Laughter bubbled up and escaped. It probably was a good thing I was restrained. “No way. I’m the last person who needs to be matched to a man. I grew up with three brothers and an overprotective daddy who were all neck deep in my personal life. They were bossy as hell and scared off any guy who even thought about me in any kind of sexual way.” I did figure out how to keep some things secret, including men, but what my family didn’t know hadn’t hurt them. “Why on Earth would I need a mate?”
“He wouldn’t be on Earth,” the mouse piped up.
Whipping her head around, Warden Egara glared at the mouse and I was quite impressed. Not many civilian women I knew had the whole death stare down. The warden, however, was a pro.
“Then why are you here?” The warden returned her attention to me, her head tilted to the side as if I were a puzzle she was trying to solve.
“I’m now wondering where here is, but I volunteered for Earth’s contingent as a coalition fighter.”
“But you’re a woman,” the mouse countered, her eyes wide.
I glanced down my body as I replied. I was strong, not thin. My bones were heavy and I’d spent nearly as many hours in the weight room as most of the guys in my unit. Despite all the hours of training, I was still curvy, with lush hips and full breasts, and could not be mistaken for a man. “Yes, my brothers took great pleasure in pointing that out to me.”
I thought of them, two now gone and one up in space fighting the Hive. I’d hated their pestering at the time, but with John and Chris now dead, I’d give anything—including fighting the Hive myself—to hear Seth tease me again. Seth was still out there, somewhere. And I was going to find him and bring him home. That’s what my dad wanted, what he’d made me promise I’d do before he died.
“But there aren’t any women who’ve volunteered.” The mouse fidgeted, her left knee bouncing up and down like a springboard.
“That’s not true,” the warden replied, her voice crisp and angry. “This is your second day in your role and therefore you are ignorant of many things. There have been Earth women who volunteered to fight the Hive, just not many. Miss Mills, I believe an apology is in order.”
“Thank you.” My shoulders slumped in relief and I felt like I could breathe again. I didn’t want or need a mate. I didn’t want to go to Atlan. I both wanted and needed to go kill the things that had killed my two brothers. My father would roll over in his grave if I walked away from this war and pretended to be a weak, scared female who needed a man to take care of her. That wasn’t how I was raised. My father and brothers made sure I knew how to take care of myself, expected more from me. “When do I leave? I’m ready to go fight the Hive.”
I knew most rational women would have thought I was insane. Who would turn down a perfect match, a mate who would be totally and completely devoted to me for the rest of my life, a strong man who could give me children and a home, for battle and most likely death?
I guess that would be me.
“You have been assigned to Atlan,” she clarified. “The testing has been done. Based on your psychological profile and testing by the matching program, your mate will be selected from available males on the planet Atlan. They do things a bit different there—”
“No. But—” I interrupted, but she wasn’t finished.
She sighed and held up her hand to stall any more argument from me. “You’ll be transported off planet without your consent. I assume I do not have it.”
“No. You do not,” I replied, very clearly. “I don’t need to have an alien man, some… mate telling me what to do.”
“You’re going to have a commanding officer, most likely a man, tell you exactly what to do for the next two years,” the mouse countered.
She had a point, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. Besides, there was a big difference between a mate who, according to coalition laws, would be legally allowed to boss me around for the rest of my life and a commanding officer who would be out of my life in two years. “I’ll do whatever it takes to find my brother. The only brother I have left alive after this fight with the Hive. I made a promise to my father and nothing is going to stop me from keeping my word.”
Both women looked at me with wide eyes, probably surprised by my vehemence. I wasn’t fucking around. I wanted to find Seth and I wanted to kill as many Hive as I could for taking away John and Chris. The Hive hadn’t actually killed my dad, but the grief of my brothers’ deaths certainly helped finish him off.
“Very well,” the warden replied, swiping her finger over the tablet, which released my restraints. “Since I do not have your consent to be a bride, you are free to go to the Interstellar Battle Battalion’s testing center and begin your processing so they can get you sworn in.”
I spoke as I rubbed my wrists. “So, all of this was a waste? I have to start over, over there?”
She sighed. “I’m afraid so. I’m sorry.”
“As long as we’ve got the whole mate problem straightened out, it’s fine.” I felt better knowing the reason behind the sex dream. For a minute, I’d wondered if I had some repressed, kinky woman I didn’t recognize hiding inside my head. I was relieved to discover that it wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t done anything to make that sexual imagery bubble to the surface.
I swiveled in the chair and put my bare feet on the cold floor. My legs were shaking but I refused to think about the reason. Why was having a bossy mate more frightening to me than battling pitiless, inhuman, alien cyborgs?
Well, for starters, if a cyborg pissed me off, I could blow his head off and walk away. But a mate? Well, he’d make me angry and I’d be stuck with him forever, festering like a volcano, never able to blow… And, God knew, I had a temper. It had gotten me into trouble more than once. But it had also saved my life. Seth used to tease me about it, saying I would end up immortal because I was just too stubborn to die.
“I will escort you personally to ensure you are indeed in the right place this time.” The warden spoke to me, but she was looking at the cringing mouse. “And that all protocols have been followed to the letter.”
I offered the mouse a small smile. “Don’t be too hard on her,” I replied. “She’s new. And I had an amazing dream.”
Shit, had I ever. If the guy I would have been matched to was anything like the big, aggressive lover in the dream… the thought made my nipples harden.
The warden lifted a brow. “It’s not too late to change your mind, Miss Mills. You should know that was not a dream, it was processing center data experienced by another bride during her claiming ceremony with a male from Atlan.”