Lords of Mayhem

by Angelique Anjou

  Legion tilted his head curiously at the man. “You are human,” he responded after a moment.

  “And so are you! This is nothing but a … parlor trick! He’s using some sort of voice altering device.”

  Legion’s expression tightened. Clearly, he considered the remark an insult, which Anya found pretty insulting even though she supposed she could see the man’s point. Obviously, Legion hailed from a far superior race—more advanced, physically perfect, probably even a great deal more intelligent … and that was just the tip of the iceberg when she knew what else he was capable of. Don’t, she thought a little frantically when she realized he was considering proving he wasn’t human.

  Legion flicked a glance at her. She had the impression that he was surprised even though it wasn’t apparent in his expression. Why?

  For a moment, Anya thought he’d spoken aloud. It’s a trap.

  He returned his attention to the scientist, eyeing him speculatively. What sort of trap?

  They’ll want to study you. You don’t want that. Believe me, you don’t.

  He glanced at her again. “I will allow it … to a point.”

  “Allow what?” Melton demanded blankly.

  Instead of answering, he seemed to compose his thoughts. “I had been wandering for a time in search of an intelligent species when I sensed the presence of your race in this system and decided to investigate. The presence of the habitat you refer to as a space platform intrigued me more since it was an indication of an advanced race. I decided to appease my curiosity and directed the liezarct there.

  “The curiosity of the crew was another indication of higher intelligence that pleased me. I began to appease my own curiosity to learn more about you while they set about trying to learn about me.”

  “You destroyed the SP-13!” Melton accused abruptly.

  Legion looked at him at his outburst without surprise or anger. “I did not. I had no reason to do so. It was no threat to me, anymore than the crew was … or you are.”

  It was at that point that Anya realized, along with everyone else, that the military attachment set to guard the meeting hadn’t moved by so much as a hair’s breadth since Legion had announced his presence. A stronger ripple of uneasiness washed over the assemblage, who began to murmur among themselves in rising alarm.

  “You’ve … done something to the guards!”

  “Yes,” Legion agreed mildly, looking approvingly at the female scientist who’d spoken to him before.

  “If you don’t feel threatened, why?” Melton snapped.

  Legion lifted his brows. “To protect you from them.”

  Various expressions of doubt flickered over the faces of the men and women.

  “It’s because I was hurt when the guards attacked him,” Anya volunteered.

  “So you said!” Melton countered, turning his attention to her. “And yet, despite an exhaustive examination yesterday, the doctors were unable to detect any sign whatsoever of the injury you claimed!”

  “Because he healed me! Laine! Tell them!”

  Captain Laine shrugged. “I didn’t see it. For all I know he’s the one that did … whatever it was that was done. The men who supposedly attacked, and caught you in the crossfire, died … just like I said.”

  Anya glared at him furiously when the shock of his betrayal receded. She hadn’t lied for him, but she’d certainly done her utmost not to direct any charges against him. So much for loyalty among crewmembers! “You told me yourself that Vance had managed to tell you I’d been hit when he set off the alarm and you knew I was alive because Cpl. Nix had been stationed in the infirmary to watch me! You are such an asshole! He only came here because they didn’t believe us. Now you’re trying to make it sound as if he’s to blame!”

  “He is to blame!” Laine snarled. “He created a mutiny! We were gone by the time the space platform crumpled like a can! For all we know he did that, too!”

  Anya shoved her chair back and stood abruptly. “They disengaged the inhibitors on their weapons! They filled the hull full holes! I might have been out of it, but I damned well remember that, and you can’t even claim that as excuse! You’re just outright lying because you see a chance to save your sorry ass!”

  “You’re the one who told me he was manipulating the crew, Dr. Rambo! Unfortunately, I didn’t believe you, but I don’t see how I could’ve prevented what happened even if I had!”

  Anya narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe,” she said tightly, “if you’d been a little more focused on doing your job and a little less focused on fucking all of the female crewmembers you would’ve been able to figure it out! That’s a strong maybe, I know, since most of your brains reside below your waist line, but it might have been a possibility!”

  “Order!” Melton demanded, pounding on the table top abruptly with his fist. “Are you lodging charges against Captain Laine?”

  Anya glanced from Laine to Melton and then looked at Legion. Legion had folded his arms over his chest and settled his rump against the windowsill, obviously content merely to observe with lively interest.

  It occurred to Anya forcefully that Legion had been just as busy screwing all of the female crewmembers as Laine had—far more effectively and subtly, but just the same …. On the other hand, Legion had had no responsibility toward the crew and Laine had.

  It also occurred to her, although it hadn’t before, that that rivalry might have contributed to the mutiny. She had no idea what Legion had been doing in the minds of the male crewmembers to try to manipulate them into accepting him, but she thought, now, that that was his only aim—to smooth the way toward acceptance, to prevent the alarm and hostility now being directed at him. No doubt he was far more accustomed to inspiring fear, awe, and hostility in those of other races than friendliness. “It was your hostility toward Legion that caused the mutiny,” she said abruptly, with fresh insight born of her sudden realization. “What was it? You didn’t want him encroaching upon your ‘preserves’?”

  Laine glared at her. “He was a menace. Unfortunately, by the time I realized it, he’d already clouded the judgment of most of the crewmembers—including you.”

  Anya gaped at him. “I gave you no reason to suppose that I would turn on my fellow crewmembers in support of him! My interest was purely on a scientific level! To say nothing of the fact that I wasn’t even conscious when the mutiny broke out. And beyond that, we were under orders to bring it—the liezarct—him back!”

  “It is because he knew that I had chosen you for myself,” Legion said coolly.

  Anya looked at Legion sharply. “How would he …? Why would he think that?”

  “Because I told him.”

  “Carole said you’d chosen her!” Russo growled abruptly.

  “He was just using her … like he was Mellie!” Cooper snapped angrily. “There wasn’t a woman on the crew that wasn’t fawning over him like he was some sort of … god … and willing to fight anyone who disagreed with them or tried to talk sense into them!”

  “I made them no promises,” Legion said implacably. “I gave as much pleasure as I took for myself. I cannot see that that is using, as you call it. Is it not using when you take pleasure with no regard for giving in return? I will not argue that they believed that I would chose them, but I told them plainly otherwise. I was very clear that I had chosen Anya as my mate.”

  Anya stared at the men. It was one thing to suspect that the violence that had erupted was the result of an unseen battle for male dominance, entirely another to realize it had escalated to such proportions as to create the disaster it had. Anya settled weakly in her seat once more.

  Clearly, despite what she’d thought, the other crewmembers were as responsible for the disaster as those who’d perished in the battle for control.

  After giving each of the crewmembers a hard look, Melton dismissed them. “We will consider the new information that has come to light and come to a decision regarding the incident on SP-13,” he said tightly. “You are dismissed �
� for now.”

  Anya was too angry to look at her fellow crewmembers—or Legion for that matter. She noted as she left the room, however, that the scientists and the board members of SSRED had all gathered around Legion.

  The guards at the door relaxed, blinked, and looked around in confusion as she reached them. Mentally shaking her head at Legion’s disregard for her warning to him about allowing anyone to see how powerful he was, she left him to fend for himself.

  He was certainly in no danger—at least not until the board members and scientists had had the chance to realize that he could be a danger to them.

  He arrived in her quarters while she was standing in the shower, trying to use the heated water to pound the tension from her muscles. Her first awareness of his presence was when the water, which had been falling, began to spatter upwards. Jolted when she caught a glimpse of the palm redirecting the water, Anya whipped her head around to look at the owner.

  Legion was studying the water bouncing off of his palm with an expression almost of fascination. “Primitive, but effective. It is oddly … soothing, is it not?”

  Anya issued an irritated huff. “It was,” she muttered.

  “It is not now?”

  “I thought you were entertaining the SSRED bigwigs,” Anya said instead of responding directly to his question.

  “I grew bored. I told them that I was far more interested in courting my woman.”

  Anya sent him a startled look. “You didn’t!”

  He shrugged. “You did not seem to care for it when I suggested we fuck. This, courting—this is the word used to describe the mating ritual, yes?”

  “You don’t sound like it’s anything you’re familiar with,” she retorted dryly.

  “I am not. I have not experienced this before—the sense that it is my time to take a mate. Truthfully, I had never considered it before, but I find it extraordinarily exhilarating now that I have thought of it.

  “I am very accustomed to fucking. I enjoy that very much. But I gather that, to your mind, there is a difference between fucking merely for the sake of enjoying it and fucking for the purpose of procreation. I hope you will not expect me not to enjoy it, though. I am fairly convinced that it would not work if I did not.”

  Anya met Legion’s gaze a little doubtfully and discovered his eyes were gleaming with amusement. The realization that he was teasing her hadn’t fully jelled in her mind, though, when he caught her and dragged her upwards to meet his kiss.

  It didn’t occur to her to resist.

  It did flicker through her mind to wonder if it could possibly feel as good as she’d dreamed it was.

  It was everything she’d remembered and nothing like the kiss her subconscious mind had experienced when he’d come to her in her dreams. She felt the pressure of his hard mouth on hers. She felt the warmth of his body and the silky slick texture of his wet skin as he slipped her against his length, felt the flex and pull of his muscles as he encircled her with his arms and molded their bodies firmly together from chest to hip. She smelled the faint, heady essence of the man himself as his cheek grazed hers and his breath, heated by his body, fanned against her lips and, when his tongue skimmed her lips and then breached the threshold the moment they parted, she felt an explosion of keenly pleasurable sensations, felt a thousand impressions flit through her mind in a dizzying kaleidoscope.

  Strong—big—hard—he made her feel small, fragile, desirable—protected. His touch as he explored her with his hands was sure, deft, firm and yet gentle, appreciative, and infinitely pleasurable. The thrust of his tongue inside the sensitive cavern of her mouth was determined, hungry, skillful, drawing forth quakes and jolts of sensation from every nerve ending, pouring heat through her, robbing her of breath and strength.

  His taste was … indescribable, intoxicating, invigorating, draining her of will.

  She clung to him with no idea when she’d reached for him in turn, digging her fingers into his hard muscles to try to counter the spiraling of her senses as her awareness of anything beyond what she felt faded away. A sound of pleasure purred from her chest as she met the assault of his tongue with her own, dueling with him, curling her tongue along his to taste him more fully.

  Her mind careened sharply, abruptly, and then she felt the give of the mattress of her bed beneath her, surprise, confusion as the weight of his body settled upon her from above.

  “Wet,” she gasped in mild complaint when he broke from her lips to explore her throat and she realized he’d, somehow, moved the two of them from the shower to the narrow bunk in her quarters, but the word had scarcely passed her lips when she realized they weren’t wet at all.

  Warmth blossomed in her lower belly, tension coiling there, when he found his way to her breasts, massaging them, exploring the texture of her skin with his lips. The thrill of feeling his face pressed intimately against her was barely surpassed by the anticipation threading her veins. She gasped, arching her back as his mouth closed over the tender tip he’d been tormenting with the teasing, predatory approach of his lips for so long she’d begun to shake with anticipation. Stroking her fingers through his silky hair as he curled his tongue around her nipple and pulled at it with the exquisite suction of his mouth, she cradled his head to her breast for a moment, stroked his cheek, and then raked her fingers lightly along the hard muscles of his back.

  A shudder went through him. She soothed him with the palms of her hands and then began kneading his taut flesh with her fingertips as he shifted his attentions to her other breast, managing no more than gasping little pants for breath.

  She dragged her heavy eyelids upward to peer at his face as he lifted his head from her breasts and surged upward to match his lips to hers again, feeling an indescribable thrill rush through her as she scanned the taut planes of his face, saw heated need in his eyes that matched or surpassed the desire blossoming into fire in her belly.

  She might have been with him a thousand times and felt no more at home in his arms, no more ‘right’, and yet the excitement of discovery was so thrilling and new she might never have known his touch at all.

  The thought disturbed her, sent a flicker of doubt through her, but he banished it almost at once with the hunger of kiss, infusing her with the same sense of desperation she felt in his touch.

  With eagerness, she opened herself to him as she felt his hand coast over one breast and along the center of her rib cage, across her belly, pushing at her thighs. The lips of her sex tingled at the brush of one long, thick index finger. She sucked in a sharp breath as he parted them, tracing a path from the mouth her sex toward the bud at the apex and teasing it.

  He broke the kiss, lifting his head to watch her face as he gently stroked the tender flesh, drawing more tension inside of her with each knowing touch. A sense of impatience welled inside of her, the need for more, the need to strive for completion.

  She opened her eyes to look up at him as his deep, rich voice washed over her in a husky murmur. Though she hadn’t a clue what words he spoke in his native tongue, the look on his face and the timber of his voice were enough to send a thrill through her.

  Her throat closed with a mixture of emotion and desire as she gazed at him. “I need …! Legion!” she gasped.

  A tremor traveled through him. His expression tightened, his eyes blazing with both triumph and heated desire. He wedged a knee between her thighs, pushing them wider to accommodate his hips and surged against her almost bruisingly before he caught his member and guided it along her excruciatingly sensitive cleft.

  She shuddered, her heart thundering with anticipation as she felt the slick head of his cock parting her flesh, felt him enter her body, arching to meet him the moment she felt him breach the opening. He slipped a broad palm along her hip, curling his long fingers into the flesh of her buttock as he surged again, deepening their connection by frustrating degrees, sawing slowly and shallowly along her passage to gather her body’s moisture on his hardened shaft. The pressure was exquisite, cr
eated a deep ache she began to feel a desperation to assuage.

  He spoke again, his voice ragged, feverish when he’d driven so deeply inside of her she could manage no more than panting breaths, but he spoke only one that she understood. “Anya!”

  A shiver skated through her at the sound of her name from his lips. She lifted her arms to embrace him, coasting her palms down his broad, muscular back when she discovered the circumference of his wide chest was beyond her reach. His flesh rippled beneath her touch. His skin prickled. He sucked in a harsh breath and withdrew his cock as slowly along her passage as he’d claimed it and then thrust again, attaining a cadence in a few moments that scored her insides with heat, that teased the deep ache until she was mindless, feverish.

  She clung to him, strove with him, holding her breath each time he penetrated her deeply enough to drive the ache a little higher, to make the tension inside her coil a little tighter. The first convulsion of her inner muscles pebbled her skin all over. She sucked in a sharp breath as it quaked again and then her body exploded with sensations so exquisite it dragged choked cries from her with each wave that ripped through her. “Legion!” she groaned and then gasped as the hard waves began to subside, “Oh god! Oh my god!”

  He uttered a deep chested groan even as she reached the peak, stilled for a heartbeat, and then plunged into her faster and deeper, pumping his essence into her.

  A low chuckle escaped him when he finally caught his breath. “You said you did not believe in gods, beloved.”

  Anya managed to crack one eye a slit in an attempt to glare at him but discovered it was really too much effort. “You are so humorous,” she mumbled.

  Chapter Eight

  A shiver went through Anya as she opened her eyes and looked around. It was instantly obvious that she was neither on Earth or the world Legion had shown her that he’d told her was his home. She felt as if she was in a sauna/steam room. The air surrounding her was hot enough it burned her lungs and yet it was so heavy with moisture she felt as if she was drowning.