Possessed

by Tana Stone

  “The boy is teaching her to fight. At her request.”

  The thought of Astrid fighting made my blood run hot. It wasn’t the fighting I disapproved of. It was that I wasn’t the one teaching her. I let out a low growl.

  “I assume I have the command deck?” Bron asked.

  “You assume correctly,” I told him as I stomped out of my strategy room and headed for the battle ring.

  I moved quickly through the ship—leaping down entire flights of stairs—with warriors jumping out of my way as I passed. When I reached the cage, though, I did not rush in. I held back and watched as the female and the boy called Krin circled each other, sparring sticks in their hands. Her pale hair was pulled up high on her head, and his tail swished quickly behind him.

  I let out a sigh of relief. At least they were not using real weapons. I narrowed my eyes. But what was she wearing? Not the clothes that I’d had brought to her. No, she appeared to have on one of the cloth apprentice kilts, and one of her silky sleeping tops she’d knotted at the waist.

  I clenched my fists. Most of her legs were exposed, and her stomach flashed each time she lifted her arms. The soft flesh I kissed and nipped and licked in the dark was now on display for all to see. As my pulse raced, I realized that I missed seeing her. Even though I buried my cock in her every night, I missed looking on the creaminess of her skin and the pink flush of her cheeks and the gentle bow of her lips.

  Astrid spun and lunged for Krin, her kilt flying up and exposing the curve of one ass cheek. I almost groaned out loud as my cock hardened. Watching her in the battle cage was more arousing than I would have imagined, even with my female in her ridiculous makeshift outfit. Her face was flushed with exertion and her eyes glittered in concentration.

  Once again, I saw the flash of steely determination that had drawn me to her. The strength that would make her a great Raisa. If only…

  Enough, I thought. I had stayed away from her for too long.

  I climbed the steps and threw open the cage door, causing both Astrid and Krin to pivot to face me. “If you wanted to learn, you should have asked.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Astrid

  I stared at him, almost dropping the sparring stick. It had been days since I’d actually seen the Raas, and I’d almost forgotten how huge and imposing he was. As he stood with his legs set wide, his back muscles were flared out from his corded stomach and his arms were like veined granite. I drew up the courage to look at his face and was almost breathless when I saw his sharp cheekbones and dark flashing eyes.

  Krin quickly tapped his heels together, throwing his chest back as Kratos entered the ring.

  “You can go.” The Raas nodded to him. “I’ll teach the female.”

  I bristled at his words and at the assumption that I wanted him to teach me. “I didn’t ask you to teach me to fight. I asked Krin.”

  Krin had handed him his sparring rod and was backing toward the door. When I said this, he froze.

  Raas narrowed his eyes at me. “You would rather this apprentice teach you than the Raas?”

  “At least he’s been around,” I shot back, watching his eyes narrow.

  “I have been around,” he said. “Have you not enjoyed my attentions?”

  My face warmed as I noticed a few Vandar warriors outside the battle ring. I stepped closer to him, my voice almost a hiss. “I thought I was only for you to screw at night. If that’s all you want from me, why are you here?”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’m here to teach you. You want to learn how to fight?”

  I nodded, even though I still didn’t want him to be the one to teach me.

  “Let’s see what you’ve learned so far, human.” He inclined his head at me, raising his rod across his chest. “Vaes.”

  I glared at him, all the fury from the past few days bubbling up in me. With a yell, I ran at him, my sparring rod over my head. I wanted to bring it down on his arm, but instead, Kratos deftly sidestepped me. He spun on his heel and brought his own sparring rod down across my ass then followed that by a sharp swat with his tail.

  “Ow!” I leapt away from him, one hand going to my smarting backside.

  “Never leave yourself open like that,” he said, as he circled me. “And never let anger make you lose your focus.”

  There were a few muffled laughs from outside the ring. I tried to ignore them, but my cheeks burned with humiliation and my ass stung from the sharp hit. “Asshole.”

  His brows lifted, but he wasn’t angry—only amused, which made me want to hurt him even more. “Fighting is not the only thing you are learning, I see.”

  “You’ve inspired me,” I snapped.

  I steadied my breath and tried to focus on the few things Krin had told me before Kratos had interrupted. I need to keep my weapon high and move my feet. I saw how Kratos circled me and tried to mimic him in the other direction.

  A grin teased the corners of his mouth. “Good, Raisa,” he murmured low so only I could hear him. “You move well, but then I already knew that.”

  Fresh heat scorched my cheeks at the reference to our nights together. But if he thought he was going to rattle me, he was sorely mistaken. “That’s the only thing you seem to know about me.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “Oh, I know everything about you, female. I know how you taste. I know how you sound when I’m moving inside you. I know how you cry out when I suck that sweet little nub of yours.”

  Warmth pulsed between my legs, and I wished—not for the first time—that the Vandar believed in underwear. I shot daggers at him with my eyes, flicking my gaze quickly outside the ring to see if any of the gathering Vandar could hear him. But they seemed to be more concerned with laughing and talking amongst themselves than listening to what Kratos was saying to me in hushed tones.

  “Are you going to attack me again, or just stand there, wishing me dead?” he asked.

  Pressing my lips together to keep myself from cursing him again, I dove forward, swinging my rod at his stomach. He blocked my stick with his own, then snatched my sparring rod from my hands and swatted me on the ass with it.

  “Stop doing that,” I yelled, as I stumbled away from him. My ass burned, but I could also feel the slickness between my thighs. More than I hated Kratos for smacking me, I hated myself for getting aroused by it.

  He tossed me my rod. “Stop making it so easy.”

  I put my hands on my hips. “Are you going to actually teach me something, or just use this as an excuse to spank me?”

  He cocked one eyebrow. “You really want to learn to fight like a Vandar?”

  I threw my hands up. “That’s why I asked Krin to teach me. I don’t want to be the only one on board who can’t defend herself.”

  “You’re sure you just don’t want to learn so you can fight me off?”

  Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow. “You really think I stand a chance against a Raas of the Vandar? I couldn’t fight you off even if I wanted to.”

  He smiled at that. “But you don’t want to, do you?”

  I didn’t, and he knew it.

  Without waiting for an answer, he pointed to my feet. “Keep them wide, but keep them moving. Like this.” He moved to one side.

  I copied him, and he nodded. “Weapon up. Good. Now don’t tell me what you’re doing before you do it. Come at me without raising your weapon until the last possible moment.”

  I hesitated, then advanced on him, keeping my rod level until I was almost on him. Then I jabbed it at his leg, making contact.

  Leaping back, I raised my arms in the air. “I did it. I got y—!”

  Before I could finish my sentence, he’d lunged forward and grabbed me, spinning me and wrapping one arm around my shoulder, then jerking me flush to his huge body, his tail coiling around my legs so I couldn’t kick at him. “Never celebrate a victory until your opponent is dead at your feet, Raisa. Now you’ve just provoked him.”

  My breathing was heavy as I struggled in hi
s grasp. “Let me go.”

  “I don’t think so,” he purred into my ear, the low buzz of his words sending frissons of pleasure down my spine. “Not when you’re so eager to punish me.”

  “You’re the one who keeps slapping my ass,” I said.

  “Only because you insist on flashing it to half my ship.” His tail flicked at the hem of my kilt. “What are you wearing, Raisa?”

  “The only thing Krin could find for me for sparring.” I gripped the thick arm crossing my chest and tugged at it. “The dresses you got for me are impossible to move in.”

  “They’re meant to cover you so no other male can see what I get to see.”

  “Is it your crew you trust so little, or me?” I said between stolen breaths. “Do you really think I want anyone but you?”

  His grip relaxed slightly. “No.” His tail slipped down and underneath the hem of the kilt, sliding between my wet thighs. He growled. “I can feel how much you want me. If there were not people watching, I would fuck you right here on this mat.”

  “That’s all you care about, right?” I dug my fingers into his flesh. “You don’t want to see me or talk to me. You just want to fuck me in the dark.”

  It was getting easier and easier to swear at him, although I’d only whispered the word.

  “Don’t you like it?” His mouth hummed against my throat and my entire body heated. “From the way you scream, I thought you liked to have my cock buried inside you.”

  I thrashed against him, finally loosening his grip and slipping out from under his arm. “You can’t keep screwing my brains out and then leaving me! That’s not what I signed up for!”

  The sounds of the other warriors vanished. The battle ring was silent and so was everyone watching. The Raas stood across from me, his dark eyes burning into me.

  “This is not what you signed up for?” He sounded like he didn’t believe what I had said. “You signed up to be mine.”

  He took a menacing step toward me, and I backed up. In a second, I knew I’d gone too far. I’d yelled at him in front of his crew, and he couldn’t let that go. My body shook as he advanced on me. I’d never seen him so enraged, his chest heaving and his neck muscles straining.

  “That means you belong to me, in whatever way I want you.” He crossed to me in an instant, throwing me over his shoulder and slapping my ass hard. “Now I’m going to remind you exactly what you signed up for, female.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kratos

  I pounded down the corridors to my quarters, the female bouncing on my back as I didn’t attempt to cushion my footfall. She hadn’t made a sound since I’d picked her up, and I had not tried to talk to her. I was too furious. Furious at her for calling me out in front of my crew, but more livid at myself for giving her cause to think I didn’t want to be around her.

  She’d been right to think that. I had been doing just what she’d accused me of—fucking her in the dark and then leaving before I had to see her or talk to her. But it wasn’t entirely her fault. I couldn’t avoid her just because she had a talent for seeing into people, and I hadn’t liked what she’d seen in me.

  I also knew that if I didn’t get her out of that battle ring and back to my quarters I would be tempted to spread her legs and fuck her right there on the mat with all the warriors watching. I’d had no idea how arousing it would be to spar with the female, and I did not want to rut like an animal in the middle of the battle ring.

  We reached the door to my quarters and I entered, swinging her down from my shoulder and setting her down in front of me. I’d expected her to be subdued after being spanked and then carried across the ship, but she wasn’t. Although there were tear streaks down her face, her eyes burned as she looked up at me.

  I turned away, not wanting to see the evidence that I’d made her cry, and waved a hand toward the cabinets. “Take off that apprentice kilt. It’s not suitable for you to wear.”

  “I’m not putting on those dresses again.”

  “Fine,” I turned and closed the distance between us in a single long stride. “Wear nothing. I would enjoy you walking around my quarters naked.”

  “One less thing to bother with when you sneak into bed at night, right?” Her words were sharp, but her voice shook.

  “You think I only want you at night, Raisa?” I growled, taking her jaw in one hand. “I think about you all day every day until I think I might go mad from my desire for you. Only when I can’t take being away from you for another moment do I come to bed and bury myself in you.”

  Her mouth opened but no words came out of her mouth.

  “It is not that I don’t want you,” I husked. “It is that I want you too much. I’m afraid if I don’t leave you, I’ll lose myself in you—I’ll lose myself in us.”

  For several moments, we stood glaring at each other and heaving in breaths. Then, without looking away from me, she shimmied the kilt down over her hips until it dropped to the floor, then she pulled the top over her head. When she stood in front of me with nothing on, she gave me a shy smile. “I wouldn’t mind getting lost with you, Raas.”

  Tvek. The tip of my tail twitched, and my cock hardened. It was impossible to maintain my anger when she was offering herself to me so openly. Scooping her up, I carried her to the bed and lay her down, taking a moment to appreciate her lying completely naked, her light hair fanned out behind her head on the black sheets. She was all curves and softness, and she was mine.

  Her eyes were half-lidded with desire, her pupils dark and large. She licked her lower lip as she watched me take off my kilt and belt and drop them to the floor.

  It took every bit of self-restraint I had not to spread her legs and plunge myself into her, but I wanted this to be slow. I wanted to show her I wasn’t always a brute who took what he wanted.

  I brushed my lips over hers, my tongue teasing her seam. She let out a breathy sound and I parted her lips, letting my tongue caress hers slowly. She’d moved her hands from my shoulders to my chest and her fingers were bumping across the ridges of my stomach. I tore my mouth from hers, knowing where her hands were going.

  “Not yet, Raisa. Not until I’ve gotten my fill of you.”

  I kissed my way down her throat to her breasts, licking the pebbled flesh around her nipples one at a time and finally sucking on the hard peaks. She tangled her fingers in my hair and moaned when I continued to trace my tongue down the soft swell of her belly until I’d reached her sex.

  “Kratos,” she said, her wispy words more a plea than anything.

  “Soon,” I told her, spreading her legs and finding the little nub that made her go so wild. I began to swirl my tongue over it, slipping one thick finger inside her while she writhed. I sucked her slick nub while dragging my finger in and out slowly, until my female’s cries were piercing, and her body convulsed around my finger.

  Sliding it out of her, I put my finger in my mouth and sucked down all of her sweetness. She lay with her legs sprawled, her breath shallow. As I looked down at her, I dragged my tail through her slickness, letting the sensitive tip savor her soft skin. Her gaze grew molten as she watched me.

  “You like my tail?” I asked.

  She nodded, biting on her lower lip. “I like having your tail and your cock at the same time.”

  “Then I will give you both.” I flicked the furry tip over her nub, her gaze darkening with desire.

  Picking her up again, I sat on the edge of the bed and set her on my lap so that she straddled me.

  Her eyes locked onto mine as I lifted her, notching the crown of my cock at her entrance, her juices already wetting it. She clasped her hands on my shoulders as she slowly lowered herself, taking every bit of my cock. When I’d bottomed out inside her, she rolled her head back.

  Threading my hand in her hair, I pulled her face back to me. “Eyes on me, Raisa.”

  She nodded, her green eyes holding mine as she began to ride.

  The feeling of her tight heat sheathing me was incredible, but
even better was watching her face as she took me, her pupils widening and her lips parting as she let out breathy gasps each time I thrusted up.

  As promised, I wrapped my tail around her, finding her bundle of nerves and working it with the tip. Soon, she was moving fast, her expression wild. Her eyes fluttered shut for a moment.

  “Eyes open,” I ordered. “Don’t look away from me.”

  “I’m so close, Raas,” she panted, locking her gaze on me as her hands slipped on my slick shoulders.

  “Your perfect little cunt is trembling,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her back to keep her from falling. I moved my tail faster. “Come for me, Raisa.”

  She arched her back as her body detonated for a second time, clamping tight around my cock. The vise-like grip and the sensation of my tail between her folds sent me over the edge, and I thrust up hard once more before shooting into her, my own roar mixed with her screams and both echoing through the room. After a moment, I held her face to mine, kissing her even as we both fought for breath.

  Flopping back on the bed, I tucked her into my side like I usually did. But instead of it being the dead of night, I could look down onto her light hair and see her small hand splayed across my chest.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, as she traced a finger over my markings.

  “Sorry?” I lifted my head slightly to look at her face. “You do not have to apologize after that. Or have you committed some heinous offense I am not aware of?”

  She rested her chin on my chest. “I upset you when I talked about your crew.”

  I smoothed some damp tendrils of hair off her forehead. I should not have been surprised that she’d sensed my feelings. “I was wrong to react the way I did. But you are right that I did not like it, even though you spoke the truth.”

  One of her eyebrows quirked up. “You think I was right?”

  “You see much for a human,” I admitted. “I have been wrong to keep you at arm’s length.”

  “I only wanted to help.”