Iska

by Arcadia Shield

  “He was going to kill you,” she panted out as she dropped the knuckleduster to the ground.

  “That’s not possible with you by my side,” Iska rasped. He slumped to his knees, a hand held over what looked like a stab wound in his side.

  Knowing they had little time, Avril grabbed the knuckleduster again. She raced back to the wall and, after a few seconds of frantic searching, discovered the access panel.

  She slammed against it repeatedly with the knuckleduster until the lights died and wires were exposed. Avril pulled out the wires, and a door opened in front of them.

  A darkened room was exposed. This was it. This was their way out. It had to work. This had to get them back to Prodigy.

  She raced back to Iska. “Can you stand?”

  “I’ll manage.” Iska grabbed hold of her outstretched hand.

  She tried not to stumble as he leaned his weight on her. They staggered to the doorway and walked through.

  “Stay right there.” Avril propped Iska against the wall.

  “I don’t think I could go anywhere even if I wanted to.”

  Avril forced the door shut behind them. That would buy them time if any soldiers came to investigate. She looked around the dark room. A soft pale light filtered from a panel to her left.

  She studied the panel. “It’s a transporter. It must be how they got me into the game.”

  “Teleportation,” Iska grunted. “Vincole are experts in it.”

  Avril glanced at him. “Then your family and the Vincole are both going to pay for this.”

  “You’ve already done a good job making sure my father never forgets today.”

  “He deserved it.”

  “He did. You were amazing.”

  Avril grinned as she flicked through the list of recent teleportations that had arrived in the game. Her name flashed up. “That’s me. I’ll access the coordinates I was taken from. It will get us back to the holo suite booth.”

  “Beam us up, beautiful,” Iska muttered.

  She keyed in the information, her fingers trembling.

  “You didn’t say sorry,” Iska said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “When you attacked my father. You always say sorry before you hit someone.”

  “Maybe I’m changing,” Avril said. “You told me I should stop apologizing.”

  Iska’s laugh sounded strained. “We’re both changing.”

  Her finger hovered over the activation key of the teleporter. “You’re happy about that?”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy.”

  Her grin widened as Avril hit the enter key. So was she. She felt different, somehow stronger. It was all because of Iska.

  The world flashed into a brilliant array of white dots before everything went black.

  Chapter 24

  Flashes of what might have been dreams or memories kept punctuating Iska’s sleep. His eyes would flicker open for a few seconds before closing again.

  He remembered the fight with Avril in the arena. He recalled his brother throwing a knife at him. He grunted as he remembered his father stabbing him and trying to kill him.

  Then there was Avril, his sweet, innocent little human going batshit crazy and bringing his father down. He’d never heard such inventive cursing as she’d landed punches on Tarle.

  He chuckled in his half-waking state. Was he even alive? The last thing he remembered was Avril dragging him into a room and telling him she was going to teleport them. Maybe the teleportation hadn’t worked, and they were both dead. Was this death? Were these memories the last thing he had in his mind as he died?

  A tangle in his fur was snagged, and he grumbled his discomfort.

  “Sorry about that.” Avril’s voice was quiet as her fingers continued to run through his fur.

  If this was death, Iska would take it. To have Avril by his side, stroking him, was all he’d ever wanted.

  A purr rumbled in his chest as her fingers found another knot and she loosened it.

  He shifted on the bed, and her fingers stilled.

  “Keep going,” he muttered.

  Iska took in a deep breath. Everything around him smelt of Avril. Were they in her quarters? It was a comforting scent. It smelt like home. It was a smell he never wanted to forget.

  Something cold and hard prodded him in the chest, breaking his sleepy, definitely not dead, state of awareness.

  Iska forced open an eye to see Dingbat resting a metal paw on him. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Making sure your heart is beating,” Dingbat said. “I was worried.”

  “You can’t be worried. You’re a bot.”

  Avril chuckled. “A bot who has had Heather’s special treatment. She’s got a unique way of dealing with bots.”

  Iska groaned. “He’s gotten an emotion chip, hasn’t he?”

  “He has. It makes him cute. He keeps telling me how concerned he is about your well-being and how sad he’ll be if you die.”

  “Nobody is dying,” Iska growled. “I’m getting that emotion chip removed as soon as I can stand.”

  “I like it,” Dingbat said. “It makes me happy.”

  Iska shook his head. “The emotions have to go.”

  “They should stay,” Avril said. “They don’t do any harm.”

  “It harms me if I have to listen to my bot bleat on about how happy or sad he is. It’s not natural.”

  Avril laughed again as she continued running her fingers through the fur on Iska’s arm.

  He turned his head to look at her. Hell, she was stunning. Her cheeks were glowing pink, and her red hair was stacked on her head, tiny red curls poking out and curling to her shoulders. He resisted the urge to grab a handful of her hair and smell it.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  “I’ll live, thanks to you coming into the game and getting me out.” Avril smiled and ducked her head.

  “You got me out. I’m still not sure if what I saw was a dream. Did you really take down my father?”

  Avril tilted her gaze upwards and shrugged. “What can I say? I really am a warrior princess.”

  “You were incredible.”

  “I saw red when he lied to you.” Her expression became serious. “You know he wasn’t really going to give you anything.”

  Iska pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “I do. I was tempted for a second, though.”

  “I get it. It’s all you ever wanted. But Tarle was giving you something he should never have taken away. He is not a nice individual.”

  “He’s a nasty bastard.”

  Avril smiled. “Yes, he is that, as well.”

  “Where is he?” Iska asked. “Do you know what happened to him? You didn’t kill him?”

  “While you’ve been sleeping for the past forty-eight hours, I’ve been busy.”

  “Forty-eight hours?” Iska groaned.

  “You needed the rest.”

  “I could have helped. I wanted to.”

  “And I wanted you healed. Since I was the only conscious one when we got back here, I got to make the decisions.”

  Iska grumbled under his breath until Avril started stroking his fur again. “Go on.”

  “May I?” Dingbat asked.

  “Sure,” Avril said.

  “Your father is being detained in the holding cells and awaiting deportation to a Council of Representatives emergency meeting,” Dingbat said.

  “No shit,” Iska said.

  “Yes, shit,” Dingbat said. “Avril arranged it.”

  “In a way,” she said. “After we teleported out of the game, we arrived in the original holo suite booth I’d used.”

  “Was your friend there when we arrived? The little dark-haired one who rolls stones between her hands when she’s nervous?”

  “She wasn’t far off. After you’d strangled Nell and she’d woken up back in the booth, she alerted security and got them into action.”

  Iska winced. “I
strangled her for her own good. I meant to tell you what happened.”

  “Nell understands that. You might like to buy her something to make up for the strangulation.”

  “Like what?” Iska had no clue what to buy females.

  “A scarf to hide the bruising.”

  “It can’t be that bad.”

  Avril ruffled his fur with her fingers. “She’ll be happy with an apology and a box of candy.”

  “She’ll get it. She’s your friend, and I didn’t want to hurt her. I just had to get to you.”

  “That’s good to hear.” Avril teased the fur on his cheeks, and he retracted it from his face. “Security sent in a team of tech experts who broke into the game. They found your father unconscious and the game in disarray. It seemed word had gotten out that the game had been discovered. Everyone involved abandoned their posts and left the humans to fend for themselves.”

  “You had my father arrested?”

  Avril sat back. “We couldn’t let him go.”

  “No, I didn’t mean that.” Iska took in a breath. “It’s just that nobody’s ever stood up against him before. Nobody’s ever stood up for me. They’ve always let him do whatever he likes to me.”

  Avril’s fingers wrapped around Iska’s tail, and she tugged it. “That will never happen again. He’s out of your life for good.”

  Iska nodded. “And my brother?”

  “He didn’t make it.”

  Iska wasn’t sorry to hear that. Tythe had been a cruel son of a bitch his whole life. He’d deserved to die that way. His name would be dirt, just like his father’s, once the world knew what they’d been involved in, as it should be.

  Iska looked over at Dingbat, who sat on the edge of the bed. “Why don’t you take a long walk? I need some private time with Avril.”

  “Where shall I go?” Dingbat asked as he hopped off the bed.

  “Go somewhere that will take you a good hour to get there and back.”

  “You’d better make that two hours,” Avril said quietly.

  Iska hissed with pleasure as her fingers stroked his tail. “Two hours. Take a walk, Dingbat.”

  “I will miss you when I’m gone,” Dingbat said as he walked to the door.

  “Likewise, buddy.” Iska waited until the door closed behind Dingbat before focusing on Avril.

  He didn’t speak, simply laced his fingers behind her head and pulled her on top of him. He shoved everything he felt into that kiss. He was so glad he’d found her. He didn’t care he’d lost his bounty or his father had lied to him and tried to destroy him. What he held in his hands was his true family. Avril meant everything to him.

  She pulled away from the kiss and laughed breathlessly. “What was that for?”

  “I missed you.”

  “Did you miss me?” Dingbat called from the other side of the door.

  “That damn bot.” Iska growled and climbed off the bed. His side ached from where he’d been stabbed, and his thigh felt numb, but he could walk.

  He opened the door. “What are you still doing here?”

  “You didn’t say I had to go for the walk now. You did not specify a time to begin my travels.”

  “Did Heather give you a cocky dick chip, as well?” Iska ushered Dingbat to the main door. “Take a walk now. Don’t come back for two hours. That’s an order.”

  Dingbat’s head slumped as he stepped out into the corridor. “You don’t want me?”

  “I want you, but I want Avril much more. Take a hike.” He shut the door in Dingbat’s face and limped back to the bedroom. That bot was such a pain. He’d need to fine tune that damn emotion chip. He couldn’t afford to have Dingbat crying every time he gave him an order he didn’t like.

  When Iska returned to the bedroom, all thoughts of Dingbat left his head when he saw Avril on the edge of the bed, her hands in her lap.

  He walked over, pushed her back, and kissed her like she was the only thing he ever wanted to taste.

  His hands ran down the jumpsuit she wore, and he yanked the zipper undone and slid it off.

  Iska wasted no time pulling off her boots and discarding her jumpsuit.

  She laid on the bed in plain black panties and a bra. Her beautiful red hair had come loose and splayed across the pillow.

  This was so different from his experience with Mehab females. When they wanted you, they simply presented themselves and you went to work. Avril wasn’t like that. She was waiting for him to take the lead.

  She raised a hand to him, and her lips parted as if she wanted to say something.

  He grabbed Avril and flipped her onto her stomach. He undid his pants and held Avril’s hips up as he slid his hardness between her thighs.

  He heard her gasp and felt her tense beneath him.

  Iska stroked his hand down her back several times. “I will never hurt you. Trust me.”

  The tension in her eased, and she looked around at him and nodded.

  He slid his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back. He couldn’t catch hold of her scruff like he did when he mated with a female Mehab, but this was almost as good.

  His other hand went between her legs, and he felt her readiness for him, her warm, soft sweetness waiting for him.

  Iska caught hold of his cock and slid it inside Avril.

  Avril groaned and pushed back against him, spreading her legs wide to give him better access.

  He pulled her hair harder, and his hand gripped her hips to hold her in place and keep her under his control.

  It felt amazing to be inside Avril. She was warm and tight and willing, but this wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it should be with her.

  You fucked a female Mehab this way because it kept her vicious side from coming out and attacking in the heat of passion.

  Avril was different. She was better. She deserved more than for him to hold her down and simply fuck her.

  As much as he hated to do so, Iska withdrew from her warm, enticing center.

  Avril looked over her shoulder, disappointment clear on her face. “Is there something wrong?”

  “No, it’s me. There something wrong with me.” Iska forced out the words. “This isn’t how I want it to be with you.”

  Avril turned over, her legs parted and her small, pert breasts on display for him to admire. “You don’t want me?”

  Iska growled. He slid down to her foot and licked along the length of her leg. “I want every inch of you.”

  “Why did you stop?”

  “I need to...” The words stuck in his throat. He shoved away his desire to clamp down on his emotions. This was Avril. He would hide nothing from her. She deserved everything.

  “What do you need?” Her wide eyes stared at him unblinking.

  “To see you. To see your pleasure. I want to look into your eyes when we fuck.”

  Her breath came out shaky as she slid across the bed until they were face to face. Her fingers stroked down his fur before she tugged on his tail.

  Iska hissed with pleasure. “I’ve warned you about tugging on my tail.”

  She tugged harder and grinned at him. “Didn’t you say something about getting me naked and screaming the first time you pinned me down?”

  He purred and pulled her closer. “I might have done.”

  She straddled his thighs and pressed her breasts against him. “That’s something I’d love to experience.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Iska caught hold of her ass with one hand and pushed himself back inside her, feeling her soft, warm center welcome him.

  Avril arched her back, but her gaze remained connected to his. This felt right. He wanted to see every emotion on her face and know he pleased her.

  Her fingers buried into his fur as he thrust into her, going deeper with every stroke.

  With his free hand, he slid his fingers between her legs and stroked her clit.

  “Fuck, yes,” Avril breathed out as she clamped herself to him.

  “I thought you didn’t swear,” Iska teased
.

  “I do in the bedroom,” Avril said, her words shaky. “I’m happy to talk as dirty as you like behind closed doors.”

  “Don’t hold back for me. The dirtier, the better.” Iska grinned as he felt her quiver.

  He kissed across her collar bone and dipped his head to sample each nipple. His hand remained between her legs as he caressed her.

  “Oh my god, keep doing that.”

  Iska obliged as his tongue swept over her bare skin and he tasted her sweat.

  “I love the way your hand rubs against me. You’re the sexiest alien in the galaxy.”

  Iska grinned. “Just the galaxy?”

  Avril squirmed on him and clenched her muscles around his cock. “The star system.”

  “That’s more like it.” He lifted his head. Her expression was one of abandonment, her mouth open and cheeks glowing.

  He captured her mouth and dipped his tongue inside.

  She responded, her tongue meeting his as she groaned.

  “I love how you taste,” Iska whispered. He’d never get bored with her scent or the taste of her sweet, slightly minty breath.

  Avril balled her fingers into his fur and stared into his eyes. “I want you to come so hard I can feel your dick pulsing inside me.”

  For the first time in his life, Iska was at a loss for words. He liked this hidden side of Avril. Dirty Avril in the bedroom, he could love very fucking much. “I promise to do just that. And when I make you come, I want to feel you clench around my dick and take all of me.”

  Avril threw back her head and thrust against him. “Oh, yes. That will be bloody amazing.”

  He huffed out a laugh and focused on her breasts and clit, stroking with one hand and using his tongue on her bare skin to taste and nip and tease until she was panting and gasping.

  Her climax drew closer, and she tightened around him. Iska pressed against her clit as they thrust against each other, their rhythms perfectly matched.

  “Come on, beautiful. Fuck me good and hard,” Iska whispered. “I’m all yours.”

  Avril cried out his name and held on to his fur as she climaxed, her thighs shaking and her breath panting out of her.

  “I said I’d have you screaming,” he whispered into her ear.