Page 23 of Fifth (Intergalactic Warriors #5)

WHEN HANNAH drifted, Locus lether.

She woke to his mouth at her shoulder and heat stroking low. The knot had eased at some point, loosening with a gentle release that left her aching and empty enough to whimper when he slidfree.

Heat sparked at once. The need came back like a tide returning to shore. She thought she’d be too tender. She wasn’t.

He took her on her side the second time, the movement slow and deep, letting the mounds do their work, rolling that pulsing ring over every tender place inside her until she was shaking.

He warned her softly when the knot would begin to thicken again and the snug hold sent her off the edge faster than before.

The third time came later, lazy and sweet, with her astride him.

The low-hanging ring of his testicles rubbed her clit with each forward rock.

She chased that friction shamelessly, riding until the pulsing mounds hammered her G-spot and heat climbed her spine.

Rolled to her back, she took his kiss until the world blurred at the edges.

Ahand hitched her knee high and a deeper angle punched breath from her chest. His focus stayed on her face, tracking the instant he gave her exactly what she needed.

Hips drove to meet hers. They broke together, her name caught in his harsh voice.

She dozed in the loose cradle of his body after that. The room smelled faintly of skin and salt and something that was only them. When she shifted, he shifted with her, bringing the bedding up and tucking her into the curve of hisside.

“I am going to ask you something again,” he said after a quiet while.

“Okay.”

“Do you want to try to see your family soon?”

The question was a knife and a balm together. She didn’t pretend bravery. “Yes. Iwant to. Though, it scares me.”

“We will not rush,” he said. “We will do what keeps you safe.”

She rolled to face him, tracing patterns across his broad chest. “Will you come with me?”

“I will not leave you.”

“What if they are afraid of you?”

“I will soften what they see. Ican adopt an Earthen appearance with lighter eyes, gentler lines, and whatever eases their fear. They may ask what they need to ask. You may answer what you will. You may ask them for whatever you need.”

Tears pricked again. “Will they know you’re an alien?”

“Not unless you wish it,” he replied.

“What about Sixth? Is he going to let us do this?”

“Sixth is not our enemy,” he said, calm. “He is my commander. He is also my warrior brother. He will help choose the safest path.”

She lay quiet, listening to the measure of his heart. The word mate had always sounded like a collar to her. In his mouth, it was a vow that asked her to speak back or refuse. She wanted to speak back. She wanted to choose.

“Can I ask you something?” shesaid.

“Affirmative.”

“What do you want?” Her fingers spread over his chest, needing truth that wasn’tduty.

He didn’t look away. “I want you safe. Iwant you fed and warm and laughing. Iwant your affirmative, spoken and unafraid. Iwant your mouth. Iwant your hands on me. Iwant the way you argue when you think I am wrong. Iwant your stubbornness. Iwant your courage. Iwant your mind against mine. Iwant to go first into danger for you and return to your bed. Iwant your scent on my skin. Iwant you in my life.”

She lifted up on an elbow and studied him with serious eyes. “I’m not some submissive woman. If you expect me to stay with you, Ineed to function in your world. In your universe and galaxies.”

“I do not want a submissive woman,” he said. “I want you. Iwant you beside me. You will stand where I stand. You will tell me when I forget your world. And I will teach you mine.I want you for my mate.”

“Why?” The word landed like a stone in a clear pool. Love had never been named between them. Was that what thiswas?

“Because you chose me when you had reasons not to,” he said.

“Because you look at me and do not flinch. Because my body recognized you and my mind agreed. Because I am quiet inside when you are near. Because hunger for you does not end when I leave the bed. Because I think in years now, and every year I want has you in it.”

She tested the shape of a word too big and exactly right. “Do you love me?”

“I have never lived my life with that word in it,” Locus said, steady.

“But I know what it is in my body. It is choosing you, every time. It is doing whatever keeps you alive. It is standing between you and harm. It is wanting your joy more than my pride. If your word for that is love, then affirmative. Ilove you.”

Heat rose behind her eyes. The feeling wasn’t girlish or small.

It was steady, adult, earned. She tested the word against what he had given: choosing her, standing between her and harm, wanting her joy over his pride, and it held.

Breath steadied. His palm warmed at her back as if her body already knew the answer.

She saw the years he had offered, not as a dream but as days filled and kept. No bargaining, no disguise.

Silence held. She let herself look in both directions—forward with him, and back without him.

Back looked like Earth in gray light. Work and noise and the shape of rooms that didn’t fit.

Acellphone with his name never on it. Abed that stayed cold down the middle.

She saw herself walking streets that wouldn’t know him, making coffee, answering questions, pretending her body didn’t remember his heat and the way he said her name, like it belonged in his mouth.

Years stacked like blank pages. The ache of never touching him again would be like a promise left unfinished, sweet and hurting atonce.

At long last, she named what was blossoming inside her. “I love you, too.”

His palm warmed at her back. “If you are sent away,” he said, voice low, “I will take my Final Flight back.”

Her head snapped up. “What does that mean?”

“It means I will go home to my beginning and end my years,” he answered, simple and devastating. “I will not live another year, let alone hundreds, without you.”

Terror slid under her ribs. “Hundreds,” she said, almost choking on the number. “Locus, I’m human. Idon’t live for hundreds of years.”

He smiled, gentle enough to steady her. “You will, if you remain with me. Our medical care will lengthen your life until it matches mine. You will not grow old alone. We will live the same length. We will rise and sleep for as long as we are given.”

Her breath stuttered. She let the thought settle, the terror, the impossible relief of not having to count down an end that would separate them. She turned it over and it clicked into place like a lock findinghome.

“If you say affirmative, it binds for life,” he said, no softness in the truth. “You may withdraw your affirmative, and I will release you. Iwill not hold you by force.”

Hannah let the picture of Earth fade. She chose the room she was in, the man in front of her, the years she hadn’t believed she could’ve. “I’m not withdrawing,” she said. “I’m choosing. From this point forward, for the rest of my life, Ichoose you.”

For the first time a grin swept across his face. “This is quite satisfactory. Iaccept.”

“Good.” She pushed him until he rolled to his back, then swung over his hips and settled. Heat licked through her. “Then let me love you my way.”

Her thighs wrapped his hips and set the rhythm first. He answered with three brutal-perfect strokes, then went flat at her shove and let her take it the way she needed.

She caught his wrist and pressed it into the bedding above his head.

He held for her while she worked him deeper, dragging his other hand to the back of her neck.

He cupped there, warm and sure, not pushing, only claiming.

At her nod his fingers tightened just enough to send a shiver down her spine. At her tug he eased, leaving the lead in her hands. Each drop dragged the pulsing mounds along his length over every tender place inside her, the ring rubbing her clit whenever she rocked forward.

His gaze burned up her body, feral heat leashed for her. “Show me what you want.”

She showed him. Hips rolled and found the exact angle that made pleasure spear up her spine.

Palms flattened on his chest and she rode deliberately to experience every pulse of those mounds, then faster, chasing the rasp of that ring across her clit.

Sweat dampened her temples and breath hummedlow.

He lay open beneath her and watched, possessiveness sharpened by hunger.

Then he curled up under her to taste her throat and mouth without breaking her rhythm.

She kept him deep inside until the world smudged at the edges.

Heat climbed, locked. The knot swelled at the base and caught, holding her down on him for a breathless stretch.

He steadied her hips while the pulsing mounds squeezed in a punishing rhythm, milking her through the fall.

She broke and clung, shaking around him.

Only after the clamp eased did he soften his hold and let the knot release, and the way he whispered her name afterward set something deep in her finally, blessedly right.

Eventually hunger of the ordinary sort returned, heavier and insistent. Locus touched two fingers to the wall panel and a soft chime answered.

“Food,” he ordered. “Protein cooked, salted greens, root mash, pale fruit.” A seam in the wall breathed open and a service tray drifted out, steam curling in thin threads, the room filling with the bite of spice and a sweeter note beneath.

They propped themselves against the pillows. He set the tray between their thighs and carved a strip of seared meat, holding it to her mouth. She took the bite from his fingers, juice ran warm across her tongue, savory and clean. Her stomach answered with a groan she couldn’t hide.

His eyes went darker at the sound. “Good,” he said. “Eat.”