Brax

by Kelly Lucille

  The Change, Brax swore silently and repeatedly, not really surprised when the arm rest came off in his fist. He tossed the useless misshapen metal away without looking away from the shocked bridge crew on the other side of the com.

  He pictured someone like the two small females that he had met briefly at the hands of his deranged brother and something inside him went feral. It was possible that his brother had found another female appealing and had mated her, and the one he was about to find near death’s door was not the one he had sworn to find and protect, but in his gut, he knew. They had traced her to this ship only because her genetic scans had been added to the medical files and matched to those of her sister. Which meant his brother knew who he had, had probably went searching for her specifically with the information they had gleaned from the human female, Sara.

  "You will continue to keep your distance," he finally got out through a locked jaw. Then he blanked the screen before the sight of them led him to a rash move reminiscent of something as crazed as any his brother was capable of.

  He wanted to rip every one of the males to shreds for what they had allowed to happen. In his mind a warrior who stood for nothing, but following orders was no warrior at all. That it was his own brother that had taught their people such blind obedience made him sick. He should have killed him long past but while his actions had been questionable, by the time Brax had realized how far into madness Rygan had sunk it was too late. Crazy he might be, but the King of the Tellox was no fool. He had seen Brax's questions as lack of loyalty and known him for the threat he would one day become. He had acted precipitously in ridding himself of the one man who had a chance of killing him when he went too far. His one mistake, as far as Brax was concerned, was in underestimating just how hard that was to accomplish. Not that the mad king’s plan had been a bad one. Send him out on progressively more dangerous missions to kill him, and when that did not work, betray him to their enemies.

  Rygan had expected them to kill Brax outright. After all, one would have to be suicidal to try and enslave a Tellox, never mind the high General of their armies. But he had forgotten the power of greed. And even cold hard logic could not hide the amount of money they could take in selling a specimen like General Brax of the Tellox to the slavers as one of their pit fighters.

  In a way they had both been right. The slavers had made obscene amounts of money while he leaked blood and death all over the sand of the pit, right up until the day his men found him, then it was their blood and death. He took the slavers’ lives, then he took their fortunes and dedicated himself and his men to the wholehearted destruction of all slavers wherever he could root them out of their rat holes. But first he went after the men who had sold him in the first place. His brother, he had sworn he would eventually face in open challenge when he had finished with the rest, but even he had recognized the stalling for what it was. Thinking of killing his brother and doing it had been two separate things.

  Eventually he had acknowledged the truth to himself. He did not want to be the one to kill his own brother. So, with no real decision made to do it, he had simply abandoned the Tellox to their crazed king. Deep down knowing that to return would mean either he or his brother would die, and the government would fall along with them.

  His men had gladly followed him into exile. Their choice had been made when they went against the King’s orders to find him. His brother would never allow such flagrant disregard of his authority to stand. To return would have meant their deaths. With the lives of his loyal in mind he had walked away from revenge and justice.

  Now another had paid the price for his lack of action. An innocent. A woman he had never met that had still managed to haunt his dreams with what ifs. And she had been abused and left to fend for herself during her change. By his brother.

  He might have known Rygan needed killing. He might even have planned on doing it himself, but until this moment he had not been completely sure that it was the only way. But this callous and brutal disregard for a female, a potential blood mate?

  Rygan would die, and so would every warrior on this ship if it became necessary.

  Before he had worried of what would become of them as a people if the government structure fell apart. Now he no longer cared. If this was what the Tellox had become, they should fall, and at his hands.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Biting sounded good. It was not a thought that Ariel had ever had in her life, but as she awoke in a strange bed, with just a silky sheet over her nakedness, with no memory of getting that way, and a man she hated with every fiber of her being leaning over her.

  His eyes, to her consternation, were full of a fierce possession, fiery rage and, she had to be imagining it, tenderness and worry? For her?

  She really wanted to bite him. No, not a man, she decided with a savage anger the likes of which she had never felt flowing through her body. A Tellox. The King of the Tellox. The creature who had bit her, then left her to live or die on the floor and walked away smiling. Before the unfamiliar haze on her brain released her fully from its grip she lunged up and sank sharp teeth into the vulnerable flesh of her enemies’ neck.

  Or at least that was the intention. He jerked back enough so that what she bit was the more protected area where his neck met hard chest, so there was no danger she would kill him, but there was satisfaction to be had in biting down deep and hanging on long enough to taste her enemies’ blood. Only he did not taste like her enemy. The strange thought and the flow of primal heat tasting his blood produced shocked her brain back into gear. Enough so that she jerked back with a gasp and fell back to the pillows her eyes wide and on his.

  His scent, power and male heat bombarded her. There were more scents in the room, so many her brain was struggling under the new stimuli, but his in that moment, had become the only thing of real importance. It wrapped around her more real and tactile than the bed she could feel beneath her back. Her brain took it in, took him in, and for the first time in her life that she could remember, betrayed her. He did not smell like the enemy. He smelled like...

  Mine. The growl of primal possession came from some deep place she did not recognize. It was a hard-won battle to keep the word and the claim it made on the male above her, deep inside when every drop of blood in her body was calling for her to stake a claim. To take this male deep inside and wrap him up tight. To mark him so that no other would touch what was hers. It was nothing she had ever felt. In fact, there was very little of herself now that she recognized.

  She was breathing hard, locked in those raging eyes as he leaned over her. So close all she could smell was his heat. Taste his blood that lay like a brand on her lips. See the fight for control that raged through her own body reflected in the brutal lines of his face and the granite of his clenched jaw.

  "He did not claim you," he growled. Low and deep, even his voice sounded different. He lifted his head enough that he could breathe her in. Closing his eyes as if overcome. Then when they opened again the last vestiges of rage was replaced by pure carnal need and Ariel sucked in her own breath at the sheer brutal beauty of the male animal crouched over her.

  What did he say? Who had not claimed her? She needed to think. None of this was right. A moment ago, she had wanted to tear out his throat. Now all she could think about was ripping him out of his armor and rubbing herself all over that powerful flesh. There was a reason she should be pushing him away. What was it?

  Then with a savage snarl he collapsed down on her, the hard planes and angles of his body pushing aggressively into the soft give of hers. She wrapped him up in a tangle of limbs, fighting the sheet that stretched between them until it was ripped away. His lips found hers, and the taste of him, the heat of his tongue, the first claiming as he plunged inside to taste her, rubbed his tongue along hers, discovered all the hidden secrets of her mouth, had her moaning in pleasure.

  She was yanking at his leathers even as he reached for them himself. Scattering pieces of his armor across the room as it was flu
ng away with weapons, coms, and anything else that had no use between them now.

  Brax gave no thought to any of it. Nothing but claiming his female mattered. If anyone or anything came through the doors and tried to separate him from what was his, he would not need anything but his bare hands and teeth to destroy them anyway.

  Once he had disposed of everything he fell back into the hot feel of silky skin. She wrapped him up in the length of her long legs, her hands going into his hair to yank him back down to her sighing lips and he could not wait another second to be inside her.

  He found the wet heat at her core and delved deep, forcing his entire length in with savage thrusts that had the woman, his woman, snarling and straining to get closer, to take more of him. He sank deep, hitting the end of her and shuddered at the heat and wetness that stroked the length of him. He had never felt anything like it. His eyes met hers, and he saw the same savage pleasure and possession reflected back to him in her eyes.

  They were Tellox eyes and glowed with a golden light that he knew reflected his own. But it was like no eye color he had ever seen on a Tellox before, bits of amber, caramel and darker gold flashed and swirled together.

  The hair that was spread out over their pillows was dark, the gold strands running through it like veins through marble, highlighted that darkness, proclaiming and reminding him that she had been human three days ago. That she was under his protection.

  It might even have been enough to make him stop. To question what he was doing when she was under his protection and had just been through he knew not what. It might have made a difference, but she lunged up and claimed his lips with a snarl of her own.

  All that intense unique beauty, and the taste of her on his tongue as she became the aggressor. It was too much, he growled and pressed her back, taking command of her and the kiss. The moment when he might have stopped, for her sake, was lost. But if he was being honest with himself it was lost the second she placed the claiming bite deep into his skin.

  He ate the groan of pleasure from her lips and let the rest go. Taking everything she had to give, and there was a lot there as they strained toward each other needing more. Taking it, and still needing MORE. Later he would worry about all that fragility under his hands, the weight of his so much bigger body pinning hers, the damage he could cause with his casual strength. Now he reveled in the sounds of pleasure he drank from her lips. The wet heat of her that pulled and pulsed around his plunging staff. The taste of her blood mixing with his inside his body when he plunged his teeth into her shoulder instinctively replacing the marks that should never have touched her skin there with his own.

  He felt her pleasure pulsing against his cock, the shuddering of her skin and the hitching of her breath open mouthed against his neck. Then, and only then did he let go, plunging hard and fast to his own roar of pleasure. For the first time in his life filling a woman with his seed. His mate.

  Everything.

  ***

  He felt the moment when the euphoria of their claiming heat released her. Not that he could have missed it when she pushed him up by his shoulders and narrowed her eyes, looking for he knew not what in his face. Then while he was still inside her and was trying to decide what to say to reassure her, she sucked in a deep breath as he watched the anger simmer into her eyes and then ignite into an inferno of rage. He opened his mouth to speak. She hauled back a small feminine fist as much as the mattress beneath her would allow and slammed it into his face.

  She yelped in pain, then started cursing in several languages. He pulled out of her sweet passage and rolled to his side so that he was braced on an elbow facing her. He took hold of her hand and pulled it to his face to examine it. Such a tiny delicate little thing.

  "Did you break it?" he asked ignoring the pulsing pain below his left eye. She might be Tellox now with enhanced strength, but she still hit like a human girl. He was however not going to mention that to her. Not with the fire in her eyes that proclaimed she was more than ready to keep trying until she got it right. Not when he could feel the anger he could see, but also the humiliation, despair and fear she was successfully hiding, at least on the outside.

  "As if you care," she growled, attempting to yank her hand away unsuccessfully.

  "Can you bend your fingers without pain?"

  She huffed and kept trying to escape. "It already fades," she finally said grudgingly.

  He released her hand and watched as she tried again unsuccessfully to yank what was left of the mangled sheets over her nakedness. He knew the second she felt him the way he was feeling her, inside her mind, because she stilled utterly. Her eyes flying back to his he saw the panic he could feel from her begin to swell. Then, like she had flipped a switch he almost heard, her mind shifted into gear and began analyzing the connection the claiming had forged between them. He felt the exact moment when her brain reached for more, and suddenly there was a human female invading the inner sanctum of his mind like she did it every day. Coldly, methodically, she rummaged through his feelings and memories.

  Eyes that had gone unfocused shot back to lock on his as she frowned and growled. Her rage returning like someone had flipped a switch. "Who the fuck are you?"

  He raised a brow at that, knowing the arrogant move would annoy her even before he felt her irritation flare. He wondered if she would acknowledge the connection between them or try to hide from it as he could feel she desperately wanted to do. When he felt her emotions spike, all of them including the fear and humiliation she was attempting to compartmentalize while her mind worked he decided it was not the time to play.

  "Brax," he said his voice going rougher and deeper as he considered his answer. "Your mate."

  "Brax?" she asked carefully, pushing back the hair that was falling around her face. Then she stilled and looked at her arm. He felt the mind take over once again as she examined the gold shimmer of her arm, then a fall of her hair with a large vein of gold running through it. "Well," she said mildly enough while her emotions threatened to break out of the careful box she had contained them in. "I guess that answers that question."

  "What question?" he asked just as mildly, fighting the desire to pull her into his arms and reassure her. She would not appreciate it and he doubted it would offer the comfort she needed in any case. He was after all a stranger to her.

  "It doesn't matter," she said quickly, sucking in a steadying breath as her emotions calmed. "Explain how you are Brax and not Rygan, but nearly identical to him."

  "Nearly?" he asked in surprise, but she was not finished.

  "Explain how and why you are on this ship. How are you my mate when it was Rygan who bit me and began the change? From what I saw in the medical files, only a blood mate could start the transformation in a female." She did not wait for him to answer but kept going. "Why am I feeling what you are feeling?" She sucked in a breath. "Which I would appreciate you toning back a bit. It feels like my skin is scalding under a heat lamp the way you look at me."

  "You will forgive me," Brax said doing nothing to tone down the possession and satisfaction he felt as he allowed his eyes to drift up and down her body. He hid none of his appreciation, or the heat that single perusal generated. "I have just met my blood mate. Allowances will have to be made." His eyes met her again. "And you like the heat of my gaze."

  This time the breath she sucked in was more a gasp of reaction than a calming exercise. "You are in my head." She did not ask a question but stated a fact as he felt her scrambling to erect some kind of mental barrier between them.

  "As you have been in mine," he answered simply, brushing off her attempts to push him out as he basked in their connection. That she did not share his joy in it he took in stride. She had after all been human just a few short cycles past. "I am twin to Rygan, one of the few that were allowed to live when the twin mutation occurred during creation. I am in danger here because my brother the king thinks he has already succeeded in killing me, but should he discover his mistake will do his best to re
ctify it." He held her eyes allowing her to see the conviction and truth in his. "I do not know how Rygan was able to begin the transformation. Perhaps because we share the same genetic structure, and his was close enough to count when the chemicals from his bite hit your blood stream." He felt the spike of worry and guessed at the cause. "Were you attracted to my brother before or after the bite?"

  She sneered. "Not even a little bit. After he bit me I felt the pain of the change start, but it was not passion I felt for him." Not like I feel with you.

  She left the words unspoken but he heard them just the same. "You need not fear that will change if you see him again. We might be genetically identical, but if there had truly been a connection you would have felt the pull long before he attacked you." He thought the rest willing it to reach her as he conducted an experiment. And he will be dead long before he comes anywhere near you again, regardless.

  Her eyes widened and snapped back to his.

  Brax spoke the rest out loud. "And I came here for you Ariel. Your sisters sent me to get you out."

  She sat up with a jerk, her eyes wide and on his. "You know who I am?" She sucked in a breath. "Sisters? Plural. You know where Sara and Megan are?"

  "Yes," he answered, enjoying the thrill of happiness and relief that went through her at the thought of them. "I will take you to see them when we have left here, and I have dealt with my brother."

  He watched the way her mind cranked into gear again and worked quick as a flash through the new information he had just given her. She ignored the points he expected her to question.

  "No,” she said with quiet conviction, as the light of challenge rose in her eyes. "We can't leave yet. The crew thinks you are the king?"

  "For now," he said warily as he tilted his head attempting to read the thoughts that moved so fast through her amazing mind that they swirled out of his reach before he could grab hold.