“We’ll never convince him to stop, but his mate might.”
Trist straightened his legs out in front of him. “He doesn’t have a mate.”
Slowly, I turned to face him. “Then we need to get him one.”
Trist glanced my way. “How do we do that?”
I stood then, pacing. “Right now, you are in command.”
Order of succession was taught on the first day of fighting school. This was not something I had to explain to Trist. “And?”
“He’s a commander in the Coalition Fleet. He’s eligible to request a matched mate through the Interstellar Bride Program. Order me to process him for a matched mate. Order me to put him through the matching protocol.”
Trist’s eyes widened at the very idea. He didn’t live life on a hair trigger like Grigg did. He thought things through, clearly and methodically.
“And when he wakes?”
I grinned. I’d thought this through clearly and methodically, too.
“The processing is subconscious. It’ll be like a dream. He won’t remember a thing until it’s too late. He won’t know what we’ve done until his mate arrives, in the flesh.”
Trist smiled. Holy fuck, the man smiled. I’d never seen him do that before, thought his face was broken or permanently fixed in a benign gaze.
“And then he’ll be too busy fucking her to care—or get into any more fucking trouble.” Trist stared at me for a count of five before he burst out laughing.
I was too shocked by the sound to process his words.
“Do it, Doctor. Get him a mate. That’s an order.”
Chapter Three
Commander Grigg – Private Quarters, Battleship Zakar
For the tenth night in a row, I stared at the ceiling above my bed, restless. Waiting. For her.
Who she was, I could not say. A goddess, perhaps? A figment of my imagination? An image conjured by my brush with death?
All I knew was my cock was hard as a rock and the softness of her skin, the tight, wet heat of her pussy chased me into my dreams until I woke moaning and sweating, forced to take my own hand to my hard shaft to ease the discomfort. It didn’t take much, one stroke, maybe two, and I came like a rutting youth.
This her was haunting me.
Even now, during the fourth rotation, the least active rotation on the ship’s schedule, when most of my people slept, I could not rest. I had not been able to rest since I woke up in that ReGen pod to Rav’s frown and Captain Trist’s scowl. They hadn’t said a word about my recent scrape with death. They hadn’t needed to. My father had ranted for two hours, until his face was bright orange with rage and I’d worried my ears would begin bleeding. Again.
“Oh, fuck off. All of you.” I spoke to no one, my spacious quarters and huge bed big, though large enough to hold three or four bodies, only held me. Not that I couldn’t find a woman to warm my bed if I wished. I didn’t. At least, I never worried about it overmuch, until now.
When I’d been younger, on leave, I’d had more than enough female companionship to satisfy me. As I’d aged and advanced in rank, the women expected more. It wasn’t enough for them to fuck a strong, young warrior. Now they looked at me with calculation in their eyes. Now, I was a Commander and I had value. They didn’t want to fuck me, Grigg. They wanted to be mated to a Prillon Commander. They wanted status, rank, wealth and power.
But fucking and mating were completely different. Fucking was an impersonal few hours of pleasure. Mating was…everything.
My fist gripped my hard length, pulsing and ready for release. Using my thumb, I rubbed along the ridge with each pass. I knew how to get off and it was quick. My body tensed, my breath seized as a murky vision of her filled my head and my seed spurted hotly into my hand.
With my balls emptied, for now—I sighed, tossed off the covers and walked naked to the adjoining bathing room. Shit, I was hard again. Maybe there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t about to go tell Rav that my cock kept getting hard at the thought of a beautiful woman. I sighed, gripped my cock again. Yeah, he’d fucking believe that. Worse, he might and then he’d laugh his fucking head off.
A hot shower might ease me to sleep, but first, I had to ease the ache that was growing in my balls once again.
Moments later, I closed my eyes and let the hot glide of water pour over my body. I washed quickly, enjoying the luxury and quiet. We did not require water for bathing, but kept the ancient practice for one simple reason…pleasure.
My hard cock wept, a drop of pre-cum gathered on the tip. Fuck, maybe the ReGen pod had fixed me too well, given me some kind of super-cock, for I’d never been this quick to recover. Wrapping my hand around the thick head, I turned to face the water and leaned back against the shower tube as the heat surrounded me, and I tried to remember.