Chapter 31: Brenda & Zibry

ZIBRY

Zibry couldn’t resist kissing her. He held her face, peppering it with kisses, nibbling, and sweeping his tongue across her lips. She was more than a lover, more than a bonded partner.

She was his addiction. Her small hands were buried in his shoulders. Her quick, shallow breaths were hot against his face and neck.

He was captivated by her eyes, those remarkable green eyes. Every time they made love, it felt like the first time. Their bond seemed to strengthen and tighten with each encounter, making it nearly impossible to separate.

The urge to be inside her was overwhelming. Blood pulsed in his hips, in his balls. His shaft was so engorged it made his entire body ache.

It was pressed against the warm softness of her pelvis, moving of its own accord, seeking her wet, waiting entrance as if it had a mind of its own.

With his hands buried in the pillow, Zibry lowered himself to latch onto one of her breasts. Brenda gasped as he tongued her nipple.

He cupped her other breast, feeling her nipple harden against his thumb. His penis was going wild, trying to find its way between Brenda’s legs.

Brenda could feel it—and she laughed. Zibry kissed her throat, savoring the vibration of her voice against his lips.

He took her hands in his, sliding his fingers between hers, and finally positioned his hips. Brenda spread her thighs wider as his penis sought her entrance.

It pressed against the softness of her lips. Taking a deep breath, Zibry pushed inside, faster than he intended, as if his shaft was pulling him in—as if it was no longer under his control.

He had waited too long. Gritting his teeth, he thrust again and again as Brenda gazed up at him, her eyes wide, her lips parted.

Zibry pressed his mouth against hers, trying to focus on the kiss in an attempt to slow down.

It didn’t work.

Brenda arched her neck with a cry, her eyes gleaming as he buried himself deep inside her. Her channel gripped him tightly as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

He could feel his erection twisting and turning inside her. He could feel the echoes of her quickening pleasure alongside his own, the pressure building in her hips as the same pressure built in his balls.

Then he came, with a gasp and a hard thrust of his hips that made Brenda grunt and cry out. She climaxed hard around him, her vagina clutching his shaft tightly, pulling him deeper, drawing in his cum as if her body was starving.

He was spurting inside her, thrusting his hips with each pulsation. He collapsed against her, his face buried in the pillow as he tried to catch his breath. Her skin was hot and wet with sweat.

Her breasts heaved against his chest. Her thighs fell away, dropping beside his hips.

He kissed the tip of her shoulder, then met her lips. He kissed her long and slow. Deep inside her, his shaft was sated, unmoving.

He loved this part, almost as much as the sex—being one with her. He wished he could go deeper.

They kissed for a long time. Zibry looked into her eyes as he stroked her cheek.

“I didn’t hurt you?”

Brenda’s cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were bright.

“No.”

He wriggled his penis inside her, making her grunt, then laugh.

Zibry lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it, then rolled onto his side, pulling Brenda along with him so that she was pressed up against him, still united.

Brenda reached down to feel where they were connected. She touched his balls. Zibry groaned as his shaft jerked.

She laughed.

“Do that and we’ll have to do this all over again,” he said.

“So?” she gave him a naughty grin.

Smiling, Zibry pressed her head into his chest and curled around her.

BRENDA

Some time later, Brenda rolled out of Zibry’s warm arms, kicking off her blankets with a gasp. It was happening again: that flushing, that heat that came and went with increasing frequency.

How she hated it. Even naked, even in a temperature-controlled room, she couldn’t find relief.

“You okay?” Zibry murmured, half-asleep.

Brenda sat up on the edge of the bed.

“Just getting some water,” she said. She released a breath as she stood, feeling dizzy. Her vision briefly turned to black, then back to normal again.

She went over to the little kitchenette and poured out a glass of water. Then she filled it again and pressed it against her forehead with a sigh.

Maybe she should go to the bathroom and splash her face. She was probably as red as a beet.

She took a few steps, then stopped, feeling something warm trickling down her thigh. Thinking it was Zibry’s semen, she wiped it away.

Then she heard Zibry’s concerned voice.

“Brenda?”

Suddenly, the lights flashed on. Brenda raised her hand, blinded and squinting.

“Brenda?” Zibry repeated, his voice tight. Brenda felt his stab of fear like a shock down her spine.

“Are you okay?”

She lowered her hand to see Zibry staring down at the mattress, the blankets pulled away. His eyes were wide, his mouth pulled into a frown.

Then he looked at her. The fear intensified.

“Did I hurt you?”

“What do you mean?” She went over.

“Oh.” There was blood on the mattress. “Sorry!”

She looked down at her hand—it was blood, not semen. ~Goddamnit.~ It was earlier than usual. She felt her cheeks flush with even more heat.

She swept her hand between her legs. Her hand gleamed red.

“Sorry! Let me go fix up!”

She dashed into the shower and switched on the water. Menopause—she hated it. It wasn’t fair that she was having it so young.

But ~life~ was unfair. She pushed her hand into her diaphragm with a wince. Zibry wasn’t feeling good. He was feeling sick. ~Emotionally~ sick.

And then she remembered what he’d asked: ~Did I hurt you?~

Leaving the water to run, she pushed the button to open the door. She jumped back with a start. He was standing just outside, as though unsure whether or not he should enter.

The sickly feeling in her diaphragm intensified enough that she bent over with a groan.

He grabbed her head and forced her to look into his eyes.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No. Don’t panic. It’s just my…my period, that’s all,” Brenda said, shaking her head, suddenly realizing there was no word for it in Zibon.

“Peer-ee-od?” he repeated.

“Yes. I’m… I’m…” She racked her brains but couldn’t find the word. “I’m shedding my womb lining,” she tried to explain.

Zibry frowned, cocking his head.

“It’s normal. It’s a womanly thing.”

Zibry’s frown deepened.

“You know, so she can have babies.” She felt more warmth trickling down her leg. “Goddamnit.” She hurried back into the shower.

As she quickly washed between her legs, she saw Zibry studying the drops of blood on the floor, a crease between his eyes. “It’s a lot heavier and unpredictable than it should be because I’m… I’m getting older.” Menopause—there was no word for that either.

The pain in her diaphragm was only getting worse, worse than the pain from her period, which was steadily building in her hips. It made for a bad combination.

“Zibry, it’s okay!” she said.

But he kept staring at the floor.

Turning the water off, she went over to him and took his face. She kissed him on the mouth, but he didn’t kiss her back. His yellow eyes were dark.

He gently took her wrist. “You need to go to the infirmary.”

“Zibry! Why aren’t you listening? It’s normal! Don’t your—don’t your women bleed like this?”

The crease between his eyes deepened.

Brenda’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow,” she said. She cleared her throat. “Okay. Well, ~Rictorians~ do. Every month. Sometimes less often, sometimes more often. You’re going to have to get used to it.”

She could see he was still struggling to understand.

“Aren’t any of the other Rictorians bleeding?” she asked. “Do you know nothing at all?”

He gave her a blank look.

Brenda shook her head in amazement. She wanted to take him over to the bed and talk with him, but she needed some pads or tampons. But if it really was true that they knew nothing of menstruation, would they even have anything she could use?

“Perhaps you ~will~ have to take me to the infirmary,” she told him. The sudden pain in her diaphragm felt like a punch in her guts. “But it’s not because I’m sick!”

She quickly glanced around the bathroom. There was no toilet paper and no paper towels. There weren’t any tissues she could wad up. She wasn’t even wearing underwear!

Brenda twisted her mouth. “We’d better just go.”

Zibry was feeling horrible. He tried to listen as she spoke about something called a period, but it seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

She was bleeding. She was bleeding down there. What had he done?

He’d been rougher than usual—but that was only because Brenda had wanted it. She’d enjoyed it—he’d felt it through their bond! Was she lying? But why would she lie? But she ~couldn’t~ lie without him knowing it.

Zibry contacted the infirmary via his I-Spy. They were extremely busy dealing with the sick infiltrated, but he was speaking to Drake, and the specialist seemed to understand the scale of Zibry’s concern. What if Rictorians weren’t really suited to Zibon anatomy, after all?

He gathered some napkins from the meal bench for Brenda to use. Then they got dressed. Zibry looked over himself. There was some blood on his shaft and thighs. He glanced over at the blood on the bed and twisted his mouth.

“Stop looking at it,” Brenda said, and she flung the blankets over it.

She took his hand and they hurried down the corridor. Her hand felt so small in his. After what he’d done, it somehow felt even smaller than usual.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Brenda snapped her head toward him. “Stop feeling miserable, Zibry! Why won’t you listen to me? It’s ~normal~.”

“How can it be normal to bleed?” And so soon after they’d made love!

Brenda’s lovely eyes were wide as she shook her head. “I can’t believe your women don’t menstruate,” she said. She laughed. “I wish I didn’t have to!”

They reached the infirmary.

Brenda stepped back with a start. “~Oh.~ I—I completely forgot about this.”

The infirmary was a mess, beds and machines and people squashed into every available space. Several medics were on shift, going from bed to bed as they checked on their patients. It wasn’t frantic. It wasn’t even noisy. But it ~was~ busy. Especially for this time of night.

Zibry and Brenda focused on a bed further down the room where Drake and two other medics stood. Brenda tightened her grip on his hand.

“I saw what happened,” she told him. “I’d hoped they’d be better by now. Come on.” She turned and tried to pull him back through the door. “I don’t want to disturb Drake just for this.”

“No,” Zibry said, keeping a tight hold on her. “Drake ~wants~ to see you. It’s something we need to understand. Especially with all these new Rictorians.”

He laid his eyes on them all. He could feel their bonds. The room was filled with the warmth of them, as though it were an organism in itself. It made the room seem smaller and more full.

Drake spotted them. He came over, glancing at Zibry before laying his eyes upon Brenda. He was clutching an electronic notebook. “Come on, let’s go to the lab where we can talk. Are you feeling all right?” he asked her.

Brenda frowned. Zibry felt her impatience sweeping through the bond.

“It’s fine. Like I’ve told Zibry, it’s ~normal~,” she said.

The lab was empty. As Drake sat down with Brenda, Zibry folded his arms and paced the floor.

“Stop that, Zibry!” Brenda exclaimed. “You’re making me feel sick.” Grimacing, she laid her hand upon her belly.

“I can’t help it,” he said.

Zibry listened as Brenda explained the process of what she called “menstruation.” Once she was done, Drake leaned back in his chair, surprised.

“I can’t believe you don’t know this,” Brenda said in disbelief.

Zibry felt a tremor of laughter through their bond.

“It’s not funny, Brenda,” Zibry said.

“But it ~is~ funny! And a little worrying. What else don’t you know about us?”

“You tell us,” Drake said.

She thought for a moment, then frowned.

He stopped pacing. “What’s wrong?”

She looked between the two of them. “You do know about virgins, right?”

Zibry and Drake glanced at each other.

“A person who hasn’t had sex,” Drake said. “What about them?”

“You do know about virgin ~women~. It’s a big deal on our planet. Though it shouldn’t be.”

Drake’s forehead furrowed. Zibry was clueless. Her eyes darted between them both.

“That it hurts the first time. Because of the…because of the…” She switched to her language: “Hymen.”

“~It~ hurts?” Zibry exclaimed.

“Yes! Well…usually. And we can bleed from it.”

Zibry’s eyes widened at the thought of ~her~ blood. “~You’re~ not a virgin?”

Brenda laughed. “Definitely not. Like I said, that’s from ~menstruation~.”

“Hymen?” Drake looked puzzled. He glanced at Zibry, who shrugged.

“Jesus,” Brenda said, leaning back in her seat. “Chloe and Aisha, I think, are virgins. And you’ve probably got them in your new group too.”

Her lips thinned as she looked at them both accusingly. “Didn’t you bother to research us before you took us?”

“We did,” Drake said quickly. “But there’s not much information—and it’s old information. From hundreds of years ago.”

“Hundreds?” Brenda said in surprise. “It’s been that long? Then you really don’t know anything about us, do you? We’re very different from what we were hundreds of years ago, emotionally, even physically.”

Zibry rounded his shoulders at the feel of her annoyance.

Brenda was shaking her head. “It’s paramount that you get your men together to learn these things. You could really hurt someone.”

She looked at Drake. “Us women too. I need to talk with the girls.”

She looked at Zibry. “And you really need to speak with Quinton and—and Tor, is it?”

Zibry nodded.

Brenda was shaking her head again. “Unbelievable.” Then she squirmed in her seat. “Look, if I sit here any longer I’m going to bleed through the chair. I need some padding or something.”

Drake stood. “We’ll find you something—and for the rest of you. I need to get back to my patients, but we’ll sort this out.”

He nodded at them both. “Zibry, I trust you can organize something with the other men.”

“Not a problem.”

Drake left.

“I’m sorry,” he told her.

“Haven’t you been listening? You haven’t done anything!”

“I know.” He shrugged. “I just feel like I need to say it.”

Brenda gave a sigh and a pitying smile. “Come here.”

Zibry approached, then leaned over as Brenda reached up to take his face. She kissed him on the lips.