by Mina Carter
“Cade, right?” she asked, holding out her hand. “I’m Gracie.”
“I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Gracie,” he said, sweeping what she could only describe as a bow. It was courtly, and so out of place she just looked at him and tried not to let her jaw hit the deck.
He straightened up, the same little smile on his lips, and looked at her hand. His confused expression clued her in. He didn’t know what a handshake was.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what greeting is appropriate here.” She smiled. “Where I’m from, a handshake is the norm. Should I curtsy instead?”
“Curtsy? No, I am no khaaitan. I hold no rank here.” He shook his head, looking toward his brother with confusion. Seren jerked his head meaningfully toward her hand. “My apologies, I have never…”
He stepped forward and a second later her hand was swallowed up by his. Literally swallowed up. She’d never seen hands so large, and they positively dwarfed hers. His eyes widened a little and he shook carefully, as though scared of hurting her.
“Never seen a female before. Huh?” she guessed, smiling when he shook his head. “Don’t worry. We’re not that delicate. I promise.”
Now that her feet were on the ground, she realized her impression of him as young and small was off the mark. He was younger than the others. That much was obvious from his youthful face, the boyish and charming smile he treated her with reinforcing that impression. But he wasn’t actually that much shorter than Seren and his shoulders were just as broad. He just lacked the heavier set of maturity and was still lanky with youth.
“Indeed,” Seren broke in, watching them carefully. No. He watched Cade carefully. A second later she yelped in surprise as the younger warrior stepped forward and buried his nose in her hair.
“Hey!” She slapped at his chest. “Less of the up close and personal, buddy-boy. We only just met!”
“Cade,” Seren growled, getting between the two of them with his hand out as if to ward his younger brother off. But Cade just shook his head and grinned.
“Apologies, my lady.” He smiled, his voice a little deeper and rougher than before. “Your hair… it just smells so good.”
“As long as that’s all that smells good.” Seren’s voice was deep with warning, his metal hand clenched so tightly she was surprised he didn’t pop a servo or two. “Human females are not like any we are used to. Apparently, they are known to eat males who annoy them.”
Cade blinked, his surprise evident on his face as he looked her up and down. “How? She has no natural weaponry… not that I can see.”
She hid her amusement, deciding not to tell them that the story Jay had told Seren was about a female shark on Earth, not a woman. “Yeah, well, we’re sneaky that way. You gotta watch us. Some males would rather rip their own dicks off and throw them at us from a safe distance than risk it,” she added, continuing with the aquatic stories.
Cade looked horrified and took a step back. “Then I apologize, my lady. Please don’t eat me.”
Her stomach rumbled, just at that moment, and the young Lathar went gray.
“Well,” she drawled. “I am a little hungry, but… I’ll forgive you if you promise me there’s going to be food soon.”
“Of course,” Seren hooked his arm under hers to lead her toward the assembled warriors. “Let me introduce you to my clan, and then we will show you the famous Vorr hospitality.”
Seren breathed a sigh of relief when Gracie didn’t fight him as he led her past Cade toward the rest of the warriors from the village. There weren’t many, and only a few were younger than Cade. Tarveth was their youngest, only five winters old. Surrogate births had been lower and lower each year, and viable young scarce. Most didn’t survive long after birth due to defects or mutations. Cade had been one of the lucky ones. His… issues were hidden most of the time.
It meant the group of warriors he introduced her to was small. He scanned them quickly, and none of them were a threat to her apart from his brother. He’d been on edge the instant Cade had crowded her, in case his darker instincts came to the fore. If that had happened, if Cade had tried to claim her, blood would have been spilled. Either he or his brother would have died right here on the landing pad.
Thankfully, though, Cade had smiled and stepped back, only remarking on her hair. The relief that had washed through Seren had made him weak-kneed. He didn’t want Gracie’s first memories of his home to be ones of violence and death. Plus, the last thing he wanted was his brother’s blood on his hands. He’d practically brought Cade up, their genetic stock almost identical but for one quirk that made him khaaitan here, and Cade… something else.
“They all seem very nice,” Gracie murmured, staying close to him after the introductions were complete as he led her up to the main long hall. “A little quiet, though. Do they ever smile?”
He chuckled. “They’ve not seen a female for many years. The last female of any species we had here was over a decade ago.”
She nodded. “I noticed some younger warriors in the crowd and a little boy. They look different. Half Latharian?”
He wrinkled his nose.
“Yes and no. Except in a few rare cases, Latharian genetics are normally dominant, so all young are fully Lathar… and now always male, with all the problems inherent in the genome. The trouble is we can’t successfully procreate with many other species. And we’re not allowed access to the breeder species,” he added, a grimace of distaste at the idea crossing his features. “No Vorr would touch them anyway. The last females we had that were prepared to rent us womb space were a harem of Lerexta. Unfortunately, most of the offspring were sickly and died. Only Tarveth survived.”
One of her eyebrows winged up. “I’m going to put aside the disgust at the idea of a breeder species to ask… why aren’t you allowed access? That seems the shitty end of the stick, especially as your species is fighting for survival.”
He paused by the door to the long hall and looked down at her. She was a scarily intelligent female and her perception at times startled him. A rumble sounded in the back of his throat as he debated what to tell her. If he revealed the truth, there was no way she’d accept his claim. Why would any female shackle herself to a cursed male and a cursed bloodline?
“We Vorr are not liked in the empire,” he finally admitted, pushing the door open and standing back to allow her to enter first. “Many would like to see us die out.”
She didn’t step forward as he expected, instead eyeing him with a keen look. “Yeah. I’m gonna let you in on a little secret here, handsome. I can spot a bullshitter a mile off, so don’t even try. Now, do you want to tell me the real reason they don’t like y’all?”
He gave her a slick smile, like his brother’s. “Why do you think? We’re the best on the battlefield. That’s why they want us gone.”
It wasn’t the main reason. Hells, it wasn’t even the second main reason, and she seemed to know it, glaring at him as if she could make him crack and talk just with a look. He was made of sterner stuff, though. He’d had to be to maintain his cover as just another imperial warrior while serving the K’Vass. Most of them had had no idea what he was.
Finally, she huffed, stalking past him. “I’m onto you, handsome, and you know it.”
He just smirked in reply and followed her into the hall. “This is where we gather and eat,” he explained as she walked ahead of him with awe on her face as she looked around. “Warriors from other settlements would bunk down in here when visiting, but there’s just us now. When the weather gets bad in the winter, we all sleep in here to conserve warmth. If it gets really bad, we have shelters beneath.”
She nodded, her gaze running along the carved beams of the ceiling, and further, up into the eaves where the weapons of his ancestors hung. “It’s amazing. Like pictures I’ve seen of ancient Earth. This looks like a Viking long hall.”
He shrugged. “I do not know this term Viking. How to build this type of dwelling has been handed down from fathe
r to son since the first Vorr set foot on this planet many lifetimes ago. From before the empire.”
She nodded. “That’s the second time someone has mentioned a time before the Lathar were Lathar, and both times it’s been around you.”
His expression shuttered. He’d said too much, way too much. He couldn’t afford for her, for anyone, to work out what was going on here. Innocent lives depended on it.
“A mere coincidence, I’m sure.” He smiled and extended an arm. “Since I am khaaitan of this place, and you are my guest, allow me to show you to your quarters.”
9
This was her room?
Gracie stood in a large bedroom, sumptuously decorated with hangings on the walls and dominated by a large, four-poster bed in the middle. It faced a huge window framing what could only be described as a picture right from history. Sweeping green valleys lay below the settlement, bisected by the silver ribbon of a small river and then the forests beyond. She didn’t even need to squint to imagine herself back on Earth in the past, sometime before it had become overcrowded and ruined with pollution, before the expansion into the stars had begun.
More than that, it was a window into not the past of her own species but Seren’s. Now more than ever she believed that humanity had in fact descended from the Lathar. Viking aliens? Possibly certain things had remained in the genetic memory of the Lathar who had landed on Earth and influenced the cultures they had become through the years.
“This can’t be a guest room,” she said, half-turning to look over her shoulder at him.
“Why do you think that?” He leaned in the doorway, his arms folded over his broad chest as he watched her.
He’d always watched her, she’d gotten used to that, but now his attention seemed more focused and dangerous. Like a predator with its prey. Her. A thrill stole down her spine and she moved closer to the huge bed. His gaze sharpened and she kicked herself. She knew better than to show fear to a predator but somehow the feminine instincts guiding her reactions, the ones totally at odds with her training, weren’t listening.
She lifted a hand to run it down the drapes of the bed lightly, watching him around the edge of the airy fabric.
“It’s too nice. And this room fills the entire back of the long hall. It’s not a guest room. Is it?” she guessed. “It’s yours… or rather, the khaaitan’s. Am I right?”
He held her gaze for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, it is.”
Tension hung in the air between them. She tilted her head to the side as she walked toward him. She’d never been a fan of hiding behind anything, even something so insubstantial as curtains. She much preferred a full-frontal approach.
“So by putting me in here, you’re either making a statement to the rest of your people, or you’re so sure of yourself that you expect to join me in here.”
His eyes darkened, and his head tilted back as he watched her approach.
“Can’t it be a little of both?” His voice was low as he reached out to snag her around the waist. She didn’t argue as she settled against him. He had saved her from the B’Kaar and stopped her from making a fool of herself earlier. If she didn’t miss her guess, a situation with his younger brother could have gone sideways as well, but he’d stepped in. Plus, this was his home, and he appeared to be whatever passed for the boss here, which meant she needed him.
Which was… all bullshit, she admitted to herself as she nestled in his arms. She wanted… no, she needed to touch him. That need had been simmering away since they’d met, but since that kiss in the corridor, it had escaped its box in the back of her mind and she couldn’t shove it back inside.
“Perhaps,” she murmured, fanning her fingers out over his broad chest and nudging beneath his leather combat jacket to touch the satin over steel skin beneath. He was solid and muscled, the glimpses she’d gotten of him during training more than proving Miisan’s assertion he was virile and in his prime. “It all depends on why you want to do that.”
“Why do you think?” He drew her closer, lifting a hand to tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. She shivered, fighting the need to get closer as she looked up at him, studying his expression.
“Because you have no women,” she said badly. “So I’m your only option.”
His expression didn’t falter as he looked down at her, his hand spreading out over her lower back. The light pressure made her more than aware of the state of his body, of the thick ridge of his cock pressed up against her softer belly.
She pushed down the shimmer of heat that rolled up her spine and arched an eyebrow. “You’re aware that kind of proves my point? Typical man.”
“It proves nothing,” his voice was a growled rasp. “Other than how you affect me. When you’re close, all I can think about is you. I’m trained for combat and have been in more battles than I can remember. I’ve given blood, tears…” Gaze trained on hers, he stroked metal fingers gently against her cheek. “Even body parts for the glory of the empire. But I look at you and I can’t think straight. I would take on anyone, even my own kin, for you. Does that sound like you are the ‘only option’?”
She froze, her lips parted in a startled little gasp. He growled, the edge of his lip curling to reveal an edge of fang. “Do not judge me by the standards of human males. I am not human, nor will I ever be.”
Her eyes were wide as he leaned down slowly, telegraphing his intention so she could move away. She didn’t even think about it, her hand curling as far as she could around his solid upper arm. At first her hand skittered away on contact with the metal and then she frowned.
“It’s warm,” she said in surprise, her lips almost bumping his as he tried to kiss her.
He gave a small, aborted chuckle and slid his hand into her hair.
“Are we really talking about this now? Of course it’s warm. It’s part of me,” he whispered against her lips, brushing his mouth against hers.
She practically melted against him, a deep ache rolling through her to lodge between her thighs. How long had it been since she’d actually had sex? Long enough that everyone she’d met since leaving a human colony had shacked up with someone else, even the robot chick. That was a sobering thought, that even the AI had gotten some action and she hadn’t.
“Just because I like kissing you doesn’t mean we’re married or anything. Understand?” she said, her hand in the middle of his chest as she studied his face. “Seren? Is that clear?”
He growled at her but with a smile in his eyes. “If I say yes, can I kiss you again?”
She searched his eyes and then nodded finally with a small movement of her head. He growled as he moved in, the sound a soft one of triumph like a whisper over her skin. A tiny shiver hit her as his hand clenched into her hair and he leaned forward to claim her mouth.
His first kiss had been hard and demanding, so she steeled herself for more of the same. Steeled herself for a passionate battle of lips and tongue, something that would inflame the tension between them to almost breaking point and have her wanting to tear his clothes off.
That wasn’t what she got.
Instead, he eased his lips over hers, the kiss a soft and gentle exploration that found every chink in her armor against him. Her eyes fluttered shut as she relaxed and kissed him back, savoring each brush of his lips against hers. He didn’t try and push for more.
Instead, he just held her. Surrounded her with warmth and the security of his embrace. One hand swept up her back as the other slid through her hair.
It was so different to how he’d been before that her head spun, and she felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her feet. Just when she thought she knew how he would react and how to handle him, everything changed. She couldn’t work him out… but that fascinated her all the same.
Her fingers found the defined line between his pecs and he growled again in the back of his throat. The low, intimate sound hit her on a primal level, everything feminine in her needing to get closer. Needing more.
&
nbsp; Parting her lips, she slid her hand up to brush against his jaw. His stubble abraded her fingertips, sending another little quake through her. He took her invitation, his tongue sliding into her mouth as he turned her in a swift move to pin her against the doorframe.
A small whimper escaped her as he pressed into her, his bigger harder body urgent against hers. The kiss turned from slow and gentle to passionate as he explored her with his lips, strong hands sliding down her curves. His kiss demanded her response and she gave it to him, sliding her tongue against his while teasing and tempting him as she smoothed her hands under his leather jacket.
It was heavenly, and she allowed herself to sink into the sensation as she relaxed against him. His large hands swept over her curves, molding her to the harder plains of his body. She was into the kiss so much that she whimpered in disappointment when he eased his lips from hers.
“We should make an appearance,” he said gruffly and then chuckled. “Either that or we’ll have an invasion.”
“Invasion?” She blinked and then became aware of the noise in the main hall beyond the dividers that separated these rooms from the hall. The sound of loud voices and heavy feet reached them. “Sounds like the worst kind of staff meeting or briefing out there.”
“Yeah.” Seren sighed, stroking his thumb along the line of her lower lip. “And it’s all your fault.”
“Huh? How is it my fault?”
He straightened up, reluctance on his handsome face as he released her. “Most haven’t seen a female that looks like us for years. Some never have. You’re already a bit of a celebrity around here.”
Her eyes widened and he chuckled before swooping in for another, lingering kiss. He broke it to rest his forehead against hers.
“While I don’t want to share you, not with anyone, we’d better appease them before they tear this place apart.”