Mating Fever (Interstellar Brides Book 10)

by Grace Goodwin

  My beast roared at the small human next to me. “Karter?” We were back on the Battleship Karter?

  The man shrugged. “The coordinates were already in the system. And I don’t have clearance for arrival at I.C. Command.”

  Going. To. Kill. Him. The cuffs fired, their sting more powerful now that the fight was over. But even that wasn’t enough to calm me. “Where? Mate?”

  Doctor Mersan stepped closer as the human backed away from me. Perhaps he was an ally, someone who could be trusted. Perhaps not. My beast was rapidly losing interest in anything but forcing the man to take me to Megan.

  “Transport. Now!” My bellow should have scared the bastard, but he stared straight at me and shook his head.

  “No, can do. Sorry. You’ll have to get clearance from your commander.”

  I stepped toward him, barely able to resist tearing him in half. I couldn’t kill him—he was the only one who knew where the Prillon doctor had taken my mate—but I could hurt him. I could force him to talk.

  Doctor Mersan stepped between us. Not too smart, after all.

  “What happened?” The doctor spoke, but not to me. Tomar answered.

  “The captain’s implant triggered a roving Hive Soldier squadron. They transported in right on top of us. Beast boy here had to fight them while I transported Doc Helion and Captain Simmons to command. Then I set the self-destruct and transported us here.”

  My beast’s growl became a low, steady rumble that filled the room and Doctor Mersan cursed me, Helion, the Hive, and everyone in the room. “Get out! All of you.”

  The lower-ranking officers hurried from the room until it was just me, the doctor, and the traitor who’d taken my mate from me. My hands were in fists and I couldn’t tear my gaze from him, thoughts of ripping his head from his puny little body filling my beast’s primitive mind.

  But that wouldn’t get me to Megan.

  The cuffs fired continually now, the pain a constant edge that helped me hang onto my control. I hoped that idiot Helion knew enough to take Megan’s cuffs off. If not, she’d be hurting, too. Like my mate needed any more pain inside her beautiful, perfect body.

  That thought made the beast rage.

  And just that fast, I was back to thinking that tearing this idiot’s head from his shoulders sounded pretty damn good.

  Mersan looked from me to Tomar. “Get the hell out of here.”

  Tomar saluted, a strange placement of his hand to his forehead, and walked out of the room. I would have followed, but Doctor Mersan seemed to have a death wish because he stepped in my path. “Get your fucking beast under control and meet me in the Commander’s office in twelve hours.”

  “No.”

  He raised his brow and crossed his arms. “Look, assuming Doctor Helion has Megan, she’s probably in surgery already. The surgery will take several hours, and then she’ll have to spend additional time in a ReGen Pod. You can’t get to her right now, no matter what planet you’re on. So calm the fuck down. She’s being taken care of. We’ll go talk to the commander and arrange for you to get off this ship. You need to let Warlord Wulf know you’re going home, and I’m sure Megan has some personal items she’d like to have with her on Atlan. You are taking your new mate to Atlan, are you not?”

  I grunted my assent, more because I didn’t want to talk than because I couldn’t. He was making a lot of sense. But my beast didn’t want sense. It wanted our mate.

  The beast receded and I felt my body becoming smaller. My head cleared, the constant sting of my mating cuffs grounded me in a strange way. Pain kept me in the moment, focused. “I need access to her private quarters.”

  The doctor took a deep breath, most likely in relief that I was a man again, and capable of speaking in complete sentences. “I’ll have Captain Mills take you to her quarters. You can get her stuff, and yours, and take it to Transport Five. It’s the only transport on the ship strong enough to reach Atlan.”

  “I know.” Every Atlan knew that. But I was realizing there were some things I wasn’t aware of. I had no idea where Megan lived. I didn’t know if she slept in Coalition gear, or naked, like me. I had no idea what her family was like, her past. Did she have things in her room that she treasured? Things that she held in her perfect hands and caressed with fondness? I knew next to nothing about Earth. I knew it was considered very beautiful, a bright, brilliant blue, and primitive—the humans there too savage for full membership in the Coalition.

  But they weren’t the only ones. A world had to prove its people wanted peace before the Coalition allowed the weapons and technology used in the Fleet to be shared. Otherwise, the barbarian races would kill each other.

  It did no good to save them from the Hive if they were simply going to kill each other regardless.

  And then there was Megan’s pack, and the Nexus helmet and squiggly thing still locked away in my quarters. She’d refused to let Doctor Mersan keep it, and he hadn’t argued as she was the one scheduled to rendezvous with the Intelligence Core. He, apparently, was stuck out here, on the Karter. His role in the I.C. was still unclear to me.

  I didn’t want to know. I no longer cared what was going on out here in space. I didn’t care about the Hive, or the coming battles. I was done. I’d fought for years. I’d killed until I wasn’t sure the smell of Hive blood would ever wash off my skin. And there were more, younger, eager warriors more than willing to take my place.

  Fools, like I’d been, eager to prove their worth to our people, and eager for the riches awarded Atlans who lived long enough to return home. Many did not, and I knew I was lucky. Luckier still to have a mate like Megan. I would take her to Atlan and shower her with gifts, gowns, jewels—weapons—anything she wanted. I just had to get her there first.

  I needed to talk to Commander Wulf. He’d mated an Earth female through the brides program. He would show me the lands and homes available on Atlan for returning warriors. All I had to do was choose one and it would be given to me by my people. I’d be wealthy upon my arrival, granted land and title, and more riches than I could spend in three lifetimes.

  And it all meant nothing without her. I was nothing without her.

  The doctor summoned Captain Mills, who, thank the gods, arrived in just few minutes. He took one look at me and his smile vanished. “What the fuck happened, man? Where’s Megan?”

  Doctor Mersan returned to ignoring me. “Take him to Captain Simmons’ private quarters to collect her things.”

  Seth froze, his face strangely leeching of color. “Is she dead?”

  My beast rumbled, but the doctor answered. “No, she’s in surgery. Get this fucking beast out of here before I lose my patience.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nyko, Planet Atlan, Fifteen hours later

  Ten hours ago I’d threatened the life of an Intelligence Core command officer.

  I’d survived to tell the tale. But if my mate didn’t arrive safe and well on Atlan, as promised, he would not.

  Standing in Commander Karter’s office, I’d stared at the face of the mysterious Doctor Helion on the comm screen, the hint of beast on my features, my voice so deep it sounded like a growl. The beast knew this was the man who had taken our mate, taken her and disappeared. “Where is my mate?”

  The Prillon doctor lifted his hand, palm out, as if to appease me even across the vast distances of space. “She’s fine, Warlord. Out of surgery. We removed the implant and she is in a ReGen pod right now, healing.”

  Commander Karter held up the Nexus 9 helmet and bag that held the creature’s spinal attachment and I would swear Doctor Helion’s cock hardened at the sight. “I assume you will want this to arrive via secure transport?”

  The doctor leaned forward, as if he would touch the items through the screen. “I’ll send coordinates.”

  “No.” I stepped between them. “Not until I see Megan.”

  The doctor sighed. “She’s in a ReGen pod. I can assure you, she is well. As soon as she is healed, we will transport her direc
tly to your new home on Atlan.” He glanced down, as if reading, then lifted his gaze back to the screen. “Yes. I have the coordinates to the nearest transport station here.”

  Which seemed impossible, as I’d just chosen the home a few minutes prior in my meeting with Wulf. “When will she arrive?”

  “She needs at least eight hours in the pod. And we haven’t debriefed her yet. Twelve hours.”

  Too long. Too damn long. I needed my mate. The nearly constant pain of the cuffs held me in check, but it wasn’t the rage breaking me in pieces, it was my beast’s pain. “Ten. Or I’m coming for you.”

  I didn’t care who I had to torture to find him. His agent, the human Tomar, was on this battleship somewhere. There had to be communications technicians who could track this signal. And Commander Karter, Doctor Mersan, the web of I.C. agents was more widespread than I’d ever realized. One of them would break.

  The doctor actually laughed, but I did not share his amusement. Commander Karter moved to stand beside me, a grin on his face as well. I failed to see the humor as he spoke. “And this is why you don’t recruit Atlans.”

  “Fine, Warlord. Ten. But we might need to speak to her again in the future.”

  “You may visit us anytime, but you will not take her anywhere without me. Ever.”

  He didn’t bother responding to that, instead reaching out to end the conversation. And that was that. I couldn’t threaten a blank screen.

  That had been exactly ten hours and twenty minutes ago. I’d had to wait too long at the Atlan transport station for a vehicle to take me to our home, the trip taking a few more minutes than I’d anticipated.

  The automated vehicle moved at nearly blinding speeds, carrying me away from my old life and closer to my new one. I watched buildings and people whiz past without notice. I’d never been to this city, even as a boy, but this would be my home now. At the end of this journey I’d have a home, a mate, a life I’d never imagined could be mine.

  For years I’d had no dream but killing as many of my enemies as possible. Serving the Coalition Fleet had given my empty life purpose. I’d been useful, wanted, even if it was only for fighting. When I thought of taking a mate one day, the thought was abstract. All these years, I’d had no image of a specific mate in my head, nor did I know what my home would look like. I didn’t much care. My needs were simple. A bed, food, a job to do.

  And then I’d found Megan. In a matter of days, my entire life changed. I’d dreamed of seeing my mate in our new home, a home. I remembered seeing the estates of other Warlords when I was a boy, warriors who received their gift from the Atlan people after retiring from fighting. They always had large homes with lands. Everywhere they went, they were treated like royalty. Unmated Warlords fawned over and pursued as mates for the elite females from Warlord families.

  The grants and rewards never meant anything to me until I had Megan. Anything the Atlan people gifted to me was hers now, as I was. I would give that woman anything, anything at all. I didn’t care where we lived or what title or honors I would receive. I only cared about her. I wanted her happiness. I wanted her love. An impossible dream, I was sure, but I longed for it still. For Megan truly to be mine, to know she would be there to share my life, my bed, proudly display my mating cuffs on her wrists.

  A few hours ago, she’d looked in my eyes and told me what she wanted. Trees. Flowers. A fountain. Her gaze had been soft, a tenderness in her I’d never seen before. And her kiss had broken something deep inside me, the gentle glide of her lips on mine had felt heavy with emotion, with longing of her own.

  That kiss had made me hope she was growing to care for me. She was my mate, my perfect match according to the Interstellar Brides processing protocols. Our personalities and intellects, our desires and needs a perfect match for one another.

  But compatibility did not guarantee love. And as much as I had refused to need love, her kiss had broken me. Now I craved it, craved her with a desperation that made my hands shake and each beat of my heart an ache behind my ribs.

  I was in pain. Actual, physical pain, with wanting her. Worrying for her safety. Needing her. Loving her with her defiant, passionate nature. She was mine, and I longed to be with her on a level I couldn’t comprehend. My beast was forlorn, despairing and despondent, sulking deep within me like a wounded animal because I refused to give him free rein. He wanted to come out and destroy things, bash heads together, hunt and kill and growl until Megan was with us again.

  But the man in me knew the acts would be futile. The I.C. was powerful, one of the most secretive and powerful branches of the Coalition Fleet. If they didn’t send her back to me, I could rage and hunt and kill, but that would not get my mate back to me. She had to find her way here, to our home. And I had to wait. And pace. And fight down the beast every moment, ignore his pain.

  Gods help me, it had been a long fifteen hours. Yes, I’d counted every second of being apart from Megan, of waiting to welcome her to our new home.

  I’d chosen carefully, taken my time in Warlord Wulf’s offices as I poured over every estate and property available, looking for something perfect for her. I’d contacted Captain Mills and asked where his sister, Sarah, had settled, thinking my Megan might like the company of another woman from Earth. He’d told me there were two human women, his sister and another mated to Warlord Deek. Two friends from home. That should please my mate. I wanted nothing for myself. My only concern whether or not Megan would be happy here, with me.

  The vehicle I’d ordered at the Atlan transport station came to a halt at the base of a small hill. Atop the hill stood a home large enough to house an entire squadron of Atlan beasts. Megan had said she wanted eight bedrooms. This home had eighteen. I hoped that would satisfy her requirements. I had no idea why she wanted so many bedrooms, the beast in me hoping she would fill them with children.

  Another gift she would give me, a gift I’d never before hoped to receive.

  I stood slowly as I exited the vehicle, which darted off behind me without pause, off to pick up the next passenger. I had nothing with me but the clothing on my back. Our other belongings had been sent separately via bulk transport. I’d packed up everything from Megan’s room and almost nothing from mine.

  Tugging on my soft brown tunic, I felt strange wearing civilian clothing, the fabric so light and comfortable I felt naked standing there, staring up at the monstrous property that was mine. I was here. Home. And Megan would join me soon. We’d been gifted four full-time staff members to help us settle in. As Megan had requested, she would do no cooking, nor cleaning. I’d been assigned to the local training center to prepare young Atlans just shipping out to war, to try to teach them how to stay alive.

  Megan would join me there. I’d asked the Atlan in charge of recruits in this region to look at her service record. He’d been impressed, as I knew he would. Atlan women did not serve here, but Megan, it turned out, was an expert marksman and strategist.

  And if she grew bored of that, there were a hundred other things she could do on my home world. I didn’t care if she wanted to stay home with our children, yell and scream at young Atlan warriors, or plant vegetables at the city’s hydroponic farm, as long as she was mine.

  The war, both of our suffering, was all over now and I could make the dream she’d shared with me a reality. Eight bedrooms. A garden. Flowers. Trees so tall she couldn’t see the sky.

  Staring up at the sprawling estate I smiled as I saw vines climbing the nearest wall, vines covered in bright yellow flowers.

  Megan would like those flowers.

  Our home was impressive, made of stone, and located in a beautiful forested setting on the edges of the city. I didn’t care about any of it. I didn’t care whether it was the fanciest property on the planet or a hovel. I didn’t care about anything but Megan.

  Fifteen hours. I never wanted to be parted from her for such a lengthy time again.

  I walked up the hill and went in the front door. A pleasant-looking woman stepped fo
rward. She was Atlan, and looked to be in her senior years. She wore mating cuffs and I knew her mate had probably been hired as well, but the house felt empty. My cuffs’ sting letting me know that Megan was not within the quiet walls. I didn’t sense her, nor did my beast.

  “Welcome home, Warlord. I am Berina. My mate, Pontar, is here to serve you as well. He will tend to the grounds as I take care of this beautiful home. Two more shall arrive tomorrow.”

  I bowed my head to her in greeting, as I tried to remember my manners. I’d spent the last years tearing Hive in half, not making polite conversation with strangers. “Thank you, Berina. And welcome.”

  Her smile was bright with happiness as she took my arm and pulled me deeper into the house. It was beautiful and well furnished, comfortable furniture and rugs, artwork on the walls. It looked like a palace. “We are very pleased to be here, Warlord. Very pleased. There were more than three hundred applicants ready to serve your family. But we are the best.”

  Three hundred? “It’s only been a few hours.”

  “Of course.” She smiled, a warm, friendly smile that I knew would welcome both visitors and children to her realm. Serving a Warlord’s family had always been considered an honor for the civilians of Atlan. Many vied for the few positions. Not only did they carry the weight and wealth of the family they served everywhere they went, but they were treated well, lived in luxury, and most established significant wealth in gifts and payment from the Warlords they served. Many, too, passed on the mantle to their own children, forging an alliance with a powerful Warlord’s family that spanned generations. And it was not often that an orphan like myself came along. Most Warlords returned to established families.

  “Are you hungry? I have a fine meal prepared for you and your lady.”

  “No.” I began to prowl with worry, my feeling a stark contrast to the contented glow in Berina’s eyes. Was Megan still with Doctor Helion at the Intelligence Core command base? Had they not released her? I couldn’t get to her there. I was stuck here now, forced to wait, to wonder how my mate had ended up serving in the I.C. with the spies and assassins, the crazy warriors who took missions so dangerous no one else would touch them.