“Oh.” Yeah, from the tone of that one word she knew what it meant for both of us. The implications. The dangers.
“No wonder you’re so worried,” she replied. “Adrenaline junkies, huh?”
I wasn’t sure what the term meant, but Seth’s shoulders stiffened and I waited for him to answer our mate’s odd question. “I don’t know, Chloe. I just know I can’t walk away from this fight. And neither can Dorian.”
She nodded. “I understand. Trust me. I so get you.”
“Then you know why I chose Dorian as my second? Why it has to be this way?”
I stood then to my full height and I watched as Chloe’s head tipped back to keep her eyes on mine. “Yes,” she repeated, licking her lips again.
“If you’ve been to space before, then you know how this works.” I might be Seth’s second, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t follow Prillon custom. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked to the transport tech, who’d been watching the entire exchange with rapt attention. Brides did not arrive often. His presence here was a gift to him, and he honored that fact well. “Do you have what I requested?”
He perked up and came around his work station. “Yes, Captain.”
He held my collars out to me and I took them, the three black ribbons of a Prillon mating. They were as familiar to me as my own hand. I’d had them since I came of age, waiting for just this moment, when I could present them to my mate. While I was the second here, and should have ceded to the primary mate’s collars, Seth had none. He wasn’t Prillon. But while Chloe was matched to him, not me, she was mine just as much as she was Seth’s.
I wasn’t willing to give up the deep emotional connection other mates shared through their collars. I’d bee
n waiting for her. For this moment. If Seth didn’t like it, he could choose not to join us in our psychic bond. But Chloe? She was mine. I needed to feel what she felt, to know when she was happy or frightened or aroused. She would wear my collar.
I thanked the tech and turned back to my mate and Seth.
“A Prillon mating collar,” she murmured, eyeing me.
“It would be my honor, my privilege to wear a collar that matches yours. My collar will proclaim to all that you are under my protection. My mate. That I am yours. I am possessive, Chloe. I need to see my mark on your body, know that none would dare touch what was mine. Will you honor me and accept the collar?”
“What about you?” she asked Seth.
He flicked his gaze to mine. He knew what the collars represented, what they would mean to anyone who saw one around his neck. My neck. Hers. He also knew of the connection we would share with her. “Dorian?”
I held out a collar and Seth took it from my hand as I spoke. “The choice is yours. But I will not be denied. She is mine as much as she is yours.”
Seth nodded. “Can’t let you have all the fun, now can I?’
Chloe smiled, but Seth’s serious expression caused her smile to wilt like a flower in the driest desert. “I will wear your collar, Chloe. From this moment, I am yours. You and I, we humans, don’t have any kind of customs out here in space. There’s no church, no priest, no one to marry us. Just know this, sweetheart, when I take you the first time, there’s no going back. You’ll be mine.”
Her mouth fell open. “I have thirty days to decide, hotshot,” she countered.
Seth gave a slight shrug. “Yes, by Coalition law. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be mine.”
She frowned, seemingly not liking his bossy answer.
“The collar is black. When Seth and I claim you in the formal Prillon tradition, it will change to gold, my family’s color.”
She took a step back. “I know all about the Prillon mating ceremony and I’m not fucking you guys in public. Not happening.” She crossed her arms over her chest and I could see the slight swells of her breasts plump up beneath the thin material of what looked like a hospital gown.
Seth didn’t even look at me. “I’ll share you with Dorian, sweetheart. No one else. As for the Prillon claiming custom, Dorian can have his collars. He won’t have his way with the rest. No public fucking for you. Ever.”
Her slight shoulders slumped in relief.
I was surprised by my own emotions in this. I’d known my whole life I’d fuck a mate with another male, that I’d claim her publicly. I’d been fine with that. Until now.
Just knowing that with her arms now crossed over her chest, the back of her gown was split open, baring her curves, had me wanting to toss her over my shoulder and carry her back to our private quarters. We’d requested the new quarters upon our return from the last mission, moved everything we both owned into the new suite in less than an hour.
We were warriors. The only thing that truly belonged to us, that mattered, was standing before us in this room. Chloe. She was ours and I used every ounce of self-control not to rush to her and explore every inch of her body with mouth and lips and tongue. My need was growing, and feral. Unexpectedly hard to control.
But then, I had not expected our mate to be so beautiful. So sassy. So soft and perfect.