by Vi Voxley
Whatever the commander was feeling, he’d still lasted a good while. Just as the smile of pride showed on Narath’s face, a predatory smirk tugged at the commander’s lips. He was flat on his back with the commander’s spear at his throat before the thought he’d been simply toyed with finished forming in his mind.
“Next time finish it as soon as you can,” he growled in irritation.
He didn’t need flattery, not even from the general. He wanted to know his worth.
“I did,” the commander said, offering his hand. “You were doing fine until you realized you were doing fine.”
“You could have finished it sooner,” Narath argued.
In everyday life, he was of course much more respectful to his commander, old friend or not, but warriors stood equal for a moment after a duel, allowing them to speak their mind.
“If I’d fought for my life in battle, perhaps,” the commander allowed. “Now go get your leg checked out. There will be real fighting soon, and I need you in top form.”
Content he wasn’t being teased, Narath nodded and made his way to the med bay.
The woman there seemed familiar to him somehow, but it wasn’t after she looked up and a smile – the most beautiful he had ever seen – lit up her face that he recognized her.
“What did you do to your leg this time?” she asked, softly. “I’m not a warrior myself, but aren’t you supposed to protect them?”
While he sat and let her get to work stopping the blood loss and regrowing the broken skin with machines he understood nothing about, he shrugged.
“I fought the Commander,” he said, as if it explained everything.
It sort of did. Urenya nodded, chuckling quietly.
“Oh. Well, I suppose that’s fair. They tell me Diego is quite good.”
“Quite good…” he began, but she sent him a teasing smile from under impossibly long lashes and, halfway lost to those bottomless light blues, he caught up to the joke.
“Yes,” he grumbled. “He doesn’t exactly stumble on his spear, no.”
While she and the machines worked, Narath found himself unable to tear his eyes away from her. It had been a while, many years since he’d last seen her, back on Briolina in Diego’s arena. She’d looked so small and sad then, completely lost. Diego had strictly forbidden him to say anything to her other than the basest conversation. None of them knew how she would handle the tragedy that had befallen her. She’d been on the ship for months now, actually, though he had only known they had a new healer. Narath simply hadn’t had the opportunity to find out sooner, given that he didn’t get wounded often.
She had been a girl when they met before, with her quiet fury he felt even from a distance.
Now Urenya was a woman. Her smile was the most gorgeous he’d ever laid his eyes upon. She was just so petite, made to be embraced and held in someone’s arms. Preferably his. The fury he’d sensed years ago seemed replaced with quiet determination, but he could make it all come rushing back if he just blurted out what went on in his mind. Her long light brown hair was tied into a ponytail away from her face, giving her a more severe look than the kind, warm face truly deserved. She was short, like all healers tended to be, but compared to him it seemed even more obvious. All that he noticed in a glimpse, the full curves of her breasts, and the slender waist, and then her round ass the robes only barely concealed…
He had to try to maintain his control over his treacherous body as Urenya knelt down to get better access. Honestly, he had never experienced an instant attraction that fast, it was positively uncanny. If she caught on to how aroused he had suddenly become that would be… weird. He closed his eyes, willing himself to think of something else other than how soft her lips looked.
It did not help when her hand lingered on his thigh and his enhanced warrior’s hearing could not possibly mistake the small sigh that escaped her lips.
“They do make you guys big these days,” she said, smiling.
So much for discretion then.
He tried to find ways to excuse himself while she was clearly still in the middle of her examination, when she added,
“I mean, by the gods, your thigh is as thick as my waist.”
Oh. That. The fates were merciful.
Narath thought he might have actually sighed in relief, but Urenya carried on with her work as though she’d heard nothing. Perhaps she hadn’t. All Brions were generally in good health and form, but they developed differently according to what they were bound to be. Warriors grew stronger and faster, their senses sharpened. Scientists and politicians, on the other hand, developed their perceptiveness. For healers, the senses they needed to do their duties, like their sight. Narath hoped they didn’t require hearing that much.
Urenya seemed entirely focused on fixing him as he remembered her doing when they’d been young, only this time the wound was much deeper, and she had much more advanced tools to work with. The salve she was applying to his skin was a concoction of catalysts that made his body heal itself faster. She was observing the wound at the same time, looking to see if anything more serious was broken and whether his leg would fix itself right or she’d have to reopen it to make sure everything fit.
Her small hands – healers were naturally smaller, large fingers didn’t help with complicated and fragile tools – were gentle against his skin, as though he needed it. Brion warriors never complained about pain, so it couldn’t have been that she was afraid of hurting him. It took Narath a few seconds to figure out the motion more resembled a caress than anything else.
His breath caught. Her hands were very close to his groin, stroking the inside of his thigh, sending sparks of pleasure through his entire body. The duels were still so very fresh in his blood, pounding, demanding a release for the adrenaline. Brion warriors often sought the company of others after a battle to take the edge off.
As a healer, Urenya had to know that, even if she’d never felt it herself. So he could only assume she either didn’t care or it didn’t bother her. Or – the treacherous thought came – she was doing it on purpose.
Narath blamed it all on the battle hormones flooding his body, but when she looked up at him from her kneeling position, it was all he could do to keep still. His hands tightened around the edges of the med table he was sitting on, so hard he nearly twisted the metal. Urenya’s eyes were big and wide and just as her hand brushed – teasingly, maddeningly fleetingly – against his groin and a feral growl escaped his lips, she jumped as if caught. For a moment she looked as though she’d just been woken from a dream.
“I’m sorry,” she said then, smiling, shaking her head clear. “I know your blood must be up. I shouldn’t go around poking you.”
“I don’t mind,” Narath found himself saying before he could stop himself.
It was true, after all. His desire rushed up and down his spine and no matter how inappropriate he thought it was to feel that for someone he’d just met, he couldn’t stop the images from dancing before his eyes. Urenya looked as though she was made to fit into his arms, her small, curvy form perfect in every way, begging to be held against his chest. His eyes were undressing her, banishing the pain of his wound to a very distant priority. The healer’s robe was skintight by the grace of some cruel joke, drawing his eyes straight to where they wanted to go – she wasn’t as lean as the warrior women were but exactly right to have something for him to embrace and hold on to when he…
Urenya was watching him with a slightly amused expression, a twinkle of something he couldn’t entirely decipher in her eyes.
“I hope you also don’t mind when I won’t repeat that,” she said, stepping away, leaving the air thick with disappointment.
He did. Even with the battle excitement urging him on, he’d never felt an instant desire like that for anyone before. Her scent lingered in the air when she moved, over all the odors in the med bay, some of which weren’t exactly pleasant. Where she went, simple freshness remained. Narath found himself drawn to her like ta
ll trees searched for the light and warmth of Briolina’s stars.
“You will leave me like this?” he asked, only half-joking.
The ache would be terrible and the satisfaction incomplete without her, he knew that.
Urenya chuckled.
“I fixed your leg. Try not to put too much weight on it for a few days. I can’t fix whatever else you have in mind.”
“You could,” he said. “I would make it worth your time.”
Something very sad passed behind Urenya’s eyes, and for a moment, her kind smile faltered. Then she shook her head.
“I’m sure you would,” she teased, but it didn’t have that easy drive behind it anymore. He was just tolerated now.
As he got up to gather his spear and leave, he nearly bumped into her. The med bay wasn’t all that big while he, by all accounts, was. Urenya’s eyes darted up to meet his, taken aback, but as he apologized and left, he knew he’d seen it. There had been the unmistakable flare of lust as she stood pressed against his chest, frozen in place for a moment. Then the spell was broken, and she resumed her duties while he returned to his room.
Narath knew he wasn’t a bad-looking warrior, and it had been a while since he’d had to resolve any of his needs on his own. But that day, he didn’t feel a pull towards any of the women he knew might be willing to join him. He stripped off his clothes, let them fall to the floor and walked straight to the shower.
Even if he knew it would only be a shadow of relief, he still sighed as he wrapped his fingers around his cock. Any friction was welcome by that point. The walk alone from the med bay had been more painful than the wound in his leg. Water washed over him, soothing while every nerve in his body pulsed in tune to his lust. His hand worked up and down his cock with practiced moves, feeling himself teeter closer to his orgasm, trying to prolong the high when he reached it.
The image of Urenya appeared, as he’d known it would, smiling. Naked. Her hair let loose from the high ponytail she wore, her light blue eyes clouded with lust, her legs spread open for his pleasure on his bed… He growled in frustration. The image was nothing compared to what he truly ached for, but even that was good enough to make his fingers twist his cock so hard he thought he might end up hurting himself. It felt so good, his wet fingers, slick with the first lotion his wandering hands found, sliding over his hard flesh.
He let out a low growl as he came, shivering despite the warm water against his skin, his nails dragging along the shower wall where he supported himself. His breath came in short, desperate bursts as his body came down from the rush of pleasure. He didn’t even finish washing himself before he was hard again, thinking of the little healer.
The ache didn’t disappear after he tried again, and then again. Eventually, he lay exhausted on his bed, appreciating the irony in the fact that usually he would have asked a healer how to handle a desire like that.
CHAPTER THREE
Urenya
After a week of wincing every time someone came to the med bay, Urenya concluded her strange and surprising desire wasn’t going to pass on its own.
It baffled her, honestly. There were few things that didn’t make sense to her in the world as she was quite smart. Sure, she couldn’t build a ship from scratch, but with the Brion people she was pretty sure she knew where they stood. Maybe Seleya had been right after all, and the only one she couldn’t properly diagnose was herself.
What she was feeling was very obvious to her. Less so why.
After Patren, she’d sort of lost her desire for a while. She’d notice handsome men, and since the Brions were quite sexual by nature anyway, even had a few flings as was proper for a Brion youth. They all found practice useful before meeting their fated and putting all they’d learned to true use. But it had always been more of a chore or a very brief infatuation gone the next morning. By now, she knew it had been so because in her mind she still hadn’t let go of her gerion and was viewing all she was doing as cheating – a concept, which barely existed for the Brions as no one really did that. The fated couples didn’t, at least. (She’d asked Seleya, and of course they did; only they felt infinite times more worse afterward and almost never repeated it.)
She’d honestly gotten used to that desire-less state of being after a while. Theoretically, she knew there was a chance she’d bond again someday, but until it happened, she was focused on her work. Sure, she occasionally saw the commander fight shirtless, and it was a very pretty sight, but that happened to most of the women on board.
So why now? Why Narath?
Her healer-educated mind provided her with a quick array of embarrassing answers making her grin a bit and nearly drop two bottles of highly acidic liquids she was using to make a painkiller, ironically.
First of all, he’s built like a god. A huge god.
Alright, she could agree with that. Narath was what the word “huge” was probably invented to describe. He had nearly filled the little med bay when he’d visited, standing as tall as the commander, but where Diego was lean and quick, Narath was a formidable powerhouse with arms so thick she would have struggled to encircle one with both palms even at the narrowest. She’d seen him shirtless too, unknown to him. A healer was often required to stand guard in case something went really wrong during practice with the huge machines that probably didn’t even have a safety function. There was a lot to see, for example how many muscle groups a warrior could have. So yes, there was definitely that.
Second of all, he growls, her mind continued – ever since her conversation with Seleya that had nearly cost Urenya her career she was constantly analyzing herself.
Now that was more difficult to understand, but it was true. She was irrationally fond of the way his already low voice dropped to almost inaudible levels when he was aroused – which certainly didn’t escape her attention when she’d been kneeling between his legs – and the way it made her skin shiver as though the sound waves literally caressed her.
And thirdly, of course, you practically fondled him.
Urenya didn’t start to protest that, because it would have been suggesting she wasn’t aware at all times of what she was doing with her patients, and besides, yes, her hands didn’t necessarily need to go up that high but…
And well, he’s huge.
Ah, yes. That too. She hadn’t actually been out to do anything inappropriate, she’d merely wanted to touch more of that solid, steel-like body in front of her. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t clearly been enjoying it. No, she’d brushed against his cock entirely by accident because she simply hadn’t thought it could, well, reach that far.
While it wasn’t the main reason she’d said no, a good amount of it was a fair certainty Narath would rip her in two.
So why couldn’t she still get the lovable giant out of her mind?
At the moment possibly because he was suddenly standing right in front of her, leaning on his battle spear, tall and strong and dressed for battle. The valor squares pulsing in his neck cast his features in an odd light, bringing the green of his eyes even more to the fore. His short black hair framed his face to make the whole picture even more enticing. Her mouth watered despite herself. A part of her that had been sleeping for a long time wondered if she might still take the risk of being split apart.
“The commander needs us on the surface,” Narath said, his voice deep and heavy already from the thought of the upcoming fight.
Urenya hoped she managed to hide her shiver.
“He tasked me to bring you to him. Promising to, and I quote, kill me with his bare hands if I let something happen to you.”
Urenya smiled. Wasn’t their commander, a man from whom more enemies ran than faced him, a sweetheart after all?
The Triumphant loomed over a world called TD-17 for short, Target Destination 17 in their official records. The Brions knew fairly little of the planet itself, except that the Galactic Union didn’t like it. The Union had tried to make contact with the species living on the planet but to no avail.
/> Urneya wasn’t sure whether they were incapable of communication or unwilling to communicate. It seemed the Union didn’t know either, but what they did know was the species clearly didn’t like them. The GU couldn’t just ignore a possible threat, taking into consideration they’d found out about the strange Atherins, as they were called, when the creatures had attacked one of the Palian worlds. That happened to the Union occasionally, Urenya knew. Not all the species in the galaxy were willing to share the stars with others. Compared to them, the Brions seemed like the lesser of two evils.
The GU had thought it a perfect opportunity for the Brions to demonstrate they could play with others and do what they did best in the meantime. Also something that happened a lot, which worked well for both parties. The Union got rid of its enemies without bloodying its hands, especially the Palians who hated resorting to violence, and the Brions got to battle for a righteous cause.
The commander had kept Urenya safely aboard the Triumphant so far, and judging by the bodies she was sent – both Atherin and Brion – Urenya understood why. The Atherins were a roughly humanoid species, the expression borrowed from the Terrans but for the way their skin morphed. It gained density, making it difficult to pierce with even the most well-aimed blow, but fortunately Brion battle spears were built to endure almost anything. It was understandable why the Union didn’t want to deal with the Atherins themselves.
So the Atherins were hard to fight even when you saw them, since morphing was so fast and so natural to them, while the Brions were not entirely sure yet they understood all the ways the aliens could morph. They knew they could grow their skin thicker or more dexterous. Problems arose from that they could also make it blend into the background, giving them the perfect camouflage. They’d lost quite a few lives to the simple misfortune of a warrior literally stepping on an Atherin and finding himself stabbed to death by what he thought was the ground. Brion senses were very keen, but TD-17 required being on the edge from the second you landed.
