Bonded to the Alien Centurion Read online

  Dani flitted closer, his pain calling out to her and drawing her in. The need to soothe him overwhelmed her and she reached out warily, but paused halfway at the interchange between the two warriors. Whatever the situation was between them, he was hurting. She couldn’t leave him to deal with that alone.

  “Not here, not now. You have a mate. Remember?” Riis insisted, his gaze flicking to her for a second. His look plainly said help me out here. “She is your first priority.”

  Shit. She had to do something, or there was going to be a bloodbath in here.

  10

  Fury raced through Sardaan’s veins, burning away everything he was until all that was left was an inferno of anger, the need for vengeance at its core.

  Baring his teeth, he focused on Ter on the other side of the medbay. The piece of trallshit had just killed, no… murdered… a kid in cold blood, and he was standing there grinning with his clansmen like this was just a day out on the outer rings.

  A snarl of rage escaped his lips again and he surged forward, trying to push Riis out of the way. He looked down at the smaller warrior.

  “Move. Now.”

  “Sardaan?” Dani murmured, sliding her hand around his muscled upper arm. Her soft touch stilled him instantly and he looked down at her. Her dark eyes were filled with concern. “This doesn’t help Aariin. Not at the moment. Please?”

  He wanted to brush her off, push Riis aside and storm across the room to grab Ter by his throat and shake him until he stopped fucking laughing. How dare he laugh when Aariin lay dead behind them, his body not yet cold? Even as he looked at his concerned mate, gaze locked with hers, his mind raced, the need for vengeance uppermost.

  Ter had known Aariin couldn’t beat him. There was no way the Quesen, who had not attained his full growth had either the capability or skill to match Ter, a warrior in his prime.

  Frustration rolled through Sardaan at their honor system. One that allowed a warrior such as Ter to challenge a Quesen, a warrior so below him in the ranking system it was a joke. The challenge fights weren’t designed for that and most warriors would never step into a ring with someone so below them in skill and ability. To do so, knowing it would be a whitewash, was without honor. But it wasn’t illegal.

  Guilt hit him hard and fast, on the tail end of his frustration. He should have shown the Quesen all the Trexian combinations and their countermoves, how to block and answer them. If he had, as Aariin had asked, the boy might be alive today. Just seeing the counters once might have given the youngster an edge in the battle.

  Instead, Ter had cleaved his chest in two.

  Sardaan lifted his gaze, breaking away from Dani’s to look at Ter. But he wasn’t a Quesen, not anymore, and he certainly did know how to block all the fucking Trexian moves and how to retaliate. He’d wipe the floor with Ter, teach him to pick on those smaller and less skilled than he was.

  He’d have to kill Ter, though. Just humiliating him as Sardaan wanted to, while satisfying, would be a stupid move. A humiliated enemy—because today Ter had proven himself to be an enemy of the duty and honor Sardaan held dear—was a dangerous enemy. He’d have to watch his back for the rest of his life.

  Not just him, he realized, as the small hand on his arm slid upward. He had a mate now, and Ter wouldn’t hesitate to use her against him. Or worse, try and claim her for himself. That he would never allow to happen.

  But Ter wasn’t alone. A T’Raniis, Ter had many brothers. Sardaan’s eyes narrowed. He’d have to kill them all. Fuck. There were just too many of them to make that a viable plan.

  Plus, Riis was right. Dani’s safety took priority.

  “Please. Sardaan…”

  He looked back at her. She actually sounded worried about him. Or was she more worried that she’d lose her protection in a society she didn’t understand? He knew that if he fell, Riis or one of the others would stand in and protect her, but she didn’t—a lapse he would have to rectify and soon.

  Reaching out, he hauled her up against him, bending down so his lips whispered over hers. “Because you command it.”

  Utter trallshit. He’d been a hairsbreadth from challenging the arrogant older warrior and they both knew it, but ceding to his mate’s wishes gave him an honorable out.

  “That’s it. You run away and hide behind a female’s skirts,” Ter shouted from the other side of the medbay as Sardaan turned to go, his arm around Dani’s waist. He whirled around, the sudden fury that exploded through him blinding him to the stupidity of killing Ter in front of everyone.

  He didn’t get the chance. Instead, Isan stepped between them, his expression forbidding as he turned toward Ter. Still covered in blood and scarred from head to foot, he was a nightmarish image.

  “You’re very free and easy with those insults, Ter T’Raniis,” the healer said, his voice tight and controlled as fury blazed in his eyes. “How about you throw them at me and see where you get?”

  Ter’s skin paled and he took a step backward, dropping his gaze. Sardaan hadn’t expected anything else. No one wanted a healer pissed at them. Unlike what he’d seen of humanity’s doctors, who took a vow not to hurt anyone, Latharian healers were experienced and deadly warriors. None more so than Isan, who, along with his scars, had more braids than Ter and his companions put together.

  “No,” Isan growled, contempt in his voice. “Get the fuck out of my medbay. Now.”

  “Yes, Healer. Right away.”

  As one, Ter and his buddies beat it out of the other door of the medical bay, not one of them daring a look back at either Isan nor Sardaan and the group of Quesen. Once they’d gone, the healer turned to them.

  “We will prepare Aariin for the final rites,” he said quietly, his expression drawn. Sardaan had known Isan from when they were boys, and he knew the loss of a patient, any patient, weighed heavily on him. “He will be laid out in honor in the smaller hall of the Lady Goddess.”

  Sardaan inclined his head. “Thank you. I will inform his duty commander and his family.”

  * * *

  Sardaan was hurting. Anyone could see that. Dani bit her lip, wanting nothing more than to take that pain away. She knew what it was like to lose people. She’d lost more men than she’d ever wanted to count, and that letter or call home never got any easier. She remembered each and every one, their names and dates of death inscribed in her memory, where they would stay until the day she died.

  She knew the pain and wished she could take it away from him.

  With gentle hands, she pulled him back around and urged him toward the doorway. Her gaze locked with Riis’, and even though they were human and Lathar, from different planets and backgrounds, they moved as one. Dani ushered Sardaan out of the medical bay and Riis ushered the small group of boys out.

  “Where wil—”

  “I’ll speak to their duty commanders,” Riis cut her off, his voice firm. “Get them some compassionate leave. At least until the rites for Aariin. You…” he looked at Sardaan, the big warrior glowering as a tiny muscle worked in his jaw. “Look after your mate,” he ordered, although she wasn’t sure whether that was directed at her or Sardaan.

  She nodded anyway, tucking herself in against her alien husband’s side and patting his chest gently. “I can’t remember which way back to our quarters,” she said softly, pulling his attention to her as Riis led the teenagers away, their shoulders slumped like dejected ducklings as they trailed after him.

  Sardaan’s gaze cut to her, the expression in his eyes cold and hard. “No? Sure about that? Because you sure as trall could find your way from them to the shuttle bay. Couldn’t you?”

  She froze, rooted to the spot as he pinned her with his gaze. Anger radiated from his tense shoulders, the free hand not around her waist clenched into a tight fist.

  “About that—”

  “No!” he snapped, yanking her up hard against his side, feet planted wide. “I don’t want to hear excuses. You tried to run. You failed. Deal with the consequences.”

&
nbsp; “C-consequences?” Her voice gave out on her, the word emerging soft and breathy. Hands spread over his broad chest, she tried to put some distance between them, but it was impossible. Not unless she wanted to break her own back on the steel bar that was his arm around her waist.

  “Consequences,” he repeated, his nostrils flaring. “Time’s up. You’re mine.”

  Her breathing caught on a tiny hitch as he bent and scooped her up into his arms. At the look on his face, she didn’t dare argue. This was not some fellow soldier she could reach on the level of a colleague, or use the chain of command with.

  He was something else. Her… mate. Her brain latched onto the alien term as the only one that fit their current situation as he strode through the corridors. The tension between them grew the closer they got to his quarters, almost at breaking point by the time he stalked through them.

  As soon as they were inside the room, the doors swept shut. He barked a command in Latharian she didn’t understand, dropping her feet to the floor and backing her up against the now closed doors in the same second.

  Heat hit her broadside, a fluttering in the pit of her stomach stealing her breath. He crowded her, his bigger body hot and hard against hers as her back pressed against the cold metal of the door.

  “Mine,” he growled again and kissed her.

  It wasn’t a kiss though. Not just a kiss. Instead, it was an angry declaration of ownership… an order for her surrender… and a demand for her submission all rolled into one.

  She whimpered, the sound lost under his lips, and gave him what she knew he needed. Her body relaxed against his, her lips parting in surrender. He paused, just for a second, and then growled again in the back of his throat. One big hand cupped the side of her neck, sliding up to cradle the back of her head as he ravished her mouth with his.

  The hard thrust of his tongue, the utterly dominant way he kissed her… like he owned her… triggered responses she didn’t realize she had. With the softest murmur, she wrapped herself around him, struggling to remember why this wasn’t exactly what she wanted.

  It was exactly what she needed.

  Every cell in her body clamored for her to get closer to him. To wrap herself around him and kiss him back in a torrent of heat and need that swept everything else away. The release he’d brought her to in the shuttle teased her now, her body wound tighter than a spring.

  He groaned, the sound deep in his chest as he registered the change. Pulling her away from the door slightly, he yanked her top off again, her bra gone in a heartbeat. His mouth crashed down over hers again, in hot, open-mouthed kisses only interrupted as he stripped her combats and boots from her. She shivered as she stood there, completely nude, but just as quickly he was back, crowding her against the door again.

  A moan escaped her lips as he boosted her up. His hands were hard on her hips, under her ass to support her as he ground his leather-clad crotch against her. The fact he was almost fully dressed sent her arousal higher than she’d thought possible.

  He broke the kiss, looking into her eyes, and for a moment the angry mask slipped.

  “Gods, you’re so fucking beautiful, kelarris.” The raspy admission was torn from him and his lips compressed as he reached down between them. He moved, and the thick, hard head of his cock pressed against the entrance to her body.

  Her eyes widened. He was just as huge as she’d thought. There was no way she’d be able to take him.

  “Sard—”

  His lips over hers cut her off, and he shoved into her. She froze, hands curled around his heavily muscled upper arms as her entire body tensed at the intrusion. He thrust again, forcing her body to part around his, and she gasped, not able to stop his kiss or his penetration. He did it again, body hard and urgent against hers, but all she could focus on was the feel of his thick cock stretching her, of her pussy forced to part around him as he worked his way into her with short, hard thrusts.

  Then he was in her completely, his groan in her ear as their hips met low and rough. She closed her eyes, every part of her awareness focused on where they were joined. Her pussy throbbed around his cock, her breathing coming in short pants as she got used to the feeling of him inside her.

  One thing was for sure. Latharian men were built way bigger.

  He pulled back, his expression hard but his gaze intent as he scanned her face. Checking, she realized. Making sure he hadn’t hurt her. Even in the midst of his anger, he cared enough to check that he hadn’t hurt her.

  “Draanth,” he hissed, a big hand on her ass. “You’re so fucking tight.”

  She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. The feel of him filling her completely took up all her brain power. He shivered, and the movement made his thick cock slide against her slick inner walls, stroking the nerve endings there. Her head fell back against the door, a soft moan escaping her.

  “Again…” she whispered, unable to help herself. She’d pull herself back together tomorrow, but for now… She just wanted him. “Harder.”

  He growled, free hand snaking up to hook around the back of her neck, and did as she asked. Pulling back, he surged up into her again. Pinned between his hard body and the door, she had nowhere to go… had to accept each hard thrust as he took her. Claimed her against the door.

  Heat and need rolled through her, spurred on by each thrust, each deep moan as he slammed into her. She went from anticipating each hard movement to moaning in bliss when it came. He got harder and faster, every muscle in his big, powerful body bent to one end. Taking her.

  Rearing back, he flicked his hair back over his shoulder, his face a mask of passion and deep, dark desire as he looked down at her. She saw the decision there before he moved.

  “Not here,” he grunted, pulling out of her in one quick move. She let out a tiny gasp as her feet hit the floor, clutching at him for balance, but she needn’t have worried. In the next second he’d scooped her up in his arms and strode toward the bed.

  He dropped her onto the soft surface. Before she’d registered the coolness of the sheets beneath her, he was back inside her. The hard thrust made them both moan.

  “This was how I imagined you, that first time I saw you,” he admitted, braced above her on one elbow as his free hand hauled her knee up against his hip. He hadn’t stopped moving, his hips pistoning against hers. He leaned down, his lips whispering the words against hers. “Beneath me, a look of pleasure on your beautiful face as I claimed you for my own. And now you are. Beneath me. Mine.”

  The look on his face, all masculine determination and dark heat, made her clench around him again. She’d never seen herself as the submissive type, but the thought he’d been so determined to get her did something deep inside.

  Conversation ceased as he upped the pace. She couldn’t help but look at him, male beauty defined by desire. His hair swayed against his shoulders, his gaze locked to hers with each strong thrust. Watching the changes in his eyes as he pushed them both higher and closer to the edge was the most erotic thing she’d ever seen. With a soft moan, she wrapped her legs around his hips, moving with him.

  “Yours,” she whispered, her hands sliding over his shoulders. He growled and caught them with one of his, hauling them above her head to pin them there with one hand.

  Normally she’d have fought and squirmed to get free. But not here. Not now. There was something about him, something about the look in his eyes, that reached deep into the part of her that she kept hidden from everyone. The part that wanted to belong. To someone… to something.

  Now she realized that something was him.

  “Always mine,” he rumbled. Holding her down, he sped up. Heat blazed in his eyes as he took her hard and fast, pushing them both up to the edge. Her breath came in short pants, her pussy clenching tightly around his invading cock. Hell, even her toes curled as she silently urged him on. She needed this, needed him, needed more…

  Heat exploded through her, her body shattering as ecstasy hit. Her breathing locked, her pussy clenching hard as
her spine arched. She moaned in pleasure, hearing his growl as he sped up. She couldn’t help clenching hard around each powerful thrust. His thrusts became erratic until he slammed into her one last time, roaring his pleasure against her neck as he came deep within her.

  11

  Her alien mate was the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

  Dani had woken early as usual, her body clock conditioned by years of military service. Tiredness washed through her, so she didn’t attempt to get up. She simply lay on her side to study the other occupant of the large bed.

  Sardaan lay on his side, asleep. His dirty-silver hair pooled beneath his head, several braids falling into the hollow at the front of his throat. She itched to reach out and touch them. There were so many, woven intricately through his hair on one side, all fastened with small beads or ties.

  She tilted her head to look at them. They were all different colors and types… denoting different military engagements maybe, like Terran medal ribbons? She’d have to ask him when he woke up.

  Her gaze slid over him, studying him in a way she couldn’t while he was awake. In sleep he seemed peaceful, like a slumbering angel. She almost snorted at her fanciful thoughts. If he was an angel, though, he had to be the angel of death or war. She wasn’t big on religion, but she was fairly sure several of them had warrior angels. Sardaan, with his long hair and heavily muscled physique would certainly fit the bill. She could just see him in formfitting armor with a sword in one hand and a heavenly bolt or something in the other.

  Broad shoulders carved with muscle bracketed a wide chest free of hair, sliding into cobblestone abs. The sheet covered him from the waist down, but her memory filled in the lean hips and muscled rugby-player’s thighs. She had no clue if the Lathar played rugby or anything like it, but if they did, Sardaan would fit right in. A flush of heat kissed her cheeks as her memory, and the soreness between her thighs filled in the rest of what was beneath the sheet.