our interlocked fingers. I felt Ryston’s satisfaction through our connection. How could he be so content with the situation and Maxim so disappointed in me at the same time?
“Ah, I see,” Maxim said, his voice losing all the harsh edges. For once, it was soft and smooth, quiet even.
“See what?” I asked, a snap in my voice.
“The collars share our feelings too well, don’t they?” Maxim asked, stroking his knuckles down my cheek, then sliding back and forth over the damn collar. I felt that, not just against my skin, but through my emotions. Maxim’s anger and rising lust. Ryston’s longing and envy at his touch.
“Our bond, the connection between us, is very intense. It will take some time, but you will begin to filter our emotions. For now, know I am not angry or frustrated with you, mate. I am angry at the doctor’s strict adherence to the rules. I am angry at myself for being a hypocrite. I am also upset with myself for not taking care of you and your basic needs, such as providing you with clothing and comfort. Ryston.”
He only said his second’s name, nothing more, and the man went ahead of us down the hall and around a corner out of sight.
Maxim stared down into my eyes, his sincerity and desire to make me happy coming through the collar loud and clear. “Being a mate is new to me. I am sorry for my shortcomings. Ryston will have clothes ready for you in our suite of rooms. In the meantime—”
He picked me up into his arms and carried me down the hall. I gripped his shoulders, afraid of falling, but I shouldn’t have bothered. I felt dwarfed in his hold, his firm embrace. He wasn’t going to let me fall. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to me. I sensed it in him. When I relaxed, I knew he sensed my trust and pleasure at his care as easily as I had sensed his frustration moments ago.
“In the meantime, I’m to roam the base naked?”
Maxim looked down at me with his dark eyes as he continued to walk. “While you can sense my feelings, do not doubt that I can sense yours. Arousal is pulsing from your collar to mine, and Ryston’s. Because of this, I feel I can be bold. You will remain naked when you are in bed with me.” Something shifted in his gaze and I felt a burst of heat, of longing through the collar. Yes, he was aroused too. I gasped at the quick flare, my clit pulsing. “Or against the wall, lying on the table with your legs spread wide, on your knees before me. Between me and Ryston. How would you like to be taken?”
His voice shifted from dark command to rough need. Images of being between the two warriors made my nipples harden and my pussy grow wet. I wanted that. It made no sense. These two were strangers from a strange planet and yet I wanted them with a fierceness I’d never known before. Oh yes, I wanted them, and based on the desire coming from my mate, I’d have them. Soon.
Maxim
Rachel was light as air in my arms, yet heat coursed through me everywhere our bodies touched. How something as soft and fragile as this female could hold such strength, implacable will, was a wonder I wasn’t not sure I would ever understand.
Yet, when she rested her head against my shoulder and relaxed in my arms, I felt like a conqueror of worlds.
The collars we all wore linked us together with an intimate telepathic bond I had heard about but could not have imagined. Such strong emotions coursed through me, and not just my own. My mate’s. Ryston’s. Their reactions to my feelings created a loop that rubbed me raw and made me vulnerable in a way I hadn’t felt since I was a very young boy.
Rachel rested against me and I hurried my pace through the long, empty corridors. The dark green striping along the base of the wall and in the center of the floor gave way to a dark orange and that faded to a subtle cream once we reached the living quarters of the base. The suite of rooms I now entered was new to all three of us. Prior to my mating, I’d lived in a small, two-room area above Base 3’s command center so I could be close to the action if the need arose.
But now I was grateful for the much larger living area. When the door slid open and I carried my mate inside for the first time, contentment settled over me. I set Rachel down on her feet and let her wander around the room, exploring the space.
Our new home. For the first time since I’d been banished to The Colony, I felt like I had a home. A family.
Her gaze flicked to mine, once, then again. Could she sense my feelings through her collar? The soft smile that she gave me as she glanced at me over her shoulder after peeking into the bedroom said she could. It was reassuring to know that she could understand me—as much as anyone could a governor of a banished group of warriors.
Rachel’s hand smoothed over the back of a large brown sofa. There were two in the room, settled facing one another. A workspace and chair were near the comm screen that was nearly as tall as my bride. In the far corner of the room, the S-Gen unit sat, waiting to answer my mate’s every command, to create anything she desired. And if she wanted something that had not been programmed into our system, I would find a way to get it for her.
Anything. I would give her anything.
A small dining area was off to the side, but most took their meals in the common rooms and cafeterias, meals often the only time many interacted with others during their workday. And The Colony warriors did work. We ran some of the deepest, most dangerous mines in the solar system. We monitored Hive activity and fed intel on all member worlds back to Prillon. We were analysts and builders, programmers and battle-hardened commanders. We planned battle strategy and monitored the front lines for shifts in Hive strategy. And we had every scientist, doctor and engineer on the planet working on a way to get rid of the implants that scarred us. That made us unfit. That denied us brides. Families. Lives outside this forsaken world.
But now, with my mate walking around our new home with curious eyes, everything inside me shifted.
When I first put the collar on when I heard I’d been officially matched, I’d felt no change. Only the physical symbol of a match occurring was heavy about my neck. When Ryston donned his, I sensed his pride in being my second, at the collar’s confirmation and permanence of the decision. He was eager to meet our mate as well. I’d been able to filter his feelings and emotions from mine. They weren’t a heavy burden to carry along with my own. Perhaps it was because we were both male, or that we were warriors together, or even that we were Prillon. A similar history, a similar sense of tradition, rules and custom.
When Rachel affixed the collar about her neck in the processing center on Earth, accepting both of us as her matched mates, was something else entirely. It was as if I was being held down by the Hive, my emotions, my feelings, hell, my brain being tugged and pulled on.
The sensation of absorbing a mate’s wants and desires, her fears and disappointments was powerful and had my cock turning rock hard in an instant. The need to sink balls deep into her had been immediate and intense.
But that had been dampened when every bit of her frustration at her incarceration, her innocence and her need to prove it hit me next. That was followed by her indecisiveness of becoming our mate and leaving Earth.
What the fuck? I’d known she had refused the match, but she’d been in a prison, with bars. No freedom. I would save her from that as I’d saved Ryston and others from the Hive’s captivity.
It was all there, her emotions and anger, in my head, bombarding me and knocking on my defenses.
As
