by Renee Rose
The huge warrior appeared appropriately cowed. He wedged himself into a squat beside Cambry’s head and stroked her hair, murmuring softly as Bayla cleaned her wounds.
“Lundric, when you’re ready to have your wounds tended, please let me know,” Lily said. “In the meantime, I’ll get the Zandian crystal to help you recharge.”
Lundric nodded absently, never taking his eyes from the young red-haired beauty at his side.
Cambry’s eyelids fluttered and opened. “Where’s Lundric?” Her slurred words still managed to sound urgent.
“I’m right beside you, baby.”
“Did we make it out?”
“Yes. Tal rescued us. We’re on the training pod.”
She attempted to lift her head and groaned.
“Here.” Daneth handed the pillow from the other cot to Lundric to prop Cambry’s head. In the place where the pillow had been, lay a rudimentary pregnancy test. He’d seen them before but had always preferred blood tests. He picked it up. It read positive for a male young.
“To whom does this belong?”
Bayla swung her sapphire blue eyes on him, dark lashes blinking as the color drained from her face. Her full lips parted, but no sound came out.
Something in her expression made his heart pound. “Bayla?”
Her knees buckled, and she dropped into a faint.
~.~
The world tilted and rushed by her. Her queasiness returned tenfold. She seemed to be moving swiftly down a corridor. Only she wasn’t walking. She blinked as the universe came back into focus. Daneth held her cradled in his arms as he carried her somewhere.
“Master?”
“Hush, darling. I have you. Are you pregnant?”
She whimpered. She hadn’t wanted to tell him. Didn’t want him to feel obligated to take her back, when the sight of her still made him angry.
“Shh. You don’t have to say anything. I can smell it on you. Your master’s going to take care of you.” He cursed and turned around. “Are there no empty chambers on this pod?” he grumbled.
His closeness and scent comforted her. She nuzzled her face into his neck.
He found the Zandian bunkroom and brought her inside, where he sat on a cot and rocked her back and forth like a baby.
A fresh wave of nausea kicked in. “A little less motion, please,” she pleaded.
Daneth stopped abruptly. “I’m sorry. Are you going to be sick?”
“No...probably not.” She gave a shaky laugh.
“I can’t believe you’re having my young,” he said in awe. “Bayla—”
“No.” She covered his mouth with her fingertips. “Whatever you’re going to say—don’t. I don’t blame you for not wishing to see me after what I did. I hope, someday, you’ll forgive me. But I want you to know that his pregnancy doesn’t have to change anything. I can remain here with my kind.”
“Enough.” The sternness returned to Daneth’s voice. “I made a mistake. I never should have sent you away from me. I didn’t want to be apart from you then, and I certainly don’t want it now. I won’t leave here without you.” He stroked her cheek. “You belong to me, Bayla. You’re mine.” His fingertips traced over her pulse and down to her collarbone. “And it turns out, there’s nothing to forgive. Lamira’s extrasensory perception told her the egg wasn’t viable anyway.” He ran his index finger down her breastbone, reminding her of the time he’d thrust his cock between her breasts. “And I researched this herbed water of yours. It’s nearly impossible for parsley tea alone to cause a miscarriage. So let go of your guilt, sweet girl. You did no further harm to what was already damaged.”
Her eyes burned with tears of relief. Thank the stars. Daneth’s forgiveness alone would’ve made her heart sing, but knowing she had not been responsible for ruining the last chance and prolonging the Zandian species lifted a huge burden from her shoulders.
“Will you forgive me for not including your feelings in my plans to save my species?”
She ducked her head against his neck again. “Yes.”
“Good.” His palm circled her belly.
A shiver of pleasure ran through her. She’d never shared a pregnancy with a partner before, but somehow her body, her very essence knew how right this one would be. She’d have a mate to take care of her, to share her excitement, to make a family with her.
He bit her ear. “You’re carrying my baby.” His gravelly tone sounded all-male. All proprietary and proud.
“Yes, I am.” She turned to look up at him. “You’re happy?”
“Beyond happy. I’m ecstatic.”
She had to ask. “You’d never take this baby from me?”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “Never in a million solar cycles. And I’ll help you get your other babies back, too.”
Her heart tumbled around in her chest. “Will you? Just one might be reachable. A full human girl. She’d be two solar cycles this spring.”
“I’ll find her. I promise you.” He swore it like a solemn oath, and she believed him.
His wrist cuff blinked with an incoming message. He answered immediately. “Yes, my lord?”
A hologram of Prince Zander’s face sprang out in front of them. “I need you on the ship, now. Lamira’s having contractions again. She said the child will be born this planet rotation.”
Bayla surged up off his lap.
“We’ll be right there,” Daneth said. He caught her hand, and they raced together down the corridor to the dock.
Prince Zander already had the engines on the ship running. His face had lost color, turning a pale shade of lavender.
She threw herself into a seat and buckled the harness, smiling when Daneth double-checked her work before he sat in his own. Daneth picked up her palm and squeezed it. “Why are you smiling?”
“Births are a miraculous event,” she said, the joy of every birth she’d witnessed thrumming through her.
Daneth’s face softened, the warmth behind his gaze nearly stopping her pulse. “I’m so glad you’ll be beside me for my first.”
Chapter Twelve
Daneth marveled at the confidence and strength of his beautiful slave. No, not slave. His mate. And maybe still his slave. Because, if he guessed correctly, she wanted to be owned by him. Hadn’t she chosen it freely already once? His female liked to serve on her knees, to boggle his mind with her incredible body, to plead and pretend that he was in charge, when she knew she had him wrapped so tightly around her little finger that he’d tie himself in a knot to make sure he stayed there.
“Make this sound—uhhhhhhh,” Bayla coached Lamira. “If the mouth and lips are soft, the pelvic floor will relax, too.”
“Uhhhhhhh,” Lamira moaned.
Leora joined her, and the three women toned together, their primitive song reverberating off Zander’s walls.
Zander sat on the edge of the sleepdisk, holding Lamira in a squat on the floor by her armpits.
Daneth had to suspend his medical mindset, which screamed for him to strap Lamira down to his examination table and pull the young out of her by whatever means necessary, putting an end this agonizing waiting. But he trusted Bayla, who insisted that birth was a natural event.
“I think it’s working,” Lamira gasped.
Bayla squatted beside her. “I see his head!”
Zander leaned forward and began murmuring in Lamira’s ear, almost as if in prayer. “Lamira. You’re doing so well, beautiful. Our son is almost here. Just relax and let him come. Make your music, little one.”
“Uhhhhh,” Lamira, Leora, and Bayla sang again. Lamira’s tones shortened and then stopped as the infant slipped from her body into Bayla’s waiting hands.
Daneth surged forward, ready to scan and provide emergency care, but Bayla held up a finger. “He’s perfect,” she murmured.
And he was. A pair of tiny horns twitched on top of his bald, wrinkled head, declaring his Zandian genes, despite his light skin.
“Let me see him,” Lamira whispered.
>
Bayla quickly wrapped a spidersilk blanket around the child, still tethered to his mother by his umbilical cord. “Lift her up on the bed now.” It was beyond strange to hear Bayla giving Zander orders, but their prince obeyed, scooping Lamira up and holding her in his arms on the bed.
Bayla placed the infant in Lamira’s arms. “You’re not quite finished, my lady. There’s still the afterbirth.” She tugged on the cord as she massaged Lamira’s abdomen. The placenta emerged on the next contraction.
He moved in to clamp and cut the cord and perform the scan on the tiny half-breed.
“He’s perfectly healthy,” he declared when he finished.
Lamira burst into tears of joy, and even Zander’s eyes watered as she put the babe to her breast to teach him to nurse.
Bayla, too, started to cry. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her against his much larger body. “It will be our turn next,” he murmured in her ear.
She turned in his arms and gazed up, lashes wet with her tears. “I love you, Master.”
Now his eyes stung. He claimed her mouth, kissing her until his clothing grew tight and constrictive against his heated flesh. He had to pull away or risk vecking her against the prince’s wall. “I love you, too, Bayla. Tonight, we mate.”
Judging by her look of happy confusion, she didn’t know the Zandian mating custom of piercing their females and adorning them with crystals. Good. Then he’d surprise her. He already knew there’d be no question of her submitting to him in any way he asked her.
“Shall I make the announcement to our species?” he asked prince Zander.
Zander didn’t take his eyes off the tiny infant, who’d already learned to suckle. “Yes. Thank you.”
Chapter Thirteen
“We received a transmission from the palatial pod, Master Seke,” Tomis said, checking their ship’s data after another long planet rotation of following dead end leads in the pursuit of Master Seke’s daughters.
“Open it.”
The hologram sprang open, featuring the head and shoulders of Daneth, the prince’s physician. “A new Zandian prince has arrived.” The doctor beamed. “Lamira gave birth to Zander’s son this evening. Both the infant and the mother are in excellent health.” He bowed, and the transmission flickered off.
Seke gave a shout of joy and immediately sent a transmission to his mate, Lamira’s mother.
An incoming transmission made Tomis’ smile fade. “Master Seke,” he called out sharply, interrupting his mentor’s conversation. “We’re receiving a transmission from Zandia.”
“I’ll return in a moment, my love,” Seke promised, ending the transmission and swinging around to join him at the ship’s controls. “Answer it.”
In all the solar cycles since the Finn had overtaken Zandia, they’d made no contact, choosing to ignore the existence of the few remaining Zandians, just as the United Galaxies chose to ignore the petitions Zander had filed demanding the return of his planet and its resources.
A hologram sprang open, and it took all Tomis’ training not to flinch at the grotesque figure hovering in midair before them. Short and grayish, with a round head and a mouthful of pointy teeth, the Finnian king appeared more beast than intelligent being.
“I am King Fluut of Zandia. Who are you?” the ugly being snapped.
“I am Seke, Master of Arms.“
“An unauthorized ship containing one human and one former Zandian was found in our airspace this morning.”
Seke showed nothing in his expression, though he already had received the full report on Lundric’s ill-fated mission.
“I was willing to ignore the existence of the few remaining members of your species, including the being named Zander, since he posed no threat. However, all amnesty has been revoked. All remaining Zandians will be terminated, starting with your prince. Bring him to me now.”
Seke folded his arms over his chest. “I think not.”
King Fluut smiled, revealing a row of rotten fangs. “Then I’ll begin with this one, instead.” He yanked a—holy star of Zandia!—young Zandian female into view. Was she one of Seke’s daughters?
Tomis drew his sword, though it was only a hologram. He couldn’t take his eyes off the stunning brunette, who fought against the Finnian king’s rough hold with controlled rage.
Seke went rigid, but he gave a stiff shrug. “What does the prince care about a peasant?”
The king’s eyes narrowed, as if he recognized Seke’s bluff. “So it isn’t true that there are no Zandian females of childbearing age, then?”
A tic started near Seke’s eye.
“We might be willing to compensate you for her safe return.”
“Good.” The king gave a greasy smile. “I’ll exchange her for your prince. You have one week to deliver.”
“A Zandian week? Or Ocretion?” Tomis asked, because they weren’t the same.
“Ocretion.” The hologram flicked off.
Seke gripped the back of his pilot’s chair with white knuckles. “Talia,” he croaked.
Tomis swung his sword where the king’s head had hovered. “I’ll get your daughter back,” he swore. “Before the week is up. You have my word.”
Coming June 27th
The Russian by Renee Rose
(included in the box set Hero Undercover)
I can’t stay away from her.
I don't care if I get whacked by the mob. Or fired from the FBI.
She’s my sunshine.
Her brother's a scumbag. He owes the don money.
The don sends me to collect my pound of flesh, but I want more than a pound.
I want Her.
And there’s no way I’m letting her get hurt.
Hell, if any of them touch her, I’ll blow my cover in a second.
EXCERPT
Lucy ducked down, crawling under cocktail tables toward the emergency exit in the back, praying he didn’t see her.
Over the music, she thought she heard the sound of a smack and squeal, and hoped the Russian hadn’t hurt the woman.
The club was packed, and the music was pumping. No one even noticed her crawling under their tables. Or, if they did, no one reacted quickly enough to say anything. She emerged at the end of the line of high tops, just feet from the door. The alarm would go off if she went out of it, but the bouncer was there, and he could disable it.
She made a mad dash for him, but a strong arm caught her around the waist and dragged her back against six feet of solid muscle. Fear coiled with something else—dark interest in the man who’d captured her.
The bouncer started toward them but then recognized Yuri and paled. He shot her a “what should I do?” look.
Not wanting to get him killed, she looked away.
Yuri wrapped one hand around her throat. He didn’t squeeze but used it to pull her head back against his chest, the threat of asphyxiation obvious and clear. “Little DJ,” he spoke directly in her ear, his thick accent so much sexier that way, “I would love to let you sneak out the back door, except for two things.”
She cursed the trembling in her limbs, which she was certain he felt. To make it worse, his hand at her waist started to roam, slipping inside her tank top and skimming across her belly. It sent ripples of heat and tremors cascading down her inner thighs. “Wh-what things?” she managed to breathe.
His warm palm coasted over her skin, up to one breast, which he squeezed through her bra. Back down to the waistband of her jean skirt, where he insinuated his fingers. “One. Nobody gives me the slip, so the boys would know I let you go.” His lips pressed against her ear so it seemed like he spoke right into her very cells. His fingers wriggled deeper into her skirt, making her clit come alive with the nearness. “And, two, I can’t let another one of Don Diego’s thugs pick you up instead of me. Then I couldn’t protect you.”
She wrestled with her breath, trying to even it out, slow it down before she hyperventilated. “P-protect me?”
He couldn’t wedge his
fingers any farther into her skirt, so he settled for grasping the top of her panties and pulling up, tugging them into the seam of her sex, the fabric threading over her pulsing nub. “Yes. Come with me, now. I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you. You have my word.”
A shiver ran through her, but it wasn’t of fear. There was a solemnity to the oath he uttered that made goose bumps stand out on her arms. She’d long suspected the Russian had a thing for her, and this seemed to confirm it.
He gave one last tug of her panties and eased his hold on her, turning her around to face him. “Come.” He took her hand and led her toward the back door, nodding at the bouncer before he shoved the door open.
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A Note from the Author
Thank you for reading His Human Vessel! As you might have guessed, the next book, Her Mate and Master, will be an alien-alien relationship. I’m hoping you find them just as hot. If you’re not on my newsletter list, please sign up! You’ll get free books, bonus scenes, discounts, and my thoughts on D/s in books and the bedroom. You can sign up here.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Lee Savino, Katherine Deane, Margarita, and Sue for their beta reads!
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Read all the Books in the Zandian Masters Series!
His Human Slave (Book 1)
COLLARED AND CAGED, HIS HUMAN SLAVE AWAITS HER TRAINING.
Zander, the alien warrior prince intent on recovering his planet, needs a mate. While he would never choose a human of his own accord, his physician's gene-matching program selected Lamira's DNA as the best possible match with his own. Now he must teach the beautiful slave to yield to his will, accept his discipline, and learn to serve him as her one true master.