by ML Guida
She panted hard, but when he unclasped the button of her jeans, she couldn’t breathe. He gently tugged her jeans down past her hips and trembling thighs.
“Step out of them,” he muttered.
She did as he asked, still clinging to his shoulders for dear life.
He kissed the triangle of her panties, his warmth breath sending a bundle of goosebumps all over her, and she cried out, but his kiss turned wild, sucking harder and harder until she was wet with need.
He yanked her panties, tearing them in half.
“Vaughn!”
“We have more panties. Lots of them.” He looked up at her with hooded eyes.
Before she could protest again, his mouth was there, his tongue probing deeper into her folds. Her heartbeat, her blood all flooded to her throbbing core. She panted hard, her fingers tearing through his hair, pushing him against her blond curls.
His fingertips moved up and down her thighs, creating another stir of sensations that set off another fire of pleasure. Fervor broke out in a frenzy as if every sensitive spot exploded at once.
She tilted her head back and screamed out his name.
“That was just the beginning.” His promise would be the death of her.
“You’re…going to kill me.”
“Only with desire.” He lifted her trembling body and put her down on the soft bed that tickled her sensitive skin.
“I want…” She could barely get the words out. “I want to see you.”
“And you will.” He stripped so fast that it was a blur.
She cast her gaze over his body, admiring his pecs, the deep ridged lines in his arms, the six-pack abs and the triangle of hair that led to the juncture between his legs. Her tummy was a tumbling wave of liquid heat and she swore her skin shrank nearly three times its normal size.
“Oh, my God.” Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she stared at his huge erect rigged cock. She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d never seen one so big and fear made her close her trembling legs, thinking what that thing could do to her insides.
“I promise you, Sandra, I won’t hurt you.”
“But you’re so big. Bigger than any man I’ve seen. You’ll rip me apart.”
“No, I won’t. The Shades won’t let this happen. Mates bring each other pleasure, not pain.”
Fear recoiled in her belly, and she bit her lip.
He climbed on the bed, his weight sinking into her and the mattress. “Will you trust me?”
She stared down at his cock that brushed against her leg. “I want to…”
“Then let yourself go.”
“But I’m afraid.”
“Look at me.” His gaze and musical voice captivated her. “I promise you’ll enjoy it. You’re my mate and by the Shades, I claim you as mine. We’ll be one and never parted. Our hearts will beat as one.”
His words inflamed something inside her, something stirred in her heart, fluttering through her like a butterfly, setting off all her sensitive triggers.
She sucked in her breath when he parted her thighs and nestled his hips between hers, his cock threatening to push deep inside her. He kissed her and she wrapped her hands around his neck, hoping he was telling the truth and that she wouldn’t be riddled with pain.
“I claim you as my mate.” She put her trembling hands on his shoulders, then spread her legs wide.
He was hovered between her thighs, hard and thick and pulsing with urgency, and then he was inside her, conquering the last of her doubts with the swift, full heat of his body. She dug her fingers into his muscles, arched her back, and matched his thrust per thrust, friction against friction. He was so thick and stuffed and stuffed and stuffed her until her breath was robbed and her vision blurred.
Vaughn picked her hand and pressed his wrist against hers. Their hands locked tightly. A spark shocked her, painful, but sweet. Something warm sizzled through her veins faster and faster, touching her skin, her heart, lungs, every organ, every nerve and landing with a finality between her trembling thighs.
She opened her mouth to say something, but her words died on her lips as she stared at her wrist. Both hers and Vaughn’s glowed green like aspens on a summer day. The glow flowed over them like sunshine, dusting their skin with warmth and brightness.
Vaughn panted as loud as her. He arched his back and thrust his hips hard, spilling his seed into her.
Sandra dug her nails into his back screaming, coming again and again, shaking her body to the very core.
Vaughn looked at her with hooded eyes and brushed her hair off her cheeks. ”Sandra, we’re mated.” He held up his wrist that had a glowing green star the same one on hers, but only smaller.
“What…what happened?” She touched her wrist and shivers ran down her spine.
“When our wrists touched, we unlocked a door that bonds mates together forever. Once done, it can’t be undone.”
“Parted but never parted.” She frowned. “Why did I just say that?”
“The Shades released the knowledge to you. You’re mine forever.”
“And you’re mine. My Arian bear.”
“And you’re my sexy scientist that I’ll never get enough of.” His voice was husky and passion flared in those eyes.
She ran her trembling leg over his still pulsing buttocks. “Is it always like this?”
“Only with you.” He kissed her, deep, possessively, tenderly.
She returned his fervor and ran her hands over the muscles in his back, loving his strength, his commitment, and his lust.
But she realized he hadn’t said that he loved her. Was mating the same as loving someone?
Vaughn squeezed her breast, creating another wave of passion that tossed all her questions out the window.
For now.
Chapter 11
Vaughn woke tangled in Sandra’s silky limbs to his annoying, beeping telicator.
He snatched it off the night stand, trying not to wake Sandra. He had made love to her three more times after he’d claimed her, each time she brought him to new heights.
“Vaughn, here,” he growled.
“Vaughn, you better go to sick bay now.”
The hair on the back of Vaughn’s neck stood straight up, and chills whisked down his back. It was Rye and his voice quivered. His voice never quivered.
He sat up straighter. “What’s wrong?”
Sandra stirred. Her hair was rumpled and caressed those beautiful naked shoulders.
“Vaughn…it’s Dad and Tash.” Rye’s voice cracked.
“Damn it, Rye. Tell me what happened.”
“Marc says they’ve been poisoned. They’re dying.”
His fingers turned numb and his warm skin turned icy cold. His chest tightened, squeezing and squeezing, and suffocating his desperate lungs. He put his other hand on his damp forehead. All the bliss he’d just experienced died.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. You need to…you need to get down here.”
A lump of disbelief lodged in Vaughn’s throat. “I will. Vaughn out.”
Sandra’s soft hands were on his hard chest. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s my dad and Tash. They’re in sickbay. Someone’s poisoned them.”
“What?” Sandra sat up. The blanket fell down, displaying those perfect breasts.
He tossed the blanket off him and shot out of bed. He quickly dressed. Sandra was right behind him. She no longer seemed self-conscious about her body, and she was moving as fast as he was throwing on her pants and shirt.
He grabbed her shoulders. “This is getting dangerous. To go after the Admiral and the Captain of the Intrepid warrants death. Whoever the culprit is, they’re getting more and more serious. I want you to be safe.”
She tilted her head. “Don’t even think about having me hide out in the cabin.”
“Sandra, I don’t want anything to happen to you. It would kill me. You’re my mate. I can’t lose you.”
She smiled. “You won’t
.” Her reassuring voice did nothing to calm the panic flooding through him.
He dropped his hands and went over to his nightstand. “When you were unconscious from the Telsa Sifter, I got something for you.”
“You did?”
“Yes.” He picked up the second eruptor next to his and placed it in her palm.
She looked at it curiously. “You’re giving me a phaser?”
“I don’t know what a phaser is. This is an eruptor, which is our most powerful weapon. There’s two different settings––stun and kill. You click once for stun and twice for kill.”
Her eyes widened. “Vaughn, I could never kill anyone. I don’t want this thing.”
“Fine. I’ll just set it to stun.” He quickly reprogrammed the eruptor to remain only on stun. “Here, take it.”
She eyed it as if any minute she’d thought it would bite her. “It’s so light. I don’t have a belt.”
“You don’t need one. The eruptor will fit easily in your back pocket.”
She slipped it into her back pocket.
Heaviness fell off his tense shoulders and he could take a deep breath. “Thank you for taking it. You having the eruptor will be one less thing I have to worry about.”
“I also want you to carry a telicator. A telicator can reach me anywhere on the ship.” He handed her his extra one that had been in the nightstand drawer.
“Why would I need this when I’m always with you?”
He avoided her gaze and straightened his shirt. “Come on, we need to move.”
She grabbed his hand and frowned. “If the Admiral and Tash are unconscious, who is in command of the Intrepid?”
He ran his shaking hand through his hair. “I am.”
She clasped his arm. “Are you ready for this?”
“No, but what choice do I have? Based on the levels of command, if the captain is incapacitated, command falls to the first science officer, which is me.”
She rubbed his arm. “I believe in you.”
He smiled, but her words and kind gestures did nothing to ease the doubt brewing inside him that smothered his breathing and beat his temples like a bad cold.
He clasped her hand. “Let’s get to sickbay.”
They held hands and exited the safety of his quarters. Here, he could protect Sandra and erase all of her nightmares. She had such horrific ones and instead of giving her pleasant dreams, he was drawing in her into another nightmare––a nightmare that had haunted him since Sutois.
In sickbay, Vaughn thought he’d be prepared. He was a scientist and had seen sickness and death, but nothing prepared him for this.
Rye had a helpless look on his face. His eyebrows were pinched together, his lips were squeezed tight and his shoulders were slacked. Tash had always been a hero to him. Hell, he was a hero to both of them.
Marc was busy looking at the medical boards. “I don’t understand what’s happening. Blood isn’t getting to their brains, and they’re in danger of having a stroke. Their hearts have slowed dangerously low. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Vaughn and Sandra hurried over to Rye.
“Their faces are purple.” Rye’s puzzled voice was numb. “Why are they turning purple?”
Their skin had turned to a light purple, but their lips were white. Oxygen masks were over their nose and mouth. Purple and blue bruises were on their neck as if they’d been strangled.
Except there were no fingerprints.
Vaughn clasped his brother’s arm. “How did this happen?”
Rye shook his head. “I don’t know. As far as I can tell, they were both on the bridge after lunch. About an hour later, dad collapsed, and a minute later, Tash did the same damn thing. No warning.” He snapped his fingers. “Just down as if by magic.”
“Not magic,” Vaughn said. “You said it was poison?”
He gestured toward Marc. “That’s what Marc says, but he doesn’t know what kind of poison.” He couldn’t hide the frustration in his tone.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, Vaughn. No poisonous plant on Earth or Aria brings on such a reaction.”
Sandra clasped Vaughn’s hand. “Vaughn, I don’t think this poison is from either of our planets.”
He scowled. “Why?”
She looked down at the Admiral and Tash. “I think it’s from the planet Sutois.”
Vaughn couldn’t breathe, and his heartbeat reached ultra-speed; his body was about to shake apart. Sandra just ripped the rug right from underneath him.
He grabbed her arm. “Why do you say this?”
She raised her eyes. “Because I think it’s a message. Someone connected with that mission. Someone wants revenge. Someone you know.”
“Damn it. The culprit could be anyone on board this ship.”
She shook her head. “I think with your brother and your dad, this is poetic. Marc said that it’s strangling them as if strangling their words. Why not just use the other poison? No, this is different.”
Vaughn’s telicator beeped again. “Vaughn, here.”
“Vaughn, this is Knup.” Knup was their communication’s officer.
“What is it?” He was still mulling over what Sandra had said. Going over his mind the mission, but it all came back to Nucl. Something to do with Nucl. Something they missed. He’d been over those reports a thousand times, but he’d missed something.
“We’re tracking a Kamtrinian ship. We need you on the bridge.”
Vaughn and Rye glanced at each other.
“Nucl, put us on a Red alert.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Red Alert, this is not a drill. Red alert.” Nucl’s voice was strong over the intercom.
Tash didn’t move a muscle. The Intrepid was his ship, and he’d do anything to save his crew.
Nothing would keep him from his command.
Unless he truly was dying.
“If you’ll excuse me…” Rye gripped Tash’s hand. “I have to get to engineering.” He looked at Marc. “Help him.”
“I’m doing all I can.” But Marc’s voice said it all. It wasn’t enough.
Sandra put her hand on Vaughn’s arm. “Go. Your people need you.”
He hesitated. “Sandra, I needed you to be safe.”
“I will.” She motioned with her arm. “Now, go.”
“I also need you to continue with your research.” He tilted his head toward Marc. “Help him find a cure for our men and my family.”
“I will. Your family’s my family now.” She pressed her shoulders back. “We’re mated, remember?”
He lifted her chin and brushed his lips over hers. “How could I forget?”
With a heavy heart, he fled sickbay and headed for the bridge.
The door slid open to the bridge and five worried faces––the communication’s officer, the navigator, helmsman, head security officer, and second science officer––turned to look at him. He wasn’t the Admiral. He wasn’t Tash. He wasn’t a captain.
But he was all they had.
He shoved the apprehension back into a ball of nerves in his gut. He sat in Tash’s swerving captain chair, which sent chills down the back of his spine. “Both Tash and the Admiral are incapacitated right now. By the rules of the United Planet Confederation, I’m in command.”
He hoped his voice came out strong and buried the uneasiness rippling through him.
“Status, navigator.”
Grod was the Intrepid’s navigator and he was smaller than a normal Arian. But he was good, damn good at his job. He pushed the buttons on his console. “The Kamtrinian ship is closing in on us, sir. But still out of firing range.”
Vaughn’s jaw tightened, and he narrowed his eyes. “How did we miss them?”
Grod’s face paled. “I don’t know, sir. The ship emerged as we passed the planet Aetis’s moon. A few minutes after Tash and the Admiral fell ill.”
“We were concerned about Tash and the Admiral,” Krup, the communication officer, piped in. “Then before we knew it
, they were behind us.”
Vaughn rubbed his chin. “This was more than a coincidence. Krup, were there any unauthorized signals sent from this ship?”
Krup shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of, sir.”
Vaughn put his elbow on the armrest and leaned forward. “Did you or Stan scan the ship?”
Krup’s cheeks turned red, and he lowered his gaze. “No, sir.”
Stan was the second science officer under him on the bridge. He stiffened. “No, we didn’t, Vaughn.”
“Then, I suggest you both do it.”
He pushed the button to contact engineering. “Engineering, Rye.”
“Rye, make the photon ruptors ready.”
“Photon ruptors are fired up and ready for your signal, Vaughn.”
“Stand by.”
“Vaughn, you know we can’t out run them.” As much as he knew his brother wanted to believe in him, his doubts hit Vaughn like a punch in the gut.
But once again, he drew on his training as an officer and as a scientist, and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. “I’m very aware of the difference between our two ships, Rye. I asked if our weapons are ready to engage in combat.”
“Affirmative, Rye out.”
“Vaughn, the captain of the Kamtrinian ship is signaling.”
Vaughn leaned back in his chair. “Put him on the screen.” His voice was calm, but his insides recoiled at seeing the cold, cruel Kamtrinians.
On the star screen, a muscular humanoid with smooth white skin and three shiny black eyes appeared. He smiled, which sent shivers rolling down Vaughn’s back.
The Kamtrinian didn’t even look real. More of a porcelain statue. Until he spoke.
“I am Cer, commander of the Starship Stealth.”
Vaughn leaned back in his chair. “And I’m Vaughn, commander of the Intrepid.”
“We know of the commanders of the United Planet Confederation starships, and you are definitely not the commander of the Intrepid. I have been told you’ve never commanded a starship.”
Vaughn refused to give into the Kamtrinian’s jeer, but the more unsettling question was how the Kamtrinians would have known this. “I’m the Captain now, Cer. What is it that you want?”