Authors: Amber Kell
Kres walked fast to keep up with his lover. “But won’t he be…um…be unable to perform? I mean, if my danglies get frozen they aren’t going to work.”
Vohne gave Kres a quick kiss on the cheek as they walked, proving the man had amazing coordination. “Thresls have amazing recuperative powers.”
“I have noticed that.” Kres hurried to keep up with Vohne as the stronger man yanked him along.
Ripping open the door, Vohne glared at the soldiers. “Why are you still here? Niafe is after my brother. I want her stopped before my brother regains consciousness.”
The guards ran down the hall towards the alarm.
“Idiots,” Vohne muttered.
He still didn’t let go of Kres as they followed the soldiers.
“Why aren’t we running?”
“Kings don’t run.”
“Really?” Kres wondered if that really was true or if Vohne was feeding him lies.
“Unless our mates are involved.” Vohne flashed him a hot smile. “I’d run anywhere for you.”
After what felt like an endless stream of hallways, they reached a point where a dozen soldiers stood outside a metal door.
“What’s going on?”
Kres’ hormones stood at attention at the forceful tone of his lover. Hot images of his lover using that commanding voice in the bedroom made him harder than the solid door before him. Pulling his shirt down farther, he futilely tried to hide his erection. Luckily all eyes were on Vohne and ignoring Kres for the moment.
Nelrin came forward, bowing low before the king. “She’s locked the door, overriding the security measures.”
Kres’ blood ran cold. If she blocked them long enough, she could thaw out Vohne’s brother and cause all kinds of trouble. He couldn’t let her get to Bleine. His mate loved his brother, and it would break Vohne’s heart if Bleine re-mated with this scheming bitch.
No one was allowed to upset his mate!
Kres scanned the doorframe and the electronic panel caught his eye. “Can’t you override the system?”
Vohne shook his head. “Security has changed since I was here last. They didn’t even have electric locks.”
“Huh.”
Kres walked up to the security panel and plunged his knife into the interface with all his force. A popping noise sounded, followed by the smell of burnt electronics polluting the air. The doors slid apart.
Vohne flashed him a look of admiration. “Good thinking.”
Kres shrugged. “Sometimes the direct approach is best.”
The guards rushed in ahead of them. A moment later, the sounds of a struggle and shouting reached their ears.
Yanking his knife out of the wall, Kres retained hold of his mate as they entered the room. It was eerie as fuck to see walls of people hanging from metal tubes filled with blue goo and bodies.
“Who are all these people?” His voice was barely a whisper. He didn’t want Niafe to hear him, and truthfully, the room creeped him out. He nervously gripped the knife tighter as they approached.
“Most of them lost their mate or have severe illness or injury and are waiting to be cured. Some will be here for a brief while, others centuries,” Vohne explained in an equally quiet voice.
Chills prickled Kres’ skin as he moved with Vohne through the room. Several tubes hung from hooks in the middle of the room like something out of a horror movie. “It’s kind of disturbing.”
Vohne gave a soft laugh. Kres hoped there never came a time where Vohne needed to be cryogenically frozen. He didn’t know if he could do it.
“I demand to see the king!” Niafe’s shrieking voice echoed throughout the chamber.
“I believe that’s our cue.” Vohne yanked free of Kres’ hold and walked quickly towards the sound.
“Shit.” Kres rushed after him, determined to protect Vohne by any means necessary.
He skidded to a halt when they reached the area where Niafe stood, held between two guards beside Bleine’s cryo tube.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked Vohne. Kres had to give her credit. With her attitude, she made the guards seem more like accessories than the people who held her captive. Despite being a psycho, the girl had style.
“You’ve admitted to murdering your mother and framing my mate. Now you think I’m going to let you bond with my brother?” Vohne asked, his voice revealing his astonishment.
“I deserve this!” For the first time Kres saw cracks in her composure. “I deserve to be queen.” Madness lived in her eyes.
“You’re the reason we didn’t meet last time, aren’t you? It wasn’t your mother at all,” Kres demanded.
She turned imploring eyes to Kres, like he was going to side with her, as if she were only misunderstood instead of crazy. He had missed her deceit because she hadn’t thought she was fooling him. She truly believed she was fulfilling her personal prophecy. “It’s Mother’s fault he came back this time. I had it all under control, but no, she said it was unnatural to deprive the people of their king. I think it’s unnatural to deprive people of a bloodline. I can bring new blood and children to the throne. Instead of recycling the same garbage, we could have a fresh start. With enough human blood in our system, we won’t need full humans.”
“I am imprisoning you as an enemy of the crown.” Vohne’s voice remained calm and even, but Kres could feel fury pulsing through their link.
“You can lock me up, but you can never stop us all. We will take back this planet from antiquated ideas and bring it into the future,” Niafe shrieked.
Kres stepped forward. “We will stop you all. Anyone who threatens my man won’t have to worry about jail.” He let the threat hang in the air.
She softened her stance as she looked at him. “Kres, we can be friends. I don’t blame you for following your mate’s lead. You’ve been doing it for so long you don’t know any better. Join with me and I can free you from his influence. As the acknowledged king-mate, you and I can rule together.”
Kres couldn’t believe the woman’s gall. “You don’t care who rules by your side as long as you can rule. I don’t know who you have behind you, but they’d best watch for that knife in their back.”
“I could make you king!” she screamed.
Shaking his head, Kres gave her a pitying look. “Honey, that’s where you made your mistake. I’ve never wanted to be king.”
With a shriek of fury, she shoved free of her guards. “If I can’t have him, neither can you.” With inhuman strength, she kicked Bleine’s chamber.
Before their horrified gaze, the cryogenic pod fell over, the glass face plate shattering on the floor.
“No!” Vohne rushed to his brother’s side. Bleine’s body convulsed from the shock of sudden exposure.
“Get the medic!” Kres shouted. “And contain her.” He didn’t know what stood as a doctor on this planet, but if they didn’t get help soon, his mate’s brother wouldn’t survive.
Vohne opened the tube, revealing Bleine gasping for air.
The sound of someone choking drew Kres’ attention to his right.
A soldier lay curled up and shivering on the floor. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked the closest soldier.
The man rushed over to hold down the shaking man. “Sarler is an empath.”
“Human?” Kres asked.
“Yeah.”
“Perfect.”
Kres lifted the slim human in his arms. Luckily, the guy was fairly light. He might be a soldier, but Kres wasn’t up to Thresl strength.
He almost dropped Sarler twice on the way over to Bleine. The kid kept wiggling and convulsing.
Vohne looked up. “What are you doing?”
“I’m solving this problem. The medics are taking too long.”
Kres carefully laid the empath beside Bleine then pressed the men’s hands together.
Immediately, the convulsions stopped. Bleine’s eyes snapped open, the focus in them sharp as if he’d just closed them instead of having been in a cryogenic chamber. Sitting up, he leaned over the empath and planted a kiss on the young human.
Pleased with his solution, Kres stepped back and found himself the focus of his mate’s disapproving look.
“What?”
“Bleine isn’t gay.”
He looked down at the two men kissing then back at Vohne. “Looks like he’s doing fine to me. Want me to give him some pointers?”
“No! He is mine. I’ll kill you!” Niafe’s voice cut through the room.
Kres looked over in time to see Niafe slide a knife out of her boot and stab one of the distracted guards. The second guard grabbed at her as she ran for Bleine.
Instinct took over.
Snatching up his weapon, Kres threw it at her. The blade spun in the air with a soft whistling noise before embedding in the centre of her throat.
With a strangled gasp, Niafe fell to the ground, fingers scrabbling at the dagger. Before she could pull it out, her movements stilled. Blood poured from the wound, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head.
Kres was sick of people trying to kill him. Damn it, he’d come here to have a peaceful life with his lover, and he was going to have peace if he had to stab every one of the fuckers.
A medic shoved through the crowd, falling to his knees beside her.
“About time you got here,” Kres growled. “She’s dead. Check the prince.”
The man paled beneath Kres’ glare. With shaking hands, he pulled an instrument out of his bag then waved a long glowing wand over the two men. “Prince Bleine and his mate will be fine.” He pulled a syringe out of his bag then quickly injected Bleine. “This will help his body adapt.”
The human tore himself away from Bleine. “I can’t be his mate.”
“Why not?” Bleine asked.
“Neither of us are lovers of men.”
Kres shook his head. “You people are too much drama for me. I’m going to bed. I’ve had a long day.” Turning on his heel, he marched out of the room.
He hid his smile as he heard Vohne’s footsteps follow him. He’d know the sound of his mate anywhere.
“Would you like company?”
He gave his mate a careful once-over. “You might as well come along and pound me into the mattress. I mean, other than ruling a planet, you’ve got nothing to do.”
Vohne gave a choked laugh. “True.”
“Maybe we should get you a hobby, like flower arranging,” Kres said, warming to his theme.
“Why would I need to arrange flowers?”
Kres flashed him an innocent look. “Well, they’re not going to arrange themselves.”
“True. Or I could just be your boy toy,” Vohne offered.
“Hmmm.” Kres gave the idea the serious attention the proposal deserved. “You’re certainly pretty enough, but can you practise saying important things like yes, sir, whatever you say, sir? Because I really get off on the power thing.”
Vohne’s rich laugh filled the corridor. “Yes, I’ve heard you’re a power hungry bastard.”
“Yep, that’s me.” Switching thoughts, he turned serious. “We’ll need to figure out who Niafe was working with.”
Vohne nodded. “But not today. Today we’ll enjoy each other. We’ll have time after our mating ceremony to hunt down the betrayers.”
“Maybe your brother will have better insight.”
“Maybe,” Vohne agreed.
“I think that was supposed to be maybe,
sir.
” Reaching over, Kres pinched Vohne’s ass before fleeing down the hall, laughing as he heard his mate chasing after him. So much for kings never running.
Tonight, they would enjoy their bond. Tomorrow, he had to be fitted with formal robes for the mating ceremony and do the million and one things a king-mate was required to do. Glancing back at his quickly gaining lover, he decided, despite all the drama, he would do anything for the man-cat he loved.
Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:
Mercenary Love: Tempting Sin
Amber Kell
Excerpt
Chapter One
Sinclair Alverston sat at the bar, nursing his scotch. Hot, sweaty bodies covered the dance floor, but his heart wasn’t in the show. Watching the same men primp and preen to each other like a group of rutting peacocks each weekend was getting on his last damn nerve.
At thirty-two years of age, Sin was sick of one-night stands and ready to settle down with that one special man.
Despite the horrific things he’d seen in his work as a mercenary, Sin knew, deep in his bones, that eventually he would meet his soul mate. His best friend and business partner, Patrick, thought he was certifiably insane—not a new accusation—but that didn’t stop him from optimistically checking out every man he met, gay or straight, short or tall. He didn’t know how his soul mate would come packaged, but he knew someday he would meet the perfect man to fill the holes in his life—the parts so empty he could almost feel an Arctic breeze rushing through his soul.
Depression dug at him with dull claws as Sin took another drink of scotch. He examined his reflection in the bar mirror. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy with his dark hair and eyes. Sure, his face was all rough angles, but a lot of guys liked that badass image. A rock-hard body added to his appeal, carved to perfection by a strict training and exercise regimen. The T-shirt he wore advertised his muscles to anyone interested in checking him out.
Why couldn’t he find anyone worth keeping?
“Hi, Sin, long time, no fucking.”
Sin turned to see a red-haired man sliding onto the stool beside him. He’d played with the guy before. His name was Nate, or Ned, or something. He gave the guy a speculative glance, trying to decide if it was better to cut his losses for the night and settle for Mr Get-Me-Off-Now, or wait and see if there were better prospects. His mother had always said, ‘
You don’t find Mr Right at a skanky bar
’. Of course, she’d said that to his sister, but the same rules applied.
He’d almost decided to settle for the offered invitation when a stir in the crowd grabbed his attention. A slim blond walked through a group of dancers, and Sin’s heart flipped in his chest. Although he usually went for men in the six-foot and taller range, there was something sweet and vulnerable about the beautiful man who would only be six feet tall if he stood on a footstool and wore shoes with really thick soles. What he wore instead were black leather boots, a matching black leather jacket, and a pair of jeans so tight Sin discovered a new religion and was ready to worship at its denim-clad altar.