“I can’t. Not until I’ve claimed her.”
Rav cursed as Grigg stood and marched me out of the small, private exam room into the hustle and bustle of a busy medical ward. At least ten patients and staff turned with curious eyes to track our progress as Grigg carried me through the room. I saw two others wearing Rav’s green, one a male of the same race, big and golden, and one smaller female with an odd pair of gold cuffs around her wrists and long, cherry-red hair pulled tightly into a braid that fell to her hips. The patients were mostly huge warriors in various stages of undress, their black battle armor in pieces around them, bare, bulky chests heaving with pain.
I was a red-blooded woman still half-aroused after an unbelievable orgasm. I looked. I couldn’t help it. I was mated, not dead.
“Close your eyes, mate. Now, or I will be forced to remind you exactly who your wet pussy belongs to now.” Grigg’s order made me grin, for I hadn’t realized my feelings at looking at the attractive giant were sensed through the collar. I obeyed, not wanting to start trouble by staring overlong at the biggest man I’d ever seen in my life. “What kind of alien is he?”
Grigg growled as he continued walking but Rav answered, as per what I was discovering might be the usual. “He’s an Atlan Warlord. They are one of the rare races whose warriors are larger than those of Prillon.”
Grigg’s hold on me tightened as he finally did something other than snarl. “The Atlans are fierce warriors and are in charge of all the Coalition infantry units. They fight the Hive on the ground, in close combat. That was Warlord Maxus. He has been fighting with us for seven years, and must leave soon, his fever is upon him.”
“Fever?”
“Mating fever. If the Atlan warriors do not find and claim a mate capable of controlling them, they become beasts, berserker giants a third again as large as the one you saw.”
“Their mates control them?”
“Yes, in a way. Their mates are the only beings capable of calming the rage of their beast. Without a mate, they lose control and must be put down.”
What the hell? Put down? Like a dog? “Put down, as in killed? You can’t be serious. That’s cruel.”
“No, it is necessary. You are not on Earth any longer. You are not even in the same galaxy. Out here we fight for survival, we fight to defend all the Coalition worlds, including your Earth, from a fate worse than death. We do not have time for jokes. An Atlan in berserker mode killed six of my warriors on my first command before I shot him dead. He was a friend, a man I’d fought with and trusted. My hesitation cost lives, Amanda. The Atlans live by a different code of honor, a strict code designed to safeguard all they fight to protect. As he lay bleeding out, he thanked me.”
I tried to imagine the strength of conviction, the depth of pain, one would feel executing a friend and my heart broke a little for the warrior carrying me. There was much humanity did not know or understand about the alien warriors under whose domain we now lived. But, that was a big part of the reason I was here, to learn, to understand, and send information back to Earth.
I heard a door open and close, then another. Soon the faint sounds of others faded and Grigg was settling me on my feet. For reasons I could not explain, even to myself, my eyes were still closed as he’d ordered. His story made me sad, and made me hurt for him. He was so damn hard, so trapped by his choices, just as I was.
I didn’t want to like him overly much. I didn’t want to have sympathy for him either. Today was not going to be my best day to remain strong and detached. Perhaps it was the collar, perhaps I just liked these men. Perhaps their sense of honor and service was not so dissimilar to the veterans who served at home.
No, they weren’t men. They were aliens. Prillon. And it didn?
??t mean they were right. Soldiers followed orders. For better or for worse, that was the way things had always been. And these warriors, my mates, were first and foremost, soldiers. It was up to me to discover the motivations and truths behind those issuing the orders.
When my feet touched the floor, Grigg allowed the sheet to drop and pool at my feet. His arms were around me, pressing me close, holding my cheek to his chest, the loud thumping of his heartbeat oddly human and reassuring, even through the hard press of his uniform. After a few moments, he ran his hands up and down my back, tracing my curves to the apex of my ass, then back up to my shoulders as if the feel of my skin soothed him.
“Rav?” Grigg’s voice was softer than I’d heard it yet, an apology in that one word, regret in the emotional tornado my collar forced me to feel.
“Yes.” That fast, the doctor was behind me, his heat like a fire at my back.
“I can’t control myself.”
“I know.”
“Take her.” Grigg shifted slightly, gently pushing me to take a step back into Rav’s arms. “Open your eyes, Amanda.”
I did, to find him backing away to sit in a large chair near an even larger bed. His gaze would have burned holes in me if in physical form and I realized there was a roiling of emotion building like a caldera in his chest. I sensed it, the intensity of it, through the collar.
“What are you doing? I don’t understand.”
I knew his cock was rock hard and desperate to fill me. I knew he wanted to touch me so badly he was afraid he would hurt me if he did so. He was afraid, afraid to lose control, afraid he would be too rough and frighten me. As he stripped naked, the massive muscles of his chest and back made my mouth water.
Rav wrapped his arms about me and I wasn’t sure if his hold was to keep me from escaping or because he wanted to feel me. He held me pressed to him, my back to his chest as Grigg stepped free of his pants, kicking them aside, his huge cock straining to reach me. It was swollen and thick, the blunt head so wide. An artery pulsed up the bulging length. I saw the drop of pre-cum on the tip, watched it slide down the smooth crown. I licked my lips, unable to stop myself from imagining what that little pearly drop would taste like burning down my throat and into my belly, or rubbed over my breasts. And it was like fire. The liquid had heated my clit somehow and I knew that it would do the same to the rest of me.
Rav’s hands rose to cup my bare breasts and Grigg, watching every move, shuddered.
“Yes, Rav. We will claim her now. Fuck her. Do exactly what I tell you,” Grigg growled.
Through the strange link forged by our collars, I felt Rav bristle at Grigg’s high-handed demands. The collars were a powerful and heady tool. I sensed things, knew things I shouldn’t, having just transported. Somehow, I knew that Rav was used to taking orders from his commander and would do as he said, even fucking me. It was an easy order, for he was too eager to touch me to refuse. The cock pressing hard and thick into my back told me that he was more than ready to do anything Grigg wanted him to. We were both at Grigg’s mercy—I, certainly, was at both of theirs—at his whim, and for some reason, that thought made me so fucking hot I began to shake.