“I insist on rest for at least an hour,” Daneth said, looking past Zander to Seke for support.
But Seke wasn’t going to quarrel with Zander—not after what he’d just done.
“The painkiller,” Zander snapped. “And put me on your monitor.” He indicated Daneth’s cuff, which provided him with constant feedback about Lamira’s medical state so he could monitor the growing baby. “That way, you’ll know if I need anything.”
Daneth’s lips closed in a thin line, but he removed the medication gun from his medical case and shot Zander’s neck with it. “Rest. One hour.”
“Go back to your lab.” Zander waved him away, walking out of the room without waiting for either of them to bow to him. Daneth’s obsession with keeping the Zandian species from extinction had led him to sequester himself for long hours in his lab, studying genes, reproduction, and investigating the possibility of producing test tube young.
Daneth turned a cool, assessing gaze on Seke. “The human female is affecting you.”
“Leora,” he growled, ready to knock another friend to the floor with a blow to the head. “Her vecking name is Leora. You know that.”
Daneth gave a faint smile, and he realized the physician had purposely goaded him. “Human females do seem to have this effect on Zandian males, do they not? I’d be interested in testing further pairings.”
Now Seke did grab Daneth, wrapping his fist in the male’s lab coat and yanking him close, so they stood just a hand’s distance apart. “It’s not a pairing, and you’re not testing any more—” He spluttered, not even sure what he was saying. “There will be no further purchases of human slaves here,” he thundered.
Unruffled, Daneth continued his bemused, curious study of Seke. “Is it the slavery that bothers you, or your attraction to the human?”
He released Daneth, suddenly disgusted with himself. He was a Master Warrior, a self-disciplined teacher of the battle arts. A male who never lost his temper or acted with emotion. What had happened to him?
It was true, Zander had also suffered as he’d become attached to his human mate. He’d become irritable, irrational. Did this mean Seke had grown to...love Leora?
But he couldn’t get attached. He wasn’t free to mate—he’d made a vow of celibacy in his dead mate’s memory. Breaking it would be dishonoring himself and her.
“It’s both,” he muttered to answer Daneth’s question, and walked away before the male could probe him further.
“If you like, I could run the gene-matching program on the two of you.”
“No,” he barked, unnecessarily loud. “She’s not for breeding.”
“Of course not,” Daneth murmured to his back as he strode swiftly away.
Veck. Veck Daneth and his vecking gene-matching program that had brought the humans upon them in the first place.
He just needed to get through Leora’s training, and then he’d leave. He’d go to the death pod and help Rok train their new troops. Far away from Leora and those beautiful, moss-green eyes.
But even that thought sickened him. How would he leave her after training her in such an intimate way? He was conditioning her to bond with him, to attach herself to him as her master. He could hardly abandon her after putting her through this humiliating training.
And it seemed even his thoughts of resistance were futile because his feet had carried him not to find Zander to ensure he suffered no ill-effects from the blow, but straight to his chamber, to punish his wanton little slave.
~.~
She’d been touching herself since the moment Seke had left. Even though she’d brought herself to orgasm, once through touch alone and once by touching and replaying the eroticism of the position he’d had her in earlier for her inspection, she still had found no relief.
With a low moan, she rolled to one side and lifted her top knee open to give herself better access to her sex. It had never been so wet, so swollen, so vecking needy before.
You’re all wet for me again, Leora.
Stars, the male infuriated and aroused her at every turn!
The door panel swished open and Seke strode in, dark and purposeful. He stopped in the middle of the floor and stared at her, horns tilting in her direction as the door swished closed behind him.
“Vecking stars, Leora,” he choked.
He wanted her. She enjoyed the surge of power that came with that realization. In a flash, he was at the cage, spinning it so the door faced him and barking for it to open. He grabbed her ankle and tugged her backward out the door, until both legs were out and she’d folded at the waist, her torso still in the cage. “Lower cage.” His deep command caused the cage to float gently downward, until her toes reached the floor.
Within seconds, he had two fingers curling inside her, the swell of his cock bumping the plug in her ass. “Leora, did I say you could give yourself release?” His lips were right at her ear, the growl feral.