And although he would prefer taking her to his room and being with her in every way possible as Lukin and Thorque watched before joining in and breeding with her, he would give her this time to come to terms with everything. This life wasn’t normal for her in any sense. She had nothing else out there. He knew that, and she knew that. It was a dangerous, frightening, and hungry galaxy, and its inhabitants were anxious to tear the others down.
“You can sleep here tonight, but it is hard for us to stay away from you, Minka, especially when we want you as badly as we do.” Brawn stared at her, knowing she wouldn’t possibly understand what was happening between them. He knew humans didn’t have the need to breed or have this undisputable and unbreakable urge to find their mate.
They fucked whomever they wanted, and when they finally found the person they stayed with, there was nothing that bound them aside from this thing they called love. Hades warriors did not have an equivalent of love aside from the mating-and-claiming desire. They did fuck females when they needed to relieve themselves, but the only time they took a female to be their mate was to procreate and to have her as a lifelong companion.
“What about when I die?” she asked.
Confusion filled him for a second, and then realization struck him. He took a step closer to her. “Even though you’re human, Minka, once we have completed the breeding and have marked you, a chemical is released into your body.”
She breathed out. “What does that mean?”
“It means you would stop aging as long as one of us marked you every time we were with you sexually.”
She didn’t respond right away, but he could see she was thinking hard about what he said.
“And what happens if you don’t mark me? What happens if you three die?”
He was already shaking his head before she finished talking.
“If we die, then the chemical won’t be in your body any longer, and you’ll age naturally.” He cupped her face, ran his thumb over her bottom lip, and didn’t stop himself from leaning forward. He pressed his mouth to hers, feeling this spark of warmth and need fill him when their lips were together. She smelled good, felt incredible, and tasted so fucking intoxicating. His dick was rock-hard, and his blood pumped fast in his body. He pulled back and breathed out. “But we’ve survived a long time, and we have no plans on letting anything happen to you.” The kiss hadn’t been anything enticing, but even the press of their mouths together had shifted something inside him. “We just found you, and no way will anything or anyone take you away from us.”
She swallowed, stared right in his eyes, and then nodded. “I believe you.”
And he knew she did, even if she was jumping into this with both feet, her eyes closed, and had no idea what in the hell would happen.
8
Minka lay in bed, stared at the stalactites above her, and thought about everything the brothers had done and said to her this far. It was easy to accept something when she didn’t have anything to gain or lose, but in all honesty, these men treated her better than anyone ever had in her life, Jobe included.
Although Jobe showed her kindness and pleasure, they hadn’t been in a relationship and hadn’t really known each other for very much time. Everyone else she had ever come in contact with treated her as if she were just another mouth to feed, a body to clothe, and as if she was holding them down.
But Minka supposed when her species was on the brink of extinction, it was a fight for life kind of situation.
She moved off the bed and grabbed a light animal hide to wrap around her body. The lighting was dim, and everything was so quiet. Minka padded out of the room and down the short hallway. The stone around her was almost ominous with the shadows playing across it. She couldn’t sleep, and she thought walking around would help clear her mind.
Stepping into the main room that held the sitting and cooking area, she stopped and just looked around. Everything was so dark, and the few flames that were in the walls, lighting those little spaces, made everything so much more frightening.
The entrance to the cave was about ten feet from her, but all she could see were the small flames flickering back and forth. The entrance had many twists and turns, but she wasn’t enough of a fool to try to escape.
For one thing, this was not a planet she could live on. Minka was smart enough to know that for as unsure as she was about all of this, she was safest with these Hades warriors.