by Vi Voxley
Lana had just witnessed that they didn't speak the same language. Corden was a Brion. That was the one thing that would never change, the part he could never escape. And in that world, there was no room for compromise. She had no place there, wanting to be free to make up her own mind.
The silence lingered and neither spoke. There was nothing to say, no words to heal a broken bond.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Corden
Time stood still. The universe didn't seem to move.
Corden's mind was once again the peaceful, controlled realm he'd carefully crafted it to be. The braid was still in his hands, proof of his failure. The general wondered if that meant he had to cut the other too, but decided against it. The two braids symbolized completely different defeats.
He would have rather lost the other.
Lana had barely moved since he stood, cowering as far as possible from him. Underneath his newly reinforced iron control, a turmoil raged in Corden's soul. This one wasn't the same blind rage that had wreaked havoc on him moments ago. The anger he felt now was directed inward. It was a fury at himself.
He considered telling Lana the truth about all the reasons the Elders had picked him out to act as their guard. Corden remembered his initial confusion to this day. Lana would react the same, he knew. Words were meaningless compared to actions. He had to build up his trust with her again, before he could even think of explaining.
The look on her face nearly stopped his heart. Corden was the most analytical mind amongst the Brion generals. Her sudden refusal of the bond and her willingness to fight against her body's desires was perfectly in accordance to what had to happen. She was a Terran, after all. Even Brion women sometimes welcomed the news as a shock, despite being raised in a society where it happened every day.
Corden had read all of the reports of the other generals and their Terran geshas, as much as they had deemed to share, at least. Every single one of the women had reacted with the same resistance, their reasons for fighting practically the same. Brion women resisted because they felt like it or their fated was a disappointment to them for some reason, and because they had to, but Terrans... they found the bond itself problematic.
Honestly, they'd even made the Brions consider the bindings from their perspective. Free will removed, committing to a stranger for life... no wonder Lana rejected him.
She had done nothing wrong. It was Corden who had acted against one of the sternest principles of the Brions. Nothing had happened. He'd caught it before it was too late, but the memory stayed.
The anger bubbled furiously under his silent surface. But the worst was yet to come. No matter what had happened, Corden still had his duties. To the Brions and to Lana, whether any of them liked it or not.
"You have no reason to fear anymore," the general said, his deep voice emotionless.
The valor squares on his neck that he usually worked so hard to suppress were almost lifeless. Despite the anger he felt, it was all empty, burning without heat, because it lacked purpose.
Lana looked like she was about to protest, but didn't. Her silence was a heavier punishment than her anger would have been. Corden looked at his gesha, his reason to live. Even like that, she looked gorgeous. Despite himself, the general felt his cock strain against the armor, aching to be thrust into her hot, wet pussy.
All the words were wrong, but he couldn't find the right ones.
"I can't leave you alone," he said. "We have to find out what Worgen is planning. Until then, I need to protect you and stay in hiding. This is the one place the Brions would think twice before barging into."
Gritting his teeth, he added: "Especially since Worgen seems to think you will be his. He wouldn't let another man into your room."
Lana's eyes burned with defiance as she sat up, seeming to gain confidence from the fact he kept a distance between them. It was painful when all he wanted was to take her into his arms, hold her perfect, soft body there, and claim her.
"I am my own," Lana said coldly, but turned thoughtful then.
"But I think you are right," she added after a pause. "This is the best place for you to hide. The Brion patrols are all over the ship and there are simply too many people here. If anyone even squeaks about you..."
"You can stay," Lana finished, but her eyes were careful and worried. "But I don't want you anywhere near me."
Corden said nothing. All he wanted was for the sparkle to be back in her eyes, to see Lana smile at him like she had before. To taste her. The kiss they'd shared was a ghost in his mind now, torturing him with what could have been.
There was a small couch at the far end of the room. He pulled the spear free from the sheath on his back, noticing how it made Lana wince. Without a word, he rested it against the wall and sat on the seat, a guardian watching over her, as he should be.
"Sleep," he said. "I will stay right here."
Lana kept an eye on him as she obeyed, clearly exhausted, if still defiant. The general watched as his gesha climbed under the sheets, her beautiful body barely covered by the thin silk that served as the blanket. Her long curly hair fell in flawless disarray on the pillow as she tried to keep her eyes open. Corden sat motionless, content to simply be where Lana was until she fell asleep.
Only then did he allow himself to relax and consider what had happened. The dark days of the Brions were long past, but they made their ugly appearances here and there. In recent history, several prominent Brions had succumbed to the easy temptation of power. It was the very thing the Elders were fighting against, but it was a pretty hopeless cause. After all, how did one triumph against themselves?
Lana looked so peaceful in her sleep.
Corden had heard about the way Brion men abandoned everything to keep their geshas safe and finally he understood. He was prepared to do anything to keep Lana looking that way, as if nothing could ever hurt her.
He swore that nothing ever would.
Before, killing Worgen had been simply his latest task, but now it was personal. His gesha would never abandon the fleet and he'd never let anything happen to her. That meant he had to save them all.
***
After an hour, Lana's dreams became restless. She tossed and turned on the sheets, her face twisting in grimaces as she tried to escape whatever haunted her nightmares.
Corden watched with all the curiosity of a pondering mind. Brions didn't get nightmares. For them, sleeping was only about rest. If they dreamed at all, which they rarely did, the dreams were more like memories. But Terrans had dreams of a different kind, ones capable of scaring them to the core.
The general frowned. He wanted to protect Lana from all harm, including the ones in her dreams, even if they posed no real danger to her. He got up slowly, approaching the bed with caution. If Lana woke and saw him there, she'd never trust him again.
But keeping away proved more testing than he might have imagined. Lana had been struggling so hard she'd thrown the blanket on the floor and now lay with the tunic she'd been wearing pushed up. Corden refused to touch her, despite his fingers aching for contact with her soft skin, but he couldn't stop watching.
The delicious curve of her ass was enough to make his mouth water when he imagined what it would be like to push into her, to feel her tightness close in on his cock. No woman had ever turned him on like that, robbing him of common sense, of self-restraint. His very soul burned with the need to have her, to make her belong to him in earnest.
Not just her body, although he'd never wanted anyone as badly as he longed for Lana. Corden wanted her to himself, entirely. He'd have to trust fate to bring them together in the end. After all, no good things came without a fight.
He picked the blanket up from the floor and gently laid it back on top of her, taking one last look at her long uncovered legs before doing so.
As soon as the silk touched Lana's skin, she woke with a scream. The general caught her in his arms as she shot up from the bed, right into his embrace. She threw her hands around him,
murmuring words he couldn't understand. All he knew was that she was clinging to him for dear life, holding onto him like a lifeline. Carefully, he pulled her closer to his body, hating the armor that didn't let him feel her heat against his. Lana winced at first, but let him as shivers ran through her.
"It was the Flora," Lana whispered breathlessly against his neck.
To listen to her was music to his ears, her sweet breath caressing his skin. Corden never wanted it to end, but the despair in her voice was not a price he was willing to pay for being able to be close to her.
"It was burning," she went on. "There were people, dead, everywhere... And I heard laughing somewhere. I think it was Worgen. I think he did it. He killed everyone. And you were dead too—"
She stopped, as if the thought of his death finally brought her back to reality. Lana seemed to realize where she was and what she was doing. The captain pulled back, but not out of his embrace, her fingers aimlessly stroking the ornamented edges of his armor.
"I promise you," Corden said, "none of that will happen. I will not permit it to."
Lana's eyes were doubtful at first, but hope won over.
"It looked so real, almost like a prophecy," she whispered then, her voice shaking a bit.
"There is no such thing," Corden said, with the tone he used to address his warriors. "We are not puppets in the hands of the gods, even Brions know that. We make our own fates."
A sad smile broke on Lana's face.
"You believe in the bindings," she said, but it wasn't an accusation.
"That's different," Corden said. "The bonds are signs, pulling us toward the person we'd otherwise spend our whole lives searching for. Fighting to stay alive and not allow monsters like Worgen to win, that's the destiny we make."
Lana nodded, her blue eyes wide, holding his gaze. She was slowly edging closer, still half-asleep, barely aware of what she was doing. It was instinct that drove her to him, Corden knew that. Her hand slid up the surface of his armor, all the way up to his neck. The general was mesmerized by her, the slightest movement seeming like it was a spell she was putting on him. He couldn't have looked away from her if he tried.
Lana took the braid he still had between her fingers.
"You cut off the other," she said, her beautiful voice dreamy, as though she was still sleeping.
"I did," Corden said, allowing himself to take her hand.
Lana's eyes snapped from the braid back to him. The light blues were threatening to drown Corden in their depths, but he kept talking.
"It was a long time ago," he said. "I started counting the days from two defeats. One I told you about, the one I lost now. But the other... do you know what grothan means?"
Lana nodded.
"Undefeated," she said. "One of your generals still carries that title."
"Yes," Corden allowed with a grin. "Diego is the reason I have this other braid. I lost my title to him in a spar a long time ago."
"They count?" Lana asked. "I thought only big battles and duels mattered."
"Everything counts," the general said. "But after I lost, I didn't become less of a man like the title suggests. How could that be? I dueled with one of the greatest fighters in the history of our people and I happened to lose. I assure you, I didn't make it easy for him. But I was no longer a grothan."
"So," he went on, caressing Lana's hand in his gently, enjoying the way she didn't wince at his touch anymore. "I took on a new mark of glory, one I bestowed upon myself. And I haven't had reason to cut it since."
"What does it mean, then?" Lana asked.
"It means that being grothan says a lot," Corden replied with a grin, "but not everything."
He leaned forward, catching Lana's sweet lips in a soft kiss, but didn't push further. When he pulled back, her eyes were still closed.
"It means I have no intention of letting Worgen win," he growled, speaking with a fervor he'd rarely felt before. "You, the fleet, Briolina, I will take everything from him and break him before I grant him the mercy of death."
Lana looked wide awake now, still not pulling away from his arms. The drowsy sleepiness that had been there before in her eyes was replaced with a reassured determination.
"Will you help me protect the Flora?" she asked.
"Yes. This is not the Brion way. We don't make enemies of people who have done nothing wrong."
"You are a general. That means your own flagship has to be somewhere nearby."
"The Claw is close, yes," Corden allowed.
"Call it here," Lana said at once. "You can actually battle him. Alone, we're sitting targets."
Corden hesitated.
"That's true," he said. "But there is something wrong. Worgen doesn't worry about the Abysmal. He acts like nothing can touch him."
"And?"
"That's completely possible."
Lana frowned, making Corden grin, loving her temper.
"I know your ships are built to endure a lot, but they're not indestructible," she said.
"Mine isn't," Corden nodded. "I am not sure about the Abysmal. The technology of the older ships is lost to my species. We don't know what it can do. Until we do, I'm not bringing the Claw here."
Lana pushed him away firmly. Corden allowed it to happen and watched her stand, starting to dress again.
"You've barely slept," he said, amused.
"No time," Lana said, trying to stay out of his sight, avoiding looking at him too. "I need to try out something."
"What exactly do you propose?" Corden asked.
"We find out what the Abysmal is capable of," Lana said, pulling her coat on. "You said people can move between ships if they're smart about it."
"That was luck," Corden said. "Don't push it."
Lana smiled, the first true expression of amusement Corden had seen in a while.
"We just need a smart ship," she said. "And I know which one that is."
"One ship has no chance against the Abysmal," Corden said, a hint of warning in his voice. "The guns are no match to a Brion warship."
But his gesha was beaming, alive with a new purpose to drive her onward.
"No," she admitted. "But a ship carrying three nuclear reaction cores makes one hell of a bullet."
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lana
It was all coming together.
Lana waited for Corden's reaction. Her feelings toward him were all over the place, which was to be expected. The man seemed to bring trouble everywhere he went, but a part of her really liked that. At the moment, the captain was desperately trying to drown out her annoyance with herself by focusing on her new plan.
Great going, her mind pitched in. You close your eyes for a moment and when you wake up, it's straight into the arms of the guy who tried to force himself on you.
Lana wished there was a way she could glare at herself, because that was definitely not something she needed to think about right now.
The nightmare had been so vivid. She'd fallen asleep, thinking of everything that was at stake, at the mercy of a man who didn't know the true meaning of the word. The Raptor hadn't been helpless, exactly, but it was gone. The Flora was basically a huge, floating target. If Worgen decided to open fire, he didn't even really need to aim. It was impossible to miss the carrier.
And she was now the captain of that ship. The fact that she, too, was aimed at was a distant concern compared to the thousands of innocent people who didn't have a straight line to Worgen. Not that Lana did. She was still waiting on the general to tell her his commands. So far he seemed to enjoy keeping everyone in the dark.
To see the Flora burn in her dreams had been too much. Despite calling it a prophecy in the sleepy moments after waking up, Lana didn't really believe it was. First of all, the carrier had looked like a pyre, which was all sorts of impossible in fucking space. But that didn't make the image any less terrifying. She'd heard tortured screams, seen people torn apart and slaughtered. No wonder, really, that she went for the first solid, firm thing that
was close enough to grab.
The fact that it was a really, really hot man was a secondary concern.
So much for keeping him away, though.
The general was considering her proposal.
"Nuclear cores," he repeated. "You mean to fly a ship into the Abysmal."
"Yes," Lana said. "Think about it. If it works, we've dealt a blow to the enemy. If it doesn't—"
"We'll know how much damage the flagship can take. I understand," Corden said, frowning. "I don't dispute the plan. I like it. It's bold. You have more in common with Brions than you think."
Lana felt a pleased smile tug at her lips.
"Then what's wrong?"
"This is too easily traced back to you."
Well, that was both true and troubling. Lana felt her enthusiasm take a hit, but she shook it off.
"Everything we do, every way I choose to fight, of course there's a chance it comes back to bite me," she said. "He can't blame everything on me."
"He can," Corden said, taking a step closer, vividly reminding Lana how amazing it had felt to be in his arms. "You're the only one in the fleet with a spine."
Suddenly he's a smooth-talker, the captain thought. Don't fall for him now. Bad timing, the worst.
"I have to try," she said, hoping that it was enough.
It was.
"I didn't say you shouldn't," Corden said, grinning.
***
She no longer felt entirely safe in his presence, but Lana trusted him to succeed like she didn't trust anyone else. It was partly because of the things she'd seen him do, but also because he was a real Brion. Despite seeing him at his weakest moment, Lana saw real regret in him. Real desire to make it all up to her. And who better to help her than a general she'd seen take on Worgen and give him an actual fight? Win, even.
It was harder to coordinate the plan while one of them couldn't be seen, so Lana and Corden set everything down right there in her new quarters. After that, both of them just had to believe that the other pulled off their end.