She followed him down the hall while I went to take my speed shower. Locking the door, I leaned against it. I thought of a different door I’d leaned against just a little while ago. The dainty lock might keep Tanner and Emma out, but it wasn’t going to do anything to keep Wulf away. The lock I’d firmly placed around my heart? I worried he may have already blown that open.
Maybe I did, too.
5
Wulf, Interstellar Brides Center, Holding Cell
What was wrong with me? Was I injured? I’d never felt this… heavy except when the Hive—
No. I was not going to think about that. Not with the taste of my mate’s pussy on my lips.
My mate.
Blinking my eyes open, I tried to sit, realized that my body was too big to be waking from sleep. Then why had I been unconscious? Fuck, I was not myself. I was not in control.
My beast had not retreated. I was in beast mode.
Rising slowly, I swung my giant legs over the side of the laughably small bed, and my beast growled as the room began to spin and nausea made bile rise into my throat. What had happened to me?
A female stood inside the room, blocking a door so small that I would need to crouch to walk through. She cleared her throat. No, not my mate. Not Olivia Mercier. I’d know her sound anywhere. Her scent. Her touch. Her taste. I struggled to hold back the mating fever that clawed its way through me as I recognized this woman was not my mate. She was not mine, so why was she here?
She was either incredibly brave or a complete idiot.
“Are you going to be reasonable, Warlord, or do I need to call in the guards to shoot you in the ass with more tranquilizer before they carry you to the transport pad.”
Her voice was gentle but laced with steel. I was on her turf now, wherever the fuck I was.
“Mate,” my beast responded. “Where?”
“Not here. She went home, Wulf.” She was not a threat. She was small. Female. Human. Like our mate. The soft, sweet-tasting female I’d fucked. Her smell clung to my body, haunting me, which was probably a good thing.
“Where?”
The warden made a scolding sound. “They hit you with enough tranquilizer to keep an elephant down for twelve hours.”
“Not elephant.”
That made her laugh, and I welcomed the sound, made sure my beast focused on the female and her amusement. This was not battle. We were not in danger. Despite that, I was very close to losing control of him, but knowing my cock was covered in Olivia’s scent, that I had her taste in my mouth eased me enough to hold on. I needed my mating cuffs from the glass box on the stage. They were mine. No, one set was mine, but the other belonged to Olivia Mercier and I would see her wear them, devote myself to her care until my last breath.
“I have to give you Atlans credit,” Warden Egara said, still smiling. I’d met her when I’d first arrived on the planet. “You do have a one-track mind when it comes to your females.” She stepped farther into the room, and into the light when she realized I was not going to go into a killing frenzy.
Warden Egara was familiar to me, a female who worked at the Earth’s Interstellar Brides Processing Center where I’d spent most of the past three weeks. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight bun, she wore the ridiculous shoes the females referred to as high heels and her uniform had the Coalition Fleet insignia for the Brides Program on her chest. She was intelligent and responsible for the happiness of many warriors and fighters in the Coalition because she was in charge of the female volunteers from Earth. She’d coordinated often with Rachel about finding mates for The Colony.
She was an ally. A friend. She would know where my female was and how I could find her. Egara lived on this planet and, since she was also human, would know the ways and customs to help me find my mate.
She had to help me before the beast decided to go on a scent-driven rampage and hunt the streets for the one female I knew was in this city. If my beast went hunting, I’d kill a lot of humans before I found her, and he would find her. But once I did, they’d have to put me to death because I would not be able to regain control. I’d be lost. I was that far gone, especially now that I knew she was out there, separate from me.
I was alone. I should not be alone. I’d found my mate. We should not be apart.
“Mate,” I said again as if I suddenly had a one-word vocabulary. I knew plenty of words, even in the Earth English we were using, but that one word summed up everything I cared about at the moment. Her. Olivia Mercier. “Mine.”
Warden Egara crossed her arms in a way I recognized as irritation from the few human females I knew on The Colony. She even tilted her head and raised one eyebrow as Rachel did when she was about to scold one of them. Or me, earlier on the comm call.
“Listen, Wulf, you really made a mess of things,” she continued.
“Mate.”
One hand went up. “Stop. I know you want to know where Olivia is—”
Olivia. Her name was beautiful. Soft, like her breasts. Her stomach. Her round ass when I’d cupped the fullness of her in my hands. When I found her I would—
“Hey.” She waved that hand in circles in front of me. “Earth to Wulf. Stay with me. You need to focus.” Warden Egara stepped even closer, within reach, and snapped her tiny fingers in front of my face with a distinct, clipped noise that got the beast’s attention. “Focus, Wulf. You want your mate? Don’t you? You want me to help you find her? Convince her to accept you and your mating cuffs? Yes? That’s what you want?”
“Yes. Mine.” I scowled. She spoke to me as if I were a child. I was not. For a moment I considered standing, towering over her, backing her down a bit, but she was female. Small. No threat. That would be dishonorable, and as an ally I didn’t want to anger her. Such an act would not get me any closer to the female I wanted. Olivia.
“Listen,” she said, her voice a little louder. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, Warden Egara.” I fought hard, forcing my beast into submission, reasoning with him that it was the only way we were both going to get what we wanted. Out of this cell. Past the guards without killing one of them. To be honest, he didn’t care much about the killing, not if it meant gaining access to our female. Our mate. I took a deep breath, another. Unclenched my fists with substantial effort. When I cleared my throat, I was myself again. Barely. My body had shrunk back to… normal. The Earth outfit they’d forced me to wear fit my body once more, but the fabric was in tatters.
She offered me a small smile. “Thank God. You’re back.”
I looked up into gray eyes filled with sympathy, but no pity and no compromise. Warden Egara was a commander in her own way. “I’m on your side, but I have to advise you, do not let him out again unless you have the mating cuffs on and Olivia is yours. Do you hear me? You’ve already caused a huge public relations nightmare with that stunt you pulled earlier.”
“It wasn’t a stunt,” I countered. “She’s my mate. The beast recognized her. I had no control.”
She studied me. “You’re too close to the edge, Warlord. The governor should have sent someone else.”
I nodded. “Agreed. I was prepared to transport to Atlan for execution. I did not want to be here.”