Page 24 of A Darkside Interlude

I know. Iskar didn’t reveal that he’d faced a very similar temptation last night. By the Goddess, he’d been so fucking close to claiming her. The human had no idea.

Instead, he glared at Borak. “According to the report, the female you took advantage of is already mated.”

“I know, Sir. She told me the same thing. Her so-called mate was on the other side of the club, getting it on with two human females. She wanted to give him a taste of his own fuckery. I simply obliged.”

“Your helping out led to a mass brawl, costing the establishment thousands of credits in damage. I specifically warned you not to cause any trouble in the human city. Do you know how much of a fucking shitstorm I have to deal with now?”

“Sir, with all due with respect, I don’t understand why we have to appease these humans.”

Iskar’s temples throbbed. A stabbing pain crept behind his eyes. He sighed as he leaned back into his chair, steepling his fingers. “There is a lot you don’t understand, soldier, and I am not going to waste my precious time trying to explain Universal politics to you. If I tell you to behave, then you fucking obey.”

Borak’s reasoning so was typically Kordolian. Why not just subjugate Earth and be done with it? Why did they have to abide by Earth’s laws? Iskar had asked himself the same questions over and over. Humans were a weak, technologically primitive species. With the General’s blessing, he could have conquered their planet with a fraction of the Kordolian fleet.

But ruling the Universe wasn’t so simple. There was always a catch.

“Absolute power always comes at a price, Commander. I am tired of being seen as the universal face of oppression. I am weary of guarding against hate-filled assassins. Isn’t it better to put on a civilized veneer and rule from the shadows?” When Akkadian asked him that question, everything had fallen into place. All of a sudden, he’d caught a glimpse of the General’s vision of the future.

It was a good plan, one that granted Iskar and his men freedom from a lifetime of servitude, but it required a different approach. They couldn’t just play by the brutal old Imperial rules.

A little subtlety was in order.

“Discipline is the one trait I expect in my men, Gunner. If you can’t show me discipline, then get out.”

A sliver of apprehension crept into Borak’s eyes. “S-sir?”

“We’re a private corporation now. You’re on the General’s payroll, just like everybody else. If you don’t toe the line, I will cut you loose. Do you want to leave the Darkstar Corporation, Gunner Borak Amantul?”

“No.” Borak’s apprehension turned into full-blown panic. For a soldier who had been conditioned to embrace a life of service in the military—who knew nothing else but war and fighting and the strict military code—there was nothing worse than the possibility of a forced discharge. “I do not.”

Iskar gave a sharp nod. “I am still deciding on your punishment. For now, you are confined to base. You will report to the bio-dome in the Green Quadrant. I believe General Akkadian’s mate requires volunteers for agri-work.”

Borak nodded slowly, appearing unconvinced. For a Kordolian warrior, the thought of having to carry out mundane physical tasks was akin to torture, but he would know better than to protest.

“I don’t need to remind you of how you should conduct yourself in such a situation, do I, Borak?”

“Sir, I’m not a fool, Sir.”

“I am still waiting to be convinced of that,” Iskar said dryly. Pain lanced the backs of his eyeballs, and a strange kind of tension worked its way into his chest. Despite the near-freezing temperature in his office—he’d set it that way to replicate conditions on Kythia—he felt hot and restless. “A quick word of warning: the General is in today, and he tends to check in on his wife when she is working. Don’t fuck anything up.”

Borak looked suitably nervous as he nodded.

Good. It was good to keep the young ones on their toes. Predictability bred boredom, which bred insubordination.

“Dismissed,” Iskar snapped. Borak gave a fist-on-chest salute and disappeared, leaving Iskar alone with his migraine and that strange, persistent yearning to do violence, and thoughts of…

Her.

The human.

He hadn’t even asked her name. She existed in his mind as a bronze-skinned, blue-haired temptress, and he just couldn’t shake the memory of those luscious red-tinted lips.

He couldn’t forget her sweet, Earthy scent.

He couldn’t forget the sensation of her perfectly rounded curves as they molded against his body, teasing his already straining cock.

“Fucking hypocrite,” Iskar muttered under his breath. Of course, he was referring to himself. Here he was, trying to discipline some young whelp for failing to keep his dick in his pants, and all he could think about was a certain human female who aroused his senses like no other.

His headache was getting worse, and the desire to fight thrummed in his black veins, threatening to tear away his rigid self-control. Even the sensitive stumps of his severed horns throbbed with dull pain. He yearned for the gentle touch of a female’s deft fingers across those deeply erogenous zones.

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