by Pearl Foxx
Vera’s skin prickled at his words, and she had to fight back a shiver. She stood somewhat shakily. “What exactly are you saying?”
“You’re my mate, Vera. My true, once in a lifetime mate. My human spirit and my Vilkan soul can’t live without you.”
Staring back at him, processing his words over and over, she realized she’d never heard a higher truth than what he’d said. Never heard anything that resonated so deeply within her, in a place she hadn’t even known existed until she landed on this strange, terrible, wonderful planet.
“I’m your mate?”
Ever so slightly, he bowed in acknowledgment of her words. “You are.”
“Then it’s settled.” She lifted her chin toward him, her own resolve clenching a tight fist around her heart as his eyes widened at her words. “You’re mine as well.”
19
Vera
Rayner stalked forward, his eyes hooded and unreadable. But when his lips touched hers, Vera understood exactly what her claim made him feel. His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her up against his broad frame and crushing her with his passion.
“Rayner,” she whispered against his lips.
“Mine.” He pressed his mouth to hers, taking her. His tongue licked at her lips, and she opened her mouth to taste him.
Vera’s mind flooded with the flavor of his mouth. Her body electrified as his hand, large and sure, stroked her back. She matched the cadence of his tongue, giving in to the desire to be with him, outside of time and space. She thrust a hand into his hair and pulled him down closer to her.
His body rippled, but not with transformation. It was a shudder of desire.
“You are so beautiful,” her Vilkan mate whispered against her lips, spreading goose bumps over her body.
She kissed him. They explored each other’s lips while their hands roamed. Soon his hand squeezed her bottom, pulling her tight against him. She could feel the hardening length of him against her belly.
She moaned and ground herself against him until Rayner’s eyes drifted closed and he released a long sigh. He scooped her up and carried her into his bedroom, to the bed where they’d come together time and again over the weeks she’d been under his care. He sat down on the edge of the bed and resumed his adoration of her lips.
She straddled his legs, his arms around her waist. His cock rubbed against her core each time she rocked her hips against him. As much as she wanted to wrap her mouth around his velvety shaft right at that moment, she needed to feel him inside her.
She stood and pulled her clothing off, settling them on the bed instead of the floor in respect for the quality of silk she wore. Rayner did the same, his eyes never leaving the curves and swells of her body, the plane of her stomach, and the juncture between her legs. His nostrils flared as if he were smelling the absolute wetness soaking her core.
He pulled her back to his lap, and she straddled him once again. Lifting, her eyes locked on his, and she reached between them and guided the head of his cock to her entrance. She lowered herself down slowly, feeling each thick inch of him fill her once again.
He’d molded her and stretched her, making her his, and she needed him inside her like she needed to breathe.
He gasped, his fingers digging into her hips as she controlled their pace, taking every inch of him before lifting up and feeling the delicious pull of flesh within flesh. She maintained a gloriously torturous pace, her thighs burning as she worked herself against him, her body screaming for more. She settled her weight down, taking his full length inside her, and squeezed him with her inner walls.
That proved to be beyond Rayner’s point of control. He grabbed her ass and thrust up into her, pushing hard against her limits. She cried out, stretched so full and filled so deep. She dug her nails into his shoulders and rode him as he matched her with his own sharp upward thrusts.
Soon they were both panting and clawing at each other, needing to feel every part of the other’s body. Their mouths kissed and bit at whatever flesh they could find until Rayner let out a frustrated grunt and flipped them over so that he was hovering over her.
Vera wrapped her legs around his strong hips, bending her knees and giving him access to take her deeper than he ever had before.
The huge Vilka needed no encouragement. He held her eyes as he pounded into her, holding her in place with one hand and balancing his weight on the other. Vera matched each thrust with her hips until his pace became so fast and hard that all she could do was cry out and hold on. She wrapped her arms around him, trusting him with her body and her heart.
Trusting her mate.
He thrust into her, stretching her with each new angle. Tears slid down Vera’s face as pleasure well past anything she’d ever felt before filled her body. She dragged her nails down his back and screamed out a release that rose up from so deep within her she’d never known it was there.
Rayner yelled her as he came right after her. He collapsed, his heavy weight a comfort as Vera struggled to make sense of reality after having her body and mind ripped apart with such powerful pleasure.
Rayner slipped out of her and rolled to her side, pulling her tight against his warm body. The last thing Vera remembered was him whispering a single promise.
“I will do anything to keep you safe, my love. My mate. Anything.”
20
Rayner
Morning came too quickly for Rayner.
He didn’t want to open his eyes. The day was going to be long and hard, and he wanted to stay in this warm, dark place where he could so easily remember Vera the way she’d been last night: her cheeks flushed as she sat on his lap, riding him and glowing from the passion that had flowed between them throughout the night.
His cock stirred as he remembered her half-hooded eyes and the way her breasts had pressed against his chest.
She shifted against his side with a soft murmur. He rolled to look at her still-sleeping body and tried to memorize every feature, every curve. She was exquisite, strong and smart, creative and logical. She was everything he could have ever dreamed of in a mate. And a true mate at that. Why did she have to be human?
More importantly, why did she have to be the one he could never have?
He had to pull himself together and be strong. She didn’t need the added burden of knowing what would happen to him if they were separated. Kaveh’s moon madness was all too close to the front of Rayner’s mind. How long had it taken Kaveh to lose his grip on sanity after his mistress—Caj’s mother—had died earlier this year? A month? Two? How soon would it happen to Rayner, and would the madness be worse knowing Vera wasn’t dead but very much alive on a faraway planet?
“What are you looking at?” Vera murmured, eyes drifting open and a smile blooming across her face.
“You. You’re the only thing I see.”
She rolled her eyes, but her smile stretched wider. A moment later, her smile slipped, and he knew she was thinking about later today. Her trial.
“Are you hungry?” he asked to distract her.
Her smile returned. A distraction was exactly what she wanted.
“Hmm … What are you offering?” She lowered the sheet covering her naked flesh to reveal the plump breasts and luscious hips that made him crazy. He knew there wasn’t time, but his cock stiffened and ached, begging to feel her again.
“There isn’t time for that,” he said with a sigh, covering her back up, but when his hand came to her chest, she took it in her own and pressed it against her breast. Her gorgeous roundness fit into his large hand perfectly.
He moaned and kneaded the soft breast as her nipple hardened against his palm. “We have to get up.”
She scooted closer. “Just one kiss.”
When she lifted her lips in offering, Rayner was helpless to resist. Her mouth was soft and their kiss slow. He pressed against her, still massaging her breast, as her arms wound around his neck. She pulled him down against her, their bodies separated by nothing but the thin Arakid silk
sheet.
Vera opened her mouth to him. Their tongues danced together, rolling and rubbing against each other in a simulation of the dance they really desired.
A knock came at the closed bedroom door. “Sir? Miss? I have breakfast.”
“One moment, Decallian,” Rayner called back. He swung out of bed and reached for his pants. Behind him, Vera bundled the sheet around her body.
“Decallian is bringing you breakfast?” she whispered.
Rayner tugged his pants up and buttoned them. He glanced over his shoulder. Vera’s hair was rumpled, her lips swollen. His love for her kicked him straight in the gut. “She was worried about you. I couldn’t get her to stop bringing me food.”
Vera’s mouth popped open in surprise. “Really?”
“Really. Come in, Decallian.”
The round, ruddy-faced keeper swooped into the room on silent feet, her eyes down. She settled the basket of food on the corner of the bed. She’d packed it so full of food that it nearly toppled straight off.
“Sir,” Decallian said with a nod. She angled her head slightly and added, “Miss. Will you need anything else? A cup of kava, perhaps?”
“Decallian,” Vera said. The elderly keeper looked up and met Vera’s gaze, holding it. “Are the other women okay? They haven’t had any trouble since me and the others tried to escape?”
“No, miss.” A sly smile pushed at the folds of her cheeks. “We’re watching out for them.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Shocking Decallian completely, Vera scooted close and pulled the keeper into a tight, one-armed hug, her other hand busy holding up her sheet.
When she was released, Decallian left with her eyes down but a smile on her face, her cheeks redder than ever. She didn’t bother saying goodbye to Rayner.
He sat back on the bed and pulled out a smoked bit of pryll.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Vera asked, the words coming in a rush, her gaze burning him. “That was weird, right? They hated me just a week ago. And Decallian isn’t the only one who’s started acting strange.”
“I’ve seen,” Rayner said. He passed her a larger, fattier piece of meat. She took it but didn’t eat. “You need to eat. Your trial—”
“I don’t give a shit about my stupid trial. I’m worried, Rayner. Something is happening with the servants. Something big. I found a body in the tunnels during our escape. It wasn’t that old.”
The information saddened him and made the anchor of guilt sink deeper inside him. But he took her hand, his thumb stroking across her skin. “You were right when you first came here. You saw it all so clearly. More clearly than I ever have. I thought I’d done so much good when I helped Kaveh end the flesh trade and elevate the status of servants in the clan. But I realize—” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “You made me realize that I hadn’t done enough. My mother would have been very fond of you.”
A sheen of tears swam in Vera’s eyes. “I would have been fond of her too.”
He dropped her hand and lifted his chin toward the meat she still hadn’t touched. “Please eat. We will have a long day.”
She took a slow, tiny bite. “What are you going to do? Tell me, Rayner. You’re being too calm about my trial.”
“I don’t trust Kaveh anymore,” Rayner said, choosing his words carefully. “I thought if I explained how we’d experienced a true mating, he would understand. He is the only Vilka who has heard the mating call in decades. But his madness—” Rayner cut himself off. Luckily, Vera didn’t notice. “He’s just too far gone to hear reason. I think he will try to make an example of you to all the other servants.”
He heard her heartbeat kick up, but he smelled no fear on her. His brave, wonderful mate. “A true mating?”
“My people pair up for many reasons, practical as well as emotional,” Rayner explained. “I’m sure there are many who marry truly for love, but to bond with someone so completely that they could be considered a true mate happens every few generations.” He shook his head, that bond between him and Vera trembling as he spoke. “I never expected it to happen to me.”
“And you’re … you’re sure this is what this is?” Vera bit her lip.
He offered her a smile. “Every time I look at you, I’m only more certain.”
She let out a long breath. “So what’s the plan?”
“You’ll have to sit through the trial.” He hated it. Hated thinking of her in that blood-stained pit with his clan jeering at her, their bloodlust begging for the harshest punishment. “But it’s the only way to divert attention away from me. Tonight, you will escape.”
Her mouth fell open. “Escape? To Earth?” she whispered like someone might overhear.
“To Earth. You—”
“But what about protecting Kladuu?”
Rayner forced himself not to think about his guilt, that anchor dragging his depths. “It will be fine. As long as the nav system’s data is deleted, they won’t be able to find the planet.”
“Okay.” Vera nodded slowly. “And the other women? They have no reason to keep the shape-shifting secret.”
She almost seemed too scared to ask about her friends, but Rayner reached over and squeezed her knee. “They’re coming too. I wouldn’t ask you to leave them behind. As for the secret,” he said, shaking his head, “I don’t know any other way around it. I can’t let you be killed, and if you stay, you will be.”
“And escaping beyond the mountain …”
She’d run away with him. The thought did so much to ease his fear, to solidify his resolve. “It’s a death trap out there. Earth is the only way.”
Her relief was palpable. She smiled, trusting him completely. “And you? You’re coming too.”
She spoke as if it were certain. Her belief in him made it easy to lie. “Yes. I’m coming with you, Vera.”
She threw her arms around him, dropping her sheet and nearly knocking their breakfast off the bed. Chuckling at her radiant joy, Rayner caught her as she smothered his face in kisses. His hands skimmed her waist and ribs to the swell of her breasts.
They lost a couple hours tangled in each other. Rayner showed her careful attention to draw out her pleasure, to make her come again and again. He moved about her body, memorizing every delicate curve, every muscle, every scent and taste. He closed his eyes and soaked up the sound of his name panting from her lips. She was his everything, and come tonight, she would be far, far away from his planet and safe.
Even if she hated him because of his lie.
That afternoon, Vera and Rayner dressed in silence. He gave her one of his longer white tunics and a wide belt. It was the clothing of an equal clan member. The quality of the silk was the very best he had, even better than the darker shirt and pants he chose for himself. Vera wore the outfit of a mate, and everyone would see her in it.
She was a vision with her fiery red hair hanging loose around her shoulders and the white of the garment highlighting the tone of her skin. The belt cinched her waist enough that he could imagine the curve of her hips beneath the cloth. He wanted her. Now, tomorrow, again and again. He wanted to make love to her and make her understand everything he felt for her. He wanted to watch her in the morning light as she raked her fingers through her hair every day for the rest of his life.
He almost hoped the moon madness would take him quickly when she left. He didn’t know how he would bear it, not having her near. But the memory of her would be enough. It had to be. He’d made too many plans and promises to get her off Kladuu tonight. He had to keep them to the people he owed most.
“Are you ready?” Rayner asked, holding out a hand to the woman he would die for.
“No, but there really isn’t a choice, is there?”
Rayner nodded and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. He opened his door, and the bright light of morning spilled across their feet. The sun shone in through the canals in the mountaintop.
A barrage of guards swarmed forward, creating a barrier be
tween them and the rest of the city.
“Is this really necessary?” Rayner growled.
Vera placed a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I’m sure they’re only following orders. I’ll be fine.” She stood up straight, but Rayner saw the fear in her eyes. No one else would notice such a tiny thing, like how her lower lip was slightly swollen from the intensity of their kisses this morning, or the way her hips swayed when she walked.
She stepped forward, and one of the guards wrapped a length of reinforced silk webbing around her wrists and jerked on the length, forcing her to stumble forward.
The growl that came up began at his feet and vibrated through every cell in his body. His body began to shift, ready to pounce and destroy anyone who dared treat his mate in such a way. He would take the guard’s throat in his teeth and bite down until his muzzle was coated in blood. But before he could act, he caught Vera’s gaze, and she just shook her head before following the guard.
He might have to let her go now, but he’d save her, no matter what the cost to himself.
The clan had arrived at the amphitheater itching for blood as Rayner had expected. The Omega Selection had stirred something inside them, and it spilled over now, uncontained and beast-like.
The Omega Selection had been a mistake. Rayner realized that now.
He threaded through the crowd with a heavy hood pulled over his head to conceal his hair and the upper part of his face.
Around him, the clan’s voices mingled. They clamored for blood, his own name volleyed about along with laughter and insults. He’d lost his rank and status, but he’d never imagined he’d lose his clan’s respect as well. The realization landed in his gut like a physical blow.
He pressed farther back, weaving through the lower-ranking Vilkas and making his way to where the servants waited for their benefactors. Some were here out of curiosity on their own time, he was sure, but most would be here in case they were needed for something.
