An unexpected sense of pride filled me as I watched her. She was a sight to behold. Beautiful and deadly. Fearless. She ducked an ion blast and didn’t even pause in her step before returning fire and striking her ‘enemy’ down.
I knew the ion blasts were fake flashes of light, that the fallen were not truly dead, but the sights and sounds of battle were real, not forged. The screams of pain real as well, for the specialty training gear simulated the sting of taking an actual ion blast in armor if a cadet was hit. They had to be ready for anything, and being conditioned to deal with the jolt of an ion blast in a real battle could prove to be the difference between life and death.
Or worse. Turning into the likes of me.
I’d been through these simulations, this training. I’d been on that exact training field. There were no Atlans out there today, mostly the smaller races, those from Earth, Trion and Everis. I knew the Atlans and Prillon warriors trained for different types of missions, would use the field in different scenarios and practiced at a different time.
Below me, a pincer move-and-ambush on an enemy base camp was underway, led by my mate. The other three Academy commanders were pitted against her, their teams moving to protect the base flag that represented their stronghold.
Kira and her team were on high ground, moving to a flanking position as the rest of her team feigned a full-frontal assault. They struck hard and fast, then pulled back into a narrow ravine, taking up sniper positions to keep their enemies pinned down and engaged on their front line.
The Atlans were usually up front in a full ground assault, charging through the middle, tearing bodies in half as we went. The Prillons usually combined ground and air assault tactics, their pilots uncannily skilled at hitting targets on the ground with little to no margin for error.
But the stealth I witnessed here was astonishing.
“Damn, she’s good.” Denzel was watching as well, his arms crossed. He whistled when she moved directly behind the defending team’s commander and took aim with her rifle. “She can’t hit that shot. She’s five hundred yards from the target.”
The Academy observer snorted in disgust. He was a huge Prillon warrior, young, but strong. “Captain Dahl does not miss. Not from that short distance. I have seen her strike a Hive Scout through the heart from a mile away.”
I grunted, but said nothing. A Hive Scout? What the fuck was my mate doing attacking a Hive Scout? But as the defender fell—from that substantial a shot—his body armor forcing him to remain unmoving on the ground, I watched Kira silently signal her team to move in on the flag target.
One by one her opponents fell. She struck in the rear, taking out the nearest defender until the opponents’ entire team was focused forward and no one remained to defend their flank.
As she walked forward and lifted the flag from its base with no resistance, I realized that I had no idea what my mate was capable of. I knew little to nothing about her or her life. Her history. Her training. Her job here. I wanted her. Needed her. My beast howled for only her, yet there was much to learn. She was my very soul, yet a complete enigma.
I turned to the Prillon, who was grinning as the alarm bell rang, signaling a victor. “Hive Scout? Do the instructors here frequently go into enemy territory?” I had never head of such a thing, but I had to admit I did not know anything about the Coalition Academy or how it was operated. I had trained on Atlan, in a different facility before being voted in as commander of my unit. The election was a huge honor and I had served proudly up until the day I was captured by the Hive.
The Prillon cleared his throat, then turned to me with one eyebrow raised. “Apologies Warlord, did you ask me a question?”
I frowned. He’d heard me. We both knew it. “I asked, Prillon, if the instructors here normally go on strike missions against Hive positions? Do they go into active combat?”
He grinned. “Not normally. No. But Captain Dahl isn’t exactly normal, is she?”
“Do all of your instructors hold the rank of Captain?”
“No. Of course not.” Shaking his head like I was a fool, he turned from us and made his way down to the field. Victors and those who had been defeated now stood shoulder to shoulder on the ground as the Prillon recounted what he’d seen from his vantage point in the tower. Strengths. Weaknesses. Mistakes.
Through it all, my mate stood with the victory flag in one hand and her rifle in the other. She had removed her helmet and used the flag arm to hold it on her hip. Her hair was a wild, sweaty tangle and her eyes intense and focused with the challenge and victory, but not surprise. I saw no arrogance or excitement. Around her, chests heaved with exertion. Cadets threw up or dug at their uniforms, fighting the heat or resonant pain of the ion blasts they’d taken.
She looked unmoved. A stone statue. Calm. Calculating. Unmoved by the possibility of pain or even death.
I knew that look. I’d seen it in the mirror.
It was the look of an experienced warrior, not a teacher at the Academy. Not a female who worked in a classroom. She’d led her group through the exercise but it hadn’t been one for her. She’d done this before and the ion blasts had been real.
She said she couldn’t be mine, that she had a job to do.
Why did I now believe that my mate was keeping secrets from me? Even with a night so intimate, our darkest desires, our bodies completely exposed, I didn’t know what was in her head.
I would have one night to learn everything. And I wanted to know everything. Every secret. Every place she liked to be touched. Every sound and scent and taste of her on my tongue. I wanted to know about her life, her past, her dreams for the future. I wanted a lifetime in one night. But I would take what I could get, the stolen moments of bliss, and then I would let her go. I’d have to. I had no choice.
Denzel tensed next to me as the female, Melody, pulled off her helmet as well. She was wincing, her arm wrapped around her side as if she’d taken a hit to the ribs.
“Go. See to your woman,” I ordered.
“She’s not mine.”
It was my turn to cross my arms and look at another warrior as if he were an idiot. “So, you won’t mind if that Trion male next to her helps her to medical, as he is offering to do?”
Denzel’s head whipped around to check out the opposition. “Fuck that.”
He took off at a run and I chuckled. At least one good thing would come of this trip. No, two good things. It seemed Denzel had found his mate, and I would spend one more night in heaven with mine.
“I’ll meet you in transport at noon tomorrow,” I called.
Denzel waved in acknowledgement and took off at a run for the mock battlefield, shoving people out of his way until he stood toe-to-toe with his female. She looked up at him, way up, and whatever he said, she smiled, placing her hand in his. He had a fucking way with the females.
Looked as if Denzel was going to be a happy man tonight, and I had every intention of being one, too. Kira’s warm, wet pussy awaited. Her body. Her laughter. Her bed. Everything.
Chapter Nine
Kira, Private Quarters
I closed my eyes as the drying tube blew hot air all over my body. It was like standing inside a hand dryer in the public restrooms on Earth. This was something I hadn’t gotten used to, being put into a mini-hurricane instead of using a towel. I didn’t mind today because I was in a rush.
Angh was in his quarters.
Waiting.
My heart skipped a beat and when the machine shut off, I took a deep breath, let it out. I was nervous, like a fifteen-year old girl with her first crush. But my body wasn’t behaving like a teenager’s. No, my reactions were all woman. My pussy still ached from our last time together, my nipples hardened remembering the feel of them in his mouth, the tug of suction he’d used, the sweet slide of his teeth over them. My back was bruised along my spine from being pressed against the wall, ruthlessly fucked with a desperation we’d both shared. The whisker burn on the inside of my thighs. The ruthless skill of hi
I shuddered, my temperature felt like it jumped ten degrees.
My body remembered all of it, wanted him again. My brain wanted him, too, but knew it was a bad idea. Bad ideas sometimes felt really, really good and this was one of them.
One night.
He wanted one more night. So did I. I couldn’t deny him, or myself.
Opening the door of the bathroom, I stepped out, saw Angh leaning against the wall just inside the doorway. Naked. Very naked and very, very erect. Why did he look bigger today? I couldn’t believe that beast of a cock had fit inside me. It was porn star worthy. No wonder my pussy was sore. No wonder my body screamed Yes! More!
I froze, surprised, then instantly aroused. “I…I didn’t know you were here.”
The corner of his mouth turned up as his gaze traveled over my body, from the tips of my toes to the top of my head with pit stops at my breasts and my pussy. “The guest quarters are adequate, but not needed for more than the bathing tube. It is your bed I want to be in tonight, although I have no intention of sleeping.”
I licked my lips. Sleep? Who needed sleep? Seeing him again, every bare, gorgeous inch of him, had me needy, and I knew I was going to be insatiable once I got my hands—and mouth—on him.
We just stood and stared. I took in his size, well over a foot taller than me. His hair was dark and a tad unruly and from the looks of it, a touch damp, as if he’d skipped the drying tube in his haste to get to me. His eyes were dark and brooding, as usual, but the heat in them, the need, was scorching. Whiskers darkened his square jaw and I wanted to feel the rasp of them against my skin again. His full lips were parted as if he was breathing hard. He was, because I watched his broad chest rise and fall. A smattering of dark hair covered his chest, specifically between his flat, dark nipples, then tapering to his navel. Below that, it went in a straight line down to the thatch of curls at the base of his cock.
But I’d skipped so much and had to backtrack to his broad shoulders, rippled and bulging with muscles. His corded forearms flexing and relaxing with each opening and closing of his fists. His washboard abs, narrow waist, lean hips. Then there was his cock, thick and long, capped with a broad head. The skin was smooth and taut, a pulsing vein ran up the length. Farther down, his legs were powerful, his thighs as wide as my waist. He was built like a tank, a gorgeous, mouth-watering tank.
But there was one thing—no, two things—I’d skipped over, two places too painful to linger. The cuffs on his wrists. Wide and silver-toned, they were carved with elegant marks. His family’s marks. To him, the cuffs meant he was claimed. That he was mine. Of all the women in the galaxy, he’d chosen me.
That fact was humbling and frightening all at once, because I wasn’t free to follow my heart. I’d signed a contract with the I.C., and no one just walked away. Not before their time was up. And not when there was still so much work to be done.
I could have Angh, but how many people would die because I was selfish? Because I wasn’t strong enough to deny my heart the one thing it had every really wanted?
Him. My beast. He was mine. The truth was there, in his eyes, in the way he looked at me, like I was the only female in existence. I knew, in my soul, I knew he would fight for me. Kill for me. Die for me.
I just hadn’t understood at the time, when he’d placed the cuffs on my chest. I had been too caught up in my body’s needs, mindless with desire. To be with him, I wouldn’t be walking away from a desk-job as an instructor of Planetary History or Interplanetary Species. Those had been my worst subjects in school.
Now I realized just how much a bit of extra studying during my school days would have paid off. I would have recognized Angh’s intent instantly, the depth of his desire for me. The gift he was offering me when we’d been together and he’d placed those cuffs on my chest.
A mate. A lifetime of absolute devotion and protection from one of the strongest, most honorable males I’d ever met.
He’d offered me the matching cuffs and I’d felt the cool weight of the metal when he’d set them on my heated skin. But not the weight of their meaning. I’d turned them down. I hadn’t wanted jewelry from him. Couldn’t wear it in my role. But it wasn’t just jewelry. The cuffs were every bit as powerful as an Everian’s mark. It was a claiming. A connection. An offer of forever.
The thought of what he wanted had me glancing away. I wanted him. I did. My body screamed at me to close the distance between us, put my hands on him. Climb him like a monkey. Kiss him, lick him, sink down on his big cock. But I couldn’t keep him. Not for more than tonight.
I’d signed my life away. Committed to a life of service to the Coalition Fleet, to the war, to protecting hundreds of planets and billions of innocent lives. Just as Angh had done when he’d joined his fellow Atlan warriors in fighting the Hive. I was human and I didn’t have any of the out clauses that other species had. I didn’t have any of the problems like those from other planets. Everians had a back-out clause if their mark awakened. Atlan warlords would be sent to prison if they went into Mating Fever. Prillons could be separated from their mates, but their collars tied them together telepathically, which was pretty darn cool. And creepy. And the Prillons lived and died on their Battleships. Raised their families. Their females accepted two mates in case one of them was killed in battle.
That was what I’d learned about the other species and their customs. I was a battle commander. I led small strike squads of human, Trion and Viken warriors. We were not big enough for infantry battle, for facing the Hive Soldiers head-on in ground combat. That was left to the larger races, the Prillon and Atlan warriors, and a few others who were strong enough to lift a Hive off the ground and literally tear his body in two.
That I’d seen. That was something I knew about the Atlan warrior staring at me now like I was the most desirable creature he’d ever seen.
I wanted him. If I was completely honest with myself, I was already falling in love with him. And yet, I was stuck with my contract. I didn’t have a special collar, or ancient mark that would spark to life and get me a get out of jail free card. I could meet a warrior like Angh and fall in love with him, but it could never be more than a quick, wild romp.
What the heck was I doing? Standing here, staring at a naked Atlan warlord who blatantly wanted me, thinking of what I couldn’t have when he was so blatantly offering me exactly what I wanted. Him. Naked. Right now.
“I’m not tired, Warlord,” I finally said, agreeing with him that we wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight. If I had one night with him, if that’s what he wanted, I wouldn’t waste a second of it sleeping. I walked to him and he pushed off the wall, met me halfway.
His hand came up, brushed my hair back from my face, but didn’t touch me. Only his cock made contact as it prodded my belly. For one so big, his touch was gentle. I felt so small, tiny, beside him. My eyes were level with his chest and I couldn’t hold off any longer. I lifted my hand, placed it on his belly, watched as the muscles quivered, heard the way he inhaled a quick breath. It was like electricity, touching him again. A current of desire went through me, lightning-quick, right to my pussy. I clenched my inner muscles in anticipation. I could feel my nipples harden, ache. And that had been from a simple touch.
My hand slid left to right, my eyes following, seeing him and learning his body. A scar here, a flexing muscle there. I admired his physique, his perfection. I paid no special attention to the cyborg parts in his biceps, the faint glimmer of metal in the corded muscles of his neck and shoulders. He was magnificent, and all of that was simply part of him now, just like the other scars.
He didn’t move to touch me, but his hands flexed open and closed as if it took all of his control not to. I tilted my head back, glanced up at him. Way up. His dark eyes met mine and I saw his heart in them. He hid nothing from me. He was raw and hurting. Not just the searing desire, but his need, his desperate and absolute devotion.
Looking into his eyes was the strongest aphrodisiac. I knew I was safe with him. Always. There was love in those dark depths, in the way he trembled, holding back as I touched him. He let me have my way, for now, and I knew by the shudders passing through his body how that control cost him. Yet he did it, for me.
“You’re so damn beautiful.” The confession poured out of me as I spread the fingers of both my hands, splayed them wide so I could make maximum contact with his skin. I parted my lips and his eyes lowered to them. That was it, a silent snap of the tension between us. It broke and so did his control. His hands went to my shoulders as he lowered his head, kissed me. Ravaged me.
I was sinking, drowning, swirling, dizzy. His tongue found mine, mated, sucked, licked. His mouth claimed. Heat surged through me, my mind went blank. I gave myself over to the kiss. To him. To us.
His calloused palms slid lower down my arms, then back up, my nerve endings awakening by the simple touch. Goose bumps rose on my skin, yet I wasn’t cold. I was burning up.
But when his hand squeezed my arm where I’d been injured, I flinched. Moaned into his kiss. I was used to the pain, lived with it, but I’d forgotten to steel myself to it. I’d forgotten everything, and it had only been a kiss.
Angh pulled back, looked down at me. His breathing was ragged, his lips red and slick from the kiss. His eyes were like black fire, but filled with concern. He lifted his hands as if I’d burned him. Perhaps I had, for I felt on fire.
“I hurt you,” he said.
I shook my head. “I was already hurt.”
He closed his eyes, swore. “That is unacceptable.”
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