Ryston

      “Thank you, Governor Rone, for inviting us to dine with you and your new mate. We are honored to be here.” Prime Nial’s voice broke through all the various conversations around the large square table. The table seated forty guests, ten on each side. While there were governors chosen by challenge and combat to rule the various bases on the planet, a square table meant everyone seated was an equal, which was how it was to be on The Colony. Equal respect for all who had served, and sacrificed so much, to protect the citizens of the Coalition planets.

      As leader of all Prillons, whether they be on Prillon Prime, stationed on one of the many battleships, or here on The Colony, the Prime would have been seated at the head of the table. But he didn’t seem to mind his even placement with everyone else. His mate, Jessica, sat on his right and his second, Ander, on her right, protecting her between them. As it should be.

      Jessica, like Rachel, was a human female from Earth, but that was where their similarities ended. Rachel was small and curvy, with rich brown hair and soft brown eyes. Her skin a soft, smooth cream with just a hint of brown.

      Jessica, or Queen Deston, as I was honored to address her, was taller than my mate and golden like me. Her hair was a shining gold that fell past her shoulders and her eyes were blue, like glaciers on Earth, startling above full pink lips and skin so pale I could trace the lines of her veins in her wrists. She was a beauty, to be sure, and both of her mates, Prime Nial and the gigantic warrior he’d chosen as his second, Ander, never left her side. In fact, they rarely took their eyes from their mate, and I understood their obsession.

      I could not stop staring at Rachel, at her creamy skin, her soft curves, her expressive eyes. Every emotion I felt from her through the collar turned my head, making me desperate to see her face, to learn the contours of her eyes when she was happy, or angry or aroused.

      The last I’d learned well, and couldn’t wait to see on her face once more.

      As my cock rose beneath the table, Rachel squirmed in her seat between me and Maxim. With a soft laugh, she hit my thigh under the table. “Stop that. I have to eat.”

      Maxim chuckled but didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. I’d started things, my lusty thoughts of Rachel’s mouth stretched wide over my cock had made her pussy grow wet. I could smell it, and the sweet scent of her arousal did nothing to rein in my thoughts. Apparently, Maxim was all too aware of her body’s reaction, for seconds later, his own lust blasted through the collars.

      “You two are such a pain. Seriously.” Rachel leaned forward and lifted her cup half full of Atlan wine to her lips. “Knock it off. I can’t think.”

      Three other governors had transported to join the meal, as well as an Earth warrior who lived on Base 3. His name was Captain Brooks. I had run into him a few times since his arrival at The Colony. The warriors from Earth had only recently joined the war with the Hive, and even fewer survived the enemy once captured. Captain Brooks was one of no more than a couple-dozen humans to survive. And despite Earth’s claims of advancement, they had not wanted their Hive-contaminated warriors back any more than Prillon, or Atlan, or any of the other worlds.

      We were all lost souls here. Lost, until first Jessica, and now Rachel, had chosen contaminated mates. Accepted us.

      Their presence was a beacon for every warrior on the planet.

      Rachel had insisted on finding Brooks immediately upon arrival for dinner. She seemed relieved by his presence, as well as by the Queen’s. While I’d left Prillon Prime for battle and never returned because of banishment, I had always been surrounded by my brothers, other Prillon warriors.

      Rachel was the only matched mate assigned to The Colony from the Brides Program. There were a few female warriors banished to The Colony because of their Hive integrations, but they had been claimed quickly, mated and settled. Rachel, though, was different. She was from Earth, knew nothing of our ways, of the ways of any of the other planets’ warriors who lived on The Colony. Nor did she know what it was like to be contaminated. She was the only untainted one among us living on The Colony. She was the alien here.

      I tried to imagine the courage it would take for her to leap into her new life, and found myself in awe of our lovely bride once more. She laughed and talked and smiled, no matter the oddity or deformity left by the Hive, from strange silver eyes with no color, to completely artificial limbs made of metal, or bald heads coated with neural wiring, she treated all with generosity and respect.

      She made me proud and shocked that I was lucky enough to be one of her chosen warriors. I realized earlier, as I watched her reach out and touch a male’s metallic arm without flinching, saw the shocked wonder in the Atlan warrior’s eyes, that she wasn’t mine.

      I was hers.

      Three days, and she owned me.

      Then there was the Earth warrior. I should rip his head from his shoulders for the interest our mate had in him. But it was not lust, but keen interest in seeing a somewhat familiar face, or at least familiar facial features. He’d brought a smile to her pursed lips and eased the tenseness of her shoulders. Maxim or I could have fucked her to soothe her, but her need to find someone similar, with similar customs