Space Invaders (14 page)

Vohne shook his head at her exit. She’d killed her own mother and still thought she had a chance with Bleine. Unfortunately for her, there were two major flaws in her plan. First, Bleine’s intelligence rated even higher than Vohne’s, and he would let himself die before being used by another woman. Secondly, Vohne didn’t plan on bringing his brother out of deep freeze until he had a viable candidate. If Niafe thought she could blackmail Vohne into a mating with his brother, she wasn’t as smart as she thought.

Vohne sat at his desk for a bit, wrapping up some more paperwork before deciding it was time to go check on his lover. Kres might get into trouble if left too long on his own. Hell, he might have already left wherever they’d had him stashed, guards or no guards.

Ignoring the soldiers who fell in step behind him, Vohne headed towards where he could feel his mate biding his time.

As he approached, the door guards snapped to attention.

“Has he been behaving?” Vohne asked.

“Yes, Your Highness,” they replied in unison.

“Hmm.” Vohne opened the door and stepped inside. Three steps into the room, he was jumped. Air burst from his chest as he fell onto the soft carpet, a familiar hard body pressing against him.

“Took you long enough to check on me.” Kres’ hot breath brushed across his ear. “Now that I have you, whatever am I going to do with you, hmmm?”

“Problem, Your Highness?” one of the soldiers asked. Vohne could hear the amusement in the soldier’s voice.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he replied.

With a quick flick of his muscles, he spun around and pinned his laughing mate to the carpet.

“What are you going to do now?” he teased.

Kres relaxed completely beneath his hold, his eyes sparkling with laughter.

“I guess I’ll have to give in to your obvious superiority,” he said, rubbing his body against Vohne’s like a cat in heat.

Vohne looked up to the men in the doorway. “Leave us.”

With knowing chuckles, the guards left, closing the door gently behind them.

Kres moved beneath Vohne, his body hot, hard and delicious—perfect.

“Mmm.” Vohne leant down to taste his lover. Kres turned his head.

Vohne growled. “What is that for?”

A smirk crossed his mate’s lips. “You think because you have me trapped, I’m just going to give it up?”

“You’re not?” Vohne knew a bit of desperation coloured his tone, but he needed to feel Kres around him.

“Nope.” Kres licked his lips, taunting Vohne with their slickness. “Like all good things, you need to fight for what you want.”

Vohne had foolishly relaxed against his lover during their chat. Before he knew it, Kres had flipped him onto his back, sliding on top and pinning Vohne to the floor by his wrists.

“Gotcha,” his victorious mate announced.

Vohne couldn’t hold back his grin. “I guess I’m just a prisoner to your whims.”

Kres frowned at him suspiciously. “I fell into your trap, didn’t I?”

“Never try to out-strategise a king, my love,” Vohne teased.

Sighing, Kres gave him a hot, hard kiss. “I guess I’ll just have to fuck you until you can’t be so sneaky.”

“Good plan,” Vohne agreed. Of course he didn’t tell his mate that he would agree to about anything if it involved his hard, muscular body naked and against Vohne. No need to give the man the total advantage. He knew from experience the difficulty in resisting his mate’s charms during a disagreement. Luckily, this one time they were in perfect accord. “I don’t suppose we can move this to the couch so I don’t get rug burns?”

Kres smiled. “Nope. It will remind you later about the dangers of trying to outsmart your mate.”

Vohne laughed. “Yep, that will teach me.”

Kres dipped his head to taste the flavour of his lover. Just as he was enjoying the feel of his hot mate beneath him, a blaring alarm ripped through their warm cocoon.

Before he could figure out where the alarm was coming from, Vohne quickly rolled them until he was on top. He jumped to his feet and offered Kres his hand.

“What’s going on?”

“That bitch must’ve tripped the thawer. She’s going to try to bring back my brother before I can warn him.”

“What bitch?”

“Niafe. She came to me earlier and confessed to killing her mother. Tried to tell me she was doing you a favour, building up your reputation.”

“I’m not sure that’s a reputation I want to have,” Kres replied.

Vohne wrapped a hand around Kres’ arm, pulling him towards the door. “We’ve got to stop her. Bleine will be disorientated when he first comes back. He might not be able to see through her bullshit. Here.”

Kres instinctively grabbed the handle of the dagger his lover handed to him. “What’s this?”

“To replace your lost one,” Vohne said.

“Aw, that’s sweet. Most men bring flowers.”

Vohne gave a bark of laughter. “Let’s go before my brother is taken advantage of.”

Kres walked fast to keep up with his lover. “But won’t he be…um…be unable to perform? I mean, if my danglies get frozen they aren’t going to work.”

Vohne gave Kres a quick kiss on the cheek as they walked, proving the man had amazing coordination. “Thresls have amazing recuperative powers.”

“I have noticed that.” Kres hurried to keep up with Vohne as the stronger man yanked him along.

Ripping open the door, Vohne glared at the soldiers. “Why are you still here? Niafe is after my brother. I want her stopped before my brother regains consciousness.”

The guards ran down the hall towards the alarm.

“Idiots,” Vohne muttered.

He still didn’t let go of Kres as they followed the soldiers.

“Why aren’t we running?”

“Kings don’t run.”

“Really?” Kres wondered if that really was true or if Vohne was feeding him lies.

“Unless our mates are involved.” Vohne flashed him a hot smile. “I’d run anywhere for you.”

After what felt like an endless stream of hallways, they reached a point where a dozen soldiers stood outside a metal door.

“What’s going on?”

Kres’ hormones stood at attention at the forceful tone of his lover. Hot images of his lover using that commanding voice in the bedroom made him harder than the solid door before him. Pulling his shirt down farther, he futilely tried to hide his erection. Luckily all eyes were on Vohne and ignoring Kres for the moment.

Nelrin came forward, bowing low before the king. “She’s locked the door, overriding the security measures.”

Kres’ blood ran cold. If she blocked them long enough, she could thaw out Vohne’s brother and cause all kinds of trouble. He couldn’t let her get to Bleine. His mate loved his brother, and it would break Vohne’s heart if Bleine re-mated with this scheming bitch.

No one was allowed to upset his mate!

Kres scanned the doorframe and the electronic panel caught his eye. “Can’t you override the system?”

Vohne shook his head. “Security has changed since I was here last. They didn’t even have electric locks.”

“Huh.”

Kres walked up to the security panel and plunged his knife into the interface with all his force. A popping noise sounded, followed by the smell of burnt electronics polluting the air. The doors slid apart.

Vohne flashed him a look of admiration. “Good thinking.”

Kres shrugged. “Sometimes the direct approach is best.”

The guards rushed in ahead of them. A moment later, the sounds of a struggle and shouting reached their ears.

Yanking his knife out of the wall, Kres retained hold of his mate as they entered the room. It was eerie as fuck to see walls of people hanging from metal tubes filled with blue goo and bodies.

“Who are all these people?” His voice was barely a whisper. He didn’t want Niafe to hear him, and truthfully, the room creeped him out. He nervously gripped the knife tighter as they approached.

“Most of them lost their mate or have severe illness or injury and are waiting to be cured. Some will be here for a brief while, others centuries,” Vohne explained in an equally quiet voice.

Chills prickled Kres’ skin as he moved with Vohne through the room. Several tubes hung from hooks in the middle of the room like something out of a horror movie. “It’s kind of disturbing.”

Vohne gave a soft laugh. Kres hoped there never came a time where Vohne needed to be cryogenically frozen. He didn’t know if he could do it.

“I demand to see the king!” Niafe’s shrieking voice echoed throughout the chamber.

“I believe that’s our cue.” Vohne yanked free of Kres’ hold and walked quickly towards the sound.

“Shit.” Kres rushed after him, determined to protect Vohne by any means necessary.

He skidded to a halt when they reached the area where Niafe stood, held between two guards beside Bleine’s cryo tube.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked Vohne. Kres had to give her credit. With her attitude, she made the guards seem more like accessories than the people who held her captive. Despite being a psycho, the girl had style.

“You’ve admitted to murdering your mother and framing my mate. Now you think I’m going to let you bond with my brother?” Vohne asked, his voice revealing his astonishment.

“I deserve this!” For the first time Kres saw cracks in her composure. “I deserve to be queen.” Madness lived in her eyes.

“You’re the reason we didn’t meet last time, aren’t you? It wasn’t your mother at all,” Kres demanded.

She turned imploring eyes to Kres, like he was going to side with her, as if she were only misunderstood instead of crazy. He had missed her deceit because she hadn’t thought she was fooling him. She truly believed she was fulfilling her personal prophecy. “It’s Mother’s fault he came back this time. I had it all under control, but no, she said it was unnatural to deprive the people of their king. I think it’s unnatural to deprive people of a bloodline. I can bring new blood and children to the throne. Instead of recycling the same garbage, we could have a fresh start. With enough human blood in our system, we won’t need full humans.”

“I am imprisoning you as an enemy of the crown.” Vohne’s voice remained calm and even, but Kres could feel fury pulsing through their link.

“You can lock me up, but you can never stop us all. We will take back this planet from antiquated ideas and bring it into the future,” Niafe shrieked.

Kres stepped forward. “We will stop you all. Anyone who threatens my man won’t have to worry about jail.” He let the threat hang in the air.

She softened her stance as she looked at him. “Kres, we can be friends. I don’t blame you for following your mate’s lead. You’ve been doing it for so long you don’t know any better. Join with me and I can free you from his influence. As the acknowledged king-mate, you and I can rule together.”

Kres couldn’t believe the woman’s gall. “You don’t care who rules by your side as long as you can rule. I don’t know who you have behind you, but they’d best watch for that knife in their back.”

“I could make you king!” she screamed.

Shaking his head, Kres gave her a pitying look. “Honey, that’s where you made your mistake. I’ve never wanted to be king.”

With a shriek of fury, she shoved free of her guards. “If I can’t have him, neither can you.” With inhuman strength, she kicked Bleine’s chamber.

Before their horrified gaze, the cryogenic pod fell over, the glass face plate shattering on the floor.

“No!” Vohne rushed to his brother’s side. Bleine’s body convulsed from the shock of sudden exposure.

“Get the medic!” Kres shouted. “And contain her.” He didn’t know what stood as a doctor on this planet, but if they didn’t get help soon, his mate’s brother wouldn’t survive.

Vohne opened the tube, revealing Bleine gasping for air.

The sound of someone choking drew Kres’ attention to his right.

A soldier lay curled up and shivering on the floor. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked the closest soldier.

The man rushed over to hold down the shaking man. “Sarler is an empath.”

“Human?” Kres asked.

“Yeah.”

“Perfect.”

Kres lifted the slim human in his arms. Luckily, the guy was fairly light. He might be a soldier, but Kres wasn’t up to Thresl strength.

He almost dropped Sarler twice on the way over to Bleine. The kid kept wiggling and convulsing.

Vohne looked up. “What are you doing?”

“I’m solving this problem. The medics are taking too long.”

Kres carefully laid the empath beside Bleine then pressed the men’s hands together.

Immediately, the convulsions stopped. Bleine’s eyes snapped open, the focus in them sharp as if he’d just closed them instead of having been in a cryogenic chamber. Sitting up, he leaned over the empath and planted a kiss on the young human.

Pleased with his solution, Kres stepped back and found himself the focus of his mate’s disapproving look.

“What?”