Saved By The Warrior Hero Read online

  Between us, something had broken. Shattered into a billion tiny pieces and scattered around us like stars in the night sky.

  Light. Joy. Heat. Her cunt was tight, wet and burning hot. It engulfed me like an inferno of passion, raw flame that licked up through my veins and scorched deliciously at my core. Alyse’s body moved with mine in perfect harmony, both of us claiming each other to a song only we knew. The lyrics were wordless, save from each other’s names as we moaned them, snarled them, sang them to each other. The beat, I think, must have been set by our hearts—both thrumming away, not as two anymore, but as one.

  “Kiss me, Nion,” Alyse begged. Her body arched and spasmed almost violently as I slipped her bra straps from her shoulders, unhooked it from behind her back. Her breasts spilled out, bouncing gorgeously for only a moment before she folded herself over me and pressed them to my chest. “Kiss me—please.”

  I was a good soldier. Following orders had never been any issue for me.

  And when it came to this order in particular, I made no hesitation to comply.

  I wrapped my fist in her hair once more as I crushed her lips to mine. The sweetness of her tongue was addictive—almost as addictive as the scent of her all around me. When I finally broke the kiss, it was only out of absolute necessity.

  She had pushed me too close to the edge once more, and this time, I knew I would not be able to hold back.

  “Pull off of me, Alyse. I am… too close.” Even choking out the words was difficult in my current state. Her cunt throbbed around me, a perfect fit for me in every way. It felt as though my cock had molded her body for my pleasure—and with every passing moment, that pleasure became more imminent.

  But Alyse merely claimed another kiss, moaning against my lips as her hips bucked against mine harder than ever.

  “Alyse! Blood—I am about to come, and if I do—” I sighed, then snarled. I did not want her to pull away. I wanted to plant my seed inside her. Breed her, just as I had teased her about. But whether I wanted to or not… “Alyse, I cannot come inside you. You are ovulating. You must stop.”

  To my surprise, she sent her hips crashing against mine again.

  “No, Nion,” she breathed against my lips. Her green eyes were devious, greedy, desperate and bright with desire. “I want you. I need you. Come inside me—please. Fill me. Take me. Please.”

  I roared with frustration—and, to an extent, relief—as I felt my balls tense beneath her.

  She wanted this. I wanted this. And in our dance of lust and longing, hesitation and control, it was a desire too great for either of us to deny.

  My cum, hot and forceful, pulsed up into her as our lips met again. She whimpered, then nearly screamed against my lips as her own orgasm took her. We were two supernovas, colliding in an explosion of feeling and need. We twirled around each other, viciously, deliriously.

  By the time we finally collapsed on one another, there was no turning back.

  I had claimed her.

  She had claimed me.

  We belonged to each other—at least, for that short while—and no power great or small could have torn us apart.

  “Wow,” Alyse breathed as she buried her face against my neck. “That was…wow.”

  “It was perfect,” I told her. “As are you.”

  “I’m…should I apologize?” she asked with a small giggle. The tip of her nose nuzzled against my neck fondly. “I got carried away there a little, but it felt so good…”

  I wrapped my arms around her a little tighter and held her to me without any intention of letting go.

  “No,” I told her. “You wanted it. I wanted it. And if I have bred you…”

  “Mm. I think I could do worse for myself, anyway.” Her next giggle was cut by a yawn. I felt one of my own building in my chest. We were both obviously exhausted—a good sign. “Thank you, Nion. Thank you for… everything.”

  My cock was softening inside her already, but I made no move to pull it out. If we fell asleep like this, still connected, still intertwined, I could think of no better way to rest.

  “It was my pleasure, Alyse.” I closed my eyes and focused on breathing in her scent.

  As we drifted off in each other’s arms, I only wished that this moment could stretch on for the rest of time.

  19

  Alyse

  When we returned to the ship the next morning, I was still starry-eyed and caught in a daze. I didn’t know what to expect now that Nion and I had, well…fucked. Made love. Whatever we wanted to call it. Whatever the beautiful night we’d shared together was supposed to be. But I certainly wasn’t expecting the flurry of activity we found on the ship when we got there. Every warrior we passed walked with purpose—and with a grin on every face, too.

  When Nion told me why, I couldn’t exactly blame them, either.

  “Newthelian females,” Nion explained to me. He had his arm wrapped around me as he guided me back to my room. “If you thought the males on Newthelia were forward…the women are, perhaps, even worse.”

  “That explains the good moods then,” I said with a tiny giggle.

  “Yes,” Nion agreed. “I think you and I can, ah…understand that. Good moods all around.” But then he lowered his lips to my ear and softened his voice to a whisper. “For all except for, I hear, one of our fresh warriors, Ero, at least.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Nion. Are you gossiping with me?”

  “You know of Ero?”

  “A little.” I laughed. “He’s been in and out of the medical bay ever since the raid on Var-arak—on the Rutharian king’s ship. Everyone thinks he’s faking a concussion. I think when he got knocked out during his first battle, his pride was hurt a little.”

  “From the sounds of things, his pride may be hurt more now.” Nion shifted to the other side of me to put himself between my body and the bodies of the warriors marching through the ship’s halls. “I mentioned that Lunarian females are rare, yes?”

  “Yes. Though, that doesn’t seem to have stopped you from, ah…taking your fill.”

  “They came to me,” Nion reminded me. “But other warriors…they have not been so lucky. Especially for the warriors fresh from the fighting pits—”

  “Fighting pits?”

  “The places where Lunarian cubs train against each other for the entertainment of the nobles before they become warriors themselves,” Nion explained. “When cubs come of age at twenty-one, they often find their ways to the military. Most of them arrive as virgins. And Ero…”

  “He couldn’t get it up,” I guessed.

  “Yes…how did you know?”

  “Textbook sexual anxiety,” I explained. “Especially among virgins—in a culture where there are barely any women, no less—it’s pretty much expected.” I patted Nion’s arm reassuringly. “Your friend will be more comfortable when he meets someone who he loves, I bet.”

  “Mm. Perhaps.” Nion smirked down at me. “It is good to enjoy…pleasures before battle, though. It is a shame that Ero was not able to prepare himself.” Nion nodded to two warriors as they passed him. Both carried large guns that had been polished until they shone. “Kloran announced this morning that we would be raiding a Rutharian outpost in a week’s time. There is said to be a human female held hostage there—among other things.”

  I raised an eyebrow as I heard his voice darken. I didn’t like the sound of another woman being kept by the Rutharians any more than he did, but…

  “What other things?” I asked, curious.

  “Never mind that.” Nion opened the door of my room for me, then lingered in the doorway after I had passed through it. “I should return to my bunk now, I suppose. Hearing Gallix regale me of his tales of sexual conquests will be insufferable, but luckily…” He smiled wistfully at me. “I think you will have made them slightly more bearable.”

  “You’re not going to stay with me?” I knew what a stupid question that was as soon as it left my mouth, but still.

  The cat was out of the
bag now.

  I didn’t want to return to hoping to see Nion every day, only for him to go right back to avoiding me. What we’d shared last night felt like it should have changed something. I felt changed, at least. Being stuck in the embassy on Newthelia together had been nice in that regard.

  Really nice, actually.

  I wasn’t ready to lose the closeness we’d shared just yet.

  I didn’t want him to go.

  “Do you wish for me to stay with you?” Nion looked about as smug as I’d ever seen him.

  Ugh. Busted. But then again, I’d always been the type to wear my heart on my sleeve. If you wanted to play things cool, you had to be cool to begin with—which I definitely was not. In school, I’d been pretty enough to be popular, but that hadn’t stopped me from being a nerd on the inside.

  “Would it be so bad?” I stepped back to give him some room and hoped the smile on my lips might draw him inside. “You’ve seen the bed I’ve got in here. It’s more than big enough for two, and I bet it’s more comfortable than your smelly old bunk.”

  Slowly, Nion grinned. “Any bed you are in will always be more pleasurable for me than a bed without you, zahvinya. Allow me to attend to some preparations for the battle, and gather my things—but then, yes. I will join you here tonight. Whatever you wish.”

  He stole a kiss from me before he left. Even when he was gone, the warmth of his lips still lingered on my own. Every time I touched my fingertips to my mouth, I drew up the memory of how he had felt against me. His touch. His taste. His scent. His everything.

  Crap. I’d only spent a few nights with Nion, but I was already obviously falling for him. In the past, that would have sent me into a panic. Getting attached to people, in my experience, had only ever hurt me. Var-arak had torn my parents away from me when he killed them. The boy I’d lost my virginity to had thrown me away like a used condom. The doctors and nurses who had all but raised me had been reassigned after my grandmother died. And when I was kidnapped, I’d lost the few friends that I’d had—even though, admittedly, we’d never been all that close to begin with and I didn’t really miss them all that much.

  Nion, though…he was different.

  Even as I fell for him, I felt safe in doing it.

  Since I met him, he’d saved me over and over again. Not just in body, but in spirit, too. He’d rescued me from Var-arak’s ship. He’d pulled me out of my depression. And now, after our time on Newthelia together, he’d given me my sexuality back too. My confidence.

  I owed him a lot. For the next week, we enjoyed each other’s company in my room—in my bed and out of it. Every day, I brightened when I saw him come in and pouted when he left.

  My whole life was starting to shape itself around his presence. Happy when he was here, missing him when he was gone.

  But after the seventh day, I wanted to ensure he wouldn’t start keeping his distance from me again. Every time he spoke to me, spent time with me or shared my bed, he was showing me what I meant to him. On the seventh day, when he returned to me, I wanted to show him exactly how much he meant to me, too.

  “What’s life like on Lunaria?” I asked him over dinner that night. Nion had covered the table in my suite full of plates piled high with Lunarian food again. As he selected bits and pieces for me to try, he’d even started teaching me some of their names.

  “Glamorous, in the capital. You and the other females we have rescued will likely be subjected to the advances of many hopeful suitors when you arrive. There will be balls, feasts…much merrymaking.” Nion didn’t sound too excited about all of that—and to tell the truth, neither was I.

  “I don’t want any suitors,” I assured him. “I’ve met enough Lunarian men at this point, I think. I’d rather just spend time with you.”

  “Yes, well…” Nion’s voice was a little more tense than usual. “That is understandable. The capital can be a dangerous place for a human female these days anyway. The Lunarian female nobles are not exactly happy about the way the Lunarian lords are all seeking out human mates these days. Your species is very, ah, desirable. You can create more offspring than Lunarian females, and your bodies are seen as…” Nion’s gaze raked over my breasts, which were pushed up and squeezed tight by my top. “Exotic, I suppose you can say.”

  “Do you find me exotic, Nion King-killer?” I teased, arching a brow.

  Nion’s smile was a little sad when it formed on his lips, but it was a smile just the same. “You have hair the color of moonbeams and eyes the color of the sky when a storm rolls in over the sea. Your hips are broad. Your breasts are…” He cut himself off as he cleared his throat. “And I can capture your tiny waist between my hands if I wish. And then, there are your legs…”

  I stretched my legs out so he could see them across the side of the table. “These legs?”

  “Your legs,” Nion continued, “are so long that I cannot fathom how you are still so impossibly short.”

  “I’m not short!”

  Nion chuckled. “Yes, you are. Especially compared to me. But to answer your question—yes, Alyse. I find you most exotic—and most desirable as well. It surprises me that you have to ask.”

  “Then stop trying to tell me how the lords in the capital are going to be slobbering all over me,” I told him. “If they even so much as try, I fully expect you to bash their heads in.”

  “Do not tempt me. You have not yet met the high lords of Lunaria. I have been envisioning bashing some of their heads in for years now.” Nion stroked his chin for a moment. “But you may have a point. If we want to keep you away from the politics and perverts of the capital, Haelian would likely allow you to stay at his palace in the mountains. I believe Sawyer, Bria, and Bria’s cub reside there now. It may be good for you, even, to have other human females to socialize with.”

  “Maybe,” I said. I reached over to place my hand on top of his. “But that’s not what I’m getting at, Nion. Tell me about where you live. When you’re not on the ship, where on Lunaria do you call home?”

  “Ah.” Nion patted his lips with his napkin and looked hesitant for a moment. “Well, it is…quaint, I suppose you could say. Nothing worth bragging about, though. My mother has a cottage in a village not far outside the capital. It is small, but it has its charms. She keeps a lovely garden. When I was there last, the gilly trees were nearly ready for their winter bloom.”

  “Gilly trees?” That sounded familiar for some reason. I remembered the singed warriors that had stumbled into the medical bay on my first day, high as kites. “Those wouldn’t be the source of gilly-root, would they?”

  “Correct,” Nion said with a chuckle. “Though my mother would have skinned me alive if she had ever caught me trying to ingest it. The trees make gilly-fruit as well. A much safer thing to enjoy.”

  Nion plucked a strange, slightly glowing piece of fruit out of a bowl on the table and bit into it. The juices ran down his chin just a little bit—and for a second, I had to stop myself from leaning forward and licking them off his skin.

  Instead, I reached for the rest of the fruit from Nion’s hand, but Nion jerked it away from me before I could grab it.

  “You will find it sour,” he warned. “Human females do not like these. Well…” He laughed. “Unless they are pregnant with a Lunarian child, at any rate.”

  “You did come inside me,” I teased. Or, half-teased. We’d both been so into the idea in the heat of the moment, it hadn’t escaped me that I could be pregnant now. But even though I knew it was pretty early on to be thinking about babies, it wasn’t like Nion wouldn’t be a good choice for a baby-daddy. No other man on Lunaria—or anyone else—would bother me if I carried his child. Even though things were still pretty new between us, I knew Nion well enough to know he wouldn’t stand for that.

  And better Nion’s kid than some Rutharian’s.

  “Fine.” Nion smirked as he offered me the fruit. “Have it your way, then. Just do not act as though I did not warn you when it puckers your lips.” />
  “All the better to kiss you with.” I snatched the fruit from his hand triumphantly. “Besides, maybe I like sour.”

  But when I bit into the fruit, sourness couldn’t have been further from what I tasted.

  The fruit was crisp and juicy. Sweet, actually.

  Cloyingly sweet. At first, the sugary taste was nice on my tongue, but as I swallowed, the flavor turned sort of…disgusting, actually. Like a mixed drink at a club that was using too much grenadine to cover up the fact that they were serving cheap booze.

  I choked the bite down, but as soon as it hit my stomach, I didn’t feel well. At all.

  Actually…I was pretty sure I was going to be sick.

  I shoved my chair back and darted for the bathroom as fast as my legs would take me. Even so, I barely made it to the toilet in time.

  “Alyse?” Nion called out to me. I heard his chair scrape against the floor as I spat the nasty sweetness, now bitter, out of my mouth. “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted, retching again. This was not how this evening was supposed to go. I didn’t want Nion to see me puking like this. It was as embarrassing as it was confusing. “That fruit…it must have been a bad one or something. I don’t know how you choked it down.”

  “Too sour?”

  “No,” I said. I scraped the last of the taste from my tongue with my teeth and spat again. Not exactly lady-like, but I didn’t want any of it to linger in my mouth. “It was sweet, but…not in a good way. Obviously.”

  When I looked up to Nion from where I was knelt on the floor, his face was a paler shade of orange than I’d ever seen it before. Gently, he took hold of my arm and passed me his glass of tea—but even as I sipped it, he was already pulling me urgently toward the door.

  “I do not know what that means,” he said, “But it worries me. I think we need to get you to the medical bay. And fast, too.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but that only made me want to shove my head in the toilet all over again.