Argen Mate Read online

  Almost two years ago I was kidnapped by aliens while getting my mail from the rural mailbox at the end of my driveway after my morning run. I woke up on a slave ship. It was filled with a bunch of women stolen from other planets. We were on our way to being sold into slavery. The Farseek Brigade turned mercenaries came and rescued us because of some governor’s daughter. They did it for the money and were nice enough to take us with them. But they couldn’t take us back to Earth because they didn’t know where it is.

  I never even thought about aliens one way or another before I was taken. I had a pretty good job at the fitness center as an aerobics instructor and personal trainer. I was scared out of my mind when I realized I was on a spaceship in space. Harper, Scarlet, and Nora were on that ship with me, all from Earth too. We got to be friends on that slave ship. We called ourselves the fantastic four.

  Then the Farseek Mercenaries rescued us. The other three got hooked up with some wonderful men, and I was beginning to feel left out. There wasn’t much back on Earth for me, just my job and my little apartment. I didn’t even have a pet or anyone special in my life. I’d moved to the town across the state line from where I grew up to take the job at the fitness center.

  I joined the Mercenaries when my friends did because otherwise, I had no one. We were non-combatant support staff and served wherever we were needed.

  It was midday before I saw Argen again. He was downright handsome all cleaned up and rested. I couldn’t help smiling up at him when he came and stood in front of my table. I felt giddy as pleasure and attraction bubbled up inside me at his presence.

  “Hi sweetheart,” he said. “I had to see you. Do you think we could have third meal together in the mess hall today? I would so like to get to know you better.”

  “I would like that. You look much better. Did you rest well?”

  He shrugged.

  “Sometimes it’s hard to rest in a new place. I’ve only been here a couple days myself. The accommodations are actually nicer than mine on Dread One, but the bed’s not the same. And the smell is different.”

  “It’s a new ship,” Argen said.

  “It is. We stole it from Tegliar Station,” I told him.

  “I wish I could have been there for that,” he grinned. “I hope they don’t catch up to us.”

  “You and me, too.” I smiled.

  It was hard not to smile while I was talking with him. I knew he was handsome under all that dirt but cleaned up he looked so good I could hardly stop staring. All the Uatu men were stunningly attractive even with their odd colored skin and hair.

  His skin was a pale lavender, and his hair was a darker lavender color. It had been pretty long when he came on board, but now it was clipped close to his head in what seemed to be the universal military cut.

  I hoped the way I was looking at him made him feel as good as I felt at how he was looking at me.

  “We’re finished here. Would you like to go to the mess and get a cup of tea?” I offered. There was no such thing as coffee out here, but the tea had about the same kick as coffee, and it tasted good.

  “I need to stop at my cabin on the way, but I would love to have tea with you,” he grinned.

  Farseek warriors were seldom demonstrative in public. Argen walked beside me down the corridor to the lift to level three where his cabin was. When we got there, he invited me in, and I fell right for it.

  As soon as the door closed behind me, he pivoted and held my head between his large hands pressed those sexy lips to mine. I just melted against him and put my arms around him like I wanted to do the first time I saw him.

  Solmatu! As soon as our lips touched and my arms went around him, I knew it was true. I felt such elation just to be in his arms for the first time. His tongue slipped between my lips, and I opened for him, giving him free reign to stake his claim. Mine! Mine!

  I knew then, and there it was only a matter of time, and he would be mine. I knew he wanted me as much as I wanted him. His arousal was blatantly pressing against my belly. My core throbbed, and my nipples tightened. I pushed my breasts against his hard chest because it felt good.

  It was a kiss like none I’d ever had. By the time Argen lifted his lips from mine, we were both breathlessly aroused.

  “I’ve wanted to do that ever since scented you last night,” he murmured looking into my eyes. “Of course. you know I want you, but I know we need more time to bond before that happens.”

  I smiled up at him as he caressed my cheek with his fingertips. His eyes were warm, and the color was so striking. I couldn’t resist reaching up to rest my hand on his cheek, thinking I would like to get to know him for the rest of my life.

  “We should go to the mess hall and have tea,” he said. I nodded and stepped back. “I can’t say I’m sorry I tricked you, but I hope you aren’t angry.

  I just smiled at him.

  “I asked to be assigned to Dreadnaught One and was granted the assignment. So, I will be going back when you do.”

  “Well, isn’t that convenient,” I said brightly.

  “It is.” He flashed a sexy smirk that made me want to kiss him again.

  It had been so long since I was really attracted to a guy, and never one more attractive than Argen. I liked him already, so I was glad to have a chance to get to know him better.

  Chapter Three

  Argen

  Zoey and I got our tea from the dispenser and took it to the far corner of the mess hall where we could be alone. I sat across from her with my back to the wall, hardly able to take my eyes off her face. She was exotically attractive with golden tan skin and obsidian black hair that fell in soft curls around her face. Her eyes were deep dark brown and so expressive I could almost read her thoughts in their depths.

  She looked at me like she was enjoying the view.

  “You are obviously not Uatu. Where did you come from?”

  “Commander Maktu calls it ‘dirt’ but we call it Earth,” she said. “My friends and I were stolen by the Picans to be sold into slavery, but your warriors rescued us. They don’t know where exactly our world is, and since we didn’t have much hope of getting back there, we joined the Brigade.”

  “Well, I am glad you are here,” I told her. “I’ve had a rough couple years myself.” I didn’t say any more, because I didn’t want her pity.

  The pain, when they tortured me, was horrendous. What had really torn at me was being helpless to fight back. I never wanted to kill beings so badly, and I never got the chance. Some of that must have shown on my face because Zoe reached over and curled her smaller hand over mine.

  “We’ve all been through a lot. We were just lucky to get taken on the same slave ship as the governor’s daughter of Halor,” she told me. “Your outfit rescued her for the money and brought us with her. That’s how they financed the mission to get your people back. They still didn’t have enough money, so they pirated this ship.”

  “I know what you mean about being lucky. I sure never thought getting shipped to Julconi would be a good thing.”

  “We should be at the rendezvous in a couple days and back on Dread One,” Zoe said. “We were told this ship is going to Farseek with these people, so they are going to need another ship before we go to Nadoo for two thousand more people.”

  “I’m surprised they are not more worried about the Sargans.”

  “It seems like the Sargan Fleet might be spread a little too thin. There’s speculation that one of the reasons they agreed to the peace treaty was because the war took out too many of their military personnel and ships.”

  “Tell me about what it was like on your world,” I said. “I will find out soon enough about the missions. I want to know about you solmatu.”

  “Well on Earth, they would call my parentage mixed racially. Our people come in different colors from black to white. My mother was Afro-Hispanic, and my father was Hispanic and Caucasian. We don’t have the variations of skin and hair color like your people seem to. I mean, the only people on Ear
th that have your hair color made it that way.”

  “You don’t like my hair color?”

  “No, I love it.” She smiled. “I’m just saying we have more muted variations in skin, hair, and eye color.”

  I took a sip of my tea without taking my eyes off her. I was so attracted to her I couldn’t stop looking at her.

  “My father was a soldier, and he got killed in one of the wars. Then my mother remarried when I was ten and had a couple more kids. But, he is a good man and treated me as his own. I went to college and learned how to be a personal trainer and fitness instructor. I earned a decent living, but never found the right guy.”

  “Because you never met me.”

  “That could be…” she murmured and looked at me through her thick dark lashes.

  “We practically rub sparks off each other,” I asserted.

  She gave a little chuckle. “That we did.” She paused a moment then went on, “Before I was taken, I didn’t really believe that aliens ever came to Earth, and I sure as hell never expected to be taken by them. Our world doesn’t have this kind of space travel. At least we didn’t before the Alliance started coming to Earth. But ordinary people don’t know about them.”

  “So, Earth is not spacefaring.”

  “They’ve only sent men to the moon a few times, but it’s not habitable by itself. Our tech is nowhere near the standards you have. My stepfather worked in a factory making car parts, and my mother worked as a waitress---a food server. I even did some waitressing while I was in college.”

  “We lived on a farm just outside of town. Farseek was mainly agricultural. We raised crops and livestock for meat and shipped farm products to the high-tech Consortium worlds like Halor,” I told her. “We didn’t have a lot of tech at home except for farm machinery. We had a home AI, but it was not nearly as sophisticated as the AI’s on our ships.”

  We talked for a long time. When Zoey told me about herself, I found her utterly fascinating. I liked the sound of her voice. My life on Farseek wasn’t so different from hers. As long as I could remember, I wanted to be a space pilot and a warrior, so I joined the Farseek Brigade.

  “We had a large family with six children. Most of them had still lived on Farseek, and I don’t know if any of them were still alive,” I told her. “But I know I’m not alone in that.

  “I grieved for them along with my fate during my two years of captivity. A lot has happened that I haven’t come to terms with yet,” I said slowly. “Those bastards made my life a living hell for the year before I was dumped on Julconi. I have flashbacks, and I can’t get a handle on it.” The memories filled me with anger and left me trembling.

  “Don’t worry. Once we get back on the Dreadnaught, they’ll give you a medical assessment and probably gene therapy for the flashbacks you’re was having,” she said. “Hopefully stabilizing your brain chemistry will make them stop.”’

  “I used to think I was strong, but the things they did to me caused so much pain and humiliation, I felt totally broken,” I told her in barely a whisper. “Because, damn it, I was nobody’s slave! Torture didn’t work, and prison just made me so angry, and I took that anger to the fight pit, but no matter how many fights I had, it didn’t stop the raging.”

  I hated to admit my weakness, but Zoey had a right to know before she consented to become my mate. Telling her was hard, but she was sympathetic and compassionate.

  “You were mistreated badly, it’s not an unexpected reaction. For a long time after we were rescued, I would wake up and forget where I was. I thought I was still on the slave ship.” Zoe said gently. “I think it’s especially hard for an alpha male to be made helpless.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “I could have pounded those puny little bastards into the ground, but they strung me up so I couldn’t move to torture me.”

  “Was it bad on Julconi, too?”

  “At least I could defend myself when I fought in the pits,” I said, “I actually won enough, so the thug gangs mostly left me alone. That’s how Zorem Pegitu found me. He saw me fighting in the pit.

  “I had gotten beat up pretty bad once or twice, but it helped give me back my self-esteem after being tortured as a slave.”

  “Nora’s mate was mistreated on the mining colony. He was a warrior with the Alliance before he was taken from Earth,” she said.

  Zoey was the best therapy I could have had. We talked for a couple hours until it was time for third meal. We got our food and talked some more, almost like we had always known each other.

  I didn’t want to leave her at her quarters when the evening was over.

  “Come in for just a minute?” Zoey asked. “I want to give you something.”

  When the door slid closed behind me, she turned to me and put her arms up around my neck, looking up at me expectantly.

  “I wanted to give you a good night kiss,” she said hopefully. “And I know your people generally share affection in private.”

  “Yes, that’s true.”

  I slid my arms around her, and she pressed her luscious body against mine. Our lips met, and I got lost in the feel of her. I didn’t want to stop there; my cock was so hard. I wanted to claim her then and there. Instead, I kissed her long and deep so that we were both trembling and breathless with desire when our lips parted.

  “I know,” she whispered as our lips parted. “But not yet.”

  I didn’t understand why she was pushing me away, however gently. She wanted me as much as I wanted her, yet she was resisting her own desire as well.

  “Zoey Addison, I wish to bond with you and become your mate, solmatu.”

  “I would like that, Argen Trametu---bonding first.” She smiled so sweetly, I decided I could wait. She was happy to have my kisses, and I could smell her arousal. But she resisted even though her need seemed as intense as mine. I guessed she really did want more bonding and was not just stringing me along.

  As I left her reluctantly, I knew I would pleasure myself to the memory of her body in my arms before I slept or I would not sleep at all.

  Chapter Four

  Zoey

  “What’s going to happen to us when we get back to Farseek? Our home was destroyed. Where are we going to live? How am I going to get food for my children?” the young woman asked. “I’m grateful to be off that horrible prison planet, but I’m worried.”

  “I understand,” I told her. “But homes are being built. Many are already finished. We have been promised that there will be food and supplies waiting for everyone returning to Farseek---even those of us who aren’t from there. Meanwhile, it’s going to be a few months before you get there, and we have more than enough supplies to take care of everyone aboard.”

  We still had the people rescued from Breskaa and Teglia station aboard Kurellis almost ten thousand people, so occasionally we were able to reunite loved ones. It didn’t happen often enough, though. Most often, we had no information and were unable to give them any closure.

  It went on like that for the next two days. Different people kept asking the same questions. Would their new house be as nice as big or as good as the old one? Were there still people left alive there---was there a list? Then there were requests for information on specific people. We were busy for many hours answering questions troubleshooting problems for the passengers on the Kurellis. Most of them were minor, and many just needed reassurance. They wanted to know what was happening on Farseek and how they would live when they got there.

  I hardly got to see Nora or Scarlet, but I did get a couple minutes to chat with Harper and tell her about Argen.

  “Are you going to accept?” Harper asked excitedly after we hugged.

  “I am,” I told her. “It’s just a matter of when. We’ve got two more days before we go back to our Dread. We are bonding.”

  “Well, I’m happy for you, sweetie. I know you were starting to feel left out. But he’s the one—the one that jumped onto your line?”

  “Yes, Argen Trametu. He’s coming to Dread One w
ith us. He declared solmatu. I wanted to take things slow, but as soon as we touch…”

  “I know exactly what you mean. Say no more,” Harper said and laughed.

  It was late when I got to finally eat third meal. I commed Argen, but he wasn’t in his cabin, so I went to the mess hall by myself feeling a little disappointed. A few minutes after I sat down at the back-corner table, he came and sat down across from me.

  “Hello, darlin’,” he said and smiled warmly at me.

  “Hi there.” My mood was suddenly lighter now that he was there across from me. He had gotten a drink for himself.

  “I figured you were still working the conferences, and I was too hungry to wait. While you were busy, I went to check out the bridge and talk with the pilot team. This is one nice ship, considering it was made by the Sargans.”

  “Yes, and it was a real steal,” I said with a straight face.

  He looked at me for a moment then chuckled. “That’s probably why they tried to take it back.”

  “When?”

  “Just before we blinked out of the system. We weren’t in any danger, and the Dreads took out the Sargan ships after we left. They didn’t seem like they wanted to damage this ship.”

  “After what they did on Farseek this ship is a small price for them to pay,” I said. “I saw the pictures.”

  “Me too. But the new pictures are encouraging. By the time this group gets to Farseek, housing should be available for everyone. The pilot team brought me up to date on what the Brigade has been doing while I was out of touch.”

  “A lot has happened in the last two years. Sometimes, it seems like a long time ago, and sometimes it seems like yesterday.” I murmured, picking at my food. I had been hungry when I came to the mess hall, but my appetite for food seemed to have gone when Argen sat down across from me.”

  My whole body went on alert---nipples tightened, pussy clenched, and my lips tingled. I wanted him like I have never wanted anyone before. By the look in his eyes, Argen knew it, too.