Chapter 22

Zerien

F ar too late, the War Council finally scattered, granting my Siona and me some long overdue privacy. My heart swelled with love for her as we made our way to our room, hand in hand. Not once did she complain, grow restless or impatient as things dragged on and discussions stretched endlessly over disagreements.

I stopped in the middle of our room and drew her into my embrace. She smiled and melted against me in that way I loved so much. I caressed her gorgeous face, my hand gliding upward, settling over her right horn. My thumb gently pressed that highly sensitive junction at the base where the skin of the forehead receded, giving way to the obsidian ivory of her horn. A shiver coursed through her as I teased that highly erogenous area for Guldans. I wasn't trying to turn her on, but I loved witnessing her pleasure, in all its forms.

Whatever expression Siona read on my face dimmed her smile. She took a slightly worried expression as her emerald eyes flicked between mine.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

I shook my head and smiled reassuringly. "Nothing, my love. I was just thinking how wrong I'd been, and that I owe you an apology."

"For what?" she asked, surprised.

"Back on Venus Hive, I said you were a child, when I actually needed a Queen. Now, I see how wrong and blind I was. You are no child, my Siona. Your body may be young, but a true Queen lurks within. No words can express just how proud you make me. I expected so much… too much from you. And yet, here you are, exceeding even my wildest dreams."

Siona's breath hitched, and a slew of powerful emotions fleeted over her features, gratitude and relief dominating. In that instant, I realized that she was still doubting herself, despite the confident image she'd been projecting of late. I needed to tell her more often how amazingly she was doing to further build her up. My mate deserved to know just how wonderful she was.

"I'm sorry that our time together has been so rife with tension," I said apologetically. "These first few weeks were supposed to be spent dazzling you and sweeping you off your feet. Instead, it's been endless stress and crises. I promise to make it up to you. I just—"

Siona pressed two fingers to my lips, silencing me while giving me a stern look.

"Stop it right there," she said in a tone that brooked no argument. "You have nothing to apologize for. None of the challenges we are facing are of your doing. What matters is that you and I stay united. Together, there's nothing we can't overcome. In truth, everything they throw at us only makes us stronger. Do you not recall just how similarly crazy things were when Ravik and Mercy first met?"

I snorted and slowly nodded. On the very first day they met, Guldans infected their vessel with a virus with the intent of kidnapping and assassinating the Braxian King. After that failed—thanks to Mercy's unique psionic powers—they fought back a vicious invasion attempt the very next day following their arrival on Braxia. The number of other crises they faced back-to-back, not to mention their entire planet's economy on the verge of collapse, it was a miracle their relationship survived.

"To me, all of this is just another sign that you and I are meant to be, and that we will come out on the other side just as strong as Ravik and Mercy did. And in case you haven't noticed, I rather enjoy dealing with messy situations," she added with a mischievous expression that lit up her face. "Do not fret about me. None of this fazes me. I've seen too much madness back on Braxia. I'm just glad that I get to be here by your side and that we get to fight this battle together."

"Why are you so perfect?" I whispered, my heart filling to bursting as I once more caressed her cheek.

She pressed herself against me and caressed my shoulders before sinking her fingers into my hair.

"My parents and brothers would likely disagree with that assessment," she replied teasingly before taking on a serious expression. "But I'm perfect for you, just as you are perfect for me because we are soulmates. Fate brought us together, and she will see us through. I welcome a good challenge any day, and I look forward to bathing in the blood of our enemies."

Another wave of savage pride surged within me. Even though I knew of the fierce upbringing she received on Braxia, it still mesmerized me what a fierce woman she had become. Ours were intellectuals, not warriors. My beloved was both.

Pure perfection.

I leaned forward to capture her lips with the intent of conveying the depth of the love I felt for her. But my woman appeared to have a different idea in mind. Her delicate fingers immediately tightened their grip on my hair, and she further pressed herself against me. My chest vibrated with an involuntary purr of approval while the heat of desire sparked low in my belly.

Siona's lips parted, making her wishes clear. She didn't take over the kiss, and yet still directed what she wanted. I always expected to want a submissive female, but my mate didn't qualify as such. She had an enthralling way of toeing the line to nudge me in the direction she wanted while still letting me take charge of our couplings, as my apex alpha nature craved.

By the Ancestors, she's truly made for me.

That said, I couldn't deny enjoying the few times she became even more assertive and demanded I surrendered to her control. To my shame, even though I complied since I belonged to her, I rarely lasted as long as she might have wanted me to. A part of me suspected Siona actually needled me on purpose as once I took over, it was usually because passion had taken over any willpower I still possessed. And my woman loved me wild and unbridled.

Answering her call, I slipped my tongue between her lips, hers eagerly greeting mine. Fuck me, how I loved the taste of her. The simple caress of our tongues mingling sufficed to have me hard and throbbing, burning with the need to make her mine. She was a drug saturating my veins, an addiction I never wanted to recover from. I didn't care that people saw her as my weakness. Siona was everything to me.

As I deepened the kiss, my mate let go of my hair, and her right hand glided in a gentle caress down my neck and to my chest. It slipped under the sash draped across my torso. She didn't push it down right away but began teasing my left nipple under it. Since discovering how sensitive they were for me, Siona always made it a point to give them some attention. I especially loved it when she sucked and bit them.

She tweaked my little nub hard enough to give it a solid sting that had me hissing against her lips. I felt her smile even as my cock jerked approvingly beneath my vyn in response. With my habit of not wearing undergarments, the relatively heavy fabric of the skirt failed to hide my erection. Not that I cared… I loved when my woman inflicted this kind of pain on me, including a good nip and when she raked her nails over my skin hard enough for it to burn.

As if hearing the thoughts crossing my mind, Siona broke the kiss and peppered a trail of kisses on my chin, down my neck, and to my chest. She pushed aside my sash, making it slide down my arm even as the wet inferno of her mouth closed around my nipple. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back as I took a hissy breath of pleasure. The spark of desire quickly turned into a brasier in my stomach as she sucked and licked my nub.

With one hand, I fisted the hair on her nape, and with the other I rubbed my thumb around the erogenous base of her right horn. She instantly shivered in that way I found insanely sexy. Her left hand slipping under the hem of my vyn to caress a path up my thighs to their apex had me instantly stiffening. As much as I wanted my woman's hands and mouth on me, my need to protect her superseded my wish for personal gratification.

Releasing her horn, I reached for her left wrist to keep her from grabbing my cock. She jerked her head up to look at me with an outraged expression.

I gave her an apologetic smile as I shook my head. "No, my love. You've been grievously harmed."

"And I've recovered," she countered, her frown deepening.

"Not fully," I argued.

"But sufficiently! Lindel and his goons have stolen enough time from me, I will not let them take away intimacy with my mate. You're mine, Zerien Aerith. I will not be denied," she snarled.

Anyone else who would have dared to address me in such a fashion would be lying on their back with a broken jaw. But this fire from my woman was the biggest turn on I ever experienced. It stroked the predator in me in the most delicious fashion, making my fangs descend.

I bared them at her in a slightly menacing grin that had her lifting her chin in defiance.

"You're hot when you act like this," I growled, tightening my grip around her wrist.

The little brat yanked it free then grabbed my cock over my vyn with almost bruising force, making me growl even louder.

"I'll be even hotter once you're inside me," she said, before brutally yanking open the clasp securing the skirt around my waist.

As the loosened garment slid the length of my legs with a soft rustle to pool at my feet, something snapped in me. Whatever expression she saw on my face thrilled Siona. However, the triumphant glimmer in her eyes gave way to shock when I lifted her by her waist and threw her backward towards the bed.

She landed on her back in the middle of the mattress. Before she could even complete her second bounce, I was already on top of her. With a will of their own, my claws extruded, and I slashed through the embroidered fabric of her dress, shredding it to pieces. Her throaty laugh and lascivious expression spurred me on. I tore the wrecked garment off her and threw it on the floor. My mouth immediately dove for one of her nipples, sucking it into my mouth.

"Yes," Siona whispered, her voice sultry and needy.

I had meant for our first time together after her recovery to be careful, gentle, and with long preliminaries, but my claws found their way to her thong, obliterating it as mercilessly as they had her dress. Without pause, two of my fingers sank inside her, the ridges of her inner walls instantly began undulating, greedily drawing my fingers deeper in.

My blood rushed to my cock, the dull throbbing intensifying with the need to bury myself to the hilt and fuck her raw. But I ignored it and moved my fingers in and out of her at a frantic pace. I had not retracted my claws. While they would have butchered any other female, they enhanced my Siona's pleasure. As a Guldan woman, the lining of her inner walls was reinforced to allow her to birth large, fully horned babies without sustaining internal injuries. Guldan females adjusted, they didn't tear.

Furthermore, the bumpy ridges covering her lining—and which gave me an insane amount of pleasure whenever they undulated around my cock—each acted like the G-spot of a human female. A part of me almost felt cheated that her body was made to ensure her pleasure, no matter how great or lousy the performance of her partner was. I wanted to believe my touch took her to much greater heights of bliss.

In no time, she was beginning to crest, her hips gyrating as my hand continued to make love to her. After a final nip and lick to her breast, I kissed a path down her stomach, grazing my fangs against her sensitive skin along the way. Her abdominal muscles contracted. I couldn't tell if it was from anticipation, because of her imminent climax, or a mix of both.

It didn't matter.

As soon as my lips closed around her clitoris, my mate detonated, her legs kicking up so abruptly she nearly knocked me off. I pressed my left palm onto her stomach to pin her down while I avidly feasted on her. Her tart taste on my tongue and the intoxicating scent of her musk set my loins ablaze. I continued to devour her until she began to come back down.

A single glance up at Siona's face had me clenching my teeth to fight back the urge to throw myself on her and ravage her. Lips parted, her emerald eyes so darkened by passion they almost looked black, she stared at me with a lascivious look that whipped my blood into a frenzy. Her perky breasts rose and fell as she breathed loudly through her mouth, making my hands itch to fondle them, and my mouth water for their divine texture on my tongue.

Siona spread her legs wider while tugging at my shoulders to make her meaning clear. I almost resisted as I didn't fully trust myself not to lose control once pleasure overwhelmed me. To help rein myself in, I invoked my kaa as I pulled my fingers out of my woman. Eyes locked with hers, I stuck my fingers in my mouth, licking her essences off them. Although careful not to slice my tongue in half, I gently raked my claws over it to further ground myself.

My mate's breath hitched as I kissed and caressed the perfection that was her body before settling over her. I claimed her lips in a kiss filled with devotion and began to push myself inside her.

Ancestors have mercy!

I'd barely inserted the head than her inner walls were already tugging me deeper in. Her sheath's ability to adjust was deceptive. Even as it stretched to welcome my invasion, it tightened its grip around my length in a snug fit that drove me mad with lust. Her lining squeezed and caressed me with a greed that had precum seeping out in seconds. A deep moan vibrated through my chest as I began to rock in and out of her. An inferno raged within me, each stroke threatening to rob me of what sliver of control I still possessed. Siona's hands on me, clawing my back, and her lips against mine were fanning the flames attempting to consume me.

Breaking the kiss, I buried my face in her neck and sank my fangs into my own tongue so the pain would prevent me from surrendering to the wild beast that wanted to wreck her. Tortured moans tumbled out of me as intense pleasure clashed with the impossible restraint I imposed upon myself to maintain a careful and steady pace.

But my mate didn't agree.

Siona began to move beneath me, lifting her pelvis to meet mine as she urged me to take her harder and faster. If only she knew how much I wanted to. But she'd come so close to death, I didn't dare go all out so soon for fear of harming her to sate my selfish desires. I could make her climax again and again without going wild and crazy on her.

However, her subtle hints soon gave way to blatant frustration, which she plainly vocalized. I hated displeasing my mate in any way, but I also couldn't forget what kind of ravages Urixid had done to her body. Granted, she'd made a nearly miraculous recovery, in no small part thanks to the advanced medical skills our people had achieved. And yet, I couldn't help overthinking it.

To my shock, Siona emitted an angry sound, shoved my shoulders back to push me away, and closed her legs so tightly that it nearly forced me out of her. I lifted my head to give her a questioning look. The fury in her eyes struck me hard.

"Whatever you think you're doing right now, I'm not interested in it. You can either fuck me like you mean it or get off me!" Siona hissed.

Something snapped inside me. With a will of its own, my right hand closed around her throat and squeezed. Fangs bared, I growled menacingly, my face a hair's breadth from hers. Far from frightening her, my reaction only aroused her further. On top of the undulation of their ridges, her inner walls contracted around my cock with excitement. Her eyes darkened with anticipation, and a taunting glimmer dared me to do my worst.

"Remember that you asked for this," I snarled before slamming my cock deep inside her.

Her back arched, and her nails dug into my back as she cried out. My lips crushed hers in a brutal kiss as I swallowed her shouts and moans, and I gave in to passion. Gharah's blood! I would die with pleasure. I took her hard and fast, spurred on by the feverish way in which she writhed beneath me, holding and touching me with near desperation as if she couldn't get close enough to me.

A sharp, lacerating pain snapped me out of the ocean of bliss that was engulfing me. My shout resonated at the same time Siona screamed, swept away by another orgasm. It took a moment for my foggy mind to realize the mild scent of iron stemmed from the small wounds my mate's nails had involuntarily inflicted on me when she toppled over.

That pushed me over the edge.

With a feral growl, I slipped one arm under her left leg, opening her wider for me, and started pounding into her. No tenderness remained in the way I took her, just unrestrained lust and a primal hunger that could never fully be sated. She didn't attempt to break free of my unbridled assault but begged for me to wreck her some more.

Nothing existed but the voluptuous sound of her moans in my ears, the burning sensation of her silky skin against mine, her nails raking my back, and the searing heat of her sheath squeezing my cock in its unrelenting grip. It was like the hand of the Goddess herself was wrapped around it. In that instant, I felt like I would die with pleasure. But I couldn't get enough of her.

Siona's next orgasm struck violently and unexpectedly. She threw her head back with such force as she cried out that the tip of her horns stabbed into the mattress and remained stuck. On instinct, I closed my hand around her neck, keeping her immobile so she wouldn't harm herself in the throes of ecstasy, but didn't slow down the savagery with which I pumped in and out of her.

I never gave her the chance to fully come back down from her high. With one swift movement, I unstuck her horns and pulled out of her only long enough to flip her onto her stomach. I swiped her legs open with my right knee, then rammed myself in with one powerful thrust. My feral cry drowned her strangled gasp. But even still half-dazed, my Siona didn't balk. Despite my weight all but crushing her into the mattress, my mate writhed beneath me, lifting her rump to meet me thrust for thrust.

Partially leaning on my knees and with my elbows resting on the mattress, framing her head, I grabbed her horns around their base and pulled backwards in the way that equated to having their erogenous spot stimulated for a Guldan of any gender. My woman immediately fell apart again.

Feeling her slender body shaking with violent spasms of ecstasy all but fractured my mind. A red haze descended before my eyes as I unleashed my passion on her. It wasn't before the taste of iron exploded on my taste buds that I realized I'd sunk my fangs into her and was drinking some of her blood.

My spine seized, and I pulled my fangs out as a savage roar tore out of me. The burning sensation that exploded in the pit of my stomach and coursed through my veins left me feeling faint and dizzy as liquid ecstasy shot out of me. I slammed myself in, my mate's right horn still held firmly in my right hand, while my left hand gripped her waist with bruising force. My skin tingled, and the room spun as my seed continued to pour into her in an endless flow.

Shaking from head to toe, I collapsed on my side and rolled onto my back before drawing her into my arms. Siona embraced me with a possessiveness that wrecked me. Fuck, she was perfect. I kissed and caressed her as the room settled around us.

I still couldn't believe I'd bitten her. While we could drink blood, that trait had mostly faded, and our people only ever used our fangs to occasionally inject a paralytic to an enemy. But with our mind-control powers, we rarely used our fangs at all. It almost frightened me how deeply my soulmate awakened my most primal nature and fully welcomed it.

Even now, the look in her eyes as our gazes locked shone brightly with love, passion, and endless devotion.

"I love you, my Siona," I whispered. "You own me, all of me. Now and always."

"You and me, always," she echoed.

S tanding at the bottom of the ramp of our chaser, I held my female against me. I hated how my leather combat suit cheated me out of the feel of her skin against mine. The worried glimmer in her eyes did funny things to me. I loved that she cared about me but hated that she would feel any distress over my welfare.

"Too bad I can't come with you," she said in a slightly pouty tone.

"I'm sorry, my love. But we need you here safe in the castle at least until the coronation," I said apologetically.

She heaved a sigh. "Yes, I know. But I still wish I was in on the action. Just try to bring him back still breathing so that I can spit in his face before he dies," she grumbled.

I snorted, and a couple of my men chuckled. She was growing on them, slowly but surely. The phenomenal work she'd done on the psychic disruptor implant from the Guldan Captain in such a short time earned her everyone's respect. Our preliminary tests on the handful of Guldan crewmates we'd kept alive proved successful, allowing us to mind-control them. The countermeasure Siona devised still required quite a bit of perfecting, but it remained a great asset in our arsenal.

"I'll do my best to bring him back to you, even if it's on a respirator," I said with a feral grin.

She smiled and lifted her face to receive my kiss. Ancestors, how I loved that woman. With much reluctance, I released her and caressed her cheek before dropping my hand.

"You come back to me, Zerien Aerith," she said in a commanding tone.

"Always, my love. Always."

I glanced at my father who was standing a few steps behind us. He gave me a subtle nod, which was his silent pledge that he'd look after my mate and son. I returned the nod then climbed the ramp into my vessel, followed by my personal guards and the eight other men of my unit. Through the window, I watched my father pass a protective arm around Siona's shoulders and then lead her away from the chaser. Moments later, we were airborne, followed by a small fleet of six other vessels.

This morning marked the third day since we'd eavesdropped on the rebels fake kaa training session. Every waking hour had been rife with tension in the anticipation of an imminent attack that thankfully never came. However, the delay proved highly beneficial as we located each of the cells and identified a large enough number of their members to guarantee that a raid would obliterate most if not all their forces. Assuming anyone survived, it would take them years, decades even, to rebuild. By then, I wanted to believe the Great War would have long been a thing of the past.

My blood boiled with impatience to get my claws into the bastard who had dared to threaten my mate. Ideally, we would have had a couple more days to perfect our raid and enhance our defenses at the palace. But major movement in all the cells, with the rebels converging in mass towards various rally points, confirmed they likely intended to launch their attack this very day.

The problem was that I didn't know if we had truly found all the cells or if today's sudden move had been rushed due to suspicions that we might be on to them. Obviously, people noticed all the additional defensive measures erected around the palace. We'd been able to justify it as preparations for the coronation. With so many galactic leaders expected to attend, a terrorist attack could give our still fragile alliance a crippling blow. Therefore, we had an even greater duty than usual to ensure their safety.

Although true, it wasn't the true driver behind these efforts.

As we began our descent towards the Sanctuary, I returned my focus to the task at hand. Through the com, our units at the other locations all confirmed they were in position, their vessels cloaked and ready to go into action. The thrill of pre-battle adrenaline coursed through my veins.

Below, gathered on the front lawn, the men who previously attended the meeting disguised as a training were standing at the ready. To my surprise, instead of the tactical armor I expected them to wear to battle, most of them were dressed in our traditional ruvyn robes with no apparent weapons on them.

"What is this?" I whispered more to myself than to my crew.

"Something's not right," Naax replied, his fingers flying over the interface of the navigation board.

Simultaneously, incoming messages from our other vessels also raised flags. A chill ran down my spine as I braced for the terrible news I instantly suspected but dreaded.

"It's a trap," Naax whispered with a horrified expression.

"Drade, retreat!" I shouted, still unsure what the nature of the trap was, but not wanting to be a sitting duck. "All ships, fall back!"

Before my men could react, the over one hundred rebels standing on the front lawn of the Sanctuary vanished. For a split second, it looked like they had teleported away, but the distressed messages incoming from the rest of our fleet claimed they had been holographic projections with a technology powerful enough to fool our systems.

Simultaneously, a massive ship decloaked directly in front of us. I had never seen a vessel of that design. It didn't belong to my species or the Guldans. A bright light shot out of the nose of the ship, engulfing us. A violent tremor rocked our chaser, as if it had gotten stabbed by a giant harpoon. I didn't need a status report to know they had just trapped us in a powerful tractor beam. Judging by the frantic voices of my unit leaders overlapping each other over the com, the same thing was happening at each of their locations.

I heard their words but paid them no heed as I slowly rose from the captain's chair of my chaser. Horror and disbelief robbed me of any rational thought as I stared at the lone figure walking on the nose of the foreign vessel. He reached the edge and spread his arms wide before levitating towards us.

"Vahleryon Praghan," I whispered.

"That's impossible!" Naax breathed out, his shock echoed by the other members of my unit.

It was indeed impossible. The young Great General—the most powerful Titan alive—had never set foot in the Eastern Quadrant, let alone on Sarenia. We were not only allies, but he was also a brother to me. Never in a million years would he attack us like this. It was he who had convinced me to give the Korlethean Exiles a chance to fight alongside us.

"It's the mimic," I said with sudden realization. "Shoot him and get us out of that beam!" I ordered.

No sooner did I speak those words than our power went out. My stomach flip-flopped with the queasy sensation of a quick drop in altitude. If not for the tractor beam, we would have plummeted to the ground—the fate that befell the other vessels accompanying me.

"That's not very nice, Prince Zerien," Vahleryon's voice said in my head, the sensation foreign and highly disturbing. "Why don't you have a nap, and we can talk on the other side."

A malicious smile stretched his lips seconds before a tingling sensation quickly spread all over me. I barely had time to reach for my armband and tap an emergency function. As a veil of darkness descended before my eyes, I heard or saw each of the men in my unit collapse.

Even as Siona's beautiful face flashed before my eyes, a dreadful thought crossed my mind before I lost consciousness.

If this is a mimic, how does he have Vahl's biokinetic powers?