Lurin's Surrender (10 page)

“It’s more than that, Lurin. And you know it. She’s special.”

“She’s just a woman.”
Yet Lurin didn’t like Gren touching her at all. Thesha weren’t possessive, and Lurin didn’t understand the strange feelings coursing through him.

“Just a woman. Sure. That’s why I felt you wanting to strangle me when I came all over her belly.”

“Drun”.

“Calling me a shit won’t change anything. You still want her, and she’s still special. Stubborn bastard. I’ll be in the lav if you need me.”

Lurin watched Gren go and silently thanked the large man for leaving. He wanted to tear Gren limb from limb, and why? Because Gren had used Mara to refuel. A necessity, and one he’d handled using a delicate hand. He’d allowed Lurin’s presence in the bonding, had even planted thoughts of Lurin in Mara’s mind as Gren made love to her. And Lurin still wanted to maim him.

In Sara’s room, Lurin had watched helplessly while Sara used and took from Gren, sucking his cock and swallowing his seed as voraciously as she swallowed the light within him. Sara Elaran had been damaged somewhere in her past, and her sexual dysfunction passed the misery in her soul onto all she touched.

Though Gren had enjoyed physical gratification, his spirit had shuddered under Sara’s pressing darkness. Yes, Lurin could well understand Mara’s draw for a Thesha in Gren’s recent condition.

Tired, depressed and empty, Gren had needed Mara’s purity, her healing essence. Gren, the only one capable of protecting Mara and him at this point, needed to be at full strength. A male with lesser morals or pride wouldn’t have allowed Mara to see anyone but himself when making love. Yet Gren had erased her memory of the event afterward.

Lurin didn’t know if he would have had the strength to make Mara forget about him.
Making love.
He scowled. He continued to think of Mara in terms of love and affection. He’d never before cared enough to label his feelings, yet the thought of sharing Mara with another bothered him more than he could say. He wanted to fight his brethren, for star’s sake.

Lurin’s kind ruled feminine hearts and minds. A powerful creature capable of total control, a Thesha determined who to favour with his particular skills. Yet with Mara, the decision was out of his hands.

Lurin could do no less than make love to her delectable body, to feel her heart and soul entwined with his. The luscious bounty hunter had ensnared him with her warmth, her strength and her integrity. Though they had just met, his spirit sensed a kindred soul, a woman he’d known in other lives and other places.

Next to Mara, Sara looked like
rak
fodder. Lurin shuddered. Thoughts of that evil woman made his skin crawl. A warning spark raised the hair on his physical body. With a sigh, he cast one last lingering look at Mara and flew back into his body. Just in time, too.

Sara hovered anxiously above him, waiting for him to wake.

Chapter Nine

Mara woke disoriented. When she realised she couldn’t move her arms, she recalled her precarious situation. Gren and Lady Sara’s warriors had boarded her ship, taken her and Lurin hostage, and were escorting them to planet Jaron.

She shook her head free of the fog still blanketing her thoughts. Strange. She remembered waking to Gren’s enlightening explanation of his part in all this. And then, nothing. A big blank spot sat in the middle of her memories.

Her eyes narrowed as she tugged at her wrists bound to the bed. She remained clothed, though she wore a huge shirt, most likely Gren’s. Though tied up, she felt relaxed, her muscles loose and her mind free of worry—which made her worry. The fact that she could possibly feel okay about her present situation clearly pointed to someone tampering with her mind.

As her concerns mounted, fear for herself was quickly overshadowed by concern for Lurin. Gren had mentioned Sara. Did that mean she was on board? And if so, how safe could Lurin be around that woman? When questioned, he’d alluded to mistreatment at Sara’s hands. Who knew what that sick woman had already done to him?

The sound of the door sliding open interrupted her thoughts. Gren entered dressed in Jaron finery.

“Good. You’re awake.”

“What did you do to me?” she asked suspiciously. “Why don’t I remember my time aboard this ship?”

“What is it you think I did, exactly?” He sounded puzzled, but his eyes gleamed bright with humour and something else she couldn’t quite name.

“I think maybe I don’t want to know,” she murmured. When he grinned, she thought again how attractive he looked. If not for his part in her capture, she might have believed he wanted to help them.

She had no choice but to trust him, and it galled her to be so out of control of the situation. Mara couldn’t recall the last time she’d been on the receiving end of an order. Oh, she served her clients well enough, but she gave the orders on her ship. The clients merely represented the mission’s end.

“Why are you doing this?” She wanted to know.

Gren glanced up at the metal disks he’d identified as
eavesdroppers
. “I told you before. Lurin belongs to Nobless Cari for crimes committed against her family. You, unfortunately, got caught in the middle of it all. But don’t worry, love. Fucking me more than made things even. And we still have another day before we get to Jaron.”

“Another day?”
Fucking him? There’s no way I could have forgotten that.
Deciding he meant that piece of information for those listening in, she ignored the remark. “You’re telling me I slept for two entire days on this ship?”

He shrugged and sat in a chair across from her. “All the excitement in meeting me that first day must have worn you out. You seem well rested now, though.”

Mara stared at Gren in bewilderment.
Trust me
, he mouthed and glanced at the ceiling again.

“Like I have a choice,” she muttered.

“There’s the spirit.” He chuckled and stood. “Now let’s go see Lady Sara. She’s got a few questions for you.”

Gren released her from her restraints and pulled her into his arms. She would have kneed him but he blocked her attack and whispered in her ear, “Follow my lead with Sara. Whatever you do, don’t react to anything she does with Lurin. It’s vital she not know how close the two of you are.”

Mara had more questions than answers, but at this point, Gren seemed like the lesser of evils she faced. She nodded to show him she understood and they left the room. As they walked down the corridor, she noted the leers and lewd comments thrown her way and glared at the men she passed. Gren ignored them.

“Some crew you have here,” she scoffed.

“They’re not mine. I’m merely leading them for a short time.”

“How lucky for you.”

He coughed to cover a laugh when a short, bald man wearing a royal robe approached them.

“Vendon,” Gren growled.

Vendon. Now why did that name sound familiar?

Vendon sneered. “I trust you’re done fucking her senseless? Why you’d choose her when Lady Sara and others with royal connections are available, I’ll never know.” He turned to escort them in the direction of a door at the end of the corridor. “She’s been waiting for you. Vez is awake but not moving, and she’s not happy.”

Mara listened while trying to keep herself as small as possible, not wanting to draw more notice. She needn’t have bothered with Vendon. The man hadn’t blinked since spying Gren. Vendon waited for them to enter, then left them alone with Sara.

Lady Sara looked wild eyed, her dark red hair spilled haphazardly over her shoulders. The dress she wore revealed more than it covered, and the disarray of the room suggested some type of struggle. Sara nodded at Gren, who shoved Mara forward.

She glared at him over her shoulder and tensed when Sara stepped closer.

“So,
you
captured Lurin Vez?” Sara walked in a circle around Mara, eyeing her up and down with wary curiosity. “Did you try him on for size?”

Mara did her best not to be obvious, but she couldn’t help glancing at Lurin’s naked body on Sara’s bed. She couldn’t tell if he was awake or not. He didn’t move, and his chest seemed still as well.
Stars, please let him be all right.

“Is he alive?”

“I think so.” Sara sounded uncertain, and Mara wanted to throttle her. “Gren?”

Gren approached Lurin and felt for his pulse. “He’s alive. Probably still having problems with that drug you gave him. I told you leaving him tied up would have been the better option.”

Sara ignored his frown and turned her attention back to Mara. “So did you fuck him?” she screeched. “Tell me!”

While Mara hadn’t been experienced before Lurin, she hadn’t been naïve either. She’d never been uncomfortable hearing sex talk. But Sara made it sound dirty, like something to be ashamed of.

“No,” Mara lied. “I didn’t fuck him. He’s my bounty, nothing more.” The crazed look in Sara’s eyes faded. “He belongs to your mother, Lady Sara,” Mara said in her most autocratic voice. “Why have you interrupted my mission?”

“Don’t talk down to me, you stupid slut,” Sara spat. “You’re nothing more than my mother’s pawn. You’re not even smart enough to know what you’re bringing in.”

“Lady Sara,” Gren warned.

“No, Gren. I want her to know what she lost.” Sara cackled, a grating sound that made Mara want to cover her ears. “You had a Thesha by the balls and you didn’t fuck him once!”

Mara blinked in astonishment. “Thesha?” Obviously Sara was more than a little crazed. Glancing at Gren proved her theory correct; he looked at Sara in concern. “But they don’t exist.”

“But they do,” Sara purred. She sauntered to Lurin and pointed down at a faint mark across his groin. “See this? This is how you can tell a Thesha from a normal male. This scar is actually a birthmark. See the faint blue lines that circle above his pubic bone at the bottom of his abdomen?”

Mara stood too far from Lurin to tell, but she recalled seeing the marking. At the time, she’d been too interested in other things to worry about a scar. Now that she thought about it, it didn’t look like any scar she’d ever seen, but that still didn’t make him a Thesha.

“Lady Sara--”

“Don’t tell me I’m crazy. I’ve been with a real Thesha before. I know they exist.” Her mouth twisted. “My mother imprisoned one a long time ago on our estate. A living, breathing Thesha. She thought losing my virginity to one would be the ultimate gift of a mother’s love. It turned out she was right.”

Gren and Mara glanced at one another.

“He fucked me so many times I lost count. I bled and bled, and he never stopped. Theshas never stop. They’re always hard, always hungry for more. And they’re so very gifted.” She paused, lost in the past. “Such exquisite pain he shared with me.”

“If I recall, Lady Sara,” Gren said quietly, “the Thesha are rumoured to gift women with pleasure. They don’t cause harm. And they certainly don’t associate pain with sex. You had the misfortune of mating with a crazed, unstable
human
male.”

“No, Gren. That’s where you’re wrong.”

Mara stared from Sara to Gren, wondering how the hell she’d gotten mixed up in such a bizarre situation. Bad enough she’d felt far more than she should for Lurin, a man with a mysterious past and an uncertain future. But to bring myths and monsters into the odd mix was almost more than she could take. She’d lost her ship and her freedom, and now Sara strove to take away reality.

Sara swore. “I know the Thesha are real. So does my mother. Why do you think she wants Vez so badly? She knows he’s Thesha. She’s enthralled with them. It was she who taught my precious ‘birthday gift’ all the naughty little tricks he used on me so long ago. I think Mother believes herself part Thesha.”

Mara blanched at Sara’s perverted tale. That a mother should knowingly inflict such pain on her daughter, even through another… No wonder Sara had invented a fantasy for herself.

“That proves that the man who abused you was not Thesha,” Gren persisted. “Remember the myth, Sara. Thesha control women, not the other way around.”

“Really?” Sara smiled, and Mara felt a chill shiver down her spine. “If Vez is a simple
man
, then he shouldn’t respond when I do this.”

She walked to the bed and took a silver and blue ceremonial dagger off the table beside it. She held it over Lurin’s scar.

Mara held her breath and glanced to Gren for help. His face drained of colour. Remembering his warning, Mara forced herself to remain still. If Sara really did believe what she’d said about Lurin, she wouldn’t harm him. Would she?

“With this sacred knife, I’m halfway to controlling my very own Thesha.”

“You’re crazy,” Gren shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest, giving every appearance that he could care less about what she did.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Sara pricked her finger with the blade then trailed it over Lurin’s marks, drawing a thin line of his own blood over his skin.

The moment she did so, the spidery lines raised and turned a dark blue. The scar now resembled an intricately designed tattoo.