by Roxie Ray
I supposed if Alyse and Nion’s twins could share a womb, I could share a ship with a Rutharian. At least a spaceship was considerably less cramped.
“We’re going back to Lunaria, aren’t we?”
Eve shot the question at me as soon as I entered the room we’d be sharing. It was decked out in Rutharian finery, which meant a strange bed that hung from the ceiling by a chain at each corner and a mattress covered in a bizarre collection of furs and pelts, but Eve looked like a goddess as she reclined on it just the same.
The way her big hazel eyes stared up at me, innocent and knowing…
Well. I couldn’t exactly bring myself to lie. Not to her.
I just knew that it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
“I was outvoted,” I admitted. “Pax and Ronan think they need to know how Lunaria has progressed in the past fifteen years. Me, I voted for anywhere else in the galaxies, though. Believe me. Last place I wanted to take this ship was into Lunarian space.”
“And Nurek? He didn’t get a vote?”
“He abstained.” I sighed as I placed myself on the mattress a few feet away from Eve. Would’ve preferred to wedge myself between her thighs and forget about this whole mess, but I didn’t want to push things. “First Rutharian I’ve ever met who’s known his place.”
“You tried. That’s the important thing.” Eve moved behind me and curled her fingers around my shoulders. She squeezed, working the knots from my muscles and the ache from my bones. It’d been a long time since I’d had a massage like that, and it felt even better, knowing that it was coming from my wife.
That thought made me smile.
Eve. My wife.
Things certainly could’ve been worse.
“Ronan’s the only one who leaves the ship when we make land,” I assured her. “He chose that himself. If it turns out that Lunaria has turned into a mess while we’ve been away, we’re leaving.” I turned my head to the side and smiled at her. “Gotta keep you and the baby safe.”
“And if it’s not safe on Lunaria?”
“We go somewhere else. You want me to run you through the list again? Because I can.”
“Just…promise me we’ll stay together. Wherever we go. Yeah?”
“Eve…” I shifted on the bed and took her into my arms. Gently, I eased her back on the pillows and furs. To the Rutharians’ credit, they were pretty nice to lie on. Even better to lie on with my mate. My wife. “You know the moment I first fell in love with you? The real moment, none of that romance novel stuff. The actual first, singular moment when I realized I was in love.”
“I’m…not sure,” Eve said with a tired laugh. “But if you say when you first saw my tits—”
“They’re great tits,” I agreed. “But no. No, it was when they took your friend away, that day we first met, and you were willing to fight soldiers twice your size just to get her back. You were even skinnier then than you are now, just a little twig of a thing. Unarmed. No training.”
“That was…stupid, though. And if Lily only knew… If I’d only known what we were going to go through after we left Earth…”
“Doesn’t matter, vringna. I saw your love for her. How hard you were willing to fight for her, even if it meant getting hurt yourself.” I pushed her curls away from her face and stared deep into her eyes. “That’s the only kind of love I’ve ever understood, vringna. The only kind of love I could ever give—the only kind of love I’ve ever wanted in return.”
“We’ll stay together, then?”
“I’d give my life to keep you safe.”
“That’s not what I’m asking, Gallix.”
“Then I’ll tear the galaxies apart to keep you by my side.” I gave her a little wink. “How’s that?”
“It’s good.” Eve closed her eyes and smiled. “Good enough.”
Her fingers slipped against my belt and teased the leather from the buckle.
“Sounds like it was better than good.” I caught her fingers in mine, stopping her. “You don’t gotta do that over it though, Eve. It’s been a long night, and you’re burning through energy for two now. You should rest.”
“You don’t want me?” she asked.
My cock throbbed in response. All she really needed to do was look at me to get me stiff at this point. Especially now that I knew how perfect her lips felt wrapped around my cock, how hot and tight her pussy was when she took me inside.
“I always want you. Never doubt that. But…” I tilted my head from side to side, searching for the slightest hint of hesitation in her eyes. “You sure you want me?”
“I’m your wife now, Gallix. It’s our wedding night.” Eve’s smile was bright and warm as the summer sun. “I want you to make love to me. The way a husband should.”
“Not just a husband.” I moved my hand down to her stomach and ran my fingers over her skin. Trying to fathom how much it meant to me, the little life that was growing inside of her… Moons. It was almost too much to bear. In the best kind of way. “A mate.”
I peeled her clothes away from her skin, gentle and slow. If I’d been listening to my cock, I would’ve had her on all fours screaming my name in ecstasy in five seconds flat—but maybe later.
My heart told me to be soft. Sweet. Loving and kind. Everything I’d vowed to her in the holy cave back on Edon. Everything I wanted to be for her for the rest of our lives.
I kissed Eve like she was holy. Like a whisper of cold silk against warm skin.
To have Eve screaming my name… We had a lifetime for that. That could wait.
“Harder,” Eve purred against my lips. She gripped my cock through my trousers and pulled herself firmly against me. “Don’t be gentle with me, Gallix.”
“You’re my wife now.” My cock twitched in her hand as I ran my palm over her hip. I reached around her to cup her ass—not rough. Not yet. “A husband ought to be gentle with his wife. Especially when she’s pregnant with his cub.”
“And if your wife doesn’t want you to be gentle?” Eve smirked at me and leaned her lips close to mine. “Wasn’t there something about obeying me in your wedding vows?”
“There was not. But if you want…” If she insisted on having it rough, who was I to tell her no? I grabbed her and rolled her beneath me. Her thighs, I shoved apart roughly, just like she’d asked for. I teased the laces of my trousers open as I stared down at her, my eyes deep blue and full of challenge. “I’ll write new ones on your clit with my tongue.”
“Mm. Yes.” Eve moaned triumphantly as I dipped my lips between her thighs.
She tasted different than she had the last time I did this. Sweeter and saltier, like some kind of fancy dessert. I tasted caramel, vanilla, sea salt, even cream. Her honey was already pooled between the soft, perfect lips of her pussy. Her folds were soft and burning hot beneath my tongue. I pressed into her, first with the flared tip of my tongue, then with my fingers as I moved my mouth a little higher up.
She wanted new vows, she’d get them.
I will obey you. I spelled the words out in Lunarian against her clit. Every time I settled the sensitive bud of it between the prongs of my tongue, Eve hissed and gasped. It made me smirk like a baz-terd, seeing how much pleasure I gave her. My heartbeat thumped against her through my tongue, and her clit throbbed right back at me in response.
But while I was down here…I figured I might add a little more to these new vows as well.
Anything to make my wife come.
And dammit, Eve, you’ll obey me too. No more danger. No more running off. No more scaring me.
“Gallix,” Eve panted. Her breaths were growing short and ragged, like she’d just run several miles. “Yes…”
You’re going to be mine forever, vringna. That wasn’t so much a vow as it was a reality at this point. I’d nearly lost her too many times. I wasn’t about to make that mistake again. And for as long as you’re mine—
“I’m close,” Eve gasped. “So…so close…”
I love you. In Lunarian, th
at was just one simple, swirling symbol. It was almost like our language had been designed for this. I love you. I love you. I love you.
“Gallix!” Eve’s body convulsed beneath mine. When I curled my fingers up inside her, I could feel her pussy tightening, clenching and releasing in violent spasms.
That was my cue.
“I love you, Eve.” I said the words aloud this time as I took my cock in my fist and sheathed it inside her. I worked fast enough that I could feel the last moments of her orgasm squeezing me. Like her cunt was trying to milk me of my cum. “I love you with everything I’ve got.”
“I love…Oh. I love you, too.” Her heat radiated through me, passing from the deepest parts of her folds up through my cock. It rushed around in my veins, amplifying and multiplying with every thrust. “I love you, too.”
But when I gave a thrust just slightly too deep and too hard, Eve’s eyes shot open fast. She gasped and whimpered, shaking her head, and I withdrew again in concern.
“You all right?” I stroked her cheek. “You said you wanted it rough…”
“I…may have miscalculated.” Eve let out a little laugh and nuzzled my chest with the tip of her nose. “I think, maybe…the baby or something…”
“Soft it is, then.” I chuckled as I moved inside her again, slowly this time. Gentle and sweet, just like I’d planned from the start. “I warned you, you know.”
“Yes, you’re very clever.” Eve smiled up at me, then moved her lips to mine for a slow, lingering kiss. “Infuriating, but clever.”
“I just know how to get what I want.” I slid my tongue against her lips to taste her, then pressed a firm kiss on her cheek. “Especially when it comes to you.”
The love we made on those furs was the gentlest fucking I’d ever done. Didn’t stop me from making Eve come around my cock half a dozen more times, though. Every time she purred and moaned and lost control beneath me, I was a little closer to losing control myself.
But where my cock couldn’t piston into her as roughly as it might have wanted, my cum was under no such restraint. When it gushed up out of my tip, I buried it deep within her until my balls were empty and my jaw ached from clenching it so hard.
There was no way of knowing for certain that Eve was pregnant. Not until we got back to Lunaria and got her some gilly-fruit to taste, at least. But even without that certainty, every sign we had pointed to my cub growing within her womb.
And even if we were wrong…
If she wasn’t pregnant yet, I’d make damned sure she was by the time we made land.
I held her tight when we were done. Every inch of her that I could touch, I stroked like she was my own personal treasure. Every inch of her that I could get my mouth on, I kissed like my life depended on it.
In a crazy sort of way, now it kind of did.
“Have you thought at all about baby names?” Eve asked as I ran my tongue up and down her long, slender neck.
I shifted my hand over her belly and smiled. “How about Bezelex?”
“After your ship?” Eve looked at me like I’d just told her I wanted to name the baby Nurek.
“Named the ship after my mother. Bessie for short.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s a good name.”
“That’s…cute.” Eve didn’t sound so sure, but it was nice of her to humor me anyway. “What about Bessie…short for Elizabeth?”
“Elizabeth, huh?” I tried the word on my tongue. It wasn’t very Lunarian, but Bessie could work. “You mentioned that name on the night we first met, as I recall. Were you picking out baby names already?”
“It was my mother’s name.” Eve smiled sadly. “That romance novel I left on Earth was all I had left of her. But maybe…”
She curled her hand over mine, pressing my palm against her stomach a little more firmly.
“Bessie for a girl, then. I like that.” As Eve closed her eyes, I placed a kiss on each of her eyelids. Her long, auburn lashes tickled against my skin as they fluttered beneath me. “And for a boy…”
“I think it’s a girl,” Eve admitted. “I know that’s silly…it’s so early, and we don’t even know for sure yet, but…”
“Bessie.” I shifted down on the bed so I could kiss just below Eve’s belly button. “We don’t need certain. Sometimes, you just know.”
“I mean…some certainty would be nice, though. When we get to Lunaria…talk me through it. What happens then?”
“If things are looking good there, we stay. If you want. I’ll retire from the service, put you up in the house my father owned in the capital…we start a life together. A proper one this time, with proper showers and a real bed. No leaves or furs allowed.”
“And if things on Lunaria aren’t good? If they want me to…to follow through with my breeding contract, or…ugh, marry someone else…”
“Not going to happen,” I swore to her. “Wouldn’t even be allowed. You’re married to me now, vringna. Baby or no, that sealed the deal. No one can take you from me. And if they try…” I eyed my blaster where I’d left it hanging from its holster across the room and smiled. “I’ll kill them where they stand.”
“That’s…oddly reassuring.”
“Good. It should be.” I kissed her lips again and pulled her onto my chest. The way she looked down at me…nine hells. I’d burn every galaxy in the universe to ash just to make sure I’d never have to live without her again. “It’s you and me now.”
“You and me and Bessie,” she corrected.
“The three of us against the universe.” I pushed my fingers up through her curls to cradle the back of her head, then pressed her lips down against mine again. “Happily ever after guaranteed.”
“Promise?” she purred, nipping at my lips.
“Promise,” I echoed. “With every shot in my blaster and every beat of my heart.”
21
Ronan
In my dreams, I was king.
Fire burned all around me. The smoke was cloying and sweet, thick with herbs. Lunarian females danced nude in the flickering light of the flames. Beyond them, the faceless shapes of other bodies chanted low and sacred.
Regnato! Regnato! Their voices crescendoed as a crown of gilded leaves was placed on my head.
King. King.
And though I knew it was a dream, I felt it. The power of the title coursed through me. A holy duty. A divine right.
A place among my people that had been denied to me, hidden away.
A place that, no matter what I dreamed, could never be mine.
The dancers moved faster as the chanting shifted. The flames roared high. At my side, I became aware of a presence. Small and delicate—but when I looked to her face, I saw beauty. Human beauty. A nobility in her pale cheeks and a second fire burning in the blackness of her eyes.
My hands moved without thinking. There was another crown held lightly between my fingers. Smaller. Thinner.
When I placed it in atop the bright red waves of her hair, it fit her perfectly.
Regnava! Regnava! the crowd chanted now.
Queen. Queen.
I kissed her to claim her—and just like that, the dream was over. I blinked my eyes open to a blinding light, touching my lips with the tips of my fingers as I clung to the memory of that kiss.
“More dreams?” Gallix asked from the doorway of my room.
“Just one.” The Rutharian bed I had been asleep on was hard and cold beneath me as I pulled myself out of it. “Are we close?”
“Inbound for landing now. Autopilot should bring us home.”
“Any communication with the ground? Leonix? Kloran?”
Gallix winced. “Not exactly. We requested landing clearance. It was granted. But Leonix’s communicator is offline. Everyone’s is. Not sure what that means for us.”
I moved across the room toward Gallix and placed my hand on his shoulder.
“Nothing good,” I told him. “Nothing good.”
I was the first off the ship. On my orders, the others hung back
. Marisa, Eve and Ora could not be placed in harm’s way. Nurek, being a Rutharian, might not be welcomed on Lunaria at all. And if it came to it, Gallix and Pax would be needed to ensure that the ship could make a clean getaway.
Only I could be spared. It was a sacrifice I was happy to make.
I kept my hand on my blaster as I set foot on Lunaria for the first time in more than fifteen years. I hoped for the best, and prepared for the worst.
And as I had feared, the worst found me.
A bright light shot out of the darkness surrounding the ship. It blinded me as a shout cut through the night.
“In the name of King Brixta, place your hands in the air!”
“Gallix!” I shouted immediately as my stomach churned with wrongness. “Go!”
“Not without you! Get back inside!” Gallix shouted from within the ship—but already, blasters were being drawn. The soldiers rushed from the darkness. Some Lunarian. Some human.
All coming for me. For us.
“Go.” I slapped the side of the ship where Nurek had shown me the mechanism to close the doors. As they slipped shut, I saw a final glimpse of Pax’s face. He was reaching for me, his orange skin pale as the first light of morning.
“Ronan!” he cried out after me.
“Go,” I said a final time as the doors closed. For good.
In the next moment, the ship launched skyward and I was tackled to the ground.
The soldiers who apprehended me were a blend of Earthlings and Lunarians. None of them spoke as they cuffed me and marched me toward a transport vehicle. I was disarmed of my blaster and knife, then deposited in the back of the vehicle.
It had no windows. Its only exit, the door which I had been pushed through, was locked behind me.
I could have fought them, but what would have been the point?
I needed to know what had happened here on Lunaria. My only hope was that Gallix had managed to get the ship into open space without being shot down—and, I supposed, that before my captors killed me, I would find out where Lunaria had gone wrong.