His Virgin Bride (Interstellar Brides: The Virgins Book 1)

by Grace Goodwin

  “She dumped him and tried to seduce you instead.”

  I chuckled. “Do all Earth women finish a man’s sentences?”

  That made her laugh. “Only the good ones.”

  I traced her lower lip with my thumb. “Then you must be a very good mate.”

  “I try.” She kissed the tip of my thumb but turned her head away to resume our walk down the hall as I fell into step beside her, where I would always be. “So, that’s it? Was he really that stupid? Didn’t he know what she was doing?”

  “Of course. But the heart and the mind do not always have kind words for one another.”

  “So, he couldn’t let it go.”

  “No, he could not.”

  “So you have to fight him now because of some stupid girl from your childhood?” She seemed angry at Cosmo and that pleased me. Thank the Divine any interest he had for her was not reciprocated. “This is like high school all over again. It’s ridiculous.”

  “I don’t disagree. Which is the reason I have never accepted a challenge from him before.”

  “He doesn’t seem stupid, Von. Why would he keep this up for so long over a girl who didn’t even love him?”

  I shrugged. “Over the years, his hurt turned bitter and cold. He believes things come too easy for me. My rank, my hunting skills. And now you, a marked mate, something so rare most of us never dare dream to find it.”

  “You didn’t win me in a battle. We were marked to be together since birth.” Yes, she was right about our marks and I was thrilled to know she believed that. “And he’s a major. He’s still a Hunter. It’s not like he went off to live in a hole and never recovered.”

  “A major, while high ranking, is not as respected or revered as an elite Hunter.”

  “And you are a Senior Hunter, which makes you what? The best of the best?”

  I only shrugged, for while I was skilled at hunting, I was not invincible, nor was I without flaws, such as jealousy, possessiveness, and obsession for my new mate.

  “Then why fight him now? Just walk away, like before.”

  I took a step back, stopping to straighten my shoulders. “Not this time. He made it personal. He touched you. This is about honor, Lexi. Your honor. When he touched you, he knew I could not allow the assault to go unchallenged.”

  “He’s an idiot. Seriously. Like a five-year-old holding a grudge.” She shook her head and reached for my hand, squeezed. “And I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “If that is your concern, I am not the one you should worry about,” I said, my voice low. Cosmo was going down. While I wouldn’t kill him, I could certainly put him in a position never to challenge me again. He hadn’t hurt Lexi, just used her to get what he wanted…his chance to strike at me, to salvage his own wounded pride.

  “Why didn’t he just leave me alone?”

  “There is one thing you are forgetting…your beauty. You are desirable to more males than just me. Perhaps he hopes if he can dishonor me tomorrow, you will turn from me, reject me, just as the woman he loved rejected him.” The last I grumbled and my arm tightened about her, making her look up at me.

  Her flushed cheeks and her bright eyes were almost my undoing. There was an emotion that I’d not seen before, soft and warm and something I didn’t dare name. Not yet. Not until she spoke the words. “That’s so not going to happen. I want you, Von. I just don’t want you to fight this stupid challenge.”

  “Perhaps he would concede the challenge if you were already claimed.”

  “Meaning you take all my virginities,” she clarified.

  “Yes.”

  “Then do it.”

  I leaned down so I was eye level with her. “What are you saying?”

  She licked her lips, looked away, then back. “I don’t want Cosmo to win me.”

  My eyes narrowed at the idea. “He will not win. You do not need to worry about this. He’s just an inconvenience. Even if he did win—” Those words were like acid in my mouth. “You make the ultimate choice in your mate. While I have claimed two of your virginities, you can walk away now if you desire. Only when I have taken you completely will we be legally mated. Only then you will be truly mine. Forever.”

  “Then do it now. I want it. I want you.”

  My cock pressed against my pants, agreeing with her. My mind, though, was still in charge.

  “I will not claim you because you do not wish me to fight. I don’t want you to be mine out of fear. You will be mine because we were destined, fated, to be together, because you want me and accept my protection.” I kissed her hard and fast on the mouth. “I will claim you when you beg me to fill you, when you are as obsessed with me as I am with you, when you surrender to the bond between us and fall in love with me.”

  Her eyes were round with surprise at my ranting, but I couldn’t seem to stop.

  “I want everything, Lexi. I won’t settle for less.”

  “All right.” Her words left a tight ache in my chest but I brushed it aside. She was young and innocent, naïve and beautiful. She would need time to process my words, time for love to grow. And I was a Hunter. I could be patient, give her the time she needed to settle things in her own mind.

  “You never answered my earlier question. Tomorrow, Lexi? Are you ready to be mine?” I was patient, but I wasn’t a fool. I could take a lifetime earning her love, but I wanted her firmly under my protection, my bonded mate so I could take her home and get her settled into a new life on the mountain, a life with me. No more empty bed. No more dark, sleepless nights spent staring at the ceiling alone. She was mine and I was hers, and I wanted to take her home as quickly as possible.

  She tilted her head up and I saw the smile, the eagerness. “Yes. I… I want to be yours. And I want to come tomorrow. I want to be there when you defeat Cosmo.”

  I stood to full height. “Absolutely not.”

  She frowned, a little V forming in her brow. “Why not? It’s my fault. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be fighting him at all. I should be there. I want to be there, for you.”

  “Your fault?” What the hell was she talking about? “It’s not your fault. Cosmo is just being an ass and making my life hell. Our animosity goes back years, way before you even were old enough to be matched through the brides program. This isn’t about you, it’s about him trying to fuck with me and it’s high time I ended it.”

  “Still,” she replied. “I need to know you are safe. I want to be there.”

  “I assure you no harm will come to me. I am a trained fighter and Cosmo is no competition. You do not need to leave your suite to know this fact.”

  She crossed her arms over her lovely chest. “My suite?”

  “Yes, where you will be for the challenge so I will know you are safe.”

  “I can be safe from the sidelines.”

  It was my turn to frown. “I do not know what sidelines are, but you are my mate and you must be where I know no harm will come to you. It is for your protection. I will not have any male touching you, Lexi.”

  “I’m not a child,” she countered.

  I looked down her body, took in her lush curves, remembered the way she’d had her ass thrust up in the air for me to claim it. “I am well aware of that.”

  That made my cock thicken impossibly farther and so I took her arm and continued toward her suite. At the door, I cupped her jaw. “Tomorrow, after the challenge, I will come for you. Be ready, Lexi, for I am most eager now. I will come for you, mate. Be ready.”

  I thought of her beneath me, thighs spread and pussy dripping. Taking her at first gently, and then releasing the pent-up battle rage as well as my cum deep inside her, at the opening of her womb. Making her mine forever. Perhaps giving her a child.

  “Good night, Von,” she said, the words a little clipped.

  I knew she was disappointed, but her slight upset was a small price to pay to ensure her safety. Her protection was my top priority.

  I couldn’t kiss away her hurt, for if I took her mouth and s
he opened herself to me, I wasn’t sure I had the will to tear myself away. I’d taken two virginities and my body was pushing me to make her mine completely. With a growl, I walked away, knowing the only thing keeping me from claiming her pussy was my honor.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lexi

  I knew it was a dream, but it seemed so real. I could feel the heat of large machines on my face, smell the sweat from Von and the other Hunters. We were in some kind of engine room, but I’d never been in one before. I’d never been in dreams with Von before either. In these, I somehow knew details, perhaps because of the sharing. We were on a space ship, not Everis.

  Sector 17. His rescue mission.

  “The intel is correct. Heat sensors indicate seven bodies.”

  It was Bryn. He and Von were dressed in full uniform with their ion blasters out of the thigh holsters, gripped tight in their hands. Black helmets were on their heads with strange visors. I felt the tension between them and the three other soldiers.

  “Good. You’ve all seen the layout of this level. No Hive has been here in three hours. We don’t have a lot of time. Complete your task and report back to this location for transport out.”

  Everyone nodded at Von’s command. He glanced at Bryn, saw his focused expression. They were about to go into danger. I sensed it, knew it, and wanted to reach out and stop him. But there was nothing I could do. This wasn’t like the previous dreams where Von interacted with me. He wasn’t with me this time. He was opening his mind, letting me see into his head, his thoughts. What made him Von.

  “Let’s get this done so Von here can go back to his mate,” Bryn said. “Every second we’re gone keeps him from claiming her.”

  Von grinned. “Damn right. Everyone ready?”

  Another nod. “Let’s do our jobs.”

  They raised their weapons and went into fight mode. Bryn and Von split off from the others, all with tasks to complete on this mission. Down a long corridor they went, waiting at turns to ensure there were no Hive.

  God, the Hive could appear at any time and kill them! I’d heard they transported anywhere, in and out, capturing Coalition fighters and turning them into something like cyborgs—and that was if they survived.

  I wanted to cry out to Von to go back, just to transport out, but he couldn’t hear me.

  Bryn stopped at a door, looked at some kind of display on his arm. “This is it.”

  Von nodded, then shot at the wall to the right of it. He waited a moment for the smoke to clear, then reached in, fiddled with some wires. Within a few seconds the door slid open silently.

  Von entered first and through his eyes I could see women and children. Their intel had been correct. I counted seven. Four women and three small children. They were huddled together in the corner, the little ones unnaturally subdued as the women used their bodies to shield them.

  “Lady Nerum. Ladies.” Von bowed slightly to them. “I am Senior Hunter Von. Commander Grigg sent us to retrieve you. Do not fear. You are safe now. We will see you safely back to your mates.”

  Bryn knelt down before them. “Is anyone hurt?”

  The woman Von had addressed as Lady Nerum was clearly the leader of the group. She was nearly as tall as Von, her hair and skin an odd gold color I’d never seen with my own eyes. I’d seen pictures though, back at the Brides Processing Center. Prillon Prime had golden-skinned people with the sharp features and oddly slanted eyes. She was lovely, and strong as she stood and gathered the other women close.

  “Hunters,” she said the word like Von and his men were walking miracles. Another woman muffled a joy-filled cry with her hand, her relief palpable. All the women stood as Bryn aided them, Lady Nerum gripping a small boy tightly to her side.

  Bryn held out his hand to the woman nearest him. “Come. We are taking you home.”

  The children were big enough to walk on their own but held the women’s hands or the long length of their dresses.

  Shots rang out from far away, the women cringed, clung to their children as Von led them through dark gray corridors. A shout sounded in Von’s headpiece, loud enough for all the women to hear as Von whipped his head about. “We must go. Now.”

  He led the group, Bryn taking the rear.

  Three Hive Scouts came around the corner directly ahead of Von, their strange silver skin and metallic eyes making them look like walking metal, despite the fact the closest Hive’s face was shaped like a human. The other two were clearly of different races, one Prillon, his non-silver skin a striking orange tone. The third was an odd blue, and I took the knowledge from Von’s mind that he was once a warrior from a planet called Xerima, a cold planet of extremes, of ice and volcanic activity.

  Von was shocked to see him, as Xerima was under Coalition protection, but did not yet send warriors or brides to the war. Their people were considered too barbaric and uncivilized. The Atlans in particular, their closest planetary neighbor, did not get along well with the blue-skinned race.

  Whatever the hell an Atlan was. All I could remember was Von shouted a warning to Bryn, was that the Atlans turned into some kind of beast. Which sounded scary.

  Von fired his weapon, but the closest Hive, the one who looked like an average brown-haired human back home, kept walking like the hit did nothing.

  The closer he got, the more I noticed the shimmering silver slivers that seemed to be alive and moving under his skin like tiny worms. They covered his neck and half his head. One eye was completely silver, like mercury in a meat thermometer, and he never blinked, just kept walking.

  “Fuck. Get them out of here, Bryn!” Von shouted the command and took a couple steps back, but bumped into Lady Nerum.

  “I’ve got three!” Bryn shouted back and fired his own weapon.

  “Ladies, get down!” Von bellowed as he rose and charged the Hive, firing repeatedly into the creature’s head until he toppled over, his skull actually sizzling as Von stepped over his twitching body. “Stay down!”

  He risked a glance over his shoulder and met Lady Nerum’s gaze. She nodded as Hive shots raced over her head in both directions. Bryn bellowed from behind them as Von yelled curses into his comms. “We’ve got the package. Pinned down in corridor three.”

  “We’re coming.” The voice was barely heard over the sound of the Hive’s heavy booted footsteps. With their first man down, the remaining two Hive focused on Von with an intensity that made me shiver.

  “We will kill you now.” The blue one spoke and his voice was menacing.

  Von actually chuckled, which made me want to scream at him to run, to get out of there.

  Instead, he pulled two long knives from inside his boots and stood slowly. “Come and get me, boys.”

  The Hive charged, but Von moved too fast to track. He vanished like a ghost in a streak of darkness. The black armor he wore made him nothing more than a hint of a shadow.

  Holy shit. My man could move.

  Earth media downplayed the Hive, made them out to be like some kind of TV sci-fi bad guy. Scary the way dragons or wizards were scary, as in not really real. While we were told that they were dangerous, they’d been light years away from Earth.

  This Hive? He wasn’t far away at all. Only a few feet in front of Von with his own weapon out and firing on my mate.

  I screamed, but no one heard me.

  The two Hive dropped, blood splattering from the backs of their necks. Behind them, my mate reappeared, his knives wet from using them to sever their spinal columns with his blades.

  “Bryn?” he shouted.

  “Clear. Let’s go.”

  Von hurried to the ladies and helped them to their feet, Bryn assisting. “Carry the children. We need to run. These Scouts are dead, but the Hive will transport replacements. We need to hurry.” Lifting his hand to his helmet, he addressed his other team members.

  “You’re too slow. We’re clear. Meet at extraction point.”

  “Confirmed. Meet at extraction point for transport.”

  His lon
g legs ate up the distance to the meeting point as the women hurried along behind them. I wondered why Von didn’t carry one of the children, but realized if they met more Hive, he’d have his hands full of babies and not be able to fight.

  “We clear for transport?” he called to the other three Hunters who waited. One was bloody and the others were coated in black as if they’d come in contact with some kind of fire.

  One of them nodded. “Cleared and ready.”

  “Transport for twelve. Now.”

  Shots were fired as I felt the swirling blue pull of the transport. I heard a shout, a cry of a child, Von’s yelling as fire burned through his shoulder.

  He’d been hit!

  “No!” I cried, shooting upright in bed, the sheet wrapped around me. I was breathing hard, my body laced with sweat. It had been a dream. Only a dream. Why hadn’t Von come to me in my dream and made love to me instead of…that?

  As I caught my breath, looking at the plain walls of my room, noting the soft carpeting on the floor, the doorway to the bathroom, my window with the curtains closed on the opposite wall. I ensured I was safe, that I wasn’t in some stark corridor on a Hive controlled ship.

  Was Von even awake? Had he intentionally showed me his mission? Did he want me to see that? Or had his mental walls crumbled, exposing his mind to me in ways he had not anticipated? Would he even know I’d shared his nightmare? Talking to him, mind to mind while we dreamed was one thing. But entering his mind? Experiencing what he saw and felt and knew? That was something different.

  If I dreamt of tending to my dying father, would Von be there? Smelling the scent of death on my father’s skin? See the blank, glassy gaze of a man who no longer recognized his own daughter, no longer remembered his own name? Would Von feel my pain? Experience my grief? Was this new link between us created because we were almost fully mated now? With each passing day, the need between us grew, the bond became more intense.

  Pushing the sheets aside, I rose and walked to the window, the flowing beauty of my nightgown a stark contrast to the horror I’d just witnessed. I pulled back the curtains and stared up at the two moons of Everis. They hung in the sky like two shining balls on a Christmas tree, one partially obscured by the other. Incar was smaller, a pale silvery white, not unlike our own moon. I’d read that Incar was used as a prison colony and held the most dangerous criminals in the entire universe. The Coalition Fleet had built their prison here because it was the renowned Hunters who usually brought them to justice.