Thorn's Bondmate (Zarronian Warriors Book 2) (20 page)

"What does that mean?"

She laughed. "It's old Earth slang. It means you talk too much." She understood why he believed the baby wasn't his but he was in for a huge surprise if her child looked as much like him as Dane and Dev did. Thinking of them made her wonder is she'd have twin sons.

"There's something else I would have told you earlier but you left the den before I could."

"What?" She knew she wasn't going to like whatever he had to tell her.

"Do you remember when you were so sick on the Invincible?"

Surprised, she looked at him. So, he had come to check on her and had seen that she was ill. "Yes, I remember. I had the flu."

"No, it wasn't the flu. It was the fever. That's what happens when it blazes out of control."

Daria remembered how sick she'd been. So sick that she'd thought she was dying.

"On the Invincible you got sick because I wasn't able to come to you as soon as I should have."

"Because of the explosion?" she asked, understanding finally what had happened.

Thorn nodded, his expression serious. "You were dying when I found you."

She shivered and he pulled her against him and held her. He combed his fingers through her hair as he felt her soft breath on his chest.

"Is that going to happen again?"

"No. I'll make sure it doesn't. I think the only reason it didn't happen sooner was because I came to you every night. We could try every other night but someone might notice your fever."

Disgruntled, she pushed him away. "What about your fever? Won't they notice it?"

Thorn shook his head. "I can control mine better than you can control yours."

"So, I need you more than you need me!" She rose from the bed and began pacing the room. "That's not fair. It's your stupid fever."

Thorn smiled. She marched back and forth in front of him, naked, her hair flying out around her every time she turned. She planted her hands on her slender waist and drew her shoulders back, causing her perfectly rounded breasts to thrust forward. Reaching out, he snagged her arm and pulled her down onto his lap. She struggled.

"Be still. I'm not going to hurt you." He slid his hands into her hair and tipped her face up to his. He held her like that until she raised her eyes to his. "I promise you that I will never again hurt you the way I did on the Invincible."

"Thorn?"

He planted a soft kiss on her cheek, "I promise." He planted a soft kiss on her temple. "I promise." He planted soft kisses on every part of her face, giving her his promise after each gentle kiss.

She tipped her head back as he kissed a path to her throat and shivered with pleasure when she felt him lick then softly blow on the sensitive spot just beneath her ear. His lips traveled back to hers, then nibbled and licked until she opened her mouth for him. His tongue slid across hers encouraging her to join in the kiss.

She slid her fingers over his head, into his hair and held him as she returned his kisses, teasingly dueling with him. Thorn groaned, then twisted and laid her on the bed. She felt his hands on her breasts, his fingers teasingly circling her nipples as they hardened. She arched, pushing her breasts higher, needing him to touch her.

Thorn kissed a path down her throat to her breasts. He nuzzled and kissed the sides, making her shiver before he took one rosy tip into his mouth and licked it. She moaned and he sucked on it again before he replaced his lips with his fingers and moved to her other breast.

She tightened her fingers in his hair and her nails scraped his scalp. He groaned with pleasure so she did it again. "Is your head really sensitive?"

"Yes, touch me there." He kissed a path to her belly and licked a circle around her navel. She shivered and moved restlessly beneath him. He kissed the tops of her thighs then planted kisses down her legs to her toes. She squirmed when he kissed the tattoo on her toe then tickled it with his tongue. He retraced his path to the inside of her thighs. Daria clenched her hands in his hair as he pushed her legs farther apart and stroked his tongue over her pussy. She jerked on his hair trying to move him away. He eased his arms beneath her legs then pulled her hands away and entwined his fingers with hers.

"Thorn?"

"Shhh, it's okay. Let me taste you." He kissed the inside of her thighs before he slid his tongue through the swollen lips and into her.

Daria trembled and moaned with pleasure. Heat rose from her body, shimmering on the air until she shivered with cold. "Oh, Thorn, yes, please." Helplessly, she raised her hips as the pleasure increased.

Thorn freed one of her hands and covered her mouth, muffling her keening wail of release. When her tremors of pleasure slowed, he moved over her, holding his weight above her. He gazed down at her then lowered himself to his elbows, slid his hands into her hair and brushed her temples with his thumbs until her eyes opened. Only then did he ease into her, groaning with pleasure when she lifted her hips and accepted him.

Daria brushed his lips with hers as he sank into her. She wrapped her long slender legs around his waist and met his slow thrusts. Thorn's head fell to her shoulder as his hands cupped her head. His breath was hot on her neck as he placed open-mouthed kisses on her throat. He thrust deeper then slowly drew back. She held onto him, tightening around him and trying to keep him inside her.

"Now, please, now." She gripped his buttocks and arched against him.

He nipped her earlobe. "Not yet, little wolfen. Not yet."

His muscles rippled with tension when she stroked her hands over his back and tightened her legs around him. He groaned into her neck and began rocking against her, drawing a gasp of pleasure from her lips.

She burned for him, lost in his fire as he crushed her in his embrace. He thrust into her, deeply, until the flames rushed through her, consuming her. She chanted his name as he groaned and quaked with pleasure.

He remained over her, sheltering her with his body as he nuzzled her neck. Gradually, their breathing returned to normal and their heartbeats slowed. He held her until he heard her soft sigh as she drifted into sleep then waited a few moments longer before he eased away from her and silently rose from the bed. He covered her with the sheet, stood at the end of the bed and watched her sleep. The armbands on her arms glinted in the light that came through the window. With a last glance, he left her.

Chapter Ten

The next morning as soon as Daria woke up and rolled over she was ill again. She rushed to the bathing chamber then sat on the edge of the tub until the nausea and dizziness passed. After a quick shower she combed the tangles from her hair then wandered into the bedroom and picked up the white gown. She pulled it on, smoothed it into place over her hips and left the room.

Dane and Dev greeted her when she entered the dining room. They hugged her waist and she stroked her hands over their hair.

Eagerly, Dane said, "We're going with Grandfather to the Council Building."

"You are?" Daria asked, putting as much excitement in her voice as she could muster this early in the morning.

"Yes," Dev said. "We get to watch the Council but we have to be quiet or Grandfather said he'll feed us to a wolfen."

"Surely not!" Daria laughed and knelt down to hug them.

They leaned against her, sliding their little arms over her shoulders and hiding their faces in her hair. Daria rubbed circles on their backs. She looked up and saw Thorn watching them, his face expressionless. Giving them each a gentle hug, she released them. "You guys better get going. You don't want to keep your Grandfather waiting."

They released her and ran for the front door yelling a loud farewell. Daria hurried to a chair and sat down. She smiled at Lia as one of the women who'd served their dinner the previous night entered the room and set a food tray and a glass of juice on the table in front of her.

Lia smiled. "After we finish breakfast we'll go to the marketplace."

"No, Mother. Daria is not going to the marketplace. There are too many people there and I won't be able to protect her." Thorn's voice sounded final.

"You said you'd take us for two units. My mother and I are looking forward to helping her choose some clothes," Lia said.

"If you and Grandmother want to go to the marketplace then go but Daria stays home."

"Daria needs clothes," Lia said. "And, she wants to pick them out herself. Don't you, Daria?"

"Well, yes, I wo-"

"No. I'll get you some clothes and whatever else you need but you are not going to the marketplace until this business with the Witvians is over."

"Alright, Commander," Daria said, giving him a sharp salute.

Thorn frowned at her sassiness then stalked from the room.

Lia smiled then took a sip of juice. "He's as stubborn as his father. Once when he was four, he wanted to go with Valan to Alteria. Of course, Valan said no but Thorn had made up his mind to go. Several hours after Valan left Soren returned to the house alone and refused to tell me where Thorn had gone. After searching for him, I contacted Valan's starship and was told Thorn had just presented himself to his father."

Daria smiled. "So, that's where Dev gets his stubbornness."

"Yes, just like his Father, and his Grandfather."

Lia sat with her while she finished breakfast then together they went into the living area and settled onto one of the couches. Daria looked around the room, admiring the bronze couches and the black marble tables. The tops of the tables were cluttered with wood carvings in the shapes of birds and animals.

Lia picked up one of the carvings and handed it to her. "Eirik carves them and gives one to Valan every annual on his birth cycle. Over the annuals we've gathered quite a collection of them."

"They're beautiful." Daria ran her fingers over the bird Lia had handed her feeling each tiny feather on the bird's wings. "On Earth, these would be museum quality and very expensive."

Lia laughed. "That's what I thought when I first saw them."

Daria absently stroked the carving and thought about her life on Earth. By now, her friends probably believed she was dead. Would they ever be told that she was alive and living on Zarronia? She was mature enough to know that eventually she'd make a new life for herself and her baby but she'd miss her friends and her old life.

What could she possibly find to do for a living? She'd never wanted to marry or have a family. All her life, she'd wanted to have a career and travel. To be free to do as she pleased. And, she'd almost accomplished her dream. It was ironic that her life had been destroyed by the job she had worked so hard to get and had considered the greatest accomplishment of her life.

"Daria, are you alright?" Lia asked, concerned by the sadness on her face.

"Yes. I was just thinking of home and my friends."

"I know what that's like. When I first came to Zarronia I missed my friends but I especially missed my Mother."

"Thorn told me that you're Wrothian."

Lia nodded. "Valan brought me to Zarronia over thirty annuals ago."

"Thorn told me that the warriors could only bond with Wrothian or Earth females. Aren't there any Zarronian females left at all?"

"None that we know of. They all died when my sire attacked Zarronia with a deadly virus," Lia said.

Daria grasped Lia's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. I'm so sorry, Lia. That must have been so terrible, not just for the Zarronians, but for you and Valan."

Lia smiled. "Yes, it caused a lot of problems for everyone. The Zarronians almost became extinct before they discovered that they could reproduce with us. Then, because we had been enemies for so long the Council made the warriors abduct us from Zhang."

"Zhang?"

"The planet where we lived." Lia smiled. "We were abducted and forced to bond with the warriors. At first, Valan and I fought constantly and there were times when I truly hated him but eventually we fell in love and we've been very happy together."

Daria thought for a moment. "I don’t understand why the virus is still affecting Thorn and the other warriors his age? Shouldn't it be gone by now?"

"We've had our best scientists trying to discover the answer to that question. They've checked the air, the water, the food, and everything else they can think to check."

"How strange. And, terrible. It must have been terrible to worry about what would happen to Thorn and Soren if you didn't find Earth in time."

"Yes, it was. The only thing we knew about Earth was that it was a blue planet. We weren't even sure you'd be compatible."

"Weren't you relieved when Thorn bonded with Naline?" Daria saw Lia's eyes widen with surprise.

"Did Thorn tell you about her?"

"No. The boys did."

"Thorn has never once mentioned her since she betrayed him." Lia's face flushed with motherly anger. "At first, we were relieved, because it meant he'd live but we never liked her. She used her beauty to manipulate her family and she was the most selfish female I've ever known."

"She was beautiful?" Daria asked, peeved for some reason.

"Oh, yes. Very beautiful, and Thorn was young and couldn't see her true personality even though we tried to warn him. Even Soren tried to warn him but he wouldn't listen to him."

"The boys told me she was executed for betraying Zarronia."

"Yes. One month after they were born," Lia said. "The day the boys were born Thorn left them with us and then he left Zarronia. He's only been back a few times to visit in the last five annuals."

"What a rat!" Daria exclaimed, then seeing Lia's shocked expression, she added, "I'm sorry, Lia. But, he shouldn't have left Dane and Dev. They needed him and he ran out on them."

"That's alright, Daria. I told Thorn the same thing at the time."

They exchanged smiles as the front door opened and Thorn appeared in the doorway of the living area. His arms were loaded with packages. He glared at them then dumped the items on the couch and stalked out.

Daria laughed. "It doesn't matter where you go in the universe men everywhere hate to shop."