Ascension Saga (Interstellar Brides): Book 1

Over my fucking dead body. I was at war with myself. The need to protect and defend battled with the need to stand, walk to The One and pick her up, keep on going until she was pressed against the nearest wall. My mouth on hers, my fingers working open her strange pants, seeking her center, finding it hot and wet for me. Sinking into her. Finally.

My cock didn’t understand danger, my body demanded action even knowing my mate could be harmed. My need would not lessen, and neither would the size of my hard cock, until I’d spent in her. Made her scream my name. Not once, not twice, but many, many times.

The warrior in me pushed through, wrested control from the primal, rutting instincts fighting to rule me. For now. “You are not safe here.”

“No shit.” The purple-haired female kicked the corpse at her feet again before reaching down and divesting him of his gear. She was efficient, systematically checking every pocket and pack, everywhere the assassin had hidden anything of use to him. She looked up from her work at the other two.

“Help the guard while I get weapons and intel. Get busy.” She waved the weapon she held as if dismissing them to do she commanded.

The dark-haired female moved to the injured guard and pulled a small blanket and pillow from one of the chairs. I thought she would cover him, but instead took a knife from his gear and cut the blanket into bandages. Dropping to her knees, she tied them around his head wound to stem the flow of blood. She deftly wrapped his wounds completely and placed his head on the pillow before looking up at me. “Do you have 9-1-1? You know, paramedics or someone who can take care of him? Someone to call? A doctor? Hello?”

While I heard her words, I didn’t immediately process she was talking to me. I was too stuck on The One, the curve of her cheek, the color of her lips, the upturn of her nose. I shook myself out of my cock-induced trance and nodded, pulling a ReGen wand from my belt, pushed the button so the blue, healing light glowed. It was too small to correct all of the damage to the wounded man, but it would stop the bleeding until he could get to a ReGen Pod. It was better than nothing—and all I had. “Yes, we do. But wave this over his head for a minute, and it will keep him alive until they arrive.”

She frowned and stared at the device as if she’d never seen one before, then began to move it a few inches over the guard’s injured head as I’d instructed.

“We should leave quickly. The assassin who escaped will not run and hide. He is a killer. It is not safe for you here.”

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“Obviously,” the dark-haired one grumbled. “We need a place to hide until daylight.”

“I know. I will take you somewhere safe. But no more public places. I don’t want anyone else to know you’re on Alera.”

“Amen to that.” The purple-haired woman moved on to her third body, stuffing weapons into a blanket she’d tied into a carry pouch. She stripped Lord Jax’s guards and assassins alike, missing nothing. One-track-mind, that one.

I came to my full height, eager to be closer to my mate. I took one step before our gazes locked. Held. It was as if there weren’t bodies littered on the floor. No hint of danger, or a deadly assassin who might return to finish what he started.

For the briefest of moments, it was just me. Her. Us.

My cock pulsed, heavy. My balls tightened and I felt a spurt of pre-cum seep from the tip. Yes, I was truly awakened. My cock wanted this female and it wanted her now.

I had to get her away from here. Away from any danger, then I could allow the eager brute to do the thinking for me.

She tilted her head to the side and licked her lips, looking me over as if her desire was as strong as mine. Bright color flagged her cheeks, her eyes wide, searching. Roving. Perhaps I would be blessed with a lusty mate, one as eager to claim me as I was her. I didn’t care who she was or what planet she was from. She was mine.

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice losing the commanding tone, replaced now with something akin to wonder.

I knew just how she felt.

“Leo,” the purple-haired female replied before I could. “He knows the code word. We should go. You guys can… whatever, later.”

That female began to annoy me with her impatience. Didn’t she know I’d been waiting my entire life for this moment? For my cock to stir for The One? That my life had changed irrevocably?

I didn’t look away from my mate, yet I knew the logic was sound.

“I am Leo, captain in the royal guard, servant of Alera. I fought with Prime Nial in the Hive wars. I am here to serve you.”

Serve you in so many ways. Gods, I wanted to kiss her, lick her and know the flavor of her skin, breathe in her scent, taste her pussy, make her come and then sink into her. Mark her as mine. So I would be completely and truly hers.

I thought of the assassin still at large. Of the continued threat to her. This was no longer just a life debt owed to Prime Nial. This was my mate. The One. She was in danger, and I would stop the fucking rotation of the planet to keep her safe.

The brown-haired female smiled up at me from where she continued to treat the guard, with blood covering her delicate hands. She, too, wore odd, worn clothing. All three of them were. They had on pants in blue or black, simple shirts, my mate with strangely short sleeves. Who kept their arms bare this high in the mountain regions? Was it extremely hot on Earth? Was it a style to bare her body for others to see?

The purple-haired one had on sturdy dark boots, the calm one shoes with straps that barely covered her feet. My mate wore white cloth shoes with laces. Simple, worn, a bit dirty and smudged along the edges, as if she weren’t one for extravagance. I didn’t need expensive garments or jewels to decorate my mate. I wanted her bare, every perfect inch of her pale skin visible, only to me. To see the life flow through the pale veins beneath the skin, to run my fingers along them.

“So, Prime Nial saved your life?” the quiet one asked. “And now you’re saving ours?”

I nodded. I would die for my mate. Kill for her. Stop at nothing to protect her, claim her. But they didn’t need to know that. Not yet. “Something like that. We must leave.” I held out my hand to my mate, hoping and praying to the goddess that she’d touch me. She did not.