My cock aches in my pants, and my claws extend without a second thought, my control slipping as they prick through the fabric swathed around her body.

Panic grips me in the next moment.

The faces of my clan, my pack, swimming around me, the riot of noise and scent unsettling me and challenging the control I so dearly need.

I cannot allow my clan to see anything but my iron fist—one voice of dissent is still too many.

If they knew I carried the blood lust gene, and that’s why I must take a human mate?

Clan Claw would be well within their rights to depose me immediately.

I inhale deeply, struggling with the beast that wants out, that wants to hunt. I catch Aileen’s sweet scent, and it grounds me.

My hands squeeze around her soft body once, and then I loosen my grip, forcing the beast down, down where he can’t hurt anyone—can’t hurt her.

Her hand slaps against the jagged puncture of my teeth on her collarbone, and I frown at the way her chest heaves, her forehead wrinkled in dismay.

She’s upset.

Why? I have given her my mating mark, and I’m the prize of Clan Claw—were it not for the blood lust gene, which a human is incapable of passing on.

A frown curves the corners of my mouth down.

“Come, my Aileen,” I tell her. “We leave this place.”

“You don’t want to show her where she’s going to be living?” Tessa objects, frowning right back at me.

“Not right now,” I say sharply, a growl rasping on the last syllable.

“What do you want, Aileen?” Tessa asks her.

“You would question me in front of the clan on the day of my marriage?” There’s no disguising the growl now.

“No one is paying attention. They’re all too busy getting drunk.” Tessa rolls her eyes. “Tell me, human sister, do you want to see where you’ll be living, or do you want to go with him?”

“I can see it later,” she says quietly, all warm brown eyes and softness. She dips her chin at me, and my beast roars with approval at her near immediate submission. “If he needs to leave, we can leave.”

“I don’t need—” I start, but Tessa’s snort of amusement brings me up short.

She arches an eyebrow at me, her gaze darting back and forth meaningfully between the small woman still in my hands and my eyes.

“Fine.” I grit my teeth. “I do need to leave.”

“You two are going to get along just fine,” Tessa coos. “The transport’s already ready.”

“You knew I’d want to leave immediately,” I mutter.

She laughs again. “As soon as Aileen stepped off the ship. You’re less mysterious than you think you are.”

“Where are we going?” Aileen’s voice is so quiet that if it weren’t for our evolutionarily advanced hearing, I might not have even heard her plaintive question.

“Somewhere safe.”

“It’s not safe here?” She glances up at me, her cheeks pink and eyes narrowed in not fear, but annoyance.

“It will be safer for both of you at the lodge.” Tessa reaches for Aileen, then thinks better of touching her when my lip curls from my teeth. She clears her throat, shooting me an annoyed look. “Wulfric need time to bond with their mates, especially after the, uh, wedding ceremony.”

“Oh, I see,” Aileen says, but it’s clear from the concerned furrow of her brow that she is lying.

“It will be easier to bond without the pressures of our pack,” I tell her.

“I’ll work on having all your things unpacked⁠—”

“I don’t have things,” Aileen interrupts. Her slender arms cross over her chest, and there’s a hint of steel in her gaze. “I don’t have anything to unpack. Only the things they made for me on the Starlight Hub. As part of the package you paid for.” There’s no censure in the words, but there’s a certain bitterness to them all the same.

I pause.

She’s alone in a new place, and there is no way she isn’t overwhelmed with her sudden place here on Wulfric. Her new husband.

A pang of regret goes through me.

What kind of female would agree to marry an alien male, sight unseen, and uproot her entire life?

A desperate one.

A woman with few options for this to be the best of them all.

“Do you want to come with me to the lodge?” My voice rasps across the question. Her eyes widen slightly. “It will be only us and a handful of servants. It’s traditional for the newly married couple to spend time together alone after the wedding. In our case, we can spend our time simply getting to know each other. I can teach you about Wulfric culture and our lives here, and you can teach me about… you.”

It’s not enough, this simple offer. Not nearly enough to extend it after both marrying her and biting her. Blood trickles in a slow river down her arm, and a pang goes through me.

I let my beast get the best of me. Again.

“You can trust me. We can…” I pause, trying to figure out what I could offer that might set her at ease. “We can sign a contract.”

Tessa blinks at me.

“Send a boilerplate contract with her information to my comms pad,” I bark at her.

She nods once.

Aileen remains silent. Conspicuously so.

I should have thought. I should have known that anyone entering into this sort of… arranged marriage would have to be desperate.

“A contract,” she finally repeats.

“Yes,” I say simply. “To protect your interests.”

“I already signed one with the Starlight Lottery⁠—”

“This one will be whatever you want it to be.”

She tilts her head slightly, something like surprise in her eyes. “That would be nice,” she finally says. “Lead the way.”

Seven words, small words, and yet, they mean the world to me.

They signal a new beginning.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 8

AILEEN

I’ve never seen anything like this place.

Not in real life, at least. Vids don’t do this kind of thing justice, not really.

The planet seems endless—the sky so completely different from anything I ever imagined on my station. Instead of the press of black space and overhead tiles and lights, there’s blue. Blue and lavender sky, tufts of creamy clouds wisping on the breeze.

It’s strange.

I swallow hard, my mouth dry, watching the scenery outside the transport window.

Then there are the trees. Trees not caged or planned or approximated in hologram or in some museum exhibit but wild, huge, and everywhere. Big enough to blot out the sky once we’re fully out of the Clan Claw city.

Is there a reverse of claustrophobia? All that open sky, the vast expanse of forest and trees, it’s so much at once that it feels completely overwhelming.

And that’s not even taking into account the massive man sitting across from me in the transport.

Each time I glance up at my new husband, he’s studiously looking elsewhere.

The moment I turn back toward the window, though, I can feel him looking at me. The heated weight of it is a brand on my skin, the air between us tense and electric.

I don’t know much about this man, but there is no denying we have something. What it is, exactly, I don’t understand.

Pheromones, according to his sister.

If it’s just biology, I can understand that, I guess.

“Tell me about where you worked before…”

He falls silent, and I slowly swing my attention back to him.

“Before I married you?” I finish the statement for him, raising an eyebrow. “Why dance around it?”

“You smell uncomfortable.”

I blink. “Smell?”

“Yes.”

“Right. So. Ah, that’s not a human thing to say.”

He just stares at me. “I’m not a human. You smell worried.”

I sigh in exasperation. “I am worried.” I cross my arms across my chest and lean farther into the plushily upholstered seat. “Everything about this world is brand new to me. I’ve never lived anywhere but decrepit old ships and even more decrepit space stations. I’ve definitely never been married or even—” I stop myself from finishing that thought.