Grace Goodwin - The Virgins - Complete Boxed Set

“How is this possible?” I whispered my question to the stars still visible in the predawn light. Chest heaving, heart racing, I lay on my back on the hard ground and stared into the night sky, trying to recall an image of her face, found that I could not.

Unbuttoning my pants, I reached in and pulled out my cock, grasped the base in a tight grip, slid my palm up. Awakening with a hard cock was not uncommon, a daily occurrence really, but this was different. I ached for her. I needed to fuck, to sink into a woman… into her .

I didn’t need this desire, the distraction. I’d been tracking Neron since his escape from Incar, the prison colony on our nearest moon. Neron escaped with two other criminals, but the others did not concern me. I had not traveled across the fucking galaxy to hunt them. I wanted Neron’s head on a spike. I’d stolen a horse and been tracking him since we’d landed, nearly caught him, too. But I had begun to suspect that Neron knew I was here, knew I had come to claim the vengeance my family demanded.

Why he’d chosen Earth, a world so primitive it wasn’t yet eligible to join the Interstellar Coalition, I could not understand. Was this planet a secret haven for criminal activity in this region of the galaxy? Had he made contact with other known or hunted criminals hiding among the people of Earth? Or did this planet offer him something else? A free reign of terror and power with his enhanced strength, speed and superior technology?

For the first time in my life I did not know what my old childhood friend wanted. And that made him even more dangerous.

Neron’s life sentence on the prison moon had been enough, at the time, to ease my need for retribution. Now, he’d escaped and fled to this simple planet, so my family had sent me after him. I was to hunt him down and bring him to justice.

My dead sister would be avenged.

But now a simple dream changed everything. My vengeance forced to wait. Finding my mate here was not part of the plan, but she was now my priority.

I fisted my cock, pumped once, twice, and groaned as lust spread like a fire through my blood. “Fuck. This can’t be happening.”

I was here to hunt a killer, not chase a woman, but the dream would not be denied. Nor would the mating mark that flared and burned on my palm. She was here. And the dream. Fuck, the dream had come again and again. This occurrence, I remembered it, remembered her. The feel of her—silky soft and warm. The taste of her skin—like flowers and sunshine. The sound of her—sweet surprise and newfound desire.

The mating mark on my palm throbbed and burned where it slid up and down my cock, where it absorbed the pre-cum that streamed from my slit. My entire life, that damn mark had lain dormant, completely dead, as had my hope of ever finding my marked mate.

And now that we had landed on this primitive planet? The mark blazed with life, making my cock heavy and my skin ultra-sensitive to touch. I dreamed of her . Kissing her. Touching her. I wanted to claim her, fill her with my cock and mark her as mine. I’d ached to come deep inside her, to fill her womb with my seed, but her mind rebelled and she tore from the dream, waking before I could find release.

I thought of her taste, of her hips rising to meet mine and I pumped my cock hard, eager to come.

“You’re mine.”

The thought that I had found her, that I would be the only man to touch her, to own and possess her, made my cock jump in my hand even as my mind rebelled at the idea of delaying my hunt for Neron.

Only the Divine would be so daring as to tempt me with a mate here, so far from my home world that I never would have found her. The dreams were more than a sign; they were a calling, an instinct I had no hope or desire to ignore. A marked mate! It was an honor to find the other half of your soul.

The dreams were a gift, and I welcomed them each night, welcomed the glimpses of her skin, the feel of her creamy thighs, the heat of her pussy, the sticky essence of her arousal. The hard feel of her nipples against my chest. Her taste. Everything.

I pumped my cock harder, remembering the kiss. The memory of her soft lips caused me to arch off the ground, lifting my hips as my balls drew up to my body. The sounds she made, innocent surprise and newfound pleasure, had my orgasm flare at the base of my spine, had my cum all but boiling. It shot forth, pulse after pulse of it as I relived the feel of her body finding release from the barest of touches to her clit.

“Mate,” I growled into the night as my seed coated my hand, slipping over my mark that had finally come to life. I did not know her name, but I would find her and claim her.

“Mine,” I vowed, my breath soughing from my lungs.

I stared up at the stars as I recovered, my body sated for now, knowing that Everis was up there somewhere, the twin stars my home world orbited two insignificant sparks among billions in the night sky.

In the early years of my education, I’d listened about as well as the rest of my class as we were told the history of the Coalition planets, and about our home world, Everis. But now those lessons comforted me, for I knew that eons ago, people from Everis had scattered across the galaxies, colonizing new worlds. Some must have found their way here, to Earth. My mate’s presence here was indisputable proof of that.

But something must have happened to my ancestors, for there was no technology here, no knowledge of any life forms beyond their small, blue world. The people of Earth had no space travel. Hell, there was no air travel within the planet’s atmosphere. They still used simple beasts of burden for their transportation. Life was simple, primitive and yet the marked were here. Descendants.

Mates.

The Sevens would have to be notified immediately. Earth would need to be included in our next Reaping ceremony. For now, I would hunt the woman who haunted my dreams. Hunt her. Find her. Claim her.

Maddox

Using a cloth, I wiped off the spent seed, tucked my cock back in my pants. I had to find her, for she was not only my greatest joy, but my greatest weakness. The mark would only awaken if I was close enough to her, alerted by her proximity. I was close enough to dream of her. I was close enough for my mark to heat and pulse.

That also meant if Neron were close enough to her, as an unmated male of our species, he would sense her presence, know that an unclaimed, marked female was nearby. He wouldn’t dream of her, his own mark wouldn’t flare to life, wouldn’t even ache for her as I did, for she wasn’t his true mate. But he’d know there was a descendant of Everis here on Earth. Odds were, he’d want her for himself. He would hunt for her, and may the Divine prevent him finding her, else she’d end up… just like my sister.

I knew now why I had never found my mate on Everis, had never felt more than simple arousal at the sight of a woman. My mark had never heated, never burned as it did now.

But my mission was to track Neron, find him and bring him to justice. The ruling Sevens wanted me to capture him and return him to prison. I was more inclined to end him for what he’d done to my twin sister, Maddilline. My Maddie. I was more than willing to end his life. Eager to do so. But the burning sting of my mark demanded I take a new direction.

I had to find my marked mate. I had no choice. My body would offer me none. It would become painful for me to remain separated from her, my arousal becoming more intense until I became crazed with it. Need for her would drive my every thought. Every moment I would wonder where she was, what she was doing, if she was safe. I would become a slave to my cock, to the seed my body demanded I plant in her womb. I would become obsessed with the need to mark her, protect her, fuck her, claim her as our palms touched, as our true marks connected us as mates. Permanently.