by Mary Auclair
It was bare and long, the walls made of the same metal as the exterior. A few items of scattered furniture provided little comfort to those inside. A long desk stood in the back of the room, and strewn about the place were a dozen stiff-backed chairs. The entire place was illuminated by a low floating orb, casting a cold, diffused light that didn’t seem to reach all the way to the corners. She knew Eoks didn’t need it—they saw in complete darkness as well as in daylight, so they had little need for the glowing orbs. Still, it gave the entire room an aura of hostility, of utter and complete desolation.
A dozen or so Eoks stood or sat around the room in scattered groups of two or more individuals. Various shades of blue eyes settled on her with an all-male hunger as Hazel came to stand by Khal’s side. Her entire body shivered with the awareness of danger as the males all inched subtly toward the group of newcomers. A few of the Eoks glanced curiously at Zaxis and reverently at Khal, but most just stared at her.
I should have obeyed Khal. I don’t belong here.
Commander Gerkin cast a wide glance around the room and his face lit up with a perverse amusement as he looked at his troops. Then his gaze landed on her for the second time. The amusement faded from his pale, unfeeling eyes and gave way to lust, unashamed and ravenous.
“I told you bringing a female on Garana wasn’t safe. She’s proving too big a temptation for my warriors.” Gerkin spoke while pursing his lips, exposing two sharp fangs. “There will be a Claiming before this day is over.”
As if the world had stopped making sense, Hazel turned on her heels to see the Eoks were closer now. Desire and violence lined their gazes as they looked at her body.
A Claiming?
If she knew anything about the looks in those Eoks’ eyes, a Claiming wasn’t something she wanted to happen. Her gaze fluttered briefly to Zaxis, whose face had gone from pale to deathly white, then landed on Gerkin. The Commander of Garana was looking at her like she was naked and offered on his bed, his lips pulled even higher back from his teeth, exposing the entire length of his fangs.
Then a feral hiss came from her side and Hazel turned to see Khal, his long, sharp fangs exposed to view and a glint in his eyes that poured ice down her bones, freezing her in place with terror. He looked like a nightmare walking out of her darkest night, an angel of death filled with wrath and violence.
“No one touches Hazel.” Khal moved in a fluid motion until he stood just in front of her, so close that she would only have to lift her arm to touch those wide shoulders whose heavy muscles were stiff and bulging.
“The female is unmated.” Gerkin spoke deliberately slowly, articulating each word while facing Khal. “She’s free to be Claimed. The strongest male will have the honor of taking her as a prize.”
“The days of Claiming a female who doesn’t want to be claimed are over.” Khal spoke with a voice lost in a guttural, deep growl. “There will be no contest to win Hazel. Not today, not ever.”
Gerkin’s eyes gleamed with something akin to joy as his lips twisted downward into a fearsome grimace. “She is unmated and human on a planet almost entirely populated by young male warriors. Warriors who haven’t laid eyes on a female in months—or years.” His voice fell flat and emotionless, all traces of joy gone. “I won’t have a riot for her sake. She will be Claimed by the strongest male. A clean, old-fashioned contest. Such is my authority on Garana.”
A quiet descended over the room, a silence expectant with the promise of things to come. Dread slithered under her skin as the blue eyes of the Eoks turned deadly, their marked faces taking on the expression of ones readying themselves for battle. Even the young Eok from before, the one name Hayro, stood with the others, his juvenile face contorted in such naked greed she almost choked at the sight of it. If he ever had respect and awe for Khal, it was gone now.
What the hell happened to these guys? They’re like dogs sniffing a female in heat.
Somewhere, deep in the recesses of her mind, she knew. She knew what was going to happen in that room, and what was going to happen to her afterward.
“Hazel is mine.” Khal’s voice grew louder over the assembled warriors. They stopped moving, first surprise, then wariness on their faces. Some even took a step back in obvious deference to the challenge. “No one else can have her.”
“You claim this human female is your mate?” Gerkin’s face went slack with surprise. “She bears no scent. If you haven’t sealed the mating, then she is still free for another to claim.”
Khal hissed. He actually hissed at Gerkin, the sound so terrible, it made all other Eoks retreat hastily to a safe distance. Only Gerkin remained close by, unimpressed by Khal’s threat. In fact, he seemed excited by it.
He relished the prospect of a fight with Khal, Hazel realized. Enjoyed the idea of it.
We should never have come here.
“The Mating Venom is not to be challenged. Such are our laws.” Khal kept his chin high and his eyes level, but the effect it had on the crowd was immediate. They began whispering in low, excited tones like old wives telling tales. “Hazel is mine and mine only to claim.”
Gerkin’s expression registered a fast succession of shock, disbelief and anger then, finally, resignation.
“Fine.” There was resentment in his voice as he took as step backward. “If this is true, then the troops are in dire need of a distraction. The Mating Ceremony will be after you’re done refueling. In the meantime, you can rest aboard your own ship, for the female’s safety.”
Just like that, the Eoks began to speak fast and low, deserting the room one after the other. A few shot glances at Khal before leaving, inclining their heads in deference.
When Khal turned to her, Hazel lost her breath. What was behind those intense, Prussian blue eyes was nothing short of a raging storm.
And she was standing right in its path.
* * *
Khal
Her presence at his back was like a beacon of madness, pushing him to the edge of a dark abyss out of which he would never crawl.
I should never have brought her here. I should have locked her up in the Myrador until we were safely away.
But she was a stubborn little thing, and by the time he had planned to shove her luscious form over his shoulder to bring her back to his private quarters, it had been too late. If she was in danger on Garana, she would be in even more if Khal showed any weakness to the ruthless commander of the red planet.
Gerkin had long since been lost to the bloodlust; he was never coming back from the pit in which his soul was rotting. He was as dangerous as Roohl, as vicious as Knut, and twice as bloodthirsty. Even his status as a fellow Eok didn’t mean he could be trusted.
I can’t go back now. Hazel will be mine, whether she wants it or not.
Now that they were back on the Myrador, the madness was receding. As the door to the loading dock closed, Zaxis left quietly, his face closed off and his steps hurried. He was smart to leave Khal alone with Hazel. In Khal’s current state, not much was needed to trigger an attack. And once he started, Khal wouldn’t be able to stop until the threat lay dead.
Khal waited until Zaxis had gone before turning to Hazel. Her green eyes—wide with fear—looked up at him and her round mouth hung slightly open. Her fear laced the air with irresistible pheromones and his seed stem answered, a low pain throbbing in his groin.
He wanted her so badly, his entire body ached for it. For the raw possession of male flesh upon female. For her sweet surrender, body bared and soul quivering with lust.
Not yet. Gerkin wants a ceremony for his troops.
“Stay where you are. Don’t come close.” His voice wasn’t his voice anymore. It was the underhanded growl of a beast, a sound designed to subdue and terrorize. But Hazel didn’t look terrorized, not as much as she should.
“What happened back there? Why did Gerkin back down when you mentioned Mating Venom? What’s the Mating Venom?” Suspicion brimmed bright in her gaze as she eyed him back, as brazen as always. �
��And what in the fuck did you mean by you will claim me?”
She took a step closer, her body, lush and female, radiating warmth. Her smell became stronger, spicier as fear gave way to anger. Her temper flared, making her silken cheeks blush.
That mouth—that Midnight God forsaken round mouth opened as she licked her lower lip and he got a glance of her pink, wet tongue.
Mating Venom dripped from his fangs, whispering crazy, savage thoughts in his mind of bare flesh covered in sweet-scented sweat and breathless whimpers of pleasure. Of Hazel, her eyes dark with passion.
“Do you have any idea what those males would have done to you if I hadn’t claimed you?” Khal’s growl twisted his words, turning them into an unveiled threat. Hazel’s eyes flashed brighter as her temper flared, meeting his in her anger. It only made the constant drip of Mating Venom in his mouth stronger, clouding his mind with a thick fog.
Take the female. Take her now before another tries to take her from you.
“What if I refuse to be claimed, ever think of that?” she shouted, taking another step. She was so close now, the smell of her breath tickled his nostrils. “What if I say no one gets to claim me, period?”
Darkness ate away at the edges of his mind as his sanity faltered.
“You refuse my claim on you?” Khal asked, his hands twitching at his sides, the constant drip of the Mating Venom forming a growing abyss inside his mind.
“What if I do?”
Something dark and fierce broke its chains inside Khal. His hand shot out and his fingers curled behind her slender neck. His thumb dug into the soft flesh of her jaw as he tilted her head back, forcing her to look up, exposing the crazed pulse of her jugular. He could feel her blood coursing in a strong, healthy flow under his fingertips, enticing him to bite and claim this female who was his. Lava spread through his veins, seeping inside his body until he was no longer in control.
A beast made of fire and fury had taken his place. It was no use fighting it.
Khal bent, his fangs raking the delicate skin of Hazel’s throat. The female quivered and whimpered under his hold, but she didn’t fight him. He growled with approval as the sweet scent of her arousal came to his nostrils. His seed stem pulsed with need, his seed sack tightening imperiously as he flattened her lush, supple body against his own.
“You’re mine, Hazel,” Khal growled against her flesh. “The Mating Venom can’t be denied. But I still want you willing as I rut over you like the beast that I am.”
His words—words that would have sent any sane female cowering into a corner, crying out in fright—made Hazel moan in response. Her small hands flattened against his chest, but instead of pushing him away, they ran down his stomach and lower to the narrow of his hips.
When her fine-fingered hand closed over his throbbing seed stem, cupping its hardness over the heavy synthetic leather fabric, Khal knew. There was no waiting. No Ceremony to appease Gerkin’s troops.
He was claiming her now; no witness, no ceremony.
“Say you’re mine, Hazel,” Khal ordered her, his hands closing ever stronger around her body. He held on to her desperately, needing her approval, needing her to want him as much as he wanted her. He needed her like he needed air, like he needed blood in his veins, and muscles around his bones.
He wanted her with a physical pain, a torturous imperative to bond the female to him in a way that couldn’t be undone. In a way that couldn’t be denied.
Her body responded to his touch, all those female curves molding to his hardness, her soft, giving flesh clamoring for rough possession.
He kissed her again, just at the base of her neck, where her throat connected to her slender, long neck. The taste of her skin was sweet and salty as he lapped at it, her heart beating a crazy, fast rhythm.
His hand ran low down her body, closing on her glorious ass. He pulled her into him further, his seed stem digging into the flesh of her stomach. His lust for her was a living thing, consuming every inch of his body like a ravenous animal.
Above his head, Hazel moaned again, louder and more tortured. So much more feminine. Such a sweet surrender.
His hand slipped to her narrow waist, then to the front of her pants. His fingers opened the button and slid inside. Moisture and heat found his fingertips as he slid a finger between the lips of her sex.
Hazel jerked her hips forward, driven by her instincts to increase the sensation. The Mating Venom made her feel each of his strokes over her small nerve bundle stronger, more deeply. Each of the licks of his tongue over her skin massaged more of the poison into her bloodstream. He knew this was manipulation, that he was pushing her towards something she hadn’t chosen of her own free will.
But free will was an illusion. She had no more choice in the matter than he. The Midnight God had made her perfect for him and had placed her in his path.
He stroked that tiny nub, that bundle of nerves that made her body sing. Her sex swelled and exquisite wetness covered his fingers as she moaned and gasped under his touch. She was so responsive, so utterly and totally female. He wanted to feel her come around his finger, collapse in his arms in total surrender. As he kept sliding his finger into her silken depths, then coming out to circle her bundle of nerves, she grew restless under his touch, moving to push her hips closer, her breasts flattening against his chest.
She was almost ready for him.
“Say it,” he growled again against her neck, his mind gone to the lust, his life hanging on the sound of pleasure coming off her lips. “Say you’re mine, then I’ll let you scream my name until your voice gives out.”
“I’m yours, Khal.” Her voice was no louder than a dying breath, but he heard it anyway. “I’m yours for as long as you want me.”
“Forever. You’re mine until the Midnight God rips you from my hands, Hazel.”
Then he was lost to the Mating Venom, and all that mattered was Hazel and the Bond between them that nothing could break.
Chapter 11
Hazel
His hands were on her body, his mouth on her throat like some kind of feral predator, sharp fangs pushing against the sensitive skin of her neck, his hot, wet tongue lapping at the crazed beat of her jugular.
Hot wetness dripped between her legs, soaking Khal’s hand, saturating her panties, sliding down the inside seams of her synthetic leather pants.
What’s happening to me? I can’t stop this. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
And more than anything, she didn’t want to. Fire ran under her skin, flowing inside her veins and arteries, spreading like embers across dry brush, lighting wildfires all over her body. Her mind tried to hold on to reality but it was slippery, like a wet fish in a stream, and she kept getting lost in the lust as if beneath a strong current.
He did something to me. Something that made me react this way.
It was in that Mating Venom, she would bet her freedom on it. But even knowing that didn’t change anything. She was powerless against the flood of the desire only Khal’s touch could quench. His wretched fingers dipped into her depths, then dragged silken wetness all the way to her clit, making her whimper and jerk her hips as his thumb brushed her clit and a single long, thick digit entered her quivering core.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t resist.
Still, those fingers entered her, rubbing up to her clit in a faster and faster pace. She knew she was going to come, hard and long. Hazel screamed as the most powerful climax of her life blindsided her. Pleasure exploded from deep inside her body as her walls squeezed around Khal’s finger, trying to suck him in even deeper.
For a long time, she screamed as Khal’s fangs dug into her throat, piercing the delicate flesh, sharp pain flashing through her as his bite broke her skin. But she wasn’t scared. More pleasure flowed through her body, centering around that wicked, expert finger on her pussy.
Finally, as the pleasure receded and she was able to think more clearly, Hazel opened her eyes. Khal had freed her throat and was s
taring at her with eyes that weren’t deep and blue like a bottomless lake. They gleamed like beacons, almost pulsing with a light from within, casting shadows over his face that hardened the masculine, angular features into a fearsome, primitive mask.
Fear welled inside Hazel at the sight of him, but at the same time, something else awoke inside her. Something female and wanting, something that recognized Khal for what he was.
He was hers. Her mate, her other half, the very thing that had been missing from her life.
“There is no going back now, Hazel. You’re mine. You’ve been mine since I first laid eyes on you.”
That was all the warning Khal gave her. He dropped her; the sudden withdrawal of his hands like a slap. She collapsed to her knees, almost crawling after him as he stalked to the control panel in the wall and slammed his fist on the open button. Hazel watched, wariness and need battling inside her body, as Khal walked back to her while the loading dock opened to reveal the dust of the red planet.
“Gerkin won’t have his Mating Ceremony.” Khal growled the words as he got near her. “Like it or not, I’m claiming you now.”
Then, there was no space for words anymore. Khal went to Hazel, his strong hands picking her up like she weighed nothing more than a bundle of rags. He turned her away from him, his hardness molding against her back as his hands pinned her in place. She was vaguely aware of the other door opening, of Zaxis standing in the back, of his stunned face, full of shock and fear as Khal’s hands ran over her curves in a blatant declaration of ownership.
She wanted to speak, wanted to protest, to say she belonged to no one, but her voice was gone. In its place, a tortured female moan rose when those same hands traveled to her neck, tilting her head to the side.
