Assigned a Mate (9 page)

“She did not.”

“She is still with the harem?”

He nodded again.

I stood and went out into the warm air, Goran holding the tent flap open for me. I nodded in greeting to those I passed, but perhaps it was the intent look on my face that kept them from speaking to me.

The guards at the entrance to the harem stood at attention at my arrival. I ducked into the women’s tent. Several women rose and greeted me.

“Where is my mate?” I asked. While two of the women jumped at the sharp tone of my voice, I did not give them much attention. I did not focus on others’ mates. Now, I solely had interest in my own.

One woman pointed toward the secondary room.

There, I found Evelyn Day sitting upon a bed brushing her hair. She looked calm and peaceful, completely unsurprised by my appearance.

“You will come when I send for you,” I said.

She looked up at me and I saw fire in her eyes. Shrugging her shoulders, she put the brush down and began braiding the long length into a single plait. She waited to speak until she tied off her braid. “I’m surprised it matters so much to you, for any one of us is as good as another, right?”

She stood and she was lovelier than I remembered. She wore a slip like the others, but the thin material was snug on her body and did not hide any of her curves. Her hard nipples and the rings that adorned them were clearly outlined, the chain a soft curve beneath the fabric. The material was taut over her wide hips and only fell to mid-thigh. And there, dangling between her thighs was the proof of my will. I had deactivated the stimspheres hours ago. Perhaps she needed another reminder of who was in charge, or perhaps those spheres had been what pushed her too far into defiance. Either way, she was more alluring now than when she was naked.

Her body distracted me and I had to remember her question. I frowned. “Any one of us?”

“The women in the harem.”

“I don’t know to what you speak. Do men on Earth share their mates with others?”

“This is a harem, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth fell open slightly, then she narrowed her eyes. “There are no harems on Earth, not anymore. They haven’t existed for centuries. This is
your
harem, isn’t it?”

“This is the harem for all at Outpost Nine,” I replied.

We stood before each other and I was completely unused to this kind of conversation. People usually listened as I spoke, then replied with a very sincere, “Yes, sir.”

I was not used to the sheer quantity of her questions. I doubted I would soon get a ‘sir’ past her lips, let alone a ‘master,’ at least not while she had clothing to cover her soft skin.

She was quick, for I barely saw her pick up the brush and toss it at me. I almost didn’t move out of the way of the hard object.
Fark
,
she had excellent aim!

“You plan to share me with the entire outpost?” She hissed the accusation, her voice filled with venom and pain. The look on her face was one of rage, but behind the fire in her eyes was the pain of betrayal. “I told you I’d rather go to prison on Earth than be a whore.”

After my surprise passed, I rolled my shoulders back and glared down at her quivering form. “And I told you I share you with no one.”

The volume of my own voice had her taking a small retreating step, but she tilted her chin up. She was so defiant, and that fire made my cock hard as a rock. I wanted to taste that fire, use my mouth on her until she whimpered and begged me to fuck her mindless!

“Yet, I am forced to share you with the others?” She crossed her arms over her chest, which pushed the upper swells of her breasts up above the slip.

I gritted my teeth at the sight, for my cock was hard and my hand twitched to spank her ass for her insolence. She caused frustration to tighten my chest and my fists clenched at my sides.
Fark!
My mate was supposed to be biddable and sweet, not a woman who would hiss at me or question everything I did. But I would not take her or touch her in anger.

“I have no others,” I replied.

“Ha!” She laughed without any humor. Clearly, she did not believe me. Why? Why would she consider my words to be false?

Lifting a hand, she waved about the room. “Then what is this?”

I looked around the space, opulent even for an outpost. “It is where the women are kept for their safety.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the flap between the two rooms shift and I knew we were not alone in our conversation. I sighed. No doubt the other women had overheard our disagreement, and I did not need my personal life to be the subject of their gossip or fodder for those who wished to overthrow me.

Bending forward, I placed my shoulder at Evelyn Day’s waist and tossed her over it, careful of the chain I knew dangled beneath her slip. Clamping a hand at the back of her thighs, I ducked and entered the other room, the women stepping back to let me pass.

“What are you doing? Let me down!” Evelyn Day muttered, her small hands pounding on my back.

As I spanked her ass, I realized her shift had crept up and I tugged it down to cover her. If I was going to carry her across the outpost, I didn’t want everyone to see her pussy and delectable ass.

She had been misled about something relating to the harem and was furious about it. I had to resolve this, for I wanted to sink into her again, to mate with her, feel her beneath me, make sure she knew she was mine. But until this confusion was resolved, I would most assuredly be denied.

“We are going to my tent. While the harem will keep you safe, it will not allow us any amount of privacy. For what I plan to do with you, privacy most certainly is in order. I would like to speak to you without raising the attention of the entire outpost, therefore you should hold your tongue.”

* * *

Before the harem’s tent flap closed behind us, I caught a glimpse of Mara’s wicked smile. I knew her smirk wasn’t born of friendship. Most likely, she greatly enjoyed the knowledge that I would be punished. Based on the way the other women deferred to Tark, I had to assume most didn’t defy him as I did.

The way his eyes had widened as my hairbrush bounced off the tent wall, I had to assume he’d never had anything hurled at his head before, either. I hadn’t been able to help it. The man made me so mad! How dare he lean over me, his cock filling me completely, and whisper in my ear that I was his, then, only a short time later, request Mara to come to him?

If he found that vile woman appealing—though I had to admit her body was what most men desired, even if her personality was certainly lacking—then I wanted nothing to do with him. Surely the processing center’s matching program had made a very large error.

The processing center’s machine had delved into my mind, seeking the best match based on subliminal, subconscious wants and desires. In the chair, I’d dreamt of being taken by a man while another watched. Their words had been base but sexy—hell, even downright carnal—but I still had to question if that was what I really wanted. I’d been adamant about Goran not touching me, and thankfully Tark had proven to be just as particular, at least up until now.

Surely even my subconscious mind didn’t want a man who sought the comfort of others.

I felt the warm air on my skin as Tark carried me across the outpost. It had been dark the last time I’d been outside. A full day had passed, and once more the light of day had faded. Inky blackness surrounded us, and on top of that, I was upside down. My mate was not giving me much opportunity to glimpse my new world.

Quickly enough, we were inside once again and I was lowered from Tark’s shoulder. He was slow about it, and when he set me upon my feet on the carpeted ground, he looked me over with an assessing gaze as if to assure my well-being.

We were in Tark’s tent.

“Where’s the fucking table?” I asked. “Do you expect me to bend over it again? Is that how Mara likes it? Or is tying a woman down the only way you men on Trion can fuck a woman?”

Tark stood quietly and let me toss out those barbed words. He wore attire similar to the previous day. Black pants, gray shirt, although this one had short sleeves and was a pullover, with buttons down the front. His broad shoulders and chest were well defined beneath the trim fabric. He was so big and yet he was the most perfect specimen of a man I’d ever seen. They didn’t make men like this on Earth, at least I’d never
seen one. His dark hair was a little tousled, perhaps from carrying my heavy weight about.

It was his eyes, though, that were so expressive. I saw a glint of anger there, but he was remarkably calm. Calmer than I was. His gaze also held surprise and definitely heat.

“Are all women on Earth so difficult?”

“Do all men on Trion fuck everything with a pussy?” I countered, my voice shrill.

Instead of yelling, he knelt in front of me. Before I could figure out his intent, he had reached under my thin gown and removed the stimspheres from my body with a gentle tug on the dangling chain.

I gasped as they slid out and my pussy felt empty. I clenched down and it felt odd to have them gone, even though they’d stopped vibrating sometime while I’d been asleep. He set them aside, forgotten on the carpet.

“It seems that I will have to come up with alternate forms of punishment, for my device appears to have made both your mouth and your temper worse, not better.” I opened my mouth to speak, but the look he gave me had me remaining silent. “We barely know each other, and today I will remedy that.” Tark came to his feet, so close that the heat of his chest reached me across the narrow space. “You are questioning my honor, but I find that your anger pleases me.”

That was not what I expected him to say. I expected him to yell and wave his arms around and perhaps even toss me over some fucking stand and spank my ass again. But please him? He’d stunned me into stillness.

“It… it pleases you?” I asked.

“Yes.” He grinned and wrapped his strong hands around my upper arms just tight enough that I felt treasured, but not threatened. He knew how to disarm me. Damn the man, he was even more handsome when he grinned and my heart rate kicked up a notch. Just seeing him smile could be bad for my health. “You believe that I have done something dishonorable and you are upset about it. It pleases me that you would demand honor in your mate.”

I had no retort for that.

“I wish to know what dishonor you would lay at my feet.”

“You are well aware of your actions. Or perhaps there is a short-term memory problem here on Trion?”

Tark released my arms and I covered them with my own hands instantly in a sorry attempt to hold in his heat. He moved to a chair, sat down and leaned back, stretching his long legs out before him. Placing his elbows on the armrests, he put his hands together. “I have a perfect memory, mate. Now, tell me what displeases you.”

I sighed. Perhaps all men, no matter which planet they were born on, were obtuse.

“Did you forget that you’d just fucked me when you sent for another?”

His eyebrow arched then. “I requested another woman? Who?”

While Mara didn’t like me, I didn’t want to get her angrier. I felt like I was tattling like a child, but Mara hadn’t gone off in search of Tark, she’d been requested. I was only stating fact.

“Mara.”

Tark frowned. “Now your earlier statement about Mara makes sense. But Mara belongs to Davish, and I assure you, even if she did not, she would not be a woman I would request.”

It was my turn to frown. I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, as my anger was quickly falling away. My insecurities were beginning to show. I looked down at the patterned rug.

“Oh.” I replayed the scene from memory. The harem guard had not mentioned Tark when he told Mara to go. Just
he
. That
he
had obviously been her mate, Davish.

What a bitch.

Through my lashes I saw him shake his head slowly. “I sent for the woman I wanted, and she refused me.”

My head came up then. He crooked his finger, beckoning me closer. I swallowed as I stepped toward him, the rug soft beneath my bare feet.

“Do men on Earth claim any woman they want?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Do men on Earth have no honor?”

Tark put his hands on my hips and pulled me to stand between his parted knees. The hot feel of his grasp made me gasp.

I shrugged. “Some do not.”

“I assume you have only had interactions with the dishonorable sort?”

I looked at his forearms, thick and corded with muscle, covered with dark hair.

“Some.”

“Are you familiar with what a harem is?” he asked.

I glanced up at him, his dark eyes clear and focused on me. The anger was gone, from both of us.

“They had them on Earth a long time ago. Certain cultures allowed a man to have several—many—women just for himself. A harem was the name used to include all of his women, but also it could be the place where they remained until called upon to service his needs.”

“I now see the problem we have.” His thumbs stroked up and down the top of my thighs, working the thin material of my slip higher and higher until he stroked over bare skin.

“A harem on Trion is a place, well-guarded and fortified, where a woman stays when a man cannot offer protection. Each of the women you met belongs to someone, just as Mara belongs to Davish and you—” he leaned forward and placed a kiss on my abdomen, “—belong to me.”

The way he said
you belong to me
caused a little brightness of hope to flare to life. “I thought—”

“I know what you thought. I’ve told you my name, but I did not tell you that I am high councilor. I am sure there is a similar role on Earth, perhaps with a different title. I am the leader of the northern continent and the seven armies. We are here at Outpost Nine for the annual general meeting of the planet’s other councilors. Each of us represents a different region or area of the planet.”

“We have something similar on earth, but each country has a leader. There is not a leader for all of Earth.”

“And are all countries equal on your world? Or do some hold more power than others?”