by Regine Abel
Her face turned bright red, and she cast her eyes down, demurely. Thankfully, we’d reached the entrance. Nodding at the guard, I led Ayana past the security desk and into the hidden transport room. We stepped into the bubble and as soon as the door closed behind us, I pulled her into my embrace. My mouth claimed hers, swallowing her startled cry. After the initial surprise, she buried her hands in my hair, fisting it, while our tongues warred with desperate hunger.
For the first time, I hated how fast the bubble traveled. Too soon, it slowed down, nearing its destination.
“I’ve dreamt of this all morning,” I whispered against her lips before forcing myself away from my woman.
Eyes smoldering, lips swollen by my kisses, Ayana ran shaky fingers through her hair before smoothing non-existent creases on her tank top. For a moment, I wondered if she should change into regular clothes. That skin-tight training outfit did nothing to relieve the pain of my cock straining against my loin plate.
Later. There will be plenty of time later.
Despite my burning desire to drag Ayana to my quarters and have my way with her until we both fell into a coma from exhaustion, we had too much to do before taking off on our mission.
Speaking of which…
Stepping out of the bubble transport as soon as its door opened, I explained to Ayana our plans for the Jaylon mission while walking to the elevator and then riding down to the Incubator. Her instant willingness to help, despite the danger to herself, had my hearts swelling with pride.
“We’re leaving tonight for a chance at saving the girls, and exterminating the Kryptids before their numbers grow too much,” I explained.
She frowned slightly, her back stiffening at my last comment. Something inside me snapped. Stopping dead in my tracks, I gently but firmly grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to face me. Her eyes widened, and her lips parted in surprise, but she didn’t try to pull away.
“Listen, I admire your compassionate nature, but we are at war! While you’re frowning over the thought of exterminating that vermin, they are slaughtering pilgrims and plotting their next attack against the most vulnerable beings in the galaxy. Just last night, we lost one of our own and would have lost more without you!”
Her eyelashes fluttered, a troubled expression descending on her beautiful face.
“Do you know what a Breeding Swamp is?”
She licked her lips nervously. “A place where they breed Soldiers.”
“That’s the pretty definition,” I countered. “Except they’re not Soldiers but Swarm Drones. Do you know how they’re made?”
Ayana shook her head, the black locks of her hair bouncing around her face.
“The Kryptids dump living creatures, preferably people, in the warm, dark, and humid rooms where the Swarm Drone eggs are laid. The victims are implanted with a Mexlar Dispenser which lasts for ten days. Every twelve hours, it releases a paralytic agent and nutrients into their system to keep them alive while the larvae hatch. They will be eaten alive while completely helpless.”
She flinched and hugged herself. I hated to be the one putting that horrified expression on her face, but she needed to understand the reality of this war.
“A few of the clans and villages on Jaylon are threatening to go to war with each other, with fucking sticks and stones since they have no technology, because they blame the recent disappearances of their people on each other.” I cupped her face in my hands, caressing her cheeks with my thumb in an effort to soothe some of the distress I was causing her. “I don’t want to upset you, Sweetling, but leaving even only one of those Drones alive means the death of countless people. A single Drone can lay two thousand eggs per month, and it only takes two days for an egg to hatch and twenty days to go from larva to fully mature Drone.”
She nodded, eyes cast down. I pulled her into my embrace and she held me tight. Things weren’t as black and white as I’d described them of course. The Swarm Drones were mindless creatures with only three goals in life; kill, feed, and reproduce. The Kryptids were people; horrible ones, but people nonetheless. But after thirty-six years of warring against them, having lost too many friends to them, and witnessing too many genocides perpetrated by them, any compassion I’d ever held for the Kryptids, military and civilians alike, had long eroded.
We spent the next eight hours testing every aspect of her ability. The first step was verifying the rebirth recovery times for other Warriors. To our shock and delight, souls that hadn’t begun unraveling—like in the cases of Chaos and Raven—fully recovered within five minutes of rebirth. Granted, those souls had gone from one body straight into another since their owners hadn’t died. Yet, we still felt confident we would obtain similar results if souls were rescued within seconds after their body’s passing.
There were limits however. She’d portaled the same soul multiple times to test how it impacted the rebirth sickness. It was barely noticeable for the first three rebirths, but the fourth made the Warriors nauseous and dizzy, some having their bodies wracked with violent dry heaves.
Next, we tested her ability to direct a soul into a Shell she wasn’t directly in contact with or that she couldn’t see. After many trials and error, we confirmed that she couldn’t memorize the “address” of a Shell unless she’d made contact with it at least once while it had been awakened. However, as long as it was in her line of sight after its hearts started beating, she could direct a soul to it without physical contact. Raven further had the clever idea of testing Ayana staying in a different room, then having her ride his mental thread to a freshly awakened Shell, the same way she had ridden mine to connect with Chaos.
It worked.
The third phase required my mate to transfer the soul of Warriors who were under the influence of mind-altering drugs. It proved far more challenging. She compared it to trying to get a drunk man to walk straight. As it heavily taxed her, we only tested the three drugs most likely to be used by Kryptids against us, thrilled by her success. It also boded well for the other drugs we didn’t try.
By the time we began the final series of tests, my respect and awe for Ayana had reached a whole new height—emotions mirrored on the faces of my brothers. The strength of her power alone had us blown away, but her resilience and professionalism commanded our respect. She’d not uttered a single complaint throughout the grueling hours of experimenting, even though we’d only granted her a twenty-minute lunch break and a couple of ‘bio-breaks’ as the girls called them.
Despite her weariness, Ayana trudged on, walking down the hallway while attempting to portal a soul. It was a complete disaster. My woman always prided herself in her ability to multi-task, but this time had to concede defeat. She needed to remain still to receive and guide the soul, comparing it to trying to walk and, at the same time, trying to thread a needle while riding on a bumpy road. Her sitting aboard a moving train, even traveling at slow speed, proved extremely difficult and left the Warrior suffering a violent case of rebirth sickness.
With less than two hours before our departure, I finally took pity on her and called it a day. To make amends, I prepared her a meal and gave her a foot massage, striving to give her one last chance at normalcy before our mission.
Where she buzzed with excitement at finally contributing to the war effort, fear twisted my insides that I could lose my mate so soon after finding her.
CHAPTER 8
Ayana
As soon as we boarded the Striker, the infiltration ship that would take us to Jaylon, the four Warriors—Legion, Chaos, Raven, and Wrath—locked themselves in a meeting room to finalize their plans. Wrath’s Soulcatcher Linette, a decorated officer in the US Air Force, settled on deck to pilot the ship. Myriam gave me a tour of the vessel, explaining how everything worked, and the protocols and procedures of a mission.
Since Legion and I would be sharing a room over the two-day trip, it felt like the right time to address the elephant in the room.
“Why don’t we sit for a minute?” I asked w
hen she finished showing me the mess hall.
The polite and cordial expression on her face melted, guessing where this was headed. She agreed with a stiff nod, and gestured with a hand for me to proceed to one of the four tables available. I chose the one in the far corner and took a seat. To my pleasant surprise, Myriam settled next to me rather than as far away as possible, across the table. Tucking a lustrous strand of her auburn hair, she turned her doll-like green eyes towards me.
I cleared my throat, kicking myself for not preparing a speech in advance for this talk. “I’ve been meaning to have this conversation with you for the past couple of weeks, but there never seemed to be a right time, and I admit to being a bit of a coward about it.” She raised a perfect eyebrow at me with an expression I couldn’t quite interpret. “As you’ve probably noticed, Legion and I have grown closer as of late.”
“You’re his soulmate,” she said with a shrug that failed to be as casual as she’d no doubt intended. “Legion told me as much before you even arrived on Khepri. After that, it’s been plain to see for anyone with eyes that you are indeed his bond-mate.”
While still feeling utterly awkward, a heavy weight lifted off my shoulders. I’d never doubted Legion saying he had officially ended things with Myriam, but hearing her confirm she knew where things stood was a major relief.
“I want you to know that I didn’t pursue or ever try to move in on your man—”
“Stop,” Myriam said, raising her palm in an arresting gesture.
She heaved a sigh and cast her eyes down while gathering her thoughts. When she looked back up at me, sorrow and anger met me head on. Swallowing hard, I braced for impact.
“I’m not going to lie,” Myriam said in a calm and measured voice, “you’re not my favorite person in the world. I don’t hate you. In truth, I believe in time you and I can grow to be friends. You have the type of personality I enjoy, and you showed a great deal of class in how you handled this situation.”
I blinked, taken aback by these unexpected words.
She clasped her hands on her knees, her shoulders drooping. “Tons of girls here and on Earth are infatuated with him. Most of them wouldn’t have shown the restraint and discretion you did. Unlike you, they’d have flaunted that impossible catch and rubbed it in my face. That you’d try to clear the air between us speaks highly of your character.”
Myriam heaved another sigh, her eyes looking off to the side, unseeing as she reminisced.
“Four years ago, when Legion chose me as his Soulcatcher, my heart nearly burst out of my chest. Like all those other women, I’d dreamt and fantasized about him. He turned out to be a million times better in real life than in my imagination.” Her eyes refocused on me. “I love him. I’ve loved him from day one and kept hoping, even though he’d told me all the way back then that I wasn’t the one. Every six months when they performed the next round of recruitment, I would sit in fear of him finding his soulmate among the new Aspirants. That fear finally came true with you.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered through a painfully tight throat.
Myriam snorted. “Don’t be, I’m a big girl. I always knew that it was only a matter of time. In a way, I’m glad it’s over so that I never have to go through the weeks of anxiety twice a year anymore. But thank you for helping me keep my promise to myself not to let it make me bitter.” She laughed sadly at my confused look. “Ever wondered why Tabitha dislikes you so much?”
My lips parted in shock at the sudden change of topic, but also that she had noticed.
“Tabitha wasn’t always the distant and diplomatically challenged person she is today. When I first met her, she reminded me a great deal of your friend Shereen.”
My eyebrows shot up in disbelief. Shereen’s happy and bubbly personality couldn’t be further from Tabitha’s sour and cold disposition.
Myriam chuckled, some of the sorrow in her beautiful green eyes ebbing away. “She’s been a Soulcatcher for seven years. Like me, she fell head over heels for her Warrior. She wasn’t his soulmate but might as well have been seeing how close they were. Tabitha followed him to hell and back, saved his life more times than I can count, and led a couple of our sisters into an unsanctioned mission, flying a solo shuttle inside the warzone to catch him and his companions when the Coalition fleet had retreated, abandoning them.”
“Wow!” I said breathily, genuinely impressed.
“Wow, indeed,” Myriam said, nodding. “She’s the most badass among us and would have given her life without hesitation for Rage. When he found his soulmate two years ago, it more than broke her heart, it destroyed her. To make matters worse, Violet was a spoiled, immature, rich daddy’s girl who’d never been denied anything. She made a show of her happiness with no regards for Tabitha.”
My hand covered my mouth, my chest tightening with compassion.
“The realities of war have finally opened Violet’s eyes and made her grow up fast, but the damage was done. Tabitha wanted to quit the program after that, but Legion and Chaos wouldn’t let her go. She’s not only one of the most loyal members, she’s also the best analyst we have.”
“I had no idea,” I said. “She must be dreading the moment it will happen with Chaos, too.”
Myriam shook her head. “Nope. She refused to get romantically involved with any other Warrior. Her condition to agree to work with Chaos was that he would consent to a purely platonic relationship. So when you arrived and everyone saw the chemistry between you and Legion, she saw you as another Violet and went into overprotective mode. Once she finds out what you’ve done for Chaos and Raven, she’ll become your greatest defender.”
“I hope we find her and the others,” I said, frowning.
“We will,” Myriam said with conviction while rising to her feet. “Our boys won’t rest until they do. Come on, rookie, let’s complete that tour and don’t fret about me. I’ll get over it. Legion is a good man. He more than deserves to have found happiness. Enjoy it to the fullest.”
I smiled and followed in her wake. “You’re a good woman, too, Myriam. I can see why he thinks so highly of you.”
She chuckled. “You may not feel that way once I start assigning you rookie chores after graduation next week.”
“Oh boy!”
She laughed as we exited the mess hall.
* * *
I carefully tucked a rebellious lock of hair inside my shower cap then waved my fingers under the lukewarm water raining from the shower head to check its temperature. After completing the tours, I’d found the guys still neck deep in heavy discussions and decided to seize the opportunity to freshen up. I’d no sooner stepped under the water than the door opened. Startled, my head jerked towards it only to find Legion standing in the doorway, staring at me, wide-eyed.
“Nice hat,” he said after a beat.
Cheeks burning, I wished for the ground to open up and swallow me whole. I didn’t know what to do with myself, feeling both embarrassed to be standing buck naked before him, despite last night, and for wearing that ridiculous cap. That was NOT the way I wanted my man to see me, especially so early in our relationship.
“I just got my hair done. You have no idea what water can do to a black woman’s hair,” I replied, lifting my chin with a confidence I didn’t feel.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t! Maybe I should find out,” he said, peeling off his skin-tight, black shirt.
I pointed a menacing finger at him, all embarrassment forgotten. “You touch that cap, and I’ll cut your balls off. If you know what’s good for you, don’t mess with a black woman’s hair.”
His eyebrows shot up and then he laughed, raising both hands in surrender. “Okay, okay! No touching the headgear. There’s plenty else I want to touch, anyway,” he added, his gaze roaming over me in a very explicit way while he stripped out of his black pants and boots.
My nipples hardened, and wetness that had nothing to do with the raining water gathered between my legs. I all but drooled at the perfection
of my man’s sculpted body. His loin plate parted, some of the hard scales sliding up while the others shifted sideways, revealing his thick, engorged cock proudly pointing at his navel.
He advanced on me, my pulse picking up with each of his steps. With his hands on each side of my neck, thumbs lifting my chin up, he lowered his head and kissed me. Lust burned in my gut, and I wrapped my arms around his back, drawing him under the water. It pelted us with its warm stream while we explored each other’s bodies with impatient hands.
Pushing me away from the stream, closer to the quartz-like white tiles of the Roman-style shower, Legion grabbed the shower gel, built up a lather, and then slowly, sensuously soaped my body. His palms circled my breasts while his tongue invaded my mouth. I moaned, savoring the taste of him and pressing my chest into his burning touch. Teasing my left nipple with the thumb of one hand, he washed my back with the other. Or at least, he tried to but ended up tightening his embrace. I raked my nails down his scaled back as lava flowed through my veins. Legion’s thumb relented on my nipple and his knuckles traced a trail down my stomach which quivered in response. He cupped my sex, rubbing it with urgency. My inner walls contracted, and I spread my legs to grant him better access.
Instead of giving me what I expected—needed—he half lifted me to bring me back under the water to rinse off the soap. With a half-startled, half-disappointed cry, I clung to his shoulders where his bone spikes had expanded again. Shutting off the water, he turned me towards the shower wall and I leaned my palms against it for support while Legion positioned himself behind me. His fingers found my clit, massaging it to ease his thick shaft’s entrance. It felt even bigger in this position, but I was so wet for him that he was fully sheathed in no time. As soon as I adjusted to his size, I started moving in counterpoint to his thrusts.
The sound of wet flesh slapping echoed off the tiled-walls of the room, my moans and his rumbling growls, playing as the bassline. Pain and pleasure mingled as his cock hit both my cervix and sweet spot as he pumped in and out of me. Added to the mix; the relentless caress of one of his hands on my swollen nub, the other on my breast, and his mouth roaming between my shoulder blades. My climax soared like a symphonic crescendo. I threw my head back, resting it on his shoulder, and came undone, screaming his name. Within seconds he shouted his own release, his arms tightening around me while his seed poured inside me. My shaky legs were grateful for his possessive embrace. I remained still in his arms, my core convulsing around him as he covered my neck and shoulders with soft kisses and whispered sweet nothings in my ear.