The Claiming

by Imogen Keeper

  If someone said that to him, he’d kill them. Dead before their ass hit the floor.

  Ajax locked eyes with someone off-screen. The admiral maybe. The commands had probably already reached the top of the chain.

  “It’s a request,” Ajax repeated. But it wasn’t. Not really and Ajax knew that too. HolCom Ajax faded to black-and-white for a few seconds then blinked back into vivid polychrome.

  Ajax raised his eyebrows as the hologram flickered. “She’s dying, Tam. You can save her with your serum.”

  “You mean my semen.”

  “If you prefer that word.” Ajax leveled an even gaze at Tam, meeting his eyes through the feed across millions of miles of space. He tilted his head to the side coolly. “If you’re really uncomfortable with the idea, you could put her in a hot bath, pray like hell she’ll make it, bring her back here. Another warrior could supply the serum.”

  “Like hell.” Even Tam was surprised by the growl that came from his throat. “She’s mine.”

  Ajax exhaled an amused laugh. “Then don’t let her die.”

  Tam wasn’t sure what to say.

  After a long silence, Ajax spoke again. “If you were her? Would you rather die?”

  “No.”

  “Understanding is part of the nature of the Bond. Go slowly. Don’t scare her. Your body’s chemistry will help you. Your kiss holds aphrodisiacs. The weaker she is, the stronger they’ll work.” Ajax lifted one shoulder. “Trust in fate, friend. It led you here. It’ll work out.”

  Tam scowled at the flickering HolCom of his friend. “What do you know about women?”

  “Nothing.” Ajax smiled thinly. “But I’ve studied the Bonding enough to know it’s a lot more than just chemistry. Serum isn’t just a medicine. It’s a transference of the cells in your body. It will change both of you.” He frowned, eyes unreadable. “This is a good thing, man. You get a wife. She gets you.”

  Tam made a face. He wasn’t exactly a prize. Just one soldier in an army of soldiers.

  “You’re a good man, Tam. Don’t doubt that.”

  He swallowed, entirely unconvinced. And it didn’t exactly answer the burning question in his mind. How the hell would he convince her to let him have sex with her?

  Ajax jerked his chin up. “You’re one lucky prick, man.”

  “Fuck you.”

  Ajax laughed, and the HolCom imploded in a burst of clear white light.

  Tam stared at black space beyond the windows of the flight deck. A hundred thousand stars stared back at him, polychrome clouds of distant galaxies, empty and merciless.

  Lucky.

  It wasn’t that simple. He’d gladly spread her wide open, spend a few days with his tongue in her pussy, make her scream and writhe, and he’d take her every possible way he’d ever even seen on the pleasure holos.

  If she were willing. But what if she wasn’t?

  Shaking his head, her walked to the entrance to his sleeping chamber and leaned his forearm against the hatch frame of his room over his head.

  She’d fallen asleep, her slim form creating hills and valleys under his covers. He’d give anything to see the green of her eyes again, or to see her smile.

  Once it was over, she’d be stuck with him. Forever. As far as he knew, a Bond had never been broken.

  Alone in his chamber, in the solitude of space, when he fisted his cock, he’d imagined a million scenarios. This hadn’t been one of them.

  He approached. Her hair spread across the pillows, red and wild as a silken vine. Even asleep, she was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. Every warrior’s instinct in his body called out to save her.

  And before he could save her, he had to actually make her his. He scrubbed his hands through his hair again. Indecision. Self-doubt. Not emotions to which he was accustomed.

  “Fuck.”

  HE REMOVED each of his weapons and placed them on the shelves near the hatch. He stripped off his harnesses and hung them on hooks. Boots, he unlaced and tucked meticulously under the bed.

  He knew what he was doing. Delaying.

  With a grimace, he laid his knee on the bed beside her, acutely aware of how awkward this could be. He touched the cool skin of her bare shoulder. So soft. His hand looked enormous and dark on her.

  Those incandescent eyes opened. She clutched the covers up to her chin and chattered out her beautiful alien words as fluid as music.

  He tried to smile reassuringly at her, look smaller, less threatening. He pressed his fist to his chest. “Tam.”

  Her eyes widened.

  He repeated the motion again. “Tam.”

  He tapped her sternum, raising his brow in question.

  After a moment, she spoke, soft and tremulous. “Nissa.”

  He smiled. “Nissa. Pretty.”

  She smiled, too. Just a small one. No teeth showing, but it was something.

  He shifted his pants, hoping she wouldn’t notice his cock was all but waving at her. He raised his other knee to the bed, and she pulled back a little, but her eyes seemed less terrified.

  Moving slowly so as not to frighten her, he stroked her hair back from her face. Her eyes registered surprise, but she didn’t pull away. He lifted her arm, pointed at her forearm, traced his fingers along the veins spreading blue on soft skin. He shook his head. “Bad.”

  He tapped blue skin. “You are sick.”

  She frowned but nodded.

  He hoped she understood. Knew she didn’t. He barely understood as it was.

  It would save her though. That was all that mattered. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. She gasped and backed up a few inches. He waited.

  “Nissa,” he whispered, shushing her gently the way he had done with the frightened animals back on his father’s farm on Argentus. Slow, steady, letting her get used to his smell and size and shape.

  “Tam?”

  He nodded but stayed close to her, waiting. “It’s okay. I can make you better.” Fucked-up as it was, he’d never felt so proud in his life to be a man, to have a cock, and balls full of serum and know it would save this woman.

  He tapped her arm again, traced the blue veins. “It’s okay.” This time when he pressed his lips to hers, tentative, cautious, she didn’t pull away, though she had to be confused as hell.

  Clenching his hands to control his body, he traced his tongue along the seam of her lips. Warm, and so soft. She made a little squeak in the back of her throat and her mouth opened so slowly. He dipped his tongue inside.

  Emerald eyes, wide and curious, stared at him, so close they almost crossed over her nose. When she touched her tongue to his, his dick jumped a mile, and he almost creamed his pants.

  He stroked her face, moving his fingers through her hair, taking in her scent, delicate, floral and so feminine.

  Any minute now the aphrodisiacs would kick in.

  “Please forgive me,” he whispered against her lips. “I swear I’ll be a good mate to you.”

  He stroked her cheek, pressing his lips against hers, meeting her tongue with his. The bones beneath her skin felt so fine in comparison to his own. Her skin gleamed, deathly pale with the spreading chill. He pressed a chaste kiss on her forehead, willing her to know this wasn’t what he wanted. Or...at least not how he wanted it.

  He’d forgotten how silky-soft women were. His cock throbbed.

  Her mouth was soft, her tongue warm and velvety. He tried to show her he’d be gentle, gain her trust so she’d let him do this because why in the holy hell would she let him do this? She didn’t know him. He couldn’t believe she’d let him get this close.

  She moaned against him, and he’d never heard a prettier sound. Not ever. He slid his tongue in deeper, dragging his thumb down her chin, encouraging her to open wider, let his tongue in deeper.

  Fuck, she was gorgeous. And so tiny. His stomach clenched, and trailed his hand up and down her back, over the fine bones of her shoulder blades, down to the full rise of her hips.

  Her eyes flared. She
let out a gasp of surprise, dropped the blanket from her shoulders, pulled at him, forcing her hands into the opening of his flight-suit.

  Breath coming fast now, pupils, dilating.

  Was that the aphrodisiac? So powerful. Guilt stabbed through him, but he helped her remove his suit until he knelt before her, naked, cock waving in front of her like a flagstaff.

  She stared at it for a long moment, eyes uncertain and a little scared, as if maybe she’d just figured out what was going to happen. She parted her lips, still breathing hard. “Tam?”

  He looked down at his furious cock, glimmering with serum. She licked her lips, and he groaned at the sight of her pretty pink tongue. Questions lingered in her eyes, but he doubted even if they spoke the same language, he’d have the words to explain.

  There was hunger in those eyes too.

  Maybe she just liked his face.

  Or his cock.

  Either one.

  She was staring at his cock though.

  That wasn’t his imagination.

  “Nissa,” he said, cradling her cheek, trying to put his feelings in his voice. “I swear I’ll be good to you, eyana.”

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