Rebel: Survivors Heart book 2: Planet Athion Read online

  “Well?” I arched a brow, held out my hand, and curled in my fingers. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  “You know what I’ve got.” He smirked.

  For a moment, the tension was disrupted by the unwelcome memory of our time on the sand, of the fight where Anton had lost his life. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “You’re telling me those are your only moves.”

  He attacked like a steamroller, lifting me off my feet and slamming me into the wall. I wrapped my legs around his hips, grabbed his head, and smashed my forehead into his nose. He released me with a grunt and a grin.

  Fuck, he wasn’t even bleeding. The man was made of steel, and now my blood was pumping harder. We lunged at each other and met in the center of the room, but this wasn’t fighting. This was grappling. This was an excuse for body contact. This was up-against-the-wall body locks, and on-the-floor full-body contact with his thigh between my legs. Grunts and pants, and his eyes darkening as I twisted my body to pin him to the ground as I straddled him. My groin pressed to his hardness as I rolled my hips against him, reveling in the length and girth of his arousal.

  His fingers gripped my hips as he thrust upward, heightening the friction, and yeah, this was no longer fighting. This was locked gazes and soft gasps and moans. This was dry-humping need.

  Oh, fuck.

  I leapt off him as if I’d been burned, grabbed my shoes, and ran from the room.

  * * *

  Back in my cabin, I shucked off my clothes and stepped into the shower. A cold shower, because I’d be damned if Vex hadn’t just woken up all the heat that I’d been trying to keep under control. This wasn’t the unnatural heat; this was a heat made just for him. I stepped into the cubicle, into the spray, reveling in the beat of water against my skin. Fuck, it was making me hornier rather than calming me down. I needed a quick release. My fingers trailed down my abdomen, over my pubic bone, and slipped between my folds.

  Oh, God, yes. I was slick and throbbing and ready and—

  “Don’t you dare.”

  Vex? I looked over my shoulder to see him, naked and erect, stepping into the cubicle behind me.

  “Don’t you fucking dare go there without me.”

  His voice was gruff, almost angry, and then his chest was pressed to my back while his hand slipped round to my front, and his thick fingers slid into me. I jerked against his hand as he played me, as he slid in and out, tapped and circled in a rhythm that had me ready to tip over the edge.

  “Vex. Oh, God.”

  We shouldn’t be doing this. It was asking for heartache, asking for an addiction, but fuck, it felt good, and if we were going to do this, then …

  I grabbed his wrist. “I want your cock inside me.”

  His chest rumbled in a growl, and then I was spun round and pushed up against the tiles. His mouth descended on mine, wet and warm, tongue rasping deliciously against mine. He made love to my mouth, thrusting and sucking until I was moaning and whimpering and aching for him to enter me, and then he moved down to my breasts. As the water beat against my skin, he laved my nipples with his rough tongue over and over, the friction turning me into a puppet on a string, arching with each contact.

  I fisted his hair, which had come loose from its tie. “Fucking hell, Vex. Please.”

  I climbed his body, hands grasping his shoulders, pelvis pushing against his erection. “Please.”

  He chuckled into my neck, but when he raised his head to look into my eyes, there was no humor there, only heat and want and need. He entered me hard and deep, tearing a cry from my lips as I stretched to accommodate him, and then he withdrew fully, inch by inch, leaving me aching for his invasion again. He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back.

  “This is fucked up, Rogue.” He entered me again, hard, and this time, he stayed, rolling his hips until I was whimpering from the shock waves. “I didn’t want to do this. I fucking—” He broke off with a moan as I undulated my hips to meet his.

  “Just fuck me, Vex; we can talk about the whys and why-nots later.”

  His perfect lips curved in a wickedly determined smile, and then he began to move, fast and hard. My cries turned to sobs of pleasure that got trapped in my throat as I worked with him, moving with him to bring us to the apex. My body flushed in a tingling sensation, my toes curled, and I couldn’t breathe, and then my vision went white as the orgasm hit. Vex made a strangled sound but kept thrusting until we were both crying out in unison and the water was most definitely cold.

  * * *

  Once hadn’t been enough, and now the bed was wet and rumpled, but my body was sated and ached pleasantly.

  We lay on our backs, staring at the ceiling.

  “I was determined not to do that,” Vex said.

  “I know.” My throat was tight.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Please, don’t be. I wanted you. I want you.”

  He sighed. “Fuck, Rogue. I want you too, but once we get off this ship, everything changes. You go your way, and I go mine. There is no us. There can’t be.”

  Because he was Trad and I was human, and there was no place on Earth for him and no safe place on Tradacyh for me, and Athion …They had no use for an infertile female or the alien species they hated. Yes, I knew it was futile; I’d said as much to Xavier and look at me now. I’d lost control and given in to my emotions, and it hurt.

  I rolled to face him. “If things were different …”

  He raised himself on an elbow to look down on me. “Fuck, Rogue. If things were different.”

  And then he kissed me through my tears. I stroked his jaw and cupped his nape.

  He pulled back to look down on me.

  “What do you look like?”

  He frowned.

  “When you change.”

  “You mean my Trad form?” He studied me for a long beat. “You want to see?”

  Panic gripped me for a moment, but I breathed it away. This was Vex, and if I wanted him, then I’d have to accept all of him. I nodded.

  His face rippled, and then golden scales appeared down the ridge of his nose and high on his cheekbones. His features flattened slightly, and his brow thickened.

  I reached up to touch his face. “You’re … beautiful.”

  Something caught the periphery of my vision, and I let out a yelp.

  “My tail.” His eyes danced with amusement, and then he sobered. “Do you want to see what it can do?”

  It was already running up my naked leg. My breath caught.

  “Rogue, will you let me touch you with it?”

  He stroked my face with his hand and skimmed down to cup my breast.

  His tail stroked my abdomen and then went south to hover over my pubic bone.

  “Let me touch you.” His voice was a deep, echoing rumble that had heat blooming down there.

  “Yes.”

  The tip of his tail slid between my folds and dipped into me. A soft cry fell from my lips as it circled my clit, and then I sucked in air when it curved and slid into me. The thickness, the mobility. Oh, God.

  “Open your legs for me.”

  I parted my thighs, and he pushed deeper, forcing my body to arch upward, forcing a guttural cry from me as he found the spot that drove me wild.

  He kissed me, swallowing my moans as he made me come for the third time.

  * * *

  All three Athions were on the bridge when I found them. It was time for some proper answers, not maybes and ifs. I needed to know what the odds of Vex going free were. The past three weeks, I’d accepted Xavier’s assurances, but the feeling in my gut was getting stronger. The alarm that warned me that something wasn’t quite right was blaring. I had to know what they planned to do with him. They had to know what their government would do to a convicted Trad.

  All three turned to face me as I entered.

  I crossed my arms under my breasts. “What are you going to do with Vex?”

  Tide, Lore, and Xavier all stared at me. They’d been in deep convers
ation when I stepped onto the bridge but had stopped abruptly. What had they been talking about?

  I dropped my hands to my hips. “I know it can’t be good. So, I have a solution. You need to give him a ship so he can go wherever he wants to go. Just a ship, no questions asked. He saved my life, and I’m not taking the risk that your government will lock him away again.”

  “It’s not our call to make,” Tide said.

  Xavier shot him an indecipherable look. “But we will do everything in our power to make sure he gets fair treatment.”

  That sounded weak at best. “What will happen if you can’t get him fair treatment.”

  It was Lore who answered. “He’ll be executed.”

  My breath stalled, and blood rushed in my ears. Executed? I’d thought the worst they could do was lock him up, but they’d kill him?

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “Vex risked death just for being with me, for saving me, for shielding me when Marick fired his fucking weapon. After everything he’s been through …” I stared at them, searching their faces for something, some kind of reason, some understanding. Anything.

  This couldn’t be Vex’s story. I couldn’t just go back to Earth and leave his fate to the Athion government.

  I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat. “Give him a shuttle. I know you have one. You can say he escaped in it. Please.”

  Lore frowned as if considering.

  Xavier opened his mouth to speak, but Tide beat him to it.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not putting a mark of incompetence on my record, and I’m not letting a Trad take our shuttle. It’s called a lifeboat for a reason, and it stays on board in case we need it.”

  “Tide, come on …” Xavier held out his palms placatingly.

  Tide’s silvery gaze sharpened in anger. “Enough. We report to base on Athion, and we hand over the Trad as promised.”

  Anger choked me for a moment, stealing my ability to speak, and when my words finally broke free, my voice was the lash of a whip. “Stop calling him the Trad. His name is Vex.”

  Tide blinked slowly, unaffected by my tone.

  Anger would get me nowhere. I had to stay calm. For Vex. “I thought you two were getting on?”

  Tide looked down his nose at me, his huge frame straightening. He was a formidable-looking Athion but stern all the fucking time, like right now. Right now, he was unreachable.

  “We’re on a small ship together; it makes sense to get along.” His lips curled in a smile that was barbed, and his gaze flicked to Xavier. “And from the sounds coming from your cabin earlier, you and Vex were doing some serious getting along.”

  Xavier’s face paled, and my heart sank. His throat bobbed, and he tore his gaze away from me and fixed it on the floor.

  Fuck it, anger it was. I curled my hands into fists. “I bet you hung out and had a nice listen, didn’t you, Tide? Did you get off on it, huh? How long has it been since you were with a woman?”

  I was done being cowed. This wasn’t who I was. “You know what? Fuck you. I’ll sleep with whomever I want. I don’t belong to anyone, and I certainly don’t belong to your Athion government, and neither does Vex.”

  “Maybe not,” Lore said. “But right now, Athion is your only way home.”

  His words were a slap because he was right. I was beholden to them whether I liked it or not.

  I turned on my heel and stormed from the room, rage a hot coal in my chest. There was no way I was leaving Vex to the mercy of an alien government that hated his kind. There was no way I’d go home until he was safe.

  4

  TIDE

  Stubborn human female. Are all humans like this? No. This one is unique in her ability to rile me. I’ve kept an eye on her, on Xavier, who seems to have stars in his eyes when it comes to this woman. She has him wrapped around her finger, and the Trad is clearly in love with her. I wanted to know what her appeal is, and now I regret my decision to spend so much time with her.

  Stubborn, strong, and independent. She is a survivor, and that is an innately attractive trait.

  I’ve backed off the last few days, pulled out of the game nights and the late-night chats, but she’s been on my mind more and more. The future has been on my mind—what we will be forced to do when we land.

  Handing her over won’t be easy, but it’s what we signed up for. Emotions cloud judgment, and right now, I wish I could be more like Lore. He can shut his emotions off whenever he pleases—the man is more machine than Athion—but even then, I’ve seen the way he looks at her. Not just as a science experiment but as a woman.

  He thinks I don’t see it, but we’re too close for him to hide his feelings from me. Heck, we grew up together, went to the academy together, and lived together before Xavier came on the scene. If he thinks he can hide his attraction from me, then he’s mistaken. But typical Lore hides it by staying away.

  He locks himself in his lab and protects himself.

  Fuck, maybe I should have done the same.

  “Tide?”

  Xavier. No doubt coming to petition for Rogue. Coming to remind me of the horror that faces her once we land in three days.

  I close my eyes, weary of this battle, because damn, I’m slipping. “Not again, Xavier. My answer is the same.”

  “She deserves better.”

  He said the same words to me three weeks ago, and I thought little of them, but now I can’t help but silently agree.

  5

  Vex wasn’t in his cabin or the training room. I barreled into him coming out of the observatory. We both stumbled back and then reached for each other.

  “I was looking for you,” we said in unison.

  He looked happy, lighter. His face more open than it had been all month, but there was a tumult of emotions in my chest, mainly anger mingled with fear. I wrapped my arms around his waist as if I could just hold him in place and keep the doubt and the uncertainty at bay. As if by holding him like this, we could just stay here in this moment.

  He hugged me close. “What is it?”

  Tell him what was in store for him or not? There was nothing either of us could do unless … I pulled away to look up into his face.

  “You need to steal the shuttle and get away.”

  He blinked down at me, and then his eyes narrowed. “Oh, Rogue.” He stroked my cheek. “You’re a master when it comes to self-defense, but you haven’t a clue about space travel. Unless this ship drops out of hyperspace, there’s no way to launch the shuttle, and unless there’s a planet or asteroid with fuel close by, I wouldn’t get far before the shuttle was nothing but a bit of floating debris.”

  “You’ve considered it?”

  He exhaled through his nose. “For a minute, yes. I know what’s in store for me when we get to Athion, and it’s unlikely to be a pat on the back. But there is only one option. To get to Athion and plead my case.”

  I slipped my hand into his. “You won’t be alone. I won’t leave you. Not until you’re safe.”

  His brows came together, and he cupped my face. “You’d do that for me?”

  “Yes.”

  He pressed his forehead to mine. “And it’s enough that I know that. But I don’t want you there. I want you to get off the planet and go home to Earth.”

  Like hell. I pulled away. “No. Fuck this. I’m not leaving you to face their government alone. We’ll fight them, we’ll take a stand, and I’ll kick up a fuss. Not all Trads are the same, just like not all humans are the same. The Athions and the humans need to accept that. You deserve to be free. You deserve to live.”

  “And what then?” he asked. “Would you come with me?” His eyes were bright in his face, searching and vulnerable.

  My chest felt tight and light all at the same time because he was asking me to be with him, really be with him, and damn if my pulse wasn’t doing a dance in my veins, but could I do that? Forget about Earth and fly off into space with Vex?

  Xavier’s face swam into my mind, but I pushed it away. He was Athion, and
they wanted fertile women. There was no future for him and me. No future for me on Athion. And Earth? Well, apart from my brother and cat Milo, what was there waiting for me? News cameras and harassment as people probed to find out about my ordeal? Pity and curiosity?

  “Rogue?” Vex stroked my cheek with his thumb. “We’ve been forced to fight for so long, wouldn’t it be nice to just be able to live?”

  “Yes.” I laced my hands with his. “I want that. I’ll come with you.”

  “And what about me?” Xavier said from behind us.

  My muscles tensed, but Vex didn’t even bat an eyelid. He smiled at me reassuringly and slowly raised his head. “What about you, Xavier?”

  “Has Rogue not told you how she feels about me?” There was sadness in his voice that tugged at my heartstrings.

  Vex blinked slowly. “She doesn’t need to. It’s obvious in the way she is with you.”

  Xavier looked from me to Vex. “I’m not averse to sharing, Rogue. I want to be with you too.” He said the words softly, tentatively, as if trying them out.

  I turned to face him, my heart in my throat because this couldn’t be happening for real, could it? He wasn’t thinking straight. “I can’t give you what you want.”

  “And what do you think I want?” he asked.

  “Children. Athions want children.”

  His lips twisted. “Not all Athions, Rogue. I love kids, but if I can’t have them, then it wouldn’t kill me. But losing you would. I’m in love with you, Rogue. I choose you.”

  Vex smiled. “In that case, you’d be welcome on our ship.”

  Our ship? I smiled up at them both, but a darkness crossed Xavier’s face. He ducked his head quickly to mask it, but unease bloomed in my stomach.

  “Xavier?”

  He smiled. “Let’s keep this between us for now. Tide and Lore are all about the order of things.”

  Vex was watching Xavier with a narrow-eyed stare, and as the Athion and the Trad exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher, my stomach fluttered with nerves.