by Unknown
Ailyn grinned as he lowered his hands and braced for her hit. When she collided with him, he wrapped his arms around her then swept her legs out from under her with his foot. She skidded downward between his legs and landed on the ground with him atop her—pinning her arms and clamping his legs tightly along hers.
“Bastard!” Polemusa screeched. She tried to move but he had her well in hand and she could not break free of his hold.
“Do you concede?” he asked.
“Hell no!” she spat at him, and tried to head-butt him in the chin but he twisted his head to the side and she merely clipped his shoulder.
“I’ve won, wench,” he told her. “Be a gracious loser and concede.” When he saw what she was about to do, he turned his head away again and her spittle went flying over his shoulder.
“Mother!” Shanee said. “That was beneath you.”
“Aye, I agree it was childish and silly but your mother hates to lose, ionúin,” he said.
“Sie sind ein eingebildeter bastard,” Polumesa said, calling him a conceited bastard.
“Und Sie sind sehr schön, wenn Sie verärgert sind,” he said, telling her she was very beautiful when she was angry.
“Aye, well, you really haven’t seen me truly angry, Reaper,” Polemusa snapped. “Now let me up.”
Ailyn smiled. “Say please and I will.”
The defense queen’s eyes flared wide. “I do not kowtow to any man!” she growled.
“I am not just any man, baby,” he told her and his grin disappeared. “You do not show respect for a warrior’s ability either, do you? I guess there is no honor among the Amazeen when one of you has been bested in a fair fight.”
He didn’t wait for her to answer but let go of her and rolled away, getting to his feet and turning his back on her to let her know she posed no threat to him.
Shanee held her breath, curious to know how her mother would respond to that challenge.
“Don’t you walk away from me, boy!” Polemusa shouted.
Ailyn swiveled his head around. “Then show me the same deference you would a female who defeated you and I’ll treat you as the equal I believe you to be.”
Put in that light, Polemusa had no other option. She squared her shoulders. “I acknowledge you won that fight but I won’t be as easy on you the next time around.”
Shanee expected Ailyn to snort at that statement but he merely nodded. He waved a hand and his Reaper uniform settled in place over his muscular body.
“Walk with me, Mother,” he said. “You and I need to have a little talk.”
Polemusa gritted her teeth. “Don’t call me Mother,” she snapped as she dusted off the back of her toga.
“Would you prefer I called you Mama or perhaps Mom?”
A hiss was his answer as the defense queen came toward him. “I prefer ‘Your Majesty’ but ‘Mother’ will suffice.”
Shanee came forward to join them but Ailyn shook his head. “This is just between the two of us, ionúin. Wait here.”
“Already he is subjugating you,” Polemusa stated, giving her daughter an I-told-you-so look. “That is what comes from legally Joining with a man.”
“Would you rather she had Joined with a woman?” Ailyn inquired.
“At least a woman would not treat her as property,” his mother-in-law insulted him.
“Unlike Amazeen women who treat their males like equals?” he countered.
Polemusa snarled at that statement but fell into step beside him. “Point taken,” she admitted.
Once they were out of Shanee’s hearing range, Ailyn spoke quietly to her mother.
“I love your daughter with all my heart,” he said. “I would not have asked her to marry me if I did not.”
“You can have the milk without buying the cow,” she reminded him.
“Aye, but I gave her my name so I might defend and protect her. She…”
“She doesn’t need your protection!” Polemusa declared.
“Perhaps not, but it is there if the need should ever arise,” he said quietly. “As it did on the Midian. Had I not pulled her assailant off her, he might have done her harm.”
Polemusa shrugged but did not say she agreed with his assumption.
“I know you worry about her since she is no longer under the aegis of her tribe. You should feel some relief that there will be someone at her back when she goes on her missions from now on.”
The defense queen stopped in mid stride and put a hand to his arm to halt him as well. “You will be working with her?”
“I want her safe, Polemusa,” he said. “I will be with her from now on or she won’t be working for the Guardians.”
“You think you can stop her?” Polemusa sneered.
“I know damned well I can,” he replied. “Do you doubt it?”
She stared into his eyes for a long time—taking his measure, giving him her most intimidating glower but he did not so much as blink much less lower his gaze to that threatening glare.
“You promise you will keep her from harm?”
“I do.”
“That you will treat her as she should be treated—with honor and with respect?” She narrowed her eyes. “You will be faithful to her?”
“I am a Reaper,” he reminded her. “I will have but one love in my lifetime. I have given that love to your daughter. I will keep myself only unto her. There will never be another for me.”
“You will give her children?”
“I will give her as many sons as she wants.”
“What of daughters?” she ground out.
Ailyn shook his head. “That I cannot do. My parasite will not allow it.”
Pain drifted over Polemusa’s face. “It is every Amazeen’s dream to have a daughter to follow in her footsteps. Shanee is my only child. I want a granddaughter to…” She shrugged as though hating to admit what she was about to say. “To spoil.”
“Are there no female children in Amazeen who need a mother?” he asked. “Are there no little girls who should not be with the mothers they do have?”
“You would accept such a child?”
“Every child needs a mother’s love. When that love is withheld, the child rarely grows up to be a happy, well-adjusted adult.”
“You sound as though you speak from experience,” she said.
“I do.”
Polemusa had not come to this meeting with Ailyn Harmattan without knowing all there was to be gleaned about the man her daughter had married. She knew he had not lived a happy childhood and that his own mother had ignored him his entire life. She suspected there was even more pain lurking in his past in relation to his mother that she didn’t know about and made a mental note to discover what that pain was.
“Shanee cannot come to Amazeen to find such a needy child,” Polemusa said.
“Do you not think she would trust you to find her a little one who will need what we can give her?” he asked.
“We?”
“We,” he said.
Polemusa’s grip was still on his arm and she seemed to be unaware that she was caressing the hard muscle of his biceps until he looked down pointedly at her hand. She jerked her hand away and ran the palm down the skirt of her toga. “Forgive me, son,” she said.
Without missing a beat, Ailyn reached for her hand and laid it atop his forearm as he drew her along with him, covering her hand with his free hand. “There is nothing to forgive,” he said as though no harsh words had ever passed between them. “I swear to you that I will do all I can to make Shanee happy. I will never raise a hand to her and I will strive to never raise my voice either. I will give her a good life and I will be there with her for as long as the gods allow.”
Polemusa relaxed as they walked. “That is all a mother can ask for her child,” she said gently.
“It pleases me to know you love Shanee,” he said.
“As it pleases me that a warrior such as you loves her,” the defense queen replied.
* * * * *
Shanee was pacing in front of her quarters, glaring at those who had been peeking out their windows at the spectacle playing itself out in the courtyard. She knew none of her neighbors—didn’t care to—and was irritated that they were spying on her personal business. When she realized her mother and husband were coming back from their short walk, she was stunned to see her mother’s hand on Ailyn’s arm and that the defense queen was smiling.
“You have done well, daughter,” Polemusa said. “This one is a keeper.”
Ailyn lifted his mother-in-law’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Mai ist der Wind immer an Ihrer Rückseite, Mutter,” he said softly then let go of her hand.
“Mai ist der Wind immer an Ihrer Rückseite, mein Sohn,” Polemusa replied.
“Now I’ll leave you two lovely ladies to discuss me behind my back,” he said with a grin, and thrust his hands into the pockets of his leather pants.
After he was inside her quarters, Shanee put her hands on her hips and glared at her mother. “Since when have you ever wished a man that blessing, Mother?”
Her mother cocked a shoulder. “It seemed the polite thing to do since he wished the Wind at my back.”
Shanee’s eyes narrowed. “Since when have you ever extended politeness to a man? You wouldn’t even say please when he bid you do so!”
“He was lying atop me, daughter,” Polemusa said. “I wasn’t about to ask him to please get his well-honed and wonderfully heavy body off me.” She smiled. “I was enjoying him far too much.”
Shanee rolled her eyes. “That is a terrible thing to say about your son-in-law,” she snapped.
“Don’t tell me you find his weight and his muscles—not to mention that hard cock I could feel pressing against my thigh—not to your liking, Shanee,” her mother said.
“Mother!” Shanee gasped, her face beet red.
“Go,” Polemusa said with a laugh. “Make use of that steely shaft with my blessing. I must return to Amazeen lest your aunt incite an insurrection against me.”
* * * * *
When his lady-wife came inside, Ailyn was reclining on the settee in a pair of black silk pants that hugged his long legs like a second skin. His chest and feet were bare, one knee crooked as he read an old-fashioned book he had brought with him from Theristes.
“Did you know Terra was once inhabited by dragons?” he asked.
She came over to him and took the book out of his hands. “No, I did not know that,” she said, putting the book aside.
“They were called pterodactyls. They looked a bit like…”
She gripped his wrists, pressed them down to either side of his head and then put her right knee on the settee. She swung her left leg over him and stretched out along his hard length.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“What I was ordered to do by my mother,” she said, writhing her lower body against his.
“And what was it she ordered you to do?” he asked, his voice gruff.
“To make use of your steely shaft.”
His dark eyebrows shot up. “She said that?”
“In those exact words,” she answered. She lowered her head and nibbled on his chin. “With her blessing.”
“Huh,” he commented.
Shanee pushed up on her knees as she straddled him and pushed the elastic top of his pants down until she could free his cock—already hot and already hard. She caressed him with one hand while she ran her other under his heavy balls.
“You’re not playing fair,” he said, and with one wave of his hand, her uniform was gone.
“You are a naughty boy,” she said, grinning.
“I was a preoccupied boy. I was reading about pterodactyls and it was very interesting,” he said.
She removed her hand from his cock and reached for his wrist, bringing his hand to her breast. “I got your pterodactyl right here, Lord Scholar, and it is interesting.”
He molded his palm over her breast, squeezed her lightly and plucked at the nipple. “No, milady. This isn’t a pterodactyl. This is definitely a triceratops. Wanna know how I know?”
“Aye,” she said, licking her lips. “I am aching to know.”
“Because it’s horny and it’s feisty,” he said, and he moved both his hands to her hips.
He lifted her and sat her down on his erection.
“Oh baby,” she said. “Now that’s a steely shaft.”
He was a rock-hard missile enveloped in velvet as he slid in and out of her, easily lifting her hips and lowering her as though she weighed no more than a feather. The smell of his juices mingling with hers added to her need. His cock was so deliciously long and wonderfully thick in circumference that it completely filled her and began to satisfy the ache that pulsed between her legs.
“You can be a bit rougher, you know,” she said, flinging her long white hair behind her.
“Like this?” he asked, slamming into her with force.
“Even harder, Lord Scholar,” she taunted.
He thrust upward with his hips as he pulled her down onto his cock with enough strength that her eyes flew wide.
“Aye!” she said. “Like that!”
She was riding his hard shaft, her breasts bouncing as his fingers dug into her hips. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed, her hands wrapped around his forearms. She could feel the sweat glistening on her face and feel it beading along the creases where their bodies met. Lowering her head and opening her eyes, she stared into his and quivered at the raw need sparking red flares in his amber eyes.
“You are my woman,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I am,” she agreed as the first faint ripple of delight wriggled through her sheath.
He felt her body tensing around him and knew at the exact moment her climax began because it grabbed him with such force, her muscles contracting around him with such intent it almost hurt.
Tremors of delight shot through her as the quickening suddenly came fast and furious, followed speedily by his own climax that had him pounding upward against her with enough force to make her gasp. Grunting with each thrust, he finally stilled as her last quiver drained him and he relaxed.
Allowing her to slide down his spent body, he held her against him until they were both ready to move apart, each still breathing heavily.
“I’ve got to round us up a meal,” she said as she climbed off him.
“I’ve got reading to do.”
She reached over and took up his book then handed it to him. “Dinner in twenty,” she said.
He nodded as he opened the book to the place where he’d left off. Out of the corner of his eye he watched her as she headed for the food prep area of their quarters and smiled. It felt good, it felt right and it was beginning to feel like the home he’d never had.
Chapter Eleven
Ailyn awoke in the middle of the night and lay there for a moment trying to figure out what had torn him from his sleep. Since leaving Theristes behind, he had been sleeping like a baby at night with Shanee curled in front of him, his arm around her. Now he lay on his back staring up at the ceiling and feeling his heart racing.
He listened but heard no sound that might have disturbed him. The quarters were locked down for the night—he’d made sure of it before coming to bed—so he knew no one could have entered without setting off the alarm. Shanee was lying on her side with her hands tucked beneath her pillow and the steady rise and fall of her chest told him she was fast asleep.
He folded the covers back and sat up gingerly so he wouldn’t disturb his lady. As he started to swing his legs from the mattress, he got the first whiff of a tainted, acrid smell that made the hair on his arms stir. He frowned, loathe to put his feet to the floor.
“Ailyn, what is that stink?” Shanee said, turning over to face him. “My eyes are burning.”
The smell was intensifying and the sharp, musky odor was suddenly so overpowering it started a violent headache in Aliyn. He tried to place the smell—knowing he’d encountered it be
fore—for it was settling on him like a wet blanket.
“Ailyn?” his lady questioned and started to fling aside her covers.
“No!” he yelled at her and vaulted from the bed. The origin of the stench had finally come to him and he was out of the sleeping chamber like a shot. “Stay here!”
The lining of Shanee’s nose was beginning to burn fiercely and her eyes to water. The smell was so powerful she could barely draw breath. Ignoring his order, she tossed aside the covers and stood up, padding around the bed in her bare feet.
“Ailyn? What is it? Is something on fire?” she asked.
There was a faint blue glow in the living area and she could hear Ailyn bumping into the furniture and cursing. Just as she reached the doorway of their bedchamber, the lights in the living area came on.
“Shanee, get back!” her husband shouted and she saw him sailing through the air toward her.
In slow motion she saw him land in front of her, skidding across the carpet with the three-feet-long creature whipping in his hand. She stared in horror at the broad triangular head, the slender body striped green and molten silver, the tubular two-inch sharp fangs that were buried in Ailyn’s forearm. She watched a glowing blue ooze drip from the wound as the viper’s vertical pupils shifted to her.
“Get back,” Ailyn warned. He was shuddering as he managed to grasp the snake’s head with his other hand and twist it from its body, leaving the ghastly fangs still buried in his flesh. Tossing the rest of the evil thing across the room, he struggled to get to his knees but he couldn’t. Neon blue streaks of venom splattered against the wall and ran down it where the headless body hit, the death throes of the creature spraying the deadly toxic in flowing arcs.
“Ailyn!” Shanee screamed, finally galvanized into action when she saw the foam at her husband’s lips. She reached for him but stopped as his glazed eyes speared her.
“Get…back,” he whispered and collapsed, convulsing violently.
Shanee knew there was nothing she could do for him. “Vid-com!” she yelled, and when the screen pulsed into life, she shouted for a medivac team. “Hurry and be careful. My Reaper’s been bitten by a ghoret!” She knew that one drop of the viper’s venom could cause serious problems for a humanoid if not outright kill. She glanced at the two cybots that were standing against the wall and started to activate them.