The Alpha Prime Commander (3 page)

Cordan laughed again,
that edge of bitter coating it. “She is . . . Lena.”  He said smoothly,
caressing the name as if he could lick cream from it.

“How did she end up with
you?”  Jackson was more than a touch belligerent as he stood up, looking around
for his pants.  “And what’s a Pletar?”

“That is a long story.” 
Cordan was leaning back in the tub, his eyes closed.  “Join us for a meal and I
will tell you all about the beauteous Lena and her fall from grace.”

Jackson finally found his
pants and pulled on combat gear even as he glared at the big cat in the water.  Jackson’s
jaw was so tense, he could barely form words.  “Tell me who she is or I’ll
arrest your ass for dosing me with your damn pheromones.”

Cordan sighed.  “I had
hoped that time would have bred out the puppy rapscallion in you, but I suppose
you still need more time.  Very well, if you must know, a Pletar is a fated
wife.  Once bound, we must always be close to the other.  She is the other half
of my soul . . . and yours I would imagine.”

Jackson stopped dressing,
turning to look at the man in the tub. “Mine?  What the fuck does that mean?” 
He was angry all over again.

The sigh was long and
loud and the look he passed Jackson’s way said more than words – he thought
Jackson was just being stubborn.  It was enough to make him want to blast the
big bastard.

“Lena is the woman fate
chose for me, I knew it as soon as I saw her.  You are also meant to be hers,
therefore, as much as I might wish it otherwise, you are a part of our triumvirate. 
Neither of us might like it, but there it is.  We cannot truly defy fate.  Even
if you have run from yours for years.”

Jackson felt every muscle
in his body clenching at both the tone and the words.  “Enough of this shit. 
She goes home or you do,” he said flatly, wishing the anger was the only heat
he felt.

Cordan laughed, but it
was not a happy sound and it had Jackson reaching for his gun even before he
felt the brush of the big bastard whispering in his mind. 
Do you challenge
me each time we meet because you don’t feel the strings pulling us towards the
same fate, or because you do?

Now he’s in my mind? 
What the fuck?
  “Enough of this shit,” Jackson growled
and headed for the door, hearing the laughter like a brush of heated skin. 

What made him so angry
was that he could not even deny the accusation.  For some insanely stupid
reason, he had always felt a pull from the big Alpha.  Not exactly sexual in
nature, but confusing as fuck.  But the woman, Lena.  He felt that in every
inch of his body, and there was nothing confusing about her pull on him.

Doctor Flynn Banner was
sipping a steaming cup of tea when Jackson opened the door with a crash.  Lena
was nowhere to be found. He had to restrain the desire to search her out.

“Get it worked out?”  Doc
asked casually and Jackson was just grateful the spaceport walls shielded for
sound.  Either that or the doc should have been way better at poker than he
was.

“Let’s go,” he said
grimly, ignoring the question and heading for the door.

They were out in the hall
before the doctor spoke again.  “Want to tell me why the girl came out of that
room carrying her clothes?  And your armor is no longer sealed?”

“No.”  Jackson flashed
him a look that could have singed steel.

Doc held up his hands in
surrender.  “Fair enough.”

Lena Torok did not spare
a thought for the doctor who received a free unabridged look at her naked
backside when she made her mad dash through the room, and who knew what else
through the loose grip she had on her clothes.  He was a doctor, and she had
just had sex with two men.  One of them she had never laid eyes on before in
her life.  Somehow having one old man see her naked body lost its importance in
the scheme of things.  The important thing was that she made it to her room,
where for now at least she could pretend she still belonged to herself.  She
should be able to pull it off.  She had been pretending the same thing for
years, even before an assignment had taken her where she least wanted to go, into
the bedroom of the most dangerous man in four galaxies.  She should have turned
down the job, But even she was not so good at pretending that she thought she
had a choice in that.

Lena sucked in a harsh
breath and threw her clothes across the bed.  They scattered across the red
silk bedding looking like so many rags against the expensive cloth.  At least
her prison was always well padded now.  She had not been so lucky in her former
circumstances.  But as a half Dona child birthed of a human whore, she should
be grateful she was allowed to learn a trade, other than companion that is. 
They repeated that so often when she was growing up she almost believed it. 
Not that she had a choice; after she killed the man they tried to sell her
innocence to when she was ten, there was really only one profession she was
suited for.  So her mother had done her a favor and sold her to the Black Hand,
and she had learned a new set of skills.  A thousand ways to kill a man – none
of which had helped her against the Alpha Prime Commander.

Lena.

She gritted her teeth
against the pull of that dark voice in her head. 
You fed me to him.
 
The words were part accusation and part curse, and she hurled them through the
link they shared like a spear.

Technically, I fed him to
you.

Lena gritted her teeth. 
She would not think of the taste of him, Captain Jackson Ambar, or how the rock-hard
heat of him had felt in her mouth.  Or how she had clung to him at the end, as
if the safety he offered was real and not illusion. 
Why him?  Any other man
so much as looks at me and you peel him like a grape.  Why this man?

You ask questions you
already know the answer to.

Don’t play with me right
now, Cordan.
Lena closed her eyes and fought the memory
of skin and heat.  Of the brown-eyed, brown-haired stranger with the whipcord
lean body that should have seemed insignificant next to the massive golden
strength of the Alpha Prime, but instead, felt like a missing piece of her.  Of
them.  She swallowed but it echoed in her thoughts just the same. 
Just tell
me.

Come to me, and I will
tell you everything.

Finally? 
Lena
gritted her teeth.  For so long she had wondered why he had claimed her as he
had.  An assassin he caught with a knife to his throat.  An assassin he should
have killed immediately and painfully, as he killed so many others.  Instead,
he had claimed her as his Pletar, a title revered by the Prime.  A connection
neither of them could break short of death, and the death of one was the death
of both.  Because of that claiming, neither of them could bear a separation; he
had trapped them both in the same gilded cage, and he would never tell her
why.  Until now, apparently.

Yes.  It’s time you
understood.

Because of him?  You are
binding us together.  He may not feel it yet, but I see it clearly.  Why?

Because without him we
die.

Lena hissed out a curse
wishing she had something else to throw.  More predictions and dark suggestions
that gave no information and just led to more questions. 
Cordan. 
She
growled the words in her head, beyond frustrated with his games.

He laughed, and like
every other time he had done it, the feel of it rolled through her body like an
hour of really good foreplay. 
Bastard.

Come, Lena.  You will
have your answers once and for all.

She gritted her teeth. 
Are
you still in the tub?

He chuckled and her whole
body shuddered. 
Come and see for yourself.

She blew out an
exasperated breath. 
Just tell me, Lo.  No games, no suggestive little
innuendos, no flirting.  Just answer a simple question.

She felt his smile
through the link, a brush of silk over her skin. 
What would be the fun in
that?

Lena ground her teeth,
mentally throwing up her hands in surrender. 
Fine, have your fun.  I’m
getting dressed and ordering our meal prepared.  Seeing how feeding time is the
only time you can be trusted to behave, you can tell me what is really going on
while you inhale great quantities of nearly raw meat.

This time she was
expecting the laugh.  Being prepared did not lessen the impact. 
Dressing is
optional, my lovely Pletar, as always.

Yeah, yeah, flirt, flirt,
blah, blah.  Go do something else and give me peace for a few minutes.

His sigh was heartfelt. 
I
wonder that fate saddled me with two such difficult and stubborn Roenh.

Lena snorted. 
Yes, it’s
such a mystery when you are so even-tempered and easy yourself.

He laughed again and she
gritted her teeth until the wave of heat rolled through her. 
Don’t hide too
long, my Lena.  I hunger.
  With a last brush of fingers down her naked skin,
he was gone.

Lena blew out a hard
breath and then looked from her scattered clothes to her own naked body.  First
things first, she needed a shower, and while the Prime Commander might be used
to the luxury of real water, she was not.  She headed for the sonar tube and a
quick thorough cleanse.  The water feature in these luxury suites always
reminded her uncomfortably of a time in her life where drinking water was not
easy to come by.  She doubted she would ever be as blasé as the Alpha Prime
were about their ridiculous baths.  But, then, Lo ruled a people native to a
planet with an abundance of natural resources. She was a station rat with no
people or planet to call home.

No longer, my Pletar. 
You belong to me now.

The sound of that dark
voice back in her head had Lena growling and closing the sonic shower door with
a bit more force than necessary. 
You are in serious need of a hobby.  You
have way too much time on your hands to bother me.

Lo Cordan smiled briefly
as her thoughts shot back to him, and he finally left her to it, as much as he
could bear anyway.  It meant that he could no longer hear her thoughts, but
still keep enough of a touch in her mind to always know she was safe, and
close.  He stood on his balcony, his eyes on the space beyond the station
shield.  He had an unparalleled view of the star nebula this station was famous
for. It was the main draw for the luxury suite here on Space Station Lux.  He
had seen many beautiful things in his travels, so he was perhaps jaded to the
spectacle before him.  He could admire the beauty, but as many beautiful useless
things, it did not have the same draw for him that it did for others.  But,
then, many men would look at his Pletar and see only the surface.  A pretty
face, a well-formed body and either desire it for a moment, or dismiss it.  He
would never be so foolish.  Even had he not taken his vision quest when he came
of age so many centuries before, even had he not already memorized every curve
and line of that face in his dreams since, he would still have known she was
more.

His Lena, with her oh so
feminine body, and deceptively soft eyes.  Ex-Black Hand assassin, who could
turn ice cold and all business, or fiery protective with equally lethal grace. 
Far and away the most beautiful and necessary thing he had witnessed in his
long travels.  And in a short amount of time, he was going to have to explain
to her why he would share her with another man.  And not another Prime that
would understand his place in a triumvirate, that being whatever Lo told him it
was.  No, his second Roenh was a human male who was as brash as he was
irreverent.  A man he had been trying to gain control of for years.  A man who
would not be controlled, and as such, would now have to be dealt with as an
equal.  An equal in their triumvirate meant he could become an equal or more in
Lena’s eyes and heart, not just her bed. 

It would have been
beneath Lo to express his rage the way he yearned to, with a howl across the
star systems.  He was the Alpha Prime Commander; while the Alpha Guild valued
strength and the ability to defend what they claimed, it was control that
separated the lords from the beasts.  But it must be said, Lo Cordan, Commander
of the Alpha Prime, did not share well.

***

When Lena walked back
into the main suite, she was relieved to see Lo had at least put on some
clothes.  Though truth be told, however much he drove her crazy with the
control he had on her libido, he was not hard on the eyes.  Not if you liked
strong and wild, which apparently she did.  Walking in to see him wearing his
supple brown warrior leathers, shiny black boots, his chest and arms bare
without the tunic over-shirt or any of his usual weapons, he was almost as
devastating as he was naked in a tub of hot soapy water, and that was saying
something.

For herself, she had her
own version of fighting leathers on.  Only where his were probably from a beast
he had killed himself, and lacked augmentation he did not need, hers more
resembled what the space marine, Jackson Ambar, had been wearing.  Black skin-tight
treated leather that would stop a blast or a sword equally without sacrificing
flow or movement.  Her tunic was form fitting and tucked into utilitarian black
boots that were made to hide that they were steel lined and weapons all on
their own.  She was still missing her sword that was usually strapped to her
back.  She did not care for the rules against weapons for this auction, but she
had acquiesced, with only a few minor exceptions that she was hoping would go
unnoticed. To say she felt naked without her blades was an understatement of
epic proportions.

She narrowed her eyes on
Lo as she came closer to the table he stood beside.  He looked perfectly at
ease without weapons, as usual, but then he had retractable claws that could
rend steel, the strength of a battle cyborg, and a natural armor in his skin
that deflected as much as treated leather.  What did he have to be worried
about?  It wasn’t fair anyway when so many of the great houses were like the
Prime, just in different ways, and weapons in themselves.  It left the Earth
natives and their mixed progeny at a distinct disadvantage.  They might excel
at technological warfare and adaptation, but that didn’t help when you were
naked and alone among the beasts.

Lena tilted her chin so
she could meet those gold cat eyes that devoured her.  “Why are you dressed?” she
asked suspiciously.  He might be only half dressed, but for Lo, in the privacy
of their quarters, just the pants would have been a concession.

“Lena,” he purred, holding
out her chair as she sat down.  “From your tone earlier I assumed you would be
opposed to playing, but if I was wrong . . .?”

Lena growled, a habit she
knew she was picking up from him.  She certainly had never made the sound
before he mated them.  She did not bother to look at him over her shoulder,
just picked up her fork and knife and started to work on her meal.  Another
perk of mating with Lo, she never went hungry.  Lena knew he was hovering with
that heat in his eyes aimed at her.  She could feel it on the back of her neck
left bare by her braid.  She waved her knife in his general direction while she
chewed something no doubt expensive.  “Spare me the double talk and flirting. 
You know what I’m talking about, and you gave your oath you would give me
answers, not double talk.”

He took his seat across
from her before answering, leaving an elusive whiff of something wild and hot
in his wake, but at least he was on his side of the table.  “Very well, our Jackson
is not a bluffer.  Stubborn, disrespectful, and without filters, but I have
never known him to prevaricate.  If he says he plans on banning me from the
auction, he will attempt to make that happen.  I have called a meeting with The
Collector himself to see that it does not.”  He did not even try to control the
little snarl that accompanied his statement.

Lena tilted her head to
study him.  She did not stop eating, but she did pause briefly.  “You seem more
upset about meeting with The Collector, then Jackson trying to ban you. Why is
that?”

Lo clucked out his
annoyance.  “I would rather deal with Jackson Ambar with all his honest, and it
must be said, annoying bravado for the rest of my days, than spend a second in
the company of The Collector.  The man reeks of deceit.  It fowls the air wherever
he walks, and after dealings with him, it sticks in my nose for days.”

“Then why attend his
auction at all?”

“Simply put, I want what
he is selling.”

“Which is?”

There was a second of
silence that had Lena looking up from her half-finished meal.  Lo sighed, “An
immortal stone.”