“She denied meeting with anyone except the Ophigs.”
“Did you believe her?”
“I’ll never believe another word the shrew utters. I didn’t have the warlord with me to determine truth from lies, so I used other tactics.”
He and the king looked at him expectantly when he didn’t say more.
“Let’s just say the experimental serum had a new volunteer test subject today.”
“Volunteer means she was willing, Son.”
“She was, after I gave her the choice of full disclosure now, with the serum coursing through her veins, or a one-way ticket to the Northern Sector Detention Center, permanently.”
Piecing the information together, Darios sought clarification of only one point. “This is a truth serum, I take it.”
“Yes,” Axton clipped as they passed through the gate of the shuttle port.
“You told me you were sending her north before this confession, yet you gave her this out. Does it mean you have softened toward her?” his father asked.
“Never. Recall that she took the truth serum, not I.”
Darios grunted his approval as he strode up the ramp into the awaiting shuttle. Both men followed him on board without a second thought. “You are both coming?”
Father looked at son, who stubbornly stared back.
“I don’t have time to wait,” Darios told them. “Decide, or you’re both accompanying me on a rescue mission.”
Axton strode to a seat and strapped in, his father on his heels.
“So be it,” he muttered and secured the heavy outer door himself. His pilot was already at the controls. “Lift off now,” he ordered.
The craft was already in the air when he took a seat beside the prince and strapped himself in.
“Who took her this time?” the younger man asked.
“I don’t know. Who else besides Aeldor has the technology to make a ship invisible?”
“Frozen hell!” he exclaimed vehemently. “What’s happened to our security that someone is helping themselves to our research lab?”
“Bamath and Sidrah happened,” Aziros drawled. “I’m unaware of another advanced species who has veiling ability, or is even close, Lord Darios. And I don’t think anyone in Euphyrion would use it to take an Aeldorian princess if they had it. Our enemies are few.”
“And number fewer since you have joined with Aurelia,” Axton put in. “Are you certain the other prototype was destroyed along with the Napsalese ship?”
“I asked the same thing,” his father commented. “It’s the only explanation.”
“As the minutes pass, Aziros, I’m becoming convinced you are right, but I cannot fathom how.”
THE FEELING SHE WAS reliving a nightmare continued when a man she knew, but hoped to never see again, walked in with a meal tray.
He stopped when he saw her and laughed. The same one from her dreams—check that, her nightmares—it sent a violent shiver down her spine.
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” she asked bluntly.
“I’m afraid you weren’t so lucky, Princess.”
He walked toward her and squatted, peering in through the bars. “It’s like old times.” His gaze slipped down her body, which she’d curled into a protective ball. “Except, I don’t remember you wearing so many clothes.”
“Pig!”
He didn’t react to her insult. “You were quite lovely, helpless, and naked in my cage. I had the urge to buy you myself. If I had, you’d have given that virgin cunt to me, instead of being befouled by a brutish Voltarrean.” He shook his head. “What a waste.”
“Filthy Ophig pig,” she spat, repeating the slur with more emphasis. “You are the brute in this equation. I didn’t suffer bruises and lacerations in my warlord husband’s care.”
“Husband? I hadn’t heard. You must enjoy being rough fucked by a half-naked animal.”
“Ryker! Get up to the bridge,” a voice she immediately recognized as the red-devil’s boomed through the speakers. “There’s a ship approaching, and this damn veiling device won’t engage.”
Sighing heavily, he shoved the tray through the horizontal slot and got to his feet. The next instant, he was flat on his back, when a shock wave shook the ship.
“I’m getting tired of this shit,” he groaned while rising to his feet, much slower and stiffer this time.
“Now, Ryker,” the prince boomed, sounding panicked now. “It’s a Voltarrean battlecruiser, and they’ve fired a thermal pulse wave. The shields are melting, as are components in the navigation system. If I can’t veil and use evasive tactics, we’ll be crippled and boarded before you can say, Darios the fucking Warlord of Voltarre.”
She chuckled, and his eyes shot to her in surprise. “It appears my husband is breathing down your neck, Ophig pig, which means now it’s like old times.”
“Bitch!”
“That’s Voltarrean bitch, and damn proud of it!” she replied with a full-throated laugh.
For once, she was glad for the cage. From the fuming expression on Ryker’s face, he’d have backhanded her again if he could have gotten to her. Instead, he stomped to the door.
Another violent shudder encompassed the ship. Aurelia, who’d been watching the Ophig captain leave, found it surprising he remained upright as he scrambled and staggered across the tilted, shaking floor.
Although she wasn’t safe by a long shot, another amused burst of laughter slipped out.
BATTERED AND BRUISED from being bounced around in a cage—yet again—Aurelia did her best to brace and hang on. But she lost track of time.
It became irrelevant when the door slid open and the red devil, rather than Darios walked in. She got some satisfaction that he appeared frazzled and far less smugly confident than when she’d last seen him. He came directly to her cage and unlocked it.
“Come out of there.”
She shrank back to the far side, out of reach. “Why?”
“Because I said to,” he shouted.
“No. Whatever you have planned can’t be good for me. I’ll wait on Darios.”
He reached inside and grabbed a handful of her hair. An often-used tool to contain and control her, of late, she was seriously rethinking its length as he dragged her out. Eyes pour tears from her stinging scalp, she tried to lessen his grip with her nails on his wrist, but he only twisted his hand, making her shriek in agony.
“Stop! I’ll cooperate. Just let go.”
He didn’t, walking quickly, not caring if she kept up or he had to drag her.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To a life pod. No pussy, even Aeldorian royal pussy, is worth this.”
“You’re letting me go?”
“Yes. I negotiated your release, in exchange for leaving the Euphyrion system—unharrassed—and vowing never to return. You odd creatures with your psychokinetic powers creep me out anyway.”
“If it’s settled, please, let go and let me walk!”
“Fine, but dawdle, and you can expect to be hauled behind me by the hair once again.”
Much to her surprise, he released her. The searing pain stopped, but the achy tenderness did not. He moved, and she followed, afraid not to. Although she knew from recent experience it would take days before the tenderness went away, she gingerly rubbed her abused scalp, as she hurried to keep up with his longer legs.
She was still blinking away the tears, when he stopped. He’d brought her to a cargo bay with two life pods, open and waiting. Inside one, Ryker lay slumped against the side-wall bound and bloody.”
“You two have had a falling out, I take it.”
“He’s part of the deal. The warlord wants him, probably to pull his entrails out through his nostrils.”
Aurelia grimaced at the visual, but the prince shrugged.
“If that’s what it takes to get the brute off my back, so be it.” He grabbed her arm and pushed her toward the pod. “In you go.”
“Do I have to do anything?”
“No. After y
ou launch, they can use their tractor beam to get you on board. Or not. Once you’re gone, I do not care.”
On shaky legs, she prepared to climb in.
“Wait.” He spun her around and ripped open her robe. Then he tore her thin nightgown in two. She tried to cover herself, but he caught her wrists and held them wide. “Damn,” he said, as his gaze raked over her breasts, belly, and the blonde curls of her mound. “I hoped you’d be worth the one hundred thousand credits I paid, and it appears I wasn’t wrong.” He released one wrist and cupped her breast.
“Stop it!” she cried while slapping and scratching at his arm. “I’m sure this isn’t part of your deal with the warlord.”
“No.” He knocked away her hands and caught a nipple, tugging hard. “But when he finds you half-naked, he’ll wonder what transpired while you were in my possession. To know he’ll stew about it is nowhere near the satisfaction of having you, but it’s something.”
He released her, and with the same hand, laid his palm between her breasts and gave her a shove. She toppled backward into the pod in a tumble of hair and the flapping ends of her robe. By the time she righted herself, the door closed with a loud clang. The next instant, there came a loud whoosh, and the round pod with barely enough room for one, shot out into space.
It rocked from side to side a few times before it stabilized.
“Atagan to pod 1,” a man called over the comm.
Scrambling around to the controls, of which there were few, she searched for a switch to open communications. The first one she tried sent the rolling pod sideways and upside down, her along with it.
“That’s the stabilizer switch,” the same man said, calmly and unpressured.
If only she felt the same way.
“Turn it back on and look for a green toggle. It will disengage the navigation lock and give us control.”
When she flipped the stabilizer back on, not an easy task while standing on her head, the ball instantly righted itself—for which her stomach was eternally grateful. But she couldn’t locate the toggle he mentioned.
“Nothing is green,” she muttered. After turning in a complete circle twice, she repeated in a frustrated shout, “Nothing is green, dammit!”
“Easy, princess,” a deep, velvety-smooth voice reassured her through the speakers.
“Darios!”
“We’re trying to remote in and take over the controls. I frequently seem to be asking this, but are you all right?”
“No. I’m tired of being snatched by despicable aliens and manhandled like a piece of meat. And don’t get me started on the name-calling.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“Yes,” she replied while rubbing a sore nipple, unable to keep from whimpering.
“Kill them now.”
“Axton?” she asked, recognizing her brother’s angry tone.
“He’s here, as is your father,” Darios assured her. She heard several other muffled voices in the background but couldn’t make any of them out.
“Sit back and don’t touch anything else,” he ordered after a moment of garbled discussion. “We’ve locked onto your pod and are bringing you on board.”
“Thank the Gods,” she whispered, never hearing more welcome news in her life.
“Be patient a few more minutes.”
“Okay,” she sniffled.
“And, Aurelia?”
“Yeah?”
“Shield your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m about to turn the Slovnic prince into a flaming cosmic turd by blasting his ship, and I don’t want the flare to hurt your beautiful eyes.”
A bloodthirsty plan, but she applauded it wholeheartedly.
“Ryker, the Ophig captain, was aboard, too.”
“No more. They launched him in a pod shortly after yours. I’ll let Axton have the pleasure of shooting his ass out of the sky.”
“Hardly a challenge,” she heard her brother mutter, “but it will relieve some of my rage.”
“You don’t want him for questioning, my lord?”
“I want him dead more.” The chill in his voice, unusual for a hot-blooded Voltarrean, told her how lethally determined he was. When he bade her once more to close her eyes, the deeply reassuring warmth had returned. “Before you can say, bride of my heart, you’ll be safe in my arms.”
She wanted that more than anything. “You mean possessor of my heart.”
“That’ll work, too.”
“Darios?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t thank me for coming to your rescue, Aurelia. I will always protect you.”
“I mean for talking me out of my panic. Until I heard your voice, I was scared and fast becoming claustrophobic in this tiny tin can.”
“In that case, you are most welcome. Are your eyes closed, sweetness?”
She smiled at the endearment he’d begun using regularly. “Yes, my lord.”
“Good, I’ll be back with you momentarily.”
The comm-link went silent, and a few ticks later, despite her tightly shut eyelids, she saw a bright orange flash of light.
The men who had captured and tormented her were lower than the worst creatures the universe had to offer. She felt no remorse for their deaths, only relief they wouldn’t live to terrorize her or any other vulnerable females ever again.
When she opened her eyes, she saw a smaller yellow flicker off to the side, and knew her brother had also had his due, although anticlimactic to the Slovnic prince’s fiery pyrotechnics.
“Aurelia?” her husband called when communications opened once more.
“It’s finally over,” she murmured.
“Yeah, it finally is.”
“Good, then hurry up and board me, Husband. I’m anxious to get home.”
There was a brief pause. “We’ll drop off your father and his men, but we aren’t returning to the castle.”
“I didn’t mean my home on Aeldor, Darios. I’m anxious to start my life, in my new home, with you—my new husband—on Voltarre. Now, can’t this dratted tin can go any faster?”
She heard laughter in the background and a chuckle in his voice when he replied, “Ever the princess, I’ll see what I can do.”
Epilogue
IN THE CITADEL THE next night, Aurelia preceded Darios into their chamber. She heard the door shut behind her and the lock engage. Exhausted from the turmoil of the last few weeks, she had slept twenty out of the past twenty-six hours since returning to Voltarre the previous day. Still tired, she could sleep for another week, but she wasn’t too tired for the delights she knew awaited her in her husband’s arms.
“Strip off everything then get on your hands and knees at the side of the bed.”
She nodded, her lips easing into a smile. “Yes, my lord.”
On the way to the bed, she slipped down the wide straps at her shoulders and let the material of her silky gown slither in a soft whisper to the floor. Except for a minuscule scrap of lace that barely passed for panties, she wore only a lightly scented lotion underneath. From the instant spark in his gorgeous eyes and the bulge in his abbreviated leather breeches, she could tell he appreciated what he was seeing, especially when she turned to climb up on the bed.
“Don’t look so eager, little one. This will be punishment.”
With one knee on the mattress, she twisted back in surprise. “What? Why?”
His gaze swept down her body, lingering in several places before tracking upward and meeting her eyes. “I still owe you for running off without a word to anyone and scaring ten summers off my life.”
“But... Darios, you know why I did it.”
“Yes,” he replied as he walked toward her. “And the reason was just, but the end does not excuse the means. We made vows of love, acknowledged our connection, and spoke of a future. Not long after, you left without a word.”
“But I didn’t know what being the bride of your heart meant.”
&n
bsp; One brow arched in challenge. “Would that have changed what you did?”
“Being torn between loyalties made the decision hard for me.”
His hand curved around the back of her neck, and he hauled her close, clear up on her toes. Face-to-face with her, his tone became strained with emotion. “It was a noble thing you did, Aurelia. It proved the love and loyalty you have for your people, but it can never, ever happen again. If I were to lose you—”
“You won’t. Our destiny is to have a long and happy life together.”
“I pray that is so because I’d become a shell of a man without you. As your overlord, it is up to me to decide what risks we take, political or otherwise. As your husband, it is my job to keep you safe. I intend to see we don’t test fate like this in the future, and this lesson will help you remember. If a situation arises and you feel you must act in a way I wouldn’t approve of, or that is against my express wishes, you will come to me. If you had that night, we wouldn’t have risked war with your people, or frostbite in your frozen, uninhabitable Northern Sector tracking down a traitor, and you wouldn’t have been kidnapped, yet again.”
“Everything did spiral out of control. But it wasn’t all my fault.”
He didn’t say anything, letting her stew a bit. Her father often used the same tactic, giving her enough time to think and hoping she’d come to the right conclusion, which, eventually, she did. Like now.
“I thought I had no other option.” She glanced up at him sheepishly. “If I had it to do over, I can’t say I wouldn’t still do the same, but leaving without talking to you first was wrong. I’m sorry, my lord.”
“Since we are at peace, and I expect it to be a lasting one, you won’t be in such a position again.” He pulled her into the heat of his body which made her regret he was still fully clothed. “I accept your apology, princess, but it doesn’t get you out of a well-deserved punishment.”
Gods willing it would be fast, and they could get on with the kisses, cuddles, and making up that always followed.
“Do you plan to, um, spank me?”
He barked a short laugh. “Since you like my hands on your bottom, that, my lovely bride, would hardly be discipline, would it?”
Claimed by the Warlord Page 30
