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  Dark Revenge

  Jennifer Leeland

  “I like my sex rough and my women restrained.”

  So declares Alex’s captor, shortly after they’re mated in a ritual of vengeance. Though her body lustfully yields to her new mate’s dominant will, her mind is only too aware of the tumultuous past they share. She and Tory fought side by side in the military…until he was exiled for treason, an accusation leveled and proven by Alex’s own brother.

  Tory is determined to take revenge on the family who falsely accused him…and to win back the woman he’s always loved. If he can’t win her heart, though, he’ll settle for her body—preferably tied up, flogged and begging for him. When they find themselves in the middle of a brewing civil war, they have to learn to trust each other with more than just their bodies. If they can’t, humanity itself may pay the price.

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  Dark Revenge

  ISBN 9781419934506

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Dark Revenge Copyright © 2012 Jennifer Leeland

  Edited by Meghan Conrad

  Cover design by Syneca

  Electronic book publication January 2012

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  Dark Revenge

  Jennifer Leeland

  Chapter One

  Dead in the water. Alex flicked the controls. Hopeless. No lights, no whine from the engines. Nothing. If The Athena had been an ancient seagoing vessel, her circumstances wouldn’t have been so dire, but the crippled vessel floated in the depths of space and faced a fucking monster.

  On her view screen, his ship menaced her and he didn’t even have his burners hot. There weren’t too many ships that could both outmaneuver a Teran One shuttle and blast it to smithereens. The Pinnacle could. And its commander had the talent to anticipate Alex and outsmart her. The fact that his pursuit had forced her to overload her engines wouldn’t stop him. Tory Ingle. Former covert military, current mercenary, bad boy of Teran One.

  He hadn’t hailed her, but that was no surprise. The blaster shot across her forward shields had been message enough. She’d been so close to her destination, her cargo intact, her secret mission almost over.

  Now, she was so fucked.

  The one-person shuttle hadn’t been equipped to outrun a pirate runner. No one on Teran One believed anyone would attack her. Why would they? Unless they knew exactly what she carried in her hold.

  Without hesitation, she began the countdown for self-destruct. Whatever was in that hold had Darius scared shitless. There was no way she’d let that asshole Ingle get his money-grubbing hands on it.

  “Self-destruct sequence engaged. Three minute countdown. Two minutes, fifty-nine….” The drone of the computer’s announcement was almost soothing.

  Her communications panel lit up. She ignored it. In less than three minutes, she’d be a floating speck in space and if Ingle didn’t back off, so would he. She closed her eyes and thought about her family. Her mother, killed in action on Teran Five during the civil war when Teran One had sent peacekeepers. Her father, killed on a food ship when Teran One sent food to Teran Three during their war with Teran Four. Her brother, dead on Teran Five, presumably killed by Teran Four soldiers. Now, she’d die in a shuttle on some mysterious mission no one would remember or care about. Well, except maybe Celeste.

  “Turn off the self-destruct, Commander Zeerah.” Tory’s smooth voice filled the small space of her bridge. God, she remembered that voice. Once it had made her nerves tingle and her pulse pound. Now it just made her heartsick.

  Hell, she was shocked he hadn’t blown her out of the water. No way was she letting him board her. He had every reason to want her dead and even more reasons to want her to suffer. She sighed. Less than two minutes and it would all be over.

  Did most people wonder about the major decisions in their life when it was about to end? Maybe she was just weird. Tory’s voice had probably brought it all to the forefront. The agony of letting him go. The numb despair when she’d been shown the evidence against him. All of it seemed to have been for nothing. She had always wondered if she’d done the right thing. Now she’d never know.

  “God damn it, Alex, turn the fucking thing off!” Tory sounded concerned. She wasn’t. Soon, she’d be free. No more fighting. No more civil wars. No more—

  “Self-destruct terminated.”

  Her eyes flew open. What the fuck? She stared at her console and her lips tightened. With a hard flick, she turned on her com. “I don’t know how you did that, but you are not going to get this cargo.” Or her. God knew what he’d do to her.

  “Do you even know what the cargo is?”

  “It’s Teran One property. That’s good enough for me. You’re not going to get it. Ever.” She slammed the button to shut off communication and started for the back of the bridge.

  It had better be there. She had packed the bridge herself, but those Black Ops assholes messed with her shit before. Relief flooded her chest. It was there. Two Stet explosives.

  All she had to do… What the hell was that? A hiss sounded all around her and a heavy smell filled the cabin. Her eyelids drooped, though she fought it. Every muscle dragged and every thought slowed. Memories crowded her mind, the present moving in slow motion, though the past seemed clear and bright. Five years ago, when everything changed, when she changed, she had been so sure.

  “Come with me,” he said. Tory never begged and Alex was stunned he would do it now, when everything had fallen apart.

  “You know I can’t,” she said. “You’re exiled.”

  His eager expression changed, all the light dying from his blue eyes. “Is that why you made sure they booted me out of the Teran Corps? Because you knew what the Tribunal’s verdict would be?” He shook his head. “I don’t care. Come with me. I need you,” he pleaded.

  “How can you ask me?” she burst out. “I won’t go with you,” she said, reaching for calm.

  His eyes narrowed. “Because I’m not one of the original bloodlines, is that it?”

  That wasn’t it, but Alex couldn’t tell him why, couldn’t admit what she knew. “You know how important it is.”

  He slammed a fist into the palm of his other hand. “It’s only important on Teran One. There’s a whole universe out there, Alex.”

  When his hands c
upped her face, she almost gave in. His lips met hers and passion and need sprang up between them. With effort, she forced her desire into a closet in her mind, jammed her feelings into a deserted corner of her heart and remained still beneath his assault. Stars, she wanted to drown in his kiss.

  He lifted his head, misery tightening his features. “You’d choose bloodlines over me, over us.”

  No! Her whole being denied it, wanted to run away with Tory and ignore everything she’d been raised to be. Blooodlines were everything. Teran One preserved Old Earth’s history through careful preservation of family ties. Who your great-grandfather was had more influence on your future than what grades you had in school. And Alex was a Zeerah, one of the families who first settled on Teran One.

  Founded by six families, Teran One was insulated from the rest of the universe’s chaos because the people kept tradition. New bloodlines might arrive, but they were never fully incorporated unless they proved themselves.

  The Ingles had been instrumental in putting the current royal family on the throne, so their rise was meteoric compared to others. But they were still only three generations old. Her father, her brother, even her friends had warned her about Tory.

  Hadn’t he proven her family right?

  He was a traitor, exiled from Teran One forever.

  She had to think about the men who had been publicly executed by Dividaon Teran Four. A hundred men had been betrayed by secret information that Tory had given to the dictator.

  “Yes. I would choose any bloodline over you,” she snapped.

  He winced, his face crumpling briefly. His hands slipped away from her shoulders. “You believe I’m a traitor, then.”

  The evidence had damned him. But she might have ignored the evidence presented to the Judges of the Tribunal if it wasn’t for the secret she knew, the facts she’d seen with her own eyes. “I won’t go with you, Tory. Not in a million years.”

  She stepped back and put distance between them, hating that her body had a mind of its own. It was torture to see the hurt in his face. After the battles they’d fought together, the moments they’d shared, a piece of her heart was lodged with him. She accepted that fact. But truth was truth and he had betrayed their people. A Teran One Tribunal had judged and convicted him. No matter what she might feel for him, nothing could change what he’d done.

  A muscle in his jaw jumped and his nostrils flared. “A million years is a long time, Alexandra,” he said, his voice low and deep. “You might keep that in mind.”

  And then he was gone.

  She ignored the ache in her heart. She denied the doubts about his guilt. All she had left now was her family. Her job was to protect the royal family and the bloodlines who ruled Teran One. Everything else she cared about had just walked away.

  Dark edges crowded around her gaze and tears squeezed from her eyes. She’d failed.

  * * * * *

  “She was going to blow the fucker up. What the hell is that cargo?” Pulzer asked as he followed Tory along the corridor.

  Tory carried her across the connect tube between his ship and her shuttle. He stared at the unconscious figure of Teran One Commander Alexandra Zeerah. Her golden-brown hair had come loose from its tight braid and drifted over his bare arms. His second continued to pelt him with questions.

  “It’s in a quadruple-lined containment box. What the fuck could it be?”

  “Expensive.” Tory kept his answer short. He knew what was in that box. Alex was never supposed to reach her destination. Five Teran Four war ships waited for her only fifteen light years away, all prepared to take what Alex carried on the shuttle. The Teran One fuckers who had sent her had known exactly what she’d do. She was all about duty—he ought to know. She’d gotten him kicked out of the Teran One Ops so fast it had made his head spin. Of course, she had always made his head spin. And now apparently her superiors thought she was expendable.

  The Commander had been headed for a trap.

  “Who’s bidding?” Tory’s second broke into his thoughts.

  “Right now, just Teran Four and possibly Teran One, but I think the rest of the system will be interested in acquiring our little item.”

  He laid his former commander on the bed. He had plans for her. Revenge had just dropped into his mercenary hands and he was going to enjoy every minute of it.

  Pulzer followed him, but stopped at the door to Tory’s quarters. “Will Jezar be able to guide the ship?”

  It was Jezar’s mental manipulations that had stopped the self-destruct sequence on Alex’s ship, but it was Tory’s ability to control computer computations with his ship’s system that had flooded Alex’s cabin with a harmless overdose of anosenosin, used by the military to aid sleep in space. He stared at the woman in his bed. “Jezar is fine. Just don’t let anyone distract him.” Advice Tory should take to heart. Alex was definitely a distraction.

  “I’ll keep everyone off the bridge.” Pulzer glanced at the Commander on the bed. Tory knew he wondered about her fate, but what Tory had planned wasn’t anyone’s business but his.

  “I’d appreciate that. I’m going to be with the Judge of Light, so you and Jezar are in charge.” He turned and clapped his second on the shoulder. “Send a message to Teran One and make sure it’s on an open channel. Then head for home.”

  “They’ll try to stop us.”

  “I don’t think so.” He jerked his head toward Alex. “They won’t while she’s on board.”

  “You sure? They sent her on a suicide mission. Maybe they won’t care.” Pulzer frowned.

  “She’s a Zeerah, one of the founding families of Teran One,” he said bitterly. “They’ll care.”

  “Won’t they attack us?”

  “Let me worry about that. Send the message. She should wake up in twenty minutes and then we’ll finish the ceremony.”

  Pulzer nodded and strode down the hall. Tory shut the door and turned around in time to just miss a potentially deadly blow to his carotid. Not the second blow, though. She numbed his right arm from elbow to wrist. Fuck, that stung. Lucky he was left-handed.

  Alex swung her right arm out and his left captured it. He jerked her closer and pinned her arm behind her back, then shoved her further into the room. She swung her left hand down to disable him, but he dropped her to the bed and his shoulder crushed her beneath him. She tried to kick him, but he held her still, his legs wrapped around hers, her arms pinned under her back.

  Feeling came back in his right arm just as she freed her hands and he caught both her arms, pinning them to her sides. She glared at him.

  All military, all spit and polish, all regulations. That lift of her chin and the cold expression in her eyes was nothing new to him. She’d had that same look on her face before she’d testified at his Tribunal. Not once did she question the evidence. Of course, why should she? The man who accused him was her own brother.

  Her family was responsible for the way he had to stay on the run, taking work from whoever would pay the most. She would be his reward, his revenge. Teran One had a word for it. Saria. Treasure. Gift. His.

  And treasure is what she resembled with her golden eyes and her freckles that were like little brown diamonds. Her hair glinted in the artificial lighting, all spun brown silk. “You are my Saria, my revenge.”

  “No!” The word exploded from her and she squirmed, fighting beneath him.

  “Yes. And you know what that means.” Easily, he contained her, held her immobile. After all, he had been as well trained as she had been. He loved how her eyes widened and something akin to panic seemed to emanate from her. That’s right, my little Alexandra. Your family destroyed me, took everything away from me. “You can’t!” A muscle in her cheek pulsed as she ground her teeth.

  “I can. It’s my right.” Nothing had changed for him. The way her curves fit his body still made his cock hard and his mind spin. Focus, he had to focus. “Your brother lied to a Teran One Tribunal to get me out of your life, Alexandra Zeerah. You helped him.” />
  She glared at him, all the pride of her heritage rising to the surface. “You betrayed us to the Teran Fours.”

  “I didn’t. And I can prove it.” He stared at her. She’d known. She must have. He hadn’t just been some random soldier in her command. They’d fought together, lost men together, gotten drunk together. Not that she’d ever allowed that fucking Zeerah façade to drop for a second. Except once.

  How could she believe he betrayed his men to the enemy?

  “They showed me the vids—” she started, but he interrupted her.

  “False vids.” His hands tightened on her wrists. “You wanted to believe it.” The attraction between them had been unbearable for him back then. Once or twice, he had thought she might feel the same. Had she deluded herself to avoid having to choose between him and her family?

  Her God damn family. The Zeerahs were old, established Teran One aristocrats, directly in line for the throne. The military was their breeding ground for soldier kings. And queens.

  They would object to any man who wasn’t from one of the old families, a man who wasn’t part of their precious bloodlines. She squirmed beneath him and he knew what he planned to do would destroy any chance of an advantageous marriage for her. But they wanted her dead anyway. Too bad for Alex.

  Any sympathy he might have felt dried up when she spat the next words. “Teran One will send an assassin to kill you.”

  He smiled and her eyes narrowed. He pressed closer to her and whispered in her ear. “They’re more likely to send one for you, Saria. Someone on Teran One wants you dead.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “Not yet. You owe me.”

  The despair in her eyes didn’t faze him at all.

  Chapter Two

  She would not cry. But Alex knew exactly what Tory intended to do. He was going to rape her. The Saria was just a legalized form of violence, of payback. She was a woman. She knew what that meant.