Home > The First Starfighter(9)

The First Starfighter(9)
Author: Grace Goodwin

Satisfaction coursed through me. “You accept the bond between us? Agree to be my bonded mated?”

She looked at me now differently, her gaze dropping to my lips. I saw her heated look. “Paired with you? Fight with you? Yes.”

I didn’t need anything more than that. With the crest still in my palm, I reached around and cupped the back of her neck, lowered my head, and kissed her.

She gasped and I took advantage, my tongue gaining entrance to her mouth, finding hers. Then she moaned, melted into my hold. It was then I pressed the crest against her skin. The sharp prick of the device would fill her body with a sedative and other nutrients designed to make her trip to Velerion less stressful. Velerions had been jumping through space-time for eons. Humans were smaller, not adapted to such travel.

She slumped into my arms, unconscious, and I held her for long minutes as the nutrients and nanoparticles made their way into her body. I needed to be sure both the medical treatment and the cipher implant had time to take full effect.

But that was a lie.

I watched the dark trail of the Starfighter emblem take shape as the microscopic nanites moved and spread beneath her skin at the back of her neck. Like a human’s tattoo, the swirl marking would be forever embedded beneath her flesh. We were truly bonded now, in life and in battle. The symbol on our necks, on every Elite Starfighter’s neck, was a mark of honor and rank. Everywhere Jamie went, people would offer her respect and awe.

And they would know she was bonded. Paired.

Mine.

I had no regrets.

I wanted this human. My bonded mate. But that was for later. If I thought too much of our future pleasure, I would never get my Jamie off this tiny, primitive planet.

I stood carefully, Jamie in my arms. I would settle her first before making an additional trip to gather some of her things. With a gentleness I’d never felt before, I carried her from her apartment and to her new life with me on Velerion.

 

 

4

 

 

Jamie, Moon Base Arturri, Vega System

 

* * *

 

Foggy didn’t begin to describe the pounding confusion inside my mind as I struggled to wake up. Warm sheets and a soft pillow threatened to pull me back under, but I had that weird feeling that I’d been out for too long already. Like when I used to wake up three hours late for work because the cold medicine I took the night before made me sleep through my alarm.

It wasn’t just the cozy bedding that had me snuggling deeper. It was the hard body against my back and thighs, the solid arm slung over my waist. The big hand cupping my breast. The thick length prodding my spine.

A man. A big, strong, warm, cuddly…

Every muscle in my body went tight as a bowstring. Panic. That’s what made my heart pound and the fog begin to clear. I forced my eyes open and blinked several times before I dared move.

Once I found the courage, I tried to turn, but the arm around me held me close. “Shh.”

I knew that deep, growly sound.

Instead of pulling away, I turned my head.

And there he was.

It hadn’t been a dream or a hallucination, but I was clearly out of my mind. This couldn’t be real. Could it?

“Alex?” My throat was dry.

“Yes.”

I was in bed with Alex, the Starfighter hottie from my video game. And he was feeling me up. My nipple was hard, and I arched my back so my breast filled his palm. Now I could feel his hard cock even more. Thick, long and… there, although he wasn’t doing anything about it. He was being possessive in his touch, not aggressive. He didn’t try to hide his interest in me, deny it, or even apologize for it.

“Do not try to rise.” His green eyes shifted between mine, then roved over my face. He lifted his hand, ran a knuckle down my cheek. Goose bumps rose at the light touch.

Yeah, he was real. Very three-dimensional and gorgeous. I definitely wasn’t looking at him through a TV. Then his hand slipped away and settled on my hip. “Give yourself time to adjust to the cipher implant.”

His black hair looked tousled from sleep. He studied me as if he didn’t have anywhere else to look. I got lost in him for a second, but his words sank in.

“What?”

An implant? Where had I been implanted, exactly? I shot upright in bed, and the room spun so badly I fell over.

Right back into Alex’s arms. I’d known for months what he looked like, what he sounded like. I even knew he was big and strong. But his scent? He smelled like sex and hot man. Nothing… Earth-like. No pine forests or leather. He smelled… amazing, except I was about to hurl whatever was in my stomach onto his warm, sexy chest.

Very slowly he shifted, leaned against the bed’s headboard, keeping me close. The contact helped me remain calm when I was definitely starting to freak out.

I had no idea why I thought this, but I was disappointed he wasn’t naked. The guy I’d dreamed about for months and he was in my bed wearing an all too familiar uniform. That of a Starfighter.

I was snuggled up with the hot alien Starfighter… and I had on my not-sexy pajamas. I groaned in embarrassment, and he took it for discomfort.

“Please, do not move too quickly.” His big hand slid up and down my back, which was a tad distracting. So was being in his arms. So was… he. It was as if he couldn’t stop touching me, and I didn’t want him to stop. He was the only familiar thing at the moment. My anchor, which was insane in and of itself.

While he held me, I looked around the plain room. A chair was in the corner. Nothing else besides the bed we were in. On the wall was the Starfighter emblem. Large, metallic, it matched the one on his uniform. On the video game and all the packaging. The marketing. Everything. It was like a soda company’s logo. Familiar. Recognizable. And instantly I knew what it meant.

“Where are we?” I asked, tipping my head to look up at him.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked, arching a dark brow as his gaze roved over my face.

I blinked, thought hard. “You showed up at my apartment. Told me some crazy stuff about Velerion and Starfighters.”

“Do you remember agreeing to come with me to Velerion?”

“Yes?” Kind of. It was a bit hazy, but I did remember.

“Well, bondmate, we are now on Arturri, the third moon of Velerion. We are in our personal quarters in the new Starfighter base.”

Um… huh? Wait…

“Really? We’re not on Earth?”

“No.”

I looked around, trying to believe that what I’d heard in the video game was actually real and that I was on a moon orbiting another planet. In another solar system. My gaze came to rest on luggage that looked all too familiar. A black duffel bag I’d used when I’d gone to the Canadian Rockies the summer before and two avocado-green hard-sided suitcases that I’d taken when I’d left my mother’s double-wide for the last time. Even though I knew the answer, I asked, “Are those mine?”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Yes.” He turned to me, and his hand moved to cover mine. His touch was slow and gentle. I felt calluses on his palm, and it eased me knowing he wasn’t perfect. A fake video game guy wouldn't have them. They made him real. And that hand had been cupping my breast.

Cupping. My. Breast.

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