Chapter 28
ALLY
“Father.”
Lyk’s tone was unenthusiastic. Ally squeezed his hand in support, then retook her seat at the table.
If they weren’t leaving, she’d take the opportunity to tuck some of his mother’s delicious fruit in her pockets for later.
Now if she could only find a surreptitious way of doing so without the queen catching wind.
The older man entered slowly, his oversized gray robes doing little to disguise the muscular body that lay beneath. Are all Vartik males physical perfection? No wonder they want to keep this place hidden. Otherwise, they’d be overrun with lusty females.
“When your brother Marek informed me that you were returning to Vartik, my first instinct was to order him to bar your entry.”
The man’s tone was cold, but his eyes radiated heat. Ally turned her gaze to Lyk, who was standing like a statue, his face expressionless. Her heart went out to him then. Confronting a parent who disapproved was extremely difficult.
So is confronting a parent you disapprove of, she realized. Not that she’d have a chance. But in that moment, Ally considered what she would say to her father if given the opportunity to speak to him again.
You preferred your decadent lifestyle to caring about your daughters’ futures. You signed a paper saying that if you defaulted on your payments, Evie and I would be placed in indentured servitude. Your selfishness knows no bounds.
Ally realized that she’d been selfish, too. Before she’d known better, she was like her father, living for the moment, not caring how much things costs or where the money came from. It had always been there, and it would always be there.
Until it wasn’t.
And even after they’d been forced to flee the Rings, she’d continued being selfish.
She’d let her sister think they’d return to a happy life on the Rings, just so she wouldn’t have to deal with her disappointment.
She’d done her best to insult Lyk and use him, first to get where she wanted to go and then to save her sister.
Even now, she cared more about stuffing grapes in her pocket than in supporting her savior. That’s not true, she told herself. I did not fight his battle for him against the cyborg, and I won’t fight his battle with his father either.
Unless he needs me.
His father stepped closer, until he was only a few feet away from his son.
“Before I could suggest it, Marek told me that you would be welcomed back on Vartik and that you would help us fight our holy war against the demons who one day will seek to ravage this planet and everything we hold dear. Even then, I wanted to argue, to tell him that those who fight on the side of good don’t need a terrorist for an ally. ”
Ally saw Lyk flinch imperceptibly at the word “terrorist” and her anger rose. She tried to focus on the fruit, but the more Lyk’s father spoke, the more her ire rose.
“You have no idea the damage you would have done if I’d let you have your way, not to mention the pain you brought on your family.
While your brothers were out risking their lives to keep our existence a secret, to wipe away every trace of our people, you were doing your best to antagonize the very element we were attempting to hide from. ”
Ally could see a vein start to pulse in Lyk’s forehead. His hands slowly balled themselves into fists. He was doing his best to keep his cool, but she wasn’t sure how much more he could take.
She wasn’t sure how much more she could take either. For once, she was glad her parents had chosen to ignore her. If her father had tried to keep her under his thumb like Lyk’s father clearly had, she would have run away ages ago.
“Painting a V in blood,” his father spit out. “I mean, how juvenile can you get? Dangerous and dumb!”
“That’s it!” Ally stood up, slamming her hands down on the table and making all eyes pivot to her. She put herself between Lyk and his father, her finger wagging in the older man’s face. “The only thing that’s dangerous and dumb is your reaction to your son’s trying to help his people.”
The former Vartik king sneered down at her. “Who is this person?”
Lyk’s mother waved her hand casually. “Zuch, meet Allandria. Your son’s mate.”
Ally’s eyes widened at the word “mate,” but before she could contradict the former queen, Zuch scoffed. “A Territhian. It figures. Not one of our sons was ever happy with good clean Vartik stock.”
“Why am I not surprised that you’re a racist as well as an idiot?”
“Ally,” Lyk warned, his hand on her shoulder.
She shoved her finger into Zuch’s chest, her temper getting the best of her.
“Your son went after the criminals who wanted to sell the blood out of your very bodies! He showed them that their actions had consequences. But you,” she accentuated the word with another poke to his chest, “you wanted to hide in fear. Instead of fighting back, you became king of a prison planet. The rest of the seven galaxies went on progressing, but you just kept everyone trapped here, too afraid to confront those who would exploit you.”
Summoning all her scorn and pouring it into her words, Ally scowled at him. “Some have called you supermen, yet for all your powers, you gave up on courage and accepted defeat.”
The oversized male in front of her let out a slow breath. Lyk gently picked Ally up and placed her behind him, putting himself between her and his father. “Father, I—”
“She’s fierce and fearless,” his father interrupted, his mouth shifting into a smile in spite of himself. “You have chosen your mate well.”
Ally’s jaw dropped, and she shook her head.
The former king swept his son up into an embrace. “She did steal my thunder, though. I was building to a big admission, one in which I admitted how wrong I was.”
Ally felt like she’d been hit with a brick.
Lyk’s father strode to the table, picking up a glass of wine and draining it.
“My opinion has shifted since you’ve been gone.
I’ve come to the same conclusion as your female did, although it took me much longer, so she’s correct when she calls me an idiot. ”
Ally watched as Lyk approached the table, his body language indicating that he still hadn’t relaxed. “You considered me a terrorist, a menace to our people and to my own family.”
“Yes. I was wrong. And I’m sorry.”
Lyk fell into a chair, all the air going out of him.
Ally approached, putting her hands on his shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“For so long, I assumed a return to Vartik would result in reopening old wounds and creating new ones.” His face was filled with confused wonder. “Now I found myself welcomed with open arms and even deserving of an apology. It’s a lot to take in.”
“Facing an apocalypse makes a man re-evaluate his life,” Zuch said with a hapless shrug, and for the first time, Ally could see the man he was under all that noble pageantry.
He was mortal, after all, and no longer king.
Maybe he could relax his convictions when he was no longer in charge of doing what was right for hundreds of millions lives.
Ally was relieved that the tension filling the room had resolved, but as her body relaxed, she was hit with a wave of pure exhaustion. Lyk seemed to sense the change in her because he rose quickly and took her hand.
“Mother,” he said, nodding to his mom before turning to the former king. “Father. It was nice to see you again. If you’ll please excuse us, we’ll retire to my quarters for some much-needed rest.”
The former queen smiled and waved farewell to her son, while the king nodded and turned to the plate of fruit his son had left behind. “We’ll talk later,” he called after them, “and strategize our invasion of Dazimin.”
“Invasion of Dazimin,” Ally murmured as Lyk led her out of the apartments and down yet another corridor.
She’d come to Vartik hoping to hear those very words, but they now felt hollow.
Her sister had been taken so many hours ago.
What hope did she have of her still being alive by the time the Vartiks made it to Dazimin?
The hallway started to blur around her and she realized her eyes were full of tears. I’m just tired, she told herself, but it wasn’t very convincing. Hope was starting to fade away, and Ally didn’t know what she would do if this inaction continued much longer.
Lyk led her to a green door, and Ally searched it for a locking pad, but there was none, only an ornate brass handle of some kind.
Instead, the Vartik male pulled out a simple ring he’d had clipped to his belt.
He selected one of the metal shapes on the ring and placed it in the hole recessed within the door’s handle.
When he turned the shape, she heard a lock click.
Then Lyk turned the handle and opened the door.
“What is that?” she asked, pointing to the metal shape. “New technology?”
“Ancient technology actually. It’s called a key.”
Lyk led her into his quarters, which turned out to be a large open area, the only walls being the four exterior ones. One wall was comprised almost entirely of glass, a small wooded area visible outside it.
His room wasn’t as lush as his parents’ apartments, but they were still well appointed, much like his quarters on the cruiser. Again, a large bed dominated, but she didn’t feel like teasing him about that at the moment. It looked much too inviting to resist.
Ally started making her way toward the bed, but Lyk stopped her. “First things first,” he said, quickly unzipping her coveralls.
“Careful,” she bleated. “I’ve got fruit in those pockets!”
After she’d stepped out of it, Lyk cautiously emptied out the pockets, setting the pieces of fruit on a table and shaking his head. Then he started walking to the far wall. The wall resembled gray smoke, made as it was out of some kind of opaque glass.
“What are you doing?” she asked, yawning.
“Something that should have been done a long time ago.” He stopped at a panel built into the wall and hit a few buttons. Suddenly, a fire flashed to life in a recessed fireplace that was invisible in the wall a moment before.
Lyk pressed against a piece of the wall and the glass in front of the fireplace slid open. As Ally watched, he tossed her coveralls into the fire. “Good riddance,” he said, dusting off his hands.
Ally chuckled, her hands on her hips. She was completely naked, since Lyk had ripped her panties off, and she’d given up on the bra because it felt a bit ridiculous to run around without panties but with a bra on.
Lyk walked back to her, his eyes hot, and suddenly, she felt like prey being stalked by a wild predator. Even the way this man walks is sexy.
“I know you’re tired,” he said, drawing closer, his voice dropping into a lower register. “But we need a shower before we sleep.”
“A shower sounds positively decadent.”
His smile was slow and sultry. “It will be, with you.”
Ally spun around the space but couldn’t see a bathroom. “So you have an invisible fireplace. Is your shower invisible too?”
Lyk laughed. “Sort of.” He approached a console that had been built to resemble a tree trunk.
Hitting a few buttons, a small box rose out of the console.
Pulling out the ring again, he put a key in the box and turned it, making the floor start to open in front of them.
A recessed staircase appeared, and Lyk motioned her down it.
Ally looked around her, realizing there was a second level to his quarters hidden underneath his room.
This level was much more sumptuous. In fact, she could almost call it sensual. There was another bed, a corner that featured several bookshelves and overstuffed chairs, and a palatial bathroom area enclosed by glass walls.
Lyk walked past the sunken tub into the largest shower Ally had ever laid eyes on.
He adjusted the water temperature by using a small spigot, then hit a button that revealed a large showerhead situated in the ceiling.
Water fell down like gentle rain. Stepping out again and stripping himself naked, he led her into the warm falling water.
For the first time, Ally was graced with the entirely nude form of Lyk. She stepped back to take him in, every sculpted muscle, every inch of copper skin. He was perfection of the male form, and just looking at him was making her ache.
When he gave her a slow smile, she knew that he’d seen her appreciating his form. Picking up the soap from a small built-in shelf in the corner of the shower, he approached. “Hold still. We need to get you clean so I can get you dirty all over again.”
Ally purred. She honest to gods purred. This man did something to her. He began running the soap over her body, turning her so that her back was to his front, then pulling her back against him. She was happy for the support, grateful to be able to relax back into him and let his body support hers.
His hands all over her, rubbing the soap to a lather, was quickly replacing her exhaustion with electric energy. Her nipples seemed to get a lot of attention, but Ally wasn’t about to complain. He caressed her breasts, squeezing them, before circling her nipples with his thumbs until she moaned.
His hands moved lower, one looping her waist while the other slid lower, lower, until it reached the apex of her thighs. Of their own accord, her legs fell open, inviting him to wander there, and he took full advantage of the opportunity.
His finger slid inside her, making her arch her back. The pressure there felt so good, his large finger stretching her just enough to make her want more. Lyk pressed another finger inside her, and Ally bit her lip, sighing as another wave of pleasure washed over her.
When his thumb found her clit, she knew it wouldn’t be long before she came for him. It lazily circled her clit while he nibbled at her neck. “You’re so fucking sexy,” he whispered against her skin. “So fucking beautiful. Give me all of your pleasure.”
I will, she thought, but she couldn’t speak. Her climax was rushing toward her, and she felt powerless to stop it.
“Come for me, sweetheart,” he murmured, and she did—hard—her entire body shaking against his.
The next thing she remembered, she was lying on a bed of soft furs. Blinking, she looked up at him. “What happened?”
“You passed out from pleasure,” he said, his smile proud.
“Wow,” she whispered. “Can we do it again?”
Lyk groaned, then kissed her, and Ally knew she’d never want another male.