Matched and Mated

by Grace Goodwin

  “Besides, I’m not driving a car, I’m getting bride tested. And right now feels like the perfect time to do something insane.”

  Natalie took my wine glass and set it next to hers on the counter. “Okay, girlfriend. First, we’re going to get you some coffee.”

  We hit up the S-Gen machine and I waited for the caffeine jolt to kick in. When I was a hundred and ten percent sure I was sober, I met her gaze and nodded. I was done with waiting around, second guessing and hoping for what I couldn’t have. It was time to get matched to my perfect mate. If he was on Trion, great. If not? So be it. I’d miss Natalie and the kids, but that’s what comms were for. “Ready.”

  “Okay. Let’s do this.” She placed her arm around my shoulder and walked me to the processing center to be matched to my perfect mate. She leaned in close as we approached the door to the medical center where the testing would take place. “And I won’t say a word about the wine.”

  4

  Captain Trist Treval, Sector 17, Battleship Zakar

  * * *

  I leaned over the battle map, the ever-present tension in my shoulders and neck a constant reminder that the war with the Hive was not won, that my warriors were out there dying. Still. Always.

  “We’ve destroyed their scout ships, Captain, but the larger attack vessels just disappeared.” Captain Wyle spoke on my right. He was an experienced fighter who brought true honor to Prillon Prime. If he said the Hive ship vanished before his eyes, I believed him.

  “Did you see one of the new destroyers?” I asked.

  The new advanced ships developed by the Hive had recently begun arriving in other sectors. They were invisible to sensors and impossible to track. I’d never seen one, but he had. He knew what to look for, to know if that new threat was here, in this battlegroup. The Coalition Fleet had lost Battlegroup Varsten in Sector 438 before Battlegroup Karter and a fighting unit from the Intelligence Core had managed to eliminate the threat in Sector 437 under Commander Karter. Our assigned sector was nowhere near them, but with the Hive, nothing was ever that easy. And their new technology was being deployed throughout the galaxy much faster than we’d anticipated.

  I hated the Hive.

  “No,” he replied. “They were too small, but there were at least three of them. Enough to cause a serious problem.” Captain Wyle pointed to a planet on the star map. He’d been out there, flying with his warriors, when the battle happened. He was our best pilot, and leader of the Fourth Battle Wing. “We had a line-of-sight visual, but they ran behind the fourth planet and we lost them.”

  Across from us, Commander Grigg Zakar cursed and slammed his fist down on the flat screen we stood before. “Gods be damned. Prime Nial warned us about their new cloaking technology. But I had hoped that with the destruction of the Hive ship in Sector 437, we wouldn’t have to deal with this yet.”

  “The Hive are one mind, Commander.” The reminder was not needed, but I had not shared the same hope. I was a realist. Commander Zakar had been in charge of this battlegroup for more than twenty years. I’d been his second in command for long enough to know that despite everything he’d seen, he still had hope. We all did. He fought like a warrior who believed he could win. But then, he had a mate. He needed hope, needed to believe in a future for her and their children.

  All I had, all I knew, was war. Killing. Watching thousands of new recruits come out of the Coalition Academy and from the member planets’ recruitment facilities to fight and die. Or worse, be taken alive by the Hive and converted into the enemy. Contaminated.

  “Get the I.C. on comms. I want to know exactly how we fight this thing.” Grigg was dark, even for a Prillon, his lineage that of an ancient family that had defended this sector of space for hundreds of years. His skin and hair were brown, his eyes a blend of red and orange his Earth mate called “rust”.

  While both Prillon, we were nothing alike, he and I, neither in temperament nor in looks. My family line was fair. Golden from head to toe. But where he was revered on the home world as something akin to royalty, I was no one, a third son whose two fathers had both paid the ultimate price in this war. They’d died fighting while I was in the academy, and I’d vowed to destroy as many Hive warriors as I could. I’d vowed to fight, as had my two older brothers. We’d stood side by side in our family home and sworn to protect our two younger sisters and our mother, who were now safely back on the home world. Prillon Prime remained safe because of us. Because of everyone who fought.

  My brothers and I had scattered days later, gone to serve, sent to different sectors of space. Like me, they fought on. Still. But I’d made my own oath that day, to my dead fathers, to the gods, to myself. I’d vowed to kill Hive with every breath, including my last. And I had no intention of breaking that promise.

  Behind me, the comms officer answered. “I’ll get I.C. for you, but it’ll take me some time, Commander.”

  “Fuck that. Get me Commander Karter, instead. Sector 437.” Grigg was pacing now, his arms crossed as he stared down at the star map broken into a grid. This was our home. Our area to defend. And the Zakar family had not lost ground to the Hive in hundreds of years. We had no intention of starting now. “Gods damned I.C. won’t tell me what I need to know anyway.”

  That made me grin. Grigg wasn’t wrong. Spies and their secrets. I didn’t like their games. I preferred to acquire a target and take it out. In that, Grigg and I were very much alike.

  We waited a few moments, but the comms officer made a startled sound. “I’m sorry. Captain Trist, there is an incoming message for you.”

  I turned around and walked to the control station, leaned over the officer’s shoulder. “From who?”

  He looked a little uncomfortable. Odd. “Um, Trion, sir.”

  What? I didn’t know anyone on Trion. It was an odd planet with an odd people. They lived in tents, from what I understood. Primitives who liked to place metal piercings in their females and treat them more like pets than mates of worth. I did not understand their philosophies, but I could not argue that their females were well-protected and taken care of. And Trion males were fierce and worthy fighters. Still, I knew no one from that world. “Well?”

  The comms officer stiffened as Captain Wyle and Commander Zakar came from behind to stand on either side of me. “Captain Trist Treval of Prillon Prime, this is the Interstellar Brides Processing Center in Xalia City, planet Trion. I have your matched mate awaiting transport. This communication is intended to confirm your coordinates per Interstellar Brides Program protocol.”

  “What?”

  “Am I speaking to Captain Trist, or his commanding officer?” The matter-of-fact voice sounded bored, as if this happened dozens of times a day. But not to me. It had never happened to me.

  Grigg was grinning. “This is Commander Zakar. I can confirm Captain Trist’s location. Initiate transport.”

  “Thank you, Commander. Transport will begin momentarily. Trion out.”

  The comm went dead and I stood, stunned. Seconds ticked by, then the commander slapped me on the back. Hard. “Congratulations, Trist.”

  Mate? I had a mate? I’d been matched? To a Trion female?

  Captain Wyle was smiling like he’d just made a kill. “Fuck me, Trist. An Interstellar Bride.” He slapped me on the other side of my back. Harder. “Lucky fuck.”

  Trist, Transport Room 3, Battleship Zakar

  * * *

  I stood alone before the transport pad, the transport tech the only other person in the room. The commander had been more than happy to dismiss me to see to my mate. Captain Wyle seemed almost… jealous as I left. I didn’t know what to think, didn’t understand. Why me? Why now? It had been five years since I’d been tested. Five long years of waiting, and I’d pretty much given up all hope. I’d stopped wondering ages ago if I would ever have a bride. I had assumed I was an impossible bastard and a true match would never be found.

  But now? Fuck. Somehow, I had remembered to go to my quarters and retrieve two collars from
my drawer, the place I’d shoved them when Nevo had requested to be released from our agreement. When Captain Myntar’s second had been lost to the Hive, the captain, along with his mate and son, had been left behind to go on alone. His second’s death was the very reason every Prillon male chose a second. No female or her children were ever left alone and unprotected.

  The tragedy meant Captain Drake Myntar’s family had needed a second protector. Drake was third on command in the battlegroup, a good friend, and I could no more deny a female and child protection than I could deny my friend a chance at happiness. Lady Mara Myntar was a beautiful Prillon female and she’d accepted Nevo with open arms. The new family had been together for more than two years, their bond strong.

  I was happy for Nevo but had not bothered to find another Prillon second. As I hadn’t thought I’d ever be matched, I hadn’t considered anyone for the role.

  Now I was out of time. The hum of the incoming transport vibrated through my body and my mate was appearing. Now.

  In the blink of an eye, she was there. Sprawled across the metal raised floor was a naked female. Her face was delicate and beautiful. Exceptionally feminine in comparison to the sharp angles of mine. Her hair was long and darker than wine, a deep brown that I found fascinating. I couldn’t wait to see that dark silk spread out across my golden chest. Her curves tempted me to reach out and stroke her skin here. Now. Her breasts were large and full, the nipples a deep pink that matched her lips.

  I longed to spread her thighs wide and find out if her pussy was pink as well. Or brown. Or golden.

  Something primal in me woke, something I’d never felt before. Possessive. My cock went instantly hard and my entire body grew tense with the need to protect. Mate. Claim.

  Mine.

  “Turn your back!” I growled and leapt up onto the platform to shield her from the view of the transport tech. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him spin about and stare at the far wall.

  I knew from other mates who’d been sent from the Brides Program that the females were transported without clothing, leaving behind all vestiges of their previous planet. It was a Prillon tradition, a way to ensure the female was fully prepared to be immersed in Prillon life.

  But now, with my mate before me, unconscious, vulnerable and every inch of her soft perfection on display, I did not like it.

  “Get me a blanket from the emergency response kit.”

  I heard the tech move about, but I stared solely at her. I didn’t even know her name. I thought to ask the tech who would have received her file from the processing center on Trion, but I decided to wait. I wanted her to tell me. I wanted to know what color her eyes were, and what her voice would sound like when she was crying out my name.

  My cock thickened, lengthened with an immediate need for her. She was not adorned as a mated Trion female normally would be, but perhaps it was because she was mated to me. I did not need piercings or chains, jewels or any other fanciful decoration on my mate. Just looking at her lush body was all I needed to be pleased, to be aroused. To be possessive in the extreme.

  “Captain?”

  “What?” I snarled, curling my body over her so he would not see anything precious.

  “Sir, your blanket, but I can’t make it up the steps without looking.” He was Prillon and understood. I didn’t remember if he wore a collar, if he was mated or not. This was a moment I should have shared with a second, but I was thankful for his understanding since I was alone. For now. Finding the beautiful female a second worthy protector would be one of my first priorities—after I’d claimed her. Looking at her now, I knew I could not wait to find a second before making her mine.

  I respected the tech’s good judgment in attempting to maintain my mate’s modesty—and keep his head upon his shoulders—but I didn’t want to look away, even for a moment. Irrationally, I worried she might transport away. She was still a dream, a figment of my imagination that I would guard jealously.

  It was this wave of jealousy, of fear I might lose her, that caused me to remember the collars. I opened one, the green one of my family, and placed it about my neck. I only felt the heft of it but nothing more.

  Per protocol, she must agree to the placement of my collar about her neck. Once she did, I would have thirty days to seduce her. Love her. Give her every reason in the universe to choose to stay with me.

  I reached behind me blindly, grateful when I felt the press of one of the soft blankets in my palm. “Thank you.”

  “Of course, Captain.” I heard the heavy boots of the Prillon tech walking back to his station and trusted that he had the good sense to keep his gaze averted. Still, I wrapped her gently in the warmth of the blanket and lifted her into my arms, amazed at the lush softness of her body’s curves beneath the material. So soft. By the gods, my cock was painfully hard, aching to fill her.

  But first, she must accept my collar. My right to woo her. To protect her. I could not leave this room without the symbol of my protection around her neck. I did not want to fight any challengers for what was mine. With the primitive instincts flaring out of control within me at first sight of her, I might kill anyone who tried to take her from me.

  I was a rational male. Battle hardened. Cold. I’d been called detached. Calculated. More machine than male. And yet, when I looked at her, that calm didn’t just melt away. It vanished as if someone took a laser cannon to my insides and lit me on fire.

  “When will she wake?” I asked. Surely this transport tech had seen other brides arrive and knew how long I would have to wait. Still, my normally inexhaustible patience had abandoned me, along with reason, calm, certainty…

  I studied her features, absorbing every detail. Burning her into my mind and memory. All the while, completely absurd thoughts whirled through my mind. What if she opened her eyes and was not pleased with the sight of me? What if I frightened her? What if…

  “Usually within a few minutes, Captain.”

  Thank the gods. I wasn’t sure I could maintain control for much longer. She breathed peacefully, but she did not move. What if she were injured? Ill?

  “Captain, sir. Sorry to bother, but I need to clear the transport pad. We’ve got supplies scheduled to arrive from Prillon Prime.”

  “Of course.” I was standing in the middle of the transport area, staring at a small, fragile female. I had lost my senses indeed.

  The tech grinned at me as I stepped down and moved toward the exit. “Congratulations, Captain.”

  “Thank you for your assistance,” I told the tech as I walked toward the transport door. I nodded and kept walking. Using one hand, I tucked the blanket up around her neck. If anyone was foolish enough to challenge me between this room and my personal quarters, so be it.

  5

  Trist

  * * *

  He offered a slight bow before I left the room and moved quickly through the corridors. If anyone thought it odd I carried an unconscious female wrapped solely in a blanket through a battleship, no one said so. Wisely, no one even looked at us curiously as we passed.

  They didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but my mate. How had I been upset, just a short time ago, to receive word I had been matched? Why had I not wanted this? How had I been so stupid? But I had no second. No one to protect her should anything happen to me.

  I growled as I slapped my hand beside the door to my quarters, opening it. I would find a second promptly.

  “Oh,” she said, her voice soft. Sweet.

  “Hello, mate.” Happiness and fierce protectiveness swept through me. Mate.

  She stirred, tried to wiggle out of my hold.

  “Be still. You’ve transported a long distance.”

  “I’m heavy.”

  I laughed at that but entered my private quarters and moved to sit upon the soft chair I used for reading in the evening before bed. Taking my time, I sat, careful not to jostle her. This was a new experience, holding something so precious on my lap. With her tucked into my arms, I was content.


  When we were settled, I looked down to find her studying me. There was no fear in her eyes, only curiosity. Acceptance.

  “I am Trist. Your mate.”

  “I’m Miranda.” Her gaze dropped to the green collar now affixed around my neck as I rolled her name around in my thoughts.

  Miranda.

  “Your name is beautiful, Miranda. As are you.”

  She smiled shyly, her cheeks turning an intriguing shade of pink as she looked around. My quarters were in order. Everything was clean, organized, appropriately stored and prepared for battle. “I was told I was transporting to a battleship.”

  I nodded, studied the pert tilt of her nose, dark eyebrows. “Yes, you are on Battleship Zakar. I am Captain Trist, second in command. These are my—our—quarters. I will put in for a transfer to a larger room once I have chosen a second.”

  She didn’t react to my comment about choosing a second, and I relaxed, enjoying the moment. Holding her. Feeling her in my arms.

  “Where are we? I’ve never been in space before.”

  “Sector 17. It is quite a distance from your home world of Trion.”

  “Oh, um, well, yes. I transported from Trion, but I’m from Earth. Originally, I mean. I’ve been living on Trion for the last two years.”

  “You’re human?” I asked, full of wonder. That explained the odd colored eyes, her smaller size. She was from Earth, like Lady Zakar. Yet they looked nothing alike.

  “Yes.”

  “Explain your presence on Trion.”

  She shifted in my hold, and I allowed her to sit up but kept my arms around her. I was content to have her upon my lap, feel her softness, breathe in her scent. My cock, pressed into her hip, and was also quite content as she spoke of her friend, Natalie, who had mated a Trion councilor. She explained that she had escorted Natalie and her new son back to Trion and had made a life there for the past two years.