WarlordsBounty (2 page)

Zeta screamed, bucking forward, smacking her face against
his chest, her world exploding with color and light. Khan caught her, holding
her as she thrashed, pinned between her ship and his body, captured by her big
barbarian, needing to move yet not wanting to be freed.

“Such passion, such beauty,” he murmured into her hair,
cradling her head against his chest, petting her with a gentleness no warrior
should ever exhibit. Zeta allowed herself to be held, savoring the experience,
none of the other males she’d fucked having ever offered comfort, only him,
only Khan.
I need him.

For sex.
She stiffened, panic straightening her
spine, the connection between them scaring her.
I don’t need him for
anything else.

“Enough.” Zeta pushed him away, needing to escape, to get
away from him, from her emotions and her need.

“Never enough.” Khan stepped back and she slid to the
ground, her boots sinking into the sand, her knees weakening, threatening to
buckle underneath her.

She gritted her teeth and grasped on to her ship’s panels,
securing her footing. Khan watched her closely yet he didn’t reach out to her,
his faith in her strength steadying her legs and reviving her confidence.
I
can take care of myself.

Khan nodded curtly as though agreeing with her unspoken
statement and he pivoted, his movements smooth and graceful, his ass and legs
remaining invisible. “I’ll return for you at daybreak,
gerel.
” He strode
away from her and faded into the landscape, becoming one with the harsh planet.

“I won’t be here,” Zeta called after him, having no reason
to remain on
Chamele
4
, her target dead, her rations and fuel
scarily low, every spare credit spent on the school. “I shouldn’t be here,” she
amended.

* * * * *

“Why remain visible if you’re hunting nude?” Murad
approached Khan, the younger male clad in full Warlord gear, his sword strapped
to his back and a long gun slung over his shoulder. “Is this another one of
your warrior tests?”

Khan ignored the jibe, his skills as a warrior having earned
him the best planet and soon the best
gerel
. “I’m using myself as bait.”
He surveyed the darkening sky, waiting for the rock vulture to return with her
flock.

“Ahhh…you’re practicing.” His brother nodded, grinning
foolishly, the technologically gifted Warlord never serious. “That’ll relieve
Berke as he continues to waver back and forth, back and forth, questioning his
decision, yawing on about it to no end.” Murad rolled his eyes, indulging his
flair for drama. “Our all-knowing, all-seeing big brother thinks you’re too
honest for the role you asked for.”

“I’ve
earned
this honor. It is my right.” Khan
gritted his teeth, having his own doubts about his ability to deceive others,
duplicity not a warrior skill. “The bounty hunter
will
deliver me to our
enemy and I
will
kill him.”

“Good. Maybe once we have peace, Berke will mind his own
planet and stop worrying about the entire system.” Murad casually flicked a
grain of sand off his shoulder. “Have you told your little bounty hunter about
our plan?”

“No.” Khan glowered at his brother. “We are to tell no one
of our plan. If Tolui discovers it is a trap—”

“Yes. Yes.” Murad raised his hands in mock surrender. “If
Tolui discovers it is a trap, the clone-loving sneak will run far and fast. I
know the plan, Khan. I was merely confirming that
you
did.”

Khan cast him a dark look, knowing the plan too painfully
well, and his brother’s grin spread. “Patience, brother. You won’t have to wait
much longer to split Tolui into two. Berke sent the message and I transferred
it to the chip. All we’ll need is a couple of hours to install it and you
should be ready to go.”

Finally.
Khan relaxed, more comfortable with action
than with waiting. “You’ll have those hours.”
As I have my gerel.
His
body hardened with anticipation, Zeta’s passion as fierce as she was. “Refasten
the door also.”

Murad wrinkled his forehead. “What happened to the door?”

“Nothing…yet.” Khan squinted, specks of brown dotting the
horizon, the flapping of the rock vultures’ wings barely audible, even with his
enhanced hearing. “They’re here.” He extended his claws, eager to burn off his
excess energy, fighting a substitute for the rutting he craved.

“Rock vultures,” Murad scoffed, tossing his long gun and
sword away from him, deeming to fight as Khan did, with the weapons nature had
given them. The creatures neared, the setting sun reflecting off the metal in the
largest rock vulture’s eye socket.

“That’s a dagger,” Murad observed.

Khan stayed silent, that obvious comment needing no reply.

“It looks like your bounty hunter’s dagger.” His brother
guessed its owner correctly. “She’ll be grateful to see it again, I imagine,
very grateful. Hmmm…I wonder.” He stroked his chin with his claws. “If I return
the weapon to her, will she rut with me?”

“Touch her and you die,” Khan growled, his tolerance for
jokes about Zeta low.

“To kill him, you’d have to defeat us first.” Sartaq,
Murad’s first, and three of his warriors swaggered toward them. “You may be our
greatest warrior but there are three of us.” He grinned. “Three and a half if
Ayur fights.”

The youngest warrior flicked his fingers in an obscene
gesture and the warriors laughed, all of them as foolish as their leader,
Khan’s warriors were more grave and dignified.

Sartaq studied the approaching creatures, his hand resting
on the hilt of his sword. “Are we having rock vultures for the night feast?”

“Ugh.” Murad made a gagging sound, the creatures tough and
tasteless. “No. We hunt for sport. Khan is trying to impress his little bounty
hunter. She has his balls—”

“Silence,” Khan barked. A small rock vulture recklessly
dived toward him, the wind whistling around its hairless body. He bent to the
right, twisting his torso to avoid its deadly talons and grasping beak.

As the predator passed, screeching with fury, Khan smacked
the creature on its cheek with the back of his hand, sending it spinning toward
his brother’s males, the warriors jostling to claim first kill.

A larger rock vulture followed the first, not changing its
approach, its tactics set after years of hunting mindless creatures. Khan
batted the second rock vulture to his left, toward Ayur, his focus on his one-eyed
prey.

Rock vulture after rock vulture attacked, the sky darkening
with their massive bodies, Khan’s ears ringing with their shrieks. He cleared a
path toward their matriarch, swatting them left and right, downing them for the
others. Blood sprayed his torso, coating his skin with red, as the warriors
merrily beheaded the vicious beasts.

The one-eyed rock vulture swooped down. Khan rolled and its
talons skimmed across his shoulders, cool air rushing over him. He grabbed the
creature by its neck and swung onto its back, his claws digging into its tough
hide.

The rock vulture reared upward, struggling to rise into the
air, hampered by the additional weight. Khan dug his heels into its sides and
wrapped one of his arms around its neck, pressing down on its windpipe. The
creature turned its head, frantically snapping at his legs with its long beak,
unable to reach his bare flesh.

Desperate to escape him, it knocked itself against a rock,
the impact jarring Khan’s body and loosening his grip, the pain dissipating his
restless energy. He grunted and swiped his claws over the rock vulture,
severing the tendons in the creature’s shoulders, crippling it. It flopped to
the sand and they tumbled, wrestling, wings beating arms, talons connecting
with claws, two savage beasts struggling for survival.

Enough play.
Khan clasped the mighty beast’s head,
its veins pumping under his palms. “For Zeta,” he roared, yanking hard. Bone
cracked and the rock vulture sagged, its wings and legs twitching, its beak
clicking open and shut.

Khan retracted his claws and pulled the dagger from the
creature’s eye, hot blood gushing over his hand. He wiped the blade on his
prey’s weathered skin.

“This fight was over much too soon, brother.” Murad grinned
at him, his face streaked with red. His warriors stood around him, dead rock
vultures at their gore-splattered feet. “Tolui should give us a more satisfying
battle.”

“He’ll pay for his crimes in blood. Tolui will no longer
steal our females or our children,” Khan declared heatedly, the rival Warlord’s
stealthy night attacks making a mockery of his protection.

The warriors cheered, raising their swords, their boisterous
response reassuring him, Tolui’s death and Khan’s dubious role in Berke’s plan
necessary.
For my people.
Khan strode to the big boulder where he’d
hidden his pack.
Tolui must be stopped.

His brother followed him. “Are you concerned that the battle
will place your bounty hunter in danger?” Murad expressed Khan’s most serious
concern.

“She’ll be far from the battle. After delivering me to Tolui
and collecting the bounty, she’ll return to her home planet to disburse the
credits.” Khan frowned, his female was credit hungry, the reasons for her
insatiability not detailed in any of the research notes Berke had provided to
him. “She’ll be safe on her home planet.” He pulled the after-battle kit out of
his pack and unrolled the cloth over the boulder. “Tolui won’t touch her.”

“My lord,” Sartaq, Murad’s first, called. “Fifty credits
says you won’t swallow the big rock vulture’s remaining eyeball.”

Boyish foolishness.
Khan shook his head, his
battle-hardened males having too much respect to ever challenge him.

“Those fifty credits are mine, Sartaq.” Murad swaggered
toward the downed beast, his warriors exchanging wagers.

Khan turned his back to their shenanigans. He rubbed his
softest cleaning cloth over Zeta’s dagger, removing the remaining speckles of
blood and gore. The chatter of the others faded, a calmness falling upon him as
he slowly, thoroughly polished the silver metal, sliding the fabric back and
forth, back and forth.

With his thumbnail, he etched around the hilt, excavating
the grime from past kills, kills he hadn’t the pleasure of sharing with her. He
slid his fingertips over the smaller grooves where her fingers had gripped the
dagger, pressing his heat into the metal, imprinting upon her weapon.

Khan buffed the dagger, so slim and dainty, distinctly
feminine and hers, until it gleamed, his dark eyes reflecting in the blade.

My gerel.
His mouth curled upward, warmth spreading
over his chest.
Tomorrow, I hunt you.

Chapter Two

“A client is willing to pay
that
much for him?” Zeta
gaped at the image of her friend, her pretty face projected onto the bridge’s
closed main viewscreen, her leveraged-to-the-portholes ship remaining parked on
Chamele
4
, despite Khan’s warning.

“They’re willing to pay that much for his
body
,”
Gale, a fellow orphan and graduate of the bounty-hunter school, corrected.
Brightly colored drawings completed by the younger girls decorated the wall
behind her, Gale constantly surrounding herself with objects she’d scavenged
from others, her attempt to create connections, however flimsy. “No one wants
him alive. That’s how dangerous he is.”

That dangerous male wants me.
Zeta trembled,
remembering his words, his warning, his sure touch and calloused hands.
I’ll
rut into you with such force, such vigor, that you’ll scream my name.

Zeta scrolled through the client’s contact information, no
address, not even a planet, supplied.
Peculiar.
She tapped her short,
blunt fingernails on the console. Her workspace was immaculate, devoid of any
personal touches. Connections were fleeting and hurtful, not worthy of the time
invested.

You’re a bounty hunter, Zeta. Be a bounty hunter.
She
pushed aside the unsettled feeling in her gut, her job to deliver the fugitive
to the client, not to evaluate the client.“I’m not killing him so
they’ll have to take him alive.”

“You’re not capturing him.” Her friend frowned, her tone
motherly. “If Elle hears you’re in that sector, she’ll fire both of us. You
know how she feels about
Chamele
.”

“Everyone knows how she feels about
Chamele
.” Guilt
battered Zeta’s resolve, her actions risking Gale’s role at the firm and
betraying their leader. Elle was passionate about her no-
Chamele
-retrievals
rule, her reasons unknown. “The school needs these credits, Gale. We have less
than fifteen days to earn them or one hundred and seven defenseless girls will
be kicked out onto the street.”

“Oh hon.” Gale’s fingers curled around a damaged dagger
sheath Zeta had long ago discarded and her face softened. “Don’t worry. We’ll
find a way to pay the bills. We always do.”

“
I
always do and we
are
finding a way.” Zeta
lifted her chin. Bringing in revenue was her responsibility. “This retrieval
would cover a decade’s worth of school expenses. With these credits, we could
expand if we wanted to, reaching more girls, giving them the same
opportunities, the same independence we have.” Her voice broke.

She looked away, staring at the empty chair to her left,
struggling to control her emotions, the school having saved her from the harsh
life of prostitution, the most common future for female orphans.

“This target isn’t a jewel thief, Zee,” Gale murmured. “He’s
a Warlord. He has fought the scum of the universes and won.”

“He hasn’t fought me and I’m good, very good.” Zeta
straightened in her seat, meeting her friend’s gaze. “I—”

“Zeta!” Flesh smacked against metal. “Open the door,” Khan
demanded, his voice muffled by the ship’s sturdy walls.

He came back for me.
Zeta wiggled in the worn captain’s
chair, surprised and pleased and over-the-moons excited that he had returned as
promised.
He hasn’t left me…yet.

“Gale, I have to go.” She smothered a giddy grin, every cell
in her touch-deprived body singing with anticipation. “It’s best if we don’t
communicate again until this retrieval is complete.”

Gale’s golden face darkened. “That’s not a good idea. I have
a bad feeling about this target.”

“Zeta!” Khan bellowed, the door ringing as though he’d
slammed a
Vladium
hammer against it. “Open the door or I’ll tear it
off.”

Could he?
Zeta tilted her head, weighing his strength
against the thickness of the door. “Gale, I have to end this transmission.
Something has come up.”

“I heard.” Her friend’s lips twisted. “If I don’t hear from
you in three days, I’m coming for you.”

Metal screeched and Zeta’s panic escalated. “Yes, yes, three
days. Transmission ended.” She smacked her palm on the release button and the
image faded.

“Don’t you dare damage my ship,” she yelled, racing down the
darkened corridors of her massive vessel, the energy-conserving lights
flickering to life around her.

“Too late.” Khan stomped toward her, gloriously naked, his
entire body revealed.
Stars.
She blinked, his cock as huge as the rest
of him, his shaft hard and erect, jutting out from short black curls, a
peculiar ring of flesh around his base.

“And I dare,” he growled, retracting his long claws. “I dare
more than you can imagine.” He reached for her.

“I have a very good imagination.” She jumped back, trying to
dodge him. He grasped her waist, her response time too slow, and he slung her
over his shoulder.

Zeta stared down at his clenched ass cheeks. “Put me down,
you brute.” She smacked his ass, his flesh as toned and firm as she’d
remembered, his muscular form featuring prominently in her dreams.

“Never.” Khan pivoted on his heels, his bare feet grinding
into the rough mesh floor, and she winced at the pain that must have caused
him.

“I gave you the choice of opening the door or not and you
chose incorrectly.” He slapped her fabric-covered ass, heating her flesh. “I’ll
give you no more choices today.” Khan marched with her toward the entrance, an
ominous gap where the thick door had once been, the metal frame gouged with
claw marks.

“I was talking to my friend,” she grumbled, kicking him
halfheartedly, careful not to target his hard cock, a body part she desperately
needed inside her. “My worlds don’t orbit around you and your inflexible
schedule.”

“They do now.” Khan jumped to the ground, his bare feet
sinking into the hot sand. “I’m your everything.”

He’ll be my everything and I’ll be nothing, weak and
helpless, at the mercy of others. Never. Never again.
“I can take care of
myself.” She bristled, stiffening.

He laid her upon the smooth flat rock, cupping her head in
his palms, his hands preventing her skull from slamming against the hard stone.
“I know you can take care of yourself,
gerel
.” His dark eyes warmed.
“But you don’t have to. I’m here now and I’ll protect you.” Khan extended his
claws, the tips as sharp as her best blades. “Stay still.”

His claws descended and she froze, trusting him, this
stranger, with her life. Khan shredded her clothes quickly, cutting the fabric
into ribbons, his tips grazing her skin in a dangerous caress. Her heart
pounded and her nipples tightened, as he retracted his claws and brushed the
remnants of cloth aside.

“Beautiful.” He gazed down upon her, seeing all of her, her
body naked except for her boots, her legs spread open to him.

Zeta clutched the rock underneath her, resisting the urge to
cover herself, allowing him to look at her. “Beauty can be deadly.” She stared
up at him defiantly, her cheeks burning and her pussy wet, waiting breathlessly
for him to take her, to pound her into the boulder as he’d promised.

“This first rutting will be hard and fast,” Khan warned,
stroking one of his hands over his big cock, the veins lifting on his shaft, a
pearl of pre-cum forming on his purplish tip. “I want you too much.”

He wants me.
Her heart squeezed. “If you wanted me so
much, you’d stop talking and take me.” Zeta recklessly flung that challenge at
him, tilting her hips upward, offering him her pussy, wanting him as badly as
he wanted her.

He swept a thick rough finger along her pussy lips and she
trembled, his fleeting touch tormenting her. “You want to be taken.” Khan held
up his glistening fingertip for her to inspect, showing her the proof of her
desire. “You want me.” He slid his fingertip between his grim lips and noisily
sucked her juices off his skin, the sight erotic. “You’re delicious, little hunter.”
He smacked his lips.

“You promised hard and fast, Khan,” she reminded him,
impatiently flexing her thighs, her frustration escalating, having dreamed all
last night of him, of this encounter, needing him now. “I can’t wait until the
end of time for you. I have things to do.”

“Silence, female.” Khan growled. He covered her with his
warm body, his muscles flattening her curves against the rock. “There’s only
one thing you have to do today.” He threaded his fingers through hers, his
palms claiming hers, and he spread her arms to her sides, stretching her
tightly underneath him. “And that’s rut with me.” As he prodded her entrance
with his cock head, positioning himself, he raked his teeth along her neck,
sending shivers of sensation over her captured form.

“You keep talking.” Zeta wrapped her legs around his waist
and linked her ankles over his ass, holding him to her. “I’m taking action.”
She pulled him forward as she pushed her hips upward, taking him into her, his
girth stretching her.

“Stars.” She grimaced, forcing him deeper. Her eyes watered
and her pussy burned, his shaft filling her as she’d never been filled before,
branding her, reshaping her with his size. “Faster.” Her voice thinned, his
slow descent torturous.

Khan thrust and she screamed, clutching his hands, tears
rolling down her cheeks. “Shhh…” He held himself still, his cock buried
balls-deep inside her. “It is done.” He followed the tear tracks with the flat
of his tongue, his tenderness touching her lonely heart.

Zeta met his gaze and a connection flared between them, raw
and rare and doomed, Khan her target, a fugitive to be captured and sold. “Not
done.” She rocked, the slide of cock in pussy shallow, the pain tolerable.

Khan remained motionless, bracing himself above her,
allowing Zeta to control their fucking. Her grip on his shaft loosened and the
pain faded, her pussy juices easing the wondrous friction.

As she fucked him, he pressed his lips together, lines
appearing between his black eyebrows, fierce emotions flitting across his stern
face.

He controls his passion for me.
Zeta’s heart warmed,
no other male having ever been so considerate of her well-being. “Let go.” She
squeezed his shaft with her pussy muscles. “Take me the way you want to. Make
me scream your name, Khan.”

Khan didn’t move, his jaw jutted stubbornly, the scar on his
cheek flashing silver. “Make my body yours,” she demanded, pushing her hips
upward.

“You are mine,” he growled, pushing back, slamming her ass
into the rock, delicious heat radiating from the point of contact.

“Yes.” She arched, pressing her nipples into his hard chest.
“More. Make me feel it. Make me feel you.”

Khan pulled out to his tip. He hovered above her for a
heartbeat before thrusting deep, his balls slapping against her ass, his coarse
hair tickling her pussy lips.

“Yes,” she cried out, feeling everything, the veins on his
shaft, the interesting ridge at the base of his cock, his breath on her face.
His musk filled her nostrils and his body heat enveloped her.

“
Gerel
,” Khan murmured that endearment she didn’t
know the meaning of and he withdrew, his next thrust harder, deeper. She
eagerly rose up to meet him, their hips smacking together, adding more heat,
more pain, more satisfaction.

Khan pounded into her pussy again and again, maintaining a
merciless rhythm. He rode her hard, taking her with an unrivalled strength,
owning her curves, and Zeta’s passion climbed quickly, raging wilder than a
solar flare. She clung to him, digging her boot heels into his ass and gazing
up into his primitive face with wonder, having never been fucked so thoroughly,
her breasts and ass throbbing from the abuse.

“Come for me,
gerel
,” Khan grunted against her neck,
laboring over her, his muscles rippling.

“Can’t,” she panted, squeezing his fingers, not wishing this
fuck to end, knowing once she came, he’d soon follow. “More.”

“Zeta,” he barked and she jerked, her body responding to his
voice. “I said come.” He mashed his lips against hers, grinding her flesh into
her teeth, the pain snipping her control.

She screamed into his mouth, tasting blood and fire and man,
her body, mind, soul spinning into the blazing sun, waves of passionate heat
surging over her. He thrust deep, she clenched down on his shaft, and he froze,
growing larger inside.

Larger.
Zeta struggled, her body stretched beyond all
possibility.
Can’t.
She thrashed, struggling to free herself, her hips
pinned by his.

“
Gerel
,” he roared. A blast of hot cum shot out of
his cock, rushed between her pussy walls, and slammed into her cervix, the
unexpected pain setting off another round of explosions within Zeta.

“Khan,” she whispered, her mind blank, her thoughts
scorched. She slid her ankles down his thighs, too drained to hold on to him.
“What was that?”

“Everything,” Khan sighed, collapsing on top of her, flattening
her exhausted body, his weight comfortingly solid. “We are bonded now,” he
murmured against her skin. “Belonging only to each other.”

In his dreams.
“That wasn’t bonding. We fucked. It
was a great fuck, a different type of fuck, but still a fuck.” She frowned.
Why
would he think any differently?
“Haven’t you done that before?”

“Never bonded.” His voice was muffled. “Only with you.”

My big bad barbarian was a virgin?
Zeta blinked.
“Yes…well…umm…you were very good at it.” She squeezed his fingers. “Extremely
good.”
Too good.
“Are you sure you haven’t fucked before?” She shifted
under him.

He braced himself upward. “I’ve fucked before, many times.”
His lips twitched. “That was not fucking. That was bonding. We only bond with
one person. No other female will ever please me. No other male will ever touch
you.”