Mate Her by Jenika Snow
7
Breed with her.
Fuck her until she knows she is yours.
The mantra moved through Brawn like a steady drum. He wanted to do all those things, but he found the strength to turn away, grab the horn pitcher of water, and bring it over to her. He filled her cup and gestured for her to drink more.
All he could think about was laying her across his sleeping platform and taking her in any way he wanted while his brothers watched. He glanced at her, stared right into her face, and couldn’t help but picture her naked. He wanted to see her breasts, wanted to see her cunt bared for him, and all the while, his brothers would be waiting for their turn to have her.
But she’d want it, need them to fill her up with their cum so the breeding ritual could be complete. Until they got her pregnant with their children, the need to have her would drive them hard and have all other things taking less of a priority.
“Would you like to bathe again?” he asked, trying to keep his thoughts away from sliding his cock deep into her pussy.
“No, but thank you.” She was nervous, that much was clear, and as much as he would have liked for her to be at ease, she’d have to find that on her own.
He nodded and looked at the small shelf that held the injectable translator. “We can do the translator now, or a bit later if you’d like?” Brawn was so unaccustomed to asking what someone wanted or didn’t want to do. “It shouldn’t take too long for Lukin and Thorque to bring back some meat. You’ll feel better with some fresh food inside your belly.”
She nodded but didn’t respond.
He went over to the shelf and grabbed the syringe, language cartridge, and the gel that would numb her neck for the injection. It was a barbaric procedure, given the advancements the galaxy now had to offer, but they didn’t have the technology with them in the cave to enable her to inhale it instead of getting the shot.
They might be more advanced than the human race, but Hades warriors lived simplistic lives. Their spacecrafts were far superior to many other species’ ships in the galaxy, but when it came to their homes on Hades, their clothes and weapons, they kept it simple.
Swords and knives built from the indestructible black rock of his home planet made the weapons his kind used to take down their enemy nearly unbreakable. Their clothing was nothing more than pants made from the leather of the wings from the Geila birds on Hades. Occasionally, they wore clothing that covered their wings, but that was rare, because wearing shirts was not smart, given the fact that they needed their backs free from restriction to unleash their wings.
They preferred a simpler life, one where they hunted for their food, killed the beasts with their bare hands, and built the items in their home. It was somewhat primitive living, but it suited them, and they felt warriors should live off what they acquired by sheer strength and willpower alone.
Brawn grabbed everything and moved toward her. “Please, have a seat.”
She listened to him immediately, and although she was nervous as she glanced down at the needle, he was pleased she obeyed. Brawn and his species were versed in many languages, and although they knew English, the language was a dying dialect. He sat on the bench beside her, pushed the heavy fall of her dark hair away from her shoulder, and lifted the injector.
Her eyes widened slightly, but he smoothed the numbing gel over the spot he’d press the needle into. The gel worked instantly, and then he stuck her with the needle while keeping his eyes locked with hers.
When he slipped the disk into the chamber, the injector lit up a brilliant white, indicating it was activating. He placed his thumb on the depressor and injected her with the Hades dialect chip, and she made a small noise in the back of her throat. “I’m sorry.” He apologized for hurting her, but he already had the needle out and leaned back, giving her space.
“I’m fine.” She glanced up at him and cupped the side of her neck. Her eyes widened slightly, and he grinned. “I just said that in your language.”
He nodded. “Yes, the chip travels through your bloodstream and into your brain.”
She clearly didn’t know what to say in response, because all she did was stare at him. She rubbed the spot on her neck once more and then dropped her hand back onto her lap. “I want you to know I’m not afraid of the three of you, even though I probably should be.”
He reached out and brushed his thumb along her cheek.
“You’re so smooth and soft to the touch.” He looked into her green eyes, took in the slope of her nose, of her high cheekbones, and the fact that her flesh was white like the bone he used to make his tables. “So beautiful.” He caught the way her breathing changed, how it quickened, and the scent of her arousal was increasing. His breeding need was rubbing off on her, seeping into her very pores so she was becoming more inflamed with it.
They both started to breathe heavier now, and Brawn couldn’t help but stare at the fullness of her lips that were red like his body. He ached for her, needed to have her, and he wasn’t sure if he could wait. Moving closer to her, he cupped the side of her throat and stroked the area where he had just injected her. “If you only knew the need that my kind has for their mate, the desire to breed with them, protect them at all costs, and have them feel safe, you would be so fucking frightened of me, Minka.” He lifted his gaze to her eyes, saw how wide they were, and although she might have appeared scared, he scented her desire. “You want me, want my brothers, but we don’t want to push you.”
She shook her head, ran her tongue along her bottom lip, and he swore her entire body shook right in front of him. His inner beast rose up inside him like a living entity, trying to take control and complete the breeding with his mate.
Brawn pulled her close so that only an inch separated their mouths. He breathed her scent, her very essence, into his body, and a deep, low groan left him. His cock jerked behind his leathers at the smell of her. Gone was the aroma of her unease and uncertainty of this situation, and in its place was her burning desire.
It had been a constant hum in her, and he had smelled it on her on more than one occasion when she was around him and his brothers.
He glanced down, saw the big mounds of her breasts under the shift, and curled his hand on his thigh into a tight fist. The material did nothing to conceal the stiff peaks of her nipples. He wanted her desperately, and the urge to breed with her ran him hard, had his dick jerking violently, had his claws itching to mark her body, and had his fangs descending even further.
He stared at her for several long seconds, and then the sound of his brothers coming into the cave pulled him out of his lust at the moment.
Thorque and Lukin came in, a small red-tailed Hyde bird in their grasps, but they stopped when they saw Brawn sitting so close to her.
Brawn cleared his throat and stood. “She has the dialect chip in her, so we can freely speak our language now.”
Lukin nodded and had his focus on Minka, and Thorque shifted on his feet, clearly scenting the arousal in the air, finding it harder to control himself.
“Are you hungry?” Thorque asked and held up the bird.
She made a strangled sound, covering her mouth, and Brawn knew the bird was an ugly thing. No doubt, she worried about the taste.
“It’s actually pretty good, and when it cooks up, you won’t even remember it looking like that.” Brawn smiled at her. The bird was an ugly creature, with bone protruding out of its back, its red feathers oily to protect it from the heat, and its face looking like it was a mixture of swollen and broken.
“It’s also high in protein, and right now to make sure you continue to gain weight so you are at optimum health, you’ll need a lot of protein,” Thorque said and brought the bird into the cooking area. Lukin followed, and for the next twenty minutes, they plucked the feathers, cut off limbs, and skinned the animal.
The only thing inedible on the bird was its head, but there was venom in the bird’s brain that was used for the tips of their blades and could render a being paralyzed.
Once Thorque was finished cutting the bird, Lukin started cooking it over the flame that was opened up from a center rock in the preparation area. The flames beneath the mountain fueled it, and in a matter of seconds, the meat was cooked and ready for Minka to eat. Brawn stood, took the plate Lukin gave him, and brought it to her. When he set the horn plate in front of her, she eyed it hesitantly.
“I promise it tastes better than it looked.” Brawn tried to ease her, even tried to put himself in her position. But although he sympathized with her, he couldn’t see anything but how they were trying to help her, and she needed to understand that.
“Here, Minka. Try this,” Lukin said and walked over to them to hand her a Monel stick.
“Isn’t that what you were chewing on that made you...?” She glanced between them.
“It’ll make you feel at ease,” Lukin answered.
She shook her head. “I’d rather not. I’d like to keep my mind clear when….” She looked down, and although she didn’t state it, Brawn knew she was talking about when they took her finally.
“It’s okay. No one will force you to do anything,” Thorque said once he was in the sitting area and on the chair across from them. For several moments, no one spoke as they ate, but Brawn knew his brothers had their attention trained right on her. The room grew heated from their arousal and thick with their scent of wanting her.
When she finished, she set the plate aside and looked at each of them. “I’m safe here?” she asked softly.
Brawn nodded, but Thorque answered. “You are. We wouldn’t let anything harm you.”
She nodded and looked at her hands in her lap. “But what if one of those creatures comes in here when you’re gone? What if I need to leave the cave? How will I survive the heat?” She started breathing faster. Everything was clearly starting to slam into her, and the shock of her situation was evident on her face. “And water—I don’t even know how you have any.” Sweat beaded her forehead. “This place is like hell.” She gasped out, and the tears started to fall hard and fast. “Oh God.” She rested her head back on the couch, closed her eyes, and for a second, no one moved or spoke.
All any of them could do was stare at her as she crumbled from the reality. But Brawn finally pulled her close, and she instantly rested her head on his chest. He stroked her head and looked at his brothers. They were warriors, fearless and strong, but right now, they looked so damn scared from how she was reacting.
“You’re in shock, Minka,” Brawn said softly, still moving his hand over her hair. He felt at a loss right now, vulnerable even, and it was all because this woman, this little human female, had broken down in front of them.
“I’m sorry. I had it together, or at least I thought I did.” She pulled back slightly, but he wasn’t ready to let her go just yet. Holding her felt good, really good, and he wanted to let his body heat seep into her, calm the chills that covered her flesh, and wanted her to know that although they may look like demons, and held beasts inside them that were trained on one thing at the moment, they were not animals who held no compassion.
With her, it was different. She was their mate, even if she hadn’t been with them for very long. As soon as he’d held her in his arms, he had known she was theirs, and when his brothers had seen her, he knew they felt the same way too. He looked at Thorque, the brother who was more technical with all these answers and nodded for him to say something.
“Minka,” he said and leaned forward. “The air you breathe here is no different from any other planet a human can sustain life on.” Thorque spoke softly, and it was strange to Brawn that he could hear those kinds of emotions come from his brother. “We have a water reserve stored in a cavern within the mountain. Since our kind doesn’t require a substantial amount of H2O, we have plenty. If we need more, we can easily get it.”
“As for a creature coming into our home,” Lukin began, and there was this hardness to his voice, “we are the predators on this planet, and even if some of the creatures try to challenge us, they find out with their lives that it was a mistake.”
“Lukin,” Brawn growled. “You’re not fucking helping.” His youngest brother seemed to like to let his alphaness out when a threat was even spoken.
Lukin stared at Brawn and then finally breathed out and nodded. “I apologize, Minka. If I frightened you further, that wasn’t my intent. My point is nothing will dare come into our territory.”
She nodded, and Brawn felt movement against his chest.
“Among the three of us, we have lived for a total of three hundred years, so believe me when I say we know how to protect what is ours,” Lukin said with a hard tone to his voice, and then he moved toward her.
“Three hundred years?” She had since pushed away from Brawn and now stared at Lukin, who stood in front of her. She looked among all of them, and although she sounded shocked, surely she wasn’t honestly.
“You do realize that humans are the only beings in this galaxy with a minimal lifespan, right?” Thorque asked.
Brawn looked at her, wanted to push the hair away from her face, but instead curled his hands into balls.
“Of course I know that; I just didn’t realize you were that old.”
The silence stretched between them, and then Brawn started chuckling. That had his brothers doing the same, and soon the tension in the cavern lessened marginally. “I suppose compared to your species, one hundred and twenty-five would be old,” Brawn said.
She nodded. “And how old are you two?” Minka asked, and she said it softly, but her voice was steady and strong.
“Thorque is one hundred and five, and Lukin is only seventy,” Brawn answered.
“Even the youngest one is fifty years older than me,” she said and then started rubbing her hands up and down her thighs.
“Listen, the trip back to Hades was long and you’re still healing mentally, so how about we rest for the remainder of the night, and in the morning, we can talk about what being our mate really means?” Thorque offered.
“I know what it means,” Minka said but stood. “But I think sleeping is probably better right now for me than talking about...” She paused and stared at each of them for a second. “I think talking about you three breeding with me right now would probably make me flip my switch.”
Brawn didn’t know what that human term meant, but he could assume. He stood and led them out of the sitting area and into one of the rooms in the cavern. There were four rooms, one mainly used to clean their weapons and the other three for them to sleep in.
And although he would prefer taking her to his room and being with her in every way possible as Lukin and Thorque watched before joining in and breeding with her, he would give her this time to come to terms with everything. This life wasn’t normal for her in any sense. She had nothing else out there. He knew that, and she knew that. It was a dangerous, frightening, and hungry galaxy, and its inhabitants were anxious to tear the others down.
“You can sleep here tonight, but it is hard for us to stay away from you, Minka, especially when we want you as badly as we do.” Brawn stared at her, knowing she wouldn’t possibly understand what was happening between them. He knew humans didn’t have the need to breed or have this undisputable and unbreakable urge to find their mate.
They fucked whomever they wanted, and when they finally found the person they stayed with, there was nothing that bound them aside from this thing they called love. Hades warriors did not have an equivalent of love aside from the mating-and-claiming desire. They did fuck females when they needed to relieve themselves, but the only time they took a female to be their mate was to procreate and to have her as a lifelong companion.
“What about when I die?” she asked.
Confusion filled him for a second, and then realization struck him. He took a step closer to her. “Even though you’re human, Minka, once we have completed the breeding and have marked you, a chemical is released into your body.”
She breathed out. “What does that mean?”
“It means you would stop aging as long as one of us marked you every time we were with you sexually.”
She didn’t respond right away, but he could see she was thinking hard about what he said.
“And what happens if you don’t mark me? What happens if you three die?”
He was already shaking his head before she finished talking.
“If we die, then the chemical won’t be in your body any longer, and you’ll age naturally.” He cupped her face, ran his thumb over her bottom lip, and didn’t stop himself from leaning forward. He pressed his mouth to hers, feeling this spark of warmth and need fill him when their lips were together. She smelled good, felt incredible, and tasted so fucking intoxicating. His dick was rock-hard, and his blood pumped fast in his body. He pulled back and breathed out. “But we’ve survived a long time, and we have no plans on letting anything happen to you.” The kiss hadn’t been anything enticing, but even the press of their mouths together had shifted something inside him. “We just found you, and no way will anything or anyone take you away from us.”
She swallowed, stared right in his eyes, and then nodded. “I believe you.”
And he knew she did, even if she was jumping into this with both feet, her eyes closed, and had no idea what in the hell would happen.
