“Then listen to me.”
A sweet tone growled from Blu’s lips growing in tempo. The noise was soothing. Adan touched Blu’s throat, his skin rippled under her hand making her smile. The melody was for her, melting her anxiety. Her nose tickled when she nuzzled his neck. Her forehead pressed to his cheek. There were times she had heard him make the strange noise in his sleep.
“Beautiful,” she whispered.
I love you.
She wished she could say the words out loud. The pod rocked and turned; it didn’t matter, Blu was in battle mode. Adan was naked when he pulled her shorts off, she giggled as he tumbled trying to remove his pants and boots.
“Damn, this is so much easier naked in the forest when we Holiday.”
“Naked in bed is fine,” Adan said. “But peeling off your partner’s clothing is supposed to be like unwrapping a gift.”
“My fat ass can’t get out of this gift fast enough.”
“You are not fat, my kick ass warrior.”
Blu tossed his boots, a wave swept them up and one rocketed into his head. Adan covered her mouth with her hand, then dodged to the side.
“Good God, we’re under fire in here, put your boots back on, put them on.”
She squealed when a boot was fired her way. Catching the offending object before it beamed Adan, Blu shoved his feet back into his boots. The water bowl landed on his head. Adan’s t-shirt fluttered across her legs and she started laughing. She tumbled into Blu’s lap. His wild hair was settling again to cover them.
“Damn,” Blu swore. He took the water bowl which was hollowed fruit and ate it, ridding them of one problem.
“I have an idea, but you won’t like it, or maybe you will,” Adan said.
“I’ll try anything. I have a hard on so bad I could beat an assassin in the head to death with it.”
Adan snorted with the image. She took stock of how large their surroundings were and how big Blu was.
“Lay on your back and stretch your arms out, then your feet,” she advised.
“Seriously?”
“Trust me.”
Blu stretched out spread eagle. He was able to brace his body in place. His eyes gazed at her in frustration. Adan wanted to take her time and tease by climbing leisurely on him. A wave bucked her up and over him. She sprawled there for a moment then bending her elbows she pushed herself up and locked her knees on either side of him. She gripped his chest fur tight. Blu bounced and wiggled his hips under her.
“Easy buckaroo, this is hard. I’m on an iron bull.”
For a second Blu let go with one hand, gripped her soundly under an arm and pulled her up, then down. Adan gasped. He let her go and steadied them once more. The waves rose and fell beneath her knees making its own movement. Blu hadn’t been kidding; his cock was mountain hard and solid. Adan was bounced mercilessly onto him. Powerful muscles rippled beneath her thighs. She loved his chest, the way he felt under her hands.
Blu released his pressure on the walls and pulled her into a sitting position. Her back pressed against the pod while he was on his knees again bracing them into position. His long arms were high and his palms pressed flat against the leaves. His movements thumped her slight body until she could barely breathe.
The pod tipped with their weight and the pressure but only far enough to pin Adan. Blu couldn’t shred the walls; the pod might spew them into the water if it felt threatened. There was nowhere to release his powerful needs except onto her. His massive cock drove into her, making her gasp and come at the same time. She called his name. Blu wrapped an arm around her waist keeping her in place. His intense gaze warmed her face until she grew hot. Sweat beaded her forehead.
Between her thighs was ravaged until wave after wave of orgasms consumed her. Her legs quivered as she panted, trying to catch her breath. Adan curled her arms next to his chest, her face pressed into him. Her warrior was taking his prize, his gift sweetly tortured. Adan screamed as he plunged, her insides begged for mercy. She felt him in those moments, his slickness. She tried to pull away but he refused to release her.
“No. Blu, no.”
“I will get us out of here.”
“Your dream.” She didn’t want to sob. She should have stopped him before it was too late.
Blu collapsed onto his side with exhaustion. “I’m sorry, Adan. I was so worried about you. I haven’t slept since you were taken. I promise we can talk soon.”
Adan knew he was asleep after he spoke. Guilt consumed her. She loved him so much and she had cost him his son. Of course he wasn’t thinking if he’d had no sleep. He was the most honorable warrior she had ever met. He would have been overwhelmed by guilt at losing her when it wasn’t his fault.
Oh Blu, what have I done?
* * * *
When Blu woke, he found Adan curled beside him, not touching him. His finger traced the round curve of her hip. They were mated. The idea surprised and pleased him. After almost losing her, Blu realized how foolish he was behaving. Getting her pregnant wasn’t a good idea but mating her was. Who knew what today had in store for them. All that mattered was here and now.
He felt her stir and he dressed. He would get her more fruit and water. When Blu told the plant to lower he looked around at his surroundings. Veikko was sitting not far from them, legs crossed at the ankles, leaning against the trunk of a dripping tree. Mixed emotions assaulted Blu, he was happy Veikko was alive and hoped he had killed the assassin but annoyed Veikko still thought he was the one protecting Adan.
“You don’t stink anymore, always a good thing.” Veikko’s eyes were closed as he spoke.
“You’re still alive, always a good thing.”
“Aw, you do care about me.”
Blu admitted the assassin was sort of a friend, but caring about him went a little too far. “Did you kill the bastard?”
Veikko chuckled. “So, it’s not me you adore, you just want me for my skill. And yeah, squashed him like a bug.”
Veikko rose and Adan crept forward. Blu watched her walk away. “Hey, where are you wandering off to?”
“To pee.”
“Go inside the pod,” Veikko said.
Her nose wrinkled. “I don’t pee where I sleep.”
“You won’t be sleeping in there. We’re close. We should make it to the overseers today,” Veikko said.
“What about someone else stumbling on my, uh, mess.”
Veikko smirked at her. “It doesn’t matter where you go, the assassins can track you by what you leave behind.”
Adan went beet red. “They sniff my shit?”
“Piss, shit, sweat, when Blu blows his load. Which by the way has some snickering your warrior can’t come inside a female. Or maybe he has.”
Adan dragged her hand down her face looking guilty as sin. Blu would have smashed Veikko in the mouth, but gazing at Adan he knew something was bothering her. He wondered if she was worried she was pregnant. She escaped to the pod and turned her back on them as the leaves concealed her.
“It’s best if you make certain she’s carrying your child before we see the Braxians. They’ll know you are taking her home with you. They won’t offer Adan sanctuary if it will cause a war between them and the Zargonnii.”
“What are you talking about?” Blu asked.
“The Braxians offered to keep Adan, since you didn’t seem interested. I can scent you changed your mind. They would have kept her safe. They would have picked an assassin who wanted to mate with her, or perhaps a few. Nothing would have harmed her, not even the female assassins.”
“Like you?” Blu was seething.
“It crossed my mind. Until I realized how dangerous this place is for her. I like being out here. Mating her would mean staying in asylum. I don’t want that life.”
“Adan knew about this?”
“Of course, the second day when I returned from my meeting with the overseers. If you didn’t have Adan to care for, you would already be on your vessel heading home.”
&n
bsp; “I’m so sorry, Blu. It was my fault. I didn’t want you to leave without me. I didn’t want to stay. I put the idea of you leaving me behind from my thoughts. I knew in my heart you never would, you’re too honorable. Being on your planet and being close to you is better than not having you at all. I should have tried harder to stop you last night. Maybe we haven’t conceived.”
Adan had returned, she was pale and shivering as she spoke. Blu hated himself when he gazed at her forlorn expression. She wasn’t happy he had mated her; she still thought he had bigger dreams than her. Nothing was more important than Adan.
What have I done?
* * * *
Blu gazed at Adan. “You knew? When were you going to tell me what the Braxians wanted?”
“I wasn’t sure what to think. I know you care for me, but I know what you want. I know you think what happened was my fault and I don’t blame you. It will be fine. I’m not positive but I can offer a guess I’m not pregnant. You can still follow your dream.”
Blu took her hands in his.
“I’m so sorry, Adan. I should have told you I want you. Just you. Worrying over you tired me out more than any Holiday, I should have stayed awake but you were safe, finally by my side and in my arms where you belong. You are who’s important to me. You are real. You are my dream. Please come home with me; please make my world a home I love. Finn was right all along. I could wait years and years for a son. Why would I do that when my future stares me in the face? Grab onto love when it comes and hold tight, Finn said. I’ve been such an ass for not telling you sooner I can’t live without you. Who knows what our future will bring, but for now we have each other. It’s enough for me. I hope I’m enough for you.
“We’re almost home. I wouldn’t have risked getting you pregnant sooner. We are edges away from the overseers’ sanctuary.”
Adan had waited so long for those words she was speechless. He wanted her all along after all. She wanted to throw herself at him and tell him how much she loved him. She would go anywhere with him, there was never anywhere else she wanted to be. She wondered if he considered them mated. She needed to know, she couldn’t wait.
Adan screamed when sharp claws slammed through Blu’s chest from behind. Blu gasped and struggled to maintain his feet. The claws flickered and retracted in a strange way, the tips disappeared. As Blu turned, Adan stood shocked when the claws were before Blu and behind Blu then solidified in between to stab him again.
Adan couldn’t take it. She hated those claws, they were hurting Blu, she had never hated anything so bad in her life. Her head began to pound, harder, stronger as her concentration grew to overwhelming. She wanted those claws shattered, she could see them shattered in her thoughts. The claws retracted and when they appeared in front of Blu he snapped them in half, they crumbled to the ground. The assassin screamed.
“Run,” Blu groaned as he clutched his chest. “Run, Adan, the overseers are close. The Zargonnii will take you home.”
Zig zag slashes around his chest poured blue blood to saturate his fur. Blu’s eyes fired bright as he cauterized his wounds but Adan could see there was too much internal damage and he couldn’t reach his back where the blood flowed. Adan couldn’t move. Blu was battling for his life. She had thought him unstoppable. His agony was an open book on his face. Veikko battled Alaric. She had thought him dead, there was no way he could have survived the fall, but there he was. Two others joined the battle. They had to be the ones who would take her to the Braxians. They were hideous and she was reminded the overseers didn’t care how she came to them. She didn’t have time to tell Blu of the overseers’ plan, and she could never stay on this planet with creatures such as those, what they wanted to do before reaching the overseers. Blu didn’t know how cruel she thought them to be.
“Run, Adan.”
Adan watched as Blu took what was left of the creature’s shattered claws and slammed them into its belly. As the creature fell, Blu fell on top of him. He didn’t move. A roaring sounded in Adan’s ears. In that horrifying moment she knew Blu was dead. The red of his eyes flickered, then extinguished. He lay sightless, his empty eyes in her direction. Adan was in shock not knowing what to do or what to think as her thoughts raced in rivers through her mind not settling on one. She wanted to run to him but the three creatures battling Veikko wouldn’t kill her, her fate would be much worse. They would all battle to the death to see who would keep her if Veikko lost. There was no way the lone assassin could win. If she died, Blu’s death would have been for nothing and Blu had been her everything. Adan ran.
Adan pumped her legs furiously as she flew across the terrain. Blu was dead. Her life was over. She would be trapped on this horrible planet forever. She would be hunted by the females, by the assassins. Where was there to run to? From the corner of her eye, she saw movement as she sped along. Her heart was in her throat wondering who had won the battle, or if this was a female assassin.
She leapt over vegetation, barely missing the opened mouth of a mound of dirt death, the eye blinking at her as she stumbled out of its reach. Adan backed up. Rustling from the foliage and sharp laughter reached her ears.
“Revenge will be sweet when I kill you. Your Zargonnii destroyed our ship.”
Adan turned and froze. “How did you get here?”
Adan had watched the Tonan ship as it was sliced in half. She had heard of Tonans but this was her first up close meeting. He was huge as she knew a Tonan would be. He was entirely covered in his gray body-hugging shield. There were bulbs where his eyes would be. His fingers were long sharp talons. His feet resembled a velociraptor. Two fangs hung from his mouth over his grey lips. The term hideous didn’t do him justice.
“I was able to grab your vessel before it slipped into the wormhole. Now I’m trapped. On the lonely nights while I gaze up at the sickly toxic gas I’ll fall into slumber remembering how you screamed for mercy when I killed you.”
Adan remembered the loud thump before they slipped into the wormhole; he had been here all this time. The Tonan wanted her dead. Adan waited for him to use his talons and slice open her belly. Her shoulders squared, she wouldn’t beg at all, she would think of Blu. She screamed when she was grabbed from behind. Veikko tossed her over his shoulder. Adan gasped when her nose came within inches of a deadly quill. Veikko was a whirlwind of motion. Adan didn’t remain across his back for long. As the Tonan attacked, Veikko dragged her body across his belly, each quill disappearing then reappearing after her body slid over him.
Eyes wide, Adan tilted her face up as she was dragged across Veikko’s chest and belly. His quills popped out the second her skin was no longer exposed. Her long red hair was an exception. Every strand was parted and dragged through. She winced a number of times as her hair was mercilessly brushed, snarls pulled away.
Every quill retreated around a huge thigh as Adan was slipped between his legs for mere seconds before being thrust up in the air as the Tonan attacked Veikko in places where he thought him most vulnerable, which was everywhere Adan was slid over him and around him. The deadly quills couldn’t penetrate the Tonan’s shield. The Tonan’s tail snapped in their direction but couldn’t knock Veikko over, his quills held him firmly in the ground under his feet. Talons went for her face and Veikko grabbed her by the front of her shirt with a fist. He threw her so fast into the air above his head her legs and arms bent behind her at her knees and elbows. The Tonan tried to slice off the hand holding her suspended. Adan was pushed higher as Veikko’s fist opened, her chest now suspended on his fingertips. Quills millimeters from her breasts. The Tonan had to move closer to continue his assault.
“Her mate is dead,” the Tonan bellowed. “She can’t survive here.”
“I choose if she lives or dies,” Veikko yelled. Adan cried out when Veikko rammed two fingers into the Tonan’s mouth as he prepared to speak again. The Tonan choked and gasped when the gas was released down his throat.
Adan was thrown higher for mere seconds and dropped when Veikko’s finge
rtips no longer suspended her. Veikko spun, slamming both powerful arms onto the Tonan’s shielded back. The Tonan dropped to his knees as Veikko grabbed Adan before she hit the ground. Her torso was rolled off Veikko’s forearm and she spun neatly to her feet where she crouched. The fighting was nowhere near finished.
Veikko ripped the Tonan’s tail off and wrapped it around his arms and chest tying him. Two-handed, Veikko repeatedly bashed the Tonan’s head into the ground. Veikko ripped off one fang then the other; they snapped like twigs and went flying. Veikko ordered Adan not to touch them, they held venom. Adan blinked hard thinking she wouldn’t go anywhere near anything of a filthy Tonan’s. For a second, the Tonan’s shield faltered at his neck. It was all Veikko needed. Three quills buried into the Tonan’s flesh paralyzing him. His shield dropped, absorbing back into his body. There was too much damage, Blu had been right, the Tonan shield couldn’t regenerate as quickly without constant aid from a bright sun.
Veikko punched the Tonan in the back with a quilled fist. Over and over he continued his assault until Adan wanted to throw up. The Tonan became a mangled mess. When finally Veikko halted his brutal assault, the Tonan was dead. His shield squealed without its host, separating from the body. With no one to protect the shield rusted and turned to dust.
Adan lifted her hands to her face and sobbed. She heard Veikko kneel before her.
“Only the weak cry,” Adan heard, but not from Veikko.
When she looked up the same female assassin they had come across stood watching her. Rage such as she had never known engulfed Adan. With a war cry she was up, throwing her body against the female assassin. Back they went with Adan’s small body pushing the larger woman as hard as she could until they collided into a tree. The female shuddered when they made contact with the hard bark. Adan backed off.
“Weak my ass, you bitch,” Adan said and growled.
Adan waited for the assault, the retaliation. It never happened. The assassin female was watching Veikko.
“This is no place for her. The Zargonnii are hovering over the planet. The females are transporting the dead Zargonnii as we speak to the Braxians. He fought well and deserves to be buried on his own planet. We are not at war with the Zargonnii.”
Cautious Surrender Page 10
