“Karter is in charge of this ship, like I said, so he’s got work. Non-stop, especially after what happened on the Varsten. Ronan, too. They’ll be back, I promise. They’re tracking down the data on that probe. In the meantime, we’ll go on that tour and I’ll give you a Welcome to Space 101 class.”
That sounded great.
“Can we start with clothes?” I asked.
Chloe laughed. “Ah yes, that is a class all in itself.” She walked into the bedroom and to a wall unit that looked like polished black marble, until bright green lines appeared, making a kind of grid. “This is the S-Gen machine. That stands for Spontaneous Matter Generator. It’s like an old-fashioned 3-D printer on Earth with a major upgrade. It will make you new clothes every day. When you’re done, you dump them in the ship’s recycling system.”
“You throw away your clothes?”
“Recycle them. And yes. We do. It’s really handy and you never have to do laundry.”
Sweet. I followed her in and watched as she fiddled with the machine.
“I wonder if your measurements are in here from the transport data.” She wasn’t talking to me, but herself. By her grunt of satisfaction, I assumed she found what she was looking for. “Karter’s family color? Brown? Sweet.” She eyed me as if deciding what kind of clothing I might want to wear. “That will look totally awesome with your hair, just like that sheet.”
What?
“Duh, the sheet is brown. The couch is brown. Should have known.” She fiddled some more, then her shoulders fell and her grin faded. “Okay, Lady Karter, I set this machine to your specs. It knows it belongs to you now. So, what do you want to wear? Military spec uniform, like me? You can space walk and take a few hits from an ion blaster without getting hurt. Or you can go for the traditional dress worn by most of the Prillon mates I’ve seen. They are pretty, fall to your feet, and remind me of something a Roman goddess would wear.”
Ion blasters did not sound like something I wanted to deal with. And, I was trying to seduce my mate into giving me his damn collar, so we’d go with the dress. “Let’s go goddess.”
“Excellent.” She raised her brows again. “Want a little support for the girls?”
“Definitely.” Glad she’d thought to ask, I stared in wonder as the black panel lit up with some green lines, and the next thing I knew a custom-made dress and soft ankle boots had transported directly into my bedroom. The dress was soft, a gorgeous shade of brown, like my favorite milk chocolate bar, the fabric thicker than I’d imagined it would be, with built in support for my large breasts.
She left me to shower and squirm into the clothing. I didn’t have make-up or anything to mess with, so it didn’t take me long. But there was one thing that made me a bit… uncomfortable. “It’s a bit breezy under this dress.”
Chloe laughed. “I can make you underwear, if you want, but one look at your curves in that dress and they won’t last long anyway.”
“That’s what you think,” I mumbled.
Chloe had spent her time staring out the window. “Look, you’d be proud of me, I found a skateboard.”
I looked out and saw what she was talking about, a long line of stars with two placed beneath them where the wheels would be.
“You’ll be an astronomer yet,” I said.
She turned to me, looked me over. “You look great. And it’s not really fair, I had to pop out two kids to get half your curves.”
I laughed because to me, she looked great in her slim, petite frame.
“Let’s go.”
I watched as she pressed the wall to open the door, then we turned right to walk down a long, beige corridor.
“We’re in the living quarters. You can tell by the brown and orange colors on the walls. That set of colors is for civilian areas.” She slid her hand along the stripe in the center of the metal wall as she went. “Engineering’s blue, medical areas are green, communications are white, command is black and battle stations are red.”
No way I was going to remember all of that. “What do you do with the I.C., exactly?” I had an idea, but she said Ronan worked with her, and I was not above prying for more information to help me understand my mates.
We turned another corner and I peeked over my shoulder, seeing where we’d come from in the hopes of remembering my way back. Everything looked the same.
“I can’t really talk about it, sorry. If the commander gives me clearance, I’ll spill. Until then, I can’t say a word. War stuff.”
“Okay. And Ronan?”
Her look was sympathetic but she didn’t give me any answers. “I probably already told you too much.”
Damn. Fine. I’d try a different track. “So, you were a bride. I assume you were matched, too? Warden Egara?”
She nodded and stopped in front of what I thought was an elevator. Others passed us and Chloe nodded to them. Some looked like Kaed and Ronan, all toffee colored and huge. None of the males were less than six feet tall. Some I recognized as Atlans, big, but not beastly. At least not at the moment.
Clearly, they grew guys bigger in space.
“Yes, to Seth Mills—he’s human, by the way—and Dorian Kanaker. He’s Prillon and the reason for this gold collar. I’ve been here a few years. Have two little rugrats, Dara is two and a half. She’s human. And her little brother just started walking. Christopher. He’s Dorian’s, and already an overly protective brother even though he can barely walk straight.”
Her face lit up when she mentioned them. I felt a pang of envy.
“How do your mates do, with that?”
“What?”
“With knowing they aren’t the father of one of your children.”
Chloe scoffed at me as if I’d insulted her. “Try telling Dorian that Dara isn’t his daughter, and you’ll find out for yourself.” She softened her scolding with a grin. “But I wouldn’t recommend it.”
The doors opened and it was an elevator—as suspected. We stepped on and took us up. Somewhere.
“Can I ask you something?” Chloe asked.
I glanced down at her, nodded. “Sure.”
“You don’t have to answer, but I’m curious. You’re not wearing your collar. Did you take it off? I want to warn you, Karter and Ronan are total cavemen, so they might be upset with you for taking it off. Prillon warriors tend to be a bit overbearing and possessive. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t already sense that you’re not wearing it.”
I took a deep breath, let it out. “They didn’t give me one.”
Her mouth fell open and her eyes were wide. “What?”
The elevator door opened and when two huge blue guys in black uniforms just like Karter wore tried to step forward, Chloe held up her hand and stopped them in their tracks. “Take the next one.”
“What kind of alien was that?” I’d read every brochure in the processing center and not read one word about blue aliens that were seven feet tall.
The door slid shut and she turned to face me. “Xerima. Their planet is considered primitive, like Earth. But they’re very aggressive and hard to control. Good for fighting the Hive, bad for being holed up in a battleship. Those two are here as test cases.”
“Test cases? What does that mean?”
“They’re new. If they work out, Fleet Command will allow more of them to serve. If not, they go home and go back to—whatever it is they do there. But don’t change the subject.”
Okay then…
“What do you mean they didn’t give you a collar? That’s what Prillon mates do. They give a collar to their female so no one will try to make a move on their mate, and so you’re all… connected.”
I shrugged when she gaped. I had no explanation or theory, none that I wanted to speak out loud.
“How do they know what you want in bed?”
Good god, did this woman have no boundaries? “Kaed says it’s not safe for him to have a mate. That he works too much and it’s too dangerous for us to be connected like that.”
“He’
s giving you up?” Her voice went up in stunned surprise.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Do Prillons have one-night stands?”
“One night—” She blinked at me. “You think they fucked you and forgot about you? No way.”
Her hand swiped through the air and she completely missed my wince at her words… fucked you and forgot about you. Yes. That seemed pretty standard from where I was sitting. First on Earth, now here.
When the elevator door opened again, she sighed, tugged my arm and pulled me off, letting people in green uniforms on. The walls here were the same green, and if I remembered what Chloe said, we were in the medical area. “No, Erica. No way. I’ve known Karter for years. There is no way he’d pull something that stupid.”
“I don’t know what is going on with him, but still… I came all this way for a mate. Two, it seems, and now Kaed won’t give me his collar. Even Ronan is mad at him.”
“I don’t get it.” She sounded stunned. “Did they even… I mean, did you guys… you know? I assumed, earlier. I mean, you were naked. So I just assumed.”
“Yes,” I replied, leaning down so those walking by didn’t hear. “That was crazy. But it wasn’t what I wanted, either. It wasn’t like what I saw when Warden Egara tested me. I was hoping for too much, I guess. There’s a difference between a dream and real life.”
“God, I loved that testing chair. I hear you.” We shared a glance of feminine understanding before she looked away, steering me around a very large Atlan warrior who seemed in a big hurry to get somewhere.
She pursed her lips together, studied me. “Let’s finish our tour.” She looked around. “God, where the hell are we?”
Going back to the wall, she called the elevator, slapping her hand on it as if she were mad.
“We’ll go on the tour. I’ll drop you off in the mess hall so you can eat, then I’m going to have a little chat with your mate.”
I didn’t argue. Didn’t want to. If she could talk some sense into the stubborn Commander Makaed Karter, I was not going to be the one to stop her.
10
Ronan, Battleship Karter, Command Deck, Karter’s Office
* * *
Frustration bubbled inside me like magma boiling in my gut. The probe was worthless. Fucking worthless. Commander Varsten. His battleship. His warriors.
Gone.
For fucking nothing.
For one moment I understood why Kaed refused to give Erica a collar. This rage burning inside me should never touch something so beautiful as our mate. With Kaed’s emotional turmoil added to mine? She’d melt into a puddle on the floor and beg us to let her go.
Neither of us would be able to do that. Not after last night, her soft curves in my hands, her wet heat wrapped around my cock as her pussy milked me of my seed. She could, at this very moment, be carrying a child. Our child. Being locked to our minds would be a special kind of torture. I understood that now.
“There has so be something in that data. Look again.” I.C. Commander Chloe Phan’s narrowed eyes and cold voice spoke volumes. She felt it, too. Helpless.
We’d had the probe for several hours, checked every piece of data, and it gave us nothing. We all knew Sector 437—and Battlegroup Karter—had to be next. We would be next.
The data tech who’d programmed the encryption codes into the probe prior to launch shook her head. She was one of Varsten’s best, and even she looked helpless and defeated. “I’m sorry. Everything on the probe was functioning at optimal levels. Whatever new tech the Hive are using to hide from us is working.”
“We’re screwed.” Chloe crossed her arms, her foot tapping a constant, steady beat on the hard floor. “We need to start evacuating non-essential personnel. While we don’t have definitive data, we need to be smart. I need to report this to Core Command.”
The probe tech looked at Commander Karter for permission to leave. At his nod, she left the room, Bard and a handful of others following. They all had their orders. There was no way in hell we were going to do exactly what the Varsten had done—get everyone we could off this ship and try to lure the Hive close enough to figure out what they were hitting us with.
Dangerous game. One I’d played before. “All due respect, Commander, but trying to bait a trap didn’t work for Varsten. You know that.”
Kaed looked at me, nodded. “I know. Which is why I’ve already spoken to Prime Nial. He’s re-routing three battlegroups to this location. We can’t retreat; we have to hold this sector. But with the additional ships and warriors, we’ll be able to block grid this sector and search every single inch of it. When we’re done, we’ll go back to Varsten’s sector and start over. We aren’t going to sit here and wait for them to hit us.”
“How long before the additional ships arrive?” I asked.
“Two days. Based on the timeline of the previous Hive attacks, we should have time to find them before they can hit the Karter.”
“Jesus, I hope you’re right.” Chloe sighed, her arms crossed. It was the best we could do and we all knew it. With heavily populated planets so close to our sector, we could not abandon this area of space. Retreat was not an option.
“I’m sending out scout ships as we speak, everything we’ve got. And we need to use all non-combat vessels for civilian evacuations. We need to get our people clear of the battle zone and empty our landing bays to make room for additional fighter pilots and their ships.” Kaed was staring at schematics and data streaming across his desk, his voice matter-of-fact, but I knew him well enough to know he was relieved reinforcements were on the way.
Gods knew I was. All I could think about was Erica. Where was she? Was she safe? Hungry? Happy? Aroused? Did she miss me?
If she were wearing my collar, I’d know how she was feeling no matter where she was on this ship. I wanted that connection. Needed it. Now that I’d been in her arms, touched her warmth, I felt cold without her. Empty.
And mere seconds ago I’d been thinking about how the chaos of my mind would be torture for her.
Having a mate was making me lose my fucking mind.
“And your mate?” Chloe asked, as if she’d been reading my thoughts.
Commander Karter used his command voice, and it was neither friendly nor interested in arguments. “She needs to be escorted to a shuttle at once, for immediate evacuation. I won’t have her in danger.”
“You going to talk to her first?” Chloe challenged him anyway. By the gods, these Earth females truly were fearless.
“No need. She will understand.”
“Fuck, that’s harsh.” Chloe’s boot picked up the pace, tapping faster and faster as her lips thinned in disapproval. “You’re making a huge mistake, Commander.”
I glanced from Kaed to Commander Chloe Phan. So much power in such a small body. She was human, like my mate. Like Prime Nial’s mate, Jessica. Lady Jessica Deston, mate of Nial and Ander, was also from Earth. And she wore the Prime’s collar. She was well known throughout the entire Coalition Fleet for being calm and calculating under pressure. Most Prillon warriors who met her, adored her. And she had the undying loyalty of every single warrior banished to The Colony. She’d fought and won the right for them to have mates of their own.
Surely Prime Nial’s mental agony could rival mine or Kaed’s?
If so, it would seem females from Earth were stronger than they looked. Surely this would be true for Erica as well.
But I would not argue with Kaed in front of this female, Chloe Phan of Earth. She was not mine. She was not family. “I’ll report to Core Command,” I offered.
Chloe looked up at me, an assessing gaze I’d not seen from her before. “Fine. But before the shit hits the fan out here, and one of you gets yourself killed, you two better set things right with your mate.”
That got Kaed’s attention. And mine.
“Our mate is well and has been properly cared for, I assure you,” Kaed said. I held my tongue, waiting for the explosion I knew was coming. Commander Chloe Phan did not dr
op that kind of warning without something of substance behind her words.
“I believe she would disagree.”
Boom.
“What?” The commander was in full form now, leaning forward, his status as a caring and honorable Prillon warrior being challenged by the petite human female. Me? I was not surprised. I had not challenged Kaed’s decision to spare Erica the mental anguish of wearing our collars, but I also knew our mate well enough already to know she would not be satisfied with such an arrangement.
“She’s right, Commander Karter.” We shouldn’t have touched her last night. Fuck, that would have been almost impossible, but we could have done it. Instead of fucking her to exhaustion, we should have let her go, given her to another who would not hesitate to bond himself and his second to her in a full claiming. I couldn’t believe the words flew from my mouth, but they were true. I deliberately called him by his command name, and not his nickname. That name was for family. Something neither of us had any business wanting.
Kaed held up his large hand, blocking my face from his view as he stared at Chloe. “Explain. Now.”
“She wants your collar, Commander. She was tested at the Interstellar Brides Processing center, just like every other bride gifted to Prillon warriors. She already knows what it’s going to feel like to have a collar around her neck when you claim her, how all of your emotions and needs and lusts will bleed together into one glorious, overwhelming explosion of pleasure.” As Chloe spoke, her eyes practically rolled into her head as memories of being claimed by her two warriors must have filled her mind. “She won’t accept less. And if you can’t give her everything, you should give her to someone who can, before she loves you any more than she already does.”
“She loves me?”
Chloe opened her eyes, the softness and desire I had witnessed there fading so quickly I questioned whether or not I had actually seen them.
“She loves you both, idiots. Earth women don’t go carnal and submissive unless they want you, and trust you. Being naked, taking you inside our bodies, it’s an act of trust. Commitment. She said she could already be pregnant. She’s all in, giving you everything, and you’re not living up to your end of the bargain. You are not giving her what was promised.”
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