by Renee Rose
Without saying it aloud, Jax and I both know we’ll apply as a team with our other cousin, Ronan. We’re family and we stick together.
Jax has a bemused look on his face. He glances around the desolate wasteland of rubble, so different from the planet we left as children, just before the invasion. “She’s a good choice. With the boots she’s sexy as hell, but she looks sturdy enough for—”
He stops when my fist wraps in his tunic. “She’s more than a vecking breeder,” I growl.
Jax holds up his hands. “All right, all right. She’s way more. Looks smart. She’s the medic, right?”
“Riya.”
She looked at me earlier and blushed, just as she had when she treated my wounds last night. When I had my hand under that short tunic to cup her tight little ass. Veck. I’m hard just thinking about it. “Her name is Riya.” Her name sounds exotic and delicious, like she looks.
“We need to claim her,” I tell Jax, and scowl. I don’t even know why I’m saying this—I don’t want a female. But I’m sure as veck not letting this one slip through my fingers, either. “Before another warrior does.” My fists close at the thought of some other Zandian with Riya.
“I think she’s already yours, cousin.”
I want to throat-punch Jax for his characteristic light-hearted and positive outlook.
“No. You need to charm her. You and Ronan. She’ll be afraid of me.”
Jax eyes me, not missing that I’m holding something back. “What did you do to her?”
“What did I miss?” Ronan comes up in a hurry, panting as he jogs. “I was on guard duty onboard the palatial pod and just got relieved.”
“What did you miss?” Jax rolls his eyes. “Just about the most life-altering thing you can ever imagine. Great day to be lazy.”
“Go veck yourself.” Ronan punches him in the arm. “Tell me,” he demands, more seriously this time, picking up on the tension in the courtyard.
“It appears,” Jax says, his voice collected, “the three of us are going to share one mate. A human. From what the king just announced, it sounds like Zandians can apply as a team, which must include a female, to accept a homestead here.”
“Hot damn!” The thrill in Ronan’s voice is evident. “It’s about time! I’ve been dreaming of a nice little Zandian homestead since the planet rotation we left. And a female to share? That just sweetens it all the more. This is the best news I could imagine!” He throws his arms around our shoulders. “I cannot imagine a better future.” He laughs out loud. “This is the best day, cousins!”
“You don’t care that we all have to share one mate?” My voice comes out more forcefully than I intend. Yes, we’ve shared females, the three of us, in random encounters, and we all enjoy it that way. But long-term, a mate with whom we are expected to bond and protect? It seems complex and troublesome. What if I want to kill them both every time they touch Riya?
There’s no doubt in my mind now that she’ll be our female. I’ve been dying to claim her lush little body from the moment I saw her out on the battlefield trying to drag the wounded in by herself.
She’s fierce. And the way she lifted her chin when I threatened to warm her ass for leaving the safety of the downed ship was adorable. A little warrior exists behind that alluring peachy flesh of hers.
And then there’s those vecking thighs…
Stars, if I don’t get to be the one to pry them open and taste her honey first, I might throttle both my cousins.
Ronan smiles, and I scowl again. Ronan is always so...excited about things. It irritates the veck out of me.
“I never thought I’d be lucky enough to get a mate.” Ronan shrugs. “I don’t mind. I share everything with you two, anyway. Why not our future?”
Easy for him to say. With his lazy smile and his way of joking around, Ronan has a way of making friends with any and every being in the galaxy. Once he’d even had the enemies laughing with him —before we killed them, of course. Naturally Ronan wouldn’t mind anything.
“Which female do we get? Is it the one with the bare thighs?” Ronan leans to look in the direction of the med bay. “Is she...ours?”
I’m simultaneously relieved and pissed that Ronan’s already picked the same female Jax and I agreed on. At least we won’t argue, but I hate that he’s been drooling over her. But it is interesting that all three of us have zeroed in on her. What does it mean? Probably nothing, other than we share the same taste in women.
“We don’t know yet,” I snap. “We don’t know how the females will get get distributed. I assume we have to make her willing, but who knows? They may use Daneth’s gene matching technology like they did when they bought the king’s mate for him.”
All three of us bare our teeth at the thought of not getting to make this choice on our own.
“She smells...good.” Ronan smiles.
“When have you smelled her?” I growl, jealousy flooding my veins.
“Calm down, cousin!” Ronan elbows me. “I’ve never seen you act so possessive before. Don’t worry, I’ve not mated her in secret. I happened to pass her just now and I noticed her.”
I grunt, ignoring the relief that courses through me. Not that it matters. If I have to share a female, I’ll have to accept the fact that she is all of ours.
“Her name is Riya,” I force myself to say. “And I think you two should go and talk to her.”
Ronan shoots a quizzical glance at Jax.
“Something happened between them,” Jax fills in, although I’ve told him nothing yet.
“She’s the one who stitched my wound,” I say, as if that explains things, touching the jagged line that crosses my cheek from the neck to the eye.
How will our future mate feel about the ugly scar it will leave? It must make me appear hideous. The king’s infant son burst into tears this morning when he saw it.
“And?” Jax prompts.
My cock starts to swell at the memory of her sweet human scent, her breasts dancing in front of my mouth as her slender fingers moved deftly with the primitive needle and thread. I wanted her then, and still do, now. “I may have...touched her inappropriately.”
Ronan barks out a laugh and Jax rolls his eyes. “What in the veck does that mean?” Jax demands.
I stare in the direction of the med bay, my feet demanding I march down there right now and carry her back to our shared chamber so we can start the process of claiming her. All vecking night.
“She was standing so vecking close—straddling my leg. When she stuck me with the needle I grabbed a handful of her ass.”
“Over the tunic, right?” Jax asks doubtfully, like he’s trying to make this right in his mind so we can get past it.
I shake my head.
“Vecking excrement, Tarren! What in the hell were you thinking?”
I shrug. “I was thinking about her juicy ass. I’d already threatened to warm it for her if she left the shelter again. If you’d seen the way she blushed, you would’ve been fixated on that particularly glorious part of her anatomy too.”
Jax’s lips tug up. “I’m sure I would’ve been.”
“So what’d she do?” Ronan asks.
My own lips lift. “She apologized to me.”
Jax groans and adjusts his cock.
“And then I let her rub her little clitty all over my thigh while she stitched me up.”
“Oh please,” Ronan laughs, giving me a shove.
I grin back. I’m not about to tell them that it’s actually true. It’s too impossible to believe.
“So let’s go claim her,” Jax says, heading for the med bay.
Ronan follows without question.
I stare for a moment, but then I jog after them. I know that look in Jax’s eye. He’s the thinker in our group and when he’s made a decision, it’s usually a good one.
Riya
There’s really nothing to do in the med bay. All the injured have been moved out to one of the pop-up domes the warriors set up this morning. It se
ems King Zander came to Zandia well-prepared for post-battle occupation of his planet.
I walk around the empty space, spraying sterilization mists on surfaces.
I’m hiding.
If I’m honest with myself, I’ll admit that’s what I’m doing. I’m afraid to go anywhere near a male Zandian right now because as far as I can tell, King Zander just declared it open season on human females.
I stop and stare at the cot where the giant warrior Tarren sat. I don’t usually think about males, but this one has dominated my thoughts from our first interaction.
He’s all height and muscles, and stars, the way they ripple as he moves! He ran out into the laser fire and dragged the injured in for me to treat all planet rotation. Scolded me when I went out myself.
I will bring them in. Leave again and I’ll warm your ass.
A strange tingling had flushed through my body at the threat.
A hear a step at the door, and I know immediately it’s him.
I turn, my lungs jamming up in my throat.
He’s not alone. With him stand two other warriors. There might be a resemblance, but I’m not sure. I haven’t known enough Zandians yet to pick out their similarities and differences.
He clears his throat. “Riya.”
I try to swallow and fail. “Tarren.”
One of the warriors beside him steps forward, lifting his fist at 90 degrees in the traditional Zandian greeting. “I am Jax, and this is my cousin Ronan.” He indicates the younger warrior on Tarren’s other side. “We are all three cousins,” he amends. “But you’ve already met Tarren.”
I take a step back but I’m already at the wall. “You’re here for me.” It comes out as a statement, not a question.
The males don’t advance, which I appreciate.
Jax tilts his head. “Does that frighten you, Riya?” There’s something both soft and threatening in his voice. Not scary threatening, though. More like thrilling. A dark promise that these males can be threatening, even if they’re not showing me the whip yet.
I curse the tears that spear my eyes. “I-I don’t want to be claimed.”
Tarren gives a soft expletive in Zandian, his look turning deadly. “You’ve been forced.” It’s not a question.
I can scarcely breathe, but the question relieves me. I bob my head in the affirmative.
“By some being here?” Tarren barely keeps the question below a roar.
I’m trembling, but I’m not afraid. Not of him, anyway. Just of my own past. And of the future Zander just outlined. I shake my head. Not here. It was Ocretion slave masters on the agrifarm. More times than I can count. They tortured me so many times with the shock sticks that I’m forever infertile now.
And I don’t know what will happen if King Zander finds out I’m useless as a breeder.
When these males find out.
Tarren’s hands open and close in fists like he wants to make my past tormentors pay.
“You’re safe with us, Riya,” Jax says. He’s as good-looking as Tarren is big. His eyes hold a calculating intelligence and his voice carries such assurance it’s hard for me not to believe him. “Better to be claimed by us, males you can trust, than by another group.”
My brows shoot to my forehead and a shocked laugh tumbles from my lips. “What makes you think I trust you?”
His lips curl with a smile that probably makes most females fall to their knees and worship him. If they had any females around here, that is. “You trust Tarren. And Tarren trusts us. So by extension, we all trust each other.”
This time I actually do laugh and all three of them move forward like it was an invitation. “That’s the most ridiculous—” I splutter, but stop when they arrive inches from me. So close I feel the heat from their powerful chests warming me.
Tarren puts a finger under my chin and lifts it until I meet his brown-purple eyes. “No being will hurt you again,” he promises.
And just like that, I believe him. Because who would argue with a seven foot tall horned giant of a male? I’ve seen the male in action. He’s a fearsome warrior.
Ronan picks up my hand and rubs his thumb over the pulse at my wrist. “You definitely want to be claimed by us, Riya,” he says.
I want to laugh again, but I can’t. The thrum between my legs is becoming too insistent. The tightening of my nipples too distracting.
As one, the three males inhale, nostrils flaring.
“She’s ripe for us,” Ronan observes.
I squeeze my inner thighs. “N-no I’m not.”
Tarren wraps a meaty hand around my nape, stroking it. “It’s all right to be aroused, Riya,” he murmurs. “We’re your mates.”
I give a shove to the closest chest, which belongs to Jax, but the males don’t fall back. They don’t fall back, nor do they advance. Three pairs of eyes watch me intently.
“Y-you’re not my mates.”
Not yet.
Already my body seems to know it’s an inevitability. Moisture gathers between my legs.
“Do you prefer another warrior?” Jax asks smoothly, like he already knows the answer will be no.
I shake my head.
He brings the pad of his thumb to the crease between my brows and rubs it away. “Then you’re ours.” He leans forward and kisses the place he’s just rubbed. “Don’t fight it. We’ll take good care of you, Riya, I promise.”
My mind tumbles forward and I remember the way my two human friends Lily and Cambry are treated by their Zandian mates. Like queens. Or princesses.
There’s a great deal of dominance, no doubt about that. The Zandians are a fierce, protective species. But my friends are quite happy with their mates.
Of course they only have one mate. And apparently I’m getting three.
Read all the Zandian Masters Series
His Human Slave (Book 1)
COLLARED AND CAGED, HIS HUMAN SLAVE AWAITS HER TRAINING.
Zander, the alien warrior prince intent on recovering his planet, needs a mate. While he would never choose a human of his own accord, his physician's gene-matching program selected Lamira's DNA as the best possible match with his own. Now he must teach the beautiful slave to yield to his will, accept his discipline and learn to serve him as her one true master.
Lamira has hidden her claircognizance from the Ocretions, as aberrant traits in human slaves are punished by death. When she's bought by a Zandian prince for breeding and kept by his side at all times, she finds it increasingly harder to hide. His humiliating punishments and dominance awake a powerful lust in her, which he tracks with a monitoring device on her arousal rate. But when she begins to care for the huge, demanding alien, she must choose between preserving her own life and revealing her secret to save his.
His Human Prisoner (Book 2)
HE DIDN'T BELIEVE IN DESTINY—UNTIL HE MET HER.
When a beautiful human slave steals Rok's ship and leaves him stranded on an abandoned planet, he's furious. Discovering her sister is the mate to the prince of his species only makes him more determined to find her and punish her thoroughly for her crimes. Yet when he captures her, he finds her impossible to resist. Punishment becomes exquisite pleasure as he teaches her to submit.
Lily's attraction to the huge Zandian warrior unnerves her. She's never been moved by a male, nor interested in sex before, but Rok coaxes every bit of emotion out of her as he demands her complete surrender. But he intends to turn her over to the authorities, which will mean her certain death. She must find a way to escape the handsome alien before she loses her life—or worse—her heart.
Training His Human
“YOUR OBEDIENCE TRAINING BEGINS TODAY.”
Seke has no interest in owning or training a slave. Not even Leora, the beautiful human who had captivated his thoughts and fantasies since her arrival on their pod. As the Zandian Master of Arms, he has a war to plan and new troops to train. He can’t be tempted by the breathtaking human slave, who, according to Prince Zander, grows aroused by punishment. Yet
he can’t allow another male to bring her to heel either. Not his Leora.
In all her lifetime as a slave, Leora might have submitted in body, but never in mind. But the prince has given her to the huge, scarred warrior, Seke, for punishment and she finds he has unexpected ways of bending her to his will. Ways that leave her trembling and half-mad with desire. But her new master is unwilling to take a new mate, and she fears that once he deems her training complete, he will set her aside, leaving her heart in pieces.
His Human Rebel
CONSCRIPTED BY AN ALIEN ARMY, SHE PLOTS HER ESCAPE…
Cambry doesn’t believe the aliens’ propaganda for one minute. The Zandians may have saved her from one death, but they planned to send her to another. She bides her time, waiting for her chance to get away and find her brother, enslaved by a different species. The only thing she didn’t count on was Lundric, the tempting Zandian warrior who, for some reason, decided she was his female.
Lundric knew the fierce little rebel Cambry belonged to him the moment he saw her toss that auburn hair in defiance. He knows she hasn’t accepted him or the Zandian’s cause, but he vows to win her, no matter what it takes. But when Cambry steals a ship and attempts to escape, even his harshest punishment may not restore the trust between them.
His Human Vessel
HE PURCHASED HER TO BEAR A CHILD...HE WILL ALSO OWN HER SUBMISSION.
Bayla's destiny had been set from the beginning. Her body would be used for sex and breeding. Nothing changed when the sexy Zandian doctor purchased her from the baby farm and brought her to his examination room.
Nothing. And everything.
Daneth has always lived in his head, letting science govern his thoughts and choices. Having Bayla in his lab shouldn't change that, but somehow the submissive human female gets under his skin. No matter how harshly he punishes her, she responds to his touch with passion, sparking a lust that threatens to distract him from his plans.