Page 6

Zoran stood on the bridge, his arms crossed over his chest. Strictly speaking, his presence was not needed, but he had been unable to resist the urge to share the view of Zephyria with his mate.

She stood beside him, her eyes wide as she studied the viewscreen projecting a real-time view of their approach. The planet was a circular mass of swirling clouds, shrouding the oceans and land masses beneath green-tinged gray. Jagged streaks of lightning flashed through the clouds, and Mia gasped.

“It looks like a hurricane,” she said quietly. “Will we be able to land?”

“Yes.” He stroked a palm down the length of her silky hair, to soothe the tremor in her voice. To comfort her and the mating instinct rumbling steadily inside him. “I will allow no harm to befall you.”

She huffed out a nervous breath, but said nothing.

When the instinct stretched taut within him and he feared losing control of it, he lifted her against his chest and carried her back to his quarters. She’d gone silent against him, stiff, one small hand curled into a fist against his heart. Carefully, he locked the hatch behind him, all too aware of the roar in his blood, of the need clamoring at him.

“What are you going to do?” she said, and the smallness of her voice, the fear trembling through her, allowed him to wrest control over the mating instinct and force it down.

“You have been given sufficient time,” he said, nearly hating the gruff need roughening his voice.

“But I’m not…” She sucked in a breath. “I’m not ready yet.”

“This do I know. Yet the choice must be made.” He strode to the bed and laid her gently upon it, then covered her body with his own, bracing himself above her so as not to crush her fragile form. “Will you accept the mating mark?”

Her blue eyes widened and her starkly white teeth nibbled her lower lip. “No sex?”

His hips jerked against her core at the word, and he forced them into stillness. “The mating mark only.”

“Explain it to me.”

Lying as he was, cradled by her body, with the mating instinct roaring in his ears, he was uncertain whether he could find the words. “Easier to show.”

Her gaze searched his, then finally she nodded jerkily. “Ok. Show me.”

Triumph rumbled through him, satisfying the instinct enough to dull its insistent roar. Slowly, Zoran lowered his head to the crook of her neck and pressed his teeth against her skin, gently at first, hesitantly awaiting her reaction. She gasped and rolled her head to the side, her hands sliding along his shoulders, and his hips found their own rhythm, rocking against her in an age-old mating dance, seeking her warmth through the layers of their clothing. He nipped her skin, eliciting another gasp, then dug his fangs in, breaking the skin as gently as he could. Even as she yelped a protest, her blood coated his tongue, enough to serve the mating bond.

Still, he could not resist running his tongue over her neck, cleaning every drop of the precious fluid from her skin, swallowing some of her down so that in this small way, she would forever become a part of him. Already, the mating bond twined through his blood, cementing the connection, binding him to her, and the sheer thrill of knowing his mate pulsed through his veins, sharpening his arousal to a fever pitch.

Before he lost himself in her taste, before need overrode honor, he withdrew and pressed her face to his throat. “Now you.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered, her frantic breaths fluttering against his skin.

“You must,” he insisted.

As if his words had given her courage, she bit him hard, breaking his skin with her dull little teeth. His cock pulsed, growing impossibly hard beneath his skinsuit, and he growled his pleasure, praising her with words grown thick with need.

Swiftly, he shifted above her and pressed his lips against hers, and as their blood mingled, the bond snapped into place, forever joining them as one.

Mia arched under Zoran, pressing her core into him as something shifted inside her and a sense of rightness filled her, a twin to the need burning in her veins. “Wh-what?” she stuttered out, and he roared and pushed his hips against her, and abruptly, the need burst on a sharp, breathtaking orgasm.

Never so good , she thought, dazed, as his hips jerked against her once more and he breathed her name, then he rubbed the tip of one horn along her temple, murmuring gently to her, his hands caressing her as he rolled onto his back and settled her atop him.

A ship alarm pinged, startling her out of the web of arousal he’d woven around her. His bite mark throbbed once, then the pain faded to a low sting. She placed trembling fingers against it and felt moisture. Blood? Her eyelids slid closed. No, she couldn’t analyze that yet, not with the brilliant euphoria of an orgasm lingering in her limbs.

“What was that?” she said.

His hands smoothed up her arms and down again, and his mouth curved in a small, satisfied smile. “We have arrived.”

“No, not that. The—” She sucked in a breath and pushed herself up, straddling him because there was nowhere left to go. Her limbs felt shaky and weak, she couldn’t stand, and damn his gorgeous hide, he sprawled across the bed, taking up most of its space. “What just happened?”

“We are mated.”

“We’re what ?” she squawked. “You didn’t say anything about mating!”

His head shifted against the bed and his gaze shuttered. “What else would the mating mark do?”

“Not that!” Heat pinkened her cheeks and she snapped, “Not rutting.”

That satisfied smile deepened, and he sat up, tangling one hand in her hair, leaving the other splayed across her thigh. “That was not rutting, pjora-la . That was mating.”

She slapped at his hand and tried to slither off him, only to have him tighten his grip, keeping her exactly where she was, straddling him with her core pressed against the length of his growing arousal. Keeping her right where he wanted her to be, she realized, and that ticked her off good.

“Oh, honestly!” she snapped. “That’s some nerve you have there, you high-handed, overbearing barbarian . I told you I wasn’t ready.”

“Yet did you agree when the time came to choose.” He touched his forehead to hers and his breath feathered across her mouth. “Such was necessary, else I would not have been able to walk with you among my people for fear of what the mating instinct would drive me to do. Now every warrior will see this mark upon your throat and know that you have been claimed. Even now, the urge to fully claim you remains strong. To know that you are wet for me, that you have accepted me and me alone. I am already fighting the need to bury myself within you. Do not ask me to risk having another male assert a claim over you.”

Somehow, his words calmed her anger. High-handed he might be, certainly barbarian was too light of a word, but in the wake of what he’d done to her, how he’d made her feel…

She shook her head. No, she wasn’t trying to excuse or justify his actions, merely understand the whys of it. She didn’t fully know how his culture worked, let alone the mating bond, but she had gained a certain knowledge of his personality. If he said it was necessary, if he’d done it to protect her and other people, could she really blame him for that?

And yet.

“You should’ve explained better,” she said. “And you definitely shouldn’t have forced it on me.”

He blanched away from her, settling her on the bed as he rolled smoothly off and stood, putting his back to her. His hands clenched into fists at his side, and he bowed his head. When he spoke, his voice was so hard, she flinched. “Ready yourself, female. Mother will be waiting for us at the spaceport.”

He stalked out of the room, and she stared after him, still dazed by the startling pleasure he’d given her, and by his equally startling departure.

Mia didn’t know what to do, so she fell back on an old habit: when in doubt, take a shower.

She stood beneath the warm spray, letting it wash away the tangled knot of emotions whirling through her. First, the lingering anger over Zoran’s forcing the issue, though she’d known he’d do something, hadn’t she? Then that orgasm, dear lord, just about the best one she’d ever had, and wasn’t that a kick in the proverbial teeth? A barbarian he might be, but Zoran sure did know his way around a woman’s body.

She wrinkled her nose and got a mouthful of water for her troubles. The fiend! How dare he use her own body against her?

The question carried an unexpected burst of humor. Leona would tell her to grab the alien by the horns, ride him hard, and put him up wet, or something equally suggestive. In this rare case, Mia was inclined to agree. After all, she’d just mated the male, whatever that meant.

She snapped the water off and wrung out her hair. The short shower had done its job, allowing her to find some peace amid the turmoil. It hadn’t been long enough to brainstorm a direction, but she already knew what lay in front of her. Today, she’d see Zephyria for the first time. An alien planet outside her home solar system! Such an exciting day.

And also, she had to meet Zoran’s mother.

But no, she thought as she forced an automatic frown away. Excitement was the order of the day. She and the other women kidnapped from the CAH would be the first humans to step foot on this alien world, the first to breathe the air on a completely alien planet. The very first to sample alien life in a scientific manner.

An all-too-fresh memory of Zoran’s mouth on her throat intruded, and she grimaced as her body reacted predictably. Almost shyly, Mia slid her fingertips over the tight buds of her nipples and down her water-slick stomach to her lady bits. Zoran had touched her there, firmly exploring the folds at the juncture of her thighs. She dipped a finger in, retracing his path, and discovered to her utter shock a longing buried deep within her, not for pleasure, but for belonging. This was what he offered her along with an ecstasy she’d never felt before: a place where she belonged.

She dropped her hand and stepped out of the shower, puzzling over that need, analyzing it as she would any problem she encountered at work. The CAH had given her a home. Not a literal one, no, but a place of comfort. Friends who loved and supported her. A lively group of peers to expand and challenge her intellect. Productive work she deeply cared about, work that would, one day, cure one of humanity’s most enduring problems.

But at the end of the day, she still had to go home to an empty apartment. Her parents had given her one adventure after another, exposing her to the wider world beyond the safety Mia had found at the CAH. Their home during the early years of Mia’s life had been each other. They hadn’t needed a permanent, physical address.

Then Mia grew up. Her parents guided her toward a good college, where she settled down for the first time in her life. And instead of hopping from place to place as many other college graduates did, Mia had stayed. All her degrees, right through her PhD, had been obtained from schools within a relatively easy drive from her apartment, the same apartment her parents had found for her at the start of her junior year, when she left the dorms.

Oh, God, she thought, stunned. She had needed a stable home.

Mia snagged a towel and hurriedly dried off, shoving down any guilt the realization carried with it. Not that she hadn’t loved the globetrotting or spending so much time with her parents. In many ways, her childhood had been ideal. Her parents loved her, no doubt, and she loved them. She’d gained so much from her time roaming Earth.

But it had been so, so nice to settle down, to find a place she belonged, not just people she belonged with.

The outer door opened. Mia wrapped the towel around her and exited the bathroom, expecting to find Zoran.

Instead, Leona and Kira stood just inside the entrance.

“Sorry to barge in,” Kira said. “Zoran asked us to check on you.”

Leona shot her a wry look. “That might be what he said, but it wasn’t what he meant. I can’t believe you’re not dressed yet.”

Mia shoved her wet hair back and hurried across the room, one hand holding the towel in place. “Sorry. Had to clear my head.”

“The old water trick,” Kira said sagely, making Leona snicker.

“Oh, shut it, you two.” Mia offered them a meek smile to soften her words. “I have to find something to wear.”

“The robe,” her friends said in near unison.

“The robe,” Mia replied slowly. Yes, of course. What better way to demonstrate her, what? Loyalty? Understanding? Support?

Belonging?

Leona marched across the room, guided Mia firmly to the edge of the bed, and shoved her down. “We’re both wearing ours. See?”

Mia followed her friend’s gaze to the console where two silky robes lay. “Oh. You took the mating mark, too?”

Kira’s dark eyes widened, and her skin went ashen under her natural honey-brown skin tone. “No, not for lack of trying on his part. Did you?”

Mia brushed her fingers across her throat where Zoran had bitten her and found the skin curiously whole, if slightly raised. “Uh. I thought so.”

Leona stood upright from the trunk, where she’d been rooting through Zoran’s clothes. “What does it feel like?”

“Well, it’s like this rightness settles inside you.” Mia placed her fingers to her chest, over her heart. “It feels almost like…home.”

“Oh,” Leona said dreamily. “All that ape barbarian talks about is sex.”

Kira steadied herself against the wall. “Mine hasn’t mentioned sex at all. He just wants to cuddle all the time.”

“Take the cuddles,” Mia said.

“Hell, yes,” Leona agreed.

“But what if he wants more?” Kira glanced between them, a raw starkness etched in her expression. “I don’t think I can.”

“Oh, honey,” Leona murmured, then she rushed across the room and enveloped Kira in a hug.

Mia followed her and leaned her head against Kira’s shoulder. “Maybe you should give him a chance.”

“Like you’re doing with your alien?” Kira scoffed weakly.

“No, like you, in your own way,” Mia countered. “We’re stuck here for a while. Maybe we should make the best of it.”

“I certainly intend to,” Leona said as she pulled away.

They all laughed, knowing exactly what she meant. Poor Lorik didn’t stand a chance.

Neither, Mia decided, her eyes narrowing dangerously, did Zoran. So what if he’d forced her hand with the whole mating thing? There was absolutely no reason she had to play his game.

“Uh oh,” Kira said. “I know that look.”

Leona crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze raking Mia from head to toe. “Oh, yes. That’s Mia’s inner mischief coming out to play. Zoran’s in for an interesting week.”

Mia grinned at them, not even bothering to hide her glee.