Warlord's Mercy: 4 (Barbarian Claims) (5 page)

Lea’s tormenter howled and waved his severed limb, blood
spraying from his wrist. The crowd cheered.

“But I am Tolui and you should fear me.” Tolui turned his
head and gazed at the brute with the whip. He spread his claws.

The brute dropped his whip and ran. He made it to the base
of the mountain before a male in the crowd split his head open with an axe.

“Your people are tough,
gerel
,” Tolui conceded.

“They’re angry and frustrated,” Lea explained. “The brute
helped Daisun take that male’s female.”

“Daisun took his female.” Tolui raised his voice as he
slowly scanned the crowd, making eye contact with each male. “Does he not want
to fight beside me and avenge his mate?”

Tolui darted toward Daisun and slashed his claws across the
big male’s thighs. His opponent turned moments later, roaring, his movements
disgustingly slow.

The crowd cheered louder this time.

Daisun’s blood pooled around his boots and he staggered, his
movements slowing. Although his enemy’s heartbeats appeared numbered, Tolui
continued to guard Lea, not taking any chances with his
gerel
.

“Finish him off,” Lea urged.

“He remains useful.” Tolui waited, knowing the power of a
united cause. His clone brothers would die for their cause, the dream of a
homeland. If the squatters remembered what they believed in and banded
together, they’d protect themselves and Lea.

“I will fight beside you, Tolui.” The wronged squatter
finally lumbered forward, his axe blade covered with blood and gore. The crowd
shouted their approval, the males lifting their weapons above their heads.

“Then we strike together.” Tolui ran toward Daisun. The
brute raised one of his swords. Tolui severed Daisun’s hand with his claws and
caught his weapon as it fell. The squatter grunted as he swung his axe, slicing
through the brute’s shoulder.

Tolui moved to the edge of the crowd and rammed Daisun’s
sword into the ground, burying it up to its hilt. “No being dares to touch my
gerel
.”
He stalked to Lea and took her hands in his, needing to touch her, to reassure
himself that she was safe, she was his.

Lea smiled up at him. The musk of her arousal filled his
nostrils. “Now that Daisun is dead,” she murmured. The male lay on the ground,
hacked apart by the vengeful squatter. “Our people need a leader.” They chanted
his name.

Her unspoken suggestion, that he be their leader, tempted
Tolui. He wouldn’t have to leave her. There’d be no more battles, no more
loneliness, no more wandering the skies, searching for a home.

Tolui gritted his teeth, suppressing his selfish thoughts.
“I already have a people and they need me more than the squatters need me.”

Lea’s smile wavered. “Do your clone brothers need you more
than I need you?”

Tolui squeezed her slender fingers. “They have no one and
nothing, Lea. I won’t abandon them as my source abandoned me. I won’t forget
about them.”

Lea’s eyes softened. “I’d never ask you to abandon them.”
She leaned forward and rose up on her tiptoes, grasping his shoulders, her
touch rough, her embrace belonging to a warrior woman. Tolui lowered his head
and she pressed her lips against his, her kiss sweetly chaste. “I’m proud to be
your
gerel
.”

Her quiet words reached deep down inside him and coiled
around his heart. A warmth spread over his chest and up his neck. “I’ll end
this war quickly, Lea, and I’ll return to you.” He strapped his arms around her
waist, holding her tightly. “Then nothing will part us ever again. We’ll spend
our lifetimes together.”

“Is that a promise?” She tilted her head back, her curls
cascading down her back.

Tolui held her gaze, allowing all of his emotions to show.
“That’s a vow.”

Midway through the next planet rotation, Lea laid her
garments over the boulders, excitement and nervousness and dread fighting for
dominance in her heart. “You would think having garments made of the same
material and same color would make the selection easier but it doesn’t.” She
paired one chest covering with another leg coverings and she frowned. “It makes
it more complex because every top goes with every bottom.”

“I have one pair of leg coverings. That makes the selection
very easy.” Tolui watched her, his forehead furrowed. “It doesn’t make a
difference what you wear, Lea. My need for you doesn’t change with your
garments.”

Lea glanced at Tolui. His hard cock strained against his
leather leg coverings. “Your need
doesn’t
change.” Some of her tension
eased, his constant arousal reassuring her. “We’ve rutted twice since sunrise.”

“You remain naked,” he pointed out, his gaze fixed on her
taut nipples.

“Because I can’t decide on my garments.” She stood back,
perusing her selection. “I want your warriors to accept me.” Lea worried her
bottom lip with her teeth. “I shouldn’t reveal too much skin.” She removed
three of her more revealing chest coverings from the boulders. “I want them to
look at my face, not at my breasts.”

“They
won’t
look at your breasts,” Tolui growled,
folding his fingers into fists. “Your breasts are mine to look at, mine to
touch.” He moved closer to her.

She breathed in, inhaling his musky scent. “No other male
will touch me.” Lea discarded four more leg coverings, the leather on those
garments pulling too tightly across her ass.

“My clone brothers resemble me,” Tolui mentioned for the
fifth time since the sunrise. “We were produced physically identical.” He
unfastened his leg coverings.

“You’re not longer emotionally or intellectually identical,”
Lea told him yet again. “Your experiences have changed you.”

“You’ve changed me.” Tolui spun her around, slapped one of
his palms between her shoulders and bent her naked body over a boulder.

“We aren’t rutting.” She wiggled, her protest sounding weak
to her own ears. “We’ve both bathed.” She straightened.

“Be still.” Tolui pushed her down. “You’ve washed my scent
off your body.” He parted her ass cheeks and stroked his fingertips down the
crevice, teasing her puckered hole. She trembled, thrilled with his rough
handling. “They won’t know you belong to me.” He glided his fingers over her
pussy, spreading wetness and arousal.

“If you redden my ass, they’ll know I belong to you.” Lea
squirmed, needing the burn.

Tolui’s rough palm smacked against her skin, the sound
obscenely loud and the pain exquisite. “They won’t see your ass,” he told her.
She moaned as Tolui abused her curves. “This ass is mine.” His loving blows
rained down on her body, his slaps reassuringly controlled, using only a
fraction of his strength. Lea’s passion ignited, her pussy juices flowing down
her thighs.

“I need to mark you everywhere.” He rubbed his fingers over
Lea’s heated ass. “There can be no confusion as to whom you belong to, slave.”

“I
am
your slave.” She belonged to him. As Tolui
caressed her, her nipples rubbed against the garment-covered boulder, the
friction stimulating her even more. “Pound into me, Tolui. Reshape my body to
fit you and only you. Then fill me with your seed, your scent, your everything,
so no other male will ever be enough for me.”

“Only I will fill you.” He yanked his leg coverings down to
his knees, peeling the leather away from his tanned skin. “Only I will give you
what you need.” Tolui prodded her pussy with his cock head, gripping her hips
with his fingers.

“Only you, Tolui.” She pushed backward, impaling herself on
his cock, her pussy stretching around his girth.

“Be still.” He pulled out, denying her that delectable
fullness.

“Tolui,” Lea protested, tormented by her need.

“Quiet.” He drove into her, burying his cock up to his base,
smacking his hips against her ass and slapping his balls against her skin. She
shrieked, clenching down on his shaft, close to fulfillment.

“You won’t come, slave.” Tolui drew his hips back, sliding
his cock head along her inner walls. “Not until I give you permission. I
control your release.” He thrust into her, plunging deeper, and she moaned,
clutching the edge of the boulder. “I control you.”

Tolui rode her hard, savagely, and she loved it, reveling in
his passion, in his unbridled strength, her body flushing with heat and need.
He was dangerous and deadly, worthy of her submission, of her love.

I love him.
Lea stilled, her sudden halt of movement
throwing Tolui’s rhythm off.

“Move,
gerel
.” He slapped her ass, the rough contact
bringing her focus back to their rutting.

I love him.
She swayed into Tolui, taking his cock
deeper.
I love this tough proud honorable male.

Tolui grunted, driving into her again and again as though he
truly sought to ruin her for other males. His thrusts shook her body, rattled
her bones, pushed her toward the edge of release. Lea’s pussy tightened around
his shaft, the additional friction shredding her control.

She gritted her teeth, holding back her orgasm, determined
to prove herself worthy of him, to earn his love. Perspiration dripped down her
cheeks. Tolui lowered his body over hers, his chest rubbing along her back, his
hot breath wafting against her neck. His shaft swelled.

“Tolui.” Lea undulated under him, loving him with everything
she had. “I need…”

“I know what you need.” He scraped his teeth along her skin
and tremors rolled over her shoulders, down her spine. “You need me.” He sucked
on her shoulder blade and she whimpered, shaking uncontrollably. “Come for me,
gerel
.
Come now.” He bit down, severing her tenuous hold on reality.

“Tolui,” Lea screamed, the pleasure too much, too intense.
He roared and slammed into her, filling her completely, hot cum shooting out of
his cock. She pushed upward, bucking, trying to move him. She couldn’t. He was
too heavy, too strong, too big, his swollen shaft lodged inside her tight
pussy.

“Lea.” Tolui pushed his cock deeper, his muscles rippling, a
sheen of perspiration covering him. He sucked and licked the mark on her
shoulder, bracing himself up with his arms.

She fluttered under him, trusting Tolui to keep her safe,
her thoughts hazy and her limbs limp. “I love you.” The words slipped out
before she could stop them. She stiffened.
Did I make a mistake?

He nuzzled the back of her neck, his lips warm and firm.
“You could care for a clone?”

“No, I couldn’t care for any clone.” Lea looked over her
shoulder. Tolui gazed down at her, his eyes as black as space. “But I could
care for you.” She squeezed his cock with her inner muscles. “I
do
care
for you, Tolui.” She took a deep breath, counted to five and exhaled. “I love
you.”

He didn’t say anything, the silence torturing her.

“I’ve never said that to any other being,” she admitted,
needing him to know the words were significant. “Only to you.”

“Thank you,” Tolui said quietly. He pressed his lips to her
shoulder.

* * * * *

Tolui stared with horror at the pieced-together monstrosity
Lea called a ship. When they’d removed the sand-covered hides she’d used to
conceal the vessel, two battered panels had fallen off. The rest of it leaned
heavily to one side and defied all of the known rules of aerodynamics.

“You’ll
never
attempt to fly this ship.” He circled
the spacecraft, furious she’d even consider it. The craft looked badly
constructed from every angle. “Whoever taught you how to repair ships should be
killed…slowly.”

“I taught myself.” Lea lifted her chin, her eyes flashing.
“My ship isn’t beautiful but it
is
functional.” She flipped the
emergency release switch. Metal scraped against metal and a door fell off,
landing on the sand. Lea’s face turned red. “I can fix that.” She extracted a
portable light source from her pack.

“There’s no need to fix it. You won’t be flying this ship.”
Tolui lifted the pack with the small power converter and followed her into the
vessel. The interior was worse than the exterior. Cables hung from the ceiling.
Floor tiles were missing. Jagged pieces of metal caught on his leg coverings.
“Does the communicator work?”

“I don’t know if it works. I’ve never tried it,” Lea
confessed as they entered the bridge. The seats and console were different
colors and sizes. The closed viewscreens were so severely cracked, they’d burst
with the slightest change in air pressure.

“You are a gifted garment fabricator, a fierce warrior, and
a
gerel
without equal.” Tolui shook his head. “But you have no knowledge
of craft construction.” He located the main panel, the design similar to one of
his first stolen ships. The power converter appeared to be from the same solar
cycle, the cables frayed and the metal corroded. “Was there a crank-powered
communicator in the ship?”

“I’ve never found one, not in any of the crashes I’ve
salvaged from.” Lea crouched beside him, her musk teasing his senses and her
proximity soothing him. “Can you make it operational?”

“Yes.” Tolui leaned forward and rested his forehead against
hers, the tips of their noses touching. He wanted her again, always. “Do you
have tools?”

“Do I have tools?” Lea straightened, grinning, her happiness
lightening his grim mood. “Wait here.” She hurried away, taking the light
source with her, her oversized boots tapping on the metallic floor tiles.

Tolui’s vision adjusted to the darkness. He extended the
claws on one of his hands and stripped the cables from the ship’s communicator,
disconnecting it from the main system, decreasing the likelihood of their
experiment killing them.

Lea returned, huffing and puffing, a huge pack in her small
hands. “I have tools.” Pride edged her sweet voice. She dumped the contents of
the pack onto the metal floor. Tools from multiple cultures and multiple time
intervals spilled over the space. “Do you see what you need?” She waved at the
pile.

“Yes, I see what I need.” Tolui’s voice lowered. He met her
gaze and her breath caught, that small sound enthralling him. She cared for
him, loved him, his beautiful, spirited female, and he dreaded leaving her but
he had no choice. He couldn’t risk her safety and he wouldn’t abandon his clone
brothers.

He selected a fastening tool and focused on making the
communicator functional. Lea kneeled on the floor and sorted the tools into
different sizes and shapes, working diligently, clearly having no concept of
what the tools were used for.

“When I return, I’ll teach you about craft construction.”
Tolui twisted the cable around the power converter outlets. A spark singed his
fingertips, the pain sharp.

“If you return, I won’t need to construct a ship.” She
frowned, her gaze on his fingertips. “You hurt yourself.”

“The burn will heal in heartbeats and I will return to you.”
He pressed his palm against the power converter’s reset panel. The communicator
hummed. The small viewscreen flickered and then illuminated fully. “It works.”
Tolui filled the captain’s chair, laid the communicator on the console and
grinned at Lea, pleased.

She grinned back, choosing the seat closest to him. “You’re
a clever warrior.”

Her admiration warmed his chest. “I’ll find the
communications channel.” He scrolled through the space chatter and located the
right setting. “Tolui to Four, Five, Six, Eight.” He spoke directly into the
device.

“Four to Tolui.” His best warrior’s voice crackled. “Five
has gone to the final homeland, master.”

Tolui bowed his head, sadness shrouding his soul. “He fought
well.” Five had been a good male, a great warrior, and a close friend. Lea
placed her hand on his shoulder, her touch comforting him. He pushed his grief
aside, unable to deal with it now. “Do you have my coordinates?”

“I have located the source of your signal, master.”

“The entire planet is to be monitored, Four.” Tolui looked
at Lea. “It is…special.” There was a long pause, his warrior not responding.
“No hostiles are to attack the planet, do you understand?” Tolui barked.

“I understand…my lord.” His normally taciturn warrior’s
voice lilted as though with excitement. “We will protect the planet with our
lives.”

Tolui frowned. Only a Warlord, a master of a planet, was
addressed as my lord. “You are to rendezvous at these coordinates as quickly as
possible.” The Chameles could intercept the communications, locating both
himself and Lea. He would delve into his warrior’s peculiar behavior later.

“Yes, my lord.”

“End transmission.” Tolui hooked his arm around his female’s
waist and pulled her into his lap. “The ship will arrive soon.”

“When it arrives, you’ll leave me.” Lea traced a scar on his
cheek with one of her fingers. “Four sounded happy to hear your voice.” She
skimmed her fingertip over his bottom lip.

“He sounded too happy.” Tolui nipped at her calloused skin
and she yipped, drawing her hand away.

“Perhaps the war is over.” Lea’s eyes lit with a hope he
didn’t have the heart to crush.

“Perhaps.” He tucked her into his body, savoring her curves,
her softness, her scent.

“Then you could stay here,” she mused. “You wouldn’t have to
leave. You could lead the people of this planet. Teach them how to fight, how
to build ships and cities and other things.”

Lea talked. Tolui closed his eyes and listened, envisioning
the future she shared, a future filled with love and equality and her, a future
with no more wars and no more death.

He heard the roar of a ship’s engine too soon. The sound
stopped for four counts and then restarted for nine, their signal changed often
to avoid Chamele duplication. “They’re here.”