Sparx blinked his way out of the daydream he’d fallen into and gave the other warlord a grin that was no longer a rare occurrence. “Me too, ‘Trix.”
“Tell me—” Matrix leaned in, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Is it everything K’hor has made it out to be?”
“The mating?” he asked, not quite sure if he understood what his friend was referencing.
“Yes, the mating. Does it really feel how he described?”
Sparx sat back and thought on the question for a moment. When Matrix gave him a look, he simply held up his finger asking for more time.
“Yes and no,” he started. “From what Lucy has said, she experienced some of the same physical discomfort and confusion that Juniper had. Although it didn’t seem nearly as bad—”
“Because K’hor and Juniper waited too long to finish the mating, right?”
“That’s what the healers believe,” Sparx said with a nod. “The human body isn’t equipped to handle the mating like ours. Their need is amplified and uncontrollable. If I hadn’t gone to Lucy when I did, she would have eventually fallen into a coma like Juniper.”
“Well…I am glad that did not happen.”
“Same,” Sparx agreed wholeheartedly.
“You’re welcome, by the way.” Matrix leaned back and gloated, his hands crossed behind his head.
“I’ve already thanked you for standing in for Fyier, ‘Trix.”
“I’m not talking about that,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I’m talking about the thanks I deserve for telling you to go and give in to the mating. Who knows how long you would have tried to hold out if it hadn’t been for Colby and I telling you that you were acting like an idiot.”
“You’re right. On all accounts.” Sparx nodded at the truth coming out of Matrix’s mouth. “To be honest though, the urge that was riding me to mate with Lucy was strong enough I wouldn’t have been able to fight it much longer than I already had. Even if you hadn’t pointed out how foolish I was acting. There was no way that I could have denied myself or my mate.”
The way he felt as a newly mated Djaromir was something he was still trying to come to terms with. It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand his feelings or how important Lucy was to him—he did. He was simply unsure of how to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. The worry he had for her wellbeing. The cravings he had for her when she wasn’t near. The single-minded focus he had for her when they were together.
All of it was new to him. He just needed to figure out how to manage it all without driving himself crazy in the process.
“Is something wrong?” Matrix eyed him from where he was sitting.
“I am starting to feel odd,” he answered, even as a tingle took residence at the base of his spine.
“Ill? Feverish?” Matrix threw out a few other options, none of them an accurate description.
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Like I’m missing something.”
“Do you want to go over the communications—”
“Not that,” he immediately retorted, a feeling in his gut telling him he needed his mate and nothing else. “I think I need—”
“Oh thank God we found you!” Rue yelled from where she was standing next to a pale-looking Lucy at the entrance of the command center.
“What happened?” he asked, rushing over to the women.
Picking his mate up in his arms, he moved her to the center of the room where the chairs were gathered in a circle. Sitting her in one, he knelt in front of her, his hands on her cheeks as he looked into her eyes.
“She said she wasn’t feeling good about twenty minutes ago,” Rue answered quickly, following closely behind. “Give or take. I hustled her here as quick as I could, considering we didn’t know how the hell to get here. FYI, your girl there has the worst sense of direction. Seriously. Don’t let her go walking around here alone if you want to keep tabs on her, or at least put up some damn signs. She could get lost walking down to the laundry room at our complex, and we’d lived there two years.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Lucy complained, even as she leaned forward to run her nose along Sparx’s neck. “C’mere.”
He had no other warning than that mumbled word before she slid out of the chair and wrapped herself around him where he was still kneeling. Her lips grazed his jaw and ear before landing on his neck where she tucked herself into him.
With little effort despite the extra weight he was holding, Sparx stood, holding his precious burden.
“You may want to…” Rue reached down and tucked Lucy’s skirt around her bottom, keeping her appropriately covered as she clung to Sparx.
“Thanks,” he muttered, grateful her friend was watching out for her. Using one palm underneath to secure the cloth, he turned to the other warlord he’d forgotten about in the rush to take care of Lucy. “I should get her back.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sparx frowned at Matrix where he stood, his mouth open and a surprised expression on his face.
“Are you all right?” he asked, shifting Lucy into a more comfortable hold as she kissed and nuzzled his chest.
“Uh-huh.”
“’Trix?” Sparx began to grow worried at the unreadable look on Matrix’s face.
Until he noticed where his friend’s attention was centered.
“Rue?” he said, calling her name where she was still somewhat hovering behind his back. “I’m going to take Lucy back to our quarters. Do you mind if I have Matrix walk you back to yours?”
“Who? What?” she asked quickly, blinking as if just now noticing they weren’t alone in the room. “Which one of these guys is Matrix?”
Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to the woman where she was looking at everyone but the man in question.
“M-me,” Matrix said gruffly before clearing his throat and stepping forward with a purpose. “Me. I’m Warlord Matrix.”
Stepping forward like the bold female Sparx had recently figured her to be, she thrust out one hand. “Veruca Salazar. Nice to meet ya.”
“Sparx called you Rue.” Matrix picked up her hand in his own and turned it over. While everyone was watching, he kissed the back of her wrist, the pulse there hammering before their eyes.
“I know him,” Rue pointed out saucily, cocking her hip. “I do not know you from Adam.”
“Who’s Adam?” Matrix asked with a frown, the scar wrinkling at the expression.
“I don’t know.” Rue shrugged with a teasing grin. “Didn’t I just say I don’t know him?”
Matrix stared at her with an expression of utter confusion, while Sparx laughed on the inside. He knew exactly what Matrix was thinking and feeling. Looking down at where Lucy was still snuggled against his chest, he let out a satisfied sigh. It may be a bit confusing, especially for someone as tough to break through to as Matrix, but he’d find out how it was worth it in the end.
“Don’t worry about me though, I can find my own way back.” Rue walked towards the door she’d dragged Lucy through just moments ago. “My sense of direction got me here, and I didn’t even know where here was. Unlike that one.” She stopped and pointed her finger at Lucy. “I’m serious about not letting her wander around here solo. We got separated once at Target for over half an hour, and I had to walk around blaring a goose call to find her.”
“A goose call?”
“Yeah.” Rue shrugged as if it made perfect sense. “It’s like our own personal version of Marco Polo. She hears my honks and yells at me to shut the fuck up before I embarrass her anymore, and viola, I find her.”
Then she made an awful sound, cupping her hands over her mouth to make the noise louder.
Lucy giggled against his chest.
“Really?” Matrix asked, his eyes wide and disbelieving.
“Yeah, really.” Giving Matrix a frown, she turned and looked at Sparx. “Who’s this guy again? One of your helpers?”
Sparx snorted, trying to contain the laughter that was threatening to escape at the look of offense Matrix was sporting. Lucy, still hiding in the front of his shirt, made a choking sound as she tried to keep from laughing as well.
“I am Warlord Matrix, reigning warlord of Gunninng.” Matrix’s announcement had everyone in the room standing at attention, except for the woman he had intended to impress.
“Oh dear,” his mate whispered, looking up at him with a look that didn’t bode well.
“Well howdy-do, Warlord Matrix from Gunninng.” Rue eyed him up and down before raising one of her eyebrows in challenge. “I’m Ms. Veruca Emmaline Salazar…but I guess you can call me Rue. I mean, any friend of Sparx is a friend of mine.”
“Oh,” he said, stepping forward with a wicked smile. “We’re going to be much more than friends, Rue.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, stepping back as he walked forward.
Sparx watched as she backed up to the wall behind her, Matrix in front of her the entire way. Stalking her as if she were prey he was hunting.
Which, if what Sparx had picked up on was true, was exactly what Matrix was doing. He was hunting the most important prey he’d ever come across.
Lucy, most likely sensing the seriousness of the situation, turned her head to watch the encounter. They both stayed quiet as they watched whatever was about to happen, happen.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I’m worried.” Lucy nibbled the edge of her thumb nail anxiously, her eye trained on the door they’d just walked through.
“Don’t be worried,” Sparx said, kicking his boots off by the door. “Everything is as it should be.”
“Rue’s gonna kill me,” she moaned, flopping back onto the couch in the apartment she shared with Sparx now that they were mated. “Ouch.”
“What did you do?”
“Just injured myself being overly dramatic.” Lucy leaned forward to show him the spot on the back of her head she’d bonked.
He kissed the back of her head where she showed him her injury was, the ritual quickly becoming one they did often with how frequently she had her Lucy goosey moments.
“You’re not being overly dramatic. Rue seemed fairly angry—” Sparx raised his eyebrow at her when she snorted. “All right, she was very angry. Better?”
“Fucking pissed would be more accurate. I mean, if her eyes were flamethrowers—which for a minute there, they kinda resembled—we would have all been d-e-a-d. Scorch marks would have been the only thing left of us,” she corrected with a nod. “But yeah, I guess very angry works too.”
Lucy went back to chewing her nail, while this time jogging her leg up and down nervously. She could still hear the sound of Rue screeching at her to do something ringing in her ears.
“Will you feel better if I assure you that I don’t believe she will kill you?”
She didn’t even look at him as he sat down next to her, tossing an arm behind her shoulders.
“Nope,” Lucy answered after a tic. “Because you’re right.”
“See—”
“Because first Rue’s going to kill Matrix. Probably as painfully as she possibly can.” She turned and pointed a finger directly at Sparx. “Then, she’s gonna kill you for backing him up.”
“I had to—”
Lucy held up her hand.
“I know. Believe me, I know. But that’s not going to be how Rue sees it.” Lucy took in a deep breath at the knowledge they’d pissed off the world biggest grudge holder. “Believe me, I’ve been friends with her long enough to know that she’s not just very angry, she’s fucking furious. At Matrix, at you, and definitely at me—although I don’t think she’ll murder me. She’ll probably just torture me with guilt for the rest of our lives.”
Lucy rubbed her forehead, an ache drilling into the center of it the longer she thought about their situation.
Sparx bit the inside of his cheek and stayed silent, obviously thinking.
“Do you really think she’ll fight the mating?” he finally asked, now looking as concerned as he should have been from the moment they’d allowed Matrix to carry a screaming Rue out of the command center over his shoulder.
“Oh yeah,” Lucy breathed, her shoulders tight at the thought of what would happen if Rue was determined to be the stubborn woman she was by nature. “I don’t know why, but I never thought that it might not be a good idea for Rue to be with someone so…” She paused for a moment to try to find the best word.
“Handsome?” Sparx offered with a twinkle in his eye.
“Of course,” she agreed with a wink, loving the teasing side of him she got glimpses of every now and then—even though now was not the time for her to notice his cuteness. “But I was thinking more along the lines of alpha. Rue’s always dated the same type of easy-going, non-confrontational guys in the past. They were as far from being alpha as you could get.”
“Oh,” Sparx said, the twinkle in his eye dimming a bit at the realization that Lucy had come to much earlier.
“Yeah.”
“They’re mates.” Sparx shrugged as if that was all that needed to be said. “She won’t be able to deny her mate, regardless of what her normal type is. She will just have a new type. The type that Matrix is.”
“Oh dear,” Lucy said again, this time at how clueless Sparx was regarding how things worked with women. “That’s not how this works.”
“No, Lucy.” Sparx turned to face her slightly on the couch. “That is how this works. He will be unable to resist her. Rue will need Matrix, just like you needed me. Whatever anger she is experiencing, she will have to overcome.”
“Rue hates being cornered.” Lucy groaned and dropped her head back again, this time resting it against Sparx’s muscled forearm where it was draped against the back of the couch. “Not only that, she absolutely cannot stand men that are bossy.” Covering her face, she hid away from the world for a moment. “What have I done?”
“You didn’t do anything,” Sparx interrupted, pulling her palms away from her eyes where they’d been rubbing. “She signed up on her own, did she not?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Let it play out.” Sparx kissed the backs of her fingers as he tried to talk her down. “You cannot control what happens between the two of them any more than we could control what was destined to happen between us. Focus on the good this means.”
“Good?” she asked, searching for the silver lining but unable to make it out, considering how worried she still was about her friend.
“That Rue will now be living on Djaromir.”
“Oh, well…I guess that is a good thing.” Lucy breathed a little easier, the previous concern over Rue being sent back to Earth evaporating with Sparx’s reminder. “Although she’s not going to be here, right? How far away is the tunnel city Matrix is the warlord of?”
“Gunninng is more than two days trek on foot.” He frowned before shaking his head. “I believe I will be reconsidering the offer from the Phaetons for more of those vehicles.”
“That bus thing that you picked us up in from the shuttle?” When he nodded, she followed it up with another question. “Is that a problem?”
“It is and it isn’t.” Sparx ran a hand over the shaved portion of his head, an action Lucy had noticed he did when he was deep in thought. “Djaromir is deadly. Especially if you’re unprotected outside of our gates. The temperatures can be cold enough to freeze you to the bone or hot enough to cook your feet as you walk on the ground.”
“Jesus,” she said softly, pulling back in horror at the description. “So why in the hell would you not want to use those buses?”
“Because—” he stalled, obviously searching for what he wanted to say. “This planet has made us who we are. We are strong because this Djaromir has made us strong. To survive, we’ve had to be strong. Our treks from one city to another teaches us how to handle, and more importantly, respect our home.”
Lucy cuddled into his side, leaning her head against his chest. She understood what he was saying, she really did. She’d noticed the first few days that she was here how steeped the lives of the Djaromir were in tradition. Their culture had a huge impact on their daily lives, from how they heated the large ovens Sparx had shown her to the way they stored their supplies for the colder months.
“I just worry that we will lose what makes us strong.”
Feeling an overwhelming urge to comfort her mate, Lucy climbed onto his lap. Wrapping her arms tightly around him as she perched there in front of him. Rocking back and forth, she breathed in time with the large chest she was pressed against.
“Well then,” she murmured after a while had passed. “We won’t let that happen.”
“I love you, mate.”
“I love you too, babe.” Lucy lifted her head, a smile teasing her lips as she stared up at him.
“What?” he asked, cupping her face.
Lucy turned her face into his touch, nuzzling the large work-roughened hands of the warlord she’d quickly fallen for. Wiggling closer, she worked her hips in a small circle over his lap, easily locating the hard bar of his cock under her ass.
“I’m hungry, Sparx,” Lucy whispered the words against the palm of his hand before she took it in her own and moved his hand to her ass. Repeating the motion with his other hand, she ground forward when both of his hands clapped against the globes she’d blatantly offered him.
“What is it you want, my mate?” he asked with a growl, digging his fingers into the meat of her ass.
“I want you to feed me,” she demanded, her heart leaping at the heat in his eyes as he gave her a carnal smile.
“Anything my mate wants—”
“She gets,” Lucy said, finishing the promise and reaching for the fastening of his pants.
Epilogue
Two years later…
“Do not put that in your mouth,” Lucy warned, narrowing her eyes on the toddler currently taunting her with the dirty sock Sparx had left on the floor.
“Don’t even think about it.” She approached slowly with her arms out like she was corralling a wild animal.
Miners of Djaromir: Sparx Page 14
