by Lolita Lopez
“Are you pregnant?” she asked excitedly as the elevator slowed to a stop.
Dizzy smiled and nodded. “Yes.”
“Dizzy!” Ella hugged her tightly and didn’t even try to stop her tears of happiness. “Congratulations!”
“Thank you.” Dizzy squeezed her back before letting go so they could step out of the elevator. Glancing around the empty hallway of their floor, she said, “We haven’t told anyone yet. Venom was going to tell Raze earlier, but once you came to the ship, I wanted to tell you first.”
“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Ella promised.
“You can tell Raze, if you’d like,” Dizzy offered.
Ella shook her head. “No, I’m sure Venom would like to break the news to his best friend the same way you told me.”
“Yes, I think so.” When they reached the door to Dizzy’s home, she stopped smiling and grew serious. “Are you really happy here? With Raze?”
“Yes,” Ella answered truthfully. “I am.”
“He’s good to you? He’s not too overbearing or…domineering?” Dizzy bit her lip. “I’ve spent a lot of time around him, and I know he can be…intense.”
“He can be,” Ella agreed. “When we’re together, he’s patient and kind. He’s everything I’ve always wanted in a man. In a partner,” she added.
Dizzy visibly relaxed. “I’m glad to hear that. I know he’s a good man and soldier. I just wanted to make sure he’s a good mate.”
“I know you’re only looking out for me,” Ella said, touching Dizzy’s hand. “I’d do the same for you.”
“Well, speaking of looking out for you,” Dizzy said with a nervous smile, “tomorrow night the officer’s club is open for mated couples only. I don’t know if you’re planning to go, but I’ll be there if you need me. It can be a bit disorienting the first time you visit.”
“I don’t know if we’re going,” Ella admitted. “Raze and I haven’t actually talked about the club at all.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to pressure you into going yet?”
“Probably,” Ella agreed.
“Do you want to go?” Dizzy asked carefully. “Or do you think it might make you feel too uncomfortable?”
“I don’t know,” she replied with an uncertain shrug. “I’m safe anywhere he takes me, but I’m not sure how I might react to seeing other women or couples together.”
“You can always go and leave if it feels wrong. We’ve left a few times when I felt uncomfortable. Venom always gives me complete control over staying or going. I’m sure Raze will do the same for you.”
“I’m sure he will.” Thinking about how careful Raze was with her, she parted ways with Dizzy and continued down the hall to her new home. Safe inside, she called out for Raze, just in case he had beat her back, but there was only silence. She took a few seconds to adjust the temperature and lighting levels at the control console before taking her bags to the bedroom.
As she unpacked her purchases, Ella eyed the only door she hadn’t opened yet. Just off the bedroom, there was a private space—an adult playroom. Raze had all but avoided mentioning it when they had toured their new home earlier that morning. He was always trying to protect her from her past and the trauma of being George’s plaything.
But Ella didn’t want to be protected in that way. Not anymore. Everything she had experienced with Raze in their short time together as mates had helped to build her trust in him. She didn’t fear being in a closed, locked room with Raze. He wouldn’t hurt or abuse her. He wouldn’t leave her tied up and blindfolded for hours on end, forcing her to suffer the panic and indignity.
Walking over to the door, Ella used the chip implanted in her wrist to unlock it. When she stepped inside, the overhead lights flicked on to their brightest setting. One wall was lined with shelves and cabinets. The rest of the room was mostly empty except for three black pieces of furniture—a bench, a low couch with a strangely curved shape and a sawhorse. Reinforced rings and hooks were mounted in the ceiling.
“It’s not much to look at right now.”
Startled by Raze’s voice, Ella spun toward the open door behind her and scowled at him. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”
“Sorry,” he said, crossing the space between them and drawing her in close. He kissed her cheek, but she could feel his smile against her skin. “I’ll put some bells on my boot laces.”
“No, you won’t.” She inhaled his warm, welcoming scent. “You enjoy skulking around and spooking me too much.”
“Only because you jump into my arms when I do,” he countered, giving her a little squeeze. “You feel okay in here?”
“Yes.”
“We don’t have to ever use this room. It’s not something I need, Ella.”
“Is it something you want?” she asked, feeling flirtatious. “Do you want to cuff me to that sawhorse or dangle me from the ceiling in your ropes?”
He swallowed hard. “I might.”
Seizing her opening to discuss the officer’s club, she said, “Dizzy mentioned that tomorrow night is a mated couple’s night at your club.”
“It is,” he confirmed, dropping his gaze to hers. Searching her face, he asked, “Are you interested in going?”
“I’d go anywhere with you,” she told him honestly.
His eyes widened fractionally. “You would?”
“Anywhere,” she repeated and burrowed into his embrace. “How was your afternoon?”
“Fine. We all had better places to be than a meeting so we ran through the bullet points and got the hell out of there.” Sweeping her loose hair aside, he bared her neck and started placing ticklish kisses above the area covered by her collar. She leaned into his palm as he tilted her head a little more to the side and nipped at the sensitive swath of skin below her collar. “This was the better place I wanted to be…”
Taking hold of Raze’s shirt, she dragged him backward. When the backs of her knees hit the couch, she dropped down and pulled him on top of her. He laughed at her enthusiasm but didn’t try to slow her down as she plucked free the buttons on the front of his uniform and pushed the dark fabric off his shoulders. He shrugged out of it and then peeled off his undershirt, tossing both aside.
“If I take you to the club, I know exactly what I’m going to do with you,” he stated.
“Oh?” she asked, a little breathless as she imagined what he would say next.
“You’re going to wear the prettiest pieces of lingerie you have. I’m going to blindfold you, tie you up in ropes and then let everyone watch while I fuck you until you scream.” He traced her lower lip and pressed his thumb into her mouth. She sucked gently, and his nostrils flared. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Being strung up so everyone can see how beautiful you are when you come.”
“I like being told I’m pretty,” she admitted. “I like it when people look at me.”
“Of course, you do,” he murmured. “You’re a muse. It’s what you do.” He leaned down to kiss her tenderly. “You’re my muse now.”
Scooting up on the couch, Ella grasped the bottom of her dress and hauled it up and over her head. Raze swooped in for a kiss, catching her mouth just as the dress was covering her eyes. A moment later, he whisked the dress free. His hands were warm and rough on her skin as he unclasped her bra and dragged her panties down her legs.
She reached for the button and fly on his pants. No sooner had she lowered the zipper than his watch started to make noise. Whining at the interruption, she wrapped her legs around his waist and arched into him. “Do you have to answer it?”
“Unfortunately,” he growled and straightened up, rising on his knees with her legs still wrapped around his waist. He tapped the small screen on the device. “Go for Raze.”
“Boss, we’ve got orders to muster. There’s been an attack on one of our facilities in the colonies.”
“Understood,” Raze replied with a heavy voice. “I’ll be at HQ in five, Cipher.”
Her arousal plummeted.
Sitting up, she unwrapped her legs and touched his chest. He must have seen the worry in her face because he cupped her jaw and kissed her tenderly. “I’ll be fine. By the time we get there, the scene will be safe, and we’ll be put on security or mop-up detail.”
She could tell he was lying. It was the quick slant of his gaze that gave him away. At any other time, she might have called him on it, but she sensed he didn’t want her to worry. He was trying to protect her, and she appreciated it.
“I should have told Cipher I’d be there in ten,” he groaned, leaning down to kiss her.
“I’ll be here when you get back,” she whispered, stroking his cheek.
“Just like this?”
“If you want,” she agreed.
“I want.” He captured her mouth in a lingering kiss. “I’ll update you when I have a chance.”
“I’ll be fine here. Don’t worry about me.” Leaning back on her palms, she watched him get dressed. He grabbed his packed bag from the cabinet where he’d stowed it earlier that morning and gave her one last kiss before rushing from their quarters.
Flopping back onto the couch, Ella sighed dramatically. For a moment, she considered bringing herself to release while thinking of Raze, but there was something even more exciting about the idea of denying herself until he was back again.
She squeezed her thighs together to assuage the ache there. Hurry back.
Chapter Seventeen
“Raze!”
Hearing Risk call his name, Raze pivoted back toward the surgeon. The departure deck was a madhouse as different teams rushed to board their flights for the rapid response to the bombing on Jesco. “You coming with us?”
Risk shook his head. “We’ll be taking the stabilized and lower priority patients they evacuate from the colony. The major trauma cases will end up on the Mercy. No,” he took a step closer and lowered his voice, “I wanted to talk to you about Ella’s case.”
“Ella? Oh.” The surgery to restore her fertility. “What about it?”
“I’d like to get her in as soon as possible. I wanted to clear it with you before I put her on the schedule.”
The idea that Ella was one step closer to regaining her fertility meant that she was another step closer to leaving him. He wouldn’t be allowed to keep her, not once his secret became known. He had spent the past two weeks digging through all the rules and regulations regarding mates, looking for some loophole, no matter how obscure, to keep her. His gut twisted at the thought of losing her. For a brief and selfish moment, he considered refusing his permission to treat her. Even just a delay would let him keep her a little while longer.
But he couldn’t do that to her. As much as he cared for her, he couldn’t hurt her like that. She deserved the chance to be a mother again. He wanted her to have that choice and that possibility.
“Of course,” Raze agreed, his voice heavy. “Whenever she’s ready, I’m fully supportive.”
“Great.” Risk smiled. “I’ll take good care of her.”
“Make sure Dizzy or Naya is with her. Ella is stubborn and won’t ask for help. I don’t want her alone while she’s recovering.”
“I’ll handle it,” Risk promised.
“Boss?” Cipher called from the doorway of their ship. “We gotta go.”
“Be safe,” Risk said, backing away from the loading ramp.
Nodding, Raze crossed the ramp and stepped into the ship. He took a quick headcount of his team—Flare, Fierce, Threat, Harm and Cipher—and let the pilots know they were ready to go. Cipher pointed to the empty seat next to Flare and gestured to the overhead rack where his gear had been stowed by one of his men. After grabbing his tablet, he dropped into the empty seat and started reading through the mission parameters.
But as their flight zipped into space, his mind wasn’t on work. It was on Ella and the countdown that had just begun. If Risk was successful, Ella would regain her ability to have children. Once that happened, he would have two options. He could tell her the truth and set her free at the end of their thirty-day trial period—or he could lie to her and keep her until their inability to conceive raised suspicions and mandatory testing was required.
Lying to her made his stomach hurt. He had always been a man who insisted on truth from everyone else. In the short time that Ella had been his, he had gained her trust and her affection. He couldn’t bear the thought of hurting her like that, of proving himself to be just as untrustworthy as all the other men she had known.
But—fuck—the thought of losing her was like a knife to the chest.
“Intel has an update on the bombing,” Cipher said, breaking into his troubled thoughts. “The device doesn’t match any signature in their files. It was crude and improvised. The projectiles—nails and other small metal hardware—caused the bulk of the damage and injuries. No leads and no groups have taken responsibility for it yet.”
“Had to be the Splinters,” Flare interjected from his seat next to Raze. “Intel just has to figure out which cell it was.”
“What’s the casualty count?” Raze asked, his focus returning to the work at hand.
Cipher scrolled down his tablet screen. “Nine soldiers and airmen were DOA. There were twenty-seven of ours wounded, seven of those critical.”
“Civilians?” Flare asked.
“Two dead and seventeen injured. Three critical.”
“Better than I expected,” Flare remarked. “But still too many. That’s the problem with having embassies outside our control.”
“Special Diplomatic Mission,” Cipher corrected. “Technically,” he added. “We don’t have embassies on the unincorporated colonies. That’s why they have local security and not our diplomatic details.”
Flare scoffed. “That’s just legal bullshit that left those buildings vulnerable, and now people are dead.”
“I don’t make the rules,” Cipher replied.
Flare stretched out his legs and leaned back into the seat. “You think this will change the rules? The way we do business on the colonies that aren’t part of the Alliance?”
“Yes.” Raze wouldn’t say it aloud, but a part of him wondered if Shadow Force might have had a tip about the bombing and chose not to act on it. They’d done it in the past on a few notable occasions to force civilians on other planets to accept their military help. With the current political climate in this sector, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
Glancing at Cipher, he briefly caught the engineer’s gaze and realized he was thinking the same thing. It wasn’t a nice thought. It was the kind of ugly choice that Raze couldn’t abide.
“Who is the lead intel team on the ground?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t some asshole fresh from the academy.
“Keen,” Cipher said, giving him a look. “Word is that his team is coming to the Valiant. He declined a promotion and asked for a job out here.”
“That so?” Known as the bloodhound of Shadow Force, Keen had been in the same year as Orion at the Sky Corps academy, both of them singled out as future leaders. Aloof and gruff, he was the man sent to solve the worst cases in the most dangerous places—and now he was coming here.
“You think he’s decided to find another wife?” Flare asked what they were all thinking. “It’s been—what? Seven years?”
“Yeah,” Raze answered quietly. “About.”
Seven years since a transport ship hauling mates and families had been attacked. There hadn’t been a single survivor. Keen’s mate had been one of the casualties. If he was asking to be relocated to this sector, it was likely because he wanted a safer place to Grab a new mate and start a family.
“Makes sense,” Cipher agreed. “Once they start building the bases down on Calyx, more soldiers and airmen with enough points will ask to be transferred here when new slots open. Central Command on Prime will funnel as many men out here as they can to make that happen.”
“That will go over well with all of the men already waiting for their chance to Grab,” Flare groused. “That b
rawl you had with Swift will be a common occurrence.”
Raze frowned. He wanted to argue that it wouldn’t, but he had a feeling Flare was correct.
An alarm sounded, interrupting their conversation. Glancing at the lights at the front of the cabin, he motioned for the rest of the team to fasten their seat belts. He keyed his mic and touched his ear, pressing the bud back into place. “Is there a problem?”
“We’re about to hit a debris field,” the co-pilot explained. “There was a skirmish. One of our ships blew a Splinter vessel to hell. Make sure your team is seated and all your gear is stowed.”
“On it.” He switched frequency and addressed his men. “Ride’s about to get bumpy. You know the drill.”
Grumbling, the team tightened their belts and checked their gear. When the first jaw rattling burst of turbulence hit, Raze exhaled roughly. So much for the nap he was hoping to squeeze in before they landed…
By the time they arrived, Raze was certain he had lost a few brain cells from all the sudden drops, bumps and jarring banks and turns. The pilots were damn good at their jobs, but even the most advanced technology couldn’t smooth out the ride.
Although they had landed safely behind the guarded walls of the outpost, he was alert as he stepped out of the ship and walked down the ramp onto the strange, powdery black surface of the small planet. The air here was a little thinner than they were used to, but not enough to require supplemental masks. Even so, he reminded his team to be mindful of it, just in case.
“Raze.”
Turning toward the sound of that familiar, rough voice, he extended his hand. “Keen.”
“How you been?” Keen asked, his handshake firm but his demeanor uneasy.
“Can’t complain,” Raze replied, studiously avoiding staring at the gnarly scary across the other man’s throat. His first case working undercover with the Splinters had ended with him taking a knife to the throat. His voice had never been the same. “You?”
