He was mine. All mine. The thought brought equal parts joy and anxiety. I had no idea who he was, what he thought, how he felt about anything. The warden at the bride processing center had promised he’d be perfect for me, and I really, really hoped she hadn’t been lying.
What if he didn’t like me? What if he thought my sense of humor was stupid. I loved wearing bright colors, lots of colors. What if he only wanted me to wear red, or black, or eat salad every day? What if he hated music? What if, now that he wasn’t in mating fever, he decided he didn’t want me?
I realized, truly realized for the first time, that I was about to go home with a complete stranger.
Chapter Six
Deek
I followed my little mate as she walked through her new house. I’d barely been in it, for I’d been stationed on Battleship Brekk for ten long years. Only on leave did I return. Until now, the large house had just been a place to sleep. But with my mate here, it suddenly felt like home.
Mine.
That one word seemed to be on a repeating loop in my mind. Every time I looked at Tiffani, caught a hint of her sweet scent, or remembered the tight heat of her pussy riding my cock, the word became a chant. Mine.
The beast might be soothed, I might now be able to control that part of me, but he lived within me still. Every time Tiffani drew near, he rose from the depths of my soul and fought to reach her, to touch her, to fuck her and mark her with his scent and his seed.
I’d heard other warriors speak of the beast’s fierce devotion to their mates, but I’d never truly understood the overwhelming and primitive urge to protect, to fuck, to lie down at her feet and surrender my battered soul into her keeping.
I’d even shaken my head at the change in Dax since he’d been matched and mated to Sarah. Their connection was touching and the way the big warlord doted on his Earth mate was… endearing. And yet I’d assumed it would never happen to me. But here I was, mated to my own Earth female, and I realized I would do anything, anything, for her.
She’d already proven herself brave beyond belief. She’d refused the no-transport order and come across the galaxy. She’d risked breaking into my cell when she could have been arrested herself. She’d done it all to save me, a battered warrior she’d not yet met.
I’d never met anyone with so much compassion, such courage. I was quite sure I did not deserve her, yet knew I would kill to keep her by my side. She was mine, and I would never give her up.
Still, I was the commander. I was the one in charge. I did the saving.
But this woman had already humbled me in so many ways, and so had my beast.
The beast had seen many battles. I’d killed hundreds of Hive soldiers, ripped them limb from limb, watched them writhe and bleed and scream in agony. And the beast had felt nothing. Nothing but satisfaction as they died in pieces at my feet.
Now… now the cold-hearted monster within felt everything. For her. A woman I barely knew, an alien bride from a faraway world. A stranger.
“Do you like your new home, Tiffani?”
“It’s beautiful.” Her smile was shy as she ran her soft hand along the back of a large sofa in my bedroom suite and I realized it was one thing to fuck with mindless intent, to give the beast free rein over her body. But it was quite another to stand beside her, a man learning his mate, and try to set her at ease, to learn about her home, her past, about how she’d come to be mine.
The beast didn’t care, his primeval heart not capable of such finesse. He saw. He wanted. He fucked. But that primitive nature would also protect her, for the beast would die to protect her, kill without a moment’s hesitation to keep her safe.
As would I.
I walked to the window and the small table nestled just below. A bottle of our finest wine sat open and ready—a servant had prepared for our arrival—and I poured two glasses of the dark purple liquid, turning to offer one to my mate.
Our fingers grazed as she took it from me and the beast stirred with joy at that lightest of touches.
This woman had already wrecked me. I was hers, utterly and completely. I didn’t need the cuffs about our wrists to convince me. Although she did not yet appear to understand the depths of their significance, or of my complete and unyielding devotion.
“Anything you want, mate, all you need do is ask.”
“How about a superhero cape?” Her green eyes brightened with humor and I wished I knew her better, understood why she laughed.
I did not understand her reference, but would do what I could to please her. “I’ll summon a tailor. I do not know to what you refer, but if you can draw it out, or explain it to him, he will make it for you.”