Mak, The Colony, The Pits

What the fuck?

Every Prillon warrior in the stands was climbing down out of their seats to position himself behind Captain Marz. If Marz chose to fight, things were going to get ugly.

The Trion male grinned, bowed to me, then to Gwen, and calmly walked out of the pits through the swinging doors Gwen had flung open earlier.

Our friend, Tane, looked up at me like I’d just shot him in the back with an ion blaster but didn’t move. In fact, every Atlan in the stands was seated like an unmoving mountain, waiting to see what I would do. Waiting for the call to fight for my right to claim the female. There weren’t many Atlans on the Colony. Most didn’t survive the Hive’s attempts to turn them into monsters. But there were at least a dozen in the arena, counting Braun, Tane and myself.

We could give the Prillons below a fierce fight if every Atlan here went into beast mode. It would be a bloody, sweaty melee. Atlan and Prillon alike, they were all hungry for a good fight. Poised like snakes, ready to strike. No one would die, but everyone would bleed. All over the black-haired temptress who had just chosen a monster as her mate. The other males here were far more honorable than I. More deserving. I didn’t deny it. I was a smuggler by trade, a pirate by choice. I chose my battles and my loyalties. And I was not Coalition. I shouldn’t even be here.

Fuck. What a mess.

“What the fuck, Mak?” Braun hissed, turning to look at me. “You?”

Everyone in the pits was staring at me now, but no one else said a word, waiting to see what I would do.

Braun’s eyes were wide and his entire body tense. As if he were stunned by the lieutenant’s answer.

Well, my friend could join the fucking club for that, because I doubted anyone was more stunned than me.

Gwen chose me.

Me.

ME.

Holy fuck.

My heart pounded and I questioned if I’d heard her correctly. But I had, because Braun had heard it, too. Everyone heard her call my name. Even the governor, who had a smug look on his face and his arms crossed as he watched me just like the rest of them. The bastard knew I couldn’t say no. Wouldn’t say no. She was offering me a miracle, and a way off this fucking planet. And the stares? I ignored all of them. I only had eyes for Gwen because she hadn’t looked away from me since she’d called my name.

My name. For a split second, I felt… special. Wanted. Desired, based on the need I saw in her eyes. Beneath the bravado, the intensity in her gaze, I saw hunger. Raw, unfiltered lust. The need for something she wanted me to give her. Not the four males who’d been fighting for her. Not anyone else in the stands. Hells, not even Braun.

Me.

I was growling before I could restrain the impulse, my fangs dropping in my mouth, eager to mark her, fill her with my seed, make her mine forever. But that was the animal side of my nature. Basic instinct. I was more than a Hyperion monster. I was a male with a mind and a will forged of iron.

I could take her. Fuck her. And keep the gods damned poison of my bite away from her. I would not be weak. I would not give in to the urge to claim her.

In fact, I highly doubted she wanted to be claimed. Not permanently. I knew the only reason she agreed to the governor’s terms was to get off this planet. To go on missions and feel useful. Important. Valued.

We were the same, her and I. I heard it in her voice when she argued with the governor, begging to be allowed off this rock, begging to fight the Hive. Go out into space. Get out of the cage.

I’d stood slowly when she’d called my name, holding her gaze. I watched her attention roam over every inch of me with blatant hunger. But the moment of surprised elation was over. Clarity fell like the sharpest sword. Why me? Why the fuck would she choose me? I was from Rogue 5 of all places. And half Forsian besides. I was the last male she should choose in this arena.

And perhaps that was exactly why she had chosen me.

Before her declaration, I’d believed only a handful of warriors on the planet knew of my true origin. I assumed they all thought I was an Atlan.

I’d been wrong. She knew I wasn’t Atlan. Knew I was from Rogue 5.

What else did she know?

Did she know the truth about me? About my bite? Did she know I couldn’t claim her as my own?

If she did, she wasn’t a fool for choosing me, she was taking a calculated risk. None of the rest of the males on this planet would allow her the kind of freedom I suspected she needed. No. These simpletons would get their hands on her, their cocks inside her, and turn into possessive, overly-protective, controlling mates. They’d want to breed her and keep her locked safely in her cage. A gilded cage, to be sure, but a prison all the same.

I didn’t want a mate. I wanted a good fuck and more freedom. It appeared that she desired the same. Which was fine with me. The way she’d tossed the warriors below around like toys, I imagined it would take all my cross-breed strength to truly tame her in bed.

My cock rose to the challenge.

Her gaze fell to take in the very large, very visible bulge in my pants. And when she only put her hands on her hips and narrowed her dark eyes, almost daring me to say no, I knew she didn’t plan to change her mind. And that dare? It made my cock weep and my balls ache. She was the most defiant female I’d ever met, of any race, anywhere in the galaxy. It only made me want to toss her over my shoulder and carry her off, drop her on my bed and dominate her. Oh, she’d hate that, submitting, but I knew the fight would make her wet. Because one thing I did know about her was that she was passionate, uninhibited. Wild. I looked forward to allowing her to work out all that feminine angst on me. Riding my cock with the deliberateness she gave to everything she did. Using me to soothe whatever had her perpetually riled. Perhaps she just needed an orgasm or two.

Or five.

Oh, I’d give them to her. And more. I’d give her so many, so much pleasure, that she’d be a sweaty, sated mess. Her mind would be empty, her body satisfied. Replete. Finally soothed.

Slowly, I moved.

Braun shifted to allow me to pass, to work my way to the steps that led down to the dirt pit where she stood. Waiting.

As I went, fighters moved out of my way, making a path for me. Perhaps waiting to see if Gwen would lift me and toss me across the pit like she had the Prillon.

She could try. I kept my eyes on hers as I went. Yes, I wanted that fire. Loved that it was directed at me. But this wasn’t a mating in the sense of claiming her as my own forever. No, I couldn’t have what the governor had with his mate, Rachel. Or Tyran with Kristin. Impossible. My cock wanted to fuck her. To spend in her tight pussy. To mark her. And my Hyperion fangs? I felt the pressure in my gums as I forced them to ascend. The beast within needed to bite her neck and make her mine. Permanently.

But because I was Hyperion and Forsian, my cock and my fangs had to work together for the true claiming. This was the secret, the truth no one knew. Not even the doctors who’d treated me when I’d arrived here.

A bite and the Forsian mating cock together would kill her. Forsian women dreamed of the day they’d take their mate’s enlarged cock with the mating head deep in her pussy. A Forsian cock was compared to a club on the home world, filling their females to the extreme. Once a female agreed to the official claiming, the average male would be hard, his cock swelling in eagerness to fill, fuck and mark with his seed.

But a Forsian cock changed more than most. It grew. And grew. The wide head flared and it caught inside, impossible to pull from a female’s tight passage until the claiming was complete. The couple was joined, locked together until the inner Forsian was satisfied that the female was truly and completely his. It took hours of fucking for a Forsian male’s balls to be emptied of all his seed, for the cock to finally be satiated, for the pleasure to recede enough for his body to return to normal size—which was still larger than other races—and able to withdraw. Historically, it ensured the female was so filled with seed that the chances of being bred the first time were high. An innate and biological way for the Forsian race to continue.

By the time the cock was finally withdrawn, the female was unquestionably well-pleasured. Delirious with bliss. Sometimes even driven unconscious. But there was no question of the claiming. No male in the galaxy could miss the scent and marks on a mated female, no matter the race. All would know that she belonged to someone, that her pussy was her mate’s and his alone. She was ruined for all others by the pleasure she found riding the engorged mating head. Once claimed, a Forsian female never longed for another.

As I stepped down onto the packed dirt, I knew Gwen could handle a Forsian mating cock. It would be a pleasure to finally get her stretched open with mine, and that alone would be fine.

But I wasn’t just Forsian. Fuck, no.

Having her pussy pummeled by my club-sized cock along with my Hyperion fangs embedded deep and ruthlessly in her shoulder would surely kill her. It happened again and again with my rare kind. The fact that there were so few of us left, all males, was proof. Something about our genetic line, the mixture of Hyperion and Forsian DNA, turned the Hyperion bite of pleasure into a rare and deadly poison.

Gwen would die if I bit her. It was one thing to fuck her unconscious. My male ego could handle that. But I would not fuck her to death. I couldn’t survive that kind of mistake. And that was why I’d avoided all females, for their own protection.

But now, somehow, the one female I’d avoided with deliberate intention had chosen me. Destroyed any chance I had to keep to my plan. To save her from me. For while we could fuck non-stop, I could never truly claim her as mine.

“He wasn’t a choice. It was to be one of us,” the bold Prillon, Captain Marz, insisted. He crossed his arms over his broad chest and there were three dozen Prillon warriors fanned out behind him prepared to support his claim.

The threat caused Gwen to break my gaze and she glared at the Prillon. “I was told to choose a mate. The only rule was that I had to do it now.”

“He’s not shown you any interest at all,” Tane added.

Gwen narrowed her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest, mimicking the Prillon. She was so much smaller, appearing tiny surrounded by the four males, but I didn’t miss the way her breasts were lifted by her actions. Her clothing did nothing to disguise her female shape, the curves that had incited the constant fighting across Base 3 since she’d arrived.

Tane’s words were true. I’d done everything in my power to appear disinterested. If that Atlan only knew the extent of my obsession with her, he’d be shocked. I’d avoided her to save her and for that reason alone.

Now she was mine. She’d chosen me, and that changed everything.

Standing at the base of the seating area, I bunched my legs and leaped across the arena, landing squarely in front of Captain Marz and his supporters with my knees bent and a growl rumbling from my chest.

The Prillon didn’t budge, standing his ground as I stood to my full height and looked down my nose at his nearly seven-foot frame. He was big. Strong. A good fighter. But I would smash him into dust if he tried to interfere.

“She’s mine.”

“By the gods, Mak.” Tane moved to stand beside me, two Atlan sized warriors ready to fight. I was grateful for his support, and the hush that settled over the arena as first Braun, then every Atlan present stood as well. They would fight to support my claim. If Captain Marz didn’t stand down, things would get bloody, and quickly.

My new mate stepped up next to me. “I can take care of myself, Makarios.”

I looked away from Captain Marz to look down at her upturned face. She should have been sweaty and dirty from fighting, from throwing the Prillon idiot around the arena. But her skin looked dry and soft, utterly kissable. She looked utterly kissable.

Moving slowly, I lifted my hand to the side of her face, cradling her, shocked to my bones by the erotic jolt of lust the small contact sent roaring through my system. When she allowed my hand to wrap around the side of her neck, I pushed my advantage, burying my fingers in her hair and pulling her to my chest. “I know how strong you are, Gwendolyn of Earth. I know you are a warrior in your own right, capable of destroying these fools. But you will not. This fight is my right as your chosen. I will make them bleed for you.”

“God, that’s sexy.” Her grin was permission, the sparkle in her eye hinting that she just might enjoy watching the show.

“The lieutenant’s decision has been made,” the governor said from behind me, his voice more than loud enough to carry to the farthest seats in the stands. “I will not renege on the agreement and neither shall anyone here. Warriors, your honor demands you respect her choice. Captain Marz, do you wish to deny a female the right to refuse your claim?” He looked to the four males as he said the last. Finally, he looked to me.

Shamed, Captain Marz bowed his head, first to Gwen, then to me. “Mak, she is yours.”

Gwen shook her head. “Oh no.”

The Prillon males grumbled almost as one, perhaps pleased that she’d changed her mind, eager to fight the gathered Atlans after all.

“I don’t belong to him,” Gwen said, looking from Captain Marz to me. She wrapped her small hand around my wrist and leaned into my touch, her head tilted back to rest in my hand where I still held her as she stared directly into my eyes in pure feminine challenge. “He belongs to me. Get that through your thick skulls.”

She was making a claim of her own, and gods save me, her need to make it known that I was hers made my fangs burst free. There was nothing I could do to bring them back under control. Right then and there, my viewpoint on having a mate changed. I wanted her. I even had to shift my cock in my pants with my need for her. I didn’t give a shit if everyone saw my desire for her. This female was contrary, feisty and ridiculously independent. She didn’t need anyone’s protection and she’d proved that by the way she’d tossed the Prillon around as if he were a pebble, not a seven-foot giant. And I wanted all that energy, that fire, focused squarely on me.

Now. My cock agreed. The sooner it was deep inside her the better. I wanted her fingernails digging into my skin. I wanted her with a need I’d never felt before. I’d fuck her until we both passed out; I just couldn’t bite her. Sex. Skin on skin. Her pussy wrapped tight around my hard cock. If that was all I could have, it would have to be enough. For both of us.

When a Prillon stepped forward to argue some more, I put my arm out, my hand slamming into his chest and knocking him back a few steps.

“Mine,” I growled, fangs on display. That one word, that newfound possessiveness, sealed my fate, the Hyperion beast raging within had come to the surface, ready for battle. My fangs were fully extended and I bared them, hissing a warning at anyone stupid enough to challenge me now, half out of my mind with the need to protect my female.

“Fuck, Mak.” Even Tane backed away from me, his hands open, palms out in front of his chest as he walked backward. Slowly. “Listen, Mak. You in there? No one wants to take her from you. Got it?”

Gwen from Earth was mine. I wouldn’t tell her that or she might rip my balls off and wear them for earrings, but she was. And I’d gladly be hers. I’d fuck her, get to see all that energy focused on the best way to get us both off. And often.

The governor stepped between me and the Prillon, breaking my beast’s eye contact with the challenger, the threat to my female. “Enough, Mak. Get it under control and get your mate out of here.”

When both Captain Marz and the governor backed off, I turned my head to my mate and held out my hand for her to take. To accept whatever it was I could give her. Part of me wanted to throw her over my shoulder and run, but I fought for self-control. Even now—no, especially now—it had to be her choice. Removing my hand from her hair, I held out the opposite, palm up, and waited like a gods damned saint.

No one would force my female to do anything. Not me and absolutely not the Prillon governor or any of the other warriors on this planet. She was mine now. Mine.

My entire body shuddered when the soft skin of her palm slid over mine. Gently, so very gently, I closed my hand around hers and that alone had my fangs retreating.

“Yes?” My voice hadn’t fully recovered, but she understood.

“Yes.”

That was all I needed. I lifted her off the ground, cradling her to my chest and walked away from the arena.