Their Zandian Mate (Zandian Masters 9)

Just as soon as her warriors returned.

She went to the door and pounded on it. Was one of them standing outside it?

No one answered.

Curses. Her warriors were angry. No—hurt. They believed she cared about Elit and Banf. And she only had herself to blame for that. Would anything she said even matter now?

She leaned her forehead against the door and slapped it. A hot tear trickled down her cheek.

She’d known it had been too good to be true—that she could have mates like Granit, Damon, and Laake instead of the veck-holes she’d been stuck with. She’d known as soon as she let her guard down, as soon as she let herself care, it would all be snatched from her. Just as all forms of security and love had been snatched away for her entire life, starting with her parents and siblings during the invasion.

Her destiny would forever be strung up with Elit and Banf’s. Their miserable existence would always be hers.

No, the best thing would be to forget about Granit, Damon, and Laake, the pleasure and care they’d brought her.

It had been far too much to hope that they’d be hers to keep.

Chapter 4

Laake lay backward in his hover disk, his feet propped against the wall. He wanted to kick it like an angry youth. “This doesn’t feel right,” he said for the nineteenth time.

Neither Damon nor Granit answered him.

Damon had barely spoken all afternoon, that genius brain of his clearly whirling around their problem, but he had yet to present a solution. And dammit, Damon always had a solution. Laake and Granit depended on him to be Master Fix-it.

After a short and devastating discussion, Damon had gone to Prince Zander to tell him they considered Eslyn’s reconditioning complete and they recommended she be allowed to move about the pod freely. When Zander agreed, they sent a servant to inform Eslyn.

Damon stopped his pacing and tapped the wall with his fist. “It doesn’t feel right because we wished to keep her. But putting her well-being before ours is right. It’s the same reason you took her to the dungeon.”

“I know

.” Knowing didn’t lift the gigantic weight that had settled in the middle of his chest, however.

“She needs space and freedom to decide what she wants her new life to look like. She won’t be able to think clearly if we’re pressuring her in one direction and her former mates pressure her in another. She has her young to consider. What we did with her wasn’t fair. It felt right at the time, but it was a mistake.”

“Beast excrement. There’s no way in the galaxy our time with her was a mistake.” Granit’s deep voice rose enough to reverberate through the whole chamber.

“No.” Damon’s reply was barely audible.

“What if she doesn’t want space? What if she’s already made her decision?” he pressed, even though they’d been around and around this topic all afternoon.

Damon drew his fist back and bashed the wall with it. “We can’t pressure her now. Not today when she just learned two of her mates will go free. We give her space. As we already agreed.”

“It still doesn’t feel right.” He swung his legs down and sat up, running a hand over his face. He swore he still smelled her scent on his skin, making him itch to be near her again. Every time he closed his eyes, images of her sensuous form danced in front of them. Not just her body, though—her smile, her laugh. The sweet way she called them master. “Just let me talk to her—explain our position.”

“Tomorrow. After she and the young have seen her mates this evening. It’s not right to confuse them.”

His fingers curled into fists. He couldn’t stand being away from her—not even for a night. It seemed wrong and he couldn’t shake the feeling they were letting her down, even though they were doing this for her.

“Do you think they’re in her chamber now?” he asked.

No one asked who they were. All three males were hyper aware of their competition.

Laake stood and prowled over to the workstation. “I’m going to check.” He waited for Damon or Granit to tell him no, that it was wrong to spy on her—on them—but no one spoke. They both had turned, expectation glinting in their serious gazes.

He flicked on the security feed and scrolled through the rooms until he reached hers.

There. Elit and Banf were in her room, the veck-holes.