Danika
The door slid closed behind the last of the meeting attendees. I followed him out and I placed my hand over the sensor I knew would lock the door. Turning to face my mates, I rubbed my upper arms with my hands, suddenly cold. “I don’t like that guy.”
When my mates still didn’t say anything, I tried to stop shivering and looked at them each in turn. They stared back and the link between our mating collars remained…empty. “What?” I glanced from Thomar to Varin and back again with growing alarm. Had I made them angry? “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Thomar spoke first. “No one has ever tried to protect us before.”
I waved my hand in the air. That was ridiculous and wrong. And I didn’t believe them. With all the missions they’d been on? No way.
Varin rose from his seat slowly, every move carefully controlled. “You are small, Danika. Female. We protect you. There is no need to protect us, mate. No need to challenge one as ruthless and powerful as Helion.”
I felt something from Varin, finally. Concern. Shock.
Lust. A need so strong it nearly strangled me and I wrapped my arms around my stomach in an effort to ground myself. To think beyond the wetness growing between my legs, the drumbeat of my suddenly throbbing core.
“You two have been in battle. Right? Didn’t you have a team with you that had your backs?”
“Never. I am an Arcas. Varin allied himself to me. We did not serve on a team with other warriors. We fight alone.” Thomar’s blunt response stunned me. That made no sense.
“I don’t understand. I know you said your family was cursed or something, but that sounds like they just sent you two out to die.”
“Many times.” Varin’s affirmation was stoic. Accepting.
“That’s bullshit. You two need protecting. Sorry, but it’s true. They ask you to throw yourselves on a spike and you would. All you big, hulking warrior types are that way. I know. Soldiers on Earth are the same, thinking they have to save everyone all the time.”
“We are not human,” Varin argued while Thomar watched me with eyes that burned through the dress I’d generated for myself. I could feel his gaze like a hot caress.
“I am. I’m human and flawed and scared and stubborn. I’m also in love with both of you and I’m not letting you go. I protect the people I love. It’s kinda my thing.” Feeling a bit more in control, I put my hands on my hips and stared at the most beautiful, honorable, courageous males I’d ever met. “You are never fighting alone again. Not while I’m alive. I am going to protect you because you obviously won’t protect yourselves. You’ll get used to it.”
My mates continued to stare at me. Stunned. They could not see themselves as I did, so I concentrated my thoughts and emotions and shoved them through the collar the best I could. I wanted them to feel what I felt when I looked at them, needed them to know how they affected me. I shuffled through the emotions one by one, focused on each thought, each feeling until the collars resonated with their understanding before moving on to the next.
Safe. I felt safe. Loved. Protected. Cherished. Desired. But that was not all. I loved them, their honor and grumbling and courage. Their loyalty to their people. Their strength in surviving the Hive and their torture. I loved the way they touched me. Kissed me. Craved me. Needed to be near me. I loved that I was an anchor in their minds, their purpose and their reason for fighting. I loved the strange designs on their skin, the way they tasted, the way I felt when I was between them, surrounded by them.
I’d come from a dark place, a hopeless place. I suspected they had as well. I could not go back there and survive. My mind would fracture, I could feel the cracks sometimes when I thought about losing Thomar, the grief of losing my father, my real father, would rise up like a storm and torment me with the agony and despair I knew would strike if I lost either one of my mates. And now, knowing Varin would be right behind him?
No. I could not accept that.
So I would not lose them. Not Varin, with his stoic loyalty and seemingly unending sacrifice as he took Thomar’s pain. Not Thomar with his mind splintered into pieces, each sliver screaming in agony, surrounded by suffering voices he could not deny. They were good to their cores, honorable and courageous and perfect.
And they were mine.
“Helion cannot have you. Do you understand me?” I had become a bossy, bitchy, nagging wife and I didn’t care. This was important. They were important. “You. Are. Mine. Not his. Mine.”
We stood, me at the door, Thomar on the opposite side of the table, Varin on the near side. I moved slowly as they seemed poised to shatter. Or pounce.
When I stood at the head of the table, equidistant between them, I rested by hands on top of the empty chair back and sighed. “Are you two going to say something? You are behaving strangely and I don’t know if you are angry with me, or—”
“Fuck.” Thomar moved so quickly I was pressed to the wall, his mouth on mine before I could blink.
His kiss devoured me. I could not think, only feel.
Like a damn had broken, both of my mates seemed to have lost control. Their emotions were a blurry chaos of lust. Fear for me. Need.
Varin appeared at my side. “We need you.”
“Yes. Do it now.” I was already soaking wet, more than ready for a hard cock to sink deep. Make me feel. Make me forget this horrible ship and this insane mission.
Varin knelt at my feet and pulled my dress up slowly, sliding his palms over my legs and thighs, my ass as he pulled my new panties down around my ankles. I did not need to step out of them. Thomar has his cock free form his pants.