He felt a tremendous weight lift off his shoulders, although he’d never fully realized until then that it had been there. Now, all he wanted to do was return and pull Emmarie into his arms.
But he’d have to wait until the Kexian armada moved away from the asteroid belt. Even though Elliot may be a good navigator, he was no Pikon Brant, and Raiden didn’t feel like taking such a risk now that his burden had been lifted.
* * * *
He watched a mini-war play out in front of him. By the stray communications that Parker was able to hack into, they discovered Sparta had been hit and hit bad. So many emotions crashed through him that he wasn’t quite sure how to handle them. His mind went in all directions. His blood ran cold as he thought of Emmarie. If the Unarians had taken her, if the one who’d purchased her found her, she could be lost to him forever. Raiden made a silent vow that he wouldn’t rest until he’d found her again, freed her one way or another, or died trying.
Because life wasn’t worth living without her.
But she wasn’t the only one his mind went to. Half of him worried about Pike, about Leona and Willoughbee. With effort he pushed their fate to the back of his mind as he contacted the nearest Durian attack cruiser and offered his services. As luck would have it, as soon as the Sunray docked inside the larger ship, it came under fire.
There wasn’t any time to think or to plan. Raiden dove into the fight that lasted long and ended with a decisive victory. But as he rejoiced with the others, some of the Kexians hadn’t given up completely. A volley of blasts were launched and hit the cruiser. It was their last hurrah that caught Raiden in the crossfire standing too close to a console. It exploded and he knew no more.
* * * *
Raiden opened his eyes slowly and blinked against the low overhead lighting. His tongue felt like he’d eaten sand, it was so dry. His head pounded and he realized he couldn’t move. His eyes popped open, all thoughts of his discomfort vanishing as he struggled against the ties that bound him.
“Stop moving, Captain Raiden,” a cold voice commanded. “Or you’ll undo all the healing your body’s worked hard at these past couple of weeks.”
Raiden turned his head and saw General Nairan Val’un standing next to the bed he lay upon. “Where am I? What happened?”
“I’ve been searching for you,” the general reported. “I thought I’d either find you dead or wounded and so I’ve discovered you here, on a Durian soldier’s medical barge. Seems like you fought with my comrades.”
“I did. I was…shit, I was on a mission and—”
“You were on an unauthorized mission to blow up the Merloni hub, which I might add, did nothing to stop the influx of humans from Earth,” he said gravely. “The Merloni have several more hubs just like it.”
“No, we uploaded a virus to their network,” Raiden said. “My friend Parker is a computer genius and encoded this algorithm to mess up their safety protocols. Whenever a ship tries to leave Amarante space, it’ll deposit them into the Rings instead of the Sol System.”
He could see that impressed the general.
“You should know that once we win this conflict the Merloni will not be allowed to transport humans any longer,” General Nairan stated. “But, I must say, your bravery is most compelling. I have been wrong about humans for a long time. Miss Tice has certainly opened my eyes.”
Raiden’s attention narrowed at the mention of Emmarie. “Is she okay? Where is—”
The general held up his hand. “You had some major wounds, Captain Raiden, including head trauma. Once you are fully healed you can go to her. She is healthy and safe on Sparta.”
A medic he hadn’t seen earlier suddenly came forward and gave him a shot. Immediately, Raiden felt drowsy.
The general leaned down to whisper into his ear. “Tell Miss Tice Palazio will never hurt her again. I’ve kept my vow.”
What? He didn’t understand. He wanted to stay awake, damn it! He wanted to know…how was…Emmarie…
She was the last thing on his mind as he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
* * * *
So it was almost two months before he managed to return to Sparta. As he made his way from the hangar to the center of town he got his first glimpse of what had happened to his home and a strange sense of desolation filled him. Since the hangar had been buried in rock, offering a natural protection, that part had been left undisturbed. But many of the buildings had been reduced to rubble, including Leona’s Saloon.
However, hundreds of people scurried around, and Raiden spotted a lot of Durians helping with construction. It seemed like Sparta was being rebuilt, but as a stronger, sturdier city. Gone were the fostered bits of lumber. Instead many buildings were being crafted with hide glass, which wasn’t glass at all but a heavy-duty nearly indestructible polymer that had the look and feel of glass.
As he walked further into town, he saw Leona in the framed out structure of what had once been her establishment. She wore gloves and a hardhat, helping to nail boards into place.
“Leona!” he called out.
She looked up and he saw streaks of dirt and sweat over her face. A smile of relief crossed over her face and she ran over to hug him.
“Thank god you’re alive! Where have you been?” she asked gruffly. “We’ve been thinking the worst.”
“The whole system lit up in a war,” he told her. “I couldn’t get across the Rings so we hooked up with a Durian fleet and kicked some Unarian butt. Unfortunately, I got caught in an explosion that knocked me out of commission for a while.”
“Pike’s been trolling the computer boards in the compound, searching for any data that might filter in on you. Thank goodness your name never appeared on the casualty lists!”
A small sense of relief washed through him to hear Pikon was safe. But something far deeper gripped his stomach and it took all his strength to ask his next question. “What about Emmarie?”
He saw his answer on her face before she answered and felt the bottom fall of out of his world.
“She was taken,” Leona told him. “Seems like Logan decided to try to bargain for a way back to Earth so he traded us for his and her skin. She had nothing to do with his plan, of course.”
Raiden blinked, not sure if he heard her correctly. “Logan…”
“Gave the Merloni the code to our shield grid,” she finished for him. “Yes. He betrayed all of Sparta. But he also betrayed Emmarie. He was double-crossed.”
“Where’s the bastard now?” Raiden demanded. His hands curled into fists, hoping to find Logan’s fucking face and beat it to a bloody pulp.
“The Durians are holding him until this conflict if over,” she said. “The only good thing to come from Logan’s traitorous heart is the fact that the Durians are now one hundred percent on our side. Seems like this little coup woke a sleeping dragon.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him!”
Leona placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry about Logan. Worry about Emmarie.”
“What? Why? You said she was taken—”
“She was rescued,” she interrupted softly. “She’s here.”
Suddenly, the entire universe righted itself. His heart filled with love, relief, and gratitude and he couldn’t wait to see her.
“Where?” he asked urgently.
“With Dr. Payne.”
Again, that sense of something not being right hit him squarely in the solar plexus. He felt like he was walking on a slippery slope.
“Why is she with him?”
But Leona only gave him a small, bland smile. “Go talk to her.”
He didn’t waste any more time. He turned and began running. Even when he heard Pike shout his name he ignored his best friend and kept running. Had she been badly hurt? Had the Unarians done something horrible to her? The questions tumbled through his mind until he thought he’d go mad. Finally, he skidded to a halt at the entrance to the compound and hurried inside, his lungs feeling like they were about to burst. A stitch c
ramped his side but he ignored it. A second later, he burst inside the medical bay.
Emmarie lay there, in a white gown, staring at a monitor. Her hair lay in a soft cloud around her and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. The doctor held some type of medical scanner against her abdomen. Blood roared through his ears, so loud and hard he wanted to pick something up and throw it out of sheer terror and frustration.
What the hell was wrong with her?
“Emmarie?” he asked in a husky, stressed voice.
Her gaze immediately left the monitor and found his, shock temporarily rendering her speechless. She blinked, as if making sure he wasn’t a figment in her imagination, but when he still stood there, happiness poured over her features. The shadows from her eyes transformed into blinding love.
“Pell!” she cried and held out her hands.
He was vaguely aware of Dr. Payne moving back to allow him to rush to her side. He gathered her up in his arms and hugged her, burying his face into the sweet curve of her neck.
“I was so worried,” she said, her hands soothing over every inch they could reach. His hair, his shoulders, his face, there wasn’t one place she left untouched. “Where were you? What happened?”
“I was stuck on the other side of the Rings,” he murmured, his voice somewhat muffled. He pulled back and kissed her, a quick, almost hesitant kiss. “What’s wrong with you? What scans is the doctor running?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” she told him.
“Then why are you here?”
She smiled and cupped his face. “I’m looking at our baby.”
He blinked and then his head whipped around to look at the monitor. He saw a very clean image of inside Emmarie, where a very tiny tadpole of a baby nestled in her womb. He felt light-headed as well as lighthearted. Joy pulsed through him, along with a myriad of other emotions. He looked back at her.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” she assured him. “You’re pleased about the baby, right?”
He leaned down and kissed her, this time holding nothing back. Pouring his love for her into it, showing her exactly how pleased he was.
* * * *
She tried to keep her back turned toward him as she dressed. She was acutely aware of the scaring on her chest and now wished she’d worn something that didn’t reveal it.
“Did you know I sang at a benefit concert on Dura?” she asked.
“No. Benefit for what?”
“For our awareness,” she replied. “It raised a lot of money to rebuild Sparta and made the upper class sympathetic to our cause. We’ve gotten their vote for human citizenship.”
“I was wondering why they were using hide glass,” he murmured. She felt his fingers run down the side of her neck.
Emmarie took a deep breath and turned to face him. She watched his face, his eyes, which smiled lovingly into hers before his gaze dropped and she knew the moment he saw them. Under his fierce gaze, her branding scars began to itch and she wished she could desperately cover them up.
“What is that?” he asked hoarsely.
“When I was caught I was taken to a Merloni medical ship,” she said in a low, even tone. She had to stay calm and rational, for his sake. “The Unarian who originally commissioned the run in which I was taken was on the ship. When he learned I was pregnant, he had me branded with the markers of a breeding slave, which would change once I delivered.”
She saw a myriad of emotions flit across his face. He could not pull his eyes off the scars and she self-consciously covered them with one of her hands. He yanked his gaze from them to stare into her eyes, and she saw tears battling the fury in his dark gaze.
“They hurt you,” he whispered in furious tone.
“Do you find them hideous?”
He groaned in mounting frustration and anger, anger that went so deep his body shook with it. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “The meaning behind them makes me furious,” he said thickly. “That they hurt you makes me furious. That you now bear the marks of their cruelty is almost more than I can stand. Yes, I find them hideous, but I don’t find you hideous, my love. Never.”
She remembered the time when she thought she might never feel his arms around her and she closed her eyes, relaxing into the embrace. He felt so solid, so strong and so alive. Her world had aligned, the axis had stopped wobbling and now she was back in the one place she had dreamed to be.
“Who was it?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“The Unarian? Who did this to you?” he asked as his fingers brushed over the puckered skin.
“His name was Lord Palazio from the First House of Galjani,” she answered. “I’ll never forget his name for as long as I live.”
Raiden frowned. “Palazio? Wait, General Nairan said—”
“You’ve talked with the general?”
Raiden nodded. “He found me on a medical barge.”
“Medical barge? Are you all right?”
“Yes, my love. But I was unable to come back to you for a while.”
“I never lost hope,” she whispered, twining her fingers with his. “I knew you’d come back to me.”
“Right before I passed out, General Nairan told me to tell you that you don’t have to worry about Palazio. I didn’t know what that meant.”
“I stayed with the general for a few weeks while preparing for the concert and he gave me his vow on two things. One, that he’d find you,” she said. “The other was that he would make sure Lord Palazio would never hurt me again.”
Raiden lips tightened. “It should have been me. I should have protected you, defended you. I should have been here!”
She covered his lips with her fingers. “If you’d have been here when the Kexians attacked, then you might have been killed. Or taken like so many of us. You did what you had to do, and I understand, Pell. You couldn’t have prevented what happened to Sparta.”
“Logan could have,” he snapped.
“Yes. And he will get the punishment he deserves, but then again, if he hadn’t done what he did then the Durians wouldn’t have sided with us. Negotiations would be endless and we’d be no closer to true freedom. But now, our baby will never be burdened with fear of slavery hanging over his head.”
“His?”
She nodded. “We’re going to have a son.”
He cupped her face. “You are amazing,” he told her tenderly. “And so very beautiful. I love you, Emmarie Tice.”
“Did I tell you I have my own house now?” she murmured. “It’s a perfect place where we can resume our reunion.”
One of his eyebrows rose and his dark eyes glittered with masculine appreciation. “I like the sound of that.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Her home was small but serviceable. It was one of the shelter homes that had been erected for the homeless people left on Sparta. It lay in one of the outer areas far from the construction site zone.
As soon as she led him inside, he pulled her into his arms and covered her mouth with his. There was a sense of wildness in him, almost desperation, but she embraced it fully because it was exactly what she’d been feeling as well. Ever since he’d walked into the medical bay all she’d wanted to do was pull him into her arms and never let go.
Raiden moved both of his hands down to her bottom and then pulled her tightly into the juncture between his thighs. She gasped as she felt his cock settle right in the heart where desire pooled in her body like hot silver. Then he moved his hips ever so slightly to rub into her through their clothing and she thought she would die from the kaleidoscope of pleasure. Breaking from his kiss, she threw her head back to revel in the sensation and felt his tongue move down her throat, kissing each point as he unbuttoned her shirt and bared a little bit more skin.
He fell to his knees in front of her and continued peeling the clothes from her body. He helped her step from her pants and then she stood before his heated gaze naked, trembling but proud. H
is fingers traced light patterns over her skin, starting from her ankles and skimming upward. Over her thighs, higher, until he came to the juncture where her femininity was encased behind blonde curls. She gasped as he inserted his hand into her tight slit, forcing her legs a little more apart.
She knew she was slick and primed for him already. Her breath became shaky as he drew more daring in his exploration of her. With languid stokes he dipped his fingers inside her folds to rub the sensitive nub encased in a mound of dewy curls. He bent and breathed lightly on her, his tongue darting out to trace her slickness and to taste her cream. Emmarie shuddered violently and buried her fingers in his hair. He lapped at her and she undulated beneath his tender ministrations, her blood roaring through her veins. Again and again, he made love to her with his tongue and she became a pile of heated sensation upon his lips bringing her close to climax again and again, only to deny her what she wanted most.
Finally, when she thought she could stand no more, he withdrew his hand and stood. He tore off his own clothes, letting them scatter wherever they fell. He led her to the thin mattress that lay on the floor and lowered her onto it, joining her.
He kissed her again and then started downward once more, down her neck and over her collarbone to her breasts. He rolled the nipple over this tongue and sucked on it in light spasms. He eased himself between her thighs and she felt his cock burning hot and heavy against her heat. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
“I love you, Pell,” she whispered.
“There’s nothing in this universe I want more than you,” he told her in a voice rough with passion.
She took her hand and placed it on his chest before trailing down until it reached his turgid cock. She cupped him, her fingers moved and traced him, relearning his size and girth. Her clipped nails ran down the underside, near the vein, causing him to actually flinch.
Star Mates (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 14