by Vi Voxley
"It's good to see you support each other," she said. "Hopefully, it will help you deal with the Fearless better, because I don't have good news."
"There is no such thing when it comes to war," Braen cut in, his deep voice immediately commanding the attention of everyone around him, including the staff who maintained the call and the rest of the bridge. "News can be positive or negative depending on their implications, however all news is good. Any information is good, since it helps us get closer to destroying the enemy."
Out of the corner of his eye, the general saw the paladin nodding solemnly.
"Very well," Audrey went on. "They're not positive, then. I have had a vision. I suspect that after Naima put on her glove, the Fearless sensed one of us dropping out of its sight. The timeline matches, at least. Right after that, it doubled its efforts to get to me."
"Fuck," was Naima's only response to that, a deep frown on her beautiful face. "That is not what I wanted. I'm sorry, Audrey."
"It's okay," the governor said sternly. "Anything that upsets the enemy is good. It shows us that it's still vulnerable. Right, General?"
Braen confirmed that with a curt nod.
"I won't say the experience was pleasant," Audrey continued, glancing at Tieran. "But I was able to gain some knowledge as well."
"Go on," the general encouraged her. "Anything you can tell me is beneficial. We are approaching Uther territory and there is bound to be trouble, you know that much. Tell me, are there new developments with the Fearless?"
"There are, yes," she replied. "We know the Fearless can grow amazingly fast, but it develops quite slowly, that's why it usually hides until it feels strong enough to take on the galaxy again. After it has suffered a defeat, it tries to compensate for all the previous mistakes with its new form. This time, I suspect it had a little insight into what it should do."
By his side, Naima pursed her lips, no doubt remembering the night when she was attacked while taking that shower. The Fearless had seen its opponents then.
"It was yet in a developing phase. Possibly still is. Be that as it may, it was no longer able to hide its true form from me. I didn't get much, I'm afraid, but I did see the Fearless.
“And General, knowing Brions, I'm not entirely sure if you'll take this as a compliment or an insult, but it has crafted itself in your image. And Tieran's. Possibly others who have beaten it as well. It's not a huge, scary draconic beast this time.
“It's a warrior. Taller than you, with skin like metal, four arms and all the strength of its previous forms. A monster of a man with experiences of an eternity."
Before Braen could comment that in any way, Naima looked at him: "It explains a lot. Like how it is able to use the Chali harness."
Naima didn't appear to be afraid, not one bit. There was a bright glow to her all of a sudden, free of the chains of terror that had shackled her for so long.
"Compliment," Braen answered Audrey's question without taking his eyes off Naima. "I am a Brion. We know that as much as anyone tries, they will never be us. If the Fearless thinks it can win against me by being my mirror image, it is terribly wrong. Thank you, Miss Price, for bringing this to my attention."
"No problem," Audrey said, clearly relieved that her message didn't push them into despair.
"We have some news of our own," Naima took over, beaming. "I should have told you as the first thing, but the talk of our children knocked me off guard. It only makes me surer that we need to kill the Fearless once and for all. And we think we've found a way."
Both Audrey and Tieran stared much like Braen himself had when the theory had been explained to him. They both listened and the growing smiles on their faces were like rays of light, casting away the dark mood they'd arrived with.
"Using the lifestone against it," Audrey repeated Naima's words back to them. "That is brilliant. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is the best news I've heard in my life. Thank you. I will sleep peacefully tonight. We both will, I think. If it's gone... by gods, Naima. We would be free from it. And our children as well."
"I know," Naima said. "Which is why we will make sure it happens."
"I would wish you luck, but I'm told that's an insult to a Brion," Audrey offered.
"It is," Braen confirmed.
"Good hunting, then," the female said with a slight grin, and was gone.
As soon as the holoprojector turned off and they were left alone, the general turned to Naima. The information they'd received was monumental, but he couldn't help it taking a back seat in his mind. All he could focus on was his gesha, a light shining in her gorgeous green eyes. A perfect complement to his darkness.
"I know it's a Tuesday for Brions, but with possible death staring me in the eyes, I really only want to be happy," Naima said, a coy, yet teasing smile on her lips. "I still hate being dragged along by an invisible hand of fate or something similarly soulless, but I don't want to spend my life regretting not being with you."
The general ran his hands over her curvy, beautiful body, feeling it shiver under his touch. His senses were going wild, picking up the signals Naima was giving him, almost blinding in their ferociousness.
“You should not,” he agreed, a smirk on his lips.
When the general kissed her, Naima pushed him away slowly and carefully. She led him away from the others, making sure no one overheard them.
"I want to tell you something first," she said. "So you would know the truth, as I promised I wouldn't hide anything from you again. I realized something a while ago. I wanted to wait until I was sure. Only to understand that there is nothing holding me back but myself."
The general nodded, waiting with bated breath for her truth as they strode through the corridors towards her quarter, leaving the busy bridge behind them.
“It is… it is deeply personal.”
She bit her lower lip and Braen had to resist the urge to run his thumb over her lips to stop her from worrying it. Yet he kept himself at bay, guiding her to the long hallway with the viewports that simulated a glass bridge in the ship, allowing for a breathtaking view of the stars around them.
“You may always tell me everything, my gesha.”
He half-expected her to bite back with a cutting comment, but that did not follow. Instead, she looked sheepish and embarrassed, if anything.
“My parents… My father was a lot like I am. A scientist. An explorer. Someone who put logic and reason and control above all else.”
“He sounds like a father you would be lucky to have,” Braen noted, visions of his own father, a great warrior just as he, slipping easily into his mind.
“He was. A brilliant man with a lot more accomplishments than what I have accrued so far.”
She raised her hand when Braen started to protest. A woman who was aiding a Brion general in hunting down and vanquishing the Fearless certainly had some great accomplishments!
“Hear me out. He was a great man, yes, but what he was not, was a great husband. My mother doted on him and he was the center of her universe, the sun of her solar system, far more than her children ever were. Don’t get me wrong, she adored us, but she loved my father more than all else. And he… well, I never thought he gave her half as much as she gave him.”
Braen’s brows had knitted into a tight, expectant frown as she spoke. Now, though, the shock of realization practically hit him in the face. He ground to a halt and Naima nearly passed him by as his mind worked with dizzying speed to unravel all of this, to make sense of her actions so far.
It was so obvious… So simple.
A wide smile stretched across his features.
“Braen?” she asked, her voice shaky.
“That is why you have been fighting,” he said, his voice growing with each syllable he spoke.
He stepped closer to Naima, slowly, making her back up into a similar alcove as he’d done last time they’d crossed this makeshift bridge. Her green eyes were wide and her mouth slightly open, probably because of the expression
he was wearing.
It must have been something akin to a lion finally figuring out where the gazelle was hiding.
Braen put his hands on her shoulders and moved them slowly down to her arms. She shuddered slightly under his touch, but it was not a shiver of fear. It was one of excitement.
“You think you are like your father. That being with me, you would do the same to me as he did to your mother,” he spoke, certain that he was right.
She couldn’t say a word, simply nodded after a moment of contemplation. The motion was incredibly meek for a woman of her fire and spirit. It was clear that admitting this did not come easy for her.
“Naima, this… nothing is impossible in this universe, except for that. Every moment I am with you gives me all I could want. I fight better, I react faster, I am the epitome of what I could physically be simply because you around. And it is not simply that. You’re the perfect counter to what is uncalibrated in me, the absolute antidote to any wrong I could do, because you make sure to negate it before it could ever happen.
“Relationships are flawed and they take work. Not all of them are perfect, as the case with your parents might have been. But for us? Two minds like ours… these challenges will only make us stand prouder and rise higher, my gesha. You could never take from me more than I take from you. To believe that is to think that the sacred bond is not fair.
“Fair is all that it is, at its core. Fair to both. You and I. Two sides of the same equation.”
He exhaled, feeling the weight of his words still reverberating in his chest. Words that had been growing there and waiting to be left out since he’d met this mystical, enchanting little headache of a woman.
Naima clasped her mouth shut. He couldn’t help himself from dipping forward and laying the sweetest, shortest kiss on her lips for it.
“We will have a lifetime to dissect this, my little scientist. For now, all I need to know is – will you stay?”
She answered almost immediately, the blush of shame or discomfort now brushed from her features.
"I'm staying," Naima said then. "Not just for the mission. I'm staying with you for as long as you'll have me.
"Both of us," she added, laying her hand on her belly.
Braen didn't say anything for a long moment, holding her in his arms, so close as to touch their lips together, but he didn't kiss her again. Only looked at her with love so deep it felt like drowning in it.
"Forever," the general answered then. "We are bound together forever."
"That is a long time to spend with me," Naima joked. "Are you absolutely sure?"
Braen laughed.
"I'll take my chances," he said, kissing her at last.
27
Braen
Naima's pace quickened as soon as they left the long corridor, heading for her room with a purposeful pace. Braen kept up easily, a hungry grin on his lips.
She was ready to be his. The general found great humor in the fact that for some reason, he'd thought that his gesha's rejection was hard to bear. It turned out, it was nothing compared to holding himself back not to fuck her against the first wall that wouldn't break under their passion.
The lust he'd denied since the night they misguidedly – but ultimately blessedly - spent together was back with vengeance. His cock was pressing against the inside of his armor, hard and painful, aching for her warmth and wetness.
All throughout the long years spent in battles, accompanied by brutal enemies and fierce companions, Braen had had no trouble controlling his emotions.
Naima broke through his self-control with such vigor it left it in hopeless shambles. Only the fact that his fated deserved better than to be taken in public held the general back from claiming her as soon as he could.
And the last nagging doubt that he voiced when Naima dashed through the double doors of her quarters, closing them with such haste Kerven had to jump out of the way. As she backed away towards the bedroom, a clear, loud call in her green eyes, Braen stopped.
She must be made to see...
He knew they had plenty to discuss. He wanted to hear stories of her parents, her family. If only to be able to disprove in the future that they could be the same, in certain ways. He wanted to learn about her work, what gave her joy and what brought her sadness.
Right now though? He only wanted her.
"You are gorgeous," he said, letting his eyes travel over her divine body, aching to kiss and lick every inch of her as soon as he had her naked. "From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I knew you were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.
“I know you think the bond makes the man desire his gesha, but it's the other way around. Fate brought me to you, because to me, you are perfect."
The gentle blush on Naima's cheeks was destroying what was left of his resolve. He carried on, needing it to be for real this time.
"I will make your bed mine just as much as you. After today, you won't be able to bear sleeping alone, aching for my cock. I will make you scream so loudly you'll break the devices in your room and the last word on them will be my name."
The small intake of breath quickly turned into a quiet whimper on Naima's lips as she took a step closer to him, desire raging in her eyes.
"First," Braen said, stopping her in her tracks, his voice heavy with emotion. "I need you to tell me you want this. Not just your body. I can see how badly you need me, but I want all of you and I need you to be certain. You are my gesha. I couldn't bear hurting you in any way."
The green eyes he'd come to adore were filled with an indescribable emotion.
"I want you," she said with conviction, making the general's blood burn in his veins. "I need you to take me and I know you won't hurt me. Except maybe the good kind of pain when you make me scream."
That was all he needed.
Braen surged from where he'd stood, lifting Naima into his arms, loving the way she yelped in surprise. He kissed the moans from her lips in the next second, carrying her to bed and laying her down there.
Backing away from his gesha was a difficult thing to do, but the general was very keenly aware of the spear sheathed on his back that he all but tossed aside. Not only that. After weeks of reading Naima's reactions and moods from the signals his senses gave him, he needed to feel her soft skin against his, their heartbeats pressed against each other, the warmth of Naima's body.
He set to discarding his armor while Naima undressed, never taking her eyes off him. It went faster for her with way less complicated attire, but she nearly stopped when Braen removed the top half of his armor and the black shirt he wore underneath.
A feral grin tugged at his lips, seeing the way Naima's gaze traveled down his chiseled chest, her tongue darting out of her mouth to wet her lips.
It would have been flattering if Braen hadn't been exactly as distracted by her body, revealed to him layer by layer from under her uniform. She’d taken to preferring those over the gowns, after hers had been mended.
His cock throbbed at the sight of Naima's soft breasts, the nipples hard, only waiting for his tongue. She was shivering by the time the last object of clothing fell to the floor and she crawled back on the bed, spreading her legs for him invitingly.
Not an invitation that would have to be repeated.
Braen finished undressing faster than he would have normally done, letting the armor clatter to the floor. He climbed on top of her to claim her lips, Naima's hands mapping his muscled back with her fingers.
"I want to make you squirm under me," he whispered hotly against her ear, growling deeply when her body arched against his at those words. "To writhe and twist for my tongue, to cum when I allow you to."
"Yes," Naima breathed, rubbing herself against him, moaning when she felt him grow harder against her thighs. "Anything you want –"
Her green eyes were wide and inviting, already clouded over in pleasure. Quiet moans fell from between the soft, pink lips, but it wouldn't be like that for long. Braen swore he would make true on his pr
omises to fill the room with Naima's screams of ecstasy.
With a biting, hard kiss, Braen laid between her legs, pushing them apart for him. The general pressed his face against her sex, holding her legs apart with his hands. Her pussy tasted better than anything Braen had experienced before.
Naima's first choked scream was almost enough to bring him over the edge, but Braen wasn't about to let it be over like that. It was hard to keep himself back after lying in his bed night after night, the mere thought of her making him cum harder by his own hand than he had with anyone else.
He licked her clit, toying with the nub in his mouth, sucking on it gently to make Naima howl in need. Her hips rose off the bed, pushing herself down on his tongue, aching for more friction.
Braen slid one finger into her, feeling the walls of her pussy clasping down on the digit. He wriggled it around, earning a shrill cry from Naima when he brushed against the spot within her.
She tasted absolutely amazing and the general couldn't get enough. Adding another finger, he pulled her pussy lips open to dip his tongue inside her. Naima shot up from the bed like lightning, fisting her hands in his messy dark hair when he pulled her forward, pushing himself deeper in turn.
She didn’t have any words to give him, but he didn’t need any either. Her voice turned hoarse and broke when Braen teased her sensitive flesh, backing away only for a moment to scissor his fingers inside her to prepare her for his thick cock.
Naima was whimpering, writhing beneath him as he'd wanted, trying to get more but lacking the air to say so.
"You want to be taken so badly right now," Braen said, his deep, sonorous voice bringing goosebumps to her skin as he nibbled on her clit, making her twitch and cry out. "I can tell how much you need my cock. At another time, I will keep you like this for hours.
“Begging, pleading, brought to the edge only for me not to let you cum before I say so. I want to see you like that, taken to pieces, gasping for air –"
Getting up, he knelt on the bed, pulling Naima to sit on his lap with one smooth motion. Her green eyes dared him to do everything he'd just said right then and there. The bond was throwing sparks between them and there was nothing that could have stopped the lust coursing in their blood.