I'm halfway done with the third and final in the Vorta Brides Trilogy, "Yelgrun and Lynet: Chosen for the Marriage Bed", during which just now the captured lieutenant and unwilling wife of Yelgrun, one of my OCs, is having a comforting scene with her husband after the death of Kilana following the events of "The Ship". She is the cousin of the leading lady of "Keevan and Annora: Forged in the Desert Heat", and the daughter of Admiral William Ross; her parents divorced when she was a teenager, but even before that, her past is very complicated and dark, based off a book I read and its animated adaptation. Yelgrun has a difficult past himself if albeit different from hers - and he does help her if a bit questionable.

Chapter Four

Yelgrun and Lynet Ross: Lotus Blossom

Kilana was dead, and all she wanted was to do something if not cry and grieve like she did when her sister died. When the plague took Kayley, Lynet had spent days weeping for her elder sibling, only ten years of age.

She was a grown woman of twenty-two now; WHY was she weeping like she did in front of Yelgrun and the others in the Dominion like that? But she had a right to; no matter what Kilana did - she had made a mistake, had no idea how to really deal with a man like Benjamin Sisko and never wanted anyone to get hurt - she did not deserve this. She despised the Founders for their grudge against all solids, loathing their own followers...most of all being the Vorta who served them faithfully but did not get the treatment in return. They deserved some form of compassion.

If anyone heard her from the Federation, they would say that she was a sympathizer - an apologist, as the Bajorans would say.

She wasn't defecting to the enemy; she just...understood a little better. A gray area, it was called, and she knew Benjamin would agree with her if he was here. His experience with Kilana must have taught him that even more - including with how much she did truly care for the men and women under his command wounded and lost. She just wanted the Founder...the same Founder who ordered the deaths of her mother and crew just for the life of one of his own.

Ben must have taken that Jem'Hadar ship; Kilana said so, but it made Lynet wonder if it was worth the lives lost. Kilana, however, came back with what she could of a dead Founder.

Somehow, it made her think of her sister even though this was nothing like that. Yelgrun had worshipped this one Changeling; Kilana, too, but he was no longer with them. Her husband was taking this extremely hard even though he was doing his best to not show it. Men always covered their emotions well. But through their bond, she saw the damage as irreparable. He was proud to serve the shape-shifter every now and then, but now it seemed he had no one else, knew there would never be another like that one - he might as well be stuck with the Female Changeling who spoke for them all, whom Lynet heard was not so lenient. She shivered, unsure if she ever wanted to meet that particular Founder.

She didn't want to think about the death and losses right now. She wanted a form of a distraction, a relief, and there was one sure way she knew Yelgrun would not be able to resist - and he would gladly grant her the wish.

"Time to get these off first."

She assisted him in the removal of her clothes, beginning with her shirt which came off easily over her head, raising her arms, and her bra taken off afterwards. Her shorts and underpants were deposited soon, so she was exposed to his sizzling caresses of her naked skin, her sides quivering and her breasts aching beneath his hands. She whimpered and lowered her face to the floor; the way he made her feel was blazing, making her feel beautiful, but how could she ever tell him it was the love he had openly confessed crystal clear but she wasn't sure of herself? Love was about giving and taking, giving back and receiving, being about equality and counting on the other person as your sole reason to live.

But it was also about making sacrifices. That was what she had done, but in return, he gave her so much in return. What she lost - her eyesight, her family and crew, her career - she got in return. It was a man who suffered as much as she did, if not the same way as she, and he had sworn to protect her from everything around them, even if he was a servant of the monsters threatening to wage war and take over everything she held dear.

Yelgrun's clothes were gone, too, so she could touch his naked body, feeling the firm, lean muscles before her. She no longer denied this body was a dazzling form in its own way; not everything revolved around muscled brutality and egotism that other women fell head over heels for. Yelgrun was close enough if not absolutely statuesque as the men she served alongside. She saw what he was thinking of her as she caressed his abdomen and around his back, and how true it was: she truly enjoyed the feel of his body and how it saved her from the pit she fell through for years, from the tunnel that caved her in anger and hate, and the marvelous feel of it that this was how a man should be even though he was the first she consented to.

He thought by distracting her with a kiss that came next, she wouldn't notice what she tasted - a tear. This was the first time she'd felt and tasted something like this. "Yelgrun, are you -?"

"I'm fine," he said abruptly, but she knew not to believe him.

"You're not," she stated. "Why are you crying? And don't lie to me."

"Because..." He sounded like he was constricting internally. "...because of how you touch me and not run from me, given you feel how I am far from perfect as you must be well aware of how my people look. I'm one of the few Vorta who isn't aesthetically pleasing to your kind."

The way he spoke of himself, self-conscious about his body and everything he was, broke her heart. Vorta were good at getting you to sympathize with them, then stab you in the back when you never see it coming, but like this - Yelgrun poured himself to her and showed what kind of man he was behind the lack of capacity. He said that he loved someone once before her, but he never talked about it or even mentioned who that person was. Whoever it was, they certainly did a job on him but didn't stop him from finding her.

All of us Vorta have been through a negative form one way or the other...yes, they did, it seemed. Everyone had. Even judged based on appearance and not on the inside. "I still don't care," she told him, pulling him towards her on the bed, but he pulled away as soon as they were both settled in, making her frown.

Now he spoke to her through the link they were still working on, sliding backwards: I've had better means to comfort you, love. Come here.

He wanted her to crawl into his lap, which she did, and somehow the position made her feel a little awkward as she'd never done this before. I want to do a new position that I learned not that long ago, but I never thought of until now. It's said to require a lot of...flexibility especially on my part.

It made her laugh. Flexibility? A minor joke that made her feel a little better. But now was not the good time to joke. She needed her husband and needed him now as much as he needed her. They both lost a friend and needed to comfort each other this way.

He chuckled at her need to experiment with this new position that he, too, had been considering. His legs were crossed beneath her body, which straddled his, and her legs wrapped around his waist; with his help, she wiggled herself over him, moist and hot even before now. The feel of him was sensational and slicking her even more. She moaned and held onto his shoulders when he shifted his hips upwards so he slid into her and began to rock himself back and forth beneath her, their bodies overcome with sheer molten flexibility, as though they were one body of water, and it did not matter which one it was - ocean, river, stream, pond and so forth.

What mattered was that they were here in this position like a flower in that water, at peace and alone except with each other.

Her muscles contracted around him at some uncontrollable point, and for that, she couldn't help but close her fingers inward and scratch him but not draw blood. He hissed and gripped her waist, pulling her forward as means to help her increase the pressure; with each thrust, her breasts heaved up and down in addition to each breath she took. She felt Yelgrun's mouth on both of them, kissing and gliding over the surfaces and the nipples sensuously, his hands moving back further so he cupped her rear and held her there with each slip-and-slide over his stiff length. Just the simple contact down there and on her breasts with his mouth was enough to drive her crazy and over the edge.

The explosion of white before her matched with that of the one between her and Yelgrun's bodies. They collapsed onto the bed together while still holding on, but their limbs beneath untangled for freedom, panting and catching their breath. Lynet closed her eyes and heard nothing but her rapidly beating heart as well as feeling it increase in sound against her husband's own. Then his voice broke through the silence.

"You'll...have to tell me that you love me someday soon."

She bit her lip and nodded. She wouldn't let him see this yet, but it would be someday soon...but only if she meant it.

I've said this during the course of the bigger story itself, but Yelgrun and Lynet are nothing like Weyoun and Mia, Keevan and Annora before them, given their relationship has so far been her hating him for capturing her, ordering the attack of her ship and the deaths of her crew - but it had been a Founder's doing, in truth; Yelgrun only carried out the order. The moment he met her, he slowly fell for her and forced her to marry him. It's been tough for him to try and get her to feel the same way - but right now, Lynet is slowly beginning to, yet how CAN you realize that you love your captor with the past you have? It's like Ben Sisko told her in an earlier chapter of "Chosen for the Marriage Bed": "don't let your past affect your future."