“Anytime.” She sounded so smug I was tempted to turn around and give her the finger, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the warlord in front of me. My instincts insisted if I turned away, I would end up thrown over his shoulder.
“Stefani. Mine.” His voice had dropped at least half an octave. I watched as he shuddered again. He was huge, like all the Atlans I’d met. His veins bulged from his temples. I refused to look lower.
Would. Not. Look—
Holy hell. His shorts hid nothing. His cock was huge, and hard and straining toward me through the thin material of his shorts.
No. No. No.
Lower. Look lower. Legs. Legs were safe, right?
“What the hell happened to your legs?” The words burst from my lips before I could censor them.
“Mine.”
One track freaking mind. I held up my hand, palm out, as I crouched down to get a better look at his legs. He was covered in jellyfish stings. Covered. That had to hurt. A lot.
“Jesus, man. What did you do? Put on jelly perfume and invite them over?” Henry whistled and stepped up next to me, completely ignoring the massive alien who could crush his skull with one hand.
I looked up at the Atlan to find him watching me, his dark eyes focused on me like the rest of the world didn’t exist. I had to admit, it was nice. No surprise there. I’d seen Kovo give my sister the same look. She melted like butter every time. “What’s your name, Warlord?”
“Velik.”
“You from the processing center?”
“Yes.”
“One of the guards? I think I remember one of the guys mentioning you.”
“Yes.”
I wracked my brain. I knew I’d heard his name. Knew it. “Wait! You’re the one who helped Maxus get the mating cuffs!” Maxus had been on Earth illegally and had to request a pair of smuggled mating cuffs be sent to Earth so he could slap them on my mother’s wrists.
“Yes.” His dinner-plate sized hands were now clenched into fists at his sides. How bad was his mating fever? How close was he to losing control and letting his beast out? If that happened, there would be nothing I could do, no way to get him back where he belonged before he made a huge mistake. “Stefani. Mine.”
“We’ll talk about that later.” He did seem determined. I didn’t want a mate, but I couldn’t just stand here and let him suffer. He had at least a dozen stings as well as visible tentacles still sticking to his legs. I swung my bag around and dug through it looking for my bottle of Sting Stopper. “Found it!”
I pulled the treatment spray from my bag and shook the bottle. It was nearly empty. I couldn’t even get the sprayer to work. “Mine’s gone. Either one of you have any?”
Carmen shook her head. “No. Sorry.”
Henry shrugged. “No. And I’m not peeing on his legs.”
Carmen burst out laughing. The Atlan growled in warning and took a step toward Henry.
Moving quickly, I stepped between them and held up my hand. Mistake number two, because my palm made contact with his bare chest. That one touch went straight to my core. My damn clit throbbed, joining the vajayjay uprising in trying to take over my life.
“No one is peeing on anyone.”
3
Velik
* * *
My mate was beautiful. Her long brown hair had been pulled back into some kind of layered knot that clearly revealed strands of red hiding among them. Her eyes were green and gold. I wanted to drown in them.
The scent of her arousal made it nearly impossible to remain in control. The beast could smell her, too. And he’d been waiting for so long. So fucking long.
