by Vi Voxley
The guardian jumped into action. Like the watcher in the night that he was, he used the fear reflected clearly in the eyes of his prey. Charging at the first ones who tried to run from him, Brocke simultaneously faced the last challenge in the arena.
His armor was so dented and scratched it was practically useless by that point, but he never stopped. Komol was running empty as the residents of Olyra tried to get as far away from the mess as they could, but Brocke knew their days were numbered. The warlord raised his swords, as damaged and battered as he was, to face the final warriors when Cora screamed.
“Brocke!” she howled.
The guardian dodged instinctively, and the blaster shot hit the warrior who had tried to sneak up behind him.
Up on the podium, Condor had won the blaster, but Cora was clinging to the priest’s arm. She’d made Condor miss, and Brocke had no doubt who would be the priest’s next victim.
The last of the warriors came at him, and Brocke cut through them on the run. The blows were careless for him, and he didn’t have time to finish them all off properly, as Cora was about to face Condor’s wrath.
Brocke would rather have died than let her do that alone. They had come too far together for him to lose her in the last second.
Condor shoved Cora away. The priest’s eyes flickered between them for a second, choosing who to shoot, but he ended up doing neither. He pulled Cora up again, holding the blaster against her head.
Brocke stopped at once, only a few feet from the podium.
His hearts were pounding a furious, raging rhythm unlike anything the guardian had ever felt before. Seeing Cora at the mercy of that monster, remembering the things the priest was capable of… Every inch of Brocke ached to dash out, to rip Condor’s head off his shoulders with his bare hands, but he didn’t move.
“Well done, half-breed,” Condor hissed, his face twisted with rage. “But I’m afraid I can’t let you have this victory. My work must continue no matter what.”
“Brocke won,” Cora snapped at him, but the priest didn’t take his eyes off the guardian. “You have lost everything, can’t you see that? You were wrong, and you are alone.”
Condor’s laughter was maniacal as he nodded.
“Perhaps. But I’m not going back to Gomor. I will take you with me and start again. Stay where you are, half-breed. If you do as I say, I might not kill her.”
The implications were clear enough. Condor was promising mercy for Cora, but even facing his death didn’t make the priest go back on his word to kill their child.
Brocke was disappointed. In the end, Condor was nothing but a murderer, but he was about to make Cora his next victim, and that meant Brocke had to still take him seriously.
“Don’t let him go,” Cora pleaded. “He can’t get away, not after everything he’s done.”
Brocke thought she didn’t know what she was asking him to do until he saw her wink. The nod of trust was almost non-existent, but the guardian caught it.
“He won’t hurt me,” she went on as Brocke made sure he had a good grip on both blades.
Missing wasn’t an option. Losing Cora and their child was unthinkable. Brocke couldn’t imagine a life without them anymore, and a monster like Condor wasn’t going to take them from him.
“He is too afraid of you,” Cora said, and that was the signal.
Condor’s eyes flared to life with rage. All that time, he’d been backing away, dragging Cora along with him. The priest had been smart, knowing he couldn’t take his eyes off Brocke even for a second. Cora proved smarter than him, finding the right taunt to make the priest’s head snap to her in uncontrollable anger.
Fear always reigned supreme, but denial of it was a close second.
“That half-breed doesn’t scare me –” Condor got to say before he realized the mistake he’d made.
He only had a moment to turn back to Brocke. Just in time to see the blade flying through the air, hitting him square in the face.
Cora couldn’t suppress a scream as blood trickled down Condor’s face before the priest collapsed and the blaster clattered to the floor.
Brocke rushed to her, bringing her into his safe embrace. He could feel her shiver against him, death having passed them by so close.
He would have liked to keep Cora in his arms forever, but above all, Brocke wanted to get her out of there. So he let her go, leading Cora away from the place that was about to become nothing more than a page in history.
The guardian gave Condor one last look. The quick, almost instantaneous death wasn’t what the priest deserved. Gomor had been the thing he’d been most afraid of, but Brocke knew they couldn’t risk leaving a man like that alive. He needed to be gone with all the evil he’d done.
“Is it over now?” Cora asked as they walked through the darkness of Olyra, not a soul in sight to stop them.
“Not yet,” Brocke said. “But you and our child are safe. That is all that matters. I will make sure nothing is left of Condor but his name when I’m done.”
Cora nodded, but it wasn’t until they were out of Olyra, standing on the edge of the forest, that she broke down.
“I thought I’d lost you back there,” she said, her beautiful voice breaking in a way that was terrible to hear. “When Condor got the gun, I –”
Brocke kissed her, deeply and gently. Cora melted into the kiss, her hands resting on his, cupping her face.
“Forget about Condor. He is gone,” Brocke said, making sure Cora understood every word. “You will not lose me, not ever. I promise I will always protect you, no matter what comes. I love you. There is nothing in this life that can come between us now.”
Cora’s big hazel eyes were wide open, and the smile on her lips was the happiest Brocke had ever seen on her.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “I love everything about you. Except maybe the speeder.”
Brocke laughed.
“We can walk back,” he allowed. “We have all the time in the world now.”
Epilogue
Cora
Brocke kept his promise, all of them in fact.
The days following Condor’s death felt like a dream to Cora. Not necessarily a daydream, since it took time for her to get the images of all the horrors she’d seen out of her mind. Things were just progressing so fast Cora could barely keep up.
After all that she had been through and the wounds the Haunter and Condor had given her, Brocke insisted she do nothing while he worked to erase Condor’s evil from the face of Gaiya.
Reluctantly – and not so reluctantly at all, on the other hand – Cora had agreed.
Brocke brought her back to the Citadel, but never left her side for long. The chieftain had approved of his plans and also sent his son a list of his most trusted warriors. It amused Cora to no end that even the word of Nadar Brenger was barely good enough for Brocke when it came to her safety. As long as the memory of Condor remained, there was a chance one of his followers would seek revenge.
Finally, Brocke approved of a few warriors who had served the chieftain for long years and left them to guard Cora while he worked to destroy Olyra.
It took time, and Cora could observe it all from the Citadel, which she quickly came to love. There was something oddly charming about the mountain-fortress buzzing like a beehive every second of the day. Night never truly came to the stronghold; there was always a clerk or a technician working on the lower levels, a crisis to be solved.
When she couldn’t sleep without Brocke’s strong, hot body by her side, Cora went down to the lower floors with her guards and watched the Corgans work.
It felt good to remind herself that most of them weren’t murderous bastards.
The Militant very kindly allowed her the vacation after reading her final report. The implications of corruption and spies were taken very seriously. The fact that a monster like Condor had gotten access to the genetic scanner even made it to the Galactic Union’s Main Council. They began debating even stricter restrictions fo
r its use, but Cora only had ears for Gaiya and what was going on with the Corgans.
Brocke had given the underground network a simple choice. After years of hiding right under the planet’s surface, it was coming to light at last.
Strictly speaking, that was. The truth was that Brocke was giving it over to new owners, which made the choice very simple indeed.
The guardian gave them a week to leave and re-enter the general society as long as they passed the investigation to determine their relation to Condor. Cora helped the chieftain’s men conduct those the best she could, providing insight and concrete information. The program she’d built and the maps that drew lines between facts and people helped implicate most of Condor’s true followers.
The second part of Brocke’s choice made certain no one remained in the long dark hallways of Olyra when the time was up. Brocke led a mission to personally destroy every gate Olyra had, opening it up to Gaiya. It didn’t take long for the inevitable to happen.
Cora liked the idea, found something poetic about the whole thing. Olyra was dark and cold, making it the perfect cave system for the Haunters who quickly took over the place. They still ventured out to the forests to hunt for food, but Brocke told Cora the creatures seemed very pleased with their new home.
With the Haunters moving in, Olyra was lost to the Corgans, but that was deemed acceptable.
As for Brocke and Gomor, it would have been practically impossible to hide them from the Union much longer. A compromise was achieved where the Union simply turned a blind eye and pretended not to know. Cora thought that was fair, considering the part they’d played in the whole mess.
The more time passed, the clearer it was to Cora that Brocke had done as he’d promised. Condor was gone, and every trace of him was methodically erased. In time, Cora felt safe enough not to wince every time someone tried to touch her growing belly.
That only left the other oath.
* * *
Cora felt like Persephone.
A whole year had passed, and nothing in her life was the same except for her job that she handled with the same rigorous care as before. Cora considered the tracking system she’d created one of her biggest accomplishments, now used by most of the Militant’s officers.
Ever since the birth of her son Maeron, Cora worked from home, although she couldn’t deny that a part of her couldn’t wait until she was able to return to the streets. She was glad that Condor and his followers hadn’t managed to kill that part of her.
Until then, Cora found herself living in a very odd dual world.
The Persephone metaphor applied well to Gomor, she felt. Cora didn’t think she’d ever get used to the way daylight disappeared when she descended into the prison, although she never entered it truly. She didn’t go down there often, but every once in a while the situation was tense enough for Brocke to keep a longer watch, and she started to miss him.
The guardian’s quarters down in Gomor were nothing like their beautiful house on the surface above it. Cora didn’t think comparing the prison to the underworld was too much of a stretch, since even after a year, she couldn’t shake the feeling of a nigh physical terror filling the air down there.
Maeron was sleeping peacefully upstairs in their home, so Cora decided to steal a moment for her and Brocke.
She exited the tunnel leading to the prison, waiting for the gigantic doors to slide open. To her surprise, Brocke greeted her there, kissing her wildly before she could even utter a word.
“Good to see you missed me,” Cora said, beaming. “I came to see if you’ll be free soon.”
“I am,” Brocke said. “I left Hamo in charge. He can handle it for a while.”
“Good,” Cora smiled. “So are you going to let me in?”
Brocke gave her a reprimanding look Cora didn’t buy for a second. He took her hand and led her back to the surface of Gaiya, the heavy gate sliding shut behind them.
“Absolutely not,” the guardian said as they walked back up to the daylight. “You hate the place, and I can’t blame you for it.”
Cora laughed, nodding her head in agreement. She was wearing a long, comfortable dress with a deep cleavage, one she knew Brocke liked. As soon as she’d thought that, the guardian’s eyes wandered over her body, a smirk on his lips.
“You look amazing,” Brocke said. “Perhaps it’s spending all that time in Gomor, but you get more beautiful every day.”
Cora loved it, loved the way Brocke opened up to her more and more as time went by. She would never have guessed a man like that had a sense of humor, but he did. Teasingly, Cora slid her hands all over the skintight dress, watching Brocke’s eyes follow her every move.
“You can tell me that again when we get to bed.”
“The way you’re looking right now, you think we’re going to make it to bed?” Brocke asked, and the deep, sexy edge of his voice made Cora shiver in expectation.
She giggled when the guardian pressed her against the wall of the passageway as soon as they were out of sight of Gomor’s cameras. Cora kissed Brocke, absolutely adoring the fact that the passion between them only seemed to grow. In a playful mood, she slipped away from his arms, knowing that the guardian would never have let her go if he didn’t agree to the game.
She ran out into the daylight. It was impossible to believe that a place like that hid Gomor underneath the surface. Their house was on the edge of the forest with Eborat looming in the distance, close enough for convenience but far enough for privacy.
The hidden door closed behind them as Brocke walked after her with slow, predatory strides. Gomor left behind, Cora could see the man she loved the way he really was, at least for her. The guardian captured her lips in a fiery kiss, groping her ass and pushing her against a tree.
Cora knew the tree well. It wasn’t the first time they’d come up from the eternal night to hunger for each other.
She had actually honestly expected them to walk a bit first, talk a little, but Brocke knelt before her, pulling her dress up, and walking instantly seemed like a silly idea.
Cora gasped when she felt Brocke’s tongue on her wet pussy, licking and teasing her clit between his lips. She pulled the cloth up to see Brocke’s face better. The blue eyes were shining when he glanced up at her. Cora moaned, long and loud, as Brocke pushed two fingers into her, wriggling them around and making her knees weak from pleasure.
The guardian sucked on her clit gently, rubbing his finger against it, and it was all too good for Cora to bear. She cried out in pleasure, resting her head against the tree trunk. Soon, she knew, Brocke would tire from the teasing and take her right there.
Cora closed her eyes, biting her lip as Brocke pushed his fingers inside her pussy, opening her up for his cock. Memories intertwined with desires as Cora imagined the warlord lifting her into his lap and slamming into her.
It had happened before, more times than she could recall. As Brocke brought her closer to her orgasm with his fingers and tongue, Cora was lost to her desire, knowing how good his cock would feel buried deep in her pussy. She remembered the bark of the tree digging into her back as Brocke fucked her mercilessly, and Cora wanted it again and again.
“Brocke,” she moaned. “I need you, fuck me –”
She trailed off when the guardian got up with a grin on his lips that made her tremble from head to toe. They didn’t bother with removing her dress and most of his armor. Cora cried out as Brocke pounded into her pussy.
Moans escaped her mouth as she tried to hold on, but Brocke just felt too amazing. She dug her fingers into his short hair, holding on for dear life as the guardian hit the spot with every merciless thrust.
Her dress was ripped and her hair messed up, but Cora couldn’t have cared less. In fact, that was exactly the way she wanted it. She cried out Brocke’s name as she cummed. As Cora climaxed, her pussy clenched around the guardian’s thick cock, making Brocke follow her into the release.
She could feel him cum in her, Brocke’s hot seed spill
ing into her warm pussy. It ran down her thighs when the guardian pulled out, lowering her to the ground gently.
Cora almost collapsed, supporting herself on the tree, her legs shaking from the powerful orgasm she’d just experienced.
“This is why I suggested the bed,” she pointed out, gasping, watching Brocke grin at her.
“I didn’t object to that,” he countered, swooping her up into his strong arms, making Cora yelp as she flew through the air. “I have every intention of taking you in our bed as well.”
Cora laughed, perfectly fine with that. As Brocke carried her to the house, never taking his eyes off of her, she knew he would keep his other promise as well.
They belonged to each other now, as he’d said, forever.
Also by Vi Voxley
Did you miss the previous books in this series? Check them out here:
Nadar: Alien Warlord's Conquest
Daegon: Alien Warlord's Conquest
Soros: Alien Warlord's Conquest
Want more hot scifi romance? Check out Vi’s Brion Brides series by picking up the first book:
Alien General's Bride
OR the complete series bundle:
Brion Brides: Books 1-5
Can't get enough of dramatic scifi romance? Check out one of Vi's latest novels:
Alien Prince's Bride
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Don’t miss the excerpt of a new book by Vi Voxley and Juno Wells, My Alien Warrior, on the next page!
My Alien Warrior Excerpt
