I woke up in a good mood, Eve however seemed to be quite grumpy. She glared at me from her bundle of blankets, barely a single yellow eye visible. I rolled over in bed to stare at her, “What?”

  Eve’s single visible eye looked like it was glaring at me, “You’re a bully, you know?”

  I shrugged, “If it was too much for you, we don’t have to do it again; maybe your daily reward could be chocolate instead.”

  Eve threw the covers off her, a cute, angry pout on her face, “See? That was such a bully response!”

  Eve and I got ready for the day together, and there was a renewed playfulness between us. I wasn’t sure if it was because we crossed a physical barrier last night that altered our bond a little, or maybe it was the fact I did feel like I had a little control over Eve now—though I would hate for that to be the answer, because that would mean Eve had been right in trying to equalize our relationship. Didn’t excuse her gross scheming, but it would explain her rationale.

  Before the morning briefing, I decided to finish my daily report on our activities yesterday; as her handler, I was always supposed to report in on Eve’s behavior. It was a rather simple matter of summarizing the day’s events and I even made the submission for Eve to become a registered employee so she could receive payment. I also added in the detail that I got Eve to behave with the promise of a date as a reward after the mission, but I found myself pausing before the screen as I debated on adding the detail of our kiss into the report too. In the end, I decided to keep that secret; I wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment about such a private part of our relationship, didn’t know if I wanted to keep secret what all efforts I put in to control Eve, and honestly I wasn’t sure if command would think I’d been compromised if I was getting physically involved with Eve. Whatever the real reason, I just couldn’t bring myself to add in the detail.

  I closed out the report and looked up to see Eve watching me with evident interest, her bright yellow eyes looking at me with obvious adoration. She was dressed in a sexy, black sweater and short dark purple skirt, coupled with some black platform boots and striped stockings—wildly attractive to the point I could feel my pulse quicken.

  “Ready to go?” She asked evenly.

  I closed my eyes as I tried to recenter myself; I was sure I had more control over her now, but I couldn’t help but feel I was now walking a really dangerous line—a line I chose to cross. I might have won the battle last night to gain a tactical advantage, but I worried it set me on a path leading straight to my doom.

  ***

  Over the next couple days we fell into a comfortable routine; I gave Eve her morning hug, we went to mission briefing, followed our assignment for the day, had dinner together with the team, then would retire for the night where I would give Eve another reward kiss goodnight. I’d hoped I would get used to it, and maybe I did somewhat because I could actually count out three seconds in my head to break off the kiss before it went any further, but the rush of feelings I experienced never seemed to diminish. Honestly though, the kiss being so powerful almost helped me remember it was a monster I was kissing, because there was no way a normal kiss should affect me so physically—there must’ve been some alien chemicals or pheromones involved.

  For our daily missions, it was usually simple reconnaissance; mission command would move us around the capital to hot-zones with high-population traffic and hope we might find some evidence Gamma-17 was nearby. Some days they sent us to perimeter teams, a couple times they sent us down to the command team in the industrial park, and at other times they would just have us meet up with our own primary investigation team when they thought something unusual needed Eve’s attention. Unfortunately, unusual for them never involved Gamma-17.

  One day something interesting happened that got all the teams hopeful; there had been a sudden disappearance in one of the oldest sections of the capital that would be the closest thing to a low-income area for a prosperous futuristic planet. We went to investigate the site immediately, but almost the second we got there Eve confirmed there was no connection to Gamma-17. Turned out there actually were slavers in the sector, and they dropped through and kidnapped a few people between warp channels.

  A cycle passed, and there was no progress in the mission, but no one seemed concerned at all; mission completion was estimated to take up to two years, so a few cycles with no progress was no problem to them. I on the other hand was getting a little bored. I wouldn’t mind the mission on Entana if we were allowed to do stuff while out investigating; we were always acting like tourists, but we couldn’t actually enjoy the city, always collecting more data or calibrating sensors. I wanted to do stuff around the city—take in the sights instead of just walk around them. Plus, I didn’t have my laptop or tablet with me, just stuck with alien TV for entertainment—couldn’t even watch anime with Eve now.

  Eve didn’t seem to mind the boredom at all. Actually, she seemed downright elated most of the time; she always said it so plain, she was just happy to be spending time with me, it didn’t even matter what we were doing.

  I’d hoped spending more time with Eve would calm her attempts at seduction—hoping her focus would shift like everyone thought it would. That wasn’t the case at all. She was strangely consistent with her propositions; she walked the fine line of trying to behave while also letting me know she was always ready to fuck. Every once in a while she would be rather brazen about it; accidently let her robe open, forget to wear panties, press her huge ass against my crotch on the monorail, stumble and push her tits into me, get up from a table and shove her tits in my face, move in the way so my hand would land on her tits—she definitely seemed to favor using her immaculate breasts as her primary weapon. Yet despite her boldness in trying to seduce me, she would be as shy as a schoolgirl when it was time for her goodnight kiss. Maybe it was the multifaceted side to her hivemind consciousness, but it was almost like they were separate people—the down to fuck succubus and the adorably shy virgin who just wanted a kiss. The worst part was I liked both sides of it; I had control over one and had to fight to prevent her from gaining control with the other. It was oddly entertaining going back and forth so much.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Amidst all that seduction and sexual tension, Eve and I were becoming friends again. Every once in a while she would drop her walls and act so normal it was almost unsettling—so human. We talked about human things—fiction and fantasy, nature and history, even planned out what we would do if we went back to visit earth. We talked about mundane things as well as surprisingly serious topics. Once I even caught myself grabbing for her hand when she stumbled while we were just talking about fucking camping of all things, and we interlocked our fingers like it was the most natural thing in the world. Another side of Eve I found myself strangely drawn to, the normal girlfriend side.

  And yet again, it was just a single part of the whole puzzle; I didn’t like it more or less than any other side.

  Still, living with Eve and all her seduction attempts, it was hard to hold onto my control, so I finally had to find a way to release the tension. It was wildly embarrassing, but when the opportunity arose I’d sneak off and take care of my needs, usually off in some private bathroom on a separate floor. I was careful to usually only do it before hanging out with Zyno when we’d have a boy’s night and got a little drunk down at the hotel bar, so I think having the smell of liquor on me was helpful in masking any shameful scents. It was definitely not a permanent solution and made me feel absolutely ridiculous, but I had to do something to stay in control. Eve was just so wildly sexy, and she acted so normal now it was hard to even see the monster inside, it was like I had to constantly remind myself why I was resisting her in the first place.

  However, when we were at the end of our second cycle on Entana, something happened that completely renewed my resolve to resist Eve and her plans to control me. Our team met up with a perimeter squad to investigate one of the old disappearances we believed was caused by Gamma-17, and on that team was Doctor Tillia. Both of us were awkward, offering weird greetings like we didn’t know how to act around each other. She was as beautiful as ever, and I was immediately reminded of the passionate night we almost shared. I’d seen her naked and honestly wanted to see it again. I could see with the way Tillia looked at me there was still something there. But Eve was in the middle of it all. She clung to my side so possessively it was ridiculous. She was cold and curt with Tillia, barely allowing her to speak, disrupting the work. The worst part was Tillia was actually being quite kind to Eve—called her by name, tried to get her involved in the investigation, treated her like a real person. I could see Tillia was scared of Eve, but she put on a brave face to show her kindness, only for Eve to shut it down every time.

  I wanted to have a private word with Tillia—to apologize or explain what all was going on between Eve and me, something to just clear the air between us. But there was no way I would get that opportunity—no way Eve would allow me out of her sight when Tillia was around.

  And so I was reminded of the monster Eve was, keeping me in a prison of pretty promises—saying she’d love me and spoil me, all while taking away my freedom. Maybe it was true Eve wasn’t trying to control me or take over my mind, maybe she really did feel like she was the perfect woman for me—the ideal mate. But that didn’t matter at all, because she didn’t allow me to choose, to make the decision for myself. And there was something so fiercely human in my rebellion against her denial of my freedoms, and for the fact Eve didn’t understand that just proved she wasn’t very human after all.

  We returned to our hotel room that night, got ready for bed like normal, and when Eve turned to me with that shy, excited gleam in her eyes as she asked for the goodnight kiss, I just shook my head, “No, you didn’t behave today, you don’t deserve any reward.” I stated flatly.

  Eve’s face immediately darkened, “This is about that red slut, isn’t it?”

  I nodded, “Right, a valuable member of our team, who you treated poorly for no reason, disrupting all the work today—I don’t think we even accomplished anything with your attitude to be honest.”

  “No reason?” Eve snapped, her hair tentacles curling upward, “I have every reason to treat her as I did—I see the way she still looks at you!”

  I stood before her defiantly, “Yeah? And I still look at her the same way—still feel that same way.”

  Eve snarled, an echoing growl rumbled in her throat as though there were multiple voices, “You would choose her over me?” She demanded.

  I was standing before a precipice, balanced on a razor’s edge of danger. I decided to push forward, test if the monster really wouldn’t harm me like she said, “Yeah, yeah I would.”

  Eve shrieked and covered her ears, then pushed me forward as a dozen tentacles all snapped out behind her—manifested from her back and arms. The tentacles wrapped around me, binding me so tight it was painful. She pushed me into the far wall as her hair tentacles unfurled to reveal sharp white spikes, all inches before my face.

  “Do it! Do it motherfucker—kill me!” I challenged her.

  Eve leapt up on the wall and straddled me wrapped up in her tentacles—sticking to the wall like fucking Spider-Man. She hissed and growled at my face, elongated fangs nearly touching my skin.

  “Fuck you Eve, you can’t control me!”

  Eve slammed her tentacle spikes forward—but they all stuck into the wall mere inches from my head. Eve pulled back, and her face relaxed to calm. Before I could say anything else defiant, I saw her lower lip quiver, and then suddenly she just burst into tears—releasing me and dropping me to the floor as she rushed off to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. I could hear her wailing sobs, sounding absolutely devastated; it was that sad, pitiful kind of hiccupping crying, like she couldn’t even catch her breath, but continued crying regardless.

  I was at a loss for words; I pushed Eve as far as I could, sure she would harm me or punish me or something, instead she just ran off crying. Certainly not the reaction I would expect from a monster, instead it was something very human.

  Part of me wanted to go apologize and comfort her, but another part remained strong and remembered what all Eve had done; she wanted to own me, as a mate or slave or whatever, she wanted to possess me. It was true we’d gotten closer over the last couple cycles while working together, but I couldn’t just forget what Eve was.

  She was Alpha-03, a dangerous Predazoan with the power to unmake worlds; she consumed people like it was nothing, and even this created human form of hers was from stolen flesh. She also claimed herself as my mate, saying she wouldn’t let anyone else have me—denying me the freedom to love who I wanted.

  And yet hearing her sobs, I couldn’t help but feel guilty—had I gone too far? Yes—no. I really couldn’t decide now. Was that Eve’s influence—has my resolve wavered after growing closer to Eve again?

  In the end, I decided to just get into bed and try for sleep; I didn’t know if that made me a coward, maybe I just needed some time to figure out my next plan. For now, I just wanted to put it out of my mind, and as I lay in bed, listening to Eve’s pitiful, muted sobs, sleep eluded me in a way it hadn’t in a long time—in the time before Eve.