Alien Mine (Zerconian Warriors Book 7) (13 page)

“Don’t apologize. I just, can I please move?” The ache was only growing larger. Deeper.

“Yes.”

She didn’t hesitate. She pulled back then drove herself down, balancing herself on his chest. He guided her with hands. Then he moved one hand between them, swirling her clit with his finger. Pleasure swamped her and she cried out. The feel of him inside her combined with his finger teasing her clit was almost too much to bear.

“I am close. Find your pleasure again, Lucy.”

She couldn’t. Could she? It was too much. Dark spots filled her vision as she cried out. His yell mingled with hers, filling the room as he came.

Those dark spots engulfed her vision and she fell against him in a slump.

Alarmed, Thor rolled so Lucy lay on her back. He checked her pulse, his breath leaving him in a relieved sigh as he felt the steady beat of her heart. He’d known this would likely happen. Had even thought he had prepared himself. But the reality was still frightening.

He studied her carefully. She appeared to be in a slumber. All he could do was wait for her to awaken. In the meantime, though, he could make her more comfortable. Moving into the attached bathing area, he grabbed a cloth and wet it. Returning to her, he pulled her legs apart and wiped her clean.

Then, throwing the cloth aside, he climbed in next to her and pulled the covers up over them.

“Lights off.”

Curling against her, even knowing he’d probably get very little sleep from worrying about what was to come, Thor lay against her.

Protecting her from the world, they lay in their own little cocoon.

Lucy woke up, feeling confused. There was the sound of a soft snore. Jesus, where was she? What the hell? Someone was curled up around her and from the feel of them, they were naked and male.

With a cry, she rolled forcibly out of the arms that held her and flew straight off the masic, landing with a thump on the floor.

Above her, Thor’s confused face appeared. “Willa? What are you doing?”

Everything flooded back with embarrassing clarity. They’d slept together. Joined as he called it. But she didn’t remember anything after that.

“What happened? What time is it?”

“It is afternoon. You fainted after we joined. Do not worry. It seems to be a normal occurrence when a human mates with a Zerconian. I have not worked out exactly why this is. Something to do with the claiming. Did you hurt yourself?”

She stared down at herself, blushing as she realised she was sprawled naked on the ground. She leapt up and pulled one of the covers off, wrapping it around herself before sitting, facing him.

“No, nothing more than my pride, anyway. Umm, sorry I fell asleep on you. You could have woken me up.”

“Why? I enjoyed sleeping next to you. Curled up against you. I am glad you could get some sleep. I did think you might lie awake worrying.”

It’s what she’d expected as well.

“How are you feeling?”

“Feeling? Fine.” Nervous, fearful, embarrassed, shy. She was running a rollercoaster of emotions.

“Lucy, you do not have to pretend with me. You can tell me the truth. I am here for you.”

Tears filled her. “We’re mated now?” Was he truly hers? Forever?

He cupped her face between his large palms. “Close your eyes. Now take a deep breath in then out and relax. Search inside yourself, can you feel me?”

Feel him? What did that mean? She couldn’t feel anything. Oh, no, there he was. A presence inside her. Not in a creepy, horrible way. Just there, waiting. A tie to him forever.

She opened her eyes to look into his. He smiled gently. “I feel you.”

“That ties us together. Always. Even if we’re apart, you can sense me.”

“No matter the distance?”

“There is a limitation,” he admitted. “But I do not intend to be that far from you. And the bond will still be there. But we will not get a sense of each other’s emotions if we are too far apart.”

Leaning in, he kissed her. Immediately, her body reacted to his closeness, the feel of his lips against hers. She let go of her tight hold on the cover as he slipped his tongue into her mouth, teasing and tempting.

The buzzing of the Thor’s communicator had him grumbling as he laid her back on the bed.

Then the room’s communicator buzz. With a snarl, he turned and strode over. He pressed the button down. “Yes?” he barked.

“The Commander asks for both of you to meet with him in his office, Sir,” a male voice replied. “Immediately.”

Thor turned to her, his face serious.

“Does that mean what I think it does?” she asked.

Thor nodded. “My guess is that we have received a reply from Mortef.”

This was it. It was really happening.

She wasn’t ready. But she knew she never would be. Time to put on her big girl panties and take on big bad wolf.

Yikes

***

“I’ve been thinking this over,” Willa told them once they sat down. “I contacted Mortef. He was sceptical, but I think I convinced him to meet with me. I’m guessing he’s that desperate to get his grubby hands on you. But everything has to seem above board. So I’ve talked to Tae and he’s in this with me. But the two of you can be seen nowhere near the meeting point. I mean it.”

Darac frowned. “I do not like you meeting with Mortef with only Tae to protect you.”

“Umm, are you forgetting that I can take care of myself?”

“You do not know who Mortef will have with him. It does not matter your skills if you are faced with an opponent twice your size or you are overwhelmed by the number of opponents. Having no back up does not sit well with me.”

“I have an idea,” Rye said. “I have some contacts on Torra. It’s why I suggested this planet. Some of them will be at strategic points around the meeting point. These guys are excellent at blending in. Willa will wear a communicator so I can hear everything that is going on. If there are any problems, I will send my people in.”

Darac thrummed his fingers against his thigh. “I still do not like it. But if I cannot look after your safety then I trust Rye to take care of you.”

Willa snorted. “Fine. If that makes you all feel better.”

“This will still be dangerous,” Lucy felt she had to point that out. “Husan is extremely deadly and he has no honor. He could kill you and then sit down for a five course meal with your dead body bleeding on the floor. Believe me, I’ve seen that.”

Willa gaped at her. “Right then. Psycho? Tick.”

“Definite psycho. But I guess the only thing on your side is his desperation to get to me. He’s going to want to get me back to where he’s at his strongest. He won’t want to stick around. He won’t want to cause anything that will delay him leaving with me.”

“You think he will honor his word and release the our people?” Darac asked.

She bit her lip. “Keeping them when they serve no purpose makes no sense. Ultimately, he won’t actually want a war with Zerconia when it gains him nothing. All the wars he has caused or gotten involved in have been for some sort of gain. So I hope so.”

“Okay, so that part is settled. We’ve got another problem.” Willa turned to Lucy. “Why hasn’t his witch brought the wards down before. I mean, why not leave them down and tell him they’re in place.”

“Because he’d know,” Lucy said slowly, thinking it through. “He can tell when the wards are up.”

“Right. So we need to be ready to go before the witch takes them down. Because if she takes them down then he’s going to immediately come searching for her.”

“She’ll be too scared to take them down.”

“So we need to give him a reason to believe that there’s a reason the wards are malfunctioning.”

What could that be? If something was wrong with Elika, maybe.

“What if we try to attack them?” Darac asked. “Something that could also act as a signal to the witch that we’re here and she can take them down. Would she feel if the wards were under attack?”

“They’ve been attacked before and yes, she could feel them being attacked. But no one was successful.”

“We don’t have to be, so long as you have convinced her to take the wards down,” Darac said.

“But how will we know Lucy has been successful,” Rye pointed out,

“You need to give me a certain amount of time. Lazarun is a day’s travel from Torra. So maybe six days.” If she hadn’t convinced Elika by then she probably never would.

“Six days is too long,” Thor said.

She shook her head. “He might not put me in with the others straight away. I need that long.”

The others all looked at each other then Darac nodded. “Five days. On the night of the fifth day we’ll attack the wards.”

“How? They’re invisible.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

“What if Lucy can’t convince the witch to help her?” Rye asked. “And why has the witch never used a spell to get herself out?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she’s too scared to.”

“Or she’s there of her own free will,” Rye said darkly.

“No. No, you haven’t seen her. She’s scared.”

“That’s why I’ve come up with plan b.” Willa held up a tiny blue pill. “Inside this is poison. One touch of the liquid inside on bare skin and Husan is toast. If you can’t get the witch to take down the wards then you’re going to kill him.”

Kill him? Could she do that?

The memory of Beau, so hunched and defeated, filled her mind.

Hell yes, she could.

“Maybe I should just poison him anyway.” It seemed an easier plan than their other one.

Willa shook her head. “This plan is dangerous. The liquid is deadly and you won’t be able to wear gloves to protect yourself. It’s your back-up.

“I do not like it. What if it breaks open and kills Lucy,” Thor grumbled.

“It won’t. The liquid has to touch bare skin and it is only deadly for the first few seconds it’s free from its shell. It can’t seep through clothing. We’ll wrap it up so even if it does break it won’t harm Lucy.”

“Where will I hide it?”

“This is a terrible plan,” Thor stated with a frown.

Norman growled. She swore he could understand what they were saying.

Freaky, really freaky.

Willa reached down and patted his head. His yellow tongue slipped out as he panted. He was a hairy, horny, kind of ugly creature but he adored Willa and she obviously felt the same way. Lucy could swear she actually saw him smile. At least Willa had fixed his diet so he wasn’t quite as odorous as he had been.

“I like the idea of killing Husan.” She wasn’t a blood thirsty person. She didn’t like the idea of taking someone’s life. But he was evil. He would continue to hurt others. Taking his life would be almost guaranteed to save others. “If anyone needs killing it’s Husan”

“What if sow it into your clothes?” Rye suggested.

“What if he searches her clothing? Or throws them away?” Darac asked.

“He won’t,” she said, liking this idea. “He left me in my last clothes until they became so threadbare I was constantly shivering and growing ill. I don’t think he’ll take my clothes and I’m betting he would never imagine I would dare think about harming him so he won’t pay much attention to anything but a cursory search. I have a pair of pants with bunched-up hems. You’d never even notice a pill sown into them.”

“But you cannot get caught.” Thor took her hand in his. “If he caught you…”

“I know. I’d only do it if I needed to. It’s plan B, but I need a plan B, Thor.”

Thor nodded.

“Thank you for letting me do this.” She knew it wasn’t easy for him.

Thor squeezed her hand. “I want you back with me as soon as possible.”

Exactly what she wanted as well.

***

“You ready for this?” Willa asked.

“No. But it’s too late to back out now.” Lucy glanced over at Thor, blushing slightly as he gave her a heated stare.

Willa looked back and forth between them before giving Lucy a knowing grin. “So guess last night went better than expected huh? Knock your socks off, did he?”

“No,” Lucy told her. “I wasn’t wearing socks. I wasn’t wearing anything at all.”

Willa laughed. “Good for you. Told you these guys are completely devoted to your pleasure, was I right?”

“I don’t kiss and tell. But god yes, you were right.”

“So you’re mated now. Do you feel the bond?”

Lucy bit her lip, nodding. “Yes. But I’m a bit worried about Thor being able to sense what’s going on through me.”

Willa frowned. “You can build a sort of barrier to give yourself some privacy. Darac taught me how to do it so I could shut him out if needed. However, Darac doesn’t do well when he can’t sense me. I can give you a crash course, but it took me a while to get the hang of it.”

“It might be similar to what I already do with my abilities. My dad taught me how to build a wall around the part of my brain that uses objects to track people so I didn’t go completely mad.”

“Makes sense. Here, close your eyes. We have a few minutes before we land on Torra. I’ll try to help you best I can.”

Thor watched as Lucy closed her eyes. Willa continued to talk to her. Lucy nodded every so often. He wasn’t certain what they talked about but suddenly the bond closed off. He could still sense her, but she’d closed her thoughts off from him. So that is what Willa was talking to her so earnestly about.

He scowled over at the other woman. She just shrugged. He had hoped to use the bond to keep a watch over Lucy. Not that he could immediately do anything to help her, but it was going to kill him to watch her head into danger.

“Your mate is very brave,” Darac told him.

“Braver than I wish her to be.” Thor scowled at the other man. “How long until we land on Torra?”

“Five minutes. We will need to be seen leaving the ship in case he has spies on us.”

“I will spend these last few minutes with my mate then.” He strode towards Lucy who now had her eyes open. Her gaze fell on him and didn’t move, filling him with gratification.

He barely noticed Willa moving away or the others leaving the room as he drew Lucy into his arms. He held her carefully. It amazed him how someone so fragile and delicate could have the heart of a warrior. But she did.

“I’m no warrior,” she told him.

He drew her up into his arms, holding her against his chest before moving to a sofa against the side of the wall. They were in Darac’s office once more. He sat and placed her on his lap so she straddled his lap, facing him.