19 Vitus

The officers hold me at the gate. I don't fight them because my kind does not deserve that reputation. We are not all rebels and scoundrel scum like a few shouted at me as I was walked back to my ship.

They let me watch the ceremony on the screen in the dock hallway while my vessel is inspected before takeoff. A guard tells me it's so I can watch my mate leave with someone else.

My chest caves with agony. She wouldn't.

But she might.

"You broke another rule by arriving in a vessel loaded with missiles," another officer reports.

Cylene fired all munitions during our escape from Faerlin. "What weapons?"

"There's residue that proves your weapons were recently fired."

"My solar system is in a constant battle with the Nebulous Empire. I was literally shot at hours ago, and that's what you're concerned about?"

The ceremony starts as officials leave my vessel.

"He's cleared for departure, sir," one man says to the officer watching me. They share a look of disapproval. Ironically, they're all human males. I'm not sure I like the setup.

"Where is the chameleon?" I demand.

A man shoves a cage in the ship. "Fucking acid spitters. You can keep that. I'm not watching it no matter how much they pay me."

My detaining officer stalks up to me. He's big for a human male but still pales in comparison to my mass. "Just because we let you in here doesn't mean you deserve to be here. This setup is to allow these women to have a better life than we can give them on our mutant planet, not a worse one. We know the value of our women, how special and critical they are to the future of us all. You have forgotten."

He taps my chest with a finger, and it's all I can do to keep from ripping him in two.

"You clearly do not know my mate's story."

"She's not yours anymore, is she?" he sneers.

A growl starts in my throat when the other Nytheralian arrives at the dock site and tackles me. "My mate left me because of you!"

We tumble into a wrestling brawl. He takes a swing at me, but he is not a soldier. I block his hit as a camera drone hovers down the hallway.

I growl at him. "Get your ass up and paint a smile on your face. The last thing we need is the galaxy thinking we're ruthless, self-centered jackoffs when what we really need is help fighting the empire! But I guess you don't know about that because you're a spoiled brat."

He lets me haul him upright, then glowers at me. He morphs his expression into a smile when he turns around and walks off.

The last of the pairings step down from the platform. "That concludes our ceremony for the eight-ninth—"

I turn away. At least Cylene didn't choose another over me. I'm certain that would have stopped by heart for good.

"Wait! You forgot about me!"

I look back to see Cylene rushing up to the podium in a sequined blue-green form-fit dress, the tails of a pale blue sheer scarf trailing behind her.

The other Nytheralian stops in the hallway to watch. I can't tell if he's wondering if she's hoping for one of us or if there's been a mistake.

Cylene motions the woman aside. "I, Cylene Athia Monrova, take General Vitus Alor Noremus and only General Vitus, should he accept my offer to bond to him for eternity because he set out only to make me feel cared for and to show me the universe." She takes a deep breath. "When we were abducted by a black market trader who used to control me with a collar, General Vitus broke us out. He freed me and got us out of the nebula. His soldiers made sure we got to safe space. No one else."

Pride fills me with energy, and I realize Cylene wants me. Forever? She said eternity!

My thoughts are a scrambled mess, and my legs have me stumbling into my ship. I switch on the screen so I can watch her as I warm the engines. The few officers left on board look at me.

"Get out!" I shout back at them.

They rush to the exit. I close the ramp.

"I came here looking for freedom," Cylene says to the crowd. "I wanted to win not to find a mate. But I found freedom in him. I found strength, friendship, understanding. None of you who got your rumors from the media knew the whole story.

"I am the story. Vitus is the story. And even if I have to walk out of here alone, I know I am doing it for the right reasons."

"You don't have to," I whisper as I circle the Abr complex and hover my ship just above the balcony of the top floor where the ceremony is taking place.

Cylene rushes out of the glass doors.

I get up from my seat and run down the ramp to where she walks up to me. The wind of the hover engines idling toys with the scarf and the imitation scales of her dress. Someone has smoothed her hair into long lustrous dark curls that dance around her face. And her eyes could not be brighter in the orange glow of my engines.

I wrap myself around her and kiss her without restraint. Cylene folds into me and captures my mouth with hers.

"You want to get out of here?" she simpers.

I'm hot with anticipation, a raging tangle of urges. I pick her up and carry her onto my ship. She drops her backpack in the cargo area.

Taking the pilot's seat, I settle her in my lap and ease us up into the sky as Abr officers and other couples spill out onto the balcony. Several cheer, a few pout and walk away. The officers on the TV feed cross their arms and shake their heads.

I don't give a damn.

I close up the ramp and leave Earth behind us.

Once we're on a path for my homeworld, I engage the autopilot and carry Cylene to the back room.

She doesn't give me much time to look at her in her bonding dress before she hooks her arms around my neck and nips at my bottom lip. I can't restrain myself any longer and crash into her. We become a frantic mess of tearing our clothes off and getting skin to scales as fast as possible. When I feel her supple hands glide over my stomach and around my bare back for the first time, I'm consumed with a raw need.

My engorged shaft drips in anticipation as I free her panties from her hips and get a whiff of her sweet, musky nectar. I fondle her taut bud with my tongue and know, by her wetness, that she's good and ready for me.

As she moans and arches in my grasp, her nipples rosy and tight, her fingers digging into my arms, I pause, just for a moment.

I don't want to forget this. I want to hold onto this image: my mate, Cylene of Earth, survivor, fighter, and lover forever.

I brace her face in a hand and wait until she looks at me.

"Thank you."

She gives me a breathless smile, kisses me, then digs her heels into my ass, driving me into her.