The Mercenary's Dawn

by L P Peace

  He pressed his lips to hers, staring into her open-eyes, drowning in them, in her. He was the luckiest vashni who ever lived to be in this room with her right now. Her lips parted under his, and their kiss was slow, almost lazy. He stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers.

  ‘Stunning,’ he whispered.

  He smiled when her face heated further and she buried herself in his shoulder. Her response was charming. He would miss it later; solars from now, when she was used to all this.

  ‘What about you?’ she whispered into his neck.

  ‘We can stop if you wish. Otherwise, we are far from done,’ he whispered.

  She looked up at him, a smile on her face. ‘Good,’ she said.

  Thanesh swallowed back the relief he felt. He would walk away if she needed him to. Then he would go to his shower where self-satisfaction would pale in comparison to the feeling of just having her against him.

  Alethia reached up and they kissed again. He felt her breasts pressed against his chest. He eased away from her, and their eyes caught for a moment as he took one breast in his hand then dipped his head to take her nipple in his mouth. He pressed his thumb against one fang, expressing his venom gland, and swiped the liquid across her nipple. She took a sharp intake of breath a moment later as it made her nipple hypersensitive. He blew on it, and it peaked quick and hard in response. He flickered his tongue over the end, her whole body shook and she moaned.

  He repeated the process on her other nipple and felt her grow wetter against him. He clenched his jaw and forced his hips to stay still. She would cum at least once more. Only then would he allow himself his satisfaction.

  ‘Oh, Thanesh.’ Her moan was desperate. More so than it had been before.

  Her pale lids parted to reveal the deep blue of her frantic eyes. An electric shock of desire and need shot down his spine and up his cock releasing a small smear of precum that dribbled down his length. He sucked in a deep breath and forced his mind to take control.

  He slipped his fingers inside her. She was so wet there was no resistance. She cried out and her head fell back, her eyes closing. His fingers explored her until they found a small textural difference on the front inside wall of her. Her body stiffened momentarily. He rubbed the pad of one finger over it until she was squirming in his arms. When he stopped, she let out a moan of sweet disappointment.

  Thanesh steadied her in one arm, turned and placed her on her back on the bed. He expressed more venom, then licked a path from her lips to her throat to her already sensitive nipples. He went down her stomach, to her hips and finally left a small puddle on the bump he found above her entrance. She cried out and clenched around his fingers as he slipped them back inside her.

  He guessed that the texture inside and the bump were two sides of the same bundle of nerves. The venom-laced finger found the texture at the same time as his mouth clamped around the bundle and he sucked it into his mouth.

  Alethia screamed. Her whole body tensed, her back arching off the bed as both bundle and texture pulsed against him, finger and tongue. She kept crying out, so he continued teasing and sucking, feeling a fresh rush of slick coat his fingers. She writhed against him, her back bowing once again, her arms bracing her. She peaked three times before she finally found her voice and called his name; just that word was a plea to stop.

  Thanesh could smell her. The scent was so tantalising that all thoughts flew from his mind as he lapped at her entrance, groaning at her flavour.

  ‘Thanesh.’

  He looked into her eyes. She reached out a hand for him.

  Bidden, Thanesh stalked up the length of her body, his eyes locked on hers. Her tongue flickered out, nervously wetting her lips.

  ‘How are you doing?’ he asked when he reached her, his hand caressing her face.

  ‘Thanesh, please,’ she whispered. ‘I need you.’

  ‘I need you,’ he admitted. His cock pulsed in agreement.

  He manoeuvred himself between her legs, which she wrapped around him. His cock lay on her slit, teasing up and down. Watching her reactions as her eyes closed and mouth opened, her head tilting back. She released a small gasp, which he caught in a kiss.

  Vrok, he’d never seen anything as beautiful.

  He pressed his glans against her and felt her give easily to him.

  Her eyes opened. There was panic in her eyes.

  ‘Do you need me to stop?’

  Alethia shook her head. She turned her head. ‘Do it.’

  ‘You’re sure?’

  Alethia nodded.

  There was something deeply intimate about biting a female. Thanesh had bitten sexual partners in the past. They enjoyed the euphoria, and he enjoyed the ease and enthusiasm the bite always elicited from them. But he hadn’t bitten every sexual partner, only the ones he cared for.

  He had never cared for any of them the way he cared for Alethia.

  Thanesh pressed his lips to her shoulder and kissed her, licking her, tasting her. He set his teeth against her delicate skin. Just this action was enough to loosen his tenuous grip on his control. He hissed and forced his body to calm as he broke her skin, feeling her blood push into his mouth before his venom pulsed into her body.

  Alethia cried out, gripping onto him. Thanesh licked the bite. ‘All is well. I have you,’ he whispered. ‘You will feel it in a—’

  Alethia’s body locked and she cried out. His glans, still partly pressed inside her hot, wet cunt was suddenly clenched.

  Alethia was cumming; that had never happened before.

  Frantic eyes looked up at him as he withdrew from her neck to stare down at her in shock and amazement.

  She saw the look on his face and panic replaced pleasure. ‘Thanesh?’ she asked.

  ‘Shhh.’ Thanesh placed his finger over her mouth. ‘Just enjoy it.’ He smiled. Alethia nodded and, bit by bit, he felt her relax against and around him.

  Thanesh pushed into her. Alethia’s muscles locked again, her back bowed and she cried out as she came again, her cunt spasming around his cock. Thanesh hissed, burying his face in her neck, lapping at small tracks of blood there.

  He watched her as he withdrew from her inith by inith. The look on her face became wilder. When he thrust his full length into her, she came again, gripping his cock like a fist, each squeeze a finger prised from his control. Thanesh stopped and gasped over her trying to find the frayed edges of his sanity.

  ‘Thanesh,’ she cried out, her hands around his neck, her fingers in his long white hair.

  He looked down at her writhing and squirming beneath him, her body wracked in the aftershocks of another orgasm.

  He withdrew from her.

  She was crying out, clinging to him; her eyes were shut, her mouth open, incomprehensible noises leaving her mouth. He burned the image onto his memory and thrust again.

  Her whole body tensed again. The spasming gripped Thanesh’s cock like a hand and pumped him, shock by shock, drop by drop until the urge to cum was overwhelming.

  Alethia was still cumming when he withdrew one last time and thrust, feeling the dam burst. His own orgasm devastated his senses, and he quickened his rhythm, feeling Alethia cumming over and over around him, quicker than he could count. Like lightning bolts, from his brain, down his spine, through his cock, he released into her. His rhythm faltered as he growled through the intense sensation, driving into her until there was nothing left to give. Even then, he continued thrusting as she kept cumming until he couldn’t bear the feeling over his too-sensitive cock anymore.

  Exhausted, Thanesh lost his strength but managed to drop to the side of her. He was still inside her and loathed to leave. Instead, he pulled her to him still feeling her spasming around him as her body caught up with the aftershocks of her multiple orgasms.

  They both fell asleep before a word could be exchanged.

  Thanesh didn’t know if it were hours or minutes later when he woke to find deep blue eyes staring at him. He smiled down at her wrapping his arms around her an
d pulling her closer to him. Squeezing her as though he could transfer his feelings to her through touch and proximity alone. She clung to him and sighed, seemingly satisfied at his response to waking up to her.

  ‘You Protectorate have an unfair advantage with that venom. I thought you said it was going to be a nice euphoria?’ she said, her voice muffled against his chest. Remembering her reaction, he stroked a finger against her slit. She gasped and clung to him.

  ‘I don’t think it’s out of my system yet.’ Her eyes were closed as she spoke, she licked her lips.

  He watched her closely. She opened her eyes and saw the look on his face.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘You,’ he hesitated. ‘You are not the first female I have bitten,’ he admitted.

  ‘I guessed,’ she smiled. ‘You’re three hundred years old, Thanesh. I didn’t expect you to be a virgin.’ Thanesh let out a breath of relief. He’d slept with jealous lovers in the past, and it made him wary.

  ‘It’s just… none of them ever reacted the way you did.’ He rubbed his finger against the bundle of nerves. Alethia closed her eyes and cried out, cumming against the slight touch of his finger. He waited until she had gasped through it and opened her eyes again. ‘I think we should take you to Tevin and make sure you are well, that this is safe.’

  ‘Because I’m cumming?’ she smiled, her eyes still closed. ‘I’m not going to the doctor because I’m orgasming during sex.’

  Thanesh stroked her again. Alethia sucked in a breath and cried out.

  ‘It is not just during sex,’ he pointed out. ‘I need to know you are safe.’

  ‘If it becomes a problem, I’ll go,’ she promised.

  Thanesh opened his mouth to argue, but a chime from the door stopped him.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Sir?’ It was Jarit.

  ‘Go ahead.’ He kissed Alethia. If he went to the door, it would slide into the wall and Jarit would see Alethia, naked.

  ‘Korren’s team. We have lost contact.’

  Thanesh frowned. They weren’t even near Cealin space. What the vrok was going on?

  ‘Understood. Assemble the executive officers. I will be there shortly.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’ Thanesh listened to Jarit’s steps retreat down the hallway.

  Thanesh looked down at Alethia, who was searching his face. He wanted to stay and make love to her all over again. But his brothers needed him.

  ‘Go,’ she whispered, stroking his face.

  He kissed her deeply and extracted himself from her arms and legs to tend to the concerns of his people.

  ‘We found the Kuyon’s ship,’ Keral said. ‘There was a human male on board, badly injured. According to the captain and the two other passengers, his previous owner beat him almost to death. He is in my Medbay.’

  ‘Make sure he has the best treatment,’ Thanesh said.

  Keral nodded. ‘Of course,’

  The executive staff had left. Calaia was on her way to Teralis. She would enter the system, hide behind the system's gas giant and wait until Keral’s ship, Adalia, arrived. Three other ships were on the way. Once there, they planned to surround the planet and take back what was theirs.

  ‘What did you want to talk about?’

  ‘It is a personal matter. Are you alone?’

  Keral nodded.

  Thanesh shuffled on his feet, feeling uncomfortable. ‘My venom had a surprising effect on Alethia,’ Thanesh finally managed to get out.

  ‘You have bedded the human? What effect? Is she well?’

  ‘She is fine.’ Thanesh nodded, more for his benefit than his friends. ‘The effect was intensely pleasurable.’

  ‘She climaxed?’

  Thanesh sighed and nodded. ‘Repeatedly. To a worrying degree.’

  Keral’s eyes widened in shock then narrowed as something occurred to him. ‘Do you think it is because she is human?’ He leaned closer to the screen. ‘Do you think they developed the venom for human females?’

  ‘That makes a certain amount of sense.’

  ‘I need to find a human female.’ Keral laughed. ‘That must have been quite an experience.’

  ‘You will have to find out for yourself,’ Thanesh said sharply.

  ‘We will strip the answers from this Kallis along with his skin,’ Keral snarled.

  Thanesh nodded his agreement. ‘Take care of the half-Kuyon. He is Alethia’s brother.’

  Keral nodded. ‘Of course. He reminds me of my Garen. How is my son?’ He smiled.

  ‘Good. I will let him know you are thinking of him.’

  Keral nodded. ‘The brother’s ship is a Kuyon R-class Erathan, by the way. How the hell did this kid get his hands on a stealth ship?’

  Thanesh laughed. Alethia hadn’t told him that. He knew all about the R-class Erathan. ‘The manufacturers did not mean to make a stealth ship. They wanted to make a ship that made no waste. Everything is fed back into the ship to power something. The manufacturers sold a few before the Kuyon government stuck an embargo on it. Three ships were never returned.’

  Keral laughed. ‘Well, that is one of the missing three accounted for.’

  A lot of the Protectorate’s stealth tech was made by the Kuyon, and a lot of the lessons they had learned making the Erathan, accidentally, were applied to the newer ships in Thanesh’s fleet. As part of his agreement with them, he was supposed to return any Erathan he came across. He would need to come up with a compelling reason not to return Alethia’s ship. He did not want to face her wrath if he should try.

  ‘Maybe I chose the wrong person for the smuggling job.’

  ‘The boy is barely nineteen solars old, Thanesh.’ Thanesh nodded his understanding.

  ‘Alethia would kill me if I tried.’ He smiled, feeling the truth of his words.

  ‘Ha,’ Keral howled. ‘I look forward to meeting her.’

  ‘How far behind us are you?’ Thanesh asked.

  ‘A few rotes,’ Keral said. ‘Hold fast, we will be there as soon as we can.’

  ‘Communications blackout until you arrive,’ Thanesh ordered.

  Keral nodded before the screen went blank.

  Thanesh stood in the centre of the room, too restless to sit down. The thought of hiding behind the gas giant for rotes was unbearable. He needed to go down there. To see with his own eyes so he could plan better. Worse, the thought of his brothers stuck down there, going through Cealin experimentation, filled him with impotent rage.

  He walked out onto the bridge. The eyes of his officers followed him as he crossed and walked out into the corridor beyond.

  He followed his feet until he came to the door, he hadn’t known he’d been heading towards.

  The Kathen was the same height as Thanesh, though he appeared tall because of his horns. He was on a bed that was slightly too small for him, several pillows bunched under his head so that he could lie without his horns getting in the way.

  Makios eyed him warily.

  ‘What ship do you have?’

  Makios eyes narrowed. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’

  Thanesh nodded. ‘Yes, that is why I asked. Alethia said this to me before—’

  ‘It’s human sarcasm.’ Makios held up a hand to stop him from continuing. ‘Why do you want to know about my ship?’

  ‘We are going to a planet that I believe is holding many of my people.’ The room was a similar configuration to the one Alethia was in. Thanesh pulled out the chair that stood in front of the small desk and sat. ‘I need backup to take the facility on the planet, but they are not arriving until a few rotes after we do.’

  ‘You want my ship to scope the planet?’

  Thanesh nodded.

  ‘It’s fast, not stealthy.’ Makios grimaced.

  ‘Fast is good.’

  Makios’s eyes hardened. ‘I’m sorry, Protectorate. You have me. I’m not handing my people over to you too.’

  ‘Trust goes both ways Kathen.’ Thanesh’s voice was harder than he intended.

  ‘If
it were your people, would you hand them over to someone you didn’t know or trust?’

  ‘No.’ Thanesh swore. He looked back at Makios and nodded. ‘I do not suppose it would make any difference to know that Alethia trusts me now.’

  ‘She told you where Tessa is?’

  Thanesh shook his head.

  ‘When she does, I’ll call my ship.’

  ‘Come stay at my quarters,’ Thanesh whispered into Alethia’s ear. He turned her face towards his and kissed her. Her mouth opened eagerly, and her shaky breath exploded out of her mouth in a moan. It shot straight to his cock, which bucked, seemingly in search of her cunt.

  Soon, he promised.

  ‘Are you asking me to move in?’ Her eyes were lit from inside with an energy and fire he’d never seen in her before. He imagined this was what she was like in the rotes before the stories of others weighed on her. There was a small pull to the lips. Thanesh bit back a smile. He wrapped her in his arms and pulled her as he turned on his back until she was straddling him.

  She yelped and laughed when he settled her on his hips, his cock touching against the softness of her rump.

  He was obsessed with her rump. Alethia had painstakingly explained all that she considered wrong with her body. Her breasts were slightly too large for her frame, her hips too wide, her shoulders too narrow; her neck was too long. But her rump seemed to take the most hits. It was too big, too flabby, too low, didn’t fit her frame, ‘jiggled’.

  He watched her rump carefully after that. It did, indeed, ‘jiggle’. It made his cock so hard he took her from behind often just to watch her rump ‘jiggle’. He was almost tempted to do it again now. Of all of the complaints Alethia made about her rear, the one she didn’t make was about the small dark-brown bump on one cheek. His fingers sought it out now and he traced one finger over it, stifling a groan. He grabbed her rump in his hands. It was tiny, at least compared to his hands. Was this a human male thing? Had they made females feel insecure about their rears because their hands were too small for them? That was fine. There were fifty-thousand Protectorate males who would salivate at the idea of holding a human female’s rump in their hands.