Mated to the Warriors (15 page)

Where had the caring man I’d met in the medical station gone? Where was that mate? The one who bossed me around one minute and treated me like spun glass the next? The mate who held me down and suckled my nipples as the doctor made me come, then held me on his lap and rubbed my back to make me feel like I was safe. Where was the mate who had held me over his lap, spanked me until I cried, and then promised me that I’d never feel alone again? Where was my anchor in the storm? My master?

He was gone, and I was afraid I’d never get him back. I had grown to love Dare, I knew that, but being with Zane like this, walking beside each other in the corridor, not touching, not talking, not feeling anything from him but an impenetrable wall of ice? I couldn’t do that. Not for the rest of my life. I wanted more. I deserved more.

I hadn’t told Dare yet, but I had decided to seek a new match when the thirty days was over. Dare would be upset with me, and I would miss him, but I didn’t see an alternative. That meant I had four days left with my mates and then I’d move on and give Zane the freedom he so obviously wanted. I would not be his fuck toy, the woman he refused to speak with during the day, but would stick his cock in every night. I refused to love Zane, knowing he would never love me in return.

And even when we were together, the three of us, Zane fucked like a perfect clinician, but I could tell he was holding back. He wasn’t fully there with us, and I was tired of feeling like such a disappointment to him. Zane was not happy with me, and his pain hurt me. I needed to make my mate happy. I needed to be what he wanted, what he needed. And I was a complete and utter failure there. Zane was miserable, and his pain was breaking me. I had to leave so he could find a mate he wanted, a woman who satisfied him, a woman with whom he would share his darkness instead of hide it.

Maybe I would be sent to another battle fleet, as far away from Dare and Zane as possible? Could I ask the bride program here to send me away from Zane? I was heartsick, but seeing my mates every day would be so much worse.

I didn’t know what requesting a new mate entailed, but I intended to ask. Maybe, when Prince Nial went back to their planet in a few days, I’d go with him. Surely they could assign a new mate for me there? And I’d never see Zane or Dare again.

The thought felt like a knife blade in my gut, but I couldn’t live like this. I’d failed my mate. I wasn’t what he wanted or needed. It was time to let go.

We stepped onto the transport platform and Zane pulled me into his arms once more as the strange pulling and twisting feeling moved through me. When it was over, I expected Zane to release me, as he had before. Instead, he looked at the transport engineer over my head. “Transport us to my private quarters on deck seventeen.”

“Sir?” The engineer hesitated and I stiffened in Zane’s arms. What the heck was on deck seventeen?

“That’s an order.”

“Yes, sir.”

I wrapped my arms around Zane’s waist and hung on as the transport took us from the platform to somewhere new, a place I’d never heard of before. When the transfer was complete, I tried to step out of Zane’s embrace and look around, but he didn’t allow it. He lifted me and walked me backward until my back bumped into a soft wall. Zane lowered his hands to where mine were on his waist, took hold of my wrists and raised them above my head.

“I’ve been keeping something from you, my mate. I believe you’ve sensed it these past weeks.”

My pulse raced as he stretched me up and up until I stood on tiptoes. “What?”

“Me.”

I felt something cold and hard as steel clicked into place around my wrists. Zane’s grip loosened and I tried to lower my arms, but couldn’t. I was trapped.

My pussy clenched and I shuddered at the heat in Zane’s eyes as he dragged his hands slowly down the insides of my raised arms to cup my breasts through the fabric of my tunic. He pinched my nipples hard, and I gasped as his mouth lowered to mine.

His kiss wiped my mind of all thoughts but him. His long tongue curled and explored, taking and tasting as his hands ripped my clothing from my body. When the kiss ended, I was naked, my clothes lay in shreds at our feet, and my pussy was so wet I could feel my arousal coating the tops of my thighs in welcome for his huge cock.

Zane’s forehead rested on mind, and his hands were now on the curve of my bare hips. “You will call me master. Nothing else.”

I shuddered, so afraid to want him this much. I didn’t hesitate in my answer. “Yes, master.”

He kissed my cheeks, then my chin. “If you need me to stop, say lemonade.”

What? “I hate lemonade.”

“I know, Hannah. I know. I read your file. Memorized it, in fact.” His mouth closed over my nipple and I moaned as the tugging sensation sent currents of lust straight from my breast to my clit. He’d memorized my bride file? In the bride processing center I’d spent four full days answering endless questions on everything from my favorite food to childhood memories. They even had my school test scores all the way back to first grade.

“Zane.”

He nipped at my breast just hard enough to hurt. “Master.”

How had I forgotten, stretched out like a pagan offering with my hands locked over my head and my naked body his for the taking. The room was deep red, like his collar, with a large bed on one side and the toy table opposite. I was tied to a hook that protruded from the padded wall. Hooks and straps of various sizes and shapes hung from at least a dozen places on the wall. The two near my feet were easy to figure. They were obviously meant for my ankles. But the rest? I had no idea.

I’d read about something like this in my romance books on Earth. A dungeon. It was what those who were into the BDSM lifestyle used to play sexual games. For sex. For fucking.

“Master, why? Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you—”

He undressed as my voice trailed off. I watched him as he revealed the hulking size of his shoulders and huge chest. His body slanted down in the perfect V shape, complete with defined abs and a cock big enough to make me faint.

My ass was empty for the first time in days, having taken the largest sized plug with ease and not needing them any longer. I didn’t know what I wanted more, his cock in my empty pussy, or taking me for the first time in my ass.

God, I wanted both. He walked away from me to a small table that lined the wall. On it was a variety of plugs and dildos, ties, and things he could use on me. How? I had no idea.

I didn’t have any more time to wonder as Zane returned and knelt on the floor at my feet, a large dildo in one hand and lube in the other. I expected him to turn me around and get my ass ready for the dildo; instead he locked his mouth over my clit and sucked until my eyes closed and my knees buckled.

When I was on the edge, he pushed the dildo up inside my pussy in one fast, hard stroke, stretching me wide as I exploded all over his mouth.

Using the back of his hand, he wiped my dripping desire from his mouth. “I know you fear I will die in battle. I do not fear death, mate; my only fear was afraid that I would hurt you, that my rough and aggressive ways would scare you away. You are so small, so dainty and fragile. I hid my true self from you. No longer.”

“This was why you rejected me?” I felt sadness mingled with hope.

“Reject you? Never. I was protecting you. From me. From my dark ways.”

I saw the truth in his eyes, felt it pure and strong through the collar.

“I want your dark ways,” I admitted. “I need them. I need all of you.”

He looked up at me and simply nodded.

Panting and out of breath, I didn’t resist when he turned me around to face the wall. My pussy was still stuffed full of the dildo. As expected, I felt the tip of the now familiar lube enter my back entrance, and the warmth of it spread inside me in a wave. Instead of feeling a plug at my ass, I felt nothing until Zane lifted me off my feet.

He unhooked my arms from the wall above me and carried me in front of him to the edge of the bed where he settled me on my knees. As soon as I’d gained my balance, his hand wrapped around my throat, softly, gently, and I arched back as the memories of Anne’s claiming flooded me and his hard chest pressed to my back. Yes. I wanted this.

“Do not move, mate, or I will have to discipline you.”

I couldn’t speak, my voice completely gone as I waited, breathless for the inferno of power I felt building in him. He wasn’t holding back. This was Zane, the
real
Zane.
Finally.

He pulled my hands behind me and wrapped them with soft but unbreakable bonds, forcing my breasts to jut out. The ties were snug, but not too tight and I gasped as a blindfold descended to cover my eyes.

“To heighten your senses, and of course to wonder what I will do to you next.”

My breath came in short spurts but I was ready and eager for him to take me, to own me. I was near tears, and I didn’t understand how the salty fluid had found its way to my eyes. I wasn’t in pain, but I felt like I was about to explode into a hundred pieces of broken glass and only Zane could hold me together.

Just like I remembered from the bride protocol simulation, Zane’s heated flesh pressed to my back and his deep, commanding voice filled my ear. “Will you accept my claim, mate? Or do you wish to name another primary mate?”

Zane’s voice was thick with lust, and the explosion of his need blasted through my collar like a blowtorch. I’d never felt this, never felt
him.
At last he was letting me in, showing me what he needed me to be, what he would truly give me.

“I—” Words failed me. I couldn’t say yes. Not yet. What if he stopped? What if this was just some sort of sick and twisted game to fool me into accepting him and Dare—and then he’d go back to his old ways? I had to know where he would take me. I needed to know if I could trust him, or if he was just going to use me like the others, but never show me his true self.

When I fell silent, he growled in my ear.

“Very well. I understand. I feel your doubt, Hannah. I earned that mistrust by not being honest with you about my needs.” His hands slid down to cup my breasts and I moaned. He pinched them hard, and my moan turned to a sob as the stimulation flooded my system. I pressed my ass back against his cock, trying to force him to take me, to end my loneliness.

“No.” He stepped back and I swayed on my knees as his voice circled me. “Tell me what you need, Hannah.”

“I don’t know.”

His hand was suddenly at the back of my neck, forcing my face to the bed. Ass in the air, he held me there as I squirmed, fighting his hold with my hands locked at the small of my back. One hard strike on my naked ass and the first tear fell from my eyes to soak the dark red satin.

“Tell me what you want.” His hand rubbed the tender spot where he’d just struck me. “But don’t forget to address me properly, mate. What do you call me?”

“Master.”

“Very good.” One hand at the back of my head, the other he moved to spear my ass with two rough fingers. I cried out as he spoke again. “Tell me what you want.”

“I don’t know, master.” It was a lie, a bald-faced, full-out lie, but I didn’t trust him, not yet. Not. Yet.

“Oh, my sweet little mate. You’re lying to me.” I shuddered as he finger fucked my slick and well trained ass. He lifted his hand from my head and stood. A few seconds later I felt totally empty as he slid his fingers from my ass and left me on the bed with my arms tied behind me and my ass up in the air. “Do not move, mate, or your punishment will be much, much worse.”

Frowning, I tried to imagine what his punishment would be, but was quickly distracted by something solid on the inside of my right ankle. A heavy strap was tied around it. Once that was secure, Zane moved to my left side and pulled my legs wider, strapping something between my ankles.

Oh, shit. A spreader bar. I couldn’t close my legs, couldn’t kick or fight or squirm. The idea flooded my pussy with heat and made my breasts achy and heavy where they hung down. I couldn’t see Zane, but I could hear him moving around the room. The anticipation, not knowing what was coming next made me force the air in and out of my lungs in short bursts.

With no warning, Zane lifted my hips and slid some kind of hard cushion beneath them that lifted me enough to take most of the weight off my knees. I wouldn’t be able to lie flat or pull away from him. I tried to bend my knees, to lift my feet a bit, but discovered that they were tied down.

I’d never been this vulnerable before. Ever. My heart raced as panic started to form in a cold, dark pit in my gut. What if he hurt me? What if I wanted to get up, needed to get away, and he wouldn’t allow it? What if he fucked me and left me here for hours, or days? Would the alien technology in my body keep me alive if he left me here?

They were stupid thoughts. Zane had never been anything but courteous and caring. Demanding and curt, but never cruel. But that didn’t matter right now, not to my heart or my body, both of which were working themselves into a full on panic.

God, what was my safeword? The word that would make it all stop?

Lemonade.
Did I want to stop him now? I’d asked for this and he hadn’t hurt me, not yet. If I stopped him, then what? Then what?

I wanted him to—God, I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what to do or think or feel. I squirmed on the cushion, tried to roll over so I could move. I needed—

“Do not move, mate. Not one inch, or you will feel the sting of my crop.”

And just that fast the panic left me and I froze in place, grateful that he had taken the choice from me. He placed one huge hand on my hip and traced the curve of my ass and hip, my waist and shoulder as he made his way to my hands. With a soft tug he secured them a couple of inches above my spine, forcing my shoulders down into the bedding if I didn’t want to wrench my shoulders out of place. I could stay like this for a long time, but not if I fought, not if I tried to lift up off the bed.

I was well and truly trapped now, and so fucking hot for him I could barely think. The dildo stretching my pussy was big, but it wasn’t moving, just torturing me with what I didn’t have—his cock pounding in and out of me.