An agony of fire ripped through Graza’s chest and my own. My heart stuttered, and my knees buckled. My scream of pain echoed Graza’s and then everything went black.
Chapter Nine
Hunter
I forced my heart to beat, to squeeze the blood from its chambers, from hers. Too infuriated and worried to bother with stealth, I pulled my gun from its holster and shot the slaver kneeling over her between the eyes.
Lying on the floor, pale as death, Mira lived because I forced her to live. Still a shadow in her mind, my heart beat for hers. My lungs filled with air and hers followed. My essence actually ached and I realized our binding had already begun. If I lost her now, the black void in my soul would never be whole again. If I survived at all. God help me. I’d been a rebel and a loner for years. And now, if I couldn’t save her, life held no more appeal than death.
I knelt and lifted her into my arms, buried my face in her hair. “Damn you, woman. Five minutes in my mind and you think you’ve mastered your gifts?”
I felt the others approaching then, women. Warriors from Zatari.
Hot and elemental, rage boiled to the surface and I knew I would kill anyone who tried to touch her or stop me from taking her.
“Please, Warrior, I can help.”
I looked up to see a woman in silver robes approaching. Older than Mira, compassion shone in her eyes, and the healing gifts shone in brilliant golds and greens in her aura. I knew better than to trust blindly, but with my soul locked in the struggle for life within Mira’s body, I couldn’t scan her as I normally would.
She took another step and black hair streaked with gray cascaded around her shoulders. “Please, we are not all like Graza. We’ve been waiting here, growing and learning to harness the ability of our minds.” In a flash of silver she knelt on the floor across from me, Mira’s unconscious form between us. I stared into her deep blue eyes and saw excitement. “We’ve waited impatiently for her to come.”
“What?” I raised my gun, resting its tip in the middle of her forehead. The elder didn’t give off the psychic stench of insanity, but what she said made no sense.
“Since the prophecy at her birth, we have waited. She will launch the revolution.”
“What revolution?” Several more women approached in different colored robes and I realized they were all communicating telepathically. None seemed hostile, but I pulled Mira closer to my chest and focused my energies in case I needed to attack. Her warmth seeped into my body and her scent teased me with memories of hot steamy sex and paradise. I didn’t want her in the middle of this bizarre battle, I wanted her safe in my bed. “What are you talking about? She left Zatari to find Octavia, not to start a war.”
“Let me heal her. She will know what to do.”
I didn’t have much choice. Already my body tired of holding her in this world, my lungs burned and my heart ached, labored for every beat. “She’s linked to her aunt. I’m not sure you can help her.”
“Aye. I can heal the damage to her body.” The elder placed her hands on Mira’s chest and closed her eyes with a knowing smile. “Your mating bond will take care of the rest.”
* * *
Hunter
God, she was beautiful. Perfect. Mine. Physically healed, she lay unconscious in my bed, her golden hair spread beneath her like a halo on the silver bedding, her face vibrant and her body calling to mine. Alive.
Yet not.
I drained the last of my ale and checked my ship’s navigational controls once again. Everything was operating as it should. We’d safely left Lunar One’s docks this morning. The ship could run itself until our arrival at the rendezvous point, which left me free to pace, and choke on helplessness every time I looked at her unconscious body.
The healer had indeed repaired the damage to Mira’s mind. Her touch brought instant relief to both of us. My heart beat on its own, my lungs didn’t have to fight for air, but my soul was still torn in two. How could I bind us together if Mira never woke up?
I’d asked the healer and her answer hadn’t pleased me. She said I’d have to pursue Mira’s spirit in the Shadow Realm, the place death called home and dreams were born. It was a place even I was not eager to visit. Were I not a Mindjack, the attempt would kill me. Even with my gifts, I wasn’t sure I’d make it back.
But Mira waited.
Mira’s favorite curse flew easily from my lips. I spoke to her still form, despite the fact her soul was far beyond the reach of my words. “And you said males were a pain in the ass.”
A demon rode me, raging at my helplessness. I only feared one thing now, and that was losing her.
Desperate to quiet the helpless terror riding me, I drifted over to my beautiful mate and made sure she could never leave me again. I spread her legs wide and secured her ankles to the corners of the bed with thick straps. I did the same with her wrists, securing them above her head so her lean body was open and on display, ready for me to claim her.
This time, she would not leave me again. She would admit to me, and to herself, that she was mine and I was hers. We were fated. If I had to keep her tied to this bed for hours, give her orgasm after orgasm until she surrendered to me, I would.
There was no gentleness left in me, not when it came to losing her. Seeing her injured, nearly killed, had riled my soul, my protective instincts now too strong to be denied. I’d appeased her until now, played by her rules, tried to court her, tried to win her heart.
Now, she would surrender, she would submit. I’d been inside her mind, seen the turmoil, the indecision.
No more. She was mine. It was time she accepted the fact.
I stripped, lay down beside her in bed, and wrapped my arms around her. Should neither of us return, I wanted my last memories to be of her scent, her warmth, and her soft body cradled next to mine. I wrapped myself protectively around her and pressed my forehead to her temple, breathing her in. Her hair tickled my lips as I spoke to her. “Listen to me, Mira, I’m coming for you. Do you hear me? I’m coming.”
With one last deep breath, I pulled her essence into my lungs and let go as I’d been trained to do for many years. Immediately my spirit hovered above the bed and I saw the body heat of the couple lying there, inanimate, empty shells waiting for their souls to return. A silvery cord still connected me to my body, and with brutal determination I severed it, cast my soul into the riptide of the Shadow Realm.
Immediately, darkness enveloped me, tossed me like a leaf in a flood through the realm beyond normal time and space. Then the motion stopped, and I hovered. Nowhere. Everywhere. There was nothing but silence so deep a heartbeat would have sounded like a cannon’s boom.
Focus! I had to find Mira. To find her, I had to open my eyes.
Since I had no physical form here, the desire to see was all that was required. Awareness returned, but this reality was different. Energy flowed and pooled around me, sometimes swirling, at others stopping for a moment to assume the outline of a form before disappearing again in the ocean of existence flowing around me. Pure energy. Nothing more. How would I ever find her in time? “Mira?” The name reverberated through the mass around me and was swallowed by it.
Then I heard her laugh. Dizzying and electric, reality shifted around me until she stood before me, laughing and waving goodbye to someone I couldn’t see.
“Mira?”
Covered by a white robe that swirled around her ankles in the cosmic winds, she turned to me and smiled. “Hunter. It’s about time.”
I held out a hand to her, half afraid she would disappear in the swirl around us, but she surrendered her smaller hand to my keeping. In the real world she was beautiful. Here, she was ethereal and the love shining from her eyes nearly blinded me. “Are you all right?” I asked. I had to know. I needed to hear her say the words.
“Aye.” She held out her other hand to me. “I thought I would die, but you’re holding me to the other world, aren’t you?”
“I couldn’t let you go.”
&nbs
p; Her smile widened. “I know. I can see your love as plainly as you see my love for you. There are no secrets here.”
“The Shadow Realm, the place of death and nightmares.”
“And dreams.” Mira floated into my embrace and wrapped her arms around me. “Take me home, Hunter. I’m ready. And I have a lot to tell you.”
“I have to bind your soul to mine to take you back. You’ll be mine forever. There will be no reprieve, no changing your mind.”
“No, Hunter, you’ll be mine.” With a whisper of her intent floating around us, I found myself suddenly naked, her equally bare flesh rubbing everywhere we touched. Energy arced through space between us, sealing us together with every microscopic strike.
Laughter bubbled up from the depths of my soul and exploded into the energy around us in ripples of gold. “Aye, mate. I want to keep you forever.”
“Forever,” she agreed. “Then make my body burn for you so it will call us back.” Mira pressed her lips to mine again, forced my mouth open with her tongue and moved so that her hard nipples passed over mine, calling them to raise in answer.
All around us, the energy field vibrated with our urgency and our love, reflected our desire, magnified it until I feared my soul was going to explode with the heat. Pure instinct led me to speak. “Mine.”
“Mine. Forever.” Her soft voice was followed by thunder roaring in my ears. Our hearts beat as one, pulsed through us both with longing and fire. I pulled her mouth up to mine and invaded, demanded submission with my tongue. Her whimper of surrender drove me mad with need. Still aware of her core, empty and desperate for my touch, I slid my hand over the soft planes of her stomach, lower.
Mira arched into my hand as a mental shockwave of my pleasure invaded her.
In my mind, she begged for release, begged for me to fill her. But I wasn’t ready to end this fun.
I lifted her skirt and slid my fingers into her wet heat, playing with her pussy as I claimed her mouth. She arched her hips and pushed against me. “Please!”
Unable to resist another moment, I lifted her by her waist and positioned her so her pussy hovered over the blunt head of my hard cock. “I told you you’d beg.”
“Hunter!”
With a groan of need, I pulled her down and entered her wet, welcome heat. Like an explosion rocketing through my body, her release hit us both, glorious and fast. She still convulsed with the aftershocks as she raised her head to look me in the eye. “Say it again.”
I twitched my hips to show her who was in charge, and was gratified when she threw her head back and whimpered. Apparently unable to control herself, she ground against me and shuddered again.
“You’re mine.” I cradled her close, lifting her chin with a single finger, meeting her eyes. “Forever.”
“Forever.” The universe shifted.
Cosmic winds whirled around us, hurtled us through space and flung us back into our bodies lying on the bed in my ship.
The physical world exploded into my senses like a supernova. The sheets under my naked flesh were warm and soft. The scent of metal and the ship’s engines teased the edge of my senses, but couldn’t overcome the scent of my mate’s sweet skin. Mira’s hair brushed my cheek where I’d tucked her head under my chin. Her naked flesh pressed the length of my body and she had molded herself to me, my cock hard as a rock against her hip. Relief flooded me as she shifted beside me, her thigh tense as she lifted her hips to rub her heated core on my hard thigh.
“Hunter?” She jerked at the restraints that held her wrists above her head and turned to look at me, a glazed shock in her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Keeping you.” I rolled on top of her and settled my hips between her soft thighs. When she gasped, I claimed her mouth, not giving her a chance to argue, to gather her wits. I didn’t want her to think, I only wanted her to feel. To want. To surrender.
* * *
Mira
I was caught, trapped, tied to the bed like a pagan sacrifice to the gods. Except there were no gods, only Hunter. As he worked his way down my body, his mouth left a trail of heat and I bucked and fought, testing the limits of my movement.
“Hunter!” His mouth clamped down on my clit and he slid two fingers into my dripping pussy. His answer wasn’t a word, it was a growl that rumbled through my body, nearly making me come.
He worked my pussy like a master and I shattered in moments, my head thrashing from side to side on the sheets as he rose over me like a conqueror.
“Do you want me to stop?” He leaned back and ran his hand in a slow, sensual glide from one tied ankle up to my hip, then higher, to my breast. He plucked and played with my nipple as I tried to think. When his gentle touch rose to trace the long line of my shoulder to my elbow, then my wrist, he entwined his fingers with mine and held my gaze.
There was no need to fight him, not any more. He was mine, and I was going to keep him. “Don’t stop.”
He ran his hand over my body and stomach, his fingers diving into my pussy as I arched off the bed. “Are you mine?”
“Yes.”
He pulled his fingers free and gave a light swat to my exposed clit, the unexpected jolt like a bolt of electricity through my body. I moaned his name and twisted my wrists in their bindings as he leaned down and sucked my breast into his mouth, working my pussy with his hand as he pulled my nipple deep into his mouth, working the tip with his tongue.
When I neared my peak he stopped, leaving me writhing and desperate as he leaned back, taking his sweet time inspecting me, his eyes leaving a heated trail over every inch of my skin.
“Please.”
He moved and I wanted to cry with relief as he knelt between my thighs, but he didn’t give me what I wanted. He didn’t fill me with his cock.
“Do it.”
“Who’s in charge?”
I bit my lip and moaned. He was so hot when he commanded my pleasure, made me wait. Made me beg. “You.”
“What am I?”
The word mate shimmered in his mind, but I ignored it. That was what he wanted me to say, that he was my mate, but he was more than that. I locked my gaze to his so he’d know I meant what I said, so he would feel the word.
“Mine.”
Dropping over me, he claimed my lips as his hips thrust, filling me with his cock. He rode me like a man possessed, out of control, wild and I loved every savage thrust of his hips. I was spun so tightly an orgasm rushed over me and he kept pushing, thrusting, riding me until I came again with a loud, guttural cry.
He spilled his seed, the hot jerking movements of his cock filling me with satisfaction as I gave him exactly what he needed.
Me. All of me.
* * *
Hunter, two hours later
She rolled to face me, green eyes filled with happiness, and mischief and determination. “Hunter, I need your help.”
Unable to resist the temptation, I fastened my lips to hers for a kiss that left us both breathless. With a knowing smile, Mira rolled me onto my back and straddled my hips. “Are you going to help me or not?”
“What do you want?” I knew I could never resist her, and I wanted her far more than I dreaded any possible request. I’d rearrange the stars in the sky for her. Barring that, I’d fight for her, kill for her, die to protect her. There was nothing I would deny her, nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her by my side.
“There are three factories on Zatari where they make and distribute Fier Potion. Only three elders are trusted with the locations of all three facilities. My aunt was one of those three.”
“The… chemical… that… suppresses… psychic… power?” I stuttered the words between the soft slide of her body taking me in deep while her hands explored everywhere else. Asking me to think right now was hardly fair. Talking? Nearly out of the question.
“Aye.”
I froze as understanding dawned. “If you destroy the factories, the natural abilities of every priestess in Zatari will awaken.”
“Ex
actly. It’ll be absolute chaos in a matter of weeks.” Pain filled her eyes, and a sad gleam born of resignation.
“A revolution.” Just as the elders had told me. Mira would, indeed, fulfill their prophecy. It could mean war for my father and eldest brothers, but the evil bastards had it coming. I wouldn’t cry to see my brother Markus on the throne instead, with his new Zatari mate as queen. The idea took firm root in my mind the more I thought about it. Yes. It was long past time to shake things up at home and kill my father’s black market Fier trade once and for all. My days of small, hit and run pirate attacks would be over. Time for a full frontal assault with my beautiful new mate at my side.
Mira smiled down at me. “A new beginning for everyone. Once I know all of my people will be free, I can begin the search for my sons.” Leaning over to kiss me, she stopped just as our lips touched. “I can’t leave them behind and I can’t forget them.”
Her eyes welled with tears and I lifted my thumbs to wipe them away. “They are part of you, Mira, and so they are part of me. We will find them. They are mine now, those boys are mine, just like their mother.”
She kissed me; the trust and love in that kiss nearly broke me open and my entire body tuned to hers. This woman, my mate. I’d won, earned her trust, conquered her heart and soul.
“What next, mate?” She whispered the questions against my lips and I smiled.
“Two things. We find my sister… and I teach you how to be a pirate.”
I rolled Mira beneath me on the bed and savored the sound of her moaning my name. She’d already snuck into a black market hellhole, survived Slavers’ Bay on Lunar One, tracked down my sister, eliminated some space-scum slave traders, freed two slaves, discovered the truth about her past, and stolen my heart. “Although, you don’t really need any lessons on being a pirate, woman. You’ve got it covered.”
Conquering His Mate (Mates of Zatari Book 2) Page 9
