Nikhil would never complain about his Mackenzie's hands on him, but he stilled, hearing the tremble in his mate's voice. "Mackenzie?"
"I was so scared, Nikhil," she whispered burrowing into his chest. "When I realized it was the Zaludians that were attacking."
Nikhil hated the fear he heard in her voice. Hated that he hadn't been there for her when she needed protected. He also knew that she needed to voice that fear before she could heal. Slowly, he began to work the cleansing liquid into her hair and listened.
"Paul was just coming over to talk to us. He'd finished shaving and cutting all the guys’ hair, and wanted to know if either of us wanted our hair trimmed."
Nikhil had to call on all his control to stop himself from growling his displeasure at her cutting any part of the amazing mass his fingers were now in.
"We all heard the first explosion but didn't know where it was coming from. We didn't realize we were under attack. Not until the exterior wall blew out and the Zaludians started storming in. I couldn't believe it. I don't think any of us could. The Jerboaians took the worst of it. They were the closest to the wall. Once the Zaludians were inside, they seemed to take a moment and then they zeroed in on us. They were looking for us... for me." She looked up at him, fear filling her eyes again. "Why were they looking for me, Nikhil?"
"We do not know for sure," he told her truth as he continued to cleanse her hair, because this concerned her and she had the right to know. "Treyvon believes it might have something to do with the Tornians."
"The Tornians? But why? I've never even met one."
"I know." Gripping her head, he carefully tipped it back rinsing away the foam as his thumbs gently removed the remaining blood on her face.
"Then why?" she asked, looking him in the eye.
"It seems not long ago the Tornian Emperor discovered a female that might be breeding compatible with them."
"Breeding compatible?" Mac frowned, then remembered that for the Tornians the Goddess' Great Infection had caused fewer and fewer females to be born. That now, according to the educator, Tornian males now outnumbered their females two hundred to one and that they were unable to breed with any other known species. "But that still doesn't explain why me."
"Treyvon briefly met the female, here on Pontus, when the Emperor's shuttle crashed. He said that while her appearance was very different than yours, that you were still similar to her in skin tone and size."
"He thinks she's from Earth," Mac whispered, lifting her arms as Nikhil removed her stained covering.
"He does not know. All he knows is that the Ganglians captured both of you. He had never seen one like her before, but if she is breeding compatible and if the Zaludians or Ganglians have made that connection, then you would be extremely valuable to them."
"Because they could sell me to males desperate to have offspring," Mac whispered, in horror.
"Yes," he told her honestly.
"Nikhil..."
"That will never happen!" he told her seeing the fear in her eyes. He couldn't stand it. Lifting her off her feet, he captured her lips in a hard, deep kiss.
"Nikhil..." she gasped into his mouth. "I need you. I need to feel you inside me," she wrapped her legs back around his hips and wrapped her arms around his head. "Please."
Nikhil knew he could never refuse his Mackenzie, especially when what she was asking for was him. Pressing her against the wall, he hooked an arm under her ass lifting her up as he pulled back just far enough to free himself from his pants. Setting the head of his shaft at her entrance, he gripped her tiny waist and slowly lowered her onto him.
Mac gasped as she felt Nikhil begin to fill her. Goddess, he was it so large... she knew that, but it still surprised her every time they made love and it turned her on. He stretched her tight channel to the point that she could feel the heavy beat of his heart pulsing deep inside her, making them truly one.
"Nikhil!" she cried out, ripping her mouth from his as she took all of him.
"Mine! You are mine, Mackenzie! Only mine!" he growled as he slowly began to thrust in and out of her, groaning at the way her channel clung to his shaft trying to suck him back in as he pulled nearly completely out of her. Unable to stop himself, he thrust back in as deeply as he could, needing to connect with her in the most primitive of ways. He could already feel his balls pulling up, and he wanted to fill her with his seed, wanted to claim her, to make sure no male ever doubted that she was his. He wanted his seed to take root and for her to bear his offspring. He wanted everything he had never thought he could have. "Goddess, Mackenzie!"