Forbidden

Chapter Two

“I don’t care if you have his leg,” Anna snapped to the enlisted nurse. “The Gothies will be here long before we could possibly get it packed for transport.” They made their way through the M.A.S.H. unit, preparing for the latest attack. Anna had been in Lexington three months, and was now the most senior medical staff member.

She felt for the young soldier, she really did, but they didn’t have time for niceties. “Give him a choice, Lieutenant. He can either stay here and hope the Gothe’maran will be so kind as to reattach his leg before they kill him, or he can be moved out with everyone else and lose it. And I don’t plan to leave anyone behind.”

Other than herself, of course. She’d make sure she was captured and damn the consequences. But she got the feeling that he knew what she had planned and would be waiting for her.

Suddenly, there was a flash near Anna’s surgical suite. A deafening silence followed it, as if all sound had been simply sucked into a vacuum. The air around her seemed thick and unbreathable. Dizziness swamped her and she fell to her knees with a jarring thud. Her hands instinctively flew out to grasp whatever was in reach to steady herself. As the room spun around her, she looked up… and her eyes locked with those of Kahn Mak’un.

He stood in the doorway of the tent, his soldiers fanning out to check the other collapsed bodies round the room. She thought that odd because the Gothies usually just killed everyone they came across. He moved toward her. Her last thought before the blackness claimed her was He’s found me at last .

* * *

What had happened to the humans was tragic. And those deplorable acts had been done in his name. Kahn could see the fear on the faces of those people of Earth he met as he walked through the tiny camp. They knew who he was and thought they knew what he stood for. He had never been a part of the zealous faction of his government that had invaded Earth, and he certainly never condoned the slaughter of these people, of any people. All of this had been done behind the king’s back. All in the name of “saving the race.”

His people were warriors. Unfortunately, in their blood frenzy, most of those who had come to Earth in the beginning had forgotten that honor had to be met in battle. No matter what a superior officer ordered. There was no honor in killing women and children. The madmen that had started this had brought tens of thousands of his homeland’s warriors, and Kahn doubted that there was a single one left who had not forsaken his honor for the kill.

Now, he had to clean up the mess. And that was proving as difficult as he expected. These people had lived in terror for almost three years. His job now was to round up every last warrior and get the hell off this planet. Some of them had heeded the return call, but more than half of them had not. They had chosen to continue their “search” for Earth women to bear children who could be raised to fight in the stead of homeland warriors. Gothe’mar then could fight wars without risking the lives of their people, thus expanding their empire. The notion was not honorable. It was disturbing that so many warriors had gone along with it.

In truth, Kahn suspected most of them simply enjoyed the violence. Such was the nature of his people. It was why they were taught to control their baser instincts from the time they were able to learn higher skills, even before they were of schooling age. Extreme emotion had no place in Gothe’maran society.

Now, it was taking all his control to keep from savagely killing every rebel warrior he came across. They had shamed him. They had shamed his people. And they would pay for every drop of blood they had shed.

Especially that of his woman’s family.

True, he would not have been able to claim her had her husband been alive, but he would gladly have let her go if it would have meant she would not have been tormented by the loss. He doubted he would ever forget her cries of anguish as she knelt over her baby. Still, now he felt only overwhelming joy. His soul had found its mate. This time he would not let her go.

He stood there watching her as she was overcome by the tol’sun -- the silent light. Her hair and skin were as pale as the rays of sunshine on this light-filled world. Slight of form, she still had lush curves that he could discern through her clothes. He itched to remove the offending garments to see the body of his mate.

She found him just as she gave in to the vertigo caused by the passive weapon. As he watched her slump to the ground and felt her acceptance of him, he thought that maybe, just maybe, he could claim her without causing her more grief. Because he knew there was no way he could let her go now that he had found her again. She was his, and honor, as well as his every instinct, demanded he claim and protect his mate at all costs.

“Round up the warriors for transport. Give medical assistance to the humans,” Kahn said to his second, Kiril.

“Commander,” came Kiril’s low, rumbling voice. “Shall I have the ship prepare for your woman?”

As always, Kiril knew where Kahn’s primary focus was. “Yes. I will take her aboard before the effects of the tol’sun wear off. She needs to adjust to her new life as quickly as possible.”

“And if there is too much damage to be undone?”

Kahn thought a moment before he spoke. What he was about to tell Kiril would shake the foundation of the Gothe’maran. “I don’t think that will be a problem, my friend.” He looked Kiril in the eyes. “She can hear my thoughts when my emotions are high, as I can hear hers. Not to mention our mutual need of each other. It is almost unbearable for both of us.”

Kiril’s normally impassive features registered surprise for an instant before he snorted. “Unlikely, Commander. Telepathic abilities exist only in true mates and then only after they have been bound for many years. You jest with me.”

Kahn’s gaze didn’t waver. “I never jest, Kiril. This you know.”

Kiril’s face paled. “Great Mother,” he whispered. “You have been mates in past lives, then. Many lives if you connected with her so fast. And with someone not of our race? It is forbidden.”

“Not of our race? I wonder.” The implications hung heavily. Gothe’maran warriors may have slaughtered tens of thousands of their own people.

“You suspect these people of Earth are related to us?”

Kahn sighed. “Preliminary testing from scans and the microscopic tissue sample of the baby suggest the humans may be more closely related than previously thought. We will know more when we have her permission to take a blood sample.”

Kiril grunted. “Is the child still in stasis?”

“Yes. His injuries were fully healed, but Medical Command thought it wisest to have his mother near when they brought him out of stasis.”

“Another difficulty in getting your woman to adjust. She will not be pleased her son was not returned to her.”

“She doesn’t know he’s still alive.”

Kiril actually laughed -- something Kahn had never seen. He hadn’t even known Kiril was capable of laughter. “Good luck, my friend. If she is a Gothe’maran by nature, her anger at being kept from her child will be unparalleled. I’m glad I’m not the one to have to tell her.”

Kahn shared his second’s amusement. He was actually more fearful that, once she became comfortable with their mind sharing, she would manage to glean the information directly from his brain than he was of telling her himself. He would have to keep her occupied with other things until he could broach the subject. Kahn smiled a bit before sobering. “There is much still to be done here, Kiril. Many warriors are still killing, and it’s up to us to stop them.”

“What would you have me do, General?”

“No mercy, Kiril. No mercy.”

“As you command.”

* * *

Anna awoke still a bit lightheaded. She also found she was quite comfortable for the first time in several months and did not want to spoil the pleasant feeling by opening her eyes and finding it all a dream. She lay there, dozing, not caring what had happened, not wanting to think beyond the wonderful feeling of a soft bed beneath her and warm covers over her.

“Are you aware you snore when you sleep, tarae ?”

Anna jackknifed to a sitting position, the covers falling to her waist. Kahn the Merciless sat beside the huge bed… smiling . In her search for this man, she had seen hundreds of photographs of him, and none of them could have prepared her for the devastation of his smile. All those angles, all the fierceness in his eyes, simply melted away. Even the scar seemed to diminish. He looked at her with a gentleness, a tenderness that took her breath away. She was speechless.

He was dressed in dark gray. His leather-like pants hugged muscular thighs and his shirt and vest were open, revealing a tanned expanse of very powerfully built torso. His hair hung in waves to his shoulders, giving him a wild look that sent a liquid gush of heat through her body. She was drawn to this man. Everything in her screamed for him.

“What? Nothing to say? From the woman who would give herself willingly to a people she knows to be deadly simply to find me? I expected a tirade of some sort at the very least.”

Teasing. He was teasing her! When the chuckle emerged from deep within his chest it was all she could take. Her hand shot out, grabbed the nearest pillow and hurled it at him. It hit him square in the face.

She gasped. Had she really just hit Kahn the Merciless in the face with a pillow? Of all the hare-brained, idiotic things to do! She flung herself across the expanse of the bed and made a mad dash for the door, only to be snagged in mid flight by a steely arm around her middle. The laughter at her ear was the last thing she expected.

“You’re probably the only person on several worlds who would dare throw anything at me, tarae . You should know you have nothing to fear from me. Can you not feel it?”

The only things she felt were his breath feathering her cheek and the clenching in her belly. She almost melted on the spot. But she realized she could sense what he felt. His amusement -- and his lust for her.

She looked back at him. He had all her answers. Would he give them to her?

Gently, he took her shoulders and turned her to face him. “In time, tarae , I’ll tell you everything.”

“How…”

“Later. I need you. Now.”

It was only then that Anna realized she didn’t have on a stitch of clothing. Not that she cared. She could actually feel his intense need for her. Amazing! But she wasn’t sure what part of those feelings was hers and what was simply her experiencing his feelings through their strange bond. She only knew she needed him more than she had ever needed anything in her life. It was unsettling to say the least.

Anna knew what she was feeling was unnatural. This instant attraction was too much, too fast to be completely her own. When she considered her obsession with him, she knew there was something more going on than she was able to understand. But there was simply no way she could fight it. She needed his body and needed to give him hers. And this attraction, this desire, was getting stronger by the second until they threatened to spontaneously combust with the heat of their mutual lust.

With a fierceness she hadn’t known she possessed, Anna flung her arms around his neck and plastered her mouth against his. Her tongue thrust between the seam of his lips, plundering, ravishing, using her kiss as the outlet for the pent-up lust she had not been able to express for the last two years, three months and fifteen days.

Anna ate at his mouth, licking and biting, the aggressor. A first for her. Somehow, she managed to rid him of his shirt and vest and began working on the fastening of his pants. She felt the lust in him. He was as wild as she, but holding himself back for her benefit. The effort he exerted was tremendous, and she felt him tremble with it both inside and out.

Once she managed to unfasten his pants, her hand found him, hot and oh, so hard. She probably would have been impressed with his length and girth had she been able to form a coherent thought, but her only consideration at that moment was getting him inside her. As soon as possible. Now.

She gave him a mighty shove, and he stumbled back onto the bed. With him on his back, his legs hanging off the edge, she advanced on him. She caught first his surprise, then the passion growing impossibly more intense. She was going up in flames and taking him with her.

Kahn pushed himself onto the bed a bit more, and she followed him, climbing up his body to rest her sex against his. Anna felt his cock pulse and twitch, burying itself between the moist folds of her pussy to rub against her throbbing clit. She heard the animalistic growl and thought it was Kahn at first, only to realize it actually came from her own throat. One part of her was shocked into total oblivion while the instinctual part was actually in heat. She couldn’t control this side of herself.

Don’t try, love. Not now. Not this time, Kahn’s voice spoke in her head.

It was too much. Anna impaled herself on the cock of Kahn the Merciless.

She screamed.

* * *

Kahn was lost. He had never experienced anything like this. Anna buried her face in his neck and bit hard, forcing a startled grunt from him even as she eased the sting with a wet lick. She rode him with an abandon that bordered on insanity. He was in her mind. He knew what she was feeling -- he felt it himself -- but his Anna was not used to such powerful emotions. She needed fulfillment and guidance. It was up to him to be her anchor.

She rode him faster and harder, her grunts and squeals of pleasure testing his resolve as his hands caressed her. He knew she needed release above all else. Only the satiation of her body would bring back her sanity. His thumb found their joined bodies and circled her clit. She immediately started to convulse around him as her first climax hit her. She grabbed hold of his thighs, throwing her head back and shrieking her pleasure.

Still she rode him. The friction was almost unbearable, and Kahn knew his tightly held control was about to snap. Her hips gave a little twist as she sank down on his cock, and it was all he could take. He grabbed her hips so tightly he likely bruised her, rising to meet each of her thrusts with a savage one of his own.

He gave a mighty plunge when he felt her muscles start to spasm once more. His hips ground into hers, seeking to get as deep as possible before he emptied himself into her. On a roar, his climax hit him. His eyes clenched shut, his muscles bunching as he bucked underneath her, driving himself ever harder until the last drop he had to give spilled into her tight, grasping cunt.

She collapsed on top of him, her breathing as ragged as his own. His arms slid easily around her and gently stroked her back. He was about to roll them to their sides and cover their spent bodies when he heard the hiss of the electronic door opening.

Mikkril De’Kar stood just inside Kahn’s bed chamber. He was not as tall as Kahn and his musculature wasn’t as impressive, but it didn’t make him seem any less menacing. He was leader of the rogue warriors and also Kahn’s father’s youngest brother.

“Disgusting!” he spat in English. “She is human! Our people will never tolerate you succeeding your father while you bed the human whore.”

Kahn had no doubt his uncle used the local Earth language hoping Anna understood his words. The lieutenant accompanying him stared straight ahead. Kahn immediately flipped Anna onto her back, kissing her briefly to muffle her small squeak of shock.

“Rest, tarae . I must deal with this. I will return as swiftly as I can.” Anna’s cheeks were crimson and he could feel the shame radiating from her in waves. He smiled once more at her, hoping to reassure her as he stood to greet the intruders. Grabbing a robe, he ushered the men outside his bed chamber.

“I assume you have a good reason for disturbing me by bringing this bakkara to my quarters?” Kahn’s voice was quiet, deadly.

“Mikkril is condemned, General. Coming here was his last request.” The lieutenant did not apologize, though Kahn could see the apprehension in his eyes.

“Why did you not think to warn me?” Kahn barked more harshly than he’d ever spoken to a junior officer. Volume wasn’t needed when menace worked better, but anger had overridden his usually steely control.

The lieutenant did not hesitate. “His request was an unannounced audience with you, General.”

Kahn crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at his uncle, head held high. “You have it. Speak.”

Mikkril sneered. “I only wanted to confirm my suspicions that you bedded a human, and I have a witness.” He gestured to the now startled lieutenant. “You will release me or I will see to it you will never be king.”

“My fate and that of the mate chosen for me by the Universe is no concern of yours. We will accept whatever is to come.” Kahn couldn’t believe his uncle actually thought he would escape death. True, Mikkril hadn’t been judged by the king as of yet, but there was little doubt the man was guilty of genocide and attempted slavery. Just looking at Earth was all the proof anyone needed. The only reason he was even given this much of a reprieve was because he was the king’s half brother.

“Ah, but did you know she cannot have another child?” The smirk on Mikkril’s face indicated he thought Kahn unaware of that fact. “I should think that will affect your… affection… for her. Think about what you are doing, Kahn. You cannot rise to power with a barren wife. You’d be spitting in the face of a thousand years of tradition.” Mikkril turned to the lieutenant. “Take me back to my cell. I’m finished here.”

Mikkril. Always the royal bastard. Literally. Gothe’maran society held dear the idea of family. Men and women mated for life, but their ultimate goal was to mate with the one the Universe had created for them. Their soul’s mate. Mikkril’s father had dishonored his wife by taking a mistress and fathering another child. The people had demanded he relinquish the throne. As a result, Kahn’s father had assumed the throne while still in his boyhood years. A boy leading the mighty Gothe’maran was not readily embraced. Fortunately, Kerrek had not only gained the respect and trust of his people, he had made the Gothe’maran thrive. By taking a human mate, Kahn risked having his people question him as their rightful king when the time came to take his father’s place, but he was confident that could be worked out.

But right now, none of that mattered. Mikkril had dishonored himself and his entire family. He would pay with his life at the hands of the king. The only thing that mattered to Kahn was the woman on the other side of that door who was currently coming to terms with their torrid lovemaking.

* * *

After Kahn left, Anna lay quietly, gathering her emotions. She had never experienced anything quite like the sex they had shared. Okay, so “sex” was a fairly bland term to describe what they had done. Fuck like rabbits? Now there was a term! She was stunned by her own behavior, and by the feelings running around in her head. Unable to contain her nervous energy, she jumped up from the bed and paced restlessly.

When they’d had sex, she could feel what Kahn had felt, from the overpowering lust to how silky her skin felt to him when she’d glided over his body. But once the experience was over, she could no longer feel those emotions. It was as though he had simply turned himself off. Now, she only felt an occasional flicker of something. Annoyance, anger, pity. Then it was gone like it never happened. What the hell was happening to her?

It wasn’t long before Kahn quietly opened the door and slipped in once again. As he entered, his gaze snared hers and he began to disrobe. Anna had thought him handsome before, but now that she had time to appreciate all of him, her breath caught in her throat, her chest constricted and her body went up in flames… again.

He looked like a bronzed god. He towered over her own sturdy frame by almost a foot, and was very heavily muscled. Vein-roped arms as thick as her thighs, a chiseled torso so steely only the skin made it soft to touch and molded, thick, defined legs all bespoke the power this man wielded.

Perusing Kahn’s legs had probably been a bad idea because her gaze was inevitably drawn to the male flesh now hardening between them. If his body was a work of art, his cock was the Rembrandt. She knew he was large -- she felt the evidence in the tenderness between her own legs -- but she hadn’t realized how perfectly made his sex really was. She could distinguish each vein running the length of it, and the large, mushroom-shaped head darkened from red to a deep purple with his desire. Like everything else, his cock was in proportion with his body, which made him long and mouth-wateringly thick.

* * *

For his part, Kahn was definitely not immune to his mate’s inspection. Just watching her lovely azure eyes run over his body got him hard. She had wrapped herself in the sheet, but he remembered her form perfectly. She was slight by the standards of his people. He was surprised he hadn’t broken her with their wild mating earlier. Slender arms and legs joined a body boasting generous breasts and hips. Her work at the Front had reshaped her body and he found this one just as appealing as the fuller version of two years earlier. The mass of flaxen curls covering her head and sex was his undoing. His people were dark, bronzed. Anna was like the precious pearls of her world -- creamy white from head to toe.

Lust surged through him, answering both her feelings and his own.

“Anna.” His voice was husky to his own ears. “I have need of you again but there are things we must discuss.” She blinked and he registered her surprise that he knew her name. “It should not surprise you. You know my name. I seem to remember you calling out to me several times a few minutes ago.” He smirked and irritation radiated from Anna.

“That’s a bit different, Kahn the Merciless ,” she mocked. “Everyone on Earth knows who you are.”

There was a silence between them as Kahn tried to figure out how to tell her about her son.

The moment he let that thought slip, he knew it had been a mistake.

She froze. “What about my son?”

Kahn gave her a wry smile. “You’re becoming more comfortable with the mind merge. That’s good, but I must confess, your timing could be better.”

She cautiously stepped toward him. “What about my son,” she repeated. It was a demand, not a question.

Kahn told her without preamble, “He lives.”

His sense of Anna’s emotions went suddenly blank. In the next second, she drove the heel of her hand upwards into his chin, snapping his head back and making him stagger backwards. “Bastard!” She clawed his face, slapped him, punched him, kicked him with all her strength. “What have you done to him? If you’ve harmed him, I’ll kill you myself!” Her anguished screams tormented his heart.

Kahn let her beat on him a while before enfolding her securely in his arms. Great sobs racked her body as she cried brokenly. He knew she was not even aware that she clung to him instead of seeking his death. “Please don’t hurt my son. I’ll do anything you ask. Anything.” This last was a ragged plea. Her heart was breaking all over again and Kahn suffered with her.

“ Tarae , never, never would I harm you or anyone you love. For any reason. Least of all a child.” He gently urged her to look at him, tilting her chin upwards and framing her face gently in his large, battle hardened hands. “I know you’ve believed all these years my people were bloodthirsty monsters, but we are not. When our emotions are out of control, our passions rule our minds but that is precisely why our race seeks emotional control above all else. I know you can feel it in me, when you feel my emotions pull away from you. The only thing we place above control is the protection of our family. For that, we would do whatever necessary.” Kahn gently guided her to the bed, as he straightened the sheet covering her, and they both sat down. “Even such honorable things as that can be twisted, and that is what happened with your planet.”

“Where is my son?” Her question was put to him in a whisper, her tortured eyes brimming with tears.

“You remember the day we met?” When she nodded, he continued. “My second, Kiril, scanned the dead. Just as a man’s heart can stop and his lungs quit working and there still be a chance he can be saved, so it was with your son.”

“Impossible! He was literally torn apart. I remember there being so much blood…” Her voice trailed off as she slipped backwards into the memory.

“It is very possible, Anna. On Earth a hundred years ago, a man with no heartbeat was dead. There was no bringing him back. For us, it’s not so much a matter of heart and blood activity as brain activity.”

“So? Without oxygen, the brain dies. Without blood, there is no oxygen. You get the point? Once the brain starts dying, it’s only seconds before the damage is irreversible. Alex had been dead too long.”

“For your people, yes. Not for mine.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We can repair cells in the central nervous system up to a point. Your son was placed in stasis to prevent further decay of his cells, and the damage to his body was repaired. All the damage. It is as though he was never injured.”

Kahn watched Anna’s eyes grow bigger with each word. “Impossible,” she breathed again. “What you’re suggesting is totally impossible.”

“We’ve been perfecting the technique for a thousand years. I assure you, it is very possible.”

“Have you seen him?”

“Only in his stasis chamber. Once we get to Gothe’mar, and you are present, Medical Command will bring him out of stasis and you will have your son back.”

“But, if he’s okay, why keep him in stasis?”

“It will be less traumatic for Alex. Sometimes there is a brief pain when the cells of the body are, for lack of a better term, jump-started. He will want his mother.”

Anna smiled. Then she burst into tears once again. “Oh, Kahn. I can’t believe I could be getting my son back! Even if I don’t, just getting to see him again will bring me peace.” She sniffed, wiped her nose, then pinned him with blazing blue eyes. “If you’re lying to me, Kahn, I’ll kill you.”

Kahn did his best to block his amusement. She was truly Gothe’maran in nature. Holding her gently, he kissed the top of her head. “All will be well, tarae . Trust me.”

She looked up at him, her gaze calculating. “I will. For now.”