I wanted to kill him. I could only imagine the depths of Goran’s rage knowing his mate was healing in a ReGen pod.
Violet’s hand wrapped around Goran’s lower leg, as if she were petting him. Soothing him. Loving him. I could not look at Violet touching the other male for another moment. Not with that gown making me ache to fuck her. Not knowing she looked at not just me with that love and trust shining from her eyes, but at Axon and Zed as well.
I was a selfish bastard. I knew it. I wrestled with the idea of sharing her. Fucking her with the others—all of us bringing her pleasure—was not a chore. In fact, the thought of her giving up all control to the three of us made my cock jerk in my Trion robes, even now.
She was passionate and fearless, our Violet. But part of me lingered on the old dream, the dream of a life and home in Sector One, not on the island city of Viken United. Of claiming her for my own. Giving her my seed, my children. Watching her run after our young ones as they ran through the trees on their way to school.
It was an old dream, one I’d carried since I was a child and my own mother followed us to school, laughing and singing as we ran wild through the woods. She’d been so beautiful, so full of joy. Serene and calming on the entire family. On my father, whose moods were wild and unpredictable when he came back from the Hive war.
My mother was the balm that had saved us all. But looking at Violet, I realized she was nothing like my mother. Violet was wild and passionate. Courageous and demanding. She was reserved and disciplined on the exterior, but beneath her cold façade churned a storm of emotion and lust. Need. Love. While she sat before us all almost placidly, she was not calm, she was a female warrior, quick to anger and quick to love. She was fire to my mother’s water. Opposites. Nothing at all like the mate I’d thought I wanted.
And I needed her anyway.
Bertok rose to his feet, which caused a whirlwind of reaction as the other councilors, Goran included, jumped to their feet in answer to the odd challenge. Bertok was old. Not too old to fight, but too old to best any other warrior in the room.
So why stand? Why issue a challenge at all?
With a mental shrug, I watched Goran for a signal. He remained calm, so I settled back on my heels to see how this played out. The only thing I hated more than politics were the fucking Hive themselves and that spoke volumes.
Only Tark remained seated, the disgust and boredom on his face truly enraging the old man – and making me grin.
Bertok was shaking with fury. “You sit there having claimed your Interstellar Brides and judge me. You left us all, chasing a distant threat on far off worlds. You betrayed your people. You do not deserve respect or leadership of Trion.”
“Are you challenging me, Bertok?” That was Tark, and he was on his feet now as well, everyone else seemed to shrink back half a step to allow the dominant male in the room the space he needed to fight. He was large, the sword swinging from his hip chipped and well oiled, the gleam of the edge proof of the sharpness of his blade. He would be a challenge for anyone in the room, myself and Zed included.
For Violet, I would battle him, but I was not sure who the victor of that encounter would be.
Bertok, on the other hand, knew exactly who would lose in the challenge he issued. “Don’t be a fool, Tark. Of course not. I am simply stating the obvious. The drover threat has not been eliminated and I have lost another female. Another unborn son. I demand justice.”
With those words, everyone relaxed. Everyone but Axon, who bolted through the room. Everyone but Violet, whose piercing scream made my entire body flood with pain. And Zed. He was already there, tackling the serving woman who had just given Violet a goblet of wine.
After placing the chalice on the low table beside Violet and Goran, she pulled a jeweled dagger from her gown and attempted to plunge the blade into Violet’s exposed throat.
Axon wrapped his body around Violet. Staked as she was to the ground at Goran’s feet, she could not move, could not run, so Axon used his body as a shield, covering her as Zed held the attacker in place, arm upraised, dagger a ruthless point aimed directly at our mate. “Here is your assassin, Goran.”
Goran turned to the woman as Roark and Tark took up positions at his back, in case any of the other councilors or their guards tried to attack Goran from behind.
Me? I couldn’t see my mate, or Zed, or hear the conversation happening behind the huge, enraged Trion warriors facing the rest of the tent with swords drawn and don’t-fuck-with-me expressions on their faces. They had formed a circle around the leaders, an extra barrier of protection.
It had happened so fast. A split second. We’d assumed the attacker a male, but the sole serving woman had been beneath our watchful gazes, which she had anticipated. Because of this, without Zed’s and Axon’s quick response, Violet would have been hurt. Possibly dead with a dagger protruding from her throat as her life’s blood soaked red into the white sand.
Tark raised his sword and pointed at Bertok. “Is this your doing, old man? I will have your head if she is yours.”
Bertok paled and sat abruptly on the mat covering the hard ground, as if his knees collapsed. A coward. That’s what he was. A whining, sniveling coward.
“Never,” he swore. “A mate is sacred, High Councilor. Even in the wildlands, we honor that truth.” Neither Ta
rk nor Roark looked convinced, but until the assassin was questioned, there was nothing else to be done but make sure Violet didn’t get hurt. Especially now that everyone in the tent rode the sharp edge of violence waiting to erupt.
I’d learned my lesson, too late, but I’d learned. I ignored the byplay between Tark and Bertok to focus on everyone else in the room, scanning every soldier and servant, every councilor and guard, my wandering attention taking in and assessing everyone for a threat. Just because one had been identified didn’t mean there weren’t others.
I trusted Axon and Zed to keep Violet safe and realized, as my gaze locked with Axon’s and he gave me a brief nod, that they were trusting me to watch their backs. I realized in that moment that we were truly a family, warriors and brothers now, devoted to loving and protecting one woman. Our mate.
Ours.
Viken United or my woodland home in Sector One? I no longer cared. Violet was my home now. And having Zed and Axon to care for her with me, pleasure her and keep her happy, lessened the burden on me. When I couldn’t be there for her, I had confidence that they would. She loved them. And she loved me. I saw that love in her eyes, in the way she surrendered her body to our touch. She needed all of us, and I would deny her nothing. Not anymore. I’d been selfish and stupid, but the thought of losing her broke me in ways I’d never imagined possible.
She was ours. And I did not care what color our daughter’s hair might be. Or which father’s eyes shined with laughter and joy as I tossed her in the air and kissed her tiny head. I had two more warriors to protect our family, to love them.