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Lord Thordis Jax, Mytikas City, Planet Alera

“My Lord, you’ve been summoned to the family mansion.” My head of household, a stern and highly efficient female, spoke from the doorway of my office.

“My mother?” I asked. Mother sent for me often. If she was lonely, or bored, or wanted to discuss the latest female she hoped to parade before me. Always scheming, my dear mother, hoping the right female would come along and awaken my dormant cock, inspire me to be more. She believed a mate would force me to increase my interest in politics and the family finances. I was in no hurry to be dragged around by the balls, crawling after a female. And in no mood to entertain my mother today.

“No, my lord. Your father. The traitor has been caught and detained. He has ordered you to come at once.”

The traitor? Caught? No wonder they called me. The two of them had been stressed and bothered—understandably—by the weight of the investigation on the Jax family. They thought us traitors. Zel, fuck, Zel had been one. I’d grown up with him, his father a guard for my grandfather. We’d gone to school together, been best friends. Until we’d grown apart. So far apart that he’d gone down a dark path, a path that led to his attempt at kidnapping the princess. And it had occurred right after I’d been seen talking with her at the royal reception, which only fueled the Optimus unit’s interest in us.

The traitor had been found. Thank fuck. I set the crystalline drink glass down on my desk and grabbed my coat. The air at this altitude was cold.

Dancing with the princess at the reception had made two things abundantly clear. One, Celene’s daughter was highly intelligent, not the uninformed, spoiled twit I’d been expecting.

And two? She knew a lot more about what was going on in Mytikas than she let on. And she was doing everything in her power to protect the identities of the other two females, both of royal blood if the spire lights were any indication—who had arrived on Alera with her.

Princess Trinity was a step—or ten—ahead of me, and I didn’t like that feeling. Not one bit. For despite what my mother believed, I’d been running the family estate for several years now. My father, not wanting to lose face in front of his beloved, pretended, and fed her bits of information that I provided to him. As I lived in my own apartment closer to the city center, it was easy for us to keep up the charade. My mother always worried overmuch about status, and money, and power. Best if she believed everything was going as it always had. That her mate was taking care of her, was still a competent, ambitious male.

He was old, he said. Tired. He wanted nothing more than to spend time with his expensive and exotic pets, drink a bit of wine, and fuck his mate. The last, I didn’t even want to think about. But he doted on her, and I had to respect at least that. This whole mess was wearing on all of us and I was glad to know it just might be over.

Especially since I’d agreed to accept the responsibility for the family. I had no mate, and my cock, after all these years, countless parties, and what felt like an infinite number of females paraded before me—had yet to be awakened. My mate nowhere to be found.

Things used to be quiet. Simple. At least until three spires randomly lit up the Mytikas sky just a short time ago. All of Alera probably thought the same thing I had, that our lives had changed overnight.

For most, the arrival of Princess Trinity gave hope, curiosity and even eagerness for the future. But for some, the lighting of the spires made decades of scheming and maneuvering for power suddenly irrelevant. The fights between the warring houses interested in taking over Queen Celene’s reign had gone suspiciously quiet. Just a week ago, the royal guard, including Princess Trinity’s mate, Leoron Turaya, had fought off another incursion into the sacred city.

Each time, the attacks on the capital city had been carried out by mercenaries carrying no banner. They were notorious for brutality in battle, and taking their own lives rather than surrender. I had spoken to my father’s own men, those who had fought beside the royal guard in the last battle, and they all said the same thing.

The mercenaries never talked. They fought to the death, or they vanished into the night. No injured men were left behind. Only the dead. And dead warriors told no tales.

I strode out to the street and slid into the seat of the EMV waiting to take me to my parents’ mansion. The Jax household had always been loyal to the crown. For thousands of years, we had served the bloodline of the ancients. So, too, had the other families. But they had yet to realize they had no fight left to win. Not with three new spires lighting the Aleran sky.

But the Jax household had plenty of fight at the moment. Not for the crown, but for a different reason entirely. There was a mole among us and we wanted to know who it was. A traitor willing to destroy the age-old name and the honor associated with the Jax family name. That made me want the EMV to move faster, to find out about this traitor they’d captured first hand.

When the princess first arrived, a group of Jax guards had been trusted to keep her, and her mystery companions, safe. All of the Jax guards had been killed, except Zel, who’d been seriously injured and in need of a ReGen pod for healing. Our most valuable and well-loved consort, Cassander, had been injured as well.

We’d believed the attack had come from someone outside the family, a group of assassins hired to kill our men.

But the night of the princess’s reception, we’d discovered a much more disturbing truth. It had been Zel who had been part of an ambush to kill Princess Trinity and the two females she’d transported with. When he hadn’t succeeded, Zel, the bastard, had kidnapped the royal from her own welcome reception.

Wearing a Jax family crest.

If he weren’t dead, I would kill him myself. Slowly.

Thankfully, Princess Trinity had been saved. Zel had been killed. While I wasn’t sorry to see him dead, I did wish I could interrogate him. Even though we’d grown up together, known each other almost like brothers, I didn’t know him now. I’d wanted to find out who he’d worked for. It was obvious now he’d just been a pawn. Not too intelligent. Highly disposable.

Without knowing who was leading the evil faction against Queen Celene’s daughter, the princess was not safe. The tension within the walls of the family mansion was incredible. Were all of the Jax family foes of the royal family? Did we wish them harm? Death? Those were the questions tossed about in the Aleran press.

No fucking way, but words weren’t enough to prove our innocence. With our honor tarnished, nothing less than the traitor’s head on a platter would prove our innocence. I was eager to see it done and had spent more time than usual with my parents. I had my own responsibilities, handling the financial fallout of our family’s newly tarnished name. I could not afford to hide in my apartment. There was too much at stake for my anxiety ridden mother, or my doting but irresponsible father to handle this fiasco alone.

There was another reason for my frequent presence in the Jax mansion these past few days. Someone within the household stirred something in me. A scent lingered in the air, something I could only describe as hypnotic in nature, tantalized my senses in almost every room. My cock stirred. Not fully awakened, but… no longer fully dormant either. I was in an agony of inertia.

It happened for the first time several days ago when I stood in the empty dining room. I’d eaten meals there my entire life and my cock never thickened, never swelled in my pants. Arousal became an instant hunger in me, as if I were hungry, but not for the food I knew would be served later in the day, but instead, for a female’s wet, willing pussy.

What the fuck had been wrong with me? A female was meant to awaken me, and only one at that. My mate.

I’d had to excuse myself, seek the privacy of my old bedroom to open up my pants to alleviate the growing ache in my balls, to see for the first time how my cock was now like a club, thickly-veined and broad-headed. Eager. I’d stroked it, felt the powerful pulse of desire that coursed through me at the contact, but it had been unfulfilled.

The arousal had faded. I had begun to wonder if, after reaching nearly thirty years with no mate, my body had simply gone mad. For there was no mate to be found, only that scent. Elusive. I caught the barest whisper of it here and there.

I felt as if I were hunting a ghost. Or, worse, losing my mind.

And so I’d been curious to know the answer. Eager to find the one who had awakened me. Every time I searched my childhood home, I could only hope to breathe in that elusive, addictive scent.

And in the days since, I’d grown frustrated—my cock only grew harder each time I caught the scent—my body more and more eager to fuck. To mate. To satisfy the female who’d been mysteriously taunting me.

The EMV came to a stop at the mansion’s entrance and I stepped from the vehicle into the cold air, my cock once again as it had always been, asleep. But there was a newfound eagerness in my steps as I made my way to the front door.

The servants greeted me and I handed my coat to a familiar face. Sometimes, it was good to be home.

Home. Perhaps, if I found a mate, I would return to the mansion and raise my children here, where my father could spoil them and my mother dote on them, lavishing them with a bit too much attention.

The idea of finding my mate consumed me, even now, as I went to face a traitor, I thought of her. Wondered what she looked like. What noble family she had been born to. For I had come to believe it was, indeed, a female who eluded me, for the scent of her mocked me from everywhere in this home. The library, my old bedchamber, even the coat closet. I was constantly aroused at my parents’ home and that made me crazy. I should be worried about this mole who had been caught, not eager to breathe in that mysterious sweet scent and have my cock rise once again.

For the first time in my life, I wanted to fuck. The desire had been dormant because… well, because. An Aleran male didn’t have his cock awaken until he found his mate. Before that moment, he felt arousal, but never got hard. I could stroke my cock and never find satisfaction or completion because my body was waiting for The One. But who the fuck was she?

I ran my hand over the back of my neck as I walked down the ornate hallway. My parents didn’t go for simple when they could show off their fortune.

I followed the sound of voices to my father’s office, strode in ready to beat the shit out of the traitor with my own fists. My pent-up energy needed an outlet and I was pleased a male without honor would provide one. Zel was dead, but this other… he would answer for his sins, or else.

I took in my father, my mother and three guards with their backs to me, all facing the long sofa positioned in front of the now-cold fireplace. If he wasn’t working at his desk—situated before the tall window that looked out over the property’s back lawn—he often sat there to read. This was his sanctuary and it was strange to see so many people within.

My mother heard my entrance and turned. “Thordis, I’m so glad you’re here.” She came over to me with her usual grace, put her hand on my upper arm. Her gray hair was pulled up into the customary bun, the lines in her face deeper than usual. Her lips were pinched. Her normally stoic face showed a mixture of worry and anger. “She was found searching through my bedchamber.”

I heard the word she and scented the dark forest at the same time. But this time there was much more than a hint of the erotic scent. My cock stirred, swelled. My body hardened into aching stone and my mind went blank. No longer just a male, I felt an instinct rise in me I’d never felt before. Powerful. Dominant. Ready to hunt…

Fuck it. Inwardly, I growled. I had to regain control. This wasn’t the time for my cock to—

“She?” I asked, confused, pulling myself together enough to pick up on that one word.

My mother turned and pointed. At her.

Long brown hair was coiled around her shoulders like the finest silk. Her eyes were large, a deep color that looked like sun-dried honey. Her lips were pink, and full. Ripe for kissing. And her gaze, when it locked on mine, was defiant. Rebellious.

My body, my mind, everything became consumed with one word. Mine. All I could think, all my brain, my body could consider was mine. Mine. MINE.

My mother stood between us, blocking my path to the female I was meant to claim, to fuck. And she was talking. Why was she still talking? “Yes, son, it was one of the maids. It was obvious she wasn’t cleaning beneath my desk in my bedroom, and when I asked her what she was doing, she said she was tidying.”

As my mother spoke, I stared at the maid. Her long hair was tucked behind her ears as if she weren’t vain, if style wasn’t a requirement. She was garbed in the simple household uniform, but it didn’t hide the swells of her breasts, the narrow waist. With her sitting, I couldn’t gauge her height, but she looked slight, as if I might be able to pick her up and carry her off to my bed without any strain.

It was her eyes though, the color of nature, that hooked me.

I didn’t see fear in their depths, as if she’d been caught and was afraid for her life. No, I saw defiance and a hint of… peace. But after a few seconds of staring, they widened, as if she hadn’t been surprised to be caught, but to see me. Something passed between us, some… current I didn’t understand, but my cock liked.

Her full lips parted and a pink flush crept into her cheeks. Goddess, she was lovely. My cock agreed. There was no question, no doubt, that she was my mate. The one I would keep safe and whole… mine. Forever.

And fuck! She was the mole, the traitor who’d been trying to have the princess killed. Her. She was responsible for the deaths of several Jax family guards. The one to drag our name through the mud with the media. It seemed impossible by looking at her. She was a maid, for goddess’ sake. Or was she?

My cock didn’t care who she was. What she was. My mind though, needed answers. And since the police had supposedly been called for, I needed them now before she was taken away.

I strode over to her, the Jax guards stepping back to clear my way. Taking hold of her arm, I tugged her to her feet and then across the room.

“I want to speak to her myself. Alone,” I called, but not turning to look at either of my parents. I didn’t give them time to argue, for we were through a side door and into the library before they could say a word. I shut the door behind me, spun her about and pressed her against it. Capturing her wrists, I lifted them up so they were by her head, my body keeping her pinned.

Fuck, she felt good. Soft in all the right places. Warm. And her scent. Yes, wild gardens, damp forests. She was what had been taunting me, awakening me.

My cock pulsed as it pressed against her belly. Lengthened. My balls drew up, ready to empty my cum into her. She’d awakened me. She was my mate, but I knew nothing about her.

“Who are you?”

Her eyes were wide and I watched her pupils dilate. I felt her warm breath on my face, felt the way she was all but panting. Her little pink tongue flicked out and licked her lower lip and I growled.

She whimpered in response.

“Tell me your name.”

I couldn’t help but roll my hips, my cock rubbing against her. Pre-cum seeped from the tip for the first time. I ached to be balls deep in her. To feel her pussy clamp down on my cock, to watch her face as she milked the cum from me. Fuck.

“You’re going to jail, you little snoop. Or should I call you murderer? If you don’t answer my questions, you’ll answer theirs. Their tactics will be much less pleasant than mine.”

I couldn’t help it. Couldn’t resist a second longer, so I kissed her.

Sweet, lush, her lips were perfect. She responded instantly, as if a fire had been smoldering, but now had the oxygen it needed to rage. Her lips parted and I took, my tongue finding hers, tangling.

She writhed against me, which only had my cock hardening impossibly further. The friction she created almost my undoing.

What was I doing? Kissing a traitor? I pulled my head back, never feeling so aroused in my entire life. “I want my cock so far inside you we won’t know where I end and you begin.”

A moan escaped her lips, which were now red and swollen, glistening from our kiss. I wanted to see them stretched wide around my cock, to feel that same lush tongue laving the crown and licking up every drop of my cum.

“If I’m going to jail, why are you kissing me?” she asked. Her voice was soft with a lilt to it. It called to me as if I’d heard it before. As if I’d heard it forever, even though it was the first time.

I pushed off the door, paced, ran my hand over the back of my neck. Stared at her. She was right. Why the fuck was I kissing a traitor?

I spun about, stalked close—but didn’t touch—and asked, “What is your role in my parents’ home?”

She looked down at herself in the bland uniform. It did nothing for her, only meant for her to blend into her surroundings, to disappear, like all servants should. But she could have worn a sack and she’d be beautiful.

“Maid.”

“Ah, you answer a question,” I replied, angry. Riled. I would never touch a woman in harm, especially not her. I wanted to fuck the questions right out of her and if that didn’t work, deny her the orgasms I could wring from her body until she gave every one of her secrets to me.

I closed the space between us—she hadn’t moved away from the door— and kissed her again, this time cupping her lush ass, pulling her up so her feet barely touched the floor. My cock was now aligned with her pussy and I rocked into her. Only our clothing separated us.

“You are pliant when aroused,” I commented, noting she was just as eager for me as I was for her. Our breaths mingled, our foreheads touched.

That made her still, her mouth close. Her little hands pressed against my chest to move me away, but I wouldn’t give her an inch. “And your mate doesn’t mind you fooling around with me to get answers?”

I stared at her, saw the hint of fire mixed with desire in her eyes, but there was outrage there as well, as if she thought I was in the wrong.

“Only awakened males get hard like you are. That means you have a mate out there somewhere… yet you’re touching me. How dare you?”

She thought I was already mated, that I would cheat? That made my anger simmer, for I was too honorable to do such a thing. She was the one without honor, the one destroying the Jax name. And why?

Clearly, she didn’t imagine that my cock was hard because of her, that she was the first woman I’d touched like this. Kissed. No, she thought me worse than a consort.

She had no idea she was mine, and for now, I would keep it that way.

“If you don’t talk, then I won’t either.”

Her silence only implicated her further and I owed her nothing. An innocent would spout like the courtyard fountain, trying to save her pretty neck. I would not turn this interrogation about and let her get any more information from the Jax family. Or about my cock.

Her lips pinched together into a thin line. She thought me a cheat, an adulterer.

My cock was not happy about this, for it wanted me to strip her bare, tug her to the soft carpet and fuck her senseless. I would not use my first time with my mate as an interrogation tool. It would not be like that between us.

But what would it be like? Was she duplicitous? Dangerous not only to my family but all of Alera? She didn’t seem like a mastermind to bring the downfall of the crown, but perhaps she was another pawn, like Zel. If she were being used falsely, blackmailed, I wanted to know.

Fuck, I wanted to know everything about her.

“The police are here.” My father’s voice carried through the thick door.

I stared at her, but she did not seem fearful of the threat of a Mytikas jail cell.

“Last chance,” I offered. I could delay the police, even send them away if I had answers.

She only crossed her arms over those full breasts I’d felt, the hard nipples I ached to feel against my palms.

Stubborn thing. Perhaps seeing the team of law enforcement would entice her to talk. The idea of others pressuring her, even laying their hands on her, made me see red. Made every protective instinct flare to life. But I would not bed this female—my fucking mate—without answers. Without the truth. If she wouldn’t give them to me, she’d have to give them to the police.

“So be it.” I took her wrist, pulled her away from the door so I could open it, led her back into my father’s office where he and my mother stood not just with the family’s security detail, but with three police officers. They wore the familiar dark uniforms, ion blasters on their hips along with other paraphernalia related to law and order.

One stepped forward and the female backed up a half a step, then stood her ground. Her chin tipped up in defiance.

She was a brave little thing. I wanted to reach out, tug her behind me and protect her from these officers, to take her away and get her to tell me her every secret with soft persuasion.

But when the officer put his hand on her shoulder my thoughts changed. No, they scattered. Stalled.

Between one breath and the next, she’d widened her stance, reached across and took hold of the officer’s hand, then used the other to strike up and out into his neck.

He bent slightly at the surprising contact, gurgled because her fingers had whipped into his throat. The hand holding her loosened and she twirled about, lowered to one knee and grabbed his ion pistol from his holster on his hip.

With just a flick of her finger, she shot him, the guard falling to the ground. There was no blood; she’d somehow set the weapon to stun.

Spinning on her heel, she aimed the weapon at the other guards, clearly ready to shoot.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

She was no maid. No mild, forest-scented female. She was ruthless, cunning and wicked with advanced training in hand-to-hand fighting skills.

My mate was some kind of trained assassin. The fact that she hadn’t killed the officer was a surprise. Or the rest of us. I didn’t care that my cock had awakened because of her. Clearly, she was guilty. We needed answers from her more than I needed to strip her naked and bury myself balls deep.

My body disagreed. My cock didn’t care who she was. It was practically ripping the fabric of my pants because they were so tight. It needed out, needed to be inside her. Now. Her little scene only made pre-cum slip from me, made me stifle a groan of desire.

She turned her head, looked up at me. That was her downfall.

The other officers took the opportunity to storm close, to retrieve the weapon from her. To subdue her. She fought, valiantly in fact. But her size was against her and she was quickly subdued. Cuffed. Lifted to her feet.

Her heated gaze held mine the entire time.

Perhaps I was her weakness. Perhaps she was mine. The attraction between us—from her side—was unmistakable. I hadn’t had an unwilling female pressed against a door or my hard body. She had kissed me back, melded her heat to mine.

When I finally took her, the heat would be explosive.

I was torn. Grab her? Save her? Carry her off? She hadn’t gotten her hands on my balls, but it felt like she had them in her grasp.

She had attacked an officer of the law. Stunned him with his own weapon.

For the moment, her fate was out of my hands. I had to watch her be dragged away. I knew she would be interrogated like the ruthless assassin she was and rot in jail, my cock be damned.