Unexpected Mates (Sons of Heaven) (20 page)

Updates came in over the comms, and Sakkra attended to them all, though always with an ear to what the healers were discussing behind the drape.

Reports came in that the human authorities had collected Lucy Ferguson and transported her to medical aid.

The healers worked at removing pellets of metal from Amy’s face and shoulder.

Rietin explained the entire fiasco, from beginning to end.

Representative Ellwood demanded a meeting by vid-comm at Sakkra’s earliest possible convenience.

Sakkra ordered a team of warriors to Amy’s family. The last thing he could conscience risking was injury to her family. Though Lucy Ferguson was imprisoned, there were others who hated the Sakk, and an unprotected Sakk-descended family was easy prey.

Comparisons of Amy’s wounds to battle damage sent a sick swirl through Sakkra’s stomach.

At last, the healers opened the drape. Amy was dressed in an ornate sleeping gown, and the linens on the bed had been changed, but the healers’ surgical wraps had enough of her blood on them to turn Sakkra’s stomach in worry.

He went to the
bio bed
, assessing the damage to her with a wince. A series of wine-colored lines and dots marred her cheek. Another peeked from beneath the neckline of the sleeping gown, racing away toward her shoulder. A few of the wounds were stitched, indicating that they would leave scars.

“How many will scar?” Sakkra asked.

Gabin, the master healer, traced the longest line along her cheekbone. “This one.” He motioned to the one on her shoulder. “This. And those that are knitted manually.” He hesitated for a hand of heartbeats. “It will likely never be as it was, but I am certain it will not affect her desirability.”

Sakkra rattled his wings, furious at the tactless handling. “And what of her sense of self?” he demanded. “Females are fragile like that. Things like scars, especially such visible scars, make them self-conscious.”

Gabin tipped his head. “I meant no offense. You are correct, of course.”

Rietin groaned. “I should have realized Ferguson might find a way through the security door. I trusted that she had no way into the building. When I saw her pull the trigger, I had no choice but to act. I should have reacted faster...earlier perhaps.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Sakkra snapped. “You did all you could, considering the circumstances. You got her here in time to save her life.”

Gabin cleared his throat. “I have been reading human medical texts. If the humans would aid us with the reconstructive surgery...what they call plastic surgery—”

Sakkra glared at him.

The master healer shifted as if in discomfort. “We have not developed the skills in eradicating scars they have.”

“At this moment, we face the very real possibility of war with the humans. Though it pains me to admit it, securing their help is not our most immediate concern.” He didn’t add that it was unlikely they would reach any human medical professionals with expertise in this field tonight.

Gabin sighed and nodded. “As you say, Sakkra.”

Rietin leaned against an empty
bio bed
. “You realize our most immediate concern,” he stated wearily.

Sakkra ground his teeth at the truth. Their best intentions and safeguards aside, he was about to make a decision that courted war. “She cannot leave when she wakes. Not until she’s safe, and that may not be soon. I will have to convince her this is in her best interests.”

Silence fell around them. A half dozen pair of eyes stared at Amy. Sakkra didn’t doubt that none of the others envied him his position.

I would gladly hand it over to someone else.
But he owed Amy more than that.

“Healers...Rietin... Clean up. Command!” he ordered the comms to the command center open.

“Yes, Sakkra?”

“Order every warrior to battle readiness. I want the corridors clear and every man armed and armored. Two watch sections, until the all-clear is called.”

“Yes, Sakkra. And...and the young match?” he chanced asking.

“She lives and will continue to live, thanks to Rietin.”

Gabin spoke up. “You three go first. I will remain with—”

“No,” Sakkra corrected him. “I will watch over her. Clean her blood off of you. I can’t stand to see it.”

Their voices overlapped in a chorus of: “Yes, Sakkra.”

The others filed out of the room. Rietin looked back at Sakkra and offered a tip of his head before he disappeared into the crowd of warriors and started issuing orders.

Sakkra took Amy’s hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. “Please understand. I only mean to protect you. It wasn’t Rietin who failed you. It was I.”

Chapter Fifteen

Amy stretched, closing her hand on the silky sheet. She recognized the Sakk material and worked on the puzzle of why she was covered in it.

Lucy.
The memory was so stark and shocking, she jerked.

The shotgun.
The sharp explosion seemed to echo in her ears. Her cheek ached and she shied, trying to escape the full bloom of pain she knew was coming.

She came up hard against a warm wall of muscle. Words she didn’t understand encroached on her muddled mind. Hands closed on her arms and she jerked awake, a scream escaping her lips.

“Shhh, Amy. You are safe here.”

Sakkra knelt beside her on the
bio bed
, his hair feathers disheveled, his expression concerned.

Her mind was muddled, and words fought emerging. Amy pushed herself up to sitting, and his hands retreated. Seeking the solid reality of him, she grasped Sakkra around his waist and buried her face in chest. Her fingers tangled in his wings.

“Something for the pain,” someone else whispered.

She nodded, and a pinch and hiss of air announced them administering their version of a shot. The ache in her cheek faded away. Once that happened, she was free to enjoy being back in Sakkra’s arms.

His musk was rich and heady, and Amy bit back a moan. Her libido kicked into high gear. Her nipples peaked and ached for his touch. Her slit wept lubricant that would ease him in. Images of them entwined in the silky material taunted her.

How many times had she dreamed that? How many times had she woken, aroused, taunted by dreams of Sakkra telling her she was safe as he drove into her ready body?

Enough to make me consider coming here in the middle of the night to offer it.

Yes, she was safe in his arms, and Sakkra seemed always ready to hold her when she needed it. Wasn’t that what every woman wanted in a man?

I’m alive because of Sakkra. Because he wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
“Safe. Yes. Because your man saved me,” she breathed.

****

Sakkra wanted to put his fist through something. Amy was clearly aroused, in his arms...and talking about another man.

“Rietin.” At best, the tracker would be sent to another consulate...or a seed world where Sakkra could ‘reward’ him with fucking genetically weak young matches into their early broods.

If she chooses him, she’ll stay at the consulate willingly.
He had to allow it, though only if she knew and accepted that Rietin could not give her young. Perhaps Rietin’s lack of wings appealed to her.
And she could carry with donated sperm, if it came to that.

She raised her head, a purr escaping her lips. It took a moment for Sakkra to recognize that she was nibbling at his jaw line.

His cock came up between them, and his breathing went rough in arousal. “Amy...” He didn’t know what to say. If she wanted him, Sakkra wasn’t about to stop her.
I’ll kill any man who thinks he has a reason to object.

One soft hand delved beneath his
cuzta
, trailing up his thigh.

She has to choose. Tell her!
“Amy, if we do this, you are choosing to become my mate.”

Her hand stroked the length of his cock through the under-wrap. “Oh, yes.”

“Say it.” Despite his best intentions, it came out a plea.

“Yes.”

“Say it.” He’d never wanted anything more than her. He’d give up Sakk for good, if it meant a life with this woman.

“Your mate. Yes...I’ll be your mate.” She came up on her knees, her lips closing on his.

Sakkra backed off just enough to avoid her lips. “Give me the
bio chains
, code the bed, and leave us.”

No one argued with him. The chains settled in his outstretched hand, and Sakkra motioned his order to leave with a jerk of his head.

Amy’s hand left his cock and started working at the clasp at the waist of the sleeping gown she wore. He let her, certain that she wouldn’t figure out the mechanism before they were alone.

Gabin stopped at the doorway. “Sakkra, do you require—”

“I require you to leave,” he snapped.

The silence was broken only by the sound of the doors opening and then closing again. A tone announced that they had been secured.

Sakkra closed his mouth over Amy’s, working the fasteners on his
cuzta
while she investigated the one on her sleeping gown. When the fasteners were opened, he dropped the
cuzta
away.

At last, she tried squeezing the tabs together, and the clasp on her sleeping gown came open in a rush, spilling her breasts against his now-bare chest. Amy’s hand went to his under-wrap, and she repeated the squeeze maneuver to open the sides. She pulled the fabric away, leaving them body to body, with only his
Kieta
between them.

Her mouth left his, and Amy raised her wrist, offering it to him. “Now. Please, Sakkra.”

“Soon. I must be inside you first.”

Her eyes dilated, and she arched against him in offer. Sakkra pushed the sleeping gown off her shoulders and cupped one lush breast in his hand. He lowered his head and sucked her nipple in.

Her hand closed in the back of his hair, and sounds of pleasure filled the air around them. Amy parted her legs for him. Whispered pleas for him to fill her made his head spin.

Since he was the second son, Sakkra could have any woman he wanted as his own. Even so, Sakk princes typically chose virginal women as their mates. Amy wasn’t virginal. Of that, there was little doubt. Far from being off-putting, Sakkra was sure mating with a woman who knew what she liked would be more than he’d ever dreamed of.

Sakkra took the time to show the other breast similar attention, but putting off what they both craved was too maddening. He’d wanted her practically since he met her, and Sakk princes were not well versed in waiting for anything they wanted. He straightened and captured Amy’s lips again, groaning at her attempts to lever herself onto his ready cock.

Her hand brushed his wing, sending pleasant tremors through his body. She looked up at him, hesitated, then did it again, purposefully stroking him, learning what he liked by trial and error.

He positioned himself and thrust into her body, and her short fingernails dug into his shoulders. They parted minutely, and Sakkra started pounding into her body, staking a claim on his woman...his princess. To his delight and surprise, she was a tight fit for him.

Her sounds went sharp, and her hot breath bathed his mouth, promising dozens of delights. Her legs tightened around Sakkra’s waist, pulling his cock further inside her.

Amy didn’t last long. Her body clenched hard at his length, encouraging him to climax with her. Sakkra indulged, his heart hammering in excitement the likes of which he’d never felt with one of the women provided for him.

Of course not. Those women were paid to make sure I was sated well. Amy is sharing sexual fulfillment with me.
The two were vastly different.

“Sakkra?” Amy questioned.

That has to end now. “Labtrayel,” he corrected her.

****

Amy fought to make sense of whatever Sakk word he was using. “I don’t understand.”

“The mate of a prince or emperor does not use her mate’s title when they are intimate. That is for public appearance.”

“Then...Your name is...”

“Labtrayel,” he reminded her. “Only you and my family may use it.”

She repeated it several times, trying to commit it to memory. “It may take me a while to remember that,” she admitted. Her cheeks heated. “It’s just...I already know you as Sakkra.”

His smile let her know he wasn’t offended. “It is often thus when a Sakk prince takes a mate.”

Sakkra...Labtrayel eased out of her body, and Amy tried to make sense of it.

He cupped her chin in his hand. “Is there a problem?”

“You said you had to be inside.” Why was he pulling out if he had to be inside to put the
bio chains
on?

“My...essence had to be inside,” he explained.

Aftershocks wracked her at the reminder.

Sakkra raised her hand and kissed the knuckles. “Now we code the
bio chains
and then seal it with another mating.”

“Again? Don’t you need time to...recover?”

He chuckled darkly. “Let me lay the chains, and you will understand.”

Amy nodded, her heart tripping in excitement.

Sakkra raised one of the chains from the mattress and placed it around her wrist. Once he’d locked it on, a light humming raced up her arm, making her gasp.

“Now mine.” He looped the matching chain around his own wrist and fastened it one-handed.

At the first stroke of his fingertips over her unmarked cheek, the arousal struck. His half-erect length went hard again, and realization struck.

“The
bio chains
act as an aphrodisiac?”

“Closeness brings awareness. Touch brings pleasure.”

He stroked a fingertip along her lower lip, and she trembled in need.

“Sexual touching brings more.”

More was an understatement. The drive to have him inside her again was mind altering.

“Not yet,” Sakkra whispered. “The chains must code first.”

He kissed her, a slow, deep kiss that made her head spin. His wings closed around her, enveloping her in his scent and touch.