Claimed (22 page)

“Sorvar wants me in the throne room. He didn’t say why, but it sounded urgent,” she replied.

Sedric stared down at her for a long moment before he took her much smaller hand in his and started pulling her down the corridor. A low growl rumbled in his chest, a sure sign of anger, and if that wasn’t making it clear his wings rustled ever few steps before he managed to snap them still.

“Sedric, what are you doing?” Tina asked, a little alarmed.

She’d never seen him like this. Not in all the months he’d taught her the lessons Bavric gave him about the Morgath. Sedric was the easy going brother. The one who didn’t get worked up about things.

“I’m going with you to the throne room. I have a bad feeling about this, Tina. I don’t trust Father not to do something to hurt you. He’s furious Sorvar is ignoring his commands and taking you out. Sorvar will need my help to protect you if Father orders the guards to take you. Some of them will refuse, but enough of them will blindly follow his orders.”

Tina had no response. He was right. If King Nardoc ordered his guards to attack her or take her prisoner again, Sorvar would need help protecting her, even in his changed form. He wasn’t invincible.

They were at the entrance to the corridor that led to the great doors of the throne room when Sedric pulled her through a door she’d never noticed before. The sudden glare of the white glowing throne room blinded Tina, but she could hear the voices clearly.

“—requested an audience with me. Now you are here, what do you want, human?” King Nardoc growled.

Humans? There were humans here? Tina squinted against the light trying to make out who stood in the throne room.

“We are here to retrieve our citizen. Tina Graham is officially a citizen of Earth. No request was made to the Alliance for a transfer of citizenship, therefore Ms Graham remains under the purview of Earth’s government and the jurisdiction of the Coalition. We are within our rights to remove her and return her to her duties,” a familiar voice said.

Chapter Fourteen

Tina froze. She knew that voice. Sedric’s hand tightened around hers. Her stomach twisted sharply, and she hissed at the unexpected pain. A deep rolling growl ripped through the throne room.

She blinked trying to get her eyes to focus in the blinding bright sunshine that poured in through the tall windows that ran down the length of the throne room. A group of males stood in a small gathering a respectful distance from the throne King Nardoc lounged on, his pose relaxed as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Sorvar stood to one side of the throne, a low growl still rumbling in his chest, but an uneasy feeling in her stomach overpowered the anger coming from him. He was worried. Worried that she would want to leave him and go with her people. She didn’t need him to tell her. She knew him well enough now to know that would be what he was thinking. Especially considering the current state of their relationship.

Tina ripped her hand from Sedric’s and stormed towards the huge statue that blocked them from everyone’s view. He tried to grab her, but she dodged his grasping hands and slid around the statue. Sorvar deserved to know how she felt. She couldn’t let him go on wondering if one day she would demand to leave. Even though he’d told her he would never let her go, if she demanded to leave, he loved her enough that he would let her go. It would break his heart, but he would do it.

“The Alliance hasn’t asked me if I
want
to be retrieved,” Tina said as she stopped beside Sorvar. She took his hand in hers and squeezed. “I have no intention of leaving. Sorvar is my mate, and I love him. I want to build a life here with him. We are soul bonded and cannot be separated.”

He squeezed her hand back as an emotion she’d never felt from him burst inside her. Tingling warmth swept through her as her heart lightened so much it felt as if it was going to float right out of her chest.

Pavri.

It was right there in the tone of his voice in her head. Love, overwhelming happiness, and relief.

I love you, Sorvar. I’m sorry I’ve been distant. I didn’t know how to tell you and breach the gap that sprung up between us.

Gentle fingers lifted her chin, and she looked up into his mesmerising yellow eyes. The slit pupil was blown wide as he gazed down at her. “None of that matters anymore,
pavri.
You love me, and I love you with everything I am. We will make this work. I will not let anything come between us ever again.”

Her gaze raked over the almost harsh masculine lines of his face and the soft fall of his long black hair that hung down over one shoulder, taking him in, memorising him in this moment of time so she would never forget. He was wearing his weapons as he usually was, but he was also wearing his breastplate. Whenever she saw it, it never failed to remind her of the day he had claimed her on his ship. A shudder worked its way down her spine.

She wanted to kiss him, wrap her arms and legs around him and cling to him like a limpet, but now was not the time. Later. Later she would show him how much he meant to her. She would tell him with actions and words what it felt like to have him in her heart. She would tell him every day, every hour if necessary so he never doubted she wanted to stay with him and be with him ever again.

A throat being cleared dragged Tina’s gaze off Sorvar around to the group of humans. They all stared back at her with varying looks of disgust on their faces. A tall—for a human—male stepped from the group. Tina curled her hand into a fist, her sharp claws digging into her palm.

Dane Peterson.

She would never forget him as long as she lived. The pretty packaging hid a man with an atrocious personality and a mean streak a mile wide. The way he had sneered at her and the other women who had been the first group to arrive at The Fortress would be burned in her mind for the rest of her life. The nasty, derogatory comments he’d made and the snide jokes he and his men had used to belittle them had made her instantly dislike him, and the more she came to know him the deeper her dislike had grown.

A surge of curiosity flashed through her, but was gone in an instant. Sorvar, no doubt would want to know why she felt so strongly about Dane.

“Humans do not have mates. We do not recognise any kind of bond other than that of a marriage performed by an accredited celebrant or religious official. Any connection you have with this male is irrelevant and of no consequence,” Dane said, his voice filled with disgust. The same kind of disgust she had heard from him when she had first arrived in space.

Before she or Sorvar could respond King Nardoc’s voice cut through the throne room. “What are you going to offer me to return the female?”

Tina hissed out a breath as fury swelled inside her. That son of a bitch! She wasn’t some prize to be bartered or traded. He couldn’t sell her! Sorvar’s growl was deeper, louder, and filled with fury that burned inside her.

“Father, Tina is my mate. I will not return her to the humans, nor will I allow you to use her as a pawn in your games.” He turned and stepped forward threateningly. “You are not on Earth anymore, little human. I claimed Tina and made her mine, that is all the ceremony we need. The Coalition will not step between a claimed mate and her male. Nor will they separate a female from her young, and Tina is the mother of my young. She will not be leaving with you. She will not be leaving ever.”

Warmth swelled in Tina’s chest, making her breath catch. She pressed against Sorvar, ignoring the weapons digging into her, and held his hand tightly in hers. No, she would never let him go either.

Dane’s lip curled at the mention of young. “You bred with her? Our species are not even compatible!”

One of the other males stepped up and whispered something in Dane’s ear before stepping back in line with the other males. Dane looked down at the ground, a smile tilting up the corners of his lips before he wiped the smirk from his face and looked up.

“Earth Alliance does not acknowledge any offspring with combined genetic material with another species. Your...
young
will never be accepted on Earth or allowed to live there. They cannot claim citizenship or use their human genetic material to claim any kind of benefits from Earth. We are not here for your spawn. We only want Ms Graham. You can keep your...
children,
” Dane said, and none of them could doubt how he felt about children formed from two species.

Tina growled low in her throat and stepped forward, her hands curling into fists. She was going to rip the asshole’s throat out. Her babies were not
spawn,
but Sorvar tightened his grip and held her fast.

Easy, pavri.

But she didn’t want to be easy. She wanted to gut Dane, and bathe in his blood.

“You are right,” Sorvar growled in reply. “My young
will
be staying here with me, and so will Tina. For an intelligent species you seem rather dense, human. Tina is mine. It is not a hard concept to understand.”

She stared at Dane. The asshole had the same disgusted look on his face as he stared back at Sorvar as he’d had on his face when he’d looked at her. He would not give up until he had what he had been sent for. She’d heard whispers about Dane around The Fortress in the three months she’d spent there learning everything she could from the Coalition’s Medical school.

Once given a task, he didn’t give up until he had seen it through, and he would kill anyone who stood in his way. He was Liaison Green’s attack dog.

Sorvar, he’s not going to give up until he has what he came for.
Tina whispered through their bond and a surge of warmth flowed back to her.

I agree, pavri. I do not trust these males not to hurt you, or to try to take you by force. If anything happens, I want you to run behind the statue and escape out the door.

She sent warmth back to him, everything she felt for him, the depth of her love, trying to tell him without words how much him protecting her meant to her, but if he thought she was going to run and leave him here to fight, he was sorely mistaken. Sorvar’s father spoke again before she could respond.

“That is unacceptable. You either take the female
and
her disgusting young or you don’t get either. I do not want any trace of your useless species on my planet. I will not have more of my warriors corrupted by humans. You are weak, and this female has made my son weak. If you do not take them I will terminate them to cleanse my people before your infection spreads.”

Sedric growled from behind them. He stepped up beside her as hot, potent rage boiled inside Tina. Her rage, Sorvar’s rage, and under it all a fine thread of disbelief. She had no problems believing King Nardoc would kill her and her young. He’d wanted to do it from the minute she stepped off the shuttle all those months ago. She didn’t believe he was bluffing to get her people to take her young. But obviously Sorvar had never believed his father would really kill her.

“Where is Sinder?” Sorvar asked quietly.

Sedric replied before Tina could. “He’s still in Medical. There was a complication with one of the metacarpals in his wing. They had to re-break it and set it again. He isn’t in any condition yet to be up.”

Sorvar grunted and twisted, pulling her behind him, spreading his wings to create a barrier in front of her. “My mate and my young are not going anywhere,
Father.
If you threaten them again I will be forced to—”

Tina pinched Sorvar on the exposed piece of skin where his wings separated, her heart having lurched at what she knew he was about to say, and hissed, “Sorvar, you cannot threaten the king. He will have you killed for treason.”

A low growl rumbled up in his chest, a flash of his anger burning through her chest. He turned just his head and spoke over his shoulder. “
Pavri,
you stopped me the last time he threatened you, and I listened because you were injured, but not this time. His behaviour and treatment of you is a disgrace to our people. Any other male found treating a female the way he has treated you would be harshly dealt with and punished.”

Sedric shifted restlessly beside her, his wings rustling as a low growl built in his chest. Was he angry with Sorvar? Or was he angry because of the way his father had treated her?

Sorvar ignored his brother and continued. “The only reason no one has said anything is because he is the king. I will no longer stand by and allow him to treat you so disrespectfully. Whether Father wants to admit it or not, you are my mate. You are a royal princess by mating and deserve the same protection as any other member of the royal family.”

Sorvar turned to his father. “One more threat against my mate and I will be forced to prove to you she has not made me weak. The benefits of mating with a human far outweigh what you see as weaknesses, Father. And she is the first chance we have had in fifty years of breeding females. I will not let you destroy that because of a misplaced attempt at punishing me. It is not Tina you are angry with and want to hurt.
I
was the one who disobeyed you. I am the one who you should be punishing.”

Sedric stepped forward, his hand landing on Sorvar’s shoulder, and said, “I will also protect Tina with my life.”

“This is all very heart warming and lovely,” Dane cut off the rising growl coming from the king. “But it changes nothing. Tina Graham is a citizen of Earth. She is a member of the Coalition, and as such we are within our rights to demand her return. We will not pay for her or trade anything for her, nor will we be taking any of her spawn.”

“Shut up, human,” the king said as he pushed himself up from the throne. “My
son
is refusing to release her to you. He will not change his mind. If you really want her, you will have to take her in pieces after I have taught him a lesson.”

Sorvar’s rage swept through her so fast Tina stumbled back with a gasp as if she’d been hit. When she righted herself, Sorvar stood in front of her, his wings spread to their fullest extent as he towered over her and every other person in the room.