“You are my Mate.”

Kragen spoke the words and knew they were true.

This female, Andromeda Knowles. She was his mate.

She was his.

It was only his complete self-control that allowed him to keep his focus on her. Because those words were impossible. Claiming her as his mate would doom this Andromeda Knowles, without her ever knowing it. And so he would not let it come to be.

But what he saw was not acceptable. She was afraid.

She blinked into the words, her soft face begging to be cradled, her soft hair begging to be pulled. There was a flash of arousal over her body, one he sensed more than saw, and brought forth an even greater response in his.

But then…then she was afraid.

She looked away, her brow furrowing.

“Ok, well, that’s ridiculous,” she said. “This is all ridiculous. I mean, where am I?”

“My sanctuary,” Kragen said. “I have laid claim to an abandoned warehouse in the industrial region of the region known as Blackthorn. It is concealed by the finest Leonid cloaking technology. We are safe from everyone here. Even my own people. I promise you, no harm will come to you.”

That did not seem to have the desired effect.

She turned her head around suddenly, and Kragen saw that her expression was more frightened than ever.

“Your own people?” she said.

Gods damn it all.

Of course she was frightened; he’d just revealed he was hiding from the Leonids and the Alliance. If he revealed any more than this, she would only be more frightened. And with good reason: knowing the truth of why he was here, hiding like a coward in this forgotten ruin, would only endanger her further. This godsdamned mating bond was clouding his mind. The need to touch her—to have her—to feel her soft flesh yield to him, to claim her, to finish marking her…

It was deafening.

He would rise above it. But it would be damn hard.

“Do not change the subject, Andromeda,” he said. “It is not ridiculous. It is true. We are Mates.”

“Don’t call me Andromeda,” she shot back, her beautiful brown eyes flashing as anger flared inside her. No, they were not entirely brown, he saw again. There were flecks of gold and green.

They were beautiful.

Kragen felt desire rise in him again. She was too tempting. She still sat on his bed, the sheet bunched up around her where she’d covered herself with it. Even so her skin called for his touch. The mark on his chest burned. And he knew she must feel the same.

“Call me Andie,” she said finally. “And what does that even mean? How can I be your ‘mate’?”

He wanted to show her. He wanted to tear those clothes off, feel her bare skin beneath his, and show her how her body would respond to his. Only then would she know.

No.

“It means we are sexually compatible,” he said, the desire vibrating in his voice. “It means you are meant to submit to me. It means your body will yield to mine. It means my command of your body is as natural as my command of kuma. It means we are bound together for a time, Andromeda, whether you like it or not.”

She looked up at him, her lips slightly parted, a mix of shock, arousal, and alarm flitting across her face. How he wished to see what faces she would make…

“Andie,” she corrected him quietly. “And it’s not possible. I never submitted a sample. I was never tested.”

“You have been tested,” he said. “Here. Now. You are not just a genetic match. You are my Mate.”

“I don’t believe you,” she said.

He growled in frustration. If she were claimed, he would discipline her for that, until they both screamed in pleasure.

“Then I will prove it.”

Moving suddenly and quickly, with the pent-up frustration of a Leonid warrior who has not yet claimed his mate, Kragen reached down and grabbed the sheet that covered her. With one motion, he stripped it from her.

They stared at each other. She was still clothed. But she was also still his mate.

“Remove that green shirt,” he ordered.

She obeyed immediately, and without hesitation. Just as his mate would. Because she was already in thrall to the mating bond growing between them, just as he was. The bond that demanded that he claim her.

The kravok. The hunger.

He could see it aroused her, but that alarmed her. She looked down at herself, now only wearing a thin white tank top and the green pants he recognized as part of her medical uniform. The glow from her mating mark was dully visible through the thin white material, but it was not enough.

“Lean back,” he said, and prowled onto the bed.

When he touched her, it was as gently as he could.

It still ignited them both.

Her breath hitched as he pulled at the thin white material, revealing the top of her breast—where her mating mark glowed its heat.

Kragen looked down. The mark on his own chest glowed in time with hers. With every beat of energy that flowed between them, he could feel the pain and weakness of the wound in his back leaving his body. The sensation built upon itself, demanding more. Always more. That was how the hunger worked.

He saw it working on her.

“Do not move,” he ordered.

If she moved to touch him, he might lose control. And then she would be lost.

Instead he straddled her motionless body while her eyes followed his. Carefully, so carefully, he extended his hand until it hovered just above her mating mark.

Just above her breast.

Focus.

He ran his hand over her body, careful not to touch her. If he touched her, it would be over. She shuddered beneath him, as a soft glow traced the path he made over her skin, where the bond healed her. She hadn’t many injuries, but any injury at all was unacceptable. So he concentrated while images of Andromeda naked, spread for him, ran through his mind. While he imagined ripping off her flimsy clothing, lifting her legs onto his shoulders, plunging into her as she screamed with pleasure…

Kragen let out a long, slow breath. She was healed, completely. His work was done.

He allowed himself one last look into her eyes. And it almost undid him.

The mating bond between them was stronger than anything he’d ever experienced in his long life. And he knew, as he knew that this Earth revolved around its yellow sun, that she would submit. Simply lying below him had aroused her. Her sexual pleasure was like a beacon to him, making him strong and weak at the same time. He needed more.

“No,” he barked, and pushed off the bed, whirling around and putting as much distance between them as possible.

It hurt, a slight sting. But the deafening chorus in his head, the hunger deep in his belly that would only be sated between her legs, grew a little more bearable.

He would be honorable.

“You are my Mate, Andromeda, whether you believe it or not. Your body does not lie,” he said, turning to look back at her. She had propped herself up on the bed, her hair tousled, her breasts very visible through that thin white fabric. She looked as though she had been freshly fucked, and he’d barely touched her.

She blinked at his words, and that expression of alarm returned.

“Nevertheless,” Kragen continued, "I will not claim you.”

But his words did not seem to have the desired effect. Again.

“Let me get this straight,” Andromeda said, her beautiful eyes flashing. “I’m supposedly your mate, and my body ‘belongs’ to you, but you don’t want me?”

Kragen stared. She was…angry?

“That is not what I said.”

“You didn’t have to,” Andromeda said, and now he was sure she was angry. She pulled the green uniform shirt back on over her tank top and looked around for the small bag she’d had with her when he carried her in.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

“What does it look like?” she said. “It’s been very nice meeting you, Mr. Kragen, and thank you for saving me from the idiots, but I’m leaving.”

Kragen watched her stand up and look around the dimly lit warehouse, presumably trying to find the exit. Not finding it, she turned her gaze on him, and crossed her arms.

“Well? Where’s the door?” she said.

“You are not leaving.”

Those beautiful eyes flashed once more.

“Excuse me?” she said.

Kragen contained his own irritation, which was mounting. It was one thing to have to fight his own desires each and every waking moment. The only reason he had not claimed her as his already was that he had the iron self-control of a dominant Leonid warrior. But she was testing his patience.

“You will not leave until I say it is safe to do so,” he said.

“Um, screw that,” she said softly. “The only danger I see here is you.”

Kragen rose to his full height, and took a step toward her. Why was this human female so difficult? All he wanted to do was claim her, to keep her, to protect her. Even if he could not claim her without marking her for nearly certain death, he could protect her. And she was making that more difficult.

But he could see the fear that lay beneath her anger. Both emotions moved him. Any further explanation of the consequences of an unconsummated mating bond, of what happened when the kravok hunger went unmet, would only frighten her more. There was a reason that Prince Rhazian had chosen not to reveal everything about the mating hunger to the humans.

But if she left the warehouse, and the cloaking technology he’d used to protect it, she would be exposed. A human female trailing an unconsummated bond behind her, like a painful psychic wake, would draw every Leonid on the planet. It would bring doom and destruction to Kragen and what he had hidden here, in this abandoned place. And to her.

And he had made a vow. A vow he would not break.

Nor would he allow harm to come to this female. Especially not because of him. The Leonid scientists now believed it was possible to find more than one mate in a lifetime. If so, they could find a way to break this bond, and save Andromeda Knowles from the consequences of Kragen’s actions. After what he had done, he could not bind her to him.

With what he had hidden in this abandoned place, he could not risk her, too.

All he had to do was control himself and keep her safe.

“No,” he said again. “I told you I will not allow harm to come to you, Andromeda. That means you will not leave here until I give you permission.”

“Andie,” she corrected him. “And you are not in charge of me, Kragen.”

They locked eyes. Kragen’s cock swelled painfully against his leathers, not for the first time, and he watched a pink flush bloom across Andromeda’s skin. Some part of her knew that what she had just said was not true, in one very specific way. Kragen could order her to remove all clothing and present herself to him on all fours, and she would do gladly do it. He could drive deep into her, ending both of their misery. For the moment.

But a Leonid mate must freely submit. And Kragen was a condemned man walking, for what he had already done. He would not condemn her too.

He would have to withstand the hunger a little longer.

“You will not leave,” he said again. Simple. Direct.

“Why not?”

“The human males you allowed to live are still out there,” Kragen said. It was, technically, true, although it was not the greatest of his concerns. “They will blame you for their humiliation. I will not risk that.”

“You don’t understand,” Andromeda said. “I have to get home to my grandmother. She’ll be wondering where I am.”

The bond between them was already strong enough that Kragen could tell that was not the entire truth. But it did not matter. Her grandmother would worry for a night. Far better than grieving for a lifetime.

And Kragen had his other responsibilities to tend to, down below in the basement.

“I’m sorry, Andromeda,” he said. “But you will not leave. I forbid it.”