Page 111 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

111

Go Ahead

V alor

“Change her mind!” Braveheart hisses. He’s cutting his eyes at me with an accusing gaze, as if I’m not already trying desperately to use my psychic powers on that female to get her to do my bidding.

“Trying,” I say, then refocus my attention. The farther down the hall she walks, the harder it becomes to make contact with her mind.

When she returns, walking toward us, I sharpen my concentration. As she stands outside Gronk’s cell, I blast her with the mind-command to put the three of us on the same team. No matter what I do, I can’t slide inside her mind.

“Not working,” I say through gritted teeth.

The waves of terror coming off Willow don’t help. When I spare a glance at her, her eyes are wide in fright and her body’s trembling.

“Maybe Halckons have some genetic resistance to my powers,” I say, unable to think of another reason I can’t force her to do my bidding.

“Fuck!” Braveheart says, his nostrils flaring.

Willow says nothing. Instead of accusing me, or shaming me for my lack of success, she’s lost in her own emotions and trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.

I sweep her into my arms and lie down with her on my front. After gathering the blanket and covering us both, I smooth her hair and say, “The Feds taught me how to do mind control on many species, from close quarters and far away. Just because I couldn’t manipulate Zedd, doesn’t mean I can’t control the guards. When they separate us into teams tomorrow, I’ll have many more chances to keep us together. Don’t count us out, Willow.”

She tips her head to look at me and sniffles.

“There’s no room for you to sleep by my side like you do with Braveheart, but do you want to stay like this? I’ll calm you.”

Willow

I shouldn’t do this. Shouldn’t lie on top of Valor as if I belong here. Shouldn’t be so needy. But having his arms around me feels like I’m being cuddled by the galaxy’s biggest, warmest Teddy Bear. I’m not leaving.

He seems confident he can mind-control the guards, but if he could, wouldn’t he have done that ages ago?

And Gronk? Out of all the guys in this prison, I get a psychotic chronic masturbator with really long fangs? I have no luck at all. Well, maybe my allotment of luck was used up when I was put in the cell with Valor and Braveheart.

Valor might not be able to control Jahzara Zedd, but his mind has power over me. At least it has power over my fear, because it’s melting away. Soon my muscles have relaxed and I’m molded to his body. Although our fronts are together, I’ve tipped my pelvis so our genitals don’t touch.

His fingers winnow through my hair, and I relax even more.

“How come you can talk now?” My voice sounds lazy even though my thoughts are still spinning.

“Unless I need to use them, I keep my psy powers closed. Keeping my mind open to them allows unwanted things into my mind, like other peoples’ pain. I’ve kept my mind open to keep you safe and send you calming energy, but it fatigues me. It’s easier to keep quiet and mostly watch. It wasn’t a strain to communicate with Braveheart. When you arrived, I let his voice communicate to you while I let my psy powers do the speaking. I’ve gotten stronger now that the device was removed.”

I nestle my head against his chest. He’s right. His body said everything I needed to hear. Over and over he let me know I’m safe with him.

I reach up and slide my finger over the tattoo that rides his pec. His skin is warm, warmer than mine, and soft even though it covers muscles made of iron.

“Anubis was called by his number until he named himself,” I say, changing the subject, wanting to talk about anything but what’s going to happen to us tomorrow. “How did you get your name?”

“I named myself.”

He’s still not much of a talker. I simply lift my eyebrow in question, though, and he explains, “During my first deployment, myself and nine comrades were sent into a firefight. I doubt our trainers expected any of us to walk out of there alive. Time and again, I risked enemy fire to rescue every fallen comrade who was still alive. I saved five lives that day.”

“You risked your life for them,” I say as I smooth my fingers along the blue stripe that rides his bald head where a mohawk would be. “You were a hero. Where I come from you’d get a medal of Valor. Oh. That’s where you got your name.”

I picture him emerging from the smoke of battle, carrying his friends to safety one at a time. Then my mind jumps to an image of him receiving a medal. My chest feels warm with pride at that.

“No medal. I was placed in a four-foot square cage that was hit with a shockstick.”

My eyes flare wide at that thought. I felt the bite of a shockstick through the bars only a few days ago. I don’t need a long memory to remember how painful that was.

“Why?”

“It was an independent thought. I wasn’t ordered to do it. As a geneslave we’re allowed no thoughts of our own.”

My tongue is thick in my mouth. I have trouble swallowing as my eyes fill with hot tears.

“You deserve a fucking medal,” I manage to whisper as my fingers graze his pec over his number. It’s exactly where his medal should have been pinned.

He combs his thick fingers through my hair.

“Since we were old enough to speak, we were told we had no emotions. That they’d built us that way so we could fight and die for the Federation. It was easy to believe it when my thoughts were muddied, when they filled me with chemicals to make me less than I was meant to be. But in battle, they blasted us with chemicals to allow us to reach our full potential.

“I couldn’t deny I had feelings, Willow, because looking back and seeing the battlefield littered with my fellow products—that’s what our handlers called us—crushed my heart. We were raised to compete with each other, to kill each other if necessary. But I’d bonded with many of those males. I’d miss them. I was sad.

“I realized I wasn’t a number. No matter what they told me, I had emotions and was not a robot. Definitely not their robot. I wanted a name. I gave this to myself.

“Valor. Not a number, but a male made of flesh and blood who possesses thoughts and emotions that belong to him and him alone. A male with the ability and strength to fight with honor and courage.”

I lift up to look at him, his face is shining with pride. I can picture him at the very moment he discovered his own mortality and acknowledged his individuality, personality, compassion, and worth. I wish I could have been there.

But I’m here now, and I want to connect with him on a deeper level. Reaching up, I cup his cheek with my palm and smile at him. Five minutes ago, I thought I’d never smile again, but I am.

“I’m proud of you, Valor. Your owners or handlers or whatever you call them may have punished you for being an amazing person, but they were wrong. You’re a good male.”

We’re lost in each other’s gaze. I’m captured by the swirling blue/purple of his third eye. He takes my hand in both of his and slides it slowly to his mouth, all the while watching me to see if I’m going to stop him. When I don’t object, he kisses the middle of my palm with his generous, warm lips. It sparks a trail of liquid fire from my palm all the way up my arm.

Slowly, like one would pet a timid deer, he keeps my hand in his tender grip and kisses the pad of my little finger, never releasing his gaze from mine. Then he bestows one soft, sweet kiss on the pad of each finger.

I’m mesmerized. Trying to discover how I feel about this. It’s wonderful. Sensual. Affectionate. No, more than that. I feel energy coiling in my belly, and lower. Capturing my bottom lip in my teeth is my only response to his actions as he pulls my hand closer to reach my thumb.

He kisses there once, twice, three times. The third time results in a soft, wet smacking sound.

What a terrible time to discover I have feelings for Valor. It’s not just affection. It’s arousal. I’m certain every male in the cellblock can smell it. It seems most alien species have that enhanced ability. I guess it’s an evolutionary asset.

When Valor’s cock twitches against my thigh, he winces. I imagine he’s like a junior high school boy who just discovered he had a working piece of equipment down there.

Sorry, I hear inside my head.

It brings a soft, tinkling laugh from my lips—a ridiculous thing to happen on the worst night of my life. But hearing him inside my head felt intimate and scary and… magical.

His other hand is still sifting through my hair, reassuring me.

Until an hour ago, I’d felt closer to Braveheart than Valor. Now everything has shifted.

Casting my gaze across the cell, I look at Braveheart. By his posture and the deflated look on his face, it’s clear he’s been watching. It’s as if those golden eyes dim all the way to their vast depths. Although his forehead has no brows, the ridge itself lowers dejectedly. His gaze flicks to my hips, as if he knows Valor’s cock is hard beneath me, twitching against me.

My mind is swimming. I’m certain I’m going to die tomorrow, possibly before the first contest is announced. I think Gronk might fuck me to death on the sidelines before the cameras start rolling. Those are horrible thoughts I want to push out of my brain.

Tomorrow, if I manage to live, these two males and I will be on different teams. Pitted against each other. I need to clear the air between us. I have a relationship with both these males.

Shimmying up Valor’s rock-hard body, I look him in the eyes, then freeze. It’s odd, with that third eye swirling at me. It’s beautiful, hypnotic.

Dipping my head, I bend slowly to kiss him. Just as a moment ago he gave me all the time I needed to indicate I wanted him to stop. I give him the same option. Instead of a headshake telling me to back off, he smiles at me.

Actually, I don’t know if I can call it a smile. It’s barely a movement at all, almost imperceptible. But it’s real. An invitation to bridge the distance between us. I dip my head lower and brush his lips with mine.

The touch is soft and warm and filled with promise. It’s so sensual I feel the sparks fly between us, lighting up parts of my body I’d hidden from my awareness for years. My nipples prick in arousal. I’ve moved and am now tilted at the perfect angle for them to scrape along his chest. I imagine it’s as exciting to him as it is to me.

My pelvis feels full and tight, and my clit quivers in anticipation of more . More is something we can never have. We’re in an open cell with a hundred alien guys smelling and listening and those who can are watching our every move. Nothing more is going to happen here tonight, which means it will never happen since I’m sure I’ll die tomorrow.

Because of my fatalism, I give in to some of my desires. I kiss him. It’s more than a brush of lip on lip. It’s filled with longing and words I’ll never be able to speak. This kiss sparks more arousal that flies along every muscle, cell, and fiber in my body.

My first kiss, he mindspeaks to me.

Not my first, Valor, but the best ever, I push the thought his way and know he receives it when his lips tip wide enough to show a white flash of teeth.

When I reach to palm his cheek again, I catch another glimpse of Braveheart. His brow is furrowed, and he looks bereft. His striped, purple shoulders are slumped and his gaze is focused on the floor.

I knew he was attracted to me. If I hadn’t noticed before we removed the dampening devices, it’s certainly been obvious since his cock started working. It twitches against my back every night, retreats sometimes when he sleeps, then reappears every morning when it feels hard as polished stone.

I think I’ve gone insane, Valor. I want to kiss Braveheart, too. I look to him for confirmation that I’ve truly lost my mind.

Then you should, he says without hesitation. He lifts his chin, pointing in the direction of Braveheart’s bed. I don’t own you.