The Demon Master's Wife (Fantasy, Space Opera, Science Fiction Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) (5 page)

“Gwen is still genetically a human female, and I bloody well know she found enough pleasure with me to have a full release. My body still echoes from it—echoes from
her
,” Dorian said softly. “I was incapacitated, but I feel it resonating even now. She has to be feeling the echoes as well. There is no other explanation possible. I know she found enough pleasure to have a release even if I don’t remember it fully. Gwen craves what I crave. We need each other to survive the madness.”

Ania frowned at his arrogance. “Do not think to addict her against her will, Dorian Zade. Gwen is a worthy mate, but you will never win that female with force. She would die fighting her own needs rather than give in to you. I’ve been on the training mat with her enough to know what she’s like. She will concede when her mind sees it is logical and not one moment sooner.”

“It may be too late not to addict her. I think she has already touched me,” Dorian said with a frown. “We are half a galaxy away from Rylen. Without their organics, I cannot make her immune if that has happened. I can only meet her needs and try to keep her satisfied.”

Ania sighed. “Gwen will hate you for her own need of you if that is the case.”

“Aye,” Dorian said. “I was careful not to touch her, but I do not know what Gwen did after I was stunned. I admit I was too impatient in making her see my desires to seek her understanding of what was happening. She was heading to meet another male and all I could think was that I had to stop her. I would do the same again now and she’d have to stun me again.”

Ania laughed, mostly because there was nothing else to do. Despite her reduced ability to intuit things, the truth of his words was clear to her. It was reflected in his gaze.

“I refuse to feel sorry for you, Dorian, but I hope you can repair this with her,” Ania said. “I believe Gwen Jet is meant to be your mate, but I want you to win her the right way. She is an honorable creature and a good female.”

“Could you talk to her and try to explain? Perhaps Gwen would listen to you as a fellow female,” Dorian implored, looking at Ania hopefully.

“I’m not sure I still like you well enough to help that much,” Ania said lightly, searching Dorian’s pleading gaze. She was enjoying his discomfort more than was honorable.

“It is for Gwen’s good as well as mine that I ask for this favor,” Dorian said with a frown. “I cannot let her suffer. I would have to subdue her if it came down to a matter of her sanity—or mine. If she were to go to another male, I would kill him if he touched her. You would be protecting her former bonding partners as well. I do not know if I marked her sufficiently. Everything in me is raging now because I am concerned about her walking around in her current state.”

“Dorian—have you ever actually wooed a female?” Ania asked.

“I spent almost two hundred years being mated,” Dorian said, narrowing his eyes at her question. “I think I have some experience with females despite the limited number of them I have allowed myself.”

Ania laughed again as she moved away from the bed. “Yes, but did you
woo
them into a logical acceptance of you as their preferred male companion. Your other mates never had a thought except to serve your interests. This is not the nature of a female like Gwen Jet. Open your mind to learning and forget what you think you know. This is my gift of advice to you.”

“Fine, consider me properly chastised. Now will you tell Gwen about what might have happened? Warn her until I can speak with her again myself?” he asked.

“I will try for her sake and those of her former partners,” Ania said, allowing herself one last laugh as she headed to the door.

“Ania—thank you,” Dorian called, stopping her. “Please find a way to stay with us. We need you. Synar needs you.”

Ania stopped her trek to ponder his words.

“My mind is a jumble of decisions that need to be made, just as you predicted. I seek the will of the creators and hope they make the right path known to me. Now stop worrying about me and fix your own life,” Ania told him firmly, smiling about his problems again as she walked out.

Chapter 4

Gwen sighed for the millionth time and tried to control her shaking hands enough to key in her report. It was taking all her focus and all her control to keep her mind off her body’s vibrating condition. Her usual ability to focus on work was destroyed.

All she could think about was him.

“How are you?” Ania asked from the doorway of the control room.

Gwen jumped, her hand going automatically to her weapon. Fortunately, her heartbeat steadied enough to see it was Ania before she drew it.

“Jumpy?” Ania asked, walking closer.

She could tell Gwen was having some serious trouble resisting the Siren’s call. Not many creatures could hold out against the lure of a Siren who had set their mind to claim you for their exclusive use. There was nothing about physically pleasing a mate a Siren didn’t know or wouldn’t do, but the cost was a level of physical fidelity that lasted until death.

“I’m pulling a double-shift, which is Zade’s fault. I suppose you’ve heard what happened,” Gwen said, looking at the computer screen instead of Ania.

Ania walked to the console desk and perched on the edge of it, energetically offering her help and sending all the compassion to Gwen that she could. It wasn’t much these days, but she felt compelled to offer.

“Yes I heard the story. Synar sent me to check on Dorian because he had an Alliance meeting,” Ania said, walking to Gwen. “I think I can help you if you will allow it.”

Gwen snorted. “Help me? I still don’t even know what in the hell happened. Zade didn’t touch me. He just paced in front of me and did—I don’t know—
mental
things to me. He wouldn’t stop even when I asked him to many times. I had to stun him, Ania. He left me no choice,” she said.

Ania laughed loudly, the musical sound of it echoing in the room. “I have not genuinely laughed in two years. You and Dorian have given me more amusement in a few hours than I thought I’d ever feel again. You don’t have to convince me how insistent and arrogant Dorian can be. I well know it to be truth. Now do you want me to help you or not?”

“Sure. Start by telling me what Zade did to me,” Gwen demanded. “It’s all I can do to maintain my duty station and not go to him. My body is vibrating with lust and I can barely work for shaking. Look.”

She held out her trembling hands for Ania to see.

“I couldn’t fire a weapon right now if my life depended on it,” Gwen said sadly.

Ania sighed at the distress on the female warrior’s face, knowing Gwen held herself accountable for all of her exchange with Dorian.

“Dorian has not done permanent damage to you. You are simply adjusting to sharing his unusual mating vibrations. He is a Siren. Most species react very strongly to them,” Ania explained, smiling at Gwen’s frustration. “Most beings find the extreme pleasure Sirens offer to be worth the discomfort of their urge to dominate their mates.”

“Well, I am not
most species
. Nothing happened at all between us before today,” Gwen said harshly. “Why did Zade suddenly decide to make a move now? Why not two years ago when I was interested?”

“Dorian was devoted to his celibacy for spiritual reasons that he alone has the right to explain,” Ania said. “Giving up that vow of celibacy to mate with you was not an easy decision for him and not something he would do lightly.”

“You think we’re potential mates too? Like hell we are,” Gwen denied angrily. “Zade and I are not mates.
Mates
—wait, you said Zade was going to mate someone, but you didn’t say it was me. You knew this was going to happen. Why the hell didn’t you warn me?”

Gwen glared when Ania shrugged.

“This is the primary reason why I have come to help you now. Dorian also asked me to explain it to you, but I am enjoying his suffering. If you were not in pain and facing more, I would not be here,” Ania explained.

“So you gave me the silent treatment to torture Zade too? I think I could kick your ass on the mat right now, shaky hands and all,” Gwen stated, glaring harder.

“I did not say it was honorable of me to enjoy that he suffers. I realize now that I did the same thing to you that Dorian did to me with Synar. For all intuitives, there is a constant war inside about whether to inform a person of their destiny or not. I chose not to warn you because you refused to look for yourself, but now I think perhaps I did not make the right choice,” Ania said.

“No shit—it’s just my sanity at stake here. And everyone wonders why I don’t want to use my intuition. It’s just another weapon,” Gwen said snidely, sinking into a chair. “So exactly what did the controlling Siren bastard do to me?”

“Pleasured you. Marked you energetically,” Ania said softly, walking to sit in the chair across from Gwen’s. “Now I must ask you an important question about it. Did you touch Dorian’s skin when he was vibrating with the Siren’s call for you?”

Gwen sighed in resignation. “
Siren’s call?
Hell—I have no idea. Zade fell on the floor and then I fell on top of him when I lost control. If I touched him, it was through his clothes,” she said. “Something told me to stay away from him and I did.”

“Sirens emit addictive pheromones when they are fully aroused, and the Siren’s call is a special set of mating vibrations. On Rylen, eating and drinking with the locals puts organics into the systems of those exposed and creates an immunity to the most intense of the vibrations. Without the immunity, feeling constant desire for a Siren can be a challenge to bear,” Ania said. “You can only think of bonding and not much else.”

“Zade did this to me knowing he would cause me to suffer?” Gwen asked, unable to believe Zade would consciously do such a thing to her.

“No—not really. Zade did this intending to meet all your needs and because he is suffering with desire for you,” Ania corrected. “He’s suffered for you for two years. He feels the vibrations of everyone’s pleasure. I can only imagine how much he endured as you sought relief from your urge for him with other males.”

“Come to think of it, Zade
was
the first male I asked for bonding when I came aboard the Liberator. He knew even back then, didn’t he?” Gwen demanded, pounding the console with a clenched fist. “I swear I’ll kill him next time he comes near me.”

Ania laughed. “To kill him is to kill your primary source of relief until you can visit Rylen and build your immunity. I have another solution, but it will not be as helpful as just bonding with Dorian would be for you.”

“You’re telling me I have no choice but to have sex with Zade?” Gwen demanded.

“Well, I might be able to teach you how to stoically bear the desire you feel for him, but Dorian is feeling an echo of your condition. He will seek you out and test it at every turn. Siren males cannot help themselves when they have begun calling their mate. All my bonding experiences before Synar were with Sirens. I lived among them for almost a century,” Ania said. “I never mated with one, but they can be extremely intense during just normal bonding. No other planet contains more possessive males, not even Earth.”

“What do you mean you dated Sirens before Synar? I thought Synar was your first bonding partner,” Gwen asked, wincing at the question when she saw Ania’s shocked expression. “Curse my tongue. It was a rumor I believed. Forget I asked. It’s none of my business anyway.”

“No—that’s okay. I do not mind you knowing any truth about me. The Siren males I had relationships with all pleasured me without physically breaching my body. I had taken a spiritual vow to stay physically chaste in that manner. My longest relationship was with a Siren male named Aegean who convinced me that what we did was too minor to count as breaking my vows,” Ania said, her mouth quirking. “It took Synar to point out how naïve that was on my part, but he was still the first male to breach my body.”

“Breach your body? No wonder you didn’t want to do it. That doesn’t even sound good,” Gwen said resentfully, not understanding how Ania could just laugh about it all. “I don’t know how he did what he did, but Zade never touched me—not once in the entire time he was there. Stunning him was the only way I could get him to stop though. Maybe I am more Earthling than I realized, but that mental connection lacked intimacy for me. I still don’t understand how he could just make me feel that kind of desire without any physical contact.”

Ania laughed even harder hearing proof of just how badly Dorian had failed with Gwen. “Sorry—I just, well I wish I could have seen Dorian get caught off-guard. He does not let that happen often. I would have loved to have seen his face when he saw your weapon aimed at him.”

“Well, my great plan backfired on me. Zade fell unconscious and still gave me the longest orgasm I have ever had,” Gwen admitted. “I couldn’t look at him afterward without wanting him again. Does that mean I’m addicted?”

“Either that—or maybe something much worse,” Ania said, belly laughing again. “Natural mates tend to go immediately into the strongest of bonding cycles with each other. Do not attempt to eradicate him with other males either, not if you value their lives. Dorian will kill them without remorse, and Synar couldn’t stop him. He won’t be able to stop himself. However, other males—if they are wise—will probably refuse you now anyway. Despite Dorian’s concerns, your energy appears to be marked quite well with his energy signature. It is as if you were already completely mated to him.”