“When will that be?” I shook my head and shoved at Nial’s hand again. “I need it. Someone could steal it. I have to get it now.”
“You will not leave the safety of this building, mate. You need to rest for transport.”
“What?” Transport? No. No. No. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His eyes narrowed. “You are my mate. You will go where I command.”
I choked on my laughter, and the sound wasn’t happy. I could hear my hurt, my disappointment behind the fragile sound. “No, I won’t. You had your chance and you rejected me. That means I’m free. My part of the bride contract was fulfilled. My obligation is over. I’m not yours anymore. You gave me up.”
His eyes narrowed even further and I could see that he did not like to be denied. I could sense his anger and frustration, but did not feel a bit of it in his touch.
“I care not for your Earthen contracts, female. You are mine, my match. My father denied you transport. I had nothing to do with it and was, in fact, enraged when I discovered what he had done. Nothing has changed except that I was forced to come here to retrieve you. Let me be clear. You were not rejected. I will not give you up. You are mine.”
I sucked in more air to argue, but Warden Egara, who’d been fidgeting uncomfortably at my bedside, held her hands up in the air. “I’ll go out to the car and get the camera. No one will think a thing of it. It’s my car.”
Happy to ignore this very intense version of Nial, I turned to her. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” She turned and left the room, the large sliding door closing with a soft swooshing sound behind her.
I celebrated that small victory for about five seconds. That was when I realized I was nearly naked, and completely alone with an alien warrior who believed—very, very seriously—that I belonged to him.
Chapter Seven
Nial
My mate trembled beneath my palm, her body long and lean and so beautiful I ached to rip the small pink garments from her soft breasts and sweet pussy and taste her.
The scars on her body and in her eyes prevented me from acting on that impulse. Her own people had used her as a soldier, scarred her perfect body and taught her not to trust. My father’s denial had hurt her, deeply. Now she doubted me, doubted my desire for her. It only added to the list of reasons I hated the man. No one should come between a man, his second, and their mate.
I would prove her doubts wrong, but forcing my attentions on her was not the way to win her heart. She was wounded and afraid, even under that gruff facade she maintained so well. It had dropped briefly in the car when I’d coated her skin with a hint of my pre-cum. The powers it held to bond a woman to her mates was legendary, but Prillon women did not react as my little human had. On Prillon Prime, the females would become aroused by their mates’ seed, and over time, usually months, she would begin to crave intimate contact with her mates. But the bonding was slow and predictable, easy for the woman to ignore should she choose.
Not my Jessica. Her reaction had been instant and fascinating, and made me ache to fuck her, right there in the car.
Commander Deston had warned me, and I’d seen his mate’s response to the bonding chemicals in his and his second’s seed during their mating ceremony. I’d watched their mate writhe and beg them for more, but I had not fully comprehended the bonding power on a human female until I’d spread that small amount of pre-cum on Jessica’s arm.
It hadn’t taken more than three quick pumps of my cock for the fluid to seep from the tip. The moment she ran into me, I had become hard, eager for her. Ready.
Gripping her arm, letting the clear fluid seep into her skin had been an attempt to soothe her, to calm her enough that she would see reason when it came to our bond. Within a few seconds, she’d responded and the smell of her wet pussy had flooded the small interior of the car. Her pupils had dilated, and she had devoured me with her eyes, inspecting me with the gaze of a female who wanted to touch.
I wanted her hands on me more than I had ever desired anything, even the throne. She stared up at me, healed but shaken, nearly bare but not afraid, and my cock swelled even further. Gods, she was mine.
She had appeared upset by her arousal in the vehicle, but I welcomed the bond I knew my seed would help forge between us. I would wait, if necessary, slowly win over her heart and mind. Her body already recognized the truth that we were truly matched, and if seduction was the route I must take to win her over, I would be ruthless in my mastery of her pleasure.
Time and the claiming ceremony would be the answer to easing any doubts she had. Already she had melted into my arms, soft and compliant, accepting and eager for my kiss, and that had been before any of my pre-cum had touched her skin.