Page 4 of The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate

Though every cell in his body urged Zoran to chase after his mate, he carried the female to the door and laid her gently beside it, where she would not be hurt, in deference to both her femaleness and to her future mate, whomever he might be. Quickly, Zoran retrieved a restraint band and secured it around her wrist, then activated it. The ship’s medical team would retrieve her, leaving Zoran free to continue tracking down the other females on their list.

Hisfemale first. Her scent lingered where she’d stood beside the other two females. He strode back to that spot and inhaled deeply, absorbing the scents eddying around him, sorting them instinctively. The third female had run ahead of his, down the same corridor to the left. His tracker could pinpoint them, but he knew their scents now. They could not escape him.

Zoran broke into a slow jog, following their scents, one light and floral, the other, his female’s, subtly sensual. The scents broke apart at the end of the hallway. The other female’s disappeared at a heavy door to his right.

Later, he vowed.

His female’s scent continued forward. Zoran pushed through a door leading outside, then stalked down a walkway and entered a strange, arced building made of an unknown green material. The air inside felt blessedly muggy after the exterior’s dryness, almost like the jungles of home, and Zoran’s shoulders relaxed under his skinsuit.

He sniffed once, testing the air, and caught the scents of soil, chemicals, and growing things. Buried among those scents was a hint of something else, an alluring smell that made his muscles tense and his cock twitch beneath his armor.

His female.

He bared his teeth in a challenging grin and let the building’s door flap closed behind him. “Here, littlekikla. You cannot hide forever.”

A gasp filtered to him, scarcely audible above the two fans humming at either end of the building. The gasp had come from the far side, somewhere beyond the central raised row of seedlings. Zoran stalked toward it and spotted a sliver of white cloth peeking from behind a stack of soil sacks, under another rack of seedlings.

Without hesitation, he batted the soil aside and squatted beside the female crouched under the rack. Dark, untidy hair surrounded a narrow face and her Earth-blue eyes shone wide and afraid as she looked up at him.

Pleasure rumbled in him. The mating chase had ended with him victorious, as it should.

With one claw-tipped hand, he snagged the female’s ankle and dragged her out of her hidey hole into his arms. She struggled briefly, and he tightened his grip, suppressing her resistance.

Foolish female. She could not win against him.

He buried his face against her throat, nearly lost to the haze of amazement and need surging through him. She felt so small against him. Yet her heat warmed him and her curves seemed to fit snugly into the planes of his much larger body. Holding her felt good. It felt right, as if part of him had been missing and had now returned to him.

He licked her throat, needing to taste her, to memorize every aspect of this fascinating gift he’d been given. “Mine,” he growled softly, unable to resist the urge to claim her in some way, though time was short and he had other females to capture.

The female gasped and squirmed, her struggles evoking the most delicious heat within him. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”

Her voice sounded sweet and musical even through the implanted translator Thorian had developed for them. Sweet, musical, anddefiant.

Zoran groaned, fighting the urge to strip off her clothing and bury his cock in her. Had to get her back to the ship. Had to lock her away before the others saw her and tried to stake a claim.My female, that inner instinct rumbled, and Zoran stroked his horn against her temple.

Never would he give her up.

Quickly, he drew back long enough to administer the sedative Nyklan had devised specifically for subduing the human breeders. His female’s eyes widened as the thin mist eddied around her face. She coughed once, then her eyelids fluttered closed, and she slumped in his arms.

He cradled her to his chest, mindful of her slightness. Such a precious, fragile creature his female was. Such a wonderful fighter, unlike the sniveling bureaucrats who had betrayed them.

Perhaps Nyklan was right. Perhaps these human females were stronger than they appeared.

Claim her.

Zoran shook free of the mating haze and surged to his feet, carefully arranging her over his shoulder. The mating instinct might be strong, but his need to save his people, to atone for the sins of his past, was stronger still. It had to be, or they would not survive.

He checked the tracker again, marked this female off the list, then returned to the hallway and caught the other female’s scent. The sooner he and the other warlords retrieved the chosen females, the sooner they could leave, and the sooner he could begin wooing the female he’d caught and claimed as his own.

Chapter Two

Mia came to gradually. Her first awareness was of a strange dizziness, almost like vertigo, as if she were detached from the world and it spun wildly around her. She focused on her breathing for a moment, and when that didn’t help, curled her fingers into the fabric beneath her, using it as an anchor. The chaotic whirling stopped abruptly, and she sighed.

There. That was better.

She risked opening her eyes a slit, and when the dizziness remained at bay, opened them wider. The space around her appeared to be a bedroom, if the bed she lay on served as any kind of clue. It was wide enough for two people, barely, and covered in a soft gray sheet.

The bed, small though it was, occupied a full quarter of the room. At its foot rested a black trunk. A shelf to the open side of the bed held a few random objects she couldn’t identify and looked as if it could be folded into the wall, judging by the indentation in the wall itself. Despite the spartan nature of the room, the walls were white tinted with soft swirls of soothing colors. The floor, on the other hand, was a stark black and looked like bare metal.

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