His Untamed Mate (Swarii Mates Book 1)

by Korey Mae Johnson

  “Bachelor housing?” Graham finished. Fie and Thorton began to chuckle before Graham, smiling lightly, said, “A world of difference. On my world, females always get the best. Bachelor housing is… well, claustrophobic. Very, very small. It’s designed that way on purpose. They don’t want the crew spending much time in solitude. They wanted us either working or teambuilding.”

  “Sounds like something I’m used to,” Peyton said, a smirk on his face. He must have been referencing back to the time when he was in the Green Berets, which Ellie had heard him do a few times every week for the last year.

  Ellie lifted an eyebrow. Peyton could have done with a little less work, looking at the sheer bulk of him. Hell, she figured, he might be smiling simply because working alongside of the Swarii was the first time that he ever felt like he fit in, being the size he was.

  “What do you think?” she found herself asking Mary, who was looking past her at the window behind her head. “Happy?” She couldn’t see how that was possible. Mary had worked her whole life to be a doctor, and had graduated at the top of her class. She was looking at a life far different than she had planned.

  But Mary surprised her. With warm, open eyes she nodded her head vehemently. “Now, this is an adventure even I could approve of,” she said, excitement in her eyes as they were enveloped by the enormous mothership.

  The mothership was glorious, Ellie could easily agree to that. But it was so different than what she was used to, and Ellie could feel a prickle of uneasiness. Docking with the mothership felt like wearing a chandelier as a hat.

  The ship seemed warm rather than steely cool and black like she had imagined. There were crystals everywhere, gold and wood tones. It seemed more like a luxurious palace than a spacecraft. And it was so large that it seemed all the more spectacularly opulent.

  As soon as their pod attached with the mothership, it seemed that they were about to be allowed to disembark. But Jack stood up and said something to Graham in Swarii. She couldn’t catch his meaning, since she only got a few words, like, ‘she,’ ‘tomorrow,’ and ‘go.’

  She stood closer to Graham, who was reaching down for her hand while he conversed with his father. Finally, Jack looked at her and patted her gently on the head, his eyes warm. I’LL SEE YOU THIS EVENING, LITTLE ONE. BE GOOD, NOW, he said in shal’ta to her, and then turned and was the first one off the ship.

  “What was that?” she asked Graham.

  “He wants you to be with him when your new device is presented to our leaders,” Graham replied. “In case there are any technical questions. And he invited himself over this evening,” he added with a put-upon sigh. “It’s going to be a long day.”

  It was a long day. Even though she dreaded being alone with Graham, she, Mary, and Peyton had all been together waiting for their new living assignments to get sorted out for so long that all she wanted to do was go lie down somewhere. Everywhere they went they got too many looks, too much attention. She didn’t know what to make of it, or even whether the looks were suspicious or friendly.

  “Well, here you go, Ellie,” she heard Peyton say in her ear, just as she was feeling overwhelmed by everything around her. “A place where you certainly fit in.”

  She turned slowly and looked at Peyton as if he’d just said that he had a time machine in his pocket. “What now?” she asked flatly.

  “The eyes… the faces,” Mary explained in awe, apparently agreeing with Peyton. “You look like a miniature version of them, like they could all be related to you.”

  Ellie tried to look over a few strangers who were closest to them to find any resemblance to herself and couldn’t find anything. Maybe the eyes were similar to her own, but she couldn’t see anything else. She couldn’t imagine anywhere that she fit into less, in fact. She felt like a doll lost in the world of giants.

  This place, even though it was easily the size of New York City with its many levels, didn’t seem to intimidate Graham at all. He obviously knew what was around every corner, and he seemed to know everyone. At least, everyone knew him.

  He was popular. Not just like a high school football star, either. It took less than an hour for Ellie to assign celebrity to Graham. He got a lot of attention on his own, and then of course, everyone would look and try to figure out what and who was that creature was next to him.

  Ellie wanted to go and bury her head underneath a pillow somewhere, but the hours dragged on until, finally, Graham showed Peyton and Mary their door, watched them go inside, and then turned across the hall to another door, which he unlocked using a control panel in the wall.

  “This is us,” Graham said, reaching out for her hand before he turned into the apartment.

  She hesitated for a moment, but when he wiggled his fingers and made it obvious that he wanted to go inside for the first time with her, she took a deep breath and walked in with him.

  There was a good view of the universe from here, was her first thought. The apartment was two stories, and on one whole side was a huge, open window toward the outside. There wasn’t much light coming in, as there were no planets, moons, or stars near enough, but the apartment was lit warmly and evenly from lights every few feet coming from the ceiling.

  On one side of the room sat a heap of bins, which struck her as akin to suitcases. Graham’s things had been moved in here, she realized, but the small heap looked tiny compared to the large space around it.

  The floors were marble for the most part in the main area, and what seemed like a small kitchen was nestled under a landing where stairs led toward another area.

  “Want to explore?” Graham said, and she looked up at him. He gave her a smile and added, “Because I wouldn’t mind exploring myself.”

  The upstairs turned out to be extra space—a large office and an extra lounging area. Their bedroom, which was the only room, was tucked behind the kitchen.

  “It’s not as big as they come,” Graham said apologetically after she had wandered into the bedroom and bathroom and looked it all over. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “After we have some children, they’ll put us into a larger unit. And this is nothing compared to our home on-planet, remember. So if you don’t like it, we can try not to spend more time than we need up here.”

  Graham, she realized, thought children were a given, but that wasn’t a future that she could imagine, either. It seemed too distant, too foreign. She brushed the idea away from her mind, not that it was settling in there well, anyway. “It’s huge,” she replied with a small laugh. “I mean, it makes me think the farmhouse I grew up in was really shabby, although it housed my entire family without any of us kids having to share more than a bathroom.”

  “So you like it?” he asked expectantly. “Because if you don’t, there are stores around. You can buy anything you want to make it seem more like a home to you, so—”

  She blushed and shook her head. He really wanted her to make this home, she knew that. But she couldn’t. She was still too anxious, and she felt what was coming. Even though there were only inches between her and Graham, it felt like a million miles to her. “No, I like it just fine,” she insisted.

  He took a deep breath and let it out with relief. “Good. I know it’s all going to take a lot to get used to, Eleanor, but I think you’ll feel like a fish in water before you know it,” he told her. “If you want, I can order food for you in, so we don’t have to go back outside.”

  Now it was her turn to feel relieved. She hadn’t imagined that Graham had picked up on how uncomfortable she had been all day that day. All day, Graham had barely spoken to her. Yet apparently he had noticed after all.

  She nodded gratefully, “That’d be great, Graham. Thanks.”

  “I’ll get to that as soon as we’re done.”

  That made her freeze. Her shoulders tensed as she recognized the tone again, and when she looked back up, he was firm. “You know we have some things we still have to discuss, don’t you?”

  “I apologized to Fie,” she stammered, backing
up.

  He didn’t follow her to block her up against the large window at her back. “I know. And I was very, very proud of you for doing so,” he admitted, less threateningly. In fact, his tone didn’t seem threatening right now at all. “But you almost died yesterday.”

  Her face pinkened. She had known this was coming, but she still felt defensive. “I only went outside because I had to go behind your back. You were trying to control me,” she growled.

  “I was trying to keep you safe. And maybe I was too brash, I could agree with that. But I told you, I told you a million times—I can’t live without you. Literally, I don’t think I could manage it. So you’re not just taking your life in your hands. You’re taking mine, too. It was a stupid risk. Anything could have happened out in that space station,” he reminded, pointing toward the window with his long, outstretched arm. “I told you this. You could get captured. You could get kidnapped, killed, raped, enslaved. And it would destroy both of us. And I want to try to build a whole life with you. I don’t mind dying for something I believe in or care about, but I don’t want to die because my mate is throwing a tantrum.”

  “It wasn’t a tantrum,” she snapped. “It was science! Necessary science! If you’d only listened to me—”

  “Listened to what? You don’t do anything but complain, Eleanor. You pull away from me at every turn. It’s exasperating. You could have waited until we were here, on the mothership. We have labs here where you can do experiments safely. I didn’t want you mucking around some old Frian ship that was falling apart. It was making us all nervous, and I feared you were going to get hurt.”

  “Have more faith in me,” she begged, filled to the brim with frustration.

  “Have more understanding for me,” he begged in return. “Eleanor, you have to take orders, just like everyone else. I will strive to give you fewer orders than just about everyone else, but you have to mind me when it comes to safety. Every time. Without you safe, nothing else in my life matters.”

  She chewed her lip then, feeling like there was nothing left to her argument. She couldn’t go ahead and say, “I’ll do what I want, and you’re stuck with me! So deal with it!” Therefore, she was forced to be reasonable.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, deflating her puffed-out chest with a heavy sigh. “I get it now, okay? Trust me, I didn’t like me almost dying any more than you did.”

  “Good,” he said, putting his hands on his hips, looking much more satisfied and relaxed. “Then please, I want you to undress yourself and stick your nose in that corner,” he said, indicating the corner next to the large window.

  She dropped her hands to her sides and looked up at him, flabbergasted. She had just been beginning to think that Graham wasn’t going to punish her, after all. He seemed to have been apologizing, she was apologizing, and she thought that perhaps they were just going to move past their differences and break in their new bed.

  “Now,” he demanded just as she began to size up the situation, and him. She was beginning to assess her likelihood of getting out of this apartment with her bottom untouched, but she was coming up with nothing.

  “What’s the point of standing in corners?” she griped instead, turning her back to begin tugging her shirt over her head.

  “Because I need time to get ready and you need to be very aware of your bottom while you think about why you chose to be a bad girl rather than an obedient one,” he told her sternly, giving her a swat as she began to pull down her skirt.

  She gave a surprised gasp before she looked indignantly at him and said, “Look, I think I know what—”

  He snorted, but then she felt his giant hand on her upper arm, leading her right to the corner he wanted her in. He shucked off her panties, pulling them to the floor and leaving her completely naked in front of the open window.

  “Stay there,” he ordered her.

  Her nipples tightened and she crossed her arms across her breasts, as if to give them warmth. Even though there was nobody presently outside the window, just being in front of one made her feel exposed. When she remembered those ships in the distance could pass closer by the window at any moment, however, she found herself bending slightly to try to cover her mounds with her own thighs and knees.

  “Stand up straight,” he ordered from somewhere behind her.

  ‘Stand up straight,’ she mouthed angrily, incredulous that she was actually taking his ridiculous orders. “I’m naked!” she reminded him peevishly. “What if somebody flew by and saw me?”

  “They’d probably figure you were a naughty mate about to get her bottom soundly spanked,” he repeated. She could hear some lugging, banging around, and clicking. It sounded like he was trying to find something in the bins on the other side of the room. “And they’d be right.”

  She pouted at the window at this, and tried her best to keep herself as hidden as possible with her hands.

  After five minutes, she was shivering and thought she needed to pee… although that could have just been nerves, as well. Just when she thought she couldn’t endure the anticipation from standing there for another second, she heard, “Alright, little one, turn around and come here.”

  She was almost relieved to turn around until she saw him holding some sort of slipper-shaped piece of leather. “What’s that?” she demanded, approaching slowly and wearily.

  “This is called a slipper paddle, Eleanor. You’re sure to become very acquainted with it during our marriage,” he informed sternly, reaching out his hand and grabbing her forearm the second she got close enough.

  “Didn’t your hand do a good enough job the last time?” she asked fretfully as Graham quickly pulled her across his knees and adjusted her body on his lap.

  “Yes, but this should sting more and bruise less,” he added with a touch of optimism. “A gift from your new father-in-law,” he added, taking her arms and pinning them behind her back before the spanking began.

  This she was surprised by—she thought that Jack liked her. He hadn’t at first, certainly, but he did treat her very tenderly, more like a man would a daughter than a daughter-in-law. Why in the galaxy would he give his son a weapon to use against her? “What—” Smack! Her eyes widened with the shock of even the sound of the paddle touching her flesh. “Oh! Jesus!” The sting was lingering, harsh. It felt like burning lightning.

  The paddle came down again and again, leaving a good-sized red mark behind in its wake every time. Although supposedly it didn’t ‘bruise,’ she certainly didn’t think it felt any better than his hand. It felt much worse, in fact. It was biting, scalding.

  Her eyes were crossing from the pain, and she was done making surprised gasps from the pain as she viciously tried to kick her legs as if there was a way she could swim off his lap. Yep. It was definitely time to start screaming.

  She was certain that there was no difference between her scream and a twelve-year-old girl’s. Not even by human standards. She barely recognized her own noises as they were so shockingly shrill and squeaky, yet she continued until her voice started to crack from the strain.

  “Graham!” she screeched. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  * * *

  The small, dainty female sprawled over Graham’s lap finally began to blubber. He clenched his jaw, meaning to get this lesson across. He heard her cry, “Why are you doing this to me?” but he didn’t respond. She knew why she was being punished—because she had to realize that when it came to her safety, he wouldn’t be trifled with.

  Although in the past he would normally lecture her while proceeding with a punishment, he didn’t speak at all this time. He didn’t want to distract her.

  His jaw locked tight, he continued with firm resolve. The paddle landed again and again on her helplessly exposed bare bottom, notwithstanding the begging she was now beginning to put into babbling words. There was a level of red he was going for, and her bottom was steadily becoming that shade. He didn’t want her to sit down comfortably for at least a couple of days.


  He adjusted her quickly so her legs splayed apart a little, exposing the creamy white skin of her inner thighs. Eleanor jerked like he had just restarted the spanking—she had stopped struggling for the most part and had started to quietly sob. Tears were running down her cheeks and she was sniffling constantly. Spanking her thighs made her start yelping and begging again.

  But eventually he slowed. Everything on her bottom was a cherry-red color and swollen. With his fingertips, he could feel the heating blush creeping onto her skin. But he wasn’t done.

  The night before, after Eleanor had been settled into bed, Graham had gone back to work. As the ship quieted and he did his final checks that needed to be done before it went to its new owner, he saw that his father hadn’t budged an inch from his seat.

  “Have you bought a punishment kit yet?” his father asked him, not dragging his eyes up from the tablet he was reading.

  Graham snorted. “For Eleanor? Of course not. I didn’t know I’d have a mate coming back with me from this mission. I’ve been using my hand. I suppose I could use my belt on her; she certainly earned it.”

  “No, might as well buy a kit now. She’s a feisty one. You’ll need it. I’ll make sure one gets to your new lodgings along with your personal effects this evening. Think of it as a mating gift.”

  “I thought you just told me to be patient with her,” Graham reminded, cocking an eyebrow.

  “And you should. But it’s also imperative that you keep her alive, son. Not just for you, either. She’s special. She’s going to be important. And I don’t want someone who could bring the Frian scum to their knees to die doing something childish and ridiculous because her bottom wasn’t properly seen to.”

  Now, as Graham watched her rub her bottom, he remembered that he had to be thorough.

  He stood her up and grabbed the small case his father had gifted to him, then took her arm and dragged her into the bathroom. He pointed to the bathtub and told her to bend over.