“I said I accepted your claim. Gark, I’m your mate, and you are mine. You are perfect for me. I don’t give a fuck about what anyone else thinks. I thought I would lose you. I thought you were going to die.” She swallowed, eyes filling with tears. “You were out cold for more than a day, Gark.”
He felt his eyes widen. How could he have been out for that long?
And then a tear spilled over her cheek, and his heart tore in two. He pulled her into his arms, straddling his lap. “Don’t cry, my little fighter.”
She sobbed into his neck. “I hated the thought that you would die not knowing how I felt. So I told you, even though you couldn’t understand. But somehow you did. You knew what I was saying, and your fever broke right then and there.”
The joy of Aletta accepting his claim made him want to beat his chest and scream his love for her to the whole ship.
“So my heart beats only for you, my love.” He gently pulled her back from him, smiling as she wiped her face with her fingers and laughed through the tears.
“That’s so sappy.”
He didn’t know what that meant, but nodded. “Yes, sappy. And you love me."
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I didn’t say that.”
He lifted a brow. For his little fighter to have shed tears over him? She loved him. He said as much, and she rolled her eyes.
“All right, I love you. There. You must be happy now.” She grumbled, but the smile still played over her lips.
“More than you can guess, my mate.” His heart swelled to bursting, and he dipped his lips to brush against hers.
“Oh!” She pulled back from him. “I need to shower. I’ll go back to Lara and my cabin?—”
The thought of her returning to A’Kar’s old quarters had something fierce and primal flaring inside him. “You will never use that space again.”
“There’s that mate bond,” she said, poking him in the ribs with a finger.
“Yes. I must warn you, it’s likely to be intense for a time.”
She nodded. “Klath warned me.”
Gark scowled. “Did he tell you what will make the intensity more bearable?”
She shook her head. He pulled her closer, sliding his nose along her neck. He licked the skin below her ear, and she shivered.
He put his lips to her ear. “Making the claim official. Do you know how a Gnaggarian male officially claims his woman?”
She shook her head, her breath coming in little pants.
“I will bite you?—”
She gasped.
“—here, where your pulse is.” He nipped her gently. She mewled and dropped her head back, eyes closed.
“Oh god.”
“Do you like the sound of that?”
She nodded. “Yes, fuck yes.”
“Did I mention that I need to be buried inside you when I bite you?”
She began tearing at her clothes, pulling her shirt over her head and flinging it into a corner of the room to join the rest of the mess.
“Hurry up and get me naked, Gark.”
