Chapter Twenty-Four
Alana
My back throbbed, and my ankle ached as Bron lifted me out of the bathing pools in his quarters. Even though it had been a brief dunk, the hot water had washed all the blood off both of us, and then Bron stood over the powerful drying vents as air blasted away the last traces of water. After he wrapped swaths of fabric around both of us, he set me down on a chair facing the fire. It was only then that I allowed a wave of relief to rush over me that Bron and I were both alive.
“You are sure he didn’t wound you?”
“Just bumps and bruises.” I flinched as I rearranged the fabric around my chest. At least I wasn’t gushing blood, or lying splattered in the bowels of the Vandar ship.
Raas Bron crossed his arms as he watched me. “You want to tell me who that was?”
I thought of Rennick and tasted bile in the back of my throat. “An imperial assassin sent to finish the job I hadn’t—and to punish me for my failure, although I suspect he was doing that part for his own enjoyment.”
The Raas’ expression darkened. “My ship seems to be overrun by imperial assassins.”
“He snuck on when your raiding ship returned from the mission. Probably in a small cargo hold or storage unit on the transport. It’s a trick I made famous.” I cringed when I saw him glowering at me. “Sorry.”
Scraping a hand roughly through his unkempt hair, Bron grunted. “It’s not your fault. I was too eager to raid the imperial ship. I should have known it was a trap.” He took long steps to stand in front of the snapping blue flames. “By the time I realized the crew on the Zagrath ship was all wrong, the first raiding ship had already returned to the warbird—apparently with a stowaway.”
I told you keeping me would bring trouble.”
He shot a look over his shoulder. “And dropping you off somewhere would keep you safe?”
“No,” I admitted, “but it would keep you and your crew safe.”
The Raas whirled around, his broad body blocking the light from the fire and casting him in shadow. “Why did you do it?”
I couldn’t see his face clearly, but the tremble in his voice gave him away. “Do what?”
“Choose not to carry out your mission. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble by doing what you’ve always done.”
I flinched at the truth of his words. Killing people was what I’d always done. But I hadn’t been able to kill him. “I told you. I only kill bad people.”
He snorted out a mirthless laugh. “I doubt that is true.”
It was true, but only partly. I couldn’t kill Bron because I recognized a kindred spirit in him—the warrior who’d lost his parents and embraced the horde and his fellow raiders as his only family. I saw in him the same lonely child I had been long ago. Maybe it was that kinship that made my pulse flutter at his touch, or maybe it was something more, something deeper and more primal. Whatever the reason, killing him was impossible. Even thinking of him not being alive made my chest contract painfully.
“All you need to know is that I decided not to kill you,” I said. “You and your horde are in no danger from me anymore.”
He spun back to the fire, stretching his arms wide and bracing them against the obsidian stone, the fabric around his waist slipping low. “But you remain in danger from the empire.”
“Which is why you should drop me off somewhere. I’ll only continue to draw imperial wrath.”
Raas Bron chuckled, the low sound echoing off the wall. “If you think a Raas of the Vandar would ever run scared from the Zagrath, you have not been paying attention to the ghost stories they tell about us.” He glanced at me over one shoulder. “And if you think I would abandon a female I pledged to protect, you have not been paying attention to me.”
“Are all Vandar so stubborn?”
He turned, closing the distance between us in two strides and towering over me. “When it comes to our mates, yes.”
I opened my mouth to argue again, but he grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted me to my feet.
“I have claimed you by my words and given you the protection of my horde.” His body heat pulsed into me as his bare chest brushed my cheek. “But my warriors must believe that you are mine, especially Corvak.”
My breathing was shallow as I tipped my head up to meet his molten gaze. His voice had become silken as his whispered words caressed my skin. “He will not be swayed by words alone. He will know if my claims are hollow or if I’ve fucked you well.”
A tremor skated down my spine, sending heat curling in my belly and twitching between my legs. I shouldn’t want this. I shouldn’t want him. But I did, and more desperately than I’d ever desired anything.
He lowered his mouth, barely feathering his lips across mine. “But I will not take you against your will. You must want this, too.”
A jolt went through me, sending frissons of pleasure dancing across my bare flesh. I leaned into his embrace. “I…I…I want….”
What did I want? At the moment, I wanted the muscular alien warrior to keep touching me so that the raging desire storming through me would be quenched.
He gathered both my hands in one of his large ones, his other hand roaming up my body until he tangled his fingers in my hair and tilted my head back. The furry tip of his tail moved up the inside of my thigh, tickling the sensitive flesh there. “Tell me.”
Surges of pleasure coursed through me as his breath mingled with mine. My head swam, and my mind was almost as muddled as it had been the night before. “Tell you what?”
He shifted his weight and pressed my body so that
