Prime Imperative (The Prime Chronicles Book 3) (22 page)

Cheri moaned. “Oh, lordy. I think I had a full-body orgasm just hearing about it. I’m really happy we found a decent amount of Prime DNA in my genetics. Do you gals know of any single Prime guys looking for a short, curvy blonde of Terran Scottish lineage with a submissive bent?”

Bria muttered, “I’m sure you’ll be very popular once we get to Cejuru Prime.”

Her friend had a bouncy, outgoing personality and had always had an active dating life. Cheri’s Prime DNA was smaller in amount than Nadia’s and Lia’s, but more than some of the other Terrans’ DNA they’d sampled for the research project after Nadia had marked with Huw.

Cheri might or might not mark.

They had no defined parameters of how much Prime DNA a Terran female needed in order to truly bond. But a bond mark wasn’t necessary to procreate. As Borac had proven with Cissy.

Every time Bria thought about the Elder Council holding onto the “must mark to mate” philosophy, her blood boiled. Stupid paternalistic men had sabotaged their own population growth.

“Cheri, Prime males won’t have casual sex with anyone other than a sex surrogate.” Bria felt her friend needed to be aware of that point.

“I know that, bossy lady.” Cheri lifted one hand, and while maintaining a perfect one-handed balance—
show off
—pinched Bria on the arm. “I promise to behave. Besides, I’m ready to settle down. I want a man who’ll love only me and give me lots and lots of babies.”

“Prime males are good at monogamy, Cheri.” Iolyn’s low baritone sent shivers along Bria’s spine which then affected her sex as little electrical shocks. “We take good care of our mates. Don’t we,
peata
?” Iolyn stroked a finger down the middle of her back. “You look wiped. Time to take a nap.”

Mel snickered as Bria fell to the mat in a boneless heap. “He calls you
little pet
?”

Bria glared at Iolyn who gathered her into his arms and kissed her sweaty forehead. “I can’t believe you said that in front of my friends.”

“
Lubha
.” Iolyn placed a biting kiss on her lips. “Why are you embarrassed that I think you’re as cute and sweet as a little domesticated feline?”

Because…it’s private. Do you want me to show you my claws?

Iolyn chuckled. “Say good-bye to the ladies, Bria.” He nuzzled her neck and took a lick. “You taste salty and sweet. We’re leaving.”

“Iolyn!” Bria sank her nails into his shoulder. “We weren’t done.”

“And now you’re done.” He whispered loudly enough for the others to hear. “I have another sort of exercise in mind.”

Cheri sighed. “I’m so jealous right now I could just spit.”

Iolyn smiled at her petite friend. “You might want to meet one of my computer techs. His name is Zaek Magga. He is extremely attracted to you.” Iolyn winked. “Extremely.”

Bria’s lips twitched with amusement at her
gemat
’s blatant match-making. “Is that the tech who helped us set up the ancillary lab off the Sick Bay?”

“That’s the one.” Iolyn chuckled. “Cheri, he’s working on interfacing your databases with the ship’s medical data bases right now. I’m sure he’d love some company.”

Cheri’s eyes brightened. “Oh, yum. He was a hunk. I need to get cleaned up and get back to the lab.” She sprang to her feet and ran out of the gym.

Bria registered her friend’s overweening excitement and then started to worry. “Iolyn—” she whispered, but was cut off by her man’s hungry tongue-thrusting kiss which didn’t last nearly long enough.

“No worries. I wouldn’t have mentioned Zaek if I wasn’t sure he was serious.” He looked her and then Lia in the eyes. “He’s a good man. He’s never marked. He was curious about Huw and Nadia’s reverse marking. He has some of the same symptoms Huw had. He is open to the mating. He really,
really
likes Cheri. Said she smelled right.”

“That was fast. Almost as fast as Joen and me.” Lia rose gracefully from the mat. “I’d better get to the lab and start the sampling on those two. Cheri was only exposed to him once she got on ship and for less than an hour.”

“I’ll come—” Bria really wanted Lia to treat the bruising from the training before Iolyn questioned how yoga could produce such injuries. Plus, she wanted to check this Zaek out again.

Iolyn covered her lips with his fingers. “Lia can handle Cheri and Zaek. You can go to the lab tomorrow. Later, we’ll have dinner with my brothers and their mates.” He turned to Lia and smiled. “Joen will pick you up for dinner, because you’re both invited.”

Lia grinned. “Looking forward to it.” She looked at Bria. “You’ll find a copy of everything on your database after Cheri’s new love finishes syncing the systems.”

“Thanks, Lia.” Bria waved over Iolyn’s shoulder as he carried her from the gym, held securely against his chest. “See you all later.”

Mel, Nadia, and Lia waved back, identical, knowing smiles on their faces. Lia mouthed “enjoy the sexual healing” and then started laughing like a loon.

“Did you have a nice chat with my sister-kin?”

Bria punched him on the shoulder. “How much did you overhear?”

“I came in when you were explaining to a very interested Cheri about how a Prime male heals his woman.” Iolyn shook his head. “I think Zaek is going to have a hellion on his hands.”

Bria had to smile. “Yes, she can be a handful. She’s also smart and loyal and funny and very, very into dominant alpha-males. I just hope she can stick with one. She’s used to a variety.”

“She’ll be fine.” Iolyn rubbed her back where he held her. “You might not have noticed, but when she said she was ready to settle down, she sincerely meant it. And Zaek is like all Prime males—he’ll keep her so busy in bed she won’t have the time or energy to do anything else but her work and have sex with her mate. And Zaek is interested in working on your databases. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t ask to be assigned to your research lab.”

“That would make it convenient.” Bria started to giggle. “I can just see her asking for a sex break.”

“I’ll be asking for a lot of those too.” Iolyn smiled and cuddled her even closer.

* * * *

Iolyn placed his hand on Bria’s lower back to guide her to the large booth he’d reserved in the Officer’s Lounge for the dinner with his brothers, Joen, and their
gemates
. After two hours of healing Bria, followed by an hour-long power nap, he was energized and ready for more active sex games. Yet, he sensed Bria was still a bit overwhelmed by the frequency of their sexual encounters.

Yes, Bria had a high level of arousal—it vibrated red hot in her aura and the eventual pleasure was uppermost in her mind—but her more puritanical Terran upbringing told her too much indulgence was wrong.

She needed to get past that cultural roadblock in her thinking. Mel, a Prime also raised by Terrans, and Nadia and Lia, Terrans, had all managed to eliminate the prudish mind set fairly quickly.

Iolyn hoped a nice relaxing meal with couples all sharing the same bonding issues would help Bria relax and be more comfortable with the sea change in her sex life. He had no intentions of holding back. He needed her. She needed him. He wouldn’t deny that fundamental reality, not even to allay her modesty. Now that he’d had her in his arms, had tasted and touched every satiny inch of her gorgeous body, and had claimed her every way but anally—and that would appear soon on the sexual menu—he couldn’t bear to be away from her. He now had much more respect for how the other couples—well, not Huw who’d been an asshole—had handled their bonding in the early weeks.

From his observations, eventually he and Bria would settle into a pattern of having sex three-to-four times a day. Any more and neither of them would get their work done.

Also, he planned on leaving the military and staying with her on-planet. He couldn’t envision being away from her on missions for weeks at a time.

Bria, proving she’d gotten more comfortable touching on his uppermost thoughts, turned to him and said, “I’ll be going with you on the
Galanti
.” She scooted into the banquette.

Iolyn followed. “No. You need your lab and your team. I can do research in my field on-planet.”

“Iolyn—” Bria stroked his face and then tapped his chin with an insistent finger. “The lab setup on the ship is fantastic. I can work with Lia and a few of my team can join us when you have missions. The rest of the team can work on-planet, and we’ll exchange data just as I did with Lia when I was clear across the galaxy. It will work. You don’t have to give up your career for me.” She turned her attention to her napkin and placed it on her lap. “I don’t intend to give up my career choices for you. It’s only fair.”

“Bria…” He tried to keep his frustration out of his voice, but knew he’d failed when Wulf, standing by the table chuckled.

“Give it up, brother.” Wulf seated Mel and stroked a hand over her hair. “You won’t win this fight. Why do you think I proposed the co-captaincy to the Alliance Military?”

“Because my very smart
gemat
knew I’d make his life miserable if I had to sit on-planet while he got to have all the fun.” Mel smiled at Wulf, taking his hand and placing a biting kiss over his knuckles.

Mel then turned toward Iolyn. “Trust me, this will work out for the best. Bria will want to see new cultures and take blood samples all over the Milky Way. Prime DNA is potentially everywhere, according to what she told us while we did power yoga earlier.”

Bria choked back what Iolyn sensed was a laugh, but when he touched her mind to see what was so funny, he found only her low-level arousal, a need for food, and the anticipation of a nice meal with newfound friends and relatives. Whatever she hid he’d eventually discover. Her walls came down completely during sex, so he’d know every thought, every feeling, every desire in her beautiful mind.

“Are you playing the big bad Prime male card already, brother-kin?” Nadia asked as Huw seated his
gemate
with one last tender, loving sweep of his hand over the nape of her neck.

Huw chuckled. “Of course he is. It’s instinctive to order our
gemates
around.”

“But it is a battle-mate’s prerogative to ignore her warrior-
gemat
.” Mel picked up the glass of wine Wulf had poured her and toasted her sister-kin. “To battle-mates.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Lia said as she sat down. “To battle-mates.” She picked up the glass Wulf nudged toward her and saluted the other ladies.

Joen sat next to her and shot a smile around the table. “You guys thinking maybe we’ve bitten off more than we can chew?” He turned a hot gaze on Lia. “I love it, though. Each day brings new discoveries about this very special
gemat-gemate
bond.”

Bria stirred next to him, and Iolyn turned to her. “What is it,
peata
?”

As the men chuckled at his use of the endearment, Bria glared at him and hissed, “Stop calling me a
little pet
. I’m not little, nor am I a pet.”

You are to me. And no one thinks less of you. I’m sure the others have names for their women.

But they aren’t using them in public.

“Would you prefer I call you
little menace
?” Iolyn massaged the back of her neck and despite being mad at him, she sighed with pleasure.

“No.” She looked at the other women who had smiles on their faces. “Am I being too sensitive on this endearment thing?”

Nadia laughed. “Huw calls me
she-cat
.” She brushed her cheek over Huw’s shoulder. “It makes me hot.”

“And what makes her hot, makes me hot.” Huw placed a nuzzling kiss on Nadia’s head as it rested on his shoulder.

Mel nodded. “Yeah. When Wulf calls me
little one
in a certain tone, I melt and want to bite his
gemat
mark.”

“Which I love,” Wulf winked at Bria, “so I call her
little one
a lot.”

Lia smiled and shook her head. “Well, Joen calls me all sorts of things including the usual Prime
lubha
and
cwen
, but then lately he’s used a Terran endearment—not sure where he got it from—but I love it. And I love him.”

“What?” Bria asked.

Iolyn could tell his sister-kin and Lia had alleviated Bria’s embarrassment by making it all normal and fun. Bless them. He’d make sure to do something nice for each of them later. They were working hard to include her in their sisterhood—which could be good and bad, because he was damn sure the yoga sessions were more than just exercise. Bria had bruises in places that even power yoga wouldn’t produce.

Lia snickered. “He calls me
pumpkin
.”

Everyone laughed. Joen kissed Lia’s flushed cheek. “One of the Terran engineers gave me a list of names he uses with his wife. I liked pumpkin.” He shrugged. “She’s so cute—the word sounds cute. But when I looked it up, I wasn’t sure why anyone would want to call their beloved a round, orange vegetable.”

Everyone at the table erupted in laughter once again.

Bria wiped tears off her cheeks from giggling so hard. “Okay, if Iolyn has to call me something, then
peata
it is.
Lubha
and
cwen
are okay, too.” She poked him in the side. “But I am really not a little menace.”

“At times, you are.” Iolyn cupped her chin and turned her toward him. He took her lips in a demanding kiss to smother her inevitable protest. His brothers and Joen chuckled.

Bria tasted like wine and sex. A heady combination that went straight to his cock. Everything he did with Bria went straight to his cock, and he liked the feeling. He broke away from their kiss and swept a finger over her heated cheeks. At that moment, he wanted to be in their bed, buried so deeply inside her that he couldn’t tell where she began and he left off.

Later.

Yes, later, big bad man.

Bria coughed then looked at the others. “Changing the subject, I’ve done some reading since I first began working with Lia on Prime DNA and the battle-mate alleles in particular, but I couldn’t find much on what battle-mates do. I only found that the genetic markers were in certain bloodlines and that after the Period of Galactic Discovery their roles died out.”