Victorious Star (36 page)

Victoria flinched back.
Bloody Fate, straight for the jugular! Let’s not even try to soften the blow!

“First Lieutenant Victoria Stark, do you wish to remain a nav-pilot?” Ravnos’s brows lowered. “Yes or no?”

Victoria nodded curtly. “Yes, sir, of course I want to remain a nav-pilot.”

Ravnos’s gaze was as hard as polar ice. “Let me rephrase that question. Are you willing to be my nav-pilot?”

His nav-pilot? Permanently?
Victoria stared at Ravnos. “You mean I have a choice?”

“Yes, you do, but before you answer, consider this…” Ravnos tapped the table with a finger. “You are Commander Seht’s legal property.” His gaze lashed out at Seht. “This is irrevocable. If you remain, you will be listed in the ranks as such and your
shen,
the command collar you currently wear, will remain on. His status is voluntary. If he leaves my ship, for whatever reason, I cannot and will not stop him from taking you with him.”

Victoria winced.
Great choice, I get to be a nav-pilot, but I go straight to the bottom of the food chain while I’m at it…
She looked over at Seht.

Seht’s gaze was hot and merciless. Possessive determination throbbed through the telepathic link.

Victoria swallowed and looked over at Ravnos. “Do I have another option?”

Ravnos narrowed his gaze at Victoria. “Yes. Should you choose to leave now, I will have the
shen
removed and do my best to see that you are placed as far away from
skeldhi
territory as possible. I cannot say that you will remain undetected, but I will arrange for as safe a haven as can be found.” He sighed. “I will warn you that with all four courses in you, surgical changes to your appearance are futile. Due to the nanite solution that was used to make you what you are, any change you make to your physical body will revert to your current appearance. You will always look like what you are, a
skeldhi rehkyt.”

Victoria knotted her hands together in her lap.
Terrific, slave or escaped and soon to be captured slave…
Neither future sounded all that appetizing. She could be a nav-pilot, but Seht’s personal property, or retire somewhere very likely colonial, and uncivilized, while waiting for the
mahfdhyt
to find her.

“Victoria…” Seht picked up his wineglass. “Do not doubt that the
mahfdhyt
will eventually find you. You cannot escape. You carry my mark in your blood.”

Ravnos glanced at Seht. “And mine.”

The stud-mark…
Victoria’s head came up. “You know?”

Ravnos snorted. “Of course. I knew when you drank my cum during second course that you would carry my DNA mark alongside his.”

Seht’s blue gaze raked her with possessive heat. “Even if you leave, sooner or later, you will be returned.”

Ravnos leaned back in his chair, but his hand lingered near the whip. “By then her piloting array will have been removed. She won’t be fit for anything more than a fuck-toy.”

Seht nodded. “I can live with that.”

“So can I.” Ravnos stared at Victoria. “But the question is, can Victoria?”

Victoria felt her temper flare hot and bitter. “You’re bastards, the both of you.”

Ravnos’s lip curled slightly. “We never pretended to be anything else. If you stay, that will not change. You will remain a nav-pilot, but you will still occupy my bed, and service us both whenever we require it, on duty or off, up against the wall, or bent over our knees to receive our punishment.”

She looked up at Ravnos with all the defiance she could muster. “Let me see if I have this straight. I can be your nav-pilot and your fuck-toy, or simply your fuck-toy?”

Ravnos nodded. “Correct.”

Victoria felt the breath leave her lungs. It was an impossible choice. If she stayed, she was theirs to do with as they liked, when they liked. If she left, the
mahfdhyt
would find her and return her. There was no way she could hide from them for long, not the way she looked. No matter what she chose, leave or stay, both choices ended here with Seht and Ravnos, as their property. The only real choice was to remain a nav-pilot or not.

She wrapped her hands around her middle and struggled to breathe past the despair and the anger crushing her heart between them. She had to work to find enough breath to speak. “Not much of a choice, is it?”

“No.” Ravnos closed his hand over the whip. “You removed any hope of remaining an Imperial officer yourself when you told Seht that you would allow him to change you to rescue the
Arcane.
Even then you still had a slight chance of returning to what you were, but the fourth course removed even that. With the fourth course, you lost any hope of ever being able to leave us.”

Seht raised a silver brow and smiled. “She did it willingly; in fact she demanded the change. I suspect that she wanted to be ours, even then.”

Victoria gasped. “That’s not true!”

Seht snorted. “Really? Are you quite sure? I’ve been privy to your thoughts for several days now and they have been quite revealing.”

Could it be true? Victoria stared down at her hands with her golden skin and silvery nails, the marks of her change. She hadn’t minded her change at all. She hadn’t even thought about it, much. It had never occurred to her what her changes would mean as an Imperial officer, what she would have to do to disguise her differences. Had she really wanted to stay, to belong to them all along?

Seht looked over at Ravnos. “She loves us, you know.”

Victoria closed her eyes against the fist of betrayal that clenched around her heart.
Bloody Fate, he didn’t have to tell him that…

“I love her too,” Ravnos said without a trace of a smile.

Seht nodded. “As do I.”

Victoria felt her heart turn over violently. They loved her…

Ravnos sighed. “But our form of love is not soft or romantic in any sense of the word.”

Seht looked down at his folded hands. “No, it’s not.”

Victoria tumbled their words in her heart. The love they shared wasn’t any form of love she had ever heard of. That they would kill for each other, and that they truly loved each other, she knew without doubt. But their love wasn’t gentle; it was violent, consuming and full of bittersweet and obsessive devotion often marked with pain and blood.

And they were willing to give her a place in their love…

Victoria reeled as truth struck. She wanted it. She wanted that place in their love. Part of her had always wanted to belong to them. The dark hidden part that reveled in every conquering moment when one or the other had made her scream out her passion as they fucked her without mercy. The deep secretive part that smeared cream on her thighs as Seht struck her ass to violent lust. The feral part that wanted their scent on her skin, even if she had to make them bleed for it. The part that was willing to kill, and to die, for them. She had never felt this consuming visceral need for anyone, but she felt it for both Seht and Ravnos.

She felt a door close in her soul, locking away everything that she had once been; that future, and that past, were gone. At the same time, another opened, revealing a future where she would never be alone again. They loved her, and her love for them was just as violent, bloodthirsty and obsessive as theirs. She belonged here, with them.

The tears slid down her cheeks unheeded. “I’ll stay.” Her hands trembled on the table.

Ravnos leaned forward and gripped Seht’s whip with both hands. “Are you absolutely sure? Seht’s status is voluntary; yours won’t be. I will not make this offer again.”

Seht stared at her with bared teeth. “You will not be permitted to leave us, ever.”

“I know.” Victoria wiped her cheeks and looked up at them both. “I don’t think I could have left you anyway, either of you. I love you both.”

Ravnos gave her a slight smile. “I still expect absolute obedience.”

Victoria nodded and eyed the whip he held. “Yes, sir.”

Seht leaned back in his chair and lifted his chin at Ravnos. “You do realize that I would have only given her a week’s head start before I sent the
mahfdhyt
after her.” He turned to Victoria. “I simply will not part with her.”

Ravnos shook his head “I figured as much, possessive bastard…”

Seht raised his brow. “I never pretended to be anything else.”

Ravnos lowered his brows. “You’re a pain in the ass too.”

Seht gave him a perfectly bland expression. “I can be.”

“Speaking of pains in the ass…” Ravnos rose from his chair. He picked up the ball with the straps and squeezed it in his palm. “Now that that’s over, we have unfinished business.” He looked at Seht, then Victoria. “Strip, both of you. Now.”

Seht winced and pulled his coat from his shoulders. “This one is going to hurt.”

“Oh yes…” Ravnos nodded as he tugged off his coat. “It’s going to hurt a lot.” He delivered a blood-curdling smile.

Victoria shivered as she pulled off her waistcoat. Her breeches were already soaked through with anticipation.

Ravnos stopped at the tall writhing female statue carved from black stone. He set his hand on a massive black breast and raised his brow at Seht. “Do I need to use restraints?”

Seht stood on the right side of the statue and clenched his jaw. “How brutal do you intend to be?”

“Pretty damn.” Ravnos tilted his head thoughtfully. “Screaming level.”

Seht winced and crossed his arms over his chest. “You may want to. I don’t know how much control I have.” He tilted his head at Victoria on his immediate right. “And you’ll definitely want to restrain that one. She doesn’t like to see me hurt.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Victoria raised her brow at Seht. “After all the stunts you pulled on the station I have a lot of reasons for wanting to see your ass kicked.”

Ravnos’s brows shot up. “Really?”

Seht’s mouth curled up at Victoria. “If you are wise, you will keep your mouth shut, pet.”

Victoria glanced at Ravnos’s interested expression and realized that he was probably right. Her captain would likely make her repeat everything just so he could see it for himself. Thank Fate Syrhus and his
rehkyt
were nowhere near.

Seht smiled suddenly.
I’m thinking of a quick visit home, perhaps a week or two. Think you could handle a week as a
seysehn,
a fuck-toy? I’m pretty sure Syrhus would insist on trying you himself, along with his pretty pair of
seysehn.

Victoria glared at him.
You wouldn’t…

Seht raised his brow.
Wouldn’t I?

Ravnos shook his head. “All right, Seht, spit it out, what did you say that brought the neck hairs up on Victoria?”

Seht smiled to chilling effect. “I offered to take her with me when I go home for a short visit.”

Victoria growled. “Offered, my ass!”

Seht nodded. “That too.”

“Fate, you two…” Ravnos rolled his eyes and patted the breast under his palm. “Seht, get over here and assume the position while I get the restraints.” He jabbed a finger at Victoria. “You kneel right where you are with your hands behind your back, and don’t pick on him!”

Victoria’s mouth fell open. “Me? Pick on him?”

Ravnos walked over to his closet shaking his head.

Seht looped his arms around the writhing statue’s waist and gripped his wrists. He pressed his forehead against the smooth stone, then looked over at Victoria. “You do know what’s going to happen?” he said in a soft whisper.

Victoria dropped to her knees on the soft carpet and sat back on her heels. “I’m guessing that he’s going to use the whip?” She clasped her wrists behind her.

Seht nodded. “On me.” He frowned. “Open your knees a lot wider.”

Victoria spread her knees wider and smelled the scent of her lust perfuming the air around her. From where she knelt on the carpet angled near the statue’s side, she had a perfect view of Seht’s broad and muscular back and lean flanks. If she leaned back just a little, she could also see his erect cocks arching up between the statue’s splayed thighs. The heads were purple with urgency. She could feel the thrum of fear through their link but she could also feel a violent throb of anticipation laced with lust. He was both terrified and eager to be whipped.

Seht’s breathing deepened.
It’s not the whipping I anticipate, it’s the fucking that comes after it.
He licked his lips and his eyes blazed with feral heat. “I can’t wait to hear you cum with his cock up your ass.”

Victoria flinched back. “Bloody Fate!” However, there was no denying the spat of moisture that formed in her core.

Ravnos strode back over with a smile flirting across his expression. He grasped Seht’s wrists and fastened a cuff around each. “Keep them there.”

Seht trembled as the cuffs sizzled through his augmentations. He shifted against the statue. He was free to move everything but his wrists. “I hope you brought a towel. She’s going to soak your carpet.”

Ravnos snorted. “I brought a plate.” He pulled a small dish from the back of his pants, where he had tucked it into his belt.

Victoria gasped.
A plate?

Ravnos knelt in front of her and placed the small dish directly under her crotch. “Let’s see just how wet you get.” He turned to Seht. “Hold her.”

Seht turned his head to face Victoria. “Stay there, exactly in that position.”

Victoria felt a shimmer in her augmentation. She wiggled her fingers, but she was utterly bound in her kneeling position. “Damn…”

“And this is for you.” Ravnos held up the ball with the straps. “Know what this is?”

Victoria shook her head. She’d never seen anything like it.

Ravnos snorted. “Open your mouth, wide.”

Victoria opened.

Ravnos shoved the ball into her open mouth. “This is a ball-gag.” He fastened the straps behind her head. “The only screams I want to hear are his.” He patted her head and rose to his feet.

Seht flinched. “Great Mother, you expect her to scream? How bad do you intend to slice me?”

Ravnos walked over and leaned against the statue to gaze into Seht’s eyes. “Let’s just say I missed the smell of you.” He smiled.

Seht swallowed. “Blood.”

“That too.” Ravnos swept Seht’s long silver mane over his right shoulder to rest inside his arm. “I want Victoria to see your tears,” he whispered then brushed his cheek with his lips in a soft kiss. He swept his fingers down Seht’s spine, then stepped behind him and uncoiled the whip with a practiced flick of the wrist. It cracked loudly.

Both Seht and Victoria jumped.