Chapter 11
Irena
I woke and knew instantly that I wasn’t alone.
My eyes felt heavy as I struggled to open them, and my body felt like it was coming back from some very deep sleep.
There was light on inside my hidey-hole, and I normally was very careful to preserve the batteries on my lanterns.
My stomach rumbled to warn me that I was hungry, the feeling more intense because I’d gotten used to more regular, and far more filling, meals than usual.
I’d slept deeply, but perhaps not as long as I first thought.
The ship’s engines still hummed softly, and there were no other sounds from the ship or its crew yet.
Not even Xathena shouting commands to find me; though I didn’t think she’d called off the search entirely.
This was that space early in the morning when all was quiet and peaceful.
When I rose onto my elbows, I expected to see the man, but found a beast instead.
Crouched low in the tight confines of my hiding place, he filled nearly the entire space.
A monster, a fox the size of a pony. Silver fur and eyes a deep blue, black-rimmed, that snout only inches from my face.
I saw razor-sharp teeth, saw the threat that could rip through skin and bone.
Yes, this was the beast that Dimon feared.
The context I’d been missing. Flack the monster, the creature that thought nothing of ripping an enemy to shreds.
Yet I felt no fear. That thought surfaced slowly and caught me by surprise.
I really didn’t. Not because I’d gone numb, or because I hadn’t fully woken.
The fear didn’t come because, staring into that maw, into a beastly face with the same blue eyes as my pirate, I remembered.
How could I not remember each tender touch, the infinite care for even the smallest cut or blister?
The way he’d let me soak in his warmth, the steadiness of his hands through touch.
I saw the beast, and I saw his heart this time too, and perhaps his heart was mine.
“Hi,” I sighed, then lifted my arms and curled them around a thick, furry neck, drawing him close.
“Did you sleep? How is your side?” I realized I hadn’t even looked to see how his wound had been healing last night.
Granted, I’d been a little busy staring at other, eh…
things, but a stab wound should have caught my eye, shouldn’t it?
Having my arms full of fur was different; it brushed silkily against my throat, and a heated exhale from his maw slid down my spine.
Goosebumps rose all over my flesh, and my nipples ached.
It was an awkward angle, but it reminded me of hugging the big shepherd dog my grandfather had kept.
There was something incredibly comforting about the warmth of an animal.
Of course, this wasn’t an animal I was hugging.
Flack’s massive head had a narrow, fox-like snout and sharp teeth.
His ears rotated easily to pinpoint sound; they were tall and tufted.
One flicked against my cheek, and that tickled and made me smile.
The fur was thicker at his neck, and it was too much to really hold properly in my arms. When he lowered his snout to curl it over my shoulder, it felt like he was hugging me back.
He shifted, and I felt it, how his body reshaped as if it were liquid, flowing from beast into the form of a man.
The tail remained; I could see it, as still hugging, I now peered down his wide back to his naked ass.
He lifted his head a moment later, and I stared at his handsome face.
His big, fox-shaped ears lingered a little longer before they reshaped and disappeared beneath his long white hair.
“Now that’s a good morning,” he smirked, and I discovered what it felt like to hug not the fox, but the man.
My arms still clung to his now-human neck, and he slid his arms around my waist and drew me closer, straight into his naked lap.
His mouth found mine almost immediately, covering my lips with a kiss that wasn’t tender, but a brand.
His cock grew firm beneath my ass, pressing through the thin fabric of my dress.
That definitely felt like a brand, that thick, heated rod pressing so close to my core.
Last night, he’d calmed my fears, healed me, and awakened the need for touch.
This morning, it wasn’t just touch I craved.
My core was growing slick for him, and desire hummed through my veins.
His kiss made me forget the danger we were in, and my spirit felt light with hope that the nightmare was finally over.
His mouth lifted, not to stop touching me, but to leave soft, nibbling kisses across my cheek.
I blanched abruptly when I realized it was my left cheek, the one covered in dreadfully ugly scars.
“Oh, no!” I pulled back, my arms sliding up to push against his shoulders and create distance.
“Don’t do that…” He wouldn’t let me go, his arms remaining locked tight around my middle.
I found myself leaning back in his grip, spine arched, hair falling back, and throat exposed.
Flack’s eyes glowed with an unnatural light—a blue shine that was very much not human.
It reflected in pretty sparkles against the white stripe that crossed his face.
“No?” he asked, his mouth wet and pink from our kissing.
He sounded truly baffled, dragging his gaze from my mouth to my cheek, then down my throat.
His eyes clung to my chest, and I became aware of how exposed I was in this pose.
My breasts on display, almost spilling out of the hemline of my dress.
“The scars…” I admitted, ashamed. Even healed, I knew they were ugly, and for him to touch them with his mouth…
That made me feel a sick kind of embarrassment deep in my belly.
Not that long ago, they’d been open sores that made the others on the ship fear I carried a horrible disease.
He shouldn’t be kissing me there. It dashed any fledgling arousal I’d begun to feel.
Flack shifted even closer, and his still very much erect cock pressed more firmly against my rear.
“No,” he said, cutting off my trailing protest with a definitive bark.
“Those scars make you beautiful, Irena. They’re proof of your strength, your will to survive.
They should be worn with pride; they should be adored and admired.
” His voice grew huskier with each word he spoke, and my body tingled, my belly twisting with things I had no name for—intense feelings that overwhelmed me, too much to understand all at once.
“You are beautiful, so beautiful you take my breath away, little one. If I could, I’d worship every inch of your body right now: with my eyes, my hands, my tongue.
But I’d start here.” His words were husky caresses that landed on my incredulous flesh with the exhale of his warm breath.
Then he leaned in even more, and there was no escape as his mouth descended and laved over the scars on my face.
My eyes stung, but my body was back on board.
Growing soft and limp in his arms, I surrendered to that touch; simply along for the ride as he laid me back across the blankets.
Those were not the words of a man using me; those were the words of someone who truly saw only beauty.
I could not believe this was really happening, but it was.
“Why?” I asked before I could think twice about the question.
“Why me?” This beautiful man, this dangerous alien with more shapes than I could fathom. Why would he pick me?
Flack braced himself on one arm above me, barely able to fit on top of the blankets at my side.
His weight rested on that elbow, but much of him covered me with delightful pressure—pressure that made me feel safe, protected.
His thigh lay across my legs, his cock jutting proudly against my hip, and that beautiful, marked chest pressed against mine.
The glow of his blue eyes pierced me, his expression fierce.
“Sune mate for life, and you are my mate, Irena. I knew it the moment you walked into the brig to feed me. Fate chose you for me, but I’m choosing to keep you.
You’ll see, I’ll gladly spend all my life making you see how right you are for me.
” What he said came so close to a declaration of love that it should have scared me.
It didn’t. The rules were different out here, and it was so comforting to know that I was no longer alone. That Flack was all in, and all mine.
He did not require an answer, so I let him sweep me away with the passion.
His kisses were worship indeed as he touched my face.
When his hands began exploring, it was like fire igniting in my veins.
I was so sensitive, so unused to being touched, that each brush fanned the flames, awakening a hunger, a deep arousal unlike any I’d ever felt before.
His mouth lowered from my cheek to my throat, and I arched as pleasure sharpened.
A hint of uncertainty was quickly swept away when he groaned, followed by more pleasure.
He nibbled at my collarbone, then traced the edge of my dress with his tongue before it closed around a nipple straight through the fabric.
He sucked; I saw stars and nearly shattered from that one single touch.
As he lifted his head, I clung to his silky hair, refusing to let him go far.
“Do that again!” I shocked myself by demanding, and in answer, his grin was so wicked it made my bare toes curl.