I had no doubt the consort would be found there, dead. Had the female’s Ardor been slaked first? I doubted it based on the timeline of events. There hadn’t even been time to disrobe, let alone fuck an Ardor away.
The two females near the chair ignored my order the moment their attacker was gone and stood, turning to the third female, still locked in combat.
Fuck. Two were seemingly safe, but the third was in trouble.
“Kick him away from you!” I yelled as I dashed toward her. The assassin was much bigger than she and I was surprised she’d held him off so long.
She heard me, delivering a hard, swift kick to the assassin’s abdomen and stepped back, out of range. Purposely giving me the shot. I lifted my weapon, aimed.
“Don’t kill him!” A female near the chair screamed the order, but I ignored her command. This particular band of assassins was too dangerous to remain alive. He had to die. One of them had already escaped. I wouldn’t lose two.
He was armored, as I knew he would be. I fired at his chest anyway, momentarily halting his movement. That was all I needed to take the head shot.
He dropped like a rock. Remained still. The female he’d been fighting stepped forward, bent arms raised, hands fisted tightly as if she were ready to keep fighting, and kicked him in the side with heavy black boots, just to make sure I’d gotten the job done.
“He’s dead. I assure you,” I said, coming up to stand beside her.
She turned to me, glanced up, her purple hair flying. Her eyes were a bright blue, and completely without fear. Her pupils were dilated, but it seemed more from the rush of fighting than fear. She was small. Her odd clothes couldn’t hide the curves of her gender. And she’d just fought off one of our planet’s deadliest assassins.
It seemed Earth females were brave. Bold. Fierce. But why were they here? Now? And why did someone want them dead?
“Who are you, and what do you want?” The voice washed over me like the burning heat of a fire and my cock stirred. Again. Just as I’d felt earlier. No, not just stirred, but thickened. Lengthened.
Shocked, I turned swiftly back to the females near the chair. One had long brown hair and large, dark eyes. She looked warm. Soft. Too gentle to be the female who’d spoken in such a commanding tone.
My gaze shifted to the other.
Holy. Fuck.
Instantly, I bowed low to the most magnificent female I’d ever seen, but I kept my eyes on her. I couldn’t look away if I wanted. Golden hair surrounded her head and shoulders in a silken wave I couldn’t wait to touch. Her eyes were a deep, intense blue, and staring me down, analyzing my every move. Her lips were a soft pink I longed to taste, to feel wrapped around my cock.
My fingers twitched at my side and I cleared my throat to disguise the groan of need I felt building like an explosion within my body as my cock came fully erect. Pressed against my uniform pants, which had suddenly become ridiculously too small. I was rock hard, long and thick, but now? Gods, now it was as if I had a pipe growing larger and larger down the inside of my thigh. I’d had no idea how erect I would get.
For the first time in my life, I ached. I wanted, no needed, to get closer to her. To get her naked and needy and screaming my name.
Just one sentence from her and I knew. She was mine. The magnificent creature staring me down over the top of a blaster was The One. My mate.
Fuck.
My earlier thoughts of remaining a bachelor soldier were all but forgotten. I inwardly laughed at my ignorant self. I would never be alone again because I’d never let this female out of my sight. Or away from my touch.
The clothing she wore did nothing to hide her form. Trim pants that were blue, worn and faded as if she didn’t have an S-Gen unit available and wore this pair again and again. A shirt that bared her arms. While tall and lean, she had ample curves. Round and soft in all the right places. I could nuzzle and lick, grip and even spank.
And she’d almost been killed by fucking assassins. I saw red, wished I could kill the one all over again, race after the one who’d escaped.
My protective instincts roared like a caged monster, the remnants of the attack, the bodies on the floor, the blood, the threat to my mate taking on colors and intensity I’d not felt moments ago.
Mine.
Trembling with equal parts rage and need, I dropped to one knee and bowed to the female I would devote myself to for the rest of my life. “I am Captain Leoron Turaya. Prime Nial asked me to protect you and assist you in any way I can. I am sorry I arrived so late to the battle. Are you well?”
“Prime Nial sent you? What’s the code word?” my mate asked, one pale eyebrow raised. She didn’t lower her weapon. I didn’t blame her, for she was smart to be cautious. She should trust no one. No one but me, but she hadn’t learned that yet.
I lifted my head, gazed up at her. Confused. Code word? I searched my mind and found what she sought. Prime Nial’s mate, Jessica, had said something strange about Trinity’s favorite food being code. Now, I understood. “Strawberry ice cream.”
I had absolutely no idea what I’d just said, some strange Earth term, but all three females relaxed. My mate put the weapon down and I noticed her hands trembled. That would not do. She shouldn’t feel anything but happiness. Peace. I longed to take her into my arms and offer comfort, but she wasn’t safe here. None of them were. The assassin had fled, but he’d be back for her. His kind didn’t leave a job unfinished. If these three were as valuable dead as I assumed, the next attack would be more cunning. And brutal.
Over my fucking dead body. I was at war with myself. The need to protect and defend battled with the need to stand, walk to The One and pick her up, keep on going until she was pressed against the nearest wall. My mouth on hers, my fingers working open her strange pants, seeking her center, finding it hot and wet for me. Sinking into her. Finally.
My cock didn’t understand danger, my body demanded action even knowing my mate could be harmed. My need would not lessen, and neither would the size of my hard cock, until I’d spent in her. Made her scream my name. Not once, not twice, but many, many times.
The warrior in me pushed through, wrested control from the primal, rutting instincts fighting to rule me. For now. “You are not safe here.”
“No shit.” The purple-haired female kicked the corpse at her feet again before reaching down and divesting him of his gear. She was efficient, systematically checking every pocket and pack, everywhere the assassin had hidden anything of use to him. She looked up from her work at the other two.
“Help the guard while I get weapons and intel. Get busy.” She waved the weapon she held as if dismissing them to do she commanded.
The dark-haired female moved to the injured guard and pulled a small blanket and pillow from one of the chairs. I thought she would cover him, but instead took a knife from his gear and cut the blanket into bandages. Dropping to her knees, she tied them around his head wound to stem the flow of blood. She deftly wrapped his wounds completely and placed his head on the pillow before looking up at me. “Do you have 9-1-1? You know, paramedics or someone who can take care of him? Someone to call? A doctor? Hello?”
While I heard her words, I didn’t immediately process she was talking to me. I was too stuck on The One, the curve of her cheek, the color of her lips, the upturn of her nose. I shook myself out of my cock-induced trance and nodded, pulling a ReGen wand from my belt, pushed the button so the blue, healing light glowed. It was too small to correct all of the damage to the wounded man, but it would stop the bleeding until he could get to a ReGen Pod. It was better than nothing—and all I had. “Yes, we do. But wave this over his head for a minute, and it will keep him alive until they arrive.”
She frowned and stared at the device as if she’d never seen one before, then began to move it a few inches over the guard’s injured head as I’d instructed.
“We should leave quickly. The assassin who escaped will not run and hide. He is a killer. It is not safe for you here.”
“Obviously,” the dark-haired one grumbled. “We need a place to hide until daylight.”
“I know. I will take you somewhere safe. But no more public places. I don’t want anyone else to know you’re on Alera.”
“Amen to that.” The purple-haired woman moved on to her third body, stuffing weapons into a blanket she’d tied into a carry pouch. She stripped Lord Jax’s guards and assassins alike, missing nothing. One-track-mind, that one.
I came to my full height, eager to be closer to my mate. I took one step before our gazes locked. Held. It was as if there weren’t bodies littered on the floor. No hint of danger, or a deadly assassin who might return to finish what he started.
For the briefest of moments, it was just me. Her. Us.
My cock pulsed, heavy. My balls tightened and I felt a spurt of pre-cum seep from the tip. Yes, I was truly awakened. My cock wanted this female and it wanted her now.
I had to get her away from here. Away from any danger, then I could allow the eager brute to do the thinking for me.
She tilted her head to the side and licked her lips, looking me over as if her desire was as strong as mine. Bright color flagged her cheeks, her eyes wide, searching. Roving. Perhaps I would be blessed with a lusty mate, one as eager to claim me as I was her. I didn’t care who she was or what planet she was from. She was mine.
“Who are you?” she asked, her voice losing the commanding tone, replaced now with something akin to wonder.
I knew just how she felt.
“Leo,” the purple-haired female replied before I could. “He knows the code word. We should go. You guys can… whatever, later.”
That female began to annoy me with her impatience. Didn’t she know I’d been waiting my entire life for this moment? For my cock to stir for The One? That my life had changed irrevocably?
I didn’t look away from my mate, yet I knew the logic was sound.
“I am Leo, captain in the royal guard, servant of Alera. I fought with Prime Nial in the Hive wars. I am here to serve you.”
Serve you in so many ways. Gods, I wanted to kiss her, lick her and know the flavor of her skin, breathe in her scent, taste her pussy, make her come and then sink into her. Mark her as mine. So I would be completely and truly hers.
I thought of the assassin still at large. Of the continued threat to her. This was no longer just a life debt owed to Prime Nial. This was my mate. The One. She was in danger, and I would stop the fucking rotation of the planet to keep her safe.
The brown-haired female smiled up at me from where she continued to treat the guard, with blood covering her delicate hands. She, too, wore odd, worn clothing. All three of them were. They had on pants in blue or black, simple shirts, my mate with strangely short sleeves. Who kept their arms bare this high in the mountain regions? Was it extremely hot on Earth? Was it a style to bare her body for others to see?
The purple-haired one had on sturdy dark boots, the calm one shoes with straps that barely covered her feet. My mate wore white cloth shoes with laces. Simple, worn, a bit dirty and smudged along the edges, as if she weren’t one for extravagance. I didn’t need expensive garments or jewels to decorate my mate. I wanted her bare, every perfect inch of her pale skin visible, only to me. To see the life flow through the pale veins beneath the skin, to run my fingers along them.
“So, Prime Nial saved your life?” the quiet one asked. “And now you’re saving ours?”
I nodded. I would die for my mate. Kill for her. Stop at nothing to protect her, claim her. But they didn’t need to know that. Not yet. “Something like that. We must leave.” I held out my hand to my mate, hoping and praying to the goddess that she’d touch me. She did not.
She did look at me, though, and my cock wept some more at having those beautiful eyes on me. “I’m Trinity.” She angled her head toward the dark-haired one with the funny, strappy shoes. “This is my sister, Faith. And that’s her ass-kicking twin over there, Destiny. We just need a safe place to stay tonight. Okay?”
“And some food,” Destiny added. “Kicking ass made me hungry.”
I glanced her way, said, “Are you sure you don’t need more weapons?”
The comment was meant to be sarcastic, but Destiny looked up from the unconscious guard she was separating from all of his battle implements. I noted that she was careful not to jostle his head or the pillow Faith had placed so carefully beneath him.
“Seriously?” she asked, looking up at me. “Hell, yeah. What do you have?”
“He’s kidding, Destiny,” Trinity told her. A beautiful name for my beautiful mate. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “If the guard is stable, let’s go.”
Destiny scrambled around to the guard’s other side, but my mate was not amused. And apparently, she was in charge, even though the purple-haired one was so bossy. Fascinating.
“Now, Destiny,” Trinity added, her tone going quite commanding. Fuck, that was hot. “Come on, Faith.
“Let’s go before more ninja assassins show up,” Trinity added as Faith stood and handed me my ReGen wand.
What was a ninja? Was that a special band of assassins on Earth? Had they faced such danger before? The thought made me shudder with relief that they were here, with me, under my protection. I didn’t think the assassin would show his face again tonight, but I would not lower my guard until we were somewhere safe, somewhere only I knew. And I would employ every tactic I’d ever learned to make sure the threat couldn’t follow us tonight.
“Fine,” Destiny countered. “I got enough stuff for all of us.” She stood and held out a blaster.
“I don’t want it,” Faith said, holding her blood-stained hands up in front of her.
“Tough.” Destiny shoved the blaster into Faith’s chest and held it until her sister slowly, reluctantly wrapped her fingers around it.
“I hate you sometimes,” Faith said.
“Only when you know I’m right.” Destiny slung the blanket full of gear over her shoulder, raised a questioning brow at Trinity—who held up the blaster she’d been using when I took out the entry door—and stepped up beside me. “Let’s go, Leonardo.”
“It’s Leoron.”
My mate sighed and tucked her weapon into the pocket of her strange pants. They, along with her shirt, fit snugly to her lean frame. They did nothing to hide her figure, the curves I would soon have my hands on. “Let’s go. I can’t take much more.”
We carefully climbed through the twisted metal of the destroyed entry door. I had no idea if there were other guests on this floor, but I had to assume they’d fled after the explosion.
In the hallway, Faith gasped, turning to my mate. “What about Cassander? Did you, you know?”
The consort. Fuck. While it was his job, I couldn’t think about that rich bastard touching Trinity’s skin. Kissing her. Licking her sweet pussy. Filling her—
“No.” She sighed. “But, he’s… dead.”
I nearly shuddered with relief. Not at his being dead, but at him not touching my mate. I clenched my fists at my sides. Perhaps it was good he was no longer alive, for I’d have killed him myself if he’d laid a finger on her. Consort or not. It was completely irrational. I hadn’t known of Trinity’s existence hours ago. Now, the thought of another male touching her made my blood boil. But, it also meant that Trinity was the one with Aleran Ardor. Who needed to have her pussy filled, to be soothed with orgasm after orgasm.
Goddess, she would not need a consort. Her mate was here, available and had an eager cock. She would not go unsatisfied. Ever.
“Oh, shit. Now what are we going to do about your little problem?” Destiny asked.
“It’s fine.” Trinity waved a hand through the air as if it were nothing. Either she was minimizing her condition or ‘it’s fine’ meant something different on Earth. Ardor was not a joke, taken seriously by everyone on Alera. Clearly, these females didn’t know what Trinity would be in for if she didn’t get it under control.
“I wasn’t going
to sleep with him anyway. It was too weird.” She scrunched up her nose as if something smelled bad. “I told him—”
“What? Told him what?” Faith asked. All three of us waited for Trinity’s answer, but me most of all. Did she have a male back on Earth? Was she already mated to someone I could not seek out and kill with my bare hands?
Was she hurting? Needed my cock filling her? My mouth on her skin?
I was shaking now, struggling to breathe as the sweet scent of her drifted to me once more. Aleran flowers. Sweet. Ripe. Mine.
She looked years too old to be suffering from the Ardor. Most females on Alera were well past that stage around their twentieth year. My mate looked at least five years older than that. A woman. Mature. Sexy. Stunning.
Trinity shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m fine. I’ll be fine,” she insisted again in a tone of voice that implied she didn’t want to be argued with, although I could see because of her tight blue pants that she rubbed her thighs together. No, she ached, her pussy throbbing with the Ardor heat, but was being brave. My sweet mate. “Anyway, he’s dead.”
“We’re screwed,” Destiny added, frowning.
“In more ways than one,” Faith said, glaring at me. “I told you not to kill him. We needed him alive so we could interrogate him and know why we’re being targeted.”
I blinked. What? These three were interrogation experts?
“The assassin? Absolutely not. He was going to murder you,” I bit out. I had no intention of telling them that I knew the assassin who had escaped. Knew the price he demanded could be paid by very few. Until I knew who these three were, I wasn’t going to share. I needed something to exchange with them. Information they wanted for what I wanted. I glanced at Trinity. “All of you.”
Destiny actually snorted. “As if. I totally had that guy.”
“And the one in the hallway?” I pointed in that direction. “The one who escaped? Did you have him as well? Or would he have killed your sisters while you played soldier?” I’d saved Destiny’s life, eliminated the threat to her, as any honorable male would do, and she was chastising me as if I were a child? No.
Ascension Saga, Book 1: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga Page 5