The Lost Queen Book 2 - Kehlani

40. Offering

I plop down and cross my arms. "I didn't want to be the bait."

Tobias stands at the front of the shuttle as we take off. "What did we learn?"

I raise my hand fast.

"Yes."

"Someone can summon boulders."

Victor smiles. "That was me. I did it in the game. I thought that meant I could do it out here too. It worked."

"Good job."

"Your mate wouldn't let me get a rocket launcher."

Alden shakes his head. "You are not going to shoot rockets towards the girls."

"Did we learn anything else?"

Collin nods. "They are attracted to the sound or the vibration of the sound. Victor's loud voice got the snakes' attention."

Star raises her hand.

"Yes?"

"They can stand up. 40 feet is not high enough."

"Yea, that thing came far up out of the ground."

"Alert: Snake above ground."

"Where?"

"Below us."

We look out the windows. "What's he doing?"

"Collecting warmth."

Victor dives out of his seat. "Let's shoot him with the rocket launchers."

2 of the shuttles land a little distance away. The boys quietly go to the other shuttle and get their rocket launchers ready. I plug my ears.

Collin comes in with a thing on his head and puts them over me and Star's ears too. Now I really can't hear anything. I watch them, and they seem to have fun shooting it. They each shoot a few times then get back in. I take the head thing off. "Seemed like you boys had fun."

"That was fun, baby. A few of you brains, stay and make sure the fire goes out after it's burnt."

"Yes sir."

"How many left? Did you ever find more?"

"7 left, sir."

Tobias stretches. "If there's anymore sunning like that, we'll shoot them too."

I jump up and raise my hand. "Can we do my idea now? Try to poison 1."

"Sure baby." He motions for a brain, "Get enough fresh meat from the planet, so the snake will eat the poison. We'll let Victor talk to the ground until the snake shows up and sees it."

I snuggle with Alden and almost fall asleep.

"Alert: Snake located 10 feet below ground in this area. No human's present. Would you like to deploy the poison here?"

"Yes. This is fine. We'll see if Victor can pull him out with his voice."

I watch out the window as the brains set up an area of what appears to be a meat stack. Then Tobias has them put some flashing lights on the meat stack. Victor amplifies his voice and talks. "Here snakey snakey snake."

"Oh, what the f**k?"

"Well, how in the hell do you call a snake asshole?"

"I have no idea. Make loud noises. Not all sweet high-pitched baby talk."

Victor changes his tone to really low. "SNAKE COME EAT DIE."

I crack up laughing. Then the snake punches threw the earth. He sees the lights and lunges at them. He swallows that meat stack whole.

"How long does it take?"

"2 to 4 minutes sir."

We stare out the window as he sucks himself back into the hole. I scratch my head, "How will we know if it worked?"

"The brains can see their life signs through some of the ground baby."

"We can sense them at a depth of up to 50 feet."

"How far down is he?"

"10 feet ma'am."

I glance at the big hole. This way was boring.

"Life signs ended."

"Effective but boring."

Alden kisses my head. "Effective is what we're going for, baby. Seal that hole so it doesn't stink. Then we can move on."

"Yes sir."

Victor stretches. "6 more."

I snuggle Alden. I love him.

I wake up after a couple of hours. Star and I are in the shuttle. She's sleeping. The whole thing is shut up. The boys are outside with the rocket launchers, but I can't hear a thing. The shuttles must be able to go soundproof.

I watch them laughing and shooting. They seem to enjoy that.

They climb back in and Alden sits with me. "Still a few more, baby."

Tobias smiles. "3 more. I'm hungry though."

"Yea, let's go eat some dinner and call it a night. We're starting to lose the light here anyway."

Victor says, "Keep searching for the remaining snakes. And search the areas we can't find snakes in, again. See if you can verify they are dead or gone somehow."

"Yes sir."

I wake up with Alden running his fingertips over my back, "Thank you for last night. That was amazing."

I snuggle up to him, "Yes it was sir. Want to make it an amazing morning too?"

He chuckles and kisses my marking spot.

2 hours later, we're finally getting in a shuttle to go down.

"I don't think they should have gone down without us."

"They're fine. They're capable of handling snakes. They're going to have their own planets to rule someday. We can't always be there for everything. Plus, this helps build their confidence. You saw your brother after he killed that snake with the boulder. He was so proud of himself."

"Yea, he was that."

I snuggle in under his arm. "Offer some guidance and show some interest. He'll ask when he actually needs help with something."

We land beside their shuttle and put on the ear things before we get out. They shoot off a final rocket each then smile at us.

I shake my head. "I think you boys have had too much fun with this planet."

They start laughing.

Alden picks up a rocket launcher. "How many are left? Put the ears on, baby."

I slam them over my head as Victor says, "1."

The snake blows up again, and we take the ear things off.

Tobias turns to us. "Victor hit another 1 with a boulder and then this 1 we blew apart."

"Brains know where the last 1 is now. We need to stop shooting this 1 and go there though."

"AAAAHHHH!" There is a snake running for me.

Victor steps on it.

"Thank you."

I laugh as I climb back into the shuttle.

Star smiles when she sees me. "I didn't know if you were coming down today."

"Alden missed the rocket launchers."

They crack up laughing and Alden nods. "Maybe a little bit."

We find the last snake and lure it out. Then it takes a rocket to the head.

Victor smiles. "Told you, I'm getting good at aiming this thing."

The boys laugh and blow it up a bunch more times.

"Alert: Priestesses being stripped and beaten in the main village path."

"That's not good." I run in the shuttle. Alden runs in behind me and ours takes off.

The other shuttle lands right behind ours in the village. Everyone cheers for us. I spot a beaten naked girl lying in the path. "Give me a sheet or something to cover her."

"Yes ma'am."

I run to her with the sheet as Victor talks. "We're not going to do that. Do not hurt anyone." I wrap her up, and she tries her best to stand. I get her to a bench and sit with her. "You have lived in fear for too long. These priestesses did whatever they could to keep as many of you safe as they could. They tried. They did something. It may not have been right, but at least they were trying. Do not condemn them for that."

She is sobbing so quietly. "We really did try. We thought we were doing right."

"We know. You were doing anything you could think of. You tried to protect your people. You did your best. We know."

A couple of older ladies come up to us with water and cloths. "Please allow us to clean her back."

I lean back, and she's bleeding through the sheet in straight lines. They whipped her. I pull the sheet down and the women wash her. Then I heal her as best as I can. Slowly, the other priestesses get led to me. The group of women grows. They clean them and I heal them. Once I'm done, I go over to the boys.

The boys have a growing stack of gifts in front of them, and they are shaking hands with everyone. Then a man comes up with an older teenage girl. She drops to her knees in front of Victor. "Please take my virgin daughter as offering. I don't have money."

All the boys glance at me.

I glare at Victor so hard my eyes go red.

Victor shakes his head. "I will not take a person as an offering. And no offering is required." His voice goes loud again. "People, you do not have to give us anything but your submission. Right now, you need to work on healing. You have been through so much and lost many people. Take some time and heal. Everyone." He motions to the priestesses. "You were trying so hard to survive. That kind of life is traumatic. I want you to enjoy this peace. Build a little house and get married. Start families and farms. I'll leave you with some technology to get you started. But enjoy the peace and be kind to everyone. Every single 1 of you has been through pain. You need to heal."

"Victor, get rid of that girl. My mate now has a twitch to go with her red eyes."

They peek at me.

"I am watching you." They nod. "I am watching all of you."

Star crosses her arms. "NOW."

Victor helps her up and pushes her away. "Look girls, a baby." We smile at the baby.

Alden laughs. "We're going back up to the ship. How many brains do you want to leave here?"

"A couple thousand anyway, so they can reach me."

"I would do 25,000 and have some of them keep an eye on those 3 sections."

"They found snake remains on 2 of them, but yea, still 1 is missing. I'll do 25,000 and make sure the leaders know how to send me messages."

Alden puts his arm around me. "That's a good plan. Make sure they destroy that cyanide too. I'm taking the rocket launchers back to the ship and don't have too much fun tonight."

Alden leads me away from the 2 of them laughing.

"What are they gonna do?"

"Probably get drunk and screw a few girls, baby."

"Is that what you want to do?"

"Not at all. I want to be deep inside you, all night long." He kisses my head. "That's all I ever want. But they haven't met their mates yet. They're single men. They're going to need that occasionally."

"I guess as long as the girls are old enough and agree to it, I'm ok with it. I mean, they're not my mates."

"Once they get their mates, they won't want anyone else either."

"Let's go back to the plan where you're inside me all night long."

He leans in and kisses my marking spot. "I don't even know if I can wait until we get back to the ship."

"Lets at least make it in the shuttle." I pull him in with me. Then I push him down on a seat and straddle him. I give him a deep kiss then go after his marking spot. I get him turned on before we get to the ship. Then I make him sit on his couch while I do the sexy dance for him. He's turned on so much he's shaking before I finally let him in.