Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) (8 page)

He leaned forward and covered Lorn with his body, moving so their faces almost touched then placing the scrap of cloth between them. They groaned as one when the feminine perfume filled their senses, each of them jerking and straining against each other. Nast’s desire doubled, tripled, as he took in her scent mixed with their own combined musk.

“When we bond her I will take you like this while she watches, tied to our bed and unable to touch us, making her come from our bond alone. I’ll tie her legs spread wide as well, keeping her slick, sweet flesh open to us but not letting you lick her while I fuck you.”

Lorn groaned and clawed at the ground while Nast took him harder, their flesh slapping together. “I’ll make her ride your face while I fuck you, make you shove your tongue into her sweet pussy while she covers your face in her nectar. Imagine it, blood brother, how good it will feel when she completes our family, how perfect it will be.”

No longer able to speak past his lust Nast savagely ground himself into Lorn’s willing body, loving the strength, the honor and trust coming from the man taking him so perfectly. They worked together for their release, each man now growling in a long, continuous stream that blended together until it felt as if the earth was shaking around them. The fucking amazing vibrations started along his cock and Nast pushed himself up, the scent of their
alyah
lingering against his nose while he hauled Lorn’s ass up and battered his blood mate with his cock. Everything inside of him tightened, hardened and yet relaxed as his orgasm approached. With their bond fully open he could feel Lorn’s body readying for his release as his lover ground his shaft against the soft grass of what would someday be their Matriarch’s garden.

He couldn’t think of a more perfect way to bless the ground than with their release. Pulling out he quickly rolled Lorn over and grabbed his blood brother’s throbbing erection before fisting his own aching cock. Looking into Lorn’s brilliant blue eyes he jerked them off together until the pleasure became too much and he threw his head back, roaring out his pleasure while Lorn did the same, their combined seed splashing over Lorn’s stomach as wave after wave of pleasure crashed into him and tore him apart.

Collapsing onto Lorn he rolled over onto his side and with a shaking hand scooped off their pale lilac seed and spread it on the grass between them.

Lorn smiled at him, his voice shaky as he said, “Blessing the garden? You can take the boy off the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the boy.”

Chuckling, Nast continued to anoint the earth with their combined passion. “Yeah yeah. Just because you city dwellers have forgotten how to thank the Lord of Life for his gifts doesn’t mean all of us have. I want this to be her place of refuge, Lorn. I want her to be able to come here when the stress of the world becomes too great, so she can lose herself in the peace and beauty we’ll make for her here. I know you think my western continent traditions are foolish, but I know how hard it is for the brides of our galaxy to leave their homes, let alone one that has no idea we even exist. I want her to love Kadothia as much as we do, to find comfort in it because she’s going to be so far from her home world.”

Lorn blinked at him for a moment before clasping him tight. He pressed the scrap of cloth into Nast’s hand. “We will be her comfort, Nast. We will love her so often and so well that she will never know a moment of loneliness. And we will never have to leave her, never have to return to the battlefront because keeping her safe will become our world. You just need to keep your foolish ass alive long enough for me to win her heart.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be deep in the safe zone babysitting new Warriors.”

“It would be just my luck that you would be killed by some stupid child dropping his weapon and discharging it at your head.”

They chuckled together and Nast stared at Lorn, committing his blood brother’s face to his mind. Born of the elite ruling class of Kadothia, Lorn had the refined features of his ancestors, a square jaw and high cheekbones along with full, sensual lips. His dark skin set off his brilliant silver hair, and the shifting blues of his eyes always entranced Nast. He was beyond lucky the Lord of Life had seen fit to gift him with such a good man as a blood brother. He considered the rumors the Earth women, who had been bonded by the advance Scouts so far, reacted very negatively to taking on a second husband. Scout Nilin’s bond had almost been broken because of his bondmate’s horror at the thought of taking a second husband, and even worse, another Scout had lost his bride before a bond could be formed because she couldn’t accept two men loving each other as anything other than a sin. That Scout had taken his own life as result and his blood brother followed him soon after.

He would not let that happen to Lorn.

Nast closed his eyes and rubbed his cheek against Lorn’s head, their silver and blood red hair blending together in the soft breeze. Lowering his voice even though no one was anywhere near close enough to hear them he said, “I’m afraid, Lorn. I’ve waited so long, wanted and dreamed of her for so long, but what if she can’t accept more than one husband? It would hurt but it would flat out kill me if you let that come between the two of you. You must promise me you won’t push her into anything she doesn’t want to do.”

Fierce determination with a hint of apprehension came from Lorn through their still wide open bond. “Don’t be afraid, because she will love us, both of us.”

“How do you know?”

Pulling back enough so he could look Nast in the eye he brushed his thumb over Nast’s cheek. “I know because the Lord of Life created us all with an endless capacity for love. She’s just been raised on lies. Once she sees the truth, once she feels how right it is, she will love you as well.”

“But…”

“No, no buts. I will go slowly; I will take my time with her and I will win her heart for both of us. You were created to be my blood brother and she was created to be our
alyah
. It will work.”

The faintest hint of worry and doubt came from Lorn and Nast closed down his side of the bond to hide his shock. Lorn was the most confident man he knew, and rightly so. His blood brother led the 98
^th
Legion to victory after victory, getting them out of situations that would have led to their slaughter under a lesser man. Shit, they’d faced down an army of Hive mercenaries, with no more than two dozen men and a damaged gunship, and come out alive. To feel his lover doubt himself gave Nast the strength to let go of his own worries.

“I know you will. You’re right. The Lord of Life created her for us and us for her. One cannot argue with the will of the Creator.”

Lorn closed his eyes and pressed their foreheads together as the sun slowly set over the distant horizon. “I will miss you.”

Swallowing back a lump of emotion Nast hugged him closer until no room was left between them. They held each other like that, the songs of the night birds filling the air while the darkness overtook the horizon. He drew in Lorn’s scent and smiled when his blood brother brought that tiny, insignificant bit of fabric between them that held the very real scent of the other half of their souls.

Their Matriarch, their bondmate, their
alyah
, a simple word of affection that meant their eternal beloved.

Chapter Five

Casey Westfall tried to keep from staring at the huge, scary, unbelievably hot guy who walked through the automatic front doors of the small grocery store on the outskirts of Chelsea, Michigan. The night was exceptionally warm for late May, bringing to mind going to the beach and summer barbecues. So when an enormous man with hair so blond it was almost white hanging past his shoulders, dressed in a full length black leather trench coat, black leather pants and a black shirt came striding into the store all of Casey’s internal alarms went off.

While life had returned to what passed for normal, and they didn’t have to worry about gangs of looters trying to rob the place, she couldn’t help a little shiver of fear. There was something so…commanding about this man. Totally intimidating and not just because he was über hot in an unusual way. With his deep tan and startlingly blue eyes, he was at once the sexiest and scariest man she’d ever seen. He moved with a startling grace despite his large size, and she had to stop her gaze from drifting down to see what he was packing behind those tight leather pants. As he got closer she returned her attention to his face and met his electric blue eyes. Danger seemed to radiate from him, and when their gazes met, she stepped back with enough momentum to bump her hip on her register.

It looked for a moment as if he was coming right for her, and her heart slammed against her ribs as she wondered if she could make it to the hidden alarm before he pulled a gun out of his long trench coat. He stared into her eyes and she swore something close to elation lit his face, turning him from handsome to a downright sex god. Even in the crappy florescent lighting his hair gleamed with hints of the purest silver and she found herself drowning in his bluer than blue eyes. They were so neon bright, so perfect that they had to be contacts. Then he licked his lower lip and her body gave an answering surge of raw lust, which knocked her out of her stupor.

She looked around for her useless night manager, Jerry, but only saw her friend Kimber over at the next register looking equally dazed. When Casey turned back she found the stranger had moved off into the produce section and out of sight. Disappointment surged through her even as she let out a sigh of relief the night hadn’t started off with a robbery. Working the late shift at the grocery store sucked ass, but it was better than being unemployed. It gave her the money she needed to live on when she returned to college full-time in the fall.

At the next register, Kimber fluffed her soft black curls, a blush warming her light brown skin, and stared at Casey, her eyes as wide as Casey had ever seen. “Holy. Fucking. Shit. Did Thor just walk into our grocery store?”

“I have no idea.” Casey tried to stand on her tiptoes to see if she could find Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick, but at five foot three she didn’t see much of anything other than the endless rows of shelves.

“Do you know him? You must know him because he looked like he was about to jump in your panties.”

“No…not at all. Trust me, I’d remember someone like him. Holy fucking shit, indeed.”

Casey rubbed her face and wished she’d done something with her hair other than tie it back in a dark, lumpy bun. Then again, she wasn’t exactly the kind of girl men lost their shit over. Short, chubby, with baby cheeks that never seemed to go away no matter how much she dieted and exercised. Yeah she had a nice rack, but that guy had been supermodel material.

Kimber leaned over the empty conveyer belt between them with a grin. “Do you think he’s a movie star? Maybe I should get my phone out and take pictures. We could sell them to some gossip rag and have enough money to go on vacation. You know, a real vacation. Where we have to pack a bag for more than one day. Hell, with everyone still afraid to fly and tickets being super cheap we could probably go to Australia for three hundred bucks.”

After The Event, many airlines went out of business as people swore never to fly again. As a result, more and more people were taking mass transit to go places. And the cruise ship industry was seeing a huge surge in business. The memory of all those planes falling from the sky still haunted the public’s mind. Casey figured if she was going to die it was just as likely to happen on the ground as in the air so her family had taken advantage of the cheap flights to fly down to Texas to visit relatives. One positive side effect of the natural disaster was that people seemed to spend more time with their families now and Casey made it a point every chance she got to tell her friends and family how much she loved them.

Too bad she didn’t have anyone to share her love with. Someone who would be there when she went to sleep at night, someone who would hold her tight and murmur sweet nothings in her ears. A man who smelled as good as he looked and had the most amazing eyes.

Still disconcerted by the memory of the man’s shimmering blue eyes and the raw lust she must have mistakenly read in them, Casey shrugged, then squatted down and pretended to rearrange the plastic bags beneath the counter. “With our luck he’ll turn out to be some wanted criminal who will stalk and kill us for your camera phone then make a dress out of our skin.” She giggled and said in a terrible accent,
“It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again.”

When Kimber didn’t respond and the conveyer belt of Casey’s register started up she closed her eyes and prayed to the gods of nerdy girls everywhere that fate wasn’t taking a crap on her yet again. Dread filled her stomach as she slowly stood and when she turned and found Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick staring at her intently she cringed. Hoping he didn’t know they were talking about him, and that he didn’t hear her terrible impression, she pasted a big, fake, and she was sure was a somewhat creepy smile on her face and tried to still the trembling in her hands. He was at least a foot taller than she and big enough to make a pro-football player look like a wimp.

And so unbelievably hot it made her mouth dry and her panties wet.

“Good evening, Casey,” he said in an accented voice that moved through her like a caress.

Dumbfounded, she stared up at him while randomly grabbing whatever the hell he’d put down on the conveyer and scanning it. “What?”

For a moment he frowned and she swallowed hard. “Is that not how you greet each other? Good evening?”

Movement behind Mr. Sex-on-a-Stick caught Casey’s attention and she flushed in mortification as she caught Kimber taking pictures of them with her cell phone. The embarrassment helped clear her head enough to realize she’d scanned the same item four times.

“Oh, crap,” she muttered, then blushed even harder. “I’m sorry. I’ll fix that right away, Sir.”

“Lorn.”

“What?”