I stopped as well, not only because I was surprised by what I was seeing, but because my mark flared as if a blade had been shoved through my palm. The sensation so painful it made me hiss out a breath. Instead of readying for danger as the Prillons were with their hands on their weapons, I pressed my thumb against my mark in the hopes of easing the burn.
“This is insane! I don’t belong to you,” a woman shouted.
I heard the feminine, melodious voice and I was forever changed. It was as if the ions in my body rearranged and I became someone else. My mark flared with erotic heat, sending a pulse of lust straight to my cock. My heart flipped, then settled. I felt as if those uttered words settled over me like a heavy cloak wrapping me in heat. Lust. Need. An instinctive drive to possess and protect.
Lindsey. She was here. She was mine.
My mate.
And then, with the same swiftness that brought about this knowledge, I picked up the scene before us. The two fighters—one of them was Rezz, my Atlan friend who had arrived on the Colony the same day as me. The other, I didn’t know, but he was Atlan as well. With sweat on his face and torso, red skin in spots where blows had landed, blood trickling from a cut above his eye, it looked like Rezz had been fighting challenge matches for a while. But no one was battling now. No, they weren’t even circling each other. Rezz was facing another Atlan and two Prillon warriors. Everyone else around the arena settled in with a quiet expectancy not common in a pit fight. This was something else, something much more serious than the normal chest pounding tests of strength and skill that the warriors used to vent some aggression and relieve hours of monotonous boredom.
I could see pushing and heard raised voices and somehow I knew she was in the middle of it. The cause.
I didn’t need to be a Hunter to know where she was.
“She is mine.” The huge Atlan facing Rezz was in full beast mode, and I recognized him now. His name was Braun, and he was strong. Fast. Like all Atlan Warlords.
I didn’t fucking care how many of these warriors I had to take down, Braun was wrong. Lindsey didn’t belong to him. Lindsey, with her golden hair and blue eyes, those full pink lips and her sassy mouth…was mine.
I stalked forward, heading for the center of the pit, not waiting to see if my team backed me up. I didn’t need them. Not for this. Anticipation surged through my blood. I hadn’t had a real fight, a good fight, in weeks. Not even the Atlans could stand against me as long as I stayed out of their grasp. If one got ahold of me, they could rip me in two. But first, they’d have to catch me. Which, when I used my Hunter’s speed and strength, was damn near impossible.
Pushing through the growing crowd I heard her again. “This is not what I wanted. Just take me to your leader, or whatever. I’m sorry.”
Rezz, equal in size to Braun, roared out over the crowd. “The female is under my protection. None of you will touch her.”
I knew Rezz, knew he’d never touch her. He was still too broken. He’d refused to go through the Interstellar Brides processing protocols even after Kristin arrived from Earth and became part of our hunting unit. The two human females who had arrived on the Colony loved their mates, despite the contamination the Hive had left behind. Captain Marz had practically begged the Atlan to submit to testing.
Rezz refused. Said he was not fit to serve any female of worth. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean.
I didn’t care about Rezz’s personal demons at the moment. All I knew was my friend had stepped between Braun, the two Prillon warriors, and the female who was mine. He was protecting her, a fact that I would not forget. Seemed I would owe the Atlan a favor.
“Get out of my way, Rezz.” The deep, growling voice belonged to Braun but I heard Rezz chuckle in response. By the gods, that Warlord loved to fight.
“As I said, she’s under my protection, Braun.”
Braun roared in frustration, but must have decided that the small female wasn’t worth the clash with Rezz, who was well known for being king in the pits since his arrival. Even Tyran, Kristin’s mate, couldn’t stand against him. And Tyran had more Hive implanted technology than almost any male here. He was stronger than anyone I’d ever seen.
Anyone but Rezz, riled up in beast mode. Still, the fight between Tyran and Rezz had been epic. In the end, I was convinced Rezz won not because the Prillon warrior was weaker, but because Rezz was meaner, especially since the male, Tyran, had been mated to the human, Kristin, of Earth. A small, curvy female that looked similar to Lindsey. Golden hair. Heart shaped face. So small, so damn small but fierce. I couldn’t wait to discover what type of fire burned in Lindsey’s delicate frame.