Page 21 of The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate

Typical, Mia thought as she steered the conversation back to work and the fate of their friends. They had just decided to venture into the ship in search of Kira when the door opened and Zoran appeared.

He nodded respectfully to Leona, then held his hand out to Mia. “We have arrived.”

Mia’s stomach did a long, slow roll, whether in dread or excitement, she couldn’t tell. She swallowed once and scooted off the stool Leona had abandoned for her.

The other woman pushed off the bed and stood, one hand catching Mia’s. “Don’t worry so much,” Leona said softly. “There’s a way out. We just have to find it.”

Mia was very much afraid she already knew what she was going to have to do. She just wished she weren’t looking forward to it so much. “Don’t be so hard on Lorik.”

Leona winked. “I intend for him to be very hard before I’m through with him.”

Mia groaned and rolled her eyes, then she quit putting off the inevitable and stepped into the hallway and Zoran’s grasp.

Chapter Six

Zoran stood on the bridge, his arms crossed over his chest. Strictly speaking, his presence was not needed, but he had been unable to resist the urge to share the view of Zephyria with his mate.

She stood beside him, her eyes wide as she studied the viewscreen projecting a real-time view of their approach. The planet was a circular mass of swirling clouds, shrouding the oceans and land masses beneath green-tinged gray. Jagged streaks of lightning flashed through the clouds, and Mia gasped.

“It looks like a hurricane,” she said quietly. “Will we be able to land?”

“Yes.” He stroked a palm down the length of her silky hair, to soothe the tremor in her voice. To comfort her and the mating instinct rumbling steadily inside him. “I will allow no harm to befall you.”

She huffed out a nervous breath, but said nothing.

When the instinct stretched taut within him and he feared losing control of it, he lifted her against his chest and carried her back to his quarters. She’d gone silent against him, stiff, one small hand curled into a fist against his heart. Carefully, he locked the hatch behind him, all too aware of the roar in his blood, of the need clamoring at him.

“What are you going to do?” she said, and the smallness of her voice, the fear trembling through her, allowed him to wrest control over the mating instinct and force it down.

“You have been given sufficient time,” he said, nearly hating the gruff need roughening his voice.

“But I’m not…” She sucked in a breath. “I’m not ready yet.”

“This do I know. Yet the choice must be made.” He strode to the bed and laid her gently upon it, then covered her body with his own, bracing himself above her so as not to crush her fragile form. “Will you accept the mating mark?”

Her blue eyes widened and her starkly white teeth nibbled her lower lip. “No sex?”

His hips jerked against her core at the word, and he forced them into stillness. “The mating mark only.”

“Explain it to me.”

Lying as he was, cradled by her body, with the mating instinct roaring in his ears, he was uncertain whether he could find the words. “Easier to show.”

Her gaze searched his, then finally she nodded jerkily. “Ok. Show me.”

Triumph rumbled through him, satisfying the instinct enough to dull its insistent roar. Slowly, Zoran lowered his head to the crook of her neck and pressed his teeth against her skin, gently at first, hesitantly awaiting her reaction. She gasped and rolled her head to the side, her hands sliding along his shoulders, and his hips found their own rhythm, rocking against her in an age-old mating dance, seeking her warmth through the layers of their clothing. He nipped her skin, eliciting another gasp, then dug his fangs in, breaking the skin as gently as he could. Even as she yelped a protest, her blood coated his tongue, enough to serve the mating bond.

Still, he could not resist running his tongue over her neck, cleaning every drop of the precious fluid from her skin, swallowing some of her down so that in this small way, she would forever become a part of him. Already, the mating bond twined through his blood, cementing the connection, binding him to her, and the sheer thrill of knowing his mate pulsed through his veins, sharpening his arousal to a fever pitch.

Before he lost himself in her taste, before need overrode honor, he withdrew and pressed her face to his throat. “Now you.”

“I don’t know if I can,” she whispered, her frantic breaths fluttering against his skin.

“You must,” he insisted.

As if his words had given her courage, she bit him hard, breaking his skin with her dull little teeth. His cock pulsed, growing impossibly hard beneath his skinsuit, and he growled his pleasure, praising her with words grown thick with need.

Swiftly, he shifted above her and pressed his lips against hers, and as their blood mingled, the bond snapped into place, forever joining them as one.

---