Star Warrior: A SciFi Alien Romance (16 page)

“Great, so I’m an open book to you,” Talia thought. I felt an emotion flood through the bond. Something that seemed like a mild shame. It confused me. Why would she be ashamed of her feelings?

“The word you’re looking for is embarrassment,” she thought to me. “It would seem that’s a purely human emotion that you guys don’t have to contend with.”

Ah. Well that made sense. Then what we’d been doing hit me. I was forming thoughts and she was responding to them as though she could read my mind. She was reading my mind. The bond had snapped into place and solidified and I’d been so preoccupied communicating with her that I hadn’t noticed.

Now that it was in place, though, I felt something else deep inside her. That warmth was blooming to a fire. I felt every bit of desire she’d ever felt for me since our first meeting and that bounced against my own desire to have her which created a new mental feedback loop where it was lust rather than pain that was overwhelming us.

The feeling was so powerful that I very nearly took her there.

“Not so fast lover boy,” she thought. “We’ve still got a little bit of a problem. Your murderous nephew who wants us both dead?”

“Yes, you’re right,” I thought back at her clearly. I was going to have to get used to this direct communication. Amazing. We’d somehow survived the bond. We were alive and neither one of us were mad.

Well I suppose there was always the possibility that I was thinking all of this in the recesses of my mind. That I wasn’t actually communicating with her and I was imprisoned by the madness. Does a person who has gone mad truly know that they are mad?

No. I would deal with reality as I saw it. I stood and turned to the emperor. This was no madness. This was no mental projection. He stood before me and the chattering classes all around him were looking at me in disbelief.

Apparently I was expected to die during that display. It was entirely possible that I might still die if I didn’t play this correctly. My vengeance would come, but that day was not today. I was so weak from the bonding process and so overcome with that lust that still flowed between our minds that I was in no condition to challenge the emperor directly.

Not today, but that day would come. With Talia at my side. As I glared at him I promised myself that there would be a time when I stood next to his dead body on this throne room. I wasn’t sure how it would happen, but that day would come.

For now, though, I simply bowed low to show my respects. As though I’d just received a great gift from the emperor rather than a backhanded and cowardly attempt on my life.

“I thank you for this gift you have bestowed upon me, nephew,” I said.

Almost I expected him to have me killed for having the audacity to call him nephew. But he was also the one who’d said that all sins of the past were forgiven. That meant I had earned that right once more. The fact that I’d survived his attempt to kill me, an attempt that proved he had no interest in restoring me to my former position of honor, didn’t change the fact that he had restored that honor.

No doubt that would cause him no end of trouble now, but that was his problem.

I felt hatred that burned brighter than any hate I’d ever felt for a human combatant. That was different, though. In war it was assumed that everyone out there desired to kill you. Being attacked by the other side was business, not personal. I believe that was part of the reason I was able to be so circumspect about these strange feelings I had for Talia.

With my new bondmate.

Bondmate. With a start I realized the source of that hatred. It wasn’t coming from me. It was coming from Talia who was furious at the emperor for what he’d just done to her. I got the sense that she was furious with him for attempting to kill her more than she was furious at being bonded to me. When she thought of me there was something else there. Contentment, and a sense of purpose.

That was a relief. Doubly so because that sense of purpose seemed to harden when she looked at the emperor. It seemed we were of the same mind. I’d tolerated my nephew. I’d cleaned up his messes.

No more. He’d made an enemy of me and I’d survived. He wasn’t going to try and kill me now. I would make sure that was one of his final mistakes.

“You thank me, uncle?” he said.

“You have given me something special, as you said. A new bondmate. For that I am appreciative and grateful.”

I bowed again and this time even Talia got in on the action. She seemed to be picking up the intricacies of what was going on here very quickly. Then again I’m not sure why that surprised me considering she was now linked to my mind and had access to all of my knowledge about the political situation on the Livisk home world.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, nephew, I believe I will take my bondright now,” I said.

Almost I wanted to let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t. That would show weakness. That would show that I thought I had something to fear from my nephew and emperor. The last thing I wanted was for him to have even an inkling of a suspicion that he’d been close to winning.

Invoking the bondright, though, would be enough to get his people away from us for now. That was a sacred right that went back as long as the bonding. To violate that would be beyond the pale even for a dishonorable srethak such as my nephew.

His face tightened. Light danced and sparkled on his skin and I noticed it, truly noticed it for the first time. Another side effect of having a direct connection to Talia’s mind, I suppose. I finally understood why she referred to me as blue and sparkly, why she found it so odd, even as I still thought it was ridiculous in my own mind.

I reached out and took Talia’s hand. Gasps sounded from around the throne room. I looked at all of them in turn, not bothering to hide the challenge in my eyes from those toadies. After all, I was a general. I had my honor returned to me. And none of the people in this room ranked nearly as high as me.

I was going to have to order a new paint job. After I finished enjoying the bondright. Not a moment sooner.

Before I left, though, I wanted them all to see their doom. To see the consequences of defying me and sullying my name all this time. I would be coming for them.

“You seem almost surprised that we made it out of there alive,” Talia said as soon as we were on the other side of the throne room.

I put a finger to my lips, a human gesture that meant it would be a good thing to keep quiet. I’d taken to using it with my men in combat situations. We didn’t have the equivalent on our world an it was terribly useful. Then I shook my head as I realized how silly I was being. Why ask her to be quiet when we had a mental bond that no electronic wizardry could tap into?

“There are always ears listening,” I thought to her. “You must be careful everywhere. Especially in the emperor’s palace.”

“Good thing he just gave us an uninterrupted method of communication,” Talia replied. “Very nice of him.”

I smiled at the echo of my own thought. Or was it an echo of her thought that drifted through my mind before I was consciously aware of it? Either way, it was going to take some getting used to having someone in my head once more.

“Very good of him,” I replied mentally.

“So you’re with me then?” she asked. It was odd carrying on a conversation with a human like this and not seeing her lips moving. I’m sure there would be several science types who would love nothing more than to have a chance to study us. Not that I would let them get close enough to try. “Study” of humans usually ended in vivisection or dissection.

“Why are you thinking of a bunch of blue sparklies in white lab coats cutting me to pieces?” she thought at me.

“My apologies,” I sent back to her. “I’m still getting used to controlling my thoughts. I’ve grown used to being alone in my own head.”

“Trust me, I’m still getting used to it too. You’re in agreement, though?”

“Completely,” I thought back to her. “The emperor must go.”

“All hail emperor Jorav?” she thought, the question obvious in her mind.

I thought about that for a moment. Seriously considered it. There were those who thought I should have taken the imperial mantle when my wife’s brother perished. I was the strongest general in the Ascendency at the time and it seemed only natural. It was only my wife’s hand that stopped me from committing politics as usual and removing the current emperor.

A mistake I severely regretted now considering how he turned out.

“We shall see,” I thought back at her. “For now we get to enjoy the bondright.”

“Is that sort of like a honeymoon?” she thought back at me as we stepped onto one of the docks near the throne room and onto my conveyance that had been waiting for us since arrival.

“What is a honeymoon?” I asked.

Visions flooded my mind. What looked like a beach near an ocean, though the light was far brighter on this beach than it had any business being and the water was far warmer than anything to be found on the homeworld. Images of lavish rooms and the sort of activities taking place in those rooms that I’d fantasized about but never thought I would get a chance to enjoy with Talia, no matter how much I desired them.

“Oh you’ll get to enjoy a hell of a lot here soon, big boy,” she said. “No point in fighting it with this stupid bond thing showing my hand every step of the way, right?”

I growled and hit a command on the hover car. The bubble surrounding us immediately darkened slightly. A mirrored surface had appeared on the outside that blocked out some of the light and, more importantly, kept anyone out there from looking in at us and seeing what was happening in here.

I needed privacy as I celebrated my bonding. Our bonding. I growled and advanced on her, and for a wonder she didn’t back away from me afraid like I’d expect from a human.

I should have known better than to expect fear and hiding from this human. My arms wrapped around her and I pressed my lips against hers as a flood of strange emotions bloomed in my mind.

15: The Bond

Talia:

I was amazed to be alive. That was the only way to describe it. I’d been attacked by an alien strike force and carried to an alien world where my entire crew was apparently being made into slave labor. I’d been in front of the fucking emperor of the Livisk Ascendency, a man who had a very personal reason to want me very dead as quickly as possible. According to the thoughts I could now feel from Jorav through that indescribably incredible bond I’d undergone a procedure that should have killed me or driven me mad.

I should be dead a dozen times over since I first realized there was a Livisk ship outside my own ship that was bristling with firepower and open for business, and yet here I was with my body on fire as this powerful alien towered over me and pulled me against him.

No power armor this time around. No way for me to break free. Not that I would want to break free from this. I’d resisted him for too long. I’d tried to deny what it was that I truly wanted and needed, and now that it was happening I wasn’t going to fight it any longer.

Especially when there was that pesky mental bond we now shared. How could I tell him I didn’t want this when the thoughts screaming out from my mind were telling him the truth of how I felt? The truth of how much I needed him?

I growled in time with his growl rumbling against my chest. He pawed at my uniform and I heard and felt it rip as his hands moved down my back and exposed my skin to him. My soft pink human skin looked odd against the sparkly blue muscled and tattooed exterior he sported, but it felt so right. He felt tougher than a human, but that felt just right too. I needed him. I needed this worse than I’d needed anything from a man in a good long while. My own hands roamed all over his.

And down below. Oh down below. There was something huge and hard and I could feel it pulsing in time with the desire in his mind as he explored my body without a hint of hesitation. He was nothing like some of the men I’d been with before I realized that a captain having even a friends with benefits relationship with a subordinate was a bad idea that usually resulted in a guy who was afraid to do anything interesting in the bedroom.

Jorav’s hands moved up and he gathered my hair in a bunch. He pulled me back and our kiss broke. My eyes locked with his as they glowed. As one of his hands moved up and he tore at the front of my uniform which fell before his strength just as readily as the backside had. I was putty in his hands. I was completely exposed to him and my body reacted with my nipples begging for his touch.

He smiled at that thought and his hand moved down to my neck. Down to my chest where his tongue which felt just a little rough, not unlike a cat’s but not quite as coarse, ran along my nipples and caused explosions to rip out from my chest. Oh fuck that was hot. I felt his desire feeding into my mind even as my desire had to be leaking into his.

This was quite a head trip being privy to his every thought as he completely devoured me. As he overpowered me. As he made me his in every way possible. Fuck!

I couldn’t help but think about how hot that tongue would feel between my legs. I should’ve known by now that I shouldn’t think things so clearly like that, but the results were just fine this time around as Jorav picked up on my desire and he tore at my pants. They were in tatters a moment later and he stared up at me as I was exposed to him almost completely with the ragged remnants of my uniform doing absolutely nothing to preserve my modesty.