Page 10

CHAPTER TEN

-Clay-

HIS MATE? HIS sexual mate? Like…fucking animals?

No way. No fucking way.

It all made horrible sense now as I scrabbled to flip the bed up in front of the door. That was why Arcay didn’t just kill me. That was why he healed me.

And when he’d said “You are mine” on the ship before he grabbed me, he’d meant…

No. My mind rebelled against the thought. I wasn’t going there, it was too fucking ridiculous. Just no, not happening.

I heard movement outside the room, and then banging. A gruff voice came through the door and my stomach sank. Arcay was back again. I gulped. The alien’s words were followed a moment later by the translator’s robotic voice.

“ Open the door.”

Ha, yeah right. “Fuck off,” I shouted.

I heard a deep rumble that made the hairs on my arms stand on end, and he called out again.

“Open the door, omega, or I will break it down.”

Sweat prickled across my forehead and I shifted the bed, putting my full weight behind it. This was insane. I was not letting some seven foot alien fuck me. No. No way. My mind raced through images of eggs being planted inside me and hundreds of little purple alien pricks bursting out of my chest. I pushed the image away, concentrating on breathing through my tight chest. I couldn’t be his mate, that…that was insane—

“So be it, you leave me no choice.”

A heavy silence.

Then the bed I was leaning against shot forward, knocking me into the far wall so hard I gasped and slumped to the ground. The bed was flipped end over end, and crashed into a tangled mess.

Arcay filled the empty doorway, his amber eyes wild. I didn’t need the translator to know he was furious. He growled, stalking forwards. I cowered against the wall, trying to pass through it by sheer willpower alone as he towered over me, solid with sleek, toned, and deadly muscle.

He growled something at me.

“Get the fuck away from me,” I gasped. “I mean it.” It probably would have sounded more threatening if my voice wasn’t shaking so much.

Arcay lunged. I flinched but with the wall at my back there was nowhere to go. He twisted his huge hands into the front of my flight suit and I fought back desperately, kicking and punching at him. With a growl, he shifted, widening his stance and I saw my chance.

Around his waist, he wore what looked like something between a loincloth and leggings, crossed with golden chains. I didn’t know what he had under there, whether it was normal or some funky alien junk, but I was willing to bet it was sensitive. With all my strength, I drove my foot up between his legs. My boot connected with whatever it was, and he let out a yell of pain and let go of me.

I was on my feet in seconds and running for the open door. Frowny and Excited stood on either side, mouths wide in shock, but they didn’t try to stop me. I sprinted past them, ignoring the growling and angry shouting coming from behind.

The next room was big and decked out with chairs and ornaments, with no apparent way out. It was better than what was behind me, though, and I charged on. Two whole steps into the room, I was thrown off my feet, crashing to the ground as a weight crushed me. I struggled as huge, solid arms wrapped around my waist and squeezed. Twisting in his grip, I battered at the monster’s head with clenched fists. I caught a glimpse of furious burning amber eyes, before he swatted my hands aside, slid an arm around my chest to pin my arms to my sides, and stood up.

My feet dangled off the floor. He carried me under his arm through the room into a smaller one and dumped me on the floor, following me down, and went for the zipper on my flight suit.

“ Shei il ne, ” Arcay snarled.

He pulled on the zipper and I balked. No fucking way was I going to let him undress me. I gave up battering at him and fought to keep the zipper closed instead, covering his hand with both of mine. We pulled in a furious tug of war, wrestling to each keep a hold of it. My hands were getting sweaty and slippery.

“Get the fuck off me,” I shouted.

I lost my grip, his hand jerked down, and the zip pull tore off completely. With a growl of frustration, he hooked both hands into the neck of my flight suit and pulled. The suit tore open.

“Lye. Mende. Car. Es. Iwe. Eque, ” Arcay gritted out through clenched teeth, punctuating each word with a tug of the suit, pulling it off my shoulders and down my body. “ You will do as I say. ”

“Get off me,” I shouted back as the suit was torn off my arms and down my waist. But it didn’t matter how much I struggled, how much I fought back, he was too big and he overpowered me easily.

Arcay got the suit down to my calves, where it caught on my boots. He gave a few hard yanks, but the suit stayed firmly on my feet, only succeeding in dragging me across the floor a few inches by my ankles.

Arcay growled something that sounded like a curse and looped my legs with one arm. He worked the suit back up over my shins again and tore at my laces with the other hand. His sharp claws shredded the laces and he tugged my boots off, flinging them away. Then, with a grunt of triumph, he yanked the suit all the way off, finally freeing my feet, leaving me lying on the floor in a snug white t-shirt, black briefs, and graying white socks

He threw the suit away, then paused and frowned at me. He pursed his lips as he took me in, and I realized he was judging my underwear. He was attempting to assault me, and my underwear offended him?

“Fuck you,” I said between harsh breaths, trying to fight the heat that I could feel traveling up my body.

His eyes widened suddenly, and I felt a strange and sudden…rush. It was like something was shifting, disconnecting in my head, and going out of focus. My vision blurred and, for a moment, I felt lightheaded and giddy. It could have been a remnant of the concussion maybe. Then just as quickly as it came, it was gone again and I rubbed my forehead. When I looked up, Arcay was doing the same, then he shook his head like he was trying to clear it. He blinked down at me for a moment, then recovered, took me by the arm, and pulled me to my feet.

Arcay took me into another small adjoining room, clear smooth white walls with a circular pool of steaming water in the center. It occurred to me that this must have been what Frowny and Excited were talking about earlier; they wanted me to take a bath, presumably so I was clean for the big guy. Through my thin t-shirt, I could feel the warmth of the alien where his solid torso pressed against my side. It looked like I was getting a bath, whether I wanted it or not.

I gulped.