His Virgin Mate(50)

Cosmo took advantage of the distraction to punch him. He drew his arm back slowly, so slowly that I saw the strike coming and tried to scream a warning. “Look out!”

Von ignored Cosmo completely, his complete focus on me and the man touching me still. The major’s punch landed with a loud crack and both men went flying, Von from the punch, and Cosmo from the force of the strike behind it. I heard the crack, saw Von’s head rock to the side. Even then, his eyes remained trained on me.

“Von!” I screamed.

His gaze held mine a second longer, even after being stunned by the blow. A growl ripped from his chest and he turned to the major. His pace sped up, and he flew through the air. Sounds of fighting came to me but all I saw was a blur. It lasted forever, it seemed to me, but was probably only a second or two. Major Cosmo was on the ground, unconscious. Von loomed over him, arms raised to the sky as he yelled into the air like a crazed man.

The moment his roar of challenge, of victory, ended, he turned and moved to me in a blink of an eye. He lifted one of the markers that maintained the barrier and tossed it behind him like a stick.

“You are touching my mate,” Von murmured, his voice low and deadly.

The Everian male’s hand slipped from me. I was impressed he hadn’t run away or peed himself. Von was barely breathing hard, his rock-hard chest glistening under the bright light of their sun. He looked good enough to jump on the spot, so sexy I felt hot all over just admiring all that fabulous muscle and power. Mine. He was mine. But he was far from pleased. The look in his eyes alone should have killed the man.

“She was unaccompanied at a challenge,” the man replied.

“Do you wish to challenge me for her? If you do, I will tell you now that you’ll look worse than him.” Von angled his head toward the unmoving major. “Challenge me and I’ll break you.”

“You should keep her under control, Hunter,” the idiot repeated. Why didn’t he just give up?

“Major Cosmo put his hand on her arm. You had your mouth on her flesh. Do you really wish to die today? She is my marked mate.”

The guy’s eyes widened and I swear he went white as a sheet. “You share marks?”

“Yes.”

The man’s attitude changed completely in the blink of an eye and he bowed his head to Von and stepped back. “My apologies.” After bowing to me, he turned and walked away without a backward glance.

“She wasn’t unaccompanied. I was with her,” Katie said.

“Me, too,” Dani added.

“Yet none of you are accompanied by a guard or protector,” Von countered.

A guard? We needed a freaking man to chaperone us? I glanced away, took in the Everians all staring at the three of us girls.

Well, okay. Yeah, maybe we were like little baby bunnies surrounded by a courtyard full of wolves. Maybe this hadn’t been a good idea after all.

“I will attend to Katie and her friend.”

The voice came from behind me and Von glanced over my shoulder. “Bryn, good. See that they are safely escorted back to the Cornerstone.”

Von took a step closer, ignoring everyone and everything around us. “You, mate, are coming with me.” While his gaze hadn’t lost any of the hardness or anger, his hold on my wrist was remarkably gentle and the heat of his touch sent a sizzle of lust through my body.

I quickened my pace to follow him as he pulled me along beside him, the onlookers parting to let us by. As we went, I glanced back at Cosmo, who was slowly coming to, a few of the warriors hovering over him and tending to his wounds. He wasn’t a threat anymore. Von had defeated him easily and I wondered why he’d denied the challenge for so long. “He really never was a threat to you, was he?”

Von glanced back over his shoulder and I saw something close to pity in his gaze. “No. I explained this fact to you last night.”

“Did he know that?”

“Of course.”

“Then why did he challenge you?”

“Pride is a dangerous thing, Lexi. A woman wounded both his pride and his heart when she chose me. We were barely more than boys, but he loved her and she betrayed him. A warrior cannot hate the woman he loves, and so—”

“He hated you instead.” My anger at Cosmo softened into something closer to empathy, sorrow, perhaps even pity.

“Yes. There are things a man can live with, and things he cannot.”

“So now what happens between you?”

“Now he has finally made his strike at me. His honor has been appeased. His rage will fade. Now he will rest. It is over.” He pulled me closer and wrapped his arm around me. “Now, I make you mine.”

Yeah, they were Neanderthals, but I was, in this moment, content to be a cavewoman. Von was dragging me off to his cave, fortunately not by the hair.