But that wouldn’t happen now. We would have to claim her here, at Viken United. Here, on this island of neutral ground. And it would have to be done with my brothers.
She hadn’t moved and we stood staring at her as if she were a puzzle we could not solve.
“We can agree that fucking her will not be a chore,” Lev said. “However we go about it, however it makes our cocks hard, it will be a pleasure.”
“Yes,” I agreed. My cock was already hard and I was just looking at her completely clothed. I could only imagine how I’d feel once she was naked before us.
“Yes,” Drogan confirmed.
“Can we agree then—” I began, shifting my cock in my pants, “—that we should focus not on our differences, but focus on what we now must protect and cherish together. Her.”
“If he expects us to breed her and then abandon her and the child, he is mistaken,” I said, my voice laced with the lifetime of anger. “Sector One’s belief in family—a mother and a father caring for their children—is very specific. I won’t let this child grow up as I have.” I offered each of my brothers a quick glance. “I will kill anyone who tries to take her, or my child, from me.”
I’d been an orphan. No real mother or father. I’d been raised by the government, by nannies and tutors, without a family. It had not been easy. In fact, it had been fucking awful. There was no way I’d subject anyone to that, let alone my very own child.
“The politics behind this can wait. Once she awakens, she cannot,” Lev replied.
“Neither can my cock,” Drogan muttered.
Both Lev and I smiled at that.
We looked down upon her for a moment. “She will be afraid. She belongs to not one man, but three,” Drogan said. “Look at us.”
I glanced at my brothers. We were big and troublesome, cranky and aggressive. We were bred to be leaders; our size, our power, made us fierce. “We are not tame,” I added.
“We may not have like minds on much, but we must agree about her and how we take her.” Lev angled his head at the sleeping woman. “I refuse to let her suffer. As Tor said, I refuse to leave a child to grow up under the regent’s care.”
He spat the word “care,” for the regent wouldn’t care for a child any more than he would a family pet.
Drogan nodded and looked at me and Lev. “She is ours.”
“If this isn’t a trap and she chooses us,” I confirmed. “Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Lev and Drogan replied at the same time.
“Which one of us will stand with the other men to prove the match?” Drogan asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied. “She’ll choose one of us from the group. The regent wouldn’t go through all of this if he wasn’t sure of the match.”
“This is for our benefit. I agree with Tor,” Lev commented. “It matters not who stands with the others as long as we take her away from here together. No one else touches her.”
“Agreed.”
Chapter Three
Leah
My eyes blinked open as if I’d just taken a nap. Just seeing a ceiling made of dark paneled wood was enough to nudge my brain into realizing that I was no longer in the processing center. It was quiet, no hum of the air conditioning, no machines. The air was warm and humid. A rustle had me turning my head. I seemed to be resting on a hard table and an old man sat in a high-backed chair at its edge. Using my hand on the wood, I pushed myself up to sitting. I wore a green dress, simple in design, yet long. It covered my legs to my ankles, yet my feet were bare. It had long sleeves but a low-cut bodice. It wasn’t overly revealing, but I was fairly large so I always had cleavage. The dress was odd, old-fashioned in style, something a woman would have worn a hundred years earlier.
The man sat so still, so patiently. He had gray hair and a beard, the deep grooves of old age lined his face. His attire was similar to mine, simple and unadorned, but gray. “Are you… are you the man who is my match?” I asked. I cleared my throat, my voice sounding scratchy. Had they sent me to such an old man? He had to be eighty, if he was a day.
He smiled then, the creases at the corners of his eyes becoming deeper. “I am not. I am Regent Bard. Your match is just out that door.” I looked in the direction he pointed. “When you are ready, we can go to him.”
“I am on Viken, right?” The room was large, yet sparse. The floor was of similar wood to the ceiling, the walls white. There were windows on the long ends of the room, but the only thing I could see beyond them was greenery. I didn’t feel like I was off-planet, or that I’d traveled halfway across the galaxy. I felt like I was in an ancient building looking out at an old growth forest near the sea. I could smell damp and salt, heavy and thick, saturating the air as only a large body of water could.
It wasn’t like the sci-fi movies on TV. He didn’t wear silver. He didn’t have a third arm. He didn’t even look the least bit green. He looked normal. Old, but normal.
“Yes. Welcome to Viken, my lady. What is your name?”
“Leah.” I didn’t mean to be rude, but my match was nearby. I just had to tell this man I was ready and he would take me to him. Was I ready? Would I ever be? The good news was that I wasn’t on Earth. My fiancé couldn’t reach me here and no one could send me back.
However, the idea of going off-planet and being fucked and claimed by a complete stranger had seemed sound, but the reality, actually being here was a little scary. I knew nothing about the planet Viken or what Vikens looked like. What did my match look like? I’d never even considered the possibility of his age or his appearance. I hadn’t wanted a mate, not really. I’d simply wanted to escape the vile man who wanted to treat me like chattel on Earth. But now, now I was… nervous.
Regardless, I was here on another planet and I couldn’t escape my destiny. So I took a deep breath and said, “I’m ready.”
He stood slowly and held out a hand, helping me down from the table. My long dress fell to my ankles, the material heavy. I followed him to the door. As I walked, I felt a slight tugging on my clit. Odd. I paused mid-step at the zing that coursed through me, shrugged it off. When I took another two steps and I felt it again, I knew something wasn’t right.
I blushed, for I couldn’t tell this old man that there was something wrong with my clit, nor could I pull up the long length of my dress to investigate, no matter how curious I was. Heat washed over me, not from embarrassment, but from newfound desire, and I licked my lips. I wanted to reach down and touch myself, but that wasn’t appropriate. Was this new sensation because I was on Viken? I had to worry about it later, so I bit down on my lip and passed through the door he held open.
The connecting room was equally large, but with no table. Only a few chairs lined the walls. The room wasn’t my focus, but the men lined up before me. They were all tall and muscular, quite large. In fact, very large. It seemed Viken men appeared to be almost exactly like Earth men, but impressively bigger. All of them stared at me with interest and curiosity. I had to remember that they probably hadn’t seen a woman from Earth before. We were equally intrigued.
The old man now stood beside me and lifted his chin in the direction of the line of men. “Your match was successful; however, on Viken, proof of the connection is required.”
I turned my head and looked down at him. “Connection?”
“A natural bond between a matched pair.” When I continued to frown, he explained. “Just walk past all of the men and tell me which one is your match.”
“Just… just walk past them and I’ll know?” I glanced at the men. They gave nothing away, only avid curiosity. There were at least ten men in all, all in their prime. Some were more handsome than others, some stared at me like I was a curiosity and some like they wanted to devour me where I stood. One man in particular watched me as if he could see the flutter of my pulse racing in my neck, as if he counted the rapid rise and fall of my panicked breathing. I met his gaze and quickly looked away, frightened and feeling like a fawn being stalked by a panther.
The men all wore similar clothing and it seemed there were two kinds of warriors: barbarians in furs and leathers and scholars in robes. Both types of men carried weapons strapped to their backs: swords, bows, and spears. For an advanced race, an alien race, they appeared to be rather primitive in the ways they made war.
I felt like I’d stepped off Earth and into an episode of my favorite Viking television show. If the men had grown beards, they would have looked like medieval warriors from ancient Earth.
How would I know which of these men was mine? What if I chose the wrong man by mistake? “Is this a trick? Are you planning to send me back to Earth if I choose the wrong warrior?”
Panic flared at the idea of ending up back on Earth. Warden Egara would shake her head in disgust and I’d be kicked out of the processing center. I’d be alone, penniless and lost, and I had no doubt that my fiancé would find me and punish me for running away. Perhaps this time he would not stay his hand. Perhaps he would just strangle me and be done with it.
“I am not trying to deceive you.” The older gentleman’s words startled me from my musings as he gave a casual shrug. “As to knowing your match, you will have no doubt. His body and his soul will call to yours. Do not be afraid. Trust in your match.”
I didn’t seem to have much of a choice. I started at the left side of the line, moved to stand before the first man and gave him a timid smile. I ignored my tingling clit. It had nothing to do with this man, and I wondered if the transport here had somehow put my body off kilter.
Focus. I had to focus on the task at hand. The first man had blond hair, similar age to me, rugged-looking despite the bow strapped to his back and the long black robe covering his body. He smiled at me, his eyes alight with male interest, but I felt nothing unusual. I moved on to the second man. He was slightly shorter, but heavier and more muscular. He had long hair as pale as snow and was wearing the more primitive leather and furs. A sword was slung over his back, reminding me of a Viking invader of old. He did not smile at me. He did not even look me in the eye. He undressed me with his eyes, his gaze focused on the hard nipples clearly visible beneath my soft green gown. I gave him the same cursory glance and still… nothing. I worked my way down the line until there were only a few men to go, worried that none of the men were my match. Was this a trick? Would the regent be disappointed or upset if I didn’t recognize the match?
I stepped before the next man and looked up at him nervously. This was the man who had watched me earlier, who had studied me from across the room as if I already belonged to him. I halted, turning to face him and looked up. Way up. He was taller than the others, broader across the shoulders. He was rugged, wearing the Viking-style clothing and a sword across his back. His chest and arms were massive, his hands looked large enough that one of them could completely wrap around my neck. His thighs were thick as tree trunks and he exuded strength and authority.
But it wasn’t his physique that had my heart skipping a beat, but the look in his dark eyes. They didn’t just look at me, but stared into me, into my soul. My nipples tightened and my pussy clenched at the very sight of him. I gasped at my body’s reaction as wet heat flooded my pussy. His nostrils flared and his jaw clenched. I could even pick up his clean scent, spicy and woodsy. Was he smelling me, too?
I didn’t realize the regent had come to stand beside me until he spoke. “I assume you do not need to look over the remaining two men?” he asked.
I hadn’t taken my eyes off of the man before me. His hair was tousled, as if he’d just climbed out of bed, and just long enough to graze the collar of his dark tunic. The color of it was an unusual shade of brown, almost whiskey-colored. I knew, deep down, that he was the one. He was my match.
I swallowed down my eagerness for this man and replied, “No, I do not. This man is my match.”
“Satisfied, Drogan?” the regent asked.
This warrior, Drogan, lowered his gaze from my eyes to rake over my body. I felt naked despite being covered to my ankles by the long green gown. Did he know I was aroused at the sight of him? Did he know my body ached when I looked at him, that as much as I feared him, I craved the touch of those giant hands on my skin? Whatever was going on with my clit intensified and I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. Waiting. For what I wasn’t sure.
“Yes. Very satisfied.” Drogan’s deep voice invaded my senses like liquid heat overrunning my entire system. I wanted to hear his voice again, to hear him commanding me to kneel and take his cock in my mouth, to listen to him order me to open wider as he pounded into my body, to hear the gravelly whisper of his voice in my ear demanding that I come.
I blinked away the lust clouding my mind, but didn’t even have a chance to recover before my world upended. Drogan tossed me over his shoulder as if I were a sack of grain and carried me out of the room. My hands pressed into his lower back to maintain my balance and all I could see was the tight muscles of his very nice ass as he carried me out of the building, down a dirt path, and toward another much smaller building a good distance away.
All around me the smell of sea water and blooming trees comforted me. The sky was a bit darker blue, the grass a paler green, and the sounds of the birds and other animals calling to one another not any that I recognized, but it was not so different from Earth after all. I saw red flowers, trees hung with dark green moss and long pale limbs that stretched toward the sky.
Here, on Viken, I would be safe from my old fiancé. Here, I would be protected and claimed by this man, Drogan. He was huge and fierce-looking, but I wanted to trust in the match. I wanted to believe Warden Egara and what she told me, that this man had been selected for me, was my one perfect man in the entire universe. I had to hope that I could grow to love him, and he to care for me. Being tossed over his shoulder and carried about in such a caveman way wasn’t the way to show how much he cared, but it definitely made me feel wanted.
I watched as his foot kicked the door shut behind him right before he slid me carefully down his body to stand before him. I swear I felt every hard inch of him on the way down.
I looked up at him again as I held onto his forearms for balance. I could barely breathe, my longing to taste him was so intense. I studied his lips as he spoke, hoping he would lean down and claim my mouth with his own, needing to feel like I belonged to him. Only to him.
“I am Drogan, your match.” Slowly, with his hands on my shoulders, he turned me around to face…
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, my eyes widening.
“These are my brothers. They belong to you as well.” Before me stood two more men, identical to Drogan. Triplets? Holy shit. No. Not three—
“I am Tor. Your match.”
“I am Lev. Your match.”
I spun to the side so I could see all three of them, my head turning back and forth as if I were watching a tennis match. Tor had long hair. Lev, short. Drogan in the middle. They were all dressed like Viking warriors: Lev with a bow and arrows across his back, Tor with a spear and shield, and Drogan with a sword. I felt like I was Little Red Riding Hood with three wolves who all wanted to eat me alive. While I was completely confused and overwhelmed, I felt the connection become even stronger.
“Identical triplets?” I squeaked. I’d never seen identical triplets. Handsome, male identical triplets. Seeing three such gorgeous men was akin to seeing a unicorn. These three were matched to me. Of all the people in the universe, these hot guys were mine to choose from. Three. I didn’t want three men. Just one. I only needed one.
They nodded in response to my question.
“There are slight differences between us. I have a scar,” Lev said as he pointed to his eyebrow. A white line bisected his eyebrow.
“I have a sector marking.” Tor rolled up the sleeve of his shirt to show me the dark band that circled his arm. A tattoo. It looked like something tribal from Earth.
“I do not have any distinguishing feature, but our hair length should help you tell us apart,” Drogan added.
&
nbsp; “I can’t… be matched to all three of you.” But I was. I knew deep down that I was because I felt the same attraction, the same pull with all three of them. It wasn’t just with Drogan; the longing I felt to be touched by Drogan was now an ache to be touched by all three men. Lev and Tor’s pull on me was equally strong, and terrifying. “Which one of you gets me?”
“We have the same DNA. While three different men, we are biologically the same,” Lev explained.
“So which one of you is my match?” Perhaps this was some kind of test. Perhaps they would decide now which one was my mate and the others would go home.
They stepped closer.
“Gets you?” Lev asked, arching his scarred eyebrow.
“The one who keeps me. Did you decide or do I choose one of you, or what?”
They moved in so they all stood directly before me, towering over me as the top of my head barely reached their chins. If I lifted my hand, I could reach out and touch them. Their bodies shadowed the light from the windows and I felt very, very small.
“We decided,” Tor said and my shoulders sagged with relief. I could not choose. I could not. The pull I felt for each of them was simply too strong. Better to let them choose and simply accept whichever brother claimed me.
“We’re all keeping you.”
I took a step back. Had I heard them correctly? All three—
“You can’t all… I mean surely…” I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t understand. It made no sense that they would all want me. On Earth this would never be allowed; the morality council would arrest me for even thinking such lascivious thoughts. “I can’t be with all three of you. It’s not done. It’s illegal,” I whispered.
Lev shook his head. “There is no law that says a woman cannot be shared. Besides, we’ve been matched to you. The match is legally binding in itself.”
“I could request another,” I said quickly.
They descended upon me again and I retreated until my back bumped into the wall. “You won’t.” Drogan’s dark eyes locked with mine and my heart pounded so hard I feared it would leap from behind my ribcage onto the floor.
Claimed by Her Mates Page 4
