Marked 2: Marked for Desire (11 page)

She stared. She almost didn’t recognize her new mate. His eyes were red; his face was twisted into dark shadows of violence. He was completely fearless, attacking her assailant without any regard for his own safety. Her attacker struck back, but Leo was faster, stronger, and very, very angry. The assailant went down, and Sera gripped Leo’s arm. “Don’t kill him.”

“He touched you, harmed you.” Leo growled the words. Power emanated from him. Rage. This was the Nyral rage. She’d never seen it before. Impressive.

“You saved me. We need information.” She kept her voice steady and strong.

He blinked. Several minutes went by. The red glow in his eyes faded a little, but his hand gripped the knife, blood dripping from his fingers. Finally he relaxed his stance. His free hand flew out and yanked her closer to him. He took possession, his tongue deep in her mouth. It was brutal. Exhilarating. Hot. Without words, Leo staked claim to her, the smell of blood adding a primitive pounding to her heart. Conscious thought fled, and Sera sagged against him. He absorbed her, devoured her. She whimpered against his mouth, but he let go suddenly.

She staggered back, and he caught her arm. The mate mark blazed and burned. She met his gaze in the dim light of the small alcove where the assassin had dragged her. Her throat was dry, and her stomach flopped. Would she ever be able to handle his touch, his possession?

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, then released her slowly.

She stared at him, and he whirled around to deal with their captured, wounded Brotherhood assassin. Leo knelt beside the man, disarmed him, and ripped off his mask.

Sera gasped. Shaun Reynald, the assassin from Sethos Five. The man’s reddish hair and angled features were burned into her brain. You didn’t forget a man who cuffed you to a bed and then threatened to kill you.

“Well, they don’t give up easily, do they?” Leo glanced at Sera. “I gave him several stab wounds. Unless you know a way to heal him, he’ll bleed out.”

Of course she knew a way. And he knew she knew. “Bastard!”

“I don’t care, Princess,” he drawled. “I say let him die. But you wanted to save him”—he rose and stepped back—“so save him.”

She stepped closer. His fingers closed around her upper arm. “But don’t touch him too much, Princess. Or I will kill him.”

The man was a potent mix of danger and sex for her. Damn him. She shut him out. If she had to heal the man on the floor, she was going to have to access the power that ate pieces of her soul. She swallowed.

“If you don’t want to do it, then don’t,” Leo said softly.

“I’ll do it.” She squared her shoulders and reached for the power she knew was there, just inside her reach. It swamped her, flooded her, filled her.

But something was wrong.

The planet’s power tore through her body; the mate mark hurt like a motherfucker. Her hand clutched her arm, and she screamed. What? Why was she hurting?

Leo was there. His arms wrapped around her, and he held her close. The power still came, but it lashed her, punished her for the mark on her arm, the possession that robbed the planet of its quarry.

Her fingertips glowed, electrified by the power inherent in her people. It ripped through the wounded man, and he convulsed, blood spattering the floor and her face.

The planet wouldn’t back off this time. It was going to suck her dry. Leo whipped her around and glared at her. “No. She’s
mine
!” His mouth claimed hers, punishing her, sending her spinning. God, the man’s lips were magic, glorious. His tongue danced with hers, twisting and entwining like erotic gymnastics. His hands roamed her body, and she gasped, her pussy throbbing, needy. She was torn in two, shredded by the demand from the planet and the demand of her mate. But she belonged to Leo. Her mate mark burned, and she moaned with the mixed pleasure and pain.

Fire swept along her skin, the sting bringing tears to her eyes even while it joined with Leo’s dominating touch to flood her with sensations. His fingers dug into the soft flesh at her hips, and the dull ache of desire became sharper, needier, like the edge of a razor.

When his knee scraped along her clit, she slipped over the edge and shattered, her orgasm taking all the pain from the planet’s possession and turning it into desire.

Power ebbed, and the planet let her go. It spit and fought to the end, but it could not have her when another possessed her.

Leo broke the kiss and stared at her, his gaze concerned, almost…loving.

She stared back, helpless, enthralled, and realized she had fallen in love with the only man who had not only mastered her, but the planet that desired to destroy her as well.

Chapter Eight

Shit
. Leo couldn’t believe the power, the sentient consciousness he’d sensed from the planet. It wanted to own her, suck her dry. No wonder she was terrified to be here. And he’d asked her to use the very power that would kill her. All because the bleeding man had touched her, had her sweet mouth around his cock. Leo clenched his fists. She was right. He was a fucking asshole.

He’d barely brought her back. Her eyes had glowed, her fingertips red and hot. When he’d kissed her, those fingertips had burned his skin, burning through his shirt, scorching his arms. Like the mate mark, they throbbed and hurt now, but they would fade. Unlike the mark he’d forced on her.

In her gaze, he saw that irresistible submission that fascinated him. The Nyral rage, only subject to the heart, not the body, had swamped him because she’d implied she’d fucked him casually. It hadn’t been like this with Shanie. How the hell was he ever going to survive this? He’d lost his last mate in a horrific bloodbath. Would he condemn his princess to the long years without a mate? Would she miss him as he’d missed Shanie?

A groan in the dark reminded him that they had a prisoner. He retrieved his discarded knife and stalked the man. An assassin. Like the one who killed Shanie. Amazingly, the fucker sat up on his elbows and stared at the princess. He didn’t like that at all. “Get your eyes off her, killer.” They were all killers.

The man’s gaze fell.

Leo placed the knife at the man’s throat. “She wanted to save you. For information. If you don’t give it to us, you’re fucking dead. Clear, killer?”

The man’s Adam’s apple moved, and he nodded.

“Where are you from?” The princess asked the very question he didn’t want to ask. Leo thought he knew.

“Nylar.”

So, he hadn’t lied on Sethos Five. He really was from Nylar. Violence was close to the surface. Leo trembled; the knife brushed the man’s skin. A fellow dominant, touching his mate, threatening his mate.

“Leo!” The princess gripped his arm and shook it, but he wanted the man dead. He’d touched her, laid his dominant hands on her. He’d tried to kill her.

A muffled curse from his princess barely registered before her soft lips pressed against his. It certainly got his attention. So did the firm stroke of her fingers on his cock through his pants. From the killing rage to hot passion in half a second, he jerked the knife away from the assassin to claim his mate.

Slowly the haze around his brain faded, and he recognized what she was trying to do. He broke the kiss and stared at his woman. Her eyes were lined with worry, and two small lines marred her forehead. He smoothed the lines and kissed her gently. “I’m okay now.”

She let out a long breath. “I really don’t give a shit if you kill him, Leo, but we’ve got to know who gave the orders and why.”

He nodded and turned back to the assassin, the
Nyral
assassin. “Explain to me how someone who shares my planet would become the scum of the galaxy.”

The man’s hazel eyes blinked. “I was recruited.” He was young, Leo realized. The club information stated his age as twenty-two. He certainly couldn’t have been more than that.

“How were you recruited?” the princess demanded. Leo liked how her voice was hard, threatening. There was nothing wimpy about his woman. He flexed his hands to keep them to himself, even though he wanted to bury himself inside her again.
Focus.

The assassin said nothing.

“So you’re a traitor.” Leo sneered.

“
No
.” The word exploded from the man’s mouth. “I swear it.”

“Then why are you a Brotherhood killer?” Leo pressed.

The assassin’s lips tightened, and his breath blew out. “You don’t understand.”

Leo glared at him. “How are you to contact the Brotherhood if you’re stranded?”

Those hazel eyes shifted.
Gotcha
! The man was going to lie now. He cleared his throat. “We don’t. If we’re stranded—”

Leo’s hand gripped the man’s throat, and he gurgled, choked. “Liar!” Leo snapped. “The truth. Now, asshole, or I’ll snap you in two.”

He released the man’s throat enough for him to speak. The assassin’s voice was hoarse. “I have a frequency, a call sign.”

Leo glared at him. “There are ten of you, killer. We’ve only seen five. Where’s the rest of your cell?”

The assassin’s silence was enough of an answer. They didn’t have much time. The princess made a small sound, and Leo glanced at her. “Shall I kill him now?” He kept his tone casual. He
wanted
to kill the man. A traitor. A Nyral dominant who used his power to murder the helpless. A killer who preyed on those who sought sexual relief in the clubs, he should be put down like a feral
ferwak.

“No,” his princess said. Leo gazed at her. The expression on her face was regal, imperious, passing judgment. “We’re going to use him.”

The assassin shook. “What are you going to do to me?”

His princess leaned closer to him and glared. “I’m going to use you as a human sacrifice, assassin. If your friends come to find you, this planet is going to eat you alive.”

* * *

“He’s terrified.” She shuddered. Leo tried to refrain from touching her, but she needed his comfort. He wrapped his arms around her, his hands gentle, the same hands that had just rendered their prisoner unconscious.

“He’s young. But he’s a Nyral dominant, Princess,” he told her. “As a child, he was taught the danger, the pitfalls of power. We are well trained in our restraint, our control.” So much for his own control. When it came to the princess, he didn’t have much. But he wasn’t abusing his power either. He gazed at the young man’s sleeping face. He seemed even younger. “He has betrayed all of it. Murder is a heinous crime on Nylar. It denotes a lack of control, a lack of understanding. Even those of us trained in combat use killing only as a last resort.” He stroked her back and rocked her. She curled up against his chest and sighed.

“Can we help him?” Her voice was muffled against his chest.

Ah, his sweet princess. “Perhaps. We may have to let him put his call through. There’s more to this than he’s telling.”

She nodded. “There’s a communications complex about two clicks from here.”

He leaned back and stared at her. “How do you know this labyrinth so well?”

Her lips tightened, and her gaze was riveted on his chest. “My mother…trained me here.”

Trained her. Leo was pretty sure it wasn’t pleasant. Something in her demeanor screamed her discomfort. “I see. Well, let’s wait until our prisoner wakes up. We need to find some food and water.”

She nodded. “It’s on the way.” Her blue eyes swirled as her gaze met his. “Leo, I don’t like any of this. How do you think the Brotherhood is recruiting?”

“Maybe some of the foot soldiers like him are forced into the Brotherhood, but the leaders? No. They’re committed to the cause—whatever the cause might be.” He smoothed her hair and held her close. Somehow his perfect submissive had climbed right into his heart. His mate mark throbbed, a low-level reminder of the passionate explosions that happened between them.

She purred.

His cock hardened, stirred by her nearness, taunted by her sweetness. God, he wanted to keep her naked, leashed, and on her knees. He imagined her red hair spilling over her back, her breasts taut and ready, her hands clasped behind her. This was going to be torture. His mate mark burned, and she muttered.

“What?”

“I said, stop it. My arm is scorching. I know exactly what you’re thinking.”

“I doubt it,” he said drily.

She tipped her head up and smiled. “Oh, I think so. You want to put a collar on me and have me down on my knees for you. Isn’t that what every dom wants?”

“I want a lot more than that,” he murmured, his mouth nearing hers until their breath mingled. “I’d want an anal plug in that sweet ass of yours and nipple clamps on those spectacular tits. And I’d want your pussy within reach of my fingers always, every moment, so I could touch you and make you come over and over—” His own words were making his cock leak. Fuck. The image was so real, so clear, so potent.

“Ohhhh,” she sighed. “When you say it like that, it sounds heavenly.”

He groaned. “Princess—”

She pressed her lips to his. He growled and took over. She belonged to him, all of her, every inch. He wanted to worship her, get inside her skin, inside her head. Instead he kept trying to get inside her pussy. He softened the kiss and pulled away. He cupped her face, stunned by her half-lidded, drowsy expression. Just from his kiss. Damn it. She was sex incarnate, from her sweet curves to her complete surrender. His fingers twined in her soft tresses and gently tugged to expose her neck. He pressed his lips to the slope of her shoulder. “There is so much more to mating than that, Princess.” He raised his head and brushed her lips with his. “It’s not just sex and domination.”

Her eyes widened. “What else is there?”

He cursed himself silently. “I’ll show you. Don’t write us off too soon.” He almost groaned when she squirmed in his lap. It took every ounce of control he had to slide her out of his lap and onto her feet.

The assassin stirred. Leo dropped his hands away from her, stood up, and gripped the prisoner’s arm. “Get up, killer. We’ve got some walking to do.”

His princess led the way, and they left the alcove into the confusing labyrinth.

* * *

Sera’s memory served her well. It was so odd. She was leading a Brotherhood assassin and her new Nyral mate through the confusing twists and turns beneath a sacred Placido temple. The corridors were lit with ankai stones, which gave off a natural light. The planet thrummed beneath her feet. It pressed against her, shifting and impatient. As a child, she’d experienced the planet’s demand, but her mother had deflected much of the pressure. Yet her young mind had sensed the danger, the overpowering need under the surface. Her mother insisted it was Sera’s destiny, a word that brought the taste of ashes on her tongue. All her life she’d known it would come to this.