Blinking in confusion, I looked back at Blade, who grinned. I thought I’d seen everything during my time in space. This? I never imagined fangs.
Yes. Fangs.
Chapter Three
Styx
Our mate looked dazed as Blade caressed her, kissed her skin, her neck, but she didn’t fight my hold. When she’d walked into the bar, the air had left my lungs as if I’d been punched, and my cock grew instantly hard. Now? I couldn’t let her go. I needed her just like this, her arms over her head, her body open and trusting. Exposed. Vulnerable.
She didn’t understand it, this immediate connection. I recognized it where I knew females from Earth did not. Especially one who had not come through the Brides Program. I only knew one Earth female. Katie. She’d been beautiful and wild, just like Harper. But she hadn’t made me wild in return. Eager, yes, but not for her. She belonged to another, an Everian Hunter who would kill to keep her.
I understood that driving need to both possess and protect now that I held Harper in my arms. Harper belonged to me and Blade. There was no question. No doubt. She was mine, and I’d kill anyone who tried to keep her from me, tried to hurt her.
As if she’d been made for me, she instinctively gave me what I needed. Trust. Passion. Her golden hair was like a beacon, her green eyes so expressive I could see into her soul. I saw everything there. Her desire, her fear. She hid nothing, and the animal part of me had already made its decision.
Mine.
There would be no arguing. No resistance. I didn’t want to resist, I wanted her. Her hot, wet pussy welcoming me as I filled her. I wanted to hear her guttural cries of pleasure as we pushed her to her limits, making her come over and over until she lost control. I wanted to hear my name on her lips, not as she’d said it now, but with longing in her voice. Affection. Tenderness. I knew I would never grow tired of her lips, or the flavor of her Earthly whiskey on her tongue. I would have to trade someone for the S-Gen programming to ensure she had th
e drink available.
I watched her mind whirl and spin, calculating and trying to figure out what we wanted, what we were going to do. She’d come of her own free will into the hallway with me, even if she did not fully understand her desire to be mine. I could see the doubt. She thought us insane—perhaps herself as well—making promises she assumed we had no intention of keeping.
She was wrong.
“You are mine now, Harper.” I lifted my knee to the juncture of her thighs as Blade kissed her, one hand on her breast, the other cupping her rounded ass.
Her soft moan made my cock ache as I watched Blade learn her taste. She kissed him back, all resistance gone. Her slight wrists were so slender and delicate, I held her as I might a baby bird, afraid I’d break her, and every second my mind calculated all possible outcomes.
Blade devoured her, his hunger raging at him, as mine had the moment I’d caught her scent. She shivered, melting for us, submitting to us, and I knew I’d made the right decision when Blade offered something we’d never given another—our bite. Our protection.
Forever.
She was Coalition. Her uniform. The blaster at her side. It was all standard issue for the MedRec teams, the medical technicians and clean-up crews who rushed in after battle to help the warriors who could be saved. I’d been on those killing fields many times myself, not to save lives, but to scavenge weapons. Tech. Things my legion could sell on the black market. We carefully avoided the healing angels like her. We weren’t there to fight, nor to save. We were there out of necessity.
By Coalition standards, my people were criminals. Outcasts. Zenith was a hub for both civilian and military activity, owned by the Coalition, but not a military base. This place existed in the gray area between what would have been a utopian world and reality. Cold, hard reality.
My world.
Blade lifted her gently, moving her so her clit rubbed the hard length of my thigh over and over, rolling her hips with the steady press and release of his firm grip on her ass. She gasped, tearing her mouth from his as he continued to cup and play with her breasts with his free hand, first one, then the other.
She was shaking now, her pale skin flushed pink, her lips swollen and red and ripe. I longed to watch them stretch around my cock as I fucked that sweet mouth, as I claimed every inch of her.
“Wait,” she breathed.
Blade and I both froze, looking at our mate, waiting for her to continue.
“Wait. Stop. I—this is crazy.”
She was not unaffected. The opposite was true. Perhaps her reaction frightened her, was too strong. “It is not crazy to want what we can give you. Many females on our world have hoped for what we offer you.”
“Many females, huh?” She bit her lip and turned her head away from both of us. “I’m no mate, boys. I thought I might have some fun with you.” She glanced at me, then at Blade. “But both of you would be pretty damn hot. We might have some fun, but that’s it.”
“Why?” Strange. She’d been instantly attracted and had ventured into the hallway with me for privacy. Even said she was interested in being with both of us. Now she’d changed her mind? Had we overwhelmed her with talk of forever? I could not lie to her. I intended to keep her, and she needed to accept that fact as quickly as possible. She was mine.
“Why? Because I’m not looking for a mate.” Her gaze darted to mine and I saw the confusion in her eyes, the anxious look as she risked a glance at Blade. “Or two.”
I frowned, wondering why she tormented herself with such resistance. She’d been on the brink of coming—from just riding my thigh. Why had she stopped? Why deny herself such pleasure? I wanted to watch her come, watch her eyes glaze and lose focus. Know I was the reason she lost control. I wanted her to trust me enough to lose that control, craved that intimacy, that secret, passionate part of her.