Grace Goodwin - Surprise Mates

Not even a little. Which was just sad because he was hot. Like sex-on-a-stick hot. But my indifference was also the reason my guardian, Warlord Wulf, gave every male on The Colony the hands-off vibe when it came to me.

The truth was, I was on The Colony to be with Olivia, Tanner and Emma. They were my family. Not by blood but by choice. Either way, I didn’t want another one. Not yet. I wasn’t ready. If I hooked up with any of the honorable warriors on The Colony, they would want forever. Like, forever-forever, and mating and babies and the whole thing. And that was a large commitment. Gigantic.

These next few days, I just wanted to have some fun. Maybe have some hot sex with a virile alien or two, take the edge off, and get back to my de facto niece and nephew and my best friend. I was happy there. Mostly. Bored sometimes but content. I didn’t want anything to ruin my new life.

I’d had no one on Earth. No family. Few friends. A low-paying job where I was invisible most of the time. Only Olivia and her kids mattered to me. Without them, I would be alone and, worse, lonely as hell. To Tanner and Emma, I was Aunt Woocy , and nothing mattered more to me than making sure those babies were happy and healthy.

I wasn’t enough of a selfish bitch to use any of the warriors on the colony just for sex. Those guys had been through so much. Battle. Capture. Torture. Integration. Rejection from their home worlds. I was not going to play with them like that. To have some fun, I would have to go off world—like here on Prillon Prime—and make sure whoever I had some fun with knew that’s all it was. Fun. Temporary.

Luckily the women from The Colony were all super nice and cool enough to want me to join them. I had a feeling Lindsey would have had T-shirts made that said Earth Girls Unite if she could. Since she’d been a PR rep on Earth and was still going at it, working on trying to bring new Earth volunteers to the Brides program and planning a huge surprise party for her BFF, the Lady Jessica Deston, the freaking queen of the entire Interstellar Coalition of Planets. Safe to say, Lindsey had probably been a little distracted.

“We ladies are perfectly capable of transporting by ourselves,” Rachel said, patting Maxim’s arm. Then she smiled. “But I like it when you get all protective and growly.”

Both he and Ryston growled to match her words. I bit my lip, trying not to laugh. Every male I’d encountered in space was bossier than the next. Protective. Dominant. All alpha-male hotness. Wulf was that way with Olivia and the kids, but he was also that way with me. He was like the brother I’d never had. If a girl from Ohio could have a seven-foot-plus Atlan beast as a brother. An overprotective, growly, beat-the-pulp-out-of-anyone-interested-in-getting-in-my-pants big brother.

“There is no chance you will transport without us. You would probably transport to Viken’s Trixon Resort,” Maxim grumbled.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A retreat for new mates to get to know each other .” Rachel made little air quotes with her fingers. “It’s hedonistic. Think tropical five-star resort that caters to every sexual desire.”

I got hot at the thought. Who wouldn’t want that? “Like a spa but with sex?”

Maxim was the one who nodded. “Exactly.”

Rachel went up on her tiptoes and kissed his square jaw. “I’ve talked to Whitney, you know. She told me that place is only fun if your mates are with you. Not that I don’t enjoy a little solo fun.”

Maxim’s body went rigid as his gaze met his mate’s.

“Don’t tease us, mate,” Ryston growled. “We don’t have time to watch you at this moment. We are due at the palace.”

Rachel’s cheeks flushed as red as my hair, and she finally surrendered her son to Ryston, who cuddled the sleepy toddler close to his chest.

Cuteness overload.

I could tell Rachel was equally embarrassed and aroused by Ryston calling her out. I was jealous. So jealous. Body and heart aching with longing. I wanted a guy or two who’d get hot about watching me flick the bean. Hell, I wanted a guy or two just to look at me without staring at me like I was going to save their eternal soul and grant them new life. I wanted sexy fun—without Wulf glaring at every male in sight like he might dismember them if they stepped in my direction.

I was distracted from my thoughts by the gorgeous queen of Viken, who walked by. I couldn’t help but stare. Yeah, I knew who she was by her red hair and her dress—I’d been a stylist on Earth and knew fashion, even in space—and the fact that she had three hot, almost identical guys with her. She passed with her hot kings flanking her on a side as protection, and each one with a menacing and heated look that made me squirm. I had to wonder if they’d been to that sex spa place on Viken. Trixon Resort. That was going in the mental file for later.

Shit. I was in trouble here. Sex-on-the-brain twenty-four-seven kind of trouble.

Or was that twenty-six hours, forty-two or whatever the hell kind of calendar they had on this crazy planet? I had no idea. All I knew was I hadn’t been with a guy in way too long, and my body was hungry for some attention like the shape-shifters I’d read about in some of my favorite romance novels. Touch hungry , they called it. When need and ache grew to the point where one couldn’t think straight. Maybe I had Atlan fever.

Yeah. That was me, thinking I had Atlan fever. God. Every second on Prillon Prime was making me worse. Talk about a full-on hot-alpha-male buffet, and I hadn’t even made it out of the transport room. The thought of Prillon warriors walking around in pairs all over the place? Oh fuck, yes.

I’ll take two to go, please.

Once Wulf heard I wasn’t seeking commitment in a relationship, he’d taken my wishes to heart. He’d put out a memo that I was off-limits, taking the big-brother role to the extreme. I might as well have had a poisonous vagina or something.

That was why Rachel, Kristin, Lindsey, Olivia, Caroline and Mikki all told me I had to get some action while I was on Prillon Prime. They agreed The Colony guys were off-limits, but this was a different planet. A short-term visit. A two-day fling! Party time!

I totally agreed and had spent the last few days working the S-Gen machine to make some super-hot and sexy lingerie. No male, alien or human, could resist lace, satin and barely covered nipples and pussy.

Yeah, here I was. Unmated, horny girl on vacation in space. Hopeful to get a few male-induced orgasms on Prillon Prime, especially since Wulf wasn’t going to be here to cockblock. He and Olivia were stuck on Earth doing PR interviews for the Bachelor Beast program. While they were doing the talk-show circuit light-years away, I was going to do a Prillon Prime circuit of my own.

That was the plan, anyway. First I had to find a worthy candidate, then convince him—or them—to sex me up.

With all the testosterone—did aliens have testosterone?—walking around, I doubted it’d be too difficult. I wasn’t a supermodel, but I wasn’t unfortunate looking either. When I’d been a kid, my pops had called me his little leprechaun thanks to my mop of red hair and bright green eyes. Now I had freckles galore and a nose ring to go with it, so hopefully I looked like the gold at the end of the rainbow and not an ugly duckling.

But I’d never seen a Prillon woman—female alien—whatever. I had no idea what I was competing with here. As far as I knew, I was the only human female in the group who didn’t already have a mate. So I wasn’t planning on competing with my friends, just the locals.

“Be mindful and cautious, Lucy. Our intel states Cerberus is still seeking a human female for his own,” Maxim said, and everyone once again looked at me.