by Rie Warren
“Yeah. And it worked with Prairie. I ain’t seen you romancing shit with Dex though.”
“Romance? I was going to attempt that with Astrid tonight.” I braced my elbows on my knees.
“Wasn’t that sort of the reason behind taking her on a whole tour of the grounds and forest?” My brother spied my empty tankard and refilled it.
“Suppose so.”
“And she let you fuck her after that?” he asked, because basically no subject was sacred between us.
“After Uncle came down hard on me. And she went all viper on him.”
“Ahhh. So she let you take her to bed to soothe your damaged ego.” Jedrek popped a mouthful of the roasted nuts into his mouth.
“That wasn’t a pity fuck.” My head coiled back.
“If you say so.”
“You’re not helping, Jedrek. And fuck you too, by the way.”
“I’d rather fuck Dex.”
And back to square one. Or two. While Astrid was out dancing, partying, probably flirting . . . and beyond my reach for the duration.
I glared out of the windows toward Zertan, the city’s lights creating a halo glow in the distance.
Moments later, my worst fears were confirmed. I groaned at the image swirling into my head from Astrid’s vision to my mind.
My eyes screwed shut. “Dammit.”
“What is it?” X hovered beside me.
“She’s dancing with a male.” A Zenithian, half naked and sweaty. A fucking male who grinned when she swiveled around, her lunar blonde hair fanning around her shoulders. “I can see it.”
My hackles rose, my fangs tingled, itching to descend so I could tear into the flesh of the bronze-eyed interloper.
X patted my shoulder. “In that case I’ll order all males in the club to be executed immediately.”
“Really?”
“No. Suck it up,” he replied, and Jedrek chuckled.
Bastards.
I didn’t have to suck it up for long because I saw Magnar dragging the male away from Astrid with a forearm cranked around his neck.
I slumped in relief, dragging a hand down my face. I reached for my drink, but the tankard crashed to the floor as a sudden strangling sense of suffocation weighed me down.
Alarmed, X gripped my arm. “What now?”
“Astrid.” Astrid. Astrid.
But she was gone from my visions. Everything faded to deep dark black.
I jumped to my feet. “They’re in trouble.”
“Are you sure?” Jedrek rose, hand on the hilt of his dagger.
“I felt something then everything just went . . . blank.” I grabbed X’s shoulder. “Aren’t you getting a read from Prairie?”
He looked sheepish as he picked up his sword and tucked it into the scabbard at his waist. “She can block me from her thoughts if she wants.”
“But if they’re in trouble why wouldn’t she send out an SOS or something?”
“Have you ever known that woman to be logical?”
He had a point. But fuck. Astrid was in danger. I knew it.
“We’ve got to get to them. Now.” Feet pounding across the floor, worry pounding through my body, I led the charge from the palace.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Astrid
THE HARD HAND clamped more firmly over my mouth, cutting off any sound of suffering. I could only hope Zane would somehow sense my distress as fear sliced through my body.
Dragged backward off my feet, I kicked at my assailant and tried to bite the fingers muffling me.
“Stop struggling, woman.” The sinister voice sent unpleasant chills down my spine.
I redoubled my attack, managing to free a hand long enough to slam it back toward the brute’s groin.
He hocked out a groan but cinched both my wrists together again. “A little spirit. That’s good. You’ll get a decent price on the black market even if you aren’t a virgin.”
Black market? No no no.
He kept hauling me away from the crowd—all the revelers too full of drink and too caught up in dancing to pay attention to the struggle I tried to put up. He yanked me back, all the way into a red-darkened empty corridor.
“Now that slavery’s illegal, human females bring an even higher price,” he murmured in an ugly voice beside my ear. “I’ve heard Earthlings have the best cunts. I can’t wait for a taste of slave pussy.”
Slamming my head back, I hit the male in his solar plexus. Good thing I’d boned up on Zenithian anatomy.
He stumbled, instantly releasing me as he crouched and gasped.
I rushed to the end of the hall, bellowing, “MAGNAR!”
“Quiet, bitch.” The bastard recovered quickly, rushing toward me.
He pinned me against him before I could take another step.
“Shut up! Or I’ll rape you right here.”
Fear skittered through me, but I wouldn’t give up. Not even when he ripped one shoulder of my dress down over my breast, his large meaty hand groping my delicate flesh.
I latched onto his wrist with my teeth, puncturing skin and drawing blood.
The male yelped in pain, but my attack didn’t stop him. He drew his hand back to cuff me, and I brought up my arms to shield my face.
From nowhere, a big blur appeared behind him. The male let out a roar as he was jerked from me, arms wrenched behind his back.
Magnar contained the male in an unshakeable hold, his fangs fully descended. I wondered if he’d strike into the flesh of the throat pulsing right beside his mouth.
“Oh my Christ. Are you okay, Astrid?” Prairie hurried up to me, Cozmo right behind her.
The shakes hit me, hard and fast. Tears spilled over my cheeks, welling from my eyes, and I couldn’t make my voice work as Prairie took me in her arms.
Cozmo shrugged off his shirt. “Cover her.”
Prairie slipped my arms into his top, shushing and soothing me.
“I’m going to fuck him up.” Kerta stopped beside Magnar, her fingertips igniting with light that seemed hot enough to combust.
Dex gripped her wrist. “We’ll save that pleasure for the prince.”
Kerta only relented after Dex whispered something to her, but her hard expression—lethal in its ferocity—never waned.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Astrid.” Magnar’s solemn sorry gaze locked on me. “Are you all right?”
I nodded as much as possible with shock vibrating through my bones.
The music had been shut off, the crowd of club-goers subdued when we reentered the main room. They shuffled aside, giving us wide berth.
Suddenly the doors flew open.
Three immense males stormed inside. The crowd stilled. Silence reigned. All bowed low.
X meted out words between tightened lips, “Yeah, yeah. I’m the king. Where’s my mate!”
“Astrid!” Beside him, Zane roared my name.
Seeing me, his eyes blazed into bright raging flames. He advanced quickly, Zenithians falling aside, X next to him and Jedrek at their heels.
I started sobbing, so relieved he was here.
Prairie transferred me to his arms, and he gathered me in close, sheltering me with his larger body.
Concern etching his features, he inspected me head to toe. “Are you okay?”
I nodded my head then shook it, swallowing salty tears. “Oh God, Zane. I thought he was going to rape me!”
Jaw hard as glass but hands incredibly gentle, he tipped my face to his. “I would never let that happen.”
“You came for me?” I whispered.
Gulping deeply, he nodded. He held me tighter, brushing the hair from my face.
“You knew I was in trouble and you came?”
“I’ll always come for you, Astrid.”
“Even after I was so horrible to you about Cozmo?”
His weak smile tugged at my heartstrings. “I’ve learned Earth women are . . . volatile. It makes me love you even more, meehri.”
A silent sob shook my chest, and I turned my head
against his shoulder, breathing him in, scared of him letting me go.
But he eased back. “I want everyone but the traitor out of here. Now.”
Dex, Jedrek, Kerta, and Magnar quickly carried out his command, and suddenly silence abounded.
Only the plaintive whimpers of the male who’d threatened to abuse me then sell me off like a slave could be heard.
He huddled in a corner, watched by X.
With murder in his eyes, Zane left me to Prairie’s care.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Zane
GO AFTER MY mate and attempt to rape her?
With death on my mind, I approached the piece of scum who cowered in a corner.
Withdrawing to check on Prairie and Astrid, X left me to serve whatever punishment I desired.
I couldn’t fucking wait to rain unholy terror on Astrid’s attacker.
I hunkered beside the lowest bottom feeder, and he sniveled before I’d even started bashing his brains out.
Voice rattling from my chest, I pulled his chin around. “You dare touch a woman—any female—in a disrespectful manner? You try to assault my mate? Do you know who I am? Who she is?”
“It wasn’t my plan.” He had the gall to meet my eyes, and mine glittered with unspent violence.
“Whose was it? Tell me and I might spare you.”
“Perhaps you should ask your uncle.” His chin thrust forward in challenge as shock spun through me. “You know he despises the humans among us almost as much as you disgust him, mongrel.”
The sniveling fuck had just signed his death sentence.
“My uncle would never cross me this way, nor would he go against the king.” A sneer lifted my top lip from hazardous fangs that glinted in the club’s dazzling light.
“Who do you think ordered the assault on the queen then?”
Uncle? Having both Prairie and Astrid attacked?
I wasn’t sure I believed the male, but I did know one thing . . .
Rising to my full height, I easily lifted the mongrel to his feet. I inspected him, trying to peek into his brain, but he managed to block me out.
A slow cold smile curled across my lips.
His eyes peeled wide, because he had to know what kind of death he deserved at my hands.
“I’ll make this faster than I usually would.” The pleasure of killing set my blood alight, pleasure that collided with viciousness.
Hand curled in his hair, I yanked his head back.
He breathed out in a rush, and I knew begging would come next.
I closed an arm around him, banding him in a cage of unyielding flesh.
And before I punctured his throat, I whispered close to his ear, “This will be a lesson to all who threaten my woman or any human on Zenithia, because your head will be spiked on the gates of Zertan.”
Lips drawn off my teeth, I struck his neck. I’d said it would be faster than normal, but he gurgled, drowning as sticky blood flooded his windpipe.
His blood-curdling scream pierced the air as he pissed his pants and still I dragged fangs through flesh and tissue and cartilage. His heart pumped in death throes, death throes I celebrated as I held his flailing arms at his sides.
His neck separated in a gory mess. Then I grasped both sides of his face and twisted his skull from his vertebrae.
His head dropped to the floor seconds after his decapitated body thudded down, all of it a wet, red, squelchy pile.
My shoulders dropped. My fangs withdrew. Magnar appeared beside me, bearing a wet cloth.
I wiped my hands and face and mouth clean, and he said, “I’d have done the same to him.”
Nodding, I tossed the sullied towel on top of the male’s remains.
“What did he say?” X asked after I approached him, Astrid and Prairie close beside him.
“Very little before I sheared his head from his shoulders.”
Astrid gasped, and I closed my arms around her, turning her deftly away from the grisly scene.
“He said we should ask Uncle about the attacks,” I murmured to X.
“I’ll have Jedrek locate and detain him.”
“Uncle won’t like that.” The thought alone gave me sadistic pleasure.
“Do we give a fuck?”
“No.”
****
Exhaustion and shock must’ve set in with Astrid, because she was fast asleep in my arms by the time we returned to the palace. Her body, so small and delicate, made my hearts ache, and wrath still coursed through my veins at the thought she could’ve been abducted and, worse, raped.
She roused as I eased the torn dress from her, eyes drifting open as she lay on our bed. “Zane?”
“Shhh, meehri.” Quickly shucking my clothes, I lifted her into my arms. “It’s all right now. I’ve got you.”
I carried her to the bathing grotto and slipped us into the deep warm water. She nestled on my lap, her breath softly wafting against my throat.
She murmured as I picked up a cloth, dipping it into the crystal clear pool. Soft lights danced around us, glancing off her skin, suffusing the walls.
I slipped the cloth up one of her arms then leaned back so she reclined more fully against me. I swabbed her neck and over her cheeks before roaming down her other arm.
“Is this okay?” My voice came out low, I didn’t want to disturb her if she drifted off to sleep.
Caring for her was all I wanted to do.
“Mm hmm.”
Rearranging Astrid so she leaned across my arm with her legs extended, I tenderly doused her hair, so pale it shone like starlight. Her eyes closed, her lips tilting into a slight smile as she sighed.
I washed her belly and below the slopes of her breasts. I traced the length of her legs and took care with her little feet.
My gaze roamed over the woman. She’d relaxed in my hold, almost floating, her breasts jutting up and bobbing.
I dragged a corner of the cloth between her thighs, up to the silken lips shielding her tight sheath.
Heat licked through me when I smelled the perfect aroma of her arousal. My balls filled heavily, and my cocks quickly throbbed in echoing yearning, but I tamped down all but the desire to make her feel good, comforted . . . loved.
Astrid’s bluest of blue eyes flickered slightly open when I released the cloth to nudge her legs wider with my hand.
My fingertips trailed up her parted thighs and over the trim line of curls. She gasped when my thumb negligently skimmed her clit.
Carefully caressing up her stomach to the undersides of her gleaming breasts, I leaned over to suck one plush nipple inside.
Her arching motion sent a ripple of waves to undulate against her body.
I lapped at her, my rough tongue rasping over the sleek puffy bud until it glowed. Pursing my lips, I teased her nipple between my teeth before turning to its mate. Her other swollen peak I guided into my mouth as more wavelets washed against us. I engulfed as much of her delicious breast as I could, mouthing the mound, butterflying my tongue over the point.
With my lips engaged, I slid my palm down her sleek belly and onto her mons. Slippery fluid soaked my fingertips, and I eased a digit inside her pussy.
Astrid’s breath hitched, and when she arched further, she sent more of her breast into my sealed mouth.
Her hips danced with the slow pumping motion of my finger. Then I nibbled at her divine cleavage, rising up the dome of her neglected tit to taste and tease and sample the nipple I’d left aroused and bright.
“Zane!” Her fingers clamped in my hair.
“I’ve got you,” I murmured against her perfect flesh. “I love you.”
My thumb rose to languidly circle her clit. The tight nub of flesh shrouded in its hood. I played with the cowl, pressing it down, pulling it back. I swirled the finger inside her as more of her juice flooded into my palm. The bathwater buttressed us, made all our sounds quieter.
As soon as I slurped her aching nipple inside, using hard wet suction, and gently rubbed the tender fles
h of her clit with the calloused pad of my thumb, she moaned and stilled in a glorious stretch of flesh.
Her quivering channel gripped my finger, and I kept vibrating her clitoris, drawing out the languorous orgasm that held her captive.
With a final hoarse shout, Astrid relaxed, all loose limbed and beautifully pink.
I drew my head up, my blazing need for her almost making me shake. My cocks flexed, and I gave a loud grunt when her ass whispered across the stiff throbbing poles.
She reached between us. “I can help you.”
Her offer was intoxicating, but I shook my head, kissing her shoulder. “Shhh. You don’t have to do anything for me, meehri.”
“But—”
“This isn’t about me.”
When I had her dried off and settled in bed, her soft gaze swept over my naked form. In response my muscles tightened and bunched. My cocks lurched and ejected clear drops of precum.
She licked her lips, a small wicked smile shaping her mouth.
“No, you naughty girl.”
“Please?”
I climbed in beside her, covering us. “Sleep, Astrid.”
“But I want—” A giant yawn interrupted her.
“You want sleep, and I want to hold you.” Pulling her half on top of me, I was simply satisfied knowing she was safe.
She was here.
She might be mine.
“You said you love me.” Her speech slurred sleepily, fingers wandering over my chest.
“I do.”
“Mmm’I’loveyoutoo.” Her words tumbled together.
Tumbled through my mind. Tightened my hearts in my chest. Tore through any hope I might have of recovering if she decided to leave me.
But it was enough, now, to surrender to love. Our love.
Astrid wrapped herself around me to sleep, a living, loving human female, but still I sensed her longing. For her mother and her father, all to be reunited with her brother.
Now I knew what I must do to win her completely.
After I dealt with Uncle.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Zane
A COUPLE HOURS later, X popped his head inside my chambers.
“You ready to interrogate Uncle?” His voice dropped to a low tone as Astrid slept on.
