“Come with us, mate,” Zed said it, the tone soft. A question, not a demand. “Give us thirty days to win your heart.”
I would have collapsed onto the floor but Axon was on his knees now, pulling me into his arms making me feel safe. But he wasn’t the only one. Zed’s warmth wrapped around my stomach, hand resting on my hip in a blatant sign of ownership that I found oddly reassuring. Calder’s huge palm stroked up and down my back, soothing and comforting me so well my entire body melted.
One? Just one of them was going to be mine?
No. I wanted all three of them. They might think they were winning me over, but in my heart I knew I could never turn my back on them now. Not if they would help me find my sister. I could have my cake and eat it too, and I was not going to give that up. They were mine. All three of them. I would just have to take the next thirty days and convince them. Insane, since I was shoving the door in their face a short time ago.
“Thirty days.” I agreed, but they were in for a surprise. I would not choose.
As much as the realization shocked me, I wasn’t one to lie to myself.
I wanted them all.
5
Zed, Interstellar Brides Processing Center, Earth
Our mate was exhausted. Violet’s bright eyes were shining with unshed tears and she trembled as we made our way onto the transport pad inside the Interstellar Brides processing center on Earth. Warden Egara was a disciplined woman and I instantly approved. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that what she really needed was a strong mate to rely on, someone who could break her wide open and make her burn.
As Violet had burned for us a few hours ago.
Perhaps we had pushed our mate too far. I did not know, but I could not back down. Not now that my cock knew the feel of her sweet pussy. She was mine, and the urge to protect and nurture her was so strong I had to fight back trembling of my own. I felt like an animal, out of control and operating not on cold logic, but instinct. Need.
“Are you ready, Violet? We will transport to Viken United, to the home of the three kings. Their mate, Queen Leah, is from Earth as well. I’m sure she will be very excited to meet you.” Axon held her gently, one hand at the small of her back, the other supporting her elbow. Apparently, he, too, had noticed our mate’s bravado hid shaking limbs and sated body.
“Okay.”
Calder and Axon both served on the queen’s guard. I’d come to this claiming from the frozen lands in the north, guarding Viken’s communications system from the separatists who wished to withdraw from the Interstellar Coalition and go back to the old ways with tribal war. Three sectors of the planet controlled by three factions all fighting each other instead of the unity that was being forged now. The three kings, separated at birth to live in each of the sectors, were reunited with the arrival of their mate. Queen Leah had quickly become pregnant and now Princess Allayna was the one to truly unite the planet. She had no sector. She was Viken and only Viken. While little more than a baby, she was the future, unless the VSS had their way.
But that wasn’t the only threat. Many wanted to bury their heads in the sand and pretend the Hive did not exist, even with volunteers going to join the Coalition and returning as we had, knowing the truth, the danger that was out there. The destruction that was possible.
There were too many warriors like me who had seen the Hive first hand. Fought them. Understood the true level of horror their conquest would bring upon our people. We were not alone in the galaxy, and members of the VSS, the Viken Sector Separatists’ movement, were trapped in the old ways. Old thinking.
As I was, perhaps, in my own way. I didn’t wish for violence, but I did wish for Violet to be mine and mine alone. It worried me now that this wouldn’t be the case, that she might claim one of the others.
Axon and Violet looked down at me from the transport platform and I walked up to stand beside my mate. When her small hand slipped into mine for comfort, my body responded with heat. And pain. The ache was bittersweet.
I’d waited so long for a mate, and now there was a chance I could lose her to one of the warriors standing with me.
“Promise you will take me to see my sister.” Violet’s gaze held mine, but she looked away to pin both Axon and Calder with the same demanding glare. “Promise me. All three of you.”
“You have my word, mate,” I vowed, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. She squeezed my hand and leaned into me, just for a moment, but it was enough, and I rev
eled in that small sign of her acceptance. Her need for me.
Axon affirmed his promise as well, but Calder remained silent. And was not on the transport pad. We all stared at him as he stood near the doorway, but it was Warden Egara who spoke.
“Is there a problem, Calder?” Her arms were crossed over her chest and she raised one dark brow.
“Yes.” He spoke to the warden, but his gaze was locked with Violet’s. “My mate worries about her sister. They had never been separated until she was matched. And I cannot uphold my vow to her if I do not know where her sister resides on Trion. It is a large planet and I do not enjoy games.”
The warden’s foot began tapping on the tile floor, but there was an upward curve to the corner of her mouth that said she was far from angry. “What do you propose, Elite Guard? If you are asking for information on the location of a bride, that would be against protocol, as you are not a member of her family.”
He turned to face her. “I disagree. I am her brother by law.”
The warden did not back down. “Not yet. Miss Nichols, that is, Miss Violet Nichols, has thirty days to determine which of you, or all of you, is her mate. And since you are the one most insistent that she ruin a perfectly good mating and choose between the three of you, you are absolutely not part of Miss Nichol’s family. You are selfish, Calder. Only thinking of your needs, not hers.”
Calder’s fair skin flushed bright red and I knew the small Earth female had pushed him too far. Beside me, Violet gasped but Axon’s gaze hardened—and he wasn’t glaring at Warden Egara, but at Calder. Apparently, Axon agreed with the warden’s assessment. He’d stated clearly in Violet’s apartment that he was not opposed to the idea of sharing a mate.