I realized that he still believed I regretted our bond. Perhaps I did. The thought did cross my mind on a regular basis, but it was a method of venting my frustration, not a true desire. No. The thought of life without him did strange things to me, squeezed my heart until I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Could I truly be in love with him? Was love the reason I felt so many things about him? Physical need. Lust. Respect. Longing. Comfort.
“I’m sorry, Octavia. I knew a Zatari woman would as soon slit my throat as be my mate. I love you, but now I realize I should not have bound you to me.”
“What?” My head spun. He loved me? Yet he believed he shouldn’t have bound us together? How could he say those two things in the same breath?
“I won’t hold you, Octavia. You were never meant to be any man’s prisoner. Go.”
Pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before burned behind my eyelids. When the first drop slid down my cheek, I realized what was happening. Tears. He was setting me free, giving me what I said I wanted. So, why wasn’t I happy? Why wasn’t I already out the door with the key to the cruiser in my hand?
He must have read my mind again. “Go. Fight your war. I want no part of it. I left my family and their psychotic lust for killing behind. I won’t step back into that arena.” Markus walked over to me and kissed me on the cheek in farewell. “Not even for you, Octavia.” He pressed a cold, hard item into the palm of my hand and closed my fingers around it.
“Here’s the cruiser’s distress beacon. You know how to activate it. Your sister or her warriors will be there within minutes.” Shock held me in place while I watched him smile sadly at me and walk to the door. His smile broke my heart. “Just do me one favor. Try not to get yourself killed until after I find Selene.”
If I died, so did he. We are Fated Mates. Bound until death. I nodded numbly and wiped the wetness from my cheeks. Proudly, with the dignity of a king, he walked out the door and left me behind to make my way to the docking bay and take a ship, fly home.
He was gone. I was free! No longer a prisoner! I should be jumping for joy, shouting to the heavens. I should be speeding back to Zatari to demand a reckoning with my sister and the elders for their lies. And, sure as the blood flowing through my veins now burned with power I never knew I had, I should not already be missing Markus Angelus. My heart shouldn’t hurt at the thought of a future without him. My womb shouldn’t be clenching with an empty ache at the thought of never carrying his child. My soul shouldn’t be screaming that I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life.
“Markus!” I raced after him, ignored the startled glances of his crew. I sprinted down the narrow corridors of his much larger ship toward his quarters. His personal rooms weren’t far. Our room.
But what if he didn’t go there? What if he was going to the docks as well? What if he took one of the cruisers docked there and left the ship to track his sister before I found him… “Markus, wait!”
Chapter Eleven
Octavia
The door to his room slid open and there he stood. Elegant in black, tall, strong and sexy as hell. Ready to leave. Mine.
Chest heaving, I stood in front of the door, barring his way. “We are bound, Markus. I won’t allow you to leave me.”
I pulled my dagger from its sheath on my thigh and advanced. He stood his ground as I moved deeper into his quarters and the door slid closed behind me with a soft rush.
“You aren’t going anywhere, Markus. You’re mine now.”
Markus shrugged and turned his back on me. He stuffed another shirt into the open bag lying on his bed. “I want no part of a Zatari bloodbath, Octavia. Or of a woman who constantly envisions fighting and killing my people. Our people have been at war for more than a thousand years. Neither you nor I can stop them. Kill me if that’s what you really want to do.”
“Markus.” His name was ripped from my throat with difficulty. I could barely speak over the lump growing there. “I would sooner cut out my own heart than hurt you.”
“Go. Don’t make this any harder. You never wanted a mate. Every time I touch you, I feel your mind at war with your body. We’re even. You saved my life, and I saved yours. You’re free. Go. Fight your war. Try to free your people.”
I studied the broad shoulders of his back, the noble line of his jaw, the strength in his hands, the pride in his eyes. But mostly, I felt the ache in his heart. The tearing pain matched mine. He didn’t want this any more than I did.
With a deep calming breath, I closed my eyes and reached for him with my mind. Markus, I won’t let you go.
He stiffened for a moment, then resumed packing.
We are bound.
The dagger was the last personal possession I had, my last defense, the final link to my old life, my old self. The dagger made me feel safe, connected to my people. I was proud of that dagger, and the symbol emblazoned in its hilt. Only a high priestess of Zatari was allowed to carry such a weapon. To own it was a great honor. And I didn’t care. It felt like poison in my hands and I put it away. “My heart is yours, Markus. I want to stay with you.”
Markus shook his head. “I’m done. I made love to you until you shattered in my arms, until you begged for release. I taught you how to use the gifts of your mind. I showed you all the data on Zatari sales of Fier Potion so you could go after the elders. I took you to Lunar One so you could see the truth for yourself. But I won’t fight a war for you. I won’t kill my people for Zatari or incite your people to die at the hands of my father’s horde. There is no way out for us. I am from Delti. I am my father’s son, prince of my people. And you are Zatari, blood enemy. My father would order your execution on sight. We can’t stay on this world and live, not together.”
With deliberate slowness, I pulled my shirt up, then off my head. My naked breasts peaked into the cool air. Markus swallowed but looked away.
I want you. I pressed my flesh into the broad strength of his back and ran one hand along the planes of his stomach, lower, down beneath the soft fabric of his pants. Markus froze, then groaned aloud when I squeezed him.
“Octavia, what are you doing?”
You’re mine, Markus. His body heated in response to my telepathy and his power rose when I called to it with a siren’s heat. He heard me, all right. Heard and wanted to touch.
Markus tried to pull away from me, but I clung to him, ran my other hand up under his shirt to tease one already hard nipple. I lifted one leg and wrapped it around his thigh, rubbed my sensitive core against his hip.
“You are mine and I am yours. Were those not your words to me?”
“Yes, but I was wrong. And I’ve wasted time because I couldn’t resist you, because I thought you would learn to love me. I’m not going to raise a son with a woman who fights her own desires every time I touch her, who constantly imagines my death. I won’t hold you to me when it’s obvious you think of my arms, of my need for control, my insistence on obedience, as a prison. I won’t fight the instincts of your very blood, Octavia. And I’ve wasted too much time, time I should have been using to find my sister.”
Markus shoved my hands from his body and turned to face me. “Selene needs me. You don’t. Take the cruiser back down to the surface. Go home. I’m going to find Selene.”
“Where will you go? You have no leads? The trail is dead! Wait for Mira. She has a gift I could never understand or explain. She’s the only one who can find your sister.” Fighting for courage, I drew a deep breath into my lungs and met his gaze. “And you’re wrong. I do need you.”
Had a man ever been so wrong? Holding back tears, I raised my hands to his cheeks and lifted my lips to brush them tenderly against his. “I love you. I love your courage, your honor, your strength. I don’t fear walking beside you in this life. I fear walking through this life without you by my side. Please, don’t go.”
Switching tactics, I dropped to one knee before him. I’d been shocked when he allowed me to wear my own clothes, doubly so when he’d given my weapon back to me. But we�
��d been walking into the dark corridors of Lunar One, and he’d insisted.
Hands shaking, I unclasped the sheath’s buckles from my thigh and lifted the entire thing in both hands like an offering. I held out my dagger, presented it to him with my chin bowed. I had no need of it. Not anymore. It didn’t make me feel safe or protected. The cold metal no longer made me feel as if I belonged somewhere, that I was special. Chosen.
Markus did all that now.
“I’m yours, Master.”
His body tensed at my softly spoken vow and I knew he teetered on the edge of a decision. I’d never yielded to him outside of the bedroom, never given him a single act of submission he didn’t force from me with the sharp sting of his hand or the hard thrust of his cock. Desperate to make him understand, I surrendered all and whispered into his mind… I love you, sir. Do you hear me? I love you.
For the span of four heartbeats, I held my breath, waited for his answer, longed with every fiber of my being for a kiss.
“And what if your people come for you? What if war breaks out between our peoples? How will you answer the call of your own blood? What will you do if we are forced to fight, if I am forced to kill a priestess from your Temple? If your sister sends armed guards to attack us? If they try to take me again and chain me in a breeding room?”
I took a long time to consider my answer. These were not small things. I imagined a Temple warrior locked in battle with Markus, imagined watching them fight, watching one of them die. I let it sink in, imagined that the battle was not just any two people, but Mira and Markus, the two who mattered most to me in the world.
Mira was a trained warrior, a hunter, an assassin. She was deadly, as was my prince. My heart ached with the weight of the decision. But, for the first time since the moment I’d seen him, my heart lurched at the thought that it might be Markus who hurt, Markus who suffered. Markus who died.
I nearly doubled over in pain and I had my answer.
“You’re the blood flowing through my veins, now, my life. You are mine, as I am yours. If you want to leave this planet, we will leave. I can’t ask you to betray your people. I can’t betray mine. You are right. If we stay, we will be forced to choose sides and I cannot ask you to fight and kill your own people for mine. I do not lust for bloodshed.”
I lifted my face, found his gaze and held it. “Master, I go where you go. I can send messages and try to educate my people from afar. I’ll do whatever I have to do to remain by your side. I don’t want to live without you.”
Warmth spread through my body at the sight of his smile. He took the centuries-old, priceless dagger from my hand and tossed it aside like so much trash.
“Kiss me, mate.” The ancient title hung in the air between us and I rose to my feet, going up on my tiptoes to reach him.
“Anything, sir.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed every inch of my body to his before I claimed his mouth.
I took my time, exploring the lush fullness of his lips before plunging my tongue deep, thrusting and retreating as I wanted his cock to do to my core.
Markus took his sweet time responding, letting me take the lead, seeing what I would do.
Anything. I would do anything.
“If you mean what you say, you will strip off your clothing and bend over this table.”
* * *
Markus
Unable to believe my eyes, I watched my beautiful mate drop her clothing to the floor of the command room. With a flick of my wrist, I locked the door and turned off communications. I didn’t want an audience for this, my mate’s final surrender.
I wasn’t going to share her sweet cries of pleasure with anyone.
She was mine. As I watched her bend forward over the table, her lush breasts flush with the cold, hard surface, her perfect round ass in the air, I didn’t have to ask her to raise her hands above her head, to spread her legs so I could see the glistening welcome of her pink pussy. She did it for me, arching her back to entice me, to thrust her ass into the air for my attention, for whatever I wanted to do to her.
There was no hesitation in her movements, no self-doubt, no thinking. No fear. She surrendered to me, trusted me to take care of her, tame her, conquer her body and her mind. To keep her safe and protected. She offered her body to me for my pleasure, trusting me to see to hers.
She was truly mine. At last.
My cock grew harder the longer I stared until the ache become too painful and I was forced to either move or take the bastard in hand and pump away a bit of the tension.
But I didn’t want that. The next thing that surrounded my cock was going to be her hot, wet pussy as she moaned and shattered in my arms.
I took my place behind her, my hands exploring her curves of their own volition. She was too beautiful not to touch.
“How many of my men have you been rude to this week, Princess?”
I watched, pleased, as her cheeks turned pink with shame. She thought me indifferent to her mental ploys, but I knew her better than she knew herself. Often, her thoughts would storm into my mind unbidden, thoughts that tormented us both.
Thoughts of leaving me.
“I don’t know, sir. All of them.”
The word sir said in that breathless tone made me hungry to pull my cock free and ram deep, but I wouldn’t be her master if I gave in to every urge. She trusted me because I maintained control, because I planned her punishment and her pleasure.
I ran my hand down her smooth thigh, back up and slipped two fingers into her wet heat. Her body tensed and her breathing shifted to an eager panting. But she was still in control, still thinking.
“That wasn’t called for. They are yours, Princess. Your people. Dedicated and loyal to you. They would fight and die to protect you.”
“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”
“No. It won’t.” I knew her remorse was true because I could feel it through our bond. I also felt her anticipation, her need to be punished, to feel the sharp sting of my hand as I reminded her that she didn’t always have to be strong. She could let go. She could lean on me.
I patted her bottom gently and removed my fingers from her pussy, licking the sweet juices from my fingers. “I’m going to spank you now, mate, for being rude to your crew. And then I’m going to fuck you hard and fast and so deep you’ll never get me out.”
She moaned, her forehead down on the table as I struck her bottom with my open hand. I moved quickly, the sharp sting in my palm and fingertips proof that she would feel what I wanted her to feel.
Fire. A sweet sting that made her blood heat. A hint of pain to trigger her body’s pleasure, the chemical release of endorphins that would turn pain to pleasure. And the knowledge that I would not allow her to wander from the path, that I would keep her safe and steady, protected.
Loved.
I struck over and over, counting to thirty as her hands curved around the edge of the table and her bottom turned a bright crimson. Her pussy pulsed, opened and closed as I watched, as if it could feel my attention.
When I was finished, I gave her no warning, simply freed my cock, pulled her bottom cheeks apart to expose her pussy, and thrust deep.
Her cries were wild and wanton, completely beyond her control, and I pulled out and pushed deep over and over as fast as I could.
She shattered, her body twisting before me in an erotic dance I’d never tire of watching. But I held her, my hands on her hips as I pumped into her, pushing her to another orgasm.
Her entire body shook, her nails curling to leave marks in the polished table, marks I would look at until the day I died and remember this moment.
Around my cock, her pussy was swollen, the pressure on my cock increasing with her pleasure. I slowed, rode the edge. I didn’t want it to be over. Not yet.
Before me, she arched her back, pushing into me, taking me deeper with the new angle and I groaned. Inside me, her voice whispered.
I love you, sir. Markus, I love you.
With
a soft groan, she came again, the spasming walls of her pussy and her sweet words pulling me over with her.
When it was over, I lifted her into my arms and sat in the command chair with my mate tucked safely under my chin. We both stared at the beautiful planet spinning below, our home no more.
I could feel the question stirring in her mind, but she remained silent.
“Don’t you want to know when we’ll leave for the Delti colony?”
She leaned back in my arms and I looked down into her eyes, eyes filled with love… and trust as she snuggled into my arms with a contented sigh. “No. I go where you go. I’m yours and you are mine. That’s all I need to know.”
I kissed her softly, pleased with her trust and held her for a long, long time. Once my sister was found, I would take my mate away from this planet and we would have a lifetime of moments like this one.
The End
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Mates of Zatari 01 Claiming His Mate Page 9
