The membranous doors whooshed shut behind the slender, leather-clad man who surveyed the room with an imperious, critical eye. A new shift was beginning.
He liked being here, in the Genetics Lab, his assigned domain. Good work was being done here. His Queen was a visionary, unencumbered by old prejudice and fiercely devoted to her Hive's well-being. If anyone was to prevail against this plague that was endangering Wraithkind, it would surely be them.
He loved the comforting hums and chirps of lab equipment. The clicking of vials, the muffled noises of the well-trained worshipper attendants and the almost-silent steps of his underlings going about their duties.
Handpicked by Gar'ain himself, they were all ambitious, smart young men no more than three centuries old, burning with the desire to discover, prove themselves, climb the ladder and be noticed, either by him or his Commanders or, those not Hive-born, even by the elusive and much-desired Queen of the Adventure.
His thoughts flew to his progenitor with a surge of affection. For the longest time, she'd been the only notable female presence in his life and his respect for her bordered on reverence. A worthy leader Bel'anna was, to be loved and feared.
But… no longer his true Queen.
Ah, not again. Don't think about it! Don't think about Her…
The pressure in his loins was getting unbearable again, churning like fire, making him physically ill. Blasted human. How could she do this to him. Damn her to oblivion. Yes, if only he could forget about her… If only he could feed on her and end this.
Though much good it did you the first time! he mused bitterly.
In his two millennia of existence, he could not remember having felt such urgent, pressing carnal need. Fool that he was, he'd prided himself on his discipline, self-control and "analytical spirit". No, he was not like those who succumbed to desire, not like Mer'ren, who had, scandalously and yet to the secret envy of the rest of the Adventure's Clevermen, resorted to taking a beautiful human lover almost a thousand cycles ago.
Ah, the hubris of a male who hadn't yet been conquered... Blasted Sher'zin had known better. His brother had laughed at him and told him as much. But who could take that one seriously, all he thought about when he wasn't elbow-deep in the ship's hyperdrive was "finding his Queen". At least he wasn't going about mating with humans. Gar'ain felt a hot surge of shame. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
Unfortunately, or perhaps thankfully, Gar'ain could not decide, Sher'zin was far away now, a prisoner of the Tau'ri. And in Her care... With Her all the damn day, a thousand curses upon him.
Worse than hunger in a way, this was. To satiate his hunger, he could take. But for this… Snarling loudly, startling his men and terrifying the scurrying humans, he promised himself he would try. He'd trick her into meeting him again in person, and overpower her, and take her like a wild creature until he could take no more. And then snap her blasted neck. She was, after all, only a frail human.
He'd try to relieve the curse from time to time, at night in his alcove or sometimes in the bath, but it didn't help much. After he found release, the ache returned tenfold, like every darn cell in his body knew that She wasn't there and he was spilling aimlessly that which was Her due.
The only thing that truly helped was holding Her close during that blessed – or cursed? – Tau'ri hour when she had promised she would come to him each day, to keep him from the madness that had gripped him during those first weeks when he was taken from Her.
He drank in the curves of her body and trailed his lips and hands along her soft alabaster skin, caressing her with the touch of his silky hair. If only he could've felt her warmth as well, the intoxicating scent that had first drawn him to her damn hiding place in the City, like a fly into a spider's web. Alas, it was not to be, not like this.
Driven by pure instinct, a couple of evenings ago, he'd started grinding against that maddeningly round backside of hers while she was laying in his alcove next to him, reading to him from her Tau'ri novel of Queens and "musketeers".
It still surprised him that she could make him feel her, though she was physically thousands of lightyears away, probably lying on her strange human bed in the City of the Ancestors, sending the arrows of her mind into the void of space toward him.
She turned to him and angled her head in one of those Wraithy gestures that confused him despite himself. How could this infuriating creature be so alien, and yet so familiar?
She pierced him with those molten lava eyes from behind dark-rimmed glasses and a wicked smile spread across her face. Biting her bottom lip and propping herself on one knee, she dropped her reading tablet, grabbed him roughly by the hair at the nape of his neck and pulled his head back. Her other hand scratched along his chest and abdomen, leaving in its wake marks that healed too soon, then went between his legs and started stroking him through the thin silk of his underpants, as she watched him with rapt attention.
He felt the press of her mind against his again, those warm, electric tendrils that were invading his consciousness, inexorably opening him up to her and making him drift from the rest of the world.
"You are so beautiful, beloved. Yes. So beautiful like this. I want you, Gar'ain," she growled at him.
So hard he thought the skin on his member would split open, he arched his back and ground shamelessly into her hand. She let him feel her, amused, aroused, and touched by his wanton surrender. He'd made her want him too, and that inflamed him even more. She stroked him deftly, body and mind, and he moaned and trembled in pleasure until he felt her gently, yet rapaciously, commanding him to give now.
And that was it, he could not fight it. He cried out and seized, obediently spilling himself and sinking into bliss, with her blunt teeth sinking into his exposed neck.
Then it had been right. He had obeyed. He had done for Her. And he was satisfied, and rode that high for a while, even after her presence vanished as it did every evening and the ever-present longing that was now his life returned.