Lucius: Spartan Warrior (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

Lucius: Spartan Warrior

Lucius is Spartan, a genetically enhanced soldier created for the sole purpose of fighting. But what is he to do when the war is over?
Exiled with his unit to an island off the Pacific coastline, Lucius is shocked when he finds more than a deserted island when he meets
Ari, a man determined to live by his own rules even at the cost of his own life.

Ari was just a teenager when he was abandoned by his family and exiled because he didn’t meet the new moral code. He does what
he needs to do to survive. When he meets Lucius and the other Spartan, he finds that the fierce warriors need even more help than he
does.

Emotions have been drummed out of the Spartans, deemed useless to men taught nothing but killing. Teaching them to feel just
might be harder than Ari thinks, especially when he needs Lucius to be the killing machine he was born to be in order to save them
all when the enemy attacks. But the cost might be the man he is falling in love with.

Genre:

Alternative (M/M or F/F), Futuristic

Length:

37,728 words

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Chapter 1

Lucius stood tall and straight, his hands clasped tightly behind him, his legs spread slightly

apart. A rigid stance, not a muscle moved, not even the flicker of an eyelash. He could stand there, in
that exact position, for hours, maybe even days.

He would stand there until he was ordered to move, and not one second before then. It was as

ingrained in him as breathing—duty, honor, control, obedience, and self-discipline. He knew no other
life. And yet, as he listened to his commanding officer speak, he realized that he was about to learn a
new one.

The war was over. The Spartan were no longer needed. Lucius could read between the lines of

what his commander was saying and knew what the man didn’t say. Society as a whole was afraid of
the Spartan, afraid of what they might do and afraid of what they might demand in return for the war
they had won.

Society wanted them gone, wanted to pretend that the Spartan had never been created. But they

didn’t want to eliminate them altogether. If the war started again, the Spartan would be called upon to
defend humanity once more. Until that day, they would be hidden away from civilized eyes where the
mere sight of them didn’t instill fear or make children cry out in the night.

They were Spartan, soldiers and warriors.
They were monsters.
And they were alone.
Lucius didn’t know how to feel as he listened to his commanding officer inform his unit that

they were be airlifted to an island uninhabited by humans, a wasteland off of what used to be the
Pacific coast before the world stopped.

They would be allowed—allowed—to take only what they could carry in their packs, and nothing

more. No weapons, no communication devices, nothing that could connect them to the outside world.

And they were not permitted to leave the island under any circumstances. If the world changed,

and the services of the Spartan warriors were needed once again, then—and only then—could they
leave the island. To do so before then was an instant death sentence.

It was a sound military move. Lucius could respect that. He, and the others like him, were not

meant to live in a civilized world. They were not civilized. Even Lucius understood that. Whatever
humanity they had been created with was gone long before they even took their first breath.

The selection of Spartan warriors started before their birth. Men and women were chosen for

their superior genetics to create children. Genetic manipulation during gestation created soldiers. The
ancient Greek Agoge system of training created the Spartan.

Spartan were raised in government-sanctioned boarding schools until age seven, when they

became eligible for military service and joined a Syssitia—a military unit—which included fifteen
men of similar age.

Their training was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the

importance of the Spartan warrior’s duty. They were taught to endure hardship and pitted against each
other in fights by their instructors, sometimes to the death.

Besides physical and weapons training, boys studied reading, writing, math, history, and science.

Special punishments were imposed if they failed to answer questions sufficiently. More than one of
them had scars to show their chastisement.

By the age of seven, they became inured to hardship, being provided with scant food and

clothing. They were encouraged to compete against one another in games and mock fights and to

foster an esprit de corps.

By the age of twelve, their physical education was intensified, discipline became much harsher,

and they were loaded down with more responsibilities. When they reached adulthood, they initially
served as trainers for younger students.

At the same time, the most promising of them all were included in the Krypteia—a secret

tradition where young Spartan, ones who had completed their training with such success that they
were marked out as potential future leaders, would be given the opportunity to test their skills and
prove themselves worthy of the Spartan military.

At age twenty, they were considered old enough to become full-time members of a Spartan

Brigade and joined the fight for humanity’s freedom.

Lucius was nearly thirty. He had been fighting the war for years. He knew nothing but hardship,

blood, and death. And yet, he knew there was more to the world than just that. If there wasn’t, then
what had he been fighting for all of this time?

Lucius knew it was wrong to question his existence, or the existence of any Spartan. Just as it

was wrong to question the orders of a superior officer. It wasn’t done. But he couldn’t help what
thoughts floated through his head.

The war ended over a year ago, and since then, Lucius and the others like him had been relegated

to the military base they served out of. He knew other units such as his were forbidden to leave their
base of operation as well.

The world that the Spartan fought for over fifty years to save thrived after the war. Families were

reunited, cities were rebuilt, and life went on, almost as if the war had never occurred.

The Spartan trained as they did before they went to war. The regiment never changed. Get up,

eat, train, eat again, train some more, and then sleep. That was their total existence. They had no war
to fight, nothing to fill the hours of the day except for training, training, and more training.

They knew nothing else.
And yet, here they were being told that they were no longer needed. The war was over.

Civilization was moving on without them. Lucius tried to dismiss the feeling of utter uselessness that
filled him. He tried to remember that he had done what was ordered of him.

He should be happy, except he had no concept of what happiness actually was. Happiness was an

emotion not needed by a warrior. It was detrimental to the good of the unit and to the mental well-
being of a Spartan. All emotions were, and therefore, all emotions were forbidden. Weakness was not
allowed. Heartache was a foreign concept.

Even mercy had been drummed out of them.
If a member of his unit was killed, he didn’t mourn the loss of life. He mourned the loss of a

fighter, someone to guard his back during a fight. If the enemy died, he didn’t feel triumph or victory.
He just moved on to the next kill. If a civilian died, he knew he had failed his mission and he reported
himself to his superiors for punishment.

When his superior was done speaking, Lucius came to attention and saluted. He waited for the

order of dismissal then marched off the parade grounds toward the barracks assigned to him and his
unit.

No words were spoken as his unit quickly and efficiently packed their backpacks and accepted

the supplies issued to them. Their bags were set at the end of their bunks, the beds stripped and rolled
up, and the barracks cleaned. When they left, there would be no sign that they had even been there,
that they had even existed.

Lucius nodded to his fellow Spartan as he watched each of them go to stand at the end of their

bunks next to their packed bags. They stood at ease, their arms clasped behind them as they waited for
their next set of orders.

When the orders came, Lucius grabbed his backpack and pulled it on just like every other

member of his unit—at least those left in the unit. They had started out with fifteen members. They
were down to seven, the rest having been killed during the war.

Lucius marched out to the C140 military airplane waiting for his unit on the tarmac and climbed

on board. He accepted the parachute and mission bundle handed to him by one of the regular military
soldiers and found a seat.

No questions were asked. No questions were answered. No one spoke for the next four hours.

When the red light flashed over the cargo door, Lucius stood and grabbed his backpack, attaching it to
the front of his body.

He walked in line with the others in his unit, waiting for the cargo door at the back of the

airplane to open. He didn’t wonder what was in the large crates that the flight soldiers pushed off the
ramp when it lowered. He knew he would discover that when he landed.

There was no hesitation in his step as he walked down the ramp and jumped out of the airplane.

There was no awe in his eyes as he stared down at the miles and miles of mountains and trees that had
just become his new home. He didn’t even feel abandoned by the very people he had helped save.

He had been given an order. Establish a command post for the Spartan warriors on this deserted

island and do not leave it unless ordered to do so. It was a simple enough order, and as he had no
others, it was an order that Lucius would follow.

He knew no other way.
Lucius landed on the hard cold ground with a soft roll. He climbed to his feet and immediately

began rolling up his parachute. He had learned early in life never to waste anything. He might not need
it right away but maybe eventually.

He carefully tucked the parachute away in his backpack then walked to the wooden crate. As he

opened it, he carefully cataloged what had been issued to his unit—shovels, axes, nails, rope, planting
seeds, cooking utensils, first-aid supplies, and a single tent large enough to fit all of them but tightly
so.

Lucius handed out the equipment to each of his men until they all carried something. They even

broke down the crate and took the wood. Once everyone was loaded up, Lucius checked the map that
came with the mission bundle he had been issued then tucked it back into his pocket. They had forty
miles to hike before they reached their destination. They would reach it by nightfall, but it would be a
long, hard day before the sun set.

* * * *

Lucius dropped his backpack onto the ground and crouched down in the shadows cast by the tall

thick trees all around him. He stared at the large open area several yards in front of him, a little frown
marring his features.

His superiors said the island would be deserted, an unwanted slice of land. They never said

anything about there being buildings already there. There was always the possibility that his superiors
didn’t know, but Lucius doubted it. The map he had been given had been very detailed, and Lucius
knew for a fact that the buildings situated around the area could be seen by satellite.

From Lucius’s understanding, and what he had been taught in his lessons, the area of land they

had been exiled to was once part of a state called Oregon, everything from the Columbia River in the

north, down to the California state boarder in the south, and the land west of the Cascade Mountains.

During the great earthquake of 2025, and as predicted by many who had been laughed at as

conspiracy nuts, California had slid right into the ocean, making parts of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona
oceanfront property.

The eastern side of the mountain range that ran the length of Oregon’s interstate highway had

sunk into oblivion, making everything west of the mountains an island. The cities and towns were
abandoned as survivors fled for their lives. What was left was destroyed during the war that followed.

The world was a different place now. Not even the former United States was the same. It had

been divided into several different territories. The Eastern Territory consisted of the eastern seaboard
states from Maine to North Carolina, and west to the Mississippi River. That was where the survivors
of the war lived.

That was civilization.
The Southern Territory was the former states of Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South

Carolina, and Florida. The last territory was the Republic of Texas, which consisted of the former state
of Texas and all of Mexico.

What was left was a no-man’s-land.
Which meant there should have been no one here, and yet Lucius could smell them. Civilians.

They had to be. A Spartan would insure that he left no trace, not even a scent. Civilians never
considered hiding their scent.

Lucius glanced at the man crouched down beside him, wanting to know his thinking. Marcus

shrugged. Lucius turned and glanced back at the scant number of buildings. A single light could be
seen flickering in the window of one of the buildings. That, more than anything, told Lucius that they
were dealing with civilians.

A soldier would never be so careless.
Still, not knowing who they were dealing with meant that they needed to go in with full force.

Civilians had been known to betray their own kind just as much as they betrayed Spartan. Lucius knew
the only people he could trust or rely on were his fellow Spartan and his commanding officer.

Anyone else could be the enemy.
Lucius waved his hand, pointing two fingers to his left flank and then two fingers to his right

flank. Once his men had moved into position, Lucius and Marcus moved up, taking the middle ground.
Cadmus would follow behind them, guarding their backs.

They slowly crept toward the single flickering light, carefully scanning every inch of their

surroundings. The building was old, the wood faded and crumbling in spots. What windows it did have
had been broken ages ago and most were now boarded up.

When they reached the edge of the building, Lucius raised his hand up and closed it into a fist.

As he knew they would, his men instantly stopped moving. They barely even breathed. Lucius tilted
his pointed ear toward the building and listened for any sound of noise.

Nothing, not even a memory of a sound, could be heard. And yet, Lucius knew someone was

inside. He could smell them. The scent wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t one that Lucius was familiar
with. He glanced back at Marcus and knew from the confusion on his face that Marcus couldn’t place
the smell either.

Lucius stepped up onto the wooden porch and moved across the wooden planks like a whisper.

He ghosted through the front door almost as quietly, Marcus effortlessly moving in behind him. When
Leonidas and Adelphos appeared at the top of the rickety old stairs, Lucius stepped farther into the
house.

The scent was growing stronger the farther into the house he went. Lucius held his knife close to

his body as he walked into a room at the back of the building. He immediately recognized it as a
kitchen, although it didn’t seem like any kitchen he had ever been in.

A cursory glance told him that, while the building was relatively clean—and that was a large

clue that someone inhabited the place—it was also old and had none of the modern conveniences that
civilians seemed to like.

A large brick oven sat against the outside wall. A cast-iron door sat over an open grated fire pit.

The shelves on the inside wall were stacked high with cans and jars of stuff Lucius had never seen. A
large square sink sat in the counter under the shelves. A small wooden table sat between them.

The last thing in the room that caught Lucius’s attention was a door on the far side of the room

from where he stood. Since the outside wall held the fireplace, he was pretty sure the door led
somewhere else.

It was also the source of the scent he smelled.
Lucius pointed at the door then waited for his men to take up position on either side. As the unit

leader, it was his duty to organize, plan, and strategize his unit’s movements. They looked to him to
give them orders just as he looked to his commanding officer. It was the way of things, the order of
command.

Lucius grabbed the door handle and slowly turned it before yanking the door open. He raised his

knife into the air as he prepared to attack and kill whatever was waiting for him inside. And then he
stopped and slowly lowered his knife, unsure for the first time in his existence how to proceed, or even
if he should proceed.

“Who are you?”

Chapter 2

Ari tightened his fingers around the knife in his hand to hide the tremble that flickered through

his entire body. The soldier standing before him was the biggest damn man Ari had ever seen in his
life. He stood taller than the wooden doorframe.

Ari didn’t move other than to try and draw some much-needed air into his breath starved lungs.

He wasn’t stupid. He knew he was facing off against a Spartan warrior, one of the fiercest fighting
machines ever created.

The three black tattooed lines on the side of the man’s face were a dead giveaway. All Spartan

had them. Each line was a mark of rank or something. Ari wasn’t sure. He also wasn’t sure what this
man’s rank was, but he hoped it was high enough up that he could keep the others from killing him—
assuming he didn’t kill Ari himself, which was a very real possibility.

Ari had seen the Spartan warriors in the cities during the war. He had seen them fight and seen

them kill. He knew what they were capable of, and he was fully aware of the fact that he didn’t have
chance in hell of beating the one standing in front of him or the ones standing behind him.

“Who are you?” the man repeated.
“Ari.” Fuck, this guy was freaking huge. Ari swallowed hard, trying to bring some moisture back

to his dry throat. “I live here.”

“No one is supposed to be on this island.”
Ari cocked his head to the side, a small frown of confusion working its way across his forehead.

He slowly lowered the knife in his hand but didn’t let go of it. He would most definitely lose a fight
with this soldier, but he’d cause a lot of damage as he died.

“Who told you that?”
“My superiors informed us that this island was uninhabited.”
“They were wrong.”
Ari gulped when the man’s lips thinned in obvious anger. He quickly held his hand up to placate

the guy, and hopefully keep his head attached to his shoulders. “I’m sure they thought the island was
uninhabited, but it’s not. There are a lot of us here.”

Ari groaned when the warrior’s eyes narrowed at him. He knew he talked too much when he was

nervous, and a person couldn’t get much more nervous than he was right now. If he didn’t tuck his lips
in, he’d start spilling about every damn thing floating through his head.

“How many are here?”
Ari pressed his lips together and shook his head rapidly. He was in enough trouble. He wasn’t

taking anyone else down with him. The next instant, Ari found himself disarmed and lying down on
the floor on his back, his arms pinned down above his head and the biggest damn warrior in the group
sitting on him.

“Speak,” the man growled, low and menacing.
Ari swallowed again, just knowing he was enjoying his last few minutes on earth, and then he

shook his head. He might not like everyone that was stranded on the island, but he refused to divulge
their numbers or whereabouts to a bunch of soldiers.

Nothing in the world could have prevented the squeak that fell from Ari’s lips when he felt the

very sharp edge of a knife blade press against his throat.

Yep, he was going to die.
“Speak.”
Shaking his head was out. He’d just end up cutting his own throat. “No,” Ari said with as much

bravado as he could muster up considering he was so scared he was about to piss himself.

“Then you will die.”
Ari almost rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I kind of figured that.”
“Then speak.” The Spartan sounded confused, almost as if he couldn’t quite understand why Ari

wouldn’t speak if refusing to do so meant his life would be forfeit. And maybe he didn’t understand.

From what Ari had seen during the war, many people would give up their mothers for the right

incentive. Ari’s father had died at the hands of the Horde. Ari barely remembered him. But that didn’t
mean he didn’t have people in his life that he cared about.

Ari refused to give the others up. He might not like some of them, but he had made friends with a

lot of them. Besides, Ari had always known he would die at some point. It was kind of a fact of life.
And he’d rather go out protecting his friends than from starving to death or getting a cold.

“No.”
“Do you want to die?”
Ari’s lips twitched. He almost felt like laughing. “Not really.”
“Then speak,” the man said in a deep voice devoid of emotion. “Tell me how many others there

are.”

“You might as well kill me now because I won’t tell you anything.”
“So be it.”
Ari braced himself, waiting for the killing blow. But instead of dying, Ari was yanked to his feet.

He found himself spun around, and then he was picked up and tossed over the large warrior’s shoulder.
The Spartan started out the door, pausing on the doorstep to look back at the other warriors.

“Burn it,” he said before carrying Ari out of the building.
“No!” Ari screamed as he started to struggle, visualizing all of his hard work going up in flames.

“No, please, don’t—”

“Then speak,” the Spartan said as he dropped Ari down to his feet.
Tears blurred Ari’s vision as he glanced at his house. It had taken him nearly two years to get the

place livable, to carefully cultivate his garden and get all of his food stores canned and in his pantry.
He had worked so hard, often from sun up to sun down. He couldn’t watch it all go up in flames.

“No,” Ari whispered as his shoulders slumped. Even if it meant his home, he couldn’t betray his

friends. His house could be replaced. His friends couldn’t.

A lone tear slid down Ari’s pale cheek as he watched the first flicker of flame come to life on the

torch one of the warriors held. He knew once the torch was fully engulfed with flames, the Spartan
would toss it in his house, beginning the process that would take everything from him.

He’d seen it before.
Ari jerked back when the large Spartan with onyx eyes wiped his tear away with a single finger.

“Why do you cry?” the Spartan asked. “This is your decision. Tell me what I want to know and I will
not order the building burned.”

Ari’s nostrils flared as he inhaled hard. “Fuck you!”
Instead of getting angry at Ari’s words, as anyone else would have, the Spartan’s head tilted to

one side, a frown marring his impressive features. “You are angry. Why?”

Ari’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“I am very serious.”
“You’re burning my house down,” Ari snapped.
“I offered to retract that order if you told me how many others there were. The decision was

yours to make. You made it. I do not see why you are angry when this is the outcome. You were told

what would happen if you refused to speak.”

Ari took a cautious step back from the large warrior. “You’re not human, are you?” he whispered

as the horror of the situation dawned on him. He had heard the rumors, of course. Everyone had. He
just never believed them—until now.

“I am Spartan.”
“You’re a monster!” Ari spit out. Ari spun on his heels and took off into the woods as fast as his

feet would carry him. He refused to stand there and watch all of his hard work burn to the ground.

And—admittedly—he was kind of terrified of what would happen to him once the Spartan were

done burning down his home.

Rumors talked of the Spartans being without mercy, killing anything in their path. They said that

the Spartan had been born without emotion and therefore felt no guilt about killing anyone, man,
woman, or child.

Ari wasn’t delusional by any means. Flights of fancy had been drummed out of him years ago.

But he was determined. If he couldn’t stop the Spartan from burning his house down, then he would at
least make a damn good attempt at escaping their evil clutches. Or at least give them a good workout
before he got caught, and most likely killed.

Ari could hear heavy footsteps crashing through the underbrush behind him, and he knew that he

was being chased by at least one of the Spartan warriors. A quick glance over his shoulder made Ari
squeak and speed up. The Spartan warrior that had threatened him was within arm’s length, just a step
behind him.

Ari screamed as long fingers closed around the back of his neck. He tried to dart to the side, out

from under the strong grasp, but all he did was insure that he tripped over a fallen log. Ari went down
hard, something even harder coming down on top of him.

He gasped, unable to draw any air into his lungs. His heart thundered in his chest, pounding way

too fast. He felt like a truck had landed on him. “Do–don’t want to die,” Ari wheezed. “Please.”

Eyes, sharp and assessing and as black as midnight, look intently down at him. “Why did you

run? You know I am a Spartan. I am bigger, stronger, and faster than you could ever hope to be. You
cannot escape me.”

The man stated it so matter-of-factly that all Ari could do was stare up at him, dumbfounded.

Little by little, much-needed oxygen returned to Ari’s lungs and he was able to inhale a deep breath.

“Please, I…I…”
“Lucius.”
The word, simple and spoken quietly from behind them, seemed to galvanize the man hovering

over the top of Ari. He climbed to his feet, yanking Ari up with him. Ari grunted when an arm as thick
as his thigh wrapped around his waist and pulled him back against a wall of muscle.

“Report,” the man behind him ordered.
“There are two civilians coming in through the woods from the east. How would you like us to

deal with them?”

Ari panicked as he suddenly remembered that he had invited two of his friends over. They were

walking right into a trap and didn’t even know it. Ari squirmed until he could turn and look up at the
warrior holding him.

“Please, don’t hurt them. I’ll do whatever you want. Just don’t hurt them.”
“You will speak?” Lucius asked. “Tell me what I want to know?”
God, he was so fucked.
There was no way that he could choose between his friends, those that were coming to visit and

those that weren’t. Ari dropped his eyes, unwilling to continue to look at the man that would
ultimately be the means to his destruction.

Ari understood that the Spartan were created to help win the war, and they had. But his heart

ached with the knowledge that so much of their emotions had been drummed out of them that they felt
nothing.

“No,” Ari said simply.
The man’s head cocked to one side, a curious frown moving across his face. It was the first sign

of emotion Ari had seen on the man’s face. “You know I can kill you all.”

“Yes, I know.”
“And yet, you still refuse to tell me what I want to know.”
“I won’t betray my friends.”
“Even if it means your death, and possibly that of the men coming in this direction?”
Ari thought of the two men coming to visit—brothers, one older, one younger. He thought about

the young men that had just recently become adults and were trying to prove themselves by working
with Ari to learn farming. He thought of the others in the area, people that were just trying to stay
alive.

Ari slowly nodded his head as he prayed for a quick death. “Yes.”
“Why?”
Ari blinked in surprise. “Why?”
“Yes. Why would you die for these people?”
“They’re my friends.” If the crease that wrinkled Lucius’s forehead was any indication, Ari’s

answer just confused the Spartan even more. It also gave Ari an idea. “Would you betray your
friends?”

“I am a Spartan. I have no friends.”
“Okay. What about your fellow Spartan then?” Ari glanced over his shoulder at the other warrior

that had interrupted them. “Would you betray them?”

“No, but we are Spartan. We are stronger together than we are apart.”
“So are we.”
Lucius’s head tilted to a curious angle. “I want to meet these two people that you would so

willingly sacrifice your life for.”

Uh-oh.
“Why?” Ari asked instead of giving in to his need to groan. Clive and Levin were good friends,

but they could be pretty damn stubborn when the need arose. And they were just a tad over protective
of Ari. “So you can kill them?”

“No.”
“Right.” Ari snorted. “And I’m just supposed to believe you?”
“I am Spartan.”
“Your point?” Ari argued.
A warning cloud settled across Lucius’s features. “Spartan do not lie.”
Ari’s eyes narrowed with cold fury. “Everyone lies when it suits them.”
“I do not.”
Ari shook his head decisively. “I don’t believe you.”
The man frowned. “I am Spartan.”
“I don’t care if you are the man from the moon. I don’t believe you.”
“Lucius.”

Ari rolled his eyes when the other Spartan spoke again. He really thought he might have been

making some headway with Lucius. He did not need the interruption. Each minute he kept Lucius
talking was another minute he stayed alive.

Before the Spartan could reply, they both heard a noise and turned to see another warrior running

up. The dark-haired man paused next to the first Spartan and spoke briefly to him in a tone low enough
that Ari couldn’t hear what was said.

“The two civilians are being followed by men on horseback.”
Fear made Ari’s blood run cold. He started to struggle, desperate to get away. He needed to get to

Clive and Levin, and get them all to safety before the Horde got to them. Hell, he was even willing to
take the Spartan with him.

He was more scared of the Horde.
“Please,” Ari said as he struggled to get free of the strong hold Lucius had on him. “I will tell

you whatever you want to know. I’ll tell you anything. But we need to go, and we need to go now,
before the Horde gets here.”

“What is this Horde you speak of?” Lucius asked.
“They rule this part of the island,” Ari said. “If you don’t do what they say, when they say it,

they will kill you and everyone you know. They will destroy everything that they can’t take with
them.”

“And they are coming here why?”
Ari sighed deeply as he dropped his eyes, rubbing the back of his neck where the tension filling

his body seemed to knot up the most. He really didn’t want to answer that, but he had promised to
answer the Spartan’s questions.

“The Horde is coming here to collect my monthly tithe. If I don’t pay them, they will burn down

my farm.”

Chapter 3

Lucius wondered why he felt such anger that someone was threatening to burn down Ari’s farm

when he had threatened to do the very same thing. He also wondered why he felt anger at all.

It was an emotion.
He didn’t feel emotions.
“Marcus,” Lucius said, “see to the two men. Bring them to the farmhouse where we can keep a

watch over them. Send Adelphos and Leonidas out to recon the situation with this Horde.”

“Yes, Lucius.”
Lucius turned his attention back to the man pressed against him. He knew that Marcus and the

others would carry out his orders to the letter. They always did.

“You have been paying these men for how long?”
Ari shrugged. “A couple of years, I guess.”
“And they come every month?”
Ari nodded.
“What do you pay them?” Lucius was curious because Ari didn’t look like he had much. The

house where Lucius had found Ari was stable but barely. The quick glance Lucius had given the
interior had shown that there wasn’t much else besides four walls and a roof.

“Food, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
Ari’s face paled, but it was a testament to the man’s courage that he didn’t drop his eyes from

Lucius’s inquisitive gaze. “I paid them whatever I had to pay them to stay alive.”

Once again, Lucius found himself wrestling with the unfamiliar emotion of anger. He could tell

from the glint of tears shining in Ari’s hazel eyes just what price he had to pay the Horde if he didn’t
have enough food to give them.

“Do you wish to be free of the Horde?”
Ari just blinked up at him, so Lucius made the decision for him. He grabbed Ari by the arm and

started back toward the farmhouse. “You will stay at my side unless there is a fight, in which case you
will hide until I call for you. Is that understood, Ari?”

“You’re going to fight the Horde?” Ari whispered, apparently finding his voice.
“I do not wish to fight them, but I will if they do not leave.”
“You can’t.”
“Why not?” Fighting was what he did. It was what he was good at. It was the only thing he knew.
“The Horde is merciless,” Ari insisted. “You could be killed.”
Lucius paused to stare at Ari for a moment before continuing toward the rundown farmhouse. He

didn’t have a response to that. Part of him felt like he should be offended by Ari’s words. He was
Spartan. He was created to fight and win, or to die trying.

Another part of him thudded a little faster at the knowledge that someone—anyone—was

concerned for his welfare. Besides the remaining members of his Syssitia, no one cared if he lived or
died.

Lucius wasn’t quite sure what to make of Ari’s concern.
“I will fight if the need arises. You will stay safe at all times.” Why that was important, again,

Lucius didn’t know.

Maybe it was because of how much Ari intrigued him. Lucius had seen a lot of things during the

war, but he doubted he had ever seen someone fight so fiercely for others, or be so willing to sacrifice

himself for his friends—and certainly not a civilian.

Lucius cocked an eyebrow when they walked out of the trees and he found his men surrounding

two very pissed-off young men. One of them, the taller of the two men, was shouting and yelling at
Marcus, shaking his finger in the warrior’s face.

Marcus just stared down at him with a somewhat confused frown on his face. When Lucius and

Ari walked up, Marcus glanced up just long enough to nod then went back to watching the man
shouting at him as if he was as fascinated by him as Lucius was by Ari.

“Report.”
Marcus immediately dismissed the man in front of him and turned to look at Lucius. “Adelphos

and Leonidas have not yet returned.”

Lucius nodded. “I want to know what our situation is here. Are there any defendable positions?

Weapons? The works.”

“On it.” Marcus took off, waving his hand toward Perucles and Eneus. The three men

disappeared around the corner of Ari’s house.

“Who the hell are you?”
Lucius’s eyebrow rose even further as he glanced over at the dark-haired man advancing on him.

It had to be one of Ari’s friends. Otherwise Ari wouldn’t be waving a hand at the guy and trying to
shush him.

“I am Lucius.”
That seemed to take the wind out of the guy. He stopped yelling and just stood there and stared.

Lucius stared back for a moment, assessing the man as a potential threat. When he found none, Lucius
dismissed the man from his mind and turned to Ari.

“Do you have weapons?”
“I have a bow for hunting.”
“Arrows?”
“Of course.”
“Get them.”
Ari slowly backed away then spun around and ran into his house. Lucius watched until he

disappeared then turned his attention to the other two civilians in front of him. “Do you have
weapons?”

“I…we sort of have some spears and slingshots and stuff,” the shorter of the two men answered,

his dark-brown eyes darting from Lucius to the man standing next to him. “We’re not really supposed
to have weapons. Jarvis doesn’t allow it.”

“Who is Jarvis?” Lucius hadn’t met every Spartan ever created, but he was positive he didn’t

remember one named Jarvis. He must be a civilian.

“He is the leader of the Horde.”
Lucius nodded his understanding. “A civilian then.”
No Spartan would ever dishonor himself by demanding a tithe from the civilian population. It

was their honor to fight and defend those that could not do so themselves. It gave the Spartan purpose.

Lucius felt his blood begin pumping through his veins at a more rapid pace, his body anticipating

the possibility of a fight. It wasn’t that he liked bloodshed, but he disliked not being able to fulfill that
for which he had been created.

“Will these do?” Ari asked as he hurried out of the house with a bow and a quiver filled with

arrows. He ran over and held them out, making Lucius stare as he practically bounced on his feet. “I
made them last year out of a fallen sapling tree.”

Lucius took the bow and tested it, stretching the string between the ends for strength. He did this

a few times before he was satisfied. Lucius did the same thing to the arrows, running them through his
fingers and looking down the length of the arrow shaft to check for straightness.

“These will do.” Lucius handed the quiver and the arrow back to Ari. “Hold on to them until I

need them.”

His mouth hanging open as if he wasn’t quite believing what he was hearing, Ari nodded. Lucius

stared down at the man for moment, wondering what he was thinking, and then wondering why he was
wondering.

What did he care what some civilian was thinking?
Lucius tore his eyes away from Ari and turned his attention on the two men Ari seemed to be so

concerned about. “The Horde is coming to collect their monthly tithe. You will hide until they are
gone.”

It wasn’t a suggestion.
“If you are going to fight them then we will stay and fight with you,” the taller of the two men

replied.

“You will hide,” Lucius repeated.
“We’re not going to leave you to face the Horde alone, Lucius,” Ari said. “You don’t know what

you are up against.”

Lucius was bewildered. In all of years, in all of the battles he had fought, he had never had

anyone state that they would stand beside him beyond the Spartan he fought with. He certainly had
never heard the words come out of the mouths of civilians.

He didn’t know what to make of it.
Before he could question the men about their words, he heard feet running in his direction. They

were light steps but moving swiftly. When none of the civilians with him turned toward the obvious
sound, Lucius knew that it was his men returning and only he had heard their footsteps.

That thought was reinforced when Ari suddenly stiffened and spun around when Adelphos and

Leonidas broke through the underbrush and entered the small clearing in front of the farmhouse.

“Report.”
“Three men on horseback,” Adelphos replied instantly as he came to a stop in front of Lucius. He

wasn’t even panting. “Five men on foot, all armed. They are five minutes out.”

“Understood.” Lucius turned back toward the civilians. “You will now hide.”
“Lucius,” Ari started, amazing Lucius when he heard his name spoken by Ari for the very first

time. It almost sounded like a normal name, a civilian name, not one of a warrior created for battle.
“Let us stay and help. This is our fight, too.”

“You are not trained to fight, Ari,” Lucius reasoned. “You would only interfere.”
Something flashed deep within Ari’s golden-amber eyes. It almost looked like pain except

Lucius knew the man was uninjured. “Very well. We will be waiting inside. Let us know when we can
come out.”

Lucius frowned as he watched Ari walk away, taking his two friends with him. The man didn’t

look back once, not even when he reached the door to his farmhouse. He just walked inside and closed
the door after his two friends entered.

There was something about Ari’s words that didn’t ring true, not after the way the man had

protested the Spartan staying behind to fight the Horde alone. Knowing that he was missing something
and suspecting what it was, Lucius gestured for Adelphos and Leonidas to secure the immediate area,
and then he walked around to the back of the house.

He leaned back against the faded wood siding, crossing his arms over his chest, and waited. An

emotion he was totally unfamiliar with flared to life when he saw the back door open and Ari slid out,
his bow and quiver held tightly in his hand as he headed for the nearest tree.

It was a pretty damn good tree in Lucius’s estimation, one he would have chosen. It was tall

enough to see the front and back of the house, yet so thick with leaves it would hide whoever hid in its
branches.

“Ari.”
Ari froze, his spine going ramrod straight. He slowly turned, fear clouding his pretty amber eyes

as he looked across the space between them. “Hey, I was just heading out to…um…check on the
chickens.”

Lucius glanced beyond Ari to the large tree behind him. “You keep your chickens in a tree?”
“Yeah, well.” Ari’s face flushed a deep red color as he glanced away. “They are birds essentially.

I figured they might like living in the trees.” Ari’s golden-amber eyes bugged as if he couldn’t believe
the words coming out of his mouth.

Lucius had a very unusual reaction to Ari’s words. He wanted to laugh. He could actually feel the

corners of his mouth twitch. Curious—also an unusual reaction—he reached up and rubbed one corner
of his mouth with the pad of his thumb. He couldn’t ever remember having such a reaction before.

Ari’s head suddenly cocked to one side, something indefinable flickering in his sun-kissed eyes.

“Have you always had these three stripes on your face?”

Lucius reached up and traced his fingers over the three black lines tattooed on the side of his

face. He really couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t have them. They designated his birth unit.
He was a third generation Spartan, thus, three lines. He was part of the Black Spartan Brigade, hence
the black color of those lines.

“Yes,” he answered simply when Ari continued to stare at him.
“What do they mean?”
Lucius felt his chest contract when Ari stepped up close to him and reached up to trace over the

same flesh Lucius had touched moments before. His fingers were warm to the touch, his caress feather
light.

“It is who I am,” Lucius replied in a deep voice that even he didn’t recognize. It was low and

thick and filled with something that Lucius wouldn’t know what to call it even if he knew what it was.

“I thought you were Lucius.”
“I am.”
“Then how could these three lines on your face be who you are?”
“I…” Lucius had no idea. He just knew what the lines meant to him and his superiors, to other

Spartan. “I am Lucius, third generation Spartan of the Black Spartan Brigade.”

Ari stared for the longest time. Lucius felt like the man was looking for something, but damned

if he knew what it was. When Ari’s lips started to spread into a thin-lipped smile, Lucius wondered if
the man had found what he was looking for.

“I think that you are a lot more than a Spartan, Lucius.” Ari took a step back, then another and

another. “And I think maybe I would like to find out exactly what that is, and to do that, I need to
make sure you live. So don’t ask me to sit on the sidelines and watch you die when I can help you. I
won’t do it.”

Ari was the oddest civilian Lucius had ever encountered. He understood that Spartan were

warriors and were often seen as the only way civilians could survive. Because of that, many civilians
assisted them. But there was always an ulterior motive involved.

Lucius had promised to free Ari from the Horde and protect him from harm. The man had no

need to fight now. By rights, Ari should stay inside his home with the other civilians and wait for the
battle to be over.

It was safer and probably saner.
Ari didn’t seem like the insane type to Lucius but he had been wrong before, and his fellow

Spartan had paid the price with their lives. He refused to give in to the alluring and mysterious smile
on Ari’s face, no matter how much it made him think about things he had never thought about before.

“You will wait inside where it is safe.”
Ari’s nose wrinkled in the most amazing gesture Lucius had ever seen. “It’s so cute that you

think you can tell me what to do.”

Something that might have been astonishment flooded Lucius as Ari turned and walked away,

climbing the large tree he had been headed toward in the first place. His astonishment morphed into
awe as he watched Ari climb to a position several feet off the ground then move around until he
blended right into his surroundings.

Even Lucius was hard-pressed to see exactly where Ari was hiding.
“I’ll take out what I can from up here,” Ari called own from his branch. “Try and stay alive.”
Lucius didn’t know whether to trust in Ari’s word that he could hold his own in a fight or climb

the tree and knock the man down, demanding he go inside and hide from the Horde. He had never felt
such indecision before in his life.

He had never felt indecision before period.
That was not an emotion a Spartan experienced. Lucius knew why he was created, what his

primary directive was, and what he needed to do to ensure that his primary directive was carried out.
His entire existence was based on that. It didn’t leave much room for being indecisive.

The decision was taken out of Lucius’s hands when the sound of several horses and men

marching on foot reached his ear. The noise of their arrival was coming from the front of the house.
Lucius cast one more look up at where he was pretty sure Ari was hiding then turned and made his
way to where the other Spartan were waiting.

Just as he walked around the side of the house, three men on horseback and five men marching

came into view. It took less than a single glance for Lucius to assess their threat potential, and even
less time to spot the weapons they carried—the visible ones and the ones they had hidden on their
bodies.

Adelphos and Leonidas stepped up beside him when he took a stand in front of Ari’s house.

Besides the fact that he had been trained to protect people that couldn’t protect themselves, he didn’t
like the idea that the Horde planned to take anything from Ari, especially when it wasn’t offered.

A dark-haired man on large black horse came to a stop in front of Lucius. The haughty, superior

look that the man gave Lucius told him even before the guy opened his mouth that this was the leader
of the Horde.

He was also the man Lucius needed to take out.
“Where is Ari?” the man demanded.
“Ari is unavailable.” Ari would continue being unavailable to this piece of trash for all of

eternity if Lucius had anything to do with it. As he stared the man down, Lucius started to feel his
nerves buzz and come to life.

He had purpose again.
The flicker of excitement that he saw in Adelphos and Leonidas told him that they, too, were

feeling a renewed sense of purpose. The Spartan were not meant to be useless. They were created to

Chapter 4

Ari tried to even out his breathing and slow his heart rate as he watched the Horde arrive and

confront Lucius and his fellow Spartan warriors. As much as he wanted to believe that Lucius and his
friends could take care of themselves in a fight, he had seen the Horde fight before and they never
showed mercy. They were heartless, ruthless, and used every dirty trick in the book to win.

As quietly as he could, and with the least amount of movement, Ari pulled an arrow out of his

quiver and strung his bow. He was much better with a crossbow, but his was still hidden away.

The Horde didn’t allow the people in their territory to have weapons like that. Each farmer was

allowed one axe for wood cutting, one simple compound bow with a single quiver of twelve arrows for
hunting, and a utility knife. Anything more could get someone killed.

Ari knew for a fact that he and a few of the other farmers in the area had more weapons than

were allowed. They had often talked of rebelling against the Horde. They had just never had the
courage to do it. But maybe that would change with the arrival of the Spartan. There was something
building in the air that Ari had never smelled before.

Hope.
He felt hope, an emotion he couldn’t ever remember feeling. Sure, there had been pockets of the

feeling here and there—his garden coming in with little to no loss of his crops, having enough stock
on hand to barter or give to the Horde so that they wouldn’t take the tithe out on his body, even the
welcoming of a new member to their little community.

But he had never felt hope like this before.
Ari didn’t have much in his life, but he swore he would share every damn last bit of it with the

Spartan warriors if they came through and got the Horde to go away. Ari wasn’t necessarily a
vindictive person, but he wouldn’t shed a tear if the Spartan killed every damn last member of the
Horde.

“Where is Ari?”
Ari shivered at the demand in Jarvis’s voice. He knew what the Horde leader would do if he

didn’t get his way, and Ari almost crawled down from the tree he was in and presented himself to the
man just out of fear alone.

“Ari is unavailable.”
Ari blinked down at Lucius. He was?
“Who the hell are you?” Jarvis snapped.
Lucius’s head cocked to the side. “I am Lucius.”
Ari blinked faster. There seemed to be an odd quirk to Lucius’s lips, almost as if he had thought

of something amusing, but if Ari remembered correctly, Spartan didn’t have emotions, which meant
he had to have been mistaken about what he saw on Lucius’s face.

Maybe it was a trick of the light?
“I demand that you bring Ari out to me at once.”
Ari raised his bow and arrow, pointing the tip at Jarvis, waiting, hoping that he wouldn’t have to

use it but knowing deep down in his gut that he would if he needed to—despite the fact that his gut
was clenching with revulsion at the very idea of killing someone. He might have grown up during the
Great War, but that didn’t mean he had to be a killer.

On the other hand, someone was finally willing to stand up for him, and to Ari, that meant a lot.

He hadn’t seen very much of that in his years. Usually, people tended to do what was good for
themselves, not others. If Lucius was willing to stand up for him and protect him, then Ari was willing

to kill to protect Lucius—even if it meant killing.

Besides, Jarvis needed to have his head handed to him. It didn’t really matter who did it, but Ari

wouldn’t mind getting a little payback for the things the man had done to him. Ari wasn’t exactly sure
how Jarvis treated others in the community, but the Horde leader seemed to take perverse pleasure in
torturing Ari as painfully as he could.

Ari didn’t understand it. He paid his tithe on time. He didn’t make waves. He kept to himself as

much as possible. And yet he often felt singled out by Jarvis as if the man had a personal grudge
against him.

Until a few years ago when the Horde suddenly appeared in their small community, Ari had

never even met Jarvis. And after watching his father die right before his eyes at the brutal hands of the
Horde leader, he hadn’t resisted any of Jarvis’s orders either—or his disgusting demands.

But maybe it was time that he said enough was enough.
Ari was terrified. His hands shook, and that was a bad thing when trying to work with a precision

weapon. If he missed by even an inch, Jarvis could get to him before he could restring another arrow.

Worse than that, he could accidently hit Lucius.
Ari drew in a slow calming breath through his nose then blew it out through his mouth. He

repeated the gesture several times until his hands stopped shaking and his heartbeat slowed to
relatively normal. He doubted it would go back to fully normal until Jarvis was gone.

“You don’t belong here,” Jarvis snarled. “Leave.”
Lucius seemed to find that statement rather curious. It wasn’t a laugh or a snort that gave it

away, but the slight tilt of his head told Ari that Lucius just didn’t understand Jarvis.

“I do not believe that is for you to say,” Lucius replied. “This is not your land. It belongs to Ari,

and only Ari can tell me to leave.”

“Ah yes.” Jarvis grinned wickedly as he leaned over the black leather pummel of his fancy

saddle. “But Ari belongs to me.”

Ari’s lip curled back in disgust. He didn’t belong to Jarvis. He didn’t care what the man said.

And not even the brand Jarvis had burned into his back made him the man’s property.

Ari cringed at what he was doing even as he let loose his arrow. He reached behind him to grab

another arrow, all the while watching his first one fly through the air and strike Jarvis in the shoulder,
embedding deep in his flesh. It wasn’t a killing blow, but it hit hard enough to knock the man off his
horse. Ari took perverse enjoyment in the painful cry he heard when Jarvis hit the ground.

He settled another arrow against his bow, aiming at Jarvis’s second-in-command. The man was

almost as ruthless as Jarvis. He carried out every order Jarvis gave him with enough enthusiasm to
make him as much of a monster as Jarvis.

Ari was pretty sure if Jarvis was taken out, Willis would be next in line to lead the Horde. That

might be just as bad. Ari tried not to tighten his fingers around the deadly equipment in his hands. One
wrong move and it was all over—for him and for the Spartan starting to take on the soldiers of the
Horde.

The fight was bloody and fierce. Ari tried to keep track of Willis to take him out but quickly lost

sight of the man in the ensuing melee. Instead, he aimed his arrow at another of the Horde soldiers,
one that was raising an axe at one of the Spartan, and let go. The arrow caught the man right in the
chest, throwing him back several feet.

He didn’t get up.
Ari strung another arrow and searched the ground for his next target. He could see Lucius

fighting two soldiers, each of his friends fighting soldiers of their own. For a moment, Ari couldn’t

tell if they were winning or losing.

And then all of a sudden, the Horde soldiers were either on the ground, unconscious and

bleeding, or running for their lives. It happened so fast that Ari wondered if it was a trick—until he
saw the other Spartan warriors running to join the fight.

He really hadn’t realized that there were that many Spartan, and apparently, the Horde hadn’t

either. They were on the run. Someone had even stopped long enough to get Jarvis and was even now
riding away with him on his horse.

Almost overwhelmed with excitement that they had won the battle, Ari slung his bow over his

shoulder with the quiver of remaining arrows and began climbing down from his perch in the tree.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Ari turned to run toward the Spartan warriors. The bow

and quiver over his shoulder were ripped away before he could take a single step. Arms wrapped
around him from behind, one around his waist. The other one wrapped around his neck, cutting off his
airway.

Ari couldn’t even get out a scream as he was dragged back into the underbrush. The Spartan

warriors and freedom faded from his view just as quickly as the light faded from his eyesight, and
darkness and doom took over.

* * * *

Lucius nodded to his fellow Spartan. Their return had been timed perfectly. While Lucius had no

doubt that he, Leonidas, and Adelphos could have defeated their opponents without assistance from
his fellow warriors, he preferred to do it efficiently and with the least amount of injury to one of the
Spartan.

“See if any of the Horde are alive,” Lucius ordered. “If so, have Clive and Levin patch them up. I

want them out of here by nightfall, dead or alive.”

His men nodded and went to work.
Lucius went to get Ari before he fell out of the tree. It hadn’t escaped Lucius’s notice that Ari

had been a good shot. He hit what he aimed at and never wasted a shot. He didn’t indiscriminately
shoot just to say he shot someone. He was careful and methodical.

Both were good traits in a warrior.
Marcus fell into step beside him. It was a smart move considering their current situation. They

shouldn’t separate unless they had to. They were in uncharted territory, and apparently, that uncharted
territory was in an area currently occupied by the enemy. Two-man teams were the minimum. It was
just a strategically sound practice.

Lucius’s steps slowed when he reached the tree he had watched Ari climb into not long ago. It

was clear to him that Ari was no longer in the tree. Not only could Lucius see every branch from his
vantage point at the bottom but Ari’s bow and quiver were lying on the ground at the base of the tree,
arrows scattered all over the ground.

For a man who was as good a shot as Ari was, Lucius doubted he would be so careless with his

weapons as to toss them about on the dirt. That led Lucius to only one possible conclusion.

Ari had been taken.
“I want him found,” Lucius said, his voice firming with steel determination. “Is there a

problem?” he asked when Marcus cocked his head to the side and just stared at him.

“No,” Marcus replied.
“Then help me find Ari.”

Marcus glanced at the bow and quiver at the base of the tree then off into the darkness of the

woods. “He has been taken, Lucius.”

“I am aware of this.”
“We were given orders to set up a command post here. Why do we waste time and manpower on

going after someone who is not likely to survive his capture?”

Lucius didn’t have a good answer for that, and he knew it. But he also knew that he needed to

find Ari and insure that he was safe. “He is needed here,” he said simply, hoping that Marcus would
understand what he could not say but knowing it was a useless fight when Marcus just continued to
blankly stare at him. “We will find Ari and bring him home then finish our mission.”

Lucius knew Marcus didn’t understand his orders because he didn’t understand them himself,

and he was Marcus’s commander. Still, he knew what needed to be done. It seemed imperative that
Ari be found and brought back to his farm unharmed. And then they would leave and find a place to
set up a command post.

He need never see Ari after that.
Really.
“I will track their path,” Lucius said as he turned toward the woods, knowing that was the

direction Ari had been taken by the broken branches on the surrounding trees and bushes and crushed
leaves on the ground. “Gather the others and follow my trail.”

Marcus nodded and marched off. Even if he didn’t understand Lucius’s motives for going after

Ari, the man knew how to follow an order.

Lucius grabbed the bow and quiver of arrows off the ground and slung them over his shoulder.

Not having any weapons other than his knife issued to him hadn’t been a problem when they started
this mission. Knowing now what they were up against, he wished he had his normal arsenal of
weapons. He would just have to make do with what he could find along the way.

While Lucius wasn’t positive that the Horde had taken Ari, it would make sense that they did

considering the battle the Spartan had just fought. If it was the Horde, either they wanted Lucius to
follow them or they were dumber than dirt. The woods thickened and became dark and dense within
minutes, making the trail they left blaringly apparent.

A blindfolded child could have followed them.
And that made Lucius even more cautious. He chose his steps carefully, making sure that he

missed the obvious limbs and dried leaves crossing the hidden path through the woods. Every few
minutes, Lucius would crouch down and go perfectly still, listening for any noise carried along on the
breeze.

At one point, Lucius heard movement behind him. He settled back into a nearby bush and waited,

barely breathing as he tried to blend in with his surroundings, not moving at all. When Marcus and the
other Spartan came into view, he stepped out where they could see him.

Marcus held out a pistol. Lucius took it, checked the magazine, counting the ammo inside the

clip, then slammed it back into place. He checked the weight of the gun and the safety then nodded at
Marcus before taking off down the trail once again.

They passed by several small farms about the size of Ari’s and one little community of buildings

that was obviously some sort of town center before coming to a large walled-in commune.

Lucius stopped at the edge of the trees, crouching down in the bushes and undergrowth and

watched as the large metal gates at the front entrance to the place opened and the soldiers he had been
following moved inside.

Lucius was pretty sure that one of the men going inside was Ari even though he couldn’t pinpoint

the man. The trail he had followed led right here. There were at least three men being carried inside.
Lucius knew that one of them had to be Jarvis, which meant one of the other two was most likely Ari.

He just didn’t know which one.
“They have a turret.”
Lucius looked to where Marcus was pointing, and sure enough, there was a turret at the corner of

the wall near the entrance. Lucius’s enhanced sight made it easy for him to pinpoint the soldiers
manning the third-story lookout tower. It also made it easy for him to see the high-powered weapons
in their hands.

The Horde had guns, big deadly ones.
That knowledge left Lucius with two questions. How did the Horde get their hands on high-

powered automatic weapons, and why didn’t they use their weapons when they came to Ari’s farm?

Lucius knew the Horde soldiers had been armed or he wouldn’t be holding a pistol in his hands.

Why wouldn’t the Horde use them to take the Spartan out instead of using hand-to-hand combat and
losing several of their soldiers?

It wasn’t a logical or tactical move. The Horde had lost several soldiers as well as weapons when

they attacked at the farm. Their commune had been discovered and would soon be breached by Lucius
and his fellow Spartan, where they would lose even more soldiers and weapons.

And yet, from what Lucius could see, the alarm had not been raised. No extra soldiers had been

put on guard duty. They weren’t even closing the main gate, almost as if they didn’t believe anyone
would dare breach their perimeter.

None of this was logical.
“It might be a trap,” Marcus said.
“How could it not be?” Lucius asked. “They make no preparation for battle or for defending their

compound. They do not even seem to be concerned that their leader was injured and several of their
soldiers were killed.”

“They are complacent,” Adelphos’s lip curled back as he spoke. He was just as disgusted by the

lack of professionalism as Lucius was. “Their guard is down.”

“They do not expect to be attacked,” Leonidas added, his black eyes darting around. Lucius knew

he was taking in every nook and cranny of the large stone wall that encircled the compound.
Leonidas’s eyesight was superior even to Lucius’s. “They believe they are invincible.”

“They are wrong.” Lucius got up from his crouch and skirted along the edge of the trees to the

back of the walled-in commune. He was pretty sure he could find a way inside the large military-style
complex without going through the main gate.

If the people running the place were lax enough not to double up their guard or even close their

main gate when their leader was injured, then they were not likely to be vigilant in their perimeter
upkeep either.

Lucius and the other Spartan worked their way through the thick forest and around to the far side

of the complex. The brick wall preventing him from going into the place stood about ten feet tall.
From the looks of it, it was at least two feet thick as well. There were also four lookout towers, one in
each corner of the complex.

It wouldn’t be easy to breach, but it could be done.
Lucius checked the clip in his pistol again, just to be sure, and then gestured to Marcus and

Leonidas to move up on his left side. He wanted Perucles and Eneus to come up on his right side.
Adelphos and Cadmus would go up the middle with him. It was a strategy they had used often
although it didn’t matter who was where. They worked well together in any lineup.

Even with ten-foot brick walls, it didn’t take them more than thirty seconds to boost each other

up over the top of the wall and drop down to the other side. Just as he suspected, the bulk of the
buildings inside were to the back of the complex leaving a large open area in the front.

The guard towers in the corners at the back of the place were so poorly manned that Lucius and

the other Spartan were easily able to scoot in between two of the buildings without being seen.

Then, it was just a matter of searching each building until they found Ari. Lucius started with the

first one. He was no longer surprised when he discovered a stockpile of weapons just tossed around
inside wooden crates. The damn building wasn’t even guarded.

His disgust quickly grew to outright loathing the more he discovered. Ammo was simply tossed

about like each bullet wasn’t important. Weapons that had obviously been recently used were stacked
unclean in crates filled with dust, dirt, and grime. Even the bladed weapons were tossed carelessly on
the floor, their previously lethal blades rusted and bent.

The disregard for weapons that could save someone’s life or take it astonished Lucius. He had

been taught since the time he could walk that his weapon was as important as his life. Without it, he
was just another soldier. With it, he was a lethal force of nature.

The second building was in the same sad state as the first one only it was filled with provisions,

large barrels of water and crates of food—a lot of it rotting if the stench was anything to go by. The
rats that had taken up residence inside some of the food crates didn’t seem to have any plans on
leaving any time soon.

Lucius remembered how skinny Ari was and wondered why this food was sitting in a warehouse

rotting when it could be feeding people and keeping them from starving. He knew it had to be some
sick, manipulative plot by the leader of Horde, but damned if he could figure it out. If food was
available, it should be provided to everyone.

Just as Lucius started to move around a stack of wooden crates filled with rotting vegetables, he

heard a door ahead of him scrape open. He fisted his hand and brought it down then squatted behind
the crates, waiting. The men behind him dropped down, the guns they had gathered from the first
building at the ready.

Lucius silently set his pistol down on the floor and carefully drew his knife out from the black

sheath on his thigh. He held the knife tight in his hand, the blade down along his arm. The second a set
of boot clad feet walked past his vantage point, Lucius swirled and stood, wrapping one arm around
the man’s head, his hand covering his mouth. He held the knife to the guy’s throat with the other hand.

“Breathe wrong and it will be your last,” Lucius murmured in the guy’s ear. “Nod if you

understand.”

The man nodded. Lucius could feel the guy’s entire body shaking, the fear flowing off of him

almost tangible.

“I want Ari.” The man’s shaking intensified, the thick stench of fear growing stronger. “You will

take me to him.”

“I can’t,” the man murmured as if he raised his voice any higher, the knife at his throat would cut

into him.

It just might.
Lucius felt the strange emotion of anger welling up inside of him again. This time, instead of

trying to figure out why he was feeling an emotion at all, he went with it, drawing the emotion around
him like a cloak. “Where is he?”

“He…he’s being questioned by Willis.”
Willis?

“Who is Willis?”
Despite the knife to his throat, the guy turned to look at Lucius like he had just been told that the

sky was filled with purple polka dots. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Was it that obvious?
“Who is Willis?” Lucius asked instead of answering the man.
“He’s Jarvis’s right-hand man, the guy in charge when Jarvis is gone or unavailable. He’s the

second-in-command of the Horde.”

The second-in-command of the Horde. Lucius understood that term and knew that the man had to

be formidable if he had been put in command when the leader of the Horde was unavailable.

“Where is Ari being held?”
The man’s already-pale skin blanched even more. His eyes darted beyond Lucius’s shoulder, and

Lucius knew the man was gauging the distance to the door and if he could reach it before he was
killed.

He wouldn’t, and the Spartan warriors that suddenly surrounded the man from behind him

reinforced that. “I’ll ask one last time. Where is Ari being held?”

“In hell.”

Chapter 5

Ari spit out the blood that pooled in his mouth, watching as it stained the dirt below him, turning

it dark brown. There were several brown stains on the ground at his feet. He had spit out a lot of blood.

Willis was a sadistic bastard who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. He was almost as sick and

twisted as Jarvis. The only thing that kept him from earning that crown was the fact that Ari still wore
his pants.

If Jarvis had been there, Ari doubted he would even be standing on his own two feet. More than

likely, he’d be bent over the nearest flat surface, with his pants around his ankles—assuming Jarvis let
him wear pants at all. Jarvis had made many a threat about keeping Ari naked and on a leash.

Jarvis was a sick bastard who took whatever he wanted from whoever he wanted it from. He

didn’t care if they were man or woman, married or single, willing or not. He just took. If someone
protested, they usually paid for it far worse than if they simply gave in.

Ari had heard of Jarvis forcing a husband watch as his wife was raped and beaten then turned

around and made the wife watch as he raped and beat the husband. Jarvis did not discriminate between
sexes when torturing someone.

He tortured them all.
Unless it was the simple thrill of beating someone just to hear them scream, the only reason Ari

could figure that Willis had taken him was because of the Spartan. Willis might be insane, but he was
a really smart insane man. It wouldn’t take a complete genius to figure out that Ari knew about the
Spartan as they had been defending him and his farm.

But Willis hadn’t asked a single question.
From the moment Ari’s wrists were chained and the chain placed on a hook hanging down from

the ceiling, Willis had simply started smacking him around. Ari’s body was battered and bruised from
his ankles up.

He was pretty sure he even had a few cracked ribs, if not some broken ones. He had felt a few

distinct pops along his rib cage during one of Willis’s barrages with his fists. Ari’s eyes were almost
completely swollen shut, and his face felt like one gigantic bloody welt.

He kind of wished Willis would either start asking him questions so he could really piss the guy

off and get this over with, or just get it over with. As much as Willis seemed to enjoy dragging this
out, Ari just wanted it to end.

He knew the likelihood of walking away from this one was pretty low. He hated Jarvis with a

deep, soul-searing passion, but the man had always kept Willis away from him. And unfortunately,
Jarvis wasn’t here this time to stop Willis.

Ari grunted as another fist drove into his side. He really didn’t know why he grunted. His sides

felt like hamburger. There wasn’t much resistance left in them. A few more hits and Ari worried
Willis’s fist would go right through him.

Ari spit another mouthful of blood out onto the ground.
“This is getting boring, Willis,” Ari complained. When Willis growled and punched him again,

Ari just laughed, dropped his head back, and blinked up at the dirty and dank ceiling tiles. It was
getting too heavy to hold up anymore. “Is that the best you got, asshole? No wonder Jarvis wouldn’t
let you touch me. You suck at it.”

Ari grunted when Willis grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head back even farther. His

eyes watered. He knew he was going to have a bald spot after this. He could feel the small hairs at the
back of his neck straining as Willis pulled on them.

Jackass.
“Jarvis never let me touch you because he thought you were his pretty little boy,” Willis snarled.

“He actually thought you looked forward to his monthly visits. But we both know that’s not true, don’t
we, Ari?”

Hell, no, it wasn’t true, but Ari wasn’t about to admit anything to Willis. He had learned years

ago to just keep his mouth shut when someone was beating the shit out of him no matter what was
said. Usually, the one doing the talking would just follow through with their threats anyway.

“Jarvis is just as much of a jackass as you are, Willis, but you want to know what he had that you

don’t?” Oh man, this was going to hurt. “Jarvis had balls, Willis. He was a real man. That’s why he’s
the leader of the Horde and you’re just his lackey.”

Ari couldn’t keep his cries of pain behind his lips when Willis snarled angrily and pounded his

fists into him. Willis hit him so many times, Ari started to go numb, and that wasn’t a good sign. He
could feel blood trailing down his body from so many different places he wasn’t sure there was any
left in his body.

Still, when Willis finally stopped hitting him and walked over to drink something out of a dark

brown mug, Ari sputtered with laughter. “You still suck, Willis.”

“I don’t understand you, Ari,” Willis said as he turned back around and started back toward Ari.

There was a cold, calculating glare in Willis’s eyes that sent Ari’s heart racing like nothing else could.
“You had Jarvis practically salivating at your feet and you still played hard to get.”

Ari hissed when Willis lifted his mug and poured some of the contents over his open wounds. It

burned like liquid fire rolling over his skin. Willis just laughed as Ari bucked and tried to shake the
stuff off his burning skin.

Willis really was a sick bastard.
“I’m not Jarvis,” Willis leaned in and whispered into Ari’s ear. “I like it when you play hard to

get.”

“Why don’t you just kill me? Why do you have to bore me to death?”
Please!
“Oh no.” Wicked, bone-chilling laughter filled the room, scaring Ari more than the man’s fist

ever had. “I have plans for you, Ari, big plans. And they don’t involve you leaving this world until I
am done with you.”

This really sucked.
“I’ll kill myself before I let you do anything to me.” It was a lame thing to say considering he

was currently having his ass handed to him by Willis, but he refused to be cowed by the sick bastard.

Ari grunted as every ounce of air in his lungs blew out when Willis drove a fist into his stomach.

He panted heavily as he tried to draw air back into his chest, but the pain in his body made it nearly
impossible to breathe.

“You don’t have a choice, Ari, my boy.” Ari cringed, his stomach rolling when Willis licked a

line up the side of his face. “You’re mine, Ari,” Willis whispered into his ear. “I inherit everything
when Jarvis dies, and that includes you.”

Ari leaned his head away. “You mean he’s not already dead?”
Gee, too bad.
“How do you think he’s going to feel when he finds out what you’ve been up to, Willis? Jarvis

really doesn’t like other people touching me.”

Ari had no idea how he had been so lucky—not—to catch the eye of the Horde leader. He had

tried to avoid him as much as possible, even taking to hiding whenever Jarvis was around. Sometimes

it worked, sometimes it didn’t. More often than not, Jarvis caught him, and then he usually paid for
his insolence…about the way he was now.

“Jarvis will be dead before sunrise, and I will be the new leader of the Horde.”
Ari stared, then snickered, then stared some more. Before he knew it, big bellows of laughter

billowed up out of his throat. Willis jumped back like he had been burned, which just made Ari laugh
all that much harder.

“Stop it!” Willis shouted like a petulant child. “Stop laughing!”
Ari grinned. “Make me.”
Willis raised his fist into the air. Ari braced himself for the hit, half hoping it was hard enough to

take his head off, and half hoping that the sky would suddenly open up and drown Willis in a hail
storm.

Lightning wouldn’t be amiss either.
Willis slowly lowered his fist, unclenching his fingers, shaking his hands out as if they were

cramping. As many times as he had hit him, Ari wouldn’t be surprised if they were. He hoped the
man’s knuckles were broken.

“No, killing you is too easy,” Willis said.
Damn!
Ari flinched back when Willis grabbed his chin in a bruising grip. “I want to make sure that you

live a very long time so that we can grow to know each other better. Jarvis saw something in you that
made him place you on a pedestal. I’m going to discover what that is before I kill you.”

Willis patted Ari’s cheek then simply walked away, shutting the door behind him and blocking

out the light, leaving Ari hanging there in the middle of a chamber of horrors with blood dripping
down his abused body.

Ari could only hope he bled out before Willis returned.

* * * *

Ari cracked his one good eye open and tried to see out through the swelling when he heard the

door open. His vision was pretty blurry, and his head felt like it was full of cotton. Ari chalked that up
to blood loss.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t dead yet.
The light shining in through the doorway from outside illuminated things just for a moment, just

long enough for Ari to see a dark figure slide into the room through the crack in the door.

And then the room was plunged into darkness once again. Ari was too tired to be afraid, too tired

to care if it was Willis coming back to finish the job. He just wished the man would hurry the hell up.

Ari was useless to protest when he was lifted into the air then freed from the chains dangling him

from the hook in the ceiling. His head rolled to one side as he was lowered to the ground. For a brief
moment, fear filled Ari as he wondered if Willis had finally decided he wanted to be like Jarvis in
every way.

When Ari felt something being wrapped around his body instead of his pants being stripped off,

he wanted to question what was going on, but he was afraid to break the silence. Still, Ari couldn’t
prevent the soft cry that fell from his lips when he was lifted into someone’s muscular arms and
carried out of the room.

“Shush, little one.” The words were whispered so low that they might have well just been lips

moving against the soft curve of his ear. Yet, Ari still heard them. He pressed his lips together and

tried not to give voice to the pain racking his body.

Ari’s head rolled one way then the other as he was jostled. The body holding him was warm, and

Ari had the overwhelming urge to curl into whoever it was.

He tried to see where they were going, but it was still dark out. The moon was shining high in the

night sky but whoever carried him kept them deep in the shadows as they moved through the Horde
compound.

As dim as his vision was, he knew he was being carried away from the compound. And that

meant he was being carried away from Willis and his sadistic idea of fun. At that point, Ari didn’t
really care who had him as long as it wasn’t Willis.

Ari knew he was fading in and out because the scenery over his head changed each time he

glinted through his eyes, or what he could see through the swollen flesh around his eyes. He felt
immensely relieved when he saw tree branches and stars.

The next time he opened his eyes, Ari was accurately aware of the fact that he was lying on the

ground instead of being carried. He was also aware of the fact that it was daylight out, early morning
if the chill in the air was anything to go by.

“Be still, little one.”
The voice was rich and deep, rough yet soothing to Ari’s nerves. “Lu–Lucius?”
“Yes.”
Ari’s lip cracked when he tried to smile, a fresh welt of blood bubbling up. Ari tried not to smile

again when he felt a gentle touch as the blood was wiped away. Lucius went on to wipe other areas of
Ari’s skin. Ari would bet just about anything that he was a complete mess. A simple wipe down wasn’t
going to change that.

“Thank you,” he whispered.
The rag moving over his skin paused for a moment before resuming. “You do not have to thank

me, Ari. I was merely doing my duty.”

Somehow, Ari doubted that.
He reached out with his hand until he felt warm flesh under his fingertips. “Even if you were just

doing your duty, thank you.”

Lucius just grunted in response and went back to rubbing the blood and grime off of Ari’s skin.

Ari suspected that the man was pleased by his thanks but as a Spartan, Lucius had no idea how to
accept it.

“I guess I look pretty bad, huh?”
“I’ve seen worse.”
“When?” Ari started to laugh until a burning hot pain wrapped around his torso. He hissed,

grabbing his sides with his arms. Hell, even that hurt. “Oh man, he really worked me over.”

“He?”
“Willis.”
“Jarvis’s right-hand man.”
Ari’s curiosity piqued at Lucius’s words. “Yeah, how did you know?”
“One of the soldiers we ran into told us.”
Ari’s mouth almost dropped open until he remembered the cut at the corner. He was surprised

that one of the Horde soldiers had given anything up, especially about Jarvis or Willis. They were kind
of mindless drones that worshiped the ground the two men walked on. For one of them to betray
Willis, he must have been terrified.

“I am sorry but I have to pick you up again, little one. We need to get back to the farm and set up

Chapter 6

Lucius rinsed out the washrag he was using to wipe Ari’s sweaty skin and carefully folded it then

laid it across Ari’s forehead. The fever the man had developed five days ago seemed to have broken
sometime in the middle of the night. His skin was still warm to the touch but no longer burning hot.

He was still concerned about the fact that Ari wouldn’t open his eyes. Not since he had closed his

eyes on the trail back to his farm had Ari opened them without their normally golden-amber depths
being clouded with pain and a burning fever.

During his fever, Ari had whimpered and cried out, struggling against some invisible foe so hard

that Lucius eventually had to tie the man down to his bed so that he wouldn’t hurt himself.

Even though he had untied Ari during the night, Lucius was still worried about him. He had

fought in a lot of battles, lost a lot of warriors. He had never been so concerned over the health and
well-being of one single individual, and he didn’t know why he had started now.

Ari wasn’t even a Spartan.
Maybe the parachute drop from the plane had affected his brain somehow?
“Lucius,” Ari mumbled, his head turning toward Lucius as if seeking him out. Every time he did

that, it made Lucius’s stomach feel funny.

“How is he?”
Lucius didn’t glance over his shoulder at the question. He knew who stood behind him by the

soft tread of the man’s footsteps across the worn wooden floor. Levin had a very quiet, nervous walk
as if he was trying to be invisible as he moved.

“I think his fever broke a little while ago. His skin seems much cooler to the touch.”
“He’s never been this sick, not as long as I’ve known him.”
“And how long is that?” Lucius asked absently. His mind was more on the sick man in front of

him. Not on Levin’s relationship with Ari.

“Ari was about fifteen years old when he was sent here.”
That got Lucius’s attention. He swung around to stare at Levin, drilling into the quiet little man

with his eyes. “What do you mean when he was sent here? Sent here from where? By who?”

Levin blinked. “Ari was deemed undesirable by the government and sent here to live”—Levin

shrugged—“or die, although I’m sure the government wishes he would just die so he wouldn’t be a
problem.”

Lucius had never heard of this before. “What do you mean he was deemed undesirable by the

government?”

“Ari figured out he was gay about the time he turned fifteen. He made the mistake of telling one

of his teachers about it and things just kind of escalated from there. He and his parents were detained
by the authorities on grounds that Ari was acting immorally, even though he hadn’t done anything. His
parents were given a choice, renounce Ari or suffer his fate. They had another son to think about, so
his mother renounced him and stayed behind with Ari’s little brother. His father came to the island
with him, but he died a few years back, killed by the Horde.”

“Acting immorally?” Lucius’s eyebrows drew together as he tried to understand exactly what

that meant. He just couldn’t. It didn’t make sense. Ari wasn’t immoral. He was a civilian. Granted,
Lucius couldn’t conceive of being a citizen, but he didn’t think it was a bad thing. “What is that
supposed to mean?”

“During the war, those in power decided that a new set of morality laws were going to be put into

place. They felt that we would not have gone to war if there was one system of beliefs, one set of rules

for everyone to follow.”

“And those that didn’t follow them?” Lucius asked. “They were sent here?”
“Some.” Levin looked pensive. He always had a little nervous look about him but this was

something more, something deeper. “The ones that could pay were sent to what used to be South
America. The ones that couldn’t pay were either sent here or killed. New people used to arrive almost
every day, but that’s trickled down to maybe once a month or so.”

That didn’t sit well with Lucius. Granted, he had been created for battle, but he had thought he

was fighting for something. This was not what he had in mind. “How have I never heard of this?”

Levin snickered as his arms crossed over his chest and he glanced away. “Do you really think

your government wants everyone to know what they are up to before they get it done? That’s where
rebellions are created. They’d prefer no one knew until it was too late.”

“Is that how you and your brother got here?”
Tears glistened in Levin’s milk-chocolate-brown eyes as he nodded. “I never knew my father. He

went to prison right before I was born. Mama was a single mother, raising us all on her own. By the
new morality laws, unwed mothers aren’t allowed anymore. And neither were the children born out of
wedlock. Mama, Clive, and I were sent here about ten years back.”

“And where’s your mother now?”
“She got sick and died five winters past.”
“I am sorry.” Lucius didn’t know why he said it considering he never even met the woman and

he barely knew Clive and Levin, but it seemed like the thing to say.

“I still have Clive, which is a lot more than some people have.”
“Like Ari?” Lucius glanced down at the man still sleeping on the bed. He heard Levin walk

closer and turned to look at the dark-brown-haired man as he stopped next to the bed. “Yes.”

“How did he survive?” Lucius was a tough, seasoned warrior, trained to survive in any situation,

hot or cold, barren or plentiful. Ari wasn’t trained to be a warrior.

“He had already been here for awhile when we met. He refuses to talk about what happened to

him before then, almost as if it never happened.” Levin suddenly inhaled deeply. “But I’ve seen the
scars on his back.”

Lucius growled, and then blinked owlishly as he realized what he had done. He had been caring

for Ari since he brought him back to the farm five days ago. He had seen the faint white lines
crisscrossing Ari’s back. He had known what they were when he saw them, just not how Ari received
them. He had also seen the crudely branded letter J on his shoulder. He had known what that was also.
He didn’t even have to wonder how Ari received it. Lucius knew.

And he had grown angry.
It was an emotion he had no concept of, so he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. His base instincts

told him to hunt down whoever had hurt Ari and make them pay for what they did as slowly as he
could.

His training told him that he had no business getting angry. He was Spartan. He didn’t feel the

emotion of anger. He didn’t feel any emotions.

Well, he wasn’t supposed to feel any emotion.
But he was.
Lucius was enraged.
“I think he’s waking up,” Levin whispered.
Lucius instantly turned his attention back to Ari, his anger forgotten as he noted the fluttering

eyelashes, the little pink tongue that came out to wet his dry lips, the quickened breathing that moved

Ari’s chest up and down under his sleeping shirt.

Lucius moved to sit on the side of the bed, brushing the long cinnamon-brown strands back from

Ari’s pale cheeks. “Open your eyes, little one,” Lucius said in the most unthreatening voice he thought
he had. “Look at me, Ari.”

Ari’s long, thick eyelashes fluttered even more before finally lifting. In an uncharacteristic

gesture, Lucius smiled when he got his first good look at Ari’s golden-amber eyes. For the first time
in days, they were clear.

“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Thir—” Ari licked his lips again. “Thirsty.”
Lucius grabbed a glass of water from the nightstand next to the bed and held it up to Ari’s lips

and placed a hand behind the man’s head to help lift it.

“Drink slowly, little one,” Lucius cautioned. “You’ll make yourself sick if you drink too fast.”

Once Ari had gotten a few small sips, Lucius set the glass back down on the wooden stand next to the
bed and turned to look at Levin. “Go turn on the water in the bathroom then heat up some of that broth
I made. I imagine Ari is pretty darn hungry.”

Levin nodded and left without saying a word.
“Would you like to clean up while Levin gets you some broth?”
Having been injured once or twice in his military career, Lucius knew how much better he

always felt when he could get cleaned up after an injury. There were just some things that couldn’t get
cleaned enough when someone was unconscious.

“P–please.”
Ari seemed a bit dazed, but it seemed to come more from confusion than still being sick. Lucius

was pretty sure the man was trying to figure out what had happened to him, why he was in bed and so
weak. He woke up with a near stranger in his bedroom, caring for him. Lucius would have been
confused a well.

“You’re okay, Ari,” Lucius began explaining as he wrapped the blanket around Ari. “You

developed a fever after we rescued you from the Horde compound. You’ve been pretty much
unconscious for the last five days. I was really starting to worry about you, but your fever broke
sometime in the middle of the night.”

Lucius was as careful as he could be as he lifted Ari into his arms and carried him out of the

bedroom and down the hallway to the bathroom. He had been working on a surprise for Ari while the
man was sick, and now was the perfect time to show it to him.

Ari’s dark-brown eyebrows pulled together in the cutest frown Lucius had ever seen, and that

was saying something because he had never found anyone to be cute in his life. The desire for
anything—or anyone—beyond the approval of his superiors had been drummed out of him somewhere
during his early years of life.

And yet he couldn’t deny his fascination with Ari.
He just didn’t understand it.
“How?” Ari whispered when they reached the bathroom.
Lucius glanced at the steam rolling out of the wooden tub in the corner of the bathroom. It had

taken longer to find the damn tub than it had to fix up the old pipes and connect them to the natural
hot spring not far from the house.

“Someone had started the process of hooking up all of the pipes,” Lucius explained when Ari just

stared at in awe. “We just finished it. Now, there is hot and cold running water throughout the entire
house.”

“Oh.” Ari’s mouth was partially open as if he couldn’t decide whether to open it further of close

it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Ari.”
“I’ve been trying to do that for ages, but I just never seemed to get the chance. There was always

so much other work to do.”

“I don’t want you to worry about anything, Ari,” Lucius said as he held Ari with one hand and

tested the hot water with the other. Determining that the water was not too hot and not too cold, Lucius
helped Ari strip off his shirt and pants.

Taking extra precautions not to put too much stress on any of injured areas of Ari’s body, Lucius

carefully lowered him into the steaming hot water. “How does that feel?”

“Like heaven,” Ari groaned.
Lucius felt his lips start to curve up and gave into the smile that tried to move across his lips.

“Good. Just lean back against the edge and I’ll wash your hair for you.”

Ari did as Lucius said and tilted his head back. Lucius poured a pitcher of warm water over Ari’s

head and then grabbed the homemade soap Levin had pointed out to him, lathering up Ari’s long
cinnamon-brown hair.

“Oh my gods,” Ari moaned. “That’s practically orgasmic.”
Lucius paused with his hands in Ari’s hair. Granted, he had never washed someone’s hair before,

but he didn’t think it was orgasmic. Of course, never having had an orgasm, he couldn’t be sure of that
either.

“Why are you being so nice to me?”
Lucius leaned forward to get a better look at Ari’s face. “Should I not be nice to you?”
Ari laughed. “It’s not something I’m exactly used to.”
“Yes, I have seen the scars on your back.” Ari stiffened and tried to pull away. Lucius refused to

let him. “Scars are nothing to be ashamed of, Ari. They are a testament to your will to survive.”

“Not these scars.” The bitterness in Ari’s voice surprised Lucius. He hadn’t known the man long,

but what he did know about him said that Ari was usually very upbeat. He took what life handed him
and dealt with it the best way he knew how.

“Did you receive them before or after you arrived on the island?”
A small shudder moved through Ari’s body. “Before.”
Lucius wanted to ask who had hurt him, but the stiffness of Ari’s body said he didn’t want to

answer any more questions concerning what had happened to him. Lucius knew he would find out
eventually, but for now, he let it go.

He grabbed the pitcher again and rinsed the soap out of Ari’s hair, making sure each strand was

thoroughly doused. When he was done, he grabbed a clean washcloth and soaped it up and then began
gently scrubbing Ari’s pale skin.

“What are my injuries?”
“Mostly bruises and abrasions,” Lucius replied, “although a few needed stitches. I do think your

left ankle is sprained or fractured. I can’t be real sure without X-rays, and I can’t seem to locate a
doctor around here.”

Ari snickered. “That’s because we don’t have any doctors around here.”
“What do you do if you get sick?”
Ari snickered again. “Die usually.”
“You were not provided with medical care when you were sent here?”
Ari turned to stare up at him, a shocked expression lifting his eyebrows. “Lucius, why do you

Chapter 7

“Lucius will have kittens if he sees you out of bed.”
Ari laughed as he glanced over his shoulder at Levin. “I’m just stretching my legs a bit.” He was

also going stir crazy staring at his ceiling. The window seat wasn’t much better, but at least it gave
him a new view to look at.

“How are you feeling?”
Ari rolled his eyes as he turned and looked back out the window. He had been asked the question

so many times in the last few days he was hearing it in his sleep. “I’m fine, Levin. The bruises have
almost faded, and the swelling has gone down in my ankle enough that I can walk on it just fine.”

Luckily, his ankle had just been sprained. The swelling and bruising had stuck around for a few

days, but they both started to fade the day before. Ari figured in another week or so no one would be
able to tell he had been injured at all.

And maybe then he could get Lucius to see him as more than a charity case that needed to be

cared for and protected. The man was driving Ari nuts. Lucius hovered, and he hovered a lot. Ari
didn’t mind the hovering as much as he minded constantly being told what to do.

He had been taking care of himself for quite some time. There certainly wasn’t anyone else

around to do it. At this late date, he didn’t need someone coming in and deciding they knew what was
best for him. He had experienced enough of that to last him a lifetime.

“Geez Louise, you’re walking on it?” Levin sounded like he was going to pop a blood vessel. “I

just thought you were going from the bed to the window. Are you insane? Lucius is going to go
through the roof if he finds out you’re walking on that foot.”

Ari scooted around in his seat and stared at Levin, wondering when his friend had lost his mind.

“What is wrong with you? You’re acting like Lucius is the new Horde leader or something.”

Levin’s face flushed, his eyes darting away from Ari. “He’s not like that,” he insisted in a

subdued voice but growing in vehemence as he talked. “He doesn’t make me do anything I don’t want
to do and he’s nice to me. He doesn’t think the fact that I like to be with my animals is stupid. He
doesn’t make fun of me like the others do.”

Ari exhaled heavily, slowly. Getting upset at Levin was not going to make him feel any better

about Lucius. “I’m sorry, Levin. I wasn’t trying to make it sound like there was something wrong with
liking Lucius. Hell”—Ari laughed nervously—“I like Lucius. I’m just not sure why he’s here.”

“His superiors sent him and his men here. He told me. The war is over, so they are no longer

needed, but the people that they helped save are afraid of them and don’t want them around. So, his
superiors sent the Spartan here.”

Well, that explained that…and yet it didn’t.
“How can they just dismiss them like that?” Ari was shocked, and just a little offended on behalf

of the Spartan warriors. “If it wasn’t for men like Lucius, we all would have died in the war. How can
they treat them like that?”

“Lucius said he and his men were airlifted here. They were told to stay here and set up a

command post. They were only allowed to take with them what they could carry in their backpacks,
and they aren’t allowed to leave the island unless they are called back to duty. To do so before then is
an instant death sentence.”

“That’s insane.”
“No, what was insane was that they were told that this island was uninhabited.”
Ari frowned, remembering Lucius saying something about that the day they met. “But that

doesn’t make sense. The government knows this island isn’t uninhabited. They were the ones that sent
us all here.”

Levin shrugged as he walked over to lean against the wall next to the window seat. “I know that

and you know that, but until I told him about it, Lucius and his men did not know that. They knew
nothing of the government’s new morality laws or that people were being killed or shipped off if they
didn’t follow them.”

“How did he take it?”
“He didn’t seem real happy about it.” Levin’s eyes rounded considerably. “He got really angry.”
“Really?” That caught Ari unaware. “I thought Spartan didn’t have emotions.”
“I think it’s more like the Spartan warriors were taught not to have them. Their emotions are still

there. They are just buried deep beneath the surface.” Levin stared off out the window Ari sat beside, a
wistful look deepening the flush on his face. “Once they learn to tap into those emotions, they will be
unstoppable.”

That was pretty deep thinking for Levin. The man wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t a rocket scientist

either. Levin was soft spoken, more subdued than his hot-tempered brother. Levin preferred his
animals to hanging out with people.

“How do you mean, Levin?”
Levin shrugged again, his big shoulders moving quickly under his thin cotton shirt. “A man

needs balance in order to be the best he can be. It’s kind of like domesticating a wild horse. You have
to be tough with a horse, but gentle at the same time. You have to show him who is boss, but still be
his friend. Balance.”

“And how does that relate to the Spartan?”
“They are warriors. They can infiltrate an enemy compound, travel great distances with little to

no food or water, survive extreme temperatures, and kill without remorse. But without emotions, they
have no sense of why they are fighting. They are just fighting.”

Ari’s jaw dropped as he listened to Levin give him some of the most insightful words he had

ever heard in his life. It was great advice to anyone. Not just the Spartan. He just never expected to
hear it from Levin.

“The Spartan need balance in their lives in order to reach their true potential, the skills that they

have and the ability to have emotions so that they feel happiness and sadness, to understand why they
are fighting.”

“So, any ideas on how we help them achieve this balance?”
Levin suddenly smiled, which was a very rare occurrence. The man didn’t have a lot to smile

about in his life. He seemed to only truly be happy when he was surrounded by his animals.

“I have a few ideas,” Levin replied before turning and walking out of the room. Ari wished he

was a mind reader because he had never seen a more mischievous look on a man’s face than he did on
Levin’s right before he left.

He almost felt sorry for the Spartan.
Alone once more, Ari turned his attention back to the view outside of his window. He was itching

to get back to work. While he could see people working in his garden, there was nothing quite like
doing the job himself.

The garden needed to be weeded and watered, good fertilizer mixed into the soil. His animals

needed to be fed, the eggs gathered, the stalls in the barn mucked out. Firewood needed to be chopped
and stacked.

There was so much to be done, and he was stuck in his room with a bum ankle and sore ribs. It

sucked. Ari didn’t even want to think about all of the work he needed to do once he was back on his
own again.

It only made sense that the Spartan would move on eventually. The ache that clenched in Ari’s

gut at that thought was one that he didn’t think would go away any time soon. He had almost grown
used to being bossed around by the handsome Spartan.

“Why are you out of bed?”
Ari jumped, not having heard anyone come up the stairs. He turned to see Lucius standing in the

doorway, watching him intently. The deep glower on Lucius’s face made Ari feel like a kid caught
doing something bad.

“I’m going to get bed sores on my ass if I stay in bed another minute.”
“Bed sores?” Lucius’s dark eyebrows pulled down low over his face. His eyes dropping down

lower on Ari’s body. “You have bed sores?”

Ari’s eyes widened when Lucius started advancing on him from across the room. He would have

scooted back, but he was already pressed up against the wall. He had nowhere to go when Lucius
reached him and picked him up, carrying him back to his bed.

Before Ari could even protest being sent back to bed like a toddler, he was settled over Lucius’s

lap and his pajama bottoms were yanked down to his knees. Ari’s face burned with humiliation as he
struggled to get away from Lucius and pull his pants back up.

“Hey!” Ari shouted when he felt callused hands smooth over his ass cheeks. He didn’t know

whether to fight the soft caress or push his ass out and beg for more.

“I see no bed sores, Ari.”
“Oh my god!” Ari’s face was on fire as he buried it in the bed blankets. “It was a freaking figure

of speech!”

Ari was flipped back over like he weighed less than a feather. His pants were pulled back up, and

he was settled against the pillows. Ari grit his teeth as Lucius tucked him back into bed, even bringing
the covers up over his legs.

“Why would you say you were injured if you were not?”
“I was telling you that I needed to get out of bed for awhile.”
“I clearly remember you saying you would get bed sores on your ass if you stayed in bed another

minute. That is not the same thing, Ari.”

Ari fisted his hands and slammed them into the bed on either side of him. “I needed to get out of

bed, Lucius. I’m going stir crazy.”

Lucius’s jaw was firm as he replied, every bit the Spartan warrior that he was. “No, you need to

stay in bed. You are still healing from your injuries.”

“I’m fine, Lucius. I promise. Believe me”—Ari snickered—“I’ve had worse.”
“I do not see how it will do you any good if you resume your activities before you are ready, but

—”

“Lucius,” Ari groaned, dropping back against the pillows. He was going to scream.
“But.” Lucius held up his hand to stop Ari. “If you agree to rest when I say rest and to take things

easy, I will not fight you if you get up.”

“Done,” Ari said without hesitation. He was going stir crazy being cooped up inside all day long.

He needed to get outside and smell the fresh air before he started bouncing off the walls and talking to
imaginary little green men.

And he needed to get his garden in order.
“I would like you to take a nap before heading outside. If you insist on getting up after that, I

will even help you outside to the porch.”

Ari had plans to move a whole lot farther than his front porch. He just wasn’t going to tell Lucius

that. However, if a nap got him that far without argument from the tall Spartan, he’d have an easier
time getting to where he really wanted to be.

“Fine.”
“Thank you for not fighting me on this, Ari.”
Ari rolled his eyes when Lucius fluffed the pillows then pushed him back against them. He

pulled the blankets up to Ari’s chest, folding the edges over. He watched as Lucius smoothed the thin
cotton material with his fingers until not a wrinkle remained.

Ari’s head slowly cocked as his world turned upside down. Lucius was fidgeting. The handsome

powerful warrior that could take on a legion of armed men was nervous. There was tenseness to his
posture as if he were actually afraid of something.

Ari opened his mouth to ask Lucius what was wrong, but what came out of his mouth even he

was unprepared for. “Lucius, will you kiss me?”

Lucius frowned as he reared back. “Why would I want to do that?”
Ari’s face blossomed with a deep rosy red color as he turned it away. “Forget I asked,” he

murmured as he tried to slide down under the covers. He was so humiliated he wanted to die. All he
could hope was that the emotionless warrior would chalk up his words to his injuries.

“Ari.” When Lucius grabbed his face and pulled it around, Ari tried to resist. He tried to pull

away, even jerking his chin. Lucius refused to release him, gripping his chin tighter until Ari finally
submitted.

“Can’t we just forget I ever said anything?” Ari whispered, refusing to meet Lucius’s eyes even

if the man wouldn’t let him look away.

“I want to understand why you said what you did. This was not part of my training.”
I’ll bet.
Ari huffed before raising his eyes to meet Lucius’s. “I’m attracted to you.”
“Attraction, a force acting mutually between particles of matter to draw them together and to

resist their separation.” Lucius’s frown deepened. “I do not understand. Please be more specific.”

Ari snapped his teeth together. “No.”
“Please?”
“I’m sexually attracted to you, okay? I wanted to know what it felt like to kiss you.”
“Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such

interest. It refers to an individual’s sexual interest of another person, and is a factor in sexual selection
or mate choice. The attraction can be to the physical or traits of a person.”

Ari ground his molars together. “Yes.” This really was not a conversation he wanted to have,

especially with the man he was attracted to. Doubly so because he didn’t think Lucius returned that
attraction.

Lucius’s head tilted, a glint of interest coming to life in his dark eyes. “How do you know you

are sexually attracted to me?”

Ari’s eyes bugged. “Seriously?”
“Yes, I am very serious.”
“I…uh…well…” Ari felt the blush come back to his face. There was no way in hell he was

explaining this one. He dropped his eyes and watched his fingers as he fiddled with the edge of the
blanket. “I find you attractive.”

“You have already stated this, Ari.” Lucius folded his hands together, resting them on his thighs.

“I was not taught about sexual attraction because my superiors felt it was not something I need to
know in order to be an effective soldier. So, I do not understand how you know you are sexually
attracted to me.”

“You make my dick hard, okay?” Ari snapped, wanting this conversation to be over with before

his head exploded. “I know that I find you sexually attractive because you make my dick hard every
time I think about you or I’m around you or I smell you.”

Even with his head tilted down, Ari could see Lucius’s eyes lower to the blanket covering his lap.

His only saving grace was that the covers hid his flagging erection. He had been hard since Lucius
walked into the room, but the embarrassment he felt was making that dwindle away at an alarming
rate.

The silence that hung in the air was thick yet deafening in its lack of noise. Ari felt the

overwhelming need to fidget under Lucius’s tight scrutiny except that he was frozen in his spot,
unable to move a single muscle.

“I, too, find that there is certain…physical discomfort when I am around you.”
Physical discomfort?
Ari glanced at Lucius’s pants, his eyes widening when he saw the very prominent bulge in his

black military issue pants.

Holy shit on a brick.
With a bulge like that, the man had to be hung like a horse.
Ari licked his lips, unable to lift his eyes away from the tempting sight. His flagging cock

hardened up so fast that he felt light-headed from lack of blood to his head. But at least it helped with
the whole blushing thing.

“Can I ask you something personal, Lucius?”
“Of course.”
“If you never learned about sexual attraction, does that mean you’ve never been involved with

anyone?”

“I am involved with my fellow Spartan.”
Ari’s eyebrows shot up at the same time his eyes did. “Sexually?”
“No, they are my brothers in arms.”
Ari wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not. The image of all of those handsome, muscular

warriors together was kind of hot. On the other hand, that would mean Lucius was off the market.

“Have you ever been involved with anyone sexually?”
“I am unsure.”
Ari blinked.
“Spartan sexual education is somewhat limited due to my superior’s belief that sexual relations

would interfere with our duty as soldiers. Most of what I know was learned while in combat, and that
is usually not a pretty picture.” A pained expression came over Lucius’s face, laced with hints of
confusion and disgust. “I am often confused by the horrific things that civilians are willing to do to
each other.”

Ari leaned forward and rested his hand over the top of Lucius’s, gaining his attention. “Not all of

us are like that, Lucius. I hope you know that.”

“Before coming here, I would have disagreed with that statement.”
“And now?”
“I have watched Clive and Levin over the last several days. I have seen how they worry about

you and have stepped in to help take care of your farm while you were injured with no thought of what

they might gain by doing it other than your friendship. That is something unique.”

Ari smiled at the wonder he could hear in Lucius’s voice as much as for the fact that his friends

had stuck around the farm to help out. “Clive and Levin are good friends, but they are not as unique as
you might think. There are many here that would willingly help if we really needed them.”

“I have been all over while fighting in the war and believe me when I tell you that they are

unique.”

“I suppose you are right.” Ari sighed and glanced away from Lucius. He didn’t really want to

admit Lucius was right even if Ari knew he was. The Horde was a perfect example of all that was
wrong in the world.

Ari yelped when he was suddenly grabbed around the neck and yanked forward. Hard searching

lips pressed against his…and that was it. Ari waited for something more to happen—movement, the
slip of a tongue, anything.

He got nothing.
Lucius was frowning just about as deeply as Ari had ever seen when the man leaned back. “I am

not sure I fully understand why everyone seems so excited by a kiss, Ari. While I find that my pulse
increases and my penis grows harder, this kissing thing does not seem to be a good enough reason to
be so excited.”

Ari’s jaw dropped. “That wasn’t a kiss, Lucius. That was just you pressing your lips against

mine.”

“A kiss is the act of pressing one’s lips against another person’s, is it not?”
“Yeeaahh, sorta. There’s a little more involved than that.” Ari chuckled as he pushed the

blankets down and moved to sit on the edge of on the bed. He patted the mattress in front of him.
“Come over here and I’ll show you why everyone raves about kissing.”

Well, Ari hoped he could show Lucius what was so exciting about a kiss. He was pretty sure that

Lucius was interested in men if he gave the Spartan a hard-on. That did not mean he would like
kissing. Not every man did. Ari, on the other hand, loved kissing. He dreamed of making out with a
lover for hours.

If he had a lover.
Once Lucius had moved into place, Ari went to grab him when he noticed the flak jacket he was

wearing and the gun holstered at his hip. While the man was prepared to go into battle, this was not a
battle.

It was a kiss.
“Can you take off the flak jacket and gun?” Ari gestured to the nightstand. “You can put them

there within easy reach.”

Lucius looked hesitant, his jaw firming as if he was fighting his instincts, but finally, he

unbuckled his gun belt and laid it down on the nightstand then pulled his flak jacket off, laying over
the top of his gun holster. When he was all done, Lucius settled back down on the bed.

“Now what?”
Ari chuckled just because the situation was so fucking weird. “Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Please?” Ari would never admit to Lucius that he was too nervous to have the man watching

him while they kissed. Lucius’s dark eyes assessed everything, looking for strengths and weaknesses.
For once, he just needed to feel.

Ari’s stomach fluttered when Lucius’s eyes slowly slid closed, and that was a telling moment in

itself. Ari knew that there had to be at least some level of trust for the man to close his eyes around

him.

Ari held his breath as he cupped Lucius’s chiseled face between his hands and leaned forward,

touching his lips to Lucius’s. His tongue stroked across Lucius’s lips, caressing his mouth more than
kissing it.

Groaning, Lucius opened to him, and Ari swept his tongue inside, exploring, conquering. Tasting

the warrior that he had wanted since the moment he saw the strong man standing before him with a
knife in his hand.

Ari startled when he was suddenly crushed against Lucius’s chest, the man’s large hands fisting

his hair. Lucius pressed his mouth to Ari’s, claiming his mouth with a savage intensity that seared Ari
to his toes. Ari returned Lucius’s kiss with reckless abandon, wanting more, wanting Lucius.

Now, this was a kiss.
When the full weight of Lucius’s muscular body pressed into him, Ari fell back against the

pillows. A deep growl rumbled through Lucius’s chest as he crawled up and settled over the top of Ari,
the width of his hips spreading Ari’s thighs until they almost hurt.

The pain was worth it to feel the monstrosity of a cock Lucius was sporting press against him.

Ari’s breathing sped up as he hitched his hips and wrapped his legs around Lucius’s waist, bringing
their two cocks together.

Ari bemoaned the fact that fabric separated them when he so desperately wanted to feel Lucius’s

naked cock against his own. He reached down, wiggling his hand until he could get it between them,
searching for the buttons of Lucius’s pants.

The moan that fell from his lips came partly from the victory he felt when he found the buttons

and got them undone, and partly from the lips that continued to devour his. Lucius kissed Ari with a
hunger that rivaled his own, threatening to consume them both.

Ari slid his hand inside of Lucius’s pants. The very moment his hand wrapped around Lucius’s

wide girth, the man’s head snapped up, breaking the kiss. Lucius stared down at Ari for what seemed
like a million years, and then tossed his head back as he roared, bucking wildly as hot cum filled Ari’s
hand.

Ari just laid there, stunned, his own cock throbbing, aching. After watching Lucius’s display, he

was so close to release that a stiff wind would have sent him over the edge. He just needed a little
more, a little…

Ari cried out, his entire body going ramrod stiff as Lucius’s lips slammed back down on his, the

man capturing his lips in a kiss that showed who dominated who. Lucius’s hand wrapped around Ari’s
throat and the underside of his jaw, tilting his head back. The other one moved down Ari’s body,
sliding down under him to grab his ass.

He was so damn close.
Ari almost went out of his mind when Lucius’s single hand covered a fair amount of both ass

cheeks. He ripped his lips away from Lucius and stared up into Lucius’s unfathomable eyes, the
intensity of the man’s gaze making his entire body clench with need. Ari swore he could see flames
leaping to life in Lucius’s dark eyes, an invisible web of attraction building between them.

“Lucius.”

Chapter 8

Sweat beaded Lucius’s forehead as something intense flared through him when he stared down at

Ari and heard the man whisper his name in such a husky, needy tone. He had to fight his
overwhelming desire to be close to the man when he knew he needed to be a warrior.

Anxiety balled up in his stomach. He was bewildered and unsure of himself for the first time in

his life. Ari made him feel things—physically and emotionally—that he had never felt before. Lucius
wasn’t sure how to deal with that let alone process the things he was feeling.

So he chose not to.
Lucius cleared his throat and shifted his weight back away from Ari as he settled back into being

what he knew how to be—detached and unemotional.

A Spartan.
“I need to return to my duties,” he said in what he felt was a pretty damn good even tone of voice

for someone that had just had his entire world turned upside down. Ari gasped as Lucius moved to the
edge of the bed and stood, quickly and efficiently buttoning his pants then pulling on his flak jacket
and gun holster.

“You’re just going to leave me like this?”
Lucius paused and stared down at Ari. The man had pushed his pajama bottoms down to his

thighs and he had his hard cock gripped firmly in his hand. The tip was an angry red, the slit on top
leaking copious amounts of pre-cum down the thickly veined sides as Ari’s hand moved up and down
the long shaft.

Lucius gulped when he felt a rush of heat flood his body, hardening his cock right back up. He

tried to still his nerves, to turn away from the turmoil this man, and the feelings he ignited inside of
Lucius.

“I must return to my duties.” That seemed to be the safest answer.
Hell, it seemed like the only answer.
“Get out!” Ari snapped, his voice clipped and angry, his face flushing red then turning pale. “I

want you and your men off my property.”

Lucius cocked his head, confused by the vehemence he could hear in Ari’s voice. The man was

clearly upset. His face was pinched, flushed, his eyes growing watery and red. His delicate little hands
were clenched in the bed sheets that he had pulled up over his lap, his knuckles going white.

“Get out!” Ari shouted again when Lucius didn’t move.
Lucius just stood there and stared. Ari was screaming at him to leave, but every instinct he had

screamed at him to stay. Lucius shook his head as he backed away. Even though he felt like he was in
some sort of battle, he was not trained for this.

He had no defense against Ari.
“I must return to my duties.” Lucius spun on his heels and ran away from someone for the first

time in his life. It was clear to him that Ari was dangerous not only to his mission but his sanity. The
man was making him lose his mind.

Doing as Ari demanded was his best option, maybe his only option.
Lucius heard something smash against the wall as he hurried down the stairs. He paused at the

bottom of the wooden steps and glanced back up, waiting, wondering if Ari would come after him and
offer up an explanation for these unknown emotions Lucius was feeling or tell him to leave once
again.

When Ari didn’t appear at the top of the stairs, Lucius knew that the man really meant it when he

demanded the Spartan leave. The small ache that tugged at something in his chest confused Lucius
almost as much as everything else did.

He was beginning to see that his superiors were right when they drummed all emotions out of the

Spartan. They were confusing, drawing more time and energy from a warrior than they could afford to
lose.

When Lucius reached the front porch, he silently scanned the immediate area, pinpointing each

of his fellow Spartan. He checked his weapons and gear to make sure he had everything then walked
toward Marcus.

“Gather the Spartan,” he said when he reached the man. “We’re moving out.”
Marcus’s dark, espresso-brown eyebrows rose, his face suddenly going grim as he glanced

beyond Lucius to the garden. “Lucius, I’ve never questioned you before. You’ve always led us to the
best of your ability.” Marcus finally turned his gaze to Lucius. “But why now? This is a good place to
set up a base camp.”

“Ari wants us to leave.”
Marcus’s eyebrows drew together, his head tilting as if his thoughts were too heavy to hold it up.

“Would it not be safer for him to have the Spartan here to protect him and the farm?”

“I believe…” Lucius frowned, unsure of exactly how to explain the situation to Marcus. “I

believe that Ari is angry with me.”

A confused frown flittered across Marcus’s face. “And this means we must leave?”
“He has asked us to, demanded it really.”
Marcus glanced toward the house. “Does he not understand the danger he is in with the Horde?”
Lucius grimaced as he looked back at the house over his shoulder. The curtains to Ari’s room

were closed, but he could see them moving and knew Ari stood behind them, watching. “I don’t think
he cares, Marcus.”

Marcus’s attention turned toward the shed just off to one side of the house. Lucius knew without

looking what Marcus was looking at. He had seen the man’s interest in the older Krastanov brother.
Lucius just wondered if the man was as confused as he was by the whole relationship thing.

“We’ll come back, Marcus.” Lucius said the words as much for himself as for his fellow Spartan.

“We need to find a good, secure place to set up a command post, someplace not far from here, and
then we’ll come back and check in on everyone.”

Marcus nodded. “I understand.”
Lucius was glad one of them did.
“Go round everyone up,” Lucius ordered. “I’ll make sure all of our supplies are ready to go.”
He also wanted to make sure he left a little behind. There might be a garden and some farm

animals, even some canned goods in the pantry, but Lucius really wasn’t happy with how thin Ari and
his friends were. Some rations would do them all some good. They tasted like shit, but they were full
of nutrients.

Once Marcus had taken off to gather up the other Spartan warriors, Lucius started gathering their

packs together. Traveling as they were, they couldn’t take anything with them that they couldn’t carry.
It would just slow them down.

Lucius could hear Marcus and the others coming toward his position as he pulled out a

topographical map of the area. While there were hundreds of square miles surrounded by water, it was
all salt water from the Pacific Ocean. Unless boiled and treated, it was pretty undrinkable.

They needed freshwater.
Lucius studied the map until he spotted a river valley a little over a hundred miles to the south of

his current location. Being Spartan, he knew he and his men could easily make it in a little over two
days of heavy marching, less if they could locate a road to travel on.

“Which direction, Lucius?” Marcus asked as he walked up.
“South,” Lucius said as he rolled his map up and placed it back in his backpack. “There’s a good

river valley about a hundred miles south of here. We should be able to find something there.” He
glanced back at his men as he pulled his backpack on over his shoulders. They were all geared up and
ready to go.

He gave the closed faded yellow curtains on the second floor one last look then turned to face the

woods. “Let’s head out.” It was all Lucius could do not to turn and look back. Only by wrapping his
fingers tightly around his backpack straps and grinding his teeth together did Lucius keep going.

He kept his eyes straight ahead, picking a fixed spot a hundred yards ahead of him, not turning

his eyes away from it until he reached it, and then he found another spot to concentrate on—a tree or a
log, sometimes an outcropping of rocks. Lucius did this over and over again until darkness fell and
finding a spot a hundred yards ahead wasn’t possible.

When they reached the top of a large hill and it became almost impossible to see his feet

marching in front of him, Lucius slowed and started looking for a spot where they could stop for the
night and set up camp. They wouldn’t need much, but some trees for shelter would be nice.

“Lucius.” The tone of Marcus’s voice was tight with tension. It was so different from his usual

speech that Lucius stopped and turned to look at the other Spartan. Marcus pointed back down the hill
they had just climbed. “There are flames lighting up the night sky.”

Lucius spun around. It took him less than a second of seeing the tall red-and-orange flames

leaping up into the night sky before he took off, running back the way he had come just as fast as his
legs would carry him.

There was only one place in the valley that those flames could be coming from, and Lucius was

terrified of what he would find when he reached Ari’s farm. He could hear his fellow Spartan running
behind him and knew that they had his back.

Lucius was more worried about the intriguing man that haunted so many of his thoughts. If

anything happened to Ari because he wasn’t there to protect the little man, Lucius would never forgive
himself.

Guilt was a heavy emotion, especially when he had never felt it before. It was so thick as it

floated through his system that it almost took Lucius to his knees. Only fear for Ari and the need to
make sure the gorgeous little man was okay kept him on his feet and on the path back to the farm.

Just as Lucius started to break through the trees across the pasture from Ari’s farm, arms

grabbed him and held him back. Lucius snarled, swinging around with clenched fists until he spotted
Marcus and Adelphos standing there. The looks on their faces were ones of surprise, and maybe shock
at Lucius’s actions.

“Running into a hot zone is unwise, Lucius,” Adelphos said as calmly as Lucius might have

before he met Ari. Now, he wasn’t so sure. “We do not know what or who might be waiting for us.”

Lucius knew Adelphos was right. His fear for Ari was tearing holes in his concentration. “Of

course you’re right,” Lucius said, not liking that fact that he needed to admit that or that he had
forgotten every bit of his training. He was a Spartan warrior, damn it. He needed to act like one,
especially if Ari was in trouble.

“Lucius,” Marcus said in a very dry and tight voice, his eyes straying not toward the flames in

the distance but down the road toward the Krastanov farm. “I need to—”

“Go,” Lucius said, knowing exactly what Marcus needed to do, or more precisely, who he needed

to find. “Take Perucles with you. Report back as soon as you are able to. We’ll stay here as long as we
can then head back to the top of the hill where we were when you saw the flames. We’ll set up camp
there.”

Marcus nodded before gesturing to Percules. Together, the two men took off running through the

woods. Lucius turned toward the other warriors with him, gesturing for them to head in. He skirted
along the edge of the meadow until he got closer to the perimeter of Ari’s farm.

At the edge of the tree line, Lucius stopped and squatted down, assessing the area for potential

danger. Whatever had happened here had happened recently. Ari’s house was in flames, but the main
part of the structure was still standing, so it hadn’t been burning that long.

Besides the house, all of the outbuildings had been set on fire as well. Ari’s garden was in ruins.

Every bit of food that had been growing was either pulled up or flattened. It looked like an entire herd
of horses had trampled the garden. The animals that had been housed in the barn lay slaughtered on
the ground, their blood seeping into the dirt.

Lucius’s heart thundered in his chest so loud that he could barely hear the rush of the fire

burning. Everything Ari had been working for was destroyed—his home, his animals, his garden. It
hadn’t even been taken. It had all just been destroyed. Nothing was left.

So, where was Ari?
“Fan out,” Lucius murmured low in his throat. “I want Ari found. If he’s not here, I want to know

where he was taken and by who.” Lucius had a pretty damn good idea who had done this, and they
would pay with their lives for messing with Ari.

After Adelphos, Leonidas, Eneus, and Cadmus had moved off, Lucius slid his pack off, pushing

it under some bushes. He grabbed his knife out of the sheath in his boot and started forward across the
meadow, keeping low to the ground.

Lucius carefully scanned the landscape ahead of him and to the sides. His eyes moved rapidly

from side to side, looking for anything that could be perceived as a threat. He saw nothing but
darkness and flames.

By the time that he reached the edge of the yard, Lucius hadn’t seen anything that gave him any

indication of where Ari was or who had destroyed his farm other than what he had already discovered.

Fear for Ari’s safety was growing, the emotion so strong that Lucius felt it scrape along his skin

like the edge of the knife he held in his hand. Lucius swallowed it down, trying desperately to shove it
aside so that he could concentrate on finding Ari.

A small, high-pitched hoot off to his left caught Lucius’s attention. He glanced over to see

Cadmus gesturing to him. Following his lead, Lucius sprinted across the yard toward the far side of
the house.

No training on the face of the earth could have prepared Lucius for what he found when he

rounded the corner of the burning building. The bright flames lit up the area and the naked body
hanging from a tree above a small burning pile of debris.

Ari.
Adelphos and Leonidas were holding him around the hips, lifting him up while Eneus climbed

the tree and scooted out onto the branch to cut the rope tied around Ari’s wrists.

When Lucius saw the rope suddenly snap and come loose, he pulled his flak jacket off and

dropped it to the ground before pulling his shirt over his head. His heart thundered in his chest as he
raced forward as Ari was gently lowered to the ground and dropped to the ground next to him,
covering him with the shirt.

“He’s alive?” Lucius whispered, almost afraid to touch Ari himself in case he was too late.

“He’s breathing,” Adelphos said, “but he’s in pretty bad shape. Whoever did this wanted him to

suffer for a very long time before he died.”

That much was much was obvious by bruises coloring so much of Ari’s skin. Except for the fact

that Lucius needed to hold Ari more than he needed to see the sun rise in the morning, he was afraid to
touch him in case he hurt him.

“His feet, Lucius,” Leonidas said.
Lucius inhaled sharply when he saw Ari’s feet. The burns weren’t so bad that he’d never walk

again, but Ari certainly wouldn’t be walking anytime soon. Whatever sadistic asshole had hung Ari
from the tree had started a fire inches below the soles of his feet.

“I left my pack at the tree line. I need the med-kit out of it,” Lucius ordered. While he waited, he

checked the rest of Ari’s injuries. Surprisingly, besides the bruises and some abrasions, the burns on
Ari’s feet seemed to be the worst of his physically injuries.

Lucius knew that the emotional injuries would be far worse.
As carefully as he could, Lucius pulled his shirt over Ari’s head and pulled it down. Once

Leonidas returned and Lucius was able to treat Ari’s wounds, Lucius had a blanket in his bag he could
wrap the injured man up in.

“I want the area scouted for any signs of life,” Lucius said as he gently held Ari in his arms. “I

fully believe that the Horde did this. I want to know which direction they went and how many of them
that there were.”

After Eneus and Cadmus took off, Lucius turned his attention to the farm. “See if anything can

be salvaged.”

Adelphos looked skeptical as he glanced over the burning building behind them. “I’m not sure

there is anything left.”

“Just look, please.” A word Lucius didn’t use very often. “This was everything that Ari had in the

world.”

And that was pretty damn sad. With his backpack of belongings that he had been allowed to

bring on this mission, Lucius now had more belongings than Ari. Lucius was used to living like that.
Ari was not.

Adelphos nodded and took off, leaving Lucius alone with Ari. He felt something thick swell up

in his throat as he looked down at the unconscious man in his arms. His hand trembled with repressed
rage as he gently brushed long, cinnamon-brown hair back from Ari’s face.

He had barely known the man a week and yet twice now he had held Ari in his arms after finding

him bruised and abused. It was going to stop if he had anything to do with it. As of right now,
protecting Ari and keeping him from harm was going to be his top priority.

Lucius just had to get Ari agree to the idea.
When Leonidas returned, Lucius quickly treated Ari’s wounds and wrapped the ones that he

could before covering Ari with a blanket from his pack. Adelphos returned a few minutes later with a
small pile of items he had salvaged.

There were a few changes of clothes and some personal items, although Lucius wasn’t sure if

they would make Ari’s heartache any less when he found out what had happened to his farm and
everything else he owned.

“We need to head for the rise and make camp.” Lucius lifted Ari closer to his chest and then

stood.

Adelphos grabbed his flak jacket and Ari’s stuff and rolled them up inside his pack. He fit the

pack on one arm with his own. Leonidas took point with Lucius and Ari in the middle and Adelphos

bringing up the rear. Eneus and Cadmus would catch up when they could.

Marcus and Perucles would join them just as soon as they checked on Clive and Levin and made

sure that they were safe. If they weren’t, Lucius knew that at least one of the Spartan would come back
for the rest of them. The other Spartan—most likely Marcus considering his growing interest in Clive
—would track whoever took the men.

Lucius just wanted to get Ari out of the area in case the people responsible for destroying Ari’s

life came back. He had no idea how he was going to break the news to Ari of what had been done to
his farm, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to, but he wouldn’t let anyone else do it either.

Caring for Ari, protecting him and providing for him, was now Lucius’s job, and that included

the good and the bad. He’d tell Ari what happened to his farm and be there to catch the man when he
fell.

Lucius didn’t understand the emotions raging through him, especially the overwhelming need to

insure that Ari was safe, but he no longer thought that it mattered whether he understood them of not.
They were there, and he just needed to accept them.

The rest would come with time.
He hoped.

Chapter 9

“Shush, little one.” The words were whispered so low that they might have well just been lips

moving against the soft curve of his ear. Yet, Ari still heard them. He pressed his lips together and
tried not to give voice to the pain racking his body.

Wait.
He’d been here before.
He had felt pain like this before.
He had heard those words whispered into his ear before.
Ari groaned, not wanting to open his eyes and acknowledge that there was a world outside of the

warm cocoon he was wrapped up in. If the pain flooding his body wasn’t so sharp, Ari knew he could
pretend he was still in dreamland.

“Try not to make noise, Ari.” Again, the words spoken were whispered into his ear. “We don’t

know if we’re being hunted or not.”

Ari’s eyes snapped open. He inhaled sharply when the pain he had been feeling suddenly became

a burning agony, stealing his breath and bringing tears to his eyes.

“I know it hurts, little one, but you have to stay quiet.”
Ari suddenly realized that Lucius was carrying him through the woods. The moon hung low in

the sky, giving him just enough light to see the worry on Lucius’s face. His features were pinched,
grim, his teeth clenched so tight that a small pulse ticked along his jawline.

“Lucius?”
“You’re safe, little one.” The pulse in Lucius’s jaw throbbed harder. “I won’t let anything happen

to you, not again.”

Words that meant something had already happened. That explained the pain Ari felt. His muscles

ached like he had been working really hard in the field, maybe stacking wood and had some fall on
him. But it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.

The bottoms of his feet, however, felt like they were on fire. Moving them even a little sent

shards of agonizing pain ripping through him. “What happened?”

Lucius’s onyx eyes seemed to darken even more when he looked down, and Ari didn’t

understand how that was possible. “I promise I will explain everything to you just as soon as we reach
safety, Ari, but right now I need you to be quiet. We need to make sure that Willis and his men aren’t
tracking us.”

Ari gulped as a lump started to form in his throat, threatening to choke him when he suddenly

remembered exactly what Willis had done to him and all that he had lost. Ari pressed his lips together,
sucking the lower one in as silent sobs racked his body.

Everything was gone.
Willis wanted to make an example of him, to show everyone what would happen to anyone that

defied him. Ari had not only defied him, he had brought Spartan warriors right to Willis’s doorstep.

And Willis was not the forgiving sort.
The one thing that Ari had to hang onto other than the fact that he was still breathing was that

Willis had been so pissed he hadn’t taken the time to do more than knock Ari around before hanging
him by his wrists from a tree.

“I’m so sorry, little one,” Lucius murmured against the side of Ari’s head, right next to his ear.

There was a wealth of self-loathing in his voice. “I should have stayed. This never would have
happened if I had just stayed.”

“No.” Ari knew for a fact that if Lucius had stayed, he just would have been one more victim of

Willis and the Horde. He spoke quietly, murmuring, knowing that with his enhanced genetics, Lucius
would have no problem hearing him. “This would have happened whether you were there or not.”

Lucius just would have been hurt like Ari was, or worse.
“I am Spartan, Ari.” Even though he knew it wasn’t directed at him, the low menacing growl in

Lucius’s voice made Ari shiver. “I would have stopped him.” Lucius spoke his words with such
conviction that Ari had to believe them.

“I wouldn’t have wanted you hurt.” Ari smiled at the surprise he saw on Lucius’s face when the

man reared back and looked down at him. He had been angry at Lucius, very angry. But he had
regretted his words not ten minutes after Lucius and the other Spartan left.

Unfortunately, it had been too late.
“I think Willis had someone watching my farm, Lucius. The Horde showed up right after you

left.”

Lucius nodded. “That would have been a good strategic move. Willis had to know after fighting

us once before that we would have stopped him a second time. If he wanted to teach you a lesson and
show others that they shouldn’t cross him, destroying your farm and killing you would have done it.”

Ari inhaled a shaky breath. “You think Willis wanted me dead?”
“Yes.”
One word and yet it held the weight of the world in it. The knowledge that it brought Ari would

change his future, and he knew it. Jarvis had been bad enough, but Willis was not just cruel, he was
insane. He enjoyed hurting other people.

Ari’s breath stuttered in his chest as he tried to breathe through the pain and misery of losing

everything and the changes to his life. “Where am I going to go?” he whispered absently to himself.
“What am I going to do?”

“You’re coming with us,” Lucius said, steel conviction in his voice that dared Ari to argue with

him. “Marcus has gone for Clive and Levin as we do not believe they will be safe from the Horde
either. They should be with us by morning.”

“What about their farm?”
“I think it is safer for them if they came with us.” Lucius nodded his head to the other Spartan

warriors walking with them. “Willis is not going to stop at destroying your farm. He will go after
whoever stands up to him, and Clive does not seem to me like a man that will take someone else
ruling his life.”

Ari snorted. “No.”
Clive would fight Willis tooth and nail. When Jarvis had been in charge, there had been some

sort of unspoken truce between them. The Horde never went near Clive, Levin, or their farm. Ari
didn’t think that truce would continue to hold now that Willis was in charge. He would take what he
wanted and destroy anything he didn’t, and that included people.

“I want to go back,” Ari said when his future suddenly became blatantly clear to him.
“What?” Lucius must have spoken louder than he had expected to because he suddenly stopped

and looked around as if looking for anything out of place. When he looked back down, Ari could see
the confusion on the man’s face and almost laughed. “Why would you want to go back, Ari? There’s
nothing there but smoldering ruins. Willis destroyed everything.”

Ari knew Lucius wasn’t trying to cause him pain, but the words still hurt. Ari swallowed hard,

thickly. “I need to go back, Lucius. I need to see what I can salvage and then start rebuilding. I can’t
keep letting the Horde rule my life.”

“You could die if you go back.” Lucius voice had risen. He sounded outraged, and he looked

shocked that he was outraged. His facial expression kept changing to one of surprise, with his
eyebrows climbing up his face, to one out anger, with his eyebrows pulling together low over his eyes.

“I’m not going to die, Lucius.”
“You don’t know that!” Lucius’s eyes flashed with anger and frustration…and fear?
Did the Spartan feel fear?
“I do know that because you’ll be there to keep me safe.”
“I can’t…” Lucius’s eyebrows lowly drew together again, a more agonized expression coming

over his face. “If something happened to you…”

“Come back with me, Lucius.” At Lucius’s dumfounded look, Ari pressed on. “Come back and

help me rebuild. Don’t let Willis and his minions chase us away.”

Ari wasn’t sure if he was trying to bolster Lucius’s courage or his own, but the more he talked,

the more it felt right to have Lucius there with him to rebuild the farm. Ari cupped his hand over the
side of Lucius’s face and turned the man’s head until their eyes met. “Please, Lucius.”

“You’ll do what I say?” Lucius asked hesitantly but with a steel edge in his tone. “You’ll listen

to my commands?”

Ari wasn’t sure exactly what he was agreeing to when he nodded, but he didn’t think Lucius was

out to harm him in any way. The man was a fierce warrior, but he had more honor than anyone Ari had
ever met.

“Thank you, Lucius,” Ari whispered as he cupped the back of Lucius’s head and drew him in for

a soft kiss.

Without warning, Lucius slammed his lips over Ari’s, an animalistic sound rumbling in his

throat. The kiss was brutal, crushing. Lucius’s hands gripped Ari’s hair, holding Ari to him as their
teeth and tongues clashed.

Lucius tasted so damn good, the hot spicy taste making Ari’s cock grow achingly hard. Like a

drug addict in the first seconds of his fix, Ari tried to devour Lucius. He gripped the back of Lucius’s
neck, pulling him down, his tongue plunging forcefully into the man’s mouth.

The kiss was hard, hungry, and Ari urged his mate closer, deepening the kiss. Ari’s wrapped his

arms around Lucius. He twisted closer, desperate and needy. He licked at Lucius’s lips, nibbled at
them, drew Lucius’s tongue into his mouth, and sucked at it.

Ari almost came on the spot when he felt Lucius push closer, the Spartan’s larger body curving

around him.

“Lucius.”
Lucius jerked back at the sound of another voice invading their intimate moment and let go of

Ari so fast that he didn’t have time to stop himself from stumbling back then collapsing on the cold,
hard ground.

His lips parted as the shock he felt at being so quickly pushed away by Lucius was replaced by a

low, burning anger at the flush of shame he could see coloring Lucius’s face.

Disgusted that he had allowed himself to be drawn in by Lucius a second time, Ari tried to stand

to his feet until a sudden agonizing pain reminded him he couldn’t. Ari grit his teeth to keep from
crying out as he settled back on his butt.

Lucius was ashamed of him. It was in every line of his stiff body. Ari moved his eyes away from

Lucius, purposely letting the Spartan see him turn away. Lucius might not be mean and cruel like
Willis, but he certainly knew how to make someone feel lower than dirt.

“Can you take me back to my farm?” he asked as he gazed at the other Spartan. Adelphos, if he

remembered correctly. The man looked at him for a moment like he was insane then glanced at Lucius
as if needing his input on the whole crazy thing.

Ari didn’t know whether to be relieved or pissed when Lucius nodded. His chest hurt when he

thought about leaving Lucius behind, his eyes burning with unshed tears. He didn’t want to leave. He
was even willing to follow Lucius into the wilds if that was what the Spartan wanted.

He just refused to be someone’s dirty little secret. If Lucius couldn’t acknowledge him in front

of his friends, Ari didn’t need him. When Adelphos picked Ari up and started to carry him back down
the hill toward his farm, Ari watched the Spartan that had captured a piece of him, looking for any
sign that this wasn’t what Lucius wanted.

The man just firmed his jaw, not meeting Ari’s eyes.
Ari felt the tears that had been building in his eyes start to fall over his eyelashes. He went to

wipe them away but instead scrambled for something to hold onto as he was suddenly transferred from
Adelphos’s arms to Lucius’s.

Well…dumped really.
“He is your civilian,” Adelphos said in a voice totally devoid of emotion, much like Lucius’s had

been just a few days earlier. “You carry him.”

Lucius stared down at Ari like he had never seen him before. Ari slowly ducked his head, unable

to continue to look at Lucius, and not wanting to. He was tired. Tired of being abused, of being
rejected, of fighting for every scrap, but mostly, he was tired of having to fight so hard to just stay
sane. It really didn’t seem worth it.

Insanity was looking pretty damn good.
Ari dropped his head against Lucius’s shoulder, unable to hold it up any longer. All of this chaos

was sapping every bit of strength he had.

Every damn time Ari tried to believe in someone other than himself, he got smacked in the face

with his own stupidity. Maybe the Lucius’s superiors had something when they drummed feelings out
of their soldiers.

They didn’t seem worth it.
“I’m sorry, Ari.”
The words were whispered against the top of Ari’s head as Lucius carried him back down the

hill. Ari didn’t have the energy to tilt his head back so he could look up into Lucius’s face and
discover if the man meant them or not.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
“It will take me awhile to understand the things you make me feel.” Lucius’s deep sigh lifted his

chest, pressing the firm muscles against Ari. “It may take me even longer to grow comfortable with
them. I ask that you give me time.”

Time?
Time for what?
Ari tightened his hand in Lucius’s dark shirt, curling his fingers into the rough fabric. He

couldn’t verbally answer Lucius. He wasn’t sure he understood exactly what Lucius was asking of
him, and he was afraid to find out.

Lucius stopped walking. “Ari?”
Ari huffed and tilted his head back to look up at the handsome Spartan. “What?” He knew his

voice was gruff. He meant it to be. But he felt like shit when Lucius flinched. “I don’t know what you
want me to say, Lucius.”

“Say you will give me time.”

“Time for what, Lucius?” Ari snapped, unable to keep his growing agitation out of his voice.

“Time to decide if you like me? Time to decide if I’m worth your time? Time to decide if you’re
going to stick around? What, Lucius? What exactly am I giving you time for?”

Lucius’s lips thinned as he pressed them together. His jaw clenched, pulsed. He was angry. He

was actually angry. Ari could see it. He could also see the confusion creasing Lucius’s brow as the
man tried to come to terms with the foreign emotions he was feeling.

“You’re angry,” Ari whispered. It wasn’t a question.
“I do not…” Lucius’s nostrils flared for a moment before the man’s shoulders slumped. “I do not

know what emotion I am feeling. I simply know that this situation is not what I want and I feel an
overwhelming urge to hit something.”

Ari chuckled. “You’re angry.”
“How do you deal with such overpowering emotions?”
“Most of us learn from a very early age. But to be honest, some people never learn the correct

way to deal with their feelings. Willis is a perfect example. He’s insane, but he embraces his madness
like a lover.”

“Am I insane?”
The situation wasn’t funny in the least, but Ari found himself having to bite his lip to keep from

laughing at the panic on Lucius’s face. “No, I don’t believe so.” Ari’s lips twitched even harder. “But I
could be wrong.”

Lucius stared. “You are laughing at me.”
“Sort of.”
“You find my confusion amusing?”
Ari’s amusement died a quick and agonizing death at the hurt he could see brimming in Lucius’s

dark eyes. “Not like you think, Lucius. I’m not trying to laugh at you, really I’m not. It’s just that—”

“You feel the need to laugh at me,” Lucius grumbled as he started walking again.
“Lucius, if I suddenly started swinging a sword around with no training, I would stumble about

and more than likely hurt myself or someone else. And even though you knew I was trying, you would
feel some amusement at my efforts whether you wanted to or not. You wouldn’t necessarily try to be
mean to me, but that’s the way it might come off.”

“My lack of knowledge is amusing, but—”
“But I’m not trying to be mean when I find it amusing. I’ve just never met anyone like you and

the other Spartan. And while there are a million things that you are all good at, emotions isn’t one of
them. I, on the other hand, have a lot of experience with emotions but barely any in fighting or
whatever it is you guy do.”

“So, you are saying we each have things we are good at?”
“Yes.” That was one way to put it.
“Then I will use my knowledge to keep you safe and you will use your knowledge to teach me

how to deal with emotions.” Lucius’s eyebrow curved up as if he had just discovered the cure for
cancer and had made the announcement to the world. “Is that sufficient?”

Ari smirked. Spartan or not, the poor man had no idea what he was getting himself into. “Deal.”

Chapter 10

Lucius slowed as he reached the outskirts of Ari’s farm. The sun was starting to rise over the

mountains, spotlighting the destruction that had once been Ari’s home. The closer he walked, the more
Lucius started to think that coming back wasn’t such a good idea.

Ari was going to be devastated.
The anger Lucius felt before started to slowly burn inside of him again. It wasn’t right that

someone could cause this much suffering to someone else. This was what Lucius and his fellow
Spartan had been created for—to stop the suffering.

If it was the last thing he did, he would insure that Ari had his farm back and he could live there

safely, without fear of Willis or the Horde.

Lucius tensed, his arms tightening around the man sleeping in his arms when Adelphos came

running toward him. Before the Spartan even reached him, Lucius started searching for a threat, but
couldn’t find one readily visible.

“Report,” he said when he looked at Adelphos again.
“Marcus and Perucles have returned with the other two civilians.” Adelphos seemed perplexed,

as if he couldn’t quite believe the words coming out of his mouth. “They have brought more civilians
with them.”

Lucius frowned. “Why?”
“Clive called it a barn raising.”
Lucius understood the basic definition of a barn raising. He just didn’t understand why someone

would do something like that. Willis and the Horde were still out there, still a threat to everyone. Why
would civilians put themselves in danger like that?

Lucius readjusted the sleeping man in his arms then started toward Ari’s farm. He wanted to

know what was going on. The closer he went, the more activity he could see.

A few civilians were dragging the burnt remains of Ari’s house and barn into a pile. Two

younger women were searching through the debris, pulling items out that could be saved and setting
them off to the side. More men were unloading a wagon of wood, stacking it near an area that was
being roped off.

When Lucius walked up and stopped, Clive and Levin ran over. Levin was practically vibrating

as he stared down at Ari, biting his lower lip as if he wanted to say something but didn’t want to wake
Ari up.

“He’s going to be okay, Levin,” Lucius said softly. Some unidentifiable feeling in the pit of his

stomach told Lucius he needed to go easy on Levin. The man seemed fragile. “The bottoms of his feet
are burned and he has some bruises, but Ari is tough. He’ll be up and running around in no time.”

Levin’s milk-chocolate-brown eyes filled with tears as he nodded.
“So,” Lucius said as he glanced out at all of the activity, wanting to let Levin have his pride, not

mentioning the man’s tears. “What is all of this?”

“Ari has always been there for us. It’s about damn time for us to be there for him,” Clive said,

his voice full of indignation as if he thought a Spartan couldn’t possibly understand why someone
would be nice to someone else. He might be right. Lucius was starting to understand it, but he didn’t
know if the other Spartan did.

“Ari needs to rest.”
“I’ll take him,” Clive said as he held his arms out as if to take Ari.
Lucius growled, turning his upper body away so that Ari was inaccessible to the man. He wasn’t

about to release Ari to anyone. “Ari is staying with me.” Lucius’s thick, menacing voice brooked no
argument. He would destroy anyone that tried to take Ari from him, and he wanted everyone to know
that.

Lucius could feel the eyes of those around him watching. His fellow Spartan were confused.

Clive was pissed. Levin was doing everything he could not to laugh. And Lucius didn’t care. He didn’t
know if that was due to his lack of emotions all of his life or his recent exposure to them.

And it didn’t really matter to him. He was going to keep Ari safe, make sure that nothing ever

happened to the man again. In exchange, Ari was going to show him how to deal with the new
emotions rioting inside of him.

Ari was going to teach him to be human.
“Adelphos, set up the tent. I need a place for Ari to rest.”
Adelphos nodded and walked around behind Lucius, digging into the backpack on his back. A

moment later, he took off toward a small grove of trees off to one side of clearing where Ari’s farm
sat and started erecting the tent. It was near a table where people were unloading food and setting it up
on a makeshift table.

“He can rest in the back of the wagon,” Levin offered, waving his hand toward the wagon that

was being unloaded. “I’m sure Gavin wouldn’t mind.”

Lucius didn’t know Gavin, and that meant he minded. “Thank you, Levin, but I’ll keep Ari with

me for now.”

“You’re just going to carry him everywhere?”
“Ari doesn’t weigh much more than my pack.” Truthfully, he didn’t, and that was one thing

Lucius intended to change. He knew that times were hard, especially for the people that had been
banished to this isolated zone, but he refused to let Ari suffer needlessly when Lucius could help.
“How much damage did Willis cause?”

Clive paled. “You know Willis did this?”
“Yes.” Lucius’s head tilted, confusion turning quickly into suspicion. “Do you know anyone else

that would cause this much damage on purpose?”

“No, but…” Clive bit his lip as he glanced away. “Jarvis never would have let Willis destroy

Ari’s farm. If Willis did this, then Jarvis has to be dead.”

“I believe he is,” Lucius said. “If he is not dead, then he is severely incapacitated. Willis is

running the Horde right now.”

Clive whistled low under his breath. “If Jarvis is still alive and he discovers what happened to

Ari, Willis will wish he died a thousand deaths before Jarvis finally kills him. Jarvis is crazy insane
about Ari. He is totally off-limits to everyone.”

Clive’s words rang true, but they also resonated from a voice filled with knowledge. Clive knew

more than he was telling, and Lucius wanted to know what he knew. “How do you know so much
about the relationship between Jarvis and Ari?”

Lucius knew he was right in suspecting Clive when the man’s face suddenly flushed. A sudden,

burning rage filled Lucius as he realized that a man Ari trusted with his life was betraying him
somehow.

In the blink of an eye, Lucius balanced Ari against his chest with one hand and reached over with

the other one to wrap around Clive’s throat, squeezing until the man’s face started to turn purple.

“Speak.” He didn’t care how insane he looked at the moment, or sounded. “You are involved

with the Horde somehow. Tell me now how you betrayed Ari and I’ll make your death quick. Refuse
to tell me and you will suffer greatly before I take your life.”

“Lucius!” Adelphos exclaimed, true shock in the man’s voice.
“P–please,” Clive sputtered as he tried to pull Lucius’s fingers from around his throat. “I n–never

hurt Ari. I w–was j–j–just supposed to watch out for him, to let J–Jarvis know if anyone was bothering
him.”

“Is that why Jarvis never attacked your farm?” Clive’s face drained of color from one second to

the next, telling Lucius he had spoken right. “What sort of deal did you make with the Horde leader,
Clive?”

“Knock it off, Lucius,” a quiet, tired voice murmured against Lucius’s throat. “I know all about

the deal Clive made with Jarvis. I’m the one that suggested it to Clive.”

“Ari.” Lucius instantly let go of Clive and turned all of his attention to the man in his arms. He

cradled Ari closer to him as he moved to get a better look at the man’s swollen face. Luckily, some of
the swelling had started to go down, and now Ari just looked bruised. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I had my ass handed to me,” Ari snorted on a weak chuckle.
Lucius was not amused. Hell, he wasn’t sure he even knew what being amused felt like, but he

was pretty damn sure that the feelings he had weren’t it. The urge to throttle Ari for belittling his
ordeal was overwhelming.

The man had no sense of self-preservation.
“What is everyone doing here?” Ari asked as he lifted his head and glanced around at all of the

activity surrounding them.

“I believe Clive called it a barn raising.”
Lucius doubted anyone but him knew of how upset Ari was, and he only knew because he could

feel Ari’s body shaking against his chest. Lucius tightened his arms to let Ari know he wasn’t alone
and then started walking around so that Ari could see what everyone was doing.

He wasn’t ready to let Ari go just yet.

* * * *

Lucius felt his muscles bunch then stretch as he brought the axe in his hand down on the log he

was chopping. There was a lot of wood to be chopped and stacked for the coming winter, for cooking
and heating. It was hard physical work, but Lucius loved it. He could actually see the results of his
hard work almost immediately.

Chopping wood might be one of his favorite pastimes.
The soft laugh that floated through the air reminded Lucius of his other favorite pastime. As he

squatted down to pick up the split wood, Lucius glanced over to the two figures sitting under a large
apple tree across the yard from the wood pile.

Ari sat under the tree with Levin, his head thrown back as he laughed at something Levin said.

Lucius didn’t care what Levin said. He was just glad to see Ari laugh. Hell, after the last week of
cleaning up the destruction Willis had made of the farm, Lucius would have been thrilled to see a
smile on Ari’s face.

Laughter was a huge bonus.
The days had been long, the nights even longer. Lucius spent his days clearing debris and

working with the others to get the farm back into working order. He spent his nights staring up at the
ceiling of the tent, plotting the extermination of the Horde as he listened to Ari whimper and cry out in
his sleep.

Lucius couldn’t remember the last time he had full night’s sleep. If it wasn’t for his Spartan

training, he knew for a fact he’d be out cold right now. Only sheer force of will kept him moving when
all he really wanted to do was curl around Ari and sleep for a week.

Lucius didn’t know if Ari always had nightmares of if they were due to the recent attacks by

Willis. Ari wouldn’t talk about it no matter how many times Lucius asked. After one particularly bad
time when Lucius asked and Ari had gotten upset, Lucius had stopped asking. Getting answers just
wasn’t worth Ari getting so freaked out.

Lucius stacked the wood he had chopped in the woodshed he and Marcus had built a few days

ago and then slammed his ax down into the chopping stump. He kept his eyes on Ari as he walked over
to the well and drew up some water to drink.

Chopping was thirsty work. At least, that was the story Lucius was going with. He’d deny to his

death that watching Ari was what made his mouth go dry. No one, not even Ari, needed to know how
the gorgeous little man affected him.

Lucius was Spartan. He needed to maintain his persona, even if he was starting to feel emotions.

Being feared as an emotionless warrior was far more important than the overwhelming desires raging
through his body every damn minute of every day.

Besides, Ari might be teaching him about his emotions as part of their deal, but there was no way

in hell that Lucius was going to tell the man about these ones. There were just some things Ari didn’t
need to know about.

Lucius’s loss of control around Ari was one of them. If he could stay away from Ari, he just

might have a chance of retaining that control. Of course, cutting his own throat was easier than staying
clear of the enticing man.

He knew he was fighting a losing battle when he couldn’t look away from Ari for more than a

few moments. He was still getting his work done, but he was doing every little job he could find that
would keep him within sight of Ari.

Lucius walked over to the long table that had been set up for food. Several of the neighbors that

had come to help Ari rebuild his farm brought food with them. The table was covered with everything
from a plate of sliced ham to fried chicken to garden salad. There was even fresh baked bread.

Lucius grabbed a plate and loaded it down with a little bit of everything. He still didn’t think Ari

was eating enough. Lucius grabbed two glasses of water, one fork, and then carried everything over to
the tree where Ari was sitting. He lowered himself down onto the ground beside Ari, nodding his head
in greeting to Levin.

“I brought you something to eat,” Lucius said when Ari cocked a curious eyebrow at him. He

scooped a forkful of potato salad up and held it out to Ari. “You don’t eat nearly enough.”

Ari’s dramatic eye roll made almost silent peals of laughter come from Levin. Lucius watched

the merriment dance in the man’s brown eyes and couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to him
that made him the way he was.

There was no doubting that Levin was a gentle soul. Even Lucius, in his limited exposure to

civilians, knew that Levin wasn’t a fighter by any stretch of the imagination. He was more of a
dreamer, a thinker. Something had obviously happened to the man, something that had made him
quiet, submissive, and soft spoken.

Lucius had the strong urge to reassure Levin that he would protect him right along with Ari, just

not for the same reasons. He wanted to protect Levin because he was a sweet young man that needed
someone on his side.

He wanted to protect Ari because he needed the man in order to breathe.

Chapter 11

Ari smiled as he leaned forward and accepted the bite Lucius offered him. The man really was

too funny for words. Ari had learned to survive on very little. The plate Lucius held in his hands could
have fed him for at least three days if not more. Lucius insisted that Ari eat and eat…and eat. Ari was
afraid he was going to explode.

Ari watched Lucius as he accepted each bite of the food the Spartan was feeding him. The more

Ari ate, the happier Lucius seemed. And Ari didn’t have the heart to tell Lucius enough was enough.
The Spartan was trying so hard to make sure that Ari was well taken care of. It could get annoying at
times, but it was cute as hell.

If Lucius wasn’t carrying him around everywhere, he was tucking Ari under a tree or in the tent

they all slept in at night, any place that might offer him some measure of protection. Lucius seemed to
be all about Ari’s protection.

But it didn’t end with just Ari. Between Lucius and his fellow Spartan, everyone in Ari’s small

community was getting lessons in weapons and protection. Lucius believed that the Horde was just
waiting to attack again, and Ari couldn’t argue with that assessment.

Willis would soon learn that Ari had survived the man’s attempt to teach him lesson, if he hadn’t

already. When he discovered that Ari hadn’t fled in fear and was in fact rebuilding his farm, Willis
was going to go ballistic.

As much as Ari didn’t want to be around for that spectacular show, he wasn’t going to willingly

give up his farm or the life he had made here for himself. He didn’t care how many times he had to
start over and rebuild again.

And now he had someone else to think of.
Lucius and the other Spartan needed more than a command post, they needed a home. After

slowly getting to know each one of them, especially Lucius, Ari wanted to try and provide that home
for them. They needed a safe place to be just as much as Ari did.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Ari held up his hand to ward off the next forkful of food Lucius held out

to him. “I’m stuffed, Lucius.”

“One more bite? Please?” Ari’s jaw dropped open when Lucius fluttered his eyelashes, but it was

enough for Lucius to shove the forkful of food into his mouth.

Ari rolled his eyes again as he chewed. Once his mouth was clear, he narrowed his eyes at

Lucius. “Just how in the hell did you learn to do that?”

“Do what?”
“Don’t act innocent with me, Lucius. You know exactly what you were doing.” Ari just didn’t

know how Lucius knew how to do it. Puppy dog eyes and flirtation were not something the Spartan
were taught in military school.

How in the hell did Lucius learn it?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucius said as he bent his head forward and scooted

the leftover food around on his plate.

If Ari hadn’t seen the corners of Lucius’s lip twitch, he would have been convinced that the man

had no idea what he was doing, but he did, and that told him that Lucius was becoming human much
faster than he had expected.

Maybe it was time to up the lessons.
“Can you carry me to the bathroom?”
“Yes, of course.” Lucius set the plate aside and stood, leaning back down to wrap the blanket

more securely around Ari before scooping him up in his arms. As he carried Ari toward the outhouse
in a small cove of trees several yards behind the construction site that would soon be the new
farmhouse, his eyes strayed to Ari’s feet. “How do they feel?”

“Good.” Ari smiled at the concern he could see in Lucius’s onyx-colored eyes. “In another few

days I probably won’t need you to carry me anymore.”

“I don’t mind,” Lucius said swiftly as if wanting to dissuade Ari of the idea that it was a problem

to carry him. “I like how it makes me feel when I carry you.”

Ari’s heart beat little faster as he laid his head against Lucius’s chest. One thing that he had

come to realize came from Lucius never having been taught emotions was that he spoke exactly what
he was thinking. He didn’t hold anything back, good or bad.

“Maybe I’ll need just a few extra days.”
Lucius’s lips curved up into the most breathtaking smile Ari had ever seen. Somewhat because it

took years of war and fighting off his face, but mostly because Ari was pretty damn sure it was
Lucius’s first smile ever.

He reached up and smoothed the pad of his thumb over the corner of Lucius’s mouth. “This looks

good on you,” he said in a quiet, soft tone.

“Ari.” Lucius’s eyes flashed as the man’s audible gulp filled the air. “When you look at me like

that, I can’t breathe.”

Ari glanced up into Lucius’s eyes. The desire burning so brightly in his eyes stole the breath

from Ari’s lungs. Lucius might not know what that emotion was, but Ari did. “If I kiss you, are you
going to run again, Lucius?”

Lucius’s lips parted, the rush of air out of his mouth one of pure, aching need. “Ari.”
As he slowly leaned forward, Ari watched Lucius’s eyes begin to burn. By the time their lips

actually brushed together, they were hooded, barely open. Ari captured Lucius’s lips, pouring
everything he felt for the man into the kiss. Lucius gave a low growl as he bit at Ari’s bottom lip. He
enveloped Ari in his arms as he pulled him closer. Ari, in turn, filled the kiss with as much passion
and desire as he could muster while still dressed.

He’d rather be naked.
Ari stared at Lucius for a moment after pulling away, gauging the man, studying him. He needed

Lucius on a level even he had a hard time comprehending. But he didn’t want to be alone in his need.
The fire burning in Lucius’s eyes was so scorching that Ari began to think maybe Lucius needed him
more.

“Take me into the trees, Lucius.”
For once, Lucius didn’t look at him with confusion. The man seemed to know exactly why Ari

wanted to go into the woods. Lucius made quick work of taking them both through the trees to a small
clearing just big enough for the two of them.

He gently laid Ari down on the ground then spread the blanket out around him before standing

up. Ari smiled as he climbed to his knees and scooted over to unzip the man’s pants, pulling his cock
out.

Ari watched Lucius’s face as he leaned in and sucked the head of the man’s cock directly into his

mouth. He had been dying to taste Lucius since they had fooled around before. The salty tang splashed
on his tongue, drawing a moan from Ari. There was nothing better than the taste of man. The musky
scent, strong, firm body, and commanding tone of his mate drove him to take him deeper.

Ari swirled his tongue around the head, dipping the tip into the slit and pulling the honey out. His

free hand cupped Lucius’s balls, feeling the weight and rolling them around like marbles.

Lucius pulled his dick out of Ari’s mouth, much to Ari’s cry of protest. “Later.” He cupped Ari’s

cheek and then leaned down to kiss him. “On your knees, Ari. I want to be inside of you.”

Ari couldn’t get his clothes off fast enough. He was pretty sure he heard fabric tear. What the

fuck did he care? Lucius wanted to be inside of him. Ari had begun to think this day would never
come.

By the time he dropped the last of his clothes on the ground and looked up, Lucius was just

standing  there  with  his  jaw  dropped.  “This  will  work  a  lot  better  if  you’re  naked,  too,  Lucius.” Ari
swallowed  hard  at  the  wicked  grin  that  crossed  Lucius’s  lips.  There  was  something  feral  in  the
Spartan’s  eyes  as  he  stripped  his  clothes  off,  something  that  told  Ari  he  may  have  unleashed  a
monster.

When Lucius dropped to his knees and started crawling up the blanket from the bottom, Ari

scrambled toward the other end. His joyous laughter filled the air as his ankle was grabbed and he was
pulled down the blanket until Lucius’s larger body covered Ari from head to toe, his muscled chest
pressing against Ari’s back.

Ari was a little astounded that he was laughing. He never once considered that sex would be fun

or filled with laughter. He always thought it was hot and sweaty and intense, and sometimes downright
scary.

Ari yelped when his knees were suddenly pushed apart. He moaned as Lucius spread his ass

cheeks, licking one long line from balls to puckered hole. Ari lowered his head to the blanket and
rocked forward and back.

The sensations running through him were like an out-of-control fire, racing and licking at his

nerve endings, engulfing him in the inferno. His cock was throbbing as the blood raced to fill it. It was
engorged and heavy, bobbing between his spread thighs.

“Lucius,” Ari groaned. So far they had only rubbed off together. He had yet to be fucked by the

handsome Spartan, and he wanted it more than he wanted to see his farm rebuilt. “Please.”

Ari closed his eyes, shivers coursing throughout his body as tingles of sheer delight spread

across his skin from the warmth of Lucius’s body. He loved being held by the Spartan warrior. It was
the best feeling in the world.

“I’ve got you, little one.”
Oh, and he did. Ari could feel Lucius’s hands stroking along his sides. Each gentle touch ramped

up the lust coursing through Ari’s body. Lucius seemed to know exactly where to touch him, and just
how hard or soft, to make Ari squirm. Ari never wanted Lucius to take his hands away from his skin,
ever.

It felt too damn good.
“Am I doing this right, Ari?” Lucius asked. “Do you like this?”
Ari nodded rapidly. There was no way on earth he could even begin to describe how much he

liked having Lucius’s hands on his body. Besides the fact that his brain had melted, he couldn’t speak
to save his life. How Lucius had learned all of this, Ari would never know but forever be grateful for.

He didn’t even notice that Lucius had slicked up his fingers and pressed them into him until they

started to wiggle around—and then he couldn’t concentrate on anything else except for the fingers
thrusting deep within his ass.

“I love how you feel, even around my finger.” Lucius’s words were spoken in an almost awed

fashion, sending spikes of electricity shooting through Ari’s body. His fingers curled into the blanket,
his breathing broken and erratic as Lucius slowly stretched him.

Ari tightened when Lucius pushed a third finger into him, shivering at the feel of the man’s lips

against him. Small little gasps fell from his lips as Lucius pressed his chest into Ari’s back.

“You’re so tight, Ari,” Lucius whispered gutturally into his ear, the stubble of his day’s beard

growth scraping against Ari’s sensitive skin. “I love the way your body sucks me in, the way your skin
stretches so snugly around me.”

Ari almost came just from those whispered words. He had been waiting forever for someone like

Lucius, someone that truly wanted him. He had begun to think it would never happen. And yet, now it
was. Ari was scared and horny and nervous and—oh hell, he was everything all at the same time.

A cry broke from somewhere deep inside of Ari as he pushed back against Lucius’s fingers.

“Lucius—” A plea stole from him as the Spartan worked his fingers magically inside his hole, grazing
repeatedly over Ari’s sweet spot.

“What do you want, Ari?”
“Fuck me, please.”
Ari’s eyes rolled back into his head and then slowly flickered closed. His body stiffened when he

felt Lucius curl his fingers. They brushed over a spot inside of him that sent an electrical pulse zinging
throughout his entire body.

Ari opened his eyes and looked up at Lucius. The man was staring down at him with a feral heat

in his eyes that Ari had never seen before. It startled him to shaking, knowing that Lucius wanted him
that much, and it was all there in his onyx-colored eyes.

“Lucius,” Ari whispered desperately as he snaked his hand around the nape of Lucius’s neck.

“Please.” Ari needed, and he needed bad.

He needed now.
Lucius removed his fingers and pressed the blunt head of his cock to Ari’s stretched hole. He

thrust inside of Ari, sending shock waves through his body. Lucius buried his face in Ari’s hair as he
slammed his hands onto the blanket next to Ari’s, his breathing ragged in Ari’s ear.

Ari cried out as Lucius thrust his cock deeper into his ass. His knees buckled, but before he could

fall, Lucius’s arm was around his waist, holding him in place. Ari shouted in protest when Lucius’s
thick cock pulled free.

“I need to see you, Ari.” Lucius spun Ari around, kissing him so hard that Ari tasted blood in his

mouth. Lucius pulled back, kissing the side of Ari’s neck. “Wrap your legs around me, little one.”

Ari eagerly wrapped his legs around Lucius’s thick waist, but the sight of Lucius kneeling

between his thighs almost made him drop them. Lucius looked so incredibly hot kneeling there, cock
in hand as he gently pushed the tip into Ari’s ass.

Once the head pushed in, Lucius leaned over Ari, his arms pressing against the back of Ari’s legs

just under his knees. It gave Ari something to push against when he felt Lucius start to slide the rest of
the way in.

Ari heard Lucius groan when he finally bottomed out, his balls pressing against Ari’s ass cheeks.

He felt so full. There was a bit of an ache, but it only seemed to heighten the intensity of what he was
feeling.

Ari whimpered when Lucius started to move. The head of Lucius’s cock seemed to know right

where that hot spot was inside of Ari’s ass and dragged across it every single time Lucius thrust in and
out of him. It was driving Ari out of his ever-loving mind.

“Lucius.”
“Are you going to come for me, Ari?” Lucius asked, panting heavily between each word, each

thrust of his hips. “Are you going to come all over my cock?”

Ari was sure his eyes had crossed at Lucius’s words. No one had ever spoken to him like that. It

was hotter than hell, especially knowing that Lucius had never been balls deep inside of anyone
before. Ari grabbed the man’s face and pulled it down to his. Ari captured Lucius’s lips with his own
in a kiss that curled his toes.

He wanted to consume Lucius.
Lucius’s thrust started turning forceful, harder. Ari felt the sweat on Lucius’s back as he scraped

his fingernails down the man’s back. He could feel the muscles tensing, hear Lucius’s breathing
becoming rapid.

He also felt a tingle begin in the base of his spine and work its way around to his balls and his

cock. The pressure was building, and Ari wanted Lucius to explode with him. Just as the fire inside of
him reached a fevered pitch, Ari cried out, filling the space between them with the sweetest release he
had ever experienced.

Lucius roared out his release at the same time Ari’s orgasm took over, his back arching and his

seed erupting from his cock, filling Ari. “Mine,” Lucius said softly as he nuzzled Ari’s neck. “All
mine.”

Ari wrapped his arms around Lucius’s neck, feeling elation overtake him that he had finally been

claimed by the Spartan. He snuggled into Lucius’s side as he sighed, sated and content for the first
time in longer than he could remember.

Lucius ran his hands over Ari’s hair as he pulled him closer, once again nuzzling his neck and

the side of his face as Ari drifted in a mellow place that only he and Lucius inhabited.

“I do not understand these feelings I have, Ari.”
Ari blinked rapidly, his little bubble of contentment bursting at the sudden sound of Lucius’s

voice. “What feelings, Lucius?”

“I don’t know, Ari. I feel this deep rage whenever someone looks at you wrong. And I have this

overwhelming need to wrap you up and keep everyone away from you, to keep you just for myself. I
want to just sit and watch you breathe, to make sure you are fed and warm and happy, and…” Lucius
grabbed Ari’s hand and pressed it flat against his warm chest. “It hurts here.”

Ari felt his own chest hurt in response to Lucius’s words as well as his gesture. “Oh, Lucius.” Ari

blinked some more. He tried to tell himself it was because he was tired, not because he had tears in his
eyes, but even he didn’t believe that.

“Why does it hurt, Ari?” Lucius’s onyx-colored eyes were agonized as they stared down at him,

confused and filled with a soul-searing pain that made Ari’s inside ache.

“Do you know what emotion you are feeling, Lucius?” Ari knew. He felt the same thing. He even

had a name to go with it.

“I know it has something to do with you because it only happens around you. I see you and I feel

lighter, more energetic, like I could conquer the world, and then I start worrying about you. Are you
hungry? Warm? Do you need anything? And then I want to be the one to make sure that those needs
are taken care of for you.”

Lucius’s eyebrows suddenly shot together until they were almost one. “And I don’t like it when

other people do what I feel I need to do.”

Never, in all of his years, had Ari heard someone put into words so easily what Lucius was

feeling. Maybe, just maybe, being new to emotions was better than being used to them and jaded.

Ari felt the tears he had been holding back slowly start to slide down his cheeks as he leaned up

and brushed their lips together. Lucius’s frown began to lessen the longer they kissed, but it was right
back when Ari leaned back.

“Ari, you have water on your face.”

Chapter 12

“Well, well, well,” said a grating voice, heavy with sarcasm. “Isn’t this a sweet little picture?”
Lucius instantly rolled Ari underneath him as he scanned the trees for the intruder into their

intimate little world. He wasn’t surprised in the least when his eyes landed on Willis. He had been
expecting the snake to come back at some point. It was just too bad that the man had to return at a
moment in time that Lucius would remember for the rest of his life.

Ari loved him.
And that meant that Lucius would fight to the death to keep Ari safe and at his side. Lucius had

something to fight for now that was more important than any mission he had ever gone on during the
war.

“You’re not welcome here, Willis.” Lucius watched every move Willis made as he slowly stood

to his feet and pulled Ari up, grabbing the blanket to wrap around Ari’s naked body.

Willis didn’t have the right to see Ari naked.
“Go tell the others that we have company, little one.”
Ari, eyes wide, nodded and started to back up.
“Oh, no, Ari should stay,” Willis said as he waved his hand.
Lucius wrapped his arms around behind him, covering Ari as he spun them both around when he

saw several other men step into the small grove. They were surrounded and far enough away from the
main farm that no one would hear them.

They were in trouble.
“This is between us, Willis. It doesn’t involve Ari. Let him go.” Lucius didn’t think it would

work, so he was in no way surprised when Willis tossed his head back and laughed maliciously.

“This very much involves Ari.” Willis pointed the knife in his hand toward Ari, shaking it

menacingly. “He’s the entire reason we’re even here. He just won’t learn his place.”

Lucius’s eyebrow cocked. “Beneath your feet, you mean?”
Willis smirked. “Why, yes.”
“Yeah, not going to happen,” Lucius replied. “Not while I’m still alive.”
“Then let’s fix that, shall we?” Willis nodded his head toward Lucius. “Finish him.”
Lucius had just a second to push Ari back before three of the men Willis had brought with him

rushed forward and jumped him. Lucius went down in a pile of slamming fists and raging kicks.

Lucius felt several blows land to his sides and head before he was able to get to his feet, roaring

as he stood, tossing the three men off of him. As they landed on the cold hard ground, they stared up at
Lucius with fear clouding their eyes.

Lucius knew that they had just realized they had taken on a foe bigger and badder than them. One

man scrambled to his feet and took off running through the trees. He was probably the smarter of the
bunch because he left. The rest were idiots, and Lucius had no problem making them aware of that
fact…as painfully as he could.

Lucius’s face was a cold mask of indifference as he turned to look each man in the eyes. “Make

sure that this is really something you want to do because once this fight starts, there will be no
walking away from the battle until it is over.”

And over would most likely leave one of them dead.
Lucius saw one of the men wavering, his eyes darting from Lucius to Willis. He tried to dissuade

him even more. “Do you really want to fight Willis’s battles because he is too much of a coward to
fight them himself?”

“I am not a coward!” Willis shouted indignantly.
“No?” Lucius glanced over at the Horde leader but never fully took his eyes off the other two

men. “You’re the one that wanted to fight. Not me. And yet, here I am. Why are you standing back
there in the trees instead of up here fighting me?”

“Do you think I’m stupid?” Willis snapped.
“Yes,” Lucius replied automatically.
Willis sputtered as small titters of laughter came from Ari and the other two men. “Don’t just

stand there laughing, you fools,” Willis shouted. “Get him.”

It suddenly dawned on Lucius that there was one major factor missing in all of this. “Has Willis

told you who I am?” Lucius asked. “He knows. Jarvis knew, too.” Lucius turned to look at the two
men, noting the indecision in their stances. “I am Lucius, third Generation Spartan of the Black
Spartan Brigade.”

The shock that paled both men’s faces told Lucius what he suspected. “He never told you, did

he?”

Both men shook their heads.
“Willis wants you to fight me, to fight his battles, because he knows he can’t beat me.” Lucius

took a warrior’s stance, legs spread apart, fists brought up to defend himself and inflict damage.

He didn’t even care that he stood there stark-ass naked.
“Do you still wish to fight me?” When they glanced over at Willis, Lucius actually heard himself

chuckle. “Oh, don’t worry about Willis. He won’t bother you if you decide not to fight his battles.
He’s not walking away from this alive.”

Both men turned and ran.
Once they were out of sight, Lucius blew out a relieved breath and turned to tell Willis he could

go to hell only to realize in concentrating on the other two men so much, he had left Ari defenseless.

And Willis was taking full advantage of his mistake.
Lucius’s heart just about pounded right out of his chest as he stared at the knife Willis held to

Ari’s slim throat. “One single hair out of place on Ari’s head, Willis, and I can promise you that your
death will be very slow.”

Lucius couldn’t bring himself to look Ari in the eyes and see the condemnation he knew for sure

would be there. He had fucked up—again—and Ari might pay for it with his life. If that happened,
Lucius would willingly submit to Willis and die.

He couldn’t live without Ari.
He knew that now.
“Let him go, Willis.”
“Make me.” Willis cackled wildly as he tightened his hold on Ari. There was an insane quality to

his laugh, an unnatural light in his eyes. Lucius almost thought that Willis was high or something
except that he didn’t smell any drugs on the man.

Willis was just crazy.
Lucius splayed his hands out in a calming gesture. “Let Ari go and I’ll submit to whatever you

want.”

“Oh, no.” Willis grinned as he shook his head. “No, no, we need little Ari here. He has to witness

his hero submitting to me. He needs to see that I am master. I will always be master.”

Lucius’s jaw dropped. Willis really was insane.
“Now, get down on your knees.”
With a knife at Ari’s throat, Lucius knew he had no other choice. He dropped to his knees right

there in the dirt. He glared at Willis, daring the man to harm Ari.

Willis jutted his chin out, gesturing to the ground in front of Lucius. “Lay down on your stomach

and then lock your fingers together behind your head.”

Even as he complied with Willis’s demand, he knew that it was a really bad idea. Every instinct

Lucius had, every ounce of training he had ever received, all of it was yelling at him to not submit to
Willis. This was going to end very badly.

“See how easily he submits to me, Ari.”
Lucius’s stomach rolled at Willis’s words. He was submitting but only to keep Ari alive. And

this would be why his superiors drummed emotions out of the Spartan. Emotions gave them
something to lose.

Lucius ground his teeth together as he finally raised his eyes to meet Ari’s. There was fear in the

golden-amber eyes that met his, but there was also a deep burning anger. Lucius knew if Ari got loose,
Willis would have other things to worry about than him.

Ari was pissed.
As Lucius lowered his head, he saw Willis move away from Ari. Before he could react, Willis

straddled his hips and started snapping silver handcuffs around Lucius’s wrists, pulling them down
behind his back. Lucius didn’t necessarily need his hands to fight, but it would have made things just a
bit easier.

“I’m going to make you watch as I fuck your little whore,” Willis growled into Lucius’s ear.

“I’m going to make you watch as he sees you for what you are—a failure. He’s finally going to see
that no one can save him.”

Lucius’s nostrils flared, his body tensing. He would die before he let Willis touch a hair on Ari’s

beautiful head. “And you think you’re not a coward? You can’t handle a real man. You have to pick on
someone far weaker than you. Ari can’t even stand on his own.”

Lucius grunted as his head was shoved down into the dirt.
“Fine,” Willis snapped. “You want me to fuck you first and make Ari watch his hero beg for my

cock? I can do that.”

Lucius cringed at the very idea of Willis getting anywhere near him in an intimate manner, but

he would rather it be him than Ari. If he was lucky, Willis would be so obsessed with making him pay
that he would forget about Ari, and Ari could get away.

Lucius really wanted to keep Willis’s attention on him so he only put up a token struggle when

the man started touching him. His skin crawled even as he winced at the rough treatment. It was no
wonder Ari wanted nothing to do with the man. He wouldn’t know a gentle touch if an angel touched
him.

Just as Lucius felt Willis grab his ass cheeks and pull them apart, the man suddenly stopped and

moved down over the top of him, pressing him into the dirt. Lucius felt his stomach clench as Willis’s
hot, disgusting breath blew out over his cheek.

He gulped and started to slowly turn his head to see what Willis was doing only to watch as

Willis fell to one side of him, the man’s eyes staring up into the sky. Lucius’s jaw dropped as a death
rattle fell from Willis’s lips…and then nothing.

Lucius was so intent on watching Willis that he jumped when he felt someone at his wrists. He

glanced over his shoulder to find Ari kneeling behind him, his tongue stuck out of the corner of his
mouth as he messed with the handcuffs keeping Lucius a prisoner.

“Yes!” Ari shouted as they suddenly fell free. Ari held the cuffs up and then a small bobby pin.

“You’d be amazed at some of the things you can learn when you’re stuck inside all winter long.”

Lucius didn’t want to know…well, yes he did. “You learned to pick locks during the

wintertime?”

Ari shrugged like it was no big deal. “I had to do something during those cold winter months. I

also learned to write calligraphy, knit, and make medicinal herbal tea.”

Lucius was impressed. “Will you teach me?”
“Yeah.” Ari grimaced as he glanced just to the left of Lucius. “If you clean up the mess. If I have

to continue to look at that scumbag I may hurl.”

“Done.” Lucius climbed to his feet and searched around until his eyes landed on his clothes. He

quickly pulled them on and then helped Ari get dressed. Once Ari was sufficiently covered, Lucius
pulled the knife out of Willis’s back, wiped it off on the man’s clothes, and then handed it to Ari. “I
think you’ve earned this.”

Ari eyed the knife like it was snake getting ready to jump out and attack him. He finally turned

his face away. “I don’t want it.”

“Ari.” Lucius grabbed Ari’s chin with his forefinger and thumb. “You did what you had to do to

save us. No one will fault you for that.”

“I killed a man, Lucius. You might be used to it, but I’m not.”
Lucius froze. “Does that bother you?” He was terrified that Ari would stop loving him because

his hands were not clean and never would be.

Ari frowned. “What?”
“That I’ve killed men?”
“No, of course not. You’re a soldier, a Spartan. That’s what you do.”
“I want to be more than that, Ari.” He wanted to be someone that Ari was proud of.
Lucius wasn’t sure if anything else could have reassured him of Ari’s feelings more than the

smile that came over the man’s lips.

“You are more than that, remember?” Ari asked. “You’re Lucius. My Lucius.”

Chapter 13

Lucius waved to Clive, Levin, and Marcus as they started down the road that led back to their

farm. The rest of the community that had come to help with the barn raising had left the day before.
Clive and Levin stayed around to help with the official move in.

The house had taken six weeks to build but only because they were building it big enough for

Ari, Lucius, and the other Spartan. Ari’s little one-bedroom farmhouse had tripled in size, growing to
four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, dining room, and large great room complete with river-
stone fireplace.

Ari had been ecstatic when he saw it, which had made all of the hard work worth it.
The barn and other outbuildings had taken less time, just a couple of weeks. Lucius had been

confused about why they were even building a new barn when all of the livestock had been slaughtered
by Willis until housewarming presents from the community began to arrive in the form of chickens,
cows, and goats. The horse had come from Clive and Levin.

After several lessons from Clive, and a few interesting results, Lucius and Marcus had learned

how to make some basic furniture for the new house. Clive had promised to teach them enough that he
could start selling his furniture in town or trading it for supplies that they might need on the farm.

Adelphos and Perucles had taken a liking to the livestock. They spent much of their time with

Levin and a few of the other farmers in the area, learning everything that they could in order to
properly care for the animals that had been given to the farm as housewarming presents.

Eneus and Cadmus were learning about planting. Lucius’s head usually began to ache when the

two men started talking about crop rotation, seeds, and fertilizer, but Eneus and Cadmus seemed to
love it.

Leonidas was the only one that hadn’t taken to something on the farm. Lucius knew that his

training had been a little more brutal than everyone else’s because he fought it the most. Because of
that, Leonidas preferred to stay in the woods as much as possible and not around people.

Still, Leonidas did do a lot of hunting and scouting, giving Lucius a good idea of the terrain—

things that weren’t on the map that their superiors had given them—and a good idea of the people in
that terrain—something else their superiors had omitted.

Lucius still didn’t know why his superiors had lied to them, and he doubted that he ever would. It

no longer really mattered. He had found purpose in protecting Ari and his farm, and the others in the
area.

He was happy where he was, much happier than he ever had been fighting as a Spartan. He was

still a warrior, and he always would be. But fighting no longer consumed him.

Loving and caring for Ari did.
Lucius lived and breathed to make sure that Ari was healthy and happy. Knowing that the man

had killed someone to save him elevated Ari to a whole new level. No one—with the exception of his
fellow Spartan—had ever cared enough about Lucius to kill to protect him. It gained Ari the devotion
of every single Spartan, not just Lucius. They all respected a man willing to fight for what he believed
in, and apparently, he believed in Lucius.

Lucius had no idea what the future would hold for him and the other Spartan. Willis was dead,

but someone else would most certainly take over the Horde, giving the Spartan another enemy to fight.
And eventually, their superiors would come for them.

But until then, until the Spartan were needed again, they would stay in this little plot of land and

learn to be human through the teachings of the very people they had been created to protect.

Once Clive, Levin, and Marcus were out of sight, Lucius headed toward the new farmhouse. He

loved the hardwood floors inside the house, the stones that they had painstakingly carried up from the
river to make the fireplace.

As he entered the house, he instantly saw his fellow Spartan sitting about the great room. Lucius

took a moment to watch them, marveling at how much they all had changed in so little time. They
smiled now, and sometimes even laughed. They were becoming human instead of just killing
machines.

And the reason for that was coming down the stairs.
Lucius walked to the bottom and waited for Ari to reach him before leaning down to brush their

lips together. Kissing was one of the wonderful things he had learned from Ari. He could kiss the
gorgeous little man for hours.

“Did Clive and Levin get off okay?” Ari asked.
“Yes, Marcus is escorting them back to their farm.” Lucius grinned, wiggling his eyebrows

suggestively as he had seen Clive do once, making Ari laugh. “I do not think we will see him anytime
soon.”

Ari snickered. “Right?”
Lucius’s eyes flickered to the others in the room before coming back to devour Ari’s beautiful

face. “I think I need another lesson, Ari.”

Ari’s eyebrow cocked up. “A lesson in what, Lucius?”
The man knew.
Lucius could tell from the glint that ignited in Ari’s golden-amber eyes. Ari knew exactly what

Lucius wanted. Lucius did the only thing he could think of. He kissed the man. Ari was unresponsive
at first then slowly started to flick his tongue around Lucius’s mouth. He rubbed his hands up and
down Ari’s back, trying his best to bring his lover around.

“Want you, Ari,” Lucius spoke against delicious kiss-swollen lips. “Need you.”
He snaked his arms around Ari, lifting the man up into his arms by his rounded ass cheeks. Ari’s

legs wrapped around his waist as he started up the stairs. He could feel the man’s erection pressing
into his own. The friction was maddening. Lucius would never get enough of feeling Ari’s hard cock
against his body.

Lucius pushed his hands down the back of Ari’s pants. He ran his hands over the flare of the

man’s buttocks, squeezing both nicely rounded globes. Ari moaned, hitching a leg up onto Lucius’s
hip, pressing even closer. Parting the cheeks, Lucius tapped at the hidden entrance with his index
finger.

“Tease.” Ari’s breath caught on a hiss.
Lucius pulled back to see his mate’s flushed cheeks, lust eating up his irises. Ari’s aroused

passion was making Lucius’s grow stronger. His cock was burning to take possession of his mate.

“No, it’s a promise, Ari.” Lucius walked into the new bedroom he now shared with Ari—kicking

the door shut behind him—and laid him on the bed, crawling over the delicious man to taste those
sweet lips once again, consuming them as his desire was consuming him.

Lucius pulled Ari’s pants down and off, removing his shoes and then his shirt. He went straight

for Ari’s erogenous zone. He pushed Ari’s legs back to his chest, giving himself the perfect view.

With a slow and lazy motion, his tongue circled around the pink delight, feeling every ridge of

the tight muscle. He stiffened his tongue, and then pushed in, stretching Ari in a way that made him
squirm and scream with pleasure.

“Lucius, please, don’t torture me,” Ari whimpered as he pushed down on Lucius’s face.

Lucius grinned as he pulled out then pushed back in, feeling the muscle expand for him as it

welcomed his invasion. He affixed his lips to the skin surrounding the starburst, suckling gently.

“You’re gonna make me come,” Ari warned as he hitched his hips.
That was kind of the point.
Lucius pulled his tongue free and ran it from one thigh to the other, nipping the skin along his

trek. He gave a final kiss to Ari’s small prize then pulled Ari’s sac aside as he licked the apex of his
thigh. Ari shuddered under his hands. His tongue weaved a path from Ari’s inner thigh to his hip bone
then around to his abdomen.

He inhaled deeply, his fingers digging into Ari as the need to come overtook him. How could one

man be his undoing? Ari was the beginning of his downfall, his long-honed control no longer his own.

“Lucius,” Ari whimpered.
“Hush, little one, let me take care of you.” Lucius scraped his teeth across one of Ari’s nipples,

lapping at it as if it were cream. Ari’s legs pulled up then circled around him, trying desperately to
connect their cocks.

Regretfully, Lucius pulled back. He needed to pull free of his clothes, to clear his head before he

came in his pants.

The sight that lay before him was magnificent. Lucius pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it

aside, ridding himself of his pants just as quickly. He licked his lips before hovering over Ari, tucking
his head into the man’s slim neck, nipping at the tender flesh.

“Make me come, damn it,” Ari cried out in a fit.
Lucius sunk his teeth into Ari’s shoulder hard enough to leave marks. Ari gasped then, crying out

his orgasm as the heat of his seed warmed Lucius’s stomach. Ari mewled in his arms as he came, hot
liquid erupting between them.

He reached under his pillow and grabbed the lube. Trying his best to balance his hold on his mate

with his teeth, Lucius coated his cock and then tossed the bottle aside as he angled himself and pushed
in, driving into Ari’s ass as in one long thrust.

Lucius grabbed Ari’s ass as he thrust deeply as his mind scrambled at the whimper Ari gave.

Lucius pulled his hands up, plunging them into Ari’s hair, caressing Ari’s face with his. He never
realized how lonely he had been until Ari, until the hurricane blew into his life.

Lucius kissed his eyes, his nose, his chin, and his lips. Lucius held his man close as he rocked in

and out, losing himself in the feelings of desire as they took pleasure in each other’s body.

“I love you, Ari.” It was so hard to say those words when he had never known them before the

gorgeous man under him came into his life. The emotions were as foreign to him as the words. But for
Ari, Lucius would brave anything.

“I love you, Lucius.”
Lucius rose up, his pelvis rocking Ari’s body. He locked eyes with his lover, shocked to see such

love staring back at him. Lucius dipped down, kissing the very breath out of Ari.

The sensations were clawing their way throughout his entire body and ensnaring him in a sensual

hold as his body exploded in a euphoric rush. He threw his head back and shouted Ari’s name as his
soul seemed to leave his body then rejoin it as his head cleared and his vision once again returned.

The gift Ari gave him was more precious to Lucius than any action could have told. He had set

out to conquer an untamed land and been tamed himself by a slip of a man that now held his heart in
his slim little hands.

Lucius finally realized that he hadn’t been created for war.
He had been created for Ari.

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