Ascension Saga, Book 8: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga Read online

  “I’ll take my chances,” Leo said.

  Thor smiled. “A few hours in bed and Faith will forgive me anything.”

  The captain looked at me, all laughter fading from his gaze. “Your mate is not like the others, Nix. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  I gave him a decisive nod. “Yes. She won’t allow me to protect her. And so, I will protect her without permission.”

  “You are all either very brave, or complete fools. The wrath of your females will be severe. I hope you’ve fucked enough for this lifetime. I doubt your cocks will see relief again.”

  I didn’t like the idea of Destiny turning away from me, but if she was alive to do so, I was willing to pay the price. “She is my life. I will protect her at all costs.”

  “Very well.” The captain shrugged and tucked the note into the pocket of his tunic. “I will meet you in the armory in thirty minutes.”

  Thirty minutes I would spend holding my mate and praying she could forgive me.

  5

  Destiny

  She won’t allow me to protect her. And so, I will protect her without permission.

  Oh. My. God. I felt like one of those mothers accused of having eyes in the back of her head, her kids not understanding how she knew they’d snuck into the cookie jar while she was in the other room.

  Oh, I doubted anyone else on the planet, hell, the universe, had bat hearing like I did. But I understood the true nature of the gift now. The men outside the room were talking quietly so they wouldn’t disturb my sleep. Ha!

  I could hear the cook in the kitchen tell someone that the stove was set too high and the pastry was going to burn. I could hear one of the maids in a far bedroom complaining to herself about a sheet she’d discovered had a hole in it. I could hear everything.

  Four guys huddled just a few feet away in the hallway trying to keep secrets? Easy pickings.

  But Nix’s words weren’t just idle chatter. No. He actually intended to leave me in bed completely unaware of their plans to confront the traitors at that meeting. Perhaps even to get my mother back. After what we’d just done, how we’d just been… it hurt. A whole hell of a lot.

  A cold, burning fury rolled through my blood. This rage was different, not like earlier when my Ardor made me into a berserker. No, this was distinctive. A woman who needed to teach her man a lesson about what would and would not be tolerated. This betrayal went deeper, as if his words and his intended actions were arrows he’d slung purposely to hit their mark.

  My heart.

  He’d claimed he wanted all of me. The fighter. The protective instincts. He’d said he’d never leave me. Well, that lasted all of an hour or two. Now he was standing just outside the door making plans to do exactly that. Finding my mother was not a game. This was not a chess match. This was my life. My family. I was a royal fucking princess, and he intended to protect me without permission? There were exactly three people on this planet I had to answer to—my mother and my older sisters—and he was not one of them.

  I had chosen him. Trusted him. I would have asked his opinion and consulted with him as an equal out of respect. I would have included him because I didn’t want to hurt him, because I valued his strengths and his knowledge. Because I valued him.

  That he did not intend to extend me the same courtesy stung, and my eyes filled with tears once more. This time they burned like acid on my cheeks. And so I was, after all, a bed mate and nothing more. He did not want me as I was. No. He wanted to hold me back. Change me. Force me to occupy the mold he’d formed for me in his mind.

  Damn it to hell. I loved him, which made this hurt ten times worse.

  And my sisters? What would they think of these males making choices for them? They didn’t have bionic hearing, but they had plenty of girl power. And fury. When they heard what their own men intended… the shit was going to hit the fan.

  There was no way I was letting those arrogant cavemen get away with duping my sisters. They were going to go after my mother and lie to us about it. For our own good, like we were three years old. This was our mission. Mom had been preparing us to rule Alera since we were born, playing to each of our strengths – Trinity’s analytical mind, Faith’s compassion, and my protective instincts. She had believed in us from the day we were born, and so we’d always believed in ourselves.

  That the men we loved did not was a hurt none of us would easily get over. Yes, my mother’s enemies—our enemies—were dangerous, but I’d survived a whole lot of danger since I’d transported to Alera. We all had. And we were even stronger now.

  I sat up in bed, propped my elbows on my knees. I felt better. So much better. No fever, no simmering need. I felt like me again. A pissed off me.

  Men. What was the saying? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

  Whatever. Now that my Ardor was over, I could live without Nix if this was how he was going to be. What would he be like later on when something else came up? A bully at school with one of our kids? Okay, so that was pushing it a little far, because we weren’t going to have any kids. Not after what I’d just heard. Captain Turaya had been right. Nix was cut off.

  My entire being protested the thought. Could I do it? Be near him and not want him? No. I already knew the answer. Knowing Thor was right about that—that I’d probably forgive Nix just about anything if he could get me back in bed—made my rage percolate a bit faster, not with anger at Nix, but at myself. I was stronger than that.

  Wasn’t I?

  Nix planning, even thinking, that I was not going to participate in the plans to raid the meeting tonight, was beyond ridiculous. Ludicrous. And insult to every cell in my body.

  I was going. I was finding Mom and then beating the shit out of whoever it was screwing with all of us. I was going to destroy them slowly and with a whole lot of glee. Nix was not going to deny me a reckoning with the people who were trying to destroy my family.

  I thought for a few moments as he finished his conversation and an idea formed in my mind. I smiled, mentally preparing myself for the attack of total hotness when he returned. He wanted a biddable, meek mate? He’d get one.

  I listened as the other men walked away. I didn’t care where they were headed, only that Nix was coming back in the room. When he saw me sitting up, he smiled.

  “I’m surprised you’re awake,” he murmured, coming to sit beside me on the bed. He leaned in and kissed me gently, sweetly, as if he hadn’t just been plotting against me.

  Two could play that game.

  I ran my lips over his, soft and sweet. I felt anything but.

  The traitor. He was a mate traitor. We were a team, or so I’d thought. He wanted to be sly and devious? He wanted to leave me out? Fine.

  Game on.

  “I missed you,” I replied. I had, actually. It was why I’d woken up to begin with.

  He stroked my hair back from my face. I was sure it was a total wreck, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t all that much for vanity anyway.

  “I know we just… well, fucked a few days away, but I still want you.”

  He frowned, studied my face. “I thought the Ardor was gone.”

  I gave a slight shrug and the sheet fell a little bit. With my knees tucked up in front of me, he couldn’t see all that much, but I couldn’t miss the way his eyes heated.

  “It is. I can think clearly now.” Very clearly. “You’ve always been the one to dominate, if you know what I mean.” I glanced up at him through my lashes, gave him a little smile.

  He grinned in return.

  “I thought maybe I’d have my way with you this time.” I slid a finger down his cheek.

  “Oh?”

  I nodded. “Can I be on top?”

  He glanced at the door, even though it was closed, and I could hear no one was there. I knew he was thinking about how much time he had, that he’d promised to meet the others in the armory in a half an hour.

  We’d never had a bout of fucking last that long. We’d gone at it one time afte
r another for hours, but I’d been so feverish they’d all been quickies.

  He stood, opened his pants, tugged out his glorious cock. “I’m all yours.”

  I shook my head. “Naked, mate,” I replied. I shifted and swung my feet over the bed, the sheet falling away entirely. He took in my nude body for a second, then tugged off his clothes.

  I grinned, glad an Aleran male was like all others. None could say no to sex. Ever.

  Tilting my head, he moved around the far side and dropped onto the bed, his head on the pillow. I turned, crawled up and straddled him. I intentionally settled onto his length so he parted my slick folds, then rolled my hips.

  His hands came to my hips.

  “Ah ah,” I said, scolding him. “I’m in charge, remember?”

  He lowered his hands to the bed, made tight fists.

  Leaning forward, I lowered myself so my breast was right over his mouth. He sucked at the hard tip and I gasped. I might be mad at him, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love what he did to me. He knew exactly how to make me hot.

  But I knew how to make him hot, too, because his hands were right back on me again.

  I sat up, took his wrists and raised them over his head. He wasn’t paying much attention because my breasts were right in front of his face again.

  “Hold here,” I said. His fingers curled around the slats of the headboard as he continued to suckle and lave at one nipple, then the other.

  I rocked my hips again.

  “Mate,” he growled. “Put me in you.”

  I shook my head. “Not yet.”

  During all the time we’d gone at it, I had yet to give him a blow job, both of us being too busy getting his cock in my pussy instead of my mouth. I slowly kissed my way down his lean, hard torso.

  I felt his cock bob against my belly, and I looked up at him. His hands went to my hair, pushed me lower. If I hadn’t given him oral sex, that meant he’d never done it before, but he knew my intentions.

  He didn’t, actually. If he did, he wouldn’t be so relaxed.

  I took his wrists in my grip. Sat up. “You’re being bad.” I climbed off him, grabbed the utility belt from his uniform, found his wrist restraints. They dangled from my finger as I smiled at him. “It’s my turn to play.”

  His eyes widened, but his cock bobbed, pre-cum seeping from the tip.

  “You want to restrain me?” he asked, his voice dark.

  I nodded. “I want to torture you. Make you beg.”

  He growled, lifted his hands over his head voluntarily.

  I moved so I could work one cuff onto his wrist, then through the headboard slats, then to the other wrist, taunting him with my breasts some more. He definitely was a boob man.

  I checked they were secure and that he wasn’t coming loose, but that it wasn’t too tight.

  Straddling him again, I kissed him. “Ready for the torture?”

  His eyes darkened. “You want me to beg?”

  I shrugged, kissed down his body again, hovered just over the crown of his cock.

  “Mate,” he groaned, looking down his body at me. My hair was a curtain that fell over his thighs, his cock, his balls. Yeah, torture.

  I kissed the tip, tasted his salty essence.

  “Destiny,” he cried, his body going taut, the restraints clanging against the headboard. I kissed down his length and kept on going, sliding off the bed and standing at the end.

  “Mate?” he asked, eyeing me. He looked gorgeous, naked and virile. Potent and so mine. He trusted me enough to allow me to restrain him, control him.

  Yeah, well, I’d trusted him, too.

  “The torture begins now, mate. That meeting you’re going to without me?”

  His eyes widened, all at once realizing I’d somehow heard.

  “Yeah, well, looks like you’re not going at all.”

  I grabbed my clothes off the floor as he protested.

  “Destiny. Mate. It’s for your own protection. I won’t see you hurt. Let me go. This is not funny. Be reasonable. You’ll get hurt. They want you dead. Destiny!” He shouted the last as I shoved my foot into my boot and moved toward the door, fully dressed. I’d even grabbed his utility belt, fully loaded with weapons, and put it about my waist. He wouldn’t need the ion pistol or anything else while naked and tied to my bed.

  I spun about, gave him once last glance. The look on his face was murderous. Oh, he hated having the tables turned on him. Every line in his body was taut. Furious.

  Served him right.

  I pouted my lips and gave him the best version of puppy-dog eyes I’d ever thrown down on anyone, accentuating carefully chosen words to make sure he got my message loud and clear. “Don’t worry, Nix, you’ll be nice and safe in my bed. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Since you’re my mate, you’re my responsibility, and I know how frightened and weak you really are. So, I’m just going to have to protect you—without permission. It’s for your own good. You might be mad now, but you’ll forgive me anything after a few hours in bed. Isn’t that right? Now you’ll be as I want you, safe and naked and waiting for me to return from the big, scary, dangerous meeting.”

  Shoving the final blade in its sheath, I walked out the door, closing and locking it behind me with a very decisive click. I was mad and also very sad. We might have said we were mates, that we loved each other, but this… him intending to leave me behind, me restraining him to the bed, this wasn’t love. This was manipulation. Lies. A power struggle.

  A struggle I refused to fight. He either accepted me or he didn’t. The end. I was not weak. Or foolish. And I didn’t need his approval or permission to fight for what I believed in, or for whom I loved. He’d learn that soon enough. Starting now.

  And if he didn’t? Well, I was royal. I’d have his ass shipped to a continent—hell, even another planet—so far away I’d never have to look at him and hurt again.

  “Destiny!” he shouted, although with my bat hearing I could hear him so loudly his bellow hurt my ears, making me wince.

  I took a deep breath, sucked it up. It was time to go get my sisters and end this.

  * * *

  Nix

  I lay there, stunned and with a cock as hard as it had ever been.

  Holy shit. She’d seduced me. I glanced down my naked body at my cock. Purple, dripping pre-cum. Aching. I could still feel the swirl of her tongue, the hot, wet suck of her mouth.

  Tugging at the restraints, I knew I was caught. I wasn’t getting out of them unless I somehow broke the headboard. I wasn’t that strong, not since it was made with the strongest Aleran metal. Nothing but the best for the palace.

  Fuck!

  How the fuck had she overheard our conversation? We’d been down the hall and talking quietly. Had she gone to the door and eavesdropped? Even then, she couldn’t have heard everything we’d said. But she had.

  My mate had even repeated what I’d said to the others word. For word. For word.

  Oh, she was angry. So furious she’d actually turned sweet. Sweet and sexy and alluring and had gotten me thinking with my cock.

  She was good. Very good at seduction. Or I was weak when it came to my mate. My cock pulsed because I was even hungrier for her than before. My mate couldn’t just take care of herself, she’d taken care of me, too. Stubborn. Beautiful. Willful…

  I was going to get her beneath me in this bed, tie her down and make her promise never to do this again. Not that I didn’t deserve the lesson. I’d spoken exactly the words she’d accused me of. Protecting her without asking permission. Lying and deceiving her. My mate.

  Shame pulsed through me right next to the desire. I’d failed her on an elemental level. Would she forgive me? Would I be able to forgive myself? If she were injured because I was not beside her, I would never recover. Yet, she was out there, alone, because I had made my decision without considering her needs, or her strength.

  She was not a princess as I’d always thought of one, soft, pampered and docile, a female to be she
ltered, an innocent beauty to be protected at all costs. No, Destiny was a warrior. I’d filled her with my cock and my seed, reveled in her trust and her surrender. And I’d betrayed her at the first opportunity.

  And now she was going to get herself killed. Because I’d failed her.

  I tugged again, but there was no give. I had to lay here and wait.

  And wait—regret pounding through my veins with every painful beat of my heart.

  It took seventy-two minutes—I had nothing to do but watch the clock—for Thor and Leo to burst through the door. They stopped just a few feet inside the room and stood there. Stared.

  Thor grinned. “Oh, this is perfect.”

  I frowned, tugged at the restraints. “Let me up so I can get to my mate.”

  Leo remained where he was, hands on his hips, but I couldn’t miss the smile on his face. He was enjoying this, but not as much as Thor.

  “Your mate is fine.” He raised a brow, crossed his arms and laughed. “I thought Faith was vengeful, leaving me covered with just a small towel. But Destiny didn’t bother to cover you at all.”

  “Stop talking and release me. I know where she’s going. She’s going to get herself killed.”

  “She’s fine. They are, all three of our mates, well-protected,” Leo said.

  “You can’t know that, let me up.”

  Thor moved closer, raked his gaze down my body. Oh, it was a clinical look, not something I’d seen on Destiny’s face. I wasn’t modest, not at all, but I didn’t need Thor and Leo to see my hard cock. As he inspected the bindings on my wrists, he actually laughed. “Oh, she’s good. Remind me not to get on Princess Destiny’s bad side.”

  Fuck.

  “I’m going to have to cut these off.” He looked at Leo. “Do you have a blade?”

  Leo tossed a dagger to Thor, who caught it in midair as if the motion were as natural to him as breathing. A businessman? Right. I’d have to investigate my new brother a bit more thoroughly in future. “Hold still. Destiny will have my hide if I cut you.”