Craving Her: Galactic Women, #1

By Lucee Joie

The Ochek have to breed with humans because they believe that there are none of their females left alive.

 

However, one has survived against all of the odds.

 

But what if the last female left didn't want to mate with males? What if she swayed another way?

 

Kaylee is the last remaining Ochek woman. She should let the other know that she exists. However, she doesn't want to be used in the same way the human females are.

 

Especially now that she has managed to fly under the radar as an Ochek male and has her very own female to mate with.

 

However, the guilt wracks her and the fact that she is falling hard for her human woman only adds to her woes. Can she escape the shackles of her kind as well as find true love with the only woman that truly knows her?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucee Joie
• Release date: May 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201722388

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COPYRIGHT © 2020 by Lucee Joie

Cover and internal design by Lucee Joie

Cover images by DepositPhotos

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The characters and events portrayed by the author are fictitious, and are used as such. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Chapter One: Kaylee

P lease don’t tell anyone .

I hated having to say it, especially to Nuvul. He was my oldest friend. But, also, he was the only one who knew my secret now that my parents were dead.

Kyler, you know that I won’t, he replied, taking my hand and saying my fake name out loud.

I glanced around the room, wondering if anyone was listening in. No one seemed to be paying attention. It was the end of a shift and everyone here was more interested in having a beverage or two before turning in for the day. When I returned my gaze to Nuvul, he was still staring at me.

I wondered if our friendship meant more to him than just buddies. We had grown up together, played side by side. Now, we worked at the same space station.

However, there would never be feelings from me towards Nuvul that were anything beyond a mutual friendship. After all, I was not remotely interested in men. Which made it hard when it came to finding a mate among my own kind.

For I was the only female left of my species.

The Ochek had been foolish enough to prize boys over all other offspring and held them on such a pedestal that they never even noticed when the lack of female babies being born dropped significantly. It was only after a news outlet wrote an opinion piece on it that my kind pulled their heads out of their asses and realized that something was seriously wrong, that they had—to use a human expression—batted for the wrong team and now that team had dropped their bats and disappeared into the ether.

By this stage, it was too late. There was no official reason as to how it happened but there was talk among different species. From the belief that a higher being had doomed us, right through to a species wanting to take over our prime location in the universe, there was a theory. But who were they kidding, our planet was a dust hole. However, nothing fixed the problem and it will likely result in what will be a mass extinction event for the Ochek.

Or, at least, it was until authorities discovered that humans could breed with our kind.

The resultant babies were not identical to the Ochek. However, they were close enough, genetically, to ensure that our race would survive—so long as humans could produce female offspring.

Which, so far, was a fairly pretty hit and miss exercise.

So, when do you think you will get a breeding partner? I ask, wanting to change the subject as well as to remind Nuvul that I was not his to take.

I have no idea, he replied, reaching down to grab his drink, a frown forming across his otherwise smooth brow. He shook his dark mane and the fleeting expression was gone when he spoke once more. My father seems to avoid the subject, which is just fine by me.

His father was General Rukkali, which meant that he might even get some say in the matter as to which human was selected for him.

Not that the human got any say. And, that was the reason why I kept my own identity hidden. Besides not being interested in breeding with males of my kind, I knew that I would be forced into it should they find out. I would be nothing more than a means to an end. In a way, I wished that my kind would die out. Even in this emergency, they still didn’t appreciate females, and saw them only as a means to an end when it came to producing the preferred boys.

You know that I don’t want a mate, Nuvul continued. It’s barbaric what the Galactic Union is doing.

I agree, I replied. Still, it would be better if someone like you got a mate and treated them well than for Catron to get his claws into someone.

I bobbed my head in a direction across the room. Catron was enormous—even for our kind. His broad shoulders were pure muscle and they strained against his shirt as he threw back another drink. Slamming the empty cup down on the table, he laughed at something said by Gaex, who was seated across from him. His tail whipped violently from side to side, knocking at a chair next to him. Each time that he did so, the seat moved, making a squeaking sound against the shiny floor and my nerves jangled in response.

Agreed, Nuvul continued. But, still, I can’t bear to force myself onto a human. It would be different if they were a part of the Union and knew what was going on. To kidnap them and force them into servitude is disgusting and I want no part of that.

How long do you think your father will let this go on? I queried. Have you ever considered that his silence is simply a new ploy? I can’t imagine that he likes the fact that you defy him so openly.

Of course, I have. However, he can do whatever he likes. I would rather be exiled than paired with an unwilling human.

This was why we were friends. It was also why I trusted my secret to him—well, most of the time. Occasionally, like today, when everything seemed to have gone wrong, I had my doubts. But they were more to do with the thoughts inside my head rather than believing that Nuvul would betray me.

So, what are you going to do with your unwilling human?

Then, there was that. My really bad, terrible day ended with the news that I had finally been assigned a breeding partner.

I have no idea, I admitted as I ran my hands through my unruly mane. I could feel my tail twitching, eager to slap at my chair, much in the way that Catron’s had just before. However, I forced it to be still. Rubbing my hands over each arm, I felt my fur as it caught against itself. It settled me somehow. I have always anticipated that I would be assigned a human at some point so have an apparatus that will help conceal what I am lacking.

By that, I mean that I have purchased a black market strap-on dildo. It also came with an ejectable substance that resembled semen to fool the medic into believing that I had performed as a male and that my unwilling human had been potentially impregnated. I shuddered at the notion. I, too, was staunch in my belief that humans should not be abducted and forced into our breeding program against their will.

I had no high up father. Instead, I was concealing my lineage through anonymity. By hiding in plain sight, I figured that I had a better chance of evading discovery. Nuvul had helped me secure a job on the Leonida even though I was considered a lowly person of little consequence. My parents had been merchants, no one special. However, even then I had to forge my birth certificate. They knew that I was a female but hid it when they realized our breed was dying out.

Now that they were dead, I had to fully hide my identity. I was born Kaylee Tamnal but my surname immediately identified my occupation. Thanks to Nuvul’s connections, I had a shiny new birth certificate that said I was Kyler Luxcer; a name synonymous with ship technicians.

Hiding on board the main breeding ship owned by the Galactic Union meant that I am also eligible to receive a breeding partner when one became available. I had always been lucky when the lottery was drawn and breathed a sigh of relief whenever my identifying number failed to show up.

However, I wasn’t stupid either, hence the strap-on.

I guess we shall find out tomorrow, I finally say.

For that is when I get to meet the poor unfortunate that has been assigned to me.

Chapter Two: Emma

MY BACK ACHES WITH the cold and I shift slightly to try and ease it. It is a moment before I realize that my eyes are closed and not that I am staring into a black void. I blink. The dazzling white of the room shoots through my vision with a blinding light and I welcome the backs of my eyelids once more.

I am confused, my brow scrunching as I try to remember where I am and what happened leading up to this moment.

There is the flash of a memory: a dark alley. It is familiar and it takes a moment to recognize the dimly lit void