Tolan followed his mate into the room they were to share for the night, the girl Kira bowing them in and offering to fetch them whatever they would need for the evening rest or the journey that would begin the next day, early.  They both assured her they had all they needed on the ship.  Tomorrow would be soon enough to grab her gear and switch to the less known battle skiff Barnos had been working repairs on.  He assured them it was flight-worthy but that was about it. 

Jax had nearly beamed. She was so thrilled at the idea of having something to work on for however long the journey lasted.  They were going to do their best to get word out about her, but they had no idea when the bait would be taken.  They had hashed out a plan until the small hours of the morning, until they were all as satisfied with the plan as they could be. 

There had been more than one tense moment when the men had tried to make their respective females stay behind, but each of them had abilities that might be needed and would not be left behind, regardless.  The children would be staying with the Baralians, Kira and Tuft, who had orders to lock Sea Port down until their return. 

Doc Morgan would not be pulled from his research on Dara's condition to help plan, merely answering his com with a brusque, and distracted, "Bring me everything he has on what he did to her.  I can take it from there." 

So the plan was in place, and in a few short hours Jax would be on her way in the skiff, alone in case there was interest before she arrived to rendezvous just outside of Frian.  The thought of being separated during the mating dance was uncomfortable, but necessary. 

Tolan would be manning The Fire with Barnos and the Lady Lara back on board.  Tyber and his crew, besides the doctor, would be in The Jezebel, as would Lucan Warrung and the Lady Danika, hanging back but there in case they were needed.  It was the best the Lady Danika could get from her mate, and she had argued long and hard about the necessity of her going.  She had won her arguments in Dara's favor, but Jax could tell by the look in Lucan’s eyes that if it was not Dara's life on the line, he would not risk Danika even that much.  Tolan had kept his peace while his mate sent him periodic questioning looks as if she was wondering why he wasn't arguing more too. 

But arguing would have gotten him nothing more than it had Lucan, and he knew that.  That did not mean he was done.

As soon as the door closed behind them he reached for Jax, swinging her around until he could study the cold face that she had adopted since her revelation about who she was and the past she had escaped.

"Should I call you Princess Jax?" he asked mildly enough. His own anger had been blunted by her pain.

She grimaced.  "If you want a stun stick shoved up your ass," she said mildly, her tone not matching the words but expressing her feelings on the subject just the same.  "It would not be accurate anyway. Jax was not the name I was born with, but it is who I am."

"Just as I was not Tolan Lark on Shakien," he answered back, finally drawing a real interest in the eyes that had gone dead since she spoke of her family.  "But I had you beat.  I was first in line for the throne before a bloody coup ended the line of kings that had stood for a thousand years."  He smirked but it was as grim as her own revelation had been.  "But then again, it was not as if my father’s line didn't deserve to be slaughtered."

She blinked at his words.  "I take it your father was not a good king?" she asked carefully.

He snorted and began to push her back toward the bed at her back.  "My father was all-powerful ruler of the most vicious warriors in the galaxy, known for their feral rages and savagery.  He did that well.  Unfortunately for him, in the end, someone else did it better."

He shoved her over when her knees hit the bed and she fell back, her braids spooling beside her.  She licked her lips and he could see the heat building where a moment ago had been ice.  Much better.

"How are you not dead along with him?" she asked a little breathlessly as he followed her down.

"I did not care for my family overmuch and I had already left the planet before the change in leadership."  He shrugged.  "My father believed I was too weak for the throne and was trying for a second son with any woman he could find so he could finally kill me without damaging his hold on the warriors.  A king must have an heir."  He wondered if she could hear the same bitterness in his words that he had felt from hers.  "Of course, I am still under a death mark on Shakien, but since I have no desire to return to that pit I don't let it worry me."  He pushed his hands up her face and into the hair at her temple.  "What about you?  Any hankering to go back to the pristine green forests of Dainaree?"

She looked to be giving it some thought, even as he felt her body heating under him.  "I had not thought so, but after feeling the pull of the nature magic here on Port Sea I will admit that I miss the magic of home.  I thrive on the feel of a ship around me, but I would occasionally visit places like this or Dainaree if I had the choice, though not to stay."  She shuddered at something her words conjured.  “Never to stay.”

Her answer gave him pause, he homed in on the most interesting part.  "You feel magic on Port Sea?"

She crinkled her brows and he wanted to kiss them.  "Don't you?"

"No." he thought about what he had seen and heard the few times he visited.  "But there is an indigenous people that are said to be magic, and aligned with the moon in a sort of symbiotic relationship.  They make the jewelry that Port Sea is fast becoming famous for.  We will have to ask the Lady Danika to introduce you.  I hear that she has found great favor with them."

"The crystal pearls hold moon magic. I felt it when I met the Lady Danika, though I have seen the crystals before other places and not felt the same," his mate mused.  But Tolan had lost interest in anything but the feel of her beneath him. 

"The child mentioned a baby," he blurted out and watched her look at him in shock, all thoughts of magic jewelry wiped from her mind.

"We've been mated less than a day," she reminded him incredulously.  "And we are heading into danger in a few standard hours.  How can you possibly be thinking about having a child?"

Tolan Lark smiled, even though it was less a happy smile and more a wicked promise.  "It's not the having I'm thinking about just now," he assured her, his mouth nearly upon hers.  "Right now, I'm set on the making."

She reached up and bit his lip.  "We are supposed to be resting for the journey," she reminded him.

He laughed, loving the feel of her mark on his lips.  It made him want her mouth and teeth other places as well, and he vowed right then that they would both bear the mark of their mating in every way it could be made, before the morning. 

"If you think the others are not going to be similarly engaged this night you are seriously naive."  He muttered it against her lips but did not wait for her to bite him again.  Instead, he crushed her lips with his and did his best to remind her what he was to her now, so that when she awoke tomorrow she would perhaps understand a little better why he did what he was going to do.

Maybe not.  Either way she would be safe.  She might hate him, but she would be safe.

Jax melted under that kiss until it changed, becoming almost a desperate thing.  He ate at her lips as if it might be his last chance to taste her.  The hands drifting over her body clutched and nearly caused her pain in his sudden drive to stake his claim to all of her.  She felt the loss of the playful lover and a return of the feral Shakien staking a claim.

She gasped under the thrill of those hands and lips, leaving no doubt that he wanted her, but the desperation made her anxious, so she did her best to soothe the savage beast, running her hands slowly up and down his bare back, memorizing the feel of it and remembering how many times she had watched that back and taut ass in skintight nanite and dreamed of running her hands over the ridges and valleys of him.

The reality was better than any of her fantasies had been, asleep or awake.  Especially when he seemed to calm for a time, following her lead, his touch gentling and his grip softening until at last he was exploring her in the same slow progress she was giving him.  It became not so much about a wild claiming, though that would come again later, but as if they could memorize each other with fingertips and lips.  By the time he slid down her body and tasted the slickness he had created every inch of her skin thrummed with the memory of his touch.

He hummed and her hips jerked of their own accord, seeking more of those talented lips and plunging rough-edged tongue.  He gave her what she needed, until with head thrown back, she screamed his name. 

She was still vibrating and spasming with pleasure when he reared up and she lost the feel of him.  Even with the pleasure washing over her, she did not want to lose his touch.  Not yet.  Not ever.  Then she was blinking into the lavender eyes of a warrior in human skin, skin that she had licked and tasted just moments ago.  Now, even though he did not wear his warrior form, she felt the difference in that skin, a raw feral edge vibrating along her nerves.

He blanketed her with that hard, hot body slick from all that they had done to each other.  With a savage tug, he yanked her legs wider, bruising her thighs with the hungry grip of his hands.  He made room for his hard thighs and jutting cock as if her body was something to be conquered.  It seemed they were back to desperation, only this time that suited her as well.

She looked into those eyes and welcomed the beast, just as completely as she had the soft exploration of moments ago.  He saw her acceptance and a savage satisfaction suffused his eyes, even before he plunged inside her to the hilt, pushing the heat and hardness of his cock over all that oversensitive and swollen flesh.  Then the look on his face was just…raw.

He took her hard and hot, claiming every inch of her passage, as thoroughly marking the inside of her body as he later would the outside.  This time when she came it was not a soft build-up and a blanketing of pleasure.  It was heat and spikes of pleasure that nearly blinded her.  He joined her in that pleasure.

Before they had even begun to cool down she felt him slip out of her and nearly cried out at the loss.  Instead, she gasped out the breath that she was only now getting back as he flipped her to her belly.  She clutched at the bed beneath her and tried to look over her shoulder to see what he was doing.  The sight of him crouched over her, his beast peeking out at her from Tolan Lark’s face, still semi-hard and glistening from their combined pleasure, had another spasm of pleasure jerking her thighs into the bed beneath her.  He smiled with teeth that were too sharp, and that wicked look Tolan did so well in those Shakien eyes.  She almost came again just from that look.

Then he proceeded to bite down her back in all the places he had missed when he claimed her the first time. By the time he flipped her over and began on the front again she was past worrying about sleep, or dangerous missions, or anything but claiming and being claimed.

***

Jax lay beside her mate, still breathing heavily and aching everywhere from small bite marks.  Her mate’s body was still slick from her own, sporting much the same as he had given her.  She could scent his skin and sex heavy in the air, and knew from the grip he still held her with that he was struggling with the coming separation.

He had not argued with her as Lucan had done with Danika or bellowed as Barnos had with Lara; in fact, he had merely watched her and said nothing.  If she had not felt the heat of his Shakien eyes constantly upon her she would have wondered that he no longer cared.   Then they had made it back to their room and he had wiped every thought from her mind.  She was sore in places she had never been sore, and she would swear there was not a part of her body he had not marked with his teeth.  He cared, all right, which meant he was planning something.  She sighed inwardly and wrapped her arms and legs tighter around his big, hard body. 

But then, she had known that when she had a private word with Tyber and Lore.  She had a feeling the battle skiff she was to take at first light would be gone when she went looking for it.  She wondered what he would tell the others and how he thought he could work this plan without her, when she was the plan.  She let herself sigh again, this time out loud.

Tolan lifted his head and met her with eyes that fluctuated between blue and lavender.  He might be satiated by the sex, but he was not as calm as he wanted her to think he was. 

"What is it?" he asked.  Even in the darkened room she met his eyes easily.  Shakien and Dainaree had night vision in common at least.  Along with the need to mark their mates, she added, running her finger over her mating mark at his neck.

"All those weeks I thought if I could just get you into bed this heat between us would finally go away," she said, giving him some truth, though not the one he sought.  "It does not seem to be easing between us."

He quirked that wicked grin of his at her.  "I am Shakien, and this is our mating dance.  The fire will only build."

Jax huffed out a breath.  "Build?"  she asked incredulously.  "I am not sure I can walk now."

That bought her a sexy smile. 

She shook her head but could not help but smiling back at that smile.  "Anything else I should know about this mating dance, as you call it?"

His face went serious suddenly.  "You will find the touch of other men painful, as I will not be able to bear another woman's touch on me."  He shrugged.  "I have always thought I would hate that part of the mating dance, but I find I do not mind so much when it also means that you cannot touch another."

Jax blinked at that, then sputtered a laugh.  "You jealous bastard."  She said it almost affectionately.

"Yes," he agreed and his smile turned predatory.   "I am that.  How do you know Tyber Relian and Lore Trugarian?  Were you lovers?"

The way he shot the questions at her almost as an afterthought did not fool her in the least, not when his hands had clenched in her hair and his eyes had gone lavender and stayed there.

"No," she said and watched the satisfaction flare in those feral Shakien eyes.  If he thought that meant anything he was in for a disappointment.  "But I have had lovers.  Some of them were even good ones.  You haven't?"

The satisfaction did not leave his eyes, but at least it dimmed.  "I have, and I had assumed you had as well, but I would be lying if I said it would not bother me if they had been your lovers."

Now she was confused.  "Why them in particular?"

He studied her face and used his long, strong fingers to gently push back the hair that was trying to fall down before her eyes.  "They know you, more about you than I did. You had a history and a friendship I could see between you.  Shared jokes, casual comfort.  If either of them had had you in truth I do not think I could have tamely accepted it."

Jax snorted at that.  "I have yet to see you do anything tamely," she assured him with humor back in her eyes. "The mercenary Tolan Lark is many things, but never has the word tame been applied to him to my knowledge.  Nor have I seen proof of any taming myself."

"Well," he said, his grin returning, "I try."

Seeing the look and already recognizing what it meant, Jax widened her eyes.  "No," she said clearly and concisely.  "We are not doing anything else but sleep tonight.  Already I worry that I will fall asleep at the helm and crash Barnos' skiff."

"I should be with you," he said, all playfulness gone, forgetting for a moment he had a different plan.

"No, you should follow at enough of a distance so that no one knows you are there, but close enough to come to my aid if I need it."

"This plan is ridiculous," he growled low, his head dropping until his eyes caught on her bruised and marked lips and flared.

"Tolan," she started on a deep breath, but it was already too late.  His lips fell to hers and the flame between them did indeed flare hotter.  Jax forgot what she was going to say, how little the time was that they had before departure, and her own name under that kiss.  For the second time that night, Tolan took her under.

By the time she fell asleep with just a few hours left in the night she was beyond complaining about anything, and they never had the discussion she meant to start about boundaries and how far she was willing to let him push her.  Instead she slipped away into slumber. 

Tolan just slipped away.

He was gone before she awoke for the day, and so was her skiff.  The others had followed, no doubt thinking that she was on board--at least some of them would have believed that.

She picked up the com and used her private signal to hail The Jezebel.  "Are you waiting for me?"

"Yes," Lore said without inflection to his voice.  "Though we almost weren't.  Your mate is diabolical in his scheming.  He had Barnos take The Fire, and he sent a com link that you were on board and taking off before anyone could see that it was not you.  If you had not warned us of his intentions we would never have known we were not following you until we were light years from here."

Jax sighed.  "I'll meet you at the dock.  It would be a good idea, I think, to keep my presence on your ship a secret for a bit.  I would like to know what his plan is when he gets to Frian."

"I don't think anyone wants to tell a newly-mated Shakien that his mate is going into the danger he was so very deviously trying to keep her out of."

The irony in his voice was not lost on Jax, but frankly she was too angry at Tolan’s actions to worry about his reaction.  It was one thing to suspect he would try something, another when he actually snuck off, intending to strand her on Port Sea like a child locked in her room.  He'd be lucky if he could walk when she was through with him.