And my prey was Selena.
Her face haunted me whenever I closed my eyes. I’d never felt desire for anyone other than her. Not from the moment I had been given her scent and begun to track.
But I would need to be satisfied with only friendship. Something that would be much harder now that I had tasted her. Now that I had been inside her.
I groaned.
She was my client’s Nova. He would not want to share her. Aldawi males never shared their Novas. They were intensely territorial. I found him allowing her to take Odelm and Xylo as nestmates very confusing, but perhaps their asexual nature meant they were little threat. They were more like caretakers.
Regardless, I wasn’t going to question him.
I licked my lips. The intoxication of her blood still lingered. Knowing her taste, having felt her channel grip my cock for the first time. Fuck, it would now be even harder not to be distracted by Selena.
Having tasted her blood, I was one with her. It had triggered my instincts; I could already feel myself slipping. The Yaarkins hadn’t designed me to breed. All my designed traits would become a problem if I mated. Tasting the blood of my prey allows me to hunt them down if they escape. But the very thing that made me a good tracker became a danger with a mate. I’d become too fixated, too focused. Especially if I drank from them.
But Selena was not ordinary prey.
I sighed.
There were too many unknowns now that I’d had sex with Selena. I had no idea what this would unlock in my unique biology. And even though it had been to help her and prevent harm from coming to her cubs, I had barely been able to hold back. To stop myself trying for more. The moment had been seared into my memory. The memory would need to be enough to sustain me, for I would never get another chance to be with her.
Well, the memory and my cache of recordings. I had carefully recorded every moment with her to re-watch and analyze later.
Nor could I keep this from my client. He would learn of it on his own soon enough. I had no doubt my obsession would be clear to him as soon as he saw me around Selena. And I didn’t want to hide anything from him.
I owed him everything.
When my client had woken my half-sisters and me nine years ago, we’d made a deal. He would free us from our prison, give us a purpose, a place to use our talents in his personal military—if we agreed to be loyal only to him. We agreed, and then helped him rescue other human experiments—none of whom were like us. Or Selena.
For nine years, we’d been hunting anyone with connections to the Yaarkins, looting and destroying any Yaarkin ships we came across. They were good at hiding—spreading out in the fringes of the galaxy, keeping to the outskirts, dealing only with the black market and the dregs of society.
The ship Selena had been aboard had been the last. Of course. So many years looking for her, and the very last Yaarkin vessel, the very last of the Yaarkin species—that was the one that held her prisoner. And it had pissed off my client that the ship had been lurking right under our noses. The slave ship had found a spot between two moons in a planetary gas ring in one of the uninhabitable Aldawi star systems to hide.
When we’d found the vessel and launched the attack, the Yaarkins and their customers had tried to fight back, but our forces were overwhelming. We had ensured they would be. My client was taking no further chances he might lose Selena.
But even with no hope of victory, they’d refused to surrender, using their slaves and failed experiments as cannon fodder—a distraction to allow them to escape. They even set a number of shuttles to self-destruct to add to the confusion.
We hadn’t been able to prevent the destruction, but we were able to either capture or kill everyone else. Except Selena. We’d thought her lost to us—that perhaps she’d been on one of the destroyed escape pods or shuttles.
Until my client realized he hadn’t felt Selena’s loss—no disconnect—just a void when he tried to dreamwalk to her. He became convinced she was unconscious somewhere, floating in space.
Both the Fates and the Stars had watched over Selena that day.
When Prince V’dim and Prince Z’fir had been connected to my client by his assistant, I’d been there with my half-sisters, debriefing. When they’d explained they’d found a human floating in space and her description matched Selena, my client had demanded more information to corroborate. It was Master Scholar Xylo who’d reported that she was pregnant, though unconscious.
We’d known then that we’d found her, and my client had ordered them to change course to meet him at CEG HQ, warning them that Selena’s safety was their responsibility. That she was in danger and must be kept a secret.
And what the punishment would be if they failed.
Since my arrival, I’d ensured no communications were sent out without my knowledge. The Destiny was now fully under my control and in just a few hours, we would be arriving. I’d fulfilled my mission.
And I would face my punishment.
I knelt on the floor with my head bowed.
< REI. CONNECT ME TO Z. >
< PATCHING. >
The wall screen dinged.
“Agent Kaede. I hope all is well?” My client’s deep, raspy voice filled the room.
Lifting my head back up to face the male on the screen, I answered, “Selena successfully delivered her three cubs and has named them. All healthy and well. She has proved able to breastfeed, but vitamin-enhanced fish oil and finely minced fish have been prepared and stored to supplement if needed. Master Scholar Xylo has sketched a design
