I’d thought those days were over. I’d thought I finally had people—mates—who cared about me. Me. Not the Mason name, or making more money, or using me to lure my rich friends into investing in companies that didn’t even exist.
I’d been the dupe once.
I wouldn’t do it again.
All the signs were there. Even light-years away, it was the same fucking MO.
Lies. Secrets. One of them was always off doing something. Alarr, Oran, and Teig had all been attentive. Protective. Thoughtful. Generous. But that didn’t mean they were genuinely kind. It didn’t mean they cared. It meant they had something to hide. Their cocks didn’t need to be in love with me to get hard. They’d fucked me into submission. Literally. It had never been a formal claiming like Leah had told me about. No wonder they’d made excuses not to take me together. It had all been just fucking. Pleasure for them, distraction for me.
And the disk, the images it displayed… I had to know the truth. I had to see their faces as they told it to me. I needed to hear the words from them, see it with my own eyes.
I wouldn’t bury my head this time. As Warden Egara had told me, I had thirty days. I sighed with relief. If Alarr, Oran and Teig were as corrupt as I now believed, I had to know it for a fact. To know with complete certainty. Right now. I didn’t care that my hair was a mess. I didn’t care that I had no underwear. I didn’t care that Oran’s shirt was the only thing I really had to wear. Okay, I cared about that, because it only reminded me of their devious cruelty.
My father and brother had fucked me over. But they hadn’t fucked me to fuck me over.
What Alarr, Oran and Teig did… were still doing, was worse. So much worse. The disk in my hand was like a dagger in my chest. I could barely breathe. Everything was too tight. Too wracked with pain to function. I knew I was walking like a marionette with a diabolical puppet master yanking the strings without thought or order. It didn’t matter. I was my mother’s daughter. I could do this. I would face this head-on.
I left the hut, head held high, and with a small smile on my face. My father had written the book on hiding illegal shit in plain sight. Once I got the truth, I would go to one of the transport centers and head to Viken United, to Queen Leah, and give her the disk. I had to get out of here before my mates found out what I knew.
I slowed down, the smile on my face so fierce it made my cheeks burn, but I held it. To everyone who saw me, I was nothing more than a well-satisfied mate out for a stroll. Being sneaky and hiding behind bushes would only draw attention.
I cut across the main area where the various fuck huts were—yeah, that’s what they were, where mates went to get it on in various ways—to one of the eating areas. There, I walked past the open kitchens toward what looked like a more functional, less decorated area. I had no idea where I was going, but if they were trading weapons, it wasn’t where any of the guests were. They wouldn’t be out in the main areas. Snakes hid under rocks.
Even though it was late in the evening, the staff were working. Pots and pans clattered. The scent of the delicious food my mates had fed me filled the air.
I couldn’t think of eating now. I was nauseated at the truth I knew was coming. I felt it in my gut.
The pathway lights disappeared, yet the path continued. I followed it as it meandered into the thick jungle. Here, the foliage wasn’t groomed but lush and loomed overhead.
Ahead, I heard voices. Slowing, I stepped off the trail and moved into the wilds of Viken, hoping the thick leaves would hide me well enough. I knew of the S-Gen machines but wasn’t skilled enough to make anything with one yet. How did one order up black pants, turtleneck, and watch cap in plus size?
Ahead and to the left, I made out the exterior of the transport building. I recognized it from my arrival.
God, had it only been yesterday? It felt like a week, I’d been on a rollercoaster ever since my arrival.
Voices came from up ahead. Male voices. Shit. I didn’t want to get caught. They’d probably call one of my mates to come get me. I had no idea who to trust and who not to. How many of the security team were in on the weapons trade? Half? More? No one could run an operation like that alone. There had to be layers of command, just like a gang or drug lord would have. Moving deeper into the foliage, I moved slow as cold molasses, careful not to make a single sound, grateful that my skin was dark, and Oran’s shirt was a deep black. I would be a shadow, if that. Invisible.
I moved closer. Close enough to recognize a voice. Oran. “There’s enough here to destroy every support ship in a Battlegroup.”
Pressing against the thick trunk of a tree, I peeked around it. He stood in front of a large crate, the lid leaning against the side of it. The crate was like the one I’d seen in the images on the disk. In his hand was a weapon just like the ones worn by the queen’s security detail. She’d spoken of the additional guards she needed because of those who didn’t like the royal family, but the threat to her came from Vikens upset about Viken problems.
Oran spoke of the Coalition Fleet. I’d read that their military forces were organized into Battlegroups run by different Prillon commanders. The Coalition was the reason I was here. They had the Interstellar Brides Program and also recruited soldiers from all the participating planets. Together, they fought the Hive. The warriors in those Battlegroups were protecting Earth and all the other planets.
It might have been Oran’s voice I heard, but he wasn’t alone. With him were Teig and Alarr. All three of them were here. Working together. Which made sense. They couldn’t have a mate and keep their illegal gun runs a secret from each other. They all had to know, so when one of them made excuses for not claiming their mate…
My throat swelled closed and tears burned my eyes, but I refused to sob or raise a hand to wipe the acid from my cheeks. Let it burn. Let it fucking burn and remind me why I had to get to that transport station and turn them in. They were bad guys. Good in bed, but that was all. I’d only known them for one damn day. I’d forget them in another. I would. I was strong. Stronger than their lies. Their goddamn lies.
“And that’s only one shipment. Twenty crates. The large cannons are in the back,” Teig said, going to the second crate.
Beyond that, I saw others. He grabbed a weapon off the top and held it up. “Fuck. This is more than we planned for, Alarr. How are we going to move them?”
“We have to find a way. Once these are off-planet, they’ll be put to use immediately.” Alarr’s voice was deep and full of certainty as if he knew exactly how the weapons would be used. He probably did.
“And no one is the wiser. No one imagines a pleasure resort on Viken would be where the weapons are coming from. The perfect cover.” Oran. That dark, commanding voice. All three of them were in deep.
“These will be on the ship by morning, and there will be hundreds of dead Coalition fighters within days.” Teig’s seductive voice made the death of hundreds of soldiers sound… refined. A given.
My body chilled, yet my palms were damp. These guys were bad. All three of them were really, really bad. They made my father and brother look like Boy Scouts. The Mason boys had stolen people’s savings and livelihoods, but they’d never killed anyone. My father was too big of a coward for that.
Alarr, Teig, and Oran were murderers. These weapons they held, that they planned to send somewhere, were going to kill innocent people. People who volunteered to fight to protect Earth. Protect all of the planets.
I pulled back, leaned against the rough bark of the tree, closed my eyes. They were evil, and they’d touched me. Intimately. They’d used my body, my pleasure, as a weapon, taming me into a blind submission so I’d cluelessly live alongside them. I’d be their front, their plausible deniability.
A mate who was well fucked and kept happy surely couldn’t be mated to three Vikens who were traitors? It wasn’t possible.
But it was. They’d lied. Lied with their words. With their actions. No wonder they had never fucked me together. They didn’t w
ant to claim me like a true mating. I was just a cover for them.
My heart ached at how I’d been so ruthlessly used. My pussy ached, remembering just how they’d done it. And that Seed Power. God, it was like a drug, and they’d wielded it so I’d be oblivious. Lost.
The things they’d said. The dirty words. The way they touched me with gentle caresses and the most carnal of touches. The first time, Teig had put his mouth on me. Alarr had played with my ass. Oran had tied me up, made me beg, fucked me with a plug in my ass. Alarr had returned, his touch comforting, making me feel safe as I’d sucked his cock and swallowed his seed like I was starving for it. God, I’d devoured him, and that made me want to vomit now.
God, I’d begged!
A rush of tears slid down my cheeks as I listened to them. Held my breath when I heard Teig say my name.
“Helion was right. Whitney was the perfect front. We were able to get into areas of the resort because of her. Fucking her was the best cover.”
Playful Teig. Or so I’d thought.
“Her screams of pleasure were the perfect alibi.” Alarr sighed as if he regretted the time spent with me. “Now, we’ll have to tell her something she’ll believe so she won’t fight us when we take her from Viken.”
I was just an alibi? I clenched my thighs together, remembering how they’d made me gasp, made me cry out. God, they’d made me scream, and it had felt so good to let go, to trust. Everyone in the resort had to have heard me. And no mate touched herself, screamed when she made herself come all alone. Not here.
“Yes. We must hurry and return to her. The Seed Power is keeping her pliant. I’m sure she is feeling the need for us… for more.” Oran spoke calmly as I heard them place the weapons back inside the crates and replace the lids. “It is dangerous to leave her alone for so long.”
“It was necessary,” Alarr added. I heard true command in his voice. He was the leader here, and his word appeared to be law, for the other two agreed at once. The testing had matched me to him.
“True.”
“Keeping her screaming inside the hut today while I ran recon was perfect. The plan worked. I don’t know what you two are upset about.” Teig’s lack of concern scalded my lungs like I was breathing sulfur.
So even while Alarr and Oran had been fucking me, making me beg and scream, it had all been part of an orchestrated plan.
I’d heard enough. Carefully, I ducked through the foliage at once and fled. I couldn’t return to them. Not now. Not ever. It didn’t matter how much this fucking hurt or how much my body craved them because of the Seed Power. God, I couldn’t stomach the idea of them getting near me.
They’d lied. How had I come across the galaxy to be with three mates who lied? Who deceived? Who were murderers?
The testing was bad. God, why would it match me to traitors? It had to know I couldn’t condone being tricked. Yet, I’d been tricked even worse than I had on Earth.
Maybe it knew, maybe I was destined to have nothing but fucked up relationships in my life.
I found the path, wiped my cheeks, and tipped my head high. In the distance, I could see the pathway lights, but that wasn’t where I was going.
With my father and brother, I hadn’t known. I hadn’t had a choice in their deception. I’d been lied to, yes, but I’d been ignorant. Now, I knew what the guys were doing. I had no choice. They were going down.
Wrapping my hand around the disk in Oran’s shirt pocket, I kept to the shadows until the three males—I couldn’t think of them as my mates, not anymore—the three Viken males walked in the direction of their private quarters. Where, in a few minutes, they would find me gone.
The moment they disappeared I took off at a sprint for the transport station. The doors slid open silently, and a startled technician looked up. Beside him stood someone in a uniform with lots of decorations. His uniform was steel gray, as was his beard. I didn’t understand what the different types of uniforms meant. Alarr, Oran, and Teig all had different colored outfits, not the same as this guy’s. He looked like someone who was in charge. Thank God.
“I need to transport to Viken United immediately.” I took a deep breath, then another to calm down.
The older officer stepped away from the tech and looked me over from head to toe, taking in my tear-streaked face and heaving chest. Maybe I wasn’t holding up as well as I had convinced myself, but my mother wasn’t here to shame me, so I held my chin high and stared him down.
“Are you all right, my lady?” he asked. “Where are your mates?”
“They’re—it doesn’t matter. My name is Whitney Mason. I’m from Earth. King Drogan said there would be instructions in the transport system about me, that I could go to Viken United at any time.”
He lifted a brow but said nothing until he turned to the startled technician who was having trouble keeping his composure. “Check the system for a royal security clearance for Whitney Mason from Earth.”
I heaved air into my lungs as the young man’s fingers raced over the screens before him, then nodded. “She’s correct, sir. Automatic send. Full transport clearance.”
The older male turned and looked at me. “Very interesting.”
“Can I go now? Please? I need to leave right now.”
“Of course.” The officer reached for my hand and led me up onto the platform as if he were afraid I would fall if I tried to get up there on my own. It was only two steps, but he might have been right. My knees were so shaky I could barely stand, the adrenaline in my body at war with the Seed Power, making me feel like I wanted to scratch my own skin off. I needed my mates. Those bastards. I needed them.
“Thank you.”
His smile turned sour. “Aren’t you mated to Alarr, Oran, and Teig?”
Shit. What should I say? Yes? No? “Excuse me? I need to leave now.” I still clenched the disk in my fist. When his gaze focused there, I wished I’d left it in my pocket.
As if he had x-ray vision, he said, “I’ll take that, my dear.”
I tried to step back, but his grip held firm. “What? No.”
There was no smile now, and he twisted my wrist so it was palm up, and my shoulder was about to come out of the socket. I yelped in pain as the disk clattered onto the platform. He shoved me to the floor, then bent over and picked up the disk, pressed play. There, before his eyes and mine, the entire scene with Oran, Teig and Alarr played out. The weapons as clear as day.
“So, they are the ones I’ve been looking for.” His gaze fell to me, where I glared up at him. “And you belong to them.”
I shook my head. “No. I refuse the match.”
He laughed, the sound cruel. What the hell was wrong with this planet? Warden Egara had some serious explaining to do.
I turned and looked at the technician who stood at the controls. “Please. Just transport me to Viken United.”
He shook his head, and although his look wasn’t as callous as the older man’s, there was no sympathy there either. “I’m sorry.”
I frowned. “What? Why not? You have the orders from the king himself.”
“Lock her up,” the older guy said. “You know where to take her.” With that, the officer put the disk in his pocket, and the young technician came toward me with a small space gun in his hand.
What the hell was going on?
“Lock me up? Why? I didn’t do anything. It was my mates. I just got here.”
This was like a flashback to Earth, to the police thinking I was part of my family’s scheme.
The technician blasted me with the gun, and I figured out it was some kind of stun gun because I was instantly frozen in place. It wasn’t like a Taser where I was shocked—thankfully, because that had always looked painful as hell, and I’d always figured I’d probably pee myself if it were ever done to me—but I couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but watch as he drew closer, feel as his rough hands lifted me off the ground. After that, everything went black.
8
Oran
“Whe
re is she?” Our temporary home was empty, with no sign of Whitney. Every instinct had been screaming at me that something was wrong ever since we’d been at the weapons stash planting tracking beacons in each of the crates. They operated on a specific, very small frequency that only the I.C. could track.
This part of the mission was now complete, thank fuck. Once those crates—and those attached beacons—took off into deep space and the weapons were sold, the I.C. could track each and every delivery… and take out the criminals and killers buying them.
Still, we had to complete the fucking mission. We knew where the weapons were being held, but not by whom. We also had no idea who might show up to take them away.
Whoever appeared to load them up and sell them were Helion’s problem, not ours. But we did need to be there. We had to find out who was running this operation on the ground. Which member of the Viken world had become a traitor. And he had to be stopped.
We’d found the weapons cache, but there had been too many crates, too many weapons and not enough time to plant all the beacons. We’d had no choice but to leave Whitney for a little while or lose this perfect window of opportunity to finish that part of the job. To scramble and get it done. But my skin had been crawling with dread, with worry for our mate the entire time we’d left her alone. I’d ignored the feeling of foreboding, done my duty, and resisted the urge to run back to her, check on her, make sure she was safe. I’d done my fucking job for the I.C. instead of caring for my mate, and now she was gone.
Teig, being Teig, tried to keep us all calm. “She probably got hungry and went down to the dining area.”
“No.” Alarr’s frown echoed my own sentiments as he turned to find the cream-colored dress we’d removed from her earlier still crumpled on the floor, forgotten. “Something is wrong.”
Where was she? And what was she wearing? We hadn’t taken the time to help her master the S-Gen machine, so her only option would have been… “By the gods, this is my fault.”
Viken Command: Interstellar Brides® Program: Book 18 Page 9
