Until Willow merged her heart with mine, shared her emotions with me.
Forced me to live. Forced me tofeel. Now I couldn’t fucking stop.
Catherine sighed, shaking her head. “Do you love her? I mean, really love her? Do anything to make her happy?”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “Yes.” I swallowed my pride, my fear, my command. “Can you find her?”
As I had many times before when one of her brides—or their mates—was in trouble, I waited as Catherine worked her magic. I had warriors, weapons, and ships. She had contacts I did not. Queen Jessica, Prime Nial’s mate, was hers. As were Danika Arcas and Chloe Phan. I was the head of the Coalition Fleet’s intelligence operations, but Warden Egara had an entire network of contacts—her brides—who would assist her if she asked. Which I could not.
At this point, if I did ask any of those human females for help, they would probably cut out my heart, rather than help me find my mate.
Catherine should have been a spy. But then, she had been, when my brother claimed her. Fuck it all, maybe I would resign and give her my job.
“There’s nothing. No one is talking. I can’t help you.” She held my gaze. “I’m sorry, Zarren. I wish I could help, but I can’t get through. Everything is locked down tight.”
“I know.” What the fuck was I going to do? “Thank you for trying to help.”
“You deserve love, brother. I hope you find her.”
Catherine ended the comm and I sat, stunned, for several minutes. What just happened? My entire existence tilted on its axis. Catherine didn’t blame me. Worse, she was right. Every second of every day my actions had been dictated by love—and guilt—over the deaths of my brother and his second—and dozens of others who had perished on a fool’s errand. I thought I’d been so fucking cold and calculating, so sure I would never make another mistake, never make decisions based on emotion.
Fuck. Look at me now.
I activated my ship’s comm. “Kayn, report to command.”
Pacing, unable to sit still with so much helpless fear pumping through me—fear that I’d lost her forever, fear that she would not forgive me, fear that she would choose another mate before I could find her and tell her I loved her—
Fear that she would die because I was not there to protect her.
I was out of options, out of contacts, out of control. There was only one possibility left, one way to find my bride before it was too late.
The door opened and Kayn stepped inside. Elite Everian Hunter. The best I’d ever seen. I’d been confident enough in his skills to tell Oberon his sister was dead. Ironic that he was now my best, and only, hope.
“Commander?”
“We’re going hunting, Kayn. And we’re starting now.”
13
Oberon
Two out ofthree became three out of five. Four out of seven. After a while, we stopped keeping track.
I was certain Willow Baylor,country girl,and, I’d learned, law enforcement officer back on Earth, was the perfect female.
That discovery had come hours ago. Now I tried to keep my mind focused on the game we played, rather than all the ways I wanted to touch her. Kiss her. Taste her.
The row of cards she’d placed face up in the center of the table, as well as the large stack of something she called chips next to it, had her laughing. She called this game poke her. Poking who, I wasn’t sure. Nor had I figured out what these colored betting chips had to do with physical assault. I waited and played the game, assumed at some point the poking part would come into effect.
The only thing I truly ached to do waspokeWillow’s pussy with my cock. No, not poke. Slide in deep, wait to hear her gasp, her moan of pleasure, pull out and do it again.
Maybe I would taste her pussy every few thrusts of my cock.
Maybe I would feast on her pussy and then slide my cock into her eager ass. I did not know what her former mate may have done to prepare her for a second. Perhaps she liked to be taken there. I could wrap myself around her, fill her from behind and fuck her pussy with my fingers.
Or—
Bastion kicked my foot beneath the table.
