And if any other arrogant bastard had tried to order me around, I’d have killed him as easily as bowed my head.
“I must get my collars. I do not wish for her to be without one.”
Understanding filled her eyes and Maxim and Hunt joined us just outside the transport room. “I assumed you would wish to place your collar about her neck right away,” the governor said, his voice deep. “I was the same. We don’t need to start a war over an unclaimed female, as nearly happened with Rachel.”
Lady Rone smacked her mate on the arm, rolled her eyes. “That’s not fair. It’s not my fault I am the only mate on the entire planet.” She looked to me. “I can’t wait to have another woman here to help me hold my own with you Neanderthals. And one from Earth is even better.” Her words were laced with something akin to glee. Her eagerness was infectious because it hit me like an ion blast that while Lady Rone was excited to meet a new friend, the female about to arrive was mine.
Mine!
“While I would not usually take such liberties as sending someone to enter your private quarters, I knew haste was important,” Maxim said. “I sent someone, Captain, for your collars, since Hunt is your chosen second.”
I glanced at my friend. His expression was neutral. Blank. “He is my second,” I said it aloud. “If he accepts.” I would not have anyone doubt it. I was proud he would share my mate, that we would be a family. But I’d never asked. We’d never had this conversation, both of us presuming he would be the one matched.
But Hunt still wore his green mating collar about his neck, had put it there the moment his testing was finished. The bright green color was clearly visible and a declaration to all that he was ready for a mate. As his friend, I knew he wanted a female with a desperation he hid well. Finding a mate was more than crucial for him. Necessary. Many warriors on the Colony had teased him about it, but he was unaffected, stalwart in his desire. He knew she would come, and he’d been correct. But as it turned out, her arrival would not be as he’d expected.
He could, however, choose to wait for a mate of his own. He did not have to accept a role as my second. He could wait and claim his own mate, should she arrive one day. I would not blame him, if that were his choice.
“It’s your decision, Hunt. I know you wanted a match of your own. I will not refuse you should you choose to wait. I can choose another second.”
“No.” Hunt scowled at me, his objection clear. To be my second, he would have to remove his family colors and replace them with mine. If he was my second, he would wear the blue collar of my family. But would he accept this shift in our roles? Would he be willing to see a shared mate marked and claimed in a blue collar instead of green?
We all looked to Hunt, waited.
He reached behind his neck and removed his collar, held it out to me with a nod.
Relieved, I grinned, taking it from him.
“I am his second,” Hunt said, conviction in his tone.
“Good. Now that that’s settled—” Maxim turned and the door slid open. We entered the small transport room and my heart rate soared as if I were heading to battle. Adrenaline flooded my brain.
“She should arrive anytime now, Governor,” the transport officer said. He looked up just long enough to speak, then returned to the control panel in front of him. The door slid open again and a second officer came to me, holding out three collars, two blue as the deepest sky on Prillon Prime, and one, my lady’s, black as deep space until she formally accepted my claim, allowed us to fill her body together. Once she was mine, the collar would turn blue and she would be mine forever. The strips of cloth and imbedded neural technology had only held empty promise, until now. While I knew there was no change in them, they felt different. Soon, they would be affixed about our necks—Hunt, myself and our mate—binding us together, sharing our emotions and desires, making us one—forever.
The black and green grid of the transport pad was easily large enough to hold twenty armed warriors, but was empty. We all stared at it, used to sudden arrivals. But a female was different.
Everything was different. And when I felt the hairs on my body rise, the only sign of the energy shift created by a transport, I knew my life would never be the same again.
There was no going back.
And when a small form appeared on the pad, pale and bare, I felt her presence in my very bones, a heaviness, an ache I couldn’t explain. This was my mate.
Chapter Four
Tyran
It was Hunt who recognized the situation a touch differently and quickly stripped off his tunic, dashed up the few steps to the transport pad and covered the sleeping form.
He turned his head and glared at the two officers manning the transport controls, who both quickly averted their gazes.
“Get a blanket immediately,” Lady Rone called.
I heard footsteps, but didn’t look away from the fragile female. I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move, not until Hunt called my name.
With long strides, I closed the distance to my mate and knelt down beside her. She looked like she was asleep, but was she—
My fingers went to her pale neck, felt along the soft skin for her pulse, felt it sure and strong. Her hair was pale, a faint golden color and I wondered if her eyes would be fair and amber, like Hunt’s, or an exotic shade I’d never seen before. Her face was delicate, heart-shaped and beautiful with full pink lips and long lashes resting on high cheekbones. She was perfect. The most beautiful female I’d ever seen. I met Hunt’s pale gaze and the corner of his mouth tipped up. Was he laughing at me for checking her pulse?
Did I care?
No.
A blanket appeared over my shoulder and I unfolded it, covered her and Hunt pulled his shirt free from underneath, donned it again as I lifted her carefully into my arms, the soft material protecting her modesty and also keeping her warm.
She was soft and curvy. While I couldn’t see much of her form beneath the blanket, I could feel her, the plush softness of her curves. I was eager to explore every part of her. My cock grew hard at her feminine scent.
No one would see her bare but Hunt and me. No one.
“Should we take her to the med station?” Hunt asked. “It’s standard on battleships for brides to receive a medical exam upon arrival.”
While I knew he was putting her wellbeing first, I found myself instantly possessive and I wanted no one, not even a doctor, to touch her. I understood the philosophy behind the exams. Most were concerned about fertility and injury during transport. The practice had become common hundreds of years ago, when transport was not so well perfected, and often, the trip through space would cause permanent damage to fragile females. But I didn’t care about breeding our mate, I only cared about bedding her. Pleasing her. Easing the loneliness and pain both Hunt and I knew too well.
She was mine. Mine. No doctor would touch her. No other should see her unconscious and vulnerable. I wanted to rip the governor’s eyes out for gazing upon her. I now understood what an Atlan felt like when his beast was upon him. Possessive. Protective. Unreasonable. I was being irrational, and I didn’t care.
“Lady Rone was asleep after transport as well. She woke after a few minutes,” Maxim told us and I relaxed a bit in relief.
“I woke in one of the exam rooms of the med floor. It was definitely an abrupt, and clinical, awakening.” The lady in question had her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. “Which I doubt this young woman would care to experience.”
“We thought only of your health, mate. I was there and so was Ryston,” Maxim replied.
“And the doctor,” Lady Rone said, countering her mate’s words with a grumble. “You and Ryston were more than enough for me to handle without the doctor.”
My mate was so small, so light in my arms. I stood easily. “Thank you, Lady Rone. As my mate is from Earth, I will take your advice. No doctor then. Thank you, Governor, Lady Rone, for your assistance.”
The lady leaned forward, trying to peek around
Stunned, I stared, my mind working furiously for a solution should the governor’s mate decide to dislike my lady. Luckily, she grinned.
“I’m kidding, but if she’s got D-cups, I’m not going to be able to be her friend.”
I had no idea what D-cups were, but I would ensure my mate avoided them so she and Lady Rone became friends rather than enemies. When my mate woke, I would ask her to explain these strange threats from the governor’s mate.
“While I don’t doubt news of your mate’s arrival will be the topic of conversation by everyone in Base 3, even the entire Colony, within the next few hours, I will let everyone know you are taking time away from your duties until tomorrow,” Maxim said. Away from your duties was diplomatic speak for taking time to properly pleasure our mate.
Maxim slapped me on the shoulder. When I didn’t move, he frowned. “Aren’t you taking her to your quarters?”
I knew he spoke sense, but as I held her in my arms, the heat and scent of her filled my mind with demands, with needs I’d never felt before and had no way to combat. Hunt looked at me, a question is in his eyes that I could not answer. All I knew was my cock grew hard, my thoughts hazy with lust, my feet refused to move. She was mine, and the long walk to our soldiers’ quarters had never felt so far.
Her naked form haunted me and my mouth dried in anticipation of tasting her…everywhere. I glanced at Hunt, confident he would go along with the plan forming in my mind, to take her here. Now. I couldn’t wait for new quarters to be assigned. I didn’t want to wait and try to ease her fears with gentlemanly conversation. If she was truly mine, that wouldn’t be what she needed.
Turning from Hunt, I met and held Maxim’s gaze. “Thank you, Maxim. With all due respect, Governor,” I turned to include Lady Rone and the two officers standing at attention near the transport controls. “All of you. Get the fuck out.”
The transport controller sucked in a breath at my disrespectful language. I narrowed my eyes at him and his companion, who was grinning at me like I was the best entertainment he’d had in months. Perhaps I was. I didn’t care. “Both of you. Get out. I’m claiming my mate and I’m claiming her here. Now.”
Hunt, ever the diplomat, spoke up, stepping between me and Maxim, who looked at me with narrowed eyes, clearly struggling with his decision on how to handle me. But there was no handling me. Not right now. “Tyran, we can take her back to the—”
“No.” I could feel the plump fullness of one breast against my palm, feel the roundness of her ass against my belly. Her scent was intoxicating, drowning me and all reason as deep instinct rose within me, and we weren’t even wearing our collars. “They will leave because I am not wasting another moment to make this female ours.”
Maxim laughed, took his mate’s hand and ushered the controllers from their posts.
“What if a transport comes in?” one asked.
“Then the captains will be here.”
The man was dedicated to his post, but in this moment, I didn’t care. Transports occurred, but were few and far between. Still, I didn’t want to have our mate bent over the control panel, my cock in her pussy and Hunt’s in her mouth when someone arrived.
Fuck no.
“Set the transport to standby mode,” I told Hunt. He looked at me with surprise before glancing at Maxim who had paused at the door when he heard me, perhaps because I rarely gave orders—at least not since we’d been in battle. The last order I gave nearly killed us both. My battle rage had won that day, and was the reason we’d ended up in those Hive Integration caves, tortured and weak. The reason we’d ended up here.
I’d spent the last three years paying the price, doing what I was told by the governor, Hunt and the other elected commanders on the base. The deep instincts I had to command, to lead, suppressed until I was choking on them. Hunt was a good leader, deliberate, considering things from every angle and choosing the right path for the warriors here on Base 3. He was one of Maxim’s most trusted advisors.
I was walking chaos. I followed orders because I chose to, not because I needed someone to tell me what to do. I followed orders of the men I respected because I didn’t want the responsibility, the blood of any more warriors’ deaths on my hands.
No, I didn’t give orders anymore, and I saw the shock on Hunt’s face—uncertain if that look was because I wanted to do this here, or because I had just barked an order at the governor of Base 3.
Maxim nodded his head in assent and left us, the door sliding closed behind the men with a nearly silent swoosh.
“She deserves a bed,” Hunt grumbled, his fingers sliding over the panel. When done, he looked to our sleeping mate. “She deserves softness, Tyran. Look at her. She’s so beautiful, so perfect.” He looked down at his left arm, at the Hive technology that turned his arm almost completely silver, and frowned, looked at me, his gaze wandering to my eye and silver temple. “She deserves better than us.”
“She does, but she won’t always get it from me. She doesn’t want it,” I replied.
“How the hell do you know that?”
“Because I want my collar around her neck now. I want to fuck her now. I’m not gentle, Hunt. I will demand everything from her and we will give her everything she needs. Your light and my dark.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but I continued. “She’s my match, Hunt. Of all the warriors on the Colony, you know me. You know the darkness I carry inside. She won’t always want a bed because she’s mine. She’ll crave what we can give her.”
He moved to stand before me, looked down at the sleeping face of the female who was now ours. “What if you’re wrong?”
I narrowed my gaze. “I’m not wrong, not if she’s mine.”
He frowned, reached out tentatively and stroked a finger over her cheek.
She stirred then and my cock leapt to attention, her feminine scent drifting over both of us as she shifted in the blanket.
“All right, Tyran. We’ll find out soon enough.”
* * *
Kristin, Transport Room, The Colony, Base 3
I was warm, a blanket wrapped around me the way I used to love when I was a little girl. The steady beating of a heart soothed me as I nuzzled my cheek into the hard warmth of the man holding me…
Man?
I blinked my eyes. Once, then again and my vision cleared. After that, I blinked again to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Yes, there were two very big, very hot guys staring down at me. Warden Egara was nowhere to be seen and these men weren’t human. They were beautiful, sexy, their coloring gold and brown with slightly sharper features than a human man would have. The man holding me was darker, with skin a creamy caramel, short brown hair and brown, bedroom eyes I could stare into for hours. He held me as his lighter friend touched my cheek with a gentle finger, lingering on my skin as if he was mesmerized by the sight of me.
The second had pale golden hair and amber eyes, his skin fair with just a hint of gold. His right eye held a hint of silver, and a pale silver patch of skin surrounded his eye and his right temple, the odd color disappearing beneath strands of light-colored hair.
My heart raced as I breathed in the scent of them both. Feral. Hot. So sexy my body responded as if it had just been waiting for me to pay attention, suddenly hot and aching, needy.
I tore my gaze from the men and turned my head to look around. The room was about the size of a two-car garage and utilitarian. I recognized the shiny black flooring and green grid of a transport pad from pictures I’d seen at the Interstellar Brides Processing center. A control station stood a few feet away, empty. I was alone in the room with two aliens, wearing nothing but a blanket as they stared at me like they couldn’t wait to get me naked and fill me with their cocks.
And holy shit, that made me hot.
“Greetings, mate. I am Tyran.” The man holding me rumbled, nuzzling the side of my head with his nose, breathing me in, his dark head a stark contrast to the pale skin of my shoulder where it peeked out from under the blanket.
Mate? Oh, wow. My entire body tensed as the reality processed. I’d known this was going to happen, but talking to the pleasant yet professional Warden Egara on Earth about taking on two dominant warriors of Prillon Prime as mates was one thing. Being here with their massive, powerful bodies towering over me?
I shivered, growing wet as they stared.
Toto, I’m not in Kansas anymore.
Hell, I’m not even on Earth anymore.
“Hello,” I said, my voice a little rough. I cleared my throat and said it again.
Both of them grinned at me, but the second man answered this time, the golden one, his finger moving from my cheek to my bottom lip. “Hello, mate. I am Hunt. Your second.”
The words caused the man holding me to squeeze, my two mates glancing at one another for a long moment as something passed between them I didn’t understand. As if by mutual consent, they both turned and made me the center of attention once more. Tyran held me still and although I’d been in his arms for a long time, he didn’t appear strained at all. That meant either I’d lost weight in transport, or he was much bigger and stronger than I first thought. I looked up at him, wiggling to get out of his arms, but he didn’t set me down, shaking his head instead.
“I am Captain Tyran, mate. I am your Primary Male. Do you understand what that means?” he asked.
I thought of my conversation with Warden Egara. Oh, yes. I knew all about what this meant. He was my match, my perfect match. And Hunt was the warrior he’d chosen to help him take care of me, to have children with, to be a family. It meant two lovers making a Kristin sandwich. I shivered and licked my lips. “Yes.”
He smiled then, watching my mouth as I rubbed my lips together, nerves getting the better of me. “I am yours, mate. And I admit, I am very pleased to see you.” He looked at me with dark chocolate eyes, eyes I could get lost in. “Hunt is my second. He is yours as well.”
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