Page 9 of Rathgar

Is he about to start throwing punches? He wouldn’t dare, right?

They face off for another few tense seconds, then she takes the tablet and makes a big show of tapping through the test results. Her mouth drops open. She looks up to Rathgar, then back to me. “Impossible.”

Rathgar crosses his arms. “You see? I’m right.”

I can’t hold my silence any longer. They’re standing here fighting over me like I’m some prize to be won, not a living, breathing, human being. “Um, hello.” I wave at them. “Right here.”

Orvox turns to me, her icy expression melting instantly back into the doting caretaker. “He’s correct,” she says at last. “You can see for yourself.” Orvox flicks through a few screens and holds the tablet in front of my face, but all I see is a bunch of graphs and labels in a foreign language. I have no idea how to read it.

“There’s got to be a mistake or something, right?” I know it’s not likely, but it’s my last chance not to be stuck with him for the next year. “Something you read or interpreted wrong?”

Rathgar’s still standing there, glowering past Orvox at me. She’s the only thing between us. She’s the only thing keeping him from pouncing, and for a split second of insanity, I almost wish he would.

“I’m sorry, Miss Michaels. The data doesn’t lie. Based on the available candidates in our database, Rathgar’s genetic material forms the closest match with your own. You’ve also been matched based on psychographic factors as well.”

The words run together in my head. I’m not really listening to the details — all I’m hearing is that this is it.

This growly, mean brute of an alpha is my assigned mate. And I’ve never wanted anyone so badly in my life.

Heaven help me.

If he thinks I’m going to stand down and be his pretty little omega, he’s got another thing coming. I cross my arms and stare at him, trying to match his ferocity and failing.

“Well. You heard her.” I jut my chin upward in challenge. My body aches in a way I never knew possible. Conflicting thoughts war in my head.

I hate him. I want to tear his clothes off. He’s an asshole. I want to feel his arms around me. He’s the last man on Aesirheim I’d want to mate with. I want his thick cock filling me deep, satisfying an itch I never knew I had…

My face flushes, but I stand firm. Rathgar stares back at me, teeth bared into a snarl.

“Orvox,” I snap at the woman standing between us. “Show me where the cottages are. We have some business to attend to.” I pause on the word ‘business’, making sure he sees me say it.

Rathgar takes a step toward me. “Now wait just a minute—“

I know I shouldn’t, but my blood’s already hot and my filter’s totally gone. “What’s the matter? Scared?” I snort. “Either be an alpha and get us out of here, or I’ll find someone who will.”

Everything happens so fast after that. The tension in the air snaps like a gunshot and Rathgar lunges for me, sidestepping Orvox just in time. His thick golden arms wrap around my waist and with a shriek, I’m in the air.

He holds me like I weigh nothing. Like I’m nothing more than cargo. Draped over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, he snarls at Orvox in their language until she hands him a keycard. With that in hand, the doors swish open once more.

The ground jolts and twists. Everything’s upside down, and from this vantage all I can see is the muscled planes of his back working with every long stride. That, and the taut, shapely curve of his ass.

I should feel ashamed, humiliated. Being slung over this big brute’s shoulder and taken like an animal. But despite all logic, his rough treatment only turns me on more. My skin tingles at his touch, and all I can think as he bodily carries me out of the center is that I want more.

SLICK SPANKING

RATHGAR

How dare Janie. She comes to my planet and starts to make comments about my status? If she were anyone else, I’d have her head. But somehow, her feistiness stirs a fire inside me I’d long forgotten.

It’s similar to the thrill of battle, but warmer. More intimate. My heart beats in time with each twitch of my hardening cock as I sling her over my shoulder. Gods, she’s so tiny. I can carry her with one arm, no problem.

She’s screaming and flailing and kicking. It’s cute, actually. That she thinks she actually has a chance against me.

Be an alpha and get us out of here, or I’ll find someone who will.

The words ring in my head as I take sure, ample strides out of the center and back to the hitching post. People stare and whisper as we pass, but I pay them no mind.

Let them.

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