Page 25 of The Hive

When he was done, standing over me wheezing, with his hands braced on his pudgy knees like he had run a marathon, he finally said, “Don’t tamper with your monitoring devices, Drone. I’d hate to have to jettison you.” He tapped his baton against the wall, pointing it at the clear, domed canopy. “Don’t make me come back up here.”

He jerked the shirt draped over the camera down and threw it at me. “Clean yourself up. You’re a mess,” he said, and walked out the door.

Blood dripped into my eyes. My nose felt broken from the boot I took to the face. I would definitely be bruised, but my alpha nature would hurry along the healing process. If I was subject to a beating every time I held Saphyra warm and safe against my chest and listened to her sweet words as her breath warmed my skin, it would be worth it.

The friendship we had formed in childhood ran deep, but now that we were adults, the hooks were sinking in and drawing me toward her. Nothing would keep me from having her. Stars only knew what made me feel so strongly. Maybe we’d imprinted when we were children, but I would raze planets for her. Anything she asked, I would gladly do. The alpha inside me roared at the thought. Her claws were already anchored in my soul, and I had no interest in getting away.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Valyx

The knowing look in Ax’s eyes as we made our way back to the cabin told me he noticed my reaction to Saphyra’s change of attitude. He knew me well enough to know when I had prey in my sights. After the way he’d kissed her the other day, I did wonder why he was smiling. Maybe he didn’t like her as much as it seemed. Maybe she was just another of his fuck-toys in a long line of beautiful, willing partners. Or, maybe he suspected what I knew since the first time her sun-soaked honey scent reached my nose. My fucking mate.

The Stars could go fuck themselves, though. I didn’t care who they decided I should be with. I didn’t listen to divine superstitious bullshit. The Stars cared as much about me and who I fucked as I did about them, which was not at all. I wasn’t doing this for them.

I wanted a fighter, someone who knew how to stand for what they believed in and would fight anyone and anything that stood in their way. Like Lex. Fuck, I missed that stupid, smug bastard.

I needed to talk to Saphyra alone. So, I directed Ax toward the bathroom with a shove. He understood my meaning and gave me a cocky grin and winked at Saphyra before disappearing into the other room.

While Ax’s winking had distracted her, I approached, but when I got close, I was hit with a wave of pheromones that were not hers. I would know that scent anywhere. A growl threatened to break loose, but I swallowed it back. What had that stupid girl done?

In my fury, I advanced, and she retreated, backing away to escape my anger. Her nervous eyes locked on to me as she fell into the nest in her haste. “Valyx, what’s wrong?”

“I can smell him on you.” I growled. My knee landed inside the blankets beside her hip and I edged forward, forcing her to lie back.

The soft skin at her throat throbbed with her racing pulse, tempting me to bite into that vulnerable flesh and claim her as my own.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Her words wavered with the lies they spilled and she shifted nervously, as if unsure whether to stop my advance or encourage me.

She probably thought we wouldn’t notice what she had done, but I noticed. I always noticed her.

Her hands were in my grip and secured above her head before she knew what I was doing. My rough fingers engulfed both of her slender wrists, easily pinning her as she squirmed. “Don’t lie to me, little omega. You jeopardized this mission. I can smell the slick coating your thighs and his scent on your lips. What if you’d been seen? You could have ruined everything we’ve been working for.”

The perfume called to me, scattering rational thought, and the closer I got, the more addicted I became. I leaned in, drawing in deep lungfuls of their combined pheromones. The forest in summer and warm honey.

With my face buried against the delicate column of her throat, I whispered dark promises into her ear. “Ax may tease you and make you smile. Lex may worship you like the royalty you are. But I have no interest in any of that. I will make you cry and scream until all you think about is me, until my scent is branded into your skin and you can never get clean. And if you endanger us, I have no problem leaving you here, no matter what the others want.”

I sat up to look at her. The faintest gold ring circled pools of blackness, as her eyes dilated, but she met my gaze without any fear. Even with my threats, she wouldn’t back down. There she was, my queen, the one I wanted to serve. But she needed to know that, here and now, I was in control. My free hand settled around her throat, reminding her that she was at my mercy. She’d put my team, and herself, at risk. And that could not go unpunished.

“Think very carefully about playing these games, little omega. You walk the razor’s edge of my patience, and I would be perfectly happy tipping you over the precipice into pleasure and pain. I’m not like my brothers. I’ll hurt you with no remorse, and you’ll crawl back, begging for more.”

My thigh pressed between her legs. Her generous slick seeped through her panties and onto my pants as she rocked against the weight. Her lips parted around a gasping breath and begged to be kissed. I wasn’t nice or gentle when I sucked her lower lip between my teeth and licked the taste of Lex’s skin from her waiting mouth. This was madness. The combination of the quivering queen and the man I loved was like the best drug ever made. My kiss was rough, giving no quarter as I delved into the hot sweetness that was solely her.

Her whimpers drove me on. I needed to see her come apart under me. To break her and put her together again. After tasting her mouth, I wanted nothing more than to feast on her slick pussy after Lex pumped her full of cum. My kiss turned brutal as I fantasized about pushing her over the edge and watching her shatter. And then soothing that hurt and putting all the pieces back in place.

The quivering of her tiny form as she rubbed her needy clit over my leg was a warning, and I almost didn’t listen. I almost pushed her too far, just like I had threatened, but the sound of the bathroom door unlatching stopped me cold. I pulled away abruptly, looking down at her halo of golden hair, flushed cheeks, and blown pupils. She was more beautiful than our twin suns.

I didn’t care if those cold distant Stars had chosen her for me. Fuck them. I chose her for myself.

But I couldn’t let this happen. I had to protect her and my brothers above all else. My lack of control disgusted me.

“Go wash yourself off,” I snapped at her. I could see the hurt in her eyes. She thought I was disgusted at her, and for now, I would let her think that. It would be safer for the both of us if she kept believing I hated her.

She scrambled out from under me, brushing past Axion, who studied the scene in nothing but a fucking towel barely clinging to his hips and judgment in his eerie, pale eyes.

As her heat drew closer, and her perfume filled my lungs, my instincts reacted. That was the only explanation for what I’d done. I saw a fire in her eyes and a drive and determination I had never seen before, but when I’d smelled Lex all over her skin and the honey-sweet scent of her slick, all rational thought fled.

The faint taste of him on her lips was maddening. As much as I wanted to send her over the edge into her heat, I knew I had to wait. Her sweet, succulent sighs and trembling body were just as likely to push me into rut. We all walked a razor’s edge, and it would only get worse the further we got into the plan.

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