Zandian Series

NIGHT OF THE ZANDIANS

The Zandians have taken back their planet. Now they need brides.

All human females have been assigned to mates. Yes, mates, multiple.

I've been given to three handsome males-cousins. Huge, purple, and horned, they act like they want to eat me for breakfast.

After what I've been through with previous slave masters, I don't know how I'll survive this. But I have to. It's adapt or be sent off-planet, which would mean my death, considering I'm wanted for murder.

My mates cannot find out I'm not able to reproduce. I need to keep my secret, figure out a way to survive, stay focused. But when the Zandian warriors claim me, they make me forget my past and scream with pleasure.

I can't let myself fall for them.

If they learn my secret, I'll lose more than my life.

I'll lose my heart.

1

Riya

The Zandians require brides.

Prince Zander-no, King Zander now that he's taken back his planet-stands in front of all of us, human and Zandians alike, and makes his intentions for repopulation clear.

I gaze around at the throng gathered in front of what used to be the palace. Everything seems so vast and empty under a bright sky, devoid of any cloud cover. The Zandian sun reflects off the white marble stone that makes up the rubble, nearly blinding me.

How can such a small group possibly ever rebuild this planet, dedicated as they-we- are?

The devastation in Zandia's capital is so absolute that it makes me sick to my stomach. The crumbled ruins of once-majestic buildings, now heaps of marble rubble and twisted metal, look as gruesome as any bloody wound I tended during the battle.

I shouldn't care-it's not my planet. My planet was raped and ruined a thousand years ago by the Ocretions, but Zandia's been dangled in front of us humans like Shangri-La. A place we'll be able to be free.

Supposedly.

But what Zander's saying now puts ice cold fear into me.

A shiver runs down my spine and I can't stop my gaze from flicking to the giant Zandian warrior across the plaza.

Tarren.

The one whose firm thigh I straddled when I sewed up the gash splitting the side of his face. He's standing with two other Zandians and-sweet Mother Earth-they're all looking at me.

A lock of my thick black hair blows into my face on a hot, dry wind that smells of nothing except ash. I brush it back with impatience, then wipe more dust from my strong thighs, bare beneath my short tunic. I haven't had a chance to wash or change since the battle-I've been tending the wounded non-stop. The warrior beside Tarren lets his gaze slide to my bare legs and heat crawls up my neck. I should've found a pair of leggings before this meeting.

"If you wish to receive a land and homestead grant, I suggest you form a group, find a female, and ready yourselves to petition," King Zander declares.

My stomach knots. Find a female.

I'm not an idiot. I know what that means for me. For the other human females of breeding age. We've just become breeders. We're probably no better off than any breeding slave in the galaxy.

My mouth goes dry and I have to will myself not to look across the plaza at the warrior again. Will he and his friends come for me? Claim me? How will it work? Do I have to be willing, or can they just carry me off?

King Zander has said we're no longer slaves, yet there's nowhere else we can go in the galaxy where our freedom will be recognized. In other words, we have no choice but to accept whatever the Zandians offer.

And it sounds to me like my only option is to become a Zandian bride.

I scrunch up my hands at my sides, not because I'm making fists to defend myself, but to stop my fingers from shaking.

I don't want to be claimed by one alien warrior, much less two or three. Or-stars forbid-more.

I barely hear the rest of the announcement, and when the gathering breaks up, I seek out Lily. She's a human mated to a Zandian and sister to the king's mate. She might know more about what I can expect.

Already the air in the plaza crackles with sexual tension, as if the king's proclamation has every warrior ready to fight to claim a female.

There are no more Zandian females-at least none who are unmated-so the females King Zander referred to are human. Former slaves, like me.

Oh hell. I tug my tunic down as if I can make it grow to cover my bare thighs.

Several Zandian warriors eye me from across the cracked plaza. I really should have changed my clothes before I came out. I suddenly realize how provocative my boots must look below bare legs.

On the training pod, we females were protected by warriors like Lundric, who has a human mate. I was able to dress for pure comfort and ignore any interest my bare skin garnered. After what I've endured at the hands of the Ocretians, I preferred to keep myself apart.

I find Lily, but she's talking with her mate. I sense warriors closing in on me from all sides.

Fuck.

Like a coward, I run.

I head straight for the makeshift medbay where I've been working all night. It's a stupid place to go, but I haven't been assigned a new room yet, and I don't know where else to hide.

As soon as I'm there, though, the memory of treating Tarren's wounds comes rushing back.

The way my core heated standing so close to him. The way he gripped my buttocks when I stitched his cheek with the needle.

I lean against the metal wall of the crashed ship which became my headquarters, to steady my breath.

I'm not interested in the male. I'm not interested in any male.

Of course, it may not matter what I'm interested in.

King Zander wants the planet repopulated.

As soon as possible.

T

arren

L

ooks like you've already picked out our mate." My cousin Jax follows my gaze to the dark-haired beauty streaking across the plaza. It's all I can do not to chase her down, toss her over my shoulder, and carry her back to our quarters right now.

Without saying it out loud, Jax and I both know we'll apply as a team with our other cousin, Ronan. We're family and we stick together.

Jax wears a bemused expression. He glances around the desolate wasteland of rubble, so different from the planet we left as children just before the invasion. "She's a good choice. With the boots she's sexy as hell, but she looks sturdy enough for-"

He stops when my fist wraps in his tunic. "She's more than a vecking breeder," I growl.

Jax holds up his hands. "All right, all right. She's way more. Looks smart. She's the medic, right?"

"Riya."

She looked at me earlier and blushed, just as she had when she treated my wounds last night. When I had my hand under that short tunic cupping her tight little ass. Veck. I'm hard just thinking about it. "Her name is Riya." Her name sounds exotic and delicious, like she looks.

"We need to claim her," I tell Jax, and scowl. I don't even know why I'm saying this-I don't want a female. But I'm sure as veck not letting this one slip through my fingers, either. "Before another warrior does." My fists close at the thought of some other Zandian with Riya.

"I think she's already yours, cousin."

I want to throat-punch Jax for his characteristic light-hearted and positive outlook.

"No. You need to charm her. You and Ronan. She'll be afraid of me."

Jax eyes me, not missing that I'm holding something back. "What did you do to her?"

"What did I miss?" Ronan comes up in a hurry, panting as he jogs. "I was on guard duty onboard the palatial pod and just got relieved."

"What did you miss?" Jax rolls his eyes. "Just about the most life-altering thing you can ever imagine. Great planet rotation to be lazy."

"Go veck yourself." Ronan punches him in the arm. "Tell me," he demands, more seriously this time, picking up on the tension in the courtyard.

"It appears," Jax says, his voice collected, "the three of us are going to share one mate. A human. From what the king just announced, it sounds like Zandians can apply as a team, which must include a female, to receive a homestead here."

"Hot Zandian star!" The thrill in Ronan's voice is evident. "It's about time. I've been dreaming of a nice little Zandian homestead my whole life. And a female to share? That just sweetens it all the more. This is the best news I could imagine." He throws his arms around our shoulders. He laughs out loud. "This is the best planet rotation, cousins!"

"You don't care that we all have to share one mate?" My voice comes out more forcefully than I intend. Yes, we've shared females, the three of us, in random encounters, and we all enjoyed it that way. But long-term, a mate with whom we are expected to bond and protect? It seems complex and troublesome. What if I want to kill them both every time they touch Riya?

There's no doubt in my mind now that she'll be our female. I've been dying to claim her lush little body from the moment I saw her out on the battlefield trying to drag the wounded in by herself.

She's fierce. And the way she lifted her chin when I threatened to warm her ass for leaving the safety of the downed ship was adorable. A little warrior exists behind that alluring peachy flesh of hers.

And then there's those vecking thighs...

Stars, if I don't get to be the one to pry them open and taste her honey first, I might throttle both my cousins.

Ronan smiles, and I scowl again. Ronan is always so... excited about things. It irritates the veck out of me. "I never thought I'd be lucky enough to get a mate." Ronan shrugs. "I don't mind. I share everything with you two, anyway. Why not our future?"

Easy for him to say. With his ever-present smile and jokes, Ronan has a way of making friends with any and every being in the galaxy. Naturally Ronan wouldn't mind anything.

"Which female do we get? Is it the one with the bare thighs?" Ronan leans to look in the direction of the medbay. "Is she... ours?"

I'm simultaneously relieved and pissed that Ronan's already picked the same female Jax and I agreed on. At least we won't argue, but I hate that he's been drooling over her. But it is interesting that all three of us have zeroed in on her. What does it mean? Probably nothing, other than we share the same taste in women.

"We don't know yet," I snap. "We don't know how the females will be distributed. I assume we have to make her willing, but who knows? They may use Daneth's gene matching technology like they did when they bought the king's mate."

All three of us bare our teeth at the thought of not getting to make this choice on our own.

"She smells... good." Ronan smiles.

"When have you smelled her?" I growl, jealousy flooding my veins.

"Calm down, cousin." Ronan elbows me. "I've never seen you act so possessive before. Don't worry, I've not mated her in secret. I happened to pass her just now and I noticed her scent."

I grunt, ignoring the relief that courses through me. Not that it matters. If I have to share a female, I'll have to accept the fact that she is all of ours.

"Her name is Riya," I force myself to say. "And I think you two should go and talk to her."

Ronan shoots a quizzical glance at Jax.

"Something happened between them," Jax fills in, although I've told him nothing yet.

"She's the one who stitched my wound," I say, as if that explains things, touching the jagged line that crosses my cheek from neck to eye.

How will our future mate feel about the ugly scar it will leave? It must make me appear hideous. The king's infant son burst into tears this morning when he saw it.

"And?" Jax prompts.

My cock starts to swell at the memory of her sweet human scent, her breasts dancing in front of my mouth as her slender fingers moved deftly with the primitive needle and thread. I wanted her then, and still do, now. "I may have... touched her inappropriately."

Ronan barks out a laugh and Jax rolls his eyes. "What the veck does that mean?" Jax demands.

I stare in the direction of the medbay, my feet demanding I march down there right now and carry her back to our shared chamber so we can start the process of claiming her. All vecking night.

"She was standing so vecking close-straddling my leg. When she stuck me with the needle I grabbed a handful of her ass." Then she rubbed her hot little pussy on my thigh. I don't share that part with them. I'd rather keep the memory to myself for now.

"Over the tunic, right?" Jax asks doubtfully, like he's trying to make this right in his mind so we can get past it.

I shake my head.

"Vecking excrement, Tarren! What in the stars were you thinking?"

I shrug. "I was thinking about her juicy ass. I'd already threatened to warm it for her if she left the shelter again. If you'd seen the way she blushed, you would've been fixated on that particularly glorious part of her anatomy too."

Jax's lips tug up. "I'm sure I would've been."

"So what'd she do?" Ronan asks.

My own lips lift. "She apologized to me."

Jax groans and adjusts his cock.

"And then I let her rub her little clitty all over my thigh while she stitched me up."

"Oh please," Ronan laughs, giving me a shove.

I grin back. I'm not about to tell them that it's actually true. It's too impossible to believe.

"So let's go claim her," Jax says, heading for the medbay.

Ronan follows without question.

I stare for a moment, but then I jog after them. I know that look in Jax's eye. He's the thinker in our group and when he's made a decision, it's usually a good one.