Her Mate and Master (Zandian Masters 6)

“No.”

“Then who are you?”

She was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know.” Her voice cracked. “Maybe I am…” She squirmed in his arms. “Put me down,” she said sharply. “Put me down now.”

He knew nothing about females. Nothing about managing a being’s emotions, yet he knew without a doubt she wanted out of his arms to retreat into herself. He didn’t want to allow it, yet he couldn’t stomach refusing her request, either. He settled for easing her to the ground but keeping his arms locked around her waist.

She lunged away from him, but he held her fast. “Where are you going, starshine? You can’t see in the dark, and you don’t know the way out.”

“I don’t know,” she spat. The brokenness in her voice flayed him.

“Who do you think you are, starshine?”

She drew in a ragged breath. Her body trembled against his, her back to his front, the soft curves of her bare ass torturing his thighs.

His cock thickened against her back.

“They...called me Ray. Until ten weeks ago, I thought I was a human slave.”

His arms involuntarily tightened, the insult against her making him ready to slay every slave master she’d had. “Vecking stars, Talia, I’m sorry.”

She turned in his arms. “Don’t call me that. What makes you think I’m Talia?”

He brushed a strand of hair back from her face, nearly groaning at how perfectly her cheek fit in his palm, cradled there a moment before she pulled away. “Your father recognized you in the transmission from Fluut. He and I have been looking for you for the past forty planet rotations. We just found out you and your sister might be still alive.”

She struggled once more in his arms, and this time he allowed her to leave. She stumbled until she hit a wall and leaned her forehead against it. Her sniffle ripped his chest open.

He wanted to draw her back into his arms, soothe away her shock. “Do you remember anything from...before?” Before she was a slave. Before Zandia was overtaken by the Finn. Before the survivors were separated from their families and home.

“Not a thing,” she whispered.

He couldn’t resist going to her now. His fingers closed lightly on her shoulders. Standing there in the dark, it seemed he knew her completely, understood her, even though they were perfect strangers. “We understand your airship crashed on Stornig. A guard had taken you and your sister and a laborer named Rok from the castle. He was shot down over Stornig. Rok was rescued and fostered by a Stornigian family. He never knew what happened to the females or the guard aboard his ship.”

“How old was I?” Her voice came out rusty, crackly.

“I’m not sure. I think you were six solar cycles. Maybe more.”

“And my sister?”

“Hasn’t yet been found. But we only started the search recently, after Rok told us about his escape.” He slid his fingers down her arm and clasped her smaller hand in his palm. “Come on. Can you walk? I’ll feel better when we’re out of these tunnels and away from the capital.”

She gripped his hand and followed his lead, walking gingerly along the rocky surface. “Who are you?”

“Forgive me.” He stopped walking, faced her, and bowed, even though she couldn’t see him. “I am Tomis, a member of Prince Zander’s Royal Guard, apprentice to Master Seke, who is our master of arms and your father.”

“What if I’m not who you think I am?”

He caught her hand and started walking again. “If you’re not Master Seke’s daughter? It doesn’t matter. I’m here for you, whoever you are.”

“Because they want me for breeding?”

Something cold slithered through his chest, and a prickle of foreboding touched the back of his neck. He didn’t want to lie, so he went with a different truth. “Because the moment I saw your hologram in Fluut’s transmission, I knew I had to be the one to rescue you.”

She snorted. “Bit of a hero complex, then? What if I didn’t want to be rescued?” She stumbled, and he swung her back into his arms without thinking. Where he’d wanted her from the beginning.

She kicked her lower legs as if annoyed, but her slender arms snaked around his neck for purchase, which he didn’t mind at all.

“I’d say you don’t have a choice.” He sounded gruffer than he meant to, but it was the truth. He wasn’t budging from Talia’s side until he’d brought her somewhere safe. Actually, he’d prefer to never leave her side again, but quite a few other Zandian males might take issue with that. His teeth bared at the idea of challenging males. A wild beast clawed at his chest, ready to defend his turf, pierce his female and mark her forever as his.