Not a joke. Finish the game. Darius will come. See you on Velerion.
I turned off my phone and slipped it back into the jacket pocket. I was about to jump all over Kassius Remeas, and I didn’t need my phone’s camera or microphone on to capture the moment. “What now?” I moved toward him and placed my palms flat on his chest. He was warm and strong and looking at me like I was his favorite thing in the universe. All things which made him impossible to resist, even if I’d wanted to. Which I didn’t.
“You cannot imagine how I’ve longed for you.” He traced my lower lip with his thumb as I took a deep breath, learning his scent for the first time.
My imagination was pretty spectacular, so he was wrong there.
“I don’t want to wait any longer. I can’t.” He rolled his hips into me, and I felt why. “Mia, please say you’ve been as crazy as me for this moment.”
I didn’t want to wait either. God, I soooo didn’t. “Yes, I’ve been crazy. God, the things I thought about you.”
His jaw clenched. “I want to hear them all. Later.”
I licked my lips, gave a little nod. I’d never been so aroused, so eager for a man. We’d only kissed and God, we’d just met. But I knew Kass. Needed him.
“Don’t wait,” I told him, running my hands over him because… because he was mine. “Please. I want you, too.”
A deep growl emanated from his chest, and then he moved. My shirt was pushed up over my breasts, and his mouth latched on to my nipple. He gave one hard suck but growled again, this time in frustration a second before he tugged my bra cup down. “Fuck, all mine.”
He took me back in his mouth and sucked. Hard. It reached my core and I moaned, suddenly feeling empty and achy and desperate for more.
He lifted his head, and I looked into his dark eyes. “That sound is for me alone. No one on the other side of that door will have such a reward.”
I nodded, tangled my fingers in his hair. “Kass. More.”
He worked at my pants as I toed off my heels, flinging them across the room. When he couldn’t figure out that the zipper was on the side, I pushed his hands away and worked it down on my own. Kass did his pants, and I stilled when his hard length sprang free.
“Scheisse.” I’d had good sex before, but I had a feeling the reason I hadn’t been fully satisfied was because of what was in front of me. Alien cock. Kass was big and his body was more than proportional. He was thick and long like a porn star with a broad crown that made me wonder if I could get that monster in my mouth.
My body clenched in anticipation, but I knew I’d be feeling him for days. It would be a reminder of exactly how real he was.
“My pants are down, bond mate. You don’t need to praise me.” He gripped the base and stroked it from root to tip. Once. Twice. A bead of pre-cum oozed from the slit.
“You’re cocky.”
His dark brow winged up and he grinned. “In so many ways. You wet for me?”
I stepped on my pants, pushing them down the rest of the way, and shucked them off with a flick of my foot. I’d taken my panties with them, so I was bare except for my shirt up over my breasts and my pushed-down bra.
Reaching out, I took his hand and brought it between my thighs. When he slipped two fingers inside, I went up on my toes, gripped his taut forearms.
“Don’t make me wait any longer,” I said.
He didn’t. He pulled his hand away, slid it around my hip to cup my ass. He had me lifted and my legs wrapped around his waist in under a second, his cock at my entrance, and then he lowered me down.
I arched my back at the stretch, but my need for him eased the way.
He gave me a second to adjust, and our gazes met. Held. I nodded and then he moved. This wasn’t gentle. Or sweet. It was true fucking. Wall pounding, deep thrusts that had him filling me completely. Over and over. Hard. Our bodies slapped together, and his fingers dug into my ass.
I didn’t want it any other way. I was frantic for him, and the way he moved without any kind of rhythm, almost desperate in finding his pleasure in me, said he was frantic as well.
I needed this. I needed him. No one else would do. The craving I had built up for him could only be soothed through this rough coupling. “Kass,” I whimpered, dropping my head back against the wall.
His repeated chants of mine were all he said.
My clit was worked with every roll of his hips, and I came hard, biting my lip.
Kass followed right behind me, his ragged growl in my ear as he leaned in and filled me with his cum, with every bit of how badly he’d wanted me.
This was insane. We were sweaty. Out of breath. I was going to have bruises down my spine, and my body had taken a pummeling. But there was no question in my mind—and in my body—that Kass was real.
And as soon as we pulled ourselves back together, I was going with him. To another planet. Another life.
To Velerion.
4
Starfighter MCS Kassius Remeas, Battleship Resolution, Landing Bay
* * *
I set the speed of the shuttle to its maximum and was in the Resolution’s landing bay within minutes of coming through the jump gate and back into the Vega System. I was home. Even better, Mia sat next to me, where she would be from now on, her face calmer than I expected as she took in the stars, the planet below us, and the giant battleship we would call home. Autopiloting features kicked in and pulled us inside before settling our small shuttle into one of the specialty berths.
“Welcome to the Resolution, Starfighters.”
Mia gasped at the greeting that filled the cockpit and I grinned. “Thank you, Resolution. Please notify General Jennix of our arrival.”
“Already done, sir.”
A battleship comms officer had just called me sir. I grinned. Yes. I could get used to that.
Mia was rubbing her head again, and I wanted to pull her into my arms and take her pain away. “How are you? I can delay if you need more time to adjust to the cipher implant.” I’d shared the details of the implant injection and the side effects and offered her a sedative so she could sleep through the worst of it. She had, of course, declined.
“I’ll be fine. I’ve had worse. And I don’t want to miss anything.”
“Of course not.” Not my Mia. She wanted to see everything. Analyze our surroundings. Take in every detail. Already her gaze scanned what little was visible of the Battleship Resolution’s landing bay. She turned her head to look outside of the shuttle, and I barely resisted the urge to stroke the soft skin of her neck. Again.
The dark swirling mark below her ear made me want to strut around with this beautiful, talented female and show her off. Let everyone see the marks on her neck and mine, the marks of a pair-bonded Starfighter team. But the cipher implant was busy working on Mia’s neural network, the cipher’s microelectric nanites connecting with her human nervous system to make sure she could understand everything she saw and heard out here in space. Once fully integrated, they would help her see more clearly, increase her reaction times, and help her integrate with Velerion ships’ systems at maximum efficiency.
Didn’t mean the damn implants were without issues. The dagger-to-the-skull levels of pain as they duplicated, then merged with the host’s neurons was not pleasant. And the deep lines of pain around Mia’s eyes and mouth had not lessened much during our trip back to the Vega System.
“Are you sure, Mia? I’m sorry for implanting it, but there was no choice. I can take you to medical. I can also offer you something for the pain.”
“No. Kass, I’m fine.”
No, she was not. But she was a fully trained Starfighter MCS. Deadly. Sexy. And mine. If she said she was all right, I would honor her wishes. And watch over her whether she liked the attention or not. I inspected Mia in her Starfighter MCS uniform and allowed the sense of pride, contentment, and lust to wash over me. She was mine. She was magnificent. And she was really here. After packing a few of her things, inspecting the small but comfortable pla
ce she lived, giving her pleasure until we both passed out from exhaustion, then a few hours of rest, I’d escorted her to my ship. When I’d arrived on Earth, I landed my shuttle while the humans were sleeping, using the autopilot feature to park my vessel at the bottom of the city’s large river once I’d disembarked. Even without the water, my ship would have remained hidden from Earth’s sensors by advanced stealth technology.
To return, I’d walked her to the river’s edge in the dead of night and summoned the shuttle. Watching her face as the ship appeared out of thin air had been the most fun I’d had in years. I’d felt like a little boy showing off a new favorite toy.
There was no question then of Mia wondering if it was only a game.
Several hours of flying, one trip through the jump gate, and we had arrived.
“We’re home, Mia. Welcome to Velerion. Well, to the Velerion Battleship Resolution, currently under the command of General Jennix.”
“Holy shit.” Mia stood and followed as I led the way to the shuttle’s hatch. She glanced around before stepping out onto the ramp. “This is Battlestar Galactica, next-level, Star Wars insane.” She reached out and ran her fingers through my hair, which was quickly becoming one of my favorite things in life. “Do you guys have the Force?”
“What is the force?”
She was smiling wider than I’d ever seen. “You know, mind control and telekinesis and knowing things about the future, or sensing when someone you care about is in trouble. Telepathy, I guess.”
Interesting. “No. Do humans have these powers?”
She shook her head. “Only in movies.” She placed her palm over the mark on her neck and winked at me. “So far, anyway. We’ll see what these crazy implants do to us.”
She had a point. She was the second human to have received them. Our scientists assured us they were safe for all species, but that didn’t mean they had a clue what the cipher technology would do to humans.
When I walked down the shuttle’s back ramp, Mia’s hand in mine, there—fuck—stood Captain Sponder, blocking our way.
“Captain.” I shifted Mia behind me, putting my bulk between Sponder and my bonded one. I waited for the verbal explosion I knew was coming. Sponder wasn’t supposed to be here. He was normally on the surface of Velerion, inside Eos Station, strutting around like he owned the place. Why was he on the battleship?
“Shuttle Pilot, what the hell is this bullshit that you’ve been pair bonded and promoted to Starfighter MCS? You were never approved for the training program.”
“Actually I was,” I countered. Mia was proof of that.
“Who approved your training?”
I grinned. I couldn’t stop myself. “You did.”
“I’ll have your head this time, Pilot,” he snapped. The veins in his temples pulsed.
The fucker wasn’t just a nemesis who wanted to see me kept down, but now he was following me around? Haunting me like a ghost? He was old enough to be my father and had the attitude and personality of a Velerion jungle rat. He hated me.
The feeling was mutual. He was known for harassing lower-ranking staff, especially females. I had hacked the system to transfer one of his favorite targets to serve under a different leader. I’d denied him his fun and games, his torment of someone weaker and vulnerable.
He’d suspected what I’d done, but I never shared the video with him. He had no proof. Sure, I’d just admitted it, but again, no real proof. The silent standoff had lasted for more than a year until he’d refused to give me clearance to enter Starfighter training. That was why I’d hacked into the system and given it to myself. I’d taken my career into my own hands because I knew he’d never let me out from under this thumb. I knew too much but probably not everything. I was a threat to his career.
And now I outranked him.
He was not happy. I’d pulled off the ultimate deception right under his nose. I’d gone around the one and only blockade he’d erected that had kept me from becoming a Starfighter. He knew, but he couldn’t prove anything. Again.
“Are you threatening a superior officer?” I asked.
“I’ll speak to the general about this.” Sponder’s hair was gray. His face was lined. His eyes were almost black and void of any kind of compassion or warmth. I had to wonder if he wasn’t part cyborg with the lack of emotion and empathy he routinely displayed.
“I believe my rank is now Starfighter MCS,” I replied, my voice deepening. He wasn’t going to temper my happiness. Mia had remained silent through all this, and he was wasting my time and ruining her arrival.
I squeezed Mia’s hand and moved to skirt around him, but he held up his hand in front of my chest. I bristled because of my pair bond. He could fuck with me all he wanted, but he wouldn’t even look at Mia.
“You were not approved for the training program.”
I stood beside him, but we faced opposite directions. “Yes. I was.”
“No, you certainly were not.”
It seemed we were going to argue in circles.
I turned to face him, tucking Mia behind me. I hadn’t realized how pointed his nose was. “Because you made sure of it.”
He tipped his head. “That’s right. The Starfighter program doesn’t need anyone like you.”
I smiled then, in victory. “Actually they do.”
“I will write you up for interfering with the training protocols and deny your transfer to the Starfighter program.”
“You may file a complaint with General Jennix, Captain, if you feel you have been wronged by a higher-ranking officer. If you will excuse me, I have my pair bond to orient to our new home.”
Sponder leaned to look around me, as if he hadn’t even noticed Mia was with me before. He lowered his hand and practically snarled his response. “You are not my superior, Pilot. I’ll see to that. And this female, wherever you found her, can go back under whatever rock you two crawled from.”
“Are you threatening her?” I growled. He was gravely mistaken if he intended to interfere. Nothing would stop me from claiming what I’d worked so hard to achieve. Not with Mia’s life on the line as well. Her future. Her career. When it had only been my future at stake, I had put up with his bullshit, worked my way around him. But Mia was expecting me to be there for her, fighting beside her.
Mia would need me. To pilot the Phantom, to have her back, to help her hack into Dark Fleet networks, to keep her safe and happy and thoroughly pleasured. She’d matched herself to me, chosen me through the complex questionnaire program that ultimately united us as a connected, highly specialized fighting team. We were a bonded fighting pair. We had completed every mission in the Starfighter Training Academy. Together.
I admired her, had fought beside her for months, and, if I were being brutally honest, I’d already fallen in love with her. Her determination. Her brilliant mind. Her sassy mouth.
She was beside me now, and nothing would break us apart. Not only did Velerion law prevent anything from severing a pair bond, but I would see to it that nothing separated us.
A communications tech approached. He saluted Mia first, then me, then tipped his head to Sponder almost as an afterthought. “Starfighter MCS. Welcome aboard. We’ve been expecting you.”
I glanced at Mia, who looked a little overwhelmed but happy. I was pleased by his words. Starfighter MCS. Yeah, that sounded perfect.
“His rank is lieutenant, and he is nothing more than a shuttle pilot,” Sponder snapped at the tech, whose spine stiffened. That was how the asshole had always expected me to respond to him, but I’d always refused. I didn’t kowtow to assholes like him.
The tech looked between the three of us, unsure. Then he stiffened to attention as a tall woman approached. “General Jennix,” the tech said. “This is our new Starfighter MCS bonded pair. Kassius Remeas of Velerion and Mia Becker of Earth.”
The general smiled and practically rubbed her hands together in subdued glee. “Welcome aboard, Starfighters. I am General Jennix, and you have been placed under
my command. You answer directly to me and only to me.” She emphasized the last as she stared down Captain Sponder.
I nodded at her, pleased the general had confirmed that our new roles were secure. “Thank you, General.”
“Graves will show you to your new quarters. While I’m sure you would like to take some time to learn about your new home, I need you both in my office within the hour. We have a situation.” She smiled in direct contrast to the chill that raced down my spine at her words. “Starfighter Pilots Jamie and Alex intercepted another IPBM less than three hours ago. I apologize, Mia Becker, but you are not going to get a chance to rest.”
Mia had remained silent up to this point, and I wondered exactly what she was thinking. It was not like her to hold her tongue. At least she had never minced words during training. But she was on a battleship. In space. There was nothing here remotely similar to Earth. I could imagine how overwhelmed she was. The only familiar thing was me.
“Thank you, General,” she murmured. “I don’t sleep much anyway.”
Mia’s words made the general chuckle. “Very good. Congratulations on completing the Starfighter Training Academy. You are the second from Earth to do so.”
“Starfighter Jamie Miller and I are friends. We trained together.”
The general nodded. “Excellent.” She looked to me. “We are eager for you both to join us.”
Meaning she didn’t give a shit about Sponder. She wanted Starfighter MCSs and now.
“Thank you, General,” I said, offering her a respectful nod.
“Lieutenant Remeas’s transfer to Starfighter MCS is denied, General,” Sponder snapped, moving to stand at my shoulder. “I think you should know that this shuttle pilot hacked into the training program and entered himself into the system against my direct orders.”
“Captain Sponder, I assume,” Jennix replied. While she was shorter than Sponder, she looked down her nose at him. Her clipped words and steely stare indicated she was not impressed by my previous superior.
Starfighter Command Page 4