“Your lack of claiming is keeping me hopeful, Chiang. If you want to make sure other males stay away, you’re going to have to act on your urges. How long do you think you can put off marking her as yours?” Malachi demanded.
“Until my supply of calming drugs is diminished or Boca comes to her senses,” Chiang replied. “I gave her my word that I would not enslave her emotions.”
“Foolish Greggor,” Malachi teased. “Claim her. Boca does not know her own mind.”
“Unfortunately true,” Chiang said. “But I will not break my promise to her.”
“There was a time when I thought mated males were the weakest of all creatures for their willingness to sacrifice for a single female,” Malachi observed. “Yet now I find myself willing to bargain almost anything for the return of a creature who is beyond the corporeal world more than I am. I have no right to chastise you about your mating relationship.”
“Perhaps my reticence defies logic, but what you are experiencing in your grief is very normal,” Chiang said. “You have a right to mourn her absence, Malachi. I honor your feelings. If it were Boca in the stasis unit, I would not be behaving nearly as calmly as you.”
“My demeanor is the result of being forbidden for two thousand years to be anything but calm. The emissary told me many times that all she wanted was to shed the skin suit she wore and return to her energy state. Shouldn’t I be happy for her, that in all likelihood, she has achieved that goal?”
“Perhaps in time you will be,” Chiang said.
“Perhaps,” Malachi repeated, but looking into the chamber he doubted it was going to occur so long as her host body breathed.
***
Boca stood outside of Chiang’s door wondering if there was ever going to come a time when she wasn’t nervous about crossing his threshold.
“I heard you sighing all the way over in Medical, but I’m not breaking in for you again,” Malachi said, laughing when a startled Boca called out and moved into a defensive stance. “Sorry. Did I frighten you, Little Warrior? How in the hell did you ever survive on Lotharius?”
Boca swore in a stream of Sumerian while she rubbed her stomach and relaxed.
“Your insults mean nothing to a demon. Now I’m sorry I talked Engineering into an override. All you have to do is say your name to get in,” Malachi advised.
“Why would you do that?” Boca asked. “I never asked for access.”
“The Greggor has everything inside the room programmed for you. I don’t know why he didn’t do the blasted door.” Malachi frowned and shook his head. “You scramble our good doctor’s brain. Boca Ador. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Why are angry at me?” Boca asked, having to work to swallow past the tightness in her throat.
“Because I would just as soon you never go into Chiang’s quarters again. The Greggor is a fool for waiting. In my opinion, he deserves to lose you. Plus, the other female I wanted is gone now,” Malachi said coldly, shrugging. “Why do you think?”
“I have made my choice, and it is not you,” Boca said firmly. “It will never be you. We have discussed this before. My mind on the matter will never change.”
“Really? Are you sure it will never be me?” Malachi demanded. “You’re still standing out here in the hall where I am. Actions speak much louder at times like these.”
“You are right. They do. Boca Ador requesting access,” she said firmly, pressing the com button.
“Override initiating,” the com unit replied and followed the announcement with a click.
Boca pushed the door open and starting inside.
“Greggors bite their mates to mark them,” Malachi warned. “I dare you to bite him back.”
Boca didn’t answer as she went inside to face her destiny.
***
“Malachi lied, Boca. He doesn’t want you now. His compassion is only for the emissary,” Chiang said from the bedroom.
Sighing in defeat, she walked to tiny bedroom. “I suspected he was just harassing me. You heard our discussion?”
“Aye. All of it,” Chiang admitted, fighting his smile. “I heard every word clearly.”
“Then you know how I feel…” Boca said sadly.
Chiang snorted. “No. I know what you said to Malachi in answer to his taunts. That is not the same thing as being willing to be mated. We both know that.”
The silence stretched between them as Boca hovered in the doorway, her gaze glued to the outstanding nude male filling the entire surface of the bed.
Chiang’s determined tone when he spoke startled her as much as Malachi’s taunts had. “The next bonding between us will be a Greggor claiming. If you’re not ready for that step, then you’d better leave. I’m not feeling noble at the moment.” After delivering the warning, he crossed his large hands over his chest. “The demon taunted me to action too.”
“What’s going to happen when I have to go to Rylen to complete my training?”
“I will go with you of course. Healers are always needed. I am very familiar with Siren physiology. Working for the academy, I will learn about other species,” Chiang said.
“You would leave the ship for me?” Boca asked.
“Aye. If we were completely mated, I would have to do so. They don’t make anything strong enough to stifle a Greggor’s desire for his mate,” Chiang said honestly. “Do you have other concerns?”
“I have thousands,” Boca declared.
“I can probably handle one more today,” Chiang said on a laugh.
“Fine. I want you to never desire another female ever again. Can you promise that?”
Chiang laughed. “I was merely admiring her legs, Boca. And you were running your hands over them. Any male would have had the thoughts I did. I’m sorry I let you see it though.”
“What if I wanted another male? What if I have lustful thoughts?” Boca demanded.
“You can have all the thoughts you want,” Chiang said easily. “If you touch another male with true desire, I will break him in half and chain you in our quarters. That’s perfectly legal on my home planet. I don’t share. And I will never ask you to do so. You are an outstanding bonding partner, the best I have ever had. I feel quite certain you can meet all my needs.”
“I would kill you before I let you chain me to anything,” Boca warned.
“Then we would both be dead. Problem still solved,” Chiang said, smiling at the ceiling again. “Anything else?”
“You are infuriating,” Boca said fiercely.
“And you get mean when you feel threatened,” Chiang commented. “I have a lot more descriptions. Perhaps we should make a list of each other’s flaws. Though I have to say this feels like I’m making a purchase more than asking the female I love to be my mate.”
“Why should I choose you?” Boca demanded. “Because it is not clear to me.”
“The only reason for you to choose me is because I have your full compassion,” Chiang said firmly, swallowing hard against his hope that it was truth. “There is no other reason to do so. All I ask is that you want me back at least half as much as I want you. I couldn’t bear to bond with a resistant female. It is beyond me.”
“Resistant?” Boca closed her eyes. “I never even have lustful thoughts of other males. It’s as if you are the only one that exists.”
“For you—I am,” Chiang said. “That’s not arrogance. That’s me wanting to be the only one.”
“And if I say that I still feel I have no choice?”
“Do mates ever really have one? Try to run to the door right now and see how far you get. My noble restraint was gone the moment I heard you tell Malachi you made your choice,” Chiang said.
Boca lifted her hands to remove her clothing.
“No,” Chiang said, rolling to his side and springing up to face her. “This is how much I want you.” He ripped her tunic down the front, finding nothing underneath. His hands trembled. “I will try not to do any permanent damage to you.”
“Must
you bite me?” Boca demanded, but the question disappeared in the seal of his mouth over hers. Chiang’s body was already slick with his excitement. She felt the shreds of her tunic falling, and then he rolled her under him.
Greggor filled the air as he tore his mouth free of hers. She felt his fingertips making impressions in her backside as he lifted her for his entry. There was a tiny moment of panic, but it was lost to amazement as she realized she understood what he was saying.
“MA angajez sa ai toata puterea mea de compasiune,” he swore. “Tot CE am este al vostru. I va onora toate va sunt.”
I pledge to you all the strength of my compassion, Boca heard. All I am is yours. In return for your love and fidelity, I will honor all you are.
“Chiang,” she called, but his hands and mouth were sending her spinning. The vibrations inside her spiraled.
When he lifted her hips and eased inside her, her muscles clenched around him in welcome. The satisfied sound he made filled the room they were in and Boca grabbed his head to pull his face to hers. He was inside her, over her, wrapped around her. His massive body blocking out everything but him.
“The emissary does not know all my truth. Our children will not be a challenge,” she said harshly, smiling when she heard him laugh. “Do what you must. Just don’t expect me to be a compliant mate.”
Keeping himself within her, Chiang rolled until Boca was astride his lap. He rocked up and into her, a small, tight rhythm that made him feel like he touched the core of her with every stroke. Unchecked now, the heat rose inside him, burning like fire as it sought an outlet. He was giving all of himself to this female. It was a simpler choice for him than he ever imagined it would be.
Boca whimpered in his arms, squirming on his bonding organ, but the pleasure he intended was not going to come so easily to her this time. He rocked steadily as he spoke his intent.
“Cu aceasta marca, EU te sustin,” Chiang said roughly, his aggression building to an intolerable pitch. He moaned into her hair, hoping Boca wasn’t going to hate him for what he had to do to appease the Greggor beast within himself.
With this mark I claim you, Boca heard, but did not understand it in time to brace herself for his teeth sinking into the base of her neck. His nails raked down her back as he gripped her, leaving stinging ridges that had her calling out in alarm and pain.
What was Chiang doing? Then the rocking suddenly culminated, exploding their connection with a blast of heat inside her, shock waves following it. The urge to laugh overcame her surprise, the sound of her merriment an odd accompaniment to feeling his teeth sink down even harder. And then there was a blissful floating feeling that was almost worse than the bite.
“Chiang?” she rasped.
At last he lifted his head, her life force staining his mouth. “A mea.”
Boca ran fingertips over his lips, giggling at the way Chiang closed his eyes in pure pleasure. “Am I going to be mad at you about this tomorrow?”
“No,” Chiang said, lifting the bed cover to wipe his mouth and dab at the her neck wound. He would put something on it to heal it shortly. There was no reason for Boca to have to tolerate the three weeks of sealing and scarring that mating marks naturally took while healing. “You won’t be angry for at least a week. I’m sorry for the pheromone effect. It is meant to spare the female pain, but you are having a more severe reaction.”
Boca pushed playfully on his shoulder and giggled. “You sound so much like a doctor.”
“Yes, A mea,” Chiang said, putting her forehead against hers. “I now plan to be a doctor for the rest of my life. I have decided it is my true calling.”
Boca held up her palms, turning them to where he could see. “My evil emissary said you might be dying. I couldn’t let that happen. So I got ugly hands to help you. It burns to use them, but they worked on you and Kefira. I could have picked warrior skills instead.”
“You chose healing?” Chiang asked, planting a kiss in the middle of each scarred palm.
“I chose to save you. That’s all I was thinking at the time. There really wasn’t a choice,” Boca said, then giggled again. “Why am I laughing?”
“Euphoria,” Chiang said on a sigh. “It is a Greggor mating gift.”
“Finally, one I like,” Boca said, cuddling closer. “Can I bite you back?”
“Certainly, A mea. It seems only fair,” Chiang said on laugh.
When she bit down on his chest muscle, he screamed out in pain, but Boca only laughed and clung. He had to put the cover over the wound after. His giggling mate looked him up and down.
“Now where can I put another one?” she mused.
Chiang threw the completely soiled cover aside and thrust his now fully recovered bonding organ hard inside the laughing female to distract her.
“You do that so well,” she cooed, sliding up and down on him in blissful strokes. “My turn to be in control.”
With her fingers setting him on fire, his body twitched and writhed and fought to hold her in the Greggor mating pose. He needed to last six hours for the full effect of his pheromones to mark her as his, but all he really wanted was to beg her for the kind of mind-blowing release she could so easily give him.
It was going to be a long night. The two days rest he had missed were not helping his situation. Chiang sighed at her low humming of pleasure as she rode him.
“Promise me to stay in my arms and on me for six hours no matter what happens,” Chiang entreated. “This is very important, Boca. Promise me.”
Boca laughed, riding him blissfully. “Mi volas rajdi al vi por la resto de mia vivo. Nokto neniam estus sufica.”
Chiang laughed first at her declaration of wanting to ride him forever, and then at himself for actually understanding what she had said. Kefira, he thought. She had given them both a full understanding of each other.
“I agree, A mea. One night is never going to be enough.”
When the vibrations came, they were rolling and intense and Chiang was just glad Boca passed out on him before his own world went black.
When he opened his eyes again, it was to see small life force stains everywhere on the covers. His body was covered with bite marks, but there was no giggling mate in his bed claiming credit.
Panic sent him running for the door.
Chapter 27
“What’s wrong with her?” Gwen demanded. “And where the hell is Chiang?”
Boca had been sitting on a medical table singing the whole time a laughing Malachi washed the blood off her neck wound, treated it, and wrestled a tunic over her head.
Gwen got furious every time she thought of the blood that had been all over Boca. What kind of sick weirdo mating shit was this? She wanted to kick Chiang’s Greggor ass.
“There. She’s covered now, Commander. I have to admit Boca is a lot smaller breasted than I imagined her being. Glad I held out for a larger female,” Malachi said, drawing away at Gwen’s sharp slap on his arm.
“Stop commenting about her nudity. I left Zade chastising the ensigns who had been enjoying her naked happy dance down the hallway.”
“Sorry I missed it,” Malachi said, moving out of Gwen’s reach. “I did try to warn her about what would happen.”
When a completely naked Chiang rushed into Medical, Gwen stared at the blood and bite marks covering him. “Fucking hell, Chiang. Was the biting shit really necessary?”
She ground her teeth together when Malachi threw back his head and laughed.
Malachi had to put a hand to his gut because it actually hurt to laugh so hard over Gwen’s genuine shock.
Chiang on the other hand looked completely unrepentant.
“I see you took my advice about biting him back,” Malachi said to a grinning, humming Boca who was smiling at her mate.
“I asked nicely, and he said I could.” Boca stuck out her lip in a pout. “Did I hurt him?”
“Chiang? He’s probably the happiest male on this ship right now,” Malachi said, sincerely happy when Boca looked tho
roughly pleased with herself.
Chiang stared at Boca and then pushed by a still staring Gwen. “Boca. Where did you go? I woke up and you were gone. You shouldn’t be out of our quarters right now,” he admonished, keeping his tone as gentle as possible, fighting the urge to growl at Malachi standing so close to her.
“Jurek’s ensigns found her doing a naked dance down the hall,” Gwen stated flatly. “What did you do to her, Chiang?”
“All this fuss. I just took a walk,” Boca said. “I was going to my room to get some clothes. What’s the problem with me being naked?”
“Euphoria,” Chiang said to Gwen, taking the pants the grinning Malachi handed him. “Stop staring at her, Malachi. It makes me want to kill you.”
“She is quite alluring in this condition,” Malachi said. “A happy, singing Boca—who knew that was possible? She only has the one mark, Chiang. You’ve got six or seven on the front. I didn’t get a good look at the back of you. What gives?”
Chiang tied the pants and glared at Malachi before swinging the same glare to Gwen. “What my mate and I do in private is none of your business, Commander.”
Gwen crossed her arms. “Zade is dressing down the three ensigns who found her and were too busy enjoying the show to call for help. Everything on this ship is my business. How long will this situation last?”
“Boca’s euphoria? I don’t know. Greggor females recover in a few hours. She had an extreme reaction the first time I got just a little carried away. Seeing her in this condition, I suspect she has a low tolerance for my pheromones.”
“You wish,” Gwen said, biting back the swearing she wanted to let fly. “She’s a damn warrior, Chiang. Boca’s not going to be reduced to this state on a regular basis by some horny Greggor who can’t handle a real female.”
No one was going to interfere with how he pleasured his mate. Chiang growled and started towards Gwen, only to feel Malachi’s firm hand clamping down on his shoulder.
“Down, Chiang. You can’t attack the Commander, even though I’d love to see it. This is a medical issue, but in your current condition, I’m thinking that leaves me in charge,” Malachi said on a laugh. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed by Zade walking into the room.
The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series Page 30
