“Ask me again.”
I held her gaze as I repeated the vow she’d been asked to take so she would know exactly how serious I was. “We have been paired through the Starfighter Velerion training program. We have spent many hours training together. Fighting together. Do you accept the Starfighter crest as a sign of our permanent bond? Will you stay with me, Starfighter? Will you remain at my side and fight with me to the end of our days?”
She laughed, wriggled again in my lap. “I’m insane. I should call Mia and Lily. Talk to them about this. But they’d tell me to go. So… okay. I will go with you to Velerion and save the planet from Queen Raya and the Dark Fleet.”
Satisfaction coursed through me. “You accept the bond between us? Agree to be my bonded mated?”
She looked at me now differently, her gaze dropping to my lips. I saw her heated look. “Paired with you? Fight with you? Yes.”
I didn’t need anything more than that. With the crest still in my palm, I reached around and cupped the back of her neck, lowered my head, and kissed her.
She gasped and I took advantage, my tongue gaining entrance to her mouth, finding hers. Then she moaned, melted into my hold. It was then I pressed the crest against her skin. The sharp prick of the device would fill her body with a sedative and other nutrients designed to make her trip to Velerion less stressful. Velerions had been jumping through space-time for eons. Humans were smaller, not adapted to such travel.
She slumped into my arms, unconscious, and I held her for long minutes as the nutrients and nanoparticles made their way into her body. I needed to be sure both the medical treatment and the cipher implant had time to take full effect.
But that was a lie.
I watched the dark trail of the Starfighter emblem take shape as the microscopic nanites moved and spread beneath her skin at the back of her neck. Like a human’s tattoo, the swirl marking would be forever embedded beneath her flesh. We were truly bonded now, in life and in battle. The symbol on our necks, on every Elite Starfighter’s neck, was a mark of honor and rank. Everywhere Jamie went, people would offer her respect and awe.
And they would know she was bonded. Paired.
Mine.
I had no regrets.
I wanted this human. My bonded mate. But that was for later. If I thought too much of our future pleasure, I would never get my Jamie off this tiny, primitive planet.
I stood carefully, Jamie in my arms. I would settle her first before making an additional trip to gather some of her things. With a gentleness I’d never felt before, I carried her from her apartment and to her new life with me on Velerion.