Vyken: (Warriors of Firosa Book 3)

by Thanika Hearth

  They are softer than any I’ve felt, and yet so firm. So certain. His tongue slips between my lips and soon Vyken, the Mahdfel warrior, is kissing me with more passion than I’ve ever felt before.

  And it does say everything. Every doubt I have slips from me completely in that moment, and I kiss him back with everything I have.

  I want to share everything with him. He is good, truly good, and he is smoking hot. I want to show him exactly what I think of him. I unbutton the Firosan robe at the neck and then another button until my cleavage is showing, and I look up into his eyes. They are blazing with lust for me, and his hands smooth over every curve of my body as if it is the greatest thing to have ever happened to him -- to get to feel me.

  I have gone from feeling as though I can never measure up, to feeling like Vyken views me as the most beautiful, extraordinary thing he has ever seen. I feel arousal fill my body from the center. It’s as if I’m glowing, heated from the inside out.

  “You frustrate me,” he says softly, helping me with a third button. “You arouse me. You enchant me.” He shakes his head. “I need you.”

  And in that moment I know I need him too, more than I’ve ever wanted to be with anyone. I let him take me in his arms this time without a fight. Again our lips meet, and his hands are all over me. And I say nothing, taking my cue from him, because nothing needs to be said.

  I can show him exactly how I feel.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Vyken

  A braid of stone-grey boughs runs in a hammock shape to the side and I lay my tiny human down in the smooth sweep of nature. I take a moment as I straighten up again to marvel at the beauty of her figure. She has such fantastic curves and I almost long to sink my teeth into them.

  “I will be gentle,” I growl as I lower my body over hers, mouth to her mouth and knees settling to either side of hers.

  She cups the back of my head with her small, slender fingers and lifts her head to brush her delicious lips over mine. “Don’t be,” she whispers.

  A shudder of lust runs over my skin and I do not need to be told twice. Though I do not doubt the full manifestation of my lust for this woman would be too much for her, I intend to give her everything I can give up until that point.

  The thought has my cock aching so hard that I reach up to disassemble the military uniform from the button at the back of my neck. It slips upwards to be contained once again in the ring of what looks like glowing tattoo around my neck.

  All of my Mahdfel tattoos are glowing, too. The complex whorls and swirls and stripes that signify every milestone of my life up to this point are humming with a white light, different from their ordinary black color.

  “They glow,” Roxie notes.

  “Intense emotion,” I answer simply. She gives a single half nod as if she understands what I am trying to say. I am not a man with much command of language, and even if I was, it might not translate perfectly. She doesn’t seem to mind. Roxie has known me for a short time but already she accepts me completely for who I am.

  She is perfection, and I know it with all my heart and all my soul.

  I claim her mouth with mine, darting my tongue in and out and dancing with hers as one of my hands slides from her thigh to her hip, feeling her perfect curves, and then slides back down again to the waistband of her little panties.

  I feel between her legs, unable to hold myself back a second longer. She is wet for me, and she squirms at my light, tickling touch. Sensing her need for me only serves to make my body clench and my cock stiffen impossibly.

  As my fingertips brush against the fabric, my cock brushes against her leg. Roxie reaches down and grabs it with her hand, squeezing to feel the full extent of my hardness. She mumbles an Earth curseword and bucks her hips, almost as if she can’t help to, whispering filthy things in my ear as I touch her.

  In one swift motion I have yanked her panties down to her ankles and now my cock can easily access her sweet, perfect pussy.

  Her fingers on the tip, sweeping over the beading precum there, is heaven if anything is. They stroke up and down, delicate at first but then firm and powerful, and I feel myself growing close to release already. This woman is everything never thought I deserved. Everything I now know I need to be the man I am supposed to become.

  “Take me, Vyken. I need you inside me.”

  Those words are all I need. I am already primed and ready, hard as fucking steel and pressing against her lips. When I inch inside her, I feel her twitch around me, and the feeling has my fists clenching, my teeth scraping on the soft skin of her neck. She groans and wraps her legs around me, meeting me thrust for thrust with liquid rolling of her hips from underneath.

  “You are perfect,” I tell her, mumbling it into her hair with a ferocity the sentiment deserves. She is perfect, and I want -- no, I need -- her to know that. I pump into her further, sinking the entire length of my thick cock inside her. I feel her stretch around me, hear her gasps and groans and feel how tight and warm she is around me. My breathing becomes heavier and my skin prickles with awareness. I have never felt pleasure this intense. I feel, in that moment, like the luckiest man in the universe to be right here.

  Her hands run up and down my back and then she arches her back and lets out a keening wail. Her pussy contracts suddenly and throbbingly all over my manhood as she climaxes. I slide in and out of her faster, she is so wet, and she grinds her hips to feel every ridge and every inch, her orgasm lasting just long enough to push me over the edge myself.

  “Roxie,” I snarl her name as I lift my head and slam my hips into hers. She cries out once again as I release everything I have into her. My cock pulses and twitches and she writhes and pants until we both collapse, lightly sweaty in the cool air and breathing hard.

  “You are an Adonis,” she breathes. “I knew it. I knew it…”

  I don’t know what that means, but I don’t need to question her. I know, I think, what she means. I understand the language of multiple orgasms in tandem. I don’t need anything more to be said.

  There is one more thing … but I need to be sure it’s true before I speak it aloud. If Roxie helps with this interspecies affair, I am sure she will be pardoned. And she will be able to go back to Earth.

  And she will be tested, and from my intense attraction to her I am fairly sure she is the fated of one of my species. She will be sent somewhere far, far away. Most likely to a dangerous active space station or a patrol ship. Mostly likely not to anyone in Firosa.

  The chances of her being my mate are… well, they must be zero. Because I never got a message about her when I signed up.

  I must make the most of the time I have with her now, but I must not fall for her. And I must try not to let her fall for me, if I can help it. The separation would be too painful for me as it is -- let alone if I could see pain in her eyes too.

  The thought just about tears through me, and I swallow a lump in my throat as my Roxie -- no, not mine -- snuggles into my large chest, a small smile on her beautiful pale face, strands of her dark hair falling across her cheek.

  I gently brush the hair from her face, behind her ear, and I plant a soft kiss on her forehead as her breathing slows and steadies, her arm limp but certain around my waist.

  “Do not do me the honor of choosing me, little one,” I whisper, draping her discarded robe over her body as she sleeps. I know that we will both cherish this moment for the rest of our lives, but this is it. It has to be.

  I slowly stand up, and stretch, noting how incredible I feel. Both in body and in mind. She is an elixir. She is a revelation; she is fuel.

  She just isn’t mine.

  A low put-put-put noise, rapidfire and growing louder, yanks me from my inappropriately romantic thoughts and without thinking I re-establish my military uniform -- wishing I didn’t feel like an imposter wearing it right now -- and move as fast as I can towards the source of the noise. This might be what the Oracle was talking about, and if it is dangerous, I want to make sure it d
oesn’t track us back to where Roxie is.

  When I reach a clearing, I am met with the sight of a tiny helicopter, and it drops a black orb from inside and then flies up into the atmosphere again.

  I tilt my head at the orb and then scramble backwards as four thick metal legs sprout from it and it segments into a thorax and abdomen. A snout slides from the front and two tiny swivelling satellite dishes sprout from above. It lowers the snout and huffs at the dust, then looks up again. The panel where its eyes should be blinks thoughtfully, and then its satellite ears swivel in my direction.

  I freeze.

  It is a Suhlik attackbot. I have heard stories of these. They are totally ruthless, made with fragmented AI that has been programmed and reprogrammed in order to break intergalactic AI law: they not only possess the ability to kill; that’s what they’re for.

  Based on the designs of several different mammalian species, the Suhlik attackbot is a machine that tracks more efficiently than anything else, and will take down its prey without hesitation. No pesky emotion to get in the way.

  I might -- might -- be able to delay one single attackbot, but I don’t know if I can take it down entirely. I know it has been done, but it’s not something I have ever faced personally. It will either take everything out of me that I have, or I can go down a different route.

  They are fantastic trackers, but they follow an algorithm without any deviation. The Mahdfel military have been trained as best as they can in order to avoid this. I remember my training, and I think I can get Roxie out of harm’s way and back to the camouflage tent where we will be safe.

  Hopefully the bot will finish its sweep of the planet, confirm it is all still dead as per the plan, and will go back home to its masters without sniffing us out.

  I swallow, and nod to myself. This plan could be worse. We could be in many worse positions. I back up, covering my tracks and making no noise in the way only a trained Mahdfel warrior can, and am going to make my way back to Roxie when I am startled by a hand on the small of my back and I whip around, hand to the weapons at my belt.

  “Hey, dude, what gives?” my perfect little human pouts. “You just make me feel like that and then wander off, huh?” She is teasing, but her words hurt a little. I didn’t intend to make her feel used in any way. Tonight meant more to me than she will ever know.

  Her hair is tousled and her lips full and pink and begging to be kissed … I curse my libido and bend to rest my hands on her shoulders. Seeing the importance of the situation from the look in my eyes, Roxie raises her eyebrows.

  “We must return to the tent. There is a powerful enemy near and the camouflage of the tent is the only way we can evade it.”

  “Oh,” she says, and allows me to take her by the hand and lead her through the trees. She stumbles once and I turn around to see her trailing footprints in the dust. I tut and grab her by the waist. “No, no no no… not aga--”

  I hush her with a swift spank on her behind once she is draped over my shoulder and she gasps. “You did not just--” But I begin to run at full speed and her words are cut short by her own gasp. She grips onto me with all her might as we fly across the surface of Fera.

  Roxie might not be mine, but I know I have never felt this way before, and I owe her everything for opening me up this way. I will not let anything happen to her, even if that means throwing myself in front of the attackbot’s lasers for her. I silently promise myself that.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Roxie

  Really?

  I’m being carried again. Not just carried, but like… flung across this foreign planet while I dangle like a damn ragdoll across Vyken’s muscled shoulder. We are going to have to have a serious talk about the appropriate way to move a woman from A to B after we escape this foe. Whatever it might be.

  I have to admit, though, that I kind of appreciate the view of his butt from here. It could be worse.

  When we reach the tent he basically pushes me in before throwing a look over his shoulder and climbing in after me, zipping up the entrance and staying stiff and alert for minutes before relaxing.

  “Keep your voice low, but we should otherwise be fine now. That’s one of the purposes of these tents, in fact, so we lucked out.”

  I nod, wordless. I have never seen Vyken look this level of worried before, and it makes me squirm in place. Whatever could freak out a Mahdfel warrior is going to be more than a match for me and my … I don’t know … hair-pulling skills.

  “We need a plan,” he says. I don’t know how much I can help with that, either. I pluck quietly at dirt from my robe and say nothing. Something green stuck to the white material after that scramble through the trees catches my eye and I pick it up between my fingernails and squint at it.

  “What is that?” he asks, noting the look on my face more than the object I stare at.

  “I don’t know, but it’s … green?”

  He shrugs. “Is there a superstition involved, or what?”

  “A superstition?” I repeat, looking up at him.

  “What’s the significance of green..?”

  I narrow my eyes at my Mahdfel. “Green, Vyken,” I say, flapping the tiny fragment of matter at his face. “Green is alive.”

  It clicks. He raises his eyebrows. “Ohhh…” he says. “That is interesting.” He leans in and stares at the thing with me. I can’t figure out if it’s plant matter or something like … a leftover piece of thread from one of us, but it fills me with hope anyway. I never even met a Ferathorn in my life, but the idea that they could be alive makes my heartbeat triple in speed.

  “I heard singing,” I blurt. “I wasn’t entirely sure if I was making it up, because I hear music in my head sometimes…” I swallow, embarrassed suddenly. “But when I was down there in the tunnels, I heard music.”

  “You heard singing?” he repeats. “They … hmm.” He taps at his chin, and I let out a sigh of relief. I realize I was a little worried he’d be mad I didn’t mention it sooner, but I guess I wasn’t wanting to give false hope, or sound crazy.

  “Maybe it was the Oracle,” I suggest.

  “Oracles don’t sing,” he says as if that’s something I should have already known.

  “Of course,” I say with a small smile. “I can see the gears turning in your mind, Vyken. What are you thinking?”

  A wide smile transforms his already gorgeous face into something that makes my heart skip a beat. He is beautiful. I long to reach out, touch him, lick his shaft and make him groan and tangle his fingers in my hair … but I don’t. We are in the middle of something strange and difficult, and I should be taking it seriously.

  “Did you see anything else?”

  I sit up. “Actually ... I had forgotten until now, but yes. I did. There was something. Some kind of electronic device?”

  “Green blinking lights? Swivelling parts sticking up?” he asks.

  “Oh … yeah, actually. Yes.” I am excited but I’m not sure why.

  “Suhlik,” he says, shaking his head with a smile. “I think I’ve got a plan, Roxie. Me. A plan.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Vyken

  I have a plan.

  I think I know what’s going on here, and I just need to make sure I’m correct, but if I am … it’s good news. No -- it’s great news.

  But it means we have to leave the safety of this tent and creep around when the attackbot is out there, lurking, and I don’t know whether it’s safest to keep Roxie with me or to leave her in the safety of the tent. What if the tent isn’t truly safe? What if she’s discovered as a live being by the robot and I’m nowhere nearby? I shake my head, trying to rid it of the awful images. But if she’s with me, that’s dangerous too.

  I might have come up with a theory all on my own, but it looks like I’m still struggling with how to keep others safe under my control. What if I never figure this out? Then, it seems, I’m not cut out to be a General after all.

  When Wrax pardons me for this crime -- and I can’t wait
for that, by the way -- I will ask him quietly to demote me. I don’t want to have to care for a crew when I don’t even know how to keep the first woman I’ve cared for this much safe.

  I grit my teeth and nod to her. “I’m going to have to take … to leave … to take--” I cut myself off with a wave of my arms in the air. Damn everything!

  “Vyken?” she asks, getting up onto her knees and moving closer to me. I don’t stop her, but I don’t reach out to touch her either. As much as I might want to. And that’s a lot. “What’s going on?” She curls her arms around my neck and the touch of her warm skin sends jolts of electricity through me. Her scent -- sweet and spicy like the highest mountain flowers back on Paxia -- fills my nostrils and instantly I’m hard as fucking meteorite.

  Her touch and her closeness calms me more than I thought possible, and I turn my gaze on hers. Her eyes are big and wide with concern, her lashes thick and dark, and staring into them makes me feel like I can make no wrong decisions. Like everything must be perfect if I get to be here, with her.

  She brushes her lips against mine and I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, nipping at her lower lip with my teeth so she makes that soft throaty noise I like so much.

  “I’m coming with you,” she whispers. “Just so you know.”

  I pull away and look at her. This smart, headstrong, impossible, wonderful woman. “I’m certain you would just follow me if I left you here.”

  She pouts, and then smiles. Her eyes sparkle. “You know me so well already.”

  “We have to get past the bot. That will be almost impossible, so we might as well go for speed over stealth. Once we get below the bowels of the planet we can only hope for some protection from the Oracle, if he happens to be awake.” I rub the bridge of my nose. This situation is less than ideal.

  Roxie holds up the fragment of green plantlife again, right under my nose, and smiles.