Page 22 of The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate

Mia arched under Zoran, pressing her core into him as something shifted inside her and a sense of rightness filled her, a twin to the need burning in her veins. “Wh-what?” she stuttered out, and he roared and pushed his hips against her, and abruptly, the need burst on a sharp, breathtaking orgasm.

Never so good, she thought, dazed, as his hips jerked against her once more and he breathed her name, then he rubbed the tip of one horn along her temple, murmuring gently to her, his hands caressing her as he rolled onto his back and settled her atop him.

A ship alarm pinged, startling her out of the web of arousal he’d woven around her. His bite mark throbbed once, then the pain faded to a low sting. She placed trembling fingers against it and felt moisture. Blood? Her eyelids slid closed. No, she couldn’t analyze that yet, not with the brilliant euphoria of an orgasm lingering in her limbs.

“What was that?” she said.

His hands smoothed up her arms and down again, and his mouth curved in a small, satisfied smile. “We have arrived.”

“No, not that. The—” She sucked in a breath and pushed herself up, straddling him because there was nowhere left to go. Her limbs felt shaky and weak, she couldn’t stand, and damn his gorgeous hide, he sprawled across the bed, taking up most of its space. “What just happened?”

“We are mated.”

“We’rewhat?” she squawked. “You didn’t say anything about mating!”

His head shifted against the bed and his gaze shuttered. “What else would the mating mark do?”

“Not that!” Heat pinkened her cheeks and she snapped, “Not rutting.”

That satisfied smile deepened, and he sat up, tangling one hand in her hair, leaving the other splayed across her thigh. “That was not rutting,pjora-la. That was mating.”

She slapped at his hand and tried to slither off him, only to have him tighten his grip, keeping her exactly where she was, straddling him with her core pressed against the length of his growing arousal. Keeping her right where he wanted her to be, she realized, and that ticked her off good.

“Oh, honestly!” she snapped. “That’s some nerve you have there, you high-handed, overbearingbarbarian. Itoldyou I wasn’t ready.”

“Yet did you agree when the time came to choose.” He touched his forehead to hers and his breath feathered across her mouth. “Such was necessary, else I would not have been able to walk with you among my people for fear of what the mating instinct would drive me to do. Now every warrior will see this mark upon your throat and know that you have been claimed. Even now, the urge to fully claim you remains strong. To know that you are wet for me, that you have accepted me and me alone. I am already fighting the need to bury myself within you. Do not ask me to risk having another male assert a claim over you.”

Somehow, his words calmed her anger. High-handed he might be, certainlybarbarianwas too light of a word, but in the wake of what he’d done to her, how he’d made her feel…

She shook her head. No, she wasn’t trying to excuse or justify his actions, merely understand the whys of it. She didn’t fully know how his culture worked, let alone the mating bond, but she had gained a certain knowledge of his personality. If he said it was necessary, if he’d done it to protect her and other people, could she really blame him for that?

And yet.

“You should’ve explained better,” she said. “And you definitely shouldn’t have forced it on me.”

He blanched away from her, settling her on the bed as he rolled smoothly off and stood, putting his back to her. His hands clenched into fists at his side, and he bowed his head. When he spoke, his voice was so hard, she flinched. “Ready yourself, female. Mother will be waiting for us at the spaceport.”

He stalked out of the room, and she stared after him, still dazed by the startling pleasure he’d given her, and by his equally startling departure.

Mia didn’t know what to do, so she fell back on an old habit: when in doubt, take a shower.

She stood beneath the warm spray, letting it wash away the tangled knot of emotions whirling through her. First, the lingering anger over Zoran’s forcing the issue, though she’d known he’d do something, hadn’t she? Then that orgasm, dear lord, just about the best one she’d ever had, and wasn’tthata kick in the proverbial teeth? A barbarian he might be, but Zoran sure did know his way around a woman’s body.

She wrinkled her nose and got a mouthful of water for her troubles. The fiend! How dare he use her own body against her?

The question carried an unexpected burst of humor. Leona would tell her to grab the alien by the horns, ride him hard, and put him up wet, or something equally suggestive. In this rare case, Mia was inclined to agree. After all, she’d justmatedthe male, whatever that meant.

She snapped the water off and wrung out her hair. The short shower had done its job, allowing her to find some peace amid the turmoil. It hadn’t been long enough to brainstorm a direction, but she already knew what lay in front of her. Today, she’d see Zephyria for the first time. An alien planet outside her home solar system! Such an exciting day.

And also, she had to meet Zoran’s mother.

But no, she thought as she forced an automatic frown away. Excitement was the order of the day. She and the other women kidnapped from the CAH would be the first humans to step foot on this alien world, the first to breathe the air on a completely alien planet. The very first to sample alien life in a scientific manner.

An all-too-fresh memory of Zoran’s mouth on her throat intruded, and she grimaced as her body reacted predictably. Almost shyly, Mia slid her fingertips over the tight buds of her nipples and down her water-slick stomach to her lady bits. Zoran had touched her there, firmly exploring the folds at the juncture of her thighs. She dipped a finger in, retracing his path, and discovered to her utter shock a longing buried deep within her, not for pleasure, but for belonging. This was what he offered her along with an ecstasy she’d never felt before: a place where she belonged.

She dropped her hand and stepped out of the shower, puzzling over that need, analyzing it as she would any problem she encountered at work. The CAH had given her a home. Not a literal one, no, but a place of comfort. Friends who loved and supported her. A lively group of peers to expand and challenge her intellect. Productive work she deeply cared about, work that would, one day, cure one of humanity’s most enduring problems.

But at the end of the day, she still had to go home to an empty apartment. Her parents had given her one adventure after another, exposing her to the wider world beyond the safety Mia had found at the CAH. Their home during the early years of Mia’s life had been each other. They hadn’t needed a permanent, physical address.

---