The governor stood and turned to my mate, his gaze purposely focused on the cuffs around Rezzer’s wrists. “Not possible, Rezzer. You’ll monitor the team and coordinate from here.”
“No.” He was changing, the beast rising to the surface. I watched, fascinated. I hadn’t been able to see this without his cock inside me—which meant I was too distracted to notice exactly what happened. His eyes grew brighter; his shoulders filled up somehow. His whole body expanded before my eyes. It was crazy and fascinating, and all I could think about was how amazing his huge cock felt when he fucked me. I wanted to climb up his body and taste every inch. I just…wanted. Yeah, I was a total goner.
I felt my pussy grow wet, and Rezzer stopped in his tracks, frozen, to turn and look down at me. “Kill Hive. Mate. Stay.”
He held up his cuffs and looked at mine.
“He can’t go with them unless you take off your cuffs, CJ.” Rachel appeared from somewhere and came to stand next to her mate, using her big belly to get the hulking warriors to move out of her way.
I remembered the pain walking away from Rezzer that first day had caused, as if I’d been hit by a cattle prod in both my wrists. I so didn’t want that to happen again, and I had no idea what that would do to the baby.
I didn’t like the idea of him going into danger, but I knew he needed this. Needed to end it. I wasn’t going to get closure on the insider trading fiasco. Ever. And that hadn’t been any big deal in comparison to what the Hive had done to Rezzer. Twice. He needed to take those bad guys down, let his beast go wild on their asses.
“You should go, so why don’t you just take off your cuffs?” I asked.
“No!” Rezzer’s roar made me jump, and I reached for him automatically. He actually lifted me off my feet, cradling me like a small child against his chest. Sheesh, he really was huge when he went beast. So freaking sexy. Could he feel my nipples harden against his chest?
I lifted my hand to his face and caressed him, just so he’d feel me, know he was still mine. It worked, and I noticed the other warriors in the room settle back into more relaxed stances, drop their hands from their weapons.
Had they really thought he was going to lose control over the idea of taking off his cuffs? The idea was sobering.
Rachel rested her hands on her round stomach—she would bring another baby to the Colony soon—and tilted her head with a sad smile. “He can’t remove them. If he does, you’ll be free to choose another mate. Those cuffs are your mark of ownership, your claim. Taking them off means he won’t belong to you any longer. He’ll have no reason to control his beast.”
Rezzer nodded, obviously thankful she said what he couldn’t. Not with his beast raging.
“What?” I looked into Rezzer’s green eyes. I knew the cuffs were important, that they shocked the hell out of me if we got more than about fifty paces away from one another, but— ”I thought they were just for me. To keep me close to you. Won’t they cause you pain if you leave them on?”
He nodded again.
“Yes,” the governor answered for him. “But just enough to remind him that you are waiting for him. That he belongs to you. That he needs to maintain control.”
I looked down at the matching cuffs we wore with newfound awe. So, I could take mine off, but he would rather be in pain than lose his connection to me? “My mark of ownership?”
“Yes.” Rezzer’s response made me realize I’d spoken the last thought aloud. “Rezz. Belong. You.”
I saw the truth of those three words in his somber green eyes. He was mine in a way I couldn’t even begin to understand.
“They’re not human, CJ. It’s hard to realize it, but they’re not even close,” Rachel offered. I remembered Warden Egara’s words, that any mate I was matched to wouldn’t be like any Earth guy.
“Okay.” Still looking into my mate’s eyes, I held up my cuffs. “You want to go hunt? Track down the Hive?”
“Hunt.” He didn’t look away from me; the word was a promise, and I realized he felt like he needed to do this to protect me, protect everyone on the planet. Protect the new life growing inside me.
“Okay. Put me down.” He settled me gently on my feet, and I held out my wrists to him. I had no idea how to take the cuffs off. No seam. No latch. Nada. “Here. Take them off.”
With a tenderness that was shocking from someone so large, he did, showing me the pattern to trace, the trick to unlocking them.
They dropped into his large palms, and he winced just for a moment as the sound of a small electrical jolt emanated from the cuffs around his wrists. “You sure about this? It won’t hurt you?” I ignored everyone else in the room, but I didn’t care. This was between me and him.
“Mine.” He wasn’t talking about the cuffs.
Well, that about summed it up. I smiled. I couldn’t help it as I took the smaller cuffs from him. “Well, you’re mine, too. So hurry up and do whatever you have to do and come back to me. You’ll help me put them back on, and then we’ll go through that list of yours.” I pulled his head down for a kiss, just a quick touching of our lips, but I wanted to do it there, in front of everyone. It was my claim.
Rachel was at my elbow when I let him go. “Come on. We’ll go pretend to eat something and not worry while they go do their thing.”
I walked from the room and didn’t look back, the heavy weight of the cuffs in my hand a promise. He’d be back. He had to be.