by Rosette Lex
“I want you to mark me Doran, I’ve been yours ever since you saved me from that monster in the woods,” Sabrina murmured against my chest and I pulled away a fraction to make sure I heard correctly.
“I want to be your mate Doran, there is no one else but you for me,” Sabrina said and I couldn’t help but pick her up in a firm hug as I laughed at how wonderful it all was. How perfect.
“Congratulations! Should I get the wedding ceremony set up then?” Tristan called from down below and both Sabrina and I laughed. I thought he had gone to give us privacy, apparently not. I set Sabrina down on her feet and held her hand in mine as I descended the stairs with her.
“There she is! The woman I have heard so much about. I have to say it is an honor to meet the woman who has knocked Doran over the head and made him fall in love. The men will have a field day with this. The mighty dragon tamed!” Tristan laughed and then kissed Sabrina on the cheek. I growled and he chuckled at me before inching towards the door.
“I will let you two…celebrate your love. In the meantime, I shall be preparing for your impending nuptials.” With that Tristan flashed one last grin at Sabrina before he left.
“He did not seem like what I thought he’d be,” Sabrina commented and I laughed.
“That is about as accurate a description for Tristan as there is,” I told her and she giggled. I bent my head and she rose to her tiptoes to meet my lips with hers.
“So I take it we’re getting married today?” I smiled against her lips and nodded and she sighed happily. “Good,” I meant it when I said it. I want to be with you.” Sabrina was being absolutely truthful I could see the love shining in her eyes.
“Well then, I must mark you,” I said with a grin.
“How do you do that?” Sabrina asked me curiously and I scooped her into my arms and carried her upstairs to the bed.
“Let me show you,” I said and she giggled as I nibbled on her neck. I laid Sabrina down, but she soon changed positions and sat up to rest on her heels. I quickly tore off my sweatshirt and jeans and then helped her get rid of her clothing.
She pulled me onto the bed and gently pushed my shoulder back on the mattress. I watched her with a smirk as her eyes traveled the length of my body a few times. I was already hard and ready for her.
“I want to taste you,” Sabrina said shyly and my jaw fell slack a moment as I imagined her mouth on me.
“Of course, please do,” I said and she smiled before her hand closed around my shaft and stroked up from the base. I gritted my teeth and gripped the bedding underneath me as she caused a shot of pleasure to sizzle through to the base of my sex.
Soon, Sabrina lowered her head and then her lips and tongue were on my sensitive tip. I groaned and my hips bucked instinctually. Sabrina ran her tongue around the head several times and I groaned as my head fell back against the pillows. She sucked me into her mouth then and her lips traveled up and down my shaft.
I groaned each time my tip met the back of her throat, whatever she was doing she was amazing at it. My need to mark her only grew stronger the closer I came to orgasm and I gently put my hands on her shoulders to stop her.
Sabrina kept her eyes on mine as she straddled my hips. I sat up just as she guided my erection into her impossibly snug warmth. She let out a pleasured moan and I hissed as she began to rock her hips against mine.
My hands gripped her backside as my lips found her neck and shoulder and Sabrina’s hands pushed into my hair and gripped tightly. I loved how passionate she was and it only added to the pleasure and perfection of the moment. She was mine and I was going to make damn sure of it. She would not leave this cottage without my scent rooted in her blood.
I gripped Sabrina’s hips and held her up a fraction so that I could thrust into her hard and deep. Her eyes glazed over with pure pleasure and her expression displayed just how much she was enjoying ever second.
My eyes stayed locked onto hers until we both shot off into climax at nearly the same instance. Her sex tightened and clenched around mine before it did so rhythmically with her release. Mine came shortly after as she milked me and I emptied into her core while my nose was buried in her hair and neck.
I caught my scent on her and faintly at first and then it strengthened to where any male of my kind would know Sabrina was mine. Human men would know it too, on a subconscious level. Sabrina was mine, I had finally marked her as such.
* * *
Sabrina and I arrived at Lord Safir’s house just as everyone had been gathered. We were given congratulations and Safir himself, as well as his expecting wife Arianna could not stop laughing. In fact, it was evident that the entire house knew how unlikely it was that I would find and actually take a mate.
So of course, this was supremely amusing as well as welcome for the rest of the men and their mates. The gazebo was already set for our marriage ceremony and Tristan was waiting with the ceremonial red ribbon and needle. Sabrina showed no signs of fear when she saw it, she only looked at me with pure trust and love in her eyes as we stood before Tristan.
It was funny how the warrior who would have taken away our future was the same one to ensure we had it. I would be forever grateful to Tristan for talking me into not giving Sabrina up. She was all I never knew I wanted in a mate. Tristan began speaking and I became lost in Sabrina’s clear green gaze.
“With this bond signifies the link that will hold you, the tie that will never weaken, and the commitment that shall never break. Say yes if both mates recognize this fate…” The words I’d been waiting to hear finally came and in tandem, Sabrina and I both said yes.
Tristan explained the next part to Sabrina and he pricked her neck with the needle. He spoke again and I only heard the part that was most important, “solidify the bond so that you will truly be joined,” he said and I leaned forward and bent my head to lap up Sabrina’s blood. A connection opened up between us that made her an extension of myself. When I straightened, I looked at her in awe and she gave me the brightest smile in return.
“We’re married!” she whispered excitedly and everyone chuckled and laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh with her joyously. I leaned forward and then pressed my lips firmly against hers. Sabrina’s hand rested lightly against my chest and she deepened the kiss until Tristan cleared his throat, more chuckles were heard and her cheeks grew adorably pink, quite possibly my favorite color.
Tristan untied our hands and tore the ribbon in half to tie one around Sabrina’s wrist and the other around mine. He proclaimed us as officially mated and the small gathering cheered and bid us congratulations. As was customary of these weddings, the party afterwards lasted until sun up the next day. Where I finally got to have my wife all to myself in our home.
“You know, you’re kind of perfect Doran,” Sabrina whispered to me after a round of lovemaking while we were entangled with each other, I smiled at her and kissed her nose.
“You are as well, perfect for me.” I said and she smiled before she kissed me softly and settled in my arms. My heart swelled with happiness at the fact that I would never have to let her go.
PREVIEW OF ‘SAFIR: THE WARLORD’S CAPTIVE’ BY ROSETTE LEX
Chapter One
Arianna
“So what are you up to babe?” Carly’s smooth voice echoed from the other line, disrupting the brief lull in our conversation. I sighed and kicked my feet up on the couch while I aimlessly flipped through the channels on TV.
“Nothing much, just looking for something to watch. I’m about to give up anyway,” I replied in slight boredom.
“Yeah me too…oh hey, turn to the news; they’re talking about another tiger appearance. Apparently, they have a photo now to show for all the rumors.” My eyes widened in piqued interest and I quickly dialed in the channel for the news.
The reporter was speaking rather dramatically about the reported sightings of an almost preternaturally large tiger stalking the woods surrounding our small town of Keene, New York.
“Ho
ly shit, that tiger is freaking huge. I can’t believe someone would dare to get close enough for a picture that clear!” Carly’s shocked voice registered a bit of skepticism from me.
“Yeah…that just means it could have been edited. You know small towns are always looking for a town myth. Just to give people something to talk about.”
I squinted at the picture of the large beast poised in a frozen state of movement. He was walking and seemed to look back for the sole purpose of giving the photographer a perfect shot. His eyes were unnaturally blue, the color reminded me of the ocean. The tiger’s coat was close to light orange with the usual stripes one would expect of a Bengal tiger.
“I don’t know…the person who submitted the picture had some real injuries and reportedly barley escaped with his life,” Carly replied, she sounded convinced that the giant tiger was real.
“There have only been three previous reports. That’s hardly enough evidence,” I was still skeptical and frankly ready to turn off the news.
“Now there’s a picture Arianna, and the photographer is in the hospital,” Carly insisted that it all had to be true. “Look, they are telling people to be careful because the tiger could be hunting people down for sport.” I rolled my eyes and sighed. There was no hope for Carly.
“Once I see it with my own eyes, then I’ll believe Carly,” I said with a chuckle to my voice.
“Yeah okay, if you ever see it, it could be the last thing you ever see,” her tone was so ridiculously dramatic that I couldn’t help but laugh. Carly joined in on my laughter and the sound of her cackle and snort made me laugh even harder.
“Hey, are we still doing Pilates tomorrow night?” I asked Carly after our laugher subsided. Carly had just come out of her early parenting days after her second son. She needed my help for getting back into shape, which meant making sure she stuck to her diet and exercised regularly. She was doing great and had only about a month until she achieved her goal.
She had been whining about her ‘exhausted fat mom’ days. She constantly groaned about how I was the perfect combination of slender and curvy and how she wished she could wake up in her college body again. Neither her husband John nor I saw what she did in the mirror. Carly wore pregnancy and being a mom beautifully. Sure her curves filled out a bit more, but she was gorgeous and always had that glow about her.
Where Carly was fair and almost ethereal with her porcelain features and big brown eyes, I was a bit more exotic with my Brazilian and Italian features. Sometimes, I thought I was an inch too tall, that my boobs were too big and my hips too wide. Yet those along with my thickly lashed green eyes, full lips, and thick black hair always drew the attention of men.
“Yes of course, you have to ask? I’m so close to my goal Ari, I can’t wait to step onto that scale at the end of the month. You know John is already barely letting me sleep, thankfully we agreed to wait a few more years to have another baby and I’m on birth control. By this point, I think I’d be pregnant with triplets!” I groaned while Carly laughed.
She had a tendency to over share; sometimes I envied the comfort she had in speaking her mind. Today, I had to quiet the tinge of jealousy I felt. I was in a dry spell as far as romance went. Keene was a small town and that had its disadvantages when it came to meeting a great guy you didn’t already know everything about from gossip. I knew nearly everyone and was fairly certain my dream guy was not in Keene. Unless he was cooped up in the woods and I had to take a hike to find him.
“Hey Carly, we should plan a trip to the city soon. I’m feeling like I need a change of scenery. Working at the cafe and seeing the same faces everyday is starting to get to me,” I said truthfully.
“That’s actually a great idea Ari, how about just before Christmas? I think the boys would love to see the Rockefeller Center all done up in lights,” she was already making plans in her mind, I could tell by the tone of her voice. I had to stifle my sigh, I was hoping it would just be the two of us for old times sake, but Carly was a full on mom now and there was no going back from that.
Who would have thought that at twenty-six, she’d be a mom with her own home jewelry business and I’d still be working at the freaking coffee shop. The same one I’d been working in ever since I was in high school. Of course, I went to college for journalism, but in a small town like Keene that paid next to nothing, especially when not much went on around town.
After a few more pleasantries with Carly, we ended the call and I shook my head at the newsreel. People were convinced this giant Bengal tiger was haunting our woods. Tigers weren’t even native to America. I rolled my eyes and turned the television on, I guessed I would just end the night with a mini episode of my favorite show.
Safir
My men were convening in the living room for an emergency meeting. The very nature of our discussion that day required my presence. I had to prepare myself for the outrage of the warriors. I was after all going against my own most absolute law.
My race on this planet was comprised of survivors. There were only seven of us and we needed to live in this world without getting noticed by the humans. If they found out there were seven aliens on their planet, aliens who could be potentially dangerous if pushed, the humans would surely use all kinds of weapons of mass destruction to wipe us out.
Our refugee tribe was all we had to preserve our culture and our kind, as we could not leave this planet to return home. Four years ago, I had been one of Voltaire’s top military commanders. We had been in near constant war with neighboring planets in our galaxy. The war was coming to an end as a coalition was made to eliminate the true cause of war. I was tasked with hunting down a particularly slippery group of pirates.
My men and I were highly specialized and trained to follow enemies into any galaxy or planet and destroy them. We had the ability to shift into animals specific to any given planet, though we all had our base animal forms.
The mission was going routinely; we were catching up to the pirate ship as they fled to the Milky Way; we had destroyed them just outside of the Earth’s gravitational zone. The unthinkable happened and our ship was pulled into orbit, soon it crash-landed onto Earth. Only seven of the original fourteen warriors survived, including me. The ship was destroyed and we were marooned on this planet with no way to get back home.
We had to learn to control our urges to shift into our base animal forms, to suppress our primal needs to run, hunt, and mate. We had to avoid anything that would force us to shift without conscious intention. The humans would surely wipe us out and that is what the concern was for this emergency meeting.
All six were present now, three standing and three seated on the sectional couch. I stood off to the side and leaned casually against the wall that housed the fireplace and television above its mantle.
“My lord commander, how could you allow yourself to be seen? There is even a photograph of you now. The entire town knows of your existence. You should know better than what this could mean for us,” Josiah was just as troubled as the rest of my men.
I could not blame them or take offense. I knew fully that I was at fault. I saw the man taking my photograph and subsequently tumbling off of the cliff in his hasty backtracking for fear of me.
“I had falsely assumed that his camera was destroyed in his fall. Nevertheless, that is no excuse for my carelessness. I assure you all that my shifting urges are under control. I simply did not take care to make sure I was alone in the woods. It will not happen again, you all have my word that we are safe from the humans. No search parties have commenced; it is simply lore as of now. I can guarantee it will stay that way,” I assured my men confidently and met the gazes of each and every one. There was a hint of skepticism in my closest comrade, Tristan, he knew me too well and could tell when something was wrong with me.
“It was just disconcerting my lord. Never have we let this magnitude of a mistake happen before…perhaps we should look into moving on from Keene? For safety’s sake, after all we have been entertaining the i
dea of moving into the Canadian borders,” Rayne suggested. I shook my head; a spike of panic unsettled me. I could not leave Keene…not when she was here.
“That is not necessary. I assure you all is well. Though we should look into deeper running grounds in case curious humans attempt to try and seek us…” at the near glares of my men I quickly changed my wording.
“To try and seek me out, I wouldn’t want to endanger any of you,” I amended. After much grumbling, the meeting ended and the men filed out in frustration. I sighed deeply and stopped Tristan, my closest friend, before he exited with the rest of them.
“How about a drink, Tristan?” I asked tentatively. Tristan smirked and gave a nod; his gaze though, conveyed just how much he knew I wanted more than to share a simple drink with him.
After the men had left, Tristan and I sat at the kitchen island with a bottle of bourbon between us. One of the things these humans knew how to do well was create good spirits and ales.
“What troubles you my lord?” Tristan took a sip from his glass and I sat back with a sigh. I didn’t know where to begin, well I did, and I just did not know how Tristan would take all of this.
“I’ve found…my true mate Tristan. Here on this planet,” I responded awkwardly. Tristan’s silver gaze widened with shock and a glint of inner light shined in his eyes.
His shock was so intense that his wolf form was being stirred. Tristan’s jaw ticked as he processed what I said. I took the opportunity to take a long drink from my glass.