When we both stopped moving, I fought to regain control before Kovo could sneak into my mind and take over, force me to change. I was a beast, not a fool. The warlordse111`897 like Kovo, those who controlled a beast inside their minds, knew the danger they carried within. The intelligence. The power. The battle rage.
The obsession with a chosen female.
Not willing to leave her body, I pulled her to my chest and walked to the edge of my bed. There, I sat, Adrian in my lap, her head pressed to my chest, her knees on either side of my thighs and my cock still inside her.
“Mine.” I wanted there to be no doubt.
“Totally.” She melted into my embrace and seemed content to remain in my arms. Trusting. Sated. This pleased me greatly, a bizarre warmth spreading through my chest and up my neck. From there it dove deep, moved toward my spine, and reemerged behind my eyes. A strange, heavy pain that made my face ache and my heart hurt.
Despite these abnormal physical reactions, her one-word response forced another smile from me, the feeling entirely unnatural. My mate amused me. Seduced me. Owned me. I was not like males of other worlds. I did not have a choice. This female would be held above all others. Cherished. Worshipped. Protected. Pleasured. Only her happiness mattered to me now. Not war. Duty. Honor.
Fuck that. I’d served. I’d fought and killed and been betrayed. Left to die.
Sacrificed by the male who, even now, screamed and raged inside my mind, fought to be free.
Fuck him, too.
Inspecting the cell we occupied with new interest, I stroked my mate’s back as gently as I could while looking for any signs of weakness. A gap. A crack in the wall. Anything.
I was not dying in this cage. I would take my mate and get the fuck out of here.
I didn’t care who I had to kill to do it.
4
Adrian
Iexpected Kovo to be back to normal size when I opened my eyes.
Instead, I met the stare of a beast who appeared to have nothing else to look at but me. He cradled me to him like I was precious. Delicate. His hand traced a soothing pattern up and down my spine with a touch I’d never imagined could be so gentle. I was sore in the more delicate areas. Empty.
We were both still naked. I squirmed, just a bit, and something hard and long said hello in a very intimate way. I remembered exactly how long and hard and thick he was. How good it felt to have him buried deep inside me.
My pulse raced almost as quickly as my thoughts. Whoa. Better slow down the hormones or Stefani would show up and find me in a very unladylike position.
Who cared? She’d probably be jealous. I had a beast to pet and she did not.
Just to prove that I could, I lifted my hand to his chest and ran my palm lightly up and down over his huge muscles. “How long was I out?”
My beast shrugged as if it made no difference to him.
He was schedule to be executed in a few hours and he wasn’t paying attention to the time? What?
How I had managed to fall asleep, I had no idea. Then again, I’d had more orgasms with him than I’d had my entire life—at least with someone else in the room. Then there was the transport to Atlan, which was no picnic. The constanttalking, and eating, andtalking, and meeting people. Meetingmorepeople.
Thank god for the NPU, universal translator thing they’d attached to my skull before transport. Headache had been a bitch, but I would have been completely helpless here without it. Overwhelmed and lost.
Turned out Max, our mother’s new Atlan mate, was top tier famous. Not justworldfamous on Atlan. He was famous in the entire Coalition of Planets. Over two-hundred worlds with billions and billions of people. Aliens. People. Thinking about that many aliens would make my brain explode.
Worse, Stefani and I had discovered that, apparently, human women had become somewhat notorious in the entire Coalition as well. For what, I still wasn’t quite sure. No one would give me a straight answer when I asked. Mom was no help, she just laughed.
Warlord Maxus, infamous Hive survivor and all-around badass warlord with a new human mateandtwo human daughters?
Our quiet visit to our mother’s new home planet had become an oversized circus.
Entirely too many visitors to mom and Max’s new estate. Mansion. Stefani and I were expected to get dressed up like the Atlan women and be social. Make a good impression. Represent Earth well so these people didn’t think we were nothing more than a bunch of impolite barbarians.
I had news for my mother. We were exactly that. But I hated disappointing my mother, so I put on the dresses and talked and smiled and generally made myself miserable.
