The sharing of one’s breath was as intimate as a kiss among the Troitek. I didn’t take his affection and respect for granted. I couldn’t take anything for granted anymore. I wasn’t Eliza Kearney any longer. I was Diem, the Red Dragon’s mate.
Chapter Two
When I arrived in the lab, P’tah sat hunched over a jar with an eyeball floating in it.
“What is that?”
“That is an eyeball.”
I looked at her and rolled my eyes. She still didn’t quite understand rhetorical questions. Rather than explain, I would rephrase the question.
“Why do you have that male’s eye in your lab?”
“I am hoping that it can be saved rather than replaced. I am attempting to regrow the damaged parts and then have the Healers reattach it,” she said.
“You can do that?”
“Well, it’s all still theoretical, but after all of the things we have learned since the Earth invasion, there’s no reason why it shouldn't work.”
“Since coming to earth?”
“Oh, Diem, your physiology is amazing. Your stem cells are a medical wonder. Our genetic engineering makes it impossible for us to have undifferentiated cells. But you! I harvested a few, and I am currently using them to assist in the restructuring of his ocular nerves,” she said happily.
I took a deep breath and counted to ten. It wasn’t unlike P’tah to get ahead of herself. All she saw was the science. The subjects of her experiments were things to be studied, not sentient beings. And the laws, such as they were, gave her every right to do whatever she wanted to the specimens assigned to her lab. She wasn’t intentionally cruel or callous. I had to remind myself of that when moments like this came up.
“Did you ask my permission before harvesting my stem cells?”
“I –”
She looked down at her hands, reflecting on the last time she ran one of her experiments on me without my permission.
“When did you take them?”
“The first day,” she said boldly.
“Then I will take it as you didn’t know any better,” I said.
She smiled, and I returned the gesture. Honestly, I would have readily donated my stem cells or anything else to give Nedan his sight back. It was a worthy cause. But I couldn't afford to let P’tah forget the rules.
“So, will you be given your own temporary quarters?”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“You’re ovulating. Didn’t you know?”
I shook my head.
“Can humans and Troitek... you know… breed?”
“That remains to be seen. There are enough genetic differences to suggest that it might be impossible under normal circumstances. However, I fear that your nanites might intercede on your behalf, reordering the genetic sequence in each of the alleles to maximize compatibility. Thus, making a hybrid offspring possible.”
“A baby?”
“Yes.”
I could feel the blood draining from my head as she spoke.
“Biologically you are in your prime, and you will stay that way for quite some time. You should probably discuss this matter with my brother,” she said confidently.
“Uh-huh.,” I nodded.
The idea of babies made me feel queasy. Objectively, I was in a great position. I was ninety percent sure that nobody would try to test me. I was respected. I was loved by a very important male. Having his baby would only cement my position, right? At least that’s how it went in all the movies. But, it felt like a stone hung around my neck.
Breeding.
I shuddered at the thought.
By the time P’tah was done running her daily diagnostics, I was itching with nervous energy. I was almost thankful to see the Grand Marshal’s grim face in the practice room. I could tell right away that something was vexing the old male, but it wasn’t my place to ask him about it. That fact only added to my feeling of frustration.
“Guard yourself well, human. I am not in the mood to be gentle or considerate,” he said, picking up his blade. He crouched low and raised his tail so that it hovered above his head like the sting of a scorpion.
I armed myself with two blunted blades and assumed a similar pasture. I had no tail to even the odds, but I was pretty good at two-handed combat techniques. I would be at a disadvantage in almost any fight against a Troiken. They were bigger, taller, stronger, faster, and trained for combat from childhood. But that was life, as my father would say.
“Life isn’t a boxing match; it’s a street fight. Fight dirty and play to win, or don’t play at all.”
I wondered if I would ever get a chance to thank him for those words of wisdom. They were serving me well among this alien species.
The Grand Marshal attacked with full force. His body moved so fast that I could hardly track it. He was a red brick blur slipping in and out of my peripheral vision several times before landing his first blow, right between my shoulder blades. I hit the ground hard but kept rolling. In combat, movement is life. The one who falls and stays down dies.
I regained my feet and decided that I needed to take up a better position. I backed myself up into one of the corners of the room. It was risky. Being stuck in a corner could spell disaster for me, but it also only left one method of attack for the Grand Marshal. He would have to come at me head on.
“That’s a foolish move,” he growled as he paced in front of me. “You have closed off all methods of escape.”
“I can only defend against attacks I can see,” I explained, never once dropping my guard.
“I can defeat you in three moves.”
“I don’t expect to win, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t fight.”
The Grand Marshal stood still and took a deep, cleansing breath.
“That’s a damned foolish way to fight, but sometimes it is the only way left for us,” he said.
He looked up at me with sad eyes; his shoulders slumped forward ever so slightly.
“It’s a shame you weren’t born a warrior. You would’ve made our people proud,” he said.
“I am a warrior. Well, sort of.”
Even though it seemed the danger had passed, I kept my fighting stance, weapons at the ready, just in case. The Grand Marshal was as unpredictable as he was formidable.
“Yes, you may very well be, but I don’t know that you will be enough.”
“Grand Marshal, if there is something you are trying to tell me, I am too ignorant to figure it out.”
He nodded his head and then walked over to the other side of the room, sitting heavily on a small metal box with his hands on his knees. I lowered my guard. This was the lecture portion of the lesson.
“What do you know about the High Council?”
“Only that they rule, and that Oda’s sire is among them.”
“The High Council rules, that is true, but the King and Queen still reign. It is a delicate balance that they must keep. Keeping that balance means that neither can afford to let the other acquire a weapon. Do you understand?”
I nodded slowly.
“The Commander is a weapon they both will want. If they can’t acquire him, they’ll try to destroy him.”
The Grand Marshal nodded. I knew my HBO subscription would pay off in the long run.
“There is a third and more troubling option.”
I leaned in as if his next words would slip from his lips and shatter on the floor.
“His men loved and respected him, even before they knew he was the Red Dragon. Now, he could very easily achieve a cult following.”
“But he ordered the crew to maintain secrecy,” I gasped.
“Did you think that there were no spies on this ship? Could the Council or the Crown afford to send ships so far away and not have a set of eyes and ears on the ship?”
He scoffed at my innocence.
“Only a few hours ago I received a private, encrypted message asking if the rumors were true.”
My blood reversed course in my
veins.
“A spy? What did you tell them?”
The Grand Marshal growled a warning. No matter how this news affected me, I couldn’t afford to forget my place. He was the Master; I was the student. Questions only went one way.
“I am not so young or so blind that I would say or do anything to jeopardize my head or my Commander,” he said. “But it is time you learn to think while you fight. Like taking that position against the wall. Yes, you avoid attacks from behind, but you cut off your route to escape. It is a choice you should make if you are sure you can handle the force of the attack. Otherwise, you might as well deliver your head to your opponent.”
I nodded quickly. As always, the Grand Marshal wasn’t wasting words. His economy of words was one of the things I admired about him. Unlike the Generals and other high-ranking officers who seemed to love to wax poetic at every ROTC event I ever attended, the Grand Marshal only said what needed to be said and then moved on. It made every word much more precious.
“The Commander isn’t high-born. That will make resisting the Council and the Crown much more difficult. You should know these things, Diem, and be prepared to defend yourself from a two-pronged attack. Pick up your weapons. We will begin learning some new forms that will be useful to you.”
I followed his instructions, pushing my body to keep pace. My reflexes were faster than they’d ever been, thanks to P’tah’s nanotech. But I was still only human. I repeated the drills and stances until they became muscle memories. The Grand Marshal watched, with a sense of satisfaction in his eyes, though his tone and expression didn’t betray him at all. By the time the Grand Marshal dismissed me I was drenched in sweat and aching all over.
“I won’t be able to meet with you in the next cycle. Practice hard and improve,” he handed me a tablet. “Read these.”
The script on the tablets was indecipherable to me, but I was sure that P’tah had an app for that.
“They are classical military manuals,” he said as he left the training room.
I groaned as soon as he was gone. The last thing I needed was more homework.
The best way to forget your woes, my father would say, was to take a good hard look at somebody else’s. I decided, before retiring, I would visit Nedan.
When I walked into the medical bay, I wasn’t sure what I would find. Rakesh’s people had a Spartan kind of approach to life. They enjoyed every aspect of it and yet allowed themselves precious few luxuries. They dulled the senses and encouraged weakness, or so I was told. Expecting to find a sort of humanoid slaughterhouse, I was impressed by the clean and efficient medical facility. All of the staff were female. Though males and females were virtually identical, females tended to look like pubescent males and wore long, unbound tunics. While the male warriors wore their weapons and utility packs at the hip, the females strapped their kits to their thighs.
Most of the staff in the medical bay looked up and nodded gently in my direction. An acknowledgment that I would not have gotten just a few short weeks ago. I spotted Nedan’s body in the corner and made my way over to him cautiously. I didn’t want to disturb or humiliate him.
“I have come to see how his healing has progressed,” I announced to the medic closest to him.
“He will be back on duty soon. Once we transplant the eye, he should be fine,” said the medic.
I looked at Nedan whose one good eye had not left my face since I arrived. His wound didn’t bother me as much as the lost look in his expression.
Hold on, buddy, I thought to myself. The real fight is still to come.
Chapter Three
“I think I need my own quarters,” I said.
Rakesh looked at me but didn’t say anything. He paused from eating and leaned back, looking at me as if he were contemplating the conversation we’d yet to have. He’d been eating what looked like the roasted carcass of some poor animal about the length of a medium-sized dog. I was still learning how to hold down my selection of oddly colored food packets while he ate. The Troitek had great respect for ceremony but no sense of table manners. Compared to the thought of spending another rising watching him consume his meal, this conversation seemed almost easy.
“I am ovulating. I don’t think it’s safe for us to –”
“Copulate,” he said, finishing my thought.
“Not when we don’t know what we will face once we arrive.”
“You are unsure of my ability to protect you and our young.”
“No!”
He took a deep breath and looked at me through narrowed eyes.
“You are fertile.”
“You can smell that?” I looked at him with astonishment. I’d heard of animals that gave off a scent when they were in heat, but I’d never expected him to be capable of something like that.
“Yes.”
“Can the others also... smell it?”
I don’t know why I was becoming self-conscious all of a sudden. The idea of every member of the crew knowing that I was “fertile” was embarrassing. I didn’t want them to know. Especially not the males. I knew that theirs was a sexless society. The idea of conjugal relations was repugnant to most of the Troitek, especially the females. I wasn’t afraid for my safety. I was more afraid of what they would think of me. Mine was the only female body that went through cycles. Troitek women gave up their fertility willingly, and their wombless bodies stayed in a static state. Breeding was less a biological compulsion and more of a career move.
Right job.
Right family.
Right breeding.
How could they ever understand what I felt?
“A pregnant female by your side is a weakness that others will use to force you to do things you don't want to do. A half-breed young would be treated –”
“Is that why you want me to spare Nedan? Because he is also a half-breed?”
I was startled by the emotion in his voice. It was something like anger, but much more vulnerable.
“I didn’t know he was,” I said softly.
“He is, and low born. We do not turn our back on our own, Diem. Our young would be accepted.”
“Oh.”
“But you are also right; a pregnant female is a liability. Our females do not fall pregnant. Our young are born in our Nesting Broods.”
His brows knitted together as he considered the reality of the situation. Watching him made my heart hurt. If his feelings were anything like mine, two primal instincts were at war within him. I got up from my chair and came to sit in his lap, ignoring the roasted beast on the table behind me.
I threaded my fingers through his hair and rubbed my chin against his forehead. He wrapped his strong hands around my waist and held me close to his body. After only a few seconds his low purrs began to tickle my chest as he hugged me.
“I am the Commander. I know what I must do.”
“But?” I asked softly.
“But, I do not want you far from me. I don’t like the thought of you being alone.”
“I don’t have to be alone. Wait until Nedan heals and then send him with me.”
Rakesh growled, sending shivers down my spine.
“I like the idea of him being alone with you even less,” he grunted. “It’s irrational, but I cannot help it.”
I cradled his head in my arms and leaned into his shoulder.
“It’s normal for a man in love not to want his woman to be alone with another man.”
“I am not a man.”
“On my planet, males of many species engage in bloody combat over the females.”
“I am not from your planet.”
“Well,”’ I said, tilting his chin up so I could look him in his eyes. “Maybe when you remove all the technology, you and I aren’t as different as we’d like to believe.”
I held him close, wanting to comfort him and assure him of things that I knew were untrue. I wanted to tell him that everything would be fine, and this was just a precaution against a possible threat. I wanted to tell him t
hat spies weren’t watching. I wanted to tell him that his people, his government, his empire wouldn’t rip me to shreds and hold our child hostage to force him to choose a side. I wanted to tell him all those things, but none of them were true, and we owed each other that much.
“Your smell is seductive,” he said.
“I can’t smell it,” I replied.
“I can,” he said, running his tongue over my neck.
Electricity shot down my spine. My nipples contracted tightly, and I gasped with surprise at the intensity of my body’s reaction. Rakesh’s hands contracted around my waist, pulling me deeper into his body. His skin seemed electrified, his whole body hummed with low vibration. It was both soothing and stimulating, like a soothing drug that seeped into my pores and left me defenseless against him.
He tasted my skin, again and again, teasing the curve of my neck and breathing deeply. The soft puffs of his exhaled breath and his tight grip robbed me of my breath. I wanted more. I wanted him deep inside me and wrapped around my body.
“We shouldn’t do this,” I said.
“Do what?”
“This,” I whined.
Rakesh’s hands made the short trip up the length of my ribcage, his fingers kneading the flesh along my back. I shuddered, knowing I should go but unable to leave. His long tongue moved along the curve of my collarbone.
“Please,” I whined, not sure whether I was begging him to stop or continue.
Rakesh growled his frustration and nipped at the sensitive skin beneath his lips. He lifted my body in one motion and twisted me in his lap. I straddled his hips with my thighs and surrendered to the pleasure. Rakesh gripped my hair in his large fist and pulled. I leaned back, arched my back and held on tight as he continued his assault on my skin. He bit the buttons off of my shirt and spat them away. As the material fell away from my body, the exposed skin became covered in gooseflesh. I quivered with anticipation.
His hands smoothed over the exposed flesh. The rough pads of his hands tortured my nipples as he gripped and kneaded my breasts. I cried out with need, my fingers gripping his hair tightly, tugging as desire rode me hard.
A Pet For The Commander: The Complete Series Page 11
