Alright, she could agree with that. Narath was what the word “huge” was probably invented to describe. He had nearly filled the little med bay when he’d visited, standing as tall as the commander, but where Diego was lean and quick, Narath was a formidable powerhouse with arms so thick she would have struggled to encircle one with both palms even at the narrowest. She’d seen him shirtless too, unknown to him. A healer was often required to stand guard in case something went really wrong during practice with the huge machines that probably didn’t even have a safety function. There was a lot to see, for example how many muscle groups a warrior could have. So yes, there was definitely that.
Second of all, he growls, her mind continued – ever since her conversation with Seleya that had nearly cost Urenya her career she was constantly analyzing herself.
Now that was more difficult to understand, but it was true. She was irrationally fond of the way his already low voice dropped to almost inaudible levels when he was aroused – which certainly didn’t escape her attention when she’d been kneeling between his legs – and the way it made her skin shiver as though the sound waves literally caressed her.
And thirdly, of course, you practically fondled him.
Urenya didn’t start to protest that, because it would have been suggesting she wasn’t aware at all times of what she was doing with her patients, and besides, yes, her hands didn’t necessarily need to go up that high but…
And well, he’s huge.
Ah, yes. That too. She hadn’t actually been out to do anything inappropriate, she’d merely wanted to touch more of that solid, steel-like body in front of her. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t clearly been enjoying it. No, she’d brushed against his cock entirely by accident because she simply hadn’t thought it could, well, reach that far.
While it wasn’t the main reason she’d said no, a good amount of it was a fair certainty Narath would rip her in two.
So why couldn’t she still get the lovable giant out of her mind?
At the moment possibly because he was suddenly standing right in front of her, leaning on his battle spear, tall and strong and dressed for battle. The valor squares pulsing in his neck cast his features in an odd light, bringing the green of his eyes even more to the fore. His short black hair framed his face to make the whole picture even more enticing. Her mouth watered despite herself. A part of her that had been sleeping for a long time wondered if she might still take the risk of being split apart.
“The commander needs us on the surface,” Narath said, his voice deep and heavy already from the thought of the upcoming fight.
Urenya hoped she managed to hide her shiver.
“He tasked me to bring you to him. Promising to, and I quote, kill me with his bare hands if I let something happen to you.”
Urenya smiled. Wasn’t their commander, a man from whom more enemies ran than faced him, a sweetheart after all?
The Triumphant loomed over a world called TD-17 for short, Target Destination 17 in their official records. The Brions knew fairly little of the planet itself, except that the Galactic union didn’t like it. The union had tried to make contact with the species living on the planet but to no avail.
Urneya wasn’t sure whether they were incapable of communication or unwilling to communicate. It seemed the union didn’t know either, but what they did know was the species clearly didn’t like them. The GU couldn’t just ignore a possible threat, taking into consideration they’d found out about the strange Atherins, as they were called, when the creatures had attacked one of the Palian worlds. That happened to the union occasionally, Urenya knew. Not all the species in the galaxy were willing to share the stars with others. Compared to them, the Brions seemed like the lesser of two evils.
The GU had thought it a perfect opportunity for the Brions to demonstrate they could play with others and do what they did best in the meantime. Also something that happened a lot, which worked well for both parties. The union got rid of its enemies without bloodying its hands, especially the Palians who hated resorting to violence, and the Brions got to battle for a righteous cause.
The commander had kept Urenya safely aboard the Triumphant so far, and judging by the bodies she was sent – both Atherin and Brion – Urenya understood why. The Atherins were a roughly humanoid species, the expression borrowed from the Terrans but for the way their skin morphed. It gained density, making it difficult to pierce with even the most well-aimed blow, but fortunately Brion battle spears were built to endure almost anything. It was understandable why the union didn’t want to deal with the Atherins themselves.#p#分页标题#e#
So the Atherins were hard to fight even when you saw them, since morphing was so fast and so natural to them, while the Brions were not entirely sure yet they understood all the ways the aliens could morph. They knew they could grow their skin thicker or more dexterous. Problems arose from that they could also make it blend into the background, giving them the perfect camouflage. They’d lost quite a few lives to the simple misfortune of a warrior literally stepping on an Atherin and finding himself stabbed to death by what he thought was the ground. Brion senses were very keen, but TD-17 required being on the edge from the second you landed.
The commander was calling Urenya to heal those who had been wounded too deeply to transport safely, especially under fire from the Atherin ships, none of which luckily had the might to match the Triumphant. They could, however, pick off smaller vessels, which they did. So it was better to bring her down in a heavily guarded shuttle than risk sending all the wounded up to her.
Urenya’s heart was pounding out of her chest as she sat in the shuttle. Not because she was afraid of dying. It wasn’t the way the Brions thought. She simply had no desire to die yet and not in the least in the way she’d seen warriors die to the Atherins. They didn’t need weapons when they could make their own skin hard enough to use their nails and hands as death-bringers. Urenya shuddered, finding Narath’s hand around her the next moment. It was steady and strong, and above all, made her feel safer. She leaned into it without thinking, although she had been resolved to keep away mere hours ago.
She felt him tense at that, but she couldn’t pull away. It felt so right to be nestled in his arms. When he bent down to press his head against hers, she almost sighed of happiness, an emotion she hadn’t thought possible to just come out of nowhere, but there she was. On her way to a planet where every step could be her last, but at least she got to feel this before her possible doom – Narath strong and powerful at her back, holding her gently against him, so silent she could hear him breathing quietly, his head buried into her hair.
“Don’t worry,” he said at last. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Probably thinking that had been too emotional, he added,
“I mean, you heard what the Commander said. It wouldn’t be any fun to live through the Atherins and then get killed by him.”
Urenya smiled, believing him. The damned ride down to the surface was so short when it felt like a little moment in time she wouldn’t have minded staying in.
The doors opened, and she set her foot on TD-17’s surface. In truth, she was very shocked it didn’t try to kill her. Narath looked at her with such an indescribable smile it steeled her heart to keep going, knowing he’d be there to keep her safe from all harm.
CHAPTER FOUR
Narath
It was a terrible thing, really.
At the moment when Narath most had to pay attention to his surroundings – not for his own life alone, but for Urenya’s as well – he was tempted to simply stare at her. The moment in the shuttle had not been a good idea. It calmed her down, but it definitely didn’t help with his ever-present longing for her. She’d fit into his embrace as perfectly as he’d thought she would. Like she was made to be there.
Shaking his mind clear, he focused on their surroundings. The place they’d chosen for landing was as safe as it could be, a place where they’d walked around for hours, but considering reports from the other cites, even that was no guarantee. The Atherins were clever, and it seemed as though as individuals they had no sense of self-preservation. Some of them had waited very patiently for a long time to strike at their leaders when they’d almost felt safe. So there was no excuse for sloppiness now, not when he had Urenya to protect.
He looked at her walking beside him, beautiful in her easy calm. The first burst of fear had passed with setting foot on the planet’s ground and now she was walking more freely. Lightly, as if her feet hardly touched the surface. The flowing robes around her really made it look like she was floating. Even sunlight came through the heavy clouds that usually cast the whole place in gloomy darkness to make her shine in its rays.
Narath almost walked into the commander, who gave him his best look of complete fury. If he hadn’t known him for years and hadn’t caught on to the twinkle in his eye, Narath would have surely counted himself dead by that point.
“Nothing gets past my best, does it,” Diego Grothan said.