Helion

by Olivia March

  Long moments later, Helion finally released Gwen’s lips and she greedily sucked air into her body in gasping heaves. Gwen looked into Helion’s eyes now, no doubt seeing his amusement lingering there. It was so strange, feeling such amusement with a woman, a human, when he’d felt so cold inside for so long. He cocked one thick white brow at her and waited for her to speak. She knew what he wanted, what he was waiting for her to say. Helion still held her up against the wall by her ass, impaled on his still-hard cock. Realization passed through her eyes that he could do this again and again to her, until she was the one to beg for mercy. So the smart girl finally conceded.

  “I wasn’t aroused by your men. There, I said it, are you happy? Will you please take me to my daughter now?”

  Helion took a moment to study Gwen before answering her question. He was relieved she’d finally conceded and answered him truthfully, because he didn’t have time to school her again. There was just enough time now to step back to camp and join his men for final instructions and preparations before the battle. She was a proud female, had resisted him at every turn, and he wasn’t used to that. Back on his planet he could get any single female he wanted with the crook of a finger, plus his crown attracted any number of social climbers who wanted to snare him for a mate. But here, now, this human female wanted to deny him entirely.

  Well, she did desire him. That much had been clear from the first when he’d smelled her interest clearly even as her terror spiked. She feared him and she wanted him. The woman was a study in contradictions. He wanted to learn from her. The little human’s species was so fragile but the tiny woman fought so hard. Humans could barely get into space, had no idea about all the other worlds out there, knew nothing of other civilizations. Most had been arrogant enough to believe they were the only life out there in the vastness.

  Helion’s kind had known about Earth and its people for some time. Keeper scholars had studied them, watched how they developed, learned their languages and cultures. But they hadn’t wanted to interfere with the progress of their development. One day they would have made contact, once Eathlings progressed farther into space. The Scourge, though, had accelerated the process. They had seen an easy target to maul and plunder, whereas the Keepers had seen the potential to one day make an ally of this planet. The time to ally with the humans had come well ahead of schedule and thanks to the circumstances humanity might never recover from their wounds and accept the Keepers.

  Helion intended to scar the Scourge even more brutally still, starting tonight. Two thousand Scourge would die this night and Helion didn’t intend to miss a moment. He’d get vengeance for Gwen and her daughter and for a way of life now denied to them. He gently eased out of her body, not needing Nathal’s healing ability to sense how sore he’d left her. That caused a flicker of guilt but one quickly quashed. He might have pushed her to accept him but she’d done so and had responded wildly to his lovemaking, coming over and over again so beautifully on his cock. And she would do so again once he took care of business.

  In a hurry now, Helion covered himself and dressed Gwen again in quick time, watching with undimmed interest as the fitted leggings covered her voluptuous thighs and round ass. The image of those sweet globes bouncing with every thrust from his cock would be seared in his brain forever. Watching his seed trickle down those thighs also gave him a primitive satisfaction. All the Keepers under his command would know he’d claimed her and they would keep their distance. In truth, now he’d proven Keepers could mate with humans, some of the single Keepers would no doubt go on a hunt for willing human women. Helion wouldn’t grudge them that, so long as they did their jobs.

  Finally dressed, Helion wasted no time. He scooped Gwen up and stepped quickly back to camp. His men stared at them, some even nodding their heads to acknowledge his claim as he strode into his tent where Verdun was waiting with a sleeping Evie cradled in his arms. Gwen immediately struggled to be put down and Helion obliged, watching with hot eyes as she took her child and hugged her close, placing soft kisses all over her face. Evelyn seemed pleased as well, waking up with a smile and soft coos for her mother.

  Helion was touched by their devotion to each other. Once again he regretted he’d never had a child of his own. As the only child of parents who also had no siblings, expanding his family had always been a dream of his. After a thousand years, though, he was finally reconciled to the unlikelihood he’d ever be a father. He’d continue to try for an heir, as was his duty, but his dream for a large family had died.

  “Lady Gwen, you will stay here with Verdun. He will protect you if any Scourge break our ranks and get this far into camp. Do not leave his sight for any reason, understand?”

  He waited for Gwen to look at him and nod, then watched her startle as she took in Verdun’s battledress for the first time. Satisfied, he turned to Verdun and let his eyes speak for him. He was putting Verdun in charge of his woman and her child. He didn’t know what these feelings he had for them meant but he knew he felt protective and possessive, even tender. And for Gwen alone he felt a hearty dose of insane lust that had been whetted by their encounter, instead of assuaged.

  Verdun nodded, checking his weapons and communicating with the men he’d chosen and positioned around the tent via their mind link. Once he was assured all was in readiness, he took Gwen by the arm and led her to a seat at the table, away from the walls and entrance of the tent.

  “I’ve had a meal prepared for you, my lady. Help yourself. You’re perfectly safe here inside the tent.”

  Helion was almost out the door when Gwen called out to him, and he turned back. She sat where Verdun had put her but her blue eyes were locked on him and they were scared.

  “Don’t look so frightened, lady. Every Keeper in this camp would lay down his life to protect you and the child. You will be perfectly safe here with Verdun, one of my finest warriors.”

  “Yes, but…” Gwen stopped as if embarrassed, casting her gaze to the floor for a moment before lifting it again. “Just be careful. Don’t take any unnecessary risks.”

  “Are you worried about me, little mother? Does that mean you care for me?”

  Gwen blushed but didn’t deny it. He’d know if she lied.

  “Maybe I just don’t want to be someone else’s prisoner. Especially if they’d demand the same…concessions you do.”

  Helion narrowed his eyes, amusement gone and replaced with his usual frosty glare. It was a look that promised Gwen he’d be paying her back for that remark. She had dared to imply once again she was not a willing partner in their love play. When he destroyed these Scourge he resolved to make her beg for his cock before he made love to her again. Them he’d make her scream his name over and over again.

  “Get your rest while you can, woman,” he retorted, his eyes promising a reckoning before he marched from the tent.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Verdun stared after him for a moment before returning his gaze to Gwen. She fidgeted under his stare and turned away to eat her meal. Gwen hoped he didn’t want to talk about what was happening between her and the Commander. She was still unsure how she felt about what had happened between them earlier. She’d attempted an escape, gotten caught, had Evelyn taken from her, been spanked so hard her ass was still on fire, then had been taken over a desk and against a wall. She was sore all over, especially her ass and thighs, not to mention her pussy.

  Her mind couldn’t process what had happened, not entirely. Helion, the cold, composed, mocking Commander, had literally fucked her into a wall when she’d refused to obey him. After he’d taken her over a desk. His men had been waiting for him, the enemy closing in, and he’d taken valuable time to teach her a lesson. And what a lesson! Gwen ached fiercely inside, even as the pleasure he’d given her still coursed through every vein with delicious warmth. She wanted him again even now, to duel with his tongue until her lips were chapped. Insanity.

  Gwen had wanted to deny her attraction to Helion, deny it to him and herself, but he’d
forced her to admit her lust by not only taking her when she wanted to resist, but also by shattering her in so doing. She was so confused. It was tempting to trust him, to allow herself to relax and be protected for a while, to have this fling with a hot alien without forming an attachment. But she was already too late. She was obsessed with him and had no idea how to extricate herself. Her word that she wouldn’t attempt another escape had been given and taken. But how could she prevent herself from falling in love with him?

  How desperately she wanted a hot bath to alleviate the pains Helion had caused. She wanted to remove his woodsy smell too—it clung to her like a second skin and reminded her of the ornery Keeper constantly. His seed and her own juices made her feel uncomfortably damp and she was eager to remove the evidence of what had occurred between them. But even she wasn’t silly enough to believe now was a good time to call for buckets of hot water. Her needs would have to wait until after the battle.

  The Scourge were another issue entirely. In her heedless rush to prevent further growing feelings for Helion, she’d placed her daughter in danger again. Just like before they’d been right in the line of fire. After trying so hard for three months to keep Evelyn’s fragile life intact, it was a hard pill to swallow that without Helion’s intervention, her sweet girl would be dead twice over. Her pride had taken a beating but she was so relieved they were alive.

  And now…for now they had found a safe haven. Her fear of Helion and his men had faded to practically nothing. They’d all been kind and even protective and had gone out of their way to accommodate her and Evie’s needs. Gwen didn’t know why they were so kind. Verdun had told her Keepers revered women and children, as on their home world women were greatly outnumbered by the men. Verdun had also told her of the struggle Keeper women fought to conceive and carry a child to term. So all women were cherished and all children adored.

  But still, the women on Earth were not Keeper women. So why were the Keepers so protective of her and Evelyn, what was in it for them? Had she become so cynical that all men, even those from an alien planet, were suspect, no matter what their actions said? Had Steven and his abandonment really jaded her that much? Here she sat waiting for the other shoe to drop, for these comforts to be stripped away when Helion tired of her sharing his tent. But she was a survivor, right? Even if Helion dropped her like week-old garbage, she could survive it. She’d survived worse. Right?

  The problem was, of course, her silly infatuated feelings. Starving physically and being on the run was nothing new. But now she was developing feelings for Helion. Her lust for him was intense but her feelings went deeper. She felt tender toward him, was afraid for his safety. The idea of him facing down two thousand Scourge was terrifying. Even thinking he might not make it back alive made her heart pound and ache. What was to be done about this?

  In the end, there was really nothing she could do. So she ate and she prayed. When the sounds of battle reached her ears, she held Evie close and prayed some more. She prayed that the Keepers would win the battle, that Helion would be unharmed, that she and Evie would live to see another day. But when she heard the fighting begin right outside the thin tent walls, she knew her prayers hadn’t been answered. As Verdun shielded them with his body, her soul cried out with just one question. Where was Helion?

  The horrible sounds of fighting outside the walls surrounding them escalated and fear nearly overwhelmed Gwen. She heard the clash of metal on metal, the screams of the dying, the battle cries of the warriors, until the din became deafening. Evelyn started whimpering in fear at the noise and that enraged Gwen. These damn creeps, they couldn’t allow even one safe place on the entire damn planet? Helion had told her the Scourge couldn’t find Keeper camps. But clearly they could, because they were here now. Their safe place was now a battlefield and their lives were practically forfeit.

  Within a few scant, horrific minutes, the enemy were threatening the tent, finding a weakness in the defenses and tearing inside in a great swarm. A part of her wanted to cower and rely on Verdun to protect them but the greater part was infuriated that once again her daughter’s life was at risk. Grabbing a small sword from Verdun’s back, she began slashing at Scourge.

  Soon Gwen and Verdun were working as a unit, him wounding and her slicing throats. And to her surprise she felt a savage pleasure in ending enemy lives. This vicious, cruel species had turned her life into a living hell and she enjoyed the hell out of making them pay for their crimes. Gwen soon lost the sense of time passing as she held Evie against her with one arm and with the other struck out over and over again at the enemy. Whenever a Scourge would get too close to her, Verdun seemed to know and was able to deflect their blows with lightning-fast flashes of his sword.

  Gwen very quickly realized her initial impression of Verdun was entirely incorrect. This was no kindly, passive butler type. Verdun was as deadly a warrior as any she’d seen in this camp. But they couldn’t hold out much longer against this tide. Already her arm began to tire and her fear screamed through her veins, increasing the desperation of her attacks. Verdun was performing amazing feats, but as more and more Scourge stormed the tent, hopelessness began to crush her spirit.

  And then she saw him. Helion burst through the tent in a wash of Scourge blood, his gleaming white hair once again dulled with the grotesque detritus of his slain enemies, his golden armor equally tarnished with gore. He looked a mess but was still the most beautiful sight in the world to her. Her earlier confrontation with him was swept from her mind like leaves in the breeze.

  Then their eyes met across the melee and out of nowhere a tidal wave of emotion burst through her veins like liquid fire. He was there; he had come once again to save her and Evie. That moment of contact, so brief but so poignant, made her heart clench painfully. She wanted his lips, and his body over hers. And she wanted his heart, as he had hers. This was no obsession. It was love…and lust. Watching Helion eliminate the threat to her and Evelyn made Gwen unbelievably hot under her clothes. She wanted him. And she loved him. And she had no idea what to do, could only stare helplessly as Helion fought.

  Helion had been cutting through another Scourge, then another and another. His armor was dark with blood, his blades dripping, and still the enemy came in wave after wave. The Keepers battled fiercely, their eyes glowing with feral intensity inside their helms. The enemy forces were slowly decimated, flanked by Commander Melithan’s troops in the rear, with Helion’s terrorizing them in the front, until the panicked fiends were caged inside a circle of bloodthirsty warriors.

  But something had been amiss. Helion felt tingles of foreboding slide up his spine, an internal warning he knew always to heed. As he sliced the head from another Scourge, he took a quick look around to assess the situation. His men still fought strongly, showing no signs of fatigue, Commander Melithan and his troops too. And then he heard it, a call on his link he did not expect.

  “Sire, the tent is surrounded! The Keepers outside are battling hard but they will be overwhelmed soon. We need reinforcements.” Verdun’s voice in his mind was grim and then cut off entirely, a clear sign he was diverting his energies to battle.

  Helion didn’t stop to wonder how enough Scourge had escaped their net and made it into their camp to overwhelm the warriors he’d left behind to guard his woman. He barked an order to his second in command, Tohran, handing him the reins of the battle before calling his guards and lightstepping to his tent with all speed. What he saw upon arriving made his blood turn to ice in his veins before rage made it boil. His men were under siege, outnumbered, and many were battling with terrible wounds. And a large hole gaped in the side of his tent where Scourge began to swarm inside.

  Helion roared with rage and shot forward, slicing through every enemy in his path. Nothing existed to him but that breach he had to reach, to fight through before those monsters killed Gwen and her daughter. His claims to his woman, that she’d be safe in his camp and his tent, rang mockingly in his ears. Even with the fierce sounds of battle ragin
g all around him, he still heard the distressed whimpering of the baby girl and her mother’s labored breathing. He cut a swathe of brutality through the enemy, mutilating and killing without a hint of compassion, until he finally broke through into the tent.

  It was immediately apparent Verdun had been fighting with everything he had. Bodies were strewn all over his tent in great heaps between overturned furniture and shredded linens. Rivers of blood coated everything in sight, including his woman, who was the biggest surprise of all. No cowering, not for her. She stood back-to-back with Verdun, one arm protectively over her daughter while her other hand gripped a stained short sword. As he watched in stunned disbelief, Verdun sliced a Scourge across the stomach while Gwen delivered another savage cut across its throat, felling it to the ground.

  As if she felt his gaze, Gwen suddenly looked up and locked eyes with him. The sweetest look of joy and relief and something else he couldn’t define flared in her eyes. That look told him much but now wasn’t the time to ponder it. Reinvigorated, he rallied his troops with a roar and they quickly fell upon the remaining Scourge. Helion sprang into action to slaughter the enemy inside the tent, a brutal ballet of steel and guts. Helion’s sword flashed with bright light, the musical sound constantly interrupted by the slice of metal meeting flesh and the cries of agony from its victims until nothing remained but pieces of bodies and a river of blood.

  Even as he destroyed his enemies, he kept one eye on his woman. Gwen’s own borrowed sword now dangled limply in her hand as she watched Helion massacre the enemy, barely seeming to notice his guard was there and doing the same. Helion wanted her to see him like this, to see him as the killing machine that could take care of her and Evelyn, so she’d never doubt him again.