He growls again and picks me up, landing us both on the bed. He makes room for himself between my thighs, his purple gaze piercing mine. “You don’t know how much I’ve been holding back.” His voice is filled with agony and desire. “How much I want you. To be my mate.”
The he crushes my mouth with his.
Pleasure floods me as our tongues stroke each other, and my hands reach up to tangle in his long hair, pulling him closer. The kiss is demanding, our mouths mating desperately, both of us fueled by fear and desperation. And desire.
And love.
He said he loved me. I hadn’t missed that.
With one hand, he strokes the side of my face, my neck, my collarbone, tracing my curves as if committing them to memory.
His body moves against mine as his kisses me, stroking me from head to toe. Before long I’m writhing beneath him, caressing his ears and the back of his neck with my fingers.
His mouth follows his questing hand, sending shivers down my body as his lips and tongue caress my neck. He takes my earlobe in his mouth, suckling it, playing with it, his breath warming me and making me shiver at the same time.
His hands go to my waist, hooking his fingers into my skirt and panties. He moves down between them and trails kisses down the inside of my leg as he pulls them off. As he moves back up, he brings my legs with him, keeping them over his shoulders.
His tongue traces circles on the inside of my thigh. It’s too hot, I can’t hold still. His large hand holds me down as he breathes in my scent. With any other man, I might feel embarrassed, but the look on his face is one of ecstasy.
He doesn’t prepare me, but goes straight for the button of my pleasure with his tongue, seeking, tormenting me with sensation. His arms clamp around my thighs, one hand still on my stomach and I can’t move, can’t breathe, can feel only what he’s doing.
My skin burns, its sensitivity heightened by his saliva, and the sounds coming from me are uncontrollable, the pleasure all-consuming. He’s eager, his tongue stroking up and down, back and forth, and when he slides a finger inside me, I come apart in a thousand shards of sparkling light.
He slides up my body and takes my mouth again, and when his thick shaft slides into me, my muscles flutter around him.
I almost come again, but focus on moving with him, kissing him, touching his mating marks. Now he’s the one groaning, begging, sliding in and out with thrusts of his pelvis that move against me at just the right angle.
It’s too good. I can’t stand it.
I close my eyes and give in to the pleasure, reveling in the way he shudders as his thrusts against me become less controlled.
The peak hits me again in a wave of light, and my legs clench around him, my arms pull him close, and he finally gives in and comes, shuddering, giving several hard thrusts of his hips as my muscles clench around him.
I still don’t exactly know what he means when he says I’m his mate.
But I do know what it is to love.
Juordin is the man I’ve been waiting for.
And even though he doesn’t know it yet, even though he’s prepared to die because his scientists say it’s over, I’m not going to let him go.
4
Juordin
A deep voice cuts through static, interrupting my warm, blissful sleep. “Juordin, come in.”
There’s a slight pause.
“Juordin, come in, please.”
My eyes open instantly, my arm tightening around the small body snuggled against me. She wakes and I plant a kiss on her cheek. I want to hold her, to spend time with her. Because I know when we arrive on my planet my time won’t be my own.
“Juordin, come in, please.”
I realize why I woke and throw back the covers, springing across the room to the screen to press the button. My father’s face appears.
“Father,” I address him formally. “Good to hear from you.”
“And you.” His eyes search my face briefly, then he clears his throat. “You didn’t return yesterday.”
I nod. “Yes, I was held up by an Ardak invasion on Lla’ei.”
“No!” His fist pounds the table in front of him. “Those damn overgrown hairballs are going to take over everything.” He pauses, visibly collecting himself. “Actually, that’s why I’m contacting you. Unfortunately, this is not a social call.”
“Ahh…” I search frantically for my shirt. “Please give us a second, Father.”
“Us?” His voice booms over the speakers.
“Yes, just a moment.” I flip the switch to turn off our camera and turn back to Ande’ie, grinning when I see she’s wisely chosen to hide herself under the covers. I motion for her to get dressed, as well, and she springs out of bed more quickly than I had.
It seems to take forever for us to make ourselves presentable. Before turning the camera back on, I look at her rosy cheeks and lips swollen from my kisses, and realize everyone will know what we’ve been doing.
Nothing I can do about that now.
I flip the switch and his face comes into view again.
“Father, I would like you to meet Ande’ie, princess of Leitar.”
It’s clear my father doesn’t know what to say and, if circumstances were less dire, I would probably laugh. It’s rare to find my father speechless. He looks between us, and I can tell he has a million questions.
Later, I mouth to him.
He finally nods once, and pushes a button so the camera view widens. Two members of the science council, two from the medical council, and two from the high council sit at the table behind him.
Ande’ie turns a shade of red I never thought possible as her gaze slides down the line of people staring at her in my shirt and little else.
“We have made a discovery that we think can help us take down the Ardaks.”
My heart lightens for a moment. Then I realize what he said. “Not a cure for the toxin.”
“No. But maybe we can take the damn cats with us when we go.”
I tighten my fists. At least that’s something. “What is the discovery?”
“With the few prisoners we had, we found that their exoskeletons run a type of programming, and we’ve been working to reverse engineer it. The landers we were able to get into also run on the same programming, and there seems to be communication between them. We want to hack into their systems and introduce a program that will destroy their systems.”
“What’s the timeline?”
“Well, the program is almost complete. We tested it on our Ardak prisoners. But unfortunately, the last died before we could really be sure it would work. We need more cats to test it on.
“That’s why we need you. You can lead a team to capture a few more cats so we can test it.” He leans forward. “You know we need you specifically because the other teams just kill them. We need some alive.”
This is the closest we’ve come to taking down these hairballs. I have to do it. But I also have to keep my mate safe.
I run a hand through my hair. “We’ll be there in less than three hours.”
His gaze flicks to the bed behind us and his mouth quirks up at the corners. “I trust you will be well rested. Can you lead a team tonight?”
“Of course,” I reply, ignoring his humorous undertone.
“We’ll see you then.”
“Juordin, out.”
I run my fingers through my hair. I’m leading a mission. Tonight. I’ll need to make sure Ande’ie is occupied so she doesn’t sit around worrying. Perhaps I’ll leave her with my sister.
I’m happy to lead the team, to do something, but I know I’m going to lose men. The cats are fierce, brutal. I see their fangs in my nightmares. Hear the screams of my men as their limbs and abdomens are ripped apart.
I shudder, and Ande puts her arms around me.
“Do you need anything else from me right now?” she asks. “I’d like to spend the next few hours watching more vids to catch up.”
I kiss her and look down at the b
ed in mock sorrow. “No, go on and watch your vids.” I smack her on the butt as she turns to leave.
She laughs. “I’m sure we’ll still have time for that.”
I roll my eyes. “You don’t know my father.”
5
Ande’ie
“Here we are, my little warrioress.”
Despite everything, Juordin sounds relieved to be home.
I stare out the viewscreen and try to mask my horror. The red tinge from the toxin is still visible. The entire planet is almost as dark today as the plumes of toxin they are releasing on Lla’ei.
I look to Juordin. His face is pale, his eyes filled with pain.
A desire to touch him flows through me, to take away his hurt. But I have a better idea.
Maybe distraction will work. “I had heard the theory that planets were round. But I had never thought to see it for myself.”
He barks a startled laugh, and I grin. Despite all the horror, I feel a twinge of excitement at going to another planet. Especially one with space flight and computers. What other amazing technologies would they have? I can’t even begin to imagine.
When we descend into the atmosphere, the air becomes a haze of red. But we can still see through it. As we get closer, I can see other flying craft of varying sizes. “Does everyone fly on your planet?”
Juordin nods, then puts a finger to his lips for silence. He flips a switch. “Tuorin command, come in, please.”
“Tuorin command here, please identify.”
“This is J100, en route to the garden grove.”
There is a pause. “Acknowledged, J100. Flight path is cleared for landing, proceed en route to your destination.” Another brief pause. “And welcome home, sir.”
“Thank you, Tuorin command. J100, out.”
I barely listen to the exchange. I’m on my knees on the seat, looking this way and that, marveling at the city below. It looks as if many of the buildings are underground. Grass and trees grow over the tops of them, leaving only their front entrances visible. There are few roads, but many square landing and docking places that denote the entrances.
“Do you want to see the palace?” Juordin points out the front of the viewscreen.
It isn’t buried. A large hill rises up in front of us, and a castle made from stone with a slightly pink tinge seems to rise up from it. The roofs are made of copper, but copper that has become discolored into varying shades of turquoise over time.
One long, stone walkway leads to the main entrance, which is covered by a huge arch on the second level. Buildings continue off to the side of the arch in a large circle, and gardens stretch before the great arch in a huge half-moon.
But beneath the half-moon garden is another level, walkways stretching out on either side of it, graduating into buildings that disappear into the cliffs.
We fly over the arch and inside I see a huge stadium, great arches of copper extending over it, stone steps rising on all sides reminiscent of a coliseum. The inside space is obviously used for landing, however, and Juordin maneuvers the lander between two of the copper arcs.
He turns to me, obviously waiting for my reaction.
“It’s too beautiful for words,” I state simply. “The city, the palace…I wouldn’t know where to begin. But it’s beautiful beyond imagining.”
He seems pleased with my response and rises, pulling me off my knees. “Next time, you need to wear the protection belt.”
“I couldn’t have seen anything if I did that,” I protest. “The view was too great.”
“I’ll let it slide, this time.” He winks.
He opens the door and we exit the craft. Several men in uniforms cross the platform and begin to unload the lander.
I feel a terrible twinge of guilt. The fresh fruit and vegetables he was bringing back for his people might not be that fresh now.
“Don’t worry about it. The compartment was kept fairly cold, so most of the food should still be good. Our people will be grateful for anything now.”
I follow him through the outer doors and through several sets of columns until the space opened into a grand entrance. Marbled tile floor gave way to marbled steps, leading farther inward, and several white statues were present at regular intervals between the columns.
People nodded to Juordin as we passed, and stared at me curiously.
I’m starting to wonder what exactly Juordin does. I assumed from the vids and from his father’s call that he’s a soldier. But from the deference they’re showing, I guess it’s one of rank.
No time to ask, though, because we turn down a hall and he taps three times on the first door on the left. He enters without waiting for an answer.
There is a round table in the center, filled with both men and women.
“I apologize for our lateness, Father.” Juordin addresses the entire table with an incline of his head. “This is Ande’ie, princess of Leitar. Her planet, Lla’ei, has also been invaded by the Ardaks and inflicted with red dust.”
A murmur goes around the table, and I can tell by the looks that it’s one of empathy.
A male stands and, to my surprise, I recognize him. Juordin’s father. His eyes are the same, glowing purple. His long, wavy brown hair has the same golden highlights. But the tightness around his mouth, the lines in his forehead speak of a greater age.
“Come, Juordin, Ande’ie, please take a seat.” He motions to one empty space beside him, and several others rise and move down a chair to create a second empty space.
As Juordin holds out my chair, the man continues. “We were just discussing our options for dealing with the Ardaks. Redonim and his team,” he acknowledges a man and two women to right, “have found that there may be a way to disable the Ardak tech. It seems that both their suits and the landers we’ve captured have used the same kind of tech. They believe they have created a malworm that will disable their tech.”
I look at Juordin, whose keen eyes turned from the speaker to Redonim. “How does it work?”
“Well, the interesting thing about the Ardak technology is that it isn’t simply technological. It has a biological component. So the exoskeletons are plugged into the cats through a plug at the base of their spines. And the ships seem to be plugged into them, as well. It’s how they react so quickly, almost at the speed of thought.” He holds up a small electronic piece that has prongs on the end.
“You’re saying that goes into their spine?” Juordin asks.
Redonim nods. “Yes. What we’ve found is that if we can kill the suit, we also kill the cat.”
“Really?” I can’t help the exclamation as I feel a rush of excitement.
“That’s how it’s worked so far. But we’ve only tested it twice, and both cats were sickly.”
“Why did all the prisoner cats die?” Juordin asks.
His father answers. “We think they’re somehow addicted to the red dust, and what’s in the air isn’t enough for them. They seemed to go through withdrawals toward the end, and got to where they couldn’t control their bodies and had convulsions.” He frowns. “It was surprisingly similar to the effects the red dust had on our weakest people.”
Any sorrow I had felt for them was gone. They’ve killed millions—in deaths just as horrible. They deserve to die. Each and every one of them.
“How many cats do you need?” Juordin asks.
Redonim thinks for a moment. “Three?” he asks hesitantly. “With suits. The suits are the most important part.”
“Done.” Juordin turns to his father. “What kind of intel do we have on where we could get the cats?”
“The caves at Palaramore. We think there are at least ten cats holed up there,” his father answers.
Juordin pulls a small device from his pocket. “It’s noon. I’ll have my best three teams ready in two hours. I want to be there by three so we attack in broad daylight.”
“You’re going to go into the caves?” one of the scientists questions.
“Cats are nocturnal,” Juordin
states. “Let’s hope they’re asleep. Maybe we can just capture some guards by the entrance.”
Juordin’s father rises, and everyone else follows suit. I can see that Juordin wants to speak to him for a few moments, so I follow the other scientists out of the room.
One of the scientists remains behind as the rest walk down the hall. “I’m Solim.” He reaches out with a hand.
I clasp his arm, and he looks startled. Then he grins. “We shake hands on Tuorin. Like this.”
He reaches for my hand and moves it up and down.
“Really?” I arch an eyebrow. It seems like a lot of effort.
“Really.” Solim’s grin widens into a smile. Then he sobers. “So the cats attacked your planet, did they?”
“Yes.”
He shakes his head sorrowfully. “What have your scientists come up with?”
“Unfortunately, our technology is far behind yours,” I admit. “And Juordin needed to return so my father is heading up the investigation.” He doesn’t speak, so I continue. “But I did have a thought…”
“Yes?” His voice is earnest.
“Well, the plan you have only kills the Ardaks. It doesn’t cure the people.”
“Go on.”
“Juordin mentioned that your people don’t use plants anymore to cure illness. But mine still do. And I just thought that perhaps if it is a plant toxin, it might need a plant cure.”
Solim stares off into space for a moment, then his eyes widen. “Can you expand on that?”
I shake my head. “Not really. I’ve done only very basic healing work with plants. But all I remember is that plants that are poisonous can usually be cured by other plants in the same area,” I start. “You’d really be better off talking to some of the healers from Lla’ei. They would be able to tell you more.”
Juordin opens the door and steps out behind me.
“You might be on to something there, Ande’ie.” Solim inclines his head toward me. “I’m going to check into it. At this point, we can’t leave any stone unturned.”
I nod, then turn back to Juordin. “I’m coming with you on the mission.”
Alien Infiltration: A Warrior Prince Romance (The Tourin Legacy Book 3) Page 2
