by Tammy Walsh
I felt sick to my stomach. “That makes her death even more tragic.”
Alice braced her elbows on her knees. “The crew will Challenge you tomorrow. Are you ready?”
“I feel much stronger now,” I said. But…
I never admitted my weaknesses before. Never to anyone but Maisie. Maybe now she was gone, I could confide in Alice?
“I’m still not yet at full strength,” I said. “I can defeat one member of my crew, but there are no rules when it comes to multiple challengers. If I look weak after the first bout, another crew member could Challenge me right away. I need to overpower the first Challenger resolutely for them to not attack me a second time.”
Alice thought for a moment before moving to my desk and sipping water from my glass.
“Were you lying?” she said. “Was what you told me about the bond in your species true? That it makes you stronger?”
“Yes,” I said.
“It wasn’t a cheap trick to get me to sleep with you?”
“No.”
She took a big gulp of my water, raised her chin, and slammed the empty glass on the desk.
“Then we should do everything we can to make you as strong as you can be,” she said.
She marched around the bed and stood before me. She reached for the zipper on the back of her dress. She shrugged her shoulders and released it, letting it fall away and slip down her curves to the floor.
I couldn’t believe this was happening.
She stood staring at me, her chin up, proud, and yes, with more than a small challenge. Her underwear was mismatched and clung tightly to her hips and breasts.
She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
My eyes were hungry and absorbed every detail, every gorgeous turn of her body. The Titan in me lusted after her gorgeous frame. I breathed in her overpowering femininity.
Turning away from her was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. She was in mourning. She wasn’t thinking straight. I would not force myself upon her, even for the sake of the bond, even if it would make me more powerful for the battle tomorrow.
“You don’t need to do this,” I said. “I might be strong enough without bonding.”
She placed her hand on my forearm the way she had at the funeral. Goosebumps washed over my flesh, a tingling sensation in their wake.
“I’m not doing this because I have to,” she said. “I’m doing it because I want to.”
“You’re in mourning—”
“That’s why I need to do this.” She hesitated before saying the next word. “Please.”
She raised a hand to my cheek. “Maisie told me I could trust you, that you have a streak of honor buried deep. I can see it now. You’re a good man. A good captain. My captain.”
She raised my head and lowered her lips to mine. It’d been so long since I had a female—not since my days as a gladiator in the fighting pits.
The hunger remained contained but grew stronger over the months and years. It’d never felt so strong as it did right now. For this beautiful human female.
I met her lips with mine and explored her mouth with my tongue. She did the same and, not to be outdone, bit me on the lip. Not hard enough to draw blood, but enough for me to feel it.
I growled and cupped her ass in my hands. I lifted her off her feet and rubbed her against my cock that’d begun to swell ever since I first laid eyes on her. I carried her with ease. We kissed with lips of fire and passion. I tasted her neck and nibbled her shoulders.
With the threat of death and worse hanging over the both of us tomorrow, we seized today.
I unclipped her bra and let it fall between us. I took her nipples in my mouth and felt the hard buds with the tip of my tongue.
I held her with one hand and slid the other over her flat stomach to her wetness below. I didn’t even need to slip them inside to feel how juicy she was. I slid one finger inside and rubbed her gently but firmly.
She gasped and wrapped her legs around me tightly, clawing at my back with her fingers. I rubbed her harder, faster, working her on the inside, the pad of my hand working the outside.
She threw her head back, gasping for air. Then she pressed her lips to mine as I placed my foot on my bed to angle a little more space so I could widen her opening and slip a second finger inside.
A thin film of sweat formed on her face as she bucked and writhed her hips back and forth against my hand. I took a nipple in my mouth and pinched at it between my teeth as I worked her pussy even harder.
She screamed a second time as she pulsed around my fingers, her eyelids fluttering on the fringes of ecstasy and despair.
I brought my fingers, slick with her, to my mouth, and tasted her. “Mmm.”
Before I could taste my second finger, she wrapped her lips around it and tasted herself. “You’re right. I am tasty.”
Never in all my time as a gladiator had my temporary lovers been so passionate, so… consuming.
Unable to control myself any longer, I laid her on the corner of my bed. I hooked a finger under her underwear and pulled them off.
“I thought it was my duty to undress you?” she whispered.
“Today, I am your servant,” I said.
“I prefer for us to be equals.”
She didn’t roll up. Instead, she hooked her toes in the waistband of my underwear and pulled them down. Her eyes widened as my cock was revealed inch by inch.
“Now I know why they call you Titans,” she said.
“I’ll be gentle,” I said. “Well, as gentle as I can be.”
She hissed through her teeth as I prodded at her delicate folds. I entered her inch by inch until she took all of me. I was pleased I fit.
She nodded and I moved out and back in again, developing a steady rhythm. She groaned and lay back, her legs spread out to either side. She pinched her nipples and squeezed her breasts.
She looked so good beneath me, her breasts bouncing and her head thrown back in ecstasy as I pumped her hard.
“Yes!” she screamed as I felt her grow tight around me once more.
I explored her deeper and felt that flickering spark in every Titan’s heart, where my anger and frustration and loyalty and disappointment and passion resided. Where our strength was kindled and made us even more powerful.
I watched her as she gripped her hair in both hands, so hard I thought she might tear it out, and I pummeled her hard, and my release was approaching…
She wrapped her legs around my wide hips and pulled me in deeper, never backing down and always demanding more.
And right when she tightened around my cock, her hips writhing to meet every thrust of mine, she screamed as she rose to her next electrifying orgasm. I quickly joined her in that perfect moment of pure bliss.
I rolled off and lay beside her.
“I think I might have some Titan genes,” Alice said between gasps. “Because if you don’t feel powerful, I definitely do.”
She giggled behind her hand as I burst into open laughter.
No translation was necessary. We were both satisfied.
An hour later, we still lay in bed, our legs and arms wrapped tightly about each other. I couldn’t resist touching her every chance I got.
“Doesn’t this conflict with your slave-owner philosophy?” I said.
“I am not your slave,” Alice said resolutely. “I’m a free woman. That’s why I chose freely to bond with you.”
I chuckled. It was fun trying to get a rise out of her.
I fingered the silver bracelet she wore about her wrist. It was small and heart-shaped. I wondered if a former lover had given it to her.
“What is this?” I said.
She closed her hand protectively around it before using her nails to open the locket. “It’s a birthday gift from my father.”
Inside, each half of the heart contained a photo of a face. One showed a man with a thick beard, the other a female who looked like Alice but with an extra twenty years or so.
/> “Your parents?” I said.
She nodded.
“They look like good people,” I said.
Alice didn’t take her eyes from the images. “They were taken from me a long time ago. When my father gave me this bracelet, it was a necklace. Now it’s only big enough to fit my wrist.”
“Your parents died together?” I said.
A flash of images fluttered through my mind.
My mother clutching me close…
Taking me far from the dangerous men…
My father heading out to face them, sword drawn…
“My father died first,” Alice said. “My mother died ten years later.”
When she peered at the photos, I expected her to look sad, instead she smiled.
“How can you be happy when you think about them?” I said.
“Because they were loving parents.”
“But they were taken from you.”
“I still remember them, remember the love we shared, the memories. Such beautiful memories, each one precious. One year after my father died, I was really sad. My mother came into my room with a bunch of photo albums. At first, I didn’t want to look at them. I was sad and it would make me cry.
“But then, as she kept turning the pages, I lived those brilliant memories again. The Christmases, the birthdays, the holidays… So many positive things. They made me laugh. And yes, I cried. I was still a little girl that lost her daddy. My mom made me realize that even when someone dies, you can still remember the good times.”
It was a beautiful thought, but not one I could replicate. Not by the way my parents had been taken from me…
“Tell me about your parents,” Alice said. “What’s the best memory you shared with them?”
I giggled happily, tugging at my mother’s skirt…
But then I felt something cold and wet and I pulled my hands away…
They were soaked with her blood…
I turned away from her. I couldn’t discuss it.
“My father was a good fighter,” I said. “The best. He was good and strong and honorable. When I grew older, I found I had inherited some of his fighting skills. After that, I became a part of the Silent Shadow’s crew.”
Alice smiled but it was distracted. My ploy to avoid her question without her noticing hadn’t worked.
“There’s something I’ve wanted to ask you since I woke up,” she said.
Uh-oh. Here we go. “What?”
“Why does your crew want to remove you as captain? You’re a strong fair leader. Why would they want to replace you?”
My tone turned hard. “Because they want to deal with child slaves.”
She blinked in surprise. “You don’t abduct children?”
“No. Never.”
“Why does that matter? If you’re going to abduct adults, why not abduct children too?”
“They want children because they’re worth more to the slavers. You can bend them to your will, make them serve you until the day they die. Adults are set in their ways. There’s still a chance they might escape or win their freedom.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“It’s nice to see you have some standards. Slavery’s bad enough, but child slavery? That would have made me regret coming to your bed tonight.”
I chuckled and wrapped my arms around her. “You wouldn’t have much chance of escaping my bed now.”
I lifted her onto my lap. She laughed and kissed me.
“So what’s the ultimate goal?” she said.
I busied myself with kissing her at the base of her neck.
“Ultimate goal for what?” I said.
“You’re a smuggler. You don’t plan on doing this forever, do you?”
I pulled back and looked at her. How much of myself did I want to share with her? She seemed genuinely interested.
“Fifty thousand credits. That’s my target. Once I have that much, I can quit smuggling. I can buy a spread on Arcturon Prime, the most fertile land in the galaxy.”
“Farming? You?”
She threw her head back and laughed in her singsong voice that tingled up my spine.
“What’s so funny?” I said.
“Look at you!” she said. “You have the muscles and temperament to be a gladiator. You were born to fight. What are you going to fight in the fields? Corn?”
“I’ll fight the wind and the rain, and bad crops when they happen. I’ll never have to ride another ship, never have to worry about anything except bringing in my crops.”
Alice continued to shake her head in disbelief.
“Just because I was born to be something doesn’t mean I have to follow the trail fate chose me for,” I said.
She ran a thumb along my chin. “No, I suppose not. I’m just surprised. Happily surprised.”
“And to buy a good farm on Arcturon Prime costs fifty thousand credits.”
“How much do you have now?” Alice said.
“Not fifty thousand.”
“Are you close?”
“I’m on my way.”
She kissed me on the lips and peered deep in my eyes. She made me begin to stir and grow hard again.
“I’d like to see your farm one day,” she said.
“Until then, let me show you something else…” I growled and leaned forward—
A knock came at the door.
I leaped to my feet and placed Alice down gently. She grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around herself.
“Who’s there?” I said.
“Stryder,” he said on the other side of the door.
“Come,” I said.
“What?” Alice said, aghast. “No!”
She dived to the floor on the other side of the bed. Humans could sometimes be very strange creatures.
Stryder entered and looked me over. He paid no mind I was naked. When he glanced at the bed, Alice’s head popped up from the other side and quickly sank back out of view again.
“I’m here to inform you of a… surprising turn of events,” Stryder said.
I glanced outside and noticed Rattigan scratching his chin. His eyes flicked toward the bed and he licked his lips. The thought of him or his tongue anywhere near Alice made me feel sick to my stomach. I wanted to paint the walls with his blood.
“I’ll see you on the flight deck,” I barked.
“I’m afraid this can’t wait,” Stryder said. “The crew… well, they’re issuing you with a direct Challenge for leadership, sir.”
The news took me by surprise. The Challenge wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow.
“There must be a mistake,” I blurted.
I needed another full day to recover and gain my full strength. Even with the bonding, I wasn’t strong enough yet.
“They insist you come right away, Captain,” Stryder said, his voice tight in his throat.
“Who will I be fighting?” I said.
“Horn Tusk, sir.”
It wasn’t surprising. Horn Tusk was the biggest and strongest among the crew, even if he wasn’t the best fighter. Even though I’d been expecting it, anger flooded my throat.
“Very well,” I said. “I’ll meet you outside my quarters in five minutes—”
“Not in five minutes!” Rattigan said. “Now!”
“Do you expect me to fight naked?” I said, glaring at Rattigan. “I will dress in my uniform and meet you outside my quarters in five minutes. I am still your captain.”
The rat growled and hissed under his breath. “For now.”
Stryder shot me a look of concern before stepping outside. I slammed the door behind him.
It took me a moment to process what was happening. “Get dressed. We don’t have long.”
Alice stood up with the blanket still wrapped around her and got dressed without a word. With how she’d reacted at me letting my crew in, I thought she’d explode with fury.
We both got dressed. I glanced at her. It seemed a shame to cover up something so beautiful. I need
ed to focus. Our lives depended on what I said next.
I kept my voice low in case Rattigan pressed his ear to the door. “My crew have already Challenged me.”
“I thought that wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow?” Alice said.
“They appear to have moved it forward a day,” I said.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they think I’m already weak enough to defeat?”
I wasn’t sure of the reason but something had made them take action earlier than expected.
Something was going on.
I took her by the shoulders. “Listen to me. There’s something I need for you to do. Yesterday, we responded to a distress beacon. We took the survivors captive. They’re being held in the pods in the docking bay. Don’t look at me like that. I’m a businessman. They’re merchandise. Go down and release them. Tell them I’ll grant them their freedom if they help me fight my mutinous crew.”
Alice looked afraid. “What about you? You haven’t recovered yet. What will you do?”
“I’ll fight them for as long as I can,” I said, strapping on my weapons. “But you must hurry. I’m not at full strength and I can’t hope to beat them all. I’m counting on you.”
I pressed my lips to her forehead and tasted her for what might be the last time. I hugged her and prayed everything would work out. If I failed, I died. But that wasn’t what concerned me.
If I failed, a far worse fate awaited Alice.
I marched ahead of Stryder and Rattigan and had to keep reminding myself not to rush ahead. I needed to appear weak and easy to beat—even though doing so went against every fiber of my being.
I walked slowly, limping every few steps. It was protocol for the captain to walk ahead. Both Stryder and Rattigan had to follow. There was another benefit to moving slowly: it gave Alice more time to reach the docking bay and release our captives.
I should have been pumping myself up to unleash my full indignant anger out on the mutinous Horn Tusk and his cohorts but I couldn’t do it. I was too busy letting the previous few hours wash over me. At least I got to enjoy her once, had held onto her tight, two souls becoming one.
I didn’t know if humans felt the bond as deeply as Titans did. Perhaps to humans it was nothing more than a physical activity. It meant a great deal to Titans. It was a spiritual coming together of two souls. I’d never felt a connection like that with any female.
