Page 14 of Bound to the Beast (Interstellar Brides Program: The Beasts #9)

T he Beast

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I was free. My mate in my arms. The foolish humans who attacked her?

Dead. All but one. Simon. I had his scent. Knew his name.

I would hunt him later. Kill him.

You made a bargain. Simon’s life for Daciana. She is the one who betrayed us.

I snarled. Iven’s words meant nothing. Less than nothing. You. Betray me.

Iven had locked me inside the cage of his mind, his small, weak body. For years.

I was protecting you.

Lies. That’s all Iven the Atlan did. He lied. He betrayed.

He would lie to our mate. Betray her. Break her heart. He already had. She was my mate. Mine. I had chosen. She accepted. Mating cuffs. She said yes.

MINE! Iven kept us apart. Fucked her. Tasted her. Kept her for himself. Betrayer.

I shoved Iven into the dark abyss where he had kept me. Locked him away.

My mate. My Brody. Mine.

“Mine. Mine. Mine.” I held her as I raced through the forest, miles disappearing beneath my feet as I ran, taking her far away from the dead bodies and the human police. I could have returned to the house the traitor, Daciana, had given us. Foolish Iven had trusted her. Listened to her.

The wicked Everian female gave us a cage to live in so she would know where to find us. Used us to track the boy so she could kill him. Brought mercenaries to kill our mate.

Iven. Weak. Stupid. I hadn’t fought Iven when he’d accepted the mission. Protecting females and children was ingrained in our nature. But the Everian female? I would have warned him, if I’d believed, even for a moment, he would listen. But that was in the past. Krystal had me now. I protect mate.

Let me out.

Fuck. You. Iven.

Iven relented. He didn’t have a choice. I was in control now.

Don’t hurt her.

I stopped dead in my tracks and lifted my face to the sky. The roar of rage that erupted from my throat was raw pain, the agony of years of Iven’s judgment. Lack of trust. Betrayal. We’d survived being a prisoner of the Hive because I protected him.

Weeks of torture. Pain. A thousand, thousand voices trying to crack my skull wide open. Then one, powerful voice. The voice of a god. The Nexus Unit arrived to break me.

I kept Iven locked away. Safe. We survived. We escaped.

And he put me in a cage. Blamed me for everything. Punished me.

Kept me from our mate. That was the ultimate betrayal. The one I could not, would never, forgive.

“MINE!” My shout sent a dozen birds into flight from their roosts in the surrounding trees. I looked around. Had no idea where we were or how far I’d carried her. Didn’t matter.

The female in my arms shifted. “Can you um, put me down?”

“No.”

She squirmed, her soft ass rubbing against my side. “Iven.”

“Not Iven.”

“Oh.” Was that shock in her voice? Or fear? I did not want her to fear me.

“Beast.”

“I thought—” Her small hand shoved at my chest and I looked down into her upturned face. She studied me, her gaze lingering on every detail of my appearance. “I wondered what you’d look like.” She lifted her hand to press her fingers to my lips. “You’re very handsome, beast.”

“Yes.” Who was I to argue with my mate? If she believed me to be handsome, then I was.

Her soft laugh melted away some of my rage. Seeing my mating cuff on her wrist helped even more. “Mine.”

“You said that.”

Fuck yes, I said it. I would say it a thousand times. “Mine.”

She sighed and looked around. “So, is this how it’s going to happen? You’re going to strip me naked in the cold, wet forest and claim me?”

“Cold?” How had I not considered her comfort? She was small. Fragile. The weather was chilly. The season late autumn, nearly winter. The season of ice and snow and cold rain.

“Yes. I’m freezing.” She twisted her upper torso and lifted one arm to point. “We’re almost there. You should just keep going.”

Almost there?

I followed her line of sight and hid my surprise. There, on the hill below us, was her home. The home she shared with Brody. The place where Iven had tended her feet. Claimed her. I’d skirted the edge of town, making my way back here.

Home.

I didn’t need to be told twice. My instincts had led me true, carried us both to the one place on Earth, on any planet, I most yearned to be.

Home. Her scent in the air. Her feminine presence in every room.

Her wet core wrapped around my cock. Her taste on my tongue. Her cries of pleasure in my ears.

Impatient, I kicked the door in, slammed it closed with my foot.

I set her down long enough to remove what little was left of my clothing. When I reached for the buttons of her blouse, she stilled the movement with small hands on my wrists. “What is that?”

I glanced down to find her smiling at the Power Ranger bandage on the back of my hand. Somehow, the strange bandage had survived the attack. “Red Ranger.”

“Did you get a boo-boo?” Was my mate laughing at me?

“No.” I thought of the small child who had placed the sticky paper on Iven’s hand. “Elizabeth. Girl child. For Iven.”

“Why?”

“Sad.”

Her smile faded and looked up into my eyes. “Iven was sad?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I saw the worry in her gaze, the vulnerability. Iven was weak. He should have told her he loved her. Promised her his fortune, his devotion. Protection. Given her everything. I gave her what he had not. The truth. “Broken. Beast.”

Holding my gaze, my mate unbuttoned her soft, cream colored blouse herself. She dropped it to the floor and freed her breasts. I didn’t dare move, afraid she would stop. Lucky for me, she kicked off her shoes and shoved the strange lady-pants down her legs.

On Atlan, she would wear flowing, feminine dresses that kissed her curves and moved over her skin like water.

I wanted to take her there, to my home. Show her The Colony. I wanted her to see the battleship where I’d been stationed, the home I’d grown up in. I needed her to know me.

I was tired of being locked away and ignored. Caged like a prisoner.

You were out of control! Iven yelled at me inside my mind. I ignored him and cupped my mate’s breast in my palm. So soft. So fucking soft.

My mate reached for my cock and dropped to her knees. “Oh my god.” She braced herself on my thighs, her face lifted to mine, my hard length right in front of her. “It’s bigger, too.”

I didn’t have a chance to respond before she wrapped both hands around me and squeezed. Rubbed. Licked. Sucked the tip into her mouth and rolled her tongue over my sensitive head.

“Enough!” I would lose control, spill my seed before it was time. The seductive female could have her fun later.

Right now, I needed. To claim. Mark. Fill.

With a fist in her hair, I gently pulled her off my cock. I reached for her hands, locked both wrists in a firm hold and lifted them over her head.

I didn’t have a way to lock her cuffs in place above her head.

Next time.

“Stay.”

The command made her gasp. The air flooded with the scent of her arousal.

Gods. I needed to fuck her. Now.

With one hand under each hip, I lifted her, forced her legs to open wide. Exposed her pink pussy lips. They glistened with welcome. Swollen. Hot. Soon they would be wrapped around my cock, just as her mouth had been.

I slid her back along the wall until she was at the correct height, my cock at her entrance. One thrust and she would be mine. “Mine.”

“Yes.” She wiggled, tried to slide onto my hard shaft.

The movement made her breasts sway. Caught my attention. I lifted her higher so I could take one into my mouth.

Not the nipple. I sucked the entire orb deep into my mouth. Tasted. Sucked. Her cries of pleasure made me stumble into the wall as I switched to the opposite breast. Gods fucking save me, it tasted even better than the first one. The smell of her wet pussy filled my head. Drove me mad.

Beast.

Fuck you, Iven. Busy.

Our mate is soft. Breakable.

I know.

She is human.

I know.

Her pussy is small. Go slow.

Slow? Slow? He fucks her for days, over and over, as he keeps me prisoner? And now he gives commands? No.

I positioned our mate over my cock. Lowered her onto the hard length. Pressed forward and up. Her back hit the wall. She sighed. Moaned. Panted.

Slapped my chest with the palm of her hand. “Stop.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Iven was right. I was not worthy. Had I hurt her? Would she now deny our claim? Reject us? I’m sorry, Iven. I failed.

To my surprise, Iven laughed. Not yet. Give her body time to adjust. She can take you.

I held perfectly still. Waited. Prayed to every fucking god on every world that Iven was right.

Krystal’s hand slipped up and wrapped around my neck. Tangled in my hair. “Okay. Go slow. You’re huge. I needed a minute.”

Thank the gods.

Iven’s relief mixed with my own. I pressed forward, just a little. She moaned, her eyelids drifting closed. I wanted them open, focused on me. “Look at me.”

Her smile was relaxed. Languid. Pleased.

“Say my name. Look at me.”

“You’re very bossy.”

The teasing in her voice reached inside and melted the rage I’d carried against Iven, against the Hive, against life… and made it into nothing.

She had no idea.

I thrust deeper. She gasped.

“Love you.”

She stopped breathing. “You don’t even know me. It’s been a week.”

“Love me.” It wasn’t a question. It was a command. She wanted bossy, I’d give her bossy.

“Iven.”

“Beast.” I corrected. Fuck. Iven was hers, too. “Iven and Beast. Love us.”

“I—” It was there, in her eyes, in the tenderness of her touch. In the way her fingers combed through our hair.

“Say it.” I pulled out. Thrust back in. “Say it.”

“I love you.”

Excellent. Good job, beast. She’s stubborn, our mate.

Indeed, I agreed. She will need both of us.

Iven’s silence didn’t last long. Truce?

Peace, I corrected. Something neither of us had ever had. A gift our new mate had given both of us.

I fucked our mate then, thrusting and grinding my abdomen into her clit. Stroking her breasts. Tugging her nipples the way Iven assured me she preferred.

She took everything we gave her, her wet, slick pussy so tight my fists punched holes in the walls. Fuck.