by Kayla Stonor
She screamed. Vaginal muscles clamped around him, destroying any semblance of control.
Tierc pounded her harder, his cock slick with her gushing orgasm.
A powering stampede overwhelmed him with the pure intensity of his release. He groaned, slammed into her again and again, pinning Ahnna to his rhythm. No longer could he tend her pleasure, his entire being focused on his pumping cock, spilling its contents inside her. At his peak, he was dimly aware of nails raking his back, holding him in place, his pleasure her pleasure.
Exhilaration filled him. His joy and Ahnna’s joy, meshed into one. Her mind sang to him.
Tierc hesitated to enter, stopped by a sense that Ahnna was lost in sensation, an unwitting participant to their psy connection, a deeper culmination, and he would not risk her trust so soon. He merely nudged her mind with his, letting her know he was there. He watched her eyes shoot open, felt her pull together an unsteady wall. Her mind closed.
One day…
He kissed her nose, moved to withdraw, but a palm slammed his butt and held him inside her. Her self-satisfied smile made him laugh.
“You want me to sleep inside you?”
Her whole body quivered. “Is that a thing, too?”
“It could be, but I’d worry over crushing you and that would be a terrible end to our first night together.”
Her eyebrows rose in question. “Our first night? That’s very presumptuous of you.” A teasing note softened the tartness in her response. Ahnna’s eyes narrowed on him, a seductive look. “I admit the sex was beyond anything I imagined.” A smile recaptured her lips. “So good. God, I’m going to hate myself in the morning.”
“Because you slept with a Qui and liked it.”
A serious shadow darkened her eyes. “I think I have to work through a few things. I need to be honest.”
“Go ahead.”
“One moment I hate you, my head stuffed with reasons why I shouldn’t even like you. The next I want you, and then I’m blaming your pheromones, and you for using them against me.”
“It’s rarely on purpose, Ahnna. You have pheromones too and they are impossible to resist. What you’re getting from me is my response to your attraction. I control my pheromones far better than you do.”
Her mouth pursed, she wanted to believe him, but he guessed old habits took time to die.
“And then…” she whispered.
Her beautiful silver-grey eyes dared him to interrupt her a second time. He waited, heart thumping. His blood pumped with an urge to run… fight… anything but this terrifying suspense.
“My mind clears and I see you, this incredibly patient man, who absorbs all my hate and deflects all my attacks on your very existence. You make me question everything. Is it you? Are you unique among the Qui?”
With her warm body wrapped around him, with Ahnna so vulnerable beneath him, Tierc fought the urge to kiss her doubts away. “Ahnna, sometimes your beliefs make me very angry. I have to remind myself of your perspective. I remember you have been raised this way and have no experience to question things you’ve been taught, no reason to doubt you fight a righteous cause. I am unique among Qui, because I am your Qui. It is rare for two Qui to fight over a mate as the chances of mutual attraction are low. Compatibility requires a mating attraction and a psi connection felt by both parties. When the Qui first encountered humans, there was a meeting of peers; the most noble of Qui bloodlines encountered the finest of Earth’s resistance.”
Ahnna’s body softened. She listened to him, her heart and mind open.
“The Qui Empress had a powerful mind, and a fine mastery of her pheromones. I believe she could conquer almost any heart she deemed worthy of her attention. The United Region’s foremost general caught her attention and sparks flew. The Qui of that time were cruel, ruthless to human eyes, I see that, I understand. And then noble after noble found their human mate, and, yes, for a while, it must have appeared that seductive Qui would devour the human race. The low numbers of Qui curtailed immediate concern, but I suspect religious and political objections sowed the seeds for Human Defense-X.”
He paused, reluctant to lapse into a lecture, but she arched her body against his, a delightful sensation.
“Go on.”
He chuckled. “Okay. Well, it became apparent that noble Qui bloodlines were more drawn to a human mate than other Qui, and over time the chances of a productive match have dropped. Compatibility is no guarantee of a successful breeding. Humanity is not at risk. Humans will always out-breed the Qui. It’s the Qui who must work to survive. Our numbers have been low for centuries, and Qui hybrids are more prevalent now. Qui to Qui matings are a rare thing indeed. The fear HD-X holds is precisely the same fear some Qui nobles have voiced about humanity. Our race is being diluted…” Tierc smiled gently to show he meant no accusation. “Someday soon there will be no more Qui, only Qui-humans.”
Ahnna’s brow dimpled, her mouth rounding in surprise.
Tierc drew in a breath and sighed, savored her body’s warm acceptance of him. “I don’t know what happened here, but our extinction in this alternate universe proves that Qui procreation will always struggle. I don’t know why.”
Ahnna frowned. “I had not considered this.”
He nodded. “At first, this attraction between us felt like a punishment, a cruel twist in a universe barren of Qui. How could I love someone so hateful, a woman prepared to kill in the most cowardly way possible? And then I got to know you, to understand you. I witnessed your pain—” He scented her tears and shook his head. “Ahnna, please don’t cry, losing your son must have… I didn’t mean to remind you.”
“No, it’s not that, I mean, yes, Joseph will never leave my thoughts, but,” her tears spilled over, “I would have killed you, if the portal hadn’t taken us, If not that night, then later. Oh my god!”
Her body stiffened and Tierc took his weight, giving her room to move. “No. Your mission died that night I found you. You’d been tagged. You’d never have entered the conference building. Maybe another HD-X cell would have taken your place, but you were never destined to kill me. Our meeting changed both our destinies. I’d prefer we were on Earth, but—”
She shuddered. “I’d be in hiding, or prison.”
Tierc grimaced. “I really don’t want to owe Octiron any favors.”
“On that we agree.”
He frowned, began to shift free, but Ahnna’s clutch on him didn’t relent.
“Okay, on what do we disagree?”
She looked startled and Tierc realized her comment had been a casual one.
“I’m not sure.” A deep crease furrowed her brow. “I need to think. A part of me says this isn’t right, that I’m betraying everything I believe in, and then I consider, what if you’re right, what if,” she swallowed and her voice cracked, “HD-X is teaching my son to fight a senseless war.”
Tierc’s heart ached for her. How could he say HD-X taught something far worse than a flawed ideology? They were raising her son to fanatical hate and ignorance? HD-X operatives knew only joyless lives of sacrifice. What comfort would that bring Ahnna? None. She couldn’t do anything to save him, to stop HD-X.
They were trapped in another universe, alone with their secret, his secret.
At least, for the first time, Tierc felt real hope for their future. If Ahnna could overthrow her upbringing, accept him as mate, then his secret was safe, and they could enjoy a normal life together. Their biggest hurdle would be children. Raising Qui hybrid children invited so many complications, a massive obstacle in their happy future.
Maybe if they left Paragon, settled in a quiet part of the galaxy. His mind filled with possibilities. Whether she liked it or not, his Qui accepted Ahnna as his mate for life.
The human in him simply loved her.
Chapter Ten
D esperate for a wee, Ahnna opened the bedroom door and jumped when the drone dove in front of her, practically blocking her path. She frowned and tapped open her comms.
<
br /> “You owe us an interview,” Crandal barked. “Now.”
Ahnna quietly closed the door on a still sleeping Tierc. He’d taken watch most of the night, handing over to her a few hours ago. “Fine, but I need the bathroom first.”
The drone followed as she checked the facility was clear of any threat, at least granting her privacy for personal business. Ahnna finished quickly and returned to the kitchen area where she poured a cup of water before taking a seat in the mess room.
“Okay, Ahnna, what happened between you and Tierc, alone all night together?”
She took a deep breath, prayed she and Tierc survived this race without ripping Crandal’s throat out. They really needed a fresh start, free of Octiron.
“We made love and talked. Then we slept.” She smiled suddenly, unable to suppress a happy bubble in her heart. “I think I’ve been wrong about him. For all the girls out there, Tierc is a virile and considerate lover. That’s all I’m saying on the subject.”
“You’re looking unusually radiant.”
“I am?” She grinned, liking the idea. “It’s like I’ve woken up for the very first time and the sun’s shining and the birds are singing.”
Crandal laughed, false cheer put on for the masses. “I think our audience gets the picture. Perhaps you could tell us what you talked about.”
“We talked about our beliefs. Tierc talked—again, you’ve heard all this before—but he talked about the odds of a successful Qui mating with a human and it made sense, you know, what he was saying. I think because he talked about the Qui alliance with Earth and didn’t deny the history of Qui cruelty. But things changed after the Qui Empress signed the Qui Treaty in exchange for General Jaden, a new understanding between Qui and humans. You know, humans didn’t change, the Qui changed, and maybe that’s what the Qui needed. Humanity.”
“That’s quite a conversion, Ahnna.”
She swallowed. “Yes. I’m finding it impossible to hate Tierc. He’s a good person. It’s like pulling on a loose thread, once you start…”
“Except you’re unraveling your entire life, you’re questioning everything you’ve been taught. You gave your child to HD-X.”
Ahnna bit her lip, stared into the vid drone’s lens, her joy vanquished. “That’s cruel, Crandal. You know I never had a choice. I was born into that world, my son taken from me, like all children of HD-X.” The drone’s lens reflected a wasteland in her eyes.
“I don’t know. I only know what you’ve told us. Did you never doubt the HD-X cause? Look back, Ahnna, be honest. You’re an intelligent woman. You expect me to believe that after a romp in the sack, the man has rewired your beliefs in one night? No, you had to have doubts. The question is why didn’t you listen to them?”
Ahnna looked at her hands clasped tightly in her lap. The answer wasn’t hidden. It lurked inside her as familiar as it was unwelcome. HD-X punished rebellion. Once was enough.
“I was eleven years when I learned not to question the HD-X Wardens.” Ahnna ground her teeth, angry with Crandal for spoiling the morning so quickly. She remembered the darkness, smelt again the cold damp earth of those long days and nights. She looked away from the holovid drone, her eyes lifting to the ceiling as if she were once again that frightened girl desperately searching out the chinks of light shining through wooden planks twenty feet above her head.
She shuddered and returned her gaze to the drone. “HD-X can’t find me here. It’s safe to doubt, to question, and now I’ve started, I’m damned if I’m going to let a bulldog sadistic sleazebag interviewer fuck my head all over again.”
A hand rested on her shoulder and she jumped out of her skin.
“My turn, Ahnna.”
She nodded, briefly clasped Tierc’s fingers and then offered him her chair.
He settled in her place and faced the drone. “What do you want to know?”
Crandal clearly decided he wasn’t going to win this battle because she didn’t hear their handler’s reply. He’d switched to a private channel with Tierc. Good. She’d make breakfast—boiled water and rations. What more could a girl ask for? Her hand shook as she picked up the water container.
“I love her,” Tierc said.
Ahnna spun around and stared at him. Tierc twisted, met her gaze and smiled. Her mouth parted and that giddy feeling returned.
He turned back to the camera. “Whatever Ahnna’s done in the past, doesn’t matter here. Sure, she held a knife to my throat, but she didn’t follow through, I’m alive. It takes courage to step back and rethink paradigms of belief. I respect Ahnna for that. There’s nothing to forgive.”
Listening to Tierc evade intimate details of their lovemaking, hearing him talk about the Qui Empire of today and its plans to explore beyond the Milky Way, restored Ahnna’s bouncy mood. By the time Crandal had bored of milking sordid details from Tierc, she had a hot mug of water for them both.
They sat at the table, a new warmth between them. Ahnna’s lips wouldn’t stop quirking and when Tierc winked she burst out laughing.
“Okay, I wish we’d done this days ago,” she admitted.
“Ah, but then Axo might have been watching.”
She shuddered. “True. We did manage to find some privacy.”
Tierc crunched on a bite of dry ration. “This is delicious. You cook a mean biscuit.”
“Oh my god! One night of passion and he’s delusional.”
“Passion.” He leaned forward, a twinkle in his eyes. “A revealing choice of word.”
They continued their banter as they packed up and walked into a tunnel where a new set of steps spiraled down. A cool breeze lifted stray ends from her pony tail. “You feel that?”
Tierc aimed his light down the tunnel. The beam reflected off something. He edged forward. Ahnna followed close on his heels.
He stopped, put his hand back in warning. “Careful, the ground drops away.”
As her eyes adjusted to the black void ahead, Ahnna realized his flashlight was bouncing off a wall that stretched for a considerable distance in all directions. Tierc peered over the edge, his light insufficient to pierce the inky depths. Ahnna looked up. A glimmer of sunlight explained the fresh air. “I think a small ship could get down here.”
Tierc switched off his light. “Probably how the supplies got here. Octiron sent us the hard way.” He scanned the plummeting depths once again, this time relying on his vision. “I can see more pillars. I think we’re somewhere near the center.”
“This shaft explains how we’re still in contact with the Orion Nebula.”
“We still have the climbing gear.”
He made it sound like a question and Ahnna shuddered at the idea. “We’re not equipped for night climbing. Take the stairs. I’m betting each level connects up with this shaft.”
* * *
They must have descended a hundred feet by the time they hit the next level.
Ahnna relied on Tierc’s sharp senses to warn them of trouble and he duly put a finger to his lips just ten meters into the next tunnel. Tapping his comm, he whispered. “Zeke, keep your drone quiet and close. I don’t like this.”
The drone flew down and perched on Tierc’s shoulder.
Octiron’s rules forbade them using the drone to gather Intel. They’d rather watch them die than offer warning of something ahead. Octiron may have brought her and Tierc together against impossible odds, but ultimately the media corporation was no friend. Tierc drew his blaster and Ahnna copied him, automatically turning so they covered a wider angle.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“I’m not sure. A bad feeling. I can’t hear or smell anything unusual, but my neck’s tingling.”
Ahnna shifted her backpack, flexing tension out of her shoulders as she did. They walked down a wide corridor lined with blocked stone like ancient castle walls. Every now and again Tierc pierced the darkness with the light from his sidearm; otherwise they relied on his eyesight. Ahnna, holding onto Tierc’s shirt, covered their rear. Yest
erday she would have been less keen to trust him. Today she craved the contact. The Qui’s senses and intuition had never failed them. She now relied on him like no other person in her life. Trust without question.
Movement caught her eye, a black shadow darker than the rest of the corridor. It swept towards them and she cried out a warning, fired as she pulled Tierc down with her. Snapping wings and teeth veered away and flew over their heads. The draft from its beating wings fanned Ahnna’s cheeks. Blood thumping, fear thick in her throat, she crouched on the floor, Tierc beside her.
He swept the corridor ceiling with his beam. “I think it was something like a large bat.”
“How could you not hear it?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t hear it until it was right on top of us, perhaps a psy-defense, a blocking mechanism. It lives in the dark, probably doesn’t like light, and look here.” He plucked a medieval-looking torch from a wall sconce and sniffed the wick. “Got fuel.”
“This place is so weird.”
Tierc moved away before lighting the torch up with the blue-flame welding tool and Ahnna grinned. The soft light fell on her and his eyebrows shot up in query.
“What?”
“You. Putting safe distance between us. Protecting me.”
He shrugged. “We were a team before last night. I have always protected you.”
“And now?”
His eyes glittered. “Now I protect and cherish you.”
He stepped into her, the burning torch stopping him from getting too close.
She tilted her head, enjoying his boyish charm. “I can look after myself, you know.”
“Of that I am painfully aware.”
He meant the cuffs. Humor laced his tone, he liked she could look after herself, but she’d harmed him that night they’d met and she’d glimpsed flashes of his pain during their lovemaking last night. Passion incited his Qui and, suddenly, Ahnna felt like Tierc’s jailer.
