Fuck me, we were chasing a sailboat. The irritation on my legs increased, but nothing would deter the beast from following our mate. Nothing. If I wanted even a semblance of control, I had to give in and run. Hard. Fast.
The beast had her scent. He would hunt. There were multiple females sitting on the boat. We did not know which one was our mate. Which female belonged to us was not important, only the fact that she existed, we had found her, and we would die before we let her go.
2
Stefani Davis, Biscayne Bay, Florida
* * *
I leaned back, bracing my weight on stiff upper arms as the sailboat cut through the waves. At least once a month I made time, with my friends Carmen and Henry, to spend an afternoon on the water. Now that both my mom and my twin sister had mated Atlan Warlords, and my mother had actually moved to another planet, I spent a lot of time alone. Too much time.
A twin without their twin was a sad, pathetic thing. Out on the water was the only time I felt alive anymore. And free.
Lifting my face to the sun, I let out a loud whoop. “I love sailing!”
Sitting right next to me on the bow of the forty-footer, Carmen laughed. “Me, too.”
Henry handed us both another margarita and settled on a folded towel next to Carmen as the sail snapped and waves crashed around us. “And this, lovely ladies, is why you will never convince me to leave Florida.”
I was about to agree when Carmen smacked my leg. Hard. “Effing-A Stef. Look at that guy on the beach. Total hunk.”
I turned my head to follow her gaze and almost dropped the frozen margarita in my lap.
Oh, god! Oh shit! That was an Atlan! Had to be. He was too big, too gorgeous with his shirt off. Jeez, he was showing too much...muscle. “He should put on a shirt.”
“Are you insane?” Carmen leaned forward and pulled a pair of small binoculars from where they rested around her neck. She lifted them so she could spy on the man. “What is wrong with you? He’s way too hot to cover up.”
With a knowing grin, I met Henry’s gaze. Henry grinned like he always did when he was feeling the effects of the marijuana gummies his cousin shipped to him every couple of months. Illegal here? Totally. Did Henry care? No.
I didn’t mind. I’d grown up too poor, around too much suffering, to bother with judging how other people coped. Despite Henry’s weekend vice, we both knew Carmen was the real wild woman. Henry nudged her with his shoulder. “You going to try to find him when we get back to shore? We’re getting close.”
I checked my watch and sighed. He was right. About ten minutes and we’d be walking off the boat. Damn it.
“He’s running.” Carmen giggled. “Oh my god. Stef, I think that guy is chasing the boat.”
“What?”
Carmen handed me her binoculars and I looked for myself.
I shouldn’t have looked. Now my peaceful day on the water was instantly ruined by a throbbing, horny vajayjay influenced by a bit too much tequila.
Seriously? Could this guy be any more perfect? He moved like he could run at top speed for hours. He wasn’t even breathing hard. The sun made his skin glow, from sweat or the water splashing beneath his feet, I wasn’t sure. Didn’t matter. All it did was define every muscle in his chest and across his back. His thighs and legs stretched and contracted as he ran, every muscle popping out to say hello. His shorts were thin and did nothing to hide his bouncing…Holy shit. He was huge! What would that feel like all up in my business? Was that what my sister rode every chance she got? And my mother?
Not going there. Not. Going. There. Eyes up, Stefani.
His dark hair was just long enough to flow back from a face that looked carved from granite. Definitely an Atlan. But they were based in Miami, near the Interstellar Brides Processing center. As far as I knew, Miami was the only city in the country that had agreed to allow aliens—and not the green card kind, the outer space kind—to take up permanent residence in the country. And this was not Miami. We were miles and miles from Miami. “What the hell is he doing all the way out here?”
Carmen grabbed the binoculars from my hands and held them up to ogle him again. “Who cares why he’s here. He is perfect.”
“No, he’s not.” He was an alien and breaking a few dozen new laws right now. I didn’t want to get him into trouble, but he really needed to turn that toned ass around and start running back the way he’d come.
“You know him?” she asked.
“Not exactly. But I know guys like him.” More than one, as a matter of fact. I didn’t simply know the Atlan warlords Max and Kovo. Technically, thanks to my mother and my twin taking them as mates, those two huge mountains of alien man-meat were family.
“Come on, Stef. You don’t even know him and you’re judging him? Why? Because he’s too fuckable?” Carmen’s voice had gone husky, as if she was already in bed with him in her imagination.
Henry nearly choked, his burst of laughter shooting a mouthful of margarita onto the deck of the boat. “Carmen, you are shameless.”
