Читать книгу The Colony Boxed Set 1 - Grace Goodwin - Страница 10

Ryston

“I want to talk to my lawyer. Now.”

From the gleam in Rachel’s eyes, I knew she was adamant. We weren’t getting her to transport without the conversation.

“Very well.” The warden turned to an underling who was looking on, gave the signal for the request to be put through.

Rachel paced the transport room as we waited.

“Rachel?” A male voice came through some speakers hidden in the wall.

She looked up, hope alighting her beautiful features. “Hi, John. I was…um, broken out of jail.”

“Yes, I’ve heard. I got a call a few minute ago.” He paused and there was silence in the room. “Warden Egara did the right thing. Going off planet is the only thing guaranteed to keep you alive.”

“But—”

“You will be dead before the week is out. The women who are serving life sentences without parole have nothing to lose. They will kill you and there will be no consequences for them. For you…”

He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to.

“This is bullshit. This can’t be happening.” Her voice broke then and tears slipped down her cheeks. I looked to Maxim to go to her, to soothe her, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. Not yet.

“Do you want to die?” Warden Egara asked.

Rachel wiped the tears from her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Of course not! But I want to be able to decide my own fate!”

“Rachel,” the lawyer’s voice cut through the room. “You do have a choice. You go back to jail and wait for a shiv in the shower, or you go with your mates to a new world and you live.”

“It is your choice,” Warden Egara added.

“Those aren’t the choices I want. I want to go home, to my job, to my fucking cat!”

“That life is gone. I will work on the appeal, on seeing justice done, but you need to take care of yourself. Get the hell out of here,” John insisted.

She spun and faced us, her hair swirling over her shoulders as she moved. “I don’t know you. Either of you.”

Maxim finally spoke up. He put his hand to his broad chest. “You know me, here. The match, it was almost perfect. Our minds need time to catch up. Deep down, you know I will take care of you.”

“This isn’t what I wanted,” she countered, studying our sizes as she crossed her arms over her chest. So brave.

Maxim slowly shook his head. “I am sorry, mate. But I just found you. I don’t want to lose you. I can’t stand by and allow you to risk your life.”

She sighed, turned away. She ran a hand over her face, groaned in frustration. “God. This is unreal.”

“You will die, Rachel,” the lawyer repeated. “Go. Fuck all these bastards. Get the hell out of here. You have a chance at a new life. Live it.”

She shook her head, but the lawyer couldn’t see her. “This isn’t my life,” she repeated.

“It is now.”

Turning on her heel, she faced Warden Egara. “The rules of the Interstellar Brides Program state that I have thirty days to accept my match, correct?”

The warden nodded while my stomach plummeted. I wasn’t familiar enough with the rules of the match to have known this.

“That is correct. You may refuse the match within thirty days, however—” the warden walked over and took Rachel’s hand, “—you have been matched to The Colony, therefore if you reject Maxim and his second, the testing center will match you to another warrior there. You will not come back to Earth.”

“You came back,” Rachel countered. “Surely, other brides have come back.”

The warden’s face smoothed out, hiding all emotion. “Yes, I did. As have two others. Each incident was a very special case, nothing like yours. A woman matched to Trion returned recently, but her mate was believed dead and she was transported in the middle of a battle. She has since returned to Trion with her son. My mates were both killed by the Hive and I accepted reassignment to assist others in finding happiness. Your men are alive and no longer fighting on the front lines. There is peace on The Colony and your match is strong. You may choose to be matched to another, if these two fail to win you over, but you will not return.”

“Make your choice, Rachel,” the lawyer said. “You’re an escaped convict now and while I can smooth things over, the longer I take to respond, the worse it will be for you if you decide to go back to prison.”

Rachel’s agitation spiked and she ripped her hand from the warden’s to pace, her hands trembling. I ached to pull her into my arms, but I didn’t dare touch her. It seemed she would shatter with the slightest increase in pressure. And I also knew she would not be happy with what came next. Maxim stood, his face expressionless, as he waited for her decision. But the Prillon collar we’d brought for her hung limply in his palm. That collar would connect our mate to both of us in the most intimate bond possible. Her emotions would become ours. She would become acutely aware of exactly how badly I wanted her. Combined with what I knew Maxim must be feeling, I had no doubt our volatile little mate would be overwhelmed.

Tense silence stretched as Rachel rubbed her hands over her face and neck, through her hair in self-soothing gestures I longed to handle for her. The tenderness welling up within me was both welcome and completely unexpected. I’d been a hard fucking bastard for a long time. I’d believed myself incapable of such soft feelings. But that was the miracle of a mate and I prayed to the gods she would not refuse us.

“Fine. Fine! I’ll go.” She didn’t sound convinced, but that didn’t matter. She’d agreed. Once we had her on The Colony, we could show her how much we wanted her. Needed her. She would discover what it meant to be loved and protected by two ruthless Prillon warriors.

“Good luck, Rachel. I’ll keep the warden updated on this end,” the lawyer said. “But until she files her official report, this conversation never happened.”

“Agreed.” Warden Egara went to a table and picked up a tablet, slid her fingers over the screen, studied it. “Rachel Pierce, per Coalition protocol, I must ask you several questions. You have agreed to the match made by the Interstellar Brides Program testing that was saved to your profile. Is this correct?”

Rachel looked to Maxim, then me, lifting her chin in a gesture of resolve. “Yes, that is correct.”

“Are you now legally married?”

“No.”

“Do you have any offspring?”

“No.”

“Very good. Normally, you would be processed for your matching planet and then transported, however we are dealing with rather unusual circumstances. Your mate and his second are here. Therefore, I now strip you of your Earth citizenship. You are now an official citizen of Prillon Prime and their secondary planet, The Colony. You are now officially a Prillon bride.”

A little sound escaped Rachel’s throat, but she said nothing. Her new reality was upon her. She was officially—legally—ours.

“Thank you, Warden,” Maxim said. “Rachel, I give you my word, we will never harm you. You have nothing to fear from myself or from Ryston. It is our job to protect you, cherish you. Claim you.”

I watched her swallow, then nod, her eyes quite wide.

“You belong to me, to Ryston—” no one in the room could miss the way she was bothered by the word belong, her eyes narrowing to thin slits as she crossed her arms beneath her breasts, “—and we must ensure your safety. You can’t transport to The Colony without this.”

He held up the collar, the one that would one day match the one about my neck, and the one about Maxim’s. It was a trinity collar and the circle would only be complete when she had hers about her neck.

She looked at it oddly. “What…what is it for?”

“This will mark you as a Prillon bride and alert all others that you have been claimed.” His voice was a deep growl, but she didn’t appear to be intimidated. Thank the gods. When Maxim used his commander voice, grown fucking men pissed themselves.

She looked at Warden Egara. “Like a wedding ring?”

The warden lifted a brow and gave a slight nod. “Kind of. As a visible sign that you have mates, yes. But it’s a bit more than that.”

“I don’t understand.” Rachel looked from Maxim’s neck to mine. Her gaze lingered as I answered her question.

“Without the collar, we would be challenged for you. There are very few women on The Colony. We are banished warriors, forgotten. You are the first Interstellar Bride sent to us. Without the collar around your neck, every warrior who sees you will try to claim you for his own.”

“No.” Her denial was instant and vehement.

“I share your sentiment, mate.” Maxim stepped closer and watched as her pulse raced. “You are mine. I will destroy any other who tries to take you from me.”

“I’ll help,” I added, and Rachel’s gaze darted between us, but it was not fear that clouded her vision now, but desire.

Her hand circled her throat in a sweet display of nerves and I wanted to secure her hands behind her back and kiss her, right there. But it was Maxim she addressed. “Caveman much?”

Warden Egara laughed. I did not know what my mate’s question meant, but was saved trying to answer by the warden. “They are intense, Rachel. But I promise you, they’ll treat you like a goddess. It’s in their DNA.” The warden indicated the collar with a lift of her chin. “The collar will connect you to your mates in a way that’s hard to explain. They will be able to sense your emotions, and you will know what they’re feeling when you are near one another.”

Maxim held the collar up and his jaw clenched when her small hand brushed his skin, taking it from his much larger palm. “Fascinating. How does it work?” Her gaze lifted to mine and I was relieved to see curiosity there, not fear.

“I’m no scientist, mate. I do not know.”

Maxim agreed. “Nor I. I was a commander. Now I am governor of Base 3. But, once we arrive, you can ask the doctor anything you’d like. I will bash in his skull if he does not give you satisfactory answers.”

“You guys are too much.” Her fingers stroked the smooth black strip. Embedded within were microscopic circuits that would link her to us forever. And once we officially claimed her, the collar would match Maxim’s and mine, the deep fiery copper would look magnificent against her creamy flesh.

She sighed and lifted her head. “I really have to wear this to go?”

She was questioning everything, and I couldn’t blame her, but I was becoming impatient. I wanted her on The Colony where no one could take her from us, where we could protect her. Where she couldn’t run.

Maxim offered her a rare smile. “You do not know much of The Colony. You must trust us. You are the only thing that matters to us now. We will never allow any harm to come to you.”

She shook her head. “Big words, warrior.” She licked her lips, but returned her attention to the collar. “Very big words.” Her doubt was evident, but there was no help for it. She’d been betrayed by her own people. Earning her trust would take time. Time we would have, once we got her off this fucking planet.

“We are a planet of exiles, banished when we no longer fit into life on our home world. Like you, we were trapped against our will, for reasons out of our control. We understand your frustration, and your fear.” Maxim stepped forward and lifted his hand to her cheek. She didn’t lean into his touch, but she didn’t pull away either. It was a start.

“Okay,” she said, her shoulders relaxing. “Let’s do this.”

I didn’t breathe as I waited. Waited. She lifted the collar and put it about her neck. She lifted her hair and placed the ends near one another. I knew the moment they sealed automatically, seamlessly. All at once, I felt the mating bond.

I felt her.

Rachel

I reached for the thin strip of black material. The ribbon looked as innocuous as a piece of silk I might have tied in my hair as a little girl, but I felt like a dog putting on a collar as I lifted it to my neck. I would have refused had my mates not already each been wearing one as well.

When in Rome…

The collars were no more than an inch thick and somehow emphasized the thick, muscled bands of my mates’ necks. Mine was black, but my mates’ collars were a deep, beautiful copper color. Rather than make them look feminine or weak, the copper bands made them look like savage warriors, stronger. Stranger. Exotic and sexy and impossible to take in all at once.

And that pussy-clenching reaction happened before I could even begin to process their odd skin coloring and eyes.

The big one, Maxim, my matched mate, was nearly seven feet tall. He wore a dark, mottled uniform of some kind that looked like camouflage for hiding in the shadows, or outer space. His features, while mostly human, were angled a little too sharply and his skin was a dark red brown, the rich hues of an African American, yet more copper toned, more caramel less mocha. It was an odd color that defied true description, but was stunning. Remarkable. I wanted to touch, to feel the color’s warmth. His eyes were dark, a rich brown that made me feel like I was drowning. I couldn’t think when I held his gaze. Hell, I couldn’t breathe and look into those eyes. And that scared the hell out of me.

Of course, he’d pulled apart the bars of my jail cell as if he were Superman, so he definitely revved every single bit of estrogen in my body. If a man could do that with his hands, it made me wonder what else he could do.

My second mate, Ryston, was huge as well, just a few inches shorter. He wore the same strange armored uniform, but he looked like a walking golden halo. His skin and hair, even his eyes were a pale gold so fair it looked almost silver. His left eye and temple had been modified with some kind of cyborg implants that created odd tracks of silvery blue in his skin and gave the inner rim of his eye a strange, silver glow.

I looked at the warden as I closed the collar around my neck. As soon as the ends neared one another, they closed automatically, like two magnets finding their opposites. A heady warmth flooded my neck before racing up and down my spine. I shivered as the heat spread inside my skull, like someone was pouring a pitcher of hot water inside my head, filling me up.

Something clicked. That was the only way I could describe what happened. And then…

God.

Pain. Lust. Worry. Longing. Power. Aching loneliness.

My mates’ emotions flooded me with such ferocity my knees collapsed.

Before I could hit the floor, Maxim’s massive arms lifted me, holding me to his chest like I was a small child. In fact, I felt small and helpless as the chaos bubbling inside me only increased with the physical contact.

Touching me actually hurt him. Not a physical pain, but an emotional need so deep, so starved for so long, that contact with me made him ache.

I knew Maxim carried me, but I closed my eyes and relaxed against his chest. I’d made my decision. No sense fighting it now.

“We are ready for transport, Lady Egara.” Maxim’s deep voice rumbled out of his chest and through me, causing my breasts to grow heavy and my core to ache.

Holy shit. I was in deep fucking trouble here.

“Don’t call me that.” The warden’s voice sounded, for the first time since I’d met her, flustered.

Ryston answered her. “You will always be a lady of Prillon Prime. Your mate’s brother resides on The Colony. He sends his regards.”

Maxim must have worked to control his emotions because the blast of sensation from him faded and I took a deep breath, grateful that I was back in control of my body. In control, but I wouldn’t stop the memories from flooding me now that I had two men of my own. Two mates. Two huge bodies to lay me between them. Two huge cocks to stretch me open, fill me up, make me scream…

Holy shit. That processing dream was suddenly on a running loop in my head and I couldn’t think about anything but fucking. Being taken. Claimed. Wanted.

Lust was too tame a word for the spiral of emotions spinning through me. Mine. Maxim’s. Ryston’s. I couldn’t tell which desires were mine and which were theirs. But their emotions tasted different in my mind. Maxim like a cold, banked fire, so intense that touching it would singe me to the bone. And Ryston, he was like a wild storm inside me, ardent, impatient and eager.

“Control yourself.” Maxim’s command barely penetrated, but soon after both of my mates must have shut down their emotions as much as possible because suddenly, I could think. I was still thinking about their cocks filling me, their hands all over my body, but at least I could think.

Maybe that was the worst of it.

Opening my eyes, I found that Maxim had carried me to stand inside a strange room with blue lights glowing all around us. Beside us, on the floor, was an odd pool of bright blue water that looked, and smelled, oddly inviting.

Ryston stood beside us. But he wasn’t looking at the warden. His pale golden eyes were focused completely on me.

And just that quickly, I gasped, jerking in Maxim’s arms as Ryston’s emotions flooded me. Longing. Fear of rejection. Hope. Desire. Anger that I’d been threatened. Shame at needing to touch me, but stubborn pride in his ability to resist.

Everything feminine and gentle in me responded to my mates’ pain. I needed to soothe them. I needed to offer comfort in the face of such stoic emotional agony.

“God, I’m in trouble here.” I muttered the words to myself, but both of my mates’ faces turned to focus on me. And they focused. Completely. As if nothing else in the universe mattered but what I might say next. It was uncanny and wonderful all at the same time.

I held out my hand to Ryston, unable to deny him what he so desperately needed for another moment.

His giant golden hand wrapped around mine and I was flooded with his gratitude and contentment, his longing to make me happy, even before he spoke. “My contaminated flesh does not frighten you?”

I squeezed his hand and squinted at him in confusion. “Contaminated flesh?”

Years of physiology and biochemical knowledge jumped to a red-alert status in my mind as I waited for his answer. No matter what was wrong with him, I could find a way to fix it. Figuring out biochemical reactions was my life. Well, was my life. Before GloboPharma, and prison, and…aliens.

Maybe these aliens needed me. Maybe I could be useful on their planet. The prospect of having a puzzle to solve almost made up for my concern over Ryston’s health. Almost. “What do you mean? What are you contaminated with? Where is it?”

Maxim’s quick intake of breath meant I’d said something unexpected even before both of their reactions flooded my mind. Shock. Disbelief. Confusion.

“This, mate. My face. My eye. Maxim’s arm. We both carry lasting marks from our time with the enemy.” Ryston lifted his free hand to point to the silver markings in his temple.

I studied the unique, computerized-looking circuits that had been imbedded in Ryston’s flesh. The entire area was no larger than my palm. Not exactly an overwhelming piece of body art. I wanted to touch it, just to see what it would feel like under my sensitive fingertips, but that was all. And my hope for something useful to do with my future faded as well. “Everyone has scars. Yours don’t bother me.”

It was the truth. A few odd silvery lines? Big deal. I’d seen tattooed bikers with their entire upper torso inked in full-color chaos including skulls, naked women, Celtic designs, animals and all kinds of craziness. I’d seen people who had survived fires, the scars much larger and more obvious than a small streak of silver. Hell, I’d seen worse in the radiology wing of the cancer treatment center.

Ryston’s smile made my heart hurt and he bent down to kiss the back of my hand he held. “You are truly a miracle, mate.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say that.” I didn’t understand what the big deal was but apparently, my reaction mattered. A lot. Maxim’s response was nearly as strong, his emotions bombarding me with hope and relief.

My mates needed to get out into the world and see some truly gruesome things if they thought I’d be turned off by a shimmer of silver in their skin. Please.

They broke me out of prison. They pretty much had me at Hello.

Maxim kissed the top of my head and I was irrationally delighted by the gesture, my chest flooding with warmth at his open display of affection.

I shouldn’t care. Emotional attachment was completely irrational. I’d known these two for all of fifteen minutes. But I did care. For some reason, I cared more than I was ready to admit. And after being alone through the arrest, trial and incarceration, it felt good to be held, to be touched. To be cherished—at least that was what the collar was making me feel.

“We are ready for transport, Warden.”

“Not quite, Governor. While I implanted her NPU so you would understand each other and communicate, her body has yet to be processed for transport to The Colony.”

Maxim sighed, clearly impatient, but unwilling to argue with the warden. “What do we need to do?”

“Place her in the water and step back. I’ll transport you two first. Once the protocol is initiated, she will be just a few minutes behind.”

Ryston squeezed my hand and released me, albeit reluctantly. Maxim, too, seemed strangely upset at the idea of being separated from me, even for a short time.

For big, bad-ass aliens, they were acting like marshmallows. And I liked it. A lot.

Maxim kissed the top of my head before bending down and settling me in the water, clothes and all. The water was warm, like a nice hot bath, and I immediately began to feel lethargic, sleepy.

Processed for transport? What the hell did that even mean?

I turned my head to look at Warden Egara. She looked strange as the blue lights surrounding the water cast odd shadows. I tried to ask about the lights, but my questions were already fading from my mind, as if they no longer mattered. Nothing mattered. I felt like I was in a dream. An amazing, comfortable, wonderful dream. The warden gave a little wave and swiped her finger over the table. “Good luck, Rachel. Your new life will begin in three…two…one…”

I tried to stay awake, but the bright blue light surrounded us and my head was suddenly too heavy to hold up.

The wall made a soft scraping noise as large panels shifted, closing us in like rats in a cage. For a split second, all I could think about was the scientific reality of transport, of my body being torn into billions of chunks of data and somehow streamed hundreds of billions of miles away, across the universe, to some strange planet I’d never seen.

Assuming all of those billions of tiny pieces of me were reassembled in one piece, I’d still never see Earth again. I’d never again put on my white lab coat or drive my car. Or smell a rose. Or watch snow fall in the mountains. Or hold a puppy. Stupid things. Little things. But losing them all together, in one big clump, hurt.

I wasn’t ready for this. If I’d volunteered for the Brides Program, or planned to accept a match, I could have figured all this shit out before I had to give it up. In the rush, I felt like something was being stolen from me. Like the millions of little things that made me who I was were being taken away. And I had no choice.

Yes, I had two hunky aliens who vowed to protect me, but somehow, I wasn’t quite sure that was going to be enough. The thought of never sleeping in my own bed again had tears streaming from the corners of my eyes. Stupid, but there you go. I couldn’t get them to stop.

A little whimper escaped before I could control myself, but Maxim’s voice found its way inside me, calming me.

“You are mine, Rachel. I won’t allow any harm to come to you.”

The vow sank into my head and heart as I felt the vehemence of the words flow through Maxim’s body. He meant what he said.

He was mine. All mine. This giant, powerful, fierce warrior was devoted to me and only me. Like, die-for-me devotion.

It wasn’t a new life, but it was a start.

And damn it that didn’t make it a little too easy to trust him and surrender to the darkness that rose to take me.