Pursued: A Sci-Fi Alien Warrior Romance (Raider Warlords of the Vandar Book 4)

breathing heavy. She was asleep.
Tvek. She knew about Zendaren, one of our secret Vandar colonies? I dragged a hand roughly through my hair as I held her with one hand looped around her back. Now what? I’d unmasked her true identity, but I’d also revealed her painful past. She wasn’t working for the Zagrath because she was one of them, or even because she believed in their cause. She’d been ripped from her family and raised in some kind of brutal academy, made into a killer by the same bastards who’d ruined her life in the first place. She was a victim of their cruelty as much as anyone the empire used for its own greedy purposes. And now, she also knew a secret about my people.
I brushed a wet strand of hair from her forehead, my gaze drawn to her seductively upswept eyes and the dark lashes fanning across her cheeks. My heart pounded as I thought about what the Zagrath had done to her. I would make them pay for taking a child and destroying her life and her future. I didn’t know where the Zagrath academy was located, but I would find it and destroy it and liberate all of the children who had been snatched from their life.
I was filled with a sense of purpose as I thought about my new mission, my pulse quickening as I imagined the damage I would inflict on the Zagrath. Then my stomach clenched into a tight ball. I had been right to suspect her and voice my suspicions to my closest officers. She wasn’t what she’d pretended to be, and she’d cleverly tricked her way onto my ship. My instincts had been right about that. But I also couldn’t tell Svar and Corvak what I’d learned. Not if I wanted to protect Alana.
I groaned as I reached down and scooped her into my arms, water streaming from her body. Even though I’d just learned that she was on my ship to assassinate me, I couldn’t bear the thought of her being punished by Corvak. And if I told my battle chief what I’d discovered, there would be no choice but to let him interrogate her in his oblek. Anything else would be betraying the Vandar, and our mission to destroy the empire. Any other action, and I would be failing in my duty to protect my horde and my people.
Taking long steps from the bathing pools, I stood for a moment on the glossy black, floor as scented water puddled around my feet. I didn’t bother to use the pressurized air to dry us as I knew it would wake her. Instead, I carried her into the main room, pulling a length of cloth from an inset drawer and tossing it on the bed before laying her on top.
The sight of her naked body made my cock harden, but I wrapped her quickly in the thick fabric. She’d passed out from the intoxicating effects of the oil, and I didn’t want her this way.
But you do want her.
I turned away quickly, striding naked away from the bed and the female who made such a mess of my thoughts. I took out another length of fabric, wrapping it around my waist and trying to ignore how my hardness tented the makeshift kilt.
But I couldn’t ignore what I’d learned. That would be suicide, especially if she had second thoughts about sparing me. But I’d never live with myself if I allowed her to be tortured or killed.
I stormed across the room until I was gazing out the wide wall overlooking space. What would Kratos do, I wondered? He’d never been known to show mercy. Until he’d met his human female, that is. Then he’d spared her life and claimed her as his prize—part of the spoils of war the Vandar took as our right.
I’d been adamant that I would not do the same, that I wouldn’t take Alana as my captive.
“That was before you learned her secret,” I said to myself, casting a quick glance at the female still sleeping in my bed. “That was before you discovered she’s a sworn enemy of the Vandar.”
I had no choice. If I wanted to keep her secret safe—and keep her from telling anyone about Zendaren—I would have to claim her as mine. I would have to tell my most trusted officers that I’d decided I wanted her to warm my bed, and we wouldn’t be delivering her to the planet of Ludvok.
I pressed one flat palm against the glass, welcoming the coolness on my hot flesh. Would Svar and Corvak—the two Vandar raiders who knew me best on the ship—be convinced by my words after I’d insisted I did not want the female—that I had no desire to take any female? Svar might take me at my word. He was my majak, after all.
But Corvak would not. He’d always been more suspicious. His position as battle chief demanded he see danger around every corner and a deception lurking in every heart. It was one of the reasons he was such a skilled interrogator. Not only that, but he’d also seen Alana in the battle ring and shared the suspicions that had just been borne out by my questioning. I would need more than empty words to convince him I’d changed my mind. I would have to convince him that I was so overcome with desire that I could not give her up. That she fucked me so well that I preferred only her in my bed instead of the pleasurers we frequented.
I twisted to look at her again, her dark hair spilling across the crimson sheets and my mouth went dry. That would not be the hard part. The hard part would be telling Alana that she now belonged to me—and she would not be leaving my ship.

Chapter Seventeen
Alana
The dull ache of my head woke me, and I touched a hand to my temple as I opened my eyes. Where was