Authors: April Zyon
She closed her eyes, biting her lower lip harder as she
arched up into him. “Good, we belong. Forever.” She demanded everything from
him because she was giving him every part of herself.
“Forever. I will not accept
anything less, Laura.” Resting his hand over her
heart,
he maintained eye contact as
they rode closer to the edge of completion. She felt the first tingles deep
inside, not only her approaching
orgasm
but
the most
intimate connection she’d only heard rumors about.
The teasing
brushes of
his soul to hers shocked her.
She had only heard stories about this bonding, this joining of the two souls.
She pressed her hand over his heart. Nothing less than forever for the two of
them. The tingling raced up and down her spine. The knowledge that they were
coming closer to that full bond had her gasping. “Chevon
…
”
She was lost. She felt their souls bonding, could have sworn she saw the two
merging, his soul filling her now empty space with his warmth and irresistible
perfection.
Then the world truly exploded.
The rush of the orgasm tried to sweep her away. Only the
strong hold
of his
arms
held her in place, giving her the
anchor she needed. On one level she was aware of everything he
felt
and was aware of, while on another all
she could do was feel his body pressing hers deeper into the bed when he
collapsed, shuddering, over her. The whisper of his words against her ear
helped to settle her more. “I have you, always.”
She was breathing roughly, as
hard as if she had been
running
at
top speed. “And I have you,
always,
”
she told him as she settled in close to him. Her eyes were damp, like she’d
been crying. She had never done that. Never had so much pleasure.
His fingers
against
her cheeks had her turning
into the touch. “Laura, are you all right?” Concern colored his voice as he
turned her face toward him, his lips brushing her other cheek through the tears
wetting her skin. “Talk to me, little one.”
“I’ve never been better.” She
leaned into his touch and smiled. “I’ve never felt anything so
soul-shatteringly
perfect before
,
” she confessed.
He rolled them until she was on
top, his hand on her lower back.
She closed her eyes as his
thumb lightly stroked her body. She sighed happily, then pulled back to look at
him. “I think that I might love you, Chevon.”
“I am a lovable person so it is
perfectly understandable you would feel that way,” he said in a
deadly
serious tone. Then his lips
curved, and he cupped her face to pull her in for a kiss. “I love you, too,
little one. You are my world, my heart, my every breath.”
“Thank goodness I’m not the
only one who feels that
way,
”
she whispered, then let out a breath. For a moment she’d been so sure that it
was too fast to say that to him. “I still feel your soul inside of mine.”
“I can feel yours, too,” he said quietly. “It
’
s like the missing piece finally
has been slotted into place, and I realize what I’ve been missing for so long.
Who
I have been missing in my life.”
Her arms were wrapped around
his waist and she simply held him close. That was all she could do at this
moment because of just how good it felt to be this close to him. Skin to skin.
She pulled back to look into his eyes. “Is it nap time?” she asked with a grin.
“It’s definitely time for us to
sleep,” he said. He rubbed a hand
over
his
face
and let out a breath. Then he
lifted the sheets up to tuck around her. “Rest well, little one. Tomorrow we
get to sleep in late, and you have me for the day.”
Chapter Nine
Laura sat at Chevon’s side on
the crawler as it moved through space to dock with Petr’s ship. She was huddled
in a cape with an oversized hood. How Chevon had been able to get her to the
docking bay and into the crawler without anyone seeing
them,
she would never know, but she wouldn’t
question it either. She was clinging to his hand with hers, his thumb gently
rubbing over her fingers in a soothing motion. She knew she needed to calm
down, but that was easier said than done. The crawler lurched as it adjusted
trajectory. She looked up at Chevon when it felt as if all movement had
stopped. She
wanted
to say something but didn’t, not when she wasn’t certain if he trusted the
people with him.
He squeezed her
hand
and shook his head ever so slightly.
Knowing he was telling her to remain
quiet,
she pressed in closer to his side.
Chevon
dipped his head and for a brief moment rested his cheek
to
her forehead before he sat up
straighter.
“We are on final approach to the fleet admiral’s cruiser. We
have clearance. Should only be another couple moments, sir.”
“Thank you,” Chevon said. He looked to her, and one corner
of his mouth tipped up in a smile. “Almost there, little one,” he said under
his breath.
She nodded. She felt the
slowing of the crawler, then heard the metal on metal when they landed inside
of the fleet admiral’s vessel. She squeezed Chevon’s hand once more, not
moving. He had said they would be last to leave the crawler.
The security detail left the
cruiser, and she heard Malek speaking with someone. Then she saw the first
officer’s boots turn in their direction. A couple seconds later Chevon stood
and tugged on her hand. He tucked her hand
under
his
arm
and led her from the cruiser.
She kept her gaze down and the hood covering her features as
she walked along at Chevon’s side. They made several twists and turns until
they were waiting outside of someone’s quarters. The door opened and Laura
heard a woman’s voice, then the deep sound of a man’s voice as well.
They walked into the room, the
door closing behind them with a
snick
of a sound. When Chevon told her she could pull her hood
back,
she did just that. She smiled at the
other man and the woman whose arm was wrapped around his waist.
“Laura, allow me to introduce
Fleet Admiral Petr van Jahnsen, and his soul-
bond
mate, Samantha Henry. Petr, Sam, this
is Laura
Troxell,
my soul-bond mate,” he said to the other couple. “You can speak freely with
them, Laura,” he told her quietly.
She bowed her head to both.
“It’s lovely to meet you.” Laura saw the woman, Samantha, observing her closely
and smiled. “I am Craegin. My eyes are much different from theirs.” Her eyes
were obsidian black with a thick outline of sky blue. Even among her
people,
her eyes were unique. Laura
thought that Samantha looked different as well. She seemed far softer than
anyone from either the Craegin or Imarian sides of life. She had a sparkle in
her eyes, one that spoke of mischief and something else that Laura had never
seen before.
“You have beautiful eyes,” the woman said. “I’m different,
too. I’m human, not Imarian.” The love on the woman’s face when she looked up
at her husband was clear for Laura to see.
“It doesn’t matter where you were born, you are mine,” the
fleet admiral said. Then he leveled bright green eyes on her, and Laura felt
herself being judged. Or maybe
dissected
was a better term, given she
was damn sure he could see straight into her. “Come in and sit, both of you.
You can remove the cloak here, Laura. No one will disturb us. Although when
Bryerly finds you are here, Chevon, you may regret not giving her a heads-up.”
“I
’
m going to assume you took great pleasure in sending a crew
member off to let her know I
’
m here?”
“Of course.” Giving a sniff,
the admiral suddenly smiled. “Serves you right for the grief you gave Tarek.
Now come and sit down.”
That’s right, Laura thought to herself, his cousin was on
this vessel. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten that. Then again she had
been so stressed out she didn’t blame herself too much. “Thank you for allowing
me on the vessel as well. I know this is a risk for you.”
“We do not discriminate on my
cruiser,” the admiral said. “Chevon is an old friend, too, and I will do what I
can to help.” Laura followed the admiral and his mate to a lounge area, then
took the seat offered to her and settled in close to Chevon when he took the
seat at her side. “Thank you for any and all help that you can give to us,
Fleet
Admiral,
”
Laura told Petr with a bow of her head.
“Call me Petr.” He sat down
across from her, then pulled Samantha into his
lap
. It was clear that the couple loved
each other greatly. It warmed her heart to see just how much they seemed to
care for each other. “Chevon tells me that you will be able to hopefully get
information to my home world? Able to help me make sure that my brother and his
lover pay for trying to kill
me.”
“Yes, I will be speaking to my
brother-in-law about everything you tell me. Given his
position,
he’ll be able to determine
what has been happening and dig up information, too. Once he has everything in
place,
he’ll get word to me, and I’ll
get it to you. Then you can decide where we go from there.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “My brother is currently
holding a position that he shouldn’t among our people’s council. He’s holding
an advisory position that was created for two people, one of them being me.
He’s a very bad man,” she said simply. “If it’s possible I would like all of
the monies that I have to be disbursed to several very needy foundations.” She
was giving her trust to these men and hoped that it wasn’t misplaced. But
Chevon trusted them, so she would, too.
“Fintan will make sure that your brother is appropriately
stripped from the position and knows who took him down. The monies may take a
little longer, but I will mention it to Fintan to see what he needs from us,
and then we can work that out while we wait to hear back from him. Then when
your brother is taken care of we will pass along those details. He
’
ll see it done for you, Laura.
You have my word on that.”
“Thank
you,
” Laura said with a nod. She leaned
back once more against Chevon and crossed her legs.
She glanced at Chevon. “Now if
only we could figure out how to get your people to accept me.” She just prayed
he didn’t have to go through anything like what General Daykin had to go
through
to
have his Imarian mate accepted by Craegin society.
“You will be fine,” Petr said.
At her
look,
he lifted an eyebrow. “I have excellent hearing. The Imarians will accept you
for whoever you are. They may not appear warm to begin with but will slowly get
there. The fact you will make the acquaintance of several
high-ranking
military officers in the next
little while will also assist with the transition. While some in the general
public see us as nothing more than a frivolous expense, they do trust our
judgment when it comes to dealing with the Craegins.”
“I hope you’re
right,
” she said with a sigh. “And I
don’t mind them not being warm with me. They aren’t who matter, only
Chevon.
They won’t make him hurt to
keep me, will they? Won’t make him bleed like they did General Daykin?”
“No, that barbaric practice is strictly a Craegin tactic.
They will interrogate you both, several hours of questions, at a guess, and
then put a watch on you while you are planetside. That will likely continue for
roughly half a solar cycle, but it could be less if they determine you to be no
threat to security or our way of life. With the ruling body one never knows
exactly what will flip one of their many switches of suspicion,” Petr told her.
“I hope you’re right. I’m just hopeful that one day I will
be able to walk around his ship without being worried that someone will see me
or whatnot.”
“You can do that once we
return,” Chevon told her. She whipped around to look at
him
and saw him nodding. “I sent the
notification to the command structure of the military the morning after we soul
bonded. They have signed
off
and wish to welcome you to the family. I waited to say anything only because
they had to notify the ruling body, and they are a little trickier. As of this
morning,
they have acknowledged the
bond, and our tie to one another, with an oddly worded note to see them upon
return for a discussion. Don’t worry, it will be fine,” he assured her.
Laura looked at Chevon and
grinned. “Really?” She moved so that she could hug him tightly. Pressing a kiss
to her
lips,
he squeezed her
close,
then adjusted her so she sat on his lap. “I had a meeting with the command
staff to let them know to pass the word through the ranks. By the time we
return,
everyone will know about you
and your status. Don’t be surprised if they aren’t sure what to say. I have a
feeling this will be a first for many of them in meeting someone from the other
side of the border.”
“I hope they won’t be angry
with me for anything that my people have done. I just want to get along with
your people and not have them thinking that I’m going to harm you.” That was
the last thing she would ever do. She would take pain and punishment before she
ever did anything to hurt Chevon. “And I’m happy to answer any questions they
might
have
.”
“I’m sure they’ll have many
questions for you,” Petr said. “
Hopefully,
they know not to cross any lines during their questioning.”
“If they do then they will soon discover why everyone hates
doing the visual checks in the engine pods.” Chevon shook his head at her while
Petr chuckled. Laura shared a confused look with Samantha at what was obviously
an insider joke. “It will be fine. They all fear me on some level or other.”
Laura smiled, then shook her
head. She looked to Samantha once more and leaned in. “Will you tell me about
your world? From what I
understand,
you came from a completely different system and even time.”
“Yes,” the woman told her. “My
world was
…
” There was hesitation on her
face. “While there
was
great hatred and war there was also great humanity and care. I know that
doesn’t make any sense at all but it’s true. We
warred
and were terrible to people
but there was so much good that some did. If there
was
a major
disaster,
we would all pull together.
I’m just praying that one day the Imarian and Craegin will also realize that
they can be blended without giving up on their individual beliefs.”
Laura had never heard it put that way but now that the woman
had said it, well, it made sense. “I like that. Blended without giving up on
individual beliefs.”
“It would be more a coming
home,” Petr muttered. “If the records that my sister, Adira, has uncovered are
to be believed we were the same race at one time. Why we split and ended up
where we
did,
we don’t know. But it makes sense, given our similarities. We each developed
our own language and religions but it is similar to what occurred
on
Samantha’s world many times over
during their history. I don’t know if we will ever be able to blend once more,
but my hope is that we
can, at
least,
end the hostilities for good and get on with enjoying our
lives.”
“We are working on it,” Chevon
said. “We will end this, and we will make sure that every generation that
follows knows what happened, why it happened, and that they are to never allow
our people to splinter again. If they
do,
I’m pretty sure that Petr will come back from whatever follows this life to
kick their asses. So will Fintan. They have been fighting for this the hardest
and will be the ones to take down those who think that war is profitable.”
Laura nodded slowly. “You’ve all had to take so many
chances.”
“We give it all willingly,
Laura. We knew going into this that there could very well be a chance neither
of us would survive it. If the wrong people caught
wind
of what we were doing we would
disappear. And the resistance against the money hungry individuals trying to
force us into a war would have been set back. I doubt it would have been
stopped, but it would have lost ground and that would not be good. This is a
war that has to be fought continuously, carefully, and with only one intent.
Remove the corrupt to ensure peace for those who have no idea what might erupt
at any moment.”