Chapter 3
Vesh
Priya slept the entire way to Velerion. I should have secured her in the medical restraints.
Every recruit was placed there for the first Gate crossing.
The shift between spatial corridors could cause nausea, disorientation, convulsions, and occasionally violent attempts to escape a ship that was no longer traveling through normal space.
Holding her was medically irresponsible.
I did it anyway. She fit against my chest too well.
One arm beneath her knees. The other around her back.
Her head rested on my shoulder, and every breath moved warm air across the side of my neck.
I told myself I was monitoring her response to the integrations.
Lie.
I told myself she would be safer if I kept her airway clear. Another lie. The truth was much simpler. Putting her down felt wrong. That was not a tactical assessment. I had no intention of examining it further.
The Wraith flew the return route without assistance. I sat in the small transit bay with Priya in my arms and studied the female the Starfighter program had assigned to me.
Her dark hair had escaped whatever arrangement held it during work. Several strands lay across her cheek. I wanted to move them. I wanted to feel their texture between my fingers and discover whether they were as soft as they looked. I kept my hands where they were. Barely.
She wore clothing from her job. Dark trousers.
A pale blue shirt buttoned nearly to her throat.
The material was loose enough to be respectable and fitted enough to make respect difficult.
Her breasts pressed against my armor with every breath.
My cock had been hard since I carried her onto the ship.
Uncomfortable. Inconvenient. Entirely her fault. Priya shifted and tucked her face closer to my neck. I stopped breathing.
“You had better be asleep,” I warned her.
She did not answer. Good. The Gate alarm sounded. I tightened my hold as the Wraith entered the transition corridor. Space folded. The ship vibrated around us. Priya made a small sound and clutched the front of my armor. Her fingers held on even after the crossing ended. I looked down at her hand.
Something primitive inside me rose up like an ancient beast. Insisted Priya was mine.
Mine in every way. Mine to keep. To protect.
To touch. To claim. I ignored it. The mark on the back of my neck pulsed as if taunting me with the undeniable truth that we were already bound.
She was my mate, whether she wanted to be or not. Equally unhelpful.
What sane female would want to be mine?
Priya opened her eyes as we cleared the Gate into the Vega System. She woke instantly. No slow confusion. Her gaze moved over my face, my arm around her, the transit bay, and the planet filling the viewport.
“Huh.”
I waited.
“That’s a planet.”
“Yes.”
“A real alien planet.”
“Velerion.”
“Your planet?”
“Mine.” The word came out more possessive than intended. “And now yours, if you choose to remain.”
She looked at me. “You aren't speaking English anymore. Why can I understand you?”
“The cipher injection. I am speaking Velerion standard. Your brain is translating the language into English.”
Her eyes widened. “Any language?”
“Any language entered into the Galactic Alliance database.”
“I spent four years struggling through high-school and college French, and aliens fixed the problem by stabbing me in the neck.”
“It was not a stabbing.”
“It felt like one.”
“The discomfort has passed.”
“Thank you, Doctor Vesh.”
I was beginning to recognize that tone. Sarcasm. Priya used it frequently. She shifted in my arms. “Are you going to put me down?” No.
“Yes.”
I lowered her feet to the deck and released her. Slowly. Her body slid along mine, soft breasts brushing my chest, hips passing too close to my cock. Her breath caught. So did mine. The mark on my neck flared hot.
Priya stepped back and raised one hand to the base of her skull. “There. That’s what I felt in the tower.” She turned, pulling her hair aside. A black swirl marked the smooth brown skin at her nape. Identical to mine. I wanted to put my mouth on it.
Fuck.
“What is it?” she asked.
“The designation of a bonded Starfighter pair.”
“Bonded how?”
“We fly together.”
“That's it? We fly together?”
Of course it wasn’t. “Scout pairs operate beyond normal communications. The nanotech creates a connection between us. We can sense each other’s location and physical condition over great distances.”
“Like a tracking device?”
“More precise.”
“And permanent?”
“Yes.”
She studied my face. “The game called it a bonding ceremony. You called me your bondmate. The Internet called the missing women’s partners their alien mates.”
I said nothing.
“Am I your mate, Vesh?”
There was no safe answer. “You are my assigned partner in the field.”
Priya stared at me for three full seconds. “That was an impressive non-answer.”
“It was accurate.”
“It was bullshit.”
The translation implant delivered the meaning with perfect clarity. I almost smiled. She saw it.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
Priya turned away before I could further damage the situation. She went to the viewport and pressed both hands to the transparent alloy.
Velerion filled the view. Blue oceans. Green continents. Great white weather systems moved over the surface. Moon Base Arturri appeared against the darkness beyond it, thousands of lights spread across the rock. She forgot our argument.
“Wow.”
That reaction I understood. I stood behind her, close enough to watch her face reflected in the glass.
She was not merely admiring the planet. Her gaze tracked the orbital lanes, the transport ships moving between Velerion and Arturri, the defense platforms guarding the Gate. Always working. Always mapping.
“Most recruits cry when they see Velerion,” I said.
“Give me a minute. I haven’t ruled it out.”
“Some are also ill.”
She glanced at me over her shoulder. “Are you trying to make me throw up?”
“No.”
“Then stop suggesting it.”
I closed my mouth. The silence lasted three seconds.
“How far did we travel?” she asked.
“Approximately twenty-five light-years.”
Priya looked back at the Gate. “In less than an hour.”
“The Gate does not cross the distance. It connects two fixed points by temporarily folding the space between them.”
“That explanation did not help.”
“I am a scout, not a physicist.”
“Good to know aliens specialize.”
“We do.”
She looked around the transit bay. “Where is the ship you parked at the control tower?”
“This is the ship.”
“This entire thing was sitting in our parking lot?”
“The Wraith is a stealth craft.”
“A fact airport police are going to love when they can’t find it.”
“Your security officers will recover. The building systems will resume normal operation. No usable recording of the Wraith, or of my presence, remains in their security feeds.”
“You erased the cameras?”
“Yes.”
“But not before my coworkers saw you.”
“They will not be able to prove what they saw.”
Priya rubbed her forehead. “Alvarez is never going to let me forget I picked you over tacos.”
“You have mentioned this food twice.”
“It’s not important.”
“The male believed it was.”
“The male enjoys irritating me.”
I understood the impulse. She studied the copilot station visible through the open hatch. “You knew who I was before you came to Earth.”
“Yes.”
“How much did you know?”
“Your occupation. Your training scores. Your mission history.”
“Did you watch me play?”
I could have lied. She would have known. “Yes. But not often.”
“How many missions?”
“I reviewed all of them.”
Priya’s lips parted. Her cheeks darkened slightly. “All?”
“After the system confirmed our match.”
“So every time I talked to fake you—”
“I received a recording.”
“Every time Gina and Alisha discussed your ass?”
“Yes.”
Her face grew hotter.
“And the time I said I wanted to bite it?”
My cock jerked.
“Repeatedly.”
Priya covered her face with both hands. “Please throw me back through the Gate.”
“No.”
“I was joking.”
“I was not.”
She lowered her hands and looked at me. The bond heated between us. The desire in her eyes was unmistakable now. She knew I had heard every reckless, sexual thought she had shared with her friends. She also knew I had crossed the galaxy to claim her anyway. I stepped closer before I stopped myself.
Priya noticed.
She noticed everything.
The Wraith entered Arturri’s approach lane. Priya watched every ship we passed, her fingers twitching as if she wanted controls beneath them. I had reviewed her training records. I had known she was a natural scout. Seeing the hunger on her face was different.
I wanted to put her in the pilot’s seat immediately. I wanted to watch her fly a real ship through a real corridor and prove the simulations had not lied.
I also wanted to take her to our quarters, remove every piece of her strange Earth clothing, and learn what sounds she made when she was not being calm. Both objectives felt equally urgent. Only one was appropriate. For now.
General Aryk waited in the docking bay when we landed.
Cold vapor rolled from the Wraith’s hull.
Maintenance crews moved around us, calling status reports and connecting power lines.
Priya stepped onto Arturri wearing her work clothes, low black shoes, and an expression that warned everyone not to underestimate her.
Several warriors stared, despite my scowl warning them away.
I moved closer to her side. Priya noticed. “Are you guarding me?”
“No.”
“And you said you wouldn't lie to me.”
She had known me less than a day and was already becoming difficult. I liked it.
General Aryk inclined his head. “Starfighter Anand. Welcome to Velerion.”
“You’re the voice from the game,” she said.
“One of them.”
“You told me you’d been waiting for me.”
“We have.”
Priya looked at me. “People keep saying that. No pressure.”
The general’s mouth twitched. “A great deal of pressure, actually. I prefer honesty.”
“I've heard that before. So, General, what does this mark on my neck really mean?”