Mated to the Warriors (4 page)

She dropped her hands to the bed beside her and looked up at me. “When will I meet him?”

“Very soon. Are you afraid?”

She bit her lip. “A little.” Her gaze wandered over my face, lingering on my eyes and the sharp lines of my cheekbones.

“Do I look so different from Earth men?” I wondered.

She sighed. “No. Not really. You’re much bigger and your face has harsher angles.” She lifted a hand toward me, as if to explore the shape of my face, but dropped it to her lap before making contact. Why was she so fearful of touching me? Ah yes, she didn’t know I was her mate.

“Your skin is a bit different. Darker, as if you’ve been out in the sun.”

“You are the one whose skin changes color,” I replied.

I watched as her pale flesh changed color again.

“That’s blushing. I do it… when nervous or embarrassed.”

“Ah.” That was a reasonable bodily response and something that would help me learn my mate’s moods. “What happens when you are aroused?”

She… blushed an even more delightful shade of pink. “I—”

The words died in her throat as our gazes locked and I could no longer hide my need to touch her. She wrapped her arms across her breasts in alarm. “You’re him, aren’t you? You’re my mate.”

“Yes, Hannah Johnson of Earth. I am Commander Zane Deston. You are mine.” I leaned over and took her small hands in my own, holding them in place on her lap as I closed the distance between us. The doctor would return soon, but my need for her overcame my restraint. I would wait no longer. “And I will taste you now.”

Chapter Three

Hannah

My new mate was huge, bigger than any Earth man I’d ever dated, close to seven feet tall with massive shoulders and thighs. He wore a dense brown and black armor covered in a camouflage pattern similar to what the military used on Earth. He didn’t look the least bit soft. His eyes were dark amber and were startling in his face. The angles of his cheeks, nose, and jaw were perhaps a bit sharper than a human’s, but oddly handsome. His gaze was focused and intense, and I saw lust there, raw and untamed, and my nipples hardened under the sheet as his big hands covered mine. This magnificent male was mine. Mine! He looked like what he was, a predator. A warrior.

Someone who could keep me safe.

My hands were trapped in my lap, held easily in place by my new mate’s firm grip as he leaned in close to
taste
me. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant until his lips landed on mine and his long, rough tongue invaded my mouth.

His kiss—Zane’s kiss—was not like those of the boys I’d kissed on Earth. He pressed my head to the wall and demanded a response, holding me still as he plundered and explored my mouth. His kiss stole my air and my reason as his oddly long tongue wrapped completely around mine and tugged gently.

I could just imagine that length inside my pussy, teasing my g-spot until I screamed, or roughly vibrating as he licked my clit. I could imagine the coarse fibers lapping and suckling my nipples as his cock filled me to the brink of pain and his large hands held me in place, unable to move, unable to resist.

My whole body felt like a live wire, hyper-alert and so aware of my mate that I could barely breathe. His kiss melted my resistance and I didn’t try to struggle or fight his hold on me. Instead I welcomed the aggressive push of his tongue in my mouth and the steel-like grip of his hands on mine. My pussy clenched and fluttered with heat and the wet evidence of my arousal quickly coated my thighs. Memories flooded me with the exotic scent of his skin, and my body responded as if I was still in the bride program’s matching simulator, experiencing the touch of another warrior.

He could take me right here, right now, and I wasn’t sure I had the will to stop him. This warrior was mine. Mine.
Mine
.

I couldn’t hold back the soft moan that left my throat any more than I could tell my heart to stop racing like a wild thing behind my ribs. His tasting went on and on until I was panting and limp in his arms.

This was my mate, my match, the
one man
in the universe who was supposed to be perfect for me. Everything feminine within me wanted to surrender to him, to just let go and allow someone else to take care of me for once in my life. I’d had the urge to submit before and with disastrous results. My last boyfriend on Earth had taken advantage of me, used me and never really cared. He had made so many promises with his alpha male attitude and his sexual domination that I’d given in and trusted him. I’d been betrayed by this weakness I had for aggressive men who took and took and took until they broke me.

I tore my mouth from his, afraid of him, of his instant power over me, and even more, afraid of myself. I knew nothing about him. How could I trust him so quickly? It was stupid and weak, match or not. The computer program at the bride processing center said this male, this alien, was the perfect man for me. Almost a 100% certainty of it. But what if it was wrong? What if he’d lied on his application to the program or turned out to be a user like all the rest of the men in my life? Even my own brother had used me in the end. He’d been perfectly happy to let me sacrifice myself and become an interstellar bride because it meant he didn’t have to work off his own debt or pay for his own mistakes. I’d done it anyway, not for him, but for my three nieces. Without the money I was able to give them, they would most likely have been taken and sold by the dark underworld criminals who held my idiot brother’s debt.

I tried to slow my rapid breathing, my frantic heart. Even the scent of him, something almost woodsy, taunted me. No.
No!
Men were not to be trusted. Neither was my body, apparently. It turned traitor so quickly, wanting to surrender to this big alien and give him complete control as I angled my head without thought.

“Stop.” I could barely get the word out, but he froze, his mouth tracing the curve of my neck, that rough tongue tasting me like I was his new favorite treat. My skin tingled everywhere he tasted. I clenched my fists beneath his as I fought my own body.

He growled with displeasure and pulled back to look me in the eye. “You cannot lie to me, mate. I smell the sweet honey between your legs. I can hear your heart racing and see the flutter of your pulse in your neck. You want this.” He leaned forward to claim my mouth again, his lips hovering just over mine. “You want me to fill you up and make you mine forever.”

His gravelly voice made me squirm with lust, but he’d loosened his hold on my hands and I hurriedly reached up to cover my lips with my fingertips before he could make contact. “I barely know your name.”

With a sigh, he leaned back to sit straight on the bed again and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“True, my wise little one. Your brain only knows my name, but your body knows so much more.” His brow winged up. “You will deny that is true, but your body tells me otherwise. As commander, this warship is mine. I am called Commander Deston, but you, mate, and only you, may call me Zane.”

“All right. My name is Hannah. We don’t use our second names on Earth, unless it’s for something legal, or a formality.”

Zane nodded and I tried to smile, tried to relax. At least he wasn’t pushing himself on me—even if, perhaps, I wanted that kiss to continue. There was time for that… later, but I had some basic questions. I glanced around the room, but it only looked like a hospital room on Earth. Nothing space-like. “We’re really in outer space?”

“Yes. We have been waiting for your arrival before returning to the front. Now that you are safely on board, we will rejoin the others in battle.”

All the heat that had flooded my body drained from me instantly. The front? Warship? Battle? I knew Prillon brides were kept on battleships. I knew it before I was sent here. But the reality of being trapped on a ship during a real battle, where things blew up and people died, was suddenly terrifying. No longer abstract. Dangerous and scary and real. “I can’t go into battle. They must have made a mistake with my match. I have to go home.” I tried to shift and climb off the bed, but I realized I wasn’t going anywhere with Zane’s large body blocking my way. I also remembered I was naked under the sheet.

He scowled, and the expression turned his features into those of a predator. Scared now, I felt my eyes grow wide as I tried to back away from him. That seemed to anger him even more and his gaze darkened and his nostrils flared. “You aren’t going anywhere, nor shall you speak of leaving me again. I have tasted your desire, Hannah. We are very compatible.”

“But battle…?”

“You are afraid,” he commented, his eyes watching me carefully.

“Of course I’m afraid! We’re in a ship in the middle of space, in the middle of a war. I don’t want to die.” My heart pounded against my chest and I struggled in Zane’s hold, the bitter taste of panic flooding my mouth.

“Silence.” He raised a hand. “You are perfectly safe, Hannah. This is a Prillon battleship. My battleship. We have never lost a battle, little one. Do not question my ability to protect you.”

I shook my head, suddenly recalling every sci-fi movie battle scene in my mind. “What if the ship crashes? Or blows up? What if your ship gets boarded by aliens and they take prisoners? What if I get transported onto another ship? Or taken by your enemies? What if you get killed and some other man tries to claim me?”

“I am
your
mate and you will not have another. There is no place safer—no
one
safer to be with than me. Your mate. And you need not worry about being alone. I have named a second, as our custom demands. You will always be cared for and protected. Always.” While he stroked a finger down my cheek, he added, “I have been too soft with you. I understand now why the protocols for claiming a bride were written. I shall not break them again, nor give you an excuse to choose another.” He took my chin and tilted it up with his thumb. I couldn’t help but meet his amber gaze. “Forgive me, mate. I will see to your care now, as I should have from the beginning. I will not fail you again.”

For some reason, his mercurial mood swings, from sexually aggressive, to anger, to this tenderness, made my eyes burn. What the heck was wrong with me? Was it the possibility of imminent death? Was it the transport? Had it scrambled my brain? I had no idea what to say, so I simply nodded.

“Good girl.” He stood and I immediately missed the warmth of his leg pressed to my thigh through the sheet. When his back was turned, I licked my lips, where his exotic taste lingered around my mouth.

He strode to the door with purpose, waited for it to slide open and nodded to someone I could not see. He turned around and another male followed him back into the room. They looked similar, but the other Prillon warrior had dark gray eyes. He did not wear the mottled armor that Zane wore, but a deep green with an odd symbol on his chest that I did not recognize.

“This is Doctor Mordin. He will complete your examination now.”

I froze and held the sheet tightly to my chest. “I had a complete examination on Earth. I don’t need another one. They confirmed my health. Surely, they sent you a report.”

Zane crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “Hannah, you will obey me in this and allow the doctor to complete your examination. I must care for you, and you traveled through three transport centers to reach me. I will not neglect your health.”

“You said we are headed for battle. Shouldn’t you be focusing on more important things? Like cleaning your ray guns, or something?”

He took a step closer so I had to tilt my head back. “I do not know what a ray gun is, but it does not matter, mate. There is
nothing
more important than you.”

“But… but I’m fine. I—” Words failed me when Zane growled.

“Do you refuse to obey?” Zane’s tone was harsh but the doctor, I could see, was hiding a grin behind whatever odd devices he had carried into the room.

Obey
? I could tell that the mighty
Commander
Deston wasn’t used to being disobeyed, but I didn’t want another stupid alien touching me right now, even if he was a doctor. “I don’t need an exam.”

“You are acting like a spoiled child.”

My mouth fell open. “No, I’m not.”

“I can see that you will need a lesson in Prillon discipline, little one. I had assumed the rules of your submission would have been included as part of your preparations for transport, just as your body was prepared according to our customs.”

Prepared? I frowned and pulled the sheet away from my body and glanced down. I… I had no hair between my legs. None at all. I rubbed my thighs together and it felt… smooth. God, what else had they done to
prepare
me?

“This must be corrected immediately. Instead of
knowing
what is expected and obeying, you will be
shown
what happens when you don’t. You are my mate and as commander of this ship, I must set the example for my warriors. I will not tolerate a disobedient mate.”

What the—

He crossed the room in two steps and ripped the sheet from my fingers. I screeched, but his stoic face was cold and hard as ice, and completely unmoved. Before I could even think about scrambling off the bed, he reached for me. Without any effort at all I’d been lifted, turned, and then resettled face down over his lap with both legs trapped beneath his left thigh, my stomach pressed into his right, and my bare bottom sticking up in the air like a naughty girl waiting to be—

Whoa. Where had that thought come from?

“What are you doing? Let me go right now!” I was mortified. The doctor stood behind me, with a clear view of my ass and pussy. Zane’s legs trapped mine with the force of an unmovable mountain, and his right arm was pressed to my bare back, holding me down.

“You will not disobey me, mate. I cannot allow you to disregard your own health. Nor can I have you running around the ship disrespecting me in front of my crew.”

“All right. I see that you are serious about this. I’m sorry. Just let me up.”

His answer was a loud smack on my right cheek. It hurt.