by Laney Kaye
With the guard’s back to me, I tiptoed out into the main hall, where I raced to the end, turned the corner, and then continued to the next checkpoint. In no time, I was outside, sucking in deep gasps of air. Tears streamed down my face, but I swiped them away.
More damn grief to deal with another time.
I ignored my trembling body and hurried back across the compound, soon arriving at my building.
Darkness greeted me in my room. I leaned against the door while my heart rate slowed.
A rustling from my bed shoved my belly up into my throat. Clouds covering the two moons parted and light speared in through my solitary window.
Herc lounged in my bed, one arm tucked underneath his head. Other than a bit of the sheet barely covering his groin, he appeared naked.
The cocky flash of teeth compounded my anger. I stormed over to the bed. “You need to leave.”
“Last I knew, you invited me here.”
“Don’t recall inviting you to climb into my bed, though.” I couldn’t keep myself from staring at his shoulders, his broad chest, his narrow waist. Those tattoos. They almost glowed. But I gasped when I saw his lower stomach. “Crap, Herc. What is it with you and laser wounds?”
Worse than his thigh wound earlier, this one ran from one hip to the other, as if someone had tried to slice him in half. I tossed my medical bag onto the bed by his feet and opened it, pulling out what I needed. With my scanty supplies, I quickly cleansed the wound and covered it with a neat bandage.
He didn't flinch while I did it. But then, I never thought he would. He wasn’t a liger shifter. He was a boulder shifter.
“You know I don't need that,” he said, quirking one eyebrow.
“Was that you…roaring, earlier?”
“Heard that, huh?”
“What did you do?”
“Took care of a little business.”
C.O. business, most likely. Satisfaction surged through me. Too bad I'd missed seeing the C.O. cower. But then, I'd been busy going about my own little bit of business.
I’d taken a chance with him outside my apartment. Things hadn’t gone exactly as I’d planned, but I sure wouldn’t complain about the end result, because he was here, inside my room.
“Where did you go?” he asked as he sat up on the side of the bed. This brought his face—his lips—closer to mine.
I needed to ignore how compelled I felt to touch him. What was wrong with me? Yes, he was hot, but he was just like any other man. Well, other than the shifter aspect. “I had to run a quick errand.”
He peered toward the window. “At this time of night?”
“It's not long past sunset.”
“When everyone should be inside. Especially you.”
“Not just me.” I tucked the remainder of my supplies back into my bag. I’d need to replenish the kit in the morning. “I’m surprised you came back.”
“Would’ve been ungentlemanly of me to ignore your request.”
“Gentlemanly, huh?” I scoffed, even though his husky words thrilled through me. They shouldn’t make my knees weaken. I should tell him again to leave. But I couldn’t make my mouth form the words. Because I wanted him here, even though I knew my plan was flawed. Fatally flawed.
“I want to hire you,” I blurted out. “What’s your price?”
“For what exactly?” His smoldering gaze lit that spark inside me all over again. Not that it ever died down.
“You said you’re for hire—if the price was right. Name your price.”
His suggestive gaze raked my body, and hell, I wanted to drop to the bed and pull him on top of me. “Actually, I said I’m available to trade.”
“And what is the trade?” Did I dare pay the price he seemed to be asking? For him, the moment would be pure sex. And I wanted that. Badly. But my heart wanted something that would demand a price too steep to pay.
I’d always told myself I’d sacrifice anything to aid the Resistance. It had been easy enough to make that vow back at the cave system, when it might never be tested. Could I follow through with it now?
“I don’t think you can afford me, sweetheart.”
If I explained, would that change his mind?
“Do you know who you work for?” I asked.
“The Regime.”
“They’re Medians. They invaded Glia.” I met his solemn gaze, telling myself it was good that the spark of sexual interest in those amber depths had faded.
One shoulder lifted. “Conquest. It’s the way of the world. That’s my bread and butter.”
Lovely. Why in hell was I even bothering to try?
Because I needed him. And damn, I would do just about anything to help the Resistance. “Forty years ago, their ship arrived with colonists.” I waved toward the window. “They’d ravaged their planet—Media—and needed a new place to resettle. Most died getting here, because their technology isn’t much more sophisticated than ours. But about five thousand people survived. Since we Glians were a peaceful people, we welcomed them, despite the fact that many of the Medians preferred to remain in cloistered groups, maintaining their own traditions and isolating themselves from the Glian lifestyle. However, until ten years ago, war was a foreign concept for us.”
He leaned forward, his eyes glittering with sudden interest. “So, what changed?”
“The Medians initiated a hostile take-over.” Even I could hear the urgency in my voice. Would he understand? Or would he still side with the Regime? “They brought in more Median reinforcements from other colonies, and insisted our queen marry the Median leader, Torsos. She refused.” I gulped and brushed my eyes. Damn me for crying about this. But families were torn apart in the subsequent war. “They killed her. Killed thousands of Glians in the fighting that followed. Then, they invaded and occupied our cities, the same places they’d spurned for decades, and drove the Glians who didn’t swear allegiance to Torsos out into the desert, labeling us renegades. Insurgents. We live out there in caves. Like animals.”
Scowling, Herc crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you expect me and my guys to do about it?”
“Help them,” I said softly. I lifted my gaze to his, baring all. “No, help us.”
“You’re suggesting I disobey a direct order from my government.”
“We need you. Without your help, we’ll be hunted until not even a single child is left alive. And then the Regime will do to our planet what they’ve already done to their own—rape it for its resources until it’s nothing but a barren moon, like the one they left behind. Don’t think they won’t go to your home world after that.”
“Let ’em try. We’ll rip them apart.” He growled, but from his tense brow, I could tell he was processing my words.
Would he help us? Or would he go to the C.O. and tell him who I was, that I’d tried to sway him to work for our side?
When he said nothing, I knew I’d taken too big a risk. I’d taken a chance with the wrong man. My shoulders drooped, and I was suddenly too tired to stand. But I held myself rigid. I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t beg.
“Like I said,” he murmured. “Don’t think you can afford my price.”
Damn him for taunting me. I lifted my chin and stared him down. “Try me.”
He rose and when I backed to the door, he stalked me. The sheet no longer covered him, and I had to wonder where he’d left his clothing.
As I’d already determined, he was huge. Everywhere. And different.
Fierce and beautiful, all at the same time. His cock drew all my attention. It twitched and started to rise. I couldn’t help myself. I touched it. Stroked my fingertip down the enormous tip, across supple ridges that were hard yet silky. It was unlike anything I’d seen on a Glian man. My finger reached the base. I gripped him, and he pulsed in my hand.
Heat rose in my face, in my body. My panties grew wet. That look in his eyes told me he was a beast, prepared to ravish me.
I wanted to be ravished.
He braced one palm on the door bes
ide my head. He leaned nearer, confident in his sexuality, in his nakedness. In his ability to draw out every speck of passion inside me.
I pulled at my shirt collar, wishing I was naked, too. That he’d lift me up, press me against the door, and take what we both needed.
His tongue trailed from my ear to my jawline, and a low, rumbling hum rose inside his chest. He moved to my neck, where he sucked and laved. His hand cupped my breast, pinching my nipple.
Moaning, I unbuttoned my shirt and the front clasp of my bra. Eyes closed, I lifted myself onto my toes, straining toward his touch.
He breathed hot air on one breast, then kissed it. The other. Then he took a nipple into his mouth and sucked. Flames shot from my breast to my groin, and I jutted my hips forward, straining for…something. No, I knew what I wanted. Him. Deep inside me. Even though I wondered how something that big could fit.
My breath came in pants, and my mind spun.
Lifting his head, he stared down at me as he reached for the button on my pants. His hand stilled, and I read the question in his eyes.
“Yes,” I breathed.
He undid the button, pushed the material aside. I shifted, and my pants dropped down over my hips. While I stroked him again, savoring the feel of those ridges, I shimmied my panties over my hips.
Exposing myself to him.
His hand trailed down my belly. Lower, where he cupped me. His fingers stroked, pinched, and then two fingers slipped inside. I dripped for him. A groan slipped past his lips.
Tipping my head back, I ground myself against his hand. “Yes. Yes.”
His fingers slid in and out, fucking me, while his thumb rubbed my clitoris.
Bucking against him, I begged for more. My moan erupted, and I pressed against his hand. I was close, but I needed…no, I wanted—
The building jolted, and my eyes opened, meeting his.
Glass shattered in my tiny kitchen.
Outside, the world exploded.
Chapter Seven
Herc
“What have you done?” I glared down at Maya.
“Me?” Said innocently, but the exultation in her eyes was unmistakable —though whether that existed because she literally held me in the palm of her hand, or because she—the Resistance—had done something inconceivably huge, wasn’t immediately evident. Hells, I needed a second for the blood to return to my brain before I could begin to process her reaction.
I slid my fingers from within her, my jaw tensing as I resisted the urge to lick them. Planting my hands heavily on the door on either side of her head, I leaned in close. “Fuck, yes, you.” My stance would probably be more intimidating if my cock wasn’t jutting into her belly. “You did something. Tell me.”
Though my attention was on her, I was listening to the growing cacophony outside. Alarm bells clanged, people shouted. The explosion was followed by another, slightly quieter, then a series of breathy air-filled woofs that I recognized as combustion detonations. Running footsteps. And, further away, the screams. People were injured. Dying.
Maya chewed her lip for a moment. “It was an explosive device. In the eastern quadrant. The prisoners are free.”
It took me a moment to comprehend her words. “You bombed the prison?” How? She’d been here with me the whole—wait! Her errand?
“Yes. And I’d planted time-sensitive detonators along the compound walls.”
“What about the laserblade fence? You disarmed it?”
“The…?” The shining happiness in her eyes vanished instantly, replaced by growing horror.
“Computer-generated razor wire and laser beams.” Known in the trade as Slice and Fry, but Maya didn’t need to hear that. “The new, invisible walls beyond the compound.”
Her face turned so pale I dropped my hands, supporting her shoulders. She trembled beneath my touch. “I didn’t know…They put in a fence?”
Fuck. I knew what the screams were. And now I could hear the zip of laser fire, the ping of bullets taking chunks out of sandstone. I spun away from Maya, yanking my clothes from the end of the bed. “With the laserblade fence operative, your Resistance are still prisoners. Just waiting to be hunted down.” I thrust into my pants, not bothering with the shirt. I’d get across the compound faster as a Ligerkin, but I wasn’t ready for Maya to see that. Not yet. Though I’d been damned close to making that second bond. My lips had ached for hers, I’d wanted to kiss her as she came on my fingers. And to hells with my fear of being tied down.
If I could trust her with that, the commitment of my heart, I had to believe she’d accept me for all I was.
“No, Herc, don’t hunt them!” She snatched at me, but I didn’t have time to explain.
“Stay in here, Maya. It’s not safe out there.” Not that she seemed to have much regard for her own safety.
She fumbled on the floor, retrieved her dark shirt and pulled it over her head.
“Damn it, Maya, I said stay here.”
She shot me a look that let me know without words that, bonded or not, she wasn’t about to do what I ordered.
I slammed from the building.
Outside, the street was in an uproar. Glians dashed back and forth, like teromotan with their sandy nest kicked over. Gods knew what they thought they were achieving. If they’d just get off the damn street and out of my way, I could get on with what I needed to do.
I needed to hunt down the Resistance. Whatever was left of them, anyway.
An orange pall lit the sky to the east, ash and char blowing on the stiffening night breeze. I snorted, trying to clear the smell from my nostrils. Scorched flesh.
Glians always fought dirty. Or Medians did, anyway, according to Maya.
I couldn’t move as fast as I’d like, my passage continually barred by scurrying people. Every block there’d be a new wail of terror, a shout of “The rebels are attacking!” and the crowd would turn in a huge wave, surge against me, as though one of them had the vaguest idea what they were actually doing. The Resistance attacked the compound at least once a week, firebombs lobbed toward the protective walls or snipers trying to take out the patrolling guards. But they’d never breached the walls, and there’d been nothing on this scale.
After a half-dozen blocks, Jag and Leo took up point on either side of me. My breathing still easy, I nodded. “Khal and Spike?”
On the run, Leo handed me my Teyraus. “Spike’s at the sleaze-easy. Khal’s gone to round him up, meet us east side. Any idea what’s going on? My ears are practically bleeding.”
I swerved as a man pulled a handcart loaded with household goods into my path. Seriously? Every planet we went to, same deal. The first manifestation of trouble, and people grabbed their possessions and hit the road, as though somewhere else would be better.
I guess that’s what Maya had been telling me about the Medians. They went looking for something better. Found it and took it. Like parasites.
“Bomb in the detention cells. The Resistance are loose. If any survived it,” I said.
“We hunt to kill, or capture?” Jag pointed to a different route, a less-crowded side street, and we pounded down it.
“Hunt to release.”
His stride faltered for a millisecond, then he put on a spurt of speed to catch up. “What the frick, Cap? When did our orders change?”
Khal and Spike emerged from a conjoining alley. Spike flipped me a casual salute. “Not even an hour’s peace, boss? Thought you’d done your bit, threatening to throw Smithton off his balcony. Lucky I didn’t really want a drink, anyway. Plus, you probably saved me two thousand rubiks, the game was not going well.”
“Shut up, Spike.” Jag snarled. “Cap’s got new orders.”
Spike perked up, always keen for a challenge. He was young and brash, but he could sure as hell be relied on to put in the effort. “Cool.” His teeth flashed a white grin in the gloom. “Let’s go wreak some havoc.”
We were within a block of the detention cells, so I halted, leading my men to the shelter of a
wall. Spike ducked as a stray bullet took out a chunk of the stone wall above him. “Damn, are the renegades armed?” He sounded more excited than scared. Notoriously hot-headed, the Pumakin had no concept of fear.
“They’re the Resistance, and I hope so.”
“Say what?” Leo regarded me unblinkingly, though the smell of burning electrical equipment stung my eyes. The fire had spread to the nearby shanty-town and the noise of flames crackling through the tinder-dry structures would’ve made it necessary for me to raise my voice if we weren’t Felidaekin.
I spoke low and fast. “I’m not going to order you to do anything. I’m changing sides. No time to explain, but the Resistance needs help. And they deserve it. I’m going in to get as many prisoners beyond the wall as I can.”
“The hell you say?” Jag’s eyes were huge. “Last I knew, we were rounding up the Resistance out in the desert to bring them here.”
His words tightened my gut. Though we’d tried to help the women and children, refusing to take them prisoner, looking the other way as they escaped the units we subdued, how many men’s deaths were we responsible for? But, as mercenaries, hired fangs and claws, we couldn’t afford guilt. “We got it wrong this time.”
Spike lifted one shoulder. “They sure shoot back as though we got it right. What do we care? Regime pays us, we do their dirty work. Right? Why the change?”
There was no quick way to explain what I’d learned from Maya. Well, yeah, there was one quick way.
Fuck.
I drew a deep breath. “Maya and I bonded.”
Stunned silence.
Then Khal clapped me on the shoulder. “Hot damn! I knew you were talking about her too much, earlier.” He shook his head, repeating himself. “Damn! Is that even, y’know, possible?” He waved a hand toward my groin.
“No idea. We’ve only made the first bond. But I know she’s telling the truth. I have to get the Resistance—her people—out of here. So, I’m splitting, but you guys make your own choice.”
