by Renee Rose
He pounded into her harder and the intensity of the sensations made stars dance in her vision. “Don’t. Lie,” he growled behind clenched teeth and shoved in, balls deep, sending his anger, his rejection, right into her with his seed.
She wept.
~.~
Veck. Hearing Cambry cry cut his insides like he’d eaten glass. He eased out of her tight back hole and untied her wrists then used the handkerchief to clean them both.
He had to bite back the urge to apologize, to hold her and rock her until her tears dried. He’d taken it upon himself to punish her on behalf of Prince Zander or his officers. He couldn’t show weakness now.
Though he’d freed her wrists, Cambry hadn’t moved from the kneeling position he’d placed her in. Her surrender was the only thing that made this scene bearable. If she’d fought him—if he’d had to put a knee in her back to whip her into submission, he would have done it as his duty, but it would have slain him.
He plucked her from the bed and sat on the chair, holding her on his lap. He thumbed away a tear lingering on her cheek.
She hadn’t climaxed, and she didn’t deserve to, but his pride demanded he show her he still had command over her body. She may not care about him, but he sure as stars would ensure she needed him to bring her to satisfaction. He hiked one of her knees up to her shoulder, spreading her wide.
“You don’t get pleasure here today.” He slapped his fingers down over her pussy.
She shrieked, her anus and pussy contracting.
He slapped again, harder.
She squirmed in his arms, gasping. “I didn’t use you, Lundric.” Her voice had a pleading tone.
It flayed him to hear his name on her lips. He wanted to believe her but he wouldn’t be made a fool twice. He slapped again.
“I didn’t ask for your favors.” She writhed, her hips jerking, legs fighting to close.
He spanked her pussy, hard. “Lies.” She’d bargained her body for a shower, hadn’t she? He should have known then none of it was real.
“The shower, yes,” she gasped, realizing her mistake. “But not us—ooh!” Her wet pussy made the most enticing sound every time he slapped it. Her squirming had his cock hardening again. He slapped faster, recognizing the frantic note of her gasps. “Lundric. Ah-oh! Please.”
Holy Zandian Star, her approaching climax brought his need right back to the edge.
“Lundric, I swear! I’m not some sex slave who—oh Mother Earth!—offers up her body to any male in authority.” Her pants became cries. “It wasn’t a trick.” Words tumbled from her mouth. “It was you. Only you,” she babbled.
He ignored the words, listening instead to the sound of her need, brought to the brink by his hand. It was the only thing he could trust about her. This was no lie.
I’ve never—never used sex to—”
“Shut. Up.” He pitched forward and pivoted her to her back on the cot, her knee still drawn up to her chest. Following her down, he speared her with his erection.
She cried out with pleasure, her fingernails digging into his shoulders, chin lifting to the ceiling. The way her pussy clenched around his cock sent a tremor through his thighs, his balls tightening, ready to explode once more.
He vecked her hard, the position unforgiving, her sex splayed open, spread for him as he angled deep into her channel.
How could anything that felt this good be wrong? No, he’d made no mistake about Cambry. She was his female. Whether she accepted him or not.
“You left,” he growled, punishing her with his cock, their flesh slapping together like a third spanking. “You vecking left.”
Her mouth opened, and he saw horror there. He didn’t understand it, but even if he had, there was no stopping now. He had to veck her within an inch of her life. Holding back was not an option. It was like his life depended on this moment, on forever branding her with his rainbow-hued cum.
“I had to—I had to find my brother.”
He froze, dick mostly withdrawn, hovering above her.
“They separated us. I’ve been trying to get to him ever since. That’s why I ran away from the factory. Why I was sentenced to the death pod.”
He impaled her with his cock again, shoving deep. “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Slap. “You think I can’t locate a slave in the Ocretion kingdom?” He drove into her.
“Ung.” She cried out each time he plowed into her.
“You think I wouldn’t do that for you?”
Tears swam in her big beautiful eyes. “I—I never considered—” She sought his gaze, but he vecked her so hard hers rolled back in her head.
“No, don’t pretend you had no choices here. If you wanted to stay and be with me, you would have.”
He steeled himself against her shock and sorrow, driving himself to his finish.
“I’m sorry. Lundric, I’m so sorry.”
He roared, bruising his thighs on the edge of the cot as he thrust so deep and hard, the cot collapsed beneath them. Cambry screamed, wrapping her legs behind his back and holding him in tight as her muscles spasmed around his cock, drawing his seed deep inside of her.
As the deafening thunder in his ears faded, he became aware of pounding on the door, and Cambry’s arrested posture as she listened to the shouting male voice behind the door.
“Lundric! Do you hear me?”
Excrement. Master Seke.
Still in battle mode, he disentangled himself from Cambry and leaped to his feet, yanking the cot, with her on it, back up and snapping the legs in place. He shoved his cock back in his flight pants.
Cambry scrambled up and hopped as she pulled on her pants.
He put his palm on the door handle. “Coming.” To Cambry, he growled, “Lock this behind me. Do not open it for anyone but me.”
Her face paled and pupils narrowed, but she nodded and obeyed.
Outside her door, Seke gripped his tunic and slammed him up against the wall. “Don’t you ever vecking lie to me again. Zandians don’t lie. Your deceit lacks honor.” Seke placed his forearm over Lundric’s windpipe, allowing him breath in measured doses.
Lundric didn’t fight back. His mentor was right—he lacked honor.
“Say it. Tell me what happened.”
“She ran away. I brought her back.” He hated speaking the words, even though Seke already knew. They stung like salt in a fresh wound.
“I know you’re in love with her, but you don’t forsake your training, your species, your friends. You don’t put everyone at risk.”
“I couldn’t—” He struggled to draw enough breath to defend himself. “I couldn’t let anyone else punish her. I would vecking kill any being who touched her.”
“You think we don’t know that? No being’s going to hurt your female. But that doesn’t mean you compromise the safety of everyone on this pod and the security of our mission.”
“Zandia and honor before love, right Seke?” It was a low blow. A terrible blow Lundric should not have taken. When Zandia had been invaded, Seke had made a fateful choice—saving Prince Zander over finding his own female and children. Though he never spoke of it, Lundric knew his master suffered for his choice.
The color drained from Seke’s face before he slammed Lundric’s head back against the wall. “Don’t you vecking throw that in my face.”
Lundric regretted his words immediately. “I’m sorry—I’m sorry. I don’t judge you. I never have. Forgive me. I know you suffer every day.”
A haunted shadow fell over Seke. “You don’t know anything,” he rasped.
“No,” Lundric agreed.
“I don’t know anything, either.” The heaviness in Seke’s tone matched his own. Lundric got the sense Seke wasn’t thinking only about his lost family, but also about Leora, the human female he’d fallen for.
“Listen,” Seke said heavily, easing back on the pressure on Lundric’s throat. “Your female has an agenda that doesn’t align with ours. If you don’t find a way to make them come together, you
’re going to be faced with a choice—your female or the fight for the survival of our species.”
Lundric scrubbed a hand over his face. “That’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it?”
“Is it?” Seke finished releasing him and walked away without waiting for an answer.
He sagged against the wall, sorrow weaving through the shards of pain in his chest, leaving him battered. Was a female who didn’t even care for him worth endangering his species?
Stars, he wished he knew the answers.
~.~
Cambry waited after Lundric’s conversation with Master Seke ended, expecting—hoping—Lundric would come back, but he hadn’t. She’d stood at her door and listened to every word, every thud of bodies crashing against the other side of her wall.
She swam in guilt for the position she’d put him in with his superiors. She didn’t want him to have to choose between her and Zandia. Despite her dislike of the Zandians’ choice to use the humans as their army, she’d developed some sympathy for their cause. She didn’t want their species to die out any more than she wanted humans to remain enslaved.
Lily claimed Zandia would be some kind of Shangri-La. A beautiful place where the humans who fought for her would be free. She still didn’t buy that story. What guarantee did they have that, even if they survived the takeover of Zandia and it was successful, they would be offered freedom?
But she didn’t care anymore. Because after hearing the way Lundric and Seke had spoken about her, something had changed.
I would vecking kill any being who touched her. Lundric had punished her himself so no one else would. That part didn’t surprise her. She’d come to believe the sincerity of Lundric’s attachment.
It was Seke’s response that made her believe all the Zandians might be as honorable as Lundric.
You think we don’t know that? No being’s going to hurt your female.
He made it sound like they recognized Lundric’s bond to her. As if it was something real and sacred. As if Lundric’s claim on her took precedence over any form of justice they might want to see served.
She wasn’t even sure how to process that, but it changed things. Everything had changed since Lundric had marched her back into the pod. As she’d flown away, she’d thought her heart would never repair from the break of leaving him. It was worse, even, than when Tal had been taken from her, sold to some other factory master. So, on some level, she’d wanted to be caught and dragged back by her giant warrior. But she’d hurt him. Badly. The Lundric she knew had retreated, and what was left was just a hull of his normal self.
At first, she hadn’t been sure which part angered him—that she’d violated his trust, or stolen the ship, or tricked him. But when he was vecking her—in his uniquely dominant way—it became clear she’d reopened the wound inflicted by his mother. She’d left.
And now he didn’t believe her feelings for him were real.
Her heart ached as if physically bruised. It was so much worse than her throbbing ass, or her well-used anus and pussy, or all the other small bruises Lundric had left from the rough vecking, which she wouldn’t trade for anything. While Lundric may have shut her out emotionally, he had been painfully direct with her physically, and she loved his honesty.
She would have to find a way to prove to him she hadn’t been faking anything with him, either—that all her responses to him were as honest as his expressions of love.
Lundric had told her not to open the door for any being but him. He didn’t say whether she could leave of her own accord. Though her stomach growled with hunger, she skipped dinner and stayed in her chamber, too raw emotionally and physically to face any being. Exhaustion, both emotional and physical, soon crept over her, and she pulled off her pants and crawled into bed to sleep.
In the middle of the night, she woke to the scrape of a knife through the door, lifting the latch. She fumbled under the mattress for the dagger Lundric had given her and swung up to sit, holding her breath as the huge outline of a Zandian appeared silhouetted in the doorway.
“It’s me,” her warrior muttered, shutting the door behind him. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
Her chest tightened. Despite his anger, he still showed such consideration of her.
I love you.
The realization of the depth of her attachment to him shouldn’t surprise her, but she’d spent her whole life believing only Tal could be trusted. Only Tal deserved her love.
“Lie down.”
Still sleep-fogged, she sank back on the cot. Lundric slid onto the narrow bed beside her, making the legs groan with his added weight. He draped an arm around her waist and pulled her tight against him.
“Lundric?” she’d whispered.
“Shh. Go back to sleep.”
He’d come to sleep with her? They never slept together because his shift spanned the night. But he’d come back just to hold her. Tears closed her throat.
His hand slid down her side and covered her ass, fingertips gently exploring the welts on the backs of her bare legs. “We’ll find forgiveness, you and I.” He sounded uncertain.
She wanted to assure him she bore him no grudge for his treatment that day, but her fear he may never forgive her made the words stick in her throat. Tears slipped down her nose.
Somehow, though she’d been silent and it was pitch-black in her room, Lundric knew, because his thumb mopped them up.
“Don’t cry, Cambry. Go to sleep.” His voice sounded heavy, tired.
Because she didn’t want to cause him more stress, she obeyed, letting her lids close and matching her breath to his until she slid back into sleep, nestled against his massive chest.
Chapter Seven
Cambry walked toward the guard’s sleeping quarters. She hadn’t seen Lundric anywhere, all planet rotation.
He’d left before she woke that morning. She didn’t even know how that was possible—she always slept with one foot on the floor, alert to any danger, so she should have felt or heard him move. But she hadn’t. Maybe she felt that safe in his presence.
She didn’t know how long he’d stayed or why he’d felt the need to come in and hold her. Had it been to comfort her? Or himself? She wanted to ask, but she couldn’t find him. He’d been absent in her flight training.
She drew a breath, mustering the courage to knock on his bunkroom door.
Sten answered. He rubbed his face with one hand, looking groggy. Light poured out of their room, amplified by what appeared to be the crystal Lily had given Lundric for his healing.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” She tried to peer past him into the room, but he shifted subtly to block her view. “Is Lundric here?”
Sten shook his head. He didn’t smile or offer anything more. She’d sworn Vokart and the other flight instructors were less friendly to her than usual that planet rotation, but she might just be paranoid. No being had said anything to her about what had happened the planet rotation before. She’d half expected to be kept from flying that day or even thrown in a cell or locked in her chamber. She’d certainly expected to be called up to Master Seke or Rok or even taken to the palatial pod to answer to Prince Zander for what she’d done.
But nothing had happened. She’d woken to find Lundric gone. Had dared to leave her chamber for breakfast and attended training as if nothing had happened. She’d been allowed to fly, although she suspected her trainers watched her far more closely than usual. But Lundric was missing.
“He’s not here,” Sten said.
Disappointment wilted her like a balloon losing air. “Do you know where I might find him?”
Sten shook his head. “If he didn’t tell you where he was going, I’m not going to.”
No, she hadn’t imagined the animosity. It was real.
She sank against the doorframe, needing it to hold her up. “Listen, I know I’m probably not your favorite human right now, but I—”
“I can’t help you, and I was trying to sleep.” Sten shut the door in her face.
/>
She stuck her boot in the door before it shut.
The huge warrior looked down at the boot then at her, lifting a brow.
She swallowed down the fear his challenging look inspired. “Please.”
“No. Move your foot.”
“Sten, who’s at the door?” a sleep-disgruntled voice called from inside the bunkroom,
“Would you shut the veck up?” another one called.
She withdrew her foot. Sten shut the door, leaving her standing there, staring at the gray metal door, her stomach heavy as a stone.
Where had Lundric gone? Was he in trouble because of her? Maybe he’d been summoned to the Zandian palatial pod to see Prince Zander.
She lifted her chin and marched to their headquarters. A Zandian warrior stood in the office.
“Is Master Seke here? Or Rok?”
“Seke went back to the palatial pod and Rok hasn’t returned. Lundric’s also gone. I’m next in command after Lundric. What do you need?” He studied her. “Ah. You’re Lundric’s female.”
She flushed but forced herself inside the office and stuck out her hand in a human-style greeting. “I’m Cambry.”
He looked at her hand like he didn’t know what to do with it and raised his fist at a ninety degree angle. “Samsen.”
“Where has Lundric gone? When will he be back?”
Samsen folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know, and if he didn’t tell you himself, no one else around here will.”
“What is that? Some part of your code of honor?”
“Yes.”
She meant to be strong, but the fear Lundric wanted to put distance between them, or that he was in trouble because of her made her heart thump too hard against her sternum. “Will he be back?” Her voice was an octave higher than normal.
Samsen shrugged. “I cannot say.” He studied her for a moment. “You are safe here.”
Annoyance flashed through her. Did he think she was afraid without Lundric? Stars, these Zandian warriors truly were so chivalrous. Grudging appreciation melted away her irritation.
