Page 53 of Space Daddy and a Boy Called Twink

“What is it?” I pressed.

“I’m just…I’m worried about you looking for Sheila. It’s not gonna be safe, and I don’t want you to get hurt. But then, I know at some point, you’ll fix the ship and go home. And I’ll miss you.” He shook his head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have told you that. It’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. It’s very sweet. It’ll be hard for me to leave my Twink.”

“YourTwink? I like that. Then that makes you my Daddy.”

Pleasure radiated in my chest, swelling. “I wish you could know what it did to hear you call me that.”

“My Daddy?”

“Yes. It makes me very happy. And also…I don’t want to make you happy and then have to leave,” I admitted.

His eyes dulled, and I felt the sting of his sadness before he said, “We don’t have to think about that yet, though. Let’s just enjoy this while we can. And by this, I mean I expect you to be fucking me with that dick a lot more now that I’ve had it.”

I laughed, though I felt his lingering discomfort.

And cruelly, I liked it because it meant he liked spending time with me, though surely not nearly as much as I liked spending time with him. But I wouldn’t push for him to feel more than he did too soon.

Still, I reeled him closer and took a kiss, appreciating how this uneasy feeling within him began to lift.

He was right. We needed to enjoy this while we could.

*

Over the courseof the next week, I spent my nights working on theKaylogand my days trying to track down my ex. Selfishly, I enjoyed that Twink was staying on my ship, and not only because I knew I could keep him safe there. I liked having him around. Chatting about annoying customers or work stresses he dealt with during the day. Showing me a funny video he’d watched online. Cooking us meals. And most importantly, spending our evenings having fun. And the cuddles…Fuck, those cuddles.

I made some progress on theKaylog’s communication system, so I sent an SOS as well as a message to the Intergalactic Justice Department, though since I couldn’t receive communications just yet, I wouldn’t know for sure that they were received unless someone showed.

As for my search for Sheila, using the information Twink had shared from the Reddit forum, I probed the sewers, taking my Vorcon form, which allowed me to navigate them at a faster pace and without being as disturbed by my surroundings as I would’ve been in either my natural or human form.

It also came with a unique ability to spot signs of Sheila. On top of my keen senses at detecting female Vorcons, she had programmed me to be aware of her scent—no, not just aware;addicted to it. Everything about her, from her looks to her smell, I was totally absorbed in, so even in moments when she struggled to control me, those things were enough to lure me back into submission.

Once I found her, it would be another story. I’d milked some of my natural sedative from my stinger into syringes, since I required more than I could make quickly enough to sedate her. And I packed two along with some snacks in a backpack Twink had offered me to take into the tunnels with me.

On Friday, I’d been in the sewer system for three hours without any luck. I kept as quiet as I could, treading lightly in my Vorcon form as I waded through the water in the tunnels. This proved easy enough—Vorcon bodies were uniquely designed to evade detection, since that was such an important part of the mating process. Their night vision enabled them to see in the dark, which made navigation effortless. I hadn’t picked up her scent, but I was looking for other signs as well—a nest or somewhere she might have stored food—when a sound caught my attention.

I’d heard plenty of subtle sounds in the sewers, so I didn’t think too much of it, especially since it would have been unusual for a female Vorcon to give herself away so easily. Still, her drones may not have been so discreet. I investigated, rounding the corner of the next tunnel cautiously, when something rushed me, water splashing about.

I recognized the figure from the park—a Labrador—even before I heard its loud bark.

Followed by another.

And another.

Fuck.

What the hell were they doing in a sewer?

No time to consider this, however, as another rumbling of sounds hit my Vorcon ears. Ripples of water, and somethingelse, almost like gusts of wind…and then I saw a blob creeping along the bottom of the tunnel. No…not only one, but a collection of many, maybe as many as a hundred…

I didn’t wait to find out. I bolted for an exit, but before I could get away, something came at me from the side, and as I turned to face the enemy, it went right for my eyes. In a moment, I was attacked from all sides, facing off against several enemies. These creatures weren’t very large, but they were persistent, and they corralled me into a corner. I thrashed about, struggling to get them off me. In the process of fighting them off, I noticed they had wings. I’d seen them in town before. Pigeons. They came at me with a vengeance, attacking violently.

I hadn’t heard of Labradors in the sewers or many bird attacks, which made me suspect Sheila had used her powers to subdue these creatures. This was how she was getting food and supplies down here without being detected.

I managed to pry the birds off me, then sprinted through the tunnel. I could speculate later what other creatures she’d enlisted to do her bidding. Right now, I had to get out of here. It was one thing to face off against Sheila with a few syringes of my sedative, but that wouldn’t help me against her army, however small they may have been individually.

I scrambled into a neighboring tunnel, and just as I tossed away the last of my pigeon nemeses, something dropped from the ceiling. I jumped back, attempting to keep away from it, and my leg slammed into a pipe. It burst, the edges tearing into my flesh, drawing blood. As I cried out in pain, my attacker crawled on my head, and I snatched it, pulling it into my eyeline to see what this new villain was. I recognized that small head, buck teeth, and bushy tail—a squirrel. Nasty vermin.