The transport tech watched us all without blinking, his concentrated interest in our mate no longer feeling like a point of pride, but an annoyance. He looked at what was ours. Wanted what was ours.
No. I would not claim her publicly. This tiny Earth female was ours and no one else’s. Her pleasure, her skin, her surrender? Ours and ours alone.
“No public claiming,” I confirmed.
I lifted a collar to my neck, affixed it and felt the seam seal close, the material adjust in size to fit about my neck. A slight buzz coursed through my body, as if an open communications channel had been made, but there was no one else on the line.
Chloe looked to me, then to Seth, then back, studying the collar about my neck. After a minute, she put her hand out, palm up, but I stepped closer to her.
“Allow me, Lady Mills. Please.” I addressed her by her new, formal title for the first time and felt more than saw Seth shudder next to me at the finality of those words. Lady Mills. Claimed. Collared. Ours.
I raised the collar toward her neck. Seth came around behind her, lifted the long fall of her hair so I could encircle her slim nape. The sides of my hands brushed her soft skin. So warm, so smooth. The collar joined, then sealed and I moved my hands away to watch as the collar resized to her neck.
My cock pulsed at the sight of it about her neck, but when I felt the jolt of her emotions through my own collar, I gave a slight groan.
Seth looked to me and I watched Chloe’s eyes widen. “Do you feel me, mate?” I asked.
She nodded and I staggered as her desire sliced through me like a blade made of pure flame. She wanted us, all right. She wanted us almost as much I wanted her.
Seth placed a chaste kiss on the back of her neck and her fluttered response moved through me like the fast, frenzied flight of a dozen tiny wings. Seth let her hair fall and stepped back to place the last collar on himself.
His possessive fire joined the swirl of emotions coursing through our mate and she swayed on her feet, licking her lips as her eyes glazed with desire. Need.
“You Prillons are geniuses, Dorian,” he murmured, once his was fitted as well. His eyes locked like laser sights on our mate.
I could feel them both. Their emotions, their need. Not just Seth’s toward Chloe—she was a beautiful female—but also hers for us.
“So, are we done here? I’d like to get out of the transport room.” Chloe’s hands fluttered nervously as she stared us down, accepted the powerful flood of my desire for her combined with Seth’s. He was not Prillon, but his need for her, his protective and possessive feelings, were every bit as strong as my own, and I knew I had made the right choice, the only choice, in becoming his second.
Chloe. Beautiful Chloe, was ours. And now, with the collar about her neck, she knew exactly how much we wanted her.
“We’re not done,” Seth said, his voice almost a growl.
“Not even close,” I added.
Chloe shook her head as if she were stunned by the feelings swirling between us. It was potent. Intense.
There would be no escape, for any of us.
I swept her into my arms, unable to fight the need to touch her for another moment. Seth didn’t argue, feeling my need to possess her, simply led the way to our quarters. It was time to make Chloe ours.
Chapter 5
Seth
* * *
I led the way to our new private quarters, the space I’d be sharing with both the Prillon warrior and Chloe, our mate.
Mate. Just a few days ago, that word lay heavy on my heart. All I could see was loss and pain and longing for something that could never be. I was human. I was ReCon. My team joked that I had nine lives, but I knew the truth with a bone deep certainty. I only had one.
And now it belonged to her.
As meticulous as I’d been in my planning before, as much as I did to protect my team, I vowed to redouble my efforts. No one was going to take me from Chloe without a fight. And if the unthinkable happened, I’d be at peace, knowing the massive, protective, over-bearing, smart-ass warrior carrying our mate down the hallway would protect her and cherish her to the last breath in his body.
I knew. Thanks to these damn collars. His need, his instinct to claim her, was riding him hard, testing my control. We were both so amped up at the prospect of fucking her, that I was having a hard time remembering where to turn in the maze of cream colored hallways.
Civilian living quarters.