Erik, Planet Viken, Viken United Compound, Transport Center

      Nerves made my heart beat faster than I wished as I watched my two brothers-in-arms. Gunnar, with his black hair and blacker heart, stood silent and still as a statue as we waited for our mate to arrive via transport. He’d vowed not to love her, but Rolf and I didn’t need him to do so.

      “How long must we wait?” Gunnar turned on the Viken warrior behind the transport station, every line in his body screaming of his irritation.

      “For someone not interested in a mate, you’re fucking impatient,” I countered. While the other two stood near the transport area, I leaned against the wall.

      Gunnar regarded me over his shoulder with a look that screamed fuck you.

      “Not long, sir,” the attendant said. “The transport signal is strong. Your mate should arrive in the next few minutes.”

      “Relax, Gunnar,” Rolf said. He could always calm our friend. “Earth is a long way from here. A long, long way.”

      They stood shoulder to shoulder. Next to Gunnar’s darkness, Rolf looked like a beacon. Always smiling, his pale blond hair and bright green eyes nearly made him glow in the transport room’s artificial light. His easy smile and natural charm had served us well over the years. Women took one look at Gunnar and either ran away or lay down at his feet like slaves awaiting orders from a master. But Rolf? They hung on his every word, offered him everything. They fell in love with him as easily as rain fell from the sky. One was light, the other dark.

      Females fell at their feet, but neither warrior loved in return. I’d fought by their sides for a decade in the Hive war. We had bled and killed together. I knew these men better than I knew myself, and they did not love.

      Neither did I. We were all broken. But when the Queen you’ve sworn to protect, the leaders you’ve laid down your life to keep safe, ask you to take a mate, to help them unite the three sectors, refusal is not an option.

      “Did you two see her profile?” I asked. Less than an hour ago, our mate’s information had been transmitted to us from Earth. Sophia. We knew her name and that she was some sort of smuggler, convicted of crimes on her home world. But that mattered not, for we were not perfect men. We’d killed, and worse, during the wars, and learned to live with it. Sophia promised us a new beginning, a new chapter in our dark lives. The report stated she was twenty-six years of age, young but ripe. I had stared at her image, looked into eyes nearly as dark as Gunnar’s, and my cock had grown hard. It was impossible not to want her as we looked at her Earthen beauty. I’d been stunned to discover an alien female that stirred my cock.

      “No need.” Gunnar crossed his arms over his chest.

      Years ago, when we’d first met, he’d been dressed head to toe in the black, as were all warriors from Sector Two. The sector uniform had been replaced by the space camouflage of the Coalition Fleet. Years later, we now served and wore the uniform for Viken United, the one bastion of peace on the planet, and our capital city. While we served the same command, he wore the black once more, as I wore brown and Rolf dark green. Each uniform’s color represented the sector in which we were born. But on each of our arms a bright red band made us brothers. Red for Viken United, for our future queen, the beautiful baby Allayna.

      Rolf laughed. “No need? What is wrong with you, Gunnar? Were you not curious?”

      I shook my head as I pushed off the wall to move beside the attendant, to watch over his shoulder at the controls. I already knew exactly what Gunnar would say.

      “No,” he replied. “She is our mate. Her appearance is irrelevant.”

      Rolf smacked him on the shoulder as he rolled his eyes. “Right. So if she’s covered in warts and hideous to behold, you’ll close your eyes and rut into her tight little pussy anyway?”

      Gunnar raised his brow, clearly not amused. “She comes from Earth. The planet of Queen Leah, who is lovely. She was also matched to all three of us using the Bride matching program. I have no doubt I will find her adequate to our needs. She has to be. That’s what the fucking testing was for.”

      Adequate to our needs. Right. We needed to fuck her, get her pregnant, and fulfill the Queen’s decree. That was hard enough, but we also had to make our mate happy. With Gunnar a cranky bastard and the three of us not too keen on becoming emotionally involved, that would be the much more difficult task.

      Clearly annoyed, Rolf turned to me. “I assume you could not resist temptation, Erik, and read her profile. I was on patrol and could not learn about her. Tell me everything.” He bumped into Gunnar with his shoulder. If anyone else treated him with such casual disrespect, Gunnar would have ripped him to pieces by now. “And tell Gunnar, too. He’s only pretending not to care.”

      Gunnar scowled but did not refute Rolf’s claim. I stared at the empty transport pad and thought of our mate. “Her name is Sophia. Her hair is long and golden, like the bark of a Nerbu tree. Her eyes are dark brown, nearly as dark as Gunnar’s.”

      I stopped speaking then as my cock hardened in my pants. Her body was small but well curved, her breasts just large enough to fill both my hands. Her small, tight ass begged to be spanked a bright pink. Her lips were full and a deep rose color I hungered to taste.

      “Erik?” Rolf leaned forward, amusement on his face, waiting.

      “What?”

      “Golden hair and dark eyes. What else?” He circled his hand to get me to continue.

      I shook my head and adjusted my cock in my pants. “You were too lazy to look for yourself, you’ll just have to wait.”

      “Transport imminent,” the attendant said.

      Gunnar shrugged and turned to stare at the platform. We all did as the familiar humming vibration started. The buzzing sensation traveled up through my boots and into my legs as the transport pad powered up, ready to receive our new bride.

      “I hope this isn’t a huge fucking mistake.” Rolf’s worry was one I shared. But the Bride Program’s testing was practically infallible. It matched not only to obvious likes