Viken Command

by Grace Goodwin

  I understood the logic, but that didn’t mean I wanted to spend long weeks wandering around a sensual paradise alone. With no mate.

  But the time had been well spent. We had a lead on a weapons delivery that was supposed to take place in the next few days.

  Perhaps we could pleasure our mate… and distract her just enough to keep her innocent of all this.

  Viken had a special place in my heart. It was home. But my family was long gone, dead or forgotten. I hadn’t been home in a very long time, the few cousins I had remaining were living their own lives. It was time to get back to work protecting all of the Coalition worlds. Viken felt too small. I felt small when I was here.

  We had a brand-new battleship and a new battlegroup commander waiting for us. Commander Zeus had won the challenge on Prillon Prime easily, besting the others so quickly news of his ruthlessness had spread like wildfire through the Coalition. Battleship commanders were elite, even among the Prillon warriors. Their family names launched into dynasties that lasted hundreds of years.

  Add to the fact that Zeus was only half-Prillon, and his reputation had caught fire like an explosion through the entire Fleet. He was half-Prillon and half-human. From Earth.

  The small planet had only been a probationary member of the Coalition for a few years, but their influence had spread rapidly. First, the three kings had taken a human female for a mate, then Prime Nial himself and his second, Ander, had claimed a human female in the battle arena on Prillon Prime in front of the entire Coalition of planets, her screams of pleasure broadcast live to every battleship and every world. She’d been more than legendary since. Queen Jessica Deston, the intrepid, passionate female every unmated male in the Coalition dreamed of claiming. Of fucking. Of being worthy to be chosen by such a strong, fierce female.

  One look at Ander, her second, and even the Atlan Warlords dared say nothing of her beauty and fire. But in the canteens, between missions, there was much talk among warriors, fighters, and warlords about the small blue planet known as Earth, and their highly desirable females. Added to their legendary status was the fact that they had successfully mated with many races, Atlan, Prillon, Viken, Trion, Everian… even the contaminated of The Colony did not scare the fierce females.

  One, I’d heard, had killed a Nexus with her bare hands and tamed a Forsian monster for her own… a contaminated Forsian from Rogue 5. The fucker had fangs.

  Another infamous female was Vice Commander Niobe of the Coalition Academy. That female answered only to Prime Nial himself.

  And now, I had a human female for my own. A mate from Earth. A soft, curved, fearless human female to pleasure and protect.

  I would be the envy of every warrior on Battleship Zeus. As would Oran and Teig. She was ours, and we would not give her up.

  We had barely met Zeus before being sent here. But I’d spent enough time with him to know he was an outstanding Prillon warrior, a worthy commander, and every second we wasted tracking down the smugglers on Viken was another day the entire Coalition Fleet was vulnerable to attack. Oreg, Teig, and I had served under a different I.C. commander prior to this mission, a Prillon warrior named Ronan. But we’d heard the good news that Ronan had found his mate and become Commander Karter’s second in Sector 437. After surviving the destruction of Battleship Varsten, he had permanently transferred to the Karter to be with his new family. He’d left the three of us, Sector 438, and the new crew and commander of Battleship Zeus behind. Permanently.

  This left the new commander, Zeus, and his new battlegroup without an I.C. support team. That support was supposed to be the three of us. The Hive stealth ships were still out there. Yes, Commander Ronan had managed to destroy one of them moments before Battleship Karter would have been destroyed, but the I.C. feared there were several more.

  The Hive was nothing if not efficient. If they’d built one, they’d built a dozen. A hundred.

  Gods help us all. We had to get off this planet and back out into space. I already felt like a caged animal, stuck on the ground.

  And now this. A female. A mate. My heart beat faster, my cock stirred. A feeling of satisfaction swelled in my chest.

  Fuck.

  How was I going to protect her when I had to sneak around at all hours of the day and night? When I had to make hunting down a weapons dealer a higher priority than claiming her? I was the worst mate, undeserving of a female. Undeserving of any female, but especially a female from Earth.

  Oran crossed his arms, feet planted like he was preparing to take a hit. “We have no choice, Alarr. She’s coming. She’s ours. We will protect her. Pleasure her regardless of the orders from Helion.”

  “Are you reading my mind?” I asked.

  “No. We’re all thinking the same thing. This situation is not what we wanted.” He pulled an arrow from the quiver across his back. “But we will find out who is using Viken as a stopover for their stolen weapons. And we will claim our mate. There are three of us. We will keep her safe, catch the bastard selling illegal weapons, and get the fuck off this planet.”

  “The sooner, the better,” Teig agreed.

  Grinning now, I took in the males I had chosen to join me in welcoming our mate to the family. Good fighters. Skilled. Honorable.

  Family.

  I nodded in agreement. The plan wasn’t ideal, but we had no choice. Our mate’s transport was imminent. We were still undercover. We had a mate to protect and a mission to complete. There were three of us. We could do both. “Let’s go. She arrives within minutes.”

  Teig let out a whoop, and I couldn’t stop the grin on my face from transforming to a full smile in anticipation. What would she look like? Would she be bold or quiet? Wild or reserved? Curved and soft or lean and strong of body?

  Did I care?

  No. She was mine. My perfect match and I couldn’t wait to claim her.

  3

  Whitney, Trixon Resort Transport Room, Planet Viken

  * * *

  The wrenching pain of transport faded, and I blinked, trying to gain my bearings. I wasn’t a triathlete. I didn’t run stairs for fun or wrench and twist my body through space to travel to other worlds.

  Until today.

  Pushing up with my arms, I lifted my torso off the ground to look around. Perhaps it was best that I was lying on a cold, hard platform of some kind. Soft, silken fabric wrapped around me, and I looked down to find myself covered to my ankles in a shimmering gown that looked like dark chocolate candy against my mocha-colored skin. I could feel I had no bra or panties beneath, but when I glanced up and locked gazes with the three males devouring me with their eyes, I doubted I would need them.

  Holy crap. They weren’t just any males. They were Viken and were as different as light and darkness. One stepped forward, his deep auburn hair pulled back and tied at the base of his neck. He looked like a Viking warrior of old, his fair skin, soft brown eyes, and red hair reminding me of the hot warriors I’d seen on a cable show I watched last year. But his uniform was pure outer space, Star Trek-style shit. Dark brown, a band of some kind around his arm and a space gun at his hip.

  Yes, a space gun. Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

  He walked toward me and took a knee, holding out his hand. “I am Alarr, your mate.”

  His hand was steady. Mine was not. I shook like a leaf as I pushed off the floor and accepted his help to rise. His touch was warm. Strong. I imagined those long, thick fingers working me over, and I shivered. I’d been on the planet for ten seconds, and I was already thinking about sex.

  He smiled at me. “I am pleased to see you in the color of my sector. You are very beautiful, mate.”

  “Get our mate a cloak. Now.” I turned at the sharp command and saw a fierce-looking male with military short blond hair and eyes that saw right through me. His look made me shiver again, my nipples hardened, and my pussy clenched with remembered pleasure.

  It had not been him in the dream, but someone similar, a male whose voice demanded compliance. Dominan
ce. And while I was on the other side of the universe, I’d woken up from my testing no more than thirty minutes earlier, the sounds and feelings from the it still flowing hot and wild in my blood. And that voice. Shit. He was hot.

  I met his gaze and shivered again. No. Cold. Like ice. Ice that burned.

  Warden Egara knew exactly what she was doing to us brides, didn’t she? Get us hot and bothered with the processing dream, then ship us off to hot, virile alien warriors with lust in their eyes and cocks as hard as rocks.

  Both Alarr and the blond male were not even trying to hide their interest. Nor the way their cocks bulged beneath their pants. And as much as the intensity from the blond male made my pussy clench, I was grateful to have Alarr’s hand in mine, his calm, staid assurance that things with the ice man wouldn’t go too far.

  I’d never been pushed out of my comfort zone when it came to sex. But I knew that was going to change, and the thought both thrilled and terrified me.

  What the hell had I done? Given up my life on Earth, walked away from my apartment on the coast, the beach, the sand. Walked away from a family who’d ruined everything. Taken a chance. Started over.

  Started over. Remember that. No rules. No history. Just me.

  And them. My mates. All three of them.

  Alarr led me to stand before the second male, his eyes were like blue ice, his focus on me, but it was Alarr who spoke. “Mate, this is Oran, your second mate. He, too, will protect you and see to your pleasure.”

  Oran took my hand and bent low, placed a kiss on the inside of my wrist, a kiss that sent a ripple of awareness up and down my spine. Heat, not cold, spread from the small place he touched. “Hello, mate.”

  He lifted his gaze, taking me in inch by inch. He lingered on my round hips, my full breasts where the fabric clung like a second skin. When his gaze reached my lips, I swayed toward him, unable to resist the invitation I saw in his eyes.

  Holy shit. These guys were fire. Pure fire. I was in big, big trouble. And that testing dream? It had been like a warm-up porn flick.

  He pulled me into his arms and placed a soft, tender kiss on the corner of my mouth. “I must go, mate. I have to report for patrol. Alarr and Teig will take care of you until I return.”

  Oddly disappointed that I wasn’t going to get all three of them now, like right fucking now, I turned my head slightly and kissed him on the lips. Softly. Quickly. “Can’t you call in sick?”

  Shameless. I was totally and completely out of my damn mind, and I didn’t care. I should have just nodded, taken a little time to adjust to… everything, but I ached. I was seriously horny for three hot aliens.

  I was bold, but I wasn’t usually so brazen about my sexuality, especially with someone I’d just met. I knew that the normally soft brown of my cheeks would have a red undertone with those words, but I didn’t care. I was tired of being afraid all the time, of not asking for what I wanted. That was the old me. The Earth me. Watching my family unravel, my father and brother go to jail, had made me hyper-aware of the passing of time. I only had one life. One. I was tired of being afraid to live it.

  And I wasn’t on Earth any longer. I could be the new me. Only me. Not Whitney Mason of the notorious Mason family. But Whitney, mate of Alarr. And two others.

  Oran stepped back and shook his head. “If you mean to request that I lie about having an illness to spend time with you?” His gaze shifted to meet Alarr’s, and the heat left his eyes, replaced with something I imagined his prey might see were he on a hunt. His gaze was empty, without mercy, and I didn’t want to be whatever he was patrolling for. But when his gaze rested on me, the heat returned along with something else. Tenderness. Surprise. Perhaps pleasure that I had made my desire for him known? “I cannot. I must go, but I vow, mate, that I will more than make up for your loss of pleasure later. Alarr and Teig will see to your every desire.”

  With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving me struggling to breathe as Alarr’s hand came to rest on the small of my back. Heat burned through me as I processed the fact that the fine predatory fighter was mine. Alarr was mine. Oran was mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

  But that was only two, and damn it to hell, now that I’d had that dream, I wanted three. All three. Dedicated to me. Touching me. Taking care of me. My family had been a mess my whole life. Liars. Con men. Thieves. Not to be trusted. I always—always—had to take care of myself. It would be so amazing and wonderful to be able to trust someone else. Three someones…

  Searching for my third mate, I turned at Alarr’s bidding and met the gaze of a dark god. His hair was longer than Oran’s and fell to just past his chin, the dark curls and black eyes intense but not with the ruthless control like Oran’s. This male’s gaze was all about pleasure. If I’d met him in a bar back home, I’d assume he was the player to slay all other players. Everything about him screamed sex. Pleasure. More sex. Sweaty sex. Bent over the barstool sex. On the pool table sex. In the shower sex. Up against the wall sex.

  His grin widened as he studied the rise and fall of my chest and the dark, pebbled nipples peeking at him from under the silken fabric.

  Someone brought him a dark, black cloak of some kind, and he took it without taking his gaze from me. This was the cloak Oran had ordered when I shivered. What he failed to realize was that I was not shivering from the temperature in the room.

  Alarr stepped away just enough for the dark-haired god to place the cloak around my shoulders. His touch lingered on my neck and I sighed at the gentleness. Standing between the two males, I had the first taste of what my future would be like caught between them, Alarr’s heat at my back, this male’s hands on my neck, his lips so close I could practically taste them.

  “You are Teig?” I asked. Oran said Alarr and Teig would take care of me while he was away. Hopefully, this sex-god was also mine. He was too busy staring to respond right away, his gaze locked on mine until I squirmed.

  “Yes, my lady. I am yours.” His fingers traced the line of my collarbones as Alarr stepped up and pressed his hips to my ass, his chest to my back. I was surrounded by hot, sexy male.

  “Okay.” Brilliant, but hey, it was the truth. Okay. Hell yes. Way more than okay.

  His smile made my heart melt a little. “What is your name?”

  What? Alarr’s hand was on my hip, fire traveling up my side to rattle my brain.

  Behind me, Alarr chuckled, the vibration of sound moving through my chest like a kitten’s purr. Pure bliss. “Our female is in need, Teig. Too overwhelmed by us to give her name.”

  Teig didn’t tear his gaze from mine. Held me locked in place as he lifted a fingertip to my full lips. “Your name, love? Tell me, and I’ll kiss you.”

  Like a pet being offered a reward, I told him, eager for his mouth on mine. “Whitney. My name is—”

  Teig’s lips crushed mine as Alarr’s hands wrapped around me to cup my full breasts. My ass rubbed against a long, hard cock as Alarr lowered his head to nibble on the side of my neck.

  Oh. My. God. I was hot and lost and wild and achy and… what was my name? There were two mouths on me. Four hands. Two cocks pressed against me.

  I was dying, trying to breathe, and this was only two of them. I tore my lips from Teig’s—God that male could kiss—and tried to regain my senses. I was not going to fuck two men in a transport room in front of whoever had brought me the cloak. They probably had cameras in here. Other workers. I wasn’t a prude, but still. “Not here. I don’t want to do this here.”

  Teig pulled back from the kiss as Alarr’s hands lowered from my breasts to rest on the curve of my hips once again. Not much of a reprieve, since his touch was still fire on my flesh, but I could think. A little.

  “She wishes to continue,” Teig murmured.

  Only a man could miss the point of my sentence. “Don’t you have a house or something?” I asked.

  Teig inclined his head at me like I was a queen. “Of course.” His gaze moved over my shoulder to Alarr. “You may have to c
onvince your mate to indulge your need for a public claiming.”

  “Public? What?” The thought made my heart pound in equal parts horror at the idea… and excitement. I’d never considered three guys before, but the testing dream had proven to me that it would be hot, that it pushed some sex button I didn’t even know I had. But public sex?

  I wasn’t supposed to have sex in public. I wasn’t supposed to do a lot of things. But standing here with my mates, imagining Oran joining us? Being “bad” suddenly didn’t seem wrong. There was bad, like my family. Then there was naughty, like fucking three hot strangers. And in public? If these two could make me forget my name by just kissing me, I’d probably forget what planet I was on if they got me naked.

  My gran would roll over in her grave, but gran was dead. My bad father and brother were light-years away, rotting in jail. My mother was living with her sister and crying herself to sleep every night, making excuses for the men in our lives that I was unwilling to make. They were all dead to me. And I was alive. Very, very alive.

  “Come, mate. We will show you to our home here.”

  Alarr lifted me from behind, cradling me like a small child in his arms as we walked outside and through a strange village. With his arms around me, everything was in place. The strangest sense of contentment flowed through me. He was my match. He’d said as much. And the steady nature of his touch, the calm strength I felt from him made me feel bold. Safe. If these three males were mine, then Alarr was the glue holding us together. Already, he was my anchor.

  Perhaps he made the other two feel the same way? I didn’t know what kind of dynamic the three males had between them, but I would learn. I’d seen drunk men fight over women on Earth. Bar fights. Fights all the way back to elementary school.

  This was completely different. Both Alarr and Teig seemed content to be near me. To share the responsibility of caring for me. I had one brother, and he was almost ten years my senior. I’d grown up alone in a huge house, always longing for the chaos and excitement of a large family. I wanted children. Lots of children. Maybe half a dozen, but only if I had help. I wasn’t raising a son with no father. I’d seen too much of that. Too damn much.