Feral Fallout
By
Skhye Moncrief
(Carnal) Erotic Futuristic Romance
(c) copyright by Skhye Moncrief, September 2011
Cover Art by Eliza Black, September 2011
Published by New Concepts Publishing
Smashwords Edition
ISBN 978-1-60394-568-4
New Concepts Publishing
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s
imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or
events is merely coincidence.
Dedication
To my computer guru and folklorist, Masha Holl, who helped me iron out some techy terminology kinks and provided valuable input with the technology issues of my cyborg cultures.
Cybernetics… “The science and art of understanding” ~Humberto Maturana
Chapter One
“Can you do anything more to make the man drool over you, Theo? You’re torturing him,” my friend Cassie noted with the exaggerated sway of her head, making her long loose chocolate brown hair swoosh around her perfectly slightly voluptuous frame where she leaned against the sterile metal spacecraft’s inner wall next to the console I had torn open.
Mind your own business, Theone Kemble thought. Like go tie back that hair before it winds up wrapped around one of my raw live circuits… Not that hair conducted electricity. But it was a nice thought. Just go do something like go cat around the recruits and find a were-assassin mate. Leave me alone.
Damn, I was edgy. Or Cassie just hit one of my sore spots. “I haven’t done a thing to lead the Luvk prince on. He’s chosen to follow me around.” I cleared my throat knowing full well the tiger-striped Wrank chatted far too much about my personal life to just be helping me learn the commander’s prized Crellon spacecraft’s electrical system inside out. “I needed help lifting these goddamned panels too. Hell, I’m only five-foot six and barely one-hundred-and-thirty pounds. Any upper-arm strength I have can’t maneuver these enormous metal sheets. How do you suggest I follow orders?”
“Goro has something up his sleeve.” Cassie smirked and leaned close. “It’s not normal that he keeps you out here working your ass off with this damned spacecraft when he pushes the rest of us to mix and mingle. You can’t tell me you haven’t heard the rumors about how manipulative he is. It’s why he’s the freaking commander!”
“I consider it a great honor to be chosen to work as the commander’s personal pilot. Gods, Cassie, I’m just an earthling—”
“Hence my point.” She crossed her arms over her black leather vest and adopted an even sassier stance. “I’m telling you it’s just not right that he’s forcing you to hide out inside this spaceship. Why would he do that with a recruit? You’re supposed to be preparing to find your place in the universe and mate to assist in some culture’s transition into the new order. Not hang out inside this tin can. Alone.”
Of course she was dead on in her really annoying healer way of pointing things out. But I had been an operative for the U.S. government, an operative who didn’t exist, bounced between the CIA and FBI for whatever crazy-assed scheme they’d required a kick-ass blonde chick with enough MacGyver smarts to make it back alive. Whatever Goro had planned for my future probably broke all boundaries for the standard recruit. Yes, I was definitely adding to my electrical engineer repertoire and martial-arts background every day I jacked with the ship’s systems. And I could cozy up to Wrank’s noble side with my expertise in handling Earth nobility as easily as I could invite his miles of undulating muscles into my bed. That’s exactly what I needed to do because the Luvk warrior was so damned hot I melted the minute he strode into view. Who wouldn’t with those bloody leather pants he wore? And shirt? What shirt? More like a couple leather straps and an o-ring.
“You’re quiet? Did something I say finally hit home?” Cassie droned.
The droning always hit home as I toppled off the cliff life kept propping my butt atop. But Cassie didn’t understand orders like most of The Order of the Marshal’s female recruits from Earth. The Order took great pains to accept female earthling psychics with all their women’s-lib quirks. They had to. One of the few languages adopted by the rest of the universe during the Blood Wars was English, a reflection of the process of simplifying recruitment of lesser-evolved Earth psychics for were-assassin duty. Throw in Earth metaphors and analogies with the measurement of time from the little blue-and-white gem floating in space and an Earth girl felt right at home among the big psychic warriors wanting to mate to preserve universal peace. Lots of sexy extraterrestrial warriors… So, I could go along with mating one exotic male. Or I thought I could before becoming Goro’s personal pilot. Because I’m the gal who takes orders.
Just call me a soldier.
“Just admit I’m right,” Cassie said.
Hell. Get out of my face. “Why don’t you go tend to the greenhouse? Stimulate some seeds into little green shoots? You know. Put your PhD to good use.” Not that my Masters in electrical engineering was anything to sneer at. The biologist was better working with taxonomy than offering advice on interpersonal relationships. Look at where I landed with my volunteering for were-assassin duty? Who else got to see the universe as the commander’s personal pilot?
Cassie’s annoying mouth of perfectly-sculpted lips that attracted males from light years beyond the nearest black hole stretched out then curved down into a scowl. “Quit reminding me I don’t have a green thumb already.”
She couldn’t work her psychic gift worth squat. Too bad. For some reason, Goro jumped on hauling her carcass halfway across the universe to participate in some cockamamie mating bond. My powers of intuition always saved my ass. Probably made me the handy tool I had been for the US government. But Cassie would have wiped out all vegetation in the mother country if she’d accepted a position with the state. So, she needed to get back to studying hard instead of shaking out my dirty laundry. “All the more reason you should be working on your powers of healing, growth, rejuvenation, or whatever they are instead of harassing me about my business.”
Cassie snorted.
In her kick-ass black leather were-assassin pants and knee-high boots, she seemed almost comical snorting with her scowl. But the woman took her inability to nurture plant life serious even though the activity was just a chore to help her stimulate her mysterious dormant psychic power. Alas, we all had chores. Hence our classification as cadets.
Eh, maybe I should have been kinder. But she’d come in here telling me how things were according to her limited worldview. While she needed to deal with her own problems.
The exterior hatch hissed open, producing the six-foot-four orange-and-black Lord who had attached himself to me six weeks ago upon my latest arrival to his home world and the Marshal base.
Holy...
The way his black leather pants split down the sides gave me Goosebumps. Or was the cause simply his genetic tattoo-like tiger stripes bulging in those split seams with his working muscles? At least he hadn’t spoken yet. Or I’d be frozen for a few moments from his deep resonating voice that made my cells hum with sheer pleasure. Just the way he carried himself was so blasted noble all I wanted to do was tackle him. Make babies. And there’d been no time for that back on Earth. Babies for me were out here. Beyond Earth. So very so just a few feet away.
Geesh, that blue gaze could slice through anything to get what he wanted. Including my attention. Hopefully he couldn’t detect my interest in my hitching breath. Who was I kidding? He had heightened senses including hearing. I should give Cassie the boot and take the prince by the horn. His horn was always in arms’ reach, below the belt. I doubt he’d refer to the move as an underhanded blow. Hopefully, because I hadn’t tooted a horn for almost two years.
Cassie suddenly beamed. “Good to see you, Wrank. Didn’t see you at roll call this morning.”
Was that little wench flirting with my Tiger when there were hundreds of Lords vying for mates among the Marshals? This damned planet had so many she could crawl under any rock and find one.
No fucking way.
Hello rising sun over distant hill!
Where have I been?
Wrank smiled like the gentle prince he was and locked his gaze upon me. “Theo needed assistance.”
Oh yes. Put Cassie in her place. Better yet, lock her in her greenhouse with miserable seeds. I bit my tongue and acknowledged Wrank’s kindness with a nod.
“Well, I’m going to be late for Interspecies Ethics. So, if you’ll excuse me.” Cassie’s smile melted as she shot me a stern glance and she departed with a healthy shush from the exterior hatch.
What was that look for?
Wrank eyed me suspiciously.
“What?” I turned back to the toolbox behind me on the floor beside the open panel beneath the pilot’s console, dismissing his question.
I wouldn’t admit anything about the discussion he just missed.
Wrank—he who treated me more like his property with every passing day. A possession that needed to cough up the goods. I just needed to decide what goods I was in the mood for handing over. Besides Cassie and I had secrets in our own little friendship sphere. Girl stuff he didn’t need to know about. Friends, her and I? I guess so. But secret operatives rarely had anyone they kept close. No friends. No family. No babies. And how I just wanted one little baby to cuddle. Always had. Never could fit one into my life. Thank goodness nothing seemed to require locks and keys anymore. I had a friend. Yes. Two if you counted an attentive Tiger Lord.
Was my social life pathetic or what? Maybe Cassie was right. The commander had me flying his private spacecraft all over the bloody universe otherwise. When I lucked out to spend time here at the Marshal headquarters, I didn’t have time to mingle and make friends. Goro expected me to translate everything about this spacecraft into memory. My life the past year had seriously turned into personal servitude to the commander. And did I balk? Not until Wrank sauntered his enormous muscled stripes into my life six weeks ago and made me crave more than Marshal service as a personal pilot whenever he offered assistance.
“Did Cassie say something to bother you?” his deep voice rumbled.
Could he sense my rapid heartbeat with his heightened Luvk senses? That alone was enough to put me on edge whenever he was near. “No.”
“I hear your heartsong, Theo. If it wasn’t Cassie, did I do something to upset you?”
I could turn around. Face him. Let him see how much I wanted to just straddle his ass and meld into his gorgeous body that his traditional warrior prince garb purposely revealed. But that wasn’t me when off duty. Theone had more control. Theone wanted to have a real relationship instead of one required to get the job accomplished.
“So you won’t speak to me?” He sighed.
“I have a lot of work to do today. Cassie interrupted my concentration.”
“You mean I’m bothering you too.”
Gods. No. I spun to his curious sky-blue gaze where he leaned his perky ass against the console and sat at the edge. “No. I’m sorry. She just irritated me. I shouldn’t take it out on you. I didn’t mean to. I mean.” Oy! I sounded upset. Because of him. Wasn’t that a sign he was very important to me?
He reached out one large hand and glided the strongest warmest orange fingers around the back of my palm.
What were his eyes saying? Offering sympathy? Or love? Oh. My. God.
He pulled my hand toward him, ever so slowly with the warmth in his grasp, until I had to shift a foot for comfort.
And I did. First one step. And then another. Albeit, I was in space and anything but an astronaut. I knew what Earth had on the line. Freedom. Although so many earthlings had yet to evolve into the earliest levels of psychic awareness, and, grant it, the Blood Wars were over, I still considered my stint in space as a Marshal a unique duty to humanity. I lived for duty. Even though the emperor no longer subjugated entire populations through mind control. Earth may not seem vulnerable now. But something told me I needed to do this. To become a were-assassin and serve humanity somewhere in space. And have a cute little baby Lord.
Looking at the short tidy whiskers of Wrank’s beard sketching out the faint black stripes beneath the hairs by reflecting the colors of his beard’s stripes, I knew I could fulfill my obligations to my species. I knew I could mate an alien and create the were-bond.
And I wanted to.
With Wrank.
The serious mask he wore really made me think he knew I did.
My knees bumped his closest leg, the leather of our pants rubbing the other’s leg with a soft caress, jarring my thoughts back to his gentle grasp on my hand.
“Mate with me, Theone. We Lords have little here on Luvk. All that I want is a mate. A family of my own. With it comes duty with you. But I will love and protect you above all else. Regardless of where they send us.” He lifted his hand to gently place his knuckles against my cheek. “Mate with me, Theone.”
My heart fluttered.
Such a determined choice of his words. He rarely used my full name since I’d told him only my friends call me Theo. His immediate response afterward had been to adopt the title and fancy me familiar. I hadn’t fought against his little attempt to make himself my companion with nothing more than using the word. Why? Because he’d always been so damned helpful and absolutely polite. I stared at his insistent gaze.
My heart choked into melting.
He squeezed my hand. “You haven’t answered.”
“Alright.” What a horrible answer.
He froze for a second then pulled my lower back, shrinking the distance between our gazes with his intensely possessive stare.
Oh, those lips. We're right there. I could do nothing but step between his knees cloaked in hot leather pants, until my thighs bumped against a solid sensation in his groin.
Message received.
He sighed, gazing down the few inches into my eyes.
The man smelled like clean spicy aftershave, his nose but an inch from mine. “What are you thinking?” He rubbed his finger along my jaw before his black palm rose to press against my cheek as if he adored me.
By the look on his face, he had to. But was his adoration born of the woman trapped inside me or the coloring of my skin, hair, and eyes that high-caste nobles of his world possessed? Was I just the semblance of a perfect woman to him? Nothing more than a white-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed female?
“I have waited forty-two years to mate, Theone. Many thoughts whirl inside my head.” The gentle giant’s hand lifted my hand to his mouth where his scratchy whiskers and velvet lips planted a tender kiss into my palm. “Speak to me.”
Oh. My. God.
Everything inside my chest bottomed out in an insane effort to fall into his lap. Even though I already leaned into the heat of his throbbing iron chest.
Need.
Can I say need?
His hand settled my palm against the iron of his thigh.
He was there. So wanting me. So close. Finally touching his body, I struggled not to slide said palm to his steely shaft or ass. Somehow I managed to retain a shred of my dignity. But who cared about dignity after a Luvk walked into the room?
Both of his palms slid across my cheeks, tilting my head up, lifting my mouth to where he pressed his opening lips over mine.
So velvety soft.
So seductive.
Mouth-to-mouth took on a whole new meaning. Life never blazed so hot before. Air. Scorching air was everywhere. His mouth fanned the flames in my chest into a roaring fire, melting everything I thought I knew about my life into nothing but an awareness of his astounding presence.
He became air, everywhere.
Pressing his essence into me. Where his hand slid down to draw my lower back firmly against his steely arousal. Where my breasts pressed against the bare supple muscles of his chest. Where my hands slid up that pliant musculature covering his caged thumping heart until I could snake my arms around his neck and hold his attentive tongue there to perform its self-serving duty. I tucked my fingers beneath the queue he always wore his black hair tied into…
Duty?
Yes.
Duty was simple for a Marshal. Lesser-evolved psychics like myself, those with powers of telekinesis, intuition, healing, remote viewing, etc., mated with highly-evolved psychics wielding telepathy to form a lifelong were-bond through blood exchange. And I’d gladly give a pint or two to Wrank’s massaging lips. Anything to keep him breathing for me. Who cared if I could shape shift into a were-wolf afterward?
Somebody cleared his throat behind me.
Christ. I shoved away from Wrank’s pinched blue gaze that rolled to lock on our company, and I spun on my boot’s heel.
The commander.
Holy shit. I wasn’t studying the ship’s electrical system with Wrank’s biological system regardless of how electrifying the Luvk Lord was.
Goro’s massive build was as intimidating as his deep voice that barely rated a whisper when he spoke. So was his quasi-frown. “Have you finished studying the ship’s electrical system?”
He accused me of shirking my duty. “No, sir.” I whirled like an idiot, skirted Wrank’s knee, and searched the space for a tool. Anything to look busy without big gorgeous sexy legs in my way.
Damn my non-existent sex life. It had me panting over an alien, looking the fool to my commanding officer.
“Lord Wrank, shouldn’t you be sitting through Interspecies Ethics?”
Every cell in my body cringed.
Not good. My fault. I shouldn’t have stopped working to snuggle up to the big Tiger. What was wrong with me?
Wrank grabbed my toolbox, hefted it, offering me a place to focus, and I blindly snatched something hard and long, Gods phallic, from the tools to appear as if my mind returned to my duty.
“Yes, commander.” Wrank set the box on the console and left.
The squeaking leather of his boots quickly faded into silence.
“I need you to finish, Theone. It’s imperative you understand the inner workings of this ship. One day, it just might save your life.”
“Yes, sir.” I stabbed my wrench underneath the open console to appear to have my mind back on track. Although, getting reamed for wasting time kissing pretty much would consume my thoughts for the rest of the day.
Just focus on save my life.
What in the hell am I doing with this wrench?
* * * *
M’yote could have thrown his head back and laughed with absolute joy when his student finally focused her Handler power through her fingertips into the red leaf she touched.
Cassie peered sideways at me. “Wow. It worked. The wilt just vanished. Crazy. I’m beyond amazed.”
She’d have to just accept she could alter the natural state of substances at the molecular level without dissecting the matter or placing it inside high-tech equipment for computer analysis. “You’ll grow accustomed to the sensation as time passes. Practice as often as you can here on the plants. Because the day quickly approaches when you will face laying your hand upon a person. Or altering the operation of a space vessel. I’ve even altered energy beams to save myself from injury. You don’t want to be caught off guard.”
“Alright.” She rose and faced me squarely. “How long did it take you to feel comfortable reigning over the elements?”
A Handler couldn’t allow himself to grow weak where temptation would outweigh the best choice for the greater good. “One day, you will find invoking the power within yourself is like breathing. Simple. But never allow yourself to find comfort and drop your guard, Cassie. This power you and I have is an extremely rare form of psychic healing. We must protect all life from using this power against others for personal gain.”
“How many Handlers are out there now?”
Sadly, almost three-thousand years of the Blood Wars forced them into hiding. Voldon would have used them to increase the size of his holdings on the universe with mind control. “No one truly knows. My mentor is the only one I have met during my four-hundred years of existence. It is rumored there are a handful in the universe at any given moment.”
She practically sputtered an exhalation and wagged her head.
What thoughts brought her to such an open display of disrespect? “What’s wrong?”
She locked her shocked gaze on me. “This is insane. I’m just a biologist. I don’t understand how I woke up to learn I was something so unique.”
That’s just the way things are. She’d digest the shock and move on to embrace Destiny. Especially now that I’d finished her training. My portion of the bargain was complete. It was time the commander came through on his end. “Well, then, I leave you to your practice.” I bowed slightly and turned.
“We’re finished today?”
Noting we were completely finished and I would be leaving tomorrow with my personal pilot wouldn’t win me any congratulations from Cassie who obviously still felt intimidated by her Handler powers. But she was strong. Determined by her morals. Just in the passion she exuded when speaking of her work with genetics made me hope there was something she could do with her knowledge to make the universe a better place. “You won’t see me again for awhile.”
“Oh?” There was a nervous twinge to her question.
I spun back to her furrowed brow. “You can handle your gift now. Practice. Prepare yourself for whatever the future holds.”
“That deep crap isn’t going to work on me, M’yote. Maybe you should take me along and continue my training?”
I choked down a laugh at her insecurity. She would be fine given she had enough time to accept her powers. “No. You aren’t the right type of warrior for tomorrow’s mission.” Commander Goro swore Captain Kemble was with her formal education, common sense in working with nobility, and fighting skills. I had to believe the commander had the best judgment. The only way my mission would be successful was if I won the cooperation of The Order of the Marshals.
* * * *
It had taken everything in me to finish memorizing the ship’s electrical system by late afternoon. Just in time to join the Marshals for dinner. A feat that had me blessing Goro’s holiest sun, Devros. But Wrank was on my menu. And I was so damned famished after a day’s forced fasting without him. I stepped through the shadowy corridor into the large great hall’s electric atmosphere and found the crowd of Marshal’s milling around a sea of tables.
Some lords wore the traditional Luvk masks princes used to protect themselves before Marshal Aisling came to power as Luvk Marshal two years ago. Lucky damned earthling. She got five Luvk mates. One being the King! Although, I was just starting to wrap my mind around having one husband.
What was wrong with me having one Luvk mate all for my own, universe? I really needed to stop thinking about Wrank. Dinner. Food. I scanned the scene.
Looking for my Tiger. Geesh. So much for changing the subject, brain.
Other princes had opted to forego the tradition and interact with the rest of the universe like the rest of us, their faces unveiled to the world. Thank goodness. Because I had a heck of a time putting stripe patterns to males given they all wore the same black leather pants slitted up the sides and tabbed together with small tabs of leather. The same o-ring and leather strap harness making their chest muscles bulge out like they’d burst if they drew a breath. Oh boy. And the same knee-high black boots.
Whoever came up with the standard Luvk prince uniform deserved sainthood.
Wrank stepped through the crowd of tall Tiger males and shorter extraterrestrial cadets. With an arched black eyebrow. His conspiratorial gaze noted he had the same thing on his mind.
Mating. Yes. Let’s go there before I die of celibacy. Or stroke. Damn my brain. Did these Tiger males have some sort of pheromones? Maybe in their kiss? I so needed to just calm down and get my act together.
He turned his body sideways and thrust his chin toward the far side of the enormous room where tables were set up with the serving dishes.
Sexy.
Yes. Eat first. Think later. I quickly stepped beneath his nose.
He waved a hand for me to take the lead through the crowd and followed me like my personal guard.
The last thing I needed was a guard. But only Goro knew that. I’d wondered if the commander hid me out on his personal ship to keep my history and abilities a secret. After all, most cadets were computer geeks, nurses, cops, and even florists in the case of Goro’s mate. I’d yet to meet another mercenary spy like myself. Especially a female. Goro probably wanted all my abilities aboard his ship on his Marshal business traveling through the universe. After all, his Crellon ship had special technology that didn’t run by psychic power. That sweet nature meant very few pilots could operate his spacecraft. Hence, my significance here. Crystals fueled his ship instead of psychokinetics. He could manually use the secret Crellon technology to manipulate wormholes beyond standard sliding through space from location to location. Which is where I came into play. The personal pilot. An electrical engineer. He had to be using me as back up on his missions. His missions.
Just what really did the commander have in store for me?
Cassie stepped across my path from the throng of leather-cloaked cadet bodies. “Hey. Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“It’s possible for me to dine with the other cadets if I complete my assignments.” Why did I suddenly feel like Cinderella? At least Cassie wasn’t still acting strangely. “Long day. And it’s time to eat.”
She eyed my towering shadow. “Good.” She shot me a smile. “Sit with me?”
Of course. I could feel her out to see if she’d lost the sensible aspect of being brunette and was thrusting her large breasts at my Tiger. Bad idea on her part. I was trained to kill.
In many ways.
We grabbed plates of food, and I led them to the closest table with a few empty seats clustered together where we descended among many other Tigers. Cassie took the empty chair across from me, smiling at the orange-and-black Lord to her left and white-and-black prince at her right. At least, the biologist could spend the meal searching for her own mate while I tried not to squirm into mine’s lap.
Two years without sex truly leads a girl to walking the plank when surrounded by splendid Tiger males.
Jump, Theo. Jump.
Wrank’s muscled arms bulged so much I had to scoot down along the bench a little or wind up elbowed to death while we ate. I guess that’s a good thing given I didn’t want to appear too needy with his steely body within arm’s reach after that amazing kiss.
Or I’d be jumping into his lap from that lofty plank.
Before we’d finished eating, someone had decided to shove the tables against the wall as they emptied and set the cavernous room rocking with some ethnic drum beat.
Dancing wasn’t on my agenda. Although pumping hips could do a lot for a girl. I wasn’t ready to stand around watching my Lord’s hips mimic what I wanted him to do between my legs. Given I finally had little time to myself, I intended on being selfish with my free time. So, I motioned my guardian shadow to follow as we plied through the vibrating thong of pulsing bodies. Into the shadowy corridor.
Now, I’d get the Lord in my bed. I shot Wrank a grin with an arched eyebrow and took his warm strong hand. The man was so easily led to my personal quarters that done deal echoed inside my head.
Jumping off the plank never seemed so easy.
The door clapped shut at his heels.
Gods he was tall. Wrapped in delicious leather like a big steak gift. And the desire on his face…
Jump, Theo. Jump!
He grabbed me around the waist, lifting, pinning me against his chest where we could see eye to eye, and inhaled.
So damned slowly. Haunting words like touch, kiss, strip, and thrust whirled my thoughts into nothing but the possessive glint in his eye. I slid my palms along the supple muscles of his arms. Up to his warm pliable skin of his shoulders. To his queue he always wore and pulled the leather tie from his black hair.
He just watched me.
Waiting. Like I was the dessert we opted to bypass at supper instead of hanging out with everyone having pseudo-sex in some courting ritual, thrusting through the motions, dancing the night away. The fools. I ran my fingers through his shoulder-length straight hair and combed it out until it framed his face mimicking a wind-blown style.
Gods, he was going to ravage me by the hunger in his eyes.
Devour me.
Like a shark in the water beneath the plank.
And I didn’t care.
Now. What was taking so long? Someone had to get us past this point. I pressed my lips to the warm velvet of his, weaving my fingers back into his silken hair.
We were nothing but a tangle of writhing limbs. Lips. Hot wet tongues gliding across suddenly nude body parts pressed against my rumpled bedding. Groaning. Gasping. Whining. I finally pinned him atop me in the crook of my groin by hooking my ankles together at his lower back.
The sleekness of him.
The strength in his body.
Gods, fuck me.
He shoved away, leaned back at the waist, staring down at me, pressing his hard shaft against my ass where I presented my sex to him.
That sweet wrench of his was going to bind our souls together.
Yes.
Now. I stared into his hungry gaze.
Warmth billowed through me, rooting low beneath him in my belly.
Right where he pinned me down with his narrow hips.
He leaned onto one hand and teased me with all those glorious muscles.
Stripes. Everywhere I looked stripes pointed down. Down to where I ached for him.
He glided a roughened palm across my navel.
My skin quivered.
His hand slid up between my ribs, up to curl around one of my breasts and tweaked a nipple. “You’re beautiful, Theo.”
His voice rippled through me, making me quake with need. I shut my eyes and arched into his touch.
I wanted that enormous steely hard-on that he kept so damned handy, inside me.
“Loosen your hold on my waist,” he whispered.
Done.
He slid his palms across my thighs and shoved them wide.
Deliciously wide. Like a man who’d done this countless times before. But I thought Luvk Lords didn’t have sex until mated? What did it matter, really? I wasn’t a virgin. He was locking the smooth head of his cock into my sex. This was a done deal. Wrank was mine. All mine.
The universe sucked all the oxygen from the room as he thrust inside me.
I couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe, Could only loll my head left and right as he wedged himself inside me, inch by magnificent thick inch. Slowly stretching me to take the full length of him. Torturing me with a sword as if I feared jumping off the plank.
If only I could stop aching for more. Stop my inner channel from fisting around him. Just relax and embrace my future. But, hell, a girl didn’t stumble upon Mr. Right every day making her way beyond the big three “O” and find someone with indomitable strength, intelligence, all packaged in animal-print gift wrap and leather.
He shoved the last bit of air from my lungs as he groaned, grinding the coarse hairs on his stiff sac against my groin.
Gods. Gods. Gods. This was all happening too fast. We’d have to work all night to do everything that flashed before my eyes as I took the liberty of leaping into a free dive with a twist that would rival any Olympian record. But I wanted more. I wanted the fevered frenzy. I wanted everything now. “Wrank?”
His blue gaze slid to meet mine.
“You’ve waited forty-two years. I’ve waited thirty. I want this hard and fast.”
He sucked in a deep breath.
“I’m yours.” I raised up and brushed a kiss against his orange lips.
“Lie down,” he said.
I sank my shoulders back into the soft bedding.
“Tighten your legs around me,” he ordered.
He could tell me what to do anytime.
He shifted a bit, and I followed orders.
He moved his hard rod, withdrawing the full length along my inner channel until almost free from my tightened muscles, and waited, his cock’s head still inside me. “Hold on, Theo. Tight. This is like riding my war beast. And I don’t want to hurt you.”
Now that was an image to ponder. I slid my hands over his shoulders, realizing the rumors about his harness’ purpose were true, and wrapped my fingers around the thin leather straps.
He thrust into me with one wild plunge, pulled out, groaning, lunged, and the room faded away. Nothing existed but how my fingers burned clutching his strong flexing body. How he stirred a mushrooming need deep inside me with only one outlet—for me to scream. How I tried to choke back the sound but couldn’t fight the quivering wave of pleasure shaking every cell in my body. And he matched my cries blow by blow until the universe shook with a force that froze us into one gasping form shrieking in unison.
His cock lunged inside me.
Scalding seed kissed my womb.
He paused as if in some sort of Tiger reverie then started to pump his hips again.
Forcefully.
I clenched my inner muscles around him. Milking every drop of his seed into my soul.
He groaned, tucking his chin into his chest.
Like he prayed for mercy, his muscles straining to empower his prayer.
I felt like a goddess. Out in the middle of nowhere outer space. Drifting on a planet full of Tiger folk. With the most incredible example of a Tiger Lord pumping his essence into me, one vigorous stroke at a time. I matched his dying enthusiasm.
We ground our hips together until our heartbeats calmed ever-so-slightly. Until there was nothing left in us but a fraction of a movement that left my heart crying for more.
More. Dammit.
He could no longer move, hunched over me in a silent trance.
My Tiger had really taken care of me. “Hey,” I managed a breathy whisper and uncurled a few fingers. Stiff as they were, the feat wasn’t easy.
His black hair curtained his face. But he turned his blue gaze to mine.
One of my hands slipped free of the harness. I slid the palm down the corded damp skin of his neck to his prickly beard. “Well done, husband.”
The smile stretching his black moustache liquefied what was left of my heart.
“Wrank, get ready. You’re about to have to do that again.”
* * * *
Blessed stars, Wrank could have thrust right back inside his mate’s silken heat but his thundering heart demanded he hold her sleek sweaty curves close and stare into her sparkling eyes where he held her quaking curves on her side against his chest, staring into the face that saved him. To feel her breathe trapped inside my embrace, he thought. After living for what seemed like an eternity as my mother’s Royal Guard, mating with a female was the most sacred act. Equal to nothing other than wearing the mask of a Royal Guard. Hiding a man’s emotions. But The Order of the Marshals liberated the Lords and gave us a chance to claim mates outside the advantage of political marriage for our mothers, Queens of the Realms. The most holy act. And all I could think about was gazing into the eyes of a female who gave me her heart.
Something to claim as mine forever. Earthlings may age faster and live shorter lives than Luvks. But that mattered little. Theone was mine.
“You’re staring at me,” she smiled and traced a finger along my upper lip.
I kissed the soft pad of her finger. “What would you have me do otherwise?”
Her smile split into a wicked grin. “Do you really have to ask?”
Not by the gleam in her eyes. I squeezed her stiff ribcage and rolled us over until she draped my chest.
She squirmed and giggled against me. “Feeling frisky?” She planted a kiss on my chin.
Oh yes. But there were things that must be said. I waited for her to calm down.
“Oh no. You’re too quiet,” she groaned.
The dread in her voice only made me burst out laughing. Before her face twisted into a scold, I rolled her shoulders back into the mattress and sank between her thighs. “You, Theone Kember, made me burst out laughing.” So happy that words escape me. Or I fear speaking will detract from the moments we share together.”
Her eyes stretched with her budding smile. “Wrank—”
“I will say what I mean to say.” And smiling would only encourage her to insert her thoughts. So, I forced a stoic mask and leaned down until our noses almost touched.
Her warm breath came in choppy clips.
She was thinking. Perhaps not about what I would say. Maybe more about coupling. Not bad thoughts. Just untimely because I would declare her significance to me. “You have made me happier than all Luvk warriors, Theo.” I pressed a kiss to her soft lips then pulled back to watch her eyes rim with tears. “I will treasure every moment we share together. You and I, our bonding is a gift from the Gods.”
Her body trembled beneath mine.
But she didn’t speak. Just watched me.
Hopefully joy fueled her pooling tears. Not pain. I gently placed a palm against the side of her beautifully carved face and marveled at the harsh contrast of bright stripes on my skin compared to the pale pure white swath of her cheek. She was everything any Lord dreamed of possessing. But I won her heart. Me? How? I would cherish her. Always. I rubbed my thumb across the velvet of her cheek. “I love you, Theone.”
Her mouth flinched into a grin. “I love you too.”
Tears spilled from the corners of her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It isn’t painful. Not at all. But I never thought I’d have a chance to have a family. Not where I came from.” She glanced beyond my shoulder. “Not the way I lived back on my home world.”
She never spoke of those days. I tilted her face until her gaze flicked back to mine. “You do not have to speak of those things.” Not when the past was behind us. “Now, we have each other.”
She nodded and thrust her hands into my hair. “Yes. And I expect to have lots of younglings.”
“It is not the number of younglings a man brings to life, Theone, but—”
“The time spent with them,” she finished the rest of the words with me. “But,” she added, “You’re not sharing a mate with a half a dozen or more males, Wrank. So, prepare yourself for fatherhood because I intend on keeping you extremely busy making and raising younglings.”
She didn’t have to declare such things. I knew all along that Theone would be my partner in and out of bed. My bed. The future would be anything but dull with her by my side.
* * * *
Maybe I was insatiable. Or I just had such a freaking drought in the sex department since going AWOL from planet Earth that I needed to refuel with my big Tiger? But we’d danced every type of dance the bedroom allowed inside my personal quarters before Luvk’s sun tickled sunlight through the cracks around the window’s curtains. And the only thing that could possibly make life better would be a big juicy ribeye. Scratch that, a big juicy ribeye with a loaded baked potato.
Wrank would have to do.
Wrank slept, his warmth wrapped around my body like I was his supportive body pillow. And I didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to lose the moment. So, I’d been on crazy missions back on Earth. I’d survived them all. And now I was going to have a were-assassin mate in outer space. No problem. We’d deal with the blood exchange after he woke up and took care of my needs. Again! Gods know I have a lot of needs this morning. Sleep wasn’t one of them. I slid a palm up the bare pliant skin of his back and wriggled my fingers into his soft warm hair.
He groaned, shoving his nose into my jugular, smacking his lips. “I hear your heartsong, little one.”
Well, I was average height for females in the United States. But he could call me little one if he wanted. Especially the way he ran a thumb up and down the curve of one of my breasts.
“It’s playing a song for you,” I chuckled.
“I heard that sweet melody ages ago.”
A red light flickered on the small table beside the only other piece of furniture in my room, the chair.
My communicator. Like I could get one morning free of duty. What’s wrong with this picture? Even janitors get a day off. I shoved out from beneath my big blanket of muscles and pushed the red button. “Captain Kemble.”
“Report to The Savior in ten minutes,” Goro ordered. “We depart in twelve. The Savior has the coordinates.”
I dropped the communicator. “Shit,” I snarled and whirled.
Wrank laid propped upon one elbow, his gorgeous body bared to me atop the blankets. Bulging muscle everywhere didn’t detract from his lean body. Especially where his fondness for me jutted from his groin’s black nest of curls at full mast on display.
“I’ve got to go, Wrank.” I grabbed my soft cool leather pants, thrusting my feet into them. “I’m so sorry. I have to go. Orders.”
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
I think he enjoyed the view. “I promise we’ll finish this as soon as I return.” I yanked my leather shirt over my head and shifted the weight of my damned annoying breasts into a comfortable position.
His eyes twinkled with some wayward sunlight. “Yes, we will.”
Gods, why hadn’t we just exchanged blood sometime during the night? My hunger strike obviously kept me gorging at the feast. I threw myself at his chest, planted a hard kiss on his slanted mouth, and retreated to grab my backpack.
One foot in boot. Yank. Other foot. “I’ll miss you.” I shot him an enormous smile.
“I’ll be waiting.”
“You better be,” I warned as I hurled my body through the doorway.
Something could be said for a second or third wind. I’d slept very little with all my big Tiger’s delectable skin at my fingertips. Like who could stop touching his amazing body? A body that reacted to every second of contact. Alas, my third wind must have fueled my legs enough to deposit me in the pilot’s seat on The Savior before my ten minutes had expired. I went to work on the settings preparing for departure.
“Welcome, Captain Kemble. I have the commander’s coordinates. Shall I prepare for liftoff?” the computer’s female voice politely asked.
“Yes, computer.”
Goro’s footfalls hid behind the engine’s whir. But he was there. I could feel him watching me. No problem. He was expected this time.
Goro nodded at me and stepped aside allowing my view of a figure cloaked in a black cape hanging down to his black leather boots concealing his calves. Male, by the width of his shoulders and the large calves housing those knee-high boots. All black. Mercenary material.
Okay, serious mission.
“Are we ready for departure?” Goro asked, settling into the equivalent of a navigator’s seat, the other one at The Savior’s command console.
I turned back to the computer screen, buttons, and switches. “Forty-two seconds.” The same number as Wrank’s age. If the mission will only last that long.
Goro nodded at the image of death behind me.
I could have asked who the stranger was. I could have just looked like an idiot making demands of my senior officer. But I didn’t. I just wanted to get back to Wrank. Back to business.
The Savior lifted off, shifting the metal plating beneath our feet toward deep space.
“Now that we’re under way, Captain Kemble, I’d like you to meet M’yote. You’ll be working with him on this mission,” Goro announced.
Oh? I shot a look over my shoulder and saw a bit of blue skin peeking out of the man’s hood. “M’yote.” I nodded.
“Theone.” He reciprocated the nod. His hood slipped a bit, allowing light to hit some of his finely-carved facial features. Lips lined with a dark color, almost black. A long well-defined nose. White light tried to glint in his shadow-filled dark eyes.
Eyes that could pierce my soul. He knew my name. What else had Goro told him? I slid a questioning gaze to my commander’s serious mask.
“M’yote is taking you to meet your mate.”
Cybernetics… “a way of thinking.” ~Ernst von Glaserfeld
Chapter Two
This wasn’t happening. I was trapped in some alien-abduction nightmare I couldn’t wake up from, blindfolded, trying to grasp at some semblance of balance on the edge of Goro’s fucking plank. His ship was anything but The Savior. It was more like the sacrificial altar.
“Captain?” Goro’s voice sounded strangely distant.
Something shook my shoulders.
“Theone!” Goro’s voice elevated. “Theone, what have you done?”
The console’s lights flickered where I stared.
No. No. I’m mated to Wrank.
“Theone, look at me.”
Somehow, I met Goro’s fiery-orange Xquine gaze.
“You mated with Wrank, didn’t you?”
Almost. Not completely. Did I have to fess up to any of it? Hell, I wanted to be Wrank’s mate. “All but the blood bond.”
Goro’s straight-lipped smile shrank into a knot. He sighed. “By holiest of suns, Theone, you almost made this mission impossible.”
Me? Marshal dogma was all about mating and fighting evil as a sacred were-mate couple. “Sir?”
The viewport showed the lighter atmosphere darkening with each second we edged farther from Luvk. From Wrank. Into space.
“Listen to me, captain. You’re going to a compound housing political prisoners from the Blood Wars. Some have lived there longer than you can imagine given their unique biologies.”
I didn’t want to know anymore. But, shit, this was my job. I met Goro’s stern gaze and hard demanding features.
“M’yote’s brother must be freed,” Goro continued. “You and M’yote will break into the compound and retrieve his brother. Do you understand?”
Nothing like a little mission impossible. “Yes, sir.”
M’yote shoved the hood off his head, eyeing me with fluorescent blue eyes that could shift the powers that be on worlds, as far as I knew. Eyes that no woman could gaze into without losing her heart. Thank goodness Wrank clutched mine back on Luvk.
“My brother is the rightful king of my home world, Theone,” M’yote said. “There is much unrest now that the Blood Wars have ended. We need our king to end the bickering over who should lead the population. He can reunite Prall’s clans.”
So I’m taking care of political fallout? “Alright. But why must I mate with him?” I flicked my gaze to Goro. “You may have kept me strapped to this tin can the past year, but I’ve picked up more than enough structure from the Marshal Order to know better. It’s forbidden for a Marshal to take a ruler as a blood mate, sir.”
Goro nodded. “In most cases, that is true. Sometimes we must make an exception.”
Shit. Why did the exception facet always land on my friggin’ plate?
Goro blinked at me with the patience of a father. “But not this time. You won’t create the blood bond with King Solvun. As you said, it is forbidden.”
Well, then what was all this crap about meeting my mate? “I’m confused, sir.”
Goro leaned slightly toward me, locking his gaze upon me like I needed to be anchored to something before he spoke. “You’ll create the blood bond with M’yote.”
Something large and solid crammed into my throat.
The strange blue alien with the mesmerizing eyes?
“M’yote is second in line to rule his home world. He will be your Marshal mate.”
My mouth moved. A lot. But nothing came out.
“I don’t know what’s passed between you and Wrank, Theone. But I’ve worked a year to prepare you for this mission, captain. You are the only female Marshal cadet capable of surviving a mission into the prison. I must insist you do this for the greater good of two planets. You must cooperate.”
Two planets? What about two fucking hearts? Wrank and I volunteered for duty. That had to negate this damned mission crap.
“Commander,” M’yote said softly, “we can postpone this mission. Find another candidate. Perhaps the captain doesn’t care for multiple mates?”
Multiple mates? Uh. Hadn’t really thought about having more than one… Goro couldn’t be serious.
Goro’s eyes pinched into squares, studying me. “There comes a time when we all are called to act for the greater good of the weak. This is your call, Theone. Remember, everything’s interconnected.”
I had no choice.
In joining The Order of the Marshals, I agreed to whatever was required of me to serve as a were-assassin. But Wrank had won my heart. How could the were-bond form when one party wasn’t willing? Surely, Goro understood that much. “Yes, sir. I can play your political pawn. I’ve done it for years on Earth. Which is probably why you think I’m the only person suited for this duty. But my blood bond goes to Wrank. You owe me that much, sir. For my sacrifice.”
“You have plenty of time to discuss any issues you have with M’yote.” Goro gathered his black boots beneath his massive muscled form and turned to the contemplative blue male. “Thank you for teaching the other Marshal to channel her elemental powers. We had no idea her psychic abilities were so advanced.”
So that’s how Goro justified mating me off to M’yote!
M’yote bowed respectfully. “With every hundreds of thousands of defeats from challenge, the universe offers one sparkling star to brighten the darkness of life for those of us trapped in this insanity of existing.” M’yote met Goro’s gaze.
Shit. They both espoused the same deep crap nobody really wanted to hear. And I’m supposed to mate with the blue guy? Joy. I’ll hear that garbage until the day I die.
“Helping the cadet take control of her future for the greater good is the least I could do in return for your assistance, Goro,” M’yote continued. “Chaos threatens to destroy the last vestiges of life on my home world.” M’yote slid his blue gaze to meet mine, studying me with something vaguely reminiscent of understanding, just for a moment, then flicked it back to Goro.
Hell. Was I just supposed to jump up and yell that I’d help? Buckle. Do what they wanted?
“Why don’t we step into the galley while Theone tends to the Savior?” Goro asked.
Yes. Go. Leave me to the skirt the fucking sharks beneath the plank. Dammit, Wrank. I won’t betray you.
* * * *
The spacecraft’s metal hull quivered with anxiety in an eerie quasi-harmony only M’yote’s body could detect as he plucked the fingers of one black glove from his hand inside his small temporary private quarters en route to the prison. The negligible amount of time in flight didn’t work against my home world, Prall, he thought. The two days journey to attempt to free the king was but another two days of imprisonment. Seconds. Breaths in Prall’s history. And to Solvun or I? What were two days in an immortal’s lifetime? So I slowly, wallowing in deep thought, one at a time, pinched the softest leather of another fingertip and tugged.
The sensitive iridescent blue skin beneath the pliant leather didn’t cause my current sensory overload. No. The source of my burgeoning headache came from another source. The captain. I felt the female’s awkward stress even through the metal floor. Stemming from her duress for her lost lover. As mine would, given I experienced the loss of something as holy as my mate.
Theone’s apprehension I could respect because there were no females born to Prall males since the !Dakos seeded our planet with the microbe that attacked X-chromosomes unfortunate enough not to co-exist with the protective Y-chromosome Prall males owned. But I could empathize with her angst. Prall males considered mating the most hallowed experience in life after the microbe. Simply because mating was the most difficult aspect of life to attain now. Prall warriors were forced off-world to recruit mates—ironically the very same reason the !Dakos came and destroyed what we wouldn’t relinquish.
Why had the !Dakos attacked so ruthlessly? Apparently, if we wouldn’t hand over our females, the !Dakos had no intention of allowing us the luxury of having females. But what could rational beings expect from a culture so mechanically augmented, so butchered in hopes of preserving itself, that it chose to annihilate other cultures unwilling to cooperate?
Yet, none of us could recall thoughts of life before only 284 warriors returned to Prall to find their people gone. First the !Dakos planted the microbe. Females took ill, dying as if a plague swept across the planet. Then, in the panicked weeks that followed with men desperately attempting to save their wives and daughters, the !Dakos began blasting cities where hospitals flooded the streets with the dying like a river overflowing to claim the surrounding land. The results were beyond the level of catastrophic flood. Beyond rational thought.
And so the war began.
Prall’s handful of warriors returned to nothing but destruction.
Vindictive. Remorseless. Merciless death and annihilation. For what? The right to breed? The right to have a mate and all that entails in the experience of life?
What could a being that chose to alter itself to the level of mere machine possibly want in mating? Not one !Dakos warrior hosted a biological brain for eight hundred years. They were emotionless. Machines.
A chill prickled down my arms.
The healing of Prall couldn’t begin without the King. All that remained would continue to fall one clan at a time. Maybe that was the !Dakos plan in keeping Solvun all along? Maybe they could think for themselves beyond perpetuating their existence. Whatever that entailed. But the rest of us caught in their reckless attempts to grasp to some semblance of existence had to end before the destructive wave of the !Dakos was unleashed upon another planet’s shore.
Yes, now Theone felt the tremors of the !Dakos war so distanced from my home world.
At my request.
I owed her release from this insanity.
She was a prize.
A goddesses to my people.
Treasured beyond all else.
Female.
To have something as remarkable as a mate like Theone was a gift from the stars. Literally. A blessing. And I had no right making the choice for her.
Her wishes were more sacred than any clan feud or off-world skirmish.
Forming a mate bond with her against her will would be the ultimate sacrilege. Dare I have a hand in the madness? I unfurled my blue fingers and stared at my blue palm.
An empty hand.
What had I brought to the table for almost three-hundred years while the rightful King lived under lock and key, imprisoned? Second in line to end the bickering and bring peace back to the most sacred place in the universe through finding a way to defeat the microbe, my actions must remain exemplary.
Theone must have a choice.
Alas, in that same empty hand dwelled the answer.
My Handler abilities.
But a Handler detecting energy from every atom among the stars risked dark temptation. Craved control. Through the ability to sway who loves him with the slightest touch of his skin. Through manipulation of elementals. Manipulation, an abhorrent choice in the realm of social interaction for a being wielding my powers. But I could force her to bend to Prall’s needs and help me in my people’s salvation.
If I dared touch her with my flesh. Weave a spell she couldn’t refuse. Bind her heart and soul to mine. She’d willingly assist in liberating Solvun from his cell afterward.
But my touch would set the countdown for her complete submission. Her heart. Her body. Her soul would yearn to meld with mine. Die without my touch. Fade away until there was nothing left but a motionless heart and her cold body without my touch to save her life.
Unforgiveable.
Damning.
Sacrilege.
My touch, far more addictive than any alcohol or drug. How would I be any different from the !Dakos in their repugnant methods to perpetuate their species? I curled my fingertips until my nails bit into the meat of my palm and stared at my faint reflection lost among space’s dense blackness and piercing points of starlight beyond the viewport’s glass.
Neither my people, my heart, nor my soul were worth such wasted power. Not when I stood as an example of what my warrior brethren should strive to achieve. Honor.
Everything circled back to honor.
Simply sensing her agony was enough to make an honorable man feel as if he’d breached a confidence. Or simple boundaries. Like mindreading without permission. And that broke free-thinking law.
Never.
Bringing peace to Prall meant teaching everyone how to live in peace. And doing so by manipulating a female would do little to reiterate my point. We must live free. We must seek harmony. Or we will never find the means to eradicate the microbe and give birth to live female offspring on Prall again.