I was the only one in his way. If he took me out, he could take Red, and my ship. I’d like to think we would put up a decent fight, but fighting in exo-armor on a deep space ship was always a dangerous proposition. I knew it wasn’t the answer my superiors would want but I would sooner give up the ship than put those kids in danger.

Ral somehow sensed the thoughts smashing around in my head like an asteroid field. He leaned forward and took my hands in his. “I would like your approval prior to any action I take, Captain.”

His big hands were radiating heat. His calluses were at odds with his face, evidence that he was no stranger to physical exertion. Why was he being so courteous all of a sudden? That politeness, more than anything, made me uneasy.

“I can’t, Your Highness.”

His eyes were focused, intense. “Call me Ral.”

In my head I had already started doing that, but saying it out loud was a line I shouldn’t let myself cross.

“You can do it,” he said again.

Oh, he was good. He was intent on using all the weapons in his arsenal, including seduction, to get what he wanted. With those looks, this was a game he knew well. I knew it. He knew it.

The question was whether or not I was foolish enough to engage.

I wanted to pull my hands away. “The consequences will speak for themselves.”

He stroked my forearm. “I never thought you of all people would be afraid.”

I felt goosebumps on me, springing up like Nnidini fungus after a wet rain, fast and unwanted. “You keep saying that, like I’m some adolescent boy that will respond to a taunt. Fear is nothing to be ashamed of if it keeps you alive.”

He leaned close. “Trust me. I would never mistake you for an adolescent boy.”

I backed away. “There is a wall between us. We can’t ignore it.”

Ral moved closer. “You’re making more of it than it is.”

He had the privilege of saying that, privilege born of power and beauty.

“Common soldiers like me can’t ignore what we are.”

His head dipped closer. There was no reason he should smell so green-planet fresh. “What are you so scared of, Skye?”

I was afraid of forgetting, losing control. “Not of you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Good,” he said, before he kissed me.

His mouth made me feel breathless. All of the oxygen was vanishing from the room along with my carefully hoarded caution. I wrapped my arms around his thick neck, entangling them in his dark hair. He shoved his hands underneath me and picked me up out of my chair.

“Your Highness— ”

“My brave, stubborn Captain,” he said, settling me on his lap.

I could feel him thick underneath me, a few layers of fabric between us.

His fingers trailed down my spine. “You’re outmatched,” he said, another hand slipping inside my jacket.

I sucked in a breath at the touch of his fingers against my nipple.

“Outgunned,” he said, gripping my ass.

He flipped me on my back, trapping me beneath him, pinning me with his hips. “And clearly overwhelmed. It’s time to surrender.”

My palms went up against his chest, intending to push. Instead that smooth expanse of muscle distracted me, the way his hardened nipples felt against the hollows of my palms, the contrast of my brown hand on his white skin.

Fuck, he was right. But I couldn’t let him know that. “How do you know this isn’t a trap?”

He pulled off my shirt and undid my bra, leaving only my dog tags, and gave me the grin of a predator triumphant. “Because no decent trap should involve caging oneself with a hungry wolf.”

He went momentarily still at the sight of my naked torso. I felt cold, as if I were dropped unprotected into the blackness of space. Did he want me, or was he trying to seduce me to get to what he really wanted? I wasn’t the prettiest gal in the galaxy, but nor was I the most hideous, or so I told myself. Military personnel were forbidden from all the surgical implants and modifications that were considered to be modern standards of beauty. I tried to cover myself but he quickly brought my wrists together, pinning them above my head with a single hand.

I trembled, struggled against his body, but without my exo-armor, it wasn’t even a contest.

He leaned forward, cupping my overflowing breasts with his free hand, cradling them like they were something precious. His tongue darted to the tip of my nipple. I shuddered.

“You have such a need to be in control, Captain,” he said in between each lick.

I tried to put together words, but each slow flick of his tongue was scrambling my brain. Somehow I managed. “And you don’t?”

He skimmed the side of my breast, down my thighs. “When it comes to you? Yes.”

He rested his hand on my mound. I swear I could feel the heat of his hand radiating into my pussy. I couldn’t help but rub myself against him. He smiled, pressing the pad of his palm against my swollen clit, sliding against me ever so gently.

That little motion made my core clench. I arched against his hand. It had been too long. Even so, I was determined not to give him the satisfaction of hearing me beg.

“Oh, we will fuck. But on my terms.”

He slipped a finger between my cleft, sliding it slowly, teasing the entrance. I arched and wiggled, wanting him inside me, but he eluded me. “You want it, fast and hard. Me, ripping off your underskins, dragging you to the ground, burying my cock deep inside you. You’d go off like a rocket, screaming my name into the sky, unable to think of anything other than me inside you.” His finger circled my entrance. “But then it’d be over, and we’d be back to where we were.”

Or worse. Once I had been conquered and forced to bow to his will, he’d forget his interest and simply move on.

“Fuck. You’re going to drive me out of my mind.”

“For starters. We’re taking this slow. You will beg. You will scream. And you will feel such pleasure as you never have before.” He paused, his free hand grazing my mound. “Standard military issue implant?”

I was at a loss. Then I realized he was asking about birth control and STD protection. “The best in the universe.”

His grip on my wrists loosened. In an instant, I reached for his cock. He twisted, parried my attempts. Easily he captured my wrists and flattened me to the ground once more. I arched my hips, trying to break free. He settled between my legs, his cock, hard as a rock at my entrance. Every motion, every squirm had the tip of him sliding around my pussy. The feel of his tip only drove me crazier with need.

And yet he had so much control. That was the problem. I couldn’t let myself go, not when he was so sure of himself. I couldn’t let him see how easy I was.

Once he had me submissive, he would be done with me.

I looked in his eyes, and then I saw the glimpses of the wolf inside.

The idea of meeting the wolf, of making him break loose of his shackles and control, sent a hot jolt of electricity that pierced my defenses.

His voice was deeper than usual, the wolf slowly emerging. “Beg me, Captain.”

I let out a breath. I grabbed his hips, trying to hold myself back from pulling him forward. I fucking needed his cock in me like I needed air. He made me feel so vulnerable. I couldn’t let him know that. I wouldn’t let him think of me as easy prey. He wasn’t going to win this. I couldn’t let him. Not in a million light years.

“Release me.”

His eyes widened. He said disbelievingly, through gritted teeth. “You’re so wet and ready. Your pheromones are so thick, they’re practically singing how much you want to be fucked. I can smell your desire. And yet, you’re telling me to let you go.”

I looked at him in challenge. “Let. Me. Go.”

He released me, sat back, and watched me with those wary wolf eyes. I wasn’t fooled by the relaxed way in which he leaned back against my bed, his cock at full attention. He closed his fist around his cock. “Now what, Captain?”

Now what, indeed.

I hadn’t expected him to obey.

I hadn’t expected him to still be in control.

I hadn’t expected him to have that much power.

I sat up, shifted myself to the edge of the bunk and watched him slide his hand up and down that glistening shaft, inviting and challenging at the same time. In that moment, I never wanted anything more in my life than for him to fuck me until I couldn’t walk. But I couldn’t let him have me so easily.

“You want something? Ask nicely.”

Narrowed eyes. For a moment I was sure I had gone too far.

I saw something flicker in across that perfect princely face. All of sudden, he seemed bigger, more savage. He was still human, but not that refined royal gorgeousness. No, this was him, trying to maintain control of his beast.

He growled at me. His fist closed on a cock that seemed incredulously, even bigger and thicker than before. “You baffle me. You want me. And yet you deny me. Out of spite?” He licked his hand and stroked himself. “Even as you’ve been thinking about what it would be like to have my cock inside you, to have it stretching you. You want me to fuck you until you hardly know your own name. You not only want it, you need it.”

The thought of his powerful thrusts into me was almost enough to make me throw myself at him. But I wanted him to know I wasn’t going to be so easy.

He watched me, his gaze hungry, his cock insistent. But then, so was I.

“Ask me nicely.”

He sat up, stalked towards me on hands and knees. I could have moved away, but I was frozen in that way that prey freezes when it knows it’s being hunted. He seized me from behind, making me so fucking hot as he lifted me up, settling me so that his cock was nestled in the small of my back. One hand cupped my breast another hand was at the cleft between my legs.

His fingers dipped into the slickness at my pussy as he kissed the side of my neck, whispering “You’re punishing both of us, Captain. You know what you want.”

His fingers circled my clit and teased. I let out a little moan, one that sounded far too much like his name. He was too good.

“I don’t surrender,” I said, my voice coming out in an unhelpful gasp. “Not to anyone. Especially you.” But his fingers, on my nipple, on my clit were driving me crazy. My knees weakened. He caught me. He was so strong, he could have lifted me up onto his cock and fucked me right there. If he had, I would have welcomed it, let him take me from behind like the animal that he was.

Instead he flipped me back down on to the bunk again.

“Then fight me to the end, Captain. I want to see your eyes when I make you come.”

He aggressively spread my thighs and lowered his mouth to me, his eyes burning into mine.

He smiled. “It’s time to give back those, ‘pleases.’”

He licked me, sparking a live wire of pleasure. Then he placed the broad of his tongue against my clit. At first the pressure was gentle, but my resistance vanished with each growingly forceful rub. He plunged his fingers into me. The sudden action jolted me into erotic awareness. I tried to fight him. But he crooked his finger and bided me.

“Come, my Captain. Surrender.”

This was impossible.

He was impossible.

I was helpless.

And I utterly loved it.

“Please,” I cried. My breathy voice sounded as if it was from someone else.

“More,” he snarled.

I said it again. And again and again. He was all male power, completely intent on drowning me with pleasure until I had no choice but to obey.

The maddening pressure, the sensation, spiraled me into grasping, greedy convulsions. I clung to him, my rock, my ship in the ion storm of sensation that whirled inside me. I’d never felt anything like this before. It was all I could do to remain aware.

But I had to. Because no way in the stars could I ever let my defenses down so much as to fall asleep with him present. That was the beginning of an emotional flight to certain doom I wouldn’t, couldn’t take. As good as it felt, as much as I wanted him, none of it would matter. He knew it. I knew it. And yet the bastard still persisted. It was the privileged of the beautiful, the spoiled, the solar flare royal that he was, to pursue pleasure as wanted, all consequences be damned.

“I hate you, you know.”

There was a smirk on his face. “But you love how I make you feel.”

I put my hands up to ward him off, but now my palms once more, were flat against a chest with an inhuman amount of muscles. He smiled down at me. “You’ve been caught. From now on, when you’re in heat, you will think of me. Every time you play with yourself, you will think of me. Every time you come, you will think of me.”

I couldn’t let him know how right he was. I couldn’t let him know how thoroughly I had given myself to him. I couldn’t be that easy.

“A lot of talk for someone who hasn’t used their cock on me yet.”

His tongue invaded my mouth. Viciously, he spread open my thighs. “I’m going to tear down those walls you put between us.”

All I could do was plead with him. “More. More. I need more.”

“You only have to ask,” he said rising, his cock settling between my legs.

My hips arched to take him in, and this time he let me. I moaned at the exquisite sensation of his cock at my entrance. A little thrust, and he was still just barely in. He was taking it so slowly.

“Damn you. Faster now.”

He ignored me, continuing his gloriously slow torture of his cock easing into me.

I wriggled against his greater strength, and though it didn’t change his speed, I was gratified by tense shudders all over his body. “Stop trying to prove something.”

Every bit of muscle in his bulging arms and shoulders was tight in sharp relief. “I just like hearing you beg.”

My hands grappled with that massive muscled back. “You’re a jerk.”

A bead of sweat dropped from his forehead. “One dedicated to making you orgasm beyond anything you ever thought possible.”

“Fuck you.”

He smiled triumphantly. “Exactly.”

I turned my head and closed my eyes. I couldn’t hold on much longer. I was so close to surrendering.

“No. Look at me.” He was trying so hard to control himself, gritting his teeth as he practically growled his challenge. “Don’t retreat. Face me, Captain.”

I opened my eyes.

He surged forward, filling me all the way. I let out another little whimper. I was deliciously, painfully swollen with him. My legs tightened around him. I tried to adjust, the pain slowly ebbing away. He let out a groan. I felt his cock pulse and I let out another cry. “You make me so hard,” he said.

I wriggled against him, impaled by his cock, caged by his strength. I was totally at his mercy. “Move, damn you.”

“Sounds like an order, not a plea,” he said. “Maybe you can ask a little more nicely.” His cock pulsed once more, stretching me, stimulating in a way no human could ever do. “A ‘please’ will do.”

I struggled against him, trying to pull more of him in, refusing to give in. I couldn’t give into him so easily, because once I did, I’d give into him, again and again. “Stop torturing me.”

“I could torture you like this forever.”

I wriggled, but it wasn’t enough. I needed him fucking me hard. But the threat hung between us. Werewolves were known for their freaky stamina. “Fuck you, wolf.”

He smiled, giving me an amused look, “Are you always going to fight me?”

“Are you always going to make me want to, Ral?”

It was the first time I called him by his name. He suddenly went still. His eyes glowed with an intensity that would have frightened me, had I not had his cock inside me. The wolf was so close to getting out of his cage. His voice was barely more than a growl. “Say my name again.”

I breathed, “Fuck me, Ral. Now.”

He grabbed the back of my head, and kissed me, his tongue sending shockwaves to my core. He withdrew and plunged into me, my back banging against the floor. Electricity vibrated through me, the beginnings of a shuddering orgasm.

I let out a groan of frustration at coming so soon. “Fuck,” I cried. But ecstasy confounded me, surrounded me, drowned me. His hips pistoned, frantic as any engine on quantum mode. He had completely lost control. His grunts and growls were pure animal. I clawed at his body, his back. I shattered under him, around him, with him.

And then he fucking put his fingers on my clit and rubbed.

I bit down. The pleasure took me.

* * *

I thought sex would have gotten the tension out of our systems, but it was only the start of our troubles.

He skimmed the back of my shoulder blades, down my spine, around the curve of my butt.

I shuddered in response. In part, to his touch, in part, to the realization that I wanted him more than ever, and in part, to the delirious sense that I had just chosen a path that was laden with asteroid fields of trouble.

“Skye,” he said. I shivered when he said my name. I liked the sound of his voice too much to be safe. And around him, I was not safe by any means.

His arm came around my waist and pulled me against him. He was warm, big, and most distractingly of all, still hard.

Annoyingly, I felt myself slicken in response.

My exo-armor in the corner beeped a warning. It was almost time for my shift.

I tried to get up, but he pulled me back. “Not yet,” he growled against the side of my neck.

I closed my eyes, trying to gather the strength to leave. “I have to go, Your Highness.”

The use of his title made him go still. He released me. “We’re back to that now, are we?”

I avoided looking at him. I stood up, and pulled a drawer, taking out a clean set of underskins to put on. The black fabric clung to me, but it didn’t offer any sense of coverage or safety, not like my exo-armor. “It’s who we are, Your Highness.”

I picked up the brick of my exo-armor. Immediately, it unfolded slowly across my arm, black scales sliding across my skin until I was fully encased in it. The tension in my shoulders eased. No longer was I the vulnerable one.

And in the safety of my exo-armor, in the aftermath clarity one gets after having sex, I realized what had happened.

“The answer is still no.”

His smile fell away. The grim, arrogant prince mask was back on. “Is that what you think this was about?”

“You want something. I’m in your way. You’re trying to seduce me to get me on your side. What else would it be about, Your Highness?”

He looked at me as if he knew exactly what I was doing: reminding myself of who he was.

I went to the door.

He called out to me. “You use my title like it’s a wall between us."

“It is, Your Highness.”

I didn’t look back.