“It wasn’t personal,” I said, my voice cracking as I lifted my chin to meet his gaze. “I don’t know if I could have killed you, anyway.”
“I know.” His grip on my wrists loosened, but I didn’t move. “That is why I’m not going to tell my officers what I know about you.”
“You aren’t?”
“If any other Vandar learns the truth about you, I will have no choice but to turn you over to my battle chief for interrogation.” He sighed. “Anything else would be a betrayal of my people.”
“Why would you help me?” My breath hitched in my chest. “Especially since I was sent here to kill you.”
He pulled me until I bumped against his bare chest. “You are as much a casualty of the empire as my people. Just as their actions made us take to space and become raiders, the Zagrath forced you to be a killer. But neither of us need to let our enemy define us. Only we get to decide who we are.”
I shook my head, a familiar wave of inevitable despair washing over me. “I don’t know anything but killing for the empire. It’s who I am.”
“Not anymore. Now you are mine.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he crushed his lips to mine, wrapping his arms around me and pinning my wrists to the small of my back. My protests were swallowed by his hard kiss, which sent shivers of pleasure ricocheting through my body. When he tore his mouth away just as suddenly, I was left gasping.
Raas Bron’s gaze was blazing as he stared down at me, his breathing ragged. “I will give you a choice the empire never gave you. You can choose to be mine and be given all the protections of the Raas or you can answer for your crimes.”
My heart skittered like a Garnithian water bug dancing across a pond. “What do you mean ‘be yours?’”
“The only way I can keep you on board without my motives being questioned is if I claim you as part of the spoils of war my people claim as raiders.” He lowered his mouth so that his lips buzzed against my neck. “You would be my mate and the property of the Vandar.”
I inhaled sharply. “Until we stop somewhere, and you release me?”
“No.” His arms tightened around my back. “Once you are mine, there is no going back. You will remain on my ship and in my bed.”
“You could pretend you didn’t know. Drop me off as planned and go about your way.”
His gaze bored into me. “But didn’t you say that if you failed the empire would send someone to kill you?”
“But I wouldn’t be your problem.” I attempted to step back, desperate to put some distance between us. “You could walk away without feeling guilty that you had anything to do with what happens to me.”
He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”
I groaned. “No one told me that Vandar were so stubborn, or that they had some outdated sense of chivalry.”
“You believe me wanting to protect you is outdated?”
I lifted my chin to meet his eyes. “I can take care of myself. I’m not your responsibility.”
“You’re wrong about that.” He moved my hands behind me and leaned closer, so I had to bow my back to stare up at him. “I have already claimed you as mine. You are mine.”
“Just because you say something—“
He jerked me so I was flush to him. “The words of a Vandar Raas have power. I have claimed you and given you the protection of all the Vandar warriors under my command.”
I sucked in a breath, his molten gaze making my legs weak. There was an honesty in his gaze that took my breath away. For the first time in as long as I could remember, someone wanted to help me, and it wasn’t because they would be getting a bag of coin for their troubles. I didn’t know why he was so set on saving me, but my gut told me that this Vandar was worthy of my rarely bestowed trust.
“You aren’t afraid I’ll kill you while we sleep?”
He chuckled low, as he reached down and swept me into his arms. “Who said anything about sleep?”
Chapter Eighteen
Bron
I carried Alana to the bed and let her fall back as I released her arms.
She propped herself on her elbows and scooted back. “When you said you would claim me, I didn’t think you meant now.”
She didn’t attempt to cover her naked body, and part of me wished she was some shy creature who embarrassed easily. Keeping my gaze from the swell of her breasts and the bare folds of her sex was a challenge. One I was failing at, as my blood fired, and my cock swelled. I forced my eyes to focus on her face and the pink hue of her cheeks, instead of the arousing flush of her chest. “You had no issue with timing when you attempted to seduce me earlier.”
Her cheeks mottled a deeper pink, and her gaze shifted away from me. “That was because it was part of my plan.”
“You think this is not?”
She cut her eyes back to me, narrowing them as she looked up at me. “You expect me to believe you want to fuck me because of some plan?”
I bent over her and braced one hand on the bed, sinking into the softness. “My plan is to claim you so you will not be declared an enemy of the Vandar and held in my battle chief’s oblek. Once you are mine, you will have my protection. But that is not why I want to fuck you.”
Her dark pupils swallowed the lighter iris of her eyes. “No?”
I shook my head as the vein on the side of her neck throbbed. “I’ve never fucked an assassin before, especially not one who wanted to kill me.”
“And I’ve never fucked a mark who knew he was a mark.”
“Is that why they call you
