Page 52 of The Commanders' Mate

“It could have been worse, and we both know it.” Her voice softened. “You okay? How badly are you hurt?”

“Few busted ribs. A bit singed. Nothing a good ReGen wand won’t fix.”

“Thank god. I could not deal with Erica if I’d let anything happen to you.”

I didn’t argue and we traveled the rest of the way back to the Karter in companionable silence.

I drifted to sleep, vaguely aware of Chloe going through landing procedures and flight checks before entering the Karter’s landing bay. The sounds of cheering and celebration woke me seconds before the airlock door that separated the pilot from the back of her ship opened and Chloe was standing over me with a grin on her face. “You want to greet your adoring fans flat on your back?”

What?

Hell no.

I struggled to stand and she helped me, pulling just hard enough to help me up without destroying my last shred of dignity. “Thanks, Chloe. You saved my life.”

She squeezed my hand and placed her other on the airlock door controls. “You saved all of us.”

One swipe and the door opened. Outside, a crowd had gathered. When they saw me, a deafening roar went up. Children screamed and clapped from where they sat atop their fathers’ shoulders. Females beamed and their warrior mates held up a raised fist in a warrior’s silent salute.

I’d gone from anonymous, dead both inside and out, to this.

Smiling with joy, tears streaming down her face, my mate stood at the very front of the crowd next to Kaed, both of them watching with pride in their eyes as I walked down the small ramp to join them on the ground. I stood, facing my mate, the connection between our collars intense and magnified now that she and Kaed were close to me.

I staggered into Kaed, who caught me without anyone noticing.

“Fucking unbelievable, isn’t it?” he whispered to me. I didn’t know how he was still standing under the onslaught of Erica’s emotions.

Love. So fucking strong and hot and right that I could not breathe with the force of it.

Hurting, slow, I pulled Erica into my arms and held her. Nothing had ever felt so right as Kaed’s arms encircled us both. This was everything I’d fought for. Everything I’d killed for.

Just, everything.

The crowd closed around us, Chloe holding Christopher as her mates and daughter surrounded her, everyone singing an ancient Prillon warriors’ song at the top of their lungs, one usually reserved for drunken revelry after a particularly tough and bloody battle. It was a song about honor and sacrifice and family, and for the first time in my life, tears clogged my eyes as I sang the words. For the first time in my life, I knew what those words meant.

15

Karter, Battleship Karter, Personal Quarters

* * *

We were alone with Erica. Finally. I had to be the first Prillon to ever have a mating ceremony—albeit modified—in the midst of a battle with the Hive. I’d always believed that when the time came, I’d stake my claim on my mate in public Now, I had no intention of fucking her in front of the others.

But thinking about it in the hypothetical sense was nothing compared to having a real female I cared about, stripping her bare and letting everyone see not only her body but her pleasure… no fucking way.

Erica was mine. She wanted to be mine. Didn’t want to have a formal claiming. I’d thought it might have been shyness. Yet with Ronan and I, she was insatiable and sexy. But when the collar was about her neck and I felt her emotions, her thoughts… fears, dreams, arousal, fears, passions, I’d known instantly I’d been right.

Our mate wanted her primary and second only. No one else. Her devotion and desire were solely for us. They always had been, even before we knew she was ours. She’d embraced the match wholeheartedly… literally with her whole heart, from the second the testing on Earth was complete. She’d trusted in it so intensely that she left everything she knew for mates halfway across the galaxy.

And that trust was like a delicate Prillon flower, something to covet and protect, admire and nurture. With anything Prillon, the flower was sturdier than it looked. It could withstand strong wind, horrible weather and survive.

Erica’s trust was enduring and gods, we’d put it through some tests. Sensing the depth of her feelings for me and Ronan, I now realized how much of an idiot I’d been. I should have collared her the second she’d transported onto the Varsten. Made her mine immediately, for I was the lucky one to have her. To be her mate. To be her primary.

I looked to Ronan, finally cleaned up and healed after what seemed like days but was only a few hours. The ReGen wand had worked its magic, healing his ribs and the burns along his back quickly and efficiently. Eager to join us in bed, he’d been in and out of the shower in record time.

Now, he held her hand as he led her into the bedroom of our quarters. He’d just come from a mission, from blowing up the most destructive Hive weapon yet, and he looked at peace. Happy.

Not just looked it, felt it. I sensed all of the stress and intensity of the past few hours were gone. He’d agreed we carried too much with us. Too much responsibility. But here, in this room with Erica, it all slipped away.

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