DarkRevenge

Dark Revenge

Jennifer Leeland

“I like my sex rough and my women
restrained.”

So declares Alex’s captor, shortly
after they’re mated in a ritual of vengeance. Though her body lustfully yields
to her new mate’s dominant will, her mind is only too aware of the tumultuous
past they share. She and Tory fought side by side in the military…until he was
exiled for treason, an accusation leveled and proven by Alex’s own brother.

Tory is determined to take revenge
on the family who falsely accused him…and to win back the woman he’s always
loved. If he can’t win her heart, though, he’ll settle for her body—preferably
tied up, flogged and begging for him. When they find themselves in the middle of
a brewing civil war, they have to learn to trust each other with more than just
their bodies. If they can’t, humanity itself may pay the price.

Chapter One

Dead in the water. Alex flicked the controls. Hopeless. No lights,
no whine from the engines. Nothing. If
The Athena
had been an ancient
seagoing vessel, her circumstances wouldn’t have been so dire, but the crippled
vessel floated in the depths of space and faced a fucking monster.

On her view screen, his ship menaced her and he didn’t even
have his burners hot. There weren’t too many ships that could both outmaneuver
a Teran One shuttle
and
blast it to smithereens.
The Pinnacle
could. And its commander had the talent to anticipate Alex and outsmart her.
The fact that his pursuit had forced her to overload her engines wouldn’t stop
him. Tory Ingle. Former covert military, current mercenary, bad boy of Teran
One.

He hadn’t hailed her, but that was no surprise. The blaster
shot across her forward shields had been message enough. She’d been so close to
her destination, her cargo intact, her secret mission almost over.

Now, she was so fucked.

The one-person shuttle hadn’t been equipped to outrun a
pirate runner. No one on Teran One believed anyone would attack her. Why would
they? Unless they knew exactly what she carried in her hold.

Without hesitation, she began the countdown for
self-destruct. Whatever was in that hold had Darius scared shitless. There was
no way she’d let that asshole Ingle get his money-grubbing hands on it.

“Self-destruct sequence engaged. Three minute countdown. Two
minutes, fifty-nine….” The drone of the computer’s announcement was almost
soothing.

Her communications panel lit up. She ignored it. In less
than three minutes, she’d be a floating speck in space and if Ingle didn’t back
off, so would he. She closed her eyes and thought about her family. Her mother,
killed in action on Teran Five during the civil war when Teran One had sent
peacekeepers. Her father, killed on a food ship when Teran One sent food to
Teran Three during their war with Teran Four. Her brother, dead on Teran Five,
presumably killed by Teran Four soldiers. Now, she’d die in a shuttle on some
mysterious mission no one would remember or care about. Well, except maybe
Celeste.

“Turn off the self-destruct, Commander Zeerah.” Tory’s
smooth voice filled the small space of her bridge. God, she remembered that
voice. Once it had made her nerves tingle and her pulse pound. Now it just made
her heartsick.

Hell, she was shocked he hadn’t blown her out of the water.
No way was she letting him board her. He had every reason to want her dead and
even more reasons to want her to suffer. She sighed. Less than two minutes and
it would all be over.

Did most people wonder about the major decisions in their
life when it was about to end? Maybe she was just weird. Tory’s voice had
probably brought it all to the forefront. The agony of letting him go. The numb
despair when she’d been shown the evidence against him. All of it seemed to
have been for nothing. She had always wondered if she’d done the right thing.
Now she’d never know.

“God damn it, Alex, turn the fucking thing off!” Tory
sounded concerned. She wasn’t. Soon, she’d be free. No more fighting. No more
civil wars. No more—

“Self-destruct terminated.”

Her eyes flew open. What the fuck? She stared at her console
and her lips tightened. With a hard flick, she turned on her com. “I don’t know
how you did that, but you are
not
going to get this cargo.” Or her. God
knew what he’d do to her.

“Do you even know what the cargo is?”

“It’s Teran One property. That’s good enough for me. You’re
not going to get it. Ever.” She slammed the button to shut off communication
and started for the back of the bridge.

It had better be there. She had packed the bridge herself,
but those Black Ops assholes messed with her shit before. Relief flooded her
chest. It was there. Two Stet explosives.

All she had to do… What the hell was that?
A hiss
sounded all around her and a heavy smell filled the cabin. Her eyelids drooped,
though she fought it. Every muscle dragged and every thought slowed. Memories
crowded her mind, the present moving in slow motion, though the past seemed
clear and bright. Five years ago, when everything changed, when
she
changed, she had been so sure.

“Come with me,” he said. Tory never begged and Alex was
stunned he would do it now, when everything had fallen apart.

“You know I can’t,” she said. “You’re exiled.”

His eager expression changed, all the light dying from
his blue eyes. “Is that why you made sure they booted me out of the Teran
Corps? Because you knew what the Tribunal’s verdict would be?” He shook his
head. “I don’t care. Come with me. I need you,” he pleaded.

“How can you ask me?” she burst out. “I won’t go with
you,” she said, reaching for calm.

His eyes narrowed. “Because I’m not one of the original
bloodlines, is that it?”

That wasn’t it, but Alex couldn’t tell him why, couldn’t
admit what she knew. “You know how important it is.”

He slammed a fist into the palm of his other hand. “It’s
only important on Teran One. There’s a whole universe out there, Alex.”

When his hands cupped her face, she almost gave in. His
lips met hers and passion and need sprang up between them. With effort, she
forced her desire into a closet in her mind, jammed her feelings into a
deserted corner of her heart and remained still beneath his assault. Stars, she
wanted to drown in his kiss.

He lifted his head, misery tightening his features.
“You’d choose bloodlines over me, over us.”

No!
Her whole being denied it, wanted to run away with
Tory and ignore everything she’d been raised to be. Blooodlines were
everything. Teran One preserved Old Earth’s history through careful
preservation of family ties. Who your great-grandfather was had more influence
on your future than what grades you had in school. And Alex was a Zeerah, one
of the families who first settled on Teran One.

Founded by six families, Teran One was insulated from the
rest of the universe’s chaos because the people kept tradition. New bloodlines
might arrive, but they were never fully incorporated unless they proved
themselves.

The Ingles had been instrumental in putting the current
royal family on the throne, so their rise was meteoric compared to others. But
they were still only three generations old. Her father, her brother, even her
friends had warned her about Tory.

Hadn’t he proven her family right?

He was a traitor, exiled from Teran One forever.

She had to think about the men who had been publicly
executed by Dividaon Teran Four. A hundred men had been betrayed by secret
information that Tory had given to the dictator.

“Yes. I would choose any bloodline over you,” she
snapped.

He winced, his face crumpling briefly. His hands slipped
away from her shoulders. “You believe I’m a traitor, then.”

The evidence had damned him. But she might have ignored
the evidence presented to the Judges of the Tribunal if it wasn’t for the
secret she knew, the facts she’d seen with her own eyes. “I won’t go with you,
Tory. Not in a million years.”

She stepped back and put distance between them, hating
that her body had a mind of its own. It was torture to see the hurt in his
face. After the battles they’d fought together, the moments they’d shared, a
piece of her heart was lodged with him. She accepted that fact. But truth was
truth and he had betrayed their people. A Teran One Tribunal had judged and
convicted him. No matter what she might feel for him, nothing could change what
he’d done.

A muscle in his jaw jumped and his nostrils flared. “A
million years is a long time, Alexandra,” he said, his voice low and deep. “You
might keep that in mind.”

And then he was gone.

She ignored the ache in her heart. She denied the doubts
about his guilt. All she had left now was her family. Her job was to protect
the royal family and the bloodlines who ruled Teran One. Everything else she
cared about had just walked away.

Dark edges crowded around her gaze and tears squeezed from
her eyes. She’d failed.

* * * * *

“She was going to blow the fucker up. What the hell is that
cargo?” Pulzer asked as he followed Tory along the corridor.

Tory carried her across the connect tube between his ship
and her shuttle. He stared at the unconscious figure of Teran One Commander
Alexandra Zeerah. Her golden-brown hair had come loose from its tight braid and
drifted over his bare arms. His second continued to pelt him with questions.

“It’s in a quadruple-lined containment box. What the fuck
could it be?”

“Expensive.” Tory kept his answer short. He knew what was in
that box. Alex was never supposed to reach her destination. Five Teran Four war
ships waited for her only fifteen light years away, all prepared to take what
Alex carried on the shuttle. The Teran One fuckers who had sent her had known
exactly what she’d do. She was all about duty—he ought to know. She’d gotten
him kicked out of the Teran One Ops so fast it had made his head spin. Of
course, she had always made his head spin. And now apparently her superiors
thought she was expendable.

The Commander had been headed for a trap.

“Who’s bidding?” Tory’s second broke into his thoughts.

“Right now, just Teran Four and possibly Teran One, but I
think the rest of the system will be interested in acquiring our little item.”

He laid his former commander on the bed. He had plans for
her. Revenge had just dropped into his mercenary hands and he was going to
enjoy every minute of it.

Pulzer followed him, but stopped at the door to Tory’s
quarters. “Will Jezar be able to guide the ship?”

It was Jezar’s mental manipulations that had stopped the
self-destruct sequence on Alex’s ship, but it was Tory’s ability to control
computer computations with his ship’s system that had flooded Alex’s cabin with
a harmless overdose of anosenosin, used by the military to aid sleep in space.
He stared at the woman in his bed. “Jezar is fine. Just don’t let anyone
distract him.” Advice Tory should take to heart. Alex was definitely a
distraction.

“I’ll keep everyone off the bridge.” Pulzer glanced at the
Commander on the bed. Tory knew he wondered about her fate, but what Tory had
planned wasn’t anyone’s business but his.

“I’d appreciate that. I’m going to be with the Judge of
Light, so you and Jezar are in charge.” He turned and clapped his second on the
shoulder. “Send a message to Teran One and make sure it’s on an open channel.
Then head for home.”

“They’ll try to stop us.”

“I don’t think so.” He jerked his head toward Alex. “They
won’t while she’s on board.”

“You sure? They sent her on a suicide mission. Maybe they
won’t care.” Pulzer frowned.

“She’s a Zeerah, one of the founding families of Teran One,”
he said bitterly. “They’ll care.”

“Won’t they attack us?”

“Let me worry about that. Send the message. She should wake
up in twenty minutes and then we’ll finish the ceremony.”

Pulzer nodded and strode down the hall. Tory shut the door
and turned around in time to just miss a potentially deadly blow to his
carotid. Not the second blow, though. She numbed his right arm from elbow to
wrist. Fuck, that stung. Lucky he was left-handed.

Alex swung her right arm out and his left captured it. He
jerked her closer and pinned her arm behind her back, then shoved her further
into the room. She swung her left hand down to disable him, but he dropped her
to the bed and his shoulder crushed her beneath him. She tried to kick him, but
he held her still, his legs wrapped around hers, her arms pinned under her
back.

Feeling came back in his right arm just as she freed her
hands and he caught both her arms, pinning them to her sides. She glared at
him.

All military, all spit and polish, all regulations. That
lift of her chin and the cold expression in her eyes was nothing new to him.
She’d had that same look on her face before she’d testified at his Tribunal.
Not once did she question the evidence. Of course, why should she? The man who
accused him was her own brother.

Her family was responsible for the way he had to stay on the
run, taking work from whoever would pay the most. She would be his reward, his
revenge. Teran One had a word for it.
Saria.
Treasure. Gift. His.

And treasure is what she resembled with her golden eyes and
her freckles that were like little brown diamonds. Her hair glinted in the
artificial lighting, all spun brown silk. “You are my
Saria,
my
revenge.”

“No!” The word exploded from her and she squirmed, fighting
beneath him.

“Yes. And you know what that means.” Easily, he contained
her, held her immobile. After all, he had been as well trained as she had been.
He loved how her eyes widened and something akin to panic seemed to emanate
from her.
That’s right, my little Alexandra. Your family destroyed me, took
everything away from me.
“You can’t!” A muscle in her cheek pulsed as she
ground her teeth.

“I can. It’s my right.” Nothing had changed for him. The way
her curves fit his body still made his cock hard and his mind spin. Focus, he had
to focus. “Your brother lied to a Teran One Tribunal to get me out of your
life, Alexandra Zeerah. You helped him.”

She glared at him, all the pride of her heritage rising to
the surface. “You betrayed us to the Teran Fours.”

“I didn’t. And I can prove it.” He stared at her. She’d
known. She must have. He hadn’t just been some random soldier in her command.
They’d fought together, lost men together, gotten drunk together. Not that
she’d ever allowed that fucking Zeerah façade to drop for a second. Except
once.