Page 4 of Viken Command

The warden cleared her throat and got back to the business at hand—sending me into space.

“I’m going to stop your questioning there and get back to you. I am pleased to tell you that the system has made a successful match and you will be sent to a member planet. As a bride, you might never return to Earth, as all travel will be determined and controlled by your new planet’s laws and customs. You will surrender your citizenship of Earth and become an official citizen of your new world.”

Tears came to my eyes. I hadn’t cried in months, not since I’d fi

rst learned about what my father and brother had done. I’d used my tears up. But now? Knowing I wasn’t coming back to Earth, that I had a fresh start somewhere else? Where I could be me and maybe learn to trust again, to find people who weren’t sociopaths who had zero empathy or morals.

I blinked them away.

“Works for me.”

“There is no coming back, Miss Mason. Per Protocol 6.2.7a, we can’t force you to remain with someone incompatible, regardless of how accurate your test. You will have thirty days to decide if the primary candidate is acceptable. If you are not satisfied with your mate, you will be assigned another mate on that world and transferred. You will have thirty days to accept or reject each candidate until you settle down with a mate from your matched planet.”

A return policy. “As long as I’m not coming back here, I’m totally fine with that.”

She stood and held out her arm. “Good. Then if you’ll settle back into the testing chair once again.”

I glanced at the dentist-chair lookalike. Was I going to get that orgasm I so desperately wanted? I did as she requested, and with a swipe of her finger across her tablet, the restraints were back in place.

“For your safety,” she explained. Once I settled, she continued. “For the record, Miss Mason, you have been assigned to a mate per testing protocols and will be transported off-planet, never to return to Earth. Do you understand this and accept the match?”

Why was she confirming this three times? Did other women freak out at this point? Did they not realize why they’d walked through the center’s doors? “Yes.”

The chair tipped back then, and I looked up and saw the wall behind me open. The testing chair slid, as if on a track, right into the newly revealed space on the other side of the wall. The tiny room was small and glowing with a series of bright blue lights. The chair lurched to a stop, and a robotic arm with a large needle slid silently up to my neck.

“Don’t be alarmed. It is the NPU that will allow you to process other languages.”

I winced as the oversized needle pierced my skin, then all I felt was a slight tingling at the injection site. A sense of lethargy and contentment made my body go limp as I was lowered into a bath of warm blue liquid. I was so warm, so numb…

“Just try to relax, Miss Mason.” Her finger swiped her tablet, and her voice drifted to me as if from far, far away. “Your processing will begin in three… two… one…”

2

Captain Alarr, Trixon Pleasure Resort, Planet Viken

I watched the other two pace and crack their knuckles in anger just outside of Doctor Helion’s view. His face filled my comm screen, and his scowl was ever-present, even from thousands of light-years away. I’d contacted him the moment I’d received word of my match, and we’d been speaking in circles for the past few minutes. Doctor Helion was our commander on this mission and our only I.C. contact. He also had absolutely no sympathy and no respect for the sacred right of a male to protect his mate and family.

None.

Fuck.

“Listen, Helion—” I began, trying to get it through his hard head that I wasn’t going to risk my mate, and she hadn’t even arrived yet. But she would. Soon. My perfect, matched mate would arrive at this remote location by transport today. I didn’t even know her name, yet I was ruthlessly protective. So were Oran and Teig, which was exactly why I’d chosen them to help me care for her.

“Commander or Doctor, Captain Alarr,” Helion said, cutting me off.

He was all business, and that usually worked well when we were on a mission, especially like the one the three of us were on now, on our home world of Viken. We’d arrived months ago and were embedded so deeply undercover that it took the arrival of my Interstellar Bride to help us remember that we were supposed to be the good guys.

“Viken may be in another solar system, but you are still under my command,” Doctor Helion continued. “As are your companions, Oran and Teig.”

He assumed they were listening. Of course, he did. And he wasn’t wrong. He rarely was.

“You all belong to me. Sworn in and signed. A bride’s arrival is… untimely, but you have a mission to complete. I don’t care if the goddess herself shows up on Viken, you will do your jobs and report back to me when it’s done.”

Gritting my teeth, I remained seated, staring down the Prillon warrior on the other side of the comm screen. I only had a few minutes to state my case, to make him understand. Word had arrived that I’d been matched through the testing program less than an hour ago. I’d had to track down Oran and Teig and get to our quarters to make this secret comms call.

Maintaining the comm connection for much longer would risk revealing ourselves to the enemy, risk them potentially tracking this communication back to Intelligence Core Command, and learning we weren’t just part of the resort’s security force. And then we’d all be dead. Me. Oran. Teig.

And my mate.

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