Читать книгу Tamed by the Beast - Grace Goodwin - Страница 8

Commander Deek, Planet Atlan, Bundar Containment Facility, Block 4, Cell 11

I startled awake, my body slick with sweat. The cot beneath me was too small for my frame in beast mode and I shifted onto my side. Three days. I’d been in this hell for three days. When I’d witnessed Dax’s fever come upon him, it had come upon him over two weeks, slowly building. But it had been in the height of battle and his rages had been disguised at first as battle adrenaline. Understandable, considering what the warlord had witnessed and fought against.

Most Atlan warriors had their fever build slowly, allowing them time to find their mate before their inner beast took over. But I wasn’t a normal Atlan warrior, it seemed, for I’d gone from a battle commander to a beast condemned within a day.

I’d raged through Battleship Brekk and it had taken four warriors to pin me down. Warlord Engel, visiting from Atlan, and no doubt eager to press the issue of his unmated daughter upon me once more, had been present when I lost control, had witnessed me attacking a young Prillon warrior during my rage. I could not recall that incident, for I was too far gone with the fever, but I’d wreaked havoc on the ship. A planned attack on a nearby Hive outpost had to be postponed and the sector gain we’d made against the enemy had been reversed. In the med unit, I’d been diagnosed with Phase Three Beast Complex. It was the final phase of a warrior’s deterioration. The phase where my mind would regain control less and less often, until I went full Beast and never came back.

There was no cure except a mating bond. I’d have to fuck my mate while in beast mode, coming deep inside her, marking her, claiming her and making her mine. Fucking in beast mode was not an issue. I could feel him within, his rage building and seeking an outlet for release. But I faced no Hive soldiers to kill, and I had no mate.

None. I was a threat to safety if I failed to take a mate, for even now, my fever did not wane. Simply lying in the cool cell, without battle or a female nearby to provoke the beast, the monster within me raged. Sweat soaked my skin, my clothes. Basic restraints had done nothing to contain me. I’d ripped them from the wall within the first five minutes of my confinement. Only the graviton force field was strong enough to hold a beast, and my cell had that powerful energy field hidden within every wall, the ceiling and the floor. The front of the cell appeared to be nothing but empty air, but I knew differently, had thrown myself against the grav-wall time and again while in beast mode last night. My strength could not defeat it. My beast had tried, but lost.

And so, immediately after transport back to my home world, back to Atlan, I’d been summarily sentenced to execution. Dax had visited and had afforded me four days’ delay, hoping that the fever would diminish or a mate would appear.

The way I felt, constantly on edge, my beast prowling inside me, ready to attack anything that came within reach, I knew the fever would not end. I would be forced to fuck. But the female before me now did not incite lust, but anger.

I growled, letting it rumble through my body at the futility of it all. How had this come about? I was of an age for the fever, yes, but not like this! There were no signs, no history with the males in my family line of losing control like I had.

My father died in the Hive wars when I was still a boy, but he fought for many years and died with honor. My grandfather fought for nearly a decade and come home, took a mate and still served on the other side of the planet as an advisor to top council members. None of my cousins had ever succumbed to the fever. The fact that I had, made me a blight on the family name.

And I still didn’t understand what had happened.

The nearly uncontrollable rage had come on so unexpectedly and intensely that I lost focus, my mind solely on soothing the beast. I could not think clearly, could not speak coherently or with any logic to defend myself or my death sentence after I attacked the Prillon warrior. My beast, restless and edgy my entire life, had become wild and inconsolable.

For the first time in my life, I was out of control. And I did not like the feeling.

The only avenue left to me was a mate. Somehow, the Atlan females who walked past my cell did nothing for my beast. Unmated themselves, they volunteered to soothe the beasts within the warriors who were locked up, their last chance to mate and end the fever. It worked frequently, but the beast within the warrior had to be receptive, had to want the female. Fucking for release with a female that was appealing enough was well and good for an Atlan male, but not enough during mating fever.

Only taking a mate would do. The warrior in the cell to the left of mine had found a worthy mate, for I could hear the rough sounds of fucking. Wild cries of pleasure, wet slaps of skin against skin, and the growls of the beast were loud in the cavernous corridors. This cellblock was nearly empty, just three of us locked up, and all from wealthy, highly respected families.

While my cock pulsed and throbbed, I tore open the front of my pants and stroked the thick length, trying to ease the discomfort. The sounds of fucking helped me stroke my cock to release, thinking of a mate beneath me, spread open for my cock, eager to have me take her hard and make her mine. I could see her cuffs about her wrists, the connection that was formed when my seed spilled inside her. But I could not see her face. And when my seed spurted over my hand and onto the floor, the fever did not taper. Nor did my need for the faceless mate that I knew would not—could not—save me.

Ripping my shirt over my head, I used it to wipe the seed from my fingers, dropped it onto the floor and put my foot on it to wipe up the spilled pool. Tucking my still erect cock back into my pants, I took a deep breath, then another.

The fire in my blood, the wild rage did not lessen its hold. Fuck. If I couldn’t get past this, I was going to be executed. And maybe that was a good thing. My beast was a fury in my head, a wild animal clawing at its cage, willing to die to be free.

“You look… well, Commander.”

My head whipped about at the apprehensive greeting. He was right to be afraid. Beyond the grav-wall stood Warlord Engel Steen and his daughter, the Atlan beauty I’d been expected to mate from the age of five, the stunning Tia. My beast had yet to find interest in her and I had long ago assumed it was not a match. They both looked at me as if I were an exotic animal in a zoo. Perhaps I was one, trapped behind the grav-wall and ogled by strangers, constantly under surveillance. The sound of a mating bond being formed continued from the next cell and Tia’s cheeks turned an embarrassed shade of pink, her arousal scenting the air as I watched her, inspected her yellow gown and the swell of her ample breasts, hoping my beast would calm, would show the smallest interest in a female.

In the nearby cell, the newly mated female screamed her release as the warrior in beast mode growled. When the growling ceased, I knew that warrior’s fever had been instantly soothed. He would walk out of his cell soon, soothed and mated. A free warrior once again.

I didn’t care that the Atlan had fucked a willing female, felt her lush body beneath his, enjoyed the hot, wet heat of her pussy, but I was damn jealous that the beast within him was finally appeased. It seemed nothing would please mine. He pushed at my control every moment of every day, as if he were already rabid, beyond saving. And even now, with a willing female standing before him, he prowled the cage of my mind, unsatisfied with what she offered. My logical mind knew I should take what had been offered dozens of times, throw Tia up against the wall and fuck her, allow her to cuff me and do her best to control me when the beast raged against the restraints.

But even as I thought of the possibility, my beast growled a warning. He was not interested. He would not acknowledge this woman as his mate, would not be tamed by her presence.

“That could be you,” Engel said, tilting his head toward the other cell, then looking down at Tia with an obvious question in his raised brows. A question I could not answer. The beast chose the mate, not I, and it did not want Tia. Fucking her would not change that. For years I’d laughed at the absurd claim of other warriors I knew who’d tried to explain this fact to me. I’d ignored them, at my peril. The beast was in charge now. All I could do was sit back and thank the gods he’d allowed me control long enough to get rid of our visitors.

Tia took a step closer to the grav-wall and the scent of her bathing oil, spices and nerdera flower, enveloped me as the air filtration system pumped their combined scents into the cell.

Revulsion made my beast growl. No. I had known her my entire life, and we both knew I held no desire for her. I admired and respected her, but my feelings were similar to those I held for my sister. My beast refused to become aroused by her. In fact, he became angrier each time they appeared with the same words, the same enticements. Engel wanted me to mate his daughter. My beast would not accept her. I’d told the man many, many times.

“We’ve come to offer you a second chance,” he continued. “You will be executed in three days, Commander. Surely, we would all prefer to avoid that.”

“Second chance?” I said, my voice rough and deep, so unfamiliar to me. It was more like twentieth, but I held my tongue.

“You don’t remember?” Tia asked, her gaze fixated on my bare chest. I could not miss her interest or her arousal at the sight of my body. In fact, I could smell the wet welcome of her pussy, but my beast skulked, refusing to be tempted.

She was a tall woman, statuesque. The perfect example of an Atlan bride. Her dark hair flowed long and free down her back and her floor-length yellow gown, the crisscross of gold outlining her perfect breasts showed off both her status as a wealthy Atlan elite, and her dark coloring to perfection. She was extremely beautiful, but my beast didn’t want anything to do with her. It would be so much fucking easier if he did.

Afraid to speak, worried my beast would snap or snarl, I shook my head.

“Your beast gains more control each day, Commander. We came yesterday. Tia offers herself to you as a mate. Let her save you.”

“She should speak for herself then.” I couldn’t hold the words back, for Engel wouldn’t have escorted her if he did not have his own machinations. I just didn’t know what they were. As a member of the ruling class, he had been in charge of interplanetary shipments and supplies for more than a decade. He was a very powerful man, wealthy and well connected, a ten-year veteran of the Hive wars. Engel wouldn’t come here to pawn off his daughter, to stand by as a beast fucked her, just to get her mated. She had her choice of mates.

“Why me?”

Tia’s cheeks blushed red and she bit her plump lower lip in a move practiced and well perfected. I knew. I’d watched her tempt warriors with that look many times before I’d joined the Coalition Fleet. “I’m willing, Deek. You know I’ve cared for you since I was a girl. We have known each other for years, and I wish for this union. I find you… attractive. We could be good together.”

Tia’s admittance surprised me, and my beast. While she may have been interested, my beast had never once found significance in her. I knew the beast’s desire would flare to life when I found the right mate, yet I never had. I’d fucked females, plenty of them, but Tia didn’t want just a hard fuck with a condemned warrior. She wanted to mate me. She wanted forever. She wanted me to give her control of my beast.

“Why me, Tia?”

“You were my best friend. It’s always been you, ever since we were young ones in the nursery. You know I followed you around like a shadow. Always. I don’t want to see you die, Deek. Please. I want to spend the rest of my life by your side, as your mate.”

My beast roared to life. “No,” it shouted, pushing to the fore. My skin tightened and the heat of the beast roared through my veins. The muscles bulged on my neck and arms and my back elongated, stretching to accommodate the monster straining to break free. I pushed him back, barely holding on to control as Tia gasped, backing away from the grav-wall.

“Then you die,” Engel said, his gaze narrowed and filled with a level of hatred I’d never seen from him before. It was not my intention to hurt Tia, but the beast was in control, and the beast was tired of having the same female be thrown at him over and over, despite his rejections.

I breathed hard, tried to calm my pounding heart so I could respond. “I would take her here, fuck her against the wall. I would not be gentle. I would hurt her, Engel; her presence does not calm my rage. You want that for Tia?” I asked him, my hands clenched into fists.

Tia put a hand on her father’s shoulder. “Let me speak with him, Father.”

Engel nodded, gave me a hard look, then left.

Tia remained. She walked to the side of the grav-wall and removed a small black pouch from her pocket, placing it in the slot used to pass items to me without the risk of lowering the grav-walls protective shield. She pressed a button and the small drawer slid through the wall to emerge on my side of the containment cell.

I opened the hatch and looked down to see my great-grandmother’s most beloved possession, a family heirloom that had been passed to Tia’s family line three generations ago. I knew what was inside the engraved pouch, but still, I could not resist opening the top and pouring the wealth of gold links into my hand.

I looked at it, then at her. “Why would you give this to me?”

“You are afraid you are too rough for me, that the beast within you will hurt me. It is a present, for the beast. Perhaps touching something that has touched my skin will ease your fever in some small way.”

I lifted the necklace from my palm. The small elaborate gold and graphite coils were cool to the touch, smooth. If the gift was meant to pacify me, it was not working. Nothing would work from Tia, for she was not my mate. My life would be so much easier if my beast would accept her. But he refused.

I placed the necklace back into its pouch and sent it back to Tia using the small drawer. “Keep it, Tia. When you find the mate you are destined for, neither the necklace nor your eagerness will be denied.”

“Please, Deek. At least try…” She lifted a hand to her shoulder and shrugged her gown off the side, exposing her entire shoulder, her neck and most of her breast.

“No.” My voice rose as I spoke, the beast was eager to tell her off. She was not my mate, and the beast was eager to ensure she would not return. I had no desire to waste the short time I had left giving her false hope. “We were friends as children, Tia. But I’ve been gone a long time. I am not the same man that left. And as much as I wish you were, you are not my mate. The beast can smell your desire, the wet heat of your pussy. He does not desire you. He will not allow me to touch you. I am sorry.”

Anger flared in her eyes as she tilted her chin up and I saw a flash of the childhood hellion I remembered so well. “You are so stubborn, Deek! Tell your beast to shut up and accept what is offered.”

“I can’t. It doesn’t work that way.”

“Why not? You’d rather die?”

“It’s not my choice. The beast is in control now. If my true mate is not found, if she can’t soothe the mating fever, if my beast will not surrender to her, then yes, I die willingly. I cannot live with this fever raging in my blood.”

I was prepared for death, expected it even. Tia’s shocked expression surprised me. Why should my honesty distress her? Was she expecting me to change my mind and take her out of desperation? The beast would not allow that to occur. The beast would rather die, and probably would. Warlord Engel was right about one thing… I was running out of time.

She pursed her lips as if she would say more, but she didn’t. She retrieved the necklace and watched me for a minute that felt like an eternity.

“Goodbye, Deek. I hope you find what you’re looking for. And if you change your mind, I’ve left my information with the guards.”

“Thank you, Tia. But I won’t change my mind.”

She nodded. Turning on her heel, she readjusted her dress to cover herself and walked out of sight. I knew she would not return.

What logic I had left wondered if she was truly my last chance at survival?

The beast within said no. He didn’t want her. Didn’t like anything about her. It never had.

And yet, the beast still raged, still demanded his mate.

I dropped down onto the bed, my head in my hands. The beast pressed at my mind like a tidal wave rushing toward the shore to wipe out what remained of my sanity.

My mate would not come, and I would die.

Tiffani

“Execution?” I pulled on the restraints that held me to the table in the processing room in a futile act of panic. “No. They can’t kill him.”

Warden Egara’s smile was sad. “I’m afraid that is the Atlan way. Once a male is lost to the mating fever, there is no redemption.”

“But he has a mate! Me! I can redeem him, save him. Whatever,” I pleaded with her. There had to be some kind of mistake. This couldn’t be happening. I had a guy who wanted me and he was set to be executed? I think not. “Send me there. The protocol matched us. Officially, by alien law, he’s mine. Isn’t that correct? I am already his mate. Doesn’t that grant me some kind of rights? I have the right to see him. I demand to see him.”

Her eyebrows lifted into severe arcs as she considered me long and hard. She looked over her shoulder and spoke. “Can you hear her, Sarah?” The warden nodded her head, listening. She was having a conversation with someone on the far side of the universe. If I wasn’t in a processing center, I’d think she was crazy. Especially since I couldn’t understand a thing the woman was saying. Her voice was too faint, and all I could hear was the pounding of my rage in my ears. “And what if something goes wrong?”

A deep, rumbling voice came through the speaker then, much louder and more commanding. It reminded me of the voice from my vision and a shiver of rekindled need raced across my skin. “There’s no room for mistakes. If she comes to us, she must have the courage to see it through. Should she fail, he dies,” the voice boomed, startling me.

Warden Egara turned to me and I hardened my resolve. No one, and I mean no one, was stealing this from me. “I won’t fail. He’s mine.”

The warden nodded, turning back to the screen, to the large Atlan male I could hear but not see. “I believe her, Warlord. I think we should give her a chance to save him.”

“Very well. I’m not prepared to give up on the commander. Send her to us. We will get her in to see him.”

Warden Egara actually bowed her head before responding, as if she were speaking to royalty or something. “As you wish, Warlord Dax. If you have transport codes, I will initiate her transport now.”

“They should be arriving at any moment.”

Even as he spoke, the bright blue lights behind me began to flash and brighten and my chair jerked into motion. “What’s happening?”

“Received. Thank you. The commander’s mate is on her way.” Warden Egara ended her call and walked toward me with a sad smile on her face. “Good luck, Tiffani. I am sending you to Warlord Dax and his mate, Sarah. She is from Earth and recently matched. They will help you break in to see your mate.”

That didn’t sound good. Unlawful. Dangerous.

“Break in? Why would I have to break in?”

“He’s in Atlan prison, dear. On death row, as we call it. And you are not an Atlan female, or a member of his family.”

That made no sense. He’d committed no crime other than having his own genetic nature take its course. But I would be committing a crime to see him? I was the one who would be breaking the laws?

“But I’m his mate. And you said I would be a citizen of Atlan now, no longer a citizen of Earth. I should be allowed to see him. I shouldn’t have to break in anywhere.”

She nodded. “Very true, but rules are rules. And only Atlan females are allowed into the containment facilities. Good luck. I hope your attempts are enough to save you both.” She checked her tablet once more and I had a flash of déjà vu as she lifted her head and spoke. “When you wake, you will be on Atlan. Your processing will begin in three… two…”

I tensed, waiting for that last word and wondering what the hell I had just gotten myself into. Breaking into prison? Death row? Beast mode? Holy shit.

“One.”

The blue light flashed and I sank deeper into the pale blue water. I felt like I was inside an egg as the door to the examination room slid closed, locking me within. I closed my eyes and waited, terrified of what would happen next, but the longer I was in the water, the more relaxed I felt.

Were they freaking drugging me? The idea of breaking in to a prison didn’t seem quite so bad. Nor did a mate who was part beast. I felt… relaxed.

When my eyelids drifted closed with an irresistible urge to sleep I realized, yes, they absolutely were pumping me full of some kind of feel-good, either in the water or in the air, and I simply didn’t care.