Paladin's Pride 3: Her Forever Knight

by Angelina Evans

  Genae backed up as Moulina moved forward. The other woman was VanDai. She was taller and bigger. A fight would be unfairly balanced in the other woman’s favor but she wasn’t going to let herself be killed without fighting back. If she got the chance.

  “I can ensure you wealth and a place of your own. A place where no one could ever throw you out.”

  Moulina laughed, the sound cold and grating, making Genae wince. “And how would you do that? You’ll be dead, this world destroyed and all the species of the universe your father considers inferior will be gone.”

  “It doesn’t have to be that way. Even if I die during the information retrieval, I can give you what you want. My holdings, my wealth. You can have it all.”

  “You think that’s all I want? Wealth?”

  Genae backed around the end of the room and edged back toward the opening.

  Moulina’s brows rose. “You won’t get away.”

  Genae shrugged. “I have to try.” She had to do more than try. Somehow she had to get out of the room. She hadn’t come this far to lose everything.

  “You think you can buy your life? You think you know what I want?”

  Genae threw up her hands. Who cared if her breasts were bare? If she was dead, it didn’t matter. “You said you wanted to be a queen.”

  “I said I wanted to be Paladin’s queen.”

  “And he didn’t want you.” Genae almost groaned as the words left her mouth.

  A low, threatening hiss issued from between Moulina’s bared teeth. “He’ll live to regret what he’s done.”

  Genae bit her lip and managed to keep her mouth shut. Telling the woman she could see why Paladin wouldn’t want to be permanently tied to a heartless, honorless bitch wasn’t going to help.

  “What did my father promise you? And why would you think he’ll allow you to live when every other member of your species is terminated?” She needed the advantage of even a moment more to get into the other room first.

  She edged toward the opening into the hidden room. Her heart beat so hard it shook her.

  “You want a head start?”

  Genae’s heart stuttered. What was the woman, a mind reader? She swallowed but there was no saliva in her mouth. “What do you get for killing me?”

  “I get to see Paladin tortured and killed.” The VanDai woman smiled and licked her lips. “I get to choose the manner of his torture and death.” She undulated where she stood.

  Genae shuddered. The woman’s words made the gesture obscene.

  “Your father might hate and fear what he calls non-human species but he loves sex with us. He’ll have his own little alien brothel. He’ll hate himself more every time he visits it but he won’t be able to stay away. And those of us who are good enough will have more power than he ever realizes. With your death I get everything I want. And I want Paladin’s hide.” Moulina closed her eyes and Genae ran.

  “You can’t escape.”

  Genae blocked Moulina’s words as she sprinted toward the door. The tazer star flew past her. The small weapon super-heated as it spun through the air. It burned into the stone of the wall with a hissing sound.

  At the last possible moment Genae turned and leapt toward the sculpture Kai had shown her. Something hit her left shoulder. Pain seared through her. Her heart stuttered and swelled. She could feel it expanding.

  Her fingers brushed the great cat’s tail as she fell. Her vision faded. She hit the ground hard, unsure if the blaring she heard was from alarms or the pain exploding in her own head.

  * * *

  “How many VanDai will be here in ti…” Kai broke off as the alarm from Paladin’s room pealed through the Palladium. He started running, fury at himself spurring him on. He’d left her alone. Someone had tried to kill her and he’d left her alone.

  Swearing, he raced toward Paladin’s door where Challen was deactivating the secure-lock. As the door opened, he rushed through it.

  His heart stopped when he saw Genae. She lay unmoving on the floor, her face white. He caught a flash of color from the corner of his eye as he dropped to the floor and reacted. He whipped a tazer star from his belt and threw it, his aim deadly. He heard a feminine scream but didn’t care as he dropped to his knees beside Genae. He pressed his head to her chest. A sick feeling grew in his stomach. There was no heartbeat, no rise and fall with each breath.

  He’d left her alone.

  Chapter 6

  Lessons Learned

  Paladin, seconds behind Kai, saw Moulina fall as Kai dropped beside the president’s daughter. He understood immediately what had happened. He strode across the room and lifted Moulina from the floor. The wound in her side was gaping but there was no blood. The tazer star had cauterized as it sliced through her.

  “Why?” His tone was stark, his expression cold.

  Moulina smiled even as she gasped for breath. Her body shuddered with pain as the damage inflicted by the tazer star spread through her, the burn expanding. “To hurt you.”

  Paladin’s face turned to stone. He hadn’t made her his mate and she had gotten even. “Take her.” He handed her to one of his warriors. “Make her end swift.”

  Moulina’s eyes were cold. “No mercy?”

  He stared at her for one long moment before turning away. “A swift death is mercy.”

  “Get a healer!” Kai’s voice thundered through the room.

  Paladin crouched beside him as a healer, already summoned, ran toward them. Kai lifted the material of Genae’s top and covered her breasts with it. A small silver disk lay on the floor under one wisp of material. He lifted it and turned it over. “What is it?”

  The healer, a huge VanDai male, plucked the disk from his hand. “It’s a cardiac stabilizer.” He looked at the setting and grimaced. “It must have felt like someone crushed her heart.”

  Kai’s hands clenched into fists. “Heal her.” It was a demand and an order. He wanted Genae healed. He wanted her in his arms, her heart beating strong and steady and the male in front of him had to do it. If he had to hold a blaster to the healer’s head, he would. He wanted her healed now.

  The healer frowned at Kai.

  Paladin leaned forward and caught the healer’s gaze with his own. “Do what you can, Eln.”

  The healer nodded but a muscle worked in his jaw as he gave Kai a narrow-eyed look. He set the disk he’d taken from Kai down and took an instrument from his belt. He pressed it to Genae’s chest and waited. Seconds later his lips thinned and he shook his head.

  He looked at Kai as he picked up the small disk. “The setting on this could have made her heart explode. Now it’s the only thing that will keep her alive.” He pushed the material off her left breast and pressed the disk to Genae’s chest to the left of her sternum, over her heart. He adjusted the device’s micro-controls then pressed in on either side of the small sphere.

  Genae’s body jerked.

  Kai lunged at the healer and Paladin grabbed him. He wanted to tear the other VanDai apart for hurting her. What did he think he was doing?

  The healer finished adjusting the cardiac stabilizer as Kai broke free of Paladin’s hold. He grabbed Genae and sat on the floor with her held tight in his arms while the guards filed from the room.

  “Who tried to get me this time?”

  Startled by the sound of her voice, Kai shifted Genae away from him enough to look down at her. She was alive. Pain splintered through him and he clutched her to his chest. He owed the healer more than he could ever repay. Genae was alive.

  As the healer left, he stopped in the door and looked at them. “The stabilizer could keep her alive indefinitely, but what she really needs is a healer who specializes in human hearts. I don’t know exactly how much damage was done but it was considerable. As long as the stabilizer is in place, though, she’ll be fine.”

  “What can’t she do?” Kai demanded, his arms tightening around Genae. He needed more than to hold her but he wouldn’t touch her if it wasn’t safe.

  The fain
test of smiles lit the other male’s eyes. “Just be careful not to jar her too hard.”

  Genae felt heat rush into her cheeks and there was nothing she could do about it but hide. She turned her face into Kai’s shoulder and stayed there. And as her naked breasts came into contact with his hard chest, her mortification grew.

  Several minutes later, Kai stroked her back. “How long are you going to hide there?”

  Genae refused to budge. “I thought we weren’t going to do the naked thing except in private.”

  A low rumble vibrated Kai’s chest and she wriggled, enjoying the sensation against her breasts. “Don’t growl at me. You’re the one who destroyed the top of my dress.”

  Without answering, Kai lifted her and set her on her feet. Her knees almost buckled. Only Kai’s quick reflexes kept her from falling. Somehow he kept her upright as he surged to his feet. Without pausing he caught her up in his arms and strode to the bed.

  Genae smiled up at him. “Something else we keep doing,” she murmured but she wasn’t complaining. She liked being in Kai’s arms.

  Kai laid her on the bed and quickly stripped off her ruined gown. He searched her for any injuries, rolled her over and then back. His gaze raked her as his hands searched her body.

  He made her feel like a lab specimen. She glared up at him. “You could have just asked me if I hurt anywhere.”

  Kai grunted. His expression darkened as he looked at the strange disk attached to her chest. “This should never have happened.” He blamed himself because there was no one else to blame. Anywhere else in the universe he would never have left her alone.

  Because he had thought Sai-two was safe, he hadn’t been prepared for the explosion. Because he’d believed Paladin’s quarters were safe, he hadn’t looked for an attack. Because he had trusted the people of Boujara, he hadn’t looked for an enemy among his own people.

  He stripped out of his clothes, climbed onto the bed and lay down. He pulled Genae over him and positioned her legs between his, his hard cock caught between them. He guided her head down to his chest. “Sleep.”

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head. At least he hadn’t ordered her to eat, bathe and then sleep. She was more tired than she could ever remember being. She smiled at the thought. She’d thought she was exhausted when they had reached the Therik after their marathon across YelAsta. She hadn’t known what tired was. She had just enough energy to close her eyes. Maybe.

  Slowly, she lowered her eyelids. Yep. Just enough energy for that. Kai pulled her closer and she didn’t even make a murmur. She didn’t have enough energy for that.

  * * *

  Kai woke instantly. He didn’t know what had disturbed him but something wasn’t right. Eyes half-lidded, he looked around the room, but nothing in the room was different from when he’d taken Genae to bed. He opened his senses and still, there was nothing.

  Reflexively his hand tightened on Genae’s breast. He’d gone to sleep with her heart beating against his and woken holding her breast. A smile lit his eyes but quickly dimmed. His own heart skipped a beat as he realized what was missing. He couldn’t feel her heartbeat. There was no rise and fall of her breast with each breath.

  His heart gave a body shaking thump. He broke out in a sweat and his hand tightened on her soft flesh. It felt like he was being ripped in two. She was dead.

  His claws sprang free and a roar built in his throat. No! The healer had told them the cardiac stabilizer would keep her alive indefinitely. She couldn’t be gone.

  Genae grumbled a protest and shifted in his arms.

  Kai’s world narrowed to her. Need slammed into him. There was no thought, no rational process. The beast rose inside him and took over. He rolled Genae onto her back and forced her legs apart. Growling, his focus centered solely on the folds of her sex, he grasped his cock and pressed the head against her small opening. The sight of her tight entrance flowering to accept his broad girth freed the beast inside. She was his and he was taking her. She was alive and he would feel her response.

  Genae moaned and blinked. She grimaced as he penetrated her, his penis huge in her unprepared sheath. She writhed against him, rolled her hips trying to relieve the pressure. She bit her lip and groaned.

  “Kai?”

  He grunted in response, his expression harsh as he forged deeper.

  She spread her legs wide trying to accommodate him. “Kai? What…”

  He surged forward the last few inches. She arched up, the pressure immense, so intense it stole her breath and made her heart race. His length burned inside her.

  Kai felt every tremor around his cock, every quiver of her stomach against his abdomen. It wasn’t enough. He needed to feel her lose control. He would settle for nothing less than the life affirming clenching of total release.

  Somewhere deep inside he realized she wasn’t aroused. Not completely. He had to arouse her if he was going to make her come. He had to feel the great soul-shattering release of her orgasm. He had to know she was with him, a part of him.

  He reached between them and flicked and rubbed her clit. There was no finesse. No rhythm. Just focused attention as he watched her clit blossom, its color darkening as it rose to his touch. His claws, partially extended, flexed out fully. With narrowed eyes he raked the small nub with great care.

  He groaned as her sheath spasmed around him and her dew started to flow.

  It still wasn’t enough.

  He pulled out of her. Thrust back in hard and fast. There was a wet, slurping sound as her sheath sucked at him. And still he played with her clit. Rubbing. Flicking.

  Genae bit down on her lip and tasted blood. She arched against him. Her legs wrapped around him. Her hands clutched at the bed. She couldn’t stop the burning slide as he pounded into her. She didn’t want to stop it. She felt him everywhere, in the huge, throbbing length of him as he buried himself in her over and over; in the tight pinched nipples that needed to feel the nip of his teeth, the deep pressure of his sucking; in her clit throbbing and pulsing at the apex of her sex, tortured by his constant attention.

  He pushed her higher and higher yet somehow kept her from climaxing. She writhed against him, rose into each thrust, impaling herself as much as being impaled. She wanted to come, damn him. She needed release.

  He slammed into her and ground himself against her. He grasped her clit and pinched, not once but over and over again, milking the small protrusion.

  Genae screamed. Her body tried to arch but she couldn’t move, pinned beneath his great weight.

  He kept grinding against her, into her, never losing contact with her clit. She writhed and gasped, cried and swore. Her inner muscles tightened, tightened more, clenched and she screamed again.

  Kai shouted, his cum spewing from him in great spurts of hot, sticky fluid. He collapsed on top of her. He stayed imbedded in her as she quivered and the deep clenching continued.

  Shocked, her mind was only slowly able to focus. She stroked his back and consciously forced herself to breathe. What happened? He’d had her many times before but this time she felt taken. Branded. Claimed? There weren’t words to describe what she felt. It was as if he had possessed her. She closed her eyes as her body shook under the lash of an aftershock. Possessed. Yes. That was what he’d done, possessed her.

  She fought to take a deep breath against his weight crushing her into the bed. Her legs had fallen to either side of him and she couldn’t move them if she wanted to. The only reason she could force her arms to move was to comfort him. And why he would need comforting she didn’t know, but she could feel that he did.

  It was that and the fact that she couldn’t quit touching him. Her nipples poked into his furry chest. His back was smooth, the heavy muscles rippling under her stroking hands. His breath was slowly returning to normal as his heart beat against her in a deep, steady rhythm.

  “Are you all right?” His voice, a low rumble, made his chest vibrate against her. His breath was hot against her neck and he didn’t lift his head
to look at her.

  “I’m… good.” She was more than good but again she didn’t have the words to describe the deep satisfaction and wonder she was feeling. She was his. If she’d had any lingering doubts, they were gone. She belonged to Kai.

  She thrust her fingers into his golden mane and massaged his scalp. “What happened?” Her voice was soft and caressing.

  He pushed up on his forearms, the position thrusting his pelvis more tightly against hers as he looked down at her. His gaze burned into her, the stark emotion painful to look at. His soul was bared to her, and it hurt deep inside to know he cared for her like he did. Without words she knew and it was the most precious and most terrifying gift she’d ever been given. She wanted to keep him safe, to guard his heart, to never let him be hurt but she wasn’t going to have that chance. She was going to be the one who destroyed him.

  The sudden ache in her chest threatened to steal her breath again.

  “I woke up and I thought I’d lost you.”

  His words tore at her heart. He’d thought he’d lost her. What would he do when he did lose her?

  “You didn’t lose me,” she whispered. She wanted to reassure him. She wanted to be able to tell him everything would be fine, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t lie to him and she couldn’t lie to herself even though she wanted to.

  “Roll over.” Her voice was quiet.

  He didn’t move, just continued to stare down at her.

  “Roll over.” She frowned at him as she pushed at his broad chest. Her fingers flexed into his hard muscles as she relished the feel of him, so warm and solid, larger than life really. He was the kind of male who became a legend.

  He returned her frown with interest but levered himself off her, his cock pulling free of her tight sheath with an audible pop. Genae winced, his cock dragging against her swollen inner tissues almost painful and yet at the same time innervating.