Page 26 of The Alien Minotaur's Bride

"Who was that?"

My voice came out steadier than I expected. Keth still hadn't moved from his place near the door, his back to me, every line of him gone rigid.

"Vorreth." He said the name like it tasted bad. "High-ranked. Politically connected. He collects status markers."

"And I'm a status marker."

"A producing omega is the highest status an alpha can hold." Keth turned at last, and his eyes found mine. "He's been looking for one for years. Now he knows you exist."

I thought about the way Vorreth had looked at me. The calculation in his eyes. The complete absence of anything resembling recognition that I was a person rather than an object.

"What happens if he files a challenge?"

"A formal hearing before the hierarchy panel. They would assess the strength of our bond – scent markers, biological compatibility, evidence of genuine mate-recognition. If the bond is judged strong, the challenge fails. If it's judged weak..." He trailed off.

"I get reassigned. To him."

"It would not come to that."

"You can't know that."

His tail lashed, once, sharp. "I would not allow it to come to that. The challenge is meant to be decided by assessment, but it can also be decided by combat. If he files, I will fight him. I will kill him if I have to."

I stared at him. The certainty in his voice. The absolute conviction that he would destroy another living being to keep me.

"Keth– "

"You are mine." He crossed the space between us, his bulk filling my vision, his scent wrapping around me. "Not by law, not by hierarchy, not by anything except the truth. I knew you before I saw you. I came for you across the dark between stars. And I will not let anyone take you from me."

His hand came up, hovering near my face. Asking.

I nodded.

His palm cupped my cheek, warm, rough, impossibly gentle. His thumb traced my cheekbone, and I felt the vibration in his chest again, that low rumble I was learning to read as strong emotion.

"I'm frightened," I said.

The admission surprised me. I didn't admit fear. I pushed through it, ignored it, pretended it didn't exist. But standing there with Vorreth's scent still hanging in the air, with the threat of being taken from this place, this dwelling, this male–

I was frightened. Specifically and immediately frightened of being taken from Keth.

My body had learned to read him as safety. In a few days, through heat and milking and his hands modifying furniture and his voice saying you are tended, my body had decided he was the safe thing in this world full of dangers.

I didn't want to unlearn that.

His breath went rough. His pupils widened.

"I know," he said quietly. "Your scent–" His thumb traced my cheek again. "I can smell it. The fear. But also–"

He stopped.

"Also what?"

"Also that you fear losing me. Specifically." His voice gentled. "That you have begun to see me as–"

"Don't."

"Mara…"