Claimed (7 page)

Sorvar’s chest was right there in front of her face, the thick muscle of his pectoral almost begging her to set her teeth against it and bite. Tina’s gums ached, and her fingertips tingled. She was almost overwhelmed with the urge to scratch and bite. She wanted to drive him as crazy as he drove her.

God, she needed him to move. She wanted to come so bad, it was driving her a little crazy. He kept flexing his hard cock inside her with just enough stimulation to keep her on edge, but not enough to send her over.

Tina wriggled her hips. He had to move, damn it, but Sorvar just gripped her hips tighter, holding her still.
Please move!
Oh, why wouldn’t he move? She dug her nails into the hard muscle of his shoulders, clenching her jaw as her heart started to pound. A swell of what Tina was starting to associate with amusement filtered through to her and she let out a little growl.

Damn him, he knew exactly what he was doing to her, the bastard. Tina struck, her teeth bared in a snarl. She put her mouth to that thick muscle and bit down—hard.

It was like she’d lit him up with lightning. Sorvar roared, the swell of his lust and need almost overwhelming her. He started to thrust, hard, fast and rough. His hands held her hips in a bruising grip. Tina clung to him, relishing the intense, beautiful ride, the taste of his skin in her mouth, and his body in hers propelling them towards the heavens.

He was her mate, her male. What they had together was already special, so different from anything she’d ever had with any other man before or ever wanted before. How had he done this—made her feel this way in no time at all? And why didn’t it scare the shit out of her?

Left panting and shuddering with after-spasms, Tina pushed up on arms that shook so badly, she almost face planted into Sorvar’s chest. The bruise on his pectoral from her bite was already healed. There was no sign she had ever put her teeth in him. Her heavy-lidded gaze met his and she opened her mouth to say
well that was fun,
but the ship shuddered around them, and the blast of the alarms almost deafened her.

“Prince Sorvar, we are under attack!” crackled across the comm system.

Chapter Five

“Get dressed,” Sorvar commanded as he lifted Tina off him and set her on her feet.

She wobbled on her less than steady legs, the insides of her thighs aching and her muscles like jelly. Her stomach tightened. Was he going to leave her here? Tina’s heart started to race.

“Sorvar—” The sharp blaze of heat that shot through her cut her off.

“Tina, I don’t have time to play this game with you. I need to get to the bridge,” he growled.

She stood paralysed for two seconds before she spun and stalked towards her bags on the floor, her hands clenched into fists and her lips pressed together. Her bags were still where Sorvar had dumped them when they first entered the ship.

Game. He thought it was a fucking game. Tina barely controlled the growl that rolled up her throat. He’d learn soon enough that she had no intention of being some soft, sappy push-over.

Tina dug through her bags with sharp jerky movements. It took her a few moments to dig out pants and a soft long sleeve tunic. She yanked underwear and soft slip on shoes out to complete her outfit.

By the time she’d dressed, Sorvar was walking towards the door, his breastplate strapped on and his heavy boots buckled in place. Tina had discovered he wore the same skirt as his fellow Morgathian males, it just sat a little different on him.

“I’m coming with you,” Tina said.

“You are not,” Sorvar replied, as he spun around to face her.

If there was one thing Tina had always been other than independent, it was stubborn. She hadn’t managed to get into space on brains alone. She just hadn’t taken no for an answer and had kept pushing and pushing until her name was on the list.

Like hell she wasn’t going with him! She lifted her chin and stared back at him. “I am. I’m not going to sit in here scared out of my mind while you trot off to sort everything out.”

A low growl rolled out of Sorvar before he spun on his heel. “Fine, but keep up, Tina. I’m not waiting for you.”

Tina looked away from him as she stepped towards the door. Heat streaked across her cheeks. She wasn’t really scared, and she was sure Sorvar knew it. He would be able to feel everything she was feeling, and fear was far down on her list. Shit, why did that make her feel guilty?

She followed him out of their quarters and needed to almost run to keep up with his long legs. His wings were all she could see as he stalked in front of her, his stride eating up the corridor, his boots echoing through the ship. They passed not one single male as they made their way the short distance to the bridge.

The tension rolling off him filled the lift as they rocketed up the floor to the bridge. Sorvar reached for her and took her hand, pulling her off the lift and towards the centre of the bridge.

“Report,” he demanded.

Tina sighed. Men, they were all the same. Rile them up a little bit and they all growled their displeasure at you.

A large male to the left, with eyes more green than yellow, started to speak. “Shields are holding at ninety percent...”

Tina looked around the bridge. Apart from the brief visit when they’d first entered the ship, she’d never been on a bridge before. On the trip from Earth to The Fortress, the Coalition’s main station, she and the other eleven women were only allowed on the passenger deck, and on her trip from The Fortress to Deranti, she’d been so sick because of the constant rifting across space that she’d spent all her time in the toilet. A shudder shook her. That had not been pleasant.

The bridge of Sorvar’s ship was compact. They were such a large species—why was their bridge so small? A screen filled the whole front wall with a view of the ship attacking them, and a male sat at a control panel with all sorts of interesting buttons and knobs and controls on it. Tina had always wanted to learn to fly a ship, or at least a shuttle. Maybe Sorvar would teach her.

The ship shuddered again, and Sorvar’s hand tightened around hers. Tina inched closer to him. If everything went to shit, at least they were together.

The captain’s chair was not far behind the male at the control panel, but raised up on a little dais, like a dictator. A few steps up from the captain’s chair there were two more consoles, one on the left and one on the right, and that was about it. Behind each of those control panels above the captain’s chair, screens with data scrolling across their surface and images and diagrams of the ship covered the walls. Lights flashed across the screens, and for the first time since the alarm had come on, reality set in, and Tina’s stomach clenched.

Flashing lights were usually a warning. When Medical equipment flashed at you, you paid attention. It always meant something was wrong.

Someone was attacking them! Some unknown people were attacking them. Who would do such a thing? Of course, they weren’t in Coalition space anymore, so that meant it could be anybody.

Sorvar said something Tina didn’t catch in his deep voice. Then the screen blinked, and she was staring at one of the most hideous species she’d ever seen. Bile rose in her throat, and she had to take deep breaths to stop herself from throwing up.

It was like the Morgath, but... not. The overall shape was there, large, winged, lizard-like with scales and a snout with lots of sharp looking teeth, but that was where the similarities ended.

A disgusting yellow slime oozed from between widely spaced olive green scales. She couldn’t imagine having to touch it, to have that gunk on her. One bulging black eye stared right at her. The other was white with a wicked looking scar slashing across the lid. Tina shuddered, the skin on the back of her neck prickling as nausea made her stomach roll.

Sorvar’s hand tightened around hers as the creature hissed out what sounded like a laugh.

“Little Prince Sorvar. I never expected one of Nardoc’s sons to be the male who mated. Look at you, so pretty. Who knew the humans would combine so beautifully with the Morgath,” the alien on the screen said.

A loud growl ripped from Sorvar, and heat boiled inside Tina and almost drove her to her knees with the unexpected force. So that was the kind of relationship the Morgath had with this species. She couldn’t look away from the vile creature on the screen, even though she wanted to. It was like watching someone die. You didn’t really want to see it, but you couldn’t look away.

“What do you want, Crasgich? Why have you attacked us and broken the truce?”

Sorvar’s harsh voice cutting across Tina’s skin felt like a honed blade.

“Oh, I want what you have, Sorvar, and I’m going to get it. She’s such a pretty little thing isn’t she? I wonder if she’ll still be beautiful after she’s bred the next generation of Crasgich. I’ve heard a lot about the breeding capabilities of humans, but first I’m going to destroy your ship and hand that pretty body of yours to my sons for a little fun. Then I’m going to fuck your new mate until she’s screaming and begging me to stop. I might even let you watch.”

An uncontrollable wildfire raged through Tina as Sorvar roared. She cried out and stumbled back as he exploded beside her. Her hand stayed clenched in his, long lethal talons now digging into her skin. She looked up at him from an arm’s distance away, her body rooted to the spot. Good god, he was huge. She gaped up at him.

He was no longer a mere seven feet—his head brushed the ceiling, and his wings swept out at his sides to touch the consoles on either side of the room. His beautiful golden skin that she’d stroked just a short while ago was gone. The leather straps of his breastplate must have snapped with the force of his change, because it lay at his feet. His boots were in shreds under his taloned feet.

He was Morgath, but he was more. Massive and intimidating, he towered over the other males by two feet. The sheer size of the fangs in his mouth was enough to make any sensible woman swoon.

Tina stood gaping up at him. She couldn’t do anything else. A low vicious growl echoed through the bridge, raising all the hairs on the back of her neck.

“You will have to go through me before you lay a hand on my mate. I think I will enjoy tearing you to pieces, Crasgich. I’m going to start with that soft underbelly of yours and rip your filthy heart out while it’s still beating.”

Sorvar made a sharp cutting motion with his hand, and the screen went blank. He turned to the male on the left without even glancing at Tina.

“Commander, rip them to shreds.”

The male gaped at Sorvar. “M-my Prince, the truce?”

“The Crasgich broke it the minute he attacked us,” Sorvar replied, his voice so deep Tina felt it like a drum reverberating inside her.

Sorvar turned, tugging Tina behind him, his sharp talons, digging painfully into her arm, but he only took two steps, and a violent shudder went through him. He faltered and dropped to his knees, shaking the floor plating with the force of the impact.

A deep groan rolled out of him as his body shook and shrank as fast as he’d expanded. Tina was almost ripped off her feet as he tumbled forward to collapse on the floor of the bridge.

“Sorvar!” She rushed forward to kneel at his side.

The ship shuddered under her, almost tossing Tina off her feet. Oh, god! It was so empty without his presence inside her. Was he dead? No, no, he couldn’t die on her, she wouldn’t let him.

Wings. Oh god, his wings were everywhere. She settled down on her knees close to Sorvar’s head and reached for his neck. His new physiology wasn’t that much different from a human’s. There had to be a vein in his neck.

Tina brushed over his neck, pushing his hair back before pressing firm fingers against his skin. She felt around, pressing against the smooth skin under his jaw until she found what she was looking for, the strong, steady pulse of his heart.

“He’s alive.” She sagged, some of the tension running out of her.

“Medical is on their way,” the tall male Sorvar had called his Commander said from behind her.

She didn’t get to respond—the ship shuddered and lurched again. Tina threw her hand out to brace herself on the floor, but her hand slid across the smooth surface.

The scent of blood was thick under her nose, the faint metallic scent overlaid by a brighter greener tone. Tina looked down to see almost black blood smeared across the floor from deep punctures in her wrist.

God, what else about her was different? Was there any of her humanity left? She let out a deep sigh. It wasn’t worth getting worked up about it. There were other things to be angry about. Like the fact that Sorvar hadn’t explained what soul bonding meant before he’d claimed her. When he woke up, they were going to have a serious conversation about his heavy-handed attitude.

Sorvar had given her the opportunity to study a species which had very little medical information about in the Coalition archives, even if he didn’t know it yet. Tina was not going to be some frivolous, useless princess. She wanted to work and study and learn about the species that was now hers, and she’d fight with everything in her for the right to do so. Even if that meant going head to head with Sorvar.

The ship shook and shuddered as the Crasgich continued to attack, but it was only a few minutes before the medics were rushing from the lift towards them. Tina watched as two males bound Sorvar’s wings into position against his body with great care.

A third male stood over her as she watched Sorvar lifted from the floor. “Come, Princess, we will heal your arm, and you can tell me what has happened to our Prince.”

Tina turned to find the male holding out his hand. She didn’t hesitate to take the offer of assistance. The Morgath were her people now. She had to start trusting them. It might as well be sooner than later, and she wanted answers about what had happened to Sorvar. The only way she would get them was to go to Medical.

“Thank you,” she said as she took the male’s hand. The scales of his palm were surprisingly soft and smooth, and his hand was cool against her much warmer skin.