Chapter 10
Egon, Three Days Later
Mating fever was consuming me.
I sat on the edge of my bed, elbows braced on my knees, hands clasped together so tightly my knuckles ached. It was the only way to stop them from shaking. My skin felt too tight over my bones, heat coiling beneath it like a living thing desperate to break free.
The beast paced inside my mind.
Restless. Furious. Hungry. Now that he’d fucked our mate, he was impossible to deal with. Fucking impossible.
Mine. Fuck her. Pussy taste sweet. Mine. Let. Me. Out! The command slammed through my thoughts with brutal clarity.
“We made deal,” I muttered under my breath. We’d struck a bargain, me and the crazed beast inside me. I let him out in the shower. I gave him a taste of what was ours, and he vowed to behave until we could put mating cuffs on her and claim her properly. It was only a few days more.
I wasn’t going to make it.
Mine! My mate! Want. Now!
“No. Not yet.” The words barely left my mouth before another wave of heat rolled through me. My muscles tightened, my spine arching slightly as the beast pushed harder against the fragile walls of my control.
Three days.
Three days since I had touched her. For three days they had forced me to spend time with the other contestants. Go on “dates” with the “finalists.”
There were no fucking finalists. There was only Tori.
Who had disappeared off property. She told me she was going.
Told me she needed to meet with her attorneys.
Promised me she wanted a peaceful solution to the Derek problem.
Looked me in the eye and didn’t have a fucking clue how hard it was for me to let her out of my sight.
Krag and Rohn went with her. Knowing she was protected was the only thing keeping me sane. If having my mind and my soul shredded by a beast raging within me could be called sane.
Three days since I had felt Tori wrapped around me, her breath warm against my throat, her body trembling as pleasure took her. Three days since I had carried her to this very bed and buried myself inside her again and again while the ocean roared outside and the world faded away.
Three days since I had held my mate.
And now the distance between us was driving my beast toward madness. I had no mating cuffs on our wrists to assure him she was truly ours. He had no way to know for certain she accepted our claim. Deemed us worthy. No sting of pain to distract him. Remind him he needed to remain in control.
We had fucked our female. Thank the gods. But it wasn’t enough. He hadn’t claimed her. The beast had not put our protection, our claim, our mating cuffs around her wrists. She was unclaimed. Vulnerable. Not here.
“Fuck.” I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. The other Warlords needed a chance to find their mates. I was their only hope of coming to Earth. If I fucked this up for them, I doomed them. I had held out for years. Fucking years.
My beast didn’t fucking care. He was beyond being reasonable. Our mate was near. Ours. All the logic in the world could not break through the haze and pain of the fire in his blood, the agony in his mind, the burning need to be with our mate.
I dragged a hand through my hair, breathing slowly through my nose, drawing in the familiar scents of the beach resort outside my window.
Salt air.
Warm sand.
Night-blooming tropical flowers drifting on the breeze through the open balcony door.
And beneath it all, faint but unmistakable, the scent that ruled my every thought. That consumed me.
Tori.
I could still detect her. Here. In this room. On the pillow. In the sheets. In the air.
My mate. Mine. The beast surged forward again.
My jaw tightened. “You cannot. Not yet.”
The growled answer echoed through the quiet suite.
Breaking my contract with the show would be easy. I could find her right now. Lift her into my arms. Place the mating cuffs around our wrists. Leave this fucking place.
The thought alone made my pulse thunder.
The cuffs. The claim. The bond sealed. I would take her back to Atlan.
Show her the beauty of my world. Buy her anything she wanted.
Allow her to choose our new home. The rulers of Atlan provided significant wealth and properties to any Atlan Warlord who managed to survive their service in the Coalition Fleet. I was rich.
None of it mattered without her.
My hand closed into a fist as frustration ripped through me.
The cuffs still rested in the small case on that damn stage. Untouched. Unworn.
Every time I looked at them, the beast roared with rage.
Tori belonged with me.
But claiming her now would destroy everything. The contract. The show. The chance for every warrior trapped on The Colony to come to Earth and find the same miracle I had.
And Tori…
My gaze drifted toward the balcony where the moonlight spilled across the floor.
Tori would lose the human money Chet promised her.
I cared naught for his offerings. But to Tori, they represented freedom.
Security. We had laid next to one another in the dark and she had whispered to me of her dreams. I knew she wanted to help animals.
She shared her struggles to attend the human university, to purchase food and shelter.
Disgust at the greed in the human system boiled in my blood but I said nothing.
Only listened as my mate shared herself with me.
I told her about the war. Explained interplanetary politics, when she asked.
Mostly she was content to lay in my arms and listen to Atlan folk tales.
I sang her some of our songs. Told her nothing of my capture and torture at the hands of the Hive.
My integrations were mostly invisible. She did not need to carry such burdens when I could protect her from them.
She was softness and light. Nurturing. Kind.
I was none of those things. I hunted. I killed. I destroyed my enemies.
For her, I was gentle. The beast would be so with no other.
Without her? He was madness. Feverish. Out of his mind. All logic gone.
I tried to convince her to allow me to give her more, more wealth than Chet had offered.
I could offer her so much more, but she didn’t completely trust me to care for her.
To never leave her. Never betray her. Her rejection ate at my soul like parasites taking a thousand tiny bites out of my heart.
Mating cuffs. The beast insisted that our female only doubted because we had not placed our claim on her body. Marked her as ours. Cuffed her as we should.
You make her doubt us. The beast growled again. Her money means nothing.
"To her, it means everything." And that mattered to me. Her dreams mattered. Her happiness mattered.
More than my comfort. More than his.
More than the fire consuming our blood. More than the ache in our chest.
“Fuck.” I leaned back slowly, staring up at the ceiling as a warm breeze moved through the room.
Somewhere outside, waves rolled onto warm sand. Palm leaves rustled softly. The night was peaceful.
Inside me, war raged.
And every second I remained separated from my mate, the beast grew stronger.
I could transfer ten times the amount Chet promised to Tori tomorrow and never feel the loss.
I could fund her veterinary school, her mobile clinic, her dreams of helping creatures that had no other to advocate for them.
I could give her everything she needed so she would never again have to smile for cameras or endure the humiliations of this ridiculous show.
But every time I offered…
She refused.
I need to do this myself. Her voice echoed in my mind as clearly as if she stood beside me. I need to know I can stand on my own two feet. I need to know I can take care of myself.
The memory tightened something deep in my chest.
I did not want her taking care of herself. She. Was. Mine.
“Fuck.” I sounded like a broken record.
Where. Was. She?
I sent a text to Rohn. He answered at once. Assured me they were on their way back to the hotel. That Tori was safe.
Her rejection of my offer had not been cruel. If anything, they had been honest in a way I respected deeply. After Derek—after the cold arrangement he had forced her into, treating her like a legal convenience instead of a partner—it made sense that she needed independence.
Needed proof that she could build something of her own. That she would never fall prey to the whims of another. Strong and secure enough to stand on her own.
In her place, I would feel the same. She had just met me. Did not understand the level of my devotion to her. Did not trust it. Not yet.
But understanding her did not make the waiting easier.
I rose from the bed and began pacing the length of the suite. Back and forth. Back and forth. Like a caged predator. I was a Warlord of Atlan. I had given Chet my word. And more importantly…
I respected my mate.
Even when her choices pushed me to the edge of sanity.
A soft knock froze me in place. I opened the door.
Tori stood in the hallway.
Thank the gods.
She wore a robe—white silk that shimmered softly in the hall’s dim light, belted loosely at her waist. Dark waves of hair spilled over her shoulders, still slightly damp as if she had just showered.
Her bare feet rested in fuzzy hotel slippers.
And her eyes… Her eyes burned. Hungry. Focused entirely on me.
"You look terrible," she said softly.
A rough laugh escaped me before I could stop it.
"The fever," I admitted, my voice low and strained. "It is worse now. Since I have known you. Since I have touched you.” There was no way to describe it. “I missed you.”
I dragged a hand through my hair, fighting the urge to close the distance between us. To crush her to me.
She stepped closer. One slow step. Then another. Close enough that her scent wrapped around me instantly. What was she wearing under that robe?
My control was hanging by a thread now.
"Did you complete your tasks?" I asked. I would not be able to let her out of my sight again. Not without mating cuffs around her wrists. And mine.
Her lips curved again—slow, deliberate, dangerous. "For now. I missed you, too."
The beast roared with approval inside my mind.
"Have you ever taken a bubble bath, Warlord? These rooms have some very big bathtubs."
For a moment my brain refused to function at the abrupt change of subject. Then an image slammed into my mind with brutal clarity. Tori submerged in warm, soapy water. Her bare skin glistening as I held her. Her body relaxed and open and mine to touch as hot water flowed over my skin.
The beast roared.
"I have not. Are we indulging in this bubble bath?"
She nodded.
“When?”
"Now." She untied the belt of her robe. The silk slid open. Naked. She was naked.
Mine. The beast lunged.
I forgot how to breathe. I pulled her inside and slammed the door, dragging her against me. "You are trying to kill me," I rasped.
Her smile turned wicked. "I'm trying to seduce you." She lifted one brow. "Is it working?"
My hands framed her face as I crushed my mouth to hers.
The kiss stole the breath from my lungs. She tasted like mint and sweetness and the one thing my body had craved for three endless days. Her arms wrapped around my neck instantly, pulling me closer as she melted against me with desperate hunger.
"Is that kiss your answer?" she whispered against my mouth.
"Yes." The single word was rough. Final. She was in my arms. The beast settled as I carried her to the bath.