Mated To The Vikens (Interstellar Brides Book 8)(38)

It was a fine dance, the balance between me and the female I dominated. But that was all it had been, a dance. One carnal song, and then it was over. Without a backward glance, I moved on. I’d soothed the part of me that needed taming, needed control, at least for a prescribed amount of time. When finished, I’d be sated, mentally and physically. Nothing more.

Now, with the little hand warming my lower back, there was more. Too much more. I couldn’t dominate and fuck Sophia and walk away. I knew what she wanted, what she needed, how to push her to take even more, but I would never allow her to walk away. She was mine.

She would give over all her secrets, yet so would I. And that was the difference. The club was filled with bodies, with people desperate for connection or release, and yet it was so empty of soul, of intimacy. Of love. There was nothing here, no connection deeper than a quick fuck.

The air we breathed was tainted with shallowness. Just having Sophia see this, to know how empty I used to be, had me wanting to whisk her from the building, scrub her clean of the tawdry filth and sink into her. She was good. She was everything I’d never known I was missing.

I didn’t need the casual acceptance the club offered. I had found the bonds of brotherhood with Erik and Rolf, and now, with the desire and trust I’d witnessed in Sophia’s dark eyes. I just had to hope she didn’t think less of me, see me with jaded eyes.

When this hunt was done, I’d look there, in her eyes, and see if they held lust. Desire. Longing. Could she see past the veneer of the club to understand what I’d needed from it? Would she want the same? I had to hope the mating, the match, would ensure it. I didn’t wish to bring her here. It was duty that forced us to walk the club floors, not desire. But if she looked up at me with longing and need, if this place pulled a deep-seated fantasy from her that had to be fulfilled, I would not have the strength to deny her. Not here, with naked bodies writhing all around us.

If she needed, I would provide.

Because of this, the hope that she would need my hand, my mouth, my cock, eagerness filled my steps as we made our way to the final room, the last place we had to search. I’d chosen to save it as last for a reason.

If our prey were not here, it was the room where I would take our mate, bend her over a bench and mark her as mine for all the world to see. I wanted to show her off, to tell the planet, “She’s mine.”

Erik and Rolf had their fun with her, fucking her while I worked to solve this mystery. They’d given her pleasure and taken her body while I hunted. I would never deny them their pleasure in our mate, nor could I deny myself. And I found myself to be greedy indeed.

When we’d circled the room, I stopped and pulled her to stand before me. She looked up into my eyes and shook her head in answer to my unspoken question.

No.

He was not here.

The strain of the hunt left my body, replaced by a tension of a different sort. I lifted my hand to cup her cheek, eager to judge her reaction to my touch. Without evil lurking, I could focus on Sophia. I could turn this visit into something just for us. Yes, the place meant nothing to me any longer, the mark on my arm just a reminder of an empty past, but I could change that. I could take my mate here, connect with her in a way neither of us had imagined before.

Yes, I’d fucked her before, but she’d been surrounded by all three of her mates. She’d surrendered first to Rolf, then Erik. Not to me.

I needed her to give herself to me. Me. The ache in my chest was new and unfamiliar, but I did not push it away. Instead, I let her see it in my eyes, the longing for her acceptance.

“Gunnar.” She pressed her cheek into my palm before turning to place a kiss in the center. Her gaze returned to mine, soft and dark with desire. “I see the hunger in you.”

“I want you, even here. Perhaps especially here,” I added.

I leaned down and claimed her mouth in a kiss, crushing her cloaked body to mine. I knew she wore nothing beneath, and the knowledge burned through me like fire, making my cock heat and pulse to be free. To be inside her.

Panting when I released her, she stared up at me with a question in her eyes. I ignored everyone in the room, unnaturally aware of the bench directly to our left. The base was lined with new toys, plugs and dildos. Floggers and paddles, oil and wax as well. I could not deny the image burning into my mind of her naked and tied to that bench with her ass in the air as I spanked her, filled her ass and fucked her until she screamed.

“I’m not scared,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. I could see the thrumming beat of her pulse at her neck, knew that while she wasn’t fearful, she was still nervous.