Warlord's Mercy: 4 (Barbarian Claims) (7 page)

“Your reasoning isn’t logical.” Tolui rolled his eyes.
“Appreciation of garments has no bearing on a female’s threat level.”

The Warlords inhaled sharply, their heads turning toward
him. “You must not have been bonded for many planet rotations.” Murad, the
never-serious Warlord, laughed. “Telling a female her reasoning isn’t logical
will result in a stun gun to the stomach.”

“Murad knows this truth from his own experience.” Khan’s
hands rested on the hilts of his daggers, the Warlord always prepared for
battle. “How many times has Gale stunned you?”

“How many planet rotations have I known her?” Murad grinned,
his sharp white teeth flashing in his tanned face. “She’s the fiercest
gerel
.”

“Ellie is the fiercest
gerel
,” Berke, the eldest
Warlord, rumbled. “She trained Gale and Zeta.”

Tolui said nothing, knowing the truth. Lea was the fiercest
gerel
,
his little human female willing to risk her life to protect him, a clone.

“The chest covering doesn’t fit,” Zeta shrieked. The little
female stood at the entrance to the sleeping chambers, her fingers clenched
into tight fists, her eyes blazing with emotion. “I’m bigger than a full-grown
unee.
”
The chest covering she wore was only partially fastened, the leather parting
over her round belly.

“Zeta is the fiercest,” the three other males stated, Tolui
silently agreeing with them.

He moved closer to Lea, prepared to protect her from the
logic-deprived female. Berke and Murad looked toward Khan as though expecting
him to steady Zeta’s volatile emotions. Khan froze in place, a flicker of fear
crossing his face, and Berke shoved him forward.

“You’re beautiful.” The Warlord tread soundlessly toward his
gerel
, stalking his female as a warrior would stalk a wild beast. “You
glow brighter than our sun.” Khan clasped Zeta’s wrists and pulled her into his
arms.

“I’m bigger than our sun.” Zeta glared up at Khan, twisting
out of his grip. “You did this to me.” She punched his shoulder, skin slapping
against skin. “None of my chest coverings fit and the garments in the replicator
are hideous.”

“I agree.” Gale, Murad’s curvaceous
gerel
, nodded her
blonde head.

“You’re not helping.” Khan glared at Gale. Gale grinned at
him. Khan shook his head and returned his attention to his
gerel
. “Your
new friend Lea could construct some garments for you.” He brushed strands of
hair back from Zeta’s flushed face.

“Could she?” Tolui growled, irritated that Khan dared to
issue commands to Lea.

“She could.” Khan met his gaze. “As her Warlord owes me
several ships.”

“That seems a fair trade.” Lea moved between them. “We’ll
choose some designs and I’ll construct them for you, Zeta.”

Zeta beamed, her fury dissipating as quickly as storm clouds
passing in front of the sun. Khan’s shoulders lowered, his relief palpable.

“Will you craft some garments for me also?” Gale asked.

“Yes,” Lea agreed, her voice lilting with excitement. “And
I’ll construct some garments for Ellie also.” She shared a smile with Berke’s
serious
gerel
.

Tolui frowned, not wishing Lea to have anything more to do
with the Warlords and their
gerels
. Less than a planet rotation ago,
they were the enemy and he didn’t trust them or the tenuous peace between their
people. “Lea—”

She pressed her body against his, her touch scattering his
protest. “I need to measure them,” she whispered. “Could you find a task for
the males to complete?” Tolui opened his mouth. “This could be the beginning of
trade between our planets.” Her small form vibrated with an excitement he
didn’t have the heart to dampen. “Please, Tolui?”

“They could hurt you,” he repeated his concern. “There are
three of them.”

“I’m armed.” She tapped the hilts of her daggers. “And they
will be naked.” Lea stroked his bare chest, her rough fingers spreading waves
of awareness over his body. “Trust me to protect myself, love.”

Love.
“I trust you.” Tolui sighed. “All of the males
are to leave the chambers now.” He pointed at the exit. “That includes you,
Khan.”

The Warlords embraced their
gerels
and left without
any protest. Tolui surveyed their living chambers. The females buzzed over the
garments, holding the hides up to their bodies. They appeared harmless but, in
the past, he’d seen so-called harmless beings kill.

“If you feel at all threatened, call for me.” Tolui stroked
Lea’s arm, reluctant to part from her.

“I’ll be well. Go.” She pushed him toward the exit. “Make
peace with the other Warlords.”

Tolui trailed the others through the tunnels, tracking them
silently. They taunted and joked with each other, the three of them brothers,
natural sons of the source who’d abandoned him.

In the past, his source’s abandonment had fueled Tolui’s
ambition. His past no longer had that power over him. Lea had found him. She
loved him, accepted him. Tolui stopped and looked back toward their chambers,
yearning to rejoin her.

“Your
gerel
will be safe with Ellie.” Berke turned,
misunderstanding the source of Tolui’s hesitation. “Ellie didn’t want me to
hurt you.” Shadows crossed his scarred face. “Until our confrontation aboard my
ship, I didn’t know you were my father’s clone.”

He didn’t know?
Tolui stared at his nemesis. “Wasn’t
your mother aware of my existence?”
And why didn’t she come for me?

“No, she doesn’t know about you and I’d prefer she doesn’t
ever find out who your source was.” Berke held his gaze. “She’d feel betrayed
if she discovered my father kept such a large secret.”

I know all about betrayal. My source, Berke’s father,
cared so little about me he told no one I existed.
“I’ll keep his secret.”
Tolui pushed his bitterness away and concentrated on the future, a future
filled with peace and love and Lea. “As long as my
gerel
and my people
live in peace.”

“We wish for peace also,” Khan rumbled, standing behind
Berke.

“You wish for peace in your own home.” Murad laughed.
“Berke, you’ll be next Warlord soothing a hostile offspring-nurturing female.”

The corners of Berke’s mouth lifted. “No, your turn is next,
little brother. You should hide Gale’s guns now.”

“You’re both incorrect,” Tolui informed them smugly, the
vision of Lea rounded with his offspring loosening his lips. “I’ll be the next
Warlord with naturally born offspring.” He’d seen the envy on Lea’s face when
she looked at Khan’s
gerel
. It was an envy he shared.

“It takes more than one rutting to produce offspring,
friend,” Murad jibed.

Friend.
Tolui gazed at the Warlord with suspicion,
not trusting his casual words. “Perhaps for you it’ll take more than one
rutting.
I
am a clone.” He lifted his chin proudly, fully embracing who
he was for the first time in his existence. “A clone’s genetic enhancements
increase the probability of offspring.”

“No,” Khan barked, his eyes widening. “You’re not to rut
with Lea until my
gerel
’s garments are completed. I beg this of you,
Tolui. Zeta will slice me into small pieces.”

Murad whooped with laughter, and Berke’s lips twitched.
Tolui turned around and prowled toward the chambers, determined to disobey
Khan’s command and give Lea the offspring they both wanted.

“I’ll add folds in the hide.” Lea draped the design over
Zeta’s stomach, suppressing her envy. Offspring would come. She had to be
patient. “It’ll be comfortable.”

“If you added sheaths, I could hide my daggers and guns in
the folds.” Her new friend’s eyes gleamed, the bounty hunter insisting all of
the garments were as practical as they were beautiful.

“Yes.” Lea nodded, enjoying having the other females to
discuss her designs with. “I—”

“Shhh…” Ellie held up her index finger and Lea stopped
talking. Boots rang against stone, the heavy tread echoing through the tunnels.
“Someone’s coming.”

The females silently gathered their clothes and weapons. Lea
extracted her daggers, prepared to defend her customers.

“I’m entering our chambers,” Tolui boomed.

“No, you’re not,” Lea yelled, her fear flowing into arousal.
“I’ll stop him,” she assured Ellie, Gale and Zeta.

“I’m sure you will.” Gale grinned. “There’s a chamber to the
right. I
stopped
Murad there earlier.” Her new friends laughed.

Lea rolled her eyes. “I’m not stopping him
that
way.”
She darted through the entrance and slammed face first into a wall of male
muscle. She bounced backward.

Tolui strapped his arms around her waist and pulled her
toward him. “Rutting with me is the
only
way you’ll stop me.” The hard
ridge in his leg coverings pressed against her. “I need you,
gerel
.” He
smelled of musk and unrelenting male.

One of the females sniggered and Lea’s face heated. “But—”

“No but.” He lifted her into the air and slung her over his
shoulder. The impact pushed the air from her lungs and she struggled, kicking.
“Be still.” Tolui slapped her ass, his palm large and rough and heavy.

Desire blazed over her skin. Her pussy moistened and her
nipples tightened. “Let me down.” She beat his shoulders, turning his tanned
skin pink. “I’m taking care of my customers.”

“I’m your number-one customer.” Tolui stalked through the
tunnels, his tread once more silent. “You’ll take care of me.” He swatted her
ass again and again, heating her curves through her leather leg coverings,
escalating her need for him. “It’s been too long.”

“Yes,” Lea agreed, threading her fingers through his long
straight black hair, relishing the softness. “It’s been too long.” Tolui’s
loving blows slowed and she wiggled, hoping to earn more punishment.

“You move too much.” Tolui obligingly increased his tempo,
smacking his palm against her bottom and she moaned softly. “You’ve been a bad
slave.” He rubbed his fingers into her abused flesh, spreading the delectable
burn.

“You’ll have to reprimand me.” Her voice was husky with
want. “So I won’t misbehave again.” She tugged on his hair.

Tolui growled and slid her down his body, her leather-clad
legs gliding along his chest. Her gaze leveled with his, his eyes as black as a
starless night. “Once I’m done reprimanding you, you won’t misbehave again.”

He extended his claws and raked the deadly tips over her
garments, shredding them into thin strips. The strips fell to the floor,
leaving her completely naked, exposed, at his mercy.

“Won’t I?” Lea breathed heavily, stimulated by his
aggression.

“You won’t.” Tolui retracted his claws, stepped forward and
pinned her against a cool rock wall, his unyielding physique flattening her
breasts. “I’m a Warlord now.” He lifted his square chin proudly, his cheeks
marked with scars. “I won’t tolerate insubordination.”

“Especially not from your slave.” She wrapped her legs
around his waist and rested her hands on his shoulders, the warmth of his body
permeating her skin, battling the chill from the stone. Her ass burned, every
brush of the rock sending seductive waves over her.

“A slave’s mouth isn’t to be used for talking.” His gaze
lowered to her lips.

She licked her dry flesh and he tracked the movement of her
tongue. “What is it to be used for?”

“For this.” Tolui crushed his lips against hers, pushing her
head back, his embrace as savage as he was. Lea didn’t open to him,
deliberately taunting her primitive male.

A rumble rolled up Tolui’s chest, his skin vibrating against
hers, and he bit her bottom lip. She gasped, the pain sharp and stimulating,
exactly what she needed, and he surged inside her, filling her mouth with his
tongue. He tasted of the charred meat they’d served their guests and of
fermented ground berry juice, his flavor edged with tartness.

Lea sucked on Tolui’s tongue as she longed to suck on his
cock, savoring the taste and feel of him, lavishing him with her love. He was
her master and her slave, her present and her future, her heart and her soul.
She undulated against him, rubbing her breasts across his chest and her mons
over the bulge in his leg coverings.

He gripped her curls and pulled her head back. “I love you,
Lea.” The raw emotion in his voice thrilled her. “I love you more than
anything, more than equality, more than freedom, more than life.”

Tolui dragged his hot mouth over her chin, down her neck,
his teeth lightly scraping her skin, sending shivers down her spine. “Only with
you am I whole and right and loved.”

He fastened his lips to the base of her neck and inhaled,
pulling on her skin, marking her, claiming her. “Yes.” Lea moaned and arched,
grasping his head, holding him to her. “I love you too, Tolui, so much, too
much.” She squirmed, branding him with her wetness, spreading her scent over
his leg coverings. “It scares me sometimes.”

“I’ll never hurt you.” He lowered his head, nudging her
right breast. “I’ll never leave you. You’re mine.” Tolui covered her nipple
with his mouth and slowly, tantalizingly increased his suction.

“I’m yours,” she cried out, pushing her curves forward. He
flicked his tongue over her, fracturing her control more. Tolui sucked and
released, varying hot mouth and cool air, exquisite pressure and glorious
liberation. Lea pulsed to his ruthless rhythm, her thighs trembling, her need
growing.

Tolui switched breasts, showering her curves with loving
attention, leaving her nipples red and delightfully passion-swollen. Lea moved
against him, trapped between his hard body and the even harder stone wall, the
cool air not dampening the heat. Perspiration beaded on her skin.

“Fill me, Tolui.” She licked his shoulder and he shuddered,
raising his head. “I’m empty, so very empty.” She nipped at his skin. “I need
you inside me.”

“Behave.” Tolui squeezed her right breast with his fingers
and she whimpered, her need spiraling upward. “I’ll take you when you’re ready
for me.” He met her gaze, his eyes dark and his expression stern. “You’re
strong. You can last longer.”

“I
can
last longer and I
am
strong.” She
lifted her chin, mercilessly tamping down her desire, determined to prove him
right.

Tolui smiled, his white teeth flashing in his tanned face.
“You’re a good
gerel
.”

He held her gaze and swiveled his hips against hers,
grinding the ridge in his leg coverings into her wet pussy lips, the leather
sweeping across her clit. She moaned, the pressure numbing her mind and
scattering her resolve.

“You smell delicious.” He breathed deeply, his nostrils
flaring. “If we were in our own chambers, I’d lay you down on the hides, spread
your legs and drink from you.”

She shivered, Tolui’s words pushing her closer to the edge,
his deep voice rolling over her. “I wish to drink from you also, to fill my
stomach with your essence.”

“Later, you can drink from me.” He moved his hips in tight
circles, winding her tighter and tighter. “I plan to fill your pussy with my
genetically enhanced seed, to plant our offspring, our future, in your womb.”

Her stomach fluttered as he expressed her secret wish.
“We’ll be a family.”

“We’re already a family.” He mouthed along her neck. “You’re
my
gerel
, my light, my everything.”

“Tolui.” Lea clutched at his shoulders, digging her
fingernails into his skin. She couldn’t wait, needing release, needing him.

Tolui gazed down at his female. Her eyes were wild with
wanting, her face was flushed, her lips plumped and glistening. He’d never seen
any being as beautiful as Lea and she was his. She’d deemed him worthy of her
love, him, a clone born in a machine, deserted by his source, discriminated
against and forced to fight for everything he’d been given.

“Wait for me,” he commanded. Her spine stiffened, his female
doing her best to obey him. She wouldn’t last much longer and he hadn’t the
willpower to deny her, to deny himself. “Unfasten my leg coverings.”

“Yes.” She slid her calloused palms between them, leaving a
trail of sensation over his scarred skin. Her fingers trembled as she fumbled
with his leg coverings. “You’re so hard.” She finally peeled the leather away
from his heated body, the cool air exciting him.

“You make me this hard.” He held her with one hand. With his
free hand, he yanked the leg coverings down to his knees, freeing his cock.
“Feel how much I want you, how much I need you.” Tolui stroked his shaft over
her wet folds, soaking his skin with her delicious scent. “I would die for you,
Lea. Never doubt this.”

“You were willing to die for me.” She tilted her hips into
his full body caresses. “You surrendered to your enemy.”

“I surrendered to you long before that.” Tolui pushed his
tip into her entrance and groaned, her grip on him intense. “No more talking.”
He slid deeper and deeper inside her, her wet heat engulfing him.

When his base touched her pussy lips, Tolui released the
breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. A sense of rightness fell over him, a
sense of being home. “
This
is my homeland,” he declared.

“This is where you belong,” Lea confirmed. “With me.” She
gripped his shoulders, her brown eyes shining with love, her long curls
tumbling down her back.

Tolui rocked against her, his movements slow and shallow.
Lea dug her heels into his ass, his impatient female urging him to move faster.

He complied, not having the willpower to resist his
gerel
.
He’d almost lost her and would give her anything she desired. He drove into her
harder and faster, slapping her ass against the rock wall, remembering the gun
pointed at her head and the heavy boot planted on her frail chest. Tolui
growled, terror-sourced perspiration dripping down his spine, the need to be as
deep inside her as possible tremendous.

Lea panted, clinging to his shoulders, her body soft and
heart-wrenchingly fragile, her spirit strong and fearless. She met him halfway,
lifting into his thrusts and bouncing her booted feet against him, the slap,
slap, slap echoing through the small empty chamber.

Tolui slid his cheek along hers, inhaling her sweet fragrance.
She was his female, his future. His chest swelled and his heart pounded as he
rode her hard, rutting with her against the wall, a primal need to claim her
purging all of the other thoughts from his mind.

He grunted into her ear, his breath brushing her hair back.
His balls hugged his body, aching for release. The base of his cock swelled.
His claws pricked his knuckles, his savage animalistic nature nearing the
surface.

“Tolui, please.” Lea’s voice thinned, her body shaking, her
skin massaging his.

“Come for me,
gerel
.” He teased her earlobe with his
teeth and she shivered. “Come now.” He bit down, giving her the pain she
needed.

“Tolui,” she screamed and bucked against him. Lea raked his
shoulders with her nails as her pussy walls clenched his shaft.

Her dual assault broke him. Tolui thrust hard, driving his
cock deep into her pussy and pinning her ass against the wall. He tilted his
head back and roared her name, coming with a bone-jarring ferocity.

Lea writhed against him, twisting in his arms, as Tolui
poured everything he had into her, giving her all of him, his essence, his
heart and his soul. A tremor rolled down his body and his knees nearly buckled.

Lea calmed, growing limp. He held her, nuzzling her neck,
his cock lodged inside her pussy, the two of them bound physically as they were
emotionally. Her brown curls caressed his face. Her scent and her love
surrounded him.

“
This
was worth fighting for.” Tolui breathed deeply,
his love for her growing with each passing heartbeat. “
This
is peace.”

Lea gazed up at him, her eyes soft and her cheeks pink.
“This is a lasting peace. You’re home, Tolui.”

Tolui smiled. He was home.