“One day. You leave this time tomorrow. If you aren’t going to stay, I want you gone as quickly as possible.” His gaze darted to Kiel, who was pacing behind me.
“One day,” I repeated. That should be more than long enough. By tomorrow afternoon, I’d be back in the main command building, in the transport room, on my way home to Wyatt.
And I was going to make sure I had one of those blue healing things when I went.
My hand was a fist at my side as I buried my pain at leaving Kiel. He was so angry at the possibility. No, not possibility. Reality. Fuck the people who sent me here. Fuck Wyatt’s doctors and their high dollar surgeries. I’d seen that blue wand heal worse than the broken growth plates in Wyatt’s leg bones. Surely one of those wands would be able to heal him, make him run and play again. Give him back his laughter. Coming this far, knowing that technology exists and leave it behind? Not happening. I’d find one and sneak it out.
Wyatt would be healed, but I’d be broken. At least my heart. One day was all I had left with Kiel.
As if he read my mind, he moved into place behind me, his hands on my shoulders. I felt the possession of his weighted touch, the heat of it. “No. She is my marked mate, Maxim. We must petition Prime Nial for an exception.”
Maxim’s entire demeanor changed and his gaze snapped to Kiel’s, his attention over my head. “Are you certain? There is no room for a mistake. Not in this.”
“She’s mine.” Kiel’s voice had dropped to a soft, threatening tone that made my heart race and my pussy wet. “I’m very sure. We’ve been dream sharing since her arrival.”
Dream sharing. So, I wasn’t going crazy? That dream I’d had when I was sleeping in that freight container had been real? It was a thing?
“She’s mine,” he repeated and the governor nodded in acceptance.
God, yes, I was his, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t stay. “I have to go home,” I repeated. Nothing had changed. Not one damn thing.
“I will contact Prime Nial at once.” The governor ignored me and spoke to Kiel as if my choice no longer mattered. Fine, I was his marked mate, but that didn’t mean I would choose him over Wyatt.
“Thank you, Maxim.”
“What? No! This is bullshit, Maxim—” Rachel’s protest faded as my head spun.
What the hell had just happened? One moment I was all set with a guided tour and a quick transport home. And now? “Who is Prime Nial?” I asked.
Kiel’s hand slid to the small of my back, pushing me out of the door even as I heard Rachel continue her protests. Seemed she was not as inclined to be nice to me as her mate. For some reason, she was like a mother bear and protective of her cubs—alien cubs at that—when someone came after them. She was trying to protect these big, burly men from the likes of me. If it wasn’t so necessary, it would be funny.
While she was in protective mode, the governor was pouring on the politics. He had to get Earth to play nice with the Colony, to make this place seem…positive. He was hoping I’d meet the warriors, interview them, and write something that would make the Colony look good, make the Coalition Fleet look good.
Public relations were a bitch when they were trying to sell a war, especially to an entire planet of people light years away.
At least, that’s how things had been going…until Kiel turned caveman. “Who is Prime Nial?” I asked again with a sharper tone.
Kiel stopped me in the corridor outside the meeting room and pushed my back to the wall. Before I could protest, his mouth was on mine. Hot. Hard. Demanding.
I had no hope of resisting and I opened for him, welcomed the sweep of his tongue in my mouth as he groaned, his hands dropping to my hips as he pressed his hard length to mine. My mind drifted to naked places when he tore his lips from mine and buried his nose in my hair, drawing my scent into his lungs. “Prime Nial is the ruler of Prillon Prime, the leader of the Prillon people, and commander of the entire Coalition Fleet.”
Holy shit. And they were calling this guy? About me? “Why are you contacting him? Why would he care about me? I’m just a woman from Earth.”
Kiel nuzzled my neck, just below my ear, and I melted into him. God, he was so damn irresistible. The mark on my hand was on fire, so hot I rubbed the wicked flesh over my thigh to try to get it to stop burning. “Because you’re mine. Rachel is here from Earth because she was matched through the Interstellar Brides program. Kristin, too. Yet you came through…less legal channels. It matters not to me, only that you are here and that you are mine now.”
I sighed, and I knew the sound was pitiful and sad. “I can’t stay, Kiel.”
He growled softly, his hands wrapping beneath me to cup my ass. “You can, mate. You’re mine and I’m not letting you go. The Prime will petition Earth for an exception.”
“An exception?”
His lips were hot against my neck. “He makes the rules. He can change them. No one can doubt we are matched mates. That stands above any laws, any rules from any planet.”
Oh, shit. He was saying because I had the mark on my hand, because we dream shared, because I wanted him with an obsession that made my heart pound, that rules would be bent and broken so I could remain with him. I couldn’t let this happen. I had to go home. “I’m not your mate.”
“You are.” He lifted me, my back sliding along the wall as he positioned my clit over the hard, thick bulge of his cock through his uniform. My gasp of surprise turned into a moan of need as my pussy flooded with wet heat and my breasts grew heavy. I dropped my forehead to his shoulder, clung to him with a desperation I did not recognize in myself. Why? Why did I have to react to him like this? Why couldn’t I have the hots for an Earth man? Surely there had to be one guy on that planet who would make me feel this way.
“What if I say no? I read that Interstellar Brides have thirty days to decide. Don’t I get thirty days? Won’t this prime guy say I have thirty days, too?”
“Yes, mate. Most likely.” Kiel stilled, his back stiffening as he settled me on my feet and stepped away. His gaze was dark and brooding, hurt. But I couldn’t let that affect me.
With Wyatt’s future on the line, I didn’t dare do anything but exactly what I’d promised. I’d return to Earth with the truth. I’d give the people who hired me raw data, interviews and video. How they decided to spin it was up to them. If they wanted photos of frightening aliens on a prison planet, that’s what I’ve give them.
No one was going to hurt my baby. No one.
“Shall we begin the tour?” I asked.
Kiel scowled at me, but silently led the way.