The Seed Power. Fuck. I knew better. I knew the connection it forged between a male and his mate was rumored to be instant and powerful. I’d never given my Seed Power to any other female. I’d always been careful. I should have been careful today.
Who was I kidding? I wanted my seed in her. I wanted to bind her to me, to make her hunger for me, for my cock, my body. My attention. Above all, I wanted to give her all of them and more. Protection. Care. Love. Children.
God, Geros. He was obsessed with having a family. Children. Finding a mate and binder her to us. He had given his seed to Smith as well.
Perhaps I would only need to replace one hard-headed idiot to create the family Geros and I both wanted. With Smith. I would fight to keep her. Win her heart. Do whatever I had to do to make her happy. If she would stay. She just had to stay on Viken.
I took a deep breath, tore my gaze away from that fucker’s fat hand on Smith’s perfect ass, and readied himself for the task at hand. My heart pounded in my chest as I moved towards the corner where I knew Smith would be waiting with the large male she had lured away. The male touching her and stroking her like she was his.
Fuck. That.
I agreed with Smith’s assessment. Of the three guards currently on duty, he was, by far, the most dangerous. One soldier recognized another easily. I wondered, briefly, where he’d been stationed in the war. Perhaps we had even fought on the same battlefield against the Hive.
But then I heard him call our Smithlittle one,that was the end of that. I didn’t care if he’d taken out an entire legion of Hive Soldiers. He had his hands on my mate. Unacceptable.
I knew what I had to do. I steeled himself, took one last deep breath, and then leapt around the corner.
The guard stood dead center in the elevator, his hand extended to Smith.
She took a step back. “I’m sorry.”
Sorry? She was apologizing to this asshole?
I fired my ion blaster. Twice. It wouldn’t kill him, but he’d wake up later with a massive headache, his body aching all over. He deserved worse for touching my mate. My Smith.
The guard crumpled to the ground. I stepped inside and active a timed delay used for evacuations. No sense sending him to the ground floor where he would be found.
The doors closed on him and I watched him disappear with satisfaction a living, breathing thing heaving in my chest. The feeling nearly exploded out of me when Smith walked to my side and allowed me,me,hermate,to pull her close and hold her.
“He’ll have a headache when he wakes up.”
“He wasn’t a bad guy.”
I growled. “He touched you.”
“Kayson. The Seed Power. Get your head on straight.” Mal looked us over, his gaze lingering on my hand where it rested on her hip, at her arm where it circled my waist as she held me in turn. His permanent scowl deepened. “Let’s go. We have two more guards and Master Gee to deal with.”
* * *
Mal
I raced down the corridor, my adrenaline pumping. I ran faster, dodging ion blasts as I went. I reached the door at the end of the corridor and was met with physical force by one of the two guards. The second had his blaster drawn and pointed down the hall at Kayson who was directly behind me.
Holding onto the guard in front of me, I shoved both of our bodies into the second guard. His blaster fired but the shot hit the ceiling and then…Kayson was on him.
Kayson attacked. The two of them wrestled for control of the blaster, but Kayson eventually gained the upper hand. He managed to disarm the guard and then proceeded to punch him in the face, knocking him out.
Free to focus on my opponent, I yanked him close and slammed my forehead into his face. He crumpled at my feet.
My head hurt, but maybe that would stop the insane thoughts spinning inside my fucking skull. Thoughts about taking Smith, wrapping her in a soft blanket, as I had the first day I saw her, and taking her as far away from this fucking city—and this club—as we could get. Thoughts about keeping her.
Since the moment we’d walked into the club, I’d been pawed over and flirted with every moment I wasn’t with Smith. I’d been propositioned. Baited. Seduced. None of them knew me. None of them cared what I did outside of the walls of this club. All they wanted was a Master. They wanted to use me up and take advantage of my innate need to serve them, to give them what they needed—even at my own expense. And I would. I knew I would. I’d accepted the weakness in myself and quit coming to this place, stopped serving these people who took and took until they made me leery. Cautious. Until I held myself back and didn’t become involved in other people’s lives.
Until Smith. I hadn’t touched her. I knew I could. Fuck, she’d invited me to. But I couldn’t do it. If I started, I wouldn’t want to stop. I wouldn’t be able to stop until she gave me everything.
Smith appeared, now that the fight was over. Kayson moved quickly to the woman he was falling in love with, beckoning her to come to him. Which she did. She moved in close, so her shoulder touched his arm. Contact. Comfort.
It fucking pissed me off and I knew it shouldn’t. An irrational part of me wanted to pull her away from him, lay her down on the floor right here, right now, and fuck her until she screamed my name. I wanted to claim her. Mark her. Keep her.
