“Get me those pictures! No one leaves the planet until I know what’s on those files and why the Hive and the Coalition are both after Miss Linton.”
He didn’t put me down, not even inside the SUV. He settled himself in the back, me in his lap. To my surprise, we didn’t ride with Carmichael. Instead, I found myself completely surrounded by Atlans. None of the other three, including the driver whose name was Bahre, looked familiar. Carmichael protested when Kai carried me to Bahre’s vehicle. Kai’s snarl put an end to that in two seconds flat. Based on the limited conversation between the Atlans, Carmichael was following us to my apartment.
I didn’t want to think about how Bahre knew exactly where to drive without asking for directions.
“You swear to me my sister is safe?” I whispered.
“With mate. Safe. Hive dead.” Kai’s deep voice was like a physical massage. Most of the tension I’d been carrying since those things walked into the restaurant left my shoulders and I rested my head against his chest. ‘Hive dead’. I liked the sound of that.
Kai was freaking scary, I’d give him that. I didn’t blame Carmichael for not arguing. Strangely, I wasn’t afraid. Just the opposite. With Kai’s arms around me, I’d never felt more sheltered in my life.
Maybe I should have protested or asked to be somewhere other than his lap. The truth was, I didn’t want to be. Those Hive guys scared the shit out of me. Every bit of numb indifference I had was long gone. Now all I could see when I closed my eyes was the Hive walking toward me with that damn button. I still had no idea what it was supposed to do, but whatever it was, I knew it wasn’t good.
A shiver raced over my skin, like winter wind over naked flesh.
Kai wrapped one huge hand around my wrists, lifted them and?—
“Hey! What?” I glanced down to see two heavy, metallic cuffs—mating cuffs, I recognized from the TV show—sealed around my wrists.
Rather than answer, he closed a matching pair of much bigger, heavier cuffs around his own. They were beautiful, with intricate designs carved into the surface. Were those his family markings? Or something else? Computer circuits or religious symbols? The geometric design was fascinating and very alien. However, if my understanding was correct, he’d just married me, alien style, without even asking.
A tremor passed through him as he wrapped his arms around me, buried his face in my neck and breathed me in like he’d never get enough. As I watched, his face shifted and changed, grew smaller, more like a man’s. His shoulders made an odd rumbling noise as they returned to his normal size. Everything about him changed from gigantic to extremely large…everything except his cock. The hard length was like an iron rod under my bottom. Every second that passed, my awareness grew stronger until I squirmed, trying to find a moment of relief from wanting a complete stranger. An alien.
“This is crazy.” My protest was more sigh than statement.
“Yes, my lady. I must offer my sincere apologies. I failed you. I should have found you sooner. I will never forgive myself for mistaking your sister for you, my mate. I am not worthy of you and will understand if you wish to refuse my claim.”
Whoa. From monosyllabic to this soft, deep, sexy as sin voice? Refuse his claim? What did that mean? Just tell him no, I’m not your mate? Then what? I knew all the lore about the Atlans, and their beasts, and the affliction they called mating fever. The TV show claimed that if an Atlan’s mate was not found, or if his mate refused the claim, he would return to Atlan to be executed. If left on their own, without a mate, the beasts went completely insane and killed anything that moved, family, friends, anything. It was like the mating fever fried their brains until they didn’t remember who they were, and all they wanted to do was kill.
I didn’t know Kai, but I didn’t want him dead because of me. I didn’t want anyone else dead, either.
Did I want to be married to an alien? No good answer there. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. My string of boyfriends the last few years was nothing short of pathetic. Seemed I didn’t have the patience to be someone’s mommy, they were total fuck-boy players, or they weren’t interested in a working girl living in a shit apartment with her sister, barely paying her bills. Rich guys didn’t go for poor girls. The movies lied.
“My lady, we have arrived.” Kai waited for two of his friends to disappear inside my apartment. They came back out and gave some kind of ‘all-clear’ signal to Kai who then opened the SUV’s door and carried me inside.
“You can put me down now.” My gentle request was honored immediately and I walked into the disaster zone that had once been a cozy living room.
I should have let him carry me.
Blood was everywhere. Our standing coat rack had chunks of…something…dried and stuck to the curved hooks where yesterday I’d hung my purse. The light gray carpet was covered in giant splotches of what I knew was dried blood. It wasn’t quite the right color, but then I remembered it was Hive blood, cyborg blood, not human.
Not my sister’s.
I wrapped my arms around my stomach to keep from gagging and repeated it over and over in my head. Not Lavender’s blood. Not hers. She was safe.
Thanks to the giant male whose mere presence made every cell in my body come to attention. He stood behind me, silent, waiting patiently for me to take it all in. I couldn’t walk any closer without stepping on shards of glass that had once been our coffee table.
“How many were there?” I glanced over my shoulder to find him hovering as if unsure what to do next. “Hive, I mean. Tell me what happened.”
“There is no need, mate. The details will upset you. They are dead. Your sister is safe.”
“I want to know.”
I watched his internal struggle as he decided whether or not to tell me the truth.
If he’d known what was at stake, he would have answered immediately.
I could not be with a man, male, alien—whatever—who would not tell me the truth or who hid things from me.
