He set me on my feet, took the pack and helmet from me, and reached for the clasps of my armor.
It was all happening so fast my head couldn’t keep up and I lifted my hands to cover his, to stop him.
Two days ago, he didn’t like me much. Every time we saw each other we snarled and talked trash and generally gave each other hell. He froze beneath my gentle touch and looked down into my face, his intense eyes calmer, but filled with heat.
His beast was happy as hell, but I wasn’t so sure about the man.
“Are you sure about this? This mating thing is forever, and you don’t even like me.” No one liked me. I was a bitch, by necessity, not choice. I was hard, not soft. Practical, not sentimental. That wasn’t going to change simply because I became his mate.
“Perfect. Fierce. Beautiful.”
Well, when my beast wanted to sweet talk, he knew how to do it right. I smiled and lifted my hands to his face and pulled his lips down toward me. My turn to make some claims, so I threw his own word back at him. And I meant it. I wasn’t going to share.
“Mine.”
I’d never seen a beast smile, but he did, right before he lowered his head to kiss me.
Chapter Ten
Nyko
I could get lost in her kiss. Me, a huge Atlan warrior, not only in beast mode, but in Mating Fever, could be brought to my knees by Megan’s mouth alone. While the beast within had been initially soothed in the cave by her touch, by getting lost in her body, this was different. She was my mate now.
The fever still raged. It had not been cured by claiming her…not yet.
Perhaps my beast had known all along. It had screamed “Mine” again and again, but I’d thought it had been desperate for fucking and that Megan had simply been a beautiful and willing female. Yes, my beast was wild, but it seemed my basic instincts had an honorable streak, for the beast knew Megan belonged to us. No wonder he’d been so gentle with her in that cave. My beast didn’t simply want to fuck her, he wanted to claim her. It had been trying to tell me that from the moment she took off her helmet within the safe rock walls, but I’d refused to listen. The Atlan in me required proof. The testing and the match that came from it validation that Megan was truly mine. Deep down, I’d hoped perhaps, but never dared play out that fantasy. The fiery hellcat hated me, but in the cave perhaps she’d been soothed by my touch as much as the beast was by hers.
She hated me.
But she kissed like she’d never let me go. Her mouth opened for mine, her tongue demanding entry. Megan was no docile lover, and apparently, she’d decided to claim me as well. There was no hesitancy in her touch, not anymore. There was only want and lust and a feminine demand that had my beast roaring to answer.
Seeing her walk out the door of the med unit—intending to leave us for good—not only had made my beast go insane, but made me, the fierce Warlord, ache with need. With regret. The one night we’d spent in the cave hadn’t been enough. With a push of a button and perhaps a little intervention from the gods, now, she was mine. All mine and I would never, ever be without her again. Once my cuffs were about her wrists, no one would doubt it. No one could ever take her from me.
She would be bound to my side forever. Mine to touch and taste and drive wild. Mine to learn. Her hot, wet pussy mine to fuck and taste over and over until I’d wrung every last drop of pleasure from her sensitive body.
The cuffs that had been retrieved from my quarters earlier swung at my side. I felt their weight against my hip, knew that they weren’t just pieces of metal but the symbol of the bond that we’d share. I wasn’t just claiming a mate, and she wasn’t simply accepting me as her lover. With a beast it was more, so much more. No one in the universe would be able to control my beast, no one but her. He would answer her call, calm to her touch, she would own me in a way no one ever had or ever would. And the ache within me to give myself to her sprang from nothing into an explosion of pain in my chest. I’d been alone for years. Since I was a boy. I was a war orphan. No parents. No family. Until now. Now there was my mate, and she would be everything. Right now.
I didn’t lift my head from the kiss, only deftly worked at the straps of her armor, tugged and pulled it from her body. The soft feel of her lips, the lush meeting of her tongue, the taste of her made me never want to stop. But there was more of her. More places to taste and explore. I knew this from the night before. Then, I took her body, but now, I’d claim her fully and pray I was worthy of her heart.
She laughed and fucked and fought with equal abandon. Everything about her was perfect. But now I knew the truth, knew she worked in one of the most dangerous fields in the entire Fleet, knew that as an agent of the Intelligence Core, exactly how brave—or reckless—my mate could be. Instead of filling me with rage, her warrior’s spirit made me want her more. Unfortunately, I also realized I’d never be satisfied with just her body. I wanted her to love me, really love me, with all that passionate fire and savage courage. I couldn’t even imagine life with the sweet, gentle, docile mate I’d once thought would be mine.