“Guess this means you’re mine.” He doesn’t give me a chance to protest; he just picks me up by the waist. I’m slung high into the air before he folds me over his shoulder like all the other males do with their women.
“Do not bite-claim me. I might do the same to your pathetic member,” I warn.
He snorts. “Still bigger than a human.”
“It is not proportional.” I’m frantically looking for a way out of this arrangement. If he wants what I think he does, he’ll try to get me to take him to one of my father’s rumored outposts to hunt down some treasure that might not even be there.And then what? What purpose will my life have if I don’t stroke his ego? And I’m definitely not doing that.
“Are you going to be like this the whole time?” he whines.
“You picked a red. What do you think?” I growl.
From where I hang over his body, I look out at the field and see the chrome-banded woman getting handed a check.
I wish I was her.
9: Zariah
The ABR security teams and the humans that jumped in to help during the clusterfuck of males near the race’s end now gather up for a debrief. By the way that the leader points to different areas of the grounds, they’re discussing some sort of plan.
One of the men isn’t listening. He’s looking at me. Then I recognize him. He’s the guard that saved me from suffocating beneath the Ginarigon.
He protected me.
Most of the human men that are worth a damn are fighting in the war or involved in securing Earth. A few are in business and government. Even fewer are solo pilots or working the territory like me. With many alien species to pick from, several hundred, last I’d heard based on the Sol expansion bulletin, I’d say I have a better chance at finding an alien mate than a human one.
But that guy— Sure, he was just doing his job. But then why look at me? Checking on me?
I muster a thumb-up but can’t bring myself to smile. I’m still working on my escape plan. If I can get away from my father, I can get away from anyone.
The doors to the mingle celebration pass, and the Ginarigon sets me down. “I’m going to go chat.”
“To look for a sister who will actually screw your little carrot?”
He hisses at me, takes me by the back of my race suit, and stalks through the room. Then the bigger Ginarigon that tackled me and tried to bite-claim me enters with the blue-banded woman. When he sees me, he lets her go, completelyuninterested. The young woman watches him walk away, looking hurt.
Fuck this game. It’s not matching mates; it’s breaking hearts.
He stares at me for a few seconds before starting toward me. I back away, catching the attention of the Ginarigon that caught me. Pulling from Teol’s training, I twist sharply and break free. Using the cover of the crowd, I slip as fast as I can toward the nearest exit. Both stay right behind me.
I try to move faster, but with everyone dancing and grinding to the tribal trance music, some standing around eating or making out, it’s a tough maze to navigate without causing a scene.
Before me, a group of chatting racers blocks my route.
The one that almost claimed me catches my wrist, collects me, and presses me against the wall in the back corner. His powerful body pins me in place. He doesn’t say anything, just runs the back of a finger along my cheek, down my neck, and inside the collar of my race suit. He nips at my throat, even when I shy away.
He’s just horny. It’s not because of me.
But I can’t say I hate the attention or the way his eyes look me over like I’m a delicious treat he wants to devour.
“Hey!” The Ginarigon that carried me off the field walks up with another woman under his arm. “That one’s mine!”
The one that holds me ignores him and sweeps his mouth over my neck. Fear rises again. Then I feel his teeth nibble gently, and a new feeling awakens in me.
Heat crawls from my neck down my body, into my core, loosening every muscle. I might let him take it further, might like it. I definitely like the attention and the way he’s willing to confront and even fight others for me.
“Did you hear what I said?” He pulls the other of his kind off of me.
“She’s mine,” the one that holds me rumbles.
