by Renee Rose
“Yours,” she whispered. “Please…”
“Take it, baby. You don’t have to beg tonight. Not when you’re being such a good girl.”
He pinched one nipple and her clit, and she climaxed, loving the way it felt to have his huge cock buried deep this time when she came.
Nothing had ever felt so right as the way he filled her, the way he played her body like a master musician plays an instrument, the way he thrust upward in sharp movements the moment she’d finished until he, too, orgasmed, his shout echoing off the walls, entering her body through her ears, her pores, her breath.
Before he pulled out, he turned on the warm water, enveloping her in the soothing spray as she suffered the loss of his body.
~.~
Cambry’s offer to trade sex for a shower had offended him. If all he’d been interested in was sex, he would’ve pushed it the night before. He vecking hated the thought of her treating it like some smarmy deal they made, in which they traded favors for favors. No.
She was his vecking female. He’d known it from the moment he saw her. And it was about far more than sex. He wanted her forever—as his mate, his slave—whatever it took to bind her to him. The thought of losing her made him sick.
He took another dollop of soap and sudsed her hair, ignoring how the surprise in those big eyes warmed the center of his chest. She shoved his hands away, trying to take control, and he smacked her ass, hard, her wet skin and the walls of the washtube making the slap loud.
She yelped and immediately went still. Submission was out of character for her, and so, like the night before, he treasured that she gave it to him willingly. He knew it was solely based on trust, not weakness.
He pushed her into the spray, and she rinsed off. When he turned off the water, the automatic dryer came on with a hard blast of not-quite-warm-enough air. These sure weren’t the luxury washtubes he’d grown accustomed to on Zander’s palatial pod. He slipped out and handed Cambry her clothing then quickly dressed in his white uniform.
When they emerged they met Lily in the corridor. Her lips curved into a knowing smile when she took in their damp hair and the chamber they’d exited. She passed them then turned back and called, “Cambry.”
He picked up Cambry’s hand as they stopped, making it clear she was with him.
“My sister sent some supplies today. Why don’t you come and take some for yourself.”
Cambry’s expression turned uncertain. From what he’d seen of her behavior since he arrived on the pod, she didn’t form friendships or bonds quickly or easily, mistrust being her first reaction to others.
Lily glanced at him. “They sent a crystal for the Zandians, too. You look like you could use it. Have you been eating here?”
He frowned, vecking hating any being thinking him weak. The wound from the night before had healed rapidly, but the blood loss and being away from crystal and light made his body slower to repair than usual.
Lily rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not calling your malehood into question. Rok says Zandians have to eat more when they’re away from the crystals. That’s how he survived as a child away from Zandia.”
Lundric gnawed on that. It would’ve been nice to know he needed to eat more often upon arrival, but he supposed he should have. He just hadn’t spent much time away from the palatial pod.
“Come on, both of you. Stop acting like I’m trying to poison you or something.” Lily beckoned them in her direction and starting walking away.
He raised his brows at Cambry, who shrugged, and they followed.
Rok and Lily’s chamber was not grand or large. Several travel crates stood along one wall, and from these, Lily started pulling things out. “Here, these should fit you.” She tossed a pair of leggings and an undershirt on the small bed.
Cambry picked them up. “Yeah, thanks. I could use a change of clothing.”
“I know. Every being can. I have placed a standing supply requisition list out to the palatial pod, ordered from most important to least. These things weren’t on the list, but my mother sent them. I don’t even know what all of them are, but they sure as hell ’aren’t anything I ever had as a slave.” She pulled out large bottles of soap and gel and oil.
Lundric recognized them as the products found in washrooms on the palatial pod. His need to take care of and provide for his female made him stride forward and gather a few of them. “Thank you.” He caught the wink of sparkle on her earlobes and sucked in a breath, an ingrained sense of reverence rippling through him at the recognition of their traditional mating.
He bowed to Lily. “Congratulations on your mating.”
Lily touched the crystal studs and beamed, blushing a little. “Prince Zander sent them to Rok so he could mate me in the Zandian tradition.”
Desire swept through Lundric like wildfire. Mate Cambry. The urgency to bind Cambry to him forever in this and every other way possible nearly blinded him. He wanted the union recognized by Prince Zander, by his fellow species and pod mates. By every human on the pod.
And, most importantly, by Cambry.
But how? How did this Zandian-human mating occur? Prince Zander had bought his mate. Rok had rescued his, although Lundric had heard through some grumbling by Rok’s Stornigian foster brothers he’d bartered weapons for her.
“Here.” Lily held out a fist-sized raw Zandian crystal, and a shudder of energy went through him. No wonder he’d felt stronger just being in the room. He took it into his palm and wrapped his fingers around it, closing his lids to savor the spike of energy.
“Rok is trying to come up with some kind of light-bathing room here, like you have on Prince Zander’s pod, but it’s hard when we’re so limited on space,” Lily explained. “Of course, if necessary, you can just fly back and forth to use Prince Zander’s, but Rok doesn’t want to attract Ocretion attention with too much traffic.”
He held the crystal up to the stab wound and swore he could feel the blood beneath it heating, energy shifting and rearranging to bring his flesh back to its normal, unmarred appearance. “Mind if I take it?” he asked. “I have an idea where it might be installed for all of us to use.”
“For all of you purple-skinned giants. Sure.”
“Thank you.” Lundric bowed and led Cambry out of the room, clutching both the bath products for his female and the crystal.
In the hall, Cambry eyed the crystal. “So, what’s with the rock?”
Even though she was human and wouldn’t understand, his need to provide for his female made him offer the gem to her. She took it, examining the different facets and whistling. “This must be worth a fortune.”
“It is. Zandian crystal is the reason our planet was taken over by the Finn. They are valuable throughout the galaxy because they have wide applications in laser and light-bending technologies.”
Cambry tossed it in the air as if testing its weight, and he winced, snatching it before it landed in her palm again.
“It’s sacred to us.”
“Oops.”
“King Zander and his queen refused to sell the crystals for technology. So the Finn invaded and committed mass genocide, killing off every member of my species they found on the planet. Only those who managed to escape or were off-planet at the time survived.”
They’d arrived in front of Cambry’s door again, and Lundric shoved it open, bringing in the bottles of luxury products and arranging them in a neat row along the wall.
She took over and shoved them under her cot.
“I can build you a shelf in here, if you like.”
She stared at him as if he had two heads. “Yes...maybe. Thank you. But back to your story. Why were you off-planet when they invaded?”
The familiar deadness swept through his chest. He hated this part of his life story. The worthlessness he’d felt as a boy, before Master Seke had given him purpose.
As if sensing his darkness, she stepped forward and laid her slender palm on his chest.
He looped an arm around her waist and
pulled her snug against his body, letting her feel how quickly his need for her regenerated. “My mother didn’t want me. She’d sent me away to live with her grandparents on Aurelia. My grandfather was the Zandian ambassador to the United Galaxies.” Aurelia was a neutral, peaceful planet, near Ocretion territory, that housed the United Galaxies.
To Cambry’s credit, she quickly hid the flash of pity that sprang to her face. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “I’m not. I wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t been a selfish beast. I would never have been trained by Master Seke, who is an incredible master of battle arts. I wouldn’t be Prince Zander’s chief of security, or a captain of the royal guard who protect and serves the prince. So being unwanted was the best thing that ever happened to me.” He heard the touch of bitterness in his voice and hated the weakness in him the wound still bore.
“Are they still alive? Your grandparents?”
He shook his head. “No. They died of old age within one planet rotation of each other about ten solar cycles ago. They couldn’t live without each other. Theirs was truly a love match.” He smiled, despite the tug of sadness still echoing through him at their loss. They’d been good to him, doing their best to raise him, despite their old age. When Master Seke had invited him to move into the palatial pod to train with the prince himself, they’d been so proud. When he pictured winning Zandia back for their species, it was for them—to honor their love of the planet from which he personally didn’t bear any happy memories.
“Why are the crystals sacred? And what bath was Lily talking about?”
“To Zandians, the crystals have life-giving properties.” He lifted the gem to his wound once more and smiled faintly as he felt its hum. “They bring a sense of peace and calm to those who touch them, and when used in windows or skylights, amplify the sun, which we require as energy to survive.”
Cambry’s smile turned teasing. “You just showed me your weak spot, warrior.”
He shook his head. “No, my weak spot is this,” he gripped her ass possessively, pulling her even tighter against his body.
“Are you going to make me the recipient of your joy again?” she purred.
His cock surged painfully against his pants, and he groaned. “Soon,” he choked against her damp hair. “Right now, I have to work.” It took all the self-control in the galaxy to release her and step away, but he did it.
Soon he would bind her to him so she and all the pod recognized what he knew to the depths of his marrow.
She belonged to him.
4
After the incredibly satisfying—in more ways than one—shower, Cambry ought to have been ready to retire to her room, but a restless energy had her loathe to stay holed up in her tiny closet until dinner. Odd. When had she ever preferred the company of strangers—or beings in general—to solitude? It had always been she and Tal with plenty of alone time in between.
Maybe she’d just take a walk around the pod. It was strange to feel so free. While she still considered herself and all the other “refugees” to be essentially prisoners, they hadn’t been treated that way. There were no curfews or restricted movements. The first time she’d walked the hall alone, yesterday, she’d been certain one of the guards would stop her, haul her back, or punish her. But none of those things had happened.
She just didn’t like leaving her little chamber unlocked. Since Lundric had smashed his fist into the control panel, there was no way to lock it from the outside. Not that she regretted the loss of the control panel in the least. She never would’ve let him lure her in there if it had still been active. It wasn’t so much she had anything to steal—although she’d guess most every refugee there would love the skin products—it was more that she’d hate to return and find someone waiting in there to ambush her. Thank the stars—and Lundric—she still had the dagger he’d given her.
She closed her door tightly and set off through the corridors. Although she had no purpose, she affected the walk of a being who did not want anyone to hail her or try to engage her. Except she wasn’t even sure that was true anymore. The beings she’d engaged with—namely Lundric and Lily—had not yet harmed her. In fact, they’d both given her gifts. A dagger and skin products might not seem like much to a Zandian, but they were the most valuable things she’d ever owned.
She walked through the row of prison cells, taking in the way they’d turned into nests. Though little had changed in architecture or even furnishings, there was a settled feel to them now. Beings talked or rested. Faces and shoulders were relaxed; chatter was easy. Like hers, their defenses had started to come down. At the end of the row, she took a right and looped back through a second row of cells.
If she’d been in one of these cells, her guard would not be down. There were too many beings, too many variables for staying safe. Lundric had truly done her a favor by providing her with her own space. But had it come at too high a cost? What were the huge alien’s expectations of her now?
Who does this tight little pussy belong to?
Did he really believe that? Or was it his form of dirty-talk during sex? Because she belonged to no male, no matter how considerate. No matter how much he made her knees weak and her core turn to molten lava.
She almost wished she hadn’t learned about his past. Seeing him as a fully dimensional being instead of just a virile young prison guard changed things. Veck, she had to see all the Zandians with a little more sympathy after hearing about the genocide of their species. Although, at least those who escaped death were free and, from the looks of it, rich. Her species was still enslaved on most planets.
She came out of the second row of cells and turned left down a corridor she didn’t know. When it dead-ended, she reversed direction and headed back. She wondered if she’d run into Lundric.
As she rounded the bend, a fist smashed into her temple, and her vision went black.
~.~
“Wake up, red.”
Her face stung with a slap. Her head screamed as she cracked her eyes and tried to make sense of her surroundings. The creepy male who’d slept near her the planet rotation she met Lundric swam into her vision.
His lips stretched into a chilling smile. “That’s right. I waited until you woke up. I prefer you awake for this.”
Her adrenaline kicked into high gear, clearing her head. She struggled to move but found herself pinned below the male. One of his hands squeezed her throat, and he straddled her waist. Her clothes were still on, thank Mother Earth.
He closed the fist around her throat enough to cut off her breath.
She struggled harder, vision turning red. Don’t panic—fight. She clawed at his hands, scraping his skin under her nails, drawing blood.
“Get...the hell off me,” she wheezed and bucked her hips, trying to dislodge him, but he weighed too much. His grin grew wider.
“Keep fighting, red. I love the struggle.” He eased his grip on her throat, and her vision returned as he let her draw a few ragged breaths.
So—a torture game.
To hell with this. She wasn’t about to let this asshole win.
Think, think! Where was she? A dark corner somewhere. Not a chamber—just a corridor.
The dagger.
Why had it taken her this long to remember her weapon? She kept up the struggle with one hand as her other swept down, searching her pocket.
Gone.
Where in the hell had it gone?
The creep choked her again, his fingers crushing her throat in a bruising grasp. She swept her hand from side to side, searching for the knife on the floor. It must have fallen out, had to be somewhere. Lundric. She found herself calling his name in her head. Her vision darkened again, lights bursting at the edges.
Hoping he didn’t plan on killing her yet, she forced her body to go prematurely limp, but before she could act, her vision went dark, and she lost consciousness again.
When she returned, a roar filled her ears, along with a horrible crunching sound. A figure loomed over
her—shadows sweeping across her vision. She coughed for air and forced her body to move. It obeyed, no longer weighed down or pinned.
As she struggled to sit, she saw Lundric’s powerful back, heard his ferocious growl. He held the human male by a broken neck and swung with unbelievable might, crushing his skull against the wall.
Shock at the gruesome violence made her croak, “Lundric...stars.”
He dropped what was left of the male to the floor in a shapeless puddle and whirled. “Cambry. You’re alive! No, don’t look.” He moved his body to block her view of the dead man.
The anguish in his expression moored her. The brittle reality of her attack and Lundric’s violence eased its choke hold. She drew a ragged breath as Lundric lunged across the distance between them to scoop her into his arms. “Holy Zandian star, Cambry,” he choked, blinking rapidly. “I thought you were vecking dead for a moment there.”
The movement of his walking made her head and neck hurt. “Slow down,” she rasped, and he immediately stopped.
“Veck. Tell me what’s wrong. Where does it hurt?”
Her hand went to her throat. “I’m all right,” she managed to say. “Bruised...that’s all.”
His walk turned slow and careful as he watched her with an intensity that warmed some of the numbness from her chest. She’d thought of Lundric in those moments of the attack—but hadn’t allowed herself to believe he’d rescue her. But he had. As he’d promised from the night they’d met, Lundric was her protector. For the first time since Tal was taken from her, she didn’t feel so horribly alone in the universe.
She touched his face. She didn’t want to speak, nor would she know what to say if she did.
He leaned into her touch, lids drooping. “Cambry.” He spoke it like a prayer, a lament, and an invocation all at once.
“Cambry.”
~.~
He’d like to kill that human a million times over. But thank the stars—thank the stars—Cambry was alive. When he’d arrived to find her lifeless on the floor beneath the male, his vision had turned red. No thoughts ran through his mind, only the blind instinct to kill.
