Prime Obsession by Monette Michaels Page B

the fight with Ullyn had subsided.
    He smiled as she nuzzled his neck. The gemate imprinting was the strongest he’d ever seen. Not even his mother and father’s bond was this close. The more Melina took in his pheromones, the more they touched, saw and heard one another, the more fully realized the gemate imprinting would become. Even now her brain regenerated genetic memory and connections to long-buried survival and mating instincts that had lain fallow while she’d been raised as a Terran.
    At the rate she progressed, it wouldn’t be long before he could take his courtship to the next level with her full compliance—total physical possession. He groaned as his cock hardened at the thought.
    Rousing at the sound of his unrequited lust, she opened her eyes and yawned, fighting the sleep she needed. “What Ullyn said—is that why you are joining the alliance? Civil unrest?”
    His mate had a mind like a trap. He smiled.
    Maren had closed in upon them. Wulf asked, “Shall I tell her?” The most senior diplomat of their planet nodded. “She of any deserves to know.” Melina raised her head from his chest. “What does that mean? Me of any? Okay, I know, later.”
    He gently shoved her head back to his chest where it belonged. Just having her in his arms and her scent in his nostrils reinforced why it was important to rid his ship of the pirates. Then he could get her alone and make her fully his. That next level of his courtship couldn’t come fast enough for him.
    “So,” she said, as she stroked the hair at his neck. “Tell me why you are joining the Alliance after centuries of ignoring us.”

    “Our race is dying.”
    “How?”
    “Between the Antarean attacks over the centuries and the loss of almost sixty percent of our fertile females after a mass evacuation during the last major Antarean attack of the planet, we have a less than zero population growth.”
    “So, how does joining the Alliance solve that problem?” she asked, her forehead creased in concentration. He could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she reasoned through the possibilities. All the while she petted his neck as if she comforted him.
    A smile crossed her face as she lifted her head and looked him in the eyes. “You want to bring in new humanoid blood.”
    “Exactly.” Maren confirmed.
    Wulf could say nothing. He didn’t want her to stop smiling at him. It took all his control not to seize her lush pink lips and kiss the sense right out of her.
    “So, Ullyn is part of a neo-conservative, keep-our-blood-pure group?” She lay her head back down before he had the chance to do it himself.
    “Yes,” Wulf said, struggling to stay on topic when all he wanted to do was carry her off into a dark corner and love her until she screamed with pleasure. “We knew there was opposition, but didn’t realize to what lengths they’d go to stop us.”
    “But the pirates?” Melina lifted her head again, this time to look around Wulf at the closely guarded traitors. “Are they stupid? Pirates are the murderous dregs of the universe. They have no honor. The rebels would be killed once the pirates got paid.
    They’d sell their own mothers to make a buck.”
    “They are fanatics, lubha , who can understand what goes on in their minds?” Wulf walked over to the gurney and placed her on it. “Let’s see what you tore open while fighting. Then we can finish up the plans to retake my ship. I want you on a regen bed as soon as possible.”
    Melina nodded her agreement and tapped her ear-com and got a verbal response, finally. “Nowicki, where are you?”
    Wulf heard Melina’s second-in-command reply over his ear-com unit. “We’ve retaken all levels of the ship except for the area right outside the engine room. The pirates are dug in pretty tightly and I don’t want to risk high casualties on our end. Most of them are Erians. Any help from your end would be appreciated.”
    “What are our casualties?” Melina asked as she