by Renee Rose
They’d arrived in front of Cambry’s door again, and Lundric shoved it open, bringing in the bottles of luxury products and arranging them in a neat row along the wall.
She took over and shoved them under her cot.
“I can build you a shelf in here, if you like.”
She stared at him as if he had two heads. “Yes...maybe. Thank you. But back to your story. Why were you off-planet when they invaded?”
The familiar deadness swept through his chest. He hated this part of his life story. The worthlessness he’d felt as a boy, before Master Seke had given him purpose.
As if sensing his darkness, she stepped forward and laid her slender palm on his chest.
He looped an arm around her waist and pulled her snug against his body, letting her feel how quickly his need for her regenerated. “My mother didn’t want me. She’d sent me away to live with her grandparents on Aurelia. My grandfather was the Zandian ambassador to the United Galaxies.” Aurelia was a neutral, peaceful planet, near Ocretion territory, that housed the United Galaxies.
To Cambry’s credit, she quickly hid the flash of pity that sprang to her face. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “I’m not. I wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t been a selfish beast. I would never have been trained by Master Seke, who is an incredible master of battle arts. I wouldn’t be Prince Zander’s chief of security, or a captain of the royal guard who protect and serves the prince. So being unwanted was the best thing that ever happened to me.” He heard the touch of bitterness in his voice and hated the weakness in him the wound still bore.
“Are they still alive? Your grandparents?”
He shook his head. “No. They died of old age within one planet rotation of each other about ten solar cycles ago. They couldn’t live without each other. Theirs was truly a love match.” He smiled, despite the tug of sadness still echoing through him at their loss. They’d been good to him, doing their best to raise him, despite their old age. When Master Seke had invited him to move into the palatial pod to train with the prince himself, they’d been so proud. When he pictured winning Zandia back for their species, it was for them—to honor their love of the planet from which he personally didn’t bear any happy memories.
“Why are the crystals sacred? And what bath was Lily talking about?”
“To Zandians, the crystals have life-giving properties.” He lifted the gem to his wound once more and smiled faintly as he felt its hum. “They bring a sense of peace and calm to those who touch them, and when used in windows or skylights, amplify the sun, which we require as energy to survive.”
Cambry’s smile turned teasing. “You just showed me your weak spot, warrior.”
He shook his head. “No, my weak spot is this,” he gripped her ass possessively, pulling her even tighter against his body.
“Are you going to make me the recipient of your joy again?” she purred.
His cock surged painfully against his pants, and he groaned. “Soon,” he choked against her damp hair. “Right now, I have to work.” It took all the self-control in the galaxy to release her and step away, but he did it.
Soon he would bind her to him so she and all the pod recognized what he knew to the depths of his marrow.
She belonged to him.
Chapter Four
After the incredibly satisfying—in more ways than one—shower, Cambry ought to have been ready to retire to her room, but a restless energy had her loathe to stay holed up in her tiny closet until dinner. Odd. When had she ever preferred the company of strangers—or beings in general—to solitude? It had always been she and Tal with plenty of alone time in between.
Maybe she’d just take a walk around the pod. It was strange to feel so free. While she still considered herself and all the other “refugees” to be essentially prisoners, they hadn’t been treated that way. There were no curfews or restricted movements. The first time she’d walked the hall alone, yesterday, she’d been certain one of the guards would stop her, haul her back, or punish her. But none of those things had happened.
She just didn’t like leaving her little chamber unlocked. Since Lundric had smashed his fist into the control panel, there was no way to lock it from the outside. Not that she regretted the loss of the control panel in the least. She never would’ve let him lure her in there if it had still been active. It wasn’t so much she had anything to steal—although she’d guess most every refugee there would love the skin products—it was more that she’d hate to return and find someone waiting in there to ambush her. Thank the stars—and Lundric—she still had the dagger he’d given her.
She closed her door tightly and set off through the corridors. Although she had no purpose, she affected the walk of a being who did not want anyone to hail her or try to engage her. Except she wasn’t even sure that was true anymore. The beings she’d engaged with—namely Lundric and Lily—had not yet harmed her. In fact, they’d both given her gifts. A dagger and skin products might not seem like much to a Zandian, but they were the most valuable things she’d ever owned.
She walked through the row of prison cells, taking in the way they’d turned into nests. Though little had changed in architecture or even furnishings, there was a settled feel to them now. Beings talked or rested. Faces and shoulders were relaxed; chatter was easy. Like hers, their defenses had started to come down. At the end of the row, she took a right and looped back through a second row of cells.
If she’d been in one of these cells, her guard would not be down. There were too many beings, too many variables for staying safe. Lundric had truly done her a favor by providing her with her own space. But had it come at too high a cost? What were the huge alien’s expectations of her now?
Who does this tight little pussy belong to?
Did he really believe that? Or was it his form of dirty-talk during sex? Because she belonged to no male, no matter how considerate. No matter how much he made her knees weak and her core turn to molten lava.
She almost wished she hadn’t learned about his past. Seeing him as a fully dimensional being instead of just a virile young prison guard changed things. Veck, she had to see all the Zandians with a little more sympathy after hearing about the genocide of their species. Although, at least those who escaped death were free and, from the looks of it, rich. Her species was still enslaved on most planets.
She came out of the second row of cells and turned left down a corridor she didn’t know. When it dead-ended, she reversed direction and headed back. She wondered if she’d run into Lundric.
As she rounded the bend, a fist smashed into her temple, and her vision went black.
~.~
“Wake up, red.”
Her face stung with a slap. Her head screamed as she cracked her eyes and tried to make sense of her surroundings. The creepy male who’d slept near her the planet rotation she met Lundric swam into her vision.
His lips stretched into a chilling smile. “That’s right. I waited until you woke up. I prefer you awake for this.”
Her adrenaline kicked into high gear, clearing her head. She struggled to move but found herself pinned below the male. One of his hands squeezed her throat, and he straddled her waist. Her clothes were still on, thank Mother Earth.
He closed the fist around her throat enough to cut off her breath.
She struggled harder, vision turning red. Don’t panic—fight. She clawed at his hands, scraping his skin under her nails, drawing blood.
“Get...the hell off me,” she wheezed and bucked her hips, trying to dislodge him, but he weighed too much. His grin grew wider.
“Keep fighting, red. I love the struggle.” He eased his grip on her throat, and her vision returned as he let her draw a few ragged breaths.
So—a torture game.
To hell with this. She wasn’t about to let this asshole win.
Think, think! Where was she? A dark corner somewhere. Not a chamber—just a corridor.
The dagger.
Why had it taken
her this long to remember her weapon? She kept up the struggle with one hand as her other swept down, searching her pocket.
Gone.
Where in the hell had it gone?
The creep choked her again, his fingers crushing her throat in a bruising grasp. She swept her hand from side to side, searching for the knife on the floor. It must have fallen out, had to be somewhere. Lundric. She found herself calling his name in her head. Her vision darkened again, lights bursting at the edges.
Hoping he didn’t plan on killing her yet, she forced her body to go prematurely limp, but before she could act, her vision went dark, and she lost consciousness again.
When she returned, a roar filled her ears, along with a horrible crunching sound. A figure loomed over her—shadows sweeping across her vision. She coughed for air and forced her body to move. It obeyed, no longer weighed down or pinned.
As she struggled to sit, she saw Lundric’s powerful back, heard his ferocious growl. He held the human male by a broken neck and swung with unbelievable might, crushing his skull against the wall.
Shock at the gruesome violence made her croak, “Lundric...stars.”
He dropped what was left of the male to the floor in a shapeless puddle and whirled. “Cambry. You’re alive! No, don’t look.” He moved his body to block her view of the dead man.
The anguish in his expression moored her. The brittle reality of her attack and Lundric’s violence eased its choke hold. She drew a ragged breath as Lundric lunged across the distance between them to scoop her into his arms. “Holy Zandian star, Cambry,” he choked, blinking rapidly. “I thought you were vecking dead for a moment there.”
The movement of his walking made her head and neck hurt. “Slow down,” she rasped, and he immediately stopped.
“Veck. Tell me what’s wrong. Where does it hurt?”
Her hand went to her throat. “I’m all right,” she managed to say. “Bruised...that’s all.”
His walk turned slow and careful as he watched her with an intensity that warmed some of the numbness from her chest. She’d thought of Lundric in those moments of the attack—but hadn’t allowed herself to believe he’d rescue her. But he had. As he’d promised from the night they’d met, Lundric was her protector. For the first time since Tal was taken from her, she didn’t feel so horribly alone in the universe.
She touched his face. She didn’t want to speak, nor would she know what to say if she did.
He leaned into her touch, lids drooping. “Cambry.” He spoke it like a prayer, a lament, and an invocation all at once.
“Cambry.”
~.~
He’d like to kill that human a million times over. But thank the stars—thank the stars—Cambry was alive. When he’d arrived to find her lifeless on the floor beneath the male, his vision had turned red. No thoughts ran through his mind, only the blind instinct to kill.
Veck, he’d known that human male was trouble. Or, rather, Cambry had known. He’d seen her size up and assess the danger that night the male had casually put his sleeping pad beside hers. The death pod had been filled with humans headed for their execution. While there were many innocent, there were probably just as many dangerous criminals. Lundric should have protected his female. He had himself to blame for this incident.
They didn’t have a doctor on the pod, and he didn’t want to bring her to the sick bay where she’d be ogled by others, so he took her directly to Rok and Lily’s chamber. Lily had been acting as the de facto nurse for the pod.
He knocked on the door.
Cambry lifted her head from his shoulder, and, realizing where they were, kicked in protest.
“Who is it?” Rok bellowed.
“Lundric. I’ve killed a human, and Cambry requires assistance.”
A curse sounded behind the door and a few moments later, the panel swished open, with both Rok and Lily appearing as if they’d dressed in a hurry.
“Set her on the bed,” Lily said immediately.
“Who did you kill? What happened?”
“I left the body in the north corridor.” He laid Cambry down as gently as possible.
“I’m all right.” Her voice still had a terrible raspy quality from being choked. Angry red welts on her neck would soon turn to bruises. Another lump swelled at her temple. Seeing those marks on her made his fists clench all over again. “Go.” She waved him off.
He hesitated, but Rok propelled him out the door. He explained what happened briefly to Rok as he led him to the mess, which—thank the stars—hadn’t been found by any being.
“You should have called for backup immediately. You can’t just leave a corpse like this,” Rok snapped, hauling the body off the floor. “Do you know what this is going to do to refugee relations?”
“I’ll report to Prince Zander and Master Seke now.”
Rok scowled. “Do it. And call in one of your guards to clean up the mess, for stars’ sake!” He stalked away with the body.
“Yes, Captain,” he muttered. Lundric hit his communicator to call both Master Seke and Prince Zander.
Prince Zander’s device answered, but both males’ heads sprang up. They’d been together when he called. “What is it?” Seke asked sharply.
“I killed one of the humans,” he admitted. Guilt at the trouble he’d caused his superiors warred with the remaining anger at the threat on his female.
“What happened?” the prince demanded.
He swiped his hand across his cheek, sensing the human’s blood there. “He forced himself on C—one of the females. I ended it.”
Seke raised his brows. “By killing him?”
His nostrils flared. “Their necks break easily.”
“And the female?” Zander asked.
“Cambry. I want her.” There. He’d said it. He needed to secure the female as his. If he’d done that sooner, she might not have been threatened.
“Excuse me?”
Veck. That had come out all wrong. He cleared his throat, marshaling his manners. “May I take a female slave, as you both have done?”
They stared at him.
“Please, my lord?” he added.
“You are not in a position to beg any favors of me, Lundric,” the prince snapped. “We need the strongest allegiance possible from these humans or they’ll never serve as an army for us. Right now, you’d better be thinking about how to control the damage you’ve done to Zandian-human relations on that pod.”
Veck, of course the prince was right. He’d failed his ruler and Cambry both, this planet rotation. He bowed. “Yes, my lord.”
Zander moved to end the hologram transmission, but desperation made Lundric try again. He needed to secure Cambry as his own—for his sanity and her safety. “What about the female? What about Cambry?”
“I’ve granted you nothing. If you want the human female, cultivate a bond.”
Did he mean to court her like he would a Zandian female—if any of mating age were still alive? Relief poured through him. That meant the prince granted Cambry her own sovereignty to choose. No one else, presumably Prince Zander included, would have the right to take her from Lundric. He need only convince Cambry. He squared his shoulders and nodded, once. “Thank you, my lord.”
~.~
Cambry sat up too fast, forgetting the bruise on her temple. It throbbed, making her wait until her vision cleared to stand up. She’d refused any analgesic from Lily the previous planet rotation but had accepted a cold pack before locking herself in her room to sleep.
Her dreams had been a twisted mix of all the scenes in her life where she’d been in grave danger, except Lundric always showed up, protecting her with the fierceness of an animal. The memory of what he’d done to the male who’d attacked her should make her sick. The level of violence was greater than she’d seen before. And yet it didn’t.
It made her feel safe.
Thoughts of Lundric made her reach for the bottles of cosmetics Lily had given her. She uncapped a lightly fragranced oil for the ski
n. It smelled of fruit, citrus, perhaps, not that she’d ever had the pleasure of eating the Earth-based food the Ocretions cultivated on agrifarms. She undressed and rubbed it over her body, imagining Lundric’s hands massaging her instead.
Hearing the breakfast bell, she quickly redressed and unlatched the door. It wouldn’t budge.
“What gives?” she muttered and tried again. It stuck, then abruptly slid open, and she immediately saw the reason. Lundric had been leaning against it. He whirled, drinking her in like a starved man.
“Did you stand here all night?”
His eyes traveled to her temple then the bruises at her throat, and he clenched his fists, scowling.
“If you keep glaring at me like that, I’ll have to stay away from you until my bruises heal,” she said lightly, trying to brush past him.
He lunged, caging her against the door without touching her. “You won’t stay away from me,” he growled, brows dipped low on his forehead. His irises had turned purple, the way they did when he was turned on, but this time she thought it was more out of anger.
It was odd how she wasn’t the least bit afraid of the giant, angry warrior. The one she’d seen crush a man’s skull as if it were a cracker. Her body reacted to his aggression like it was a come on, nipples steepling her tunic, a steady thrum starting up between her legs.
“How would I keep you safe?”
Her laugh sounded husky. She reached up and gripped the lapel of his white uniform. “What would you do if I...ran?” She ducked under his arm, laughing as she bolted, not surprised when he caught her around the waist and hauled her back against his front. His hot breath feathered across her ear.
“You don’t vecking run from me.” He bit her ear then inhaled deeply. “What is that scent?” He dragged his open mouth down her neck, jerking away when he touched her bruises.
“Veck. I’m so afraid I’ll hurt you,” he choked.
To hear the fearsome warrior say he was afraid—of hurting her—made every bone in her body go soft.
