[Warriors of the Elector 05] • Starburst

Meredith Gentry is a woman with a mission. To decode everything found on the Alpha Star Colony. Maybe, if she’s lucky, she might finally get closer to the one man who makes her burn.

Chowd Sturat Sur Banden is different. He’s always known that and that the differences have kept him apart from everyone else. Until now.

At the end game, will these differences keep Meredith and Chowd apart for good? Will his own unwanted heritage tear them asunder forever? And will the crew of the Elector finally prevail over Crick Sur Banden?

The Warriors of the Elector’s cataclysmic conclusion has arrived.

Excerpt:

He stank of sweat. The damp stickiness coated his skin as he shrugged out of the ship suit, letting it drop to the floor silently. He sighed, rolling the tight muscles in his shoulders. A good workout helped, but still, he felt the coil of desire burning in the pit of his stomach. Since she had come on board, it never went away.

Chowd snatched up the tube of water, letting it slide down his throat, not quite quenching his thirst. His nudity didn’t worry him as he padded through the office to his sanitary unit and gave the order for the showerhead to engage at full spray, the steam rising upward as he watched. Stepping beneath the stinging, hot spray, he splayed his hands against the cool wall, feeling the flow of water down his body, and considered the latest situation.

Crick Sur Banden had escaped in the mess of the operation on the Alpha Star Colony. They had managed to get Jemma out in time for Elara to save her, though it had been touch and go for a while. The operative his uncle Admiral Gustav Elphin had ordered them to rescue had been rescued, but that mad dash for the shuttle at the end had angered him. Somehow, Crick Sur Banden had slipped through their fingers once more. But this time, they had the majority of his forces from the Alpha Star Colony base held in detention, the women they had released had started putting the pieces of their lives together and giving information to the Admiralty officers, and they had Crick Sur Banden’s tactical plans. Their location, in what the teams surmised were his private rooms, had been unsurprising in hindsight, to Chowd who had thought the installation abandoned. After he had joined the Admiralty, they had sent a strike force there to find it empty.

“Water off,” he growled. The near loss of Jemma had worried him, though, reminding him that every member of the crew remained in danger. Including Meredith. Ahh…now how he wished he could continue to avoid thinking about that possible outcome.

He breathed deeply, letting the emotions drain away, the heavy beat of his heart once more slowing to a steady life-affirming rhythm. Slowly, his eyes opened and sought the mirror. She stood behind him, waiting silently in the half light, watching him with gleaming eyes. He felt his body become firm and erect, just like it did every time he saw her.

Chowd turned slowly looking at her, watching as her eyes ranged over his nakedness. He made no move to collect the towel from the rack beside him. He knew she liked the view, as her eyes dilated with desire and her soft pants betrayed her arousal.

“Is there something I can do for you, Meredith?”

Meredith’s eyes glazed with passion, and he watched, fascinated, as a red flush crept up her cheeks. She licked her lips, sending a surge of awareness through his body.

“I, um…I came to see how you were feeling.” Her eyes flicked nervously, as if she didn’t know where to look, and he smiled, feeling triumph roar through him. He had guessed—well, rather hoped—that she too felt that quick spark of lust. Yet his experience remained limited to vids and reading, so he hadn’t been totally sure. At least, not until now.

She stepped forward, a shy smile appearing at the side of her mouth, and his knees trembled. Her hand reached out—

The buzz of the alarm woke him with a jerk. His arm flew and hit the side of the desk screen with an audible thud, and his head snapped up. Barsha! He had dreamed about her again. Chowd raised his hands from the hard surface of the desk, and he scrubbed them across his tired and aching eyes, gritty with the lack of sleep. When did I fall asleep?

The buzz cut through the silence once more, and he knew it emanated from his communicator. He answered the insistent wail. “Yeah?” he answered with a groggy voice as he willed his tired mind to respond.

“Chowd? Are you free right now? New orders have been received and I need the command crew in my office immediately.” Duvall’s voice filled the air, the tinny value of the communicators something that continued to irk him. They could travel through space but not get the sound quality of communicators right. He rose slowly, feeling the ache in the muscles of his back from the cramped chair and desk where he had found himself involuntarily napping. Not to mention the ache in his arm from that sharp crack.

“On my way.” He flipped the communicator off and moved around the desk, working to clear the fog from his mind, hoping he didn’t look like the wreck he felt. Short naps never powered him, but after thirty-nine straight hours, his body had shut down in retaliation of its abuse. Since they had returned from the mission on Alpha Star One, the entire team had worked every possible hour to track the movements of Crick Sur Banden.