Rock hard and merciless, he plunged deeper. I gasped and buried my face in his neck to keep from screaming with need.
“Mindjacks are too powerful to keep, Mira. You have to choose to stay.”
Never had I felt anything this erotic. Every ounce of my body vibrated with awareness.
This much pleasure would surely kill me. Now was not the time to talk, or decide my future. Right now all I wanted was more. Deeper. Harder. Faster.
Squeezing my inner muscles, I caressed his length with the moist heat of my core, and forced him to stop talking. With a smile, I nibbled the skin of his neck, ran my tongue along his collarbone.
“Promise me, mate. Promise me you won’t go after her alone.”
Never one for lies, I remained silent as he pumped into me, each thrust of his hips driving my head several inches higher on the wall.
His lips nibbled a trail from my lips to my jaw, then up to my ear. “You are a stubborn female.”
My soft laugh was broken as he whirled and carried me to the large chair. Unsure what he had in mind, I yelped in protest as he lifted me off his magnificent cock and put me face down over the padded chair, my ass in the air.
“Hunter!”
He didn’t speak, simply reached up to my uniform and ripped the seam all the way up my back, the uniform now in two distinct pieces. My heart hammered in my chest as he yanked the fabric wide, exposing my naked bottom to his stern gaze.
The first sting of his palm came as a shock, but it shouldn’t have been. He spanked me hard and fast, I lost count at twenty as he made me burn, my pussy dripping with need as he punished me for refusing his command.
“Promise me.” The spanking stopped but it didn’t matter. My flesh was on fire, the burn spreading through me like a drug, making me want, making every nerve in my body spark with awareness, with need. He positioned himself behind me and I braced my elbows on the padded arms of the chair. I could feel the tension coming from his powerful frame, knew he would pump into me hard and fast. Without mercy. Exactly the way I wanted him to.
Except he didn’t. His warm palm traced the line of my spine instead, petting me, soothing me. But I didn’t want soothing, I wanted fucking.
“Hunter!”
He chuckled, both hands now on my burning bottom, kneading the flesh, pulling me open so that the cool air hit my wet core. He opened me up, left me vulnerable and empty. Bare. Exposed. I dropped my head with a moan as he played with my ass, tormenting me.
“You’re so wet for me.” He rubbed his hands through my folds, not entering me, just feeling, spreading my wet heat. “Do you want my cock, mate?”
“Yes.” If I wanted it any more my heart would explode inside my chest.
“Then promise me, you won’t go after that old bitch alone. It’s too dangerous, mate. You are not allowed to go without me. Do you understand?”
“You’re not my mate.” I couldn’t help myself, I really couldn’t. I couldn’t give in, not without a fight. It wasn’t in my nature. And deep in my soul, a dark spark of hope flared bright that Hunter would understand, that he would be strong enough to overcome my defiant nature, force me to yield to his command. I needed him to be strong enough to defeat me. I could not surrender until he earned my respect, my trust, my faith that he would never falter, never disappoint me. Never abandon me when I needed him most.
Like now. I had defied my queen to come to this station, to hunt for Octavia. I’d nearly been captured and sold as a slave, and I was no closer to my goal. My mind had been violated by his sister, my memories erased and remade like images drawn in the sand. I felt weak and violated, my confidence shaken, my entire sense of self questioned.
And now this. Now Hunter, with his burning eyes and skilled hands. With his commanding presence and power. I ached to trust him, to lean on that strength, to know he would never betray me. Never leave me.
But I couldn’t see that future for us. Not yet. We were enemies. My people had been at war with his for centuries, hundreds of years of distrust and fear, hatred and pain. Death. Deceit. War was ugly, and although our peoples no longer lined up on a battlefield and tried to overcome one another with brute force and sheer numbers, the conflict raged on in a thousand small ways. Spies lingered in every corner, trade deals were bargained and revoked, technology stolen, information flowed across the borders between our lands like rivers of poison that sickened both of our planets.
Our people were the invaders, arriving from the planet Delti hundreds of years ago with psychic power and armies to colonize the new world. The royal family, Hunter’s ancestors had been brutal bastards, ruling with blood and fear, resisting all logic, enslaving their own women. But my ancestors had rebelled against their kings and thrown off the chains of slavery, claiming half this new world as their own after years of warfare.
And if our elders had their way, the Delti kings would one day be destroyed.
For now, we lived in a very fragile peace, the balance of power in constant flux as his king and my queen vied for the upper hand.
To surrender to him felt like a betrayal to my people, but this wasn’t about politics or war. This was much more intimate than that, an understanding between a man and a woman, between lovers.
Mates. His word exploded through my mind and I shook my head in denial even as his hand landed on my ass with a sharp sting. He spanked me again and again. Open and weak before him, I felt the tears gather and fall into the soft cushion of the chair, but I made no sound as the pain I’d carried deep in my soul leaked from behind my closed eyelids.
He spanked me and soothed in turns as every barrier I had broke inside like a dam bursting within me. When I was quiet, all fight gone from me, he filled me slowly, his cock sliding inside with such gentle care that I nearly burst into tears once more. This side of him confused me. Gentle. Caring. He fucked me slowly, rocking into me as his palms stroked in long, gentle glides down my back to my bottom and back again.
“Promise me, mate. You’ll not confront her alone. I can’t let you go alone. It’s too dangerous.”
“All right.” It wasn’t I promise, but it was all he was going to get. I’d agreed. He’d won.
With a grunt, he pushed into me with more force and my clit rocked against the back of the chair. Grabbing my hips, he thrust deep and fast. My orgasm came from nowhere, exploding inside me as if a lit fuse had been on slow burn and reached the core. My entire body shook as I screamed and Hunter pumped his seed into me, filling me. Owning me.
When it was over, he carried me to the bed and tucked me under his chin, holding me as he stroked my hair. I felt cherished and cared for. Loved. And that was the most dangerous emotion of all.
But he’d won. I had no more will to resist, so I snuggled into his arms and let his warm strength soothe me as I drifted to sleep.
Chapter Eight
Mira
“Where is she? Are you sure she’s here?” I watched the market carefully. Once again hidden behind the holographic image of an ugly male, I walked with Hunter through the crush of unsavory slavers toward the area he’d indicated to me on the station map.
“Yes. I saw the woman in your vision on this station right before you spoke to Selene. She is well known, and feared. It is rumored that she controls everything that happens here. They simply call her Scepter. Everyone knows she exists, but few can remember her face.”
“The Zatari control this station, not my mother. That’s impossible.” Even as I said the words I caressed the daggers hidden beneath my cape. That was the young, naïve girl talking, the one who’d never been a mother, who’d never been betrayed. The woman who’d never truly hated. It would be so easy for someone who could manipulate memories, a Scepter, to remain unseen, to direct others, to control everything and everyone around them. To destroy people’s lives. “I hope you’re wrong.”
“I’m not.” Hunter was beside me, a steady and powerful presence and I admitted, at least to myself, that I was grateful not to be facing this alone.<
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Before I could think of something to say to the man I’d begun to depend on, I saw her. The sight of my mother’s well-loved face was like a blowtorch cutting into my stomach and my body stiffened.
“Are you all right?” Hunter’s hand wrapped around my arm when I stumbled.
“There she is.” I thought I was prepared to see my mother’s face, confront her and coldly walk away. As much as I hated my past, the long years of love and guidance she’d given once I returned to the city to serve the High Priestess held me frozen. My mind could not integrate the two sides of her that I held in my mind, one loving and protective, the other hateful and cruel. That dichotomy like an axe that cut me in half, and now I fought with every breath to hold the pieces of my soul together.
Familiar and soothing, Hunter’s consciousness merged with mine, honed in on my visions of the woman I both loved and hated. Conflicting memories fought a war within me. I’d known two mothers; the one who’d destroyed my young life, and the kind mentor who’d stood by my side these long years. There was no reconciling them.
“Be careful.” Hunter pulled his hand from my arm. “I’m right behind you. Whatever you do, don’t let her touch you.”
Hunter’s presence reassured me as nothing else could. He was the one person I knew wouldn’t lie to me. Ever. I knew him intimately. Walking beside me, resplendent in black and sexy as hell, he was a dream come to life. A dream I’d never even known I had. A dream that the woman before me had the power to smear and erase and from my memory as easily as she could wipe raindrops from a piece of glass.
No. I was stronger now. Determined. Angry. She would not break my mind, I would conquer hers, not just for myself, but for my boys, the children she’d stolen from me so long ago.
My plan was dangerous, but simple. With my newly mastered talents, I planned to enter my mother’s mind and discover the truth about my sons. About everything.
The woman I hunted stood behind a table wearing long red robes. Blonde hair streaked with gray was braided and hung halfway down her back. Although the woman looked thin and fragile, I wasn’t fooled. My mother was both agile and quick. And, if she were like Selene, she’d see right through the mask.
With my mother’s attention drawn to what another elder said to her, I walked to within two steps and stopped. Hands rock steady, I reached up to my neck and deactivated my mask. “Hello, Mother.”
The woman turned her head atop a long elegant neck. Shock registered in her eyes for a brief moment, then receded. There was no warm welcome, no hint of love in my mother’s eyes. Cold and calculating, I couldn’t shake the feeling, no matter how ridiculous, that my mother’s body had been possessed. This woman’s eyes promised death. Something was not right.
“Mira, my warriors told me that you’d left the station.”
“Not until you tell me what you did with my sons.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Anger flared in a halo of red energy around my mother’s form, then receded into a tightly controlled pattern. The lie falling from her lips set off every internal alarm I had. Chest tight, hands balled into fists, I fought the urge to punch her.
“I remember everything, Mother. How you murdered Hanrey, tore my sons from my arms…” Rising with my anger was a heady surge of power; it pooled in my blood and stalked my target like a beast waiting to strike. The fire of it made my eyes burn and my mother’s gaze widen in shocked response. “I remember the touch that stole my memories.”
“I see.” The answer held no denial, no games, and no regret. The last nearly tore my heart from my chest and I fought back the swell of tears I’d held in tight control until now. My own mother…
“No, Mira, I am not your mother.” The woman turned to the table beside her and pressed a small red button on a summoning device. “My sister always had a soft spot for you.”
“Your sister?” My mind was spinning but the woman I faced looked and sounded exactly like my mother. A twin? My mother and this woman were identical twins? Like my sons?
“Yes, Mira, I am your aunt, not your mother. I tried to love you, child, but I have the gift of sight. I knew you would betray us the first time I held you in my arms, when you were still bloody and fighting to take your first breath.”
Undisguised hatred poured from her gaze, and I stepped back in shock as the dream I’d had roared back into my mind. I’d seen that look before, heard her voice telling my mother to kill me.
My aunt stepped forward and I was forced to retreat yet again as another new memory surfaced. My mother and her identical twin sister arguing over me on my fifth birthday. Aunt Graza had wanted me killed that day.
I’d been so happy, so proud that I’d been designated a warrior class, my family bloodline ensuring my place as a guard and servant of the High Priestess herself. I’d been glowing with happiness, so proud, so eager to tell my mother.
I’d emerged from the testing center immediately, practically running after being given the results of my aptitude exam.
Graza had been there standing beside my mother, her arms crossed, a stern look on her face as she’d turned to my mother.
“She’s too dangerous. Nothing has changed. She will destroy us all.”
“No. I refuse to believe that.”
My mother had gathered me to her side where I’d burrowed into the long flowing folds of her white robes in an effort to hide from the woman who looked just like my mother, but was so scary. So mean.
“It would have been easier to eliminate her as an infant. Now you are attached to her. Kill her now. Death will not become easier as she grows.”
“I said no.”
“You’re a fool. My visions are never wrong.”
My aunt had turned, her robes a deep blood red, and walked away from us as if I were a horrible disease she was afraid of catching. I tugged on my mother’s robes. When she’d looked down at me, her hand resting lovingly on top of my head, I’d repeated what I told her just moments ago.
“I get to be a guardian, Momma.”
“Yes, love. You will grow up in the wildlands and learn to hunt. You’ll grow strong and be a powerful ally for our new queen.”
My eyes filling with tears, I nodded my head and narrowed my eyes, more determined than ever to prove my mean aunt wrong. I was good. I would show her…
“Yes. I see you remember now. I tried to convince my sister to kill you, but she was always weak in that regard.”
Graza’s lip curled in disgust. “Even when you betrayed us with that farmer’s son, she refused to allow me to punish you. Instead, we wiped your memories. She stayed home and coddled you while I was banished. Sent to oversee our operations here, in this hellhole crawling with the dregs of humanity. I became what I hated, a slaver, a smuggler and a thief while she sat, fat and content on the home world raising her precious daughter.”
Graza took another step forward and raised her hand as if to touch me. The supernatural energy surrounding her flared to brilliant white, nearly blinding my newly awakened senses.
Hunter’s voice was a cool balm. You are stronger now. Take the information you need. Strength flowed into me. My aunt didn’t stand a chance of resisting two Mindjacks.
My aunt dove at me, determined to initiate physical contact so she could control my mind once again, but I was faster. Brutally and without forgiveness, I poured my consciousness into my aunt’s body, invaded her soul like the black shadow of death. Merciless.
Though strong-willed and determined to resist, Graza’s mind lay open before me like a well-read map. I commanded her body to remain still then dove deep, unlocked doors and hidden memories. Shaken by the amount of hatred and resentment my aunt had always felt toward me, I nearly lost my connection when I discovered my sons had been sold for fifty thousand credits two days after being taken from me. My aunt had sold my sons to an orphanage on the southern end of the continent that specialized in making sure unwanted children disappeared.
And now she’d sold me as well. I
replayed the moment in her mind when she hired the men to capture me. The muggers in the corridor, the thugs who attacked Hunter and me, had been hired by her and promised a small fortune to bring me in so she could sell me, turn me into a slave, punish me for her years of forced service on Lunar One. She blamed me for everything her life had become. She hated me because my mother loved me more. My mother chose me over her twin sister, and Graza had never forgiven that betrayal.
“I’ll kill you first, dear. Then I’ll take care of your mother. She won’t last long now that you’ve betrayed us. Her position on the elder council will be taken from her. She’ll be nothing more than a puppet without power, her enemies circling like she’s carrion, waiting for her to show weakness.” Graza laughed, the sound pure evil. “She won’t last long.”
“You bitch.” Staggering from the revelation and betrayal, I lost control of the link and popped back into my own body.
Now on her knees, my aunt slowly rose to her feet and swayed before me. “You brought this on yourself when you betrayed us. You disgrace your sisters, your family, our temple. You are too impure to serve Zatari, to be near the High Priestess.” Raising her right hand, she signaled to someone behind me. A heartbeat later I felt the sting of chemicals racing into my bloodstream from a dart quill sticking out of my neck. “You’re a long way from home, Mira. Even your mother won’t be able to save you this time.”
“Perhaps.” In moments I would lose consciousness. I felt the slaver closing in on me, eager to pound his body into mine, to beat me, to break me. Hunter’s presence was shimmering on the edge of my awareness, like a ghost. Like a shadow. I couldn’t allow my aunt to win, no matter the cost. Let the slaver come. I’m sorry, Hunter.
My aunt was escaping, walking away like a queen. Focusing the last of my will and drawing on the knowledge gained from Hunter’s memories, I again invaded my aunt’s mind and stopped her retreat. The strain of maintaining my presence in two bodies at once was like a thousand needles puncturing my brain, but I ignored the pain. I only needed a few seconds. With speed born of years of practice, I hurled my dagger through the air and imbedded the silver half-moon in Graza’s heart.
Conquering His Mate (Mates of Zatari Book 2) Page 8
