Claimed By The Vikens

by Grace Goodwin

  “The threat was vastly overstated, Councilor Bertok,” Goran replied evenly. His hand stroked over Violet’s hair in a possessive and gentling gesture. “Although I thank you for your concern. As you can see, my mate is safe, content and well pleased.” Goran leaned back on his pillowed seat as if he didn’t have a care in the world. The look on his face full of pure arrogance. It appeared Violet was not the only skilled actor in the tent.

  On Goran’s right sat the High Councilor of Trion, a large, muscled warrior by the name of Tark. Our introduction lasted only a few seconds, but I knew he loved a woman from Earth as well, a woman like Violet. He was, according to Goran, one of the general’s oldest and most trusted friends. The look on his face was not so pleased. “I am interested to know, Councilor Bertok, who gave you this false information about the general’s mate, as rumors have also circulated about my mate, the beautiful Eva, who is, even now, heavy with my child.”

  Bertok bowed slightly. “High Councilor, you must forgive me. The speed with which false lies spread through the planet is breathtaking, indeed. I meant no disrespect, as my sons heard these rumors from the soldiers and their mates. I am afraid I cannot give you a definitive answer.”

  Liar. The old man was lying.

  Bertok’s shifty blue eyes had drifted from Goran to Tark and back several times before he answered. A quick glance at Violet assured me she had returned her attention to Goran, to leaning against his thigh, her head resting there as if he were her home. A serving maid filled Goran’s cup with wine and reached for Violet’s as I returned my attention to Bertok. He looked at the councilor named Roark, the only other male in the room with a mate from Earth.

  “And you, Councilor Roark?” Bertok asked. “Where is your mate, the beautiful Natalie?”

  Roark raised his brows but did not take the bait. “My mate and my son are safe and well in my home, Councilor Bertok. Thank you for your concern. And how is your mate? I hear she is heavy with child.”

  If his mate was with child, then she had to be decades younger. I pitied the poor female who suffered his touch.

  “She is dead, as you well know. Lost to a Drover raid.”

  Roark leaned forward with a head nod of respect—I assumed for the dead mate, not Bertok. “My condolences. I can send warriors to the mountains if you require help. Is this not the fourth mate you’ve lost in such a manner?”

  His tone implied that he believed nothing the old man had said, and that Bertok’s mates had died of something else entirely. Looking at the bastard, I could only imagine the horror belonging to him would bring any female. Knowing the truth about him made his lustful glances at Violet difficult to endure.

  I wanted to kill him. I could only imagine the depths of Goran’s rage knowing his mate was healing in a ReGen pod.

  Violet’s hand wrapped around Goran’s lower leg, as if she were petting him. Soothing him. Loving him. I could not look at Violet touching the other male for another moment. Not with that gown making me ache to fuck her. Not knowing she looked at not just me with that love and trust shining from her eyes, but at Axon and Zed as well.

  I was a selfish bastard. I knew it. I wrestled with the idea of sharing her. Fucking her with the others—all of us bringing her pleasure—was not a chore. In fact, the thought of her giving up all control to the three of us made my cock jerk in my Trion robes, even now.

  She was passionate and fearless, our Violet. But part of me lingered on the old dream, the dream of a life and home in Sector One, not on the island city of Viken United. Of claiming her for my own. Giving her my seed, my children. Watching her run after our young ones as they ran through the trees on their way to school.

  It was an old dream, one I’d carried since I was a child and my own mother followed us to school, laughing and singing as we ran wild through the woods. She’d been so beautiful, so full of joy. Serene and calming on the entire family. On my father, whose moods were wild and unpredictable when he came back from the Hive war.

  My mother was the balm that had saved us all. But looking at Violet, I realized she was nothing like my mother. Violet was wild and passionate. Courageous and demanding. She was reserved and disciplined on the exterior, but beneath her cold façade churned a storm of emotion and lust. Need. Love. While she sat before us all almost placidly, she was not calm, she was a female warrior, quick to anger and quick to love. She was fire to my mother’s water. Opposites. Nothing at all like the mate I’d thought I wanted.

  And I needed her anyway.

  Bertok rose to his feet, which caused a whirlwind of reaction as the other councilors, Goran included, jumped to their feet in answer to the odd challenge. Bertok was old. Not too old to fight, but too old to best any other warrior in the room.

  So why stand? Why issue a challenge at all?

  With a mental shrug, I watched Goran for a signal. He remained calm, so I settled back on my heels to see how this played out. The only thing I hated more than politics were the fucking Hive themselves and that spoke volumes.

  Only Tark remained seated, the disgust and boredom on his face truly enraging the old man – and making me grin.

  Bertok was shaking with fury. “You sit there having claimed your Interstellar Brides and judge me. You left us all, chasing a distant threat on far off worlds. You betrayed your people. You do not deserve respect or leadership of Trion.”

  “Are you challenging me, Bertok?” That was Tark, and he was on his feet now as well, everyone else seemed to shrink back half a step to allow the dominant male in the room the space he needed to fight. He was large, the sword swinging from his hip chipped and well oiled, the gleam of the edge proof of the sharpness of his blade. He would be a challenge for anyone in the room, myself and Zed included.

  For Violet, I would battle him, but I was not sure who the victor of that encounter would be.

  Bertok, on the other hand, knew exactly who would lose in the challenge he issued. “Don’t be a fool, Tark. Of course not. I am simply stating the obvious. The drover threat has not been eliminated and I have lost another female. Another unborn son. I demand justice.”

  With those words, everyone relaxed. Everyone but Axon, who bolted through the room. Everyone but Violet, whose piercing scream made my entire body flood with pain. And Zed. He was already there, tackling the serving woman who had just given Violet a goblet of wine.

  After placing the chalice on the low table beside Violet and Goran, she pulled a jeweled dagger from her gown and attempted to plunge the blade into Violet’s exposed throat.

  Axon wrapped his body around Violet. Staked as she was to the ground at Goran’s feet, she could not move, could not run, so Axon used his body as a shield, covering her as Zed held the attacker in place, arm upraised, dagger a ruthless point aimed directly at our mate. “Here is your assassin, Goran.”

  Goran turned to the woman as Roark and Tark took up positions at his back, in case any of the other councilors or their guards tried to attack Goran from behind.

  Me? I couldn’t see my mate, or Zed, or hear the conversation happening behind the huge, enraged Trion warriors facing the rest of the tent with swords drawn and don’t-fuck-with-me expressions on their faces. They had formed a circle around the leaders, an extra barrier of protection.

  It had happened so fast. A split second. We’d assumed the attacker a male, but the sole serving woman had been beneath our watchful gazes, which she had anticipated. Because of this, without Zed’s and Axon’s quick response, Violet would have been hurt. Possibly dead with a dagger protruding from her throat as her life’s blood soaked red into the white sand.

  Tark raised his sword and pointed at Bertok. “Is this your doing, old man? I will have your head if she is yours.”

  Bertok paled and sat abruptly on the mat covering the hard ground, as if his knees collapsed. A coward. That’s what he was. A whining, sniveling coward.

  “Never,” he swore. “A mate is sacred, High Councilor. Even in the wildlands, we honor that truth.” Neither Ta
rk nor Roark looked convinced, but until the assassin was questioned, there was nothing else to be done but make sure Violet didn’t get hurt. Especially now that everyone in the tent rode the sharp edge of violence waiting to erupt.

  I’d learned my lesson, too late, but I’d learned. I ignored the byplay between Tark and Bertok to focus on everyone else in the room, scanning every soldier and servant, every councilor and guard, my wandering attention taking in and assessing everyone for a threat. Just because one had been identified didn’t mean there weren’t others.

  I trusted Axon and Zed to keep Violet safe and realized, as my gaze locked with Axon’s and he gave me a brief nod, that they were trusting me to watch their backs. I realized in that moment that we were truly a family, warriors and brothers now, devoted to loving and protecting one woman. Our mate.

  Ours.

  Viken United or my woodland home in Sector One? I no longer cared. Violet was my home now. And having Zed and Axon to care for her with me, pleasure her and keep her happy, lessened the burden on me. When I couldn’t be there for her, I had confidence that they would. She loved them. And she loved me. I saw that love in her eyes, in the way she surrendered her body to our touch. She needed all of us, and I would deny her nothing. Not anymore. I’d been selfish and stupid, but the thought of losing her broke me in ways I’d never imagined possible.

  She was ours. And I did not care what color our daughter’s hair might be. Or which father’s eyes shined with laughter and joy as I tossed her in the air and kissed her tiny head. I had two more warriors to protect our family, to love them.

  All we had to do was get Violet alone and convince her to let us make her ours forever.

  But looking at her, I realized I didn’t want to wait until we were back on Viken.

  I wanted us to claim her here. Now.

  This time, nothing or no one would stand in our way.

  13

  Calder, The Mirana Oasis, Outpost Two, Trion

  I wanted to strip naked and leap into the cool water of the oasis more than anything. Well, almost anything. I wanted Violet more. And I wanted her now. The need to be buried deep in her pussy, to share her with Axon and Zed as we claimed her together…the true official Viken claiming, was so great my balls ached. My heart ached, too, with the need to show her how much she meant to me, to all three of us.

  She was our family, our world. The center of our very happiness. I felt I could even think that for Zed and Axon as well because…we all agreed. I’d just had to get my head out of my ass and be thankful she had those two in her life as well. She was safe and whole, completely unharmed from the serving woman’s attack, because of them.

  Mindy was out of the ReGen pod and well. Bertok had returned to his wilderness home, wherever the fuck that was. While he hadn’t been the assassin, seeing the back of him only eased my mind. The serving woman was in the outpost’s jail, under close watch. She’d be interrogated for her actions, confirmed she worked alone. For now, Outpost Two was safe once again.

  Our attention could focus once again on Violet. Nothing else. Not danger, not a sick sister, not even our jobs as royal guards. Just Violet. And she was still in the filmy Trion dress. Her body was still slick with oil. Her body was visible and her nipples still thrust through the holes in the fabric. She was sex incarnate. Decadent and sexy. Lush and nubile as intended. I was proud that she was my mate. Proud that the males in the room had lust in their eyes for her, that they would have fucked her if they’d been allowed, if she hadn’t belonged to another. Me. Axon. Zed.

  Yet she wasn’t from Trion and she wasn’t Goran’s. They’d been lusting after a false woman, at who they thought was Mindy. A Trion mate completely satisfied in her submission, in the satisfaction given to her by Goran.

  But she wasn’t Mindy. She didn’t belong in the garb. In the rings and chains that adorned her. She belonged simple and pure. Basic and naked. Just Violet. Only her skin, slick with her natural sweat, wet with her sweet nectar. Eager solely for our cocks.

  I’d watched her as she’d knelt before Goran. A gorgeous submissive. Perfect in that role. Loving and adoring to her false-mate. But I’d known that squirm, recognized the true reason for her nipples being hard, for the lust in her eyes. She wanted our cocks. Wanted the oil used to prepare that ass, to make that perfect hole ready for my cock. Axon’s sliding past her lips and deep into her throat. For Zed’s mouth on her pussy or his cock deep in her pussy.

  Zed.

  He’d worked her up with the application of oil that had been required. Glistening mates was a thing on Trion. He’d played with her pussy as he’d parted her thighs and shaved her bare. And we’d watched. Fuck, did we watch. It had been easy for him to ensure she was well into her role as devoted mate. So while she’d adoringly and eagerly looked up at Goran, it had all been for us.

  Axon had reminded me of the seed power, of her need that would grow by the minute. In the fear, the anger and even the determination of seeing the perpetrators brought to justice, we’d all disregarded our mate’s growing need to be fucked again.

  And when the fucking attack came and the insanity that followed, it had been pushed far down beneath our concerns for her safety.

  But now, here…in this little hidden oasis so like Viken, she would be soothed. She would be fucked. And she would be claimed. We could wait no longer.

  “This place is incredible. No wonder Mindy had been so excited to come here!” Violet exclaimed as we walked down a narrow, sandy path through the thick foliage.

  It was beautiful. We quickly became enclosed in extensive green trees, lush leaves, like what was familiar and found on Viken. Colors of the rainbow—deep reds, purples and browns—surrounded us. Even overhead, the sky was muted by a thick canopy of nature. The trail opened up and Violet gasped as Axon moved to the side. She stopped and stared.

  A deep pool of water was before us with craggy rocks. It fed from some kind of natural spring, the sound of trickling water mixed with the rustle of leaves. The ground beneath our feet was dark brown moss and loam, soft and rich. Moist, just like the air. It was as if we’d left the arid outpost behind us and walked into our own little world.

  And we were alone. Goran had assured us Mirana was ours for the rest of the day. Guards had even led us to the path—I doubted if we’d be able to find it otherwise—and remained outside, guarding our privacy and our lives. Once I was balls deep in my mate, I would not be aware of my surroundings, of keeping her safe.

  “It’s beautiful,” Violet murmured, studying the water. She went to the edge, knelt down so the dress pooled about her bent legs, and dipped her fingers in. Her eyes widened and a smile spread on her face. “It’s warm!”

  “Then we shall swim,” Zed said, tugging off his Trion clothing.

  Both Axon and I toed off our shoes. The idea of having Violet wet and slippery had us all eager.

  Violet needed no persuading as she stripped off her dress. “I’ve never gone skinny dipping before.”

  Once bare, all three of us stopped and stared at her. I had my shirt dangling from my fingers, forgotten. Her skin almost shimmered with the oil, each and every curve highlighted. Her breasts still had the rings and chains, which had Goran’s coins swinging and bumping into her belly.

  This was how every male in that tent had wanted to see her. But she was ours and ours alone.

  She was just so beautiful, it still awed me that she was mine. Ours. We had not touched her the way we wanted since we arrived on Trion. Two days. Two long days since we’d shared her, touched her, reminded her that she was ours. As Goran would say, fark. Too long for our mate to be without more of our seed.

  My cock was instantly hard at the luscious sight of her. No, harder. Yet she was adorned like a Trion mate and she was not one. She was not Mindy.

  “Do you need assistance in removing the rings from your nipples?” Zed asked, pointing to the now unnecessary features.

  Violet looked down as if she’d forgotten they were there. She cu
pped a breast, carefully worked the ring. The glue that affixed them was strong, but with a moment’s work, she was able to pry it free.

  I groaned at the sight of her cupping herself, touching herself. The now unadorned nipple was hard, the tender flesh reddened from the glue and working the ring free. She carefully removed the gold from the other, let the chain drop to a small pile on the lush ground.

  “Fuck, yes,” I breathed. This was how I liked her. She was natural and gorgeous, perfect to my Viken sensibilities. It was impossible to miss Zed’s and Axon’s cocks, how they, too, were rock hard for her through the Trion robes they wore.

  “I do not know what skinny dipping means,” I replied. “But if it’s having you naked and in that warm pool of water, then I haven’t tried it either. But we will share this first together.”

  We watched as she walked into the water, the slope gentle as the water went up to her waist. In one smooth motion, she dove forward and went under the water, coming up with a gasp of air and a smile. Her dark hair was sleek and long, dripping down her back. Her breasts bobbed in the water, the pink nipples hard and visible just beneath the surface.

  Oh yes, I was all for skinny dipping.

  Ditching the remainder of my Trion robes, I followed her in, the water as warm as she said. I dipped beneath the surface as well, opened my eyes and saw Violet’s legs, the folds of her pussy. Swimming for her, I grabbed her and lifted her into my arms as I breached the surface. Her skin was slick still from the oil, the water beading.

  She gripped my shoulders and laughed.

  “Ah, mate, I love to see you smile. Your happiness means that I am happy.”

  Splashes came from behind us and in seconds, Axon and Zed joined us. We stood so we surrounded her. Violet was in the middle, just where she belonged.