“Good.” The sooner I got off this planet, the sooner I could start my life with my new mate.
“You got her?” Razz asked.
My beast wanted to answer them, so I let him.
“Mine.”
The two Atlans chuckled and walked away. I was left staring down into the most amazing green and gold eyes I’d ever seen. She was even smaller than I remembered. Her dark red hair was styled as well, as if she’d been at a party.
“You are very beautiful.”
Her cheeks turned a cute shade of pink as she looked at me. “Thanks.”
I stepped back to allow her entrance into my kingdom, such as it was. She came inside without hesitation, which soothed a part of me I hadn’t been aware was anxious.
The beast had fucked her. Claimed her. Spoken to her.
I had not. Would she accept me as readily? I did not want to say the wrong thing. Upset her. Frighten her. Make her angry. I had no idea what Icouldsay. We were in a fucked up situation. I couldn’t take her to dinner or to see my home planet. Atlan was a beautiful world, not unlike Earth.
“I’m sorry.” The words came out of my mouth before I realized I was going to utter them.
She spun around, abandoning her intense inspection of the tiny space. “Why?”
“Why?” I closed the distance and reached for her, cradled her delicate face in my hands. I had to touch her, Ineededto touch her. “I am sorry I got you into this mess. I am sorry we were separated. I am sorry that the beast was so rough with you. I should have been the one to touch you first.”
I kissed her then, gently, because I needed to taste her with my own lips, nothis. “I should have been the one to fuck you.” I kissed her cheek. She tilted her head to the side to give me better access and I took immediate advantage, running my lips down the curve of her jaw to nibble at her neck.
“Kovo. I was so scared when they took me away. I thought they were going to kill you.”
They nearly did. A few more minutes and Helion’s ReCon team would have been too late. That information was my burden to bear, not hers.
“I am here now. And I am never leaving you again.”
She wrapped her hands around my wrists, not to push me away, as I first feared, but to lock me to her. My mating cuffs were on her wrists, the sight nearly driving me to pick her up, shove her against a wall, lift her skirt and fuck her mindless.
But that is what a beast would do. I was not a beast. Not today. Today I was a male who very much wanted to pleasure his mate. To savor her. Explore her body to the smallest detail. I wanted to claim every part of her with my hands. My lips.
My tongue. Gods, I couldn’t wait to fuck her with my tongue, feast on her pussy, make her cry out over and over.
“Adrian.” I held her head in place as I tasted. Plundered. Explored. Her small tongue met mine with a wildness I never dreamt possible.
“What?”
“I need to fuck you now.”
She sighed with contentment, the sound so intimate and accepting it was as if she had been mine for years, not hours. The simple act stole my breath. “Don’t you think we should talk first? The beast didn’t have a lot to say except ‘Mine’.” She smiled against my lips. “He seems to have an unnatural fondness for that word.”
It was my turn to smile. “Indeed. In that, he and I are one.”
“Are you?” She tensed, her body changing from supple to rigid as she pulled away from me. “Are you sure about that? You didn’t want me. You told me to get out of your cell.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach and bent slightly at the waist. “Oh, god. I think I’m going to be sick again.”
“Again?” What was wrong with her? Was she ill? Did she need a ReGen pod? Where was Helion when I really needed him. Fucking doctor. He was the only healer I’d ever known who had taken more lives than he’d saved.
“Just nerves. It’s nothing.”
“You were sick?”
“All over Helion’s perfectly polished boots. Don’t worry. I’m fine now. But his boots... I doubt they will ever be the same again.”
