My beast groaned. I couldn’t tell the governor or his mate to leave, or to fuck off. I had to tolerate their presence.
“It’s obvious that you’re done with me,” she continued. “You got what you wanted. You got a quickie, and you got your beast back. Congratulations.” She didn’t sound pleased at all. She sounded pissed.
“There is nothing quick about what I have planned for you. I will not leave you, mate.” My voice was clipped. Dominant.
“Then I will leave you.” She strode to the door, looked left and right for something, but when it slid open silently, she all but ran through. Then she was gone.
“Aren’t you going after her?” Maxim asked, staring at the door as it closed once again. “She has no idea where she’s going.”
I slowly shook my head. “She won’t go anywhere.” I held up one hand, reminded them of the cuffs. My beast did not like our mate’s anger, but he, too, was content to wait, to let her learn this one lesson on her own. No warrior on the base would harm her, not with my cuffs around her wrists. And the cuffs had one more failsafe, one more way to make sure a beast could survive the Mating Fever. “I give her three seconds.”
Everyone waited silently. The electrical surge hit me like an ion cannon, stronger than what she would feel, strong enough to remind a raging beast to fight for sanity, to go after his mate. To wrestle the demon back from the edge. The cuffs were a safety feature designed to keep rampaging monsters, Atlans in the throes of Mating Fever, from losing themselves, losing control. But the jolt was not one-sided. We could not afford to have our mates far from us when the beast prowled so close to the surface, when a mate’s soft voice, her touch, were the only things the wildness inside would respond to. When she was the only thing that stood between a beast and his execution.
I winced, not at my pain, but for hers. The others cringed when we all heard her muted yell.
I stood. “Thank you, Doctor, for confirming what I already knew. Governor, if you’ll excuse me, I have a mate who needs answers.”
My leader nodded and I left them, quickly finding my mate on the floor in the hallway just outside the medical station. I knelt beside her. “Better, mate?”
The pain was gone now that we were close once again.
“What the fuck was that?” she asked, turning her face up to mine. She held one of her wrists in her hand, her palm gripping the cuff.
“These are mating cuffs. We can’t be far apart without it causing us both pain.”
“You felt it, too?”
“Of course.” That seemed to mollify her somewhat.
She continued to glare at me, a fresh wave of tears gathering in her eyes. “Good.”
“My apologies, my lady. I have not handled this, you—” I sighed. “—us very well.”
“No shit, Sherlock.”
I frowned at the Earth term, but picked up her meaning.
“If you don’t want a mate, why am I wearing them?” she asked.
Huddled on the floor, her long dress billowing around her, she looked so beautiful, but so lost. It was difficult to remember that the strong female who’d coaxed and prodded and tugged my beast out was also new to the planet. New to everything around her. Including me.
“My beast put them on you. He is very possessive. And I have discovered that I am as well.”
“Yeah, right.” She turned her head away from me and wiped at her cheek. She was hurting. Unacceptable.
“I will explain everything in my quarters. Will you permit me to escort you there?” When she remained silent, I added, “Please.”
That seemed to have worked, for she put her hand in mine. The connection, just through our fingertips, was enough of a reminder of why I’d been so fucking wrong. I wanted her. With a vengeance, and I would claim her. Keep her. Never let her go.
I would have her heart for my own. Heart. Body. Soul. She was mine. All of her.