Kalen: Warlord Brides (Warriors of Sangrin Book 2)

by Nancey Cummings

  Esa eyed the equipment on the bed. “Will it hurt?”

  “No. You’ll actually take a little nap.”

  “Okay.” She stretched out on the table, arms at her side. Meridan attached two nodes to her forehead. She set the device on the table at the girl’s feet. Electric impulses sent the girl into a sleep while it sent information back to Meridan’s tablet.

  Kalen monitored the information while Meridan kept an eye on the girl’s vitals. Satisfied, he set the tablet down. “We must destroy it,” he said with certainty.

  “Wait. What?”

  “She is too great a threat to the Judgment. We must contain it before it damages us.”

  “Destroy. You mean kill. You want to murder that little girl.” Meridan searched his face, looking for a sign that she misunderstood.

  She did not.

  “Yes. It must be destroyed. That is the fate of foundlings.”

  “No. You can’t make that decision.” Not without consulting her. Not without her input.

  “I make life and death decisions every day. It’s fate was sealed the day the Suhlik took it from its family.”

  “She’s a victim.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “She needs to be protected.”

  “It must be destroyed. Better to do it now and minimize any contamination.”

  Meridan’s mouth fell open, unable to believe the words her husband said. He wanted to murder a child while she slept. She was beyond appalled. She was beyond rage. “Look at her. Look! The Suhlik did not give her a virus or make her a weapon. They only thing they gave her was a bad haircut. She’s dirty, malnourished and barely dressed. This child needs our help.”

  “You are wrong in this, wife.”

  “No, husband, you’re wrong.”

  His nostrils flared in irritation. Her fingers curled into a fist. Neither one would back down.

  “We’re not going to decide anything until the morning,” Meridan said. She had a pain behind her eyes. “If the warlord wanted her destroyed, he would have done it before she reached the shuttle.”

  Kalen scoffed. She was able to recognize inflection in his scoffs and snorts now. This was the noise that meant she was right but he was too stubborn to admit it.

  The scanner finished its program and switched out. Esa’s eyes fluttered as she woke.

  “I’m taking her to our quarters tonight,” Meridan said. The child needed someone to care for her. She needed to spend the night in a real bed, not in in the cold medical bay.

  “You cannot,” he said.

  Meridan held up a hand, indicating that the time for talking was over. “You should sleep somewhere else tonight.”

  “Wife…”

  “No, Kalen,” she said, fury taking her voice. “You listen to me. If you know anything about me, anything, it’s that I’ve given my life to protecting and helping others. I have literally thrown myself between a monster and a child to save his life.” His brows knitted in confusion. “I would do the same to protect someone from you.”

  Meridan helped Esa off the table. The child was fit enough to walk.

  Back in their quarters, Esa wanted a new nightgown. None of Meridan’s shirts would work. Esa insisted on a collarless white tunic Kalen favored. Meridan tried to put Esa in a guest bedroom. She would have none of it. She needed to sleep in Meridan’s bed.

  Meridan tucked Esa into the large bed she normally shared with Kalen.

  “I need Watson,” Esa said. “He protects me from the monsters.”

  “I’m sorry we forgot him.” Watson had to be a stuffed animal. Then, an idea. Meridan went to the closet and pulled out her unpacked bag. “Bashful is old but he has lots of experience protecting me from nightmares.”

  Meridan handed the worn, one-eyed teddy bear to Esa. She clutched him to her chest. “He’s perfect.”

  Esa curled up under the blankets. Meridan moved to leave the room.

  “Stay. Please.”

  “Okay,” Meridan said. “I’ll be here.” She climbed into the bed and stretched out on top of the covers. She listened to Esa’s breathing as it grew steadier and slower. Finally, the girl fell asleep.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kalen

  She was wrong.

  Kalen stalked the corridors of the Judgment until the blood ceased to pound in his ears.

  His blood, however, continued to run hot. His mate’s eyes sparkled when she was angry. A pink flush came over her cheeks. He was positive that flush covered her entire form. He needed to verify, for his own edification. No other reason. He needed to know how she kissed when upset. Firm and fierce? Would she nip at his lower lip? Would she even accept his advances? Again, he needed to know for his own edification. No other reason.

  Each step only reinforced his need to taste his wife. She would not let him touch her. He growled under his breath. She compared him to a monster. She said she would throw herself in front of a monster to save someone. She would also use her body as a shield against him. Therefore, he was a monster.

  How could he still want her so badly? His blood was hot and his cock was hard. Stalking down the corridors did nothing to relieve this ache.

  This was his fault. He wanted a mate with spirit. A mate who would stand up to bullies. He never imagined himself the bully.

  She was wrong.

  He knew this.

  He was also wrong.

  His steps took him to the medical bay but he walked past. There was a solution here and he would continue to pace the corridors until he found it.

  Meridan

  The door chimed.

  Meridan climbed out of bed and checked the view screen. Kalen paced outside.

  No good would come of this. She opened the door.

  “What are you doing he—”

  Kalen’s hard mouth claimed hers, cutting off her words. He pushed her against the wall. His tongue demanded entrance, pushing into her mouth, wrestling dominance. She opened for him, savoring the loss of control. His hands ran up the length of her bare legs, cupping her ass.

  “Where is it?” he asked, pulling away.

  “She is asleep,” Meridan said. “And she has a name.”

  “I did not come here to argue,” he growled. He lifted her as if she weighed nothing. Meridan fought back a groan as he fitted himself snug between her thighs. Her arms wrapped around the nape of his neck.

  Pinned between the hard wall and the hard planes of his body, Meridan was unable to resist as his hands caressed her breasts through the sleep shirt. He roughly tweaked her nipples, rolling them between his thumb and forefinger. A delicious ached flared in her breasts, connecting directly with her core.

  “Where did you learn that,” she said with a gasp.

  He mouthed her nipple through the fabric. She shuddered, back arching and mind going blank.

  “We’re still fighting,” she managed to choke out.

  His fingers worked between the elastic in her panties and her skin. The warmth of his touch was electric against her. “I’m not here to fight,” he said.

  No. With his hard cock pressed into the apex of her thighs, he wasn’t interested in fighting. She couldn’t help herself. She ground herself against the bulge.

  “I can’t escape your scent, wife. It follows me. I need you now.” He tore at the panties with a satisfying rip.

  “You think you can just barge in and demand sex because you’re horny?”

  “You’re sleeping in my shirt,” he said, as if that explained everything.

  “So? It’s comfy.” And smelled like him, spicy and clean. When she closed her eyes, she could pretend that he had his arm wrapped around her. It did not mean she wanted to have sex.

  “You miss me.”

  “I’m standing up for my principles here. Stop trying to distract me by being sexy.”

  One hand braced him against her hips. The other parted her lower lips, parting the wet, hot evidence of her desire. His finger circled her clit, strumming it with just enoug
h force to make her eye roll to the back of her head with pleasure.

  Meridan’s body betrayed her as a low moan escaped her throat. Kalen fought dirty.

  “You want me, wife,” he said with absolute certainty.

  She closed her eyes and bit her lip, refusing to give in. Yes, her body was completely on board with Kalen’s demands. Yes, she was completely turned on, but if he thought he could win the argument by fucking the fight out of her, he had another thing coming.

  Stars. Meridan tried not to think about coming but it was incredibly hard, er… difficult with Kalen strumming her clit like an instrument. Given the notes of pleasure she made, it was an instrument.

  They weren’t going to have a civil conversation like this. They needed to work the tension out.

  She wouldn’t admit that him, though. Principles, after all.

  She grabbed both his horns at this base, running her fingers down their velvety length. A moment of bliss crossed his face and his body shuddered. “You want me more,” she said. “I’m not the one knocking down doors in the middle of the night.”

  He nuzzled against her neck, fangs scraping along the sensitive skin. He played dirty. “I always want you, wife.”

  Her hips bucked at his words. She would not to win this round. “Take me, husband. Do it now.” They could finish their fight with cooler heads.

  His hand fell away. She whimpered at the lack of contact. He opened the front of his tented trousers and freed his cock. He lined himself up with her entrance and pushed forward in one swift motion.

  His thick cock stretched her but she accepted him. Fully seated, he withdrew. Every inch of him lit up her nerves. Unmeasured and barely controlled, he pinned her body against the wall, pumping into her savagely.

  Barely clinging to him, one hand worked free and grabbed his knot of hair. She yanked. Kalen raised his head, snarling, fangs descended. She gasped as he pushed hard, hands digging painfully into the generous curve of her hips. This was her husband, undone by his lust. Undone by her.

  She didn’t take long to find her release. He swiveled his hips and ground against her, deep inside, and hit the perfect spot. She came undone, clawing at his back, crying his name.

  A hand clamped over her mouth to muffle her cries. She only came harder. He joined her, thrusting intensely and without mercy. His movement grew erratic and finally he roared as he emptied into her.

  He remained still for a minute before lowering her. He leaned against her standing form. His face nuzzled against the curve of her neck. His hands stroked down her arms and back. Meridan buried her face in the fabric of his shirt, breathing in his comforting, spicy scent. Her pulse gradually slowed to a normal pace. The warmth of his seed trickled down her thighs.

  “I’m still mad at you,” she said, finally pushing away. “You can’t just barge in here and… and… and use me like a sex toy.”

  “I didn’t come here because I wanted sex,” he said.

  Meridan laughed. That was rich. He basically came in and took her without saying two words.

  “I’m here because I love you.”

  The simmering righteous indignation vanished. “You what?”

  He cupped the side of her face and pressed his forehead to hers. “I love you, stubborn female. The need to be with you is almost too much. The need to possess you and protect you. All I want is you and your smile.”

  Of course she smiled. Her stupid body betrayed her again. His soft smile matched her own.

  “We’re going to fight a lot, aren’t we?” she asked. He was too arrogant and she was too stubborn. A peaceful, quiet life was not in the cards.

  His answered with a kiss, demanding and greedy.

  So that was a yes.

  “Tomorrow—”

  “Tomorrow is beyond our control,” he said. Tomorrow the warlord would decide the fate of the child. “We should sleep.”

  “Esa is in our bed,” Meridan said when Kalen headed in the direction of the bedroom.

  He grumbled but settled on the wide sofa. He motioned for her to join him. She stretched out next to him, his warm frame pressed against her back. His hand rested lightly on her hips and his face nuzzled the nape of her neck. She drew comfort from the scratchiness of his whiskers.

  He said he loved her.

  Meridan let the words roll around in her head. The sounded sweet but she remained skeptical. He didn’t know her. How could he love her?

  A thought yanked her awake. Did she love him?

  Her physical attraction to him was without doubt. Her body responded to his but that wasn’t love. That was lust.

  She liked him. She wasn’t joking when she told her sister that Kalen was an acquired taste but she liked his grumpy, arrogant self. She liked the way he listened to her professional opinion. She even liked the way he got all possessive when other males talked to her. It was barbaric but she liked it.

  Was that enough for love? Would she know it if it smacked her in the face? She believed she loved her last boyfriend and that ended in heartbreak. Maybe it was safer to play her emotional cards close to her chest and wait until she was certain.

  Lust? Oh yes. Check.

  Like? Yup.

  Love? Pending...

  Tomorrow the warlord decided. Kalen acted as if the decision was beyond their control, but he had the power to influence that decision. All he had to do was say he believed the child to be harmless. If the warlord deemed Esa to be a threat, she would be murdered. Straight up murdered.

  The Mahdfel might kid themselves by calling it “termination” or “containment” of a threat, but those words did not absolve them of such a terrible crime.

  Esa was a victim of Suhlik abuse. Who knows how long she had been in that facility, possibly her entire short life. Her biological family was gone, killed by the Suhlik because Meridan couldn’t imagine the alien invaders negotiating for a child. They took. They killed. They experimented on stolen children.

  The horror of it was almost unimaginable.

  The child should be protected, celebrated for surviving, not terminated.

  If Kalen didn’t understand this, Meridan didn’t see a way forward in their marriage. This was too important, too big of a fundamental difference for her to gloss over with jabs about “stubbornness” or being an “acquired taste”.

  Meridan spent her entire career protecting the thing she’d never dreamed she could have: children.

  Her own mother sacrificed her life to protect her child from a Suhlik invader. How could Meridan do anything but honor her mother’s gift?

  He said he loved her but he failed to understand her on this fundamental level. If he did not see why an abused child needed to protected, she’d file for divorce. She’d petition to be placed with the other match. Her stomach turned at the thought of another male touching her but there would be no point in remaining.

  Meridan wanted to roll over and tell her husband this, but held back. An ultimatum was unfair. He needed to arrive at the correct decision on his own. As improbable as it was, she grew hopeful. They had a few hours in the morning. Anything could happen.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kalen

  Kalen drifted awake, the scent of wild berries surrounding him. His mate rested in his arms. He brushed back her wavy hair, exposing the shell of her ear. She wiggled in his arms, still asleep. The curve of her ass fit snug against his hips, stirring his cock. He weighed the benefits of spreading her thighs and taking her like this from behind, or rolling her over and licking her succulent cunt clean.

  His hands rubbed circles on her thighs and hips. Things weren’t right between them. He could tell that much. Meridan was stiff in his arms while she fought sleep, silent worry keeping her awake. When she finally rested, her body relaxed. Perhaps he could keep her distracted and ease the burden of worry. Perhaps, if he was very clever, he could use his cock to keep her distracted.

  He studied the contrast between his plum skin and her warm tan complexion. At first the Terran shades o
f brown ranging from very dark to very pale seemed dull and dusty. No color. No vibrancy. Now he appreciated the subtle richness in the earthy tones. A pink flush came over them when upset or embarrassed. Or aroused.

  His mate turned a particularly intriguing pink. Kalen didn’t know if she was more beautiful when she shouted at him in a rage or when she was overcome with desire. He enjoyed them both. Perhaps it was time to wake his slumbering mate.

  A child’s scream shattered the quiet.

  Meridan sprang from the couch, stumbling a few steps before orientating herself.

  “Meri-daaan!” The child’s cry was heart wrenching, full of abandonment and betrayal.

  “I’m right here, Esa,” Meridan called, making her way to the bedroom.

  The child sat in the middle of their bed, blankets cocooned around her like a nest and short hair standing straight on end. Her large brown eyes filled with tears and her red face was scrunched up. Mucus poured out of her nose. Her chest heaved with sobs.

  Terran children were really quite disgusting.

  “You said,” her voice breaking with a sob, “you said you’d be here all night.”

  Meridan climbed into the bed beside Esa. The child immediately latched onto her, arms clamped around her waist. “I was in the common room.”

  “It’s dark. I don’t like the dark.”

  Kalen raised the room’s lighting. Esa saw him and tucked her face against Meridan. She didn’t like him either, apparently.

  Meridan calmly stroked the child’s head. The sobbing decreased to the point of being an occasional sniffle. “How about we get cleaned up and dressed and then get some breakfast?”

  The child nodded.

  “All righty. I ordered some outfits for you. I hope they fit.” Meridan climbed off the bed, Esa followed.

  Meridan lead the child to the cleansing room. She used a damp cloth to clean her face. “Have you ever had a bath with water?”

  Esa shook her head.

  “Would you like one?”

  She shook her head again.