A tiny moan escaped me.
“You like that, my entandi?” he asked.
“Yes.” The word hissed out of me, and Dax’s hand, slick with soap, slipped down my stomach to my sex.
“What about this?” His breath fanned against my cheek as he whispered in my ear.
“God, yes.”
With one finger, he began caressing my clit. My legs started to squeeze together, and Dax hooked his own legs over them, pulling them apart to give him better access to me. I dropped my head back to lean against his chest, and Dax placed his other hand against my stomach, pulling me tight against him.
His erection pressed against my back, hard and hot and throbbing.
“More,” I whimpered, and he increased the pressure against my clit.
My orgasm began swirling like a pool at the center of my being. Dax moved his hand down farther, slipping a single finger into me, the heel of his hand continuing to press against my clit.
“Come for me, entandi,” Dax breathed into my ear, and as if following his command, the heat centered at my clit spiked and crested, rolling through my body, leaving me shattered in a million pieces—and, at the same time, still resting against Dax, whole and complete.
Chapter Twenty
Dax
“General Galatov, a pleasure to see you again, sir.”
“Good to see you, as well, Commander.” The general gave a perfunctory salute in return. “I understand you and another one of your officers both brought back mates from this newly discovered planet?”
“Yes, sir,” I confirmed as I waved him into the conference room. “At last report, Captain Jalek is very happy with his mate—as I am with mine.” I gestured for Braxen to join us in the room, as well.
“I would like to speak with your officer and his mate. And your mate, as well, if that’s all right with you.”
“Of course, General. Braxen, will you please arrange to have all three brought in?” When Braxen left, I turned to the general. “Before they return, I have some disturbing news, I’m afraid. While I was retrieving my mate, the Karlaxons sabotaged the scout ship I was in by hacking into our computer core.”
The general frowned. “How did that happen?”
“No idea, sir. I have my engineering team working on it now.”
The ruff of fur around his shoulders rippled as his hackles rose, and the blue spots of his fur seemed to grow even darker in his agitation. “Keep me apprised of the situation.”
“I will, sir.” As I finished speaking, the door opened with a hiss and Braxen ushered in Nora, Jalek, and another human woman I assumed was Lucy.
The modified uniform Braxton had tracked down for Nora fit her snugly. The way it clung to her curves made me want to pull her into a kiss and take her back to my quarters—both so I could strip the uniform right back off of her, and so no other males would see her looking quite so delectable.
Beside me, the general sat up straighter, the scent of his interest suddenly drifting through the room. My own protective instincts rose to the surface, and it was all I could do to keep from hissing a warning his direction.
Nora is mine. My inner beast scratched at the surface of my mind, wanting to be let out, wanting to make sure no other male got too close to my mate.
The general glanced at me and grinned. “No worries, Commander. I simply want to talk to the females.”
My beast subsided, and I managed a civil nod to the general. “General Galatov, may I present my…” I started to introduce her as my mate, but we had not completed the mating ceremony, and she had not yet agreed to stay with me, so in the end, I simply ended with, “Nora.”
The general stood and executed a flourishing bow. “It is an honor to meet you, my dear,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, too, General,” Nora replied before moving to stand on the other side of me.
My inner beast approved of her choice to put me between herself and another male.
“And of course, you remember Captain Jalek.”
The general nodded and saluted.
“General, Commander,” Jalek said, his pink skin turning an even darker shade in his pride, “please allow me to introduce Lucy Gray, my human match from the planet Earth.”
His human match. It was an elegant way to sidestep the whole mate issue while our females were deciding. I tucked the information away to use later when introducing Nora.
After greeting Lucy, the general sat down, and we all followed suit.
“Thank you all for joining me here today,” the general said. “I had initially planned to conduct a surprise inspection on the Lavelek. However, rumors of the miraculous discovery of genetically compatible females on planet X-320—otherwise known as, I believe, Earf?”
“Earth,” Lucy corrected him gently.
“Earth.” The general pronounced the term carefully, as if wrapping his mouth around the strange syllables.
Lucy gave an encouraging nod.
“Rumors of this find are spreading quickly through the fleet. As Fleet General, I have decided to exercise my privilege to begin the process of claiming a mate for myself.”
Lucy and Nora exchange a covert glance. I wasn’t sure anyone else noticed, but I was certain I saw in it a reluctance to assist the general.
This is not going to be as easy as Galatov expects.
The general was still speaking. “Therefore, before we get down to the business of fleet security, I wanted to take the opportunity to ask Lucy and Nora a few questions.”
Beside me, Nora’s entire body stiffened up. I doubted anyone else sensed it, but my mate was uncomfortable. Less than two sundrops before, I had vowed to myself never to allow that to happen—and yet, here I was, unable to protect her from my own Fleet General. I had to force my beast to remain silent.
“What would you like to know, General Galatov?” Lucy asked politely. The dark-haired human woman had natural social graces. I could tell why Jalek liked her—even if she was far too thin for my tastes.
“Captain Jalek’s report notes that your people are in the process of poisoning your planet,” the general continued.
Nora raised her eyebrows, but Lucy gave an acknowledging nod. “I suppose we are, yes.”
“Excellent. I would like to know which region is suffering the most damage and would therefore provide females most likely to be grateful for removal from this Earth.”
This time, the glance between Lucy and Nora was overt. Nora leaned forward with her elbows on the table. “I am not certain you will find any woman who would be grateful to be taken away from her life without warning.”
The general frowned, his expression confused. “And yet, the two of you are here.”
“Yes, but Dax saved me from a mugger,” Nora explained.
“And Jalek saved me from criminals who were about to shoot me,” Lucy added
“Hmm. I see.” The general turned to me and continued. “Commander Dax, you will send your best man—preferably Lieutenant Commander Braxen, as he and I have served together extensively before—to X-320, where he will find my genetic match and save her from one of the many and apparently varied threats on her planet.”
He turned his attention to Braxen. “Once you have secured my mate’s safety, you will inform her that it was done at my command. Then bring her back to me, where I will reap the rewards of her gratitude.”
“That’s not exactly—” Lucy began.
At the same moment, Nora said, “I don’t think—”
“Good. It is settled.” The general gave a decisive nod. “Thank you for your help, Lucy and Nora,” he said, his tone a clear dismissal.
I started to intervene but paused. Better to let the general make his own mistakes and sort them out than to have him blame me if something went wrong.
I hope it’s better this way, at least.
Jalek murmured something to Lucy, and she stood up. “Let me show you the ship, Nora. We can stop by their canteen—the Drovekzians make a wonderful kind of tea. I t
hink you’ll like it.”
“Sure.” Nora stood up to join her, and I was pleased when she walked all the way around the table to avoid the general.
My mate had excellent self-preservation instincts. She would make an admirable Commander’s partner.
“Now,” General Galatov said as the females left the room, “tell me more about this Karlaxon sabotage you encountered.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Nora
I was glad to get out of there. I almost hated to admit it, but General Galatov intimidated the hell out of me. From what I could tell, his markings were like those of a cheetah—complete with a spiky ring of fur across his shoulders—but in a bright blue with dark blue spots.
He was huge, too, even bigger than Dax and the other Drovekzian soldiers I had seen so far.
That wasn’t what frightened me, though. It was his expression, the look in his eyes—like he wanted to own me.
For the first time, I found myself completely thankful that Dax was the Drovekzian who had found me. With him, I had the option to go home if this didn’t work out.
I suspected that the general would not be so accommodating.
“I feel sorry for the poor woman who gets picked up to be the general’s mate.” Lucy’s sidelong whisper echoed my own thoughts.
“I know, right? I feel lucky Dax found me.”
“Really? He’s a little frightening, too.”
I laughed. “Your Jalek isn’t exactly the perfect picture of a domesticated cat.”
“My Jalek…” Lucy’s voice trailed off thoughtfully. “He says you and Dax aren’t formally mated yet, either. Canteen’s this way.” She pointed down a hallway, and I followed her as she turned.
“We’re not formally mated, no. Why aren’t the two of you?”
“I made Jalek promise to give me thirty days to make up your mind.” She led me into a small canteen with oversized tables and chairs and held up two fingers to the orange-striped Drovekzian behind the counter. “Two honahets, please. Are you hungry?” she asked me, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m starving. And two of those…” she rolled her hands around as if holding a giant, oblong shape, “those sandwichy, salady roll things. Wobblies?”
The alien behind the counter grinned. “Wabla rolls?”
Lucy grinned back. “Yes, those.”
“You seem comfortable enough here.”
“Yeah. Then again, I’ve been here a few days longer than you have. I’ve already decided to stay. Don’t tell Jalek yet, though. He deserves to worry a little after terrifying me like he did. A giant, hot-pink leopard jumping out of nowhere.” She shook her head. “I thought I was going to die.”
“Yeah. Dax killed the mugger who attacked me. I thought I was next.” I shuddered at the memory.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Lucy confided. “There’s an awful lot of testosterone around here. It’ll be nice to have a girlfriend.”
“Yeah. But…the thing is, I’m not sure I’m staying.” I felt bad dashing Lucy’s hopes like that. But there were about to be plenty more human women hanging around soon enough, from the sound of things.
“Really?” She squinted at me, then her eyes widened in surprise. “Oh my God. You haven’t had sex with him yet, have you?”
A hot blush crawled up my cheeks. “Oh. Um. How did you know?”
She clasped her hands together, tapped them against her lips, then steepled the two index fingers together and pointed them at me, grinning. “Don’t make a decision until after you’ve done the deed. I promise you, the mate-bond makes it incredible.”
I blushed harder as I remembered our time in the tub just that afternoon.
The server came to give us our tea and sandwiches. Or something like them, anyway. The dark red drink was served in a low, wide bowl with a miniature ladle, and the rolls came standing on end in some kind of cup. Lucy eagerly scooped up some of the tea and drank it.
My stomach growled and I realized I hadn’t eaten since…well, since before the wedding that hadn’t happened.
Lucy had been right—the tea was wonderful, fruity and slightly sweet, and the sandwich reminded me a little bit of a Philly cheesesteak. I didn’t ask what it was made of—I suspected I didn’t want to know, any more than I liked to think about where meat on Earth came from.
We ate in companionable silence for a little while, then chatted for a bit, trading stories of how we had met our Drovekzian mates. She told me that Jalek had talked about Dax, describing how long they had served together in the Drovekzian Space Fleet.
In some ways, it felt like she knew Dax better than I did—and I realized that made me a little uncomfortable.
That has to be a side-effect of the mate-bond, I finally decided. Or maybe it was plain old-fashioned jealousy. I didn’t want any other woman to have a closer bond with him than I did. Which was ridiculous, of course, since I wasn’t even sure I wanted to stay here.
“Anything else you want to know?” Lucy finally asked.
“Just one thing.” I leaned in conspiratorially. “Why are all the walls in their ships that godawful shade of orange?”
Lucy burst out laughing. “Isn’t it horrible? I finally figured out that they don’t see things exactly like we do. I’m betting their eyesight is more similar to a cat’s on Earth. When I asked Jalek about it, he seemed to think it was a soothing shade of green.”
“Green, really?”
But even as we laughed about it, I found myself wondering what other assumptions I had made about Dax were wrong. We literally didn’t see our universe the same way.
In what other ways were our viewpoints so different that it didn’t even occur to us to ask each other about?
And could those kinds of differences—the ones that were so ingrained that we didn’t even know they existed—be overcome?
Could we really create a life together despite all the dissimilarities between our worlds, our cultures, even our bodies?
Can I truly be happy if I stay here with Dax?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dax
After two sundrops’ worth of discussion, we were no closer to determining what to do about the recent Karlaxon incursions into Drovekzian space—not to mention their hacking into our computers.
Braxton and General Galatov, however, had come up with a plan to find the general a mate. I didn’t bother to tell them I thought their plan was likely to fail—but from the surreptitious glances Jalek had given me, I suspected he felt the same.
As we all filed out of the conference room, I stopped Jalek with a hand on his arm. “Join me in the officer’s mess hall for a meal?”
“Let me check on Lucy first, and then I’ll meet you there.”
I probably should have checked on Nora, too, but I was starving. “See you there.”
With a wave, Jalek headed out.
I opened a communications channel on my wristcom. “Computer, locate Nora Marlin.”
“Nora Marlin is currently en route from the general population canteen to Commander Dax’s personal quarters.”
Good. That meant she had probably eaten already. She would be safe there while I joined Jalek in the mess hall—I needed to discuss some things with the captain.
“How did you convince Lucy to stay with you?” I took a bite of my flandant bread and waited for Jalek’s answer.
The captain snorted. “What makes you think I have?”
My intuition about why he had described her as his match rather than his mate had been correct. I shrugged. “You two just seemed connected to one another.”
Jalek swallowed a bite of food as he nodded. “We are. But part of that involves recognizing Lucy’s concerns.” His eyes narrowed as he regarded me. “You’re having some of the same issues with your Nora, I take it?”
I glanced around to make sure no one else was listening. “I am. I can feel her trepidation through the mate-bond.”
“Do you know what’s causing her worries?”
“When I met he
r, she was running away from another mating ceremony.”
Jalek’s eyes widened in shock. “She’s mated to someone else?”
“No. Apparently on Earth, there is no such thing as a mate-bond. It’s all simply left to chance. She walked away from her potential Earth mate.”
“Right. Lucy mentioned the lack of a mate-bond, but I hadn’t considered the repercussions—or what it might mean to try to form mating pairs without the mate-bond.”
“And yet you seem to understand what Lucy needs.”
Jalek laughed. “I made my agreement with Lucy out of sheer desperation. She wasn’t willing to come with me and I was determined to find a way to convince her. So we have a trial period of thirty solar days. Lucy keeps calling that our ‘trial month’— apparently a month is some standard Earth time measurement.”
Thirty solar days? “Does it worry you that she might choose to return to her home planet at the end of that trial?”
“It terrifies me. For all that I know she feels the mate-bond—we both do, and it grows stronger every day—she doesn’t truly understand what it will do to me if she walks away.”
I nodded in sympathy. “These Earth females are more difficult to deal with than females of our own species would have been.”
“Certainly,” Jalek acknowledged. “But I’m also beginning to think relationships with human mates might end up being more fulfilling than anything our ancestors might have had with Drovekzian mates.”
I hissed in frustration. “Sometimes, though, I wish I could simply grab her by the back of the neck and hold her down until she submits to me like a good, old-fashioned Drovekzian female would.”
Jalek’s laughter echoed through the almost empty mess hall. “Can you imagine our mates’ reaction to something like that?”
I snorted in amusement. “I would be afraid to go to sleep ever again for fear of what she might do to me.”
I suspected any other Drovekzian males who heard our conversation would be horrified. But as the only two who had ended up with human mates—so far, anyway—we were now part of a very exclusive club.
Star Mate Matched Page 8
