Prime Obsession (8 page)

“I don’t think so, big boy.” She was glad to see his hands had stopped shaking.

Nothing worse than ham-handed medical care.

Wulf removed the utility pack from her waist and threw it aside. His large hands ripped her uniform top off in one strong movement. Before she could protest that his whole damn crew could see into the cubicle, he reached for her tank-top undergarment.

She shrieked as she grabbed his hands and tried to pry them off her. “Wulf, stop it!”

“I can’t clean the wound with the shredded cloth in the way,” he explained, his words spoken slowly and with a patience she knew he didn’t feel. His extreme anger had begun to fatigue her. “Do you want an infection?”

“No,” she whispered, touching his tense arm with tentative fingers. She wasn’t sure why she needed to assuage his anger. His smell, all hot, testy male, reached inside her and dragged an all-too-female placative reaction from her. “I’m fine. I’ve had worse.

Please—don’t be so angry.”

“You shouldn’t have
any
injuries.” He gently removed her hands from his arm, then ripped the tank top away from her body as if it were a thin sheet of paper. “Now, be still,
gemate lubha,
so I can tend the wounds.”

His thorough visual examination took in her full breasts and leanly muscled abs, then focused on her lower right side, several centimeters below the rib wound.

Wulf’s nostrils flared with his sharp intake of breath. His golden eyes burned her like the Terran sun. Long, strong fingers reached for, and then traced the tattoo on her right hip. He uttered in a low, hungry tone that tightened her womb. “
Diew
.” She shuddered in reaction—an atavistic reaction ten times stronger than the one she’d felt when she first took in his scent in the tunnels. Warning buzzers and bells went off in her head. There was extreme peril here—one she’d never confronted before.

“What are you doing? I’m not injured there,” she said, her voice unnaturally husky.

She glanced at the marking. It glowed, changed colors, and, then amazingly, swirled in a rhythmic kaleidoscope effect. Warmth permeated her whole body. Her womb wept and her sex pulsed. She bit back a guttural moan.

“Wulf?” She thrust out a hand, warding him off, warding off the feelings. “What’s happening to me? What is it? An infection from the pirate’s knife?”

“Wulf!” Maren’s harsh tone startled her. “Now is not the time.” Mel tore her gaze away from the fiery glow of Wulf’s amber-colored eyes as he swept them repeatedly over her naked upper torso, each time lingering longer on her marking. Maren’s face was couched in lines of disapproval. His tone of voice held a warning.

“She is injured.” In Prime, Maren added, “Remember our talk. She is unaware.

Patience, my son.”

The diplomat turned to her and handed her a large T-shirt. She could tell by the smell that it belonged to Wulf. She fought the urge to bury her face in the soft garment. “You can use this to cover yourself from the view of the other men.” As if he had just become aware of the audience viewing her naked body, Wulf turned toward the room at large and let out what Mel could only classify as a growl. “Get back to work. All of you.”

The crew hurried to their stations. The mood in the room was one of awe and envy.

Mel didn’t understand any of this. Instead of asking questions that she was sure would not be answered, she turned to Maren and said, “Thank you.”
Time to get this show back on the road.
She needed to get off this ship—away from the uncomfortable feelings Wulf aroused.

As he turned away, she stopped the older man. “Maren, don’t forget. In my pack there are ear-com units for your primary personnel. They’ll need them to coordinate the battle to regain the ship.”

Maren nodded. “The outgoing communications will work now. Iolyn fixed the problem after you mentioned it. We were unaware the traitor had reached that area of the communications array.” He snagged the pack from where Wulf had thrown it, removed one unit and tossed it to Wulf, then left.

Wulf stared at her, his eyes filled with lambent heat. His hands had stopped shaking and were warm, gentle and efficient as he cleansed the wounds front and back then laser sutured them closed. He then efficiently helped her into his shirt. “You need blood.”

“That can wait until later.” She tapped her ear-com with the prearranged signal.

“Now, be quiet, I need to signal my men.”

Wulf grunted and muttered something that she recognized as gutter Prime.

She couldn’t resist. “Language, Wulf. I may be a soldier, but I’m still a lady.” The look of shock at how well she understood his language was clear in his eyes.

One abrupt nod was the only apology he gave as the etched lines of his face relaxed into an expressionless mask and his emotions stopped bombarding her.

For now, he was under control. She breathed a sigh of relief, just realizing how extremely wearing his feelings toward her were. No man had ever affected her like this—

even the repellant Antareans had never pushed her to the limits of her emotional and physical control.

Shaking off her disturbing thoughts, she clicked the ear-com again and then sent the

“all clear” signal. The answering code came instantly. Nowicki was on top of things as usual.

“They got the signal and are on their way. Fourteen transports from my and Captain Warten’s squadrons. How do you want to proceed once they’re on board and have re-secured the docking bay?”

She had a plan, but considering how overly alpha Wulf had proven to be she’d better get his input. After all, it was his ship.

“The man you shot?”

She nodded, but wasn’t sure what the wounded traitor had to do with their plan to free the ship.

“He would have let the pirates into the engine room after he killed you.”

“I figured as much,” she replied. Did he think she was stupid? “But he aimed at you.

Yet, he hated me, also. Why take the time to shoot us? He could’ve let the pirates in and possibly accomplished his goal. Why make it so personal?” Wulf concentrated on tidying up the bloody cloths. Exasperated, she sighed. “What is going on?”

He swept one large hand through his hair and shook his head. “It’s complicated.”

“Has it anything to do with why the Prime have decided to join the Alliance after centuries of isolation?”

His startled glance said she had hit it on the head. Man, he
did
think she was stupid.

“Yes.” He turned to dispose of the cloths. “Your Council knows the exact reasons why. I’m not sure you need to know—right now.”

“Again with the
later
thing, Wulf?”

“Yes. You will find out all—later. After this,” he swept a hand indicating the ship and the battle to regain it, “is over.”

“Fine.” Absently, she rubbed the marking on her hip; it had cooled somewhat since Wulf had touched it. “Did you give me an antibiotic?”

“Yes.” He looked at the area she’d just covered. The look disturbed—and excited—

her. It was possessive. “I did.”

“Good, I wasn’t too happy about getting a filthy pirate blade in my side. Who knows what he’d used it for—or on—last.”

“Any injuries to you are unacceptable,” Wulf stated in firm tones.

Oops, he was back to the lord-and-master pronouncements.

“Because I’m a woman?” She raised a brow, daring him to confess his male chauvinism.

He nodded. And his expression displayed no guilt over his antiquated attitude about women.

“Ah, you’ll have to get over that, Wulf, if your soldiers are to work alongside the Alliance military. We have many women officers and soldiers. We expect equal treatment and respect.”

“I’m not sure a Prime male is inherently able to accept such parameters, Melina.”

“Like I said, you’ll have to—that’s just the way it is.” Feeling somewhat better now that she wasn’t bleeding all over the place, she chanced reopening her senses to the room, taking the temperature of Wulf’s crew as they prepared to battle the pirates to end the siege.

Treachery. Ugly, yellow, bilious waves of it sickened her.

She gasped.

Wulf started and moved closer to her, his body blocked her from the rest of the room.

“Move. Dammit. Wulf, move that big body of yours. There’s another one.” Wulf growled, then moved to block her from the room, forcing Mel to peer around him, first on one side, then the other.

“Well, well, the man I shot was not the last traitor. But, you knew that, didn’t you?” She shot him an inquisitive glare.

It explained the reason that Wulf wasn’t ready to make plans for the battle to regain the ship. He’d suspected there were other traitors inside the engine room. With no privacy, the turncoats could possibly overhear and spoil their plan.

His nod was curt. “Where is he?”

Again, he demonstrated his absolute faith in her ability to read danger. A warm feeling of what some might label contentment moved through her.

She placed a hand on his arm. His large body was tense, readying itself for battle. An almost too-calm look was on his face while underneath he boiled and that tell-tale muscle in his jaw worked incessantly.

“He’s by the communications panel,” she whispered, unconsciously stroking his muscled forearm. “Standing next to Iolyn. Be careful, he’s watching us. I think he noted my scanning for him.”

Wulf nodded, then moved, still blocking her body with his as he casually turned and located Iolyn. His posture stiffened and a low vibration tickled over her skin. The vibrations came from Wulf—he held back a beserker’s rage. It simmered and popped just under his consciousness and somehow she’d tapped into it without even trying. His adrenaline rush became hers. Despite her wounds, her exhaustion, she felt as if she could take on the whole engine room—and win.

Shaking away her feelings as ephemeral, she hissed. “Stop protecting me with your body. Give me room to maneuver—and a weapon.”

“Do you doubt I can protect you?” He all but snarled, his attention equally fixed on the man next to his brother—and on her.

The tone in his voice told her his question held more meaning than the mere words conveyed. Her answer was important, no, crucial, to him. And he would not move away until he had his answer.

“No. I know you can protect me,” she said and realized that answer had come from deep within her core. This man would step between her and all danger. Always, even if it meant his death. It scared her to realize just how vested his emotions, feelings and actions had centered on her from the moment he took her into his arms. “But you need to understand that I’m used to protecting myself and covering the men with whom I fight.”

“Ansu bhau!”
he swore. “Just sit there and let someone else protect you for a change.”

Obviously, Wulf was in no mood to listen to reason.

“Fine. I’ll stay here.”
Unless I’m needed.
“Just leave me a weapon.” Turning, Wulf handed her the weapon from her pack. Sweeping a large hand over her tangled hair, he cupped her chin with the other large, very hot hand. Then he muttered in a soft, almost pleading tone, against her lips. “Be safe,
gemate
lubha
. My brothers will cover my ass. Maren will remain with you.”

Shocked into a total, stupefied silence, she watched him walk away.

“Maren,” Wulf called out softly as he approached the older man who’d been close enough to witness the whole exchange between him and Melina. The usually restrained diplomat had a grin on his face that said he’d been highly entertained.

Wulf frowned at him. “It’s not funny, old man.”

Maren chuckled. “I’d never thought I’d live to see the day when a woman would go toe-to-toe with you.”

Ignoring his mentor’s words, he said, “Please stay with her. Protect my
gemate
.” Melina’s snort of disgust over his last words brought a reluctant smile to his lips. She was an obstinate, independent wench. He intended to make it clear from the beginning who was the male and who, the female. He didn’t give a slime creature’s hind end about her military training or position. She was a Prime female, and, thus, had a larger role in the galaxy than fighting. She was his mate—and would be,
Diew
willing, the mother of a future leader of Cejuru Prime.

“I’ll watch her,” said Maren, his eyes glinting with laughter, then added
sotto voce
,

“until she is needed.”

Wulf glared at the older man, not appreciating the man’s misplaced sense of humor.

Once Maren reached Melina, he moved to the middle of the room and joined Huw.

“What’s going on?” his brother asked. “Is Melina truly a battle-mate? Maren said her senses fed on yours and yours on hers.”

Wulf shrugged. “It seems so.”

When Melina had sensed the first traitor, he’d only gotten a faint sense of her ability before he himself had felt the hatred. With this second traitor, he’d
felt
the hatred in the room
through
her, almost as if she filtered the room’s myriad emotions and then amplified the one she had singled out. The legends had spoken of this symbiosis between certain mated pairs. As soon as Maren had voiced his conclusion, Wulf knew Melina was, in truth, a battle-mate. And that concerned him. He didn’t want the mother of his yet-to-be-conceived children fighting, no matter how important a battle-mate would be to the current political climate on Cejuru Prime.

Tabling his thoughts of Melina’s uniqueness, he turned to Huw. “She sensed another traitor. It is Ullyn. We must approach him carefully. He could harm many before we disarm him.”

Huw nodded and matched Wulf’s stride toward the computer array where Iolyn, unaware of the danger, stood talking to Ullyn.

As they approached the traitor, he turned and grabbed Iolyn around the neck, placing a laser pistol to his brother’s head. “Stop, Wulf. Huw. I will kill him.” Both men stopped. The room went silent at the danger present.

“You can’t escape, Ullyn,” Wulf said in an even, emotionless tone. Underneath his emotions roiled. Then, a coolness passed through him like a breeze off his home planet’s mountains. Whisper-soft words tickled his mind.
“Patience, Wulf. Patience. You are
stronger. More clever. He is afraid. You have the upper hand.”
Melina. Battle-mate instincts and abilities long buried in her, awakened and stimulated by his scent and touch, aided him in battle. She probably wasn’t even aware her thoughts flowed through his mind.

No denying it now. She was, in truth, his battle-mate.

“No, but I can open the door and let the pirates in,” Ullyn snarled, bringing Wulf back to the present danger. Later he would deal with the reality of Melina’s uniqueness.

“You will not win. The Alliance is even now on board and in control of the docking bay. They’ll kill your allies sooner or later. No pirates will get off this ship to plague the galaxy. Letting in those outside this room will do you no good.”

“You’ll be dead.” Ullyn nodded his head toward to Iolyn. “He’ll be dead. As will Huw and Maren. And your bitch of a
gemate.”

Wulf stiffened at the traitor’s words.

Ullyn sneered
. “
Think we could not see the mark? It glowed against all that pale skin.”

The menace toward Melina threatened to throw him into an uncontrolled rage.

Again, the feathery cool touch stroked his senses. Her scent filled his nostrils.
“Patience,
Wulf.”

“Why, Ullyn?” Wulf asked.

“To end the joining with the Alliance,” Ulyn snarled. “Not all Prime citizens desire to ally with the rest of the galaxy.”

“But why use pirates?” Huw asked, picking up the train of the conversation, helping Wulf stall until someone could move to disarm Ullyn.

Angry, Ullyn gestured with the laser. “Because they were a convenient tool. Stop stalling and asking stupid questions. Have every crew member throw their weapons into the center of the room.”

No one complied. The room was still, but no … Wulf sensed a movement along the wall, approaching Ullyn from behind.

Melina!
Damn her battle-mate little hide.

A soft touch again stroked his neck, ruffling his hair as if to say “don’t worry.” Their binding was so strong, so quickly, due to the strong battle-mate genetics.

Despite the situation, his loins ached to possess her to take their connection to the highest and most complete level of the
gemat-gemate
binding.

Huw’s body language indicated he also had seen Melina. Huw moved to draw Ullyn’s attention away from her movements.

“Stop right there, Huw,” Ullyn yelled, his laser waving all over the place.

Huw stopped. “Taking on the pirates as allies is pretty stupid. They’ll take your payment and then kill you. They are greedy, Ullyn, and they
don’t
leave witnesses.”

“You lie,” Ullyn yelled. But his eyes narrowed in concentration.

Ullyn was a follower, not a leader. While Wulf wanted the mastermind behind the seizure of his ship, he wasn’t going to let the small fish off the hook. The bastard had threatened Melina—and his family.

Someone among the crew gasped, betraying Melina’s movement. Wulf wanted to kill the man who dared endanger his woman.

Ullyn whipped his gaze toward her. His weapon now fluctuated between her and Iolyn.

Wulf moved to draw Ullyn’s attention, all instincts urging him to protect his woman.

Melina leapt at Ullyn as Wulf made his move. Their battle symbiosis was fully in sync; their brains worked together to find and defeat a common enemy. She latched onto Ullyn’s weapon arm, shoving it up and away from Iolyn, away from her.

Iolyn broke free and moved to take over the disarming of the traitor.

“Stay out of the way, Iolyn. You, too, Wulf,” Melina shouted as she torqued Ullyn’s arm. The resulting snap resounded in the room.

Ullyn dropped the laser. Screaming from the pain, he stepped away and kicked at Melina, grazing her injured right side.

“Son of a bitch,” she yelled and retaliated with another twist of the broken forearm that she’d never released.

The agony in Ullyn’s scream was evident.

Wulf approached the duo laterally.

Melina sent him a fiery emerald glare that burned to his soul.

“I said stop, Wulf,” she snarled.

Huw and Iolyn also approached.

“All you Caradocs, just stay away. He’s
mine
.” She turned and bit out the words,

“Call me a
gemate
bitch, will you?”

Melina pushed Ullyn away from her and followed with a flying round kick, snapping Ullyn’s head back and shoving him into a computer panel.

Wulf waved his brothers away. He didn’t want them to distract her, giving Ullyn an opening to harm her. He moved closer, just in case she needed him, but not so close so as to impede her decimation of one of his Prime warriors.

His connection to her told him she had this traitor under control. Despite his reluctance to see her as a battle-mate, he did.

Concentrating, he followed the instinctive path that had been awakened upon holding and scenting her for the first time and fed her his strength as battle-mates of the Prime’s glorious past had done for many millennia.

Ansu bhau,
but she was magnificent, just as his brothers and Maren had advised him.

Her supple strength, her ferocity, made him hot. It would take all his control not to throw her to the floor and take her in front of his men, claiming her in the most primitive of ways possible.

He snorted back a laugh. She’d emasculate him on the spot if he tried.
Later.
It would all happen later—in privacy. And he planned to take a long, long time learning all the secrets of her body. Of her fascinating mind. Of her woman’s heart.

His crew crowded around, all respectfully giving her the room to fight. The mood in the room was one of awe. Pride. Envy. Many of his men had lost their mates because of the exodus. He thanked
Diew
his had been returned to him.

Narrowing his gaze, he observed Melina’s movements. She was visibly tiring. He felt her exhaustion and pain as his. Even battle-mates had limits—plus she fought with injuries, blood loss. He’d give her a chance to finish it; he would not shame her in front of his men. But if she couldn’t, he would. He could not allow her to harm herself, even to save face.

“Finish it,
gemate lubha—
or I will.”

The crowd grunted their approval of his words. The whispers of “battle-mate” swept the room. They all knew of the legend, but had never thought to see one.

As Melina kicked and punched Ullyn in a rapid sequence of punishing hits, she panted out a response to his deliberately arrogant order. “I’m. Not. Little. Nor. Your.

Love. And—Not a—
Gemate
. Either. Whatever in the
ansu
bhau
that is!” With her last words, Ullyn fell to the floor and didn’t get up.

Wulf signaled two men to guard Ullyn. He approached his tired little warrior who was bent over at the waist, taking deep breaths. She turned her head to look at him. “I couldn’t let him kill Iolyn. You and Huw kept him talking long enough for me to get into position.” Blowing out a deep breath and tossing her midnight dark hair out of her sweaty face, she sighed. “Plus, he had the audacity to announce he’d seen me naked.” She stood taller and arched her back as if eliminating a kink. Shaking her head wearily, she added, “Besides, you and your people need to see that female Alliance military members can be counted on in a fight. We’re not
little
and we’re not to be belittled with pet names like
lubha
and
gemate lubha
.” Wulf smiled as he reached for her. “I can guarantee my men will never call you those pet names.”
Or mention the fact all of them have seen you naked.

He swept the men surrounding them with a glare. All bowed their heads in acquiescence.

Satisfied he’d gotten his point across, he swept Melina into his arms and up against his chest, inhaling her unique scent. He whispered against her hair, “You have no idea how special you are,
gemate lubha
. But all will be explained later.”

“It’s always
later
with you.” She laid her head on his shoulder and took another deep breath, relaxing into his hold, and sighed. “Why do you smell so damn good?” He didn’t respond. She wouldn’t have heard him anyway. Now that the battle was over, her previous injuries, blood loss, and exhaustion took hold and she slipped into semi-consciousness. The battle-mate connection that aided her in the fight with Ullyn had subsided.

He smiled as she nuzzled his neck. The
gemate
imprinting was the strongest he’d ever seen. Not even his mother and father’s bond was this close. The more Melina took in his pheromones, the more they touched, saw and heard one another, the more fully realized the
gemate
imprinting would become. Even now her brain regenerated genetic memory and connections to long-buried survival and mating instincts that had lain fallow while she’d been raised as a Terran.

At the rate she progressed, it wouldn’t be long before he could take his courtship to the next level with her full compliance—total physical possession. He groaned as his cock hardened at the thought.

Rousing at the sound of his unrequited lust, she opened her eyes and yawned, fighting the sleep she needed. “What Ullyn said—is that why you are joining the alliance? Civil unrest?”

His mate had a mind like a trap. He smiled.

Maren had closed in upon them. Wulf asked, “Shall I tell her?” The most senior diplomat of their planet nodded. “She of any deserves to know.” Melina raised her head from his chest. “What does that mean? Me of any? Okay, I know, later.”

He gently shoved her head back to his chest where it belonged. Just having her in his arms and her scent in his nostrils reinforced why it was important to rid his ship of the pirates. Then he could get her alone and make her fully his. That next level of his courtship couldn’t come fast enough for him.

“So,” she said, as she stroked the hair at his neck. “Tell me why you are joining the Alliance after centuries of ignoring us.”

“Our race is dying.”