Page 21 of Zayrik (The Protectorate Warriors Alien Fated Mates #6)

Zayrik

I COULD HAVE WALKED away. Respected the walls she kept so carefully in place. The ones I could see crumbling every time she looked at me, every time she tried to convince herself this wasn’t happening.

But I wasn’t built for restraint.

Not with her.

Not when every fiber of my being recognized something in her that called to me.

Not after that kiss. Not after the way she looked at me like she was begging me not to stay. And desperately hoping I would. Like she was torn between running away and finally letting herself fall.

She thought she could bury herself in supply lockers and silence and pretend she hadn’t lit a fire between us I couldn’t put out. Pretend the air didn’t crackle with electricity every time we got too close.

She was wrong.

We both were.

I stalked the corridor back to storage, the low hum of the ship nothing compared to the pounding of my pulse. My mating marks itched beneath my skin, responding to her proximity before I even saw her.

She was still there.

Still in the same position, back to me, shoulders tense. But I caught the slight tremor in her hands, the way her breath hitched when she sensed me.

“I gave you space,” I said, voice low. Controlled. Barely. Every word feeling like it might break whatever fragile thing was building between us.

Nyla stiffened, but didn’t turn. “I didn’t ask for space.”

“No. You just ran.”

She turned then, fire flickering in her eyes, determination warring with want. “And what, you came back to finish what I started?”

I stepped in, crowding the distance she hadn’t defended fast enough. The scent of her... mechanical oil and something sweet and purely her, made my head spin. “You think I’m here because of a kiss?”

“You’re not?” she challenged, chin high. Defiant. But her voice trembled, and her pupils flared as I stepped in.

Gods, she was beautiful when she was angry. When she was fighting herself as much as she was fighting me.

“No,” I growled. “I’m here because you kissed me like it meant something. Then pretended it didn’t. And because I’m done pretending I don’t want you.” Done pretending this pull between us was anything less than inevitable.

Her breath caught, a small sound that shot straight through me. But she didn’t move. Didn’t retreat. If anything, she swayed closer, like her body was betraying every careful defense she’d built.

I reached for her.

I spun her around, my hands at her waist, pressing her breathless against the lockers. The impact nearly took my breath away, too. Her body felt like soft curves and hidden strength against mine.

One hand lay softly against her neck, the other on her waist.

Her hands hit my chest, not to push me away, but to steady herself. To anchor us both in this moment. She was breathing hard, her pulse racing in her neck. I could feel it beneath my fingers, matching the frantic beat of my own heart.

“Still want to lie to me, Nyla?” I rasped, my forehead nearly touching hers. The space between us charged with everything we hadn’t said. Everything we couldn’t say.

Her chest heaved, her pupils were blown wide. She looked up at me, her fingers curling in my shirt, tugging me close like she couldn’t help herself. Her body arched into mine like she couldn’t bear the distance anymore.

“You think this is a good idea?” she whispered, her voice trembling with desire, apprehension, and an underlying intensity.

“No,” I admitted. “It’s a terrible idea.” But I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t walk away. Not when she felt like this against me.

My hand slid to her cheek, thumb tracing her lower lip. Need coiled tight inside me. “Are you sure?”

She nodded once, eyes dark and wild. All pretense of resistance gone. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

Then I kissed her.

No warning. No finesse.

Just heat. Just want, and everything I’d been holding back since the moment she crashed into my life and made it impossible to think straight.

She gasped against my mouth, and I swallowed the sound, dragging her tighter against me. Her hands curled in my shirt, fingers gripping like she wanted to fight it, but couldn’t.

I broke the kiss just long enough to press my forehead to hers, breath ragged. “You want me to stop, say it now.”

Her answer was to pull me back in, mouth hungry, open, desperate.

And I lost it.

I picked her up, lifting her until her back hit the lockers hard enough to rattle them. Her legs wrapped around my waist like she’d done it a thousand times.

Like her body already knew mine.

I groaned into her neck, the mating marks on my arms burning, lighting up in activation like they knew.

She felt it too, I could tell. Her breath hitched, her hips grinding against mine like instinct had taken over.

“You feel that?” I whispered, lips brushing her ear. “That pull between us?”

She nodded, fingers clawing into my shoulders. “I hate how much I want you.”

I kissed the underside of her jaw, dragged my lips to her mouth, slow this time. “I don’t.”

Her taste was one of defiance and heat. Her moan vibrated against my tongue, and I took it. Claimed it. Matched it.

Clothes shifted. Skin burned. My name slipped from her lips between kisses, and I nearly came undone right there.

But I wasn’t rushing this.

Not anymore.

Not when I’d waited this long.

Not when she finally let herself feel it.

Her head tipped back, exposing her throat, and I kissed the line of it slowly. Tender. Reverent. Possessive.

“Zayrik,” she breathed.

That was all it took.

I grabbed her thighs, pressing harder between her legs, pinning her with my body like I could anchor her to me.

“You’re mine now,” I said, voice thick. “Even if you don’t want to admit it.”

“I never said I didn’t,” she whispered, barely audible.

I met her eyes.

And that was it.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

And neither was she.

Our kiss deepened, fierce and claiming.

I felt her melt against me, felt every hard edge between us soften into something primal.

My mating marks flared, hot, aching beneath my skin. Her hands moved over me like she’d waited her whole life for this.

Her jacket hit the floor. Mine followed.

Clothes came off in rushed, trembling motions, and gods help me, I was already half gone. She was fire and friction and everything I hadn’t let myself want.

Her back hit the wall this time. The breath we shared felt stolen. Sacred. I cupped her face, kissing her slow just once, then let the heat take over.

My mouth found her neck, her collarbone, then lower. She arched into me as I sucked one nipple into my mouth, her gasp jagged, fingers threading into my hair like she was afraid I’d stop. I didn’t. I couldn’t.

My hands slid over the curve of her waist, gripping her ass and lifting her again, pinning her between me and the wall.

Her thighs locked around me, dragging me closer, and I felt her nails rake down my back, raw and claiming.

She was everywhere. On me, around me, pulling me in with every breathless moan. And I took my time, letting my fingers explore, letting her grind against me until her hips were rolling and her breath stuttered.

When I slid my hand between us and found her slick and ready, I nearly lost it. She gasped my name as I sank into her, tight heat dragging a curse from my lips.

Her head hit the wall with a soft thud, hands scrambling for purchase on my shoulders, my back, pulling me deeper. I thrust slow at first. Savoring the way her breath hitched, the way her nails dug in, but it didn’t last.

We were past restraint. Every roll of her hips drove me harder, faster, until the sound of our bodies meeting filled the room, rough and wet and relentless.

She was panting, moaning into my neck, biting at my jaw, and gods, I wanted to feel her fall apart. I reached between us, found her again with my fingers, circling her clit just right, and she shattered, tightening around me with a cry that ripped through both of us.

I wasn’t far behind. Her body gripped me like it knew what I needed, like she wanted to take everything I had. I slammed into her one last time, groaning her name, and gave her everything I had.

For a moment, neither of us moved. Just the sound of breathing. The faint hum of the ship. Her pulse against mine.

Then her hand found the back of my neck and pulled me in again. Not gentle, not sweet... just wanting more. And gods help me; I was already ready to give it to her.

I was still inside her when the second wave hit.

It wasn’t physical at first. It was something else. Deeper. A pull just under my skin. Like something had rooted itself in my chest and decided her heartbeat was the only rhythm that mattered.

Alaran instinct. The claiming. I knew the stories. Knew the bond that was supposed to lock into place the first time a true mate was claimed.

But I was only half.

It wasn’t supposed to work like this.

So why did I suddenly feel like her breath was mine?

She shifted beneath me, her thighs still locked around my waist, and the movement pulled a low groan from my throat. She wasn’t done.

Neither was I.

She kissed me again, hungry, open. And I was already hardening between her thighs. Her hands slid down my stomach, then lower, and that’s all it took. Whatever space existed between want and instinct vanished.

I moved, slow this time, dragging myself out of her just enough to slam back in again, harder. She cried out, legs tightening, hips meeting me thrust for thrust. The pressure built fast. Everything slicker, rougher, needier.

Her mouth moved along my jaw, her voice rasping against my skin. “I can feel you everywhere.”

I stilled for half a breath.

So could I.

Not just the way she fit around me. But in my head. In my chest. Like she’d marked me.

I growled low in my throat and braced one hand under her ass, the other sliding up her back to fist in her hair. “You’re mine now, thief. You feel that?”

She whimpered, gasped, rocked against me harder. “Yes.”

And gods help me, I felt her inside me, too.

That impossible thread pulled taut... no longer flickering, no longer faint.

Solid. Permanent.

A bond sealed in heat and truth.

I SNAPPED MY HIPS AGAIN , and this time when she came, I followed. Not just with my body, but everything I was.

As I buried myself to the hilt, groaning her name like it was carved into my tongue, I felt the bond lock into place.

Silent, sacred, undeniable.

Something ancient inside me had recognized her.

Claimed her.

And it wasn’t letting go.

I held her after, both of us breathing hard, tangled in heat and a silent embrace.

Her face was buried in my neck, and for the first time in too long, I didn’t feel like I was bracing for the next fight.

The tether between us thrummed low and steady under my skin.

Strong. Alive.

The tension hadn’t vanished.

But something had shifted. Something real and binding now lived between us.

She pulled back just enough to look at me, her fingers brushing the mating marks on my arm.

“You okay?” she murmured.

I laughed under my breath, running my hand slow down her spine. “Better than okay.”

She smiled. Small. Real. Only for me.

And then....

“Proximity alert,” Nav’s voice cut in, dry as ever. “Unidentified vessel approaching at high velocity.”

Nyla froze. Her fingers tightened around my arm, and through our bond, I felt her spike of fear. The heat of her touch still buzzed beneath my skin, but now tinged with adrenaline.

I didn’t move. Didn’t let go. Instead, I held her closer for just a moment, memorizing how she felt in my arms.

But the warmth in my chest was already hardening into instinct.

The mating bond between us thrummed sharp and bright. No longer quiet, but urgent.

A warning bell sounding through every nerve in my body.

My mate was in danger.

“They found us,” she whispered, but there was steel beneath the words now. The warrior in her already surfacing.

“Looks like.”

She slid off me, grabbing her jacket in fast, practiced movements. I watched her transform from the passionate woman in my arms to the survivor I’d first met. But now I knew what lay beneath that armor. Now I knew what she felt like when she let her guards down.

I yanked my shirt over my head, pulse already recalibrating. Combat mode snapping into place like muscle memory. The bond between us thrummed with shared purpose, shared determination.

We both knew what came next.

What we had to do.

What we’d do together.

She caught my wrist before I could turn, the touch electric even now.

Her eyes met mine. Stormy. Fierce. Ours now.

No more hiding. No more pretending this wasn’t exactly where we were meant to be.

“We’re finishing this later.” A promise. A declaration.

I nodded, letting my thumb brush across her pulse point. “Count on it.”

We moved together down the corridor. No longer strangers, pretending this was just survival.

No longer fighting our connection.

Because this time, we weren’t running alone.

This time, we were bonded mates.

Connected in ways that went beyond physical, beyond logical.

And we were fighting together.

Whatever came next, we’d face it as one.

As mates.

As equals.

As partners.