenly that with their mental connection, it was very likely he was reading her mind in more ways than one. The pads of inhuman fingertips skated over the swell of one breast while a rough tongue worked in circles on the apex of the other, his lips drawing it inward until the figure below him became supple and a soft sigh came from her throat. Once satisfied with his work Guide switched sides, catching those brown eyes with his in the moments before he continued.

Everything about her drove him to madness. The mere sight of the exposed portion of her body left him starving though he had only just fed; the scent of her arousal spawned a shiver he could not conceal; the taste of her skin left him wondering if he would be be able to control himself should the need arise. More. He wanted—no, he needed—more.

Jennifer was now fully aware when Guide's hand traveled lower on her figure and sought the buckle of her belt. A part of her being was nearly frozen in fear, but the more active portion of her mind was willing to take the risk and allow him to remove her lower coverings. Although she felt the tension in his muscles increase the closer he got to his goal, Jennifer recognized the inherant circumspection in the way his hands gripped her leggings and tugged them down. Soon the only layer of clothing left upon her were one of the lower garments he had provided to her shortly after she had arrived on the Hive. Just as he had done with the tank top, he slipped a claw beneath the fabric and divided it thrice, allowing it to fall from her hips to join the pile on the floor.

A rumble of approval surfaced from his chest as Guide lifted his female upright again and raked his yellow-green eyes over the sight before him. He sensed uncertainty within her, not toward his actions but her own splendor, and he quickly made her certain of it.

Leaning forward and brushing his lips against her ear, Guide whispered, "If ever you were my Queen, you would be the grandest of them all."

Jennifer's cheeks flamed and her eyes ducked to the floor, shyness overcoming her until her brain came to realize that Guide himself was still clothed. Her delicate hands reached for him, seeking the zipper of his own jacket and pulling at it.

"A Queen should not be kept waiting, Guide," she whispered in return, her voice quivering in spite of her enjoyment of the moment, and the Wraith grinned. He released her now, the pair of their hands now collecively working to relieve him of his uniform, the sound of leather against skin as it slid to the floor seeming louder than even the waterfalls in the room. Soon, the Wraith, too, stood bare, and Jennifer's fingers came to rest at the points of his hips and feel the foreign skin so different from her own.

Harsh to the touch and lined with prominent veins, the Wraith's hide was also littered with the scars of wars great and small. The most recent one at his shoulder left a sharp pain in the woman's heart, knowing it was her people that had wounded him. Jennifer traced every scar within her reach, causing the commander to shudder so voilently with want that he snatched her by the upper arms to stop her.

"Jenn-i-ferr..." he murmured as he met her gaze, "Wraith flesh is more delicate than you might suspect...our scars are painful in more ways than one."

Bowing her head, the Atlantean apologized, but Guide would have none of it.

Clasping his large hands around her midsection he lifted her to sit atop the stone altar with her legs dangling off, allowing Jennifer the first direct look upon everything that made him male, and she was grateful to see that he was very much human in that regard. The alien chuckled at what must have been a rather worried expression upon his would-be-lover's face.

"I assure you, Doctor, I shall not hurt you."

With that the Wraith tucked his fingers into her hair again and pushed her forward and upward, his hips pressing against her knees as he did so, and ever so gradually, he nudged them apart. Jennifer, lost in the sensation of his kiss and his other hand as it roamed along the sensitive flesh of her back, could only submit as the hand at her back pushed her hips closer to the edge of the altar. Her knees spread wider, and then Guide's mouth lowered to her collar and he nipped at the tender tissue with his sharp teeth, eliciting a gasp from the woman which coincided with a final push from his hand to move her closer to him.

His arousal evident and his prize at last within reach, Guide pulled backward to lift Jennifer's chin with his hands and give her one last chance to deny him. It would be difficult if she did, but as he held such respect for her, he would stop if she so wished it.

"Treat me well, Guide," the human female whispered, and she chanced a smile and leaned forward to kiss him. Another growl emerged from his throat and as his tongue explored her mouth, so too did his hand guide himself to her opening, his muscles tensing again as he made his move. His nostrils flared as air rushed through them, his entire body straining to ensure that his journey into her remained slow but unfaltering, strong but not forcible. Jennifer, unable to hold the kiss any longer, fell backward to catch herself on two palms behind her buttocks and against the stone, her mouth agape and her eyes sealed shut as Guide pressed inside her, filling her to the brim and then some. At long last, he hit his stop, a sharp gasp spilling from the woman and himself almost in unison, and when she lifted her head to look into his eyes, the Wraith was shocked by the need he felt within her. He moved his palms to press against her back, holding her to him and Jennifer wrapped her own arms around him, breathing hard and closing her eyes again as he began to withdraw.

She bit down with less than gentle force upon his collarbone, and Guide hissed when he was ready to repeat his earlier actions. He pulled her hips against him and drove into her for the second time, while Jennifer's brows pulled upward over the bridge of her nose. She reveled in the joy of the connection. Gradually the pace increased, as did the fervor of their movements, and soon Guide was able to slip into and out of her with minimal resistance. Rocked to her core, Jennifer's fingers dug into his shoulder, their grip ever tightening as the pair neared their release. In her mind, she saw flashes of Guide in situations she did not recognize, and in his, he saw himself, always at a distance, as though viewed from her eyes. It only encouraged him and as he continued to pleasure her he was met with the mental sight of their first moment of intimacy.

"My...Jenn-i-ferr..." he croaked, his voice interrupted by his motions, but she somehow found a way to look at him through it all. He spared a hand to tend to her center, understanding what would bring her to the edge and beyond. With a few quick strokes Jennifer whimpered softly and weakened beneath him, her body yielding to the power of his own and with a strangled gasp, so too did his to hers.

Collapsing to the cool surface of the altar, Guide trailed his lips down the line of symmetry between her ribs, his center still joined with hers. His hot breath shifted the dampened strands of Jennifer's hair that dared to stray onto her heaving chest. She lifted her head to look the Wraith in the eye again, pupils dilated and longing for more. Guide only smiled, his own eyes dark, and then carefully removed himself.

"Milady," the Wraith commander breathed, tugging her to her wobbly feet, "You are truly the grandest of them all."