Starfighter Command

by Grace Goodwin

  Kass brushed my hand away, then pulled out.

  “Wha—” The word was caught in my throat as I was flipped onto my back. Kass pushed my legs wide, looked his fill, then settled between them and thrust deep, took me again.

  I looked up into his dark eyes. He was watching me as he filled me. His pelvis rubbed against my clit, and I knew what he was doing now. He wanted to watch me come. Wanted to witness the moment I surrendered, lost myself to the pleasure he gave me.

  He didn’t have to wait long. With my hands digging into his ass, I came again. It was a rolling, searing release, prolonged by the way his cock rubbed and stroked secret places inside me.

  Sweat glistened on my skin as I bucked and arched beneath him. Pleasure burst from me, but I kept looking at Kass. Held his gaze. Let him see exactly what he did to me, what he meant to me. I didn’t want to break the connection because we were together in this. In all things. Forever.

  “Your turn,” I whispered.

  Kass didn’t slow his hips, only lost his rhythm, giving over to his basest needs. “Your pleasure is my pleasure, Mia. You are my life. My heart. You saved me,” he said.

  “And you saved me right back,” I added on a moan.

  He roared then, holding himself deep, filling me with his seed.

  I came again, softly, a gentle little ripple of heat that made my body milk him dry.

  We’d given everything to be together. We burned hot. We fought dirty. We claimed wild. We would never be tamed. Never be alone. Never walk away or betray one another. We were a pair bond. We were one.

  Our rebel natures might get us in trouble here and there, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Kass was mine. If the Velerions didn’t like that? Well, too damn bad.

  I was keeping him.

  Epilogue

  Mia, Three Days Later, Surface of Velerion

  We were under house arrest for three days. I’d never been in jail before, nor did I want to be, but being stuck with Kass with nothing to do but be naked and get to know each other—really well—wasn’t all that bad.

  It had been incredible. Besides the number of orgasms we’d had—I’d lost count after a while—we’d talked. Discovered we were more compatible than we’d ever imagined.

  The one thing we hadn’t been able to do was for me to learn about my new home world. Velerion was where I lived now, and all I’d seen was the inside of the Resolution and on missions. So when General Jennix cleared Kass of the accusations against him—except for the hacking into the Starfighter Training Academy candidate program—we were free to go.

  To Velerion.

  Xenon had been successfully liberated from the Dark Fleet. The IPBMs that remained had been destroyed. The factory would revert back to ore production. Xenon as a planet would return to normal. To peace. Without a moon base, which had been completely destroyed. It was undecided yet if it would be rebuilt.

  But that wasn’t for me or Kass to analyze. We were given leave along with Jamie and Alex, and we met them on Velerion.

  So here we were, just outside of Eos Station where Kass used to be based, walking in a park. With people. And babies. And pets that looked like small polar bears complete with long claws, fuzzy white fur, and saddles for the children to ride.

  Saddles. On bears.

  The ambling creatures had bright blue eyes, not Earth bear brown, and they were about the size of a large dog, but still. Bears.

  “They are very protective of their families and are considered wonderful pets.” Kass’s hand was at the small of my back, and I reveled in the momentary normal feeling of walking with him, in a park, with children playing and bears rolling in the grass with one another as wistful, smiling parents watched with the same besotted look I’d seen thousands of times on Earth.

  Almost made me want children. Almost.

  Kass kissed my temple. “I enjoy watching the little ones the most.”

  Scheisse. “I don’t want to be a mother.” I had things to do, and being a mother was not one of them. “I was never one of those little girls that played with baby dolls and pretended to be a mother. It’s not for me, Kass.”

  He froze. “I want you. I want to fight to protect my people. I have no need to be a father.” He kissed me again. “We’re warriors, my Mia. A battleship is no place for children. We fight. We protect. We die.” He nodded to a very small girl, perhaps two years old, who had tackled her bear pet. The adorable duo was rolling around and growling, the little girl treating her bear like she would a puppy. “They play.”

  Thank God. I hadn’t even thought about Kass wanting children before now, but the relief I felt was like bubbles in my blood and the blue and green sky looked brighter, the flowers more beautiful, the heat of Kassius at my back like home. I’d never been this content on Earth. Here we were, stealing maybe an hour after facing down an interplanetary traitor and two war generals, and I was giddy.

  I was never giddy.

  Then again, I had never walked on an alien planet before. The moon base was one thing, but it had been barren and uninhabited and scary as hell. This was peaceful. Safe. And beautiful. Flowers of every color I’d ever seen, and some I hadn’t, blossomed from well-groomed beds. The grass was soft and sank under our combat boots to spring up again like a sponge once we’d passed. Small insects similar to bees buzzed from flower to flower, their pearlescent green and blue bodies like floating gemstones sparkling in Vega’s warm light. Jamie noticed the new colors as well and pointed to one of the more radiant, oddly colored blooms. “What is that?”

  “A flower?” Alex answered.

  “No. What color is that?”

  Kass wrapped his arms around me from behind, and I leaned into him. “That is a Vega Star Blossom.” He squeezed me. “Have you never seen that color before?”

  “No.” I hadn’t. I couldn’t even begin to describe it.

  “Must be your cipher implants. When fully integrated, they enhance all your senses, not just your hearing and language abilities. They also increase reaction time, which is very helpful in battle.”

  I didn’t want to think about the weird nanotech crawling around inside my brain. Yes, understanding and speaking the language was helpful, but I did not like the idea of the implants. Maybe, one day, I’d grow accustomed. For now I ignored it and focused on the little girl and her gentle bear who were lying on the ground facing one another, nose to nose, as she patted the bear’s face.

  That was one patient animal.

  Jamie and Alex had wandered to look at another section of blooms while I was content to stand and sway in Kass’s arms.

  The little girl glanced up and giggled as her older sister came flying through the park to join them, her much longer legs pumping at full speed until she reached them. “Mother says it’s time to eat.” She was probably eight or nine and very sure of herself.

  “Not hungry, are we?” The little one kissed her bear.

  The older sister put her hands on her hips and tilted her head in a bossy stance I recognized all too easily. “Mother says—” The elder sister looked up, and her gaze landed on us. She froze. “Starfighters.”

  “Where?” The baby scrambled to her feet, and the lumbering bear rolled onto its side before managing to place itself between the two girls and stare at us.

  “Right there!” The older girl pointed, and her baby sister finally looked up and registered our presence.

  “Do you want to run?” Kass whispered. “Now’s your only chance.”

  Run? From children? “Don’t be ridiculous.” I pulled free from Kass’s arms and walked slowly toward the girls so as not to scare them. “Hello. I’m Mia. What’s your name?”

  “Starfighter MCS Mia?” the older girl shouted with excitement and glanced behind me to Kass. “Are you Kassius Remeas, the rebel hacker?”

  I glanced over my shoulder to find Kass now ambling toward us with a grin on his face. “Am I famous, then?”

  “Yes! My mother said you broke the rules, but Fat
her said we needed you, so it’s allowed.” She scrunched her nose up at him, and I honestly could not tell the difference between these people and humans. “But only for Starfighters. We can’t break rules like you, or we’ll be in trouble.”

  “Big trouble,” the little one confirmed.

  “Can I touch it?” The older girl pointed at the silver swirl on my Starfighter uniform, so I knelt in front of them, careful of the bear creature, and both girls walked forward without a hint a fear and reached for me.

  “I love this,” the little one said.

  “Thank you.”

  The older girl ran her fingers along the emblem, then reached up to my neck. When she couldn’t see the mark there, she walked around behind me, lifting my hair from my neck until she found it. Small, sticky fingers followed as the two ran their hands over my skin.

  “Someday I want to be a Starfighter.”

  “Me, too.”

  The older girl looked at her baby sister. “Mother says you are going to work with animals because you can talk to them.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I can’t.”

  The tiny girl giggled like she had a secret as she stepped back and placed her arm over the bear’s neck. “Orion likes you.”

  “Is Orion your bear?”

  “He’s not a bear. He’s Orion.”

  Right. Toddler logic. “I like him, too.”

  The older girl remained at my shoulder, transfixed by the marking there.

  “Leave the Starfighters alone, ladies,” a man’s voice called out, and I looked away from the gentle eyes of the mini polar bear to find a man and woman—I assumed to be the girls’ parents—nearly upon us.

  “They’re all right.”

  “Orion likes Mia.”

  “I’m sure he does,” their mother confirmed.

  I stood slowly and turned to find not just the girls’ parents, but a gathering of at least fifty adults and children closing in on our location. I looked over to Kass, who had his arms crossed and was grinning at me.

  “Tried to warn you.”

  “What are they doing?” I asked.

  “You are famous, Mia.”

  “Famous?” What the hell was he talking about?

  “Look.” He pointed to the opposite side of the grassy area where Alex and Jamie were surrounded by people as well.

  “Why?”

  “You’re a Starfighter, my Mia. Hero of the planet. Last hope of winning the war. Every person here is counting on us to save them.”

  Scheisse. Fighting? Fine. Hacking into Dark Fleet systems? No problem. Staring into the eyes of hundreds of people who thought I was a savior of some kind? No. I was no one special. I said as much.

  Kass wrapped his arm around my waist as we were surrounded by well-wishers, fans, and curious children. Seemed most of them worked at Eos Station and kept up-to-date on the war effort. Queen Raya had been gaining ground for months, until Jamie’s arrival. And now mine.

  “We got the Xenon back because of them!” one of the men shouted. The crowd took up his chant. “Xenon! Xenon!”

  The older girl still stood close, and she threw her arms around my waist. Squeezed. Hard. “Thank you. Velia and Camillia live there!”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Their cousins. We have not been able to find out—” The girls’ mother cleared her throat. “My sister and her family work on Xenon. We have not been able to communicate with them since the Dark Fleet took over.”

  “I’m sorry.” I had no idea what to say.

  Kass’s soothing voice calmed the entire crowd. “I’m sure they are all right. We will know within a few hours. They needed workers who knew how to operate the systems there. And they are free now.”

  The girl squeezed me tighter as Kass and I spent the next half hour smiling and greeting strangers who seemed to know everything about us. One man even mentioned the fact that I was from Earth.

  “Do you know where Earth is?” I asked.

  “Never heard of it before, but I hope there are a lot more of you coming.”

  Lily would be next. I had no doubt. After that? Based on the millions of people playing the game? I answered him with confidence. “There will be. I promise.”

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  About Grace

  Grace Goodwin is a USA Today and international bestselling author of Sci-Fi and Paranormal romance with more than one million books sold. Grace's titles are available worldwide in multiple languages in ebook, print and audio formats. Two best friends, one left-brained, the other right-brained, make up the award winning writing duo that is Grace Goodwin. They are both mothers, escape room enthusiasts, avid readers and intrepid defenders of their preferred beverages. (There may or may not be an ongoing tea vs. coffee war occurring during their daily communications.) Grace loves to hear from readers! All of Grace's books can be read as sexy, stand-alone adventures. But be careful, she likes her heroes hot and her love scenes hotter. You have been warned...

  www.gracegoodwin.com

  gracegoodwinauthor@gmail.com