by Regine Abel
“Did many of the others qualify?” Sabra asked with curiosity.
“Four others achieved a psychic level of rank four and will be coming to Khepri with me,” Raven answered. “The others all reached rank three and will be offered Operator opportunities on the Coalition outposts.”
“Awesome,” Sabra replied, clearly pleased with the other candidates’ success.
“Thanks, Raven,” I said, nodding at him in gratitude.
He nodded back before taking his leave.
“Well, I will go check up on my mate and make sure Wrath has returned so that we can get going,” Bane said, getting up as well.
We watched him leave until the door closed behind him with a soft click. The weight of Sabra’s stare on me felt like a living entity. The tension in the room skyrocketed as if a switch had been turned on. Eyes locked, time stood still for a few seconds or an eternity. Every time I wanted to open my mouth to speak, it felt too much like a herculean task when all I wanted was to stare at my woman’s beauty forever.
With much effort, I cleared my throat and forced myself out of my dazed trance.
“I will take you to your quarters so that you can send a call to your parents on vidcom, while Dean Martin has your bags sent to the ship. We will not have time for you to see them before our departure,” I said, proud that my voice remained neutral and professional.
“I already made my farewells, just in case,” Sabra said. “It was expected that, should I qualify, I wouldn’t have time to return to my village before leaving. But, thank you. I’m grateful to be able to talk to them one last time before we go.”
We both stood and walked to the door. I forced my gaze not to roam the length of her slim and toned body. Her skin-tight, dark grey tank top hid nothing of her generous breasts, and her black jogging leggings flattered the delectable curves of her round behind. The top of her head barely reached my chin—the perfect height for my woman.
I opened the door, and Sabra smiled gratefully as I gestured for her to go through first. We walked quietly through the large, arched hallway of the frigate. Although it boasted the colors of the Vanguard, it had been decorated in the lighter spectrum of the palette. Instead of the usual black and gold on the walls, they were a light shade of grey with a single, narrow black line in the middle. The floor, a dark grey, was framed by a thicker gold border.
It embarrassed me to feel so clumsy in the presence of my mate. I’d always pictured myself to be bold, dominant, and pursue my woman as a conqueror. Yet, my tongue had turned to lead, and my brain just froze every time I wanted to make idle conversation to get to know her, and for her to get to know me.
“Beautiful ship,” Sabra said at last, breaking the somewhat awkward silence between us. “But isn’t it a little big for the size of the crew?”
Thankfully, this safe line of questioning put me at ease.
“You’re right,” I said with relief. “Under normal circumstances, we would have traveled onboard a smaller ship, such as a chaser. But following Dean Martin’s report about your first incident, we chose The Renegade because of its comfortable detention area should we decide to bring back all the Mimics. We’ve also filled the hold with stasis chambers to keep the children unconscious, if they are all as aggressive as the female you saw.”
“That makes sense,” Sabra said pensively. “Good idea.”
Her approval pleased me, especially since it had indeed been my ‘OCD’ idea to account for all possibilities.
“This is the training room,” I said as we walked past it. “If you are up to it, I would like you to join me here once you’re done with your call so that I can personally assess your combat skills.”
“Uh oh,” she said teasingly, although I didn’t miss the flicker of worry in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I will go easy on you,” I said with a smile.
To my surprise, she looked at me with a severe expression. “Don’t,” Sabra replied.
“I want to know how I truly measure up, and what I need to improve.”
“You haven’t tasted the strength of a Xian Warrior,” I cautioned her. “I might break you.”
“I’d rather be broken by you… and learn my weaknesses, than to be wrecked by a Kryptid,” Sabra deadpanned.
The discreet once over she gave me during that slight pause before completing her sentence had a bolt of desire explode in the pit of my stomach. She turned back to look in front of her, but I could have sworn a subtle triumphant smirk had stretched her sinful lips. Had she sensed the desire a simple gaze from her had awakened in me? Clamping down on my emotions, I showed her the mess hall, the crew deck, and the bridge before taking her to the personal quarters on the lower level of the ship.
“These are your quarters,” I said, stopping before one of the rooms in the crew quarters. As much as I’d itched to give her the one right next to mine, I gave her one between Linette’s—our pilot and Wrath’s Soulcatcher—and Tyonna’s—our Portal. “Will you be able to find your way back, or do you wish for me to wait?”
“I’ll be able to find it. Thank you,” Sabra said, to my chagrin.
“Very well. If you have any questions on how to operate anything in your room or if you need something, do not hesitate to com me,” I said.
“Will do,” she replied, an unreadable, yet expectant expression on her face.
Feeling more awkward than ever, I gave her a sharp nod then left. The burning feel of her stare followed me all the way to the lift, fifty meters away. She waved me goodbye, the same mysterious smile on her lips as the doors closed in front of me. Leaning against the back wall of the cabin, I heaved a shuddering breath and rubbed my painfully swollen mating glands.
I could slaughter a Drone Swarm without blinking, address the greatest leaders of the biggest nations without breaking a sweat, lead hundreds of thousands of troops into battle with confidence, but being in the presence of my soulmate turned me into a bumbling idiot.
I was freaking pathetic.
Chapter 5
Sabra
Despite having said our goodbyes before I went to Gaia for the test, my call with my parents dragged on much longer than expected, and well after our vessel had embarked on its journey towards Fobos. My mother was beside herself at the thought that I’d be going on my first mission with the elite of the Vanguard. To my father’s dismay, and to my utter discomfort, finding out that Mom had a crush on Bane was way more information than I cared to know.
I couldn’t blame her though. Those sexy black scales and that alluring half-moon-shaped Deynian horn on his forehead held an undeniable appeal. But then, she hadn’t seen Chaos.
Just thinking about him was turning me into a pile of goo. However, his emotions around me left me perplexed. Fraternization between Warriors and the psychic females of the Vanguard was allowed. I knew for a fact that he was single, and whenever in my presence, it always took him a moment to stop broadcasting the fascination and desire I stirred within him. So, why was he fighting it?
Granted, we had just met under rather official circumstances. Was that the explanation? And what exactly did I expect him to do? Invite me to his quarters to play naughty five minutes after we’d met? This was one of those times when I hated my empathic abilities. Without them, I would naturally wonder how he felt, if I piqued his interest in any way, and spend the next few days and weeks cultivating a relationship with him that might evolve into something greater. However, knowing that he was strongly drawn to me created dumb expectations that he would act on it. And yet, if he had, I would have probably felt offended that he would come on so strong, so soon.
Emotions and desires were such irrational things…
Casting aside my wandering thoughts, I took in a deep breath as I walked up to the training room’s doors. They parted with a swish, revealing a much bigger area than I expected, divided in three sections: cardio-vascular exercise machines, weight and resistance area, and a series of sparring mats surrounding a larger combat area. The symbols
on the doors at the back identified them as two holodecks, the male and female changing rooms, and an equipment room. Hanging on the walls and on display racks in-between the training mats, a plethora of weapons and combat paraphernalia could be found. This place was a Warrior’s ultimate playground. If it was this impressive on a frigate, I could only imagine what their training rooms looked like on battleships, motherships, and let’s not even talk about directly on Khepri.
My heart lurched and my mouth watered at the sight of Chaos, standing bare-chested by the main combat arena. He’d stripped out of his Vanguard uniform and was now only wearing a form-fitting pair of black training shorts and shoes. A part of me was relieved to know he wouldn’t challenge me in his battle form, but another was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see that terribly amazing transformation I’d heard so much about.
Feeling intimidated, I walked towards him, under the intense scrutiny of his dark gaze. My eyes ached with the need to feast on the magnificent male before me and the scrumptiously deep grooves of his well-defined abs. I loved a muscular man, with huge biceps and bulging veins along his arms. And Chaos certainly delivered on that front.
The strength of my attraction towards him baffled me. As an Empath, I had to be careful about such things as perceiving someone else’s desire for us could confuse or entice us into thinking we shared similar feelings or to look for qualities in that person that could lead us to reciprocate. I wanted to believe I wasn’t so superficial as to be purely drawn to his gorgeous face and godly body. But, whatever the reason, Chaos had me weak in the knees and thinking all kinds of inappropriate things.
“There she is,” he said as I stopped before him. “We’re going to start with basic hand-to-hand combat. Your goal is to try to flee the arena and grab any of the weapons on the rack. Mine is to keep you subdued inside. If I keep you pinned down for more than fifteen seconds straight, you have failed, and we start over.”
To my shame, rather than freaking me out, the prospect of Chaos tackling me to the floor and holding me helpless beneath him had my girly bits purring with approval.
“If you reach a weapon,” Chaos continued, unaware of the naughty thoughts swirling in my mind, “you will aim to strike me with a fatal blow.”
“Excuse me?” I said, my eyes bulging, all lustful thoughts forgotten.
He chuckled at my shocked expression. “Don’t worry, the weapons are calibrated to prevent fatal injuries. Worst case scenario, you’ll inflict a painful bruise to the point of impact, and to my ego.”
That made me chuckle in turn.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Wait, no warm ups first?” I asked, surprised.
“Your enemy will not grant you time to warm up,” he said in a strange voice, with a predatory glimmer in his eyes. “After you,” he added, gesturing towards the center of the main combat area.
My mouth went even dryer, and my pulse picked up. Forcing myself to look away from his intense gaze, I headed towards the middle of the circular area, rolling my shoulders to release some of the tension that was building there. When I reached the center, I turned to look at Chaos, then slightly recoiled finding he had stopped a few meters back. The look in his eyes spelled danger. I felt faint with an odd mix of fear and anticipation. There was something disturbingly thrilling about being prey. Correction, about being his prey.
I started moving a tenth of a second before he did. Spinning on my heels, I dashed towards the closest rack at nine o’clock from my current position. Arms and legs pumping, I could barely hear the sound of Chaos’s rapidly approaching footsteps over the clamor of my blood roaring in my ears. I never even came close to the edge of the arena, let alone of the weapons rack, before a powerful arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me back.
Using his momentum, Chaos continued to run, circling back towards the center of the arena. I shouted in defiance, struggling to free myself by striking at him with my heels and elbows. That didn’t faze him one bit. Using his second arm to pin both of mine against my body, then lowering the one around my waist to immobilize my legs, Chaos had me effectively trapped. I felt as helpless as a caterpillar inside a cocoon. To top it all, the fiend was holding me a little too high for me to headbutt him with the back of my skull.
The room spun, and the floor rushed towards me as he threw me down. I instinctively tensed, preparing for the pain that would follow. To my—pleasant—shock, although the wind got knocked out of me on impact, the padded surface of the combat mat actually protected me. Before I could try to roll away from him, Chaos’s massive body covered me, his hands pinning mine above my head, his legs holding mine in a vise, and the side of his face keeping my head pressed against the mat so that I couldn’t try anything funky.
Wiggling in vain like a worm beneath him, I tried to block out the amazing feel of his hard body wrapped around me, the gentle scraping of his scales on the exposed skin of my arms and upper back, the caress of his soft, black hair against my face, or the indecent way that my butt rubbed against his pelvis as I struggled.
“One,” Chaos said against my ear, his voice deeper and more gravelly than usual.
He was enjoying my struggle and the feel of my body beneath his. Sensing him trying to silence his growing arousal only fueled mine.
“Two,” he continued counting, mercilessly.
With a roar of frustration, I tried to buck him off, but only succeeded in pressing my behind even more against his groin. Thank the Maker for Chaos’s loin plate covering his little guy. Judging by the light scent of cinnamon wafting to me, the Warrior was definitely getting aroused—not like his emotions hadn’t already spilled the beans on him.
“This isn’t even remotely fair,” I growled, feeling helpless as he reached ‘nine’ in his count to fifteen.
“War is never fair. Do you yield?” Chaos asked mockingly.
That pricked my pride.
“Never!” I snarled and continued to wiggle to try and find a weakness in his hold.
The bastard had to know how I would respond. A part of me wanted to remain beneath him forever. Normally, his weight would have suffocated me, but Chaos was supporting part of it to avoid squashing me. Even though the competitive part of me wanted to defeat him, how could I not want to prolong this moment of intimacy?
It would have been even better had you been on your back.
A bolt of lust surged through me at the thought of being in such a vulnerable position, chest against chest, his lips a hair’s breadth from mine as I drowned in the endless void of his black eyes.
I’d never felt more bereft than when he reached fifteen and released me. Chaos helped me up with a smug look on his face. I glared at him, unable to decide which I wanted most between smacking him a good one or kissing him.
“You only exhausted yourself trying to wiggle free,” Chaos said. “Preserving your strength and energy is vital in a combat situation.”
Naturally, I knew that. After all, combat training had been featured in my curriculum since the age of ten. But nothing I experienced compared to going head to head with a Warrior. I didn’t even know where to begin. It suddenly made me feel so much less confident about myself and my abilities. Had he been a bloodthirsty enemy instead, he would have savagely slaughtered me while I lay helpless beneath him.
“I had actually left you an opening,” Chaos continued, “a weak spot you could have exploited. Let’s see if you can figure it out this time.”
“Seriously?” I asked, disbelievingly. “You had left me an opening?”
“Of course. I’m not—”
I never let him finish his sentence. Kicking his feet from under him, I shoved at his chest to throw him on the floor. His eyes widened in surprise as he fell far too gracefully for my liking. Not waiting to see how quickly he recovered, I dashed towards the weapons rack.
With less than a meter away from my goal, I extended a hand towards a tall wooden staff. Just as my fingertips brushed its side, Chaos caught me again and kept running back
towards the center.
“Aaaargh!” I growled in aggravation, which made him chuckle.
I twisted in his arms to face him and jerked myself backwards, making him lose his grip. Throwing my hands up—well, technically down—to keep from smashing my head on the floor, I used the momentum to go into a pair of backflips. But Chaos didn’t give me a chance to revel in the fact that I’d impressed him. Determination overrode his admiration. No sooner had I landed on my feet than he was already upon me, easily blocking my attempt to roundhouse kick him. In a blur of movements, I once more found myself face down on the mat, covered by two hundred and fifty pounds of muscular sexiness.
“One,” Chaos said, his warm breath fanning against my cheek.
I ground my teeth and forced myself not to wiggle and struggle as I was instinctively itching to do. The strength of Chaos’s emotions willing me to find the weakness made me channel my annoyance towards that task. Blocking out his sexy voice, counting up to fifteen, I paid attention to every inch of my body, and his touching mine, looking for that weakness.
“Ten. Come on, Sabra. You can do it.”
Damn, I love how he says my name.
But too soon, he reached fifteen and once more helped me up.
“That was a good thought, earlier,” Chaos said, clearly trying to cheer me up from feeling defeated. “Enemies like to take you by surprise. But it needs to give you a real advantage. Blind them, wind them, shackle them somehow to give yourself an actually effective head start.”
And so, we continued, with him tackling me six more times and me failing to figure out how to break free.
The training room’s doors opened just as Chaos was yanking me away from the weapons rack for the eighth time. I’d been so close to succeeding that the staff actually fell off, but I didn’t manage to get a proper grip on it. Ignoring the newcomer, Chaos pinned me to the floor and started counting.
“Are you two fucking serious?” Tabitha said in a clipped tone, stopping a couple of feet in front of my head.