“Jane,” my alien’s voice grounded me in the present, giving me the strength to carry on. “You are with me, my Truxoria. You are safe.”
“It didn’t kill him. My mom came running at my screams and gave him an antidote.” I shuddered at the memory. “But neither of them was the same after that. And it’s stuck with me too.”
“They sound like wonderful parents.” His tone was filled with empathy, but something more too.
I nodded. “They were. I love my adopted mom. She’s my mother as much as my first. I’m lucky to have gotten three amazing parents in my lifetime.” My heart skipped a beat. “It’s still hard. And the things I went through after they passed, before my second mother adopted me were…” I didn’t want to dive into that dark hole, the traumas were wounds that never healed. But I wasn’t that child locked in her room anymore. I was an adult and I’d live for today. “Well, I don’t want to get into that.” I shook my head. “The good outweighs the bad. Even though my parents died when I was young, I remember everyday with them.”
“I’m glad you’ve had these people in your life, my ljona.” His chin fell to his chest as his face took on a distant look. “And I am sorry that you’ve suffered. I understand your pain.”
My gaze found his. “Tell me.”
“You know the Versaken’s biological attack killed all of our females, yes?” He asked the question like the commander he was, as if giving a report—and detaching from the emotions.
I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose all emotions, and then, suddenly regain them all at once. It must be overwhelming. “Yes,” I said in answer. “Go on.”
“The attack claimed my mother’s life,” he paused, turning away from me for a second, “slowly. She didn’t die right away.”
I gasped. “Tor, I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you. It was…” Another pause as he took a breath. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever endured. For my father, it was unbearable. He stayed alive to guide me into malehood, but after that, he put himself on suicide missions. Always seeking the enemy, until the enemy found him.”
“By the universe.” I yearned to break free of these stupid vines and hold him. “There’s no words. But I’m here. I’m here with you.”
“I know, my Truxoria. I know.” Our eyes locked. As if we could hold each other, gaze stroked my body like a caress. “And I’m ready to tell you what that word means, if you’d still like to know.”
A part of me already knew the answer. I’d felt it since the moment we met, staring at his chiseled jaw and intense eyes through a screen. Even when he drove me insane with his arrogance, I sensed a deeper part locked inside him. As I saw it emerge the longer I was in his company, I realized that he wasn’t the cocky commander I’d thought. He was confident and caring, strong and empathetic, because he felt. He felt everything. He had emotions, and that could only mean one thing. “Say it.”
“Truxoria is the most scared word in our language, equal only to our name for the universal goddess, Celestia.” His head bowed in reverence as he spoke. When he looked up and captured my gaze, his eyes glistened silver. “It means fated mate, and you, Jane…” His words skimmed over my skin, sinking deep into my chest, and wrapping around my heart. “You are mine.”
The vines began to unravel, loosing from our limbs and bringing us back to the blue field. When they released us, we ran to each other. I jumped into his arms as he caught me to his chest.
“I knew it,” I said, the rightness of it seeping into my soul. “I somehow knew it all along.”
He kissed my temple, smiling the biggest I’d seen from him yet. “My wise mate.”
I laughed, and the sunshine on our bodies warmed my insides. Or maybe it was his body heat. With our shared pasts laid bare and our fates aligned, I wanted one thing above all others, even more than completing the mission. “I want you, Tor.” I bit his earlobe, then looked in his eyes so he could see the full truth of my confession. “Make me yours.”
The idea of someone claiming me in the past would have sent me running. But not this. The heat between us, the mutual respect, and growing love. Yes, love. Somewhere along this wild journey, I’d fallen for the big alien warrior. If he did turn out to be a cocky commander like I’d first thought, well, he wasmycocky commander. And I planned to claim him right back.
“Are you sure, Jane?” His body shuddered; the weight of his question not lost on me. I held his fate, our future, in my hands with one word. But I had no doubts.
“Yes.” I kissed him hard, my hands tangling in his hair. When I pulled back, I added, “Here. Now. We claim each other.”
His lips parted. A light radiated behind his eyes. The open adoration on his face undid me. He stared at me like I was the center of the universe. “I am humbled by this gift, ljona.” He put our foreheads together, speaking softly. “I will not fail you.”
“I know.” I broke us apart and chuckled. “But if you don’t fuck me now, Tor, I swear to all the stars above, you’ll regret it.”
His deep barreling laugh tickled my sense. “As you wish, my mate.”
An inferno of needed sparked in my core. I had never wanted anyone so much. If I didn’t see equal need in his eyes, I’d have been frightened by the intensity of it. But I wasn’t alone. With Tor in my life, I would never be alone again.
He laid me down in the blue field, the grass a soft tickling sensation against my back. Unwrapping the fabric from my breasts, he undid the ties as if a priceless treasure rested beyond them.
“Mate,” I chided, drawing his gaze to my face. “I don’t want slow. I need you now.”
He pushed my hands over my head, which arched my breasts up and on display. “You will not rush me, my Truxoria. I have waited too long for you to end this quickly.”
“Please,” I whined. The need ripping through me too much to bear. “I can’t wait.” Freeing one of my hands, he reached down my body and thrust two thick fingers in my pussy. I cried out at the delicious sensation. “Yes, more!”
