“He’s lost to the fever, Captain. The Atlans are sending an envoy for him in a matter of hours to decide his fate. From what I’ve heard, there’s a Prillon who came here with him who will complete the execution.” The Atlan cadet swallowed and there was pain in his eyes, pain for a fallen hero. It seemed he wouldn’t become a guard once he was done with the Academy. “I can’t let you in there. He’s too dangerous.”
He stared down at me, way down, shook his head, but there was condemnation in his eyes when he saw the cuffs in my hand. Judgment. He’d grown up with this, of executing those who’d gone into Mating Fever, who couldn’t be saved. He knew the drill better than me and yet he was the one who looked upset while I had my inner beast fucking raging.
The four Prillon warriors standing guard with him looked at me like I had lost my mind. Perhaps I had, but it was about damned time. I outranked all of them, plus the young Atlan, and the young Prillon standing at the control panel that would bring down the barrier. I wasn’t in the mood for bullshit.
“Open it and get out. That’s an order. He’s mine. My mate. And I’m not going to ask again.”
The Prillons looked to the Atlan for a decision, not because the Atlan outranked them—they were all third-year cadets based on the stripes on their uniforms—but because the Atlan understood what was happening here in a way the others could not.
“He might kill you, Captain,” he warned. “He might kill you and not know what he’s doing.” The Atlan’s deep rumbling voice reminded me of Angh’s, but it sounded so young and innocent. Naïve. He hadn’t seen battle yet. Hadn’t survived what my Angh had survived. He was young and fragile. Weak.
Angh was not. He was so strong. Too strong.
“He won’t hurt me,” I told him. “He’s the strongest warrior I’ve ever known.” I took the first small cuff and locked it around my wrist as the guards watched. Their eyes widened at what I was doing. They knew what the cuffs meant, the seriousness of it. Perhaps they’d now take my words just as seriously. “He’s mine and I’m here to claim him. Get out of my way.”
When the lock on my cuff clicked into place Angh roared, the sound something I’d never heard before. It was raw and filled with both power and rage. Startled, the Atlan put his hand on my arm to pull me away from the cell. I tried to shrug out of his hold, feeling and savoring the weight and feel of the cuff about my wrist.
I turned to find Angh had turned his head and his beast’s eyes were narrowed, focused on the other warrior’s huge hand on my arm.
“Get out of here,” I commanded. “All of you. He won’t hurt me, but he’ll kill you without blinking. And get your hand off me. I’m wearing one of his cuffs and you’re touching me. Not smart.” I stepped forward, closer to the barrier and out of the guard’s reach.
The Atlan guard’s eyes widened and his hand fell back to his side as if I’d burned him. He just nodded his head to the Prillon at the controls when the first strap holding Angh down snapped. The sound was loud, like the sudden breaking of a large tree limb, and I realized the bindings truly weren’t going to contain him. Not now that he’d seen me, seen another male touch me. I had hoped to get up there and put his cuffs back on his wrists, give him a few minutes to calm down, to soothe his beast, and then let him get up slowly.
Unfortunately, it looked like that wasn’t going to be an option. I would be dealing with Angh in full beast mode. I just had to hope he was still in there somewhere. The beast knew me…hopefully.
I waved at all of the guards behind my back, unwilling to turn away or break eye contact with the beast who was determined to come for me. Slowly, deliberately, I lifted the second small cuff to my wrist and snapped it in place as Angh watched. There. Done. I was his. I knew the cuffs could come off, but I wouldn’t remove mine. Ever. I’d made my decision. They were staying on.
He snarled and broke three more straps. Ping. Ping. Ping. He’d be free in seconds and the walls wouldn’t hold him. “Lower the barrier and get out of here. Now.”
Finally, the guards listened. The buzzing, electrical force field energy that had been in place disappeared and there was nothing but empty air and a few short steps separating me from my mate. But I waited, stood in place until the clomping of the guards’ boots was gone and I knew we were alone.
I knew this place was monitored on vid feeds, but I didn’t care at the moment. Angh needed me and it didn’t matter who watched as long as they were somewhere else, somewhere a raging beast couldn’t literally tear them in half.
“Angh. I’m so sorry.” My voice was gentle, but loud, hopefully both beast and Atlan could hear me. He was in full beast mode. Huge. While he wasn’t standing, I knew him to be eight feet tall. Muscles on top of muscles. Clenched fists. Ragged breathing. Intense gaze.
“Mine.”
The beast uttered one word, his eyes focused on me like lasers, and I knew the question of whether or not he still wanted me had been answered. But how far gone was he? Was he going to hurt me? I’d acted bravely, assured the guards that he would never do so. And I had to believe that. I had to, or this wasn’t going to work.
“You’re mine, Angh,” I told him, lifting my arms up in front of me like Wonder Woman and her bulletproof bracelets. “Do you see these cuffs on my wrists? I claim you, Warlord Anghar of Atlan. You better get yourself under control, Warlord, because you’ve got a mate who needs you.”
“Mine.”
The remaining straps broke over his chest and he sat, ripping the rest to shreds in a matter of seconds. Then he was up, stalking toward me like a conqueror, his bare chest magnificent. The green medical pants were soft and did absolutely nothing to hide the huge cock already straining to reach me. Thick and long, I knew what it felt like inside me. Filling me, stretching me. But that had been just sex. I hadn’t had on the cuffs. Now, I had the obvious proof that I wanted him. That while he kept saying I was his, he was also mine
I knew what this beast wanted. And my entire body responded, my pussy flooding with wet welcome and my blood heating with anticipation. Yes, I wanted it, too. God, I needed it. To know he was right there with me in this. That we were both wild, frantic and desperate to mate. To claim. I wanted his mark, to belong to him and no one else.
This was a beast coming to claim me, not a male. He was huge, nothing remotely civilized in his eyes or his stance. There would be no gentle wooing or soft words like the night before. He was raw. Untamed. Completely wild. This was different. I’d pushed him to the brink, and I would take what he needed for me to be claimed.
And I was so damn hot for him my knees almost buckled on the spot. I wanted him to lift me up against the wall and bury himself balls deep. I wanted him pumping into me like a madman, savage and so hot he burned us both. To groan and grunt, to be fucked by his inner beast until I forgot any male’s name but his. To feel the claim in my pussy for days. Forever.
I took a deep breath and held out my hand to stop him when he was just two steps away.
Thank God he stopped, his chest heaving, but I knew then that he was still in there. My Angh. He wasn’t a mindless beast. Wild, yes, but he was still mine.
“You’re not touching me again until you’re mine, Angh. Until these cuffs are back where they belong.” I dangled them between us, the ones he’d shed to set me free. But neither of us would be free until he out them back on.
Instead of taking them from me, as I expected, he simply held out both arms and waited for me to place them on his wrists. I hadn’t thought about it too much when I locked the smaller cuffs around my own wrists, but now I realized the weight of the moment. This was more than a wedding ring. More than a simple marriage would have been back on Earth. This was truly forever. Live together. Fight together. Die together. These cuffs were never coming off my wrists. I didn’t care if we couldn’t be more than fifty feet apart or we’d be zapped with pain. I had seen what would happen to him now, the risk he took, and I was never going to risk him like that again.