by Elin Wyn
I took a deep breath and silenced my thoughts. As the doctor, Evie would’ve known if he was injured. She would’ve told me.
Unless that was what she had been trying to tell me when I rushed out of my room. I was about to turn around and ask her if he was hurt when the nearby elevator opened.
Rouhr rushed out, looking as frantic as I felt, uniform jacket in tatters, but whole.
Alive.
“Vidia!”
I ran to him, throwing my arms around his neck as he wrapped his around my waist.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I blubbered into his shoulder, “I can’t help it. I’d rather have you for a little while than not have you at all.”
He crushed me to him, breathing into the tangle of my hair. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I never should have left you.”
Suddenly he lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist for balance. I leaned back until I could see his face.
“Are you sure you’re alright? Should you be in the med bay? Should-”
“Vidia, hush.” His lips crashed onto mine, stealing my breath with his unique, spicy taste. His tongue pierced my mouth, plunging and plundering until I gasped, limp in his arms.
He broke away, darkened eyes searching mine.
“Did you really just hush me?” I finally managed.
“It did seem effective.”
“We need to talk,” I managed, trying to wiggle out of his grip. For a moment, I slid further down his waist, until a broad hardness pressed into my core.
“Yes,” he growled, “we do.” He hoisted me back up, and my legs tightened around him instinctively.
The elevator chimed behind us and he walked on, ignoring the stares of the crewmembers. I buried my face in his chest, the flames of embarrassment doing nothing to distract me from that fleeting feel of him.
That had been him, his body, his… oh heck, right?
Could that even be possible?
Just for a minute, I kicked myself for not having a more detailed chat with Evie about how things worked with a Skotan, then the door opened, and Rouhr strode out into the corridor.
His hands pressed me to his body and suddenly, I couldn't get enough of the taste of his skin, peppering his scales through the tears in his jacket, thanking each one with a kiss for keeping him safe.
For bringing him home to me.
A low growl rumbled in his chest. “Vidia,” he ground out. “We’re almost to my cabin.”
A small squeak escaped me as his hands tightened on my hips, and he groaned.
“You're not making this easier, love.”
We might've passed people in the hallway, I didn't know.
Didn't care.
I hadn't had much time in my life for romance and for once I was grateful.
Right now, all I wanted was him.
All I would ever want would be him.
And as he stepped into his cabin and I heard the door close and lock behind us, my body felt like a live wire rubbing against him. Falling together, tangled in each other's arms on his mattress, the amber of his eyes was all I could see.
His hand slid under the hem of my tank top, then froze. “Vidia,” he gasped, obviously struggling for control, “we need to talk. You're right, we should talk first.”
I raised myself on one elbow to bite his neck. “No, we don't,” I insisted. “Later. Right now, this may be all we have.”
I bit harder, arcing against him as his nails grazed my side.
Tugging me upright for a moment, he pulled my tank off, tossing it into a corner of his room.
“So soft,” he marveled, looking at the trail of red his nails had made on my skin. “So delicate.”
With each lick, with each touch, he came closer to my breasts.
I squirmed, desperate for his touch, for the teasing to be over.
“I don't know,” I gasped, incoherence growing, “if you know, or if Skotan women are built this way…”
The tips of his fingers danced across the underside of my breasts, and I shivered. “Yes,” I encouraged, “more of that.”
Generals learned quickly, apparently.
In no time, he was alternating licking and sucking my tight nipples, twirling at one while lightly pinching the other.
My breath caught, my cries higher and higher until suddenly, he stopped, looming over me.
“I want more,” he demanded. “Everything.”
But he didn't move and I realized that, despite the need in his voice, it was a question.
He wouldn't take, wouldn’t force.
But I would give, willingly.
And whatever time we had left, I'd be damned if I regretted a moment of this.
I lifted my hips to push my sleep shorts down, kicking them off to join the discarded tank top.
He stared down as I stretched beneath his gaze.
“Everything. Yours,” I offered.
Tearing off the shreds of his jacket, he fell on me as if he hadn't eaten the entire time he was missing, as if the taste of my skin was the only meal that would sate his hunger.
A trail of kisses traveled down my stomach, then he nipped at my inner thighs, pushing my knees up, spreading them wide open before him.
He waited, then blew a stream of hot air across my slick folds.
I reached for him, begging for the teasing to end, but his strength kept me pinned, at his mercy.
Another hot breath, another, and then a long, slow lick against my core sent me screaming, fists pounding into the sheets.
"I like our differences," he muttered, then resumed his place between my thighs, licking and nipping, sucking, until I splintered, drowning in the unceasing waves of sensation.
He stopped, then crawled over me, wrapping one arm behind my shoulders while the other stayed between my legs, finger softly playing with my folds as the quakes slowly subsided.
“So beautiful,” he said, and kissed me, sweetly at first, then with growing intensity, his tongue breaching the seal of my lips as his finger plunged inside me.
“So small,” he muttered, and shook his head. “I'm not going to hurt you. I won’t.”
He would. He would when he left.
And that would be the only thing I would allow to break me.
“Don't you dare stop,” I demanded, rocking my hips against him.
“Vidia,” he groaned, as I sped the pace, daring him to match me. “I can deny you nothing.”
So slowly, sweetly, he drove one finger, then another, into me until I shattered again on his hand.
21
Rouhr
In all my years of command, through every battle I'd faced, never had my nerves been keyed to such a pitch.
I gazed down upon her, her dark hair tangled over my pillows, her eyes heavy-lidded, as Vidia waited for me.
I kicked off my boots and stepped out of my uniform pants, hotly aware of our differences.
But surely this would work. Two of our Skotans had taken human mates.
My Vidia wouldn't be harmed.
I wouldn't allow it.
Her eyes widened as she saw me for the first time unclothed.
“Well,” she swallowed, “this should be interesting.”
“We don't have to do anything you don't want to,” I insisted.
Having her in my bed, drawing sweet cries of release from her, had been more than I had ever dreamed of.
“But I certainly do want to,” she smiled, then beckoned me back to bed.
“I think we should start like this,” and she pulled me down to the bed until I lay next to her, then she pushed me onto my back.
My chest tightened, remembering our night together in Glymna, how desperately I'd wanted to touch her then.
Now she straddled me, rocking her hips, dragging her wetness back and forth across my hard length.
“Oh!” Her eyes fluttered as my ridges hit against that delicate nub I'd found at the top of her slit.
Grinning, I wrapped my hands around her hips, pullin
g her back and forth against me, her heat making my cock even stiffer.
“Rouhr,” she gasped, breaths short and faint, “let me up a bit.”
I released her and she raised on her knees above me, then reached down, drawing a hiss from me as soft fingers wrapped around me, positioning me below her.
So very slowly, she eased lower, my fingers tearing at the sheets, every ounce of control I'd ever learned now in play as I desperately fought not to grab her sweet curves and drag her down, thrust into her all at once.
Her sweet, tight heat was indescribable. Then she stopped and I bit back my groan of frustration.
Vidia raised herself, slid down a tiny bit more, up and down, lower and lower, until we were both shaking.
Now she breathed, running her hands across the planes of my chest, and, in one swift movement, dropped herself until I was fully sheathed inside her.
Her head flung back with a low cry and then a lifetime of discipline snapped.
Arm wrapped around her waist, I lifted her up, slamming her back down on me, driving into her until she trembled, my name a soft moan on her lips.
With a quick twist, I lifted her, rolling us over until she was pinned beneath me, her legs tossed over my arms as I cradled her shoulders, driving into her over and over until, with a final scream, she came again, her contractions driving me over the edge right behind her.
Exhausted, she sprawled under me, the last tiny quakes of pleasure running through her as I caressed her.
Mine.
My mate.
Somehow, we would find a way to make this work.
“We have a problem.” Evie burst into my office without knocking. Vidia and I were sitting together reading update reports on Glymna. Each day, more and more people were approved to be moved to one of the safe zones Evie had set up.
A setback, one that Thribb insisted was minor, had delayed the test flight of the Aurora.
Any day now, he maintained.
And Vidia and I would take all of them, until whatever the end would bring.
“What’s the matter?” Vidia asked.
“The Xathi figured out how to breach the sonic barriers around the safe towns.”
I was on my feet immediately. “How serious is it?” I demanded.
“It’s under control, for now. When Fen set up the sonic barriers, she also set up an alarm that would sound if they ever malfunctioned,” she explained. “As soon as the alarm went off, Sakev mobilized a team to get out there and deal with the Xathi.”
“Any casualties?” Vidia asked.
“Thankfully, none,” Evie sighed with relief. “The towns were prepared in case the barriers were compromised. The one that was attacked had safety bunkers that kept the Xathi at bay long enough for Sakev and his team to get there through a rift.”
“Is the barrier still down?” I asked.
“As soon as the Xathi were taken care of, Fen and her team went out there and fixed it,” Evie explained. “It’s up and running now, but I have every reason to suspect the Xathi will try again.”
“Right,” I nodded in agreement. “Now they all know how to get around the sonic barriers, there’s no reason they wouldn’t try. How did they get through?”
“They figured out it was the sonic spikes that generated the frequency,” Evie explained. “They gathered as close as they could without the barrier affecting them, and hit it with their neural whips until one shattered. It only took out a section of the barrier, but that’s all they needed.”
I clasped my hands behind my back, and paced the room. “All right,” I sighed. “The Xathi know how to get past the barriers. They must suspect there aren’t enough of us to guard every safe town at the same time. We can stop them and erect new barriers fairly quickly, but the Xathi won’t desist with their attacks, especially if they believe they can wear us down.”
“If they’re smart, they’ll organize multiple attacks at once. There’s no way we can keep up with that,” Evie answered, shoulders sagging. “We can’t even risk putting up barriers at new towns. They’ll know to attack before the barriers are complete.”
“Even if they don’t, we can’t risk letting them figure it out,” I replied. “Preventative measures aren’t going to be enough anymore. We need to do something drastic.”
“And fast,” Vidia spoke up. “Glymna is starting to feel the strain from all of those extra people. They have to be relocated soon.”
“A face-to-face battle against the Xathi is too risky in our current situation,” I said. “Their ship is well-fortified. An aerial attack with our smaller vessels would be like throwing pebbles at a mountain, and a ground team stands little chance of a successful attack against it.”
“Axtin managed it,” Vidia offered.
“Yes, but he was lucky not to incur considerable casualties. It’s not something I’d want to repeat, unless we had no other options,” I replied. “Our best option is to cull the Xathi population to a manageable level. Only then could we consider attacking the ship.”
“Then our only option is to lure the Xathi out,” Vidia said.
“They’re already attracted to the safe towns,” I said. “We could fake a sonic barrier malfunction and draw a large group of them there and attack.”
“Out of the question,” Vidia responded before I’d even finished my sentence. “The people living in those towns have been through enough. I’m not asking any of them to play host to a battle against the Xathi.”
“And the Xathi already know they don’t need an army to overtake one of the towns. The citizens living there are basically defenseless except for their safety bunkers,” Evie added.
“What’s something the Xathi want more than the people?” Vidia asked.
“They took the minds of as many people as they could in an attempt to find the Gateway,” Evie replied.
“We can’t risk the Xathi getting that,” Vidia shook her head.
“No, we can’t,” I agreed. “But if we can trick them into thinking we’re taking the Gateway somewhere other than the Aurora, they’ll surely come after us.”
“But where would we possibly take it?” Evie asked.
“What about the Vengeance?” Vidia suggested. I stopped pacing to turn and look at her.
“The Vengeance,” I repeated. Vidia nodded.
“We theorized that the Xathi set up a hybrid camp near the Vengeance just in case we ever returned. It’s not far-fetched to assume they’ll attack it again if they thought we were going back to it,” Vidia explained.
“It makes sense,” Evie agreed.
“Okay, say we convince the Xathi we’re transporting the Gateway to the Vengeance,” I speculated. “What advantages do we have if we choose to fight them there?”
“It’s on our turf,” Evie replied.
“We’ll have access to the ammo that was left behind,” Vidia added.
“Both good points, but you’re forgetting something,” I said. “The Xathi already overwhelmed us on the Vengeance once before. We know we can’t take them in a fight head-on.”
“We weren’t prepared that time,” Vidia argued. “This time, we’ll know they’re coming, and prepare accordingly.”
“I think we should look for a better option,” I said. “We could go into the fight well-prepared, but we’d lose more soldiers. We need to think of something that minimizes casualties on our side while maximizing casualties on their side, especially if our end goal is going to be a full assault on the Xathi ship.”
“I think we need second opinions,” Vidia ventured.
“I agree,” I replied. I walked to the intercom on the wall, and summoned Axtin, Tu’ver and Vrehx to my office. Vrehx and Tu’ver were the best strategists on the ship. Axtin, as Vidia had said, had managed a direct attack on the Xathi ship. I wanted to hear his take on all of this.
All three arrived in my office within a few minutes. I gave them a quick rundown of what we’d been discussing.
“We need to cripple the Xathi’s numbers
and dissuade them from attacking the safe towns in one fell swoop, while also minimizing casualties on our side,” I summarized at the end.
“If you want to minimize casualties,” Tu’ver began, “I would form a plan that doesn’t call for hand-to-hand combat.”
“How is that avoidable?” Axtin asked. “I agree that trying to fight them on the Vengeance isn’t a good idea, but I don’t see how we can eliminate all fighting.”
“We don’t need to fight them!” Vidia said suddenly. All heads turned to look at her. “We can set a trap,” she explained.
“A trap?” Vrehx repeated, testing out the idea.
“It would guarantee no casualties on our side,” I grinned.
“What kind of trap could we set that’s big enough to take out an entire army?” Evie wondered.
“One of the towns?” Tu’ver suggested.
“Vidia already shut that idea down,” I told him. “And she’s right. It’s not fair to put people who are trying to recover into a situation like that.”
“We have some powerful explosives in our arsenal,” Vrehx offered. “We could plant them somewhere, and set them off remotely from the safety of the Aurora.”
“If we make the explosion big enough, lure enough of them in, we could kill a large portion of their army.” I rubbed my chin. “When the queen watches it happen through the eyes of her minions, she might panic enough to insist that the remaining Xathi dedicate their efforts to guarding her. Without the hybrids, that would relieve the pressure on the towns.”
“I’d really like to scare the shit out of the Xathi queen.” A sadistic grin bloomed on Evie’s face.
“Same here,” Vidia replied.
“Where should we place the bombs?” Tu’ver asked, redirecting the conversation back to the main objective.
“The explosion needs to be huge, so it can’t be anywhere near a civilian population,” Axtin said.
“I think we already have our answer,” Vidia said in a soft voice, refusing to meet my eyes.
“What do you mean?” Her tone worried me.
“We already discussed the likelihood of the Xathi believing we’d return to the Vengeance,” she began, then trailed away.