by Cynthia Sax
The drakon wanted nothing other than entry to the ship.
Ariq gazed around them. His gerel, the drakon’s mistress, wasn’t in view.
He had to find her…after he’d calmed Spark. “Do you have any raw meat?” The drakon was ruled by his stomach.
“I tried that.” Jeden’s hair looked like it had been dragged through a refuse compactor. “I tried the gold disks. I tried the dagger. I tried everything. All he wants is Xar.”
If all he wanted was his mistress, why was he attacking the…
Zondoo. A chill swept over Ariq. “Xareni is inside the ship.”
Jeden nodded, confirming a situation Ariq would never wish to be a reality.
Xareni had entered the vessel. Perhaps she was curious. Maybe she was testing herself.
Spark, not understanding it was a temporary parting, had tried to follow her. He had attacked that entrance his mistress had disappeared through. The combination of the drakon scraping the heat-proof veneer off the metal and then engulfing it with his extreme fire had sealed the doors closed.
His never-wanting-to-be-trapped-ever gerel was now imprisoned in a ship.
Ariq’s stomach twisted. Painfully.
“Spark, get back.” He grabbed the drakon, moving him out of the way.
Spark battered him with his wings, clawed at his arms with his talons, shredding his skin.
Ariq ignored that hurt. His gerel was in emotional peril. He put himself between the ship and the drakon.
Spark battered his head with his wings, ripped out chunks of his hair. The drakon was out of his mind with terror.
His gerel would be in the same state.
Ariq extended his claws, pierced the seam of the doors, and pulled. His muscles strained. Sweat beaded on his forehead, dripped down his spine. The stress on his hands was pure agony.
The fused-together metal cracked loudly. He ripped off one of the doors.
Spark shot over his head, into the ship, the drakon flying faster than Ariq thought possible.
“Spark, wait.” Ariq leaped into the vessel and ran after him, following the drakon’s scent, the scent of his gerel.
There was a thump of scaled flesh against metal. Spark screeched, opened his mouth.
“Do not set the ship on fire.” Ariq scooped the flopping drakon off the floor, tucked him under one arm and placed his other hand on the controls.
The doors to the chamber, the private quarters he had utilized on the trip to Carinae E opened.
He took one look inside the space and he almost fell to his knees, his legs threatening to collapse under him.
His gerel, his brave, strong warrior female, sat on a sleeping support. Her hands were clenched together. Her knuckles were as white as her face. Her head was slightly bowed. Her blonde hair was damp. Her chest rose and fell rapidly.
Views of blue sky played on every viewscreen around her. The sound of wind filled the space.
“You can do this, warrior.” She muttered that affirmation to herself. Her voice was breathless. Her bottom lip quivered. “For him, you can fuckin’ do this.”
Her pack was at her booted feet.
His structure-fearing gerel was trying to travel to Chamele 4…for him. Because she thought that was what he wanted.
Ariq stared at her, shocked, humbled, horrified. She had been willing to make that sacrifice, to endure that fear, that trauma, that hurt…for him, because she loved him.
“Xareni, I—” His voice broke. He couldn’t say more. Emotion strangled him.
She looked upward, met his gaze. Her eyes were slightly unfocused and wild. He doubted she recognized him, she was so mentally torn apart.
Her cheeks were wet. His tough courageous gerel had been crying.
Yet she hadn’t backed down from her quest, from her decision to return to his former home planet, believing that would make him happy.
She made him happy. His home was anywhere she was. She was all he needed.
Spark bit Ariq’s hand. Hard.
Ariq released him.
The drakon flew to his mistress, landing on her shoulder. He butted his head against her jaw, rubbed his scales under that part of her, cooing as though he was attempting to soothe his human’s distress.
Ariq would eliminate the cause of it. He stalked forward. “We’re leaving here.” He slid his arms under Xareni, lifting both his gerel and his drakon. “Before Spark sets the ship on fire.”
He carried his little family through the vessel.
“I can fuckin’ do this.” His gerel’s fingers folded into tight fists.
Stars. She was gloriously stubborn.
He loved her so very much. “You are the strongest, most-determined being I have ever met.” Cradling her and Spark in his arms, he jumped out of the ship. His boot heels rang against the stone-covered landing area. “I know you can do anything you set your clever mind to doing. But I’m staying on Carinae E, and I selfishly want you and Spark to remain on the planet with me.”
Jeden approached them. He carried the dagger and gold disks.
Ariq shook his head. His female didn’t have the emotional capacity to deal with other beings at the moment.
The young warrior nodded, signaling he understood, and he backed away from them.
The other Chameles respectfully kept their distance also. The situation had become a private matter between Ariq and his gerel, and he appreciated their consideration.
“I can do it.” His delightfully tenacious gerel clung to that truth.
“You can do it.” He conveyed them past Balvan, past the gates, up the steps to the top of the wall. “You don’t have to do it, and I prefer you didn’t do it, as I like holding you in my arms, I like seeing your beautiful face, I like speaking with you every planet rotation.”
She said nothing. Her jaw jutted.
He sank to the stone, holding her form against his. She leaned into him, resting her cheek against his left pec. Spark, for once, didn’t protest the disruption. The drakon quietly moved, accommodating his mistress’ new position.
Ariq rubbed his gerel’s right arm, her back, her hip. All of her from her chin down was encased in leather, but the connection between them remained unbreakable.
She gradually stopped trembling. The natural color in her gorgeous face returned. Her body relaxed, her curves sinking into his muscle.
Spark crawled into her lap and curled into a ball. He must have been exhausted from his assault on the Chamele ship, yet he kept his eyes open, gazing up at his mistress as though he worried she might leave him again.
His gerel had contemplated parting with the drakon she loved so she could be with him. That shredded Ariq’s heart. He would never ask her to do that. “Spark is part of our family.”
He petted the drakon’s head.
Spark snapped at his fingers.
Ariq grinned. “He’s an ill-tempered part of our family.”
His gerel sighed. “He liked Jeden. I thought he’d be happy with him, wouldn’t miss me.”
“He loves you.” Ariq loved her also. “Sparks is as loyal and as determined as his mistress is.” He bent down and kissed the tip of her nose. “He would have insisted on making the trip to Chamele 2 with you.” That would have been a disaster. “The ship would have been on fire when it arrived, but he would have been on board it.”
A hint of a smile lifted her lips. “He is an ass.”
Ariq said nothing. Because Spark was an ass. And he loved the irritable little creature.
“We should be on the ship.” His gerel’s gaze met his. Her expression was troubled. “You care for your fellow Chameles, love Chamele 2 and the hunting planet, and I can make the trip. I can. One of the medics gave me a spray I can apply if the situation becomes…unmanageable. But it won’t become that bad.” She covered his hands with hers. “I can do this.”
Zondoo. He didn’t know what he had done to deserve such a female.
Ariq swallowed the ball of emotion forming in his throat.
“I do care for
Second, Oghul, Yesun, the others, and I’ll miss them.” He linked their fingers. “But they’ll visit us and…between you and me, I had decided before landing on Carinae E that I wouldn’t be returning with them to Chamele. I had planned to search for you.” He brushed his lips over her forehead, tasting the salt of her skin. “And I’d hoped to participate in a battle or two while I did that.” He grinned. “I’m a fellow monster.”
“You need to fight, to kill.” She understood him better than any other being in the universe, and he loved her for that.
“I need to fight.” His head dipped. “And Chamele is now at peace.”
Her eyes widened.
Silence stretched between them.
He said nothing, allowing her time to absorb his words, to fully grasp the situation. There was a temptation to tell her he loved her, that he would be happy wherever she was, but that would cause his honorable female guilt. She would believe he stayed only for her.
That wasn’t entirely the truth. He liked Carinae E. It fit his personality, offered him the challenge he was seeking.
“Carinae E is never at peace.” She finally smiled at him, the full force of her beauty hitting him like a punch to the gut. “You’ll find plenty of battles here.”
“I also hope to find a warrior female here, someone to fight by my side.” He stroked her shaggy hair back from her face. “And perhaps a small violence-prone dragon to hunt with.” His gaze shifted to Spark.
The drakon continued to watch his mistress.
“And love.” Xareni cuddled closer to Ariq. “You’ll find love.”
“Yes.” He wrapped his arms around his gerel and his drakon. “I’ll find love here too.”
He was exactly where he was supposed to be. Warmth spread across Ariq’s chest. He was home.
Chapter Eighteen
Four planet rotations later, the Chameles hadn’t left the planet, and Ariq and Spark hadn’t left Xareni’s side. When she woke at sunrise, her barbarian was holding her in his arms. Their drakon was glaring at her from his perch on top of his dagger and disks.
“The ass is still angry with me for deserting him.” She sighed.
He had a right to be upset with her. She’d made a terrible error leaving the drakon with Jeden, had sincerely believed Spark would embrace a partnership with the young warrior.
“After we share nourishment with the warriors, we’ll hunt some targets for the boys.” Ariq popped a freshening square into her mouth. “You’ll feed him those eyeballs, and all will be forgiven.”
A coolness coated her tongue. “Spark doesn’t forgive that easily.”
“His mistress doesn’t love easily.” Her male turned her to face him. His dark eyes glimmered with passion, adoration, a vision of forever. “Yet, with time, she grew to love me.”
“I didn’t grow to love you.” She rolled her eyes. “I suspect I loved you the moment I saw you. That’s why I body slammed you, instead of shooting you in the wrists.”
“Shooting me in the wrists would have been more efficient.” He lay her on the portable sleeping support and grinned down at her. “The body slam made an impact, however.”
Her lips twitched. “If that was a joke, it was terrible.” She reached upward, linked her fingers over his nape, drew him toward her. “We should tidy ourselves, dress, prepare to meet the Chameles and modified humanoids.” Her voice grew husky, her desire for the damn Chamele escalating.
They would be sharing nourishment with the warriors in an open space outside Balvan’s and his mate Elyce’s domicile. The orphans the couple often fed and the creatures they tended to would, no doubt, also be in attendance. It would be a happy form of chaos, and she didn’t want to miss it.
But she also didn’t want to don a garment, put that layer between her form and Ariq’s. She brushed her lips over his, teasing her big barbarian.
His chest rumbled, a deep delicious sound of arousal that fed her passion. “We have time to do other things first, gerel.” He followed her lips with his, covering them.
Was she one of those other things they’d do? Because she was more than amendable to that. She opened to him, and their tongues slanted and swirled, mimicking the jousting and retreat of combat. Her warrior constantly challenged her, and she loved that.
She loved him. And he loved her.
They had each been willing to make concessions for the other. She had entered the Chamele ship for him, had been prepared to take that long voyage to his birth planet. Unbeknownst to her, he had already arranged with Kralj to stay on Carinae E. He claimed that wasn’t a sacrifice, that he felt as one with the planet, but she realized he had also done that for her.
That touched her in ways she couldn’t express in words but planned to convey with her body. She bent her knees, pressing them against his hips. “I’ve captured you, warrior.”
“And I’ve captured you, gerel.” He lowered his naked physique over hers, flattening her breasts, settling between her thighs. The weight of him was reassuring. His hardness excited her. She shifted under him. His shaft sank deeper into her yielding pussy lips and they both moaned, his voice meshing with hers.
They fit…physically, emotionally, spiritually. With her male, she was stronger, more confident, happier. In his eyes, she truly was beautiful. And she was loved, was capable of loving. Caring threatened to burst out of her.
“What will you do with your captive?” She threaded her fingers through his long, black hair. The strands were feather-soft under her palms, a vivid contrast to the stark primitiveness of his countenance. “Will you ravish her?” She curled the tendrils around her hands, pulled on them.
His eyes flashed, lightning illuminating the darkness. “I will ravish her until she screams with pleasure.” He moved over her, rutting without entry, rubbing his length along her.
“She’ll ravish you back.” She matched his efforts, rippling like a plucked bow under him, worshipping him with all of her. Her nipples, taut and sensitive, grazed his pecs, that bliss cascading over her. Her clit skimmed his rim. She trembled, her need for him, for his big cock, mounting.
Sweat streamed over them, causing the silver scars on his golden skin to shine, easing the friction between their bodies. He sucked on her lifted chin, mouthed along her neck, the heat of his mouth, the firmness of his lips, increasing the titillation.
If they had nowhere else to go, they would play for a shift, more. But their time was limited, and she wanted him too much. “Take me, Ariq.” She pushed upward with her hips. “I need you inside me.”
“I need to be inside you.” He pulled back, aligned his tip with her entrance. “You’re mine, Xareni.” He pushed into her, stretching her around him. “Mine.”
The slowness of the slide almost broke her. She felt every decadent bit of him, the flare of his cockhead, the press of his rim against her inner walls, each pulse along his shaft. Her fingers tangled in his hair. Her back arched. She wrapped her legs around him.
Finally, her pussy lips dragged over the ridge around his base and she was filled by him. Their gazes met. The link between them fortified, an unbreakable circle of caring and completion.
In the past, she believed all she wanted was peace and quiet and to be left alone. As she lay under her warrior, with his cock deep in her pussy, she realized that was no longer true. It might have never been true.
All she wanted was him, was this. Their souls were in perfect sync. The barriers between them were long gone. She was open to him, her defenses leveled, her secrets his to keep. Yet desire and devotion continued to shine from his eyes, would always be there.
Fuck. It was amazing. She squeezed him.
He jerked, pulled back to his tip, thrust into her, pulled back, thrust into her. His speed, his ferocity, increased with each repetition. She bounced her heels against his ass. He rutted into her faster and harder.
Xareni lifted into him and their forms smacked together, that sound echoing around them. He grunted. Her breathing grew ragged. She clung to his shou
lders, drawing herself upward as he surged downward. Heat radiated over her breasts, hips, pussy.
“My. Warrior.” He huffed as they fucked. A smile curled his lips, pulling at her heart. “Strong. Brave.” He punctuated each word with a hard drive forward. “Mine.”
He was the only being she would allow to own her, the only male with the power to contain her—with the gentleness, the caring, the understanding—to stop her from breaking free. Anyone else would have been told to sit on a dagger. With him, she was willing to relent, to capitulate, to be vulnerable, soft.
She parted her lips and he took her offering, stroking into her mouth with his tongue as he stroked into her pussy with his cock. He sucked and licked and nipped. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders, marking him. He was hers also. The damn Chamele belonged to her.
For all eternity.
Stars. She panted as he pounded into her. Her arms and legs quivered. Her pussy tightened around him. Her release was within her grasp.
Ariq was reaching the same point. The base of his shaft swelled. His movements became more erratic, more frenzied. He kissed along her neck, delivering hard pecks of delight.
“Can’t.” She was breaking apart, couldn’t hold on for much longer.
“You. Can.” He drew back. “And. You. Will.” He thrust hard and deep. “Come.” He bit the spot on her he had claimed as his.
Pain pierced her. She screamed, coming with a thought-erasing force. Pleasure besieged her. She flew upward, clenching around his cock.
He roared against her neck, pushing into her pussy, pinning her ass against the makeshift sleeping support, and he came. Hard. Cum rushed out of him, the vigor of it stealing her breath, silencing her.
She gasped, overwhelmed with ecstasy, with sensation. He poured all of himself into her, his shoulders shuddering with the savagery of his satisfaction. Their bodies fused together. Their hearts’ energies touched in that moment.
He collapsed, flattening her, and she embraced that, embraced him, holding her barbarian to her as she trembled, her mind struggling to absorb the experience.
Their bodies became still. Words returned to her mind.