Leo

“I’m sorry, Leo. I should have listened to you back on the Karter.” Trinity’s soft admission soothed me as I closed and locked the door to my quarters. I knew for a fact there were no secret passageways in or out of this room. There was no exit or entrance other than the thick door I’d just bolted. And the bolt was heavy. Meant to withstand an assault. A last resort should the guards’ quarters ever be attacked.

Or the next cock-swollen consort who decided he needed to seduce the future queen.

“I know.” I had no doubt the consort was told by Lord Jax to attend to the new princess. But I also knew that many consorts conspired to seduce the matron of his household. Many held more power than all but the head of the house, herself. Rulers were female here, and being welcome in a wealthy patron’s bed was not without additional rewards for the right male. Getting Her Royal Highness, Princess Trinity, to accept him into her bed? It would have been a major boon for the fucking bastard.

Even for the royal consort, Trinity was more than just a job. She always would be. And that was why she needed me. I didn’t care if she wore a crown or a sack. She was mine, and I was in love with her. She’d transported across the galaxy to save her mother and fight for her planet. She’d survived an assassin’s attack, the Ardor, and made it to the citadel. She’d held her head high, walked into her mother’s palace, and faced her cousins who most likely wanted her dead. And she’d done it all without raising her voice or losing her head. She was fearless, strong, in a quiet way. A rock, not the storm.

The labyrinth of dark passageways behind the walls of the main rooms did lead to the guard sleeping area, just as the consort had said. I hadn’t doubted his word, since he knew I was ready to rip off his already bruised balls and shove them down his throat.

When I turned my head and glanced at her, I realized I’d never seen anything so beautiful. My mate with just a sheet wrapped around her, a hand at her breasts holding the ample fabric closed. Her pale shoulders were bare, her blonde hair long and tangled. She looked fuckable, and worried. Her straight teeth bit down into her plump lower lip and her chin was down. Not the regal bearing she usually had. Only with me did she show her true feelings. A princess. And she’s just apologized to the poor son of a soldier.

“Are you mad at me?” Her eyes were round, worried. I’d dragged her the length of the palace wearing nothing but a sheet.

Worse, I’d made her doubt my devotion. My anger at seeing her naked with another male had made her seek to comfort me. It was my job to fix this, to make her happy and whole. She should never doubt my feelings for her. She was my mate. A miracle, if I were being honest with myself. More precious and perfect than I deserved. I had blood on my hands. A lot of blood. Years of war and killing had stained them permanently in my mind.

But she allowed me to touch her anyway, with these scarred, bloody hands. I was the monster guarding the gate, a trained killer, but I was her monster. I served Mytikas. I served the citadel and Queen Celene. But above all, I served Trinity now.

“Mad? Yes. But mate, not with you.”

She sighed and offered me a small smile.

“I admit, I want to go back and rip that consort’s head from his body. Clearly you are irresistible to all males on Alera, and not just me.”

She laughed at that. “He was just doing his job.”

“You are not a job.” I tugged my shirt, lifted it up and over my head. I would not pretend to be the guard sleeping at the door. No. We would now sleep. Together. Where we should have been all fucking along. “Please explain to me why you had your hand on his balls.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to forget that, are you?”

I arched a brow as I settled my hands on my hips. “Would you like to find me naked and in bed with a woman with my fingers buried in her pussy?”

Her lips thinned and her eyes narrowed. I had no interest in another female, she had to know that, especially since she’d brought about my awakening. My cock was hers. She ruled it.

“You have a point.” She spun on her bare foot, glanced around the room, picked up a glass of water and took a drink. “Destiny said—”

“Ah, I can’t wait to hear this one,” I murmured, thinking of the fearless and half-mad female. I’d never met a female more aggressive. If Trinity was solid and steady as a rock, Destiny was the storm that raged against it.

Trinity rolled her eyes again. “Destiny said that when fighting someone, or in self-defense, sometimes you have to recognize you won’t be able to get out of a situation.”

She went to the bed and sat on the edge. This room wasn’t opulent like her chambers, but the bed was large. Large, but simple. Basic. Plain. I didn’t give a shit if it were a cave as long as Trinity was with me.

“That is true,” I offered. I’d fought enemies before, hand to hand and in more firefights than I could remember.

“So if you can’t get out of a situation, you need to get into it,” she finished.

I saw red and rage simmered. “Are you telling me the consort was forcing himself on you?” My voice was little more than a whisper, but one word from my female would send me back to end him.

Her blue eyes widened. “He wasn’t forcing me. He was just surprised I wasn’t… eager. I decided, instead of fighting him to try to get out from underneath him, I’d get into it. To let him think I’d stopped resisting. So, I pretended to check out the goods.”

I didn’t exactly understand check out the goods but I had a mental picture of what that meant. Pretend to like his cock and balls so she could get a hold of them and squeeze them like little berries.

“I’m sorry you had to see that. I am.” She stood, tucked the length of sheet into itself at her breasts so it remained closed and came over to me, put her hand on my bare chest. I went instantly rock hard. Just her scent, her touch and I was done. No wonder the consort was so eager to taste her. She was so fucking alluring just breathing.

“The only balls I want to touch are yours. The only cock I want to stroke is yours.”

Her hands were on my uniform pants, opening them.

“You stroked his cock?” I growled. Balls were one thing, but his cock?

“Shh,” she replied soothingly, then she gripped my length.

She was trying to distract me, and it was working. I groaned, all thought of the consort, of Alera, of anything but Trinity was gone.

Her hand was on me. Stroking me, her thumb sliding over my slit, catching the pre-cum that slipped from me. I couldn’t help it.

Thank fuck, her hand was on my cock. Mine.

Fuck, yes.

I reached up, tugged the sheet from her, let it fall to the floor at our feet. She was gloriously naked and all mine.

“You can work the cum from my balls, mate,” I said, glancing down at her, staring at every perfect, bare inch of her. “But it’s going in your pussy. You have ten seconds to play.”

She glanced up at me, a sly smile on her lips as her hand continued to expertly move up and down my length. She might be a princess and rule a fucking planet, but right now, she ruled my cock. And she reveled in that power.

“No more,” I said as I grabbed her by the waist, scooped her up and tossed her on the bed. I stood in just my pants and boots, my cock out, hard and long and aiming right for her. And if a bead of pre-cum just dropped to the floor, I wasn’t paying much attention. “We talked about this, mate.” I angled my head toward the locked door. “You’re in charge out there. In here, you’re mine.”

She bent her knees, spread them wide so I could see every glorious inch of her pussy. Oh, fuck. The power of that sweet pussy.

Determined, I grabbed an ankle and tugged her across the soft bed toward me, which made her laugh. And then she gasped, when I flipped her onto her belly. The gasp turned to a moan when I hooked an arm about her waist and pulled her back so she was on her hands and knees.

She looked over her shoulder at me with a mixture of surprise and arousal.

When my hand came down on her upturned ass, a bright pink replica instantly appearing, she gasped, then wiggled her hips.

“That’s for being naked and in bed with another male.”

I pushed my pants lower on my hips and crawled up behind her. Spanked her again. “That’s for touching another man’s cock and balls.”

I lined up my cock at her entrance and slid in with one long, hard thrust. “And that, mate, is your reward for being such a good girl. Using your brain.” I fucked her as I talked, gripped her hip. She felt so good. Wet, tight. Hot. How had I lived without this? Without her? “Being so smart, so beautiful. Perfect. Fuck, this pussy is perfect.”

Her hands clenched the bedding as she pushed back into my thrusts, taking me as deep as I could go. She was panting, crying out, clenching me. This was going to be fast. Hard. Intense.

I leaned over her, covering her body with mine. Skin on skin. I wanted her to feel me. Smell like me. Surrender. Give me everything.

I lowered one hand to the bed to brace my weight and used the other to wrap beneath her, looking for her center, the swollen clit I knew begged for attention.

She arched beneath me when I found it, her soft cries making my cock jump where it was buried deeply inside her. I stroked her without mercy, sliding in and out of her wet heat in a slow grind I knew would make her scream. I wanted to feel the walls of her pussy shudder and clench my cock in hot waves. “Come for me, mate. Come all over my cock. Remember, who rules you.”

She did come then, a scream ripping from her as her inner walls spasmed, milked me, pulled me in deeper, all but begging for my cum.

I couldn’t hold back, the hot sizzle of need too great. The hottest burst of pleasure dissolved my bones, temporarily blinded me. My balls tightened and then emptied, filling her with spurt after spurt of my seed.

When it was over, my body shook. I couldn’t hold myself up any longer and to keep from falling on her, I scooped Trinity into my hold as I fell to my side, tucking her in against my chest, my cock still deep inside her.

I might have come, but we weren’t done. Not yet. I was going to be inside her sweet body all night.

“Your cock rules me?” she asked, her tone a little caustic when she finally got her voice.

I chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “Based on the way you screamed just now, I’d say so.”

She put a hand on my arm where it rested over the curve of her waist, slid her fingers over the skin absentmindedly. “I guess you could be right.”

“You doubt, mate?”

“Maybe you’ll have to try again to make sure.”

I pulled out, tugged her so she was on her back and I was looming over her. Her eyes sparkled and she smiled brilliantly.

“It might take more than once,” I shared.

“It might,” she agreed, reaching up and cupping my jaw. “We have all night.”

“And in the morning, there will be no doubt by anyone who sees you—even that fucking consort—that you are my mate. Well-fucked and at my side.”

She just grinned and pulled my lips to hers. But I wasn’t finished. “We will have a formal mating ceremony.”

“Are you asking me to marry you?” She stilled beneath me, as if listening with her entire being.

“You are already mine, love. But yes. I want our mating recognized by the entire planet. I want your name linked with mine in the clerics’ archives. You’re mine, mate, and I want the whole fucking planet to know it.”

“You’re mine, too, you know.” She ran her hands through my hair, gently. A lover’s caress, and my entire body shuddered with need at her simple touch.

“I am yours. Always.”

“Yes, Leo,” she said so sweetly.

I dropped my head and took in one plump nipple. Sucked.

“Yes, Leo,” she said again, this time with a completely different tone.