Mating Fever(40)

“Berserker.” I knew Mating Fever would eventually kill an Atlan male, but I’d had no idea that once his beast mated, so would being away from their mate. I had no idea it was so intense. And now I understood why mated Atlans always retired, taking their mates and going home to live out their lives as civilians. There was no deployment and return home to the little wife six or nine months later.

“I would have died if I hadn’t mated, but if you are separated from me, by choice or by force, I’ll lose control of the beast eventually. When you die, mate, I will go with you.” He lowered his head to kiss me full on the lips, a soft, slow, lingering kiss filled with a whole lot of emotions I couldn’t process yet. “I may have saved your life in that cave, Megan. But now, you have saved mine.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him close because I had to. I had no idea this big and tough, strong and fearsome male would have such soft, mushy insides. But Nyko did, and I knew I was the only person in the universe who’d ever see this side of him. It felt intimate, more intimate than having his cock inside me. This was personal. Real.

This Nyko I could love, and that thought made it hard to swallow past the lump in my throat.

I could have kissed him for hours, but I wanted to say goodbye to Seth, and I knew I’d never get another chance so I pulled my mouth from his and buried my face in his neck, surrounding myself with his scent. There was something so reassuring about the solid heat of him pressed against me. I didn’t want to analyze it, I just wanted to enjoy the feeling.

Nyko’s hands ran up and down my back in a slow caress that made me feel like I was almost dainty, delicate and special. “We have a very important meeting today, mate.”

I pulled back to look up into his eyes. The intense blue was focused on me, and completely serious. Butterflies fluttered through my stomach. What now? “With who?”

“Commander Wulf.”

“Why?” Warlord Wulf was the elected commander of the entire group of Atlans serving in the battlegroup. I’d seen him on the battlefield—heard him bellowing orders from nearly half a mile away—but I’d never met him.

Nyko lowered his forehead to mine. “The Commander has access to the Atlan data files. He is going to show us everything currently available.” His smile was contagious. “Today you get to choose our estate on Atlan.”

“What?” Shocked, I tried to straighten and pull away from him, but the arms that had been so soft and tender moments ago were like steel bands holding me to him. “What are you talking about?” Oh, I knew. I’d heard that an Atlan Warlord’s prize for surviving the war was wealth and lands and titles. The whole thing sounded like the old-fashioned romances my mother used to read where Dukes and ladies lived in grand estates with carriages and servants. I didn’t know if any of that was true, but I guess I’d find out.

“I have been fighting for a long time, Megan. My people will gift me with wealth and property. I will take care of you. I promise you that.”

I was not worried about that. Hell, I could survive with a knife in the woods if I had to. But this was Nyko’s reward. Not mine. “Why did you say I would choose your estate?”

“Our estate.” He kissed me, his arms tightening to emphasize his words. “You’re mine. I don’t care where we live. But I’ve been told that females prefer to choose the home where they will raise their children.”

“Children?” I squeaked the word. Oh holy hell. I hadn’t really thought about children more than in a completely abstract—someday—kind of way.

He was watching me closely, too closely, so I looked at his chest instead of his face. “I don’t know anything about Atlan. I’ll choose the wrong city or climate. I don’t know where your family is or where you’re from.”

Nyko lifted his hands to cup my face and angled my head up so I’d look at him. When our gazes locked and held, he spoke again. “You are my family. There is no one else.”

“No one?” Was he an orphan? “What about your friends? Or cousins? A mentor or teacher you want to be close to?”

“No.” It was his turn to look away, but my reprieve didn’t last long. And when his gaze returned to me, the emptiness I saw there made me want to take him in my arms, kiss him all over, and make him forget this entire stupid conversation. “There is no one, Megan. My friends, the brothers I care about, are almost all either dead or still fighting on this battleship. I have no family, my parents died years ago in a war. My father was older when he mated, and she was alone in the world before their match, sent to him by a matching service on Atlan. I have no one left, Megan. You are my life now. You are my family. Do you understand?”