The Forgotten Commander (The Lost Planet 1)

I mimic her movements and stand. “Is he a fine hunter?”

She blinks at me in confusion. “What? No. He eats takeout and has a spray tan. No, he’s not a fine hunter.”

“Ahh,” I say in understanding. “Your Kevin is a fine leader. Strong and cunning.”

She mutters out a string of words that make no sense but she seems furious. Her shoulders tremble with anger. I reach forward and hold my hand out to her like she did with Hadrian earlier. Asking to touch but worried of what might happen.

Her brown eyes meet mine and she reaches up to press her palm to my own. “Kevin is nothing to me. He is not a fine leader. But he is cunning and strong.”

Our fingers thread together and I gently pull her closer. Much to my surprise, she allows me to pull her into an embrace. I realize I must treat her like a mortling throwing a fit. Hadrian was a mortarekking terror when he was small. But all it would take was me pulling him into my lap and stroking his back to calm him. I run my knuckles along the bones in her back.

She relaxes against me and my heart sings inside its cage like a jackaw bird. They’re not much for eating but they’re entertaining to watch and listen to when they flit about, chirping songs that fill your soul. Often, when looking out the windows in the command center, I watch the jackaws. One of my few moments of enjoyment.

That is, until my mate arrived.

Now every moment is one that fills me with excitement.

“Kevin abused his power,” she murmurs against my still-sore chest. “He abused me.”

Something in the way she says her words makes my blood grow cold. “This Kevin hurt you?”

She tilts her nog up and frowns at me. “He got me addicted to flora. And when I was flying high, he’d fuck me.”

I blink at her in confusion. “What is this fuck?”

“What we do, Breccan!” she hollers in exasperation. “What you do to me!” Hot tears roll down her cheeks as a sob racks through her. “Let me break this down in a way you can understand. He paralyzed me with his ‘toxica,’” she explains, and makes a gesture with two fingers on each hand as though she’s clawing the air. “And then…then he stuck his dick inside me. It made me feel sick and dirty and used. He’d try to breed with me.”

My mind turns black with rage.

This Kevin dares copulate with my mate?

I rekking think not!

“I will cut his flesh from his bones and feed it to the biggest sabrevipe on this rekking planet!” I roar, and break away from her. I must destroy something. If I can’t have this Kevin, I’ll destroy the mortarekking wall.

She watches, unmoving, as I rip a cabinet from the wall and slam it to the ground. I expect her to retreat in fear but my fierce mate stays strong as I throw a tantrum young Hadrian would be proud of, wrecking the room I worked so diligently to clean earlier. It would seem my mate and I both like to break things. A common bond.

“You are mine,” I seethe. “He cannot even carry you. He does not know how to hunt. This Kevin is worthless! A piece of radiation-tainted dirt on the bottom of my boot.”

Her eyes widen. “You’re missing the point, you big evil-looking elf-eared vampire!”

My ears flatten against my nog and I pop all the sub-bones in my neck before baring my double fangs at her. “You are safe here. I will slice open this Kevin if I ever see him.”

A smile tugs at her lips. “That’s kind of sweet in a psycho kind of way.”

“Sweet like your delicious tears and tongue, mortania?”

Her lashes bat against her cheeks and she softens toward me. “You truly don’t understand.” A heavy sigh escapes her. “Your intentions are pure, I get it. You want to breed and create life on this planet.”

I nod with a smile. “Yes.”

She purses her lips. “At my expense.”

“I want other things too, besides breeding.” My cock stiffens. Breeding is definitely on the top of the list. But her smiles are a close second. “I want to make you laugh like Hadrian does.” I take a step toward her and raise my hand. Again, she doesn’t hesitate and presses her palm to mine. “Aria, I want you to relax in my presence like you do with Avrell.” Our fingers link once more. “I want to feed you and care for you. I do not want this takeout and the spray tans you speak of that this useless Kevin desires.”

She lets out a snort and then cackles. Just like with Hadrian. I still wasn’t trying to be humorous, but I like that I am skilled enough that I don’t need to be an empty-nog boaster like my boy to get her to laugh. He has much to learn if he wants to be as competent a commander as myself.