And once more.
Cerberus was dead. Sprawled on the ground in a basement with his chest caved in like a broken eggshell. No righteous ending.
It was over. My mission. My rage. My personal battle. It was all over.
When Zenos turned to me, helped me to my feet and looked me over for injuries, I realized I was staring at my life. My heart. It belonged to Zenos.
13
Ivy, Zenos’s Personal Quarters, Astra Legion, Rogue 5
* * *
The lights were set to five percent, only a soft glow lit the bedroom, or sleeping room, as Zenos called it. Considering all we’d been through, the fact that I’d stunned him so he wouldn’t come after me, we didn’t say much after we returned from Cerberus Legion, or when we stripped our soiled body armor and showered, or when we slid beneath the cool sheets of his bed.
I’d thought he would yell at me, spank my ass as he’d often threatened to do. I deserved it, all of it. Perhaps I was emotionally vulnerable because I’d thought he was dead, that nothing really mattered except that he was breathing and whole.
Maybe he was quiet because he wanted to stun my ass for what I’d done.
Either way, we stayed quiet.
Cerberus was dead. He’d started a war, and we’d finished it quickly. The Quell lab was destroyed, but so was the Cerberus Legion, from the top down. I couldn’t believe the news that Rhord was dead, that Cerberus had killed him… out of retribution? Hatred? Just because he’d been an asshole without a little bit of integrity?
I felt all this, and I wasn’t even a member of the Astra Legion. How dare he fuck with them? Sure, everyone from Rogue 5 had a bad reputation all over the galaxy, but others didn’t understand. They didn’t know them. Not really. I hadn’t either until I arrived. Until I learned what they were really like. They might be rogue, but Astra Legion were good people. Like Robin Hoods of space where they might be outlaws, but they broke laws—or at least bent them—for good reason. They had an unspoken code of ethics that didn’t get broken. Until Gerian Eozara. Until Cerberus went too far.
What he’d done would bring the legion closer together, not tear them apart as he’d wanted. They’d all be wary though. Jaded.
What Gerian Eozara did, how Cerberus had responded, showed why they had the code, why they stuck together, forged bonds that were as strong as those fighting the Hive.
It was good versus bad in the Wild Wild West of space.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened, that Gerian Eozara had been caught, that the Quell operation coming out of Cerberus was shut down. That Cerberus himself was dead. It was over. Justice hadn’t been served—yet—because Gerian Eozara was still alive, but my job was done. He’d be tried for his crimes. Someone else would rule Cerberus Legion. Take on that name as their own. Hopefully make it become something honorable.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think that Quell would never be distributed again. My team was still dead. They didn’t care that he’d been captured or that Cerberus Legion was in turmoil. They didn’t care about anything since they were fucking dead. I was still the only one who lived. I’d been so focused on getting retribution, getting revenge, that I’d lost track of what I really wanted. What I needed in life.
I wasn’t a fighter any longer. Hell, I wasn’t even fully human. My integrations made me so I couldn’t go back to Earth, even if I wanted. I no longer had a mission, a job to do. I wasn’t the same woman who’d volunteered. I wasn’t the same woman who’d graduated from the Academy. I wasn’t even the same woman who’d survived years of battle with the Hive. I was lost, it seemed, the only thing anchoring me was Zenos’s arms about me.
The only place I found comfort, where I was accepted for exactly who I was, and what, was with Zenos. And I’d stun blasted his ass.
“I can practically hear you thinking,” Zenos murmured, reaching across the bed and pulling me into him, my back to his front. One arm was slung over my waist, his palm resting on my belly, fingertips brushing the undersides of my breasts. He was warm, his muscles hard. Hard everywhere.
The prod of his cock at my back made my nipples pebble, my body warm.
God, I wanted him. Needed him. He was my own personal addiction. I craved how he made me feel. His touch was like a drug, the pleasure it gave me was insatiable.
I doubted I’d ever stop craving and knew I’d want only what he could give me.
It was simple, the need. My body knew exactly what it wanted: him. My heart wanted him, too. It was his. Solely, completely. I had no idea when I’d fallen in love with him. We argued enough for me to want to hit him with an ion cannon not set to stun, but somehow, between all the shouting and bickering, I’d given him my heart.
My mind though… was the only logical part of me. He might make me feel good, might have my love, but it wasn’t enough. He’d made it clear that I wasn’t enough for him.
Yeah, I was thinking too fucking hard.
“I’m sorry I stunned you.”
He grunted at that, his hands gripping me tighter.
“When I saw him looming over you, knife to your throat… female, I aged ten years.”
I didn’t tell him I’d been about to die. That wouldn’t have helped a thing.
“We agreed you wouldn’t go off into danger alone.”
“You said I couldn’t go.” I didn’t want to argue. I was too raw. Too much had happened. I’d been too close to death, to understanding real loss. “It’s over,” I told him, staring at the plain wall. Talking about what had happened was so much easier than talking about my heart. “Gerian’s in a cell, or whatever it’s called on Rogue 5. He won’t hurt anyone else ever again.”
Zenos tensed behind me. “Yes. And Cerberus is dead. I am pleased to know it was by my hand.”
I’d learned so much about the Astra Legion in the short time I’d been with them. The moon base was a strange place, their customs so different than Earth, than fighting in the Coalition.
I understood Zenos’s frustration; I felt it, too. How the hell had I come to think of Astra Legion as a familiar place? As a home of sorts? I felt a kinship, a bond with everyone.
I understood it. I understood them.
For the first time in… forever, I’d felt like I belonged. Not just with Zenos but with Astra Legion. The camaraderie they shared was one I understood. They belonged to Zenos, and for some crazy reason that fact made them the family I’d never had. Never knew I was missing.
I rolled over to face Zenos, met his dark eyes, the gaze I’d thought I’d never see again. The hands I’d never feel on my body. His thumb stroked over my belly. We were so close our noses almost brushed. The hair on his chest tickled my already sensitive nipples. “Let’s forget it all.” Reaching down between us, I gripped his cock. “For tonight.”
“Ivy,” he groaned, his hips bucking into my tight stroke from root to tip. “I won’t forget how you endangered yourself.”
My eagerness wilted at his words. I could understand his anger, but why was he doing this now when I’d offered a truce? I was giving him a hand job!
“Are you trying to pick a fight?” I asked, letting go of him and pushing up to sitting. The sheet that had covered me fell to my waist. Zenos’s gaze fell to my bare breasts. The air was cool, but my nipples hardened further by the look in his eyes, not the temperature.
“You risked your life,” he countered. “I ordered you to stay back, but you wouldn’t. You stunned me.”
“I apologized. It will always be there between us, what happened.”
“Ivy.”
“Seriously, Zenos?” I stared down at him, wide-eyed. “I want to fuck, and you want to go all alpha? Now? Can’t it wait for a little while?”
He turned onto his back, tucked his hands behind his head. “We will fuck. First, we talk.”
I stared at him, thinking he was joking. When he did nothing but eye me back, I huffed. He wasn’t joking.
“Fine,” I snapped. “First, we talk.” Then we get w
ild.
“Explain to me the integrations. Cerberus knew of them. Understood.”
“He had them too.”
Zenos’s eyebrows shot up. That he had not known.
“That explains much about him. But you? Humans are weak and should not be able to fight as you did.”
“I haven’t been on Earth in several years and should be insulted by your statement for all mankind, but I’m not. We are weak and that’s why I volunteered for the Coalition, to get the fuck off that planet.”
“Very well, why are you not weak like your species? Because you sliced through three from Cerberus with one stroke. Took down dozens, leaped over a few and landed a great distance away. That is not normal human behavior or abilities. You had Hive integrations injected by a black market dealer,” he stated.
“Yes.”
He sat up so quickly he almost knocked me backward. “Why? Why would you choose to be contaminated?” His gaze was thunderous, his voice booming. Everyone in the Coalition had heard of the concept of having Hive nanobots and other technology surgically added to a body to enhance strength, speed, hearing and any number of other possibilities. It was forbidden, and all who voluntarily sought out such enhancements were considered vile. Traitorous.
I narrowed my gaze, poked him in the chest. “Contaminated?” I huffed. “Do not use that term. Do you know how insulting that is to all the fighters out there captured, tortured and integrated? It makes it sound like what they suffered is something pleasant, something they wanted, like going to the mall to get your ears pierced.”
He took a deep breath, let it out. “I do not understand what you mean by going to a mall, but for the rest I apologize. You are correct. While we from Rogue 5 do not serve in the Coalition, I would never disrespect anyone their service or sacrifice, especially those who survived the Hive.”
I nodded at his very sincere response.
“But why the fuck would you want Hive integrations?”
“I fought the Hive for four years. I told you about the battle that killed my unit.” He nodded, so I continued. “You saw the scars. I was trapped on that planet for weeks. Alone. No medical help. After they found me, a ReGen pod only fixed small things. A broken finger, burns. But it couldn’t fix everything. I was medically discharged from the Coalition. They did everything they could, but I couldn’t make myself whole. I wasn’t strong enough to fight or join a new ReCon unit. Every step I took was a battle and I knew I couldn’t go after Gerian like that. My body was weak and I was in constant pain. The only difference between me and my unit was that I was alive. And they weren’t in pain.”
He set a hand on my knee.
“I was angry, had survivor’s guilt. I hurt. I did what I had to do to be strong again. To fight. To track down whoever was responsible for selling my unit that damn drug.”
“The implants made you stronger. Faster.” The hand on my knee moved, petting me like I was a kitten. So gentle. I wanted to curl up in his lap and purr. “Are you still in pain?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes. But I can live with that. The integrations made me whole. They called me a rogue. Hived-up scum. But I didn’t care what they called me back in the Fleet. If the Coalition’s technology couldn’t fix me, I was going to use other technology to do so. It was for the Coalition, and for my unit that I did it.”
He shook his head. “You’re not rogue, you’re a rebel.”
I shrugged again. “The end result is that I’m everything I wasn’t before.”
He took my wrist and tugged me down on top of him so we were chest to chest. “Don’t you see? You are one of the strongest people I know. And the implants have nothing to do with that. It’s your heart. You’ve always been Ivy Birkeland from Earth. Your sense of honor, of loyalty has always been there. You’re you.”
His hand stroked up and down my back, and I knew he could feel the line of my scar.
I frowned, set a fist on his chest and rested my chin on it so I could look at him. “You sound like the Wizard of Oz telling Dorothy she’d had the way to get back to Kansas inside her the whole time.”
His dark gaze roved over my face. “You have this fascination with this place called Kansas. I should like to see it one day.”
I smiled, realizing I liked referencing that old movie.
“I am sorry the same technology was inside Cerberus, but you ended him. He can’t use it any longer for bad shit.” I paused, took a breath, sneaked a glance at him through my lashes. “Have we talked enough?” I asked. “I want you and I want you now.”
In one swift move he had us flipped so I was on my back, and he loomed over, his body pressing me into the soft mattress.
14
Zenos
* * *
I kissed her, craving her taste, the feel of my lips claiming her mouth, a promise of what my cock would soon do with the plunge of my tongue.
Fuck, I wanted to rage at her, yell at her. Tie her to my bed so she’d never put herself in danger again. Spank her. Fuck her. Kiss her. Love her.
Feelings pumped through me at what had happened. At what had almost happened. But I couldn’t think of it, wouldn’t or I’d go insane. Ivy was here, with me, beneath me. Gerian Eozara would be sent to a Coalition court. Cerberus was dead. Thank fuck.
And Ivy was mine. I had the rest of my life to shout and argue with her.
My forearms held me aloft, keeping the bulk of my weight from crushing her, yet I felt all her soft curves. One knee bent and she slid her leg along my thigh and hip. The action had me settling at her core, my cock pressed into her wet heat.
Fuck, she felt good. She smelled good. She tasted good. I loved everything about her. Except for her wild streak where she acted rashly and impulsively. I hadn’t been joking when I’d seen her beneath Cerberus, ready to have her throat slit. Her Hive tech hadn’t saved her then, but when she’d said he’d had it too, fuck.
No, don’t think. Revel in Ivy.
She was where she belonged, here on Rogue 5 with me. In my arms. Beneath me. It was the only place I knew where she was safe. Whole. I never wanted to let her up, to let her go.
I never expected to find a perfect match. I hadn’t been tested, but if I’d participated in the Interstellar Brides Program, there was no doubt the computer would have put us together.
She’d been made for me. Every sassy, wild, rebellious inch of her.
I kissed along her jaw, sucked at the lobe of her ear, nuzzled her neck. I worked my way down her body until I got to her breasts. Fuck, they were full, soft, and the tips were so responsive. Sensitive. I played there until she writhed beneath me, her skin damp with sweat, her cries cutting through the silence of my sleeping room.
I couldn’t get enough. My cock seeped pre-cum like a waterspout, my balls ached to be emptied. And my fangs.
Fuck, my fangs dropped and wanted to nip at the turgid tip, to have her fingers tangle in my hair, her back arch.
My fangs wanted to taste her sweet skin, then pierce it. Mark her permanently as mine.
No. NO! I couldn’t. I wouldn’t do that to her. I loved her too much.
I paused, my mouth hovering over her navel.
I loved her. That was why I was so fierce with her. So angry and frustrated with her wild spirit, all the while secretly thrilling in it.
I wanted Ivy Birkeland from Earth as my own. Forever. Always.
Completely.
“Zenos,” she whispered, her hands on my head, reminding me of where I was and where I was going.
She could be mine, all except for the bite. I couldn’t do it to her. We had the antidote with the scientists. She’d taken it. Even so, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t risk it, us. Her.
I could survive without the connection biting her would bring. I’d lived this long without it, I could keep going. I would survive without claiming her. But I couldn’t—wouldn’t—live without her.
She would die. Die! I’d almost lost her earlier, and I wouldn’t risk it again, not by my own hand. Or fangs
. I was fierce about her safety, especially now that I’d witnessed her fighting so valiantly against Cerberus. She was stronger than I ever imagined, yet that battle had proven her nearly invulnerable. It seemed the only danger left to her was… me.
“Zenos,” she said again, breaking me from my thoughts.
I looked up her bare body, grinned into her blue eyes.
“You want my mouth on your pussy?” I asked, licking at the skin over her hip bone. “You want to come just as you did that first time on Zenith?”
She nodded, pushed my head down toward her core. “Please.”
“Ah, you beg so beautifully. The difference between then and now is that we have all the time in the world. I shall make you come. Make you scream my name. Only then will you get my cock. That shall be your punishment for stunning me. The sweetest torture.”
“Shut up and do it already,” she snapped.
Ah, my wild one. Fiery, fierce and greedy.
I did as she wanted and flattened my tongue, licked a path up her slit, then used my thumbs to part her, to open her up. She whimpered. I went to work, licking and flicking her clit, slipping a finger into her pussy to find the little ridge of flesh that made her gasp and jerk, pressing my thumb to the tight ring of her ass.
I knew when she was close to coming, for her pussy gushed, her thighs clenched and her fingers tightened in my hair. Several times I pulled away, kissed her inner thigh, grazed the tender skin with my fangs. Then returned to push her to the brink again.
She was lost. Wild. Completely abandoned to the pleasure I wrung from her body. The desperation. The need.
I was powerful in this moment, my face covered in her essence, the taste of her on my tongue, the greedy grip of her inner muscles working my fingers. Teasing me with what it would be to feel her body surround my cock. Like a hot, wet fist.
“Zenos!” she cried in frustration. Her foot, which had been on the bed, her legs parted wide around my shoulders, lifted and whacked me in the back of the head. “Stop being an asshole and make me come. Otherwise I can do it myself.”
The Rebel and the Rogue Page 13
