Arobi's Queen: A Mate Index Romance (The Mate Index Book 11) Read online

  “What if you and your brother come to an accord and you change your mind?” Bilax challenged.

  Exeri cut a hard look to his pack brother that was acknowledged with a guilty flick of the ear, but he allowed the question to stand. This was something that he too wanted to know.

  Ka’sumar laughed bitterly and shook his head. “There is little chance of that happening. I have not heard from my brother for many revolutions, not since he took to piracy on the open seas of our planet. Even if there were some chance of the female awakening my urges, I would be unable to claim and mate with her without him. I will have no rights regarding your chosen mate.”

  Bilax made a satisfied noise, and Exeri did not miss the look of excitement between Tanji and Simah. Holding back a smile, Exeri nodded in acknowledgment.

  “How shall we collect the female form you?” he purred out in a long rumble.

  The Edoka stiffened at the predatory sound, his spines twitching, but after a moment a lazy smile curled his lips. “Two weeks. I will comm you to meet me in the docking bay after she arrives. I will hand over the female then, and you will give me the other half of my fee.”

  “Of course,” Exeri agreed as he lifted a chip from his pouch, flashing it in front of the other male before tucking it back away. “Two weeks, and not a day longer.”

  He didn’t mind flashing credits. No one was stupid enough to attempt to steal from an Arobi pack. Besides, it served its purpose. The black eyes fastened on it greedily and the male bobbed his head.

  “Not a day longer,” Ka’sumar agreed in a raspy voice, his spines making the softest rustling sound as they vibrated with barely suppressed excitement.

  Exeri smirked as he pushed up from the table. “Excellent. Our business for now is concluded. We will be waiting to hear from you in exactly two weeks’ time. We will be residing here in the space station, so I expect to have a message waiting for us soon after her arrival.”

  The male nodded and then blinked as if coming back to himself. “What kind of female are you looking for, anyway?”

  “A strong female,” Exeri answered immediately. Their world was harsh; any female of theirs would need to be strong. His pack grunted approval around him as he turned and raised brow toward them.

  “One who looks soft to curl up with,” Tanji said. Exeri smiled in approval at the excitement of his pack brothers.

  “A small female. I like the little ones,” Simah said with a wide grin. “They are fun to pick up and carry around. A small female with a strong spirit.”

  Bilax made a thoughtful sound low in his throat. He seemed to be in deep thought. “We were raised as warriors and hunters. We know nothing of family and raising pups. A female who is good with younglings would be beneficial.”

  Ka’sumar’s brows rose but he nodded as he pushed up to his feet. He pocketed his credits and gave them a confident smirk. “I will select the perfect female. I am confident that you will lavish me with gratitude when you receive her.”

  Exeri leaned forward and caught the Edoka in his grip. The male startled, his body freezing as Exeri’s large head nudged closer to his ear, his voice dropping into a soft whisper.

  “See to it that you do. Follow through and you will receive more than our gratitude, but rather these credits which you lust for. Betray us, however, and there will be nowhere you can hide from us,” Exeri promised with a low snarl.

  The Edoka twisted in his grip and Exeri released him, allowing the violet-blue male to stumble away. The sounds of the space station had gone quiet around them as onlookers watched in silence. Ignoring them, he stared down at the male as Ka’sumar met his challenging gaze. The Edoka’s spines quivered until he swallowed and nodded in understanding. He stepped back a pace, and then another, putting distance between himself and the Arobi pack before turning away to melt into the crowd. Exeri stared after him, his sharp vision easily tracking the male through the crowd despite the Edoka’s best intentions.

  “Do we follow?” Tanji growled quietly at his side.

  Exeri shook his head as he ran his tongue over his sharp fangs thoughtfully. “No. Let the male believe himself safe from us for the time being. We have his scent if he thinks to cross us.”

  “Is it likely?” Simah muttered.

  “I doubt it,” Bilax snorted scornfully. “The male looked ready to soil himself if our alpha so much as sneezed in his direction.”

  The other two males chuckled at the observation and Exeri felt an answering smile pull at his own mouth. Turning away, he led his pack back through the space station to where they were lodged in temporary quarters.

  He would leave the rest up to the Edoka. Ka’sumar would not fail them.

  Chapter 3

  The Intergalactic Space Station was everything that Hayley imagined it to be, and more. She observed everything in an uncharacteristically awed silence, overwhelmed by the overload of experiences. Everywhere she looked, there were species she had never seen before. If not for the presence of the fifty other human women signed up for the program, she probably would be freaking out already by now.

  The head of security, a large gray Itashvanda male who’d introduced himself as Tar-denovak after they disembarked the spaceship from Earth, lead their group through the space station. He cut an impressive figure as he towered over them, his uniform clinging to his muscles as his wings folded behind him like some sort of gargoyle come to life. If only an imposing figure like that could have been her mate.

  Not that there was anything wrong with the Edoka male who had selected her… physically speaking. His image had been uploaded into her comm unit shortly before she boarded the starship. She’d noticed the pretty blue shade of his scales right away. It was almost enough to make up for the fact that that he had sharp spines all over his body, and that something in his eyes unnerved her.

  Still, it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be with him long.

  She might have reconsidered if he’d made any attempt to speak to her after he bought her bridal contract. Apparently, her mate hadn’t thought to spend the necessary credits to call after he paid so much to acquire her. It told her everything she needed to know about her so-called “mate.” This was no eager bridegroom, but a male who paid for merchandise. She knew people who acted more interested when buying a dog.

  That knowledge didn’t sit comfortably with her.

  She would wager just about anything that Tar-denovak wouldn’t order a bride and let her cool her heels all alone without a word the entire flight over. Why couldn’t she get a male like that? One who made her actually want to consider, however briefly, staying.

  Despite her caseworker’s assurances that it was rare for males to comm due to the high cost, Hayley wasn’t fooled. Perhaps she would’ve given him the benefit of the doubt if she hadn’t known that other women who received calls from their intended mates, not only at the facility, but in the days it took to travel to the space station. As far as she knew, she was the only woman who hadn’t received a comm from her mate, and the pitying looks were getting on her nerves.

  Huffing in annoyance, she turned her thoughts away from her disappointment of a mate to enjoy the view of the male just ahead. She might as well. She owed no loyalty to the asshole who paid for her. The Itashvanda were worthy of admiration. They were not only built like gods, but adored females. A sex god with wings and a tail worshiping her—it was a fun fantasy to mentally play with, anyway.

  Tar-denovak towered over all of them as he led the way through the crowd. Every now and then, his wings stretched out as he hovered protectively over the women clustered around him as they gaggled at one thing or another. Hayley got the ridiculous mental image of him as a mother duck watching over his brood of humans. She held back a snicker as his leathery feathers flapped once to discourage a couple of women from getting ahead of him as he leveled them with a severe look.

  Definitely mother duck mode.

  He cleared his throat and raised his voice over the din of the merchants hocking thei
r wares around them. At least that much was comfortingly universal, even if the products were unfamiliar and occasionally disgusting.

  “Do not stray from the group. We will be arriving at the gathering room shortly. At that point, your mates will be commed to collect you. You are not to leave the gathering room with anyone else. Your mate will have his vitals scanned to confirm his identity before he can escort you out. If you attempt to leave with an unauthorized male, you will be detained for questioning. It will not be pleasant,” he added gruffly.

  Hayley gave him a jaunty salute, not the least bit fazed by the disapproving look that met her. She wasn’t impressed by someone who was an obvious stickler for the rules, but the stern glare curled her toes. She liked dominant men. Her smile widened impishly, but he was already turning his attention away from her as he herded them to their destination.

  Well, damn.

  “I don’t think it’s going to work,” Cora whispered at her side, one finger pushing her glasses back in place.

  Hayley smirked at her friend, the only one she’d made while confined in the bridal dorms attached to the Western Distribution Center of the United States. It was a small comfort that Cora had been selected to go to the same planet to be mated to an Ixili ambassador stationed on Edokora. Knowing she had a friend somewhere on the planet when she escaped made her feel better.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Hayley said, feigning innocence.

  “Girl, please. I see how you were looking at him. You were that close to whispering, ‘Yes, Daddy,’” Cora whimpered in an exaggerated small voice.

  “I don’t do that.” Hayley snorted with laughter, no longer even trying to keep silent. “I prefer to keep a man on his toes. It makes the moment all the more exciting when he tightens control.”

  “Mmhmm, have fun with your mates then. I hear Edoka males are not only dominant but can get a little freaky in the sack.”

  “No males, just one. One Edoka.”

  Her friend drew up short. “Really? That’s rare. Well, maybe he will be like super-fuck Edoka, all the energy of multiple mates tapping that ass. It could happen.” Cora shot her a sly sidelong glance. “You’ll have to comm and tell me all about it. We can compare notes.”

  “Please do. I want to hear about all the naughty things that an Ixili male can do with his wings,” Hayley said, making the other woman burst out into laughter.

  She didn’t bother to remind Cora that she would be long gone before that ever happened. It didn’t need to be said. Cora knew of her plans and kept her secrets. If it made Cora feel better to pretend otherwise, Hayley didn’t have a problem with it. For now, they could pretend they would still be able to stay in touch after they arrived on the planet’s surface.

  Even if Hayley had considered staying with her mate, the likelihood of being able to stay in touch was slim. Hayley would be taken to one set of isles and Cora would be transported to another, where she would be at the beck and call of an important alien. Still, it was good to imagine, if even for just a short while, that she had something to look forward to other than her imminent escape. If it soothed their nerves when faced with the prospect of meeting their mates, well, then that worked too.

  They didn’t have long to enjoy it before they arrived at a metal door at the end of a long corridor. Their Itashvanda guide pressed a sequence of symbols into the plate before he placed his palm on the panel. It glowed like something straight out of a sci-fi movie before the door slid open.

  The room they were ushered into consisted of little other than four unadorned gray metal walls and several chairs placed around a long table. One look at it brought back memories of her time in prison. Except that this was even more painfully bland. She grimaced as she glanced at her surroundings.

  Shouldn’t there be some kind of welcome committee? No one had met them when they entered, and Tar-denovak had stepped out, sealing the entrance shut the moment all of them had clustered into the room. Now what?

  Cora glanced around. “I guess we sit?”

  “Might as well.” Hayley sighed in agreement.

  They pulled out chairs and sat… and sat. Time ticked bye at such an excruciatingly slow speed that she could feel her stomach knotting with anxiety. What was taking so long? She eyed the door as she lifted a long lock of hair off her shoulder and began to twist it between her fingers.

  “Do you think our mates are going to be much longer?” a woman nearby whispered.

  “I hope they fucking feed us soon if not,” another muttered unhappily. “This isn’t what I was expecting.”

  “By Earth laws, they have to keep us separated until we go to our lawful owners,” a third snorted. “There are no refunds, so this protects Earth’s assets—us—until we’re in the hands of the males who ordered us.”

  Several of the women scoffed and more than a few groaned at the observation, but it was a viewpoint that Hayley privately shared. The woman in question, Addison, had once been an attorney. She knew her shit and was under no illusion, regardless of how kind her mate was to her over the comm, of what she had entered into. More than once, she pointed out the fact that women were being sold as commodities, no matter how nice the trappings. It perhaps wasn’t the most optimistic viewpoint, but Hayley appreciated the other woman’s no-bullshit approach to what was going on.

  Cora frowned at Hayley’s side and shifted nervously. “Shit. This is crazy. How long are they going to keep us waiting like this? If I wanted to sit in a gray cell, I could have just stuck it out in jail.”

  Hayley nodded in agreement. She fidgeted as she eyed the door.

  The door slid open, and a collective sigh issued from the women. From there, everything soon descended into chaos. There was no one keeping order. The door opened, admitting an influx of males of various species in a sudden surge upon the women. Cora disappeared from her sight, as did all the other women, as the males pushed their way in. Hayley looked around frantically. The Itashvanda head of security could barely be seen on the other side of the door holding a device in his hands—no doubt to confirm the bio-signatures of their mates. But she didn’t see Cora.

  No, wait… There she was. Cora’s dark mop of curls could just barely be seen against the large body of the alien escorting her toward the entrance. Hayley pressed forward. She wanted to at least say goodbye!

  She didn’t get very far when a hand caught her firmly around the forearm. Surprised, she turned, swinging up her arm in preparation to defend herself… and found the Edoka who’d sent for her. His scales were the same violet-blue, his hair neatly bound. But the cold eyes that regarded her lacked interest in her as they skimmed over her.

  This was to be her mate?

  “I suppose you will do. You are not quite as delicate as I was expecting,” he said with a nod to her more generous curves, “but this can be worked with, I suppose. I am assuming you have been fitted with a translator, yes?”

  She stared back at him, her tongue glued to the back of her teeth, in mounting horror.

  He sighed impatiently. The spines on his head and shoulders vibrated as he reached forward and grabbed her jaw, turning her head brusquely from side to side. “Please do not tell me that they did not even bother to chip you. What use are you if you cannot understand what I am saying?”

  Wait, what? Hayley bristled and wrenched her jaw out of his grip. He blinked at her in surprise as she glowered at him with hostility.

  “I understand you just fine,” she shot back. “I suppose you are Ka’sumar, my… mate.” She could barely spit out the last word, choking on it with her fury. There was no way this was the male she was going to call her mate—not with the way the male was looking at her. Not when she planned on ditching his ass at the first opportunity.

  His lips curved into a smile and he nodded with a sort of arrogance that made her instantly wary. “You have that somewhat correct. But come, we need to hurry—we are already running late. They will no doubt be already getting impatient. I had no idea they would wait so long
to open the doors. Wanted all the males present and accounted for first. A huge waste of time.”

  He began to drag her forward, and Hayley dug in her heels. He shot an impatient look at her, his brow dipping into a scowl.

  “Come on,” he hissed.

  “Where are you taking me and who is ‘they?’” she demanded in a low voice.

  “Clients of mine. Now, will you walk out of here with me or do I have to carry you out over my shoulder?”

  Hayley sucked in a huge breath of air, indignant at the threat. Sure, he might have paperwork saying that he was her mate, but she barely knew him. Certainly not well enough to allow him to treat her in such a way. “You wouldn’t dare!”

  The Edoka growled and lunged forward. She shrieked and attempted to bolt out of the way. Unfortunately, her mate was quicker. Her breath whooshed out of her as Ka’sumar picked her up directly off her feet and slung her over one shoulder, the flattened spines knocking the wind out of her. The stunned silence only lasted for a moment. On her next breath, Hayley bellowed angrily, but not one male even so much as glanced her way. A few of the women stared at her in concern, but no one made any effort to help her as the Edoka carried her toward the entrance.

  Whatever hope she held that someone might help her withered and died when Tar-denovak, though frowning in dismay, didn’t object as he silently lifted his scanner to the Edoka’s outstretched arm. The scanner flashed green, and the giant male shifted uncomfortably.

  “Ka’sumar, you are cleared to leave the facility with your mate…”

  “About time,” the Edoka grumbled as he began to push by. He was halted abruptly by the large wing that unfurled in front of him.

  “But,” Tar-denovak continued slowly, “the female is agitated. Perhaps you should stay a bit longer and see to her comfort. She may find it easier to accept you…”

  “I don’t require her to ‘accept me,’” Ka’sumar sighed impatiently. “I really am running very late. This is unconventional, I am sure, but I assure you that she will be well cared for.”