He stopped, gripped my gown and tugged it together, keeping one of his big hands on my bottom. I was thankful he was possessive, for we were down the hallway before I could think more.
“Where are we going?” I asked, watching the floor change color from green to orange, the only way I could tell from my perspective that we’d left the medical area and had entered the living quarters of the ship.
“To our room.”
“Wait, the others. Are they well?” I asked. “Dax, put me down. I can’t talk while I’m staring at your ass.” I pounded it once with my fists.
“Everyone is fine.”
“And Seth?” I held my breath as I waited for him to answer.
“Fine.”
I sagged then, relieved. “Take me to him. Please,” I added.
Dax paused at a junction of two hallways. “Very well.”
He turned and walked down a long corridor and came to a door. Lowering me down, he wrapped his arm about my waist as he pressed the button, which on Earth would be called a doorbell.
I tugged at the gown. “You could have at least let me change before you carried me out of there. You really are a caveman,” I grumbled.
“Wait until we return to our room.” He gave me a pointed look. “Then you’ll get to see what me being a caveman is really like.”
The door slid open and Seth stood before me, clearly whole and well. Also clearly angry at Dax, for he couldn’t have missed what he’d said about what he was going to do to me.
To stave off any latest verbal blows, I wrapped Seth up for a hug. It felt good to hold him again, to know he was safe and whole and… what? I loved him. I did. He was my brother and I looked up to him and listened to him and hated him when he was bossy. But…
I stepped back from the hug and looked back at Dax. He was looming there—there was no other word for the size of him just outside the doorway—waiting for me. He’d take Seth’s annoying behavior because I was his mate. Heck, he seemed to do anything for me. He’d gone into a Hive prison ship to rescue a man who hated his guts because I wanted him to.
Dax was the bossy one for me now, not Seth. He was the one whose hugs I wanted. He was the one who I worried about—not that I didn’t worry about Seth, but this, this was different. I was different. I’d used Dax for my own gain, to get Seth back. I’d made a deal with him and he’d followed through with his end of it.
“I can’t believe you mated with this hulk,” Seth muttered. “Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into? I can’t save you this time, sis.”
My mouth fell open and I stared at my brother wide-eyed. Then they narrowed as I swear my blood pressure soared to stroke point. I stepped up to him and pushed my finger into his chest.
“Save me? Are you fucking kidding me? When the hell have you saved me?” I shouted.
Dax stepped into Seth’s room and the door slid closed.
Seth looked uncomfortable now, running his hand over his hair. “From Tommy Jenkins in fifth grade when he wanted to look up your skirt. From Frankie Grodin when he only wanted to take you to prom so you could be another notch on his high school bedpost. From that jerk drill sergeant who made you do extra push-ups.”
“First of all, Tommy Jenkins messed with me when I was ten and I punched him in the nose. Frankie Grodin had a rude awakening when Carrie and Lynn got a picture of him with his dick hanging out and emailed it out to the entire senior class. As for the drill sergeant, he made me do those extra push-ups because you kept coming to check on me. As for saving, who the fuck do you think saved your ass from the Hive, big brother?”
I crossed my arms over my chest, uncaring that the back of the gown was open and Dax could easily see my butt.
Seth turned redder and redder during my tirade and pointed to Dax. “He landed in the middle of that fight and had me taken.”
“He did, but that was an accident. Any one of the guys could have been grabbed. Hell, you could have been grabbed at any of the other battles we’ve been to. Why the hell are you pissed at him when he went in and rescued you?”
“Because he let you go with him!”
“So he should have gone in and saved you alone?”
We were shouting full out now and when I glanced at Dax, he was leaning against the wall with a smile on his face. For once, he wasn’t butting in.
“He got you into this mess in the first place with that whole bride match thing.” Seth waved his hand in the air as if he couldn’t figure out what to call it.
“So us being matched is the reason all this happened? Jesus, Seth, you’re a dumbass. If you want to blame someone, then go after Warden Morda back in Miami because she put me through the bride testing program instead of the coalition induction by mistake. You know what, you’d be perfect for each other.”