Page 78 of Tempting Jupiter
His eyes closed. “You’ve had it all this time.” He wasn’t asking, but he hadn’t tackled her to the floor either.
“Yes.”
He opened his eyes and shook his head. “Thank you for telling me.” He reached for her hand and wove their fingers together. “But you’re not giving it to Owens.”
“If there’s no other way, I will. I’m not letting anything happen to Jupiter or to you.”
“Jupiter wouldn’t want you to save him that way.”
She acknowledged that truth with a nod. “Last resort.”
She picked up the collar they’d designed for him and fastened it around his neck.
Sen tugged in a futile attempt to adjust it. It was never going to be comfortable. “You should just…erase the data now.”
“Is that what you want me to do?” She bit one lip between her teeth as she waited for his answer.
He was silent a moment and she knew she had him.
“No.” He squeezed her hand.
“Good,” she let her lips curve the barest fraction. “Because I’m keeping the coordinates and I’ll use them if I have to.”
“It won’t come to that.”
“We’ll make sure it doesn’t,” she agreed. “But if it does…”
Sen met her gaze with hard resolve bright in his lavender eyes. “We save Jupiter.”
Chapter Thirty
TheAbundance
EarthAllianceBetaSector
2210.190
Jupiter stood in a gilded cage, wearing little more than a cloth draped around his hips. The only consolation was that Creek was dressed the same. All the better for the bidders to look them over. Creek had been a surprise. The Arena Dog had already been in Morgan St. Germaine’s slave hold when he’d arrived. It had taken days just to get the Dog to speak to him. Creek still hadn’t explained how he’d gotten off Roma except to say, “same as you, I expect.” He hadn’t identified his House. Wouldn’t speak of it at all. There were several Owners of Roma, each with his or her own training house and each with different specialties. Today, all his questions were set aside. Today, they shared the same circumstance and on the subject of St. Germaine’s guests, they agreed. The humans there were disgusting. So far, they’d done a good job of scaring most of them away.
His first sight of Feeona sucked the air from his lungs and drove all the blood in his body to his loins. Then it all came crashing back to his heart, pounding with fear. He’d half hoped she wouldn’t come for him. He didn’t want her anywhere near the slaver. His senses reassured him that Seneca was with her even though he couldn’t see his pack brother.
“I take it that change in your scent means the female came as you said she would.” The normally stoic Creek stepped up to stand at his shoulder. He barked a low, brief sound of interest. “Thatis your human?”
Jupiter couldn’t stop the growl that vibrated up from his chest. Instinct screamed that he didn’t want Creek looking at Fee. Especially not as she looked now. The velvet black dress she wore clung to her curves and showed off her gold-dusted, caramel skin. The dress clung to her breasts as if by magic. Two slender strips of cloth twisted down from the top to connect to a skirt that hung from her hips and barely covered the curve of her ass. A gem sparkled in her navel. It matched the gem studded pins in her hair. She’d tamed the mahogany mass into an intricate design atop her head. A sparkly strip of smoky amber spread across her eyes, but that and the gold across her shoulders was the only makeup she’d worn. Without the chemical she’d used to cover her skin when they met, he could smell her natural scent across the room.
Mate. Mine.
The mate bond he’d barely accepted before she’d betrayed him, flared through his senses like a jolt from a shock stick. Her scent together with Seneca’s twisted him up inside.
Creek shifted on his feet. “You didn’t tell me your pack brother is a pleasure slave. How is that even possible?”
Jupiter shook his head to clear it and then searched for Seneca. He stood just beyond her shoulder. Jupiter barely recognized him. It wasn’t just the animal that leapt across his muscled torso, covering his body above tight black shorts. It wasn’t the silver circlet that ringed his throat, connecting to a chain that led to Fee’s hand. Or the heavy color lining his lavender eyes, making them look large and exotic. The way he moved, oozing sensuality, the way he averted his eyes in submission, the way he stood a step behind. Jupiter wrapped his hands around the bars of his cage and squeezed. This was a Seneca he’d known about, but never seen.
As the other bidders greeted his Feeona they ogled Seneca and he seemed to bask in their attention. If Jupiter believed Feeona had truly taken Sen back to that abused creature he’d once been, he would have been enraged. He didn’t believe it. Their scents told him what he needed to know. They were equals, working together to free him. He should have been outraged that they would put themselves in danger, and he was. He should have been outraged even more that they would use their bodies to distract and draw the attention of the slaver. Even now the man was smiling delighted at the sight of them across the room. But all Jupiter could think was that he wanted to take them back to Feeona’s ship and have them play out their roles for him. He would fuck them until they couldn’t move.
His pounding heart skipped a beat. The moisture in his mouth dried up like fallen leaves under a brilliant sun. He didn’t just want to fuck Feeona. He wanted to fuck them both. They were his. Both of them. He had not one, but two deceptive, secretive, dangerously sexy mates. He threw back his head and howled. He was aware of the crowded room going silent around him. He let the power of the howl hollow him out and fill him up again. He rolled through it and started again. Seneca’s howl joined his. And then Creek followed. The Dog that claimed no pack howled with them—the sound pulled from him as if he couldn’t resist the call.
Jupiter let the howl fall away, then looked for his mates. Creek stayed blessedly silent. Fee and Sen were making their way through the guests and toward Morgan’s stage. The large room looked very different from the day he’d arrived on the slaver’s ship. Eight male aliens up for auction were shackled and held in place along the silver path. The large green men were barrel-chested with muscular limbs. They had flexible snouts and four eye stalks that moved independently.
