by Renee Rose
“I’d love that.”
Lundric changed their direction, leading her back the way she’d come. He put a helmet on her, adjusting the strap under her chin with care that made her belly flutter. They exited the pod, but when Cambry boarded the battleship Lundric indicated, he didn’t follow her on. “I think you’re ready to solo, little rebel.”
She stopped breathing.
“Can you handle it? I’ll be right here on communications if you have any questions or problems.” He tapped the comms unit attached to the helmet.
“U-um. Yes. I’m ready. Let’s do it.” Her heart thundered, hacking its way right out of her chest. Oh stars. This was her chance. She could shut the hatch on this battleship and fly away. Get back to Ocretia and find her brother.
Lundric gripped her helmet and pulled it forward to tap his in a forehead kiss of sorts. He must have misunderstood the conflict raging inside her as nerves because he said, “You’ll be fine.”
“Yeah.” Despite the oxygen pumping through her helmet, she couldn’t drag enough air into her lungs. “Thank you, Lundric. Thank you so much.” She didn’t want this to be their goodbye, but how else could it be? If she acted strange, she’d lose this chance. Even so, she wished she’d left him a gift or a message, or somehow been able to show him how much he’d meant to her.
He grinned like she was being silly and gave her a little shove. “I’ll see you when you land.” He slapped her ass. “You know what you’re doing.”
It vecking broke her heart that he stood there cheering her on while she was about to betray his trust and fly away. She didn’t want to leave this way, but a window of opportunity had appeared, and she had to take it. They didn’t come around often enough.
The hatch closed, and she settled into the pilot’s seat, still struggling to breathe.
“Communication check.” Lundric’s deep, calm voice spoken directly in her ear made her jump. She adjusted the helmet and touched her comms unit. “Loud and clear, Captain.”
“You’re clear to take off whenever you’re ready.”
She forced herself to take deep, steadying breaths as she flicked on the control board and started the engine.
Goodbye, Lundric. I love you.
~.~
He was surprised at how nervous Cambry seemed. His little rebel was always so self-possessed, so brave. It made his heart squeeze to see her unnerved. His instinct to fight her monsters, to shield her from anything frightening her made it hard to shove her in the ship and send her off alone. But he’d seen her exhilaration every time she flew. His rebel was born to fly, to fight. His need to protect couldn’t hold her back.
He sat in the loading dock to watch her flight from the viewing screen.
“Battleship 3 taking off.” She used the proper communication protocol they’d taught the trainees. The battleship lifted into a hover then ascended gently.
“Beautiful takeoff, Cambry. Now fly in a circle around the planet.”
“Copy that, Captain.” Her voice sounded choked.
Alarm bells started sounding in his head. Something was off with his female. He should have read it sooner.
“Thank you...for everything.” Her voice cracked, and the communication went dead.
“Cambry, what the stars—?” No.
Battleship 3 shot out of the atmosphere and into hyperdrive, vanishing from his sight. Oh veck no. He ran for hatch, not bothering to finish putting his helmet on before he barreled out into the toxic atmosphere of Shooku. What the veck? No, no, no.
Cambry left me.
As he ran for a battleship, fear zinged through him, ricocheting off his ribs and chest, plowing through his gut, tearing his insides to shreds. She couldn’t have run off. And yet he knew with absolute certainty she had.
That thank you had really been goodbye. She’d been choked up. He’d given her an opportunity to run, and she’d taken it. She’d probably been planning this from the start. She’d been using him to her advantage while she bided her time, waiting to escape.
A horrible metallic taste coated his tongue. It tasted of betrayal. Abandonment. Like his mother, Cambry hadn’t found him worth staying for. But he had no time to wallow in his own emotional issues. He fired up a battleship and launched it into space. Because the battleships were part of the same fleet, Battleship 3’s coordinates showed up on his screen. He programmed her location as his flight path and punched the hyperdrive, following her out of the atmosphere of Shooku, toward Ocretia.
Why in the stars was she running back there? It wasn’t safe for his female. If any being scanned her barcode and identified her, she’d immediately be put to death.
And that was only half the crisis. His stomach churned. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t allow Cambry to leave. In addition to putting her life at risk, her presence in Ocretion territory would also put the Zandians’ entire mission in grave danger. If any being discovered her, it would be known their death pod had not crashed into a smuggler’s ship, as they’d circulated. Prince Zander would have to run or fight Ocretia, which would divert all his resources from the real fight of winning back Zandia.
No, Cambry couldn’t go free, and since he was the fool she’d played, it was his responsibility to bring her back. What an idiot he’d been—believing she cared about him. She’d been just another treacherous human in a difficult position, and she’d used him to get out of it.
He had to bring her back. Prince Zander would be furious. The thought of anyone imprisoning or harming her made his knuckles turn white on the controls. No, there was no way in the galaxy he’d allow any being to touch her. He would take responsibility for her, whether she liked it or not.
He emerged from the hyperthrust right behind Cambry. She swerved and dipped, the ship only wobbling marginally before she righted it.
Good girl.
Even now, he couldn’t stop feeling proud for how vecking brilliant his human was. And she was still his human, even after what she’d done. He chased her, needing to get close enough to use the magnetic ray on her ship. She dropped down and halted, sending him flying past her. He cut to the right to make a tight circle. She hadn’t fired on him. She’d had a perfect shot and had failed to take it. Although his treacherous heart squeezed, certain it meant she cared for him, he chased those thoughts back. She’d used him and left. He meant nothing to her.
And her hesitation to fire was her downfall, because now he had her. He flew low over the top of her ship and dropped down, sending the magnetic beam of energy to capture her ship. It slowed the velocity of both ships, his engine whining with the effort of dragging double its weight through space. Even so, he used hyperdrive because the risk of being seen in Ocretion territory greatly outweighed the danger of blowing out his engine. It worked; the short burst of extreme speed flung them back to just outside Shooku’s atmosphere. Shooku, the uninhabitable planet where Rok and Prince Zander had forced the Death Pod down, lay just outside Ocretion territory, where few travelers would ever stray.
He steadied the controls as they broke through, and managed to land her ship without crushing it beneath his own or dropping it from too high an altitude.
He should request backup. The moment he released the magnetic ray to land his own craft, she could simply take off again. But he didn’t want any other being involved. Thankfully, she didn’t run, and he didn’t even want to begin puzzling over why. He dropped his battleship to the ground and pulled on his helmet before charging out to catch his wayward rebel.
~.~
Cambry couldn’t move. Her limbs had turned to ice, heart frozen in her chest. She tried to rally her courage, to take off and make another run at freedom, but she didn’t have it in her. She’d used up all the will to leave Lundric once. She didn’t have any left. Besides, he’d only catch her again. He’d just shown her how easy it was. She didn’t know enough about cloaking or navigating to avoid recapture.
Now, what?
She saw Lundric stomping toward her battleship, fury evident in
every determined swing of his arms and the set of his shoulders. What was the Zandian punishment for stealing a ship and deserting? Would they throw her in a prison cell? Execute her?
That outcome mattered less to her than Lundric’s reaction. Did he hate her?
The hatch opened, letting the toxic air from Shooku flood in. Lundric stormed on. Even behind his face shield, she saw the angry slash of his brows, the bitter shape of his mouth.
She didn’t move, still frozen to her chair, holding her breath against the poisonous air.
As always, Lundric moved swiftly and efficiently, palming the top of a helmet and dropping it on her head.
She drew a breath of the oxygen, even though it felt like her lungs had been crushed by a huge weight.
He lifted her by her nape to stand and guided her out the hatch. His touch was firm, but he hadn’t hurt her.
She didn’t fight—didn’t even look for a weapon. Now, like in space, she couldn’t bring herself to harm Lundric, which would be the only way she’d escape him. She could have shot his ship down. She’d had the chance, but her thumb wouldn’t move to do it. Self-preservation had failed in the face of damaging him.
“Lundric—”
“Not a word.” His voice snapped like a whip. He propelled her through the airlock and into the pod, where he pulled off her helmet and hung it beside his own without looking at her.
His edict not to speak was almost a blessing because she didn’t know what she would say anyway. What words would heal this wound she’d inflicted?
He led her down the corridor, past the office serving as Zandian headquarters. Master Seke flew out of it.
“What in the veck happened out there?” Seke demanded.
She opened her mouth to say something, to shift any responsibility for her actions from Lundric. She could handle whatever punishment they issued her—even death—but she wouldn’t stand by and let Lundric lose his position for showing her kindness.
His kindnesses. Veck. There’d been so many. Her heart wrenched over what she’d done to him. To them. Unrecoverable damage to a male who hadn’t deserved her betrayal.
“Training exercise.” Lundric spoke before she could, his words as stiff as his stance, his face hardened into stone. He’d receded into himself, leaving only some outer shell she hardly recognized.
She’d done that to him.
And he’d just lied for her. The shock of wonder made her head spin.
Seke’s eyes narrowed, and he folded his arms over his chest, looking from Cambry to Lundric. “You have thirty minutes to make a full report on the exercise.” The steel in Master Seke’s voice couldn’t be missed.
“Yes, master.” Lundric bowed and pushed on.
The fact he’d protected her after what she’d done, considering his obvious agony over her actions, made it so much worse. And infinitely better. Lundric was still on her side, after what she’d done to shatter his trust.
How could that be?
Or did he simply wish to be the one to squeeze her life out? No, he could have already done it. A tiny speck of hope kindled in her solar plexus. He stilled cared about her. Maybe he could find a way to forgive.
Lundric kicked the door to her tiny chamber open and shoved her inside, latching the door. He grasped her wrists and pinned them behind her back, tying them together with a handkerchief. In deafening silence, he yanked down her pants and panties.
Though she faced a furious alien warrior, her instinct to fight in the face of danger was absent. All she experienced was a loose-limbed surrender. She stepped docilely out of her pant legs, breath rising and falling in shortened bursts. She waited to see what Lundric would do next.
He hadn’t looked at her once since he’d come for her, but his agony, his devastation came through in waves. He paced to the cot and picked up her blanket, flicking it open then doubling it and rolling it into a cylinder. He set it in the center of the cot and pointed at it. “Lie down,” he barked.
Oh. She lost her breath.
His intention suddenly became crystal clear. Even more so when he stripped the leather sword belt from his waist.
A starstorm of flutters kindled in her belly, and her palms turned clammy and cold. But still no alarms went off spurring her to fight or flee. A whipping from a giant, angry alien was endurable. Because he was an angry, giant alien who cared about her. One who had lied to his superior in order to handle her punishment on his own.
She’d accept whatever he had to give her.
Acceptance didn’t stop her legs from shaking as she walked to the cot and lay over the rolled blanket, which lifted and tilted her bare ass up for Lundric’s punishment.
He wound the buckle end of the belt around his fist in what seemed like an agonizing delay. The entire time, the skin on her buttocks twitched in anticipation of the whipping.
When the first stroke landed like a line of pure fire, she flung a leg off the cot, lurching to get away. Lundric stopped her with nothing more than a stern point of his finger. She froze, halfway off the cot.
“Get back in position and stay there until I say you can get up.” The tightness in his voice gutted her.
“Yes, Captain,” she whispered, her throat hoarse. She obeyed despite the agony of the first welt. If he needed this to make them whole again, she’d give it. What she feared most, though, was that it wouldn’t. That nothing would repair the rift she’d put between them.
He whipped her with his belt, over and over again, striking the lower part of her buttocks. Each stroke seared her bare skin, marking it and leaving her raw. The strokes fell too quickly for her to cry. Ten. Twenty. Thirty strokes. Her legs writhed on the cot, but she stayed where he’d commanded, absorbing his anger, his retribution. He stopped at forty.
She panted into the cot, struggling to catch her sobbing breath. Her bottom throbbed in time with her pulse. She imagined it must be swollen and raw.
Lundric hadn’t moved. She didn’t have the courage to look at him but sensed him still standing at her side, towering over her with dark bitterness.
Because she had no excuse, because any apology she gave would fall flat, she offered the one thing her position allowed. She spread her legs.
Lundric’s breath audibly caught. He neither spoke nor breathed for what seemed like a long moment. Finally, he asked, “You think you deserve my cock?” There was a sneer to his voice, but underneath she heard layers of hurt.
“No,” she croaked. Now the tears that hadn’t come during the whipping smarted. His punishment she could take, but his rejection? She’d rather go through ten Ocretion executions than endure the pain of losing Lundric.
“The only place you’ll be taking my cock is in your ass.”
It vecking gutted her that he left off the little human, or one of the other endearments he had for her, but she celebrated the fact he still wanted her.
“Do you want to take it there?”
Sweet Mother Earth, even in his anger, he still respected her agency. Was he giving her a choice?
“Yes, please.” She almost didn’t recognize her voice, which sounded tiny.
Lundric uttered a harsh curse, the first outward sign he’d given of his turmoil. He picked up her hips and shifted her onto her knees, perpendicular to the bed, her ass in the air, facing him. With her hands tied behind, her face rested on the mattress. She heard a rustle of movement and the sweet-smelling citrus oil Lily had given her dribbled down her crack.
She nearly wept at the kindness because there was no way Lundric’s huge cock would fit in her tight ass otherwise. “Lundric, I—”
His palm crashed down on her welted ass, and her words broke off on a yelp. “Don’t speak unless spoken to.” His harsh edict made her nose burn.
She whimpered as the well-oiled head of his cock nudged her back entrance, and he applied steady pressure. She forced herself to breathe, willed her muscles to relax and accept his plunder. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Quiet.” He breached her entranc
e. The sensation was half-pleasure, half-shame, and it had her pussy clenching with need. She wished she had use of her hands to touch herself there. But this wasn’t for her. It was an offering to Lundric, and while she couldn’t do much in her position to satisfy him, she could hold still and relax into the riot of sensation he caused.
“Veck, Cambry,” he spat as he braced her hips. “It doesn’t matter what you do, I’ll never be cured of the need to possess you.”
She sobbed, heat and desire and residual pain from her whipping turning her delirious.
“Tear out my vecking heart. Use me. Manipulate me with that body. That smile. I’ll still want to mark you forever as mine.”
“Lundric, please—”
“Did you think I used you back?” he cut her off, harshly. “Do you think all I wanted was this? To veck this pretty little body as much as I wanted? I never vecking used you. I could’ve taken you any way I liked. No. My part was real. I killed for you. I would die for you. You are my vecking female. I love you.
He loved her. That incredible revelation seemed tragic considering the pain and anger in his words.
“I would have cared for and protected you every vecking planet rotation for the rest of our lives.”
Would have.
Those words confirmed her worst fears. Even as he swore he needed her, he’d spoken in the past tense, like they were through. Over. Done. At the same time he declared his love for her. The last pieces of her heart splintered and fell away. He may not be able to resist this last veck, but he was done with her, emotionally.
Tears dampened the mattress, but she held her sobs in, not wanting him to hear. Wanting him to finish, to take his bitter pleasure out on her in the way he’d chosen.
He reached around and cupped her mound, one finger sinking into her wetness as he continued to pump into her ass, stretching and filling her beyond what she thought was possible. “Did you think it was all a transaction, little female? You’d win everything you needed from me in exchange for offering this?”
“No!” she wailed. “It was real!”
