“No one will eat you here. We are not cannibals,” Hunt reassured me, his sincerity making me want to laugh. How the hell had we gotten into this completely insane conversation?
“Good.”
Tyran took a step closer and I stood my ground. He was mine. I was going to have to work hard to remember that and not back away every time he moved in my direction. “I can’t see much of you beneath the blanket. You are small, but you seem perfect to me.”
“You think I’m small?” That was a new one.
They both nodded, but Hunt spoke. He seemed to be the diplomat. “You are small, but we are familiar with females from Earth, for our Queen is from your planet and so is Lady Rone, our governor’s mate.”
“There are other women here? On the Colony? From Earth?” I almost dropped the blanket, so excited by the possibility of having a friend from home.
Hunt nodded. “Yes, and Lady Rone is eager to meet you.”
Feeling happy, and a bit more confident, I took my time looking them over, and letting them watch me do it. “So, are all Prillon warriors this big?” I pointed at them, my bare arm coming out from the slit in the blanket.
I lifted my gaze from Tyran’s thighs to where I knew his cock rested. By the thick bulge beneath his armor, he was hard for me already, and he was huge. When my attention finally returned to his face, his eyes had gone so dark they were nearly black. “Yes.”
My mates were the perfect contrast standing next to one another. One light, one dark. So tall. So intense.
“We also have this.” Hunt pointed to his right eye where the silver glinted at me in the harsh light of the transport room. His golden skin took on a harsher tone where the silver surrounded his eye and disappeared at the temple. I wondered how the Hive had done that to him. Wondered if it hurt.
“Does it hurt?”
He looked surprised by the question, but shook his head slowly. “No.”
I looked down at the sleek floor, then held Hunt’s gaze, looking into his eye. No, eyes. The silver was odd, but when I watched closely, I saw it shift and focus as he studied me. “You can see with that, can’t you?”
“Very, very well. I can count the twelve freckles on your nose from here. Is that a scar on your left ear?”
I lifted my hand to my earlobe where my earring had been ripped out when I was thirteen. The skin had been split open. It had been sewn back together but there was still a faint white line.
“Wow, you’re like the bionic man,” I whispered.
He pointed to his right ear next. “My ear was altered as well. I can hear the blood pulsing through your body, the beat of your heart. I can count your breaths and hear the tapping of your bare foot on the floor beneath the blanket.”
Whoa. I stopped tapping my bare toes on the cold, hard floor. But I couldn’t stop the rest.
“Does that bother you?” he asked.
I frowned, thinking. No. It might seem strange to me for a while, but there was also something comforting in thinking Hunt would always hear me calling for him in a crowded room, or from far away. “No. Does it bother you that I’m so short? Because if it does, then we’ve got a problem because I stopped growing in ninth grade.”
Tyran bowed, just a little, before standing again, as if offering deference to a queen. “Do not fear that I don’t find you appealing. I assure you I do. Just as your desire for us grows with each passing moment. The match ensures that. The Brides Program has been used successfully for hundreds of years. You are perfect for me. The matching ensures that.”
That made sense and I hadn’t thought of it.
“Is it the same for you, too?” I asked Hunt.
“I am your designated second. While I am not a perfect match to you, as Tyran is, I assure you I am in complete agreement with him about his eagerness to have you here with us.”
“You will not want a mate of your own?”
He stared at me for a moment as if I’d slapped him. “You are my mate. Primary Male. Secondary. It changes nothing. You are mine. Do not doubt my desire for you.”
I looked away, unable to hold his gaze when he was staring into my soul with those eyes. Biting my lip now, I could feel the heat spreading from my face to my neck and shoulders under their scrutiny and I shifted on my feet. “I feel strange just standing here,” I admitted, feeling a little awkward and out of sorts. “Can’t we go somewhere else to talk?” I tugged on the blanket, making sure it was snug around the girls. “And maybe get some clothes?” Clothes might help.
“No,” Tyran said. He looked at me as if he wanted to gobble me up. “We aren’t leaving here until you wear our collar and we’ve made you come.”