Alien Fae Mate (4 page)

T
he next day
—day two of the mating season—hand poised on the doorknob to Titan’s quarters, I twisted and pushed. My nose kissed the door.
Great.
I rubbed my nose, then twisted and pushed the knob again, but it didn’t open. Yesterday, the platinum-blonde look had gotten me some Titan lovin’. I intended to bleach and grow my hair, so after I got home from work, Apple and I had researched the best way to bleach hair without making it fall out from the chemicals. Even while helping me, Apple had cursed Titan, telling me he wasn’t worth the trouble. I ignored her because she was really bad for my positive attitude. The negativity suffocated me. I loved my sister, and she looked out for me, but I really couldn’t wait to leave my apartment and get to work inside his quarters. Did he think about me after I’d left his office yesterday? He’d given me a tough new project to work on. Maybe he wanted me to work instead of chase after him. Likely.

I frowned at the door. Had he forgotten to unlock it? Titan valued routine above all else. How could he forget? Fist on the door, I pounded so he could hear me in the shower. “Titan!” I shouted when he didn’t open. “I’m here!”

I twisted the knob and pushed.

The door stayed closed.

I pushed again.

Nothing.

I knocked. “Titan!”

When he didn’t answer, I pressed my ear against the door. I didn’t hear the shower, but I heard my heart pick up its pace. I’d worked on both Titan and Dohan yesterday, implanted them with new grafts and fresh anti-iron serum. And neither of them were here this morning.

They’d left for Earth.

Empty pain cut through my body, and I felt as if a fist squeezed my heart. I leaned against the door. There were millions of women on Earth. Titan could pick any country, any custom, any type. All at his disposal. I turned and pressed my fingers on my temple when I felt light-headed. It didn’t help, so I slid down to the floor and leaned my back on his door. Luckily for me, Dohan wasn’t around to witness. I hadn’t anticipated Titan leaving for Earth. I probably should have. I should’ve left his grafting for last or simply ripped the damn graft from his shoulder.

“Rain?”

“Good Lord!” I startled, hand over my heart. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry,” Dohan said. “You got moved.” He leaned his shoulder against the opposite wall. “Wanna get up?”

“What do you mean I got moved?” I stood and straightened my dress. “Moved where?” I barely uttered those words past the lump in my throat.

“Moved to an office. Bunch of us cleared up Titan’s new office last night. He planned on moving but changed his mind and gave it to you. Got a view to die for and all set up with your things.”

I pounded Titan’s door. “Let me in!”

“You could try huffing. Maybe it’ll give.”

I narrowed my eyes at the fairy-tale reference. “Where is he?”

“Already left.”

“He never leaves. It’s nine o’clock. He’s in the shower and can’t hear me. Right?”

“He’s not in there.”

“Titan!”

“Come on, I’ll show you to your office, it’s right by—”

I pushed past him, then halted in my step. I didn’t want to be rude. “Thank you. I know where it is.”

“I know you know, but I’ll escort you anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because”—he spoke slowly, drawing out all the words—“we are in mating, and you’re the only available human woman on the ship. Someone will snatch your little ass and tie you up to the bed until you say ‘eat me.’”

“Well, if it’s not Titan, I’ll stab him in the eye with my pen. Maybe I’ll stab Titan too. Don’t know.”

“You don’t want that kind of a mating. Come on.” Hand intertwined with mine, he led me to an elevator. I stomped my feet, hoping the floors cracked in my wake.

Inside, Dohan ordered the elevator to descend to the business floor.

“What kind of a mating is
that
mating?” I asked.

Eyes trained on the ceiling, he didn’t reply.

Ping.
The elevator opened, and he tugged my hand.

I tugged back. “What kind?”

“Watch your step.” He jerked my hand, leading me past the group of foot-tall creatures fiddling with envelopes in their hands. Titan called them “pets,” so I figured when they’d left their home, they took their pets with them. I thought it considerate. The pets were cute, furry with big eyes and long ears that stood upright. I bent to pet one, even though the ship’s business deck full of fae males had gone silent when we entered. The creature purr-snorted, and so I scratched behind his ear. “You’re such a nice boy,” I said.

“No, don’t—”

The creature snapped his teeth. I jerked my hand away at the last minute.

“They work and hate being disturbed.”

“They have big teeth.” I’d seen a few of them before, but not often. They kept to the lower decks, and I rarely wandered around the ship. Dohan led me around the corner and to the very end of a long, narrow hallway. Inside, my new office had been set. My wooden desk and the pair of lamps at either end of it glowed, lighting up the room in a dim blue shade. A pet sat on top of a medical examination bed pushed against the left wall. “What’s it doing here?” I asked.

“Titan gave you an assistant. It’s a she, by the way. Good luck,” Dohan said and left, laughter following him.

Confused, I stood by the door. The office was great and spacious, but I wasn’t interested in a new office. I sat behind my desk and pinched my lips, unsure what to do. The she-pet smiled and showed me her big teeth. I winced. What the hell was I supposed to do with it, and why was it here?

“Why are you here?” I asked.

It grumbled—probably spoke—but I couldn’t understand a word. I shrugged off my coat. At the sight of me, she whistled through her teeth and clapped her short, stubby hands. Feeling a little awkward in front of an audience, I replaced my sneakers with high-heeled, knee-high, black leather boots. After checking the mirror, I smacked my lips and walked out, determined to leave the ship. When I passed Titan’s old office, where only yesterday he’d made me feel like I sat on top of the world, my step faltered.

Titan sat behind his desk, his head bent over the papers in front of him, coffee in one hand and a pencil in the other. I hadn’t seen him on the way to my office, so he’d just returned. It was only about ten in the morning.

* * *

T
itan

R
ain walked
past my office on her way to her new one while I hid in the shadows so she couldn’t see me. I had to get her out of my quarters, or I’d fuck her silly this morning. During the mating season, thoughts of her haunted me. Her perfume hadn’t left my quarters either, and my cock wouldn’t go down because I’d breathed her in all night long. So, early this morning, after I’d jerked off in the shower, I decided to air out my room and give her my new office.

I shifted in my chair and didn’t look up when she stood at my door. The jerking off didn’t do shit for me. I should really take up Dohan on the offer to bring me a blow-up doll from Earth. Everyone onboard the ship got one, except me. The dolls came in all shapes and sizes and we—the fae—loved all women. For over two decades, we’d roamed the galaxy without females, and it had almost gotten us all killed. We learned to appreciate females, didn’t nitpick once we liked one.

I nodded, confirming my resolve. I’d send Dohan for a doll. No shame in that. What was
shame
anyway? It sounded like a guy’s name. I didn’t think I understood that emotion.

“Come in,” I bit out. The door slid open with a gentle hiss, and her heels clicked across the floor. I doodled check marks on random papers. Those damn heels should be jabbing my ass, and I should be pounding into her against the wall.

The pen broke in my grip, and I threw it in the trash under the desk. I picked up another and read the label:

HB fine.

I needed a not-fine one.

“You’ve changed the doors,” she said.

Something was wrong with the tone of her voice. I should probably pay attention. “Mm-hm,” I said, not looking up from my paperwork. After she’d left my office yesterday, I broke the door and had it replaced with a speed-slider door so I wouldn’t break another gentle-slider one when I stormed back into my office this morning. “How do you like your new office?” I asked.

“It’s peachy.”

Ah, I remembered this tone. I liked this pissy-Rain tone. Made me wanna tie her up and bite her.
Shit
. I hated the mating season. Sex with Rain was the only thing on my mind. “Mm-hm,” I said. What else could I say? I’d moved her out of my quarters and didn’t tell her about it.

Her heels clicked the floors as she marched across the room and slapped her little hand on my paper, right in front of my nose. I inhaled her scent, and it hit the back of my throat. Instead of licking her skin, I bit my tongue.

When I didn’t look up, she tapped her fingers on my papers. “Why did you move me?”

I snapped my head up and locked eyes with her brown ones. They filled with fury when mine narrowed.

“You are my employee. I found you a new office right next to mine, if you haven’t noticed.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest so I wouldn’t touch her. I fisted my hands and ground my teeth. She wore a short white dress with a low neckline. The small wooden pendant rested between her breasts. And those boots? They had long thin heels that could dig into my ass as I pressed her against the wall and fucked her brains out. I blinked that image away and continued when a blush of rage crept up her neck. On her chest, Rain’s fair skin showed patches of red. It happened when she was angry, and now she looked like she’d burst into a tantrum. Which would be the end of me. For sure. “It’s a big office. Even bigger than mine, with a view your president would want to pay for. It comes with an assistant. Instead of being cooped up in my small quarters, now you have a room and a bed for fae to experiment on. Feel free to skin any of them. After the mating season. Also, while we’re at it, Dohan will be fired from his post as a security guard. I’m telling you in advance.”

Rain nodded. Surprised she didn’t protest, I lifted an eyebrow before she said, “You need to come in for a booster. I want to examine your new graft. We’re still testing and…” A pause and she inhaled deeply, then continued, “and you shouldn’t have touched ground last night.”

What the fuck?
Human females thought of the weirdest shit, I swore it. “I took care of myself, so you can work and not worry about me.”

For a while, she was quiet, and I thought she’d walk out.

“I come to work at nine sharp. I knock on the door and let myself in. I take care of your grafts, and I work from your room. I don’t want the new office or an assistant, and I don’t want you to take care of yourself, because that’s my job.”

“And you
will
take care of the grafts. After the mating season.”

“I want to take care of you during the mating season. I don’t want you to go down there. Did you go down there?” She pinched her lips. “Never mind. I don’t want to know.”

I stood and slapped my palms on my desk. I bared my teeth and leaned in. “I am Titan. I do not fuck around. My soul mate is not down there, and you can’t take care of me during the mating season. Get back to work. In your new office. When the season is over, we’ll meet. I’m very sorry about what happened yesterday. I crossed the line.”

Rain contemplated what I’d said, her emotions passing over her eyes. Hurt, understanding, anger, and after a minute, she snatched my pen. I’d thought she was angry when she’d been hurting, but now I knew she was angry. I snapped my head to the right. It cracked my neck, stretched my muscles nicely. Then I rolled my shoulders, waiting to see what she’d do with the damn pen. Maybe she was meant to be a fae female after all. I might get myself stabbed.

“I’m going back to my old workplace,” she said. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. You are mine.” She wrote “MINE!” on a piece of paper, licked the back of the paper, and slapped it on my forehead. “Doodle that, Titan,” she said and stormed out the door.

Good thing I’d replaced the door.

I
stared
at the piece of paper in my hand and felt claimed. I didn’t know if claiming meant the same to humans as it did to us. I should probably hit their Internet and look it up. Hell, I hadn’t even known human females claimed. The fae females didn’t claim, at least not in such a brutal way.
Mine
, she’d written, and I read it over and over again, unsure what to make of it, so I shoved the claim in the back pocket of my jeans and returned to doodling. But this time, I changed it up. I drew little human monsters with white dresses and perky little tits.

A few minutes later, I heard nothing when I should hear chatter from a business floor filled with my males. What now? A scraping of something against the floors grated in my ears. I looked up from my very creative work. Rain was dragging her heavy wooden desk down the hallway and past my office. The light fae creature I’d assigned her pushed the other end of the desk.

I leapt out of my chair and paused for the door to open right before I walked through the damn thing. It took a split second for it to disappear, but it felt like a month. Bewildered, I walked out to the hallway. What the hell was she thinking? The entire office floor full of horny fae watched the hem of her little dress-fig-leaf tickle her naked thighs as she dragged the desk down the long-ass hallway and across the office space.

I followed in disbelief, my boots stomping over the wooden floors. I shot a bolt of
snaga
into the ship just in case one of my males got stupid and tried to help her. I didn’t want to have to kill them, and releasing it into the ship felt good. Dohan better not help her, I thought.

At the elevator, Rain rounded the desk and bent to push it inside. A collective groan spread over the floor. I couldn’t have them ogling her ass when I knew she didn’t wear anything under that tiny drape she called a dress. A bared pussy would send them into a frenzy. My cock already aimed for it, and theirs did too. I stomped to the elevator and kicked the damn desk inside. It crashed against the wall and broke in half.

“What the hell?” she shouted.

Rain’s light fae creature bared her teeth as if to defend Rain. From me. “You,” I told the creature, “are dismissed.”

She hissed.

I crouched to her eye level. I didn’t know human females and had tried to read Rain the best I knew how, but I knew light fae females. I said one word. “Cupcakes.”

The light fae tilted her head. “A dozen blueberry cupcakes for dinner.” I’d put Dohan on kitchen duty for holding Rain’s hand. He hated kitchen duty. During the season, he wanted to touch ground all day and find a mate, so it was a double win for me. If I couldn’t have a mate, why should he? I was evil.

The creature’s eyes brightened, and white light fae
snaga
danced over her fur. She left with a bounce in her step. Standing, I turned to Rain, who’d crossed her arms over her chest. She pouted with her bottom lip slightly out.

“You’re moving back?” I said.

“That’s right.”

“You’re not.”

“Try and stop me!”

I fisted my hand and hit my chest. She couldn’t talk to me like that in front of everyone.

She winced, and I knew she wouldn’t have screamed if she weren’t very angry. If I’d told her about the move in private, we’d fight and end up in bed. At least here, I couldn’t bed her.

“I don’t like cupcakes,” she said. “Eating or drinking won’t make it go away.”

I suppressed a growl. I’d managed to hurt her feelings. I didn’t know how human males went about that, so I did my own thing. I threw her over my shoulder and covered her pussy with my hand. What else could I do? I wasn’t gonna let her prance around here if she didn’t want to stay inside her office. When she screamed and beat my back with her little fists and when my men burst out laughing, I ignored them all. I didn’t stop until we were back inside her new office. I didn’t breathe her in. When her feet hit the floors, inside me, I gathered most of my pent-up, unsated death
snaga
. This girl was mine.
Mine!

Snaga
gathered, and I let it collect some more. Pressure built in my chest, and my body started to buzz. I released it. Power flushed down my body and into the wooden floors. The mother ship groaned, and the floors split, then returned to normal. Feeling lighter, I shook out my shoulders. The doors closed, and I locked them shut. I looked around the room while Rain tried to figure out what had just happened to the floors.

Where the hell was rope when I needed it? I searched her office for something to tie her up with and spotted the restraints on the bed. They were there in case one of us refused a graft implant near the groin. Excellent. She kicked and screamed when I picked her back up and plopped her ass on the bed. “Quiet,” I said. “You will stay here for the day and then the next day, and if I have to tie you to keep you in this office, then that’s what I’ll do.”

I made quick work of the restraints, and when she quieted, I grunted. “Damn straight. You’ll be staying put. Don’t worry, I’ll bring you something to eat.” I stood back and looked at my work.

I’d tied my pretty girl to the bed. But instead of laying her down on her back, I’d bent her over and tied her hands spread eagle across the length of the bed, not the width. The hard leather restraints—set far apart—stretched her arms, and her ass was lifted up, with the dress’s hem resting on the small of her back and not over her ass. Her bare pussy peeked between her legs. Nothing would get Rain fucked more than her pretty ass in my face.

She spread her legs.