by Carven, Anna
“…should not go this way, Sir.”
Ikriss ignored him.
He saw figures in the distance; two male, two female.
Rykal. Arin.
Jeral in the background.
Her.
The tiny voice of sanity in the logical part of his brain was relieved that Rykal was here. All the First Division warriors that were currently on Silence—Tarak, Jeral, Lodan, Nythian, and Rykal—had been briefed on Ikriss’s condition.
They’d all reached out through the comm to offer him brief words of support. If anyone knew what it was like to be subject to arcane medical experiments, it was the warriors of the First Division.
As Ikriss neared, Rykal moved protectively in front of the human women, giving Ikriss an appraising look. He might seem easygoing on the surface, but Rykal could identify and dissect any potential threat in a heartbeat. “Damn, brother,” the warrior called out in Kordolian, a sly smile hovering on his lips. “This is sloppy. Not our usual style. Nobody thought to check that we wouldn’t cross paths?”
“Crossing paths is one thing,” Ikriss said, his voice escaping as a low, hoarse rumble. “Walking blindly into an ambush is another. How do I know that you did not allow for the probability of an accidental encounter, Ry?” Deep down, Ikriss had to admit that the possibility had occurred to him as well.
The warrior’s expression remained suspiciously innocent. “Do you think I’m the type to leave things to chance, ‘Kriss?”
Ikriss’s gaze narrowed. Rykal could be as calculating as the rest of them, he just didn’t show it as much.
What in the cursed hells are they playing at?
“What do you think you’re doing, soldier?” Unable to restrain himself any longer, Ikriss allowed his gaze to flick toward Sienna.
She was watching him intensely.
She was utterly gorgeous.
Rykal chuckled softly. “Nothing can happen while I’m here. You’re no match for me in this condition.”
“Hm.” Ikriss suppressed a growl as he took a step forward, diverting his attention toward Sienna. “Then get the fuck out of my way.”
Rykal inclined his head and graciously moved to one side, amusement flickering across his lips.
Ikriss vowed to make the warrior pay later in the training room.
Once he was intact again…
“Sienna,” he rasped as he stopped just a hand’s breadth from her—so close he could just lean in and kiss her. He stared down into crystal-clear eyes that were filled with surprise and concern and desire.
Her golden hair was arranged in a messy topknot, with delicate wisps escaping around her ears. A pink flush suffused her cheeks. She wore a tight grey top with long sleeves and a scooping neckline that revealed a tantalizing glimpse of her perfectly rounded breasts.
Tight black leggings hugged her hips and ass and thighs, leaving little to the imagination. He’d never seen her in such revealing attire before. His gaze traveled down her body, taking in her perfect proportions; curves and lines and sensual fullness, and a hint of soft skin here and there.
His nostrils flared.
Her scent invaded his consciousness; sweet, soft, feminine musk that instantly turned him into little more than a beast-like predator.
All he had left were his instincts, and his instincts were telling him to take her.
“Wh-what are you doing here, Ikriss?” she said softly, pulling him back from the brink. “I take it this is some sort of weird coincidental encounter.” Her eyes crinkled slightly at the edges, conveying gentle humor.
“I don’t know anymore,” he rasped. “The coincidence defies probability. Supposedly, we are not supposed to meet, but Rykal has decided to act as your chaperone. He won’t allow any harm to come to you—or me.”
“But you wouldn’t hurt me, Ikriss.” Her calm acceptance anchored him in reality again. “I’m not scared of this Mating Fever or whatever it’s called. I trust you.”
I trust you.
Those simple words were like tiny hooks in his soul, tethering him to her for eternity.
He became dimly aware of a soft noise in the background.
Thudthud. Thudthud.
It was rapid and faint, but it was undeniable.
Her heartbeat.
Pounding faster and faster as she stared up at him.
She shifted on her feet and caught one of the stray wisps of hair with her finger, twirling it round and round in a very human gesture that he found utterly adorable.
She was nervous, he realized.
There was absolutely no reason for her to be nervous around him.
“Um,” she blurted, biting her lower lip. “Was it okay?”
“Was what okay?”
“The… the food.” There was a look of expectation on her face, like she so desperately wanted to please him.
What was all the more astonishing to Ikriss was that it was her choice to want to please him.
He had never felt that before; not from any living creature.
Warmth spread through his nonexistent heart. He dropped to his knees before her, taking her hands into his. In the background, Rykal managed to look shocked. Arin’s hand flew to her mouth.
Kordolians didn’t kneel for anyone.
Sienna shook her head slightly, as if she could hardly believe what was happening. Her eyes widened. Her lips parted. Her pounding heart beat even faster.
She was just as obsessed as he was.
Captivated.
His.
His horn-buds were on fire now. His cock was fully erect, straining against his pants. “What I said back there… about food being mere sustenance… I was not being entirely accurate.”
“I thought so.” The look of triumph that crossed her delicate features was spellbinding.
“In my tribe, back in the times when my people truly lived by the Old Ways, certain mating rituals were observed. One of them was the Nakula. Once a male had been struck with the Mating Fever, he would seclude himself from the female for seven rotations. He would go out into the ice-plains and hunt, aiming to bring down the biggest and most vicious of beasts. The bigger the better, in order to impress his female. Every beast that was sent back would be butchered by his female and shared amongst the tribe. See, Aikun females are strong and fierce, and their role was to protect and nourish the tribe while the males were away on the hunt.”
“Wow.” Sienna curled her fingers tighter around his. Her hands were cold. He wanted to feel her hands against his warm skin; to chase every last trace of cold from her body.
Ikriss craved the cold, but he knew that humans were the opposite.
When this was all over, he would take her to the warm, sunny places on Earth that humans seemed to enjoy visiting so much.
“That is not all there is to it, though. See, for every rotation that they were apart, she would send a package back to him. A morsel of meat to sustain him; the juciest, most tender cut from the creature, seasoned with rare minerals and seared slightly over a volcanic fire. Our smell receptors are a lot more sensitive than those of a human, although perhaps your enjoyment of taste is more highly developed than ours. During the act of preparing his food with her bare hands, the meat would become imbued with her scent, and the male, being in the throes of Mating Fever, would grow more and more aroused, to the point of near-madness. He would consume her scent; smell it, taste it, and it would intoxicate him like a potent drug, and he would wait…”
She leaned in slightly, and he was so close now that he was drowning in her heady musk. “And then… what would happen?”
“Many of our kind do not know this, but it is well known amongst the tribes that the Mating Fever also affects the female, although the signs are more subtle. By the seventh rotation, she would also be succumbing to the exquisite madness of desire.” Ikriss paused, allowing his words to sink in. He was rewarded with a little tremor as the delicious scent of her musk intensified. Thank the Goddess he was kneeling, and that he held her delicate hand
s in his, because otherwise his claws would be out right now. “Then she would travel out onto the ice with her own ceremonial hunting party, flanked by three female warriors on either side. And they would seek out the male, or more accurately, the male would find her. Once they were assured that the female was safely with her mate, the warriors would leave them be, and they would consummate their love on the ice-plains beneath the mercy of the Goddess, under the stars and the watchful infinite Universe.”
“Didn’t know that,” Rykal murmured softly in the background, letting out a low whistle.
Now there was a trace of moisture at the corners of Sienna’s eyes. “That’s… beautiful.”
Ikriss’s heart swelled with sadness and pride. This was just one of the lost stories of his people, the Aikun tribe, who had been clinging precariously to their existence ever since the rise of the Empire. Now their females were all but gone, and the old traditions were slowly being forgotten.
Impossibly, the look in Sienna’s eyes told him that she understood his sadness.
“I caught those fish, and you fed them to me, and in every single morsel that I ate, I tasted you.”
A look of surprise and wonder crossed her features, and Ikriss reveled in her innocence “I-I’m glad you liked it. I wasn’t trying to change the Universe or anything like that. I just couldn’t bear the thought of you not eating properly after everything you’d been through.”
Nobody had ever dared pay so much attention to Ikriss’s care and wellbeing before. Her innocence and goodwill washed over him like a healing salve. Silently, he vowed to protect her purity with every fiber in his being.
He took in her glorious appearance again; the stretchy, tight-fitting clothing, the simple utilitarian shoes. He made his voice mock-stern. “And where exactly were you planning to go, Sienna?”
The flush in her cheeks deepened as she looked down at her attire. “Arin says there’s a training room on the lower decks. We were going to exercise then swim.”
His interest sharpened. “You fight?”
She laughed softly. “Not everything involves fighting. I’m going to do yoga.”
“Yoga?”
“It’s a slow form of exercise. There’s a lot of stretching and posing involved. I was hoping to try and calm myself down a little. You’re making me crazy, Ikriss.” Her own gaze flicked in the direction of her chest, alerting him to the fact that her nipples were hard and erect; he could see their outline beneath the tight fabric of her top. “And where did you think you were going?”
Sweet Goddess, deliver me from this curse.
“I am off to immerse myself in a pool of freezing water in an attempt to try and preserve what little is left of my sanity. Are you coming?”
“N-now?” Nervously, she glanced over her shoulder. Arin and Rykal had retreated a little ways back, giving them space. “We aren’t supposed to be together right now, remember?”
Ikriss glanced over Sienna’s shoulder, briefly meeting his battle-brother’s steady gaze. “Rykal is First Division. No matter how badly I desire you, no harm will come to us while he is here.” He made a wry face. “In my current state, I can’t even lift a finger against him.”
“I take it these First Division guys are something else, huh?” Her smile held a little bit of wonder and a little bit of sharp-edged sarcasm.
That was good.
She was growing less and less afraid of them as time went on.
That pleased him immensely.
She should never, ever be afraid again.
Not of anything in the Universe, and definitely not of him.
“They are the closest thing to invincible in this Universe,” he chuckled, “but that is not to say that they can’t be brought to their knees by the right female.”
With a subfleet of warships under his command and one-fifth of the men answering directly to him, Ikriss arguably held more power than any of the First Division, with the exception of Tarak, of course.
But he was far from invincible.
And this female had so easily gotten past his defenses.
He rose to his feet, still holding her hands. Desire permeated every fiber of his being, but the thought of accidentally harming her was a powerful antidote to his Fever.
He stared down the corridor, toward the quiet, secluded room where the dark pool of water waited; an unknown promise that beckoned them both.
“Let’s go,” he whispered, gently pulling her toward him, even though he knew that he shouldn’t.
But now he also knew that he could withstand the terrible torture of the Mating Fever, no matter how bad it became.
Even when he knew without a doubt that she wanted him, too.
Because what good would he be to her if he let himself succumb to temptation; if he ended up fucking dead because he couldn’t control himself?
Patience.
Soon.
Soon she would truly understand what it meant to be Claimed by a Kordolian male.
And he would make sure that she never wanted for anything or anyone else ever again.
Chapter Twenty
Hand in hand, they walked through the dark, sloping, winding corridors. Sienna became lost in a maze of curves and shadows, drowning in the dark heat of Ikriss’s gaze.
They had a small entourage now; Jaxis, Rykal, and Arin, the trio staying far enough behind to give them a little privacy.
If Sienna were a suspicious kind of person, she would almost think this accidental encounter with Ikriss in the corridors had actually been very intentional.
Ikriss’s warm fingers closed possessively around hers.
She could hardly believe she was here; that this powerful alien male was actually… courting her.
“You don’t have to be so worried about me,” he murmured, his voice a low, deep rumble that sent a ripple of goosebumps across her arms and down the back of her neck.
She glanced up at him in surprise. Ikriss met her eyes and smiled, flashing his fangs in a way that she found strangely adorable. “Believe me, I’ve endured much worse. And it’s nothing. I would do it a thousand times over.”
Oh.
Nobody had ever pledged themselves to her like this before.
How was this man such a walking contradiction? He could be ruthless and cruel and violent, and yet he could say and do things that made her feel like she’d been wrapped in a warm cocoon of ovary-melting, protective Kordolian male goodness.
“It’s not nothing,” she growled as they walked through yet another unravelling doorway. “Don’t you dare downplay it just because you’re a big tough warrior guy. I am allowed to take care of you.”
“A thousand times over,” he repeated, still smiling as he effortlessly switched to speaking English. “Come, now. The more time I spend with you, the more excruciating it becomes, and yet I am somehow learning to tolerate it.” He leaned in as they passed through a small antechamber type room, momentarily disappearing from the scrutiny of their little entourage. “If I had my way, I would claim you right now, my sweet little human.” He took a deep breath, his nostrils flaring. “You are so ready for me. I can smell it on you.”
She glanced down and saw the bulge in his trousers. From that glimpse alone, she got the feeling he was… huge.
Sweet stars.
What on Earth had she done to deserve this total wet-dream of a male?
She trembled a little as he caressed the small of her back and gave her a quick, cheeky kiss, his warm lips searing the delicate spot just behind her earlobe. “I want to taste you so badly,” he murmured, his lips grazing her ear. “I want to see your sweet little face scrunched up in pleasure just the way it was when you made yourself climax in front of me. Only next time, I will be certain to make you scream.”
As his breath feathered her cheek, Sienna peered through a short dark hallway, catching a glimpse of the glistening dark water beyond. “You’re something else, Kordolian,” she hissed as she caught sight of two figures silhouetted against the vast backdro
p of space. “Stop teasing me. There are people all around us. I swear to god, there is no privacy on this damn ship.” She was blushing again.
His scent surrounded her, taunting her with its potent promise.
She was aroused as all hell. Being this close to this man was driving her insane.
She walked forward, lost and totally disorientated, with no idea of what lay in wait in the cavernous space beyond.
But she didn’t care, because she had Ikriss by her side.
She was in the safest place in the Universe.
For the first time in a very, very long time, she didn’t feel afraid anymore.
Not of evil aliens.
Not of the stupid Syndicate.
Not of her world crumbling to pieces… well, not entirely.
A flicker of worry entered her chest as she thought about her friends on Earth, but she pushed it away, deciding to trust Ikriss once and for all.
For her, that was a big fucking leap, but somehow, he’d made it possible.
Behind them, Arin, Rykal, and Jaxis filled the room, acting strangely solemn and respectful, as if this were some sort of weird alien ceremony.
“Ignore them,” Ikriss whispered. “I’m with you.” His fingers curled around hers.
Sienna nodded and took a step forward into the darkness. As her eyes adjusted, she realized that she recognized the two shadowy figures standing by the pool.
The General and his medic.
Both of them were staring at her with a laser-like intensity that made her want to curl up and hide.
She pushed that feeling away. Ikriss was beside her now, and if anyone could protect her against powerful, intimidating aliens, it was this powerful, intimidating alien.
“Now we know why they wanted her so badly,” Zharek announced all of a sudden, his voice echoing in the cavernous chamber.
“What is this about?” Ikriss’s voice was low and dangerous. His arm went possessively around Sienna’s waist. In front of all these dangerous Kordolian males, it felt very much like a deliberately territorial display.
Suddenly, the air was thick with tension. Ikriss bristled with barely controlled violence.
