by Cynthia Sax
The fourth brute backed away, snapping a braided leather whip protectively around him, deflecting Lea’s daggers. If Tolui had been alone, he would have pursued him, finishing him off quickly.
Tolui wasn’t alone. He stood in front of Lea, watching both Daisun and his remaining brute. The barrage of flying blades stopped.
“Son of a Palavian whore,” Lea cursed behind him. “I’m out of daggers.”
Tolui’s lips twitched. “You did well, female. Grant me the honor of killing the rest…if they don’t kill each other first.” He flicked his claws, taunting his opponents. “Do I scare you, Daisun? I smell your fear.”
“I’m not scared of you, Chamele,” the big male snarled, displaying sharp yellow teeth.
“Ahhh…” Tolui nodded. “I’m not scared of Chameles either.” He faded in and out of sight. A trickle of sweat ran down Daisun’s bald head, the smell of his fear hanging heavily in the air.
“Nor am I scared of genetically enhanced clones.” Tolui dashed forward at full speed and sliced his claws through one of Daisun’s wrists. He returned to his original position before the hand fell to the sand and the male registered the wound.
Lea’s tormenter howled and waved his severed limb, blood spraying from his wrist. The crowd cheered.
“But I am Tolui and you should fear me.” Tolui turned his head and gazed at the brute with the whip. He spread his claws.
The brute dropped his whip and ran. He made it to the base of the mountain before a male in the crowd split his head open with an axe.
“Your people are tough, gerel,” Tolui conceded.
“They’re angry and frustrated,” Lea explained. “The brute helped Daisun take that male’s female.”
“Daisun took his female.” Tolui raised his voice as he slowly scanned the crowd, making eye contact with each male. “Does he not want to fight beside me and avenge his mate?”
Tolui darted toward Daisun and slashed his claws across the big male’s thighs. His opponent turned moments later, roaring, his movements disgustingly slow.
The crowd cheered louder this time.
Daisun’s blood pooled around his boots and he staggered, his movements slowing. Although his enemy’s heartbeats appeared numbered, Tolui continued to guard Lea, not taking any chances with his gerel.
“Finish him off,” Lea urged.
“He remains useful.” Tolui waited, knowing the power of a united cause. His clone brothers would die for their cause, the dream of a homeland. If the squatters remembered what they believed in and banded together, they’d protect themselves and Lea.
“I will fight beside you, Tolui.” The wronged squatter finally lumbered forward, his axe blade covered with blood and gore. The crowd shouted their approval, the males lifting their weapons above their heads.
“Then we strike together.” Tolui ran toward Daisun. The brute raised one of his swords. Tolui severed Daisun’s hand with his claws and caught his weapon as it fell. The squatter grunted as he swung his axe, slicing through the brute’s shoulder.
Tolui moved to the edge of the crowd and rammed Daisun’s sword into the ground, burying it up to its hilt. “No being dares to touch my gerel.” He stalked to Lea and took her hands in his, needing to touch her, to reassure himself that she was safe, she was his.
Lea smiled up at him. The musk of her arousal filled his nostrils. “Now that Daisun is dead,” she murmured. The male lay on the ground, hacked apart by the vengeful squatter. “Our people need a leader.” They chanted his name.
Her unspoken suggestion, that he be their leader, tempted Tolui. He wouldn’t have to leave her. There’d be no more battles, no more loneliness, no more wandering the skies, searching for a home.
Tolui gritted his teeth, suppressing his selfish thoughts. “I already have a people and they need me more than the squatters need me.”
Lea’s smile wavered. “Do your clone brothers need you more than I need you?”
Tolui squeezed her slender fingers. “They have no one and nothing, Lea. I won’t abandon them as my source abandoned me. I won’t forget about them.”
Lea’s eyes softened. “I’d never ask you to abandon them.” She leaned forward and rose up on her tiptoes, grasping his shoulders, her touch rough, her embrace belonging to a warrior woman. Tolui lowered his head and she pressed her lips against his, her kiss sweetly chaste. “I’m proud to be your gerel.”
Her quiet words reached deep down inside him and coiled around his heart. A warmth spread over his chest and up his neck. “I’ll end this war quickly, Lea, and I’ll return to you.” He strapped his arms around her waist, holding her tightly. “Then nothing will part us ever again. We’ll spend our lifetimes together.”
“Is that a promise?” She tilted her head back, her curls cascading down her back.
Tolui held her gaze, allowing all of his emotions to show. “That’s a vow.”
Chapter Five
Midway through the next planet rotation, Lea laid her garments over the boulders, excitement and nervousness and dread fighting for dominance in her heart. “You would think having garments made of the same material and same color would make the selection easier but it doesn’t.” She paired one chest covering with another leg coverings and she frowned. “It makes it more complex because every top goes with every bottom.”
“I have one pair of leg coverings. That makes the selection very easy.” Tolui watched her, his forehead furrowed. “It doesn’t make a difference what you wear, Lea. My need for you doesn’t change with your garments.”
Lea glanced at Tolui. His hard cock strained against his leather leg coverings. “Your need doesn’t change.” Some of her tension eased, his constant arousal reassuring her. “We’ve rutted twice since sunrise.”
“You remain naked,” he pointed out, his gaze fixed on her taut nipples.
“Because I can’t decide on my garments.” She stood back, perusing her selection. “I want your warriors to accept me.” Lea worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “I shouldn’t reveal too much skin.” She removed three of her more revealing chest coverings from the boulders. “I want them to look at my face, not at my breasts.”
“They won’t look at your breasts,” Tolui growled, folding his fingers into fists. “Your breasts are mine to look at, mine to touch.” He moved closer to her.
She breathed in, inhaling his musky scent. “No other male will touch me.” Lea discarded four more leg coverings, the leather on those garments pulling too tightly across her ass.
“My clone brothers resemble me,” Tolui mentioned for the fifth time since the sunrise. “We were produced physically identical.” He unfastened his leg coverings.
“You’re not longer emotionally or intellectually identical,” Lea told him yet again. “Your experiences have changed you.”
“You’ve changed me.” Tolui spun her around, slapped one of his palms between her shoulders and bent her naked body over a boulder.
“We aren’t rutting.” She wiggled, her protest sounding weak to her own ears. “We’ve both bathed.” She straightened.
“Be still.” Tolui pushed her down. “You’ve washed my scent off your body.” He parted her ass cheeks and stroked his fingertips down the crevice, teasing her puckered hole. She trembled, thrilled with his rough handling. “They won’t know you belong to me.” He glided his fingers over her pussy, spreading wetness and arousal.
“If you redden my ass, they’ll know I belong to you.” Lea squirmed, needing the burn.
Tolui’s rough palm smacked against her skin, the sound obscenely loud and the pain exquisite. “They won’t see your ass,” he told her. She moaned as Tolui abused her curves. “This ass is mine.” His loving blows rained down on her body, his slaps reassuringly controlled, using only a fraction of his strength. Lea’s passion ignited, her pussy juices flowing down her thighs.
“I need to mark you everywhere.” He rubbed his fingers over Lea’s heated ass. “There can be no confusion as to whom you belong to, s
lave.”
“I am your slave.” She belonged to him. As Tolui caressed her, her nipples rubbed against the garment-covered boulder, the friction stimulating her even more. “Pound into me, Tolui. Reshape my body to fit you and only you. Then fill me with your seed, your scent, your everything, so no other male will ever be enough for me.”
“Only I will fill you.” He yanked his leg coverings down to his knees, peeling the leather away from his tanned skin. “Only I will give you what you need.” Tolui prodded her pussy with his cock head, gripping her hips with his fingers.
“Only you, Tolui.” She pushed backward, impaling herself on his cock, her pussy stretching around his girth.
“Be still.” He pulled out, denying her that delectable fullness.
“Tolui,” Lea protested, tormented by her need.
“Quiet.” He drove into her, burying his cock up to his base, smacking his hips against her ass and slapping his balls against her skin. She shrieked, clenching down on his shaft, close to fulfillment.
“You won’t come, slave.” Tolui drew his hips back, sliding his cock head along her inner walls. “Not until I give you permission. I control your release.” He thrust into her, plunging deeper, and she moaned, clutching the edge of the boulder. “I control you.”
Tolui rode her hard, savagely, and she loved it, reveling in his passion, in his unbridled strength, her body flushing with heat and need. He was dangerous and deadly, worthy of her submission, of her love.
I love him. Lea stilled, her sudden halt of movement throwing Tolui’s rhythm off.
“Move, gerel.” He slapped her ass, the rough contact bringing her focus back to their rutting.
I love him. She swayed into Tolui, taking his cock deeper. I love this tough proud honorable male.
Tolui grunted, driving into her again and again as though he truly sought to ruin her for other males. His thrusts shook her body, rattled her bones, pushed her toward the edge of release. Lea’s pussy tightened around his shaft, the additional friction shredding her control.
She gritted her teeth, holding back her orgasm, determined to prove herself worthy of him, to earn his love. Perspiration dripped down her cheeks. Tolui lowered his body over hers, his chest rubbing along her back, his hot breath wafting against her neck. His shaft swelled.
“Tolui.” Lea undulated under him, loving him with everything she had. “I need…”
“I know what you need.” He scraped his teeth along her skin and tremors rolled over her shoulders, down her spine. “You need me.” He sucked on her shoulder blade and she whimpered, shaking uncontrollably. “Come for me, gerel. Come now.” He bit down, severing her tenuous hold on reality.
“Tolui,” Lea screamed, the pleasure too much, too intense. He roared and slammed into her, filling her completely, hot cum shooting out of his cock. She pushed upward, bucking, trying to move him. She couldn’t. He was too heavy, too strong, too big, his swollen shaft lodged inside her tight pussy.
“Lea.” Tolui pushed his cock deeper, his muscles rippling, a sheen of perspiration covering him. He sucked and licked the mark on her shoulder, bracing himself up with his arms.
She fluttered under him, trusting Tolui to keep her safe, her thoughts hazy and her limbs limp. “I love you.” The words slipped out before she could stop them. She stiffened. Did I make a mistake?
He nuzzled the back of her neck, his lips warm and firm. “You could care for a clone?”
“No, I couldn’t care for any clone.” Lea looked over her shoulder. Tolui gazed down at her, his eyes as black as space. “But I could care for you.” She squeezed his cock with her inner muscles. “I do care for you, Tolui.” She took a deep breath, counted to five and exhaled. “I love you.”
He didn’t say anything, the silence torturing her.
“I’ve never said that to any other being,” she admitted, needing him to know the words were significant. “Only to you.”
“Thank you,” Tolui said quietly. He pressed his lips to her shoulder.
* * * * *
Tolui stared with horror at the pieced-together monstrosity Lea called a ship. When they’d removed the sand-covered hides she’d used to conceal the vessel, two battered panels had fallen off. The rest of it leaned heavily to one side and defied all of the known rules of aerodynamics.
“You’ll never attempt to fly this ship.” He circled the spacecraft, furious she’d even consider it. The craft looked badly constructed from every angle. “Whoever taught you how to repair ships should be killed…slowly.”
“I taught myself.” Lea lifted her chin, her eyes flashing. “My ship isn’t beautiful but it is functional.” She flipped the emergency release switch. Metal scraped against metal and a door fell off, landing on the sand. Lea’s face turned red. “I can fix that.” She extracted a portable light source from her pack.
“There’s no need to fix it. You won’t be flying this ship.” Tolui lifted the pack with the small power converter and followed her into the vessel. The interior was worse than the exterior. Cables hung from the ceiling. Floor tiles were missing. Jagged pieces of metal caught on his leg coverings. “Does the communicator work?”
“I don’t know if it works. I’ve never tried it,” Lea confessed as they entered the bridge. The seats and console were different colors and sizes. The closed viewscreens were so severely cracked, they’d burst with the slightest change in air pressure.
“You are a gifted garment fabricator, a fierce warrior, and a gerel without equal.” Tolui shook his head. “But you have no knowledge of craft construction.” He located the main panel, the design similar to one of his first stolen ships. The power converter appeared to be from the same solar cycle, the cables frayed and the metal corroded. “Was there a crank-powered communicator in the ship?”
“I’ve never found one, not in any of the crashes I’ve salvaged from.” Lea crouched beside him, her musk teasing his senses and her proximity soothing him. “Can you make it operational?”
“Yes.” Tolui leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers, the tips of their noses touching. He wanted her again, always. “Do you have tools?”
“Do I have tools?” Lea straightened, grinning, her happiness lightening his grim mood. “Wait here.” She hurried away, taking the light source with her, her oversized boots tapping on the metallic floor tiles.
Tolui’s vision adjusted to the darkness. He extended the claws on one of his hands and stripped the cables from the ship’s communicator, disconnecting it from the main system, decreasing the likelihood of their experiment killing them.
Lea returned, huffing and puffing, a huge pack in her small hands. “I have tools.” Pride edged her sweet voice. She dumped the contents of the pack onto the metal floor. Tools from multiple cultures and multiple time intervals spilled over the space. “Do you see what you need?” She waved at the pile.
“Yes, I see what I need.” Tolui’s voice lowered. He met her gaze and her breath caught, that small sound enthralling him. She cared for him, loved him, his beautiful, spirited female, and he dreaded leaving her but he had no choice. He couldn’t risk her safety and he wouldn’t abandon his clone brothers.
He selected a fastening tool and focused on making the communicator functional. Lea kneeled on the floor and sorted the tools into different sizes and shapes, working diligently, clearly having no concept of what the tools were used for.
“When I return, I’ll teach you about craft construction.” Tolui twisted the cable around the power converter outlets. A spark singed his fingertips, the pain sharp.
“If you return, I won’t need to construct a ship.” She frowned, her gaze on his fingertips. “You hurt yourself.”
“The burn will heal in heartbeats and I will return to you.” He pressed his palm against the power converter’s reset panel. The communicator hummed. The small viewscreen flickered and then illuminated fully. “It works.” Tolui filled the captain’s chair, laid the communicator on the console and grinned at Lea, plea
sed.
She grinned back, choosing the seat closest to him. “You’re a clever warrior.”
Her admiration warmed his chest. “I’ll find the communications channel.” He scrolled through the space chatter and located the right setting. “Tolui to Four, Five, Six, Eight.” He spoke directly into the device.
“Four to Tolui.” His best warrior’s voice crackled. “Five has gone to the final homeland, master.”
Tolui bowed his head, sadness shrouding his soul. “He fought well.” Five had been a good male, a great warrior, and a close friend. Lea placed her hand on his shoulder, her touch comforting him. He pushed his grief aside, unable to deal with it now. “Do you have my coordinates?”
“I have located the source of your signal, master.”
“The entire planet is to be monitored, Four.” Tolui looked at Lea. “It is…special.” There was a long pause, his warrior not responding. “No hostiles are to attack the planet, do you understand?” Tolui barked.
“I understand…my lord.” His normally taciturn warrior’s voice lilted as though with excitement. “We will protect the planet with our lives.”
Tolui frowned. Only a Warlord, a master of a planet, was addressed as my lord. “You are to rendezvous at these coordinates as quickly as possible.” The Chameles could intercept the communications, locating both himself and Lea. He would delve into his warrior’s peculiar behavior later.
“Yes, my lord.”
“End transmission.” Tolui hooked his arm around his female’s waist and pulled her into his lap. “The ship will arrive soon.”
“When it arrives, you’ll leave me.” Lea traced a scar on his cheek with one of her fingers. “Four sounded happy to hear your voice.” She skimmed her fingertip over his bottom lip.
“He sounded too happy.” Tolui nipped at her calloused skin and she yipped, drawing her hand away.
“Perhaps the war is over.” Lea’s eyes lit with a hope he didn’t have the heart to crush.