Maxim sighed. “I could not risk breaking her heart again. She has been… struggling… since the news of the explosion.”
“I placed my collar around her neck, Governor. She is mine. I demand to see her. Now.” The idea of her suffering was causing Niklas immense pain. My reaction was more along the lines of rage that this Prillon ass would dare deny our mate the comfort we could provide, and disgust at his lack of faith in fellow warriors.
“Lucy is ours. We will fight every fucking integrated bastard on this planet if you try to keep her from us.” I meant every word. The potent effect of Niklas’s pain mixed with my rage and disgust was making us both a bit… unstable. We needed our mate.
Apparently that was the kind of reaction Governor Maxim Rone appreciated and understood. With a chuckle, he put his hands up in surrender and turned to the transport tech. “Where is Lucy Vandermark?”
The tech ran his fingers over the controls, looked to the governor. “Main cafeteria.”
The governor murmured his thanks. “Follow me.”
The governor led us down a labyrinth of corridors. He was walking too slowly, but even though I wasn’t the diplomat, I knew not to yell at him to move faster. The scent of food hit me before we arrived, and I knew—hoped—this was the right place. That our mate would be behind the door we were approaching.
I glanced at Niklas. I didn’t have to see the tense line of his shoulders to know he was as worried as I. The collars shared all his concerns with me. The last time we’d been with Lucy, she’d accepted the collar about her neck, but not our claim. Did she still feel the same way? Had she decided she didn’t want the collar any longer? Hell, had she removed it?
It was right then when I realized something, grabbed Niklas’s arm. He looked my way. “I don’t feel her.”
His eyes widened as he paused. “You’re right. Governor, has Lucy removed her collar?”
The governor rubbed his chin. “No. It is still black about her neck. You don’t feel her emotions?”
We shook our heads.
He tipped his, moved to stand so the doors sensed him and opened. “Then go find out why.”
I took a deep breath, resigned to whatever came next. We’d survived four days behind enemy territory. I’d done so with the motivation to get back to Lucy to tell her how I felt, how Niklas and I wanted to claim her. We’d take all the time she needed, but we would not be giving her up. We knew what life was like without her, and that was not a life we wanted to live.
* * *
Lucy
I tried to eat. I did. Rachel had even brought me my favorite pizza, fresh from the S-Gen machine.
But everything tasted like ash in my mouth. I was numb. I felt nothing because when I did feel, the only thing inside me was pain. So I buried it. Crushed it under my heel like an insect. Dead.
If I couldn’t feel what I had with Sam and Nik wrapped around me, I’d rather not feel anything.
We sat at a large, round table. Rachel and little Max were arguing about which vegetables he was going—or not going—to eat. The little boy was adorable, preferring Earth carrots over a bright yellow plant from Prillon Prime, but refusing to eat anything green.
Seemed that even in space, the green veggies came in a hard last.
Normally the thought would have made me smile, but now I felt nothing. I imagined that I was an android, a computer, someone like that character, Data, from Star Trek. Except hadn’t he wanted to be human? To feel emotion?
I was the opposite of late, perfectly content to feel nothing.
The Warlord, Braun, had been watching me with undisguised worry in his eyes. Even now he sat at the table next to Caroline and Rezzer, one twin on each of his knees. They adored him, as all the children did, and his singing voice was like an angel’s.
I hadn’t even known Atlans could sing until he’d taken a crying Emma a few days after our arrival and sung her to sleep in two minutes flat. That day had been a revelation, and Olivia had badgered Wulf until he relented and the two Warlords sang a loud, rollicking battle song that reminded me of a drunken Irish bar ditty. That day I’d made a friend. Braun was dear to me, but he wasn’t meant to be mine. And his beast did not demand he take me.
Neither one of us wanted to settle, but we had flirted with possibilities until I met my real mates.
And lost them.
A twinge of pain made me clutch at my stomach, and Rachel glanced at me from under her lashes, her hand moving to rest on top of mine where I’d kept my clenched fist hidden under the table.
I smiled my thanks as Braun listened to the twins’ chatter. To them, he was their Uncle B. He would make a wonderful mate and father.
Just not mine.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Rachel asked. “I can get you something else.”
“I’m fine. Thank you. You’ve done enough. Really.” I didn’t want pizza. I didn’t want anything. I just wanted to go back to my room and stare at the ceiling. Sleep. When I slept, I dreamed of Niklas and Sambor. In my dreams they were mine again.
Before she could offer to do anything else, I stood. Braun watched me with sad eyes, but we both knew the truth. Any chance we might have had to fall in love had been gone the moment I met my real mates.
“I’m not very hungry. I’m going to go back to my room.” I did my best to smile but knew the effort was weak and pathetic. “I’ll see everyone tomorrow.”
“Okay. Sweet dreams. Comm me if you need anything.” Rachel was too kind. She was a good friend. I knew Ryston was on patrol tonight, but where was the governor? He rarely missed spending time with his mate and son.
Turning, I heard his voice in the hallway just before the door to the room slid open.
And I saw ghosts.
Every ounce of raw agony I’d suppressed the last couple of days erupted inside me like a bomb exploding, and my knees collapsed.
Even before I hit the ground, Nik was there, holding me. Sam moved in next to him, and I sobbed, touching them, feeling their faces, their shoulders, their hair. “Are you real?”
“Yes, mate. We are real.”
The floodgates opened, and their emotions filled me through the collars. Pain. Relief. Fear for me. Desire. Devotion. Love. God, the jumble scrambled my brain until all I could do was cry and cling to them.
Governor Maxim cleared his throat. “Hey, everyone, maybe we can all clear out and give these three a little privacy?”
Feet shuffled. I heard one of the twins ask, “Who’s that?”
Braun answered. “Those two Prillon warriors are your Aunt Woocy’s mates.”
“Aunt Woocy has mates?”
I giggled through my tears at little CJ’s confusion. I was confused, too.
“Yes, she does.” Braun sounded solemn but resigned, and I hoped he found the most amazing woman in the history of the universe to love him. He deserved it.
I lifted my head to watch the last of the crowd shuffle out the doors and saw Governor Maxim slap Braun on the back.
“Don't worry, Warlord. I have big plans for you.”
Braun turned his head. “What plans?”
The governor smiled. “You are going to be The Colony’s next representative on the Bachelor Beast television program on Earth.”
Rachel squealed and clapped her hands as the doors slid closed behind them, leaving me alone with my mates.
“Lucy?” Nik’s voice was strong, but the fear coming through his collar was going to keep me on my knees.
Rising to a kneeling position, I wrapped one arm around each of my mates and tackled them to the ground. “I love you. I love you both so much.”
I gave up trying to hide my emotions and allowed them to flood me—and them. Love. Relief. Gratitude that they were alive. Longing. Need. Pain. I gave them everything. Everything.
“Lucy.” Sam clutched at my back, ran his hand through my hair, stroked my hip, kissed every part of me he could reach. “Mate, I love you. I need you. Thank the gods.”
Nik clung. The
re was no other word for the fierceness of his hold or the rock-solid grip of his hands. He did not move, did not speak, simply held me like he’d never, ever let me go again. And love? God. His absolute devotion poured through the collars like pure heat, pure need.
“You are mine, mate. You are my heart and my soul and my life. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” I held on to them both and cried until I didn’t have any tears left. Then I cursed. “You let me cry but didn’t tell me what happened to you!”
They eyed me, jaws clenched. “It matters not. We are here, and we are not leaving you. Someday we will share what happened. Not now.”
It must have been awful, whatever they’d endured. They were right, and I felt their need to not relive it and share it with me but to move on. They were here. I was theirs. “This fucking collar needs to be blue, not black. Blue. You two are mine, understand? Mine. And I want you both to know it.”
They didn’t argue. Nik stood first. Sam followed and they lifted me to walk between them.
“Once again, mate, are you asking us to accompany you to your private quarters and see to your pleasure?” Nik asked.
I laughed with pure joy. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m asking.”
“I do not have a problem with giving you pleasure,” Nik said. “Do you, Sambor?”
“Absolutely not.”
I realized they were repeating the exact same words they’d said to me at the palace, and my heart melted. These two were mine, and it was time to make it permanent.
14
Niklas
“You make us proud, mate,” I said, holding Lucy’s hand as Sambor followed, one step behind. She could sense our satisfaction in her through the collars.
A near-death experience filtered out the things that weren’t important and added value to those that were. Like Lucy. She was the most crucial thing in the universe.
We’d been given a second chance. Our feelings, the depth of them, couldn’t be hidden. Not now. Not when we were all prepared to focus on what really mattered.
All the time stuck on that asteroid, I’d wondered of Lucy’s true feelings. She’d made it clear we were just a fling, as humans called it. We were disposable.
No longer. We didn’t need the collars to know her heart. The look on her face when she’d first seen us in the canteen told us everything we needed to know.
I saw her love, felt it through the collars, but hearing the true depths of need when she’d said the words aloud filled my heart completely. I’d thought it full before, but there had been something missing.
No longer.
Perhaps our time apart had solidified her intentions, and voicing them aloud and in such an intense, forceful manner couldn’t allow her brain or any Earth ideals to stand in the way.
She was ours now. She knew.
We knew it.
We’d been showing her all along. Even through separation, we were still one.
Now we would claim her. Make it official.
She led us to her quarters, a small set of rooms that held no personality. The space was plain and stark. I thought of my residence on Prillon Prime. It was the same way. A place to go between missions. To sleep. Eat. It wasn’t a home.
“We will need larger quarters,” I said, seeing the bed in the other room. It was small, not meant for a female and her two Prillon mates.
She glanced at the bed, then me. Then Sambor.
“You wish to live here on The Colony?” she asked, her voice soft. The tears were gone, but her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.
Sambor stepped forward, took her hand and raised it to brush his lips over her knuckles. “We will live where you are. It matters not.”
Her pink lips parted as she stared up at him. “Your work.”
I sliced my hand through the air. “My work is not as important as you. A mate comes first. Everyone knows that—”
“Everyone but Helion,” Sambor finished.
“If this is where you wish to reside, we will be pleased to make The Colony our home.”
Her hair was wild down her back, far from the sleek styles we’d seen when she was on Prillon Prime. I liked this… natural look of her. The freckles, the curls. The real Lucy.
“I’m only here because of Olivia. It’s not where I should be. I didn’t know until now where that was. I… I want to live on Prillon Prime. The days I thought… when you were gone”—she swallowed hard—“I realized I had nothing here.”
“Olivia and Wulf. The children,” Sambor offered.
“It isn’t the same as being with you. Prillon Prime is where you both belong. Where I’d like to be. It… fits me.”
“My home is not a palace,” I shared. I had means and could easily take care of Lucy in a deserving nature, but I was not royalty.
“I want you. Both of you. My life’s not a Disney princess movie. I don’t want a shiny palace.”
“Everyone must have something that they’re passionate about. Work of some kind. You mentioned your desire for a female… what was the word?” I asked.
“Spa.”
I nodded. “Yes, that’s it. If it is a dream of yours, it must be fulfilled.”
A smile spread across her face and Sambor sighed. I felt his satisfaction through the collar. I’d made her happy. Thank fuck.
“I would love that, but really, right now I just want to be with you. Both of you.”
She stepped into Sambor and placed her hand on his chest. I closed the distance between us and took her other hand.
“Nothing else matters except making my collar turn blue. I… I can’t stand it being black. I thought it was going to stay that way forever.”
I shook my head. “No, mate. We shall wait no longer. It is my greatest desire—”
“And mine,” Sambor cut in.
“—to make you ours.”
* * *
Sambor
Any chance of a traditional Prillon claiming was long gone the second we crash-landed on that asteroid. Yes, a public claiming was a custom that went back hundreds, if not thousands of years. Formality didn’t matter when it came to Lucy. It wasn’t important.
All that mattered was that we were together. When the door to Lucy’s quarters slid closed behind us, the rest of the universe was left behind. The Hive, my job, Niklas’s work was forgotten. All of it would be there tomorrow. Waiting.
Tonight we would make Lucy ours, claim her, turn the collars to Lorvar blue. It was the only thing I could think of. Lucy, the only thing I saw. The collars made it so that she and Niklas were the only things I felt.
“You understand what a Prillon claiming entails?” I asked, undoing the strap on my thigh holster, laying it and the ion pistol on the table beside me, not taking my eyes off Lucy.
Her tongue darted out, licked her lips. I sensed her eagerness, her arousal.
“You mentioned a little about it when we were at the palace.”
Yes, and I’d worked my thumb into that tight ass of hers so she’d know what it would be like.
“We’ll both take you,” Niklas said, reaching for the hem of Lucy’s shirt and lifting it up. She raised her arms to help. When he dropped it to the floor, she was bare from the waist up, her freckled, pale skin reminding me of stars across the galaxy. “I’ll be in your pussy.”
“I’ll be in your ass. I can’t wait.” She was going to be so snug. Fuck.
“Jessica’s claiming was broadcast to the entire planet,” she said.
I slid a finger along her shoulder and down her arm to her elbow, watched the goose bumps rise. “To Prillon Prime and beyond. To most reaches of the universe, for those Prillons fighting far and wide to know that their Prime had found the perfect mate.”
“Our claiming will not be shared,” Niklas said. “I do not want to wait.”
We hadn’t discussed it, but I knew we would not share Lucy with anyone. The sight of her bare skin, the way she responded to us, cried out, surrendered was for us alone. Because our first night tog
ether had been at her request, we hadn’t followed mating protocol. While I’d gone second, I’d fucked her pussy, which wasn’t allowed in traditional Prillon matches until the female became pregnant from her primary mate’s seed. Speaking to Niklas, I needed him to know my wishes on the matter now that Lucy would truly be ours. “Now that we are formally claiming our mate, I insist you take the right of the primary male.”
Niklas’s gaze lifted to mine, shocked, but I knew him better since we’d placed the collars around our necks. Niklas put on a fine show of not caring, but he wanted Lucy, wanted a child with a longing that nearly brought me to my knees. I could wait, had waited. The honor of fathering the firstborn would be Niklas’s once our mate was ready. As it should be.
“What does that mean?” Lucy asked.
Niklas was unable to speak, his emotions overcoming his normally eloquent gift for language.
“It means, love, that when you are ready to be a mother, Niklas will be the one to father the child. Until then, I will content myself with fucking your mouth and your beautiful, perfect ass.”
“Is that a rule or something?” Lucy asked.
“A tradition,” Niklas answered at last. He looked to me. “Thank you, Sambor. I am honored.”
I nodded, pleased that Lucy’s reaction to being a mother had been joy and excitement. Gods be damned, but these collars would come in handy, help two clueless warriors know exactly what she needed.
“Isn't the public claiming also tradition? You’re an ambassador. You represent Prillon Prime,” she said, looking at Niklas. “You… you don’t want that?”
Having her breasts bare was a distraction. I felt Niklas’s need for our mate, and while this conversation was important, I wished he’d kept her shirt on.
Niklas reached out and gently cupped one of her breasts. I watched the pink tip harden as his thumb slid back and forth. “You do not wish to be publicly claimed,” he said.
He didn’t need to ask, as we could both sense her apprehension to that possibility.
Surprise Mates: Interstellar Brides® Program: Book 21 Page 14
