“No.” Silver spoke and held my mate’s gaze steady across the expanse of stone. “If you are his, I will fight for you, protect you, die for you, But, he must prove it beyond all doubt.”
A knock at the door sounded, and I signaled the closest captain to allow our visitor entry.
Silver gasped when she saw him.
He had no name now, not since he’d taken his role as elder and advisor, wielder of the ink that marked us all. He had his supplies with him as I’d requested, everything Blade and I would need to banish all doubt from everyone present. If Silver wanted proof, the others would, too.
“Scribe. Thank you for coming.”
“Of course.” He bowed slightly at the waist, and the others, my enforcers included, rose to bow back to him. He was old, he’d been an old man when I was a boy and no one remembered his given name. He inked the names of new babes and members of my legion on my flesh, officiated at all matings. He was our record keeper, historian and my personal council. And he was here at my command.
He carried his small black bag under his arm. Within that bag? Ink. Silver bolts. Everything he’d need to send me down an unchangeable path.
I yanked my shirt over my head, and Harper turned at the motion, her eyes going wide with desire as she studied me, her attention lingering on the lines of names inked into my flesh with a fascination I was eager to test. She had never seen my bare chest before.
“What’s going on? What are you doing?” she asked.
Cormac grinned, the first time I’d seen the look on his face in recent memory.
When Blade pulled off his shirt as well, the shuffling and whispers in the room ceased and Scribe placed his bag on the table next to my mate. “You sure about this, Styx? What’s done cannot be undone.” His official words were for me this time, the only warning I’d receive from him. Blade, too. This was permanent. Forever.
I looked down at my beautiful mate, took her scent into my lungs and stopped trying to control the fangs that ached to sink into her flesh, marking her, claiming her, driving her into a mating frenzy. Blade had been gifted with a taste of her sweet pussy on Zenith. Soon I would taste her. Fuck her. Claim her. Forever. My mouth watered and my cock ached to do so.
“I’m sure. She is mine. I honor her claim and accept her mark.”
“What mark? What are you talking about?” Harper looked from me to Blade, confused. But Blade lifted his hand to her opposite shoulder and repeated my earlier words.
“She is my mate. I honor her claim and accept her mark.”
“Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Harper scowled at both of us, the irritated look of a woman thwarted by her men. I smiled back as Scribe took his ink from the bag.
“Where shall her mark be placed?” he asked.
I’d saved space, high on my chest, at the base of my neck where even a uniform wouldn’t hide her name from my legion, a spot for my future mate’s name to be prominently placed. I put my finger to the spot. “Here, Scribe. Her name is Harper.”
I placed my hands on the table, bent at the waist so he could reach.
He nodded in approval and got to work. First, I looked at each person around the table, silently telling them this was done. It was official. Then I looked at Harper. Didn’t look away.
The needle and ink went deep, the pain part of my test of loyalty. I wished in that moment her name was longer, the burn and everything it stood for making my balls ache, my entire body hum with barely suppressed need.
Those assembled watched in silence as he finished with me and went through the same process with Blade. Harper’s gaze drifting back and forth in fascination, and not a little desire. Her attention lingered, and as Scribe worked on Blade, she raised her fingers to my flesh, traced her name with trembling hands. “Why? Why did you do this?”
I took her hand and pressed it over her name, forever etched in my body. “Because you are mine and I am yours.”
Her stunned look made me want to kiss her, but she turned from me and looked at Blade. He spoke over Scribe’s bent head. “You are mine, Harper, and I am yours.”
“Holy shit.” She stared, shocked perhaps? Trembling. A little pale. I looked to Blade.
“Did you feed her?” I snarled.
“Of course,” Blade barked right back and Silver laughed.
“By the gods, this is going to be fun to watch.” She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed and put her feet up on the stone slab with a grin on her face.
“I’m right here, you know,” Harper countered. “And I’m not a pet. I’m an intelligent adult. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“No.”
“No.”
Blade and I denied her claim at the exact same time and Ivar grinned, glancing at Silver. “Fun? Nothing like seeing our two best fighters get their balls chopped off.”
A hint of laughter came from the captains lining the room, standing along the walls, watching with rapt attention the show we were putting on.
This claiming would be talked about for years. Being here, in this moment, was an honor they would tell their grandchildren about.
When the inking was done, Scribe pulled two silver bars from his bag, a question in his old eyes.
“Yes,” I said in response. “In the old way.”
Blade nodded and we stood steady as Scribe pierced our nipples with the bars, the mark of a mated male, one well claimed.
Harper sputtered and tried to intervene once she figured out what was happening. “What…why—”
“More proof. Ownership. You own us, Harper. We are yours, mate.”
I said nothing more and thankfully, she fell silent. If she had questions, I would explain them. Later.
I didn’t even flinch at the bright stab of pain once and then again. The piercings could not be removed, not without tearing the flesh. They were a sign of our faithfulness, our loyalty to one female. Our mate. We would touch no other. Allow no other female to touch us.
Harper winced in sympathy as the sharp metal pierced my flesh, but I welcomed the burn. The pain. It was how I knew she was mine. Now and forever.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the old man was finished. He stepped back to admire his work. Blade and I a matching pair with Harper’s name swirling in our flesh and silver bars proclaiming us as hers.
“It is done,” he said.
“Yes, it is done.” I looked around the room, met every pair of eyes. There were no more questions, no more doubts. Harper was mine and every enforcer and captain in the room knew exactly how serious I was about keeping her. “Harper is mine. I have chosen Blade as a bond-mate, to help care for her and protect her. Harper is Styx. Welcome her.”
The enforcers stood again and everyone in the room bowed, including Blade and Scribe as I stood behind her, ready to kill anyone who questioned her or showed her disrespect.
None dared.
Blade lifted his head to me, an eager grin on his face. “Enough?” he asked.
“Enough,” I agreed and raised my voice to one of command. “Now, everyone, get the fuck out.”
Harper jumped in her seat, something suspiciously like tears in her eyes as she looked at everyone bowing to her. She tried to rise and follow the others, but I held her in place with my hand on her shoulder.
“Not you, mate.” When she turned to look up at me with a question in her eyes, I let her see what I’d been holding back—raging hunger. Need. Lust. “It’s my turn to taste you.”
Chapter Seven
Harper
Holy. Shit.
I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, Toto. No. I wasn’t even on Zenith. I knew Styx and Blade were wild, but…wow. Not this wild. I shrugged out of Styx’s hold and rose, pacing the room to release some of the pent up tension. I placed the giant stone table between us and watched them as their gazes locked on me. They stood opposite me, bare chests rising and falling with their heavy breaths.
Their chests.
Broad. Hard. Washboar
d abs. Narrow waists. Tattoos. Not a simple anchor on a pec or even a rose and barbed wire with a name entwined. No. They were covered with black words. Not words. Names. Styx was covered, the entire legion of names written on his perfect skin. Blade’s body held fewer names, as I suspected the rest of the enforcers’ bodies did as well. But on these two, my name was prominently placed on their chests. The letters larger than the rest. Their intention obvious. Not exactly an engagement ring, but…damn. So hot. Their lack of doubt, their absolute conviction that I was the one they wanted was wearing me down, making me want to believe them.
Making me want to be claimed. Fucked.
Bitten.
And then there were the piercings. I’d seen pictures of guys with their nipples pierced. Some rings, some bars like they had. Blade and Styx were light and dark. Huge. Alien. Their stoic welcome for the needle that inked my name into their bodies—permanently—made my pussy hot and swollen. They were strong. Determined. Ripped—with muscles bulging everywhere. They looked too good to be real and seeing my name on them, my claim forever etched into their skin? My panties were completely and totally ruined.
They’d fought their core group of leadership for me. Not physically, but I knew it would come to that if necessary. They’d gotten my name tattooed on them and then their nipples pierced to prove I was their mate. The woman they chose. Me. Out of all the women in the galaxy, all the Coalition worlds, and all the worlds like this one that lived on the fringes. They chose me. My gaze lingered on the silver bars, on their version of a wedding ring, and my own nipples hardened and tingled at the thought.
“Why didn’t you bite me like they wanted?” I asked, as if the other stuff wasn’t enough.
Both men were staring at me as if I were a little baby bunny and they were ravenous wolves. No, they weren’t wolves. They were like vampires, ready to bite me, to claim me. Mark me as theirs.
“As I said, you are our mate, but you are not ready to be claimed,” Styx said. The spot where my name was inked into his chest was red, irritated from the needle. As a healer, I wanted to pull out a wand and take away the pain, but I doubted he even felt it. And maybe I wanted him to feel it, just for a few minutes. I wanted to be the reason his chest burned. I wanted to mark them both. Wanted them to know they belonged to me.
The thought was savage and instinctive, a thought no educated woman should have, but there it was anyway. My pulse pounded, and my breasts grew sensitive and heavy with the possessive, primitive thoughts. Maybe I was turning into an animal here. Maybe it was in the freaking water, making me as wild as they were.
“Then why am I here?” I asked. The large table was between us, but it was no impediment if they wanted me. They were holding back. They’d held back with the others, too, but I sensed a difference now. A coiled gentleness.
Odd, yes, but I knew instinctively they wouldn’t hurt me. They’d protected me from their fellow Styx members. They’d killed the attacker on the transport pad, argued and bargained with a Prillon officer. They wouldn’t hurt me.
“Because you are our mate,” Blade said. They kept repeating the words, but my mind continued to rebel. Logic refused to accept that forever was this easy. That two males, as gorgeous as they were, would want a registered nurse from Los Angeles who wasn’t from their world. It didn’t make sense.
“But I’m not one of you.” I pointed to the now closed door. “They made that point very clear.”
Styx put his hand to my name, now permanently embedded in his skin. “You are one of us now. They know it. They witnessed your name inked into our flesh, the piercings. There is no doubt. Soon, everyone will know.” He came around the table, his eyes squarely on mine. If a singing leprechaun came dancing into the room, I doubted he’d glance away.
“But what about my team? The mercenaries? I can’t just stay here on Rogue 5 and belong to you. I need to find them, to save them.”
“I agree they need to be found, those who did it brought to justice, but not by you. You are a healer, Harper, not a warrior. Leave this to us. We have contacts within the Fleet. Your people are not forgotten. Trust us. Let us take care of it. Tracking our enemies is not safe for you.”
“Why not? I can go back to Zenith. I would have an entire battalion there keeping me safe.” There were plenty of Coalition fighters in the Latiri system, more than enough warriors on Zenith to protect me. Hell, if I had to, I could ask to be moved to a medical station on Battleship Karter.
“They don’t know who this enemy is. We do,” Styx countered.
“And that makes me safer, being closer to the enemy?” I sighed, feeling like I was hitting my head against a wall.
Styx straightened to his full height, his bare chest expanding as he stared me down. A move to intimidate, but all it did was make me want to touch. Learn. Taste. “How did they know your team was going to be on that planet? How did they know exactly where you were? And when?”
Those questions had been hovering in the back of my mind, but the only potential answers were terrible. Horrible. My mind refused to accept them. “No.” It was all I could say.
“Yes, Harper. You know the truth. There is a traitor among your people. Someone told them where you would be. How many guards would be with you. Exactly where to land. You were betrayed.”
“No. That’s impossible.” I shook my head and took a step back, but I wasn’t convincing anyone, especially not myself.
“You are safer here, with your mates,” Blade added. “Ivar has been assigned to discover the truth. To find the scavengers from Rogue 5 who did this to your team and finish them.”
“What about my team?” The thought of them dead or turned into Hive made me nauseated. “Where are they? I can’t just forget about them. We have to find them.”
“Ivar will find them, too. Rescue them. I have given him permission to contract with the Everian Elite Hunters for help,” Styx added. “None of the warriors will be restricted by following Coalition protocol. They will do what needs to be done to end this. No matter what it takes.”
I’d met some Hunters, knew their abilities. And based on what I knew of Styx members, they didn’t like following rules. Maybe it would help if they didn’t have bureaucratic bullshit to deal with. God knew the government and military back home moved a lot faster when a team of SEALS went in than when something got buried in a bureaucratic committee. “Okay. But I’m just supposed to stay here and do…what, in the meantime? Twiddle my thumbs? Wait for the Coalition to track me down and send me to military prison for desertion?”
“There will be no prison, mate,” Blade said. “We will take care of that as well.”
“How?” Even if I wanted to stay with these two, I just couldn’t see a way out of this mess. “I don’t want to be an outlaw. I’m not—that’s just not—I can’t live like that.” I knew myself well enough to know that I didn’t operate that way. If I gave my word, I kept it. I didn’t break the law. I didn’t rebel. I was a healer, not a fighter. And I’d signed a contract. I had pledged to serve Earth out here, pledged to help. At least for a while longer. Two more months. I’d planned to sign up for another two years. But I could change plans. I could not live with becoming a deserter. A liar. How many human warriors would die out there because I wasn’t there to help?
“You will learn to trust us, mate.” Styx’s voice brooked no argument, and since I didn’t see a way out of any of this at the moment, I let it go and hoped like hell Styx and Blade knew what they were talking about. I wanted to trust them. I wanted everything they told me to be true. They were dangling happily-ever-after in front of me and, like a lovesick fool, I wanted to run toward it.
“We will take care of you, Harper. In every way.” Blade’s deep voice, his intense gaze, did more to me than any kind of foreplay with a guy from Earth.
“You know who you belong to.” Styx’s gaze darted to the base of my neck, where I was sure my pulse was racing at a thundering gallop beneath my skin. “Your body knows.”
I slo
wly shook my head. “You have to bite me, don’t you?” I put my hand to my neck. “They wanted you to do it here. Now. They wanted to watch.”
Styx closed the distance between us. Growled. I refused to retreat. “They will not witness such an intimate act. When we bite you, when we inject our mating serum into your flesh, it is a very personal act. I refuse to share it.”
Blade moved and joined us so I was between the two of them, one on either side of me. I felt small, sheltered. Protected after such a confrontation.
“Will you turn me?”
Styx frowned. “Turn you?” He spun me about so I faced him. He tilted my chin up with his fingers. Blade’s hands settled on my shoulders. “Like this?”
I couldn’t help but smile. “No, I meant your bite. Will it turn me into something else? Like a vampire who can’t go out into the sun?”
Blade’s thumbs caressed the back of my neck. His touch was so gentle in comparison to his angry argument just a short time ago. “They have these vampires on Earth? Why would you not be able to go into the sun?”
I shook my head. “No. They’re not real. They are just stories. But the vampires are immortal as long as they stay in the dark. They have fangs, like yours.” I smiled as Styx opened his mouth just enough to flash his fangs at me.
“Not like mine.” He leaned in until our noses touched. “Mine will light your body on fire. Our bite will make you come over and over as we fuck you.”
Did my knees just wobble? Because holy shit, these two were hot. But I still needed to know more about this biting thing. “A vampire is incredibly strong and fast. They survive on human blood, but they have one major weakness. They will die in sunlight.” As I explained more about vampires, Styx’s dark eyebrows went up, then the corner of his mouth twitched. “If a vampire bites a human, the human becomes one of them.”
“We are not like your vampires,” Styx said. “Our bite will not change who or what you are. We are strong and fast, but we are not immortal. Our bite has a mating serum in it. When it seeps into your flesh, it affects your cells, but not in the way you mentioned. You will not become what we are.”
Her Rogue Mates Page 7