by Cathryn Cade
She hoped his head ached savagely. She hoped it fell off and rolled down the hall before him. She hoped… She looked out at the ranks of her fellow guard and shivered. She hoped she did not lose her chance to be a ship’s guard.
She didn’t, but Sirena let her know that it was only Craig’s refusal to press charges that stopped the matter from being more serious. Tessa nodded, torn between intense relief that she would not be removed and chagrin that it was he who had saved her from the consequences of her folly.
“You could easily have lost any chance to be a guard,” Sirena said bluntly. “You could not have chosen a worse time for this outburst, Cadet. You know that the Orion was attacked from within on its maiden voyage—we believe it will happen again. Some might mistake your actions.”
Tessa gazed at her with horror. “Commander, I would never do anything to harm my ship—I swear it!”
Sirena raised her arching brows. “You may have the chance to prove it. Now then, I take it that you and the captain have had sexual relations,” the older woman said, leaning back in her chair and watching Tessa. “That is usually the reason for such tempestuous behavior.”
Tessa nodded, her face hot.
“And…?”
Tessa felt tears burn behind her eyes and set her jaw, refusing to give in to them. Sirena was too wise to the ways of male and female to accept anything less than the truth.
“He—he thanked me,” Tessa said. “As if I had provided a—a service for him. He said that it could not happen again.” She clenched her fists together between her knees. “He seems to think that I have lain with a legion of males!”
“And have you?”
“No.” Tessa shook her head. “He was the second…and the only one I really desired.”
“Ah,” her crew leader sighed. “Well, you are half-human. They do show a distressing tendency to give their hearts where they give their bodies.”
“I have not given him my heart.” Tessa straightened proudly. “I—I simply thought that…that we might have a relationship.”
“I see. Well, one thing is for certain—you and the captain must not be sparring partners any longer,” Sirena said. “Now, there are other things you can be working on this week. Walk with me, and we will discuss them.”
Chapter Eleven
The command team meeting that day was strained. His crew leaders watched him as if afraid he might shatter, Craig thought sourly. He knew that every last crew member on the ship would have heard of the contretemps at guard drill that day. He also knew speculation would be rife about exactly what had led up to it.
They discussed a few minor concerns, and then the meeting really went to the seven hells.
When it was his turn to report, Navos said, “I have isolated the malicious thought patterns somewhat.”
He looked at Craig with something like sympathy. The hair on the back of Craig’s neck stood up as he waited for the rest. “They emanate either from one of our Pangaean crew members, or our Serpentian guards.”
There was an outburst of movement and voices. Someone gasped, a few crew leaders emitted cries of disbelief. Mra’s green hair stood on end in distress.
Sirena was on her feet instantly, facing Navos across the holo-table with a fiery, dangerous look in her lovely eyes that reminded them that she was, in and of herself, a lethal weapon. Slyde Stone kept his seat, but his eyes burned, and the air around him seemed much hotter.
“Elucidate!” Sirena hissed. “If you will make such an accusation of one of our guard, you had better have good reason.”
Navos bowed to her with cool formality. He, Slyde and Panthar were the only ones in the room who did not look rattled.
Craig knew his own face was pale—he had felt the blood rush out of it. One of the guards had malicious thought patterns. One of the guards had attacked him without apparent provocation that very morning. Tessa Alligon. He still was not sure what he was going to do about her—he had run the gamut from wanting to humiliate her by hauling her to the brig, to keeping it purely personal, hauling her instead to his quarters, where he would order her to remove her uniform and bend over his knee. His palm itched to spank her sweet, heart-shaped ass until she begged for mercy.
“I have done extensive surveys of all sentient beings aboard this ship since we took off,” Navos said. “Using various isolation methods to cross check groups of individuals, I have thus narrowed it down. However, without revealing my work to the individuals being tested, I cannot proceed. Captain?”
Craig looked him in the eye, his jaw tight. “All ahead full, Commander,” he said clearly. “I want this individual found, contained, and if necessary, prosecuted. No matter who it is.”
Sirena nodded regally and sat down. “Agreed.”
“Oh, my green goddess,” Mra bleated faintly. “Another traitor from my beloved planet?”
Ogg patted her hand. “There, there,” he growled in his rough way. “Commander Navos will sort ’em out, whoever they are. No one would ever suspect you of having any part in wrong doings, Commander Mra.”
“Commander Mra and Slyde and I should be the first to be mind-scanned,” cut in Sirena. “We must not place ourselves above the ship’s law.”
Mra’s hair wrapped around her throat in comfort. “Yes,” she said with resolution. “I agree.”
“Very well,” said Craig. “Navos, you’ll let us know what accommodations you need to pursue further testing. As we still don’t know who was behind the terrorist attack on our last voyage, we cannot afford to miss an opportunity to find another saboteur.”
“Sirena, Slyde, as soon as you and a few of your most experienced guards have been tested, I want two of you on Commander Navos and his quarters. Should one of the guard turn out to be the…problem, we may need help.”
It went without saying that no one but another Serpentian, or perhaps a Tyger, could hope to contain a rogue guard. The commanders of the various crew sections were armed with self-protection in the form of pulse lasers, but Serpentians were so fast that most other beings would not even have their weapon drawn before they were dropped, perhaps dead.
Craig knew the precautions were necessary, but his gut felt as heavy as lead.
Craig stood on the command deck, his brooding gaze on the vastness of space. He was not taking his usual pleasure in the sight. His head ached slightly, even after the analgesic Tantar had given him, and his neck was damnably stiff. He meant to go for a thorough massage before the evening meal. Although of course that would only help his physical discomfort. Perhaps he needed a session with Navos.
He scowled as he thought about Tessa’s hands on him. She had stroked him so wonderingly, almost as if she had never touched a man’s flesh before. He felt the unaccustomed heat of embarrassment as he remembered how she had drawn him out, how he had talked to her. He was not used to sharing that kind of intimacy with a woman, had never felt the need. But with her it had been easy, somehow. Her matter-of-fact acceptance of his psychic pain had been as healing as her generous giving of her body.
Hours later she had attacked him without provocation. Little horned lizard. She had a temper—but was it more than that? Was she the viper in their midst, planted to do harm?
He looked around, startled, as Sirena stopped beside him.
“Permission to speak personally, Captain,” she said smoothly.
“Granted.”
She looked up at him. “I wish to speak about two matters. First, as you well know, our guard is the elite. Each Serpentian in the LodeStar guard service has shown that they are the best. They are all proud, even arrogant, I suppose.” She shrugged to show her disinterest in this concept. “If you bring them in for individual mind scans, you are going to anger many of them.”
“Point well taken, Commander. But would you rather we conducted clandestine tests?”
“No. Commander Stone and I feel very strongly that we must be open and truthful. If we expect our guard to fight and die at our sides, we cannot lie to them. I s
imply wished to warn you we may have trouble.”
He bowed respectfully. “The Orion is honored by the dedication and skill of your guard, Sirena. We will follow your counsel. Navos tells me the individual scans will take time.”
She nodded regally. “Second, I’ve been thinking about your…problem with my cadet,” she said. “While I don’t understand the sentimentality to which you earthlings fall prey, I do worry about my guards. Young Tessa seems to have quite a crush on you. It will continue to affect her work if something isn’t done. I can’t have my guards mooning about for ‘love’.”
Craig felt himself reddening. Now he was being counseled by his crew leaders. What a snake’s den he had opened up with one night of ill-judged passion.
“I don’t believe I said anything to make her believe I held such feelings for her,” he said. Damn. Even to himself he sounded defensive.
“I know,” she said sympathetically. “But she’s inexperienced in matters of the flesh.” She sighed, shaking her lovely head. “She should probably be removed from duty aboard the Orion. The Cassiopeia also has a cadet program, does it not?”
“No!” He flushed, as surprised as she by his vehemence. He realized that he had reached a decision about Tessa. “I…don’t wish her to be punished further. She behaved badly, but ultimately, I am the responsible party here—I didn’t conduct myself properly, and this is the result. Or, ” he added heavily, “she’s the one for whom we’re searching, in which case I want her on this ship where we can watch her.”
“M-mm. I have difficulty believing Cadet Alligon a saboteur. She has such an open countenance. About your personal situation, sir…perhaps if you were to have a word with her—remind her that she will doubtless have many, many lovers in her life, and that she mustn’t read too much into each encounter, but take pleasure in all the different men that she will enjoy.”
Something dark and primeval inside him raised its head and snarled at the thought of Tessa going blithely from lover to lover. He bit back the urge to growl at Sirena and nodded curtly. It was not fair, after all, for him to hold Tessa back if he did not intend to claim her for himself. And why should he want to do that after only one night of passion?
“I will speak with her.”
“Thank you, Captain. I will leave you to your thoughts, then.”
He turned back to the view, but stared at it blindly, his hands clenched so tightly on the rail that they began to shake.
He could not see that as she walked away, his guard leader looked as smug as a lizard with a fat cricket in her mouth.
Craig was not a man to put off a difficult task, even one he disliked as much as this Later that day he summoned Tessa to a small meeting room near the command center.
She entered cautiously, looking to his eyes lovelier than ever. He knew now just how silky the red-gold curls framing not only her face, but her mons, how warm and responsive that mouth, how eager those slender arms. The taste and texture of those little nipples thrusting at her snug uniform.
She stopped short, clearly not happy to see him, but the door slid shut behind her. He gestured at one of the comfortable chairs around the small holo-vid table.
“Please, sit down, Tessa.”
“No, thank you, sir. I’ll stand.”
He clenched his teeth. She was not going to make this easy on him. Well, maybe in her eyes, he didn’t deserve it. She had humiliated him, but he knew enough about women to realize that he had done the same to her by putting her at arm’s length after schooling her with relentless skill. He had used all his years of experience with females to persuade her to surrender to him.
“As you wish. I want you to know that the incident at sparring is, as far as I’m concerned, finished. You’ve been returned to full duties.”
She pressed her lips together, staring at him without a word, and he controlled himself with an effort. He walked down the room until he stood only a few feet from her.
“That’s not all I wanted to say. Tessa…you’re a passionate, lovely young woman. You’ve a full life ahead of you—one that will no doubt include many—ah, other lovers. Don’t place too much importance on what happened between us.”
“Don’t place too much importance on it,” she repeated, as if she were learning a new phrase in another tongue.
A flush heated his cheekbones. That had been an idiotic thing to say. Don’t place too much importance on an encounter in which both of them had been half out of their minds with pleasure, in which both of them had come at least four times, in which both of them had discovered she had a touch of the submissive in her sexual makeup, and he was the lucky male to introduce her to it. And he wanted nothing more than to find new ways to teach her to submit to him.
He rolled his shoulders impatiently. Damn it! Damn Sirena for the notion, and damn this stubborn little female for looking so lovely that all he wanted to do was pull her down onto the holo-vid table and show her a new position—with her bending over the table and him behind her, thrusting into her sweet heat…and hell, maybe spanking her, too. He didn’t know why he was so fixated on that notion—he had certainly never spanked a woman before, but this one aggravated as much as she excited him.
“Tessa, we’ve both been with other lovers—”
“Just how many of these lovers do you think I have had?”
He scowled at her. It was not, he discovered, a subject he wished to think about.
“How would I know? If half as many as I…”
“Ah, I see. You believe that I’m merely another free and easy Serpentian—just someone to whom sexual relations are as casual as a conversation. Well, I’m not! You are the second lover I’ve had, Captain. Unlike you, after the first time, I waited for someone who would be important to me.”
He was only her second lover? And the first to truly please her? Fierce triumph flooded him, along with a primitive desire to find the other man and beat him to a pulp. His cock stiffened so hard it strained at the front of his uniform. He didn’t know whether to be grateful for the high back of the chair before him, or not.
She raised her head proudly, glaring at him like a young queen displeased with her subject.
“But, don’t worry. I won’t trouble you with sentimentality. That’s for humans, and I am as much Serpentian!” she hissed. “From now on, with your excellent advice to follow, I’ll behave as a Serpentian. In fact, I should thank you for showing me the joys of sexual fulfillment. I will no doubt learn new ones in the weeks ahead—as I work my way through the virile males on board this ship!”
Rage boiled up inside him, such as he had not experienced since the wars. The seven hells she would! Why, he would—he stopped himself before he could ruin everything by grabbing her and smacking her ass until she promised tearfully not to allow any other male to so much as touch her. He was trying to end their entanglement, not further it.
But this was not how she was supposed to react—damn it all, now, as well as resisting the temptation himself, he was going to have to watch her like a hawk-snake to make sure she didn’t get herself in trouble. The idea of this wide-eyed innocent slithering into bed with every Serpentian who flicked his forked tongue at her made him boil.
He forced himself to nod coldly.
“Very well, Cadet Alligon. If that’s your wish, you’re free to pursue it. Just make sure it doesn’t interfere with your duties. It would be a shame if you failed to become a guard.”
That had gotten to her—she paled, her eyes flashing at him. There was that temper again. How deep did it go? Was it only because of his nipping their relationship in the bud, because he had hurt her by putting her at arm’s length, or was it deeper than that?
“Nothing will stop me from becoming a guard! Certainly not mere males.”
With that she turned and marched out the door, leaving him with a renewed headache and an aching cock as well. Cursing inventively, he sank into one of the chairs, massaging his temples.
Chapter Twelve
Sirena a
nd Slyde chose Izard, Yvene, Winder and Raile to accompany them to the first round of mind scans. Having been cleared, two of the four guards stayed close by Commander Navos while he conducted his examinations.
By dinner time that evening, he reported to Craig that he had found nothing amongst the first half of the Pangaeans but normal anxieties and irritations. The two men stared at each other. They both hoped to find that the angry crew member was a Pangaean.
Because otherwise, it was one of their Serpentian guards. If so, there could be a lethal renegade loose on the Orion.
“Watch this,” hissed Yvene, nudging Izard as he sat beside her in the mess hall. “Here she comes. Oh, after being set aside by the captain, our little Tessa is ready to grab some lucky male and squeeze.”
Izard looked up from his star fruit pudding as Tessa strutted down the aisle between the mess tables toward them. The cadet’s soft waves of red-gold hair were artfully tousled, her slanted eyes smoky and mysterious, her lips tinted to match the clinging top she was wearing.
Almost wearing. He blinked at the daring cut of the red halter. Surely it would fall off if she moved wrong. Hopefully she would move wrong very soon. Yvene was more than enough female for him, but he still had eyes, didn’t he?
A chair scraped back. “Sit here, Tessa!” Ah, Winder, with a new female nearly every week. He looked as if he’d like to take her right here.
She smiled sweetly at him and slithered into the proffered chair. “Thank you.”
Izard slid his gaze over Yvene’s shoulder. Their table was in full view of the captain’s table, and the captain’s eyes were locked on to Tessa like homing lasers. Craig did not look happy—in fact he looked as if he wanted to vault the head table and haul her off somewhere. Izard exchanged a covert smile with Yvene. Let the games begin.