by V T Bonds
“I’m okay,” I say, the words leaving my mouth before I have time to think about it.
“No, you aren’t. You need rest and food.”
The sounds around us settle into my awareness.
“Yes. After we settle our rescues.”
He groans in both frustration and acknowledgement, dropping his head back in exasperation.
His neck fills my view, making my mouth water with the need to taste him. Lust blooms in my abdomen, spreading through my entire body and leaking into our connection.
His chin snaps down and he meets my hungry gaze.
I drown in him, our souls colliding in a blurry of bliss.
His lips drop to mine as I strain my neck up to meet him, eager for his claiming.
He devours me, teeth and tongues clashing and dancing as we shed our pent-up fear.
“When this is over, I’m going to knot you for a month. Day. Night. While we eat. Shower. You’ll be so full of my seed you’ll forget about anything else except me.”
My core clenches as lava seeps between my legs.
“I’d like that very much.”
Our ragged breaths merge as he refuses to release me.
“Stay close, Nova. I will never let you out of my sight again.”
I caress his face, then slide my hand down his muscular arm before weaving my fingers through his.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
As one, we turn to the huddled and exhausted group.
I lean on Seeck’s experience as we check for injuries and give the more adept women tasks.
Awareness of my family slowly trickles in through my muddled head.
There’s trouble, but we can’t leave these people here.
I look to Seeck, sending a silent, shaky question into his soul.
He responds with a firm shake of his head.
No, he will not leave me here alone with these strangers, not even to help our family.
I don’t push for him to change his mind.
I can’t force my fingers to loosen around his, so begging would be futile.
This is where we’re meant to be, no matter what happens.
Once we’ve pushed the cots to one side, we find every unused soft thing in the ship and let the Omegas build a massive nest on the floor.
Stuffed with bodies, the room warms, seeping comfort into tired muscles and wounded souls.
Satisfied that three Betas seem capable of keeping the room calm, Seeck leads me to the cockpit.
He gets the Sky-Flyer booted up and ready to take off, never letting go of my hand.
Britani sends a sharp ping through our bond. I stiffen and meet my lifemate’s eyes.
We dart down the corridor, heading for the loading bay.
Chapter Eight
Shya
Leaving the Sky-Flyer, even with Dirk close by my side, sent me into a mini panic attack. My diaphragm seized, and my head swirled with nasty images, but he slid his massive hand around my forearm and purred, stealing my panic away with a single touch.
“I’ve got you, Little One. Come here.”
Remembering the way Nova soaked up my courage not even thirty seconds before, I dart into his arms and berate myself for being so silly.
“I’m s-” I cut myself off, stopping my apology.
Dirk doesn’t like when I apologize for things I can’t control.
“I can walk,” I manage through my tight throat, but my lifemate only flexes his arms around me and continues his steady gait.
“I know you can, love, but I enjoy having you in my arms.”
I enjoy being in his arms, so I settle into his hold and run through the plans in my head.
Our task seems impossible, but I trust Dirk to keep me safe.
As sand flies in the whirling wind around us, I send little messages to my sisters, unwilling to waste a moment of relative peace without them.
Anastasia’s solid support makes me yearn for my mother.
I need them both—my mommy and my adopted mom.
Without the stern comfort Anastasia gave me, I never would have survived the horrific cruelty I faced when I woke from the accident.
Without my mommy, I never would have survived the unforgiving world. When my father died, long before my memories began, she’d applied for a visa and moved to Baseon. She’d given up everything to keep me safe.
She worked as a transporter conductor, even as she grew frail over the years.
I need her.
She was there every time I needed a cuddle growing up. She kissed my boo-boos and showed me the depths of unending love.
She never failed me.
Out in the open air, I stare up past my Alpha’s epic beard and study the stars.
The city I grew up in seemed too big. To then be shoved into an even bigger world, only to have a huge thing like space travel thrown into the mix?
I wouldn’t be able to find myself if it weren’t for the giant lugging me around now.
“Dirk?” I ask, overcome with the magnitude of him.
“Yes, baby girl?”
“Thank you.”
He doesn’t think he deserves it. I was mad at him when he first found me, because I was angry and terrified by Georgia and the Beta males, and the evil Alpha always lurking on the edge of my periphery.
But I’m not mad at him anymore. I need him to understand how grateful I am to have him in my life.
“I love you.”
It comes out more vicious than I mean it to, but his eyes light with pleasure and amusement.
“I love you too.”
He stoops down and marks my soul with a searing kiss, making me wiggle in need.
I’ll never get enough of him. He’s always so careful with me, even when in the frenzy of mating. I yearn for his unguarded eyes to swallow me whole as he… swallows me whole.
My tongue seeks his, the world dropping away as I chase what I want.
I want his firm yet careful hands holding me down on his thick manhood as his knot fills me up.
I want to taste the mixture of our lovemaking as he cleans me up afterward.
His sudden stop makes me tense as the desert creeps into my awareness.
Dang it, I don’t want to stop kissing him.
He gives me a moment to enjoy his mouth before catching my bottom lip with a regretful nip and pulling away.
I sigh and nuzzle my face against his collarbone.
“I’m sorry.”
“Never apologize for kissing me, Shya. I love your kisses. I wish we could spend all night kissing.”
“Me too.”
He starts walking again.
I sigh again.
“We have to save my Mom. And your brothers. And my sisters.”
“Yes, we do.”
“Dirk?”
“Yes, Little One?”
“I… I know I’m not very brave, but… I’m going to try to be.”
He stops again and pierces my soul with an intense look. Even in the darkness, his brilliant blue eyes and masculine features reflect the scant moonlight.
“My beautiful little love, you are the bravest of us all.”
He kisses my covered forehead.
“You’ve overcome death.”
He pecks my right cheek.
“Stayed true to yourself despite being senselessly tortured.”
His silky lips brush across my left cheekbone.
“And you’ve tamed the biggest brute in the world.”
He presses a gentle kiss to my chin before meeting my gaze again.
“I’d do anything for you, my tiny temptress.”
Tears gather in my eyes, making sand stick to my eyelashes as he plants a kiss on the tip of my nose.
“As long as you listen to what I say, we’ll be fine tonight. The entire team has our backs. Trust me?”
I swallow the happy but scared lump in my throat and respond.
“Always.”
We fall into silence again as his
feet carry us through the dunes.
Light glows on the horizon, and as we skirt around a rather tall dune, I realize we’re almost there.
“You have to set me down now,” I whisper, opening our bond so wide I feel like his heart beats within my chest.
I borrow his courage.
He offers it without hesitation, gobbling up the silent purr of praise and adoration flowing from my soul.
“Not yet, but soon.”
I open my mouth to talk, but a blast of wind makes gritty sand fly into my mouth.
I do everything I can to not gag and spit, wiping my mouth and my tongue on my sleeve several times before clamping my lips shut.
When he nears the next slope, he sets me down and pulls a small square of fabric from his pocket.
“Here, let me help.”
My stomach tightens as his delicious voice ghosts across my ears.
He leans over me, blocking the wind, and wipes the sand off my lips before draping the kerchief over his fingertips and sweeping the grit out of my mouth.
He taps my jaw, urging me to close my mouth, before folding the fabric and tucking it back into his pocket.
I can’t stop watching his muscles flex and stretch as he unsnaps the mask from my belt and seals it over my face.
He puts his own mask on, and I fight back tears over losing his scent.
I grab his belt loops and close the distance between us, needing one last embrace before we walk into danger.
He wraps his enormous arms around me as I cling to him, neither of us needing words to convey how much we love each other.
Pulling away from him may be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I do it.
With shaky hands, I disconnect the row of tiny black discs strapped to the bottom of his chest harness. Their weight surprises me, even though I helped load them into the almost invisible pockets lining the fabric.
It doesn’t feel like any material I’ve ever used before. It’s stiff yet malleable, and not at all soft but twists with ease.
I wrap it around my waist and fumble with the fastener.
Dirk’s thick palms frame my hands, guiding me, giving me silent instruction instead of taking over.
He pushes bright encouragement through our bond, showing so much patience and belief in me my tears dry up and my fingers stop their shaking.
I look up through my lashes at him, sucking in a rejuvenated breath and smile my thanks.
As much as I love his scent, I don’t need it to breathe.
He’s embedded so deep in my soul we could be worlds apart and still sense one another.
Time to go.
I send a wave of readiness through our link. He nods before turning and dropping into a crouch.
I climb onto his back and reach over his shoulders to grab his chest harness, tightening my knees around his sides to hold myself on.
With smooth, graceful movements he scales the slope, transitioning at the top without jostling me the slightest bit.
I glance over my shoulder and catch the gleam of moonlight on rounded metal, the hangar’s roof devoid of sand.
It’s weird to see, but it makes sense that they’d keep it uncovered. If there’s an emergency, they don’t want to open the top only to be buried by sand.
Dirk angles to the side as he climbs down the dune, and I look over my other shoulder and find the door.
As we get near, I slip my fingers into the tiny pocket on the backside of his harness and pull out the little trinket stashed there.
He called it something techy, but I can’t remember its name. The important thing is that I have to get it to stick to the wall above the door so it can blind the security sensors for a few seconds.
Before we reach the bottom of the dune, I raise my hand over my shoulder and lob the tiny thing with all my might, surprise flashing through me when it lands exactly where I aimed it.
Dirk darts toward the door and slips a thin thing into the lock before sliding through and closing the door behind us.
Once he moves into the corner where the emergency lights don’t reach, he crouches and lets me climb off his back.
Electric fear pulses over my skin, making my senses sharpen as I realize we’re inside a place above where my nightmares lurk.
Dirk takes my hand and leads me a few steps along the wall.
When he stops and uses a flat hand to show the line of Sky-Flyers he wants me to focus on, I nod and hunker down into the stance he taught me.
His smile of pride makes my heart quake.
I won’t be able to see him for the next few minutes, but it’s okay.
He’s here, in my heart, every second of every day.
I can do this.
One row of Sky-Flyers, then we’ll meet on the other side of the hangar.
He hunkers down into the same stance, his deadly air so potent I stare in awe for a second before snapping back to attention.
The first Sky-Flyer is a few feet away.
Without waiting because I fear my courage will crumble, I stalk my way to it, rolling from my heels to my toes like my lifemate showed me so I don’t make any noise.
Once under it, I slip a disc out of the belt I took from Dirk and press it to the underside of the Sky-Flyer’s cargo bay, where the fuel cells should be.
Crawling under it to the other side, I glance around before sneaking to the next one.
With my heart in my throat and my senses alert, I place another disc.
Dirk moves with such stealth I catch no hint of him, but my soul follows his every footfall. My heart clings to his every breath. My bond pinpoints his exact location.
We can do this.
Only a few more.
∆∆∆
The sound of distant alarms makes my stomach jolt. Between two Sky-Flyers, I force myself across the empty space and flatten myself to the one I haven’t marked yet.
Either I’ve been moving too slow, or something went wrong somewhere.
The alarms weren’t supposed to sound until I finished with my third row, but I’m only halfway through it.
Dirk pushes me into motion through our link, his urgency crossing the distance between us as clear as day.
He’s on the other side of the hangar, in the middle of the last row, so I don’t think I’m going too slow if he hasn’t finished either.
My guts twist as worry bubbles up.
Sending little pings to each of my family members while I rush between Sky-Flyers, I force the balloon of emotions growing in my head away.
No one’s hurt.
Evie and Vander have finished placing massive explosives in their designated hangars and are on their way here.
Destroying two-thirds of their air transportation should cripple the dark ISC so badly they can’t retreat.
I slap another thingy on a Sky-Flyer and dart to the next one.
Once Dirk hits the button to turn these little patches on, the ships in this bay won’t work until they get brand new fuel cells and a system reboot.
Dread builds in my bones, each step compounding the emotion until I shake so hard my fingers take forever to pull the second-to-last disc out of its sleeve.
I press it onto the Sky-Flyer and look to the next one.
It seems miles away.
Dirk seems miles away too. I need him.
Now.
Using the beacon of his love, I turn toward him.
Bright blue eyes catch mine.
Not my lifemate.
Terror clutches my chest so hard I can’t breathe.
An Alpha almost as large as my own wraps his hand around my throat and pins me to the Sky-Flyer behind me.
He smirks down at me, the flare of happiness in his cold irises snapping me out of my shock.
I open my mouth to scream, but he clamps down and closes my airway.
Black dots dance at the edge of my vision. I claw and smack at his forearm, but he doesn’t loosen his hold.
Like the tears pouring from my eyes, my miser
y overflows from my soul and infects my lifemate.
Dirk, save me.
Chapter Nine
Shya
My lifemate’s roar echoes in my skull even as my ears ring from lack of oxygen.
Footsteps run toward me.
They bring more bad news, not good.
A bunch of military men gather around, setting up a perimeter as the Alpha holding me loosens his grip.
“Hello, Shya.”
My heart quails as his lips form my name.
“I missed you.”
I scratch at the tendons in his wrist, searching for a weak spot.
“You were so much fun to watch, although that may have just been because of your company.”
Warnings pop through my skull, something in his expression jolting me back into the height of panic.
I lash out, trying to kick his shins, but he raises his arm and holds me pinned to the metal by my neck.
His huge fingers wrap around the base of my skull while his large palm cradles my jaw. Still struggling to catch my breath, I stop kicking, afraid I’ll jolt out of his careful grasp and strangle myself.
“I must admit, I dream of you, so tiny and fragile next to the most beautiful creature on the planet.”
My brain stops working. I shut everything down, self-preservation overruling my drive to get free.
I don’t want to remember the past. I don’t want to hear anything this monster has to say.
My subconscious screams as it fills in the gaps.
This terrible man is the Alpha who hovered on the other side of the glass while I suffered through mental, emotional, and physical torture.
He is Alpha One.
“This outfit does not suit you at all, does it? Let me help.”
Savage hatred snaps to life as he rips my mask and hood off, exposing me to his stomach curdling scent.
A scream unlike any I’ve ever made passes my lips as I bury the knife Dirk gave me into Alpha One’s wrist.
The world blurs at the edges. I’m not sure when I pulled the blade from my waist or where I found the strength, but I yank my knees to my chest and kick his stomach.
His bellow pierces my ears as my rump slams into the ground, and I sit frozen in agony.
My tailbone hurts so bad I can’t breathe.
Wet crimson rains down on me, soaking me in the most disgusting thing I’ve ever smelled.