With her held tight against his body, he rolled them as one. Braced above her carefully, he covered her mouth with his, finally. His hands, instantly on the move, parted her thighs and explored her wetness. She could have told him she was more than ready and had been since he climbed into bed beside her with all his golden skin gloriously naked and in a swirl of glossy black hair.
“I can’t wait, Trask,” she whispered into his mouth as she hooked a leg over his hip and pulled him closer.
“You don’t have to, baby.”
Rolling her fully onto her back, he pushed her thighs wider and lined up his cock with her slick opening, preparing to claim what was his, and always had been. A moan of pleasure broke from her lips as he pushed into her. Her hips lifted as he filled her, sinking in slowly while her passage stretched to accommodate his size. She melted around him, her body trembling with desire. Each time, like the first time, his possession took her breath away.
When he moved inside her, setting a drugging in and out pace, she arched into his thrusts, friction stimulating every sensitive nerve with each upward stroke and downward drag of his cock. Soon, sounds of raw passion filled the air. As she gasped and moaned, a low carnal growl emanated from Trask’s throat, and in the background, the ever-present steady rhythm of skin slapping skin.
“Tell me again that you love me, Lana,” he ordered, moving faster.
“I love you, Trask,” she cried out, as her climax shimmered within reach.
He slid a hand between their bodies and found the nub at the front of her sex with his thumb. Flicking and rubbing and spurring her closer to release, he continued to pump into her while he demanded, “Now tell me who you belong to.”
“You.” She panted more than spoke her response. Then, because it was important, she drew in a deep breath and said in the clearest voice she could manage, “I belong to you, Trask, my mate, my general, the father of my child, and my love, forever.”
“You’re mine, Lana,” he avowed in a deep, raspy growl. “My love, my mate, forever mine.”
When climax came, it came for them both, and they shuddered together with shared ecstasy while gazing unashamedly into the depths of each other’s eyes.
THE NEXT MORNING WHEN he woke, it took a moment to get his bearings. Different room, strange bed, but the female lying next to him was all too familiar. Pressed warm and soft against his side, her cheek on his chest as her pillow, Lana was still sound asleep. Wanting only to lie there savoring the quiet moment, he didn’t move except to dip his head and breathe in the sweet scent of her hair.
He froze. Could it be true?
He inhaled again. Maker be praised, it was—she scented of him.
Unable to wait to share his news, he rolled on top of her, smiling as she stretched and yawned while coming gradually awake. She was so adorable and arousing at the same time, he couldn’t resist taking a morning kiss. Her lips were as soft and warm as the rest of her, and after drinking of their sweetness, he pulled away and looked into her still sleep-drowsy eyes.
His head jerked back in surprise as he stiffened. Then, he pushed up until his arms locked, far enough away to see her lovely face clearly.
Blinking sleep from her eyes, she noticed him staring. “Is something wrong? You look startled. Have I grown a second head overnight?”
Another moment passed before he smiled broadly. If he looked in the mirror now, he knew what he’d see, a big, goofy, ear-to-ear grin.
“Trask, what is it?
A burst of happiness welled within him, and he couldn’t hold back a joyous laugh.
“It’s a third eye, isn’t it?” she guessed. “That would be my luck, but I should think it would be more horrifying than funny.”
“She’s back,” he murmured as he lowered himself on top of her once more.
“Who’s back?” she asked, her perfectly arched brows knitted in confusion. “You’re not making sense, big guy.”
“My Lana, who snuggles into my side soft and warm while I sleep, who opens for me eagerly, as needy for me as I am for her. My mate, who looks up at me with shimmering aqua eyes and all the love in her heart.”
“I do love you, Trask.”
He didn’t move, still staring down at her, grinning.
“I don’t... Wait, did you say aqua eyes—my eyes?” She pushed at his chest until he rolled off her, then he watched as she bounded off the bed and raced to the mirror, the ends of her long hair, still blonde, but with streaks of his black threaded through it, danced over her naked bottom.
Peering at her reflection in the glass, she gasped, seeing what he had. Her eyes were no longer brown, not one little bit, but beautiful and fully blue-green like his.
“I’ve transformed again.” Standing in profile, her eyes darted back and forth between him and her image in the mirror, her tears flowing freely.
He couldn’t keep from taking in the rest of her beauty, rosy lips in the same shade as her pink-tipped breasts, flat stomach with creamy skin that he knew was as soft as the finest silks sold at the artisan street market, hip bones that jutted out more than before, too much so. What his gaze encountered next was so startling it stopped his brain function for a moment.
“Trask, what is it now? You don’t look good. Like you’ve seen a ghost.”
The concern in her voice seemed to reset his mental processes. “Mate,” he uttered softly as he shifted to the edge of the bed and stood. Without looking away from one of the most exquisitely stunning images he’d ever seen, he moved forward, reaching for her hand when he was near enough, and spun her halfway around. Standing behind her, his front to her back, he curled a hand under her chin and gently angled her face to the mirror.
But her delicate mouth curved downward in confusion as she stared at his reflection instead of what he intended for her to see. With her hand in his, he raised her arm and curled it behind his neck exposing the length of her naked body to the floor-to-ceiling glass. Then, in a sweeping caress down her side, he watched her eyes follow his hand, and knew the instant she saw himself on her.
As her jaw dropped and she sucked in a startled breath, he stated with raw emotion, “Look at my beautiful fated mate.”
Together, they gazed at the swirls, lines, and edges, in black, gold, and red tones, starting at her hip, curling around in back to encompass half a bottom cheek, and running down the outer aspect of her thigh, replicated in exact detail on her body, lay his mark.
“Trask, does this mean—?”
“Yes, paulova.”
“But how?”
“I am not certain.”
“Our score was barely passing—I saw it.”
“I did, too.”
“We were 20th percentile, whatever that means.”
“Obviously, it meant nothing.”
“And they wanted you to throw me back in the mating pool.”
“Never.” He covered her fingers where they slowly traced the pattern on her hip.
She turned in his arms, frowning with uncertainty.
“We were apart for almost a year without suffering the effects of separation. How can this be?”
“I don’t know, Lana, but Kerr and Eva, Maggie and Roth, and Ram and Eryn are all fated mates and none of their mate-bondings took the usual course. And I will not question this gift; I'm going to revel in it.”
“You were right from the beginning,” she said in wonder, then her breath hitched on a sob. “And I put you through torment. You said if it was meant to be, it would happen, and it did, but I didn’t listen. And I didn’t believe.” She dropped her head forward and buried her tear-dampened face in his chest. “How can you ever forgive me?”
His hands swept up her back and he enveloped her, hanging on and squeezing tight. “Paulova, don’t torture yourself over this. You are a woman of science, used to believing what you can see and measure and test. All the facts were stacking up against us.”
“But you didn’t waver.”
“I had a foolproof way of knowing, which you did not.”
“Really? What was it?”
“The awareness.”
Her head popped up, eyes round as twin moons. “What kind of awareness?”
“It’s hard to explain other than to say it’s a feeling some males get when they encounter their intended mate for the first time.”
“Only the males?”
“Yes, why?”
“I had it too, Trask. I was scared out of my mind by the huge alien in front of me, but all I could think was you were the most beautiful creature in the world—well, the universe, actually.” Heat rushed to her face. “I struggled with the guilt of lusting after my captor from day one.”
“Did your heart race?”
“Yes. Did your skin tingle?”
“Yes. And I hungered for you instantly.”
“Me, too. My nipples got hard.”
“I noticed.”
She frowned. “You did not.”
“In that skin-tight flight suit? How could I not? But most of all, my cock turned hard like a uladite crystal.”
“Yeah,” she said as she smiled, big. “I couldn’t miss that, either. You were wearing a loincloth, Trask. But I thought it was love at first sight—well, more so lust at the time. I didn’t know it was a sign.”
“Now, my scientist mate, you have indisputable proof you were meant for me, something you’ll have with you always as a reminder of who you belong to.”
He felt her mouth curve into a smile against his chest and give a soft huff of laugher. “You know, that’s incredibly sexist, but I don’t even care.”
“It isn’t sexist when it’s the truth. You are mine.”
She snaked her arms around his neck and pulled his head down, which didn’t require much effort because he went willingly to her lips.
“Correction, big guy,” she whispered, her sweet mouth brushing over his. “I’m yours forever—maes eternium, remember?—which makes me extraordinarily happy.”
WITH A MALICIOUS ELDER to track down, more warriors to assign to security both here and on the colony, not to mention the trouble on Terra Nova, duties to delegate, and preparations for a wave of new arrivals from Earth in the coming months, Trask was a busy man and though he didn’t want to, had to get back to work. Here guard was doubled, with two guards stationed at each door, when he left her with a smoldering kiss and dire warnings of a sore backside if she didn’t stay put and out of trouble.
He needn’t have worried, however; she had no intention of doing anything to put her baby at risk.
Standing at the patio door, looking out at the courtyard, she was contemplating another garden, maybe just some flowers this time, when she heard steps in the hall behind her.
“Did you forget something?” she asked as she glanced behind her, expecting to see Trask.
But standing in the doorway of the kitchen was an older man in elder robes, one she’d met months before at the clinic. Fear cut straight through to her heart, but she couldn’t let it show, or let on she remembered him.
She plastered on a fake smile, at the same time glancing behind him, hoping to see one of the guards, or better, Trask. The house was quiet, however.
“Hello,” she said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “Did my mate let you in?”
“Your mate,” he sneered, the acid in his tone making her flinch. So much for her acting. “I was well rid of you then you had to be stupid, like all your kind, and come back.”
When he moved forward, she took a step back. Afraid to take her eyes off him, she reached back with a hand for the door.
He hissed, “Stay where you are,” and pulled a small blaster from his robe.
The pocket-sized weapon looked like a toy, but Lana knew from experience, their technology was advanced, and with uladite powering even their weaponry, this tiny gun would carry deadly force. Still, she stepped to the side enough to place the food prep counter and sink in the middle of the kitchen between them. It was high enough to protect her belly and her unborn child, but if he blew her head off, it would make little difference.
“I said don’t move!” he barked.
“I don’t understand. What do you mean you were well rid of me?”
He grunted. “You must be more ignorant than the others if you can’t put two and two together.”
She distinctly remembered their brief conversation and how he’d shown her the data stick, making sure to mention the upload from the Odyssey, leaving his tablet unlocked. He’d left a trail of bread crumbs, and she gobbled up each one. “You set me up.”
“Shrewd deduction,” he drawled sarcastically. “You succumbed to Primarian male charm faster than any of the others, and your romantic nature, along with your obviously low intellect, made you susceptible to suggestions. You reacted as I anticipated. It was the general who surprised me. That he insisted on keeping a mate he had little chance of breeding with perplexed me. I brought in reinforcements, hoping to get him to see reason. For a pragmatic strategist, Trask was unusually stubborn. Your infertility was a bonus I hadn’t expected. I thought it would be the push he needed and planned to disclose your barrenness to him, but your self-sacrifice made my work painless. Doing anything for love, bah! Sentimental, stupid humans.” He stared at her, scowling. “I simply don’t understand this attraction he has to you. You’re small and frail, sick more often than healthy, and you ran from him, which he should have taken as an unforgiveable betrayal. But unbelievably, he took you back.” With a scathing glance from head to toe, he muttered, “You must have a magical cunt to have bewitched him so because it’s not as though you are fated mates.”
Ordinarily, she would have told the bastard off for his crudeness, but he came too close to her secret for comfort, and he was armed. Therefore, she ignored his rude comment and asked simply, “Who are you?”
“I am Mordrun.”
“Aylan’s brother?”
“We met before the day at the clinic, during introductions at the new mate’s welcome celebration.” His mouth twisted as if the words were sour on his tongue. “You likely don’t remember. Ramikin using the vocal silencer on his red-haired mate was so appalling to all of you pathetic humans, you became frightened and timid, and barely made eye contact with anyone after that.” He added snidely, “Too bad the behavior didn’t last beyond the meal.”
“I don’t understand what this has to do with you standing in my kitchen, aiming a gun at me.”
“It doesn’t. The only thing important here is your unfortunate return to Primaria which will make it impossible to keep our paths from crossing.”
“And that matters because...?”
“As a whole, your species isn’t very bright, is it? I am family, uncle to Trask and Ramikin, who are both a part of my nephew, the current Princep’s inner circle. As such, and as an elder on the council, avoiding one another and having you put two and two together, as challenging as it may have been for you, would have happened eventually. And I couldn’t risk that.”
“Must you be so ugly?”
He barked with laughter. “I’m holding a gun on you; I didn’t come to chat and sip tea.”
“I didn’t know you were Ram’s uncle, too? Quite a family dynasty despite all their denials.”
“It should have been my dynasty,” he snapped. “I was the oldest brother, not Alvarr.”
She shook her head at the new name.
“Kerr’s father, you fool. I was next in line to accede to power. If not for you pathetic Earth females, I would have done so by now.”
“You’ve done all this for power?” For all his superiority, he wasn’t any different than the jealous conniving power-hungry brothers, uncles, and cousins who fill the history books back on Earth. “Did you plan to eliminate Max Kerr and Krager, too? Before we came into the picture, weren’t they in your way?”
“The wheels were in motion. Then we went hunting on Ventorcopia, and you ruined it all.”
“Terra Nova, you mean.”
“No,” he roared. “Ventorcopia would
still be ours if not for you. Who gives away an entire planet, except my idiot, human-loving nephew?” Spittle flew from his mouth as he denounced Kerr.
Lana recoiled, loathing being spit on, but detesting being held at gunpoint by a psychopath even more.
“You would rather have seen your people die out and become extinct?”
“Of course not. I had a treaty of my own in the works with an advanced species. It needed only for me to become Princep for it to move forward. My people would have thrived. Instead, we’re destined to decline through the diluting of our DNA with an inferior race.”
“I’m getting tired of your insults.”
He raised the blaster. “You won’t have to hear them for long.”
The cold knot of fear tightened in her stomach. Her eyes dropped to his gun hand, steady as a rock, which was likely what comprised his heart, granite most likely. A chill silenced extended between them.
It was interrupted by a loud knock on the front door.
He glanced behind him, for the first time revealing a crack in his steely calm. “Are you expecting someone?”
“No.”
Another knock sounded, and she heard Eva call through the door, “Lana, we’ve come visiting.”
As good as his word, Trask had made it possible for her friends to visit. Why now? She was both hopeful they might save her and fearful they would be harmed by this menacing elder.
“It is the Prima,” he spat. “The most bothersome of all you insipid creatures. Get rid of her.”
“How?”
“I don’t care. Make something up, just do it fast. If you alert her of my presence, I’ll have to kill her, too. You wouldn’t want that, would you?” A baby’s squealing laugh had Mordrun grinning. “Ah, she’s brought her half-breed brat. How convenient. Maybe I’ll eliminate several annoyances at once.”
“No, not the baby, he’s innocent. I’ll cooperate.”
He shrugged as if it mattered not to him, but his expression showed his disappointment. It chilled her to the bone that Trask was related to this vile man.
When she opened the door, she saw not one friend with her baby, but three. Mailynn held her son, Raylan, the spitting image of Krager, with his shock of thick black hair and gleaming gold-flecked brown eyes. Eva had Kellan propped on her hip. He also looked like his daddy with his same eyes and bronze skin, but what was uniquely different about the new Primmum Ectus—next in line—he had his mother’s champagne-blonde hair, the first fair Primarian in history.
Defying the General Page 37
