Marked 2: Marked for Desire

by Jennifer Leeland

  Suddenly Leo penetrated her, and her pussy clenched around his hard flesh. All of them thrust together in time. Rhea and Sera came, both of them screaming and crying out. Conner exploded, the ripples shivering over Sera’s tongue. Leo shouted and spurted inside Sera, which sent another volcanic explosion through her.

  “Now!” Leo yelled the agreed upon signal.

  Two laser shots lit up from the crowd. One barely missed Leo. The other ripped through Shaun’s shoulder, only just missing decapitating him by inches. All five of them rolled away and came to their feet. Shaun was down on one knee, blood oozing from his wound. The crowd screamed and began to stampede in a panic.

  Five masked men appeared. Leo used a disintegrator he’d gotten from his bag, and dusted two men before they reached the stage. He shoved a laser rifle in Sera’s arms. “Your favorite, I believe.”

  “You’re so good to me.” She aimed and fired, slicing one of the assassins in half.

  Rhea took out one more with her laser rifle, and Conner shot the last one with his disintegrator.

  Three more appeared. Where the hell were they coming from? Shaun swore. “They’re tag-teaming us. Watch for more cells.”

  Conner took a hit and was slammed to the floor. Rhea kept firing. More men appeared. Suddenly someone grabbed Sera and yanked her off the stage. Her heart pounded, and she fought her abductor. But whoever it was pressed against her carotid artery, and her head swam. The last thing she heard was her mate’s inhuman roar, then nothing.

  Chapter Thirteen

  His mate was gone!

  Leo howled, his rage taking over. He attacked, insane, determined. He ripped; he shredded. His disintegrator ran out of charges, so he used his hands. He had no sense of fallibility, only the need for his woman.

  When he finally stopped, eleven dead bodies surrounded him, blood dripped from his bare hands, and Sera was nowhere to be seen.

  But the Brotherhood didn’t know the Nyral. They didn’t understand the mark. She lived. And she was near. He ignored Shaun, Conner, and Rhea, his senses reaching, seeking every inch near the stage to find where they’d taken her.

  Finally he discovered the small hatch, the hole, where they’d reached up and snatched his princess. He yanked it open, ripping the door off. Conner put a hand on his arm. “Leo, wait.”

  “No. I’m going after her.” He climbed into the dark corridor.

  Not again. Please, not again. I won’t be able to live through it this time. My mark is burning, on fire. She’s here. I can’t lose her. Never. Show me where she is. Don’t let me down.

  Behind him, Rhea jumped into the hallway. “You might need this.” She handed him a laser rifle.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “Let’s find her.” Conner appeared next.

  And Shaun followed after them, one arm useless, but the other clutching a laser rifle. “After you,” he said.

  Leo nodded and sprinted down the corridor. He went as silently as he could, his ears straining for a sound, anything, to give him a clue.

  His mate mark throbbed. She was close. If they did anything to her… He clenched his fist. This time he wouldn’t fail. This time, he’d save his mate. He heard a muffled scream. Then he heard a shuffle, and his princess let out a shout that rang through the corridor. Leo shot toward the sound, weapon raised. His heart pounded, sweat dripped from his forehead, and his adrenaline spiked. He wasn’t going to be able to stop it, contain it. Whoever held his princess was going to regret ever having touched her.

  A laser shot stopped him dead when it slashed through the wall just in front of his nose. He fired back as he rolled out around the corner.

  Two men held his woman, each one with a hand, driving her to her knees. Each held a pistol to her head. One he recognized as the Teran Three priest who had called her a witch. And the other?

  The second man flung back his hood.

  Father Pestori.

  Apparently Mira Fenway hadn’t stabbed him to death. Too bad. Behind him, Conner waited for Leo to signal. But Leo knew the minute he did, Sera was dead.

  “Let her go,” he demanded. What else was he going to say?

  Father Pestori laughed. “You’re in no position to demand anything, my son. Even now, more of the Brotherhood is swarming this place. When they come, I will have them kill you.”

  “Then I have nothing to lose.”

  Father Pestori twisted Sera’s arm, but she didn’t cry out, didn’t even react, though he knew it had to hurt. “You don’t want me to slice her in two the way I did Shanie, do you?” He stroked Sera’s hair with the gun in his hand. “She’s much prettier than Shanie, isn’t she? We thought Shanie was the one, but it was Princess Sera Placido. How interesting.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” The urge to kill was so strong, Leo wasn’t sure he could control it.

  “The prophecy.”

  Of course. It figured. His finger twitched on the trigger of the rifle. “What prophecy?” He pretended ignorance.

  “That your mate would create a powerful, universal faith.”

  The man dropped that little bomb, and Leo’s mind whirled in confusion. The fabled prophecy was about him? His mate?

  “It was translated by our great leader.” Father Pestori’s eyes shone with fanaticism, with faith, with insanity. “The stars were aligned for your birth, predicted by the prophecy. We knew you would mate, and she would be the one to lead her people to a spiritual connection.” He frowned. “Don’t you see? Of course you don’t.” The man sighed. “We cannot allow that. Teran Three is the center of God’s power. We will lead the galaxy to spiritual enlightenment.”

  Leo tried to collect his scattered thoughts. “Through murder? Through rape and kidnapping?” He kept the priest talking. Sera had shifted so her leg was near the younger man’s feet. Leo instantly saw her plan.

  “None of our order did those things. We hired them, yes. But it was God’s work, and they were God’s instruments.”

  “So none of the blood is on your hands. Doesn’t your Bible talk about a man named Pilate?”

  Enraged, Father Pestori spat, “You’re a Nyral deviant, a sexual sinner. You use whips and chains to foul your women and sex to bind them. You’re the devil’s hand.”

  “Then I must be the devil’s feet,” Sera said and kicked her leg out to sweep the younger priest’s feet out from under him.

  Father Pestori aimed for Sera, but Leo shot him. And missed, hitting his shoulder, wounding him. The younger priest recovered his balance and aimed his laser pistol at the princess. Suddenly, the man disintegrated, his dust blowing down the corridor. Shaun stood behind Leo, his disintegrator hot and smoking.

  “Shit! Stop him,” Leo yelled as Father Pestori disappeared around the corner.

  Shaun and Conner sprinted after the man. Leo and Rhea bent down to help Sera. “Are you all right? Please tell me you’re all right.” He ran his hands over every inch of her. She was alive. Alive. His relief was so great he had to sit down, his head in his hands.

  Sera climbed in his lap. “Leo. My Leo. You found me.” She kissed him, her hands cupping his face and her lips soft and warm. He grabbed her and held her. His mouth punished her for daring to leave him alone in the world. Her words shredded his control, leaving him vulnerable, exposed.

  He hadn’t realized he’d shed tears until she kissed each of them away. “I’m here, my Master. I’m here.”

  All he could do was hold on for dear life to the only thing that mattered to him and let the tears fall. She was here, and that was all that mattered.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Three months later

  How different Placido seemed now. Sera stared at the clear blue sky and the burned forest. The black obsidian beneath her feet was cracked and split. The skyline was changed forever. The temple was decimated. Very little of the structure remained. But Princess Sera had insisted on rebuilding another cathedral with her own money.

  They were all coming back. She and Leo had
worked hard to bring peace to the descendents of Placido. It turned out Nyral dominants were natural leaders for a people who hadn’t learned the pitfalls of power.

  The dark corridors beneath Mina’s and the strange words of the insane Father Pestori seemed far away. Yet Sera knew Leo hadn’t forgotten them. She had no intention of creating a “new religion,” though rebuilding the cathedral had brought many of her people home.

  When she and Leo had emerged from those tunnels, the vid streamers were there. He carried her all the way to the infirmary, where they assured him she was unharmed.

  He could have gone after Pestori. He could have continued his search for the leader of the Blueshift Brotherhood. Instead Leo Eyler had resigned his positions in the Nyral military and the Teran Interstellar Force to become her consort. Officially. He said the best way to defeat the Brotherhood was to become the very thing they were trying to stop. Make the prophecy real.

  How could the council have misinterpreted the prophecy so badly? They’d be studying it for months and years to come. And they still didn’t know how a Teran Three priest had managed to discover the secret language of the stars in the first place.

  Leo had helped coordinate the resettlement of Placido with the help of the Nyral council.

  But three months? It seemed like an eternity. All necessary time away from her, but she longed for her mate. She sighed. After all, he’d done something on Placido. The power no longer demanded and took. The planet seemed to work in harmony with its people. Nyral dominants facilitated the transition from an empty vacuum to a populated planet. Her people were ecstatic.

  Vid streamers annoyed her for a few weeks, but soon they moved on to the next scandal, the next victim. After all, a mated, faithful Princess Sera Placido wasn’t interesting. What would happen if Leo didn’t come back? He seemed to want her, but perhaps possession and love were separate to him.

  Oh, he’d said the words once, but it had been in the midst of a crisis, and he’d never repeated them. Sera wouldn’t fool herself. Perhaps he’d changed his mind now that he was home on Nylar. She rubbed her arms, cold, even though the air was warm and sweet. A princess with a reputation for sleeping around, partying, and causing scandal wouldn’t exactly fit in the Nyral lifestyle.

  Not that she knew a fucking thing about that lifestyle.

  A dot appeared high in the air, and she peered closer, hoping. Engines whined, and she knew, she just knew, it was him. Something on the planet thrummed, and her mate mark glowed mellow burgundy. He was here.

  They were king and queen of the new Placido, but it would not be the same. She and Leo had planned to build a culture similar to Nylar. Female oriented but male dominated. It took Sera several weeks, but she had begun to understand some of the political nuances inherent in Nyral government. Several female council members from Nylar came to Placido to help.

  Surprisingly several people from Nylar came to Placido to start over. Her planet’s population had grown from zero to over eight thousand in only a few weeks.

  She held her breath as Leo’s fighter spun through the air and landed perfectly on the new runway by the quickly built shuttle bay. He would be here soon. Her lover, her master, her Nyral dom.

  Beneath her feet, the planet surged in triumph. No longer taking energy from its people, the planet had become an ally in her work. It shared; it created; it exploded with life and beauty. One man had made it possible.

  Her Leo.

  “Princess,” one of her advisers interrupted.

  She dragged her thoughts back to the present. “Yes, Riordan.”

  “King Leo has requested I give you a message.” The man’s face was red, and he cleared his throat. Sera pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. The poor man. What sexually charged message had Leo sent to her?

  “Yes?” She kept her voice imperious and impersonal.

  He cleared his throat again. “King Leo has demanded his queen be in his chambers cuffed and naked when he arrives.”

  She wanted to laugh. Did Riordan think he was going to have to cuff her? What a joke. Leo would rip the man to pieces if he touched her. And what the hell did it mean? Was he accepting her as his submissive? Or just putting on an act for those around them? “Thank you, Riordan.” She cocked her head to the side. “Does it embarrass you to deliver such messages? With the new government, such practices will be commonplace.”

  “Oh no, my lady,” the man stammered.

  “Then why the red face?”

  If anything, it made him blush more. He cleared his throat again. “It’s just that”—he swallowed—“His Majesty asked if I wanted to…watch.”

  This time she did laugh. “He was testing you. He had no intention of allowing you to watch. Unless he planned on making you part of the—” The expressions flitting across Riordan’s face—guilt, chagrin, titillation—all hit her. “Ah. He wanted to dominate you. Very interesting. I didn’t know you leaned that way.”

  The fact that Leo caught on to Riordan’s preferences didn’t irk her, but she wished she’d known.

  The man bowed. “I declined, my lady. Not because I didn’t desire it, but because what you have with King Leo is…unique.”

  She smiled. Yes, it was special, unique. A second mating that never should have been possible, a male dominant who, by all rights, wouldn’t have acquiesced to being a consort, and a people denied their home by fear, a fear wiped away by Leo. All those things shouldn’t have happened, but they had. It was as if the stars had aligned, the universe had moved, and all the heavens had blessed them. And yet…? She sighed.

  “You’d better hurry, my lady,” Riordan said softly. “He’ll be here soon.”

  “Thank you, Riordan.” She had no intention of being naked and cuffed when Leo arrived. She might be a submissive, marked by a Nyral dominant, but she was first and foremost a woman. A woman who’d been without her mate for three months.

  Anger helped to deal with the fear. And she was terrified. What if he’d come back to tell her he couldn’t stay mated to her? Would he run away from the constant duties, the media attention, and the planet’s power like her father?

  Why wouldn’t he? She’d upended his life, changing everything. He’d become part of some fucking prophecy. Being mated to her never would have been an easy thing, but she, of all people, knew the burden of expectations. “The stars were aligned for your birth, predicted by the prophecy. We knew you would mate, and she would be the one to lead her people to a spiritual connection.” What kind of pressure did that put on them both? Even at the time, Sera had realized Leo held the key to the connection, not her. He was the one who had tamed Placido and brought her people back.

  She paced, her mind a whirl of disjointed thoughts. He’d cried when he snatched her away from death in those dusty underground corridors. He’d said he loved her. But afterward? Well, afterward, there’d been so much to do.

  As a compromise, she decided to wait for him in their quarters. At least if she paced there, no one would notice. Of course, her brain wouldn’t shut up and kept reviewing their last vid calls. He’d seemed tired, withdrawn. Most of their discussion had been warm but businesslike. Sera, completely out of her depth and desperately in love, had no idea how to bridge the gap. Had she said something wrong? What had she done to fuck this up? It wasn’t like she knew how to do this relationship shit.

  Maybe she was doomed to repeat her mother’s mistakes and love a man who couldn’t accept the whole package. She stopped pacing and stared in the full-length mirror on the wall. No. She wasn’t her mother. If nothing else, Leo had taught her how to deal with the power of Placido. Even if he left her, she wasn’t going to be devoured by the power here as her mother had been.

  She took a deep breath. Right. Get the fuck over it, Princess. You are who you are, and no one, not even the man you love, is going to make you into someone different. He’ll either accept you or he won’t.

  The door whooshed open.

  Leo’s blond hair was shorter now, and t
he scar on his face was more visible. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his features seemed tired, worn. Sera wanted to run into his arms and hold him close, but she stayed still in the center of the room, her hands twisted together.

  He made no comment on the fact that she hadn’t obeyed him. “Everything is going well with the intake population?”

  So he was going to play the businesslike game. Fine. “Yes, it’s going well. Several Nyral doms and their subs have settled here. It’s made the political transition smoother.”

  Her heart clenched when his fingers brushed over her vanity, touching her brush. Her lips tightened. “How was the trip back? Difficult?” Keep it casual and impersonal. What else could she do?

  “Yes, it was difficult,” he said softly.

  Here it comes, she thought. Now he’ll tell me he’s not good enough, strong enough to be the consort to a queen. She wasn’t going to fucking break down and cry.

  “Oh? And why is that?” She hung up a sweater she’d left on the chair.

  “Because I wanted to bring you good news. But I don’t have any.” He sounded…sad.

  Her hands shook as she placed the sweater in the closet. Time to face the music. She turned around and managed a smile. “Well, tell me what news you do have, Leo. I can take it.” At least she hoped so.

  He jammed his hands in the pockets of his flight suit. “I went through all the archives on Nylar. Second marking is extremely rare. So rare, it hasn’t happened for hundreds of years.” He cleared his throat. “It happens when the first marking isn’t a strong one.”

  “Like chicken pox.”

  His gaze snapped to hers. “What?”

  “An Old Earth disease actually called varicella. If you only had a light infection the first time, you could get it again.” She was babbling. Another example of her infinite store of useless information. She pressed her lips together.