by Roxie Ray
I bit my lip as he offered me his hand. I wanted him to take me again. I wanted everything—everything he could give me and more.
But in the end, he was probably right. This cave was doing weird things to my libido, and if I was going to up and decide that I wanted to become an alien baby mama…a little time to think it over probably wouldn’t hurt.
“I guess we should go, then,” I said, even though I didn’t really want this brief time in the cave together to be over. “You’ll get me home safe, won’t you?”
I placed my hand in Haelian’s. When he pulled me up, I found myself tripping into his arms all over again. He held me to his chest, my cheek just over his heart.
It was still beating faster than normal. So was mine.
“In a moment, yes.” Haelian pressed his lips to the crown of my head. His breath sank into my hair, bathing me in warmth. “But for now…”
He left his sentence hanging. It made me smile as I nuzzled against his chest. If he couldn’t even bring himself to end his sentences…
It seemed like neither one of us really wanted to end the night.
16
Haelian
I strode into the barracks the next morning barely able to suppress my own grin. When Kloran had been the Avant Lupinia’s captain, he had made a name for himself as a fierce hothead who shot first and only asked questions if he’d missed. In his place, my men knew me as a strong, stoic, calculating type. Not exactly one to survey my troops with a spring in my step and a smile on my face—but given how well last night had gone, it was difficult not to be in a good mood.
Sawyer had wanted me. She had lain with me in the moon cave like my ancestors had long ago, before social class and a lack of females had stolen away our ability to marry for love instead of politics. In Sawyer, I finally had something that I had never even allowed myself to dream of. A partner. A lover. And, perhaps quite soon, a wife and mate.
It was early to be thinking of such things, I knew. But I also knew my own sense of honor. I knew my boundaries and I knew my desires. I would not have enjoyed Sawyer’s body in such a carnal manner if I had not intended of making honest people of us both in due course. Men who mated with females they had no intentions of wedding were, in my opinion, little better than beasts. If it suited other men better to do so, more power to them—but for me, I knew, Sawyer was not a thing to be used then tossed aside lightly.
She would be living here on Lunaria with my people. She would be learning our culture, our ways, making a new life for herself here. A life I was determined to be a part of. Already, I had begun to rehearse how I might tell my family of my intentions with her. Perhaps my mother would allow me to present Sawyer with my grandmother’s wedding bracelet, so that I might clasp it around Sawyer’s slender wrist on the day of our union. Kloran could stand at my side, with Leonix or Bria, or even my younger sister, Hasina, standing to Sawyer’s right.
Then, we would make a life together. She would never want for anything on Lunaria. All that she had suffered since being stolen away from Earth would soon be forgotten. Set free on the wind. And, perhaps selfishly, I was excited at the prospect of marrying her for far more carnal reasons. If she was my wife, after all, I would be free to take her in the way I had wanted last night. Bareback and raw, until I felt my balls clench and my seed spill out inside her. She would bear my cubs, teach them as she had taught the cubs of others back on Earth. Perhaps she could even start a small school here on Lunaria. So few were the cubs of my people now that the only attendees would be our children, Kloran and Bria’s, and perhaps five or six older cubs from here in the capital, but it would be enough to start out with. Of course, as my wife, Sawyer would not have to work at all if she did not wish to, but I had seen the way she looked at Kaliope. Spending her days surrounded by younglings, I thought, would give her fulfillment and joy.
So lost was I in my daydreams for the future that I almost did not spot Apex, one of my intelligence agents, loitering around outside my quarters. When our eyes met from across the barracks, I left the fresh recruits I had been observing and made my way over to him. He was a tall, slender officer with a shock of black hair marked with a single lock of silver at his brow. His horns, like Nion’s, were filed down to small points on either side of his head, but unlike Nion’s, Apex’s were tipped with molded silver as a signifier of his station.
Intelligence agents like Apex—specters, we called them—were generally not of the High Houses. The missions they undertook were dangerous ones, and none on the high council would have dared to put their own cubs so at risk. Instead, Lunarian specters were generally orphans, trained from the moment they could first walk until they came of age at twenty-one. They did not battle the other cubs in the fighting pits with fang and claw. Instead, they waged battle on each other, often in more sinister, elusive manners that most Lunarian soldiers would find to be cowardly and distasteful.
Many did not make it to the age of adulthood as a result. The fact that Apex had managed it made him dangerous—dangerous, and incredibly valuable as well.
“Lieutenant,” I said in greeting. I raised my hand to him, and briefly, he pressed his palm to mine. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
As I met Apex’s black eyes, I tried to determine his mood. Unsurprisingly, I could not. Like all specters, he had been dosed with a drug when he was only a cub that stopped his irises from changing colors. Even in times of great rage, his emotions would never betray him. It was to his benefit when he was operating undercover—but it also made him incredibly difficult to read.
“Lies do not become us, General,” Apex said as he held my gaze. “We both know well enough that a personal visit from intelligence is rarely a pleasure.”
Grimly, I nodded. As much as I wished to pretend otherwise, Apex’s presence outside my quarters here had me on edge. If what he had to tell me was not of the utmost importance, he would have simply submitted his reports via encoded writing, as was customary.
The fact that he was here in person did not bode well for me—or speak positively of the news he brought with him.
We retreated into my office immediately. I closed the door behind him, locked it to prevent any from entering unexpectedly, then stood with my arms crossed as I waited for him to speak.
A typical specter, however, Apex seemed intent on taking his time. Crossing his arms behind his back, he strolled through my office and let his gaze fall across the military certifications on my wall as well as the papers on my desk.
“You do not look as though you have been very busy since your return from the raid on the Rutharians,” he finally commented. His voice was all casual, but there was something tense within that casualness. Something insincere. I knew that I was not wrong to be hesitant to believe he had an agenda. I had never been privy to a casual conversation with a specter in all my life. “Which is interesting, considering that I know you to be a very busy man, General.”
I sighed. I had been so enjoying my day before Apex had arrived on my doorstep. All of this dancing around was ruining my mood.
“Speak your piece and be done with it, Lieutenant. I do not have time to try and guess your meanings today.”
“Oh?” Apex raised his eyebrows in faux-surprise. “Perhaps because you have another exciting meeting with the human female you have been entertaining? Sawyer, her name is, I believe. Very pretty. Blonde. Surely you recall—”
“I do not like the way her name sounds in your mouth, Apex.” I bared my fangs at him immediately in a snarl. Apart from Bria, Leonix, and Sawyer herself, I had not been aware that anyone else even knew of our date—but of course, Apex knew. Bria’s servants and guards had seen me enter the palace to meet Sawyer, and we had been seen by a good portion of Lunarian society as we strolled through the night markets. It should not have surprised me to learn that word of this had gotten back to Apex and the other specters. On Lunaria and off of it, there was little information that they did not eventually overturn.
“Perhap
s you prefer the way your own name sounds in hers,” Apex said with a shrug. “Lady Helenia has said… Ah. But forgive me, General. It is not my intention to speak of your intimate affairs—I simply have some information for you regarding your female, if you would like to hear it.”
“Tell me, then get out,” I said sharply. Whatever Apex’s intentions, I did not enjoy being spoken to in such a manner, regardless of what Lady Helenia had or had not said. The specters had their own hierarchy of command, but Apex himself was part of my division. My assigned intelligence officer. He knew better than to test me in this way, and I would not stand for it. “I do not have all day for this nonsense.”
Apex placed himself on my desk and slowly curled his lips into a smile. “Well, as I have heard it, it has been determined that Sawyer will be unable to return to Earth. A great shame, truly, that she cannot go home—but of course, her loss is your gain, is it not?”
“Sawyer’s family believes her to be dead,” I answered simply. He had already left me snarling once. I refused to rise to his goading again. “The slavers who captured her initially saw to it that a body was planted bearing her DNA. It is a misfortune, yes, but one that I believe Sawyer is managing accordingly.”
“With no small amount of help from your own tender loving care, I am sure.” Apex’s smile lingered for a moment, then he looked away. “But I am here with good news. The intelligence division believes that they may be able to covertly convince her family that the body is, in fact, not Sawyer’s after all. Her funeral on Earth is still being arranged. Some small delay with their embalmers, as I understand.” The glint in Apex’s eyes told me that this was likely a delay introduced specifically by the intelligence division, though I knew better than to say it out loud.
There were more important matters to attend to than pointing fingers now. If what Apex said was true, then Sawyer would be able to return home if she wished. The question was, why had intelligence meddled in this matter to begin with—and if I presented this information to her, would she still choose to stay here on Lunaria? To stay here with me?
“Thank you for the briefing, Lieutenant,” I told him, the pointed to the door. “I will take this into consideration.”
“I would hope so.” Apex’s gaze followed my gesture, but he did not move. Not yet. “I should also mention that we have reason to believe that this Sawyer is not safe here on Lunaria. You will recall the Rutharian boarding on your ship during your return trip, of course?”
“I recall.” My brow lowered in a scowl. I had been doing my best to put that encounter—Sawyer’s near recapture by the Rutharians and my uncertainty as to how they had boarded in the first place—out of mind. It had been in the report I made upon returning to Lunaria, which was likely how the specters had learned of it. But why was he bringing this up now?
“We have reason to believe you have a traitor within your ranks, General. Yet another misfortune—though, it is one that I have every intention of dealing with. Someone who may be keeping tabs on Sawyer. Someone who has something to gain from allowing the Rutharians to recapture her. Do you have any ideas as to who it might be?”
“Is it not your job to determine such things for yourself?” I asked. “You are one of our most talented agents, Apex. I doubt that this is a matter you need my help with.”
“And of course, I will get to the bottom of this with all the haste I am capable of,” Apex reassured me. He shifted off my desk, finally moving for the door. “But if you have any suspicions, you would do well to tell me of them. It would assist me greatly to have a head start on this fiend.” He clapped his hand on my shoulder and gave me a humorless smile in passing. “We would not want Sawyer to be in any additional danger while she is here under our protection—nor should we suffer a traitor in our midst.”
“My men are loyal. Down to the last,” I growled through my teeth. But if a traitor really was among us…
“Something to ruminate on,” Apex said with a shrug. “You know how to find me should anything come to mind.”
He unlocked the door for himself and left it ajar after he had passed through it. I waited for him to fade from sight before I slammed it shut again.
A traitor. A continued plot to do Sawyer harm. And on top of it all…an opportunity for her to return home, even after she had already begun to acclimatize to her new life here on Lunaria. A life, I had hoped, that might involve me in a significant way. A permanent way—as my wife.
I knew I should have been happy for Sawyer, but I could not force the emotion onto myself any more than I could fake it.
I was worried for her. I was worried for my men, unknowingly preparing for our next rescue mission with a potential turncoat in their ranks. And most of all…
Most of all, I was afraid.
I did not want Sawyer harmed…but I did not want her to leave me, either.
And if I told her of this update, if she knew now there was a chance that she truly could return home…
Would she choose me, I wondered, or would she take that chance? Would she want to abandon the beginnings of the relationship we had only just started, if it meant she could go back to her planet, to her people?
A scowl marred my brow for the rest of the day.
Whatever she chose, I knew I had to see her again tonight.
I could only hope that when I told her, she would make the right choice.
17
Sawyer
When Haelian sent me the message to meet him at the beach just outside of the city, I didn’t know what to expect. But since his note came with an elaborate new outfit in a soft pink color instead of a bikini, I guessed that going for a moonlit swim wasn’t exactly what he had in mind.
Sex. That was all I’d had on my mind ever since Haelian had brought me home after our little romp in the cave. Haelian might have blamed the baby-crazy horny feelings between us on whatever magic the cave held for lovers, but I was starting to think it was something more than that. Even the slightest mention of his name made my skin prickle and my stomach flutter. The promise of seeing him again had made it hard to focus on anything other than the heat between my thighs while I waited for the hovercar he’d arranged for me to arrive.
And then, there was the way my heart started skipping beats when I stepped out of the hovercar and saw him standing just down the shoreline as the dark blue waves lapped at the blackened sand.
Big, broad shoulders. Long, muscular thighs. Haelian’s red waves were slicked back into a small ponytail at the top of his head. It was tied with a blue ribbon that matched his shirt. He looked…dashing. Somehow even more dashing than he looked in his military uniform. And he’d obviously spent some time setting the mood for me, too. He’d laid a blanket out on the sand with pillows scattered all over it. All around the blanket, he’d placed candles that made his pale orange skin glow with their flickering light.
At the edge of the sand, I took my slippers off and left them behind. The black grains of the beach were still pleasantly warm beneath my feet even though the sun had set and the air was beginning to cool. As I made my way over to him, I didn’t miss the way he was staring at me. Possessively. Like I was something that he owned—or at least, something he’d like to own.
And after
“Hey, big guy.” I stood across the blanket from him, suddenly nervous. My entire body wanted nothing more than to launch itself at him while I begged him to take me all over again—but there was a tension between us, too. The palpable kind.
At first, I thought it was just, well…the obvious thing.
We’d fucked. And I was pretty sure we both wanted to fuck again. And the last time we’d done that, I’d pretty much begged him to come inside me. And then when he hadn’t, I’d actually cried until he reassured me that he’d only stopped because he wanted me to be sure about the consequences before he did—which, actually, was such a responsible move on his part that somehow, it’d only made me want him to put a baby in me that much more.
But as we stood th
ere staring at each other, the tension almost seemed a little too much for it to be just that.
“Is…something wrong?” I finally asked. His eyes were that deep, hungry blue that I was coming to love, but his silence was killing me. As sexy as I found that little line that appeared between his eyebrows when he was lost in thought, I was also starting to worry that he wasn’t just imagining me without my clothes on. Maybe I’d done something to sour the mood?
Haelian blinked like I’d just snapped him out of a trance. “No. No, of course not, Sawyer. I was just…” He paused, blinked again, then smiled gently. “I was only thinking how beautiful you look tonight.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
Okay. No weirdness, then. He was probably just as horny as I was. Which was, as far as I was concerned, a pretty good sign.
“It’s the outfit, probably.” I smiled as I spun around for him, showing off my sheer harem pants and tight, low-cut top from all angles. The bangles that Bria had let me borrow for the evening tinkled like little bells as I moved. “For a big, strong alien warlord, you have an eye for fashion, you know.”
“I only wish I could accept such high praise, Sawyer. I sent word to my younger sister, Hasina, to select your outfit for the evening. I am glad that you are happy with what she chose for you, though.”
“You have a sister?”
“She is much younger than you, but she enjoys pretty things.” His smile widened as he moved around the blanket toward me. “Which is why I am excited for you to meet her someday. Someday soon, I hope.”
“Already imagining showing me off to your family, huh? You Lunarian men move pretty fast, you know.”
“Do we?” Haelian drew so close to me, our toes were nearly touching. When he lowered his lips to my ear, his breath was hot on my neck. “As I recall it, Sawyer, I was not the one begging to spill my seed inside you last we met.”
