Reclaiming Mystique (SpaceStalker Saga Book 2) (11 page)

“Nice to see you aren’t master of everything,” Jace muttered.

Garen chuckled, a changed man from the once embittered captain of the Stalker patrol. But then, the love of a good woman was often said to have that desired effect.

“Dare’s been beside herself with worry the last few passings, convinced you were in grave danger.” Garen frowned at him. “You don’t look too well, truth be told.”

“I’m fine. The crew and I ran into some problems with the Meklens. You’ll be happy to hear they’re still holding a grudge against you for putting down their rebellion.”

“Really?” Garen sounded interested, his warrior blood no doubt still boiling, despite his newfound marital bliss.

“Yes, really,” Jace responded testily. “Don’t sound so pleased with yourself. And for the record, I’ve better things to do than battle the Meklens on behalf of your Stalkers.”

“Why do I get the feeling Castor was involved in this mess?”

‘“Because he was. It’s too bad Castor was so good at his job as a Stalker. He’s not taking to pirate life as well as he could. He’s got a natural talent for trouble. Unfortunately, he seems to be starting it instead of finishing it.”

“That’s Castor.” Garen grinned. “Where is he?”

“Healing in medical. Don’t worry, he’s recuperating well enough.” Jace paused. Though he and Garen had once stood on opposite sides of the law, his friendship with Dare had tied them as friends. To their surprise, they found they actually liked each other.

“What exactly haven’t you told me?” the astute Legionnaire asked.

After a pause, Jace admitted, “We had to land on Dark World to escape the Meklens.”

Garen gaped. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish I were. We took some hits. Castor is mending and Mikhel—” He focused, found Mikhel exactly the same, and sighed. “He’ll heal physically, but I’m not sure what they did to him there. The stories are true, Ren. That place is a literal hell.”

“If anyone could survive Dark World, it would be you. Damn if I’m going to tell Dare any of this, though.”

“Don’t. She’ll just worry. Look, I’ve got to get back to the crew. Just tell her that I had some trouble with the Meklens but that I’m okay. And take care of that boy of yours. Jace Jr. has my smile.”

“You wish.” Garen shook his head. “I’ll go. Now. But if I don’t hear from you within a moon’s rising, I’ll come get you myself. Be sure to let me know if Mikhel takes a turn for the worse. The queen will want to know.”

The Fenby Queen, Thela Vinopol—Mikhel’s sister. Though once on opposite sides with the Vinopol monarchy, Mikhel had made his peace with the royals. Now under the leadership of a wise and noble king bent on patching the Bylaran and Fenturi people together, Fenby had been flourishing under its new leader. It helped that the king truly loved Queen Thela, and that he wanted peace as much if not more than Thela did.

“I’ll let you know about Mikhel.” Jace said good-bye and cut the connection, knowing he should be angry at Garen’s interference. Though he’d been alone for most of his life, his relationship with Dare had filled a part of him devoid of family. Having lost her to Garen a cycle past, he’d been ignoring the small void her absence left.

His crew felt more like friends than crewmen, his relationship with Castor closer than the others. Yet none of them knew the truth of who he was. Fear of the legendary Psi ran rampant through the System. Tolerance, though practiced in abundance on certain planets on the System, was saved for its inhabitants. Mystique did not exist as far as the System was concerned, nor for that matter, did its people.

And if he was smart, he’d stick to what mattered in the now. Like getting the ship fixed on Rovi and figuring out what to do with Naria. So much about her didn’t make sense, like why he was so in tune with her, so attracted to her. And that sense that something about her story didn’t ring true. “
You’re not from Seven, eh?
My guess is neither is she,
” Koneru had said.

If not from Seven, then where did Naria come from? And more importantly, what had she been doing on Dark World?

***

Naria sat in Jace’s study and poured through his texts about the Motherworlds, reading them like a thirsting woman downing water.

These books gave an entirely different perspective on life in the System than the one she’d learned. Though the research collected on Dark World had been impressive, these texts looked to be hundreds of cycles old. And they came from different planets, offering varied interpretations of history and culture.

On Dark World, Naria had learned of the Ragil Horde and the Cazeth leading the path to true chaos throughout the System. From what she’d been told, the Horde were both heroes and unfortunate sacrifices. They’d tried but failed to conquer the System a millennium past.

In the book Naria currently perused, a supposed battle had occurred only this last cycle between the Horde and planet Bylar, now planet Fenby. Entranced, Naria devoured the passages describing how the Horde was an evil bent on death and destruction.

Closing the book after some time, Naria adjusted her thinking. To an offworlder the Horde was evil. They sought to control everyone and everything. Absolute control—a trait revered on Dark World but frowned upon in the rest of the System.

Naria knew if she was going to fit in outside of her world, she would have to start thinking and acting like an offworlder, a citizen of Seven.

She took another volume off the shelves of Jace’s vast library and began reading, intent on learning what the System thought of Seven, and the information matched what she’d learned from her studies on Fer.

Seven was named such for its seven cycles of darkness followed by its seven cycles of light. So close to Dark World and Pith, the planet served as a kind of barrier protecting the System from its darkest planet. Though Dark Worlders did not venture from their world, they knew much about the System from Seven’s dark cycles.

When the planet entered its dark phase, specially chosen members of Dark World entered the planet’s atmosphere to learn of the world around them. The leaders of her planet had no real care to conquer the rest of the System but were curious about what lived outside of Dark World.

Fortunately Seven possessed a vast store of knowledge about the Nearworlds, if not the Motherworlds. So while Naria knew a lot about the small planets around her, the Motherworlds remained a mystery waiting to be explored.

Kind of like Jace. A mystery she wanted to explore.
Oh! Stop thinking about him.

How had he managed to stir her interest in so short a time? At home, creatures that lived and breathed carnality tried repeatedly to lure Naria into their world, but to no avail. Handsome and exotic, the incubi on the Arnth moon had tempted her a time or two, but not to this extent.

Jace had only to look at her a certain way and Naria grew breathless. Perhaps he possessed a raw talent akin to the incubi. That would certainly explain her attraction to him.

But he didn’t seem demonic at all. His eyes certainly proclaimed him different from the small group of aliens she’d seen. Even in pictures she’d never witnessed a man or woman with dark black eyes that could shimmer like a prism in the right light. Of course, she had yet to actually step on a planet outside Dark World, so who knew what she might find when they landed on Rovi.

Koneru had mentioned that her eyes closely resembled Jace’s. Naria had been told time and time again that she looked like her mother. Perhaps her mother and Jace had originated from the same world.

On Dark World, she’d been too occupied staying alive and out of trouble to dwell on her mother. Oh, she felt a burning curiosity every now and again, but she’d been too intent on trying to fit in to learn about her offworld mother.

Now that she’d left the planet, she would have time to learn about her mother, maybe even learn of her ancestors not of Dark World. The thought tugged at her yearning to belong. She would investigate her mother’s origins, but only
after
she learned to adapt to being an offworlders. After all, how hard could it be?

Her words haunted her the following day. She sat in the galley trying to make herself as small as possible under the stares of Koneru, Jace, Nesham and Castor, who had healed enough to join them for a meal.

Koneru gaped. “What, by Rovi, are you wearing?”

Naria stared down at herself, confused. After studying planet Seven’s social culture in Jace’s library the previous eve, she’d decided to dress the part. Jace had offered her some clothing she’d cut to appropriate dimensions for her size. And she’d been working on adjusting to the light of his ship, so as not to wear a makeshift eye mask anymore.

“I think it looks just fine,” Castor said with a husky laugh. His coloring looked worlds better than it had earlier, though he seemed weaker than he ought to be for a man of his size.

“Naria,” Jace growled. “This is not a pleasure ship. It’s a working vessel. Go put something else on.”

“But I wear this on Seven?” she said more as a question than a statement.

“If that’s the case, the next time I visit the planet I’ll make sure to hit the libraries first.” Castor laughed and Koneru joined him. Even Nesham offered a tentative grin, the first hint of positive expression Naria had seen on the man.

Glaring at his crew, Jace took Naria by the elbow and dragged her from the galley. With impatient strides, he stalked down the corridor and into his room.

He turned to face her and planted his hands on his hips while his gaze wandered hotly over her frame.

Naria didn’t understand all the fuss. She looked down at herself. The thin material of his modified shirt covered her shoulders and scooped down to settle over the top of her breasts, then cut down the middle in one thin strip until it grew into a slim triangle of material to cover her woman parts. She’d made sure to cut out the entire back, ending at just above her buttocks, where it wrapped around to join the short hem at her front.

“Seven is a hot planet, Jace.” According to the books she’d recently read, many women on the planet dressed thus, for pleasure, it had explained, and comfort.

“Well, this isn’t Seven. You should have more sense than to flaunt your body in front of four woman-hungry men,” he said in a cold voice. His voice sounded cool. His eyes were anything but. “What was wrong with what you were wearing when we found you?”

“It was dirty.”

He blew out a breath, his gaze lingering on her exposed navel and the pale expanse of flesh just above her breasts.“I’ve got a spare set of clothes Dare used to keep on the ship,” he muttered, his voice thick. “Wait here.” He opened a cabinet in the wall to reveal a wealth of storage she hadn’t found earlier. He rummaged through several layers of clothing and pulled out a set of dun-colored trousers and a soft green shirt.

“She’s a bit smaller than you but similar in build. Wear these.”

Naria took the garments, tensing when their hands touched. She felt his pleasure, which magnified hers.

“Are you doing this intentionally?” he asked.

She felt a hint of his discomfort and wondered at its cause. Could her Dark World talent only now be manifesting itself? How was she hurting him?

“Hel. Come here.” He pulled her up against him, and she felt something hard pressing against her thigh. She gasped as understanding dawned and stared into inky black eyes.

Before she could speak, he took command of her mouth with a ravenous kiss that unleashed a rampant hunger. His lips stole her breath while his tongue plundered and continued to take. Sensations as she’d never felt coursed through her body, making her squirm against his already hard frame.

He cupped her behind and ground against her front, rubbing against her. Naria groaned and sucked his tongue, causing a moan of need to pour from her captor’s mouth.

His hands moved everywhere, up her bare back, around to her stomach, and up to cup her breasts. When his fingers pinched the hardening flesh of her nipples, Naria lost her breath in a gasp and tilted her head back to give him more access to her body.

“You like that, don’t you?” he asked, his voice gritty.

Naria nodded, in a daze, as Jace lowered his mouth to nuzzle her through her thin clothing. When his mouth brushed her nipple, her body turned to liquid heat. Warmth pooled between her thighs, and she knew without a doubt Jace meant to mate with her.

Before, the thought of mating with anyone from her world had repelled her. Now her body demanded satisfaction. With
Jace
.

“You want this,” he stated. “With me.”

“Yes.”

She’d barely gotten the word out when he ripped her shirt clean off. He didn’t give her a chance to think before he took her nipple between his lips and sucked. Then he teethed her flesh, and she cried out at the pleasure of it.

He toyed with her before moving to her other breast, giving it the same attention. Naria could only clutch at his shoulders as his fingers slid down her stomach, circling in gentle strokes over her belly. She felt crazed, on fire, excited and nervous all at once. And then he paused just above the triangle of curls between her thighs.

She was beyond thought when he found and penetrated her slick folds.

He swallowed another cry and plunged his tongue in and out of her mouth in a wicked rhythm. She followed his movements, her body knowing what to do, even if she’d never before experienced such bliss. The foreign sensation of something inside her like that… So decadent and fulfilling—because it was Jace. Because he felt
right
.

He pulled his mouth away and whispered against her cheek, “Yes, Naria, it feels so good.
Too
good.” He shifted, and she felt that hard, insistent part of him against her thigh. “I want you, but I won’t be a slave to passion,” he insisted in a low rumble. “Not to anyone or anything.”

Expecting him to pull away, she was surprised when he kissed her again and moved his finger
inside her.
She had no idea how to feel, what to think, and could only listen to her body’s needs. Then he touched that sensitive bit between her legs, and she instinctively clamped around his hand.