To Trust a Warrior: An Alien Rogue Romance (Starflight Academy Book 4)
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Authors: Immortal Angel
To Trust a Warrior
By Immortal Angel
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
To Trust a Warrior
All rights reserved.
Published by Fallen Press, Ltd.
Copyright © 2016
This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.
ASIN
Angel Warrior: An Angel Warrior Romance
Angel Betrayed: An Angel Warrior Romance (Release date 6/22/16)
Angel Awakened: An Angel Warrior Romance (Release date 6/29/16)
Angel Captured: An Angel Warrior Romance (Release date 7/6/16)
Angel Forever: An Angel Warrior Romance (Release date 7/13/16
To Kiss A Warrior: An Alien Rogue Romance
To Touch A Warrior: An Alien Rogue Romance (Release date 6/24/16)
To Protect A Warrior: An Alien Rogue Romance (Release date 7/1/16)
To Trust A Warrior: An Alien Rogue Romance (Release date 7/8/16)
To Love A Warrior: An Alien Rogue Romance (Release date 7/15/16
DEDICATION
To my husband—you’re the reason I believe in true love. To my writing partner, Aeon Igni—you inspire me in more ways than you will ever know. To my critique group—your support is like a good cup of coffee, it keeps me going. To my readers—you’re the reason I publish the stories from my heart.
~Immortal Angel
Where was Hannah?
Sitting up, Liam winced. His entire body ached, even his bones. All he wanted to do was take a pain pill and lie back in bed, but he had a horrible feeling something bad was happening to the little human he’d so recently made love to.
Love to? Since when do I call mating a female making love?
And the way they’d done things. The sex was different than it had ever been before.
She’d
taken the lead.
She’d
touched him so gently, setting the pace for them both.
But where is she and why do I feel she is in trouble?
That’s crazy
, a tiny voice whispered in his mind.
She probably just went to her room to sleep.
He climbed to his feet and limped to his dresser, pulling clothes out at random. It took an embarrassing amount of effort to clothe himself, and he was exhausted and sweaty by the time he was done.
I’ll lie down when I know she’s safe.
As the doors to his room slid open, he found himself staring at two strange guards positioned on either side of her door.
Probably a precaution after their attack on the roof.
“What’s going on?” he asked anyway.
Had there been a new problem?
One guard glared at him. “Mind your business, Keltair.”
Even this dickshit knew he was a Keltair? Geez.
“Hannah is my business.”
The guard walked up to him, and hesitated. A full head shorter than Liam, maybe he’d realized that threatening the large Keltair male wasn’t a good idea.
Or maybe it’s the sight of your battered face.
“Look,” the guard said, his voice wavering just a bit. “No one is to bother her tonight.”
Liam hesitated. Hadn’t he had enough trouble already? Was he really going to fight a guard just because of a horrible feeling that Hannah was in trouble?
“Is she in there alone?”
The guard rolled his eyes. “Yup. We’ve been stationed here since we were assigned.”
Maybe I should just go back to bed. She’s not my mate. I don’t have some extra heightened sense of her. This is nothing more than a feeling, probably brought about from all the drugs.
Still he hesitated. Should he listen to logic or the nagging feeling in the back of his mind?
He advanced on the guard. “Get out of my way.”
The human took two steps back, looking at the other guard.
Liam moved to the keypad beside her door. He typed in the security code, long ago having memorized it. Her doors slid open.
“We’re going to contact the dean and let her know, Keltair,” the man spat. “I’m guessing you’ll be handing over your uniform before the night’s over.”
Liam stepped into her room, speaking over his shoulder. “Yes, let the dean know. I’m sure she’ll be excited to give my father another reason to kill all of you.”
The doors closed behind him.
Inside the room, silence stretched. The lights were dim and nothing stirred. Liam made his way to her bed, wondering if he’d been a fool to break into the human female’s room over nothing more than a feeling. All logic said the mound in her bed was simply Hannah sleeping.
And then, she cried out in her sleep.
He frowned, limping slowly past the small kitchen to his right, and the standard academy couch and chairs to his left.
She screamed, and he bolted across the remainder of her room.
As he stared down at her face, he knew instantly that something was wrong. Her long black hair was matted to her sweaty face, and her pale skin looked ashen.
A nightmare?
Sitting at the edge of her bed, he brushed the hair back from her face. “Hannah?”
Her hands twisted in the blankets. She struggled against some unseen force, whimpering.
“It’s just a nightmare,” he said, trying to wake her from it gently, but she didn’t respond to his voice.
“Hannah?” Now, he shook her.
Still, she didn’t respond.
He picked her up, wincing as the stitches on his stomach and chest pulled. “Wake up, damn it.”
She fought with heavy limbs against his hold as tears streamed down her face.
His heart twisted.
Something is very wrong.
Hannah bit into the Vuret’s hairy arm as her vision blackened.
He cried out and released her. “Bitch!”
She crawled away from him, gasping for breath. Turning, she stared back at him.
He grinned, transforming his half human, half bull face into something terrifying. “You always did know how to turn me on.” He wrapped his hand around his arm-sized erection and started to stroke himself. “Come. Put this into your mouth.”
She just needed a minute, a minute to calm her pounding heart, so that she could Jump right back out of the dream. Touching her bruised throat, her fingers curled back from her hairy neck. She’d forgotten for half a second that she’d made herself look like his deceased wife.
He leaped on her again. Sat on her chest. “Open your mouth,” he commanded.
Screaming, she struck out with her hand, hitting his dick as hard as she could.
He swore again, punching her hard in the face. For a moment, she saw stars.
“You’re going to love this,” he grunted, turning her onto her stomach. A hand pulled down the small pair of leather underwear she wore, and her insides crawled. “I always did regret killing you.”
She felt something hard and long rub against the back of her ass.
“Get off!” she screamed, trying desperately to buck the huge alien off her, but he barely moved.
Panic set in.
I knew I wasn’t prepared to Dream Jump. I knew this was a bad idea. Why didn’t I learn my lesson the last time?
“W-h-a-t,” he sputtered.
He grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. And suddenly, she was staring into his terrifying face. “Who the hell are you?”
And that’s when she knew. In her terror, she’d let her dream image fade. He was staring at her real face, at Hannah Stowe. Never before had she done something so dangerous.
His mouth turned into a dangerous smile. “Whoever you are, I’m going to enjoy every second of this, and then, I’m going to end your miserable life.”
She coughed, spitting out cold water. Her entire body trembled as the freezing liquid hit her.
How did she end up in the bath?
“Are you okay?”
Suddenly, Liam’s worried face leaned into view.
She stared. There had never been a more welcome sight in her life. Even though his face was bruised and battered, and one cheek was bandaged, she felt a rush of gratitude. This Keltair male had saved her from something horrible. Everything she felt in the dream, her body felt. And if the creature had killed her in his dream, she’d be left brain-dead.
“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
And then to her horror, she felt tears well in her eyes.
Closing them, she tried to push away the terrible images that filled her mind, but she couldn’t. It wasn’t just this Dream Jump. It was all of them. Being sent into the dreams of some of the most dangerous men and women in the universe filled her memories with things she could never unsee.
Things she could never forget.
“Are you all right?” Liam asked, stroking the hair back from her face.
Her teeth chattered. “Yes.”
Eyes still closed, she leaned into his touch. How was such a large man so gentle? And why did she trust him so much?
Her father had always liked to be there when she Dream Jumped, just in case she ran into trouble. But he never greeted her with a gentle touch. He simply avoided her gaze, so she couldn’t see the guilt in his eyes.
Even though she knew it was there.
“Computer, try Hannah’s bath setting number four.” Liam shifted her in his arms as he gave the command.
Warm water rushed over her flesh, and she gasped in pleasure. She relaxed against Liam’s chest, her senses were entirely overwhelmed. A soft melody played, and she felt the water rising around her.
“How did you know?” she mumbled, with a slight sigh.
He nuzzled the top of her head. “I knew one of your settings would be a good one.”
She took a deep breath, steeling herself as her face gave a painful throb.
Ignore it. Focusing on it won’t help. Think of Liam instead.
His scent washed over her, his pleasant earthy smell, mixed with her own sweeter one.
He smells like me.
The thought pleased her for reasons she couldn’t understand. Of course he smelled like her, just hours ago she’d bathed him. And shortly thereafter, she’d gently made love to him.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he whispered, his arms tightening around her.
And suddenly, she remembered why they lay tangled together in a slowly filling tub. The dream. Her responsibility. As much as she wanted to tell him the truth, it was classified. Only her mother, her father, and the president knew what she could do. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t tell him half the truth.
Opening her eyes, she stared into his dark ones. “This happens sometimes.”
He brushed a soft kiss across her nose, which sent a shiver right down her spine. “Why?”
It took her a second to find her voice. “I was born with a rare deformity in my brain. My parents tried everything to save my life before they finally found an experimental surgery. It saved my life…but it had consequences.”
There were so many of the surgeries she didn’t remember, but that one she did. She’d been six, and running out of time, according to her doctors. The man her parents had brought her to was unlike anyone she’d met before. He lived in an underground base on a strange planet. And the way he looked at her terrified her.
She’d woken from the surgery screaming. And screaming. And screaming. Her parents were nowhere to be found, and the surgeon had glared at her, yelling right back in her face. She’d never felt pain like that before, even after everything she’d been through.
That was the day she lost faith in her parents.
“So,” Liam said, his voice breaking through the darkness of her memories, “these consequences include terrible nightmares you can’t be woken from?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Among other things.”
Her thoughts tried to go back to the dream, to the Vuret male who’d hurt her. She sat up, drawing her knees to her chest. Liam’s legs lay on either side of her. His jeans and dark shirt were soaked, along with her red-and-white striped pajamas.
“Liam?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t know what to say.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back against him. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Goosebumps erupted on her arms, and she snuggled into his touch. She was okay, wasn’t she? Now that the adrenaline was starting to fade, her face ached. It more than ached, it hurt like hell. And the rest of her body…she definitely felt like she got into a fight with a Turongan Ice Bear and lost.
She often felt like this after a dream, which usually resulted in hours of lying beneath a shower streaming cold water, trying to forget what she had seen. What she had been through. This time was so different. Even though she hurt, the dream felt less like reality and more like a nightmare.
And it was all because of the huge Keltair male holding her as if she was the most fragile thing in the world. She could get used to this.
No, you can’t. How can you hope to focus on your classes with your heart slowly being pulled from your chest?
Yet, in that moment, she found it hard to care.
“Bed?” she whispered.
He nodded, his chin rubbing the top of her head.
Wrapping his arms around her, he started to struggle to his feet.
“No!” she said, pushing free and standing on shaking legs.”You’re going to tear open your stitches.”
His dark eyes flashed. “I’m a male. I can carry a tiny human female. How do you think you got here?”
He rose completely, towering over her.
She took a step back. “I can walk.”
I think.
His lips pulled into a thin line. “Come here. Stop being stubborn.”
To her surprise, she laughed. Pressing a hand against his sopping wet shirt, she stood up on her tiptoes.
His gaze zeroed in on her lips as he leaned forward.
At the last second, she ducked past him, having to step over the edge of the tub.
When had he changed her shower to the tub setting?
She grinned. He could do it anytime he liked.
“Computer. Exit Hannah’s bath setting four.” Liam barked behind her.
The sound of the running water stopped.
She gingerly peeled off her wet clothes, suppressing a groan as her shirt slid against her aching face, then tossed it into a pile on the floor. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed a huge white towel and wrapped it around herself.
Be strong. He can’t suspect it was more than a nightmare.
With a forced smirk, she turned back to him.
Her jaw dropped as she stared at him. His wet clothes clung to every hard muscle.
He’s like a god. Flawless. Untouchable. A creature of fantasy and desire.
For a minute, she allowed herself to ogle the beautiful alien.
There will be time for that later.
She nodded to herself, then crossed the room and began peeling off his wet shirt, trying to be matter-of-fact about it. That plan fell away as his shirt fell to the floor. Her gaze slid over his hard muscles, but froze at the sight of the bandages. Her thoughts went to the electrified metal claws that had to be dug out of his flesh.
“What are you doing here? You should be sleeping,” she whispered, her heart aching as he brushed the waterproof bandages clinging to his bruised flesh.
An unreadable look flashed across his face, then was gone. “I needed to see you.”
And aren’t you glad he did?
She shivered.
Don’t think of what could’ve happened, just think of how you can help this stubborn man.
She put her hands on her hips, wincing at the ache in her stomach.
Damn Vuret.
“We need to get you to bed. You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
She raised a brow and reached over to slowly pull the zipper down on his jeans.
His hardened manhood flexed against her touch through the thin layer of cloth. He groaned, and heat blossomed between her legs.
Later! He’s hurt. You’re hurt.
“Let’s get these off,” she said, trying to ignore the huskiness in her voice.
Kneeling cautiously, she slid his pants slowly down his hips, legs, and around his ankles.
He stepped out of them.
Glancing up, she stared at his erect manhood.
It looks even bigger now, if that’s possible.
Her insides tightened, and she felt herself growing wet.
With deliberate movements, she crossed the room and got him a towel, and then began to dry him.
“Enough,” he growled, stealing the towel and tossing it carelessly on the floor with their clothing. His eyes burned with desire.
She stood. “Fine. Time for bed.”
He grinned, and she swore there had never been a sexier sight than this powerful man, naked and grinning at her.
Focus, damn it.
She led him to her bed, dropped her own towel, and climbed in. He followed her more slowly, his face twisting in pain as he sat on the edge of the bed. Slowly, clenching his jaw muscles, he moved his legs onto the bed.
Covering them up, she moved closer to him. He wrapped an arm behind her.
“Lie down,” she commanded him.
He did, brows raised. “Where I’m from the male is the one in charge.”
She gave him her sweetest smile. “Well, you’re on Turonga now, big guy. Why don’t you try it? You might like it.”
He scowled. “Fine, but next time, I’m in charge.”
“Agreed,” she said, crossing her fingers behind her back.
Maybe.
She lay down and brought him with her. “Now, go to sleep.” She caressed his face gently.
He caught her hand. “To sleep?” he asked with incredulity. “You can’t honestly expect that after rubbing me down, undressing in front of me, and leading me to bed, you’re going to get two seconds of shut-eye.”
She kissed his stubbled chin. “That’s exactly what I expect, my big Keltair male. Now, quit whining. If you’re good, maybe we can have a little fun before class in… well, a few hours.”
He groaned in frustration, but she could see the tired circles beneath his eyes. “I’m never going to be able to sleep.”
Hiding her smile, she closed her eyes. Even though she had everything but sleep on her mind, she knew both of them desperately needed it.
A few minutes later, he was snoring.
She eased out of bed and grabbed her computer off her bed. Pulling on a robe in Starflight Academy blue, she returned to the bathroom and sat on the floor. Taking a deep breath, she called her father.
He answered instantly. “Hannah, is it done?”
“Yes, Father.”
The relief on his face was almost comical. Almost. His silver hair was rumpled to the point of being a complete and utter shock. The man slept? He was actually human? But then she caught sight of his dark, cotton pajamas, they looked perfectly pressed.
Only my father would have his pajamas ironed.
Just the sight of something so like her father eased her tension.
