Chapter 13

Calie cried out as Kaden penetrated her in one swift move. Zings of pleasure pelted her from head to toe.

“Yes!” She arched her hips, desperate for more. “Yes!”

Hands by her head, he propped himself up and gazed down at her with those piercing amber eyes, his lust a glowing, molten heat in their depths. His cock twitched inside her, and her walls responded, contracting around him.

“Mine,” he said.

One word, more a growl than an intelligible syllable.

For once, the concept of possession didn’t strike fear and rebellion in her. Instead, a fierce possessiveness roared to life within her.

“Mine,” she echoed back at him, and opened her heart wide, taking a leap into the unknown, letting everything she was feeling flood her face.

A feral glow lit up his expression, and then he was moving, rocking hard, penetrating her over and over. The intensity lit her up inside and out. Blanketed her brain in bliss.

Thoughts, gone . Worries, poof .

Sensation ruled her.

Her chest heaved with her quick breaths, and she bit her lower lip on a moan as her man drove into her again and again. Then he paused with the tip of his head at her opening, teasing her.

“Kaden!” Crazed and needy, she rolled her hips, her heels digging into his ass, demanding his return. He complied with her unspoken command, surging forward, filling her once more, up and back, a blissful wave of sensation, and ohmigod the way this man could swivel his hips to hit her clit just right every damn time sent her into a frenzy.

She couldn’t stop her cries of pleasure, even if she wanted to.

Which she didn’t.

Let the whole damn ship know how good he made her feel.

Urgency gathered in her muscles, and her breath froze in her lungs, thighs quivering.

Almost there... “Yes, Kaden. Yes!”

Kaden growled in that wicked way of his, sending shivers over her skin. Then he shifted his trajectory and worked some magical twist and dive within her, traipsing his erection over a super sensitive spot, the delicious friction tearing more yips of pleasure from her throat and pushing her to the brink.

“Come for me, mate.” Balancing on one hand, he reached between them and flicked her swollen nub.

“Ah!” Calie climaxed hard.

Her mind fractured into a bazillion wonderful stars as her body bucked, as her vagina spasmed and fisted Kaden’s cock. He stilled, locked in deep and tight, tilted his head back and roared, the veins in his neck bulging as he came and came and came. Every splatter against her walls had her echoing his bellows while her insides continued to contract around him, stuck on wicked, wonderful repeat.

And when she thought she couldn’t take one more iota of pleasure, he leaned over and bit her neck, rutting into her and sending her into another round of tempestuous pleasure.

A girl could get used to this bliss...

A glorious eternity later, her legs turned to jelly and released their death grip on his hips, while her arms flopped, useless at her sides.

Kaden hung his head and held himself snug inside her, his arms of freakin’ steel firmly bracing him above her when all she wanted was to feel the full weight of him smooshing her to the bed.

“Come here.” Wow. Could she sound any breathier? Her throat was scratchy and parched from all the sex sounds she’d let loose. And who cared? Not her.

In a smooth move, Kaden lowered himself and rolled them to their sides. One firm hand cupped her ass, securing their connection with his seriously-not-any-smaller dick still inside her swollen sex.

She slid her loosey-goosey leg further up his side, enjoying the sensation of their locked-in bodies, even as her spent muscles cried out in surrender. She settled an arm across his waist, the other tucked between them, resting against his rock-hard abs. His dry, smooth abs. Not a drop of sweat, the lucky cyborg, while Calie, on the other hand, could certainly use another high-tech shower.

Kaden didn’t seem to mind her damp state at all, given the way he kept them joined at their cores. He sifted one hand through her braids, lifting then letting them dribble from his fingers.

God, that feels so nice.

Savoring the afterglow, she closed her eyes and enjoyed his caresses on her hair, her face, the hollow of her shoulder. Kaden repeated the same path from head to shoulder, the rhythm so soothing Calie struggled to keep her lids open. Fatigue flowed through her limbs, and her mind floated.

Somehow, she managed to open her mouth to whisper, “Keep petting me like that, and I’m going to fall asleep.”

To which Kaden replied with a grunt and a soft, warm kiss on her forehead. “Rest, then, my little mate.”

“I’m not little,” she slurred while sleepiness spirited her away.

And what’s all this mate business? She wanted to ask, but she drifted further down, down, into comfy cozy darkness.

He gathered her closer, nestling her head into his shoulder. “You’re little compared to me, dear one. And you are now and forever more, my mate.”

She thought she heard him add, “Whether we remain together or not.” But she was too far gone.

Later. She would ask him about it later.

* * *

Fourteen days later to be exact, and Calie still hadn’t mustered up the courage to ask Kaden about the mate deal. Instead, she’d thrown herself into playing house with her big and beautiful cyborg boyfriend, determined to make the most out of every second they had left together before they reached Terra and went their separate ways.

When they weren’t making out and having sex, which was pretty much most of the time—both of them insatiable, it seemed—Calie kept busy sharing meals and downtime with Kaden and the rest of the crew, helping around the ship, and studying up on her new home planet and the Terrans.

Her current study session had her hiding out in one of her fav spots on the ship with a vid pad on her lap and Athena on her wrist. She’d nicknamed the spot Calie’s Crow’s Nest, given its shape and location atop the ship. It was a fine place to ponder life, the galaxies, and everything in between. Like the fact she had to say farewell to the man who meant so much to her, more than she could’ve thought possible, given the relatively short length of their relationship. Then again, they’d packed a whole lifetime in these past couple of weeks—

Her throat tightened and her eyes prickled. No. Not going there. Study.

She tore her gaze from the spectacular view of space and flicked a fingertip across her screen to the next picture of Terra, some government building with a brief history presented under it.

During her last study time, Athena finally explained why she’d never mentioned the existence of other humans in the Aurora Cluster—the AI believed the Terrans would not rescue her. They had a reputation for never negotiating with terrorists. Or slavers like the Q’Larev.

Furthermore, due to some infuriating-to-Calie loophole—something about indentured servitude, which soooo didn’t apply to Calie’s situation at all—Terra and the Interstellar Aurorae Coalition allowed the Q’Larev to force beings to work for them in their mining outpost on the edge of IAC space. Their hands-off policy had worked in the past, but now the Zyphorrans were clearly fighting for dominance, challenging the Coalition’s galactic rules and regs, and adding what was left of the Q’Larev, along with other races they defeated, to fight on their evil team.

And what was even worse news for Calie, personally? The super creepy, alien bad guys want me.

When Kaden had shown her footage of the coffin-like prison tube thingie from the Zyphorran ship that was just her size, then admitted their belief the race sought Calie for some as yet unknown purpose, she’d almost lost the lunch she’d just shared with Kaden.

Now, though, it simply pissed her off.

She scowled at the pad, frustrated at the idea of being a pawn in a deadly game she didn’t understand.

“I really really don’t want to be on anyone’s Most Wanted list, Athena. Let’s figure out how to get me off the game board.”

Calie tapped the vid screen to another section on Terra, swiping through some serene nature pictures, hoping to boost her mood, then nudged the bracelet on her wrist. “Have you hacked into the ship yet? I want to know what else the cyborgs know about the situation.”

Kaden and the others assured her she knew as much as they did, but she suspected they had more theories. And she really wanted them to spill all the tea. She understood the cyborgs’ protective ways, especially now that they’d basically adopted her into their collective, albeit temporarily, but still—

Athena harrumphed. “No. Trace is good.”

Calie chuckled. “I know that was hard for you to admit.”

“I am made of awesome, so you might as well admit defeat, my sweet AI,” Trace teased. Of course, he was eavesdropping. The man had no boundaries.

And his snark rivaled hers. “Oops. You’re busted, Athena.”

“Do not call me sweet,” her pal snipped at Trace. “Desist, or I will infiltrate your system and delete your base programming. You’ll be nothing but a stupid statue when I’m through with you.”

Trace was quick with a comeback, and the two geniuses fell into one of their typical bouts of lively banter. Instead of entertaining her, this time, their bickering twisted her gut into knots.

I’m going to miss this.

She loved being a part of their team, and all the men had started to feel like family, helping to fill the void left by the loss of her parents. Her besties on Earth and their kitty rescue work had helped too, of course, but in the wilderness of space, the life-and-death nature of existence had bonded her with the cyborgs much more quickly and deeply than most friendships she’d forged on Earth.

And then there’s Kaden...

She loved him.

There. I thought it . No more denying it to herself out of fear of big emotions.

And there would be no rejecting of it because it hadn’t followed some “normal” trajectory or cookie-cutter timeline for a relationship. Earth rules didn’t apply in another galaxy. Hell, if she were on her home planet, the “dating rules” probably wouldn’t have applied there, either. Not when it came to him.

Kaden had blasted his way into her heart from the jump.

Below her, the door to her hideaway slid open and her brawny, sexy-as-sin cyborg filled the entrance, gazing up at her with curiosity and caring in his expression.

The past few days, when they were alone, the man had let his excellent poker face slip off more often, revealing his raw, real emotions. It made her feel important. Treasured. Neither of them had uttered the L-word out loud yet, but she suspected they were probably on that same page.

Big emotions. Big deal emotions... I love you. I love you.

The words danced on the tip of her tongue as Kaden hoisted himself into the seat next to her, taking up so much space she couldn’t imagine how two cyborgs fit in the tower, though the presence of two seats indicated it as a possibility.

He cupped her nape and urged her to lean toward him for a long, slow kiss. With tongue. And so much twitching in her core, she started squirming on her seat, her lust at one million percent.

It’s always this way with him. And she loved it. Loved him.

God, how could she say good-bye in a few days?

As if sensing her downward mood spiral, Kaden stilled, released her neck, and settled back into his swivel chair, facing her. “How are today’s studies?” He pressed a button on the console. Trace’s voice cut off. “I’m impressed you can concentrate with the two of them going at it.”

She laughed, which she sensed was his goal with the seemingly inane question, the attentive man so in tune with her feelings.

“I was not at anything,” Athena mumbled.

Calie stroked the stones on her bracelet. “Athena, do you mind...?”

“Not at all, Calie.”

Alone at last. She set aside the pad and placed her hands on Kaden’s knees. His legs framed hers, a solid comfort. Above them, stars and other galaxy stuff winked and shimmered, a peaceful vista, while inside Calie, a maelstrom of emotions swirled.

This is it. Out of time. I need to be brave. Vulnerable...

Kaden waited her out. Smart man. And when she started tapping one boot in a rapid staccato beat, he palmed her knee, his touch soothing even as her heart rate kicked up a notch. Or eleven.

“Why do you call me your mate?” Okay, not quite the opener she intended but—

“Because you are.”

“Where I’m from, it’s not a common way to talk about your partner.”

“Where I’m from, it’s the truest description of what you are to me.”

Honesty blazed in his pretty amber eyes. Man, she could get lost in—

Bad, Calie. Focus. “I don’t understand.” Do you love me? Because I love you. Argh! Why couldn’t she spit it out already?

“You were always meant to be mine.”