“Yes!” She nearly laughed through her own panting.
It worked,Breccon wanted to shout, it worked!He’d travelled across space, through countless dangers, and gotten himself captured all to speak to a human, and now, he was. And not just any human. They sent their most beautiful, tender, honorable queen. He yearned for a taste of her body again, to feel her knife upon him with such pride, but he trained his eyes upon her luminous face, disciplining his gaze from travelling down the soft planes of her figure. She only bonded with him for his language; it would be a betrayal of her gift to ogle her like some kind of suggestive holocard. No matter how much he wanted her. No matter how difficult an instinct it was to fight.
“Katharine...” he paused, then corrected his informality with a reverent smile. “Queen Katharine of Earth. I thank you for this gift.”
The woman bowed her head as she removed herself from his metal bed. Curtains of long, brown hair shielded her face from his view, but it did not keep him from hearing her denial.
“I’m not a queen,” she said, reaching for the sheer fabric of her slip that only moments ago slid down the beautiful curves of her legs.
“Not a queen?” Breccon asked, furrowing his brow.
She carried herself like a queen. An armed escort guarded her like a queen. She commanded that small army with the force of a ruler. She touched him with the gentle mercy of a monarch. Rode him with the confidence of an Empress. Even now, in her rush to clothe herself—a small gift to Breccon, who found it almost impossible to keep himself from drinking in her every kissable curve—she carried the spirit of dignity in her very bones.
“I’m a scientist. My people have asked me to...” She grimaced at her choice of words, “...make contact with you. We need answers.”
Scientist.He understood the word, but not the sudden shame she exhibited at speaking it.
“If you are a scientist, then you are invaluable.”
Not just invaluable. Better than a queen.
“Why are you here?” she asked, her face suddenly tightening into a mask of professional detachment. Breccon wanted to follow her lead. After all, every second he spent here, his people’s chances of suffering would only increase. He needed to maintain his honor. But... She looked so beautiful, and the pair bond grew tighter between them by the second. He longed to hold her. Longed to press her against him. To lose himself in the place between her legs. If she moaned with such reckless abandon when she was in control, what beautiful music could he conduct out of her pleasure?
“I have come to collect a human and bring them back to my planet,” he said, fighting his own instincts to burst through his chains and cradle her in his arms. She stiffened. Fear flickered between them, fear that Breccon wasn’t quite sure he understood.
“I’m afraid humans don’t like to be collected.”
Realization dawned.
“No, no. My people...” He struggled. With this scientist, he wanted to appear every inch the strong, bold warrior about whom his people sang songs. He wanted her to see in him the master of protection and fierce leader that he was. And yet, he couldn’t help the rush of vulnerability that gripped him by the back of his neck whenever he thought about The Illness. “A sickness has taken over my planet. We are in desperate need of human medicine.”
“You came here in a spaceship. We can’t even get a rocket into orbit,” she scoffed, crossing her arms over her now-clothed chest. He desperately missed her bare breasts. “What could humans possibly do?”
How could he make her understand?
“We are just a race of warriors,” he explained, his chest tightening at the memories of his home and his people. “Anything we build, anything we discover, must serve the war machine. Our medicine is only good for healing wounds. I have come to collect a human who will help rescue us from extinction. We have such little time left, Katharine of Earth. This is our most desperate hour.”
Please understand,he internally begged.You could be my people’s last hope for survival.Breccon held his breath as the weight of his world teetered on Katharine’s unbowed shoulders. Then, she nodded.
“We will help you. I will help you.”
“Do you swear it?”
She pressed her hand to the Warrior’s Mark over his heart. She couldn’t have known what the gesture meant; on Rune-Yon, it was the kind of gesture that one gave when the consequence of failing a promise meant death.
“I swear it.”
The familiar sound of grinding medal alerted Breccon to the opening of his prison door, a sure sign that someone was coming to take Katharine away. His heart pounded against his chest.Don’t go.
“Time’s up, Miss Parker.”
“Do not leave me. We have much to discuss—”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she swore. Her fingers ran along the chains that kept him bound, “And I’ll get rid of these.”
“Goodbye, Science Queen Katharine.”
“I’m not a queen,” she corrected.