Tanner patted the turquoise sticky note. “This is my Hunter belt and badge. It’s written in verian!”
Emma squatted down and grabbed Wulf’s shirt. “Found it! Me Hunter!”
“You did! You found it, Emma!” Tanner praised, patting her little shoulder, then passed the shirt to Wulf. “Why’s it here in Auntie’s room?”
Wulf sat down on his butt on the floor, untied the sheet-cape around his neck, then slipped the shirt over his head. Tanner and Emma launched themselves at him, and he tickled them until they squirmed and squealed, thankfully making Tanner forget his question. I smiled at the sight. Seeing the three of them together made me forget why I couldn’t be his mate.
Two hours later, after a requested lunch of grilled cheese and, oddly, broccoli, the kids were in their swimsuits out back and running through the sprinkler. Wolf and I sat in lawn chairs beneath the small covered patio as we watched. Even in the shade, sweat dotted Wulf’s brow, and he used a kitchen towel to wipe his head.
“Is it hot on The Colony?” I wondered. I wasn’t sure how he would tolerate Florida weather with his size.
He turned his gaze from the children to me. “You can’t breathe the air there, so we live in a controlled environment.”
“You don’t go outside?” I asked, stunned.
“Each base is enclosed inside a dome. A bubble, I believe, is the English. It is not hot. Now Trion, a planet far from The Colony, is very hot in places. Desertlike and dry. You will like it there. Not Trion—well maybe you would, but I was referring to The Colony.”
I reached for my glass of iced tea from the patio table to stall. A drip of cold condensation fell onto my thigh. “Um, I’m sure I would,” I replied neutrally.
I knew The Colony was full of veterans from all planets within the Coalition, including Earth, who had been captured and tortured by the Hive. I didn’t want to offend him by saying anything inappropriate about the place after all he and his friends had been through.
“When you wear my cuffs—”
“I can’t wear your cuffs—”
We spoke at the same time. Stopped at the same time.
I sighed. “Wulf, I can’t be your mate.”
His body was tense again, not as if his beast had returned but as if he was not happy with my news. I didn’t blame him, not after all he’d been through with the Hive and even here on Earth.
“You have said that yet offered no reason. I wish to hear it.”
The kids squealed as they hopped over the hose, the sprinkler oscillating back and forth. They were drenched, and the grass was sodden. They were having fun without either of us having to participate, which was a win, because Wulf and I needed to talk.
I sighed, took a sip of my tea.
“Tanner and Emma. They are the reason I can’t.”
He frowned, watched the kids. The corner of his mouth tipped up when Tanner stuck his butt over the spray. “I do not understand.”
“I can’t go, not with kids. It’s not allowed.”
He finally looked at me, and I saw his dark eyes fill with confusion. “Yes, you can.”
I shook my head. “No. I can’t. The rules say a woman can’t be matched if she has children. She can’t leave them behind.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to. You are mine.” He tipped his head toward the kids. “They are mine.”
He wanted the kids? It was one thing for his beast to say, Mine, when it came to me, but the kids, too?
I opened my mouth to respond, but he cut me off when he set his hand on my thigh.
“You are not being matched. You are my mate. My beast has identified you as such. Therefore you will wear my cuffs. That makes you an Atlan mate, and you, along with any offspring you have, go where I go. I go to The Colony.”
I stared at him, perhaps to see if he was lying, but also to think through his words. “Genevieve and Willow volunteered.”
“They did. But my beast chose you. As soon as you put on the cuffs, when you accept my claim, you are mine and I am yours. By all laws, Earth’s and the Coalition’s, you become a citizen of Atlan. You become my mate. Tanner and Emma become my children. My family. We can leave immediately for the transport room. Once you are mine, the rules for Interstellar Brides no longer apply to you. You are the mate of an Atlan warlord. We do not leave our females and children behind. No one would dare ask.”
“Ever?”
“Never. My beast would kill an army of Hive soldiers to protect you or the children.”
I stared. And stared. I heard the kids in the background but couldn’t focus. All I had to do to be with Wulf was put on the mating cuffs and all three of us could leave Earth?
“Just like that?” I asked.
“Yes, it is that simple.”
He stood as if ready to go now.
“What about the show?” I asked.
He growled, then dropped back into his seat. “I have not forgotten the show. They have my mating cuffs in New York.”
I frowned. “They’re, what, holding them hostage?”
“I am not familiar with this term outside of battle, but they are keeping them so that I can give them to you during the live program. Warden Egara said it was for promotion.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course, they have to get that happily ever after.”
It was to be mine. A thrill shot through me—and scared the crap out of me. It meant going off with an alien I barely knew to a planet far, far away. Sure, I had wanted to volunteer in the past, but there hadn’t been a real, live, breathing, gorgeous alien in front of me. I had the kids to think of now. Would they be happy in space? So I asked him.
“The children? Happy?” he asked. “Of course. There are several children on The Colony now. All have Earth mothers like you, and they are of similar ages. They will have friends, and they will be watched over and protected, raised by the entire base.”
His adamance eased my concerns, but still… it was one thing to go to a far-off country on vacation, but this was starting a life on a new planet. It would be with Wulf and that… I wanted to do it. My gut wasn’t telling me no. It was telling me hell yes. My head was the one screaming that I was crazy.
“Besides needing the cuffs on your wrists, it is important I leave this planet in a positive way so that females will volunteer to be matched to The Colony. It was the goal of this program to begin with and why I came. I will see that through, which means we must go to New York for an interview program. Warden Egara has informed me that we must make goo-goo eyes. Whatever that is.”
I burst out laughing. “Do we have to do it onstage?” My mouth was suddenly dry, and I took a big swig of my tea. I wished it were stronger and heavily laced with alcohol. Goo-goo eyes and mating cuffs? This was becoming quite the show.
“Yes, we. The show is now about you and me. How my beast chose you. How we are… suited and ultimately mates with matching Atlan cuffs. The finalists will be there. It’s something called a tell-all, although I have no idea what that is.”
“Oh God.” I closed my eyes, thinking of all the reality shows I’d seen where all kinds of dirt was dragged up. Sometimes it wasn’t pretty. That meant… God, they were probably digging stuff up on me right now. Like my family. Greg. And…
“That’s not a good idea,” I told him.
“Why not?”
I explained what a tell-all was, how Chet Bosworth would share every intimate detail of our lives for the entire world to pick apart. “Do you have secrets you don’t want shared?” I asked him.
He sat quietly, thinking. “I was matched to a volunteer bride from Earth several years ago, before Earth was granted membership in the Coalition. She was part of an exploratory team, sent to investigate the program before your government revealed the truth to the people of Earth.”
“What?” All excitement about possibly being his fell away like petals on a dying flower. He’d been matched. Had he pressed her up against a door and taken her as he had me? “Where is she now?” I ask
ed softly. “Did she die?”
His eyes flared wide. “Die? No. I believe she is alive and well. Married, as they say here on Earth. She took nineteen of her thirty days, then refused me and my beast. She said she’d made a mistake, left a man she loved on Earth and could not be mated to me.”
What? There was a woman who didn’t want Wulf? And they’d been matched through the testing program? The chances of that happening, where the match was bad, was less than one-hundredth of one percent. Wulf had almost better odds at winning the Powerball jackpot than having a tested mate reject him.
Yet he had.
“Well, I’m still sorry. That must have been painful for you.” That woman, whoever she was, was an idiot.
“She is my only secret, although not much of one.”
“You did not give her your cuffs?” I asked, wondering if the Atlan bracelets I’d seen onstage were hand-me-downs.
“She rejected me. She was not my mate. No cuffs. As for Ruth—that is her name—she is the only information of use they will find. The rest is about my service, my capture… nothing worth mentioning.”
My mouth fell open. “Your service to the Coalition is definitely worth mentioning. You are a brave warlord. You survived the Hive in so many different ways. That is to be honored. Respected.”
He offered me a small smile but said nothing. He was humble, too.
“Woof, watch! I’m a moose!” Tanner jumped through the sprinkler, but I had no idea how he looked anything like a moose.
“And you, Olivia? What secrets do you keep?”
My eyes widened. “I… um…”
“Where did you go last night? Lucy believes you need my help.”
I pursed my lips at my friend’s annoying blabbermouth.
“I can’t speak of it,” I said, telling the truth. Jimmy had threatened to harm the kids if I ever told anyone. While I might be done with my work for him, he still dealt in bad things—ha, a total understatement!—and I had no doubt he’d still go after Tanner and Emma if he felt so inclined.
“Can’t or won’t?” he asked.
I hated that he was perceptive.
“Can’t,” I replied. I shifted in my chair, crossed my arms over my chest.
He reached out with one hand and grabbed my chair, sliding it across the concrete to be directly in front of him so our knees bumped. His gaze met mine. Held.
“‘Can’t’ means you are unable to do so for a reason. What is your reason?”
I licked my lips and he watched. It had been a year, and I hadn’t told anyone about Jimmy Steel. About Greg’s debt. Not even Lucy, and I’d wanted to do so on many occasions. One intense stare by an alien and I had my own little tell-all, right in the backyard.
“Because someone will hurt the children if I say anything.”
Wulf’s jaw clenched, and I thought of an alligator. All that power waiting to be unleashed.
“Who dares threaten my children?” The one word was like a whip, sharp and ruthless.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to wait it out. Maybe be interrupted by the kids with another moose demonstration.
“Olivia Mercier. I must know who will hurt Tanner and Emma so I can rip their heads from their bodies.”
With that, I laughed. Hard. For the first time in a year I found Jimmy Steel funny. Funny enough that the humor in Wulf’s words had tears streaming down my face, and then it turned into sobs. Yet he wasn’t joking, and that was why I had waterworks of my own.
I covered my face with my hands and was scooped up to sit on Wulf’s lap, his arms around me. I cried and cried.
“What’s wrong, Auntie?” Tanner asked. “Got a boo-boo?”
“She has a boo-boo on the inside, Tanner.”
“Kiss and make it better,” he said.
“I will,” Wulf promised. “I’ll watch out for your auntie while you both play in the water. Show me this moose you spoke of once again. I am not familiar with it.”
I heard the children squeal and splash as I rubbed my face into Wulf’s hard chest and tried to stop the tears. They ended eventually, when there were none left. He’d done nothing except stroke his big hand up and down my back patiently.
“A poison must be bled from the body. Human females I’ve met on The Colony like to do as you did. Cry for a long time.”
I didn’t know these women on his planet, but I figured we would probably get along.
I sniffled and looked up at him. He was so big, so handsome. Rugged. Fierce. Yet he was holding me as if I were the most precious thing in the world.
“Are you ready now to tell me who is threatening the children?”
I wiped my cheeks with my fingers. “Jimmy Steel.”
“Why is he a menace?”
“He… deals drugs. Prostitutes. Gambling. All kinds of bad things. My brother, Greg, owed him money.”
I felt him stiffen beneath me, but he didn’t move.
“If your brother is paying him, why does this Jimmy Steel threaten you?”
“My brother died last year, with his wife. The kids are his, and I became their guardian. I took on the kids, but Jimmy Steel said I had to take on Greg’s debt to him.”
“How?”
I looked to the kids, innocently playing.
“I was a drug mule. Someone who carried illegal drugs from one place to another.”
“I am familiar with this. Quell is rampant in space ports all across the universe.”
I’d never heard of Quell, but it didn’t surprise me that outer space had some of the same issues we did down here on little planet Earth.
“Last night was my final delivery. We agreed to a certain amount of cash to pay off the debt, but the rest would be paid off delivering drugs. I’m finished with our agreement, with Greg’s debt.”
Wulf sighed. “I am pleased to know you won’t associate with him any further. You are afraid this may come up in the tell-all program in New York?”
I shrugged. It was then I realized I was on his lap. Comfortable, sheltered. Protected. If anyone could keep the likes of Jimmy Steel away, it was Wulf. I almost laughed at the idea of him going with me the night before, seeing the bouncer’s face at that seedy bar if Wulf stood beside me.
“My family will come up as well. They aren’t nice. I don’t associate with any of them anymore, but I have no idea if the producer went and searched them out, got them to talk about me in one of their clips.”
“It matters not to me about what is shared on the program or how those on Earth respond.”
“What about the other fighters? Won’t their chances of finding a mate be less?”
He kissed the top of my head. “I would assume other females from Earth have secrets and they will find you relatable.”
I had to laugh. “I highly doubt every woman has to pay off a debt to a drug kingpin.”
“I will protect you and the children. It is now my job. The children will come to New York with us. Separation is not an option.”
Separation is not an option.
“Especially when you have my cuffs upon your wrists.”
God, those words. He held me close as we watched the kids, and I wondered if he’d even let me off his lap. I realized I was content exactly where I was. And the cuffs? Being bound to him in such a way? Maybe I was crazy, but I wanted it. I wanted him.
11
Wulf, New York City
I thought the weather in Florida was bad. I thought Chet Bosworth was bad. I even thought the human airplane was bad. But nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare me for New York City.
I’d grown up on Atlan. Yes, there was a large population on the planet and it even had cities, but Gods.
The buildings reached the sky. There was no greenery. No trees. Planets. Flowers. At least none that I’d seen. And it teemed with people. Noise. So much to look at, my head hurt. Nothing anyone could say to me would have made me believe reality. I was claustrophobic walking on the sidewalk, and I was over a foot taller than everyone around me. I coul
d see in the distance and knew it went on and on and on.
The show had provided a vehicle to retrieve us from the airport. I wouldn’t even talk about that experience. Flying. As if! Humans had no idea what real air travel was like. This ground vehicle was spacious and more luxurious than any ground craft I’d seen in space. My legs could extend out long and not touch anyone. A small miracle.
The children had come, along with things called car seats that ensured their safety while traveling, a diaper bag for Emma, a toy bag for both children’s entertainment, a suitcase of their clothes, plus drinks and snacks. I had no idea how two tiny humans could require so many things. It was good we had such a large vehicle to carry it all.
Lucy had been asked to join us, although by her excitement I doubted she would have said no to Olivia. She was glad to watch Tanner and Emma while we did the program. I was at ease by this request, for I knew how well she cared for them and would protect them in my absence. The producer had requested them to be on the program, but Olivia had been adamant and flat out refused having Tanner and Emma shown in any way. She’d said it was one thing for the two of us to have images all over the world, but the children hadn’t asked for it and would remain anonymous.
The vehicle first went to the hotel where a representative of the show met us and assisted Lucy, Tanner and Emma to their room. Olivia had given out kisses and hugs to the children and waved as they entered the tall building, hand in hand with Lucy.
“You are not worried about being separated?” I asked, staring at the strange revolving entry. People swarmed around us, a haste in their steps as if they had somewhere important to be. I pulled Olivia close. It would be easy to lose someone in this chaos, and this was the last place I wanted my beast to come out. Lucy had mentioned something about Godzilla, a strange beast-like creature, and told me not to turn into it. At the time I didn’t know what she meant, but now I did.
“Lucy will keep them safe,” she said reassuringly. “They will check in and go right to the suite we’ve been given. They’ve been wound up with excitement for hours. They’ve never been on a plane before. I’m sure they’ll conk right out… after jumping on the beds.”
Bachelor Beast (Interstellar Brides® Program: The Beasts Book 1) Page 11