Taken by Her Mates

by Grace Goodwin

  “I challenge for the right to claim this Earth woman as my bride.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jessica

  Nial seemed to grow several inches taller, his silver skin sparkling under the slight blue tinge of the exam room lighting. “Touch her and I will kill you.”

  Another man, one I realized now was the challenger’s second, moved along the edge of the room, toward me… and Ander, who positioned himself in front of me. The one moving toward us looked completely normal, for an alien, until I looked into his eyes. They were both lined with silver rings, like a jeweler had wrapped matching wedding bands around his irises.

  Contaminated. The word floated through my mind until I heard Nial’s roar.

  Turning quickly, I saw Nial lift the other warrior over his head like a weightlifting bar and hurl him sideways into a piece of black glass more than twenty feet across the room. The glass, or whatever it was, shattered and fell to the floor with a loud cracking and tinkling sound and I gasped as row upon row of warriors were revealed to me where they must have been standing the entire time.

  Watching everything. Oh, my God, they’d seen me being spread open and spanked and fucked and my orgasm and my pleasure and…

  Ander waited for his attacker to charge as Nial’s roar literally shook the remaining windows. Ander drew back and planted his fist squarely in the challenger’s jaw, sending him sprawling, unconscious several feet back from where he’d started his attack. One punch and the man was down.

  Nial and Ander looked at each other and positioned themselves around me. I looked up to see another pair of warriors nod to each other and enter the room through the broken doorway. They were huge, equal in size to my mates, but much more cautious than the first two had been.

  I stared at the black strip of ribbon in my hand and gave in to the inevitable. I understood now the urgency, the doctor’s warning. All of it. I knew I wanted my mates, I just wanted them to desire me with more than their bodies. I wanted their hearts. I wanted a true connection.

  That kind of love took time. I knew that. In the meantime, I did not want my mates to have to fight the entire Colony to get me out of here. And I definitely did not want to take the chance that they might lose a challenge, or be seriously hurt, although that did not seem to be much of a problem.

  With a sigh I looked at the giant lurking in the doorway. “Stop.”

  All four warriors froze, as did the doctor and the men still milling about on the other side of the wall.

  I lifted the strange collar to my neck and let go, surprised when it locked itself in place around my neck.

  Instantly, I was flooded with battle rage and a fierce need to protect what was mine. I realized the feelings were coming from both of my mates and I lifted my shaking hand to my neck with wonder. There would be no lying, no games. I would know what they felt when they were near.

  As I lowered my hand, the large intruder bowed low and held up his hands to ward off Nial’s strike. “My apologies, princess.”

  Perhaps Nial’s fierce orders had not been because he lacked romance, but because he actually feared for my safety. They’d vowed to protect me with their lives, to knock out, hurt, or even kill any male that would get near me. The one person they couldn’t protect me from was myself. They were willing to take on every male in the Colony if need be, but they couldn’t force me to put the collar about my neck.

  In a backwards sort of way, they had been showing me how much they cared.

  I looked at Nial, and the others, noting their complete change in attitude since I’d placed the collar around my neck. Nial hadn’t been exaggerating the danger to me, and I suddenly felt foolish for denying him and risking all of our lives. I spoke directly to Nial’s challenger.

  “No, I am the one who is sorry. My lack of understanding caused this mess, but I am not interested in any men but my mates.”

  Ander backed toward me, as did Nial, completely cutting off my view of the two men who had barged into the room. The doctor knelt on the floor next to the warrior Nial had thrown into the window and I sighed in relief when I saw the warrior’s arm move. He wasn’t dead. Good. That was a dose of guilt I did not need.

  The challenger’s second spoke for the first time. “Are there other women like you on Earth, princess? Women who might be willing to mate with a contaminated veteran, as you called us?”

  I sighed. Single women looking for smoking hot, honorable warriors? “Absolutely. Thousands and thousands of them, but you are not contaminated.”

  The doctor coughed. “Gods, my prince, you had best get her out of here immediately. She’s going to launch an invasion of Earth.”

  “What?” I wondered. “I’m not either. All I have to do is call—or whatever it is you do from space—Warden Egara. She’ll help them find mates once I explain the situation to her. She takes her job very seriously. Trust me. She’ll be happy to help.”

  How I knew this, I wasn’t sure, but I was completely confident that I spoke the truth.

  The warrior at the door tilted his head. “Lady Egara of the battleship Wothar? Catherine?”

  I shoved at Ander’s arm so he would move aside a couple of inches. I needed to see this man’s face. “I don’t know her first name and I know nothing of a battleship. I’m fairly positive she’s never been to space, for I’ve been told that no woman ever returns to Earth once matched.”

  “She would be smaller than you, princess, with dark hair and gray eyes?”

  “That sounds like her.” I frowned at him. “How do you know her?”

  “She was mate to my brother and his second. They were both killed six years ago in an ambush. We lost an entire battle group that day.” He nodded at his second and pointed to his own silver skin. “The rest of us were recovered several hours later, but we didn’t get to go home.”

  He meant that they had all been sent to the Colony instead because of their new contamination.

  Nial stepped out of sight then reappeared with my dark red blanket, which he draped over me before lifting me into his arms. I realized I’d been naked as I had a conversation with two complete strangers. With a plug in my butt. God.

  “I can walk, you know.”

  He shook his head. “Not today. Today you cause too much trouble even when your feet do not touch the ground.”

  I chuckled at that and he looked to Ander.

  “Let’s go, Ander. It is time.”

  Ander fell into step beside us and the others bowed as Nial carried me past them all out into a long corridor lined with doors. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned my head on his shoulder, allowing him to take me where he willed. “Where are we going now? Time for what?”

  “Time to teach you exactly what it means to be a bride of Prillon.”

  * * *

  Nial

  I carried my mate down the long, plain corridor and felt rage gather in my chest. I was supposed to live the rest of my life on the Colony. It was to be my new home. This place, these men, were supposed to be my future—if my father had his way. The men who we’d just fought, those who wanted Jessica for their own, were like me. Warriors who had fought for the coalition, protected billions of lives on hundreds of planets, but unlucky enough to be captured and tortured by the Hive, contaminated by their technology and banished forever.

  Shame at my lack of understanding made me clench my jaw as I carried my mate. Jessica had pointed out the obvious, that there was nothing wrong with any of them. Their Hive biotech implants were like her scars: marks of honor, of service. Of respect. If anything, the implanted technology would make them all stronger, faster, and more lethal than ever before. And yet these men found themselves banished to the Colony, disrespected and forgotten. Denied a mate, denied a family. Stripped of their honor and their worth and used for nothing more than slave labor.

  The disgraceful treatment of our warriors would be one of the first things I would change once I was Prime. I looked down at the golden shimmer of my mate’s hair wh
ere she rested in my arms and knew, without doubt, my princess would be a fierce advocate for these warriors as well.

  It had been a proud moment for me to see her confront the doctor, confront injustice, and make us all see things in a new light. Her words, her ideals, were meant to protect not just the two men who would claim her, but all the veterans of the Hive wars, all the wounded and scarred warriors on this world. I had no doubt she would fight my father’s prejudiced system, without surcease. She was fierce and brave and passionate.

  My perfect mate.

  It was time now to claim her, to fuck her. We should be fleeing the Colony without pause, but I had to fuck her first. She had to understand the power of our mating bond and a good, hard fuck would do that in ways words could not. The collars, as well as a few intense orgasms, would ensure that she never doubted our bond again.

  This wouldn’t be the ceremonial bonding, our permanent claiming, but it would be a start. With the collars about our necks, with our seed having coated her skin, her emotions and needs were obvious now. I sensed her every feeling as she felt mine—and Ander’s—in kind.

  I felt the lingering arousal from her examination. She’d liked it. Loved it. Loved fighting against Ander’s hold, knowing that there was nothing she could do but give in. Despite the unfamiliar situation, she’d chosen to trust Ander, to have faith that he would not allow anything harmful to happen to her while he’d gripped her wrists. She had taken comfort in our presence, trusted us and been able to submit to the examination. I had never seen anything more beautiful than her orgasms as Ander and I held her, watched over her.

  She’d lost control, and that had just been to the medical probes. I longed to discover how loudly she might scream her release when it was Ander and I fucking her, stretching her, making her come.

  One of the men led us down a hallway and pressed a button on a wall, three, no four doors down. He bowed once. “A privacy chamber.”

  I nodded to the man, who, only a few minutes ago, Ander had punched in the face. There was no animosity among us, for the authority and respect for mates of our warriors was strong, the collar around her neck a permanent sign of ownership. She owned us now. Both of us would die to protect our right to care for her, father her children, and bring her pleasure.

  Ander thanked the man and closed the door behind us. I took in the room. A bed, a table, chair, another door that led to a bathing chamber. The space was simple. Basic. It mattered not besides the fact that it had a large bed and we were alone.

  The way she’d responded to the medical probes—after we calmed and reassured her—had been stunning to witness. She was so responsive, not only to the stimulation, but to the strap across her hips, to Ander and his firm grip on her wrists, his spoken commands.

  Our mate’s pussy had grown wet the moment Ander began issuing orders. Jessica could not hide the truth from us, the truth that she had enjoyed being bound, had grown aroused by the hard strength of Ander’s hands on her wrists. Her release had been powerful, her cries echoing through the chamber making my cock hard as a rock, eager to take her, to force her to another peak.

  She was too feisty, too headstrong, to give up control. She was a warrior, as we were. But her reaction today had revealed the truth to all three of us: she was indeed stubborn, fierce, and defiant, but she hungered for a mate strong enough to dominate her, a mate with whom she could feel safe enough to let herself go.

  I would be that mate. Ander would as well. If she needed to feel our control and dominance when it came to fucking, then we would provide. She wasn’t a virgin, but by the surprised look on her face when we’d brought her to climax, any man she’d been with before had not given her what she needed. She’d never before felt safe enough to completely give up control.

  The fact that we’d been matched assured me that my conclusions were correct. While I hungered to dominate her, to tease her body and prolong her pleasure until she begged, Ander’s stoic power aroused her as well. Ander and I admitted our needs, were comfortable in our roles as her mates, and did not try to hide our darkest desires. The opposite could be said for Jessica. She acted as if her needs were a surprise to her. It became obvious to me, with her chaos of emotions swirling through me via our mating collar, that her mind was at war with her body. Her ego and conditioning compelled her to resist, but her body was incapable of lying. The processing center’s matching protocols did not lie. She needed everything we gave her.

  That was why my cock was hard as a Prillon pipe and if I didn’t fuck her soon I would surely come in my pants. The collars connected us and I sensed not only Jessica’s lingering desire but Ander’s eagerness as well. The connection we shared was intense, sharp, and hot as hell. I flicked a glance at Ander and he gave me a small nod.

  We would take her now. With the collars, there would be no doubt we would be attuned to her every need. If she disliked anything, we would know immediately. Starting now.

  “Now that I wear your collar, I’m legally a Prillon bride?” she asked.

  “Yes. You belong to us now.” I placed her on her feet before us and swiped the blanket from her shoulders, tossing it onto the chair in the corner. She would not need any kind of covering for now. “We will learn all of your secrets, Jessica. You won’t be able to hide anything from us.”

  She shivered but lowered her hands to her sides. She stood before us regal as a queen and my cock swelled to the point of bursting. “I don’t understand. I’m not hiding anything now.”

  Ander tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you are, mate. You’re hiding from everyone, including yourself.”

  A rush of pleasure flooded our connection as Jessica responded to his words, his commanding tone. She licked her lips. “Like what? I’m standing here naked wearing your collar. What could I be hiding?”

  “How you like to be fucked,” I responded.

  Her chin came up with that and I stifled a smile.

  “You are going tell me how I like it?” She arched a brow.

  “No,” I replied simply. “Your body is going to reveal the secrets you are not willing to admit.”

  She backed up a step as I continued, “You want us to fuck you hard.”

  “You want it rough,” Ander added. He lifted the hem of his shirt and pulled it up and over his head, dropped it on the floor.

  Her eyes fell to Ander’s chest and she stared.

  “You need to let go, to be told what to do.”

  “I—no.”

  “You need to relinquish control when it comes to being fucked by your men,” I clarified. “You might be a warrior in your own right, but when you are naked and between the two of us, you will do as we say.”

  She took another step back, her chest heaving as her arousal climbed. As she turned, I could see the flared end of the plug parting her ass cheeks. My cock pulsed at the sight. Cringing in discomfort, I undid my pants.

  “What if I don’t? What if you’re wrong?” She lifted one hand to rub the top of her chest and side of her neck in a nervous gesture I found utterly endearing. She wanted what we were offering her, but was afraid to take it.

  “Do you trust us, Jessica? Do you trust us not to hurt you? Do you believe we are strong enough, disciplined enough, to protect and care for you? Do you believe that our one desire is to make you happy, to meet your needs?”

  Her hand froze on the side of her neck and she bowed her head, staring at her feet for several long seconds that felt like a millennium to me, and I was sure, to Ander as well. He held his breath where he stood next to me. We both did, waiting for her answer, waiting for permission to claim her. This one fragile female held our very hearts and happiness in her hands.

  I walked to her then, pulling her into my arms so that her ear was pressed to my chest above my beating heart. I held her close, stroking the curve of her back and hip with one hand as Ander watched with an intense need I knew was mirrored in my own gaze. The other hand I tangled in her hair, holding her to me softly, like delicate cry
stal.

  “Do you hear the beating of my heart? It beats for you. Every cell in my body is dedicated to you, to your comfort, to your safety, to your pleasure. The collars around our necks mark you as ours, mate, but in reality, we belong to you. We serve no other but you. We will fight for you, kill for you, die for you. We will do everything in our power to make you feel safe, protected, and loved. If you allow us, Jessica.” I cupped her cheek in my hand and tilted her head up so I could look down into her pale blue eyes. “Say yes. Accept our claim. Let us love you.”

  One word. That’s all we needed to make her ours forever. One word would set us free, to touch, to fuck, to mark forever.

  “Yes.”

  I kissed her gently, softly on the lips in acknowledgment of her gift. I did not protest as Ander reached for her hand and gently pulled her away. I knew he, too, was starved for her touch.

  I pulled my own shirt from my head and dropped it to the floor as Ander took a hold of Jessica’s hand and led her to the bed. “First, dear mate, you will be punished.”

  “Punished—what? Why?”

  He walked alongside the bed, pulling her forward so she had no choice but to crawl up onto the mattress. Only when both her knees were on the soft surface did he release her hand to slide his arm beneath her waist. “Your stubborn refusal to obey Nial earlier caused us to injure two of our brothers and damage the doctor’s examination room.”

  “I said I was sorry about that. I didn’t understand.” She was on her hands and knees and his free hand caressed her bare bottom as he leaned over to speak in her ear.

  “That is not good enough. You put yourself in unnecessary danger, mate, despite the fact that Nial warned you. Did you stop to consider what would have happened had Nial or I lost the challenge?” His hand came down on her bare ass, hard.

  Smack!

  A pink handprint appeared and she fought to break his hold, but she had no chance of escape. Her face flushed pink as Ander spanked her again. “What the fuck are you doing?”