I wasn’t buried balls deep in her pussy or showering her with attention and devotion, covering every naked inch of her perfect body with my lips or my hands.
No.
We were on fucking Trion because her sister had been hurt. We were in the med unit in a critical care room with a row of ReGen pods. My arm was around Violet’s shoulders offering her comfort as best I could. Calder was on our left, leaning against the wall like he was holding up the building. Zed stood on our right like a granite statue, his gaze taking in every detail of the room, the people, and the situation. We were exposed here. Vulnerable. None of us had been to Trion before and the details that Zed had shared about some enemy who’d made an attempt on Mindy’s life meant we couldn’t guarantee our safety. The three of us were well trained to defend ourselves, but I didn’t like that Violet was here, that we’d brought her somewhere with a threat to her life.
But our mate was safely standing between us. We were holding it together, but I recognized the restless tension in the other two warriors because I felt it myself. The sensation would only go away once we were back on Viken. No, back on Viken in our new mate quarters with Violet naked and beneath her three mates, preferably with all three of our cocks deep in her at the same time, claiming her as ours.
We stared at a nearly identical copy of our mate in the ReGen pod. Her coloring was off, almost gray from blood loss and pain, and even in the healing unit, it was not helping any of us to calm down. Least of all our mate. She broke from my hold and paced next to Mindy’s prone form beneath the metal and glass like a caged beast. Up and back. Head to feet. Back again. And again. And again.
While Zed had received word directly from Goran while he’d been in the med center with Violet, he’d contacted us immediately with the news and the plan to transport to Trion. I wasn’t excited about this trip, the danger, the fact that Violet’s sister had been injured. In fact, I wanted to spend a good amount of time interrogating General Goran about how he’d allowed this to happen. By the look on Calder’s face, he felt the same.
But Calder appreciated the need for family more than myself or Zed. Coming from Sector One, it was almost crucial for him. But his family was all dead and it was as if he’d lost a limb. A mate—Violet—was the start of a new family for him. For all of us. And by extension, we now had Mindy as well. And grudgingly, even General Goran.
I would give Violet anything, even bring her to Trion as we’d promised, but not when there was even a hint of danger. But, fuck. Her sister had been hurt and I couldn’t blame her desperate need to be with her. I didn’t like it. Zed didn’t like it. Even Calder was tense. Viken. We just had to be fucking patient until we could get her back there.
It wasn’t as if I had a problem with Trion. It was a fine planet. Fine people. I’d fought with many a brilliant Coalition fighter from here, knew of it from their conversation, from universe geography lessons in school as a child, but it was nothing like I imagined.
It wasn’t green like Viken. Sand was everywhere. A desert climate, the structures in this outpost were made of a heavy canvas, temporary dwellings to move as needed. The technology within—transport and medicine—were the same as ours. Perhaps it was the only thing the same. The customs here were extreme. Goran was a high official, the color of his robes indicated it. But his mate was naked within the pod, only a haze to the lower portion of the glass that covered her body offered her modesty, but I could discern the dark line of the chains affixed to nipple rings resting against her pale body.
Goran’s status as Mindy’s mate was blatant. His stance over her in the comm with them was one of dominance and hers of submission. It wasn’t incorrect, just…different. Zed’s need to dominate Violet was similar and that was what he liked in bed, but the male-dominated society here—in and out of the bedroom—was a shift to my thinking.
Obviously, it was
what Mindy had subliminally wanted to be matched through the testing program. Based on the comm when we were on Earth, she was happy. The mating complete and successful. And now, the way Goran was barely maintaining his control as he waited for word on the reconnaissance, he was taken by Mindy. Completely hers. His need for her controlled every one of his actions. He wanted her whole and well and safe more than any of us, although I wouldn’t say that to Violet.
I wanted her safe as well, and as for Violet, as far from here as possible.
And that wouldn’t happen until the timer on the ReGen pod ended, the machine completing all the healing it had been programmed to make, and Mindy herself proved she was well. Until then, Violet would continue to worry, to doubt she would recover. She was unfamiliar with a ReGen pod and didn’t believe the doctor when she said Mindy would be fine. All she had to do was lay there, unconscious and she would heal. Violet had shared how Earth doctors cut patients open, used scalpels and other tools to heal, then having to sew a body closed, like a seam in a shirt. Primitive. It was a wonder Violet and Mindy had survived this long on such a basic planet as Earth.
Watching the timer was like watching a food service machine prepare a meal.
Violet put her palm on the glass. “The injuries the doctor mentioned”—she shuddered then took a deep breath—“would have killed Mindy on Earth. Nothing could have repaired the organs which were so badly damaged. But here, it seems her wounds were considered minor.”
“Nothing is minor when it comes to my mate,” Goran said on a sharp growl. His hands were clenched into fists, his body rigid. If it were Violet beneath the pod’s clear lid, I would be just as tense.
In fact, it was odd to see Mindy within. She looked so similar to her sister it was eerie. Like the kings of Viken who were identical except for the cut of their hair and their demeanor. Raised in the three different Viken sectors, the kings’ personalities definitely matched each.
But now, with Mindy’s eyes closed in a healing stasis, it could have been Violet. And that made me shudder. No fucking way would she come to harm.
“General.” A man called from the doorway.
Goran’s head came up, his steps swift as he approached the messenger.
“We have word from High Councilor Tark. The request for a recess had been denied. With such danger, and Tark’s mate expecting their child imminently, he demands your presence.”
Goran’s jaw clenched, his shoulders rolled back as if he were ready to implode. “Very well. But inform the High Councilor that we will be unable to use Mindy as we had planned. She is still in the ReGen pod and requires several more hours of healing.”
“That will not please the other councilors. Her absence will make us appear weak before the others.”
“Fark the council,” Goran snapped. “Tell him I refuse to place my mate in additional danger just to draw out a traitor—even if she were awake. I will not use her as bait. Not again.”
“Yes, sir.”
Goran turned back to us and approached the healing pod.
I paid him no attention, my eyes solely on Violet. I did not like the sharpness of her gaze, or the odd tilt of her head.
“What do you mean, use her as bait?” she asked Goran.