Hands of Fate (Veredian Chronicles Book 5)

by Regine Abel

  Xevius growled his approval and broke the kiss. Lifting his head, his eyes bore into mine while his palm rubbed me.

  “I want to make you mine, my mate,” he whispered, his voice made gravelly by desire.

  Those words fanned the fire quickly building in the pit of my stomach. Without a word, I responded by slipping my hand inside his underwear and wrapped it around his cock, already hard. Xevius hissed with pleasure and bared his teeth as if fighting the urge to sink his teeth into my neck. Korletheans didn’t have fangs—sadly—but I suspected my mate to be a biter nonetheless. That mere thought had me soaking, making it easier for his fingers dipping into my opening.

  Xevius’s hips rocked in counterpoint of my palm stroking him. Although I hadn’t seen his cock yet, that I couldn’t close my hand around his girth had me throbbing with wary anticipation. My own hips started swaying when he inserted a second finger inside me and accelerated the movement while his thumb rubbed my clit. Bending down, Xevius licked and sucked on my markings, which had significantly darkened. Each swipe of his tongue sent bolts of pleasure directly to my core, tearing from me one voluptuous sigh after another.

  My abdominal muscles contracted spasmodically as I began to crest. Sensing me close to the edge, Xevius accelerated the movement of his hands and, moving out of range of my fingers stroking him, his lips trailed down my stomach and over my navel to latch onto my clit. I detonated with a startled cry as soon as he started sucking on my engorged little nub.

  But that didn’t stop him.

  Standing at the foot of the massage table, Xevius held onto my hips and slipped me down its length so that my bum was at the edge of the table and my legs dangled. He spoke a Korlethean command while kneeling in front of the table, which lowered until he ordered it to stop at the perfect height for him to resume his feast. Lifting my legs over his shoulders, my mate latched back onto my clit as he continued to devour me. With one hand making love to me, the other caressing and gently clawing at my markings had me once more dangling over the precipice of ecstasy.

  I didn’t resist its call.

  My body burned from the inside out, every sensation exacerbated by the heat of my season, and my mate’s expert touch. But even as I writhed beneath his skillful ministrations, I wanted more—needed more. The room spun as Xevius took me in his arms before laying me on the cushioned floor.

  I heard him dismiss the massage table, and as it folded back into the ground, I vaguely wondered what would happen to our clothes we had so neatly placed on the little shelf appended to its pedestal. Another command from Xevius, and the padded floor took on the sparkling color of the Korlethean sand renowned for shining as if it had been made of finely crushed diamonds, amber, citrine, and brown quartz. The garden scenery on the walls changed into a beachfront oasis with the floating mountains surrounding Mount Aelyons in the distance.

  “This is where I would have taken you to celebrate our union as lifemates,” Xevius said, stripping out of his underwear.

  My mouth watered at the sight of his stiff length, and my inner wall contracted with need. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to taste him more than I needed him to pound me into the floor. He kneeled before laying on top of me, the burning feel of his skin over mine tearing another moan from me. I loved his weight pinning me down, the silkiness of his hair tickling me, and the feel of his ropy, hard muscles.

  But the need to taste him won.

  His slight, initial resistance when I first tried to push him onto his back didn’t last. Good thing for him, too. I liked a dominant male, but I was only submissive in the bedroom when I so chose. With me, it would have to be give and take. Fortunately, my mate seemed to be opened to relinquishing the lead—at least some of it.

  I kissed him. Tasting myself on his lips heightened my arousal. Xevius watched me with lustful eyes as I began my exploration of his magnificent body. Unlike my older sisters, Aleina and Mercy—even though the latter wasn’t blood but still my sister in my eyes—while I admired the view of the bulky, intimidating mountains of muscles they’d married, I far preferred the lither, broad-shouldered, hunter type of men like Xevius, and my old crush, Lhor. I explored my mate with my hands and my tongue, tracing the tattoos on his chest with a wet trail.

  Xevius moaned when one hand found its way to his shaft and shuddered when I nipped the nipple I’d been sucking on. His cock jerked in my hand in response. Testing my theory further on the way down to my prize, I kissed and bit the tender skin of his stomach with increasing force, eliciting each time a stronger hiss of pleasure. Yep, my mate definitely liked getting bitten—which I loved doing.

  Impatient to savor what I’d been fantasizing about for too long, I didn’t waste time when I reached his crotch. After two strokes of my hand, my tongue settled at the base of his shaft, a slightly darker shade of the golden-brown of his skin, then licked its entire length before my mouth wrapped around its head. Xevius half sat up with a strangled moan, his hand fisting my hair. To my relief, he didn’t try to control the movement of my head, content to stroke my scalp while I bobbed over him.

  My man tasted good, salty-sweet, the texture of his cock silky against my tongue. His moans did naughty things to me, their throaty sound divine in my ears. There was something extremely exciting about getting a strong man to fall apart under your touch, especially in this fabulous setting, surrounded by the sound of the waves. If only to continue watching the expression on his face, dissolved with pleasure, and to hear him all but speak in tongues from the pleasure I gave him, I could keep going on for hours. It made me feel powerful and sexy. There was such a thing as deriving one’s pleasure from someone else’s.

  However, as he neared the edge, Xevius flipped us around at such dizzying speed, it left me disoriented. For the first time, I got a true glimpse of my mate’s skills as an assassin and operative. But he didn’t give me a chance to dwell on the thought, not that I wanted to at this specific moment. Even as he settled between my legs, Xevius’s hands and mouth were everywhere at once, caressing, stroking, squeezing.

  “I hunger for you, Fehama. Do you accept me?” Xevius whispered against my lips.

  My palms resting on the perfectly round mounds on his bum, I lifted my pelvis towards him, making my meaning clear.

  “I’m yours, Xevius, as you are mine. I want you… All of you.”

  “And so it shall be done,” he breathed out before pushing himself inside of me.

  Despite my two orgasms and how wet my mate had gotten me, it was still a bit of a tight fit. With firm but shallow thrusts, Xevius buried his cock, inch by inch. The slight burn and stretching sensation didn’t stop my inner walls from contracting, wanting to draw him in deeper. I loved the careful, yet determined way in which he took me, the fullness of him within me, and the weight of his warm body on top of mine. Once fully sheathed, my mate slipped his arm under my knee, lifting my leg, and spreading me wider. My fingers dug into the plump flesh of his ass, telling him I was ready. Without pulling out, Xevius rubbed his pelvis against mine in a circular motion, stimulating my clit in just the right way to send some sparks of pleasure through my body.

  And then he started moving in and out of me.

  Xevius played my body like a master musician with his mouth and hands touching me just at the right place, at the right time, with the right amount of strength or softness, making it sing an aria of ecstasy. The way his cock zeroed in on my sensitive spot bordered the supernatural, hitting it with laser precision time after time, and only relenting one or two strokes shy of me toppling over. Like a tidal wave, my lover brought me to the edge, only to pull me back in a maddening rollercoaster of sensations.

  Going insane with the need to climax, I clawed at my mate’s back, the throaty sound of my labored breathing resonating loudly over the rumbling of the virtual waves, and the slapping of flesh meeting flesh. Xevius growled, and he accelerated his movements, taking me harder, deeper. When I sank my teeth in the fleshy part of his shoulder, something snapped inside of
him, and he went completely wild. With a savage roar, my mate moved inside me with unbridled fury. His claws came out, digging into my skin enough to sting but not to pierce skin—I hoped. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, having previously witnessed how viciously sharp they were. Xevius pounded into me with complete abandon, pummeling my sweet spot with every thrust. An inferno raged inside me, and white lights danced before my eyes as a blinding orgasm swept me away.

  I cried out my release, my inner walls clamping down on his glorious cock. Slamming himself home, Xevius threw his head back, shouting my name. His hands tightened around me in a bruising hold while his seed shot out inside me in a powerful flow. Hissing with ecstasy, my mate resumed rocking in and out of me.

  “Again,” he said in an almost feral tone.

  Body slick with sweat, breathing labored, my man looked nearly possessed as he rode me with nearly desperate hunger. One hand fisting his hair, the other digging into his back, I gave myself over to his primal passion. Pleasure, pain, excitement, and fear all mingled as my mate took me to a fourth climax, filling me once more with his seed.

  Wrecked, my voice raw from screaming with rapture, I didn’t resist when he rolled onto his back and pulled me into his embrace. I rested my head on his chest, his heart thundering in my ear. One arm possessively wrapped around my waist, and one hand holding my palm flat to his chest, Xevius held me as if he feared I’d vanish. Considering I’d never been so wonderfully destroyed before, he’d have to peel me off him to get rid of me.

  As our pulses settled down, Xevius gently kissed my forehead with something akin to reverence.

  “We are one, Fehama,” he said softly. “Until my last breath, all that I am is yours.”

  A shiver ran through me. I couldn’t tell if the cool air of the room over my burning skin covered in sweat had caused it, but an odd sense of unease washed over me. My mate capturing my lips in another searing kiss kept me from responding or dwelling on it. All worries fled my mind as Xevius ravished me once more.

  CHAPTER 12

  Xevius

  “And this is why, on the days of the blood moon, Korletheans always bury a sweet breadcrumb in their garden or in the forest. If you place one and hear a red steriet sing that night, then he accepted your gift. Make a wish, not for yourself, but for someone you love, and the red steriet will do everything in his power to make it happen. Remember, it has to be a realistic wish. Otherwise, it won’t come true. That’s all for tonight, my little thunderbird. Sweet dreams. Daddy loves you.”

  I ended the recording and appended it to the library of other bedtime stories I had been frantically making over the past couple of days since Eryon had given me the dire news. A few of the videos included anecdotes about my youth, our bloodline, and some Korlethean customs. I’d never get to meet my daughter, but she would know me, and that I had very much wanted her. The image Eryon had shared with me was engraved in my mind. Such a perfect little girl, the spitting image of her mother, down to her mischievous smile, but with my golden hair and eyes. How I longed to hold her in my arms and hear her childish laughter as we plotted some fiendish stunt to pull on Kamala.

  My heart ached as I transferred the file to a server I’d set up on Xelix Prime. Lyra wasn’t even born, maybe not even conceived yet, but still, I would already lay my life down for her. Now, more than ever, I understood Eryon ignoring the Quorum’s edict. In a way, it was almost good that I wouldn’t live past the next few days as I couldn’t do like the other agents and accept the edict to ignore my child—at least, not for three years and counting like they were. Eryon would receive the access codes to my server three days from now, once my death officially occurred. As I didn’t know where Kamala would be in the hours or days following my demise, I didn’t want to send them to her for fear they might fall into the wrong hands.

  The ship’s security system beeped. A quick glance at the monitor indicated my mate had left my quarters, where she’d spent the night, and was headed towards the training room. She worked out and practiced her combat skills daily. I’d promise to join her there once we were both done with our respective tasks. I’d given her some private time this morning to take care of her duties as leader of the Tuurean army. Although she did a great job of hiding her true feelings, I’d been shocked to realize Kamala hated it. Every time we broached the topic of her role, my mate’s emotions bombarded me with an unshakable sense of duty, attempting to silence deep-rooted unhappiness, and a crushing sense of insecurity and self-doubt. I needed to find out what that was all about.

  I checked our navigation logs and the long-range scanners. We’d passed quite a few ships since our departure, but none had detected our presence, and the AI had done a good job of keeping us far enough out of range to avoid trouble.

  Having delayed my own duties to squeeze in another recording for my daughter, I hastened through preparing the handover report for the security I had set up for the Korlethean delegation that would be coming to Xelix Prime a week from now. As I filled out the catering forms which included all the basic essentials the delegates might not find on Xelix Prime, Eryon’s face flashed before my eyes.

  Anger once more burned in the pit of my stomach. Except, as much as I wanted that fury to be aimed at my childhood friend for his betrayal, it was Korlethea and myself that I inwardly raged against. Eryon had done the right thing. Providing the Xelixians with vryer to eradicate the disease was self-evident. But that we hesitated to protect our reputation while hundreds of thousands of men died a horrible death by our hand said how low we had fallen as a people. My view of the greatness of our nation was crumbling all around me. Everything I’d believed in and fought for my whole life now all seemed meaningless.

  I couldn’t quite pinpoint the moment we had shifted from doing the right thing to protecting ourselves at all cost, no matter who or how many suffered as a consequence. It had become a way of life. And yet, we hadn’t done this. My generation, or even my parents’ were not to blame; at least, not for the original genetic manipulations that had been at the root of the Taint and of the Veredians’ near extinction. But we had become complicit by keeping the secret by any means necessary. How much sooner would a cure have been found had we been honest decades ago? How many lives would have been spared?

  This was another reason I almost welcomed my impending death. It was one thing to keep state secrets from those who could jeopardize our security and sovereignty, but it was quite another to do so with your soulmate. The minute the Veredians figured out the missing Korlethean markers in their blood was partially the cause of their reproductive problems, the countdown until they realized how our involvement in this mess would begin. Sooner than later, we’d have to answer for our actions. I couldn’t begin to imagine what it would do to Amalia to discover all that her father had kept this secret from her, and how Eryon would feel facing his daughter’s wrath… Or how it would feel if I’d lived to face Kamala’s pain and sense of betrayal.

  I looked back at the form on my screen and, with a will of their own, my fingers opened a separate order form and sent three shipment requests of vryer roots in the maximum quantity allowed without raising flags. Two of them to be delivered to Warehouse S31, which belonged to Lhor Kirnhan, Amalia’s second mate. Death would have claimed me by the time they realized what I’d done.

  I am a traitor.

  Even though this was the right thing to do, I felt sick to my stomach, shame burning in my gut like so much acid. My head spun, my skin crawled, and my lungs seemed unable to draw in enough oxygen. A lifetime devoted to the protection of my home world thrown away. Within a week, I would be stripped of all the honors I’d ever earned, my name stricken from the Hall of Records, and my bloodline branded as pariahs.

  Thankfully, I was the last of my name, so no siblings or cousins would be outcast or bear the burden of my disgrace. Aunt Venya had been my mother’s sister and therefore belonged to a different bloodline. There would be some mild fallouts for her, but anyone who thought to mess
with her would be a fool: my aunt was no pushover. But my parents, great heroes of the Titans War, might also be stricken from the records, all their deeds and sacrifices erased from memory.

  Forgive me, Father. Forgive me, Mother.

  I wanted to believe they would understand and approve of my course of action. But they’d been away at war for most of my youth, so I couldn’t truly say how they would have reacted to this whole mess.

  With a heavy sigh, I tried to ignore the dull pain in my chest and proceeded to liquidate my assets and transfer all of my funds to a new account I’d opened in an intergalactic bank the same day Eryon announced my impending death. I was more than ever grateful for my role as an agent which had required me to have multiple accounts under multiple personas. Moving large sums from them wouldn’t raise a flag as I often did so as part of my missions, whether to buy someone’s cooperation or silence, to pay mercenaries, buy equipment or throwaway vessels. But had my entire wealth been held in a single account, the financial institution would have asked far too many questions had I tried to close it in one go, especially wanting to know who was the beneficiary.

  Once done, I forwarded additional instructions to Aunt Venya to send a few family heirlooms for my daughter from my house to my safe in the intergalactic bank. She didn’t ask any questions, only answering enigmatically that she would personally bring my belongings.

  Not wanting to dally further, I once more checked the long-range scanners before heading to the training room. Despite my conflicting emotions about Korlethea, I both thanked and cursed the Goddess for my mate. I didn’t fear death. If not for Kamala, I would have accepted my fate with stoicism. But she had changed everything. We deserved more time together.

  There were so many layers to her that I’d only started to peel off, each more beautiful than the other. My little warrior embodied everything I could have ever asked in a woman. I obviously wouldn’t complain about her physical beauty, but beneath that stunning shell lay a strong, smart woman, tough and deadly, but with a heart of gold. Even though we fought for different peoples, we shared the same values, the same bone deep loyalty, and the same ethics in our work and our duty. I loved her honesty, the blunt way she spoke her mind and didn’t play games. She made me laugh and feel like I could drop the mask of the cold and calculated agent to simply be myself, the laidback, mischievous male who had always been in awe of Eryon’s ability to curse with a straight face, but too timid to do so myself.