Home > Lacey's Warriors (Bondmates #6)(6)

Lacey's Warriors (Bondmates #6)(6)
Author: Ann Mayburn

Chel’s voice was thick with warmth and lust as he murmured, “I remember dancing with you. Having you smile up at me as we held you in our arms. I remember your smell, your taste. I remember the way you came apart in our arms as we gave you pleasure, how you scored your nails up my back. You left a mark.”

“My mark?”

He stood and Gwarnon helped him remove his shirt, revealing a lean and toned body that was absolutely perfect. She had a brief glimpse of his brown nipples and smooth chest before he turned, revealing a back that had long scars going down it from his shoulder to his waist. Scars that did, indeed, look like scratch marks.

The kind made when a woman is pinned beneath a man’s delicious weight, taking everything he has to give and demanding more in the most primal way possible.

For a moment, she had a strange feeling of déjà vu that made her head spin. Memories or fantasies teased the edges of her mind involving her engaged in a threesome with two very well-hung men. One of them had smelled like fresh, clean herbs.

Surely, it couldn’t be…

“I don’t understand.” She ran her fingers through her hair, scrunching it tight until it pulled lightly at her scalp, denying what she was thinking. “You’re saying I left those scratch marks on your back?”

“Yes,” Chel responded with a proud smile. His green and glittering golden-flecked brown eyes stared deep into her. “You have no idea how happy I was when I saw them. To have the actions of a true dream manifest in the physical world is the sign of a strong bond blessed by the Lord of Life.”

Gwarnon started to speak, but she held up her hand. “Just…just give me a minute, this is a lot to process.”

“I am afraid we do not have a lot of time, my bride,” Gwarnon said in his cool, even voice. “We must initiate your transformation, so you may receive your crystal implant and survive the Baladium.”

“No,” she said right away. Memories of the scalding pain from the previous implant remained fresh. “No crystal implants.”

“I understand your apprehension,” Chel said in a soothing tone as he knelt before her, still big enough that their heads were level as she sat. “But I promise you that the implant we will be using was designed for an Earth bride. It will not harm you like the slaver’s implant.”

“No,” she repeated, more firmly this time. “No implants.”

“But you have to have it.” Gwarnon’s fair brows lowered as he glared at her. “Without the implant, you have no hope of surviving the Baladium.”

She stood and yelled, “No implants!” a little taken aback by how tall the men were as they towered over her.

The thought of having another one of those devices in her head, invading her innermost thoughts, torturing her with pain, was too much.

“I don’t want anyone invading my mind. Can’t you understand that?”

“I will not let you die out of ignorance!” Gwarnon shouted back.

“I’ll cut your throat before I let you put anything in my head!”

“Malla malla malla, easy, my bride, my blood brother,” Chel crooned in his velvety soft voice. “Lacey—do I have permission to call you familiar?”

She was too busy glaring at Gwarnon, who looked about ready to choke her, to look at Chel, but she responded, “Sure, yeah, whatever.”

“Lacey, we truly do not mean you any harm. I know this is hard for you to understand, but we have nothing but your best interest in mind. You are our Matriach, the future mother of our children—we would never bring you harm, but you must have a crystal implant if you are going to survive the Baladium. Without it, you are as good as dead. I do not say this to frighten you, but to give you the truth of the matter.”

Gwarnon, his face strangely blank of emotion, said in a controlled, low voice, “There are over a billion species and races in the Bel’Tan Galaxy. And you will, without a doubt, be facing the deadliest of them all. You must have the knowledge you will need to fight them. We are begging you, please accept the implant.”

The reality of the situation came crashing down and her, and her throat grew tight as she had to face a bitter choice. Either she accepted the implant and the knowledge it would give her, or both she and Roxy were as good as dead. She searched Chel’s face, his desperation easy to read in his stance and gaze, then Gwarnon’s cold visage. He was almost as still as a statue, not an eyelash flicker or tense muscle betraying his feelings. It was almost creepy how cold he could become, but as she searched his flat gaze, she could see his fear, hidden deep-deep down inside his soul.

“Okay,” she whispered, hating that her voice broke with the tears she was barely managing to keep at bay. “Do what you need to do.”

“Alyah,” Chel said, drawing her attention from Gwarnon’s captivating gaze, “will you permit me to kiss you?”

His question totally threw her for a loop, and she stared dumbly at him for a moment. “Did you just say you want to kiss me?”

Chel’s gentle smile held a hint of laughter as he said, “Yes. Your transformation starts when we share a kiss. I bite my tongue, and a small amount of my blood is shared in our kiss. This starts a reaction within your body that transforms you from a human into a Matriarch and binds you to us forever. You will come to Kadothia, our home planet, with us and be our beloved wife, where we will rule our Territory together in honor and peace.”

Taking a couple steps back, she gaped at them. Her heart pounded as bits and pieces of history the faulty implant had tried to teach her rose up from her memory. The Kadothian males took their brides from other planets because their DNA was screwed up somehow from an ancient war. As she strained to remember, she recalled that once the brides left their home worlds, there were never allowed to return. Something about Matriarchs only being safe on Kadothia, and needing to be protected because of the bonds they held with their Warriors. None of it made any sense to her, but if Chel and Gwarnon thought she was their bride, they’d take her to Kadothia and never allow her to return to Earth for her daughter.

“What is wrong?” Chel asked. The smile fell from his face, the joy leaving him like a light diming from within. “You are terrified.”

“I won’t bond with you!” she growled, the hair on her arms standing up as adrenaline flooded her system. “Never! After this fucking bullshit is over, I’m going home to Earth and forgetting I ever even heard of the Bel’Tan Galaxy.”

Gwarnon’s jaw flexed as he said, “I am afraid that is impossible. You know too much to be allowed to return to your people. Even if you refuse our bond, you will be forced to stay in the Bel’Tan Galaxy. You are not entirely human anymore. The slavers changed your form to make you capable of surviving in the Bel’Tan Galaxy. The humans would know at once that you are different from them. The first time you go to a doctor, it could start a panic and give your civilization information that it is not ready for. You cannot go back to Earth.”

Fury filled her, and she almost gave into the temptation to put her fist in his face. “I am going back. No one—not you, not anyone—can stop me!”

Gwarnon took a step closer, and she silently snarled at him as he leaned down a bit to look her in the eye. “Do you know how to get through the wormhole? How to fly a ship? How to navigate through time and space?”

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