Warlord Reunited: 3 (Barbarian Claims) by Cynthia Sax Read Free Book Online

being a fool.” Ellie’s brown eyes blazed with heated emotion. “He’ll know your ships are in orbit. He won’t contact me this close to Chamele 1.”
    Berke set the clone-detecting device on the first officer’s console and lurched to his feet, not caring about Tolui or his gerel ’s mysterious plan to catch him. “Did our separation cause you pain, Ellie?”
    Ellie turned her head, her gaze meeting his. “Only when I shared a space with another male.” She brushed her fingers over the healing burn on her cheek. “Didn’t being near another female cause you pain?”
    “I felt nothing, a numbness.” I hurt my female with my decisions, with my arrogance. Berke curled his fingers into tight fists. “I didn’t feel physical pain.”
    “Because you didn’t care.” She glared at him, her eyes flashing with hurt and anger.
    Berke flinched. “Because I’m not human.” He cautiously approached Ellie, not knowing how to fix his mistake. “I’m a Chamele.” He stood in front of her chair. “I thought you only felt the loneliness, the dead space inside your soul.” He rubbed his bare chest, remembering that aching emptiness. “I didn’t know—”
    “That, even in this, I’d be weaker than you are?” Ellie looked away from him, her silent rejection cutting him. “That every day my tolerance for the company of other males would diminish until I had to erect barriers between me and the outside world, giving up the career I loved, becoming a prisoner in an all-female school?” His passionate female’s flat, dead tone revealed the extent of her anguish.
    Anguish I inadvertently caused. “Ellie.” Berke sank to his knees before her, the wire-mesh floor digging into his leg coverings, that pain serving as a small penance for what he’d done.
    “Tolui contacted Zeta closer to your sun.” Ellie stared over his right shoulder, her refusal to look at him punishing Berke even more. “He might feel safe there.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Ship, chart a course to Chamele 4.”
    “ Gerel .” Berke placed his palms on her flight suit-covered thighs, needing to touch her, yearning to hold her. “What is the purpose behind the experiments you’re running?” he asked, dreading the answer.
    Her gaze met his, her eyes covered with a wet sheen, his strong female battling tears. “I’m trying to correct our mistake, Berke.”
    “You’re severing our bond,” he bluntly stated, his soul screaming a protest, needing her more than he had ever needed anyone or anything. She nodded and he clenched his jaw, smothering his pain over layers of ice. “Once this war ends—”
    “Nothing will change between us. I’ll still be a weak human, unworthy of a great Chamele Warlord,” Ellie said softly.
    The worlds shifted under Berke’s knees, the magnitude of his blunder hitting him. “Is that what you think?” He stared at his beautiful, clever, brave female. “That you’re unworthy?” She turned her head away from him but not before he saw her pain. “Ellie.” He buried his face in her lap, inhaling her delectable scent. “You’re worthy, too worthy. You’re irreplaceable, Ellie.”
    “You said bonding with me was a mistake.”
    “Bonding was a mistake,” Berke explained, wishing he could take back those words, words spoken out of shock at what he’d done, how he’d put her, his everything, at risk. “It exposes.” He waved his right hand, unable to label the raw, intense emotions he felt for Ellie. “And it puts you in danger. Tolui could target you to get to me.”
    “Khan and Murad—”
    “Were right,” he muttered against her leg. “I know nothing about human females.” She stiffened. “Any females,” he hastily corrected. “Not that you’re any female.” He raised his head and met her bemused gaze. “I’d do anything to protect you, Ellie. That’s why I sent you away.”
    “Because protecting me is your duty.” She pushed a strand of hair away from his face, her touch