by Renee Rose
He pulled her head back and cradled her face. “You were brilliant back there—both of you.” He lifted his gaze to include Tal, who hovered awkwardly nearby. “Thank you for serving Zandia. The prince will be pleased with your service.”
She probably didn’t give a veck what the prince thought, but he did. He needed Zander’s approval to mate her, to keep her, and with the stunt she’d pulled stealing the ship earlier, it might have been difficult. This act of service would go a long way toward mending things.
“Captain Lundric, Master Seke is demanding an immediate report,” one of his guards informed him.
He nodded. There was too much work to do. Holding Cambry would have to come later. He kissed her forehead and released her. “Get yourself to medical. That’s an order.” He threw in a stern glance to be sure she understood the meaning of the word order.
She merely smiled. “Yes, Captain.” Something in her voice made him think she enjoyed taking his orders.
She’d better. He had a hundred more in mind just as soon as he settled the chaos at hand.
Chapter Eight
Cambry hissed as she climbed off the cot, her fresh laser tattoo still raw.
“Are you sure that’s how his name looks in Zandian? Because if I just wrote idiot on your back, you’re going to look pretty stupid.” Tal wiped off the laser ink gun Lily had managed to procure and put it back in its box. Lily and Rok had arrived immediately before the battle began with Ocretion police. They believed they had unwittingly attracted attention and led them there.
“I verified it with three different Zandians. They all told me it said Lundric.”
“You’re really serious about this male, aren’t you?” Her brother folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes at her. “I have to admit, I’m shocked.”
“Why are you shocked?” A spike of defensiveness rose up, and she prepared to defend Lundric’s worthiness.
He shrugged. “I’ve just never seen you this way. You’re like a different person.”
“In a bad way or a good way?” she asked warily.
He grinned. “A good way. Definitely. Are you fishing for my approval here? Because you have it. Lundric won it the minute he came to that factory for me. But even without that, I knew he was the one by how you are with him. You’re different. Happier. More open. And he obviously would do anything for you. So, yes. A good way.”
A knock sounded on her door.
“He’s here.” Nerves made her stomach flutter. “Get out, quick.”
“I’m leaving, I’m leaving. Stars, you’d think you’d want to spend a little more time with me after how long we’ve been apart. Kidding!” He dodged her slap as he opened the door. “Good afternoon, Captain.” He made the Zandian greeting with his fist in the air. “She’s been waiting for you.” Tal slipped past a frowning Lundric and disappeared.
Lundric had dark circles under his eyes. She doubted he’d slept for the past two planet rotations since the battle with Ocretion police, and she’d hardly seen him. The Zandians hadn’t found a place to dock the pod or hangar, so they’d continued to float through space just on the outskirts of Ocretion territory. They were in an area Rok knew from his smuggling days, staying off the radar while they worked on a new plan. From what their intelligence had gathered, the Ocretions did not know it was Prince Zander who had taken possession of their death pod and launched battleships against their police, but it may only be a matter of time before they did. The Zandians were trying to move up their timeline for recovering Zandia, hoping to do it before they had to wage battle against the Ocretions.
The good news was the battle had won further allegiance from the beings on the pod. Now that they’d seen the Zandians wage a second battle against their former tormentors, their eagerness to join the fight had increased. Trust between Zandians and the refugees on the pod had improved.
Lundric shut the door behind him and dropped the latch into place, but he made no move toward her. The haunted quality to his gaze that had been there since her betrayal hadn’t left. He looked at her like a starved man who knew he’d never get enough to eat.
She had to dispel him of that myth. Holding his violet gaze, she peeled off her panties and leggings, then her tunic, and stood before him, nude.
He leaned his head back against the door, fingers opening and closing into fists at his sides. “Cambry, you don’t have to—”
“I know. I never thought I did.” She took a step toward him. “I wasn’t using you, Lundric. I never used you. I just…” She knotted her fingers in front of her, suddenly wishing she’d waited to strip until after they’d had this conversation. She didn’t want to touch him until she’d said everything, either. Didn’t want him to think she was using sex to mend things.
“Trust doesn’t come naturally for me. I’m sorry I didn’t ask for your help in finding Tal. I should have. And I’m so sorry I violated the bond between us. Most of all I’m sorry I left you.”
He flinched at the last one. Yes, that was the crux of the issue for him, she was sure of it. His mother had left him, and she’d done the same.
“It was a mistake, and I was relieved when you caught me. If you’ll still have me, I swear I won’t leave again.” That was the honest truth. It was why she’d had Tal brand her flesh with his name. She needed to prove her commitment. She drew a breath. It was odd how facing her imminent death in a flaming battleship was easier than what she had to ask next. “Am I still your female?”
Lundric’s irises turned violet, and something in his shoulders relaxed. “Always,” he growled, reaching for her.
“Wait, wait.” She skittered back out of his reach. “I want to show you something.”
He frowned. “What is it?”
She rotated slowly, giving him the view of his name tattooed at the base of her spine between the two dimples on the back of her pelvis.
Lundric said nothing, and she waited, legs trembling, breath rasping in her chest. She dared to look over her shoulder. Her warrior had his fist stuffed in his mouth, and his face had flushed a deep purple.
“Do you like it? I know this isn’t the way Zandians show ownership, but it’s the way humans are marked by their masters.” She touched the barcode at her nape, put there at birth by her first Ocretion master.
“I have this, too, if you want to mark me in the Zandian way.” Her hand shook as she drew out the piercing gun Lily had lent her. “But I understand if you don’t want to mate me anymore. Or yet. Or whatever.”
Zander dropped his fist away from his mouth and scrubbed a hand across his face. “Take down your hair.”
The deep command surprised her, but her nipples stiffened. She heard the promise of retribution and sex in the roughness of his tone. She pulled her hair from the thread gathering it behind her.
“The braids, too.”
She unwound the small braids holding the hair back from her face, letting it all cascade to her shoulders in thick waves.
“This is how you’ll come to me, always.” Lundric advanced, a predatory tension to his prowl. “I’m glad you’ve become inured to the idea of mating me, because I never intended to let you go, Cambry.”
His words should have offended her, but instead they made her heart sing, her pulse race with anticipation of his touch. She wanted to launch herself at him but forced herself to remain still. To allow him to claim her in whatever way he chose.
“Do you know where a Zandian pierces his female?” Lundric’s horns were stiff and thick, tilting toward her. She longed to suck one deep into her mouth.
“N-not exactly. Her ears?” Her breathy voice sounded over the scrape of his exhale above her. She’d seen the glint of crystals in Lily’s ears.
He pinched both her nipples and pulled. “Anywhere he likes,” he said darkly. “The ears show all others she is mated. But he marks her nipples and clit to claim the most intimate parts belonging to only to him.”
A thrum of energy pulsed between her legs. Would he really pi
erce her there?
“Interlace your fingers on the top of your head.”
She obeyed. He picked up the piercing gun and shook out the tiny bag filled with Zandian crystal jewels that had come from Prince Zander, himself. They were meant for Rok and Lily, but Lily promised their mating ceremony was complete and she and Lundric were welcome to use anything that was left.
Lundric fit a stud into the gun. His lids drooped as he slid one nipple between the jaws. “Don’t move, Cambry.”
She held her breath.
Lundric pulled the trigger, and the stud punched through her nipple, causing her to cry out. Lundric swallowed her cry with a kiss, the gun clattering to the floor as his arm circled her waist and his hand cradled the back of her head.
He kissed her with an open mouth, tongue sweeping against the seam of her lips, mimicking the motion of his hips against her belly as he plunged it in and out of her mouth. When he pulled away, his expression was soft. He cupped her chin. “Good girl,” he murmured. “Are you all right?”
She nodded.
He screwed the cap onto the open end of the stud then picked up the gun and loaded it with a second stud. “You’re taking a lot of pain for me tonight, little female.” There was pride in his tone.
“Anything you ask of me,” she whispered, legs still trembling.
He fitted the gun over her other nipple and shot the stud through. She bit her lip against the cry it drew from her and tasted a drop of blood.
Lundric’s nostrils flared as if he smelled it. He attached the end crystal onto the stud then sucked her lower lip into his mouth in another long kiss. “Hold your hair up,” he rasped when he pulled away.
She lifted her hair back from her face, and he pierced her earlobes, sucking each into his mouth first.
“One more. Lie on the bed and spread your legs.”
Her heart thumped. He’d been serious about piercing her clit. She bit back the protests and questions that sprang to the tip of her tongue. She had to show Lundric her trust. This ritual held meaning to his species, and she wished to honor it.
~.~
Lundric’s cock was ready to explode. Nothing could be more beautiful than the sight of Cambry lying back on the cot with her knees open. Her breath came in quick pants, lifting and lowering her beautiful peach-tipped breasts.
He fit another stud in the piercing gun and dropped to his knees in front of the cot, unable to resist giving her a bit of pleasure first. He parted her labia and drank in the sight of her pretty little flower. “Who does this pussy belong to?”
“You, Lundric.” She didn’t even hesitate.
“That’s right,” he growled and lowered his head between her knees. He traced his tongue along the inside of her innermost lips, making her jerk and gasp. The fresh tattoo on her back must be rasping against the cot, but she didn’t complain. She grasped his horns, and he groaned, cock swelling painfully against his uniform pants.
He suctioned his lips over her clit, sucking hard. She squeezed both his horns, rubbing her thumbs over the tips as she pumped.
Somehow, he mustered enough willpower to pull away. He picked up the piercing gun. “I’m going to pierce the hood, not the actual clitoris.” He pinched the flesh between two fingers.
She jerked and moaned at his handling of her most sensitive bundle of nerves.
He inserted the flesh between the jaws of the gun and pulled the trigger, sending a horizontal bar through the hood. He affixed the end crystal and sat back to admire his handiwork. “Beautiful,” he murmured. “You’re a Zandian now.”
“Yes,” she murmured, looking half-drunk. Her cheeks had flushed a charming shade of pink.
“No sex until it heals,” he announced, chuckling at the shocked outrage on her face. “Don’t worry, little human, I can still veck your ass.”
A wariness crept back into her demeanor, but she sat up and arranged herself on her hands and knees on the cot.
Her willingness to give herself any way he demanded moved him. The power she’d given him affected him more than any drug, more than any crystal, more than sunlight itself.
He stood and plucked her from her place on the cot, sitting and arranging her over his knees. “A spanking first. For scaring the veck out of me in that battle.”
Again, no protest from his female, although she’d always enjoyed her spankings. He ran his hand over her smooth skin, noting the faint marks still there from the whipping he’d given her the week before. “Does this still hurt?”
“No. My skin marks easily because I’m a redhead, that’s all.” She struck a reassuring tone, like she was afraid he might hold back.
“Good. Because I love spanking this ass, especially now that it has my name tattooed above it.” He began a steady pace of slaps, watching her ivory skin turn light pink then dusky rose. He spanked until she squirmed and her breath quickened, then he leaned over and planted a kiss on each cheek. “Sweet little human.”
He reached for the bottle of oil and rubbed it all over her reddened ass, giving it a few more slaps to show her how much more it could sting. “On your knees, beautiful,” he murmured, helping her into position on the bed.
He coated his cock with the oil and massaged a generous amount into her anus. “Open for me.” He pushed the head of his dick against her back entrance and held a steady pressure until she relaxed for him. “Good girl.” He wedged his cock into her tight hole and gripped her nape as he eased in.
Her back bowed, and she panted, the tiny mewls on her exhales driving him mad. “You look so vecking beautiful like this.”
Her laugh came out in a sob, and his cock drove deeper, prying her open.
“Do you like having my cock in your ass, Cambry?” He eased back and slid in once more, going slowly because he recognized how challenging the position was for her, felt the tremble of her body, and heard the whoosh of her breaths as she worked to accommodate him.
He gave a low laugh as he repeated the slow pump. “You don’t know whether to say yes or no, do you, little female? You know I’ll give you pleasure, but I’m also going to work you hard for it, aren’t I?”
She gave a long, wavering moan.
“Am I right?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“You’re a good girl to take my cock like this. I won’t ask for it every time. Maybe I’ll reserve it for when you require punishment.”
“Lundric.”
He heard the tremor in her voice, the terrified need. He reached around and plunged two fingers into her pussy, careful not to hit the fresh piercing with the heel of his hand. “Is that better, baby?”
“Oh stars, yes. Lundric, please?”
He bumped her ass in short thrusts that sent her farther onto his thrusting fingers.
“Lundric, oh please, oh please, oh please? Lundric!”
“I vecking love it when you beg, beautiful girl.” He gripped her hair with his free hand and pulled her head back. “Who gives you pleasure, baby?”
“Lundric! Lundric does!”
His thighs flexed and control fled. “Who do you belong to?”
“You! I belong to you! Oh please, Lundric, I have to come!”
He closed his eyes and allowed his climax to sweep through him, thrusting deeper into her ass and staying as he continued to pump his fingers. “Come, little human. Come now.”
Her orgasm shook her entire body, and she collapsed forward onto her belly on the cot. He followed her down, his cock still buried in her ass, fingers coated in her juices as her muscles clamped down on them.
He hovered over her trembling body, drinking in her scent, savoring the rightness of their position. He had his female. Cambry was his—forever.
“Lundric,” she murmured as he eased out. Her blissed-out voice sounded far away.
“Yes, baby?”
“I don’t know how I got so lucky to be your mate.”
He kissed her neck, bit the shell of her ear. “I love you, little female. I’m going to take care of you.
Provide for you. Protect you. Make you happy. I swear it on all the crystals of Zandia.”
She rolled to her side to gaze up at him, cupping his cheek with her hand. “What does a Zandian female promise to her mate?”
His heart filled in a rush of warmth. “Never to leave,” he choked.
Her big brown eyes were liquid pools of warmth as she lifted her lips for a kiss. “I love you,” she murmured, just before he claimed her mouth for what he intended to make the most thorough kiss of her life.
Chapter Nine
Cambry fidgeted with the white Zandian guard’s uniform she’d opted to wear instead of her usual tunic and leggings.
“You look beautiful.” Lundric’s voice was gruff.
She’d worn her hair down for him because she loved the way he stared at her when she did—as if he never wanted to look away.
He took her hand in his larger palm and led her off the battleship into a cool, climate-controlled dock that was part of Prince Zander’s palatial pod.
She drew in a breath, throwing back her shoulders and lifting her chin, determined not to embarrass Lundric, who had brought her to meet his ruler, Prince Zander.
Guards stood inside the door, but they merely nodded as Lundric strode past them.
Her jaw dropped. The palatial pod was exquisite. The walls were made of some kind of natural plaster, each in its own beautiful color. Periwinkle blue, pale yellow, crimson. Even the corridor walls glowed with color. Natural light streamed in everywhere—from windows and skylights, amplified with the Zandian crystals like the one Lundric had installed on their pod. Opulent, woven rugs covered the floors, and everything seemed to be made of natural substances—hard marble, stone, wood. She wondered if it had all come from Zandia.
If so, then Zandia really was the promised land Lily had described to the refugees.
“This is the Great Hall,” Lundric murmured, bringing her into a huge room with vaulted ceilings. A young man dressed in white sat on a raised chair—no, a throne—and a line of Zandians queued up to speak to him.
