“You are wise beyond words,” he said, nodding.
Talia sat down on the bed and looked at Mar-ee and Farex as they vanished behind a cluster of massive flower bushes. Lukan sat down next to her, stroking her arm.
“Funny thing,” Talia said, “he seems to have feelings. I haven’t seen that level of sentience in any of your other robots, besides Mar-ee.”
“He was a special model that my father designed as a gift for my mother. I designed Marie after that model. There are no other serv-bots like them.”
“Well, if he has feelings, then you shouldn’t just leave him sitting out here,” Talia said.
Lukan smiled. “You are so compassionate. I love that about you. I promise that we will take him back to the house with us.”
“That would be nice,” Talia said. “It’s pretty sad to think of him pining away out here by himself.”
“I do not ever want you to feel sad. What could I do to take your mind off that?” He kissed her neck.
“Well…” Talia grinned wickedly. “You did say there’d be plenty of time for me to do whatever I wanted to you…”
She ran her fingers down his chest and over the flat planes of his stomach, teasing him a little before stroking the hard ridge tenting the front of his pants.
“Since it looks like I can stay, I’d say it’s time for you to make good on that promise.”
Lukan gave a little growl of desire as she pushed him back onto the pristine white sheets, then swung her leg over his hips so she was straddling him. His inky black eyelashes fluttered and his eyes drifted closed. His lips parted as he relished the sensation of her hot core pressing against his engorged cock. Even through the fabric of their clothes she could feel him twitching with desire.
She rolled her pelvis, and his hands flew to her hips, fingers stroking the soft flesh as his breathing became harsh and unsteady.
Talia stripped away his shirt and tugged down his pants, hindered only by the fact that he kept pulling her close for a kiss, or rolling on top of her so he could explore the shape of her breast through her dress, dampening the fabric with swipes of his tongue. But Talia wasn’t going to be distracted from her goal.
She wriggled out of his grasp – again – and pushed against his chest, urging him to lie back among the pillows.
“Let me do this,” she said. “Please. I want to.”
Lukan’s cock bobbed at her words and his voice was husky when he replied, “Whatever my lady desires.”
Talia took her time, kissing the pulse at his throat and grazing the curve of his collarbone with her teeth. She licked his flat, brown nipple, humming against the sensitive nub and making Lukan groan and cup the back of her head with his palm.
She moved further down his body, exploring the muscles of his chest and stomach with her lips, her tongue, her fingers. She allowed her breath to ghost over the straining flesh of his erection and gave a small, secret smile as Lukan gave a husky groan and fisted his free hand in the coverlet.
Talia ran her tongue over the head of Lukan’s cock, satin-smooth and hot to the touch, gathering up the drop of precum that beaded the slit. He tasted salty-sweet and delicious. Then she sucked the tip, swirling her tongue around and around before sinking down, taking his eager length into her mouth, inch by inch.
Lukan groaned. “Ah…it feels so good…your mouth…” He panted, trying to catch his breath as Talia worked her way down his shaft. “So hot and wet…”
He was well-endowed, and Talia wondered if she’d be able to take his full length into her mouth without choking, but she took her time, sliding her lips gradually down his shaft until the head of his cock was touching the back of her throat and her nose was nuzzled into the crisp curls of his pubic hair.
Lukan groaned again, and she grasped his hips in her hands so he wouldn’t thrust by reflex. She could tell by the harsh, needy tone of his voice that he was holding on to his control by a thread. She breathed through her nose for a moment or two, getting accustomed to his full length and girth. She felt a shudder run through Lukan’s big body.
“Please…” he urged her desperately.
She started to move, slowly withdrawing, working her tongue against the underside of his shaft. When she reached the head, she sucked eagerly, lapping at the steady supply of sticky precum.
Lukan’s fingers tightened in her hair as she worked her way back down his shaft, more smoothly this time, and with more confidence.
As she worked his cock, she began to move faster, finding a pace that had Lukan shouting with mindless pleasure and thrashing his head against the pillow.
She ran one hand from his hip to his balls, gently rolling and fondling the orbs.
“Stop,” Lukan begged. “Don’t. I…” She knew he was close to coming, wanted him to come in her mouth so she could drink him down. “Oh.” Lukan’s husky voice made her pussy clench and she moaned around his cock. “Oh…don’t stop…”
And then he was coming, powerful pulses of his cock filling her mouth with salty-sweet fluid as she swallowed around him.
She lapped him clean, each swipe of her tongue against his still half-erect penis drawing another groan from him. Then she wriggled up his body and nestled against his chest, listen to the hammering of his heart and feeling the sheen of sweat against her cheek.
After a while, he stirred and looked down at her.
“You sent the serv-bots away for two hours,” he said, rolling on top of her, his hand skimming underneath the hem of her dress and up her thigh towards her core. She was already wet for him. “I intend to make use of every minute of it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Several days went by while Lukan continued to negotiate with the Federation. Talia allowed herself to hope again. She yearned, to the very core of her being, to be allowed to stay with Lukan and also to visit her family. She prayed that she wouldn’t be forced to choose between the man she loved and the family she couldn’t leave behind.
She already missed everyone back on Earth. She loved Lukan, and all the new friends she was making, but that didn’t dim the ache she felt to hear her father’s corny jokes, or bake pie with her grandmother, or listen to her grandfather re-tell the same tall tale about catching a twenty-two-pound bass.
She and Lukan went to the pair-bond ceremony as they had agreed. Cora Lee and Tristao looked radiantly happy, and Cora Lee whispered to Talia that she suspected she might already have some happy news about a cub or two expected in ten months – the length of a Vulfan gestation.
Lukan invited Fangor and twenty of his pack mates, all of whom brought elaborate gifts for the newest Thorolf pair-bond couple. Treffon made a big, public show of thanking Lukan, and spoke to the thousands of pack-members about the beginning of a new era of cooperation between them and the Wor-Lan pack.
Right after the ceremony, Lukan received an urgent call from Kaspar, summoning him to their building in the neutral zone. Patrivar, the Federation representative who lived on Ilyria, was there waiting for him, to talk about newly intercepted subspace communications between cyborg ships.
Lukan offered to take Treffon with him, but Kaspar told him that Patrivar had specifically requested that only he attend.
Lukan kissed Talia on the forehead. “I will explain to him that we are working together now,” he told her. “I am going to drop you and Mar-ee off at home, and then fly to meet him at once. If the cyborgs are stepping up their activity, then the Federation will have to agree to my demands. I expect to return with happy news.”
Talia felt a glow of happiness as they climbed into their glider, settling into the passenger section behind the pilot’s compartment.
After a few minutes, though, Mar-ee sat up and looked out the thick glass-like window with concern. “We are going the wrong way,” she said to Talia.
Lukan straightened up and peered out the window, a scowl creasing his forehead. “She’s right,” he said.
He hit the comm switch and snapped, “Pilot, we are going the wrong way
!”
There was no answer.
He hit it again. “We’re flying the wrong way. If you value your life, you’d better answer me.”
There was still silence. Lukan stood and tried to open the door to the pilot’s compartment. It was locked. He let out a snarl of frustration and kicked the door several times, but the door held solid.
Talia looked at Lukan in alarm. “I think we’re being hijacked. Could it be the cyborgs?”
“Not the cyborgs!” Mar-ee cried out. “They will violate me, because I am so pretty!”
“Lukan won’t let them hurt us,” Talia said, glancing at him for reassurance. He nodded, glowering in frustration, then shook himself and shifted. Massive in wolf form, he clawed at the door.
“Anyway,” Talia said to Mar-ee, “if the cyborgs tried to molest you, couldn’t you just fry their circuits?”
“Oh, yes, I forgot about that,” Mar-ee said, nodding and sounding more confident.
“Besides, not meaning to get too personal, but were you built so you could…er…have sex?”
“Possibly,” Mar-ee said, looking away. “Not exactly like you do, but I have recently discovered that if I open up my integrator module and accept an exploratory probe, then I can achieve a satisfaction explosion of the type that you humans would call an orgasm.”
“You recently discovered that?” Talia raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you and Farex have been doing? Is that why you’ve been spending so much time with him?”
“I am spending time with him so that I can educate him in how to appropriately serve and protect Earth human females.” But Mar-ee wouldn’t meet Talia’s gaze.
“Mar-ee, your cheeks are actually turning reddish.” It was true – her silver cheeks had taken on a reddish glow like heated metal.
“My circuits are overheating from fear,” Mar-ee said huffily.
“No, they’re not, you’re blushing.”
Lukan gave up on trying to tear open the door, and shifted back into humanoid form.
“Mar-ee, send an emergency message,” he ordered her. He glanced at Talia. “She has a communicator built in.”
Mar-ee shook her head. “I have been trying, but I am being blocked. They are blocking my signal somehow.”
Mar-ee’s voice was fading, Talia realized. Everything was fading, and the air smelled sickly sweet. Something was being pumped into the air.
“Talia?” Mar-ee’s voice was coming from a million miles away.
And then it was gone.
* * * * *
Alexandra stood in the memory chamber and looked down on Lukan’s sleeping form, a cruel curve of triumph on her lips.
Talia was lying on a bench nearby, strapped down and gagged.
Salvi was standing guard, not that it was necessary. One of the attendants for the memory chamber had sided with Salvi. After Salvi had tricked Lukan by pretending to be his general, they’d brought him to the memory chamber and wiped his recent memories completely.
He would not resist, because he now believed that Alexandra was his true mate. He would also step down from his position as Reginar, and give that position to Salvi.
Salvi would work with Alexandra to bring new women in as mates for the pack members. And in exchange, Alexandra got Lukan…and revenge on that vile man-stealer, Talia.
From now on, Alexandra would control the memory chamber process. She could wipe the women’s minds completely when they arrived, and put in new memories to make sure they wanted to mate with the Vulfans. She’d get commissions on every single woman. No more failures. No more stupid women whining about how they didn’t want to have that many babies. Who cared what they wanted? She’d force them to want what the Vulfans wanted. She’d make them into the perfect mates.
Mar-ee was restrained nearby too, chained up against the wall, cursing and yelling, with a metal gag over her mouth.
Lukan groaned and sat up, looking confused. Stark naked and delicious. What a gorgeous body on that man. Alexandra couldn’t wait to make him have sex with her. As soon as he bit her neck, they would be officially mated, and there was nothing that anybody in the pack could do about it. They would be forced to accept her, according to pack law.
Salvi’s hand tightened on his weapon as he watched Lukan for any signs of resistance, but Lukan looked dull and confused.
* * * * *
What had happened…? Where was he…?
Lukan’s head felt as if it were filled with clouds. He was in the memory chamber, he realized, lying on a bed… How had he gotten here?
His brother was there. His brother, who would make a superior ruler for the Wor-Lan pack. Lukan had promised to turn the pack over to him just this morning. Salvi would make a fine leader.
“Hurry up and do it,” Salvi growled at Alexandra. “I’ll wait outside. Use that if there’s any problem.” He pointed at a ray gun that lay on a nearby counter, then stalked out of the room.
What did Salvi mean? Do what? Why did looking at him make Lukan feel so angry?
Lukan looked at Alexandra for answers.
She was eagerly stripping off her clothes, a huge smile stretching her lips. The beautiful Earth woman who was his true mate.
His head hurt at the thought. Why?
Why did his heart hurt? It was like a throbbing ache…an absence. Everything inside him felt cold, as if he had been cut off from the source of all warmth and life. As if the sun would never shine on him again.
“Love of my life, why are we here?” he mumbled.
The words tasted wrong on his tongue. But why? He had met Alexandra on Earth, and instantly fallen in love with her. As soon as he’d met her, he’d made love to her every chance he got, and he worshipped the ground she walked on. Images of him driving his cock into her flooded his mind. Her legs wrapped around his waist. Him groaning in pleasure, crying out her name.
So, why did the sight of her in lingerie now disturb him so? Why was he filled with disgust at the scent of her?
He sat up. “Something is wrong with me,” he said. “I cannot think clearly.” He stumbled to his feet. He felt as if he had been drugged.
“You were attacked and injured by our enemies,” Alexandra said. She was naked now, her clothes lying in a pile on the floor. He looked away. He did not want to see her naked. He was sick. There was something wrong with him. She was his true mate, and yet he wanted to flee the room at the sight of her.
“Why are we in the memory chamber?” he asked as she hurried over to him and stroked his arm. He pulled away from her.
“The attack seemed to have damaged your memory, so we brought you here to restore it.”
She pressed up against him, her nipples stabbing into his chest. She rubbed her shaved sex against him. He jumped back as if he’d been burned.
Her brows drew together. “My sweetheart, my darling, what is wrong?” There was an edge of anger and frustration to her voice.
He shook his head. “Something does not feel right.”
A loud groan distracted him. He turned and looked, and saw a strange sight – a luscious, brown-haired woman strapped down to a bench. She was not only restrained, but gagged. She was struggling, moaning, looking at him pleadingly.
He did not recognize her.
He felt a strange stirring inside him, though, pulling him to her.
This made no sense. Alexandra filled him with revulsion. Everything inside him was calling him to be close to this woman lying on the bench. But he also remembered, as clear as day, the first time he saw Alexandra – it had hit him like a thunderbolt. He’d finally met his true mate. The var-hool had consumed him; they’d made love for days on end.
“That woman is a spy, and she nearly killed us.” Alexandra stroked his arm. He shuddered, but forced himself to let her touch him.
“She’s a spy,” he repeated.
The woman jerked on the bench, struggling wildly. He heard a strange clanging sound, and looked for the source. A metallic retro-bot was strapped to the wall, also gagged, and
banging itself – herself? furiously against the wall, struggling to free herself.
Alexandra frowned. “She did something to your mind, love of my life,” she said. “She shot you with some kind of ray gun that scrambled your mind.”
She leaned against him and kissed his shoulder. Lukan had the overwhelming urge to wash the skin that she had touched with her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Alexandra whined. “You still love me, don’t you? Did you lie when you told me that I am your heart mate? She tried to turn you against me, but I knew you were too strong to let a spy for the cyborgs destroy our love.”
“The cyborgs?”
He looked at the woman lying on the bench.
“Yes, that fat, disgusting beast is a spy for the cyborgs,” she said.
“She is not fat, she is not disgusting – she is beautiful,” Lukan said, then stopped himself. There was a look of hurt and anger on Alexandra’s face. He had told Alexandra that she was his true mate. He should not be admiring any other woman like that, and he should never speak to his true mate that way.
“I am very sorry. I don’t know what is wrong with me right now.” Lukan scrubbed his face with his hands as if he could wash away his confusion.
“You must destroy her, as you promised me. Shift, and kill her while I watch.” Alexandra’s eyes glowed with bloodlust. “And then you will claim me. You must leave your mark on me, so that everyone knows I am yours. Only then will I be safe.”
“Yes,” Lukan groaned, sickened by the thought. “I must claim you. I must.” He repeated it, trying to convince himself. He had promised Alexandra over breakfast that today would be the day.
Mate with Alexandra. Every cell in his body seized up with revulsion at the thought, far too strongly. That could only happen if he had already met his true mate.
But the woman on the bench was the enemy. He remembered now – remembered her shooting down several of his people. She had messed with his mind, turned him against his true mate.
“What are you waiting for?” Alexandra demanded. “Do it. Now. Kill her!”
The woman on the bench was yanking against her restraints with a furious expression. Why was she gagged? Why was the female robot gagged?
The Vulfan's True Mate (A BBW Paranormal Romance) (Starcrossed Dating Agency Book 1) Page 9