I had planned to toy with the warrior, let him hit me a few times, draw some blood, let him bleed off some of his angst and wear himself out before I ended him. But I no longer felt accommodating.
Allowing the beast to surge for a moment, I swung hard, taking the glancing punch the Prillon landed on my chest. I connected with his jaw, felt the bone crack, knew they would rush a ReGen wand into the pit to stabilize him before shutting him down in a ReGen pod for a few hours to make sure I hadn’t damaged his brain.
He hit the ground, unconscious, and I glanced at the medical crew to make sure they were coming. They had been waiting, ready. They’d seen it all before, knowing how this would end, but expecting me to play with my prey before I took him down.
The crowd was divided, half of the warriors cheering, a fair number booing the lack of a show. They were irrelevant. I only cared about one of them. Lifting my gaze, I found her in the crowd once more.
She had another female with her, and from the looks of things, they were talking about me.
Good.
I didn’t want her thinking about anyone else. Seeing anyone else.
The Prillon rolled on the ground, groaning as they worked on his jaw. I walked past him toward the female. He was no longer a concern. He was out of my way. And what I wanted was right in front of me.
I got closer, my beast cooperating, for once in perfect accord with what I wanted. We both wanted her. Hot. Naked. Open. Taking what we wanted to give her. Fucking hard and fast. Slow. Making her lose control. Making her give us everything.
I reached the edge of the arena and looked up to where she sat in the stands. Her blue eyes remained glued to me and I crooked my finger at her. She knew. She knew what I wanted. Her. We both knew how this was going to go. I could see an equal lust in her blue eyes.
She glanced at her friend, her delicate skin turning an intriguing shade of pink. She bit her lip as she turned back to me. I held out my hand and waited. Patient. She would come to me. The pull between us was elemental. Too strong for her to resist. My cock was so hard it was a constant ache. For her. Only for her.
Thank the gods she didn’t make me wait long. The crowd was hushed, the other warriors and cadets watching with fascination as she walked down the steps and stopped before me, close enough to touch.
Gently, slowly, with a reverence I had no idea I could feel, I reached up and traced the softness of her cheek with my fingers.
The first contact jolted me, the rush better than any fight, any victory. The beast was frenzied, pushing at my skin, my mind, demanding to taste her. Touch her. Fill her with his seed. My thoughts went to the mating cuffs in my rooms and I knew what he wanted. What we both wanted. The miracle I had just found.
My mate.
“Mine.” The word burst from me, beast and man both making sure every warrior heard my vow. Mine. I had staked my claim. If anyone touched her, hurt her, tried to take her from me, I would destroy them. Harder and more ruthlessly than I had with the Prillon in the middle of the pit.
Reaching over the barrier, I lifted her. She cooperated, swinging her legs over the waist high wall. When she would have put her feet on the ground, I swooped her up and carried her cradled against my chest.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
The thought consumed me until I couldn’t talk. Couldn’t think. Gods help me, if she resisted, I wasn’t sure I could control the beast inside me. He was gone, so far gone. I knew if she denied me, walking away from her would be the last thing I remembered.
She should refuse me. I wasn’t worthy of being a mate, but my beast disagreed, especially now with her in my hold. I would do it, let her go. For her. And then the others would have to put me down. Execute me. End my fucking misery, because now that I held her, I knew I could never walk away from her. Not and stay sane.
The beast was tired of waiting, and I was tired of fighting him.
Stretching my legs, I quickened my steps. The corridors were empty, everyone either in the fighting pits ready for the next face-off or in the new garden where most of us took our meals so we could watch the mated couples’ children and feel normal again. Like maybe we weren’t monsters.
“Where are you taking me?” Her soft question calmed some of the madness and I cleared my throat so I could answer her. I didn’t want to scare her. She hadn’t changed her mind. In fact, she was resting in my arms, her cheek pressed to my chest, her arms around my neck like she belonged there.
She did.
“To my room.”
Her soft laugh was sexy as hell and my cock pulsed like an ion blaster. There was no question she could feel the hard length against the side of her hip. Good. She knew what was coming, how she affected me. I wondered if I affected her in the same way, if her nipples were hard points, her pussy a sticky, hot mess.
“Is it far, your room?” she asked breathlessly. “Because you are sex on a stick and I really don’t want to wait.” Her nails clawed into my shoulders.
Sex on a stick?I had no idea what the strange Earth term meant, even with the NPU, but it sounded like it was in my favor. As to the rest of what she’d said…
The beast roared and I had no hope of holding him back.
She wanted me.