by Mina Carter
Daaynal liked to present himself as the big, dumb warrior, complete with leathers and braids, but it was all an act. The male had a mind like a steel trap, could pilot not only one but multiple drakeen at the same time, and his litaan had been a mathematical genius who had written most of the base programming for the AIs in use across the empire.
“And the human female, Jessica, is the key?” he asked, proving Laarn’s unspoken theory that he understood the information on the screen by stepping forward and pulling up her records.
The display changed to show Jess’ picture on one side. It was the one taken when they’d processed her aboard the Velu-vias just after she’d been captured. Laarn’s heart clenched at the sight. She looked scared, her dark hair mussed and dirt on her cheek. Her biological information flowed over the section of screen below the picture but he ignored it—he knew it by heart—as Daaynal pulled up the section of code Laarn had found hidden in her DNA.
“This is it?” he asked. “And she’s the only one of the females who has it?”
“Yes and yes,” Laarn confirmed. “It’s the tiniest portion of information, but one that was deleted from our own code eons ago. I think, and this is just a theory at the moment, that it was an anchor point. With it gone, our genome gradually degraded and started to come apart, to the point we are now. As such, it’s only going to get worse. Soon we’ll lose the ability to procreate at all. Then we’ll see the sickness extended to adult males as it did with adult females in the last generation.”
Silence fell between the men for a long moment. Both remembered the plagues that swept their society, their women dying from stupid small illnesses in swathes, with no cause they could identify until they’d looked deeper.
Daaynal shuddered, but his voice was hard. Determined.
“No. The empire will not fall on my watch.”
Turning, he looked directly at Laarn. Gone was the amiable uncle he’d been talking to, and in his place was the emperor of the Lathar.
“Do what you need to do. Whatever you need to do,” he ordered. “Jessica Kallson does not leave this planet. Find others with this genetic information in the Terran prisoners we have. If you can’t, we’ll find them on Earth. Their defenses are pitiful. It won’t take long to break the planet.”
Just like that, the human women went from being honored guests to prisoners again.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Laarn bit back a twinge of guilt that he’d been the one to spark the change, but he straightened his spine with resolve. He was first and foremost Lathar. If humanity offered the key to their salvation, they had to take it, even if it meant subjugating an entire subspecies. “I’ll order the remaining females tested and bring Jess back in for more tests.”
The emperor nodded, arms folded across his big chest. “I suggest you claim this particular human female,” he said abruptly, his focus fixed on Laarn’s face. “If I’m reading your research right, she would be the best candidate for a pregnancy, would she not?”
Shit. He hadn’t seen that one coming. Suddenly wary, Laarn nodded slowly.
Daaynal smiled, the expression feral and predatory. “Good. Then that child, the savior of our race, will be from our bloodline. Claim the woman and get her pregnant. As soon as possible.”
Laarn opened his mouth to argue. A myriad of reasons screamed that wasn’t a good idea. She was human, and tiny… he’d already scared her half to death and that was before taking into account she would barely look at him because of his scars. He was a monster to her.
But… the little voice in the back of his head murmured seductively, she surrendered to you, was soft and pliant in your arms. She didn’t scream or fight when you nearly claimed her against the wall…
“Do it.” Daaynal’s voice was as hard as a whip and colder than the frozen wastes of Telu-noresh, his expression harder. “Or I will.”
“NO? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NO?”
Jess felt like she’d been pole-axed as she stood in front of Daaynal, looking up into an expression that lacked the normal warmth and smile she was used to seeing on the big emperor’s face. Now his expression was closed off and forbidding as he lounged on the throne, green eyes so like Laarn’s boring into hers.
“Have a care, little human,” he rumbled, an edge of anger in his deep voice. “That you do not overstep your bounds as my guest.”
She shivered at the note in the last word, all her illusions about her place at court stripped away in one spine-chilling moment. He’d lauded Jess and her companions as honored guests but the Lathar were ruthless. It seemed as soon as having them as guests was no longer useful, they’d be downgraded back to the prisoners they’d started out as.
Straightening her spine, she nodded. Something had happened to change the status-quo but she wasn’t sure what. There was no way she was asking him either. Just one look at his demeanor and she knew he wasn’t going to say anything. The emperor did not explain himself. Ever.
“My apologies, Your Majesty,” she murmured with a small curtsy. “I meant no offense.”
Her words were calm, but inside she screamed with frustration. The need to get home, to see her twin, was all she could think about.
“It’s just my sister is very ill. My mother says she’s getting worse.”
Daaynal didn’t move, still leaning back in his chair, chin propped on long fingers. “Be that as it may, the journey back to Terra is long and fraught with dangers. It would be remiss of me as your protector to allow you to undertake such a hazardous journey.”
“B…” She took a breath, schooling her response as she tried another avenue. “But surely with the reputation the Lathar enjoy, deservedly so, within the universe as premier warriors… no one would dare attack one of your ships? Unless of course you intend for me to make the journey back alone?”
How she’d do that she had no idea. She and the rest of the women had been taken from the sentinel base aboard Tarrick’s ship, any human ships destroyed in the attack. There was nothing here from Earth she could make a return trip in.
“Indeed, however I have nothing free that I can assign to you, not with the problems in the Rivaas sector. I might consider it in a cycle or so when the situation there becomes clearer.”
Tears burning the backs of her eyes, Jess nodded, remembering to curtsy again. “Yes, Your Majesty, thank you.”
Daaynal inclined his head, his gaze flicking over her shoulder for a moment. The ghost of a smiled crossed his features but she didn’t think much of it. She’d thought he was an okay guy, but it turned out he was as ruthless as his reputation had suggested. More fool her. She should have known that just because he looked like a human didn’t mean he had the same morals and values.
A gentle breeze fluttered the drapes at the windows, bringing the scent of the flowers from the gardens beyond into the room. The light scent would have made her smile before but right now, she couldn’t muster it.
“With your permission, Your Majesty?” she murmured with a curtsy, both signaling her intention to leave and requesting permission at the same time. Normally Daaynal just nodded or waved a hand indicating she could, but this time he looked directly at her.
“A moment, Ms. Kallson. I believe my nephew has need of you.”
“He does?” Jess turned with a frown, expecting to find Tarrick behind her. Instead, she came face to face with Laarn, his green eyes piercing as he looked down at her. After their kiss, she’d expected to go beet-red when she saw him again, but thanks to the emotions churning in her stomach because of her sister, she gave him a small nod, her ability to process new emotions frozen.
“Lord Healer,” she nodded to acknowledge him, using the term of address she’d heard some of the warriors use around him. “How can I help you?”
His expression shifted, the tiniest hint of a frown crossing his brow. “Lord Healer?” he asked. “What happened to using my name? I thought we were friends, Jessica?”
She lifted a shoulder slightly, keeping her expression level and neutral.
Friends didn’t kiss each other like he’d kissed her the other day, enfolding her in his strong arms and enticing her with kisses full of dominance and passion. But that had been before she’d found out about Lizzie.
“So did I,” she said quietly, unable to keep the bitter little note out of her voice no matter how hard she tried. “The same as I bought the line that we were guests rather than prisoners here. Funny how wrong I was.”
JESS WAS UPSET. More upset than he’d ever seen her. Admittedly, he hadn’t known her that long—it had only been a little over two months since they’d first discovered the existence of the humans in their little backwater systems—but in that time he’d been closely observing the human women, their manners and behaviors as well as their moods and emotions. He’d seen them scared, defiant, angry, amused, happy…
Jess was none of those things. Her shoulders were tight as she walked beside him toward his lab. Her lips were set in a pursed line and, as he cut a sideways glance down at her beautiful face, he swore he saw tears glinting in the corners of her eyes.
The sight made his heart ache, her closed off mood affecting him more than he cared to admit. What was it about one tiny human female that could affect him so much? He was a warrior of the Lathar. He controlled his emotions, not the other way around.
As much as he told himself that, it made no difference. As soon as they stepped into his lab and the doors closed behind them, he stopped her with a big hand on her arm.
“Jessica. What’s wrong? Did someone hurt you?”
She looked at his hand and instantly he removed it. A warrior didn’t seek to touch a female he didn’t intend to claim, not without good reason and never for long. To do otherwise was without honor. Now he had her attention, he had no reason to touch her further, even though every cell in his body urged him to step forward and take her into his arms.
The face she turned up to him was calm and composed, but the pain in her eyes almost brought him to his knees.
“My sister is sick,” she said softly. “I need to go home, but Daaynal won’t let me. She could die and I won’t be there.” Before the end of the sentence, a lone tear detached itself from the corner of her eye and slid down her cheek.
Before he knew what he was doing, Laarn stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her small form and pulling her against him. She froze, stiff for a moment, but then relaxed against him, the sound of her soft sobs filling the silence of the lab.
“Shhh, shhh…” he whispered, his lips against her hair. “It will be okay. Your sister won’t die.” He didn’t know that for sure, but he didn’t care. He’d promise anything just to take that note of pain out of her voice.
Falling silent, she nodded, her face buried against his chest. He tightened his arms, liking the feeling of her resting against him so trustingly. Guilt stabbed through him.
If she knew what he’d been ordered to do, claim her and get her pregnant regardless of any feelings she had on the matter, she wouldn’t cling to him quite so readily. Not if she knew she was a hairsbreadth away from being bonded to him for life.
His mood took a nosedive, his jaw tightening until he could feel a muscle at the side jumping. No matter what his uncle said about claiming her, he couldn’t. She couldn’t even look at him without his jacket on… there was no way she’d want to spend a lifetime with him.
No, better they avoid that. The little plan that had been formulating in the back of his mind took root and began to grow. All he needed was to confirm that Jess could get pregnant, and that the unaltered sequence in her DNA meant what he thought it meant—that she could conceive a female child, the first female Lathar born for decades. She didn’t need to actually get pregnant… all he needed was to confirm it in the lab.
“It will all be fine.” He smoothed a hand down her back, trying hard not to think about how good she felt in his arms and how perfectly she fit there. “I’ll talk to my uncle, see if I can get him to see sense.”
“Oh, would you?” she gasped, leaning back to look up at him. Her eyes were wet with tears, but the redness there didn’t detract from her beauty in any way. The hope in her eyes hit him in the gut, but that was nothing to when she reached up on her toes and kissed his cheek quickly.
“Bless you. Thank you so much. It would mean so much to me. Lizzie and I… well, there’s never been a me without her. To hear that she’s sick…” She shrugged. “I’m terrified I’ll lose her before I see her again.”
He frowned, looking down at her as he made sense of what she said. Thanks to the translation implants, he understood Terran. But sometimes how they said things completely baffled him and he had to think about it to decode it.
“What do you mean, there’s never been a you without your sister?” His expression cleared. “Do you mean you were born at the same time? That’s not possible unless you’re—”
“Twins, yes.” She nodded, smiling at his obvious confusion. “Lizzie is my litaan. Apparently, you don’t have female twins in the Lathar?”
“No.” Lady goddess, that was it. Realization hit him like a ship at light speed. The bridge code in her DNA was because she was a litaan. It was the only explanation.
“No, we don’t. Lady goddess, that might be useful. Can I…” he gestured toward the big diagnostic bed behind her. “Could I run a few more tests with that in mind? It might help to cross reference your DNA with the records of other litaan in our database. We have male-female pairs and male-male pairs but as far as I know we have never had a female-female pair. If humans do, that makes me wonder why.”
“Of course, anything that will help,” she said, easing from his arms and approaching the bed.
She stopped and, for a moment, his attention hijacked by the delicate curve of her neck revealed by her up-swept hair, he wondered why. Then he realized the bed was too high. Usually he made sure it was set on the lowest level, one that was easy for the much smaller human women to boost themselves up onto, but his last patient had been one of the bigger warriors, so it was still set near the maximum height.
“Here, let me help you,” he murmured, reaching her side in a couple of strides. Normally he’d have reached out and adjusted the height on the side with a wave of his hand, but he didn’t. Instead, he stepped in, big hands on either side of her tiny waist and simply lifted her onto the bed.
Once he had her there, though, he couldn’t make his hands let go. They remained locked around her tiny waist. She looked up at him, a frown on her beautiful face. He couldn’t do it, couldn’t let her go despite all the reasons saying he should.
“Laarn?”
His name on her lips was little more than a whisper, but he heard it. All sense abandoning him, he stepped forward, using his hip to push her thighs apart so he could step between them. Her breathing caught, a little hitch that did all kinds of things to his body that should be illegal, and her eyes widened.
A big hand on the back of her hips and he pulled her up flush against him. His cock, hard, heavy and almost busting the seams of his leathers, pressed insistently against her pussy. Her eyes darkened, and the tiniest moan sounded in the back of her throat.
He answered it with a low growl, free hand latching at the back of her neck as he tilted her head up to the perfect angle.
“Forgive me,” he murmured against her lips a moment before he claimed them.
His kiss was hard and unforgiving, less a kiss and more a punishment to himself for not having better self-control. For losing it the instant he touched her. He punished them both by deepening the kiss immediately, prying her lips apart to taste the sweetness within. His tongue slid against hers, not stroking gently but demanding her response.
It wasn’t enough. Would never be enough. His hand in her hair tightened, and she whimpered against him, her own hands digging into the broadness of his shoulders. The sound brought him back to his senses a little, and he gentled his kiss just enough that her hands relaxed against him. No longer claws against pain, but touching him, stroking him. Teasing
him in her own way.
Surprise washing through him, he eased up a little more and slid the hand on the back of her hips further up—a softer touch than he thought he was capable of. Than he should be capable of. A warrior born and bred, even with his healer’s training, he’d never be a gentle man. But for her he wanted to be, for her… He’d be anything she needed.
His tongue stroked against hers, and he growled in need as his cock jerked and pulsed. Just one little push. That’s all it would take, and she could be beneath him on the bed, her hair spread out around her head just like in his daydreams.
But then he felt her hands at the fastening to his jacket. Ice washed through his veins and he froze. Without being conscious of the movement, he clamped a hard hand over both of hers, stopping her undoing the garment. He wanted nothing more than to feel her hands on him, to feel her soft fingers exploring his body, but it wouldn’t happen. As soon as she felt his skin, she’d recoil and push him away.
It had happened before. He always had to pay extra at any of the pleasure houses for them to touch him, to suffer touching his marked body, and even then none of them had been able to keep the revulsion out of their expressions. He didn’t want to see that in Jess’ eyes.
“No.”
He disengaged himself, ignoring the howl of his male instincts and the savage jerk of his cock as it was denied the pleasure of sinking deeply into the haven of her pussy. The look she shot him, equal parts confusion and longing, almost broke his control but he stepped back, softening the rejection with a small smile.
“We have work to do,” he reminded her gently, unable to resist reaching out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear, his fingertips brushing her cheek before he dropped his hand. “The quicker we can do this, the quicker I can get to my uncle and persuade him to let you go home, okay?”
5
I t was all Jess could do to nod slowly and not throw herself at Laarn as he pulled away. Again. Sexual frustration and confusion surged through her, the feeling so strong she wanted to scream. He wanted her, the hard length of his cock pressed against her pussy when he’d shoved his way between her legs had proven that… so why did he keep pulling away? What was the problem?