He never slept this deeply. Every night, all I need do was shift beneath the covers and he was instantly on alert. He’d claimed it was due to too many combat missions, too much time spent on the front, where the extra few seconds it took to wake could cost you your life.
But here, now? He barely lifted his head, the blink of his eyelids slow, as if they were heavy.
Shaking my head, I walked to the grav-wall to find several Atlan females slowly moving from cell to cell down the corridor, peeking into each one and seeing the prisoners, deciding if one was appealing.
One female stopped in front of me. I inspected her on the other side of the shimmering force field and tried not to show how much I was hurting. She was tall, like all Atlan females, almost a foot taller than me. Her hair was a light summer blond with shimmering highlights and the mass fell past her waist. Her breasts were larger than mine, but her waist was trim and defined, and the muscles in her arms and legs would have qualified her for a bodybuilder competition back home.
And, as if that weren’t enough, she was gorgeous. Pale blue eyes and pink lips. She looked like a giant edition fashion model.
No fucking way I could compete with that.
“Hello. I’m Seranda.”
Even her voice was soft and lilting, beautiful.
I nodded in reply.
“I am here to help,” she said, looking around me to Deek.
My pulse pounded, but I tried to keep the panic from rising. “Help with what?”
“I heard of you on the media and I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you and Deek. He’s a fierce and highly respected warrior.” Her voice held more than a little awe as her gaze left me and traveled to the bed behind me, where my mate, my Deek, still slept. Her gaze was more than interested, and I fought back the scowl I knew would form between my brows. I didn’t have a right to that scowl. I didn’t have the right to Deek. Not anymore.
When her gaze returned to me, there was pity in her pale blue eyes. “He is gorgeous, Tiffani Wilson of Earth. I’d like to help you save him.”
I arched my brow at what she was insinuating. “You… you want to fuck him and see if his beast likes you.”
“Likes me?” She shrugged her perfect shoulders. “His beast needs to recognize me as his mate.”
I pursed my lips. “Yes, I’m well aware of that. What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then I will have tried, won’t I? And you will have lost nothing. His execution was announced not long ago.”
My heart skipped a beat, agony like a pickax buried in my chest. “When?”
“Today. He has eight hours.”
I wanted to poke her eyes out, but it wouldn’t make a difference. I wasn’t Deek’s mate. I had no sway over him, no say in who he should be with. I was nothing to him now.
But I loved him. He was a gentle, caring lover one moment, a demanding animal the next. He always took care of me, made me feel like I was his sun and stars, like he’d do anything for me. Die to protect me. He made me feel wanted. Beautiful. Whole. He made me feel whole.
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then he dies.” She shrugged. “But at least you’ll know you tried to save him. If you say no, your selfish jealousy will mean his death.”
Wow. The claws had come out. The bitch was insinuating that I would be killing him if I didn’t let her come into the cell and fuck him, try to calm his beast. I imagined him with her and nearly threw up all over my pretty slippers. Deek was good in bed, no, incredible, but it was our connection that made it that way. We’d connected, perhaps not as mates, but in a way I never had before, with any other man. And that was why my heart was broken. I loved him. I’d given him more than my body. I’d given him my heart. My soul.
And now I had to watch him die.
Or, I could let him see if any of these Atlan females, including Seranda, were his real mate. If I was not his true mate, remaining within the cell with him was only guaranteeing his execution.
Instead of helping him, comforting him, I was condemning him.
I looked down at the cuffs about my wrists. I’d grown accustomed to
the heavy weight of them, for they were a constant reminder of my connection to Deek.
Now though, they were like shackles, keeping him connected to me when I wasn’t the one for him. When my presence would mean his death.