Liam’s father was a leader of the Viken Sector Separatists, one of the men behind the attack on the new princess. By then, Liam was already long gone for the VSS influence. When Liam landed in prison as a teen, and then volunteered to serve in the Coalition Fleet battling the Hive, his family disowned him. He had no blood left, for even his mother hadn’t spoken to him in years. And in Sector 1, family was everything. We were his family now. His only family.
Liam lifted his hand to rest on Evon’s shoulder. “We know you, Evon. You get one look at a mate and you’ll start barking orders like we’re back on Noerzen 5 facing down Hive berserkers.”
That battle had almost killed us all, but Evon had held the team together. We’d fought like Atlan beasts because he ordered us to, because he led the charge, and we’d survived.
“I will adapt. We’ll all adapt.” Evon’s argument was weak, and we all knew it. I grunted in disagreement as Liam spoke.
“No. We won’t.” Liam shook his head and his long hair swung in a dark curtain past his shoulders, hiding the rest of his expression from me. But I could hear the desire in his voice, and the despair. “We’re too different, brother. If you really want a mate, you will have to find warriors more like you. Hell, we all have different needs. My cock gets hard thinking about my mate’s upturned ass, watching as it’s stretched open as I slide into her, one sweet inch at a time. I like to see my handprint turn pink on her pert ass cheeks.”
Liam elbowed me in the ribs, I assumed to encourage me to second his opinion, but I ignored him. I was half a head taller than both of them, and much larger. They had called me the Bronze Beast in our unit because of both my dark bronze hair color and my size. I was big for a Viken, and impulsive. Sometimes I felt out of control, like a beast in mating fever. Massive warrior loaded with weapons and a bad attitude? Not exactly a good combination. I’d gotten in a lot of trouble when I was younger, a fresh recruit. Now, I counted on Liam and Evon to rein me in and keep me in line. On the rare occasions when I was pushed too far, when I lost my head, one of them was always there to step between me and trouble.
“Why are you elbowing me? I know what gets you off. While a willing ass isn’t something I would walk away from, I have simpler tastes.”
Evon laughed, slapped my shoulder. “Exactly. Tastes. You’ll eat pussy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”
I couldn’t help but grin. “Damn right.” I thought of the dream, of the female who’d come from my mouth, then my cock. Shit. She’d been bound, but I wouldn’t need my mate bound for her to part her thighs, not unless Evon pleasured her first. I was getting hard again and had to adjust myself in my uniform pants. “You’ll have her tied to a bed, at your mercy.”
Evon shook his head. “She’ll give me her trust. The greatest gift.”
“It’ll never work,” Liam grumbled. “A matched mate for one of us is bound to be a little wild. But meet the needs of all three of us? Impossible.”
I stood and sighed. We’d done the tests. I was the last of the three of us. Now we waited. And waited, because there was no way on Viken, or any other planet in the universe, that there was a female that loved to be fucked and sucked, controlled and commanded, bent over and completely claimed in public. Nor one who could put up with my impulsive nature, or Liam’s dark, brooding silences, or Evon’s need to be in control, command every detail of every moment, every encounter. He was relentless, the sun burning in a desert. He never stopped. Never rested.
Even if a female could satisfy us sexually, it would require a truly miraculous event to find a woman who could accept us as men, as true mates. No female could love all of us. To hope was a mistake. I realized that now.
“Then let’s get back to work,” I said. I wanted to go back to my quarters and take my hard cock in hand, get rid of this excess tension. I needed the dream wrung from my system, but that wasn’t going to happen. We had work to do.
“Yeah, we might have been tested, but a match? Fucking impossible. I should have told you two to find another third. I will ruin the chances for both of you.” Hearing those words from Evon made me depressed. Since he liked control, perhaps he was the most eager for the match. It was a logical step for a male his age. Mate. Procreate. Neat and tidy. It wasn’t so simple up North and it wasn’t so simple for Vikens who were attempting to mate as a trio. But Liam and I were also his age. Yes, we wanted a mate as well, one that all three of us would share, who would be perfect for us based on the Interstellar Brides Program matching, but we weren’t as jaded. Were we? The testing dream was fading, and so was the dream of a true match.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“Impossible?” the doctor asked. “It seems not.” We’d all but forgotten about him. He turned to face us, excitement in his eyes. “No female in the universe to meet your every sexual need? Wrong. There is one.” He looked to Liam. “One willing to display her acceptance of what a Sector 1 mate can give.” Next he looked to Evon. “A woman willing to surrender control only those from Sector 2 demand.” Then he glanced my way. “Content to lie back and enjoy your brand of attention, Rager, from Sector 3.”
My heart skipped a beat even as my mind struggled to keep up with what he said. “Doctor?” I was shocked to discover my hands now shook.
He smiled. “Congratulations, warriors. You’ve been matched.”
Chapter Two
Isabella Martinez, Planet Viken, IQC Array, Transport Center
Warden Egara had said it would seem like a nap, the whole transporting across the universe thing. She asked me if I’d had my wisdom teeth pulled and I’d said yes. When I was fifteen, they’d put me to sleep and I’d woken up with gauze wedged in my cheeks, no memory of the two hours it took them to hack out my impacted molars. Thank god.
As I blinked now, I recalled that conversation and tried to figure out where I was. There was no weird, loopy drug in my system. No oral surgeon leaning over me with a light on his head, or the taste of blood in my mouth.
No. When I blinked my eyes open after being transported from the Miami Interstellar Brides Processing Center to Viken, I saw three large men all watching me with an intense interest that made me squirm.
Aliens. They were aliens.
And I was in a land far, far away from Earth.
They had to be aliens, or I really had been given some good drugs, because these three? They were hot. Like, ultra-smoking hot. Magazine-cover-supermodel-combined-with-lumberjack hot. And big, so big they towered over me, despite the fact that they were squatting down around me. Instead of lying in a dentist’s chair, I was sprawled out on the floor. I pushed up off the hard, unforgiving surface and they moved quickly, putting their hands on me to help me sit up.
I flinched at the unexpected contact, completely overwhelmed. They were so close. So intense. For a second, I felt like a bug under a microscope. First time in my life I’d ever felt sorry for an insect.
I glanced down, afraid I was covered in blood, or worse, naked. But I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw a modestly cut, flowing white gown covered me from neck to ankle. It clung to my curves like a second skin, sexy and innocent at the same time.
Looking down at the gorgeous dress for courage, I took a deep breath and lifted my gaze. Playing coy, or acting shy would do me no good. Not here. I’d just been transported halfway across the universe to marry and sleep with, say “I do, forever and ever” to a complete stranger, a man I’d never met. And Warden Egara had said something odd about my mates. As in more than one. But I’d just blinked and assumed I was hearing things.
So, perhaps I had been drugged after all because these three men were eyeing me as if I were their favorite candy and they each wanted to give me a lick. The idea made me lick my lips, which made their eyes drop to my mouth. One of them, I swear, made a rumbly sound in his chest. Their hands were on me, gently touching me as if I couldn’t sit up on my own, and the heat of their palms made me shudder as desire rose like a storm inside me. My whole life that darkness had tormented me, mak
ing me want what I couldn’t have. But that was my old life, right? I’d read the Interstellar Brides Program brochure, and it said their match rate was higher than 97%.
But then, I’d always excelled at being the exception to the rule. The only one of my friends in grade school who didn’t have a crush on Tommy Parker. The only eighth grade girl in math club. The only woman programmer at a fast-moving Silicon Valley startup until the asshole attitudes of the men in the office drove me to do something I still couldn’t quite regret.
Sure, I’d gone to jail for it, but then, I’d ended up here, with three of the hottest men I’d ever seen looking at me like I was dessert. No, not just dessert, chocolate molten cake with a hot fudge center, caramel drizzle and a scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream on the side.
Ultimate dessert.
But I couldn’t think with them touching me. Or maybe it was the trip through some kind of dark matter, sub-space, freakish transporter straight out of a Star Trek episode. I tried to stand, but the room spun and I plopped right back down before I’d moved more than a couple inches.
“She’s hurt.” The blond spoke.
“Why is the doctor not here?” That one had dark hair, impossibly black, and it was almost as long as mine.
“I will find him.” The one with the wavy, copper-colored hair stood, and holy fuck, he was tall. Like a giant. I tilted my head back and looked up at him as he began yelling at the men who stood behind a control panel of some kind. It was like I just stepped onto the set of a crazy sci-fi movie…with huge, hot aliens. Except, they looked human. One head, two eyes, broad shoulders, lean hips, muscles everywhere. Their skin wasn’t blue or covered in scales and there were no tentacles in sight. They looked better than human, if my libido had a vote.
“I’m fine,” I said. I cleared my dry throat and tried again. “Really.” I wasn’t lying. The room had stopped spinning and the fog in my mind was quickly being overcome with nerves. Was one of these men my match? I was too nervous to ask, but god, I didn’t even want to think about it. Not really. They were all amazing, and I didn’t want to have to choose.
The giant spun on his heel at my voice and looked down at me, then crouched, an intentional move so he was closer to my level.
“I am Rager, one of your mates.”
He wasn’t speaking English, but I understood him. Strange. Oh yeah. I touched my fingers to the bump on my temple above my ear. Warden Egara mentioned I would be prepared for transport, including receiving an NPU, a Neural Processing Unit. She said it was a translation device that would actually wire itself directly into the language centers of my brain so I could understand every language in the galaxy. It had seemed impossible, until now.
“Rager.” His name suited him. His hands rested on his thighs—his powerful, big thighs—and I couldn’t miss how large they were. Yes, everything about him was big. My eyes widened. “You’re my mate?”
His golden eyes softened to something that made my nipples harden instantly. There was more than just lust there. I wasn’t quite sure what, but my body reacted as if he’d just given me an hour-long massage. Was I turning into a puddle? Right now? “I mean, um. Wow. Nice to meet you.”
I held out my right hand and he looked confused for a moment before enveloping it in his much larger one. He held my palm in his, the fingertips of his other hand stroked my arm, the inside of my wrist, and I bit my lip as heat engulfed me. Not just from him, but from the other four hands that still touched me, helping me remain upright.
So hot. God, I couldn’t breathe.
Tearing my gaze from Rager’s, I couldn’t help but hope that everything on him was big. I licked my lips at the possibility. My mate? He was gorgeous.
He grinned then and I swear I felt my ovaries jump for joy. Wow. I couldn’t believe this guy was my mate? The one I’d been matched to? I’d sat in the testing chair earlier and had this really hot dream. A sex dream where I was tied up and taken. Yes, taken. Rough and hard, gentle and wild. Things I’d never done, positions I only wished I’d tried before. And I’d felt so damn good. I’d actually come not once, not twice, but three times before Warden Egara had cruelly woken me. My pussy had been so needy and wet the back of my testing gown had been soaked.
The last few months in that stupid prison cell hadn’t helped curb my need for a good, hard orgasm. I’d always enjoyed sex, or at least not been one of those women who was afraid to tell my lover what I wanted, or how I liked to be touched. The trouble, aside from there not there being any men available to sleep with in the all-women’s prison, was that even on the outside, a lot of guys just didn’t listen.
I’d been approached by several lesbians on the inside, and I’d considered it. But seriously? I loved men. I loved the way their shoulders hulked over me as we fucked, loved their smell, their strength. I loved the way I felt small and at my lover’s mercy. Not that I’d ever talked about that, but I knew. I wanted a man, a dominant, take-charge lover with a big, hard cock and the patience to make me scream.
If this hot alien was my reward for breaking the law, I should have done it a couple of years ago instead of putting up with those lying assholes stealing my code and swatting me on the ass when I walked by. They hadn’t all been bad, but man, a couple bad apples was all it took to ruin the place for everyone who worked there. Especially the women. Two years after the doors opened, I’d been the only woman left.
The information I leaked cost them their IPO, and landed me in jail for insider trading, but I’d been beyond caring. Sure, I could have served my two years and gone on. But then…this.
A mate. A fresh start with the Interstellar Brides Program.
The past was the past. Here I was on an alien world surrounded by hot men. I’d figured I’d get an average guy—alien—from some nice planet to take care of me the rest of my life. I knew from bride program ads and TV commercials that the testing would match me, using various personality and subconscious analysis, to a specific planet. From there, I’d be matched to the perfect mate. But I’d had doubts, the same ones I’d had ever since I became interested in sex. Maybe even before then when I longed to be tied up, to be told what to do by a commanding man, even when I hadn’t understood that interest.
I mean, what guy from another planet would be able to handle my crazy sexual desires? Yeah, I was wired differently than other women. I’d known that since high school when I wasn’t a shy, timid virgin—even when I had been a virgin. My sex drive was higher than other women. I came three times in a testing dream, which, per the Warden, was not normal. So what if I had hot buttons some men hadn’t even wanted to try to push? So what if my inhibitions were low? Pretty much, I’d been called a slut, a freak, a whore. I was none of those things, but it hadn’t mattered. No man had ever wanted me for more than a quick fling, a one-night stand, and it hadn’t ever been that great. So I’d gotten off the damn planet and now here I was. On Viken.
With him.
“Rager,” I repeated, tracing his full lips with my gaze as I imagined running my fingers through his hair. I couldn’t tell exactly how tall he was, but I was pretty damn sure my five-six wouldn’t even reach his chin.
Hot. So hot.
He nodded once, then angled his head toward the other two. “This is Evon.”
The hard-ass blond nodded.
“And Liam.” The black-haired man with stormy-blue eyes.
The first looked like a hard-ass Navy SEAL, the second like a pirate.
The two men still had their hands on me, were still eyeing me like they’d just captured their prey. It seemed odd these two were touching me when Rager was my mate.
“Tell us if you are hurt.” Evon didn’t ask a question, he demanded information and I complied instinctively, wanting to please him for some strange, completely unknown reason I didn’t have time to analyze.
“I’m fine,” I said. “I just want to get up off the flo—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Liam—the long, raven-haired hottie—scooped me up into h
is arms and stood.
“Eep,” I said, gripping onto his biceps with one hand and pressing against his chest with the other, worried he’d drop me. Good god, the man was made out of steel. Hot steel. I could feel the sinew of his muscles, corded and well-honed beneath my fingers. There was no way he was going to drop me. Hell, the secure way he held me, I wasn’t sure if he was going to ever put me down. I licked my lips, wondering what all that expanse of torso would look like bare.
Before me stood the blond man. His hair was cropped short, close to his head, and his pale blue eyes were cold as ice, his focus absolute. On me.
“I’m Evon. Your other mate.”
My mouth fell open.
“I would like to hear you speak my name as well.”
“Evon. My other mate?” I asked. Was that a squeak in my voice? Thank god I wasn’t ogling the guy who held me as if I weighed a feather—not—while my matched mate, Rager, stood by. I knew I found men attractive, but this was beneath even me. I was a one-man woman. I might like sex, but monogamy was my thing. I wasn’t a cheater.
“You have three mates,” Evon said, placing his palm on the side of my hip and offering a gentle squeeze. “And I would like to know how you say your name.”
“The report says, ‘Eye-zee-bee-la’?” Rager stood with a tablet of some sort in his hand, his brows drawn together in confusion. “I do not know this language.”
“I’m Bella. My name is Isabella Maria Santiago Martinez, but my friends call me Bella.”
“We are not your friends.” Evon spoke again, lifting a hand to stroke my cheek. “We are your mates. And you are Bella. Our Bella.”
Her Viken Mates (Interstellar Brides Book 11) Page 2
