Assigned a Mate (15 page)

I could ease his worry, soften the burden that was on his shoulders as high councilor. In this moment, he was able to lose himself in me, seek pleasure and comfort. Not as high councilor, not as the leader of his people, not as powerful man who had many people looking to him for guidance.

With me, he was simply Tark, the man. His motions shifted from a gentle glide and the sweet friction of his cock returned me to the brink of release as if my desire was a tinder rekindled to bright fire. Swiftly, his pace quickened as if he were reaching for something. I understood.

“Tark. Let go.” I used his name on purpose, let him know that he didn’t even have to worry about protecting me in this moment. He could just succumb to the pleasure he found in my body, in the release that I could give to him.

He tilted his head up and looked at me. Sweat dripped onto my breast.

“I can’t lose control. I never lose control.” He ran his hands along my arms and squeezed my wrists. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he replied, his hips shifting and churning.

Bringing my legs up, I pressed my knees into his sides so he could fill me even deeper.

I shook my head. “You won’t. You
can’t.
”

Perhaps it was my tone, or the look on my face, or the way my inner walls clenched on his cock, but the mask slipped. His face hardened, his jaw clenched tight, and his eyes closed. Hooking the back of my knee in the crook of his elbow, he angled me up and drove into me. I cried out because he’d filled me almost too full, but he didn’t stop.

“Yes,” I cried, letting him know I wanted it. I did. I wanted all of him. If we were so well matched, I could take it. I could handle whatever he gave me, I
needed
to accept him, all of him. I needed to please him, to make him happy, to submit to his desire. I met him each time he thrust into me; his grip tightened on my leg and my hip and I knew my wild response was pushing him to the edge of his control. The sound of fucking filled the tent—rough, carnal, and wet.

“I want a baby, Tark. Your baby. Give it to me,” I panted. I did. I wanted to give him the baby he desired, the one I’d longed for but never imagined. I’d been appalled by the idea of being bred, that Tark’s main goal for a mate was to find a woman that was fertile and could give him the heir he needed.

But this wasn’t what we were doing. We weren’t fucking over a ceremonial stand. We weren’t being watched or recorded for the bride program processing center. We were just a man and a woman who needed each other and showed our desires, our reason for being by coming together in such a way. I was powerful. I could turn Tark into a rutting animal, eager and desperate for his release, until everything but filling me was cleared from his mind.

“Please, Tark.”

“You want it,
gara
?” he growled.

“Yes!”

“You want me? Only me? You’ll stay with me and be my mate?”

I opened my eyes and he was gazing at me. My nipples brushed against his chest the way I was arched up, my hands above my head.

I’d barely seen anything of Trion. I only knew that Outpost Nine was primitive and in the middle of the desert. Was the rest of Trion this way? Were all the people like Bertok or Mara? I longed to find out, as long as Tark was with me, by my side.

What did Earth have waiting for me? There was no match. No Tark. The decision was simple.

“Yes.”

Reaching between us, Tark stroked his thumb over my clit, once, twice, and I came.

I arched my back even more and cried out, feeling Tark stiffen above me, filling me full and shouting his own release. Thick seed shot into me, filling me to overflowing. Greedily, my body clenched and milked Tark’s cock, pulling it in deep.

“Yes,” I said.

“
Fark
,
yes,” Tark replied, trying to catch his breath. He lowered his upper body to the side, so his heavy weight was not upon me, but kept his cock buried deep. The endorphins from all the fucking had me feeling euphoric and replete. Feeling Tark above me I felt safe and cherished and very well claimed. He released the tie holding my wrists, stroked a hand over my cheek, wiping away the silent tears that continued to fall.

“I know,
gara.
I know. You are safe with me.” He cradled me then, and as wild as our fucking had been, he was now a gentle giant holding me safe in the storm of my own emotions. I couldn’t hold anything back, not my desire, my pleasure, or the deepest, darkest corners of my heart and soul. And there, in his arms, I didn’t fight my emotions, because I didn’t have to. The mask society forced me to wear was gone. He’d stripped me bare and held me protected and secure in his arms.

“Promise me, Tark. Never leave me,” I said to him.

“
Gara
, you’re the one who’s leaving. I will contact our liaison at the program, see if something can be arranged so that I may accompany you to Earth, and bring you safely home.”

I stiffened beneath him. “Really? You can do that?”

“I will whatever must be done to keep you safe. You are mine. I understand that you must do what is honorable and right. You must return to offer your testimony, but I will not allow you to face a brutal killer alone.”

I snuggled into his chest with a happy sigh. How I’d gotten so lucky, I had no idea. But Tark was indeed the only man I could imagine spending the rest of my life with. He was my perfect match.

A slight buzz sounded in the room and I shook my head to clear it as a strange voice spoke into the silence.

“
The transport protocol for Eve Daily had been activated.
”

The personal transport nodule hummed against my ear and I could hear the voice clearly in my head. Had Tark heard it, too?

Tark slipped his cock from my body and yanked me up onto my knees. “What was that?” he said, all softness and pleasure from our fucking gone. His seed dripped down my thighs as I knelt on the bedding.

“I… I think it was the transport nodule and I’m being returned to Earth.”

My heart started to pound and Tark’s hands gripped my upper arms.

“Now? You can’t go. We just agreed you’d stay.” He looked frantic, as if this was the one thing completely out of his control and there was nothing he could do, no matter how much he fought or talked his way out of it.

“I want to stay with you,” I said, wrapping my arms around him and hugging him tightly.

“We can take the transporter from you, cut it out of your body.”

I shook my head against his chest, the springy hairs there soft and ticklish on my cheek. “I must put the man away. It is the honorable thing to do.”

“I know of honor,
gara
, but it is dangerous. You do not have to confront this killer on your own. We will contact the authorities on Earth and arrange for me to accompany you.”

“I don’t think there’s time. I should be safe. I’ll be protected by the police and the prosecutors. They will offer me their protection,” I countered.

He pushed me away from him so he could look me in the eyes. “And yet they had no faith in their ability to keep you safe before. That is why they sent you here, to me.”

“
Thirty seconds to transport.
”

“Tark, it’s happening now. I’m sorry,” I pleaded, hoping he’d understand that I had to go. I had to make things right on my world.

“You’ve done nothing wrong,” he sighed, but I felt the fierceness in his hold. “Know this, Eva. There is no one in this galaxy for me but you. You know this.”

I nodded as tears dripped down my cheeks.

“
Five.
”

“I will miss you,” I told him.

“
Four.
”

“Eva!” His eyes widened.

“
Three.
”

“There’s no one on Earth for me,” I vowed, lifting up onto my knees to kiss him.

“
Two.
”

He pulled back, his breath mingling with mine. He curled his hand around my nape, kept me close. “You are my mate, my heart.”

“
One.
”

“Master,” I said as I no longer felt his touch, could not detect his spicy scent, could no longer see him.

Chapter Nine

I didn’t wake gradually from the transport as I had the first time. I woke up with a start as if I had a bad dream, jolting upright with a gasp.

“Good, she’s awake,” someone said. It wasn’t Tark.

I blinked my eyes and looked around.

I was in a small room with a wooden desk and chairs. Two men sat across from me, studying me closely.

“Robert,” I said, perhaps more to myself because I recognized him than because I was glad to see him. The district attorney wore his usual crisp suit and was eyeing me carefully, perhaps wondering if the transport would have returned me misshapen or missing a limb or perhaps even naked.

I gasped and looked down at myself. I couldn’t help the sigh that escaped when I saw I wore a plain white blouse and skirt. I felt the usual heeled shoes on my feet, but couldn’t see what kind or color because they were hidden beneath the table. Patting my hair, I discovered the wild mess had been pulled up into a neat style and pinned in place at the back of my head.

“Do you feel all right?” Robert asked. I glanced at him and the man beside him.

“Sorry, Eva, this is Special Agent Davidson with the FBI. He arranged for your transport off-planet.”

I nodded to both men. “Robert, I… it hasn’t been three months yet. What happened?” It had only been a few days since I was sent to Trion; surely the trial hadn’t been moved up so far.

Both men frowned. “What are you talking about? Eva, it’s been four months.”

“Are you sure you’re all right, ma’am?”

I was confused, my mind a blur. I’d only been on Trion, one, two, three, yes, three days. How could four months have passed? “I think… I think time is different on Trion.”

“You went to Trion?” Robert’s eyes lit up, eager like a child.

I nodded.

“Well, what was it like? Is it true the matching program works?”

I thought of Tark and how, just moments ago—at least to me—I was in his arms. I hugged myself as if I could feel him still, but no. It wasn’t the same. I recognized the temperature control of the rooms in buildings on Earth. On Trion, the air, while hot, was not overly so. It was… balmy.

My arms pressed against my nipples and I felt the rings and the gems Tark had put there. They were still there!

“Are you sure you’re all right?” the FBI agent asked.

“I just transported from Trion, so please give me a minute to adjust. I would assume that I am the only
person to return since the program is traditionally one-way.”

“It is,” the man confirmed. “We programmed your transport so that you would arrive in the courthouse—as you can tell from the room we’re in—and dressed appropriately for the hearing.”

That explained the rings and the gems. The man didn’t know what the Trion customs were, what Tark had done to me, therefore he didn’t know they needed to be removed on transport back. He assumed I just needed to be put into the correct clothes for the trial, nothing more.

I was relieved actually, for the nipple rings, the gems, were all that I had left of Tark. I was on the opposite side of the galaxy from him and there was nothing I could do about it.

“I’m fine. If I could have a glass of water, then we can go over whatever you need me to say. Then I’d like to go home.”

I was going to cry, but I swallowed back the tears. I couldn’t cry now, in front of these men. I couldn’t let them know that I’d fallen for my match, that I wanted to stay on Trion. It didn’t matter now. I was going to do the right thing, put the man behind bars, and then I would return to work and get on with my life.

* * *

A week later, the trial was over. The man had been found guilty and sent to prison. His sentencing would occur in the next few months, but my part was done. Since I wasn’t actually Evelyn Day, my personal record never showed the fake conviction and my sentencing to the bride program. Instead of returning to my life as I’d suspected—and I’d been told would happen before I left for Trion—I’d been put into the witness protection program. The threat to my life had not gone away when the trial was over. The man had put a price on my head and I was not safe.

The FBI agent dumped me in a small town in Iowa with a new name, unable to practice medicine. I was given a job as a school librarian. I missed Tark keenly, night and day. I lay in bed at night—in a strange new home—and played with the gems on my nipple rings. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get them to vibrate. I refused to remove them, for they were a part of me. I only had to wear padded bras and be cautious in my shirt selection, otherwise no one knew. I had no intention of sharing them, for what could I say?

They were mine. Mine and Tark’s, and they were private. My pussy was still bare. I’d originally thought I’d been shaved, but after the few days on Trion and the time back on Earth, none of the hair between my legs had grown back. I touched myself there and just like with the stimspheres, no matter how I played with my clit, I could not climax. I needed Tark.

All of the men on Earth seemed so small, so weak in comparison. I found I used Tark as a basis for the
perfect
man and not one person I knew, or met, or came across in the grocery store matched up.

I had no friends in my new life. I had no family, since both of my parents had died when I was young. I was alone and sad and I felt as if a piece of me was missing. I was the same person I’d been before I witnessed the murder, but stepping back—or off-planet—made me see what my life here had been like. And that barren existence was a far cry from what I wanted it to be. Before Tark, work
had been my life. When I’d left Earth, I barely had real friends, no family.

I wanted Tark. I needed him so intensely that I was willing to give up Earth for him. I touched myself, circling my fingers over my clit, heating my body as I thought of my mate, wishing it was his hand and his mouth on me. As he’d said, my pleasure belonged to him, so as I felt arousal, I cried out in desperation for his touch. Then I cried my heart out.