Oath Forger (Book 5)

by Nia Mars

  I let go of focusing on breathing, and focus on love. I let myself float through the love that I hold for these men, like I floated through endless space with Smys.

  I love all five of them. I’m going to return to them. I’m a freaking first-level mystic. I’ve had out of body experiences before, when I went to Uthan’s island. I’d navigated those experiences then. I will navigate this experience now.

  Let’s try this again.

  I feel like I’m some invisible cloud, spread out in the clearing. I pull my power closer. I pull it in. I pull it into a small ball, then a smaller thing yet—a tiny spark.

  Breathe.

  Five men are touching me, peering down at me.

  “Ava?” Dason sobs my name.

  Then I’m in Roax’s arms, and he’s carrying me inside, into my bedroom, getting on the bed with me without letting me go, the others piling in around us.

  Am I back? I’m back, right? I must be.

  I can blink. I can feel their hands on my naked skin. Oh thank God, I’m back.

  “What happened?” Uthan demands, while Roax orders the hovering medics who followed us in to leave.

  They protest, but they go in the end. Roax is not easily contradicted.

  “What happened to you?” Uthan repeats his question in a note of frantic desperation, which is so unlike Uthan. While I was gone, his endless calm disappeared.

  I weakly shake my head. I’m not sure where I’d been. What can I tell these men? Have I really been with Smys? Has any of it really happened? Have I just floated through freaking deep space?

  I swallow past my dry throat. “I don’t know. For a while...I was somewhere else.”

  Koah muscles his way in and takes my hand. His indigo gaze holds mine. “With Tib?”

  I shake my head again. “How long?” I force out the question.

  Tiam responds. “An hour.”

  My breath catches. I had missed Gaden’s deadline. “The pirates?”

  Suddenly, none of the men is willing to meet my eyes.

  “My Ava,” Tiam begins.

  Roax cuts him off in a warning tone. “She doesn’t need to know right now.”

  I turn to him. “Need to know what? I want to know. I’m not a child.” I struggle up to my elbows and bring out the big guns, drawing my lungs full of air so my voice won’t sound so shaky. “I’m the Oath Forger.”

  Tiam flicks on the display screen with reluctance.

  I stare at the burning planet, the angry reds and yellows of fiery destruction. “Where’s that?”

  “Treab.” The way Tiam says the word, it’s as if each letter is a laser sword, severing him limb by limb.

  Treab. Sounds familiar. “The Flight Academy is on Treab. Olipha?”

  I hold my breath.

  Tiam’s expression is brittle. “I haven’t been able to reach my sister.”

  Chapter Six

  MY HEART DROPS, SHATTERS, TURNS INTO DUST.

  Olipha can’t be gone.

  “Maybe she was out on a training exercise.” I pull away from Roax and throw my arms around Tiam, too far past caring that I’m practically naked. “She could be anywhere in space. She’s studying to be a pilot. No reason to assume she was grounded when the attack came.”

  “I let her go.” His voice breaks, his gray eyes ask me to understand. “But I couldn’t hold her back. She’s fearless. The world needs fearless women.”

  This, right here, is one of the many reasons why I love Tiam.

  We cling to each other for a while, but we can’t stay idle for too long. So, after a few seconds, I pull back and sit up in bed, having made a decision. “I’m going up to that pirate ship. I’m ready to negotiate with Gaden.”

  I’m ready to kill the bastard.

  Tense silence stretches in the room. I’m pretty sure the men are grinding their teeth, but nobody can come up with a better solution.

  “I’ll need a gun.” I say this for The Five’s benefit. So they don’t think I’ll be going defenseless. I did, at one point, learn how to use their strange guns—Koah taught me—but I can’t take down a pirate ship with a handgun. My best bet is to blow up the ship with my uncontrolled power.

  “I’ll make sure you have one,” Koah promises.

  On second thought, he probably knows a gun won’t be much help. I think he’s just trying to do whatever he thinks will make me feel better.

  I thank him, then as a new idea occurs to me, I turn to Tiam. “Olipha said you put the maps of buildings into her brain. Can you do something like that for me with the position of the pirate ships and the Federation vessels?”

  His eyes narrow. “For what purpose?”

  “If I end up having to use my power...” I clear my throat. “Olipha said the program senses her position and puts everything in relation to that.”

  “It does.”

  “I’d like something similar. At the moment, everyone is at a standstill, right? Is that likely to change in the near future?”

  “No. We’re in a standoff. On the other hand, if the negotiations fail... Fighting can break out in a blink.”

  Roax’s fingers close around my wrist, and he pulls me closer to him, doesn’t let go. His gaze is fixed on Tiam. “Go make the chip.” And then he carries his gaze around. “Everybody out. Except Dason. The Oath Forger still needs to connect with the two us. She’s not going to the pirates without our full connection.”

  I lose my breath.

  Now?

  I’m sooo not in the mood for fooling around. I’ve just come back from the dead! And I’m heading off on a suicide mission within the hour.

  My first plan was to blow up the pirate ship while I’m on it, and take out Gaden. But if I can use my power right... With Tiam’s map of all the ships in orbit, I might be able to take out some, or even most, of the pirate fleet at the same time. If I weaken the pirate force enough here, if half of them won’t be returning to the Frontier...

  Earth will be safer.

  Or safe, period. Because my five kreks can handle whatever pirates remained. And I don’t think The Five will attack each other again either. There’ll be peace in the Federation. I will have fulfilled my duty as the Oath Forger.

  I can do this.

  But, if Roax is right, and making all five connections can strengthen me, can give me any kind of advantage... I need all the help I can get. I hold his dark gaze and nod.

  My nervousness evaporates. Because, who am I kidding, if I’m about to die, I want to connect with Dason and Roax first. I want these men, and I love these men. This is my last and only chance to truly be with them.

  Dason’s fierce joy is palpable, while Koah scowls as he leaves the bed first. Uthan is the next one to move, his gaze encouraging. Then Tiam, but I suspect he goes only because he has a task to accomplish. He’s frowning for all he’s worth.

  “Are you well enough for this?” Roax asks as the door closes behind the others.

  “I wasn’t sick. I just wasn’t...here.” I hold his gaze. “I’m completely fine.”

  “You are not going to go away, again.” His hard tone makes it clear that it’s not a suggestion. It’s non-negotiable.

  “That would be my strong preference.” If, by some miracle, I survive the day, I’m never going anywhere near any spirits again.

  “You are ready and you want this?”

  “Yes.” I shift toward him, mindful of the time.

  Roax shakes his head slowly as he lets go of my wrist. “We are going to put Dason out of his misery first.”

  We are?

  I don’t argue. I’ve always known that once things progressed this far, Roax would be calling the shots.

  He slides off the bed and pulls an armchair into position a few feet away. He sprawls in the chair and moves his gaze lazily over us, but the single order he issues comes with a snap. “Strip.”

  Easier for me than Dason. The medics left only my underwear when they cut the rest of my clothes off.

  “Watch him,” Roax order
s me next.

  Watching Dason is no hardship. His parents might have meant him to be a diplomat, but like the other kreks, he’s built for war or whatever the hell else comes his way. His muscles ripple as he yanks his shirt over his head. Then off come his pants. He’s not wearing underwear.

  The look he gives me is almost shy. As if he’s not quite able to believe that this is happening. As if he’s asking me to please not turn away from him.

  I couldn’t look away if I tried. Truth is, Dason is breathtakingly beautiful naked—a statue carved by carnal angels.

  “Take him.”

  Roax’s order to take Dason turns up the heat in the room by several degrees. Thump goes my heart. I think Dason is holding his breath.

  His blue eyes beg me for him to be taken. The air around us heats. Suddenly, we’re at the boiling point.

  So... How do I take him? What would he want? One day, all this will come naturally to me, but not yet. What would Roax do?

  “Lay on your back in the middle of the bed,” I tell Dason in a steady voice and a commanding tone.

  He immediately obeys, the mattress dipping under his weight. He is exposed and vulnerable, his chest rising and falling in an uneven rhythm. And I’m about to make him even more vulnerable yet.

  “Hands folded under your head.”

  He does that, too, his mouthwatering muscles flexing.

  Moisture and heat gather between my legs, but when I move to straddle Dason, Roax’s voice stops me.

  “Not yet. Taste him first.”

  Dason’s eyes flair. Then this insanely sexy masculine whimper leaves his lips when Roax addresses him next.

  “You are not allowed to move. You’re not allowed to speak or make any noise at all. And you’re most certainly not allowed to come. Neither of you will come until I give you permission. I hope that’s clear.”

  I’m close to trembling now, settling between Dason’s knees, because I know what Roax meant by Taste him. And I want to. I want to put my mouth on Dason and make him tremble. Even if just for a few stolen minutes here, I want to be his entire world.

  I lower my mouth slowly to his swollen hardness, while tension radiates off him, anticipation mixed with a furnace of sexual heat. When I lick the bead of clear liquid from the slit on the head of his cock, he trembles with the restraint not to move, not to make a sound.

  The flash of power I feel takes me by surprise. Dason is on the edge, and I put him there.

  More, demands an inner voice that’s new to me.

  “Take him in your mouth,” Roax orders.

  I do. Dason is enormous. It’s a miracle I can breathe past him.

  As if Roax can read my thoughts, he says, “Breathe through your nose.”

  Sure. That makes things easier.

  I taste salty, clean skin, smooth, hard strength.

  “Deeper.”

  I try.

  The next command is for Dason—a merciless reminder. “Don’t move a muscle.”

  Then it’s my turn again. “On your hands and knees, Ava Mine. Imagine me plowing hard into you from behind.”

  The image has the power to nearly make me collapse on top of Dason. My body clenches and begs to be filled. I move into position. Stars. Now I’m completely exposed to Roax, and he can see me glistening and know exactly what he’s doing to me. The thought just turns me on more.

  Of course, Roax doesn’t bother to quiet his dark chuckle of satisfaction.

  I look up at Dason then flick my gaze toward Roax for a second. Sadist, my gaze says.

  What else is new? Dason’s gaze answers. The corners of his sexy lips quirk, but his blue eyes remain starkly intense.

  Then I dip my head again and give him a hard suck, and his eyes roll back in his head. There goes another flash of that addictive sense of power.

  “Spread your knees, Ava Mine.”

  I’m powerless against Roax’s voice when he’s like this. I obey on autopilot. I can hear him draw in a long breath.

  “You are pink and wet and mesmerizing. You’re juicy with need.” His chair scrapes across the floor as he stands. “Don’t forget. Neither of you is allowed to come until I say so.”

  I can hear clothes rustle behind me. Roax is getting naked! Somewhere a fuse blows in my mind. I shift to look.

  His voice stops me. “Don’t you dare take your mouth off him.”

  Gulp.

  The mattress dips. Roax is right behind me. My arms and knees tremble again.

  “Suck harder.”

  I refocus on Dason. Then I nearly fly out of my skin when Roax licks my center. Pleasure floods through me in unmerciful waves. Sweat beads on my brows. I’m not going to make it. There’s a pulsing need inside me that only grows as Roax laps at me, over and over.

  His hands reach up to my butt cheeks and he caresses them, then parts them. His thumbs rub into the cleft, then against the little wrinkled dimple there.

  I freeze with my mouth full of Dason.

  Roax’s voice turns warning. “Ava Mine, you know I will take you where I want, how I want.”

  Yet he waits until I whimper my consent. Then he rubs again, and then presses, but doesn’t breach the tight ring of muscles. He simply caresses me until I feel tingly all over.

  Is his expression as intense as Dason’s? Filled with lust? Need? What? That I can’t see his face, not to mention the rest of him, is driving me mad.

  “Lie on your sides, facing each other,” he orders us next, and his voice has an edge, as if he’s struggling for control just as much as we are.

  I feel Dason relax, but only a shade. I think he’d been on the edge. I don’t think he could have held out much longer in my mouth.

  When we are face-to-face, his expressive eyes are full of gratitude and bliss.

  Roax lies down behind me. “Suck her nipples,” he orders Dason.

  Dason scoots down a little and obeys, but Roax is not done with him yet. “Pull her knee up on top of your waist.”

  So Dason pulls my knee up and onto him.

  I am wide open. Cool air touches my wet opening.

  “Suck harder,” Roax gives Dason the same order he gave me earlier.

  Pleasure careens through me. I’m so going to lose it. My eyelids drift closed.

  Then they snap open when Roax surges into me in one powerful thrust, searing me with heat and need. At the same time, Dason sucks hard on my nipple, and I feel it between my legs. My body flutters around the hard cock pressed tightly inside me.

  “Don’t you dare,” Roax whispers into my ear.

  I reach out to brace myself on Dason’s shoulder. Oh. I’m digging my nails into him, I catch myself. He doesn’t seem to mind. He is rolling my nipple between his lips, laving and playing with me as if I were his favorite toy. While Roax’s cock begins to move inside my slick channel with hard thrusts, Dason’s is pressed against my stomach, and I can feel his pre-come on my skin.

  I hope we can both hold out until Roax commands us to come.

  He rides me hard, as if without thought to my comfort or pleasure, yet I have both. So much pleasure that my body is about to fall apart.

  “Rub your cock against her clit,” he orders Dason next.

  Oh no. No more! No way am I going to be able to hold back my orgasm. I thrash between the two in pleasure and panic.

  When Dason’s hard shaft connects with my swollen nub, I should try to get away, but instead I squirm against him. I can see sweat beading on his forehead too. Roax is going to drive us both mad.

  When I’m on the very edge, he pulls out of me.

  “Fuck her,” he orders Dason, his voice rough and deep.

  Then Dason takes his place inside me.

  Stars.

  He’s still suckling my nipple, but I suddenly need more, a better connection, so I reach for his chin and bring his head up and take his lips in a kiss more demanding than I thought myself capable of.

  He pumps into me with abandon while Roax rubs himself against my lower back. And then my w
hole body tightens, and I know I’m lost.

  “You may come,” Roax practically growls the words, before he bites the back of my neck.

  His teeth sink into my skin, push me over into screaming bliss, wave after wave of pure exquisite sensation. He holds me with his teeth the entire time I’m coming, and I don’t seem to be able to stop. Then Dason empties into me with a ragged groan, and that sets me off again.

  Just before I finish, I feel Roax’s hot seed splashing against my skin at my lower back.

  For a long time, I can’t think. I can barely breathe.

  When some coherence returns, I wonder why Roax let Dason come inside me. Why not claim that privilege for himself? Maybe he wanted to mark me, wanted to see his seed on me, I decide, sliding toward sleep.

  “We’d better clean up.” Roax kisses the spot he’d bitten.

  He carries me to the shower, where he makes me clean him off, then makes Dason clean me off. Dason’s blissful expression says he’s in high heaven. I flash him a me-too grin.

  I brush my lips against his, then pull back enough to look into his sparkling eyes. “Dason, Krek of Besnec, head of the Etir Alliance, I accept you. I am your Oath Forger.”

  He blinks hard, making a sound of utter surrender. I kiss him harder.

  Too soon, I’m yanked back.

  “My turn,” Roax demands in a harsh tone.

  “Roax, Krek of Won, head of the Kered Alliance, I accept you. I am your Oath Forger.”

  His lips annihilate mine. His fingers dig into my hips. He is hard again, his cock searing against my belly.

  “We’ll kick the pirates’ ass, and then we’ll finish what we started here,” he tells us.

  Started?

  The promises in his dark eyes send shivers over my skin. Carnal promises. Explicit. Very.

  My mouth goes dry. Probably because all the moisture in my body is gathering somewhere else.

  I want there to be a next time. I want it so bad, it breaks my heart. But I’m going to do whatever it takes to end the threat that faces us, and make the people I love safe.

  I swallow. “Okay. Let’s get the pirate ass-kicking over with.”