The Scientist's Price (Warriors Book 1) Read online

  Pulling open the door, she tried to ignore the light, flighty feeling in her chest when her eyes connected with Kadian’s and the way her stomach jumped.

  He walked over to the wall where Olivia had hung her top on a small round hook on the wall. He turned to her with a slight smile on his face. ‘This is not a hook, Olivia,’ he said, taking her top and depressing the knob.

  A seam appeared in the wall, and a compartment slid out. Scooping up the rest of her clothing, rags that had been given to her by Tassian and his people, he growled. ‘These are not fit to wear,’ Kadian said.

  ‘It’s all I have,’ Olivia said a little harder than she meant to, feeling defensive for Tassian and his people. They were doing their best on a nightmare of a planet.

  Kadian looked into her eyes. It was only the third time he’d done so since he pulled her from the grate, and as usual, her stomach flipped at the intimacy of the connection between them. A part of her wanted to break it, but the rest of her needed to stare into those eyes and forget everything but him.

  ‘I’ll buy you clothes in the morning.’

  ‘I thought we were going to leave tonight?’

  ‘We were, but I got a notification a few metri ago. My ship has been landlocked. I’m not allowed to leave.’

  ‘How are we going to escape?’ Olivia gasped, panic rising.

  ‘Do not worry. My old commanding officer is already on the way here in case I needed backup, so we’ll be leaving in a rote or two.’

  ‘Are there any alerts for us?’

  ‘Not yet. I would have my system scan for them, but it was damaged in the fight with the Inadiine.’ With that, Kadian dropped her clothes into the waste.

  ‘No!’ Olivia fished them out and dropped them in the cleansing unit. ‘Show me how to use these.’

  ‘I won’t have you wearing them again, Olivia,’ he growled, moving to retrieve them.

  ‘They’re not for me,’ she snapped, placing her arms on his chest and pushing. ‘There’s a whole community of escaped slaves and these clothes represent a lot of work for them. I may not need them, but others will.’ Olivia realised Kadian was no longer moving. She looked up at him to find his gaze locked on her hands, laid on his chest. She looked at them. She’d only touched Kadian like this a handful of times.

  The cupboard at the launch. The day in the science lab where they kissed and that night, on the dance floor when…

  Olivia snatched her hands back only to find them caught in Kadian’s a moment later. She stared at them. At the greyish-brown of his skin against the light brown of hers and swallowed.

  ‘Look at me, Olivia.’

  She couldn’t resist the command. They stared at each other. Every time they were together, it felt like no time had passed. Olivia felt the air go out of the room when Kadian appeared to lean towards her just the slightest amount.

  ‘Come with me,’ he said. ‘We need to talk.’ He let go of her hands and walked towards the door.

  ‘Talk?’

  He stopped, his back still to her. ‘My rescue comes with a price, Olivia.’ His voice was hard, utterly unlike Kadian. With that, he walked out of the room.

  ‘What do you mean a price?’ Olivia followed Kadian into the bedroom.

  Kadian sat on the bed, his legs on the bed, back against the headboard, hands behind his head, and observed her with a cool look. ‘I came here to save you,’ he said. ‘I will always come to save you, Olivia, because you are mine. I told you that back at the launch. I let you leave then because we were both beholden to our employers. But never again. If this incident has taught me anything, it is that I must never let you from my sight again.’

  Olivia stared at Kadian, speechless. Was this her Kadian? The quiet, gentle scientist who sat at his screen working hard. The worst thing she’d ever seen from him in the months they worked together was an acerbic sense of humour!

  Olivia shook her head. ‘You can’t be serious—’

  ‘Perfectly,’ he said, cutting her off. ‘Don’t think just because we’ve worked together that you know me,’ he said as though reading her thoughts.

  Kadian stood up and approached her. ‘You don’t. You don’t know me. You don’t know the things I’m capable of.’ He stopped in front of her, looking into her eyes. ‘Don’t think just because I’ve let you go, twice, that I’ll allow it to happen again. You are mine, Olivia. Mine to protect. I will not let you come to harm ever again.’

  Olivia took a step back, looking him up and down, unable to believe this was her same sweet Kadian. Her eyes froze when she saw the unmistakable outline of his cock against his pants. Part of it looked wide. Too wide for her. Panic took hold, and she took a step away from him.

  ‘I will not claim you until you are ready, Olivia,’ he said. He took a step towards her, closing the distance even as she tried to widen it. His hand struck out, grabbing her wrist in a firm yet gentle grip to prevent her from escaping. He moved closer, placing her hand on his chest.

  He took in a deep breath, his head dropping to hers. ‘Not that I am patient for your touch. I assure you, I am not.’

  Olivia moved her hand, unsure if she was trying to push it away or explore him. Kadian groaned, letting out a shaking breath.

  ‘I have waited solars for you, and I will wait longer. But not much longer, Olivia.’ He moved one hand up to his mouth and kissed the delicate skin of her wrist. Olivia shivered at the sensation.

  ‘I am going to have a shower.’ Kadian took in a deep breath. ‘I have missed this scent,’ he said.

  Then he was gone. He crossed the room and closed the door behind him. After a moment, Olivia heard the sound of the shower running.

  She stood shellshocked in the centre of the room. Her whole body was buzzing with the need for him. At the same time, she’d seen a side to Kadian she’d never seen before.

  A side that scared her.

  Kadian stepped out of the shower. His cock was flaccid once more, his knot milked. He’d washed the evidence of it away, but when he cried out Olivia’s name this time, he did it loud enough for her to hear him.

  He didn’t care anymore about hiding his feelings or about protecting hers. All that had done was drive them apart.

  Olivia wanted him as much as he wanted her. He’d smelt the evidence of it coming from her in mouth-watering waves. It wouldn’t be long before she allowed him to claim her. It wouldn’t be long before she relented and admitted that they were meant to be together.

  Kadian knew his desire for Olivia had become something of a bone-deep need, an obsession. If she had never reacted to him, if she had never kissed him back, he would have called himself a fool, waited out his contract, and never seen her again. But she had. She’d touched him, running her hands over him as they kissed. Grinding herself against him in that cupboard. She wanted him, and that knowledge fuelled his inability to let her go.

  Connor had told him to release her, and if she truly belonged to him, she would come back. That wasn’t possible. His body, mind and soul revolted at the very thought.

  Looking in the mirror, Kadian assessed himself. He wondered what Olivia would think of him when he entered the bedroom in a few metri. He’d left his clothes in there deliberately. She needed to see him. To see his body, the good and the bad.

  He knew that compared to humans, his cock was large. He also knew human men didn’t have the Todaal knot. He’d watched human pornographic vids to teach himself how to pleasure her and seen the stark differences for himself.

  The basic biological structure was similar, but there was a missing section of muscle in his right thigh. His skin was stretched over it, revealing the striations of muscle beneath, over-toned because it had to take his weight without the additional support.

  For a brief moment, Kadian was back in the desert, the amot box containing the stolen radiant in his hands. He was surrounded by his enemy, his finger above the release as he fought unconsciousness. The traitorous Todaal team leader sneered and mocked as they took shots at him.
They fired at the ground close enough that the dissipating blast caused him pain, far enough away not to kill him. Then the boss had taken the serrated edge of his blade and cut into him.

  Snapping himself out of it, Kadian stepped closer to the mirror. Olivia was his now. She would have to accept his body, scars and all.

  He exited the facilities room.

  Olivia was sitting on the bed. She sucked in a panicked breath when she saw him. Her eyes went to his cock before falling on the damaged leg.

  Kadian turned away, not wanting to see the look on her face. He dressed quickly, his back to her wishing, he’d brought the damn clothes into the facilities after all.

  ‘Does it hurt?’

  Kadian looked at her. Her face was unnaturally neutral. ‘All the time,’ he admitted. It was the reason the military had terminated his contract. The reason he’d gone back to research and design. The reason he was in the lab the rote the Goedan attacked and took him, Arridis, and Omin.

  ‘You said you limped because of the damage done to your leg while you were captured by the Goedan,’ Olivia said. Her tone was hard and accusatory.

  ‘Did I?’ Kadian turned away from her and grinned.

  ‘You know you did. You told me all about this harrowing story of being a prisoner. But that’s not knee damage. How much of it was lies?’

  ‘The story of the Goedan is true,’ Kadian said, keeping his back to her. ‘Two of my fellow scientists and I were taken from a lab and enslaved along with a Todaal female, Vadia, whose research into radiant purification was… revolutionary. I have taught you much of what she showed us.’ Kadian looked at her briefly. ‘One rote, the Goedan realised Omin and Vadia were a couple. A few rotes after that, several of them got drunk and entered our cell, intending to rape Vadia. We fought them.’ They’d been sleeping when the lights were suddenly turned on and the cell was filled with their captors. Thankfully, Omin slept on the outside of his and Vadia’s shared bunk, so the Goedan hadn’t been able to drag her out quickly enough. ‘I’m a trained soldier for my people’s military. When they realised we weren’t going to let them take Vadia, one of them used a weapon and shattered my knee bone.’ Even now, Kadian remembered the breath-taking intensity of pain. The smell of his blood. The feeling of being utterly defenceless in the rotes that followed. He pushed the thoughts aside, shrugging them off. ‘It made my limp worse, but I was treated a few rotes later when we were rescued. The pain I suffer is from this injury.’

  ‘How did you get that injury?’ she asked.

  ‘Another story, for another time,’ he said.

  Having finished dressing, Kadian walked towards her. He froze when she backed away from him and took a deep breath. Her fear was rank.

  ‘Why are you frightened?’

  ‘Wha—Why am I—Are you serious?’

  ‘I don’t understand?’

  Olivia shook her head, a look of disbelief on her face. ‘You tell me that I’m now your sex slave instead of Falmon’s and that I don’t really know you and then you’re surprised that you’ve scared me?’

  ‘You are not my sex slave. You are my mate. I am simply done waiting for you to admit this.’

  ‘And if I choose not to go back with you, you’ll leave me here?’

  ‘Never! You are coming with me. You will not stay here. You will not leave me again.’

  ‘Then I’m your slave!’ Olivia threw her hands up in a sign Kadian had learned was exasperation.

  What was Kadian supposed to say to her? He wouldn’t leave her behind, ever. He’d never walk away again, nor abide her to walk away from him. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t watch her leave him again.

  That rote in the lab, when Olivia walked away, Kadian had been so sure she would come back. Convinced that her feelings couldn’t keep her away from him for long. When she stayed away, he tried to approach her. Finally, respecting her wishes, he gave up, and something inside him had withered.

  The rote of the launch, it blossomed back to life. With intent, he went back to the lab, determined to finish his contract in record time. Then he would join Olivia, wherever she was, and once they were alone, she wouldn’t be able to deny her feelings for him.

  When Kadian pulled her out of the sewer grate, something inside his mind had galvanized. All of that intent had become a singular truth. He would never lose her again. Not for a moment. It would take time for Olivia to accept her feelings. He accepted that, but he would never hide his again.

  ‘We will talk about this later,’ Kadian said, turning away from her. He slipped his top over his torso.

  ‘I want to talk about this now.’ Olivia’s teeth were gritted, anger danced in her eyes.

  ‘No.’

  ‘What? Just no? Like I don’t have any say in this.’ Olivia’s hazelnut skin was growing redder as her anger increased.

  Kadian took in a deep breath and slowly released it. ‘There is food on the way. You need to eat. I saw how much weight you’ve lost, my Olivia. I understand hunger. I will see you eat and rest, and when your mind is clearer, we will discuss it.’ Kadian took three steps across the room, to the bottom of the bed. ‘But I know you love me and I love you. I will never give you up again.’

  A frustrated noise arose from her throat. She kicked a leg out at him in an act of aggression that was utterly unlike his little human. She always had fire but never had it burned as brightly as it did at this moment. Kadian’s cock twitched at the thought. Before he was done, she would admit her love for him and that fire, that strength, would be a permanent part of her. Not that she would ever need it again. He would love her. He would protect her, and no male, alien or otherwise, would ever lay a hand on her again.

  Kadian knew the way he was acting was unreasonable. It was a kind of madness, made up of a cycle of imagining the things she was suffering without him there to protect her. His thoughts were fuelled by the horrors he’d witnessed committed against slaves on Caras and had replayed in his mind on repeat. That he found her uninjured and unbroken were both miracles he would always be grateful for and he would ensure she remained that way for the rest of their lives together.

  A chime sounded in the room. Kadian looked at the screen. There was a message from the front desk.

  ‘Play.’

  The face of the Igasin appeared on the screen. ‘Your food just arrived.’ The screen went black again.

  ‘Stay here, Olivia. I will be back with your food.’ He turned and walked towards the door.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ she said, her tone defiant. ‘I don’t have any fucking clothes.’

  Kadian’s lips twitched, but he kept his smirk under control. ‘I will tell you the other story after you’ve eaten,’ he said, his hand on the door.

  With that said, Kadian left the room.

  Olivia watched Kadian walk out. Her gaze had fallen to his leg and the section of thigh with his missing muscle. He always put more weight on the other leg and had told her the story of the space station. Seeing that injury, seeing this new version of Kadian, she wasn’t sure what to think.

  During their time working together, Olivia had come to rely on her quiet, steady Kadian. Even as her feelings took on more complicated depths, she had considered him to be an island of calm in her increasingly changing world.

  Olivia wasn’t attracted to Kadian because he was an alien, though she knew some humans were. Not long after the government had revealed him and the role he was playing in Earth’s future to the public, websites had popped up dedicated to him. Some, hateful and horrible. But others were for his fans and a growing base of humans who imagined themselves in love with him. How could they love a male they’d never met? They didn’t know anything about his sweetness, his kindness, or his sense of humour. They didn’t see that glint in his eye when he made a discovery or the deep tones of his voice or the different laughs he had.

  For Olivia, it was Kadian’s even temper and brilliant mind. He was calm, strong, and steady. Maybe those weren’t the sexiest words to some wom
en, but for Olivia, who’d had her fair share of relationships with men who’d turned out to be none of those things, they were some of the most important characteristics and ones she found incredibly sexy.

  Forcing her thoughts away from a subject that would only upset her, Olivia chose to focus on the version of Kadian she was only now meeting.

  When she had seen him at the port, she thought he might be able to buy her from her owner and get her off-planet. Whatever had happened, and from what she’d heard from the black-skinned alien—the Inadiine, Kadian had called him—it seemed that had not gone well.

  What she hadn’t been prepared for was this asshole, alpha, chest-beating Kadian. She felt like he’d been hijacked by a stranger. An alphahole wearing the skin of the male she…

  The door opened, and Kadian returned, laden with a grey container.

  ‘Orish food, apparently,’ Kadian said, walking over to the table and setting the box down. He opened it, and the scent of something meaty, savoury and flavourful wafted towards her. Olivia’s stomach growled in response.

  Kadian looked at her, an unhappy look on his face. His teeth were gritted, she realised, watching the muscle of his jaw twitch.

  ‘I want you to eat as much as you can,’ Kadian said. ‘But don’t overdo it. This box keeps the food warm for several hacri, so you will be able to pick at it as often as you like.’

  He was doing something inside the box. When he turned, he carried something that reminded Olivia of a bento box but larger. He handed it to her, lifting the lid off as he stepped away and set it on the side.

  The meat was seared on the outside and red inside. It was sitting in a light cream-looking sauce with several vegetables, each one a different colour. Kadian sat on the bed next to her a moment later with a box of his own and handed her something that looked like a fork, though it had several small prongs. When she took the fork, his fingers grazed over hers. She took the box and tried to ignore her traitorous body as it responded to the caress.

  She was stabbing at a piece of meat when Kadian grazed his fingers over her cheek. She looked up, expecting the asshole Kadian. Instead, his expression was more familiar. Her gentle Kadian looked at her with concern.