by Kate Rudolph
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS MID-AFTERNOON on the planet they were taking shelter on, and according to the crew the place was owned by some Oscavian lord who rarely visited. They’d gained his permission to rest there so long as they didn’t touch any of the structures he’d built. There were no houses or other buildings within sight. The crew had set up camp on the edge of a forest and were handing out supplies in an orderly fashion.
Shayn reluctantly left Naomi by a food station to get a tent and blankets for them. She’d insisted she was fine and since the biggest threat to her was most likely still locked in a closet back on the ship he’d relented. He was still on edge from the fight. Being a security guard meant he was more responsible for ending fights than participating in them, but he had plenty of training and he was too amped to calm down. He wanted to run to burn off the excess, but he wasn’t leaving Naomi alone for longer than he had to.
He realized that she might have sent him off because she needed a few minutes to herself and that worried him. They were mates. They belonged together. Had the fight shaken her? Was she worried at seeing the violence he was capable of? Did she think... no, he couldn’t even entertain the thought. It had been a terrible situation and fighting had been their only way out. She had to know that. Right?
He took the pack and recorded his name with the crew before turning back and heading towards the food station. Naomi sat at a table, fingers curled around a steaming mug. Another sat next to her, waiting for him to take it. When she heard him approach she turned, and the bright smile she shot him went a long way to alleviating his fears.
“How are you feeling?” she asked when he took his seat. “I don’t see any bruising.”
She would if she got a look at his ribs, but it could have been much worse and Shayn had managed to scrounge up a little regen gel from one of the emergency kits. He’d be fine as soon as the medicine started to work. “He didn’t hit that hard,” Shayn said.
Naomi looked at him like she knew he was full of bluster before rolling her eyes. “You’re very...” she trailed off and took a sip of her drink to keep from finishing the sentence.
But Shayn needed to hear this. “I’m very what?”
She heaved a deep breath. “Manly.” It didn’t sound so good when she said it.
“Would you prefer I wasn’t?” He knew they came from different cultures, but they both had a good deal of Oscavian in their upbringings and their expectations couldn’t be that different. Could they? What were human relationships like?
His denya narrowed her eyes. “I’d prefer if you didn’t hide injuries you got because of me. I knew you were going to get hurt and I couldn’t do anything about it. No matter what we did he was going to catch up to us and if we’d gone right he was going to—” She snapped her mouth shut and shook her head, her brown skin taking on a sickly undertone. “It was bad. And going left wasn’t that much better.”
“Then it’s a good thing we stayed in place.” He’d wondered why she’d been frozen, and now he knew. “I’m your mate. It’s my duty to protect you. I’m sorry you had to see something terrible in a vision, but I’m here now, and I’d take a million blows to keep you from feeling a single one.”
“I don’t want you hurt. Don’t you understand that it’s the same for me? And if my only weapon to stop it from happening means I need to harness what’s in my head, then I’ll do it. I just haven’t been properly motivated before today.” She was intense, her hands clenched tightly around her mug and her voice full of determination.
Shayn loved her for that. But he could see the beginning of something dangerous forming, and it was his job to protect her, even from herself, if necessary. “You see amazing things. But you can’t see everything. Let’s just take this thing as it comes, bad with the good, yeah?”
She didn’t look convinced, but she nodded, for whatever that was worth. Shayn would need to keep an eye out to make sure she didn’t hurt herself, but if she needed to concentrate on her visions for now he wouldn’t stop her, no matter his concern. She knew her limits. He’d merely observe and he’d step in if things seemed to get too much.
“The crew said we can make camp anywhere within a couple of kilometers. The evacuation vessels also convert to sleeping quarters, but those spaces are already spoken for. And I thought it might be nice to have some privacy.” Those vessels were bound to be loud, hot, and cramped, and a night under the stars on this beautiful planet would be just what he and his mate needed to recover from the last few days.
“Did they say how long we’d be here?” she asked. She finished her drink and pushed the mug aside.
“A day or so, depending on what the ship needs. They have a speeder full of mechanics coming to take a look.” And from what he’d managed to overhear, things might have been more dire than they were letting on, but he kept that to himself. There was no need to worry his denya any further, especially about something neither of them could control.
“I guess it’s a good thing we weren’t worried about speed. Will your brothers be worried about the delay?”
“They don’t know when we’re arriving. I didn’t give them our flight information, just in case.” He was almost certain no one was listening in on his calls, but he couldn’t say the same for any other communications, and he wouldn’t risk accidentally giving them up with a careless message. His brothers knew he was coming home and that was all that mattered. They didn’t even know that Naomi was his denya. Every time he tried to tell them something interrupted and he’d decided to wait until they saw her in person. The shock might knock them down, but he didn’t want to give them time to form opinions before they met his mate. He needed them to like her.
“What’s that look?” Naomi asked.
“Look?” Shayn shook his head. She didn’t need fraternal worries either. “Let’s go get out gear set up.” He hefted up the bag and nodded towards the woods.
Naomi looked where he was nodding and then craned her head the other way. “Let’s not go there. Something’s... off about that way.”
“Vision?”
“Feeling.”
Good enough. Shayn followed as Naomi led the way.
NAOMI HAD TRIED TO help set up their surprisingly big tent, but her life lived indoors had never been more on display. As soon as she backed off, Shayn had it up in the blink of an eye. “You’re kind of handy,” she observed. “When do you need to set up tents on a space station?”
He grinned and made her heart flip over at the carefree look. A ways out from the recovery zone they could almost pretend they were on vacation at some remote hideaway and not survivors of a spaceship malfunction. “When I was a boy my father would take me camping. And I took my brothers when they were old enough. And our settlement wasn’t the most technologically advanced. There was always something that needed mending.”
The smile waned a bit when he spoke of his father, but picked back up when he mentioned his brothers. Naomi wished she could take away his pain, but some things couldn’t be fixed. His father’s death would always hurt him, just as her parents’ deaths would always hurt her. The pain dulled in time, but it couldn’t be completely erased. And even if it could, she wouldn’t want it to. Giving up that pain would mean getting rid of them.
Never. She’d hold those memories close until the end of her days. She’d tell Shayn the stories and jokes her parents had shared with her, and in that way they’d manage to live on.
Her own expression must have turned melancholy from the look Shayn was giving her and she forced a smile. The smile turned real when he did something to make his eyes bug out and stuck his tongue out. A laugh burst out of her and she lunged toward him, wrapping her arms around him and tackling him through the entrance to the tent and onto the small mattress he’d set up.
“Is nowhere safe!” Shayn demanded in mock horror. “Attacked in my own tent. What kind of planet is this?
But he couldn’t stop smiling, and his eyes were that bright Oscavian blue that lo
oked a little strange in his Detyen face. She leaned down and kissed him. It had been far too long since she’d had a taste, hours to be sure, and they’d survived a great ordeal since then. She needed to press his skin against hers, needed to reassure herself that he was alright.
He could have died. She’d seen it much brighter than the dim light of the ship should have allowed. A stupid fall that sent him tumbling over a railing and down three levels to the hard floor below. And then the attacker had snatched her. The vision had taken less than a second, but she’d lived it for an eternity.
And going the other way would have left Shayn bleeding and limping, but she wanted her mate safe and whole.
“Where did you go?” Shayn asked, pulling back.
Moisture prickled at Naomi’s eyes and she wanted to hide her face. He didn’t need to see this. They were fine now. She wanted him. Why did her brain keep doing this?
“The visions aren’t always pleasant,” she told him. It was the best explanation she had. “And even when they don’t come to pass, the memory still lives on. I’m really alright.”
He studied her for a moment, and if he contradicted that she was going to scream. But his expression softened and he traced his thumb over her eyebrow and down her cheek until it found her mouth. Naomi opened and sucked it in, swirling her tongue around and imagining that she had something else entirely between her lips.
Shayn must have gotten the idea, judging by the sinful groan he let out and the way his eyes lit up with temptation. She pulled off his thumb with a pop and pulled at his shirt, wrestling it off. They had to fight with one of the walls of the tent and for a moment Naomi worried she’d bring the whole structure down on top of them, but it held, a testament to Shayn’s construction skills.
His cock pressed hard against his pants and he hissed out a sharp breath when she ran her hands over the length, the sensation still pleasurable despite the cloth barrier. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of touching you,” she said, and it was true. She’d never felt this well of emotion for anyone before, never even considered that it was possible. Had she somehow known that Shayn was out there just waiting to stumble across her? Was that her visions or the denya bond? Maybe both.
“I’m all yours, denya,” Shayn said. His breathing stuttered as she carefully undid the clasp of his pants and eased them down. And in a moment he was completely naked while she still had all of her clothes on.
It was strange and weirdly empowering to see him vulnerable like that, his cock standing tall and the rest of him on display for her. She wanted to touch every centimeter of him, wanted to see how long she could make it last until he begged her to give him relief. Her mind whirred with ideas, things she’d never considered before, but she was certain Shayn would go along with whatever she wanted.
What a rush.
She skimmed her fingers along Shayn’s cock, just enough to tease, before laying down on top of him and capturing his mouth. He rutted up against her and she grinned against his lips. “What do you want?” she asked between kisses.
“Everything,” he said. He reached for her shirt and before she could process it she was topless with him, her naked skin pressed against his chest, hot and perfect and still not enough. She’d thought she was in control, but somehow she ended up under Shayn and his lips and fingers were everywhere, making her writhe in their makeshift bed. Sounds escaped her that might have made her blush if she was capable of thinking about anything but pleasure. But they were too far away for any of their fellow survivors to hear them, and so what if they did? Naomi wanted everyone to know that Shayn was taken, that he was hers.
His fingers brushed against the tight heat of her entrance and Naomi realized her pants had gotten lost at some point. Why had she even been wearing clothes in the first place? When the blunt tip of his finger pushed inside, Naomi lost track of the question, of anything but the sensation. Shayn took his time, just as he had every moment they’d spent in bed back on the ship. In space there had been something stopping them from taking the final step, but she could feel it in her heart that there was no stopping this now. She didn’t want to.
“Will you seal the bond with me?” he asked, laying gentle kisses along her neck as his fingers teased her to madness.
“Yes,” she moaned decadently. “Please, do it.” She clutched his shoulders as if she could mold them together by holding on tight enough as a second finger joined Shayn’s first. The time he took was enough to have her cursing and bucking against him, demanding more, needing his cock. “Get in me,” she bit out, the sexy demand enough to make Shayn chuckle. She might have cursed him if he hadn’t shifted his weight until suddenly, the head of his cock brushed against her entrance.
Their eyes locked and his glowed bright blue. “You’re mine, denya,” he declared as he pressed into her tantalizingly slowly.
“Yours.” The word stretched out as her body accommodated him. He was big, and wide, and almost too much. She was stretched almost to the point of pain, but the scent of him, the press of his body, his entire reassuring presence was enough, and she yielded to him, her body accepting his presence as if he belonged there, as if he’d been made for her.
She clutched him tight, afraid to let go, and she knew she wasn’t keeping any of her emotions shielded. Her expression was showing everything she’d grown to feel in the last few days, every impossible, too fast emotion that scared and thrilled her at the same time. How had this man come to mean so much? How could she know he’d be her everything until the last of their days? How could she be willing to do anything so long as it meant that he would be at her side?
How could she be in love?
Her face said it all, but she choked the words back, still not ready to say them, not yet.
And when Shayn began to move she forgot about talking. The time for that had passed. She joined him in a rhythm her body knew, matching his thrusts as he buried himself deep inside of her and pulled out before moving again. Passion climbed, threatening to crest more than once, but Naomi held it off, wanting this to last. She begged him for more, needing it like she needed air, more than she needed air. And when it became too much, she shattered, her body rippling and breaking into a million pieces before reforming even stronger than before.
Shayn buried himself a final time and came with a roar, calling out her name and sealing the bond tightly between them.
She could feel something snap into place just under her heart, an anchor reaching from her out to her mate, tying them together in the ways of his people, binding them together for good.
She pressed kisses to anywhere she could find, too wrung out by the pleasure and the profound connection to move much more. Shayn gathered her close and gave his own kisses back, and after awhile Naomi drifted as the late afternoon sun set around them.
She woke to shuffling sounds at one point and wondered if an animal was trying to get into the tent, but it was only Shayn pulling on some pants. “You should put something on, as much as it pains me to say it, denya. The night will be cold.” Naomi held out a hand and got dressed before falling back into sleep.
The second time she was sure the shuffling had to be an animal, especially since Shayn was snuggled up right next to her, but her instincts urged her to keep completely silent and still. Whoever was out there, she didn’t want them to know where she was.
Whoever? Not whatever? Her instincts pinged on that first and when she heard a muffled curse she realized it was a person outside and not a creature. Her stiffened posture must have roused Shayn, but before he could say anything she placed a finger to his lips, urging him to be quiet.
She was glad for the clothes Shayn had urged her to wear. The tent wasn’t too chilly, but there was a bite in the air, and she definitely didn’t want the person outside to catch her naked.
Perhaps he’d merely gone for a walk, or had gotten turned around from his own camp site. She wanted to believe it, but her instincts told her that wasn’t the case. And when the shadow and the
sound of his footsteps got even louder, she knew he was coming for them.
For her.
Could he be the same man Shayn had fought on the ship? Or had someone else come?
Shayn shifted beside her, angling himself so they wouldn’t be caught if the man managed to get inside. “Be ready to run,” he breathed into her ear, the sound almost swallowed up by the darkness around them. “Hide and I’ll find you,” he vowed.
She didn’t want to leave her mate to fight her battles, but of the two of them he was much better equipped. She nodded swiftly and rolled to her feet. There wasn’t enough room to stand in the tent, but they could crouch.
“Naomi, come out. I’m here to take you home.” She didn’t recognize the voice of the man outside, and she definitely wasn’t going to do what he said.
She remained silent, even as a part of her wished she could just tell him to go away.
“There are things you don’t know about the man who took you. Dr. Pitner knows he might have made you promises, but they’re not true. You know he came to her for a reason. He’s troubled. It’s not safe for you in there.”
Did he really think that would work? Even if Naomi couldn’t feel the truth of their bond anchored deep in her chest, nothing Shayn had done in the past few days suggested he was anything but honest, anything but hers. And even if she hadn’t been sure of him, she had faith in her visions, and they’d been screaming at her to get away from Sola Corp and all Morgyn wanted.
Wind rustled the entrance to the tent, sending one of the flaps open and giving them a glimpse of the man outside. It was dark, but Naomi was pretty sure he wasn’t the same guy they’d seen on the ship. He was a bit shorter and broader. Probably still Oscavian, though, if he worked for Morgyn.
“I’m not going back,” Naomi sneered at him. “I’ve given Morgyn enough of my life.”