by Sue Mercury
The battle had called up their mating urge, and now that they’d won the battle they intended to claim her as their prize.
As their mate.
Chapter Three
Dom wrestled Leann into the hovercraft, quite enjoying her struggles and creative human profanities. Taj sat at the helm and grinned over his shoulder at the fit their little captive was throwing. Poor thing was probably scared out of her mind, but they had to get her away from the crowd and out of Galattak Clan altogether.
“Let me go!” Leann elbowed him in the stomach, and he coughed and sputtered as the air left him.
Taj chuckled. “Want me to wrangle the human while you drive, brother?”
“I can handle her. Now get us out of here before another Reestrian decides to fight for her.”
“Let me the fuck go!” She twisted in his arms and wiggled around when he pulled her into his lap.
He surrounded her with his embrace, partly because he wished to hold her and partly because he didn’t want to take another elbow to the stomach.
“She’s strong for a female, and a human.” Dom inhaled the fragrant scent of her hair as Taj guided the borrowed hovercraft into the air. “I bet she could easily handle both of us.”
“Like hell I will! I want to return to the palace. I’m a guest of the emperor, in case you’ve forgotten.” She stilled as the hovercraft rocked and began soaring over the city, heading toward the mountain range north of Galattak.
Dom peered into her frightened gaze and guilt waved over him. They shouldn’t be teasing her like this. Not when she was so visibly shaken, not to mention furious.
“We won’t hurt you, Leann.” He leaned down to speak into her ear, hoping his words calmed her. “We won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do, but we had to get you out of the city. It’s not safe for you there anymore, not even in the palace.”
She looked up at him, her lips slightly parted and her cheeks flushed. He brushed an errant lock of hair behind her ears, and to his pleasure she didn’t recoil from his touch. He loosened his grip on her but didn’t release her entirely, didn’t allow her to slide onto the seat next to him.
“What do you mean?”
Taj guided the craft higher into the clouds and cleared his throat. “A fight took place over you, Leann. You are considered a prize mate now, and other males close to experiencing their mating urge will seek us out to fight us for you.”
“Just my luck.” She shivered, and he rubbed his hands up and down her arms, the need to lessen her fear all-consuming. “The prize mate thing…I’ve heard of it, but how does it work exactly?”
“Reestrian males who haven’t experienced their mating urge can experience it a tad early if they fight for a mate and blood is spilled.” He stroked her hair, needing her close. They had to protect her, even if she didn’t wish to mate with them. They had to find a way to get her back to Earth safely. But how? All the spaceships leaving Reestria had dozens of unmated Reestrians on board. She probably wouldn’t make it out of the planet’s atmosphere before a male attempted to claim her. “The attainment of a prize mate also bolsters a Reestrian male’s social standing, Leann, so much that males are willing to risk their lives for a chance to claim such a female.”
“When does the next ship leave for Earth?”
“The Allatina is the next ship scheduled to leave, the one you are supposed to return on, but you’ll never make it to Earth, Leann. An unmated crewmember will claim you before long, probably after fighting other crewmembers for the chance to make you his prize mate.”
Her lower lip trembled and she bit it, then stared out the window as they neared the mountains. “So where are you taking me?”
“We plan to hide you at our home in Telin.”
“How will I ever get back to Earth?” Her eyes returned to his, and the glimmer of tears she blinked away tore at his soul.
“I’m sorry, Leann, but I don’t know. All I can promise is to keep you safe in Telin. Taj and I can’t hold off a whole crew of Reestrians, but we can keep you hidden in our house and hope word of your status as a prize mate doesn’t reach the mountains.”
“Your eyes are still black. Are you and Taj…” Her words trailed off and a fresh blush covered her cheeks.
“We didn’t kill the Reestrian who attacked you, but we still fought him and spilled his blood upon the street. Our mating urge is coming upon us and we’ll have to take a mate soon. I won’t lie to you about that, Leann, but I promise we won’t claim you as our mate.” He lowered his face to hers. “At least not until you beg us to take you, little human.”
~ ~ *
Leann found herself holding onto to Dom. Though she hadn’t known him for long, she believed he wouldn’t hurt her. Taj too. She sensed their sincerely and their genuine concern for her well-being, even though Dom had teased her about begging them to take her, and even though she detected his cock swelling harder and harder beneath her bottom.
She took a deep breath. “Taj. Dom. Th-thank you for helping me. For fighting that man in the market square. I’m beyond grateful for your assistance.”
“Of course, little human,” Taj said, guiding the ship lower amongst the trees covering the mountain.
“Don’t worry about it, Leann. Rest now.” Dom rubbed her back and brought her head against his chest, stroking her hair as his warm breath puffed against her cheek.
She closed her eyes and let her mind drift. Her belongings were still at the palace, including all the notes she’d taken since her arrival. At some point during her struggle with the Reestrian in the square, her camera had been lost too, probably trampled upon by the crowd. Not that it mattered. If she couldn’t make it back to Earth, it’s not like she could finish her book anyway.
What would her family and friends think when she didn’t return with the Allatina in one month? She hoped Taj and Dom could assist her in getting a message to her parents, at the very least.
Surely she couldn’t be expected to spend the rest of her life in hiding. There had to be a way back to Earth. She thought of all that awaited her on her home planet. Her family and friends. Her job at the university. Her writing career. Her grouchy old cat, Pudding, that her mother had promised to take care of during her off world trip.
The hovercraft landed with a soft thud, and her heart picked up. Taj exited the small ship first, and Dom passed her to his brother. Before she could protest, Taj lifted her into his arms and carried her through a door, moving as if they were being chased. He placed her on her feet and touched his palm to a panel on the wall. The door closed with a harsh thump.
Taj turned to her with an assessing gaze. She stood in place and stayed quiet, trying to hold back her tears. The prospect of never returning to Earth weighed her heart down. She felt as if her entire life had been stripped away from her in the blink of an eye, and perhaps it had. There was no guarantee she’d see her home planet again.
Cupping her face, Taj rubbed circles on her cheeks with his thumbs. She was too afraid to move or speak, lest she burst into tears in front of this Reestrian who was now experiencing his mating urge because of her.
Holy shit. They would have to mate soon. Taj and Dom would have to find a female to bond with lest they become seriously and permanently ill. Reestrians who didn’t mate during the height of their mating urge, at the point when their fever burned its hottest, became afflicted with an incurable mental illness known as The Madness.
She backed away from Taj and crossed her arms. The door opened long enough to permit Dom entrance before sliding shut again. After a few deep breaths and counting backwards from twenty inside her head, she no longer felt on the verge of tears.
“I can’t mate with you. I appreciate your help, and I’m very sorry I went for a walk without you, but I didn’t think such a thing could happen.” Her voice wavered over every word, and the dark, intense gaze of each brother did a number on her libido. Without their adorned suit jackets and with their shirts halfway unbuttoned and their slee
ves rolled up—had they done that in the hovercraft?—she faltered in her conviction to elude their seduction. Hell, they weren’t even trying very hard to seduce her and she was ready to jump them.
“I’ve noticed you blushing around us, Leann,” Dom said.
“And I’ve noticed your nipples tightening,” Taj added, grinning just enough to reveal those damn gorgeous dimples she loved. “Not to mention your squirming and pressing your thighs together, the faint scent of your arousal, and your pupils dilating. You want us.” He looked especially proud as he exchanged a smile with his brother.
So they had noticed her blushing, and more. Keeping her arms crossed, she took two more steps back, until she bumped into a table. A quick glance around showed they were in a small entrance hall, and through a doorway to her left rested a quaint kitchen that seemed out of place on this alien world.
Her eyes flickered back to the twins. They stood in front of the door wearing the smuggest grins she’d ever seen. If she finished her book, she would be sure to include a chapter about how Reestrian males could be just as cocky as their human counterparts.
“Listen here,” she began, using the tone she normally reserved for problematic students. “Just because the two of you have an effect on me, well that doesn’t mean…doesn’t mean…” Shit. Taj was unbuttoning his shirt, and her mouth dried up at the sight of his tanned and toned muscular chest. “What the hell are you doing?”
“It’s hot in here.”
Dom tilted his head to the side, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “You know what, brother, you’re right. It is hot in here.” He worked open the remaining buttons on his shirt, and before Leann could say another word, both men had tossed their shirts on the floor.
“Stop it!” She stamped her foot. “You can’t do a little strip tease in front of me. On Earth, we call that playing dirty.”
Dom and Taj encroached upon her space. “We know you haven’t been with a man recently. We don’t detect the scent of a male on you, Leann, and we know you are alone on Earth. You don’t have to be alone anymore. We would take care of you and protect you for the rest of our lives.”
“Goddammit, stop smelling me!” She blew out a breath and tried not to ogle the sexy, shirtless alien twins who had just fought and won a battle on her behalf. To say watching them fight the Reestrian in the market square hadn’t excited her a little bit would be an outright lie. They exuded power and brute strength, and as they stared hungrily at her she wondered if she had been kidding herself about her happiness on Earth.
Her apartment felt lonely and she often stayed at the university late into the night, hiding in her office and going over her planned lectures more times than necessary. She’d spent her whole life trying to prove she was more than her family’s name and wealth, working herself so hard she didn’t have time to even think about dating.
But Taj and Dom didn’t want to take her out for Italian food and an evening at the opera. They wanted to mate with her.
Taj brushed her hair behind her shoulders and Dom started stroking her locks with his fingers. “I think you like it when we play dirty, Leann. You’re trembling,” Taj said.
Was she really thinking about this? All her reasons to fight her way back to Earth didn’t seem to matter as she lifted her face, willing Taj to press his lips to hers. Dom moved behind her and massaged her shoulders, each caress driving her senses wild. The heat of his hands burned through the fabric of her blouse.
“Are you hungry?” Taj asked.
“Wh-what?”
“Lunch,” Dom whispered into her ear.
Right. Lunch. Food would be the perfect distraction from the twins. She needed a chance to sit down and regroup her thoughts. For the first time in her life she was considering acting on impulse and doing something completely wild.
“Lunch sounds great. I’m famished.”
Chapter Four
The ground shook and a thud sounded outside. Dom peeked out the kitchen window to see a friend approaching their house and the hovercraft that had dropped him off rising up through the trees. “It’s all right.” He turned back to the table where Leann and Taj remained seated. “It’s Jax.”
“Who’s Jax?” Leann fidgeted with her napkin and peered up at him, worry clouding in her large blue eyes.
“He’s a friend. We borrowed the hovercraft from one of his pilots and he’s come to pick it up. No need to worry.” Dom put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile, but the worry lines remained etched in her face.
“Is he…unmated?”
“Yes, but he’s a friend. I promise he won’t challenge us.”
Taj pushed away from the table and stood. “I’ll go outside and thank him, then he’ll be on his way. He isn’t even going to come inside, Leann, I promise.”
She released a long breath and nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”
Dom took his seat at the table next to Leann, and as Taj spoke to Jax outside they ate in silence. Luckily they visited Telin every chance they got and kept the kitchen stocked, as well as the house in good repair. He was glad they hadn’t brought Leann to a messy home. The need to impress her prevailed, as well as the need to ensure she felt safe. He wanted to scoot his chair closer to hers, but he also didn’t wish to frighten her.
“So are you two going to walk around shirtless for the rest of the day or what?”
He chuckled. “We’re experiencing the beginning of our mating urge, Leann. We’re sweltering. You should be glad we haven’t taken our pants off too.”
She started coughing and covered her mouth, then shot him an irritated look once she got her outburst under control. “We need to contact Earth. I have to get in touch with my publisher. They arranged this trip, after all. Maybe they can negotiate a way for me to travel back to Earth on a ship without unmated Reestrians.”
“I wish it were that easy, Leann. We don’t have a way to communicate with your planet from Telin, and traveling back to Galattak is too risky.”
“What about the emperor? Can’t he help? He told you if you ever needed his assistance in any way to contact him.” She paled and her eyes widened. “I mean…”
“You spied on us, Leann? That’s awfully naughty of you.”
Taj strode into the kitchen in time to hear the tail end of their conversation. “Naughty? Is our little ward misbehaving already?”
“This is so ridiculous. I’m not your ward and I’m not staying here. I’m going back to Galattak to ask the emperor for help.” She rose from her seat and tried to leave the kitchen, but a grinning Taj blocked her path. “Don’t think I won’t kick you in the balls, Mr. Universe.”
“Leann, listen to us,” Taj said in a soothing but firm tone. “The emperor won’t interfere in a matter involving a prize mate. In fact, the emperor has been known to attend such fights, and he once held a formal mating challenge in the palace for one of his daughters.”
“Well, isn’t this just fantastic?” She ran a hand through her hair and glanced out the window. “And what, you guys are going to go off soon and bring a Reestrian female back to mate with? I don’t really feel like being the third wheel. Fourth wheel. Whatever. There has to be another way. I want to see Earth again.”
Dom grasped Leann’s hand and turned her to face him, and Taj moved closer behind her, setting his hands on her hips. Her breath caught and her pupils dilated. “Even if you mate with us, Leann, there’s no reason you can’t see Earth again.”
“What do you mean?”
“What my brother is saying,” Taj replied while drawing his tongue over her ear lobe, “is that we could visit Earth whenever you’d like. Dom and I would have to stay in the Human-Reestrian settlement that’s being built, but you would be able to go anywhere on Earth and quickly.”
“Quickly?” She shuddered and a moan escaped her.
“Our friend Jax owns a large fleet of hovercrafts and he’s expanding his company to Earth.” Dom pressed his hardness against her, and she placed her hands on his chest and dug
her fingers into his heated flesh. “As much as Taj and I love it here in Telin, we wouldn’t force you to stay here, Leann. You would be our mate, and as our mate your happiness would become our happiness.”
Dom knew the tears that shone in her eyes weren’t from sorrow.
“If my happiness becomes yours, won’t that also make your happiness mine?” She laughed. “Won’t I then wish to stay on Reestria with you guys in Telin, since that’s what you want?”
“The mating bond is a mysterious gift given to us by the Almighty One, Leann. You must trust it to work. What is meant to be, the life we are meant to have together, that is what will happen. Your ties to Earth are strong though, and I have no doubt we will be spending a great deal of time on your home planet. Don’t overthink this, little human.” Taj continued running his tongue over her ear, and she tilted her head to the side, giving him better access.
Dom cupped her breasts and using his thumbs drew circles upon her hard nipples through her shirt and bra. She arched into his touch with a needy whimper.
“What about cats?”
“Cats?” Dom’s hands stilled.
“Do you like cats?” Leann straightened, pulling away from Taj and ceasing her exploration of Dom’s chest. “I have a cat. His name is Pudding and he’s grumpy and old, but I love him anyway. So I need to know, what is your opinion about cats?”
“We love cats,” Taj said without hesitation. “Don’t we, brother?”
“It’s true.” Dom tipped her face up. “We absolutely adore the creatures.”
~ ~ *
Leann doubted Dom and Taj could pick out a cat from a lineup of Earth animals, but she believed they’d at least tolerate Pudding. Of course what warmed her heart the most was their willingness to let her keep her life on Earth, though she didn’t plan to be selfish and keep them from Telin entirely either. If she said yes. Holy crap, was she really about to go through with this?
