by V T Bonds
I sigh in displeasure as the dry cycle makes my hair poof out in every direction.
His chuckle makes me want to melt into a puddle at his feet.
Maybe I already have?
I’ve climbed mountains, murdered men, and deceived my way out of deadly situations and had more energy afterwards than this.
I want my nest, with my lifemate in it, right now.
“Minette.”
I look up into his white pupils.
“All that’s left is for you to build it.”
I must have dozed for a moment because he stands beside our old nest. The mattress, lower than the floor, already has a mound of stale blankets so thick it almost reaches level to the step.
I sigh and nod, fighting the urge to rub my temple. A dull throb threatens to bloom into a tsunami of agony, but hopefully with a few hours of sleep it’ll go away.
He sits on the floor, knowing better than to disrupt the cocoon I left behind.
I roll out of his lap and slink into the pit of cold fabric.
Pushing everything to the foot of the bed, I strip the mattress and purr as a fresh sheet lands beside me.
“Thank you, my love,” I murmur, unable to look away from my task but wanting to praise him for his intuitiveness.
After what seems like forever, I wrangle the sheet over the mattress and start pulling the innards of my old nest free. The most fragrant fabrics get laid out flat for us to lay on, followed by a puffy border of pillows before I plop a few fresh clouds around the head of the bed.
I stop to breathe through a weird wave of nausea, but the second it subsides, the soft quilt in my hand captures my focus.
Building a proper nest never resonated with me. During training, lifetimes ago, before I knew the cruelties of reality, I took pride in how many ways I could prepare a nest.
I tossed out that training five years ago.
I’ll never make a nest for anyone other than myself and my lifemate. There’s no need to analyze or force myself to arrange the blankets a certain way.
Letting instinct guide me and accepting the energy behind my Alpha’s deep rumble, I stack, fluff, and layer until satisfaction rolls through me.
Not bothering to shuffle around under the covers, I plop down in the center.
“Draukir.”
“Yes, my firecracker?”
“Please. Here. With me.”
A heavy throb in my temple makes me squint as he slides into my nest, but it eases as he gathers me against his side.
“Always, Minette. I will always be here with you.”
I snuggle into him, sinking into happiness as tendrils of exhaustion suck me down toward sleep.
“I love you, Draukir.”
“I know. Sleep, my little Red. I’ll be here when you wake.”
With his fingers stroking along my scalp and his soul woven within mine, I slip into a dreamless, restful sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Draukir
One second I lay in bliss, cocooned away from the world with my lifemate.
The next, I stare into a stunning chocolate-colored face and piercing lavender eyes.
Her unblinking stare makes my gut tighten and my hackles rise, but my body stays wrapped around my firecracker in repose.
The strange woman lifts an eyebrow before turning to Minette.
I lunge as though to intercept her, but as dreams sometimes do, my movements start on a delay and happen in slow motion.
Before my foot lifts from the ground, she approaches my lifemate with a familiar swagger.
The swing of her hips follows the pattern of my own mate so closely I scramble to understand the meaning behind the correlation.
Glowing purple arms wrap around her white-clad back as the two Omegas embrace.
It clicks.
Still stuck in slow motion, I sweep my eyes toward my lifemate’s hidden nest and see the blankets scattered about as though someone burst out from underneath it.
This is the woman my firecracker has been safeguarding for years.
As my bare foot finally retouches the ground, they straighten and hold each other’s shoulders.
Minette’s mouth opens and she speaks, but not to me. She uses the language I do not understand, the one older than words and more complex than I can comprehend.
The panic running through me slows as my initial reaction fades away, yet agitation refuses to leave as my lifemate does not acknowledge me.
I force myself to calm, sensing the monumental change shifting through my lifemate.
Her eyes harden.
She lifts her palm and strokes the Omega’s face in a gentle, intimate caress.
Confusion pulses through me.
Too frustrated with the slow-motion effect, I dig my heels into the ground and straighten my shoulders, taking up the most imposing stance I can.
Tendrils of feminine reassurance weave into my soul, and I fill my lungs with her delicious scent and hold in the urge to growl.
They speak a few more incomprehensible words before turning in unison to face me.
My gut clenches as their intense eyes study me.
The dark-skinned Omega gives a slight nod before turning back to my lifemate. She slips her palms down Minette’s bare arms until they clasp fingers together.
The sight stuns me.
Dark and light weaves together in beautiful sisterhood, too pure for my immoral eyes to sully. I swallow down the sudden lump in my throat as I stand in awe of their friendship.
My Omega sends a note of happiness through our link, the vague sensation of home growing as we stand in this strange Omega’s presence.
Between one breath and the next, the woman’s apparition disappears and my lifemate stands alone.
Only, she isn’t alone. The violet-eyed female’s presence lingers, no longer so abstract I must search to find her.
She’s everywhere.
The nest in the corner pulses with life, the connection stronger than before.
Minette walks to the bond and drapes a single threadbare sheet over it. She stays crouched beside it for a moment, hovering her fingers on the edge of the blanket before rising and looking over her shoulder at me.
Her smirk makes the ground fall out from under me, causing my stomach to drop into my toes.
“Draukir.”
Her mouth doesn’t move around the syllables, and in my frozen state it takes me a moment to realize my ears pick up the sounds, not my internal self.
Half-stuck in this in-between world, I breathe in her perfect perfume and watch as she saunters toward me.
Her naked body makes my mouth water, the sway of her hips making my palms itch to touch her.
“Wake up, my Ikavuan warrior.”
With her seductive whisper ghosting against my ear, I open my eyes to see her staring down into my face.
“We have a new mission to accomplish.”
She runs her hands over my shoulders.
“But first I need you inside me.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Minette
Fire courses through me as awareness flicks into his alabaster pupils. Lust and pride shine through his alert eyes, for even though he doesn’t have the answers I do, he trusts me.
I heap tons of thrilled love into our bond, my heart glad to be so free.
Between his cleansing of my past and the purpose given to me by my friend, I feel rejuvenated and alive not only in my soul, but also in each cell making up my body.
His thick length hardens under me. I flex my hips in a slow glide, loving the way his pupils eat up his bright purple irises.
“Then let’s not keep you waiting. Firecrackers aren’t known for their patience.”
He grabs my breast with one hand while darting his other into my hair. With a quick tug, he pulls my face up to his.
I moan as he devours my lips, licking and sucking every centimeter before delving into my mouth.
With a few flicks of his tongue, he incites me
so much I slick all over his abdomen.
He chuckles while still invading my mouth, destroying my attempt at controlling the situation.
After tugging my hair and awakening every follicle in my scalp, he smooths his hand down my side and grabs my ass.
I wiggle as he lines his massive girth up to my entrance, sliding his mushroom tip in my juices and stimulating my swollen folds.
In one brutal thrust, he buries himself to the hilt, making my core erupt in euphoric waves. I sink my nails into his chest, needing to hold on to him while I fly apart.
He pulls back, rubbing his diabolical ridges along my sensitive G-spot, and I throw my head back in ecstatic bliss. My hair streaks out along the top of our nest, adding another layer to my cocoon.
Soaring through the clouds as he pummels me again and again, I savor the snippets my brain relays to my overwhelmed mind.
His fingertips dig into the flesh of my ass. Our pheromones fill the dark and cozy space I created. Wetness coats my thighs as his dick pistons in and out of me. His growls of pleasure and lewd slapping fill my ears as our bodies crash against each other over and over again.
Warmth trickles over my fingers seconds before the most alluring scent steals my attention.
He snarls and crams himself as far into me as possible, his knot ballooning behind my pelvic bone and forcing my womb to contract in an unrelenting orgasm.
I plaster my front to his torso and sink my teeth into the flesh beside my fingers, called to the liquid seeping out from where my nails puncture him.
Our joined souls dance in glee, the bond between us filling with blinding light.
After enjoying a few swallows of his aphrodisiac, I lap at my bite mark and the little cuts from my nails.
Still locked together by his knot and cocooned in the comfort of our nest, I wiggle on his chest, trying to burrow even closer somehow.
He wraps a fist around my chaotic hair and pulls me up. I moan in ecstasy as he sinks his fangs into my breast, restructuring the pain of my past and covering the scar with a fresh claiming mark.
Tears drip from my chin as I struggle to breathe, his massive knot making my womb expand around the seed flowing from his cock as my veins soak up his venom.
I sink into heaven, surrounded and impaled by my Alpha, knowing I’ll never be rid of my past, but no longer fearful to face it.
Nothing matters except loving my lifemate with every fiber of my being.
We float on clouds together, knowing when we wake a new season begins in our lives.
We have answers to find.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Draukir
I stick my arm out and brace for impact, clotheslining the man around his neck and watching as he falls to his back.
The tiny shavings littering the floor poof out around him as he creates a mini crater on the old industrial floor.
I stare down into terrified eyes as the Beta male struggles to breathe.
A tug on the link in my chest tells me of her arrival. With such stealth my senses strain to pinpoint her location, she slinks out of the darkness and props her shoulder against the doorframe.
If it weren’t for our bond, I would be hard-pressed to know she was there.
“You didn’t get very far, did you?” she says, startling the Beta so hard he lets out a wheeze and flops about on the floor.
“I told you not to run.”
She sighs as he tries to roll onto his hands and knees.
I stop him by planting the sole of my boot on his stomach.
“All you have to do is answer the damn question. How long ago did you desert your post?”
The man under my boot shakes so hard his teeth clack together as he opens his mouth a few times.
On his fourth attempt, he squeaks out a few syllables.
“Two years.”
I meet my Omega’s eyes and watch the calculation play over her features.
“Good, then you can answer a few more questions,” she purrs, the menace dripping from her tone making lava boil in my spine.
We’ve been searching for ways to infiltrate the large vessel floating through the Junitan Galaxy for a year now, yet we haven’t made it past their security.
We’ve been successful in other endeavors, but this one seems the most difficult.
We’re messing with a conniving, dangerous organization, so we must take extreme care with each move.
Every time we leave our den, I look forward to moments like this.
I love watching her in action. She’s a thing of beauty, no matter what she’s doing, but when she shows her strength and skills, I burn for her.
“How involved with the planet Mai’CuS were you?”
When his pupils shrink in terror, satisfaction flies through our link.
Finally, we may have found the weak link we’ve been searching for.
Chapter Thirty
Minette
I trace the edge of the little beacon with my thumb, careful to avoid the emergency button on the side.
I made a few alterations to its programming.
Wiping the relay so the originators can’t track it required three days of concentration, but the tiny device holds too much potential to destroy.
Every day it seems more important, and I try to hide my mini-obsession with it, even though I know it’s pointless.
My Alpha knows everything about me.
Our bond has morphed since my friend burst through the protective nest I’d smothered her in.
It’s been ten years since then, each second devoted to loving my lifemate and continuing our risky endeavors, and our strengthened bond proves more of an asset every day.
His mental nudge makes me pull my hand away from the beacon.
I sigh and turn to quirk my brow at him.
He crosses his arms in front of his chest, making my core throb in need.
This is taking too long.
I swipe my glove across the screen and count the seconds as they tick by.
The stiff white lab coat’s collar scratches at my neck, reminiscent of the collar I wore on the slave market’s stage, but I ignore it.
A picture flashes through my mind—not my own, the angle is off—and I swallow the emotions roiling in my guts.
A light flickers on the little storage device plugged into the server, and I memorize what’s on the display, just in case.
I respond to the pride swelling in my chest.
It doesn’t belong to me, even though I reciprocate tenfold.
I snap an invisible warning at my lifemate. Now is not the time to relive memories.
Deep in the belly of our enemy’s floating fortress, we’re in too much danger to be focusing on our past.
I pull the mini storage drive free and pass it to the hulking purple beast standing by the hatch.
He touches my cheek with a fingertip before turning and stalking out of the room.
Walking the opposite direction proves difficult, but I take comfort in the open line of communication between us.
Words and direct thoughts don’t relay very well, but emotions and flashes of information flow between us, so much stronger than the first five years of our union.
It all has to do with my friend’s predicament.
I turn the corner and pull a small tablet from my coat pocket, popping the pen free and scribbling nonsensical notes as I weave through the halls.
As I make my way to the more populated areas, I act as though I’ve finished writing my findings and slip the pen back into the sleeve, furrowing my brow like there’s something worrying me.
A Beta with thick glasses looks me up and down, but I ignore him.
I turn the corner into a seemingly deserted corridor, shuffling my feet as though I’ve never had to hide anything in my life.
When I reach the touchpad next to the locked door, I tap in the code I memorized from the bottom corner of the server screen.
The door swishes open and I continue down the hall.
Acting like the blast of air from the overhead vent bothers me, I smooth my hand over my wig and tuck the hair behind my ear.
Before dropping my hand to my side, I reach under my wig and pluck a single vibrantly red strand out of my scalp.
Shuffling past the door with the other number I memorized from the server screen, I drop the rogue hair, watching it land on the ledge of the small opening reminiscent of a mail slot.
It isn’t for mail.
It’s the only way the room’s occupant has access to the outside world.
I know she senses me, the same way I sense her—through the spiderweb of souls branching out from the Omega I hold closest to my heart.
Ice creeps up my spine as I fight the urge to unlock her door and take her with me.
I can’t. There’s no way we’d make it through security. Her DNA would set off every alarm on the ship.
No, my best friend’s mother must be released by her captors.
But I can let her know there’s a plan in place.
She remembers me, but there’s no love lost between us.
I’m here, deep in the bowels of the ISC’s massive transport, for Evie, not for the heartless woman locked on the other side of the door.
Ties are ties. Love is love.
Evie loves her mother, despite how cold and heartless her decisions have been in the past.
Unable to slow my steps or give any hint I know who’s locked in the room, I continue down the hall and turn toward the front of the ship.
Whoever designed the maze of corridors knew what they were doing—everything looks the same except the numbers on the doors.
I go through another hatch locked by a touchpad, then weave through a few more halls before slipping into the room I left almost an hour ago.
Locking the door behind me, I go straight to the vent under the bed and unscrew the fastening.
Once the grill lays on the floor, I pop to my feet and turn on the computer sitting on the tiny desk.
Three minutes later, I finish sending the encrypted message and wipe the day’s events clean. I hang the lab coat where I found it, checking it has no evidence of my wear, and crawl into the vent.
