Ten
Dita woke the next planet rotation sprawled over Kralj’s chest, his arms around her, his cock inside her. They rocked gently. Always active, even in her sleep, she suspected she had instigated that movement but the male inside her certainly wasn’t protesting.
He had taken her three times during the rest period, filling her with his cum again and again, as though he’d wanted to stamp his possession over every cell of her body. She felt owned, in a good way, an empowering way, his protection extending to her.
Dita clutched his shoulders, one perfect, the other marred, the skin ridged under her fingertips, and she humped him harder, using him for her own satisfaction.
“Little one.” He rolled and braced himself above her. His shadow was high above his head, extending along the ceiling. When they were alone, he didn’t hide his face from her.
That trust warmed her heart. Dita cupped his cheeks. Kralj flinched as he often did when she touched his scars but he didn’t pull away. He thrust into her with bone-jarring vigor, his jaw jutted.
Dita wrapped her legs around him, dug her heels into his clenched ass and held on as he ravished her, pushing deep and withdrawing, pushing deep and withdrawing. He gazed into her eyes, funneling his energy into her. She couldn’t feel it, they didn’t speak of it, but she knew.
And she allowed it, welcomed it. When he was fucking her, she wasn’t an assassin, a killer, a protector for all females on the planet. She was his fuck tool, an outlet for him.
Dita felt semi-normal.
Kralj’s chest rumbled as he drove into her, his thrusts shaking the sleeping support. Sweat covered their bodies, slickening the slide, tightening the connection between them. She arched, rubbing against him, her pussy constricting around his shaft.
Their bodies had been primed while they slept, their arousal built from many moments of rocking. Passion now flared wildly, burning their restraint to ash. She didn’t fight it, flinging herself into the fire, stroking Kralj’s face with her fingers, brushing her breasts over his chest, massaging his shaft with her inner walls.
His rumbling intensified. She saw his beast in his eyes. “Kralj, master.” She strained against him, licking his chin, tasting the salt on his skin.
He snarled, surged into her, nipped her neck. The slight pain scorched her to her core. She cried his name, bucking upward, the flames engulfing her, heating her body, her heart, her soul.
He bellowed and pushed deeper, pinning her ass to the sleeping support, pouring all of him into her. Nanohumanic-infused cum hit battered flesh and pleasure blazed through her. She screamed, clenched his cock, screamed again, writhing, battered by bliss.
Kralj shuddered and collapsed, flattening her. Dita mumbled. He shifted to the side, allowing her to breathe. One of his arms remained flung across her stomach as though he couldn’t bear to release her.
She liked that. A little too much. Dita stared up at the ceiling, savoring her link with him, her thoughts razed, her body limp.
Kralj grasped the cleaning cloth on the horizontal support beside him and ran it over her still form, his touch gentle, reverent. He didn’t treat her as less than whole. He embraced all of her.
“I can do that.” She covered his hand with hers.
“I know you can.” He moved that hand. “But you’re mine. It’s my responsibility to care for you.”
She released him. “Is that how you view me—as another responsibility?” He already had many duties, assuming accountability for everyone within the Refuge. She didn’t want to be one more burden for him to bear.
“No.”
Kralj didn’t say more, sweeping the cleaning cloth over every part of her, snapping the square to refresh it. He couldn’t remove the bubbling inside her. She’d keep that piece of him, that link to her male.
“If I’m to be locked up in our chambers all planet rotation long, I need a task to complete.” She would be bored out of her mind otherwise. “Preferably something physical.”
“You won’t be locked up in our chambers.” He passed her body covering to her. “You’re spending the planet rotation with me.”
Her spirits revived. “We’re hunting?” She donned her garment and her boots.
“No.” He tugged on his ass coverings. “Ruling the settlement requires more than doling out death sentences.” Kralj handed her weapons to her. “We’ll start the shift with a perimeter check.”
He performed those often.
“But perimeter checks are unnecessary.” She filled her sheaths with daggers and her holsters with guns. “You hear every noise within range, read every being’s thoughts.”
“Residents need to see my surveillance to believe it.” He covered his bare chest with his long leather coat. “You won’t take action and you’re not to speak. Any order I give, I expect you to follow.”
“And if I don’t follow your orders?”
“Beings will die.” His eyes gleamed. “Others will be watching us, little one. If you question my commands, they will also. Rebellion is contagious.”
“You can handle a rebellion.” She stood, having no doubt about that.
“I can but I don’t want to do that.” Shadow once again covered his face. “Follow me closely.” He stalked out of the chambers, his coat flowing behind him.
She trailed him, moving silently, excitement pumping through her veins.
Orol, Kralj’s second-in-command, waited outside the private chambers. He glanced at Dita, not hiding his curiosity, and slipped between them, giving his Ruler an update she suspected the mind-reading male already knew.
Dita was content to be at the end of the humanoid train. She would protect Kralj’s rear.
It felt strange to be walking in full light. It was…uncomfortable. One of the assassin rules was not to be spotted yet every being in the public chamber stared at her.
She placed her palms on the handles of her guns.
“Little one.” Kralj rumbled. He didn’t turn his head.
She moved her hands. He wanted to be seen. That was the point of the perimeter check. And he didn’t wish for her to kill his residents.
Kralj spoke with beings. One male was questioned about a delivery of beverage. Two females gained approval for shift changes. Everyone was terrified of their Ruler but the discussions were surprisingly non-violent.
Dita listened with interest. Was this what normal people talked about? It seemed intriguingly boring and inconsequential. Kralj’s monster must be pulling at its chain.
She extracted two daggers, spun them as Kralj conducted business.
“I prefer daggers myself.” Orol grinned at her.
Was this a test? Dita sheathed her weapons and looked at Kralj. He had told her not to speak.
“I can’t read minds.” Orol must have thought she was trying to communicate with him telepathically. “I have other abilities.” He fluttered his wings. “But not that one.”
She glared at Kralj.
“You’ll have to talk to me.” Orol clearly believed she was low on intelligence. “Say the words, little female.”
“Orol.” Kralj barked.
The winged male’s back straightened.
“A ship has landed too close to the north wall. The Captain is refusing to move it. Ensure that he does.”
For some reason, that order amused Orol. “Yes, sir.” The winged male winked at Dita, his eyes sparkling.
“Now, Orol.” His leader had no patience for delays.
The male’s feathered wings shook as he left to carry out the command.
Kralj pulled Dita close to him, tucking her into his side. He finished his conversation with the female in charge of the gaming section.
Having obtained her instructions, the female hurried away from them.
Kralj gazed down at Dita.
“You didn’t speak.” His tone was edged with pride.
Dita lifted her chin. She was an assassin. Her willpower was strong.
“You can do this.” He tapped her nose, turned, and walked through the beverage outlet. Buoyed by his approval, by his confidence in her, Dita skipped behind him, her gaze on his broad shoulders, the swagger in his stride.
They exited the structure and followed the pathways, venturing through the settlement. Males haggled over the price of a gun. A little boy slipped a circle of gold-colored metal off a female’s wrist and darted away. The female screeched, asking others to stop him. No one did.
Dita was a female accompanying her male, her schedule for the planet rotation consisting of non-lethal tasks. Perhaps her dream of being normal wasn’t as unobtainable as she’d believed. She even had a friend…of sorts.
Sari sat at a horizontal support, with Azalea and two other females. Nourishment bars and containers of beverage were set in front of them.
As Dita passed them, the older female held out her hands, palms down, and slowly curled her fingers. Dita nodded, giving her a smile, pleased. Sari hadn’t forgotten the previous planet rotation’s lessons.
“Little one.” Kralj didn’t sound happy.
Dita frowned, not knowing what she’d done to displease him. She hadn’t spoken, hadn’t taken any action other than nodding.
“You’re hopeless.” He shook his head and approached a merchant. Kralj requested a nourishment bar, tossed it to Dita.
She snatched it out of the air with her weaker left hand, flipped it, caught it again, walked it across her knuckles, before unwrapping the nourishment bar and eating it.
Kralj shook his head again, signaling his disapproval. Playing with her food must be one of his many rules.
They moved through the settlement. While he talked with a battered warrior about the Humanoid Alliance, his old enemy, and the war they were waging against the rebels, he handed Dita a container of beverage. She sipped and listened. When she set down the container, they walked once more.
Beings stopped Kralj often, asking for his judgment on events. He gave it quickly. His ability to read minds must make such rulings easier. He knew every being’s side, their words, their thoughts, their intentions.
They reached a secluded portion of one of the walls. Kralj stared at it for a moment. “Could you still enter the Refuge undetected?”
She nodded.
“No one is listening to us. You can speak.”
She clasped his hand and gazed up at the wall. “I can enter your settlement undetected but that’s only because I’m the best and you can’t read my thoughts.”
“I’ve never met any being like you.” His words were softly spoken. “I don’t know how to defend against your kind.”
“I don’t have a kind. I’m unique, like you are.” Dita smiled at him and lights flared in his dark eyes. “There were rumors in the Guild of another female with similar blocking abilities, but she lacked my stealth skills.” She paused. “She’s also dead.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re the only one.” Kralj squeezed her fingers. “I’ve been relying too heavily on my abilities.”
“That was my mistake also,” she admitted. He had defeated her easily.
“What would you have done differently?”
Dita considered that question carefully. If she had been less open, less honest with him, she might have killed two of her three targets, instead of only one, but Kralj wouldn’t have given her the gift of his trust. “Nothing. I wouldn’t have done anything differently.”
He lifted one of his eyebrows.
“If I had done something differently, that would have changed this.” She held up their linked fingers. “And I like this, handsome. Very much.”
His gaze heated. “You like it? Even though you can’t speak while we’re in public?”
“You must have your reasons for that rule.” She was paired with a cautious male. She accepted that. “And I don’t have to follow it forever.”
Once the clones left, she would be free of his restrictions, able to live her lifespan on her terms. That thought should have made her happy.
It didn’t.
“I do have my reasons.” He sighed. “Tell me how you’d enter the Refuge undetected.”
She told him. He asked questions, listened intently as she answered. They crafted plans to fill the holes in the settlement’s security.
The discussion shifted Dita’s view of herself. Last planet rotation, she had taught a female how to protect herself. This planet rotation, she might have assisted in safeguarding thousands of beings.
She could never create life. That option had been stolen from her. But she was saving lives. She wasn’t taking them. That was a different role for her.
Time vanished, stolen away by the pleasure of another being’s company, Kralj’s company. That was a different experience also.
For both of them. They had been solitary for so long, isolated by their unique abilities, their bloody views of the universe.
Kralj led her to the top of the wall. They watched the sun dip below the horizon, painting the sky brilliant reds and oranges. Darkness stretched across the sand dunes.
“We’re creatures of the shadows, you and I.” He wrapped his arms around her. “We’re most comfortable when we’re unseen, hidden in the unlit corners of the universe, concealed in the blackness.”
“It is uncomfortable being in the spotlight,” she agreed.
“Once it isn’t necessary for others to see you, to know that you’re with me, that I approved of your past actions, then I’ll conceal you.”
He’d extend his shadow over her. She’d be part of him. Dita rested her head on his shoulder. “Does your beast need to be fed?”
“My beast is sated.” He gazed out at the sand, his body supporting hers. “For now, it is content to hold you.”
Her monster was content also. “I enjoyed this planet rotation.” Dita never expected her lifespan to give her moments like this. She’d treasure them until she breathed her last breath. “It felt…normal.”
“As normal as the two of us can be.” He rubbed his chin against her hair. “You didn’t kill anyone.”
“I thought about it. Often.” She laughed, the sound floating on the cool breeze. “That warrior? The one with the beverage? I was tempted to challenge him to a fight, to test his skill.”
“I might have allowed that.” Humor lightened Kralj’s normally dark tones. “The old battle-axe spent the conversation thinking about your ass.”
Dita’s mirth bubbled out of her once more. “It must be challenging to hear everyone’s thoughts.”
“It’s noisy.” He dipped his head. “And humbling.”
“They fear you.” She didn’t need to read minds to know that. It was written on their faces.
“They should fear me but some of them don’t.”
“Those are foolish beings.” Dita didn’t fear him. He’d never hurt her. But she did respect him, would never underestimate him. “They haven’t seen the full extent of your powers.”
“You’ll ensure they never see that.” He turned her until she faced him. His expression was grim. “You’ll help me keep my powers in check.”
“I will help you.” She promised. “As long as I can.”
Was that the only reason he wanted her—because she could absorb his powers? He could fuck her, feed from her and not worry about exploding beings?
“I need you, little one.” Kralj cupped her cheeks, his fingertips rough against her skin. “I’ve never needed another being. It is…discomforting.”
Discomfort wasn’t love but it was better than the fear, the hatred others had shown her. “This is new for both of us.”
She’d never been in a relationship, had never been needed in this way.
“I’m never letting you go.” The emotion in Kralj’s eyes took her breath away.
He would have to let her go. She had a vow to keep, two targets to hunt once they left the Refuge. He wouldn’t join her, would never leave his settlement. They couldn’t stay together.
She should tell him that. Her lips parted. He covered them with his, the force of his kiss driving her head back. His tongue surged between her teeth, slid along hers.
Dita moaned, grasped his coat-clad shoulders, lifting onto her tiptoes. He threaded his fingers through her curls and held her as he stroked into her mouth, fucking her with his tongue. He sucked and licked and made her his yet again.
When he finally broke their kiss, all thoughts of leaving him had faded.