Alien General's Fated (Brion Brides 5)(45)

Aria was willing to admit that it did sound like her.

"But you did nothing wrong."

"Did I now?" the general asked, finally turning to look her in the eyes.

His smile was kind, but the look in his green eyes was hard and cold.

"I somehow doubt the union   is going to see it that way."

"You are a hero. You saved us all, you saved Ilotra. You killed the hive mind."

Ryden walked to her, running his hand across her naked legs. Her gown had been so damaged she'd cut off the burnt, torn lower half. That left her legs uncovered, something the general completely approved of.#p#分页标题#e#

"I don't think that is the term they'll use."

"I'll make them see," she said stubbornly.

"See what?" Ryden asked, sliding his hand under her gown, up her thighs and so maddeningly close to her pussy that Aria couldn't help but moan.

The general's answer was a deep, guttural chuckle. She loved the sound of that, but Aria wanted more. To hear him whisper her name, to hear him groan in pleasure as he took her, to forever imprint his voice into her mind.

She shook her head clear. All of it would come, soon.

"That you saved them."

The general held out his hand and Aria took it. Gently, so as not to move her broken hand too much, Ryden pulled her to her feet. He led her to the screen, his arm around her waist. Aria hoped, probably in vain, that the man would never know how much his touch turned her on.

Even the hint of his strength—his firm chest pressed against her back as he held her—was all she needed to feel how wet her panties were.

The sight that greeted them wiped that sensation from her mind.

Ilotra lay before them, still smoking, charred. Everywhere she looked, there were repairs going on, works that would take months to complete and even then normal life wouldn't return to the moon for years. Who knew how long it would take for them to forget? Aria hoped that the ones who were in charge knew to purge all signs of the attack, and not make the fortress a museum for the war it suffered.

"Do you think they'll agree with you?" Ryden asked quietly, with the morbid sense of humor Aria had always found only with the Brions. "Seeing that."

"Those are the consequences of war," she replied.

This time, the general laughed for real. Aria felt it vibrate through the body holding her in his embrace.

"I wish I could somehow tell the woman I first met on Ilotra that she would say that before the war was over," the general said, clearly amused, before continuing. "Don't get me wrong. I agree with you. I do not regret the decisions I made. I feel no guilt, no remorse, no regret. All I'm saying is that to the corrupted politicians down there, this does not look like winning. And neither does that."

Aria turned her gaze toward the Enor, sitting patiently beside the Brion flagship, where it had been for a whole day now. With the hive mind's death, the surviving Clayors were left leaderless, but also mindless. They were barely better than confused children, Ryden had said. To kill them would have been a disgrace to the Brions.

So they had decided to gather all the Clayors on the flagship and escort them back to their home world. There they would leave them, to whatever life they could lead without the hive mind to rule them. The Palian fleet had volunteered to pilot the Enor home, since Ryden had refused to play guardian to their recent enemies as firmly as he'd refused the union  's order to kill them.

"Now they want the Clayors dead," he'd growled when the message came from Ilotra.

Aria had been worried that the general would exact some kind of revenge on the ambassadors, but he did not. He simply ignored them, giving his own commands.

"The Palians understand," Aria offered.

Ryden nodded. "They always do. It's an annoying habit of theirs."

Aria felt a smile tug at her lips. Now that they were finally free from the tension, the dangers of war, she could finally see the man who was her fated. And in place of the savage she'd feared, Aria found pretty much the man she had already gotten to know.

Without the constant threat, the only thing that changed about Ryden was his intensity. He was calmer now, more open. Or maybe it was simply her. After all, she was his gesha. There would be no secrets between them.

The thought still scared her a bit, but facing the very real danger of losing Ryden forever, Aria had come to the conclusion that she couldn't live without him. Not only couldn't, but she refused to even try out of some irrelevant notion of modesty. She was his and he was hers.

They stood in silence for a moment, watching the system slowly return to normal life. Ryden hadn't been down on the surface, preferring to stay aboard the Conqueror with her. His second and the Koliar warlord Stavor were overseeing military matters down on the moon, now that the control of Ilotra had been handed back to the council.

As much as Aria had understood, the first issue on their agenda was Ryden, so the general probably wasn't that far off in his estimate that the war hadn't ended yet.

"Conflicts end quickly," he'd told Aria. "Wars end when politicians have argued through all the details that barely matter."#p#分页标题#e#

In the face of such stupidity, Aria hadn't felt the need to go down to Ilotra either. The moon was a sorry sight from up there, but at least she didn't have to face her fellow ambassadors, some of whom she would have strong words with at some point.

She was startled from her thoughts when the general slid his hands over her breasts and brought her into a firm hug. Strong arms turned her around to look her fated in the eye. He wore a devious smirk, but underneath Aria saw true feeling.

"No matter what they say, I will care nothing for it. I only wanted one thing from this war and I have it."





CHAPTER FORTY

Aria



She was dreaming of him.

In her dream, Aria was aware of her earlier fantasies. To her delight, she found them all coming true. Waking up in the morning to find the general's firm, skillful fingers stroking her most intimate depths, bringing her to new heights of pleasure...

Aria awoke aboard the Conqueror on the third day after the conflict had ended, blissfully happy in the general's quarters. She felt the softness of the pillow under her head and the solid body holding her in an embrace. It was the best way to wake up, if anyone asked her.

Her cast had come off the day before, to her surprise, glee, and not a small amount of humiliation because it was the same healer and she remembered Aria as her only Terran patient. Naturally she also recalled her not believing that a broken bone could be fixed that fast. In fact, the healer's exact words had been something along the lines of humans being easier to repair than Brions.

She didn't know if she should take that as a compliment or not.

Aria was wondering what had woken her up when a moan slipped over her lips and she was suddenly completely awake. Apparently her dreams had been very directly inspired by her reality. Ryden wasn't holding her gently in his arms as she'd thought, waking up straight into a daydream.

The general's hands were hungrily caressing her body, pushing the shirt she slept in—his—up to get better access to her tits, and groping them. She felt his lips pressing hot, ferocious kisses on her neck and above all things, felt his cock pressed against her thighs, huge and hard.

The day before, she'd assured him that they could make their binding official as soon as she was feeling well enough. Apparently Ryden had some sort of a sixth sense to tell when she was recovered enough, because Aria couldn't feel even one pinch of pain amidst the pleasure.

Her moan signaled the general that she'd awoken. He rolled over to lie on top of her, the most gorgeous man in the galaxy looking down at Aria with those wild green eyes that she wouldn't have minded drowning in. And she was, fast.

"You don't waste time, do you?" she asked, teasing, all the while perfectly aware that her body was rubbing against the general's without shame.

Ryden gave her an equally mocking glare, thrusting his hips against her belly in the promise of things to come. Aria whimpered at the motion, rising up to accept a fierce kiss from his lips.

"I don't," the general admitted when they had to break for air. "But I assure you, I have no intention of making this fast."

For a second, his eyes were very serious, making Aria pull back a bit as well.

"All those moments when I thought I would lose you," Ryden said, the weight of his words plain in his voice. "I didn't think of how good it would have been to fuck you again. I thought of how good it would be to enjoy your body like it deserves to be."

Aria didn't know how to respond to that. She was still getting used to the brutal Brion honesty that manifested between bonded couples. They kept nothing from each other, but she was not Brion. She worried if Ryden would mind, but the general didn't seem to expect any comment from her. He merely regarded her with softness Aria found even more unsettling than the honesty.

The kiss that followed proved that the softness was only present on the emotional level. Ryden bent forward to capture her lips with a fervor she'd only seen in him when he was fighting. The kiss was strong and purposeful and as irresistible as he was. His tongue slipped into her mouth, tasting her. Aria moaned, feeling like she was prey being attacked, finding she had no objection to that.

On the contrary, she loved it, and basked in the way the general brought one hand into her hair, pulling her head up to press their lips even closer together. His lips were demanding, controlling, dragging her along with the current that he was, tasting the sweetness of her mouth. Aria was helpless to resist, all the more because she didn't want it to stop, ever.#p#分页标题#e#