Trinity
I didn’t expect the sharp spike of terror that seeing the killer’s face evoked and I reached for Leo instinctively. All I could see was the assassin’s mocking grin as I shot him over and over with the blaster. I could have been using a pea shooter for all the damage it had caused.
Vennix. Nix. He had a name. A terrible, terrifying name.
Then I was floating for a moment. I landed in Leo’s lap, my ear pressed over his heartbeat, his warm hand resting against my other cheek, holding me to him. “I’ve got you, Trinity. Never again, I promise you. Never again.”
Focusing on the steady pulsing sound, I let his heat soothe me, sink into me. It was almost as if he was feeding my Ardor, but there was nothing sexual passing between us. This was gentler. Softer.
I was falling in love. Not falling. Fell. Hard.
This was why Jessica liked to sit in her mates’ laps. Why they insisted on putting her there.
Damn it. I knew the signs. There was no denying it, not after what seeing him hurt and bleeding had done to my insides. Not when simply sitting on his lap banished my demons so quickly. I instinctively knew I was safe with him. He would die to protect me. I’d seen it first hand in that miserable cell.
He was making it all too easy to lean on him, to need him, and I wasn’t ready for that. It was so intense. So… much.
Pulling away, I climbed from his lap and situated myself on the sofa facing Nial, who still held Jessica. She looked at me like I was crazy for crawling out of Leo’s lap. Maybe I was, for I felt cold and lonely, even only a few feet away. But I couldn’t think when I was in his arms. Not like I needed to. He was too comfortable. Too sexy and warm and safe.
I couldn’t feel any of those things, for once I did, I would forget. My goal, my purpose for leaving Earth. I needed to find my mother. I needed to figure out a way to help my sisters.
I needed to hunt down and kill an elite assassin.
And I couldn’t do any of that curled up on Leo’s lap like a sleepy kitten.
I was a princess. Heir to the throne. My mother was counting on me. The citadel had chosen me, deemed me worthy. When I’d placed my blood on the stone I’d felt… something changing inside me. Something different. The mythology behind the royal family of Alera stated that those born with royal blood, those strong enough, were born with special gifts.
The truth was different. We weren’t born with anything special. We were changed by the intelligence that ran the citadel itself. I was different. Seeing shadows that weren’t there. Seeing light where there should be none. I had begun to suspect the true nature of my gift, but I was still evolving. Into what, I wasn’t sure yet. And I had no idea what my sisters were going through. What their gifts might be.
“We have to find him,” I said. “I might be safe here on this battleship, but he’ll try to kill my sisters.” If I were on Alera, he might try to kill me again as well, but that concerned me far less. In fact—
A thought came to me and I blurted it out. Stood suddenly. “Use me to lure him out.”
“What?” Jessica tilted her head. “You want to be the bait?” She was quiet for a moment. Thinking. “It would work. They really want you dead.”
Prime Nial and Leo spoke at the exact same time. Two baritone voices barking in stereo.
“No.”
“Fuck, no.”
I met Jessica’s gaze and understanding passed between us. No collars were needed. If our mates wouldn’t help us, we’d figure this shit out on our own. Earth girls stick together. We’d done it earlier to save Leo, we could do it again.
Ander moved to stand silently behind the couch, directly behind his family. He must have felt something through the collar, or was very talented at reading human expressions, because he actually growled at me.
Yeah, Nial might be Prime, but Ander was scary. Intense.
Leo jumped to his feet, fists clenched, and moved to stand in front of me, blocking Ander’s view. “Do not take that tone with my mate.”
“Your female seeks to endanger mine. This will not be allowed.” Ander’s voice was venomous now.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Leo countered.
“Control your female, Leoron,” Ander warned, without answering the question. “Or I will lock her in the brig until she sees reason.”
“I’m right here, gentlemen,” I stated, trying to get around Leo’s big body. “And you’re not locking me anywhere. And stop talking to each other through those dang collars. It’s not fair.” I sighed. “I’m heir to the throne of Alera. A fucking princess. I think that somehow outranks all of you. If I want to set a trap for this assassin, I will.” I faked to the right, then stepped out from behind Leo to square off with the scarred Prillon scowling down at me. Leo pulled me back against him, wrapped an arm about my waist, but at least he didn’t shove me behind him again.
“And if I want to help her, you can’t stop me.” Jessica was inspecting her fingernails, still lounging in Prime Nial’s lap as if she didn’t have a care in the world. Had she lost her mind? Finally, she leaned back and tilted her head up at Ander, batting her eyelashes at him without shame. “Or, you cavemen could just stop being stubborn and help a girl out.”
We all turned to Prime Nial, Jessica turning to stare at him next with so much love on her face I had to look away. He looked from her to Leo, and finally, his gaze rested on me. Sighed. Even ran a hand over his face. For someone who was half Hive parts, he looked like a guy who was completely pussy-whipped. Prime or not. “It’s dangerous.”
“Too dangerous,” Leo protested, giving me a squeeze that was far from playful.
Prime Nial raised his hand. “It’s dangerous, Trinity,” he warned. “These are highly skilled warriors. Leo’s sworn not to speak of his role, but under the circumstances, sharing a little was understandable. My role allows me a little more lenience. The Shadow Unit.” He sighed once again. “They are sent into Hive occupied territory to do reconnaissance. They know a hundred ways to kill with their bare hands and are skilled in the use of every weapon from every star system. Your mate may seem mild, but he’s anything but.”
I blushed, because while he was talking about his cool demeanor, I was immediately thinking of his wild fucking.
“You are not baiting a wild animal,” Nial continued. “But a highly intelligent, trained killer.”
Leo. My Leo was one of these warriors? He’d gone into Hive territory alone? Been sent into the most dangerous, deadly, horrifying places in the war and told to fend for himself. To kill, over and over?
The vision of Leo somewhere, tortured and alone, like he’d been in that cage, filled my mind and I turned around in his hold, wrapped my arms around his waist. “I’m so sorry, Leo.”
Ander grunted, totally ruining the moment. “Nial tells you a monster is hunting you, and all you can think about is comforting your mate?”
He wasn’t my mate, not really. Not yet. We hadn’t gotten married, or bonded, or whatever kind of weddings they had on Alera. But he was mine right now. And while I seemed to rule his dick, we were just… going out. Seeing each other. Hell, hooking up. But mated? Not quite. Still, love didn’t care about terms, did it?
Ander was right about one thing. “I don’t care if this Nix guy kills me. Not if you catch him. Find out who has my mother. Protect my sisters.”
“No. Fuck, no.” Leo’s arms tightened around me until I fought to breathe. “I forbid this. No. You will remain here, on Battleship Karter. I will hunt him down. I will kill him. You will not risk yourself.”
Sighing, I wiggled until he loosened his hold a little and I could look up into his eyes. “How long would that take? Weeks? Months? I don’t have that kind of time. My mother doesn’t have that kind of time. I can’t wait. There’s too much at stake.” Turning to Prime Nial, the most powerful military commander in the galaxy, I begged him to see reason. “The four spires are lit. The entire planet knows my sisters and I exist. Whoever has my mother surely must know by now. They might kill her if they think she is no longer necessary.”
He stared at me, his whiskey-colored eyes thoughtful. “Why did they take her after all this time? Why did they travel all the way to Earth and drag her, as you said, from her bed? Why not cut her throat and be done with it? Take the throne? Why are they keeping her alive?”
Leo cleared his throat. “The royal gemstones. Does she have them?” He looked down at me, waiting for the truth.
I didn’t lie, but I couldn’t tell him everything either. “No. But she hid them.”
“Do you know where they are?” he asked.
Swallowing hard, I nodded, but didn’t speak.
“Where are they?” Jessica asked. “We should go get them and bring them back to the Karter. If they’re that valuable, if someone kidnapped the queen for them, then we can lock them up. They’ll be safe until you get this all figured out.”
She was watching me, the sharpness in her gaze in complete contrast to her earlier contentment. But then, that was the main reason I’d fled from Leo’s lap. It was too easy to feel safe there. Safe and warm and consumed with the need to get him naked. Inside me. To forget about all the bad stuff, the bad guys. How my mother could be hurt or dying. And my sisters. Were they well? Safe?
I sighed. “They have remained safely hidden for nearly thirty years. I don’t think they are in any danger of being found.”
Leo narrowed his eyes. “And you know, for certain, they remain safe?”
“Yes.” I’d seen them. Held them for a moment when I’d gone to the place my mother had told us about. That only she and her three daughters knew of. To prove they were there, that they really were still safe. The gemstones were concealed in a hidden compartment inside the citadel. And beyond that, the secret compartment lay within a hidden room below the sanctum. A puzzle within a puzzle. “Whoever holds her will not learn their whereabouts. My mother will not tell them where they are. She’d die first, to protect us.”
She was strong. Strong enough to survive. To flee across an entire galaxy and start a new life while pregnant with me, mourning my father. Brave enough to risk her heart and fall in love again. Have more children. Prepare them for the future we now faced. I couldn’t imagine it. “Queen Celene is the strongest woman I know.”
They didn’t ask again and relief flooded me. I didn’t want to fight. Not about this. They had to trust me in this, and fortunately, they were. Perhaps it was because it was the queen, herself, we were referring to. Nial was giving her the respect and deference she deserved in knowing how to rule her planet, to keep it safe from any kind of threat.
“You are determined to do this?” Leo asked. I had to wonder, in this moment, if he saw me as Princess Trinity, and not as Trinity, the one he called mate. I respected him for that, for he’d said he would bow to me as princess. He would defer to my judgment, at least in this.
And my heart grew even more in love with him for it.
“Yes.” I looked up into his eyes, held his gaze. “I need your help, Leo. Please. Don’t fight me on this. Use me to draw him out. I’m willing to take the chance. I have to protect my sisters.”
“It is my job to protect you, but in this, I can’t. I will never forgive myself if anything happens to you.” And that was the crux of it. But this wasn’t just about me. It was about Faith and Destiny and the future of Alera.
“Then kill him first.”
Prime Nial met my gaze, unblinking. “We need a plan. As Prime, I can’t allow you two off this ship until we have a plan in place.”
“I agree. My mate doesn’t leave this ship until I know I can protect her. Trinity is everything to me. She is my life.”
“We understand. Jessica is ours just as Trinity belongs to you.” Ander’s deep rumble was not condescending or judgmental but completely honest and without a hint of embarrassment. The way Ander held her, touched her. The way she relaxed in his arms and just let herself be. Hell. I was envious.
But maybe I didn’t need to be.
Leo’s open declaration of absolute and complete devotion to me caught me off guard. The things he said to me in private I took in stride, attributing his words to passion in the heat of the moment. But calmly, coldly stating that I belonged to him, that he would die to protect me, that I was his everything? And to Prime Nial and Ander, two of the most powerful males in the galaxy?
He was everything I’d ever dreamed of in a man, and yet, what did I have to offer him? Danger at every turn? An uncertain future and years of war? An assassin hunting me and my sisters? And as much as I wanted to curl up in his lap and let everything go like Jessica had, I didn’t have that luxury.
I was a princess. And if my mother were not found, if the light of her spire went out, I would be queen. I would never truly be able to put his needs above the needs of my people. My mother had drilled into me the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one. Justice. Law. Honor. Duty. I had a duty to my people to consider their wants and needs above my own.
Above Leo’s.
And right now, what my people needed was a plan that would help find my mother and keep me—and my sisters—from getting killed.
The discussion was heated and went on for several hours. I learned much about Leo and his skill, about his analytical and merciless mind. He listened to me without interruption. He considered my words carefully before responding. All of these males did. And Jessica? I learned she was ex-military, a journalist who’d been framed and sent to jail. Despite curling up in Ander’s lap like a kitten, she was every bit as tough as her two mates. And somehow, they made it work. The three of them.
They gave me hope that, perhaps, Leo and I could figure out a way to make this thing work between us.
Everything he did and said, every movement and tilt of his head, the way he backed down Ander and Prime Nial both when he disagreed with them? Or I did… everything made me want him more. Double damn, I was still in heat. My Ardor flaring up like a hungry beast inside me. And there was only one male I wanted touching me, heating me up, making me burn.
The discussion seemed as if it would never end, as my condition worsened and I squirmed on the couch. But after going through the plan—start to finish—one last time, even Ander seemed content.
Ander cleared his throat. “Are you certain, Leo, that you do not wish for us to contact the IC, have them send some additional warriors from the Shadow Unit? They would make this easier for you.”
Leo shook his head. “No. Their arrival would only put Nix on alert. I would not risk additional danger to my mate. I promise, I will handle this when we return to Alera.” He turned, looked down at me, ran his thumb across my lips. “The plan is sound, but I need some more time with my mate before we go back. Her Ardor has not yet cooled.”
Heat rushed through my cheeks and I knew I was blushing, but I was mesmerized by the light touch of his thumb tracing the sensitive curves of my mouth. He was right. Even with talk of luring out an assassin, I needed him still. His energy. His cock filling me up. His body blanketing me with heat.
Him. I needed him.
“On that note—” Jessica laughed and hopped out of Nial’s lap. She was smiling as she walked out the door. Both Prillon warriors bowed to me and followed behind.
Blinking, I tried to think, to say something to clear my head. “Jessica, she’s a wild one. No wonder she has two mates.”
Leo’s smile made my heart dissolve into a puddle of melted goo in my chest. “She is nothing compared to you, mate. Nothing. And if anything goes wrong with this plan, anything at all, I will spank you until you can’t walk.”
I laughed, my pussy clenching at his words, my breath quickening along with my pulse. “Go ahead, Leo. Spank me. Make me burn. It won’t stop me. You know I love it. It makes me crazy. Makes me need you more.”
“You will be the death of me.” His voice was hoarse as he lowered his head to kiss me.