Lundric immediately stood and set her gently on her feet. “I would never allow you to go hungry,” he said with the solemnity of an oath. He used the corner of his tunic to clean her of his seed, which was...rainbow hued. Whoa. Well, alien sex delivered, that was all she knew.
She grinned. “Thank you, warrior.” Her legs wobbled as she attempted to dress herself. Lundric didn’t help, cupping and rubbing her ass with a satisfied growl.
She twisted to look. “Yes, you left your marks on me. Feel better?”
His grin was all satisfied male. “Much.”
Chapter Five
Lundric finished installing the metalwork he’d bent to hold the Zandian crystal up against the window in his bunkroom. There weren’t many windows in the pod, and apart from the cockpit, this room had the biggest. Plus it held the greatest number of beings, so they could all benefit.
Since Lily had given it to him, his wound had completely healed, and his energy had returned. He was relieved he wouldn’t need to return to Zander’s palatial pod—he didn’t want to leave Cambry. In the last few planet rotations, he’d grown to admire her even more. She’d picked up flying faster than any other being, and every time he was with her, she let down her guard a little more.
Still, despite his constant assertions she belonged to him, he could see she didn’t take him seriously. He headed now to the big meeting room, where they were practicing hand-to-hand combat. He vecking hated that Cambry was there. The thought of her in a fight made him want to crush another skull. Yet, he had to adm
it the need for the practice. They were training the humans to be warriors, after all—male and female alike. And despite the fact it made him want to rip beings limb from limb, she would probably see combat. They all would.
He entered the room, scanning quickly for the flash of red hair that made Cambry easy to spot. There. Rok had them paired off with partners, and they were practicing with long staffs, swinging and blocking each other. Cambry moved with grace, a natural at battle arts, striking out as she circled her older male opponent.
Brilliant female.
He didn’t move, not wanting to miss a single moment of watching Cambry.
“She is fond of you.”
He startled at the voice just below his elbow and looked down to see Mierna, Rok’s elderly Venusian crewmember. Venusians were known for mind reading and intuition, but every time Lundric had seen Mierna, she’d been drunk on brownbeer. He looked down at her big watery eyes and unkempt hair with a mixture of pity and annoyance.
“You wish to possess her, but you don’t know the secrets of her heart.”
He barely restrained the urge to roll his eyes. Fortune-telling wasn’t an art he had any appreciation for. He managed a noncommittal grunt as a reply.
“Do you know what she seeks?”
“No,” he said, barely keeping the exasperation from his voice.
She touched the side of her nose in a gesture meaningless to him. “You cannot keep her until you learn.”
Her words were meaningless, too.
He forced a smile that probably looked more like a grimace and stalked away, not toward Cambry, though every cell in his body pointed in her direction, but to Rok, to receive his orders.
Rok tossed him a staff and swung his in an arc, lowering into a ready stance. Though Rok had no formal training like Lundric and Zander had received from Master Seke, he was a natural warrior who clearly had spent a lifetime fighting. His other crewmates—the two Stornigians who were Rok’s foster brothers—tumbled and wrestled each other in a gleeful tussle.
Rok came at him quickly, swinging the staff at Lundric’s head. He ducked and swung for Rok’s feet. Rok had swung for the place where Lundric held the staff, and he had to drop it to avoid getting his hands smashed. He stopped it with his foot and flicked it back into the air, catching it and swinging it toward Rok’s exposed middle.
Rok grunted with approval, dropping into a backward hinge to avoid the strike. He grinned. “You and me. Before your shift tonight.”
Lundric shook his head. “No offense, but I’d rather be wrestling with a different being when I’m off-duty.”
Rok smirked, glancing in Cambry’s direction. “Who could blame you?”
Lundric growled, and Rok chuckled. “Easy, warrior. I have my own human to contend with. Just don’t let your practice slip.”
“I won’t, Captain.”
~.~
Cambry tossed the staff back into the box, exhilaration from the fighting racing through her. She’d seen Lundric and Rok go at it briefly. Holy star, it had been a beautiful sight! The two males were evenly matched, though Lundric had far more grace while Rok looked more like a street fighter. They both moved with surprising lightness for such massive warriors, and they clearly loved the battle arts. She was learning to love them, too. It almost made her want to stay—just to learn more. But she couldn’t.