by Renee Rose
“It was actually three young. He carries enormous guilt because he saved Zander instead of them.”
Her daughter’s eyes rounded with the same sympathy she experienced for Seke.
“I believe his sense of honor made him choose his duty to the throne over love.”
“Sweet Mother Earth. That’s a terrible thing to live with.”
“I know.”
“No wonder he never smiles. But what does that have to do with having sex with you?”
She frowned. “He told me he was bound to another. He meant his dead mate. It’s another honor thing— I don’t know. Maybe a Zandian custom. Don’t they mate for life?”
Lamira tapped her lips. “Yes, but wouldn’t for life mean until one of them dies? If she’s dead, can’t he mate another?”
She shrugged, her chest a hollow locker, empty for Seke. “Apparently not. He seemed sorry about it but told me he couldn’t be with me. And I know he wants me.” She hadn’t expected it to be so easy to talk to her daughter about sex.
A tap sounded on the door and Barr, Zander’s amiable chef, entered carrying a tray of fragrant food. “Master Seke told me you two might like to share a meal,” the elderly Zandian said with a bow.
They both beamed at him. “Thank you so much, Barr,” Lamira said. “That was thoughtful of both of you.”
He lifted the lid from the dish to reveal a beautiful savory pie of some sort. “It’s egg and vegetables. An ancient recipe from Earth. It’s called quiche. Should be very nourishing for the young.”
Everyone in the palatial pod doted on Lamira as the carrier of Zander’s young. Both Daneth and Barr constantly researched human nutrition and sought traditional foods to strengthen her constitution.
Lamira touched his arm. “Thank you. Truly, Barr. It looks and smells delicious. I can’t wait to try it.”
Skin blushing lavender, Barr bowed several times and backed out the door.
Leora served Lamira a piece of the quiche and took a slice for herself. Even though she’d grown Earth-based produce on the agrifarm, they hadn’t had access to the fresh food, relying on tasteless, packaged nutrition packs provided by their masters. Here, everything she ate burst with flavor. The love with which Barr prepared their food, combined with Zander’s access to high quality meat and produce, meant they sampled the finest foods available in the galaxy. Eating had become a nearly euphoric experience. She took a bite of the egg dish, trying to dissect the various flavors. A light, flaky crust, rich, creamy middle with some kind of herb to enhance the flavor of the vegetables. A layer of thinly sliced nutmeat covered the top. “Mmm,” she said, her eyes rolling back in her head. “So good.”
“It’s better with company,” Lamira said, a note of despondency at her confinement in her voice.
She reached out and squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Tell me about Zander. He hasn’t forgiven you, has he?”
Lamira set her fork down, and Leora regretting saying anything that stopped her daughter from eating when her body needed the nutrition for the baby. “He won’t talk to me. He forbids me to speak when he’s in here, and he’s never in here anymore. I don’t know what to do. I think he truly feels like I would leave him—or would choose my family first over him, but that wasn’t it.” Lamira’s voice had taken on a pleading quality, as if Leora was the one she needed to convince. She wrung her hands, and her eyes grew watery. She dashed at them with one finger. “I’m so emotional anyway with the pregnancy,” she explained.
“Of course you are. Maybe you could write him a message. We could have Seke send it, perhaps? Explain you would never leave him, and you’d known it was the only way to get him to engage in the battle to save Lily.”
Lamira sighed. “It doesn’t sound much better that way. I put my life and his unborn young’s life in danger and manipulated him into doing something he didn’t want to do. It’s no wonder he’s hurt and angry.”
“Your sister’s alive because of what you did,” Leora reminded her, the burn of her daughters being strangers to each other still smarting. “She wants to visit us,” she blurted.
Lamira brightened a bit. “Does she? When?”
Leora took a bite of quiche to give her a chance to order her emotions around Lily. As she chewed, she sank into Seke’s reassurances. “Soon. Seke will arrange it.” When we’re no longer being punished. Lamira didn’t need to know that.
~.~
Zander sifted through holograms, looking for any he had not yet viewed or dealt with, but there was nothing new. He had moved his business operations to the meeting room where he normally sat with his council. The chamber was round, like many chambers in the pod, but it extended beyond the main body of the pod, jutting out into space. The half of the room that extended consisted of floor-to-ceiling windows, but the crystal embedded in the skylight provided the bright light.
The Ocretion atmosphere wasn’t ideal for his species, which required sunlight, rather than food for energy. The sun was filtered and weak, at best, but his crystals amplified the light, which was why Lamira had been so excited to grow things on his pod.
He looked around at all the flowers, food-bearing plants, and small trees clustered by the windows. She’d brought new life to the pod. His servants and subjects had accepted her—some of them even before he had. They doted on her, especially now that she carried his young.
He stood from the round table—so large for one being. It seemed to mock his intense loneliness. Being near Lamira pained him too much. He paced to the bank of windows and stared down at the polluted planet below, watching airships navigate through the space.
He’d nearly gone mad when Lamira had jumped onto Rok’s ship in pursuit of her sister. But he should have remembered how much she loved her mother, and that she’d apply that same love to the sister she’d never met. Would she ever love him that much? Or was she making the best of a situation? He’d bought her as a slave for breeding. After they’d mated, she’d asked for her freedom and he’d refused it, saying she loved to be his slave.
And it was true. The monitoring device Daneth had inserted inside her had scientifically proven she grew excited by his dominance—she loved his mastery. But perhaps he had misunderstood. Perhaps her sexual arousal at being kept subordinate to him wasn’t enough.
Clearly, she’d felt she had to flee from him, rather than seek his permission or request his assistance to save her sister.
The door slid open, and Seke entered, his cool gaze assessing. He strolled over and leaned one shoulder against the windows, looking down with a casualness Zander knew better than to trust.
“What is the root of your trouble with Lamira?”
He had to flex his fingers, which curled automatically into fists any time another male spoke of his mate. “I don’t want to have this conversation with you.”
“What fear is behind it?”
He ground his teeth. Vecking Seke and his vecking lessons.
Losing Lamira.
Losing Lamira forever was his vecking fear.
“How do you master fear?”
Lean into it. Own it so it can’t own you. He knew well his lessons with Seke.
“Veck off, Seke.” He purposely didn’t call him Master Seke. Though he was a mentor, a teacher, and a father figure, he was also Zander’s servant. “What were you so afraid of when you nearly knocked my head off in the studio?”
There. He’d flip it back on Seke and see how he likes a taste of his own teaching.
“My desire.” Seke’s voice sounded thick, and Zander jerked his head up in surprise, not expecting the older male to answer. They stared at one another, the accusation behind Seke’s gaze tarnishing the shine Zander had been polishing on his question.
He had to admit, he’d known Leora’s punishment would torture his mentor. Seke considered himself bound to his dead mate by an antiquated code of honor, which Zander thought unnecessary, especially considering the near extinction of their species.
He’d also noted Seke’
s interest in Leora, and knew the male would never allow another to punish her. But if he was completely honest, He supposed part of him wanted someone else’s suffering to match his own. Wanted someone to understand how difficult it was to love a human female.
Both their arm cuffs blinked with incoming messages from the death pod. Grateful for the distraction, Zander launched the hologram.
Lundric, his head of security, appeared, his torso hovering over the round table, face grim and splattered with blood that appeared too red to be Zandian.
Another incoming message light blinked on their cuffs.
“What is it?” Seke asked sharply.
“I killed one of the humans.” Lundric’s face was flushed, with emotion dancing behind the expression, which was unusual for him. Guilt and anger simmered there, projected from the shimmering image.
“What happened?” Veck. He didn’t really need more human drama at the moment.
Lundric swiped a large hand across his cheek as if just now sensing the blood there. “He forced himself on C—one of the females. I ended it.”
Seke raised his eyebrows. “By killing him?”
Lundric’s nostrils flared. “Their necks break easily.”
Zander almost wanted to laugh. Everywhere he looked, human females had turned Zandian warriors into beasts, himself no exception.
“And the female?”
“Cambry. I want her.”
“Excuse me?”
Lundric cleared his throat, looking as if it took great effort to rein in the wild beast he’d become. “May I take a female slave, as you both have done?”
They both stared at him.
As if he’d just realized his lack of manners, he added, “Please, my lord?”
Seke lifted his chin to catch Zander’s eye, and Zander knew, after years of learning to rule as he went along, this meant Seke had something to advise him about the matter.
“You are not in a position to beg any favors of me, Lundric.” He made his voice flinty. “We need the strongest allegiance possible from these humans or they’ll never serve as an army for us. Right now, you’d better be thinking about how to control the damage you’ve done to Zandian-human relations on that pod.”
Shame crept over Lundric’s face. He bowed. “Yes, my lord.”
Zander moved to end the hologram transmission, but Lundric stubbornly persisted. “What about the female? What about Cambry?”
“I’ve granted you nothing. If you want the human female, cultivate a bond.”
Lundric paled, but the crazed emotion drained from his face, and his features hardened into determination. He nodded, once. “Thank you, my lord.”
The moment the hologram disappeared, Seke held out a staying hand. “Do not answer that next communication. It is from Rok.”
Zander waited.
Seke paced around the table. “You cannot promote Zandia as the promised land to the humans—and I know it was Lily and Rok who built that story, but what’s done is done.”
When they’d rescued Lamira’s sister, Lily, from an Ocretion death pod, she’d come as a package deal with two hundred other humans sentenced to death. She and Rok rallied them to join the fight to recover Zandia, promising them all freedom there.
Seke went on, “You cannot promise them freedom and at the same time keep slaves in this pod. Rok is already questioning the nature of your union with Lamira. If word got out on the death pod that your mate is your slave…”
Zander pursed his lips. He’d already considered the possibility of the humans on the death pod refusing to fight for Zandia. But they had no choice. Zander had rescued them from an Ocretion death sentence. They had no resources, nowhere to go. They were, in essence, at his mercy. If he wished to call them slaves, he could. But it was better to have them fight for Zandia willingly.
“Lily wants to visit her mother and sister. She may be shocked by what she finds here.”
An itchy feeling crept over him.
“Zandians have never kept slaves,” Seke said flatly.
“That was exactly what I argued when you—yes you—promoted Daneth’s plan to purchase Lamira for breeding.”
“Just because you acquired her as a slave does not mean she must remain one.”
A deadly anger settled over him. He wanted to throat-punch Seke for talking about his mate, for mentioning the very issue that had been gnawing at him ever since Lamira left. He couldn’t keep her prisoner, and yet he didn’t want to let her go. He picked up one of Lamira’s potted plants—a raspberry bush, he believed she called it—and hurled it across the room.
The moment it shattered, he felt ill. He’d just destroyed a living, beautiful thing. Much like he’d destroyed his relationship with Lamira.
Chapter Five
Seke walked back to Zander’s chamber to retrieve his human, starved to see her beautiful face, smell the light citrus scent of her hair, touch her soft skin. He wouldn’t make her strip for him—not anymore. For one, he couldn’t take it. His rock hard balls were probably going to explode if he had to suffer any more unfulfilled lust.
For another, she didn’t require it. She’d proven her submission, had paid penance for her crime. He wanted to return her dignity to her.
But even as he had the thought, pictures flitted through his depraved mind. The image of her naked on her knees at his feet. The way she’d looked strung up by her wrists with her legs spread for her pussy whipping, the sight of her upended over his lap, her golden skin turning pink under the slap of his hand.
He’d known he would find training and punishing her arousing. Veck, just being in the same room as the female had his cock thickening. But the incredible satisfaction he’d taken in mastering her, in winning her submission and seeing her subjugated had surprised him. If it hadn’t been arousing for her, too, he would think himself disturbed. But she couldn’t hide her physical reactions to him. Those had been honest and as charged as his own.
He tapped on the door then pressed his palm to the screen to open it.
Leora stood from the little table where the two sat—more radiant than any of the spectacular flowers they grew in their pots. She curtsied prettily, a slight tinge of pink rising on her cheeks.
Veck, seeing that blush on her produced the same sense of masculine power dominating her had. As if his greatest achievement as a warrior had been conquering Leora. No, not conquering. Winning.
But he couldn’t keep her. Veck—it would kill him to release her from his care. In just two short planet rotations, she’d become his entire universe. He’d become obsessed with thoughts of burying his cock balls deep inside her tight channel. She’d squeeze those internal muscles, milking his malehood until he erupted, pounding her harder than he should, reminding her of his mastery.
Leora.
“Seke, thank you,” Lamira said, gliding over to him and standing on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “Take good care of my mother,” she murmured, squeezing his arm.
“I will,” he promised, although half his heart crumbled and fell away at the words. The half that had already returned her to her chamber, dismissed her from his training. The other half stood up tall and gripped his sword, ready to kill or die for her.
He wrapped an arm around Leora’s waist and guided her back to his chamber, without daring to look down at her face. Afraid he might stop and throw her up against the corridor wall again, and push his cock into that notch between her thighs.
Veck him, the moment they entered his chamber, she pulled off her robes.
“No,” he barked, bringing her head snapping up, eyes locked on his.
Veck, she was waiting for instruction, proof their bond was solid. He worked to swallow but couldn’t. “Keep them on. Please. I don’t have the willpower to look at that sweet little body and not lose all control.”
She held his eyes and resumed stripping, slowly this time, the robes falling at her feet in a merengue of soft white material.
“I said, no.” He tried to make hi
s voice sharp, but instead it came out thick, choked. Because he’d already received an eyeful of naked Leora.
Small, leggy, beautiful. Her breasts jiggled, dancing as she walked to him, the sway of her hips pure, purposeful temptation.
“I told you, I can’t,” he rasped, sounding as pained as he felt. He clenched his fists to keep from touching her, nails digging into his palms.
“Seke,” she murmured, grazing his chest with her fingertips. “My master.” Her eyelids drooped to half-mast, making his cock surge powerfully, horns stiff and tilted toward her.
“No.”
“Seke, I understand you are honor bound. I admire and respect your dedication.” Her fingertips touched his arm, not sexually this time, but it had the same result, sending a zing of electricity through his body. “I just wonder...if you could honor yourself as much as you honor others?”
His brows slammed together, the breath knocked out of him. Where was his infamous self-control? The discipline he taught his pupils? All of it fled when faced with a naked Leora, entreaty in her posture, love in her expression.
Love?
A shock of something ran through him, raising his skin into gooseflesh. What made him think Leora loved him?
But, yes, it was there, shining from her face, radiating from her heart. He literally felt it flowing from her to him.
And the last time he’d felt that from a female had been…
With massive effort, he turned from Leora, forcing himself to move his feet toward the door before he did something he’d regret.
“Seke, please.” She followed on his heels. “You’re worthy of so much more than you allow yourself. You deserve satisfaction.”
Pain lit behind his eyes. He didn’t deserve anything. He’d left his mate and children to die—had not managed to protect his own family when disaster struck. How could he ever believe he deserved anything but the agony that had become a living beast in his heart?
“Please don’t go.” She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind—as if to catch him, but without the strength to hold him.