Frustrated, I lowered my hands to my hips and glared at all three of them. “How can you say that? Goran just said someone threatened her!”
“Exactly, mate.” Axon grinned. “What do you think we would do if anyone threatened you?”
The question gave me pause. “I have no idea.” I didn’t. I’d only known them for a few hours.
Calder, who had been silent for most of the exchange, was the one to respond. “Anyone who threatens you dies a painful death, mate.”
“What?” Had he just said what I thought he had? Were the laws so different out in space? Because here, on Earth, killing someone for saying something stupid was called murder. And the threat alone could mean jail time. “You can’t just kill people for saying something stupid. Don’t you have jails on Viken?”
Zed’s entire body went predator still. “A mate is sacred, Violet.”
But…that was just…. I turned to Axon, expecting him to be the reasonable one in this crazy conversation. “Axon?”
His green eyes were hard and serious. Too serious. “Any threat will be eliminated. It is not up for debate, Violet. You are ours to protect.”
“What if someone just wanted to beat me up? Or punch me in the gut? Kick my shins? People do stupid things all the time.”
Zed’s voice was ice. Emotionless. “Anyone who hurts you dies, Violet. It is our way. The way on Trion, as well.”
The emotional roller coaster was too much, and my knees trembled. Whatever adrenaline rush I’d gotten from talking to my sister was leaving my system. The crash was going to be brutal. Worse, my mental walls were slipping away like sand dunes in a windstorm, leaving me bare. I felt the tears well up in my eyes. Their vow to protect me was crazy. Possessive. Intense.
And I believed them. Their offer of protection made me feel safer than I ever had in my life…and more exposed. Vulnerable. I didn’t understand the war going on inside me.
I glanced over at Warden Egara, whose eyes were brimming with unshed tears. I walked to her on shaky legs and grabbed her in a bear hug. She resisted, at first, but relented, holding me tightly. “They are yours, Violet. Treasure them. Love them. Do not take them for granted.”
I pulled back and looked in her eyes. “You were a bride, weren’t you?”
She nodded, just enough.
“What happened?”
She looked away and stepped out of the hug, once more the prim and proper warden. “The Hive took them both.” She stepped up to the transport control desk. “Your transport window is closing. I suggest you go now.”
“Violet.” Zed said my name, not a question, a demand that I join him on the transport pad.
“I’m coming,” I said, looking back over my shoulder at the warden, wondering what horrible thing had happened to her mates. She’d said mates, not mate, so she’d had more than one. And lost them.
Before I took another step, Calder swept me up into his arms, cradling me against his chest like precious cargo. “You’re not coming yet, mate, but you will. You will come. Over and over again. On my cock, on my mouth, on my fingers,” Calder said, leaning in, his voice low and next to my ear. Hopefully, Warden Egara didn’t hear.
“You will come with us to Viken. Right now.” Axon took my hand as Calder carried me up to the raised platform for transport.
Zed reached across Calder’s chest to take my other hand so I connected all three of us.
“Good luck, Violet,” Warden Egara said. “You are in good hands.” She worked the controls for transport. The room hummed, louder and louder still. Hair rose on my arms. “Your transport will begin in three…two…one.”
7
Calder, Private Quarters, Viken United
Duty didn’t stop because of a new mate, especially since—unlike normal protocols where a mate would arrive on Viken—we’d had to go to Earth to retrieve Violet. While we hadn’t been gone more than twelve hours, we should’ve fucked, claimed and acclimated our bride in that window of time. Left her full of our seed, sated and in the happy throes of seed power.
Instead, we’d gone across the universe. Because of this, I’d been placed back on active duty within an hour of our return. Instead of sinking into Violet’s sweet pussy, I’d had to don my uniform and watch over the queen and our new princess. It was an honor I took seriously, but for the first time, my desire to be elsewhere made me antsy and a touch irritable.
When the queen had immediately begun to ask questions about my new mate, I realized how little I knew about Violet, which only made me frustrated as well, and not just sexually.
I knew Violet cared about her twin; it was obvious from the comm conversation. Her devotion to family—no matter how small it was—made me desire her more, not less, which only proved our match even further. Her protective traits with her sister were blatantly Sector One. I would happily transport her to Trion once a month if that was what she needed to be happy. No longer on Earth, it was simple to do so.
But other than that bond, I knew nothing, and that plagued me.