I’d assumed with my dark ways, my darker sexual needs, that there would be no one similarly inclined. What female would want to be bound and fucked? Blindfolded and helped to her knees? To cry out with pleasure because of a little bite of pain? To be dominated and not simply want, but need her mate to take control?
If Hunt had been the matched mate, I knew he would take his time and seduce our mate. I had been prepared to accept that, to give a mate what she needed and not worry about anything else. Mild, not wild. Tame, not tawdry. Sensual, not sultry.
But this female was mine. Mine. Which meant she wanted exactly what I wanted. She must need what I could give her. We would not have been matched otherwise.
My heart stuttered, thinking she’d reject me as soon as she saw my eye, saw what the Hive had done to me. But then, with Lady Rone on my arm at this very moment, her hand wrapped around my elbow and a happy smile on her face, I remembered that love was blind. She never seemed to notice or even care that her two warriors had been contaminated by the Hive. My mate must be the same because the match had been made after I was ruined by the Hive. The testing matched me, cyborg parts and all, to a female. That meant she would want me just as I was.
Right?
Right?
Next to me, Lady Rone had a noticeable skip in her step, reminding me of a happy child. I allowed her happiness to wash over me. I wouldn’t worry now. I’d enjoy the moment. They were rare. Elusive. Unfamiliar.
“You must be so excited,” Lady Rone told me as we walked toward the transport room. “I can’t wait to meet her. I wonder where she’s from.”
No one would use the term excited with me. I was the quiet one, the watcher. The brooding asshole in the corner. And yet I’d been the one matched.
I knew Maxim and Hunt followed a few steps behind. What was Hunt thinking? He was now my second. We were friends. The same rank. Equals. Yet he was a leader, outspoken and bold, while I was content to remain in the shadows. That didn’t mean I was any less fierce. In fact, I was perhaps more ruthless and cunning than Hunt. I blended in, quiet, an attack was unexpected.
And with a female? It had been a long time since I’d had my way, but I knew my nature. I would take over, watch her, analyze the smallest response. A woman was a puzzle I was all too eager to solve. There was nothing I enjoyed more than discerning her secrets so I could give her everything she wanted, everything she needed, even when she didn’t know it, or would not admit her needs to herself.
I’d just assumed it would be Hunt matched, that he would be the Primary Male and I would be his second. I’d hoped for a mate of my own, assumed that my darker needs would be tamed or hidden entirely, but I hadn’t considered it a possibility that there could be a woman in the universe perfect for me. Not when Maxim said a match had been made.
Only when he’d said she was mine.
“Excited? No. I hope to be worthy of the honor,” I admitted to Lady Rone. I stopped and she looked up at me in surprise. I didn’t speak of my doubts, my worries that Hunt might not be able to accept his new role. For years, he’d been the one in the lead, always shouting orders. I’d obeyed, followed, not because I could not lead on my own, but because he was my brother-in-arms, and I trusted no one else to ensure his safety.
And if any other arrogant bastard had tried to order me around, I’d have killed him as easily as bowed my head.
“I must get my collars. I do not wish for her to be without one.”
Understanding filled her eyes and Maxim and Hunt joined us just outside the transport room. “I assumed you would wish to place your collar about her neck right away,” the governor said, his voice deep. “I was the same. We don’t need to start a war over an unclaimed female, as nearly happened with Rachel.”
Lady Rone smacked her mate on the arm, rolled her eyes. “That’s not fair. It’s not my fault I am the only mate on the entire planet.” She looked to me. “I can’t wait to have another woman here to help me hold my own with you Neanderthals. And one from Earth is even better.” Her words were laced with something akin to glee. Her eagerness was infectious because it hit me like an ion blast that while Lady Rone was excited to meet a new friend, the female about to arrive was mine.
Mine!
“While I would not usually take such liberties as sending someone to enter your private quarters, I knew haste was important,” Maxim said. “I sent someone, Captain, for your collars, since Hunt is your chosen second.”
I glanced at my friend. His expression was neutral. Blank. “He is my second,” I said it aloud. “If he accepts.” I would not have anyone doubt it. I was proud he would share my mate, that we would be a family. But I’d never asked. We’d never had this conversation, both of us presuming he would be the one matched.
But Hunt still wore his green mating collar about his neck, had put it there the moment his testing was finished. The bright green color was clearly visible and a declaration to all that he was ready for a mate. As his friend, I knew he wanted a female with a desperation he hid well. Finding a mate was more than crucial for him. Necessary. Many warriors on the Colony had teased him about it, but he was unaffected, stalwart in his desire. He knew she would come, and he’d been correct. But as it turned out, her arrival would not be as he’d expected.
He could, however, choose to wait for a mate of his own. He did not have to accept a role as my second. He could wait and claim his own mate, should she arrive one day. I would not blame him, if that were his choice.
“It’s your decision, Hunt. I know you wanted a match of your own. I will not refuse you should you choose to wait. I can choose another second.”
“No.” Hunt scowled at me, his objection clear. To be my second, he would have to remove his family colors and replace them with mine. If he was my second, he would wear the blue collar of my family. But would he accept this shift in our roles? Would he be willing to see a shared mate marked and claimed in a blue collar instead of green?
We all looked to Hunt, waited.
He reached behind his neck and removed his collar, held it out to me with a nod.
Relieved, I grinned, taking it from him.
“I am his second,” Hunt said, conviction in his tone.
“Good. Now that that’s settled—” Maxim turned and the door slid open. We entered the small transport room and my heart rate soared as if I were heading to battle. Adrenaline flooded my brain.
“She should arrive anytime now, Governor,” the transport officer said. He looked up just long enough to speak, then returned to the control panel in front of him. The door slid open again and a second officer came to me, holding out three collars, two blue as the deepest sky on Prillon Prime, and one, my lady’s, black as deep space until she formally accepted my claim, allowed us to fill her body together. Once she was mine, the collar would turn blue and she would be mine forever. The strips of cloth and imbedded neural technology had only held empty promise, until now. While I knew there was no change in them, they felt different. Soon, they would be affixed about our necks—Hunt, myself and our mate—binding us together, sharing our emotions and desires, making us one—forever.
The black and green grid of the transport pad was easily large enough to hold twenty armed warriors, but was empty. We all stared at it, used to sudden arrivals. But a female was different.
Everything was different. And when I felt the hairs on my body rise, the only sign of the energy shift created by a transport, I knew my life would never be the same again.
There was no going back.
And when a small form appeared on the pad, pale and bare, I felt her presence in my very bones, a heaviness, an ache I couldn’t explain. This was my mate.