I was staring into Nial’s confused eyes, trying to figure out how to tell him what I needed without sounding like an overly sentimental idiot, when the door burst off its frame and two huge warriors invaded the room.
The bigger one was covered in the same silvery skin my Nial had, but his silver covered his chest and neck, not his face. His eyes were a warm honey brown but he had an odd metallic attachment imbedded in his flesh just above his right eye, like a second eyebrow. He didn’t even look in my direction, but directly at Nial.
“I challenge for the right to claim this Earth woman as my bride.”
Chapter Eleven
Jessica
Nial seemed to grow several inches taller, his silver skin sparkling under the slight blue tinge of the exam room lighting. “Touch her and I will kill you.”
Another man, one I realized now was the challenger’s second, moved along the edge of the room, toward me… and Ander, who positioned himself in front of me. The one moving toward us looked completely normal, for an alien, until I looked into his eyes. They were both lined with silver rings, like a jeweler had wrapped matching wedding bands around his irises.
Contaminated. The word floated through my mind until I heard Nial’s roar.
Turning quickly, I saw Nial lift the other warrior over his head like a weightlifting bar and hurl him sideways into a piece of black glass more than twenty feet across the room. The glass, or whatever it was, shattered and fell to the floor with a loud cracking and tinkling sound and I gasped as row upon row of warriors were revealed to me where they must have been standing the entire time.
Watching everything. Oh, my God, they’d seen me being spread open and spanked and fucked and my orgasm and my pleasure and…
Ander waited for his attacker to charge as Nial’s roar literally shook the remaining windows. Ander drew back and planted his fist squarely in the challenger’s jaw, sending him sprawling, unconscious several feet back from where he’d started his attack. One punch and the man was down.
Nial and Ander looked at each other and positioned themselves around me. I looked up to see another pair of warriors nod to each other and enter the room through the broken doorway. They were huge, equal in size to my mates, but much more cautious than the first two had been.
I stared at the black strip of ribbon in my hand and gave in to the inevitable. I understood now the urgency, the doctor’s warning. All of it. I knew I wanted my mates, I just wanted them to desire me with more than their bodies. I wanted their hearts. I wanted a true connection.
That kind of love took time. I knew that. In the meantime, I did not want my mates to have to fight the entire Colony to get me out of here. And I definitely did not want to take the chance that they might lose a challenge, or be seriously hurt, although that did not seem to be much of a problem.
With a sigh I looked at the giant lurking in the doorway. “Stop.”
All four warriors froze, as did the doctor and the men still milling about on the other side of the wall.
I lifted the strange collar to my neck and let go, surprised when it locked itself in place around my neck.
Instantly, I was flooded with battle rage and a fierce need to protect what was mine. I realized the feelings were coming from both of my mates and I lifted my shaking hand to my neck with wonder. There would be no lying, no games. I would know what they felt when they were near.
As I lowered my hand, the large intruder bowed low and held up his hands to ward off Nial’s strike. “My apologies, princess.”
Perhaps Nial’s fierce orders had not been because he lacked romance, but because he actually feared for my safety. They’d vowed to protect me with their lives, to knock out, hurt, or even kill any male that would get near me. The one person they couldn’t protect me from was myself. They were willing to take on every male in the Colony if need be, but they couldn’t force me to put the collar about my neck.
In a backwards sort of way, they had been showing me how much they cared.
I looked at Nial, and the others, noting their complete change in attitude since I’d placed the collar around my neck. Nial hadn’t been exaggerating the danger to me, and I suddenly felt foolish for denying him and risking all of our lives. I spoke directly to Nial’s challenger.
“No, I am the one who is sorry. My lack of understanding caused this mess, but I am not interested in any men but my mates.”
Ander backed toward me, as did Nial, completely cutting off my view of the two men who had barged into the room. The doctor knelt on the floor next to the warrior Nial had thrown into the window and I sighed in relief when I saw the warrior’s arm move. He wasn’t dead. Good. That was a dose of guilt I did not need.