by Vi Voxley
"I was going to," Zoey said. "Brions clean up planets all the time. I'm sure we can find one that is willing to accept the Yemalan. Of course, they have to make promises as well. If they don't want to get along with us, they might find Brion warships hovering above them very soon."
The chieftain nodded.
"Then it's settled," he said. "Don't worry about my position. It's not the first unpopular move I make and it won't be the last."
Zoey guessed that was fair. She had been with the Corgans for only a week, but it was clear they were able to take care of themselves.
Leaving the warlords to discuss boring matters like the severed heads of their enemies, Zoey walked with Mara.
"To be honest, I'd prefer dealing with the Corgan lords," she said, smiling. "You know what the Union is like. Compared to the council, a rampaging warlord is nothing."
"What did I tell you?" Mara asked, grinning. "They're not so bad once you get to know them."
"Daegon already asked the chieftain, but I'm asking you," Zoey said. "Did you know there would be something between us?"
Mara became serious for a moment and inclined her head slowly.
"I think so," she said.
"You think so?" Zoey asked. "How's that?"
"We were walking the shrine," Mara explained, "me and Nadar. You remember, you saw it on the beach? And sometimes people see visions there.”
"Don't tell me you believe that," Zoey said, surprised.
"I don't," Mara admitted. "But we really saw something odd that day. A longhaired girl and a figure that reminded Nadar of Daegon. So when the Union sent you here to conduct the negotiations, he figured, why not. We may not believe in the power of the shrine, but he for sure does. And here we are."
Zoey considered that. Could it be that she and Daegon were meant to meet? Meant to fall in love?
"What do you think it really was?" she asked.
Mara chuckled.
"Who knows?" she said. "That's the thing with the shrine. It's in broad daylight, next to the gleaming sun. It's often hard to tell what you see. Some have visions, but it could also be wishful thinking and all that. There are those who claim to see something in the waves. The couple we saw was walking right in front of us, and when we exited the shrine, I swear they looked nothing like you. So I guess it was a mirage."
"A mirage that worked," Zoey said.
"Yes," Mara replied. "As for me, I take the offerings of the shrine as they are. I don't know if it works. Maybe it only does if you want it to. But aren't you glad that it did?"
Glancing at Daegon, still talking to the chieftain, Zoey smiled.
"Very much so," she admitted.
"What are you going to do now?" Mara asked.
"I was thinking that while I figure things out with the chieftain and the Yemalan, I could stay here," Zoey said. "I really like Gaiya. It's gorgeous. And I could talk to you. I have so much to learn."
"Of course," Mara said immediately, beaming. "I would be so glad to have you here. There are Terrans on Gaiya too, but I guess they think I'm a bit weird. And you can babysit. I miss my fighter so much. Maybe after she's born Nadar will tell me where he hid my ship."
Zoey laughed.
"Gladly," she promised. "If you promise to teach me about the Corgans."
Mara sighed dramatically.
"Oh, the Corgans are nothing," she said. "Spend a little while with them and they start to make sense to you. A Corgan warlord is a whole other matter. The fact that bastard actually hid my ship should tell you everything."
Her words might have sounded weird for someone in love, but the looks Zoey had seen Mara send the chieftain told her everything she needed to know about that reltionship.
And, besides, "Daegon said he'd lock me up the next time there's a war."
"I read his account of what happened," Mara said, grinning. "I wouldn't put it past him."
"Are they always like that?"
"Only with us," Mara said, suddenly serious. "That's the thing. You get the whole package, all the good in Corgans and their over-protectiveness too. And you can't even be mad at them, because they love you so much."
Zoey smiled, nodding. Her thoughts exactly.
They had reached a small balcony on the side of the Citadel, walking outside and standing in the blinding daylight.
She hadn't asked for any of it, but life had given her everything she had never known she wanted. All the things she'd been through, fighting without knowing full well for what – it had definitely been worth it.
Epilogue
Zoey
Gaiya was actually named Gaiya now.
Zoey considered it quite funny that the more time she spent with Corgans, the more it became "the holy world" for her. The Union-given name started to sound odd. She had fought very hard to keep both names, making sure that every Corgan that didn't want to accept the new name didn't have to. They just needed to know what it referred to.
Several months had passed and life had, as Mara James had warned her, escalated very quickly. Everything that had been good before was great now and what had been annoying was now so frustrating that Zoey was sincerely considering sending the clans to kick some sense into the Union.
Mostly the great meant Daegon.
Like a proper Terran girl, Zoey had considered all the ways a relationship built on fiery passion could go to hell. All the signs were there, after all – the damsel in distress, the stunning savior, the danger, the thrills. A part of her had waited for it to simmer down, hoping against hope that it wouldn't.
Zoey didn't know whether the spirits had answered her or whether they were truly meant to be, but the heat between them had only grown stronger.
And not the desire alone. Zoey had found that Daegon came to see her whenever he could, and she answered with the same. Both of them were traveling a lot, trying to fix what Arboc had broken. She with the Union and Daegon with his clan, but he was more than willing to turn a whole army around to come and sleep next to her.
In those moments, lust was not the main factor. Often Zoey simply rested her head against the warlord's wide chest and stayed there until the troubles of the world went away. Or Daegon came to her, ready to go and murder one of the clan lords, but after holding her in his arms, he calmed down and let them live.
Not to say that sex was absent from their life, on the contrary. Zoey had gotten used to Corgan passion, which didn't care about time or place or propriety. She had discovered she no longer bothered with those things either. Of course, she didn't lift up her skirts in the middle of a negotiation, but after the doors had closed behind the clan lords, sure.
If only to work off Daegon's fury.
Unfortunately, the same proportionality applied to her working relationship with the Union. As she and Mara James had figured, the council was even worse than the clan lords. Zoey felt more and more compassionate towards the chieftain every day, having to drag the Union somewhere it didn't particularly want to go.
They had wanted Corgans – a proud, if temperamental species. The council figured that if they could deal with Brions, Corgans were a piece of cake. The Yemalan were an unpleasant surprise to them.
That's cute, Zoey had thought, hearing that opinion voiced in not those exact words. The thing is, Brions are ruled by their elders. If they want to be in the Union, the generals fall in line. But what passes for the Corgan ruling body is made up of headstrong, self-centered assholes.
Like the Union, she didn't phrase her response in that exact way. Besides, there were exceptions, like the chieftain and Daegon. Everyone else, it seemed to her, were doing their damn best to be as backward as possible.
"No matter," the chieftain had said, smiling, when she had complained about them. "They will come around."
"Do you mean the clan lords or the council?" she asked, joking.
"Both," Nadar Brenger said. "They will kick and scream, but we will drag them to the future whether they want it or not."
Mara James, on the other hand, was one of t
he better parts of her life. Together they managed to convince the council that they had to honor Zoey's promise to the Yemalan. That's where things got really tricky.
The council was okay with whining over Corgans – that they had been prepared for, and Zoey had seen it coming as well. It was like that with every new species. The induction into the Union had to go step by step. No species had ever accepted the Union's authority with glee.
"I wonder if they believed Corgans would greet them with flowers," Mara said.
At least Zoey had the Palians on her side, and luckily, a Palian was also at the head of the Galactic Union's council. That was, in her modest opinion, the smartest decision the council had made in ages. She was also under the firm impression that it hadn't actually been a collective decision at all.
The Palians did what had to be done for the sake of the galaxy, and sometimes that involved not listening to the stupid and the unreasonable.
Which was why they got along famously with her. The moment the first voice dared to say that maybe the Yemalan didn't deserve a place in the galaxy, a heavy silence had set. Zoey and Mara had spent an entire evening reading the memo over and over, unable to stop laughing.
As she'd noted before, the Palians were kind, but not pushovers. They stood for the rights of every living, breathing soul. And after Zoey had gotten the promise to behave out of the Yemalan, their side had been chosen.
The more she talked to the raiders, the more she realized how much history had been built on not communicating in any way. It turned out they didn't hate the Corgans, not in that sense at least. They were bound to be a bit touchy about them after centuries of bloodshed, but their main issue was that they considered the Corgans world-hoarders.
They didn't really care about what the world they were promised was like. As Zoey had put it, they wanted a piece of rock in space to call their own, a ground to step on and name it home. That was something the Palians believed was the right of every species.
So, the one voice that suggested the opposite was drowned out by intense listening. After the silence had stretched and become suffocating, the Palian delegation spoke up.
Again, those were not the words they used, but the point was clear, "Do not forget who builds your factories, who teaches your healers, who manages most of the technology you use. Do not forget who knows the secrets of every species in the galaxy but chooses not to reveal them."
Yeah, Zoey thought, reading the memo. Good does not always mean kind.
But after months of trying to push the council to do her bidding, it finally seemed to be moving. As she'd predicted, the Brions knew several suitable worlds on the edges of the Union.
When Zoey presented the Yemalan with options, they were so stunned that she had to call the meeting off. They had never considered the possibility of choice. The concept was entirely new to them. In the end, it took them a week of consulting between their higher officers to make a decision.
Zoey let them pick a name for their new home and then designated it Yemal in the official records, because their damn language was impossible to speak without coughing.
And yet that victory paled compared to Daegon. Everything did.
* * *
"You have to go already?" Daegon asked, lounging on their bed.
Zoey sent him a sad look. Daylight seeped in through the windows, lighting his perfect, muscled body. Her legs still hurt from their passionate lovemaking. It felt weird to call it that, but the word suited.
No matter how long they hadn't seen each other, whether it was five minutes or five days, Daegon always had her in his arms the second they were left alone. His strong hands peeled the clothes off Zoey's body, uncaring of what he broke. She had often called him the reason she didn't have favorite clothes, or in fact any she could wear more than three times.
Now that she thought of it, Mara James also appeared to have an endless wardrobe.
She let her eyes wonder over Daegon's chiseled abs, nearly licking her lips when her gaze stopped on his cock, already half-hard again. It really was a miracle she was able to walk after taking that.
"I do," she said, regret plain in her voice. "I promised Mara to look after Yeva. She needs a night alone with Nadar."
"You would think the bride of the chieftain has people who could do that," Daegon pointed.
"She does," Zoey said, spinning out of his way when he tried to grab her and pull her back to bed. "But Yeva likes me, you know that. And I want some experience before..."
She trailed off. Daegon sat up on the bed, staring at her with wide eyes. Zoey smiled.
"Damn, that was not how I planned it," she said as the warlord stood and walked over to her. "I wanted to tell you in a special way, over dinner or walking on the ocean shore or –"
"I love you," Daegon said, his blue amber eyes burning with passion. "You are so beautiful, and this is perfect."
"I love you too," Zoey whispered, still caught off guard every time she was reminded of what divine happiness she held. "And you're only saying the other stuff because I'm almost naked."
"How dare you," Daegon growled huskily, kissing her neck. "You're entirely naked."
He timed that sentence with ripping the dress Zoey had been planning on wearing. All protests died on her lips when Daegon's lips met hers, demanding and loving at the same time. His hands caressed her face and dug deep into her long hair, gently, sweetly letting her know that she belonged to him.
She did already, of course, just as she knew that he belonged to her with everything that he was. That was the Corgan way of living, never doing anything halfway, giving everything or nothing, and Zoey truly had all of him.
The warlord slipped a hand between her legs, pressing two fingers into her wet pussy. Zoey moaned, everything else forgotten in a second. Yeva would find another sitter, and Mara would most definitely understand.
Her moan turned into a small scream when Daegon scissored his fingers inside her expertly, driving her insane just the way he knew she liked. So soon after her last orgasm, her pussy was tender and overly sensitive, but hungry for more.
She answered by grasping his cock, giving it a few strong tugs. Daegon growled, throwing her on her back on the bed and climbing on top of her. They didn't bother with much preparation. Zoey needed him too much – she could take the edge of pain along with the mind-blowing ecstasy.
She bit down on Daegon's shoulder when he entered her, crying out when he began to move. The warlord kissed her, tasting her like they hadn't shared a thousand kisses already, always like the first time. She spread her legs for him, feeling his rock hard cock plunge deep into her, claiming her once more.
Zoey lost track of time and space, becoming the center of her own star, at least that's how it seemed in the throes of pleasure. Spirits or gods, fate or coincidence – no matter what had brought Daegon to her, it had been the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Now that there was going to be three of them, and as her cries of pleasure filled the room, Zoey knew it would only get better.
Also by Vi Voxley
Did you miss the previous book in the series? Check it out here:
Nadar: 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 Vi’s next book, Soros: Alien Warlord’s Conquest, on the next page!
Soros: Alien Warlord’s Conquest Excerpt
Soros was nowhere to be seen, but Kat had her eyes on something much be
tter. The speeder. And safely strapped to its side, the cursed Corgan rifle that had taken her fighter down.
Frowning, she judged the distance. If she could only reach it, her chances would approve a lot. Surely even Soros would have to think twice before pursuing someone with transport and a weapon.
It was too tempting. As best as she could, Kat prepared and then was up and running. Her body felt stiff, but she was moving.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Soros. Just standing there, two trees away from her. And if her eyes weren't deceiving her, the bastard was smiling. She could have sworn on her life that he’d walked at least a hundred feet from her. Did he fly back? The forest ground was covered with leaves and sticks, she would have heard him move back, right?
Kat didn't stop to ask. She didn't stop at all, not until she reached the bike. On the run, her mind was frantically trying to make the right choice in a completely fucked up situation.
Which should I go for? The bike or the rifle? The rifle.
Kat had studied Corgan technology, along with their favored speeders. It took her only a second to release the gun and turn around and…
Soros was there.
I didn't hear you move! her wounded pride objected.
But it was no use. Soros was standing right in front of her, close enough that she could poke him in the chest with the rifle. There was no fear in his deep blue eyes. Kat had no idea why, but she found that to be incredibly sexy.
It took her a moment to remind herself that developing a crush on the man who was going to murder her to hell and back very soon was not a good idea.
"Step back," she ordered with as much force as she could muster.
The most dangerous man in the Corgan realm tilted his head a bit, a small smirk on his lips.
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