by Mikayla Lane
Amun could feel the change in Jess’s body, the way her inner muscles clenched and released his shaft as he pressed deeply inside of her, and he prayed that she would find her release soon; he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold off.
Moments later her inner muscles squeezed him so tightly he almost came right then; however, when she started rippling around him with her orgasm, he lost it. He held her firmly as he continued to come deep inside of her, a part of him praying that they would create a child. Still panting, he held her lovingly against his chest while she lay across his body, her head tucked against his shoulder.
One-minute Jess felt like she was going to explode and the next she had. She held tightly to Amun while the colors burst behind her eyes, and her body shuddered against his. She’d never felt so wonderful and relaxed in her life. She smiled to herself when she rubbed her body against his slightly, and he moaned and gave her a squeeze.
Stretching her legs out a little without dislodging him from her body proved futile, so she allowed him to slowly slide out of her body and moved to the side and threw an arm and leg over him instead. Looking down his body, she couldn’t help but laugh.
“You do realize that it deflates a man’s ego when you laugh at him immediately after what he thought was the most amazing moment of his life.” Amun said wondering what she was laughing about, but not really worried that it had to do with their love making. He knew she’d enjoyed it as much as he had, and he trusted in that knowledge.
“Oh no! I wasn’t laughing at that! I was laughing because I was really hoping that the next time you could take your pants and boots off.”
Amun looked down at her as she hid her blush against his shoulder, her hair hiding part of the side of her face. He wasn’t sure what surprised him more, the fact she was thinking of the next time, or that he really had just moved his pants off enough to claim her; his boots were still on his feet. Now it was his turn to blush. What kind of man took his mate this way?
“Jess… I’m so sorry. I…” Jess reached up and placed her finger across his lips to hush him.
“I’m not the least bit sorry for any of it. Please don’t make it less beautiful than it was by being regretful for it.”
“I would never want it to be anything less than beautiful for you always, Jess. I love you.” Amun held her tightly so she couldn’t see the tears misting his eyes.
“I love you too Amun. Can we get your pants and boots off now? It’s hard to cuddle with them on.”
Amun sat up and pulled off his boots and pants and slid under the covers with her where she’d retreated when he’d stood up and pulled his pants off.
“Do you think anyone would mind if you stayed with me tonight?”
Amun almost laughed at her whispered words. They’d both made more than enough noise earlier that they would have been heard for sure, yet this she whispered.
“No, Amalaya, they couldn’t drag me away if they tried.” He gathered her into his arms and jockeyed body parts with her until they were wrapped up comfortably together.
“Good. I like having you here with me. I don’t like being alone.”
“You’ll never be lonely again, Jess. You’ll always have me. You always have.” Amun kissed the top of her head and gave her an emotional squeeze.
“I know.” Jess gave him a quick squeeze in return and dropped off into the deepest sleep she could ever remember having.
*****
“That isn’t possible. This is Dare; we're talking about!” Banatar emphasized his point by slamming his fist down on the table in the conference room.
“Sir, we’ve had no contact for weeks now. None. We have to consider the possibility she’s lost. We need these resources elsewhere to find the traitor right here and now. I know it’s Dare, which is why I know this is what she would want you to do. You know it too.” Jax stood her ground with Banatar. They’d been in the conference room only a few minutes when the exchange became heated and tense.
“Banatar, I understand your feelings on the matter. But she’s right. We almost lost her team because they walked into a trap. The only way that could have happened is if the traitor had given someone on the outside that information. If we find the traitor, we may be able to find out if they know anything about what happened to Dare.”
“We have to think of the children and the others here as well; every day that the traitor is loose, the greater the risk to everyone.” Ivint’s heart was breaking for Banatar and his missing daughter, but he knew that if they didn’t divert their resources to finding the traitor, next time someone could end up dead.
“The last intel we had was that Balduen disappeared within a two-block radius of where Dare was last seen. The description he gave Niklosi of the woman he was following fits Dare; and we’ve not heard from him either. What we need to do is utilize a minimum amount of personnel to track down whether or not anyone saw them both together. We’ve only looked for them separately to this point.”
“If by some chance, they found each other, then were taken or left together we might have a better chance of getting more leads to follow.” Reven added. He was just as concerned about the disappearance of Balduen, but agreed that the traitor needed to be found immediately.
The room was silent as Banatar fought an internal battle with his duties to this community and his desperation as a father to find his daughter. He knew they were right. And Dare would rip him a new one when she got back if he continued to threaten the safety of the others by not moving all resources to finding the traitor.
“Reven, can we put two of your best on your suggestion?” He asked Reven, but also looked to the High Councilor for approval as well.
At Ivint’s nod, Reven replied. “Of course, we’ll get on it right away.” Reven programmed orders into his comm and sent Niklosi and Simya on their new task. Since they had participated in the separate searches for Dare and Balduen, they were already familiar with their targets and would be able to gather information quicker.
“What are the suggestions for catching this son of a bitch?” Banatar asked the room.
At Ivint’s nod, Lagor pulled out his comm and began to brief the room.
“We modified some of our scanners to detect the planet’s technology devices and were able to uncover three remote listening devices. All of them were located here.” Lagor projected the locations on the wall of the conference room.
“As you can see this conference room, the one on level two and the dining room were the affected areas. We neutralized the devices, but left them in their locations so that we could monitor if someone came back to check on them. So far, we’ve not been able to catch anyone coming to see why they are no longer working.”
“We set up a tech shield utilizing the existing grids set up by Risk and his team and amplified the signal. This would have kept anyone from transmitting anything in or out of the compound without prior clearance. We’ve been randomly changing the code every twelve hours, but we’ve had no unauthorized communications intercepted.” Lagor set down his comm and waited for questions, when there wasn't any Reven began his briefing.
“Since the Valendran teams took over base operations on our arrival, we’ve expanded the perimeter and searched every part of the base with no clues as to who the traitor may be. We’ve searched the belongings of Julou and his crew and have found nothing. We’ve had every person under constant observation and still not found any suspicious behavior.”
“So we’ve gotten nowhere on finding him?” Banatar asked with disbelief, no one could hide that well.
“I wouldn’t say that. Whoever it is took a big risk getting the information to someone about Jax’s raid the other night. We’re going through the data again to see if there is something we missed the first time. And the devices Lagor and Risk found were high end technology on this planet. So whoever it is, they are using what’s available here and nothing from the Relians.” Reven added. He was also surprised at the lack of information they had on the traitor
; which was frustratingly little. He had expected he would be in custody by now.
“Father, we’re tracing the purchase of the devices to see if we can find out who originally bought them, so we can work backward from there. But right now we really have nothing to go on. Other than it started with the attempt on the High Councilor’s life.” Risk stated the obvious and echoed the concerns of some of the others on the base. They knew that they didn’t have a traitor before the Valendrans had arrived with Julou and his crew.
“I understand that we have brought the traitor here. The problem is trying to uncover who it is and who they are working with. I honestly didn’t expect the number of humans working with the Relians making it more difficult to find the enemy. Do they not realize the danger they place their world in by doing so?” Ivint shook his head in disbelief.
“We had thought for a time that the humans helping them were aberrations. Then we thought that the Relians had been successful at breeding with the humans, and that was their offspring. But we’ve studied the ones we’ve captured, and we’ve found there are some who seem to have been born without a soul.”
“They have no conscience about the destruction and death they create and seem to be motivated only by greed and power. Which is why we’ve found so many embedded in the world governments and religions. The congresswoman from California and the senator from Nevada, to name just a few here, have been working with the Relians to destroy this country and the people for years.”
“We’ve barely made a dent in the operations they have going on here and worldwide, as you can see by the state of world affairs.” Banatar had been fighting the rapid incursion of the Relians influence on the planet to almost no avail for over a millennia. He had hopes that with the Valendran’s here that they’d be able to make more progress releasing the people from their grasp. But so far they weren't even able to find one traitor in their midst and his precious Dare.
“If we’ve checked Julou’s crew, then that would only leave Jess or one of the other girls.” Randor voiced the one thing no one was saying out loud.
“If you think for one minute, one of the girls is involved you are dead wrong! We’ve proven our loyalty time and again, sometimes with our lives. And to name Jess? Have you gone mad? Did any of you see her when you ‘rescued’ her? We heard all about her condition from the med techs; she was barely alive, and you think she’s involved?” Jax’s voice was rising with her anger with every word she spoke. How dare he even suspect Jess or one of them!
“Jax, calm yourself. No one is accusing you or Jess; he was just stating the obvious. Lagor and Risk is there a possibility that something could have been implanted in someone? Something that wouldn’t be detected by normal means and could be easily implanted without detection? A new Relian technology not currently in our databases?” Ivint asked the two engineers.
Lagor and Risk looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding their heads. “Yes Sir, it is possible. We’d have to look for a range of technologies for something like that and figure out a way to scan everyone.” Risk offered, nodding at Lagor that it was something they could do.
“We’ll need to get with Amun and reconfigure one of his scanners…” Lagor began before Banatar interrupted.
“I think we need to do this with as few being aware of it as possible. And that’s not an accusation towards anyone, but if only the people in this room know about it, then I’d feel better.”
“I agree. Get a med scanner from supply and adjust the manifest so that no one will realize it's missing. I want no one outside of this room to know what you’re modifying and why. In fact, from this day forward, I want no one even to speak about our search for the traitor. If anyone asks you’ve been reassigned and haven’t heard anything more about it. Is that clear?” Ivint ordered. Like Banatar, he thought the less who knew of their continued search and future actions, the better it would be.
Ivint waited until he heard their affirmative replies before continuing. “Can the scanner be ready in a week?”
“I honestly don’t know Sir. We’d need to open one up and look at it before I could guarantee it.” Lagor said honestly. He wasn’t familiar enough with the technology on the planet yet to know what it was going to take to make it work.
“Sir, I have no doubt that we can. What my friend here keeps forgetting is that the tech on the planet is so antiquated that we just need to program them to look for artifacts.” Risk cleared his throat when no one even cracked a smile at his joke and continued.
“What I mean is, I’ve been working with the tech on this planet since birth, and I’ve been learning yours from Lagor since he got here. I think between the two of us; we can have it operational in a week. Sir.”
“What’s happening in a week Ivint?” Banatar asked him curiously.
“We’re going to have a mating celebration and set a trap for our traitor.” Ivint said to the surprise of everyone in the room.
“Who has mated?” Risk asked, wondering why Jax was fuming. He could feel the anger coming off of her in waves.
“He's talking about Jess and Amun. He wants to use her as bait! Bait! After everything she’s been through! What if something goes wrong? Did you think about that?” Jax wanted to strangle Ivint with her bare hands; she didn’t give a damn if he was supposed to be their leader. What the hell was wrong with these people?
“Jax, stand down now and sit back down.”
It took a second for Banatar’s harshly spoken words to penetrate the anger clouding her mind. Out of respect for Banatar, she did as ordered and sat back down. However, she was far from done fighting this battle.
Ivint studied Jaxson Adronatof with respect. By all reports, she was the finest warrior among the women. Her battle tactics, although not conventional, had saved her and her team countless times, including the other night when they were ambushed.
Every member of the team that night, his men included had all spoken of how she’d almost lost her leg saving one of the other girls under heavy fire. Even though she was gravely injured she maintained command and got herself and her team back safely. She was fiercely protective and loyal, which was why she was in this meeting. He had no doubt that she was not the traitor, but he wanted her unique ideas on how to capture him.
He just needed to find a way to calm the tiny woman’s suspicions first. He studied the movements of her small body; the tenseness in her muscles like she was ready to battle at a moment’s notice; the angry glint in her large black eyes.
“Jax, I have no intention of allowing Jess or anyone else to be harmed. My thought was to have everyone in the same room so that we could scan everyone when they walked in. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to get everyone in the same place at one time and scanning could take weeks.”
“I think that if Kalai T’Alq was angry over us taking Cari and her mating to Scaden, then he’s got to be really furious that not only is Jess still alive and well, but she is Amun’s mate. And you know that if the traitor caused your ambush, then he has relayed the information about Jess and the children to them as well.”
“She’s in more danger every minute that traitor is still wandering around, then if we go on the offensive to try to capture him. Don’t you agree?” Ivint had no reason to have to explain anything to her; he was the High Councilor, and his word was the law to his people. However, he respected Jax and felt it would be better to help her understand his motivation and learn to trust him than to hammer her with orders.
He studied her again while she thought about what he’d said. Her beautiful face was so expressive he could see the distrust flit across it along with a grudging respect. He wasn’t sure why she seemed so angry at him and his people, but he really wanted to find out.
“Yes, I agree that at this point we need to go on the offensive to try to catch him. But there are many ways to do so without using Jess as bait!” Her black eyes flashed with anger as she fairly spat out the last sentence. Her patience with these Valendrans was wearing thinner by t
he second, and she was coming damn close to shooting that idiot Reven, who kept staring at her.
“I agree, which is precisely why I wanted you here. I believe it has become glaringly obvious that we are at a major disadvantage on this planet. We are unfamiliar with the people, the battle tactics, customs and even the full report of events since our outpost crew crashed on the planet We are struggling to catch up on what is happening on the planet and outside the planet right now.”
“I wouldn’t be much of a leader if I didn’t recognize the same qualities in the people around me. You are not only familiar with the planet, but your battle tactics are unique and well planned. Your team trusts and respects you, including my own men who have gone out with you.”
“I want you and only a handful of your team to work closely with Reven and his team to develop a plan to catch this traitor.” Ivint put his hand up to stop her from speaking when she started to interrupt him.
“Reven and his team will defer to your judgment and experience and will only interfere if they fully believe your plan will get people injured unnecessarily. You will have the full command of this mission and any technology and assistance you need will be at your disposal.”
“The only thing I request is that you do not tell anyone outside of this room and your teams what it is that we do. Not your roommate, not Jess… no one. Agreed?”
Ivint was taking a major chance on this angry woman, but he was at a point where they had no more options and the risks to the people on this base were increasing every day that the traitor was still among them. Reven and Banatar had agreed that Jax would be the perfect option to head this; he only hoped it was the right decision.
“Agreed. Now let’s get started. I’ve been thinking about this since you arrived, and we need to try a different approach.” Jax stood up and walked confidently to the white board, grabbed a marker and began explaining her idea on how to capture the traitor.