“Destiny. Mate. It’s for your own protection. I won’t see you hurt. Let me go. This is not funny. Be reasonable. You’ll get hurt. They want you dead. Destiny!” He shouted the last as I shoved my foot into my boot and moved toward the door, fully dressed. I’d even grabbed his utility belt, fully loaded with weapons, and put it about my waist. He wouldn’t need the ion pistol or anything else while naked and tied to my bed.
I spun about, gave him once last glance. The look on his face was murderous. Oh, he hated having the tables turned on him. Every line in his body was taut. Furious.
Served him right.
I pouted my lips and gave him the best version of puppy-dog eyes I’d ever thrown down on anyone, accentuating carefully chosen words to make sure he got my message loud and clear. “Don’t worry, Nix, you’ll be nice and safe in my bed. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. Since you’re my mate, you’re my responsibility, and I know how frightened and weak you really are. So, I’m just going to have to protect you—without permission. It’s for your own good. You might be mad now, but you’ll forgive me anything after a few hours in bed. Isn’t that right? Now you’ll be as I want you, safe and naked and waiting for me to return from the big, scary, dangerous meeting.”
Shoving the final blade in its sheath, I walked out the door, closing and locking it behind me with a very decisive click. I was mad and also very sad. We might have said we were mates, that we loved each other, but this… him intending to leave me behind, me restraining him to the bed, this wasn’t love. This was manipulation. Lies. A power struggle.
A struggle I refused to fight. He either accepted me or he didn’t. The end. I was not weak. Or foolish. And I didn’t need his approval or permission to fight for what I believed in, or for whom I loved. He’d learn that soon enough. Starting now.
And if he didn’t? Well, I was royal. I’d have his ass shipped to a continent—hell, even another planet—so far away I’d never have to look at him and hurt again.
“Destiny!” he shouted, although with my bat hearing I could hear him so loudly his bellow hurt my ears, making me wince.
I took a deep breath, sucked it up. It was time to go get my sisters and end this.
* * *
Nix
I lay there, stunned and with a cock as hard as it had ever been.
Holy shit. She’d seduced me. I glanced down my naked body at my cock. Purple, dripping pre-cum. Aching. I could still feel the swirl of her tongue, the hot, wet suck of her mouth.
Tugging at the restraints, I knew I was caught. I wasn’t getting out of them unless I somehow broke the headboard. I wasn’t that strong, not since it was made with the strongest Aleran metal. Nothing but the best for the palace.
Fuck!
How the fuck had she overheard our conversation? We’d been down the hall and talking quietly. Had she gone to the door and eavesdropped? Even then, she couldn’t have heard everything we’d said. But she had.
My mate had even repeated what I’d said to the others word. For word. For word.
Oh, she was angry. So furious she’d actually turned sweet. Sweet and sexy and alluring and had gotten me thinking with my cock.
She was good. Very good at seduction. Or I was weak when it came to my mate. My cock pulsed because I was even hungrier for her than before. My mate couldn’t just take care of herself, she’d taken care of me, too. Stubborn. Beautiful. Willful…
I was going to get her beneath me in this bed, tie her down and make her promise never to do this again. Not that I didn’t deserve the lesson. I’d spoken exactly the words she’d accused me of. Protecting her without asking permission. Lying and deceiving her. My mate.
Shame pulsed through me right next to the desire. I’d failed her on an elemental level. Would she forgive me? Would I be able to forgive myself? If she were injured because I was not beside her, I would never recover. Yet, she was out there, alone, because I had made my decision without considering her needs, or her strength.
She was not a princess as I’d always thought of one, soft, pampered and docile, a female to be she
ltered, an innocent beauty to be protected at all costs. No, Destiny was a warrior. I’d filled her with my cock and my seed, reveled in her trust and her surrender. And I’d betrayed her at the first opportunity.
And now she was going to get herself killed. Because I’d failed her.
I tugged again, but there was no give. I had to lay here and wait.
And wait—regret pounding through my veins with every painful beat of my heart.
It took seventy-two minutes—I had nothing to do but watch the clock—for Thor and Leo to burst through the door. They stopped just a few feet inside the room and stood there. Stared.
Thor grinned. “Oh, this is perfect.”
I frowned, tugged at the restraints. “Let me up so I can get to my mate.”
Leo remained where he was, hands on his hips, but I couldn’t miss the smile on his face. He was enjoying this, but not as much as Thor.