She hadn’t understood the heated conversation between the officials and Ornack that had followed. It had only been when they’d left and a seemingly furious Ornack had taken himself off to hunt in the forest that Gerunda had stepped up and explained.
“The custom demands that you’re presented naked, and Ornack mate you in front of them.”
“That’s…what?” Gemini had been horrified, and Gerunda had patted her shoulder and smiled.
“It’s an ancient practice reserved for Drakans as high in standing as my Lord Ornack, and it was certainly the practice he followed with Magnuss’s mother.”
Gemini’s ears had pricked up at the mention of the little fellow’s mother.
“She was Drakan, right?”
“Yes, she was. My Lord Ornack was young and he followed the expected path. Theirs was not a happy or fruitful union.” Gerunda had grown thoughtful, her lips pinched into a thin line of disapproval.
“What happened?” Gemini had asked, and the old woman had shaken her head.
“It’s not my story to tell, my dear. When my Lord Ornack is ready, he will tell you himself. Suffice to say, you are very different. I knew he would refuse this time.”
She’d smiled and left Gemini stood there, more confused than ever.
The more she got to know Ornack, the more she liked what she saw. He was well respected by his people, but it was his open affection and endless patience with his son, that really showed the true man. Magnuss was indeed a handful, if also utterly adorable, and Gemini had long since fallen hopelessly in love with the little guy.
He dashed up to her now with a triumphant shout.
“I did it. I did it. Mother, I did it.” The breath stalled in her lungs as he launched himself into her arms, crossbow clattering at her feet. His little arms hugged her tight and she blinked back tears. “Did you see, Mother? Did you see? Father said I can practice the sword now, I’ve mastered the bow.” The little boy twisted round in her arms to address his father.
Ornack smiled down on his son and took him out of Gemini’s arms.
“Yes, I did say that, but you need to go and clean up. You’re getting Gemini all dirty.” He glanced toward Gemini and her heart beat faster at the depth of emotion in his gaze. Putting the little boy down, he picked up Magnuss’s cross bow and winked at his son.
“In fact, I think we ought to get Gemini to practice with this. What do you think, son?”
Magnuss bounced on the soles of his feet, and nodded.
“Yes, oh yes, Mother, you should. I bet you can do it. Teach her, Father.”
And with that he bounded off toward the castle as fast as he could, shouting for Gerunda on top of his voice.
Ornack chuckled and pulled Gemini close. As was his practice when they were out in the open, he nuzzled into her neck and inhaled.
Gemini knew he was only playing for the assembled villagers, who stood openly watching them, but her body responded to him anyway. His hold on her tightened and his fangs pricked her skin. A moan slipped from her, and Ornack groaned and stepped away.
“You heard the boy. You need to learn the bow. So step up and aim.”
He winked at her, and Gemini shook her head.
“No, I tried once, remember and nearly killed your best milking cow. I really don’t think this is a good idea.”
“You will disappoint Magnuss if you don’t. He wants his mother to learn, so learn she will. Now come here, wife.”
The intonation he put on both words sent a shiver down her spine and she could no more have refused that voice than she could have stopped breathing.
Ornack smiled when she stepped up to the mark on the dirt floor and he stood behind her and placed her hands on the bow.
“There you are. Now drop your shoulders, let the bow take the strain and relax into it.” His whispered words skittered across her bare back, and beads of perspiration trickled down in between her shoulder blades, and collected in the hollow of her spine. She was too aware of him standing right behind her. His body heat stole her breath and every touch sent her body aflame. Time and time again he helped her line up the arrow, and time and time again her mark hit wide.
Gemini crunched her teeth and willed her breathing to slow down as the sun started to dip behind the mountains and torches were lit around the square.
“Make this one count, sweet wife.” Ornack kissed her nape and stepped away and Gemini shut her eyes and let the arrow fly. A cheer went up from the little crowd of villagers that had surrounded them to watch, and Ornack grabbed her round the waist and spun her around.
“I did it?”
“You damn well did, Gem, but next time I would suggest keeping your eyes open.” The words were too low for anyone else to hear and he winked at her, but it was the spark of approval in his eyes that lit a fire in her soul.
“Magnuss will be very proud of his mother.”
Ornack held out his hand to escort her back to the castle and slowed his steps to her much shorter ones.
“Do you mind him calling me that?” she asked once they were safely inside his home and Ornack released her. He spun her around and Gemini swallowed the sudden lump of fear that had lodged in her throat, and took several steps back until the stone wall stopped her. Ornack looked utterly furious with her, and she put her hands up in surrender.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. He just hasn’t called me that before and I—”
“Mother, Father, there you are. Gerunda said dinner will be cold if you don’t hurry up.”
Ornack ran a hand through his short black hair. He looked as though he was going to say something, but shook his head at her, and spun a squealing Magnuss on top of his shoulders instead.
“Well, we can’t have that. Did you see Gemini hit a bull’s eye? I’m sure it was just fluke but—”
“No, it wasn’t. I told you, Mother could do it…”
* * * *
Magnuss’s enthusiasm was catching, and the way Gemini sucked in her breath every time Magnuss called her Mother settled deep inside Ornack’s heart. He glanced at her across the table. There she went again, blinking away tears when she thought no one watched her.
He wanted to see her smile and joke, like she did in unguarded moments with Magnuss and Gerunda. Whenever he was around, her guard went up, and it was driving him slowly round the bend. Only in her sleep did she curl into him, and he’d lost many hours of sleep himself, where he’d just watched her. The nightmares had been frequent at first. His little human would thrash and moan and eventually jerk away with Zorran’s name on her lips. It made him want to tear the Cirrion limb from limb for what he was putting Gemini through.
Lately the dreams had changed. They had to be erotic in nature, for her moans of feminine need made him so hard that he’d had to get himself off on more than one occasion. It took every ounce of his self-control to not simply line his cock up against her wet slit and to thrust deep into the welcoming clasp of her body.
It would be so easy to do, and she would welcome him eagerly, in her sleep at least. How she would react when awake was a different matter. Horrified no doubt, and besides, Ornack wanted her to see him as more than just a means to satisfy her body’s needs. He wanted her heart, her body, her soul. He wanted—needed—her submission, to see her beautiful eyes light up in complete trust and love, and he was beginning to lose hope of ever finding that look in her blue orbs.
She had been in his care for almost three months now, and their relationship seemed to have hit a stalemate. There had been no sign of Zorran’s return either, and that pissed Ornack off no end. The stubborn Cirrion refused all communication attempts and what’s more he’d been involved in several attacks of Drakan patrol ships at considerable loss of Drakan life. Not that Ornack expected him to announce his undying love of Drakan, but, dammit, did he have to be quite so obnoxious in the killing of Ornack’s kind? Zorran was signing his own death warrant should he return to Drakan and be recognized, and it threw a major spanner
into the works for Ornack’s plans for the future.
“I think I should take him up, Ornack. He’s almost falling asleep in his fruit sponge.”
Gemini’s quietly spoken words shook Ornack out of his internal musings, and he suppressed a grin at his son. Magnuss was indeed heading for a face-plant into his dessert and it was only Gemini gently pulling him back that stopped him.
“Here I’ll take him,” Ornack said.
“No, it’s okay, I’ve got him. You just go back to brooding about whatever had you scowling away like that. I can manage.” There was a slight catch in her voice, but Gemini refused to look at him. She simply hoisted his son up higher in her arms and strolled from the room.
Ornack swore and refilled his goblet of wine. He had to do something about this. Enough was enough. Maybe it was time to tell her the truth.
Chapter Seven
The shadows lengthened, and Gemini had yet to return. It shouldn’t take that long to put Magnuss to sleep, dammit. He’d been half-asleep already. No, more than likely she was hiding from him again. Ornack swore and went in search of his wife. He found her sat on Magnuss’s bed. The little boy was fast asleep and silent tears were running down her cheeks. She startled when Ornack swore under his breath and gestured for her to follow him. The fact that she didn’t argue but meekly followed him down the corridor darkened his mood further. She closed the heavy door to his bed chamber behind her and then darted away from him when he stepped up and locked it. Whatever she read in his expression seemed to make her nervous, and she darted away from him. They circled each other round and round the high bed sat in the middle of his chamber, until Ornack bellowed, “Enough.”
Gemini jumped, and he turned his back on her and rummaged through his chest of old belongings until he found what he was looking for. He threw the holographic projector onto the bed, and the thing whirred into action.
Augustina’s cold smile and long, boyish body materialized in the air, and Gemini gasped.
“Meet Magnuss’s mother,” Ornack said. The projection swiveled at the sound of his voice, and he turned his back on the image from his past. It brought with it too many uncomfortable memories that made him want to take his sword and run the image through. No doubt that would send his little human screaming from the room in terror.
Gemini cleared her throat several times, as though she was struggling for the right words.
“She…err…I mean she…you must have—” There was a suspicious undertone to her halting words.
It made his chest tight with longing and was further confirmation, if ever he needed it, that this human female had burrowed deep under his skin. She’d achieved more in three months than Augustina had managed in the five years they’d been married.
“Magnuss’s mother was a cold-hearted bitch who didn’t give two hoots about him or the man she was mated to, that’s what you’re going to say, right?”
He swung round to face Gemini, and her eyes grew huge as he allowed the full force of his emotions to show. She wrapped her arms around herself, and shook her head, looking from him to the projection still swirling on the bed and back again.
“You can’t possibly mean that. If you felt that way, why keep this?”
She nodded toward the projection, and Ornack turned the damn thing off and threw it back into the trunk. Gemini jumped when he bashed the lid down with so much force a crack appeared in the ornately carved wood. He traced that ugly, jagged mark with his fingers and forced himself to explain his past.
“I kept this for Magnuss only. It was the image sent to my father by the king. Proof that Augustina was of pure blood Drakan and thus inducement for my father to agree to the mating. Ours was no love match, little one.” He looked up at her sharp intake of breath and smiled grimly. “It was a political match, and she was a sought after prize. Drakan females are rare, and highly sought after by the nobility. I had shown no inclination to find a mate of my own, and I guess my father was worried about my affiliations with the males of our species.” He mimed quotation marks, and shrugged his shoulders when Gemini murmured something under her breath.
“My father was old school, and while he accepted my sexual preferences, I had an heir to provide, so the alliance was struck. I never should have agreed to it. Not because I don’t like women, because I do, but, because even then she left me cold. She was even more haughty in the flesh. I don’t think that woman had an ounce of compassion in her. Nothing here was good enough for her, and while she endured my touch, that was all she did. I might as well have fucked a dead fish for all the response I got out of her. She reserved those for her numerous lovers.”
“Oh my, but Magnuss is yours. Anyone can see the resemblance.” Gemini’s whispered words interrupted his little story and he nodded.
“Yes, yes, he is, and even if he hadn’t been mine by blood, it wouldn’t have mattered. From the minute he was born that boy held my heart in his hands, and as his mother was completely disinterested in him, I had to love him even more. Gerunda stepped into the breach, but she’s getting old and is no substitute for a mother’s love. Thankfully the bitch of his so-called mother died before she could inflict too much emotional damage on him.”
Gemini visibly recoiled at his harsh words, and she shook her head.
“Surely you can’t mean that? He was her son. She must have loved him in her own way? Maybe—”
“Yes, she loved him so much she threw him in the path of an attacking troop of Cirrions to save her own skin. You can’t make this better, Gemini.”
His little human swayed and sat down on the bed with a heavy thump.
“She did what?”
“You heard me, my sweet. She was out walking in the hills. More like on her way to meet one of her lovers, when they landed. Magnuss had got away from Gerunda and had trailed after her. He did that a lot, always hoping to get a little attention from his mother. She not only threw him in their path, she offered him for her life. Fortunately for Magnuss, the Cirrion she offered my son to was Zorran. He ran her through and kept Magnuss out of harm’s way.”
He had to smile at Gemini’s reaction. Fury, relief, anger, and shock all warred for dominance on her expressive features.
“It’s how Zorran and I met. His landing party was defeated, but not before one of them tried to kill Magnuss. Zorran took the hit, and I nursed him back to health. It was the least I could do for the man who saved my son and rid the world of one heartless female. Zorran stayed a while until he could establish a reason for his absence. I sent him on his way with a shit-load of gemstones that convinced the Cirrions that he’d been busy raiding our coffers.”
“I see. I wondered how you’d met,” Gemini said. She didn’t look at him, just stared at the stone floor, worried her bottom lip with her teeth, and twisted her hands in the fur covers on their bed.
The nervous action tore at his heart and he ground his teeth together in frustration.
“Yes, that’s how I met your Zorran.” That brought her head up, and she stared at him with such a look of longing on her face he wanted to punch something.
“He’s not my Zorran though, is he? He never has been. If he’s anyone’s he’s yours.” Her voice broke on the last few words, and she wiped her eyes with a groan, as though she was frustrated at herself.
* * * *
Oh for heaven’s sake, she was not going to cry again. Ever since she’d landed on Drakan, tears seemed to have become a daily occurrence. It was almost as though she had to release years of pent-up emotion. On Cirrion, tears had been frowned upon, and usually resulted in some form of punishment or another. Here on Drakan, however, no one seemed to mind. In fact, whenever Gerunda saw her cry she simply pulled her in for a hug, which always made Gemini cry harder. Ornack took a step toward her and then stopped, hands balled into fists by his sides. She swiped the useless tears away and risked a glance up at his face.
The look of yearning in his face took her breath away. He masked it just as quickly, but the fact that it had
been there at all stunned her. Had she imagined that to have been for her? Maybe he was just feeling nostalgic. Yes, that had to be it. He was missing Zorran, no doubt. She knew he’d been keeping watch for his whereabouts. His moods always turned to the darkest black when more news of Zorran’s attacks on Drakan ships filtered through.
“Zorran was never mine, little one. We had moments snatched in time. That’s all it ever could be. I have my position here, and I would never abandon my people, and Zorran has a reputation to live up to. He’d tempered his exploits before, but now…It’s almost as though he’s trying to get himself killed. The man is more stubborn than a damn ox at times. I told him, there’s a place for him here, all of us together, if only he’d finally admit that he has needs and feelings like everyone else.”
With a sigh, Ornack sat next to her on the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight. The action slid her closer to him, until their thighs touched.
“All of us together?” she asked, hating the wobble in her voice even as her mind went into overdrive, imagining all the delicious, erotic possibilities. It was almost as though Ornack had dipped into her most secret fantasies, ones that had been invading her dreams every night recently. She put a hand on his muscular leg to steady herself as the room spun at the thought.
A deep rumble escaped Ornack at her touch, and she shut her eyes and let the vibrations travel through her. It seemed Ornack’s body responded to her touch in the same way that hers did to his. That instant attraction she’d felt to him had only grown and intensified over the last few weeks, and with her eyes shut her other senses took over.
Ornack was so incredibly warm under her fingertips. She sensed him move until his warmth surrounded her, and the bed dipped behind her, as though he was leaning back. Sure enough, he lifted her hair off her neck and gooseflesh raced across her skin at the little puffs of hot air against her neck, as he inhaled.
“I don’t know how he could bear to part with you, and I want to tear him limb from fucking limb for the pain he’s caused you, but, so help me, I’m glad you’re here.” He scraped his fangs along the sensitive skin under her ear and Gemini fought to stop the moan threatening to escape. “You’re mine, little one. I won’t ever let you go, even if takes the rest of my life to convince you of that.”
Taken by Her Alien Warriors [The Warriors 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 6