Chapter Twelve

 

 

 

 

To her amazement, Temis and Gren spent hours upon hours making love, an exhaustive but thoroughly satisfying exchange. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but each time she touched him she wanted him more.

After finally succumbing to their bodies’ need for sleep, the two rested.

Waking with a deliciously well-used soreness, Temis stretched and discovered Gren already awake, staring at her with a sleepy smile on his face.

He brushed his lips over hers and the soreness vanished, replaced with a languid peace.

“Not that I’m complaining.” Temis traced every facet of his handsome face. “But when are you going to explain how you’re able to do things like that?”

He sighed. “Do we have to go into this now?”

She nodded. “I can’t help it. My curiosity is killing me.” She sat up and saw his eyes darken. Flushing, she pulled the sheet up to cover her breasts. “Focus, Gren.”

“I am,” he murmured, stroking her leg through the thin sheet covering them.

“How is it I want to smack you and kiss you at the same time?”

He shrugged, his grin tugging on her heartstrings.

Needing some answers, and shying from such confusing affection, she pressed forward. “You took me to places I had no idea existed. I saw stars, Gren. Real stars. And though I don’t have much experience with this kind of thing, I know that’s not normal.”

He continued to stroke her thigh, his gaze shifting from her eyes to the blanket covering her.

She continued. “And what about the flashing lights? The surge of energy that rocked the ship while we made love?” She took his chin in her hand and made him look at her. “Tell me, Gren.” Her voice softened. “Please. I need to know.”

He pressed a kiss to the centre of her palm that quickly turned her insides to mush.

“I told you I’m a telepath.”

She stared, waiting.

“And I should have guessed you wouldn’t believe me. Temis,” he paused and sat up, his flexing abdomen and tense pectorals a definite distraction. “I’m somewhat of a rarity, different from the men you normally meet.”

“Tell me about it.” She grinned, but her smile faded when his lips thinned.

“I can do things others can’t. I—” He stopped. “I don’t know how to explain, exactly.”

She frowned. “Just tell me the truth. I won’t tell anyone else.” A sudden thought struck her. “Are you an enhanced psychic?”

“Enhanced? Oh, you mean, like a Creation? Or a genetically enhanced being the scientists of Eyra like to tinker with? Hell no. My gifts are a natural part of my heritage.” He sounded proud, his tone that of the arrogant mercenary she had first met. “Unfortunately, they’re worth far more than what the Eyrans are paying for recapture of their ‘scientific experiments’,” he added caustically.

“I’ve never much cared for biological tampering either,” she admitted. “Real Zeirens look down on skills acquired through artificial means. We prize true strength and power.” She eyed him with curiosity. “I don’t understand why you can’t tell me what you’re hiding. I’ve seen you fight. I know your strength is your own and that you’ve spent at least some training time on my planet.”

His brows rose. “So it’s my body you’re attracted to, and not my mind?”

“Can’t you just answer the question?”

“It’s more complicated than you know.” He pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on top of her head, making her feel warm and protected. “I can tell you I’m not telepathic, at least not with everyone. I have an affinity towards women.”

She stiffened. She couldn’t help it.

He chuckled. “I mean my abilities only work on women.”

“But I heard you communicate with Lurin.” She tried to squirm out of his hold to look at him, but he tightened his arms around her.

“So you heard that, hmm? And you say you’ve no mental gifts of your own.”

“Only the ability to structure dreams, and that’s not all that uncommon among my mother’s people. I only started sharing some of your thoughts and feelings after we, uh, well, after we were intimate that first time.”

“You mean after I licked your sweet pussy? Made you come all over my tongue?”

“Gren.” She blushed, as embarrassed from his frank talk as much as at her arousal because of it.

“I’m sorry, sura. But you’re so easy to tease.” He took a deep breath and released it on a loud exhale. “What we shared, Temis, is something I will never share with another. Nor will you.” He squeezed her. “Our souls connected on a spiritual plane my people call wainu.”

“Your people?” She finally managed to free herself and looked into his dark eyes, so full of mysteries.

“I’ve never heard of a foreigner reaching that state. I wouldn’t have believed it possible had I not seen you there with me.”

She wanted to take exception to being called a ‘foreigner’, but his earnest expression stopped her.

“We bonded, Temis. Though I tried to avoid it, it happened regardless.”

“Bonded?” He seemed to be talking about permanence, and she still didn’t understand just what he could do, who he really was. “What do you mean you tried to avoid it?”

“I felt drawn to you from the first. I thought if I could steer clear of your sexuality, I would be safe. It worked at first, but you grew too tempting.”

“I don’t understand.” At least the initial attraction hadn’t been one-sided.

“I wanted to fuck you until neither of us could walk, but I didn’t want to take your virginity, as much as I did.” Satisfaction laced his words. “I instinctively knew making love to you fully, coming inside you, would change us both, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“So we bonded on the ship. What now?”

He shook his head. “We bonded before that. When I tasted you, something in me shifted. With you, Temis, I can communicate the way I do with those of my kind—mentally.” So Lurin was one of his kind. “Only with you does the lovemaking get so out of control.” His eyes burned. “Every time we touch I want you. It’s an ache that will never fade. Though it’s typical of my kind to share everything, know I won’t ever let another touch you.”

She stared at him in surprise. ‘Not ever’ implied a definite future, which both pleased and worried her. The shots all peacemakers were forced to take made conception or disease impossible. Permanence, then, was a choice a Zeiren woman made willingly.

“You’ll willingly make it with me.”

 “You can read my thoughts? Whenever you want to?” That she didn’t like.

“I can now, but I’ll teach you to shield yourself.” He gave her a tender look and brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “You’re so young, so beautiful. I’m not really sure how this works, but I’ll do everything in my power to please you, sura, in all ways.”

He closed his eyes. An orgasmic tide rushed through her, leaving her shaking and weak as immeasurable pleasure consumed her.

After catching her breath, she stared at him in awe. “You just, you—”

“Brought you to orgasm with a thought. I wasn’t bragging earlier when I said I could do that.” He stared at her with hunger. “Sex is one thing my kind does very well.”

She didn’t know what to say. Still trying to collect her thoughts, she could only watch him with helpless fascination.

“Quite a talent, I know,” he murmured. He pressed a kiss to her mouth and stroked her hair. “It will be all right, Temis. Since I know you don’t want me to read your thoughts, I’ll show you how to shield yourself right away. You already kept me out, even if you didn’t know how you were doing it.”

“Before, when you were in that mood.”

He rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t call it a mood. I was hurting.” He cupped himself, and she couldn’t look away. “Hurting to have you.”

She licked her lips. “Right.”

“So you’ll learn to shield yourself. Then we’ll focus on the details of our rescue mission. Once we know where to go, we’ll make them safe again.”

She had more questions, but her body hummed with passion. She couldn’t say how, but she knew Gren had never before shared so much of himself with another woman before.

Like a cat, she crept over him. When he tensed, feminine satisfaction filled her. “We have time yet,” she whispered and plunged her tongue in the sensitive cavern of his ear. He shuddered and ground up against her. “I think part of my training should start here.” She slid over him, joining them as one. “To practice how to last longer when you’re inside me. What do you think?”

“Yes, sura,” he groaned. “That’s the perfect place to start.”

 

* * * *

 

Two days later Gren received the call he’d been expecting. After disconnecting with Ceril, he turned to Temis. The touch of her warm gaze caressed him, both arousing and comforting. He thought it interesting that the thought of a bonded future no longer bothered him.

“Well?” she asked, clad in another of his overlarge shirts.

He liked her wearing his clothing, a testament to his new possessive nature. Her eyes sparkled with amusement, and he realised he needed to keep a better shield on his thoughts. Normally he didn’t have a problem shutting everyone else out, but with Temis if felt like closing off a part of himself.

She’d picked up the shielding skill with ease, mentally keeping him at a distance without fully separating herself. Despite not being fully at ease with him, a part of her wanted the spiritual contact they shared.

“The auction will proceed as planned, tomorrow at midday on Colony6.”

“Damn. I was hoping Rorn wouldn’t have the connections to go outside our jurisdiction. Now what do we do? Even if we wanted to approach, Colony6’s militia would shoot us and have an interplanetary incident all over the System Broadcast.”

“Sernal’s jurisdiction may end at that line, but mine doesn’t.” He smiled with satisfaction. “I can do whatever the hell I want. And with no peacemakers to interfere.” At her frown, he amended, “With one exception, of course.”

She grumbled under her breath and left the bridge. He understood nothing outside the word “galley” and decided to leave her to her musings.

As he dialled Lurin’s private number to forward the news to Sernal, Gren wondered if and when the time would come to share the truth of his heritage with Temis.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t trust her, but their relationship was so new. And added to that were his responsibilities to his people. He still had no idea how to make his guardianship of a mythic and nearly extinct race mesh with his new relationship.

He couldn’t imagine any of the elders being pleased he’d taken a mate. Then again, as deeply as he felt for Temis, he still felt guilty he’d found her. At his core he knew he wasn’t worthy. His weakness in taking her anyway, regardless of his duties and stained past, only reinforced the notion he had no business being with a soul so strong and pure.

“Lurin here. What’s new?”

Lurin’s voice shook him from dark thoughts. They made pleasant conversation while he mentally projected the information Sernal needed to know.

“Oh man, what a mess. Anything else I should pass to Lead Sernal, the biggest legal pain in the ass in the system? By Flor’s dagger, the man’s been calling us at all hours wanting to know where you are and what you’re doing.” Lurin paused when Gren projected amusement. “Laugh it up, friend. But you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do when this is over. I hear you not only captured a peacemaker, but Sernal seems to think you’ve enthralled her.”

“Sernal’s an idiot. I didn’t enthrall her.” A recollection of her abduction from the ship flashed through his mind. “Ah, maybe I lured her off the ship. That was as far as her subjugation progressed. She’s here now, helping me of her own free will.”

A moment of silence passed. “So you finally mated, hmm?”

Gren grimaced. Trust Lurin to see through his bullshit. “Is this really any of your business?”

“Hell no. But I told you your time would come. I can’t wait to tell Mara.”

Feminine satisfaction bled through the conversation. “So what’s she like, Gren?” Mara joined the silent communication. “I hear she’s a peacemaker from Zeyr who’s absolutely gorgeous.”

“Who told you that?” Irritation filled him. Of course she was beautiful, but who had described her as ‘absolutely gorgeous’? Sernal or his idiot brother Rafe?

Lurin whistled. “Wow, jealous already. Didn’t I tell you—?”

“Yeah, yeah. You told me the whole of it,” he directed to Lurin. “Now pass my message to Sernal and stop wasting my time. I’ve got a mission to prepare for.”

“And a woman to love,” Mara added. “Best of luck, Gren. And tell Temis we’re dying to meet her.”

He disconnected and left to find Temis. She sat in the galley eating a plate of seasoned gnom, a delicacy loved on Zeyr.

“I can’t believe you have this on board,” she said with enthusiasm, the food having apparently rid her of her earlier hostility. “This is my favourite dish.”

   He grabbed a plate of fruit and sat next to her. “I thought that might be the case. Many years ago when I trained on Zeyr, I learned much about the inhabitants’ customs.”

 “Just when did you train there? Did you know Master Zephu?”

He shook his head. “I trained there a long time ago.” Smiling, he decided to tease her. “It was long before you were born, Temis.”

Her eyes widened. “Just how old are you?”

“That’s my secret.” He felt her probe his mind and gently pushed her back. “Good try, sura, but until you’ve earned the right to know, I’m not telling you my age.”

“Earned the right to know?” she asked, clearly affronted.

She was so easy to rile, and so much fun to watch.

“You leave so many holes in your history and your present. You’re a walking mystery. And you stir so many questions!” She looked like she wanted to throttle him, and he wanted her under him again. “Will you at least answer me this?”

He waited.

“What, by Narok’s sword, does sura mean?”

“Sura? Didn’t I tell you before? It’s my people’s word for drun.”

Her face flushed bright red at the insult.

He laughed. “I’m teasing. It means sweetheart or ‘one who is cared for’. A pleasant endearment, sura, nothing more.”

She huffed and crossed her arms. “It had better not mean drun.”

“Though you will recall that’s what you referred to me as when we first met.”

She flushed again. “I didn’t know you then.”

“And now?”

“Now I still might call you that.” Her lips quirked. “But then, there are a lot of other names I could think to call you as well.”

“Oh?”

“But before I get sidetracked, I think it’s time we talked specifics about tomorrow. Why don’t you tell me a little bit more about what to expect at the slave auction?”

 

Temis watched as all humour faded from Gren’s expression.

“You’re going to see it soon enough.”

“I’d like to be prepared,” she said quietly. She knew how much this bothered him. Though she could no longer read his thoughts unless he shared them, at times she still sensed his emotions. Right now she sensed anger, guilt, and surprisingly, shame.

He sighed and pushed aside his food. “The auctions are always different, and yet always the same. Captured women, normally drugged and therefore obedient, once prepared, trudge through long lines of disreputable men and women, some desperate, others sickly depraved.

“The women are naked, pawed and prodded as they walk from the entrance of the slave tent to the centre cage, where they await the bidding wars.” His face didn’t change expression, but the dark feeling around him deepened. “A beautiful woman, called an ogra, rubs dyes on their breasts and shaved loins, calling attention to the women’s femininity. She’ll also engage in sexual play with certain slaves, to entice them to behave or excite the mongrel onlookers.”

Temis listened in horrified awe. She could imagine it, the helplessness, the dirty feeling of dozens of eyes on her in her most vulnerable state. Then to be sexually molested by a woman for the amusement of those watching…

 “It’s extremely unpleasant for the women involved. The ogra works for the auctioneer and derives pleasure from her work. The men and few women watching the orgiastic event chant and cheer. But the women in the cage remain oblivious, drugged to remain docile. Every once in a while the auctioneer will allow one or two women to attend the event aware of their surroundings.”

“Why?”

“To watch them fight their fate, then subdue them before the crowd. It isn’t uncommon to see slaves raped before the masses. I’ve heard the male slaves go through it too, though most of them are used in places for manual labour. The auctions I attended worked solely with females.”

She sat in troubled silence. “It sounds like hell.”

“Believe me, it is. But that’s not all of it. Depending upon the size and clients invited, a private party, normally held after the main auction, can be decidedly worse.”

“How could it be any worse?” She cringed just thinking about it. Maybe she’d taken on more than she could handle. She didn’t think she could participate in the events he’d described, peacemaker or no.

“A private party is smaller. Only the richest and most powerful are invited to attend. And only the prettiest, most unusual women are sold there. Normally a lot of currency is involved in a private party, where anything and everything occurs. For all that the slave auctions are terrible, at least there’s a certain measure of safety in the general bidding. The slaves aren’t allowed to be killed or overly harmed.”

No, just raped. She couldn’t imagine what the private auctions were like. Her mouth dried. “Will you be invited to a private party, do you think?”

He nodded grimly. “Ceril informed me of it just now. Rorn Fenhal will dangle any bait to get his hands on you.”

She swallowed, waiting for him to continue. When he remained silent, she prodded him to tell her the whole of it. “I’m sorry, Gren. But I need to know. I’m going to be there tomorrow, remember?”

“I know.” He cleared his throat. “I really hadn’t thought this through before, Temis. I can stomach the auction for the sake of those women, but I don’t think I can handle you there.”

“How bad can it be? I’ll have you there with me.”

He nodded. “And I won’t let anyone but me near you, that I promise. Some ‘owners’ are possessive, so it won’t seem too odd if I want no one near you but me. At first. I am going there to sell you, after all.” He cursed and ran a hand through his hair. “Private owners are a different matter, though. They’re not supposed to care for their slaves, so using them and sharing them means nothing. Public coupling is often a way of advertising.

“It isn’t unusual to watch the owner and slave engage in intercourse, or to watch the slave pleasure her owner in other ways. There’s also the option that the slave may pleasure anyone the owner chooses.”

“What are you thinking to do?” She wished at that moment she could read his thoughts. His mood shifted from angered to enraged to aroused and back again.

“I won’t let you do anything with anyone other than me, and only if it’s absolutely necessary. As obsessed as Rorn is with you, I’d bet he’ll want a private viewing. I could push for that.”

“But with you there, right?” She tried to act professional, but thoughts of having sex in public shocked her. Temis didn’t consider herself a prude. Though a newly sullied virgin, she’d been around enough pleasurers and men in her line of work to know about sex. But actual lovemaking was new to her, and with Gren, utterly meaningful. She couldn’t imagine dirtying it for the likes of Rorn Fenhal.

“Don’t worry, sura,” Gren murmured. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She couldn’t help it. She might be unnerved, hell, even frightened, but Temis fought her own battles. “I won’t let anything happen to myself,” she corrected.

His eyes glowed bright enough to cast a shadow behind him. “Then you’ll be doubly protected, won’t you?”

“You still need to explain that,” she said with a nod to his eyes. He scowled. Immediately, the aura around him dimmed. Pleased that she’d taken control of the tense situation, she smiled. “Don’t worry, Gren. I’m a peacemaker, remember? We’ll enter the auction, save the women, and nail Rorn Fenhal to the wall like the insect he is. I look forward to locking him up for life.”

“Sernal didn’t say he had to be brought in alive.” The look on Gren’s face froze her to her seat. She’d only seen him appear that deadly once before, when he took on a dozen peacemakers on Lady Justice. And then he hadn’t been out for blood.

“I need to talk to Sernal.”

Gren glared at her, and she could feel the energy thrumming around him. “Why?”

“Because he’s my superior. I’d like to know exactly when and where he plans to arrive with back-up, and to hear him say it doesn’t matter if Fenhal is brought in dead or alive. Jurisdiction or not, Sernal would never have sent me with you if he didn’t have a plan to get me out of here. He’s Mister Worst Case Scenario. I just know he has a plan for dealing with Colony6.”

Gren scooted closer to Temis, deliberately trying to intimidate her with his large frame. Instead of a threat, however, Temis felt arousal.

“Look, once we land on Colony6, we’ll have a few hours at most before the auction begins. If Sernal does plan to offer backup, he can’t arrive until after the auction is under way. One whiff of peacemaker involvement and Rorn will tear down and vanish, like most illegals do. We’ll use our prep time before the auction starts to map out extraction points.”

“But how are the two of us going to rescue fifteen or more women who’ve been drugged, and Narok knows what else, from a crowd of murderers and slavers? Even you can’t take on the dozens that will likely be there.”

He smiled, and she couldn’t help the shiver that raced up her spine. Though she felt completely safe in his presence, she knew his enemies wouldn’t be so lucky.

“Trust me when I say I can move the women to the extraction points. Drugged or not, as long as they’re capable of walking, they’ll be saved.”

“Come on.”

“Really. I can manipulate thought, to an extent,” he added with a frown.

She didn’t like that he avoided eye contact. “Are you telling me you can control minds?”

“Just female minds. For some reason, a man’s brain chemistry makes him immune to my, ah, talent.”

“So you can make any woman do what you want her to? Whether it be in passion, to clear her head, or to simply order her around?”

He swung his gaze to meet hers and nodded slowly.

“But that’s impossible.” He couldn’t possibly be saying what she thought he was. “You can’t control men, but women are virtually bound to your every thought, your every desire?”

“Temis, can we please just save the rest of this discussion for after the mission? You wanted to talk to Sernal. If you absolutely have to talk to him, come with me.”