Page 16 of Hunted

“Quinn.”

“I want to kiss you.”

God yes. Kiss me. I nodded at the doctor behind him. “Alright. And then you go to medical.”

“Then I make you mine,” he growled.

Before I could reply to that, his lips crushed mine, stealing my breath, my sanity. His touch made my body burn, and I had to use every ounce of discipline I had to raise a hand from his back and signal the doctor to get in close, inject him, knock him out.

I knew the moment it was done, for Quinn sagged against me, our lips still touching. As his knees buckled, his eyes opened and he held my gaze. A hand covered the injection spot on his neck. “You’re going to get a spanking for this.”

I laughed again. God help me, he was charming. And that was fucking hot. No one had spanked me—not as a child for punishment—or as an adult for play. Ever. But the idea of Quinn doing it? My panties were ruined.

First, he needed a thorough medical exam, some time in a ReGen pod. He needed to heal, and if he were like any other male alien in the universe when discovering he had a mate, he wasn’t going to be distracted. He was mine, and I was going to take care of him whether he wanted me to or not. Whether I got a spanking for it or not.

I smiled as the doctor caught him from behind and the transport officer came around to help carry my mate to the medical station. He grinned at me, awake but sedated, his body collapsing before his mind. He stared, and those amber eyes were filled with a dark vow.

I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop the naughty side of me from taunting him.

“Promises, promises, mate.”

He kept smiling as they carried him away. I was grinning like an idiot, replaying the entire scene in my mind, when Commander Karter entered the transport room.

“Vice Admiral.” His voice boomed. “What the fuck is going on? And how did you get on my battleship?”

* * *

Two hours later

Quinn – Medical Unit

Even before I opened my eyes, I knew where I was, the all too familiar scent of the interior of a ReGen pod filling my head with dozens of memories I had no desire to relive. Still, it was better than that underground prison I’d been trapped in. I was naked, but the stench of the Nexus and his torments were gone. I had no doubt the doctor had examined every molecule in my body, searching for Hive technology, trying to assess the danger I might present to the crew.

And I was different. The buzzing in

my mind was gone, but my body felt hyper-aware, every pressure point on the healing bed acutely present in my senses. The scent of the cleansing solution used on Coalition ships. The feminine allure of my mate somewhere close.

This was far from the first time I’d awakened inside a ReGen pod, but this time was unique. This time she was here. I felt her, heard her heartbeat, her voice as she and Commander Karter spoke intensely on the other side of the pod.

The fact that she’d remained by my side made my heart race. My mate was no ordinary female. She was a vice admiral in the Coalition Fleet and far outranked me. Based on her movements and her speech, I assumed she was human, from Earth… and yet that did not feel quite right.

Her scent reminded me of home, of Everis, and I wondered if she was from my world instead. Perhaps she had spent time hunting on Earth and picked up their customs and language. Everian Hunters were masters at blending in, mimicking accents, mannerisms, the multitude of indescribable details that made one stand out as other.

If she were Everian, and not human, then I wondered which Elite Hunter had sired her. Was her father a legend on my home world, or an unknown?

Not that I cared about her history. I couldn’t care less where she had been in the past, as long as she was with me now. But I was a predator with an insatiable curiosity, a curiosity that she stirred more strongly than anything ever had before. I wanted to know everything about her. Every. Single. Detail. From birth to this moment.

She was mine.

The clear lid lifted automatically and both my mate and Commander Karter came over. I sat up, wiped a hand over my face.

“How do you feel?” the commander asked.

My mate’s gaze raked over my body. Every bare inch. And, of course, that made me hard.

“Get this man a sheet,” the commander shouted, waving his arm. He’d seen that my cock hadn’t been injured and probably wasn’t thrilled to have a conversation with me with it right out there.

I couldn’t help it. My mate was before me. Unclaimed.

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