Mated (The Sandaki Book 1)

by Gwendolyn Cease

  Reluctantly, he left Laira and quickly showered. He needed to contact his Kalkan Arkadasi. Too many people knew of his mating, and he wanted to make sure Dev didn’t hear it from anyone but him. His Arkadasi was volatile and dangerous even in the best of times, and Rakin wanted Dev to have plenty of time to get used to the idea. Rakin sighed; he wished truly that Dev had found his talla first. Dev walked a thin line with his inner beast and needed the gentleness a woman would bring.

  Rakin pressed his palm to the communication console and waited. Within seconds, the image of the man appeared on screen. To him, Dev was incredibly handsome, but intimidating due to the thin scar that ran down his right cheek and ended at his lips, and the fact that his beast rode closer to the surface. He'd gained the scar in the fight for supremacy of the Sandaki. The person who’d delivered the blow hadn’t lived long enough to celebrate, because in the next instant, Dev had gutted him.

  Rakin looked into the eyes of the person who meant the most to him, who knew him best. He and Dev had shared everything from the moment they’d met in the training facility when they had been mere children. A burning settled into his stomach at the thought.

  “What is wrong?”

  Rakin shook his head. “We discovered a Silarin slave vessel attempting to use our space for their auction.”

  Dev smiled. It did not reach his eyes. “I would assume they will no longer attempt to do anything so foolish again.”

  Rakin laughed. “No, and with the message sent to the home world the Silarin will stay far away from us or suffer the consequences.”

  “It has been a long time since we conquered a new world.”

  “If they push us, we will occupy many kotakes of new space.”

  Dev nodded, still staring at him. “There is something else. I can see it on you.”

  “I have found my heart mate. She was a slave on the Silarin vessel, and they were attempting to sell her.”

  Rakin watched the shutters drop down over Dev’s eyes. Though Dev attempted to hide his emotions, Rakin knew the news shook his Arkadasi. They were true shield mates and had been since Rakin had turned sixteen and Dev was eighteen. Though they had both taken women on the occasions they weren’t together, it never lasted since the women had meant nothing. They were a convenience to scratch an itch. Rakin had never needed or wanted anyone but Dev to satisfy him. Now, Laira had appeared like a gift from the gods. A rightness had settled in his soul when he’d taken her the first time. He wouldn’t give her up. Couldn’t give her up.

  “I cannot wait to meet her,” Dev finally said. “When will you arrive?”

  “In approximately four suns’ risings.”

  “I will be waiting.”

  Both men stared at one another then signed off simultaneously. Rakin wondered how this new development would affect their relationship. He hoped not at all; however, Dev was a hard man to know. He could also be deadly when roused. Rakin didn’t want his mate to be afraid of the man he cared so much for. He knew Dev would not open himself up to Laira. He never did with anyone. He allowed people to think what they would of him. He didn’t care for anything or anyone but Rakin.

  Laira opened her eyes and stretched. The bed beneath her was so comfortable she truly didn’t want to move. Still, she felt sticky and needed a shower. On top of that, nature called. She sat up and shoved her hair out of her face. Damn, this was why she never allowed her hair to get past her shoulders. Okay, before, she hadn’t had the hair for it since originally it had been fine and fly away. Even if she’d had these luxurious locks, she doubted she would have let it get this long.

  Slowly, she climbed off the bed and looked around the room. She hadn’t noticed much upon her arrival. The only thing she’d known was she’d badly needed to be fucked. The desire was still there, but not as fierce. The necessity to be clean and fed took precedence, although she didn’t think that would last. Some kind of sixth sense told her she would have to take care of her other urges first before the compulsion for sex returned. She rolled her eyes; she’d gone from not wanting sex to fiend overnight.

  She looked up from her reverie to find Rakin watching her from the doorway. His presence alone caused the banked fires to flame to life. Shit, if she didn’t watch out, she’d end up climbing all over him. She hoped he didn’t want some kind of shrinking violet that waited until he asked for sex, because at this point she didn’t think she could do that. Especially, if he kept looking at her like he wanted to eat her up in one bite.

  “I really need a shower or something,” she spoke, breaking the spell that had wrapped around them. “Oh, and my friends. How are they? Where are they?”

  “Come, I will show you the bathing facilities. Unfortunately, since we are in space there is no water, but it will get you clean. Your companions are safe and well cared for. I will make sure no harm comes to them.”

  Her fears eased. She, Isha, Garja, and Chal had been through so much together, she needed to know they were okay. She decided that once the whole mating heat abated, she would visit them. She wanted to talk to them and hopefully make sense of everything that had happened.

  He stepped up to cup her face in his hands. Laira had figured with her new height she wouldn’t find many men who could look down at her. This man towered over her though, making her feel small and delicate. Without thinking, she went up on tiptoe and pressed her lips to his.

  “What do you do?” He pulled away from her.

  “I kissed you.” She wondered if she had committed some type of horrible faux pas. If so, he would have to learn to live with it, since she wouldn’t have sex with someone she couldn’t even kiss.

  “On my world we do not do this touching of mouths.”

  “Is it forbidden or something?”

  “No, it is just not done.”

  “Well, we do it on my world.” Laira shrugged. “When two people are involved in a sexual relationship they usually kiss and hug, too. It all kind of goes together.”

  His eyes lit, and he smiled. “I like how you do things on your world. Our face to face mating was something we’ll do again…soon.” He ended his sentence with a growl that hit her right between the legs. If she didn’t get clean and find food now, she would end up throwing him on the bed and having her way with him.

  “Come, you must bathe, and we will break our fast before we can investigate how you do things on your world.”

  Laira hit the shower facilities that weren’t nearly as fun as those on the Silarin ship. However when she stepped out, she did feel much cleaner, and her hair was once again untangled and perfect. After taking care of her other needs, she left the bathing room to find Rakin sitting at a table that was heavy with food. For the first time, she felt awkward, which was stupid since she had fucked this man repeatedly. Since they’d never had time to actually talk like civilized people, she was unsure how to proceed.

  He quickly stood and moved to hold out a chair for her. “Come, break your fast.”

  “Do you have something I could wear?” Laira pulled her hair around to partially shield her nudity.

  He cocked his head. “Why? You are beyond beautiful.”

  “Thanks, it would make me feel less weird to wear something while I eat. Do the people on your planet wear clothes?” Laira cringed, hoping they did. She would hate to think she would have to run around naked in front of the entire world.

  “In my private quarters I don’t usually, but you are right. Since we are on the ship, someone may enter. I will have no one’s eyes on you, but mine.” He moved to the bed and grabbed a thin sheet. He wrapped it twice around her, making sure it was secure. She lifted an edge and took a deep breath, finding it smelled just like Rakin. The scent of him alone caused her pussy to get wet.

  She looked up to find him watching her with his wild topaz eyes. “You smell ready, mate. We must eat first, though.”

  A flush stole up her cheeks. Damn, she hated that he could scent her arousal. However, when he did, it made her even hotter for him. Shaking
her head, she took a seat and investigated the food on the table. He sat across from her and explained what she saw. The breads were really good, and she particularly liked a small roll that tasted of cinnamon, though she doubted it was that spice. The fruits were sweet and juicy, but the green gelatin glob tasted like paste flavored with pencil shavings. She swallowed the bite she had in her mouth, since spitting it out on the plate would probably be bad etiquette, then quickly swished her mouth with the liquid in her cup.

  “Do you not like the gastal?” Rakin watched her as she put her cup down.

  “It was interesting,” Laira answered. “Is it something you eat often?”

  “It is normally on the table during each meal. Do you not find it palatable?”

  Laira sat for a moment, and figured the truth would be best. She hated to lie, and since this man had seen all of her, he ought to know what he was getting into. “Truthfully, it’s gross. I don’t like it at all.”

  Rakin laughed, and she found herself watching him, fascinated. He was also the most handsome man she’d ever seen. Not to mention his body was totally hot. She put a stop on her thoughts before she jumped the table and straddled him. She figured that would be a real etiquette buster.

  “Dev and I despise the stuff. As young children we would attempt to feed it to our pet lorcan. Even it would not eat it.”

  Laira laughed. “I can see why. It sort of reminds me of paste, which is a type of adhesive from my planet.” She picked at the fruit on her plate as she could feel moisture ooze out from between her thighs. The need also began to rise, and she tried to ignore it. She hated that her body basically did what it wanted. She couldn’t control her attraction to this man, and that made her angry. Hell the whole situation made her angry. Her life was no longer her own and would never be again.

  “Come, sit on my lap, mate.” Rakin held a hand out to her, tearing her from her thoughts.

  Laira took it and allowed him to ease her to him. She hitched up the sheet and straddled his thighs so she could put her arms around him. Not taking his eyes from hers, he began to slowly drag the sheet from her body. Parting it, he growled low in his throat. She leaned forward to press her sensitive nipples to his chest and rub them back and forth through the soft hair.

  “When will the constant need end?” she murmured, pressing her lips against his.

  “What?”

  “The constant need I have for sex. No matter how much we do it, it’s not enough.”

  “Normally, the mating heat abates within two suns risings, you are not of my people though. How often do your people breed?”

  She cocked her head. “Breed? You mean when can we have a baby?”

  “Yes, how often do the females come into heat?”

  Laira sat back to look at him. “Well, on Earth, women ovulate every month. If the sperm catch it at the right time then bingo, there’s a baby. If you’re asking when people have sex? All the time. How often does it happen on your planet?”

  He side-stepped her question. “I do not understand your term, month.”

  “Umm, okay, a day on earth is twenty-four hours and an hour is sixty minutes. So that’s one sun’s rising. Normally, between thirty and thirty-one days, make up a month. So, every month, a human woman’s body releases an egg. If the conditions are right, she can get pregnant. Oh, and twelve months make up a year.”

  Rakin listened closely to her explanation. “I think your year is equal to a liyat on my planet.”

  “So does that mean we only have sex once a year?” Laira shook her head. She had to ask the question, and she couldn’t quite believe she was contemplating staying with this man. Would she stay with him? She’d have to think about it when she had time to herself. Then again, did she really have a choice? And, if she did stay, she knew that she needed to know how often she would have access to this man’s incredible body. She soooo hoped it was more than twice a year.

  He shook his head. “No, when you go into heat that is when we will have relations. So if you do this once a cachan… I am most fortunate in finding you for my mate.”

  “So we’ll only have sex once a month? Dude, that is so going to suck.” Laira ran her hands up and down his chest.

  “How often do your people have sex?”

  “Like I said, all the time. On Earth, people do it because it feels good, not just to have children. So they do it as much as they can make time for.”

  He blinked then threw back his head and roared. Before she could ask him what was happening he picked her up and carried her to the bed. With her in his arms, he dropped onto the soft surface and pinned her under his nude body.

  “What are you doing?” Laira asked, uncertain if she had pissed him off or not.

  “You are a gift to me from the gods themselves.”

  “Why? Because sex is an all-the-time thing?”

  He nodded, smiling. “Yes.”

  “So what do you do on your world? How long to do wait for sex?”

  “It is not important. No more talking, mate. Show me this mouth contact from your planet.”

  Laira knew they needed to continue the conversation, since she had to understand. Right now, the needs crawling through her body were too strong to ignore. She leaned up to press her mouth to his. Smoothly, she slid the tip of her tongue out and ran it along the seam of his lips. He opened his mouth, and she invaded as she wrapped her arms and legs around his muscled body. Tentatively, he met her tongue with his own and soon he had eased into her to taste and tempt. The more he stroked and teased, the hotter she became. She pulled her lips from his, panting, and they stared at one another.

  “I really like being your gift,” Laira panted. “And if you need to have sex more than once a day, I am totally down with that.”

  “You are kind to think only of your mate’s comfort.”

  “That’s me. I just give and give.”

  Chapter Six

  Laira woke wrapped in Rakin’s arms. She watched the darkness of space slide by outside a window that was across from the bed. She didn’t feel like moving or going anywhere; in fact, she felt comfortable and safe. Safe? When was the last time she felt that way? She really couldn’t say. It certainly wasn’t with the Silarin, but had she felt that way in her old life? She wasn’t sure, which was kind of sad. Life, B.S., before Silarin, was constant motion. She ran from her job, to school, and back home. Home wasn’t any more relaxing since she had homework to complete, household chores, bills, and on and on.When had she ever taken a break? She didn’t remember. Vacation was just a time when she didn’t have to go to work, there was never any downtime.

  “What are you doing, mate?” he asked, his voice low and raspy.

  “Thinking, which probably isn’t a good thing.”

  “What do you think about?” He turned her in his arms so they could look at one another.

  “I was just contemplating how crazy my life was before the Silarin took me.”

  “How so?”

  Laira told him about her job and school and working out. As she talked, his brows lowered. He looked…troubled? She gently rubbed the space between his eyes and down his nose. “What’s wrong?”

  “Was there no one there to help you?”

  She shook her head. “No, it was just me.”

  “Where was your naised sunnitavad? Or your isa?”

  “I don’t know what either of those are.”

  “The woman and man who created you,” he said slowly as if searching for words.

  “Parents, that’s what those people are called,” she said, playing with his hair. “Where I’m from, the woman is called mom or momma or mother and the man is usually dad, daddy, or father. Unless they don’t do a good job, then you don’t really want to call them anything. As for mine, I have no idea where my father went. He left before I was born. My mother didn’t care for me all that well, and I was finally removed from her custody. I was put in foster care until I was eighteen, then I was on my own.”

  “Foster care?” />
  “It’s a system where kids are placed with other families or in facilities where they can be cared for. Usually, you stay with a family for a month or two then they move you somewhere else. At least, that’s how my placement went.”

  “It is good that you’re with me, now,” he murmured and kissed her. “I will ensure you are taken care of.”

  She smiled. “Rakin, it was no big deal. Foster care was what it was, and it only lasted until I was eighteen. Once I moved out on my own, I started college, but it got too expensive so I quit. I started working fulltime until I could go back to school again. By that time, I was used to my schedule and my life. I probably even liked it, especially the training. And I loved school. The work was overwhelming sometimes, but I love to learn. So what about you? Do you have parents?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “So, are they still alive? Will I get to meet them?”

  “Perhaps,” he said and changed the subject. “College? What is this place?”

  Puzzled by his hesitance to talk about his family, Laira let it slide. “It’s where a person goes to get an advanced education. You learn about whatever you want. I was getting a degree in accounting, which is all about numbers.”

  “So what do you do with numbers once you learn?”

  “Well you can keep the books for businesses. Um, make sure that the money coming in is more than the money going out. At least, you do if the business is doing well. I’m going to miss learning new things. I really loved school.”

  “I will teach you many things, talla,” he said, as he eased over her and pinned her to the bed.