Chapter 17

Mitnick

I woke with a gasp and immediately choked on sand and dirt. My face stung and my neck was awash with agony. A fire burning through my nerves from the laser wound on my vulnerable skin. All that pain meant nothing to me, my thoughts filled only with worry for Harper, my mate.

Sand stung my eyes, too much of it. I couldn't see, couldn't tell up from down, and I couldn't find her. It was a reflex to jerk my hand to my collar and activate my helmet. The protective shielding unfolded from the collar of my suit and covered my face with a firm snick. Instantly, calm surrounded me; the helmet took away the stinging sand and muted the roaring of the wind.

Harper, where was she? A sandstorm of destructive proportions roared around me; it was so terrible that I did not risk activating my drones. Wherever they had fallen when I'd lost consciousness, they could not fly until that storm passed. That left touch and very limited vision to search for my female, but at least the helmet had infrared vision to assist me.

She wasn't far, lying in the dirt above my head in an awkward face-down sprawl. My hearts clenched painfully in my chest at the sight; could she even breathe that way? Was she dead? Though my body was sluggish and weak, a symptom of the blood loss I'd experienced, I forced myself to roll over.

My head spun as I rolled to my knees and crawled toward her, but I gritted my teeth and kept going. Gloves protected my hands, and the helmet protected my face, but I had no armor to cover my wings and the delicate edges of my feathers were getting torn to shreds now that they were caught in the sand-laden wind.

Then I reached her and hurried to gather her against my chest, cupping my wings around her to shelter her from this raging storm. "Wake up! Harper!" Her goggles were still on her head. They protected her eyes, but the rest of her face was raw and red from the stinging sand. She fluttered her lashes in response, and I could sense her heartbeat beneath my palms. She was alive, but if she didn't get out of this storm soon, she could get seriously hurt.

She moaned groggily; her lashes lifting enough for me to get a glance at the sky-blue of her pretty eyes. "Tent," she said, then coughed when the sand that still filtered into my improvised shelter hit her face. "I put up a tent," she said with determination, frowning as she tried to raise her head and look around.

"Hush, I'll find it. Good job. You rest now." She sighed, her lashes fluttering again before they drifted shut. I flicked on my visor as I pulled her closer protectively. The infrared of my helmet wouldn't help me locate the tent if it was still there, but my visor and implant had more sensitive scanners. They picked out the shapes of the dead trees around us, and then, just ahead, the shape of my survival tent. It wasn't far.

I crawled to keep the wind from grabbing at us even more, and I focused on shielding Harper as much as I could at the expense of my wings. I could feel them shred and tear all the way down to the flight pens of my biggest feathers. The tent flap beeped in alarm when I tried to open it, warning against the severe weather conditions. Then I was crawling inside, Harper clinging to my chest like the tiny Novi she was.

As soon as I pulled the tent flap shut behind us, the stinging of the sand eased up, and I could deactivate my helmet. My wings made the small space even smaller, and torn feathers and blood dripped from them, staining the sand-strewn interior. That didn't matter. I laid out my mate in the cramped space and freed her from her goggles so that I could assess the damage.

Her coat was missing, and the wind and sand had torn through her sweater and abraded her skin in far too many places. She didn't move, didn't respond to what I did or said except for quiet moans of pain. I had failed to protect her from this; I should have landed sooner and provided shelter. Why hadn't my drones and scanners picked up the approaching storm?

I ignored the dizzying vertigo that made the tent sway around me because it didn't matter. I had only one priority right now: Harper needed me. She was in pain, and that was not allowed. My pockets and pouches had been rummaged through, but I found the tissue regenerator in the right spot. My gloved fingers felt clumsy as I flicked it on, but the device had remained unharmed by the insidious sand.

It glowed as I ran it over her neck and face first, and her raw skin reformed before my eyes. With my other hand, I fumbled to pull the bag free that was strapped against my spine. I needed the stimulants packed in there, and I wanted the blanket too. I could fold it beneath her head and make her more comfortable.

I was swaying with a damned weakness I couldn't shake by the time I'd stripped her clothing from her to make sure every inch of her skin was healed. I gave her the first shot of stimulants; a special blend of Dravion's that would aid in the rapid healing and replenish missing nutrients. The second, and last, shot I gave myself, and then I drank an entire canteen of water to replenish the fluids I'd lost.

Harper started to stir slowly and to keep her from getting cold without her clothes, I wrapped her tightly in the blankets. I should have put her in one of our armor suits; the captain had done that for his mate when they were stranded. It would have done a better job protecting her fragile skin, but I hadn't thought she'd be in danger.

"Yes! Wake up, my sweet mate. Come on Harper, you can do it," I said to her. She rolled her head and moaned, and I ran the tissue regenerator over her scalp again to make sure I hadn't missed any sore spots hidden beneath her hair. When she opened her eyes, I drew in my first relieved breath and the pain of my own wounds slammed into me with sudden force. I had pushed it all away, but knowing that she was going to be all right made it leap to the forefront.

"Nick? Did we make it to the tent?" she muttered. She sounded confused, but a coughing fit racked her before I could answer. I helped her into a more upright position and offered her a fresh canteen of water. She drank greedily, coughed some more, and then sagged against my arm. "Better. Thank you."

"Anytime," I said. I shifted my knees to a more comfortable position so I could cradle her against my chest. The worry was easing now that she looked whole again. I needed to take care of my neck wound in a moment, but for now, holding her close was all I wanted. She rested against my chest trustingly, and I let myself relax. The storm would protect us as much as it had harmed us. Nobody could find us in this.

"Oh, shit! Nick, your neck. Are you okay?" Harper jerked in my grip so suddenly that the movement jarred my body and sent a fresh wave of pain through my neck. She twisted in my arms to peer at the bandage-covered injury, squinting adorably as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

It wasn't until she growled in frustration that I realized it was the lack of light that was bothering her. I had forgotten that her sight was not the same as mine; my eyes had adapted for dark and light, allowing me to be an optimal hunter in any condition. With just a thought, my visor slipped over my left eye, and I activated the lantern setting on my com device at the same time.

She gasped as soon as light flooded our little shelter, blinking her eyes rapidly against the glare. Guilt-stricken, I lowered the settings to their lowest output. "Sorry, are you okay?" I hurried to ask and dipped my head to check her eyes despite the sharp burst of pain that brought on. She ignored my question and leaned to the side to pick up the tissue regenerator that I'd used on her.

"Tell me how this works," she demanded to know. "And no tough guy stuff. You need medical care, Nick." A smile pulled at my mouth, at her tone, and I felt warmth spread through my chest at her concern.

I didn't need to explain much to help her figure out the medical device. Once the regenerator was on the right setting, all she had to do was aim. My wound was superficial but had nicked an artery, the device was good enough to repair that damage, and my body would do the rest with a little bit of sleep.

We didn't speak as the handheld regenerator hummed while it worked. The wind was roaring wildly around us, and it made the tent shiver though it held firm. The sand was piling up against the sides, providing protection and insulation from the raging storm. Without my drones, I could not estimate how much longer this was going to take, but we had enough food and water to last us several days.

My eyes caught on Harper's delicate, pale shoulder. Her blanket had slipped when she'd moved from repairing my neck wound to running the device over my nearest wing. She frowned deeply and exclaimed in horror over the damage. "This has to hurt. Can you still fly?" she asked, but the blanket had dipped even more and I barely heard her over the roaring of desire in my veins.

The pale slope of her breast, the slightest hint of her brown areola. My instincts clamored inside my head, urging me to pin her to the ground to claim her. Both my mating cock and my pleasure cock surged in my pants, aching with the need to fill her. She was so close, and she was naked beneath that flimsy blanket. All I had to do was pull, and she'd be bare to me.

My fist curled around the nearest edge of the blanket, ready to do just that when I froze in place. I had made her a promise. I'd sworn to her that I would not claim her unless she asked me for my cocks. They twitched eagerly at the thought, but she had not said the words, not yet. Nothing in our terms said that I couldn't attempt to convince her… And what better way to ride out a storm than to spend it making love?

***

Harper

I froze in place when I felt my skin break out in a sudden rush of goosebumps. I wasn't cold. The floor of the tent was emitting a gentle warmth, and Nick was pumping out enough heat to warm up the rest of the tiny space. No, these goosebumps were the kind that came from sudden awareness, from being caught in the gaze of a predator.

I'd been working on the red feathers at the very tip of his wing; they were nothing more than skeletal pins with raw skin beneath. It wasn't a pretty sight, but the regenerator was doing wonders. Just like it had probably done wonders for my own sore flesh. I still felt overly sensitive, the way new skin often did, but other than that, I had not a single blemish.

When I felt his gaze on me, I abandoned the work to glance up, half expecting to see that feral side of him. I wasn't disappointed. It was definitely there, but it was still tempered by his more rational side. I could see the devious glint in his eyes; he was planning something, and I was right in the crosshairs.

My nipples perked, and suddenly the soft silvery material of the blanket felt too rough against my skin. I liked it when he got all intense like that, and I definitely liked it when he put all that focus on me. It meant pleasurable things; it meant steamy orgasms that seemed to keep getting better each time.

"Come here," he ordered, his voice gruff. The blanket started slipping and my fingers convulsed around the edge as I debated if I should stop that slide. No, it wasn't just slipping, he was pulling on it. That knowledge made my core spasm with a rush of wetness, and his answering groan told me he knew.

The blanket slipped down to my waist, and his eyes instantly fastened on my naked breasts. Their feral, yellow and black irises seemed to glow in the soft light coming from his com device. They reminded me of cat eyes, but maybe a hawk or eagle was a better comparison.

"Remember my promise?" he growled, prowling closer once he released the edge of the blanket. In the confined space, he crowded me, taking up so much room in the small tent that I felt like I had nowhere to go.

My brain was locked onto only one thing: how big he was, how strong, and how much all of that turned me on. I didn't remember what he was talking about until he uttered the next husky command. "Ask me for my cocks, Harper. Ask me to claim you."

Those weren't questions, they were orders, and my entire body went up in flames for him. My mouth went dry as I tried to form the words he wanted to hear, my mouth opening as I tried to obey. Yes, I wanted him. I wanted to experience the same pleasure I had that first day on the shuttle. But that wasn't what he was demanding of me, he was telling me he wanted to claim me in all ways. Not one cock, but both of them, at the same time.

"Say it, Harper. Open that pretty mouth and say it. I know you want to. You need it, don't you, my sweet Novi?" Ah, I was a sucker for that kind of talk. Nick knew exactly how to push all my buttons, and after what we'd been through, didn't we deserve to find that kind of happiness together? So what if my grandma would tell me it was too soon and I should be smart about this? The body wanted what the body wanted. Or was that the heart? I wasn't sure of anything any longer, except that Nick was always going to protect me. And that was good enough.

"Please," I said, my voice shockingly hoarse. "I need you, Nick." His eyes narrowed at me, and he loomed, one healed wing on my left, a still raw and damaged on my right that added to the dangerous vibes that clung to him like a second skin. I was no longer dealing with the nerdy, computer-loving side of him. He was all beast right now.

That wasn't good enough. Those weren't the words he wanted me to say. I felt a strange sense of power when I realized he was still holding himself in check until I said them. His fists were braced on either side of my head, and I'd tumbled onto my back, completely naked beneath him, while he was still covered from the neck to the tips of his fingers and toes in all black. His armor outlined his muscles and did nothing to hide the bulge at his groin.

His growl filled the tent and competed with the roaring of the sandstorm outside of it; it vibrated against my flesh and made my nipples ache. More wetness flooded my passage, dripping down my thighs. I licked at my lips and stared into that animalistic gaze. "Give me your cocks, Nick."